Category: blaze media

A grand jury on Tuesday indicted a former Alabama high school girls’ basketball coach who’s facing 32 sex crime charges in connection with accusations that she sexually abused a student, according to multiple reports.

Paige Adams — former girls’ basketball coach at Cold Springs High School — was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Cullman County Jail, according to jail records.

Before the accusations surfaced, Adams was described as ‘a great role model for the young people of Cullman County.’

The 35-year-old was charged with two felony crimes: school employee engaging in a sex act or deviant sexual intercourse with a student and school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19, AL.com reported.

Adams also faces 30 misdemeanor counts of a school employee distributing obscene material to a student.

Adams was released from jail after posting a $225,000 bond but is required to wear an electronic monitor.

“This 32-count grand jury indictment speaks for itself,” Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker told WIAT-TV Tuesday.

RELATED: Teacher of the year finalist who kept contacting boy she sexually abused even after arrest learns fate: ‘Pretty stupid’

WIAT obtained court records Wednesday stating that Adams asked the student to send her obscene material depicting sexual activity on at least two occasions, only days before she resigned March 25.

The outlet added that Adams sent obscene material to the student at least 28 times between Feb. 13 and March 9.

Adams — who was in her first year as the varsity girls’ basketball coach at Cold Springs High School after being hired in March 2025 — resigned last month, and she was “escorted from school property,” according to AL.com.

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette stated last month, “Our sole focus is protecting the students of Cullman County Schools. We are going to do what is always right, as we always have.”

1819 News reported that Barnette said of Adams, “This is the first formal complaint I have received regarding this employee. As soon as the concern was raised, an investigation was initiated. The employee chose to resign at that time.”

Before the accusations surfaced, Barnette called Adams “a great role model for the young people of Cullman County,” according to 1819 News.

WIAT reported that Adams’ husband filed for divorce April 6 — just two weeks before she was arrested.

Adams’ husband — the boys’ basketball coach at Cold Springs High School — requested sole custody of their child, according to WIAT.

According to court documents, Adams and her husband had been married since 2015, but they separated in March when she resigned.

In April 2025, Adams’ husband said he was excited that she was hired as the girls’ basketball coach at the same school as him.

Adams’ husband previously told the Cullman Tribune, “Now we can be at the same place on a nightly basis. Secondly, being a head coach can be difficult at times. Us being at the same place and being able to support each other through the ups and downs was important to us.”

“And lastly, getting to have a front-row seat to watch Paige starting her journey as the head girls’ coach at Cold Springs is special to me,” the husband said.

Authorities did not disclose the age of the alleged victim or if the teen was a student at Cold Springs High School.

Adams’ arraignment hearing is scheduled for May 22.

The Cullman County Sheriff’s Office and the Cullman County Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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​Teacher sex scandal, Bad teacher, Alabama, Paige adams, Teacher student sex scandal, Teacher arrested, Crime 

The man arrested for allegedly spraying Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) with apple cider vinegar has reached a plea deal after spending months in jail, according to court documents.

Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, pleaded not guilty in March despite being captured on video attacking Omar during a Jan. 27 town hall event and getting tackled to the ground.

The complaint claimed that Kazmierczak previously said that someone should kill Omar in comments years before the incident.

Prosecutors said Kazmierczak yelled that Omar was “splitting Minnesotans apart” before approaching her and spraying liquid onto her from a syringe.

Investigators later said the liquid was apple cider vinegar.

Omar defiantly continued her speech after the man was subdued.

“We will continue. These f**king a**holes are not going to get away with it!” she said to the crowd.

“I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work,” she wrote on social media after the incident. “I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.”

The complaint claimed that Kazmierczak previously said that someone should kill Omar in comments years before the incident.

The Hill reported that the details of the plea deal were unavailable.

RELATED: VIDEO: Ilhan Omar lashes out at reporter over bizarre wealth discrepancy: ‘I don’t want to tell you jack s**t!’

While President Donald Trump suggested that the entire episode was staged by Omar to garner sympathy for her, House Speaker Mike Johnson denied the possibility in comments to reporters.

“I don’t have any evidence to believe that’s true,” Johnson said in January. “Look, we deal with member security issues as they arise. I called her as I do any member who has a situation like that, and I talked to her briefly.”

When pressed on the president’s claims, he added, “I haven’t seen any evidence to that.”

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​Ilhan omar sprayed, Anthony kazmierczak, Man who sprayed omar, Omar vs syringe, Politics 

Many readers are convinced that a piece of Helen Keller memorabilia could not possibly be real.

Keller, noted as being a deaf and blind humanitarian, educator, and writer who wrote 12 books, has been swept up by the latest craze of memorabilia resale.

‘What a time to be alive.’

In fact, the genre is nearly unheard of, as it exists as a hybrid of two separate collector’s items: trading cards and historical signatures.

That’s right, Keller’s signature was just auctioned off as a trading card — and it is authentic.

Rookie season

The Topps official “Helen Keller Cut Signatures 1/1” card was sold in a live auction on eBay for $3,551. For those thinking the card may be fake or a concoction created by a savvy entrepreneur, Topps went ahead and shared the results on its social media pages, reporting that the card was “just sold” on Thursday.

RELATED: Sports memorabilia industry in chaos after seller admits massive scheme to fake signatures, then commits suicide

‘What a time to be alive’

The reactions online were less than stellar, as not only did readers not believe it was real, but they couldn’t fathom why anyone would pay for such a thing.

“Is it authentic,” one reply asked. “Or is it just a joke card that got bid on fairly high?”

“I thought this card was satire. Good lord,” another sad reader expressed.

“I had to check to see if this was a parody account,” a sports page chimed in to say.

Other onlookers accepted the event had taken place, but couldn’t resist pondering what it said about life in 2026.

“‘I just spent $3,551 on an autographed Helen Keller rookie card’ is a real sentence somebody said earlier today. What a time to be alive,” wrote Mike Beauvais, creator of streaming platform Quibi.

RELATED: Fake Masters jackets, Beatles signatures, and a Kardashian photo named in fraudster’s memorabilia scheme worth up to $550K

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Team player

This isn’t the only instance of Topps trading cards using American icons as a product line. Back in 2009, Topps released its American Heritage series that featured the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Frank Sinatra, and Martin Luther King Jr.

At the same time, it included two other iterations of Keller on trading cards. First, she was included under the American Heroes series that also showcased Thomas Edison. She was also included in the Presidential Medal of Freedom series that also featured Bill Cosby and Jackie Robinson.

