Category: blaze media

​Culture, Humor, Quick draw, Politics, Culture war, Death, Family, Social security 

When Justine Damond was shot by a Somalian police officer in Minneapolis, there were no riots or protests in her name.

Damond, a white woman, had called the police for help, but when they showed up, she was shot instead. The Somalian officer who fired his weapon claimed to have been spooked.

“For these people — for Black Lives Matter, for these left-wing agitators — it’s never about the victims. It’s not really about violence or injustice. It’s about the system. It’s about the belief that these activists have that America and its institutions are oppressive and unjust,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey comments on “Relatable.”

“And anyone who upholds these institutions, like the church — especially the Protestant church in America, who is still overwhelmingly conservative — is seen as an enemy,” she says, explaining that this was the entire reason former CNN anchor Don Lemon alongside Black Lives Matter activists stormed a church in protest of the ICE shooting of Renee Good.

“This demonstration … was not about Renee Good, or even the Somalians, or even any of the illegal aliens there. These were just — the exposing of the Somalian fraud, the killing of Renee Good — they were the trigger incidents used by these activists to justify terrorizing Christians and conservatives and anyone who stands in their way,” Stuckey explains.

“2020 wasn’t about George Floyd. 2026 is not about Renee Good. Understand this. It is about intentionally sowing chaos to ultimately weaken America and Western civilization. That is what George Soros and all of his funded initiatives and groups want to do,” she says.

Stuckey points out that the protest at Cities Church was livestreamed by Black Lives Matter — a group that received $90 million from the Soros-backed Tides Foundation just a few years ago.

And according to the New York Post, the Invisible Twin Cities group, which received $7.8 million from George Soros Open Society Foundations between 2018 and 2023, is behind the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.

“They’re not good people,” Stuckey says. “So you have to think: Why would they fund anti-ICE protests? It’s because they hate America. America stands in the way of what they want to do.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Video, Free, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, George soros, Open society foundations, Open society, Black lives matter, Ice protests, Don lemon, Renee good 

Republican lawmakers, the Arizona Police Association, and the Trump administration castigated Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) this week over her suggestion that it may be reasonable to shoot masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Mayes made no secret of her contempt for ICE in her interview with KPNX-TV’s Brahm Resnik, suggesting, for instance, that ICE officers are engaged in “thuggish, brutish behavior” and causing chaos, confusion, and anxiety in Minneapolis.

‘How do you know they are a peace officer?’

“It’s a combustible situation, let’s be clear about that,” said Mayes. “It’s a combustible situation being caused by ICE right now, wearing masks.”

After noting that she was “outraged and sickened” to see ICE agents outside her building and claiming that “real cops don’t wear masks,” the Democrat — who is seeking re-election — made a point of stressing that Arizona is a “stand your ground state.”

“We also have a lot of guns in Arizona,” she said with a smile.

“You know, it’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks, and we have a stand your ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you are in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.”

Resnik pumped the brakes and said, “I want to be careful with that and understand what you are saying because you know how that could be interpreted.”

RELATED: Anti-ICE radical who took credit for the invasion of Minnesota church ARRESTED by feds

(Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Image

“But it’s the fact,” said Mayes.

While Mayes clarified that you still cannot gun down peace officers in the Grand Canyon State and that she was not giving anyone license to start doing so, she appeared to give would-be killers an excuse, stating, “How do you know they’re a peace officer?”

“If there’s a situation where somebody pulls out their gun because they know Arizona is a stand your ground state, then it becomes ‘did they reasonably know that they were a peace officer?'” said Arizona’s top law enforcement officer.

When Resnik once more pressed her for clarification that she was not “telling folks you have license if you are threatened,” Mayes said, “Well,” and smirked.

“No,” she continued, “but again, if you’re being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer, how do you know?”

Republican Arizona Rep. David Schweikert noted, “Let’s not pretend this was some careful legal seminar.”

“This was the attorney general of Arizona freelancing a scenario where bullets start flying and then shrugging it off as ‘just the law.’ That is reckless on its face,” wrote Schweikert. “If your job is to enforce the law, you do not go on TV and hand out a permission structure for violence, then act surprised when people hear it as a green light. Words matter. Especially when they come from the state’s top lawyer.”

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R), who is running for state attorney general, noted, “Mayes should be fully aware of her dangerous rhetoric — and how people will construe, apply, and execute her comments. Mayes’ comments were reckless, dangerous, and disqualifying.”

The Arizona Police Association also condemned Mayes’ remarks, emphasizing that “words from elected officials matter.”

APA Executive Director Joe Clure stated that the Democrat’s framing was “deeply troubling and dangerous” especially as “law enforcement officers at every level including state, local, and federal agencies do not always wear traditional uniforms” — including members of Mayes’ own investigative teams.

“This does not diminish their legal authority or status as law enforcement,” said Clure. “Publicly speculating about how someone might legally justify shooting an ICE agent sends a dangerous and irresponsible message, particularly in an already tense and polarized environment.”

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the New York Post, “This is [a] direct threat calling for violence against our law enforcement officers — this kind of rhetoric is going to get someone killed.”

Blaze News has reached out the Justice Department for comment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Us immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Arizona, Kris mayes, Attorney general, Murder, Subversion, Insurrection, Ice agents, Dhs, Politics 

I had been living in New York for several years, writing young adult novels. But I wanted to move to Los Angeles. I needed a change of scenery, and I wanted to try screenwriting.

A friend connected me to a guy who had spent several years in L.A. pursuing film and TV writing. I called the guy and told him my plan.

The hair dye felt like it was burning my scalp. After I rinsed it out, my whole head glowed. Did it make me look younger? I guess it did. But it also made me look like a clown.

He said: “How old are you?”

I said 49.

He said, “That’s too old. You can’t be 50 in Hollywood. You’ll need to lie about your age.”

Then he asked me if I had gray hair. I said I did. He said I would need to dye it.

I said, “But George Clooney has gray hair. Doesn’t it look distinguished?”

He said I would definitely want to dye it. “Everyone dyes their hair in L.A. Get a good hairdresser.”

*******

He continued relating his experiences. He listed the dangers of Hollywood. They steal your ideas. They lie. They pretend to be your friend. I would need a good lawyer, and a manager, and an agent.

Most of this I already knew. But the “you can’t be 50 in Hollywood” part: I hadn’t heard that before.

Reelin’ In the Years

After we hung up, I thought about the age problem. I had already “adjusted” my age once while I was writing young adult novels.

I did this after attending a book festival, where I saw that all the other young adult authors were generally in their 20s and 30s. I was at least a decade older than most of them.

So I shaved five years off my Facebook age. Just in case anybody looked. And then I did the same thing when I filled out the publicity questionnaires for my publisher.

But the age problem got worse when I arrived in L.A. The first screenwriter I met with was 24 and looked like he was in high school. When I got home from that meeting, I went on Facebook and shaved three more years off my birthday.

When I did this, a little notice popped up, informing me that this would be the last time I would be allowed to change my birthday on Facebook.

So now, I was 41 according to Facebook, 44 according to my New York publisher, and 49 according to my driver’s license and the IRS.

This was a lot to keep track of. It made for some awkward moments on first dates.

Gray matters

It didn’t take long to realize that in Hollywood — where lying is considered “self-care” — what people really judged you on was your looks.

So then I considered my appearance. My hair was pretty gray. Should I try dyeing it?

I went to Ralphs and bought a box of Clairol Nice’n Easy hair dye. I went for espresso brown, which seemed closest to my original hair color.

I set up shop in my bathroom. I put on the gloves and followed the instructions on the box, mixing the chemicals and smearing them onto my head. It was a messy business.

The hair dye felt like it was burning my scalp. After I rinsed it out, my whole head glowed. Did it make me look younger? I guess it did. But it also made me look like a clown.

*******

I flew back to New York soon after, and a female friend immediately noticed the change. She said: “It’s true what they say; you look 10 years younger!”

That was nice to hear. But I was alarmed that she noticed it instantly. From 50 feet away.

