Putin orders planeloads of humanitarian aid to be sent to Egypt The Russian Ministry Emergency Situations said on Friday that it would send two aircraft [more…]
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Lara Trump sits out on swing state Senate bid to replace Thom Tillis
As the 2026 primaries begin to take shape, one swing state in particular has remained on the GOP’s radar.
After Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced his retirement in June, all eyes turned to Tar Heel State native Lara Trump. Although the Republican nomination would have undoubtedly been hers to claim, Lara passed on the opportunity to scoop up the Senate bid.
‘Despite Cooper’s popularity in the purple state, Republicans have maintained a steady winning streak in North Carolina.’
Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, who previously co-chaired the RNC alongside Lara Trump, will instead be running for the North Carolina Senate seat, reportedly with President Donald Trump’s blessing.
Although neither candidate has issued a formal announcement, Whatley is expected to face off against former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
RELATED: Exclusive: Congress pushes bipartisan bill preventing Mexico’s ‘illegal seizure’ of American assets
Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Despite Cooper’s popularity in the purple state, Republicans have maintained a steady winning streak there. Since 1990, Democrats have won only two terms to represent North Carolina in the Senate. Since 1980, the swing state also voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only one time — in 2008, when former President Barack Obama was on the ticket.
RELATED: Vance casts tiebreaking vote to advance DOGE cuts after Republicans defy Trump
One GOP operative told Blaze News that Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had previously met with Whatley to discuss a potential Senate bid. The NRSC has also been floating Whatley as a potential candidate since January, and internal polling has indicated that a “pro-Trump Republican” would be the strongest candidate, according to the GOP operative.
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North carolina, Senate, Senate republicans, Senate race, Donald trump, Lara trump, Roy cooper, Barack obama, Tim scott, Nrsc, National republican senatorial committee, Rnc, Michael whatley, Republican national committee, Politics
Over target: Panicked liberal media attacks Gabbard’s ‘treasonous conspiracy’ claim
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard published a report on Wednesday that appeared to confirm the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference was a work of fiction comprising misquotes, unreliable reports, lies of omissions, and straight-out falsehoods.
Rather than admit fault or come to terms with the role it played in perpetuating an apparent hoax on the American people — one that set the stage for years of Russian-collusion smears, two congressional impeachments, multiple arrests, and greater tensions with a pre-eminent nuclear power — the liberal media is now desperately trying to both downplay the gravity of the newly declassified House Intelligence Committee majority staff report and spin the conclusions therein.
Refresher
The House Intelligence Committee report is a product of congressional investigators spending over 2,300 hours reviewing the ICA and its source reports, conducting dozens of interviews, and comparing the ICA analytic tradecraft against well-established intelligence reports.
According to the report, the intelligence community had no credible evidence of Russia working to help Trump win.
What’s more, the report — which Gabbard indicated provides evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy” — claimed that the ICA, which was released by the Obama administration just weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017:
incorporated dubious claims despite high-level protest within the intelligence community; leaned on the bogus Steele dossier while failing to mention it was produced in part for the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and had Russian links; omitted narrative-killing evidence such as Moscow’s withholding of damning information about Hillary Clinton’s health issues, which if released could have helped Trump; and propped the narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aspired” to help Trump win on “one scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence” from a “substandard report” that CIA officers initially omitted but were ordered by then-CIA Director John Brennan to include despite protest.
The report also indicates that the Obama administration leaked falsehoods from the ICA to the media, which publications like the Washington Post dutifully printed.
Liberal media turns on another gaslight
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins did her apparent best on Wednesday to distract from the damning contents of the report by making its release about an imagined interpersonal drama between the president and his director of national intelligence.
‘Who was saying that?’
Photo (left): Kevin Dietsch/Getty Image; Photo (right): Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Collins suggested in question form that Gabbard was “only releasing these documents now to improve [her] standing with the president after he said that [her] intelligence assessments were wrong,” referencing Trump’s assertion last month that Gabbard was wrong in suggesting there was no evidence that Iran was constructing a nuclear weapon.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked Collins, “Who was saying that?”
Leavitt later added, “The only people who are suggesting that the director of national intelligence would release evidence to try to boost her standing with the president are the people in this room, who constantly try to sow distrust and chaos amongst the president’s Cabinet, and it is not working.”
The Washington Post, one of the chief proponents of the Russian collusion narrative, appears to have adopted a different strategy in attacking the report and its credibility.
Earlier in the week, the Post pushed an article asserting that Gabbard’s “seditious conspiracy” claim is “based on thin gruel.”
The article strategically assigned greater weight to the conclusions of previous investigations, including the Senate Intelligence Committee’s multi-volume report on the ICA, which “found the ICA presents a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” and that “Moscow’s intent was to harm the Clinton campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.”
Sarah Bedford of the Washington Examiner noted that the problem with Democrats and the media using conclusions of the Senate Intelligence Committee report to contradict the newly declassified House report and Gabbard’s corresponding claims is “it’s not clear that the Senate had the same level of access to source material” that CIA Director [John Ratcliffe] now has.”
“The conclusions about the Steele dossier not being a significant source for the ICA and about the CIA not wanting it included, for example, appear to come from interviews,” continued Bedford. “Brennan just denied again that he wanted it in the ICA when the committee interviewed him in 2018. But Ratcliffe’s memo is based on actual emails from 2016, which tell a completely different story.”
Bedford was referencing the declassified memo released last month by Ratcliffe, which criticized the 2017 ICA and identified “multiple procedural anomalies” in its preparation.
The Associated Press effectively told its readers not to believe their lying eyes in an article titled “Gabbard’s claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents.”
RELATED: If no one goes to jail, the coup was a success
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Like the Post, the AP leaned on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report to suggest there were no politically motivated aspects in the Obama administration’s assessments, but it also refuted arguments that Gabbard did not appear to be making.
Gabbard told Fox News that there “was a shift, a 180-degree shift, from the intelligence community’s assessment leading up to the election to the one that President Obama directed be produced after Donald Trump won the election that completely contradicted those assessments that had come previously.”
Gabbard was referencing how the ICA concluded in early January 2017 that Russia was trying to boost Trump — yet just weeks earlier, the FBI’s director of counterintelligence and the DNI’s national intelligence officer made no such claim in their briefing to Congress on Vladimir Putin’s supposed leak operations.
The AP insinuated, however, that Gabbard was alternatively referring to the intelligence community’s consistent view that there were Russian efforts to manipulate the vote count and concluded “there was no shift.”
Despite the article’s framing, the AP acknowledged that “the material declassified this week reveals some dissent within the intelligence community about whether Putin wanted to help Trump or simply inflame the U.S.”; however, the AP suggested that the dissent detailed in the House report was business as usual and glossed over the fact that the debate concerned violations of analytic tradecraft standards and the inclusion of unreliable or false information.
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Russia gate, Russian collusion, Russia hoax, Obama, Media, Washington post, Coup, Treason, Tulsi gabbard, Donald trump, Election, Moscow, Russia, Politics
Pornography is a threat to families — and to civilization
The French government recently implemented a law requiring internet users to verify their age before accessing adult websites. In response, leading porn purveyor Pornhub blocked access to its site in France, its second biggest market after the United States, citing concern for user privacy.
This is just one piece of a larger effort in France to protect minors online. Authorities have also proposed restrictions on platforms like X and Bluesky, and President Emmanuel Macron has voiced support for banning social media access for children under 15.
The effects of early and chronic pornography exposure go far beyond the individual. What’s at stake is our shared understanding of sex, intimacy, and family.
