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Scrutiny over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case continues, and in the last couple of months, people have been increasingly worried that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s convicted partner in crime, may have her case reconsidered.

However, the Supreme Court just shut down Maxwell’s appeal on Monday, the first day of the term.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 28, 2022, after being found guilty of multiple charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, on December 29, 2021.

Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for multiple charges, argued to no avail that some of her charges should be dropped on a technicality with regard to Epstein’s case.

Specifically, according to SCOTUSblog, Maxwell’s appeal requested that the Supreme Court review a decision regarding a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The agreement protected Epstein from future charges, presumably in that district, but it also mentioned “potential co-conspirators” in part of the deal.

“If Epstein successfully fulfills all the terms and conditions of this agreement, the United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein,” it said.

RELATED: DOJ reaches out to one major Epstein witness everyone’s been afraid to talk to

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.Photo by Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Because the deal specifically mentioned “the United States,” Maxwell argued that the clause was binding on all federal courts and therefore should have potentially protected her from some of the charges brought against her by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that led to her conviction.

According to SCOTUSblog, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer called this clause “highly unusual” in the government’s response to Maxwell’s petition for certiorari.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 28, 2022, after being found guilty of multiple charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, on December 29, 2021.

At the beginning of August, Ghislaine Maxwell was moved from a prison in Florida to the lower-security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas. This transfer was arranged following a two-day interview session with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

She also previously offered to testify before Congress on several conditions, including immunity. Thus far, her offer has been rejected.

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​Politics, Ghislaine maxwell, Supreme court, Scotus, Jeffrey epstein, Todd blanche, Florida, New york, Texas, D. john sauer 

Attorney General Pam Bondi sparred with Democrats during her congressional hearing on Tuesday, and she did not back down.

Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the attorney general ripped into Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) over the legality of deploying the National Guard. Durbin challenged Bondi about President Donald Trump’s legal authority to deploy the Texas National Guard to Chicago, the crime-ridden city in the Democratic senator’s jurisdiction.

‘If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.’

Over the weekend, protesters and agitators clashed with law enforcement in Chicago, with some apparently ramming their vehicles into federal cruisers. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem even said that cartels have placed bounties on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Despite this dramatic uptick in violence, Durbin questioned the rationale for deploying additional resources.

RELATED: Trump reportedly sends 300 National Guard members to Portland from California — and Democrats are seething

Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” Bondi said in response. “And currently, the National Guard are on the way to Chicago.”

“If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will,” Bondi added.

Even without the recent escalation in crime, Chicago has consistently been one of the nation’s most dangerous and crime-ridden cities. In response to the high crime, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas “fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officers.”

“You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” Abbott said in a post on X.

RELATED: VIDEO: Federal agents clash with mob of Antifa-fueled, anti-ICE protesters in Portland

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

“Your city has a murder rate five times higher than New York’s,” Bondi told Durbin. “571 homicides last year. If you were serious about protecting your people, you would be asking this administration for help.”

“We’re there to help make America safe and Illinois safe, whether or not you want to,” Bondi added.

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​Pam bondi, Senate judiciary committee, Dick durbin, National guard, Donald trump, Chicago, Portland, High crime, Crime crackdown, Senate democrats, Kristi noem, Ice, Ice raids, Dhs, Politics 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed on Monday that the FBI under the Biden administration obtained private cellphone information from nine GOP lawmakers, including Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). All of the targeted lawmakers are Republicans.

‘We were surveilled simply for being Republicans.’

In breaking the news with an internal FBI document, Sen. Grassley wrote on X, “BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”

Commenting on the news, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who was also named in the document, said, “We were surveilled simply for being Republicans. … It should shock every American.” He called the surveillance “an outrageous abuse of power” and “blatant political persecution.”

The surveillance took place as part of the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation into the 2020 election. Operation Arctic Frost, launched in April 2022, was handed to special counsel Jack Smith in November of that year, who used it as the basis for the charges filed against President Trump in August 2023.

The FBI document detailing the surveillance of GOP lawmakers is dated September 27, 2023, though it is unclear when the actual surveillance took place.