Another friend didn’t believe me when I told her it was dyed. She had to look closer and touch it until she saw that I was telling the truth.

I was still trying to get used to it myself. Every time I saw my reflection, I startled myself. Who’s that guy with the dye job?

RELATED: The left wants to ‘reclaim’ the American flag; did they run out of lighter fluid?

Blake Nelson

Pro tips

Back in L.A., I spotted a sign in a hair salon near my apartment: “Dye and Haircut $80.” Maybe this was the solution: getting your hair dyed by a professional.

I would like to say this was a luxurious, pampering experience. It was not. The hairdresser roughed me up pretty good. And then I had to sit there for 40 minutes, in sight of people walking by the window, with a giant plastic covering over me and my thinning hair wrapped in tin foil.

And then, after all that, it looked no different from the Clairol dye job I had given myself for $9.99!

*******

Still, I stuck with it, re-dyeing it every six weeks — like it said on the box — for most of a year.

During this time, I kept a watchful eye out for other men with dyed hair. I was definitely not alone. At the beach, you would see aging “surfer dads” with dyed blonde hair and a skateboard under their arms. It wasn’t a terrible look. As long as you wore Vans and board shorts.

And of course, men who were on TV or acted in movies always dyed their hair. I’d see these men everywhere. Or I’d see guests on late-night talk shows who looked like they had just had it done an hour before. Their hair had that blurry, fresh-dye glow.

I became skilled at spotting dye jobs on either sex. I hadn’t realized how many women dyed their hair: basically all of them, after about 30.

The good news was that nobody thought less of a man for dyeing his hair. This was Los Angeles. Dyeing your hair meant you had a job.

All is vanity

This wasn’t the case on the East Coast. New York City was the land of the silver fox. Being a well-dressed, gray-haired, 50-year-old male was highly desirable. It meant you were rich!

In fact, it was in New York that a couple of female friends intervened and informed me that the hair-dye thing wasn’t working. I looked better being gray.

After that, my vanity took over, and when I returned to L.A., I shaved my head and released myself back into middle age.

Once I let myself go gray again, another Los Angeles acquaintance told me she thought I looked much better. She said the dye job made me look untrustworthy, like a used-car salesman.

*******

So that was a relief. But the real relief didn’t come until many years later, when I retired from writing and went back home to Portland and returned to total normalcy.

In retirement, I didn’t have to be young; I didn’t have to be cool. I could just be an old, gray-haired person like everybody else.

Though on Facebook — thanks to its birthday-changing restrictions — I remain a slightly younger and livelier version of myself.

​Hollywood, Lifestyle, Culture, Screenwriting, Writing, Aging, Blake’s progress 

A Chicago female recently was arrested in connection with an alleged string of beatings that took place after she allegedly failed to appear in court for an earlier battery case, CWB Chicago reported.

Records show that 37-year-old Diamond Miller failed to appear in court on a pending misdemeanor battery charge on Dec. 2, the outlet said, adding that court records show that Judge Peter Gonzalez ordered the court clerk to send Miller a postcard reminding her of her court dates rather than issuing a warrant.

Miller allegedly struck the woman in the face with a broken beer bottle, the outlet said, adding that the woman began bleeding immediately and suffered cuts to her face and a deep cut to her bottom lip.

Later that month, Miller allegedly went on a physical attack spree.

Prosecutors said that while she was “in AWOL status” from the pending misdemeanor battery case, Miller allegedly attacked three people within minutes near Pulaski Road and Cermak Road around noon on Dec. 21, CWB Chicago reported.

The first attack occurred on a southbound CTA #53 Pulaski bus after a 33-year-old man asked Miller to quiet down so he could hear his wife during a phone call, the outlet said, citing prosecutors during a detention petition.

Miller approached the man and struck him in the face “with great force,” causing him to experience “pain and dizziness,” CWB Chicago said, citing the filing. The bus driver stopped at Pulaski and Cermak and called police and EMS, the outlet noted.

RELATED: NYC subway rider pays brutal price after asking fellow passenger to stop talking loudly on cell phone

Diamond Miller. Image source: Chicago Police Department

Prosecutors said Miller exited the bus and walked to a nearby bus shelter, the outlet reported.

At 12:17 p.m., a second victim and her friend approached the shelter, where Miller was acting erratically and telling them to give her space, the outlet said, citing prosecutors. The victim and her friend walked away — but Miller allegedly followed them, CWB Chicago said. The victim told police that while she stood on the sidewalk with her back turned, Miller approached from behind and struck her in the face with a white plastic bag that contained a hard object that felt like ice, the outlet said, adding that the victim called 911.

Miller returned to the bus shelter minutes later, when a 54-year-old woman — the third victim — and her 74-year-old mother approached while switching bus lines, CWB Chicago said, citing prosecutors. The detention filing said Miller yelled at them and accused them of following her, according to the outlet. The daughter helped her mother — who uses a walker — away from the shelter, but Miller allegedly followed them and continued yelling, CWB Chicago said.

The daughter saw a CTA bus idling on the corner and asked the driver if her mother could board and wait until the next bus arrived, but the driver declined, the outlet said, citing the filing. As the woman and her mother walked away, Miller allegedly struck the woman in the face with a broken beer bottle, the outlet said, adding that the woman began bleeding immediately and suffered cuts to her face and a deep cut to her bottom lip.

The second victim saw the attack on the third victim and recorded part of it with her phone, the outlet said, citing prosecutors.

The first victim — the man from the bus — was taken to St. Anthony Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, CWB Chicago said, adding that prosecutors said the third victim received five stitches.

Police said they arrested Miller at 12:50 p.m. the same day and charged her with three felony counts of aggravated battery and one misdemeanor count of aggravated assault of a person older than 60.

Judge Robert Kuzas detained Miller, CWB Chicago said.

Records indicate Miller was booked into Cook County Jail on Dec. 24, and she has no bond. Her next court date is Feb. 19, jail records say.

CWB Chicago said Miller spent three days in jail in connection with four retail theft cases in October. A fifth retail theft case was dropped in November, the outlet said, even though Miller didn’t appear in court. However, records indicate the store’s representative didn’t show up for court, either, the outlet noted. A separate misdemeanor battery case was dropped in August, CWB Chicago added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Physical attacks, Unprovoked attacks, Chicago, Arrest, Jailed, Aggravated assault charges, Aggravated battery, Police, Cook county jail, Crime 

Liberals will often claim Christians are not acting in line with their religion when they support strict immigration laws — but that claim could not be further from the truth.

“Remember Romans 13, that the government was instituted by God to reward those who do good and to punish those who do evil. Those who think that it is immoral or it is unjust to deport people who are here illegally have no problem locking their own doors, having their own walls, dead-bolting their own fences,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says on “Relatable.”

“And the truth is, nations are like families. The government is supposed to put the interest in the well-being and the safety of our people first. Just because you lock your door and you don’t let any stranger come into your home doesn’t mean that you hate your neighbors,” she says.

“It doesn’t make you bigoted. It means that you love your children. If you allowed people that you don’t know, that you haven’t vetted into your home to sleep in your kid’s bed and to eat your kid’s food, you wouldn’t be a good neighbor, you would be a bad parent,” she continues.

And the same could be said for our government.

“If they were not sending ICE into these cities to deport illegal aliens who are not only here illegally, that would be enough to deport someone, by the way. Every government has that right and responsibility to maintain that sovereignty that we just talked about but also to deport the worst people in the world. We’re talking about people who raped a child. And you want to impede that justice,” Stuckey says.

“That is the God-given and righteous responsibility of any government. And Christians should be for that because we serve a God of peace, not a God of disorder. We understand that disorder and chaos are curses for a nation. And that God is a God of order who placed us in a garden, not a jungle,” she continues.

“Tough immigration policy is good,” she says, adding, “It would have been good for Laken Riley … it would have been good for all of those children who were raped or assaulted or kidnapped or harmed. The people who were killed, the people who have died because an illegal alien was driving under the influence. If we had tough immigration policy, those people would be alive.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Video, Camera phone, Video phone, Upload, Free, Sharing, Youtube.com, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Christianity, Immigration, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigrants, Strong borders, President trump, The trump administration 

In the tumultuous wake of Renee Good’s death, a video from Minnesota’s Becker High School is going viral on social media.

