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The House Oversight Committee issued a flurry of high-profile subpoenas while Republicans continue to push for transparency surrounding the Epstein files.

Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Tuesday that the committee subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, and four other former top Department of Justice officials. The depositions are currently scheduled to take place starting late August through October.

‘I would say that these files were made up.’

The committee also subpoenaed Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell, who co-conspired with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

This series of subpoenas comes after weeks of the prolonged Epstein saga that was sparked by a memo leaked from the DOJ. The memo insisted that Epstein’s death was a suicide and that there was no client list, prompting outrage from Republicans and Democrats alike.

RELATED: FBI, DOJ Epstein memo sparks right-wing outrage: ‘Nobody is believing this’

In the weeks following the disastrous memo, lawmakers scrambled to save face.

The Trump administration dug their heels in despite the severe backlash from the leaked memo. President Donald Trump repeatedly reaffirmed his support for Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI leadership while insisting that the Epstein files were a “made up” Democrat hoax.

“I would say that these files were made up by Comey,” Trump said. “They were made up by Obama. They were made up by Biden.”

RELATED: Trump doubles down on ‘bulls**t’ Epstein files: ‘I don’t want their support anymore!’

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Comer is nonetheless moving forward with the subpoenas, saying it is “imperative” for Congress to investigate the Epstein scandal and others who may have been involved or implicated in it.

“While the Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell,” Comer wrote in a letter to Bondi.

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​Donald trump, Epstein, James comer, House oversight committee, Ghislaine maxwell, Jeffrey epstein, Bill clinton, Hillary clinton, Pam bondi, Doj, Fbi, Epstein memo, Merrick garland, James comey, Robert mueller, Subpoena, Politics 

A Maryland principal accused a teacher of committing a “hate-bias incident” during his class. However, a jury determined that the teacher had been defamed and awarded him more than half a million dollars.

A teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School was accused of making comments in a classroom that were deemed to be racist. Citing the complaint, Bethesda Today reported that Daniel Engler, who taught at the Bethesda school for 18 years, made the alleged controversial remarks to the students in his classroom on Feb. 8, 2023.

‘[Teachers are] human and are not mistake-free and have good hearts, and they should be treated that way.’

The next day, Vickie Adamson, the school’s vice principal at the time, and another school administrator met with Engler. He was placed on paid leave Feb. 10, 2023.

Two days after the alleged questionable comments, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Principal Sheldon Mooney sent an email letter to the school community describing the interaction as a “hate-bias incident.”

“A teacher said to several African American students that he was ‘unable to distinguish them from other African American students’ in the classroom,” Mooney wrote in the letter. “This is unacceptable and harmful behavior not in alignment with our school or districtwide values of respect and inclusivity.”

“Let me be clear, discrimination of any kind must not be tolerated,” Mooney wrote before referring to the school policy against “insensitivity, disrespect, bias, verbal abuse, harassment, bullying, physical violence or illegal discrimination toward any person.”

The Montgomery County Police Department was reportedly notified of the situation.

Bethesda Today reported, “The email was vetted by numerous Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) administrators, according to court testimony.”

While Engler wasn’t named in the letter, the lawsuit alleged that he was “readily identifiable.” Engler’s lawsuit claimed that the high school’s student newspaper, the Tattler, contacted him regarding the accusations.

According to the defamation lawsuit filed by Engler in August 2023, he claimed that school officials didn’t offer him the opportunity to provide his side of the story or give him notice about the school-wide email to staff, parents, and students.

Engler claimed he was attempting to keep students in their assigned seats to help him learn their names in his 10th-grade health class.

Citing Engler’s complaint, Fox News reported that two students later told the school’s assistant principal that he said he wouldn’t be able to tell them apart if they didn’t sit in their assigned seats — a comment they believed was racial because they are black.

In Engler’s complaint, he denied “saying what the students alleged or making any type of racial comment.”

Engler asserted in court that he “did not do anything that could reasonably be classified as a ‘hate-bias incident.’”

RELATED: Teacher tried to hire student to murder husband — but student’s mom foiled $2,000 plot: Court docs

Photo by SeventyFour via iStock / Getty Images Plus

According to Bethesda Today, Engler testified on July 17 that the school-wide email “publicly humiliated him, destroyed his reputation and his relationship with students, and caused him to be fired as coach of the B-CC club rowing team.”

Mooney’s attorney, David Kaminow, argued in court that his client wasn’t at fault, as multiple Montgomery County Public Schools administrators were involved in the decision to send the community letter — which they said was necessary to quell rumors about the incident.

Engler’s attorney, David Wachen, argued that the investigation was half-hearted and relied on statements from 15-year-olds who not only contradicted themselves but whose version of events conflicted with accounts from other students. Wachen also noted that officials at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School had never previously sent a school-wide message about other alleged hate or bias incidents.

Wachen said that school officials had a “shoot first and ask questions later” strategy.

Engler claimed that he was forced to seek treatment from several mental health professionals due to the situation.

Engler reportedly went on disability leave for a year and a half before returning to teach at another school in the district.

“I love teaching. I love coaching,” Engler told Fox News. “And I really care a great deal about the relationships I have with those kids and helping them learn how to become adults in the best way possible. To lose the confidence of the kids, the trust of the kids, based on what the kids’ leadership had to say about me, was devastating. It was identity-stealing.”

Following the seven-day trial, a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury awarded Engler damages last week. A jury of six determined that the Montgomery County School Board defamed Engler. According to Bethesda Today, the court awarded Engler $500,000 in damages, along with $18,000 in prejudgment interest, for a total of $518,000.

Engler described the verdict as “a tremendous relief.”

“[Teachers are] human and are not mistake-free and have good hearts, and they should be treated that way,” Engler told Bethesda Today. “I believe this verdict is an illustration that what I’m saying is true … so that means a great deal to me.”

Montgomery County school board spokesperson Christie Scott said that the board wasn’t able to comment on the verdict.

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Why does the mainstream media perpetuate the narrative of starving Gazans, when right now, there are hundreds of pallets of food and medicine sitting undistributed?

Mark Levin plays recent video footage capturing thousands of pounds of aid sitting untouched on pallets and in semis along Gaza’s borders.

“Of course, the U.N. is doing what the U.N. does. The U.N. works with Hamas. Hamas sells the food. Hamas uses it to extort, to threaten Palestinians there. They’re shooting Palestinians alive who are starving who want food,” he says.

Israel is responsible for much of the aid being sent to Gaza, but the mainstream media buries this fact and instead spreads the narrative that Israel is guilty of war crimes.

Levin plays a soundbite from U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee’s interview with Bari Weiss on “The Free Press,” during which they addressed this issue.

Weiss pointed out that “in the New York Times, articles pairing Israel and genocide reached levels more than nine times higher than the peak for Rwanda, in which 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days.”

“What is going on here?” she asked Huckabee.

“To say that Israel has been involved in something like that is recklessly irresponsible, and it is factually off-the-charts untrue,” he answered.

“You really are hearkening back to the very foundation of what led to the Holocaust.”

Of course, another holocaust is exactly what Hamas and other Islamist groups aim for, but they’re sneaky about how they go about it. They project their own genocidal intentions on Israel.

Levin plays a clip from MEMRI capturing former ISIS official and current Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa declaring that “outlaw groups” — Druze and Christians — are slaughtering the innocent Bedouins.

The truth is the Bedouins are “terrorists that the army is supporting,” who are “slaughtering the Jews and Christians,” says Levin.

“The Israelis had to intervene to defend these people and to protect them. That’s exactly what took place. The Bedouins are being urged and others to slaughter them,” he clarifies. “So this guy [Ahmed al-Sharaa] is so devious, so evil, and yet we put our money with him, hoping that he can turn Syria into some kind of a diverse democracy.”

To hear more of Levin’s commentary, watch the clip above.

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A Texan Democrat insulted President Donald Trump while advocating for greater oversight on gifts to Supreme Court justices during an unhinged rant at a left-wing rally.

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett made the comments while yelling to an audience at the MoveOn rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

‘In a functioning democracy, he still would not be able to get away with this.’

“Listen, Donald Trump is a piece of s**t, OK? We know that!” she said to wild applause from the audience.

“Yes, he is! He is! He is! But in a functioning democracy, he still would not be able to get away with this,” she added. “But he’s been able to get away with this because the House Republicans are complicit. He’s been able to get away with this because Senate Republicans are complicit. But most importantly, the courts, especially the Supreme Court, is complicit!”

