Category: blaze media

A Texas elementary teacher has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a fifth-grade student years ago, police said. The alleged victim reportedly told investigators that the teacher would have her favorite students play Truth or Dare and urged those children to kiss each other.

The San Antonio Police Department said in a statement that 46-year-old Cecilia Mueller was arrested and charged with continuous sexual assault of a child.

When the alleged victim and Mueller were alone in the classroom, she reportedly would touch his leg and kiss him — and soon told him she ‘wanted more’ and engaged in sexual conduct with him in a classroom closet.

“There is reason to believe that there could be additional victims of this crime,” police stated.

Northside Independent School District spokesperson Barry Perez told WOAI-TV that the district hired Mueller in August 2007.

Mueller was a teacher at Lewis Elementary School from her hire date until June 2019 when she transferred to Henderson Elementary School.

The alleged victim — now 20 years old — recently told investigators he was in Mueller’s fifth-grade class at Lewis Elementary School during the 2016-2017 school year.

Citing the arrest report, KABB-TV said the alleged victim told authorities he was one of Mueller’s “favorites” — and such students often were seated together at a reading table in her classroom where the alleged victim said Mueller engaged in inappropriate conversations with them.

More from KABB:

He told police that the “favorites” would sometimes stay during lunch, where he alleges Mueller showed them explicit music videos and, on one occasion, a pornographic video. He also said she played Truth or Dare with the students, at times daring them to kiss each other. According to the report, he said she instructed the students not to tell their parents, warning that she could get into serious trouble.

According to the Express-News, when the alleged victim and Mueller were alone in the classroom, she would touch his leg and kiss him — and soon told him she “wanted more” and engaged in sexual conduct with him in a classroom closet.

KABB, citing the arrest report, noted that the alleged victim said he and Mueller on one occasion were kissing while her young child was present in the classroom. KENS-TV, citing the affidavit, reported that when the alleged victim expressed concern about her child being present, Mueller said her child “would not remember.”

RELATED: Florida teacher accused of sexually abusing student after parents use app to track boy to mystery location: Police

The Express-News, citing the affidavit, said Mueller would text the victim after school hours “constantly.” The paper added that investigators reviewed text message logs that the victim’s mother provided and found about 300 messages and photos between the victim and Mueller’s phone number from just one week in February 2017.

The New York Post reported that the alleged victim informed investigators that the child sex abuse stopped when he graduated from the fifth grade.

Citing the arrest report, WOAI said Mueller told the alleged victim to never tell anyone about their relationship for the rest of his life and requested that he contact her when he turned 18 years old.

According to the Express-News, Mueller was being held at the Bexar County Jail with bail set at $95,000. The paper said that if Mueller is convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

KSAT obtained a letter that Henderson Elementary School Principal Lillyana Hinojosa sent to parents about the “deeply unsettling” and “difficult” news.

“I want to let you know that one of our teachers was recently arrested by the San Antonio Police Department,” the letter read.

Hinojosa noted that the Northside Independent School District is fully cooperating with the police investigation.

A Northside Independent School District spokesperson told WOAI that Mueller has been placed on leave.

Neither Henderson Elementary School nor the Northside Independent School District immediately responded to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.

Those with information about the case or possible victims are urged to contact the San Antonio Police Department’s Special Victims Unit at 210-207-2313.

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​Teacher arrested, Bad teacher, Teacher sex scandal, Teacher student sex scandal, Cecilia mueller, Child sex crimes, Child sex abuse, Crime, Texas 

Last Sunday morning, after 34 years of service, Spirit Airlines announced it’s shutting down operations effective immediately after failing to secure a $500 million government bailout amid financial struggles and high fuel costs. All flights are canceled, passengers are stranded and seeking refunds/rebookings, and thousands of people are out of a job.

BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau were not surprised to hear the news.

But Stu says pricey jet fuel isn’t why the company collapsed. “There’s been a lot of things that have caused the problems … for Spirit Airlines over the years,” he says.

The hosts then play a humorous video montage of Spirit Airlines’ lowlights, which include several passenger fights, a Spirit Airlines employee angrily yelling vulgar insults at a co-worker, and a baggage handler violently throwing passengers’ suitcases.

All jokes aside, the collapse of Spirit Airlines is bad news for everybody — even people who never flew with the airline.

“The best thing about Spirit was not necessarily flying Spirit; it was the competition of Spirit’s prices,” says Stu. “Other airlines had to deal with them, and if they kept prices too high, people would say, ‘Well, you know, Spirit might not be the best airline in the world, but I’m going to take that because I’m saving so much money.’ These other airlines can now be like, ‘Well, we can let prices slide up.”’

“It’s already going up,” says Dave, noting that he flies constantly for his comedy tours.

“I want to know where the points are going. I had a lot of Spirit points. You think they’ll put them back on my EBT card?” he jokes.

Stu says that according to the sources he’s been listening to, people who booked flights with Spirit points are essentially out of luck.

“If you booked stuff with points, you’re basically wiped out. You can put in a claim … for bankruptcy proceedings to get value for your points. You’ll be at the very bottom of the list of people getting stuff back,” he explains.

Some people may have to kiss traveling goodbye altogether.

“A lot of people who the only way they could go on vacation is fly a Spirit Airlines … now they won’t be able to go,” says Stu. “There’s a lot of negatives here.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) apparently agrees.

In response to the news of Spirit’s shutdown, she wrote, “The Big Four airlines (American, Delta, Southwest, United) control 75% of the U.S. market. Fewer choices = higher prices for you.”

“Elizabeth Warren’s upset because she’s always upset. Everything that’s happened is somehow a personal affront to her. And it’s always capitalism’s fault every single time,” says Stu.

“Four airlines splitting 75% … is not a monopoly,” he corrects.

“That would be the opposite of a monopoly. That would be a competing market,” quips Dave.

But Warren’s faulty economics isn’t Stu and Dave’s biggest issue with her. In 2024, Warren strongly supported blocking the JetBlue-Spirit merger that many critics say would have saved the airline.

“The reason why Spirit doesn’t exist is Elizabeth Warren!” exclaims Stu.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

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​Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Spirit airlines, Spirit airlines fight, Blazetv, Blaze media, Elizabeth warren 

Denver has for decades impinged upon the Second Amendment rights of its residents.

Since 1989, the city has had a so-called “assault weapons” law on the books that now prohibits the carriage, storage, possession, manufacture, and sale of “any semiautomatic pistol or centerfire rifle, either of which have a fixed or detachable magazine with a capacity of more than fifteen rounds” and “any semiautomatic shotgun with a folding stock or a magazine capacity of more than six rounds.”

‘The Constitution is not a suggestion.’

According to Denver’s Code of Ordinances, the city council that initially advanced the ban determined that the use of “assault weapons poses a threat to the health, safety and security of all citizens” in the city and that restrictions on law-abiding Americans’ access to such firearms were both “reasonable and necessary.”