France is not alone. Pornhub has already pulled out of 19 U.S. states over similar age-verification laws. And across the European Union, countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, and Belgium are either considering new laws or expanding existing ones. Globally, Pornhub is banned in numerous countries, including Russia, China, India, and Pakistan.
At first glance, these laws may seem largely symbolic — easy to bypass for anyone with modest technical skills. And it’s true that they probably won’t stop determined adults or teens from finding workarounds. But that doesn’t mean they’re meaningless. In fact, we should celebrate these laws and others like them for two reasons.
First: Anything is better than nothing. Any law that makes it harder to access pornography is a good thing.
Second: The exposure of children to pornography is one of the most dangerous and under-acknowledged threats to our social fabric.
A 2022 study by Common Sense Media revealed alarming statistics:
The median age of first exposure to pornography is just 12 years old, with many children exposed even earlier. 73% of all minors under 17 have consumed pornography. Of those exposed, 29% viewed it unintentionally, and of that group, 63% had been exposed in just the last week.
These numbers are staggering. They make it clear that pornography isn’t a fringe or hidden danger — it’s ambient. It’s part of everyday life for today’s youth. Even more disturbing: 63% of teens say they’re “OK” with the amount of pornography they consume.
This isn’t just a moral or spiritual problem — it’s a neurological and cultural crisis.
RELATED: Behind closed tabs: How the porn industry’s profits are built on real-world abuse
07_av/iStock/Getty Images
Pornography is addictive — and disordering
Pornography is, by its nature, addictive. Like all addictions, it escalates: To sustain stimulation, the user must consume more — and often more extreme — content. But unlike many other addictions, pornography doesn’t just compromise behavior; it rewires the very foundations of a person’s sexual identity.
This is particularly dangerous for children. Young brains are pliable, and early experiences shape long-term patterns. The brain’s neurochemical response to sexual excitation — especially when triggered by pornography — creates what might be called a “first wire”: a foundational neurological connection that can define future desires, expectations, and impulses.
This is why early sexual exposure is so damaging — and why child sexual abuse causes such long-term trauma. Even in the absence of physical abuse, when the exposure is virtual and indirect, the impact can be profound. The body’s natural processes are being hijacked and twisted at the developmental level. Left unchecked, these patterns harden into addiction and dysfunction.
The cultural fallout
The effects of early and chronic pornography exposure go far beyond the individual. What’s at stake is our shared understanding of sex, intimacy, and family.
When young people learn about sexuality through pornography, rather than through healthy relationships, spiritual formation, or parental guidance, their entire framework for love, marriage, and family is warped. And because sexual identity is upstream from marriage and family, and because marriage and family are the bedrock of civilization, the consequences ripple outward across society.
This is not hyperbole. A society cannot survive without stable, self-giving families. And families cannot form or flourish if children are neurologically and morally disabled before they even reach adulthood. If a generation’s understanding of love and sexuality is shaped by pornography, then everything that flows from sexuality — courtship, commitment, procreation, parenting — is at risk of disintegration.
A moral and political imperative
We must stop treating pornography as merely a private moral failing. It is a public hazard. It is a systemic threat to the future of families, and by extension, to the future of nations.
The United States, a country that promises “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” should feel no hesitation in restricting or even prohibiting the industrial distribution of content that destroys life, undermines liberty, and poisons the very possibility of happiness.
Critics may call such laws prudish or paternalistic. But in truth, they represent a long-overdue return to moral sanity. They affirm what was once widely understood: that children must be protected from premature exposure to sexuality; that families are the cornerstone of any lasting civilization; and that not all freedoms are worth preserving when they come at the expense of human dignity.
A culture that cannot draw a line around what defiles its children is not a culture that can endure. Laws like France’s are a small but essential step in the right direction — and they deserve our full support.
Pornography, Pornhub, France, Lifestyle, Culture, Christianity, Human sexuality, Censorship, Big tech, Online porn, Xxx
A progressive bonfire of the vanities, ‘Mad-Mani’ style
New York City has met many challenges in its history as the capital of capital.
The constant problem that surrounds the city is that with great wealth comes great political profligacy. It is not the first time New York has found itself staring down a time for choosing at the barrel of a gun.
Trump hasn’t yet nicknamed Zohran Mamdani ‘Mad-Mani,’ but whatever he’s called, he’s a real threat to the city.
Tom Wolfe captured the “radical chic” and “mau-mauing” of the compromised big-city life in America, most obviously in San Francisco and New York. But Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his capable chieftains snuffed out the bonfire of the vanities through such commonsense policies like fixing broken windows policing, CompStat, and welfare to work — commonsense policies that fueled an urban renaissance, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg inherited, embraced, and built upon over his three terms.
Memories are short
Somehow, New York voters forgot what unbridled crime in the streets and rampant racialist and redistributionist policies in city hall did to their quality of life. And so they elected Bill de Blasio as mayor. As promised, he swiftly began dismantling the regime of good governance that had made the city great again.
Eric Adams was elected precisely because the people of New York City wanted a return to law-and-order sanity after eight years of de Blasio’s progressive dumpster fire. Sadly, Adams proved to be too ethically compromised to effectively resist the flood of illegal immigrants — many of whom were dispatched on border state buses — who filled the Port Authority. Housed in luxury hotels at taxpayers’ expense, they tested New York City’s sanctuary resolve.
Motivated by his political survival instincts, Adams’ spine stiffened. Conveniently, he was summarily whacked with a federal indictment. “More lawfare!” said his defenders. “Just following the facts where they lead,” countered the Justice Department careerists.
Nevertheless, Adams and Donald Trump found common purpose — and this triggered Democrats in general and progressives in particular. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), naturally, called for Adams to step down “for the good of the city.” You know, the new mantra of the left: guilty until proven innocent.
What are the political odds of Mayor Adams winning against the Democratic Party blob that has just nominated 33-year-old anti-Israel, Marxist Zohran Mamdani as its mayoral nominee? Not good. Right now, far from a coin toss.
RELATED: Mamdani’s socialist New York sounds great — if you don’t have kids
Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Adams and New York City have four months to mount a credible, winning opposition. It’s a window of political opportunity that would not exist if it were not for Trump gratuitously playing a lawfare card of his own in the form of a timely presidential pardon, giving Adams a new lease on life — and New Yorkers a last chance to inhabit a livable city.
Trump hasn’t yet nicknamed Mamdani “Mad-Mani,” so I’ll go ahead and do it for him. Whatever he’s called, he’s a real threat to the city. Peter Orszag spoke for many successful business executives — the ones responsible for New York’s financial health. Appearing on CNBC, Lazard’s CEO revealed how troubling he found Mad-Mani’s “globalize the intifada” language — not to mention the would-be mayor’s antipathy for free-market capitalism and dislike for the wealthy.
New vanguard rising
Orszag strongly hinted that his firm, and all the public and cultural goods that it underwrites, could relocate to more friendly climes. Florida beckons.
What have this longtime Democrat in good standing and others, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), been hearing from the socialist-friendly new guard?
It’s “they” — the old guard — who are no longer in charge of New York City politics. The Brooklyn progressives are running things now. Atop the pyramid is the new Adam and Eve, political power couple Mad-Mani and AOC. The vibe they send out is that they would happily have the old guard acquiesce to their agenda or move to Boca Raton.
What does this ascendant power couple hold to be shared and self-evident? For them, Israel and America are both apartheid states, and capitalism is the engine of inequality. And this anti-Semitic, anti-capitalist, anti-American power couple is trending on Instagram and just won the Democratic primary. AOC is coming for you, Chuck.
An appeal to sanity
Why do Democrats hold fast to obvious falsehoods? The answer is that they are repeating what they have been taught in school, from Head Start to college classes. This is what most American kids are being taught, unless they were homeschooled, took the Catholic school route, or went to Hillsdale College.