She called for increasing the ethics requirements for the Supreme Court.

“They are the highest court in the lands, and they have no ethics guardrails. Now you go down to the lower courts, and they do. How much sense does that make?” she yelled.

Video of the insult was posted to social media, where it was widely circulated.

The left-wing Democrat won the U.S. House seat for the 30th district in Texas in 2022 and has since become a media firebrand for her foul-mouthed outbursts.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett calls DOGE a ‘scam’ and ‘cover-up’ to help Elon Musk profit

In March, she orated another expletive-filled polemic against Republicans while speaking to a left-wing activist.

“I don’t even know why we’re fighting with Greenland. Why we fightin’ with Greenland, we fightin’ with Canada, we fightin’ with Mexico — yet we’re in love with Putin?!” she shouted.

“What is happening? Like, this is not America! This is a terrible nightmare!” she added. “Somebody slap me and wake me the f**k up, ‘cuz I’m ready to get on with it!”

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Regarding the conflict in the Middle East, many international groups have attempted to curb the United States’ policies that support its allies abroad. However, the social media platform X, in cooperation with the United States, has slapped one of its major international detractors with sanctions, set to go into effect later this week.

Francesca Albanese, an Italian associate with the United Nations covering the conflict between Israel and Palestine, lost her verified status on X on Monday. This news comes as the sanctions imposed on her by the United States are set to take effect this week.

‘Stripping that badge sends a clear message: Anyone who targets US officials and companies and supports terrorists will suffer consequences, no matter their title.’

In a July 9 press statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would be imposing sanctions on Albanese, the “Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967.”

Albanese is being sanctioned pursuant to an executive order that sanctions those who “have directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person without consent of that person’s country of nationality.” The sanctions are set to go into effect August 8, according to a Treasury Department document.

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

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

On X, Rubio called out Albanese for her “illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”

Rubio explained that her actions are a “gross infringement” on the sovereignty of both the U.S. and Israel because neither country is party to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court.

“This is a major achievement,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the organization that led the campaign against Albanese. “Verification on X provided Albanese with many advantages — greater visibility, algorithmic amplification, and an appearance of credibility. Stripping that badge sends a clear message: Anyone who targets U.S. officials and companies and supports terrorists will suffer consequences, no matter their title.”

According to the United Nations’ website, special rapporteurs “are independent experts appointed to monitor and report on human rights issues worldwide. These experts serve in their personal capacity, are not UN staff and receive no financial remuneration for their work.”

The sanctions will reportedly freeze Albanese’s U.S. assets, bar her from entering the country, and prohibit U.S. citizens from selling to her.

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​Politics, United nations, Israel palestine, X, Elon musk, Francesca albanese, Icc, Executive order 14203, Sanctions 

Baylor’s head football coach Dave Aranda apologized for quoting a popular Leonardo DiCaprio movie when talking about bringing athletes to his school.

Appearing at the Texas High School Coaches Association in late July, Miranda admitted that he is not “comfortable” with some of the aspects of the NCAA transfer process and that he hopes to maintain his integrity while trying to attract players to his school.

During this process, Miranda said part of recruiting athletes is making them feel like they belong with the team, and it was at this point the coach began reciting a scene from the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

‘The midgets may think we’re making fun of them.’

Aranda referred to a scene in the movie where DiCaprio’s character, along with co-star Jonah Hill and others, are discussing bringing dwarves into their office to throw them at a novelty-sized dartboard.

“There’s a scene in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ where they talk about throwing midgets,” Aranda began. “It’s like, ‘Hey, this midget, can he roll there?’ And you go, ‘No, he doesn’t roll. You throw him. They’re made for throwing,'” the coach recited.

The scene in question has the characters discussing the legal ramifications of their event, eventually acknowledging that the “midgets” get together and talk, so it is important to make them feel like they are part of the group.

In front of reporters, Aranda discussed the scene in great detail as it relates to getting players to come aboard at Baylor.

RELATED: Trump supporter booted from soccer game over ‘MAGA’ hat — but exposes glaring hypocrisy before leaving

“After a while, they start talking and they go, ‘Well, you know what? I think, if you start talking, they may think we’re making fun of them. The midgets may think we’re making fun of them.’ … And then the guys go, ‘Well, what we need to do is make them think they’re one of us.’ And they go, ‘One of us! One of us!'” Aranda chanted, as the characters did in the movie.

The coach concluded, “I think that’s the thing with coaching, call it recruiting, is it’s that way. They talk about acquiring players, getting rid of players, just like that. And the whole thing underneath all that is they make them think they’re one of us, you know what I mean?”

Although Baylor cut the coach’s re-enactment of the movie from their version of the broadcast, the clip was so widely seen that it garnered a reaction from a dwarf advocacy group called Mascots Matter.

The group said it was “appalled” by the coach’s remarks, which the group said “contributed to the normalization of ableism, which continues to affect millions of people with disabilities.”

According to KWTX-TV, the advocacy group claimed the “outdated and offensive language” has lasting consequences.

“This is concerning because such comments coming from a leader in the sports community, whose influence does extend to young athletes and fans, further stigmatizes people with disabilities.”

Aranda followed up by issuing a brief apology when he caught up with reporters back at Baylor’s facilities last week.

RELATED: ‘NULL & VOID’: Male NCAA gymnast gives insane take on Simone Biles and men in women’s sports

“I wanted to say, last time we spoke, I had a misstep and hurt a bunch of people, so I apologize for that,” Aranda said, per KCEN-TV. “That was not what I intended to come across, so I’m sorry for that.”

Regardless of this apparent “misstep,” Aranda is firmly secured in his role after signing an extension with the school in 2022 that will have him coaching there until 2029. Baylor has not finished a season with a coveted top-25 ranking since 2021, when Aranda led the team to a Sugar Bowl victory, which sparked the contract extension.

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​Fearless, Wolf of wall street, Midgets, Dwarves, Baylor, Ncaa, Football, Woke, Sports 

Alongside members of his administration and American sports legends like Harrison Butker and Bryson DeChambeau, President Donald Trump is returning the Presidential Fitness Test to the public school system — and replacing Obama’s FitnessGram.

While the Presidential Fitness Test was competition-based, in Obama’s FitnessGram, everyone was a winner.

“I’m pleased to announce that we’re officially restoring the Presidential Fitness Test and the Presidential Fitness Award. And it’s going to be a very big thing. From the late 1950s until 2013, graduate scholars all across our country competed against each other in the Presidential Fitness Test,” Trump said.

“And it was a big deal. This was a wonderful tradition, and we’re bringing it back,” he added.

The announcement comes shortly after the New York Times published a podcast transcript in the form of an op-ed titled, “Why the Right Is Obsessed with Thinness.”

“Well, what they want is a fat and lazy population, right? Because they’re the voters they want. They want to eventually just be taken care of,” BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“I love the fact that they have Butker in there, you know, which is a massive troll … like he’s really giving the middle finger up to the left, which is great,” he continues.

And it’s not just the troll that Marsden loves, but competition-based learning over participation-trophy learning.

“Losing teaches you more than winning does, right? It teaches you to get back up, and that is really essential, I think, for Americans, especially, and ever since we’ve had this, like, participation trophy,” he explains. “What it’s done is create an entire generation of entitled people that don’t understand why they are not getting what they want, because they just got what they want with no merit.”

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President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

In addition to directing all executive departments and agencies to “employ all lawful means to ensure the faithful execution of the immigration laws of the United States against all inadmissible and removable aliens,” the president tasked the secretaries of treasury, state, and homeland security to establish a visa bond program.

Pursuant to Trump’s executive order, the State Department published a temporary final rule in the Federal Register on Tuesday announcing the commencement of a 12-month visa bond pilot program aimed at ensuring that foreign nationals pay a hefty price if they overstay their welcome.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio notified State Department employees of the program in a cable on Monday.

A State Department spokesperson told Blaze News, “The pilot reinforces the Trump administration’s commitment to enforcing U.S. immigration laws and safeguarding U.S. national security.

Under the program, consular officers can require aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure to post bonds of up to $15,000 if they hail from countries identified by the State Department as having high visa overstay rates, substandard screening and vetting information, or offering citizenship by investment.

According to the State Department spokesperson, foreign policy considerations may also be factored into whether a bond is required.

By overstaying a visa, an alien could forfeit the bond as well as risk the usual consequences: a three-year, a 10-year, or an indefinite ban from the country, depending on the duration of unlawful presence.

