Category: blaze media

Glenn Beck started TheBlaze because he wanted to chart a new path in the media industry. Disturbed by the media’s agenda-driven distortion of facts and glossing over critical stories, he set out with a mission to build around truth-telling and America-first values.

Today, he looks at Blaze Media and the blossoming alternative media industry and says: mission accomplished.

“I wanted to create this ecosystem, and we did. Media now has really capable voices, minds, and hands to do things.”

But now Glenn is bringing that same visionary spirit to a different industry — one that is suffering greatly from bias, indoctrination, and corruption: education.

For 20 years, Glenn has been slowly and deliberately “collecting the physical evidence of America’s soul — the documents, the letters, the artifacts that tell the true story of who we are.”

Today, he boasts “the third largest private collection of founding documents in the world,” surpassed only by the public holdings of the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Glenn’s collection has amassed “well over a million documents and items of evidence of the greatness of the American experiment as well as our scars and our mistakes.”

“This library is proof that America was founded on Judeo-Christian values. It is proof that our mission was not slavery but freedom for all mankind. It is proof that while we have committed terrible wrongs, we have also accomplished miraculous things. It is proof that our story began not in Jamestown but in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is proof that when science divorces itself from moral truth, darkness follows and usually profound darkness,” he says.

And this collection will soon be available to you.

After three years of blood, sweat, and tears, Glenn’s historical archive has been compiled, preserved, and digitized into something “the world has never seen before.”

“We have now created the first independent, proprietary, AI-driven American historical library,” says Glenn.

Called the Torch, which will be overseen by the Glenn and Tania Beck Foundation for American History, the program is complete with a librarian named George, whose voice is “built from the writings of George Washington himself, the writings of the founders, the thousands of sermons that they heard from their church pulpits, the books that they read, and the principles they lived by.”

George, Glenn says, “can find any artifact, any document, any speech, and deliver it to you as evidence that what you were taught in school was either misguided, out of ignorance, a half-truth, or most likely an out-and-out lie” — an expert in everything from the Constitution and Federalist Papers to American civics and history.

And the best part is: He’s incapable of being influenced by other AI programs, the internet, or any other resource out there. “It is all contained in a secure, isolated server where every document is memorized verbatim. … This is verified, factual, memorized first-source truth,” says Glenn.

With the Torch igniting a flame of unfiltered truth in America’s classrooms and homes, Glenn Beck isn’t just preserving history — he’s reigniting the soul of a nation, one artifact and one revelation at a time.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Glenn beck, The glenn beck program, Blazetv, Blaze media, Woke education, Academia, Indoctrination in schools, The torch 

An acting U.S. attorney in California was disqualified from prosecuting several cases after a judge ruled that he overstayed his temporary status in that role. However, the Trump appointee will continue to serve as the district’s top prosecutor.

A judge ruled that Bill Essayli has overstayed his temporary tenure as the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California — the largest attorney’s office outside of D.C. — since July 29, the AP reported. Essayli was sworn in on April 2 of this year.

‘I do the American People’s bidding at the direction of their duly elected President. That’s how our Constitution works.’

The ruling relates to three criminal defendants who sought to have their cases dismissed on the grounds that Essayli was illegally serving as acting U.S. attorney.

U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote in his ruling on the case, “Simply stated: Essayli unlawfully assumed the role of Acting United States Attorney for the Central District of California. He has been unlawfully serving in that capacity since his resignation from the interim role on July 29, Essayli may not perform the functions and duties of the United States Attorney as Acting United States Attorney. He is disqualified from serving in that role.”

However, NBC Los Angeles reported that Seabright declined to remove Essayli fully from the prosecutor’s office.

RELATED: Federal judge rules Alina Habba is not lawfully acting as US attorney for NJ

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

According to the order, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Essayli as first assistant U.S. attorney, or FAUSA, on July 29, effective upon his resignation as interim U.S. attorney. This allowed him to remain in the prosecutor’s office and to perform FAUSA duties, as Judge Seabright affirmed.

Seabright concluded that the criminal cases against the three defendants would not be dismissed because other attorneys legitimately co-signed next to Essayli, though Essayli would not be allowed to continue prosecuting those cases in his former capacity as acting U.S. attorney.

However, Seabright noted this case does not remove Essayli from his current role as FAUSA: “Essayli remains the FAUSA and may perform the functions and duties of that office.”

“For those who didn’t read the entire order, nothing is changing. I continue serving as the top federal prosecutor in the Central District of California. It’s an honor and privilege to serve President Trump and Attorney General Bondi, and I look forward to advancing their agenda for the American People,” Essayli, whose X profile still calls him the “Acting U.S. Attorney” for the district, said in a Tuesday post that included a portion of the opinion.

Late Tuesday, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) attacked Essayli in light of the judge’s opinion. “’Unlawfully serving’ in his role. Acting illegally. But left in place? While this Administration continues to replace career professionals with illegitimate political allies eager to do Trump’s bidding, Californians need better relief than this,” he said.

In response, Essayli posted, “I do the American People’s bidding at the direction of their duly elected President. That’s how our Constitution works. Try reading and abiding by it sometime.”

Acting U.S. Attorney of Nevada Sigal Chattah and acting U.S. Attorney of New Jersey Alina Habba have faced similar attacks in recent months.

Blaze News contacted Essayli’s office for comment.

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​Politics, California, J. michael seabright, Bill essayli, Adam schiff, Acting u.s. attorney bill essayli, Fausa, Sigal chattah, Alina habba 

NBC News in the San Francisco Bay area got a brutal fact-check after publishing a story about an “undocumented father,” identified only as Gerardo, being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside his home before going to work.

While 42-year-old Gerardo was being arrested, Idalia, his wife and a U.S. citizen, ran out to try to stop the arrest, NBC Bay Area reported. She claimed a female agent hit her 22-year-old daughter with a baton but did not capture the moment on camera, nor is it seen on the Ring security camera.

His ‘rap sheet’ includes lewd and lascivious acts with a child.

Idalia said she immediately contacted the Mexican Consulate in San Jose and a hotline for immigration legal services.

The Department of Homeland Security responded to the sob story, revealing that Gerardo has been accused of heinous crimes. According to DHS, his “rap sheet” includes:

Lewd and lascivious acts with a child,Battery of a spouse,Domestic battery,Compensation for prostitution, andFelony re-entry after removal.

Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Bay Area was expected to see a surge in federal immigration agents, but that deployment was put on pause. Despite the lack of extra agents, anti-DHS protesters blocked access to Coast Guard Island in Alameda. After most protesters had left, a driver allegedly attempted to use a U-Haul to ram the security checkpoint, forcing the Coast Guardsmen to fire upon the truck.

The driver was shot in the stomach, and another bystander was slightly wounded. Both are expected to recover.

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​Politics 

Karine Jean-Pierre has been hawking a new book in a desperate attempt to cash in on her time as White House press secretary — and it’s not going well.

Whereas fellow lesbian and propagandist Rachel Maddow of MSNBC suggested that the book was a “truly new and valuable contribution to our understanding of the Biden presidency,” the Washington Post shredded “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House Outside the Party Lines,” noting that it was a “fascinating book for all the wrong reasons.”

‘Sorry, I’m not trying to be dense. I’m a little unclear about what this has to do with Democratic leaders.’

The reviewer — confronted with 180 pages’ worth of Jean-Pierre’s thoughts “written in the outmoded register of one of those lawn signs proclaiming that ‘in this house, we believe kindness is everything'” — expressed amazement “that someone who writes in such feel-good, thought-repelling clichés was hired to communicate with the nation from its highest podium.”

The Post concluded on the basis of the book that Jean-Pierre is a “blinkered” establishmentarian whose recent departure from the Democratic Party and identification as an independent “seems to be less of a strategy than a style”; whose “thinking remains so decidedly in the box”; and who “appears to have little authentic understanding of why her erstwhile party’s approval rating has cratered.”

Journalist Matt Taibbi’s review of the book for the Free Press was similarly damning, dubbing it “history’s most incoherent memoir.”

“Jean-Pierre had over a year to think about what to say about all this, and instead of writing the book the whole world wanted, the true story (complete with photos of Biden’s used-bib collection and pictorial toilet guides) of her frustration at having to be the public face of one of the most obvious and legally perilous cons in American political history, she denied there was anything to cover up, much less that she had responsibility for it,” wrote Taibbi.

RELATED: Black lesbian former White House press secretary says Democrats lost because they ignored black women

Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images

In the book, Jean-Pierre reportedly rejects the obvious justification for Biden’s ouster — the mental and physical decrepitude that had him tumbling, mumbling, and bumbling — and claims that she “saw Biden every day and saw no such decline.” As for Biden’s humiliating performance in his TV debate with President Donald Trump, Jean-Pierre blamed a cold and travel-related exhaustion.

