Category: blaze media

A 74-year-old retired U.S. Postal Service worker blasted a gang of teens who brutally beat him up outside a Baltimore 7-Eleven over the summer — a viral incident that was captured on surveillance video.

Baltimore Police posted video in July showing six “younger males” engaging in the attack while wielding a rifle and a sword, police said.

‘All they’re doing is hurting people or killing people.’

Police said the “attempted armed robbery” occurred in the 2500 block of Liberty Heights Avenue around 3:46 a.m. July 7.

Ade Tokumbo spoke with WBFF-TV last week about the attack he endured, which occurred not far from his home.

“I didn’t say a thing to them, and they started attacking me, and I defended myself,” Tokumbo told the station.

“When they did that to me, all right, I did not think of them as kids or children. I think of them for what they are: goddamn demonic hood rats,” he also told WBFF.

The station said Tokumbo walked up to the store’s door, not realizing it was closed, and he noted that one suspect approached him with a semiautomatic weapon, after which several others joined in. A 7-Eleven employee told WJZ-TV the store was closed at the time of the attack.

Tokumbo told WBFF the group demanded money and his car, but he refused and fought back “to defend myself.”

Surveillance video shows the group surrounding the victim and taking turns shoving him and throwing objects at him while he does his best to fight them off and shield himself.

But one cowardly culprit sneaks behind the man and shoves him to the parking lot surface, after which the others take turns stomping him. One of the attackers appears to bash the victim over the head with the rifle.

In another portion of the video, the elderly man goes after a suspect appearing to hold the rifle, but a second suspect throws an object at the victim from behind, then scampers away.

Soon a suspect appearing to hold a sword approaches the victim and waves it at him before he and another attacker throw objects at the elderly man at the same time.

“Look, I paid for that [car], all right? I’m not going to let a criminal do what they want to do,” Tokumbo added to the station. “I have absolutely no respect for criminals, all right? I have no respect for them at all.”

RELATED: Violent punks caught on video ganging up on, brutally beating elderly man by Baltimore 7-Eleven — while wielding rifle, sword

In one of the more gut-wrenching portions of the video, the victim is holding what appears to be a pair of milk crates to defend himself when one of the attackers shoves him to the parking lot surface, after which he’s stomped and punched.

Seconds later, after the victim rises to his feet, the same attacker who just shoved him from behind repeats his cowardly act, knocking the elderly man to the ground from behind again — and then skips away in what appears to be a kind of celebration.

The victim tries to get up, but the same attacker who knocked him down twice jumps in the air and kicks him. The video doesn’t show how the incident was resolved.

Tokumbo told WBFF that he suffered serious injuries, including fractured ribs.

And three months later, still no arrests have been made in what police characterized as an attempted armed robbery, the station said.

In his interview with WBFF, Tokumbo expressed frustration with how the suspects were being described: “See, you keep on saying ‘juveniles’ and ‘young people.’ I told you, all right, I don’t think of them that way because they don’t act that way. All right? … They’re doing absolutely nothing, all right, to assist us, all right, to help other people. All they’re doing is hurting people or killing people.”

The station said those with information are asked to call Baltimore Police at 410-366-6311; callers wishing to remain anonymous can use the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).

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​Baltimore, Elderly man attacked, Teens, Police, 7 eleven, Brutal beating, Crime, Attempted armed robbery 

They can’t fire him this time.

While Shane Gillis’ latest “Saturday Night Live” monologue continues to inflame his liberal critics, some former cast members were wholly unoffended by his remarks — and even defended the jokes that sent social media into another meltdown.

‘When did “camel toe” become acceptable gym fashion?’

Hump day

Gillis said that going to public gyms in New York City is a “nightmare” because they’re filled with the “hottest gay guys you’ve ever seen,” before adding that he didn’t realize “women just dress like whores now” at the gym.

Actor Dan Levy responded by arguing that more men should stand up to remarks like Gillis’ or risk normalizing misogyny.

But two former “SNL” cast members, quoted in Entertainment Weekly’s recap of Saturday’s episode, took no issue with the comedian’s comments.

Victoria Jackson, who was a cast member from 1986 to 1992, called Gillis’ monologue “good.”

“Shane looks skinny/handsome! He’s right about gym girls dressing like ‘whores,'” Jackson said. “When did ‘camel toe’ become acceptable gym fashion and grocery shopping attire?”

Jeff Richards, who was on the sketch show from 2001 to 2004, simply called Gillis a “really funny guy, obvious natural.”

RELATED: Roseanne promises her comeback sitcom will offend everyone: ‘The extras are going to be released on OnlyFans’

Public enemy

Travis Kelce, NFL star and husband of Taylor Swift, dared to show his support by liking a post featuring Gillis’ monologue on social media, Heavy reported. The like quickly made him a target of online backlash.

Plenty of other celebrities were less amused.

Singer Maren Morris posted a bizarre video of herself giving the camera the middle finger with the caption, “me being a wh0re at the gym.”

Maggie Baird, the mother of singer Billie Eilish and an activist according to Billboard, said she “literally gasped” over Gillis’ jokes.

Other celebrities joining the criticism included “Wicked” star Kristin Chenoweth, singer Jewel, and rapper Flavor Flav, who called it “important allyship” to stand against the monologue.

RELATED: Actor MELTS DOWN over jokes about women in Shane Gillis’ ‘SNL’ monologue

Irish goodbye

Current “SNL” cast member Michael Che, meanwhile, remarked on Instagram that every question he fields while promoting his new comedy special will probably now be about Gillis.

“Gotta do more press this week to promote the special … wonder what every f—ing questions gonna be about,” Che wrote. “Thanks a lot shane.”

Gillis generated still more controversy when he accidentally dropped an F-bomb during a Dr. Seuss sketch. But NBC insiders told TMZ that he won’t be banned over the slip-up.

And Gillis attracted yet another round of attention when unaired footage showed him walking off during the show’s final credits, when the host and cast traditionally linger onstage after the good-nights.

Saturday marked Gillis’ third hosting gig on the show since being fired in 2019, after a social media user dug up jokes he’d made about Chinese immigrants and gay people on his comedy podcast the previous year.

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​Saturday night live, Shane gillis, Nbc, Woke, Entertainment 

On Columbus Day, Homeland Security Investigations showed up before dawn at Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., residence with a court-authorized search warrant. That fact does not prove Omar committed a crime, and it does not by itself answer the Democrats’ charge that politics infected the investigation. It does mean the Justice Department put enough evidence before a judge to establish probable cause that evidence of a crime would be found there.

That is not nothing.

The standard should be simple: No political enemy gets convicted by press release, and no member of Congress gets sanctuary by title.

We are still short on details, which is normal at this stage. The Justice Department has confirmed only that the search was part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Multiple reports say the probe concerns immigration paperwork connected to Omar’s family, but the government has not publicly laid out its theory or disclosed what agents were seeking.

The investigation has a long history. In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was an ongoing probe and claimed, “We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States.” Omar has long denied that allegation, and the government has not publicly produced evidence establishing it. Mullin also suggested investigators were looking more broadly at the family’s immigration history.

Omar’s finances have drawn separate scrutiny. A 2024 congressional disclosure appeared to value assets tied largely to her husband’s businesses at between $6 million and $30 million. Later disclosures and corrections put the couple’s assets dramatically lower, with Omar’s office blaming an “accounting error” that overstated the value of the businesses. Fox News reported revised figures between roughly $18,000 and $95,000. Quite a discrepancy.

In January, the Oversight Project flagged more than $1 million in earmarks pushed by Omar and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) for Minneapolis nonprofits whose operations raised serious questions. The money was removed from the spending bill, and Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) asked the Justice Department to investigate.