The pilot program — established under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes consular officers to require aliens to post a bond for a B-1/B-2 visitor/tourist visa — is effective from Aug. 20, 2025, until Aug. 5, 2026.

‘With their own money on the line, more temporary visa holders will comply with their required departure date.’

“In line with an America First foreign policy, fully enforcing U.S. immigration laws bolsters American security, promotes lawful travel, and ensures foreign visitors depart the United States on time and in accordance with the terms of their visas,” said the spokesperson.

RELATED: Rubio, Vance outline the ‘work of a generation,’ next steps for the American renewal: ‘This is a 20-year project’

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Blaze News, “Large numbers of visa-overstayers have been a problem in our country for decades. The U.S. government should use various tools to end this abuse of our legal visa system.”

“President Trump has issued visa restrictions for a few countries with high overstay rates. Applying visa sanctions is another tool that the State Department can use against countries with high overstay rates,” continued Ries. “Requiring travelers to post a bond is a more direct solution tied to the individual rather than a country, since it is the individual deciding to ignore our law to depart the U.S. on time. With their own money on the line, more temporary visa holders will comply with their required departure date, so it would be an effective tool in that regard.”

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Border Security and Immigration Center who worked for the State Department for over two decades, told Blaze News that the program is “great,” though he does not want it exploited to grant questionable applicants a visa.

“Consular officers should refuse any applicant who does not qualify for a visa,” continued Hankinson. “In most cases, that means they fail to convince the officer that they have a home outside the U.S. that they intend to return to and that they will do what they say in the U.S. and nothing more.”

While the State Department would not immediately disclose which countries may be affected, past visa overstay data indicates which countries would be prime candidates.

RELATED: State Department finally gets to trim the bureaucratic fat — and Rubio’s going the distance

Photo by Russian FM Press Service/Anadolu via Getty Images

According to a 2024 U.S. Customs and Border Protection “Entry/Exit Overstay Report,” there were over 314,000 overstays by business or pleasure visitors from non-Visa Waiver Program countries in fiscal year 2023, not including the 79,443 overstays by nonimmigrant visitors from Canada and Mexico.

There were an additional 99,460 overstays by business or pleasure visitors from VWP countries.

Among the worst offenders for B1/B2 visa overstays among non-VWP countries in terms of total overstays were Brazil, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, and Venezuela.

When asked which countries should be at the top of the list, Hankinson said that countries with high rates of fraud in applications or of overstay/abuse rates might be a place to start but that he saw “no reason the bonds could not eventually cover every country, for at least high-risk visa categories.”

‘The left, libertarians, and anyone with a business interest in open borders want no limits.’

“The bond should be much higher than the typical price for that category and country for an alien smuggler to bring someone in illegally, or else it won’t work as a deterrent,” added Hankinson.

Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, complained in a statement obtained by CBS News that the program “will convince most foreigners not to bother coming.”

“The result will be a decimated tourist industry. Tourists spend over $200 billion annually in the U.S., spending that counts as exports,” continued Nowrasteh. “The administration’s proposal will not only undermine much of the tourist industry, but it will counteract the administration’s goals to reduce the trade deficit.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Travel Association similarly whined about the program, noting, “If this is implemented, the U.S. will have one of, if not the highest, visitor visa fees in the world.”

Neither Hankinson nor Ries is buying the line sold by such critics.

“The left, libertarians, and anyone with a business interest in open borders want no limits. Americans reject this as selfish and self-destructive,” said Hankinson, adding that if properly applied, the visa bonds will minimally impact tourism and the countries from which most tourists hail.

Ries suggested that “instead of just complaining about the government trying to end a long and serious violation of our law, cities and companies that rely on tourism should encourage visitors to comply with our laws and depart when required.”

“That simple addition would help to end the visa overstay issue,” added Ries.

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​Marco rubio, Rubio, Trump, State department, Visa, Overstay, Tourism, Foreign, State, Pilot program, Politics 

Egg donation and surrogacy have been lauded as ways not only to make a large sum of cash, but also to help those in need. But whether it’s an exploited military wife or a college student pressured by financial desperation, the truth about the practice is heartbreaking.

“A new study came out … that showed almost half of people who sell their gametes go on to regret it,” Kallie Fell tells Allie Beth Stuckey, who points out that gametes are eggs or sperm.

“I just am thinking back to that college student who’s enticed by the financial gain and her altruistic motives are exploited. And just to think that half of them regret that or wonder where their children might be,” she continues.

Many of those who choose to sell their eggs or sperm are advertised to on social media, which Stuckey has noticed via large mom influencer accounts.

“I don’t know if these people are being paid, but I see a lot of influencers, who they’re mom influencers, and all of a sudden they’re on this surrogacy journey. I just saw Miss Rachel, who I know a lot of people love. Seems like a very sweet person and a very good mother. She just welcomed a child via surrogacy,” Stuckey says.

“And it just adds to this narrative that surrogacy … is this altruistic, you know, benign, benevolent process that goes on. But it’s not,” she says, asking Fell, “Would you say that surrogates are exploited in the same way that egg-sellers are?”

“Absolutely,” Fell responds. “I think a different population is often targeted for a surrogate mother than an egg donor. They’re two very different populations. Surrogate mothers … it seems like more and more are contacting me daily with their horror stories.”

“Surrogate mothers tend to be women who, again, very altruistic. They want to help. They had easy pregnancies. They typically have small children at home, but they’ve had easy pregnancies and they’ve had a friend or someone else they know that struggled with infertility and they want to give the gift of life,” she continues.

But it’s not just their altruism that draws them to surrogacy.

“I found too in our research that military wives are another big target … from fertility agencies for surrogacy because they’re at home with small children. They’re often hard to employ because they’re moving around a lot with their partners in the military. And this is a way that they can contribute to their household and also help another family,” Fell explains.

And unfortunately, the risks of surrogacy are not fully known — as it’s a fairly new artificial process.

“Surrogates have to be pumped with hormones as well in order to carry the child, because you have to be in the same part of your cycle that you would be if a naturally, you know, a fertilized egg was going to implant into your uterus. So your endometrial lining has to be just right,” Fell explains.

“We don’t know all the consequences of that,” she says.

What they do know is that surrogates tend to be higher risk and have increased numbers of C-sections, preterm births, placental abruptions, placental abnormalities, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, “all of these things,” she continues, adding, “The list goes on.”

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Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) defended his state’s efforts to redraw its congressional map during an interview with CNN on Monday and managed to get the network to show how Democrats in other states have egregious examples of gerrymandering.

Harrison was asked by CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins why Texas is redistricting now instead of waiting for the new census but conceded, “You mentioned what happened in Illinois, and that‘s a fair point to make there. But if that‘s how it happens, are you fine with other states, Democrat-run states, changing this in the middle of the decade as well?”

‘What we‘re talking about in the state of Texas is something that is constitutional.’

“Well, it‘s their prerogative to do it. But I mean, I do have to point out that I don‘t know of any, just about any major media, CNN included, that dragged [Illinois Governor JB] Pritzker on TV and asked him to justify the gerrymandering in his state or California,” Harrison replied.

“Where I‘m looking at right now, Republicans have 40% of the vote in California, but they only give 17% of their seats to Republicans. Same thing in New York. I mean, these are more gerrymandered than anything we’re contemplating down here in the state of Texas. And quite frankly, what we‘re talking about doing is legal. It‘s constitutional. It‘s permissible. We should do it,” he continued.

Collins then had producers show a compilation of articles and interviews back in 2021 when efforts to have congressional districts skewed in favor of Democrats were taking place. One example of CNN’s reporting included when Illinois Democrats redrew former Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s (R) district to where he would no longer win. Another featured host Anderson Cooper asking former Attorney General Eric Holder about gerrymandering in “Illinois, Oregon, [and] Maryland.”

Texas Democrats have fled their state to stay in Illinois and deny a quorum to move ahead with the new congressional map.

RELATED: Abbott orders arrests of ‘derelict’ Democrats after they flout his deadline

Abbott orders arrests of ‘derelict’ Democrats after they flout his deadline Texas House Democrats abandoning their posts on Sunday. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

“Well, Caitlin, I know I got to tell you, I’m incredibly flattered. The amount of times CNN must have spent fact-checking what I said earlier today to come up with those clips. But if those are the best clips you can find, then my point stands and I was proven correct because at no point was [Holder] asked to justify those maps,” Harrison said.

