Category: blaze media

A Democratic congressman in California reiterated his call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a record high number of arrests was reported.

Border czar Tom Homan appeared on Fox News and lauded the historic number of arrests over the five-day period while talking about the effort to strip commercial licenses from illegal aliens.

Federal officials had been able to rescind over 28,000 commercial licenses that were being held by illegal aliens.

“In the last five days, ICE has arrested over 10,000 illegal aliens, which is a record for the agency,” Homan said to Fox host Dana Perino. “So we’re hitting on all cylinders. There’s just a lot of these people to find, but we are out there every day looking for them.”

He suggested that officials in states like New York were sheltering illegal aliens from these federal investigations.

“The problem is, we’re working very well with red states; in blue states it’s still a struggle, right? Places like New York, I mean, ICE and CBP can’t even get access to the DMV database!”

He added that federal officials had been able to rescind over 28,000 commercial licenses that were being held by illegal aliens since May 1.

In response, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) posted a statement on the X social media platform calling for ICE to be replaced.

“We cannot ignore their continued abuse and violation of human rights. It’s time to abolish ICE and replace it,” Khanna wrote in the post.

“These people being detained are being denied basic human rights,” Khanna said in a video attached to the post.

RELATED: Majority of Americans approve of Trump’s response to anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis: Harvard poll

“I was at the California detention center. I saw someone with blood in his urine who was denied medical care,” he continued. “I saw rocks in the food. I saw people shivering because they didn’t have clothes. We need to stop funding ICE that’s violating human rights.”

Homan went on in the Fox interview to accuse sanctuary mayors and state governors of “normalizing” illegal immigration by allowing illegal aliens to have driver’s licenses.

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

​Immigration and customs enforcement, Rep ro khanna, Illegal aliens, Tom homan, Ice arrests, Sanctuary cities, Politics 

Houston Police last week said they arrested a 34-year-old male after investigating multiple cases of disabled and homeless people who’d been shot with high-powered, motorized water guns.

Police said Christopher Cayce — after taunting his victims and posting videos of the incidents on social media — was charged with assault with bodily injury.

‘In my eyes this was harmless fun that we all enjoy at one point of life.’

“I’m totally a thousand percent sorry for this, and that’s not just saying this because I’m caught,” Cayce told KTRK-TV Friday.

Cayce — a “self-described comedian,” according to the station — since last summer had been recording videos of himself driving around the Houston area and ambushing people with water guns.

But he was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of assault for spraying two men on June 4, KTRK said.

Many of his targets appeared to be homeless, and police said some of his victims were disabled, the station reported.

A KTRK reporter asked Cayce why he targeted “some of the city’s most vulnerable,” and he replied, “In my videos, I don’t just shoot homeless people.”

The station said that in one video he lures a woman to his car with money before spraying her in the face, and in another video he throws food at a man before shooting him with a water gun.

RELATED: 12-year-old accused of kicking in home’s front door, breaking its frame — and homeowner isn’t having one bit of it

According to the Houston Chronicle, Cayce also took to Facebook to defend himself.

“I REALLY LOVE THESE PEOPLE I’M NOT A BAD PERSON,” he wrote Saturday alongside a video showing him handing food to people from the back of a pickup truck, the paper said, adding that Cayce’s post tagged the Houston Police Department.

“I feed these people,” Cayce told KTRK. “I gave these people $500 worth of clothes. I don’t post all my positive stuff ’cause it don’t get views. My channel algorithm was me shooting people with water guns.”

The Chronicle said Cayce in another post apologized for his “childish activities” but maintained he never intended to hurt anyone.

“For all the feelings I hurt I do sincerely apologize for my actions,” he wrote, the paper said. “In my eyes this was harmless fun that we all enjoy at one point of life.”

Cayce also argued that many of those condemning him online ignore the homeless in everyday life, the Chronicle said.

In the KTRK interview, Cayce held up a cross and said, “I just put this in front of the door. I walk and pray every day. Every time I go out, I pray before I go and shoot these people because I really don’t want to hurt nobody.”

“Believe it or not I keep God first,” Cayce also wrote on Facebook, the Chronicle said.

KTRK also pointed out that in one post, Cayce refers to his targets as “zombies,” but he told the station that “I’m not calling them zombies because that’s what they are. It’s all commentary for the content. It’s not what I really, truly mean. I love everybody genuinely.”

Cayce is set to appear in court Thursday, KTRK reported, and he also said he’s done with his water-gun exploits.

“They took all my water guns,” he added to the station. “You can go buy more easily, but I told them I’m done with it. I’m not gonna shoot nobody no more.”

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

​Arrest, Assault, Houston, Police, Water guns, Videos, Pranks, Crime 

As a growing number of democratic socialists win elections and progressive policies gain traction nationwide, BlazeTV host Pat Gray is incredibly concerned about the left’s plans for America’s future.

“They are doing their damnedest to ruin this country — just bring it completely down, because … it can’t be brought down from without. So they’re hell-bent on doing it from within,” he says.

Executive producer Keith Malinak agrees, pointing out that the new Equality Act the left is pushing is essentially the same thing as the Civil Rights Act.

“It will take the Civil Rights Act and say, ‘Hey, guess what, trans people get all those rights, too. And you have no choice,’” Malinak explains.

“They’ve got their own problems in the party because they’re being taken over by communists and they don’t even care,” Gray chimes in.

“In fact, some of them are in love with it,” he says, explaining that radical democratic socialists have been winning elections across the country.

“We had a 29-year-old Ethiopian-born socialist in Colorado who just defeated a 30-year congresswoman. She’s been elected 15 times, and now a 29-year-old Ethiopian who’s a socialist just beat her,” he explains, pointing out that this particular congresswoman, Melat Kiros, has claimed America deserved 9/11.

Kiros also “wants all illegals who are here to just be granted immunity and amnesty and citizenship.”

“And she wants to abolish ICE. And she was elected,” Gray says.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Pat gray, Melat kiros, Democratic socialist, America, Equality act, Democrat, 911, Keith malinak, Pat gray unleashed 

A Democrat who ran for governor in Florida a few years ago is facing criminal allegations once again, this time in Alabama.

Andrew Demetric Gillum was pulled over for erratic driving and found to be in possession of methamphetamines and other drug paraphernalia, according to the Daphne Police Department.

A probable cause search of the car … allegedly led to the seizure of three packages of methamphetamines.

Gillum was the Democratic candidate for Florida governor in 2018, when he narrowly lost to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) by just 33,000 votes, less than 1% of the vote.

On Thursday, Gillum was handcuffed and booked into the Daphne City Jail in Alabama.

Police claimed the 46-year-old was pulled over on U.S. Highway 98 near North Main Street at about 10:45 p.m. before an officer noticed a glass pipe on the center console.

That prompted a probable cause search of the car that allegedly led to the seizure of three packages of methamphetamines as well as the discovery of several rolled marijuana cigarettes.

Gillum was charged with one count of possession of dangerous drugs, possession of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia possession, according to jail records.

He was transferred from the city jail to the Baldwin County Correctional Facility in Alabama.

Gillum had a previous brush with the law involving methamphetamine allegations when he was found to be so inebriated at the 2020 scene of an overdose that police were unable to communicate with him.

“Inside of the hotel room, officers observed in plain sight three small clear plastic baggies containing suspected crystal meth on both the bed and floor of the hotel room,” a police incident report stated.

RELATED: Karen Bass makes bizarre promise to meth addicts with rotting teeth: ‘You can’t succeed without teeth!’

