Category: blaze media

After what could have been a devastating school shooting like that at Columbine High School in 1999, one Oklahoma town is praising a hero rather than mourning this week.

On Tuesday afternoon at Pauls Valley High School in Oklahoma, an armed suspect entered the school with the intent to kill.

‘Principal Moore acted bravely to protect students’ lives.’

However, the shooting was quickly thwarted when Principal Kirk Moore sprang into action.

The suspect entered the school near the principal’s office. The suspect reportedly drove his truck with two pistols to the school, entered the building, ordered everyone to get on the ground, and attempted to fire one of the guns.

RELATED: Teens definitely pick wrong homeowner to ‘ding-dong ditch’; cops say he came out of house with gun, opened fire after prank

DAVID PASHAEE/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

However, the gun did not fire at first.

Moore was then able to subdue the shooter, doubtlessly saving a number of lives in the process. He was shot in the leg as he restrained the shooter, though the injury is reportedly minor and Moore is expected to make a recovery.

“Hug your children extra close tonight. After the events of today, I am so appreciative for the brave actions of our high school Principal Kirk Moore and his staff. He undoubtedly saved lives today through his actions,” Pauls Valley Councilman Kahn Nirschl told News 9.

“Principal Moore acted bravely to protect students’ lives. Sarah and I are praying for his quick recovery. I’m thankful for the swift response from law enforcement and school staff, and I’m grateful no students were harmed,” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) said in a statement.

KOCO News reported that the suspect, identified as former Pauls Valley student Victor Hawkins, told investigators that he planned to kill students, faculty, and then himself. He also allegedly told investigators that he had “every intention of re-enacting what happened at Columbine.”

Classes at the high school were canceled on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

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​Politics, Pauls valley high school, Kirk moore, Principal kirk moore, Columbine high school, Columbine shooting, Governor kevin stitt, Kevin stitt, Oklahoma, Shooting, School shooting, Hero 

A massive fire at a Southern California warehouse was allegedly sparked by a man who compared himself to Luigi Mangione, the man accused of executing a health care CEO.

The conflagration on Tuesday completely destroyed a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and caused over half a billion dollars in damages, according to a statement from Bill Essayli, the first assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California.

‘We will not tolerate political activists who resort to violence to advance their ideology.’

Video later surfaced showing the alleged arsonist lighting fires inside the warehouse while mocking the company for not paying its employees enough to live on.

“If you’re not going to pay us enough to f**king live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this s**t,” the man records himself saying as he lights packages of toilet paper on fire.

The concept of a “living wage” is one extolled by left-wing activists including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

On Friday, Essayli said there was other evidence pointing to a political motivation for the alleged arsonist, who was identified as 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim of Highland.

“Abdulkarim filmed himself setting merchandise on fire inside the warehouse and made statements criticizing capitalism and large corporations,” Essayli wrote. “He also compared himself to accused murderer Luigi Mangione.”

Mangione allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on the streets of Manhattan in Dec. 2024. The shooting was caught on surveillance video and became a cause célèbre for far-left critics of capitalism.

Essayli said Abdulkarim was charged with “arson of a building used in interstate and foreign commerce and used in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce.” If convicted, Abdulkarim faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

He included the video that Abdulkarim allegedly recorded of himself lighting the fires.

There were no injuries from the fire.

RELATED: Viral video shows alleged arson attack on rumored ICE facility in Kansas City — mayor expresses outrage against ICE

One worker at the warehouse said he did not suspect Abdulkarim at all and believed the robots were to blame for the fire.

“There was no suspicion that it was him; actually he was missing. So everyone was trying to find him,” Alex Montero of San Bernardino said to KABC-TV. “Everyone was blaming the robots at first. We were almost 100% sure it was the robots until the action in the video, of course.”

“We will not tolerate political activists who resort to violence to advance their ideology,” Essayli added.

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​Ontario warehouse fire, Chamel abdulkarim arson, Arson attack over living wages, Ceo killer mangione, Politics 

The recent announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran has been met with a striking rhetorical divergence within the American executive.

President Trump has been quick to frame the pause as a moment of total capitulation. Yet thousands of miles away in Budapest, Vice President JD Vance has offered a far more somber assessment.

In the world of power politics, the most effective strategy is often the one that keeps the adversary off balance.

Describing the agreement as a “fragile truce,” Vance warned that the deal is being misrepresented by hard-liners in Tehran who are “lying about even the fragile truce that we’ve already struck.” This is not merely a case of a disorganized administration; it is the emergence of JD Vance as the necessary realist anchor in a high-stakes diplomatic gamble.

For years, the critique of American foreign policy has been its lack of internal coherence. But the Trump-Vance dynamic represents a different model. It is a form of strategic skepticism that allows the administration to pursue diplomacy without appearing naive.

In this arrangement, Vance has taken on the role of the “adult in the Situation Room,” providing a counterweight to the president’s natural inclination for the grand, celebratory deal.

The necessity of Vance’s skepticism becomes clear when one examines the Iranian response to the ceasefire. While the president speaks of a “workable basis” for peace, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been careful to frame the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz not as a surrender, but as a regulated passage under continued Iranian coordination.

Araghchi’s insistence that “the era of Western dictation is over” suggests that Tehran views this two-week window as a tactical regrouping. By publicly doubting the “good faith” of the adversary, Vance provides the administration with the political space to explore a deal while maintaining the credible threat of escalation.

RELATED: I saw the sky light up over Dubai. The real shock came next.

AFP/Getty Images

This reflects a profound evolution in Vance’s own political identity. No longer just the populist firebrand, he is now operating as a sophisticated practitioner of realpolitik.

He understands that in the Middle East, a pause in hostilities is often just a prelude to a more complex form of conflict. When Vance remarks that the President is “not one to mess around,” he is not just praising his superior; he is signaling to the IRGC that the vice president’s office is keeping a meticulous tally of every violation, no matter how small.

The VP’s role also serves a vital domestic function. Within the coalition that brought this administration to power, there is a deep-seated wariness of international agreements that appear to favor adversaries.

By acting as the voice of caution, Vance ensures that the administration’s base remains invested in the process. He represents the wing of the movement that measures success not in the number of summits held, but in the tangible dismantling of enemy capabilities.

Furthermore, this messaging dichotomy allows the United States to navigate the complex mediation role being played by Pakistan. As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir attempt to broker a long-term settlement in Islamabad, the dual-track messaging from Washington provides them with leverage.

They can present Trump as the willing peacemaker while pointing to Vance as the embodiment of an impatient American security apparatus that is ready to strike if the talks stall. It is a division of labor that clarifies the stakes of failure for all parties involved.

RELATED: The only Iran plan that doesn’t end with a 20-year hangover

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

The question is whether this strategy can be sustained. Diplomacy requires a degree of shared understanding of the rules. If the vice president is perceived as being fundamentally at odds with the President, Tehran may attempt to drive a wedge between them.

Yet, in the hyper-volatile environment of 2026, the traditional rules of diplomacy seem increasingly inadequate. The old model of a unified, singular voice has often led to a form of groupthink that fails to account for the duplicity of actors like the Iranian regime.

As we move toward the Islamabad talks, the value of Vance’s skepticism will be tested. If a more durable agreement is reached, it will be because the Iranians understood that they were not just negotiating with a president eager for a legacy, but with a vice president who was looking for an excuse to walk away.

In the world of power politics, the most effective strategy is often the one that keeps the adversary off-balance.

By playing the skeptic, JD Vance is not undermining peace; he is ensuring that any peace achieved is built on something more substantial than hope. The “fragile” nature of the truce, as Vance describes it, is actually its greatest strength.