The footage captures social studies teacher Dr. Heather Abrahamson heatedly arguing with a student about the fatal shooting of Good — the 37-year-old anti-ICE protester who struck ICE agent Jonathan Ross with her vehicle while deliberately impeding an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on January 7.

On a recent episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara played the footage and discussed the radical politicization of our teachers’ unions and the leftist indoctrination of our youth with Teacher Freedom Alliance CEO Ryan Walters.

In the clip, Abrahamson insists that Officer Ross should have de-escalated the situation.

“Your job as a police officer is to de-escalate,” she spat, gesturing dramatically at the dissenting student, who fired back, “He had a split second.”

“Watch the video! He was not in danger,” Abrahamson retorted, ignoring the fact that footage from the incident captures Ross being propelled backward as Good’s vehicle makes contact with him and numerous reports that Ross suffered internal bleeding following the incident.

“Just because you’re yelling doesn’t mean you’re winning an argument,” the student said, refusing to bend.

“Just because you’re alive doesn’t mean you are intelligent,” Abrahamson clapped back.

The recording of this chaotic encounter, distributed by Libs of TikTok, has amassed nearly 4 million views on X and sparked intense debate over political indoctrination in classrooms.

“This is a very pervasive issue,” Sara says, displaying the following memo recently distributed by the National Education Association arguing for increased anti-ICE activism.

This kind of left-wing activism poisoning America’s classrooms, Walters says, is “a coordinated effort from the teachers’ unions.”

“‘Tell your students that the police are the enemy, that ICE is the enemy’ — and this is exactly what they’re pushing into our schools,” he says. “It’s not a one-off. It’s not, well, you know, here’s some crazy left-wing socialist teacher. No, this is the teachers’ unions utilizing their foot soldiers to … undermine this country through the classrooms.”

Sara brings up a recent Fox News article that exposed the NEA — the largest teachers’ union in the United States and the largest labor union overall in the country — for funneling millions in union funds during the 2024 fiscal year to various far-left and social justice-oriented groups and ballot initiatives.

“In a lot of these places, the teachers don’t have a choice. They have to join the union. They have to pay the fees,” Sara says. “I mean, it’s adding insult to injury that you’re essentially stealing from someone because they want to have the occupation as a teacher and then you’re using it to fund [left-wing] causes.”

Walters says that it’s paramount that we stop them.

“We have to defund them. Every teacher, you should opt out. Go to optouttoday.com. Get out of the union. Quit paying union fees to destroy this country. … And every state should be passing legislation to rail back on the union’s power. There shouldn’t be teachers’ unions,” he says.

“What you have in the teachers’ union is this huge apparatus of power. They have a ton of money. They have a ton of resources. They are embedded in the Democrat Party. They are one of their biggest funders,” he continues.

Walters warns that if we fail to defeat teachers’ unions, the consequences are potentially massive: “They’re going to gear up all this before the congressional elections, just like they did for Kamala Harris when over $400 million went from the teachers’ union to her presidential campaign. Same thing’s going to happen in this election cycle.”

But the money is just the weapon — the real war is in our classrooms.

Teachers’ unions, Walters says, have been instrumental in brainwashing younger generations into becoming America-hating, die-hard Democrats.

“We didn’t just wake up one day … [with] millions of kids that sit here and think we’re an evil, racist country. They think cops are bad guys. That didn’t just happen. It happened because of a coordinated attack,” he says.

The viral video of Dr. Abrahamson insulting a student’s intelligence because he refused to condemn an ICE agent he believes acted in self-defense is merely one thread in a vast tapestry of proof.

“We’ve got to turn this around 180 degrees in the other direction and go back to a patriotic education, love of country, love of American values. We’ve got to get back to that,” Walters urges.

To hear more of the conversation and see the viral video, watch the episode above.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Ryan walters, Ryan walters oklahoma, Woke teachers, Progressivism, Woke education, Blazetv, Blaze media, Ice, Anti ice, Indoctrination in schools, Viral video, Renee good, Ice protests 

Virginia’s new Democrat governor was inaugurated just six days ago, but already the safely ensconced Democrat legislature has a plan: more than 1,000 bills to supplement the administration’s already aggressive agenda of executive orders.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger campaigned as a pragmatist — a moderate former CIA agent fighting for an “Affordable Virginia” and giving the increasingly blue state a reprieve from President Donald Trump and her own predecessor, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

It’s a brave new world out there, folks. And ‘moderation’ is coming for the rest of this country, as soon the voters get in line.

Spanberger sold voters “moderation.” Her party intends to legislate like it never heard the word.

The new blue majority have been in power in this once-red state for less than two weeks, and already they’ve reminded Americans their view of “pragmatism” is discarding the notion as soon as they assume power. Taken as a whole, their agenda provides provided a blueprint for exactly what other purple-state voters can expect under any unified Democrat government — and why it’s so dangerous.

Virginia’s executive and legislative branches have already unveiled plans to decriminalize heinous crimes, protect and pay for illegal aliens, end investigations into massive fraud against taxpayers, empower radical and failing public school bureaucrats, raise taxes across the board, meddle in private lives and businesses in the name of climate change, restrict firearms, obscure shady elections, and make housing more affordable — for government employees.

That may sound like your typical partisan attack, worth glossing over in our ever-shriller news-smothered lives. But every proposal below is either an authentic executive order or a true piece of legislation introduced in the Virginia House or Senate for consideration in the coming days and months.

Lawless by design

Democrats want softer sentencing rules. House Bill 244 would weaken guidelines that judges use to sentence convicted criminals, giving even more discretion to Democrat judges already inclined toward leniency for robbers.

That’s child’s play next to HB 863, a 28-page bill to reduce mandatory minimum sentences on a whole host of crimes, including rape, possessing or distributing child pornography, repeat violent crime, and attacking law enforcement officers.

House Bill 1070 goes farther, restricting how prosecutors can refer to a suspect’s prior convictions during the phase when the judge or jury decides guilt.

After conviction, Senate Bill 21 would shift juvenile crime oversight toward the Virginia Department of Health and Human Services, sidelining the Department of Juvenile Justice and reframing ultraviolent juvenile crime as a “health” crisis.

Then comes the cultural haze. The governor’s allies want Virginia to host 350 marijuana shops within four years, while preventing local communities from saying “no thanks” and allowing stores to operate within 1,000 feet of schools and churches. SB 62 would even retroactively reduce sentences for some marijuana-related crimes, including transportation and distribution.

Democrats do have a taste for toughness — when it targets the wrong people. House Bill 7 would bar law enforcement agents from wearing masks, inviting activists to identify and harass them at home. Senate Bill 137 would criminalize coming within eight feet of someone who stands within 40 feet of an abortion clinic.

RELATED: ‘Place your left hand on the Quran’: Foreign-born lieutenant governor does not swear in on Bible

Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

Benefits for illegal aliens

Not everyone will be upset about the new laws, of course. Illegal immigrants have reason to celebrate, starting with the new governor’s immediate move to declare Virginia a sanctuary state and end an order compelling local cooperation with federal law enforcement.

House Bill 650 would block arrests at courthouses and bar federal agents from showing up there for that purpose. House Bill 912 would expand access to Virginia’s K-12 public schools for illegal aliens, funded by taxpayers. House Bill 553 would require language programming for inmates — a bill sponsored for Virginia Rep. Jessica Anderson, who gained a little local notoriety for TikToking herself peeing in public.

Virginia employers who make a pretty penny employing illegal labor need not worry either — unless they don’t pay illegal aliens enough. HB 675 wouldn’t hold them accountable for undercutting American workers but will be sure to fine them if they try to skirt minimum-wage laws.

Those aliens would be suckers to work for low wages when they could open a day care, though. No joke. That same pee video rep’s HB 1369 would protect fraudsters taking federal money, barring the state from “determin[ing], verify[ing], or otherwise requir[ing] proof of eligibility … for such public benefits.”