“But here’s the point. It wasn’t that I was saying good, bad, right or wrong, whether they could or should or shouldn‘t. The point is, what we‘re talking about in the state of Texas is something that is constitutional. It‘s legal. The Supreme Court has said we can do things like this,” he continued.

In a statement to Blaze News, Harrison added: “While many Republicans hide from the liberal media, I relish any opportunity to expose their one-sided, dishonest hypocrisy.”

A motion to issue arrest warrants for the Texas Democrats who left the state passed the Texas House on Monday. The state House is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday afternoon.

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​Politics 

Texas House Democrats fled to Illinois and other blue states on Sunday in an effort to thwart the people’s will and to block the passage of a redistricting plan that would help the GOP gain five more congressional pickup opportunities ahead of the midterm elections.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) gave the “derelict Democrat House members” an ultimatum: Return to Texas and show up at work by 3:00 p.m. on Monday or face possible removal.

The absentee legislators, evidently keen to test their luck, refused to show up.

Attorney General Ken Paxton told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Tuesday that the Texas Democrats are playing a “waiting game” that they will ultimately lose.

“I honestly would have locked them up when they were in the House. [The] Texas House speaker could have shut the doors and kept everybody in,” said Paxton. “We did that back in 2003, and once the doors are locked, you can’t get out, and you can spend the night there, and you vote.”

Paxton noted that by failing to lock the lawmakers in for the vote on the redistricting plan, “they’ve let the cat out of the bag. The cat’s gone. So now you need to arrest them, which you’re not going to get help from jurisdictions like Illinois, Boston, or New York.”

RELATED: Abbott orders arrests of ‘derelict’ Democrats after they flout his deadline

Texas House Democrats abandoning their posts on Sunday. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

After Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) announced Monday afternoon that a “quorum is not present,” the Texas House passed a motion to issue arrest warrants for the Democrats who abandoned their posts.

Abbott subsequently announced that he had ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to “locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.”

Paxton suggested that while it is unlikely the absentee legislators will be arrested out of state, they’ll inevitably “have to come back. They have jobs; they have families. They’re not going to live in Illinois. It’s cold up there. And New York’s cold. Boston’s cold. So they come back and we vote.”

‘Governor Abbott is not going to back down.’

While some Texas Democrats could face felony charges for allegedly soliciting funds to break quorum and evade the associated $500-per-day fine — Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate the delinquent Democrats for “potential” violations of Texas law, including bribery — the civil arrests awaiting the absentee legislators will not lead to jail time.

“It’s not a prison sentence,” Paxton told Beck. “I mean, unless you consider being on the Texas House floor, which I often did, a prison sentence. But the doors are shut, and you’re stuck with all those people.”

Beck pressed Paxton about the governor’s threat of removal, whereby a district court could apparently determine that a legislator has forfeited office due to abandonment, then remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.

RELATED: Democrat offers bizarre spin on imploding support for his party — and he’s getting amazing backlash

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The Texas attorney general, whose 2021 opinion was the cited basis of Abbott’s plan, noted that removals would change the threshold of present bodies necessary for a quorum, possibly speeding things along, and that Abbott might be able to appoint replacements for the removed legislators, “at least until there’s a special election.”

As with the arrests, the removal plan does not appear to be a particularly swift remedy.

“It’s definitely not a fast process, although we’re trying to figure out a way to fast-track it so that we can get an answer sooner rather than later,” said Paxton. “Otherwise, it’s just a waiting game.”

“In the end, we know how it’s going to turn out,” added Paxton, “because Governor Abbott is not going to back down, and he’ll just keep calling them back until they show up.”

— (@)

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​Glenn beck, Ken paxton, Paxton, Texas, Absentee, Lawmakers, Redistricting, Leftism, Arrests, Legislators, Politics 

The male “accused of hitting the victim named Holly” during the recent Cincinnati mob attack has been arrested, WLWT-TV reported.

Patrick Rosemond, 38, was arrested Monday in Fulton County, Georgia, and has been charged with felonious assault and aggravated riot, Cincinnati police told WLWT.

‘It’s been very, very hard, and I’m still recovering. I still have very bad brain trauma.’

Rosemond will be transported back to Cincinnati, the station said.

According to Fulton County Jail records, Atlanta police arrested Rosemond, and he was listed as a jail inmate Tuesday morning.

Holly is the woman who was punched in the face by a male during the mob beatdown — and apparently was knocked out as a result.

She recorded a tearful video in which she thanked those who’ve supported her.

RELATED: Cincinnati official who said mob attack victims ‘begged’ for beating doubles down; woman punched in face records tearful clip

“It is very humbling that you have sent your prayers, your blessings,” she said in the clip. “It’s definitely what’s keeping me going, and you have just brought back faith in humanity, so God bless you all. And thank you. I appreciate everything that you’re doing for me and my family. It’s been very, very hard, and I’m still recovering. I still have very bad brain trauma, and it’s — thank you. Thank you, everyone.” Holly shared her video with WLWT, the station said.

Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio last week shared grisly images of Holly’s face that appeared to have been taken soon after the attack and showed her with a horrific black eye and massive bruising.

“This is Holly,” Moreno wrote on X. “She wanted to have a nice evening out with friends. Instead, she got this.”

Cellphone video of the mob attack (1:34 mark) shows Holly, who’s wearing a blue dress, apparently trying to intervene on behalf of a beaten-up man, but instead another female punches her in the back of the head — and seconds later, a male punches her in the face, knocking her flat on her back on the street.

Vivek Ramaswamy — who’s running for Ohio governor — shared a disturbing close-up image of Holly’s face after she hit the ground; her eyes are wide open, and her body is motionless. Video shows a few people soon trying to help her up.

Rosemond is the fifth of six charged suspects in connection with the mob attack to be arrested.

The fourth suspect — Dominique Kittle, 37 — was arrested Friday night and charged with felonious assault and aggravated riot, WLWT said in a separate story.

RELATED: 6 now charged in Cincinnati mob attack; mayor says man who issued ‘slap’ prior to beatdown is being ‘actively investigated’

Dominique Kittle. Image source: Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office

WLWT reported that during Saturday’s hearing, the prosecutor’s office said Kittle “approached the victim … struck him from behind, [and] attempted to take a wallet from him. When he was unable to do that, he started to walk away, and then turned around and knocked the prosecuting witness out.”

Kittle’s bond was set at $150,000, the station said. He remained in jail Tuesday morning.

The other three arrested suspects are 39-year-old Jermaine Matthews, 24-year-old Dekyra Vernon, and 34-year-old Montianez Merriweather.

RELATED: Mother of Cincinnati mob attack suspect defends ‘honor roll’ son, 34, charged with felonious assault, aggravated riot

(L to R) Jermaine Matthews, Dekyra Vernon, Montianez Merriweather. Image source: Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office, composite

Police said Matthews is seen on video “punching and stomping on [a] victim with his hands and feet attempting to cause serious physical harm,” WXIX-TV reported, citing a criminal complaint. Matthews also is accused of dragging an unconscious person into the middle of the street and punching and assaulting a victim, the station said.

Matthews turned himself in last Tuesday on one count each of aggravated riot and assault, WXIX reported, adding that Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Michael Peck set his bond at $100,000 during his Wednesday arraignment. The station said Matthews returned to court Thursday on two new counts of felonious assault and one for misdemeanor assault, after which Peck set new bonds that increased the total amount to $270,000 — and WXIX said Matthews bonded out of jail.

Matthews apparently is no stranger to law enforcement. Here’s what WXIX said about him in a separate story:

Matthews is a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 2009 to two counts of cocaine possession and a single count of cocaine trafficking, court records show.

He was sentenced to three years in prison.

During each of his two separate arrests in those cases — in December 2008 and February 2009 — police said Matthews tried to swallow a bag of crack cocaine but spit it out after being shocked with a Taser stun gun.

Merriweather was “identified on video punching [the] victim while co-defendants are stomping the victim in the head,” WXIX reported, citing criminal complaints. He was arrested last Tuesday.

Merriweather also has been in trouble with the law before.

In fact, Merriweather was indicted July 10 on four felony charges after investigators said he was found in possession of a stolen firearm, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Court records indicate he was charged with carrying concealed weapons, receiving stolen property, improper handling of firearms in a vehicle, and weapons under disability, the paper noted. The weapons under disability charge stems from a 2009 felony conviction for aggravated robbery, the Enquirer added, citing documents.

‘Kind of like an ambush.’

But after his July 10 indictment, Merriweather was released upon posting 10% of a $4,000 bond, the paper said.

