Category: blaze media

Months after the high-profile deportation case of an alleged MS-13 associate began with a removal and then mandated return to the United States, a judge has denied the request to stay Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s final deportation from the country.

In a copy of the decision obtained by ABC News, Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor denied an emergency request from Garcia’s attorneys to reopen his case. The petition, filed in August, argued that Garcia’s removal from the U.S. followed by his return subsequently made him eligible to apply for asylum in the U.S.

‘This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets.’

However, Judge Taylor argued in his denial to stay the removal on Wednesday that Garcia’s application for asylum would be “untimely,” considering that Garcia’s original immigration proceedings began nearly six years ago.

A large part of the long-running deportation case hangs on the Trump administration’s charge that Garcia is affiliated with the violent gang MS-13. His attorneys have delayed his deportation for fear of persecution tied to these accusations, which Garcia and his attorneys deny.

RELATED: Judge ‘absolutely’ forbids Trump administration to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia — for now

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The prosecution has also indicated that the Department of Homeland Security “may” deport Garcia to another country such as Uganda or Eswatini.

However, Judge Taylor argued that the defense’s argument about possible persecution in these countries was ultimately insubstantial.

“The word ‘may’ is permissive and indicates to the Court that in sending this notification to Respondent’s counsel, the Department sought to convey that it reserved the right to remove him to Uganda, not necessarily that it intended to do so, that it had decided to do so, or that it would do so imminently,” Judge Taylor said, according to ABC News.

“This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets,” the DHS said in an X post on Wednesday evening. “His lawyers tried to fight his removal from the U.S. but one thing is certain, this Salvadoran man is not going to be able to remain in our country. He will never be allowed to prey on innocent Americans again.”

The Kilmar Abrego Garcia saga has stretched to this day since he was deported in March. He was then brought back to the United States to face human-trafficking charges in June.

The government shutdown, which began on the same day as this order, will delay deadlines for the case “by the total number of days of the lapse in appropriations,” as noted by the DOJ in the court document.

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​Politics, Kilmar abrego garcia, Kilmar garcia deportation, Deportation, Ice, Ms-13, Government shutdown, Judge philip taylor 

Former NCAA volleyball player Brayden “Blaire” Fleming has finally provided comment about allegations made by one of his coaches.

Blaze News originally reported on Fleming in September 2024 after his school, San Jose State University, got off to its best start in team history by employing the 6’1” male athlete on the women’s volleyball team.

This resulted in wall-to-wall coverage of opponents forfeiting games against SJSU, with some like Nevada’s Sia Liilii speaking out against having to play across from a man.

‘Blaire gets what Blaire wants.’

When SJSU associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose spoke out, however, she was promptly suspended indefinitely by her school. After filing a Title IX complaint against SJSU and alleging that the male athlete conspired against his own team, Batie-Smoose is now part of a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees of the California State University system, which SJSU falls under along with 22 other California schools.

The lawsuit alleges that SJSU was “retaliatory” in its suspension of Batie-Smoose, according to Fox News.

At the same time, the former coach told Fox News Digital that Fleming received special treatment from the team, which included, “Not showing up to practice with no excuses [and] sitting in the stands eating while practice was going on.”

These allegations were what sparked Fleming to finally speak out and address the recent claims.

“The only times I showed up to practice with ‘no excuse’ and sat in the stands was when I was injured and couldn’t play,” Fleming told the outlet. “Brooke Slusser and Melissa need to get a life,” he added.

Slusser, a former teammate of Fleming, is not only part of a class action lawsuit against the NCAA alleging Title IX violations, but she also had the unique experience of allegedly being forced to room with Fleming.

RELATED: NCAA coach suspended indefinitely after speaking out about male athlete on women’s volleyball team

Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons on October 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

“Blaire wanted to room with Brooke Slusser, and that’s who Blaire felt comfortable, so Blaire gets what Blaire wants,” Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital.

Slusser told Blaze News in an exclusive interview in 2024 that she originally roomed with Fleming when she first arrived to the team and was told there were “three girls on the team that are looking for a roommate.”

One of those “girls” was Fleming. After rooming with the transgender athlete on multiple road trips, Slusser was suspicious as to why she was routinely being roomed with Fleming despite other teammates being rotated around.

Slusser told Blaze News, “I found it very odd that everyone else was getting switched around on away trips, and I somehow kept getting roomed with the same person. Usually, you get switched around … and I just kept getting roomed with [Fleming].”

The former volleyball star also alleged that Fleming received preferential treatment, including team meetings focused on the transgender athlete’s well-being but no one else’s.

“We’ve had meetings, and it’s a lot of just checking in on Blaire. … We were like, ‘What about us?'” Slusser said. “It’s mostly just saying you can’t be the person to … identify Blaire’s gender identity. ‘Blaire needs to do that for himself.'”

RELATED: Exclusive: ‘We all know the reason the games are canceled’: SJSU volleyball player speaks out against transgender teammate

Brooke Slusser #10 of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

Batie-Smoose has since revealed that she was not told Fleming is male until after she accepted the job at SJSU, despite having moved her family from Connecticut to take on the coaching role. She also alleged that she was told she could not tell other players or their parents that a male was on the team.

“[Head Coach] Todd Kress told me in passing … because I was asking … ‘Oh, by the way, Blaire is a male,'” Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital.

As for Coach Kress, he vehemently defended the inclusion of Fleming on his team and even accused other squads that forfeited against SJSU of taking opportunities away from the girls on his team.

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​Fearless, Volleyball, Women’s sports, Transgenderism, Title ix, Ncaa, Sports 

Bad Bunny is a cross-dressing Puerto Rican rapper who has never released a song in English, and yet he’s starring in the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.

Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck isn’t an expert on the rapper’s work, but BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is well aware of who he is — and tells Glenn exactly what’s going on.

“Obviously they’re trolling Donald Trump. Obviously, they’re trolling ICE raids and the whole illegal immigration policy enacted by Trump. … They want to make a statement about illegal immigration. They want to make a statement about diversity and Spanish-speaking people. They want to make a statement about transgenderism and sexual fluidity, and Bad Bunny checks all those boxes,” Whitlock begins.

“This has nothing to do with football fans. This is about the left’s control of popular culture and control of the National Football League, which is the strongest thing in popular culture, and they’re using it to make a big, bold statement about how they feel about Donald Trump,” he continues.

Though there is one man more important than President Trump whom they’re attacking, and that is Jesus Christ.

“They didn’t have to pick someone who is so closely associated with demonic activities, so closely associated with promoting gender fluidity and the cross-dressing deal. They didn’t have to pick someone who’s so outspoken against Donald Trump in his illegal immigration policies. This is the poster boy for Trump hate, and this is the poster boy for sexual fluidity and redefining masculinity,” Whitlock says.

“And so parents will be having discussions with their kids on Super Bowl Sunday. ‘Mommy, Daddy, why is this man out here dressed as a woman during some part of this act? Why are his fingernails painted? Why is he taking subtle shots at Trump?’” he continues.

“This is, to me, part of it’s a reaction to the Charlie Kirk memorial service,” he adds, explaining that this is because it “was such a powerful pro-Jesus Christ deal.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​Camera phone, Free, Video phone, Sharing, Video, Upload, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jason whitlock, Fearless with jason whitlock, Bad bunny, Super bowl half time show, 2026 superbowl, Jay z, Demonic, Cross dressing, Bad bunny cross dressing, Drag show, Lgbtq agenda, President trump, Ice 

President Donald Trump has once again trolled Democrats for giving the administration the perfect opportunity to further implement the MAGA mandate.