He left the scene and later claimed in a statement that he had gone to a wedding celebration and had too much to drink. He also denied partaking in methamphetamines.

The man who had overdosed in the hotel room identified himself as an escort online. Gillum revealed that he identified as bisexual after the incident.

Gillum later said that he cried every day since the incident, where a photo showed him naked on the floor of the hotel.

“That was not anything more than a person being at their most vulnerable state,” he said. “Unconscious, having given no consent and someone decided to use a moment where I was literally laying in my own vomit.”

Gillum was also charged with nearly two dozen counts of wire fraud in 2022 but was acquitted of all charges.

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

​Andrew gillum, Methamphetamines, Florida, Drug possession, Bisexual, Politics 

Prosecutors must convince state District Judge Tony Graf over the course of this week’s five-day preliminary hearing that they have sufficient evidence for him to try Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, for aggravated murder.

They have so far given Graf plenty to work with — and given the defense a great deal of explaining to do.

‘The shoes are the same, and from my viewing and seeing Mr. Robinson on the video, it’s the same person,’ an investigator said.

Graf heard on Monday about: Robinson’s alleged “sniper pad” on the roof of the Losee Center building, which overlooks the site at Utah Valley University where Kirk was fatally shot; the discovery of a red-and-black screwdriver at the “crime scene” that FBI Director Kash Patel previously alleged had Robinson’s DNA on it; and the events immediately surrounding the shooting. The judge also saw — and was literally moved by — graphic footage of Kirk’s murder.

The footage shown in court on Tuesday — which the defense wanted suppressed — was especially damning.

David Hull, a former Utah State Bureau of Investigation special agent who led the probe in the assassination, walked the court through a compilation of CCTV footage that he said shows Robinson’s movements on Sept. 10.

According to Hull, the clips allegedly show Robinson:

driving into a parking garage, parking, then walking off — wearing a backpack and dressed in Converse shoes, a ball cap, shorts, and a maroon T-shirt — to the university’s quad area, where he allegedly made contact with representatives from Turning Point USA before returning to his car and driving off;wearing the same outfit, returning to the campus on foot, and walking to a fast-food restaurant on the northeast side of the area where Kirk was ultimately shot;walk after his meal into a wooded area on campus, then return wearing a new set of clothes, no longer carrying a backpack and now limping with a visibly stiff right leg and apparent hip-level bulge toward “the railing that gives access to the roof of the Losee building”;ascending the staircase that affords scalers access to the Losee building rooftop just minutes before Kirk was shot — then rolling over the railing onto the rooftop;no longer limping but running along the rooftop of the Losee building “to what would be the southwest corner of the building,” then crawling over to the apparent shooting position, where he was prone at 12:23:28 p.m., when a Utah Valley University police officer stated over his radio, “Alpha 34, we have shots fired. Charlie Kirk is down”; and running to the edge of the Losee building’s rooftop, then dropping down onto a grassy area, then fleeing the scene with “some kind of object” in his hand.

“The shoes are the same, and from my viewing and seeing Mr. Robinson on the video, it’s the same person,” Hull said when asked about the suspect in the footage following his pre-shooting wardrobe change.

While Hull acknowledged in court that the surveillance footage of the suspect on the rooftop did not reveal any distinguishing facial features, the videos nevertheless provide a potentially convincing account of Robinson’s movements on campus the day of the shooting.

The prosecution also showed footage of an encounter near Campus Drive between Tyler Robinson and a Spanish Fork police officer early on Sept. 11, the day after the assassination. This gave the officer pause and prompted him to make a note of the license plate number.

Once Hull learned of the encounter by Spanish Fork police and noted that the car involved matched the description of a car believed to be involved in the Kirk assassination, he ran the license plate. It was then he learned that the car was registered to Tyler Robinson and his mother, Amber.

The clips, along with enhanced versions with circled highlights, zooming, and other slight tweaks intended to help viewers understand what they were seeing, were admitted as evidence.

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

​Tyler robinson, Charlie kirk, Assassination, Preliminary hearing, Footage, Shooting, Murder, Utah, Utah valley university, Turning point usa, Politics 

The Supreme Court ruled last week to uphold birthright citizenship — and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler is horrified, calling it not only “one of the most devastating Supreme Court rulings of our lifetime,” but a “Chinese communist plot to subvert our elections.”

“One million Chinese communists will soon be eligible U.S. voters. You heard me. One million Chinese citizens — and if you’re a Chinese citizen, you’ve been indoctrinated in communism,” she explains.

“One million Chinese citizens who are communists, who’ve been indoctrinated to hate the United States and live in China, will soon be able to cast their ballot for your elected officials. Because the Chinese … they pay surrogates in the United States to birth their babies on U.S. soil,” she continues.

“So, they send their sperm to the United States. They buy an egg from an American, or they send an egg with them. They have a surrogate carry the baby, give birth on U.S. soil. That baby is now a U.S. citizen because he or she was born on U.S. soil,” she adds.

Or, she points out, wealthy Chinese will get pregnant and come to the United States to “visit to vacation.”

“They give birth to their child on U.S. soil, which makes the child a U.S. citizen. They then take the babies, whether born of surrogates or born of birth tourism, back to China, indoctrinate them into communists because that’s what happens in China,” she says.

Those children then turn 18 and are “deployed to vote in our elections.”

“And when I say deployed to vote in our elections, they don’t even have to come here. They can vote mail-in ballots. They can vote absentee. Their ballot can quite literally be mailed to them in China,” Wheeler explains.

“They can fill it out to vote for your president, send it back, and it can sway the outcome of our elections. This is not hypothetical,” she continues, pointing out that the first round of these Chinese communist U.S. citizens are about to turn 18.

“The first of these will be voting in our elections as early as 2028,” she says. “That’s right, the next presidential election.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Birthright citizenship, China, Communist, Liz wheeler, Surrogacy, Vote, Birth tourism, Donald trump, Election, The liz wheeler show 

Players on the Belgian soccer team celebrated their crushing victory over the United States men’s national team on Monday night by mocking President Donald Trump’s famous dance.

Belgium took control of the game in Seattle, Washington, early on and did not let up. After a few key mistakes by the American team, Belgium skated easily to a 4-1 victory.

Videos on social media show them gesturing and laughing.

The game was also politicized in the days leading up to the game when Trump told reporters he had called the FIFA president to request a review of a red-card penalty in a previous game that led to the suspension of one of the best U.S. players.

When FIFA reversed the decision and allowed the player to compete against Belgium, critics accused the U.S. of abusing its political power to gain an unfair advantage.

Belgian players responded by doing the “Trump dance” on the field after scoring a fourth goal in the second half. Videos on social media show them gesturing and laughing.

The official account for the team also joined in by posting the message, “Overturn this,” in reference to the red-card controversy. After the game, the Belgians continued their mockery in the locker room by doing Trump’s signature dance.

Athletes in the U.S. have sometimes danced in the Trump manner, which sometimes led to criticism from Trump opponents.

The American team was the last of the three host countries to be knocked out of the round-of-16, with Mexico falling to England and Canada falling to Morocco.

RELATED: Democrat NAILED with brutal backlash for posing in Mexico jersey for World Cup

Despite the unceremonious exit of the American team, the World Cup matches in North America have been a great success for FIFA and the host countries. The U.S. has been greatly praised by visitors posting viral content on social media about their experiences with American culture and hospitality.

Belgium will go on to play Spain in the World Cup quarterfinals.

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

​Trump dance, Fifa, World cup 2026, Red card controversy, Team usa, Politics 

The price of oil has fallen to pre-conflict levels after more than four months of a damaging surge from the conflict with Iran.

