“This case could completely wipe out the ATF’s ability to create law and subvert congress, which would be a massive win for the Second Amendment.” [more…]
Category: blaze media
‘Operation Midway Blitz’: Trump administration launches Chicago ICE surge
President Donald Trump launched a law enforcement surge in Illinois this week to crack down on illegal immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security explained that “Operation Midway Blitz” was named in honor of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old who was killed in January in a hit-and-run drunk driving accident caused by a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala.
‘That’s not war; that’s common sense.’
“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the DHS wrote in a social media post. “President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens.”
The Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has focused its efforts on clamping down on sanctuary jurisdictions that protect criminal illegal aliens. This new option targets individuals in Illinois, including Chicago, a sanctuary city.
“In an ICE-led operation, we are here to remove these dangerous public safety threats from American communities,” ICE remarked.
Trump slammed Pritzker for stating he does not want help from the federal government to end violent crime in Chicago.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
“6 people were murdered in Chicago this weekend, 12 others were shot, and in serious condition. This would mean that over the past number of weeks, approximately 50 people were killed, and hundreds were shot, many expected to die. Governor Pritzker just stated that he doesn’t want Federal Government HELP! WHY???” Trump questioned. “I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt! We can move fast and stop this madness. The City and State have not been able to do the job. People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION. IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!! ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”
Trump posted an apparent AI-generated photo on Truth Social showing himself, the Chicago skyline, a fire in the background, and helicopters overhead, with the words “Chipocalypse Now.”
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’” Trump wrote. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Pritzker pushed back on Trump’s claim that he wants to help the people of Chicago, citing the Truth Social post.
“‘I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” the governor said.
RELATED: SCOTUS overrules lower court giving ICE a big win
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has also rejected Trump’s offers to help the city.
“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson said. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
When a reporter over the weekend asked Trump whether he was seeking to go to war with Chicago, the president corrected the record.
“We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities. We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war; that’s common sense,” Trump declared.
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News, Chicago, Illinois, Operation midway blitz, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Jb pritzker, Brandon johnson, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Justice department, Kristi noem, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Politics
RFK Jr. did what GOP cowards won’t
What you saw in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony last week before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee wasn’t a debate. It was the uniparty on parade — this time bowing before its favorite idol: the magical power of vaccines.
The spectacle jolted me back to my early days in this business. Years ago, I spoke at an event for a group I liked and respected called TeenPact. They brought Christian high school kids to the Iowa statehouse to watch government in action. By the time I showed up, the students looked checked out — politics as civics theater wasn’t holding their attention.
Are COVID accountability and healthy children worth smashing the idols? Or do we risk slaughtering too many sacred cows in pursuit of what’s good and true?
So I asked them a question: “Did any lobbyists offer you a steak and martini lunch today?” Silence fell over the room, parents included. But the kids snapped to attention. Now they were listening. I laid it out plain: This is how politics really works.
Later, the event organizer scolded me for “cynicism.” I scolded him back for his naivete. Kids don’t need fairy tales. They need to know how deep the rabbit hole goes. And last week, Kennedy showed America again how deep it goes — and how unwilling even the supposed “good guys” are to face it.
That Senate hearing was a prophetic moment. Think John the Baptist telling Herod to stop sleeping with his brother’s wife — except in Washington, it was RFK Jr. telling Elizabeth Warren she took $855,000 from Big Pharma. The only way it could have been sweeter is if he told her to send it back to an Indian reservation.
The shrieking from Democrats when their idols get smashed is sweet music to my ears. The hair on my neck stood up. And here’s the truth: We could force those demons to screech every day if Republicans showed the same conviction.
RELATED: Sudden child deaths after COVID shots? Trump FDA director promises answers.
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Instead, too many of our biggest “MAGA influencers” cash checks from foreign governments and then distract us with memes about Greta Thunberg. Too many Republicans act like the kids at that TeenPact event — eager to play politics but unwilling to face the ugly reality.
Tell me: Has anyone in the GOP’s GriftCon Inc. ever sacrificed like RFK Jr. just did? Or has the steak-and-martini circuit always been the bottom line — red state and blue alike? By the time the pharma checks clear, almost no one even asks hard questions anymore. Not about mRNA side effects. Not about why this generation should be the first in American history to normalize transgendering the kids.
Selling out is always a choice. Washington has simply turned it into a career path. Yet if a man with Kennedy’s checkered past can claw his way back from ruin to speak hard truths, maybe the rest of us can do the same.
Are COVID accountability and healthy children worth smashing the idols? Or do we risk slaughtering too many sacred cows in pursuit of what’s good and true?
The answer involves nothing less than the survival of the nation and the state of our souls. No big deal. I’m sure it’ll all work itself out — at least until our children are speaking Chinese or praying to Allah.
Opinion & analysis, Robert f. kennedy jr., Rfk jr, Senate, Senate finance committee, Health and human services, Hhs, Vaccines, Mrna vaccines, Mandates, Research, Centers for disease control and prevention, Cdc, Cdc guidelines, Covid-19 tyranny, Covid-19, Elizabeth warren, Big pharma, Corruption, Politics
Crooks try getaway after daytime smash-and-grab heist of Rolex watches in downtown Chicago — but time runs out on them
Six men have been arrested and charged in connection with a daytime smash-and-grab heist of Rolex watches in downtown Chicago amid President Donald Trump’s plan to send in the National Guard to help lower the city’s crime rate.
CWBChicago reported that the robbery took place Friday at a Rolex store on the city’s Magnificent Mile. The men approached display windows and used hammers to smash their way in to steal the watches. The thieves were able to steal five Rolexes valued at $170,500 before running to a getaway car.
‘Organized retail thieves need to understand we take these crimes extremely seriously and will prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law.’
But Chicago police responded to the scene and tracked down the suspects with a police helicopter. The suspects fled toward the south side and crashed into a parked car after exiting an expressway. Despite the robbers running away on foot after the crash, police were able to apprehend the men and recover four of the five watches.
Victory Banks, 33; Will Brown, 21; Aldonte Goodman, 22; Anthony Hampton, 24; Dalvin Johnson, 31; and Armon Williams, 18, were charged with theft by unauthorized control of property exceeding $100,000 and $500,000, criminal damage to property between $500 and $10,000, and burglary. All of the charges are felonies.
RELATED: Resistance mounts in Chicago as city braces for potential National Guard deployment
Banks was not listed in the Cook County jail population when Blaze News checked Monday. But Williams, Goodman, Brown, Hampton, and Johnson were still listed. The hearings for Williams, Goodman, and Brown are set for Thursday; the hearing for Johnson is set for Tuesday, and the hearing for Hampton was set for Monday.
CWBChicago said court records show Johnson already was on pretrial release for another burglary case at the time of the smash-and-grab.
“Organized retail thieves need to understand we take these crimes extremely seriously and will prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law,” Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said in a statement. “These are far from victimless crimes, and I applaud the Chicago Police Department for their swift work bringing these offenders to justice.”
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) has suggested the National Guard protect the tourist areas of the city so Chicago police “don’t have to babysit the Bean or Buckingham Fountain for eight hours a day. Our officers can return to their districts [and] answer the thousands of 911 calls logged but never answered.”
Julio Rosas/Blaze News
High-end stores on the Magnificent Mile have experienced daytime smash-and-grab robberies even with pedestrians and police officers nearby. While not as high during the Labor Day weekend, a total of 21 people were shot, with seven of them killed this weekend.
