Category: blaze media

The race for John Cornyn’s Senate seat is becoming more crowded as another Democrat announced his bid for the seat on Tuesday.

Texas Representative James Talarico, a self-described “progressive Christian,” announced on Tuesday that he will be throwing his hat in the ring to challenge incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn. Talarico’s bid is the most recent challenge in an already crowded field of Senate hopefuls.

‘We’re the underdogs in this fight. We’re going up against a rigged system and a lot of money.’

“I get the sense that there is a deep hunger across the political spectrum for a fundamentally different kind of politics,” Talarico said in an interview ahead of his announcement, according to the AP. “It’s been 10 years now of Trumpian politics, politics as a blood sport, … and there is a hunger 10 years later for a return to more timeless values of sincerity and honesty and compassion and respect.”

Talarico gained increased attention on social media when he sat down with Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience” on July 18.

RELATED: ‘Progressive Christian’ claims abortion is biblical on Joe Rogan

Photo by Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images

“Billionaires have taken over Texas and taken over America — but together, we can take power back for working people,” Talarico said in a Tuesday morning X post.

In a request for campaign funding, Talarico delivered a similar message about punching upward in the race: “We’re the underdogs in this fight. We’re going up against a rigged system and a lot of money. Big Money is powerful, but it’s nothing compared to People Power.”

Talarico was also a leading figure in the Texas redistricting fight during July and August. Democrats fled the state in an attempt to delay the vote on the redistricting motion, which was ultimately passed in late August.

Senator John Cornyn will be running for a fifth term in the Senate. Democrats see a path to victory if Attorney General Ken Paxton beats Cornyn in the March primary.

Talarico joins a crowded field of Democrat candidates, including former NFL player Colin Allred and former astronaut Terry Virts. Beto O’Rourke has also reportedly not ruled out joining the race.

Talarico will reportedly launch his campaign with an event on Tuesday in his hometown of Round Rock, Texas, which is north of Austin.

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​Politics, James talarico, Texas, Texas senate, John cornyn, Texas redistricting, Texas redistricting fight, Joe rogan, Ag ken paxton, Ken paxton, Colin allred, Terry virts, Beto orourke 

A 34-year-old homeless man with a long criminal history has been arrested on charges of murdering a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee — who fled the war in Ukraine for a better life here in America.

Decarlos Brown Jr. allegedly viciously stabbed Iryna Zarutksa on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 22. CCTV footage revealed that the young woman was stabbed several times, including once in the neck.

She died on the spot.

“She was seeking the safety and the freedom and the promise that America still stood for something good. She never made it off that train alive because of the guy in the red hoodie. He’s a repeat offender, a man with a long rap sheet,” Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck says, disturbed.

“Her name should be everywhere. Her story, when you see it, is like watching a horror film. It is extraordinarily evil and disturbing. Yet, outside of local coverage, you’re not seeing this anywhere,” he continues.

“No, there’s no wall-to-wall coverage, no breathless reporting, no endless panels on this,” he adds.

Glenn believes the mainstream media is ignoring this story because it “does not fit the narrative.”

George Floyd’s death in 2020 “generated tens of thousands of articles, cities were burned, corporations bent the knee,” and “media made it the moral center of the universe.”

“Why is this one completely invisible to the legacy media?” Glenn asks. “A young woman, an immigrant, a refugee, brutally loses her life on American soil, career criminal. Silence.”

“It brings up and makes you ask all the wrong questions. It shines a spotlight on a justice system that keeps turning violent men loose on the streets, over and over again. It reveals the double standard that screams louder than words, that some lives are politically useful,” he says, adding, “others are disposable.”

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​Sharing, Video, Camera phone, Upload, Free, Video phone, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Decarlos brown jr, Iryna zarutska, Charlotte, North carolina, George floyd, Democrats, The leftist media, Racism, Racial discrimination 

The owner of a Detroit clothing store said it took crooks only five minutes to steal $90,000 in merchandise from his place of business in a predawn heist Monday, WDIV-TV reported.

“When I get here, the police was already here, but the damage has already been done,” Waheed Ahmed, owner of J-Bees on Gratiot Avenue for 26 years, told the station. “Merchandise was gone.”

‘You know, when you’re in the community, you’re trying to bring good brands to the community, try to bring good quality things to the community, and you build a relationship with certain customers. So it’s like, what you gonna do? You gonna shut it down, or you gonna stay open?’

Ahmed, 57, told WDIV that security video showed the crooks arriving in a white minivan and a black pickup truck at 4:49 a.m.

At least a dozen individuals quickly exited the minivan while another group got out of the pickup, the station said.

By 4:53 a.m., the crooks smashed a window and door, forced open the storefront gate, and went inside, WDIV reported, adding that the crew emptied tables and shelves, destroyed mannequins, and broke into a back office.

The thieves were gone by 4:56 a.m., the station said — just five minutes to steal an estimated $90,000 worth of clothing, the station said.

RELATED: Crooks try getaway after daytime smash-and-grab heist of Rolex watches in downtown Chicago — but time runs out on them

“They moved quick. They had an idea what they wanted,” Dee, the store’s general manager for the last 15 years, told WDIV.

Dee added to the station that “they had, like, 12 to 15 guys. This is a routine. This is probably something that they do on the daily.”

WDIV noted that this incident is the second time this year that the store had been robbed in such a brutal fashion.

“I feel like someone came in and scoped the store out,” Dee added to the station. “They took a look around and seen where everything was at, where everything was set up — like the high-end merchandise — and that’s what they went after.”

More from WDIV:

Dee said that robberies like this are tiresome, and he feels the store needs more security and better protection with the help of Detroit police.

Both Ahmed and his general manager are frustrated with this type of crime, as they want to keep businesses like this in the neighborhood.

“You know, when you’re in the community, you’re trying to bring good brands to the community, try to bring good quality things to the community, and you build a relationship with certain customers,” Dee noted to the station. “So it’s like, what you gonna do? You gonna shut it down, or you gonna stay open?”

Ahmed added to WDIV that “I love this neighborhood. It’s been 26 years, so I am seeing a third generation in my place, so I get connected with the third generation.”

But the crime is taking a toll on him, too.

“I really enjoy doing business with them,” Ahmed noted to the station. “But I say it’s getting frustrating.”

Detroit police detectives arrived Monday afternoon to gather information about the robbery, WDIV said.

Between the damage and the stolen merchandise, Ahmed told the station that even with insurance, he could be looking at a total loss of at least $200,000.

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​Detroit, Clothing store, Theft, Organized retail theft, Crime 

Last week, Dearborn, Michigan — a city near Detroit known for its large Islamic population, which drives much of the city’s culture — proposed adding a patch to its police officers’ uniforms that read “Dearborn Heights Police” in Arabic script.

While some reacted to the idea positively, public outrage far outweighed support. Shortly after the idea was announced, Dearborn’s mayor walked the Arabic patch proposal back, and the police department clarified it was a premature, unapproved idea.

Glenn Beck says the incident is more evidence that “we no longer respect the ethics and the constitutional norms that created this country.”

The proposed change was supposedly just meant to reflect and honor the city’s large Muslim population, but Glenn says it’s far more than just “a small gesture of outreach.”

“It is a signal, and signals matter,” he says.