Perhaps worse than the reviews for the book are Jean-Pierre’s efforts to sell it on tour.

For instance, Jean-Pierre befuddled a sympathetic journalist with a series of word salads in her recent interview with the New Yorker.

Isaac Chotiner repeatedly pressed Jean-Pierre on her explanation for how and why the Democratic Party supposedly undermined former President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election.

When asked the second time why the Democrats had it out for Biden, Jean-Pierre said — in an interview the New Yorker indicated was edited for length and clarity — that:

they believed that he needed to step aside. There’s more to this than just that period of time. This is very layered, right? There’s a period of time that I questioned what was happening and how do we treat our own, how do we treat people who are decent people. And then you also have to think about how I’m thinking about this as a black woman who is part of the LGBTQ community, and living in this time where I also don’t think Democrats right now, Democrats’ leadership, is protecting vulnerable people in the way that it should.

The interviewer responded, “Sorry, I’m not trying to be dense. I’m a little unclear about what this has to do with Democratic leaders and many Democrats in the country thinking that Joe Biden was going to lose to Donald Trump — which was what the polls all showed — and therefore thinking that he should be replaced.”

After Jean-Pierre launched into a rant about how “nobody knows” about what could have alternatively happened, Chotiner indicated that he had no idea what the former Biden spox was trying to say.

Toward the end of the viral interview, Jean-Pierre — who had made sure to mention her LGBTQ status and race numerous times and suggested the subtitle of her book, “Inside a Broken White House,” was referring to the Trump White House — accused Chotiner of pushing Democratic Party talking points.

David Weigel, a political writer for Semafor who was among the multitude of critics awestruck by how badly the interview went, said, “Turns out you can do a career-ending interview even after your career is over.”

Even Jean-Pierre’s interview with Stephen Colbert — a liberal propagandist who helped raise millions for Biden’s campaign last year — went off the rails when the CBS late-night host proved unwilling to buy what the former White House spox was selling.

Colbert, like Chotiner, asked Jean-Pierre to explain how the Democratic Party betrayed Biden. Even though that’s a core claim in the former press secretary’s book, she appeared unable to answer, launching into a speech about Biden’s perceived accomplishments and how he was still “engaging, understood policy, and was always putting the American people first.”

The late-night host pointed out that “it takes more than that to be the president of the United States, and in a moment of great pressure on stage, we saw someone shock us and worry us. And nothing could assuage that worry. So I don’t think it was necessarily a betrayal of Joe Biden as other people saying, ‘We don’t think we were shown the Joe Biden that you saw.'”

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​Karine, Jean-pierre, Karine jean-pierre, Leftist, Democrat, White house, Joe biden, Biden, Independent, Book tour, Book, Lesbian, Woke, Retarded, Politics 

About 13 years ago, I decided to leave Chicago and intentionally “forgot” a full suitcase at my uncle’s house in Evanston. He had this huge house with a sprawling basement that resembled some kind of ancient catacomb, and I only had a couple arms and one train ticket. So I left my big, green suitcase in a dark, quiet corner where it wouldn’t be any trouble to anyone while I was away.

About seven years later, that old suitcase ended up at my parents’ house. My aunt and uncle found it somewhere in that underground labyrinth, loaded it in the car, and dropped it off at my mom and dad’s house on the way to their cabin.

When I left that suitcase in Evanston, I didn’t really have a plan. But the timeline for when I would finally retrieve the 150-pound bag was in flux.

Then two years after that, the old, green suitcase finally made its way back to its proper owner via my parents’ Subaru. It sat outside in our messy garage for about a year until my wife finally implored me to take it downstairs to the basement, which I did. Now it’s sitting in my office, a few feet away, staring at me, waiting for its next stop.

Do not reply

That green suitcase is probably about 150 pounds. I haven’t opened it since the last time I zipped it up 13 years ago, so I’m not sure exactly what it contains. It’s been so long. I think it might be sheet music. What else would be so heavy? Bricks? Sure, but I wasn’t a mason or a bricklayer. I was a musician.

That green suitcase is kind of like an email. You know the kind I am talking about. The email that you get, but you don’t open. Or maybe you do open it, but you don’t respond. You tell yourself that you’re going to respond later when you have a moment to sit down and think, or maybe tomorrow morning after you eat breakfast.

But you don’t respond later that night, and you don’t respond the next morning either. You don’t respond the day after that, the week that comes next, or the month around the corner, and the longer you wait, the harder it gets. You forget about the email for weeks at a time, and then you remember it all of a sudden and kind of secretly wish it would just sort of fade away.

Bachelor’s baggage

That green suitcase is like the box of crap from college: old papers, T-shirts, Nokia cell phones, hard drives, fake IDs, the old textbooks you never read, and everything that reminds you of your stupid, cringe-inducing youth.

That box follows you from one apartment to the next, to your bedroom, to your basement office, to your storage facility, to the attic above the garage. You don’t want the stuff anymore, you don’t even want to go through it, you don’t want to see it(!), but disposing of it somehow feels wrong. “I can’t just throw it away,” you mumble to yourself as you put off sorting though that box for another six months.

That green suitcase is like all the junk in your basement that just keeps adding up. Every year, the stacks of boxes get a little higher and the floor space a little smaller. You tell yourself you’re finally going to get the basement clean, that all you have to do is get a bunch of this stuff out and off to Goodwill, and once that’s done, it’s going to be nice down there. But you don’t do it. Spring cleaning comes and goes, and the basement heap grows.

We’ve all got the emails, the boxes, and the junk that we just don’t have the heart, or time, to address. Logically, we know it would be easier to take care of everything the first moment we think to do it, but we don’t. Going through old things is hard in a way that we don’t want to admit. We don’t want to be forced to confront what it is that we’ll be throwing away, if we are to be throwing it away. So we just let it sit.

RELATED: It took months to find the skeletal remains of retired detective through ‘mountains’ of trash at her home, police say

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

Facing the music

When I left that suitcase in Evanston, I didn’t really have a plan. I wasn’t leaving it for good, or at least not intentionally. But the timeline for when I would finally retrieve the 150-pound bag was in flux. I didn’t really have a need for whatever was in it, and I didn’t think about my plan to get it back. I just wanted to leave, so that’s what I did.

I’m sure that when I finally open it one of these days, I’ll find that old sheet music. Etudes, solos, and various studies. I’ll find my old handwriting, some from my professors too, ones I should have kept in touch with better and ones I haven’t thought about since I was a kid. I’ll sit there on the floor, and I’ll remember all the things I haven’t remembered in so long.

I’ll think of my younger years and smile, and then I’ll be forced to decide what I want to do with the yellowing sheet music laying on the blue-and-white carpet in my office. I won’t be able to throw it out. I know that. Who throws out music anyway? My dad never did, and then I used his. Maybe my kids will use mine? Or maybe that’s what I’ll tell myself so I don’t have to throw it out. I’ll take it all and put it back in that big, green suitcase not knowing when I’ll see it again.

​Men’s style, Lifestyle, Luggage, Clutter, The root of the matter 

A trans-identifying teen accused of plotting a Valentine’s Day massacre at an Indiana high school reportedly has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.

Trinity Shockley — an 18-year-old female who identifies as a male — was arrested Feb. 12 after someone notified an FBI tip line that an acquaintance was planning a school shooting, had access to an AR-15 rifle, and had just ordered a bulletproof vest.

‘Everyone lives to die. I am a loser.’

The FBI — which ultimately alerted the Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department about the possible shooting plot — investigated Shockley’s accounts on the Discord instant messaging app and Snapchat and found multiple correspondences in which the suspect appeared to confirm she had it in mind to shoot up her school, according to the probable cause affidavit.

In one conversation on Discord, Shockley allegedly said she had been planning a “Parkland part two” for at least a year, referring to the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The affidavit indicated that Shockley confided in her school counselor on Feb. 11 that she was sexually infatuated with Nikolas Cruz — the convicted shooter who murdered 17 people at Parkland — wanted to have his children, and had written to him several times since his incarceration.

During a search of Shockley’s family home, police indicated they found what appeared to be a framed photo of Dylann Roof — the white identitarian responsible for the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina — in the student’s bedroom along with other images of mass shooters, including Cruz.

RELATED: Groomed for violence? The dark world of furries and transgenderism in America’s classrooms

Photo by SAMANTHA LAUREY/AFP via Getty Images

In addition to locating a soft armor vest and ammunition in the house, police found multiple notebooks allegedly belonging to the teen containing damning entries. In one notebook, Shockley allegedly wrote on Dec. 16, 2024, “I am aslo [sic] a transgender male. I have a lot of homicidal thoughts. In all honesty, I want to be just like Elliot Rodger. He is my main influencer along with Nikolas Cruz.”

