Category: blaze media

The ruling class trades in carbon outrage like it’s gold. Sanctimony fuels its crusade against oil, gas, and coal — never mind that those very fuels built the modern world. The comforts we take for granted — from longer lives and stocked shelves to clean water and lifesaving medicine — all trace back to the energy abundance that hydrocarbons made possible.

Still, the decarbonization faithful press forward. They dream of a carbon-free Eden, even as the global power grid, still humming on fossil fuels, refuses to cooperate.

Critics keep forecasting a shift away from fossil fuels. Reality keeps proving them wrong.

You won’t find a clearer contradiction than in the Yuxi Circle.

Draw a circle with a 2,485-mile radius around the southern Chinese city of Yuxi. British geographer Alasdair Rae did just that — and inside it resides 55% of the world’s population: some 4.3 billion people crammed into just 7% of Earth’s surface. The region includes China, India, much of Southeast Asia, and parts of Pakistan. Some of it — like the Tibetan Plateau and the Taklamakan Desert — is barren. But the rest is packed with cities, factories, and the aspirations of hundreds of millions clawing their way toward modern life.

Why does this matter? Because this region now anchors the world’s biggest fight over energy, growth, and climate policy.

While bureaucrats in Brussels sip espresso and activists glue themselves to the pavement in London, the real action plays out in Asia’s economic engine. In cities like Shanghai, Delhi, and Tokyo, energy demand soars — and fossil fuels do the heavy lifting. Coal and gas plants keep the lights on, while wind and solar trail far behind.

China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. India burns more than the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom combined. The 10 ASEAN countries rank third. Oil use tells the same story: China and India sit alongside the U.S. atop the global leaderboard of consumption. Economic growth, it turns out, runs not on hashtags but on hydrocarbons.

Critics keep forecasting a shift away from fossil fuels. Reality keeps proving them wrong.

Hundreds of millions in the Yuxi Circle are still striving for what Westerners call a “decent life.” That means refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioning — and with them, a dramatic spike in electricity demand.

RELATED: Climate orthodoxy punishes the West

Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

For context: The average American consumes 77,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year. The average Indian uses a 10th of that. A Bangladeshi? Just 3% of what the average Norwegian consumes.

Now multiply that gap by a population of billions, and you begin to understand what’s coming.

The living room revolution is only the start. An industrial boom is building behind it — factories, office towers, and shopping malls all hungry for electricity. The coming surge in energy use across the Yuxi Circle will make the West’s climate targets look like a quaint relic of the past.

In this part of the world, the green fantasy runs headfirst into human need. Wind and solar can’t meet the moment. Coal, oil, and gas can — and do.

Just as they did for the West, these fuels now power the rise of the rest. And no amount of Western guilt or climate alarm will change that.

​Opinion & analysis, Climate change, Climate alarmism, Greenpeace, Environmentalism, Yuxi circle, China, India, Southeast asia, Asean, Decarbonization, Carbon, Nuclear power, Wind energy, Fossil fuels, Civilization, United states, The west, Solar power, European union, United kingdom, Pakistan 

Americans sent a clear message to the swamp after President Donald Trump swept all seven swing states and secured the popular vote in November. Since then, the MAGA base was promised an administration staffed with change agents eager to uproot the political establishment in Washington, D.C.

The winning streak continued after Kash Patel was successfully confirmed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both of whom have been allies to the president. Patel and Bongino also shared a common mission going into the FBI: The status quo isn’t working.

‘If you embarrass that community, you will be ostracized.’

Now five months into Patel’s tenure, several former agents and FBI whistleblowers described how their optimism has faded into disappointment.

“Kash Patel and Dan Bongino both used to consistently call for dismantling the FBI, or at minimum, for a massive restructuring of it,” one FBI whistleblower told Blaze News. “The latest revelations only bolster the position that the FBI has become a secret police organization. Yet, there has been no mention of the criminal charges against FBI employees involved in this gross miscarriage of truth and justice. There has been no mention whatsoever of any form of punishment for those involved.”

RELATED: 1,004 days of betrayal for suspended FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle

Photo by Calla Kessler for the Washington Post via Getty Images

“Like most of the FBI’s known corruption, cover-ups, and illegal activities in recent years, these revelations began with yet another whistleblower,” he added. “Only then did the FBI ‘leadership’ discover how deep the corruption surrounding this election interference was. Still, no whistleblower has been vindicated, reinstated, promoted, or provided back pay and damages under the ‘new’ FBI.”

Other whistleblowers like Marcus Allen share this sentiment, saying the bureau is beyond help.

“Attempts to salvage the FBI are a fool’s errand,” Allen told Blaze News. “Its reputation is damaged beyond repair. It has lost the public trust and proven itself to be an enemy of the American people and rightfully elected American governance.”

Allen previously worked in the FBI’s Charlotte field office before he was abruptly put on unpaid leave for challenging the official narrative surrounding the January 6 protests. After being branded a conspiracy theorist, Allen was eventually given his security clearance back by former President Joe Biden’s administration and was awarded back pay as part of a settlement with the FBI. Allen later resigned from the bureau.

“They know when they have been abandoned,” Steve Baker, investigative reporter for Blaze News, said. “When they speak out, that goes against the culture of the FBI. It goes against the intelligence community at large. If you embarrass that community, you will be ostracized.”

Clint Brown, who worked closely alongside Patel during his Senate confirmation process, pushed back on critics, noting that Kash has been heading the bureau for only five short months.

“Kash is an extremely methodical person and very strategic,” Brown told Blaze News. “He is going to work through everything methodically and in the right way. Not everything is a narrative. Not everything has a quick fix. We’re living in the real world.”

“The former leadership may have tarnished it’s own reputation, but they’re the institution that exists to catch the bad guys, and they still have to do that while fixing the place,” Brown added.

RELATED: Kash Patel’s surprising appointment of a top J6 inquisitor to head DC FBI office

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

While continuing to “catch the bad guys,” Patel has also lead the popular crusade against former Director Christopher Wray, which many current and former agents have championed.

Patel announced Tuesday that the bureau uncovered evidence of Wray lying to Congress about China’s involvement in influencing the 2020 election. These findings also detail how the agency “recalled” a report that contradicted Wray’s testimony under oath to Congress denying China’s involvement.

“There are a dozen other people that we could put in the perp walk parade,” Baker told Blaze News. “But the guy that needs to lead the parade is Christopher Wray.”

This evidence is just the latest piece of a larger puzzle implicating the former FBI leadership for working to influence the 2020 election. Whether it’s coordinating with social media monopolies like Facebook to promote one party over the other or censoring the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story, all signs suggest the FBI was involved.

“To date, this is unequivocally the worst example of FBI election interference,” Steve Friend, another FBI whistleblower, told Blaze News. “The Steele dossier and censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop were abhorrent attempts to smear Donald Trump’s reputation and deter voters from his camp. However, this latest revelation that the FBI covered for a foreign adversary to stuff ballots for Joe Biden strains all bounds of credulity and requires an honest conversation about whether the FBI should be dissolved.”

“Disgraced FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate knew this,” Phil Kennedy, a whistleblower and former FBI agent, said in a post on X. “He was the executive who allegedly said, ‘FBI employees who question the bureau’s handling of January 6-related cases can seek employment elsewhere.’ He helped hide the crime and then imprisoned Americans demanding answers.”

Patel has also led a broader effort to decentralize D.C.’s influence in the bureau and empower local field offices to continue doing the day-to-day work that impacts communities.

“As far as reforms in the FBI, there’s been a restructuring in the organization, and it’s still ongoing,” Brown told Blaze News. “Agents have been moved out to the field, and this is all part of reorganizing the FBI over the long term and doing it methodically.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Oversight Project refers former FBI Director Wray to DOJ for criminal charges

Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

While some former agents believe that the new leadership is a step in the right direction, other whistleblowers say the bureau remains unchanged, forever being driven by the status quo.

“The FBI has demonstrated an unwillingness and inability to understand the complexities of corruption within the FBI writ large and the simplicities of emergent national security and public safety threats,” one whistleblower and former DHS employee told Blaze News.

