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After Karmelo Anthony was found guilty Tuesday of murdering Austin Metcalf in a stabbing at a Frisco, Texas, high school track meet in 2025 — and the same jury soon after sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison — Metcalf’s loved ones read impact statements in a Collin County courtroom with Anthony present.

Jeff Metcalf, the victim’s father, called his son a friend, a leader, and a true warrior, KDFW-TV reported.

‘My son’s death destroyed the person I used to be.’

“Since the day he first grabbed my finger, he had my heart with it,” Metcalf said, according to the station, which added that the elder Metcalf also spoke about the joy he felt while watching both of his sons on the field at the same time.

Jeff Metcalf also said the public response to his son’s murder was sickening, KDFW reported, adding that he said he was targeted in six swatting calls and the victim’s mother has been targeted twice.

“With a gag order, I can’t defend myself when people want to tear down my son’s memory. That time is over!” Jeff Metcalf added, according to the station. “I said from day one this was never about race. It’s about right and wrong. We are all humans. We all bleed the same color. You will face those consequences starting today.” Anthony is black; Metcalf was white.

Jeff Metcalf also spoke directly to Anthony, KDFW reported: “You failed your parents, yourself, and society. You don’t belong in this community.”

“My son’s death destroyed the person I used to be,” the father added, according to WFAA-TV. “He does not exist any more.”

Jeff Metcalf added that “people think grief is sadness; it is not. It is rage. Pure, unfiltered rage,” he said, slamming his fist on a table with his voice rising, WFAA noted.

The enraged father added to Anthony, “You can’t look me in the eyes, but you can stab my f**king son?!” KDFW reported.

With that, the judge motioned to prosecutor Bill Wirskye about the cursing, WFAA said.

Indeed, a reporter in a KXAS-TV video called Jeff Metcalf’s impact statement “full of rage” and noted that the judge had the prosecutor and a bailiff “step in” although Metcalf was allowed to finish reading his impact statement.

When he was done, Jeff Metcalf stared at Anthony the entire time he walked past him — just two feet from his son’s convicted killer, WFAA reported.

RELATED: Jury reaches verdict in Karmelo Anthony murder trial (UPDATE)

Hunter Metcalf, the twin brother of the victim, also observed the lack of eye contact and asked Anthony to look him in the eye, KDFW reported: “I would really respect that.”

Hunter Metcalf said he’s been trying to learn how to forgive, KDFW said, adding that he also said he’s chosen God and is trying to understand why his brother and best friend was taken from him.

“Now I want everything taken from you,” Hunter Metcalf told Anthony, KDFW reported. “You took everything from me. I wake up every morning, and his door is still shut.”

Megan Metcalf, the victim’s mother, talked about raising two energetic, loving souls, KDFW said: “Now I only have videos and memories of his laugh.”

The mother talked about the morning of the track meet, KDFW said, adding that she recalled packing her son a snack and giving him a hug — yet not realizing it would be the last time she would embrace her boy.

“You may have been given a sentence of 35 years. You should feel lucky,” Megan Metcalf told Anthony, KDFW said. “I’ve been sentenced to a lifetime without my son.”

KDFW noted that Anthony, 19, will be eligible for parole after he serves half of his 35-year sentence. His murder conviction could have resulted in a prison sentence of as little as five years to as many as 99 years.

During the sentencing deliberation, the jury was considering whether Anthony acted out of “sudden passion,” which would have limited his time behind bars to 20 years, KDFW said.

The reporter in the KXAS video described Anthony as “shaking” and “sobbing” and displaying a “sheer look of shock” on his face after his guilty verdict was read. The reporter added that Anthony was “trembling” in his chair and “sobbing” as his mother asked the jury during the sentencing phase to “please have mercy on my son.”

A new mug shot of Anthony was taken Tuesday after he was placed in the custody of the Collin County Sheriff’s Office following his guilty verdict.

RELATED: Karmelo Anthony murder trial: Jurors begin deliberations — and can consider lesser charge of manslaughter

Karmelo Anthony. Image source: Collin County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office

In addition, the reporter in the KXAS video said Anthony was seen mouthing the words “I’m sorry” to his family and added that Anthony’s parents were not in court for his sentencing or for the impact statements.

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​Karmelo anthony, Austin metcalf, Jeff metcalf, Impact statements, Murder conviction, Texas, Court, Fatal stabbing, Prison sentence, Crime 

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) ran to replace Ken Paxton as Texas attorney general but lost in the Republican primary runoff late last month to state Sen. Mayes Middleton. Roy’s defeat was apparently achieved with help from a coalition of green-energy elites desperate to protect the gravy train that he threatened to derail in Congress.

One of the most full-throated celebrations of Roy’s defeat came from the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC — a California-based political outfit committed to punishing lawmakers like Roy who’ve sought to deny federal subsidies to renewable energy giants.

‘This is political warfare.’

“Good riddance, Chip Roy,” the PAC, which spent $1.7 million to tank the Republican’s campaign, said in a statement on May 26.

“As leaders within the clean energy industry, ITC PAC is proud of our role in ending Chip Roy’s political career, investing nearly $1.5 million to reach GOP voters where they are — including on conservative cable, streaming sites like Rumble, and on MAGA social media — to remind them that Chip Roy betrayed their leader,” the group added.

As part of its subversive campaign, the PAC insinuated in MAGA voter-targeted messaging that it was supportive of President Donald Trump and aligned with conservatives but Roy was not.

An ad shared by the PAC to Truth Social in February, for instance, claimed that Roy — whose voting record the Conservative Review gave a 100% Liberty Score and Heritage Action gave a 98% lifetime score — was “not MAGA enough for Texas.”

RELATED: The REAL reason gas prices are so high (the federal tax is just the beginning)

Billionaire Chris Larsen. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The PAC was launched by Peter Davidson, the CEO of Aligned Climate Capital, while Brendan Bell, the COO of Aligned Climate Capital, is listed as the PAC’s treasurer. Both men previously worked for the Obama Department of Energy.

Davidson made no secret of why Roy was targeted.

“Not only did he and the Freedom Caucus have the whole rewind and sunsetting of the [tax credits] for solar and wind … but the whole demonization of the industry, the whole language of the ‘Green New Scam’ — all that came from the Freedom Caucus, and that came from Chip Roy,” Davidson told Politico.

Last year, for instance, Roy ruffled feathers in the “Green New Scam” industry by championing legislation with Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) that would repeal over 20 green energy tax subsidies created or expanded by the Biden administration’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, thereby saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

“The Inflation Reduction Act, better known as the Green New Scam, is providing massive unlimited subsidies to billion-dollar corporations and Chinese manufacturers to the detriment of American energy freedom and dominance,” Roy said at the time.

“It is responsible for building ineffective, unattractive, and unwanted energy projects enriching paper investors over the objections of the people living in Texas communities I represent,” Roy continued. “These subsidies need to go away immediately.”

‘Attack clean energy and we’ll end your career just like Chip Roy’s.’

When the PAC took to social media to gloat about his defeat, Roy proved unshaken in his resolve, stating in response, “I didn’t just declare war — I led the charge to successfully crush the crony ‘green new scam’ grift. Happy to do it. Will do it again. And again. I’m just getting started.”

The biggest donor to the subversive climate PAC that targeted Roy is Chris Larsen, a billionaire activist and cryptocurrency executive who partnered earlier this year with former head of the Sierra Club Michael Brune on a “climate change”-focused investment and philanthropy fund.

In a revelatory conversation that took place at the Prelude Climate Summit in May, Larsen and Brune discussed the devious plot to manipulate the right into getting onside with the climate agenda — partly by adjusting their rhetoric to conform with rightist talking points; by leveraging existing, ostensibly conservative-leaning organizations; and by attacking conservative opponents from the right.

When asked about Roy’s race, Larsen boasted that his fellow travelers torpedoed the congressman’s polling numbers with “aggressive ads,” adding, “This is political warfare.”

Although Larsen and Brune acknowledged that Middleton was not “good on climate,” Larsen said the point of this particular sabotage exercise was “to make an example of” Roy.

Rep. Roy could not immediately be reached for comment.

Given general elections in various red regions are no longer competitive for Democrats thanks to successful Republican redistricting initiatives, Larsen indicated that their next play is to back Trojan-horse candidates in GOP races.