Rodger is a mass murderer who killed six and injured 14 in a 2014 attack near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Shockley allegedly wrote in an entry dated Jan. 9, “All of these minorities are useless. I bleieve [sic] others dont desreve [sic] to live. Everyone lives to die. I am a loser.”

The agreement filed Monday and confirmed by chief deputy prosecutor Cassie Mellady would have Shockley plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder — a level 2 felony — and the state drop the other two charges of terroristic intimidation, the Indiana Star reported.

Although a conviction on the single count could net Shockley a sentence of 10 to 30 years behind bars, her attorney reportedly has requested that she serve no more than 12.5 years in prison and fewer than five years on probation.

In addition to having to regularly meet with mental health professionals, Shockley’s probation per the proposed terms of the plea deal would be conditional on her prohibition from visiting all Morgan County school properties and searching for any material related to school shootings.

Dakota VanLeeuwen, the Morgan County judge overseeing the case, reportedly has taken the plea agreement under advisement and will issue a ruling on the matter next month.

Mellady told WIBC-FM that Shockley’s trans-identification has no bearing on the case.

There has been a rash of trans-identifying mass shooters and would-be mass shooters in recent years.

For instance:

a trans-identifying man shot up a Catholic church full of children in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, killing two children and injuring 30;a male-identifying woman planned to shoot up an elementary school and a high school in Maryland in April 2024 but was stopped in time by police — then later convicted;a trans-identifying teen stalked the halls of a school in Perry, Iowa, on Jan. 4, 2024, ultimately murdering a child and an adult and wounding several others; anda trans-identifying woman stormed into a Presbyterian school in Nashville on March 27, 2023, murdering three children and three adults.

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​Trinity shockley, Trans, Lgbt, Transgender, School, School shooter, Mass shooter, Police, Plea deal, Indiana, Arrest, Crime thwarted, Crime 

In a shocking defeat that left Colorado coach Deion Sanders dumbfounded, his team suffered an embarrassing 53-7 loss to Utah — but unlike everyone else, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t surprised.

“Deion Sanders is who I thought he was and who I said he was. And the reason I’m celebratory of this is because Deion sets a bad example. He leads through racial idolatry. He leads through a victimhood mentality,” Whitlock says.

“Deion definitely loves to play the race card. Deion definitely sees himself as a victim. Deion definitely wants to be a race soldier,” he continues, likening Sanders to Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

“They’re lathered in so much over-the-top praise. They’re lathered in so much idolatry and people rallying around them and people excusing any and everything about their coaching that it undermines their success,” he explains.

Whitlock also points out that after Sanders’ winning streak last year, people like Stephen A. Smith were ”running around pretending like Deion Sanders has set the world on fire.”

“He can get all the money without putting in the same level of effort as other coaches. They’ve been running around with Deion Sanders on these Aflac commercials with Nick Saban as if Deion Sanders is the second coming of Eddie Robinson. Deion skipped over everybody, and the next thing you know he’s right next to Nick Saban,” he says.

“He’s not on that level, but we gave him all the rewards as if he had,” he adds, pointing out that this is common in the black community.

“There’s a burden to being black in America that black people have participated in and helped create. The removing of standards, the lowering of standards is crippling black Americans. And you can see it in football,” he says.

“You can see what’s happening at Colorado with Deion Sanders where he was anointed and appointed and celebrated as this great coach even though it hadn’t been earned. And now we’re seeing the proof of it,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, Jason whitlock, Fearless, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Deion sanders, Colorado football, Utah vs colorado blowout, College football, Mike tomlin, Stephen a smith, Racial idolatry, Participation trophy, Pittsburgh steelers, Fearless with jason whitlock 

Democratic lawmakers’ narrative on the government shutdown is beginning to crumble, as even traditionally friendly media outlets and personalities are starting to turn on them.

‘If you feel so strongly, Congresswoman, why not ask the Senate Democrats from New Mexico to vote to open the government?’

On Tuesday, CNN’s Jake Tapper got into a tense back-and-forth with Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) over SNAP benefits drying up.

Tapper challenged Stansbury, questioning whether Democratic senators from New Mexico should consider reopening the government to ensure Americans on SNAP continue to receive those benefits without interruption.

“Let me be clear, the administration is choosing to starve American children with money that they already have appropriated,” Stansbury replied.

“I’m not applauding their tactics,” Tapper clarified.

Stansbury reiterated that the government shutdown was “a choice by the White House.”

“This is also a choice by Senate Democrats to not vote to open the government,” Tapper replied.

RELATED: Democrats brush off pressure from federal workers’ union to end government shutdown

Representative Melanie Stansbury. Photographer: Kayla Bartkowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stansbury rejected Tapper’s assertion.

“Let me just be clear, the money for contingency plans is sitting there,” she stated. “The White House is withholding funds from children to have food.”

Tapper, again, was not buying it. He explained that the contingency plans covered only two to three weeks’ worth of SNAP funds and did not offer a long-term solution for Americans who depend on the benefits.

RELATED: Trump admin blames Senate Democrats for SNAP debacle: ‘The well has run dry’

US President Donald Trump, Rep. Melanie Stansbury. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Stansbury tried to turn the tables on Tapper, stating that the funds “may not be a big deal to you,” noting that families need all the relief they can get. She further claimed that it “doesn’t matter” that it was only a short-term solution.

“People need to be able to feed their families, and Saturday is when those funds run out,” she told Tapper.

“If you feel so strongly, Congresswoman, why not ask the Senate Democrats from New Mexico to vote to open the government?” Tapper fired back.

Stansbury claimed she is “fighting to get the government reopened.”

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​News, Jake tapper, Cnn, Melanie stansbury, Stansbury, New mexico, Government shutdown, Snap, Snap benefits, Politics 

A handful of Senate Republicans defied President Donald Trump in a contentious vote to block the administration’s tariffs on Brazil.

The Senate narrowly passed a resolution Tuesday night to zero out Trump’s 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports in a 52-48 vote. Five Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — aided all 47 Democrats to pass the resolution.

The resolution is likely to die in the House before ever making it to Trump’s desk.

This rebuke comes from Trump’s most vocal critics in the Senate, all of whom have bucked the administration in the past.

Paul has repeatedly voted against Republican funding bills, including the continuing resolution that would reopen the government, all but guaranteeing he is disinvited from many White House events his colleagues attend. Tillis, who announced he would be retiring following this term, also voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Collins, Murkowski, and McConnell have been a thorn in Trump’s side, repeatedly voting against key nominees.

RELATED: Vance casts tiebreaking Senate vote after Republicans join Democrats to tank Trump’s tariffs

Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The resolution is likely to die in the House before ever making it to Trump’s desk. Even if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) were to hold a vote on the resolution, the Republican majority would likely side with the administration.

Notably, this is not the first time Republicans defied the White House to block Trump’s tariffs.

Vice President JD Vance had to cast a tiebreaking vote back in May to block a similar resolution that would have halted Trump’s tariffs. At the time, Murkowski, Collins, and Paul were the three lawmakers who went against the grain.

RELATED: Vance casts tiebreaking vote after Republicans betray Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

“Farmers are hurting. Inflation is squeezing every worker. And tariffs are making it worse,” Paul said in a recent post on X. “We can’t print enough money to paper over bad policy.”

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​Susan collins, Lisa murkowski, Thom tillis, Rand paul, Mitch mcconnell, John thune, Mike johnson, Donald trump, Trump administration, White house, Tariffs, Jd vance, Senate republicans, Senate democrats, Brazil, Brazil tariffs, One big beautiful bill, Trump nominees, Politics 

The campaign to throw out the Biden-era pardons for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee, and other controversial figures appears to be gaining momentum — and the Office of the Pardon Attorney made clear this week that it’s onboard.

The House Oversight Committee alleged in its damning 100-page report on Tuesday that senior Biden staffers not only worked desperately to conceal the former president’s rapid mental deterioration but usurped his authority with the help of the presidential autopen — a machine used to affix Biden’s signature to a host of controversial executive actions and pardons.

‘In theory, a court invalidation could result in restoration of penalties.’

“As President Biden was losing command of himself throughout his time in office, his executive actions — especially pardons, of which there are many — cannot all be deemed his own,” said the report. “The authority to grant pardons is not provided to the president’s inner circle. Nor can it be delegated to particular staff when a president’s competency is in question.”

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) concluded that unauthorized executive actions signed by autopen were “null and void,” then asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the validity of all executive actions taken during Biden’s time in office.

Bondi confirmed on Tuesday that a review of the autopen use for pardons during the Biden era is underway.

Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney at the DOJ, suggested in a letter on Monday to Comer that his investigation into the matter has turned up “disturbing findings” such that his office “cannot support the validity and ongoing legal effect of pardons and commutations issued during the Biden administration without further examination.”

In the letter obtained by CNN, Martin suggested that Biden’s admission to the New York Times that he “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people” by itself “seems to raise serious questions of whether those commutations are valid.”

