“This case could completely wipe out the ATF’s ability to create law and subvert congress, which would be a massive win for the Second Amendment.” [more…]
Category: blaze media
Texas female allegedly flies into rage at gym, throws 25-pound weight at another woman as possible love triangle boils over
Things allegedly got ugly at a Texas 24 Hour Fitness earlier this month when authorities said a 25-year-old female became enraged after spotting another women she believed was involved with her boyfriend.
Deputies with the Precinct 4 Constable’s Office said Aralyn Martinez grabbed a 25-pound weight plate and rushed toward the other woman who was working out on the floor of the gym in Spring, KHOU-TV reported. Spring is about 30 minutes north of Houston.
‘Now the boyfriend & the victim are enjoying date night while she’s in lockup. Do better.’
Cellphone video deputies reviewed reportedly shows Martinez threatening to drop the weight on the woman before throwing it toward her head, the station said.
The woman was able to move out of the way just in time, avoiding serious injury, KHOU reported.
Precinct 4 Capt. Juan Flores told the station that other gym users intervened and were able to calm the situation before it escalated further.
Martinez left the gym shortly after the confrontation but was later arrested, KHOU said.
Image source: Harris County (Texas) Constable Precinct 4
Martinez is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony, the station said, adding that she has since been released on a $1,000 bond.
As part of her bond conditions, Martinez was ordered to stay at least 200 feet away from the home and workplace of the alleged victim, KHOU said.
Authorities added to the station that Martinez and the other woman did not know each other personally before the incident.
“Not very often with weights and not very often at a gym,” Flores remarked to KHOU regarding the unusual case.
“We do know a 25-pound weight, or any weight … can be a deadly weapon considering where you hit the person.”
Commenters under KHOU’s video report about the incident were incredulous over the bond amount — among other issues:
“That bond is ridiculously low,” one commenter said. “These courts don’t hold very much respect for human life. She tried to kill someone.””Hold up, she could’ve killed her, and she got a $1,000 bond?” another commenter inquired.”Only $1,000 to repeat it successfully next time,” another commenter observed. “How nice, always for the criminals.””There’s an epidemic of people [who] can’t control their emotions,” another commenter noted.”Goofy. Now the boyfriend & the victim are enjoying date night while she’s in lockup,” another commenter wrote. “Do better.”
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Gym, Texas, Spring, Arrest, Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges, Police, Harris county constable precinct 4, 24-hour fitness, Love triangle, 25-pound weight, Crime
Islamic sports event tied to designated terrorist group prompts Gov. Abbott to put pressure on Texas school district
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is taking action in response to a public school district’s alleged plan to use its facilities for an event sponsored by a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to a letter obtained by Blaze News.
The Islamic Games Houston 2026 is scheduled to be held in Cypress, Texas, in September or October, according to the event’s website. The event will feature several competitive sports, including basketball, soccer, a charity run, track, and swimming.
‘Texans expect immediate action to curb the spread of Islamic extremism, and public facilities funded by their tax dollars will not be utilized to benefit terrorist organizations.’
While the event webpage notes that the date and location of the games are still being determined, it features an aerial map of Sprague Middle School and Bridgeland High School, unified campuses in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District. The map of the schools’ properties indicates where attendees can enter, register, pray, grab food, and participate in the various sporting events.
According to an archived version of the Islamic Games Houston 2025, Bridgeland High School and Sprague Middle School hosted the games last year.
The website previously listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New Jersey chapter as a sponsor but has since removed the organization’s logo. Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations in November. CAIR has pushed back against the governor’s designation.
On Wednesday afternoon, Abbott’s office sent a letter to the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District demanding it “immediately preserve all records and communications concerning this event.”
“You must confirm with my office within seven days of receiving this letter that any negotiations or agreements for this event have been terminated. If you fail to do so, I will direct the Texas Education Agency to immediately seize and uncover any communications direct employees may have regarding CAIR, any attempts to conceal CAIR’s involvement, and any agreements or financial statements related to the proposed event,” Abbott wrote.
He stated that he would also direct the Texas Education Agency to refer any of its findings to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for possible legal action.
Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images
In the letter to the school district, Abbott accused CAIR-NJ of praising “Hamas’ slaughter of innocent civilians.”
“You cannot invite such dangers through the front doors of our schools. In fact, state law requires public schools to prohibit illegal activities from taking place on school property. It is obvious, then, that you may not use taxpayer-funded public facilities to host events sponsored by a designated terror organization. To do so would violate your duty to taxpayers and the safety of students. Radical Islamic extremism is not welcome in Texas — and certainly not in our schools,” Abbott wrote.
“Texans deserve immediate action to curb the spread of Islamic extremism, and public facilities funded by their tax dollars will not be utilized to host terrorist related groups,” he added.
The Islamic Games’ website also indicated that it was slated to host the 2026 Dallas event at a school within the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District on May 9 and 10. However, the district told Blaze News that the reservation for the facility “was still in negotiation review and not yet finalized.”
“On January 19, GCISD was made aware that an organization listed as a sponsor of the Islamic Games in North Texas has been declared a Terrorist Organization by the Governor of Texas. Texas Government Code § 2252.152 states that, ‘[a] governmental entity may not enter into a governmental contract with a company identified as a foreign terrorist organization,'” Nicole Lyons, GCISD’s executive director of communications, told Blaze News.
“Thus, GCISD provided notice that it is severing the negotiations for the use of District properties for the 2026 Islamic Games,” Lyons added.
Abbott’s letter to CFISD noted that GCISD “rightfully” announced it had severed negotiations and encouraged CFISD to do the same.
RELATED: Gov. Abbott talks redistricting victory, action against CAIR with Glenn Beck
Greg Abbott. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
A spokesperson with CAIR-NJ told Blaze News that its chapter “fully supports” the Islamic Games but noted that the group typically sponsors the events held in New Jersey.
“This one is outside of our state,” the spokesperson stated.
The Islamic Games have upcoming events outside Texas, including in New Jersey, Ontario, Illinois, Maryland, and Michigan.
CFISD and the Islamic Games did not respond to a request for comment.
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News, Texas, Greg abbott, Colleyville, Colleyville texas, Grapevine-colleyville isd, Texas education agency, Ken paxton, Council on american-islamic relations, Cair, Cair-nj, Cair nj, Islam, Politics
‘The kind of nerds that will save the union’: HHS’ very own ‘Bert and Ernie’ read online roasts about their work
While the Minnesota fraud scandal and ensuing investigation are nothing to joke about, two Health and Human Services officials took a moment out of their busy schedules to share some “unsolicited commentary” about their job performance.
On Wednesday morning, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families Alex Adams stepped in front of the camera to respond to the humorous feedback they have received from those paying attention to their work.
“Protecting state and federal child care dollars and holding Governor Walz accountable, courtesy of Bert and Ernie,” read a caption to the video.
‘This is what I want my government to be.’
The two officials took turns reading comments from viewers.
“Why does this feel like a late-night class-action lawsuit commercial? ‘Do you or a loved one have mesothelioma? Call 1-800 …'” O’Neill read.
Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“They look like injury-claim lawyers that have the nickname ‘the Hammer’ on a billboard in rural Indiana,” Adams read out loud.
“These are the kind of nerds that will save the union,” O’Neill said.
“I’m getting strong Bert and Ernie energy,” Adams said.
“You’re Bert,” O’Neill joked.
A lengthier comment said, “These dorks are amazing. They found policies that enable the massive fraud, they’re stopping it, and they got in front of a camera to explain it to us. This is what I want my government to be.”
In a final comment, Adams read, “I love these guys. The vibe feels like ‘behind the camera’ people being told they need to wear a suit tomorrow.”
