Category: blaze media

Stephen A. Smith has distanced himself from Shannon Sharpe after Sharpe was hit with a $50 million lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault, battery, and emotional abuse.

Smart move on Smith’s part, says Jason Whitlock.

“Stephen A. Smith is a little bit scared. This is a bad look for him, and Stephen A. Smith has already admitted he went to Diddy parties, and Stephen A. Smith is probably cutting checks,” he says.

In a recent video, Smith responded to the allegations against Sharpe with the following:

“I also spoke to co-chairman of Disney — the boss, Jimmy Pitaro — who made it very, very clear we are taking this matter very seriously, and we are looking into this very, very closely, and once we gather as many facts as we possibly can, we will go from there. And that is all he said, and I can mention his name because I received his permission to say that. I don’t know what that means.”

Jason says Smith knows exactly what it means, which is why he’s “backpedaling.”

“A doo-doo storm is about to erupt and sweep Shannon Sharpe out,” he says, adding that he’s been looped in by certain journalists about “little leaks and other stories” that are coming down the pipeline.

“I think Stephen A. Smith knows what’s about to happen, and now he’s in full rear end kiss mode,” Jason predicts.

Not only does he think Smith is pandering to the boss, but he also thinks he might actually be happy about the lawsuit.

“Sharpe was building a YouTube channel and a career that was going to surpass Stephen A. Smith,” says Jason. “Smith wants to be a late-night talk show host. Shannon Sharpe was positioning himself to be a late-night talk show host. He’s more talented than Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A. Smith is very happy with what’s happening to Shannon Sharpe.”

That’s why he didn’t believe Smith when, in the same video, he expressed his hopes for Sharpe’s exoneration.

“In my perfect world, this equates to Jay-Z, where the case is ultimately dropped, and Shannon is allowed to continue on ‘First Take’ and continue to thrive and shine. … In my perfect world, he moves on and somehow, some way, we find this all to be false,” Smith said, adding, “But it doesn’t seem like that’s the way things are about to go down, considering who Mr. Buzbee is.”

“Stephen A. has let it slip that unless these charges are dropped, ain’t no more Shannon Sharpe on ‘First Take.’ That’s how I heard that,” says Jason.

To hear more of his analysis, watch the clip above.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, 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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The Trump administration is working to eliminate the monetary incentive for foreign nationals to steal into the country and to pressure noncitizens presently exploiting citizen supports to wean off or get packing.

Pursuant to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now taking steps to ensure that illegal aliens cannot get their hands on food stamps.

“President Trump has made it clear that American taxpayers will no longer subsidize illegal aliens,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a Thursday statement.

“We are stewards of taxpayer dollars, and it is our duty to ensure states confirm the identity and verify the immigration status of SNAP applicants,” continued Rollins. “USDA’s nutrition programs are intended to support the most vulnerable Americans. To allow those who broke our laws by entering the United States illegally to receive these benefits is outrageous.”

The USDA issued guidance on Thursday to state SNAP agencies nationwide setting out the minimum expectations for eligibility verification to prevent “ineligible aliens” from participating in the program.

Only American citizens and certain lawfully present noncitizens, including individuals granted asylum, are eligible for SNAP benefits. However, the U.S Government Accountability Office noted in a September 2024 report that an estimated 11.7% or $10.5 billion of SNAP benefits paid out by the USDA in fiscal year 2023 “were the wrong amount or otherwise should not have been made.”

The report indicated that “states made improper payments related to SNAP mainly because they did not verify recipients’ eligibility for program benefits.” States apparently often failed to verify whether recipients were citizens or lawfully present noncitizens.

The Center for Immigration Studies revealed in a December 2023 report that 48% of “illegal-headed households” used food welfare programs.

‘Taxpayer-funded benefits should be only for eligible taxpayers.’

As of 2022, American taxpayers were on the hook for at least $182 billion annually to provide services and benefits to illegal aliens and their dependents, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The new USDA guidance requires state agencies to:

verify the identity of the applicant, ideally before confirming their immigration status; collect and verify Social Security numbers for all household members applying for SNAP benefits; compare SSNs to the Social Security Agency’s Death Master File database and ensure the SSN belongs to the applicant; andcheck alien applications against the Department of Homeland Security Systematic Alien Verification System for Entitlements — which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem advised governors last week is now available to states for free — to ensure eligibility.

The guidance provided other recommendations and advised state agencies that the Food and Nutrition Service “will assess the effectiveness of identity and immigration status verification practices in regular management evaluations for program compliance.”

The USDA issued the new guidance just a week after Trump issued a memo directing his administration to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving taxpayer funds from Social Security Act programs, including Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Blaze News previously reported that the memo directed the Social Security Administration to expand its fraud prosecutor programs, investigate earning reports of individuals supposedly 100 years or older with mismatched records, consider reinstating its civil monetary penalty program, and reinforce program integrity measures so only eligible foreign nationals can receive benefits.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on April 15, “These taxpayer-funded benefits should be only for eligible taxpayers.”

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​Ebt, Food stamps, Snap, Supplemental nutrition assistance program, Usda, U.s. department of agriculture, Identity theft, Illegal aliens, Immigration, Non-citizen, Benefits, Welfare, Illegal alien, Politics 

A former judge in New Mexico and his wife were taken into custody Thursday night in connection with a suspected Tren de Aragua gangster who had apparently been living at their residence.

In fact, three young male illegal aliens from Venezuela had apparently been living in the casita behind the Las Cruces home shared by Nancy and Jose “Joel” Cano. All three Venezuelans, including 23-year-old Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, have been described by federal agents as well-known members of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

On February 28, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a search warrant on the Canos’ home in connection with the suspected gangsters, who were all arrested. Three days later Joel Cano, a former cop, announced his resignation as magistrate judge in Doña Ana County, an elected position he first won in 2010 as a Democrat, Blaze News previously reported.

‘There is no way in the world that I would have allowed my grandkids to have any contact with the boys if I had sensed danger.’

The New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission soon opened an investigation into Cano for possible “willful misconduct,” and Cano submitted a 23-page letter responding to the allegations. In the letter, Cano repeatedly referred to the suspected gang members as “the boys” and denied having any idea that they could be bad news.

“Let me be as crystal clear as possible,” he wrote, according to KOAT. “The very first time I ever heard that the boys could possibly have any association with Tren de Aragua was when I was informed of that by [the] agents on the day of the raid.”

Cano further insisted that if he had known, he would never have allowed “the boys” to interact with his grandchildren: “I have three grandkids that I love dearly. … There is no way in the world that I would have allowed my grandkids to have any contact with the boys if I had sensed danger.”

Cano also claimed that official documents indicated that “the boys” were not at risk of deportation. He said he repeatedly saw “this person is not subject to removal” noted on their forms and that they had asylum hearings scheduled.

Finally, the ex-judge denied other accusations related to photo and video evidence revealing that on at least one occasion, the Canos and the alleged gangbangers took a trip to the local gun range. “I did not take a single firearm to the range. I took no ammunition to the range either. [My wife] and I went only as spectators,” Cano claimed.

Nancy Cano’s daughter, April Cano, has been accused of allowing Ortega-Lopez “to hold and sometimes shoot various firearms” she owns. Prosecutors reportedly submitted photo and video evidence of Ortega-Lopez holding her weapons. Ortega-Lopez’s TDA-related tattoos are likewise allegedly visible in the photos and video.

