Category: blaze media

An independent journalist claims to have infiltrated encrypted Signal chat groups used by anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activists, uncovering what appears to be a coordinated effort to obstruct federal immigration enforcement and harass law enforcement officers.

Cam Higby, an on-the-ground reporter known for undercover infiltrations, shared on X screen recordings and member lists from the alleged chats. His posts revealed hundreds of participants apparently actively plotting interference with U.S. ICE operations.

‘Your body on the line.’

The exposed alleged conversations show members checking license plates, broadcasting intersections where agents are active, and even pursuing ICE vehicles. Higby described the tactics as “organized obstruction” in an X post.

Higby claimed his expose made a solid dent in the anti-ICE operation, with one administrator admitting it would take time to “get things up and running” again after the exposure. Higby later reported that the Signal group was “running at about half strength.”

RELATED: Liberal media spins ‘homicide’ narrative after ICE detainee death — but DHS sets the record straight

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Despite allegations of high-level involvement in the anti-ICE network, which critics have labeled insurrectionist, far-left Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) posted a video urging protesters to escalate by putting “your body on the line.”

The information comes during heightened tensions in Minneapolis and other cities, where left-wing activists have clashed with federal agents over immigration enforcement. Higby continues dropping fresh screenshots and member lists, vowing more exposures in the “Signal Gate” saga.

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

​Politics, Ice, Protests, Minnesota, Cam higby, Tim walz, Peggy flanagan 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) has repeatedly turned to the 1930s in search of potential analogs for those people and actions today that he finds disagreeable.

Walz smeared, for example, Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski and the tens of thousands of other Americans who attended a campaign event for President Donald Trump in October 2024, comparing them to the Nazis who rallied at the location in February 1939.

‘Her story has nothing to do with the illegal immigration, fraud, and lawlessness plaguing Minnesota today.’

Walz claimed on May 17, 2025, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which was active during his former running mate’s tenure as vice president as well as during the Obama administration — was “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.”

In the wake of 37-year-old Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting by a federal immigration agent on Saturday, Walz once again went in search of a damning reference. This time, he likened Minnesota children whose streets are being cleared of violent criminal noncitizens to Jews in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands who were faced with systematized mass murder.

After further vilifying federal immigration agents and reiterating his demand that ICE leave the Gopher State, Walz said during a press conference on Sunday, “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank.”

“Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota,” added Walz. “And there’s one person who can end this now.”

RELATED: ‘F**k off’ and ‘Get ICE the hell out of Minnesota’: Democrats rattle sabers after Bondi demands voter rolls

Photographer: Jack Califano/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Anne Frank was a Jewish German girl whose family attempted to hide from Nazi forces in the secret annex of an Amsterdam residence. After two years of hiding, the family was captured after the Sicherheitspolizei raided the location in concert with Dutch police. Frank was taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, where she and her sister died in 1945. Her father, Otto, survived Auschwitz, then later saw to the publication of Anne Frank’s diary.

Critics have suggested Walz’s comparison is indefensible.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, tweeted, “Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust. Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law. She was hauled off to a death camp because of her race and religion. Her story has nothing to do with the illegal immigration, fraud, and lawlessness plaguing Minnesota today.”

“Our brave law enforcement should be commended, not tarred with this historically illiterate and antisemitic comparison,” added the rabbi.

Republican Rep. Randy Fine (Fla.) said that “comparing the removal of illegal immigrants to the Holocaust is antisemitic and repulsive.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish American activist and political commentator at PragerU, wrote, “One million Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust. Illegal immigrants are offered thousands of dollars to take a free flight home. Tim Walz is an evil retard.”

The White House’s rapid response account said that Walz is a “truly disturbed, unstable individual.”

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

​Anne frank, Holocaust, Genocide, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tim walz, Walz, Immigration, Federal agents, Us immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Alex pretti, Politics 

Crooks crashed a car through a jewelry store entrance in a brazen, broad-daylight smash-and-grab heist caught on surveillance and cellphone video Friday afternoon in Southern California.

The Anaheim Police Department said officers responded to Classic Jewelers on East Santa Ana Canyon Road around 2:30 p.m., KTLA-TV reported.

‘My life flashed before my eyes.’

Employees told police that multiple suspects intentionally rammed a dark-colored Nissan Rogue into the front of the business to gain entry and steal jewelry, the station said.

“Eight to 10 guys run in with masks, trash cans, and crowbars, hammers, and smash every showcase,” the store owner told KTTV-TV.

The owner added to KABC-TV that he told the crooks “‘I have a gun. Get out. I have a gun.”

Well, they allegedly took the gun, too.

“My gun was on the table. They grabbed my gun, and at that point I thought I was going to get shot,” the owner recalled to KTTV.

“My life flashed before my eyes,” he added to KTLA.

RELATED: Video: Masked smash-and-grab robbers don’t look so scary when jewelry store owner pulls his gun and opens fire

The store owner said the group got away with about $1 million in gold and jewelry, as well as his gun, KTLA noted.

“They took everything within a matter of a minute,” he recounted to KTTV. “This is our livelihood.’

The suspects then fled in two Dodge Charger sedans, police told KTLA, adding that the Nissan used to plow through the store’s entrance — which was stolen — was driven from the scene.

But one thing ultimately worked in the jewelry store’s favor: An employee recorded cellphone video of the escaping vehicles — and their license plates were on the clip.

Subsequently, cops were on the lookout and soon caught up to the cars.

Police told KTLA one of the cars was involved in a multi-vehicle collision, and all four occupants — the driver and three passengers — fled but were soon located and arrested.

Then an Anaheim Police Department air unit located what was believed to be the second suspect vehicle — and that car also was involved in a multi-vehicle crash, police told KTLA. Immediately two males believed to be involved in the jewelry store heist were arrested, and a handgun was recovered at the scene, police added to the station.

Police found trays loaded with stolen jewelry in one of the cars, KTTV said.

Two additional males were arrested hours later in the rear yards of separate residences, police added to KTLA.

RELATED: Cops make progress after mob of violent, hammer-wielding thugs pull off brazen smash-and-grab robbery in broad daylight

Police told KTLA a total of eight suspects — all of whom are under the age of 24 — were identified as:

Jose Andres Martinez-Colindres, 24, of InglewoodLeontrey Gipson, 23, of Los AngelesDeondre Jones, 23, of Los AngelesTylaind Brown, 20, of ComptonKhilen Toles, 20, of InglewoodKhamari Toles, 20, of InglewoodLatrell Mathews, 19, of Los Angeles

A 17-year-old male from Los Angeles also was among the arrestees, KTLA said.

The seven adult suspects were booked on suspicion of multiple felonies, pending review by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, police told KTLA, adding that the juvenile was released to a guardian pending further proceedings.

Several uninvolved motorists were hospitalized in the two vehicle crashes, KTLA reported, adding that their injuries were “non-life-threatening.”

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

​Smash and grab, Jewelry store, Anaheim, Fullerton, California, Suspects caught, Car crashes, Police, Armed robbers, Gun, Crime 

As the situation in Minnesota continues to become more unruly, President Trump made several announcements in a Truth Social post in anticipation of the week ahead.

Trump suggested in part that border czar Tom Homan will be heading north to assess the rapidly evolving situation.

‘A major investigation is going on with respect to the massive 20 Billion Dollar, Plus, Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota.’

On Monday morning, Trump announced, “I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there.”

“Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump added.