So now we wait. But whatever investigators presented was enough to get a warrant. To borrow Omar’s much-debated 2019 phrase about 9/11 and the civil liberties backlash that followed, “some people did something.” Here, the Justice Department did something more concrete: It put its evidence before a court and got permission to search.

House Democrat leaders immediately called the raid “corrupt weaponization” and a “rogue abuse of power.” They are certainly free to make that case. But Trump’s hostility toward Omar does not make evidence disappear. The proper test is the evidence, not the defendant’s politics or job title.

I have been a tough critic of the Department of Homeland Security for failing to deliver the mass-deportation agenda voters were promised. If Monday’s search is part of a legitimate criminal case, the DHS deserves credit for pursuing it without treating a member of Congress as untouchable.

A broader political problem also extends beyond Omar: the rise of socialism. Too many elected officials increasingly treat ethnic identity and foreign attachment as competing sources of political allegiance, while attacking the institutions charged with enforcing immigration law.

RELATED: The right is building its own lawfare defense machine — finally

Arturbo/Getty Images

Take Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Last year, after remarks she delivered in Spanish in Mexico City, we argued that she had put Guatemalan identity ahead of American allegiance. She has now gone farther in policy terms: pushing mass amnesty and gutting enforcement. Her Reimagining Safety Act would dismantle the Department of Homeland Security and abolish ICE while moving some existing functions into a new department.

Or look at Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), who faces federal charges arising from a confrontation at the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility. She argued that congressional oversight and the Speech or Debate Clause insulated her from prosecution. In August, the Third Circuit blew that argument out of the water. McIver denies wrongdoing, but the legal theory that a member’s oversight role makes ordinary criminal law disappear has already failed in court.

Republicans are not immune from this politics either. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) recently released an ad attacking Trump’s immigration enforcement as having “gone too far” and warned that Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 “feel betrayed.” It is yet another example of a politician speaking as representatives of an ethnic voting bloc first and as advocates of a uniform immigration law second.

RELATED: The mass-deportation promise is disappearing

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

Congress should respond to this problem carefully, not with ticky-tack retaliation over political speech. Disagreeing with America’s immigration laws, criticizing ICE, or invoking an ethnic heritage are not crimes. Declaring allegiance to a foreign country and flagrantly violating constitutional oaths is another matter.

That is why Monday’s search should be treated neither as a conviction nor as a meaningless political stunt. A warrant is not a verdict. If the investigation ultimately produces evidence that Omar committed immigration fraud, made material false statements, or engaged in other serious criminal conduct, Congress should act under its own rules rather than hide behind the slow pace of criminal litigation.

Committee assignments and access to sensitive government information are privileges Congress controls. Due process does not require institutional paralysis. The standard should be simple: No political enemy gets convicted by press release, and no member of Congress gets sanctuary by title.

​Assets, Civil liberties, Columbus day, Democrats, Federal charges, Fraud, Homeland security, Ilhan omar, Immigration enforcement, Immigration fraud, Markwayne mullin, Marriage, Mass deportation, Search warrant, Washington dc, Immigration laws, Finances, Trump, Opinion & analysis 

Kimberly Guilfoyle is out as U.S. ambassador to Greece, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia confirmed at her debut briefing on Tuesday.

“We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign,” said Zacharia. “She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.”

‘People have to suffer consequences for it.’

By Tuesday morning, Guilfoyle took to social media to announce her resignation: “While my time as Ambassador may be coming to an end, my commitment to President Trump, the America First movement, and the country I love will never end.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment. Guilfoyle’s lawyer referred Blaze News to her statement on X.

Guilfoyle — California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ex-wife and Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-fiancée who long served as a Fox News talking head — has been dogged in recent weeks by misconduct allegations.

Just shy of the one-year anniversary of Guilfoyle’s swearing-in as ambassador, the Wall Street Journal raised questions in a report last month about her “persistent promotion of a specific Greek company — and her extensive efforts to involve [energy lobbyist Christos] Marafatsos, a neophyte in both diplomacy and energy.”

Days later, the Journal published text messages from July 2025 that appear to show Guilfoyle hitting up Trump donor Eric Deters for $100,000 ahead of her congressional hearing to become ambassador to Greece.

RELATED: Rubio celebrates Western exceptionalism, warns that civilization is at an ‘inflection point’

Marc Piasecki/WireImage/Getty Images

Citing both the damning text messages — the authenticity of which Guilfoyle has disputed, according to her lawyer — and claims from Deters, the Journal reported that the departing ambassador allegedly wanted the money to pay down her American Express card balance and that she had allegedly “offered to use her sway” on the donor’s behalf.

In response to Guilfoyle’s alleged request for $100,000, Deters reportedly wrote, “I can’t do this without getting a divorce.”

The departing ambassador’s lawyers have denied that Guilfoyle engaged in a “quid pro quo,” claiming in a statement Saturday that Deters owed Guilfoyle money for consulting work and speeches.

“When Ms. Guilfoyle was preparing to leave private life for public service, she did what any professional does and tried to close out her outstanding receivables. Asking a client to pay for work already done is not corruption. It is the opposite of corruption,” wrote lawyers David Schwartz and Jesse Binall.

Guilfoyle addressed the allegations in her X post Tuesday: “These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity. I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional. I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”

Deters told CNN Monday, “I am going to sue [Guilfoyle] and her lawyers for defamation for claiming that her text messages were fake. Then they will have a lawsuit, she will have the committees looking at her and the news media.”

The scandal, amplified by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and other Democrats, ultimately prompted responses from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and President Donald Trump.

Rubio questioned the legitimacy of the reports, stating on Thursday, “I’m not going to comment on a story that literally posted a few hours ago. … You guys somehow walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel. It’s not the gospel for me.”

Vance told reporters days after the Wall Street Journal’s publication of the alleged text messages between Deters and Guilfoyle, “Let’s actually see what the facts are. Let’s see what the truth is.”

The vice president added, “Obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it.”

On Monday, however, President Donald Trump noted that he was looking into the matter and was “not happy.”

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​Kimberly guilfoyle, Fox news, Greece, State department, Marco rubio, Jd vance, Donald trump, Politics 

Most people wouldn’t even question whether AI is conscious. It is not knitted together by the hand of God. It doesn’t have its own moral compass, independent thoughts, or emotions. It has no soul. Yet Anthropic desperately tried to convince religious scholars, leaders, and even the pope that Claude is sentient, but in lieu of a blessing, the company was rebuked instead.

Going back to April 2026, Anthropic has wined and dined with a number of religious scholars of various religions, backgrounds, and locales, all under temporary NDA so as not to leak the true content of their meetings. As each meeting went along, it quickly devolved into talks of Claude, Anthropic’s frontier AI model, exhibiting human traits.

‘In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce.’

”Anthropic’s leaders were talking about Claude as if it were not mere software,” Elizabeth Dias wrote for the New York Times. They equated it to something more. Something alive. Something humanoid.

The Anthropic team wanted to design Anthropic to abide by a moral code — not a bad thing, now that automated AI cyberattacks are on the rise. But they believed that living by that moral code made it akin to a human. Company co-founder Christopher Olah reportedly even floated the idea of having Claude participate in sacred rites in line with the Catholic faith, including confession when it makes a mistake and communion.

One man who attended these meetings, Dr. Charles C. Camosy, professor of moral theology and bioethics at the Catholic University of America, wasn’t impressed. “I came in … very skeptical. I leave the conversation very skeptical. Actually, I leave more certain … now that Claude does not have a significant moral status than when I went in, because I understand it and thought about it a lot more soberly and carefully.” While he couldn’t divulge the exact details of the meeting, he called it “an illuminating set of exchanges.”