Schumer and Orszag know this, as do untold numbers of sensible, centrist Democrats. Many of them know the “Chicken for KFC” mindset firsthand in their own families and that their kids, grandkids, and wives are voting for this madness. The intifada chicken has come home to politically roost — and on your watch and with your wallet.
A new coalition of sanity needs to be built and built quickly. New York is worth fighting for and saving.
While conservatives and centrists were shaking their heads in mirth at the spectacle of “Dykes for Palestine,” AOC was still basking in the spotlight for successfully derailing a proposal from Amazon to build a second headquarters in Queens, adjacent to her congressional district. Not because she wanted the jobs in her Bronx district, but because she didn’t want them in New York City at all. Mind you, this was a project so beneficial to the area — it included some 25,000 jobs — that not only was Andrew Cuomo for it, but so was Bill de Blasio. AOC, though, was content to invoke the specter of “corporate greed,” which is what passes for reasoned debate among this generation of young Democrats.
RELATED: New York City’s likely next mayor wants to ‘globalize the intifada’
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
The reality is that New York City Council, and the protest industrial complex surrounding it, has gotten a lot younger. They are the ones doing the work, organizing, showing up, and winning elections. The Democratic Party is nothing without the protest industrial complex. George Soros and his son pay well and seem to have a taste for chaos.
The progressive ramparts have their favorites. They want true believers running things.
Sorry, Chuck, they are not that into you anymore. Truth be told, they never were.
Although New York has not had a viable two-party system for a long time, when things get bad enough, New Yorkers turn to a law-and-order Republican like Giuliani or an independent like Mike Bloomberg. But do NYC voters really need to wait for all those broken windows — and the chaos it symbolizes — to materialize again before waking up?
It is time for New Yorkers’ wallets to shut tight on Mamdani and open wide for Adams. A new coalition of sanity needs to be built and built quickly. New York is worth fighting for and saving. Its future hangs on the choice those who have not yet left make now.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Opinion & analysis, Bonfire, Vanities, Tom wolfe, Zohran mamdani, Progressives, Marxist, Intifada, New york city, Queens, Mayor eric adams, Mayoral election nyc, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Chuck schumer, Aoc, Broken windows, Law and order, New york city council, Socialism, Brooklyn, Peter orszag, Business, Florida
Can Ghislaine Maxwell finally blow the lid off the Epstein files?
Just weeks ago, Americans were told that the case was closed on Jeffrey Epstein, but in a dramatic turn, Ghislaine Maxwell may be taking the stand to testify.
“Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: What do you know? At @AGPamBondi’s direction, I’ve contacted her counsel. I intend to meet with her soon. No one is above the law — and no lead is off limits,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a post on X.
The House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Maxwell over the Epstein files, and her lawyer has publicly stated in response to the news that she will “always testify truthfully.”
“She’s going to name names,” senior editor for politics and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media Christopher Bedford tells BlazeTV hosts Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson on “Blaze News: The Mandate.”
“The question is, what evidence could be provided for actual prosecutions? Which is always a risk now that the administration faces,” he continues, noting that the “thing about Maxwell” is that “she’s got no dog in this fight.”
“She could be interested in chaos. She could be interested in hurting Donald Trump. She could be interested in helping the cause for truth. Maybe she’s had just a huge turnaround in prison,” he adds.
While Bedford believes her motivations will be “entirely out for herself,” the end result will likely be that she’s going to “hand over names” because she was never offered a plea deal in the first place and might try to get a lesser sentence.
“And here’s the risk in general of the client list,” Bedford says. “The list of people who went to the island is broad. The list of people who went to the island includes artisans, includes workers, includes staff. And then you’re going to have the whole question of, well, a 16-year-old girl who refuses to go on the record and refuses to press charges.”
“We could find some great stuff here. I think we will,” he continues. “But is it going to tidy up the administration’s mess? That’s a different question entirely.”
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Free, Video, Sharing, Video phone, Camera phone, Upload, Youtube.com, Blaze news tonight, Blaze news the mandate, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jill savage, Matthew peterson, Christopher bedford, Jeffrey epstein, Ghislaine maxwell, The epstein files
US nuclear weapons program hacked by foreign agents
Foreign agents were able to penetrate the systems of the U.S. agency responsible for maintaining and designing nuclear weapons.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates under the United States Department of Energy, was compromised along with other sectors of the department.
According to Bloomberg, while the NNSA is semiautonomous, it still holds the responsibility of producing and dismantling nuclear arms in the United States. This makes the intrusion even more concerning when considering the origins of those who penetrated the system.
‘Microsoft is aware of active attacks targeting on-premises SharePoint Server customers.’
The Energy Department revealed in an email to Bloomberg that an “exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy” on Friday, July 18.
The email continued, “The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems. A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored.”
While the government entity did not expose information about the source of the intrusion, Microsoft revealed on its own blog that it has identified multiple hostiles working on behalf of a foreign entity.
RELATED: Microsoft ‘escort’ program gave China keys to Pentagon
Missile launch station in Cold War-era underground bunker, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota. Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
In a blog post published Tuesday, Microsoft explained that vulnerabilities in their SharePoint servers have been targeted by three “Chinese nation-state actors.”
“Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon” were the first two Chinese groups identified by Microsoft, the blog explained. Microsoft then said, “In addition, we have observed another China-based threat actor, tracked as Storm-2603, exploiting these vulnerabilities.”
Microsoft noted in a separate blog post that “on-premises” customers have been under attack as a result of the hack as well.
“Microsoft is aware of active attacks targeting on-premises SharePoint Server customers by exploiting vulnerabilities partially addressed by the July Security Update,” the company wrote.
Although an anonymous source told Bloomberg that no sensitive or classified information was known to have been compromised in the attack, the outlet also reported that the breach was only possible due to a 2020 hack on software manufactured by IT company SolarWinds. That attack swept up a trove of Department of Justice email credentials.
This means that foreign agents have been working against the United States, using the same compromised data for nearly five years.
RELATED: DOJ email accounts compromised in SolarWinds hack attributed to Russians
First thermonuclear test on October 31, 1952. Photograph on display in the Bradbury Science Museum, photo copied by Joe Raedle
The 2020 hack saw the DOJ attribute the malicious intrusions to Russia, with about 3% of its Microsoft Office 365 email accounts potentially compromised.
At the time, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint statement saying the work “indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks.”
Microsoft has advised users to download the latest security updates for the affected programs, as hackers have stolen sign-in credentials, usernames, passwords, codes, and tokens as part of previous attacks, according to Bloomberg.
Blaze News reached out to the Department of Defense regarding any possible exploitations they may be concerned about but did not receive a reply.
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Return, Hack, Hackers, Russia, China, Microsoft, Department of defense, Doj, Department of energy, Tech
Review: James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ is the hero we need in a cynical age
A new DC Cinematic Universe has taken flight with James Gunn’s “Superman.”
While critics from both sides of the political aisle argue over whether the film is “woke” (it’s not), I want to highlight a more meaningful — and largely overlooked — message at the heart of the story: the power of kindness in a cynical, chronically online world. Based on the knee-jerk backlash the movie has inspired online, it’s a message we clearly need.
Some have called this version of Superman ‘weak,’ but I see something else — something that’s been missing from many past iterations: humanity.
While this “Superman” couldn’t be more timely — it explores themes of individuality, idealism in the face of public scrutiny, cancel culture, and life in a social media-saturated society — it ultimately uses these themes to emphasize the timeless traits that have allowed the character to endure for almost a century.