The Trump Justice Department demanded in a letter last week that the city repeal the ban, underscoring that it is unconstitutional. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said that failure to comply would likely trigger a lawsuit.

On Monday, the city’s attorney, Miko Brown, wrote back to Dhillon, calling the request “baseless, irresponsible, and a clear overreach of the federal government’s power.”

RELATED: Why the Supreme Court nuked Colorado’s ‘Must Stay Gay’ law (and what to expect next)

Minh Connors/Washington Post/Getty Images

Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston chimed in, characterizing the DOJ’s effort to restore Denverites’ rights as intimidation and claiming that the ban “has stood for 37 years because it works, it saves lives, and it reflects the values of our community.”

Democrat Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez joined the chorus of fearmongerers, stating both that the Trump administration was trying to deprive students and families of critical “protections” and that “assault weapons take lives — that’s what they’re made for.”

On Tuesday, the DOJ filed a lawsuit with the stated intention of vindicating “the rights of Denver citizens whose rights have been — and are continuing to be — violated.”

“The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms.”

Citing the standard for applying the Second Amendment outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the government’s complaint asserts that the “Ordinance is presumptively unconstitutional” and that the City of Denver “will not be able to rebut this presumption.”

After noting that the Second Amendment protects firearms “typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes that are in ‘common use’ today” — a protection affirmed by the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller — the complaint explains that there are at least 28 million AR-style semiautomatic rifles presently in circulation and tens of millions of law-abiding AR-style-rifle owners in the country.

In addition to the numerousness and common use of such weapons, the DOJ’s complaint shreds the notion that AR-15-type rifles are the go-to choice for criminals.

When making this point, the DOJ highlighted FBI data showing that whereas there were 364 homicides known to have been committed with rifles of any type in 2019, 6,368 homicides were committed with handguns, 1,476 were committed with knives or other cutting instruments, 600 were committed with hands and feet, and 397 were committed with blunt objects.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division stated, “Law-abiding Americans, regardless of what city or state they reside in, should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction just for exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”

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​2a, 2nd amendment, Ar-15, Assault weapons, Ban, Centerfire, Civil rights division, Constitution, Denver, Denver colorado, Firearm, Guns, Justice department, Rifle, Rights, Sanctuary city, Second amendment, Trump, Lawsuit, Dhillon, Blanche, Politics 

Indiana’s May 5 primary election tested President Donald Trump’s influence after he endorsed several state Senate candidates seeking to unseat Republican incumbents who had previously broken ranks with him by opposing a redistricting map.

At least six out of the eight Indiana Senate challengers endorsed by Trump won their respective primary elections on Tuesday, most with significant leads.

A ‘big night for MAGA in Indiana.’

Twenty-one GOP state senators voted with their Democrat colleagues in December to block a new congressional map that would have created two more Republican-leaning districts and potentially strengthened the GOP’s control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The effort failed in a 31-19 vote, despite Trump’s warnings that he would target Republicans in the upcoming primary election who voted against it.

Republicans who voted against the redistricting effort and who were seeking re-election in the May primary included:

James Buck (District 21)Spencer Deery (District 23)Dan Dernulc (District 1)Greg Goode (District 38)Travis Holdman (District 19)Rick Niemeyer (District 6)Linda Rogers (District 11)Greg Walker (District 41)

Republican state Senators Eric Bassler (District 39) and Kyle Walker (District 31) also voted against the redistricting map. However, neither is seeking re-election.

Trump issued a wave of endorsements for eight of the races.

“Good luck to those Great Indiana Senate Candidates who are running against people who couldn’t care less about our Country, or about keeping the Majority in Congress. There are eight Great Patriots running against long seated RINOS — Let’s see how those RINOS do tonight!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Primary Election Day.

Indian polls closed at 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday, and early results began rolling in shortly after.

RELATED: Trump launches ‘RINO’ purge in Indiana as primary looms

Kaiti Sullivan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Trump-backed Blake Fiechter took an early lead over incumbent Holdman for District 19, prompting several outlets to call the race less than two hours after polls had closed.

Buck, from District 21, was unseated by Tracey Powell, another Trump-backed candidate.

Michelle Davis, who received the president’s support, defeated Walker in District 41.

Trump challenger Trevor De Vries beat incumbent Dernulc in District 1.

Dr. Brian Schmutzler, another Trump pick, scored a victory against Rogers in District 11.

Trump-backed Jeff Ellington secured Bassler’s open seat in District 39.

RELATED: Indiana Republicans vote with Democrats to block redistricting — despite Trump’s threat to unseat them

Kaiti Sullivan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Trump’s pick for District 38, Brenda Wilson, lost to incumbent Goode. The race for District 23 between Deery and the Trump-backed challenger, Paula Copenhaver, is too close to call as of Wednesday morning.

U.S. Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) called it a “big night for MAGA in Indiana.”

Eric Daugherty of Florida’s Voice celebrated the results, declaring that the “RINO reign” was “coming to an end.” He noted that Goode’s win over Wilson was “one of VERY few wins these traitor RINOs will get tonight!”

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​News, Indiana, Donald trump, Trump, Indiana senate election, James buck, Spencer deery, Dan dernulc, Greg goode, Travis holdman, Rick niemeyer, Linda rogers, Greg walker, Eric bassler, Kyle walker, Paula copenhaver, Brenda wilson, Jeff ellington, Blake fiechter, Tracey powell, Michelle davis, Brian schmutzler, Trevor de vries, Politics 

Ohioans went to the polls on Tuesday in what has arguably become one of the highest-profile primaries in the country ahead of the midterm elections later this year.

The closest-watched Republican primary, of course, was for Ohio governor, and the winner will go on to face an unopposed Democratic candidate in November.

With over 98% of the votes counted, Ramaswamy had received 82.5% to Putsch’s 17.5%.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump-endorsed GOP candidate, biotech entrepreneur, and former presidential candidate, faced off against “America First” candidate Casey Putsch, who has positioned himself as a “third option” against the two choices provided by the political establishment.

Ramaswamy, the favorite in recent polling, was able to beat Putsch for the GOP nomination. With over 98% of the votes counted, Ramaswamy had received 82.5% to Putsch’s 17.5%.

RELATED: ‘Dr. Lockdown’: Ohio Democrat governor candidate’s COVID tyranny comes back to haunt her — but she still may win

Jon Cherry/Getty Images

After the race was called, Ramaswamy pledged not just to make “Ohio great again, but to make Ohio greater than we have ever been before.”

Putsch told his voters on Tuesday morning, “Get out there Ohio, and don’t let anyone Putsch you around,” but did not post on X after the election.

Ramaswamy will go on to face unopposed Democratic candidate Amy Acton in November. Acton has been criticized for her former role as the director of the Ohio Department of Health during the early COVID-19 pandemic response, earning the nickname “Dr. Lockdown.”

Another contentious race has been raging as well.