Don’t everyone rush to start a nonprofit at once, though. There’s plenty to go around. HB 259 would send more money toward starting at-home child-care programs.

Call it the Minnesota dream, imported to the Old Dominion.

Public schools: Parents and kids last

Virginia’s public schools already struggle with basics. Democrats want them to absorb more bureaucracy and more ideology.

House Bill 614 mandates history and social science instruction through the lens of “marginalized” identities. It includes traditional categories such as black Americans, women, immigrants, and the disabled. It also explicitly requires emphasis on “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer” experiences — plus whatever additional categories “the Board deems appropriate, in order to affirm such communities.”

Some might not want all that for their kids, so HB 359 makes it more difficult to homeschool or use any state benefits to attend private school.

And no matter where you send your kids, you’ll be paying for public school breakfast, which HB 96 mandates for all students through high school.

If you’re good at something, never do it for free, so HB 382 will give school board chairmen a nice raise.

Meanwhile, HB 355 would impose mandatory mental health screenings for students. It does not impose them on the lunatics who run the system.

Taxes on everything

Virginia Democrats inherited a nearly $3 billion budget surplus. They plan to raise taxes anyway — not just on billionaires, but on nearly everyone.

There’s no limit on what you can tax when you go for goods, labor, and now the services of that labor. House Bill 978 taxes services: gym memberships, laundry and dry cleaning, pet-sitting, repairs, mechanics, landscaping, storage, deliveries, travel services, décor services, and digital services. If what you’ve read so far makes you anxious, I’m sorry to say that therapy makes the list too.

But if it gives you a heart attack and you’re already on Obamacare, HB 405 would help cover the skyrocketing costs of that Democrat boondoggle. And there are real costs to health insurance. HB 1182 would require your Virginia insurance plan to cover condoms.

Then come new taxes on hotels (HB 524), events (HB 550), deliveries (HB 900), heavy car use and highway use (HB 1179), and landscaping tools (HB 557). House Bill 881 would ban gas-powered leaf blowers. Welcome to California East.

Blowing your brains out will cost you more, thanks to HB 919’s increased taxes on guns and ammunition.

HB 334 would add more local sales taxes. HB 378 targets investment taxes. HB 188 hikes taxes 74% for those making $1 million or more.

The new slush funds

What else are we going to pay for with all this free money? Saving the planet, for one. You might have thought global warming doom-whispering hasn’t been in since Al Gore checked out, but in Virginia it’s back, baby.

HB 324 would establish a new slush fund for electric vehicle infrastructure. And if you’re doing any business with local public schools, HB 1340 lets you take a little off the top to buy yourself a new Tesla.

HB 1230 sets aside $100 million for “sustainable aviation fuel,” whatever that means. HB 920 expands offshore wind subsidies fivefold — but not necessarily for white male-owned energy firms. HB 61 mandates preferential treatment for women- and minority-owned businesses in state contracting, even if costs rise.

Cities and localities can get in on the game too. In fact, they’re required. House Bill 256 would mandate that localities submit “environmental justice strategies.”

Own some land? HB 1091 treats solar panels as “agriculture.” If you’re an actual farmer, though, watch out: HB 950 elevates environmental enforcement so high that it removes the need for a warrant before flying camera drones over private property.

So much for self-defense

Of course, the rich men down in Richmond can’t have you shooting those drones down, so access to firearms is about to be severely restricted in a state once celebrated for sportsmanship and self-defense alike.

Want to shoot on private land? Better buy more, son. HB 926 would restrict shooting unless you own at least five acres.

It’s a noisy sport, after all. But HB 207 would add a $500 tax for suppressors.

Some weapons are scarier than others, so HB 217 bans “assault weapons.”

And HB 969 would establish the Virginia Gun Violence Prevention Center — another bureaucracy that will not stop criminals but will surely harass lawful owners.

RELATED: Trump’s agenda faces a midterm kill switch in 2026

Jim Watson/Getty Images

Housing relief — for bureaucrats

Democrats did think about affordability. They just defined the beneficiaries carefully.

House Bill 1130 would steer “surplus” city buildings toward housing for government employees, while House Bill 164 removes a $25,000 cap on grants for government employees buying homes, opening the door to far larger taxpayer-funded assistance for the big American purchase.

But that’s not all. During government shutdowns, federal employees whose votes have made so many Democrat dreams come true would get extra time to pay their taxes, thanks to HB 915. The state is deeply determined to show its thanks to those loyal voters especially. HB 494 grants special treatment in state hiring to federal employees laid off under the Trump administration.

Entrenching the machine

If you’ve made it this far, you might be thinking “Well, by golly, I’ll vote these bastards out in two years’ time.” But hold on, old buddy. Democrats have bills for that, too.

HB 82 allows absentee ballots to arrive and be counted three days after Election Day is “over.” HB 773 would provide a week to “cure” incorrect ballots, while HB Bill 1244 would allow for “emergency absentee ballots” to be made available shortly before elections.

Other innovations include ranked-choice voting (HB 630), voting by internet (HB 493), and a total ban on Virginians challenging suspected fraud at a polling place (HB 640).

You won’t have to raise any money from local citizens and businesses to run, thanks to HB 162, which would let candidates raid the taxpayer for their campaign costs. They might not even need to really live in the commonwealth after HB 835 hides their addresses from even irritating reporter FOIA requests.

To make sure everything runs above board, Senate Bill 52 would block cleanup of voter rolls in the three months before an election. And since we live in the future now, HB 968 bans hand-counting ballots.

Virginia’s new leadership campaigned on “Affordable Virginia.” To get there, somehow, SB 22 mandates racial bias training for nurses, HB 858 would rename Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples Day,” HB 994 allows localities to install as many speeding and crosswalk cameras as they want, and HB 415 makes the long-neglected pawpaw the official state fruit.

It’s a brave new world out there, folks. And “moderation” is coming for the rest of this country, as soon the voters get in line.

​Politics, Virginia, Spanberger 

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned nearly four years ago, countless pro-life organizations have pushed new regulations on abortion. Many of those same groups have rushed to declare victory, claiming that conservative states are now “abortion-free.”

But when pro-life organizations declare any state “abortion-free,” they celebrate a victory that does not exist — and drastically overstate the impact of pro-life laws.

The preborn babies murdered under the cover of our laws deserve more than semantic victories. They deserve equal protection.

These claims don’t just mislead. They undermine the cause these organizations claim to champion.

Exaggerating victories

The claim that some states are “abortion-free” isn’t rare. It has become standard messaging.

Students for Life published a map three years ago declaring that 14 states are now “abortion-free.” Frank Pavone, who leads Priests for Life, has made the same claim about Mississippi. National Right to Life called Kentucky “abortion-free” as recently as last summer. LifeNews has become notorious for amplifying inflated or misleading abortion claims from pro-life groups at the state level.

These declarations suggest abortion has been eliminated in these states. The reality says otherwise.

Pro-life leaders do not make clear that in every state labeled “abortion-free,” abortions remain legal for women who want to kill their preborn babies.

Many conservative states shut down abortion clinics and imposed penalties on providers. At the same time, those states wrote explicit exemptions into law protecting women from prosecution for willfully obtaining abortions.

That wasn’t a mistake. Pro-life organizations crafted and promoted that policy.

Self-induced abortions

Legal immunity for women who murder their preborn babies created a massive loophole. It also opened the door to a surge in self-induced abortions.

Women in “abortion-free” states can order abortion pills online from telehealth providers operating under shield laws in blue states or from overseas providers.

In many cases, it remains perfectly legal to order these pills, possess them, and use them at home. The scale of this practice — even in conservative states — is staggering.

Consider Kentucky, which National Right to Life called “abortion-free.”

In Kentucky, more than 2,800 women in 2024 received mail-order abortion pills through telehealth providers alone, according to data from the Society of Family Planning.

That does not include the more than 4,300 Kentucky women who traveled to other states for abortions in 2024, according to the Guttmacher Institute. It also does not capture self-induced abortions outside the formal medical system.