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Arrests, Chicago, Donald trump, National guard, Police, Politics, Rolex watches, Smash and grab, Trump, Crime
‘They’re all hot garbage’: Whitlock goes NUCLEAR on the WNBA
In a devastating blow to Indiana Fever fans everywhere, Caitlin Clark announced she won’t be returning to play for the rest of the season.
“I had hoped to share a better update, but I will not be returning to play this season. I spent hours in the gym every day with the singular goal of getting back out there, disappointed isn’t a big enough word to describe how I am feeling,” Clark wrote in a post on X.
“I want to thank everyone who had my back through the uncertainty. This has been incredibly frustrating, but even in the bad, there is good. The way the fans have continued to show up for me, and for the Fever, brought me so much joy and important perspective,” she continued.
“I am so proud of how this team has only gotten stronger through adversity this year. Now it’s time to close out the season and claim our spot in the Playoffs,” she added.
After hearing the news, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is officially done with the WNBA.
“She got injured at some point in July. Hasn’t played for two months. Basically has disappeared. Hasn’t talked to the media at all. Did an interview with Sue Bird. This has been the strangest injury absence of a superstar player,” Whitlock says, adding, “This has been a joke, and the WNBA has in my view blown its opportunity.”
“What transpired this year in the WNBA and with Caitlin Clark is the biggest fumble in the history of sports. Women have been fighting for 60 years. ‘We want a place in sports. We want to be the biggest stars in sports.’ And they finally get the biggest star in sports, and it’s Caitlin Clark,” he continues.
“They hate her. They beat her up and brutalize her. But here’s what’s even worse. Caitlin Clark brings attention to the WNBA. She centers all these WNBA basketball players and shines a spotlight on them. And you know what? They’re all hot garbage,” he adds.
And because of this, Whitlock “won’t be back.”
“They’re going to have a woke stoppage probably this offseason as these entitled feminists keep complaining that they’re underpaid,” he says, adding, “I’m not coming back. I can’t stand these women.”
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Michael Brown witness gunned down near 2014 shooting site
Dorian Johnson, a friend of Michael Brown — an 18-year-old who was killed by a Missouri police officer 11 years ago — was shot and killed over the weekend near the same location.
‘There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect.’
Johnson claimed he was with Brown when Officer Darren Wilson stopped them in 2014. Wilson contended that he shot Brown in self-defense, but Johnson spread claims that Brown was surrendering, sparking the protest chant, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
“He put his hands in the air,” Johnson previously stated about Brown. “He started to get down, but the officer still approached with his weapon drawn. And he fired several more shots. And my friend died.”
However, a report from the Department of Justice concluded that Johnson’s claims were not accurate.
“Witness accounts suggesting that Brown was standing still with his hands raised in an unambiguous signal of surrender when Wilson shot Brown are inconsistent with the physical evidence, are otherwise not credible because of internal inconsistencies, or are not credible because of inconsistencies with other credible evidence,” the DOJ found.
Despite two separate law enforcement investigations concluding that Brown had not put his hands up in the air to surrender, Johnson continued to stand by his account of events.
Photo by St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office via Getty Images
“His hands were definitely up when he turned around,” Johnson told the Washington Post five years after the shooting. “Whether his hands were up, or halfway up, or fully down or up, he was killed and he was unarmed. He wasn’t posing a threat.”
Johnson, 33, was killed during a “domestic incident” around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to Melissa Price Smith, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds, officials said.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect. No officers, Ferguson or otherwise, were involved in this incident other than to begin our investigation,” Ferguson Police stated.
One suspect was taken into custody but was later released without facing any criminal charges, Price said.
The investigation into Johnson’s death remains ongoing.
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News, Michael brown, Dorian johnson, Darren wilson, Ferguson police, Ferguson, Missouri, Department of justice, Doj, Shooting, Politics
‘Hatchet job’: Leavitt sets record straight on Trump’s alleged Epstein birthday letter
Oversight Committee Democrats believe they have obtained a smoking gun: a “birthday book” letter allegedly from President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein. Yet the White House is vigorously denying the claims, calling it a “fake news” smear.
‘It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story.’
“This note, Donald Trump has said, does not exist,” ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) stated. “Well, once again, he is lying to the American public.”
Garcia and Oversight Democrats shared an image of the note they claim Trump wrote to his “friend” Epstein. The note, which appeared to feature an outline of a woman’s body, was written as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein.
“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” it read.
“A pal is a wonderful thing,” it continued. “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
While the letter was typed, it appeared to be signed by Trump.
Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.
RELATED: ‘He was an FBI informant’: Speaker Johnson makes puzzling claim about Trump and Epstein
Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
“Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!” Oversight Democrats wrote.
Garcia noted that they received additional documents from Epstein’s estate and planned to release more information shortly. He accused Trump and his administration of being involved in a “cover-up.”
The Wall Street Journal originally shared the text from the alleged letter in July.
Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Immediately following the report’s release, Vice President JD Vance called the claims “complete and utter bulls**t,” adding that the WSJ “should be ashamed for publishing it.”
“Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” Vance stated.
“Doesn’t it violate some rule of journalistic ethics to publish a letter like this without showing it to the victim of this hit piece?” he questioned. “Will the people who have bought into every hoax against President Trump show an ounce of skepticism before buying into this bizarre story?”
Trump has denied that he created the letter or the drawing.
“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” Trump told the news outlet.
“These are not my words, not the way I talk,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Also, I don’t draw pictures.”
When reached for comment, the White House referred Blaze News to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks on social media.
“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false,” Leavitt wrote. “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”
She further claimed that the reporter who “wrote this hatchet job” reached out to the White House for comment “at the EXACT same minute he published his story giving us no time to respond.”
“This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!” Leavitt added.
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News, Jeffrey epstein, Epstein, Donald trump, Trump, Robert garcia, Wall street journal, Wsj, Politics
Team Vance fires back at Rand Paul for defending ‘foreign terrorists’ killed in drone strike
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky took aim at Vice President JD Vance over the weekend for defending the administration’s drone strike of alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers. Since then, a source close to Vance told Blaze News that “hypocrites” like Paul are simply suffering from a “debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.”
President Donald Trump’s administration greenlit a drone strike in Venezuela last week, claiming to have killed 11 drug traffickers identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Vance defended the strike, calling it the “highest and best use of our military.”
‘That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul.’
Paul quickly sounded off online, calling Vance’s remarks “despicable and thoughtless.”
“JD ‘I don’t give a s**t’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military,'” Paul said in a post on X. “Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
RELATED: Republican senator takes aim at JD Vance: ‘What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment’
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
In response to Paul’s pushback, a source close to Vance told Blaze News that the Republican senator was “sticking up for foreign terrorists” killed in the strike. At the same time, Paul defended a drone strike executed by Obama in 2015 that killed three Americans in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
“I do think there is a valuable use for drones,” Paul said in 2015. “And as much as I’m seen as an opponent of drones, I think in military and warfare, they do have some value.”
“The world is so partisan, I tend not to want to blame the president for the loss of life here,” Paul said of the Obama strike in 2015. “I think he was trying to do the right thing.”
“The vice president believes in the Trump doctrine and using overwhelming force to protect core American interests and save American lives,” the source told Blaze News on Monday. “That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul, who during his failed run for president defended Obama droning American citizens without due process, but now is sticking up for foreign terrorists thanks to his debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.”