It forces a level of honesty and verification that decades of polite, unified diplomacy never could. For the American interest, having a vice president who refuses to see the world through rose-colored glasses is not a liability. It is a strategic necessity. The center of the diplomatic world may have shifted to Islamabad, but the reality check remains firmly anchored in the vice president’s office.

​Jd vance, Donald trump, Iran war, Operation opic fury, Peace talks, Us iran talks, Diplomacy, Pakistan, Opinion & analysis 

Medical insurance claims in the United States are built around the federal government’s standardized system of diagnostic codes, designed to classify every conceivable injury and condition.

Yet among its more than 70,000 designations, there is no dedicated classification for a growing class of patients: regretful recipients of transgender “health care.”

Patients requiring hormone replacement following gonad removal … may face barriers to coverage without clearer diagnostic pathways.

The omission is all the more glaring when you consider some of the system’s more unusual distinctions.

Duck and cover

“There’s a code for a spacecraft collision injuring the occupant, getting … struck by a duck” as well as “walking into a lamppost,” said Dr. Kurt Miceli in a recent interview with Align. “But nothing for those who are trying to revert a gender transition.”

“So effectively, if you are someone who has been harmed by the medical system and you are trying to get medical care, there’s really no diagnosis,” he continued.

Miceli’s work centers on helping children through Stop the Harm, an organization that tracks gender-related medical interventions among minors. According to its database, more than 5,700 surgical procedures were performed on minors in the United States between 2019 and 2023.

California accounted for an estimated 1,359 of those cases, while Massachusetts reported approximately 300.

Miceli said he wants to “give a voice” to detransitioners by creating at least “some visibility” within the existing system of more than 70,000 codes. Such recognition, he argued, would signal that “this is a condition that we must direct resources to, we must appropriately treat, [and] we must build guidelines to help support.”

RELATED: ‘Truly a fool’s errand’: Top CDC adviser, RFK Jr. ally resigns from vaccine panel

Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty Images

Cease and desistance

Beyond recognition, Miceli said the absence of a dedicated classification complicates care. Without it, patients may face challenges navigating billing systems, obtaining reimbursement, or receiving coordinated follow-up treatment.

He added that there is room for multiple distinctions — separating medical complications, social transition, and surgical outcomes, for example.

One step in that direction may come as soon as October 2026, when an update to the ICD-10-CM is expected to include a new designation: “Gender Identity Disorder, in Remission.”

The term, petitioned by Miceli, is defined as the resolution of “clinical symptoms associated with gender dysphoria, where the cognitive experience of incongruence between experienced/expressed gender and natal sex has remitted, leading to alignment of experienced/expressed gender and natal sex.”

Miceli said he hopes future updates will go further, including classifications that explicitly recognize “desistance.”

RELATED: ‘Looksmaxxing’ and the war on male self-improvement

Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public/Getty Images

In a bind

At the same time, he argued that legislative action may be necessary to ensure patients receive appropriate care and to “correct the harms that have been done to them.”

For example, patients requiring hormone replacement following gonad removal — or medical care after practices such as breast binding or genital tucking — may face barriers to coverage without clearer diagnostic pathways.

More comprehensive coding, he added, would also improve research and communication across the medical system.

“It’ll allow our physicians, our medical community to place that code onto the chart. We can get a better understanding of what’s going on,” Miceli said. “We can look at that code in association with other potential complications and, again, collect much more accurate real-world data.”

​Align, Gender, Woke, Gender ideology, Gender transition, Hospital, Surgeries, Detransition, Lifestyle 

An old clip of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Gavin Newsom’s wife, has resurfaced and is going viral.

In the video, Newsom shares some parenting tips to help create an inclusive environment for kids.

When Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau saw it, they came away with one conclusion: Jennifer Newsom is “even worse” than her radical husband.

On this episode of “Stu and Dave Do America,” the duo engage in hilarious banter about the “first partner of California” (a title Newsom herself coined to be gender-inclusive).

In the resurfaced clip, Newsom says, “I’ve given our boys dolls — even if they tear the head off … to learn that care and caregiving is not just an activity that’s reserved for women, but that it’s also an activity that is a responsibility of men.”

“What I’ve done with both my daughters and my sons is if I’m reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the ‘he’ to a ‘she.’ … I want them to see that women can be the center of a story, that women matter, that women are interesting,” she added.

Newsom then celebrated that we’re in a period of history where we can “deconstruct all these gender roles” and “limiting narratives.”

Stu calls her the “prototypical feminist left-wing nut job.”

Dave is more savage in his response. “How are you going to do well in school when you’re just making up stuff? Like, what are they going to do, book reports on ‘Jamika and Her Giant Peach’? ‘If You Give a Hoe a Cookie’? … ‘Christy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’?” he gibes.

“I don’t think being gay is a choice, but she makes me feel like being gay is not only a choice, but it’s your parents’ choice,” he laughs.

Stu points out the flawed logic in Newsom’s parenting tactics: “You’re not only playing the gender games with your kids there; you’re actually misleading them about the book you’re reading.”

“She reminds me of the wife of every super popular jock that met his wife in high school. And you just go, like, “Oh god, you’re just here to serve a purpose,” Dave says.

“They want to sound interesting, but you just know she has a sign that says, ‘It’s wine o’clock somewhere’ in her kitchen. She’s just that woman,” he jeers, speculating that Newsom is “on wine or Xanax or both.”

To hear more of Stu and Dave’s hysterical commentary, watch the episode above.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Blazetv, Blaze media, Jennifer newsom, Gender inclusivity, Gender deconstruction, Gavin newsom 

President Donald Trump absolutely eviscerated former President Joe Biden and “radical Democrats” in the wake of Homeland Security’s announcement that a male accused of killing a woman in a brutal hammer attack last week in Florida is an illegal alien the Biden administration protected from deportation.

Trump went off in a Thursday night Truth Social post saying the suspect — Haitian national Rolbert Joachin — was “released into our Country by the WORST President in History, Crooked Joe Biden, and the Radical Democrats in Congress.”

‘As I’ve said all along, if you import the Third World, you become the Third World, and that is what happened over the four years of Democrat Control.’

The president added that “the video of her brutal slaying is one of the most vicious things you will ever see. This animal was allowed to stay here because the Biden Administration granted him, and all Haitians, ‘Temporary [Protected] Status,’ a massively abused and fraudulent program which my Administration is working to terminate, but Deranged Liberal District Court Judges are standing in our way. This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies, and allow us to END THIS SCAM ONCE AND FOR ALL.”

As Blaze News previously reported, a 40-year-old male is accused of hitting a woman in the head with a hammer and killing her in a horrific attack recorded on surveillance video outside a Fort Myers gas station convenience store.

DHS said suspect Joachin “first entered the United States in August 2022 and was released into the country under the Biden administration. A federal judge issued a final order of removal against him in 2022, but the Biden administration granted him Temporary Protected Status, which expired in 2024.”

“This illegal alien barbarically hit this woman in the head multiple times with a hammer. This heinous murderer was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. Not only did the Biden administration release him into the country, but they then gave him Temporary Protected Status,” said Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary at the DHS Office of Public Affairs. “Their reckless immigration policies cost this woman her life.”

RELATED: Thug accused of killing woman in Florida hammer attack is Haitian illegal alien protected from deportation under Biden: DHS

Trump added: “To my fellow Republicans, and frankly all Common Sense Americans, NEVER FORGET that Joe Biden and the Democrat Party turned the United States of America into a dumping ground, allowing Tens of MILLIONS of Criminals, Lunatics, and the Mentally Insane from all over the World to pour into our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked through our wide Open Borders. As I’ve said all along, if you import the Third World, you become the Third World, and that is what happened over the four years of Democrat Control. We are rapidly trying to reverse this decline through Deportations, but if the Democrats are ever given another chance at power, they will immediately REOPEN the Border, and allow America to once again be a Safe Haven for Criminals.”

