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Democrats are currently on track to take the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. If this happens, they will empower resistance bureaucrats to slow down all Trump administration initiatives. Of course, they’ll not only impeach Trump, but will also pursue impeachment proceedings against many Trump officials. This will substantially drain momentum from the administration and increase it for Democrats heading into the crucial 2028 presidential election.

The Democrats are already putting together plans, formulating a narrative, and accumulating evidence, which they will use against Republicans should they retake power. We’ve seen this movie before.

Since the billionaires do not know how to wield their potential power, they have become targets.

The Marxist machine has had time to learn from its mistakes during 2020-2024. The Democrats will likely pursue criminal prosecution against key targets in the MAGA orbit, including big donors like Elon Musk, the DOGE bros, and even junior Trump staffers. We’ve already seen in Arctic Frost an effort to spy on sitting Republican United States senators — they’ll be on the target list, too.

This is power. Force is power. Politics is the management of force. For his tech-oriented publication Pirate Wires, Mike Solana recently published “Theory of Power,” which outlines how the left will replicate California’s wealth tax to target billionaires nationwide. He believes that the left is targeting billionaires because wealth is power. He’s half right.

Wealth itself is not power — it is the means to power. The left seeks to redistribute the wealth of the billionaire class to the people living in America in exchange for power. Leftists are not targeting the billionaires because their wealth poses a threat to the left’s power — they want to seize the power of that wealth for themselves. Since the billionaires do not know how to wield their potential power, they have become targets. If they did, the California wealth tax wouldn’t even be an issue.

Wealth cannot protect its holder from force. If politics is the management of force, then political influence is power. There are plenty of people with political influence and no wealth who have more power than billionaires. There are 20-something political staffers who have more political power than billionaires. There is a legion of bureaucrats with more political power than billionaires. Who has more power, a billionaire or the IRS lawyer investigating him? Of course, it’s the IRS lawyer, because the IRS lawyer is backed by regime power.

The billionaire class has largely abdicated regime power — the question of who is in charge — with a few notable exceptions, such as Elon Musk’s 2024 election engagement and purchase of Twitter. The wealthy are quite good at influencing politics for their discreet business interests, with one analysis finding that they receive a 220-times return on investment through their lobbying efforts (other analyses attribute the rise in corporate profits to lobbying).

However, regime politics is not fundamentally about lobbying for an appropriation or a carve-out in the tax code, which puts generating wealth above gaining political power. Machiavelli warned against this in “The Prince”:

And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms, they have lost their states. And the first cause of your losing it is to neglect this art.

Wielding political influence for higher corporate profits to buy another jet or a fifth vacation home is thinking of ease more than of arms.

If politics is the management of force, then political influence is the “arms.” The billionaires are on track to lose their “state,” because they’ve neglected the art of influencing regime politics.

RELATED: The case against ‘principled conservatism’

wenjin chen/Getty Images

For all its faults, the left understands regime politics. Billionaire wealth extraction is just one part of its plan to sustain and deepen its regime-level power. If its only opposition, the MAGA political class, is destroyed by regime politics, the left’s wealth extraction scheme is not only inevitable, but it will also be the least of the billionaires’ worries.

All of this means that right-aligned billionaires should move immediately to gain regime-level political influence. To be clear, wealth can be a strong amplifier of political influence. Still, political influence has a simple recipe: It requires access, credibility, leverage, and the ability to change behavior. In other words, donating to campaigns is not enough. Elected officials must be lobbied to act in the interest of those who support them, or someone else will lobby them for their own interests.

Before a politician is elected, the benefactor has the leverage. But once the politician has regime-level power, the benefactor is subject to the beneficiary’s power. If right-wing billionaires want to survive what’s coming, they must have a well-run machine to influence politicians after they are elected. Solana makes this point — with which I fully agree: They must “respond as if [their lives depend] on it, because my reading of what these people are saying, casually, cheerfully, and increasingly out loud, is…it does.”

But power is fickle. Any billionaires who wield political influence strictly for their own benefit rather than on behalf of the people will find themselves burdened with all the paranoia and stress of a tyrant. To that end, Xenophon’s “On Tyranny” provides relevant advice: “Consider the fatherland to be your estate, the citizens your comrades, friends your own children, your sons the same as your life, and try to surpass all these in benefactions. For if you prove superior to your friends in beneficence, your enemies will be utterly unable to resist you.”

Editor’s note: This article appeared originally at the American Mind.

​Democrats, 2026 midterms, Doge, Billionaires, Donors, Regime-level power, Irs, Political funding, Theory of power, Billionaire class, Opinion & analysis, Dumb money on the right, Elon musk, Pirate wires 

A female cop in Massachusetts and her husband are facing serious allegations that they raped a boy for years, beginning when he was 14.

Around 6 a.m. on Thursday, Samantha Pelrine, a 31-year-old officer with the Plymouth Police Department, and husband Daniel Forand, 37, were arrested without incident in connection with the allegations.

‘We hold our officers to the highest standards and expect them to uphold their sworn duty both on and off.’

Earlier this month, a 21-year-old male who previously lived with the couple claimed to Massachusetts State Police that they had repeatedly sexually assaulted him up until 2025. The man also submitted an affidavit with similar allegations, claiming that “both sexually assaulted me until 2025” and that Forand had physically assaulted him.

“They are looking for me and I am scared for my safety,” the man wrote, seeking a restraining order. He said he moved out of the couple’s home last month.

According to CBS News, Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Jim Duffy told the court, “The allegations are that the sexual abuse started when he was 14 years old and continued up until last year. Another term for that is ‘grooming.'”

During the hearing, defense attorneys cast doubt on the credibility of the accuser. “He had accused someone falsely of sexually inappropriate behavior when he was in high school,” claimed Joseph Krowski Jr.

Tamari Kovach added that “his stories are inconsistent.”

RELATED: Retired police sergeant lived double life as a prolific rapist in Detroit, police say

Reports say Pelrine has been charged with at least three counts of aggravated rape of a child, while Forand has been charged with assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon as well as multiple counts of indecent assault and battery and aggravated child rape. The charges related to alleged incidents that took place in 2019, CBS News reported, citing court records.

Pelrine and Forand both pled not guilty on Thursday afternoon and were released on bail. They are scheduled to return to court for a probable cause hearing on June 8.

Pelrine has since been placed on paid administrative leave, CBS News reported. On Thursday, the Plymouth Police Department issued a statement, claiming her “duty status is currently under review.”

“We are appalled and deeply disturbed by the allegations. We hold our officers to the highest standards and expect them to uphold their sworn duty both on and off,” the statement said in part.

“The conduct alleged is in violation of our values and of our basic principles as police officers, to serve and protect.”

Three years earlier almost to the day, the department issued a statement about Pelrine of an entirely different sort, highlighting her service as part of National Women’s Month 2023.

“We are so proud of our female Officers and the incredible job that they do under sometimes extraordinary circumstances,” the department said.

In the post, Pelrine said she always dreamed of becoming a police officer and joined the force in April 2022.

“I believe I picked the right career for my personality and what I wanted from a job because while the range of emotions from this job can vary drastically, I know that in some instances I’m truly able to make a difference in someone’s life,” she said.

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​Plymouth, Massachusetts, Samantha pelrine, Daniel forand, Politics 

In this day and age, technology is no longer just about efficiency. It’s about pushing the limits, regardless of the consequences.

Earlier this month, a scientific breakthrough occurred when neurotechnology company Eon Systems took a complete digital map of a fruit fly’s brain and ran it inside a virtual fly body in a simulated world. The digital fly started walking, grooming itself, and behaving just like a real one — all from its brain wiring alone.

But Eon Systems isn’t stopping there. The company plans to do the same for a mouse brain next — and eventually for a human one. If successful, it could ultimately allow the human consciousness to live on in perpetuity in a digital format.

The spiritual implications of this are massive, says BlazeTV host Rick Burgess. On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” he explores the growing theory that our quest for technological dominance is inextricably linked to the end times.

This kind of “digital consciousness” that fuses the real and virtual worlds is very “dangerous,” Rick warns.