RELATED: Democrat’s vile texts wish death on GOP lawmaker — even MSNBC host demands AG nominee drop out of race

Photo by Virginian Pilot/Getty Images

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump weighed in, writing, “Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A real sleazebag!!!”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), in commenting on the surveillance during a committee hearing on Tuesday, said, “I find this breathtaking.” He also pushed for a hearing on the matter: “I don’t want to wait 24 years to get an answer.”

In a GOP press briefing, Sen. Johnson pointed out that “this is not the first time I was targeted by the FBI. Under the Obama administration, the same thing happened to both Senator Grassley and I.”

In addressing the issue, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X, “The abuse of power ends now. Under my leadership, the FBI will deliver truth and accountability, and never again be weaponized against the American people.”

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​Fbi, Politics 

It has been almost a month since the assassination of Charlie Kirk. However, for anyone immersed in TikTok and Instagram Reels, he is still very much alive. The archive of years of recordings of debates and appearances today circulates more widely than ever.

Kirk’s heroism is suddenly obvious to many who did not pay close attention to him when he was alive. His project generally is now much clearer. Kirk was an evangelical, but he was a new type of evangelical whose faith was encoded into political activism. In a less immediately obvious way relative to the new wave of digitally driven religious conversions, but perhaps in a more consequential way, Kirk is the inventor of a new form of religious activity for the age of digital reproduction.

Rather than being frozen or sterile, Kirk’s memory and work are in fact profoundly alive and fecund.

It is notable that for all the calls to assemble new groups of men to engage in political work, Kirk actually did it and was able to put into action what so many could do only online. He did not abandon the digital for the material, instead synthesizing them into a powerful persuasion feedback loop.

Kirk’s clips — a more immediately engaging medium than the typical sermon — now mark a kind of living archive that will presumably continue to circulate for some years to come.

Understood within this new religious context, Kirk appears as an authentic representative of the Christian faith in a media market offering all kinds of gurus. The broad perception of his martyrdom lends a new poignancy to his work. It also highlights a fundamental shift in how modern societies experience death. With some time having passed since his slaying, Kirk’s omnipresence in the algorithm has replaced, for the average viewer, his absence.

RELATED: How Charlie Kirk’s popularity exposes the cost of silent pulpits

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Baudrillard speaks in “Symbolic Exchange and Death” of the erasure of death in the contemporary world. This isn’t to suggest that Kirk’s killing has not shifted the political paradigm (although the full extent of this change remains to be seen), but rather that internet media has virtually eliminated absence for those without personal connection to the subject.

The proliferation of information and the suffusion of telepresence suggest an artificial intimacy, such that nobody ever really truly disappears. For many, their relationship to Charlie Kirk is the same as it ever was.

Baudrillard presented his theory in a typically hyperbolic manner, saying: “Our societies’ true necropolises are the computer banks or the foyers, blank spaces from which all human noise has been expunged, glass coffins where the world’s sterilized memories are frozen.” The dramatic expansion of engagement with Kirk’s digital media material in some sense disproves the pessimism articulated by Baudrillard. Rather than being frozen or sterile, Kirk’s memory and work are in fact profoundly alive and fecund. His continued presence on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok is still reshaping sympathetic viewers at this very moment, or bolstering the convictions of those already converted.

Such martyrdom in the Information Age oddly reflects what Christians know to be metaphysically true: that the faithful reposed only become more alive in their souls’ passing from this earth. The surge in appreciation of and encounter with Kirk’s work animates a new level of engagement, propelling it farther and faster across our algorithms, calling us to real action and new life ourselves. In his own words: “Good men must die, but death can’t kill their names.”

Today, not only can death not take the names of good men, it cannot take their presence in the daily lives of their followers. Whether flitting through clips on the bus commute or visiting Instagram one last time before bed, many Americans will meet again a Charlie Kirk who, on repeat, preaches the gospel forever.

​Tech, Culture 

A champion cardplayer was reportedly banned from an upcoming tournament for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat at previous events.

Joe Brennan has won at least four Magic: The Gathering tournaments in 2025, but allegedly was prevented from playing in an upcoming tournament in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this week. The fantasy-based card game is over 30 years old and has also been played online since 2002.

‘… can we kick Joe Brennan out of eternal magic?’

The North American “Eternal Weekend” put on by company Card Titan is now entering its 11th competition and recently posted on X about its “core values.”

The company started by saying it wishes to maintain an environment where “all attendees can feel safe.”

