Category: blaze media

Yesterday, 23-year-old Robin Westman fired through windows of Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killing two children, aged 8 and 10, and injuring 17 others, 14 of whom were children and three of whom were elderly parishioners. Westman also died from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Shortly after the heinous event, it was revealed that Westman identified as transgender. Before he changed his name to Robin, his name was Robert.

But before the news about Westman’s gender identity broke, Liz Wheeler, BlazeTV host of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” intuitively knew the shooter would be trans.

“Before we knew the identity of this shooter, this murderer, I predicted … that the shooter would be trans,” she says.

How was Liz able to predict Westman’s gender identity with such precision?

Because there’s an undeniable link between transgenderism and violence.

“The transgender ideology is intended to be violent. The transgender ideology is intended to do exactly what it did to Audrey Hale in Nashville and exactly what it did to Robert Westman in Minneapolis,” she says. “It’s intended to turn vulnerable young people into kamikazes.”

Transgender ideology, coupled with critical race theory, is how the left unleashes destruction, Liz explains, noting that both of these frameworks are “offshoots of critical theory” — “a Marxist theory that came out of the Frankfurt School back in the 1960s.”

Critical theory, she explains, uses “relentless criticism of institutions,” using the “Marxist dialectic” of “the oppressor versus the oppressed” to sow discord and bring destruction on the culture, specifically race and gender.

“So what happens when our children are indoctrinated with critical race theory and then trans ideology?” she asks.

When it comes to CRT, white kids “start feeling this incredible self-loathing because they’re told it doesn’t matter how you think about people of another race; it doesn’t matter if you aren’t racist at all. … Because the color of your skin means that you enjoy white privilege. All of your success is built on the back of those who were oppressed by people who look like you hundreds of years ago, and you bear responsibility for that.”

Then they’re hit with queer theory, which tells them that if they experience “any kind of feelings of confusion or discomfort in [their] body, [they] can change [their] gender.”

What is the effect of this combination? Ashamed white children, but especially boys, are damned to wear the badge of white oppressor unless they can prove that they’re also a victim. And how do they do that?

“Become one of the oppressed,” Liz says.

“Put on this mantle, this LGBTQIA+++ mantle. Suddenly, you’re one of the oppressed, and you’re okay. You’re not bad. You’re not toxic. You’re not evil. You’re a victim.”

The final stage of grooming comes next. Once a child is blinded by the victimhood narrative, they’re told that the oppressors are Christians, conservatives, and anyone who opposes their ideology.

“They’re told, ‘Watch out. You’re going to be subject to a genocide inflicted by Republicans and by Trump,”’ Liz says. “They are turned against themselves and everything around them.”

Hatred consumes them, and they convince themselves that heinous acts of violence are justified. They may even see themselves as heroic — as “vanguards” of the revolution.

That’s how people like Robert Westman and Audrey Hale are born, and that’s why Liz knew that the Minneapolis shooting was almost certainly a transgender-identifying person.

“Christ have mercy on our nation,” she pleads.

To hear more of Liz’s analysis, watch the episode above.

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​The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, Minneapolis, Minneapolis shooter, Blazetv, Blaze media, Robin westman, Robert westman, School shooting, Transgenderism, Marxism, Critical race theory, Crt, Queer theory 

President Donald Trump issued a novel suggestion for the pivotal midterm elections at the same time that Democrats are considering a similar option.

The president said that his policy successes have been so great that they merit a national convention to celebrate before voters return to the ballot box in November 2026.

‘It has never been done before.’

“The Republican Party is doing really well. Millions of people have joined us in our quest to MAKE AMERICA, GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“We won every aspect of the Presidential Election and, based on the great success we are having, are poised to WIN BIG IN THE MIDTERMS,” he added.

He cited a recent campaign finance report that showed the Republican National Committee defeating the Democratic National Committee by a massive margin in donations. The RNC ended up with nearly $81 million in cash in June, while the DNC had only $15.2 million.

“The results are incredible, a record pace!!! In that light, I am thinking of recommending a National Convention to the Republican Party, just prior to the Midterms,” he added. “It has never been done before.”

The statement might have been in response to a report Wednesday from Axios confirming that Democrats are considering a return to a midterm convention, a practice which the DNC ended in the mid-1980s.

“To showcase our tremendous candidates running up and down the ballot and harness the amazing grassroots energy we’re already seeing, several options are on the table for next year, including hosting a large-scale gathering before the midterms,” a spokesperson for the DNC said.

RELATED: Trump unleashes at CPAC 2025: Vows to ‘drain the swamp’ and ignites boisterous cheers

The pivotal midterms will determine which party controls Congress and whether the president’s agenda will be supported or opposed by the vote of the legislature.

State lawmakers in Republican-controlled Texas are looking to redistrict the state map in order to tip the scales in the midterm elections, and lawmakers in Democrat-controlled states like California and New York are threatening to do the same to counteract those efforts.

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​Trump convention, Midterm conventions, Trump midterms, Midterm elections, Politics 

The Cracker Barrel company appeared to completely concede the battle over its rebranding effort on Thursday when it deleted a statement of support for the LGBTQ agenda on its website.

Some critics had noted that the company’s decision to change back to the original logo was somewhat meaningless because it had not revoked its LGBTQ statement. Two days later, it appears to have acquiesced.

‘Huge. Our movement has achieved total victory once again.’

The company issued a statement to Fox News Digital after the LGBTQ erasure.

“In connection with the company’s brand work, we have recently made updates to the Cracker Barrel website, including adding new content and removing … out-of-date content,” read the statement. “Several months ago, the company also made changes to our Business Resource Groups that now focus all sponsorships or events on our corporate giving initiatives: addressing food insecurity, supporting community needs through food, and reducing food waste.”

The deletion of the Pride page at the company website also erased a statement of support for the Nashville Pride Parade.

On Tuesday, the company announced that it would return to its “Old Timer” logo after having offered a new, modernist design with updated font and no image.

“Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain,” said the company. “At Cracker Barrel, it’s always been — and always will be — about serving up delicious food, warm welcomes, and the kind of country hospitality that feels like family.”

RELATED: ‘Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER Again’: Trump says restaurant chain can take advantage of controversy

Photo by GREGORY WALTON/AFP via Getty Images

Activist Robby Starbuck was among those who led the opposition and declared victory after the newest concession.

“Huge. Our movement has achieved total victory once again,” he wrote on social media. “Our movement is so powerful that even I can’t believe it sometimes. While the media credits me with these wins, we all know the truth. … These companies don’t fear me, they fear US. I’m just blessed to be your megaphone (and a pretty damn relentless researcher).”

The company’s stock price plummeted the day after the rebranding announcement, but it has slowly recovered and is slightly above its price level before the rebranding.

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​Cracker barrel, Woke rebranding, Culture war, Lgbtq agenda, Politics 

An eight-woman marketing team concocted a rebrand of the legendary breakfast spot Cracker Barrel — and it could not have gone worse.

The rebrand oversaw the removal of the old country white man and vintage type from the logo and replaced it with sterile, soulless lettering. This got the attention of Americans across the country, who then took a deeper look into the company’s policies.

“Look at all these DEI policies they have. Look at all the LGBTQ stuff they had,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Fearless.” “And the next thing you know, Cracker Barrel, its stock is plummeting. People are starting to boycott the way people boycotted Target.”

“This was a disaster put on by this eight-woman marketing team,” he adds.