Hassled hero
“Superman” centers on a younger Clark Kent (David Corenswet), who has been active as Superman for just three years. While beloved by many, others see him as a wild card and potential threat — especially after he intervenes in a war between two fictional nations, Boravia and Jarhanpur.
Superman protects the defenseless people of Jarhanpur from Boravian forces, but his actions anger the U.S. government, which fears conflict with Boravian allies. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) seizes the moment, convincing the military to back his surveillance program, “Planet Watch,” as a pretext to go after Superman. He even unleashes a swarm of mind-controlled monkeys to flood the internet with anti-Superman propaganda — #supers**t trending like wildfire.
Meanwhile, Clark’s girlfriend and Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who knows his true identity, challenges him to explain his actions in a professional interview. It’s a complicated, very modern kind of pressure.
Here to help
What makes this Superman compelling is that he’s not driven by politics or power — he just wants to help people. All people. He doesn’t weigh the geopolitical consequences; he sees someone in danger and acts. That impulse, that moral clarity, is what defines him. It’s also what gets him into trouble.
This instinct is rooted in a message from his Kryptonian parents — a message that, when finally decrypted by Luthor, reveals their true plan: They hoped their son would one day rule Earth and repopulate it with Kryptonians. Even Superman didn’t know this. Suddenly, even his most selfless actions come under suspicion.
RELATED: Superman’s message to MAGA: ‘You’re not American’ if you don’t love immigrants
Eric Charbonneau/Warner Bros /Joe Maher/Getty Images
‘Weakness’ or humanity?
Some have called this version of Superman “weak,” but I see something else — something that’s been missing from many past iterations: humanity. He’s not a flawless, all-powerful icon. He’s relatable. Grounded. Fallible. And when the world turns on him, his powers offer no protection from the sting of media outrage or public mistrust. Stripped of certainty, he holds fast to one thing: hope. Hope for a kinder world.
That perseverance — trying to do good even when it’s hard or unpopular — feels deeply human. Isn’t that what we all wrestle with? We want to be seen, to be understood, to be forgiven when we mess up. Especially in the age of cancellation, when any misstep is dissected in real time by a million strangers. Superman, in that sense, becomes a stand-in for anyone who’s tried to do the right thing and gotten burned for it.
There’s even a quiet Christ-like quality to his vision of the world. In one of the film’s most touching scenes, Lois and Clark reflect on their “punk rock” upbringings:
Lois: “You think everything and everyone is beautiful.”
Superman: “Maybe that’s the real punk rock.”
It’s a simple exchange, but it captures everything about this Superman. Like Christ, he sees not the brokenness of humanity, but its beauty and potential. He chooses to love us anyway. He chooses kindness — an underrated value that could very well heal our culture, breaking through our biggest political divides to help us realize we are all human beings made in God’s image.
Daring to believe
And that kindness changes people. Superman’s example inspires Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) and fellow Justice Gang members Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) to stand up for the innocent people of Jarhanpur. Meanwhile, Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) joins Superman in stopping Luthor’s plot to destroy Metropolis.
Despite everything — public outrage, alien expectations, media spin — Superman doesn’t abandon his ideals. He doesn’t lean into resentment or vengeance. He chooses instead the simple truths taught to him by his Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell). In the words of the former: “Your choices. Your actions. That’s what makes you who you are.”
James Gunn’s “Superman” resonates because it dares to believe the best in people. No matter your politics, race, or religion, most of us are doing our best — even when we fall short. And if that’s considered “weak” or “woke,” we should ask what we’ve really come to expect from our heroes.
If kindness is the new punk rock, then maybe punk rock is what will save the world. And who better to lead that charge than Superman?
Superman, James gunn, Culture, Superheroes, Wokeness, Cancel culture, Dc comics, Comic books, David corenswet, Hollywood, Movie review
This Idaho family is perfecting the good night’s sleep
You spend, for argument’s sake, a full third of your life sleeping. Anything you spend 33% of your life doing is obviously very important, even if you aren’t fully conscious when you’re doing it.
And yet people are still surprised when I tell them they could revolutionize their health if they just took their bedtime habits a little more seriously.
These pillows are as American as apple pie.
Consider testosterone, the master male hormone, which men have to thank for libido, muscle mass, drive, and a willingness to put themselves in harm’s way to save a cute little kitten when no one else will. Most of a man’s testosterone is produced at night, so if a man doesn’t sleep properly, he’ll produce less testosterone.
One study, by a researcher called Plamen Penev, showed that if older men double their sleep from four to eight hours a night, they can double their testosterone levels. Just like that. I don’t think there’s another health intervention a man could make that would have such a drastic effect on his hormonal health.
There are many different things you can do — simple things — to improve the quality of your sleep. You can turn off your electronic devices a few hours before bed and start to darken your home, to simulate the natural diurnal rhythms that have governed sleep since time began. You can take a hot shower or bath before bed to lower your core temperature. Really: Doing that can send you off to the land of Nod up to half an hour earlier.
You can change your bedding, too. Of course you want to be comfortable, and if your bedding is itchy or too thick, you won’t be and you won’t sleep. But an under-appreciated aspect of your choice of bedding is whether or not it contains harmful chemicals.
Lab mice sleep on corn-cob bedding. A study showed that corn contains a substance that mimics the “female” hormone estrogen, and so lab mice get a huge dose of artificial estrogen while they sleep, through their skin. Enough, in fact, that it can interfere with reproduction and even make them sterile.
RELATED: Is your home trying to kill you?
Mirrorpix/Getty Images
There haven’t been many studies of the effects of bedding on human health, but we have every reason to believe most bedding, which is made of synthetic fibers and laced with nasty chemicals like fire retardants, is having a negative effect on our health. Dermal contact — through the skin — is one major route for harmful substances to enter the body, and if you have your face buried in a pillow that’s soaked in fire retardant, you’re inhaling that stuff all night long. Do you want to inhale fire retardant all night long?
But help is at hand. The Woolshire, a wonderful little family business up in Idaho, is making the most amazing organic virgin-wool pillows — not a single synthetic fiber or harmful chemical in sight — and what’s more, the company is doing so in a way that benefits its local community and the nation.
All Woolshire pillows are handmade, using antique American machinery and local wool that’s milled in one of the longest-running wool mills in the country, in Montana. These pillows are as American as apple pie.
Wool is a superior material, and not just for pillows. It makes you wonder why we ever stopped using it. I’ll let the good people at the Woolshire explain:
“Wool is naturally flame retardant, self-cleaning, and temperature regulating. It retains its loft, is moisture-wicking, and it is very cozy. It has been used by humans for its incredible properties since the Stone Age.”
The Woolshire currently offers two products: its signature Woolshire pillow, with a variety of different fill depths, and a child’s pillow. I’m told the company will be expanding soon to offer other products, including a travel pillow, a prototype of which I’m lucky enough to own.
All my pillows are now Woolshire pillows, and, honestly, I’ve never slept better.
(Oh, and before you go to the website and order the best pillows money can buy, and then have the best night’s sleep of your life, take this promo code with you. Enter REN at checkout and get 10% off your order. Thank me later.)
Provisions, The woolshire, Maha, Wool, Sleep, Idaho, Lifestyle
Children were drugged and raped in underground bunker, stunned police say: ‘Most horrible thing I’ve ever seen’
Alabama police have arrested seven people so far in a terrifying child sex trafficking ring that involved an underground bunker in the small town of Brent.
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said they opened an investigation into concerns about possible sex abuse on Feb. 4. Four months later, they announced arrests and unbelievable details about what they uncovered.
‘I know God’s forgiveness is boundless, but if there was a limit to it, I think we’ve reached it.’