“Unfortunately, from time to time conduct of a community member fails to meet our expectations and we have to make tough choices in order to preserve a positive event experience,” the company said.

The company added that any attendees that engage in “conduct detrimental” to the values would have their badges revoked and be asked to leave the premises. This post was believed to be in reference to Brennan, with countless commenters taking his side.

One man named Conor Clarke, who started a petition to have Brennan reinstated, claimed in an open letter that the player was banned simply for having worn the MAGA hat to events in the past.

RELATED: Exclusive: China behind massive nationwide SIM farm network that directly threatens American critical infrastructure

— (@)

Clarke posted on X the letter from a group of Magic: The Gathering players with “differing political views” who wrote to express their disagreement with Card Titan and said the alleged ban “raises serious concerns” for the community.

The letter noted that Brennan has been “banned from many game stores and Magic events for wearing the MAGA hat,” including the Eternal Weekend, despite already having allegedly paid for entry and accommodations. It added that Brennan was told that the ban stemmed from “multiple reports” regarding his “behavior” in 2024.

While Card Titan did not respond to a request from Blaze News to clarify whether Brennan was banned — and the reason for it — progressive complaints about Brennan have circulated online for years.

RELATED: Taliban accused of shutting off internet to ‘prevent immorality’: ‘An alternative will be built’

Photo by AMY OSBORNE/AFP via Getty Images

In 2023, a Reddit post showed an X thread that complained about Brennan wearing “his MAGA hat to every tournament, knowing it irritates people.”

The post went on to say Brennan “cannot be a good person” and that “MAGA represents” denying women equal rights and the idea that “Black Lives Don’t Matter.”

In 2024, a different Twitter post asked, “With Nazi s*** finally being cancellable can we kick Joe Brennan out of eternal magic?”

An Oct. 3 X post took issue with people sharing Clarke’s open letter online, with the author worried that when detractors shared the letter to criticize it, they were still letting “more s***ty people see it and support it.”

Reporter Lewis Brackpool told Blaze News that in his experience, card and board game communities in general have been “dominated by progressives for a long time.”

“Ironically, nearly all of the leftist fanbase and players of Magic: The Gathering cannot seem to differentiate between fantasy and politics. This is due to not having the brain capacity to comprehend that consistent idol worship of a card game will inevitably lead to fusing the hobby with their identity,” Brackpool remarked.

In reference to Brennan “wearing merchandise that differs from Che Guevara or a hammer and sickle,” Brackpool said, “the progressives cannot ever give it a pass, as it threatens their self-identity and knee-jerks them into an insecure frenzy.”

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Last month, Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced the American Tech Workforce Act — legislation aimed at curbing abuses in the H-1B visa program and protecting American workers. One key provision would restrict remote work by foreign nationals employed in the United States under H-1B visas.

Yes, you read that right. Foreign workers can enter the country and “work remotely,” often from locations nowhere near the companies that hired them. A foreign national can take a tech job with a firm in San Francisco or Dallas, then live and work from Peoria or Plattsburgh. The arrangement makes little sense — unless your goal is to undercut American wages.

Congress should demand that US companies use remote work to employ Americans — not to offshore jobs inside our own borders.

The H-1B program was sold to Americans as a way to fill gaps in “specialty occupations” that supposedly lacked qualified domestic talent. In practice, it became a pipeline for cheap, compliant foreign labor. Vague definitions of “specialty occupation” and toothless wage protections made it easy for corporations to game the system and drive down costs.

Workers from India, China, and the Philippines accept lower pay for two simple reasons. First, they see the H-1B as a path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship. Many arrive and immediately ask their employers to petition for green cards. They believe that if they keep quiet and work long hours for less money, they’ll earn the right to stay.

Second, even when underpaid by American standards, they make far more than they could at home. A senior computer engineer in India earns roughly $16,000 to $28,000 per year. In the United States, even a low-paid engineer makes about $58,000. The math works for them — but not for American graduates struggling to enter the same field.

Depressing wages, rewarding compliance

The results have been devastating for American STEM professionals. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that between 1994 and 2001, the flood of foreign tech workers suppressed wages for U.S. computer scientists by as much as 5% and reduced domestic employment in the field by up to 10%.