RELATED: Democrats threaten to shut down government over ICE funding: ‘We are not powerless’

Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified Homan’s role in Minnesota on social media shortly after the post from Trump: “Tom Homan will be managing ICE Operations on the ground in Minnesota to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. In addition, Tom will coordinate with those leading investigations into the massive, widespread fraud that has resulted in billions of taxpayer dollars being stolen from law-abiding citizens in Minnesota.”

Trump added that “a major investigation is going on with respect to the massive 20 Billion Dollar, Plus, Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota.”

He suggested that the welfare fraud is “at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets.”

Trump also attacked Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) in the post.

“Additionally, the DOJ and Congress are looking at ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars. Time will tell all. Thank you for your attention to this 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, Ilhan omar, Minnesota, Welfare fraud, Tom homan, Border czar, Donald trump, President trump, Welfare scandal, Ice, Doj, Congress 

A professional women’s basketball player said the time is right to display her “simple message” to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Breanna Stewart is a 30-year-old WNBA player for the New York Liberty, but she was playing in a different women’s basketball league when she made her political statement on Sunday afternoon.

‘Knowing that everyone here is feeling that way, one way or another.’

Before the game between the Unrivaled basketball league’s Vinyl and Mist, Stewart stood holding a sign that read, “Abolish ICE,” as players were being introduced. Stewart is a co-founder of the league, which plays in a mega-complex in Medley, Florida.

After the game, Stewart told reporters that “all day” Saturday, she had a problem with what she was seeing online.

“Really, all day yesterday, I was kind of just disgusted from everything that you see on Instagram and in the news,” Stewart said during a press conference. “We’re so fueled by hate right now, and instead of love, so I wanted to kind of have a simple message of ‘abolish ICE,’ which means … having policies to uplift families and communities instead of fueling fear and violence.”

RELATED: Surprise? WNBA has highest share of Democrat voters, more than any other major US sports league

“I think that, you know, when human lives are stake, it’s bigger than anything else,” the three-time WNBA champion went on.

Stewart then called ICE enforcement and riots in Minnesota a “crisis” as she encouraged Americans to advocate for policy change.

“To have that simple message before the game was important to me, and knowing that everyone here is feeling that way, one way or another, and it was just a perfect time,” she added.

RELATED: WNBA star just admitted the truth about biology — and her fellow players won’t be happy

Photo by Michael Hirschuber/Getty Images

At the same time, Stewart’s advocacy for adjusted immigration laws are directly related to her personal life.

The basketball player stated in the press conference that she has been “working to get” her Spanish wife, Marta Xargay, U.S. citizenship. “She is a legal permanent resident and all of that,” Stewart explained.

“But it seems like it doesn’t matter. And I think that that’s why these policies need to be put in place, that reform needs to happen, because it doesn’t seem to be affecting the right people. It’s not helping anybody.”

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

​Wnba, Women’s sports, Women’s basketball, Ice, Dhs, Minnesota, Fearless, Sports 

The enforcement of immigration law is ruining the Democratic Party’s “plan,” according to a former Minnesota Vikings player.

Jack Brewer is an ex-NFL player who spent three years at the University of Minnesota before playing two seasons for the Vikings in the early 2000s.

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces near-daily violent resistance in Minnesota, Brewer presented a theory as to why he believes residents are “attacking” law enforcement.

‘There is something wrong in Minneapolis. We need a city-wide behavioral health assessment.’

“We’re deporting their voters,” Brewer stated. “That’s part of what’s happening, and it’s blowing up their whole plan,” he said in remarks to Fox News Digital.

The 47-year-old said his work in third-world countries has taught him that immigration policy must be enforced because of different cultural values present worldwide.

“You can’t allow people to come into your country who don’t carry the same morals and values that you do. That’s what’s happening. Minneapolis is protecting these thugs. It’s unbelievable. These people are demonic.”

“The values are not the same,” Brewer went on. “You cannot let people come into the United States who come from cultures like that, because they bring their culture with them.”

RELATED: ‘Weak, emasculated leader’: Ex-Vikings player blames Tim Walz for Minnesota killings

Photo Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images

Brewer also took shots at residents of Minneapolis, where he once played, saying, “There is something wrong in Minneapolis. We need a city-wide behavioral health assessment. People have completely lost reality.”

The Texas native said that he hopes President Trump will send the National Guard into the state, calling for curfews and “real consequences” for “attacking law enforcement.”

Brewer also commented on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), saying his governance has been “absolutely ridiculous.”

The football player received a key to the city from Frey back in 2018 but now says he wishes he could “lock” the mayor out.

“I wish I could lock the doors on that city and not let him back in if I had the power,” Brewer said. “He tap-dances for Somalis. He does anything to go against the culture of America and Christianity for them.”

RELATED: Former NFL player says bringing God into schools is the only way to solve racism, economic division

Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Brewer called Minnesota the “capital of chaos in America” in June 2025 and hammered Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Father’s Day.

“Tim Walz is the example of a weak, emasculated leader. That is not what God made fathers to be. It’s pathetic,” he claimed.

The defensive back also said at the time that Democrats had gone “so far left” that they attack anyone within their party who does not agree with their principles.

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

​Vikings, Minnesota, News, Minneapolis, Democrats, Liberals, Ice, Dhs, Mental illness, Politics 

Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded that Minnesota leaders share detailed records on the state’s federally funded welfare programs, repeal its sanctuary policies, and grant access to voter rolls. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party responded with a sharp, dismissive rejection.

On Saturday, Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) describing how the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce immigration laws have been hindered by local leaders. She noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents are facing a 1,300% increase in violence, including a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks.

‘Donald Trump and Pam Bondi are demanding access to Minnesotans’ voter rolls in exchange for relieving us from the federal siege we are under.’

“The lawlessness in the streets is matched by the unprecedented financial fraud occurring on your watch,” Bondi told Walz. “And the out of control fraud in your state also implicates election security.”

Bondi made three requests.

First she demanded that Walz provide the federal government with all of the state’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs to allow for an investigation.

She pressed Walz to repeal Minnesota’s sanctuary policies, blaming them for an increase in crime and violence by preventing the state’s detention facilities from cooperating with ICE.

“I urge you to reach an agreement with ICE that allows them to remove illegal aliens in custody of Minnesota’s prisons and jails and avoids pushing these interactions into your streets,” Bondi wrote.

RELATED: Rioter bit off part of federal agent’s finger amid Minneapolis ‘rampant assault,’ DHS says

Photographer: Jack Califano/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lastly she demanded that Walz allow the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to access the state’s voter rolls to confirm they comply with federal law.

“Do not obstruct federal immigration enforcement; do not allow rioters to take over the streets and houses of worship; do not hinder federal officials from investigating financial fraud and violations of election laws,” Bondi stated. “Whether state and local politicians stand in the way or not, we will work every day to protect Americans and make Minnesota Safe Again. I request that you join us in that effort.”

The DFL Party issued a statement on Sunday responding to Bondi, accusing the attorney general and President Donald Trump of attempting to “extort our state voter rolls.”

“Donald Trump and Pam Bondi are demanding access to Minnesotans’ voter rolls in exchange for relieving us from the federal siege we are under,” DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom said.

“Let us be direct: F**k off,” Carlbom remarked.

RELATED: Democrats threaten to shut down government over ICE funding: ‘We are not powerless’

Ken Martin. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

In a separate statement, the DFL Party accused Trump and Bondi of trying to “threaten and intimidate us with violence,” following a deadly shooting involving federal immigration agents and Illinois native Alex Pretti, 37.

The DFL Party shared a statement from Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin.