For those looking to get their hands on graded Keller items, a card with her signature is currently listed for just under $2,200, while another seller is asking $500 or best offer for one of the 2009 Topps cards.

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​Align, Auctioning, Ebay, Satire, Helen keller, Trading cards, Signature, Memoribilia, American history, Lifestyle 

A survey found that college graduates who earned a degree in liberal arts regretted their major the most of all respondents.

The ZipRecruiter study surveyed 1,500 graduates from the class of 2025 and another 1,500 students set to graduate in the spring.

Overall, about 1 in 5 of all grads said they were regretful of their majors.

The report said that many of the regretful liberal arts majors wished they had focused on scientific or quantitative fields instead.

After the liberal arts, recent grads with political science, international relations, or public policy degrees were the next-highest regretful, with about 46.3% ruing their decisions.

About 39.2% of grads with communications, media studies, or public relations majors said they wish they had chosen another focus.

Overall, about 1 in 5 of all grads said they were regretful of their majors.

A separate report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers listed the bachelor’s degrees most in demand from their member firms.

That survey found finance was the top major in demand, followed by mechanical engineering, computer science, and accounting. Also in high demand were business administration and management, electrical engineering, and information sciences/systems.

RELATED: Liberal arts college student cites Mao in video calling for more political assassinations after Charlie Kirk

One of the bright spots for recent grads was for those who sought nursing positions. The ZipRecruiter survey found that almost a third of nursing graduates were able to obtain a job before even graduating.

Nursing majors also had the highest median salary upon graduation, which was $70,000 a year.

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​Liberal arts degrees, Grads regret majors, Worst grad majors, Best job majors, Politics 

A longtime resident and county attorney says progressive policies have ruined Maryland and forced him to abandon the state after six decades.

Carroll County State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker (R) told WBFF-TV in an interview that aired earlier this week that after his term ends, he will be seeking greener grass in North Carolina.

‘Maryland has now become a sanctuary state. Even after jacking up taxes to the tune of, what, $1.6 billion last year, we’re still looking at a structural deficit next year.’

“[Democratic Gov.] Wes Moore and the Democrats in the General Assembly, you’ve won. I’m leaving,” the Republican said.

Shoemaker listed a long string of policies that have worsened living conditions for Marylanders, including new tax hikes, lax criminal prosecution, and the designation of Maryland as a sanctuary state.

“Essentially, the way I see it, Maryland is a lost cause at this point,” he added.

Shoemaker has a long history of participating in Maryland government but says he no longer wishes to continue living there.

“Maryland has gotten progressively more woke every single year,” he continued. “Their fiscal policies are awful. They’re taxing people to death. Car registration fees are through the roof. And, you know, this most recent session in Annapolis was really, you know, sealed my fate and has hastened my departure. Maryland has now become a sanctuary state. Even after jacking up taxes to the tune of, what, $1.6 billion last year, we’re still looking at a structural deficit next year.”

He cited the Youth Charging Reform Act, which wipes out automatically charging 16- and 17-year-olds as adults on drug, assault, and gun offenses.

“It’s more criminal coddling legislation that we see emanating from Annapolis every single year,” he added. “They were just telltale signs that Maryland’s lost.”

He went on to say that people are leaving “in droves, and it’s sad.”

RELATED: Glenn Beck says if you live in THIS state, get out NOW

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce said that the state ranks 45th nationally in domestic migration with more than 18,000 residents leaving in one year period from July 2023.

“High taxes, rising living costs, housing affordability challenges and regulatory complexity are pushing residents to states with lower costs, better growth prospects, and more business-friendly climates,” read a statement from the chamber.

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​Haven shoemaker, Maryland is lost, Progressive policies in maryland, People abandoning maryland, Politics 

The state of California is handing out boatloads of cash to some of the biggest money-making studios in the world.

The money comes from the California Film Commission, which, in addition to providing tax credits for studios that rake in revenue, has a robust incentive program for productions that push diversity, equity, and inclusion.

‘The state also pushes productions to acquire suppliers based on their diversity.’

Dollars to doughnuts

As part of its $750 million annual industry push, the commission’s funding is not limited to independent films or smaller studios, but tens of millions are actually allocated to big-budget studios that have a history of massive revenues.

Chiefly in this instance, Variety has reported that a sequel to “The Simpsons Movie,” currently titled “The Simpsons Movie 2,” will receive $21.9 million in state funding as California has expanded into supplementing animation production.

The 20th Century Studios production is set for a release 20 years after the original hit movie, which took in $183 million domestically and $536 million worldwide against a $75 million budget.

While TV revenues are tight-lipped, it’s estimated that each episode generates between $3 and $5 million. It should go without saying that the longest-running American scripted primetime series is not hurting for cash.

RELATED: Disney down on DEI, says ex-staffer: ‘The vibe shift is real’

Alms for the A-list

Other major production houses getting a boost from the state include Netflix, which will get $10.9 million for a reboot of “13 Going on 30,” while an untitled Disney live-action movie will get over $18 million.

DreamWorks, which reportedly took in over $900 million in 2024, will also get a credit of nearly $25 million from California.

At the same time, Paramount will get just under $26 million; they took in a reported $28.75 billion in 2025.

RELATED: Welcome to WokeNut Grove: Sneak peek at Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ reboot

Chris Polk/FilmMagic/Getty Images

DEI on the prize

The film commission also sports a complex DEI program that offers tax credits in exchange for pushing its ideology on the production staff of any given project.

The state provides a checklist for productions to ensure they know to perform inclusive hiring, equity education, and “industry capacity building” to “increase an inclusive and qualified workforce.”

The state also pushes productions to acquire suppliers based on their diversity.

California’s “success roadmap” also shows that productions must issue “mandatory DEIA orientation,” with the added letter in the acronym for “accessibility.”

For live-action films, this must be done before principal photography begins, while animation has to show its DEI work within 120 days of production.

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​Align, California, California film commission, Disney, Diversity equity inclusion, Film, Gavin newsom, Movie studios, Netflix, Paramount, Tax credits, Tv production, Entertainment 

In an effort to fulfill President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order to restore the implementation of the death penalty at the federal level, the Department of Justice has decided to bring back a means of execution often associated with a blindfold and a cigarette.

After a moratorium on the death penalty under the Biden administration, the Trump DOJ has reintroduced the traditional firing squad method as well as the lethal injection protocols adopted in Trump’s first term.