The president also asked for “prayer for this innocent woman’s family. We will ensure quick and severe JUSTICE is served in this case!”

DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer against Joachin and that he will be deported regardless of the outcome of his case.

Joachin on Friday remained behind bars at the Lee County Jail on charges of homicide (murder dangerous depraved without premeditation) and criminal mischief. There is no bond listed for him in jail records.

Numerous outlets have posted censored video of the fatal hammer attack, but Trump attached video of the uncensored attack to his Truth Social post.

“I don’t recommend you watch this tape, because it is so terrible, but felt I had an obligation to put it up so that people can see what Democrats are protecting, and wanting to come into our Country, even now, after all we’ve been through,” Trump wrote. “Again, viewer discretion advised — Not for children!”

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​Crime, Donald trump, Truth social, Temporary protected status, Joe biden, Radical democrats, Rolbert joachin, Homeland security, Illegal alien, Haiti, Hammer attack, Woman killed, Florida, Fort myers, Illegal immigration, Lee county sheriff’s office, Arrest, No bond, Politics 

Michael Moore has an Alex Jones problem.

The far-far-left filmmaker was once a mover and shaker in liberal Hollywood, but somewhere along the way, the modern progressive movement got even crazier than his factually challenged films.

Springsteen is worth a reported $1.2 billion, which in some circles is still considered upper middle class.

It’s like Candace Owens leaving Jones in the conspiratorial dust.

What’s a radical like Moore to do? Why spin, spin, spin on behalf of Iran, the country that may have slaughtered 30,000 of its own people. Possibly more.

Heck, in MooreLand, they’re the good guys, at least according to his recent Substack screed.

“We’re the bad guys! If you didn’t realize that under previous presidents at least Donald Trump has ripped off the mask and shown you who we really are!”

Nice try, Mikey. But in a world where Democrats fete the likes of Jennifer Welch and Hasan Piker, you gotta be a whole lot crazier to keep a seat at the table …

‘News’ to Fox

Nobody does fake news quite like CNN, but Michael J. Fox took this phony item personally. As well he should have.

The “Family Ties” alum has been battling Parkinson’s disease for some time, but the condition isn’t life-threatening at the moment. Tell that to CNN, which briefly displayed a video tribute to the “late” star.

To paraphrase Monty Python, he’s not dead yet.

Fox took the incident with good humor, using his Threads account to share his comical reaction.

“Do you … A) switch to MNSBC, or whatever they are calling themselves these days, (B) Pour [scalding] hot water on your lap, if it hurts [you’re] fine, (C) Call your wife, hopefully she’s concerned but reassuring, (D) Relax, they do this once every year, (E) Ask yourself wtf?”

(E) is always a safe bet when watching CNN, Mr. Fox …

Gag ghouls

It’s bad enough that “Saturday Night Live” ignores half the political material at its disposal. Now “SNL” is feeding ghoulish slop to its remaining far-left fans.

The most recent “SNL” episode found Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che noting how President Donald Trump recently enjoyed a night at the theater.

“President Trump attended the opening night of ‘Chicago’ at the Kennedy Center, and I think that’s cool that the president is going to the theater. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Because John Wilkes Booth once shot and killed a president at Ford’s Theater … get it?

The joke was cruel enough, but the crowd roared in sustained approval. How long before “SNL” recruits Luigi Mangione to host? …

RELATED: SCORN IN THE USA: Bruce has no use for Trump-voting fans

Richard E. Aaron/Adam Berry/Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images

Lip service

Woke may be fading in Hollywood circles, but some celebrities won’t give up the ghost. Take Dan Levy, the “Schitt’s Creek” alum and son of legendary comic Eugene Levy.

Levy fils, who co-created the new Netflix comedy “Big Mistakes,” didn’t just defend female comedians against the age-old saw that they trail their male counterparts. He went the full feminist. You never go the full feminist.

I find women to be far superior to men in comedy. I love it. I’ve always been drawn to female voices in comedy. … I grew up watching Lucille Ball. I grew up watching Mary Tyler Moore, all of these incredible, funny women. It’s just been a life goal to continue to tell their stories, and I’ve been so lucky to have these casts stacked with unbelievably talented actresses.

He forgot to mention that they’re superior drivers too …

Working-class hero

“Born to Run” … his mouth.

The Boss slammed more than just President Donald Trump in a recent concert appearance. Springsteen took aim at “rich men” in one of the night’s political screeds.

“The richest men in America have abandoned the world’s poorest children to death and disease through dismantling of U.S. aid. This is happening now. We’re undermining NATO and the world order that kept us safe and at global peace for 80 years. This is happening now.”

Springsteen is worth a reported $1.2 billion, which in some circles is still considered upper middle class.

You’d think a man who sold his music catalog to Sony for a whopping $500 million would be able to offer his loyal fans a break. To quote his best bud President Barack Obama, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

Bruce is clearly still feeling the pinch if his latest tour’s $7,000 floor seats are anything to go by. It’s good to be the Boss!

​Entertainment, Lifestyle, Culture, Movies, Stephen colbert, Music, Bruce springsteen, Hollywood, Saturday night live, Donald trump, Michael j. fox, Cnn, Toto recall 

As many journalists and concerned citizens continue to raise the alarm about the rampant H-1B fraud and abuse endemic to our system, the Department of Justice has started to deliver some results. This week, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales proudly claimed another scalp for her role in exposing a company for discriminating against Americans.

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice announced that it had reached a settlement with New Jersey-based Compunnel Software Group Inc. for illegal hiring practices.

‘The DOJ has taken action against at least one of the companies I exposed.’

According to the settlement, Compunnel signaled its intent to hire employees based on citizenship status, specifically favoring H-1B visa holders or related temporary employment-based visa holders. One email sent to the “charging party” indicated that the company wanted “only” temporary visa holders for a particular position.

Gonzales, host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” on BlazeTV, touted this settlement as a win after covering this story in February.

RELATED: Sara Gonzales’ H-1B fraud investigation uncovers the city behind most of the scamming — now CBS is praising it

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“The DOJ has taken action against at least one of the companies I exposed,” Gonzales said on X. “Compunnel Software Group, Inc now has to cough up $313,420 after some of its recruiters posted job advertisements for positions in the United States that were offered to H-1B workers ONLY.”

“For too long, these scammers have felt comfortable blatantly breaking the law in broad daylight and stealing American jobs. I commend the DOJ for this swift resolution, and I am hopeful there will be more action in the future. We must take our country back from those who have come here with the intention of defrauding us while taking advantage of our resources,” Gonzales told Blaze News.

Compunnel has agreed to pay $58,000 in back pay to the U.S. citizen who was discriminated against in the hiring process. It has also agreed to pay $255,420 in civil penalties to the U.S. Treasury.

“Employers cannot exclude U.S. workers from the labor force by discriminating against them based on their citizenship status. Employers must design recruitment, training, and compliance practices to ensure adherence to federal civil rights laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“It’s illegal to discourage U.S. workers from applying for American jobs,” she said.

This is the ninth settlement the DOJ has delivered since the revival of its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative in 2025 to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act.

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​Politics, H-1b, H-1b visas, H-1b workers, Compunnel software group, New jersey, Department of justice, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Harmeet dhillon, U.s. citizen, Doj, Protecting us workers initiative 

Viktor Orbán has served as Hungarian prime minister for 16 consecutive years, advancing an unapologetically Christian, nationalist, “migrant-free, pro-family” agenda that he told President Donald Trump in November had kept his country “a special island of difference in a liberal ocean in Europe.”

