Category: blaze media

Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner is not having a good week — and it just got much worse. He has now suspended his campaign after a rape allegation, as another scandal surfaced in an “exclusive” Washington Post report.

“We have a new story out about him,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere excitedly tells co-host Dave Landau.

“Ex-girlfriend of Graham Platner says he removed condoms without consent during sex,” Stu says, reading the headline from the Washington Post exposé.

“Lyndsey Fifield is the woman who brought this information to our attention. She’s one of the original accusers from the New York Times article as well. She said she dated Platner from 2013 to 2015 in D.C.,” Stu explains.

Fifield alleges that she told Platner he had to wear condoms during sex because she was not on birth control, but Platner would ignore her and pull them off.

According to the Washington Post, she said in an interview, “He would do it in a sneaky way.”

Dave finds the story interesting, as “Democrats basically lost men because they called them Nazi rapists,” but now they “plan to elect [an alleged] Nazi rapist.”

“You bring up the point on the Nazi rapist thing, which is a great point because the reason why this happened is because they looked at a group of people, you know, regular middle class Americans who got sick of political elites and were like, ‘I want somebody who’s going to speak, you know, plainly, who’s not going to be part of the establishment,’” Stu says.

“‘I want someone from the outside,’” he continues. “‘I want someone who maybe is a little offensive like Donald Trump and will say some things that are uncomfortable like Donald Trump.’ So they went, and they just found a freaking Nazi.”

“It’s not working out all that fine, though,” he adds. Even after Platner suspended his campaign, these accumulating scandals highlight the Democratic Party’s vetting problems in the high-stakes Maine Senate race.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

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​Dave landau, Graham platner, Maine, Senate, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Washington post, Accusations, Lyndsey fifield, Stu and dave do america 

Vice President JD Vance has compared the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee to a child stealing cookies after relating a story about the mayor’s “aggressive” denial of election fraud.

The vice president was speaking at a stop in Milwaukee on Wednesday when he related that Mayor Cavalier Johnson sent him a letter objecting to the probe into the 2020 presidential election.

‘It was a little bit of “he doth protest too much.”‘

Johnson invited Vance in the July 7 letter to talk to the officials who run the election and scrutinize the process, but he denied any justification for the probe.

“Federal law enforcement agents, deployed at the direction of the President’s administration, have been present in my city, interviewing election officials,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “I know of no justification for this activity. Evidence of wrongdoing is entirely absent.”

Vance responded in comments to a reporter that he didn’t have time to visit Johnson.

“I did get the letter from the mayor of Milwaukee, and he wants to meet, and he’s welcome to come to Washington, D.C.,” Vance responded. “I’ll sit down and meet with him.”

Vance went on to compare the mayor to his cookie-stealing son.

“Some guy sends me a letter, the mayor of Milwaukee, and says, ‘We don’t do any election fraud! We don’t do any election fraud! We don’t do any election fraud!'” the vice president said.

“And my response to that is, you know what? It kind of reminds me of like a couple weeks ago. I get home … and my 6-year-old greets me, and I love my little boy, but he’s a little mischievous,” Vance explained. “And he gives me a big hug, and he says, ‘Daddy, I’m glad you’re home! I didn’t steal any of the cookies!’ I said, ‘Huh, that’s interesting that you volunteered that, when I wasn’t even talking about that!’ Well, of course, he stole the cookies.”

Vance got some laugher from the audience.

“So, when I hear a guy protesting out of nowhere, ‘I did not do any election fraud! I did not do any election fraud!’ it makes me wonder, why is that guy protesting so aggressively? It’s a little odd!” he added.

Video of Vance’s comments was posted to social media, where it was widely circulated.

RELATED: Democrat demands answers on ICE detention of Islamic leader in Milwaukee — and DHS slaps her down

“It was a little bit of ‘he doth protest too much,'” Vance added, referring to the famous Shakespeare line.

In a statement emailed to Blaze News, the mayor responded by accusing the vice president of raising “false claims regarding election integrity.”

He added, “Rather than addressing the real questions, the vice president digresses into stories about his child.”

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​Vice president jd vance, Milwaukee mayor cavalier johnson, 2020 election fraud, Milwaukee, Politics 

On Thursday, the Utah prosecutors working to convince state District Judge Tony Graf to try Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, for aggravated murder delivered perhaps the most damning pieces of evidence yet.

In a pre-recorded deposition played in court despite protest from the defense, Lance Twiggs — Robinson’s trans-identifying homosexual lover who was given immunity for the statements — says that the individual shown in FBI images taken from the Utah Valley University surveillance footage played in court earlier this week “looks like [Robinson] in terms of the shoes he’s wearing, the sunglasses.”

‘I will have left no evidence.’

“It’s definitely, especially the bottom, the last two [images], definitely do look like him,” continued Twiggs, who spoke to authorities on Sept. 12 and again on April 20. “They do look like Tyler Robinson.”

The court saw surveillance videos on Tuesday showing the individual who Twiggs said looked like Robinson skulking around Utah Valley University campus — where he was not a student — ahead of the Sept. 10 shooting and ascend onto the roof of the Losee Center building.

Twiggs, who started dating the suspected assassin in 2023 and lived with Robinson in a townhouse in St. George, Utah, also told law enforcement that on the day of Kirk’s killing, Robinson left their residence earlier than usual — as early as 4 a.m.

Twiggs noted further that he lent Robinson a tool to engrave some bullets for a supposed hunting trip.

RELATED: ‘Did they know?’ FBI investigating whether pro-trans radicals knew in advance about Charlie Kirk assassination plot

Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images

In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) confirmed that investigators found an inscription on a spent fire casing that read, “Notices bulges, OwO what’s this?” — an alleged reference to an online meme that has been used to mock gay furries — as well as the following inscriptions on unfired cartridges:

“Hey fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓ ↓ ↓” — the arrows are an apparent reference to a move in the video game “Helldivers 2″ that sets the stage for the deployment of a large bomb;”Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao, ciao,” lyrics from an Italian folk song that has been embraced by anti-fascist movements and various leftist causes and features in the violent Spanish TV show “Money Heist.” Willem van Spronsen, the Antifa terrorist who firebombed a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in July 2019, apparently referred to the song in his final statement; and”If you read this, you are gay, LMAO.”

Twiggs claimed that the morning after the shooting, Robinson returned to the apartment and appeared nervous.

“He started crying a little bit,” Twiggs claimed, “and said he wishes he hadn’t done it.”

Utah State Bureau of Investigation Agent Brian Davis walked the court through text messages between Twiggs and the alleged assassin where Robinson allegedly wrote in the wake of the shooting, “Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you.”

Robinson allegedly added, “I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down.”

“If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence,” Robinson allegedly wrote. “Going to attempt to retrieve it again.”

Earlier in the week, Utah Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jennifer Faumuina testified that the two sets of male DNA discovered on the towel wrapped around the suspected murder weapon were a match to Twiggs and very likely to Robinson.

The texts read by Davis show that when asked by Twiggs why he had allegedly done it, Robinson allegedly answered, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

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​Charlie kirk, Assassination, Tyler robinson, Lance twiggs, Lgbt, Utah, Utah valley university, Trans, Politics 

Three adults and four juveniles have been arrested in connection with the July 4 mob attack on female police officers caught on video in South Carolina.

North Charleston Police said the juveniles face charges ranging from assault by mob (third degree), assault on police while resisting arrest, resisting arrest, and possession of a machine gun to breach of peace.

‘We just can’t do that. We can’t attack and jump on a police officer who was just trying to do her job and beat her like that, like a mob. That just can’t happen.’

Police also said 19-year-old Giovanni Mekhi Sincere Campbell of North Charleston faces a charge of possession of a machine gun, and 18-year-old Sa’Mya Adriana Collette Weaver of North Charleston faces charges of breach of peace and assault on police.

In addition, the police department’s Gang Intervention Team and the Intelligence Led Policing Team said they arrested 21-year-old Charleston resident Dejuan Ravenel in connection with the theft of a Taser and loaded gun magazines from one of the assaulted police officers. Police said they received information identifying Ravenel and determining he was possibly staying at an apartment complex in the West Ashley area, after which police established surveillance at the location.

Police said they saw Ravenel leave the apartment and enter the back seat of a vehicle. Soon they followed the vehicle to a restaurant, and Ravenel was taken into custody after exiting the restaurant, police said.

Investigators later executed a search warrant at the apartment and recovered the stolen Taser and loaded gun magazines, police said.