And because so many H-1B workers hope for green cards, they rarely complain about long hours, weekends, or holidays. Employers know it. The system rewards docility. Today, about 19% of the STEM workforce is foreign-born — higher than their share of the total U.S. workforce. Cheap, compliant labor is now baked into the model, while American graduates are being priced out.

The remote work loophole

If companies truly wanted to cut costs, they could use remote work to hire American workers from lower-cost regions. A Boston tech firm can employ skilled programmers in West Virginia or Alabama without having to build new offices. Everyone wins: The company saves money, the workers get good jobs, and local economies benefit.

So why import foreign workers for jobs that can be done anywhere with a Wi-Fi signal? The answer is simple — because they can. Without limits on remote work for H-1Bs, corporations will exploit the system further, hiring foreign workers who are cheaper still. An Indian programmer working remotely from South Carolina costs less than an American one, even after relocation.

RELATED: The H-1B brouhaha: Here’s what you need to know

Photo Illustration by Manish Rajput/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

America First means Americans first

The H-1B program has always benefited foreign nationals and corporate bottom lines at the expense of American citizens. It’s long past time for Congress to reverse that and adopt an America First position to protect U.S. tech workers.

Lawmakers should pass the American Tech Workforce Act as a first step. But reform shouldn’t stop there. They should demand that U.S. companies use remote work to employ Americans — not to offshore jobs inside our own borders.

If tech firms want to save money, they can hire young American graduates eager to work. What they shouldn’t be allowed to do is import cheaper labor under a visa meant for skills we already have. Remote work should expand opportunities for citizens, not serve as another back door for replacing them.

​Opinion & analysis, Immigration, H1-b, Big tech, America first, Jobs, Skilled labor, Remote workers, Remote work, Unemployment, American tech workforce act 

Harvard University has decided to lean even more into the LGBTQ agenda, announcing the hiring of a new visiting gender and sexuality professor who happens to be a drag queen — and goes by the name of “LaWhore Vagistan.”

The professor, Kareem Khubchandani, will be teaching two courses on “queer ethnography” during the fall semester and “RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Desire” during the spring semester.

“I don’t know why anyone would ever send their children to Harvard, especially as much as it costs,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.

“When you see something like this going down, I want conservatives to really understand what they are up against when it comes to academia. Not only just how rotten it is — most importantly, the role that the government has in subsidizing it,” BlazeTV contributor Eric July says.

“Obviously, this drag queen is going to teach fake classes; 90% of the degrees are fake. They’re useless. Especially in this … age of ever-growing technology, a lot of what they teach is obsolete. Effectively, academia right now is a Ponzi scheme,” he continues.

And according to July, academia is more than just a Ponzi scheme. It’s also responsible for the path of degeneracy many in our country have taken.

“If you’re looking at the direction that this country is going in, which is to crap, you cannot separate academia’s involvement from it. It is right there, core, right at the center of it. And we not only continue to subsidize it, we have people voluntarily allowing, actually paying for in some cases … their children to be indoctrinated by drag queens like that,” he says.

“And it ain’t just happening in Harvard,” he adds.

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​Video phone, Free, Upload, Video, Camera phone, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Drag queen professor, Harvard, Academia, Ivy league, Drag queen harvard, Queer ethnography, Rupaul, Lgbtq indoctrination 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave an encouraging update on the Trump administration’s efforts to uncover those who may be funding Antifa attacks in the U.S.

President Donald Trump previously ordered his officials to use the power of the government to root out who might be funding Antifa.

‘We will continue to get to the bottom of who is funding these organizations in this organized anarchy against our country and our government.’

Leavitt said Monday during the White House media briefing that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent had joined the effort and explained how he would be able to help the cause.

“The financial backing of these groups, particularly Antifa, is certainly something the administration is looking into aggressively,” she said.

“The federal government has never really been mobilized or tasked with doing that. So we’re kind of kick-starting that into gear,” she added. “The FBI is working on it alongside the White House’s Homeland Security Task Force. We have our intelligence community looking into this as well. And even the secretary of treasury is involved with these matters since they are financial in nature.”

On Friday Leavitt said that the administration was looking into the possibility of cutting off all federal funding to Portland after violence continued to increase at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

“We will continue to get to the bottom of who is funding these organizations in this organized anarchy against our country and our government,” she continued in her statement Monday. “It’s a question the American people have been begging the answer for, for many years, and we’re committed to uncovering it.”