America was designed to be a melting pot: “You could come here from any land, speak any language, [practice] any faith, and … if you believed in the laws and the Constitution of America … and you upheld those things, we could melt together, and we could create something even greater than you could even imagine,” Glenn explains.

“We [don’t] erase cultures. We elevate what unites us instead of elevating what divides us, and we don’t bend our civic institutions to mirror any kind of tribal or religious identities. We don’t create parallel systems of justice or identity.”

Never in the history of this country has an immigrant or religious group had law enforcement “tailor itself to them,” he says.

In fact, it’s often been the opposite. Glenn points to Mormons, who were at one time persecuted for their faith, despite being “the most patriotic of any religion in America.” “They didn’t bend America to their faith; they bound their faith to America,” he says, adding that Catholics, too, have faced religious persecution in this country.

But for some reason, Muslims have not only avoided persecution, they’ve been catered to. “Week after week, from the pulpits of the local mosque [in Dearborn], the imams openly declare their goal — not to join the American project, but to replace it, not to preserve the Constitution, but to subvert it.”

“They preach the supremacy of sharia law over American law, and now the police department, a symbol of our secular constitutional order, decides they want to appeal to that group? To wear that identity on its uniform?” says Glenn. “That’s not inclusion. That’s not assimilation. That’s not the melting pot. It’s the opposite. It’s balkanization at its kindest.”

“It is the state bending towards the demand of a religious political ideology that seeks to replace our American civilization. Let me be really, super clear on this: This cannot stand,” he warns.

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Blazetv, Blaze media, Glenn beck, Dearborn michigan, Muslims, Islam, Religious freedom 

Former Obama adviser Van Jones and CNN talking head Abby Phillip attacked Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Monday for daring to suggest that racial animus may have been a factor in the savage Aug. 22 murder of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The liberal chatterboxes’ eagerness to avoid the controversy over the murder becoming — as Phillip put it — “some sort of, like, reciprocal George Floyd situation” evidently had them overlook what the alleged murderer apparently says in the gruesome footage of the stabbing.

From avoidance to spin

The liberal media appeared keen to overlook 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska’s murder last month on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, even in the wake of revelations about suspected killer Decarlos Brown’s lengthy criminal history and the release of footage showing the stabbing.

When the horrific story and the reaction to it online became too big to ignore, some outfits belatedly attempted to cure the narrative on Monday.

The New York Times, for instance, concern-mongered about the unprovoked stabbing turning into “an accelerant for conservative arguments about the perceived failings of Democratic policies,” suggesting it might be “successfully used” like Laken Riley’s murder by an illegal alien.

CNN, among the liberal outfits that delayed covering the murder, similarly attempted to orient the public’s focus away from what set the stage for Zarutska’s murder and toward political implications of the backlash.

RELATED: Wikipedia editors are trying to scrub the record clean of Iryna Zarutska’s slaughter by violent thug

AzmanL/Getty Images

The eponymous host of “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” kicked off the panel discussion Monday evening stating that she was “trying to understand why this has become such a flashpoint on the right.”

Phillip, Van Jones, and other liberal panelists did not appear particularly receptive to the explanation offered early on by Republican strategist and commentator Brad Todd — that every murder is a tragedy but this one is particularly tragic because it was so avoidable.

“The man who committed this crime was out on cashless bail, which has been a crusade of the political left. He also has a repeat offender, career criminal, 14 times he was arrested,” said Todd. “He clearly is someone who should not have been out on bail in January when he was released on bail.”

Strategic deafness

After some of the panelists tried to center the conversation on the theme of mental illness, Phillip played a clip from Charlie Kirk where the conservative noted:

A white Ukrainian refugee was murdered just because she was white. Everybody knows that, obviously. … If a random white person simply walked up to and stabbed a nice, law-abiding black person for no reason, it would be an apocalyptically huge national story used to impose national, sweeping political changes on the whole country.

“Van, they’ve been looking for opportunities to make this some sort of, like, reciprocal George Floyd situation,” said Phillip. “And that’s the part that I think he’s almost giving away the game. It’s sad to see a lot of people going along with it.”

RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Before suggesting that there were no “sweeping changes imposed on society” following the death of George Floyd, Jones first stated that “we don’t know why that man did what he did.”

“For Charlie Kirk to say, ‘We know he did it because she’s white,’ when there’s no evidence of that, is just pure race-mongering, hate-mongering. It’s wrong,” continued the former Obama adviser. “He should be ashamed of himself. No one mentioned the word ‘race,’ ‘white, ‘black,’ or anything except him.”

Contrary to Jones’ suggestion, the violent thug who murdered Zarutska, an aspiring veterinarian assistant, appears to repeatedly say in the video as blood dropped from his knife, “I got that white girl.”

Blaze News has reached out to Kirk for comment.

FBI Director Kash Patel indicated Monday evening that the “FBI has been investigating the Charlotte train murder from day one.”

Decarlos Brown has been charged with first-degree murder. Blaze News has reached out to the DOJ about whether Brown might face federal hate crime charges as well.

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​Van jones, Abby phillip, Cnn, Liberal, Iryna zarutska, Zarutska, Charlotte, North carolina, Decarlos brown, Media, Race, George floyd, Politics 

With Rep. John James (R-Mich.) turning his sights to the governor’s mansion in Michigan, some conservatives have been on the hunt for someone who can take James’ place representing the 10th district of Michigan in Congress. And they think they’ve found their man — Captain Mike Bouchard, son of longtime Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Back in July, the super PAC Draft Captain Mike Bouchard announced a list of those who hope to entice the 31-year-old Michigan Army National Guard captain to run as a Republican for the seat James will vacate at the end of this term. The 19 initial names on that list included: his father, Sheriff Bouchard; Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido; and Macomb County Treasurer Larry Rocca.

‘He’s a true American warrior.’

That list has since grown to 32 supporters, including rock legend Ted Nugent, former Michigan Gov. John Engler and his wife, and former state Attorney General Bill Schuette, according to a press release given to Blaze News.

Sheriff Bouchard, who took the reins at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in 1999, expressed enthusiasm for his son’s candidacy.

“My son … is an amazing person and is very qualified to do this,” the sheriff told Blaze News.

“He wanted to be in the Army from the time he was tiny,” the proud dad continued. “… He feels very strongly about serving this country, and I think the next step in his mind would be to serve in a different capacity where his experience and knowledge could help.”

“He’s just wanting to make a difference.”

RELATED: Rep. John James hammers Michigan GOP over political failures: ‘What are we even talking about?’

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Sheriff Bouchard has been a familiar name in Michigan and Republican circles for more than 30 years. He spent nearly a decade in the Michigan legislature before turning to law enforcement. He was named the Ferris E. Lucas Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriffs’ Association in 2016, the sheriff of the year by the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association in 2022, and the sheriff of the year by Major County Sheriffs of America just this year.

Captain Bouchard, a full-time operations officer with the Michigan National Guard, is currently deployed to the Middle East but is expected to return home sometime this fall. He could not be reached for comment.

Other conservatives are also hopeful he’ll agree to jump in the race.

“While playing a sold-out concert in Macomb County, I heard the news that Army Captain Mike Bouchard may be running for Congress,” Nugent said, according to the press release. “I couldn’t be more excited! He’s a true American warrior, currently serving overseas, and I know he’ll be a relentless fighter for us in Washington.”