“There’s going to be more and more districts as we all know that just aren’t competitive unless you just say, ‘Okay, well I’m just going to be playing in Republican primaries,'” Larsen said. “There’s gonna be, like, a Chip Roy, and there’s gonna maybe be a Romney-type person, right? Let’s get behind the person who’s all-in for low-cost energy of all kinds.”

Like Larsen and Brune, the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC made abundantly clear that Roy wouldn’t be the last lawmaker targeted for daring to end the gravy train to climate elites.

“ITC PAC will spend millions going after enemies of American clean energy, and electing champions who know that American energy dominance means an all-of-the-above approach to energy that includes solar and other renewables,” the group said. “Every politician in America should be on notice: Attack clean energy, and we’ll end your career just like Chip Roy’s.”

Tom Matzzie — CEO of solar company CleanChoice Energy, executive chair of the PAC, and a donor to Democrat Mallory McMorrow’s U.S. Senate campaign — told Politico, “The goal here is, at the end of this election year, members of Congress, senators, governors, others, remember that if you act viciously against the industry, that there could be a couple million dollars dropped into your next race, and that could threaten your political future.”

The RAIR Foundation identified Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), and Nancy Mace (S.C.) as some of the “Green New Scam” industry’s next targets.

While poised to hammer Republicans who are committed to derailing the renewable energy industry’s taxpayer-funded gravy train, the PAC is also willing to spend a fortune backing defenders of wind and solar credits like Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R).

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​Chip roy, Congress, Texas, Renewable, Energy, Pac, Sierra club, Climate alarmism, Green new scam, Politics 

Elections across the country this week have delivered no shortage of political drama, but two stories in particular are turning heads.

In Maine, several ex-girlfriends of Senate hopeful Graham Platner have hurled accusations of disturbing patterns of behavior at the Democrat — and his response hasn’t been promising.

Platner is also being accused of exchanging sexual text messages with women after he was married in 2023.

“So, Graham Platner, looking to move on from a week of controversy after telling supporters that his past had been weaponized,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells co-host Dave Landau. “That’s what happens, Dave. When you do something horrible and people catch you, that means they’re weaponizing what you’ve done.”

“Well, of course, it’s not being held accountable for the things you’ve done in your past. It’s just weaponizing the things you’ve done against you,” Dave jokes.

“When you’re a Democrat and you’re in one of these controversies, you’re able to live like this. No one asks any questions. You don’t address it, and no one follows up. What a wonderful way to be,” Stu says.

But it’s not just the Maine Senate election that is mired in controversy.

The Los Angeles mayoral race has shifted significantly over the weekend, as candidate Nithya Raman has passed Spencer Pratt for second place and will now go to the runoff against mayor Karen Bass.

“So we will have Democrat versus Democrat at the end of all of this,” Stu says.

“Are you saying that a system designed to lock out Republicans is locking out a Republican?” Dave asks.

Stu points out that there’s clearly a “tiny bit of skepticism by most people on the right that this is actually real and not just out-and-out fraud.”

“Well, I think it’s also because the way that it seems that the voting system works is you have the maybe some older conservatives come in early, you see the numbers, and then at the last minute, like a big giant bag of letters to Santa in a courtroom, all of a sudden they all just appear for one person,” Dave jokes.

“And they’re not even for Karen Bass. They’re just for this other person to then beat Spencer Pratt to then push Karen Bass forward,” he adds.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

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​Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Graham platner, Spencer pratt, Nithya raman, Karen bass, Los angeles, Mayor, Election, Senate, Maine, Democrat, Fraud, Stu and dave do america 

Another congressional Republican who seems to have fallen out of favor with President Trump has suffered humiliating defeat in a primary.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) now joins the likes of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in losing a primary battle in resounding fashion after failing to earn an endorsement from Trump. On Tuesday night, Mace finished a distant fifth place in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary.

‘This isn’t the end of the fight. It’s just the end of this chapter.’

Before 9 p.m. ET, she had conceded defeat, posting a lengthy concession message on X. “Serving South Carolina has been the greatest honor of my life. Every vote I cast, every hearing I called, every fight I picked — it was always for you,” she began.

“Apparently, I chose wrong if the goal was winning an election. I’m at peace with that. Because when a candidate is OK with corruption and cover-ups — something is broken. That’s not a political opinion. That’s a moral emergency,” she continued.

“This isn’t the end of the fight. It’s just the end of this chapter,” she assured her supporters.

Before 7:30 the next morning, Mace appeared to be in light spirits once again, joking on X: “Enjoying my first cup of coffee since getting my ass kicked last night.”

RELATED: Democrat voters in Georgia want nothing to do with Trump-hating ex-Republican

Trump and Mace shaking hands. WIN MCNAMEE/POOL/AFP/Getty Images.

Always outspoken, Mace likely lost all hope of a Trump endorsement this year after she pushed for ever more Epstein disclosures, even as she thanked Trump for supporting the “survivors.”

Mace’s alliance with Trump has been precarious for years. In the 2022 Republican primary for Mace’s congressional seat, Trump endorsed a challenger and shifted his support to Mace only after she prevailed. Trump then endorsed Mace’s re-election bid in 2024.

Now that she is leaving Congress, Mace says she plans to return “to the private sector … as the Founders intended,” signaling that she may have closed the door on her political aspirations for good.

Trump, meanwhile, can claim victory in her disastrous gubernatorial bid. The candidate he endorsed, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, led the pack, collecting 28.9% of the vote.

Second-place finisher Attorney General Alan Wilson received 26.2%. Evette and Wilson now head for a runoff election scheduled for June 23.

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​Bill cassidy, Endorsement, Nancy mace, Thomas massie, Politics, South carolina 

A former teacher from Georgia is accused of sexually assaulting a student and attempting to convince the teen to run away to Mexico with her after investigators uncovered nearly 20,000 damning text messages between the pair, according to multiple reports.

The Roswell Police Department said in a statement that 55-year-old Amanda Katz was arrested on June 2. Bond was set at $25,000, according to jail records.

‘I can’t stop looking at you and certainly keep my hands to myself.’

WAGA-TV reported that Katz was charged with improper sexual contact by an employee or agent.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the New York Post.

Katz had been a teacher and administrative assistant at Roswell High School.

WXIA-TV obtained the arrest warrant saying Katz was a teacher of the alleged victim before she transitioned into an administrative role at Roswell High School.

Police said Katz sexually assaulted a 16-year-old student during multiple off-campus encounters between December 2025 and February 2026.

Katz resigned during the middle of the police investigation, police said.

Fulton County Schools confirmed the district no longer employs her.

Citing the affidavit, the Post reported that the alleged victim told police he had unprotected sex several times with Katz in her home and the backseat of her Jaguar car.

“During a forensic interview, the teen told investigators Katz encouraged him to transfer from Roswell High School to another high school that would allow him to graduate sooner,” WXIA reported.

The student said Katz told him she was “literally scared s**tless” about the prospect of getting caught with the boy and going to prison, the affidavit said.

WXIA reported that Katz was “considered a trusted family friend” of the alleged victim, and she even tutored the boy’s younger sibling. The affidavit said Katz bought gifts for the alleged victim’s siblings, including jewelry and a Nintendo Switch.

The teen’s mother grew suspicious of the alleged illicit relationship when Katz invited the boy and his family to a cabin in the north Georgia mountains during Valentine’s Day weekend, the arrest warrant stated.

WSB-TV reported that the teen’s mother said she noticed how “comfortable” Katz and her son were.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the arrest warrant saying the teen’s mother discovered text messages on her son’s cell phone and “knew there was something wrong.”

The warrant said when Katz returned to work after the trip, she told her co-workers that she was “in a manic state” and complained that her “boyfriend’s mother” said they couldn’t be in a relationship.

The warrant revealed that when a co-worker learned that Katz’s boyfriend was a student at the high school, the co-worker alerted authorities.

Detectives obtained the teen’s cell phone, which revealed Katz and the boy exchanged at least 19,585 text messages and made 591 calls, the warrant said.

“Throughout the lengthy text thread between [teen] and Amanda, they discussed their relationship and potential future lives together, how and why they need to keep their relationship secret, and multiple sexual interactions,” the affidavit said, according to People magazine.

The New York Post reported, “In other messages, she told the boy that sex was ‘fun,’ and that she would ‘walk away from everything’ to be with him.”

The warrant said Katz messaged the student, “I meant everything I said to you. I would give you everything I have. And I’m human. I know it sounds stupid, but you not being mine isn’t an option. I can’t do this.”