RELATED: John Thune to use Democrats’ own ‘nuclear option’ to defeat Senate confirmation blockade
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Paul has since stood by his remarks, noting that he was one of Obama’s staunchest critics for using drones against American citizens overseas.
“During my time in the Senate, I have been the foremost critic of drones being used on civilians, especially Americans,” Paul told Blaze News. “In 2013, I spoke for nearly 13 hours filibustering Obama’s use of drones on American citizens overseas. I have not, however, opposed the concept of using drones in war. That position remains unaltered today.”
Paul argued that the recent strike against the Venezuelans was not part of any declared war, which he says “defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement.”
“The recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war and defies our long-standing Coast Guard rules of engagement which include: warnings to halt, nonlethal force to capture, and ultimately lethal force in self-defense or in cases of resistance,” Paul told Blaze News.
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Rand paul, Jd vance, Donald trump, Trump administration, White house, Venezuela, Tren de aragua, Drone strike, Barack obama, To kill a mockingbird, Trump derangement syndrome, Terrorists, Drug traffickers, Coast guard, Senate, Senate republicans, Politics
Glenn Beck shares the DISTURBING secret President Bush told him years ago
Back during the 2008 election, Glenn Beck was summoned to the White House by then-President George W. Bush. In a profanity-laden rant, Bush, who was angry about Glenn’s negative coverage of the Iraq War, excoriated him for suggesting that there were grounds to impeach him.
“The first thing the president says to me is … ‘You know, a lot of people think they know how they can be the effing president. Well, they have no effing idea how to be the effing president,’” Glenn mimics in his best Bush accent.
Earlier that day, Barack Obama, who was still campaigning for president, had said that if he were the current president, he would just “bomb Pakistan.”
“This is at the point where Pakistan is kind of helping us. They’re not our friends. They’re more frenemies,” Glenn says.
When he mentioned Obama’s comment to President Bush, he responded with something Glenn has never forgotten.
“He said, ‘Oh, I heard that. Don’t worry about that. … Trust me, Glenn, whoever comes into this office, no matter what party they’re in, they’re going to sit behind this desk, and they’re going to realize — because they’re going to be advised by exactly the same people that have been advising me — that they really have no choice. This is what they have to do,’” Glenn recalls.
When he left the White House that day, he was “freaked out.”
“I was like, ‘This is not good. The president isn’t really the president. The president is just listening to all these advisers who were advising the last president and the president before that,’” he says.
It became clear to him that day that the deep state is just “executing a long plan,” regardless of who sits at the Resolute desk.
“What difference does it make who we have in the office if that’s true?” Glenn asks.
He brings up this old story today because it’s becoming increasingly clear that President Trump has ended this trend of deep-state shadow advisers running the country.
On August 18 during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, “Donald Trump sat at the table and said, ‘I’m just going to get ol’ Vlad on the phone,’ and he stands up, walks out of the room with all the world leaders, and he just picks up the phone and calls Vladimir Putin and says, ‘Hey, I just want to keep you up to speed of what’s going on,”’ Glenn recounts.
“He didn’t ask for permission. He didn’t have anybody whispering in his ear. He’s leading the State Department. He’s leading the world. He’s keeping his own counsel. That hasn’t been done by a president in I don’t know how long,” he adds.
This is the reason “we’re once again the leaders of the world,” Glenn says.
“These advisers — all of these doctors and professors and people who have been in the State Department their whole life and know better than everybody — Donald Trump has said to them, ‘Shut up. I’ve seen your record. It doesn’t work.’”
To hear more of Glenn’s commentary, watch the clip above.
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The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, George w bush, Iraq war, Deep state, President trump, Blazetv, Blaze media
Wikipedia editors are trying to scrub the record clean of Iryna Zarutska’s slaughter by violent thug
Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old refugee from Ukraine, was savagely stabbed to death late last month on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Liberal media outlets that have made a habit out of sensationalizing certain deaths — like Jordan Neely’s in 2023 or George Floyd’s in 2020 — appear desperate not to acknowledge the horrific attack.
CNN, for instance, waited until Monday morning to report on the stabbing.
NBC News, the Associated Press, and ABC News didn’t bother reporting on Zarutska’s slaying until later in the day, just around the time President Donald Trump noted that he had expressed his love to Zarutska’s family and his hope that her killing was a reminder that “there are evil people.”
At the time of writing, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Washington Post still had not reported on the incident. Of the aforementioned publications, only the Associated Press responded to Blaze News’ requests for comment but only to indicate it had just published a story on the slaying.
While liberal news outfits did their apparent best to avoid reporting on a story that has garnered significant national interest, comment from lawmakers, and further insights into Democrats’ ruinous soft-on-crime policies, editors at Wikipedia tried to scrub any mention of the tragic incident from their platform.
Quick background
Footage of the Aug. 22 slaying shows Zarutska enter a train on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, sit down in front of a black male in a red-hooded sweatshirt, and then look at her phone.
RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman
zmeel via iStock/Getty Images
The alleged stabber seated behind her, whom the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has identified as repeat offender Decarlos Brown, can be seen in the footage taking what appears to be a folding knife out of his pocket, standing up, then bringing the apparent blade down in a striking motion.
A GoFundMe for her loved ones states, “Ira had recently arrived in the United States, seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning. Tragically, her life was cut short far too soon.”
Seventeen days after the slaying and in the face of mounting outrage, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) said he was “heartbroken for the family of Iryna Zarutska, who lost their loved one to this senseless act of violence,” and “appalled by the footage of her murder.”
– YouTube
Police indicated that following the slaying, Brown was transported to Atrium Health with non-life-threatening injuries and charged with first-degree murder.
According to the National News Desk, Brown was previously arrested at least 14 times, including for allegedly assaulting his sister, and he was sentenced to five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery.
Wiki revisionism
On Saturday morning, a handful of Wikipedia editors got to work detailing what happened to Zarutska, only to find their efforts frustrated by radicals who were alternatively keen to leave the public in the dark.
The “Talk” logs for the potentially doomed page show a frantic effort on the part of some editors to conceal Brown’s identity.
When one editor suggested, “It’s actually standard here not to name suspected perpetrators,” another responded, “Unless his name is Kyle Rittenhouse.”
At the time of publication, the Wikipedia page omitted any mention of Brown’s name except for where it appeared in the titles of referenced articles.
Others tried to downplay the story’s significance. One editor claimed that “there is nothing in this story that is significant besides it being recent news.”
“Just [because] victim was white doesn’t indicate that perpetrator was intentionally racist or had some sort of racial prejudice he was a schizophrenic going through a psychotic episode and the poor girl was in wrong place/time,” another editor wrote. “What’s atrocious is how white supremacists are flooding this page to create some sort of narrative and trying to devalue Black American’s experience of police brutality in U.S.”
RELATED: Twisting the truth: Wikipedia’s ongoing misinformation war
Photo by Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff
Soon, the page bore a label that read, “An editor has nominated this article for deletion.”
The deletion label linked to a discussion over whether to keep or eliminate the entry, which was prefaced with a reminder “that this is not a majority vote, but instead a discussion among Wikipedia contributors.”
Although a great many contributors appear to have recommended keeping the page, others tried their best to trivialize Zarutska’s demise.