Ohio Republican leadership is attempting to secure a 7-0 court on the state Supreme Court with a four-way challenge against Democrat Justice Jennifer Brunner.

Ninth District Court of Appeals Judge Jill Flagg Lanzinger, former Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Colleen O’Donnell, 5th District Court of Appeals Judge Andrew King, and 2nd District Court of Appeals Judge Ronald Lewis were the four Republican rivals competing in this week’s primary.

As of Wednesday morning, O’Donnell holds a lead, but the race is still too close to call.

U.S. House GOP candidates in Ohio won more than half of their primary races uncontested, while Democrats had three uncontested primary races.

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​America first, Democratic candidate, Elections, Gop candidate, Governors race, Ohio, Ohio primary, Politics, Polls, Primaries, Primary, Ohioans, Vivek ramaswamy, Amy acton, Casey putsch 

While the criminal case against the man accused of murdering Iryna Zarutska proceeds through the federal court system, one attorney representing the defendant is also running for office — as a Democrat.

On September 25, just over a month after Zarutska was brutally slain on a North Carolina subway, Joshua Snow Kendrick was appointed to be “learned counsel” to the man accused of murdering her: Decarlos Brown Jr. Kendrick was added to the defense team, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Rodriguez wrote, because defendants in capital cases have the right to an attorney who is “sufficiently experienced in providing representation in death penalty eligible offenses.”

Thus far, Kendrick has released few details about his platform.

The appointment has kept Kendrick busy. He has filed motion and after motion on behalf of Brown, including two motions in January to prevent the release of police bodycam video and other evidence to the media.

Yet Kendrick has still found time to launch a political campaign for the state House of South Carolina. Election records confirm that on March 26, Kendrick filed to run as a Democrat for South Carolina House District 22.

The email address that Kendrick included in his filing is the same email address listed on some of the motions filed in Brown’s capital murder case.

Kendrick did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Crucial detail about Iryna Zarutska’s suspected murderer may ease online outrage after ‘incompetency’ ruling

Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

The deadline to file to run for office in South Carolina this year has already passed, so Kendrick is set to sail through the Democratic primary on June 9 unopposed. But if incumbent state Rep. Paul Wickensimer can prevail in the Republican primary, he will be a formidable opponent for Kendrick come November.

District 22 is located just outside downtown Greenville and is considered solidly Republican. Wickensimer defeated his Democratic opponent by a decisive 60%-39.8% margin in 2024, and a Republican has held the seat since at least 2012, according to Ballotpedia.

Ballotpedia and BallotReady pages for Kendrick list only the 2026 South Carolina House District 22 race, suggesting he has never run for political office until now.

Thus far, Kendrick has released few details about his platform.

His ActBlue donation page reads:

Chip in today to support me for South Carolina House of Representatives. I am running to give you a voice in your government. It’s time to stop being ignored by our elected officials.

The website for the South Carolina Democratic Party lists Kendrick as the Democratic candidate for District 22 but otherwise gives no information about him. The party did not respond to a request for comment.

Decarlos Brown was declared mentally incompetent in the state case against him but still faces a federal charge of one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. If convicted, he could receive the death penalty.

H/T: Matt Van Swol

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​Iryna zarutska, Decarlos brown, Joshua kendrick, South carolina, Democratic party, Politics 

Ranked as the most popular digital payment service on the planet, Apple Pay is trusted by 785 million users to carry out both online and in-store transactions worldwide. Today, it accounts for 14.2% of all payments made online, with user adoption expected to climb through 2030, but should users trust it? A new bombshell revelation proves that Apple Pay is vulnerable to unauthorized transactions, and it has been broken for half a decade, with no software patch in sight.

The Apple Pay heist of the century

In mid-April, popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) met with a researcher at Veritasium to conduct an experiment. The goal? To steal $10,000 from Marques’ Apple Pay account without his authorization — no password authentication, no FaceID detection, nothing.

The entire process takes less than 10 seconds.

The heist was pulled off using nothing but a MacBook, a burner phone, a wireless NFC reader called a Proxmark, and Marques’ iPhone, which was locked, secured, and seemingly impenetrable by Apple’s security standards.

Yet, as you can see in the live demonstration, Veritasium did the impossible. They initiated a transaction that successfully moved $10,000 out of Marques’ iPhone and into Veritasium’s account, much to the surprise of MKBHD himself.

How to steal $10,000 from Apple Pay

Later in the video, Veritasium explains how the flaw works.

First, the target iPhone must sit atop the Proxmark (the wireless NFC reader), which acts as a middleman between the target iPhone and the actual card reader. The Proxmark tricks the iPhone into thinking it is talking to a typical card reader — the same kind you tap with your phone or card at a grocery store — and requests the amount of money set by the hacker, in this case $10,000. The iPhone recognizes the request and sends the transaction data over to be processed on the connected MacBook, which then sends the data to a nearby burner phone that serves as the payment recipient device. The transaction is automatically verified through Apple’s Express Mode (which doesn’t require user authentication), and the payment is complete, removing the money from the target iPhone sitting on the reader and putting it into the hands of the hacker.

Although there are several steps involved, the entire process takes less than 10 seconds, or about as long as it would take to issue a legitimate wireless payment at a store with Apple Pay.

The shocking part? This major Apple Pay flaw was originally found all the way back in 2021, and there is still currently no remediation in place. Every iPhone with Apple Pay enabled is potentially vulnerable, and a hacker could theoretically steal the entire debit card sum or credit card limit of the main card in your Apple Wallet.

Are you at risk?

There are several important factors to determine whether you are in any danger of NFC-related theft.

First and foremost, the hack detailed in the video only works on Apple Pay. That means if you own an Android device, you are safe. Google Pay and/or Samsung Pay are not affected by this exploit.

If you own an iPhone, there is one more factor that will determine your risk. The hack requires you to have a Visa credit or debit card set as the default card in your wallet. It will not work if payments default to a Mastercard!

How to protect yourself from this Apple Pay exploit

To change your default card, open the Wallet app, hold your finger on the card you want to set, and drag it to the bottom of the card stack until you see the full face of the card displayed. To remove a card, tap on the card, then select the three dots in the top right corner, followed by “Card Details.” Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Remove Card” to wipe it from your phone.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Apple Wallet on iOS 26

Since this bug has existed for half a decade, chances that Apple will patch it any time soon are slim. However, MKBHD is highly respected in the tech community, and his new high-profile coverage of the exploit may be enough to get Apple’s attention for a future fix.

Until then, you can keep yourself safe simply by tweaking your default card settings or removing your cards altogether.

​Tech 

Recently, the abortion fight had a very interesting speed bump.

On May 1, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling temporarily reinstating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s older in-person dispensing rules for mifepristone, meaning the drug could no longer simply be prescribed through a telehealth visit and mailed directly to a woman’s home.

Then on May 4, Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking that order and restoring telehealth and mail distribution of mifepristone while the Supreme Court reviews emergency appeals from the drug manufacturers.