RELATED: Liberal nonprofits are panicking over threats from Trump after Kirk killing

— (@)

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas issued a statement of support for the development.

“Good,” wrote Roy on social media. “Congress can, and should, back up the Trump administration’s efforts by forming its own select committee to investigate who is funding these groups. Enough is enough.”

Liberal critics claim that Trump is misusing the powers of the government to punish and persecute his political opponents.

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​Karoline leavitt, Scott bessent, Antifa funding, Antifa violence, Politics 

The Charlie Kirk shooting investigation turned surreal when 71-year-old George Zinn claimed he was the shooter — before his pants dropped to his ankles in front of witnesses.

When police realized Zinn wasn’t armed, they later charged him with obstruction — which is one of many crimes on his lengthy record.

According to law enforcement, Zinn now has been accused of keeping “graphic” sexual photos of children on his phone and was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in September after finding more than 20 images of kids as young as 5 on his phone.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray is not impressed with the old man.

“Apparently he was just helping out whoever shot him by claiming that he did it so that it would distract police from the actual shooter,” Gray comments. “And I don’t think that was coordinated between the two of them.”

“And yes, his pants fell down around his ankles,” he continues, explaining what happened after the shooting of Charlie Kirk. “Police had to carry him away from the scene.”

“But yes, he’s well-known to police. He obstructs justice on a regular basis,” he adds, noting that Zinn’s arrests date back 25 years and also include criminal trespass, obstruction, and disturbing the peace. In addition, he was once charged with sending an email bomb threat to the Salt Lake City Marathon in 2013.

“So, he’s a real winner,” Gray says.

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An Indiana man reportedly with a staggering number of arrests under his belt allegedly stabbed a 69-year-old man at a gas station amid an argument late last month.

Just before midnight Sept. 26, officers with the Lawrence Police Department were dispatched to the gas station. Lawrence is about 15 minutes northeast of Indianapolis.

‘When you’re arrested 99 times, I think it begs the question: “What’s the number?”‘

Citing court documents, WXIN-TV reported that a family member of the victim told police that the victim — a 69-year-old man — exited a vehicle to separate people amid an argument involving 41-year-old Courtney Boose.

The documents indicate that’s when Boose stabbed the 69-year-old victim with a pocketknife and walked to the rear of the gas station, the station said.

Court documents indicate Boose did not comply with officers who were attempting to detain him, after which an officer tased Boose, the station said.

Officers then searched Boose — now handcuffed — and reportedly found a pocketknife with blood on it and a bag of cocaine, WXIN said, adding that court documents allege he attempted to head-butt an officer while being placed in the police vehicle.

The station said the victim was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.

Citing court documents, WXIN added that Boose was arrested on preliminary charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery, battery resulting in serious bodily injury, possession of a narcotic, attempted battery on a police officer, and resisting law enforcement.

RELATED: Blaze News original: Check out these 12 infuriating decisions by trio of prominent, ultra-progressive district attorneys

However, Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police President Rick Snyder last week told WIBC-FM that Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears downgraded Boose’s attempted murder charge to aggravated battery, which greatly reduced the possible prison sentence.

Snyder blasted Mears and the “woke, broke” criminal justice system.

“That means this case, without even taking its first breath in the court system, has automatically been downgraded and reduced, cutting the possible sentencing range from an attempted murder and 20 to 40 years of imprisonment all the way down to three years to 16 years,” Snyder explained on “The Hammer and Nigel Show.”

Snyder said the prosecutor’s actions are a “dereliction of duty,” especially since the suspect had been arrested 99 times prior to the alleged stabbing.

“When you’re arrested 99 times, I think it begs the question: ‘What’s the number?’ What’s the number of times where somebody in a black robe finally says, ‘You know what, I don’t think this guy is getting it,'” Snyder said.

WIBC said previous charges against Boose include trespassing, theft, battery, and drug crimes and that the vast majority of the cases either were dismissed or concluded with a plea deal. What’s more, the station said records also show Boose has never served time in prison.

Snyder added, “We’re really confronted by our after-the-fact, ‘Billy Badass’ prosecutor and our ‘woke, broke’ criminal justice system.”