“The new FBI deputy director has told Americans this is ‘our FBI,'” Kyle Seraphin, another FBI whistleblower, told Blaze News. “It turns out, ‘our FBI’ is the same FBI it was last year: deceptive, duplicitous, and functioning on operational morality. The FBI serves the FBI, polishes the reputation of the FBI, and exists to prop up the legend of the FBI. Americans can see the results — promises without production, press releases instead of probable cause to arrest, and backroom document deals instead of disinfecting sunshine. The status quo is ‘cutesy time,’ and it is unquestionably continuing.”

Although critics insist the culture remains unchanged, Brown says Patel was the right choice to push for a change. In order to successfully restore integrity to the bureau, Brown argues that Patel needs both time and trust from the rank-and-file agents.

“Kash is the guy that exposed the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax,” Brown told Blaze News. “He did it methodically, and the president knows that.”

“The other thing is he picked the guy who’s going to relate to the brick agents,” Brown added. “Trump’s philosophy, whether it’s FBI or DOD, he said the same thing about Pete Hegseth, is that he wants people who are doing the job to feel like they have a leader who understands them. So Kash has to earn trust within the FBI, while having to expose, methodically, while also having to catch bad guys, in order to reform the FBI. Without their trust, they’re not going to follow your leadership to fix things.”

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

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​Fbi, Kash patel, Dan bongino, Christopher wray, Donald trump, Joe biden, Government weaponization, Maga mandate, Fbi whistleblower, Marcus allen, January 6, Capitol riots, Steve baker, 2020 election, Election interference, Hunter biden laptop, Steve friend, Phil kennedy, Kyle seraphin, Establishment, Washington dc, The swamp, Politics 

The Supreme Court last week delivered not just a legal decision but a resounding moral affirmation: Children deserve protection from online pornography.

For decades, I’ve been told that “free speech” includes the right to exploit. I’ve watched Big Porn hide behind the First Amendment like a shield, as if this billion-dollar industry, built on addiction, abuse, and shattered innocence, was a sacred American institution. But on Friday, in upholding Texas’ pornography age-verification law, the court drew a line in the sand.

For children, exposure to pornographic material isn’t a neutral event. It reshapes the brain. It numbs empathy. It seeds confusion, fear, and addiction.

And I say: Thank God.

As the brother of a child survivor of sexual exploitation, I know firsthand the consequences of a culture that normalizes sexual harm. I know what it’s like when an industry like porn sees children as commodities. I’ve seen too many young people stumble into the world of violent, degrading content with nothing more than a click. No gatekeepers. No warnings. No protection.

That ended last week.

Texas’ age-verification law was never about silencing speech. It was about defending the voiceless and restoring the most basic responsibility we have as a society: to guard our children from harm.

That’s why my team at Jaco Booyens Ministries joined this case as a friend of the court. Our team submitted a brief to the Supreme Court that shared the lived experiences of survivors, the neurological science on childhood trauma, and the irrefutable consequences of exposure to online pornography.

As our brief stated in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton: “There is no liberty in trauma. There is no freedom in addiction. When minors are exposed to pornography, they are not exercising constitutional rights, they are being wounded by the unchecked rights of others.”

Still, the porn industry screamed “censorship.” Companies sued, claiming this was a violation of their “rights.” But what about our children’s right not to be harmed? What about the parents fighting to keep predators out of their homes?

The court acknowledged what every honest parent already knows: Access to this kind of content isn’t harmless. It isn’t “education.” It is psychological, emotional, and spiritual violence. During oral arguments, Justice Amy Coney Barrett captured the heart of the issue when she asked, “Why should it be so easy for a 12-year-old to access this kind of material online, when we all know it can be incredibly damaging?”

That wasn’t a rhetorical flourish; it was a recognition of truth.

For children, exposure to pornographic material isn’t a neutral event. It reshapes the brain. It numbs empathy. It seeds confusion, fear, and addiction. I can no longer pretend this is just about speech. This is about harm. Real harm. And the court, at long last, chose to see it.

RELATED: Supreme Court slaps down Big Porn — putting kids before profit

Photo by Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

I can’t change what happened to my sister. But I can fight to make sure it doesn’t happen to someone else. I can help protect the next generation. I can work to make it harder for exploitation to find its way into our living rooms, our schools, our smartphones. I can help make justice more than just a word. I can help make it action.

To the justices who stood with us: Thank you. You did not bow to corporate pressure. You honored the Constitution as a document of liberty, not license. You remembered that freedom must be rooted in truth, and the truth is that unrestricted pornography destroys lives.

This victory isn’t just for Texas; it’s a win for every child in America. It sends a clear message to every state in this nation: You have the power to protect your children. You can draw the line. You don’t have to wait for permission. And beyond our borders, this ruling sends a powerful global signal: I still believe — and I know many others do too — that children are worth protecting, that their innocence is not up for sale, and their safety is not negotiable.

Let this ruling be a turning point — for our families, for our faith, for our future.

​Opinion & analysis, Pornography, Porn addiction, Pornhub, Pornography ban, Free speech coalition v. paxton, Supreme court, Human trafficking, Exploitation, Abuse, Amy coney barrett, Freedom of speech, Truth, Brain, Jaco booyens, Texas, Ken paxton 

Contrary to some beliefs, Muslim and Islamist are not synonymous terms.

Muslims, as it relates to those living in Europe and America, says Times of London columnist and author Melanie Phillips, are peaceful and “absolutely fine” to live among because they “have completely signed up to Western values” in that they “appreciate the freedoms of democracy and equality of women.”

“That’s indeed why they have chosen to live in the West,” says Phillips. Islamists, on the other hand, are “people who are of the view that Islam is a political project” that aims to “impose Islam on the non-Islamic and not-Islamic-enough.” Theirs “is a doctrine of religious fanaticism; they believe they have a literally sacred duty — a god-imposed duty — to convert the entire world to Islam.”

“I would compare [an Islamist] to a communist or a fascist Nazi” in that “it is their way or the highway,” says Glenn Beck.

It is Islamists, not peaceful Muslims, who have become one of the biggest obstacles currently facing the West — especially in Britain, where progressive immigration policies have drastically altered the demographics.

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn and Melanie candidly discussed Britain’s not-so-gradual edging towards an Islamic takeover.

“One of the problems of the West,” says Phillips, “has been that it views [Islamists] like everybody else in the world.” But this is a faulty view because they’re not like everyone else, hence why Islamist “suicide bombers blow themselves to smithereens” — “ecstatic that they are doing the work of God.”

“These are people with whom you cannot negotiate,” she says.

Further, “the dominant religious authorities in the world of Islam are all committed to this jihadi outlook — this belief that the non-Islamic world has to be converted to Islam,” which is another way of saying that they’re “out to destroy the free world,” Phillips explains.

But the West has turned a blind eye to this reality — and worse, British governments, including the current Labor Party, but also the Conservative Party that preceded it, have pushed the dogmatic idea that “the West cannot assert its superiority over any other culture [because] to do so is racist, and therefore, you cannot criticize the world of Islam” because it’s “Islamophobic.”

Even when Islamist-perpetrated terrorist attacks and hate crimes occur, these governments will push the narrative that “there’s nothing Islamic about [them]”; they’re just generic “extremism.”

Similar to the the United States, which sees left-wing administrations and advocacy groups partnering with the suspected terrorist organization Council on American-Islamic Relations, Britain, says Phillips, allows for “Muslim Brotherhood-funded groups” and “charities,” in which the people involved “adhere to the teachings of the foundational characters of modern-day Islamism — political Islam, jihadi Islam.” Despite pleas for the government to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, the British government has been firm in keeping it off the list of designated terrorist organizations.

Glenn is fearful that if something isn’t done to stop the growing Islamism in the West, countries like England and America could very well end up like Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the country went from “Western and open and educated” to “putting their women in burkas.”

“How close to the edge is, let’s just say England, to real civil unrest?” he asks Phillips.