Whitlock believes what’s happened to the once-beloved company is part of a bigger cultural issue and can be blamed on feminism.

“They’ve made diversity the ultimate goal rather than excellence. That’s what this is all about. And so they look at everything. They look at the logo and the branding and everything from the past when it was a competition among men. … They look at anything like that from the past as, ‘That’s bad, that’s evil, that must be eradicated, that must be erased,’” Whitlock explains.

“And so they get triggered,” he continues. “They see, ‘Why is an old white man the logo for Cracker Barrel? Let’s remove him.’ And they’re doing this throughout all of American society. Eliminating male leadership because they have convinced everybody that diversity is the goal.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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​Video, Free, Video phone, Upload, Sharing, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Cracker barrel, Conservative podcast, Feminism, Anti-feminist, Jason whitlock, Crack barrel rebrand, Lgbtq, Dei, Lgbtq agenda 

During a press gaggle this week, President Trump casually announced that the United States would allow 600,000 Chinese nationals to enter the country as college students. He has long focused on improving relations with China, but the idea of importing and educating such numbers runs against the America First instincts of his voters.

When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked why these students were so important, he admitted that many U.S. universities would go out of business without foreign enrollment. For the right, that sounds less like a warning and more like a promise.

Republicans once opposed bailouts for failing businesses. Why make an exception for universities that train activists and foreigners to despise America?

Ending large-scale immigration from a rival power while letting bankrupt institutions fail should be an easy win. Instead, the Trump administration seems poised to prop up anti-American universities by training the children of our most dangerous adversary.

Why import students from our greatest rival?

Every conservative politician and pundit insists that China is America’s foremost threat. It has a massive population, vast economic leverage, deep investments in resources, and ambitions to expand its sphere of influence. Its military is large, its weapons advanced, and its spies operate regularly on U.S. soil. A hot war may be unlikely, but it is fair to call China our greatest economic and geopolitical rival. So why are we welcoming Chinese nationals into the country, much less into our most prestigious schools?

America’s broader immigration crisis has already ravaged our job market, housing market, health system, and education system. Illegal immigration rightly comes first: Illegal aliens are unvetted, often smuggled in by cartels and gangs, and begin their stay by breaking the law.

But the public is waking up to the damage caused by legal immigration as well. The administration recently admitted there are 55 million active visa holders eligible to enter the United States — a number equal to the combined populations of Florida and Texas. Voters want both illegal immigration ended and legal immigration slashed.

Chinese nationals should be first on the block. If China is truly our enemy, why would we let any of its citizens inside? The Chinese state is infamous for espionage. Its spy network has penetrated American government, military, corporations, and universities. These spies don’t just chase classified secrets; they steal research and technology from labs and departments. Commentators like Eric Weinstein have suggested that universities slow their own programs for fear that breakthroughs will be stolen by foreign students. America is holding back its own scientific progress to import spies. That’s insane.

Educating tomorrow’s rivals

The danger goes beyond espionage. Universities don’t just teach skills; they confer the credentials that grant access to elite institutions in business, science, and government. A Chinese student who returns home brings knowledge and prestige that strengthen a rival nation. One who stays uses that same credential to climb into elite corporations or agencies that shape American culture, policy, and economy. Why would we seed our leadership class with foreign nationals from our chief adversary?

This also raises the question of whom our universities exist to serve. In a Fox News interview, Howard Lutnick admitted outright that these Chinese students would displace Americans from top universities. That isn’t speculation; it’s an open admission. Under an America First agenda, displacing native students for the children of foreign rivals is indefensible. Taxpayer-backed institutions must put American children first.

The bailout excuse

Lutnick argues that Chinese students keep universities solvent. Foreign students pay higher tuition and receive less aid. So what? The idea that universities are too big to fail and must be bailed out with foreign visas is laughable. Many schools already hoard enormous endowments. If others collapse, that’s the market working. Republicans once opposed bailouts for failing businesses. Why make an exception for universities that train activists and foreigners to despise America?

RELATED: ‘Paperwork Americans’ are not your countrymen

Blaze Media Illustration

The truth is that universities are ideology factories. They churn out left-wing radicals who hate America and despise Christianity. Yes, we still need doctors and engineers, but there is no reason to subsidize this industry with mass immigration. Republicans should be forcing universities to purge their bias or lose government funding. Instead, they are keeping them afloat with students from a hostile foreign power.

America First means Americans first

Trump often makes sweeping statements he never intends to enact. This may be a bargaining ploy in negotiations with Xi Jinping. But sovereignty should never be a chip in trade talks. Chinese enrollment peaked at 372,000 in 2020 and fell to 277,000 in 2024. Now the administration is talking about more than doubling it. The correct number isn’t 600,000. It isn’t 277,000. It’s zero.

The United States should stop importing enemies to enrich its ruling class. American universities should exist for Americans. That is what America First must mean.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, International students, Chinese students, Immigration, Immigration crisis, China, Spies, Espionage, Anti-america, Ideology, America first, Donald trump, Student visas, Howard lutnick, Trade 

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is executing a historic shake-up at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to maximize efficiency, save taxpayers money, and make America healthy again. The full-spectrum changes have enraged establishmentarians both inside and outside his agency.

It’s clear from the executive ouster and revolt that took place Wednesday at the Centers for Disease Control that Kennedy is not backing down and upsetting all the right people.

Susan Monarez — figured for a mainstream nominee after President Donald Trump’s first pick, Dave Weldon, was concern-mongered out of contention — was sworn in as CDC director on July 31. She was not long for the role.

Early Wednesday evening, HHS announced that “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

The department noted further that Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC “who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

Hours later, attorneys Abbe Lowell and Mark Zaid released a joint statement noting that their client, Monarez, “has been targeted” for supposedly refusing “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts” and choosing to protect “the public over serving a political agenda.”

RELATED: Doctors sue CDC over childhood vax schedule, demanding proof it does more good than harm

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The attorneys noted further that Monarez “had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired” and that she refuses to resign.

The White House was quick to burst their bubble, notifying her that she was fired.

White House spokesman Kush Desai told the New York Times in a statement both that Monarez was “not aligned with the president’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” and that “the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.”

The Washington Post editorial board hinted in June at Monarez’s “power to frustrate the anti-vaccine agenda of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” noting she was a champion of mRNA vaccines — the very vaccines Kennedy pulled the plug on this month — and that she could fight the health secretary’s appointees on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to protect the current childhood vaccine schedule.

Blaze News has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

‘They risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.’

While it’s presently unclear which straw broke the camel’s back, an official alleged to the Times that Kennedy ordered Monarez to his office on Monday and demanded her resignation. Upon her refusal, Kennedy allegedly told her to can the CDC’s top leadership by week’s end.

According to the unnamed official, Monarez tried to go over Kennedy’s head, complaining to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), chairman of the Senate health committee, and other senators. This reportedly infuriated Kennedy, prompting him to allegedly accuse Monarez of “being a leaker.”

Zaid claimed that because President Donald Trump had not personally told Monarez to hit the bricks, the notification of her termination was “legally deficient and she remains as CDC director.”

While Monarez is apparently resisting her ouster, the top leadership at the CDC went willingly.

RELATED: How Big Pharma left its mark on woke CDC vax advisory panel — and what RFK Jr. did about it

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

NBC News confirmed that at least four officials threw in the towel, including Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease; and Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

Demetre Daskalakis, the sex-obsessed homosexual “activist physician” who served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and previously served as Joe Biden’s monkeypox adviser, announced on Wednesday that he too was resigning, likening his decision to a Greek partisan’s fight against fascist forces.