President Trump has called for the death penalty in specific cases, including the vicious murders of Iryna Zarutska … and Charlie Kirk.

In a memo released Friday, the DOJ claimed that the purpose of these measures is “to expedite death penalty cases” by “clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals.”

“The prior administration failed in its duty to protect the American people by refusing to pursue and carry out the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers,” said a statement from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is once again enforcing the law and standing with victims.”

RELATED: ‘Very good news!’ Imminent death sentence for 8 Iranian women halted, Trump says — because he intervened

Photo of memorial to Iryna Zarutska; Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

The memo claimed that the Biden administration, under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, refused to implement the death penalty, even when the administration’s own attorneys sought it.

Moreover, shortly before leaving office, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly every inmate on federal death row. The only three whose death sentences Biden did not commute were 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Dylann Roof, who murdered nine people in a black church in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

The DOJ under Trump is now actively seeking the death penalty against dozens of defendants, including three MS-13 gangsters accused of murdering a federal witness, the memo said. Two of the three are in the U.S. illegally.

The administration is even considering erecting a new execution facility.

Since retaking office, President Trump has called for the death penalty in specific state-level cases, including the vicious murders of Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina on August 22, 2025, and Charlie Kirk in Utah on September 10, 2025.

Several states already use the firing squad. In fact, beginning on July 1, Idaho will become the first state to use the firing squad as its main means of execution, while other states like South Carolina offer it as an option to death-row inmates.

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​Trump, Doj, Biden, Merrick garland, Todd blanche, Politics 

The daring raid that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has also landed one special forces soldier in hot water after he allegedly won $400,000 on a prediction market.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, was charged with personally benefiting from the use of classified information after betting $33,000 on the timing of the raid, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

‘Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.’

Van Dyke was reportedly a part of the planning of Operation Absolute Resolve between December 8, 2025, and January 6, 2026, and had access to classified information during that time.

At the end of December, Van Dyke allegedly created a Polymarket account and began making more than a dozen bets related to the raid.

When news of the trade began to make headlines, Van Dyke then allegedly took efforts to conceal his actions by trying to delete the Polymarket account and transferring the money to cryptocurrency accounts.

Polymarket said on social media that it had cooperated with the investigation.

“Last month, we published our enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading,” the company said. “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”

The indictment said Van Dyke was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina when he allegedly made the transactions on Polymarket.

President Donald Trump was asked about the case and likened it to baseball legend Pete Rose betting on himself.

RELATED: Insider bets. Multiple lawsuits. Free groceries. Are prediction platforms about to crash out?

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton.

“The defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit,” he added. “That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law.”

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​Maduro raid, War prediction market bet, Special forces soldier arrested, Prediction market insider trading, Politics 

According to BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has been quietly fighting a “legitimate color revolution effort by the deep state.”

The institutional left, she argues, has been attempting to “control the president’s every thought, every action, every decision, every policy in order to impose on you wokeism and destructive [left-wing policies],” and it’s Pete Hegseth who’s standing in its way.

This isn’t just her hunch either. On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz dives into a recent @DataRepublican thread that blew the lid off the shocking truth behind the nonstop attacks on Pete Hegseth.

Liz begins by reading through the X thread posted by @DataRepublican on Monday:

The thread argues that Hegseth is being relentlessly attacked not because of any personal scandals (drinking, women, etc.), but because he’s a loyal secretary of war who would prevent the military/security forces from defecting.

According to the thread, this loyalty is what’s stopping a would-be soft coup attempt against Trump. Citing academic studies, training videos, and planning docs from left-leaning groups that emphasize getting security forces to disobey or stand down, the post posits that you can’t execute a successful color revolution without flipping or neutralizing the military — and Hegseth, being outside its influence networks and loyal to Trump, makes that impossible.

Two people @DataRepublican highlights in the thread are Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan — “the two most cited scholars in the color revolution field.” According to their research into 323 different regime change campaigns, security force defections make those campaigns “46 times more likely to succeed.”

“Once you meet these women, you will not only understand who is behind much of the civil unrest in our country, but how they do it,” says Liz.

Stephan, she argues, “is the epitome of a blob creature,” citing her careers at the State Department, the Atlantic Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, and in academia. Liz notes that she also founded and directed the “program on nonviolent action at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).”

Chenoweth, who “serves in many different capacities at Harvard University,” is famous in the color revolution world, Liz says, for coining the “3.5% rule,” which argues that it takes only 3.5% of the population’s participation, combined with a military willing to defect, for a color revolution to be successful.

Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, Liz contends, are connected to the founders of the No Kings movement, Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, who “get their funding … almost directly from George Soros.”

“Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg are on video talking about how their protests, the No Kings protests, are essentially a color revolution,” says Liz, playing a clip from their joint podcast where they interviewed none other than Chenoweth.

“Maria Stephan is also involved in the No Kings protest through her organization New Horizons Project. She actually trained No Kings protesters,” she continues, playing more videos from @DataRepublican capturing Stephan training protesters on how successful campaigns depend on “defections and loyalty shifts within key institutional pillars,” specifically business, labor, faith, education, civil service, and military/police, which must be “[cracked]” so that “the entire edifice can crumble.”

Liz says Stephan’s framework is “almost exactly the same thing” as Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and the “war of position,” which argues that revolutionaries must first capture the institutions of culture, education, media, ideas, and other key pillars of society in order to eventually seize power.

In the same thread, @DataRepublican also highlighted Gene Sharp, the father of modern “color revolution” tactics, and Hardy Merriman (Sharp’s former assistant), for co-writing the main training manual used for regime changes in over 50 countries.

Merriman then created a U.S. version that tells government and military people: You don’t owe loyalty to the president — only to the Constitution — and teaches them how to quietly defect (slow down, leak, ignore orders, etc.) so the regime can be brought down.

All of this explains the “character assassination” attempts on Pete Hegseth, says Liz.

“Seventy-two hours after President Trump named Pete Hegseth as his nominee for secretary of war … Democracy Playbook 2025 specifically named Pete Hegseth as a threat because he cannot be convinced or compromised to the point of defection,” she says, noting that this playbook was edited by “Democrat super lawyer” Norman Eisen, who Liz exposed last year for being one of the central architects and coordinators of a “resistance” network seeking to topple the Trump administration.

But that’s just the beginning of the intricate network Liz uncovers in this episode.

She continues unpacking the rest of @DataRepublican’s thread to reveal how these color revolution tactics are allegedly being deployed against Trump right now and why unco-optable Pete Hegseth is literally the one man preventing a successful soft coup.