“There are some people in social media and other venues who are trying to make this into something far greater than it really merrits [sic]. Nothing is remarkable about this. Even the premise of the immigrant status, nor race of either person, seems to have any indication for a hate crime even. Rather just a random act of violence,” one contributor wrote.
Blaze News senior politics editor and Washington correspondent Christopher Bedford, responding to the attempted spin by radicals behind the scenes at Wikipedia, underscored the significance of the story, noting that “you’ve got comment coming in from the governor, you’ve got comment coming in from the president, and you have a perpetrator who is free in the first place only because of specific policy decisions made by governments in regard to their crimes and punishments.”
“But it doesn’t fit into a cozy narrative. It’s a beautiful white woman killed by a black man and serial criminal,” Bedford continued. “Even though she’s a Ukrainian refugee, on the scale of what liberals want to communicate and narratives they want to build, she’s lower than he is.”
Blaze News has reached out to Wikimedia for comment.
Blaze News previously reported that editors and/or contributors at Wikipedia:
Tried to hide Vice President JD Vance’s military accomplishments in the lead-up to the 2024 election;Strategically eliminated any mention of Kamala Harris’ appointment as border czar on the site’s list of executive branch czars;Advocated deleting the entry detailing the mass killings executed by communist regimes, citing an anti-communist bias;Blacklisted right-leaning sources such as Blaze News, the Washington Free Beacon, the Federalist, RedState, the Media Research Center, and the Alexander Hamilton-founded New York Post and effectively prohibits their citation in articles, all but guaranteeing a site-wide leftist bias; Smears right-wing figures;Labeled Elon Musk’s temporary suspension of journalists who allegedly violated his platform’s terms of service as the “Thursday Night Massacre”; andDeceived readers about the history, existence, and nature of cultural Marxism, characterizing the well-defined and well-chronicled offshoot of Marxism as a “conspiracy theory.”
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Iryna zarutska, Zarutska, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Charlotte, North carolina, Donald trump, Murder, Wikipedia, History, Revisionism, Liberal media, Cnn, Washington post, Associated press, Fake news, Politics
Thug arrested in connection with brutal beating of autistic man, 44, who reportedly was surrounded at park drinking fountain
Relatives of Scott Lindsey — a 44-year-old autistic man who lives in Hammond, Indiana — told WLS-TV he was riding his bike home through a park last month after finishing his shift at a local grocery store where he’s worked for 14 years.
Lindsey added to the station that as he stopped to drink at a water fountain, a group surrounded him and began taunting him and calling him names before taking turns beating, punching, and kicking him.
‘It looks like, at this point, it was entertainment because they saw he was vulnerable. After a period of time, other individuals, instead of intervening, joined in the attack, and no one, no one intervened on Scott’s behalf.’
“I didn’t say anything to them,” Lindsey recalled to WLS.
When asked what the group said to him, Lindsey told the station they accused him of riding too close to them, “and then they started hitting me.”
Lindsey told WLS he’s doing OK despite having most of his front teeth knocked out.
RELATED: Father allegedly catches therapist in autistic son’s bedroom closet with boy’s pants down: DA
“I’m feeling fine,” he told the station.
WLS reported that someone saw the attack and called 911.
When officers arrived at Hessville Park, they found Lindsey bloodied and the attackers gone, the station said. Lindsey’s stepfather, Brian Beatty, added to WLS that the Aug. 15 attack took place around 7 p.m.
Still, police said Lindsey had visible injuries to his face and wasn’t able to fully recount the incident, and officers made sure — in recognition of his vulnerable status — to document the incident as battery and get the victim medical attention.
WLS reported that Lindsey — who has lived with his aunt since his mother died — said at first he didn’t want to tell anyone that he got jumped but eventually did.
Beatty added to the station that an even more disturbing detail is that one of the individuals involved in the unprovoked attack recorded the violence and then posted video on social media.
“It looks like, at this point, it was entertainment because they saw he was vulnerable,” the angry stepfather noted to WLS. “After a period of time, other individuals, instead of intervening, joined in the attack, and no one, no one intervened on Scott’s behalf.”
Lindsey added to the station that he won’t be riding through the park anytime soon and just wants the whole ordeal behind him: “I felt bad about the whole situation.”
His family noted to WLS that Lindsey also will need costly, extensive dental work to repair the damage to his mouth from the attack.
One bright spot in the ugly incident is that police said they arrested a suspect.
Police told WGN-TV that 25-year-old Keshaun Brooks, a Hammond resident, was arrested during an Aug. 31 traffic stop and taken into custody in connection with the attack.
Police on Monday told Blaze News that Brooks was charged with three felonies — one count of aggravated battery, one count of battery resulting in serious bodily injury, and one count of battery resulting in moderate bodily injury. He also was charged with one count of battery resulting in bodily injury — a misdemeanor, police added to Blaze News.
Police also told Blaze News on Monday that Brooks remains in Lake County Jail.
Police added that surveillance video from park cameras indicated that Brooks approached and violently attacked Lindsey, striking him multiple times in the head and face while he was on the ground — and that juveniles at the scene could be heard taunting the victim during the assault.
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Sudden child deaths after COVID shots? Trump FDA director promises answers.
Government officials, the establishment media, and pharmaceutical representatives spent years reassuring the American public that COVID-19 vaccines were “safe and effective.” Those who dared to correctly suggest otherwise were often attacked and censored, and many who refused the jabs lost their jobs.
Several weeks after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took an axe to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ mRNA vaccine development activities and in the immediate wake of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s revocation of emergency-use authorization for COVID vaccines, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary told CNN talking head Jake Tapper that his agency is about to shine an unflattering light on the fallout of the vaccines.
Makary indicated on Thursday that the manufacturers of the latest COVID vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax — have agreed both to conduct clinical trials on healthy subjects this flu season and to produce their results by May.
‘There have been children who have died from the COVID vaccine.’
“I think that’s going to help answer the question a lot of parents have. If you have a 6-year-old girl, does she need 70 more shots in her average lifespan, or is the population immunity, the natural immunity, and the current circulating virulence — that is, the severity of the virus circulating now — more like a common cold, and is the protection transient?” Makary said. “And what is the true death rate or myocarditis rate or serious adverse event rate of the COVID shot in a young, healthy male today?”
“We do know at the FDA — because we’ve been looking into the [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] database of self-reports — that there have been children who have died from the COVID vaccine,” the commissioner told Tapper.
VAERS accepts reports of adverse events that take place following vaccination from members of the public, health care providers, and vaccine manufacturers.
RELATED: RFK Jr. laughs at Democratic senators’ vaccine concern-mongering: ‘You’re just making stuff up’
SementsovaLesia/Getty Images
According to the VAERS database, there have been many thousands of reported serious reactions following COVID-19 vaccination among those 29 years of age and younger, including death and permanent disabilities.
Makary indicated that his agency is now “doing a proper investigation” into COVID-19 child vaccination deaths.
‘It was not released in the last administration, and it should have been.’
The commissioner noted that this investigation will include a review of autopsy reports, further scientific investigations, and interviews with “the primary sources, the family members who lost a child.”
“We think the public deserves to have that information,” Makary continued. “It was not released in the last administration, and it should have been.”
Blaze News reached out to the FDA as well as to Pfizer, Novavax, and Moderna for comment but did not receive responses by deadline.