“Europe in general is extremely close to being submerged by all this, and so is Britain,” she answers candidly, noting that this isn’t her opinion but what demographic projections are showing.

Hope, however, has come in the form of populist parties that have emerged in Europe as a response to the Islamic cultural takeover.

“Although the elites — the political and cultural elites — have their heads firmly turned the other direction, nevertheless we’ve seen the rise of so-called populist parties in Britain and Europe,” many of which represent “millions of ordinary, decent people who want to live in a place that they feel is their homeland,” Phillips says.

“They want to feel pride in their nation; they want to feel that their nation’s historic values are being upheld,” she tells Glenn. These “people have felt completely abandoned and betrayed by the entire political establishment,” and that’s why “we’re seeing the rise of populists.”

“I think, therefore, through the democratic process, we’re going to see the election of people who are going to be much more robust,” she predicts.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Melanie phillips, England, Britain, Islamism, Islam, Muslims, West, Fall of the west, Islamic takever, Islamic terrorism 

By now, the trope of the “sad leftist” has become so popular that it’s essentially a meme. Multiple studies show leftists are, on average, far less happy than conservatives. That aligns with the experience of many who observe self-professed leftists exhibiting more anxiety, gloom, and hostility than others.

It’s not difficult to understand why. If your main news sources tell you the president is a fascist, half of your countrymen are bigots, and the world is about to end due to climate change, you’re bound to feel — and vote — blue. Yet, even in Democratic administrations, leftists never seemed content.

People latch onto progressive narratives because they offer someone to blame. That brings short-term relief, but it quickly fades.

This suggests the root of their discontent isn’t merely political messaging but something deeper. Rather, the ideas implicit in leftism seem antithetical to a happy life and human flourishing — even if well-intended. Leftists push for diversity, equity, and inclusion in place of meritocracy, support a more powerful state to implement those ideals, advocate open borders to globalize them, and demand wealth redistribution to fund them. In the sanitized and euphemistic language they often prefer, leftists are about fairness, progress, and kindness.

Sad people lean left

Nate Silver recently weighed in on the happiness gap between conservatives and progressives. His take? People might have it backward. It’s not that leftism makes people sad but that sad people gravitate toward leftism: “People become liberals because they’re struggling or oppressed themselves and therefore favor change and a larger role for government.”

If this is true, it still doesn’t explain why leftism is correlated with sadness and why it offers no remedy. Conservatives, for their part, offer a diagnosis and a cure: Leftism is foolish and destructive — so stop being a leftist. That’s the gist of Ben Shapiro’s infamous line, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”

While clever and catchy, this oversimplifies the problem. People who ascribe to liberal or leftist causes don’t merely do so because they prioritize feelings over facts. Yes, some are true believers, but most are reacting to powerful cultural pressures and personal struggles. These feed destructive habits that, in turn, make them more susceptible to leftist propaganda.

After all, the narratives that comprise leftist propaganda are easy to understand and adopt since they lay the blame of all society’s ills on someone else. People are poor because rich people exploit them; people of color are marginalized because white people are racists; queer people are depressed because straight people don’t accept them; third world countries are dysfunctional because Americans and Europeans meddled in their affairs too much or too little; and leftists are unpopular because Trump and other conservative populists are effective con men.

The media’s vicious cycle

These narratives not only offer paltry short-term solace — they breed resentment. Instead of directing their efforts to personal improvement, leftists are encouraged to push their anger outward — sometimes through direct violence (vandalism, looting, even political violence) and sometimes indirectly by cheering on those who perpetrate it. In this way, left-wing media weaponizes its audience.

Nevertheless, the principle motivation behind leftist propaganda is not necessarily weaponization. It’s monetization. Beyond adopting leftist narratives and positions, audiences need to continue consuming leftist media and become addicted to it.

RELATED: Breaking the ‘spell of woke possession’: Why America is choosing tradition

Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

As Georgetown professor and computer scientist Cal Newport explains in his book “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World,” society has now entered the era of the “attention economy,” where media companies do everything in their power to hold people’s attention — for forever. In conjunction with tech companies, these outlets turn otherwise healthy people into helpless junkies enslaved to the apps on their smartphones.

Like any addiction, this one feeds a destructive cycle. People latch onto progressive narratives because they offer someone to blame. That brings short-term relief, but it quickly fades. The need for comfort drives them to consume even more leftist content, which distorts their view of the world and fuels resentment. Anxiety deepens. Misery spreads.

As their emotional state deteriorates, they seek comfort in even more content. Eventually, this behavior sabotages their ability to function. They become dependent on the very content that made them feel worse in the first place. Many even join the performance, filming themselves crying, ranting, and broadcasting their despair for clicks.

Meanwhile, the titans of the attention economy grow wealthier and more powerful. They refine their algorithms, suppress dissent, and tighten their grip. The last thing they want is for their users to wake up — to take Newport’s advice, unplug, and rediscover meaning in the real world. They might just find happiness. And stop drifting left.

Model a different life

This presents an opportunity for conservatives hoping to transform the culture. The answer isn’t just a matter of advocating time-tested ideas but of modeling the habits that reinforce these ideas. Rather than view leftists as incorrigible scoundrels and idiots who refuse to open their eyes, conservatives should see them as unfortunate people who have been seduced, reduced, and enslaved by powerful corporate and government interests.

This means that conservatives should do more than offer political arguments — we must pull them away from the vicious cycle through modeling a better life. Leftists (and many on the online right, for that matter) must be reminded that being perpetually online and endlessly scrolling is a recipe for sadness. In contrast, church, family, friends, and meaningful work are what empower people. They are what make us human — and happy.

Once the cycle is broken — and the leftist has regained some control over himself — the case for conservatism becomes much easier. If Nate Silver is right that sad people gravitate to the left, then it’s only logical to assume happy people should be attracted to the right. Conservatives should cherish those values and habits that make them, on average, happier and more fulfilled. It’s time to stop drinking leftist tears and help them out of their malaise.

​Opinion & analysis, Leftism, Leftist, Progressives, Depression, Anxiety, Happiness, Donald trump, Fascism, Bigot, Memes, Climate change alarmism, Doom, Social media, Addiction, Nate silver, Cal newport, Racism, Sexism, Lgbtq agenda, Violence, Monetization, Weaponization, Democratic party, Republican party, Tiktok, Twitter, X, Algorithms, Wokeness 

I have an old friend who owns a lefty/progressive bookstore here in Portland. I was visiting him recently when he told me his son is entering high school next year. “He wants to go to Central Catholic,” he told me, with some concern. “His mother and I were shocked. I know you went to a Catholic high school. Why would he want to go there?”

I thought about this and quickly came to the obvious conclusion. His son is conservative. At least in terms of what kind of school he wants to go to.

It wasn’t like public school, where you were required to show respect to your teachers. These guys commanded respect. They were serious people.

All of the public schools in Portland are very progressive, very activist. So much so that they frequently veer off into “Portlandia” levels of absurdity.

My friend’s son probably understands that attending Central Catholic is his best chance to have a semi-normal, traditional high school experience.

I wasn’t sure how to break this news to my friend, so I mumbled something about Catholic schools having more structure and better academics and that “it might look better on his college applications.”

I was trying to let him down easy. But I understood the reasoning of his son. When I was his age, I did the same thing.

The tolerance trap

My middle school experience was also at a Portland public school. Even though that was decades ago, it was very much the same as it is today.

My family lived in an affluent district, so my school was full of smart, well-behaved, upper-middle-class kids. The teachers were some of the best in the city. The school was so highly rated that they bused in disadvantaged black kids from across town — to share the wealth, so to speak.

I loved this school. It had nice kids. Pretty girls. Permissive teachers. Lots of sports. We even had our own ski bus.

The only problem: I was a small, excitable, hyperactive kid. I tended to be a bit of a smart aleck and a class clown. I had already been held back a grade in elementary school because of my “immaturity.”