If you want the full picture — and to see exactly how deep this goes — watch the entire eye-opening 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.

​Antonio gramsci, Atlantic council, Blazetv host, Character assassination, Civil unrest, Color revolution, Color revolution effort, Council on foreign relations, Datarepublican thread, Deep state, Gene sharp, George soros, Harvard university, Horizons project, Institutional left, Liz wheeler, Militarysecurity forces, No kings movement, Pete hegseth, Regime change campaigns, Secretary of war, Security force defections, Soft coup, Soft coup attempt, State department, The liz wheeler show, Us institute of peace, Wokeism 

ICE agents have a hard enough time staying safe with leftist politicians trying to defund them, media villainizing them, and rioters threatening them. For months, ICE agents even watched their backs as location-tracking apps pinpointed their every move on the streets, at least until alleged government pressure wiped them from the App Store and Google Play. Unfortunately for ICE, the ban didn’t last long, as a district court judge just ruled their removal unconstitutional, seemingly disregarding the safety of ICE agents while blaming the Trump administration.

The rise and fall of anti-ICE apps

ICE-reporting apps — led by ICEBlock on iOS — popped up online around April 2025, shortly after deportation raids in Democrat-run strongholds earned the ire of politicians, media, and rioters on the left side of the aisle. The apps were billed as a way to report and monitor the location of ICE agents and hold them accountable for “alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process.”

It sounds altruistic, if any of that were true, but it’s ICEBlock’s off-label use cases that make it far more dangerous to the people, government officials, and United States sovereignty.

The next step in deciding the fate of ICE-tracking apps is to take the case to court.

With ICE agent locations marked on a map, apps like ICEBlock gave illegal aliens enough information to hide or flee from law enforcement to avoid deportation. ICEBlock also essentially showed rioters exactly where to go to confront ICE on the street, adding fuel to countless attacks on agents and the deaths of two American citizens.

In October 2025, the Trump administration reportedly sought to ban ICE-tracking apps, noting that they posed a major threat to ICE officials and public safety at large. At the time, former United States Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.”

Apple quickly removed ICEBlock from the App Store, prompting the developer, Joshua Aaron, to sue the Trump administration for censorship. Although Apple wasn’t directly implicated in the lawsuit, Aaron added, “We are incredibly disappointed by Apple’s actions. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move.”

Cue the eyeroll.

RELATED: The FBI busted an anti-ICE attack squad by reading its encrypted messages

FOTOKITA/Getty Images

Violence against ICE is a real threat

There’s no doubt that Pam Bondi was right about the threats against ICE agents, something we covered extensively at Blaze News. Here are just some of the most egregious stories:

Anti-ICE mob turns hostile, breaching barriers outside detention facility — several officers injuredLos Angeles anti-ICE protesters harass DHS agents, military members on Independence DayInside the Portland ICE facility under siege by Antifa extremistsICE agents fear for their safety after security fence removed at Chicago-area facility amid sometimes violent protestsBorder Patrol agents dodge bullets and bricks from leftist rioters in sanctuary city: DHSVIDEO: Unhinged anti-ICE extremists hurl profanities at agents in Minneapolis: ‘Get the f**k out!’

ICE agents aren’t the only ones at risk. Due to increasingly divisive rhetoric by left-wing politicians, agitators took to the streets and threatened ICE to the point that two protesters lost their lives.

ICEBlock returns … maybe

Fast-forward to today. Months after ICEBlock’s removal, Obama-appointed District Court Judge Jorge L. Alonso issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Joshua Aaron, agreeing that banning or blocking ICE-tracking apps, websites, and services violates the First Amendment. He went on to say that both the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security illegally coerced tech companies to remove ICEBlock and similar apps from the App Store and Google Play. Facebook was also reprimanded in the decision for shutting down an ICE-tracking Facebook Group called “ICE Sightings — Chicagoland.”

It’s important to note that Alonso’s ruling is only a preliminary injunction and not a final ruling, meaning that its protections are temporary, pending a full trial. If the case falls in favor of ICE-tracking apps and services, ICEBlock and the like can return to online spaces indefinitely, leaving the Trump administration with one less legal option to protect the whereabouts and operations of ICE agents.

​Tech 

President Donald Trump’s administration has dropped the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for his multibillion-dollar renovation project.

The Department of Justice dropped the probe just days after Trump’s pick to replace Powell, Kevin Warsh, testified before the Senate Banking Committee. After the hearing, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina reiterated that he would not support Warsh’s confirmation unless the investigation into Powell is dropped.

‘I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation.’

Tillis is one of seven Republicans on the 13-member committee, meaning his vote is needed to advance Warsh’s nomination to the Senate floor, presuming no Democrat defectors.

After Tillis once again made his demands clear, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced the investigation was dropped.

RELATED: The lone Republican who could tank Trump’s Fed pick

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“This morning the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve has been asked to scrutinize the building costs overruns — in the billions of dollars — that have been borne by taxpayers,” Pirro said in a post on X. “The IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers.”

“I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas,” Pirro added. “Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry. Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”

Warsh’s confirmation now awaits a vote from the Senate Banking Committee before proceeding to the Senate floor, where the nominee will need to secure a simple majority. Powell’s term expired in March, but he said he will remain in the role until Warsh is confirmed.

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​Criminal investigation, Department of justice, Donald trump, Federal reserve chair, Inspector general, Jeanine ferris pirro, Jerome powell, Kevin warsh, Renovations, Senate banking committee, Subpoenas, Thom tillis, Politics 

Johnny Carson made us howl by having the biggest stars on the galaxy grace his “Tonight Show” couch.

Sinatra. Reynolds. Rickles. Martin.

‘We need somebody, we need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat.’

Modern late-night shows settle for the likes of John Kerry and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Both far-left Democrats appeared on late-night this week, eager to take the hosts’ softball queries and smack ‘em out of the park.

Walz’s chat on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” found him deflecting the massive fraud in his state to, you guessed it, President Donald Trump. Any tough questions about Cap’n Jazz Hands quitting his re-election campaign? Hardly.

At this point, one of those “Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By” signs would be better than these late-night hacks …

Mind freak

Psychic abilities are overrated, apparently.

Sunny Hostin, in a daily scrum to prove who the dumbest “View” host is, told the ABC show crowd this week about her unique skill set. No, it doesn’t involve twisting the truth into a Bavarian pretzel. She’s already proved that more than a few times.

This week, Hostin shared a deeply personal strength.