After insinuating that the Biden administration sat on possible evidence of the COVID-19 vaccines’ lethality, Makary alleged that some of the recently departed officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had hamstrung efforts earlier this year to obtain data pertaining to the link between myocarditis and the COVID vaccines.
RELATED: RFK Jr. makes crystal clear to the CDC mutineers: The restoration of public trust ‘won’t stop’
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle that can manifest as various symptoms, including heart palpitations, chest pain, fainting, and weakness, and can also cause fatal cardiac arrest.
Months after ex-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky claimed without evidence that her agency had not “seen any reports” or “a signal” for myocarditis, the FDA and the CDC belatedly put out advisories in 2021 admitting of an elevated risk of myocarditis among mRNA COVID-19 vaccinees. Despite these admissions, the corporate media and medical establishment spent years pushing the narrative that such risks remained mild and rare.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a Senate hearing last week that he agreed with the suggestion attributed to Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices member Dr. Retsef Levi that the COVID vaccines caused serious harm, including death, “especially among young people.”
Tapper, referencing Kennedy’s agreement on this point, asked Makary on Thursday whether there was “a reliable, credible study behind that claim,” noting that his team at CNN “went to the CDC website, and almost all the studies there, if not all the studies there, suggested the opposite, that kids were generally not poorly affected by the vaccine, that it was rare.”
“Yes, there is because they’re at higher risk, particularly males, for myocarditis,” Makary responded.
Referencing the findings of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the commissioner added, “It can be as high as 1 in 2,600 young males between the ages of 17 and 24.”
A peer-reviewed study published last year in the pharmacotherapy journal Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety concluded that “COVID-19 vaccination is strongly associated with a serious adverse safety signal of myocarditis, particularly in children and young adults resulting in hospitalization and death.”
‘We’re not going to just keep rubber-stamping the approvals.’
An FDA-funded study published by the Lancet journal eClinicalMedicine in October indicated that myocardial COVID-19 injuries warrant “continued clinical surveillance and long-term studies in affected patients.”
Makary suggested that his agency has “asked for the CDC to give us [myocarditis] data since we came into office” but was blocked and “given different excuses and told to wait and ‘we can’t do it.'”
The commissioner alleged that “those individuals who resigned from the CDC that were at leadership [level]” were those who “gave us the hard time about getting the data.”
Among the CDC officials who recently resigned were Debra Houry, who served as chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, who directed the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Demetre Daskalakis, the non-straight activist who directed the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
While Makary suggested during the interview that the vaccines produced as a result of President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed saved lives, especially because early on “there was low population immunity,” he stressed that now is “a different time.”
The FDA recently revoked emergency-use authorization for COVID vaccines but approved COVID-19 vaccines for adults over 65 and for individuals 6 months and older who have one or more risk factors putting them at high risk of severe COVID.
“We’re not going to just keep rubber-stamping the approvals that then lead to this incredible march and chant every year: ‘Everyone has to get their COVID shot,'” Makary told Tapper.
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Homeschooling: LGBTQ activists’ latest conquest
Homeschool has long been seen as a bubble of hardcore Christians who are opting out of the public school system to keep their children far away from state indoctrination — but according to CEO of Classical Conversations, Robert Bortins, that’s all changing.
“I think God’s design for all humanity is for you to educate your own children. So I’m very glad that secular non-Christians are homeschooling,” Bortins begins. “But as that’s taken place, a lot of the homeschool kind of pioneers who maybe created this curriculum don’t have people to pass it on to.”
“So they’re selling to like PE companies or larger organizations, and they’re secularizing the curriculum,” he explains.
While Bortins doesn’t believe it’s necessarily a bad thing that non-Christians are opting to homeschool their children, it is changing the environment, and in some ways for the worse.
One curriculum in particular, Saxon Math, was written by a Christian.
“He gets older. He wants to retire. He sells it to Pearson, which is a billion-dollar publicly traded company. Well, they don’t want to have those same ideas. They want to have their curriculum lined with Common Core or No Child Left Behind, or whatever the latest government edicts are,” Bortins explains.
“And so they basically make a homeschool curriculum of the old version and then just use the branding for the new one. Meanwhile, they’re jacking up the prices for homeschooling curriculum because they don’t want to maintain it and really want to just drive that out,” he continues.
“And so you’ve just got to be very careful that as homeschooling expands, that these ideologies are going to start creeping in. And I think that’s going to have a possibility for just negative outcomes for the homeschooling space in general if we aren’t wide-eyed on what’s going on,” he adds.
One friend of Bortins went on a homeschooling field trip with their kids, which they were expecting to have “a young earth creation worldview.”
“It was being put on by secular evolutionists, and so you know, they paid for it, and went to this event, and really got an education in why they needed to do more research before just blindly thinking everything in the homeschool space is Christian,” he explains.
Stuckey is horrified, noting that it was also reported in the National Review that wokeness is infiltrating homeschooling.
The article details a homeschooling “unConvention” in Virginia that featured sessions like “all history is queer history,” which was led by a transgender rights activist. Other sessions included talks on “forms of decoloniality” and “resolving unexamined experiences with bias and oppression.”
“Now, I don’t understand why someone who believes this wouldn’t just send their kids to public school,” Stuckey says, adding, “I mean, you can get that kind of thing for free, right? Unless they think it’s not radical enough.”
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Military academy pulls plug on ‘woke’ actor’s award ceremony — Trump applauds move
President Donald Trump commended West Point Academy for canceling an award ceremony intended to honor a “woke” actor.
The U.S. Military Academy scheduled an award ceremony for September 25 to honor Tom Hanks with a Sylvanus Thayer Award. The award is given annually to an American citizen “whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in the West Point motto, ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’”
‘Hopefully the Academy Awards, and other Fake Award Shows, will review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice.’
“Tom Hanks has done more for the positive portrayal of the American service member, more for the caring of the American veteran, their caregivers and their family, and more for the American space program and all branches of government than many other Americans,” stated Robert A. McDonald, the chairman of the West Point Association of Graduates.
WPAOG stated that Hanks’ “five-decade career reflects his support of veterans, the military, and America’s space program,” citing his work as a spokesperson for Washington’s World War II Memorial, a national chairman for the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign, and movie roles where he played U.S. service members. The group also noted Hanks’ support of military personnel through profits from Hanks for Our Troops, a coffee company.
Hanks called the honor “humbling and meaningful.”
Tom Hanks in the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ Photo by CBS via Getty Images
“To have my first ever visit to the Academy be to accept such an honor as the Thayer Award is simply astounding. West Point’s legacy of leadership, character, and service to the nation is a powerful example for all Americans,” he said.
Retired Army Col. Mark Bieger, president and chief executive officer of the WPAOG, announced Friday in an email to faculty that the group had canceled the ceremony, according to the Washington Post.
“This decision allows the Academy to continue its focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win as officers in the world’s most lethal force, the United States Army,” Bieger wrote.
The 2024 Sylvanus Thayer Award awarded to former President Barack Obama. Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
The email did not specify whether Hanks would still receive the award.
Trump responded to the cancellation in a Monday post on Truth Social.
“Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks,” Trump wrote. “Important move! We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!! Hopefully the Academy Awards, and other Fake Award Shows, will review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice. Watch their DEAD RATINGS SURGE!”
WPAOG and a representative for Hanks did not respond to a request for comment from Politico.