According to reports, Nancy Cano first met Ortega-Lopez when he was living in El Paso, working construction and other odd jobs after he was released from an immigration detention facility in South Laredo because of overcrowding in December 2023. Ortega-Lopez reportedly told agents that Mrs. Cano invited him and his friends to move into the guest home on her property in Las Cruces after they had done some work for the couple.

‘Initially we came back here to arrest his wife, and as we started obviously conducting our interviews and started looking at evidence, we subsequently arrested Mr. Cano as well.’

Ortega-Lopez currently sits in the Doña Ana County Detention Center without bond, facing charges related to illegal border crossing and federal weapons violations.

And now, he and the Canos are together again. Mr. and Mrs. Cano are both likewise locked up at the Doña Ana County Detention Center without bond, facing charges of tampering with evidence, jail records show.

Jason Stevens, the Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge of the El Paso office, gave further insights into their apprehension. “Initially we came back here to arrest his wife, and as we started obviously conducting our interviews and started looking at evidence, we subsequently arrested Mr. Cano as well,” he said, according to Newsweek.

John Fabbricatore, former ICE field office director, spoke for many when told a local news outlet: “To see that a judge would allow this to happen, it’s very concerning. It’s concerning. What else has the judge been doing?”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded to the news of the Canos’ arrest on social media:

Under President Trump, we have arrested over 150,000 aliens — including more than 600 members of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang.

If you are here illegally and break the law, we will hunt you down, arrest you, and lock you up.

That’s a promise.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has permanently barred Joel Cano from ever serving on the bench again.

The Canos did not respond to a request for comment from KOAT, which presumably reached out to the couple prior to their arrest.

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​Joel cano, Cano, Cristhian ortega-lopez, Tren de aragua, Tda, Doña ana county, Ice, Raid, Weapons, Venezuela, Illegal alien, Illegal immigrant, Politics 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation replaced federal prosecutors who leaked damaging information regarding the administration’s plan to terminate New York City’s congestion toll.

On Wednesday evening, the Department of Justice lawyers accidentally — they claimed — filed in federal court a confidential memo that undermined the administration’s case.

‘It’s sad to see a premier legal organization continue to fall into such disgrace.’

The 11-page letter, dated April 11, was written by the lawyers and addressed to Sean Duffy, informing the DOT secretary that they believed their case was “exceedingly likely” to fail.

“We have been unable to identify a compelling legal argument to support this position,” they wrote.

The prosecutors recommended Duffy form a stronger argument against the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s DOT in February for attempting to put a stop to the congestion toll.

“As discussed below, there is considerable litigation risk in defending the Secretary’s February 19, 2025 decision against plaintiffs’ claims under the Administrative Procedure Act, that the decision was contrary to law, pretextual, procedurally arbitrary and capricious, and violated due process,” the attorneys told Duffy.

The prosecutors suggested that Duffy use Office of Management and Budget regulations to argue the congestion toll should be terminated “as a matter of changed agency priorities.” They also stated that the administration could claim that the pricing was based on MTA’s funding level needs and not a goal to reduce traffic.

However, the lawyers concluded that both of these arguments were unlikely to convince the court.

Nicholas Biase, a Southern District of New York spokesperson, stated that the filing of the confidential memo “was a completely honest error and was not intentional in any way.”

Yet, the DOT questioned whether the leak was deliberate.

Halee Dobbins, a DOT spokesperson, stated, “Are SDNY lawyers on this case incompetent or was this their attempt to RESIST? At the very least, it’s legal malpractice.”

“It’s sad to see a premier legal organization continue to fall into such disgrace,” she said. “SDNY’s memo doesn’t represent reality. [New York Governor] Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing war against the working class was hastily approved by the Biden Administration after Donald Trump was elected.”

“Taxpayers already financed the highways that Hochul is now shutting down to the driving public and there is no free alternative. This is unprecedented and illegal. If New York doesn’t shut it down, the Department of Transportation is considering halting projects and funding for the state,” Dobbins added.

The DOT replaced the attorneys with others in the DOJ’s Civil Division.

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​News, Donald trump, Trump, Department of transportation, Dot, New york city, New york, Kathy hochul, Congestion toll, Sean duffy, Department of justice, Doj, Southern district of new york, Sdny, Politics 

There is a battle under way over the ownership and identity of the iconic ice cream brand Ben and Jerry’s — and its radical leftist founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, appear to be losing badly.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal indicated that Cohen was trying to gather investors to buy back the brand that he and Greenfield sold to Unilever 25 years ago.

This buyback initiative came just weeks after Unilever removed the company’s anti-Trump CEO Dave Stever, allegedly on account of his commitment to Ben and Jerry’s leftist activism and despite a letter of support from Cohen and Greenfield; after years of clashes over how the ice cream company communicates its politics; and amid Unilever’s preparations to spin off its ice cream assets.

“In the year 2000, Unilever loved us for who we were,” Cohen told the Journal. “Now we’ve gone separate ways in our relationship. We just need them to set us free.”

Unilever crushed Cohen’s dream this week, indicating that Ben and Jerry’s is “not for sale,” reported Bloomberg.

“The separation and listing of ice cream is the option that we consider maximizes shareholder value; that has not changed,” Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez said on a media call.

As of July 1, Unilever ice cream will reportedly become the Magnum Ice Cream Company and be listed in the Netherlands as a separate entity.

After tolerating decades of radioactive politics, Unilever appears keen to decontaminate Ben and Jerry’s.

‘Many states found Unilever to be in violation of their anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions laws.’

The ice cream company has long appeared less focused on selling its sugary dessert and more focused on selling a woke political worldview. For instance, under its previous radical leadership, the company:

told Americans celebrating the Fourth of July that “it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it”;
called for the defunding of police;
opposed legislation banning men from women’s sports, preventing teachers from grooming students behind parents’ backs, keeping boys out of girls’ locker rooms, and protecting children from drag shows;
issued misleading commentary about Kyle Rittenhouse;
bemoaned the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and advocated for looser abortion laws;
took hard anti-Israel stances;
rolled out “Pecan Resist” in 2018 — a flavor that the company said “supports groups creating a more just and equitable nation for us all, and who are fighting President Trump’s regressive agenda”; and
promoted Democratic candidates in concert with the leftist organizing outfit MoveOn Civic Action.

Ben and Jerry’s still appears to be a sugary leftist front, complaining about “white people occupy[ing] a disproportionate number of positions of power in our society,” championing non-straight activism, pushing climate alarmism, creating a coconut-flavored Kamala Harris ice cream, and pouring boatloads of money into radical causes. However, Unilever has apparently begun to suffer the effects of the ice cream company’s activism.

Unilever noted in a March legal filing that as a result of the 2021 decision by Ben and Jerry’s to halt sales of its ice cream in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, “many states found Unilever to be in violation of their anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions laws leading to multiple lawsuits in the United States and Israel, accusations of antisemitism, severe sanctions, and the divestment of hundreds of millions of dollars in Unilever’s stock.”

Unilever subsequently sold the company’s ice cream business in Israel to its Israeli distributor, ensuring continued sales throughout the Jewish state.

‘Business is the most powerful force in our society.’

The Journal noted that this resulted in a lawsuit as well as Unilever’s assertion that after two decades of supporting the brand’s activism, the advocacy by Ben and Jerry’s for “one-sided, highly controversial, and polarizing topics” put it, the ice cream company, and their employees at risk.