On Friday, Brent Crude oil traded at about $72 and has fallen farther to $70 on Tuesday, just below the $72 mark before the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran commenced in late February.

‘We’re either going to make a deal, or we’re going to finish the job. It won’t be tough to finish the job.’

President Donald Trump faced some criticism after gas prices spiked from the Strait of Hormuz shutting down. In recent weeks he has been working on a peace agreement to open up traffic in the pivotal trade route.

Oil prices spiked slightly on Monday after a strike was reported on a tanker from Qatar by Iranian forces, but the price recovered by the next day.

The cause was further aided by a sharp cut in pricing by Saudi Arabia, a key member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“Weak Asian demand, especially from China, together with the sanctions waiver on Iranian crude, has intensified competition among sellers and shifted the market in buyers’ favor,” said energy analyst Emma Li to Reuters.

On Monday, Trump warned that the U.S. would renew the military conflict if Iran could not agree to a peace agreement soon.

“We’re either going to make a deal, or we’re going to finish the job. It won’t be tough to finish the job,” he said to reporters at the White House.

About a fifth of global oil supplies flow through the Strait of Hormuz.

RELATED: Oil industry warns Trump about gas price SHOCK coming soon

“The situation around the Strait of Hormuz remains unsettled. But as we have argued since March, both sides should ultimately have an interest in containing the conflict,” said Berenberg chief economist Holger Schmieding.

He went on to say the president needed oil prices to drop before the midterms, while the Iranian regime needs the income from potential sanctions relief.

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

​Brent crude oil, Gas prices, Iran conflict, Oil prices, Opec, Peace agreement, Saudi arabia, Politics 

It’s quite normal for basketball fans to point fingers at each other and tell them exactly how they feel.

Now, fans can back those comments up with some cold, hard statistics as data has come out showing which team’s fan base is the most hardcore, but only in the worst ways.

‘I cannot in good conscience contribute monetarily to this garbage.’

According to data from Action Network, the numbers are rather clear as to which group of NBA fans love making the most curse-filled and negative comments online.

The outlet analyzed over 1.6 million comments from NBA fan pages on the hyperactive forum site Reddit and found that in its two negative categories, Philadelphia 76ers fans were by far the worst of any NBA franchise.

More than 10.5% of 76ers fans’ comments contained swear words, almost 2 points higher than the second- and third-most mouthy fan bases (Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks fans), and were the only team to break the 10% barrier.

As if that weren’t enough, 76ers fans were also labeled the most negative group of supporters, with a whopping 31.67% of their comments carrying a negative tone. The Rockets’ fans were again second, and the Orlando Magic fan base was third.

This data tracks with the 76ers fans, who, at the time of this writing, had popular posts circulating like, “The misery never ends.”

One fan shared an email — allegedly sent to a 76ers team rep — expressing how much the fan thinks the team stinks and how the fan would never put money into the owner’s pocket for this “laughing stock” of a team.

“I would never put my hard earned dollars in the pocket of [owner Josh Harris]. … I cannot in good conscience contribute monetarily to this garbage,” the fan wrote.

At the same time, fans reposted a popular 2024 meme featuring 76ers player Kelly Oubre, which shows him calling several people a “bitch” during an altercation with the Los Angeles Clippers.

RELATED: Caitlin Clark’s coach rampages about ‘racism’ and ‘homophobia’ after on-court abuse: ‘So much more toxicity’

Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

“An analysis of over 1.6 million fan comments from the subreddits of all 30 NBA fandoms from the last 12 months found the Philadelphia 76ers to be both the most foul-mouthed NBA fandom” and “the most negative fandom,” an Action Network spokesman told Fearless.

A team that has slowly degraded its nicknames from the Answer to the Process to the FEDS over the years certainly lives up to the data in real life, too, not just online.

Popular YouTube channel Snapback Live said, “Sixers fans boo everything,” which appears to be true given the sheer quantity of videos showing the team’s supporters booing former player Ben Simmons in city streets.

There even exists video of a senior citizen 76ers fan telling rapper Lil Baby his team was “gonna kick your ass” while sitting courtside. Sixers fans not only start heckling at a very young age, but they are also willing to have it out with NBA greats like Kevin Durant.

Philly fans’ ornery reputation goes back more than a half-century as they notoriously once booed and threw snowballs at Santa Claus during halftime at an Eagles game in December of 1968.

RELATED: Jason Whitlock: Nike and the WNBA fumbled the Caitlin Clark phenomenon

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the fans of the Utah Jazz turned out to be the most polite NBA fans, with only 5.2% of their comments online containing swear words — less than half the percentage for 76ers fans.

Jazz fans were also determined to be the most positive NBA fandom, with almost 53% of their comments carrying a positive tone, one of only four teams to have more positive comments than negative. This included Brooklyn Nets fans (51.87%), Washington Wizards fans (50.80%), and Indiana Pacers fans (50.07%).

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

​Nba, Utah jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, Basketball, Santa claus, Philadelphia eagles, Sports 

As a Virginia farmer, I have spent years fighting regulatory overreach and corporate consolidation that hollow out rural America.

So when Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) recently led the effort to remove a pesticide-liability shield from the House farm bill, rural families had reason to cheer.

If we are serious about children’s health in rural America, we should examine whether newer technologies can reduce toxic exposures.

The provision would have given pesticide manufacturers such as Bayer broad protection from “failure to warn” lawsuits brought by Americans who allege glyphosate caused their cancer. It also would have limited the ability of states and local communities to establish no-spray zones near schools and weakened protections for waterways.

In other words, it was top-down federal overreach and a corporate handout disguised as “regulatory uniformity.” It had no place in legislation meant to serve farmers and rural families.

Luna’s amendment passed 280-142, with more than 70 House Republicans joining all but six Democrats.

Republicans such as Luna deserve credit for refusing to grant blanket immunity to corporations at the expense of American families. They also showed that Make America Healthy Again can become a governing philosophy — one that puts children, families, and farmers ahead of well-connected industries.

More than three years after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his presidential campaign and later joined forces with President Donald Trump, the MAHA movement continues to secure policy victories with consequences that families may feel for decades.

The pesticide fight is only one part of a much larger question. Once policymakers begin examining preventable chemical exposures, the issue does not stop at the edge of the field.

Former Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), a nurse and Tea Party leader, has noted that many of the same rural children whose schools and waterways Luna’s amendment would protect also spend hours each week riding older diesel school buses. Exposure to diesel exhaust has been linked to pediatric asthma, ADHD, and other health and developmental concerns.

If we are serious about children’s health in rural America, we should examine whether newer technologies can reduce those exposures.

That does not mean Washington should dictate transportation choices to rural districts. It means farmers and small-town families should have a seat at the table and access to resources when cleaner options, including electric school buses, become practical.

RELATED: Big Pharma’s miracle drugs have a nasty side effect

Bagira22/Getty Images

The American Lung Association projects more than $43,000 in health savings per electric bus through reductions in asthma attacks and respiratory illness. Electric buses are also substantially quieter than diesel models, which could benefit students with autism or sensory sensitivities.

Each community should weigh the costs and benefits for itself. But the issue deserves serious local consideration.

Rural water quality deserves the same attention.

A recent national analysis found that more than one in five Americans receive drinking water from systems with elevated nitrate levels associated with cancer and birth defects. Many of the hardest-hit communities are in agricultural regions.

Researchers and public health advocates have also raised concerns about PFAS “forever chemicals” contaminating farmland and groundwater, sometimes forcing farming operations to shut down.