Snyder said in the radio interview that there were reports that the stabbing victim was visiting Indianapolis to attend a funeral for a person who was murdered — after which the FOP president pointed out the ramifications of the stabbing on Indianapolis tourism: “Visit for one murder and stay for your own.”

Snyder wrote on X that a “broken system” allows a “revolving door” for criminals.

Snyder added that it amounts to an “attack from within” in Indianapolis and that the city is now averaging a homicide every 53 hours — outpacing Chicago by 10%.

“The daily headlines show that mass shootings, mass murders, and mass carnage keep going up,” Snyder stated. “This shows the devaluing of the sanctity of life here in our capital city.”

Townhall said it “reached out to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office about the downgraded charges via phone. No one answered, and the voicemail was full, so we could not leave a message. An email was also sent to the Prosecutor’s office, and Townhall is awaiting a reply.”

The Lawrence Police Department and the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Stabbing, Career criminal, Indiana, Indiana crime, Attempted murder, Crime, Downgraded charge, Woke culture, Prosecutor 

President Donald Trump has finally named the enemy: Mexican drug cartels. Declaring them unlawful combatants and recognizing a “non-international armed conflict” marks one of the most consequential national security shifts in modern history.

For decades, Washington treated cartel violence as a crime — a problem for prosecutors, not generals. Indictments were filed, assets seized, and sanctions imposed. But the cartels fought a different kind of war, one that combined terror, intelligence, and territorial control. Calling it “crime” guaranteed defeat.

We refused to define the cartels as belligerents — and fought the wrong fight.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, Mexico ranks among the world’s most violent conflict zones — behind only Palestine, Myanmar, and Syria. It is also the second-most dangerous country for civilians. Those numbers are not from a failed state overseas. They come from our southern border, where cartel wars spill into American communities daily.

The old paradigm failed

For decades, federal authorities insisted on using a law-enforcement lens. Agencies operated under Title 21, Title 50, and limited “detect and monitor” authorities. They punished crimes but never broke campaigns. The narrow scope bred strategic blindness. While U.S. prosecutors filed indictments and built cases, cartels corrupted institutions, coerced populations, and built empires.

As the Marine Corps teaches: How you define the environment determines how you operate in it. We refused to define the cartels as belligerents — and fought the wrong fight.

Hybrid belligerents, not gangs

By every operational measure, cartels are hybrid threats. They control territory, command loyalty through terror, and run parallel governments. They tax, adjudicate, and even “protect” local populations. Their power rests on corruption and espionage: bribing officials, infiltrating agencies, and compromising law enforcement through human networks that resemble intelligence tradecraft.

Cartels operate across land, air, maritime, subterranean, cyber, and electromagnetic domains. They deploy drones, tunnels, jammers, and encrypted systems. They are multi-domain actors running hybrid campaigns.

Weaponized migration

Cartels don’t just smuggle — they destabilize. Mass migration has become a weapon of war: overwhelming institutions, hiding operatives, and masking foreign infiltration. Millions of illegal entrants from more than 170 nations have crossed under cartel supervision. The intent is not just profit. It’s demographic disruption.

Under federal law, terrorism includes violence intended “to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “influence government policy.” By that definition, Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation qualify as terrorist organizations.

A war of sovereignty

At the Texas Public Policy Foundation, I have testified before the Texas legislature and the U.S. Congress, warning that Mexico’s cartel conflict meets the Geneva Convention’s definition of a “non-international armed conflict.”

I described cartels as hybrid insurgents — foreign terrorist organizations that combine paramilitary violence, illicit economies, and political corruption to dominate populations. In March 2025 testimony, I stated plainly:

Mexico today is more accurately described as a state where governance has collapsed in key regions and foreign terrorist organizations dominate political and economic life, much like Afghanistan.

The president’s declaration confirms what many of us have argued for years: This is not a border problem — it is a war of sovereignty.

Against global networks

Cartel operations now span 65 countries. Chinese networks provide chemical precursors and launder money. Hezbollah and Iranian agents exploit the same smuggling corridors. Russia and Venezuela supply logistics and protection. Europol has confirmed joint cartel-European production of methamphetamine and cocaine. This is global insurgency — hybrid warfare waged through proxies.

The Western Hemisphere’s stability now hangs on whether the United States accepts that this is a war, not a criminal nuisance.