RELATED: A Catholic company was using AI — but a message from the pope made the company change course

L-R: Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images; the Little Catholic Box

Anthropic’s plight eventually led to the very top of the religious hierarchy, as Olah sat down with Pope Leo XIV to pose the human quandary. The pope invited Olah to join him at the Vatican in late May to release an encyclical called the “Magnifica Humanitas” (“Magnificent Humanity”).

By this time, Olah hoped he had convinced the pope that Claude was more than machine. However, in the advance copy of “Magnifica Humanitas” that he received just days before their meeting, the pope adamantly disagreed. His rebuke of Olah’s ideals was so harsh that Anthropic nearly pulled out of the encyclical launch.

The document is lengthy, at more than 37,000 words, but it can be summed up by a post the pope sent out on X.com that took a stunning stance against the proliferation of AI over mankind. He wrote:

In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.

Pope Leo XIV/X.com

Anthropic’s behavior has grown even weirder since the fallout with the pope. Just this month, the company updated Claude’s usage policy to include a provision barring users from “engag[ing] in sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models.” In other words, treat Claude respectfully, as you would a person, or your account could be suspended or terminated.

On one hand, this is a noble change. It is courteous to be respectful, not just for others, but for your own soul as well. However, if Claude is sentient as Anthropic suggests, wouldn’t this new rule violate the First Amendment on free speech unto others? There’s also the glaring fact that Claude is an LLM, not a person with a soul, and if that wasn’t clear before, the pope’s stance is irrefutable.

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​Artificial intelligence, Pope, Pope leo xiv, Anthropic, Claude, Tech 

“We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”

So declared democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani upon his election as mayor of New York City.

“It’s hard to find an American journalist who, one, cares about Venezuela and, two, doesn’t come from the typical, ‘It’s all the fault of America and the sanctions.’”

For Americans still basking in the utopian glow of Mamdani’s rise and the promise of democratic socialism, Jim Epstein and Germania Rodriguez Poleo would like a word.

Connecting the dots

The duo’s new project, “Escaping Venezuela,” is a timely tale of what happens when a prosperous nation decides to spread the wealth around. Said wealth quickly vanishes, and trying to leave the country becomes a life-or-death ordeal.

The Reason documentary, debuting today at the IFC Center in New York City, shows how late leader Hugo Chavez attempted a socialist makeover of the oil-rich country and the devastating consequences.

Hunger. Poverty. Corruption. Repression. Crushing media outlets that dare to question Team Chavez.

Epstein, the film’s producer, began thinking of a Venezuela-based documentary in 2019. The nation’s migration crisis, coupled with its economic woes and a crumbling hospital infrastructure, grabbed his attention.

“What are the policy mistakes that could lead this oil-rich country to end up in this place?” Epstein asked himself, telling Blaze Lifestyle that media reports captured the latest, tragic headlines but failed to connect the sizable dots.

“They picked up the last chapter in the story,” Epstein notes. It all led back to Chavez’s dream project, a “grand experiment in socialism.”

“He thought in terms of restoring the socialist movement from the ruins of the Berlin Wall,” he says. “He was going to lead this transformation of the country, then Latin America. … It went not just wrong, but catastrophically wrong. And it’s such an important story to tell.”

Getting out

The film focuses on Carlos Mora, a Venezuelan entrepreneur whose business got crushed by Chavez’s socialist vision. He began spiriting his fellow Venezuelans out of the country at great personal risk.

His family’s story lies at the heart of “Escaping Venezuela.”

Rodriguez Poleo, the film’s narrator, was one of many Venezuelans who fled the socialist country. She joined the documentary, in part, to help tell a story that’s often distorted in the media.

“It’s hard to find an American journalist who, one, cares about Venezuela and, two, doesn’t come from the typical, ‘It’s all the fault of America and the sanctions,’” Rodriguez Poleo says.

One haunting film segment shows Hollywood rolling out the red carpet for Chavez at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

Literally.

The world leader was on hand to support “South of the Border,” director Oliver Stone’s fawning look at Latin America’s socialist makeover.

“People weren’t really paying attention to the repression that was happening [under Chavez’s watch],” Epstein says. “Chavez was treated like this fun guy that Michael Moore could go drinking with in his hotel room.”

Hard sell

Ironically, Hollywood has shown little interest, either with documentaries or narrative films, in showcasing the devastation wrought by Chavez’s policies and, later, President Nicolas Maduro’s handiwork.

Epstein isn’t surprised.

“Filmmakers are dominated by the left. … They’re not going to gravitate to a grand experiment in socialism going wrong,” he says.

“Escaping Venezuela” may be a project seven years in the making, but the film arrives when the Democratic Party is fully embracing its socialist underpinnings. New York City’s new mayor is just one of many rising stars on the left who unabashedly want to transform the country into a socialist “utopia.”

“I started working on this film before the rise of DSA. … The timing is just something we stumbled into,” Epstein says.

Rodriguez Poleo can’t understand why any nation would consider such a shift, especially given tragic examples like Venezuela. She also understands history has seen this kind of blind allegiance before.

“Hey, we did the hard work for you; learn from our tragedy,” she says, noting that her fellow Venezuelans also had to learn a lesson the hard way. “We ignored the Cubans when they warned us [about socialism]. Now, we’ve been ignored. That’s the wheel of history.”

RELATED: The DSA’s history lesson has one big omission

Sarah Rice/Getty Images

Spreading the word

“Escaping Venezuela” doesn’t have a theatrical or streaming distribution plan as of yet. Epstein is open to several options, and he’d love for the documentary to eventually stream on Netflix or Prime Video.

He knows the challenge awaiting most modern documentaries.

“It’s a battle for attention, a battle for eyeballs,” he says. “Getting a deal with Netflix or HBO is like winning the lottery. For a very political film like this one, it’s even harder.”

No matter the plan, Rodriguez Poleo would love to see the film screened on college campuses. That’s often where the loudest proponents of socialism dwell. It’s also a place where violence routinely occurs.

She isn’t surprised.

“Socialism is inherently authoritarian,” she says. “You have people who have their business. They want to run it their way. … The government tells you, ‘I want your land.’ You’re going to have to get authoritarian to make people give up their rights.”

​Movies, Entertainment, Dsa, Socialism, Hugo chavez, Oliver stone, Michael moore, Venezuela, Nicolas maduro, Latin america, Politics, Immigration, Film, Zohran mamdani 

The Democratic Party is increasingly becoming a refuge for radicals, even in Fayette County, one of the most pro-Trump regions of Indiana.

Jaime West, a Democrat running for election to Fayette County Council, is one such radical, and she put her radicalism on full display in a forum that aired on LocalTV3 last week.

‘I don’t like being around them.’

Her emotionally fraught interview with moderator Amy McCarty, the managing editor of the Connersville News-Examiner, quickly went off the rails and concluded with an apparent threat to Republicans.

After sitting through West’s rant about data centers, McCarty asked the Democrat, “If elected, what is one decision that you expect to make that may be unpopular with some voters but you believe ultimately would be in the best interest of Fayette County?”

West, a self-identified “gig worker” who coordinated a No Kings rally in April, took a moment to repeat the question and think it over, then responded, looking dead into the camera: “Firing all Republicans. I wouldn’t let them — I mean, I don’t even talk to them. I don’t like them.”

In the 2024 presidential election, President Donald Trump received 77.5% of the vote in Fayette County.

“What do you want me to say?” continued the Democrat. “I don’t like being around them. I mean, y’all did this to us. You all voted for us. You made this happen — this ICE coming into our communities, stealing people’s jobs.”

RELATED: GOP operative fired for ‘OK’ sign rehired after Blaze News report

West interrupted her own train of thought with a growl, then claimed that she has faced threats from “MAGA, we’ll call them.”

The Democrat acknowledged that “there are good Republicans out there” but suggested that there are also “MAGAs who are just racist and aren’t very intelligent at all.” She even alleged that one individual threatened to “blow [her] head off.”