Ravenel was charged with unlawful taking of a weapon from law enforcement and transported to jail, police said, adding that the investigation remains ongoing and additional arrests are possible.

The following is cellphone video of the physical attacks on police:

RELATED: Over 400 arrested after July 4 ‘TikTok Takeover’ in beach city leads to fights, looting, vandalism, violence against cops

Prior to the July 4 mob attack, police said North Charleston had permitted a neighborhood block party. Police said leadership met with block party organizers to discuss the event, including traffic and parking plans to ensure emergency vehicles could safely access the area if needed.

But police said around 8:30 p.m., officers began receiving reports of gunfire and individuals shooting fireworks toward passing vehicles.

Officers responded immediately, and attendees told them that several people had begun discharging firearms, police said, adding that officers made repeated public announcements advising that the event had ended and directing attendees to leave the area safely, in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.

Police said that despite those efforts, multiple fights broke out and additional gunshots were fired.

Officers exited their patrol vehicles to intervene, separate individuals involved in fights, and restore order and protect the public, police said, adding that during the response, multiple firearms and a makeshift spear were recovered.

Police said “multiple officers were physically assaulted, with two female officers sustaining minor injuries,” and “several attendees were arrested as a result of their own actions.”

“Attacks on law enforcement are unacceptable, and those responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” police said. “The safety of our residents and visitors remains our highest priority.”

Police also said “we especially thank those from the community who helped officers during the attacks.”

WCSC-TV reported that the attacks occurred near Chicora Community Park on Calvert Street — and that police said the event had been held in the same location for about 10 years without incident.

About 400 people were present at the scene, police told WCSC.

North Charleston Police Chief Ron Camacho told the station that the two female officers who were injured “are fine. They’re working.”

Community advocate Elvin Speights told WCSC he was shaken after watching the video circulate online: “A lot of emotions. Ashamed. Disgraced. I’m very pleased that no one was seriously hurt. That could have gone really bad.”

Speights added to the station that “we just can’t do that. We can’t attack and jump on a police officer who was just trying to do her job and beat her like that, like a mob. That just can’t happen.”

Speights also told WCSC the police response was admirable: “I just wanted to give a huge shout-out to that officer who showed humongous restraint on not going out here and pulling her gun and start shooting. The North Charleston Police Department as a whole — no one was seriously hurt. They showed a lot of restraint.”

Camacho told the station that police had prior intelligence that juveniles were planning to engage in fights using fireworks in the area that night — but were not prepared for the scale of what took place at the block party.

“We were not ready for this,” Camacho noted to WCSC.

“We need some help,” Camacho told WCSC. “We really do. We need some help from the community. Because stuff like this is getting dangerous.”

Camacho also told the the station that unruly juveniles are “the most difficult thing that I’ve had to deal with in my policing career.”

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​Mob attacks police, North charleston, South carolina, Viral video, Arrests, July 4, Crime 

For years, Americans have been told not to worry about the explosion of AI surveillance cameras. They’re only looking for stolen cars. They’re only helping solve crimes. If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear.

Then the CEO of one of the country’s largest AI surveillance companies, Flock Safety, said something that should make every American stop and think.

Americans can support law enforcement while also believing there must be limits on mass surveillance.

In an interview with Forbes last year, Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley called DeFlock — a volunteer group that maps the locations of Flock’s automated license plate reader cameras — a “terroristic organization.” He contrasted the group with the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, saying those groups use the courts, while DeFlock’s “primary motivation is chaos.”

Think about that for a moment.

Citizen terrorists?

DeFlock’s primary activity is mapping the locations of publicly visible cameras installed throughout American communities. Flock argues that publishing those locations could help criminals avoid detection. DeFlock argues that citizens have a right to know where government-connected surveillance technology is being deployed. Reasonable people can disagree about that. But calling transparency activists “terroristic” is something else entirely.

Words matter, especially when they come from the CEO of a company whose business depends on collecting, analyzing, and sharing vast amounts of location data. He didn’t call the group irresponsible or reckless; he chose language normally associated with violent extremism. That choice tells us how criticism of surveillance is increasingly viewed by the industry building it.

Then there was another statement from that interview that deserves just as much attention. Langley said, “We’re not forcing Flock on anyone.”

Really?

No choice

Americans never voted to install AI-powered camera networks throughout their communities. They didn’t vote for systems capable of tracking vehicle movements across cities. They didn’t vote for technology that has evolved far beyond simply reading license plates. Today’s systems can identify vehicles by make, model, color, aftermarket wheels, roof racks, bumper stickers, damage, window tint, and countless other characteristics — even when a license plate isn’t visible. Every generation of this technology becomes more sophisticated than the last.

This isn’t simply about solving crime anymore. It’s about building an increasingly comprehensive picture of where vehicles travel, when they travel, and how artificial intelligence can connect those movements. That is why transparency matters. If these cameras are installed in public places with taxpayer dollars, why shouldn’t the public know where they are? That’s the question DeFlock is asking. And asking it, apparently, makes them terrorists.

It’s also a question the surveillance industry appears increasingly uncomfortable answering. Perhaps the most revealing part of this controversy isn’t the quote itself. It’s what it says about the mindset behind the technology.

When someone maps surveillance cameras, the cameras aren’t questioned. The person documenting them is. That’s an extraordinary shift. The debate moves away from whether expanding surveillance deserves public scrutiny and toward whether the people asking questions are somehow the threat. That inversion should concern anyone who values accountability.

RELATED: California wants to decide what tires you can buy — what could possibly go wrong?

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Mounting frustration

The frustration is building. People across the country are vandalizing or removing Flock surveillance cameras. While Flock doesn’t operate in Europe, activists have targeted similar surveillance cameras in London, France, and Italy.

To be clear: Destroying public or private property is illegal, and I don’t support it. But those incidents reflect something policymakers and technology companies shouldn’t ignore — a growing segment of the public feels these systems are being imposed without meaningful public debate or consent. Ignoring that frustration won’t make it disappear. Calling critics “terroristic” certainly won’t either.

The irony is hard to miss. The surveillance industry frequently tells Americans these systems are about building trust and making communities safer. But trust isn’t built by dismissing or demonizing people who ask legitimate questions about privacy, accountability, and the limits of government surveillance. Trust is earned through transparency — and right now, that transparency is disappearing fast.

Just asking

Americans can support law enforcement while also believing there must be limits on mass surveillance. They can believe violent criminals should be caught while also asking who owns the data, who can search it, how long it is retained, and whether artificial intelligence should be allowed to follow their daily movements without their knowledge. Those aren’t extremist questions. They’re the kinds of questions citizens in a free society are supposed to ask.

Garrett Langley’s comments may have been intended to defend his company. Instead, they revealed something far more important. They exposed an attitude many Americans have long suspected exists beneath the rapid expansion of AI surveillance: that questioning the system is becoming more objectionable than expanding it. He said the quiet part out loud. And that matters, because once a society accepts ubiquitous surveillance as normal, history suggests it rarely moves in the opposite direction.

So let me get this straight: We did not vote to add these surveillance cameras, and letting people know where they are located makes us the bad guys. This is not a joke.

I guess I’m “terroristic” for discussing this and telling everyone about it.

​Aclu, Ai surveillance cameras, Artificial intelligence, Mass surveillance, Privacy, Data ownership, Flock, Flock safety, Deflock, Garrett langely, Driving, Automotive 

Maine Democrats have their work cut out for them this week after Graham Platner, who was accused of rape on Monday by an ex-girlfriend, took one more step toward exiting the campaign.

On Wednesday night, Platner posted an 11-minute video on social media explaining that he was “suspending campaign operations.”

‘What comes next needs to come from the people.’

While maintaining his innocence, Platner blamed the Democrat establishment for making the continuation of his candidacy untenable.

“This is incredibly difficult, because I know that some will think it’s an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not,” he said in the video. “We’re not doing it because of the allegations. We’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”

He intimated that he had not filled out the paperwork to officially suspend his campaign at the time of recording the video but suggested that he intends to do so before the deadline.

RELATED: The clock is ticking for Democrats as Platner scandal triggers campaign crisis — here’s what to know

Mel Musto/Bloomberg/Getty Images

“What comes next needs to come from the people,” he said.

Platner has asked his supporters to answer a 48-hour survey with two questions.