Much of the modern abortion machine depends not merely on legality, but on frictionless access, speed, and streamlined distribution.

Before anyone treats the Fifth Circuit as a crushing victory or the Supreme Court stay as a crushing defeat, it is worth slowing down and looking at what this short-lived legal tug-of-war actually revealed.

There is some good in this ruling, there is some bad in this ruling, and there is one ugly truth that ought to sober anyone who actually wants equal justice for the unborn.

The good

This brief legal battle exposed two facts.

First, modern chemical abortion has become dependent on administrative convenience. Mifepristone is the abortion industry’s preferred first drug in the standard two-pill abortion regimen because it makes the process cleaner, more predictable, and more efficient.

It works by blocking progesterone, the hormone necessary to sustain pregnancy, thereby beginning the death process in the womb. Twenty-four to 48 hours later, a second drug — misoprostol — is taken to induce contractions and expel the dead or dying child.

The Fifth Circuit did not stop chemical abortion by mail, but it did briefly interfere with the abortion industry’s preferred method of remotely prescribing and mailing that first drug. Even that narrow disruption was enough to trigger immediate panic, legal scrambling, and emergency appeals.

That panic shows how much of the modern abortion machine depends not merely on legality, but on frictionless access, speed, and streamlined distribution.

The second fact is just how thin these celebrated legal victories really are. Within three days, the Supreme Court had already suspended the order. So if there is any good here, it is simply that Americans got a brief glimpse at both the abortion industry’s dependence on convenience and the judiciary’s inability to do anything more than create temporary procedural turbulence.

The bad

Chemical abortion was not outlawed. Telehealth abortion was not abolished. Mail-order abortion was not damaged in any lasting or comprehensive sense.

One particular drug in the standard regimen briefly faced restored in-person dispensing requirements. That was all.

Even had the Fifth Circuit order remained in place, abortion providers were already prepared to adjust. Misoprostol can be used by itself as an abortion method. Providers can alter prescribing practices. The abortion industry has never shown itself to be incapable of adapting.

Women may still obtain abortion pills, providers may still facilitate chemical abortions, and mail-in abortion still remains. The machinery of child killing was never prohibited. One preferred cog in the machine was briefly adjusted. That is all.

RELATED: The judgment behind the abortion numbers

SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images

The ugly

The ugliest part of this ruling is not legal, but moral. Because once again, America is being taught to celebrate procedural management in place of equal justice.

The central question before any civilized legal system should be painfully simple: Does the child in the womb possess the same right not to be intentionally killed as every other innocent human being?

Neither the Fifth Circuit ruling nor the Supreme Court stay answers yes. Neither criminalizes the act of chemical abortion, recognizes the unborn child as a rights-bearing victim, or places the mother or provider under homicide law.

This entire legal fight is over whether one preferred poison may move through one preferred channel under one preferred federal rule.

That is not equal protection.

It is the same perverse legal language America has spoken for decades: not that the child must not be killed, but that the child may be killed under approved procedural conditions while judges supervise the administrative details.

That is the ugly truth.

This week’s courtroom chaos may restrict one preferred abortion protocol on Friday and restore it on Monday, but it leaves the underlying legal fiction untouched — that some humans may still be intentionally destroyed so long as the state is satisfied with the process.

​Supreme court, 5th circuit court of appeals, Abortion, Abortion debate, Chemical abortion, Pro life, Anti abortion, Mifepristone abortion pill, Opinion & analysis 

An armed dad of a family of eight was forced to shoot a man who tried to drive away with his car while his family members were still in the backseat, according to Texas police.

The harrowing incident unfolded on Sunday in the parking lot near Highway 66 and Dairy Road in Garland and was captured by surveillance video.

‘You could definitely tell that he was not in his right state of mind.’

Police said the would-be carjacker crashed his car into two vehicles and tried to gain access to other cars before zeroing in on the white sedan.

Video shows him in a peach shirt walking nonchalantly toward the family’s vehicle before immediately getting into a physical altercation with the father. The two struggle for about a minute before he’s able to force his way into the driver’s seat.

The father runs to the other side of the car and shoots the man still in the car.

The would-be carjacker died at a nearby hospital, and police said they are still trying to identify him.

“You could definitely tell that he was not in his right state of mind,” said Tatiana Starks, a witness who works as the manager of a smoke shop near the incident. “I’m just glad that the man was able to protect himself and his family.”

Starks said she began recording the man after seeing him trying to get into several vehicles.

“He, like, tried to get into several different cars,” she said.

Video of the incident from surveillance and Starks were included in the KDFW-TV news report.

RELATED: Democrat stunned to find criminal past of teen who allegedly carjacked her: ‘Shocked me to my core’

Police said they do not expect to file charges against the father because he would not have known if the carjacker was armed at the time.

“It seemed to be self-defense,” Lt. Pedro Barineau said to KDFW. “It kind of all happened, like, really fast.”

KDFW reported that police did not recover a weapon from the attempted carjacker, only a gun from the father.

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​Carjacker shot and killed, Dad shoots carjacker, Texas armed self-defense, Video of garland shooting, Crime 

A “Sunday Funday” lakeside party went off the rails after 23 people were injured just outside Oklahoma City in a mass shooting.

According to reports, three people were in critical condition, four were listed as serious, and no arrests have been made.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock points out that the flyer for the party showed young men smoking weed — which should have served as a warning to attendees.

“At some point we have to acknowledge and admit that any time there are large groups of young black people — and by young, that may stretch all the way up to age 40 and under — that there’s going to be violence,” Whitlock says.

“And that’s a very uncomfortable thing to say, but this is the price of a matriarchal, fatherless culture — this type of chaos and violence,” he continues, showing clips of the party that were uploaded to social media.

One clip shows women bent over and twerking all over the party, while other attendees dance around them to rap music.

“We see these videos constantly. And there’s no national conversation. There’s no outrage. There’s no violence in the streets. There’s no protests. There’s no nothing,” Whitlock says. “It blows my mind.”

“If no one else wants to talk about it, we will,” he adds.

While the media constantly report on mass shootings carried out by young white men, they often ignore those that are happening much more often.

“Once a week we see one of these videos — every weekend in Chicago. I can’t ignore it, and I can’t false equivalence it and say, ‘It’s just the same as mass school shootings, and you won’t talk about that,’” Whitlock explains.

“I’m just not going to play into it,” he adds.

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​Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Critical condition, Fatherless culture, Fatherlessness epidemic, Fearless, Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Jason whitlock harmony, Mass shooting, Mass shootings, Matriarchal culture, Oklahoma city, Rap music, School shootings, Sunday funday, The blaze, Twerking, Violence in the streets, Young black people 

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota did not meet the deadline set by a Minnesota state committee to produce documents related to its investigation into the “Feeding Our Future” fraud scandal.