“[Eon Systems is] trying to reflect a version of God creating things,” he says.

When the original blueprints for God’s good creations are tampered with, biblical history paints a terrifying picture of what follows: divine wrath.

Rick points to Genesis 6, which documents the mysterious Nephilim, which many believe were a race of human-demon half-breeds that resulted from fallen angels reproducing with human women.

“One of the most plausible theories about the Nephilim is [that] when God became so angry when demons — fallen angels — were able to reproduce with human women … he killed everybody except for Noah and his family,” says Rick.

Satan’s specific crime in this particular scenario, he argues, was attempting to “mimic God” creating the perfect “God-man” in Jesus by creating his own counterfeit god-man in the Nephilim.

While Satan’s evil plot was foiled by the great flood, his desire to spawn his own dark creations will live on until his final defeat. Rick wonders if some of our modern technological advancements — especially those that seek to rewire what is natural — are linked to Satan’s ultimate plot to unleash unmitigated darkness across the earth in the final days before Christ’s second coming and the final climactic pouring out of God’s wrath on the earth.

“Can Satan find himself in this technology, working with these people — unbeknownst to them, I’m sure — to take modern technology and the whole AI world and begin to use it for the things he’s still going to do in the future?” he asks.

While Rick thinks it’s plausible that dystopian technology will play a role in the end times, he doesn’t subscribe to the theory that the Antichrist prophesied throughout Scripture will be some kind of half-human, half-robot cyborg.

“I think it’s pretty obvious in Scripture that Antichrist will be a human being,” he says.

But that doesn’t mean the Antichrist won’t be dependent on modern technology. In fact, Rick suspects that he will be.

He refers to Revelation 13, in which it is prophesied that the Antichrist — or “the beast” — will appear to be resurrected after a “mortal head wound,” leading many blind followers marveling at his supposed divine power.

Rick envisions a scenario in which this prophecy comes to fruition through modern technology.

“You think you couldn’t take AI technology and fake a mortal head wound and a resurrection? You could do that easily,” he says.

As for the scientists striving to fuse human life with technology, Rick still believes they very well could play a role in Satan’s sinister plot — even if nothing more than creating another race of “hybrids” that are abominations to God.

“I do think this is going to be an attempt for mankind … under demonic direction to start trying to play God and create animals and create human beings, which is extremely dangerous territory,” he warns.

While Eon Systems is still a ways off from experimenting on human brains, others are already doing it. In the next part of this episode, Rick dives into another dystopian tech story involving a biotech startup that built a computer using living human brain cells and is now teaching it to play the video game Doom. To get the full story, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Strange encounters, Strange encounters with rick burgess, Rick burgess, Modern technology, Spiritual warfare, End times, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Everyone has a solution until he is the one who must pay for it.

After every crisis come cameras, microphones, and outrage. Commentators fill TV panels, politicians rush to social media, and fundraising emails arrive within hours. What rarely arrives is something harder: ownership.

Christianity does not pretend evil vanishes through better language or finer intentions. It proclaims that the cost is real and has been paid.

Criticism is easy. It assigns responsibility, demands action, and carries moral urgency. But it rarely answers the most important question: Who pays for this? Or, more plainly, where are the receipts?

That question clarifies things. It separates serious people from performers by exposing the difference between assigning a cost and carrying one.

We see it everywhere.

Recently, actor Mark Ruffalo argued that the federal government should tax the rich more, assuring us “they can handle it.” Perhaps. But his argument would carry more weight if he showed receipts.

Nothing stops him from demonstrating that principle himself. The federal government already accepts voluntary contributions to reduce the public debt. Those convinced we are undertaxed remain free to lead by example.

Few do, because saying it costs nothing. Telling someone else to pay is always easier than writing the check yourself. It is theater, and it is a luxury reserved for people who do not have to live with the consequences.

That same pattern appears far beyond Hollywood.

For decades, Iran has made its position clear, not only in words but in deeds. “Death to America” has echoed for years. I remember watching the embassy takeover in high school. For my entire adult life, I have heard those words and seen the regime’s receipts. I am 62.

Much of the West, meanwhile, treated the threat as rhetoric to manage rather than something to confront. Entire careers were built on discussing the problem with panels, policies, negotiations, and warnings. A great deal was invested in talking about the problem. Very little was invested in ending it.

That is the difference between posturing and payment.

Right now, we are no longer discussing the cost. We are paying it in blood and treasure. The risks are real. So are the instability and the possibility of escalation. But given what this regime has said, done, and promised for decades, the price we pay now may prove a bargain compared with the price of waiting.

Ignoring a threat does not eliminate it. It allows it to metastasize and hands the bill to someone else later, with interest.

RELATED: Stop chasing rockets

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

We see the same pattern at home. For years, Americans were told the southern border was too complex to secure without sweeping reform. That phrase became a substitute for action. Yet when enforcement priorities changed, crossings dropped.

Clearly, the problem was not “complexity.” It was resolve.

Borders can be secured when a government decides to secure them. Which brings us back to the question too often left unanswered: Where are the receipts?

If confronting Iran is reckless, what replaces it? If border enforcement is wrong, what protects the system? If taxes must rise, who is willing to lead by example?

These are serious questions that deserve serious answers. But our culture rewards performance more than responsibility.

There is always a cost. The only question is whether we face it or pretend it is not there until it grows. Some assign that cost to others. Some ignore it and hope it disappears. Others delay it until it becomes unavoidable.

But every now and then, someone steps forward and pays it.

That is what decisive action looks like. Not posturing. Not signaling. Not commentary. Payment. The receipts that follow are rarely tidy. They do not arrive as statements or sound bites. They come as scars.

That truth is not political. It is inescapable. And at Easter, it is impossible to ignore.

Christianity does not offer a cost-free answer to the human condition or the wages of sin. It does not pretend evil vanishes through better language or finer intentions. It proclaims that the cost is real and has been paid.

Not assigned. Not deferred. Paid.

And the receipts were not theoretical. They were visible and costly: nail-scarred hands.

RELATED: The most honest phrase you’ll hear all week

Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

That is why Christianity leaves us without excuses. Once you see that, you can no longer pretend solutions come without sacrifice or that responsibility can always be shifted to someone else.

Isaac Watts captured it plainly: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.”

We recognize truth when we see it because deep down, we know it is true: Someone always pays.

The only question is whether you trust the One who paid it or insist on bearing it yourself.

​National debt, Tax the rich, Mark ruffalo, Hypocrisy, Christianity, Iran, Accountability, Opinion & analysis, Taxes, Spending, Action, Caregivers 

A generation came of age on Chuck Norris “facts.” When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks under his bed for Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris counted to infinity — twice. He doesn’t do push-ups; he pushes the Earth down. Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.

These lines have been repeated so often that they have become their own mythology. And they point — sideways, lovingly — at something true. The man was singular. Which is why his death on March 20, age 86, deserves more than a eulogy dressed in silly jokes. It deserves honesty about what he actually represented.

A life that could have been reduced to folklore and fists and an endless loop of roundhouse kicks is best remembered as a love story.

A Hollywood star who kept his soul, a conservative who kept his convictions, and a son whose life was saved not by fists, but by faith.

That is the real story. Not the kicks. Not the films. The knees.

His mother’s knees, specifically. On the floor, in prayer, while her son was becoming an American icon.

A man’s man

Chuck Norris was a man’s man, a legitimate martial artist, not a choreographed facsimile. The fight community knew it then. They know it still. Chael Sonnen — former UFC title contender, sharp-tongued analyst, not a man given to sentimentality — recently paid homage to Norris’ genuine ability. Fighters don’t flatter easily.

Norris wasn’t a stuntman in a gi. He held black belts in Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and judo. Bruce Lee, who distributed respect like the IRS distributes refunds, cast him as the sole opponent worthy of a final fight in “The Way of the Dragon,” a scene that remains one of the most watchable moments in martial arts cinema.