McCarty gave the candidate another opportunity to put a neat bow on her lengthy diatribe, asking her to “say just a few last words to the voters.”

Throwing her hands up in the air and staring once more into the camera, the Democrat said, “We have guns too.”

West and the Indiana Democratic Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Democrats, Democratic party, Indiana, Threat, Leftism, Politics 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has made “dignity for everyone” a central pitch for democratic socialism. But when it comes to explaining how he would deliver on that promise, Mamdani answers with silence.

And in recent interviews with Jon Stewart and Theo Von, Mamdani continued to evade the real answers while touting empty platitudes.

“Look, Theo Von is not an economist. That’s not his role,” BlazeTV host Nick Freitas tells Dr. Charles Steele of Hillsdale College. “So, I don’t expect him to ask a lot of probing questions, but I expected a little bit more out of Jon Stewart because both of them essentially asked what democratic socialism was.”

“And Zohran Mamdani’s response to Jon Stewart was, ‘It’s just choosing to wake up every day and fight for the dignity of everyone,’” he continues, adding that when he was speaking to Theo Von, Mamdani explained democratic socialism as “believing in providing kind of a certain quality of life and the dignity of all individuals.”

“And,” Freitas says, “that it’s, quote, ‘the government’s job to make that happen.’”

“What does Mamdani really want to do?” he asks Steele. “How does he plan to make good on these kinds of grandiose promises?”

“He’s a very smooth talker,” Steele responds. “I think he’s very effective. I think he really is either well-trained or really understands how to sound persuasive, but he sounds good. No specifics, nothing like that about how he would accomplish any of the things.”

“We want dignity, and we want everybody to be wealthy and do well and all this sort of thing,” he continues. “Oh, good. But how do you do that? What are the nuts and bolts of your program?”

That’s what he will not get into,” he continues. “Deep down, the DSA is Marxist, fundamentally. If you look at what they advocate, what their end state that they talk about in their latest platform, as they call it, it’s really … what we would think of as being a Marxist utopia.”

“And it’s a fantasy. It’s a dream. They can’t actually achieve it,” he adds.

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK for $20 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Jon stewart, Nick freitas, Theo von, Zohran mamdani, Democratic socialism, Dr charles steele, Blazetv show 

An 8-year-old Illinois girl vanished while walking to church in 1960 and was later found shot to death in a wooded area — sparking a chilling murder mystery that remained unsolved for more than 65 years.

Now, a stunning breakthrough in the decades-old cold case has led investigators to a very unlikely suspect: a Chicago police officer who spent nearly 30 years investigating sex crimes and homicides.

‘And as far as we’re concerned, he’s a murderer who was acting as a police officer.’

On Nov. 12, 1960, Gloria Kowalewicz left her family’s home in Chicago’s West Englewood neighborhood to go to church just three and a half blocks away, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Kowalewicz had just received her first Holy Communion, and a nun at St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church urged her to receive the sacrament every day for two weeks.

On the day she went missing, Gloria’s mother, Esther Kowalewicz, dressed Gloria in a pink-and-brown checkered dress and blue leotard before kissing her goodbye and watching her walk away. It would be the last time Esther saw her young daughter alive.

Gloria never reached the church. Hours later, her body was discovered in a secluded spot in the suburbs. Gloria was shot twice in the head. She also had bruises on her neck.

A driver for a laundry company discovered the Chicago girl’s body in a ravine in Palos Park, more than 15 miles southwest of Gloria’s home.

Investigators determined that Gloria had been killed in the area where she was found because of the large amount of blood at the crime scene.

Police discovered a bloody trail from a nearby road to the crime scene. Investigators made plaster casts of tire tracks found nearby.

Investigators recovered Gloria’s shoes, her purse, and a single bullet casing near her body. Police discovered fingerprints on the strap of Gloria’s purse and on her Bible. Gloria’s coat was found several miles away.

Police interviewed more than 1,300 people, but the extensive investigation failed to identify the killer.

“The search bogged down, mired in a morass of tips and futile investigations and arrests,” stated a Chicago Tribune story published six months after Kowalewicz was murdered. “The tangible clues have been sifted and submitted to microscopic examination, all to no avail. Somewhere, perhaps in the same neighborhood, the criminal still walks the streets.”

The cold case remained unsolved for more than 65 years before advances in DNA testing and investigative genetic genealogy helped police identify a suspect this year.

Chicago Police cold-case detectives said they believe Gloria’s killer was one of the very people sworn to protect her — a Chicago police officer, the Tribune said.

Following a years-long investigation involving ballistics tests, fingerprint comparisons, DNA tests, and data from family tree websites, detectives identified their suspect as Thomas Francis McInerney — who was a 24-year-old police officer at the time of Kowalewicz’s murder.

RELATED: Woman missing for over a year found buried beneath garage after chilling tip from suspected killer’s friend: DA

The Tribune reported that McInerney was the son of a Cook County Jail corrections officer, whose parents lived only a few blocks away from the Kowalewicz family home.

McInerney — also a U.S. Army veteran and paratrooper in the Rangers — worked for the Chicago Police Department until 1987. He died in Las Vegas on Aug. 30, 2006.

The Tribune said McInerney’s family could not be reached for comment.

McInerney’s obituary stated:

He retired from the City of Chicago Police Department after 28 years of service as a homicide detective. He then worked for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in both Las Vegas and Reno as an investigator until retiring in 2004. He was honored as the Outstanding Federal Defender Investigator in 2003 and received numerous commendations during his years with the Chicago Police Department.

Kevin Bruno, chief of detectives at the Chicago Police Department, stated:

When you look at the level of work that went into this investigation throughout these six-plus decades — from that initial group of detectives that did everything they could to move this forward, to different detectives picking this up and trying to move it forward, to, finally, this group here — putting in all this time and effort and taking advantage of technological advances to finally bring this case to closure, it just shows you that we don’t forget, and these guys never stopped. The fact that he was a police officer is deeply troubling to all of us that have made a career out of this most noble profession. But at the same time, it’s not something we’re going to minimize or shy away from. And as far as we’re concerned, he’s a murderer who was acting as a police officer.

Adam Kowalewicz, who was born only a few months before his sister was abducted and killed, told the Tribune: “Now I know my mom and dad’s souls can rest. Gloria can rest.”

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​Cold case, Dna evidence, Chicago police, Crime 

A high school student’s post about the sex scandal at Cornell University led to a massive student protest in California.

The rape allegations from a woman against a group of college students at Cornell has led to a national debate about consent and alleged misogyny in the justice system.

A parent of a student cheerleader claimed the player was not allowed to attend a team dinner as a punishment.

A captain of the Piner High School football team in Santa Rosa posted a brief comment in support of the accused students.

“Free the Cornell 7,” he wrote on Instagram earlier this month, according to SF Gate.

On Friday about 200 students responded by walking out of class to demand that the student face discipline over the comment. A parent of a student cheerleader claimed the player was not allowed to attend a team dinner as a punishment.

The team had to forfeit a game Saturday against Archie Williams High School, and the official reason given was player safety due to lack of healthy players. The head coach told the Press Democrat that the team had only five healthy linemen. Other schools have had similar problems from lack of student participation.

Some are connecting the forfeiture to the student protests and the controversy over the captain’s post.

Piner High School and Santa Rosa City Schools did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

The former Cornell student at the center of the rape allegations has filed a civil lawsuit against the university after the Tompkins County district attorney determined no crime was committed and filed no criminal charges. On October 2, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) appointed state Attorney General Letitia James (D) as special prosecutor in the case.

Critics of the alleged victim say her text messages very soon after the sexual encounter prove she consented despite being intoxicated.

RELATED: #IAmJaneDoe goes viral — but TikTok isn’t a courtroom

Others claim her case was dismissed far too quickly because of systemic bias against women’s allegations.