Kentucky is not an outlier.

RELATED: How a pro-life law in Kentucky lets mothers get away with murder

Carl Lokko via iStock/Getty Images

When all available data is considered, the 14 conservative states that have banned or mostly banned abortion — the same states pro-life groups often call “abortion-free” — saw at least 250,000 preborn babies murdered in 2024.

That number represents a sharp increase from the 181,000 abortions recorded in those states in 2019.

In other words, pro-life laws have not created states with fewer abortions. They have created states where abortion has shifted away from clinics and toward self-induced abortions at home — abortions that remain legal for the mother who commits them.

How can abortion increase while pro-life organizations claim success? Because many have misrepresented what they mean by “abortion-free.”

When these groups say “abortion-free,” they mean abortion clinics have closed. They do not mean abortions have stopped. It’s like calling a city “crime-free” because the district attorney refuses to prosecute criminals. The semantics conceal the reality.

Opposing abolition

Even more troubling, major pro-life organizations often oppose the bills that would actually abolish abortion.

When lawmakers introduce equal protection bills — proposals that would make abortion illegal for everyone, including pregnant mothers — pro-life organizations often mobilize against them.

This has happened dozens of times across the country. The reasoning stays consistent: Pro-life groups insist women are victims of abortion and should not face legal consequences, even when they deliberately order abortion pills and self-induce abortions at home.

When pro-life groups oppose equal protection bills and then claim their states are “abortion-free,” they don’t merely exaggerate. They sabotage.

Everyday anti-abortion Americans hear “abortion-free” and assume the fight is over. Activism slows. Political pressure fades. Donations and support shift elsewhere. Meanwhile organizations that should be pressing for equal protection instead suppress the only laws that would actually end abortion.

In the meantime, abortion continues unabated — simply moved from clinics to living rooms.

The pro-life establishment has redefined victory to fit what it has achieved, not what it claims to seek. It has declared victory over a substitute target — abortion clinics — while the killing of preborn children continues through abortion pills and interstate travel.

RELATED: Why the pro-life movement fails without a Christian worldview

wildpixel via iStock/Getty Images

Demanding honesty

Americans who oppose abortion deserve honesty from the organizations claiming to represent them.

If abortion can still be performed legally in a state through mail-order pills, that state is not “abortion-free.” If abortion numbers rise rather than fall, victory has not arrived. If pro-life groups oppose laws that would make abortion illegal for everyone, they owe the public an explanation.

Abolishing abortion requires equal protection under the law: making the killing of any human being illegal for everyone, without exception or compromise.

Until major pro-life organizations support that principle, their claims of creating “abortion-free” states remain not just premature but dishonest.

The preborn babies murdered under the cover of our laws deserve more than semantic victories. They deserve equal protection — and Americans who oppose abortion deserve leaders honest enough to admit when that goal remains unmet.

​Opinion & analysis, Abortion, Roe v. wade, Dobbs v. jackson women’s health organization, Abortion pills, Mifepristone abortion pill, Supreme court, Abortion-free states, Students for life, Lifenews, Frank pavone, Priests for life, Kentucky, Society of family planning 

The Trump administration indicated in its National Security Strategy that “after years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.”

Making abundantly clear to all that this was not empty rhetoric, the U.S. kicked off 2026 by militarily deposing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro was the first leftist dictator removed from power this year, but he may not be the last.

Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that now with a blueprint for surgical governmental restructures in the region, the Trump administration is searching for well-placed insiders in Cuba who could help oust the island nation’s communist regime by the end of the year.

‘I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.’

That strategy appears, after all, to have worked in Caracas, Venezuela, where an asset within Maduro’s inner circle furnished American intelligence personnel with critical information about the leftist leader’s habits, travels, and whereabouts, according to administration officials.

It’s unclear if that asset was Maduro’s vice president, now acting President Delcy Rodríguez, whom four sources familiar with the discussions told the Guardian signaled a willingness to cooperate with the Trump administration ahead of the military extraction.

RELATED: The truth behind Trump’s Venezuela plan: It’s not about Maduro at all

Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

One U.S. official told the Journal that in recent meetings with Cuban exiles and civic groups, Trump administration officials have brainstormed possible individuals within the current Cuban regime who have an appetite for change and might want to make a deal.

The sense is that the time is ripe for a shakeup in the Stalinist island nation in light of its economic instability and loss of a key ally in Caracas.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said earlier this month, “I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people.”

“If I lived in Havana, and I was in the government, I’d be concerned,” added Rubio.

Cuba — which has suffered rolling blackouts in recent months and years — has long relied on Venezuela for subsidized oil, which has made up around 70% of its total oil imports.

In the wake of Maduro’s removal, Pavel Vidal, a former Cuban central bank economist who teaches at Javeriana University, told NBC News, “If oil supply were to cease entirely, the Cuban economy would grind to a halt.”

Senior U.S. officials told the Journal that the U.S. plans to further undermine the Cuban regime by restricting its access to Venezuelan oil.

“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela,” Trump noted in a Truth Social post on Jan. 11. “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

The State Department said in a statement that it is in America’s national security interests for Cuba “to be competently run by a democratic government and to refuse to host our adversaries’ military and intelligence services.”

Rubio made a point of noting last week that the Cuban regime was “illegitimate.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Cuba, Communist, Havanna, Donald trump, Hegemony, Monroe doctrine, Donroe, Marco rubio, Regime change, Intervention, Politics 

Imagine what the Republican Party would have looked like had President Trump been endorsing conservative reformers down-ballot rather than milquetoast RINOs backed by special interests for five consecutive cycles.

In 2016, President Trump stormed the corporatist castle of the country-club GOP. But over the next five election cycles, he pulled up the rope ladder behind him. He left the reinforcements outside the gates, which crushed his ability to deliver on his promises in his first term. It also allowed generic Republicans to ride his brand while drifting away from his original America First message.

Conservatives understand that competition improves a product. When Trump protects incumbents from primary pressure, he guarantees that the party never improves.

Now he is making the same mistake in his second term by backing status-quo, corporatist Republicans in key races.

2026 is do or die

The opening months of 2026 should be the Super Bowl of primaries for the right. Vulnerable establishment Republicans and open seats sit on the board across solid red states — for Senate and governor.

Even if Republicans struggle in swing states, Trump could still lock in a generation of red-state power by backing grassroots conservatives in open seats and insurgents challenging weak incumbents.

Instead, he keeps yanking the rug out from under his own base.

Louisiana bait and switch

Over the weekend, the president endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) for U.S. Senate in Louisiana. Until now, Trump has refused to back conservatives against incumbents — except when he endorsed against Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Bob Good of Virginia in 2024.

So yes, Trump finally moved against Sen. Bill Cassidy, a pro-COVID-vaccine liberal wasting a conservative seat. But he waited until more conservative candidates — state Treasurer John Fleming, state Sen. Blake Miguez, and state Rep. Julie Emerson — softened Cassidy up. Then Trump picked a challenger who matches Cassidy’s worldview in a prettier package.

Letlow sides with Cassidy on government-run health care and the COVID vaccines. She also voted against penalizing FDA officials for unlawfully expanding access to mifepristone. Trump carried Louisiana by 22 points and won 57 of 64 parishes. He could have used his clout to elect a conservative stalwart like Miguez. Instead, he chose another version of the same problem.

RELATED: Voters won’t buy ‘freedom in Iran’ while Minneapolis goes lawless

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Governors matter now

If Democrats regain Washington, governors become the last real barrier against federal abuse. Red-state governors will matter more than ever, especially if Democrats install a weaponized Gavin Newsom-style agenda at the national level.

After Ron DeSantis turned Florida from swing state into the red-state model, Republicans should be building an entire bench of governors who make even DeSantis look tame. But Trump’s endorsement habits keep locking in mediocrity. In Florida, he is backing Byron Donalds — a favorite of the legislative RINOs who fought DeSantis for years.