“Last night, following the heinous murder of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti at the hands of a federal immigration agent, Pam Bondi drafted and sent a threatening letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attempting to extort the state into handing over its voter rolls as part of an ongoing campaign to undermine local elections and build a national database for Trump’s political revenge and retribution,” Martin stated.

He vowed that the DNC would “stand with local elected officials and fight like hell, including in the courts.”

“For Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, and Greg Bovino, we have one message for you: Get ICE the hell out of Minnesota. Now,” Martin concluded.

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

​News, Pam bondi, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Tim walz, Minnesota, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Democratic-farmer-labor party, Dfl, Democratic national committee, Dnc, Ken martin, Richard carlbom, Kristi noem, Greg bovino, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Politics 

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican widely expected to make another bid for the White House in 2028, was reportedly caught on tape tarring Vice President JD Vance with the same brush he uses on Tucker Carlson and criticizing President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Unlike politicos keen to fault Vance for his enduring friendship with Carlson, Cruz has avoided publicly broadening his critique of the podcaster to the vice president. Behind closed doors, however, Cruz has apparently exercised no such restraint.

‘JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same.’

In secret recordings provided to Axios by an unnamed Republican source, which were apparently taken during a pair of private meetings with donors last year, Cruz allegedly characterized the vice president as a non-interventionist puppet of Carlson.

“Tucker created JD,” Cruz reportedly says in the recordings. “JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same.”

Cruz and Carlson have long appeared at odds on matters both foreign and domestic. Carlson, for instance, castigated the senator in 2022 for calling the Jan. 6, 2021, melee a “violent terrorist attack.”

The enmity between them reached an apparent high, however, in June, when the two clashed on Carlson’s show over whether the U.S. should militarily back Israeli actions against Iran.

In the immediate wake of the combative interview, Cruz accused the host of engaging in “gotcha” journalism, attacking Trump, defending terrorists, demonizing Israel, and “running interference” for the Iranian regime.

RELATED: Which way after Trump? ‘Strong Gods’ may offer the solution.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

While both men have traded barbs in the months since, Cruz appears increasingly fixated on Carlson, accusing him of being anti-Semitic, an Islamist, and — in response to Carlson’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — “#AmericaLast.”

In the recordings, Cruz also allegedly accused Vance of working with Carlson to oust former national security adviser Mike Waltz over his support for U.S. strikes on Iran.

Waltz “supported being vigorous against Iran and bombing Iran — and Tucker and JD took Mike out,” Cruz allegedly told donors.

While Waltz’s hawkish stance on Iran and alleged behind-the-scenes coordination with Netanyahu reportedly angered Trump, the straw that broke the camel’s back may have been Waltz’s accidental invitation of an anti-Trump polemicist to a private high-level group chat on Signal where senior administration officials were discussing sensitive military plans.

On the recordings, Cruz allegedly also claimed that Vance worked in concert with Carlson to help Daniel Davis, an Army veteran critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, secure a senior national intelligence position — a post that Davis was ultimately denied.

Carlson told Axios that he “didn’t have anything to do” with the ousting of Waltz or attempted onboarding of Davis.

The Texas senator appears in recent months to have been laying the groundwork for a 2028 bid in which he would run as the kind of Republican Trump crushed in the 2016 and 2024 Republican primaries. According to Axios, this has involved courting powerful pro-Israel donors and “positioning himself as a traditional free-trade, pro-interventionist Republican.”

Whereas early pulling suggests that Vance is poised to sweep the GOP 2028 primary, Cruz presently has a 2% chance of becoming the 2028 GOP nominee, according to Polymarket, and proved unable to capture 1% in an October poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire.

Blaze News has reached out for comment to the offices of Vance and Cruz.

A spokesperson for Cruz told Axios that the senator is “the president’s greatest ally in the Senate and battles every day in the trenches to advance his agenda” and that “those battles include fights over staffers who try to enter the administration despite disagreeing with the president and seeking to undermine his foreign policy.”

The spokesperson added, “Sen. Cruz is proud of those fights, his accomplishments, and his close relationship with the president. These attempts at sowing division are pathetic and getting boring.”

‘They will be terminated on the spot.’

The Texas senator allegedly also attacked Trump’s tariff policy on the recordings from his private meetings with donors.

Cruz allegedly regaled donors with the tale of a call that he and other senators made to Trump that “did not go well” after the president introduced his Liberation Day tariffs.

“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz allegedly told the donors. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.”

“Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10%-20% at the supermarket, we’re going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath,” Cruz allegedly recalled telling Trump. “You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week.”

Cruz allegedly told donors that Trump’s response was, “F**k you, Ted.”

At the mention of “Liberation Day” in reference to the tariffs, Cruz allegedly joked with donors in the meeting, “I’ve told my team if anyone uses those words, they will be terminated on the spot. That is not language we use.”

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

According to the Texas Politics Project, Cruz’s job approval rating is presently 35% overall and 69% among Republicans.

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

​Tucker carlson, Jd vance, Vice president, Donald trump, Ted cruz, Texas, Senate, 2028, Republican, Primary, Israel, Mike waltz, Politics 

Actress Pam Grier revealed to the ladies of “The View” that as a child, she witnessed a lynched body hanging from a tree in Columbus, Ohio.

“My mom would go, ‘Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look,’ and she’d pull us away because there was someone hanging from a tree,” Grier explained as the audience gasped. “And they have a memorial for it now where you can see where people were and left. And it triggers me today to see that a voice can be silenced and if a white family supported a black, they’re going to get burned down or killed or lynched as well.”

And Grier isn’t the only one talking about lynching in 2026.

“Honestly, they about to outlaw the idea of white supremacy and white hate. Like, they are about to be like, ‘Oh, that’s not a thing.’ Forget the fact that you’re talking about getting rid of, like, the classification for nooses in a time in which we have seen these random black bodies be strung up down south,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said in a recent video.

She went on to claim that Trump is emboldening white people to “take off their hoods.”

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t surprised, but he is a little disturbed.

“There’s the audience gasping. … The truth is irrelevant. Everything is emotional. Everything’s just, say whatever you want, and we’ve got to live with your delusion,” Whitlock says.

“I think Pam Grier is 76 years old. That means she was born around 1950. The last documented lynching, I believe, in Ohio, was 1911. Lynching just hasn’t been a thing since the 1920s or ’30s,” he continues.

“And this will be real controversial … but I’m standing on this and saying that this whole lynching thing — completely exaggerated. Completely exaggerated. Just like police shootings, completely exaggerated,” he adds.

Whitlock points out that while many black people now fear the police, they’re far more likely to be killed by someone who is also black than by a police officer.

“There’s been so much propaganda around it, but when you’re black, when we black people in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s — they weren’t sitting around living in fear. ‘Oh, the KKK is coming, and they’re going to kill me,’” Whitlock says.

“Did it happen occasionally? Yes. No different than very occasionally the police kill someone in the black community unfairly, but if you’re going to die violently in any community, it’s going to be someone that lives in your community that does it,” he explains.

“If I had been in that audience when Pam Grier said that, I would have shouted out, ‘That’s a lie.’ I literally would have shouted out, ‘That’s a lie,’” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video, Camera phone, Sharing, Upload, Free, Video phone, Youtube.com, Jason whitlock harmony, Jason whitlock, Fearless with jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jasmine crockett, Pam grier, The view, White people, Racism, The kkk, President trump, Lynching 

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

Man’s relationship with animals has been complicated for thousands of years. From the beginning of time, they have been ours to rule over — for better or worse. Their care has been a sacred responsibility.

What once would have warranted a CPS call is now accepted, even encouraged. Young children crawl where animal feces and urine collect.