The House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee of Minnesota took a vote on Tuesday to subpoena the congresswoman, but it failed by falling short by just one vote.

‘This is one of dozens, if not hundreds of things we are investigating. We have had hundreds of whistleblower reports. They continue to come in weekly.’

Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican member of the committee, excoriated Omar in comments to Fox News.

“It shows her continued disdain for the taxpayer,” she said. “She feels like she’s above having to answer for her involvement in the fraud and her responsibility as a member of Congress who … passed the bill that took the guardrails off the school nutrition program that led to the conditions that enabled Feeding Our Future.”

Robbins said committee members reached out to Omar several times and had not received a response.

She tied the fraud to Omar passing the MEALS Act in March 2020. At least 65 people have been convicted in relation to the massive fraud ring at Feeding Our Future.

“I do think the subpoena is important. This is one of dozens, if not hundreds of things we are investigating. We have had hundreds of whistleblower reports. They continue to come in weekly,” Robbins added. “Even though the committee will no longer have official hearings, we will continue to investigate these whistleblower reports and webs of fraud.”

Robbins said she would seek to have Republicans in the U.S. Congress seek a subpoena against Omar next.

“I don’t know if they are, but they would have the same authority ,and it’s still relevant to them because it’s a federal program that’s been swindled,” she said. “So I don’t know if they would be willing to do it, but it’s worth asking.”

A Blaze News request for comment to Omar’s office was not immediately answered.

RELATED: ‘Feeding Our Future’ scam artist agrees to plea deal with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence

“Democrat Ilhan Omar has shown her disdain for the taxpayers. She believes she’s above answering for her role in the Feeding our Future fraud,” Robbins wrote on social media. “We’ve sent her multiple letters and invites, but zero response from Ilhan Omar — what is she hiding?”

Republicans have also questioned Omar’s suspicious growth in assets as reported in her financial disclosures. After months of criticism, Omar released a revision that significantly lowered the amount of reported assets by millions of dollars.

Robbins is also running for Minnesota governor.

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​Rep ilhan omar of minnesota, Feeding our future scam, Omar fraud allegations, Politics, State rep kristin robbins 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stern warning to Iran while substituting as the White House press secretary on Tuesday.

Rubio took on a briefing room full of reporters after Karoline Leavitt took time off from her role as press secretary in order to spend time at home with a newborn child, her second.

‘They really shouldn’t test the will of the United States, at least not under President Donald Trump. … If they test him, ultimately, they will lose.’

Rubio issued a warning to Iran that it should take the diplomatic path the Trump administration is offering in order to avoid the other option of economic ruin and defeat.

“There’s a real diplomatic path. … If there is one there, it could be one that leads them to reconstruction, to prosperity, and to stability, and to not posing a threat to the world. The alternative is growing isolation, economic collapse, and ultimately total defeat,” Rubio said.

Peace negotiations between Iran and the U.S. have focused on control of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been shut down, causing high gas prices across the globe.

“I know what the right choice is for Iran. I hope that the people over there making decisions will make the right one,” he added.

“They really shouldn’t test the will of the United States, at least not under President Donald Trump,” Rubio concluded. “He has proven time and again that he will back up what he says — and if they test him, ultimately, they will lose. The hard way, the easy way, the long way, the short way — they will lose.”

He went on to discuss the situation with the energy shipments to Cuba, claiming that “there’s no oil blockade on Cuba per se” but that Venezuela had chosen not to provide free oil to the island nation.

“Their economic model doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, and the people who are in charge can’t fix it. And the reason they can’t fix it is not just because they’re communists — that’s bad enough. But they’re incompetent communists,” he said. “The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent one.”

Rubio also said there was no change in U.S. relations with Venezuela.

RELATED: ‘We are not doing this any more’: Rubio to strip billions in foreign aid from ‘NGO industrial complex’

At one point, he lightheartedly noted that the briefing room was overloaded with journalists.

“You can ask two questions, and I’ll pick which one I like better,” he said to one reporter.

Rubio had previously joked that he was taking over the press secretary role based on a popular meme online that shows the state secretary reluctantly taking on numerous new jobs for the administration.

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​White house press secretary marco rubio, Us-israel strikes on iran, Marco rubio, White house press briefing, Politics 

An illegal alien accused of torturing dogs at the animal shelter where he worked was arrested and charged with animal torture, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement.

The alleged animal abuse at the Working Dogs of Nevada training facility in Las Vegas was first reported by a woman who applied for a job and surreptitiously took video of the treatment of the dogs in February.

‘This disgusting criminal tortured dogs at the shelter where he worked.’

Those allegations led to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Section performing a search warrant at the business and the removal of 35 dogs on April 1.

John Young Cotter Johnstone, 38, was arrested at that time and charged with four felony counts of willfully or maliciously torturing, maiming, or mutilating an animal kept for companionship or pleasure.

Tabitha Berube, 32, was also arrested and charged with one count of the same crime.

On Tuesday, DHS confirmed that Johnstone was an illegal alien from the United Kingdom after he entered the country in 2021 but overstayed his visa since Feb. 2022. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer request the day after his arrest, and he was turned over to federal custody.

Some of the secret video footage was published by KTNV-TV and showed a man kicking and dragging a dog.

DHS said the other videos provided to police showed Johnstone using shock collars and swinging dogs in mid-air by their leashes.

“This disgusting criminal tortured dogs at the shelter where he worked,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.

“Thanks to the cooperation of Clark County officials who honored the ICE detainer, this freak is in ICE custody,” she added. “Seven of the 10 safest cities cooperate with ICE. We need more state and local politicians to work with us to keep criminals off our streets and out of our country.”

RELATED: Ohio woman pleads guilty to horrific child sex abuse charges and bestiality — and will testify against her husband

The woman who recorded the alleged abuse later adopted two of the dogs, according to the KTNV report.

“Seeing the use of the shock collars and the way the dog was screaming because he was being shocked and being drug across the floor, it was a horrible thing to witness,” she told KVVU-TV.

“Everything in me, I wanted to tell them to not do that to an animal, but I knew if I did I wouldn’t be able to get the evidence that I did get,” she added.

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​Illegal alien from uk, Las vegas dog training abuse, Dog torture, Video dog abuse, Politics 

A 31-year-old California man named Cole Tomas Allen was charged with the attempted assassination of President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Armed with guns and knives, he allegedly fired shots while trying to breach security at the Washington Hilton in an attempt to assassinate the president and other administration officials. Fortunately, Trump, the first lady, and others were safely evacuated by the Secret Service, and no casualties occurred.

When BlazeTV host of “Strange Encounters” Rick Burgess heard the news, he immediately suspected that Allen acted under demonic influence. Now, after diving into his history, he’s almost certain of it.

Allen’s professional persona as a self-employed indie game developer was the first red flag for Rick. Even though his game is described as “nonviolent,” it includes shooting.