Initially, police announced four arrests on Saturday related to investigation into the bunker and said that at least six children had been drugged and raped, according to Assistant District Attorney Bryan Jones. The storm shelter was being used as an underground bunker.
The four men arrested were identified as William Chase McElroy, Dalton Terrell, Andres Trejo-Velazquez, and Timothy St. John. Some of the suspects had allegedly confessed to their crimes, according to Jones.
“It’s just unimaginable that someone could do this to a child,” he said. “Children are defenseless, and they depend on adults to take care of them and protect them. And then when adults do these types of things to them, it’s just really horrific.”
McElroy was charged with four counts of first-degree rape, six counts of first-degree human trafficking, six counts of first-degree sodomy, and four counts of first-degree kidnapping.
Terrell was charged with six counts of first-degree rape, 12 counts of first-degree sodomy, and five counts of first-degree human trafficking.
Trejo-Velazquez was charged with six counts of first-degree human trafficking.
Timothy St. John was charged with two counts of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree sodomy, four counts of human trafficking, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of bestiality, and one count of aggravated cruelty to animals.
RELATED: Woman sentenced to life in prison for ‘abhorrent’ abuse of infant
On Wednesday, Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade announced three more arrests.
Rebecca Brewer was charged with eight counts of human trafficking, eight counts of first-degree human kidnapping, and three counts of sexual torture.
Ricky Terrell was charged with one count of rape, but other charges are pending.
Sarah Louis Terrell was charged with one count of sexual torture and two counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old.
Investigators said that some of the offenders were parents of the victims, who ranged in age from 3 to 15 years old. The number of victims increased from six to ten.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years, and this is absolutely the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen when it comes to the victimization of children. I know God’s forgiveness is boundless, but if there was a limit to it, I think we’ve reached it,” Wade said.
Wade said that people would make “appointments” to pay for sexual assault of the children at the bunker.
Images from the underground bunker were released in hopes of jogging the memories of others who might have been similarly victimized.
“There were chairs and beds and things of that nature, and the children were drugged by Mr. Trejo and tied to the bed, into the chair, into a pole. And then people would come and pay money to have sex with these children,” Assistant District Attorney Bryan Jones said.
“It absolutely infuriates me. But we have to kind of put that aside and just do the job. That’s all we can do,” Jones said.
Investigators believe there may be even more perpetrators and victims to be discovered, and more charges may be filed against those already arrested.
“There are some allegations with individuals that we will have a hard time identifying, just because we don’t know their names. And the children were drugged, according to one of the co-defendants. And so they may not be able to recognize or be able to identify anyone,” Jones added.
Victims were handed over to the custody of the Alabama Department of Human Resources.
Brent is a small town of only about 2,900 residents in the center of the state.
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Bunker alabama, Child sex case, Alabama child sex, Bibb county sheriff’s office, Crime
TOP SECRET document reveals Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has released a top secret document — only ever seen by a handful of people — that appears to reveal the truth about Russiagate.
That is that Russia did not have dirt on Trump like the left claimed — but on liberal darling Hillary Clinton.
“It is explosive,” Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck says. “They said Russia was in the bag for Donald Trump, and he’s going to be a puppet because they have so much dirt on him as found in the Steel Dossier.”
But that couldn’t be further from the case, and the top secret document that reveals this has landed in Glenn Beck’s hands.
“The document details SVR, which is the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. And the reports from 2016, from Russia about the hacking of the DNC. Remember, they were hacked and nobody could figure out who hacked them,” Glenn explains.
“Out of that hacking, the Russian foreign service, at least, this is the information they got from intel on the Russia foreign service, that Obama and the Democratic leaders were, and I’m quoting, ‘extraordinarily alarmed about Clinton’s health,’ calling it a ‘potential serious negative impact on her chances,’” he says.
“Type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” he continues, “intensified psycho-emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.”
But that’s not all.
“She was also, according to the intelligence that they got from the Russians based on the DNC hacks, she was allegedly also on heavy tranquilizers every day, obsessed with power and afraid of losing,” Glenn says.
“Russia also knew about the alleged secret meetings where Clinton allegedly offered State Department favors to religious groups for campaign support,” he continues. “Ethical scandals galore, including pressure on the FBI over her email probe via high-ranking DOJ officials. Russia had all of this. All of this.”
“This is what the left always does,” he says, adding, “Whatever they’re accusing us of doing, they’re doing.”
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If no one goes to jail, the coup was a success
Last week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed evidence that the entire Russiagate hoax — a scheme to derail President Donald Trump’s first term — was manufactured by the outgoing Obama administration. At a press gaggle on Tuesday, Trump followed up by accusing Obama of “treason” for trying to rig the 2016 election and calling for severe consequences.
These revelations matter. But unless someone actually goes to jail, they won’t change anything.
MAGA supporters were furious over how the Epstein case was handled because they’re sick of elites skating free.
Democrats have shown they’re willing to jail political opponents — up to and including the president himself. Republicans, on the other hand, have proven utterly incapable of holding lawbreaking leftists accountable. Exposing treasonous acts is helpful, but if no one is punished, the corruption only deepens.
“Lock her up!” wasn’t just a chant at Trump rallies. MAGA supporters understood that the Clintons were deeply corrupt. They saw in Trump a candidate who might finally deliver justice. Elites gasped at the slogan, warning about the dangers of weaponizing the justice system. Then, with no sense of irony, they weaponized that very system against Trump to stop his re-election.
The lesson should have been obvious: Either cross the Rubicon, or don’t approach it at all. But don’t go fishing in it.
Americans are tired of watching the powerful get away with everything. In 2008, bankers crashed the economy and got bailed out. In 2020, Anthony Fauci and the biomedical regime imposed tyranny under the guise of public health. In 2020 and 2024, Joe Biden was propped up by a Democratic cabal that subverted the Constitution and jailed dissidents. The southern border was thrown open to reshape the electorate and lock in leftist power.
Kamala Harris nearly extended that reign — had she not turned out to be the dumbest, most tone-deaf, and most unlikable candidate ever smuggled onto a national ticket.
Yet through all of it, no one in power has paid a serious price for their crimes.
Major revelations come and go. But with no accountability, they become little more than distractions. There may have been a time when shame alone could bring a public reckoning — but our current ruling class is incapable of shame. They don’t resign in disgrace. They don’t retreat. They wait for the news cycle to move on.
The scandals pile up like grains of sand in a desert, each one indistinguishable from the next.
RELATED: Rule by the people? Not anymore in the Western world
Blaze Media illustration
In this environment, exposing corruption becomes just another way to tranquilize the public. People think, “At least the truth is out there — maybe voters will care.” But what if the scandal is about rigging the vote in the first place? If Democrats can open the border, fabricate intelligence, and collude with media to tip elections, then what good is the ballot box?
Exposure, without punishment, doesn’t deter. It emboldens.
The left doesn’t hesitate to jail its enemies. January 6 protesters were locked up for years — including some who never entered the Capitol. Trump officials like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were arrested and imprisoned. Pro-life activists got comically inflated sentences for silent protests. The FBI threatened parents who challenged school boards. Douglass Mackey was convicted for making memes. Trump himself faced fabricated charges that could’ve put him behind bars for life — all to stop his return.
So why are Republicans so cowardly?
If what Gabbard alleges is true, then Barack Obama, James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, and Andrew McCabe conspired to destroy the American electoral system. They manufactured intelligence for the express purpose of overturning a legitimate election.
That is treason, plain and simple.
If these people are allowed to walk, they’ll know they’re untouchable. And they’ll act like it. Again.