“I am proud to support Captain Mike Bouchard for Congress,” added a statement from Schuette. “I served in Congress. I know what it takes to succeed and to serve Michigan — and Mike Bouchard has exactly the right skills and talent to get the job done.”

In response to a request for comment about Captain Bouchard’s possible candidacy, a spokesperson for Rep. James told Blaze News, “Given the current dynamics and potential candidates in Michigan’s 10th District, John’s confident [Republicans] will hold the seat.”

Other Republicans who have expressed interest in running for the 10th congressional district of Michigan, covering an area just north of Detroit, include state Rep. Joe Aragona, assistant prosecutor Robert Lulgjuraj of Sterling Heights, and former Oakland County GOP Chairman Rocky Raczkowski of Troy, the Detroit News reported.

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​John james, Michigan, Congress, Mike bouchard, Sheriff mike bouchard, Oakland county, Oakland county sheriff’s office, Republicans, Politics 

In his 1967 interview with the CBC, media and communications theorist and devout Catholic Marshall McLuhan said: “I think a great deal of the confusion and misery of our time is related to the fact that people are still trying to find goals in a world that is moving so fast that no possible goal can remain in focus for 10 seconds.”

He’s even more right now than he was then.

And from our vantage, it’s now clear the solution to McLuhan’s conundrum is to pick a goal, make it deep, and never let go.

But how and at what cost?

Right up front: As our technological society’s hyper-speed intimates danger, violence, even annihilation, one must redirect the urgency, the anxiety to one goal. Pick one with heart measured against timeless wisdom. Pick the goal, re-evaluate in a year, refine the focus.

Let go of the idea that they know something you don’t.

What’s not going to work is mere adjustment in program or technique. Technique is proving to be difficult to control. Psychological technique is not spiritual athleticism. Sorting out your dopaminergic addiction may be helpful, but withdrawing from addiction is not an affirmative act, certainly not one of prayer, pilgrimage, or liturgy.

Fortunately, anything we do can become a form a prayer. Castaneda called this the act of power. Prayer is going to help you refine, flex, and adapt for the long haul.

Yes, it’s a spiritual problem: The mass, scale, and terrifying velocity of the technologized world have reduced whole populations to amnesia, abulia, and apathy.

Surprised? Why? AI creators have no idea how their creation works, but the whole of our social organizations are nonetheless committed to it, and its data centers are positioned to terraform our very living environment. Let go of the idea that they know something you don’t.

Tongue planted in cheek, Cormac McCarthy once said, “Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.” Gallows humor is appropriate to the odds involved in securing your orienting goal. Pick one you might never reach but toward which you can certainly make steady progress.

RELATED: ‘Transhumanist goals’: Sen. Josh Hawley reveals shocking statistic about LLM data scraping

Photo by Nurphoto / Contributor via Getty Images

Like the stone carver, chip away. Let the chipping away become prayer. McCarthy chose art, McLuhan held it together with his religion. This nexus holds all the good goals. Raising the goal to art directs the energies toward God.

There’s a model here. The same center-pivot of our contested civilization — the cross — holds the key to never letting go of your chosen goal. The crucifixion, while itself a tremendous sacred mystery, is also the single most defiant act in all history. Earthly rulers defied divine law. Divine law repossesses earthly rule. Christ, the God-Man, defies our fallen condition by submitting to the whole ordeal. The cosmic order is remade. Perhaps the selection and perseverance toward a goal is not so far from martyrdom. It’s better than being someone else’s human resource.

The initial costs are extensive, levied mostly against self-delusion. But social and financial frictions will also require renegotiation against the value of your goal, your commitment. Clarity gained in defiance compounds, however, and on the back end, there is genuine value: something measured in blood, spiritual weight.

Everything shed as cost is related to pride and external validation. We’re emerging (hopefully) from about 70 years of mind-control operations — our validation metrics are guaranteed to be garbage.

Your soul is required in this process, no doubt. Yet here again, inner value arises in relation to integrity and trust. Let it never be said that the prescription here (grab a goal and hold on for dear life) is easy, or should be. The claim is only that it works. Noetic value is mined or generated via consistency. It reforms human experience at depth. You exist as a living example for others to seek their own contribution of value.

In the end, choose your fighter, or choose both and remix. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” William Blake said that “if the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.” OK, so pick a worthy goal with heart, and accept the terms. The costs will be heavy up front but light on the back end, and you’ll go out with full awareness of your life’s work. The alternative is rolling over to die and/or living your life in constant anxiety — and potentially, in service of evil.

You make the call.

​Tech 

It arrived in July under the kind of blandly aspirational title that Washington favors for its grand designs: America’s AI Action Plan. The document, running to over 90 federal actions, spoke of securing leadership, winning a global “AI race,” and ushering in a “new golden age.” One imagines the interagency meetings, the careful calibration of phrases meant to signal both urgency and control. It uses the peculiar dialect of American power, a blend of boosterism and threat assessment, and tells a story not just about a technology, but about the country that produced it.

At its heart, the plan is a declaration of faith, a very American conviction that the future, however unnerving, can be engineered. The document is laced with a sort of technological patriotism, the belief that American ingenuity, if properly unleashed and funded, is the presumptive solution to any problem, including the ones it itself creates. The rhetoric is that of a race, a competition we are destined to win. One is meant to be reminded of other races, other moments when the national project was fused with a technological imperative. The Apollo program, with its clean narrative arc of presidential challenge and triumphant splashdown, is the obvious touchstone.

The plan is a testament to the enduring belief that American leadership is allied with American technology, that to export one is to secure the other.

The plan’s talk of a “roadmap to victory” is Kennedy’s moonshot rhetoric retooled for the age of algorithms. But the echoes are older, deeper. They resonate with the hum of the first power lines stretching across the Tennessee Valley, with the clatter of the transcontinental railroad, with the foundational belief in a frontier to be conquered. The AI frontier, the plan suggests, is simply the latest iteration of manifest destiny, a digital territory to be settled and civilized according to American norms.

The plan refracts the national character through policy. There is the profound distrust of centralized control, a legacy of the country’s founding arguments. The strategy frames the government’s role as that of an “enabler,” not a commander. The private sector will “drive AI innovation.” The government will clear the way, removing “red tape and onerous regulation,” while also suggesting that federal funds might flow more freely to states with a more permissive regulatory climate. It is a philosophy of governance as groundskeeping: tend the soil, remove the weeds, and let a thousand private-sector flowers bloom.

This is the American way, a stark contrast to the European impulse to regulate first and ask questions later, or the Chinese model of state-directed, top-down command.

RELATED: Europe pushes for digital ID to help ‘crack down’

Photo by Nurphoto / Contributor via Getty Images

This impulse extends even to the vexing question of truth, a concept that has become distressingly fluid. The plan insists that AI models must be “free from ideological bias.” It directs federal agencies to shun AI systems that engage in social engineering or censorship. One could see this as a noble commitment to objectivity. One could also see it as a maneuver in the country’s raging culture war, embedding a particular vision of neutrality into the machines themselves. The plan calls for scrubbing terms like “misinformation” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” from official AI risk frameworks, quietly acknowledging that the machines are not just calculating, but inheriting, our arguments.