As the federal government enters its second day of the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday that layoffs will likely be in the thousands. This estimate comes as Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought meet to identify which “Democrat Agencies” should be cut.

‘I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.’

“It’s likely going to be in the thousands,” Leavitt said. “It’s a very good question, and that’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here is unfortunately having to work on today.”

“These discussions and these conversations, these meetings, would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open,” Leavitt added.

RELATED: Vance makes Jeffries a hilarious promise if Democrats end the shutdown

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Vought already halted a few projects on Wednesday, totaling roughly $26 billion. Vought first paused $18 billion worth of projects in New York City, including the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Ave Subway. Vought also canceled nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda” across 16 different states.

Trump, likely trolling Democrats about their failed attempts last year to turn Project 2025 into an electoral liability, later announced that he would be meeting with Vought “of PROJECT 2025 Fame” to continue identifying programs and agencies to cut.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump added. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

RELATED: Government grinds to a halt after Democrats force first shutdown in 6 years

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Senate is set once again to vote Friday on the pair of continuing resolutions proposed by Republicans and Democrats respectively. The Republican-led CR is the same clean CR Democrats voted for to keep the government open over a dozen times prior, adding only an anomaly for increased security funding for government officials.

On the other hand, Democrats put forth an ideological bill that contains roughly $1.5 trillion worth of funding aimed at reversing everything accomplished in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Notably, three Senate Democrats initially voted for the Republican led-CR on Tuesday, indicating fractures in New York Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s base. The Senate needs 60 votes, or at least seven Democrats, to pass the funding bill to reopen the government, assuming all 53 Republicans vote in lockstep.

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​Chuck schumer, Hakeem jeffries, Donald trump, Jd vance, Senate democrats, Senate republicans, Schumer shutdown, Government shutdown, Continuing resolution, Mass layoffs, Omb, Russ vought, Russell vought, Politics 

G.K. Chesterton once wrote: “Fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. … What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. ”

I used to wake up every morning and read the news. Every morning the headlines would change, but the message was always the same: The dragon was winning.

But then I left the world for two years and lived in a Catholic religious community. I woke up each morning and prayed the psalms with my fellow religious. Every morning the psalms changed, but the message was always the same: The dragon had been defeated.

At the abbey I was introduced to a new world where evil could be defeated. It is a world that each of us, no matter our state in life, can choose to live in. It is a world full of sacrifice, suffering, love, and victory.

Most of us fall back into the old world from time to time. It takes great courage to live exclusively in the new one, because while there is victory in the new one, there is also much suffering.

Even great heroes fall back sometimes.

A hero is not someone who never falls back into the old world. He is simply a man who on the last day chooses to return to the new one. He chooses to fight the dragon one last time.

When he finally defeats the dragon, the hero dies, and when he dies, he gives us all a glimpse of the new world. He shows those who have eyes to see that there is victory after death.

Charlie Kirk has given us a great gift. He has shown us the new world that Christ created by his death and resurrection. He has shown us a world that is full of suffering, sacrifice, and love, but perhaps most importantly, he has shown us a world where St. George kills the dragon.

​Charlie kirk, Christianity, Psalms, Hope, Faith 

In a striking speech this week, Secretary Pete Hegseth — now head of the newly renamed Department of War — addressed a rare gathering of top military officials in Quantico, Virginia. He laid out his vision for reform and announced directives aimed at restoring the fighting spirit of the U.S. armed forces.

Hegseth began by explaining why the Department of Defense has once again become the Department of War. “To ensure peace, we must prepare for war,” he said, reviving the older and more honest title abandoned in 1948.

Circumstances change, and tactics must adapt. But adaptation should always sharpen lethality, not serve social experiments.

That explanation drew from the Roman writer Vegetius, who coined the maxim si vis pacem, para bellum — if you want peace, prepare for war. But Hegseth’s reasoning also echoes St. Augustine, the Christian bishop whose writings helped shape just war theory.

In a letter written in 418 A.D. to the Roman general Boniface, Augustine commended the nobility of military service. He reminded him — and us — that the proper object of war is peace.

“Peace should be the object of your desire,” Augustine wrote. “War should be waged only as a necessity, and waged only that God may by it deliver men from the necessity and preserve them in peace. For peace is not sought in order to the kindling of war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained.”

He concluded with a hard truth for every soldier: “Let necessity, therefore, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you.”

Peace through strength

Though peace may be war’s ultimate goal, necessity requires militaries to pursue their purpose without hesitation: engage and destroy the enemy. Only with that assurance can a nation’s people live free and fully.

That is the mission Hegseth intends to restore. “From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win,” he said Tuesday.

In practice, that means reversing the U.S. military’s long drift toward an agenda of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” This ideology, a hybrid of HR jargon and academic postmodernism, demands that “marginalized” groups be elevated into power regardless of merit.

Corporate America and universities may tolerate such illusions. The military cannot. A fighting force depends on unity and unflinching standards, not favoritism. When leaders promote based on identity instead of ability, when they lower fitness thresholds or soften training to accommodate politics, they weaken the institution tasked with defending the nation.

Even basic training, once the crucible that broke down civilians and forged soldiers, has been watered down. Risk aversion replaces rigor. Cosmetic rules are relaxed. Officers signal more concern with optics than with readiness. None of this produces warriors.

If the United States wants to remain the premier fighting force in the world, those trends must end. The alternative is a military built for press releases and photo ops, not for victory.

Two north stars

To begin reversing these trends, Hegseth offered two simple tests for every new policy: the “1990 test” and the “E-6 test.”

The 1990 test asks: What were the military standards in 1990, and if they changed, why? That baseline matters. Since then — arguably even earlier — political agendas crept in and steadily displaced common-sense practices. Policies that once kept the force lethal and focused have been diluted or discarded.

Hegseth acknowledged that modern battlefields evolve. Circumstances change, and tactics must adapt. But adaptation should always sharpen lethality, not serve social experiments. Policies that weaken cohesion or cater to fashionable causes betray the mission.

By holding today’s standards up against those of 1990, the military can begin identifying what was lost — and whether those losses made the force deadlier or merely more compliant with political fashions. The answer, in most cases, is obvious.

RELATED: Hegseth declares war on woke military policies: ‘We are done with that s**t’

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Image

The E-6 test asks a blunt question: Will this policy make the job of an E-6 easier or harder?

In the Army, an E-6 is a staff sergeant. In the infantry, that usually means a squad leader. A squad is the smallest real tactical unit — second only to the four-man fire team. It’s the squad leader who carries the burden of leadership where it matters most: training, maintenance, discipline, and, in combat, life-or-death decisions under fire.

So the E-6 test forces policymakers to think from the ground up. Will a new directive help the staff sergeant lead his squad more effectively, hold his soldiers accountable, and keep them lethal? Or will it mire him in distractions, paperwork, and politically driven nonsense?

In other words, the test measures policy by its effect on the sharp end of the spear. If it makes the staff sergeant’s mission harder, the policy has failed before it begins.

Long-overdue change

For too long, Washington has imposed policies without regard for the men who actually lead soldiers in the field. Often those policies made their jobs harder, not easier. The simple discipline of asking whether a change helps or hinders an E-6 restores the right focus: The military exists to fight and win wars. Nothing else.

War will never be pleasant, but it remains necessary. Peace and human flourishing require strength — an armed force capable of deterring aggressors and defeating enemies who would sow chaos and fear. That is the first duty of government: to ensure the military is as lethal and effective as possible in defense of the people.