RELATED: Biden freed killers with a pen he didn’t even hold

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Martin indicated that doubt over the validity of the commutations is further compounded by the suggestion in former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer’s communications with the Biden White House that the autopenned commutations issued on Jan. 17 in the former president’s name were legally flawed.

The pardon attorney raised other “defects” concerning the pardon process, particularly in the final weeks of the administration.

“My office cannot support the validity of AutoPen pardons for individuals such as Anthony Fauci, Adam Schiff, Mark Milley, and many more without further examination and fact-finding,” wrote Martin. “In my tenure here, I have not seen any evidence supporting the theory that President Biden was personally aware and authorized these AutoPen’d pardons.”

Martin, who alluded to a court ultimately weighing in on the validity of the pardons, told Comer, “If these pardons or commutations are challenged in any way, I recognize serious difficulties in defending them.”

The Oversight Committee similarly foreshadowed a court voiding the pardons in its report, stating that “the Constitution is clear: ‘The President shall … have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.'”

The committee further quoted from a recent essay by constitutional scholar Philip Hamburger, a professor at Columbia Law School, which concluded, “The history confirms that the Constitution’s location of the pardon power is significant. The president must make the decisions, and the courts can hold pardons void if the decisions are made by others.”

While the nullification campaign’s success in the courts could spell disaster for Fauci, Milley, and others, some scholars have cast doubt on the likelihood of that outcome.

When asked whether the pardonees’ convictions and legal vulnerabilities would be fully restored should their pardons be ruled invalid, Jeremy Paul, a professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law, told Blaze News, “In theory, a court invalidation could result in restoration of penalties. I see this as extremely unlikely.”

“If the DOJ attempted to impose punishment upon the affected individuals, the individuals would raise the pardons as a defense in federal court,” continued Paul. “Lower courts would issue rulings. The case could end up in the Supreme Court but that Court would not be required to hear the case.”

Paul expressed doubt about whether the pardons could be invalidated in the first place, stating, “Unless evidence emerges that DOJ officials granted pardons in express opposition to President Biden’s wishes, which seems highly unlikely, I cannot see any basis on which pardons could be deemed invalid.”

Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford Law School professor, suggested to CNN that one way to go about trying to void a pardon would be for Attorney General Bondi to “sue for a declaratory judgment that the pardons were invalid because of some form of impropriety in the signing of them, or in the giving of the pardon.”

Blaze News has reached out to the Office of the Pardon Attorney for comment.

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​Ed martin, Joe biden, Pardons, Commutations, Fauci, Jan. 6, J6 committee, Pardon attorney, Department of justice, Pam bondi, Pardon, Clemency, Biden, Autopen, Milley, Politics 

A shocking new lawsuit claims Celina ISD in Texas covered up allegations that its middle school football coach Caleb Elliot was a sexual predator — before he got the job as a middle school football coach.

Elliot is alleged to have been moved to the middle school after an “improper” relationship with a high school senior, instead of being fired and labeled as a predator.

The lawsuit also alleges that Elliot was caught during the 2024–2025 school year placing cameras in the Moore Middle School locker room and captured the teenage boys as they undressed — which resulted in the coach being banned from the locker room.

In defense of himself, Elliot claimed that “he did not know it was illegal and was trying to deter theft.”

“Now obviously, we know that’s not the case because again, predator is going to predator. Obviously, this child predator was only enabled and emboldened by this district. And he decided to just get more brazen with his exploitation,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says, disgusted.

“Should have been fired but once again was not. He still was not fired. Instead, Celina ISD continued to harbor a child predator, because football, man,” Gonzales continues, noting that Elliot was a very successful coach’s son.

“It is unfathomable and unconscionable that this district would have covered up multiple instances of sexual exploitation of children because of football, because they wanted to win games, because they wanted to be the state champs,” she adds.

After Elliot’s cameras and footage were discovered, he was banned from the locker rooms.

“You’re going to be shocked to hear this, as a child predator would do. Caleb ignored the rule. And since the rule was never communicated, allegedly, according to the lawsuit, the rule was never communicated to the eighth grade team, they didn’t know that Caleb wasn’t supposed to go in there,” Gonzales explains.

“He just started entering the locker room after the coaches had left and returned to their offices,” she adds, noting that it gets even more disturbing.

“I’m going to read this directly from the lawsuit,” Gonzales says. “‘Beginning in September, the boys noticed Elliot standing around the locker room and staring as they undressed and showered, often holding his cell phone with the camera pointed toward the students.’”

“Plaintiffs allege that Elliot took one of the boys’ backpacks and said that he had to quote ‘do jumping jacks fully nude,’ end quote, to get it back. ‘The boy complied while Elliot watched the child’s penis,’ end quote,” Gonzales reads.

“I would probably be in jail if anyone had engaged in this sort of conduct with my son,” she says.

“These are young boys who have been traumatized, who’ve been exploited in their most vulnerable time by a sick ass pervert freak,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Video, Free, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Youtube.com, Come and take it, Come and take it with sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Predators, Child predator, Caleb elliot, Texas, Texas football, Pedophile, Pedophile allegations 

The devil and his minions have haunted me all my life.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been visited by the unquiet dead, the hungry ghosts, and even Old Scratch himself in my dreams. Perhaps these nighttime visitations were spiritual attacks, perhaps they were the predictable manifestation of the violence and instability of my upbringing.

Like Piper Laurie in ‘Carrie,’ my mother forced me to kneel while she stood above me bellowing. ‘Humble yourself before me!’ she shrieked. ‘GodDAMN you, humble yourself!’

Maybe they were both; maybe the kind of moral derangement that afflicted my parents was a kind of demonic possession.

The devil I know

I’m not sure I believe in God, but I’m getting closer to believing in the devil. That’s a confused position, admittedly, but that’s what you get from a guy who believed as a child until it was punished out of him and then spent too many years as an obnoxious “new atheist” adult.

Whatever the answer may be, I’ve been terrified and fascinated by the supernatural, the uncanny, and the grotesque all my life. The kinds of spooky stories that gripped me were the type you find in Victorian English ghost story anthologies. Authors like E.F. Benson, M.R. James, and Elizabeth Gaskell.

If you like these too, no one reads them better than English podcaster Tony Walker. His “Classic Ghost Stories Podcast” is one of the few I find so good that I voluntarily pay for it. This is no amateur sideshow; Walker’s narration is professional grade. Why he’s not rich reading books for Audible, I’ll never know.

Weeping and wailing women in veils who glide down hallways. Rain-bedraggled brides hitchhiking on the side of the road who disappear from their ride’s passenger seat as he drives past Resurrection Cemetery. Fingerprints that appear on the windows of automobiles that cross the railroad tracks where a locomotive hit a school bus long ago killing the children on board. Their spirit fingers gently push your car along to make sure you don’t meet their sad and untimely fate.

In search of … belief

Like many kids of the 1970s and 1980s, I grew up watching shows like the cryptid/aliens/spook-filled “In Search Of,” narrated by Leonard Nimoy. My library card was full many times over with every book on Bigfoot, extra-sensory perception, telekinesis, poltergeists, and the Bermuda Triangle.

Have you heard about the moving coffins of Barbados? That’s top-quality spine tingles. As the story goes, a wealthy family living on the Caribbean island built a family vault in the cemetery. Every time a member died, the crypt was opened to accept a new coffin. And every time the crypt was opened, the coffins that were already there were tossed about helter-skelter.

Maybe it was flood waters. Except that there was no evidence of water incursion. Maybe pranksters did it. But the family sealed the stone door and sprinkled sand on the floor, and there was never a footprint betraying a (living) human presence.

For a proper classic haunting, you can’t beat the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Nearly everyone with a passing familiarity with the spirit world of 20th-century popular culture has seen the photograph of this long dead woman, a translucent, begowned figure descending the grand staircase of the palatial home in Norfolk, England, built during the reign of James I in 1620.

According to two photographers who were documenting the inside of the estate in 1936, as they were setting up a shot, they looked up at the stairs in astonishment. A veiled specter was float-walking silently down the stair treads, and they had just enough time to open the shutter on their plate camera and capture the most famous ghost photograph of all time.

Was she the shade of Lady Dorothy Walpole? Lady Walpole was said to have been immured in a room in Raynham Hall for the rest of her life at the hands of her husband, Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, who was angered by her unfaithful dalliances.

Or was this just the first and best example of trick-ghost photography, a double-exposed photographic plate? In the early days of photography, the public was not wise to the trickery available to a skilled image-maker. Long before Photoshop and AI, the public believed the camera never lies.

I want to believe. There’s something magnetic, romantic, and almost erotic about the possibility that a curtain separates us from the realm of the dead and that it thins at certain times, like now. As a child, I delighted in being scared so badly I didn’t dare turn off the flashlight under the covers I used for my clandestine and very-much-not-allowed post-bedtime reading.