The concern is palpable: that AI, in its immense power to sort and present information, might become an Orwellian tool. The plan’s promise to avoid that future attempts to reassure a public deeply suspicious of the selective amplification or suppression of particular voices.

Beneath the policy directives lies a familiar foundation of steel and concrete, or rather, silicon and fiber optics. The second pillar of the plan, “Build American AI Infrastructure,” is a 21st-century update to the great nation-building projects of the past. Its ambition is breathtaking. To power the immense computational thirst of AI, the plan calls for a wholesale modernization of the energy grid, even urging the revival of nuclear power. It seeks to accelerate the construction of semiconductor fabs and data centers, those anonymous, humming cathedrals of the digital age, by streamlining environmental reviews. The message is clear: The AI revolution will not be stalled by paperwork.

Just as the Industrial Revolution demanded coal and the automotive age demanded highways, the AI age demands an enormous supply of electricity and processing power. And it needs people. The plan recognizes a coming shortage of electricians and HVAC technicians, the blue-collar workforce required to build and maintain the physical shell of this new intelligence. This is a telling detail, a reminder that even the most ethereal technology rests on a bedrock of manual labor.

The final pillar extends this project globally, recasting diplomacy as a form of technological export. The plan advocates for a “full AI technology stack” to be pushed to allies, a Marshall Plan for the digital age. By exporting American hardware, software, and standards, the U.S. aims to create an ecosystem, a sphere of influence. The logic is one of interdependence: Nations running on American AI will be more amenable to American norms. This is techno-diplomacy, a great-power competition played out in server farms and source code. It is a strategy of pre-emption, an attempt to ensure the world’s operating system is written in a familiar language, before a rival power can install its own. The plan is a testament to the enduring belief that American leadership is allied with American technology, that to export one is to secure the other.

It is a vision of a world made predictable through the careful management of a powerful new tool. And it is a wager, a very American wager, that we can shape our tools before they shape us.

​Ai, Tech 

If you’ve ever been apple picking, you know how homely apples right off the tree can look. A far cry from the beautiful specimens we’ve come to expect from the supermarket: smooth, unblemished, blood-red.

But this cosmetic perfection comes at a price. It relies on pesticides that poison our soil, our water and our bodies.

Farmers themselves are the first casualties. Studies show they face elevated rates of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, gliomas, leukemia, and melanoma.

Pointing this out shouldn’t be a radical position, but it is. Must we take to the trees like Julia Butterfly Hill just to demand food that won’t sicken us and degrade the environment? It’s unfortunate that we’ve come to a place where commonsense stewardship of nature requires the constitution of an eco-activist.

In denial

Part of the problem is denial. The Environmental Protection Agency already has the authority to regulate the sale, distribution, and use of pesticides under the 1947 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

Great, I guess. And yet, we now have over 90,000 registered pesticide products, built from 3,577 unique active ingredients.

We can look at these numbers — and at the sickness in our bodies — and know, intuitively, that it’s all wrong. That no one in authority is actually looking out for us.

Dye another day

It took the allegedly “anti-science” RFK Jr. to ban carcinogenic food dyes. And yet, we’ve known about their harm for decades. Red Dye No. 3 was banned from cosmetics in 1990 — so why did it take 35 more years to consider removing it from our food?

Recent research links food dyes like Red No. 3 and Red No. 40 to DNA damage and to the sharp rise of colorectal cancer in young adults over the past 40 years. One study put it plainly:

Our results show that Red 40 damages DNA both in vitro and in vivo. … This evidence supports the hypothesis that Red 40 is a dangerous compound.

The parallel with pesticides is obvious. We have similar data proving that perfectly legal pesticides are carcinogenic. But who has the political will to confront the EPA and break the industrial pesticide complex?

Pesticide pestilence

As I wrote previously, pesticides in our homes and gardens pose serious risks for us and our unborn children. Now, consider the 280 million pounds of glyphosate sprayed annually on 285 million acres of farmland — an area nearly three times the size of California.

And pesticides don’t simply vanish. They metastasize and bioaccumulate. Every step up the food chain concentrates them further.

The results are devastating:

A 2025 JAMA study found that living within one mile of a golf course increases Parkinson’s risk by 126%. The risk stays elevated up to three miles. Communities sharing municipal water systems connected to golf courses faced nearly double the risk. The suspected culprit? Persistent pesticide contamination. A 2024 Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society study tied pesticide exposure to higher incidence of leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and bladder, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancers.

Farmers themselves are the first casualties. Studies show they face elevated rates of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, gliomas, leukemia, and melanoma.

And the damage doesn’t stop at harvest. Pesticides remain on the skin of fruit and vegetables and the surface of grains; tests have found glyphosate in most U.S. wines and beers. According to one study, glyphosate at a level of just one part per trillion can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells and disrupt the endocrine system.

RELATED: Is your home trying to kill you?

Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Buddy system

Why is the United States so saturated with poisons that Europe has long banned?

2016 research showed that more than 322 million pounds of pesticides used in the U.S. were already outlawed in the European Union — over a quarter of America’s total volume. Europe bans chemicals when there’s credible evidence of harm. The EPA, in contrast, tends to have a cozy relationship with the pesticide industry, resulting in lax oversight.

So Europe outlaws neonicotinoids (bee-killing pesticides), paraquat, and chlorpyrifos — while America still sprays them. Paraquat, linked to Parkinson’s disease, remains widely applied in the U.S.

And it’s not just domestic hypocrisy. While driving in France this summer, I passed a pesticide plant that manufactures chemicals banned in Europe — yet sells them abroad. This practice is common, sinister, and completely legal.

Into the woods

The insanity extends beyond agriculture. Glyphosate is sprayed into forests for “management.” In Nova Scotia, officials actually closed parks for fire danger — then announced plans to spray glyphosate across thousands of acres. A move that kills trees, suppresses growth, increases fire risk, and poisons pollinators.

This is not new. In the 1960s, scientists showed that DDT and its byproducts accumulated in birds, thinning eggshells and driving bald eagles and peregrine falcons to the brink of collapse. Decades later, banned chemicals like DDT and PCBs are still found in marine life.

We have always known. And yet the pesticide game continues.

Ground-up reform

I honestly believe that banning the last 50 years of registered pesticide products would do more good for humanity than any other environmental reform. Plastics are a fast second.

The main takeaway is this: Our 90,000+ registered pesticides are destroying us. The cumulative 3,577 unique active ingredients they use concentrate in every step of the food chain, ending in our bodies.

And here’s the bitter truth: RFK Jr., even as HHS head, has no power over the EPA. If the food supply is poisoned from the ground up, his efforts are for naught.

So we return to the first question: Who will stand up for us?

​Pesticides, Glyphosate, Rfk jr, Red dye no. 3, Food dyes, Epa, Cancer, Parkinsons, Health 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is running out of anti-Trump material, as she can’t seem to stop regurgitating the old Democrat talking points. She told California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom on “This is Gavin Newsom” that D.C. is now “very dystopian.”

“It’s funny because I used to watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ and I can’t, right? I never finished, and I can’t watch it because it is too close to reality. And so, what we’re seeing is this militarization, and obviously it started in your state. That was kind of the testing grounds,” Crockett said.