Hegseth understands this. His reforms strip away the distractions of ideology and return attention to standards, readiness, and the hard truths of combat. As he reminded his audience, paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton, true soldiers fight not because they hate what is in front of them, but because they love what’s behind them.

That truth, often forgotten in recent decades, is the cornerstone of a warrior ethos worth rebuilding — an ethos that can win wars, safeguard peace, and keep the republic secure.

​Opinion & analysis, Pete hegseth, Department of defense, Department of war, Diversity equity inclusion, Woke military, Warfighter, Donald trump, Military, National defense, War, Vegetius, St. augustine of hippo, Duty, Honor, Country, Victory, Officers, Warrior ethos, 1990 test, E-6 test, G.k. chesterton 

A female is accused of trashing a Little Caesars pizza place in Louisville, Kentucky, and causing $1,000 in damages, after a store employee informed her that extra sauce would cost $1, WDRB-TV reported.

Breanna Haynes placed the phone order, then traveled to Little Caesars to pick it up, the station said, citing court documents.

‘Can’t afford a buck for sauce? Maybe you shouldn’t be buying pizza then.’

However, when Haynes asked for extra sauce with her order, an employee told her that would run her an extra dollar, WDRB reported.

RELATED: Street takeover thugs beat up 7-Eleven worker who tries to keep them from looting store. But he’s no match for mob of 50.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

More from the station:

Police said Haynes “created a disturbance in the store” and began knocking things off of the counter, including a custom-made computer stand and the computer register — which totaled over $1,000 in damages.

Haynes left the store, but employees were able to provide Louisville police with her name after comparing video surveillance with a known picture.

Haynes was charged with criminal mischief in connection with the January incident, but she wasn’t arrested until late last month, WDRB said.

Haynes on Sept. 22 allegedly threw a brick at a car belonging to the father of her child because he wanted to move back to Cincinnati, the station said, citing court documents.

Police said Haynes’ alleged brick-throwing caused more than $1,000 in damages, and she was charged with assault and criminal mischief, WDRB reported.

Numerous commenters on the station’s Facebook post about the incident reacted incredulously to it:

“That must be some good sauce!” one commenter wrote.”I guess she’d rather pay $1,000 plus lawyers instead of just giving up the dollar,” another commenter observed. “Smh, wish I had that kind of money.””Stay home if you don’t know how to behave in public,” another commenter advised.”Can’t afford a buck for sauce?” another commenter noted. “Maybe you shouldn’t be buying pizza then.”

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​Louisville, Kentucky, Arrest, Criminal mischief charge, Crime 

The horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10 has sparked a number of politically charged conversations, not only about the frightening increase in political violence but about the suspected killer’s associations with nonheteronormative relationships and so-called furries.

On September 12, just hours after investigators revealed that an engraving on one of the bullet casings makes reference to an online meme mocking gay furries, the suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, was apprehended. In short order, details about Robinson and his alleged romantic relationship with roommate Lance Twiggs began to spread online. A photo of Twiggs wearing an animal costume went viral, and the New York Post and other outlets reported that an account name associated with Robinson appeared on the sexual fetish website FurAffinity.net, prompting speculation that Robinson has a “furry fixation.”

A strange trend infiltrates public schools

In general, furries are people known to don animal costumes and exhibit animal-like behaviors. Once the sort of topic discussed only in hushed tones and in private company, furry culture has since gone mainstream, infiltrating common discourse — and even K-12 public education systems across the U.S. Reports indicate that since 2012, furry-like groups have sprung up in school districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kentucky, and Texas.

‘Most furries are LGBTQ+.’

In April 2024, Blaze News exposed a growing furry problem at Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, about 20 miles or so south of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered. Students, parents, and even a former staff member at the school shared disturbing stories of students who identified as furries wearing animal-like costumes, barking at others, chewing on sticks in class, playing fetch in the halls, and even biting classmates who invaded their territory.

RELATED: Furry trend in Texas public schools will hibernate permanently, if Republicans have their way

— (@)

Despite extensive video and photographic evidence of furries at the school, Nebo School District initially denied the existence of a furry problem, repeatedly insisting to Blaze News that the issue was akin to kids occasionally dressing up as their “favorite basketball player or baseball player.”

“That’s just what kids this age do,” district spokesman Seth Sorenson said at one point. “These rumors are unfounded and are not occurring in our schools,” Sorenson told Blaze News in a separate statement.

Days later, the district moderated those denials, claiming to “take any and all harassment very seriously” and pledging that no group of students would be permitted “to target and harass other students without intervention and consequences.” The updated statement, however, still made no mention of the furry group at the center of the harassment problem.

‘Some degree of sexual motivation’

While Blaze News received numerous reports that Mt. Nebo furries were tormenting their classmates, none of the reported harassment there seemed to be sexual in nature. Yet admissions from furries and their supporters more broadly reveal that the furry culture is firmly grounded in sex and sexual identity.

A 2019 article published in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 99% of the 334 male furries who participated in the authors’ survey acknowledged “some degree of sexual motivation for being furries.” Eighty-four percent categorized their sexual orientation as something other than heterosexual.

In a 2022 Religion News Service article that noted the high rates of atheism and anti-Christian bias among furries, Courtney Plante, a Furscience researcher and associate professor of psychology at Bishop’s University in Quebec, confirmed that “most furries are LGBTQ+.”

Perhaps unwittingly, Debra Soh demonstrated the sexual foundation of the furry trend, even as she attempted to convince readers that furries are hardly “sex-crazed perverts.” On the one hand, Soh gushed that the furries she met at a 2014 furry convention were “all friendly and welcoming, offering hugs and agreeing to have their photo taken.” Yet in the next sentence, Soh noted that “they were mostly young, either teenaged or in their early 20s, male, and identifying as gay or transgender.”

Likewise, in a Psychology Today blog post in 2017, Hal Herzog, Ph.D., claimed that characterizations of furries as “fetishists or as psychologically dysfunctional people” are “misconceptions” that “are demonstrably false,” even as he admitted that “furries are seven times more likely than the general population to identify as transgender and about five times more likely to identify as non-heterosexual.”

Despite the widely understood association between furries and sex, furries and others on the left often pretend that furry culture is mainly about community, that the animal costumes and “fursonas” help otherwise socially awkward introverts interact with others and express themselves in everyday, family-friendly situations.

RELATED: Man who tried to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh identifies as transgender, new docs show

June 29, 2024, Furries in costume at the annual Pride in London parade. Photo by: Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

United Utah Furry Fandom, for example, characterizes its members as “free-spirited and creative individuals” who simply “enjoy embodying characters that look and act like anthropomorphic animals.” However, the group likewise acknowledges that “many members of the furry community tend to either have Autistic Spectrum Disorder, neurodivergence, or other traits that make social interaction in conventional spaces difficult.”

Of note, U2F2 adds that furries often “align with LGBTQ+ values” but insists that any presumed association between furries and sexual deviancy is “false.”

By contrast, Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, explained to Blaze News that such assertions are a form of gaslighting in which leftists claim that disturbing groups like furries do not exist or if they do exist, they pose no danger. In many cases, these gaslighters imply that those voicing concerns are either overreacting or manifesting latent bigotry.

“These people do this stuff because … it sounds unbelievable and like it’s not happening,” Schilling said. “That’s how the whole trans thing played out.”

Schilling indicated that so many parents and medical professionals have gotten away with mangling children through so-called “gender-affirming care” because until recently, the idea of letting “a kid get a sex-change procedure” was considered “preposterous.” He believes that the furry trend has spread for the same reason.