“I have an issue with a game that involves fighting and shooting to be in any way, shape, or form deemed nonviolent,” says Rick.

Allen’s manifesto — specifically the “anti-Christian rhetoric” — also gave him pause.

“One of the things he had a real problem with,” says Rick, “was the turn-the-other-cheek instruction from Jesus.”

“Biblical truth is becoming hate speech, or it’s becoming, in this case, instruction that should be ignored. … We don’t have to look very far to see the demonic part of this,” he continues.

Further, Allen — a Caltech and California State University grad — “was educated in an education system that I personally believe has been taken over by a lot of demonic-type ideology,” Rick adds.

Many universities today, he argues, don’t actually educate students but rather “indoctrinate” them with ideologies that stand in direct “conflict with God’s standard and the Scriptures.” He believes Allen was likely a victim of this.

In his manifesto, Allen outlined his plans to kill President Trump and other high-ranking officials and acknowledged that his plan would likely culminate in severe consequences for him personally — which Rick saw as another indicator of demonic influence.

“Remember one of the markers of demonic activity is that usually those that are possessed by demons — they are sent on a mission where they will be killed or they will kill themselves,” he says.

Allen’s manifesto also acknowledged that his assassination plan felt “awful” to the point of wanting to vomit — but that the internal “rage” he felt was all-consuming.

He wrote, “Oh and if anyone is curious is how doing something like feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.”

“And that’s where you see some markers of demonic activity,” says Rick.

“Demons convince people to do things that at the end of it all ultimately will either end their life on earth or their life will be destroyed forever, and he did it anyway.”

To hear more of Rick’s spiritual analysis on Cole Allen and other cases of “demons in the headlines,” watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Assassination attempt, Attempted assassination, Blaze, Blaze media, Blazetv, Cole thomas allen, Demonic influence, President trump, Rick burgess, Strange encounters, Strange encounters with rick burgess, White house correspondents 

CBS News debuted a “60 Minutes” report on Sunday that delved into the supposedly troubling trend of Americans bypassing official channels to help other Americans who are struggling in the aftermath of natural disasters.

“What if we told you that after natural disasters, some of those who descend on hard-hit communities with offers to help are anti-government conspiracists and white nationalists?” Lesley Stahl said at the outset of the episode.

‘Shameless and transparent.’

While the geriatric talking head clutched pearls over a pattern of life-saving help from undesirable sources — namely “anti-government, far-right groups” — video played showing men helping to clear brush, distribute supplies, and reinforce disaster-stricken Americans.

Among those men reportedly featured in the montage are members of the multiracial Virginia Kekoas militia group, which provided aid in 2024 to those areas impacted by Hurricane Helene and neglected by the Biden administration.

The “60 Minutes” report — which strategically focuses on the efforts of Patriot Front and Active Club, a pair of groups regarded as white supremacist hate groups by the scandal-plagued Southern Poverty Law Center — smears unsanctioned volunteers who are “far-right” and/or affiliated with militia groups as “disaster tourists who are out to sow doubt in government, soften their own image, and gain followers.”

In addition to leaning on Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin’s critique of the challenges supposedly posed by “misinformation” and “outside folks” in disaster areas, “60 Minutes” turned to Freddy Cruz, a program manager at the Western States Center — a Portland-based leftist organization whose bread and butter appears to be concern-mongering about perceived white nationalism — for help in framing the story.

RELATED: Klansman allegedly on SPLC payroll was ‘true believer’ white supremacist, not reformed infiltrator

ALLISON JOYCE/AFP/Getty Images

“These people come in, they hand out water, they help clean up the debris,” Stahl said. “Whatever their ideology, they’re doing something positive, aren’t they?”

“What we’re seeing is actually these groups will show up and generate a whole bunch of social media content,” Cruz said. “We’re dubbing it ‘disaster tourism.'”

This and the other bizarre attacks in the report did not go over well with some of the self-giving groups and individuals who have repeatedly stepped into the breach in those moments where the government’s relief efforts have proven wanting.

The United Cajun Navy — a nonprofit organization that was not mentioned in the “60 Minutes” episode by name but has for decades engaged in life-saving rescue operations, humanitarian assistance, and logistical support in areas hard-hit by floods, hurricanes, and other ruinous natural events — noted on X, “We have many media outlets that are very good to us. Then there’s this trash.”

“This SCREAMS ‘Funded by the [SPLC],” wrote the UCN, which in the wake of Hurricane Helene joined forces on aid efforts with Mercury One — another outfit whose relief efforts “60 Minutes” smeared by implication. “Even though we aren’t mentioned, we would still be happy to comment ON THE RECORD about what [horse manure] this is. It’s time to put 60 Minutes out to pasture, Holla!”

Shawn Hendrix, the “expert survival dad” featured on MrBeast’s YouTube channel who was among those who helped victims of Hurricane Helene, said in response to CBS News’ agitprop, “Not one ‘left’-leaning news station reached out to me during the disaster. They pretended it wasn’t happening because Biden was president and Cooper was governor, failing us badly. I was up there for months and never once saw a CNN camera or MSNBC crew. Now, over a year later, they want to create some wild narrative. They weren’t there, so how did they know?”

“I, however, was there,” Hendrix continued. “The only people being selective about who they helped were FEMA. I saw no racism; no one cared who you voted for. We were all just surviving and serving.”

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre tweeted, “SPLC funding the KKK story drops[.] A week later 60 Minutes just happens to run a ‘hey that white guy helping you while your house was destroyed is probably a fascist’ segment.”

“Shameless and transparent,” MacIntyre added.

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​Active club, Americans, Anti-government, Auron macintyre, Biden administration, Cbs news, Cnn, Disaster relief, Fascist segment, Fema, Freddy cruz, Government, Henderson county sheriff, Hurricane helene, Kkk, Lowell griffin, Mercury one, Militia, Natural disasters, Patriot front, Portlandbased organization, Southern poverty law center, Splc, United cajun navy, Virginia kekoas, Western states center, Politics, Lesley stahl 

“Anti-ICE” signs are reportedly popping up all over official buildings in Los Angeles at the order of Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for re-election.

Bass ordered the signs to be installed at over 450 sites in order to warn federal agents against entering and using the locations to launch immigration enforcement operations.

‘This whole thing is silly. The signs have no legal weight, force, or effect on anything.’

“I will not stand by while federal agents use our neighborhoods as staging grounds for fear and intimidation,” Bass said in a statement to KTTV-TV. “In Los Angeles, we are setting clear boundaries: City property will not be used to carry out these raids.”

Bill Essayli, the first assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California, derided the signs and the order from Bass.

“I just think this whole thing is silly. The signs have no legal weight, force, or effect on anything the federal government does,” he said. “Federal agents will go anywhere they need to go to enforce federal law, including city property.”

He went on to deny the signs would prevent federal officers from performing their duty.

“No. Not at all. They’re null and void. They mean nothing to us,” he said of the signs.