Blaze News previously reported that Daskalakis, an LGBT activist with a track record of pushing drugs to facilitate promiscuous sexual behavior among homosexuals, had a history of denigrating straight Americans, sharing satanic imagery on social media, and showing up in public in bondage gear.

Daskalakis’ resignation letter, which he shared on X, is full of clues pointing to why Kennedy may have wanted someone else at the top of the agency.

In addition to using the term “pregnant people” in reference to expectant mothers, the monkeypox expert personally attacked Kennedy; retroactively rejected the “thoughts and prayers” shared by the health secretary and his colleagues in the wake of the Aug. 8 shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta; criticized recent changes to the adult and children immunization schedules; bemoaned Kennedy’s replacement of industry-compromised members on the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel; and equated support for natural immunity to “eugenics.”

Daskalakis also noted that he was resigning because of the “recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision.”

“If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States,” added the monkeypox expert.

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​Centers for disease control and prevention, Cdc, Health and human services, Hhs, Robert f. kennedy jr, Rfk, Kennedy, Susan monarez, Abbe lowell, Mark zaid, Demetre daskalakis, Politics 

Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas is taking charge of codifying President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

Pfluger, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, recently introduced a bill that would ensure only American citizens are counted in the United States census, according to bill text obtained exclusively by Blaze News. The legislation, dubbed the COUNT Act, will ensure that illegal aliens are omitted from the census in order to fairly apportion congressional seats.

‘We cannot allow Democrats to weaponize our census.’

“The Biden administration sabotaged our census system to count millions of illegal aliens as American citizens, robbing congressional seats from law-abiding Republican states, including shortchanging my home state of Texas by at least one seat,” Pfluger told Blaze News.

“This is nothing short of a constitutional crisis.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Congress pushes bipartisan bill preventing Mexico’s ‘illegal seizure’ of American assets

Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Under former President Joe Biden’s purview, the administration effectively rigged the census to include millions of illegal aliens into the census, skewing congressional representation in favor of Democrats. As a result, everyday American citizens were overshadowed and overlooked by Democrats’ desire to secure a political advantage.

The census currently does not require individuals to provide proof of citizenship, often including illegal immigrants into the official count, which later informs congressional apportionment. Despite the clear malpractice, Democrats are keen on keeping with the status quo.

In May 2024, 202 Democrats unanimously voted against the Equal Representation Act, which requires the census to include a citizenship questionnaire designed to prevent illegal aliens from being included in the total count. Senate Democrats also unanimously defeated an amendment proposed by Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee in March 2024, which would similarly require a citizenship questionnaire on future censuses.

RELATED: Exclusive: DHS reveals ‘record-shattering’ winning streak on immigration

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

“That’s why I’m introducing the COUNT Act to permanently codify the executive order President Trump signed into law during his first term, creating a citizenship database that ensures only American citizens determine congressional representation and funding, because we cannot allow Democrats to weaponize our census again,” Pfluger told Blaze News.

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​August pfluger, Republican study committee, Count act, Border crisis, Census, Joe biden, Donald trump, House republicans, Senate republicans, Bill hagerty, Texas, Congressional redistricting, Illegal aliens, Senate democrats, House democrats, Politics 

The internet is sounding the alarm on a “wellness drink” that has been growing rapidly in popularity in recent years. While the marketing for the drink makes it sound like a harmless herbal supplement to take the edge off after a long day, the lesser-known ingredients in the drinks are causing unexpected, massive problems with users.

TikTok @yourbestiemisha recently described how a boy in his early teens approached him in a gas station, asking the man to purchase some “Feel Free” for him. When @yourbestiemisha refused, the teen reportedly lunged at his wallet in desperation. When he informed the gas station clerk, the clerk reported that it was a known problem and showed him the drink in the little blue bottle behind the craze.

Kratom’s opioid-like effects are pronounced enough that researchers have tried using it to treat opioid addicts — only to discover that kratom itself can create addiction.

Botanic Tonics touts its product Feel Free as a “feel-good tonic [that] features kava root and other plant ingredients known to help with relaxation, productivity and focus.” Left unmentioned is a crucial ingredient: kratom.

K-hole

According to the Mayo Clinic, the effects of kratom — derived from the leaves of a tree native to Southeast Asia — are largely unknown, and the substance is therefore labeled as “unsafe and ineffective.”

Furthermore, “kratom products have been found to have heavy metals, such as lead, and harmful germs, such as salmonella, in them. Salmonella poisoning can be fatal. The FDA has linked more than 35 deaths to salmonella-tainted kratom.”

Kratom also produces different effects depending on the dose. At low doses, it can act as a stimulant, which is what is often advertised in the health drinks. At higher doses, on the other hand, it acts as a depressant. Because kratom is not regulated in the U.S., the exact dosages on the labels may not be accurate.

RELATED: Study warns of possible link between world’s most popular painkiller and autism

Endah Widiarti/Getty Images

Kratom’s opioid-like effects are pronounced enough that researchers have tried using it to treat opioid addicts — only to discover that kratom itself can create addiction.

Easy access

Unfortunately, it was not at all difficult to find Feel Free locally in the suburbs of Dallas. Two CBD stores and two gas stations into my search, I had a bottle of Feel Free ($10.91 with tax) in my hand. The clerk at the first gas station said they used to carry it but didn’t know why they don’t have it anymore.

The CBD stores did not carry Feel Free but were vaguely aware of it. Instead, they directed me to a wide selection of kratom in other forms: Full-size drinks, tinctures, powders, and capsules were on full display — all for a premium price.

‘Liquid heroin’

On X, commentator Mike Cernovich called out the harmful effects of Feel Free and other kratom-based drinks: “Those ‘Kratom energy shots,’ often with colorful packaging marketed to children, are anything but natural. They are loaded with 7-OH, which is liquid heroin. It’s a travesty that Secretary Kennedy hasn’t had these dangerous products removed, and that the DEA hasn’t made arrests.”

The DEA’s website confirms that “kratom leaves contain two major psychoactive ingredients (mitragynine and 7-hydroxymytragynine),” which cause addiction-like symptoms in its users. The DEA says symptoms include “hallucinations, delusion, and confusion, nausea, itching, sweating, dry mouth, constipation, increased urination, and loss of appetite. Long-term use can cause anorexia, weight loss, and insomnia.”

Road to ruin

Anecdotally, Reddit users have described financial problems stemming from dependence on the substance, which retails for around $10 per 2-ounce bottle. Others complain of side effects including dry or cracked skin, dependence, weakness, panic attacks, weight loss, extreme nausea, morning illness; and hangover-like symptoms.

Many lobby groups have pushed for tighter regulation on the processing and distribution of kratom, but the government has yet to take any decisive steps toward cracking down on this harmful substance. In the meantime, those looking for a quick pick-me-up should “feel free” to pass on this potentially venomous snake oil.

​Wellness, Kratom, Feel free, Opioids, Fda, Lifestyle 

Readers of Blaze News may recall the recent tale involving a male caught on surveillance video chucking a bottle of Orange Crush at a Florida convenience store worker and knocking out the victim.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the Seven Star store at 6940 Old Highway 37 in Bradley regarding a physical attack against a store employee on the evening of Aug. 3.