“It’s dangerous, and it’s hurting our education system.”

‘If you say we’re not going to have any rules, we’re not going to teach that anything’s right or wrong, well, then you get furries in your seventh-grade classroom.’

U2F2 did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News, but did offer a statement in response to the Kirk murder.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the spreading of hate, conspiracy theories, and misinformation from any side of the political spectrum. For years, our leaders and volunteers have dedicated themselves to creating safe, welcoming, and joyful spaces for others — a mission that has always been the foundation of the fandom. Our community is built on creativity, inclusivity, and mutual support,” U2F2 said, according to KTVX.

“We are saddened that our community has been dragged into this climate of hostility, and our thoughts remain with everyone directly affected by these tragic events.”

‘Sexual anarchy’

Like many others on the right, Schilling does not view the furry trend as a benign cosplay niche for weird adults. He made plain to Blaze News that furries are instead indulging in a “disgusting” sexual fetish.

“You can’t separate the sexual from the furries. It is part and parcel,” he told Blaze News. “They’re constantly fantasizing about hooking up in these costumes.”

Schilling further warned that the sexual component of furries is present in school-age groups too and has a particular impact on students who regularly use online forums and games. “These online forums are full of pornography. It’s a whole porn genre,” he said.

RELATED: ‘Red state privilege’: MD Anderson’s quiet LGBTQ+ push in Texas

Cosplayers known as “furries” march during San Diego Pride Parade on July 15, 2023, in San Diego, California. Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

Schilling believes that furries and other alleged sex-related deviancies like transgenderism have resulted from the overall “sexual anarchy” that has pervaded American culture, especially online and in public schools. “If you say we’re not going to have any rules, we’re not going to teach that anything’s right or wrong, well, then you get furries in your seventh-grade classroom,” he claimed. “You get complete disorder and chaos.”

“The online world is radicalizing these kids, and then the schools are actually supporting it,” he said in reference to furries. “Basically, the schools are treating it as a protected class.”

Ties to violence

Tyler Robinson is hardly the first accused assassin with ties to transgenderism. In fact, he’s not even the only suspected assassin with ties to transgenderism from Washington City, Utah, in just the last 16 months.

In June 2024, Mia Bailey, a 28-year-old man whose given name was Collin Troy Bailey, allegedly marched into the Washington City home of his parents — 70-year-old Joseph Bailey and 69-year-old Gail Bailey — and opened fire. Police found the couple shot to death. Joseph had been struck twice and Gail four times. Police also said the suspect attempted to gun down his brother, who locked himself in a room before making a daring escape to a neighbor’s home.

After an extensive manhunt, Mia Bailey eventually surrendered to police. While in custody, Bailey allegedly told cops, “I would do it again. I hate them.” In June 2025, he pled not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, seven counts of felony discharge of a firearm, and aggravated burglary.

Despite the transgenderism link to two Washington City-based murder suspects in just over a year, Washington City Mayor Kress Staheli called the Kirk shooting “an isolated incident,” while Police Chief Jason Williams claimed that it “wasn’t really a reflection of our community.”

“One individual doesn’t define who we are as a community,” Staheli added.

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

RELATED: It’s time to address America’s transgender ideology problem

Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance pay their respects at Annunciation Catholic Church.Photo by ALEX WROBLEWSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Transgenderism has also been a common theme in other national atrocities within the last few years.

Just weeks before Kirk’s horrific death on September 10, a trans-identifying male shot up Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, murdering two schoolchildren and injuring more than a dozen others attending Mass. The trans-identifying suspect in that case, Robert “Robin” Westman, who committed suicide at the scene, left behind a handwritten letter, journals, and a video that indicated he was motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump and the Catholic Church.

Goodwill-Yost had previously introduced her 17-year-old daughter to the furry ‘subculture,’ where the teen met Acosta and Frank Felix … described as ‘obsessed’ with the girl.

In March 2023, a trans-identifying female stormed into the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, and mowed down three adults and three children with bullets. The manifesto she left behind revealed deep-seated anti-Christian and anti-white bigotry.

Deadly meeting through furry ‘subculture’

Furries have also been implicated in heinous crimes as well.

In September 2016, Jennifer Goodwill-Yost, 39; her husband, Christopher Yost, 35; and their friend Arthur “Billy” Boucher, 28, were shot to death by Joshua Acosta, a 21-year-old Army mechanic stationed at Ft. Irwin in Barstow, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Goodwill-Yost had previously introduced her 17-year-old daughter to the furry “subculture,” where the teen met Acosta and Frank Felix, then 25, who soon began a relationship with the girl, despite her parents’ objections, and later supplied the gun and ammunition used in the commission of the crime. The D.A. described Felix as “obsessed” with the girl.

On the night of the murders, Acosta and Felix drove to the teen’s house. After she jumped in their truck, Acosta went into her home and shot Boucher, who was sleeping on the couch, followed by Goodwill-Yost, whom the teen had previously accused of abuse. Lastly, Acosta shot Yost, the girl’s stepfather, whom she accused of molesting her, as he was attempting to flee.

Two children, ages 6 and 9, were left alive and woke up the next morning and called 911 after discovering the dead bodies.

For their crimes, Felix was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, and Acosta was sentenced to life plus 75 years. Neither man has the possibility of parole.

The LockJaw Arts murder

In March 2020, a Las Vegas couple tied to the furry world enticed 57-year-old Michael Crabtree to invite them to his home under the pretext of a threesome and then savagely murdered him. Police also indicated that the pair confessed to killing and skinning a dog.

Tonya Dillard, 33, and Jacob Berkovitz, 29, both pled guilty, though Berkovitz pled “guilty but mentally ill.” Dillard will spend at least 14 years behind bars, while Berkovitz has a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years plus a consecutive minimum sentence of eight years.

In the furry world, Dillard was known as “Vincent Vex,” while Berkovitz went by “Jax.” The pair is believed to have operated LockJaw Arts, offering furry costumes and furry-related art. An Instagram account for LockJaw Arts shares violent and pornographic depictions of furries.

RELATED: Video shows Colombian porn actor dancing nude while covered in blood after decapitating gay couple he was living with

Screenshot of Nevada corrections website

Child sex trafficking at a furry party

In 2017, David Parker pled guilty to sex trafficking involving a minor and was later sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Reports indicate that in 2009 he began taking a boy under 10 years old to furry parties, where he offered the boy to an adult male for sexual purposes.

Four others besides Parker were charged in connection with what lehighvalleylive.com described as a “furries’ child predator sex ring,” but at least one of the defendants, Kenneth Fenske, accused of raping the child, was acquitted of all charges.

Online grooming

In September 2024, 41-year-old Adam Woolacott pled guilty in a court in Vancouver, British Columbia, to sexual interference, arranging a sexual offense against a child, and making sexually explicit material available to someone under 16.

Woolacott was sentenced to spend just six years behind bars despite having five separate sexual encounters with a girl he met in a furry group on Facebook. The girl was only 12 when she first made contact with Woolacott, who was then 35, according to Vancouver Is Awesome.

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Donna Senniw claimed that Woolacott knew the victim’s age from the start. “[The victim] said he was the reason other men exploited her and had been abused, used, and groomed,” Senniw stated.

‘It’s totally demonic’

Considering the surge in cases of trans-related violence and the alarming link between LGBTQ identities and furries, Schilling told Blaze News that parents must stay alert and “raise holy hell” about any instances of furries they see in their local school district. Otherwise, the furry fetish will metastasize and morph into something even worse.