The signs read as follows:

“This property is owned or controlled by the city of Los Angeles. It may only be used for its intended city purpose and not used for immigration enforcement as a staging area, processing location, or operations base.”

The sign prominently cites Mayor Bass, whose beleaguered re-election campaign has been hamstrung by low approval ratings from Angelenos.

While L.A. municipal races are technically nonpartisan, Bass is a prominent member of the Democratic Party. She even gave a speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

RELATED: More than 100 outraged community members denounce elementary school teacher over 2-word post about ICE

KTTV said officials did not say how much the signage cost the city, but the news outlet estimated it could have cost about $250,000.

The signs are posted at transit hubs, parks, libraries, zoos, and parking lots.

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​Mayor karen bass, Anti-ice signs in los angeles, Bill essayli, Trump admin vs los angeles, Politics 

Legendary country star Dolly Parton says in a video on social media that she is canceling some concert appearances out of health concerns.

Parton, who turned 80 in January, had postponed a Las Vegas residency in September over health issues, but the six shows have now been canceled completely.

‘I can’t be dizzy, carrying around banjos, guitars, and such on five-inch heels … not to mention all those heavy rhinestone outfits.’

“I’m here to give you an update on a few things going on in my life,” Parton said. “First, it’s concerning my health. And I have some good news and a little bad news. But the good news is, I’m responding really well to meds and treatments, and I’m improving every day.”

She added that she had troubles with kidney stones that have taken a toll on her digestive system as well as her immune system.

“It’s going to take me a little while before I’m up to stage-performance level because some of the meds and treatments make me a little bit swimmy-headed, as my grandma used to say,” she continued. “And of course I can’t be dizzy, carrying around banjos, guitars, and such on five-inch heels … not to mention all those heavy rhinestone outfits, the big hair, my big personality.”

She compared herself to a classic car that needs some rebuilding to continue running well.

“Once restored, it can be better than ever, but when they raised the hood on this old antique, they realized that I need to rebuild my engine, that my transmission is slipping, my oil pan is leaking, and my muffler is busted, and my shocks and pistons need to be replaced,” she added.

“And for sure my spark plugs need to be changed — because you know as well as I know that I can’t lose my spark.”

RELATED: Dolly Parton raises $9 million for victims of Gatlinburg fires

She said she was working on opening a museum and hotel in Nashville as well as writing and reworking a Broadway musical based on her life.

Parton kept her characteristic sense of humor despite the sad news.

“I know I’m still crazy, but they didn’t mention nothing about my mental health!” she joked.

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​Dolly parton, Celebrity health issues, Las vegas residency, Country star, Politics, Entertainment 

Under the guise of “comedy,” late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel has long made claims about President Trump and his supporters that don’t hold water, as well as refused to apologize for jokes like his recent “widow” line aimed at Melania Trump.

But when Aaron Rodgers made a similar joke about Kimmel a couple of years ago, the comedian went on a long rant condemning the former NFL quarterback for his comments.

“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, that are really hoping that [list] doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

“He decided to insinuate that I am a pedophile,” Kimmel responded in a January 2024 monologue. “This is how these nuts do it now. You don’t like Trump, you’re a pedophile. It’s their go-to move. And it shows you how much they actually care about pedophilia.”

“If you are a member of a group that thinks it’s okay to randomly call someone a child molester because you don’t like what that person has to say, maybe you should rethink being a part of that group,” he continued.

“The same doesn’t apply to calling people Nazis,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray interjects.

Kimmel went on to claim that when he does “get something wrong,” he apologizes for it.

“Which is what Aaron Rodgers should do, which is what a decent person would do, but I bet he won’t,” he added.

CNN’s Jake Tapper then went on defense for Kimmel as well, calling Rodgers “wildly irresponsible.”

“Tapper then injected himself into this whole controversy at the time between Kimmel and Rodgers,” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in.

“New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers is facing intense and frankly well-deserved criticism over comments he made on ESPN’s ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ in which Rodgers made false allegations about accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and a popular late-night comedian,” Tapper said on CNN.

“False, defamatory, wildly irresponsible, and not funny,” he continued in defense of Kimmel. “If Rodgers was trying to be funny. This is child sex trafficking.”

“Frankly, just the latest example of Aaron Rodgers using his platform to spread misleading and false information. So wildly irresponsible,” he added.

“Methinks you doth protest too much,” Malinak comments, shocked.

“I mean, it was a joke,” Gray adds.

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​Aaron rodgers, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Child molester, Child sex trafficking, Cnn, False allegations, Jake tapper, Jeffrey epstein, Jimmy kimmel, Keith malinak, Nazis, New york jets, Nfl quarterback, Pat gray, Pat gray unleashed, President trump, Sex trafficker, The blaze 

Ottawa and members of the eastern ruling class of Canada have made no secret of their contempt for Canada’s resource-rich prairie provinces and their inhabitants, proving time and again their willingness to simultaneously exploit the West’s wealth and hinder its progress.

‘Albertans are engaged and this is an issue people want to have a say on.’

While the powers that be might not be losing sleep over alienating the residents of these provinces, they could soon lose something far more precious: a province roughly 1.56 times bigger than California that’s home to over 5 million people, vast natural beauty, the fourth-largest proven oil reserves in the world, a large variety of valuable metallic and industrial minerals, and Atlanta’s former NHL franchise.

How it started

Canadians — not so much those in the 18-to-34 age bracket, who largely voted Conservative, but those over the age of 55 — decided last year to award another four years to the Liberal government that in the preceding years oversaw a historic growth of the federal deficit, numerous tax hikes, an unprecedented influx of immigrants, a spike in illegal immigration, rising crime, unanswered church burnings, a worsening housing crisis, and the rise of state-facilitated suicide as a leading cause of death nationally.

Unlike certain progressive regions that got what they wanted in the form of another Liberal government, the Province of Alberta flatly rejected World Economic Forum regular and self-identified “European” Mark Carney and his woke party.

The Conservatives netted 91.9% of the vote in Alberta, the province with the youngest population. The Liberals alternatively brought in a measly 5.4%.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith acknowledged her fellows’ frustration at the time, stating, “A large majority of Albertans are deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government.”

RELATED: Priest breaks hip — now Canada apparently wants him dead

Elections Canada

While there has long been chatter about Alberta possibly separating from Canada, the 2025 federal election energized the secessionist movement.

Proponents of Albertan sovereignty were further emboldened after the provincial legislature passed amendments to the Citizen Initiative Act, which make it easier to start a referendum, including one on separating from Canada.

On Jan. 2, Alberta’s chief electoral officer issued the separatist group Stay Free Alberta’s citizen initiative petition, kicking off a 120-day signature collection period and setting the stage for a possible referendum in the event the group could secure at least 177,732 signatures, which amounts to 10% of eligible voters.

How it’s going

Stay Free Alberta petitioners, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, delivered the goods to Elections Alberta’s Edmonton office on Monday.