The fraud investigation was helped by the outpouring of information into HHS’ tip line at childcare.gov, where they said that they had quickly received more than 500 tips for their investigation.
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Politics, Jim oneill, Alex adams, Health and human services, Childcare, Childcare fraud, Hhs, Minnesota, Minnesota fraud
‘Stupid people’: Trump gives European allies tough love during Davos speech
President Donald Trump addressed the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday and had a tough message for a rapidly transforming Europe.
Trump began his message by lamenting the direction Europe is going. Trump pointed out that by most metrics, Europe is shrinking where it should be growing.
‘That’s why issues like energy, trade, immigration, and economic growth must be central concerns to anyone who wants to see a strong and united West.’
“The consequences of such destructive policies have been stark, including lower economic growth, lower standards of living, lower birth rates, more socially disruptive migration, more vulnerability to hostile foreign adversaries, and much, much smaller militaries,” Trump said.
He also referred to European leaders as “stupid people” for buying Chinese-made windmills and other “Green New Scam” materials instead of investing in more efficient means of energy.
“You’re supposed to make money with energy, not lose money,” he quipped.
RELATED: ‘Have some godd**n balls’: Newsom posts bizarre meltdown video about Trump from Davos
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Despite the jab, President Trump reminded these European leaders that the United States is deeply vested in the future and well-being of their countries.
“The United States cares greatly about the people of Europe. We really do. I mean, look, I am derived from Europe. Scotland and Germany. … We believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe.”
“As a civilization, I want to see it do great. That’s why issues like energy, trade, immigration, and economic growth must be central concerns to anyone who wants to see a strong and united West.”
Trump called for a stark reversal of European decline: “Europe and those counties have to do their thing. They have to get out of the culture that they’ve created over the last 10 years. It’s horrible what they’re doing to themselves. They’re destroying themselves … these beautiful, beautiful places.”
“We want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones. We want Europe to be strong,” Trump concluded.
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Politics, Trump, President trump, Davos, Wef, World economic forum, Donald trump, Europe, Davos switzerland, Immigration, Energy, Strong europe, West, Western civilization
Trump blasts mass migration from ‘failed’ foreign countries in fiery rebuke: ‘Minnesota reminds us’
President Donald Trump delivered a scathing rebuke of mass migration, pointing to Minnesota as a cautionary tale.
During his Wednesday speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump warned of the dangers and destabilization caused by mass migration. As in many European countries, whose leaders were in attendance, migrants have flooded the United States by the millions, many of them taking advantage of social programs, committing crimes, and failing to assimilate.
‘We have to defend that culture.’
Trump pointed to Minnesota as a prime example of the failures of mass migration, noting the immense fraud and cultural disruption brought about by Somalian immigrants.
“The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass-import foreign cultures which have failed to ever build a successful society of their own,” Trump said.
RELATED: Trump administration halts visas for 75 nations whose people gobble up American welfare
Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
“We’re taking people from Somalia, and Somalia … it’s not a nation,” Trump said. “Got no government. Got no police. Got no military. Got no nothing.”
Trump went on to criticize Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Somalian immigrant.
“She comes from a country that’s not a country,” Trump said. “And she’s telling us how to run America. Not going to get away with it much longer.”
Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“The explosion of prosperity, in conclusion, and progress that built the West did not come from our tax codes. It ultimately came from our very special culture,” Trump said. “This is the precious inheritance that America and Europe have in common. We share it. We share it, but we have to keep it strong.”
“We have to defend that culture and rediscover the spirit that lifted the West from the depths of the Dark Ages to the pinnacle of human achievement,” Trump said.
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Donald trump, Somalia, Ilhan omar, Minnesota, Tim walz, Mass migration, Failed countries, Minnesota fraud, Fraud waste and abuse, Assimilation, Migrant crisis, Davos, World economic forum, Europe, The west, Politics
Jimmy Kimmel and late-night hosts torch comedy with Epstein and anti-Trump rants
Whether it’s Jimmy Kimmel’s increasingly unhinged rhetoric or carbon-copy monologues from all the late-night hosts accusing President Trump of having a relationship with Epstein — comedy has taken a serious nose dive.
And BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere is among those getting a little tired of it.
“Late-night hosts have come to this place where now they seemingly, anytime Trump does anything, they just accuse it as being somehow tied to the Epstein files,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells film critic and reporter Christian Toto on “Stu Does America.”
“Jimmy Kimmel … he’s one of the smallest, and he obviously had this big back-and-forth with the president where he tried to be Mr. Tough Guy, and he was praised by Hollywood and the left for this,” he continues.
“He’s calling him a maniac for not only just killing people overseas but killing an unarmed 37-year-old woman during the ICE operation. He put a shirt on TV that said Donald Trump is going to come kill you. This is a man who’s almost been assassinated multiple times,” he adds.
“Yeah, squint all you want. You’re not going to see comedy,” Toto responds. “That’s not even the point at this point.”
“You know, the thing that makes me really sad about the culture at large is that I think it was 2017, Kathy Griffin put up that fake Trump head, you know, it was bloody, it was disgusting. And collectively, as a culture, we recoiled, and her career just vanished overnight,” he continues.
However, while Griffin’s move was career-ending, Toto points out that today no one would bat an eye.
“I think people on the right would blink for sure, and they’d be upset about it, but I think center-left people, people who just go about their day-to-day business, I don’t think anyone would bat an eye. … And Jimmy Kimmel is part of the reason why,” he says, adding, “And what he’s doing is wildly irresponsible.”
Want more from Stu?
To enjoy more of Stu’s lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Camera phone, Christian toto, Comedy, Epstein, Free, Hollywood, Jeffrey epstein, Jimmy kimmel, Kathy griffin, President trump, Sharing, Stu burguiere, Stu does america, The blaze, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com
Scott Bessent slaps down Newsom at Davos: ‘He’s here with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a rhetorical beatdown against Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Newsom is trying to expand his national and global profile for the sake of a possible presidential campaign in 2028 and used the forum to criticize President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Bessent issued a strong rebuke of the Democrat.
‘Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.’
“I think it’s very, very ironic that Governor Newsom — who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken — may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris,” said Bessent.
“He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros. And Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having thousand-dollar-a-night meals at the French Laundry [restaurant],” he added.
“My message to Governor Newsom,” Bessent said, “is the Trump administration is coming to California, we are going to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.”
He went on to list California’s problems, including homelessness, the mass exodus of residents, a massive budget deficit, and continued fallout from the devastating Palisades fire a year ago.
“Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything,” he concluded.
“Let me know if you need any further clarification!” he added.
RELATED: Scott Bessent has joined the effort to uncover funders of Antifa violence, White House says
President Donald Trump also spoke at Davos and defended his campaign to annex Greenland while touting the state of the economy under his leadership.
“Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory. It is sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the U.S., Russia, and China,” said the president.
“It is a core national security interest of the U.S. — and in fact, has been our policy for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere,” Trump added.
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Scott bessent, Bessent vs gavin newsom, Trump at davos, Newsom for president, Politics
Exclusive: ‘Anti-China moves’ pay off BIGLY — Governor Sanders and Arkansas earn A+ for crushing CCP land-grabs
The communist regime in Beijing has long worked to undermine the United States.
China — which the first Trump administration recognized as a “revisionist” power keen on shaping “a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests” — and its agents have run intimidation and coercion campaigns out of illegal police stations on American soil; engaged in espionage and political destabilization efforts in the U.S.; and launched numerous cyberattacks on American institutions and critical infrastructure.
Perhaps most importantly, China has bought up vast swathes of strategically significant U.S. land.
‘Arkansas was the first state in the country to kick communist China off our farmland and out of our state.’
Some states have taken meaningful steps to fight back against these and other subversive initiatives.