“It’s not always going to be furries,” he said. “It’s going to be something else totally crazy and something that we didn’t even imagine. I mean, think about this: Ten years ago, would you have ever imagined that furries would be a new sexual fetish and that children in schools would be identifying as it? No, because it’s unthinkable. It’s unimaginable.

“It’s demonic. It’s demonic,” he reiterated. “It’s totally demonic.”

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a bracing address Tuesday to the nation’s generals and admirals on restoring the warrior ethos and “unwoking” the military. His words hit their mark. But if the United States wants real warriors, the work starts with education — and ends with the National Guard.

The collapse of military education

Mr. Secretary, I have taught at the National Defense University and the National Intelligence University since 1992. Over three decades, I have watched the steady decline of military education, especially in American military history.

The rot deepened after 2021, when NIU was shifted from the Defense Department to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The move made little sense, and the result has been worse: a pipeline of “graduates” sent into your War Department who bear the marks of the politicized training they received.

What good are polished bayonets and perfect push-ups if our enemies own the digital battlefield?

Until last year, NIU’s executive vice president, Patricia A. Larsen, pushed a cartoonish form of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Imagine Rube Goldberg and Cruella de Ville designing education policy after a bender, and you get the idea. She maximized DEI, minimized rigor, and turned classrooms into therapy circles for “sensitive” intelligence students — while riding roughshod over her faculty and staff.

The result? A crop of intelligence officers shaped by Larsen’s priorities: officers less like warriors and more like the “less-than-warriors” you warned about. And no amount of push-ups or rifle drills will fix that mindset. Bad intelligence has destroyed the best warfighters before — Pearl Harbor, Chosin Reservoir, Tet. It can happen again.

Citizen soldiers and information war

If you want a different kind of warrior, look to the citizen soldier. Men like Gen. Dan Caine, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Or like yourself.

Citizen soldiers carry the heart and soul of warriors into the non-kinetic fight: information warfare. China fields armies of hackers and propagandists who corrupt American culture, flood social media with poison, and wage psychological war around the clock. They don’t need to fire a shot to weaken us.

What good are polished bayonets and perfect push-ups if our enemy — say, China — owns the digital battlefield? Unlike the kinetic fight, information war shifts daily. By the time the Pentagon recognizes a problem, builds a school, and launches a course, the enemy has already moved on.

That’s where the Guard excels. Citizen soldiers live in this world every day — coding, marketing, designing, working AI prompts and hardware. They bring practical knowledge the active-duty military cannot match.

I know this firsthand. Years ago, I organized and trained an experimental National Guard unit for the Pentagon. In their world, physical fitness matters less than mental agility. Discipline, imagination, and technical mastery were the weapons they carried. And they were lethal.

RELATED: Hegseth restores warrior ethos after years of woke Pentagon rot

Photo courtesy of Chuck de Caro

Back to the Roman model

The founders understood the power of the citizen soldier because they themselves defeated the world’s strongest army with farmhands who knew terrain, seasons, and the hunt. Today’s equivalent may be a Guardsman in sunglasses, leaning against a Corvette, laptop and phone in hand — ready to beat Beijing in the digital fight.

As you purge the woke and the unfit, Mr. Secretary, think about a new standard for an old class: the citizen soldier.

You like to quote the Romans. Let me remind you of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the farmer who left his plow to lead Rome to victory, then refused power and returned home. He wasn’t just a warrior. He was a victor.

That’s the model America needs now. Not just warriors — but victors who know when to fight, when to win, and when to go home. The Roman way. The American way.

​Opinion & analysis, Pete hegseth, Information warfare, National guard, Warrior ethos, Department of war, Diversity equity inclusion, Dei, National defense, National intelligence, University, Fitness, Education, Officers, Generals, Admirals, Woke military, Romans, Lucius quinctius cincinnatus, Citizen soldiers 

We’ve reached day two of the first government shutdown since 2019. It’s the fourth shutdown since the 2013 showdown between Barack Obama and the “Wacko Birds” in Congress.

I remember asking a senior Senate staffer who championed the 2013 tactics what the plan was now that the shutdown had begun. His answer was blunt: “There is none!” It was the first shutdown in decades, and Republicans had no idea what to do next. “We’re basically the dog that caught the car,” he admitted.

Surrender, it seems, remains the Democrats’ only option. The dirty little secret in DC is that shutdowns don’t offer real off-ramps once they begin.

Now Democrats find themselves in the same position. And the early signs suggest they won’t have the stomach to take the pressure for long.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) didn’t have much choice. Their sizeable left flank still calls the shots in the party, despite losing the White House 11 months ago. But the polls are in, and Americans aren’t buying the Democrats’ party line that Republicans are to blame.

Democrats may have grown somewhat accustomed to losing of late, but they’re not used to losing shutdown PR fights. The way they’ve told it the previous four times, the Republicans are the “terrorists” and “arsonists,” while the Democrats are the responsible adults safely guiding the ship of state.

When nearly every Republican in Congress votes to keep the ship steady, Democrats find it harder to play the blame game. Even their allies in the D.C. press aren’t impressed. Punchbowl’s Tuesday newsletter immediately set out to “reiterate that such shutdowns are harmful, counter-productive, and a major detriment to the country.”

The authors went farther: “The party looking to force a policy change via a shutdown rarely gets what it wants.”

Some Democrats already know it. Before the House adjourned last month, only one Democrat voted to fund the government. But on Tuesday, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) of Nevada and Angus King (I) of Maine broke ranks and joined John Fetterman (D) of Pennsylvania in voting to keep the doors open.

These senators face more moderate constituencies than shutdown champion Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts. And they aren’t alone. Others in the caucus are nervously watching the clock, waiting for cracks to widen enough so they can slip through and surrender without paying too steep a price with the party faithful.

Surrender, it seems, remains the Democrats’ only option. The dirty little secret in D.C. is that shutdowns don’t offer real off-ramps once they begin. They work only as leverage. Once the bluff is called, the fight becomes a war of attrition. In 2025, the corporate left-wing press no longer has the clout to ride in and save Democrats from themselves.

President Trump, for his part, holds the detonator. He could allow tens (hundreds?) of thousands of federal employees to be furloughed or laid off if their programs lack funding. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is gung-ho to follow through. But Trump wants a deal more than bureaucratic Armageddon.

The president is willing to let Vought trim bloated and unfunded projects. Yet unless Democrats push the standoff far longer than they seem capable of, conservatives shouldn’t expect the wholesale slash-and-burn they’ve been hoping for.

That leaves Senate Democrats caught between their restless base and the reality of a losing hand. Schumer needs to decide how much damage to allow Warren and her faction to inflict before pulling the plug. His personal fortunes — and his grip on power — hang in the balance.

My bet? It won’t be long.

Blaze News: Mass firings to begin ‘in a day or two’ over government shutdown, Trump official warns

Blaze News: Vance makes Jeffries a hilarious promise if Democrats end the shutdown

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Let’s face it: In today’s culture, being a traditional, Christian, Proverbs 31 woman is seen as outdated at best — and oppressive at worst. Feminism, goddess worship, and self-idolatry have replaced biblical womanhood, pushing a false idea that true power comes from rebellion, not obedience.

We see it everywhere.

As we face the growing pagan threat in America, we must raise up more Erika Kirks.