The message above the questions reads, in part, “We firmly believe that the supporters and volunteers who built this movement deserve to have a real role in any nomination process. If the Democratic Party hopes to harness our movement, and avoid disillusioning the hundred of thousands of supporters who came into the fray because of our movement’s policies, it must consult the feedback and proposals of the people who built and sustained this.”

While some of the details about “what comes next” are still up in the air, party leaders have been preparing a solution to the selection process, though it remains to be seen if it will be sufficiently “from the people,” as Platner called for.

Multiple outlets reported Wednesday that Democrat leaders are preparing to select a new candidate via a roughly 600-person convention.

The Bangor Daily News, citing an account of a party meeting shared with the outlet, reported that the convention will likely include 500 delegates proportionally selected by county committees as well as the roughly 100 members of the state committee.

Confirmation of these and other details are still forthcoming from the party.

Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement on Wednesday accusing Platner of “distracting from the job of defeating Susan Collins” while emphasizing the party’s intent to develop “a representative, transparent, and inclusive process to select a new nominee when he chooses to withdraw from the race.”

“While we may be frustrated with Graham Platner’s continued efforts to manipulate this process, we are so thankful for his supporters and all of their efforts to defeat Susan Collins — they are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select Platner’s replacement,” Murphy-Anderson added.

Platner will need to officially suspend his candidacy before the Democratic Party can begin planning the convention. The deadline is 5 p.m. ET on Monday.

The party must decide on a candidate and announce the decision to the Maine secretary of state by July 27.

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​Graham platner, Rape accusation, Secretary of state, Politics, Maine 

The White House’s Domestic Policy Council dropped a 162-page report on Independence Day titled “Saving America’s Story” that exposes the radicalism infecting the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

The report highlighted various manifestations of “extreme political activism” under Director Anthea Hartig — from the NMAH’s characterization of Mickey Mouse as a vestige of “blackface minstrelsy” to its propagation of a tool kit that characterizes objectivity and individualism as oppressive traits of “whiteness” — and concluded that the museum, under its current leadership, “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly.”

‘US history was taught as the history of white Christian men who conquered a continent.’

The council’s damning assessment has evidently ruffled feathers at the Smithsonian and elsewhere.

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III sent an institution-wide letter on Tuesday pushing back against the evidence-based critique, claiming that the “report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.”

In his letter, which was obtained by the Washington Post, Bunch claimed both that “the Smithsonian is the glue that holds the nation together” and that the Smithsonian team’s “work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story.”

Bunch thanked the activists who operate within his purview and wrote, “Every day, we are honored to tell America’s stories and hold that responsibility with the utmost regard, respect, and fidelity. We remain committed to fulfilling our mission for generations to come.”

RELATED: Russell Kirk’s dire warning: America cannot be taken for granted

Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Bunch sent his letter days after a spokesperson for the institution stated, “For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.”

Bunch and the Smithsonian spokesperson weren’t alone in fretting over the White House’s report.

The Organization of American Historians rejected the report, calling it “another example of executive branch overreach” and an attempt on the part of the Trump White House “to coerce Smithsonian leadership to shape its presentation of U.S. history so that it serves the administration’s political agenda.”

The OAH, which has over 6,000 members at universities and other institutional settings across the country, complained that the report “insists that history itself is essentially, for Americans, a special and providential story of triumph.”

“Make no mistake: The report represents an attempt to turn back the clock to a time when U.S. history was taught as the history of white Christian men who conquered a continent, U.S. military leaders who rarely lost a battle, and U.S. presidents who were single-handedly responsible for national greatness, all under the cover of ‘anti-DEI’ and ‘anti-woke’ crusading,” the OAH continued.

The woke historians fear that orienting focus toward American exceptionalism would mean “women, workers, people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and more, will not see themselves represented” at the NMAH and that “America’s rich and diverse history will be reduced to shallow and simple-minded stories and tropes.”

Marc Stein, the San Francisco-based homosexual activist and historian who currently serves as the OAH’s president, told the New York Times, “Released on July 4, 2026, the 250th birthday of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the report is a declaration of independence from history.”

Stein, an apparent critic of “child protection” initiatives and defender of “drag queen story hours,” further claimed that the council’s report “mischaracterizes and misrepresents the words of Anthea Hartig, who has consistently worked to educate and inform visitors to the museum with innovative exhibits and inspirational programs.”

‘Deeply concerning to see the Smithsonian embrace politicized history over historical truth.’

The report that has vexed Stein, his organization, Bunch, and others not only revealed Hartig to be a radical who regards history as a “prime tool of social justice,” seeks to “get out of the ‘America First’ mentality” when telling history, and wanted to “problematize the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026,” but also highlighted the LGBT, anti-white, and anti-Western agitprop pushed by her museum.

According to the report, the NMAH has in exhibits, frameworks, curricula, and/or documentation:

Directed American teachers to tell students both that the “U.S. economy depends on an influx of migrants to augment the workforce in a number of industries” and that “there is no single American culture, language, or narrative”;Identified perfectionism, a sense of urgency, the prioritization of quantity over quality, paternalism, “worship of the written word,” either/or thinking, individualism, and objectivity as “characteristics of white supremacy culture which show up in our organizations” and are “damaging to both people of color and to white people”;Described Jared Jennings — the boy called “Jazz” whose genital mutilation was promoted on reality television — as someone who “always knew she ‘was a girl trapped inside a boy’s body'” and devoted an entire “A Girl’s Life” display to discuss his “transgender” experience;Displayed a two-piece chrome and rubber crotch harness designed for sadomasochist sexual activity in a Stonewall exhibit;Lionized Angela Davis, a former Black Panther and recipient of the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize who was once accused of supplying weapons to a black supremacist who went on to murder Superior Court Judge Harold Haley and two inmates;Adopted a decidedly pro-abortion stance, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling and Hartig’s declaration that “a future without federally protected reproductive health care rights is not informed, just, or compassionate”;Hyped gun-control activism, particularly in its “Girlhood (It’s Complicated)” exhibit, which featured a life-size poster of a “March for Our Lives” speaker;Suggested that America rests on stolen land;Slandered America’s founders; and “Consistently denigrated and displaced whites, males, Christians, and Americans in educational materials and programming, failing to highlight how Christians and Christian principles also have contributed to America’s founding and flourishing.”

While liberal revisionists and other radicals clutched pearls over the report, conservatives were apparently happy to see the truth of the NMAH’s ideological capture brought to light.

New York Rep. Claudia Tenney (R) tweeted, “Deeply concerning to see the Smithsonian embrace politicized history over historical truth. Woke does not belong in our taxpayer funded museums. Our history deserves to be told honestly, faithfully, & with the respect owed to the nation that changed the world.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) wrote, “Politicizing American history to weaponize it in service of leftist activism. Not surprised they did this, but good to see it getting exposed.”

Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced legislation last year that would codify President Donald Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order in part by directing executive appointees to the Smithsonian Board of Regents “to remove improper ideology and divisive racial narratives from Smithsonian properties.”

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​Smithsonian, Woke, Revisionist, White house, Politics 

The corporate entertainment complex is experiencing a collective nervous breakdown. The catalyst for this sudden departure from sanity is “Citizen Vigilante,” a cinematic hand grenade that blows the lid off the establishment’s favorite lies.

Directed by the notoriously uncompromising Uwe Boll, the film takes the documented reality of Europe’s border crisis, pairs it with an industry outcast, and refuses to apologize for the violence that follows.

‘Everybody loved that I knocked out the critics,’ Boll notes dryly. ‘They stepped into the ring and received a much-needed reality check.’

Film reviewers, conditioned by years of ideological conformity, responded with their usual panic-stricken script, hurling accusations of “fascism” like overexcited monkeys slinging feces.

Crying ‘fascist’

When asked why modern film critics seem so threatened by stories that reflect public frustrations instead of establishment-approved narratives, Boll doesn’t hesitate.

“They know that the facts are against them and they have no defense,” Boll states matter-of-factly. “So they label everyone a fascist or a Nazi if they point out that criminals need to be prosecuted and, if possible, deported.”

“The leftist governments in Europe are victims of their own propaganda. They are under immense pressure to ignore grooming scandals, knife stabbings, and all forms of violent random crime.”

The hysterical reaction from the press stems from a deep-seated fear of the obvious. For years, the European establishment maintained control by enforcing a strict code of censorship around the predictable outcomes of open-door migration policies. “Citizen Vigilante” breaks that code with a sledgehammer.

The film acts as a mirror to a continent where citizens are told to accept acts of savagery as a standard feature of daily life. When art reflects the dark reality instead of the utopian fantasy, the gatekeepers reach for the chloroform.