Farmers understand better than anyone that stewardship has consequences. The land, water, and infrastructure we pass to the next generation will shape rural health long after today’s political battles are forgotten.

Reducing unnecessary exposures and modernizing aging infrastructure where it makes sense are practical, pro-family goals that fit squarely within the MAHA vision.

Luna and her colleagues showed that Congress can still deliver for rural American families when lawmakers put them ahead of corporate interests.

They should keep going.

​Cancer, Farmers, House republicans, Lawsuits, Rural america, Rural heathcare, Make america healthy again, Maha, Rfk jr, Children’s health, Opinion & analysis, Anna paulina luna 

Iran’s supreme leader for 36 years died in the opening strikes of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. On June 18, Trump and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding setting a 60-day clock for a final deal.

Those talks are now paused — not for negotiations, but to bury the man America’s war machine killed.

‘Trump’s killing is our duty.’

The six-day mourning period kicked off Friday, July 3. Foreign delegations arrived in Tehran, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who, at the funeral, called deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “a great scholar, a great leader” and said Pakistan and Iran would “march together under all circumstances.”

He has otherwise avoided taking a side, telling reporters in June that Iran’s leaders “genuinely mean to promote peace in the region” and that Trump is “a man of peace.”

By Sunday, the tone at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla turned from grief to open threat. Eulogist Mohammad Rasouli asked the crowd why “the most despicable man in the world” was still alive, calling the crowd to chant “Trump’s killing is our duty.” According to Newsweek, banners read “Kill Trump” and “Kill Bibi,” a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Fox News reported that mourners pelted an image of Trump with stones, in footage it obtained from Iranian state media; one poster read “There will be blood.” Mourner Fatima Hassan told Fox: “We are here for revenge.”

RELATED: Radicals beware: Florida to hit top Islamist and leftist groups with new ‘terrorist’ label

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Trump weighed in from Mount Rushmore on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, saying the U.S. had “knocked the hell out of Iran” and gave Tehran “a week off for a funeral.” In a separate Axios interview, he said the U.S. wouldn’t strike Iran’s assembled leadership since it would leave “nobody to negotiate with.”

Speaking separately from the Oval Office on Monday, he warned the U.S. could knock out Iran’s power plants and bridges within hours if Tehran won’t make a deal.

New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t appeared publicly since the strike that killed his father, amid unconfirmed speculation about his security or health.

Netanyahu disputed reports of a rift with Trump, saying they see “eye to eye” 99% of the time and Iran won’t get a nuclear weapon, “deal or no deal.” He also urged Trump not to readmit Turkey to the F-35 program, calling Ankara’s government “infected by the Muslim Brotherhood” — a request Trump appears set to ignore, with Erdoğan already claiming at the summit that he had been promised five of the jets.

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

​Assassination, Ayatollah ali khamenei, Benjamin netanyahu, Blaze news, Censors, Funeral, Iran, Iranian state media, Mojtaba khamenei, Mount rushmore, Netanyahu, Nuclear weapon, Revenge, Shehbaz sharif, Supreme leader, Usisrael war, Politics 

The days of the neighborhood children running with reckless abandon in the sprinkler out back appear to be long gone. Today we are a worried world, and we no longer rejoice when that golden celestial orb makes her appearance once again in the summer sky after being hidden away for far too long.

Today we fear the sun more than nuclear war, famine, or economic collapse combined. Yes, it’s that bad! The sun keeps us up at night fraught with concern about UV exposure, skin cancer, aging, and anything else that might remind us that we were indeed meant to live in the light and not cower in the dark.

There’s a theory that our ancestors never really got sunburned, unless they were stranded in the desert.

Of course I’m being dramatic for the sake of proving a point and because, well, it’s more fun to add a little poetry to our world and the way we see it. It’s also more fun to read, I hope.

But the truth is we are afraid of the sun. Not me, and hopefully not you, but someone is, and there are far too many someones out there.

Shirts and skins

I never realized how afraid people are of the sun until I had kids. Then, whenever we went to the playground, the park, the beach, or anywhere outside, I noticed that all the kids were hidden, covered, and protected from any and all rays that might emanate from the blue yonder above.

There were no UV protective “swim shirts” when I was a kid. Did not exist. At the risk of sounding like another complaining “back in my day” old person, I think it’s worth wondering why they appeared all of a sudden.

We go to the beach almost every day if it’s nice, and as I walk with my kids down the shore, we make note of what we see. We see a lot of kids in swim shirts. It will be 84 degrees and sunny, and they are wearing long-sleeve shirts in neon green, navy, and red.

My kids and their golden tans must appear like strange visitors from strange land, and I must seem like a reckless parent to the moms and dads who fastidiously apply SPF 7500 over an impenetrable swim shirt.

Mad hatters

You know those safari hats with the huge brims and the long tails that sit on the neck to protect the wearer from the hot African sun? You’ve probably seen them in old films depicting some adventure in the Sahara.

Well, I’ve seen them on the playground. Moms carefully placing the hat, tying it around the neck, and calling after their children not to take it off. I can confidently say that my children have never, and will never, be found wearing the safari hat on the swings or the slides.

I understand skin cancer is real. I know that getting burned to a crisp and having to apply that sweet green aloe vera lotion before bed isn’t exactly anyone’s idea of a good time. Although I must say I do love the smell of that aloe and appreciate the soothing relief it bestows upon the body.

But these scenes I describe are not scenes witnessed in the Mojave desert after 14 hours in the blistering sun or the Arabian peninsula on 117-degree day. I’ve seen all this in Northern Michigan, where the the temperatures aren’t even that hot and the sun isn’t even that strong.

I know that different people have different genetics. I saw a kid with fire-red hair and skin the color of Greek yogurt at the beach the other day. My kids with their brown hair and golden skin are probably a little more suited to the sun. I am aware of that. But still, my kids are European and relatively fair, all things considered, and there were red-haired Irish kids when I was in second grade and none of them wore swim shirts. Sunscreen, yes; swim shirts, no.

RELATED: Sun’s out, guns out: Finally, therapy even men can enjoy

Jason Connolly/Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Indoor generation

I’ve thought about this a lot, and while I do think there is an element of safety-ism involved with this new trend to treat the sun as if it’s a wicked villain whose main aim is to scorch our kith and kin, I think the real reason why there are more swim shirts and sun-fearing families than ever before comes down to the television and the iPad.

Simply put, more people and more kids are spending more time inside than any of us ever did before. And because they are spending so much time on the iPad and in front of the television rather than outside in the great outdoors, they are lily white in the middle of summer. And so when they decide to venture out into that blazing day, they burn like a crisp. It’s too much all at once. Of course you are going to burn bad if you never see the sun.

There’s a theory that our ancestors never really got sunburned unless they were stranded in the desert. Basically the idea is that in our agrarian past, we spent more time outdoors, and if you spend more time outdoors all year round, you will get used to the sun gradually as it gets stronger over the course of the spring. You develop a natural tan slowly, and once July arrives, your skin will be ready.

Sunshine superman

Our ancestors were like a potato slowly warming in a pre-heating oven. The pale indoor-dwellers of today are like pieces of raw dough tossed into a deep fryer. No wonder they burn, and no wonder they fear their day in the sun.

I never put sunscreen on my kids, and they never burn. I believe it’s because they spend so much time outside. They are similar to our agrarian ancestors (and every single kid in America before the year 2000) in that way. They get used to the yellow rays gradually as spring blooms, and so by the time July comes, they can enjoy the beach like normal human beings, without a swim shirt or a safari hat.