The efforts by Arkansas, in particular, to defend against Chinese communist influence and infiltration have not only captured Beijing’s attention but that of State Shield, a foreign-influence watchdog group founded by Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb who went to work last year for the Department of Government Efficiency.
State Shield, which works in over 10 states to advance policies to counter Chinese influence and bolster regional and national security, has awarded Arkansas an A+ rating in its inaugural 2025 State Shield Scorecard and named Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) “Best Governor for National Security.”
“Arkansas was the first state in the country to kick Communist China off our farmland and out of our state, and we didn’t stop there,” Sanders said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.
“We’ve taken real action to protect our land, our data, and our taxpayers from hostile foreign influence,” continued the governor. “This recognition shows that strong leadership at the state level makes a real difference in keeping our people and our economy secure.”
RELATED: The truth behind Trump’s Venezuela plan: It’s not about Maduro at all
Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Whereas subsequent scorecards will reflect annual reviews of legislative activity, State Shield indicated its inaugural scorecard reflects an evaluation of work completed from 2021 to 2025. During that period, Arkansas passed numerous laws aimed at curbing foreign influence.
Last year, for instance, the Natural State, enacted legislation:
withholding funding for a state-supported institution of higher education that has a Confucius Institute or similar institute related to China, prohibiting state-sponsored investment in China, and banning sister cities with China;barring Chinese Communist Party-controlled businesses from leasing any interest in Arkansas land or holding any interest in agricultural land located within a 10-mile radius of critical infrastructure; andprohibiting colleges and universities from engaging in the creation of agricultural products, conducting classified research, or conducting agricultural research under a contract with a prohibited foreign party.
In addition to ratifying these and other pieces of legislation on-theme, Gov. Sanders moved the needle on countering Chinese influence with numerous actions and executive orders.
‘It is indeed necessary to be vigilant against Arkansas’ anti-China moves.’
Among the gubernatorial actions highlighted by State Shield was Sanders’ January 2023 executive order aimed at protecting Arkansas information and communications technology from the influence of adversarial foreign regimes, and her EO banning CCP-linked TikTok on state networks and state-issued devices.
Arkansas’ efforts to curb Chinese influence have infuriated the communists in Beijing.
When, for instance, Arkansas ordered the subsidiary of a China-owned agricultural firm ChemChina to sell off land in the Natural State pursuant to Arkansas Act 636 — legislation ratified in 2023 by Sanders — the CCP propaganda publication Global Times viciously attacked the governor.
The publication accused Sanders both of advancing “undignified” rhetoric and proving that “American politicians are incapable of driving local development, but are good at orchestrating political farces.”
It further warned that “it is indeed necessary to be vigilant against Arkansas’ anti-China moves, as they could potentially lead to imitation and similar actions by other conservative U.S. states.”
State Shield’s scorecard indicates that while Arkansas leads the pack, other red states — especially Nebraska — aren’t far behind.
Sanders, whose efforts have in some cases dovetailed with the Trump administration’s, said early last year, “President Trump is the first president in my lifetime to take a hard line against communist China, and we are proud to support that work in Arkansas by getting communist China off our land and out of our state.”
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Sarah huckabee sanders, Sanders, Arkansas, Chinese communist party, Ccp, China, Beijing, Foreign adversary, Influence, Farm land, Politics
‘A piece of ice for world protection’: Trump rules out military intervention in Greenland
Europeans breathed a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump ruled out using military intervention to acquire Greenland.
Trump took another victory lap Wednesday during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recapping all the successes of the first year of his second term. During these remarks, Trump clarified that he would not send boots on the ground in the “piece of ice” known as Greenland.
‘I don’t have to use force.’
“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Trump said. “We’ve never asked for anything else.”
“They have a choice,” Trump added. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”
RELATED: Trump cites Nobel Peace Prize snub in latest push for Greenland takeover
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trump followed his ominous statement with a reassuring one, remarking for the first time publicly that the United States will not forcefully take Greenland.
“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable, but I won’t do that,” Trump said.
RELATED: ‘Make America Go Away’: Protests erupt in Greenland after Trump threatens tariffs on Europe
Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force.”
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Donald trump, Davos, World economic forum, Greenland, Military intervention, Piece of ice, Boots on the ground, Politics
‘Anti-ICE’ Christians mistake moral confusion for empathy
Christians are called to be people of truth. But when we fail to ground our thinking in biblical principles, we can end up telling inadvertent lies — and mischaracterizing fellow believers in the process.
Exhibit A: this post from a Christian writer and speaker, sharing with her Christian followers, regarding current events centered in Minneapolis.
Empathy for the hurting extends to all those who hurt, and plenty have been hurt by the assault on our borders over the past few years.
She writes:
I’m reading through the gospels right now, and I’m struck by what the leaders of Israel enticed the crowds to demand — that an innocent man be put to death and a murderer (Barabbas) be freed from prison and the obvious consequences of his egregious actions. This is the hallmark of an unjust society, where we vilify those who have done nothing wrong (and treat them like criminals), or we applaud and set free those who harm others.
She never mentions Minnesota or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but her followers’ responses make it abundantly clear they got (and “loved”) the intended message.
‘Vilifying’ crime?
Apparently the writer perceives illegal immigrants as “those who have done nothing wrong” who we are “vilifying” and “treating like criminals.” (Pro tip: Breaking a law makes you a criminal.) ICE agents, apparently, are “those who harm others” that we are supposedly “applauding” or “setting free.”
She goes on:
I am heartbroken by the current state of things in my country. Deeply troubled. Praying. Worrying, if I’m honest. I keep watching documentaries about tyranny and cult leaders and history.
Tyranny and cult leaders? Since we hear this from the left constantly, we know exactly what she’s trying to say.
And that’s what “deeply troubles” ME.
That the current administration — which is carrying out the federal government’s long-neglected role in protecting our borders and thus our communities — is somehow tyrannical. That those of us who support this, many of us who voted for this, are akin to a “cult.”
Thinking it through
I’m troubled by Christians who knee-jerk react to the world without thinking issues through biblically, as she demonstrates here:
I do understand the nature of evil — to call evil good and good evil.
My friend, we are not the ones confusing evil and good here. Let’s break it down.
First, sin is evil. Period. So when we are talking about evil, we are talking about sin.Second, breaking the law is sin/evil. Unless the law directly contradicts the word of God.
Can we agree on those two principles?
If I break down your door to get into your home — even if I just walk in your unlocked door — that is a sin.
It’s a sin because it’s against the law (and that law in no way contradicts the word of God).It’s also a sin because I am taking — stealing — something that belongs to you. Your home, your privacy, your sense of safety, your peace. I have no right to invade your space. I have no right to breach your border.
Profoundly hypocritical
Doors and locks exist for a reason, just like borders and guarded crossing points do. Those who advocate for open borders (identified by their yelling, “No one is illegal!”) live in homes with doors and locks. They are profoundly hypocritical.
They are worse than hypocritical actually. Because while they still seek to protect themselves, they are happy for other people to be stripped of that right. And for other people to have to deal with the loss of safety and peace.
Consider these females, all attacked and murdered by men here illegally: Kayla Hamilton, Ruby Garcia, Lizbeth Medina, Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Joselyn Toaquiza, Melody Waldecker, and Mollie Tibbetts.
And these women are hardly the only victims. In Texas alone, hundreds of people have died in recent years at the hands of people who entered illegally. I mention Texas because nobody else is tracking this particular statistic — Americans killed by illegal border-crossers.
Meantime thousands of illegal border-crossers who are also convicted murderers still roam free nationwide.
Of course, murder isn’t the only evil aided and abetted by illegal immigration. As we’ve seen in recent days from the same troubled state, fraud and taxpayer abuse is rampant as well, with wholly corrupt public officials turning a blind eye or benefiting from the scams.