Fourteen governorships are up in states Republicans should win even in a rough year: Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. Trump hasn’t made one bold, movement-building endorsement as he did with DeSantis in 2018. Instead, he has already pre-emptively endorsed Idaho Gov. Brad Little for a third term and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for a fourth.

Texas betrayal rewarded

Trump has started interfering even in state legislative races. In Texas, Republicans cut a deal with Democrats and installed Dustin Burrows as speaker against the will of most of the party. Burrows rewarded them by handing committees to Democrats and killing conservative priorities.

When conservatives moved to defeat the traitors, Trump carpet-bombed the effort by endorsing Burrows and his lieutenants for re-election.

Conservatives understand that competition improves a product. Trump keeps canceling that competition. When he protects incumbents from primary pressure, he guarantees that the party never improves.

​Trump, 2026 midterms, Rino, Rino republicans, Trump endorsement, 2026 primaries, Byron donalds, Julia letlow, Opinion & analysis, Republicans, Congress, Red state governors 

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted ex-special counsel Jack Smith during a House committee hearing, accusing him and the Justice Department of secretly surveilling members of Congress and stomping on constitutional protections while investigating President Donald Trump.

Gill pressed Smith on his office using secret subpoenas and nondisclosure orders to obtain phone “toll records” from lawmakers, including then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), without notifying them or the public.

‘Nobody’s going to sue. … So who cares? We’re going to do it anyway.’

“In January of 2023, did you subpoena then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s toll records?” Gill asked.

“Yes, sir, we did,” Smith replied.

RELATED: GOP senator to sue Jack Smith after his lawyers try gaslighting on Biden FBI surveillance

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Gill pushed back, claiming Smith abused executive power to secretly collect phone data on Republican leadership.

“Collecting months’ worth of phone data on the Republican speaker of the House — the leader of the opposition — right after he got sworn in as speaker, all around the time of a major vote — that sounds like a flagrant violation of the Speech or Debate Clause to me,” Gill said.

The confrontation ramped up as Gill questioned Smith about the nondisclosure orders used to prevent McCarthy from learning that his records had been subpoenaed.

“At the time you secured those nondisclosure orders, was Speaker McCarthy a flight risk?” Gill asked.

“He was not,” Smith answered.

“Then why did your nondisclosure order refer to him as a flight risk?” Gill pressed. Gill then cited language in the court filing stating that disclosure could result in “flight from prosecution.”

“You think the speaker of the House is … going to hop on a plane and leave the country?” Gill asked.

“No,” Smith said, arguing that the language was not meant to apply personally to McCarthy but to general investigative risks.

Gill rejected that explanation.

RELATED: House Republican seeks criminal investigation into Jack Smith’s alleged surveillance scheme

Photo by Ricky Carioti/Washington Post/Getty Images

“This is clearly in reference to Speaker McCarthy,” Gill said. “You were using clearly false information to secure a nondisclosure order to hide from Speaker McCarthy and from the American people the fact that you were spying on his toll records.”

Gill also revealed that Smith’s office issued additional secret subpoenas in May 2023 for the toll records of nine U.S. senators and another House member, along with more nondisclosure orders.

“So again, nobody would know what you were doing,” Gill said. “The senators wouldn’t. The representatives wouldn’t. The American people wouldn’t.”

Gill then read from an internal DOJ email warning of “litigation risk” tied to compelling disclosure of lawmakers’ phone records due to Speech or Debate Clause concerns.

“As you are aware, there are some litigation risks regarding whether compelled disclosure of toll records of a member’s legislative calls violates the Speech or Debate Clause,” Gill read.

Gill emphasized another line from the same analysis, saying that because of “the low likelihood that any of the members listed below would be charged, the litigation risk should be minimal here.”

“In other words,” Gill said, “You’re using a novel legal theory. … You’re not charging any of these members. Nobody’s going to know about it because you issued NDOs. Nobody’s going to sue. … So who cares? We’re going to do it anyway.”

“You walked all over the Constitution throughout this entire process,” Gill added.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jack smith, House committee, Hearing, Gop, Republican, Republicans, Politics 

Like the post-apocalyptic Britain of the “28 Days Later” franchise, Hollywood has become a wasteland, teeming with the stripped-down, lethally efficient shells of once-vital creations. Nostalgia-driven reboots swarm the multiplex, satisfying audience cravings for familiarity and studio appetites for certainty — even as they leave the surrounding creative landscape increasingly barren.

This year’s “28 Years Later” could just as easily have been another of these living-dead productions. While previous installment “28 Weeks Later” (2007) — made with nominal participation from the original creative team — delivered competent scares, it hardly cried out for a follow-up.

The movie is littered with British cultural references — decontextualized and repurposed by survivors struggling to find meaning in a world they no longer understand.

But the return of director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland proved worth the wait. “28 Years Later” demonstrated that this universe could still surprise, ending with a tantalizingly bizarre coda in which our hero Spike is rescued by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his blonde-wigged, track-suited minions. Clearly the infected are not the only menace stalking the British countryside.

Charity cases

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” picks up right after this moment, confirming our suspicions that Spike’s troubles have just begun. After a gruesome kind of initiation, Spike is forcibly enlisted as one the “Jimmys,” who turn out to be a gang of satanic killers. Led by Jimmy Crystal, who believes himself to be the son of “Old Nick,” they prowl the land inflicting gruesome ritualized violence — which they call “charity” — on those unfortunate enough to meet them.

While Garland returns as screenwriter, Boyle (who stays on as producer) cedes the director’s chair to Nia DaCosta, whose striking use of lingering close-ups and tightly framed compositions inject the film with a raw, anarchic energy. The result is a legacy sequel that both pays homage to its origins and reimagines them — one that weaves graphic violence together with incisive observations on culture, faith, and survival in a world irreversibly altered by catastrophe.

Doctor Sleep

Many of those observations come straight from the kindly and philosophical Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), an eccentric recluse who provided shelter for runaway Spike and his dying mother in “28 Years Later.” In this grisly sequel, the iodine-covered, blowdart-wielding former physician is searching for a cure to the rage virus, using an infected “alpha” zombie — whom he names Samson — as his pet project.

He also continues work on the titular bone temple, a memorial to the outbreak’s victims, until his optimism and ingenuity is tested by the new and horrifying human adversary we met in the beginning.

While Boyle’s 2002 film focused on urban chaos, this installment widens its lens, exploring the virus’ impact across the countryside while delving into deeper philosophical terrain. Beneath the skin-flaying, stabbings, “Mortal Kombat”-style spine removals, and Iron Maiden needle drops lies a poignant meditation on a once-beautiful country sliding into social and spiritual decay.

This is England

DaCosta, an American director, deftly preserves the distinctly English identity of the original films. The movie is littered with British cultural references — decontextualized and repurposed by survivors struggling to find meaning in a world they no longer understand.

The Jimmys, with their blonde wigs, tracksuits, and gold jewelry, are intentionally modeled after Jimmy Savile, one of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders. In this universe — where society collapsed in 2002, years before Savile’s real-world crimes were exposed — the cult reveres him as a benevolent, almost mythical figure. Their so-called acts of “charity” grotesquely invert Savile’s public image of philanthropy, turning it into a rationale for cruelty and sadism.

The dynamic between Sir Jimmy and Kelson is magnetic. O’Connell and Fiennes deliver outstanding performances, moving seamlessly between surrealism and melancholy. Some of the film’s most compelling moments occur when these two simply share the screen in conversation.

Sir Jimmy and Kelson represent competing philosophies of survival. In desperate times, humanity creates belief systems — sometimes as tools of power, sometimes as mechanisms of self-preservation. Through these two figures, Garland weaves a thoughtful exploration of evil, faith, and meaning.

RELATED: ‘28 Years Later’: Brutal, bewildering, and unabashedly British

Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images

Feral faith

Religious symbolism runs throughout the film. The Jimmys repurpose Savile’s catchphrase “Howzat!” as a ritual chant — stripped of its original meaning and reconstituted as a signifier of violence. Kelson, meanwhile, assumes the role of a secular creator. His humanist liturgy centers on music and literature, which function as sacred texts connecting him to the past and preserving his sanity.