I believe I have psychic abilities. I recall when I was a child at about 5 years old. You know, I grew up very poor, and I dreamt a number. And my grandmother was like, ‘We are going to play that number.’ We used to call it playing the numbers, and my entire family won based on that number.

Did she foresee how “The View” would become the train wreck TV that it is today? If so, she may be the real deal …

‘Chainsaw’ chatter

Leatherface is ready for his close-up. Again.

A mad bidding war for the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise is over, and newbie director Curry Barker (“Obsession”) will do the honors for A24 films.

But why?

The 1974 original is a classic for all the right reasons. It’s raw and shocking, and it reinvented horror in ways that are still reverberating today. It’s the original nightmare fuel, complete with an odd vocal cameo by John Larroquette. (And he was paid in pot. Literally.) Except we haven’t had many quality “Massacre” films since then.

Eight films. Only one could be considered a keeper, the unjustly attacked 2003 reboot starring Jessica Biel. The rest have modest reasons to recommend them, at best, but only for horror junkies.

Will the ninth film since the original hit the jackpot? Barker directed the no-budget horror film “Milk & Serial,” a creepy affair that became his calling card. “Obsession,” brimming with positive prerelease buzz, drops next month.

If not, well, the next reboot is only a few years away …

RELATED: Billionaire Bruce blasts ‘rich men’ in latest concert rant

Allen J. Schaben/ullstein bild/Getty Images

Cho chooses violence

Projection is a terrible drug.

The left routinely tells us who they are by projecting their darkest impulses on their ideological foes. And Margaret Cho is example A, B, and C.

Maybe D.

The far-left comic raged against all things Trump in a new interview. She didn’t stop there.

I am a Democrat, but I also feel like there’s this weird attachment to decorum and taking the high road, and none of that is gonna work. We need somebody, we need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat. We just need somebody who is willing to put them all in prison — do the right thing and put them all in prison.

Taking the high road? Apparently, Cho was struck in the head around 2017 and just woke up from a nearly decade-long coma. We wish her well in her recovery …

Rock ‘n’ roll swindle

The Boss missed out on that hometown discount.

Bruce Springsteen’s anti-Trump tour is getting all sorts of fawning press for all the obvious reasons. It could be partly why a 76-year-old rocker embraces his far-left shtick in the first place. He knew the legacy media would have his back.

Either way, a new review of his recent New Jersey concert hit the brakes on the media love fest.

Hard.

NJ.com’s review blasted Springsteen for a show “poisoned by hypocrisy.”

The blue-collar troubadour now charges exorbitant amounts for his tickets — up to $2,900 retail for the best seats in Newark Monday; prices he agreed to despite fan backlash. He’s selling No Kings-branded flags for $90 in the arena concourse.

The site leans to the left, but the Boss is so blatantly two-faced even his fellow liberals couldn’t ignore it: His glory days are far behind him.

​Culture, Entertainment, Late night tv, Jimmy kimmel, Movies, Tim walz, John kerry, Texas chainsaw massacre, Bruce springsteen, Toto recall 

The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that a grand jury in Alabama returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

Democrats are by now no doubt accustomed to hearing that many of the activists driving their agenda on the left are crooked; however, the SPLC is not merely accused of corruption.

‘It should send a chill down the spine of every American.’

Rather, it has been credibly accused of bankrolling leaders and organizers in the very extremist groups it claimed to be fighting — including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance — as well as having a hand in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” stated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Despite this alleged betrayal of donors and fellow travelers alike, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrat operatives have rallied to the hate racket’s defense.

Schumer said Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. Senate that the “deeply disturbing charges” brought against the SPLC “should send a chill down the spine of every American who cares about free expression and the rule of law in the Justice Department. It should send a chill down the spine of every American who cares about civil liberties and the fight against violent extremism.”

RELATED: History of violence: How the SPLC’s demonization racket helped set the stage for at least 1 shooting

L-R: Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Contrary to Schumer’s suggestion, Americans keen on fighting violent extremism might be delighted to learn that the Justice Department has targeted an alleged financial crutch holding up violent bigots across the country.

The indictment against the SPLC alleges that between 2014 and 2023, the organization — which raked in over $106.47 million in contributions in fiscal year 2024 alone — “secretly funneled more than $3 million in SPLC funds to [field sources] who were associated with various violent extremist groups.”

“Let’s be clear what this case is … really about,” said Schumer. “It has nothing to do with alleged wire fraud or with the Southern Poverty Law Center somehow working in coordination with the KKK. That’s ridiculous on its face. It doesn’t pass the laugh test.”

‘This is core to counter-extremism work.’

Schumer claimed that the case against the SPLC is ultimately about President Donald Trump turning the DOJ into the “Department of Vengeance — his own attack dog.”

The deeply unpopular Democrat suggested further that this case demonstrates that the administration is targeting opponents of “white supremacy” and “turning what America is all about inside out.”

Schumer was hardly the only Democrat associate to dismiss the possibility that the SPLC was keeping the illusion of formidable hatred alive in order to continue bilking deep-pocketed donors.

RELATED: SPLC indictment BOMBSHELL: Charlottesville violence allegedly was a leftist-funded ‘false flag’

Acting AG Todd Blanche. Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Norman Eisen, a Democrat operative who served as special counsel to former President Barack Obama, suggested in a joint statement with Richard Painter — former associate counsel to former President George W. Bush — and Virginia Canter — former associate counsel to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — that the SPLC wasn’t bankrolling its purported foes but rather “paying informants to expose and prevent violence by the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups.”

“This is core to counter-extremism work, and it’s exactly what the DOJ and FBI should be doing — not attacking legendary civil rights organizations,” wrote the trio.

“SPLC is ideologically opposed to hate groups and hate crimes. We stand with SPLC and will support them in every way.”

Maya Wiley, CEO of the D.C.-based liberal organization Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, characterized the effort to hold the SPLC to account as retaliation over the liberal hate racket’s alleged work protecting people from hatred.

“What is happening to civil rights organizations right now is the most coordinated assault on our sector since COINTELPRO,” said Wiley.

“In order to have absolute power, [the Trump administration] must dismantle our rights. And that’s why they’re coming after us.”

‘They have made no secret of who they want to protect.’

“The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent decades doing that work, and we stand with them,” added Wiley, who previously served as counsel to Democrat New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The American Constitution Society, a liberal activist group that has received funding from the Tides Nexus and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, joined the gaslighting campaign, framing the indictment as an attack by the administration motivated by a difference of opinion on policy and politics.