RELATED: A protest doesn’t become lawful because Don Lemon livestreams it
Law and sin
But even if an illegal border-crosser never committed another crime nor took a dime of taxpayer money — it would STILL not be wrong to send him/her home. There is a line to get in, there are people waiting in that line, and they cut in front. They broke the law. It’s a sin. It’s evil.
(By the way, speeding is against the law too, in case we’re feeling superior in any way. God’s standards are high!)
The left cannot and will not see border issues for what they are, but Christians should take no part in the ungodly confusion of thinking that wanting to curb this evil is itself evil.
No true Christian
One of the comments to the post came from a Canadian:
I don’t even live in the USA but I am deeply troubled also. I am praying for the so called “Christian” to wake up from their slumber and see what’s really going on. True followers of Christ would not support this evil.
This comment, actually, is a sin. Because it’s wrong to assume that fellow Christians whose viewpoints on deportation proceedings differ from yours are therefore not “true followers.”
Especially in an age when people tend to get their news from the same sources over and over, we should tread very lightly in making assumptions about someone’s salvation. That is in fact the judging we’re not supposed to do, because we don’t know people’s hearts — as opposed to the judging we can do, when people say or do specific sinful things.
Can we talk?
A reasonable discussion we might have here could center around specific ICE tactics. But we can’t have that discussion because one side refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of ICE in the first place (many also seem to be under the wholly ignorant impression it didn’t exist or take action before Trump). They also refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a border, for the most part.
And they certainly refuse to acknowledge the fact that actively impeding lawful efforts to enforce law is in fact breaking the law and is therefore … yes, a sin/evil.
Peacefully holding a protest sign is not wrong in any way. But let’s not pretend that’s what’s happening here, when “playbooks” are being disseminated online for physically engaging with these federal officers and “anti-ICE” groups openly call for violence. These things, as we have already seen, put the protesters — whether they are paid or just easily misled — in danger too.
Empathy for all
A topic for another time, perhaps, is the over-the-top emotion and angst over this American situation, which at this point involves the sad death of exactly one person who arguably put herself squarely in harm’s way. This response to the writer’s post is a good example:
It’s really hard for me to enjoy life like nothing is happening when so many others are hurting.
This Christian American woman is struggling to enjoy life. Because ICE. Not because thousands of Iranians are being slaughtered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, or any other people hurting, but because America is deporting people who shouldn’t have illegally crossed in.
Empathy for the hurting extends to all those who hurt, and plenty have been hurt by the assault on our borders over the past few years. With that in mind, another quote from the original post:
The way of Jesus is not conquest, nor is it victory over our so-called enemies. … It means listening to the hurting, entering into the worlds of those who differ from us, and loving people we disagree with.
I could not agree more. We Christians, who believe any government’s God-ordained job is to protect its own citizens and therefore support deportation of people who “skipped the line” to get in (especially violent people), would appreciate having a civil conversation about this topic.
That — as opposed to indirectly or directly calling us nonbelievers — would be the loving thing to do.
This article was adapted from an essay originally published on Diane Schrader’s Substack, She Speaks Truth.
Christianity, Christian, Gospel, Immigration, Culture, Ice, Biblical, Lifestyle, Abide, Faith
Former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya targets Tim Walz and ‘massive’ fraud in GOP Senate campaign launch
A former football sideline reporter has announced a strong Donald Trump-style platform in her run for office.
Michele Tafoya is a former Sunday Night Football staple, interviewing coaches, players, and the like from 2011 to 2022.
Now Tafoya has launched a bid for a Senate seat in Minnesota that will be vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D).
‘I will clean up the system, fighting corruption, ending the fraud, and protecting your tax dollars.’
On Wednesday, Tafoya launched her campaign with a video, stating that “massive government fraud” has been “ripping off” hardworking Americans while showing clips of journalist Nick Shirley’s viral videos that uncovered alleged fraud at Somali-run day cares.
Tafoya also pointed the finger at Gov. Tim Walz (D) and said the state has been forcing “radical ideologies” in schools and sports, putting young women in danger.
RELATED: Whitlock: Michele Tafoya risked everything to start her own Freedom Convoy
“I will clean up the system, fighting corruption, ending the fraud, and protecting your tax dollars,” Tafoya said. “I will protect what’s fair and safe, standing with our law enforcement officers, deporting dangerous criminals, and keeping female sports for female athletes.”
She added, “And I will make our lives affordable again.”
Furthermore the former broadcaster promised to cut taxes for the middle class, strengthen manufacturing, and lower the cost of groceries, prescription drugs, and mortgages.
Tafoya will have stiff competition, even if she is the most notable name in the Republican primary field. Other candidates include former NBA player Royce White, retired Navy officer Tom Weiler, and retired Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze.
RELATED: Facing down cancel culture: 4 courageous women who stand firm in their beliefs
Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Tafoya, 61, is originally from California but relocated to Minnesota to cover the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and then the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves before shifting to national coverage.
In mid-December, Tafoya reportedly met with members of the National Republican Senatorial Committee to discuss the potential run. On Tuesday, paperwork for “Tafoya for Senate” was filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Retiring U.S. Sen. Smith, who is from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party wing of the DNC, won her primary in 2018 after former comedian Al Franken resigned over a picture of him pretending to squeeze a news broadcaster’s breasts while she was asleep.
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News, Nfl, Football, Reporter, Minnesota, Senate, Tim walz, Ilhan omar, Politics
12-year-old accused of striking woman in face with screwdriver amid robbery appears in court; lawyer calls him a ‘good kid’
A 12-year-old boy accused of striking a woman in the face with a screwdriver and beating her amid a weekend robbery in Seattle went before a juvenile court judge Tuesday, KOMO-TV reported.
Despite the boy’s attorney referring to him as a “good kid” who should be released to his parents — and his father making what a KOMO video report said was an emotional plea to the court — the judge didn’t see it that way.
‘He turned 12 about three months ago.’
The first-appearance judge determined there was probable cause to believe the boy committed first-degree robbery, which under state law involves the display of a deadly weapon or the infliction of bodily injury, the station said.
The judge ordered the boy held in secure juvenile detention, KOMO reported, adding that bail is not considered in juvenile court and a respondent is either released or held.
The defense argued that the boy’s parents would watch him and monitor his behavior, while the state said the boy has chronic issues, the station report. The defense still asked for the boy’s release to his parents and wasn’t opposed to electronic home monitoring, KOMO added.
In the station’s video report, the boy’s attorney is heard arguing that her client is “quite young; he turned 12 about three months ago. He has no criminal adjudication history.” The boy — whose face isn’t shown in the video — is seen apparently wiping his eyes with tissue during the proceedings.
But Judge Tanya Thorp said he’ll remain in detention, noting that his “multiple contacts” with police deemed “chronic is of great concern to me.”
More from KOMO:
The case remains under investigation by Seattle police and has not yet been formally referred to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said that timeline is typical, noting that charging decisions require a higher burden of proof than the probable cause standard used at a first-appearance hearing.
King County prosecutors said they expect to receive the case referral from Seattle police on Thursday and anticipate making a charging decision later this week. Prosecutors said first-degree robbery cases are not eligible for diversion and are instead handled in juvenile court with input from juvenile probation counselors.
Washington state law says a 12-year-old charged with first-degree robbery must remain in juvenile court, the station noted, adding that officials said prosecutors and judges lack the authority to transfer such a case to adult court, regardless of the circumstances.
Authorities told KOMO the next update is expected Thursday evening.
In regard to Saturday evening’s incident, police said a juvenile suspect wearing a “hot pink ski mask” robbed a 43-year-old woman at an Amazon Fresh store. Police said the suspect “attacked the victim, hitting her multiple times in the face with his hands,” after which he struck the woman in the face with a screwdriver.