Samson’s transformation becomes an allegory for rebirth: emerging from the hell of infection into renewal. Where the biblical Adam becomes aware of his nakedness after eating from the tree of knowledge, Samson’s recovery inspires modesty as he clothes himself with memories of his return. It is the Fall in reverse — self-awareness as ascension, rebirth without grace.

“The Bone Temple” manages to inject genuine life into a franchise nearly 25 years old. I may regret saying this, but I am genuinely curious to see where the story goes next — especially with Boyle returning to direct the third and final installment. The film’s closing scene teases the return of a familiar face, and John Murphy’s fuzzed-out guitar theme suggests that hope remains, for both the survivors and the fans.

​Movies, Entertainment, Culture, 28 days later, 28 years later, 28 years later: the bone temple, Hollywood, Danny boyle, Alex garland, Review 

The co-hosts of “The View” were exhilarated by the presence of newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), but Whoopi Goldberg topped them all with her praise of his policies.

Mamdani was swept into office on the promise of higher rent controls and redistribution of wealth, but he also benefited from opposition that included a scandal-plagued former governor and an unpopular incumbent mayor.

Her comments were met with thunderous applause from the audience.

At the end of the show that aired Monday, Goldberg expressed hope that his socialist policies could be extended to the rest of the nation.

“It’s really nice to have you here. You make sense,” she said to the mayor.

“Thank you!” he responded, laughing.

“Well, because it’s important, you know,” she responded.

“I just want to say, listen, if you can do what you say you can do, you will not only remake the city, but you may help remake the nation.”

Her comments were met with thunderous applause from the audience.

“So my fingers [are] crossed for you!” she added.

Video of Goldberg’s comments were posted to social media, where they were widely condemned.

“He won’t. He says all those things, but it’ll all fail. Then, it’ll be the prime example of what not to do to a city,” said one commenter.

“A lot of people will pay for his mistakes. The only good thing about it is when he ruins the city it’s possible that New York will finally realize that they need a republican in office,” said another critic.

“We want him to go away!! We don’t want this 15 years old jihadist to touch anything!! Whoopi was a great actress some time ago! She is brain dead idiot now!” read another response.

Mamdani said alleviating the housing crisis and lowering the cost of child care were the central objectives of his administration.

RELATED: ‘Completely out of your f**king mind’: Eric Adams rips into Mamdani over white supremacy

Critics of rent control say that state-ordered market interventions lead to fewer open housing units and ironically higher rents.

The full episode of “The View” with the Mamdani interview is available on the show’s YouTube channel.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Mamdani on the view, Whoopi goldberg loves mamdani, Mamdani remakes the nation, The view extremism, Politics 

A Texas social media influencer was arrested over a horrifying video that a woman found of him and her 2-year-old daughter on the man’s phone, according to police.

Victor L. Corey Paillet III, 40, was arrested Friday after a woman said she went through his phone and found the video. She said he had gotten drunk and fallen asleep.

‘He tortured her in that video,’ she said. ‘He literally tortured my daughter. How can you do this to a baby?’

“I’ve never went through his phone before, never, but his phone was right there, and I’m like, I just feel something’s not right,” the woman said to KPRC-TV.

“I clicked on that first video right there,” she added. “It was seven minutes and 53 seconds. … And it said yesterday at 6:43 a.m.”

She provided KPRC with surveillance video from his arrest at her home in Porter.

“You raped my f**king daughter!” a woman screams on the video. “I hope you die!”

The mother of the girl told KPRC that she had been dating Paillet but that she looked through his phone when he said something about being a “demon.”

She says she hasn’t been to stop shaking or crying since seeing the video.

“He tortured her in that video,” she said. “He literally tortured my daughter. How can you do this to a baby?”

Court records say that investigators have discovered other evidence that leads them to believe Paillet had abused other victims. They are asking for help from the public in the investigation.

Paillet is known as “Kandy Red Bread” on social media, where he posts about custom car modifications. He has over 62,000 followers and has been photographed with influential Houston figures.

He has past criminal convictions that include drug possession and a weapons charge.

RELATED: Disturbing image caught on video before remains of 5-year-old were found dumped at LA parking lot

Paillet is charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault of a child and promotion of child pornography. He has also been placed on “modified safety watch” to prevent the possibility of him harming himself in custody.

His TikTok profile reads, “Love yourself and don’t trust nobody.”

Paillet is being held without bond.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Victor paillet arrest, Child sex abuse material, Mom finds horrible cellphone video, Cellphone video child rape, Crime 

Nash Keen holds the Guinness World Record for the most premature infant to survive outside the womb. Born at just 21 weeks’ gestation, Nash’s story forces us to grapple with an unsettling reality: In 29 states and Washington, D.C., the law would have permitted his abortion for at least another week.

At 21 weeks, abortionists commonly use dilation and extraction. Many call it a dismemberment abortion, and the term fits. The procedure requires pulling the child apart.

We’ve made real progress since the Dobbs decision. Thirteen states, including my home state of West Virginia, protect life from the moment of conception.

A Sopher clamp — a metal tool with sharp, serrated jaws — grasps a limb, the torso, or the head. The abortionist twists and tears the body piece by piece. The child has a beating heart and can feel pain. Arms and legs are ripped from the torso. The spine snaps. The skull is crushed so it can pass through the cervix. Blood and tissue are suctioned out. Then the abortionist reassembles the remains on a tray to confirm nothing is left behind.

This barbarity happens tens of thousands of times each year in the United States.

Consider the contrast. At 21 weeks, doctors and nurses fought to keep Nash alive. At the same stage of development, in other hospitals and clinics across the country, medical professionals ended the lives of other babies.

What separates those children? No coherent answer exists because no meaningful difference exists. Every child — born and unborn — bears God-given dignity and deserves the protection of our laws.

This year, Nash will turn 2. His survival, as rare as it is, reveals why so many Americans fight for life — and why we will win.

I plan to do everything I can to protect the most vulnerable among us. That’s why I’m proud to co-sponsor the Life at Conception Act, which aligns federal policy with scientific reality: Life begins at conception, and the law should protect it.

Policymakers must also do more to support mothers and fathers raising children. If we aim — as we should — to end abortion, our laws must protect the unborn and make it easier to raise a family in America.

RELATED: New York caves on forcing nuns and churches to fund abortion after knockout SCOTUS ruling

Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

That’s why I have introduced legislation to give low-income families more flexibility to choose the child-care option that fits their situation.

I have also introduced legislation to eliminate marriage penalties that discourage single parents from marrying.

And I have also introduced a bill to close a loophole so women who choose not to return to work after giving birth cannot be forced to reimburse an employer for health insurance premiums from the year they delivered.

Similarly I support legislation that would hold fathers accountable for pregnancy costs as part of child support. I supported expanding the Child Tax Credit in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and I advocate extending the credit to cover the months of pregnancy.

We’ve made real progress since the Dobbs decision. Thirteen states, including my home state of West Virginia, protect life from the moment of conception. In Congress, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act finally defunds big-abortion providers.

The fight has only begun. As long as I’m in public service, I will work to protect every life from the moment of conception — and to ensure federal policy puts the American family first.

​Opinion & analysis, Abortion, March for life, Dobbs v. jackson women’s health organization, Roe v. wade, Pro-life, Premature, Supreme court, Conception, Pregnancy, Women, Healthcare, Life at conception act, Child tax credit, One big beautiful bill, Nash keen, Babies 

On Wednesday, January 21, President Trump delivered an address at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that has the world buzzing. Glenn Beck calls it “the most consequential speech” since Ronald Reagan’s iconic Berlin Wall address.

“He is breaking up the United Nations. He is breaking up the bureaucracy of the WEF. He is putting Europe on notice,” he says.

He was especially impressed when Trump addressed Greenland — specifically when he said, “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”

“I have never heard a president speak to the world like this,” Glenn remarks.

One thing was very clear from Trump’s Davos speech: “The world is changing,” but the U.S. is “carrying a very, very large stick.”