RELATED: Ex-teacher who dodged conviction for allegedly asking teen lover to kill husband learns fate for sexually assaulting student

The alleged victim told investigators Katz wanted him to move into her home after he graduated from high school, police said.

“[He] said he had mixed feelings about leaving his family and that Amanda wanted to go further with their relationship, move in together, and to commit to each other. … [He] said Amanda offered to take care of him (financially and provide a place to stay, etc.),” the affidavit read.

Katz also wanted the student to move to Mexico with her, police said.

“[He] also said that Amanda had told him that she wanted to move to Mexico with him, but he did not want to do that, nor did he understand why she would want to go there,” the affidavit revealed.

According to the affidavit, “Amanda also admitted that her actions were inappropriate and that she could be arrested if detected.”

“I have done a lot of stupid things. A lot. But this is top level,” Katz wrote, according to the affidavit.

“I am crazy about you. I can’t be around you,” Katz said to the teen, the affidavit said.

The affidavit said Katz texted the teen, “I can’t stop looking at you and certainly keep my hands to myself. Just telling you this can get me fired. … I need to leave Roswell. … Please delete this entire thread.”

“I was truly happy for the first time in a long time. I want you to know that. But this is killing me. This conversation can’t happen. Everything about us has to be deleted,” read a text message Katz sent to the teen on Dec. 29, 2025, WSB reported.

“We are lying to everyone. For what? How long? I don’t want to go to jail … I won’t do well in jail … I’m too pretty,” Katz wrote to the teen, the warrant stated.

The arrest warrant said Katz told the teen, “I loved you. And this is the most f**ked up and scary thing that has ever happened to me. You f**king broke my heart. … This is probably the worst thing anyone has ever done to me. You abandoned me.”

The Roswell Police Department and Fulton County Schools did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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​Sexual assault, Amanda katz, Teacher arrested, Teacher student sex scandal, Teacher sex scandal, Bad teacher, Child sex crimes, Georgia, Crime 

The Sudanese asylum-seeker arrested for the horrific attempted beheading that took place in Northern Ireland on Monday night appeared in court on Wednesday, where he declined to enter a plea.

In addition to being identified, the African has been slapped with additional criminal charges after the brutal attack he is accused of committing prompted a fiery night of rioting in Belfast as well as demands for transparency and a withdrawal from the EU Migration Pact from rightist lawmakers.

‘We will be going after them.’

Now that the liberal establishment has pivoted from feigning horror over the attempted beheading to expressing outrage over the backlash, police are threatening to arrest online influencers who raised the alarm about the incident.

Quick background

A black male was caught on camera sitting atop a bloodied white male in the middle of a north Belfast street, shouting something in a foreign tongue, then carving with a knife into the victim’s face and neck.

The attack was interrupted by a Good Samaritan armed with a wooden hurl stick who gave the attacker a good thwacking. Another two men rushed in to help — one attempting to pull the victim to safety and the other giving a few well-placed kicks to the aggressor’s head.

The attacker, who was initially identified by a police as Somali but later confirmed to be a Sudanese national, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

RELATED: Sudanese national suspect attempts to behead UK citizen — but police beg public not to share images

L-R: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images; Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The victim, who has been identified as Stephen Ogilvie and a British citizen, was taken to the hospital in serious condition with grievous injuries to his face, neck, and back.

Suspect identified

Gavin Robinson, a member of the British Parliament for East Belfast, stated on Tuesday that the Sudanese suspect was living in the U.K. under a five-year visa.

Police subsequently confirmed that the suspect, 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, entered Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum, and was granted leave to remain in the country until 2028.

The Telegraph reported that the suspect had “used a loophole” in the British asylum system — traveling from Sudan to Paris and then to Dublin, before taking a bus to Belfast and then claiming asylum.

In addition to the original charge of attempted murder, Alodid has been charged with possessing a knife in a public space and threatening to kill a woman who works as a radiographer for the National Health Service.

Alodid appeared at Laganside magistrate’s court on Wednesday, where he communicated via an Arabic interpreter. The stabbing suspect — who allegedly left Ogilvie with no left eye, a damaged right eye, and deep cuts on his face and back — refused legal representation and declined to respond to the charges.

Alodid was denied bail at the urging of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Police told the court that the African’s release posed a threat of further offenses and a flight risk and could lead to “significant public disorder,” reported the BBC.

The suspect’s next court date is July 8.

Failed containment

The PSNI implored the general public on Tuesday not to share footage of the horrific attack, but the British public evidently had other ideas.

To the great chagrin not only of police but of those leftist lawmakers who expressed concerns over the inevitable political fallout, the video — yet another damning reminder of the isles’ disastrous immigration policies and failed dogma of multiculturalism — went viral with the help of remigration activist Tommy Robinson and others.

Belfast was subsequently rocked by protests and, on Tuesday evening, riots in which homes, cars, and a bus were torched.

Some of the hundreds of black-clad young men who roamed the streets of the capital city on Tuesday reportedly shouted, “Foreigners out!” and pelted asylum-seeker housing with rocks.

‘F**k ’em.’

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson of the PSNI said in a statement, “Sporadic pockets of disorder have broken out in a number of locations across Northern Ireland this evening, including incidents in which a number of vehicles have been set on fire.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and various other lawmakers condemned the riots — in many cases more forcefully than they condemned the attempted beheading.

“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable,” Starmer stated on Wednesday morning. “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it.”

Police have arrested several alleged rioters and are threatening to arrest online influencers over their provocative commentary regarding the attempted beheading.

“It’s very easy, these days especially, to look online and be persuaded, by people who know nothing about Northern Ireland, know nothing about the communities in Northern Ireland, know nothing about the history of Northern Ireland, to take actions that they otherwise would not take,” said PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher. “Stop looking at this nonsense. Stop listening to these idiots. We will be going after them for the incitement that they’ve been doing.”

“I’m not talking about individuals in this press conference, but people will know who were online last night and inciting this behavior. They will know what they were doing. We will be going after them,” added Boutcher.

Despite this latest threat of a crackdown over online speech, Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson, and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe have not rounded their critiques or softened their rhetoric.

Robinson, for instance, wrote, “Stop importing rapists, murderers, and sex pests from savage third world countries who put young girls [sic] lives at risk. Once you have advocated for that, and the removal of unwanted illegal migrants from communities who never asked for or wanted them, then you can take the high road. Until then, keep your mouth shut.”

Lowe wrote early Wednesday, “Millions must go,” and “the Belfast victim has lost his left eye and has severe damage to his right eye. Hacked at the neck, with his eyes gouged. Men who inflict this brutal evil on others do not deserve to live.”

Musk shared a post rejecting the calls for calm, then tweeted, “F**k ’em.”

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​African, Sudan, Beheading, Northern ireland, Ireland, United kingdom, Uk, Britain, Racism, Anti-white, Leftism, Terrorism, Crime, Replacement, Asylum, Immigration, Politics 

Popular YouTuber Jesse Ridgway, who goes by “McJuggerNuggets,” set the internet on fire last week when he used the abortion of his unborn child with Down syndrome to create content for his audience.

“My wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to Trisomy 21,” Ridgway wrote in a post on X. “The choice was not made lightly.”

“She underwent the procedure earlier this week and is on the mend. Thankfully, everything went smoothly, but emotionally we are drained. Trisomy 21, also known as Down Syndrome, is caused by an extra chromosome. It is caused by an error in cell division, like a glitch. The odds of a baby having it is 1 in 1000,” he added.

The couple has been documenting their pregnancy journey on their YouTube channel, where they’ve been recording their reactions to test results.

“You not only monetized your baby’s little life, but then you monetized his death. And not just his death, but also his murder. And then you want people to feel sympathetic toward you,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey comments.

“This is morally chilling that you are admitting and trying to euphemize euthanizing a baby,” she continues, pointing out that Ridgway is apparently not actually “without compassion for vulnerable entities.”

Earlier in May, Ridgway celebrated the sixth birthday of his dog, who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney disease the year prior, explaining that she is in the “0.001% of superhero dogs that continue living with no kidneys.”

“So that life was worth sacrificing for. His dog was worth paying lots and lots of money for, doing everything you could to keep this dog alive. Even though your dog has special needs, will not live a very long time,” Stuckey says.

“That dog apparently was more worthy of life than their living child,” she adds.

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

​Allie beth stuckey, Jesse ridgway, Down syndrome, Abortion, Trisomy 21, The blaze, Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

From Spencer Pratt to Mayor Michael Rapaport?