The suspect rifled through the victim’s handbag in a parking garage — and then returned to the victim and assaulted her again before running off, police said.
While police located the suspect, they said he fled from them on foot. However, police recognized the suspect based on previous interactions — as well as his age and unique clothing description — and went to his family’s house and got a search warrant for his arrest, police said.
Officers took the suspect into custody without incident and recovered the screwdriver, police said.
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Arrest, Seattle police, 12-year-old boy, Physical attack, Boy attacks woman, Robbery, Judge, Juvenile court, Detained, Screwdriver, Good kid, Crime
‘I don’t regret that vote’: Democrat TORCHED for refusing to deport sex-offending illegal aliens
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) faced intense — but warranted — backlash from Fox News’ Sean Hannity after voting against a bill that would have mandated the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes, a position that exposes the Democratic Party’s dangerous priorities.
And BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales isn’t thrilled with Thanedar either, whom she likens to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) as another foreigner in our government.
“We’re allowing foreigners to come into our country and lecture us about what America stands for. And in some cases, not just lecture us, but that we then allow them to actually participate in representing constituents,” Gonzales says, before playing the clip of Hannity and Thanedar.
“You voted against a bill mandating the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes. Can you explain that to me?” Hannity asked.
“Well, look, look, anybody who breaks U.S. laws, an immigrant that breaks U.S. laws, should be deported. Anyone that commits —” Thanedar responded, before Hannity cut him off to say, “Sir, sir, you voted against a bill that mandated the deportation of illegals convicted of sex crimes. Do you regret that vote now?”
“No, I don’t regret that vote,” Thanedar responded. “Look, no bill is perfect.”
“What if it was your wife, your sister, your daughter that was raped? That’s a sex crime. You want that person to stay?” Hannity asked.
Thanedar continued to make the excuse that there are multiple reasons to vote on a bill, but Hannity isn’t the only one calling him out.
“You’ve got Shri Thanedar over here thinking that he can just come in here and lecture us about how to run our country while he is voting not to deport illegals convicted of sex crimes. Those are his values that he’s bringing from, I don’t know, I guess wherever he came from,” Gonzales says.
“The Democrats are having a very, very difficult time. They’re having an identity crisis because they’re dealing with all of these radicals who are taking over their party. They’re dealing with, literally, their position is, ‘We should protect illegal criminals from being deported. We want to keep the violent gang members, rapists, child diddlers,’” she continues.
“‘And on top of that, oh wait, hold on,’” she says, still mocking the Democrats. “‘President Trump is actually eliminating fraud and corruption at the federal level? No. No. We won’t stand for it. In fact, if you vote for us in the midterms, we will both make sure that the illegal criminals are protected and also apparently make fraud great again.’”
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Video phone, Free, Upload, Camera phone, Video, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcast, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Shri thanedar, Illegal immigrants, Sex offenders, Criminals, Illegal immigrant criminals, Illegal immigration crisis
‘You want to live with these people?’ Trump exposes killers and child rapists Walz, Frey are shielding with anti-ICE agenda
Democrats and their friends in the liberal media have worked overtime to demonize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who have in recent months faced a massive spike in death threats and attacks.
President Donald Trump confronted the legacy media on Tuesday with insights into the real villains — those degenerate criminal noncitizens whose removal from Minnesota streets leftists have fought and in at least one case died obstructing.
‘They have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who’s a loser, lightweight.’
At the outset of a press conference, during which he highlighted some of what he accomplished in his first year back in office, Trump noted that it was appropriate to shine a spotlight on some of the individuals whom ICE has arrested “because Minnesota is so much in the fray.” He produced a stack of illegal alien mugshots, then began showing them one by one.
“They’re apprehending murderers and drug dealers and a lot of bad people,” said Trump. “And these are just some of the more recent ones that we have, and I could show you some of the people — vicious, many of them murderers. These are all out of Minnesota.”
Aldrin Guerrero-Munoz was one of the illegal aliens whose mugshots Trump showed reporters. Guerrero-Munoz is an illegal alien from Mexico with a final order of removal from 2015.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Guerrero-Munoz is “a criminal illegal alien who has been incarcerated on the taxpayer’s dime since 2004 following a 32-year prison sentence for the intentional murder of his three-month-old son.” During his time in Stillwater Prison, Guerrero-Munoz assaulted a fellow inmate, resulting in another conviction.
Photo by Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images
“Do you want to live with these people?” Trump asked as he parsed through pages of mugshots depicting killers and sex offenders.
Trump also held up the mugshots for:
Abdirashid Adosh Elmi, a Somali national convicted of homicide; Chong Vue, a criminal illegal alien from Laos with a final order of removal dated March 11, 2004, who was convicted of strong-arm rape of a 12-year-old girl, kidnapping a child with intent to commit sexual assault, and vehicle theft; Hernan Cortes-Valencia, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico with a final order of removal dated Dec. 1, 2016, who was convicted of sexual assault against a child, sexual assault-carnal abuse, and four DUIs;Sriudorn Phaivan, a criminal illegal alien from Laos with a final order of removal from March 8, 2018, who was convicted of strong-arm sodomy of a boy, strong-arm sodomy of a girl, another aggravated sex offense, nine counts of larceny, unauthorized use of a vehicle, four counts of fraud, vehicle theft, two counts of drug possession, obstructing justice, possession of stolen property, receiving stolen property, burglary, and check forgery; andothers.
Abdirashid Adosh Elmi, Chong Vue, Hernan Cortes-Valencia, and Sriudorn Phaivan. Mugshots courtesy of ICE.
“These are just in Minnesota,” said Trump. “In California, it’s worse. In other states, it’s worse.”
ICE previously noted in reference to several of the criminals identified by Trump that these “are some of the monsters Walz, Frey, and rioters are defending in MN.”
“ICE arrests criminal illegal aliens. Communities get safer,” said ICE. “Governor Walz and Mayor Frey’s radical sanctuary agenda is doing the opposite — putting Minnesotans at risk.”
Trump emphasized on Tuesday that ICE simply wants to get the criminal noncitizens typified by those in the mugshots out of the country.
“That’s all they want to do. They’re patriots, and they have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who’s a loser, lightweight,” said the president, alluding to the storming of St. Paul’s Cities Church on Sunday by Lemon and other anti-ICE radicals.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Monday that ICE has “arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens who were killing Americans, hurting children, and reigning terror in Minneapolis because Tim Walz and Jacob Frey refuse to protect their own people and instead protect criminals.”
Noem indicated further that “vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals” were among the 3,000 criminal illegal aliens captured over the past six weeks during Operation Metro Surge.
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Us immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Metro surge, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Illegal alien, Criminal noncitizen, Donald trump, Truth, Liberal media, Don lemon, Walz, Frey, Illegal immigration, Arrests, Kristi noem, Dhs, Politics
How the 30-year mortgage helped create a permanent housing bubble
You won’t hear many people object to President Trump’s executive order to ban corporate purchases of residential homes. The idea sounds like common sense. But it targets a minor symptom while leaving the real disease untouched — and in some respects, it risks making that disease worse.
Institutional home-buying already peaked during the COVID-era bubble and has receded since then. In most markets, corporate ownership represents a small share of total inventory. Even at its height, it never explained why housing costs exploded for everyone else. High prices created the opportunity for institutional buyers, not the other way around.
The goal should not be cheaper debt. It should be cheaper homes.
Government policy inflated the housing market. Institutional buyers simply responded.
During COVID, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates toward zero. Mortgage rates fell below 3%. At the same time, the Fed bought roughly $2.7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, and HUD expanded “affordable homeownership” programs that widened the pool of subsidized buyers. Those policies produced predictable results.