‘You ain’t gonna do nothin’ to me, boy!’

Authorities said first responders found the adult male victim “bleeding profusely” above his right eye — an injury that required 10 stitches and apparently resulted in a concussion.

An investigation revealed that a suspect entered the store along with two other men and accused the victim of “staring at him,” officials said.

The victim told the suspect to get his items and leave, officials said. But as you might guess, the suspect apparently didn’t take too kindly to the directive.

Authorities said the victim and suspect continued to “loudly” exchange words, after which the suspect “threw a full, unopened, plastic 2-liter [bottle] of Orange Crush at the victim’s head.”

The victim fell unconscious, officials said, and the suspect and his friends left the store.

In the below video of the attack, the suspect appears to state, “You ain’t gonna do nothin’ to me, boy!” after knocking the store employee to the floor.

RELATED: Florida thug caught on video knocking out store clerk with 2-liter bottle of Orange Crush. What set him off is an eye-opener.

Detectives identified the suspect as 30-year old Terry Lamar Johnson Jr. of Mulberry, officials said, adding that an arrest warrant was obtained for Johnson with a charge of felony battery causing great bodily harm, and cops began looking for him.

The sheriff’s office previously told Blaze News that Johnson was in jail in May after a charge of possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended or revoked license. The sheriff’s office also told Blaze News that Johnson in the past had been charged with grand theft, aggravated assault, battery, resisting, and “numerous” weapons violations.

Below is Johnson’s previous mugshot:

RELATED: Violent suspect actually bites K-9’s ear amid arrest, Florida sheriff says: ‘You can’t make this stuff up’

Terry Lamar Johnson Jr. Image source: Polk County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

Johnson finally was captured last Thursday, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office told Blaze News that Johnson’s charge of felony battery causing great bodily harm is a third-degree charge and that he posted a $10,000 bond Saturday just after midnight. The sheriff’s office added that Johnson’s arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 22.

The penalty in Florida for a felony battery causing great bodily harm conviction is up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

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​Felony battery causing great bodily harm, Florida, Polk county sheriff’s office, Physical attack, Staring, Knocked out, Orange crush bottle, Arrested, Crime 

Trans-identifying degenerates have carried out or attempted to carry out a number of mass shootings in recent years.

For instance, in March 2023, a trans-identifying woman stormed into a Presbyterian elementary school in Nashville and murdered three 9-year-old children — Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs — and three adults — teacher Cynthia Peak, custodian Mike Hill, and head of school Katherine Koonce.

‘She identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.’

In April 2024, a male-identifying woman planned to shoot up an elementary school and a high school in Maryland but was thankfully stopped in time by police, then later convicted.

The liberal media has consistently used used the preferred pronouns of these and other murderous trans-identifying criminals in an apparent effort to coddle the offenders and to placate LGBT activists.

A trans-identifying man formerly known as Robert Westman shot up a Catholic church full of children in Minneapolis on Wednesday, injuring 17 and killing two kids, ages 8 and 10. After the shooter was revealed to be a so-called “transgender,” the media once again feverishly rushed to accommodate and reinforce this delusion.

CNN talking head Jake Tapper noted on his show that the gunman’s mother “applied to change her child’s name in 2019. It was at one point Robert Paul Westman.”

“But since she identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification, was underage, it’s now Robin Westman,” continued Tapper, faithfully employing the killer’s preferred pronouns.

RELATED: Attacks against American Catholics and churches are out of control

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

While Newsweek initially referred to the shooter using male pronouns, it updated its article on the gunman, referring to him as a “her.” The Daily Mail went the distance, using both she and her pronouns in reference to the dead man.

‘If you’ve noticed, they are misgendering and dead-naming the murderer.’

In a section that has since been scrubbed, the Washington Post referred to the shooter as Mary Westman’s “daughter” — a term the publication Le Monde also used in reference to Mary Westman’s murderous son — and called the gunman a “she.” The Post later added that the gunman was “assigned male at birth.”

While the Independent dared to call Westman a “he,” it similarly referred to the trans-identified shooter as a plurality, using the possessive pronoun “their.”

The New Republic and the Guardian both opted to avoid male pronouns although the former noted that Westman “shot themself in the back of the church” and the latter stated that Westman “killed themself.”

When several liberal publications correctly referred to the trans-identifying female shooter behind the Covenant School massacre in 2023 as a woman, James Kirchick, a contributing writer to the New York Times, aped out, telling Bill Maher, “If you’ve noticed, they are misgendering and dead-naming the murderer. Right? They are referring to the murderer by their given name, not their chosen name … referring to her as a woman, as opposed to what her identity apparently was — was a man.”

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears weighed in, telling Maher and the liberal writer, “Hang on, you know what: This person murdered six people. I don’t really care who you say you are. You murdered six people, and three of them were children.”

“You don’t get a say,” continued Earle-Sears, noting that’s a forgone conclusion in this case because “she’s dead now, so you know.”

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​Church shooting, Minneapolis, Annunciation, Catholic, Catholic church, Mass shooting, Tranny, Troon, Transgender, Transvestite, Robert westman, Robin westman, Media, Liberal media, Jake tapper, Politics 

“Individual and human rights, liberty, and equality predate governments because they do not originate from governments.”

This is a line out of Mark Levin’s new book, “On Power” — a deep dive into the nature of power, its historical roots, and its impact on liberty and governance in America.

It’s also a reiteration of the most critical part of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

“Those two sentences are so important,” says Levin.

He explains that this idea that “God is sovereign and God’s children on earth are His sovereign children” is what distinguishes America – a “fusion of the Judeo-Christian value system” and “the Enlightenment” — from “Marxism and all the isms.” We the people get to decide how we’re governed.

If this is who America is, then why do we have bureaucrats and unelected judges calling so many of the shots?

“The bureaucracy has nothing to do with the consent of the governed,” Levin condemns, castigating the unelected judges and bureaucrats who continue to “devour the powers of the executive.”

This clash between America’s founding principles of individual liberty and the opposing ideology of centralized control by unaccountable powers is unsustainable, he argues.

“The basis for America’s founding and the ideology of the American Marxists are utterly incompatible,” he says, pointing to the “power struggle that exists today and has for 100 years or more” between worldviews about individual liberty and centralized control.

Levin’s “On Power” calls for reclaiming the consent of the governed, urging Americans to resist encroachments on their God-given rights by unaccountable powers, echoing the revolutionary spirit of the Declaration.

If you haven’t already, get your copy today.

Want more from Mark Levin?

To enjoy more of “the Great One” — Mark Levin as you’ve never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Levintv, Mark levin, Blazetv, Blaze media, Declaration of independence, Bureaucracy, Unelected judges, We the people, Marxism 

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, is reportedly under investigation for allegedly mishandling classified information. If held to his own standard, then his days as a free man might be numbered.

Nearly a year after the FBI’s 2022 raid of Trump’s Palm Beach residence, Jack Smith — the special counsel illegally appointed by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland — charged Trump with supposedly mishandling classified information.

‘Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreements.’

Bolton was among those who rushed to attack the president, happily touring liberal newsrooms with smears and speculation. He told Biden press secretary turned MSNBC talking head Jen Psaki, for instance, that he was “pretty confident” the allegations in the Trump indictment were true.

While admittedly oblivious to the contents of the documents that Trump supposedly retained, Bolton told CNN, “They did go to absolute, the most important secrets that the United States has, directly affecting national security, directly affecting the lives and safety of our service members and our civilian population. If he has anything like what … the indictment alleges, and of course the government will have to prove it, then he has committed very serious crimes.”