All eyes have been on Spencer Pratt, the reality show alum vying to wrest the City of Angels from Mayor Karen Bass.

While Pratt promoted his family-man brand, Rapaport lives for the social media scrum.

Pratt’s insurgent campaign was felt from coast to coast. Now, as L.A.’s curious voting system seems to have sent him to a third-place finish, another actor turned candidate could take his place.

Did Pratt walk so Michael Rapaport could run?

‘Soft launch’

Rapaport is a familiar face from dozens of movies and TV shows since his 1992 film debut in “Zebrahead.” He recently joined Peacock’s “The Traitors,” a reality-show affair hosted by Alan Cumming. His brash persona proved a snug fit for the series, alienating some while bringing fresh friction to the game.

And, as he told the Hollywood Reporter in January, the show was part of his “soft launch” to unseat New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

I think that if you can have a mayor of New York who is a failed rapper, a failed actor, a failed music supervisor and who’s rapped and said so many regrettable things that he did … if nothing else, I have shown once again, especially on “Traitors,” that I am what you see and you’ll get an honest mayor.

Pratt didn’t lean on MAGA messaging or GOP-friendly talking points in his campaign. He played the outsider, a man motivated by losing his home in the Palisades fires and demanding that the person who let it happen be held accountable.

For Rapaport, Mamdani’s socialist policies and perceived animosity toward Jewish New Yorkers sparked his campaign, not any Republican fervor.

Accidental politicians

Call them accidental politicians. The facts on the ground made them do it. Rapaport explained his change of heart to Fox News.

“I never thought that I would even consider running for mayor of New York City, and I will do it with the best intentions.”

Rapaport leans to the left, but he has defied some of his party’s groupthink, particularly when it comes to his strong support of Israel.

Pratt and Rapaport share a grasp not just of social media but of media training in general. They have been around cameras for years, aware of the power video brings and how to weaponize it for a cause.

We’ve seen Pratt leverage those viral campaign videos, playing the frazzled Everyman eager to save his hometown. Rapaport, a trained comic in addition to his acting experience, could do the same.

Rapaport has some advantages over Pratt. He announced his campaign years before any voting happens, as opposed to Pratt’s abrupt decision. That gives Rapaport time to build his base, criticize Mamdani in real time, and let New Yorkers see what a democratic socialist can do to the Big Apple.

Rapaport is betting they won’t like the results.

RELATED: Trump DOJ opens multiple investigations into possible election fraud in California

L-R: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images; ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

Sharp elbows

Plus, Rapaport isn’t merely a reality show villain like Pratt, with all the baggage that entails. He has delivered memorable performances on FX’s “Justified” and Netflix’s “Atypical,” plus classic films like “Beautiful Girls,” “True Romance,” and “Cop Land.”

The veteran actor recently segued back to comedy, appearing in clubs across the country with a genuinely funny set built around his garrulous persona.

The downsides for the New York native, beyond the fear that he’s another actor playing the part of political savior? Rapaport throws plenty of sharp elbows on social media and podcasts. He famously teed off on President Donald Trump a few years ago, a potential boost to his New York candidacy.

But he softened that stance considerably post-October 7, re-evaluating the president’s policies and the lies spread in the media. That speaks to his maturation, but it might not play well in a cobalt blue city.

Relishing a fight

While Pratt promoted his family-man brand, Rapaport lives for the social media scrum. He’s naturally combative, willing to muck it up about sports, culture, and politics on any platform possible.

His “I Am Rapaport: Stereo Podcast” lets him weigh in on the New York Knicks, free speech, and much more. Here’s betting Team Mamdani will be combing through past episodes for potentially damaging material.

And they just might find some.

Pratt proved competitive in his upstart campaign, and even if the vote totals keep him in third place, he still gave the Democratic establishment a major scare.

Could Rapaport learn from Pratt’s bold run and write his own Hollywood ending?

​Palisades fires, Spencer pratt, Zohran mamdani, New york city mayor, Michael rapaport, Lifestyle 

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell, “1984”

The photographs spread quickly across the internet: Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) outside Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in Newark, washing pepper spray from his eyes.

Kim had publicly demanded the facility’s closure since December 2025. He has repeatedly painted ICE as an instrument of “lawless” violence weaponized by Stephen Miller and Donald Trump against U.S. citizens.

The violence that occurred outside Delaney Hall was not provoked by ICE agents enforcing the law. It was instigated and organized by leftist protesters, activists, aligned organizations.

On May 24, Sen. Kim released a statement with Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) in which he described the food as disgusting and argued that detainees were experiencing inhumane treatment.

Kim proudly proclaimed, “Cruelty is what this administration, what [U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement] is trying to do.”

The next day Kim visited the facility. Upon exiting, he encountered ICE officers there for protection and a crowd of protesters blocking entrances and exits. Kim intervened in front of the cameras, positioning himself as someone who was trying to de-escalate the situation.

Shockingly, the riotous crowd did not listen to Sen. Kim, and during ICE’s attempts to disperse the crowd, he was hit with pepper spray.

The imagery was perfect for the narrative he wanted. Andy Kim spent months fanning the flames of outrage at Delaney Hall, then had the audacity to pose as the firefighter trying to extinguish the fire he helped start.

Andy Kim and others, include Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D), painted Delaney Hall as a starvation camp. Yet the DHS published the menu detainees received, including oatmeal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, grilled potatoes, milk, coffee, chicken legs, turkey stir-fry, beef burritos, vegetarian beans, fajitas, vegetables, and commissary access.

Sen. Kim has also claimed there is a lack of medical care for detainees at Delaney Hall. The DHS directly disputes this claim and points out the fact that the moment an alien enters ICE custody, he has access to medical, dental, and mental health services as available and access to 24-hour emergency care.

It is easy to acknowledge that freedom is preferable to detention; the claims of forced starvation are meritless and ignore the fact that the detainees are alleged to have violated our immigration laws and are subject to deportation.

It is notable that no elected representative is able to make the argument that illegal alien detainees are subject to worse conditions than American citizens who are detained over the January 6 protests.

In fact, no representative who has protested against Delaney Hall has been able to point to any U.S. citizen being mistakenly detained there, despite vocal claims by leading Democrats that citizens are being wrongfully detained.

RELATED: The anti-weaponization fund is not just for J6. It is for the rest of us too.

JDawnInk/Getty Images

The detainees are individuals who have violated our immigration laws. These are not random migrants caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. These are detainees awaiting removal proceedings, many with pending charges or prior convictions.

Kim’s selective empathy paints law enforcement as the villain and lawbreakers as martyrs.

The facility itself operated as an ICE detention center under the Obama administration from 2011 to 2017. The groundwork for its current contract was laid during the Biden years, with solicitations issued in 2024. Democrats who now decry it as an affront to humanity were silent, or complicit, when similar facilities operated under their own president.

Most importantly, the violence that occurred outside Delaney Hall was not provoked by ICE agents enforcing the law. It was instigated and organized by leftist protesters, activists, aligned organizations, and politicians who turned a lawful detention facility into a battleground and a political photo op.

By amplifying falsehoods and refusing to acknowledge the source of the latest example of political violence, they encourage precisely the chaos that logically followed: more riots, more assaults, more threats, and more division.

What purpose do these lies and the theater serve?

They distract from the Biden-era border policies that flooded the system and the Trump administration’s necessary corrective action. They continue to paint immigration enforcement as racist theater rather than the enforcement of duly passed laws. They virtue-signal to progressive donors and voters while eroding trust in federal institutions.

Performative visits coupled with distorted rhetoric do not solve problems; they inflame them.

The evidence is there for anyone willing to see it. The question is whether the Party will allow it.

​Donald trump, Immigration enforcement, Ice, Delaney hall, Andy kim, Rob menendez, Dhs, Mikie sherrill, Opinion & analysis 

Democrats have worked desperately to defund or at least hinder President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and mass deportation campaign. Their efforts have proven again to be in vain.

Last summer, congressional Republicans circumvented the various obstacles presented by their leftist colleagues, using budget reconciliation to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included $75 billion in new funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and tens of billions more for other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.

‘All that Democrats have achieved by their shutdown is a useful reminder to the American people of their support for open borders.’

The war over immigration policy and funding heated up in subsequent months, featuring a pitched battle in which Democrats partially shut down the DHS for 75 days, only to then unconditionally surrender, passing funding for the DHS in the wake of the longest government shutdown in its history.

On Tuesday, Democrats were dealt another significant defeat.