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

bollfilms.com

Hammer time

The casting of the lead role provided another opportunity to challenge the industry’s enforced consensus. Beyond his fit for the role, casting Armie Hammer felt like a well-earned middle finger to an entertainment industry obsessed with moral conformity.

“Armie was a major star and would be the perfect James Bond,” Boll says. “Unfortunately, in today’s climate, a one-legged transgender person from Bangladesh has a better chance of getting that part.”

“By the way,” he adds, “that is not a joke against transgender people — that is a joke against the insanity of the woke police running Hollywood. Armie acted irresponsibly years ago, but he committed no crime. He rehabilitated himself and deserves to be a major star again. He was perfect for the role of Sanders, so I hired him.”

Boll is right. Hammer, a genuinely gifted actor, is not a criminal. Whatever one makes of his personal controversies, they are not comparable to the depravities of Harvey Weinstein. On screen, the American’s stoic, unsentimental delivery of justice feels both refreshing and revolutionary.

Hollywood thrives on a system of selective banishment, enforcing a social credit system that demands absolute ideological submission. Hiring Hammer was a calculated rejection of that ecosystem. It demonstrated that a filmmaker with independent backing can bypass the arbitrary tribunals of the cultural elite.

Wake-up call

The performance itself fuels a narrative that focuses directly on the systematic failure of European state institutions. The complete lack of public safety in major European centers is a daily reality on the streets of Berlin, Paris, and London, where the native populations find themselves treated as second-class citizens by their own representatives.

This fact is not lost on Boll.

“Germany is going down the drain, just like the U.K. and France, and we have watched it unfold for at least 15 years,” the filmmaker explains. “Now that more middle-class citizens are feeling the impact, they are starting to wake up and get upset. The general population always reacts too late, usually when the ship is already sinking and they have lost their jobs, their homes, or are simply running out of money for groceries. Then they become resentful and depressed.”

He considers his latest film “a harsh wake-up call designed for shock value to accelerate that awakening. Politicians are elected to bring safety and prosperity to their country. That is not happening.”

In Germany, he adds, “our bridges and schools are literally falling apart, but we are funding bicycle lanes in Peru. That is a documented fact, not a joke.” He’s right. It’s true.

Contract killers

This disconnect forms the emotional center of the film’s protagonist, a man driven to extreme measures by the state’s total abdication of authority. The character’s narrative arc reflects a growing sentiment across the continent. When the social contract is voided by the ruling class, the consequences will be severe.

Michael Sanders goes to some incredibly dark places by the end of the film, leaving fans to wonder if the sequel will bring a deeper escalation of his crusade or a confrontation with the true cost of taking the law into his own hands.

Boll remains coy about the exact plot of the sequel. “Maybe both,” he offers.

Bounty hunter

Obviously, one cannot interview Boll without discussing his decision to stream the film for free on X via Elon Musk’s account. This move bypassed traditional distribution entirely, rendering traditional studios obsolete.

“Thanks to X, the world could watch the film for two days,” Boll says. However, he adds, “you still need theatrical releases, Blu-ray, television, and streaming revenues to generate a profit. If you launch exclusively on social media, you would need an alternative model to get compensated for the work.”

In theory, this alternative model would look like a digital bounty system — direct-to-consumer micro-subscriptions or platform-backed ad-revenue splits driven entirely by viral engagement rather than studio greenlights. It is desperately needed because the current gatekeepers don’t just take a cut of the profit but also a cut of the truth.

The entertainment elite dislikes independent distribution channels because they destroy the monopoly on information. This rebellious streak defines Boll’s career. Twenty years ago, he famously challenged his fiercest critics to actual boxing matches and beat them in the ring, an event that permanently altered his relationship with the film establishment.

“Everybody loved that I knocked out the critics,” Boll notes dryly. “They stepped into the ring and received a much-needed reality check.” With “Citizen Vigilante,” Boll delivers the ultimate right hook, forcing open the eyes of the cultural commissars who would very much like us to ignore reality.

​Armie hammer, Citizen vigilante, Uwe boll, Violent crime, Elon musk, Entertainment, Movies, Immigration, Interview 

Senator Mitch McConnell was confirmed to have been hospitalized on June 14 for an unknown condition — but that was now weeks ago, and the people of Kentucky have received no meaningful updates about his condition.

Now, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is asking questions that Washington refuses to answer.

“Here are the rumors. And they’re rumors. If they’re true, they’re tragic. If the rumors are false, then somebody needs to step up and tell the American people the truth. Either way, this is not how a constitutional republic is supposed to function,” Glenn says.

According to these rumors, it’s been three weeks since the people of Kentucky have heard about the condition of Senator Mitch McConnell.

“His office has issued really carefully worded statements. He’s recovering. He appreciates everyone’s support. They don’t say what happened. They don’t say when he’s going to return,” Glenn explains. “They don’t answer even the basic question every citizen has a right to: Can he still do the job?”

“Is he still thinking? And this is not a cruel question, but the guy is a sitting senator, and it’s a question that matters, because this is bigger than Mitch McConnell. We watched America do this with President Biden,” he continues.

“Republicans are now the mirror image of the people they criticized,” he says. “You know, if your party has spent years demanding honesty about the president’s health, you kind of have an obligation to demand honesty about your own leader in your own GOP.”

“This is not about left or right. This is about representation,” he adds.

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​Constitutional republic, Glenn beck, Hospitalized, Investigation, Kentucky, Mitch mcconnell, Rumors, Washington, Health, Joe biden, Democrats, Republicans, The glenn beck program 

New York City without the Italians, Jews, and Irish?

Well, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “immigrant enclaves” map seems to think so.

‘Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy.’

Detailing 30 immigrant enclave communities across the five boroughs, the map is catching harsh criticism for excluding one of the city’s original “Little” — Little Italy.

Among the enclaves included are Chinatown in Manhattan, Little Egypt in Queens, and Little Haiti in Brooklyn.

“They were able to get a Little Bhod-Tibet in there, but what about the original ‘Little neighborhood,’ Little Italy?” Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told the New York Post.

“And what about areas like Woodlawn, in the Bronx, which are home to plenty of Irish immigrants? Do the Irish and Italians not count for the mayor’s office?” she continued.

In a statement from the Italian American Civil Rights League, President Mike Crispi blasted Mamdani for “erasing” Little Italy.

“This is not a clerical error. This is cultural erasure. Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is.”

“Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy,” Crispi added.

The league’s X account continued, “Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans. We stand AGAINST COMMUNISTS!”

Yet, this isn’t the first time the Italian-American community and Mamdani have been at odds with each other. During last year’s mayoral race, Mamdani faced intense backlash after an X post from 2020 resurfaced showing him giving the middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus. The post was captioned, “Take it down.”

RELATED: Mamdani smears America in unhinged address ahead of July 4: ‘We sell our elections to the highest bidder’

Fatih Aktas/Anadolu/Getty Images

The map received additional criticism for leaving out neighborhoods home to large Jewish populations.

“The Mayor’s Office made a map of NYC’s immigrant enclaves: Little Africa, Little Poland, Little Palestine. But they just couldn’t figure out how to represent 11% of the city. Couldn’t decipher where the Jews are from. Asked everyone. Huge riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” writer Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt said on X.

Former Republican candidate for Los Angeles mayor Spencer Pratt chimed in, calling the mayor’s actions “deliberate subversion” in a post to X.

“Leaving out the Italian, Jewish, and Irish enclaves in NYC is like leaving out Mexican and Persian enclaves in LA,” Pratt said. “It’s not an ‘oopsie!’ This is deliberate subversion. The communist must erase your history so he can demolish your home and make it his own.”

A spokeswoman from City Hall defended the map in a statement, saying it “highlights neighborhoods in New York City that have substantial foreign-born populations from regions and countries around the world.”

“It does not highlight religious groups,” she added. “Little Odessa, which is featured in the map, has a substantial Jewish population.”

“We are planning to add more neighborhoods in the upcoming months.”

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​Mayor zohran mamdani, New york city, Politics 

Watch live as Day 4 of the preliminary hearing in the murder case of Charlie Kirk gets under way in Provo, Utah.

After a dramatic third day dominated by legal battles over key evidence, prosecutors are expected to present the redacted recorded statements of Tyler Robinson’s former roommate, Lance Twiggs, along with additional digital evidence they say ties Robinson to the murder.