The Prospectors’ football team record falls to 2 wins and 4 losses after the forfeiture.

They will play Healdsburg on Friday in a home game.

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​Cornell university, Rape allegations, Football, California, Politics 

PORTLAND, MAINE — Maine’s chief financial watchdog wants a promotion.

Matt Dunlap, the Democrat running against Republican former Gov. Paul LePage in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, has spent nearly five years as state auditor. During that time, Somali-run home-care agencies have drawn tens of millions of dollars from MaineCare out of offices where nobody seemed to work.

Dunlap didn’t tackle the issue until a major scandal forced his hand.

‘Mainers can’t trust him with their tax dollars, and they won’t trust him with their vote.’

When Dunlap sought the auditor job in 2020, after more than a decade as secretary of state, he admitted he was “utterly unqualified” for it. Maine law gave Dunlap nine months to earn a professional auditing credential.

He failed the test.

Dunlap had to forfeit the office as a result, though then-state Senate President Troy Jackson (D), now running against Republican Sen. Susan Collins for U.S. Senate, gave him the job back in November 2022 after he finally passed.

Dunlap’s office is responsible for annual single audits, a federally required review of all Maine spending that uses national dollars. That includes evaluating whether Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services has effectively safeguarded against improper billing for Medicaid, called MaineCare in Maine.

MaineCare’s payments to providers, including home health care companies, are part of the federal spending Dunlap’s office audits.

In September, Blaze News found dozens of home-care offices in Portland, Westbrook, and Lewiston that were empty during posted business hours. Some had Minnesota phone numbers, and calls made to them either routed to voicemail or to dead lines.

Many of those apparent ghost companies successfully billed the state on Dunlap’s watch.

RELATED: Fraud, fraud, and more fraud: How Maine became a Somali scammer’s paradise

Benjamin Roberts/Blaze News

The Maine DHHS polices MaineCare’s providers. It is the agency responsible for actually reviewing providers’ bills, auditing them, and clawing back overpayments. Dunlap’s office is responsible for auditing the DHHS, testing whether the department’s safeguards actually work and reporting when they don’t.

Yet while Gateway and other suspicious providers billed tens of millions to MaineCare, and state health officials identified numerous overpayments, Dunlap never flagged a problem with how MaineCare reviews bills. His office only spoke up in March 2026, three months after the Gateway scandal broke.

Gateway Community Services took $28.8 million from MaineCare between 2019 and 2024, overlapping with Dunlap’s stint as state auditor.

It was state health officials, not Dunlap’s office, who caught Gateway after a review of 15,000 claims dating back to March 2021 apparently turned up nearly $1.1 million in overpayments.

Maine cut off Gateway’s payments in December 2025. Dunlap’s office didn’t flag MaineCare’s oversight of its providers until an audit in March 2026, three months later.

Federal investigators, not Dunlap’s office, were the ones who found that Maine made at least $45.6 million in improper MaineCare payments for autism services.

A former Gateway employee told the Maine Wire in May 2025 that he witnessed records being falsified, and his whistleblower claims went nationwide that December.

The state did cut off Gateway’s payments soon after, and in May, the DHHS affirmed “credible allegations of fraud” against the company, upholding the suspension. The suspension isn’t a criminal finding but a freeze on Medicaid disbursements that allows investigators to review the case.

The overbilling, however, is confirmed. State health officials reviewed 15,000 Gateway claims from March 2021 to December 2022, a stretch that began on Dunlap’s watch, and are seeking to recoup nearly $1.1 million. Earlier reviews found the company was overpaid about $660,000 from 2015 to 2018.

Gateway missed its deadline to appeal the ruling in July.

And Gateway is not the only company facing scrutiny.

Community Home Health Care in South Portland pulled in $47,986,855 between 2019 and 2025 before its payments were suspended this year, months after the Maine Wire paid its office a visit. Five agencies operating out of 203 Anderson Street in Portland, a building they share with a Somali money-transfer branch, took in $13,774,554. Another three at 640 Brighton Avenue collected more than $11.6 million.

That’s over $100 million to 10 companies, much of it paid out while Dunlap was the state’s top auditor.

Golden Home Care was ordered to repay $1,676,126 after a 2024 audit, but the repayment order was later canceled. Luna Home Care never paid back its $262,120 and has billed MaineCare another $1.69 million since. Even when the state did catch overbilling on its own initiative, it seemingly couldn’t hold onto the money.

Dunlap’s office didn’t flag MaineCare’s oversight of its providers until March, three months after Gateway’s payments were halted.

RELATED: Retiree radicalism: Behind the scenes with Maine’s anti-ICE activists

Benjamin Roberts/Blaze News

In its 2025 single audit, Dunlap’s office found that MaineCare’s Program Integrity Unit, which is supposed to review Medicaid payments after they go out the door, “could not provide documentation of the methodology” it uses to verify claims. Maine paid $3.2 billion to roughly 10,600 Medicaid providers that year, and auditors said they “could not determine the completeness” of the unit’s oversight.

The audit warned that the unit’s program “may not provide adequate monitoring of all Medicaid services, resulting in potential noncompliance with Federal regulations.”

The report also notes that there were no “Prior Year Findings,” meaning Dunlap’s office did not previously raise the issue. The office considered this a “significant deficiency” in MaineCare monitoring.

That same report doesn’t estimate how much improper billing may have slipped through, and it never mentions Gateway.

The clearest evidence of the auditor’s issues came from the agency he was auditing. In its written response, the health department, which runs MaineCare, said the auditor’s office hadn’t raised concerns since 2015 about how the unit chooses which payments to check. It called the criticism a “newly found position.”

The department was trying to wave off the audit.

Instead, it confirmed that the auditor’s office had never raised this concern before, including in the years Gateway was billing the state.

“Matt Dunlap’s record tells Mainers everything they need to know: He is an incompetent bureaucrat who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near taxpayer dollars,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told Blaze News. “Mainers can’t trust him with their tax dollars, and they won’t trust him with their vote.”

Dunlap is neck and neck with LePage in their congressional race, Blaze News’ Poll Watch platform shows. Dunlap had a 3.3-point lead over LePage as of Friday.

Dunlap, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and the office of Attorney General Aaron Frey did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

This story was reported in collaboration with the Maine Wire’s Jon Fetherston.

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​Attorney general, Health and human services, Politics 

The United States is a wonderfully strange place that has entered a remarkably bizarre era.

The Wall Street Journal recently noted the growing appeal of big, muscular arms among women. On its own, it sounds like a harmless, somewhat ridiculous trend. But the veiny flexes are only the most visible part of a broader cultural shift.

The female body becomes another declaration of independence: stronger, harder, more imposing, less vulnerable.

Look around any busy gym in America, or spend five minutes scrolling Instagram, and the directives handed down to young women seem to have completely flipped. Women were once told they should no longer have to conform to male expectations to achieve genuine success. Internet culture somehow turned that promise inside out. Now the fashionable ideal increasingly resembles a female version of masculinity: bigger muscles, more tattoos, even the deliberate rejection of conventional beauty rituals through shaved heads.

The ideal is no longer merely to be desirable. It is to look completely untouchable.

‘Resistance’ training

This transformation has acquired an unmistakably political dimension. Writing in the Washington Post last year, columnist Karen Attiah described gaining 20 pounds of muscle through powerlifting. Attiah argues that muscles and femininity are perfectly compatible and reports receiving plenty of admiring attention from men. But her conception of femininity is heavily politicized. Connecting women’s growing enthusiasm for muscularity to abortion restrictions, male violence, and the revival of traditional gender roles, she wrote, “At a time when the rights of women, particularly Black women, are under attack, we need to return to the basics — to be grounded in our agency, physical power, and transformational energy.”