Hungary under Orbán’s leadership has, for instance, banned LGBT propaganda targeting children; banned homosexual couples from adopting kids; opposed Ukraine’s proposed admission to the European Union; refused to implement the EU’s radical migration policies; built a barrier to keep out border-jumpers; drove bums out of public spaces; fought political interference by big-pocketed leftists like George Soros; and implemented various pro-natalist measures including tax exemptions for mothers.

‘A leader who will fight to preserve those things while also building a better future.’

For the first time in over a decade, Orbán — praised by conservatives and maligned by liberals on both sides of the Atlantic and recently threatened by Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy — now faces the real possibility of an ouster in a country European parliamentarians like to pretend isn’t a democracy.

In Hungary’s national election on April 12, voters get to choose who will fill the 199 seats of the National Assembly and, by extension, whether to grant Orbán another term.

RELATED: The collapse of conservatism nobody wants to admit

Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images

Politico’s aggregate of recent polling data shows the prime minister’s Fidesz party lagging considerably behind the Tisza party, 49% to 39%. Several polls suggest, however, that there remain a great many undecided voters going into the weekend.

Polymarket presently puts the odds of Tisza winning at 77%.

Peter Magyar, the centrist leader of Tisza, is a former Fidesz member and government official. His party’s manifesto reportedly advocates for a more pro-EU, pro-NATO approach and commits to expediting Hungary’s embrace of the euro as its official currency.

Trump implored Hungarians on Tuesday to continue supporting Orbán, noting on Truth Social, “Highly Respected Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is a truly strong and powerful Leader, with a proven track record of delivering phenomenal results. He fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.”

“Viktor works hard to Protect Hungary, Grow the Economy, Create Jobs, Promote Trade, Stop Illegal Immigration, and Ensure LAW AND ORDER! Relations between Hungary and the United States have reached new heights of cooperation and spectacular achievement under my Administration, thanks largely to Prime Minister Orbán,” continued the president.

“He is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary — VIKTOR ORBÁN WILL NEVER LET THE GREAT PEOPLE OF HUNGARY DOWN.”

Vice President JD Vance similarly threw his weight behind Orbán, characterizing the prime minister during a rally in Budapest on Wednesday as a “leader who feels real pride in this place, in its history, in its culture, and in its way of life; a leader who will fight to preserve those things while also building a better future.”

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​Viktor orban, Orban, Hungary, Europe, Donald trump, Election, Nationalism, Conservative, Ukraine, Natcon, Politics 

A Florida commercial driver’s license crackdown has revealed huge safety issues within the industry.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement recently partnered with state and federal agencies to implement a four-day investigative task force called “Operation Highway Shield.”

‘We’ve got someone who is behind the wheel that is putting lives at risk, that has no regard for safety.’

FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass spoke to reporters on Thursday and revealed the staggering numbers of violations that were discovered when they inspected approximately 3,300 drivers.

From those drivers, authorities removed 176 from service, with 42 of them cited for federal immigration violations, while another 35 drivers were arrested for criminal charges.

“Some of the driver’s license that we would find wouldn’t even have a name on the CDL,” Glass told reporters. “Literally no name. … But you got a CDL, no first name, and it even says no name given; from other states, that is not from the state of Florida.”

At the same time, another 54 drivers were relieved of service over language deficiencies. According to Fox 35 Orlando, these deficiencies were tied to federal requirements outlined in President Trump’s executive order from April of last year, titled “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers.” The order requires proficiency in English.

“So you’re having people with no names, operating commercial motor vehicles, but different types of endorsement running up and down your highways,” Glass explained.

RELATED: End of the road: 200,000 foreign truckers could lose their CDLs as Trump’s rule takes effect

In one instance, officials said that in the Central Florida region of Sumter County, a truck driver was accused of swerving while on Interstate 4, which passes through Tampa and Orlando.

Authorities said the driver turned out to have limited English proficiency while also exceeding the legal blood alcohol level with a 0.27. In Florida, the legal blood alcohol level for typical drivers is 0.08%. For commercial drivers, however, it is 0.04%. This means the driver was nearly seven times over the legal limit.

“The larger picture of this is that we’ve got someone who is behind the wheel that is putting lives at risk, that has no regard for safety,” Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Derek Barrs said.

Employers can also face consequences in these instances, too, Barrs warned.

RELATED: ‘Wild, Wild West’: Trump DOT moves to shut down 550+ ‘sham’ truck driver training schools after axing 6,500

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

More than 10 agencies participated in the operation, which is just a small part of the typical 100,000 inspections done in the state per year. Fox 51 Gainesville reported that about a quarter of those inspections typically result in vehicles being removed from the road due to mechanical issues and another 10% because of driver violations.

Florida currently has 23 vehicle inspection sites in the state and plans to add another near the Florida-Alabama border.

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​News, Florida, Trucking, Truck drivers, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Cdl, Commercial driver’s licenses, Politics 

Kenny Rogers had a theory. It fit neatly into a chorus. You have to know when to hold them, when to fold them, when to walk away.

Good advice in 1978; even better advice now.

Status means nothing once the cards are in the air.

Poker is everywhere. From small home gatherings to casino floors, mobile apps to livestreamed high-stakes tournaments, Americans are finding their way to the table in record numbers. But those of us who have played this game for years know something the newcomers are still discovering. Poker isn’t really about cards.

Humbling education

I first sat down at a poker table at the tender age of 18. I thought I was learning a card game. I was not. What followed was a long education in humility, one that cost me roughly $900 in unannounced tuition fees.

What makes poker genuinely beautiful is that it holds up a mirror. Every decision you make under pressure — every fold, every bluff, every moment you push your chips forward knowing the outcome is uncertain — reveals something about your character.

How do you handle loss? How do you behave when winning? Can you stay calm when the situation indicates full-blown panic? The table asks these questions relentlessly, and it doesn’t accept dishonest answers. Unlike your therapist, your mother, or literally anyone else in your life, the cards don’t care about your feelings.

Bad luck and bad play

The game also teaches patience in a culture increasingly allergic to it. You can play perfectly for hours and still lose. You can make every right decision and walk away empty-handed. Poker forces you to separate outcomes from process, a philosophical discipline that, once learned at the table, improves almost everything else in your life. I spent years confusing bad luck with bad play. Untangling those two things was worth more than any pot I ever won.

Then there’s the community. Poker draws an almost absurdly wide cross-section of humanity. Retirees, students, engineers, artists, alcoholics, virgins, insomniacs, dreamers, Dana White — all seated together, temporarily equal, governed by the same rules.

Status means nothing once the cards are in the air. I once watched a highly influential, considerably lubricated lawyer get systematically dismantled by a pimply first-year hotel management student, to the tune of $10,000. The lawyer probably had a penthouse and a driver, but that night the kid charged him more per hour than he charged his clients.

Making peace with uncertainty

What matters is how you think, how you adapt, and how gracefully you handle the inevitable bad beats life and the deck will deal you. The great philosopher Blaise Pascal argued that virtually all human misery stems from our inability to sit quietly alone in a room. Poker, perhaps paradoxically, is one of the few places where we willingly gather to do something deeply solitary together. Each player locked inside his own mind, reading the room, making peace with uncertainty — which is either profound or deeply sad, depending on the hour.

My relationship with the game has changed considerably. In my late teens and 20s, I played with a chip on my shoulder and a point to prove, often to no one in particular. I chased losses. I overplayed hands. I mistook aggression for aptitude. The table punished all of it, ruthlessly and repeatedly.