Day 3 also included testimony surrounding Robinson’s surrender to law enforcement, while defense attorneys continued challenging the prosecution’s forensic evidence and fought to limit what the judge could consider. With the hearing entering its final stages, today’s testimony could be among the most significant yet as prosecutors work to convince Judge Tony Graf there is enough evidence to send Robinson to trial on aggravated murder charges and pursue the death penalty.

Watch Day 4 live:

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​Charlie kirk, Tyler robinson, Utah, Politics 

I remember back in the early Trump days, I would cruise by the Politics section of my local bookstore to see which celebrity leftist pundit they were promoting this week.

One day, I noticed a small subsection within Politics called the Alt-Right.

The alt-right was like the early punk movement. If you were actually there, it was crazy fun. If you weren’t, everything you heard about it was negative.

I was amazed that a bookstore in my blue city would admit that the “alt-right” existed. But then I saw that all these books were about the evils of the alt-right.

Without exception, these books described a dark and dangerous world of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, fascists, racists, homophobes, and misogynists … most of whom apparently lived in caves in the darkest reaches of Idaho.

The authors of these books often struck a self-congratulatory tone. How brave they were to explore these nefarious netherworlds!

Eggheads unlimited

The truth was that all of these books were incredibly dry and boring. Most were published by university presses and featured dubious statistics, out-of-context quotes, and obvious misrepresentations.

The writers were brain-dead academics. They had no understanding of trends, or vibes, or zeitgeists. They barely knew what a meme was.

And of course, they lacked any sense of humor at all. This made it impossible for them to understand the sarcasm and irony of the quick-witted young bloggers and commentators they were supposedly writing about.

An untold story

I remember wondering if anyone would ever write an honest account of the alt-right. Probably not. It’s fairly common that most vanguard youth cultures are dismissed or misinterpreted.

The alt-right was like the early punk movement. If you were actually there, it was crazy fun. If you weren’t, everything you heard about it was negative.

So you can imagine my surprise when I heard about Scott Greer’s latest book, “Whitepill: The Online Right and the Making of Trump’s America.”

Though the official title was relatively innocuous, the word on the street was this is it, this is the first serious history of the alt-right, by a writer who understood it, participated in it, and was very nearly destroyed by its fallout.

Needless to say, I was eager to read it.

How far we’ve come

Greer named his book “Whitepill” because it describes the many advances conservatives have made during the Trump era and celebrates their many victories.

For those of us over 50: To be “white-pilled” about something means to be excited or happy about it.

In the first sections of the book, Greer reminds us of the state of conservatism during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations.

It was “cuckservatism” basically, to borrow an alt-right-ism. The Republicans were so eager to please and so afraid of offending that they came up with catchphrases like “compassionate conservatism” to market themselves.

They promoted same-sex marriage, amnesty for illegal immigrants, affirmative action, and a host of other leftist projects.

We think of our current Republicans as being hypocritical, if not traitorous, for not protecting Americans from voter fraud, violent crime, and open borders.

But they were even worse 20 years ago! Greer gives a good, succinct accounting of this.

A new defiant energy

In response to the extreme wimpiness of 2000s establishment Republicans, a new defiant energy began to appear among young conservatives.

Greer describes an obscure 2008 article by historian Paul Gottfried, who predicted the end of that era’s gutless conservatism:

Beneath that crumbling establishment, [Gottfried] saw the stirrings of a “younger, less inhibited” generation of rightists willing to defy taboos and confront head-on what he described as an “intolerable political situation.” He called this nascent rebellion the Alternative Right.

Most people who read “Whitepill” will have a rough idea of what Gottfried’s alternative right became, but Greer simplifies it for the normies: “[The alt-right] was an online phenomenon, an ideological and aesthetic counter-culture that broke hard from the philosophical premises underpinning the modern [liberal] ‘idea’ of America.”

And more specifically:

Many young white men in particular came to feel alienated by a new liberalism that pathologized their “whiteness” and demanded that they “check their privilege.” The Alt-Right explained to them in explicit terms why and how they could reject this new social paradigm.”

RELATED: The cure for liking socialism? Visiting a socialist country

L-R: The author in East Berlin, 1984. Blake Nelson; Cuba, 2007. Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Youth must be served

From there, Greer takes us through the initial flourishing of alt-right culture. The kids were going to have their say!

But he also points out its obvious limitations, mainly that it was completely online and mostly anonymous. Its growth was therefore random and chaotic. There was no accountability; there were no boundaries.

If it sometimes felt like a “movement” or even a “political party,” in reality, it was a free-floating, spontaneous, cultural phenomenon created in the cartoon world of the internet.

Still, an entire generation came to know its symbols, its humor, its language, its youthful goofiness. It was hopeful and fun, and it pointed toward a way out of the mess we were in.

The end of the beginning

Of course, we all know where the alt-right story ended: in Charlottesville, in the summer of 2017.

The Charlottesville “Unite the Right Rally” was doomed from the beginning. Though I had only just become aware of the alt-right myself, even I could sense the danger inherent in its real-world manifestation.

I remember one blogger I followed begging people to stay away. “IT’S A TRAP!” he kept saying. And he was right. And a lot of people got caught in it.

Life in the swamp

Greer occasionally inserts his own experiences as a writer, editor, and journalist into this narrative. And it’s good that he does. As he describes his early career in Washington, D.C., you get a sense of what a treacherous time it was to work in politics.

Imagine trying to hold down a real-world job as a young conservative in the midst of peak wokeness! At different points, Greer was doxxed, fired, and blacklisted. But he managed to soldier on.

Which is good news for the rest of us. Because he has written an exceptional book about a very important subject.

Perhaps the most notable thing about “Whitepill” is that despite Greer’s obvious right-wing bias, he actually succeeds in producing a balanced and objective account of what happened and why. He is — as best he can — attempting to tell the truth.

Imagine that. An honest person in politics. That is indeed a white pill.

​Review 

Rupert Lowe, the head of Restore Britain in the U.K. Parliament, released a damning report on June 16, detailing the staggering scale of the horrific crimes committed against generations of young white girls in Britain by predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs.

The 219-page “Rape Gang Inquiry Report” — which was commissioned by Lowe and led by Sammy Woodhouse, a rape-gang survivor who over a decade ago helped expose the mass rape of girls in Rotherham, England — estimated that the number of white girls subjected to “repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy, forced Islamic conversion, and lifelong trauma” since the 1950s is “at the very least, 250,000.”

‘You’re going to have a real problem.’

The report’s disturbing insights not only into the crimes but into the British establishment’s egregious response captured Joe Rogan’s attention last month. In an interview released Wednesday, the podcaster sat down with Lowe to discuss what Elon Musk has elsewhere dubbed “the rape of Britain,” as well as the correlated issues of mass migration, the failure of multiculturalism, western Islamicization, and the fall of civilizations.

After raising the alarm about the costly and seemingly interminable inundation of foreigners into the United Kingdom, Lowe — whose party advocates for mass deportations — highlighted Britain’s problem with migrant populations, particularly those originating from Islamic nations, that “are increasingly living in small groups of people who haven’t integrated, who are living under Sharia law, and who have their own courts.”

Rogan, unsettled by Lowe’s observation of parallel Islamic legal systems operating in the U.K. and allegedly tolerated by British authorities, said, “There’s certain cultures that if you allow them to come into your community and then they institute the laws of the country where they came from, you’re going to have a real problem.”

“They don’t live the way you live. They don’t have the same respect for women that you have. They don’t treat them the same way. They don’t allow dogs,” continued Rogan.

“The idea is supposed to be that Western society is inclusive and progressive because we’re intelligent and educated and we care — but you can care so much that you let in criminals, and then you give those criminals all your money, and then the criminals can take over your country, slowly but surely.”

RELATED: ‘Beyond evil’: Nightmarish report reveals full scale of mass Islamic rapes of ‘250,000’ white British girls

L-R: OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images; Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Rogan suggested that people are wrong to be skeptical about the possibility and ramifications of such a takeover, referring back to the collapse of the empires of yesteryear.

“People look at the Colosseum, you look at ancient Greece, and they think, ‘Wow, I wonder what happened to those guys.’ What do you think happened?” said Rogan. “Probably the same s**t that’s happening right now to England, the same s**t that could have happened to America. It’s — civilizations fall apart for various reasons. And one great way to get them to fall apart is to bring in a bunch of people and they don’t have to follow your laws.”