“He never should have been out,” Ken Kober, Cincinnati police union president, told the Enquirer.

Merriweather’s bond in connection with his mob attack charges was set at $500,000, the Enquirer reported. He remained in jail Tuesday morning.

What’s more, a Cincinnati police detective alleged that Merriweather prior to the mob attack whispered to a “co-defendant” and then started “arguing with the victim,” WLWT said in a separate story.

The detective called Merriweather the “catalyst” for what was described as a “coordinated attack,” the station said, adding that the detective alleged Merriweather came up behind the victim and hit the victim in the side of the face — “kind of like an ambush.”

Police also noted in court that they have video from a camera mounted on a building in the area that allegedly shows Merriweather and Matthews chasing the victim before hitting the victim, WLWT reported.

Defense attorneys for Merriweather and Matthews insist they were struck first by the man they are accused of beating, WXIX reported in a separate story.

Vernon was charged with felonious assault and aggravated riot in connection with the mob attack. She is alleged to have “struck [the] victim in the face with a closed fist prior to the victim becoming unconscious from the attack,” WXIX reported, citing criminal complaints. Vernon’s bond was set at $200,000, and she remained behind bars Tuesday, according to jail records.

You can view cellphone videos of the mob attack here, here, here, here, and here.

The next court date for Kittle, Matthews, Vernon, and Merriweather is scheduled for Friday.

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​Cincinnati, Mob attack, Arrest, Patrick rosemond, Georgia, Fulton county, Atlanta police, Felonious assault charge, Aggravated riot charge, Holly, Woman punched in face, Crime 

The viral women-only “dating safety” app, Tea, was a digital doxxing site cosplaying as “women empowerment” — and a reputational weapon against men everywhere.

But in a delicious twist of irony, after not one but two massive data breaches, it’s the women behind the screen who are now quaking in their boots.

To quote Michael Scott, “Well, well well, how the turntables.”

Tea wasn’t a step forward. It was a symptom. A glitch in a culture that’s forgotten how to talk to each other face-to-face.

The Tea app was marketed as a breakthrough for women’s safety — a sleek, viral whisper network dressed up as a tech solution for the modern dating world. It promised a digital sisterhood: a space where women could vet men, anonymously share “red flags,” and crowdsource protection in the Wild West of dating apps and swiping right.

But beneath the branding and the TikTok testimonials was something much darker: a platform that enabled digital doxxing with zero accountability, all under the guise of empowerment.

A Yelp for men

Through the app, women could upload a man’s name, number, or social media handle and attach either “green flags” or “red flags” — a kind of Yelp review for men. The intent, we’re told, was noble: Women warn each other about bad actors before wasting time or falling into danger.

But Tea offered none of the structures that real accountability requires. No requirement for evidence. No obligation to identify yourself. No meaningful way for the accused to defend themselves. It’s little surprise that what began as a tool for safety quickly turned into a tool for revenge and humiliation, based on pure speculation in the emotionally charged world of online dating.

And when Tea went viral on TikTok, launching it to the No. 2 spot on the Apple App Store, the stakes got even higher. With millions of users and near-instant exposure, a single anonymous red flag could follow someone indefinitely — without trial, without appeal, and without context.

Twisted irony

Tea just had another viral moment — and it wasn’t because of TikTok. The self-purported anonymous app had not one, but two major data breaches. Though the company reported that the breach exposed 72,000 user images (including driver’s licenses and selfies), other experts weighed in, claiming the breach was bigger than the company was letting on.

A security researcher, Kasra Rahjerdi, told 404 Media that he was able to access more than 1.1 million private messages from Tea’s users. The messages included “intimate” conversations about topics ranging from rape and divorce to abortion and infidelity. Rahjerdi also said that several chats included personal information like phone numbers and locations to meet up.

However ironic the data breach is, it’s largely beside the point. Tea was flawed at its very core. No matter how noble the marketing, the model was always built on anonymity, unverified accusations, and reputational risk without recourse. It didn’t just fail to protect women — it encouraged them to wield unaccountable power over men and called it justice.

Digitized gossip

In the past, warning a friend about a man’s character came with weight. You did it face-to-face. You had to stand behind your words. You risked being wrong. You risked being held accountable. It wasn’t anonymous — it was personal. And because of that, it was taken seriously.

Tea tried to digitize that ancient role of communal discernment and strip it of all responsibility. But accountability without cost isn’t accountability — it’s just gossip. And digital gossip, unlike the whispered kind, doesn’t stay in the room. It stays online. Forever.

RELATED: Digital castration: Why real men should ditch dating apps

Dedraw Studio/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Sure, women can be vengeful or petty. But Tea didn’t explode for that reason. It went viral because so many women are profoundly alone. We’ve lost the webs of embodied community that used to help us navigate love, danger, and everything in between — sisters, mothers, friends, pastors, neighbors. Into that vacuum stepped the algorithm. And it offered us the illusion of safety, in exchange for the erosion of truth, accountability, and community.

Tea wasn’t a step forward. It was a symptom. A glitch in a culture that’s forgotten how to talk to each other face-to-face — and how to seek justice in public, not in secret.

In the end, Tea didn’t just fail to keep women safe. It made all of us — men and women alike — more exposed, more suspicious, and more divided.

​Dating apps, Dating, Men and women, Courtship, Doxxing, Tech, Lifestyle, Return 

The Department of Homeland Security appears to have changed its policy that previously withheld disaster relief from cities that boycott Israel.

The original policy said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would withhold funding for a city or state that was found to have cut or limited its “commercial relations” with Israel. Following online controversy, the DHS issued a statement saying there were no FEMA requirements tethered to Israel and apparently updated its policy, removing the excerpt about boycotting Israel.

‘Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding.’

“There is NO FEMA requirement tied to Israel in any current [notice of funding opportunity],” the DHS statement reads. “No states have lost funding, and no new conditions have been imposed.”

Although the policy appears to have been updated, the DHS maintained that it will still enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies.

RELATED: Trump administration rolls out a new deterrent for anti-Israel boycotts

— (@)

“FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests,” the statement continues. “DHS will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism. Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding.”

RELATED: Democrat grovels after skipping Israel arms votes for Colbert show: ‘I owe it to my state’

Photo by JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is a pro-Palestinian movement advocating against Israel “occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes,” according to its website.

The DHS says the BDS movement is “expressly grounded in antisemitism,” echoing the 34 states that have passed anti-BDS laws between 2014 and 2023, according to a report from the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change.

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​Kristi noem, Fema, Dhs, Department of homeland security, Federal emergency management agency, Bds movement, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Donald trump, Trump administration, Politics 

BlazeTV’s Alex Stein visited the Texas state capitol on Monday to participate in a public hearing that went off the rails.

The Senate Committee on State Affairs held an open forum for Senate Bill 7, also known as the bathroom bill, which would require people to use the bathroom that matches their gender at birth.

When it was Stein’s turn on the microphone in Austin, he sarcastically told the assembly — the legislature as well as vocal transgender activists — all the reasons he loved the transgender community.

‘No guy is going to be threatened by a trans woman.’

First, Stein explained that while other conservatives want to “outlaw transgenders in women’s sports,” he prefers to allow them so that he can “gamble on them and win money.”

“I won so much money on Lia Thomas’ propeller in that pool, I almost turned Draft Kings into Draft Queens,” Stein said, referring to a popular online gambling network.

The comedian then turned to the military and said that not only are transgender individuals suited for the Armed Forces because they are “some of the meanest people on planet Earth,” but because they “love to do mass shootings.”

Stein also noted the “incredibly high” suicide rate among transgender people and therefore suggested they could be used “like the Taliban has suicide bombers.”

“Maybe you guys can actually, you know, if you commit suicide, actually help us in the battlefield. So that would be good.”

Incredibly, by this point in the meeting, the activists in attendance still had not turned on Stein. It was not until he brought up the topic of the day when the group of transgender supporters rained boos and profanity upon him.

RELATED: All-female college that allows males, illegal immigrants gets hit with Title IX complaint

– YouTube

Activists heckled Stein as he explained that the bathroom bill addressed an issue that uniquely affects women due to their safety being at risk.

“No guy is going to be threatened by a trans woman,” Stein described. “But we don’t want these gargoyles in a dress, you know, some chick with a d**k coming in there and trying to pee or poop next to my girlfriend because that’s disgusting.”

One activist is heard calling Stein a “piece of s**t a**hole!” as a different member of the public gave his thoughts on the Senate bill.