Two years after the first lawsuit, Ben and Jerry’s sued Unilever again in November, alleging its parent company tried to suppress the ice cream company’s efforts to publicly support Palestinians and criticize Israel’s war on Hamas terrorists.

“Ben & Jerry’s is a company with a soul,” Cohen told the Journal. “Business is the most powerful force in our society, and for that, it has responsibility to the society.”

With the legal battle still ongoing, Unilever — perhaps recognizing that businesses actually just have a responsibility to their shareholders — recently threatened to pull funding from the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, reported Reuters.

Sources said to be familiar with the matter told Reuters that Unilever has conditioned continued funding — roughly $5 million a year — on the foundation agreeing to an expedited audit of its donations.

The foundation said in a statement Tuesday, “Unilever has funded the work of the foundation as a social justice organization throughout the years since the merger without any issues being raised. We are hopeful we will have the same cooperative relationship with the Magnum Ice Cream Company, the new spin-off company for Unilever’s ice cream business.”

The foundation added, “We have reached out to Unilever for clarification of news reports about the Foundation’s ongoing financial support.”

Fernandez said of the proposed foundation audit, “We have not made any threat,” reported Bloomberg.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that these funds are used properly,” said the Unilever CEO. “It has to be allocated to areas or institutions that are absolutely in line with the ones that are part of the acquisition agreement.”

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​Business, Unilever, Icecream, Ice cream, Magnum ice cream company, Ben & jerry’s, Ben and jerrys, Ben cohen, Jerry greenfield, Politics 

A video has surfaced apparently showing a Georgia high school student punching a teacher in the face, and the angry teacher fighting back — after which a brawl ensues.

WXIA-TV reported that the DeKalb County School District is addressing the video that was recorded Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, which is in Lithonia — about 20 minutes southeast of Atlanta.

The teacher in question is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, the station noted.

What took place prior to the on-camera violence isn’t clear, but the video begins with a male wearing a dark hoodie running up to a man wearing a jacket and tie by a classroom door — presumably the teacher — and punching him in the face. As you might expect, onlookers in the hallway let out an approving holler in unison.

A security guard who’s right next to the teacher puts the attacker in a bear hug and attempts to move him away, but the angry teacher hits his attacker with a punch of his own, which the crowd doesn’t like one bit.

With that, two other males — one wearing a gray hoodie and the other wearing a white hoodie — go after the teacher and knock him to the floor. By this point, the frenzied students are behaving as if they’re watching a UFC match.

The teacher gets up again, and there’s a little bit of pushing and shoving, but that’s where the 45-second clip ends. You can view it here.

What does the school district have to say?

The district said in a statement that several students reportedly initiated the physical fight with the teacher, WXIA reported, adding that three students are charged with battery and disrupting public school.

The teacher in question is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, the station noted.

“The DeKalb County School District is firmly committed to maintaining learning environments free from violent behavior and will not tolerate physical altercations in our schools,” a spokesperson for the school district told WXIA.

You can view a video report here regarding the incident.

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​Georgia, Dekalb county, Dekalb county school district, Martin luther king jr. high school, Students physically attack teacher, Teacher fights students, Video, Students charged with battery, Investigation, Teacher on administrative leave, Violence in schools, Crime 

Marcy Rheintgen is a transgender Florida student who was arrested and jailed for using the women’s bathroom under Florida’s anti-trans bathroom law.

The week before the arrest, Rheintgen sent around 160 letters to Florida lawmakers telling them it was his intention to use the restroom he was arrested in, in protest of the Facility Requirements Based on Sex Act.

When he arrived on the campus, two police officers met him outside the bathroom and warned him not to enter. When he did anyway, he was arrested.

“So you told them you were going to do this. It was one hundred percent a stunt, which I’m all about political stunts; I like this. And yet they still arrested you,” Alex Stein of “Prime Time with Alex Stein” says to Rheintgen.

“They trespassed me and then they arrested me, because they were like, ‘You got to be good, you got to not use the women’s bathroom in here again, you got to promise,’ and I’m like, ‘Who knows, maybe I will use the women’s bathroom’ and I was kind of a little bit sassy about it,” Rheintgen tells Stein.

“I applaud you for getting arrested,” Stein responds. “Obviously, you’re down for the cause. But isn’t this kind of stupid in the grand scheme of things?”

“I think the law is stupid that I went to jail for this. I’m protesting the punishment. You know, I spent a night in like a sticky, disgusting, scary prison with all these like MS-13 people,” Rheintgen says.

While Rheintgen is very pleased with himself for standing up for transgender rights, Stein can’t understand why he wants to be a woman in the first place.

“Why be a girl, Marcy? You’re in good shape, you seem like you’re smart, you’re politically active, you’re religious, why are you taking up this fight for the transgender community?” Stein asks.

“Well, I have always had dysphoria since I was like 6, and this is my only effective way of treating it. I was a very handsome guy, and now I’ll be a very pretty girl,” Rheintgen says. “Some people say it’s a mental illness, and they might be right, honestly.”

“You wouldn’t tell an anorexic person to continue to not eat right. I mean, wouldn’t you say that what you’re going through is a mental health issue?” Stein asks, adding, “I have mental health issues; I’m not perfect. I’m not coming here to be Mr. Judgemental. I’m not Dr. Phil.”

“It is a mental health issue, and you wouldn’t, in that application, you wouldn’t tell the person with an eating disorder to continue to not eat,” he adds.

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​Upload, Free, Video phone, Camera phone, Video, Sharing, Youtube.com, Prime time with alex stein, Prime time alex stein, Alex stein, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Marcy rheitgen, Trans bathroom bill, Anti trans bathroom bill, Florida trans laws, Transgender agenda, Lgbtqia agenda 

Ron Vitiello, a longtime immigration enforcement official, reflected on the significant failures that took place under former President Joe Biden’s administration during an exclusive interview with Blaze News senior politics editor Christopher Bedford on Thursday.

Vitiello has spent decades dedicated to protecting America’s borders, most recently serving as acting director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Donald Trump’s first term and now as a senior adviser to Customs and Border Protection during his second term. Witnessing the contrast in immigration policy across different administrations, Vitiello tells Bedford that having Trump back in office after Biden is like night and day.

“It’s clear that during the Biden administration, uncontrolled border was their goal, right?” Vitiello told Bedford. “We had an invasion unlike we’ve seen before.”

‘Alejandro Mayorkas, as the secretary, watched what happened under the Trump administration, takes over as the secretary, and tears down all the things that were working for the previous four years. So they knew exactly what they were doing.’

“If you just used government numbers, and I know we’re all a little bit skeptical of those numbers, but using Biden’s own published numbers in public, 11 million encounters by CBP at the immediate border during the four years of the Biden administration,” Vitiello added. “That doesn’t count the number of people they abused the parole system to fly into the United States, which weren’t seen by law enforcement agents at the line where people would be responsible for vetting them and making sure they weren’t a threat to public safety.”

Another weak point for the Biden administration was the influx of migrant “gotaways,” which are illegal aliens who are never apprehended or deported after entering the country. Vitiello said that the increase in these migrant “gotaways” was the Biden-era exploitation of the CBP One app, which aided illegal immigration. Now under Trump’s leadership, the DHS introduced the CBP Home app, which instead helps illegal aliens to self-deport.

The bottom line, Vitiello points out, is that the Biden administration and the agencies he led were actively and knowingly facilitating illegal immigration.