Days after it was passed by the U.S. Senate in a 52-47 vote, the Secure America Act went to a vote in the House.

Ahead of the vote, the White House said in a statement, “The Secure America Act puts an end to Democrats’ political games by fully funding ICE and Border Patrol through President Trump’s term and providing the resources needed to keep our border secure, combat human trafficking, stop the flow of deadly drugs, dismantle criminal cartels, and enforce America’s immigration laws.”

RELATED: Republicans took ICE hostage — then bragged about saving it

Kent NISHIMURA/AFP/Getty Images

“It is imperative that Congress immediately passes the Secure America Act to fully fund these critical components,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“It has been more than 100 days since congressional Democrats defunded ICE and Border Patrol in a radical attempt to protect violent criminal illegal aliens and undermine President Trump’s highly successful border security agenda.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), among the Democrats who futilely signaled their opposition to the bill, stated, “As if ripping health care and nutritional assistance in the One Big Ugly Bill wasn’t enough, Republicans have now come back for more to give ICE and Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine another $70 billion blank check with no oversight, no accountability, and no guardrails.”

“As Democrats, we rise in strong opposition to this Republican scheme. Waste of taxpayer dollars,” added Jeffries.

To Jeffries’ chagrin, the Secure America Act passed in a 214-212 party-line vote.

This funding bill will allocate $38 billion to ICE, $26 billion to Customs and Border Protection, and $5 billion in additional funding to the DHS through September 2029.

Following the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) emphasized that “Washington Democrats gained **NOTHING** from their RECKLESS CRUSADE to return our country to OPEN BORDERS and UNFETTERED MASS MIGRATION. Republicans will ALWAYS stand with America’s law enforcement.”

“All that Democrats have achieved by their shutdown is a useful reminder to the American people of their support for open borders and keeping criminal illegal immigrants in American communities — policies that have been soundly rejected by the American people over and over again,” wrote Johnson. “We hope this episode serves as a future reminder to Democrats that when they shut the government down, they will receive less than nothing in return.”

President Trump is set to ratify the Secure America Act in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

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​Immigration, Illegal alien, Ice, Us immigration and customs enforcement, Border, Donald trump, Funding, Democrats, Hakeem jeffries, Mike johnson, Politics 

Digital age verification is a hot topic right now, with lawmakers pushing for legislation that would ban users from accessing their favorite apps, webpages, and even their devices without showing an ID. As I previously covered, these bills are largely a government power grab disguised as child protection. What if there was a better solution — a way to give lawmakers the verification they crave without sacrificing the privacy and security of American citizens? Here’s what it would take to get the best of both worlds.

Efforts to sign age verification into law

The age verification bills permeating the House and Senate right now are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they protect underage users from online adult content that they shouldn’t see on various platforms and apps. On the other hand, these bills give Big Tech and the government a pathway to capture, digitize, and store users’ real government-issued IDs — the makings of a digital ID database that links online activity to user identities.

The war on age verification has even become a bipartisan effort, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pushing for federal legislation. Most notably, you have Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.) proposing the Parents Decide Act, which would require operating system developers, like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, to verify the ages of their users any time someone sets up a new device. On the right, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) champions the GUARD Act, which would require users to show an ID to access AI chatbots, possibly leading to broader restrictions on the internet at large as AI expands into every corner of the web.

Both bills aim for age verification to protect children, and both would restrict Americans’ rights to freely access their devices, the internet, and online information without an ID.

Apple and Google actually built a way to handle the most personal and private information.

Make no mistake. If these bills pass, the government will limit or even revoke your access to your favorite apps, services, and devices unless someone finds a better solution — one that still enables age verification without actually giving your ID to tech companies and federal agencies.

Luckily, there is a possible solution, if Big Tech chooses to build it.

Security in the enclave

Whether you trust Big Tech with your data or you lock your phone in a Faraday cage at night, Apple and Google actually built a way to handle the most personal and private information about its users years ago. The key is found in a tiny locked vault stored in the processing chip in your phone. It’s disconnected from the internet, it’s never backed up in iCloud or Google Drive (you have to set it back up every time you wipe and restore your phone), and it’s encrypted.

Apple calls it the Secure Enclave. Google named it the Trusted Execution Environment. Together, they’re both “dedicated secure subsystems” that do the same thing: store your biometric data.

If you’ve ever unlocked your phone with your face or your fingerprint, you’ve used this subsystem (which we’ll refer to as “vaults” for the sake of simplicity). The best part about it is that it’s fast, efficient, and completely private. Through these vaults, Apple and Google can save your biometric data, but they can’t see it or access it themselves, and neither can third-party apps. The only thing the system can reveal is whether the face or fingerprint of the person holding the device matches the version saved privately in the system. That’s it.

We need a similar solution for age verification.

RELATED: Hackers easily fool Instagram’s new AI identity verification, humiliating Meta once again

Fotkam/Getty Images

The age verification solution we need

Instead of giving Big Tech a plain copy of your ID, what if there was a way to save it in the vault? Just like setting up FaceID on iPhone or your fingerprint on Android, your phone could prompt you to take a photo of your ID and store it inside the vault as part of your biometric data. To make sure the ID is real and that it belongs to an adult, the vault could include on-device authentication software that checks for the user’s birth date, the official Real ID star, barcode on the back, and any other unique state identifiers.

Once saved, ID-backed age verification would work in the same manner that facial and fingerprint authentication works today. When you log into an app, service, or device that requires ID, the system would prompt the vault to verify the information stored inside. If the system agrees that you’re an adult, it will let you through. If the ID belongs to a minor or is missing entirely, the system could then place restrictions on the user as mandated by law. In this way, the vault serves as a bridge between the user’s ID and websites, services, and apps, providing only authentication while keeping the user’s actual identification private.

The future of age verification

To make this work, of course, both Apple and Google need to adopt this technology and integrate it directly into their operating systems. Then the government would have to accept this technology as a valid form of verification that satisfies the new laws. Lastly, major tech companies would have to accept this form of verification, which they ultimately would, as long as they know Apple’s and Google’s solutions are legitimate, just like they do with face and fingerprint password protection today.

If we must turn over our photo IDs, locking them inside the secure subsystem is the only solution that makes sense. It would give politicians the government control over device access that they so desperately desire while enabling citizens to maintain their anonymity and privacy.

Or — and I might be asking a lot here — the politicians could just stop trying to hamper our rights and leave our devices alone. I like that one better.

​Tech, Return, Age verification, Surveillance, Online privacy, Big tech 

Steven Spielberg this week will drop “Disclosure Day,” his long-awaited engagement-bait alien movie. On cue, the internet is abuzz — with soyfacing and fangirling, dunking and slop farming, chin-stroking and opining, opining, opining. Somehow, therefore, more, but also dramatically less, needs to be said.

I was early to the disclosure discourse. Five years ago, as the topic began to heat up in earnest, I tried to get ahead of the conversation by focusing on the religious dimension. Back then, that wasn’t center stage. The alien thing was still mostly Joe Rogan- and “X-Files”-coded, disclosure a cause célèbre for freedom-minded individualists sure that the evil secret government was hiding the TRUTH that only heroically skeptical intellectual rebels could force to come to light.

In the coming age, many — even believers — will be deceived.

To me, that felt incomplete. At best. The American experience with “alien encounters,” I underscored, had always been depicted and acculturated religiously — not just as a matter of “having a religious experience,” good or bad, but of actual theology.

Its manifestation as popular culture belied not secular origins but spiritual ones: When your religious belief is that “organized religion” is bad and the only authority you can really trust is your own, you’ll see what’s at stake in the alien debate as the ultimate nature of the universe, one where perhaps everything we thought we ever knew about God and our relation to Him could be completely debunked.

The desire to overthrow the authority or even the existence of the unbroken Christian church, that is, doesn’t stem fundamentally from secular principles. It actually stems from a desire to actualize a much different, ostensibly higher or ultimate, spiritual order.

Among us

That is why in 2021 I emphasized that aliens are so often interpreted as proof that Christianity is not the truth that will save us — that the Christian era is over, Christianity is defunct, a new religion is not only “needed now” but has arrived, whether we like it or not. “The invaders are here,” I summed up the claim, “and they impose on us the responsibility of accepting a new age from which there is no turning back. Humans are but one organism, a weak and inferior one, whose only hope of salvation is in satisfying whatever it is the aliens herald and demand.”