Of course, the teachers at my new school were tolerant of my behavior at first. That’s the kind of school it was. Very inclusive and forward-thinking in its educational philosophy. They were slow to punish and dealt with each child as an individual. We were “people,” not just students.

So how did I respond to this tolerant and accepting environment?

I became an even bigger smart aleck! I was disruptive. I got in trouble. I got in fights.

RELATED: Giving entrepreneurs an ‘EXIT’ from cancel culture

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Problem student

I was not aware that I was a problem student. I liked my classes. I got good grades. I was popular and even had a girlfriend.

But the teachers thought otherwise, so much so that halfway through eighth grade, they dragged me and both my parents into a special after-school conference to express their disapproval.

Every teacher and administrator in the school took turns describing my terrible behavior. I ran in the hallways. I threw someone’s pencil out the window. I picked up a girl and threatened to carry her into the boys’ bathroom.

I was surprised by how upset everyone was. I had no idea I was causing so much trouble. I thought I was being funny. I thought these teachers liked me!

Going Jesuit

That summer, with high school looming before me, my parents and I considered my options.

I could go to the public high school, where I might get into more trouble. Or I could go to Jesuit, an all-boys Catholic high school not far from where we lived. All I knew about Jesuit was that it was strict. And all boys. And priests taught you.

My family was not religious. And neither was I. But somehow it was decided that Jesuit was the better choice.

Years later, I asked my mother, “When did you decide to send me to Jesuit?”

“We didn’t decide,” she replied. “You wanted to go.”

Peace through hierarchy

I have vivid memories of my first day of school there. I was overwhelmed by the rowdy atmosphere in the hallways between classes. The roughness of it. The boy-ness of it.

There was a distinct male energy to the place and a kind of underlying threat of violence. Not actual violence. Nobody was going to hurt you. But there was a definite hierarchy that existed among the students. And it wasn’t negotiable.

As a freshman, you were at the bottom of the pecking order. This was not necessarily unfair, as everyone at the school had once been a freshman. So everyone had gone through the same process.

For me, this hierarchical structure had a calming effect. There was nothing you could do about it. And it helped you bond with the other freshmen.

All of us frosh suffered our various humiliations together. It was all very Classic American High School circa 1955. It was timeless in a way. And though the public school types might have considered it uncool or retrograde, I had no problem with it.

Boys to men

Another thing that struck me during those first days: the seriousness with which the school operated.

There were rules, and you followed them. The lay teachers were men. The priests were men. The administrators were (mostly) men. The principal was a man.

It wasn’t like public school, where you were required to show respect to your teachers. These guys commanded respect. They were serious people. One of our football coaches had briefly been a San Francisco 49er. My geometry teacher had flown helicopters in Vietnam.

Measurable distance

My social life was what suffered the most during my first year at Jesuit. The only girls we officially socialized with were the girls from the two all-girls Catholic schools.

There were dances and other activities to bring us together. These girls were not as slick and sophisticated as the girls at public school. Some of them appeared to be right off the farm. So there were often awkward encounters.

But it was still fun. And there was an innocence to it. And it was often hilarious. Like the nuns really did come around to check on you and make sure a measurable distance was maintained between the boys and the girls while slow dancing in the dark.

And best of all: If you embarrassed yourself with a girl on Friday night, she wouldn’t be sitting next to you at school on Monday morning.

Football, not feelings

The schoolwork was hard at Jesuit, but at the freshman level it was basic and rudimentary. You realized the teachers were not so much teaching you in an overly intellectual way. They were teaching you how to focus and concentrate and organize your time.

That was the real genius of the school: It took into account the reality of teenage boys. Oh, you have a lot of energy? You can’t sit still? You’re feeling aggressive?

Jesuit had sports for that. We had football. We had a weight room. The teachers and administrators didn’t worry about your feelings. Their strategy was to provide various ways for you to burn that adolescent energy and then keep you moving toward adulthood, where most of your problems would work themselves out on their own.

Refuge for the rambunctious

Catholic school was a perfect place for a kid like me. And yes, I remained a troublemaker. A class clown. An instigator of various escapades. But everybody expected that. The whole place was designed to withstand the rambunctious and destructive nature of teenage boys, to reroute that energy and put it to good use.

As it turned out, I never got in serious trouble there. Not for four years. No fights. No conferences with my parents. And since there were no girls to pick up and carry around, I never did that either.

No school like the old school

So I hope my friend’s son enjoys Central Catholic. It’s co-ed now, as is Jesuit, my old school. All-boys schools, it seems, have ceased to exist. So it’s probably a softer, gentler Catholic school than the version I saw.

But I’m sure it will still be a more uplifting experience for him than public school, where male energy is seen as toxic and boys are put on psych meds if they show any form of “willfulness.”

And what about “all-boys schools”? The concept seems unimaginable in our current times.

But I bet if they brought them back, a lot of boys would eagerly enroll. Even if they had to talk their parents into it.

​Catholic school, Boy’s life, All-boys school, Masculinity, Fighting, Lifestyle, Education, First person 

In a long-overdue reckoning, the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma have agreed to pay $7.4 billion as partial atonement for unleashing America’s opioid crisis. This historic settlement offers more than symbolic closure. If allocated wisely and aggressively, the funds could signal the beginning of the end for the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history.

Once fueled by prescription pills like OxyContin, the opioid crisis has evolved into something far deadlier. Illicit fentanyl and its analogs now kill more Americans ages 18 to 49 than any other cause. These drugs claim lives faster than guns, car crashes, or COVID-19 in many demographic groups. Children as young as 12 are overdosing on fentanyl-laced substances. The crisis isn’t looming — it’s already here.

We can’t afford to keep confusing addiction with criminality or leaning on obsolete tools while the chemistry of death evolves.

Fentanyl packs 50 times the potency of heroin and 100 times that of morphine. Just two milligrams — akin to a few grains of salt — can kill. Carfentanil, used to sedate elephants, is even more lethal. New synthetic opioids like nitazenes now appear in toxicology reports nationwide, catching users unaware. Xylazine, a veterinary sedative not approved for human use, is increasingly found in street drugs, leading to skin ulcers, amputations, and deaths that don’t respond to naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.

Yet harm reduction efforts lag behind. Most of the country relies on outdated, fragmented, and dangerously insufficient infrastructure. The system meant to save lives barely functions — just as the death toll keeps rising.

For years, America’s harm reduction efforts have stumbled through a maze of failures and contradictions. Even when available, fentanyl test strips often miss the mark, lacking the sensitivity to detect tiny — but still lethal — amounts. Many publicly funded programs still hand out tools that can’t catch analogs like carfentanil or nitazenes. Others depend on clunky, lab-grade machines only found in major cities, leaving rural and underserved communities wide open to catastrophe.

State laws make matters worse. In several places, outdated statutes still label drug-checking tools as “paraphernalia,” turning safety into a crime and criminalizing the very people trying to protect themselves and others.

RELATED: FBI director Kash Patel to Canada: Control your border

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The A47 test from the Fentanyl Test changes the game. These are the only commercially available tools that detect trace levels of fentanyl and its analogs — down to a single grain of salt. They also identify nitazenes, xylazine, carfentanil, and a growing list of synthetic poisons, all with speed, accuracy, and field-tested reliability.

This is beyond innovation. It’s lifesaving intervention at the molecular level.

To eradicate fentanyl poisonings, America needs a bold, coordinated strategy. That means universal access to ultra-sensitive testing kits like A47. It means decriminalizing drug-checking tools nationwide, building real-time data and distribution networks, and launching mass public education campaigns about synthetic opioid risks. State and federal governments must guarantee free access to testing in every community — rural and urban alike.

This plan doesn’t require trillions. A fraction of the Sackler settlement could fund it. What we can’t afford is to keep confusing addiction with criminality or leaning on obsolete tools while the chemistry of death evolves. The Sackler-Purdue deal isn’t just restitution — it’s a once-in-a-generation chance to build a system that saves lives before they need saving.

The choice is clear. The money is available. Now we need the courage to act.