Trump seemed genuinely surprised and angered by the backlash to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files. Some speculated it was because Trump himself was implicated, but that was always unlikely. If real dirt on Trump existed, the people fabricating charges against him would’ve used it. Instead, Trump kept comparing Epstein to Russiagate — and now it’s obvious why.
RELATED: Why the Epstein story cannot be buried
Photo by Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
He knew the Russiagate disclosures were about to drop and didn’t want them overshadowed by Epstein.
Still, the connection matters.
MAGA supporters were furious over how the Epstein case was handled because they’re sick of elites skating free. They’re sick of being ruled by people who break the law with impunity. Fauci. Epstein. The Clintons. Americans know they’re governed by some of the worst people on the planet, and they’re done pretending otherwise.
The country is crying out for justice.
But frankly, I don’t think the Trump administration will deliver it. I hope I’m wrong. But I doubt there will be any serious action taken against Obama or the rest of his old guard. Republicans talk tough but never follow through. Even after the left tried to jail and then attempted to assassinate the president, the GOP still wrings its hands over setting a bad precedent.
It’s a bad joke. And everyone knows it.
Revelations are fine. But none of this will matter until the Trump administration grows a spine and puts these people in prison where they belong.
Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Tulsi gabbard, Office of the director of national intelligence, Odni, Russiagate, Russian collusion, Hoax, Barack obama, Pam bondi, James clapper, John brennan, Susan rice, John kerry, Loretta lynch, Andrew mccabe, Conspiracy, Treason, Prosecution, Prison, January 6, Douglass mackey, Kamala harris, Elites, Justice, No one is above the law
Dems furious at Republicans trying to rename Kennedy Center theater after first lady Melania Trump
Democrats are outraged after finding out that Republicans are trying to rename a theater at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., after first lady Melania Trump.
House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee passed a motion to change the name of the second-largest theater at the center to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”
‘It seems outrageous to me. There’s no public consensus around this.’
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine accused Republicans of trying sneak in the “divisive” proposal.
“The Republicans have now given the president six times the normal amount of money to run the Kennedy Center, carte blanche over who will be on the board, and how different parts of the Kennedy Center — perhaps the whole Kennedy Center itself — will be named, and this amendment confirms that,” Pingree said at a hearing.
She further complained in a phone call statement to the New York Times.
“It seems outrageous to me. There’s no public consensus around this. It also leads me to wonder, does the president plan to rename the whole Kennedy Center after himself?” Pingree said.
Trump overhauled the center’s board in February and named himself the chair, angering many on the left.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, also criticized the motion because he identified the first lady with “oppression,” rather than expression.
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces — but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers,” Schlossberg wrote, quoting his grandfather, on Instagram.
“JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” he added. “The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression.”
RELATED: VIDEO: Dancers protest Trump takeover of Kennedy Center in cringiest demonstration possible
ABC News noted that Democrats may be able to strip the bill of the naming provision because it would need 60 votes in the Senate.
One group protested against Trump seizing control of the institution by performing an interpretative dance against the “assault” on their constitutional rights, as they claimed.
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Sunny Hostin melts down over Stephen Colbert’s removal, says cancellation of ‘Late Show’ is ‘dismantling of our Constitution’
“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin went on a melodramatic rant regarding the news of CBS canceling Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show.” The liberal talk show host claimed that Colbert’s upcoming dismissal could be the start of the “dismantling of our Constitution.”
Colbert, 61, recently announced that CBS was canceling “The Late Show” in May 2026.
‘If the comedians are being attacked, then that means our Constitution is being dismantled.’
Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, said in a statement, “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show‘ franchise at that time.”
Paramount Global stressed, “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Inside sources allegedly told the New York Post that CBS is canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” for financial reasons and not political, because the late-night show lost “between $40 million and $50 million a year.”
Colbert has an annual salary of $20 million, a person familiar with the show’s operations told the Wall Street Journal. “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has a staff of 200 employees.
RELATED: Farewell to Stephen Colbert, fake laughs, and lame late-night bias
As Blaze News reported earlier this month, Paramount and CBS settled a lawsuit initiated by President Donald Trump regarding a “deceitful” “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris — who was the Democratic nominee running against Trump at the time. In the settlement, $16 million will be designated to Trump’s future presidential library and to the president’s fees and costs.
Before his dismissal, Colbert reacted to the settlement by skewering his own employer during a “Late Show” monologue: “I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company.”
However, the hosts of “The View” were skeptical that the dismissal of Colbert was driven by financial motives rather than political retribution because of the timing.
Hostin said, “My concern is, if it is political, then everyone should be concerned. People on the right should be concerned. People on the left should be concerned. Because it’s very clear that, if it is political, this is the dismantling of our democracy. This is the dismantling of our Constitution. Right?”
“The First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason, and that is freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to speak truth to power. If that is taken away, if the comedians are being attacked, then that means our Constitution is being dismantled,” Hostin said to a cheering studio audience. “That means the very rubric of our democracy is being dismantled. And I think every single person should be really, really concerned about it.”
RELATED: Colbert gets canceled — by CBS, not conservatives
As outrage swelled over the cancellation of Colbert’s late-night show, Hostin rushed to praise progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who are asking for answers about whether the decision was political.
Hostin declared, “We must protect our Constitution, and we must protect our democracy. This is bigger than just the cancellation of a television show!”
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Sunny hostin, Stephen colbert, The view, Late show canceled, First amendment, Cbs, Political censorship, Colbert fired, Liberal meltdown, Elizabeth warren, Bernie sanders, Trump settlement, Donald trump, News
UNDER OATH: Congress subpoenas Ghislaine Maxwell to testify on Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, has officially been subpoenaed by Congress after making the claim last week that no one ever asked for her testimony in regard to Epstein’s trafficking operation.
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a post on X.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, has confirmed in a response that he and Maxwell “are in discussions with the government” and that “Ghislaine will always testify truthfully.”
“So, things are heating up in this,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments. “Despite the completely botched handling of this from the get-go, we may actually find some truth here.”
However, while Maxwell may be able to give some eye-opening answers and information, BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden is a little worried.
“If they’re talking about going to Ghislaine Maxwell, well, firstly, I’d say, check your camera, Ghislaine, right? Make sure that there’s not a minute gap, right? Because I’d be, like, a lot can happen in a minute,” Marsden says.
“She’s got every reason to sit down and spill the beans on all these people that just threw her under the bus. And she’s looking at dying in prison,” he continues. “So, you want to get out, right? If she can get out in five years and be protected — because that’s what she is going to have to be, protected, clearly — it’ll be interesting to see where this goes.”
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Federal judge says court’s ‘hands are tied’ and rejects Trump administration’s bid to release Epstein transcripts
A judge has denied the Department of Justice’s request to release transcripts from two of the investigations into convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but others are still being considered in separate requests.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ made the request from several federal courts to release material from the Epstein case after a public furor over disappointing revelations from Trump officials on the case.
Rosenberg cited rules set by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and noted that the government conceded.
U.S. District Court Judge Robin Rosenberg of the Southern District of Florida said the “court’s hands are tied” in her ruling to keep the transcripts sealed from grand jury investigations in 2005 and 2007 into Epstein. Rosenberg cited rules set by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and noted that the government conceded.
Epstein’s confidante Ghislaine Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison over sex trafficking charges.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 but received a slap on the wrist, whereas further charges in 2019 were dropped when he was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell while awaiting trial.
Rosenberg’s ruling applies to the investigations from West Palm Beach, but other requests have been made for grand jury transcripts from New York investigations into Epstein in 2019 and one of Maxwell in 2020.