“Going to your state, going to a black woman mayor’s city first, and now we are in yet another black woman-led city and taking over. And to me it goes, again, to the level of racism and hate that is constantly spewed out of this administration,” she added.

“What a stunning choice,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “That’s like M. Night Shyamalan. I would never expect her to go to a racial claim,” he comments.

“Would you consider potentially putting together a fundraiser for the Democrats to come up with another literary reference than ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’? Like, is it possible we could get them a different book just so they could say that title of it?” he asks.

“Now,” he continues, “I know Jasmine Crockett, of course, is so stupid, she couldn’t even act like she read the book. She only said she was watching the Hulu show. But still, can we get them some reference other than ‘The Handmaid’s Tale?’”

“They’re already doing it,” Glenn warns, noting that the Democrats have realized an error in their language.

“The DNC has now blacklisted terms that they don’t want any of their people using. Now, tell me what these terms have in common — blacklisted terms: privilege, violence (as in environmental violence), dialoguing, triggering, othering, microaggression, holding space, body-shaming, subverting norms, systems of oppression, cultural appropriation, the Overton Window, existential threat to the climate, existential threat to democracy, existential threat to the economy, radical transparency, stakeholders, the unhoused, food insecurity, housing insecurity, people who immigrated, birthing person, cisgender, deadnaming, heteronormative, patriarchy, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, allyship, incarcerated people, and involuntary confinement,” Glenn reads.

“Those are the words that the Democrats are now telling their people, ‘Don’t use any of these words.’ Those are the words that they forced everybody to use. So they are reading from a new book,” he says, adding, “They’re just burning their own book.”

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President Donald Trump launched a law enforcement surge in Illinois this week to crack down on illegal immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security explained that “Operation Midway Blitz” was named in honor of Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old who was killed in January in a hit-and-run drunk driving accident caused by a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala.

‘That’s not war; that’s common sense.’

“This ICE operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the DHS wrote in a social media post. “President Trump and Secretary Noem stand with the victims of illegal alien crime while Governor Pritzker stands with criminal illegal aliens.”

— (@)

The Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has focused its efforts on clamping down on sanctuary jurisdictions that protect criminal illegal aliens. This new option targets individuals in Illinois, including Chicago, a sanctuary city.

“In an ICE-led operation, we are here to remove these dangerous public safety threats from American communities,” ICE remarked.

Trump slammed Pritzker for stating he does not want help from the federal government to end violent crime in Chicago.

RELATED: Pritzker and other libs melt down over Trump’s ‘Chipocalypse Now’ meme, prompting a badly needed reality check

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

“6 people were murdered in Chicago this weekend, 12 others were shot, and in serious condition. This would mean that over the past number of weeks, approximately 50 people were killed, and hundreds were shot, many expected to die. Governor Pritzker just stated that he doesn’t want Federal Government HELP! WHY???” Trump questioned. “I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt! We can move fast and stop this madness. The City and State have not been able to do the job. People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION. IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!! ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”

Trump posted an apparent AI-generated photo on Truth Social showing himself, the Chicago skyline, a fire in the background, and helicopters overhead, with the words “Chipocalypse Now.”

“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’” Trump wrote. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

Pritzker pushed back on Trump’s claim that he wants to help the people of Chicago, citing the Truth Social post.

“‘I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” the governor said.

RELATED: SCOTUS overrules lower court giving ICE a big win

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has also rejected Trump’s offers to help the city.

“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson said. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”

When a reporter over the weekend asked Trump whether he was seeking to go to war with Chicago, the president corrected the record.

“We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities. We’re going to clean them up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war; that’s common sense,” Trump declared.

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​News, Chicago, Illinois, Operation midway blitz, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Jb pritzker, Brandon johnson, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Justice department, Kristi noem, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Politics 

What you saw in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony last week before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee wasn’t a debate. It was the uniparty on parade — this time bowing before its favorite idol: the magical power of vaccines.

The spectacle jolted me back to my early days in this business. Years ago, I spoke at an event for a group I liked and respected called TeenPact. They brought Christian high school kids to the Iowa statehouse to watch government in action. By the time I showed up, the students looked checked out — politics as civics theater wasn’t holding their attention.

Are COVID accountability and healthy children worth smashing the idols? Or do we risk slaughtering too many sacred cows in pursuit of what’s good and true?

So I asked them a question: “Did any lobbyists offer you a steak and martini lunch today?” Silence fell over the room, parents included. But the kids snapped to attention. Now they were listening. I laid it out plain: This is how politics really works.

Later, the event organizer scolded me for “cynicism.” I scolded him back for his naivete. Kids don’t need fairy tales. They need to know how deep the rabbit hole goes. And last week, Kennedy showed America again how deep it goes — and how unwilling even the supposed “good guys” are to face it.

That Senate hearing was a prophetic moment. Think John the Baptist telling Herod to stop sleeping with his brother’s wife — except in Washington, it was RFK Jr. telling Elizabeth Warren she took $855,000 from Big Pharma. The only way it could have been sweeter is if he told her to send it back to an Indian reservation.

The shrieking from Democrats when their idols get smashed is sweet music to my ears. The hair on my neck stood up. And here’s the truth: We could force those demons to screech every day if Republicans showed the same conviction.

RELATED: Sudden child deaths after COVID shots? Trump FDA director promises answers.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Instead, too many of our biggest “MAGA influencers” cash checks from foreign governments and then distract us with memes about Greta Thunberg. Too many Republicans act like the kids at that TeenPact event — eager to play politics but unwilling to face the ugly reality.

Tell me: Has anyone in the GOP’s GriftCon Inc. ever sacrificed like RFK Jr. just did? Or has the steak-and-martini circuit always been the bottom line — red state and blue alike? By the time the pharma checks clear, almost no one even asks hard questions anymore. Not about mRNA side effects. Not about why this generation should be the first in American history to normalize transgendering the kids.

Selling out is always a choice. Washington has simply turned it into a career path. Yet if a man with Kennedy’s checkered past can claw his way back from ruin to speak hard truths, maybe the rest of us can do the same.

Are COVID accountability and healthy children worth smashing the idols? Or do we risk slaughtering too many sacred cows in pursuit of what’s good and true?

The answer involves nothing less than the survival of the nation and the state of our souls. No big deal. I’m sure it’ll all work itself out — at least until our children are speaking Chinese or praying to Allah.

​Opinion & analysis, Robert f. kennedy jr., Rfk jr, Senate, Senate finance committee, Health and human services, Hhs, Vaccines, Mrna vaccines, Mandates, Research, Centers for disease control and prevention, Cdc, Cdc guidelines, Covid-19 tyranny, Covid-19, Elizabeth warren, Big pharma, Corruption, Politics 

Six men have been arrested and charged in connection with a daytime smash-and-grab heist of Rolex watches in downtown Chicago amid President Donald Trump’s plan to send in the National Guard to help lower the city’s crime rate.

CWBChicago reported that the robbery took place Friday at a Rolex store on the city’s Magnificent Mile. The men approached display windows and used hammers to smash their way in to steal the watches. The thieves were able to steal five Rolexes valued at $170,500 before running to a getaway car.