Our ancestors offered the best animals as burnt sacrifices. Those who forgot God worshipped the animals instead. We worked alongside them, traveled with them, and fought wars on their backs. We domesticated them for food and clothing. The decent among us treated them kindly and with gratitude.

We have loved animals. We have also misused them for our own needs and amusement.

Friend-zoned

Animals have long been man’s companions. But the idea that an animal is “man’s best friend” did not emerge until the 18th century — and even then, those loyal hunting companions only loosely resembled the modern leashed house pet.

There has always been a role for animals alongside the impaired, the grieving, the lonely, or the emotionally suffering. But such arrangements were not the norm. Animals lived near men because they were valuable. Children played with them outdoors. Sometimes barns were attached to houses. But no decent family would have subjected their children to living in the same space as animals — except in rare cases when an animal was sick and required special care.

What once would have warranted a CPS call is now accepted, even encouraged. Young children crawl where animal feces and urine collect, and no one blinks. Disabilities are suddenly ubiquitous, and everyone feels entitled to an emotional-support companion, regardless of whether it is good for the animal — or their children.

Bred for comfort

These animals we call man’s “best friends” are hardly recognizable as anything God created. We have bred them to suit our desires. We have domesticated wild creatures and enslaved them. They depend on us completely, even as we use them to satisfy our own emotional needs. We have fashioned a kind of Frankenstein for our own comfort, without counting the cost: the animals we have tampered with and overbred, now wandering the streets, feral and forgotten.

As Christians called to be good stewards of all God has given us, we must ask whether we have gone too far. Have we taken advantage of animals under the guise of love?

We excuse this abuse with self-serving justifications. They like it, we say of pets locked inside, barking or scratching at doors—as if anything enjoys being caged, leashed, or confined for another’s benefit. Sometimes we hoard them and claim it is love. We argue, My pet teaches me responsibility and routine. But pets for the sake of learning responsibility are for children. Adults should turn to prayer for discipline. We say, My pet is the only thing that loves me unconditionally.

RELATED: Beloved elderly fire department member mauled to death by pack of pit bull-mix dogs; owner charged with murder, animal abuse

Image source: Davidson County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office

Tied down

Pet ownership is a sign of mental illness. Instead of seeking help, we entrap animals.

We claim pets make us responsible adults, yet they prevent us from serving others. We cannot travel, volunteer, or do missionary work because of them. They keep us from weddings, baby showers, and funerals. They make us less generous, less available, less free.

The gospel goes unpreached for the sake of man’s best friend.

But what has been done cannot easily be undone. We cannot simply turn pets loose. If taking them was a mistake, abandoning them would be another.

This is not the first time humanity has abused its authority over animals. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors domesticated pigeons — first for food, then as messengers. When technology made them unnecessary, those loyal companions became pests. What we created, we came to despise once it no longer served us.

No easy answers

Rather than continuing this cycle of domesticating and discarding animals, we should pause and ask what we are doing. Are we abusing our God-given authority? How can we make amends without causing further harm? I have no easy answers — only a denunciation of the modern pet industry.

In the meantime, we should not condone animal hoarding. We should reach out to the lonely in our communities instead of outsourcing compassion to pets. And those with unruly animals should make them tolerable, rather than subjecting the rest of us to their filth, noise, and danger. Just as a young man becomes obnoxious without purpose, so do animals confined without work.

We must find a humane way to let pets return to being animals. It would be better for them — and for us.

​Pets, Animal rights, Faith, The gospel, Pitbulls, Dogs, Lifestyle, Stewardship, Paw patrol 

Well? Do you trust Sam Altman with your kids’ online safety?

Of course you don’t. It is a category error, like asking the fox to draft the henhouse bylaws. Nevertheless, the question is now quietly circulating in Sacramento, Silicon Valley, and soon, if history is any indicator, the rest of the nation.

The world’s most powerful AI company is no longer keeping itself to the building of machines. Now it is helping to write the rules that govern them. That alone should give any serious observer pause. When the referee starts co-authoring the rule book, something has gone wrong long before the first whistle blows. And these machines, of course, are like none other in human history.

California has long served as the Democrats’ preferred testing ground.

OpenAI has announced a partnership with Common Sense Media, a prominent children’s online safety group — founded by Jim Steyer, brother of Tom, the billionaire environmentalist and Democrat candidate for California covernor. OpenAI and CSM were previously at odds, each backing rival ballot initiatives to regulate how children interact with AI chatbots. Now? They’ve joined forces.

The result is a single proposal that could soon land on the California ballot — and, crucially, be marketed as a model for national standards.

California has long served as the Democrats’ preferred testing ground. Auto emissions standards were piloted there, then imposed nationwide. Data privacy followed the same path. So did labor rules, energy mandates, and environmental regulations that radically reshaped entire industries far beyond the state’s borders. Speaking of machines, this one has proven remarkably efficient. First comes the pilot. Then the precedent. Then the pressure. Boom — the heart of national policy is taken over from the fringe.

Once embedded, predictably, the rules harden. Especially when written into ballot initiatives, state constitutions, or dense compliance regimes that only the largest players can afford to navigate. Revision becomes politically radioactive. Repeal is painted as dangerous. Dissent is portrayed as moral failure, opposition as risky and reckless.

The stated purpose, to be sure, is unimpeachable. Protect children. Limit data collection. Add safeguards. Require age verification. Who could object? That’s precisely the point. The moral framing does the work before the policy ever does.

RELATED: Murder victim’s heirs file lawsuit against OpenAI

Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images

By the time questions about power, enforcement, and unintended consequences arise, the argument has already been won. After all, if you hesitate, what exactly are you saying? That children should be less safe?

But politics, especially California politics, is not about intentions. It has always been about incentives. And this arrangement raises an obvious, uncomfortable question: Why would the most dominant AI firm want to help draft the very regulations meant to restrain it?

Regulation, when shaped correctly, isn’t a burden on the powerful. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s a moat. Compliance costs rise. Audits multiply. Smaller firms buckle. New entrants hesitate. The giants absorb the expense, hire the lawyers, tick the boxes, and continue unimpeded. In public, this is called responsibility. In practice, it’s market control with better manners.

There is also the question of timing. OpenAI and its peers are facing mounting criticism over how young people interact with AI systems. Lawsuits loom. Legislators grow restless. Parents are alarmed. Aligning with a trusted children’s advocacy group offers something priceless: moral cover. It reframes the company not as a defendant, but as a protector, a source of safety against irresponsible risk.

That shift matters.

Once a firm is cast as part of the solution rather than a leading source of the problem, scrutiny softens. Critics sound shrill, concerns are waved away as the ravings of cranks, and the company secures a seat at the table where future rules are written.

Far more mundane — and troubling — than a cloakroom conspiracy, this is regulatory capture conducted in broad daylight, wrapped up with a bow in the language of care. And you do care, don’t you?

Once California moves, the story writes itself. Headlines will hail “the strongest protections in the country.” Governors elsewhere will be asked why their states lag behind. Congress will be told a ready-made framework already exists. Why reinvent the wheel? Why delay?

And just like that, a system designed with the input of the industry it governs becomes the national baseline.

This is how power consolidates in the modern age. Forget force and secrecy. Who needs skullduggery when you have slickly deployed partnerships, press releases, and the careful use of children as moral ballast?

None of this is to deny that children need protection online. They do. The digital world is unforgiving, full of predators and rabbit holes that lead nowhere good. No serious person disputes that. However, safeguards crafted in haste — or worse, convenience — rarely age well.