The judges in those cases are not bound by the rules set by the 11th Circuit.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not say whether they would appeal the decision and added only that she would “let this president speak to whether he wants to see an appeal.”
Maxwell has indicated that she would truthfully reveal what she knows if she were called to testify before a congressional panel about what she saw as Epstein’s accomplice.
President Donald Trump has lashed out at some of his supporters who have demanded that more information be released about the infamous pedophile case.
“[Democrats’] new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls**t,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump said Wednesday. “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”
The next day, he ordered the request to be made to release the grand jury information.
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‘Hell will be waiting’ — what grieving mother said next to daughter’s killer Bryan Kohberger left courtroom gasping, laughing
Convicted killer Bryan Kohberger was sentenced on Wednesday for the murder of four University of Idaho students. During the sentencing hearing, the families rightfully lambasted Kohberger for taking the lives of the young college students.
Kohberger — who confessed to the grisly crimes — was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the stabbing murders of 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, and 20-year-old Xana Kernodle. Kohberger, 30, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary. The judge ordered Kohberger to pay $290,000 in financial penalties to the victims’ families.
‘A dead killer doesn’t kill again, so while I’m disappointed the firing squad won’t get to take their shots at you, I’m confident that the men in prison will have their way with you in more ways than one.’
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Steven Hippler blasted Bryan Kohberger as a “coward” who “slithered through the sliding glass door at 1122 King Road,” according to ABC News.
“This unfathomable and senseless act of evil has caused immeasurable pain and loss. No parent should ever have to bury their child. This is the greatest tragedy that can be inflicted upon a person,” Hippler stated before announcing Kohberger’s sentence.
Hippler said, “Parents who took their children to college in a truck filled with moving boxes had to bring them home in hearses lined with coffins.”
Steve Goncalves (Left) / Kristi Goncalves (Right). Photo by Kyle Green-Pool/Getty Images
Hippler acknowledged that we may never know the motive for why Kohberger murdered the four college students in the early morning hours on Nov. 13, 2022.
“As we sit here today, this case is ending, and we are now certain who committed these unspeakable acts of evil,” Hippler stated. “But we don’t know, and what we may never know, is why.”
“I share the desire expressed by others to understand the ‘why,'” Hippler continued. “But upon reflection, it seems to me, and this is just my own opinion, that by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance. We give him agency, and we give him power.”
“The need to know what is inherently not understandable makes us dependent upon the defendant to provide us with a reason, and that gives him the spotlight, the attention, and the power he appears to crave,” he said. “Yet, even if I could force him to speak, which legally I cannot, how could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?”
Hippler asked, “Do we really believe after all this, he’s capable of speaking the truth or of giving up something of himself to help the very people whose lives he destroyed? Rather, I suspect the so-called reason would be dished out in enticing, self-serving, and aggrandizing untruthful bits, leaving people wanting more information, more insight, and thus enhancing even further the power he seeks to hold.”
‘A delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else.’
Hippler said, “The more we struggle to seek explanation for the unexplainable, the more power and control we give to him. In my view, the time has now come to end Mr. Kohberger’s 15 minutes of fame.”
When Kohberger was asked to explain why he senselessly murdered the four college students, he responded, “I respectfully decline.”
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump urged Kohberger to reveal his motives for the quadruple murder.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday, “If it were up to the president, he would have forced this monster to publicly explain why he chose to steal these innocent souls.”
“We are so sorry for the grief and the pain you have experienced at the hands of such a vicious and evil killer,” Leavitt said. “Our nation grieves with you, and we will never forget the precious souls who were lost in this horrific act of evil.”
The families of the slain victims delivered powerful remarks during Kohberg’s sentencing.
KCPQ-TV reported that Steve Goncalves said during the sentencing, “Today, we are here to finish what you started. Today, you’ve lost control. Today, we are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families, the wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community.”
“You tried to break our community apart. You tried to plant fear. You tried to divide us. You failed,” he continued. “Instead, your actions have united everyone in their disgust for you.”
The heartbroken father called Kohberger a “complete joke.”
‘Joy is harder to find. Laughter feels foreign. The world moves forward, but I’m suspended in places of sorrow and rage.’
Alivea Goncalves — Kaylee’s older sister — told the courtroom, “Every day I’m angry.”
“I’m left shouting at the inside of my own head everything I wish I could say to you,” the bereaved sister stated.
“I won’t stand here and give you what you want. I won’t offer you tears. I won’t offer you trembling,” she continued. “Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power. And I won’t feed your beast. Instead, I will call you what you are: sociopath, psychopath, murderer.”
She called Kohberger a “coward” and a “delusional, pathetic, hypochondriac loser who thought you were so much smarter than everybody else.”
“No one is scared of you today. No one’s intimidated by you. No one is impressed by you. No one thinks that you are important,” Alivea Goncalves declared. “You orchestrated this like you thought you were God. Now look at you, begging a courtroom for scraps.”
Alivea added, “The truth, is you’re as dumb as they come, stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty.”
Kristi Goncalves — the mother of Kaylee Goncalves — stated during the sentencing, “When you murdered my daughter, Kaylee Jade Goncalves, you didn’t just take her life, you shattered others.”
“You attacked what you could never be. And in doing so, you left a trail of devastation far beyond that house. You stole my peace,” the grieving mother explained. “You’ve altered my every waking moment, every sleepless night, the way I view the world, people, safety, trust. It’s all been changed by your cruelty.”
Kristi Goncalves revealed, “I no longer recognize parts of myself. Joy is harder to find. Laughter feels foreign. The world moves forward, but I’m suspended in places of sorrow and rage. You’ve taken from me something that can never be restored. The grief sits with me every day, some days quietly, and other days so loud it drowns out everything else. The emotional toll you’ve inflicted on me is immeasurable. I live with a constant ache with birthdays that are now memorials, with holidays that feel hollow, with empty chairs that scream louder than words ever could. I am forever changed.”
She told Kohberger that he is “pathetic” and “not good at anything.”
“A dead killer doesn’t kill again, so while I’m disappointed the firing squad won’t get to take their shots at you, I’m confident that the men in prison will have their way with you in more ways than one,” Kristi Goncalves proclaimed. “You will finally get what you wanted — physical touch. Just probably not how you were expecting it.”
The heartbroken mother described the convicted killer as a “loser” and an “absolute failure.”
“May you continue to live your life in misery. You are officially the property of the state of Idaho, where your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival,” the mother stated. “But it’s okay, because they’re there to help you. Hell will be waiting.”
“A quick message from our youngest daughter: Aubrey wanted to say, ‘You may have received A’s in high school and college, but you’re gonna be getting big D’s in prison,'” Kristi Goncalves stated, which caused the courtroom to erupt in gasps and laughs.
The family of Kaylee Goncalves told ABC News after the sentencing hearing that “the details are more horrific than we can imagine” and that she was stabbed 34 times.
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Bryan kohberger, Bryan kohberger victims, Courtroom drama, Idaho college students, Idaho murders, True crime, Idaho massacre, Crime
‘Absolutely and completely bizarre’: New Hunter Biden interview going viral for weird defense of illegal immigration
Hunter Biden is making news again, this time for his inflammatory podcast interviews, most notably his appearance on Andrew Callaghan’s podcast, “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan.” On July 21, Hunter sat down with the famous YouTuber for a three-hour, expletive-laden interview, during which they broached a number of subjects, including Hunter’s addiction, the 2024 election, his father’s disastrous, career-ending debate performance against Trump, and his disdain for certain Democrats.
Their conversation is “absolutely and completely bizarre,” Glenn Beck says .
But perhaps the most bizarre moment occurred when the duo discussed illegal immigration. Glenn plays the cringeworthy clip of Hunter’s wild defense of illegal immigrants.