“This is a clear abuse of power,” stated the ACS. “The American Constitution Society stands in solidarity with SPLC and all of our partners working to uphold the rule of law, strengthen our democratic legitimacy, and realize the promise of equality for all.”

SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement this week, “For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive.”

“We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration,” continued Fair. “They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy.”

Fair suggested that the field sources referred to in the indictment were “paid confidential informants” tasked with gathering “credible intelligence on extremely violent groups.” He said the SPLC no longer works with such informants.

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​Southern poverty law center, Splc, False flag, Psyop, Chuck schumer, Kkk, Racism, Racket, Race hustler, Racist, Extremist, Indictment, Patriot front, Democrats, Norman eisen, Maya wiley, Justice department, Politics 

The mother of a 14-year-old male who was arrested after being caught on a viral video body-slamming and head-stomping a much smaller girl on a Harlem street said her boy is a “humble,” “quiet” Christian who “doesn’t provoke nobody,” the New York Post reported.

The attack against the 15-year-old victim took place on the corner of East 107th Street and 3rd Avenue in East Harlem around 3:30 p.m. Monday after she wouldn’t give the boy her number, the Post said in a previous story.

‘He don’t provoke nobody. But if you provoke him, he will lash out.’

The clip shows the considerably larger male standing in a crosswalk in front of his victim and warning that “I’ll knock the s**t out of you right now.”

Another male is heard off-camera encouraging the attacker: “Do it!”

When the girl attempts to cross the street, the attacker orders her, “Nah, you stand right here” as he points to the ground close to his feet.

The girl attempts to go around the attacker, but he puts his arm out and pushes her backward.

But the gutsy girl defiantly tells her attacker, “Get the f**k away from me, p***y!” and turns around and begins to walk away down a sidewalk.

Her attacker, who’s wearing a mask over his mouth and nose, follows her, grabs her from behind, picks her up, and body-slams her into the sidewalk — and then stomps on her head while she’s defenseless on the ground.

RELATED: 14-year-old thug body-slams, head-stomps girl on Harlem street — reportedly after she wouldn’t give him her phone number

The Post said the attacker was arrested, charged with assault, and appeared in Manhattan juvenile court Thursday afternoon, after which he was remanded into custody.

The victim’s mother told the Post her daughter — a ninth-grade student-athlete at East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School — spent two days in a hospital and suffered a concussion, bleeding, potential brain injury, headaches, and an injured neck.

However, the attacker’s mother — Selma Allen — claimed to the paper that the girl victim in the attack actually is the bully.

“He’s been complaining about her,” she added to the Post. “I bring it to the principal’s attention, but he don’t address it. The way my son is being bullied, he doesn’t want to go to school.”

What’s more, Allen told the Post after her son’s court appearance that he’s a “humble,” “quiet” Christian who “doesn’t provoke nobody.” She also told the paper that the girl shoved him just moments before the start of the video.

“It’s retaliation because she pushed him first,” Allen added to the Post, although the paper said she failed to “cough up additional footage she claimed she had of the victim pushing her son.”

“He don’t provoke nobody,” Allen also told the Post. “But if you provoke him, he will lash out.”

The attacker’s mother also denied her son wanted the girl’s phone number, the paper said, adding that the pair are friends who exchange messages on Instagram and WhatsApp.

The paper said the school didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

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​Arrest, Assault, Body-slam, Court, Harlem, Head-stomp, New york city, Nypd, Police, Teenagers, Crime 

Nearly two months after the United States launched its war with Iran, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is calling on European allies to join the fight.

The Strait of Hormuz has quickly become a point of contention in the conflict, significantly constraining the world’s oil supply. President Donald Trump eventually ordered the United States Navy to blockade the strait while attempts to negotiate with Iran continue.

‘They need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do.’

Although America initiated this war along with Israel, Hegseth echoed Trump’s earlier calls to European allies to fend for themselves. This comes just days after the former Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired by the administration.

“This should not be America’s fight alone,” Hegseth said during a Friday press briefing. “We barely use the Strait of Hormuz as a county. Our energy doesn’t flow through there, and we have plenty of energy. Just look at the new global Congo line headed to Texas. A beautiful picture.”

RELATED: Trump lashes out at crumbling NATO alliance following ‘frank’ closed-door meeting

Hegseth noted that our European allies, who have long enjoyed protections from the United States, are the ones disproportionately affected by the energy crisis sparked by America’s war, urging them to “get in a boat” to resolve the conflict themselves.

“Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free riding is over,” Hegseth said. “America and the free world deserve allies who are capable, who are loyal, and who understand that being an ally is not a one-way street. It’s a two-way street.”

“We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do,” Hegseth said. “And might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat.”

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​Donald trump, Energy crisis, Europe, Israel, Pete hegseth, Strait of hormuz, Blockade, Iran war, John phelan, Politics 

The U.S-Iran conflict is unpopular at home with 58% of American adults signaling opposition in a recent Economist/YouGov poll, and surveys conducted both prior and immediately after the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes in late February revealed a general aversion to getting dragged into another foreign entanglement.

While the military intervention is unpopular in the U.S., the opposition to it is significantly greater in Europe, particularly in Spain, where such opposition has proven politically expedient for the ruling Socialist Party.

‘No worries.’

In addition to criticizing the conflict, leftist Spanish officials have in recent months publicly underscored their unwillingness to materially assist the U.S., going so far as to refuse the U.S. to use the jointly run bases at Morón and Rota to strike Iran.

A U.S. official claimed to Reuters that, in an internal email, the Pentagon has floated the idea of pushing Spain out of NATO and punishing allies that failed to toe the line on the Iran conflict.

The email reportedly expresses annoyances over certain allies’ reluctance or outright refusal to permit the U.S. access, basing, and overflight rights for the Iran conflict, which the official said were altogether described as “the absolute baseline for NATO.”

RELATED: Navy secretary abruptly fired despite ongoing Iran blockade

President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez shake hands. Suzanne Plunkett – Pool/Getty Images

The email identifies a number of sanctions for such noncooperation that might serve to “decreas[e] the sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,” including suspending “difficult” countries from important positions at NATO, the official claimed.

While base closures in Europe were not among the proposed responses, ousting Spain from the alliance — a move the email said would be symbolic but have a limited impact on U.S military operations — is on the table, the official added. It’s unclear how such an ouster would be accomplished given NATO’s founding treaty does not contain a formal mechanism to eject a member.