Lowe bridged the topics of civilizational collapse and rapacious parallel societies to the rape gang inquiry, suggesting that he and others had to crowdfund the report because the “government will not have a statutory inquiry” — a special kind of state inquiry that can compel witnesses to give evidence or to supply documents — because the powers that be are sensitive to the “Muslim bloc vote.”

Lowe claimed that as the result of his efforts to force disclosures in Parliament relevant to the inquiry, it has become clear that “a lot of the data has not been properly collected” by the police, the National Health Service, social services, and other institutions with regard to the crimes and the particulars of their perpetrators.

The Restore Britain leader suggested further that while the powers that be know that members of imported populations are disproportionately prowling about and preying on native British girls, “they don’t want to admit that their multicultural experiment” has failed, “which as you probably know, famously Enoch Powell warned would fail with his … ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, for which he was heavily criticized.”

“They don’t want to be called racist,” added Lowe.

Rogan said, “We hope you guys turn it around.”

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​Joe rogan, Rupert lowe, Britain, United kingdom, Rape gang, Islam, Immigration, Culture, Anti-white, Restore britain, Politics 

A Honduran national with prior convictions for child sex abuse and illegal re-entry has been taken back into federal custody after he allegedly jumped from a moving train in an attempt to slip into the U.S. undetected, according to details provided to Blaze News by the Department of Homeland Security.

Border Patrol agents assigned to the Uvalde Station were conducting train-check operations Saturday when three men reportedly jumped from a railcar and ran. One didn’t get far.

‘Child sex offenders who repeatedly attempt to enter our country pose a serious threat, and we stand ready to answer that threat.’

The DHS identified the man as Cristobal Cortes-Cartagena, 39, and a records check on scene revealed a lengthy criminal history.

Cortes-Cartagena was convicted in California in 2010 of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and served five years in prison before being removed from the country.

In 2017, he was convicted of illegal re-entry and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. California prosecutors also convicted him separately of failing to register as a sex offender, adding another 14 months to his time served.

RELATED: Democrat Pramila Jayapal gets ANNOYED by a mom whose daughter was killed by an illegal alien

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

He was deported a second time in 2021.

Cortes-Cartagena is now back in federal custody in connection with the Saturday incident. He faces a federal charge of illegal re-entry after deportation, a felony carrying a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

“Constant vigilance by our Border Patrol agents is paramount to keeping our communities safe,” said a statement from Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony “Scott” Good. “Child sex offenders who repeatedly attempt to enter our country pose a serious threat, and we stand ready to answer that threat.”

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​Child sex crimes, Department of homeland security, President donald trump, Texas, Us border patrol, Politics 

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t giving “Citizen Vigilante” high marks as a film — rather, he argues it largely fails by traditional cinematic standards.

But the point of the film wasn’t to tell a compelling story or showcase great acting.

“‘Citizen Vigilante’ is not a movie. It doesn’t care about story. It doesn’t care about plot. It doesn’t care about acting. It doesn’t care about script. It’s not a good movie,” Whitlock says.

“It’s a provocative political statement,” he adds.

Whitlock believes the political statement is anti-illegal-immigration, anti-multiculturalism, and anti-Islam, explaining that the film is “capturing the anger that many people in America and in Europe have” regarding these topics.

However, while Whitlock doesn’t care for the film as a film, he does believe it’s important that “movies get put out to make political points.”

“For this movie to be put out and for Elon Musk to be supporting it and for the conversation that is driven and for the subject that it touches on, it’s an indication in my mind of where they want the conversation to go and what they’re trying to stir in white people globally,” he says. “Enough is enough.”

And Whitlock himself is “anti-multiculturalism” like the film.

“All cultures are not created equal. And we are tolerating cultures that are satanic, chaotic, not law-abiding, degenerate. We’re tolerating and embracing these things under, like, ‘Hey, this is what we’re supposed to do. Diversity is good,’” he explains.

“I’m fed up with the melting-pot mentality that, when I was younger, that slogan sounded good. As I’ve now reached full maturity, I’m like, not everything needs to be in this pot. Some of this stuff in the pot will kill you,” he continues.

And while television and media are always trying to “tug at our tribalism” — usually from the point of view of the left — “Citizen Vigilante” does the same.

“That’s the point of ‘Citizen Vigilante,’” Whitlock says, “to bring out our tribalism, justify our tribalism.”

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​Citizen vigilante, Diversity, Elon musk, Illegal immigration, Islam, Jason whitlock, Left, Melting pot, Multiculturalism, Tribalism, Jason whitlock harmony 

Xbox is in dire straits. Following a financial spiral with hardware sales down 33% and gaming revenue down 7%, the management team suffered a huge shake-up, with CEO Phil Spencer announcing his sudden retirement and protégé Sarah Bond leaving the company without an explanation. Now the new CEO, Asha Sharma, is left to trim the fat. For her first order of business, Xbox is preparing to offload several first-party studios, all of which lost money on DEI-infused games, policies, and partnerships.

It’s layoff season at Xbox

Shortly after Sharma took the reins, she candidly admitted in a memo that Xbox needs to “reset the business” following a string of surprises and failures. Some of these were well within Xbox’s control; it reportedly spent more than $80 billion to acquire major publishers like Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media (parent company of Bethesda). Other challenges were unexpected, such as the AI-driven RAM shortage. Together, all of these led to a razor-thin 3% profit margin — far from a healthy business for a Microsoft brand.

Despite Xbox’s best efforts to spare its business and reputation, it still has a tough road ahead.

It was clear from the start that mass layoffs would be part of the formula to patch the sinking ship. As to when the exodus will begin, that’s been a big question percolating on the internet for several weeks. According to prolific video game journalist Jason Schreier, the layoffs could take place any time after the fiscal year, which is June 30 for Microsoft. And who will go? Five studios are reportedly on the chopping block, many with strong ties to DEI games that failed to generate a large audience or sustainable revenue.

Survival is not compulsory

Before we get into the weeds, reports on the fates of these studios have changed a lot in recent weeks, but most agree that they will either be spun off into their own companies, sold off for a bit of financial recuperation, or shut down entirely to make room on the books. Looking at its recent game portfolios, it’s no wonder Xbox wants to offload these as quickly as possible.

One of the first studios on the chopping block is Compulsion. Compulsion released “South of Midnight” in spring 2025. The game follows a female lead character named Hazel through black “Deep South” folktales depicting dark magic. Aside from unverified claims that Hazel was race-swapped due to DEI before the game was released, a comment made by one of the studio’s community managers particularly angered players. According to the gaming subreddit, the unnamed person said white gamers were a mistake following questions from players over the race-swap rumor.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Compulsion also accepted consultation from the leftist woke gaming group Sweet Baby Inc., whose negative influence on video game culture is now widely known. Sweet Baby Inc. earned its ire honestly while torpedoing gaming brands into oblivion. Its employees have repeatedly shared their disgust for white male players — a demographic that makes up more than half of the gaming community in the United States — with comments such as:

“Pay me to shoot down your white male lead game ideas”;“I usually get grossed out when straight white rich people kiss”;“Had a nightmare that I was a white male gamer”; and“Sometimes it is hard to work with white people” — when asked why Sweet Baby Inc. doesn’t hire white people.

“South of Midnight” was doomed from there, suffering from low player counts and dismal sales that made Compulsion an easy target for elimination. As for Sweet Baby Inc., it’s used to failed projects, with a growing list of woke games that all flopped in recent years, including “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” “Unknown 9: Awakening,” “Contraband,” and “Gotham Knights.” It was also involved in “God of War Ragnarok” and “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” but these franchises proved to be too big to sink, despite the presence of LGBTQ+ characters, Pride flags, and other progressive ideologies.

RELATED: ‘You are killing ownership’: PlayStation goes digital-only as disc-loving gamers rage

RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP/Getty Images

Latest reports indicate that Compulsion will transition back to an independent studio owned and operated by a team outside of Xbox.