In 2018, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral hosted a “Beyoncé Mass,” calling it a “womanist worship service” that praised Beyoncé as a goddess. Social media echoed the sentiment: “God is a woman and her name is Beyoncé.” Not long after, Taylor Swift’s fans held a Taylor Swift-themed “worship” experience in a 600-year-old church. Swift’s own performances have leaned into witchcraft-inspired visuals, while other pop icons like Ariana Grande (whose song is literally titled “God Is a Woman”), Nicki Minaj, Vanessa Hudgens, and Lady Gaga flaunt occult imagery and sexual empowerment wrapped in faux liberation.

This cultural shift is not new. It’s rooted in a long-standing rejection of Christian orthodoxy. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her 1875 work “The Woman’s Bible,” sought to rewrite scripture, even calling for the “emancipation of the woman” and the “exoneration of the snake.” Feminism’s earliest architects viewed biblical womanhood as the enemy to be dismantled.

The fight wasn’t for equality — it was for dominance.

Today, that legacy lives on. Women are praised not for motherhood, humility, or holiness, but for independence, sexual expression, and self-glorification. We now live in a culture where being a godly woman is seen as laughable, something to be mocked, dismissed, or feared.

But then came Erika Kirk.

Gospel power

On Sept. 21, just 11 days after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated allegedly by one of the very people he dedicated his life to reaching, Erika stood before the world — with tears in her eyes — and said these words: “That man, that young man: I forgive him.”

There were no calls for vengeance. No bitterness. No rage. Just grace. And a power that only the gospel can provide.

More than 100 million people were watching the broadcast when she said it.

RELATED: How Erika Kirk answered the hardest question of all

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Charlie was shot in the neck while answering student questions on a university campus — microphone in hand, actively engaging with those who disagreed with him. In one violent moment, Erika lost her husband and their two young children lost their father.

And yet, days later, she stood next to the empty chair where Charlie had hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” and declared: “The movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. … My husband’s mission will not end, not even for a moment.”

Sharp contrast

Since then, Erika has become one of the most talked-about women in the world. Her Instagram following has skyrocketed from a few hundred thousand to over 7 million. But she didn’t seek the spotlight — she stepped into it because her faith and the moment demanded it.

Before Charlie’s death, Erika was largely known within Christian and conservative circles. She ran a clothing brand, Proclaim Streetwear, led BIBLEin365, and hosted the “Midweek Rise Up” podcast, all while raising their children and supporting Charlie in his work at Turning Point USA.

“I was Charlie’s confidante. I was his vault, his closest and most trusted adviser, his best friend,” she said at his memorial. “I poured into him and loved him so deeply, empowered him, because his love for me drove me to be a better wife.”

Compare that to the culture’s role models: women who flaunt their bodies, reject motherhood, and redefine empowerment as self-worship. At the Grammy Awards this year, Bianca Censori wore nothing but a sheer dress that fully exposed her body — a display heralded by the media as “bold,” but more accurately described as a humiliation paraded as liberation.

How far have we fallen, when being a godly wife and mother is seen as weakness, while degrading yourself publicly is considered power?

Spiritual war

This is the spiritual battle we are facing. The pagan threat is real — and Erika Kirk stands as a holy contradiction to it.

She is not just a grieving widow. She is a modern-day Deborah. A Proverbs 31 woman. A warrior in the fire.

At a Turning Point USA event earlier this year, Erika issued a challenge:

After you leave here, please go confuse the culture. Confuse the crap out of it. … Do not conform to it. Let them stare at you. Let them write the meanest Instagram comments. Let them wonder. Let them whisper. … Because that’s just noise. Build your family. Go raise a family. Go build a life of holy defiance. Go love your husband. Go love your babies. Go teach your children how to blaze a trail of glory. Go lead in truth, and go be the light.

This is exactly what we need — holy defiance. A new generation of women who aren’t afraid to embrace their God-given roles. Women who don’t need the culture’s validation because they have God’s calling.

And Erika wasn’t done. At Charlie’s memorial, she challenged both women and men with a call to biblical courage.

“Women, I have a challenge for you too: Be virtuous. Our strength is found in God’s design for our role. We are the guardians. We are the encouragers. We are the preservers,” she said. “Guard your heart; everything you do flows from it. And if you’re a mother, please recognize that is the single most important ministry you have.

“To all the men watching around the world — accept Charlie’s challenge and embrace true manhood. Be strong and courageous for your families. Love your wives and lead them. Love your children and protect them. Be the spiritual head of your home, but please be a leader worth following,” she said. “Your wife is not your servant. Your wife is not your employee. Your wife is not your slave. She is your helper. You are not rivals; you are one flesh working together for the glory of God.”

This is the antidote to cultural decay: biblical men and women who refuse to bow to the false gods of modernity and recognize that our design is divine. That submission to God is not weakness but strength. That humility is not shameful but honorable. That motherhood is not bondage but ministry.

Holy defiance

As we face the growing pagan threat in America, we must raise up more Erika Kirks — women of fire-tested faith, uncompromising in truth, fearless in love, and grounded in scripture.

The culture is watching. And in Erika, people are seeing something they can’t explain: a woman standing in the ashes of atrocity, radiant with hope. A woman of grace. A woman of gospel power.

A woman the culture tried to erase — but couldn’t.

​Erika kirk, Christianity, Feminism, Biblical motherhood, Christian, Charlie kirk, Jesus christ, Faith 

The horrifying case of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska — in which the young woman was brutally stabbed to death by a career criminal on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina — is unfortunately just one of many.

“I’d like to tell you about another woman who I don’t think got the same coverage, but should have — Logan Federico. She was brutally murdered, shot to death back in May in South Carolina,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales reports.

“This was a repeat offender who allegedly broke into the house that she was in, dragged her out of bed, and murdered her in cold blood,” she adds.

“We’re talking about a guy, Alexander Dickey, who was arrested 39 times, okay, in 10 years. You know, 25 felonies. And I keep saying this. I mean, he was committing more crimes on average a year than most people do in a lifetime,” Stephen Federico, Logan’s father, tells Gonzales.

“But for him to only spend a little over 600 days in prison in 10 years — he’s only 30 years old. He started his crime spree when he was 15,” he explains.

And while there’s no getting his daughter back, Federico does believe there’s a way to prevent more murders like hers.

“I think you kind of have to reboot. I think you have to reboot the DA, the solicitor process altogether, and who’s cutting deals, who’s qualified to cut the deals. That includes judges. I think we need to reboot it and start from scratch,” he says.

“I’m sure there’s some really good magistrate judges out there. I’m sure there really are. But I think we have to start from the beginning,” he adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Iryna zarutska, Logan federico, Say her name, Alexander dickey, Decarlos brown jr, Criminal justice system, Criminal justice reform, Soft on crime 

Pennsylvania police said a 61-year-old man shot and killed a woman and her husband because she wouldn’t leave her husband for him. He then allegedly killed their 1-year-old son as well.

Police said the remains of 32-year-old Junior Cabrera-Colon were found in a wooded area near basketball courts on River Road in the town of Reading on Sept. 13. They determined that he was killed in a fight with Jose Rodriguez of Leesport.

Police said the car stayed at the spot for about 35 minutes before going to a nearby muddy marsh.

When police reached out to the man’s family, they indicated that they had not heard from his wife, 31-year-old Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, since Sept. 12 at about 8:30 p.m.

Using cellphone data gained through a search warrant, police were able to determine that the phone had been in a remote industrial location 7 miles from her home and had not moved since Sept. 12 at about 9:42 p.m.

On Sept. 19, police found her decomposed body on an access road off East Huller Lane.