Norris was a genuine Hollywood star, too. “Walker, Texas Ranger” ran for eight seasons and made Saturday nights like a civic duty. “Missing in Action” made $26 million on a $2 million budget. “Code of Silence.” “The Delta Force.” “Lone Wolf McQuade.” He owned a particular frequency — the man of few words who doesn’t start trouble but finishes it decisively, who stands for something every red-blooded American recognized instinctively. Movie theaters filled up. The lines entered the cultural lexicon. The legend was self-sustaining.

And yet.

Prayer warrior

Hollywood has a metabolism all its own. It rewards those who adapt , who update their beliefs like software, who stay elegantly vague on anything that costs them. Norris didn’t. His conservatism required no management, no spokesperson, no careful framing for a hostile room. It was constitutional, not cosmetic.

Success, he would later acknowledge, had done what success tends to do. It offered enough to make a man comfortable and comfortable enough to make him careless. The faith grew distant. Hollywood filled the space that God had occupied. His mother, however, didn’t move an inch. She prayed through his success. Through the excess that follows success. Through the gradual erosion of whatever lay beneath the action hero. Back home, while the credits rolled and Roger Ebert wrote rave reviews, she was petitioning a higher power.

She never stopped. Not when he was an infant fighting for his life, not when he was yielding, by degrees, to what fame asks of those it favors, not when the distance widening between the man she raised and the man Hollywood was making seemed irreversible. She simply kept praying — stubbornly, faithfully, across decades.

Norris never forgot it. “My mother has prayed for me all my life, through thick and thin,” he wrote. The scope of that sentence deserves a moment. All his life. Not a season of intercession. Not a crisis response. A lifetime of it.

Nonnegotiable faith

When Norris returned to God, he did so completely, without a hint of reservation. Faith was not compartmentalized, managed, or diluted for public consumption. He said what he believed, to whoever was listening, without apology. On abortion, he rejected the path of least resistance that Hollywood had so generously paved. It was not, in his view, a policy question or a political calculation. Not a matter of preference, nuance, or personal freedom conveniently defined. A moral line, absolute and non-negotiable.

In an industry that treats the unborn as an inconvenience and their defenders as embarrassments, Norris stood apart. He understood that confusion about life is downstream of confusion about God. Lose your sense of the divine, and you lose your sense of limits. Lose limits, and life becomes conditional — weighed, assessed, and discarded when the calculus demands it, by people who have never once doubted their own right to exist. Norris saw that trajectory clearly, because he had briefly walked it himself.

A life that could have been reduced to folklore and fists and an endless loop of roundhouse kicks is best remembered as a love story — between a son who wandered and a mother who wouldn’t let him stay lost. Chuck Norris is gone. But the America he embodied — patriotic, God-fearing, and entirely unembarrassed about both — is still here. Still worth defending.

​Faith, Lifestyle, Christianity, Converts, Chuck norris, Bruce lee, Martial arts, Movies, Delta force, Enter the dragon, Walker texas ranger 

The vegetable lobby has had a good run. For decades, the conventional wisdom on brain health has been some variation of the same tired sermon: eat less meat, eat more plants, and maybe your aging mind will hold together long enough to remember where you parked the car.

A new study out of Sweden suggests that for roughly a quarter of the American population, that advice has been wrong — measurably, consistently, damagingly wrong.

Life is exhausting. Depletion is something else. And only one of them is fixed by a rib-eye.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the study tracked more than 2,000 Swedish adults over 60 for 15 years. Among carriers of the APOE4 gene — the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease — those who ate the most meat showed slower cognitive decline and lower dementia risk than those who ate the least.

Among the those who ate the most meat, the elevated dementia risk associated with carrying APOE4 disappeared entirely.

The most feared dementia gene in medicine — at least in this cohort — effectively disarmed by the food that built the brain carrying it.

Brain drain

One in four Americans carries at least one copy of APOE4. Two-thirds of people with Alzheimer’s carry it. This is a massive slice of the country.

Tens of millions of Americans have been dutifully following brain-health guidelines that may be contributing to the very decline those guidelines promised to prevent.

This is what happens when nutritional science gets hijacked by ideology and the bill comes due 30 years later.

APOE4 appears to influence how efficiently the body absorbs and uses certain nutrients, particularly vitamin B12 — essential for nerve function and found almost exclusively in animal products. APOE4 carriers who ate more meat showed measurably higher B12 levels in their blood.

The gene also affects how the body processes fats and cholesterol — the building blocks brain cells require for fuel and structure. APOE4 is the oldest variant of the gene, one that likely predates agriculture entirely. Some bodies, it turns out, never got the memo about kale smoothies and the moral purity of eating like a rabbit.

Steakholders

None of this will surprise anyone who has eaten a quality steak and felt, within the hour, unreasonably capable.

That sudden clarity. The alertness. The faint, irrational optimism about existence — that’s iron talking. Heme iron, specifically, found in red meat and absorbed at rates far higher than the iron in spinach and lentils, which the body processes with all the urgency of a man skimming terms and conditions.

Roughly 40% of American women are iron-deficient. A significant portion of the population moves through daily life in a low-grade fog of fatigue and poor concentration they have simply come to accept.

Life is exhausting. Depletion is something else. And only one of them is fixed by a rib-eye.

Iron dome

The dietary culture most likely to produce iron deficiency is the same one celebrated as virtuous. Plant-based iron comes pre-sabotaged. Phytic acid in grains and legumes — the foods canonized by clean eating — actively blocks absorption before it reaches the bloodstream.

The demonization of red meat has been so thorough, so relentless, and so institutionally backed that an entire generation grew up believing a burger was more dangerous than a cigarette.

This was not an accident.

Decades of dietary guidelines, food pyramid revisions, and industry-funded nutrition research pushed animal products to the margins of the respectable plate, while carbohydrates and seed oils quietly took the center.

Early-onset dementia is rising in people who should be nowhere near it — men and women in their 30s and 40s, the first generations raised under the full weight of anti-meat orthodoxy.

RELATED: Bugs for thee, beef for me: How big business monopolizes meat

Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

Nipped in the bud

Meanwhile, more parents are raising children on exclusively plant-based diets, motivated by love and a sincere belief that they are doing right by their kids. The research on what chronic iron deficiency, B12 absence, and inadequate animal protein does to a developing brain is not something the wellness industry tends to advertise. In several studies, it reads less like a dietary choice and more like an uncontrolled experiment conducted on people too young to consent.

Meat consumption has been falling for years. Alzheimer’s rates have been climbing for years.

No one in an official capacity has connected those dots — which is itself worth noting.

The Swedish study does draw one important line. Processed meats showed no protective benefit and were linked to higher dementia risk regardless of genetics.

Bacon, sausages, deli meats, the sweating cylinders of mystery protein rotating slowly at the gas-station counter — these are not the argument.

Fresh red meat and poultry, unprocessed and cooked with basic competence, are what drove the cognitive benefit.

Carnivores settled continents, built civilizations, and mapped the known world. Every civilization that ever amounted to anything ate meat.

The ones that didn’t aren’t around to argue the point.

​Meat, Lifestyle, Alzheimer’s disease, Iron deficiency, Vegetarianism, Health, Diet, Make america healthy again 

A 19-year-old Texas male reportedly violated bond at least a half dozen times before being accused of murder — while he was out on probation.

In June 2024, Johnnie Lillie was sentenced to probation for burglary of a motor vehicle, KRIV-TV reported.

‘All you had to do on one occasion was either revoke his probation or revoke his bond. That would’ve taken him out of being in the community.’

“While he’s on probation, he picks up a possession of a prohibited weapon [charge], a machine gun. That’s pretty serious,” Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers told the station.

KRIV reported that instead of revoking Lillie’s probation and sending him to jail, he was granted bond.

Then while free on that bond, Lillie was charged with another burglary of a motor vehicle, the station said.

“Now he’s out on not one, but two bonds, and is still on probation,” Kahan explained to KRIV.

Citing court documents, the station said Lillie violated his bond at least half a dozen times.

RELATED: Repeat offenders charged with murdering elderly woman; one suspect was on bond and skipped court days before fatal shooting

Then came Sept. 22, 2025 — the date when Lillie allegedly shot and killed 29-year-old Jermarkus Johnson, KRIV reported.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on that date deputies learned a gunshot victim had been transported to a hospital by private vehicle.