“This really is a rifle shot,” Bolton said in reference to the indictment, “and I think it should be the end of Donald Trump’s political career.”

While Trump’s case was ultimately dismissed, Bolton’s troubles with the law are apparently beginning to snowball.

RELATED: Jack Smith tried to take Trump off the board. Now he’s set for a reckoning.

FBI conducts authorized search of Bolton’s house on Aug. 22. Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

The FBI raided Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, on the morning of Aug. 22 on FBI Director Kash Patel’s orders. Later in the day, federal agents searched Bolton’s Washington, D.C., office.

A top U.S. official told the New York Post that the raid was in connection with a resurrected probe involving Bolton’s alleged use of a private email server to send classified national security documents to family members from his work desk prior to his September 2019 dismissal by Trump.

The official told the Post, “While Bolton was a national security adviser, he was literally stealing classified information, utilizing his family as a cutout.”

‘Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail.’

In Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into whether Bolton disclosed classified information in his book, “The Room Where It Happened,” after first proving unable to stop the publication of the book with a lawsuit.

The Trump administration failed to secure an injunction because Bolton’s book had already made its way into the hands of booksellers.

“Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreements,” wrote U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. “The government sufficiently alleges that Bolton disclosed information without confirming that the information was unclassified.”

Lamberth noted further that while “Bolton may indeed have caused the country irreparable harm,” “with hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe — many in newsrooms — the damage is done.”

RELATED: Gabbard CLEANS HOUSE after warning Brennan, Clapper ‘have a lot of their own people’ squirreled away

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump noted in June 2020, “Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information.”

The case was referred to the DOJ by then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, but the resulting investigation was torpedoed by President Joe Biden’s administration for “political reasons,” according a top U.S. official.

The probe has been reopened — and it appears that the stakes are higher than previously acknowledged, as Bolton’s alleged carelessness was exploited by a foreign regime.

Individuals said to be familiar with the investigation but speaking on the condition of anonymity recently told the New York Times that the U.S. gathered data from an adversarial country’s spy service and found emails containing sensitive information that Bolton allegedly sent to individuals “close to him” on an unclassified system while still working for the Trump administration.

It is presently unclear which adversarial nation obtained the emails.

The individuals familiar with the probe indicated that the emails contained information apparently taken from classified documents Bolton had seen while serving as Trump’s national security adviser.

Bolton is evidently taking the investigation seriously, having reportedly had discussions with Abbe Lowell, the high-profile criminal defense attorney who has represented pardoned felon Hunter Biden, New York state Attorney General Letitia James, and ex-Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook.

The White House referred Blaze News to the DOJ for comment, which declined to comment when pressed by the Times. Bolton also reportedly declined to comment.

On his first day back in office, Trump revoked any security clearances Bolton might have held.

Trump noted that the publication of Bolton’s memoir “created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed” and “undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff.”

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​John bolton, Classified documents, Classified, Bolton, National security, Fbi, Leak, Investigation, Abbe lowell, Crime, Criminal, Politics 

Our lives revolve around technology these days, whether we like it or not. Even if we don’t work in a tech-y field or care much at all about the latest technological developments coming out of Silicon Valley, our lives are shaped by digital advancement.

Take the way we communicate. It’s so different from when I was a kid. Video calling? That was something futuristic. Unheard of. Now my kids talk to their grandparents on FaceTime every day.

If the internet was a one-way street, the Zoomers wouldn’t be much different from us. If it was basically super-TV, their emotional calibration would be recognizable.

Email. I didn’t have one until a couple of years into high school. I remember when we had dial-up. No, I remember when we got dial-up! My parents had one email address, and they checked it every week or so.

Of course, we can’t forget texting. We carry on conversations with 10 different people all over the country. Or maybe all over the world! We also have social media. What is that? Imagine telling yourself about X and Instagram in 1992. What a world this is.

Zooming ahead

The profound impacts of technology are so great, and we are constantly in the midst of it. I’m not sure there’s enough time to stop and really realize how it’s changed both our world and us. It’s changed us all, not exactly for the better. But I think it’s changed some more than others, and I think it’s changed Generation Z (the Zoomers) the most.

It’s hard to get my head around the Zoomers. I know them, I see them, I hear them, but I can’t quite understand them. There’s something profoundly different about them, beyond the usual generational gaps: the music, the language, the clothing, the general aesthetic sensibilities. It’s something deeper in the way they think and, most importantly, feel.

All generations have a spirit that isn’t so easily understood from the outside. It’s the logic of the time in which they were brought up, the essence of the world at that moment in history. Sometimes it’s easy to pinpoint direct connections between economic realities, global conflicts, collective anxieties, broad societal changes, and how a generation is, for lack of a better word.

The Zoomers have that too, of course. It explains some of who they are, but not all. At a deeper level, the real difference between the Zoomers and the rest of us is technology — and how they and their feelings were shaped by technology.

Emotional calibration

The emotional calibration of the Zoomers is different from ours. All of us — Boomers, Millennials, Gen X’ers, and any of the Greatest Generation that are still alive — were emotionally calibrated offline. Even if we have since embraced the technological world with open arms, even if we are just as plugged in as the Zoomers are today, the way we emotionally relate to others and the world as a whole was shaped offline.

If the internet was a one-way street, the Zoomers wouldn’t be much different from us. If it was basically super-TV, their emotional calibration would be recognizable. They might have 50,000 channels to watch instead of 35; they might have digital access to every book in the world rather than going down to the library just to brow a few thousand old titles; but our difference would be merely a matter of degree.

8 billion ways to cry

But the internet is not super-TV. It isn’t a one-way street. It’s not even a two-way street; it’s an 8-billion-way street. It’s another world, and it’s the world they grew up in. The real thing that altered the emotional calibration of the Zoomers was extremely early exposure to social media, comment sections, algorithms, and pervasive anonymous interaction.

It’s profound, fascinating, and sad. I don’t think I can begin to accurately explore what all the implications are. I don’t think I can actually explain it, really. I don’t think any of us can. Only Zoomers can do it, but they would also need to be self-aware of all these facts, historically literate, emotionally robust, psychologically fearless, and with a real, strong sense of the worlds before them and what they actually were. That’s a tall order for any generation.

RELATED: Cut the Zoomers some slack

Blaze News Illustratiion

Different cement

I don’t know how to explain all the ways the Zoomer’s emotional calibration is different. But I can feel it, and you can too. And I know the reason. It’s the technology. The social aspect of the internet shaped a different of kind of emotional base for them.

Can it be reversed? I don’t think so. I think they will forever be different from us. Even when they get older and enter more mature seasons of life, they will remain different. The foundation was poured with different cement.

This is why they are, somewhere deep down, something of an enigma to the rest of us. We were raised in an embodied world. The Zoomers were raised in a disembodied one.

​Menswear, Fatherhood, Family life, Generation z, Zoomers, Social media, Tech, The root of the matter 

Jan Fletcher, 78, was alone during the day recently when her home surveillance camera captured a young male getting off his bike, walking up her driveway, and approaching her on the porch of her south Louisville home, WLKY-TV reported.

The male asks Fletcher, “Is somebody in there? I don’t want to wake them. Is somebody in there?”

Fletcher responds, “Yeah. Why?”

‘She didn’t deserve that.’