Police said they found a child’s pacifier near the body but could not locate her child, Jeydon Junior Peguero.

Surveillance video obtained by police showed the woman and her child getting into a car registered to Rodriguez at 8:26 p.m. on Sept. 12. Rodriguez initially admitted to picking her up but claimed to have dropped them off safely.

Cellphone records, however, showed that he had driven to Reading, then to a wholesale club. Video surveillance showed the car turning at about 9 p.m. onto the access road where the woman’s body was found. Police said the car stayed at the spot for about 35 minutes before going to a nearby muddy marsh.

That’s where they found the body of the child.

RELATED: Wife and son helped father dismember man’s body with a chainsaw after a lethal poker game, police say

Rodriguez then allegedly confessed to killing the woman and said that he had done so because she did not want to leave her husband for him.

“This infuriated the defendant,” police explained in the affidavit. Rodriguez said she was constantly taking his money and that he had helped her pay for her apartment.

He also admitted to tossing the 1-year-old in a “lake.” Police said the child was found face down in the marsh, and an autopsy determined he drowned in the mud.

“The defendant confirmed that Jeydon was alive when he threw him face down into the muddy water,” District Attorney John Adams said.

Rodriguez showed police where he hid her purse and cell phone, and also led them to where he stashed the murder weapon.

He was denied bail and is being detained at the Berks County Prison. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder as well as abuse of a corpse.

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On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stood at the podium at the Global Progressive Action Conference in London and made an announcement that should send a chill down the spine of anyone who loves liberty. By the end of this Parliament, he promised, every worker in the U.K. will be required to hold a “free-of-charge” digital ID. Without it, Britons will not be able to work.

No digital ID, no job.

The government is introducing a system that punishes law-abiding citizens by tying their right to work to a government-issued pass.

Starmer framed this as a commonsense response to poverty, climate change, and illegal immigration. He claimed Britain cannot solve these problems without “looking upstream” and tackling root causes. But behind the rhetoric lies a policy that shifts power away from individuals and places it squarely in the hands of government.

Solving the problem they created

This is progressivism in action. Leaders open their borders, invite in mass illegal immigration, and refuse to enforce their own laws. Then, when public frustration boils over, they unveil a prepackaged “solution” — in this case, digital identity — that entrenches government control.

Britain isn’t the first to embrace this system. Switzerland recently approved a digital ID system. Australia already has one. The World Economic Forum has openly pitched digital IDs as the key to accessing everything from health care to bank accounts to travel. And once the infrastructure is in place, digital currency will follow soon after, giving governments the power to track every purchase, approve or block transactions, and dictate where and how you spend your money.

All of your data — your medical history, insurance, banking, food purchases, travel, social media engagement, tax information — would be funneled into a centralized database under government oversight.

The fiction of enforcement

Starmer says this is about cracking down on illegal work. The BBC even pressed him on the point, asking why a mandatory digital ID would stop human traffickers and rogue employers who already ignore national insurance cards. He had no answer.

Bad actors will still break the law. Bosses who pay sweatshop wages under the table will not suddenly check digital IDs. Criminals will not line up to comply. This isn’t about stopping illegal immigration. If it were, the U.K. would simply enforce existing laws, close the loopholes, and deport those working illegally.

Instead, the government is introducing a system that punishes law-abiding citizens by tying their right to work to a government-issued pass.

Control masked as compassion

This is part of an old playbook. Politicians claim their hands are tied and promise that only sweeping new powers will solve the crisis. They selectively enforce laws to maintain the problem, then use the problem to justify expanding control.

RELATED: Europe pushes for digital ID to help ‘crack down’ on completely unrelated problems

Photo by Flavio Coelho via Getty Images

If Britain truly wanted to curb illegal immigration, it could. It is an island. The Channel Tunnel has clear entry points. Enforcement is not impossible. But a digital ID allows for something far more valuable to bureaucrats than border security: total oversight of their own citizens.

The American warning

Think digital ID can’t happen here? Think again. The same arguments are already echoing in Washington, D.C. Illegal immigration is out of control. Progressives know voters are angry. When the digital ID pitch arrives, it will be wrapped in patriotic language about fairness, security, and compassion.

But the goal isn’t compassion. It’s control — of your movement, your money, your speech, your future.

We don’t need digital IDs to enforce immigration law. We need leaders with the courage to enforce existing law. Until then, digital ID schemes will keep spreading, sold as a cure for the very problems they helped create.

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​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Keir starmer, Digital id, Central bank digital currency, Digital currency, Surveillance, Big tech, Big brother, Social credit system, Privacy, Switzerland, Great britain, Australia, Employment, Jobs, Illegal immigration, Climate change, Parliament 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League after many criticized the ADL for listing Turning Point USA as a hate group.

The ADL shut down a “Glossary of Extremism” over the backlash on Tuesday in response to heavy criticism on social media after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

‘That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.’

FBI Director Kash Patel referenced an address from former FBI Director James Comey to the Anti-Defamation League National Leadership Summit in 2017, where he literally expressed his love for the organization.

“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them — a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” he wrote on social media. “That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”

He added in a statement to Fox News Digital, “That was not law enforcement; it was activism dressed up as counterterrorism, and it put Americans in danger.”

The ADL told Reuters that it had taken note of Patel’s statement and added that the organization “has deep respect” for the FBI.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk entered the fray and criticized the ADL.

“The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is … a hate group,” he posted on the X platform Sunday.

“The @ADL has become a far left hate propaganda machine,” he added.

RELATED: Jewish groups call out TV host Nick Cannon for defending Louis Farrakhan and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracies

In January, the ADL defended Musk from accusations that he had made a Nazi salute gesture during a rally for the second inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. The group was criticized by Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York over its statement of support for Musk.

Musk previously accused the ADL of costing X ad revenue by demanding social media accounts be suspended for language it deemed offensive or extremist.

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If anyone who questioned the official narrative during the pandemic recalls feeling as if the truth was being rewritten and as if the thoughts they shared via social media on any pressing matters were being throttled by a force greater than just the social media platform — then they’d be right.

In a relentless pursuit of the truth, Matt Kibbe and Matt Taibbi have uncovered blatant collusion between former president Biden’s government and Big Tech during the COVID-19 pandemic to censor the accounts of Americans, including Charlie Kirk, Libs of TikTok, and Dan Bongino, among others.

“The revelation that the FBI and other security agencies were putting direct pressure on social media sites to censor speech was a bombshell. This wasn’t just cowardly CEOs acting on their own,” Kibbe says on “Muckraker,” episode 5 of “The Coverup.” “This was the government clamping down to enforce a narrative in flagrant violation of the First Amendment.”

“And it’s something that’s been going on for years,” he explains, before revealing email proof of the FBI setting up a meeting with Twitter in 2020.

In one email from the FBI, the agency acknowledges the importance of free speech, before asking the social media platform to share any information “indicating malign foreign actors pivoting to any messaging discussing these current events on your platforms.”

“So, they’re basically saying, ‘Yeah, we know speech about the George Floyd stuff is constitutionally protected, but if you think any of it might be, like, Russian influenced or whatever, can you just let us know?’” Taibbi explains.

Taibbi points out that the Global Engagement Center, which was founded via an executive order in Obama’s last year as president, was a counterterrorism organization that initially went after “Arab language tweets” and ISIS recruits.

“After Trump got elected, they started getting interested in all kinds of other topics, and then very soon, they were interested in domestic speech. They’ll deny that. But that’s what they were doing,” Taibbi says.