When the government offers 2.5% interest for 30 years — often paired with minimal down payments backed by the FHA — buyers flood the market. Sellers respond by raising prices. The bubble becomes a feature, not a bug.
Institutional buyers entered that environment because it looked like easy money. Higher home prices also pushed rents up, so developers built more homes for long-term rental. Both trends flowed from the same source: a government-shaped market that made housing unaffordable, then subsidized the unaffordability.
Trump now seems focused on the symptom — corporate buyers — while ignoring the machinery that inflated the market in the first place.
He has spent months fighting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to bring rates back down toward zero. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve still holds about $2.1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. Trump has also announced a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase another $200 billion in MBS. The stated goal is to lower mortgage rates.
But the goal should not be cheaper debt. It should be cheaper homes.
mphillips007 via iStock/Getty Images
Artificially lowering rates props up prices and slows correction. Prices in many markets have begun to soften. That correction should continue. Policies designed to suppress rates will keep prices elevated and risk inflating the next bubble.
That brings us back to corporate home-buying. Even at the COVID peak, institutional buyers — defined as entities owning at least 100 single-family homes — owned about 3.1% of the housing stock. That number has since fallen to around 1%. Investors see the market turning, and they have started backing away.
So Trump’s corporate-purchase ban arrives late, targets a relatively small share of the market, and risks becoming cosmetic cover for policies that keep the bubble inflated.
If Trump wants to drive prices down and permanently realign housing with median incomes, he has to reverse the policies that inflated the bubble. That means attacking the structure, not the headline.
Get government out of the mortgage market. Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair must commit to unwinding the Fed’s mortgage-backed securities portfolio. That $2.1 trillion cushion keeps mortgage rates lower than the market would otherwise set. Those artificially low rates inflate home prices.
End universal “homeownership for everyone” policy. The federal government keeps subsidizing buyers who are not ready to buy. Those programs inject cash into housing demand that would not exist in a real market. The goal should align prices with income, not chase a utopian dream of universal ownership. After decades of subsidies, deductions, and federal credit support, the home ownership rate still sits around the mid-60% range.
Stop chasing near-zero interest rates. A 30-year loan at 2% sounds appealing until you realize what it does to prices. Cheap money bids up homes across the board. Buyers pay the price forever even as politicians brag about the “deal.” Trump should let the market set rates. Recent rate cuts have not restored normal home buying either. Sales remain weak because prices remain too high.
End the 30-year fixed mortgage. Instead of floating longer loans — 50 years? Madness! — the country should move in the opposite direction. Before the New Deal era, short-term mortgages, often three to seven years, dominated the market. Federal policy transformed that structure.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Housing Act of 1934, establishing the Federal Housing Authority. The FHA insured long-term, fully amortizing mortgages with fixed rates, low down payments, and standardized payment schedules. That system moved the market away from short-term balloon loans and laid the foundation for longer terms.
RELATED: America tried to save the planet and forgot to save itself
jhorrocks via iStock/Getty Images
Congress eventually authorized the 30-year mortgage in 1954. VA loans under the GI Bill and the expansion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac later built a secondary market that made long-term fixed-rate loans attractive to lenders.
Government insurance, guarantees, and liquidity support made 30-year fixed mortgages feasible, which is why they represent 80%-90% of U.S. mortgages today. Without those interventions, lenders would not carry that risk.
The larger point remains simple: Sellers can’t charge prices buyers can’t pay. Prices explode only when government subsidies and government-backed long-term debt expand what buyers can “afford” on paper.
Unwind the subsidies. Unwind the guarantees. Unwind the cheap-money machinery. Let incomes, not federal policy, set the ceiling.
Housing should function like other consumer markets, not be engineered by Washington. Prices should reflect what people earn.
That’s the fix. Everything else treats symptoms and pretends to solve the problem.
Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Housing, Affordability, Housing bubble, Federal housing authority, Subsidies, Fannie mae and freddie mac, Taxes, Debt, Interest rates, Jerome powell, Federal reserve, Supreme court, 30-year mortgage, Mortgage rates, Homeownership, American dream, Blackstone, Blackrock, Covid-19, Hud, Mortgage-backed securities, Mbs
Fishing with my dying father
On the North Norfolk coast, dawn is more sensory than visual.
Sea lavender and samphire engulf you before the bite of the wind reminds you of nature’s power. As the sun rises above the horizon, my father and I cross the salt marshes, the light revealing tidal creeks winding through the mudflats. This time, though, I know it is our last trip together.
In angling, the tippet is the thinnest section of line, the point most likely to fail.
Every step is taken with the knowledge that these rituals — these early mornings, the scent of salt and wildflowers, the quiet companionship — are being performed for the final time.
Silence as stewardship
This is not just a landscape but a stage on which the story of my family unfolds. Each tradition echoes those who came before and those still to come. This place, and these shared customs repeated year after year, have woven our family history together — each visit another stitch in a tapestry stretched across generations.
There is no better place for solitude than Stiffkey, an idyllic village nestled in the Norfolk countryside. For miles around, the only sounds are wood pigeons cooing in the trees and the distant thunder of the sea. It is still very early — five in the morning — when we break this peace with the rhythmic punch of a shovel digging into saturated sand. My father and I do not speak as we work. Ours is a silence filled with meaning, a language shaped by years of tradition and respect for the world around us.
The rhythm of these mornings — the shared labor, the quiet companionship — blurs the boundaries between past and present, between father and son, creating a continuous thread running through my memory. Growing up, my father and I mainly communicated through the tension of a fishing line. Our family has never been big on talking; we are like frayed strings, bound and spliced together by tradition.
In the modern world, silence between two men is often treated as a void to be filled with noise. But on this stretch of coastline, silence is a form of stewardship. To be quiet is to respect the natural world. To be quiet together is to acknowledge a bond that does not require speech.
Here time folds in on itself — my father’s footsteps merging with his father’s, and mine with both of theirs.
Stiffkey blues
My father brought us to Stiffkey every year for our family holiday. For decades, this was his parish. He moved through the shifting terrain with the confidence of a man who knew the tide’s schedule like the back of his hand.
This time, watching him navigate the narrow ravines in the soft morning light, I see not the man who first guided me to the water 20 years earlier but his shadow. His light has dimmed — but it is still bright enough to guide us.
The lessons of Stiffkey are as much about patience, respect, and inheritance as they are about fishing. Each action — from digging bait to laying lines — forms a thread in the fabric of our shared history.
Laying fishing lines is a skill. The tide’s timing and direction determine how the lines must be slanted to catch fish. Digging your own bait matters too; no competent angler wants to carry unnecessary weight from home.
You take only what you need, while respecting the land and sea. From an early age, this was the lesson my father taught me: We are merely guardians, entrusted with care until it is time to pass things on.
“The ragworms aren’t biting,” I would tell him. He would approach with his antalgic gait, quietly move my shovel a few feet, and say, softly but with conviction, “Dig between the holes — that’s where they live.” Ten minutes later, the plastic bucket would overflow.
These moments bridge generations, passing down not just skill but belonging. This was where my grandfather taught my father to fish. Decades later, my father stood here teaching me.
A disused sewage pipe stretches northward, its end disappearing beneath the waves of the North Sea, marked only by a lone orange buoy. With an upturned wooden rake slung over my shoulder, its worn teeth piercing an old onion sack, I would walk the length of the pipeline. I can still feel the chill of rusted metal beneath my bare feet and my father’s watchful eyes — stern yet generous — urging me on. Together we raked the mudflats for cockles, the famed “Stiffkey blues,” once plentiful, now sought like hidden treasure.