The station said the male was asking for directions to a well-known neighborhood park. But then he got all the way on the porch, walked behind Fletcher, and acted as though he was dusting something off her rear end.

But the situation grew scarier.

RELATED: Young girls escape molester by kicking him in the groin at Fourth of July celebration, police say

WLKY said the male repeatedly and violently groped Fletcher until she was able to stop him.

“I was so mad that it happened,” Fletcher recalled to the station during an on-camera interview. “I was thinking, ‘What could I have done different?’ But I don’t know what I could have done differently.”

Her granddaughter Jessica Powell-Page was understandably horrified and told WLKY that “she didn’t deserve that” and that the incident was “unacceptable.”

Louisville police told the station they’re investigating the incident but haven’t yet identified the male.

Despite the disturbing encounter, Fletcher noted to WLKY that she’s lived in her neighborhood for 55 years and has felt safe — and that she’s not going anywhere.

“I’ve been asked if I’m afraid to sit here on my porch, and I’m not,” she noted to the station defiantly. “I want him to know you’re not scaring me. Absolutely not. So every day that it’s nice weather, I will be on my porch.”

Louisville police told WLKY that “the elderly are often the victims of scams, harassment, and home invasion, which often start with suspicious questions at the door.” Police also offered the following tips, the station said:

Trust your instincts. If a person or situation makes you feel uneasy, trust your gut feeling. Acknowledge the potential threat and take action to stay safe.
Take note of your surroundings. Pay attention to potential hiding spots for an attacker, such as alleys, doorways, large bushes, or between parked vans. When walking past these areas, give them a wide berth.
Look for warning signs. Stay alert for suspicious behaviors, like someone following you on foot or in a vehicle. If you notice this, change directions, cross the street, or enter a business to signal that you have noticed them.

WLKY added that those with information regarding the incident can offer anonymous tips at 502-574-5673.

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​Sexual assault, Caught on video, Grandmother, Front porch, Louisville, Kentucky, Suspect at large, Groped, Assault, Crime 

On Thursday, August 21, at 4:30 p.m., my wife, my youngest daughter, and I stood in the soft light of an overcast day at Villanova University’s welcome Mass. She had earned the right to call herself a freshman. The class of 2029 also carries a distinction: the first freshman class to attend the alma mater of a pope.

Pride did not fully prepare us for what came next.

Everything is an education. Courage, the first of the virtues, does not mean reckless bravado. I learned something about it.

At 4:34 p.m., phones around us buzzed with a NOVA Alert:

ACTIVE SHOOTER Incident Warning
ACTIVE SHOOTER on VU campus. Move to secure location.
Lock/Barricade doors. More info to follow.

My daughter showed my wife the text. As they puzzled over it, the crowd shifted. Chairs toppled with a sound like rain. I briefly imagined a cloudburst pushing people indoors.

The murmur swelled into a surge. People dove to the ground. I had not yet seen the alert. Gunfire? I heard none. A vehicle attack? Lightning? A tornado? A wild animal?

Ancient Greeks saw their gods and the gods of their enemies amid the terror of battlefields. In that instant, the mind supplied its own agents of terror in the convulsing crowd at Villanova.

“Dad, run!” my daughter shouted. She and my wife had already bolted. I jogged after them, but the walkways churned like rapids and they disappeared in the current. I moved into the open at Connelly Plaza to search. Moments later, my daughter called from inside the Connelly Center, urging me to stop standing outside and get to cover. I geolocated my wife’s phone; it registered inside Dougherty Hall.

A heavily armed officer and several others strode past, asking for the library. I pointed as best I could. Someone inside Dougherty waved me in with insistence.

Inside, I found my wife’s purse and phone. Some thoughtful person had picked it up and brought it in. She soon called from a stranger’s phone to say she had reached the Ithan parking garage a little further off. I took up a post with four or five other dads at the glass entrance to Dougherty and waited for the all-clear. It came an hour and a half later.

Everything is an education. Courage, the first of the virtues, does not mean reckless bravado. I learned something about it that afternoon.

Panic spreads faster than any bullet. Faces around me looked as if they had witnessed a threat firsthand. The truth is that most had only read the alert and then seen fear and panic in other people’s faces. That fear became the source of multiplying bad information.

RELATED: America can’t survive on lies and make-believe morality

invincible_bulldog via iStock/Getty Images

“Tune our hearts to brave music,” St. Augustine prayed. Villanova’s staff did exactly that. They acted with calm and helped people reach safety. Even so, the hoaxer exposed vulnerabilities. If you have not witnessed immediate danger, move safely and deliberately to a secure place. Don’t fuel the stampede.

Augustine may have also said, “Hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” The hoaxing continued that weekend — one call to the University of South Carolina, another to Villanova. The intent is obvious: inflict physical and psychological harm by weaponizing the consensus response — run and shelter in place.

The threat, paradoxically, comes from hijacking the security system by crying wolf. The remedy must make that hijacking harder, verify and communicate information faster, and reduce harm when the system gets abused. That requires careful thinking about methods and messages — and about courage.

Courage steadies the hands that send the alerts, guides parents and students to act with discipline, and keeps us from trampling one another in a fog of rumor. I watched it in real time from Dougherty Hall. It will be needed again.

​Opinion & analysis, Courage, Virtue, Fear, St. augustine of hippo, Villanova, Pope leo xiv, University, Hoax, False alarm, Mass shooting, Panic, Safety, Mob mentality, Mass hysteria, Crowds, Misinformation, Malinformation 

Now, that’s funny!

Jimmy Kimmel, soon to inherit Stephen Colbert’s throne as king of clapter, is standing tall for free speech.

Crime in DC? What crime? Union Station remains a utopian vision of progress, just don’t mind the junkies waving dirty needles in your face.

Yes, the late-night clown who said nothing about the Twitter Files, cancel culture, Scary Poppins, sensitivity readers, and more is spittin’ mad about one First Amendment issue: Colbert’s dismissal from “The Late Show.”

Yes, despite no evidence to back it up, Kimmel says Trump got the far-left Colbert fired:

If Joe Biden had used his muscle to get Sean Hannity kicked off the air, you may be surprised to learn that I would not support that. I would, in fact, support Sean Hannity in that situation, because I thought one of the founding principles of this country was free speech. But people don’t seem to care about protecting it unless you agree with them.

Give Kimmel a little credit. It doesn’t appear he teared up while pushing this horse manure …

Force majeure

The Force is female!

So sayeth “Star Wars” overlord Kathleen Kennedy, both via T-shirt proclamations and via the product she peddles.

How did that work out again? Don’t ask.

Well, someone at Disney is asking. The Mouse House is scrambling to win back young male audience members, according to a new report.

Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months, multiple sources tell Variety, for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way. “Young men” is defined here by sources as ages 13-28, aka Gen Z.

Yes, the same company that took male-centric brands like “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe and woked them into oblivion wonders why young men aren’t keen on Disney fare.

Here’s a free tip. Make a “Star Wars” spin-off featuring twin sisters whose mothers are space witches. You could call it “The Acolyte,” and the story could brim with female empowerment. The boys will come running before you can say, “It’s a small world after all!”

RELATED: Colbert gets canceled — by CBS, not conservatives

Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images

Laugh riot

Look! Another installment of Comedians Against Comedy!

This time, it’s the mind behind “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Phil Rosenthal created the smash show with star Ray Romano that ran for nine seasons on CBS.