Hard thinking

Now, in my 30s, with family plans taking shape and weekends suddenly finite, I play differently. I’m not there to conquer or to recoup some imagined debt from the universe. I sit down to enjoy the experience itself — the reading of people, the management of information, the occasional perfectly timed bluff that folds a better hand. The financial stakes matter less. The fun matters more. The conversations, the banter, the occasional expletive-laden eruption from an otherwise placid soul — this is what it’s all about.

RELATED: Parents: Let your kids out to play

Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images

There’s a version of the poker story that gets told too often — the cautionary tale about addiction, debt, and ruin. The man who had everything, then didn’t. Those stories are real, and they deserve to be told. But the dominant experience at most tables isn’t tragedy. It’s something much more profound: a room full of people, voluntarily uncomfortable, choosing to think hard about something difficult together. That’s rare. Most of modern life is engineered to protect us from difficulty, to remove any sense of friction, to offer the path of least resistance at every turn. Poker refuses all of that. It insists on facing reality.

Perhaps that’s why the boom makes sense. We are drowning in algorithmic slop, in content tailored to our preferences and platforms designed to keep us from ever feeling the nasty sting of being wrong. The poker table is one of the last places where the feedback is immediate, honest, and occasionally brutal. You were wrong. Here is proof. Now what?

The newcomers crowding the tables will discover soon enough what the rest of us already know. The cards are almost incidental. What the table actually deals is a portrait of yourself you didn’t commission and can’t dispute. There are many paths to self-knowledge. This one just happens to have a rake and a pimply kid who will take everything you have.

​Poker, Culture, Gambling, Men, First person, Lifestyle 

Vice President JD Vance, who with second lady Usha Vance is expecting the delivery of their fourth child in July, told pro-life advocates gathered for the 52nd annual March of Life last year, “I want more babies in the United States of America; I want more happy children in our country; and I want beautiful young men and young women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them.”

While an American baby boom might be in the cards, it certainly did not take place last year.

‘This is the choice that Americans now face, and the stakes could not be higher.’

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that U.S. fertility rates dropped to an all-time low in 2025.

There were an estimated 3,606,400 births last year — a 1% decline from 2024. A plurality of babies — just over 1.11 million — were born to mothers in the 30-34 age group, which conforms to the years-long trend of women increasingly delaying family generation until older ages or putting it off altogether.

The general fertility rate, which references the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime if she were to experience the age-specific fertility rates of a given year, was 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15-44. The rate has decreased by 23% since 2007, the year of the Great Recession.

Whereas the year-over-year decline in births per woman in the 15-44 cohort was 1%, the fertility rate for females ages 15-19 declined by 7% last year, dropping to 11.7 births per 1,000 females — another record low. The CDC notes that the fertility rate for teenagers has decreased by 72% since 2007 and 81% since 1991.

RELATED: 5 steps to reset your body’s clock to God’s natural design

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The total fertility rate averaged 3.7 births per woman in 1960; 2.12 births in 2007; 1.64 in 2020; and 1.6 in 2024. It fell again last year to 1.57, according to a Wall Street Journal calculation using the new CDC data.

This is particularly bad news for those keen to bequeath the nation to heritage Americans since the total fertility rate necessary for a population to maintain stability and replenish itself without requiring replacement by foreign nationals — what is referred to as replacement level fertility — is 2.1.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last year that a rate below replacement “is a national security threat to our country.”

Total fertility rates have plummeted across the first world. In the European Union, for example, the rate reportedly dropped from 2.62 in 1964 to 1.34 in 2024. The same year, the rate in Scotland dropped to 1.25 and to 1.41 in England and Wales.

Canada became one of the developed nations suffering “ultra-low fertility” in 2024, with a total fertility rate of 1.25 kids per woman. The Canadian government credited “increased educational levels, greater participation in the labor market, changing social norms, and the widespread use of contraception” for helping drive down the number.

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office projected in a report earlier this year that the fertility rate for foreign-born women in America this year will be substantially higher than the rate for native-born women, leading the home team 1.79 to 1.53.

The report noted further that:

on the basis of recent laws, policies, and demographic trends, CBO projects that the rate of population growth will generally slow over the next 30 years, from an average of 0.3% a year in the next decade to an average of 0.1% a year from 2037 to 2056. The total population is projected to stop growing in 2056 and remain roughly the same size as in the previous year.

The CBO added that net immigration is expected “to become an increasingly important source of population growth, especially if the annual number of deaths begin to exceed the annual number of births as expected in 2030.”

Some analysts have attempted to put a positive spin on America’s dwindling fertility rate.

“Women now have better control over their reproductive lives, so there’s not as much unintended pregnancy as there used to be,” Alison Gemmill, an associate professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health, told CNN. “Our timelines have shifted.”

According to data released last month by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, there were an estimated 1,126,000 clinician-provided abortions last year — nearly one-third the number of the reported live births.

In addition to exerting “better control” over their God-given procreative ability, Gemmill suggested that some would-be parents are rethinking having kids in light of concerns about so-called climate change, the economy, and raising a child in a supposedly “inequitable world.”

Karen Benjamin Guzzo, a demographer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recently told the New York Times, “There’s been a lot of doom and gloom about the birth rate, but the decline is also a success story.”

The Heritage Foundation has, alternatively, acknowledged this bleak trend as a crisis, noting in a January report, “American family life is truly at a crossroads. One path is marked by unwed childbearing, low rates of marriage, low fertility, low commitment, and easy divorce. This path is associated with the view that family formation (or its avoidance) is primarily about fulfilling adult desires and adult needs.”

“The other path elevates the family unit as an inherent good based on the commitment and sacrifice of husbands and wives for each other’s sake and for the sake of children that their union would welcome into the world. This path is associated with the view that all life is sacred and that sees the family as a source of fulfillment for adults because they direct their energies to the good of the family unit instead of to themselves alone,” continued the report. “Underlying this view is a deep sense of gratitude in knowing that human beings are here by God’s grace and that children are divine gifts.”

“This is the choice that Americans now face, and the stakes could not be higher,” the report added.

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​Society, Civilization, Baby, Crisis, Birth, Fertility, Fertility rate, United states, Replacement, Replacement theory, Natalism, Abortion, Life, Cdc, Politics 

Leftist radicals are throwing a temper tantrum now that a San Francisco-based coffee chain has decided to remove the LGBTQ+ Pride flag from its stores.

Philz Coffee began with a single store in the Bay Area in 2003 and has since expanded to 60 stores across California and Chicago. For some time, Philz cafes have notably displayed the Pride flag, implicitly lecturing about sexuality and gender to patrons who may simply want a cup of coffee or a pastry.

‘This is a change in how our stores look, not in who we are.’

But not for long.

On Wednesday, the company confirmed that all Philz stores will soon remove Pride and other flags and decor, claiming that doing so will create “a more consistent, inclusive experience.”

“Our long-standing support of the LGBTQIA+ community is unchanged. We are working toward creating a more consistent, inclusive experience across all our stores, including removing a variety of flags and other decor. This is a change in how our stores look, not in who we are,” said the statement from CEO Mahesh Sadarangani.

“Our allyship runs deeper than what is on our walls. It shows up in who we hire, how we treat one another, and in our annual Pride Month Unity celebration,” Sadarangani’s statement continued. “… Unity is fundamental to how we operate.”

RELATED: Unhinged 49-year-old female caught on video tossing coffee on McDonald’s worker enters her plea in court

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LGBTQ+ activists have not taken the news well.

“It would be a huge mistake because the gay population won’t stand for it,” one unidentified individual told KRON. “We will boycott this place if that’s the case.”