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Bobby Powell gave his last breath working to expose Jan. 6 corruption
Michigan radio journalist Bobby Powell poured his heart into finding and telling the truth about suspicious actors at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Sadly, his heart gave out before he could finish his work.
Bobby suffered nine heart attacks after Jan. 6. It would not be hyperbole to suggest that Jan. 6 killed Bobby Powell. He predicted it would. He was 61.
‘I refuse to let the history I recorded on January 6th slide down the rabbit hole.’
It was that ninth heart attack that took his life at about 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 4, just weeks after he wrote me an email titled, “Final Thoughts.” We never got the chance to do the interview I requested after reading his final note.
“Well, I’m just about down to my last breath, and I refuse to let the history I recorded on January 6th slide down the rabbit hole,” Powell wrote on Aug. 11. “They’ve tried to bribe me, kill me, and maybe even had a hand in inducing a few of those heart attacks I’ve had.”
Since Bobby died destitute, his son Adam asked the Jan. 6 community to help pay for funeral expenses. In just two days, Adam’s crowdfunding campaign raised $23,000.
Bobby Powell was the cover story of a 2022 issue of Insight by The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times
Bobby was passionate and outspoken about what he witnessed on the east patio of the Capitol on Jan. 6. His frustration grew when it seemed almost no one wanted to hear about the two suspicious actors he captured on video.
He could be gruff. In one of my stories, I called him “grizzled.” I think he wore that like a badge of honor. He spent more than $20,000 and sacrificed his health trying to get the word out about these provocateurs.
Bobby Powell tells his Jan. 6 tale to Joseph Hanneman in “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part II: The Long Road Home.”
As soon as Bobby began seeking media coverage for his Jan. 6 work, he was demonetized on social media, where he published a blog called “The Truth Is Viral.” That drop in income forced him to sell his Michigan home and live in an RV in Florida.
He said a prominent Michigan Republican Party official offered him $200,000 to go away. When Bobby refused, he was threatened that if he didn’t put a lid on his Jan. 6 fedsurrection talk, he could be killed. For this reason, he moved around a lot from campground to campground in Florida, always looking over his shoulder.
I hope the many politicians and media figures who rebuffed, scorned, or ignored him since Jan. 6 are now inspired to take a look at the evidence he left behind. The silence from them, the FBI, and the Justice Department speaks loudly — even more so now that Bobby’s voice has been stilled.
‘I swore that I would tell the truth to my last breath, no matter what the cost.’
Maybe the new Jan. 6 Select Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) will investigate the men Bobby suspected were fed provocateurs.
In the Aug. 11 email, Bobby’s last message to me was a warning.
“You’re a good man, Joe. You’ve been there for me when many others didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing and speak truth to power,” Bobby wrote. “Unfortunately, I cannot say that about many other ‘MAGA Influencers,’ politicians, or so-called ‘journalists.’”
During my first interview with him in 2022, Bobby shed tears. This tough Marine Corps veteran broke down over the phone — simply because I said that I believed him. His story rang true because it is true. He was beyond relieved to have a new ally. I wrote about his efforts many times over the next three years.
January 6 was supposed to be Bobby’s last assignment before he retired after more than three decades in radio journalism. He hosted his own podcast, “The Truth Is Viral,” and was host of “Your Defending Fathers” on WCHY-FM 97.7 in Cheboygan, Michigan.
Little did he know as he filmed the crowd around the famous Columbus Doors at the U.S. Capitol the gravity of what he was witnessing. He emailed me in 2022:
Two men I recorded attacking the building in separate incidents, smashing a window and pushing people inside the East Entrance doors, have not been arrested, nor are they on the list of suspects being sought by the FBI.
That remains the case today. Neither bad actor — dressed suspiciously like plainclothes federal agents — has been publicly identified, arrested, or prosecuted.
It was not for lack of trying on his part. In January 2021, Bobby contacted the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force. He offered a copy of the 29 minutes of high-definition video he shot on Jan. 6. They never called back.
Bobby was filming the crowds on the east patio of the Capitol at about 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 6 when Hunter Allen Ehmke jumped on a window sill and began smashing the glass. Ehmke was later arrested, convicted, and ordered to serve four months in jail.
‘Be careful who you trust, Joe. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are all around us.’
When Bobby spun around with his camera, he caught the man as he pulled out a large section of the tempered glass and dropped it on the ground.
Bobby Powell shows me his Jan. 6 footage in his RV near Tampa in November 2022. Paulio Shakespeare/The Epoch Times
Minutes later, when Bobby was approaching the entrance to the giant Columbus Doors, another man dressed in tactical clothing placed a hand on his back and shoved him into the foyer. That man was holding open one of the doors with a heavy wooden rod.
Bobby personally handed thumb drives with video of these incidents to prominent Republicans in Congress and scores of media celebrities and influencers. Only a few gave his story the attention it deserved — if any attention at all.
Trying to engage with the self-appointed “Sedition Hunters” in late 2002, Bobby asked them why his two feds were not on the Sedition Hunters’ website. Bobby made up hashtags for the two provocateurs: #CapitolGlassMan and #CapitolDoorman.
Sedition Hunters eventually put up a page with photos of the GlassMan. They even claimed to know his name, but no one was ever arrested.
Joseph M. Hanneman
Missing CCTV video
One of the topics we were going to discuss in our final interview was a gap in the Capitol Police CCTV security video from inside the Columbus Doors.
The missing footage should have shown #CapitolDoorman holding the huge ornate doors open with a wooden pole and pushing protesters inside the Capitol. This footage was somehow missing from the video from Camera 7029 published online by the Republican House Subcommittee on Oversight.
This was a great find by the intrepid Marine. The gap in video has not yet been solved. That is a project I will take on in Bobby’s memory.
During his final two years, Bobby got bowled over by two hurricanes. Before one of them, he emailed me that his RV was hunkered down in an alley between two brick buildings in the Tampa area. Hurricane Debby flooded his RV in August 2024. After that storm, Bobby and a neighbor used his boat to rescue a 90-year-old man and his caregiver from the floodwaters.
Peter Ticktin, an attorney for President Donald J. Trump, was one of the few officials who accepted a thumb drive with Bobby Powell’s Jan. 6 video evidence. Photo courtesy of Bobby Powell.
“On the bright side, I have a roof over my head, air-conditioning, internet, and I’m not dead yet,” he wrote me in an Oct. 2 email. “Compared to others, I have a lot to be thankful for.”
Bobby’s heart was badly scarred and less able to pump effectively every day. He knew his time was growing short.
Not much heart muscle
“My cardiologist said my heart is about 30% muscle and 70% scar tissue that doesn’t beat at all,” he wrote in late 2024. “I asked why I was out of breath all of the time, and she told me, ‘Because every step you take is like carrying a 250-pound man on your back. Your heart has to pump twice as hard whenever you do anything.’”
Even with that challenge, Bobby was determined to forge ahead with his work. He attended the Capitol premiere of my documentary “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part II: The Long Road Home.” He recorded a testimonial for our producers after the screening.
Bobby testified in several Jan. 6 trials in Washington. He was kept out of others by DOJ prosecutors who didn’t want federal juries to see his fedsurrection footage. The court cases gave him an outlet to keep sharing his story. It also took a heavier toll on his health.
“My cardiologist tells me that every day I wake up is a gift from God,” he wrote on Aug. 11, 2025. “I’m still limited in my abilities, but I think I can handle a call-in show I’m planning; until I can’t.”