Rosenthal went on to create “Somebody Feed Phil,” an unconventional cooking show airing on Netflix. He spoke to Fox News about comedy and cancel culture, and he shared a curious take on the toxic trend.

“I think it’s good to be sensitive. It doesn’t mean you can’t be funny; it just means you don’t do jokes at other people’s expense, maybe, no matter who they are, unless you’re punching above your class, right? You want to punch up, not down.”

Rosenthal’s brand of humor is generally light and inoffensive. Nothing wrong with that. Still, putting up silly rules for others to follow, especially the absurd “punching down” nonsense, suggests he’s trying to pull the ladder up for his successors.

Or he’s afraid of being canceled for not being woke enough. Either way, it’s the opposite of funny …

Wrong track

It takes a special something to anchor an MSNBC (MSNOW?) show, and Lawrence O’Donnell has the goods.

O’Donnell, hoping to scare people about a less crime-ridden D.C. under President Donald Trump, turned to a movie that’s more than 85 years old to hammer home his point.

Crime in D.C.? What crime? Union Station remains a utopian vision of progress, just don’t mind the junkies waving dirty needles in your face. At any rate, said O’Donnell, how dare Trump’s crime-busting sully the memory of:

The iconic Amtrak railroad station through whose glass doors Jimmy Stewart first saw the Capitol Dome when he arrived in Washington. In Frank Capra’s classic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” there were no soldiers in the shot when Jimmy Stewart’s character, the newly appointed Senator Jefferson Smith, arrived at Union Station. And there have never been troops at Union Station.

Denying reality to own President Donald Trump? Nobody does it better than O’Donnell …

Blake’s back

Embattled star Blake Lively has landed a new gig. And no, it’s not a legal thriller or MeToo drama.

The “It Ends with Us” starlet’s new film is an action rom-com called “The Survival List.” She’ll play a reality TV show producer who gets stranded on an island and learns the survivalist who anchored the show in question is a fraud.

We’ll have to see if Lively can bring the action and rom-com thrills, but we can expect everyone on the set will be wearing GoPro cameras as much as possible to avoid future litigation.

​Hollywood, Entertainment, Culture, Donald trump, Jimmy kimmel, Stephen colbert, Blake lively, Movies, Late-night tv, Toto recall 

Beheaded statues and threatened parishioners, shattered stained glass and spray-painted walls, ransacking and arson, urine in holy water and feces in infants’ baptismal water, a murdered priest and a dynamited altar. Now, the United States can add an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old murdered as they prayed at Mass during their first week of Catholic school, along with 17 others wounded, including 14 children.

These are just some of the attacks on American Catholic churches this year. There have been 42, according to a list compiled by CatholicVote, an activist organization co-founded by Brian Burch, the current U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

These are not random crimes. They are deliberate assaults on the Church and its faithful.

Forty-two. That’s an incredible number, given that you’ve likely heard little if anything about it.

Anti-Catholic vandalism and violence have reached every corner of the country in recent years. Since 2020, more than 520 attacks have been recorded. The motives range from pro-trans and pro-abortion activism to hostility toward marriage and outright hatred of the Church.

Democratic leaders haven’t exactly been silent. Attacks against Catholics and our faith have poured in from ostensibly Catholic and non-Catholic Democrats alike. These include former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and California Rep. Ted Lieu (D) challenging the church’s pro-life stances and authority over moral matters. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), still a U.S. senator, joined several of her colleagues in attacking the Catholic faith of multiple judicial nominees, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein infamously said “the dogma lives loudly within you” when challenging Barrett’s fitness for the bench.

The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted Our Lady of Perpetual Indulgence, a stridently anti-Catholic, demonic trans and drag group, at one of their games. The bones of St. Junípero Serra had to be moved from their Carmel, California, mission resting place after anti-Catholic rioters toppled several statues of him and threatened to hurl his remains into the Pacific Ocean. Sixty ostensibly Catholic Democrats signed a “Statement of Principles” challenging Church teachings on life in a direct response to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s public rebuke of Catholic politicians supporting abortion.

California has seen the most incidents of the anti-Catholic violence, but no state is safe. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia have reported attacks on Catholic churches and institutions. The latest victims are the teachers and schoolchildren of Minneapolis.

Police have identified the killer, who shot himself before police could apprehend him, as 23-year-old Robin M. Westman. He changed his name from Robert Paul Westman in 2020 while still a minor.

Catholic imagery has long been the preferred target in American culture. Even in a Protestant-majority country, authors and Hollywood directors reach for the Catholic Church’s ancient symbols and rituals when they want to depict Christianity. The sacraments stand apart from the secular world, and they confront evil more clearly and beautifully than any other tradition.

That’s why the devil hates the Church, its sacraments, and its symbols. That’s why the Church is the choice of anti-Christian musicians, the rich and famous, and traveling drag groups to mock and defame in their fashion, music videos, and performances. It’s why the Church is a target in an America where people shout their abortions, politicians flout their bishops, Christian values and believers are under attack, and evil isn’t afraid to show itself in daylight.

After the shooting, prominent Democrats were quick to even attack prayer — the very act the children were engaged in when the murderer opened fire. Only more of their policy prescriptions could help!

Minnesota offers no refuge. The state has some of the most permissive abortion laws in the country and bans counseling children away from gender transition — all signed by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.

When COVID-19 hit, Walz kept the Mall of America and other retailers open at 50% capacity, but capped churches at 10 people. Only under threat of civil disobedience did he raise the limit to 25% occupancy.

He also signed a law blocking Catholic school students from earning college credits available to their peers in public schools. Worse still, he signed a bill allowing the state to remove children from homes if parents refuse “gender-affirming care.”

This hostility is not unique to Minnesota. Across the country, governors and presidents have targeted Catholic hospitals, adoption agencies, and crisis pregnancy centers, forcing many to close permanently.

A nation that openly attacks the Church cannot pretend those attacks won’t turn physical — and they already have. These are not random crimes. They are deliberate assaults on the Church and its faithful. Priests and parishioners must summon the courage to name the evil plainly and demand that politicians do the same.

Blaze News: Democrats lash out over prayers for Christians murdered in devastating Minnesota shooting

Blaze News: FBI investigating rampage as anti-Catholic hate crime

Bedford in the Federalist (2021): Hate crimes against Catholics are multiplying (but politicians and media don’t want to talk about it)

Bedford on Fox (2021): Media activists ‘want to destroy Christianity’ while egging on Church attacks

Daily Caller: ‘Patently anti-religious’ Tim Walz has history of restricting faith-based institutions

Catholic News Agency: Gov. Tim Walz’s abysmal record on Catholic issues

Blaze News (2024): Ashes and accountability in the aftermath of Canada’s unmarked Indian graves sham

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​Opinion & analysis, Politics 

A brutal attack in Baltimore that involved a screwdriver stabbing was caught on security video, and two illegal aliens were arrested for the incident, Maryland police said.

The video from the security system at Bmore Licks, a popular ice cream store, captured the barbaric assault of a 20-year-old man on a scooter in the intersection as stunned bystanders looked on.

Seconds later, one of the attackers tried to drive his motorcycle over the victim’s legs.

Court documents obtained by WBFF-TV said that the victim told police he was riding his scooter with friends when he was hit by two men also riding a scooter. His friends ran off, and the two men began punching and kicking the man.

Bystanders looked on and cars drove by, but no one intervened.