The email reportedly also raises the possibility of rethinking U.S. diplomatic support for European “imperial possessions” such as Britain’s Falkland Islands off the coast of Argentina.

When asked about the email, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Reuters, “As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us.”

“The War Department will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part,” said Wilson. “We have no further comment on any internal deliberations to that effect.”

President Donald Trump said in a March interview with the New York Post that Spain “is a loser” and “very hostile to NATO.”

“Not a team player, and we’re not going to be a team player with Spain either,” added Trump, suggesting elsewhere that the U.S. could just co-opt the Spanish bases and slap Madrid with a trade embargo.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose country’s defense spending has chronically fallen short of NATO targets, brushed off the email, telling Politico, “No worries.”

“We are fulfilling our obligations toward NATO,” said Sánchez.

“The Spanish government’s position is clear: absolute cooperation with our allies, but always within the framework of international law,” added the socialist prime minister.

Following the report about the Pentagon memo, a spokesman for the German government suggested that Spain’s membership was safe, reported the BBC.

“Spain is a member of NATO. And I see no reason why that should change,” said the German spokesman.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told NATO members on Friday to stick together, noting the alliance is a “source of strength.”

“We must work to strengthen NATO’s European pillar … which must clearly complement the American one,” added Meloni, who was recently criticized by Trump over her defense of Pope Leo XIV.

The Department of War did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Defense spending, International law, Iran conflict, Military intervention, Nato, Nato sanctions, Pentagon, President donald trump, Trade embargo, Us official, War department, Politics 

A new report claims that internal memos at Meta say the company will be harvesting data from employees to train artificial intelligence.

The training software Meta plans on using will go directly onto employees’ computers and will track what the employees are doing at work.

‘Agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct.’

The new directive will track U.S.-based employees’ activities on their computers, Meta reportedly told staffers, capturing mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes. In turn, this data will train Meta’s AI models so that the automated agents can perform work tasks autonomously, Reuters reported.

In a statement to Return, a Meta spokesman said that if the company is “building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them.”

This includes not only the aforementioned mouse movements and clicks, but also “navigating dropdown menus,” for example.

The recent report stated that Meta will use a Model Capability Initiative that runs on work-related apps or websites and takes snapshots of what appears on the employees’ screens.

Meta described the initiative as launching an internal tool that will capture the mouse clicks and movements “on certain applications to help us train our models.”

At the same time, the spokesman said employee data would remain safe.

RELATED: West Virginia Republicans are betraying their voters for AI special interests

Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty Images

“There are safeguards in place to protect sensitive content, and the data is not used for any other purpose,” the spokesman asserted in his statement.

The data is only collected for “model training purposes” and will “not be used in performance reviews, and managers cannot access it,” the statement concluded.

Meta was asked to clarify what “everyday tasks” they were looking to have their AI agents perform and if this amounted to tasks that would otherwise be performed by a human, but the company did not provide an answer to those questions.

While the internal memos have not been published, Reuters claimed to have reviewed multiple, including one that was posted internally to the Meta SuperIntelligence Labs team.

“This is where all Meta employees can help our models get better simply by doing their daily work,” it allegedly said.

RELATED: Mother-daughter farmers reject eye-popping Big Tech bids: ‘I’ll stay … and feed a nation’

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, allegedly shared a different memo this week that told employees internal data collection would increase at the company, as roles transform into directing AI agents to do work.

“The vision we are building towards is one where our agents primarily do the work and our role is to direct, review, and help them improve,” Bosworth reportedly stated.

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​Ai, Artificial intelligence, Automated agents, Automated work, Meta, Model capability initiative, Software, Superintelligence labs, Tech, Training, Return 

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering for allegedly defrauding donors by secretly funneling over $3 million (2014–2023) to paid informants associated with extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan without disclosure.

Glenn Beck, calling the SPLC a “tool of the progressive engine,” sums up the charges like this: “They were bankrolling the very racists [they were] denouncing on the evening news.”

The question is: Why?

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn unpacks why he believes the SPLC would allegedly fund the very “extremism” it claims to fight.

If true, the revelations about the SPLC, Glenn says, follow the same pattern of “controlled extremism” that we see in “really ugly political systems” all over the world.

“First, you help create or intensify the very danger you publicly are claiming to fight. … Money flows in quietly to radicals and to dangerous people, and it helps them become louder and more active,” he explains.

“The public then sees a bigger threat. The organization points that threat out and makes more money, more moral authority, media defense, and political leverage. And it’s just lather, rinse, repeat, lather, rinse, repeat.”

Step two involves “[turning] labels into weapons” so that “extremist, terrorist, [and] foreign agent” become tools to “isolate opponents.”

“You chill people’s association. You cut off funding. You make the public afraid to defend the target,” says Glenn, pointing to how Russia’s Supreme Court recently declared the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial an “extremist” organization and banned its activities in the country.

The third step, he says, requires cultivating “a climate where the map becomes territory.”

“Once a group is publicly targeted as hateful or extremist or subversive, the press, the foundations, the bureaucracies can begin treating the label as proof,” Glenn notes.

“This is where soft totalitarianism systems are born. You don’t start with gulags. You start with reputational death, which kind of becomes a soft blacklist. You start funding the choke points and public fear. That’s what the Southern Poverty Law Center was [allegedly] doing,” he continues, claiming it looks suspiciously like a “color revolution.”

He explains that “if an institution can inflate or steer the public perception of extremism, then it can help manufacture a crisis atmosphere,” which it can then use to delegitimize political opponents, pressure the media into conformity, justify surveillance and deplatforming, scare donors, churches, business, and individuals away from supporting the “wrong side,” and create moral permission for “extraordinary countermeasures” — even violence.

“Is that what the Southern Poverty Law Center was doing?” asks Glenn.

While he refuses to make premature judgments, Glenn says he “could sure make the case.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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​Color revolution, Extremist groups, False statements, Foreign agent, Glenn beck, Ku klux klan, Money laundering, Montgomery alabama, Progressive engine, Southern poverty law, Southern poverty law center, Splc, Splc attorney domestic terrorism, Surveillance deplatforming, The glenn beck program, Wire fraud 

“Baby has 2 dads… chose neither,” reads the caption on the video recently posted by gay country star Shane McAnally. In it, McAnally’s husband, Michael Baum, asks the couple’s baby son, “Who do you want, Dada or Pop?”

When the boy calls out for “mama,” the two men laugh. “There is no mama,” says Baum, as the baby begins to cry.