In December 2022, he wrote me from his hospital bed after Jan. 6 heart attack No. 4.
“This is number four since J6, five total in the last three years,” he said. “And it’s the last one I will survive.”
Bobby said both atria of his heart were badly damaged by the attack. He had to wear a defibrillator jacket until a permanent defibrillator could be implanted.
Bobby Powell was all thumbs-up from his hospital bed in December 2022. Photo courtesy of Bobby Powell.
After we filmed a documentary interview in his RV near Terra Ceia, Fla., in November 2022, we talked about his Christian faith. I gave him a blessed challenge coin designed by my friend Father Richard Heilman. The coin had been touched to a relic of the True Cross of Christ, which makes it a third-class relic.
One side of the coin has the image of St. Michael the Archangel with the Latin phrase Defende Nos in Proelio (Defend Us in Battle). The other side has a likeness of St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus, with the Latin phrase Sancte Joseph Castissimi • Terror Daemonum, noting Joseph’s warrior title as the Terror of Demons.
I gave this blessed coin to Bobby Powell in November 2022. He said he would keep it on him at all times. Joseph M. Hanneman/Blaze News.
Bobby understood as well as anyone that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. As St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:
Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
Bobby said he tried to live his life every day for Christ. In his final email to me, he wrote of regret for not teaching his daughter more about Jesus.
“I could never speak to her about Christ’s love for us,” he wrote. “She’d just look at me with her big, beautiful eyes and say, ‘Oh Daddy, you know I don’t believe in that.’”
“I thought I would have plenty of time to teach her about Christ, but she died at just 24 from an idiopathic heart attack.”
Bobby said his hurt and regret fueled a commitment that drove his Jan. 6 work.
“I lifted her ashes to the heavens and swore to Almighty God that I would never be afraid to tell the truth again for fear of being called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ or a ‘kook,’ even though all of my conspiracy theories turned out to be true,” he wrote.
“I swore that I would tell the truth to my last breath, no matter what the cost.”
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Trump strikes deal with South Korea after arrest of foreign workers in Hyundai plant raid
After federal agents raided a Hyundai plant in Georgia and arrested 475 illegal aliens, most of whom were South Korean nationals, President Donald Trump’s administration struck an agreement with the South Korean government for their release.
Last week, Homeland Security Investigations, alongside other federal agencies, conducted a raid as part of a “multi-month criminal investigation” into “unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes.”
‘Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so.’
Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge of HSI for Georgia and Alabama, explained during a Friday press conference that the arrested individuals were “illegally present in the United States or in violation of their presence in the United States,” noting that they had either crossed the border illegally, overstayed their visas, or entered the country through visa waivers but were not permitted to work.
Schrank and a spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that most of the arrested individuals were South Korean nationals.
The Trump administration and the South Korean government reached a deal on Sunday for the release of 300 workers.
RELATED: Federal agents arrest nearly 500 in immigration raid at Hyundai plant
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
“Negotiations for the release of the detained workers have been concluded, after swift responses by the relevant ministries, business agencies, and companies,” South Korean presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik stated. “However, some administrative procedures remain, and once they’re completed, a chartered plane will depart to bring back our citizens.”
Trump said, “Following the Immigration Enforcement Operation on the Hyundai Battery Plant in Georgia, I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws.”
RELATED: After ICE removes illegal workers, job applicants flood meatpacking plant to replace them
Photographer: Parker Puls/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” he continued. “What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers. Together, we will all work hard to make our Nation not only productive, but closer in unity than ever before.”
Hyundai Motor Company provided a statement to Blaze News on Friday, stating that it was “reviewing our processes to ensure that all parties working on our projects maintain the same high standards of legal compliance that we demand of ourselves.”
“This includes thorough vetting of employment practices by contractors and subcontractors,” the company stated.
Blaze News reached out to Hyundai for an updated statement on Monday.
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SCOTUS overrules lower court giving ICE a big win
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal immigration agencies can continue to conduct massive sweeps in Southern California after a lower court ruled the operations allegedly violated due process for illegal aliens.
Federal Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued the restraining order for the operations in July.
“We argued the order was overly broad, aiming to hinder our ability to apprehend and remove illegal immigrants in Los Angeles. We are a nation of laws. Federal law enforcement is non-negotiable and cannot be curtailed by any court. If plaintiffs disagree with immigration laws, they should address Congress, not a single judge,” acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in response to the ruling.
Gregory Bovino, the chief patrol agent in charge of removal operations in Los Angeles County, said, “Border Patrol has been doing this 101 years and quite frankly the poorly written (very poorly) [temporary] restraining order was the worst I’ve ever seen. We are going hard in Los Angeles today and are hitting a location as I write this.”
Despite Frimpong’s restraining order, Border Patrol still conducted lawful operations in the Los Angeles area.
RELATED: Resistance mounts in Chicago as city braces for potential National Guard deployment
Bovino is expected to lead a task force in Chicago for the enhanced crackdown on illegal aliens in that part of the country, bringing similar tactics and planning used in Southern California.
Editor’s note: The headline of this article was edited after publication.
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Politics
Indiana’s sellout, Iowa’s stand
Over the weekend, Indiana’s lieutenant governor decided to show his cards. On social media, he boasted of supporting the importation of 40,000 Haitians into his state. Then, in a tacit admission that he knew how wrong this was, he shut off the comments, then deleted the post.
If he’s so proud of turning his state into a third-world dumping ground, why silence the people who elected him? Because he knows his constituents — Trump voters in a state the president won by 20 points in 2024 — vehemently reject it. He tried backtracking with another post, but that was too little, too late.
America’s culture comes from Americans. Indiana deserves leaders who understand that. Iowa will have one.
When a Republican openly advocates something his base opposes, he’s telling you whom he serves. Not the people of Indiana. Not the voters of the GOP. He serves the corporatist and globalist interests that see middle America as expendable.
The real divide
This fight is no longer Republican versus Democrat. It isn’t conservative versus liberal. The real question is simple: Do you believe America is for Americans or not?
Do landowners in Iowa actually own their land, or are they just maintaining it and paying taxes on it until some globalist interest comes along and decides to take it? Do the people of Indiana get to pass on their heritage, or must they watch it be erased by forced demographic change?
Democrats like Tim Walz in Minnesota and Rob Sand in my home state of Iowa are eager to impose that future. But too many Republicans are playing along, including Indiana’s lieutenant governor.
What’s at stake
I’m running for governor because part of a governor’s job is to protect and preserve the culture of his state. And culture begins with people — families and communities who built the heartland on hard work, dedication, grit, integrity, and a belief that a holy and righteous God still rewards such things with peace and prosperity.
That means ending the punishment of Americans who play by the rules, only to be undercut for cheap labor and political power. Donald Trump understood this, which is why he became the most successful Republican leader of the modern era. Yet too many in the party haven’t learned the lesson — or refuse to.
RELATED: A storm is brewing in Iowa — and Republicans should take note: ‘There are danger signs’
Photo by Dee Liu via Getty Images
Iowa’s fight
Here is what must be done to preserve our way of life.
We need an economy that works for families — not for Wall Street. As governor, I will launch the largest skilled-trade expansion in Iowa’s history. These are good jobs AI won’t erase, jobs that don’t require sending our kids off to universities that saddle them with six figures in student loan debt and leftist indoctrination.