“What’s the experience that Philz Coffee is selling? What is it that makes them distinctive? And the focus on the flags, the focus on Pride, that really has been an important part of what Philz Coffee is all about,” Berkeley professor Ann Harrison said, according to KGO.

Customer Todd Varney called the decision “pretty rotten” and speculated that it may have come as the result of “big money at the top.”

SF Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford seemed to suggest the decision was part of a larger ongoing “global” effort against “queer” people. “There’s also a real frustration that comes with being a queer person right now — feeling like you want to respond to every headline, but not always knowing where your energy and bandwidth are best spent,” Ford said. “… It may seem small, but removing a Pride flag sends a message, and for many in this neighborhood, it feels like another blow right at home.”

A Change.org petition indicated that Philz “team members and customers” no longer feel “supported” by the company. “The Pride flags within the stores hold deep meaning and value to both staff and visitors, symbolizing that these locations are safe and welcoming spaces for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” it said.

Sadarangani became CEO in 2021 after private equity firm Freeman Spogli & Co. bought Philz from founders Phil Jaber and his son, Jacob Jaber. Freeman Spogli & Co. also own other chains such as Popeyes and El Pollo Loco, according to the New York Post.

It is unclear when the flags will be removed.

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​Philz, Philz coffee, San francisco, Lgbtq, Pride, Pride flag, Politics 

New polling from Pew Research shows a massive contrast in opinions about Israel between younger Republicans and their older allies.

The polling, conducted in late March, additionally showed not only the typical divide between conservatives and liberals with regard to support of Israel, but also a growing, unfavorable view of Israel and President Donald Trump’s ability to handle relations with Israeli leaders.

‘Across all US adults, 60% have an unfavorable view of Israel.’

While the majority of Republicans still have a favorable view of Israel, younger party members are currently showing the lowest level of support of any demographic.

For Republicans over 50, just 24% have a “very/somewhat unfavorable” opinion of Israel. That number is 57% for the 18-49 age group, up seven points in just one year, and showing a glaring 33-point difference within the party.

Democrats are more unified about their dislike of Israel. Just four points separate the two age groups, averaging out to an 80% negative view of the country overall.

Across all U.S. adults, 60% have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% in 2025, Pew Research reported.

When it comes to confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the sentiment among young Republicans remains the same. When asked if they have confidence in Netanyahu to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” just 25% of Republicans 18-49 have some or a lot of confidence, while 58% said they have “not too much” or none at all.

RELATED: MEMBERS ONLY: Pro-Palestine posting no problem with ‘penis,’ claims fired Kate Beckinsale

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Republicans over 50 are confident in Netanyahu by a net of 66%, with just 30% having a net negative level of confidence in him. This demographic has the most confidence in Prime Minister Netanyahu.

At the same time, more than 75% of Democrats have little or no faith in the Israeli leader’s ability to do the right thing.

Moreover, according to the poll, Republicans have the biggest contrast in opinions when it comes to the importance of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

RELATED: Israel ramps up attacks on Middle East target despite US-Iran ceasefire

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In terms of those who said the conflict between Israel and Hamas is important to them personally, Republicans over 50 years old found it important most often at a rate of 69%. That was 12 points more than the second-highest group, which was Democrats over 50 years old.

Republicans ages 18-49, however, were the demographic most likely to say the conflict was not personally important to them at 41%, seven points higher than Democrats of the same age.

In the end, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to have confidence in President Trump’s handling of the United States’ relations with Israel, with nearly three-quarters either somewhat or very confident in him.

More than 80% of Democrats polled said they were not too confident or not at all confident in Trump’s handling of the situation.

The survey was conducted March 23-29 and involved 3,507 U.S. adults.

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​News, Polling, Israel, Netanyahu, Trump, Palestine, Hamas, Republicans, Liberals, Democrats, Conservatives, Polls, Politics 

Conspiracy theories are swirling after several prominent U.S. scientists and defense researchers with ties to classified aerospace, nuclear, and UFO projects died or mysteriously vanished under suspicious circumstances in recent years.

Rumors about cover-ups, assassinations, and even stranger theories are ramping up, and now even mainstream outlets are beginning to take notice.

On a recent episode of “Pat Gray Unleashed,” Pat, Keith Malinak, and Jeffy watched and reacted to a recent segment from Fox News host Will Cain, who laid out seven of the most striking cases and asked the obvious question: Are these incidents connected, or is this just a tragic coincidence?

Cain presented the following cases of scientists and defense researchers who died or disappeared under suspicious circumstances:

Carl Grillmair: Caltech astrophysicist who worked on a NASA-supported space telescope project and infrared systems; “shot and killed at his home just two months ago.”Frank Maiwald: Senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab; “died nearly two years ago, but his cause of death has never been made public.”Monica Reza: NASA/JPL-connected aerospace scientist; disappeared while hiking in California last summer.William McCasland: Retired Air Force major general who formerly commanded the Air Force Research Lab and oversaw classified aerospace R&D; vanished from his home in February 2026. He had a direct professional connection to Monica Reza through funding her earlier materials research project.Melissa Casias: Worked an administrative role at Los Alamos National Lab with security clearances; has been “missing since last summer.”Anthony Chavez: Longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory employee; disappeared while out for a walk in May 2025.Nuno Loureiro: MIT plasma and fusion physicist; shot and killed in December 2025 at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, after answering the doorbell.

Cain noted the overlap in their sensitive research ties, pointing out the same handful of institutions — NASA, Air Force Research, Los Alamos Laboratory — and asked: “Could they be connected, or is this something else entirely?”

Pat calls the entire situation “bizarre” and reacts with his trademark skepticism. To hear his full take and what he thinks might really be going on, watch the episode above.

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​Pat gray, Pat gray unleashed, Blazetv, Blaze media, Ufo, Nasa, Los alamos, Missing scientists 

Students have always enjoyed flaunting revolutionary politics — the posters, the slogans, the Che Guevara T-shirts.

Like gender fluidity and ultimate frisbee, these radical affectations often don’t survive graduation. It’s a tale as old as time: One day you’re shouting into a bullhorn; the next, you’re typing on Slack.

Members also earn ‘rays’ on a Sunrise patch as they progress through the ranks — a visible marker of participation and standing within the organization.

What does endure, however, is the sophisticated political machinery designed to harness this youthful fervor and put it into action.

‘Political revolution’

This week, watchdog group Defending Education published internal documents outlining a coordinated push for political upheaval from one of the country’s most visible youth activist organizations.

The Sunrise Movement is a 501(c)(4) environmental organization that describes itself as “a movement of young people fighting to stop the climate crisis.”

But slides leaked to Defending Education from a March 17, 2026, membership meeting reveal a highly structured and strategic operation calling for a “political revolution” and “structurally chang[ing] the foundations of this country” — language that goes well beyond climate advocacy.

The message is as simple as it is sobering: The goal is not reform, but replacement.

The revelation here is not the Sunrise Movement’s rhetoric. “Revolution” is already central to the group’s public-facing language; its homepage describes itself as part of a broader climate revolution. What the slides add is clarity: That “revolution” is not just metaphor, but a program laid out in concrete terms, from pressure campaigns and mass noncooperation to institutional targeting.

Defending Education

Path to a ‘New System’

The goal: “Eco-socialism, [a] multi-racial democracy, and Green New Deal legislation.”

A section titled “On the Road to Revolution” lays out a path to a “New System” — including passing Green New Deal policies and “ending the billionaire 2-party system.”

The slides also describe a strategy of “repolarizing” the country. One passage calls for “get[ting] majority of society out in the streets and an explosion in voting,” arguing that “we need to repolarize society” to move people away from what it describes as a “(corrupt) system” and toward a new one with “more democracy.”