‘Organized retail thieves need to understand we take these crimes extremely seriously and will prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law.’

But Chicago police responded to the scene and tracked down the suspects with a police helicopter. The suspects fled toward the south side and crashed into a parked car after exiting an expressway. Despite the robbers running away on foot after the crash, police were able to apprehend the men and recover four of the five watches.

Victory Banks, 33; Will Brown, 21; Aldonte Goodman, 22; Anthony Hampton, 24; Dalvin Johnson, 31; and Armon Williams, 18, were charged with theft by unauthorized control of property exceeding $100,000 and $500,000, criminal damage to property between $500 and $10,000, and burglary. All of the charges are felonies.

RELATED: Resistance mounts in Chicago as city braces for potential National Guard deployment

Banks was not listed in the Cook County jail population when Blaze News checked Monday. But Williams, Goodman, Brown, Hampton, and Johnson were still listed. The hearings for Williams, Goodman, and Brown are set for Thursday; the hearing for Johnson is set for Tuesday, and the hearing for Hampton was set for Monday.

CWBChicago said court records show Johnson already was on pretrial release for another burglary case at the time of the smash-and-grab.

“Organized retail thieves need to understand we take these crimes extremely seriously and will prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law,” Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said in a statement. “These are far from victimless crimes, and I applaud the Chicago Police Department for their swift work bringing these offenders to justice.”

Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) has suggested the National Guard protect the tourist areas of the city so Chicago police “don’t have to babysit the Bean or Buckingham Fountain for eight hours a day. Our officers can return to their districts [and] answer the thousands of 911 calls logged but never answered.”

RELATED: Pritzker and other libs melt down over Trump’s ‘Chipocalypse Now’ meme, prompting a badly needed reality check

Julio Rosas/Blaze News

High-end stores on the Magnificent Mile have experienced daytime smash-and-grab robberies even with pedestrians and police officers nearby. While not as high during the Labor Day weekend, a total of 21 people were shot, with seven of them killed this weekend.

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​Arrests, Chicago, Donald trump, National guard, Police, Politics, Rolex watches, Smash and grab, Trump, Crime 

In a devastating blow to Indiana Fever fans everywhere, Caitlin Clark announced she won’t be returning to play for the rest of the season.

“I had hoped to share a better update, but I will not be returning to play this season. I spent hours in the gym every day with the singular goal of getting back out there, disappointed isn’t a big enough word to describe how I am feeling,” Clark wrote in a post on X.

“I want to thank everyone who had my back through the uncertainty. This has been incredibly frustrating, but even in the bad, there is good. The way the fans have continued to show up for me, and for the Fever, brought me so much joy and important perspective,” she continued.

“I am so proud of how this team has only gotten stronger through adversity this year. Now it’s time to close out the season and claim our spot in the Playoffs,” she added.

After hearing the news, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is officially done with the WNBA.

“She got injured at some point in July. Hasn’t played for two months. Basically has disappeared. Hasn’t talked to the media at all. Did an interview with Sue Bird. This has been the strangest injury absence of a superstar player,” Whitlock says, adding, “This has been a joke, and the WNBA has in my view blown its opportunity.”

“What transpired this year in the WNBA and with Caitlin Clark is the biggest fumble in the history of sports. Women have been fighting for 60 years. ‘We want a place in sports. We want to be the biggest stars in sports.’ And they finally get the biggest star in sports, and it’s Caitlin Clark,” he continues.

“They hate her. They beat her up and brutalize her. But here’s what’s even worse. Caitlin Clark brings attention to the WNBA. She centers all these WNBA basketball players and shines a spotlight on them. And you know what? They’re all hot garbage,” he adds.

And because of this, Whitlock “won’t be back.”

“They’re going to have a woke stoppage probably this offseason as these entitled feminists keep complaining that they’re underpaid,” he says, adding, “I’m not coming back. I can’t stand these women.”

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Dorian Johnson, a friend of Michael Brown — an 18-year-old who was killed by a Missouri police officer 11 years ago — was shot and killed over the weekend near the same location.

‘There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect.’

Johnson claimed he was with Brown when Officer Darren Wilson stopped them in 2014. Wilson contended that he shot Brown in self-defense, but Johnson spread claims that Brown was surrendering, sparking the protest chant, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

“He put his hands in the air,” Johnson previously stated about Brown. “He started to get down, but the officer still approached with his weapon drawn. And he fired several more shots. And my friend died.”

However, a report from the Department of Justice concluded that Johnson’s claims were not accurate.

“Witness accounts suggesting that Brown was standing still with his hands raised in an unambiguous signal of surrender when Wilson shot Brown are inconsistent with the physical evidence, are otherwise not credible because of internal inconsistencies, or are not credible because of inconsistencies with other credible evidence,” the DOJ found.

Despite two separate law enforcement investigations concluding that Brown had not put his hands up in the air to surrender, Johnson continued to stand by his account of events.

RELATED: Ferguson cop attacked at Michael Brown protest, suffers ‘severe brain injury’ and is ‘fighting for his life,’ police say

Photo by St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office via Getty Images

“His hands were definitely up when he turned around,” Johnson told the Washington Post five years after the shooting. “Whether his hands were up, or halfway up, or fully down or up, he was killed and he was unarmed. He wasn’t posing a threat.”

Johnson, 33, was killed during a “domestic incident” around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to Melissa Price Smith, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds, officials said.

RELATED: ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ Was ‘Wrong, Built on a Lie’ and Officer Darren Wilson Was ‘Justified’…Says Liberal Columnist?

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect. No officers, Ferguson or otherwise, were involved in this incident other than to begin our investigation,” Ferguson Police stated.

One suspect was taken into custody but was later released without facing any criminal charges, Price said.

The investigation into Johnson’s death remains ongoing.

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​News, Michael brown, Dorian johnson, Darren wilson, Ferguson police, Ferguson, Missouri, Department of justice, Doj, Shooting, Politics 

Oversight Committee Democrats believe they have obtained a smoking gun: a “birthday book” letter allegedly from President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein. Yet the White House is vigorously denying the claims, calling it a “fake news” smear.

‘It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story.’

“This note, Donald Trump has said, does not exist,” ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) stated. “Well, once again, he is lying to the American public.”

Garcia and Oversight Democrats shared an image of the note they claim Trump wrote to his “friend” Epstein. The note, which appeared to feature an outline of a woman’s body, was written as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein.

“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” it read.

“A pal is a wonderful thing,” it continued. “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

While the letter was typed, it appeared to be signed by Trump.

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

RELATED: ‘He was an FBI informant’: Speaker Johnson makes puzzling claim about Trump and Epstein

Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

“Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!” Oversight Democrats wrote.

Garcia noted that they received additional documents from Epstein’s estate and planned to release more information shortly. He accused Trump and his administration of being involved in a “cover-up.”

The Wall Street Journal originally shared the text from the alleged letter in July.

RELATED: Trump bashes ‘badly failing’ Democrats for reigniting Epstein skepticism: ‘Does anybody really believe that?’

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Immediately following the report’s release, Vice President JD Vance called the claims “complete and utter bulls**t,” adding that the WSJ “should be ashamed for publishing it.”

“Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” Vance stated.