“The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, was the previous deputy secretary under the Obama administration when Joe Biden was the vice president,” Vitiello said. “And during the 2014 surge when I was still a government employee, we made recommendations to the Homeland Security office of the secretary and the deputy secretary on how to fix the surge that was going on in 2014.”

“They put those recommendations that we gave — myself, Tom Homan, and others — they took those recommendations and put them in place to reduce the number of people that were coming across the border illegally,” Vitiello added. “Those steps worked, and we had better outcomes. Other things happened since, but they knew how to fix it, and Alejandro Mayorkas, as the secretary, watched what happened under the Trump administration, takes over as the secretary, and tears down all the things that were working for the previous four years. So they knew exactly what they were doing.”

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​Dhs, Cbp, Ice, Immigration, Border, Border crisis, Illegal immigration, Joe biden, Donald trump, Barack obama, Alejandro mayorías, Kristi noem, Trump administration, Biden administration, Ron vitiello, Chris bedford, Mass deportations, Politics 

The Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk have kicked up a storm of commentary and speculation. Pair that uproar with the Trump administration’s plan to slash IRS staffing, and you get some of the most hysterical responses yet to the Trump/DOGE reforms.

Only in government does talk of doing more with less — of improving efficiency and productivity — trigger panic and outrage. In Washington, D.C., progress becomes a threat, not a goal.

Instead of whining about the DOGE’s proposed staffing cuts, politicians and pundits should demand the IRS do its actual job more efficiently. That requires systemic reform, not partisan noise.

According to multiple reports, the Trump administration plans to cut around 18,000 IRS jobs by mid-May — a 20% reduction in force expected to save taxpayers $1.4 billion in payroll and benefits next year. Of those cuts, 6,800 already came from terminated probationary employees. Another 4,700 took early retirement.

Critics didn’t wait for results. They declared it “historic,” “unprecedented,” and a sign of doom. The sun, they warned, might never rise again.

But we’ve seen this before. The world didn’t end. In fact, almost nothing changed at all.

In 2011, the IRS reported 94,709 full-time equivalent employees. By 2017 — after five years under the Obama administration — that number had dropped by more than 23%, to 72,803. The sun still rose. The sky didn’t fall.

Despite the staffing cuts, the IRS’ key performance metric — the voluntary compliance rate — barely budged. For decades, the VCR has served as the agency’s primary benchmark. It measures the percentage of taxes paid voluntarily and on time, compared to the total amount owed.

Commonly known as the “tax gap,” the VCR draws bipartisan attention. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle treat closing the gap as a fiscal priority — more compliance means more cash to spend.

Yet, through two decades of staffing shifts and budget battles, the VCR has remained remarkably stable — hovering around 84%, give or take a fraction.

Yes, adding more IRS agents might improve compliance on the margins. But staffing alone doesn’t guarantee better outcomes. What matters is how the agency sets its priorities and manages its workforce to deliver results that actually benefit taxpayers.

In 2012, the Government Accountability Office reviewed how the IRS could improve enforcement and shrink the tax gap. The GAO’s conclusion: The problem wasn’t a lack of staff. The IRS could significantly boost revenue simply by better targeting its enforcement resources.

That’s exactly what the DOGE is about: smarter management, better systems, and measurable results. The private sector achieves this through the pressure of competition. In government, such efficiency is about as rare as a unicorn.

Like every other agency the DOGE has examined, the IRS drifted from its core mission: collecting revenue and enforcing tax law. Instead of focusing on enforcement, the agency expanded into mission creep.

Trump plans to shut down the IRS Office of Civil Rights and Compliance — and for good reason. These bloated bureaucracies have become one of the most redundant features of Washington. The only thing more common than a civil rights office is a federally funded jobs training program.

And like rabbits, they just keep multiplying.

Then there is the Biden administration’s favorite: diversity, equity, and inclusion. Trump has rightly proposed shutting down DEI offices across the federal government. Hiring $200,000-a-year “senior diversity and inclusion specialists” at the IRS won’t close the tax gap — not by a long shot.

In the high-tech 21st century, the IRS still struggles with basic technology.

Just weeks ago, the Treasury Department’s inspector general released a report on the IRS’ Direct File pilot program. The IRS launched the program to help taxpayers file returns from February to April 2024 — and it flopped.

Despite existing free filing options from both the private sector and the IRS, Direct File was pushed forward as one of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) latest policy “experiments.” According to the inspector general, the project cost taxpayers at least $33.4 million — far more than initially disclosed.

The results were underwhelming. Only 140,803 of the 423,450 people who created Direct File accounts — just 33% — successfully submitted returns. Many of those who did lost out. The report noted that Direct File didn’t even allow eligible filers to claim their education tax credits. That’s not a minor oversight — it’s a costly failure and needs to go. Trump last week indicated he will end the program.

In just four years, Joe Biden added more than 20,000 full-time employees to the IRS. Did anyone notice the agency working better? Didn’t think so.

Instead of whining about the DOGE’s proposed staffing cuts, politicians and pundits should demand the IRS do its actual job — collect revenue and enforce the law — more efficiently. That requires systemic reform, not partisan noise.

The Trump administration gets it. It’s time the rest of Washington caught up.

​Irs, Joe biden, Donald trump, Doge, Job cuts, Efficiency, Direct file, Taxes, Voluntary compliance, Big government, Administrative state, Taxpayers, Government waste, Diversity equity and inclusion, Elizabeth warren, Elon musk, Opinion & analysis 

“Narcissism” is a word that gets thrown around a lot. Usually by leftists trying to be morally righteous. “Did you hear about Elon Musk? He’s such a narcissist,” said the narcissist.

We should the consider the possibility that we rejected this harshly utilitarian view of children for another extreme.

But if we’re actually being serious about the clinical term known as “narcissism,” then the obvious answer is that we’re all narcissists. Narcissism is something every human being is born with. In biblical terms, it’s simply our natural fallen state.

If you can’t admit to yourself that you’re a narcissist, then you’re just in denial. It’s natural for us to be self-absorbed and even inconsiderate of others. We’re born sinners. To admit it truly is the first step to overcoming it.

Mini adults

A bigger problem is that narcissism has become the foundation of our culture. Why is that? In college I took a class called “Media and Children,” which explored how art has shaped and developed humanity’s perception of itself and how that perception gets redirected back in the way society operates.

A large part of the class dealt with the rise of Madonna and Child imagery in medieval and early Renaissance times. Prior to this, representations of children occurred mainly in paintings depicting peasants toiling in the fields. These images offer little differentiation between adults and children; the latter are simply smaller versions of the other workers.

This wasn’t just an artistic decision. It reflected how children were perceived in society: as laborers in training, future functionaries, or simply smaller humans not yet fully formed. There was no concept of “childhood” as a sacred, protected phase.

Divine reverence

The Madonna and Child changed this. The image of Mary and Jesus created a deeply emotional, almost divine reverence for both motherhood and childhood. Over time, this helped usher in a more sentimental, inward-facing culture: less about community utility and more about the sanctity of the individual.

The Madonna and Child shifted society’s focus from selfless and communal rural organization to an inward focus on individualism. The mother and child dyad began to be seen as a separate, almost holy entity, one that had to be protected, cherished, and nurtured.

We built entire systems around this idea. The standardized graded schooling system actually sprang out of this mode of thinking, as children were seen as too innocent to be given “forbidden” adult knowledge all at once, so it needed to be spoon-fed in gradual waves, lest the child be corrupted. No longer an apprentice or a tool in the economic machinery, the child needed to be eased into reality, slowly and carefully.