In a brutal irony, though, a process meant to protect the young can instead shape a future where oversight is ossified, competition is stifled, and the most influential technology of our era answers primarily to itself.

California is once again the laboratory. The rest of the country is expected to follow.

So the opening question bears repeating. Do you trust Sam Altman, and companies like his, to help decide what your children are allowed to say, read, ask, or imagine? The question answers itself. What remains unanswered is whether the rest of the country will be given a choice.

​Tech 

Last week, BlazeTV host and investigative journalist Christopher Rufo, alongside Manhattan Institute Director of Research Judge Glock, published a report titled “No White Men Need Apply,” which pulled back the curtain on the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program.

Despite functioning under the current Trump administration, Rufo and Glock discovered that the program has been awarding government contracts based on race, gender, and social disadvantage — a stark contradiction to the administration’s vows to abolish DEI.

“The Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program,” Rufo says, is “a $26 billion slush fund for government contracts that are available to every identity group except for one: white men.”

“We blew the whistle on this and made the case that this was a corrupt program” and “totally in violation of the president’s stated principles against DEI,” Rufo says.

The reaction from SBA and White House officials was surprisingly humble.

“I got a call from the SBA administrator, Kelly Loeffler. I got a call from a number of people at the White House, some of whom were a bit annoyed that we had brought this scandal to public attention, but all of whom recognized, ‘Yep, we’ve dropped the ball on this. It’s totally unjust. We’re going to take action,”’ Rufo recaps.

And they clearly meant it because just two days after their conversation, Loeffler posted the following announcement to X:

— (@)

Rufo says, “It’s not a perfect solution. I think the program should be abolished, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.”

But his co-host, Jonathan Keeperman, has questions.

“Is it the case that they’re not just abolishing this whole thing because, as Washington is, there’s just too many people who are sort of dependent on this, some of whom might even be Republicans or friendly to the administration?”

Are we playing the game of, “Look, we know this is bad, but these are our friends, and sometimes in politics, you just got to sort of weigh the cost of alienating people over here versus the cost of kind of just letting these not great things kind of continue because … that’s just the friction of Washington, D.C.?” he asks.

“From my reporting on this, the White House had contemplated just unilaterally winding down the program, declaring it unconstitutional, and taking it to the courts,” Rufo says. “From what I heard from a number of people is that the White House lawyers, Department of Justice said, ‘Hey, you can’t do that. It’s a statutory program. You have to release regulations, go through public comment, do the whole song and dance.”’

“So actually, the action was stalled, from what I’ve been told, for a number of months in kind of legal limbo, and only because we published this story were they able to start getting that policy process moving again,” he contines.

However, there is also, he says, “an element of kind of long-standing corruption and complicity from Republicans” at play.

He gives the example of Alaska, which receives a disproportionate amount of the SBA’s 8(a) contract money, the majority of which is funneled into companies owned by Alaskan natives.

Many of these companies, however, subcontract the actual work to non-native (usually white-run) companies. To abolish the program would anger Alaska native groups, which are both politically and economically powerful in the state.

According to Rufo’s sources, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), for example, has “made it known throughout the administration, ‘We need to keep this cash flowing,’ because he’s dependent.”

“Tribes are pretty powerful in a state like Alaska … and other red states where there are big tribal populations. They have big lobbying operations. They have big political organizations, a network of businesses, casinos, constructions, contracting, etc.,” Rufo says, “and so there is an element of what I think is legal corruption — even in red states, even with Republican politicians — where they keep this disastrous program alive.”

Regardless, the Trump administration promised to uproot DEI, and Rufo intends to hold them to it.

“It’s been a year. You guys have to get rid of this,” he says.

Even though the SBA is now “letting white men into the program,” Rufo fears that “it will still heavily favor the other groups,” thus allowing the cancer that is DEI to live on.

“The only truly morally defensible position is to get rid of it. And so, I think they should blow it up. I think they should go nuclear,” he urges.

To hear more about Rufo’s investigation into SBA’s 8(a) program, watch the video above.

Want more from Rufo & Lomez?

To enjoy more of the news through the anthropological lens of Christopher Rufo and Lomez, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Rufo & lomez, Chris rufo, Jonathan keeperman, Lomez, Blazetv, Blaze media, Small business administration, 8a, Sba 8a, Dei, Trump admin, Alaska, No whites 

A Florida man is accused of going on a killing spree and gunning down three elderly tourists during their vacation near Disney World. The suspect previously beat an attempted murder charge with an insanity defense, according to court records.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said in a recent statement that officers responded to reports of a shooting near a residence in Kissimmee around 12:13 p.m. Jan. 17.

‘It was cold-blooded, it was premeditated … absolutely no issues.’

Police said they “discovered three adult males deceased in front of the home” and that “all three victims suffered from apparent gunshot wounds.”

Deputies quickly located and arrested the suspect — 29-year-old Ahmad Jihad Bojeh.

Bojeh is facing three counts of premeditated murder and one count of resisting arrest without violence, according to Osceola County Jail records. Bojeh is being detained at the Osceola County Jail without bond.

“There is no threat to the community, as the suspect responsible for these horrific and senseless murders has been apprehended by Osceola County deputies,” said Osceola County Sheriff Christopher Blackmon.

Blackmon told the Tampa Bay Times that Bojeh lived next door to the rental property where the tourists were staying.

“It was cold-blooded, it was premeditated … absolutely no issues,” Blackmon told Fox News. “There was no conflict between these people. This was just random. And this happened to be the person who lived next door.”

After securing a warrant, deputies searched Bojeh’s residence and recovered two firearms, police said. Police noted that the firearms were being examined to see if they were used in the fatal shootings.

Sheriff Blackmon described Bojeh as a “frequent flyer” with police and added to Fox News that he is “a threat to the neighborhood all the time,” citing repeated calls for service involving the suspect.

Blackmon said the motive for the shooting is unclear; the investigation into the killings remains ongoing.

Fox News reported that the three friends — 68-year-old Douglas Kraft of Columbus, Ohio, 70-year-old Robert Kraft of Holland, Michigan, and 68-year-old James Puchan of Galena, Ohio — attended a car show together. Two of the slain tourists were brothers.

Families and friends of the slain victims released a joint statement to WKMG-TV: “With heavy hearts, we confirm the deaths of our beloved husbands, fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, and friends.”

The statement added that the tourists visited the Mecum Car Show in Kissimmee and were staying at a local Airbnb rental property.

“While waiting for assistance after rental car trouble and preparing to travel home, they were being observed from a distance by an unknown individual who was well-known to local law enforcement,” the statement read.

The tourists were “approached and senselessly murdered” in a “random, tragic act,” the families stated.

“Our families are left with an unexpected, unimaginable loss that cannot be put into words,” the statement said.

“We ask for privacy, prayers, and respect as we mourn and begin to process this tragedy,” the families concluded.

RELATED: What was to be a fun bachelor party in Florida ends with best man dead, 3 friends hospitalized, another sentenced to prison

Previously, Bojeh reportedly was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder but was released back on the streets on the grounds of insanity.

WOFL-TV reported that deputies with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bojeh in 2021 for attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and two counts of criminal mischief in connection with an alleged shooting at a Wawa convenience store and gas station.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on the X social media platform, “Prior to State Atty [Monique H.] Worrell’s suspension, Ahmad Jihad Bojeh was acquitted of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and aggravated battery.”

Uthmeier continued, “It appears she didn’t put up a fight to Bojeh’s use of the insanity defense, and he was allowed to go free.” The attorney general added, “This guy, literally named Ahmad ‘Jihad’ Bojeh, shoots three tourists after being acquitted of multiple violent crimes on grounds of insanity.”