The victim, identified as Johnson, was pronounced dead at the hospital, the sheriff said.

Detectives learned the shooting stemmed from an altercation during a dice game, Gonzalez said, adding that homicide detectives identified and charged Lillie for allegedly shooting Johnson.

Lillie was arrested on Oct. 1 at the courthouse when he appeared for an unrelated charge, the sheriff said, adding that Lillie was booked into the Harris County Jail.

According to Harris County Jail records, Lillie is charged with murder and unlawful possession of a weapon. His bond for the murder charge is $250,000; his bond for the unlawful possession of a weapon charge is $60,000. His next court date is scheduled for April 23. Blaze News on Friday confirmed with the jail that Lillie remains incarcerated.

KRIV said Lillie was under the supervision of both the probation department and pretrial services “but that didn’t stop him from allegedly committing murder.”

Kahan added to the station that “pretrial services says we cannot monitor him, he’s not abiding by any of his conditions. And again, he’s allowed to remain on probation and multiple bonds.”

KRIV concluded that “Lillie is one of many defendants who violate conditions of probation and bond, but nothing happens to them. Still taxpayers fork over money for two entities to supervise and report violations.”

Kahan added to the station that “all you had to do on one occasion was either revoke his probation or revoke his bond. That would’ve taken him out of being in the community. It would have had him locked up, and Jermarkus Johnson would be alive today.”

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​Repeat offender, Harris county sheriff’s office, Texas, Jermarkus johnson, Johnnie lillie, Burglary of a motor vehicle, Probation, Bond violations, Murder charge, Unlawful possession of a weapon charge, Crime 

For decades, one version of conservatism dominated the Republican Party, especially on foreign policy, says BlazeTV host John Doyle: neoconservatism — the “moralistic crusade to spread liberal democracy all around the world,” originating from ex-leftist, anti-Stalinist intellectuals.

But did Donald Trump disrupt that system and revive an older, better form of conservatism?

According to Doyle, yes — that is exactly what Trump has done.

On a recent episode of “The John Doyle Show,” the BlazeTV firebrand delivered a scathing history of how neoconservatism hijacked the Republican Party.

The “old right,” Doyle explains, was focused on the country itself, emphasizing limited government and avoiding unnecessary foreign conflict.

“They were against things like the welfare state … foreign intervention … socialism,” he says, describing a worldview rooted in restraint.

Neoconservatism, on the other hand, came from a different origin. Doyle says its roots “lie not on the right but on the left,” pointing to figures like Irving Kristol — the “godfather of neoconservatism” — who helped reshape conservative thought after moving right from the left.

Over time, he argues, that influence shifted what counted as mainstream conservatism, pulling it closer to the center and redefining its priorities.

That change was most visible in foreign policy.

“The neocons viewed America’s role in foreign policy to be, like, essentially messianic,” Doyle says, framing it as a belief that the U.S. should actively spread its values abroad.

That mindset, he argues, led to decisions like the Iraq War, where the U.S. “spent trillions of dollars” and lost “thousands of American lives.”

For years, that approach defined the party — until Trump entered the picture and set the nation on a new course.

“He really did shatter the sort of uniparty consensus on foreign policy,” Doyle says, pointing to Trump’s blunt criticism that “the Iraq War was a big fat mistake.”

That moment, he argues, exposed a fracture inside the GOP and forced a shift back toward older conservative instincts.

Donald Trump, “contrary to what a lot of his less intelligent critics claim, is not actually a neocon,” says Doyle.

To hear more of his analysis and commentary, watch the full episode.

Want more from John Doyle?

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​The john doyle show, John doyle, Blazetv, Blaze media, Neoconservatives, Neoconservatism, Old right, Donald trump, Republican party 

An Italian researcher believes he has found the location of a second Sphinx, with clues providing a glimpse of more impressive capabilities of a past civilization.

Researcher Filippo Biondi is confident in the discovery, which was actually hinted at in ancient texts more than 3,000 years ago.

‘There is a great chance that there was, or is, another sphinx parallel to the one which exists today.’

Biondi appeared on Thursday’s episode of the “Matt Beall Podcast,” giving a presentation that is sure to blow the minds of fellow researchers and history buffs.

The researcher referred to the ancient Dream Stele, also called the Sphinx Stele, an inscribed slab between the paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza that is believed to have been built around 1401 B.C. The stele explicitly mentions and depicts two sphinxes; this acts as the pretext for the research.

As the Great Sphinx of Giza is positioned guarding the Pyramid of Khafre, researchers looked in the same parallel position in front the Great Pyramid of Khufu, and they think they have found something.

Biondi and his team believe that hidden underneath a 180-foot mound of sand, “there is something very huge that we are measuring.”

There is an “underground megastructure” that includes shafts that appear to be an “entrance,” he told the host. In fact, all the subsequent measurements his team has made around the proposed location of a second sphinx match the distance and angles of the first sphinx to the existing structures in the area.

RELATED: What if DC’s iconic monuments are actually demonic portals?

For example, the distance between the alleged megastructure and the second pyramid is the same as the distance between the Sphinx and the first pyramid.

“We are finding precise … geometrical correlation, 100% of correlation, in this symmetry,” Biondi said.

“We are very confident to announce this. … We have a confidence [of] about 80%.”

Biondi is not the first researcher to propose this claim, either. Egyptologist Bassam el-Shammaa has a published theory that dates back to at least 1999.

“There is a great chance that there was, or is, another sphinx parallel to the one which exists today, only in very poor condition due to air pollution and underground water erosion,” the researcher wrote.

“The remains of the second sphinx are still there buried under the sand, its suffocating dilapidated remains may not rival the state of preservation of the existing one, but I believe it does exist,” Shammaa claimed.

RELATED: Aristotle’s ancient guide to tyranny reads like a modern manual

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Biondi said there is still work to be done with measuring and comparing the elevation between the existing sphinx and the theoretical one.

The team has also conducted scans of the area that allegedly reveal the aforementioned network of shafts and chambers beneath the structure, which Biondi believes mirror that of the Great Sphinx.

The team must look underneath what is commonly believed to be a mountain, but Biondi says he is confident that it is simply solidified sand and other sediment.

“In our personal opinion, it’s very simple to remove all that mountain, and probably inside there is the second sphinx.”

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A man named Bera Shivakrishna was arrested after he allegedly groped a woman dressed in an Easter Bunny costume at a mall near Pittsburgh.

The woman was taking photos with children at the South Hills Village Mall in Upper St. Clair on Monday when the man approached her and started asking her questions, according to a criminal complaint obtained by KDKA-TV.

‘It’s a doll, right?’

The woman referred him to an assistant, but he allegedly refused and then groped the victim, according to Upper St. Clair police.

Shivakrishna allegedly touched her arm, then the top of her chest, and finally grabbed her breasts.

The assistant said he was asking, “Is it a boy or a girl?”

He also put his fingers in the nose and mouth of the bunny costume.

Police identified a suspect after reviewing the mall’s security video and speaking to the alleged victim as well as the assistant.

Shivakrishna was found sleeping in the top row of seats at a movie theater near the mall later that afternoon.

Police said he asked them, “Is it on the close to Five Below, the merchandise thing, the bunny?”

After being read his Miranda rights, he allegedly asked, “It’s a doll, right?”

When told the victim was not a doll, he allegedly responded, “By mistake, my hand touched her, if it’s a lady.”

Shivakrishna was identified through his New Jersey driver’s identification and charged with indecent assault. He is being held on a $10,000 bond at the Allegheny County Jail.

RELATED: ‘I guess he doesn’t want us here’: Police called after Goofy says grandmother groped him at Disney World

Shoppers at the mall told WPXI-TV that the man should definitely face a stiff sentence for the incident.

“This is horrible. I can’t believe this would happen at our local mall. It’s the Easter Bunny,” local resident Jenn Herrig said.

“All kinds of people would have seen this. If I would have been there with my son, I would have just been appalled. We would have gotten out of line and had to leave,” she added.

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Veterans are speaking out against Democrat congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar for using his military career to amplify his campaign.