​Opinion & analysis, Fentanyl, Sackler family, Purdue pharma, Opioid crisis, Overdose deaths, Overdose crisis, Morphine, Fentanyl deaths, Fentanyl test strips, Settlement payout, Drug epidemic 

Muslim socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani buried a nugget of anti-white sentiment in a part of his campaign platform that calls to fix the city’s property tax system.

“Shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods,” the proposal reads.

When he was questioned on the addition of “white” to the proposal, Mamdani doubled down.

“That is just a description of what we see right now. It’s not driven by race. It’s more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being undertaxed versus overtaxed,” Mamdani told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“We’ve seen time and again that this is a property tax system that is inequitable. It’s one that actually Eric Adams ran on, saying that he would change in the first 100 days,” he continued, adding that he’s “just naming things as they are” and wants to create “an equal playing field.”

“Could a white candidate for mayor or any political office say, ‘Hey, we’re going to police and target high crime black neighborhoods’? Could we say that on national TV without the internet and world melting?” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock asks Auron MacIntyre on “Jason Whitlock Harmony.”

“Of course not,” MacIntyre responds, adding, “But it’s exactly right. We know that there’s one way that you can talk about white people that you just can’t talk about any other race in America.”

“He’s just vocalizing something that’s been sitting in our universities, and increasingly our corporations, for a very long time. This is the ideology that has more or less ruled our elite culture for many generations at this point,” he continues, “And so now, these people are just kind of saying it out loud.”

“This builds up resentment. It builds up a lot of racial animus,” he adds.

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Elect strong conservative leaders in your state — or watch it go the way of New York City. That’s the unmistakable warning conservatives should take from New York voters nominating a Hamas sympathizer and self-proclaimed socialist for mayor.

How could this happen just one generation after 9/11? How does the city that suffered most from jihadist terrorism now embrace a foreign-born Islamist who wants to “globalize the intifada”?

When Trump calls for more farm labor from the third world — so long as the workers aren’t ‘murderers’ — he misses the deeper issue. Violent crime isn’t the only threat.

Several factors explain the city’s decline, but one stands out: immigration. Forty percent of New York City’s population now consists of foreign-born residents — not including the children of immigrants. Mass immigration on that scale, especially from Islamic and third world countries, doesn’t just change the labor market. It imports foreign values and embeds them in the culture.

Trump should think twice about demanding more foreign agricultural workers for red-state America. His arguments about labor shortages miss the larger picture. This isn’t just about harvesting crops — it’s about reshaping schools, neighborhoods, and eventually, the ballot box.

In 2022, the Center for Immigration Studies mapped 2,351 Census Bureau-defined Public Use Microdata Areas to show the percentage of schoolchildren from immigrant households. No surprise: Urban districts in places like New York and Los Angeles show overwhelming majorities of immigrant families.

But that trend now stretches deep into red states. Cities and even rural counties are seeing shockingly high proportions of students from immigrant families.

In southeast Nashville, 65% of public-school students come from immigrant families. Iraq ranks as the second-largest country of origin. In Dallas, all 20 school districts report at least one-third of students from immigrant households. In most of those districts, a majority of families are foreign-born.

This trend extends well beyond major cities. In southwest Oklahoma City, 43% of students come from immigrant families. Greenville, South Carolina, stands at 35%. Birmingham and Chattanooga each hover around 20%.

Red-state cities and midsize towns now reflect immigration levels once limited to coastal urban hubs. That leaves rural America as the last holdout — and even that is changing.

The so-called farm labor trade has transformed heartland communities. These public school districts report the following immigrant family enrollment rates:

Texas Panhandle (outside Potter and Randall Counties): 31%Oklahoma Panhandle: 21%Southwest Kansas (Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal City): 55%Central Nebraska: 27%Canyon and Owyhee Counties, Idaho (Caldwell and Nampa): 30%Whitfield County, Georgia: 43%Woodbury and Plymouth Counties, Iowa (Sioux City): 26%Washington County, Arkansas: 26%Fargo, North Dakota: 23%

Until recently, these areas were overwhelmingly native-born. They maintained a strong continuity of American culture and civic tradition.

What happens when the next generation of these children grows up, votes, and brings in more from similar backgrounds? These red counties may not stay red for long.

Mitt Romney won Washington County, Arkansas, by 16 points in 2012. Just 12 years later, Donald Trump carried it by only six — even as he expanded his statewide margin. What changed? More than a quarter of the local student body now comes from immigrant households.

RELATED: New York City’s likely next mayor wants to ‘globalize the intifada’

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Trump won rural Sampson County, North Carolina, by a 2-to-1 margin. Yet, by the 2022–23 school year, Hispanic students made up 44.2% of public school enrollment. The district now runs extensive English as a Second Language programs to meet ongoing demand. Even if Hispanic voters shift modestly right, when has such rapid demographic upheaval ever worked to conservatives’ advantage?

The pace of change is impossible to ignore. Importing foreign labor into rural counties inevitably reshapes culture — and, soon after, voting patterns.

Greene County, Iowa, illustrates the point. In 2023, Hispanic residents accounted for just 3.3% of the total population. But that number underrepresents their influence. Iowa State University researchers found Latino populations in rural Iowa tend to skew young, meaning they disproportionately fill the schools even when their overall numbers look small. That imbalance compounds over time.

When Trump calls for more farm labor from the third world — so long as the workers aren’t “murderers” — he misses the deeper issue. Violent crime isn’t the only threat. The more serious loss lies in surrendering the very communities that naturally align with traditional American culture.

As Vice President JD Vance put it during his Republican National Convention acceptance speech: “America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.”

That is the nation Trump must promise to defend — not just with words but with sound policy.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, New york city, New york city crime, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal aliens, Illegal immigrants, Illegal immigrant, Rural america, Red states, Center for immigration studies, Jobs, Labor shortage, Texas, Donald trump, Zohran mamdani, Schools, Intifada, Socialist, Hamas, 9/11 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has had enough of the mainstream media’s lies, and he made that clear in a recent press conference when he called them out for focusing on superficial social justice narratives regarding Operation Midnight Hammer.

“Let’s acknowledge the female pilots that also participated in this mission. The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys,” a reporter said to Hegseth at the press conference.

“So when I say something like, ‘Our boys and bombers,’ see, this is the kind of thing the press does, right? Of course, the chairman mentioned a female bomber pilot. That’s fantastic. She’s fantastic. She’s a hero,” Hegseth responded.

“I hope the men and women of our country sign up to do such brave and audacious things,” he continued, noting that “our boys and bombers” is a common phrase.

“I’ll keep saying things like that, whether they’re men or women. Very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots. And I don’t care if it’s a male or a female in that cockpit. And the American people don’t care. But it’s the obsession with race and gender in this department that’s changed priorities. We don’t do that anymore. We don’t play your little games,” he added.

“It’s just so refreshing,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments. “You can have your own opinion on whether or not we should have gone in there and bombed these nuclear sites. You can have that conversation.”

“I appreciate all types of views, but what I’m not willing to entertain is, ‘But why didn’t you give the female pilot credit? Because you said “boys and bombers,” and that could be offensive to the female pilot,’” she continues.

“Could you let the female pilot speak for herself? If she has a problem, she’s more than welcome to bring it up, but odds are she already knows that it’s a figure of speech, and she’s not at all offended because she’s not a little b***h,” she adds.

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Houston police said a few officers were working extra jobs at the Galleria mall two weekends ago when they got a call about a theft suspect, KRIV-TV reported.

Police said officers spotted the suspect and tried to detain him, the station said.

‘Wherever you go or whatever you try, they’re going to catch you.’

“I saw this man sprinting and cops chasing after him,” Martyn Norris, who saw the whole scene playing out, told KRIV.

But the suspect chose a getaway route officers had no interest in mimicking.

You see, there’s an ice skating rink on the mall’s first floor — and the suspect was on the second floor.

You guessed it.

Norris told the station the suspect actually yelled, “Come get me!” — and then for some reason that even the suspect may not have yet determined, he jumped from the second floor overhang down to the ice rink.