I do hope I am not being too cruel to the parents who cover their children head to toe in July. I know they are just doing their best like I’m doing my best; their best is just different from mine. But perhaps all the sun protection, sunscreen, and fear might be avoided if the kids just got outside a little more.

​The root of the matter, Lifestyle, Culture 

The human cost of illegal immigration took center stage during a contentious Capitol Hill hearing on sanctuary cities, where the mother of a young woman allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant confronted Democrats like Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) — who made it clear she couldn’t care less.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales explains that Sheridan Gorman “was allegedly gunned down by an illegal from Venezuela. She was walking through a park in Chicago. She made the most terrible decision to just walk through a park where she lived. That’s it. And she was killed.”

“And her mother has had enough of these Democrats who just are simping for the illegal criminals. Meanwhile, they don’t seem to give a s**t about her daughter or any of the other ones who have been killed by these illegals,” she adds.

The mother pointed out that it appears to only be the “Republican side that cares about our American children,” before delivering her heartbreaking response to Democrats fighting for illegal immigrants.

“I know that you’re a mother. I know that you’re a father. I deeply value that. But basically what you just did, what you said was, ‘I’m so sorry for your loss. I have a daughter, too. I have a son. I feel your pain,’” the mother told Democrats in the hearing.

“You don’t feel my pain, because the next words out of your mother were ‘but.’ There’s no ‘but.’ When your child is in a coffin, there’s no but. And I need you to understand that. And if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here,” she continued.

“I’m going to buy Congress a bench. And they can come and sit and hold my hand and look me in the eye and explain to me why illegal immigrants are more important than my daughter,” she added.

And Pramila Jayapal couldn’t have sounded less interested in the tragedy.

“Unfortunately, this hearing is, it’s the fourth time in this committee that we’ve had a hearing on sanctuary cities. The fourth time. And there’s many other things that we could be doing other than this,” she said.

“Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am. Are we taking up too much of your time? It’s just that people’s daughters are dying because you guys won’t stop letting illegal criminals in our country,” Gonzales comments, disgusted.

“Not only do they not care about murdered American children; clearly, Pramila Jayapal has better things to do,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Illegal immigration, Pramila jayapal, Sanctuary cities, Sara gonzales, Sheridan gorman, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) says Republicans are squandering a golden opportunity to pass the SAVE Act and secure America’s elections — even though they have enough power to do it.

“We control the House, the Senate, and the White House,” Luna says to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck. “And yet you have a group of four Republicans in the Senate, and really John Thune, who has every ability to enforce the talking filibuster and just doesn’t want to do it.”

“If you’re going to continue the cycle of insanity, then you can’t complain about it,” she continues. “But that’s why I’m taking such a hard-line position on what I’m doing right now — with, by the way, other members of Congress.”

“This is not just my fight. I mean, you have members of the Freedom Caucus, Representative Tim Burchett, Max Miller, all these members are saying, ‘Hey, hold up. We have the ability to, in the text of the National Defense Authorization Act, put the Save America Act,’” she says. “And yet, why are we not doing it?”

Luna, who is a veteran, points out that voter ID and proof of citizenship have always been important to national defense and security — but the Democrats are pretending it’s not.

“It is Chuck Schumer saying he wants to give citizenship to millions of illegal people here. It is the fact that it doesn’t matter if it’s one or one hundred or a thousand cases of voter fraud,” she says. “Why would you not want to secure that?”

While the left will claim the “Trump machine” will steal the next election, Luna points out that voter ID would fix that too.

“Even aside from that, even aside from party politics, black, white, Hispanic, Democrat, Republican, independent, men, women, we all want voter ID,” she continues. “Period.”

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.

​Anna paulina luna, Chuck schumer, Donald trump, Glenn beck, House, John thune, National defense authorization act, Republicans, Save act, Save america act, Senate, Voter id, The glenn beck program 

Politicians and bureaucrats routinely claim that America is experiencing a historic drop in crime and that, in many parts of the country, the streets have never been safer. Yet for everyday citizens who see boarded-up storefronts and brazen daylight robberies, there’s an unsettling sense that the reality on the ground tells an entirely different story.

This is not a matter of misperception. As Anna Giaritelli, a seasoned homeland security reporter for the Washington Examiner, details in her book “Under Assault,” the numbers being fed to the public are systematically manipulated.

‘You don’t know what you don’t know until you find out the hard way sometimes.’

Giaritelli experienced this firsthand when moving to Washington, D.C. Carefully examining official data was a priority during the neighborhood search. “I looked at the crime stats before I moved to Capitol Hill,” she told me, “and selected my home there based on blocks on Capitol Hill that were the safest and showed the least amount of crime incidents.”

Off the map

What she didn’t know was that the Metropolitan Police Department’s public crime map didn’t show the whole picture. It only displayed first-degree and select second-degree felonies. Most felonies and misdemeanors were entirely absent. In other words, the map only flagged major, headline-grabbing crimes like homicides or armed robberies. It completely skipped over everyday break-ins, property theft, and assaults.

“Whether it’s a resident or a business owner, people base their decisions on where to move on that crime map,” Giaritelli argues.

“And not to include all crimes shows an inaccurate picture of the state of public safety in D.C. I would not have moved to this block had I known the real extent of crime in the area. I’d argue Washington, D.C., officials are liable for misleading the public, particularly victims like myself who they knowingly deceive.”

When local governments sanitize data, families buy homes in dangerous areas and entrepreneurs invest life savings in storefronts that are highly vulnerable. By blinding the public, officials make it impossible to accurately assess risk, leaving citizens exposed.

Anna Giaritelli

Widespread issue

For individuals living in quiet suburbs or rural towns, spiking urban crime rates can seem like someone else’s problem. It is tempting to look at the mayhem in major metropolitan areas and assume it stays within city limits.

However, the manipulation of this data is a widespread issue that ignores municipal borders.

“I think city crime stats matter for everyone, regardless of whether they live in a suburb or rural America,” Giaritelli warns. “You don’t know what you don’t know until you find out the hard way sometimes.”

The methods used by big-city bureaucrats to improve their public image are easily exported. Whether in a small town or a massive coastal metropolis, police departments and municipal leaders answer to the same political pressures to show downward trends. If they learn they can rewrite reality with the stroke of a pen, they will.

As Giaritelli observes, a resident may not find out a town is doing this “until you become a victim and go looking for your stat, only to find you didn’t meet the threshold to be counted.” It remains unknown how deep or widespread this miscounting truly is across America.

RELATED: ‘Citizen Vigilante’: A cinematic hand grenade lobbed at the cathedral of liberal pieties

bollfilms.com

Collapse of public trust

This growing awareness has fueled a massive pushback. Giaritelli’s petition demanding absolute crime data transparency has received nearly 20,000 signatures. This groundswell signals a deeper crisis marked by the collapse of public trust in institutional data.

Public safety is one of the rare issues that unites most people across the political aisle. Sure, there is a loud faction of progressives who would gladly replace the local police force with hug-dispensing, gender-fluid therapists, but the vast majority, just like conservatives, want law and order. At the end of the day, everyday citizens simply want safe neighborhoods. But when government statistics become fiction, the entire justice system breaks down.

Giaritelli lays out the structural domino effect:

We can’t properly fund the public safety, the judicial system, and the prisons and jails in our communities if we don’t know how much crime is actually occurring. Covering up crime stats causes problems throughout the system. If we don’t know how much crime there is, we cannot plan and adequately respond to it.