“Doesn’t it violate some rule of journalistic ethics to publish a letter like this without showing it to the victim of this hit piece?” he questioned. “Will the people who have bought into every hoax against President Trump show an ounce of skepticism before buying into this bizarre story?”

Trump has denied that he created the letter or the drawing.

“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” Trump told the news outlet.

“These are not my words, not the way I talk,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Also, I don’t draw pictures.”

When reached for comment, the White House referred Blaze News to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks on social media.

“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false,” Leavitt wrote. “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”

She further claimed that the reporter who “wrote this hatchet job” reached out to the White House for comment “at the EXACT same minute he published his story giving us no time to respond.”

“This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!” Leavitt added.

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​News, Jeffrey epstein, Epstein, Donald trump, Trump, Robert garcia, Wall street journal, Wsj, Politics 

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky took aim at Vice President JD Vance over the weekend for defending the administration’s drone strike of alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers. Since then, a source close to Vance told Blaze News that “hypocrites” like Paul are simply suffering from a “debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.”

President Donald Trump’s administration greenlit a drone strike in Venezuela last week, claiming to have killed 11 drug traffickers identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Vance defended the strike, calling it the “highest and best use of our military.”

‘That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul.’

Paul quickly sounded off online, calling Vance’s remarks “despicable and thoughtless.”

“JD ‘I don’t give a s**t’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military,'” Paul said in a post on X. “Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

RELATED: Republican senator takes aim at JD Vance: ‘What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment’

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

In response to Paul’s pushback, a source close to Vance told Blaze News that the Republican senator was “sticking up for foreign terrorists” killed in the strike. At the same time, Paul defended a drone strike executed by Obama in 2015 that killed three Americans in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

“I do think there is a valuable use for drones,” Paul said in 2015. “And as much as I’m seen as an opponent of drones, I think in military and warfare, they do have some value.”

“The world is so partisan, I tend not to want to blame the president for the loss of life here,” Paul said of the Obama strike in 2015. “I think he was trying to do the right thing.”

“The vice president believes in the Trump doctrine and using overwhelming force to protect core American interests and save American lives,” the source told Blaze News on Monday. “That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul, who during his failed run for president defended Obama droning American citizens without due process, but now is sticking up for foreign terrorists thanks to his debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.”

RELATED: John Thune to use Democrats’ own ‘nuclear option’ to defeat Senate confirmation blockade

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Paul has since stood by his remarks, noting that he was one of Obama’s staunchest critics for using drones against American citizens overseas.

“During my time in the Senate, I have been the foremost critic of drones being used on civilians, especially Americans,” Paul told Blaze News. “In 2013, I spoke for nearly 13 hours filibustering Obama’s use of drones on American citizens overseas. I have not, however, opposed the concept of using drones in war. That position remains unaltered today.”

Paul argued that the recent strike against the Venezuelans was not part of any declared war, which he says “defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement.”

“The recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war and defies our long-standing Coast Guard rules of engagement which include: warnings to halt, nonlethal force to capture, and ultimately lethal force in self-defense or in cases of resistance,” Paul told Blaze News.

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​Rand paul, Jd vance, Donald trump, Trump administration, White house, Venezuela, Tren de aragua, Drone strike, Barack obama, To kill a mockingbird, Trump derangement syndrome, Terrorists, Drug traffickers, Coast guard, Senate, Senate republicans, Politics 

Back during the 2008 election, Glenn Beck was summoned to the White House by then-President George W. Bush. In a profanity-laden rant, Bush, who was angry about Glenn’s negative coverage of the Iraq War, excoriated him for suggesting that there were grounds to impeach him.

“The first thing the president says to me is … ‘You know, a lot of people think they know how they can be the effing president. Well, they have no effing idea how to be the effing president,’” Glenn mimics in his best Bush accent.

Earlier that day, Barack Obama, who was still campaigning for president, had said that if he were the current president, he would just “bomb Pakistan.”

“This is at the point where Pakistan is kind of helping us. They’re not our friends. They’re more frenemies,” Glenn says.

When he mentioned Obama’s comment to President Bush, he responded with something Glenn has never forgotten.

“He said, ‘Oh, I heard that. Don’t worry about that. … Trust me, Glenn, whoever comes into this office, no matter what party they’re in, they’re going to sit behind this desk, and they’re going to realize — because they’re going to be advised by exactly the same people that have been advising me — that they really have no choice. This is what they have to do,’” Glenn recalls.

When he left the White House that day, he was “freaked out.”

“I was like, ‘This is not good. The president isn’t really the president. The president is just listening to all these advisers who were advising the last president and the president before that,’” he says.

It became clear to him that day that the deep state is just “executing a long plan,” regardless of who sits at the Resolute desk.

“What difference does it make who we have in the office if that’s true?” Glenn asks.

He brings up this old story today because it’s becoming increasingly clear that President Trump has ended this trend of deep-state shadow advisers running the country.

On August 18 during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, “Donald Trump sat at the table and said, ‘I’m just going to get ol’ Vlad on the phone,’ and he stands up, walks out of the room with all the world leaders, and he just picks up the phone and calls Vladimir Putin and says, ‘Hey, I just want to keep you up to speed of what’s going on,”’ Glenn recounts.

“He didn’t ask for permission. He didn’t have anybody whispering in his ear. He’s leading the State Department. He’s leading the world. He’s keeping his own counsel. That hasn’t been done by a president in I don’t know how long,” he adds.

This is the reason “we’re once again the leaders of the world,” Glenn says.

“These advisers — all of these doctors and professors and people who have been in the State Department their whole life and know better than everybody — Donald Trump has said to them, ‘Shut up. I’ve seen your record. It doesn’t work.’”

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary, watch the clip above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, George w bush, Iraq war, Deep state, President trump, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old refugee from Ukraine, was savagely stabbed to death late last month on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Liberal media outlets that have made a habit out of sensationalizing certain deaths — like Jordan Neely’s in 2023 or George Floyd’s in 2020 — appear desperate not to acknowledge the horrific attack.

CNN, for instance, waited until Monday morning to report on the stabbing.

NBC News, the Associated Press, and ABC News didn’t bother reporting on Zarutska’s slaying until later in the day, just around the time President Donald Trump noted that he had expressed his love to Zarutska’s family and his hope that her killing was a reminder that “there are evil people.”

At the time of writing, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Washington Post still had not reported on the incident. Of the aforementioned publications, only the Associated Press responded to Blaze News’ requests for comment but only to indicate it had just published a story on the slaying.

While liberal news outfits did their apparent best to avoid reporting on a story that has garnered significant national interest, comment from lawmakers, and further insights into Democrats’ ruinous soft-on-crime policies, editors at Wikipedia tried to scrub any mention of the tragic incident from their platform.

Quick background

Footage of the Aug. 22 slaying shows Zarutska enter a train on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, sit down in front of a black male in a red-hooded sweatshirt, and then look at her phone.

RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman

zmeel via iStock/Getty Images

The alleged stabber seated behind her, whom the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has identified as repeat offender Decarlos Brown, can be seen in the footage taking what appears to be a folding knife out of his pocket, standing up, then bringing the apparent blade down in a striking motion.

A GoFundMe for her loved ones states, “Ira had recently arrived in the United States, seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning. Tragically, her life was cut short far too soon.”