I went on to push back on this master narrative by way of Father (perhaps soon to be Saint) Seraphim Rose. He got ahead of the disclosure discourse decades ago, citing key scholars who showed the overwhelming pattern among “alien encounters” is of experiences impossible to distinguish from encounters over the millennia with spiritual entities — specifically fallen angels. Demons, in other words.

“Aliens,” Rose explained, do not behave like angels, who appear as holy messengers cautioning people at once to not be afraid. Instead, like demons, they zoom around at will, produce terrifying illusions, and violate and persecute victims in their bodies and minds.

Nevertheless, as anyone knows who grew up in the spiritual anarchy of the 1980s — where the lines blurred dangerously between “progressive” Christianity, New Age cults, and straight-up demonic occultism — there was already back then a huge and growing swath of alien believers who nursed a kind of syncretism with Christianity or some kind of “biblical” religion.

That was what troubled Rose the most. Today, many people speak of the Antichrist and the apocalypse, topics very close to Christ’s warning that in the coming age, many — even believers — will be deceived that He has returned or the end is nigh.

RELATED: It’s not easy being pope — Leo’s big new tech encyclical proves it

ANDREAS SOLARO/Getty Images

Yes, millions of people may now be catching up to what counted as the frontier of the disclosure debate in 2021. X is full of eager, Spielberg-fueled arguments over whether aliens are compatible with Christianity, with both sides producing scripture, doctrine, lore, and receipts in the now-familiar style of the “global public square,” where every question is debated until it has been pulverized.

Even alien-skeptical Christians, or those aligned with Michael S. Heiser-style caution, can find serious authorities noting that the cosmos exceeds human comprehension. The existence of other rational created beings somewhere in that vastness cannot simply be ruled out.

But that is precisely the point. Some matters are best left to God. The human mind can crack them open with curiosity, only to find itself wandering a vast mental labyrinth — and once there, easy prey for delusion, pride, and disbelief.

Take, for one example making the rounds today, the question of whether He has perfect knowledge of all possible counterfactuals — a question that first made the rounds centuries ago thanks to Luis de Molina, a Jesuit theologian who touched off a furious and protracted round of discourse and debate, an effusion of energy that might well have been better spent in other ways.

What other ways? Well, here is where the new frontier of the disclosure debate appears.

Haunted halls

In theaters right now is a film called “Backrooms.” It’s close to being the opposite of “Disclosure Day,” at least in the sense that “Backrooms” is about the danger, and ultimately the tragic horror, of today’s deepening temptation to understand on our own terms the things that confuse and weaken us the most — things of our own flawed and falsely independent mental constructs.

Today the foremost of these false realities — what the ancient monks called logismoi — is the creepy combination of depression and pride that makes people curious to know “for themselves” what is really good and what is really evil.

Rather than trusting God on this matter or trusting God to sort it out and seeking refuge in humble self-denial of what even secular medicine calls the call of the void, we are all being carried along on a massive wave of belief that we somehow must subject all things to intellectual processing in order for us to function.

Increasingly, we treat human beings as if our only real function is intellectual processing. Everything becomes reducible to intelligence, or optimized as an operation of intelligence. Intelligence becomes the only thing that matters because it is treated as the only thing that truly exists. Everything else — the body, the soul, love, worship, suffering, memory, family, place — becomes merely an expression or construct of intelligence.

Under this view, nothing remains for us to do except intellectualize everything. We keep refining thought, language, and computation until we produce an intelligence so pure and complete that it no longer needs the rest of the human person at all, except perhaps for a time as fuel.

RELATED: ‘Backrooms’ is horror for a self-justifying age

A24

This insane belief has become compelling because it fits the modern mind. It is becoming a new “organized religion,” even among people who most loudly hate organized religion. We entered the current stage of technological development already convinced that spiritual truth could be uncovered, created, or replaced through endless discourse: talking, writing, printing, disseminating, propagandizing, discussing, debating, and filling the world with more and more words.

Eventually, we looked around and saw only language. Not merely spoken language, but language as thought itself. Reality had been swallowed by interpretation. And once everything became words, it was only a matter of time before we mistook the processing of words for the fullness of being human.

In 1962, Beat Generation drug hellion William S. Burroughs, author of “Junkie” and “Queer,” wrote that language is a virus from outer space — in other words, an alien. Any Christian must know that, in reality, the Word, the Logos, is the opposite of a deadly xenomorph. But severed from the divine Word, the merely human word swiftly becomes something alien, monstrous, devouring. (“Time to leave the Word-God behind,” Burroughs wrote in his final doped-up years.)

That is why the frontier of the disclosure debate now expands from the recognition that being sucked into the disclosure debate, by the “Disclosure Day” debate and all the alien debates, is a labyrinth with a minotaur inside our own delusional creation. This is the not-too-cryptic message of “Backrooms,” a message most strongly conveyed in the film by what’s also the cure for our servile and self-destructive yapocracy: silence. Holy silence.

​Antichrist, Apocalypse, Opinion & analysis, Popular culture, Theology, Demons, Christianity, Faith, Steven spielberg, Disclosure day, Aliens, Tragedy, Horror, Movies, Seraphim rose, William s. burroughs, Language, Knowledge, Thought, Backrooms 

Last Friday, the stock market had an abysmal day, losing well over $1 trillion. It was the worst single-day drop of 2026 for the S&P 500 and the worst day in over a year for the Nasdaq, which fell over 4%.

This sudden and dramatic dip surprised many because it occurred immediately after a jobs report revealed that May saw the addition of 172,000 new jobs — over twice the amount that experts forecasted. Unemployment also stayed the same at 4.3%

The report showed that “by every plain English measure, Americans are working; things are good,” says Glenn Beck.

“So why did the market panic on news that you and I would call encouraging?” he asks.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn unpacks “the whole game” that is the Federal Reserve and Wall Street’s addiction to cheap money.

“For two years, Wall Street has been betting on one thing above all else … but it’s not [AI],” he begins.

“It’s the Federal Reserve about to make money cheap again, and they love cheap money.”

Wall Street, Glenn explains, was expecting the government to slash interest rates soon. But when the job market came in strong, those hopes were suddenly dashed.

“Have you ever leaned on a door that you thought was closed or unlocked, and you fell through? It was kind of like that on Friday,” he analogizes.

On top of that, the AI trade was already experiencing a backslide.

Wall Street, having had high hopes for AI growth, discovered just days before the stock market plummet that Broadcom (a prominent AI chip maker) did not raise its future predictions as many had anticipated — even though Google’s parent company had just announced it was raising a massive $85 billion to buy more AI chips and build data centers.

As a result, its stock dropped significantly, and it brought several other tech/AI stocks down with it.

“So understand what actually happened here,” says Glenn. “It wasn’t the good news that scared everybody Friday. It was the truth that the Fed is not riding in to rescue the overpriced stocks, and maybe, just maybe, the AI miracle has a price tag attached to it that somebody should check before buying stock.”

This is tough news to stomach, he admits.

“That 401k or pension that you’re counting on rides on the market, and days like Friday took a big bite out of it. Also, you want a mortgage on the house. The 10-year is now above 4.5%. The rates are punishing,” Glenn sighs.

“It’s going to stay that way. Your grocery bill, your gas, your rent. Inflation is at 3.8% means they’re not coming down soon, and a Fed that has to say ‘tough on the price inflation’ and is going to — that means it’s going to be tough for a while,” he continues.

But there’s a silver lining we can’t ignore.

“America’s strength … has never come from cheap money or get-rich-quick fevers. It never has. Pain always comes from that — always,” Glenn declares.

“Where America has always rallied, done well, and fixed herself is when people who make things, fix things, grow things, show up and are encouraged to do what they do best.”

Glenn urges his listeners to stop “[hanging their] hope on the Fed or on Washington or the next shiny thing the market is chasing.”

“Get out from under your debt wherever and however you can; build something that doesn’t depend on a rate cut; strengthen your family and the people around you,” he implores.

“The real security was never something that was printed on a building on Constitution Avenue. It was built in your home with your hands and with your character.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Federal reserve, Wall street, Stock market 

A California homeowner was visiting with his neighbors when he heard gunshots and screaming coming from his house and rushed back to find a shocking threat.

Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the residence on Heron Way in San Jacinto on Friday just before 10:30 p.m. on reports of gunshots being fired.

‘His goal was to get his daughter out safely, regardless of what happened to him.’

They found a man with gunshot injuries and declared him dead at the scene, according to the Los Angeles Times. They identified the deceased male as 45-year-old Ismael Martinez.