When cities hide numbers, they intentionally starve the system of resources. Giaritelli points out the real-world cost:. In D.C., underfunding led to a severe lack of jail space. A violent offender arrested in her area was released the very next day. He lived blocks from her apartment. He went on to be arrested five more times before going to trial, and each time, the judge released him right back onto the streets due to a lack of space.

If those crimes aren’t counted, she notes, “then we’re not setting an annual budgets for the next year to take into account the need for jail space, the need for victims funding, and the need for more police.”

When citizens can no longer trust official government statistics, decision-making becomes distorted. Budgets become less reliable, serious crimes may be undercounted, and law-abiding families ultimately bear the consequences.

Punishing the victims

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation in “Under Assault” is how Giaritelli discovered this institutional gaslighting.

In April 2020, Giaritelli was walking to the post office just blocks from the U.S. Capitol when she was physically and sexually assaulted on a public sidewalk in broad daylight. Her attacker was eventually caught and sent to federal prison. Later, while working on a routine newsroom assignment evaluating D.C. crime trends, she decided to look up her own incident on the city’s official crime map.

There was no mark. No pin. Nothing.

“When I contacted D.C. police to inquire about my specific assault, I was told that it did not meet the threshold to be counted by D.C. police on the crime map.”

A citizen was sexually assaulted, the perpetrator was convicted in a federal court and sent to prison, yet according to the city’s public-facing ledger, the crime never happened.

To make matters worse, the police department removed individual incident pins entirely. In their place, they covered the city map in vague, shifting shades of color to denote general crime levels. It is a clear case of bureaucratic deception. By erasing distinct markers, they make it completely impossible for a victim to verify whether an assault was ever officially counted. Giaritelli knows this only too well, even as many Americans remain unaware of the highly unethical practice.

When institutions trusted with safety care more about protecting their public image than protecting human lives, the system is actively hostile to the truth. The next time an official stands behind a podium and claims crime is down, it’s worth listening. But it’s also worth verifying it for yourself.

​Crime, Washington dc, Anna giaritelli, Books, Interview, Lifestyle, Culture 

Support for Democratic Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner is rapidly crumbling within his own party just a day after Politico reported on a sexual assault allegation made by a woman who once dated him.

In a joint statement released on Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) called for Platner “to immediately withdraw as the Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate.”

‘In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.’

“The DSCC will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot,” they added, threatening a major funding stream.

As of Tuesday, Platner has lost a significant amount of his top endorsements as a plethora of senators withdraw their support and echo calls for him to withdraw from the race.

Those senators include Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

This wave of defections comes after many Democratic leaders continuously stood by Platner following earlier allegations and controversies, including a now-covered-up chest tattoo that resembled a symbol used by Nazi concentration camp guards, sexually explicit messages he sent to several women while married, and past Reddit posts in which he downplayed sexual assault in the military.

“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine. In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside,” said Sanders, a longtime supporter of Platner, in a statement. Just over a month ago, on Memorial Day weekend, Sanders headlined a “Fight Oligarchy” rally for Platner in Maine.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who also previously supported Platner’s campaign, released a statement on social media: “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Maine Democratic nominee for governor Hannah Pingree is also pushing for Platner to “exit the race immediately,” adding that he is “no longer that candidate” best suited to defeat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R) in November’s general election.

The increasingly influential New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, though he never officially endorsed Platner, joined his fellow Democrats in their calls on Tuesday.

“I believe that it’s time for him to drop out of the race,” he told reporters from City Hall.

According to Politico, Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin and Senate Majority PAC have additionally both withdrawn their backing for Platner’s candidacy, dealing a major blow to his establishment support.

RELATED: ‘Taking time to reflect’: Graham Platner responds to most recent sexual misconduct allegations against him

Mel Musto/Bloomberg/Getty Images

In light of the report, Platner issued a two-minute video response on Monday in which he denied the allegation against him, describing it as “troubling, serious, and false,” adding that “any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”

Noting the seriousness of the allegation, however, Platner made a remark that has prompted voters across the country to speculate on his future plans for the campaign.

“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins,” he said.

While no definitive statement on his next move was made, Platner did promise to keep fighting for the base of supporters he amassed over the duration of his candidacy.

“On June 9, 154,058 Mainers — the most in primary history — voted to reject a broken politics beholden to Washington and the donor class. They voted for hope, for change, to take back our economy, to take back our power, and to take back our Senate seat.”

According to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics & Election Practices, July 13 is the deadline for Platner to withdraw from the race while still allowing Maine voters to select a replacement candidate.

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

​Democratic party, Graham platner, Sexual assault allegation, Politics 

Florida sheriff’s deputies arrested a dozen adults and three juveniles who were stealing food and drinks late last month from the Davenport Wawa located on Old Lake Wilson Road, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said, adding that a 16th suspect was arrested during the investigation for interfering with deputies while they were detaining the theft suspects.

Store employees contacted the sheriff’s office after observing the suspects walking around the store and concealing bottled drinks and food within their clothes on June 26, officials said.

‘This is a classic case of people who came to our county, fooled around, and found out.’

The suspects all appeared to know each other and arrived at the store in three vehicles — a BMW, a Tesla, and a Honda Accord, officials said.

The suspects — a mix of young adults and juveniles — were taking turns going into and out of the store during a 15-minute time span, officials said, with some of them eating and drinking the items they stole.

They also coordinated the caper by blocking the clerks’ view while accomplices committed thefts, officials said.

The employees gave deputies detailed descriptions of the suspects and their cars, and the suspects were still at the Wawa in the parking lot preparing to leave when deputies arrived, officials said.

Deputies secured all the suspects, interviewed them, recovered some of the stolen items that had not yet been consumed, and collected empty bottles and packages of the items they had consumed, officials said.

All of the suspects admitted to taking the items, the sheriff’s office said.

The items that were stolen and/or consumed were: Calypso drinks, Brisk iced tea, a bag of Cheetos, and a Ramen soup — a total value of about $40, officials said.

Deputies retrieved surveillance video from the store as well showing the coordinated thefts, officials said.

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

During the investigation, a male who did not appear to be with or know any of the suspects approached and began yelling at the group of theft suspects to not cooperate with or speak to the deputies, officials said.

Deputies told Jayden Murphy, 18, of Pomona Park to move away or leave the area so the deputies could continue with their investigation — but he refused, officials said.

Murphy was arrested for violating the “Halo Law” and was charged with two counts of harassing first responders and two counts of resisting arrest, officials said.

Florida’s Halo Law establishes a 25-foot buffer zone around active law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel, officials said, adding that bystanders who intentionally enter or remain in the buffer area after receiving verbal warnings may be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor.

Officials said the 15 suspects who committed the thefts are:

Angel Quintero, 19, of Winter Springs;Genaiya Saintira, 18, of Hollywood;Valencia Saul, 19, of Lantana;Pervaysia Laster, 20, of Boynton Beach;Shenia Smith, 19, of Parkland;Lillian Brown, 19, of Hollywood;Sterllin Hyppolite, 18, of Lauderdale Lakes;Davends Clerge, 21, of Boynton Beach;Garvens Clerge, 18, of Boynton Beach;Schneider Joseph, 22, of Lantana;Richemond Seraphin, 21, of Lantana;William Butler, 18, of Lake Worth;Lorendy Sanon, 17, of Boynton Beach;Berlinda Saul, 17, of Lake Worth; andJaneen Gonzalez — 17 on the day of the arrest, 18 now — of Palm Beach.