RELATED: How I rediscovered the virtue of citizenship on a remote Canadian island
Buddy Mays/Getty Images
The cycle of care
Every sensory detail — the cold pipeline, the mudflats, the weight of the rake — anchors memory to place, making past and present inseparable.
Trust and love, learned in my father’s shadow, now guide me as I support him. The cycle of care turns gently but inexorably.
My father’s name is Peter. As his name suggests, he was always my rock — my moral guide — and I followed him with a child’s absolute confidence. Now the roles have quietly reversed. I lead; he leans on my shoulder.
The symbolism of the tippet — its fragility and strength — mirrors this transfer of responsibility. In angling, the tippet is the thinnest section of line, the point most likely to fail. As I watch my father struggle with the nylon — his hands, calloused by 50 years of labor, unable to tie the hook — it becomes clear that we are in the tippet phase of our relationship.
I take over, tying a grinner knot. He has taught me this a thousand times, but today feels different. As I pull the knot tight, I feel the weight of his legacy. He is handing over the keys to his kingdom.
The weight of a soul
At daybreak the following morning, we set off with the same excitement I once felt as a 5-year-old. His unspoken lesson had always been that disappointment should be met with patience. Then there it is: a solitary bass, glistening in the early sun. His hands tremble as he holds it up, smiling. On the walk back to the car, we laugh as seagulls swoop in, trying to steal our catch.
As our roles shifted, so did my understanding. Fishing became a meditation on acceptance, mortality, and shared silence. Fishing with a dying father reminds you that life is finite. It shows that the boundary between this world and the next is as thin as a fishing line — fragile, transparent, yet strong enough to bear the weight of a soul.
Even after loss, the rituals persist. Each return to Stiffkey is both goodbye and renewal. The year after his death, I returned to scatter his ashes. As the wind carried him out to sea, I understood that life’s true tippet strength is not measured by where it breaks but by what it can hold before it does.
Lifestyle, Fishing, Norfolk, United kingdom, North sea, Fathers, Death, Mortality, Stiffkey, First-person
Intruder violently breaks down door of home with family inside — and gets justice from the end of a gun
A 27-year-old man was found dead with numerous gunshot wounds after he allegedly broke down the door of a family that was armed for self-defense.
Arizona police responded to a shots-fired report at the residence on Sunday evening in the town of Buckeye, according to KSAZ-TV.
Investigators found that the security door had been ripped off its hinges.
The incident unfolded just before 9 p.m. at the home on Yuma Road and 237th Lane.
“When officers arrived, they located a man inside the home suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and three other individuals who were not injured,” police said.
The man was identified as Michael Diaz.
An investigation said there were three people in the home, a mother and her two adult children, when Diaz began to bang on their door.
“A woman answered the door, and the male intruder began to force his way into the home,” police said. “A man in the home retrieved a handgun and went to the door just as the intruder broke through the security door and stepped inside.”
Police said the man fired at Diaz and struck him. He died at the scene.
Investigators found that the security door had been ripped off its hinges as the mother went to answer the door. KSAZ was able to obtain security video from the neighborhood that captured the sound of four gunshots.
RELATED: Texas homeowner arrested for shooting and killing intruder, police say story didn’t add up
One neighbor told KSAZ that he heard the gunshots but believed at the time that they were fireworks.
“I was in the living room with my wife and daughter, and we just hear multiple gunshots,” the neighbor said. “It’s really scary.”
The family declined to speak to the media, and KSAZ reported that evidence markers and bloodstains were visible in the front yard of the home, which was boarded up. An attorney told KTVK-TV that the incident likely fell under the state’s Castle Doctrine and the homeowner who shot Diaz would not face charges.
Police said the family did not know the intruder.
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Home intruder shot and killed, Second amendment defense, Buckeye home intruder killed, Break down door, Crime
Detroit police commissioner turns out to be felon who once threatened to shoot a cop
A recently elected Detroit police commissioner has withdrawn his promise to resign, even after a local news outlet made public his criminal past — as well as his antagonistic interactions with cops.
On December 17, Darious Morris, 38, was sworn in as one of nearly a dozen members of the Board of Police Commissioners, entrusted with overseeing the Detroit Police Department. Morris won the seat representing District 3 on a write-in campaign after no other name appeared on the ballot.
‘If you would have put your hands on him, I would have shot you!’
However, a report from WXYZ-TV just a few weeks later led Morris to consider tendering his resignation.
Morris has a criminal record that extends all the way back to 2009, when he pled no contest to felony fraud and impersonating a public officer charges in connection with what he described as “real estate fraud.”
“It was taking homes from the bank that the bank got foreclosed on people, and we were fraudulently taking the deeds to the homes and deeding them over,” Morris told the outlet.
While he was sentenced to probation in these cases, he was charged with fraud again a year later and wound up behind bars for two years, WXYZ reported. After his release, Morris apparently lived the next 12 years as a law-abiding citizen.
Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
That sterling record changed in May 2023, when he involved himself in a relatively routine traffic stop of a mini-bike driver in the neighboring city of Warren.
It turns out the bike was not street-legal, and the driver did not have a license, police said. Morris stood at a distance during the stop, claiming he wanted to make sure the cops were acting appropriately.
Morris also seemingly suggested that he was a member of law enforcement, donning a silver police badge purchased online. According to Warren police, Morris falsely told the officers he was a “Detroit Police Department Chaplain at the 9th Precinct.”
Bodycam footage shows one Warren officer ordering Morris: “Stand by the vehicle, please. If you interfere with this stop, understand you are not allowed to.”
After Morris later repeatedly calls the officer an “idiot,” the cop responds, “I’m done. I’m done talking to you,” according to the video.
The officer then attempts to get in his vehicle when Morris cries out: “If you would have put your hands on him, I would have shot you!”
Morris later pled guilty to assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer and was sentenced to probation. He admitted to WXYZ that he had lashed out in “anger,” knowing the remark “would upset” the officer. He also claimed he had not been armed at the time and that he has since apologized to the officer.
‘No matter what was said previously, right now, he’s not resigning.’
Just since his election in November, Morris, who has dubbed himself “the People’s Commissioner,” has rankled local officers with his officiousness, bluster, and accusations of mistreatment.
On December 28, he interrupted police rendering assistance to a drug-overdose victim. “We’re trying to help someone here,” one officer reportedly pleaded with Morris, who was attempting to speak with them.
Morris later filed a complaint against that officer. DPD told WXYZ an investigation into the officer’s actions has been opened.
Morris also caused a scene at a Detroit precinct, refusing to go through a metal detector like all other visitors. When a cop demanded he comply with the policy, Morris shot back, “Put your information on a piece of paper so I can get you wrote up.”
Morris even called for ousting a white Detroit police commander whose precinct he implied is racist.
“A lot of black citizens have been reporting to em that they are being mistreated by officers out of that precinct. I even experienced disrespect by one of their officers,” Morris wrote in a since-deleted social media post, according to the Midwesterner.
“Get rid of Commander Svec immediately!” the post added.
At least one police group has called for Morris to resign, accusing him of spewing “alarming anti-police rhetoric,” attempting to “dox” police officers, and not living up to his promises.
“Upon being sworn in on December 17, 2025, Commissioner Morris stated that he was eager to improve the relationship between the youth of Detroit and the Police Department. Not even a month later, he is instigating citizens against police officers,” National Association of Police Organizations Executive Director William Johnson wrote in a letter to the Board of Police Commissioners.
Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images
Shortly after the WXYZ-TV story aired last week, Morris initially agreed to step down from the Board of Police Commissioners. “I already have my city-issued laptop and all my stuff packed up and ready,” he told the outlet, acknowledging that the public may view the BOPC “in an unfavorable light” on his account.
At a press conference Monday, however, Morris’ attorneys walked that resignation pledge back. “No matter what was said previously, right now, he’s not resigning,” insisted Mohammed Nasser.