The father of the home told them that he had rushed to the house after his wife said a home intruder was firing a gun. The homeowner armed himself with a gun from his garage and exchanged gunfire with Martinez.

Martinez was struck, but no other injuries were reported.

A police investigation found that Martinez assaulted his 52-year-old girlfriend with a knife before running off to attack the family at the Heron Way home. The woman was found inside a vehicle and transported to a hospital for treatment. She was reported to be in stable condition.

Police said there was no evidence that Martinez or his girlfriend had any connection with the residents of the home he allegedly invaded.

A neighbor named Frankie Aguilar said the husband and wife of the family had been at his home when the incident unfolded. He said the wife had gone back to her house to charge up her phone when she found the armed intruder.

“When she was screaming, he was shooting at her with a shotgun,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar added that his neighbor’s teenage daughter was also in the home during the shooting and home invasion.

“His goal was to get his daughter out safely, regardless of what happened to him,” another neighbor named Robert Dorame said to KTLA-TV.

RELATED: Intruder violently breaks down door of home with family inside — and gets justice from the end of a gun

“I’m shattered for them because they’re good people,” he added.

Police said the shooting would be referred to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Neighbors said they believed the homeowner had acted in self-defense. A friend of the family has opened a GoFundMe donation account to help them deal with the costs associated with the incident.

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​California, Home invasion, Self defense shooting, 2nd amendment, Crime 

It has been a pitiful few weeks for the United States Senate, which means senators are now pretending they saved Immigration and Customs Enforcement, fought for the SAVE Act, and still care about victims of government weaponization.

None of that is true.

Do not buy the celebratory social media posts from Senate Republicans. Get to work electing new ones instead.

This is a geriatric form of professional wrestling kayfabe. But instead of heroic wrestlers in tights, the actors are young communications staffers tweeting victory on behalf of their bosses while those bosses fly home.

Before we unpack what happened, we should understand how we got here. To his credit, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) recently summarized the problem well: “We made a huge mistake by not funding ICE and CBP in January. We NEVER should have funded the Democrats’ thousands of earmarks without funding ALL of homeland security. It is time to fund ICE and CBP NOW!”

It was a mistake, except that it was intentional. Still, Scott acknowledged the major point his colleagues would rather hide. Forthrightness in the Senate is rare, so we should welcome it when it appears.

The story begins in January, after two protesters were killed obstructing ICE. In the media-driven hysteria that followed, Congress did something unusual: It split off the Department of Homeland Security from the funding package that covered other agencies.

At the urging of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and top Democrat appropriator Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), Republicans caved and agreed to put DHS in a stand-alone funding posture. In congressional funding terms, that means danger.

For decades, government funding has largely moved through omnibus and minibus bills that force lawmakers into take-it-or-leave-it votes. Members may dislike parts of the package, but they swallow the whole thing to avoid shutting down large portions of the government. When DHS stands alone, Democrats have a much easier time voting no.

In February, DHS funding shut down. Airport lines grew. Employees went without pay. DHS changed secretaries. Democrats continued blasting ICE, deportations remained low, and the Trump administration retreated on parts of the deportation agenda.

In other words, Democrats gained concessions while holding DHS funding hostage.

Then, in April, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) began negotiating with the hostage-takers in earnest. They offered another major concession: separate ICE and Customs and Border Protection from DHS, making ICE and CBP a stand-alone within a stand-alone. For funding purposes, it is hard to imagine a worse fate.

RELATED: Polarization may be the cure — and the clarity — America needs

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

Congress funded the rest of DHS, ending a roughly 76-day shutdown. Politicians breathed a sigh of relief because airline lobbyists would stop pestering them about long lines at airports. ICE and CBP, meanwhile, would have to be funded through another mechanism: reconciliation.

Reconciliation funding creates operational problems that normal appropriations do not. That deserves more attention, though it falls deep into the procedural weeds. The key point is that ICE and CBP were isolated, weakened, and pushed onto a more perilous path.

As part of ending the shutdown for every part of DHS except ICE and CBP, President Trump demanded a reconciliation bill funding those agencies by June 1.

Negotiations began, then quickly collapsed after the May announcement of an Anti-Weaponization Fund that would compensate victims of government persecution. Republican senators revolted and learned the lesson Democrats had just taught them: ICE and CBP could be used as hostages.

They threatened to withhold ICE and CBP funding unless Trump agreed to kill the fund. Ultimately, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did just that.

Despite acting as hostage-takers, Republican senators also used the reconciliation process to posture on the SAVE Act, which had no chance of passing through that mechanism. The SAVE Act, which is popular across party lines, includes voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a leading opponent of the Anti-Weaponization Fund but a proponent of his own right to recover damages for weaponization against himself, introduced a meaningless amendment on the SAVE Act. Knowing most voters do not understand Senate procedure, he styled the move as a valiant attempt to pass election integrity legislation.

“Mr. President,” Graham posted, “I was honored to lead the charge to pass the SAVE America Act, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation you and your team have created.”

RELATED: Trump’s anti-weaponization fund puts GOP cowards on trial

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This was insincere and unserious. The SAVE Act has no chance unless the talking filibuster is enforced. Everyone on the Senate floor knew that. But Graham maintains Trump’s endorsement in his upcoming primary, so perhaps it will not matter. We may be stuck with him even after Trump leaves the stage.

Much of the swamp remains undrained.

This whole drawn-out charade should be remembered for two reasons.

First, Senate Republicans crossed the Rubicon and went where Democrats had already gone: They held ICE hostage. Worse, they held ICE hostage to force the Trump administration to scuttle the Anti-Weaponization Fund. That is a double betrayal of the base: threaten immigration enforcement to hurt victims of government persecution.

Second, Senate Republicans helped create the most perilous funding path for ICE and CBP moving forward: complete isolation. With ICE and CBP now handled outside the normal appropriations process, they will face another shutdown unless this strategy is reversed. As soon as Democrats have enough votes, they will try to defund both agencies.

Do not buy the celebratory social media posts from Senate Republicans. Get to work electing new ones instead.

​Immigration and customs enforcement, John thune, Lindsey graham, Mike johnson, Opinion & analysis, Patty murray, Republicans, Save act, Senate, Voter id, Ice, Customs and border protection, Department of homeland security, Weaponization, January 6, Filibuster, Rino 

Trevor Preisel, the executive director at the New Castle Prism Initiative, said the LGBTQIA+ members of the center were upset by vandalism on their Pride flags.

The center is located at the Third Independent Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and is one of the only centers offering LGBTQIA+ support in the Shenango Valley area.

‘If people are doing things like this, if people are talking about you, it goes to show that what we’re doing is working.’

They were preparing for a Pride festival on Wednesday when they discovered the vandalism.

“People had torn down the progress flags and just thrown them on the ground on both sides,” said Preisel, who showed the destruction to WKBN-TV.

“There was also one in this general area, and someone had just completely stepped on and smashed the fence post, ripped the flag off, as well as down here, where those two flags are now. Those were just completely ripped off the rivets,” he added.

The center has replaced the flags and added surveillance cameras.

“We did feel targeted,” he added. “There was a police report that was filed.”

He went on to say the vandalism was evidence that they were making a difference in the community.

“Obviously, it does hurt in a sense, but to quote a lot of activists that have come before me, if people are doing things like this, if people are talking about you, it goes to show that what we’re doing is working, and what we’re doing is having an impact in this community,” Preisel added.

RELATED: Video shows teens cutting up Pride flags at gay bar during Pride Month — now they’re facing hate crime charges

The group posted images of the damage to social media and said the community responded through increased donations.

“We’ve had a lot of local businesses reaching out to us. We’ve had a lot of community members reaching out to us, a lot of people asking if they can donate toward putting new flags up,” Preisel added. “When things like this do happen, the community comes together.”

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​Lgbtqia, Pride flags, Pride month, Vandalism, Politics 

As late ballots poured in overnight in the Los Angeles mayoral race, Democratic socialist Nithya Raman overtook Spencer Pratt — and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler isn’t buying it, declaring that “the Democrats have stolen an election again.”

“It’s not a question of did they, it’s a question of how they did,” Wheeler says.

And President Donald Trump agrees.

“Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections! Now they’ll be working on great guy Steve Hilton. Won’t have results for, possibly, TWO WEEKS, according to officials,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“This is exactly what happened in 2020,” Wheeler says, claiming that conservatives are again being gaslighted over the results.