Campa-Najjar allegedly referred to himself as a “Navy Officer” in his campaign materials, differing from his actual title of Navy Reserve officer. Because of this alleged discrepancy, Campa-Najjar’s campaign has raised eyebrows, since Navy policy requires reservists running for office to accurately disclose their military status.

‘Shame on Campa-Najjar and anyone who supported these cynical political stunts.’

The Navy later said officials will be “looking into” Campa-Najjar’s campaign in light of the alleged violation of Pentagon policy.

“I supported Ammar in the past, but won’t again,” Elizabeth Perez-Rodriguez, a Navy combat veteran, told the New York Post.

RELATED: This scandal-ridden Democrat just got one step closer to being expelled from Congress

Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

Campa-Najjar, who is notably dating billionaire heiress Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), also caused uproar after staging photo opportunities for his campaign website. The photo that caught the most attention was from the Massachusetts National Cemetery, depicting Campa-Najjar near the grave of a Korean War veteran whom he reportedly had no connection to.

“As a combat veteran,” Perez-Rodriguez continued, “I can’t stand when political candidates exploit the uniform for politics, and using a veteran’s grave site in your campaign is toxic and disrespectful.”

“Our national cemeteries are sacred ground — not political backdrops,” Marine Corps combat veteran Brian Van Riper told the Post. “Using a service member’s grave site at a VA cemetery for political campaign photos is among the most disrespectful, distasteful, and cynical political ploys I’ve ever seen.”

“All these allegations are damning and show a complete disregard for what military service and wearing the uniform should mean,” Michael Malach, an Army combat veteran, told the Post. “Shame on Campa-Najjar and anyone who supported these cynical political stunts, especially using posed portraits at a deceased veteran’s grave to try and boost his campaign.”

Campa-Najjar’s campaign website does list him as a U.S. Navy Reserve officer alongside a disclaimer saying, “Any references to his military rank, service, or photographs in uniform are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement by the Department of War or the Department of the Navy.”

RELATED: Democrats’ latest victory in deep-red Mar-a-Lago district offers bleak midterm forecast

Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

Campa-Najjar’s campaign manager, Andi McNew, pushed back against the allegations, saying the cemetery photo was taken while “participating in an official Memorial Day event where he, alongside his unit, honored fallen service members.”

“At no point did the campaign engage in political activity at a VA cemetery, and any suggestion otherwise is a misrepresentation of both the facts and the applicable rules,” Andi McNew told the Post.

This is Campa-Najjar’s third congressional campaign. He is now running for California’s newly redrawn 48th District against incumbent Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

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A video out of China is grabbing the world by the heartstrings. Published less than two weeks ago, it has already racked up over 270 million views.

The footage, taken by a citizen in China’s Jilin province, captures a pack of seven dogs walking down the highway, led by a corgi.

The pack had allegedly been stolen and put in a moving truck, destined for the illegal dog meat market. But they miraculously escaped and walked together for over 10 miles through freezing conditions, with the pack protecting an injured German shepherd.

All seven dogs made it safely back home to their families.

This “should be a movie,” says Glenn Beck.

But the heartwarming footage everyone is swooning over is only half the story, he says.

“This story has captured 270 million people because it’s what we’re missing,” says Glenn. “We’re living in a time where everything is breaking into pieces — our communities, our families, our nations, truth, everything.”

To compensate for this widespread fracturing, many of us, he says, are being told, “Look out for yourself. Protect your own. … Don’t get dragged down by somebody else’s weakness.”

“And yet, here on a highway in China — a frozen highway — seven dogs reject all of that crap. … The strongest slowed down, the smallest led, the injured was protected, and the group endured,” says Glenn, noting that unlike many humans, there was no agenda behind their unity — “just loyalty; just love.”

The “covenant” kind of unity shown by this pack of dogs leads Glenn to ask a blunt question: “What the hell is wrong with us?”

He points to the push in Canada and the United States to both implement and expand assisted-suicide programs, many of which target vulnerable groups like veterans, the mentally ill, and even children.

“We’re supposed to be the most loving … and we’re building systems where the most vulnerable are just discarded, where the innocent can just be exterminated,” he says.

“These seven dogs are there to remind us of something ancient, something simple, something really, really true: You don’t leave your own behind. … We all get home together.”

To hear more and see the sweet footage of the pack on its trek home, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Steve Hilton, the leading candidate for governor of California despite his status as an unapologetic Republican, called it a perfect metaphor for the state’s spate of recent failures.

After the University of Southern California abruptly canceled its televised gubernatorial debate less than 24 hours before it was set to take place, Democrats scrambled to come up with an alternative forum. Despite the frantic reaction, the crowded field of Democratic candidates couldn’t agree to the proposed ground rules.

As candidates scrambled to regroup after USC canceled the debate, the large field of Democrats still couldn’t agree on a commitment to continue including all the candidates in future debates.

The debate implosion and the subsequent failure to quickly reorganize played right into the leading GOP contender’s hands.

“This is just so symptomatic of everything that’s wrong with California,” Hilton told RealClearPolitics on Tuesday in the aftermath of the debate’s cancellation. “Everything is broken, from the high-speed rail, where they haven’t laid any tracks. Then last week we saw that $100 million butterfly bridge to nowhere. Nothing works. Everything’s broken. It’s all a shambles. They can’t even organize a debate.”

Decades ago, USC was considered a conservative alternative to public academic institutions across the state. More recently, the private university has become indistinguishable from the rest — at least when it comes to cancel culture.

All of the candidates the university had decided to invite to participate in the planned debate, hosted by Univision and KABC, are white. All of the candidates left out are minorities who also happened to be polling in the single digits: California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond (D), former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), and former California State Controller Betty Yee (D) were not invited after the university said they had not met their debate criteria.

Those invited included former Fox News host Steve Hilton (R), Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R), Rep. Eric Swalwell (D), former Rep. Katie Porter (D), businessman Tom Steyer (D), and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (D).

“We recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow’s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters,” the university said in a statement. “Unfortunately, USC and [debate co-sponsor] KABC have not been able to reach an agreement on expanding the number of candidates. … As a result, USC has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s debate and will look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.”

The university would not commit to a new date for the debate.

Hilton and Bianco have been leading the crowded pack of candidates for months, stirring up panic amid veteran Democratic Party operatives that they could both emerge from the June 2 primary to run against one another and shut out Democrats entirely. Swalwell and Porter have been polling around 10%, with Steyer, despite spending tens of millions of dollars, a few points behind.

Under California’s “top-two” primary system, only the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party, will advance to the general election. Democrats are concerned that Hilton and Bianco are poised to do so if the field of Democratic candidates doesn’t narrow down quickly.

It was Mahan’s invitation, however, that really stung among those sidelined from the stage. A white Democratic centrist candidate, Mahan had only recently entered the race and was polling in the single digits along with those excluded from the debate.

Still USC explained his inclusion by citing a new debate-inclusion criteria that valued intensive fundraising. The Democrats complaining about being left out didn’t buy the rationale and instead cited Mahan’s USC ties as evidence of special treatment.

RELATED: ‘Things will return to normal’ is not a serious policy

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images

Mike Murphy, co-director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, which was hosting the debate, had been, on a voluntary basis, advising an independent expenditure committee supporting Mahan. Yet Murphy claimed to have nothing to do with organizing the debate and pledged to temporarily step down from his university role if he decided to accept a paid position from any entity backing Mahan.

Over the weekend when Xavier Becerra (D), Thurmond, and others started complaining about Mahan’s inclusion, top Democratic legislators decided to weigh in.

The speaker of California’s Assembly, Robert Rivas, and the leader of the state Senate, Monique Limon, joined the leaders of the legislative Latino, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, Native American, LGBTQ, Jewish, and women’s caucuses in writing a letter to USC President Beong-Soo Kim demanding that they change their “biased criteria.”

“The outcry over this debate is deafening and includes legal demands from the excluded candidates’ attorneys, public calls by elected leaders across the state, concerns from the included candidates’ own campaigns, and growing alarm from California voters,” the legislators wrote. “Instead of responding to these valid concerns by expanding the debate, USC has doubled down.”