Of note, Morris could still be in trouble with the law. Back in 2021, weapons charges against Morris were dropped after an officer did not appear at the scheduled hearing, but the office of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy claimed that those charges may now be refiled.
“We have asked that the case be re-issued. When we receive the warrant request from (Detroit police) it will be reviewed,” spokesperson Maria Miller told the Detroit Free Press.
About these pending weapons charges, Nasser said, “We would certainly advise our client not to resign and allow the criminal case — if it comes — to be addressed in due course. Reissuances do happen. In our practice, we see it all the time. The fact that it is coming many years later, I’ll leave that for everyone to decipher as to what they believe the reason may be.”
The BOPC did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Detroit, Board of police commissioners, Darious morris, Kym worthy, Wayne county, Wayne county prosecutor’s office, Politics
Minnesota day-care exposé journalist strikes again — and part 2 names the ‘hub’ of the fraud wheel
Nick Shirley — the 23-year-old investigative journalist who exposed day-care fraud in Minnesota with a video that has now surpassed 140 million views — is back with part two.
“It’s a whole other aspect to the fraud scheme,” says BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, who invited Shirley to “The Liz Wheeler Show” to share his latest discoveries.
In the first video, Shirley exposed numerous Somali-run day-care centers in Minnesota as fraudulent operations. Despite receiving millions (or even billions overall) in taxpayer-funded government subsidies through programs like CCAP and Medicaid, these centers provided no actual child-care services. Footage captures Shirley visiting multiple empty facilities with locked doors, blacked-out windows, no visible children, and sketchy “staff members.”
In part two, which dropped last week, Shirley shines a light on non-emergency medical transportation companies in Minnesota, which he alleges are fraudulently billing the state and Medicaid for millions of dollars in rides and services that never actually occurred.
Liz plays a clip from part two in which Shirley and his partner, Minnesota native David Hoch, enter a Somali-run business called “Safari Transportation,” which is registered as a non-emergency medical transportation company. Except when they get inside, they find that it’s a money-wiring business.
These non-emergency medical transportation centers, Shirley explains, are the hub of the wheel of Minnesota fraud. The day-care centers, autism services, assisted living, and food assistance programs are the spokes of the wheel because “in order for these people to receive these services, they need to get moved to locations,” he says.
Shirley gives the example of an adult living at an assisted living center. If he or she needs to go to the doctor, a transportation service is needed. However, many of the transportation businesses in Minnesota are simply shell companies. They submit fake paperwork for services that were never provided while billing the state.
“Like how much money are we talking?” asks Liz.
“We estimated just doing like the national average. Like each NEMT averages around 20 vehicles per company. And then each ride, each trip is around $50, and each vehicle, if they’re out doing the work, they’re doing about 10 trips a day. So we estimated around like $8 million [per day],” says Nick.
This fraud, he explains, doesn’t just rip off the Minnesota taxpayer. All Americans are affected because both “state money and federal money” is being used to reimburse these “transportation companies.”
“Their hands are in our pockets,” says Liz.
To watch the full interview, check out the episode above.
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The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, Minnesota fraud, Minnesota somali fraud, Minnesota somalis, Fraud ring, Nick shirley, Nick shirley video, Blazetv, Blaze media
Voters won’t buy ‘freedom in Iran’ while Minneapolis goes lawless
My buddy Ryan Rhodes, who’s running for Congress in Iowa’s 4th District, drove north to Minnesota to see the chaos in Minneapolis up close. What he found looked worse than the headlines.
“You have a really Islamo-communist set of people who we have imported” to this country, Rhodes told me. “I think you’ve got a lot of Muslim Brotherhood agents in there, people whose message is, ‘We have taken over this city.’ Forget just elections. We lose our country if we keep allowing these people to come in.”
Americans can handle hard truths. They can handle sacrifice. They can handle a fight. What they won’t handle is watching the bad guys win again.
Rhodes wasn’t talking like a guy chasing clicks. He sounded like a guy staring at the map and realizing tyranny doesn’t need a passport. It can sit three hours from your front door.
So forgive me if I don’t have much patience for the foreign-policy sermonizing right now. How am I supposed to sell voters on “freedom in Iran” while Minneapolis slides toward lawlessness and Washington keeps acting powerless to stop it?
That pitch collapses fast with working-class Americans, especially while the economy limps along and trust remains thin on the ground. Republican voters want competence, results, and consequences for people who harm the country. They want accountability at home first.
We’ve lived what happens without it.
COVID cracked Trump’s first term because bureaucrats and “experts” ran wild, issued edicts, trashed livelihoods, and faced zero consequences. Then the George Floyd riots poured gasoline on the fire. Cities burned while federal authorities watched the destruction unfold.
Trump’s comeback last year required more than winning an election. It required overcoming a full-scale assault on the country’s spirit — and on the right to live as free citizens. The machine didn’t just beat Republicans at the ballot box. It hunted them. Roughly 1,400 Americans were rounded up by the Biden regime over the January 6 “insurrection.” They went after Trump too. They went after anyone in their way.
Those four years didn’t just wreck careers in Washington. They reached down to the local level — school boards acting like petty dictators, public health officials issuing mask and jab mandates, and doctors’ offices turning into political compliance centers. Families paid the price.
Now the country watches the same disease spread again.
People see domestic radicals attack federal officers in the streets. They watch Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) posture like a man protecting the mob, not the public. They hear Minneapolis leaders talk like ICE has no right to exist inside city limits. The footage looks like a warning, not an isolated event.
Remember CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle in 2020? That’s the template: Declare a zone off-limits to law, romanticize the lawlessness, and dare the state to reassert control. Every time the government blinks, the radicals learn the lesson: Push harder.
Demoralization has started to set in. I see it on Facebook and on the ground. In Iowa, I’m seeing campaign photos that would’ve been unthinkable in past cycles: small crowds, low energy, people staying home. Iowa has its first open Republican gubernatorial primary in 15 years, and the mood should feel electric. Instead, it feels like exhaustion.
As things stand, fewer Republicans will vote in the June primary than voted in the 2016 Iowa caucuses. That’s unheard of. Iowa has more than 700,000 registered Republicans. I wouldn’t bet on even 200,000 showing up.
That should terrify the White House.
RELATED: America now looks like a marriage headed for divorce — with no exit
Photo by Madison Thorn/Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump isn’t on the ballot in Iowa anymore. He doesn’t need to win another primary. But the movement still needs to win elections. It needs to win them in places like Iowa — and it needs to win them while the country watches cities like Minneapolis drift toward foreign-flag politics and open contempt for American sovereignty.
Rhodes put it bluntly: If we don’t stop this, we’re watching an Islamic conquest play out in real time, one “sanctuary” city at a time. Great Britain didn’t fall in a day. It surrendered by degrees.
So what do voters need to see now?
Not another speech. Not another promise. Not another commission. Not another “investigation” that ends in a shrug.
They need to see what they were promised when Trump ran for a second term: accountability.
If the country watches Minnesota slide into open defiance of federal law and nobody pays a price for it, voters will conclude the system can’t defend them. And if the system can’t defend them at home, it has no credibility abroad.
Start with Minnesota. Make it plain that “no-go zones” don’t exist in the United States. Enforce the law. Protect federal agents. Prosecute the people who assault them. Strip federal money from jurisdictions that obstruct enforcement. Treat organized lawlessness like organized lawlessness, not a political disagreement.
Americans can handle hard truths. They can handle sacrifice. They can handle a fight.
What they won’t handle is watching the bad guys win again — without consequences.
Opinion & analysis, Iowa, Primaries, Elections, 2026 midterms, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Riots, Protests, Voter turnout, Iran, Foreign policy, Law and order, Donald trump, Accountability