Uthmeier also declared, “This is why I’ve proposed Florida’s legislature narrow the insanity defense. Violent criminals should not be set free to hurt others!”

He also told WOFL, “If there’s a risk of them harming others, we need to ensure they’re locked up.”

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that Bojeh was banned from owning firearms as part of his insanity plea.

WOFL reported that Bojeh was arrested in 2019 for retail theft.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request 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!

​Ahmad jihad bojeh, True crime, True crime news, Florida, Florida man, Florida crime, Insanity, Insanity defense, Crime, Triple murder 

Las Vegas is a mirror. When it works, America works. When it struggles, the problem isn’t local — it’s national.

Vegas was built on a simple idea: value. Give people a reason to come, treat them fairly, and let them choose how much risk they want to take. No lectures. No stupid political games. No government hand in your pocket every five minutes.

A great city doesn’t nickel-and-dime its customers. Value matters. People don’t expect cheap. They expect fair. That lesson applies nationally, too.

That formula built the entertainment capital of the world. And right now, it’s under pressure.

The neon lights have dimmed

Vegas is getting squeezed from both ends, and the pressure feels familiar because it’s the same pressure families across the country have felt.

Under the Biden administration, inflation surged. Housing costs jumped. Groceries, energy, airfare, and insurance rose together. Families didn’t get richer. Their dollars just bought less.

Reckless spending, energy restrictions, and regulatory overreach drove the damage. Washington acted like prices were somebody else’s problem.

Southern Nevada also felt the economic whiplash. Tourism collapsed during the 2020 lockdowns, wiping out billions and driving unemployment as high as 33% at its peak. Visitor spending returned slowly, then softened again in 2025 — after wages, rents, and debt had already risen on the assumption that demand would keep growing.

For locals trying to raise families, that meant higher baseline costs and less margin for error. Housing, rent, and transportation ate paychecks. Hospitality wages rose, but many workers still lost ground as commuting costs and rents climbed faster.

A gamble on progress

Under President Trump, the trend has started to reverse — not overnight, but directionally. Energy production is up. Supply chains have stabilized. Regulatory pressure has eased. Inflation cooled. Costs didn’t snap back, but the bleeding slowed.

That matters because affordability is competitiveness. Vegas shows what happens when value breaks.

For decades, Vegas understood the middle-class customer: a weekend trip, a decent room, a good meal, a show, maybe a little gambling — and you left feeling like you got your money’s worth.

That perception is cracking. Resort fees that feel like a second room rate. Paid parking where it never used to exist. Food and drink prices that make people stop and stare. Fees stacked on top of fees, revealed at checkout. The experience starts feeling less like entertainment and more like an airport terminal.

Visitors notice. And when people feel squeezed, they don’t just complain — they change their behavior.

RELATED: America tried to save the planet and forgot to save itself

Photo by Timothy Fadek/Corbis via Getty Images

Vegas runs on volume. When fewer visitors come, fewer dollars circulate. The pain hits the dealer, the server, the bartender, the stagehand, the hotel staff, and the rideshare driver long before it reaches the executive suite.

Zoom out, and you see America facing the same dynamic.

The United States used to win because we offered the best value on earth. Not the cheapest — the best deal. A place where costs made sense and life felt attainable.

That edge has been eroding, especially in housing. When home ownership becomes a fantasy, workers can’t relocate, young families delay building stable lives, and talent looks elsewhere.

Meanwhile, competitors are building. Riyadh. Dubai. Macao. Singapore. They’re creating new tourism and entertainment hubs designed to pull dollars away from legacy markets like Las Vegas.

They’re betting America forgets how competition works.

Make Vegas Vegas again

Federal policy matters here. Washington still treats Vegas like a cash register, with outdated rules such as taxing gambling winnings and forcing IRS reporting thresholds stuck in the 1970s. That doesn’t just annoy visitors. It tells the world America doesn’t understand modern consumer behavior.

Ending the federal tax on gambling winnings isn’t radical. It’s strategic. Updating IRS reporting levels isn’t reckless. It’s realistic. Both would improve the visitor experience and help Vegas compete.

The industry also has work to do. A great city doesn’t nickel-and-dime its customers. Transparency matters. Value matters. People don’t expect cheap. They expect fair.

That lesson applies nationally, too.

America doesn’t win by lecturing consumers or ignoring affordability. America wins by making this country the best place on earth to live, work, build, and spend money.

Vegas is telling that story in real time. If Washington listens, the rest of the country benefits.

​Opinion & analysis, Nevada, Las vegas, Economy, Inflation, Tourism, Decline, Covid-19 tyranny, Families, Middle class, Energy, Affordability, Consumers, Housing, Rent, Resort fees, Value 

The world is abuzz with chatter about the United States’ pursuit of Greenland, but Daniel Horowitz, Blaze Media host of “Conservative Review with Daniel Horowitz,” says we ought to consider prioritizing a different kind of green land: “our pastures, our farms, our ranches.”

America’s food security, or lack thereof, is an issue that should deeply concern every American, he says. Between rising beef prices, the “endless shrinkage of ranchers exiting the farming business,” “the consolidation of corporate farms,” the “corporate monopoly of meat processors,” “inflation-driven land depreciation,” and the “government’s steering capital to data centers instead of ranches,” America’s ability to feed her people is growing weaker by the day.

Horowitz confesses he has grown weary of the Trump administration’s geopolitical distractions and obsession with building AI data centers when “the future of [America’s] food security is what matters.”

“We should be pushing for a Manhattan project for cheap and abundant food, for more ranchers, more farmers, more utilization of the land to produce American-made beef rather than cloud-based AI slop that’s actually now about to pop as a bubble and is not really getting us anything,” he says.

Yet Horowitz sees this prioritization not as a purely conservative misstep, but as a clever pivot by the left.

The shift toward prioritizing AI over food production, he argues, is just progressives’ latest trick in their long game: “jiu-jitsuing” conservatives’ support for “functional energy” and funneling it toward “building their surveillance, transhumanist cloud” to create a world where “we own nothing, are dependent on government,” small businesses (including ranchers and farmers) are crushed, and we’re all forced to “put our lives on the cloud.”

Based on several Davos speeches delivered at this year’s World Economic Forum conference, it appears that fossil fuels are back in style with the elites, but Horowitz warns that their plan is to “siphon it all off for their cloud-based, transhumanist” trashing of the internet.”

“Consuming all of our land — not for food, farming, ranching — but for cloud. That’s what this is all about,” he says.

He accuses the Trump administration of “literally digging our own grave” by handing power-hungry elites tax breaks, streamlined regulations, and priority land access for massive data centers, all while pushing policies that would block states and localities from using basic zoning rules to safeguard farmland and ranching.

In short, their efforts are paving the way for the destruction of farmland to build “massive power-sucking dung holes,” where our data will be stored and likely used to surveil us.

What this administration should be doing, Horowitz says, is “getting out of the way of ranchers and farmers so that we have safe, healthy, abundant, cheap food and protein in this country.”

To learn more about the boots-on-the-ground fight for food security in America, Horowitz interviews Texas cattle rancher and co-founder of the Beef Initiative Cole Bolton.

To hear their conversation, watch the full episode above.

​Conservative review with daniel horowitz, Conservative review, Daniel horowitz, Blazetv, Blaze media, Farming, Ranching, American farms, American ranches, American beef, American farmers, American ranchers, Davos, Wef, Elites, Ai, Cloud, Ai data centers 

Social media users reacted to elites discussing the consumption of lab-grown meat products during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week.