One man told legislators to “do the right thing” and reject the bill, while a woman in opposition to the bill said she felt “blessed” that her children grew up in a “gender-diverse” and “gender-fluid” environment.

Other activists explained on Monday that they were actually opposed to the public hearing even taking place.

RELATED: Texas knows what a woman is: Women’s Bill of Rights heads to Abbott’s desk as Pride Month looms

A woman tells the legislature in Austin that her son has ‘identified himself’ as male and she is ‘not gendering him.’ Image courtesy Alex Stein

“This particular session has done a lot to make the transgender community feel not welcome in Texas,” said Katrina Stewart, executive director of the Pride Community Center, per local ABC affiliate KRHD.

Stewart also told the outlet that because women who want to be men can appear masculine, they should be able to use the men’s bathroom.

At the hearing, other community members gave their opinion on the bill. A local pharmacist said that passing the bill would increase “the risk of violence for all women and girls regardless of cis or trans status.”

At the same time, a local pastor voiced his support for the bill, saying that it was “essential” to protect the safety of women.

State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) told Blaze News in a statement: “I fully support the bill. It should have been passed years ago. If we had stronger Republican leadership in Texas that would have happened.”

Stewart plainly explained, however, her primary reason for not wanting the bill to be passed: People should be to allowed to “pee where they feel comfortable.”

Senate Bill 7 has passed committee and will move on to the Texas House for vote. If it becomes law, it would take effect in September.

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​News, Comedy, Alex stein, Texas, Transgender, Trans rights, Bathroom bill, Austin, Politics 

A stabbing at a Michigan Walmart on Saturday was stopped by an armed man — a Marine veteran — who went to the shooting range but “forgot to take his pistol off his hip.”

The New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, NPR, NBC News, BBC, and many others completely ignored the gun used to stop the attack. An eyewitness described how others who had tried to stop the attacker were stabbed, but it took the Marine with a gun to stop the attack.

The laws meant to stop criminals end up disarming the innocent instead.

The attack was stopped several minutes before the first responders were able to arrive. One thought is that this hero might get some coverage in the legacy media simply because he is black and the attacker was white.

A disturbing pattern

This case was far from unusual. Between January 2021 and December 2024, concealed handgun permit holders stopped 37 attacks that police said would have turned into mass public shootings if not for their intervention. But they rarely get national news attention.

Unfortunately, after Monday’s attack in New York City, Democrats drew the wrong conclusion. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) responded by calling for a federal assault weapon ban and blaming the tragedy on the absence of such a law.

Their gun control laws ensure they won’t have any armed civilians to save the day. The murderer who killed four people broke numerous gun control laws. He openly carried a rifle that was already illegal to possess or carry in the state.

New York State and New York City prohibit open carry of loaded long guns in public and ban so-called assault weapons, such as AR-15-style rifles. Even concealed-carry permits do not authorize openly carrying a rifle in public.

Meanwhile, the law-abiding victims were defenseless, disarmed by the city’s strict regulations. Currently, only about 6,000 active concealed handgun permits are currently granted in a city with almost seven million adults — less than 1% of adults.

Moreover, carrying a permitted concealed handgun is extremely difficult. The list of places that ban concealed carry is long (e.g., public transportation such as subways, any places that serve alcohol, Times Square, government buildings and educational facilities, and public gatherings). Additionally, the price for obtaining a permit is steep — running at about $770 — for fees to the New York Police Department and the required course.

Gun control doesn’t save lives

The problem is simple: Someone intent on murdering four people won’t be deterred by extra gun control penalties. Even if the killer had survived, he would have already been facing four life sentences, which makes adding a few more years meaningless. For attackers who expect to die during the assault — as most mass public shooters do — those laws carry no weight at all.

But for law-abiding citizens, the consequences are severe. Violating these laws could turn them into felons and upend their entire lives. The laws meant to stop criminals end up disarming the innocent instead.

These murderers take advantage of the laws that ensure they will be the only ones with weapons. Diaries and manifestos of mass public shooters show a disturbing pattern: They deliberately choose locations where they know their victims can’t fight back due to restrictive gun laws.

RELATED: 3 armed thugs wearing ski masks allegedly break into Texas home. But homeowner also has gun — and simply does what Texans do.

Photo by Seeetz via Unsplash

While it remains unknown whether this particular killer made such a calculation, his actions align with a pattern we’ve seen repeatedly in other cases. It isn’t too surprising that 92% of mass public shootings occur in places where guns are banned.

Concealed carry does

Two of the four people murdered in the New York City attack were security guards. But people don’t appreciate the extremely difficult job uniformed police have in stopping these active shooting attacks. “A deputy in uniform has a difficult job in stopping these attacks,” said Sheriff Kurt Hoffman in Sarasota County, Florida. He continues:

These terrorists have strategic advantages in determining the time and place of attacks. They can wait for a deputy to leave the area or pick an undefended location. Even when police or deputies are in the right place at the right time, those in uniform who can be readily identified as guards may as well be holding up neon signs saying, “Shoot me first.” My deputies know that we cannot be everywhere.

In fact, even though civilians stop more of these active shooting attacks than police officers, the men in blue still pay a steep price. Nineteen police officers were killed in these attacks versus two civilians with permitted concealed handguns. It’s little surprise why surveys of academics who have published peer-reviewed empirical research on firearms show that criminologists and economists strongly support letting people carry concealed handguns to stop mass public shootings.

While politicians rush to call for new laws after each tragedy, they often ignore the basic reality that killers intent on murder are attracted to attack in places with strict gun control. Instead, those laws disarm only the potential victims, leaving them vulnerable and defenseless.

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

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Gun control, Concealed carry, Concealed carry permit, Self-defense, Assault weapons ban, Kathy hochul, New york city, Stabbing spree, Good guy with a gun, Second amendment 

A verdict has been reached in the trial of a mother and father accused in an attempted “honor killing” of their teenage daughter Fatima — and the result was not what BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales expected.

The jury found 44-year-old Ihsan Ali not guilty of second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. He was found guilty of second-degree and fourth-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment.

“This has become so much more than an attempted murder trial because with this acquittal, with the evidence that they had, and these parents still being acquitted of attempted murder, this trial is all about the ways that the United States of Islam now — it’s what we are — has failed this girl,” Gonzales comments, disgusted.

And the evidence was staggering, as video captured the father appearing to choke his 17-year-old daughter on the ground outside Timberline High School in October 2024. The attack was prompted by Fatima running away from home, claiming her parents wanted to send her to Iraq to marry an older man.

Witnesses reported seeing the daughter’s eyes roll back as her father choked her. Fatima’s boyfriend tried to intervene and was also allegedly attacked by the father.

Fatima’s mother, Zahraa Ali, was found guilty of violating a protective order but not of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault, or second-degree burglary. The mother was present at the attack and was accused of attacking her daughter in a similar manner.

“The judge blocked key evidence in the trial. She actually had told police that she was afraid to leave the country and join her family on a trip to Iraq because they had an arranged marriage planned for her, and she didn’t want to go because she didn’t want to be in an arranged marriage because she, of course, lives in the United States, where you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to,” Gonzales says.

“But the judge, Christine Schaller, didn’t allow the prosecution to enter this into evidence. Why? Well, it’s interesting that you asked,” she continues.

Schaller claimed the backstory of the attack would be “too prejudicial.”

“Well, we can’t have the jury hearing true things, true crazy things that the defendants did because it would just be too prejudicial to them. Now, this is obviously insane. Because who cares if it’s too prejudicial if it’s actually the truth?” Gonzales says.

“Of course, everything that led up to the attack matters,” she continues, “but to a judge, ‘Uh-oh, we don’t want to bring in arranged marriage talk. … They might get a bad impression of the Islamic culture, the Islamic religion.’”

“I, just, the mind boggles as to how in the world you can throw out that testimony when it’s entirely relevant to literally everything you’re watching happen in that video,” she adds.

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​Free, Sharing, Video phone, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze originals, Honor killing, Islam, Islam in america, Sharia law, Blaze original video 

Once again, the Shroud of Turin is making headlines, this time with bold claims such as “The Shroud of Turin was not laid on Jesus’ body, scientists reveal” and “Shroud of Turin didn’t wrap Jesus’ crucified body — it was just art, new research claims.”

These sensationalized assertions are based on a recent article published in Archaeometry, in which Cicero Moraes, an accomplished digital modeler, used visually intriguing 3D simulations to argue that the Shroud image could not have been formed on a full human body, but rather by contact with a low-relief sculpture.