Target: Hilton

The materials also outline how that shift is meant to occur in practice — through a sequence of escalating actions tied to specific campaigns.

It begins with a March 28 No Kings event and builds toward a May 1 national strike. In between: sustained pressure.

A slide titled “Hilton to May Day” points to coordinated economic disruption, including efforts to target “ICE enabler” Hilton Hotels over its alleged ties to immigration enforcement. Tactics listed include public boycotts, so-called “wide awake actions,” and coordinated booking and canceling of hotel reservations — designed to impose financial and reputational costs.

Defending Education

‘Dawn’ to ‘Dusk’

The slides also lay out what the group calls its internal “culture” — a set of guiding principles members are expected to adopt. The language reads less like loose organizing advice and more like a shared creed: “Nothing about us without us,” “Motivate the base, isolate the opposition,” and “It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win.” The effect is to define not just tactics, but a common vocabulary and moral framework for participants.

Another section details a tiered membership structure, with clearly defined ranks — “Dawn,” “Morning,” “High Noon,” “Afternoon,” and “Dusk” — each tied to specific benchmarks: recruiting new members, completing actions, attending meetings, and undergoing training. Advancement comes with increasing responsibilities, access, and internal status.

Members also earn “rays” on a Sunrise patch as they progress through the ranks — a visible marker of participation and standing within the organization. The structure resembles a formal pipeline, designed to scale participation and develop organizers over time.

‘Full Dictatorship’

The presentation outlines three possible futures, each portraying the current system as compromised and the stakes as existential — conditions that, in the materials’ framing, justify escalation.

The most extreme — “Full Dictatorship” — imagines Donald Trump consolidating power, using the military against opponents, and restricting speech.

The function is clear: Escalation isn’t optional. It’s required.

Defending Education

Defending Education

Defending Education, formerly Parents Defending Education, has focused on political activity in schools — curriculum, student protests, and institutional ties to advocacy groups.

Defending Education was founded in 2021 amid a surge of parental backlash to politicized curricula and school policies. The group uses public records requests, whistleblower tips, and document releases to surface what it describes as ideological activism inside education systems.

RELATED: Defending Education gives parents tools to fight leftist indoctrination

In recent years, it has zeroed in on the overlap between student organizing and outside advocacy groups — arguing that protests framed as grassroots are often supported and shaped by national networks. The Sunrise materials, it says, fit that pattern.

The Sunrise Movement has been linked to student walkouts, including protests tied to immigration enforcement. What the newly released slides add, Defending Education argues, is a clearer picture of how that organizing is structured and scaled.

“While calls for a ‘political revolution’ by left-wing activist groups are not unique, these coordinated plans to put economic and social pressure on universities … should raise serious concerns,” said Rhyen Staley, director of research at Defending Education.

“Our academic institutions should be places of higher learning … not weaponized or punished to achieve a ‘structural change’ to the political foundations of this country.”

Defending Education

Pushing left

Founded in 2017, the Sunrise Movement helped drive the Green New Deal into the political mainstream through protests, sit-ins, and youth mobilization.

The Sunrise Movement operates as a decentralized network of local “hubs,” many based on college and high school campuses. That structure has allowed it to scale quickly — turning student energy into coordinated national campaigns.

Since its founding, the Sunrise Movement has proven itself an effective pressure group within Democrat politics, helping push climate policy from the margins to the center of the party’s agenda. Its early backing of the Green New Deal helped turn what was once a fringe proposal into a defining litmus test for progressive candidates.

The group also played a visible role during the 2020 election cycle, applying sustained pressure on Joe Biden and his campaign to adopt more aggressive climate positions. While not all of its demands were met, Sunrise and allied activists helped shape the administration’s climate framework — demonstrating that its model of protest plus pressure can move policy, not just headlines.

Its strategy has consistently blended electoral pressure with direct action. What the newly released slides suggest is a continuation of that model, but with a more explicit emphasis on escalation and institutional leverage.

For a generation told that it is inheriting a world on the brink, the climate is the cause. For groups like Sunrise Movement, the target is something more immediate: the system itself.

What emerges is not just a campaign for the planet, but a bid to reshape political power around a broader program of systemic change.

​Lifestyle, Culture, Defending education, Culture war, Sunrise movement, Activism, Environmental activism, Radical politics, Education, Counterrevolution 

A man convicted for raping an elderly woman and tying her up will spend decades in prison after Ohio police were able to find one thumbprint from the crime scene.

Columbus police said they were called to the Eastmoor neighborhood on Jan. 13 on reports of a rape.

‘This is the nightmare every woman fears. I cannot think of a worse set of facts.’

The 87-year-old woman told police that she awoke to find a man in all black and wearing a ski mask standing over her. He raped her and then tied her up before leaving her in her kitchen.

It took her about three hours to free herself, and then she discovered that he had stolen her car from a detached garage.

Detectives said they were able to identify a suspect through a thumbprint that was found on a bottle of disinfectant wipes. The suspect lived only a few blocks away from the victim.

They arrested 31-year-old Miguel Rodriguez Rolon two days later.

Family members of the victim said she used a walker to get to the court stand and testified against Rolon.

He was found guilty in March of two counts of rape, one count of kidnapping, and one count of aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to at least 84 years in prison.

RELATED: Thug who brutally raped 94-year-old in broad daylight had just been released after other rape charge was dropped, police say

Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Chris Brown excoriated Rolon and called his crime “completely evil” during sentencing.

“It is completely evil to rape an 87-year-old woman. This is the nightmare every woman fears. I cannot think of a worse set of facts,” Brown said. “You’re the reason we build prisons in this country.”

Her family said she still faces a long rehabilitation process, but they are happy that justice was served in the case.

Rolon will also have to register as a Tier III sex offender.

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U.S. Special Forces recently rescued a pair of downed airmen in Iran. As the stories begin to be disseminated, many in the audience — but sadly, not all in the West, or in America — will listen and read with awe, pride, and patriotism. Most will do so at least until the next exciting event comes along.

Where does the moral imperative of ‘no one is left behind’ come from?

The day after the rescue, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated President Donald Trump and the Americans who pulled off this daring, high-risk mission. Netanyahu said, in part:

All Israelis rejoice in the incredible rescue of a brave American pilot, by America’s dauntless warriors. This proves that when free societies muster their courage, and their resolve, they can confront seemingly insurmountable odds, and overcome the forces of darkness and terror. This rescue operation reinforces a sacred principle: No one is left behind.

The prime minister’s words were appropriate and inspiring. He stated, as have other early reporters, that the Israelis and Americans share “a sacred principle: No one is left behind.” But so far, has anyone — including Netanyahu — made an effort to convey what I suggest to be the single most important piece of information relevant to this — or to any — rescue mission?

Where does the moral imperative of “no one is left behind” come from?

It comes directly from the Book of Genesis. There we read — no less than four times — that God created man in His own image.

In these passages, mankind is said to bear the Imago Dei, the image of God. This means that the individual person, regardless of status, wealth, merit, or demerit, possesses inherent value and dignity. That is why in the West — where the Jewish and Christian scriptures historically were foundational — our rock-solid commitment has been to ensure “no one is left behind.”

If one doubts this assertion, look no further than the military traditions in the non-West — though some in the non-West have adopted Western military values (if not civil values in certain cases), particularly in the Far East.

The reality has been, historically, that outside of the West where the cultural understanding of the Imago Dei was foundational, individual persons were valued only insofar as they were of some use to the community, society, or the state.

In the military context, it was perhaps not surprising that in the Korean conflict, the Soviet military placed rescue as a low priority for its MiG-15 pilots.