“Do not let them gaslight you. They are cheaters. They stole the L.A. mayoral election. The late mail-in ballot numbers are just quite literally unbelievable. There is no way that this councilwoman, this no-name councilwoman who no one knew who she was, Nithya Raman, before Spencer Pratt made ads about her home, there’s no way that she got 22% of the vote in person on election day,” Wheeler says.

“Meanwhile, Spencer Pratt, whose fundraising skyrocketed in the days before the election, supposedly completely bottomed out from 30% on election day to 20% of late mail-in ballots,” she continues.

Senior counsel for the Article III Project Will Chamberlain agrees, telling Wheeler that there was a boost in Raman’s prediction market odds — even though she was still very far behind in the count at that point.

“Honestly, I do think that … somebody somehow was aware that a bunch of ballots were going to start coming in for Raman,” he says.

“But you start with the assumption that California’s election laws are so frivolous. They lack integrity to such a degree that there are a myriad number of ways in which cheating could have happened,” he continues.

“Plus, if you look at the heat map of the late votes, doesn’t it show that it’s coming from Skid Row?” Wheeler asks.

“I actually lived in downtown L.A. a few blocks from Skid Row. Yeah, nobody lives there except homeless people. And the homeless people are drug addicts,” Chamberlain says.

“They’re not going to vote. They’re drug addicts,” he continues, explaining that’s where he believes the fraud originated.

“These operatives are going into homeless encampments and registering people to vote. That wouldn’t make any sense if you were trying to conduct elections on the level because you couldn’t count on those people to vote,” he says. “So that seems like a very unproductive use of your time unless, right, unless you are using those people to cheat.”

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​Liz wheeler, Will chamberlain, The blaze, Spencer pratt, Democrats, Los angeles, Mayor, Donald trump, Nithya raman, Karen bass, The liz wheeler show 

A horrific attack in Northern Ireland by a Sudanese asylum seeker has led to rioting by anti-immigration protesters.

Video of the shocking attack showed the Sudanese man straddling a man on the ground and hacking at his neck with what appeared to be a kitchen knife.

‘The attack in north Belfast was heinous and wrong. But there are dangerous attempts to exploit that, to target and attack innocent people who are simply trying to live, work and raise their families here.’

Bystanders attacked the 30-year-old asylum seeker before police arrived to arrest him and transport the victim to a hospital.

The attacker reportedly obtained asylum in the United Kingdom in 2023 and traveled to Paris before going to Belfast in Northern Ireland. His identity has not been released, but he has been charged with attempted murder.

“The horrific attack in Belfast last night is sickening,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement on social media. “I have absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets. My thoughts are first and foremost with the victim, and I thank the first responders, including members of the public who intervened.”

Outraged voices on social media called for a “protest against mass immigration” for Tuesday evening.

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said there was so far no evidence that terrorism motivated the attack, but added that the investigation is still in its early stages.

RELATED: Sudanese national suspect attempts to behead UK citizen — but police beg public not to share images

“We have commenced an investigation to establish a motive,” Henderson said, adding that the “brutal attack will have sent shock waves through the community, causing real concern.”

Videos from Belfast showed several cars being lit on fire and dozens of rioters clad all in black.

Law enforcement officials also asked that residents stop sharing the very graphic video captured of the alleged attack, in order to avoid more public outrage.

Pastor Jack McKee reported that people in his congregation were being attacked just because they’re black.

“They’re good Christian people, and they’re getting put out just because they’re black,” McKee said to the BBC.

He said some church members were “getting put out of their home, had their house attacked, windows smashed, houses beside them burned.”

One report on social media said rioters were lighting fires in cars with gasoline bombs.

RELATED: German officials failed to deport Syrian migrant who allegedly butchered people at Christian concert

Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Other reports said a Turkish barber shop had been vandalized in a nearby city.

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill condemned the violence as nothing but “disgusting cowardice” in a post on social media.

“The attack in north Belfast was heinous and wrong,” she wote. “But there are dangerous attempts to exploit that, to target and attack innocent people who are simply trying to live, work and raise their families here.”

She added, “There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight. No one wants to see this on our streets and I again appeal for calm.”

The 40-year-old victim of the stabbing attack was treated for injuries to his eyes, back, and face.

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​Asylum seeker, Attempted murder, Northern ireland, Anti-migrant riots, Politics 

Some individuals in California will soon face federal election fraud charges, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Monday.

California has faced criticism for the delays in counting votes in the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral primary races, fueling concerns of fraud.

‘We will be charging some people.’

Now, a week after Election Day, California still has not counted all of the votes in its primary elections.

Last week, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles was investigating the delays.

Essayli noted in a post on social media that California allows its residents to register to vote using questionable forms of identification, including gym membership cards, employee ID cards, credit and debit cards, insurance cards, and prescription drug labels.

“This is permitted when a voter fails to provide a Social Security number or driver’s license at registration. Our office believes this policy deserves a closer look,” he wrote.

RELATED: Los Angeles mayor race called for far-left challenger after Pratt loses 40,000-vote lead

Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

During “The Glenn Beck Program” on Monday, Essayli told Beck that his office will be pursuing election fraud charges in the near future.

“It will be election fraud charges in the next — I hate to put timelines on things — one to two months, I believe. We need some of these results to be certified so we can prove some of the allegations,” Essayli stated. “But we will be charging some people.”

“At this point right now, we’re wide open for investigations,” he added.

RELATED: California gubernatorial race: A Republican and a Democrat appear headed for runoff election

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Essayli, who referred to California as a “fraudster’s paradise,” encouraged witnesses to come forward with any information.

“If someone voted in your name and you found out someone voted for you, we want to know about that. If you saw someone collecting ballots in a suspicious way or doing something odd with ballots, we want to know about that,” Essayli said. “Those are the kind of things we need direct evidence of right now so we can launch into deeper investigations.”

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​News, Glenn beck, The glenn beck program, Bill essayli, California, Los angeles, Election fraud, Donald trump, Politics 

Since the WNBA’s season kickoff in May, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock has been sounding the alarm that Indiana Fever superstar and the GOAT of women’s basketball, Caitlin Clark, is in deep trouble — not because of anything she did, but because her own team is actively orchestrating her downfall.

Whitlock has warned that if something doesn’t change, Clark’s stardom will prematurely fade. At this point, he sees only one option: leave.

“Caitlin Clark has to demand a trade right now, immediately. It’s the only way to fix this Indiana Fever situation,” he argues on a recent episode of “Fearless.”

Clark, he argues, “can’t trust anyone” involved with Indian Fever, and that includes: head coach Stephanie White, assistant coaches Briann January and Karima Christmas-Kelly, general manager Amber Cox, team president Kelly Krauskopf, the players, and even her own agent, Erin Kane.

“Caitlin Clark needs a whole new team, from agent on down to team on down. Caitlin Clark has to take this situation by her own hands, with her own hands, and correct this. If she doesn’t, this thing will drag out, and she will be destroyed,” Whitlock warns.

Since the Indiana Fever is unlikely to oust Clark and thus become “bad guys” and “idiots,” his solution is simple: Clark’s dad should orchestrate her transfer to the L.A. Sparks.

“She needs her father to step up and assist her in putting together a whole new team from top to bottom,” he says.

The first order of business, he says, is to fire Kane.

“[Get] rid of … the power agent, Erin Kane, who can’t be on her side,” he says, calling Kane “a hardcore political feminist activist.”

Step two, Whitlock says, is to get out of Indiana, where the team is structured in a way that prevents Clark from self-actualizing.

“She’s standing in a circle of people that cannot support her. Look at her teammates. What organization would put four former South Carolina players on the same roster as Caitlin Clark? Those are Dawn Staley soldiers!” he exclaims.

For years, Whitlock has characterized Staley as a symbol of the woke, DEI-driven women’s basketball establishment that he believes is hostile to Clark’s rise.

“Who surrounds Caitlin Clark with Dawn Staley soldiers, knowing how Dawn Staley felt about Iowa, about Lisa Bluder, and Caitlin Clark?” he asks, alluding to Staley’s long-standing resentment toward Iowa, her bitter 2023 Final Four loss to Bluder’s Hawkeyes, and her recent insistence that Clark is ‘criticizable’ despite public praise.

“Caitlin Clark has to woman up and tell the world, ‘I want out of Indiana. I want out of this cesspool of deceit and destruction and chaos and dysfunction,”’ he comments.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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​Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Caitlin clark, Wnba, Fearless