Why wouldn’t Jesus leave behind a sign of His resurrection?

While the media delights in a provocative “debunking” narrative, Moraes’ study is not a scientific breakthrough. In fact, it recycles long-discredited assumptions.

His central thesis — that the Shroud is a contact imprint — is not demonstrated but simply presumed. Using 3D software, he simulates what a cloth might look like when draped over both a full 3D form and a shallow bas-relief. He then concludes — predictably — that the bas-relief result more closely resembles the Shroud. But this is not new insight. It’s a tautology.

When you begin with a flawed assumption, your conclusion naturally mirrors it. This isn’t discovery — it’s circular logic.

More importantly, Moraes fails to engage with decades of rigorous image analysis and physical testing that demonstrate the Shroud image is not consistent with contact imprinting, artistic rendering, or any known medieval method. The Shroud’s image is anatomically precise, encoded with three-dimensional information, and limited to the topmost surface fibrils of the linen — not soaked or pressed through as one would expect from a contact transfer.

Moreover, Moraes’ approach ignores decades of serious scientific work, especially findings that deeply challenge any contact-based theory. The Shroud image is not the product of direct contact. It is far too subtle, too topographically accurate, and too spatially encoded for that.

Last week, I had the privilege of serving as a keynote speaker at the International Shroud of Turin Conference in St. Louis, where I met with Dr. John Jackson, one of the original physicists who led the 1978 STURP investigation and co-author of the landmark 1984 Applied Optics study on image formation.

The evidence he and his team uncovered stands in sharp contrast to the assumptions Moraes recycles.

Consider the groundbreaking VP-8 Image Analyzer work done in 1976 by Captains (and physicists) John Jackson and Eric Jumper, U.S. Air Force scientists. This analog image analysis device, developed for nuclear weapons laboratories in New Mexico, was designed to detect spatial relationships in radiographic imagery. Additionally, the VP-8 Image Analyzer was developed and used by U.S. military weapons laboratories, specifically for analyzing high-energy radiographic and photographic data, including images of atomic bomb tests.

When Jackson and Jumper input a photograph of the Shroud into the VP-8, the machine generated a three-dimensional relief of a human body.

RELATED: Is the Shroud of Turin legit? Here’s one pastor’s interesting take

Blaze Media Illustration

This was extraordinary. No other photograph — whether of a painting, statue, or live subject — produced anything close. Why? Because the Shroud image is spatially encoded. Its image intensity varies inversely with the distance between the cloth and the body it once covered. The closer a body part was to the cloth, the darker the image; the farther away, the fainter the impression.

This inverse relationship was confirmed in Jackson, Jumper, and Ercoline’s 1984 peer-reviewed paper in Applied Optics, where they wrote:

The frontal image on the Shroud of Turin is shown to be consistent with a body shape covered with a naturally draping cloth in the sense that image shading can be derived from a single global mapping function of distance between these two surfaces.

They concluded that none of the known artistic or physical processes — direct contact, heat transfer, dabbing with powders, electrostatic imaging, or radiation from a heated bas-relief — could simultaneously explain the Shroud’s 3D encoding, high resolution, surface-only image penetration, and absence of pigment or thermal damage.

Let me be clear: The Shroud is not simply a medieval art piece or a contact imprint.

Its image resides only on the topmost fibrils of the linen’s surface. It does not penetrate the threads. Its subtle optical qualities are consistent across ultraviolet and visible spectra. It displays anatomical fidelity that would be nearly impossible to reproduce by hand. And unlike thermal burns from the 1532 fire, which fluoresce under ultraviolet light, the image does not, indicating it was not formed by heat.

Moraes’ theory also fails to explain the lack of distortion.

As Russ Breault noted in his interview with Michael Patrick Shiels, a cloth wrapped around a face would, when flattened, appear “like a pumpkin.” Yet the Shroud image displays no such warping. The image appears vertically collimated — not distorted or stretched as it would be from wrapping or contact.

And critically, attempts to reproduce the image by pressing cloth against bas-reliefs or models — whether by rubbing pigment, applying heat, or using other methods — have consistently failed to replicate the Shroud’s anatomical accuracy or 3D encoding.

As Jackson and his co-authors emphasize:

A satisfactory hypothesis of image formation must be able to produce an image structure capable of a 3-D interpretation … for in doing so the shading distribution of the Shroud image should presumably be duplicatable.

So what are we left with?

While Moraes’ graphics are state of the art, the conclusions drawn are far less innovative than they first appear. The study rests on a foundational assumption: that the Shroud image is a type of contact imprint — essentially, a “body print” resulting from direct physical interaction with a corpse or sculpted form.

Unsurprisingly, Moraes’ simulations conclude that a low-relief model aligns more closely with the Shroud image than a full-body figure. But as digital artist Ray Downing — a renowned American 3D expert who was featured in the History Channel special “The Real Face of Jesus” — rightly observes, this is a classic case of circular reasoning. If one begins with the assumption that the image was formed through contact, it is no surprise when the model supports that assumption.

This approach overlooks critical empirical details. The Shroud image is characterized by its photorealistic subtlety, with gradations and shading more akin to a negative photographic plate than a physical transfer. Traditional contact imprints, by contrast, produce stark, binary images — high in contrast, low in nuance.

But the presence of features such as the sides of the nose and cheeks — areas unlikely to have touched the cloth at all — poses a serious challenge to any purely contact-based model.

RELATED: New evidence indicates Shroud of Turin shows EXACT moment of resurrection

claudiodivizia/iStock/Getty Images Plus

There are further inconsistencies.

The lack of mirror symmetry between the frontal and dorsal images contradicts expectations from simple cloth-body interaction. We also do not observe the telltale signs of capillary wicking or pressure distortion typical of contact imprints. Moreover, the bloodstains on the Shroud are anatomically precise, appear to have transferred at a different time from the body image, and exhibit halo rings under UV fluorescence — further evidence that the blood and image formed by distinct mechanisms.

As Downing and others have noted, Moraes’ study does not provide novel insights beyond what has already been established — decades ago — by the STURP investigation. His use of modern rendering software offers a visual upgrade but does not advance the scientific conversation. Presentation alone cannot rescue a flawed hypothesis.

Ultimately, Moraes’ work illustrates a broader truth: Technological sophistication cannot compensate for weak foundational assumptions.

Until a contact-imprint model can be demonstrated under real-world conditions — and account for the full range of physical, chemical, and optical properties of the Shroud — the theory remains speculative at best. Digital simulations, no matter how elegant, are only as reliable as the premises they’re built upon. In this case, the digital artistry is commendable, but the interpretive framework remains deeply inadequate.

Moraes’ simulation, while technically polished, brings nothing new to the conversation. It recycles a theory that fails against the hard evidence — evidence amassed by physicists, chemists, and image analysts across more than four decades. Without accounting for the VP-8 findings or the full chemical, spectral, and physical properties of the Shroud image, his conclusions remain, at best, superficial.

And then there’s the deeper question. As Russ Breault beautifully summarized: Why wouldn’t Jesus leave behind a sign of His resurrection?

According to John’s Gospel, the linen cloths left in the tomb were the first piece of evidence to convince John that Jesus had risen (John 20:8). Is it so implausible that God, in a moment of divine transformation, impressed upon burial linen a subtle, encoded image — a kind of sacred relic left for the world to ponder?

Moraes’ paper may impress in terms of digital technique, but it fails to contend with the depth of the data. Any theory about the Shroud must explain not just what is seen — but how it is scientifically seen.

The Shroud is not merely mysterious — it is measurable. And the more we measure, the more it challenges every naturalistic explanation offered so far.

​Shroud of turin, Jesus, Jesus christ, Cicero moraes, Theology, God, Christianity, Jeremiah johnston, Faith 

Rep. Delia Ramirez (Ill.), an open-borders Democrat who sits on the House Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee, spoke to fellow leftists in Mexico City over the weekend at the second Panamerican Congress, a three-day meeting opened by former M-19 terrorist turned Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

Ramirez, who last week called for the defunding of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, suggested in a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times that the lawmakers and leaders headed to the convention sought to take up various challenges supposedly affecting the Western Hemisphere, including “democratic backsliding, climate crisis, deep poverty, political violence, [and] family displacement.”

In her speech at the conference, Ramirez revealed where her true loyalties lie, telling fellow travelers in Spanish, “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

— (@)

There was significant backlash to the Democratic congresswoman’s public prioritization of a foreign nation over the United States — especially because it reads as ingratitude.