At one point, the victim was able to get away and run toward the ice cream shop before he was dragged out by his attackers, and one stabbed him with a flathead screwdriver. Seconds later, one of the attackers tried to drive his motorcycle over the victim’s legs.

Police said that an officer later noticed scooters that fit the description of those in the attack, and he followed their riders into a McDonald’s parking lot. The two were identified as 23-year-old Winston Rivero-Aliendo and his brother, 27-year-old Wilson Rivero-Aliendo.

One of the brothers admitted to police that they had attacked a black male, but he claimed that he was recovering a scooter that had been reported stolen from a delivery driver at a Popeye’s restaurant. He also admitted to hitting the man with his hands, feet, and a screwdriver.

An unnamed third person told police that the owner of the scooter had organized a group of Venezuelans to search for the stolen vehicle with the aid of a GPS tracking device.

RELATED: Mother hid from home invader in closet with her baby — then shot thug in the head, police say

The victim, however, claimed to have purchased the scooter on Facebook Marketplace and later learned that it had been stolen.

The Rivero-Aliendos were charged with attempted first-degree murder and second-degree murder as well as numerous charges of assault.

They were also identified as illegal aliens who might have ties to the vicious MS-13 criminal gang.

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​Illegal alien brothers attack, Baltimore scooter attack, Winston rivero-aliendo murder, Wilson rivero-aliendo murder, Crime 

“KPop Demon Hunters” is the latest Netflix hit to hypnotize a generation of children — and it’s one that BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” will not be letting her own children watch.

The animated movie is about a KPop girl group, HUNTR/X, who double as magical fighters that battle demons with their music.

“I don’t know if I would say it’s part of, like, the very dark trend of trying to get kids into the demonic. You could maybe argue that. I’m not totally sure that I would say that when it comes to this particular movie,” Stuckey says.

While Stuckey notes that there are “no explicit LGBTQ themes,” she does point out that there are very androgynous-looking characters and that a young child would not be able to understand the characters and story.

“A teenager might be able to decipher, okay, fiction, nonfiction, obviously not biblical. But honestly, before the age of, like, 13, 14, I do not think so. I think that it is very spiritually, theologically confusing,” Stuckey says.

She also believes it would be confusing to a young Christian as the film “draws heavily on shamanism,” which is a folk religion.

“It is based on this idea that shamans can connect with the spiritual world through ceremonies. They can foresee people’s futures using the Chinese calendar. They can assist with tasks like naming children, arranging marriages, or choosing lucky dates for events like weddings, moving homes, starting businesses,” Stuckey explains.

“Korea has a long cultural history of female shamans who use music and rituals to drive away evil spirits, which the movie mirrors in HUNTR/X’s demon-hunting song,” she continues. “So there is explicitly a religious motivation and pagan ideology that undergirds this.”

“It’s not just, ‘Oh, Christians are looking for things, and they’re taking things too seriously.’ No, the film is actually based on this pagan idea of shamanism that there are these mediums that can communicate with the other side and that can fight off evil spirits and really encourage this kind of paranoid superstition that so many people of all different kinds of religions fall into,” she adds.

Stuckey also takes issue with the way the demons are portrayed.

“They’re scary-looking, but they’re also bumbling idiots. … And so, on the one hand, you get the impression that these are very scary individuals carrying out the task of trying to steal your soul, but also that they are harmless, that they are powerless, and that there is some kind of human figure with the power to stop these demons if we worship them,” she says.

“But the people that are demanding our worship, these HUNTR/X people, are obviously human beings with supernatural powers, not the only person who does have the power to defeat demonic activity and Satan himself—Jesus Christ,” she continues.

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I usually enjoy David Harsanyi’s critiques of the left. But in a recent column, he drew a distinction I can’t accept. Quoting Rahm Emanuel’s plea for Democrats to rally behind “Build, baby, build!” Harsanyi praised politicians he believes embody a centrist alternative to the party’s radicals: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein.

Harsanyi presented these figures as the future of a Democratic Party that might rediscover moderation. He contrasted them with open socialists like New York City’s Zohran Mamdani, whom he regards as the party’s worst tendencies made flesh. In his telling, Beshear, Spanberger, Shapiro, and Stein represent a kind of Democratic “loyal opposition” that conservatives should welcome.

Abigail Spanberger shows how the Democratic ‘moderate’ label works: not as a rejection of cultural radicalism but as a smoother delivery system for it.

That picture collapses under scrutiny. On social questions, the supposed moderates fall squarely in line with the party’s most zealous activists. Beshear, though personable and pragmatic on some issues, is an LGBTQ fanatic who promotes woke causes across Kentucky. Spanberger has been a reliable ally of the gender-identity movement and has now gone so far as to support biological men competing in women’s sports. Stein in North Carolina vetoed four separate bills meant to curb DEI excesses and limit radical gender programs in his state.

These aren’t minor disagreements tucked around the edges. They reveal a deeper truth: The “moderates” whom Harsanyi and Fox News commentators now flatter are not moderates at all. They dress the same ideology in calmer rhetoric. Spanberger, the supposed pragmatist, sounds indistinguishable from Tim Walz or Mamdani when she explains her social positions.

So why do some on the right elevate them? Because these Democrats don’t call themselves socialists, don’t chant slogans for Hamas, and don’t traffic in the same racial agitation as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, or Omar Fateh. But the distinction is cosmetic. On gender, DEI, and race politics, the so-called moderates embrace the same policies.

This misreading exposes a larger problem on the right. For years, the Republican establishment avoided direct confrontation on cultural issues, preferring to rally donors around national defense, Israel, or deregulation. On marriage and gender, Republicans surrendered the ground years ago. When the Supreme Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, Conservatism Inc. shrugged. Now, some seem relieved to pretend “moderates” in the Democratic Party represent a saner alternative. They don’t.

And the Democrats know it. Clinton-era strategists at the Third Way think tank now tell their party to tone down the woke jargon and talk more about housing or infrastructure. But Third Way doesn’t advise abandoning cultural radicalism — only camouflaging it. The goal is simple: Keep core constituencies like college-educated white women and black urban voters while soothing independents with bread-and-butter messaging. Beshear, Stein, Spanberger, and the others know their futures depend on that balancing act.

This is where Republicans must stop indulging illusions. They will be forced to fight on this terrain whether they like it or not.

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Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

In Virginia, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears — a black conservative who supports Trump’s immigration policy and holds traditional views on marriage and gender — trails Spanberger despite Spanberger’s increasingly open embrace of the left’s cultural program. In Northern Virginia’s suburbs, her positions do not hurt her. They energize her base. The clearer she becomes, the more firmly those voters rally to her side.

That is the lesson Republicans cannot ignore. Spanberger shows how the Democratic “moderate” label works: not as a rejection of cultural radicalism but as a smoother delivery system for it. Sears, to her credit, understands the stakes. She knows she cannot avoid the social questions. If she does, she loses. Her only path forward is to expose Spanberger’s record and force voters to confront it.

What’s happening in Virginia is the same fight Trump is waging nationally — against a cultural left entrenched in the administrative state, NPR, and the universities. These battles connect. They will not fade, and the right cannot win them by pretending “moderates” exist in the Democratic Party.

If Republicans cling to that illusion, they won’t just lose a governorship here or a Senate seat there. They will lose the defining fight over culture, identity, and the moral core of the nation. The Democrats’ so-called moderates are not the antidote to radicalism. They are the mask that allows it to advance.

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