Commercial surrogacy is a booming global industry. By 2032, the market is projected to exceed $120 billion.

Backlash to the clip was swift. To many viewers, there was nothing funny about the baby’s confusion; instead it was cruel and deeply disturbing.

Considering the costs

McAnally and Baum no doubt meant this as a lighthearted parenting moment, and not long ago, that’s probably how it would have been received. But the reaction to the video suggests that today, a decade into our nation’s legal, cultural, and technological push to reshape the family, more people are beginning to consider the costs of that transformation — most poignantly, the cost to the babies born via surrogacy and sold to same-sex couples, forever cut off from their biological mother or father by design.

Many of us have been raising the alarm about this for years, despite being dismissed as “homophobes” and “bigots.” To those just joining us, welcome. Below are a few concrete steps we can take to help these most innocent of victims.

1. Overturn Obergefell v. Hodges

Since the beginning of civilization, marriage has been understood as a union between a man and a woman, one that is inherently ordered toward procreation and family life, grounded in sexual complementarity, and oriented toward permanence and exclusivity.

It is only recently in human history that we have sought to question this assumption — first through the sexual revolution’s legal and cultural devaluation of marriage, and then through the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Now that we have, studies have made it all the more obvious that we were right the first time: Children need a mother and father.

Research using the massive Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study dataset finds that children in single-parent and co-habiting homes fare worse overall on multiple outcomes, including rates of abuse.

Moreover, studies show that children raised by same-sex couples are significantly more likely to struggle emotionally, socially, and academically.

Traditional marriage is ideal for children — and for society. If we hope to restore it, the first step must be to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges

2. Ban commercial surrogacy

Surrogacy turns the creation of human life into a commercial transaction — a transaction that offers the children being bought and sold few legal protections.

It separates children from their biological mothers by design and often treats both women and children as means to an end rather than individuals with inherent dignity.

In commercial surrogacy arrangements, contracts often dictate the terms of pregnancy, birth, and custody — including how disputes over the child will be handled. Many agreements include provisions requiring the surrogate to follow the intended parents’ wishes in cases of fetal abnormality or multiple embryos, sometimes including abortion or “selective reduction.”

No surrogate can literally be forced to undergo an abortion. But in practice, the pressure can be significant. Refusing such a request may mean breaching the contract, losing compensation, facing legal action, or being drawn into prolonged custody disputes. In some documented cases, payments have been withheld or additional financial incentives offered to encourage compliance.

This creates a troubling dynamic: While the surrogate retains formal bodily autonomy, the structure of the agreement can place her under intense legal and financial pressure at precisely the moment a moral decision arises. The child, meanwhile, is treated less as a person with inherent claims and more as the subject of a negotiated outcome.

That tension — between autonomy in theory and pressure in practice — is one of the least examined ethical problems in modern surrogacy.

The silence is hardly surprising. Commercial surrogacy is a booming global industry. By 2032, the market is projected to exceed $120 billion.

Nonetheless, countries including France and Germany have summoned the political will to prohibit or heavily restrict surrogacy. The United States should follow suit. If we are serious about protecting children, we cannot allow a system that commodifies them before they are even born.

RELATED: Surrogacy ‘trafficking’? Unmarried Chinese couple in the US accused of massive baby scam — 21 kids placed in foster care

Blaze Media Illustration

3. Establish children’s legal right to a mother and father

Both the weakening of marriage and the rise of surrogacy can ultimately be traced to the same development: the tendency to prioritize adult desires over children’s needs.

As Katy Faust, founder and president of children’s advocacy group Them Before Us, points out, the “adult practicality” promised by gay marriage comes at the expense of children: “When marriage makes husbands and wives legally optional, mothers and fathers become legally optional, too.”

We all know intuitively that children have a right to be raised by their biological mother and father whenever possible. We must now codify this right into law, reshaping adoption and reproductive policy to favor the child, not the adults seeking a child.

This means we should prioritize placement with married mother-father households in adoption and foster care, ending policies that intentionally create motherless or fatherless homes — and risk reducing children to lifestyle accessories or status symbols We should require courts to consider long-term child outcomes, not just adult eligibility.

Unique roles

My heart broke watching the young boy in McAnally’s video cry out for his mother, someone he will likely never know. As a mother to both a toddler boy and a baby girl, I see firsthand the beautiful and distinct ways my husband and I meet different needs in our children’s lives. It’s easy to say, in theory, that kids need a mom and a dad. But it’s entirely different to witness, day in and day out, how deeply they rely on both of us in unique ways.

There are moments when my children come to me for comfort, gentleness, and reassurance, things that come entirely naturally to me. And there are other moments when they look to their father for strength, play, challenge, and a different kind of guidance that only he can provide.

Neither role is interchangeable. Both are essential. How many more children must suffer before we restore mothers and fathers as the foundation of family life?

​Adoption policy, Lifestyle, Gay adoption, Surrogacy, Obergefell v. hodges, Gay marriage, Shane mcanally, Defending the family 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) remain neck and neck in the Republican Senate runoff despite a massive spending disparity between the two campaigns.

Cornyn’s incumbent advantage is further boosted by the $8 million his campaign ended with in the first quarter compared to Paxton’s $2.6 million cash on hand. Despite Cornyn’s financial advantage, Paxton has maintained his lead over the sitting senator.

Talarico also boasts a major spending advantage over both Republican candidates.

Polling still gives Paxton a slight edge.

As of this writing, Paxton is averaging a 3.4-point lead over Cornyn, according to RealClearPolling. A recent poll from nonpartisan Texas Public Opinion Research even put Paxton at an eight-point lead over Cornyn just weeks from the GOP runoff on May 26.

Although the candidates remain within striking distance of each other, President Donald Trump has notably refrained from endorsing either Paxton or Cornyn.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett claims voters were ‘disenfranchised’ following crushing defeat in key Texas primary

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Although Paxton appears to be more popular with the Republican base, Cornyn polls better against the Democrat nominee, James Talarico. According to polling averages calculated by 270 to Win, Paxton polls just one percentage point ahead of Talarico, while Cornyn leads by two percentage points.

Talarico, who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democrat primary, also boasts a major spending advantage over both Republican candidates. Last quarter, Talarico raised $27 million and ended with just under $10 million in the bank.

The runoff will be held on May 26, and whoever wins the Republican nominee will face off against Talarico on November 3.

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​Donald trump, Ken paxton, John cornyn, James talarico, Texas primary, Texas senate race, Jasmine crockett, 2026 primaries, Politics