The debate was supposed to take place at a critical time — with two Republican candidates consistently running ahead of their Democratic counterparts, none of whom has broken out of a crowded field. It also was set to occur less than two months before the state planned to send ballots to every registered voter.

In early March, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks published an open letter urging Democratic contenders to consider dropping out if they didn’t see a realistic path to a primary victory.

“If you do not have a viable path to make it to the general election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the primary election,” Hicks wrote just days before the March 6 filing deadline. But no candidate decided to heed Hicks’ call, and the letter drew a scathing response from Thurmond, who asserted that it was aimed at pressuring “candidates of color” to end their gubernatorial bids.

“Our political system is rigged,” Thurmond said. “The California Democratic Party is essentially telling every candidate of color in the race for governor to drop out.”

Hicks rejected that criticism, noting the letter did not name any specific candidate.

As candidates scrambled to regroup after USC canceled the debate, the large field of Democrats still couldn’t agree on a commitment to continue including all the candidates in future debates.

Part of the group wanted all parties to abide by a pledge to participate in future debates only if all Democratic candidates are invited. But that idea fell apart when they couldn’t get a commitment from fellow Democratic candidates.

Still Becerra, one of the candidates who was not invited to the USC debate, celebrated the decision to quash it entirely in a post on X:

We fought. We won! We stood up against an unfair candidate debate set-up that prematurely chose winners and losers. Tonight USC made the right decision to cancel their March 24 gubernatorial forum … so hopefully next time it’s done right. Thank you to everyone who stood up, raised hell and demanded justice. Never give up when you’re fighting for fairness!

The Democratic disarray on rescheduling handed an opportunity to Hilton and Bianco. Instead of taking the night off, Hilton held an X.com space with more than 300 people participating. Meanwhile Bianco spoke to supporters at an event in Los Angeles.

A Bianco campaign social media post crossed out the words “debate watch party” and blamed Democrats for the abrupt change.

“The Ds got the debate canceled, but we’re showing up anyway!” the post said. “See you tonight @sheriffbianco will be there.”

Hilton, who has been campaigning for roughly a year and has led in the polls for months, shared an X space forum with Elaine Culotti, an independent candidate for governor who is running under “NPP” — no party preference.

Culotti, a California real estate developer and interior designer who starred in the Discovery+ reality series “Undercover Billionaire,” appears poised to throw her support to Hilton if he wins the primary, even though she argues that her current participation in the race takes votes away from Swalwell.

The two more ideologically aligned candidates continued to criticize Democrats for blowing up the debate while laying out their own visions for reforming California, by not only stopping the U-Haul exodus of those moving out to find more affordable places to live but attracting more businesses to the state. Culotti said she would do so by reducing taxes to attract more than 100,000 businesses, leading to more jobs and more tax revenue.

Hilton said he would address affordability and businesses’ exodus from the state by opening up more oil and gas exploration, something he said could be done by executive order and by “kicking out all the climate fanatics” that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) placed in key positions in the government.

“Right now, they are denying the industry permits for every aspect of [oil and gas] operating in California, whether that’s maintaining existing wells or expanding them, or drilling new ones — all of that,” Hilton said.

RELATED: California’s next dumb tech idea: Show your papers to scroll

Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Hilton and Culotti also discussed the positive aspects of having a governor in Sacramento who could work with the Trump administration to implement a forest management plan that would help prevent devastating wildfires while providing billions more in federal funds to help the Palisades and Eaton wildfire victims rebuild.

“Whatever happens in the 2028 presidential election, we know we’re going to have two years where the next governor will overlap with the Trump administration,” Hilton said. “And that’s one of the things I’m most excited about. I’ve got good, good relationships with, you know, half the Cabinet.”

No one asked Hilton how he will contend with deep animosity toward Trump in a state where the number of registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans nearly two to one.

Instead Hilton said he would prefer that Bianco drop out so he could consolidate the Republican support while working to turn out independents and Republicans in November in an election that includes ballot initiatives to institute voter ID and to maintain Proposition 13, a state constitutional amendment that imposes strict limits on property tax increases.

“You’ve got people in charge now who just don’t think like this, and as we saw with the debate nonsense and raising the race card … they’re just on a different planet,” Hilton said. “But the underlying answer to how you deliver all of these things is just to take a sledgehammer to the massive, bloated nanny-state bureaucracy that is making everything so expensive and so difficult.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​California, Gop, Democrats, Governor race, Primary, Steve hilton, University of southern california, Candidates, California democrats, Trump, Midterms, Opinion & analysis, Chad bianco, Xavier becerra, Eric swalwell, Elaine culotti, Rusty hicks, Debate, Tony thurmond, Racism accusation 

One of the most scandal-ridden former mayors in America is attempting to resurrect her political career, moving to a new state and a new party.

On March 11, Tiffany Henyard — the former Democratic mayor of Dolton, Illinois, and former supervisor of nearby Thornton Township — announced in a Facebook video that she had moved to Fulton County, Georgia.

‘You can’t expect change without making a change.’

“Y’all ain’t ready,” she says confidently in the video, claiming her political opponents and members of the media are “obsessed” with her and that “corruption” was rampant in Dolton and Thornton Township.

In the video, she also teases a “big announcement” that she would be making a couple of days later.

RELATED: Chicago-area village credit cards frozen, deputy chief laid off as Lightfoot concludes investigation into controversial mayor

To the surprise of very few, news soon broke that Henyard is running for political office yet again. This time, she is running to be a Fulton County commissioner — as a Republican, according to the Georgia secretary of state website.

The records indicate Henyard qualified to run on March 5. They also list her occupation as “business owner.”

Four other candidates qualified to run for the District 5 commissioner’s seat that same week, all as Democrats. The seat is currently held by Democrat Marvin Arrington Jr., who is running to be chair of the Board of Commissioners.

The 2026 Georgia primary election is scheduled for May 19.

Henyard claims in the video that change is needed in Fulton County. “The residents are tired,” she says. “They’re looking for a new leader. They’re looking for new leadership.”

Henyard also said she has a responsibility “to reach across the aisle, let alone walk across the aisle.”

“You can’t expect change without making a change,” she notes in the video.

The Fulton County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Henyard, whose official X handle is @tif4president, leaves a trail of scandals in her wake. Her tenure as Dolton mayor was plagued with slashed budgets, accusations of lavish spending and other misconduct, an FBI investigation, and even an all-out brawl at a public meeting.

She subsequently lost the Democratic mayoral primary in February 2025, receiving just 536 votes out of the 4,446 ballots cast.

Many of her constituents celebrated her loss:

“The Wicked Witch of the West is dead! It’s over,” said one.”I praise God. That’s all I have to say. Ding, dong, the witch is gone!” said another.”If I can do a backwards hand flip right now — and I’m 67 years old next month — I would definitely do it,” added yet another resident.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered Henyard to pay a former landlord $10,000 in connection with a rental dispute in Illinois after she failed to appear in court. Her attorney indicated to WGN that she missed the hearing because she was out of state and that she denies wrongdoing.

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The son of a teacher at a private Catholic grade school in Ohio was arrested for allegedly possessing a massive trove of disgusting child sex abuse material.

Parents of the St. Susanna Parish School in Mason grew suspicious after receiving messages from the administration in February about a teacher stepping away from instruction.

‘Because I’m a pedophile x3. … I wanna rape them.’

The March arrest of 24-year-old Rain Phoenix-Brown at his mother’s house in Evendale led to parents contacting WKRC-TV about the possible connection to the teacher. WKRC confirmed through county records that Phoenix-Brown was her son.

The school then sent a message to parents admitting the suspect had images of their students in his possession.

“Evendale police have brought to our attention that an individual recently arrested on child pornography charges was in possession of images of St. Susanna students,” the email read. “While this is troubling, police have informed us that none of the St. Susanna children in these images are believed to be victims of any crimes, including child pornography.”

Police said the investigation found 15,000 videos and several hundred thousand electronic images, some of which were generated by artificial intelligence. One of the videos involved bestiality and an underage child.

Investigators also documented alarming online messages Phoenix-Brown allegedly sent to another individual.