Born narcissists

This isn’t to say the earlier model of tossing kids into the fields at age five was ideal. But we should the consider the possibility that we rejected this harshly utilitarian view of children for another extreme: the child as a morally pure, emotionally fragile being whose wants and needs should take precedence at all times.

This, I think, is where narcissism crept in. As I said before, all humans are born narcissists. Just look at any baby or toddler. They act on base instinct. They cry when they’re uncomfortable, reach for whatever satisfies them, and have no concept of the needs or feelings of others. It’s not until a parent is there to correct their behavior and teach them the concepts of altruism and the consideration of others that the child learns to be less selfish.

But what happens when a culture turns that natural narcissism into a virtue? When mothers are encouraged to reinforce it instead of correct it? When children grow up being told they are special, sacred, and central to everything? You get a society that caters to emotion before reason. A culture where the self is the most important thing, where discomfort is oppression and challenge is violence.

Out of the picture

Liberalism, in this light, isn’t just a political theory. It’s an emotional framework built around the sacredness of the individual. And that framework, I would argue, finds its roots in the religious and cultural iconography of the Madonna and Child.

Notice who is missing from these “family pictures”: the father. In the archetypal Madonna and Child image, Joseph, if present at all, remains in the background. He’s often off to the side, passive, irrelevant. He’s eternally stuck in the old world, still out in the fields, still laboring, still part of that feudal model that we’ve supposedly “evolved” beyond.

The image of the father gets erased from the central narrative, and that erasure eventually spills out into real life. The father becomes secondary. The mother becomes the entire emotional and moral universe of the child. And from there, society slowly restructures itself around this new holy dyad: mother and child at the center, everything else in orbit.

Liberal democracy didn’t just evolve from Enlightenment rationalism and the French Revolution. It was primed much earlier by this cultural shift toward the sacralization of the individual mother and child.

And it’s not that we went from bad to good, or good to bad. We simply shifted. From a collectivist, utilitarian (and dare I say, monarchical) model to one that centers emotional connection and personal uniqueness. The problem is that when you start to worship the individual (especially the unformed, undisciplined, and coddled individual), you risk institutionalizing narcissism. And now we’re living with the consequences.

​Art, Art history, Madonna and child, Liberalism, Christianity, Narcissism, Culture 

U.S. civil-military relations rest on a fundamental contradiction. The United States operates as a liberal society — one designed to protect individual rights and liberty. Yet the military, which defends that society, cannot function under the same liberal principles.

To succeed, the military must maintain effectiveness, which demands a distinct and separate ethos. Liberal norms do not translate to battlefield realities.

Trust and cohesion — core elements of military success — cannot survive a system that prioritizes categories over character.

Civil society may tolerate — or even celebrate — behaviors the military must prohibit. The armed forces uphold virtues many civilians regard as harsh or barbaric, but those values serve a purpose. The military remains one of the few professions where issuing a direct order to “go die” is not only possible but sometimes necessary.

Transmutation ‘on steroids’

In his classic 1957 study, “The Soldier and the State,” Samuel Huntington defined a central tension in American civil-military relations: the clash between the military’s functional imperative — to fight and win wars — and the social imperative, the prevailing ideologies and institutions of civilian society.

Huntington broke down the societal imperative into two main components. First, the U.S. constitutional framework that governs politics and military oversight. Second, the dominant political ideology, which he called liberalism — “the gravest domestic threat to American military security” because of its deep anti-military bias.

Huntington warned that over time, the societal imperative would eclipse the functional one. Civilian ideology, not military necessity, would shape the armed forces, weakening the virtues essential for combat effectiveness.

He also identified two outcomes of this liberal pressure. In peacetime, liberalism pushed for “extirpation” — shrinking or abolishing military power altogether. In times of danger, it favored “transmutation” — reshaping the military in its own image by erasing the traits that make it distinctly martial.

Today, the ideology of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has taken that process to an extreme. This isn’t just transmutation. It’s transmutation on steroids.

Identity politics destroys unity

The military began its embrace of DEI during Barack Obama’s administration, following the 2011 report “From Representation to Inclusion: Diversity Leadership for the 21st Century” by the Military Leadership Diversity Commission. That report shifted military priorities away from the functional imperative — effectiveness rooted in merit, performance, and mission — toward the societal imperative, with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” elevated as the new ideal.

In practice, the Department of Defense replaced equal opportunity with “equity,” enforcing outcome-based preferences that favor certain demographic groups over others. Military leaders declared “diversity a strategic goal,” sidelining effectiveness as the primary objective.

This shift has fractured the ranks. By treating race and sex as markers of justice instead of emphasizing individual excellence, DEI pushes identity politics into the chain of command. That approach divides more than it unites. Trust and cohesion — core elements of military success — cannot survive a system that prioritizes categories over character.

The military depends on unity to function. DEI erodes that unity. As a governing ethos, it has proven deeply destructive — undermining the very effectiveness the armed forces exist to deliver.

The rise of DEI has created a generation of senior officers who place ideological conformity above military effectiveness. Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley spoke openly about “white rage” and promoted critical race theory. His successor, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, and former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti followed the same script — championing diversity for its own sake while sidelining readiness and merit.

Restoring the mission

The Trump administration aims to reverse course and re-establish the military’s functional imperative as its central mission. It has issued executive orders with three clear goals: restore meritocracy and nondiscrimination in place of equity quotas; define sex in commonsense terms and respect biological differences; and eliminate divisive programs rooted in critical race theory.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth now carries the mandate to restore the military’s traditional ethos — and put war fighting, not social engineering, back at the heart of military policy.

Standing in opposition to a president elected to root out DEI from the military is a generation of flag and general officers molded by an era of “woke” liberalism. These leaders embraced the demand that the military mirror the politics and ideologies of civil society. Many now cling to the dangerous fiction that the military can remain professional and effective while operating under the dictates of identity politics.

Officers once defended the military’s traditional ethos against efforts to civilianize the chain of command. Today, many senior leaders treat DEI as essential to military identity — and believe they can ignore the lawful orders of the commander in chief. That isn’t leadership. It’s insubordination, plain and simple.

The Trump administration has made clear its intent: restore a professional, apolitical military ethos and rebuild public trust in an institution weakened by a decade of ideological drift. This return to principle marks the path toward healthier civil-military relations — where the armed forces serve their proper purpose: protecting and defending the United States.

​Opinion & analysis, Pentagon, Diversity equity inclusion, Military readiness, Pete hegseth, Donald trump, Mark milley, White rage, Critical race theory, Political correctness, Transgender agenda, Samuel huntington, Civil-military relations, Anti-military, National security, China, Dei, Woke military 

Democrats and others on the left melted down on Thursday after the official website for President Donald Trump began selling merchandise for a possible 2028 campaign.

The president is prohibited by the Constitution from being president more than two four-year terms because of the 22nd Amendment. Trump’s allies have hinted that his supporters may mount a campaign to undo the rule in order to allow him to serve for a third term.

‘Soft launching a fascist dictatorship is insane.’

One shirt reads “TRUMP 2028” with the text “(Rewrite the Rules)” and sells for $36. The president’s son Eric Trump posted a link to the store on his official social media account. A red 2028 hat sold for $50.

Democrats pounced on the news to criticize Trump.

“Trump’s organization is out here selling Trump 2028 hats like the Constitution is just a suggestion. Reminder: The 22nd Amendment exists. You can’t run for a third term,” responded Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas.