Seventeen days after the slaying and in the face of mounting outrage, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) said he was “heartbroken for the family of Iryna Zarutska, who lost their loved one to this senseless act of violence,” and “appalled by the footage of her murder.”

– YouTube

Police indicated that following the slaying, Brown was transported to Atrium Health with non-life-threatening injuries and charged with first-degree murder.

According to the National News Desk, Brown was previously arrested at least 14 times, including for allegedly assaulting his sister, and he was sentenced to five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery.

Wiki revisionism

On Saturday morning, a handful of Wikipedia editors got to work detailing what happened to Zarutska, only to find their efforts frustrated by radicals who were alternatively keen to leave the public in the dark.

The “Talk” logs for the potentially doomed page show a frantic effort on the part of some editors to conceal Brown’s identity.

When one editor suggested, “It’s actually standard here not to name suspected perpetrators,” another responded, “Unless his name is Kyle Rittenhouse.”

At the time of publication, the Wikipedia page omitted any mention of Brown’s name except for where it appeared in the titles of referenced articles.

Others tried to downplay the story’s significance. One editor claimed that “there is nothing in this story that is significant besides it being recent news.”

“Just [because] victim was white doesn’t indicate that perpetrator was intentionally racist or had some sort of racial prejudice he was a schizophrenic going through a psychotic episode and the poor girl was in wrong place/time,” another editor wrote. “What’s atrocious is how white supremacists are flooding this page to create some sort of narrative and trying to devalue Black American’s experience of police brutality in U.S.”

RELATED: Twisting the truth: Wikipedia’s ongoing misinformation war

Photo by Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff

Soon, the page bore a label that read, “An editor has nominated this article for deletion.”

The deletion label linked to a discussion over whether to keep or eliminate the entry, which was prefaced with a reminder “that this is not a majority vote, but instead a discussion among Wikipedia contributors.”

Although a great many contributors appear to have recommended keeping the page, others tried their best to trivialize Zarutska’s demise.

“There are some people in social media and other venues who are trying to make this into something far greater than it really merrits [sic]. Nothing is remarkable about this. Even the premise of the immigrant status, nor race of either person, seems to have any indication for a hate crime even. Rather just a random act of violence,” one contributor wrote.

Blaze News senior politics editor and Washington correspondent Christopher Bedford, responding to the attempted spin by radicals behind the scenes at Wikipedia, underscored the significance of the story, noting that “you’ve got comment coming in from the governor, you’ve got comment coming in from the president, and you have a perpetrator who is free in the first place only because of specific policy decisions made by governments in regard to their crimes and punishments.”

“But it doesn’t fit into a cozy narrative. It’s a beautiful white woman killed by a black man and serial criminal,” Bedford continued. “Even though she’s a Ukrainian refugee, on the scale of what liberals want to communicate and narratives they want to build, she’s lower than he is.”

Blaze News has reached out to Wikimedia for comment.

Blaze News previously reported that editors and/or contributors at Wikipedia:

Tried to hide Vice President JD Vance’s military accomplishments in the lead-up to the 2024 election;Strategically eliminated any mention of Kamala Harris’ appointment as border czar on the site’s list of executive branch czars;Advocated deleting the entry detailing the mass killings executed by communist regimes, citing an anti-communist bias;Blacklisted right-leaning sources such as Blaze News, the Washington Free Beacon, the Federalist, RedState, the Media Research Center, and the Alexander Hamilton-founded New York Post and effectively prohibits their citation in articles, all but guaranteeing a site-wide leftist bias; Smears right-wing figures;Labeled Elon Musk’s temporary suspension of journalists who allegedly violated his platform’s terms of service as the “Thursday Night Massacre”; andDeceived readers about the history, existence, and nature of cultural Marxism, characterizing the well-defined and well-chronicled offshoot of Marxism as a “conspiracy theory.”

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​Iryna zarutska, Zarutska, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Charlotte, North carolina, Donald trump, Murder, Wikipedia, History, Revisionism, Liberal media, Cnn, Washington post, Associated press, Fake news, Politics 

Relatives of Scott Lindsey — a 44-year-old autistic man who lives in Hammond, Indiana — told WLS-TV he was riding his bike home through a park last month after finishing his shift at a local grocery store where he’s worked for 14 years.

Lindsey added to the station that as he stopped to drink at a water fountain, a group surrounded him and began taunting him and calling him names before taking turns beating, punching, and kicking him.

‘It looks like, at this point, it was entertainment because they saw he was vulnerable. After a period of time, other individuals, instead of intervening, joined in the attack, and no one, no one intervened on Scott’s behalf.’

“I didn’t say anything to them,” Lindsey recalled to WLS.

When asked what the group said to him, Lindsey told the station they accused him of riding too close to them, “and then they started hitting me.”

Lindsey told WLS he’s doing OK despite having most of his front teeth knocked out.

RELATED: Father allegedly catches therapist in autistic son’s bedroom closet with boy’s pants down: DA

“I’m feeling fine,” he told the station.

WLS reported that someone saw the attack and called 911.

When officers arrived at Hessville Park, they found Lindsey bloodied and the attackers gone, the station said. Lindsey’s stepfather, Brian Beatty, added to WLS that the Aug. 15 attack took place around 7 p.m.

Still, police said Lindsey had visible injuries to his face and wasn’t able to fully recount the incident, and officers made sure — in recognition of his vulnerable status — to document the incident as battery and get the victim medical attention.

WLS reported that Lindsey — who has lived with his aunt since his mother died — said at first he didn’t want to tell anyone that he got jumped but eventually did.

Beatty added to the station that an even more disturbing detail is that one of the individuals involved in the unprovoked attack recorded the violence and then posted video on social media.

“It looks like, at this point, it was entertainment because they saw he was vulnerable,” the angry stepfather noted to WLS. “After a period of time, other individuals, instead of intervening, joined in the attack, and no one, no one intervened on Scott’s behalf.”

Lindsey added to the station that he won’t be riding through the park anytime soon and just wants the whole ordeal behind him: “I felt bad about the whole situation.”

His family noted to WLS that Lindsey also will need costly, extensive dental work to repair the damage to his mouth from the attack.

One bright spot in the ugly incident is that police said they arrested a suspect.

Police told WGN-TV that 25-year-old Keshaun Brooks, a Hammond resident, was arrested during an Aug. 31 traffic stop and taken into custody in connection with the attack.

RELATED: Arrested school district superintendent resigns amid claims that teachers mentally, verbally abused special-needs students

Police on Monday told Blaze News that Brooks was charged with three felonies — one count of aggravated battery, one count of battery resulting in serious bodily injury, and one count of battery resulting in moderate bodily injury. He also was charged with one count of battery resulting in bodily injury — a misdemeanor, police added to Blaze News.

Police also told Blaze News on Monday that Brooks remains in Lake County Jail.

Police added that surveillance video from park cameras indicated that Brooks approached and violently attacked Lindsey, striking him multiple times in the head and face while he was on the ground — and that juveniles at the scene could be heard taunting the victim during the assault.

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​Arrest, Hammond, Indiana, Physical attack, Autism, Man with autism beaten, Juveniles, Taunting, Injuries, Teeth knocked out, Crime