“You got to find a 5th or 6th grader,” one alleged message read.

“Because I’m a pedophile x3;” another read. “I wanna rape them.”

Phoenix-Brown was charged with three counts related to the child porn possession:

Pandering obscenity involving a minor;Pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor; andIllegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

RELATED: Elementary school teacher allegedly possessed thousands of files of child sex abuse material

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati released a statement to WKRC stating that the school was not actively involved in the investigation into the child porn possession case and that all questions should be forwarded to the Evendale Police Dept.

Brown is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on a $300,000 bond, according to online records.

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Two weeks ago, I was caught in Dubai for a layover when the war suddenly became very real. While driving back from a pleasant sunset walk along Dubai Creek, my Uber driver suddenly yelled, “Brother, look at the sky!” Peering through the windshield, we watched as the UAE air defense system lit up the sky orange as it intercepted multiple drones, one of which we would later learn struck near the U.S. consulate in Dubai, causing a fire; fortunately, it was quickly extinguished, and there were no fatalities.

To say that war in the Middle East has become a state of normality would be a profound and unfortunate understatement. As drones and missiles fly overhead, the majority of which are intercepted, people go about their day as if nothing has changed. In Dubai, I had the privilege of witnessing an exceptional demonstration of resilience, an unwillingness to give in to fear as the very clear and present danger grows with each passing day.

The resilience I saw in Dubai, where life continued amid ongoing attacks, now faces an even greater test as the global energy supply chain is under strain.

Operation Epic Fury is ongoing and will have long-lasting impacts that will reverberate not only across the region but also worldwide. Iran is one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil and has some of the largest known reserves. Decades of sanctions have left the country with a very limited customer base for its oil, with the majority of it going to China at heavily discounted prices.

For this reason, with the possibility of regime change in Iran, China stands to lose a significant portion of its discounted oil supply, especially when combined with the shift in political direction in Venezuela, another vital source of heavily discounted seaborne imports for the Chinese Communist Party.

Additionally, as the Strait of Hormuz is not effectively closed, a halt of up to a fifth of the global oil and liquified natural gas supply, which comes from the other major regional suppliers like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, is now beginning to take its toll on energy prices across the world.

Dire Strait

Serving as the bridge between the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important strategic chokepoints in the world. With an astounding 20% of global petroleum liquid products flowing through the Strait, it plays a vital role in both the global economy and the economies of the Gulf states.

For example, of the total oil that moves through the Strait, 38% is sourced from Saudi Arabia, a nation where 53.4% of the government’s revenue came from oil in 2025. Furthermore Qatar exports all of its 9.3 billion cubic feet per day of liquid natural gas through the Strait, accounting for most of the LNG transiting through it.

These nations are heavily dependent on revenues earned from oil and gas exports, which is why Iran is targeting both the Strait and the Gulf nations’ energy supply chains. Unable to strike the U.S. mainland, Iran is attacking the Gulf states that support the ongoing U.S. military presence in the region.

The impact from closing the Strait will not be limited to the region. With a substantial amount of exports destined for Asia, upwards of 83% in 2024, including China, South Korea, Japan, India, and Taiwan, the cost of energy in these countries is at risk of rising, which, given the sizable amount of manufacturing that takes place there, could lead to price rises for multiple sectors.

For this reason, China is pressuring Iran to allow for tankers to pass through and to continue shipments, given that China has not yet fully diversified its seaborne oil supply chain away from Iran. Closure of the Strait of Hormuz, even if not by blockade but simply by shippers unwilling to take the risk of asset loss and rising insurance costs, will remain a global market issue rather than a regional challenge.

The lack of transit through the Strait of Hormuz and the possibility that the Houthis in Yemen begin impeding transit through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea in solidarity with Iran will lead to higher costs for everything shipped from the region and manufactured in East Asia.

Attacking energy infrastructure

Part of Iran’s strategy involves a willingness to openly attack any Gulf state with a connection to the U.S., with new attacks expanding to include Azerbaijan and reaching as far as Cyprus. Iran is doing so with a particular focus on energy infrastructure, recognizing the importance of the energy sector to the regional economy.

Multiple attacks have taken place targeting infrastructure in Qatar — impacting up to 17% of its LNG export capacity, the UAE, whose Shah gas field was struck, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia — which is putting pressure on a vital part of these countries’ economies.

If Iran is allowed to continue to inflict severe damage on the energy infrastructure of the Gulf states, while depleting their defensive stockpiles with a steady flow of drones and ballistic missile attacks, they will be placed into an even more vulnerable position both economically and militarily.

China’s reliance on Iranian oil

RELATED: The only Iran plan that doesn’t end with a 20-year hangover

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

China imports almost all of the oil Iran exports, over 80% of it. The strategy is simple: Purchase oil from a heavily sanctioned country with few or no other customers, and enjoy a significant discount. The same strategy was implemented with Venezuela, though not to the same extent as with Iran, in terms of the volume of oil purchased.

The combination of Iranian and Venezuelan seaborne oil imports regularly accounts for 17% of China’s seaborne imports; 13.4% from Iran and 4% to 4.5%. If the war continues to escalate, or perhaps if Kharg Island’s energy infrastructure, which processes 90% of Iran’s oil for export, is attacked or occupied, China could potentially lose close to 20% of its seaborne imports. If the war leads to a regime change in Iran more favorable toward the West, or Iran’s ability to export discounted oil to China is impacted by either military action or the lifting of sanctions, it will be forced to aggressively diversify its seaborne oil imports.

What it means

I am fortunate to be concluding this piece from the comfort of my home in Arizona after an evacuation flight to San Francisco, a commuter flight to Los Angeles, and a final long drive home. Operation Epic Fury has effectively disrupted the Strait of Hormuz, unleashed waves of attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure, and driven sharp increases in worldwide energy prices.

China stands to lose up to 20% of its discounted seaborne oil imports from Iran and Venezuela, while Asian economies face higher manufacturing costs that will be passed on to global consumers. The resilience I saw in Dubai, where life continued amid ongoing attacks, now faces an even greater test as the global energy supply chain is under strain. With escalation showing no signs of abating, volatility in oil, LNG, and gasoline prices has become the new normal, underscoring how deeply interconnected our world’s energy security truly is.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.

​Dubai, Iran war, Missile attacks, Drone strikes, Uae, Middle east, Operation epic fury, Strait of hormuz, Gulf of oman, Houthis, Gulf states, Supply chains, China, Opinion & analysis 

Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, which is projected to surpass 100,000 total assisted deaths before its 10th anniversary in June 2026, is growing more dystopian every year.

“Children, babies with special needs, the poor, veterans, the elderly, the sick, those struggling with mental health conditions — these are just some of the groups being targeted by Canada’s taxpayer-funded assisted suicide program,” says BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey.

On this episode of “Relatable,” Allie interviews Canadian combat veteran and anti-MAID activist Kelsi Sheren about Canada’s sinister plot to target the most vulnerable populations.

Sheren’s opposition to Canada’s MAID program stems from a very personal place. When she was just 19 years old, she was deployed to Afghanistan, where she experienced front-line combat exposure. Two years into her tour, she was badly injured and medically discharged.

“I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, major depressive disorder, treatment-resistant depression, and hearing loss,” Sheren tells Allie.

“They put me on a lot of drugs, and I wanted to kill myself for a really, really long time,” she adds, noting that her “staff in the military” told her it would’ve been “easier if [she] died.”

Fortunately, Sheren was introduced to art therapy, which not only saved her life but also culminated in a booming business called Brass & Unity.

Today, in addition to authoring books and hosting a podcast, Sheren advocates for vulnerable people who are being targeted not only by Canada’s MAID program but by the “ideology” that positions suicide as the best solution to suffering.

“They target the vulnerable first. They target the people who think they don’t have a voice, who can’t speak up, or who will take the options because they’re so low,” says Sheren.

She tells the heartbreaking story of one of her friends and fellow Canadian combat veterans, Christine Gauthier, who despite serving her country through military service and excelling as a Paralympic paracanoeist and Invictus Games athlete representing Canada, was encouraged to consider MAID when bureaucratic delays prevented the installation of a wheelchair stairlift in her home.