Joy interrupted

Yet the possibility of an ethereal realm where the dead who refuse to acknowledge their condition “live,” a plane where real devil cavorts are not merely fun and games. If that plane exists, and if it’s populated by any of the henchmen attributed to Satan, then the other side is very serious business indeed. I’m not so sure I want to believe, in that case, but I’m also not so sure that I don’t.

When I was 8 years old, my family took a rare trip to a sit-down restaurant on Christmas Eve. We were poor, and a night out at Demicelli’s Italian Restaurant was so special that Christmas would have been joyful even if we didn’t get a single present. As we walked toward Placentia Boulevard in Fullerton, California, I looked at the night sky and saw the brightest star I’d ever seen.

“Mommy, look!” I said, tugging at my mother’s sleeve. I pulled on her cigarette hand, which annoyed her. “It’s the star of Jesus, Mommy. It’s the star that guided the Wise Men to the baby Jesus!”

It was wondrous. It made me feel light-headed with a joy I’d never felt.

My mother made a derisive sniggering noise as she blew out smoke. “Oh, no it isn’t, Josh,” she mocked. “It’s just a star. Probably Venus.”

My face went red with embarrassment, and I stayed quiet the rest of the night. I felt stupid. Unsophisticated. Dumb. Childlike. Naive. And substandard. This was a problem that repeated itself over the years. My mother was the resentful “victim” type, and she was at war with God.

I convinced her to take us to the Presbyterian church where I’d been (to her reluctance, as she recalled it) baptized as an infant for Christmas Eve services in 1986. Mother spent the walk home railing about those “Goddamned hypocritical Christians! Where were they for this single mother when I needed a little help to put food on the table?”

I can’t repeat the rest of what she said in a respectable publication.

Maternal monster

It wasn’t until my 40s that I realized why I had been captivated to the point of obsession with certain dark characters in disturbing films like 1976’s “Carrie.” This was an adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel of the same name, a book that still ranks among his finest work. It’s only nominally about a teen girl with telekinesis, the psychic ability to move objects with her mind. The story is really about a frightened girl who grew up with a maternal monster.

If you’ve seen the movie, you remember Piper Laurie’s almost kabuki performance as Margaret White, a religious fanatic tormented by her own sense of failure and sin. Seeing herself as a fallen woman who fornicated with a man, she uses extreme interpretations of scripture to berate and subjugate the result of that union, her daughter, Carrie. Just as Margaret believes she can never be forgiven, she can never forgive her daughter for being born, for embodying her mother’s sin in too-real flesh.

So she screams at Carrie, beats her, forces her to confess sins the girl has never committed (they were Margaret’s sins), and worst of all, locks her in a “prayer closet.” The scene that terrified me the most was the vignette in the dining room when Margaret forces Carrie to her knees as she intones about how God had loosed the raven on the world, and the raven was called sin.

“Say it, woman! Say it!” Margaret screams. “Eve was weak. Eve was weak!”

She drags Carrie to the prayer closet, a black cloak whirling about her like the wings of the raven, and babbles insanely while her daughter screams for mercy. Lighting a candle in the dark, Carrie looks up to a figure of St. Sebastian on the wall, a grotesque effigy with agonized eyes reflecting the pain of his arrow wounds.

Fascinated by fear

Margaret White obviously had a severe condition called Borderline Personality Disorder, which also afflicted my mother. While my mother was not a religious fanatic, she treated me the way Margaret White treats Carrie. Just as in the movie’s dining room scene, my mother forced me to kneel while she stood above me bellowing. “Humble yourself before me!” she shrieked. “GodDAMN you, humble yourself!”

My mother did not want what she claimed she wanted: respect and filial piety. She wanted to be worshiped. My mother created herself God in her own image.

So I prayed to God to be delivered from my mother’s prison, but I never got an answer, or one I recognized. I was more certain that the world was full of angry entities, though, and to say I felt haunted wouldn’t go far enough.

That which terrorizes also fascinates. Over my life, I’ve tasted and re-tasted the fear through movies like “Carrie” and “Mommie Dearest.” Fictional versions of my real-life horror were a poison candy; they hurt so good, like the compulsion to thrust the tongue repeatedly into a canker sore that won’t heal.

I still don’t know what I believe about God, the soul, heaven, or hell.

I knew what I saw

No Halloween story would be complete without a personal anecdote of an encounter with the unexplained. This is the first time I’ve told this story to anyone, let alone in print. Like I do myself, you may doubt me. I admit that I was halfway to drunk when it happened. But in the moment, I knew what I saw and heard, I knew I was only buzzed on three beers, not falling-down drunk. I wasn’t hallucinating pink elephants or anything else.

It was 1992. I was 18 years old and sharing an apartment with my best friend, Lisa. It was movie night in the living room, and it was my turn to fetch fresh Molson Goldens from the refrigerator. I put the sweating bottles on a round cocktail tray with a rubber no-slip bottom I’d brought home from the restaurant I worked at.

I was a skilled waiter who could hold a tray with four entrees and several cocktails without spilling. And though I’d had a few beers, I was not drunk. In the hallway as I was about to enter the living room, one of the standing beer bottles on the tray violently flipped over to the horizontal with a thud. It wasn’t the kind of soft thud that happens when something tips over. It was a THUD, as if someone had thrown the bottle into the tray.

Remember, it was a rubberized tray. It was actually difficult for a glass on such a tray to slide, let alone tip over. I had not tilted the tray; I was not weaving drunkenly as I walked. The other beer bottle didn’t tip over. The two mugs on the same tray didn’t move. More, the same thing happened a few minutes later in the living room. My (replaced) beer bottle on the side table, three feet from reach, loudly tipped over on a perfectly level table and made a loud rap.

I remember so clearly stopping still as the blood drained from my head. Did I really just see what I thought I saw? I did. And I felt it, too.

In that moment in the hall, I said this in my head: “What you just saw and heard really happened. You’re not drunk, and you’re not hallucinating. But no one will believe you, and over time, you will not believe you either. Your memory will soften, and you will convince yourself that you were drunk and that you somehow caused these bottles to tip over in apparent defiance of the laws of physics and friction.”

That’s exactly what happened. As I tell you this story, I doubt myself. At the same time, I remember the warning I spoke to myself in my head about doubt there, in the moment, and I know I wasn’t crazy.

Happy Halloween.

​Haunting, Lifestyle, Family, First-person, Halloween 2025, Carrie, Movies, Borderline personality disorder, Mothers, Mental illness, Spooky, Ghosts, Demonic, God, Intervention 

Nearly 20 people were shot — three of them fatally — in Chicago over the weekend, police told WBBM-TV.

The station said the shooting victims’ ages range from 18 to 70.

A woman of an unknown age was found unresponsive in an alley behind the 11000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue at 10:18 a.m., WBBM said. She had been shot twice in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, the station said.

Police reported only one shooting on Friday. It took place just before 6:30 p.m. in the 5500 block of South Lafayette Avenue where police said an unknown person shot a 43-year-old woman on the street multiple times, WBBM noted. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, the station said.

The shootings ramped up on Saturday, as police said a dozen people were hit by gunfire — two of them fatally, the station said.

In one of the fatal shootings, police told WBBM that individuals in a red Dodge Charger were traveling westbound in the 4400 block of West Augusta Boulevard just before 5:30 a.m. when they were struck by gunfire, after which the vehicle crashed. The driver, a 37-year-old man, was shot in the back while his 29-year-old male passenger was shot multiple times in the head, the station said. Both victims were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital where the 29-year-old was in critical condition — but the 37-year-old, later identified as Mauro Josemartin, was pronounced dead, WBBM said.

RELATED: Thug on parole accused of breaking into woman’s home, raping her at gunpoint, robbing her is quickly caught because he’s dumb

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

In the other fatal shooting, a 23-year-old man was in a vehicle in the 4100 block of West Jackson Boulevard at 3:10 p.m. when he was hit in the chest by gunfire, the station said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County where he was pronounced dead, WBBM noted.

On Sunday, six people were shot, one of them fatally, the station said. In the fatal shooting, a woman of an unknown age was found unresponsive in an alley behind the 11000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue at 10:18 a.m., WBBM said. She had been shot twice in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, the station said.

Among the nonfatal shootings, four unknown gunmen approached a 43-year-old man in the 1500 block of East 75th Street just before 4 p.m. Saturday and opened fire at him, WBBM said. The man was hit in the ankle area and taken to a hospital in good condition, the station said.

On Sunday, two men — ages 18 and 19 — were in a business in the 100 block of East 51st Street just before 6 a.m. when a man came up and shot them both, WBBM said. The 18-year-old was shot in the upper right leg and transported himself to Provident Hospital of Cook County, the station said, adding that the 19-year-old was shot in the left calf and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center; both were in fair condition. Police told WBBM that the shooter was wearing a gray jumpsuit and fled east on foot.