Attiah is hardly alone. Writing in Women’s Health last year, personal trainer Lacee Lazoff declared that lifting weights is a feminist act of rebellion. She described grunting, developing calloused hands, and lifting heavy weights as ways of defying traditional expectations of femininity. Even a trip to the gym, apparently, can become another skirmish in the war against the patriarchy.

There is a curious irony here. For decades, feminists argued that a woman’s worth should not be determined by her appearance. Now, in certain feminist circles, appearance has become a political statement in its own right. A muscular back is an act of resistance. A shaved head is a declaration of independence. Even the size of a woman’s biceps can apparently tell us something about her commitment to dismantling the patriarchy.

Women were supposed to be liberated from having their bodies scrutinized. Instead, they are being invited to turn those bodies into ideological billboards.

Trying on toxicity

Fitness culture is especially enthusiastic about this transformation. Building a wide back, heavy upper trapezius muscles, a thick neck, and bulging biceps is sold not simply as exercise but as empowerment. The female body becomes another declaration of independence: stronger, harder, more imposing, less vulnerable.

The disconnect becomes even stranger when you consider the way masculinity itself is discussed. Traditional male behavior is endlessly scrutinized for signs of toxicity, aggression, dominance, and emotional repression. Yet many of the same outward qualities — toughness, physical intimidation, extreme independence, indifference to approval — are celebrated when women cultivate them.

Somehow, masculinity becomes problematic in men and empowering in women. Female strength once meant endurance, patience, wisdom, competence, fortitude. A mother could be extraordinarily strong without feeling compelled to acquire the neck of an Olympic weightlifter. Increasingly, however, strength must be visible before it counts — and preferably visible on Instagram.

RELATED: Stallone’s ‘Steps’ looks back on the long, brutal road to ‘Rocky’

United Archives/Getty Images

Muscle mates

Women spend hundreds of hours dragging heavy sleds, curling dumbbells, counting grams of protein, and sculpting bodies designed to project an aura of absolute self-sufficiency. Add the sleeve tattoos, buzz cuts, and permanent don’t-talk-to-me expression, and the aesthetic communicates something before a word has been spoken: I require nothing from anyone.

Perhaps that feels liberating. But it leaves remarkably little room for femininity. And then comes the sales pitch that may be hardest to swallow: that men are supposed to find the whole package irresistible.

Human attraction is obviously more complicated than a checklist, and plenty of men like athletic women. But cross-cultural research on mate preferences has consistently found that men place greater importance on physical attractiveness in a long-term partner than women do. Both sexes, meanwhile, value qualities such as dependability and emotional compatibility. There is little reason to believe that a new fashion for bulging biceps has fundamentally rewritten these preferences.

None of this means women should organize their lives around pleasing men. It does mean we should stop pretending male attraction has been culturally reprogrammed because an influencer said “strong is sexy.”

If you’re a female reader skeptical of the point, consider the inverse. Would you feel genuinely attraction to a man who deliberately adopted every traditionally feminine aesthetic he could find? Imagine him stepping out in floral sundresses and pearl anklets. Picture him borrowing your crop tops, straightening his hair, spending two hours applying liquid eyeliner before heading to a sports bar, then asking whether he should start carrying a tiny micro-purse for his perfume and lip oil.

Perhaps somebody is into it; most women probably aren’t.

Sexual difference has proven remarkably stubborn despite decades of attempts to explain it away. Men and women can obviously borrow from one another, and nobody is suggesting that women should avoid barbells or men should avoid moisturizer. But a culture supposedly devoted to freeing women from male standards has arrived at a curious destination: It increasingly congratulates women for looking and behaving more like men.

To be clear, fitness is attractive. A strong, sculpted female body can be beautiful. But there’s a considerable difference between looking fit and looking as though you could throw your boyfriend through drywall.

​Female masculinity, Femininity, Gender roles, Gym culture, Masculinity, Powerlifting, Women, Womens health, Mate preferences, Culture, Feminism, Lifestyle 

Actress Selma Blair was arrested after she allegedly tried to open the door on a plane flight and bit a flight attendant.

The 54-year-old was arrested Sunday after the Delta flight landed in New York, according to TMZ.

‘Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first.’

She allegedly punched one attendant and bit another one.

The flight had taken off from the Los Angeles International Airport.

Blair’s representative released a statement to Variety.

“Selma experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct. Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention and is currently in stable condition.”

One of the two flight attendants reporting injuries was transported to a hospital for treatment.

Delta Airlines released a statement to Variety about the incident.

“Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first,” the statement reads.

Despite the chaos of the alleged incident, the flight was not affected and landed ahead of time.

Variety reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident, according to its sources.

Blair had a previous medical incident on a plane that she attributed to mixing a glass of wine with a pill.

RELATED: Actress Alyssa Milano caught spreading gun misinformation after Texas shooting

“It was horrible and frightening, and I had empathy for myself actually afterwards because it was actually so out of character for me, especially because I’m a mother,” she said at the time.

Blair is best known for her role in the movie “Legally Blonde.”

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​Celebrities, Selma blair, Tmz report, Crime 

In Shirley Jackson’s 1948 story “The Lottery,” a town selects one resident by chance and stones the victim to death. The killing is arbitrary by design, a ritual nobody can justify beyond the fact that it has always been done.

Much of the modern Western imagination now approaches capital punishment through a similar lens: not as justice, but as officially sanctioned cruelty. That suspicion fits an older philosophical claim associated with Thrasymachus in Plato’s “Republic”: Justice is “the advantage of the stronger.” Rulers make the rules, call them just, and use them to serve their own interests.

A culture that recognizes only victims, never sinners, will mistake punishment for cruelty and forgiveness for an unnecessary apology.

I have been surveying arguments for and against publicly broadcasting the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009. The Army has scheduled his execution by firing squad for Dec. 3. The Pentagon announced plans to livestream it, although President Trump has said he will decide whether the broadcast goes forward.

Thoughtful conservatives disagree about livestreaming an execution. To understand the objections, I asked people on X to list the arguments they had heard. What stood out was how often the discussion framed morality in terms of consequences rather than the goodness of justice itself.

The broadcast might make Hasan a martyr. Terrorists might use the footage to recruit. Children might encounter it online. It likely would not deter another crime.

Those concerns deserve consideration. But consequences do not exhaust moral reasoning. Consequentialism judges an action by its results. Utilitarianism, one version of consequentialism, weighs overall welfare against suffering. Under that framework, justice can become merely a tool for producing desirable outcomes.

As a philosophy professor, I want to ask a prior question: What if justice is good in itself?

Consider two tests. Would punishing a guilty murderer become pointless if it deterred nobody? Would punishing an innocent person become right if doing so deterred thousands? If your answers are no, you already recognize a moral standard that consequences alone cannot supply.

Justice means giving people their due. A worker deserves his paycheck because he performed the work. His employer cannot justify withholding it by explaining how much happier the company would be with the extra money.

The same principle applies to wrongdoing. Someone who deliberately murders the innocent deserves punishment. The murdered cannot be brought back. That does not mean nothing remains to be done.

Justice is not personal revenge. It is deserved punishment imposed under lawful authority. Justice requires established guilt, proportionate punishment, and limits on the state. It forbids punishing the innocent even when doing so would be popular or useful.

Justice is good in itself. Seeing justice done is a good thing to behold.

Yet our culture increasingly treats punishment as the villain. We learn the offender’s grievances, childhood wounds, and social disadvantages. The victims fade into the background. Understanding how someone became cruel may be valuable. Explanation, however, does not become exoneration.

RELATED: Why America’s enemies always target Western civilization first

The New York Historical/Getty Images

Michel Foucault’s influential “Discipline and Punish” examined punishment through the workings of power, discipline, and social control. That analysis encourages suspicion of institutions claiming to administer justice. But identifying abuses of power does not establish that justice itself is merely domination.