Among the many danger signs in the West for decades has been the adoption and implementation by governments of ideas and practices grossly antithetical to the scripture-based teachings of individual dignity, which flow from the image of God in man — from abortion and euthanasia to the depriving of liberty of conscience and freedom of religion.

RELATED: I saw the sky light up over Dubai. The real shock came next.

AFP/Getty Images

The neo-Marxist-based diversity and cancel culture movements have contributed their share to this destructive trend.

So while most once-traditional markers of the West are losing ground, the “sacred principle” expressed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, for now, remains compelling among certain Western militaries, especially America and Israel.

This no-one-left-behind principle was prominently displayed in the air for the first time during the Korean conflict, by which time technological advances made combat rescue a realistic option. The foremost technological advance for this mission was the same type of aircraft that rescued our two Airmen in Iran — the helicopter.

During World War II, as my mentor, friend, and noted air power historian Dr. Earl H. Tilford Jr. wrote, “An aircrew member downed behind enemy lines was virtually certain of capture or death.” But in Korea, a few years later, the young U.S. Air Force’s Air Rescue Service demonstrated with employment of its H-5 and H-19 helicopters and SA-16 amphibian fixed-wing aircraft that combat air rescue was viable.

It was also in Korea that the Air Rescue motto and the Rescue culture were born. Every Rescue member understood that should the unthinkable happen to a U.S. or U.N. airman, and he was forced to leave his aircraft over enemy territory or the adversary’s waters, Rescue crews would risk their lives to fulfill their motto, “That Others May Live.”

But to return to the moral imperative once more. As I wrote in 2020:

In one rescue attempt in December 1969, a total of 336 sorties were flown in support of one F-4 navigator downed near Tchepone, Laos. One pararescueman died, several others were wounded. Of 10 helicopters damaged in the operation, five never flew again. As [Tilford] wrote, “Yet no one asked if the life of one man was worth all the effort.” The question was unnecessary.

The question was not required because the Western culture of the day — though it was beginning to fade — affirmed the inherent dignity of the individual, created in the image of God.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.

​Iran war, Moral imperative, Airmen rescue, Pararescue, Operation epic fury, Trump, Israel, Benjamin netanyahu, U.s. special forces, Opinion & analysis 

For decades, we have been told that we may not be able to end abortion, but we can reduce it. Political reality requires patience. Incremental laws, strategic compromises, and careful coalition-building will, over time, bend the curve downward.

Fewer abortions this year than last. Fewer still the next. This is what we’ve been told, but the numbers are not bending in the right direction.

The same movement that insists on the humanity of the unborn defends strategies that refuse to treat that humanity as legally binding.

In 2020, the United States saw roughly 930,000 abortions. By 2024, annual abortions had surpassed 1 million again. Monthly averages have continued to rise, moving from roughly 88,000 per month in 2023 to nearly 100,000 per month by 2025 — estimated at over 1.1 million abortions a year.

This is not the trajectory we were promised.

Even in a post-Dobbs world — after decades of work, millions of dollars, and countless political victories — abortion remains not only legal in much of the country, but increasingly accessible.

According to the standard used to justify compromise, the results of our efforts have been thoroughly unimpressive.

If compromise is justified because it reduces abortion, what happens when it does not? If the entire framework rests on pragmatic outcomes, then those outcomes must be honestly measured. If they fail, the justification collapses with them.

The central question, though, was never whether compromise works. The central question is whether compromise is obedience.

Scripture is not silent on this. “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). That statement assumes that what is right is already understood — and then confronts the refusal to act on it.

That is where the abortion debate now stands.

RELATED: At its core, the abortion debate is very simple

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

For decades, the pro-life movement has argued — rightly — that the unborn child is fully human. Not partially or potentially human. Not a life that becomes valuable later. A human being, made in the image of God, from the moment of conception.

And yet, that premise is not applied in law.

Equal justice is withheld. Justice is knowingly delayed. Entire classes of human beings are acknowledged in rhetoric and denied in practice — through heartbeat bills, 20-week bans, and fetal pain bills.

The same movement that insists on the humanity of the unborn defends strategies that refuse to treat that humanity as legally binding.

To know that a child is fully human and yet defend a legal framework that allows that child to be killed is not a lesser evil. It is a greater evil — because it is compounded.

Scripture goes further. When knowledge increases, so does accountability. When leaders teach truth, they are bound to it. And when they fail to act on what they teach, they do not merely err — they invite judgment.

We have been told to evaluate abortion policy on outcomes alone. But Scripture does not separate outcomes from obedience. It ties them together. God does not bless disobedience because it is politically strategic.

When disobedience is institutionalized — when it becomes the operating principle of a movement — the results should not surprise us.

RELATED: The collapse of conservatism nobody wants to admit

Blaze Media Illustration

Abortion does not decrease under compromise because compromise is not a neutral tool. It is a moral decision. It trains a culture to tolerate the very evil it claims to oppose. It teaches legislators to delay what they confess is urgent. It forms a people who say that the unborn are fully human, while structuring their laws as though they are not.

This is why the numbers do not tell the story we were promised. Not because the strategy was insufficiently refined, but because it was fundamentally misaligned. The issue is not that we have failed to compromise enough. It is that we have compromised at all.

God does not require political feasibility. He requires obedience.

Obedience does not ask how much injustice can be tolerated while we make progress. It asks what justice demands — and then establishes it.

Until that shift is made, the pattern will remain. More laws, more campaigns, more assurances of progress — and the same or worse results. Not because we lack the power to change it, but because we refuse to apply what we already know to be true. Until we do what is right, we should not expect the numbers to change — because God does not bless disobedience. He judges it.

That is why we must fight to establish equal justice under the law for our preborn neighbors — not by regulating abortion, but by abolishing it.

​Abortion, Roe v wade, Dobbs v. jackson, Pro life, Scripture, Obedience, Republicans, Political compromise, Opinion & analysis 

The approval of a $6 billion data center in a Missouri city led voters to kick out four members of the city council who were running for re-election.

The four incumbents lost by a wide margin to their challengers, and the council was unable to meet Wednesday evening because of a lack of quorum.

‘This data center fight has struck this community to the core and really, honestly ignited a community-driven effort here.’

The council approved of the data center project on March 30 by a vote of 6 to 2, and three of the incumbents who lost their elections had voted in favor of the data center.

“I think when the people in leadership are not listening, it shows that democracy is a solution to them ignoring their constituents,” said Gabe Cotton, a voter opposed to the data center, to KTVI-TV.

Opponents accused city officials of violating transparency laws before approving the plan by CRG Clayco to build on a 360-acre property near Highway 67.

“This data center fight has struck this community to the core and really, honestly ignited a community-driven effort here,” said Dan Moore, one of the candidates who defeated an incumbent in the election. “People are awake now, and we’re not going to let this continue on anymore.”

Festus City Administrator Greg Camp argued that the data center would bring new opportunities for the city from increased tax revenue.

“It’s unlike anything that any of these, certainly the city, or any of those institutions, have ever seen before,” Camp said.

The results of the election must be certified before they are official.

Supporters of the data centers say that critics are exaggerating their detrimental effects and argue that they’re critical for the U.S. to stay in the artificial intelligence race.

RELATED: ‘We are totally unprepared’: Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez propose law to shut down future AI data centers

“Banning data center construction is absurd and completely unacceptable. We need commonsense rules that protect consumers from rising energy bills, but stopping progress altogether — and losing to China — is the wrong approach,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) on social media Thursday.

“Americans shouldn’t see their energy or water bills go up, but we also can’t afford to lose the computer race to China. We’re in a new Cold War, and sidelining data center development risks ceding our technological edge,” he continued.

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​Festus missouri, Data center vote, City council voted out, Data center opposition, Politics