Also on Sunday, police told the station that multiple people exited a dark-colored SUV outside a business in the 800 block of East 79th Street around 10:45 a.m. and shot two men, ages 66 and 70. The 66-year-old was hit in the right wrist, chest, and groin, police told WBBM, adding that the 70-year-old was hit once in the buttocks. Both victims were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where the 66-year-old was reported in critical condition, and the 70-year-old was in fair condition.

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​Chicago, Chicago police, Fatal shootings, Police, Shootings, Crime 

Joe Rogan may not be ready to call himself a Christian, but the former atheist does find himself rubbing shoulders with believers on many a Sunday.

The podcaster once again revealed details about his ongoing exploration of the faith, including his habit of regularly attending church.

‘It’s almost like everybody is under a spell.’

He also demonstrated a newfound appreciation of why someone would need God in his or her life. When recent podcast guest Francis Foster expressed amazement at how much a friend of his could rely on religion as a foundation for getting through tough times, Rogan didn’t seem nearly as surprised.

“If you really do believe that, it definitely will help you,” the comedian concurred.

Church going

At that point, fellow guest — and Foster’s “Triggernometry” podcast co-host — Konstantin Kisin chimed in that he himself had been becoming more religious.

“I haven’t got there, but I have started going to church every now and again,” Kisin explained.

“Do you enjoy it?” Rogan asked.

“I love it,” responded Kisin.

“I do too,” confessed Rogan, adding, “It’s a bunch of people that are going to try to make their lives better. They’re trying to be a better person.”

Rogan then described his church experience as getting together with a group of people who read and analyze Bible passages.

“I’m really interested in what these people were trying to say because I don’t think it’s nothing,” Rogan said.

No ‘fairy tale’

From there, the New Jersey native addressed claims he has heard from atheists and secularists who dismiss Christianity as being “foolish.”

RELATED: ‘He did horrible s**t!’ Joe Rogan rips into Gavin Newsom’s presidential aspirations — and he fires back

The 58-year-old pushed back against the characterization that Christianity as a collection of “fairy tales” by “self-professed intelligent people,” noting that a proper understanding of the faith requires considering historical context, translation difficulties, and oral vs. written tradition.

“I think there’s something to what they’re saying,” Rogan offered.

Trust the science

While noting that modern science has found physical evidence for the biblical flood story told in Genesis, Rogan said he also appreciated the Bible as a compelling depiction of society 6,000 years ago.

Further segments in the podcast revealed that, perhaps due to a renewed interest in faith, Rogan’s algorithm may have even changed.

RELATED: Dave Landau shares gritty journey with Joe Rogan — from Zoloft struggles and addiction to comedy redemption

– YouTube

This became evident when the group discussed some of Kisin’s protest journalism, where he asks befuddled liberals the reason they are attending the current protest of the day.

In response, Rogan pointed to a video of a man doing interviews at a left-wing No Kings protest. The man asks attendees if they believe in human rights, to which they affirm, until they are asked about human rights “in the womb,” which is when they dismiss the idea.

“It’s almost like everybody is under a spell,” Rogan laughed.

Rogan first confirmed he was going to church in June, after hinting at the idea that he was becoming more religious. He described his attendance similarly at that time:

“It’s actually very nice; they’re all just trying to be better people.”

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​Faith, Align, Lifestyle, Joe rogan, Comedy, Comedian, Church, Christianity, Bible, Religion 

Many people around the world are rightly celebrating the Israeli hostages who have been released from Gaza and the fragile ceasefire that is currently in place. Moments of reunion — and the prolonged agony felt by families of the remaining 13 deceased hostages — remind us that human life is precious beyond words.

Yet there is still another group of hostages in Gaza: countless Palestinian children trapped in fear, parents trapped in rubble, and a generation trapped between grief and uncertainty. For many Palestinians, this is a time to mourn.

What do we believe about the people who are different from us politically, religiously, racially, socially?

To speak of hostages today is to speak not only of those taken, but of all who have been bound by violence and loss. Every image of a freed captive should remind us that freedom is God’s design for every person made in His image. This is true for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

The Christian scriptures teach that every human being bears the imago Dei: the divine imprint of dignity, value, and worth. When we forget that truth, we become capable of anything.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of spending time with Rwandan Bishop Nathan Amooti. Rwanda is no stranger to pain. In the aftermath of genocide, Rwandans discovered that the first step toward national healing was re-humanizing one another — refusing to call a neighbor an enemy, rejecting demonizing language, and refusing to treat human souls as disposable.

That same work lies before us in Gaza. Rebuilding is not merely about bricks, electric lines, and water systems; it’s about reconstructing belief. What do we believe about the people who are different from us politically, religiously, racially, socially?

Rwanda’s recovery offers several lessons for all who long to see renewal in Gaza and beyond.

Rebuilding begins with re-humanizing

Bishop Amooti reminded me that genocide began when people stopped seeing one another as human.

The Hutus referred to the Tutsis as “snakes” or “cockroaches,” while the Tutsis called the Hutus “frogs.” Healing began when they rediscovered their shared humanity. Every act of compassion, every home rebuilt, and every hospital restored became a declaration that life is sacred.

Reconciliation is a process, not a moment

Rwanda learned that forgiveness and rebuilding take years of patient, communal effort.

Reconciliation started when individuals faced their trauma and chose life over revenge. True justice meant rebuilding community rather than pursuing more bloodshed. Bishop Amooti said that when a person kills someone who harmed their loved ones, “They become exactly like the person who first caused the pain.”

It takes humility and courage to stop the cycle of dehumanization.

Nation-building is moral and spiritual

When Rwandans returned to their homeland after the genocide, every system was broken: schools, hospitals, banks, and trust itself. They became innovators and social entrepreneurs, not simply out of ambition but out of necessity. The church played a vital role in helping rebuild communities by reminding people that identity runs deeper than tribe or politics.

Rebuilding Gaza will likewise require more than international aid; it will require moral imagination, shared responsibility, and courage to believe that neighbors can once again live side by side.

Healing requires shared responsibility

In Rwanda, citizens didn’t wait for government capacity; everyone participated in reconstruction. Pastors, teachers, farmers, and business leaders worked together to restore life.

The same must be true for Gaza. Governments can broker ceasefires, but ordinary people — Israeli and Palestinian, Muslim and Christian, local and global — will have to be ambassadors of goodness and peace with their own hands.

RELATED: How Tucker Carlson vs. Ted Cruz exposed a critical biblical question on Israel

BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images

Followers of Jesus Christ have a special responsibility; they are invited into this ministry of reconciliation. We rejoice with the families whose loved ones have come home; this is good, beautiful, and right. But to stop there would be to miss the heart of God.

We must also mourn with those who mourn — to grieve the staggering loss of life in Gaza and to join the sacred work of rebuilding.

If we believe that every person is made in the image of God, then every broken city, every grieving mother, and every frightened child becomes holy ground, a place where the Kingdom of God still longs to reign.

Freedom for Israeli hostages must include freedom for the people of Gaza: freedom from fear, despair, and ongoing dehumanization.

​Christianity, Christian, Bible, Jesus christ, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Image of god, Faith 

A small but significant percentage of Americans say they are open to having a friendship with artificial intelligence, while some are even open to romance with AI.

The figures come from a new study by the Institute for Family Studies and YouGov, which surveyed American adults under 40 years old. Their data revealed that while very few young Americans are already friends with some sort of AI, about 10 times that amount are open to it.

‘It signals how loneliness and weakened human connection are driving some young adults.’

Just 1% of Americans under 40 who were surveyed said they were already friends with an AI. However, a staggering 10% said they are open to the idea. With 2,000 participants surveyed, that’s 200 people who said they might be friends with a computer program.

Liberals said they were more open to the idea of befriending AI (or are already in such a friendship) than conservatives were, to the tune of 14% of liberals vs. 9% of conservatives.

The idea of being in a “romantic” relationship with AI, not just a friendship, again produced some troubling — or scientifically relevant — responses.

RELATED: US Army says it is not replacing ‘human decision-making’ with AI after general admits to using chatbot

— (@)

When it comes to young adults who are not married or “cohabitating,” 7% said they are open to the idea of being in a romantic partnership with AI.

At the same time, a larger percentage of young adults think that AI has the potential to replace real-life romantic relationships; that number sits at a whopping 25%, or 500 respondents.

There exists a large crossover with frequent pornography users, as the more frequently one says they consume online porn, the more likely they are to be open to having an AI as a romantic partner, or are already in such a relationship.

Only 5% of those who said they never consume porn, or do so “a few times a year,” said they were open to an AI romantic partner.

That number goes up to 9% for those who watch porn between once or twice a month and several times per week. For those who watch online porn daily, the number was 11%.