A video clip circulated on social media on Thursday of Andrea Illy, an Italian businessman and chairman of the coffee company Illycaffè, pushing for the adoption of tech foods.

‘This, I know, it’s kind of a cultural revolution.’

Sam Kass, a former White House chef and senior policy adviser for nutrition under former President Barack Obama, said, “A lot of what we’re starting to see are these replacements for these core foods. I’ve tasted a bunch of, you know, ‘future coffee, fake coffee.’ How do you see that application?”

Kass asked for Illy’s opinion on the matter, noting that, while the technology of cultivated food is “smart” and “interesting,” “from a values perspective” and as a chef, he does not want to see a future “where we’re starting to drink coffee from a factory as opposed to from a tree.”

Illy responded, “There is a terrible cultural resistance from [the] consumer to accept tech foods. But in my opinion, they represent the way forward.”

“We know from statistics … that 70% of the ecological footprint of agriculture is due to animal proteins,” Illy continued.

RELATED: Say no to synthetic: America needs real meat, not lab slop

Andrea Illy. Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images for illy caffe

He argued that the “excessive consumption” of meat “is the first cause of noncommunicable diseases,” which he claimed is “the number one health problem in the Western society.”

Illy suggested reducing meat consumption to a “healthy” level, while considering “the environmental impact.”

“Why should I use animals when I can cultivate meat and get only the best part of it?” Illy questioned.

RELATED: Bugs for thee, beef for me: How big business monopolizes meat

Andrea Illy. Photographer: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“This, I know, it’s kind of a cultural revolution,” he added, estimating that it would take decades to get people to adopt lab-grown meat as the new norm.

The WEF website boasts the adoption of cultivated meat. The organization explains that lab-grown meat begins with “extracting stem cells from a small sample of animal tissue” and placing those stem cells in a bioreactor. The WEF claims that cultivated meats offer “a multitude of benefits,” including reduced environmental impacts, lower resource use, elimination of the need to slaughter animals, and elimination of antibiotic use.

X users in the comments seemed less than enthusiastic about tech foods.

“They will eat steaks from the finest beef. Everyone else cancer cells cultivated in a laboratory,” one user wrote.

“Gross,” another stated.

“WEF is full of demons,” a third wrote.

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

​News, Andrea illy, World economic forum, Wef, Davos, Switzerland, Sam kass, Lab-grown meat, Cultivated meat, Health, Politics 

An insider report claims that Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny has plans to make the Super Bowl LX halftime show awfully political.

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, stirred controversy for most of 2025, both before and after being named as the performer for the big game. This included telling audiences they “have four months to learn” Spanish to understand his performance and releasing a parody of President Trump in his music video song “NUEVAYoL” on the fourth of July.

‘The NFL has no idea what’s coming.’

Now outlet Radar said that members of the musician’s style team have revealed he plans on delivering a “political thunderbolt” during the halftime show.

Glam squad

Insiders described as a stylist and a member of the singer’s “glam team” alleged that Bad Bunny plans on wearing a dress during the halftime show to honor Puerto Rican “queer icons” and “generations of drag, resistance, and cultural rebellion,” the outlet wrote.

RELATED: Trump says NFL is passing the blame on Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show: ‘I don’t know why they’re doing it’

Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images

“He loves controversy. He lives to push envelopes,” a stylist involved in Bad Bunny’s clothing choices allegedly told Radar.

Dress mess

“He is 100% going to wear a dress. A political thunderbolt disguised as couture,” they added.

A second source also explained, “He’s not playing it safe. The NFL has no idea what’s coming. Zero.”

An apparent third source, listed as only “a pal” of Bad Bunny’s, said that critics are free to complain, but “the dress is already being sewn.”

RELATED: Trump administration responds to Bad Bunny’s promise to perform in Spanish for ‘woke’ halftime show

Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images

Harebrained

The NFL has been accused by the president of passing the responsibility of the booking on to the promoters, as the content seemingly is at odds with the league’s core fans.

“Apple Music, the NFL, and Roc Nation announced that 3x Grammy Award-winning global recording artist Bad Bunny will perform at the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Sunday, February 8, 2026, airing on NBC,” the NFL wrote in a press release last September.

Apple Music’s key figure is listed as Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and international content.

Roc Nation is also involved. That company was founded by rapper Jay-Z and has been working on Super Bowl halftime shows since 2019.

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter said in the same press release that Bad Bunny’s “unique ability to bridge genres, languages, and audiences makes him an exciting and natural choice to take the Super Bowl halftime stage.”

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

​Sports, Nfl, Super bowl, Bad bunny, Drag, Lgbt, Gay pride, Crossdressing, Lifestyle 

Democrats have worked energetically in recent months to demonize and delegitimize the men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — those whom Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz branded as “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.”

This messaging campaign helped set the stage for deadly confrontations such as those that led to Renee Good’s death on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti’s death on Saturday.

‘I won’t vote to fund murder.’

Now Democratic lawmakers — who wouldn’t dream of letting a crisis go to waste — are threatening to shut down the government in order to starve the Department of Homeland Security of funds.

“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling — and unacceptable in any American city,” said Democrat U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. “Democrats sought common-sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no.”

Schumer noted further that Senate Democrats “will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”

Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar echoed Schumer and signaled opposition to the so-called “ICE funding bill” as well — and numerous other anti-ICE Democrats followed suit.

RELATED: ‘Going to get someone killed’: Democratic AG shocks with talk about shooting ICE agents in ‘stand your ground’ Arizona

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Democrat U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, for example, vowed to “do everything” he can to prevent the deployment of federal law enforcement in American cities, noting “that starts with voting no on DHS’s budget this week.”

Ruben Gallego, another Democratic U.S. senator from Arizona, put it bluntly: “I won’t vote to fund murder in the name of law enforcement.”

Democrat U.S. Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said, “I’m not voting to fund this lawless violence. Trump’s abuse of power is tearing us apart.”

“The Senate should not vote to keep funding this rampage,” wrote U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.). “We are not powerless.”

The House of Representatives passed a three-bill minibus appropriations package in a 341-88 vote Thursday, which would fund the Departments of War, Labor, Transportation, Health and Human services, Education, and related agencies. In a separate vote of 220-207, the House reportedly also passed a funding bill for the DHS, which would allocate $64.4 billion to the department, including $10 billion for ICE.

‘The shutdown cost us a lot, and I think they’ll probably do it again.’

The four spending bills were combined with a pair of measures previously passed in the House then sent to the Senate for approval ahead of the Jan. 30 deadline.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that the DHS funding measure would not be decoupled from the others, reported NBC News.

While the Senate was expected to vote on the funding package Monday evening, Thune spokesperson Ryan Wrasse indicated the vote would be postponed until Tuesday “due to the impending weather event that is expected to impact a significant portion of the country.”

In order to avoid a filibuster and pass the spending package, Republicans need 60 votes in the Senate where they have only 53 members — including U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has a habit of voting against spending bills.

As of Sunday, the likelihood of another U.S. government shutdown by Jan. 31 was 76%, according to Polymarket.

Just days before Pretti’s fatal shooting by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer, President Donald Trump told Fox Business, “I think we have a problem because I think we’re going to probably end up in another Democrat shutdown.”

“The shutdown cost us a lot, and I think they’ll probably do it again. That’s my feeling,” continued the president. “We’ll see what happens.”

The most recent government shutdown was the longest in the nation’s history, lasting from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025 — a total of 43 days.