“When Canada needed her to step up, she stepped up every time … and she just wanted a wheelchair ramp, and they asked her if she wanted to die instead,” says Sheren.

What happened to Gauthier, as well as several other Canadian veterans, is “illegal,” she argues, but when they testify, the Canadian government “[keeps] calling [them] liars.”

But alleged coercion is just the tip of the MAID iceberg.

Under current Canadian law, there are two “tracks” to accessing the program: Track 1 is for people whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable (like terminal illness), while Track 2 is for those whose death isn’t reasonably foreseeable but who have a serious, incurable physical condition (like paraplegia or rheumatoid arthritis).

Track 2, says Sheren, has become a giant loophole. People wanting to die due to mental health issues are using physical maladies — even something as manageable as type 1 diabetes — to qualify for MAID.

Some funeral homes are even capitalizing on these patients by offering their facilities as spaces where approved killings can take place. “They also handle the whole funeral and the crematory right there,” says Sheren.

Allie’s radar immediately goes off. “I always have to wonder about the financial incentives going on here. Like, who’s making all of this money off of people being murdered by the medical system?” she asks.

Sheren lays out the shocking math.

Citing the Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, which covers 2024 data, she says, “An average of 2,200 doctors in Canada … perform MAID assessments and MAID kills.” To determine MAID eligibility, “two assessors” must evaluate a patient. Sometimes numerous assessments are performed on a single patient.

“Each assessment can be billed for up to 105 hours. They charge $50 every 15 minutes. … You do the math on that. It’s pretty substantial,” says Sheren.

But it’s not just the doctors and funeral homes who are raking in substantial wealth from the MAID program, she says; the entire system from top to bottom is a taxpayer-funded death industry built on perverse incentives.

The charity Dying with Dignity, which Sheren calls “the largest pro-death cult in the country,” is “worth right now around $9 million.”

And finally, Health Canada – Canada’s federal health care ministry – saves massive amounts by having less people to financially support.

The vulnerable, Sheren explains, “are a burden on the system.”

“I got injured when I was 19 years old. Well, they’re responsible to me until I’m 60, right? That’s an expensive ticket there,” she says.

Even though the MAID program is already deeply dystopian, Canada is considering expanding it. In 2027, the parliamentary committee will determine if mental illness alone should qualify an individual for the MAID program.

Additionally, “the College of Physicians is suggesting that we should be able to euthanize babies 0 to 1 who are born with what they consider a disorder that will make their quality of life low,” says Sheren.

There is also discussion and advocacy around adding terminally ill “mature minors” (12- to 17-year-olds) to the MAID program.

“They’re discussing how if you have a child down to the age of 12 and they have a terminal illness and they decide they want to die with MAID, the parents will be consulted, but ultimately the child’s decision will be the one that is taken,” says Sheren.

“Canada has removed the parental rights of medical care of children up to the age of 12. So once your child turns 12, you no longer have access to their medical records or their decision-making … and at the same time, we’re talking about expanding [MAID] to children down to the age of 12. Are we all seeing the correlation here?” she asks.

To hear more about the shocking realities of Canada’s MAID program and how the same ideology is poisoning the U.S., watch the full interview above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey, Kelsi sheren, Canada, Maid, Canada maid, Assissted suicide, Blazetv, Blaze media 

A mugger reportedly slashed a male teenager in the face and stole his cell phone aboard a New York City subway train Thursday evening — but the victim grabbed the knife from the mugger and fought back in a brutal way.

The 18-year-old victim and his friend were on the Bronx No. 2 train as it approached the Pelham Parkway station near White Plains Road in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx around 7 p.m. when the suspect and seven others walked through the train car, stopped the victim, and asked to see his cell phone, the New York Daily News reported.

‘Case of beer for that young person!’

The victim pulled out his phone, and the mugger grabbed the phone and started to walk off with it, which sparked a brawl, police told the Daily News.

Amid the dustup, a knife fell upon the subway car’s floor, police told the paper.

The mugger grabbed the knife and slashed his victim in the face, which left a deep gash on the teen’s face, the Daily News said.

But as the fight continued, the victim grabbed the knife from the mugger and stabbed him five times, police told the paper.

Emergency medical services arrived and rushed the mugger to Jacobi Hospital, where he was expected to survive, the Daily News said, adding that he remained in the hospital Friday and was awaiting charges related to the incident.

The teen was taken to Montefiore Medical Center, where his slash wound was treated, the paper said, adding that the victim’s friend was punched in the face during the brawl.

A police source with knowledge of the case told the Daily News that detectives said the mugger’s pals — who ran off — are responsible for several similar robberies in the Bronx and on borough subway trains.

Charges against the mugger and his victim were not immediately filed, the paper said.

As you might expect, observers commenting under the Daily News’ Facebook post about the incident gave many kudos to the teen who fought back:

“Case of beer for that young person!” one commenter wrote.”He took care of bizness!” another user exclaimed.”Great job from the victim,” another commenter noted.”That’s how it’s supposed to be,” another user declared.”Given it’s NYC, has the teen been charged yet?” another commenter quipped.”People need to fight back, glad this happened!” another user said.

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​Crime thwarted, Fighting back, Bronx, New york city, Mugging, Teen victim, Mugging victim stabs mugger, Train, Face slashed, Self-defense, Crime 

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said he might run for president again in 2028 and provide an alternative for the populist wing of the Republican Party.

Paul said he would make a decision after the midterm elections in an interview with CBS News journalist Robert Costa.

‘On many days, it’s me in the Senate, the only one left for free trade. But I think there still is a desire among business for it.’

“There’s used to be a free market/Libertarian wing of the party, and now there’s not much left. In fact, on many days, it’s me in the Senate, the only one left for free trade. But I think there still is a desire among business for it,” the senator said in a snippet posted to Instagram.

“And it may make the so-called Libertarian vote, which might not be big enough to ever win anything,” he added, “if you combine that with the Chamber of Commerce and the traditional business community that doesn’t like protectionism, there may be a force out there for a different direction from the party other than being continued to be led by populism.”

Costa directly asked him about a news headline opining that it appeared already that he was running for president.

“I don’t know yet. So maybe they know something that I don’t know,” he joked.

“We’re thinking about it,” he added. “I would say 50-50.”

Paul had a dramatic break with the Republican Party when he berated Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, the president’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

RELATED: Watch Rand Paul bulldoze through each global warming talking point

Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The senator objected to Mullin’s quip that Paul’s neighbor was justified when he assaulted him over a lawn dispute and broke several of his ribs in 2017. Paul was the lone Republican vote against Mullin, but Mullin was confirmed after Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Penn.) crossed the aisle.

He has also been very critical of the administration’s justification for the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.

The entire interview airs on “CBS News Sunday Morning” on Sunday.

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​Rand paul running for president, Alternatives to populism, Libertarians and business community, 2028 presidential election, Politics 

Florida police said Tiger Woods was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence after yet another rollover incident.

Police initially reported the rollover with scant details but later said in a press conference that the golf legend exhibited signs of impairment.

The 50-year-old faces misdemeanor charges of DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.

The rollover happened in the Jupiter Island area at about 2 p.m. and involved Wood’s Range Rover vehicle. The incident occurred at 281 Beach Road, which is near Woods’ home.

Officials said that Woods was transported to the Martin County Jail, where he allegedly refused to give them a urine sample, although he did submit to a breathalyzer test.

The 50-year-old faces misdemeanor charges of DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test. He will be held for eight hours and then released on bail.

Photos from the incident showed the Range Rover on its side.

There were no significant injuries from the incident, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.

RELATED: Trump shocks supporters by fitting in a round of golf with Tiger Woods before the Super Bowl: ‘He never rests’

Woods had golfed in a match Tuesday at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens.

The golf legend was charged with a DUI in 2017 and later pleaded guilty to reckless driving and paid a $250 fine. He also had a rollover accident in 2021 where he was seriously injured.

This is a developing story.

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​Tiger woods dui, Tiger woods rollover accident, Jupiter island rollover, Celebrity dui, Crime