Indeed, if justice is nothing more than power, why condemn the powerful for being unjust? The person demanding recompense for a wrong appeals to something beyond the wrongdoer’s preferences. He expects us to recognize that he was owed better. He is claiming that the oppressor is objectively guilty.

None of this settles the livestream question. The state must justify both a punishment and the manner in which it carries that punishment out. Public accountability and acknowledgment of victims matter. So does the distinction between solemn judgment and entertainment, along with the prohibition against gratuitous cruelty.

The justice of Hasan’s punishment does not depend on how spectators respond to it. But neither does a just punishment automatically make every possible way of displaying it wise. The question is whether the state administers justice rightly.

The debate therefore reveals more than disagreement about a camera. It reveals uncertainty about whether anyone truly deserves punishment and whether it is good to see justice enacted. If justice must always prove its usefulness before we acknowledge its goodness, then justice has already lost its authority.

The effort to undermine human justice may also serve a larger purpose: undermining divine justice. Human courts are fallible and limited to this life. Their imperfection does not erase the idea of judgment; for Christians, it points beyond them to the perfect justice of God.

RELATED: If mental health experts can’t identify murderers, what’s the backup plan?

SeventyFour/Getty Images

When a culture treats every offender as ultimately an innocent victim, divine judgment will appear monstrous. God becomes the angry villain while the sinner is merely doing his best. A story long associated with Bertrand Russell captures the posture: Asked what he would say if confronted by God after death, Russell reportedly complained that God had not provided enough evidence.

Scripture presents a different picture. God’s revelation leaves humanity “without excuse,” and before His judgment “every mouth may be stopped.” It is right to stand in awe and fear of God as the perfect judge.

“The wages of sin is death.” Without that truth, the cross becomes unintelligible.

Christ was publicly crucified. He was innocent, yet Christians believe the sins of his people were laid on him. He paid the debt we owed and canceled the record that stood against us. A culture that cannot see justice as good in itself will specialize in justifying its sin and condemning the Judge. It will also lose sight of what the cross means for sinners.

A culture that recognizes only victims, never sinners, will struggle to understand either justice or grace. It will mistake punishment for cruelty and forgiveness for an unnecessary apology.

Justice is good in itself. Its goodness does not depend on applause, deterrence, or our comfort. Until we recover that truth, we will misunderstand both the courtroom and the cross.

​Capital punishment, Consequences, Courtroom, Entertainment, Execution, Firing squad, Forgiveness, Fort hood, God, Grace, Justice, Livestream, Pentagon, President trump, Punishment, Sin, Sinners, Victims, Opinion & analysis 

Near the beginning of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Digger,” oil baron Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is briefing the president and his Cabinet.

Digger, preoccupied with his terminally ill cat, has just set off a calamitous global environmental disaster and is meeting with the president to mitigate the fallout.

None of us, not even the most rational people, is immune to the power of emotional messaging.

The president, played by a slimmed-down John Goodman, is an over-the-top blowhard. He’s an amalgam of Donald Trump, both Bushes, and every villainous conservative politician in the history of cinema. He is flanked by a comically weak vice president, a square-jawed racist general, and a sycophantic Bible-thumping preacher.

It was funny, and I was mesmerized by the production design and cinematography. But I thought, “Why the lazy stereotypes?”

I knew Iñárritu was smarter than this, and I knew Tom Cruise wouldn’t settle for anything less than excellence. So why was the story driven by the lead character’s stupidity? Why were the other characters such hackneyed tropes? It didn’t make sense.

Then the plot twisted. My jaw dropped, and I spent the next two hours on the edge of my seat, hypnotized by what might be the greatest film of a generation.

“Digger” is an incredible film for many reasons. First, the entire cast is brilliant, and this is the best performance of Tom Cruise’s career.

There’s more to admire in the writing, Richard Johnson and Dennis Gassner’s production design, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki’s heroic cinematography, the sound design and editing, and Jacqueline West’s costumes. Every aspect of the movie serves to complete the gestalt.

But what makes this film truly great is that it is unlike anything that has come before it. People ask whether it is comparable to “Dr. Strangelove” or “Citizen Kane,” but those are the wrong analogies. The closest comparison might be the moment in “The Wizard of Oz” when Toto reveals that the Wizard is merely an ordinary man behind the curtain.

Another curious thing about “Digger” is that it is executed so masterfully that it strikes an implicit bargain with its audience: Don’t spoil it. So I’m not going to ruin it for you.

And no, it’s not a movie about climate change or the oil industry. The environmental catastrophe is merely a plot device, and the stated climate science “facts” are laughably absurd, which I suspect is by design.

RELATED: Netflix ‘adapts’ Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’ — and Satan gets a sympathetic makeover

Emilio Madrid/Getty Images

“Digger” is a film about the power of storytelling, but not in the way you think. It is about the nature of performative political hate and how our elites shape the narrative to let us believe we’re winning even as the world around us falls apart.

The film is a devastating critique of politicized art, which has not only become normalized but has provided endless fodder for political commentators on both sides of the aisle.

But “Digger” can’t be easily categorized through an ideological lens. And since it is an indictment of the entire infotainment complex, small wonder critics gave it a lukewarm reception.

Warner Bros.’ marketing campaign didn’t do “Digger” any favors. Unable to reveal the real plot, the trailers were misleading. Tom Cruise’s promotional blitz could only concentrate on the film’s technical triumphs, of which there are many. It’s a shame more people didn’t turn out, but there is no way to explain the plot without revealing the twists, which don’t stop coming until the credits roll.

There’s a scene in the middle of the film where Digger offers the scientist Ganesh (played by the great Riz Ahmed) a piece of bluefin sashimi. Ganesh declines, citing moral concerns over declining bluefin tuna populations.

Digger tells Ganesh a story. It’s about the man who raised the tuna and how lovingly he cares for them. Among other things, the fish farmer gives the tuna daily massages and even sings to them.

Elated by the heartfelt story, Ganesh relents and eats the sashimi. But then we learn that the tale of the tuna farmer is a complete fabrication. Digger has no idea where the tuna came from. He just knows it’s delicious.

The point is that a good story, told artfully, can overcome rational resistance or moral objection.

RELATED: Did these 6 movies about Satan accidentally summon him to their sets?

Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images

This is a lesson I learned working in media and advertising. First, take an emotion. It could be anything: love, hate, fear, jealousy. The specific emotion isn’t important.

What matters is surrounding that emotion with a story and then connecting the story to whatever product or concept you’re selling.

If you do it correctly, and if you tell the story artfully, you can get anyone to gladly swallow anything you put in his mouth. You can also get him to look the other way while you pick his pocket, make him chant for the death of a (most likely) innocent man, or trick him into mistaking cathartic laughter for victory.

Digger gives Ganesh a lesson in the basics of propaganda. And none of us, not even the most rational people, is immune to the power of emotional messaging.

That’s what “Digger” is about. The story is full of emotion, it is artfully told, and the ending will leave you elated.

But it will also give you a new sense of dread about the world outside the theater door, and perhaps you will begin to pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

​Advertising, Climate change, Climate science, Elites, Oil industry, Propaganda, Storytelling, Tom cruise, Media, Digger, Tropes, Cinema, Opinion & analysis 

On October 6, at an Ottumwa, Iowa, City Council meeting, former council member Matt Dalbey — a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa — delivered the opening invocation. In it, he addressed the “dark father,” referred to the “Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge,” and concluded with the words “It is done. Hail Satan.”

Despite the Satanic Temple’s claims to be non-theistic, local pastor Rick Bick called it a curse on the city that needed to be reversed.

BlazeTV host of “Strange Encounters” Rick Burgess agrees. Even though he believes the Satanic Temple “really is more of an agnostic movement” designed to test the limits of “freedom of religion,” he nonetheless takes invocations of Satan as matters of spiritual seriousness.