More casualties of the woke regime

Although Compulsion may be the wokest casualty on the list, the remaining studios on Xbox’s shortlist come with their own woke-ified baggage:

Double Fine Productions: Founder Tim Schafer used DEI as a guiding principle at his company, stating that inclusivity was “an ongoing education for everybody” as he tried to be more sensitive to modern issues, seemingly in a quest not to offend players by deploying the usual “grab bag of stereotypes.” Like Compulsion, Double Fine will go independent under Schafer’s leadership.Ninja Theory Ltd.: With ties to Sweet Baby Inc., both teams contrived to build a series of glorified walking simulators devoid of any meaningful action as their female lead, Senua, explored haunting psychotic episodes in “Hellblade.” The series had potential, but the original and sequel just weren’t engaging enough to captivate players. Xbox currently plans to sell Ninja Theory to the highest bidder with its newly unveiled title, “Senua,” as a carrot to lure in potential buyers.Arkane Studios: Most notably dropping the ball hard on its latest title from 2023, “Redfall” tried to school players on the evils of capitalism and rich elite vampire bloodsuckers while grandstanding progressive values. Throw in a laundry list of bugs and technical issues that disrupted the gameplay loop, and “Redfall” swiftly fell to its doom. As part of the ZeniMax acquisition, Arkane’s inevitable fate is still unknown at this time.Undead Labs: Known for its zombie-infested “State of Decay” franchise, “female, nonbinary, and other marginalized” staffers accused the studio of “rampant misogyny” and a toxic work culture. The studio course-corrected by hiring new diversity-driven employees. Despite the progressive diversity, equity, and inclusion mandate, Undead Labs only shipped two games since 2013, leading to its downfall. Meanwhile, its third installment of “State of Decay” may be canceled amid Xbox’s shifting strategy. Undead Labs will also be sold off with its upcoming “State of Decay 3” positioned as the key selling point.

Xbox is smart to cut ties with its woke deadweight of the past. Double Fine is the only developer that might be worth saving (the creativity and storytelling in the “Psychonauts” series is top-notch). The rest serve as proof of what happens when corporations go woke — they go broke almost every time, and the damage control at the other end isn’t worth the trouble.

Despite Xbox’s best efforts to spare its business and reputation, it still has a tough road ahead on the journey to stability. So far, Xbox has cut 3,200 jobs to stop the financial bleeding. The gaming giant is also entertaining several ideas to keep itself afloat, including running ads on its platform, letting players build their own custom Game Pass subscription packages, and spinning Xbox off into its own subsidiary. Little is set in stone, though, so anything could happen.

​Tech, Xbox, Dei 

After Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the 2024 election, Democrats had to stop and ask what went wrong. One conclusion from the commentary class was that progressives had a serious man problem, and for once they were right.

Democrats had made contempt for men, especially young white men, central to their message, and that came with a cost. Any white man who remained on the left had to accept that he was either uniquely guilty or expected to participate in his own dispossession. The party even launched a $20 million effort to discover why men were abandoning it, only to arrive at the familiar conclusion that men were simply bad and deserved what they got.

Young men who believe the system is organized against them — and who have substantial evidence for that belief — will organize to defend their interests.

This should have created a golden opportunity for the GOP to secure the loyalty of young men for a generation.

Instead, conservatives are setting that opportunity on fire.

Men’s natural role in society is to protect, provide, and lead. Even when women earn good incomes, the data consistently shows that they still prefer men who are at least as successful as they are. Women generally do not form families with men who cannot find stable work, buy homes, or attain the status markers that signal competence and security.

A society that blocks young men from those roles is choosing dysfunction and decay.

In a recent Fox News interview, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed the rise of democratic socialism on Gen Z. She said young people were “raised with silver spoons in their mouths,” called them lazy, and suggested sending them to Cuba or Iran.

Calling those remarks callous and tone-deaf would be generous.

Leavitt married a millionaire real estate developer more than 30 years her senior. It is unlikely that her “silver spoon” would be adjusted by deployment to a foreign combat zone. The entitlement only became more obvious when she defended the comments after deserved criticism.

The message to young people was unmistakable: Your concerns are not legitimate, and we despise you for expecting us to fix anything.

Of course, some young people are lazy and entitled. Every generation has its share. That does not mean most young men are or that the obstacles they face are imaginary.

Young men, especially young white men, have been systematically excluded from educational institutions, corporate hiring, and promotion. This is not mere resentment or speculation. It is the predictable result of decades of cultural indoctrination and civil-rights enforcement that trained institutions to prefer women, immigrants, and minorities whenever possible.

RELATED: America is squatting in its own ruins

Blaze Media Illustration

That has real consequences. Men who cannot secure education, employment, and status are less likely to marry or form families, no matter how often our culture repeats slogans about equality.

Housing has become another barrier. The average first-time home buyer is now approaching middle age. Young men cannot build wealth as their parents did or provide the stability women often want before marriage.

There are many reasons for this, including mass immigration and corporate speculation in residential real estate. But one factor is simply welfare for seniors. Many older Americans failed to save adequately for retirement and now depend on the inflated value of homes they bought decades ago.

President Trump has said explicitly that he does not want housing prices to fall for this reason. That is a deliberate choice to sacrifice young men’s development and family formation to protect older asset holders.

Young men have also watched their country import foreigners, legally and illegally, to replace them. Immigrants receive special access to education loans, business programs, and hiring preferences unavailable to natives. Mass immigration drives up housing, insurance, medical, and education costs while transforming neighborhoods beyond recognition.

In Minneapolis, the mayor now manages Somali clan politics like a colonial regent simply to maintain control.

The question is not why young white men are radicalized. The question is why it took so long.

On July 4, during America’s 250th anniversary celebration, Patriot Front marched in Washington, D.C. The group consists largely of young white men in quasi-military uniforms carrying American flags.

A comical number of conservatives rushed online to call them federal agents after Reuters published a photo of one black woman sitting in a subway car full of Patriot Front members. It later appeared that the supposed new Rosa Parks was a homeless drug user with a record of indecent exposure.

She was certainly safer than Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed in the neck by a mentally ill black man while riding public transportation alone. The Patriot Front members may even have prevented another indecent-exposure incident simply by being present.

RELATED: Iryna Zarutska’s name should shame the woke

Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

Young white men remain the easiest group in America to attack publicly. The left has demonized them for existing, which should give the GOP an obvious opening.

Instead, conservatives once again take their social cues from progressives. Many still crave left-wing approval and believe belittling young white men proves they are neither sexist nor racist.

I do not think Patriot Front’s tactics are wise, and I have said so repeatedly. Nor is skepticism about the group irrational, given the relationship between the Southern Poverty Law Center, federal law enforcement, and manufactured panic over “white supremacy.”

But dismissing everything as a federal operation is easier than offering serious solutions. Telling ourselves that no legitimate grievances exist and that all unrest is manufactured is foolish and weak. If Patriot Front scares you, good. It should.

Young men who believe the system is organized against them — and who have substantial evidence for that belief — will organize to defend their interests. The answer is not to insult them, mock them, or pretend they are imagining their dispossession.

The answer is to address the problems driving them toward radical groups.

Young men are not asking conservatives to excuse every bad decision or endorse every organization that claims to speak for them. They are asking for a political movement that recognizes their interests, defends their future, and gives them a reason to build.

Conservatives should stop hating the young men they need to inherit the country.

​Conservatives, Democratic socialism, Democrats, Economy, Iryna zarutska, Karoline leavitt, Opinion & analysis, Patriot front, Progressives, Psyop, Radicalization, Republicans, Southern poverty law center, White men, White supremacy 

A Florida man’s drunken behavior that led to a brawl with a Vietnam veteran has led to felony charges and his possible dismissal as a sergeant, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

Jason Stickels, 44, was arrested by the New Smyrna Beach Police Department on Monday after officers responded to a report of a brawl at Merk’s Bar & Grill at about 4:20 p.m.

‘How to throw away your law enforcement career in 2 minutes. Off duty, stumbling drunk, harassing people who are just trying to enjoy their afternoon.’

Police said Stickels “instigated and created unwanted contact” with an elderly couple, which appeared to be corroborated by video.

“According to witnesses and video footage of the incident, Stickels first battered a 71-year-old woman seated at a table, then battered her 77-year-old husband when he intervened,” the statement reads.

The video appears to show the woman’s husband pushing Stickels after the sergeant tries to kiss the woman. Stickels then pushes the husband, and a waitress tries to break up the altercation. At that point, another bar patron puts Stickels in a chokehold and takes him to the ground.

No injuries were reported from the incident.

Police said Stickels was charged with two counts of felony battery on a person 65 years of age or older.

“He was immediately placed on administrative leave and surrendered his law enforcement equipment pending final discipline up to and including termination,” the statement reads.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood was far more scathing in his response to the arrest.

“How to throw away your law enforcement career in 2 minutes. Off duty, stumbling drunk, harassing people who are just trying to enjoy their afternoon. To the couple involved, please let me buy your next lunch at Merk’s,” the sheriff wrote on social media.