“This is a classic case of people who came to our county, fooled around, and found out,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “Now they’re all facing charges because they found it perfectly acceptable to go into the Wawa, grab what they wanted, and consume it without paying for it.”

All of the adult suspects were taken to the Polk County Jail, and the three juveniles were taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center, officials said.

They all were charged with misdemeanor petit theft and felony tampering with evidence, officials said, adding that the 12 adults also were charged with misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Schneider Joseph also was charged with misdemeanor probation violation, officials said, adding that Angel Quintero, Pervaysia Laster, and Davends Clerge also were charged with possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia, both misdemeanors, after deputies found drugs in the BMW they occupied.

Officials said all 15 theft suspects had been staying in an Airbnb and visiting Polk County from other Florida counties.

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

​Florida, Wawa, Polk county sheriff’s office, Grady judd, Theft, Felonies, Tampering with evidence, Crime 

Bryan Johnson, the transhumanist founder of the neurotechnology company Kernel, sold his digital payments company Braintree to eBay Inc. for $800 million in 2013, then pursued his bio-hacking obsession headlong, tinkering with his body in the hope of pausing the aging process and potentially even evading death.

In a 2023 interview with Bloomberg, Johnson revealed that in addition to staying out of the sun, he was preparing to invest at least $2 million on his body with the aim of having the body and organs — penis and rectum included — of an 18-year-old. To this end, he hired a team of over 30 doctors and health experts to monitor his every bodily function.

‘My stomach is eating itself.’

“What I do may sound extreme, but I’m trying to prove that self-harm and decay are not inevitable,” Johnson said just months before supplementing his usual supply of rejuvenating plasma from so-called blood boys with blood from his son.

Johnson, who calls himself “the healthiest person alive” and founded the “Don’t Die” health cult, revealed last week that he has been diagnosed with an incurable disease.

“Bad news #1: I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself,” the middle-aged transhumanist wrote in an X post.

“Good news: I’m going to try and solve it,” he added.

Johnson suggested that he developed autoimmune gastritis during a period in his life when he was juggling “stress and grind” and let his health slip.

Autoimmune gastritis is an inherited chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when an individual’s immune system attacks their stomach lining cells. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this condition can lead to an increased risk of developing small neuroendocrine tumors in the stomach and an increased risk of gastric cancer.

RELATED: Transhumanism is coming to destroy the human soul

© CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images

“I just discovered it in May. I’m unsure how long I’ve had it,” the transhumanist said. “AIG causes irreversible damage: nutritional deficiency, anemia, and over a long horizon, elevated cancer risk. When AIG is discovered today, standard medical care concedes defeat, stating that nothing can be done except managing the condition, no matter how awful or lethal the effects.”

Johnson indicated further that his supposedly healthy living regimen failed to address his low iron levels.

‘Bro so busy trying to not die he forgot how to live.’

Autoimmune gastritis destroys the stomach’s parietal cells, which reduces secretion of the gastric acid required for absorption of inorganic iron.

Only after the supposed “healthiest person alive” overhauled his medical team and underwent further testing was his incurable condition revealed.

While there is presently no cure for autoimmune gastritis, Johnson said that he and his team are “going to try and solve my AIG.”

Johnson’s non-terminal diagnosis appears to have only worsened his health obsession.

“We fill our days mostly on things that are trivial next to what we ultimately care about. We know, deep down, however, that in the noise of it all, health is easily forgotten until it’s the only thing that matters,” the transhumanist wrote.

Bryan did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

Following his disease reveal, Johnson lashed out at those whose who, according to his paraphrase, suggested that “bro so busy trying to not die he forgot how to live.”

In response, the transhumanist offered a pessimistic and reductive interpretation of the world, suggesting that people ultimately construct personas to shield themselves “from the terror of their inevitable death,” then “to make this irreconcilable pain invisible to themselves, they dissolve themselves into the group and enact its rituals.”

He proceeded to characterize himself as a heroic figure — the “abstainer” from “societal death rituals” who “reveals to the room that they are drunk.”

According to the transhumanist — who takes hundreds of pills a day, follows a strict plant-based diet, has injected some of his son’s blood, and has spent a fortune in a futile attempt to stave off the inevitable — Johnson’s critics aren’t troubled by his decisions but by “their reflection in the mirror.”

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

​Bryan johnson, Transhumanism, Aging, Death, Disease, Health, Bio-hacking, Technology, Gastritis, Autoimmune, Blood boy, Weirdo, Politics 

We covered why you should educate your kids at home in part 1.

Now we’re going to cover the “how,” which involves sparking your child’s interest and imagination from as early an age as possible. Three things will help you meet this goal enjoyably and effectively.

My number-one book recommendation for parents, right from the start, is to obtain a really good guide to children’s books.

Let’s start with what is the 100% most important thing to do. The most effective way to spark learning for young children is so simple, and it’s good for you, the parent, as well.

1. Go outside

The more time children spend exploring the outdoors, the more their curiosity is piqued and the more they learn. And this learning is the best learning, through their God-given senses.

Don’t skimp on outside time. Go out several times a day, weather permitting, and don’t rush them back inside. Walks are great!

Nature provides the best classroom, wherever you live (or visit): beauty, colors, and patterns to see; birdsong and leaves rustling and dogs barking to hear; cool breezes and warm sun to feel; velvety flower petals and rough bark to touch; and (with supervision!) fresh berries or tomatoes from the garden to taste.

Side note: Play is a child’s first job, and outdoor play is the best workplace. Playing with your children (out or inside) is one of your most important jobs, too. Laughing and enjoying each other should happen often each day!

So introduce them to the glories outside your door, let them experience it, and give them language to describe it. Don’t worry; this is what we naturally do when we’re present outside with kids. “See the pretty flower?” And, as age-appropriate: “What color is it? Feel how soft it is! No, we don’t want to pick it — let’s let it keep growing here.”

Which brings me to the second-most important part of your child’s curriculum.

2. Talk. About everything.

You will be rewarded with a more verbal child, earlier, who can share his/her thoughts and needs more effectively.

Talk to your children outside, talk to them inside, talk to them while they’re eating, talk to them during diaper changes.

Point things out, describe them in adult language, ask them to name the things you’re pointing out.

This starts with nouns (“See the ball? Can you say ball?”) but eventually they’ll be able to add adjectives (“purple ball”) and other parts of speech, leading eventually to phrases and sentences.

Side note: Treasure each adorable mis-pronunciation (yeah, get those on video if you can for the grandparents), but continue saying the words properly. Don’t correct them — just say them properly when you say them. They’ll get it.

3. Help them learn to love books

The last subject in our must-have preschool curriculum is “Introduction to Books.”

Books — hard-copy books that children can touch — should be introduced from the very beginning.

Cloth books made for teething babies are plentiful, and by all means let them gum away on them — but also turn the pages and show them the pictures, again speaking about what they’re seeing (“See the black square?”).

Books made of waterproof material are available for bath time, as well. These “chewable” books tend to be mostly images, which is what you want, for these purposes. You won’t really be “reading” them as much as describing them.

Board books will carry you through the first few years, when children aren’t yet able to be gentle with “regular” books. These should have brief, simple text and colorful, interesting images. Invest in a library of these, because you will use them over and over.

There are some time-tested classic board books (see list below) and quite a few that are outstanding for bedtime (again, see suggestions). You should keep board books in every location where your child might want a story! But keep the bedtime books separate, since they often become part of your bedtime routine (remember our principle of “order”).