“Everyone will say Trump is just joking. Or that he is trolling. That may be true. But with each ‘joke’ it becomes more and more serious until we’re actually confronting a man that feels emboldened to try to run for a third term,” replied Jessica Tarlov, a liberal commentator on Fox News.

“So Americans are just gonna sit idly by and let a dictator take control? actual spineless country,” said another detractor.

“Soft launching a fascist dictatorship is insane,” read another critic’s missive.

Others countered that Democrats could renominate former President Barack Obama to run for a third term if Trump followed through on his threat.

“If Trump wants to run for a third term, President Obama should consider coming out of retirement and doing the same. Obama would win 50/50 states and completely humiliate the Trump family,” replied liberal activist Harry Sisson.

The president said in March that he was seriously looking into the possibility of a third term, but many believed he was merely trolling his opponents on the left. In January, a Republican congressman proposed an amendment to allow Trump a third term, despite his only being in office for four days at that time.

The two-term tradition was set by George Washington, the country’s first president, but was enshrined into law after Franklin Delano Roosevelt defied the custom and was elected to serve an unprecedented four terms, although his fourth term was cut short by his death.

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​Trump 2028 hat, Trump third term, Dems freak out at trump, 22nd amendment, Politics 

A mortuary director from north Austin is accused of performing ghastly experiments on corpses, according to Texas police.

50-year-old Adeline Ngan-Binh Bui was arrested on Friday by Austin police after an investigation into reports of the experiments involving embalming fluid on corpses, with and without formaldehyde.

The embalmer said that Bui injected the arms of corpses with embalming fluid to view the progress of decomposition.

An affidavit said the arrest stemmed from information given to police by an investigator with the Texas Funeral Services Commission, the agency charged with overseeing funeral directors, embalmers, funeral businesses, and crematories.

The TFSC investigator told Austin police on April 2 that they had received a complaint from an embalmer about Capital Mortuary Services, which also operates under the name Capital Austin Mortuary and Cremation.

The embalmer said that Bui, who was the funeral director at CMS, had improperly used the embalmer’s credentials without his consent, and also documented photograph and communications evidence about supposed “experiments” on corpses.

The embalmer said that Bui injected the arms of corpses with embalming fluid to view the progress of decomposition.

The report said that when Bui was done with the experiments, she would place the severed body parts in the “crematory retort, where the body parts in their dissected and disturbed state would be cremated.”

Police surmised that she was likely committing abuse of a corpse and obtained a search warrant on April 10.

Bui allegedly admitted to ordering her employees to conduct the experiments in order to study the effect of the embalming fluid. She said she performed the studies for a medical company, but they denied any agreement unrelated to “transportation and cremation services.”

The executive director of the medical company told police that CMS would not have been authorized to conduct experiments and added that it was “unlawful for a commercial embalming establishment to use a dead human body for research or education purposes.”

Bui is charged for abuse of corpse without legal authority, a felony, and second-degree felony tampering with government records. She was booked into the Travis County Jail on Friday and bailed out the next day.

She is scheduled to appear in court on May 9.

Scenes from the case can be viewed on the KXAN-TV news video on YouTube.

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​Mortuary director experiments, Experiments on corpses, Adeline ngan-binh bui, Austin abuse of corpse, Crime 

President Donald Trump has made the Tennessee Valley Authority a key front in his America First energy agenda. With the authority to appoint and remove TVA directors, Trump hasn’t hesitated to fire those who promote globalist “green” schemes that ignore the needs of the region’s residents.

This month, Trump ousted two Biden-appointed directors, including the board’s chairman. Their offense: trying to turn the TVA into a vehicle for the radical left’s anti-carbon agenda.

The future of reliable energy across the Tennessee Valley — and much of the South — still hangs in the balance.

Trump took similar action during his first term, firing several directors, including a previous chairman, after they approved outsourcing 146 American tech jobs to foreign workers on H-1B visas.

These firings are critical to ensuring that the Tennessee Valley Authority continues to produce abundant and reliable energy for the seven states it serves.

A call for reform

Last month, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) published a joint letter voicing their concerns about the agency’s distracted leadership. They stressed the need for the energy provider to expand nuclear projects, especially small modular reactors, which utilize existing fission technology on a smaller, more deployable scale than the massive projects of decades past.

As to the incapable leadership of the existing Tennessee Valley Authority board, the senators wrote:

As it stands now, TVA and its leadership can’t carry the weight of this moment. The presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed TVA Board of Directors lacks the talent, experience, and gravitas to meet a challenge that clearly requires visionary industrial leaders. The group looks more like a collection of political operatives than visionary industrial leaders. The current TVA board focused on the diversity of its executives ahead of job creation for hungry workers in the region it is supposed to serve.

Shortly thereafter, Trump fired two of the agency’s six current directors.

A critical purge

Trump fired Michelle Moore on March 27, followed by TVA board Chairman Joe Ritch on April 1. Both were Biden-appointed green energy enthusiasts bent on turning the Tennessee Valley Authority into a utopian solar-and-battery experiment.

Had they succeeded, the consequences for the region’s energy reliability would have been disastrous.

Moore founded and runs Groundswell, a “sustainable energy” company whose mission statement boasts a “people-centric approach to developing community solar projects.” I’m not sure what that means — but I know I’d rather depend on coal, natural gas, or nuclear power than on some feel-good solar scheme when temperatures plunge below freezing.

Ritch, originally appointed to the TVA board by President Obama, returned under Biden’s nomination to serve as chairman. In his Senate confirmation statement, Ritch promoted transitioning the agency away from its current mix of coal, nuclear, hydro, and gas toward unreliable green alternatives — convinced, somehow, that it would help the environment and boost the economy.

A historic blunder

This utopian obsession with “sustainable energy” isn’t just naïve — it’s deadly. In December 2023, a hard freeze struck the Tennessee Valley Authority’s service area. The cold snap wasn’t historically extreme, but the consequences were.

For the first time in TVA history, the agency failed to produce enough electricity to meet demand. Rolling blackouts swept the region. Why? Because the TVA lacked enough baseline reliable energy. On those near-zero nights, solar energy produced exactly zero kilowatts.

That’s the future TVA customers would face under the fantasy energy plans pushed by climate zealots like Michelle Moore and Joe Ritch: blackouts in the dead of winter and no backup.

TVA leadership has failed in other ways too — most notably by outsourcing American jobs. In 2020, CEO Jeff Lyash tried to replace over 100 U.S. tech workers with foreign nationals on H-1B visas. While gutting working-class jobs, Lyash collected nearly $8 million a year, making him the highest-paid federal employee. One longtime worker said employees were expected to train their foreign replacements before being shown the door.

Trump responded immediately. While he couldn’t fire Lyash, he could — and did — remove board members who refused to act. When the board wouldn’t fire Lyash or cut his pay, Trump fired them instead.

Soon after, Lyash ended the outsourcing plan. Following Trump’s 2024 election win, Lyash saw the writing on the wall and resigned.

Protections are still needed

The Tennessee Valley Authority remains vital to the economic strength of the upper South. Trump’s removal of Obama-Biden-era appointees has played a key role in preserving the agency’s reliability and focus. But the threat isn’t gone.

The TVA’s service states — especially Tennessee — face a serious vulnerability: Any future Democrat president could again install green energy ideologues, fire current directors, and impose Green New Deal policies. The result? An energy-starved Tennessee Valley plagued by blackouts and foolish political experiments.