The separatists claim to have collected 301,620 signatures, state media reported. Another 1,500 signatures were allegedly late in coming owing to problems with Canada Post, the nation’s strike-happy, government-owned postal delivery service.

Stay Free Alberta leader Mitch Sylvestre told the crowd, “This process shows that Albertans are engaged and this is an issue people want to have a say on.”

Elections Alberta confirmed that Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure has received the petition and signature sheets from Sylvestre.

The verification is, however, on hold until Justice Shaina Leonard — an appointee of the Trudeau Liberal government — rules on a legal challenge advanced by a pair of Indian tribes that claim the petition process threatens treaty rights. Her decision is expected later this month.

Should the Indians’ legal challenge fail, the province will have 21 days to verify the petition.

If deemed successful, the petition will be submitted to provincial officials, who will then decide whether to sign off on a province-wide referendum, which could take place as soon as Oct. 19. Premier Smith previously indicated that if the requisite number of signatures were collected, she would put the question to a referendum.

RELATED: ‘AMERICAN INVASION’: Flailing Canada PM Mark Carney invokes historical grudge in latest lob at Trump

Leah Hennel/Bloomberg/Getty Images

An Abacus Data survey of 1,000 Alberta adults conducted in late February found that 26% of respondents support Alberta ceasing to be a Canadian province and becoming a sovereign country. Sixty-four percent of respondents signaled opposition, and 9% said they were undecided. The idea of regional independence was apparently most intolerable to those in the 60+ age cohort, 71% of whom signaled opposition.

A poll conducted last month by Canadian state media, whose coverage has largely been critical of the independence movement, said that 57% of United Conservative Party voters — those who back Alberta’s current ruling party — would vote for separation. Supporters of the province’s socialist New Democrat Party were almost unanimous in their opposition to breaking from the federation and Canada’s leftist central power, with 98% saying they would vote against the initiative.

When asked on Tuesday how he would prevent Albertan separatists from succeeding in a possible referendum, Prime Minister Carney said that “there’s the rule of law — there’s the Clarity Act which has been opined upon by the Supreme Court,” and “any referenda in any part of Canada need to be consistent with that.”

The Clarity Act sets out the conditions under which the federal government would negotiate the separation of a province.

Carney, who also appears hopeful that the Indian tribes’ legal challenge might prevail, added that Ottawa will in the meantime act “in the spirit of cooperative federalism, making the country work, making it work for Albertans, making it work for indigenous peoples, making it work for all Canadians.”

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​Secession, Separatism, Alberta, Canada, Mark carney, Calgary, Edmonton, Secede, North america, Independence, Albertan, Danielle smith, Canadian, Elites, Laurentian elites, Ottawa, Alienation, Sovereignty, Free alberta, Politics 

When Viktor Orbán lost the Hungarian parliamentary election last month, most of the coverage told a familiar story: Liberal democracy had defeated nationalist authoritarianism. Left had beaten right. Those headlines, while partly true, left out an important point that has implications well beyond Hungary.

What actually drove ordinary Hungarian voters to the polls wasn’t ideology. It was economic stagnation, rising inflation, and falling living standards.

Traditional right and left parties may be north or south, regardless of the partisan language we brand them with.

Widely classified as far right, Orbán had governed in a strongly interventionist manner: nationalizing industries, rewarding allies, punishing competitors. He did not lose because Hungary turned left. He lost because his brand of right-wing economic intervention had made people poorer, and they noticed.

That distinction points to a flaw in the political vocabulary we have been using for two centuries.

The left-right spectrum was born in the French National Assembly, where supporters of the king sat to the right of the presiding officer and revolutionaries to the left. Somehow we are still using it, as if the geometry of an 18th-century parliament contains all the wisdom we need for the 21st-century world.

It doesn’t. And on some level, most of us already know it.

Instead, the political compass now looks more like an actual compass, with north, west, east, and south poles. The traditional right-left debate is between east and west. But there is an additional north-south debate that relates to political parties’ support of competition, open trade, and property rights (north), or support of statism, industrial policy, and government intervention (south).

This north-south debate is every bit as important, and it illustrates how traditional right and left parties may be north or south, regardless of the partisan language we brand them with.

Here is the error of the traditional axis: It puts so much energy into the horizontal argument, left versus right, progressive versus conservative, that we have largely stopped asking the vertical question: not who should wield state power, but how much state power should exist at all.

The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which has measured market conditions across 184 countries for 30 years, finds that economies it classifies as “free” average around $112,000 in per capita GDP, while those it classifies as “repressed” average roughly $10,000. A tenfold gap, consistent across decades.

The Index has its critics. Jeffrey Sachs has argued that it measures current wealth better than it predicts growth. Even so, the broad pattern it documents is not seriously disputed. More economic freedom tends, over time, to correlate with more prosperity.

If you accept even a modest version of that premise, the compass begins to replace the old map entirely.

Due north, on this map, represents genuine economic freedom: voluntary exchange and limited coercion. Due south is the statist trap, whether administered by socialists or nationalists. What unites them is not ideology, but the same drive to expand state control over economic life, with the same results.

The distinction that matters is not the flag you wave getting there, but how far south you end up.

The horizontal axis doesn’t disappear; it shifts from economics to culture. Both left and right have northern and southern variants. Market-oriented progressives sit in the northeast; market-oriented conservatives in the northwest. The southern quadrants — interventionist left and interventionist right — share more with each other than either would care to admit.

RELATED: Universal basic income is a dangerous delusion

Blaze Media Illustration

The northeast quadrant is where the most instructive examples sit. Paul Keating in Australia and Roger Douglas in New Zealand were leaders on the left who pursued serious market liberalization. They were not ideological converts but pragmatists who concluded that the social programs they cared about required a productive economy to fund them.

Critics will note that both Keating and Douglas presided over substantial social spending alongside their market reforms, but this misses the point. Keating and Douglas understood something their ideological allies did not: that a government that destroys the market in pursuit of social goals will eventually have neither.

Orbán’s Hungary sat in the southwest quadrant: culturally conservative, economically interventionist. It was as state-directed in practice as many of the left-wing governments it claimed to oppose. The southwest quadrant has no ideology. It has only consequences.

None of this means markets are perfect. But the relevant comparison is never between a flawed market and a perfect government. It is between a flawed market and a flawed government.

In that comparison, the historical record is not close. What this compass insists on is that voters stop evaluating politicians purely on cultural grounds and start demanding an account of the vertical axis too.

Hungarian voters, faced with the concrete consequences of statism, made an economic judgment. They didn’t need an ideology. They needed cheaper groceries and a functioning future for their kids. It is a practical, unsentimental instinct. Focused on results, not rhetoric.

The left-right debate will continue. It probably should. But the question that matters comes first: not which side you are on, but how far north you are willing to go.

​Orban, Viktor orban, Politics, Compass, Left-right, Economics, Opinion & analysis