“He jumped straight down, tried to land,” Norris added to KRIV, “and when he hit the ice, his legs literally went out from under him — they snapped.”

There is video out there of the actual jump and landing, but the following news video doesn’t show that — just the aftermath.

RELATED: Blaze News original: Have a laugh at supremely stupid crime suspects who gift-wrapped their arrests for cops — part 1

In the unedited video, the man’s feet shoot out away from his body as he hits the ice; his left foot and ankle appear dislocated and flop freely from his lower leg as he attempts to move.

KPRC-TV reported that the man was taken to a hospital with “serious injuries” — and also was charged with theft and evading police.

His identity has not been released, KRIV said.

“Please think twice because this is one of the most heavily populated police areas ever,” Norris noted to KRIV. “Wherever you go or whatever you try, they’re going to catch you.”

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​Arrest, Houston, Ice skating rink, Jump, Mall, Shoplifter, Strange news, Texas, Weird news, Crime 

On June 20, residents of an Indianapolis neighborhood were shocked when a normal thunderstorm resulted in a giant spherical object flying into their neighborhood.

Thankfully no one was injured — but the presence of the strange object now has everyone scratching their heads.

Tech infrastructure company V2X, which has a location in Indianapolis roughly one mile away from the crash, has claimed the large orb-like enclosure, which is said to be made of lightweight materials and used to protect radar antennas.

“I think it probably got turned over and caught in the wind, and unfortunately, it flew away. We’re really thankful no one got hurt or anything. No one got injured. But that’s what it is. I can confirm it’s not an alien satellite or an alien spaceship,” Andrew Belush, a V2X site executive, explained.

However, BlazeTV host Dave Landau and his panel on “Normal World” have their own theories as to what the object really is.

“The used oil tank at a Diddy party,” ¼ Black Garrett jokes, while Derek Richards chimes in that it could have been “Somalia’s attempt at a nuke.”

“The Epstein client list,” Landau says, adding that it could also be holding “all of Hollywood actresses’ original noses.”

“Well, I think it’s a miracle that nobody was hit by this giant spaceball,” he adds, on a serious note.

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As the Senate continues to work through the “big, beautiful bill,” lawmakers axed yet another key provision from President Donald Trump’s landmark legislation.

Senators are hammering out key amendments in the reconciliation bill before the final Senate vote, which will likely come Tuesday. Certain amendments, based on advisory rulings from the parliamentarian, are required to pass the 60-vote threshold instead of a simple majority, making it more difficult to codify key provisions in the bill.

‘An unelected Senate staffer is thwarting the will of 75 million people who voted to make sure foreign alien invaders aren’t getting taxpayer benefits.’

RELATED: Democrats unanimously vote against condemning ‘mostly peaceful’ anti-ICE riots

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

One of these amendments included a provision that would reduce federal funding for states that provide Medicaid to illegal aliens who were charged with additional violent crimes. Because of the parliamentarian’s ruling, the amendment failed in a 56-44 vote on Tuesday.

As a result of these rulings, the parliamentarian has been the focal point of a lot of criticism leading up to the vote, particularly from prominent voices on the right.

“Elizabeth McDonough stopped the Senate bill from blocking illegals from getting Medicaid,” Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk said in a post on X. “An unelected Senate staffer is thwarting the will of 75 million people who voted to make sure foreign alien invaders aren’t getting taxpayer benefits. This is a red line. The Senate needs to CHANGE THE RULES, fire her, or find a solution. This is in the hands of the Senate to find a solution. We have 53 votes — figure it out! No more excuses.”

RELATED: Republicans rage over Senate’s ‘watered-down’ version of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Many Republicans and even the president have called for leadership to overrule the parliamentarian. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has the authority and the precedent to overrule her, but he decided against it.

“That would not be a good outcome for getting a bill done,” Thune said.

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​Senate, Senate republicans, Senate democrats, Parliamentarian, Donald trump, John thune, Mike johnson, Big beautiful bill, Reconciliation, Medicaid, Illegal aliens, Medicaid cuts, Medicaid reform, Criminal aliens, Politics 

On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, upheld a Texas law requiring pornography websites to verify users’ ages to prevent minors from accessing explicit content, ruling it constitutional under the First Amendment. The dissenters were the expected radical left-wing trio: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

They apparently “really want children to have access to porn,” scoffs Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

Leading the charge for Texas in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Sara loves for the long list of wins he’s racked up as the Lone Star State’s top cop. While Paxton’s time as AG is likely limited as he gears up to challenge John Cornyn in the 2026 Republican Senate primary, kids in Texas are now safer thanks to his unwavering commitment to conservative values and to ensuring that Texas remains a stronghold for protecting families and upholding moral standards.

While Sara and the “Unfiltered” panel, which includes Matthew Marsden and Eric July, are thrilled with SCOTUS’ ruling, the sad reality remains: The decision on whether or not to protect children from pornography had to be decided by the highest court in the country — a bleak picture of our nation’s waning morality and war on children.

“An age restriction or an age verification should be a bare minimum,” says Sara. The only reason adult content companies haven’t been implementing them is they’re either “too lazy or too evil.”

Pornhub, the leading adult content platform in the world, receiving billions of monthly visits, disabled its websites in Texas, complaining that the law infringed on adults’ free-speech rights, posed privacy risks through mandatory ID verification, and was too costly to implement.

But if free-speech rights were really being jeopardized by implementing an age barrier, then why are there “age restrictions on every gun site?” asks Marsden. And as for the complaint that it’s too expensive, Eric July, who runs his own comics website, says that digital mechanisms like age verification are “automated” today, meaning it’s not nearly as expensive as Pornhub and its parent company, Aylo Global Entertainment, have made it out to be.

“What was expensive 10 years ago isn’t any more, especially with regards to something like this,” he says. “Now it doesn’t require a lot of money and resources.”

Marsden then brings up another excellent point: “Think about how big Texas is, and they’re just like, ‘No, we’re out.’ … Economically that’s a crazy decision. So it’s not about the money.”

If it’s not about the money, and there are already age restrictions on websites that sell or promote adult content and products, then why is Pornhub leaving Texas over the requirement to implement age barriers that would protect children from harmful exposure?

To Sara, it’s obvious: “[They] want to get them while they’re young.”

“If we get them while they’re young, we’ve got a lifelong porn addict who’s going to continue coming back to our website,” she sighs.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.

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​Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Blazetv, Blaze media, Pornhub, Pornhub lawsuit, Ken paxton, Scotus, Age restrictions on porn 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stated earlier this month while radicals were savagely attacking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in her city, “We will not stand for this.”

The Democratic mayor was not condemning her fellow leftists’ attacks on federal agents but rather the agents’ enforcement of federal immigration law.

In the wake of the Los Angeles riots, Bass has kept up her anti-ICE, pro-illegal alien rhetoric, noting on Sunday, for instance, “Every community in L.A. is feeling the shock of these horrific ICE raids — this isn’t just targeting one group, it’s striking at the heart of our collective safety and trust.”

The Trump administration gave Bass more than just ICE raids to complain about on Monday, filing a lawsuit against the mayor, Los Angeles City Council, and the City of Los Angeles over their alleged interference with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law.

“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level — it ends under President Trump.”

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California notes that immediately after President Donald Trump’s re-election, the Los Angeles City Council, “wishing to thwart the will of the American people regarding deportations, began the process of codifying into law its Sanctuary City policies.”

RELATED: Democrats who locked down America during COVID now cry dictator over Trump’s deportations

Photo by BENJAMIN HANSON/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

In late November, the L.A. City Council unanimously voted to establish L.A. as a “Sanctuary City.”

The following month, Bass ratified the corresponding ordinance titled “Prohibition of the Use of City Resources for Federal Immigration Enforcement,” which enshrined sanctuary policies into municipal law and barred “the use of City resources, including property and personnel, from being utilized for immigration enforcement or to cooperate with federal immigration agents engaged in immigration enforcement.”

‘Today’s lawsuit holds the City of Los Angeles accountable for deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law.’