After all, Ramirez is not only an anchor baby born of a Guatemalan mother who illegally stole into the country, but she is married to Boris Hernandez, an illegal alien and DACA recipient as of 2024.

The Department of Homeland Security shared the following quote from President Theodore Roosevelt in response to Blaze News’ post detailing Ramirez’s remarks: “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. … Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”

RELATED: 5 things Trump must do to fulfill his mass deportation mandate

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“My late parents, who were immigrants, loved this country with every fiber of their being and were grateful for the incredible opportunities it offered them. I can only imagine how much it would have pained them to hear a sitting member of Congress, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), declare (in Spanish) at a public event in Mexico City that ‘I’m a proud Guatemalan first, before I’m an American,'” wrote U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “Words more poisonous to legal immigrants, and antithetical to our national character, have never been spoken.”

“She didn’t leave much ambiguity there,” wrote Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah).

‘Just send her back to Guatemala then.’

The White House similarly blasted Ramirez over her remarks.

“These Democrats’ comments are despicable and underscore their commitment to putting Americans last,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Fox News Digital. “In stark contrast, President Trump is working tirelessly to secure peace deals, deport illegal alien criminals, and advance America’s interests at home and abroad.”

Blaze Media digital strategist Logan Hall noted, “The idea that this person’s abuela can show up here illegally, touch some magic dirt, and is now somehow as American as a guy who can trace his ancestors to the Mayflower is pure insanity.”

RELATED: Appeals court’s decision in Trump’s birthright citizenship case sets up HISTORIC battle before Supreme Court

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“Just send her back to Guatemala then,” wrote BlazeTV host Steve Deace.

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre said, “It’s time to talk about paperwork Americans.”

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) joined others in calling for Ramirez’s denaturalization and deportation, adding that “we know where her allegiances lie.”

Ramirez has made no secret of her willingness to put the interests of foreign nationals before those of Americans.

She has, for instance, voted against preventing noncitizens from voting in American elections; against the Secure the Border Act; against compelling Washington, D.C., to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement activities; against the Laken Riley Act; against the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act; against the Police Our Border Act; and against legislation that would require the detention and deportation of illegal aliens who assault American police officers and demanded the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over her proper enforcement of federal immigration law.

‘I am from both Guatemala and Chicago, Illinois.’

The congresswoman also introduced a bill in May that would prohibit the use of federal funds to carry out the democratically elected American president’s executive order titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”

Trump’s order, now likely headed for a historic battle before the U.S. Supreme Court, made it U.S. policy not to issue citizenship documents to a person whose mother was unlawfully in the country and whose father was neither an American citizen nor a permanent resident at the time of the person’s birth.

Ramirez said in response to the backlash, “Today’s attacks are a weak attempt to silence my dissent and invalidate my patriotic criticism of the nativist, white supremacist, authoritarians in government.”

“It is the definition of hypocrisy that members of Congress — who betray their oath each day they enable Trump — are attacking me for celebrating my Guatemalan-American roots,” continued Ramirez. “I am the daughter of immigrants and the daughter of America. I am both Chapina and American. I am from both Guatemala and Chicago, Illinois.”

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The recent outrage over an American Eagle ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeney would be hilarious if it weren’t so revealing. The ad shows Sweeney wearing jeans with the cheeky caption, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” It’s a harmless pun — wordplay on both genetics and denim.

But as we know, grievance culture doesn’t do humor. According to outraged leftists, this ad is “Nazi-coded propaganda” because Sweeney has the wrong look: blonde hair and blue eyes. That’s right — Sweeney didn’t goose-step across your screen or quote “Mein Kampf.” She just smiled in a pair of jeans. Apparently, that was enough to unleash the fury of the perpetually offended.

It’s not a crime to recognize beauty. It’s an act of sanity.

Why does something so lighthearted spark such disproportionate rage?

Beauty threatens the left

At first glance, the reaction seems to fit a familiar pattern. Sweeney is white. She’s conventionally attractive. She’s not apologizing for either of those things. That’s three strikes in the diversity, equity, and inclusion playbook.

The new cultural catechism of the left says that beauty is a “social construct.” It’s used by oppressive systems to maintain unjust hierarchies, so it must be redistributed according to equity quotas.

Admiring beauty becomes an offense. It must be deconstructed — if not altogether abolished — and reprogrammed with DEI.

But there’s something deeper at work — something more visceral and more theological. You can sense it in the feral energy of the backlash. It’s not just that Sweeney is beautiful. It’s that she didn’t earn it. And the leftists are mired in high-schoolish insecurity.

She didn’t pass a DEI review. She didn’t seek approval from the sensitivity board. Her looks aren’t the result of a curated political identity — they’re the result of, well, her parents.

And that’s what drives the left insane. Beauty, in this case, violates the central tenet of their moral framework: fairness. Sweeney didn’t do anything to deserve being attractive (aside from perhaps watching her diet and going to the gym). Her features are, largely, inherited — in their language, “privilege.”

‘Why not me?’

The old-school leftists like Herbert Marcuse rightly critiqued the one-dimensionality of ads like American Eagle’s. Commercial culture does not aim at beauty, truth, or goodness. But the modern leftists dropped that message. Now, beauty is whatever the activist class tells you it is, as long as it serves the cause.

This is the theology of the grievance industrial complex: If something is unearned, it’s unjust. It’s just not fair. “Why not me?” is the battle cry — less a revolution, more a toddler’s tantrum.

This is why leftists don’t just go after people — they go after beauty itself. I’m not equating sex appeal to beauty. But the outrage is beyond sex appeal and is aimed at the very idea that someone can be beautiful without approval from the Committee of Twelve.

Spend five minutes on any state university campus or in Democrat-run city and look at the newest buildings. They are intentionally not beautiful. They have even abandoned Soviet functionality. Concrete cubes with exposed ductwork and LED-lit virtue slogans where cornices and stained glass used to be are statements of contempt, monuments to cynicism and self-hatred, rather than structures designed to lift the soul.

The leftist assault on beauty goes beyond architecture. University art galleries — such as the one run by my school, Arizona State University — are considered “activist installations.” Chaotic splashes of rage, deconstruction, profanity, and noise aren’t merely misguided attempts at beauty — they are refusals of it. They reject order and celebrate cacophony.

A war on God

This reveals a deeper truth: Leftists’ war on beauty is ultimately a war on God.

Beauty is not a construct. It is not the invention of Western power structures. Beauty is real — it flows from the nature of God Himself. As Augustine wrote, ”Being is good.” Evil is not a thing in itself. It’s the corruption of the good. Likewise, beauty is not a weapon of oppression. It’s the radiance of order, truth, and harmony.

But if you hate the Creator, you will hate creation. You won’t rejoice in beauty; you’ll resent it. The truly dark impulse behind much of leftist cultural production is not liberation. It’s vengeance.

A world that won’t conform to their demands must be punished. If they can’t make reality fair by their standards, then they’ll make it ugly and demand that you call it a masterpiece

Reject the mob

But you aren’t required to play along. You don’t have to pretend that brokenness is beauty, that chaos is art, that bitterness is profound, or that atheism is intellectually deep.

You don’t have to nod along when they tell you that Sydney Sweeney’s ad is a hate crime and that art school murals of screaming female body parts are sublime. You can say, without apology: That’s not beautiful.

RELATED: Hot girls and denim: American Eagle rediscovers a winning formula

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And that’s a kind of cultural resistance we desperately need. Christians in particular must recover a theology of beauty. We serve the God who clothes the lilies of the field in splendor, who filled the skies with stars and the oceans with wonder, who made the human form. This God of beauty is the same one who redeems the lost sinner and works all things together for good.

So don’t let the rage mob deprive you of beauty. Don’t let their tantrums over privilege drive you into false guilt. And don’t let the secular liturgists of ugliness define what your heart is allowed to love.

We were made to love what is good, true, and beautiful. That includes a well-cut cathedral, a sonata in a major key, a sunrise over the Grand Canyon — and God, who created all of this.

It’s not a crime to recognize beauty. It’s an act of sanity.

​Opinion & analysis, American eagle, God, Sydney sweeney, Advertising, Leftism, Beauty, Ugliness, Leftists, Nazis, Propaganda, Dei, Diversity equity inclusion, White, Multiculturalism, Culture war, Commercials, Arizona state university, Religion, Creator, Atheism, Social construct