Trump pulled no punches when it came to calling out countries and world leaders. While he expressed love and respect for Europe, he boldly criticized it for importing foreign cultures that are destroying Western civilization.

“Western culture is dying in Europe because you refuse to stand up for it,” Glenn says, summarizing Trump’s words.

“He took on Canada in a way I have never heard before,” he adds, referencing Trump’s pointed rebuke of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

In response to Carney’s speech, delivered the day prior, in which he indirectly accused the United States of strong-arming weaker nations with economic integration, tariffs, and financial tools, Trump fired back, “Canada lives because of the U.S. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

“He didn’t even show [Carney] the deference of being prime minister. It was, ‘Mark, you should watch your words,”’ Glenn recaps. “He is not fooling around, and he is declaring an end to this new world order.”

Carney and other world leaders are pushing for “a new world order where the elites all get together from all over the world, and they make the decisions,” he explains.

But Trump’s speech made it crystal clear where he stands on that idea. Glenn summarizes his response: “That hasn’t worked. More bureaucracy will not fix it. More globalization, more melding of our countries together will not fix this.”

Glenn then pulls in his head writer and researcher, Jason Buttrill, to explain the full context of Trump’s Greenland comments.

Jason says that during Trump’s first term, he pressured NATO allies — including Denmark, which controls Greenland — to allocate more funding to its own defense instead of relying so heavily on the U.S. Trump specifically pushed Denmark to step up security in Greenland, and the Danes agreed, promising to dedicate roughly $224 million to better surveillance, reconnaissance, and Arctic defenses.

However as soon as Trump left office in 2021, Denmark backtracked.

“They only allocated 1% of that entire $224 million,” says Jason. “Most of that money that they set aside for defense went to social programs.”

Trump’s hardline Greenland comments during his speech, he says, are just “Daddy Trump … providing the tough love.”

To hear more analysis on Trump’s Davos speech, 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, Glenn, Beck, Donald trump, Wef, Wef 2026, Wef annual conference, World economic forum, Mark carney, Greenland, Trump, Davos, Canada 

The wife of the judge who refused to accept charges against Don Lemon for disrupting a church service is herself an assistant attorney general working for AG Keith Ellison.

Three alleged participants in the anti-ICE protest at a Saint Paul church were charged on Thursday, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

‘We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith.’

While many believed the former CNN anchor would also face charges over his participation in the protest, sources told various news outlets that a magistrate refused to sign off on the charges.

The magistrate was later identified as Judge Douglas Micko, whose wife, Caitlin Micko, works in Ellison’s office, according to some reports.

Lemon has claimed to have acted as a journalist when he joined the protesters against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They targeted the Cities Church because a senior pastor at the church has been reportedly identified as the leader of an ICE office.

Activist attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong said the pastor’s ICE role posed a “fundamental moral conflict” with his church role.

“You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities,” Armstrong said. “When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renee Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice — it is intimidation.”

The administration may pursue other alternatives to seek Lemon’s prosecution.

One source said that Attorney General Pam Bondi was “enraged at the magistrate judge’s decision.”

Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, released a statement defending his actions.

“The magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter,” he said, according to Politico. “It was no different than what he has done for more than 30 years, reporting and covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally protected activity as a journalist.”

A Blaze News request for comment from Ellison’s office was not immediately answered.

RELATED: Don Lemon nailed with fierce backlash for ‘trans’ slur against Megyn Kelly

Bondi excoriated the protest at the church in a post on social media.

“Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country,” she wrote. “We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Judge who let don lemon off, Charges against don lemon, Anti-ice protest at church, Ag keith ellison, Politics 

The House of Representative’s Oversight Committee has formally brought articles against the Clintons for contempt of Congress, and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler believes it’s what the Clintons deserve.

“If anyone’s in a position to know whether Jeffrey Epstein was, in fact, belonging to intelligence as is reported … it would be the Clintons in a position to testify, and they defied that subpoena, which is a crime. It is a crime,” Wheeler says.

“The Clintons’ testimony is critical to understanding Epstein’s sex trafficking network and the ways he sought to curry favor and influence to shield himself from scrutiny. Their testimony may also inform how Congress can strengthen laws to better combat human trafficking,” Comer said.

“Since issuing the subpoenas, this committee has acted in good faith. We’ve offered flexibility on scheduling. The response we received was not cooperation, but defiance marked by repeated delays, excuses, and obstruction,” he continued, noting that the Clintons have claimed to have been treated “unfairly.”

Comer also pointed out that photographs, flight log records, wedding invitations, and other materials serve as evidence of the couple’s well-documented relationship with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Remember, to defy a congressional subpoena is a crime. When two Republicans committed this crime, [Steve] Bannon and Peter Navarro, what happened to them? [Steve] Bannon was sentenced to federal prison. Peter Navarro was sentenced to federal prison,” Wheeler comments.

“Why should Hillary Clinton be treated any differently? Why should there be a double standard of justice that holds Republicans to account when crimes are committed and lets Democrats off the hook?” she asks.

While some critics of the move against the Clintons are warning that this might open the floor for Democrats to target Republicans politically when they’re in power, Wheeler couldn’t disagree more.

“That’s nonsense. The Democrats have been targeting us already. We’ve spent the last decade being targeted by Democrats. It’s not going to suddenly give them permission and they’re going to start targeting us,” she says. “They already have.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

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

​Video, Free, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, James comer, House oversight committee, Hillary clinton, Liz wheeler, Bill clinton, Jeffrey epstein, Ghislaine maxwell, The epstein files 

Grady Judd, the outspoken sheriff of Florida’s Polk County, most definitely is not shy about making his opinions known, whether they’re about crime in his own back yard or even crime of concern around the country.

Indeed, after leftists protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement stormed a church Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota, Judd — like many Americans — was outraged and made sure to let residents of his Florida county know exactly where he stands.

‘Freedom of religion. It is our right in this United States of America.’

The following is what Judd had to say:

I’m standing in a house of worship. And I think about last weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota, where people who came to worship were attacked — they were attacked by rioters. The service was disrupted. They cut at the very fabric of this great United States of America. We settled this country so many years ago so we could worship free, the way we wanted to, in whatever house of worship we chose. That attack is unacceptable.

Then he added what many in Polk County wanted to hear: “I can assure you that had that attack been in this community, every one of those rioters would be in jail today. That’s where the federal government could have found them — on state charges, locked up.”

Judd concluded: “And I pray it’s that same way all across the United States of America. Enough is enough. Let’s join together for the good of the United States of America, let’s worship the way we want to, and let’s everyone renounce the horribleness of last Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota.”

RELATED: Why ‘anti-ICE protesters’ are useful, delusional idiots

The video showing Judd’s words received over 3 million views and elicited more than 20,000 comments since it was posted Tuesday; the following are some of the more popular reactions:

“Grady Judd for sheriff of the world!” one commenter wrote.”I love Sheriff Grady Judd,” another user said. “We need more people like him in law enforcement all over this great country.””Freedom of religion,” another commenter noted. “It is our right in this United States of America.””Great commentary,” another user offered. “What’s troubling is that a segment of the American public is attempting to argue that the individuals who disrupted the church were merely ‘exercising their First Amendment rights.’ That claim collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Once they trespassed onto church property, any First Amendment protection ceased to apply. More importantly, their actions directly violated the First Amendment religious rights of the church and its members. If there were ever a clear-cut case for the DOJ to set a strong precedent by pursuing felony charges, this would be it. Serious consequences are warranted for conduct this egregious.”

As it happens, Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen were arrested Thursday in connection with the church-storming incident. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced later Thursday that William Kelly also was arrested.

However, former CNN talking head Don Lemon reportedly is escaping charges. Lemon claimed to have been acting as a journalist when he joined the group that stormed the church whose pastor reportedly leads an ICE office.

But CBS News sources said a Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint against Lemon. “The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate’s decision,” according to a CBS News source said to be familiar with the matter.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Grady judd, Florida, Polk county sheriff’s office, Minnesota, St. paul, Church, Leftists, Church service, Anti-ice protests, Faith, Anti-christian bias, Crime