The ordinance — the “urgency clause,” which makes clear that undermining the “incoming federal administration” was the goal — also prohibits city officials, including law enforcement officers, from directly or indirectly sharing data with federal immigration authorities.

The DOJ’s lawsuit notes that L.A.’s sanctuary city laws are illegal and “are designed to and in fact do interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.”

Lawyers for the government asked the district court to recognize that the ordinance’s violation of the Supremacy Clause and 8 U.S. Code § 1373 makes it unlawful, unenforceable, and void ab initio, as well as to enter a permanent injunction barring Los Angeles, its city council, and the mayor from enforcing the ordinance.

RELATED: JD Vance rejects Democrats’ narrative, names the ‘real threat to democracy’

Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images

“Today’s lawsuit holds the City of Los Angeles accountable for deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, who stressed in a tweet that the lawsuit was “long overdue.”

‘Very simply, we will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again.’

“The United States Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prohibits the City from picking and choosing which federal laws will be enforced and which will not,” continued Essayli. “By assisting removable aliens in evading federal law enforcement, the City’s unlawful and discriminatory ordinance has contributed to a lawless and unsafe environment that this lawsuit will help end.”

The Los Angeles Times, which indicated Bass did not immediately respond to a request for comment, noted that radical L.A. city officials are contemplating striking back at the Trump administration with a lawsuit of its own.

The DOJ’s lawsuit appears to be a major step toward another promise kept on Trump’s part.

In his Tuesday speech at the 250th anniversary of the Army at Fort Bragg, Trump said, “Within the span of a few decades, Los Angeles has gone from being one of the cleanest, safest, and most beautiful cities on Earth to being a trash heap with entire neighborhoods under the control of transnational gangs and criminal networks.”

“They don’t like it when I say it, but I’ll say it loudly and clearly: They’d better do something before it’s too late,” continued Trump. “Very simply, we will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again.”

“We will use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order right away,” stressed the president.

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​Los angeles, La, Karen bass, Leftism, Democrat, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Supremacy clause, Constitution, Lawsuit, Department of justice, Pam bondi, Ag, Doj, Illegal aliens, La riots, Riots, Politics 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice conducted the largest health care fraud takedown in the agency’s history, involving $14.6 billion in intended losses.

The DOJ announced on Monday that it has filed criminal charges against 324 individuals — including 96 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical professionals — for their alleged participation in the scams.

‘These criminals didn’t just steal someone else’s money; they stole from you.’

Despite the billions of dollars in intended losses, the federal government seized $245 million in cash, cryptocurrency, luxury vehicles, and other assets.

Additionally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prevented more than $4 billion in fraudulent claims and revoked billing privileges for 205 providers.

RELATED: Trump takes aim again at prescription drug prices — could drop ‘30% to 80%’

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“Civil charges against 20 defendants for $14.2 million in alleged fraud, as well as civil settlements with 106 defendants totaling $34.3 million, were also announced as part of the Takedown,” the DOJ reported.

The massive schemes allegedly involved transnational criminal organizations, fraudulent wound care, prescription opioid trafficking, and telemedicine and genetic testing fraud.

According to the agency, 29 individuals faced charges for their alleged participation in transnational criminal organizations that submitted over $12 billion in fraudulent claims to American health insurance programs.

Another five defendants were charged in connection with a $703 million Medicare scheme that used theft and deceptive marketing to obtain beneficiaries’ identification numbers and other personal information.

“The defendants allegedly used artificial intelligence to create fake recordings of Medicare beneficiaries purportedly consenting to receive certain products. According to court documents, the beneficiaries’ confidential information was then illegally sold to laboratories and durable medical equipment companies, which used this unlawfully obtained and fraudulently generated data to submit false claims to Medicare,” the DOJ reported.

Forty-nine defendants faced charges for their alleged participation in a telemedicine and genetic testing scheme that involved $1.17 billion in fraudulent claims to Medicare.

RELATED: Trump set to unleash DOJ probe on ActBlue’s alleged fraudulent donation scheme

Matthew Galeotti, the head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Attorney General Pam Bondi described the takedown as “record-setting.”

“Make no mistake — this administration will not tolerate criminals who line their pockets with taxpayer dollars while endangering the health and safety of our communities,” Bondi declared.

Matthew Galeotti, the head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, stated during a Monday press conference, “In a takedown this large, I can’t possibly describe all of the work that went into dismantling each scheme.”

“These criminals didn’t just steal someone else’s money; they stole from you. Every fraudulent claim, every fake billing, every kickback scheme represents money taken directly from the pockets of American taxpayers who fund these essential programs through their hard work and sacrifice,” Galeotti continued. “When criminals defraud these programs, they’re not just committing theft; they’re driving up our national deficit and threatening the long-term viability of health care for seniors, disabled Americans, and our most vulnerable citizens.”

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Raymond Kohn is “just a good ol’ boy, never meanin’ no harm.” After going viral for jumping the “General Lee” over a fountain in Kentucky over the weekend, the stunt driver told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck that he wants his next jump to be one to remember.

According to the NY Post, Kohn has completed 30 jumps in replicas of the famous car from “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV show, the most recent being his jump over a fountain blasting dyed blue water in downtown Somerset, Kentucky. The jump was the highlight of a weekend festival.

‘It’s gonna be huge.’

Clips of that jump went viral on social media over the weekend and caught the attention of people from all walks of life.

Kohn’s jumps have taken him all over the United States, including Detroit, Mich.; Bristol, Tenn.; and more. Now, he wants to up the ante and blow all those jumps away with an epic jump in the nation’s capital. On Monday morning, he used his newfound fame to pitch Glenn Beck on his epic idea.

RELATED: ‘The car is innocent’: Stars of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ defend classic show and iconic ‘General Lee’

Beck began the interview with Kohn by playing a clip of the jump in Kentucky, and the two discussed what happened over the weekend. After Beck told Kohn, “I’ve got to put an event together, just because I want to invite you to jump the ‘General Lee’ over something,” Kohn seized the opening to outline his plan.

“Glenn, we want to build an ‘American Patriot General Lee,’” Kohn explained. “And we want to put, like, ’47-45′ on the doors, put a big old American flag on the roof, and we’re gonna call it the ‘Jump for Trump 2025.’”

RELATED: Leftists rage over Trump’s latest patriotic installment at the White House

— (@)

Where would this jump take place?

Kohn continued, “We want to jump in front of the White House. That’s what we want to do.”

Beck, clearly amused by the suggestion, said, “That’s fantastic. I’ll bring it up to him. If there’s any president that will do it, it’ll be him.”

Kohn replied, “It’s gonna be huge.”

Beck then relayed a story President Trump told him about the big flagpole recently placed on the White House grounds. Though Trump initially worried that the idea would involve too much red tape, he was soon pleased to learn that he, as president, would be the one to approve installation of the pole.

That story convinced Beck that Trump would be willing to build a stunt jump as well.

Beck then said, “I bet he could build that jump,” referring to Trump and the proposed White House stunt.

When it comes to logistics, Kohn said it wouldn’t be hard, telling Beck, “We could build a car in two weeks. My team could build a ‘Great American’ [car].”

Time will tell if Kohn’s plan becomes an all-American reality.

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​Glenn beck, Raymond kohn, Dukes of hazzard, General lee, Kentucky, Jump, Stunt, Donald trump, Politics 

For years, a running gag on the internet has involved protectively adding “in Minecraft” to the end of any expressed desire to do something that would alarm the authorities. But now, an all-too-serious plot has flipped the joke on its head, as details emerge concerning an 18-year-old’s discussion of his alleged terrorist attack plan on the gaming platform Roblox.

The plot was thwarted when a gamer on the platform, which boasts approximately 80 million users, turned to law enforcement after seeing the user make threats through the game’s chat feature, which allows comments to pop up on-screen.

What happened next was a shocking admission of terroristic aspirations made openly for other gamers to see.

‘By my very own definition, yes, I guess, you know, I would be a terrorist.’

As reported by Court Watch, James Wesley Burger allegedly made threats on Roblox that the FBI described as a desire to commit an ISIS-inspired attack.