Overall, young adults who are heavy porn users were the group most open to having an AI girlfriend or boyfriend, in addition to being the most open to an AI friendship.

RELATED: The laws freaked-out AI founders want won’t save us from tech slavery if we reject Christ’s message

Graphic courtesy Institute for Family Studies

“Roughly one in 10 young Americans say they’re open to an AI friendship — but that should concern us,” Dr. Wendy Wang of the Institute for Family Studies told Blaze News.

“It signals how loneliness and weakened human connection are driving some young adults to seek emotional comfort from machines rather than people,” she added.

Another interesting statistic to take home from the survey was the fact that young women were more likely than men to perceive AI as a threat in general, with 28% agreeing with the idea vs. 23% of men. Women are also less excited about AI’s effect on society; just 11% of women were excited vs. 20% of men.

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Tech, Chatbot, Online friend, Liberals, Conservatives 

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.

The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

RELATED: How Bill Gates and friends turned global health into a profit machine — at your expense

AvigatorPhotographer via iStock/Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

​Opinion & analysis, Bill gates, Big tech, Climate change, Climate hysteria, Climate hoax, Environment, Artificial intelligence, Amazon, Jobs, Unemployment, Green tyranny, Weather, Freedom, Liberty, 15 minute cities, Identity, Social credit score, Carbon tax, Machines, Government, Algorithm, Ruling class 

It began in the crucible of a world at war. The word cybernetics was coined in 1948 by the MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener, a man wrestling with the urgent problem of how to make a machine shoot down another machine. He reached back to the ancient Greek for kubernétes, the steersman, the one who guides and corrects. Plato had used it as a metaphor for governing a polis. Wiener used it to describe a new science of self-governing systems, of control and communication in the animal and the machine. The core idea was feedback, a circular flow of information that allows a system to sense its own performance and steer itself toward a goal.

The idea was not about mechanics but about behavior. The focus shifted from what things are to what they do. A thermostat maintaining the temperature of a room, a human body maintaining homeostasis, a pilot correcting the flight path of an airplane; all were, in this new light, functionally the same. They were all steersmen. The conciseness of the concept was seductive, its implications unsettling. It suggested a universal logic humming beneath the surface of both wired circuits and living tissue, blurring the line between the made and the born.

You shape the algorithm, and the algorithm shapes you.

The primordial cybernetic device was James Watt’s centrifugal governor, that elegant pirouette of spinning weights that tamed the steam engine in 1788. As the engine raced, the rotating balls swung wide, closing a valve to slow it; as the engine slowed, they fell, opening the valve again. It was a perfect, self-contained conversation.

But it was the Second World War that gave birth to the theory. Human reflexes were no longer fast enough for the new calculus of aerial combat. Wiener and his colleagues were tasked with solving the “air defense problem,” which was really a problem of prediction. They treated the enemy pilot, the gun, and the radar as a single, closed-loop system, each reacting to the other in a lethal dance. By the war’s end, as one analyst starkly put it, autonomous machines were shooting down other autonomous machines in the “first battle of the robots.”

In the Cold War that followed, cybernetics became a tool of ideological contest. In the West, it was the logic of the military-industrial complex, of corporate automation and the game theory of nuclear deterrence humming away in the computers at Project RAND. It promised optimization and control.

Yet the idea proved too fluid to be contained. While men in uniform were designing command-and-control networks, Stewart Brand was on the West Coast, publishing the Whole Earth Catalog. He filled its pages with cybernetic theory, reimagining it not as a tool for top-down control but for bottom-up, self-regulating communities. The catalog itself was a feedback loop, constantly updated by its readers. For a generation of commune-dwellers and future Silicon Valley pioneers, cybernetics was the grammar of personal liberation and ecological harmony. Computers, Brand wrote in Rolling Stone, were “coming to the people.”

RELATED: ‘They want to spy on you’: Military tech CEO explains why AI companies don’t want you going offline

Photo by Matt Cardy

The Soviets, meanwhile, followed a more jagged path. Initially denouncing cybernetics as a “bourgeois pseudoscience,” they performed a complete reversal after Stalin’s death. Here was a science, they realized, that could perfect the planned economy. Visionaries like Anatoly Kitov and Victor Glushkov dreamed of a vast, nationwide computer network called OGAS, an electronic nervous system that would link every factory to a central hub in Moscow. It was an ambitious plan for “electronic socialism,” a rational, data-driven alternative to the brute-force dictates of the past. The system, they hoped, would offer a technocratic antidote to personal tyranny. OGAS was never fully built, stalled by bureaucracy and technical limits, but the dream itself was telling. Both superpowers saw in the feedback loop a reflection of their own ambitions: one for market efficiency, the other for state perfection.

Perhaps the most popular incarnation of the cybernetic dream was Project Cybersyn in Salvador Allende’s Chile. From 1971 to 1973, the British cybernetician Stafford Beer designed a nerve center for the Chilean economy. In a futuristic operations room that looked like a set from “Star Trek,” managers sat in molded white chairs, surrounded by screens displaying real-time production data fed from factories across the country via a network of telex machines. It was an attempt to steer a national economy in real-time, to keep it in a “dynamic equilibrium” against the shocks of strikes and embargoes. Cybersyn was a short-lived project, ending with the 1973 coup, but it remains a powerful symbol of the cybernetic ideal: a society as a single, responsive, controllable system.

The feedback loop was not confined to the physical world. It began to shape our fictions, which in turn shaped our reality. William Gibson, who knew famously little about computers, coined the word “cyberspace” in his 1984 novel “Neuromancer.” The vision was so compelling it seemed to will itself into existence, providing the language and the imaginative blueprint for a generation of technologists building the early internet and virtual reality. Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel “Snow Crash” gave us the “metaverse” and the “avatar,” terms that have since migrated from fiction to corporate strategy. Cyberpunk literature provided the prototypes for the world we now inhabit.

Today, the word “cybernetics” feels archaic, a relic of a retro-futurist past. Yet its principles are more deeply embedded in our lives than Wiener could have imagined. We are all entangled in cybernetic loops. The social media algorithms that monitor our clicks to refine their feeds, which in turn shape our behavior, are feedback systems of astonishing power and intimacy. You shape the algorithm, and the algorithm shapes you. A self-driving car navigating city traffic is a cybernetic organism, constantly sensing, processing, and acting. Our smart homes and wearable devices are nodes in a network of perpetual, low-grade feedback.

We have built a world of steersmen, of systems that regulate themselves. The question that lingers is the one Wiener implicitly asked from the beginning. In a world of automated, self-correcting systems, who, or what, is charting the course?

​Tech, Cybernetics 

The Trump administration performed strikes in international waters in the eastern Pacific on Monday to stop several boats carrying illegal narcotics, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

‘We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.’

He announced on Tuesday the results of “three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels,” claiming that they were operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations.”

In January, President Donald Trump designated international cartels as foreign terrorist organizations for flooding the U.S. with “deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.”

Monday’s strikes killed 14 narco-terrorists, Hegseth said. No U.S. forces were harmed.

“Eight male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessels during the first strike. Four male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the second strike. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the third strike,” he explained. “The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”

Hegseth noted that there was one survivor.

“Regarding the survivor, USSOUTHCOM immediately initiated Search and Rescue (SAR) standard protocols; Mexican SAR authorities accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue,” he added.

RELATED: ‘We will stop you cold’: Trump announces successful strike against ‘narcoterrorist’ vessel

Pete Hegseth. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday condemned the most recent strikes.

“We do not agree with these attacks, with how they are carried out,” Sheinbaum stated. “We want all international treaties to be complied with.”

RELATED: Trump’s Caribbean ‘drug wars’ are forging a new Monroe Doctrine

Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A separate strike was carried out at President Donald Trump’s direction in the Caribbean Sea last week against a vessel reportedly operated by Tren de Aragua.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth stated on Friday. “Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters — and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”

The U.S. has performed more than a dozen strikes since September. At least 57 people have been killed, according to the Associated Press.

— (@)

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​News, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Pete hegseth, Department of war, Department of defense, Dod, Defense department, War department, Claudia sheinbaum, Drug trafficking, Narcotics, Drugs, Terrorist, Politics 

An 8 ½-minute FBI video on the Jan. 6 pipe bombs, released last week, omits key new evidence, relies on likely manipulated, low-quality footage, and excludes crucial hours of security video that could clarify the most persistent questions that surround the languishing investigation.

The bureau released the video to revive public interest in a case that has gone unsolved for nearly five years. Its timing comes just two weeks after a video sleuth briefed congressional investigators, alleging serious flaws in the FBI’s account of the pipe bombs. Despite those claims — including apparent video manipulation and ignored public tips — the bureau has stuck to its original story.

‘You releasing that info made it impossible for them to even float that excuse.’