Also, do teach them to respect their books. Discourage throwing or standing on them — “let’s treat our books nicely” is a lesson they need to learn so they can move on to picture books. This is the category of regular children’s books (with regular, tearable pages!) that we are aiming our children to be able to enjoy.

This level has so many good selections (again, see suggestions below) that you will probably run out of childhood before you run out of books. Again, you can have bedtime books, books for the car, books for different rooms. You can’t have too many books. (Well, that might be an exaggeration, but as a book lover, I defend my right to push this idea.)

We haven’t talked about content of board or picture books yet, so a few quick notes. First, I have seen a tendency for Christian board books to include concepts that simply aren’t appropriate for board-book-age children. As a grandparent, I ordered a couple of recommended board books and found the text of one of them to be far too advanced for a toddler; another was better but still included ideas that I deemed too much for a young child.

While I’m warning about Christian books (of all things), let me point out the obvious — the world is full of children’s books that are inappropriate in every way for any child, and that certainly includes yours. Before buying, I recommend that you quickly read through every page and scan the images (good habit if you use the library, too).

RELATED: Patriotic heresy: 4 examples of tangling faith with the flag

Tom Williams/Getty Images

What to keep out of your home (and a bonus arts curriculum idea)

Since we’re talking about things to avoid, here’s one that will probably involve some discipline on your part. But the truth is, your child could go without any screen time for the first 5 or 6 years of his/her life and be the better for it. Andy Crouch’s book “The Tech-Wise Family” suggests no screens till age 10.

Studies demonstrate that screen time is a net negative for young children, so don’t create a habit that will be painful to halt. If you have already allowed it, pull back now — the sooner the better.

Don’t read Kindle children’s books. Don’t let them play video games. Don’t teach them they need a screen to be entertained.

You may have to teach them this by example. GET OFF YOUR PHONE.

Do you want a child who wants to sit in front of a screen being entertained? Or do you want a child who loves to play and learn outside, talk to you, and spend time reading books together?

I cannot state this any more clearly: SCREENS BAD.

However, there is one way you can use your TV for a net benefit. Play symphony orchestra performances (easy to find on YouTube). Your children may learn what musical instruments look like, but more to the point, this will provide outstanding early music education as they listen during daily activities and while they play.

Your first curriculum purchases

What follows is a brief selection of really good books you may find helpful, in a number of categories.

Very first books

You won’t have any trouble finding cloth or bath-time books. Sensory books, with textures the child can touch, are also great starters, like:

“See, Touch, Feel: A First Sensory Book” by Roger Priddy

Board books

Just about anything by Sandra Boynton. Favorites:

“Moo, Baa, La La La” (also a Christmas version, “Moo, Baa, Fa La La La La”)“The Going to Bed Book”

Since we just mentioned a bedtime book, just a couple of must-haves:

“Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey (it ends with the ducklings settling down for a peaceful night’s sleep after an adventure!)“Big Red Barn” by Margaret Wise Brown“Sleepyheads” by Sandra J. Howatt

A couple of Christian board books that are more age-appropriate:

“God Cares for Me” by Kristen Wetherell“Don’t Forget to Remember” by Ellie Holcomb

Classic picture books

Just a few favorites:

“Each Peach Pear Plum” by Janet and Allan Ahlberg“Dear Zoo” by Rod Campbell“The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister“Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel” by Virginia Lee Burton“Millions of Cats” by Wanda Gág“The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault“Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina“Curious George” by H.A. Rey“Harry the Dirty Dog” by Gene Zion“Ox-Cart Man” by Donald Hall and Barbara Cooney“Mr. Gumpy’s Outing” by John Burningham“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle“Freight Train” by Donald Crews“The Carrot Seed” by Ruth Krauss“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

Many of these authors have more than one classic book, so browse their other titles as well. And, of course, there are thousands of other outstanding picture books. So many books, so little time!

Guides to children’s books

My number-one book recommendation for parents, right from the start, is to obtain a really good guide to children’s books. All of the volumes below are excellent, and I don’t think it’s going overboard to have all of them in your personal home library. And yeah, these can be on your Kindle, if you prefer!

“Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life” by Gladys Hunt“Books Children Love” by Elizabeth Wilson“Read for the Heart: Whole Books for WholeHearted Families” by Sarah Clarkson“Books that Build Character” by William Kilpatrick

Congratulations!

You have just completed Home Education 101 — the Preschool Edition. Everything you need to know to prepare and get started “homeschooling” your precious littles:

Take them outsideTalk to themLove books with them

You cannot beat this combination.

A version of this essay previously appeared at She Speaks Truth.

​Homeschooling, Home education, Christianity, Godly family, Christian living, Education, Parenthood, Faith 

A loss to Belgium should not overshadow remarkable achievements and accomplishments by the United States as one of the World Cup host countries.

While the tournament is over for the United States, current and former players are trying to let fans know that this isn’t the end, but rather the start of what will be a more competitive future for the sport in America.

‘Hold your head high, and don’t for a second stop dreaming.’

Things fell apart at the end of the round-of-16 match against Belgium on Monday, with U.S. Soccer eventually losing 4-1. However, star players like Christian Pulisic said they were disappointed in their performance and thought the team did not reach its full potential.

“I’m disappointed with myself, of course, but I’m going to try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things, and the team did as well,” Pulisic said after the game, per ESPN.

After calling it an “unfortunate way to finish,” Pulisic said while he fell short of the moments he was hoping to have, he believed the team was on its way to getting to that next level.

Former U.S. players stepped in on Monday to back that reality up and said the sport and team is in a way better spot than when the tournament started.

“You can’t get away from talk shows talking about soccer, the U.S. men’s national team, talking about these individuals and how brilliant they’ve been,” former USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan said, according to Fox Sports.

“They should be extremely proud of what they’ve been able to do,” he added.

RELATED: Referee at center of World Cup red-card scandal was investigated for match-fixing in Brazil

In a tournament that saw a seemingly unlimited amount of celebrity endorsements from the likes of Jay-Z, Tom Cruise, and more, the game of soccer seems to have been elevated to a place that hasn’t been seen in the United States.

This is what so many former players urged hardcore fans to think about, including former midfielder Maurice Edu, who said, “The bigger picture still exists.”

His message to the team included, “Hold your head high, and don’t for a second stop dreaming, stop daring yourself to be the best version of this national team that we’ve ever seen. Don’t, for a second, ever, question what your ability is and what the standard is.”

Another former USA goalkeeper, Tim Howard, echoed that sentiment, declaring on his YouTube channel that the team “brought this country to new heights” and should be praised for what they did for soccer in the United States.

“This team should be proud, should be proud of what they achieved together. … This country backed our team. They gave what they had and came up short,” Howard concluded.

RELATED: Report: Trump personally involved in FIFA overturning USA player’s suspension

Michael Miller/ISI Photos/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Many agree that the game U.S. Soccer put on the field attracted more fans than ever before, with former U.S. midfielder Sacha Kljestan saying it brought him pride to see “a lot of young kids out there and a lot of fans.”

Kljestan focused on “that casual sports fan that locked in on this team and was so excited to watch them play. That was special.”

The casual fan was certainly brought out when looking at online engagement, where even CNN anchor Jim Sciutto made a patriotic X post saying the team had triumphant moments and, at times, “looked magical.”

Other fans said they had never seen the United States “dominate games like they did this World Cup.”

Wrapping up what seemed to be the most prominent takeaway from experts, another fan wrote on X, “The USMNT is young.”

“They need to build physical strength and get the experience. … Dropping out at the round of 16 is not embarrassing.”

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

​Fifa, Sports, Us soccer, World cup