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

​Shutdown, Shut down, Government, Spending, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Deportation, Immigration, Donald trump, Chuck schumer, Hakeem jeffries, Budget, Politics 

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), claiming his political career has been a decades-long scheme to facilitate financial transfers to Somalia.

“It feels a whole lot like Keith Ellison may have been pulling off a long con. I mean, decades long, just to facilitate Somalian fraud. Like it seems like this has been his goal for a very long time,” Gonzales says, pointing out that before he was AG, he served in Congress from 2007 to 2019.

“You would expect that in 12 years serving in Congress, there would be a lot to show for it, right? Like he will have had a bunch of bills that he sponsored that passed … I mean he did turn into the Minnesota AG so like obviously he was successful,” she continues.

“Except, it turns out, there’s only one single solitary bill that he sponsored that ended up becoming law. Just this one,” she says.

The bill is titled Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014.

“It made it easier for nonbank financial institutions like money-service businesses to provide remittance payments internationally, which of course, you know, is sending American money to foreigners across the world,” Gonzales explains.

And in an interview with the Mogadishu Times, Ellison explained that the primary goal is to keep “the discussion focused on how we can keep money flowing to Somalia.”

“Quite simply, one of the banks that helps to facilitate remittances from the United States to Somalia has now become worried about the degree of risk … they’re worried that they could end up being prosecuted on a criminal basis,” Ellison continued.

“It’s actually so incredible that all of this was out there. All the breadcrumbs were there this entire time. This has actually been in operation for a very long time for Keith Ellison,” Gonzales comments, shocked.

Ellison has also publicly claimed that sending money to Somalia is mutually beneficial for U.S. taxpayers.

“Please give me receipts on how it’s mutually beneficial. This is a third-world country with people who are inbred … so I don’t understand,” Gonzales says.

“On a serious note, lock him up. We need accountability for all of this corruption that has been happening for decades completely unchecked,” she adds.

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.

​Video, Camera phone, Video phone, Upload, Free, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Minnesota fraud, Somalian fraud, Keith ellison, Keith ellison fraud, Minnesota 

The late, great Angelo Codevilla had a way of cutting through the fog of foreign policy.

In the Claremont Review of Books in 2019, he asked, “What’s Russia to us?” He didn’t ask because he had any special admiration for Russia. He asked because Washington had turned Russia into a utility: a convenient villain that justified budgets, scolded dissent, and kept the governing class in charge. Codevilla’s point was simple but brutal. Strategy begins with interests. Interests require discrimination. Most of what passes for “grand strategy” amounts to habit and vanity.

Greenland touches national defense. Greenland touches Arctic geography. Greenland touches the supply chain for advanced systems. Those facts don’t bend around Davos etiquette.

That question — his question — fits the Greenland uproar better than any of the Davos hand-wringing last week.

European leaders want this story to be about Trump’s manners and apparent recklessness. They want it to be about “norms,” about “tone,” about the precious feelings of the alliance. They want Americans to believe the true scandal lies in a U.S. president speaking too plainly or belligerently.

Trump did speak plainly. In Davos on Wednesday, he pushed for “immediate negotiations” to acquire Greenland and ruled out the use of military force. He also floated a “framework” tied to Arctic security after meeting NATO’s secretary general, while walking back tariff threats that had rattled allies and markets.

Fine. Trump being Trump shouldn’t surprise anyone.

But Europe’s reaction should surprise people, because it revealed how unserious the continent has become — even about something as serious as Greenland.

Instead of handling business like adults — hard bargaining among allies over a piece of real estate that actually matters — European capitals staged indignation, offered lectures, and then produced the usual substitute for seriousness: a symbolic “show of force” meant for domestic consumption.

The numbers tell the laughable story. Sweden sent three officers. Norway sent two. Finland sent two liaison officers. The Netherlands sent one naval officer. The U.K. sent one officer. France sent around 15 mountain specialists. Germany sent a reconnaissance team of 13. Denmark led with about 100 troops. Reuters called it “modest.” That word was kind.

But that’s the European governing class in a nutshell for you: Perform alarm, then perform resolve, then declare victory over a crisis they helped manufacture.

All of this theater tried to sell one idea: Greenland needs protection from the United States.

Preposterous.

Greenland matters because it helps defend the United States. Pituffik Space Base — some Americans may still know it as Thule — sits where U.S. forces can track threats coming over the pole. The Arctic doesn’t care about European speeches. Missiles don’t fly around Greenland out of respect for allied etiquette. Geography dictates capability, and Greenland sits where the map says it sits.

RELATED: Pressed on Greenland, Trump tells Davos the US has weapons he ‘can’t even talk about’

Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

Europe’s commissioners understand that. They just hate saying it out loud because it reminds them of the arrangement they prefer to obscure: America provides the real security; Europe provides the indignant boo-hoo commentary.

The Greenland tantrum exposed another reality that should make America’s sensible policy planners sweat, assuming they still exist: The industrial foundations of power have become strategic again, and the West has behaved like an empire that forgot how to build.

Rare-earths sound like an investor pitch until you remember where they go. Modern weapons systems and advanced electronics depend on them. We need minerals you have likely never heard of — neodymium, dysprosium, samarium, and yttrium — to keep our F-35s flying and our missiles precision-guided.

But the supply chain runs through the part nobody wants to talk about: processing and refining. China dominates that bottleneck — especially the heavy rare-earth elements that sit in the highest-end systems. One major estimate put China’s share of global heavy rare-earth processing at more than 90%. That’s a massive national security hole.

Greenland matters because it offers a way out — not a magic wand, but an exit. Greenland holds serious mineral potential. That potential shifts the long-term strategic balance only if development happens.

Greenland’s own politics have made development tricky. In 2021, Greenland reinstated a uranium ban that effectively froze the Kvanefjeld project, one of the world’s most significant rare-earth deposits, because uranium appears alongside rare-earth ore and triggers the political and regulatory trip wires that make major mining projects difficult to sustain.

Greenland’s voters have every right to weigh environmental costs. Strategy still counts consequences. But the practical result of the ban didn’t restrain Beijing. It protected Beijing’s advantage.

The Europeans, of course, love a green virtue-signal that imposes no serious cost on Europe. Through it all, however, the continent remains dependent on America’s military might, dependent on Chinese processing, and increasingly dependent on slogans to conceal both.

So yes — Trump’s aggressive posture creates complications. Acquisition talk puts Denmark in a public box and turns what should be an alliance negotiation into a freak show. It hands European leaders a stage they don’t deserve and an excuse to treat American interests as a moral problem.

RELATED: Trump announces ‘framework’ of ‘great’ deal with NATO on Greenland

Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images

But Europe’s leaders made fools of themselves by trying to address a strategic reality through choreography. A reconnaissance team, a few liaison officers, and a weekend of headlines don’t secure Greenland against anyone. Their “show of force” invited contempt, not respect.

Codevilla’s 2019 essay mocked the way our establishment inflates foreign threats to discipline the home front. The Greenland episode shows a mirror image: European elites inflating a U.S. negotiating push into a crisis because they can’t handle an America that talks like a serious country.

Greenland touches our national defense. Greenland touches Arctic geography. Greenland touches the supply chain for advanced systems. Those facts don’t bend around Davos etiquette.

So use Codevilla’s test. Strip away the moral fog. Rank interests and act like the answers matter.

What’s Greenland to us?

A hell of a lot.

​Greenland, Denmark, Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, National defense, Davos, Europe, Nato, China, Rare earth minerals, National interest, Arctic, F-35, America first, Foreign policy, Angelo codevilla