Taibbi, who published the “Twitter Files,” found that in addition to voices like Charlie Kirk, even Stanford epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya — who is now the NIH Director — was among those blacklisted and shadow banned.

Taibbi discovered through working alongside a Twitter executive who was ordered by Elon Musk to cooperate with him that Bhattacharya was on a “trends blacklist,” which was visible to some of those who worked for Twitter but not the users themselves.

“It’s sort of like when you’re in Twitter and you want to see a quick summarized readout of what’s going on with an individual customer. Well, they had a thing where you could see the name, and then there would be a bunch of color-coded things on the page,” Taibbi explains.

On Bhattacharya’s page, he recalls that there was a “big box that says, ‘Trends Blacklist.’”

On Kirk’s page, it read, “Do Not Amplify.”

“That was how we discovered that there was indeed shadow banning. What a ‘trends blacklist’ meant was that this account could never trend on Twitter. And it was one of hundreds of things that they could do to your account to deamplify it,” he says.

“The health bureaucracies were involved in content moderation in a pretty intimate way,” he adds.

Tune in to episode 5 of “The CoverUp,” as Kibbe and Taibbi unravel the pandemic industrial complex, exposing how federal health agencies and Big Tech prolonged lockdowns, fueled fear, and hid the government’s role in the creation of the virus.

To watch episode 5 of “The Coverup” or binge the whole series, go to FauciCoverup.com.

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Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York have constantly claimed that the government shutdown has nothing to do with health care provided to illegal aliens, but one finally admitted the truth.

Republicans have used the accusations to hammer Democrats in the media, but Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California said during an interview that the issue was indeed part of the disagreement.

‘The state of California, colluding with insurance companies who cover Medicaid beneficiaries, has created … a money-laundering scheme that results in California obtaining more than $19 billion in federal money.’

“The amount of money that actually is going towards people that are undocumented is such a small portion of the Medicaid cuts or the Affordable Care Act, if at all,” Khanna said in an interview on Fox News.

“And so we can argue that point, but the reality that even the vice president would acknowledge, that anyone who looks at the numbers will acknowledge, is 90 to 95% of the funding we’re talking about is talking about funding for American citizens,” he added.

Video of the interview was widely circulated on social media.

Schumer claimed that illegal aliens could not receive Obamacare benefits at all by law.

“Let me be perfectly clear: Undocumented people CANNOT AND WILL NOT receive ACA premium tax credits BY LAW. PERIOD,” Schumer wrote on social media. “This is a LIE from Republicans to divert attention from their shutdown. Republicans are refusing to lower healthcare costs for the American people.”

One assessment estimated that as much as $23.1 billion of federal taxpayer money went toward providing health care to illegal aliens in the U.S.

RELATED: FACT-CHECK: Yes, US taxpayers fund health care for illegal aliens

Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Another report said that California was exploiting a loophole in the medical system to have the federal government reimburse billions of dollars to be paid for Medicare for illegal aliens.

“The state of California, colluding with insurance companies who cover Medicaid beneficiaries, has created one of the most outrageous ones yet,” reads the report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center, “a money-laundering scheme that results in California obtaining more than $19 billion in federal money without any state contribution over the period from April 2023 through December 2026.”

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A Trump administration official said in a call to Republicans that the mass firings of federal employees would begin “in a day or two” of the government shutdown.

Russ Vought, the chief of the Office of Management and Budget, made the comments in a private call, according to four sources who were on the call and spoke to Politico anonymously.

‘We believe that layoffs are imminent. They are unfortunately a consequence of this government shutdown.’

Vought reportedly said that if the shutdown continued, pay for active members of the military would be threatened, as well as money for WIC, a nutrition program for low-income moms and children. He added that billions of dollars for infrastructure spending for New York are being reviewed.

“He was surprisingly vague on everything,” one of the sources said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said during Wednesday’s media briefing that the layoffs were imminent.

“Unfortunately, because the Democrats shut down the government, the president has directed his cabinet, and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can me made,” Leavitt said. “And we believe that layoffs are imminent. They are unfortunately a consequence of this government shutdown.”

Vice President JD Vance joined the media briefing and excoriated Democrats.

“If they’re so worried about the effect this is having on the American people, and they should be, what they should do is reopen the government,” Vance said. “Not complain about how we respond to the fact that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have shut down the government in the first place.”

RELATED: Vance makes Jeffries a hilarious promise if Democrats end the shutdown

The government shut down at midnight on the morning of October 1 after Congress was unable to agree on a budget resolution.

Democrats have tried to place the blame of the government shutdown on Republicans.

“It’s October 1st, and it’s the first day of Donald Trump’s government shutdown,” Schumer wrote on social media. “Donald Trump and Republicans have barreled us into a shutdown because they refused to protect Americans healthcare.”

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On Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow announced the results of Operation Twin Shield. The operation — a targeted immigration and citizenship enforcement effort in Minneapolis and St. Paul — found that nearly 50% of cases involved immigration fraud.

Fraud cases included marriage fraud, H-1B visa abuses, forged documents, and “people claiming to work at businesses that can’t be found.” The operation, which ran September 19-28, included over 1,000 site visits across the metroplex. Edlow said the operation uncovered systemic issues with various immigration programs.

‘What we found should shock all of America.’

One notable example was the Uniting for Ukraine program, an initiative created by the Biden administration to “welcome 100,000 Ukrainian citizens and others forced to flee their homes in Ukraine.” The program allowed “U.S.-based individuals and entities” to sponsor Ukrainians for entry. According to Edlow, ICE and its partners uncovered “troubling patterns with the program that should have raised serious concerns.”

Issues with the Uniting for Ukraine program included one individual filing to sponsor over 100 people and companies filing to sponsor hundreds. Under a Biden administration directive, people brought into the country under this program were eligible to stay in the U.S. for up to two years and could apply to stay longer. They were also automatically authorized to work while in the U.S.

REALATED: ‘War from within’: ICE agents descend from helicopters to nab suspected TDA gangsters in Chicago apartment

Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Contributor via Getty Images

In addressing the fraud and other systemic issues uncovered by Operation Twin Shield, Edlow emphasized the magnitude of the issue: “What we found should shock all of America. … Every case of fraud we uncover damages our national security.” He went on to say that systemic issues and abuses like those uncovered by the operation degrade the integrity of the immigration system as a whole.

Minneapolis has been at the center of the immigration debate in recent years, following a surge in immigration — particularly from Somalia — under President Joe Biden and Democrat Governor Tim Walz. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), whose district encompasses most of Minneapolis, is a Somali immigrant. Allegations of potential immigration fraud have put her in the spotlight in recent months.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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Pete Hegseth’s new title is “secretary of war,” and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales doesn’t think the name could be more fitting for the administration’s departure from woke nonsense and focus on masculinity in the military, calling it “totally badass.”

And after he laid out the administration’s plans for the military, Hegseth proved that he — and Trump’s military — fit the new title perfectly.

“This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris,” Hegseth said.

But Hegseth didn’t stop there, also addressing the health of men and women in the military.

“This is not about preventing women from serving. We very much value the impact of female troops.

“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender-neutral. If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” he said.

“It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify, because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death,” he added.

Gonzales couldn’t be happier with the Trump administration’s stance on the military, saying that anyone who “feels like this is controversial” deserves to “be laughed off the face of the planet.”

“This should not be controversial. It is not personal. It is just business. The military has one job: to be really strong and really good at protecting our country. That’s it. There’s no time for personal debate or upset feelings about it,” Gonzales says.

“It’s despicable what the Biden regime turned our military into,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

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