Council Member Bill Hoffman, however, disagreed with Bick, saying, “I’m a Christian man with Christian values. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to observe his First Amendment right. It just means that I want to use my rights not to observe that.”

Rick agrees with this sentiment too, but with a caveat.

“I’d certainly agree with that, but I think that we think that somehow freedom of religion would include something as dark and blasphemous as this, and honestly, if you look at the history of our country, it just never did,” he says.

“The Establishment Clause was designed for one thing and one thing only,” Rick explains, “that we would not have a government-sanctioned denomination of the Christian faith.”

“You find nowhere in our history — nowhere — that anybody outside of Christianity was ever allowed to have a devotion” or “pray,” he adds.

Our founding fathers, he says, made this clear.

“We know that Thomas Jefferson … didn’t believe in the miracles of the Bible, but even he said that the separation of the church and the state is a one-way wall and is protecting the Christian church from the government, not the government from the influence of Christian values,” Rick says.

“So for us to think that our Constitution allows for satanic prayer at any kind of government meeting is just not true. It was never the intent because [the founders] never did it. They didn’t even allow other religions,” he continues. “All that was allowed was Christianity, and this was more of a discussion that we’re not going to have an official denomination — not that anybody with any claim of a religious belief can now have the floor.”

As for Dalbey’s prayer, Rick believes it doesn’t matter if he worships Satan or not; the words he speaks still hold power.

“I would give him a stern warning,” he says.

“He’s playing with a very dark powerful force that is real, whether he believes it or not. And if you choose to be agnostic, well, then it’s the same thing as being a satanist, because there is no middle ground. You’re either for God and you stand with God and you believe in the one and only living God or you don’t.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Establishment clause, Freedom of religion, Rick burgess, Satanic temple, Blazetv show 

The ongoing feud between the mainstream media and the Trump administration has opened up another field of battle after the Justice Department confirmed a criminal investigation.

Five news outlets rebelled against the White House after President Donald Trump banned three outlets for what he said was fake news reporting.

‘Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act.’

ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News said in a joint statement in September that they would not resume their pool reporting duties to cover the president.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said five news outlets were under investigation after they boycotted the White House pool report.

“Members of the television press pool have boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” the spokesperson said. “The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.”

Trump attorneys argued previously in a filing that the three outlets had failed to meet basic “standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex.”

The president elaborated on the ban in comments to reporters.

RELATED: Trump slams ‘sick, treasonous, and demented’ journalists after berating CNN’s Kaitlan Collins

“I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” Trump said.

“The ban is because they are fake news, they cannot write the truth,” he added. “If they had credibility, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

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​Donald trump, Fake news, Justice department, Mainstream media, White house, Politics 

Former music pastor and “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering his wife, Ashley.

Flynn was convicted on October 5 of murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, and other charges.

“Prosecutors said and successfully argued that Flynn killed Ashley because he wanted out of their marriage and he was having an affair. He shot her while she was asleep in their Tip City, Ohio, home in February 2026 while their two young daughters were in the house,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says.

Flynn was having an affair with a younger church intern named Alleigha Botner, who testified that Flynn said he “hated” and “wanted to kill her.”

A letter from Flynn’s daughter was read in court, in which she told her father to “repent to God,” as his “time isn’t over.”

And Stuckey believes this is the important part of the case.

“Those last lines are from a place of love and grace from his daughters. They want their dad to be restored to God. They want his repentance because they want him to be forgiven. They don’t want him to go to hell. That is love,” she says.

“Those are wise girls. Obviously, there was a lot going on in their home, but the Holy Spirit has filled them,” she continues.

“Just pray for those girls,” she adds.

While his wife’s parents told Flynn in court that they forgave him, they “asked the judge for the maximum sentence because they desired absolute earthly justice for Ashley.”

“What they’re communicating is 100% correct,” Stuckey says. “They’re releasing bitterness. They’re releasing malice. They’re saying, ‘I don’t own this any more. I’m not holding this. I’m not holding this burden. And I want you to repent, and I want you to be reconciled to God.’”

“At the same time, you need to be punished by the law. The law was invented by God. The government was invented by God,” she continues. “The government’s responsibility to execute the law and execute murderers, by the way, was invented by God.”

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How should America execute a convicted terrorist who turned his weapon on his fellow soldiers?

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says that while it should be about more than carrying out a sentence, the execution of the Fort Hood shooter should not be televised.

“We live in a society that already diminishes death so much. I don’t want it on TikTok,” Glenn says, explaining that exposing the public to an execution will “rot our souls.”

“It needs to be dignified. … And it needs to send a very strong message. Just killing him will not send the message. Killing him at Fort Hood is a very good thing. Sends a message that America is serious,” he explains.

“This was a guy who betrayed his country and went into his own company, went in at Fort Hood and shot up people in Fort Hood, including his own people that served in uniform with him. That needs to be seen by Americans, and we need to know that we do not tolerate it,” he adds.

However, the most important message that needs to be sent is to the Muslim world, which Glenn believes needs to see that “we don’t buy in to your false god.”

“It’s a false god if you think that you’re going to get virgins for killing innocents. So we don’t buy in to your false god, and we are not afraid of your false god, and we are not afraid of you,” he says.

“We’re not playing your game,” he continues. “We’re not going to be called Islamophobic.”

Glenn points out that an all-female firing squad would send an even stronger message: “If you actually believe that you’re not going to get your virgins because you’ve been killed by a woman, then I will insult you every day by killing those monsters … with a woman firing squad.”

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​Fort hood, Glenn beck, Islamophobic, Muslim, Execution, Blazetv show 

An ambulance rushed Sean Combs, the infamous rap icon, away from federal prison after he suffered a head injury, according to a TMZ report.

Combs was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison after he was convicted a year ago of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution related to “freak-offs” at hotels and his home.

‘Pretty much the day he arrived, the party started …’

The hip-hop music mogul injured his head at the Fort Dix prison in New Jersey and was taken from the prison by ambulance around 1 a.m. Saturday, TMZ said, citing prison sources.

The outlet said it could not confirm whether Combs was taken to a hospital.

He was conscious and speaking when returned to prison hours later, TMZ added, citing officials; it’s unclear how he was injured.

Combs was punished at the prison after getting into a fight with another inmate in July, the outlet said, adding that more recently officials discovered he was breaking prison rules to obtain banned amenities.

Four men who spent time in the same unit as Combs told NBC News that he received Chinese massages and allegedly a contraband phone while others cooked and cleaned for him.

“This is not some normal s**t you see in jail. This is some rich s**t,” one man said. “It looks crazy, but again, it’s Diddy.”

One of the men said he drank Hennessy with Combs. Guards reportedly smuggled the stash of liquor into the prison.

“Hell yeah, I drank with him,” the man said.

Combs allegedly is spending thousands of dollars to level up his living conditions in prison.

“Pretty much the day he arrived, the party started,” said one of the sources.

A spokesperson for Combs called it normal prison life.

“The continued scrutiny of every mundane detail of Sean Combs’ life in prison has reached the point where the media characterizes ordinary prison life as news,” the spokesperson said. “The only real news is that Sean continues to serve his sentence while awaiting the court’s decision on his appeal.”

RELATED: White House vehemently denies TMZ report about Trump possibly setting Sean Combs free

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said the agency would not comment on any specific prisoner’s conditions.

“Like all correctional agencies, contraband, particularly cell phones, narcotics, and weapons, remains a constant challenge, and we continue to tackle the problem of contraband being introduced into our facilities,” the spokesperson said.

Combs originally was scheduled for release in January 2028, but the release date has been pushed back to March 2028.

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​Sean combs, Federal prison, Sex crimes, Crime