Our communities must shape government, not the other way around. They are not cogs in the globalist-corporatist machine. They are the bedrock of America’s culture, traditions, and faith. They built the greatest nation in history, and they deserve protection.
America’s culture comes from Americans. Indiana deserves leaders who understand that. Iowa will have one. If elected governor, I will use every power vested in me to protect and preserve Iowa’s culture — a culture rooted in Iowans themselves.
Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration and customs enforcement, Illegal immigrants, Haitian immigrants, Haitian migrants, Iowa, Indiana, Republicans, Globalism, Culture, Iowa governor
Trump to combat anti-Christian bias, bolster prayer in public schools
President Donald Trump announced the latest steps his administration is taking to protect the right to pray in schools across the nation.
Trump pointed out the tremendous, and often underreported, anti-Christian bias that has become commonplace in American schools during a speech Monday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. In order to protect millions of Christians across the country, Trump announced that his Department of Education will soon issue a new guidance to protect prayer in public schools.
‘I know what you went through.’
“For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation,” Trump said. “Yet in many schools today, students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda, and some are even punished for their religious beliefs.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Trump added.
Trump went on to tell the story of Hannah Allen, a student at Honey Grove Middle School in Texas who tried to gather a group of friends to pray for an injured classmate in 2018. The school’s principal reportedly told Allen not pray publicly but to instead pray behind a curtain, in an empty gym, or outside where she is out of view.
Due to pressure from religious liberty groups, the Honey Grove Texas Independent School District eventually reversed its decision and allowed students like Allen to pray in public.
“I know what you went through,” Trump said. “I know what you went through.”
RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
“To support students like Hannah, I’m pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools,” Trump added.
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Donald trump, Anti-christian bias, Anti-christian, Prayer in school, Education department, Hannah allen, Protecting prayer, Bible museum, Bible, Faith, Politics
Tim Walz pretends ‘disgusting’ Nazi Germany comparison isn’t divisive
In a recent interview, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) urged Americans to tone down violent and divisive rhetoric — emphasizing unity and civil debate as core to the nation’s strength.
“The president has done this, knowingly divided. He uses words like, ‘the enemy,’ ‘the enemy within,’ and we’ve never used that language,” Walz said in the interview.
However, Walz has contributed to much of the inflammatory rhetoric himself, and BlazeTV host Pat Gray has the receipts.
“Think about how easy it would be to be a damn Republican,” Walz shouted on stage at a DNC summer meeting. “Oh, what should I wear today? This stupid, freaking, red hat. What should I say today? I don’t know, just make sure it’s cruel. Who do we listen to? That guy, oh, the felon in the White House.”
“That’s not divisive at all,” Gray says sarcastically on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”
“And neither is this,” he adds, before playing another damning clip of Walz.
“My record is so pro-choice, Nancy Pelosi asked me if I should tone it down. I stand with Planned Parenthood, and we won!” he yelled.
In yet another clip, Walz is confronted in a congressional hearing about calling ICE agents under the orders of Trump “a modern-day Gestapo.”
“Do you realize how disgusting that is considering the history of Nazi Germany? Would you like to recant that statement?” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) asked Walz.
“What I said congressman, and I have a long history of supporting law enforcement, I said President Trump was using them as his modern-day Gestapo,” Walz answered.
“Right,” Gray says in disbelief. “That’s the problem.”
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Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Tim walz, Tampon tim, The dnc, Gestapo, Nazi comparisons, Leftism, Nancy pelosi, Pro choice, Planned parenthood, Nazi germany, Ice agents, President donald trump, President trump
Stop pretending Posse Comitatus neuters the president
President Trump drew heavy criticism for calling up the California National Guard to confront anti-ICE rioting in Los Angeles in July. On Sept. 3, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer blocked the move, claiming it violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. He delayed his order until Sept. 12, but the administration immediately appealed, and the Ninth Circuit has already granted a partial stay while the case moves forward.
Critics insist Trump is misusing the military as some kind of “secret police.” They invoke the Posse Comitatus Act as if it were an absolute ban on military involvement in domestic affairs. That is flatly wrong. The Act does not prohibit the president from using the Army, Marines, or National Guard to enforce federal law. It simply requires that such forces be deployed under the president’s authority, not at the whim of a sheriff or local marshal.
The real danger comes not from Trump’s use of the National Guard, but from a judiciary willing to invent limits the Constitution never imposed.
The Constitution itself grants the president this power. Article IV, Section 4 reads:
The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
Congress reinforced that authority in the Insurrection Act of 1807, which authorized the president to use the Army when it became “impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.” In short: When mobs threaten federal law, the president has the duty — and the power — to act.
What Posse Comitatus really meant
Before 1878, federal marshals could deputize Army units as a local posse. That pulled soldiers out of their chain of command and placed them under partisan officials. Officers objected, rightly fearing the practice would corrupt the Army. They welcomed congressional intervention.
The Posse Comitatus Act corrected that flaw. It barred the military from being drafted by civil authorities except when the Constitution or Congress explicitly authorized it. The Act did not strip the president of power. It reaffirmed that only the president, acting under constitutional authority, could commit troops to restore order.
History bears this out. The U.S. military has intervened in domestic affairs 167 times since America’s founding. Soldiers put down the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s, enforced fugitive slave laws in the 1850s, and captured John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. After the Civil War, troops secured polling places so freedmen could vote. The Act was not written to stop such uses, but to prevent local abuse.
As scholar John Brinkerhoff explained in 2002, “All that [the Posse Comitatus Act] really did was to repeal a doctrine whose only substantial foundation was an opinion by an attorney general. … The president’s power to use both regulars and militia remained undisturbed.”
Why Breyer is wrong
Judge Breyer’s ruling misreads both history and law. By treating Posse Comitatus as a blanket prohibition, he ignores the Constitution and the Insurrection Act. His injunction assumes any federal troop support is unlawful. But the law says otherwise: Troops cannot be used under lesser authority than the president’s. Trump acted as president. That is the highest authority the law contemplates.
The Ninth Circuit has already acknowledged the seriousness of the case by issuing a partial stay. That matters. Pulling remaining troops before the courts finish their review risks chaos. Keeping them in place while the appeal proceeds protects public order.
RELATED: A president’s job is to stop the burning if governors won’t
Photo by SAHAB ZARIBAF/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Prudence, not prohibition
The Posse Comitatus Act never emasculated the presidency. It preserved the president’s authority while removing soldiers from the clutches of local sheriffs. The only real limitation is prudence. Presidents must decide when the threat justifies force and when restraint serves the nation better.
I have opposed proposals to use the military in the so-called war on drugs and other ill-considered campaigns. Prudence matters. But the Constitution is clear: When federal law is under assault, the president can act.
The real danger comes not from Trump’s use of the National Guard, but from a judiciary willing to invent limits the Constitution never imposed. Los Angeles cannot be allowed to burn while mobs terrorize federal officers. The president has the duty to restore order.
That is why the administration is right to appeal. The courts should correct this error and reaffirm what the Constitution already guarantees: the president’s authority to protect the republic against domestic violence.
Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Posse comitatus, Insurrection act, Insurrection act of 1807, Anti-ice mobs, Anti-ice riots, Constitution, Charles breyer, Donald trump, Illegal immigration, Law and order, National guard, Federal court, Ninth circuit, Whiskey rebellion, Civil war, Article ii