Trump’s stand against the radicalization of TVA energy policy deserves recognition. His pushback has protected millions of residents from rolling blackouts and economic self-sabotage. But the fight isn’t finished.

The future of reliable energy across the Tennessee Valley — and much of the South — still hangs in the balance. The region cannot afford to treat Trump’s changes as a lasting victory.

​Donald trump, Green new deal, Tennessee valley authority, Environmentalism, Fired, Michelle moore, Joe ritch, Groundswell, Sustainable energy, Winter, Freeze, H-1b visas, Immigration, Technology, Foreign workers, 2024 presidential election, Opinion & analysis, Jeff lyash 

Dr. Marty Makary with the FDA has announced that the government will be banning all petroleum-based chemicals from the American food supply — which will largely include food dyes.

“Today the FDA is taking action to remove petroleum-based food dyes from the U.S. food supply and from medications. For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” Makary said in a public statement.

“The scientific community has conducted a number of studies raising concerns about the correlation between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and several health conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, genomic disruption, GI issues, as I’ve seen in the hospital, and allergic reactions,” he continues.

Sara Gonzales of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” couldn’t be happier, asking, “Oh, wow, we can trust the experts again?”

While she’s grateful, the move to ban these harmful chemicals is long overdue.

“The facts are, these dyes — they’re not just unnecessary. They’ve been proven harmful time and time again, especially to our children. And even though we have been consuming all of these for decades, people seemed to just not care — the people who were put in charge of making sure that we are safe,” Gonzales says.

“I mean, what the hell else is the Food and Drug Administration for? What the hell else is the CDC for? What the hell else are all these departments for, if not to make sure that they are overseeing that Americans are not consuming poison? And time and time again, we have seen that for decades they have been doing the exact opposite,” she continues.

“They have just been poisoning us, and they know it, and you know that they know it, because other countries have already been like, ‘Yeah, that’s a proven carcinogen. We’re removing it. Yeah, that’s proven to cause harm to children. We’re removing it,’” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Upload, Free, Video phone, Camera phone, Video, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Fda approval, Harmful food dyes, Petroleum-based chemicals, Poisoned food supply, The cdc, The fda, Make america healthy again, The trump administration, Donald trump, Dr. marty makary 

A former doctor was found dead just three days before he was to be sentenced for child sex crimes to which he had already pleaded guilty, according to authorities.

Matt Elza Hipke — a 62-year-old from Longview, Texas — was arrested in August 2020.

‘It’s with us every day, from extensive counseling to anxiety. It’s a continual process.’

Hipke was accused of committing several child sex abuse crimes against child patients. According to WLTX-TV, Hipke was indicted in 2022 on three counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and indecency with a child.

On March 31, Hipke pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child before 188th District Court Judge Scott Novy, according to court records.

On Tuesday, deputies with the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office found Hipke dead in his home just three days before he was to be sentenced for his shocking sex crimes against children.

Gregg County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Craig Harrington said in a statement, “Upon arrival, the sheriff’s office identified the deceased as Hipke.”

Police did not indicate a cause of death, but the sheriff’s office noted that there was no danger to the public. Police said the investigation is ongoing, and no further information would be released.

Officials plan to conduct an autopsy on Hipke to determine his cause of death.

Jail records show that Hipke had been out of the Gregg County Jail since June 9, 2022.

Police said Hipke’s former child patients were his victims.

KETK-TV reported that two of Hipke’s former patients — both boys under 17 years old — accused him of sexual assault.

According to the Longview News-Journal, “Charges against him alleged a pattern of sexual abuse in which police said he fondled the genitals of child patients on multiple occasions between 2018 and 2020.”

Hipke’s practice — Adolescent Care Team — reportedly has closed since the damning allegations of child sex abuse surfaced. The Texas Medical Board also suspended Hipke’s medical license.

Heather Jolicoeur — the mother of one of the children Hipke abused — told KXTV, “It’s with us every day, from extensive counseling to anxiety. It’s a continual process.”

The distraught mother added, “You know you took something else from me — not being able to face him and tell him exactly how he has hurt us, because those are wounds that don’t go away. Won’t ever go away.”

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​Child sex abuse, Child sex crimes, Comeuppance, Karma, Texas, Texas crime, Crime, Doctor 

If Republicans keep squandering opportunities like budget reconciliation and other must-pass bills, they still have one more tool to cut spending without facing a Senate filibuster: the rescissions process.

To make it work, though, Trump must wield his influence more effectively. He needs to pressure establishment Republicans to support spending cuts with the same intensity he uses to push Freedom Caucus members into backing bloated budgets and debt-ceiling hikes.

If the rescissions process is going to matter, Trump must treat it like a weapon — not a bargaining chip.

Under sections 1012 and 1017 of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the president may submit a request to Congress to rescind budget authority from specific accounts he deems unnecessary. That request triggers expedited consideration in Congress, with debate protected from filibuster once the proposal hits the calendar.

In the meantime, the president can freeze spending in the targeted account for up to 45 days while Congress considers the request.

Administration officials have begun dangling the rescissions process in front of conservatives as a consolation prize — hoping to win support for bloated budget bills, a record debt-ceiling hike, and a likely toothless reconciliation package. Their pitch: Whatever passes now can be clawed back later through presidential rescission requests, coordinated with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and without Democratic input.

On paper, the strategy has logic. Trump wants to avoid shutdowns and default drama but believes he can trim spending quietly on the back end. The problem? The same GOP establishment that resists spending cuts during appropriations will still stand in the way after the fact — unless Trump finally targets the left flank of his own party instead of the right.

In early May, the House plans to vote on the Trump administration’s first rescissions package — $9.3 billion in cuts, mostly from foreign aid and defunding NPR and PBS. That’s a good start. It should be applauded.

But let’s be honest: $9.3 billion is pocket change compared to what Congress plans to spend. The upcoming budget reconciliation bill could add $5 trillion in new debt. Even defense spending alone is set to grow by more than $150 billion.

If the rescissions process is going to matter, Trump must treat it like a weapon — not a bargaining chip. And he must finally pressure the real problem in Washington: Republicans who talk like conservatives but vote like Democrats.

Unless Trump applies real pressure on Republican holdouts — especially in the Senate — most of the rescissions package will stall. Cutting NPR and PBS may be a layup, but $8 billion of the proposed cuts target USAID and other foreign aid programs. Those enjoy bipartisan backing, including from Republicans like Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

We’ve seen this dumb movie before. In 2018, Trump sent Congress a $15 billion rescissions package. Nineteen House Republicans defected, but the bill passed 210-206 thanks to a larger GOP majority. The Senate, however, killed it — 48-50 — after just two GOP defections.

Trump tweeted about the bill two days before the House vote. But nowhere in the public record did he threaten consequences for Republican dissenters. He never punished the defectors, and he quickly abandoned the rescissions strategy. Debt piled up for the rest of his term. The moment passed. History rolled on.

This time must be different.

Trump must match the pressure he puts on conservatives — urging them to swallow bad front-end budget deals — with equal, if not greater, pressure on Republican incumbents who oppose back-end spending cuts. No more free passes.

He should submit a rescissions package targeting climate slush funds and dare any Republican to oppose it. Then name names. If they side with green energy programs over fiscal responsibility, they should face the threat of a primary challenger. No exceptions.