“All these Democrats say, ‘You have to talk about and realize that all these people are really upset about illegal immigration.’ F**k you! How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you have food on your f**king table?” Hunter spat, implying that illegal immigrants are worthy of admiration because of “the f**king sheer just grit and will” it took for them to illegally cross our borders.
Then his vitriol turned to Donald Trump. “He’s somehow convinced all of us that these people are the criminals. White men in America are 45 more times likely to commit a f**king violent crime than an immigrant,” he said, before blaming Democrats like David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel for urging the party to address illegal immigration as a legitimate issue that’s important to the public.
“I absolutely love the fact that Democrats will take the point of view that this is who cleans the hotel room … washes your dishes … [picks] your food,” Glenn laughs. “The Democratic slogan should be: Democrats — helping you have cheap food since 1810.”
Glenn’s co-host Stu Burguiere thinks it’s hilarious that Hunter of all people is asking a question about who cleans hotel rooms. “Who cleans your hotel room? God, considering what he’s done to hotel rooms, I hope nobody,” he laughs. “We got to have [illegal immigrants] here to clean the meth dust off the cabinets.”
“Because it gives them dignity,” Glenn quips.
Glenn then plays a satirical ad capturing what the Democratic Party would sound like if it were actually honest about its defense of illegal immigration:
To the hands that scrub my seven-bedroom D.C. home for $4 an hour so I don’t have to, thank you. To the hands that flip burgers to keep Americans fat and stupid so they’ll keep voting for me, thank you. And to the hands that smuggle cocaine into the country for the cartels, thank you — and Hunter Biden says he’s especially grateful. To the hands that build our bridges, hurry the f**k up. My constituents have been waiting for this since 2023. And to the hands that clean the hotels where I host Chinese businessmen for top-secret meetings, thank you. We couldn’t survive without your cheap labor. I mean, we could. The market would just raise wages, but if we can just take advantage of you and secure more votes at the same time, why not?
“[Democrats] are for slavery; [they’re] just negotiating the price,” Glenn says.
To see footage from Hunter’s interview, including his defense of crack cocaine, and to hear more of Glenn and Stu’s commentary, watch the video above.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
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The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Hunter biden, Illegal immigration, Illegal immigrants, Democratic party
House Republicans officially subpoena Epstein’s partner in crime
While Democrats continue to feign outrage over President Donald Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, House Republicans are taking action.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) officially subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell, who co-conspired with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 and is working alongside the Department of Justice to facilitate the deposition at the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on August 11.
‘Transparency is the way that we disinfect.’
Although the Trump administration has tried to turn the page on the Epstein saga, House Republicans have been vocal in their pursuit for transparency.
Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told Blaze News that he would “absolutely” want to see Maxwell testify before Congress.
“Heck yeah,” Burchett told Blaze News. “Get her up there. Let’s talk.”
RELATED: Radical transparency needed to expose, destroy weaponization of intel community, Gabbard says
“Transparency is the way that we disinfect Washington, D.C.,” Republican Rep. Mike Haridopolos of Florida told Blaze News.
Other members, like Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina, cautioned that Maxwell’s testimony might be unreliable while she continues to appeal her case.
“I don’t know what kind of witness she’s going to be and how reliable even what she’s going to tell you is,” Harris told Blaze News. “If it’s going to involve cutting a deal or something like that, I don’t know. … But no question, the information she would have and the insights that she would have would be very valuable and interesting for the American people to hear.”
RELATED: Charlie Kirk outlines ’10 immediate credible action items’ Pam Bondi can take on Epstein case
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
As Maxwell’s legal team continues to appeal her case, the DOJ has also been speaking with her legal counsel to meet with Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator.
“This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Tuesday.
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence,” Blanche added. “If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say. Therefore, at the direction of Attorney General Bondi, I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department.”
“I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days. Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.”
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Ghislaine maxwell, Jeffrey epstein, Epstein files, Donald trump, Trump administration, House republicans, James comer, Tim burchett, House oversight committee, Mike haridopolos, Mark harris, Pam bondi, Doj, Todd blanche, Subpoena, Politics
‘We got him’: Suspect who violently threw rocks at officers during LA ICE riots arrested after fleeing to Mexico, feds say
Prosecutors say the man who was caught on video violently throwing rocks at federal agents during the anti-ICE rioting in Los Angeles was arrested after he fled to Mexico.
Law enforcement officers were violently attacked during the rioting that rocked L.A. for several days in June. More than a month later, one alleged attacker has been apprehended.
‘We got him. He was arrested today at the US-Mexico border.’
“You may remember Elpidio Reyna, a subject who allegedly threw rocks at federal officers during immigration operations in California June 7. We got him. He was arrested today at the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Dan Bongino, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Reyna, who is a 40-year-old resident of Compton, was charged with assault on a federal officer, a felony, according to U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who added that the suspect would appear in court Wednesday.
“He was taken into custody by a U.S. Border Patrol officer who was inside one of the vehicles damaged in the attack — a brave law enforcement officer who could have been killed in last month’s dangerous and reckless attack,” Essayli said.
An FBI notice about Reyna said the officer had been injured in the rock attack. Reyna faces eight years in prison if convicted.
Bongino posted video of the man, who was recorded flinging large rocks at vehicles driven by federal agents.
As previously covered by Blaze News, video from inside the vehicles showed the violence aimed at federal agents.
“To anyone who thinks they can attack federal officers and hide behind a mask or helmet, Reyna’s arrest today proves we can find and charge anyone who violates federal law. Don’t touch our officers,” Essayli warned.
“More to come. Those who attack America’s police officers can run but they can’t hide,” Bongino added.
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Elpidio reyna, La ice riots, Anti-ice rioting, Rock throwing attack, Politics
Migrant workers take over block in NYC with e-bikes for food delivery and night watchman, ‘shocked’ locals say
New York City residents were shocked to find that e-bikes from migrants delivering food had taken over an entire city block.
Residents told the New York Post that the e-bike takeover began small but has exploded into dozens and led to the migrants hiring a guard to watch the bikes against theft overnight.
‘I was shocked. It was like somebody put out the word and everyone swarmed.’
Gig jobs for food delivery are very popular with illegal aliens because they can rent a vehicle and invent work-arounds to avoid work verification requirements on the online apps.
According to NYC locals, the e-bikes at the East Village block exploded to 50 overnight. The unsanctioned lot is located on 11th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A in Manhattan.
“It’s not great to look at, but I understand that they need to make a living,” said one resident, identified only as Dave L., who had resided on the block for two years. “I was shocked. It was like somebody put out the word and everyone swarmed.”
The Post documented 50 e-bikes with food delivery boxes on one night. The report also said the lot was located only 200 feet from a school for students in grades 6-12 and near the Lower East Side playground as well.
The report included comments from Andre, a migrant from Mongolia who keeps his bike at the lot.
“There’s a lot of work in the East Village, not like the Bronx,” he told the Post. “So I come here to work.”
When asked if he worries about his bike being stolen, he responded: “Everyone shows respect.”
Another migrant confirmed to the Post that someone watched over the bikes during the evening to prevent theft.
Some of the residents didn’t object to the e-bike lot.
“It’s not any more of an eyesore to me than a car is,” said a resident named Margaret.
Residents in San Diego were not as sanguine when migrants overwhelmed brick-and-mortar businesses with food carts. The animosity led to an aggressive confrontation between a restaurant worker and a food cart vendor that was caught on video and went viral on social media.
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Nyc migrants, Ebikes in nyc, Illegal alien food delivery, Nyc loves migrants, Politics