Under the username Crazz3pain, Burger openly talked about wanting to “deal a grevious [sic] wound upon the followers of the Cross.”

Other screenshots from Roblox showed Burger stating “I cannot confirm anything aloud at the moment. But things are in motion.”

When asked “how many days until you do [that],” Burger replied, “It will be months. April.”

The witness — the other Roblox user — reportedly told the FBI that Burger had said in January that he expressed a desire to “kill Shia Muslims at their mosque” and commit martyrdom at a Christian-affiliated concert.

A subsequent FBI search of Burger’s home in February revealed even more shocking details.

RELATED: Kids ‘cosplaying as ICE agents’ and performing raids on ‘illegals’ in Roblox game

Photo courtesy court filings

My San Antonio reported that one of Burger’s family members had installed software to track every keystroke on his computer, which was provided to the FBI. This led to a search of his electronics, which revealed that Burger had allegedly searched online for guns, ammunition, “Lone wolf terrorists isis,” and more.

The Google searches also asked about “festivals happening near me” and if “suicide attacks [are] haram in islam,” meaning against the faith.

Burger also allegedly searched “ginger isis member,” which has since become his moniker, although he may have been looking for the story of the “ginger jihadi” from Australia circa 2015.

Through their investigation, FBI agents were able to confirm that Burger’s email address was attached to the Roblox account in question, and they found data that corroborated his comments on the game.

RELATED: Is your child being exposed to pedophiles in the metaverse?

Photo courtesy court filings

Burger’s conversations with the FBI appeared to be rather calm and clear, with the teenager allegedly telling an agent voluntarily that the “closest I mentioned was mentioning I would use, like … a pistol or a car or like a small hunting rifle” in regard to a potential attack.

The suspect also took a moment to pray during the middle of his electronics being seized, My San Antonio stated. Burger then said, “Something like that. I don’t remember mention of, like, a shotgun.”

The would-be ISIS member also said his goal was the “death of Christians,” with a plan to escape the country or simply die in an act of “martyrdom.”

The 18-year-old also debated with agents as to whether or not he should be labeled a “terrorist.”

“[T]he intention … and the action is something that is meant to or will cause terror. … I cannot agree with the term terrorist, you know. I definitely agree that it serves the same means that a terrorist would be seeking,” Burger reportedly told investigators. “By the sense … and by my very own definition, yes, I guess, you know, I would be a terrorist.”

RELATED: EXPOSED: Tim Walz’s shocking ties to radical Muslim cleric

Roblox told Blaze News in a statement that safety is “foundational” to everything the platform does.

“In this case, we moved swiftly to assist law enforcement’s investigation before any real-world harm could occur and investigated and took action in accordance with our policies,” the spokesperson explained. “After hearing from law enforcement in January 2025, Roblox swiftly provided information on the users involved; based on the complaint, we understand that the information we provided helped law enforcement positively identify the suspect in this case. To date, all known users involved have been moderated, removed, and banned from the platform.”

The Roblox representative also noted that their community standards “explicitly prohibit any content or behavior that depicts, supports, glorifies, or promotes terrorist or extremist organizations in any way.”

This includes implementing dedicated teams focused on removing such content and responding to requests from users and law enforcement.

Burger was arrested on February 28, according to multiple outlets, and handed over to federal agents in May. He was indicted on two felony charges for interstate threatening communication in June; the charges were laid in Texas after his computer was identified as accessing Roblox from San Antonio and Austin.

The witness who saw messages alluding to terrorism was in Nevada.

Burger was denied bail due to being a flight risk.

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​Gaming, Return, Roblox, Isis, Online gaming, Fbi, Terrorism, Tech 

The upcoming U.S. tour for a British punk-rap duo is now in doubt after the U.S. State Department revoked the bandmates’ visas following an anti-Israel rant at Glastonbury last weekend.

On Saturday, Bob Vylan — composed of Bobby Vylan, aka Pascal Robinson-Foster, and drummer Bobbie Vylan — took the stage at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, one of the most popular music events in the world. There, with a Palestinian flag adorning a banner with his band’s name in the background, front man Bobby Vylan made clear that his group supports the Palestinian cause and wishes “death” upon members of the Israel Defense Forces.

‘I said what I said.’

“All right, but have you heard this one, though? ‘Death, death to the IDF,'” Vylan said.

After the audience dutifully chanted, “Death, death to the IDF,” over and over and enthusiastically waved Palestinian flags, Vylan added, “Hell yeah. From the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be — inshallah — it will be free!”

Video of the speech can be seen here.

Response to the rant from Bobby Vylan was swift and fierce. Glastonbury Festival organizer Emily Eavis posted to social media that she was “appalled” by Vylan’s words.

“Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech, or incitement to violence,” she said.

The BBC, which streamed the Bob Vylan performance live, later expressed “regret” for not pulling the livestream. “The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence,” the BBC said in a statement, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “The anti-Semitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance.”

The U.S. State Department likewise took notice of Vylan’s speech and immediately moved to block visas for both Bobby and Bobbie Vylan.

“The @StateDept has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau posted to X on Monday. “Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”

RELATED: Rubio to ‘aggressively’ revoke Chinese nationals’ student visas to eviscerate CCP’s spy invasion

— (@)

Bob Vylan is scheduled to perform on this side of the Atlantic Ocean later this year, kicking off a 16-stop North American tour with a gig in Spokane, Washington, in October. The revoked visas likely put this tour in jeopardy.

For the moment, Bobby Vylan appears unfazed by all the “support and hatred” he has received since the stunt. In an Instagram post on Sunday, he encouraged parents to demonstrate in the streets and model political activism for their children.

“It is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us,” his lengthy statement read in part. “Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change. Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered.”

He later commented: “I said what I said.”

Vylan also posted, “While Zionists are crying on socials, I’ve just had late night (vegan) ice cream,” according to the U.K. Standard.

RELATED: Rubio not taking guff from ICC — hammers foreign judges over targeting of US and Israel

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Since he became secretary of state earlier this year, Marco Rubio has prioritized removing from the U.S. foreigners who threaten America and American values, especially those who take advantage of the opportunity to study at our prestigious universities.

“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said back in March.

“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.”

On his first day back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to take “forceful and unprecedented steps to combat anti-Semitism,” which included revoking foreign student visas and deporting Hamas sympathizers.

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​Bob vylan, Glastonbury, Bobby vylan, Bobbie vylan, Marco rubio, State department, Visa, Tour, Band, England, Bbc, Politics 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement slammed CNN for giving favorable coverage to a new app that allows users to upload media of immigration operations they see to warn others within a five-mile radius.

The app was created in the aftermath of the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles and comes at a time when violence against federal agents has dramatically increased. The founder of the app says he does not want anyone to interfere with operations, claiming the app is intended to warn illegal immigrants to stay away from certain areas.

‘CNN is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens.’

RELATED: Doxxing danger: Foreign-based anti-ICE site threatens agents as assaults against officers surge

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

“When I saw what was happening in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,” Joshua Aaron told CNN, comparing the deportation of illegal aliens to Nazi Germany. “We’re literally watching history repeat itself.”

In response to the report, ICE acting Director Todd Lyons said CNN was being “reckless” because advertising such an app will only make the current operational environment more dangerous for federal agents.

“Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs is sickening. My officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults, and going on live television to announce an app that lets anyone zero in on their locations is like inviting violence against them with a national megaphone,” Lyons said. “CNN is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens to evade U.S. law. Is this simply reckless ‘journalism’ or overt activism?”

In its social media post, ICE claimed, “CNN never reached out to ICE for comment.”

— (@)

Prior to the app’s release, far-left groups in cities like Los Angeles had been relying on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and X to spread the word of ICE or Border Patrol activities. Warning posts on social media on agents’ whereabouts have led to rioters physically confronting federal agents, leading to greater anger from locals within the region.

President Donald Trump has promised immigration enforcement operations will continue in Southern California despite the greater resistance.

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​Politics