The new footage also offers no hint that the FBI considered publicly acknowledging another theory: that the pipe bombs were part of a poorly timed training exercise. FBI sources told Blaze News weeks ago about rumors the bureau had been preparing to report that several federal agencies took part in a training exercise that diverted police resources from the Capitol as thousands of protesters breached its barricades at 12:53 p.m.

Those same sources said that once word of this alleged new theory leaked, the FBI abandoned it. The latest video reflects that retreat, repeating the same facts and framing first presented in 2021.

RELATED: FBI sent 55 agents to the Capitol Jan. 6, none for ‘crowd control,’ former Chief Steven Sund says

“The 7th floor guys were pissed at you for going public with the ‘undisclosed training event’ scenario as a potential cover-up,” a source close to the FBI Washington Field Office told Blaze News. “I’m told you releasing that info made it impossible for them to even float that excuse after you picked it apart.”

Another FBI source previously told Blaze News that the bureau floated the idea that several federal agencies were involved in the pipe-bomb plot and cover-up. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

New low-quality video

The FBI released snippets of new video of the alleged pipe-bomb suspect from the night of Jan. 5, 2021. That footage, of similar low quality as previously released video evidence, is edited in such a way that it excludes showing a U.S. Capitol Police squad SUV pull up directly across the street from where the suspect stood at 8:15 p.m.

The omissions come despite an independent video investigator telling Blaze News he has been feeding his findings to an FBI special agent at the Washington Field Office since late March. It is not clear what, if anything, the FBI has done with the extensive research done by an individual known on X as Armitas. He has asked Blaze News not to use his real name for security reasons.

Armitas’ report to Congress says video footage released by the FBI of the hoodie-wearing suspect was digitally altered. Software was used to crop the image area and reduce the video frame rate, he said.

RELATED: FBI Jan. 6 report sets off a firestorm: Why did it take 56 months to disclose 274 agents at Capitol?

Some of the video of the alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber released by the FBI was low quality. FBI

The FBI says an individual of unknown sex wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans, black gloves, and rare Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers planted pipe bombs at the Democratic National Committee and a short time later along the rear wall of the Capitol Hill Club not far from the Republican National Committee building.

The FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department continue to offer a $500,000 reward for evidence that leads to an arrest in the case.

Aside from some short segments of new footage, the FBI update video is nearly identical to one released Jan. 2, 2021. It comes after Armitas submitted 26 pages of findings to the new House Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6 — and months after he said he began sharing those details with an FBI special agent.

Sources told Blaze News that reducing the frame rate on video makes it very difficult to perform a forensic analysis of the bomber’s gait, or manner of walking. Gait-analysis could help narrow the list of suspects or lead investigators toward a person of interest.

Congressional Black Caucus a target?

The FBI video’s animated map of the suspect’s travels glosses over an apparent stop the person made at a bush on the north side of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, 413 New Jersey Ave. Southeast. It appears, based on the bomber’s behavior, that the CBCI was the original target of the first pipe bomb, Armitas said.

The FBI video said the suspect “pauses near the corner of D Street,” but it failed to mention anything about the suspect seemingly attempting to place the device under the bush at the CBCI.

Video from Capitol Police CCTV Camera 795 showed the suspect walking north on New Jersey Avenue, then turning left into an alley next to the Black Caucus Institute building at about 7:47 p.m. The suspect spent more than a minute near the bush — first bent over and then sitting down in front of the shrub, video shows. The individual appeared to lean into the bush while seated, then got up and continued west down the alley.

A short time later, the alleged bomber came back up the alley past the bush toward New Jersey Avenue, then raced back into the alley as if he or she forgot something. The suspect then returned to New Jersey Avenue at 7:50 p.m. and walked south for a block before turning right onto Ivy Street Southeast toward the DNC, video showed.

Armitas posited that a piece of the pipe bomb broke off while the suspect was attempting to plant it at the CBCI. A construction worker appeared to notice the broken component at 1 p.m. on Jan. 6. The worker can be seen pausing to peer under the bush and then continuing down the alley.

The alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber (left) stops and sits down at a bush next to the Congressional Black Caucus Institute the night of Jan. 5, 2021. A Capitol Police countersurveillance officer (right) peers at something under the same bush just minutes before he discovered the pipe bomb at the nearby Democratic National Committee on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

A two-man team of U.S. Capitol Police countersurveillance agents walked west up the alley at 1:02 p.m., stopped to chat for about 30 seconds, then returned down the alley. One of the officers noticed something under the bush, then leaned in for a closer look just before 1:03 p.m. The officers walked back to the nearby DNC, where one of them discovered the pipe bomb under a bush next to a park bench at 1:05 p.m.

Two buildings were constructed immediately north of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute building in the nearly five years since Jan. 6, so the alley and the bush are no longer there, according to street view images from Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Congressional dormitory, police lights

One of the new video clips released by the FBI shows the suspect walking east along C Street about 8:15 p.m. The video cuts off just before the suspect stops in the front garden of the C Street Center, 133 C St. Southeast. The building has long served as a dormitory or rooming house for members of Congress and staff.

Armitas said it appears the suspect was attempting to place the pipe bomb in the bushes in front of 133 C Street but may have been interrupted by a Capitol Police squad car that turned onto C Street from the east with its emergency lights on.

The squad car pulled over a dark-colored Jeep that minutes earlier had driven down C Street, turned left onto First, made a U-turn, and then drove down D Street, turned left onto Second and left again onto C Street. It appears the squad engaged its emergency lights just as the Jeep turned onto C Street, video showed.

There is no mention in any of the FBI materials across 58 months of a Capitol Police squad car parking directly across C Street from where the alleged would-be bomber stood at 8:15 p.m.

RELATED: GOP-run Jan. 6 subcommittee goes after trove of data deleted by Pelosi-appointed Jan. 6 committee

The pipe bomb suspect (above left) walking west on C Street toward Rumsey Court, stopping in front of a congressional rooming house (upper right), possibly looking to place a pipe bomb on Jan. 5, 2021. Capitol Police squad cars (below) with lights engaged were across the street as the suspect walked down the court to plant the bomb. FBI/@Armitas/U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

The bright blue-and-red emergency lights from the squad car reflected off of the suspect’s gray sweatshirt as he or she walked down into Rumsey Court from C Street, Capitol Police CCTV video shows.

Interestingly, the Capitol Police squad car was the same one the suspect appeared to wave to minutes earlier as the police vehicle drove south on First Street and the suspect walked north past the front of the Capitol Hill Club.

A second Capitol Police car turned onto C Street from the west at 8:18 p.m., did a Y-turn and pulled in behind the first squad. Both officers approached the Jeep with flashlights on. They wrapped up the traffic stop at 8:30. The suspect by then had escaped Rumsey Court and apparently disappeared.

Escape through hidden gate

Armitas said he tracked the suspect’s exit from Rumsey Court through a garden on the property of St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill and onto Second Street Southeast. The FBI’s video does not include this detail, stating instead that the suspect was “last seen” at 8:18 p.m. heading east on Rumsey Court.

The fence between Rumsey Court and the St. Peter’s garden did not have an obvious gate. It appeared as a contiguous fence across the property, Armitas said. So the suspect would have had to know how and where the hidden gate could be unlatched to access the St. Peter’s garden and make the escape onto Second Street, he said.

Blaze News has twice inspected the gate. Without familiarity with the property, it is nearly impossible to recognize the existence of the gate or find a hidden latch.

Bomb retrieval, missing video

Armitas theorized that the DNC bomb assembly was broken by the suspect during the attempt to drop the device next to the CBCI building. So the device the suspect set at the base of a park bench next to the DNC could have needed repair, he said.

Also, the suspect appeared to place the pipe bomb with the short end — where a 60-minute kitchen timer was attached — sticking out toward the sidewalk. When the pipe bomb was discovered at 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6, the long end was sticking out with the egg timer pointed into the bushes, he said. Both facts would indicate the device was removed and later replaced, Armitas said.

RELATED: Bobby Powell gave his last breath working to expose Jan. 6 corruption

The pipe-bomb suspect places the device in the bushes outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters at 7:54 p.m. Jan. 5, 2021, the FBI says. FBI

Those assertions and others could be proven or disproven if the FBI would release the DNC security video for Jan. 6. Several key Capitol Police security cameras were turned away from the DNC at crucial times on Jan. 6.

So the DNC’s security cameras appear to have the only footage that can answer questions about the Secret Service’s security sweep of the DNC building the morning of Jan. 6. They also hold the answer to whether the bomb was present while bomb-sniffing dogs did a sweep of parts of the building exterior.

Depending what the DNC video shows, the pipe bomb was either missed by the Secret Service and still sitting under the bench as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris pulled into the DNC garage around 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, or the bomb was re-placed under the bench while Harris was inside the building.

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​Analysis, J6