RELATED: 2nd grade school teacher arrested for teaching while allegedly being ‘extremely intoxicated’ in California

“I would also like to invite the good citizen who stepped in,” Chitwood added.

He included video surveillance of the altercation. Chitwood told WKMG-TV that Stickels entered a rehabilitation program and confirmed that the victim involved was a Vietnam veteran.

The Sheriff’s office said Stickels had been employed there since 2004.

Online jail records show that Stickels was given a bond of $5,000 for each count.

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​Felony charges, Fight, Florida man, Intoxicated, Off duty, Vietnam veteran, Crime 

I have spent much of my career around self-described communists, democratic socialists, admirers of Bernie Sanders, and professors who think Lenin and Stalin were not sufficiently progressive.

After so many faculty meetings, one begins to recognize that there are really only shades of red.

The American experiment never depended on producing perfect citizens. It depended on understanding that no political system could substitute for moral renewal.

Now, as younger voters embrace self-proclaimed socialists in places like New York, Americans naturally wonder what such movements would mean if they gained real political power. Mayor Mamdani has suggested that no problem is too large or too small for government intervention.

So let us conduct a thought experiment.

Suppose Karl Marx was right.

Suppose the wealthiest families accumulated their fortunes only through exploitation, political favoritism, monopoly, corruption, or violence. Suppose the rich become rich only by taking advantage of everyone else.

Even if we grant Marx that premise, where does it lead?

I know what you are thinking. Professor Anderson, have you lost your mind? Has much learning driven you mad?

Stay with me. I am asking the question socialists cannot answer.

When politicians promise that government will solve every problem, regulate every industry, subsidize every need, and redistribute every inequality, they demand extraordinary trust in political power.

Listen carefully to their rhetoric. No problem is supposedly too large or too small to be solved by expanding government authority into every corner of life.

But why should that follow?

Why would anyone embrace a philosophy that treats people as corrupt when they gather in families, businesses, churches, or private institutions, but assumes those same people become altruistic lovers of mankind when they enter government?

RELATED: Jefferson’s line of revolutionary fire still burns

John van Hasselt/Sygma/Getty Images

If concentrated wealth corrupts those who possess it, why would concentrating even more wealth and power in the state eliminate corruption?

The irony is as dense as a room full of critical-theory PhDs.

The democratic socialist says: Give me vast power so that you can be free.

You cannot have it both ways.

History supplies a remarkably consistent answer.

The French Revolution condemned aristocratic privilege. The Russian Revolution condemned the bourgeoisie and the czar. Communist revolutions throughout Asia and Latin America began by identifying corruption among wealthy or politically connected elites.

Some of those criticisms contained elements of truth.

Wealth has often been accumulated through injustice. Powerful families have oppressed the weak. Cronyism, favoritism, and corruption recur in every fallen society.

But the proposed socialist solution creates an even greater danger.

The revolutionary insists that the wealthy possess too much power. He therefore proposes creating an institution with vastly more power.

The wealthy may possess billions of dollars. The state can confiscate trillions.

The wealthy may own companies. The state claims authority over entire industries.

The wealthy may influence markets. The state commands armies, police forces, intelligence agencies, prosecutors, regulators, prisons, and courts.

If fallen human beings abuse power, why would giving some of them virtually unlimited political power solve the problem?

It never has.

Communist governments repeatedly follow the same pattern. They begin with promises of justice, equality, affordable housing, free education, medical care, and security for the poor.

They end with repression, stagnation, censorship, secret police, totalitarianism, and ruling classes whose privileges exceed those of the elites they replaced.

They also tend to end with rivers of blood.

Even if Marx correctly recognized that human beings exploit one another, he made one catastrophic mistake: He assumed that this tendency disappears when those same human beings become government officials.

Governments are not composed of angels. They are composed of people. And people do not become virtuous because they receive a government paycheck.

The contrast would be funny if the consequences were not so severe. Those who claim to distrust evil billionaires place extraordinary trust in politicians who possess powers no billionaire could dream of exercising.

If corruption follows power, why assume government is immune?

I have seen the same contradiction among the radical left-wing faculty that dominate our state universities. They condemn oppression, nepotism, cronyism, and abuses of authority.

Then they acquire power.

They promote their friends, punish dissenters, and censor everything to the right of Mao.

America’s founders confronted this problem directly. They understood that power corrupts because they understood something deeper: Human nature is fallen.

James Madison famously observed that if men were angels, no government would be necessary. Because men are not angels, government itself must be restrained.

The Constitution reflects that insight through divided powers, federalism, checks and balances, and limits on government authority.

The goal was not to create perfect rulers.

It was to prevent any ruler from accumulating too much power.

Yet the founders recognized something else modern politics forgets.

Political institutions cannot cure the human heart.

John Adams warned that the Constitution was made only for “a moral and religious people” and was wholly inadequate for any other.

RELATED: The cure for liking socialism? Visiting a socialist country

YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images

His point was not that Christians are incapable of sin. Free government depends upon citizens capable of self-government. When individuals cannot govern themselves morally, the state expands to govern them externally.

That is the lesson America risks forgetting as we celebrate 250 years of independence.

Our greatest danger is not simply expanding government or growing inequality. It is believing political power can redeem fallen humanity.

It cannot. Marx’s solution is doomed to repeated and bloody failure.

Whether oppression comes from wealthy corporations or an all-powerful bureaucracy, the underlying problem remains the same. Human beings misuse power because human hearts are corrupted by sin.

Democratic socialists now promise young voters the end of the wealthy and an endless supply of free goods. At the same time, they exploit constitutional forms to entrench their power, excuse election abuses, and stretch the 14th Amendment far beyond its authors’ intent.

The American experiment never depended on producing perfect citizens. It depended on understanding that no political system could substitute for moral renewal.

But if Americans abandon what is good and holy in sufficient numbers, checks and balances alone will not save us from socialist exploitation.

Christianity offers an answer that reaches beneath economics and politics to the human heart.

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that he must be born again.

The gospel does not merely redistribute wealth. It transforms rich and poor alike. It teaches generosity instead of greed, service instead of domination, and humility instead of pride — out of love for God, not fear of government.

Without that transformation, every revolution produces a new ruling class.

Perhaps America’s greatest achievement after 250 years has not been discovering the perfect political system. It has been recognizing that no political system can save us. Christ can.

Only redeemed people can preserve a free republic. And redeemed people are not created by the state. They are created by the saving work of Jesus Christ.

​Bernie sanders, Communism, Constitution, Democratic socialists, Freedom, James madison, Jesus christ, Karl marx, Opinion & analysis, Totalitarianism, Zohran mamdani 

In the wake of America’s vibrant 250th birthday celebrations, Sunny Hostin of “The View” apparently felt the need to counteract the widespread patriotism by claiming American flags make her feel unsafe.

On a July 6 episode, the woke co-host said, “There are times when I walk into a community, and I see American flags all over the community, and I suddenly feel unsafe because there is a section of this country that has co-opted the American flag, and they equate being an American or an American flag with white supremacy, and that should never be the symbol of white supremacy, but they have weaponized [it].”

BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales calls Hostin’s comment “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.”

“I feel very safe when I go into a community with American flags everywhere because I’m like, ‘OK, cool. They love our country. They probably have guns. I’m safe,”’ Sara says.

Perhaps Hostin would prefer “a Chinese communist flag” instead, she quips.

Hostin’s comment, she explains, stemmed from the panel’s conversation about a viral photo taken on July 4 capturing a black woman on the Washington Metro surrounded by masked members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front, which Sara says is most likely a “fed op.”

Hostin — a privileged Notre Dame grad with a bachelor’s and J.D., former federal prosecutor, multi-millionaire co-host, legal analyst, and bestselling author — had the audacity to then claim this viral photograph embodies her experience as a black woman in America.

“As a black woman, my lived experience in this country was embodied by a photograph that was taken in celebrating the 250th,” she said, referencing the viral image.

But apparently the picture doesn’t just embody her own experience but the experience of black Americans in general.

“That for me was a defining image of modern America for black Americans,” she added.

Sara notes that the black woman Hostin apparently identifies with was previously arrested and charged for indecent exposure on public transit.

She also can’t help but scoff at Hostin’s phony victimhood.

“I’m a ‘View’ host. I get paid too much money just to bloviate and say dumb bulls**t, and somehow this is my lived experience as well,” she mocks.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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​Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, Sunny hostin, The view