If Trump refuses to campaign forcefully for his own priorities, the rescissions process will yield nothing more than symbolic cuts — token reductions that don’t even come close to offsetting the deficit spending he’s already signed off on.

Take the current request. It proposes clawbacks like $6 million for energy-efficiency programs in Mexico, $4 million for migrants in Colombia, $4 million for legume systems research, $3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street, nearly $1.2 million for LGBTQ initiatives, and $1 million for a voter ID program in Haiti.

Sure, Republicans will hold press conferences, wave these absurd line items in front of cameras, and vote to rescind them. But let’s not kid ourselves: Shaving a few million dollars from programs no one knew existed doesn’t even approach the scale of the problem.

When Congress passes trillion-dollar deficits and then touts million-dollar cuts, it’s not leadership. It’s performance.

And the country can’t afford another act.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Mike johnson, John thune, Roger wicker, Budget, Trillion-dollar budget, Spending cuts, Sesame street, Taxes, Rino republicans, Art of the bad deal 

Democrat Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers posted a video of himself trying to toss a football and was crushed with ridicule on social media.

The comical video shows Evers meekly throwing a football that is then also caught by Evers, thanks to careful editing, in celebration of the National Football League draft beginning Thursday.

‘So much soy flowing through those tiny veins of yours.’

“Less than 24 hours away from the 2025 NFL Draft kickoff in Titletown! Getting warmed up!” he wrote.

Among those who mocked the Democrat was the White House rapid response team, which posted a video of President Donald Trump throwing a football in 1992 at an event in Buffalo, New York.

“This is how you throw a football, Governor,” the Trump account wrote.

Other joined in on the fun.

“How did anyone think this was a good idea,” responded activist Caleb Hull.

“Have you ever held a football before this shoot?” said writer Gigi Levangie.

“This is incredibly embarrassing. The stereotypes are real. Democrats are beta girly men who never played sports, and it shows. Vote republican, support real men and women, and save America,” responded the Citizen Free Press account.

“They saw this video and didn’t say to each other ‘don’t post that, he throws like a girl’. It’s either out of fear of each other or because they didn’t even see the issue,” said Christopher Johnson, GOP energy strategist.

“Man Card Violation for effeminate Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers for humiliating himself attempting to throw a football. Even the spike was embarrassing and soft,” said podcaster Dave Smith.

“So much soy flowing through those tiny veins of yours,” responded activist Jaimee Michell.

Some compared the video to a bizarre gaffe made by then-vice presidential candidate Tim Walz ahead of the 2024 election where he appeared not to understand the basics of football play-calling.

The draft begins Thursday evening at 8 p.m. ET.

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​Tony evers football, Effeminate democrats, Tony evers cringey video, Dem cringe video, Politics 

Yesterday, Glenn Beck sat down for an exclusive interview with President Trump to review his first 100 days in office. Glenn is the first member of the media to conduct a 100-day retrospective interview, offering a unique window into the administration’s rapid progress.

It should come as no surprise that the duo broached a wide range of topics. From his unprecedented number of executive orders — 130 in just three months! — to the equally unprecedented number of injunctions he’s faced from a rogue judicial system, tariffs, the DOGE, and the border, a lot has happened in a short window.

But that’s what President Trump promised. He pledged to fix America quickly, and every day, he delivers on that promise more. The pace at which his administration is moving is indeed shocking and awe-inspiring.

This exclusive interview captures the energy and determination driving these historic first 100 days, revealing key insights into Trump’s vision and leadership.

Here are the top three moments from President Trump’s conversation with Glenn.

EXCLUSIVE: President Trump on ‘Judicial Insurrection,’ Tariffs, and 100 Days in Office | Ep 429

youtu.be

1. Congress and codification

When Glenn asked President Trump about his extensive executive orders, which have addressed immigration, government reform, the economy, national security, energy, and cultural issues, he said, “There were just so many things the country needed” after Biden’s destructive term.

Isn’t that the truth?

Yet there’s a growing angst about getting these executive orders codified by Congress. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” aims to codify key policies, especially those related to border security, energy production, taxes, and deregulation, but its budget focus limits its scope, and GOP infighting between fiscal hawks and moderates has slowed the process.

However, President Trump told Glenn not to worry and expressed faith in Republicans, especially considering their seven-seat majority in the House, which gives them enough votes to pass the bill if they stay united.

“We’re going to codify, and we’re going to wait until after the bill has passed, and then we’re going to work on nothing but codifying,” he said.

2. Judicial insurrection

Glenn reminded us that Bill Clinton deported 12.3 million people; George W. Bush deported 10.3 million people and had six injunctions against him; Barack Obama deported 5.5 million people and had 12 injunctions against him.

But Trump, not even 100 days into his second term, faces more lawsuits than Clinton, Bush, and Obama combined.

“You’re 100 days in, and you have 190 cases against you,” said Glenn.

“It’s obstruction,” Trump agreed, condemning Democrats for trying to protect MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom they’ve painted as an innocent victim.

Regardless of the unprecedented judicial pushback that’s making deportations “so much more difficult than it should be,” Trump expressed confidence. “We’re getting it done, and we’re winning.”

3. Powering the AI revolution

“I think you’re going to be remembered as the AI president,” said Glenn.

“You are the first one to really talk about, really take it on.”

“AI is certainly very important, and we’re pressing it very hard. We have trillions of dollars being invested,” Trump said. However, AI takes “massive amounts of electricity,” more than “we have right now in our country.”

Even though it’s an enormous obstacle, Trump says he’s got a plan.

“We’re going to let them build their own electric plants,” he said, noting that “they can use nuclear [power] if they want.”

“We’re going to get it done very quickly,” he added.

“I call it a national emergency,” but “we’re going to be number one.”

To hear the rest of Glenn and President Trump’s conversation, including their discussion on tariffs, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, justice and accountability for major incidents of fraud, and Elon Musk’s role in the DOGE, watch the full interview 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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Professional football Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe announced that he was stepping down from his hosting duties after getting hit with a $50 million lawsuit over sexual assault accusations.

On Wednesday, an attorney for Sharpe’s accuser released an audio recording that captured Sharpe joking about choking her in public. She claims that Sharpe raped her twice, threatened her, and recorded their sexual interactions twice without her consent.

‘I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me.’

Sharpe responded by claiming that the video was deceptively edited to misrepresent a consensual interaction with the accuser.

On Thursday, he released a statement announcing his departure from ESPN.

“My statement is found here and this is the truth. The relationship in question was 100% consensual,” he wrote.

“At this juncture I am electing to step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties,” he added. “I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason.”

Sharpe previously revealed that the accuser was OnlyFans model Gabriella “Gabbi” Zuniga and accused her attorney Tony Buzbee of “orchestrating” what he called a “shakedown.” He said that he would file a defamation countersuit.

“Tony Buzbee targets black men, and I believe he’s going to release a 30-second clip of a sex tape that tries to make me look guilty and play in to every stereotype you could possibly imagine,” he added.

ESPN offered a brief statement after Sharpe’s announcement.

“This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon’s decision to step away,” the company said.

The lawsuit said that Zuniga met Sharpe at a gym in Los Angeles when she was only 19 years old. She claimed that he became more violent as the relationship progressed and that he threatened to kill her in one alleged incident.

“I sincerely appreciate the overwhelming and ongoing support I have received from my family, fans, friends and colleagues,” Sharpe concluded in the latest statement.

Sharpe played for the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens as a tight end between 1990 and 2003.

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