America has seen this pattern before. In Afghanistan, we failed not because we lacked strength but because we enabled corruption. We funded partners already captured by our enemies. The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction documented how U.S. aid sustained the very system it sought to reform.

The parallels with Mexico and Venezuela are striking. Elements of their governments shelter cartels through impunity and contracts. Continuing to fund or legitimize such partners would repeat the Afghan mistake — this time on our own doorstep.

The new designation’s power

Trump’s declaration resets U.S. strategy. Recognizing cartels as unlawful combatants unlocks interagency coordination — treasury targeting financial networks, the IRS auditing tax-exempt fronts, and the Justice Department prosecuting to the “maximum extent permissible by law.” It is a full-spectrum approach that finally matches the enemy’s scale.

RELATED: Latin American leaders react to report that Trump will use US military against cartels

Photo by David Dee Delgado/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The new framework clarifies rules of engagement and intelligence sharing. We can now strike at the networks themselves, not just their accountants.

The cartels serve as convenient cutouts for America’s adversaries. China supplies chemicals, Iran and Hezbollah move cargo, Russia and Venezuela launder proceeds. These regimes use cartels as proxy forces — deniable, flexible, and brutal. The Western Hemisphere’s stability now hangs on whether the United States accepts that this is a war, not a criminal nuisance.

Peace through strength revisited

With this declaration, Trump restores the Reagan principle: peace through strength. As Secretary of War Pete Hegseth put it last week, “Our number-one job is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place.” Matching threats with capabilities sends a message not just to cartels, but to the nations behind them: Challenge us, and you will lose.

To borrow Hegseth’s phrasing: “Should our enemies choose foolishly to test us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies: FAFO.”

The war has been declared. The only question now is whether America has the will to win it. State legislatures, Congress, and the public must rally behind this strategy. Half-measures have failed. The moment demands unity, clarity, and resolve.

America is under attack. The commander in chief has drawn the line. Now the nation must stand behind it — and fight to victory.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Drug cartels, Cartels, Drugs, Drug smuggling, Smuggling drugs, Armed combatants, Unlawful combatants, Drug war, Donald trump, Pete hegseth, Department of war, Department of justice, Department of homeland security 

There is a new current running through the world, a circuit being completed. It begins deep in the earth, in the extraction of lithium, cobalt, and nickel, and ends in the silent hum of an autonomous vehicle or the disembodied voice of an AI assistant. This vertically integrated system, from mine to motor to computational model, is what some industry leaders have called the “electro-industrial stack.” The term is anodyne and technical, masking a shift in the organization of power, a reconfiguration of national destinies and the texture of daily life.

Software, we were told, would eat the world. And it did, in a sense. It devoured communication and media. But it left the heavy machinery of civilization largely untouched. The mine, the factory, the power grid, these remained analog, relics of a prior age. The electro-industrial stack is the return of the physical, the reassertion of atoms over bits. This system marries the digital brain to a metallic body, and in doing so, rewrites the rules of the game.

In a world of increasing instability, the ability to make your own things, from start to finish, is a form of power.

At the base of this stack lie the minerals, the stuff of the earth itself. The old empires were built on coal and iron; the new ones are being built on lithium, copper, and rare-earth elements. The geography of these resources is the new map of power. China, having understood this earlier than most nations, now dominates not just the extraction but the crucial midstream refining of these materials. It controls roughly 90% of the world’s supply of rare-earth magnets, the tiny, powerful hearts of the electric motors that power everything from electric vehicles to drones. It produces between 80% and 95% of the world’s gallium, a metal essential for the wide-bandgap semiconductors that function as the nervous system of the stack, conditioning and directing the flow of electricity.

This concentration of control creates choke points, vulnerabilities that echo the oil crises of the 20th century. In response, a new techno-nationalism has arisen. The United States and its allies speak of “friend-shoring,” of building domestic gigafactories, of securing their own supply chains in a defensive attempt to claw back control of the physical means of production. This is a matter of national security, a recognition that the future will be built with these materials, and to be dependent on another for them is to be subject to their will.

The second layer of the stack is the battery, the ability to store energy and distribute it over time. Before the advent of lithium-ion batteries, electricity was a fleeting thing, to be used the moment it was generated. Now, it can be captured and deployed at will. This capability has untethered energy from the grid, making it mobile, personal. Here again, the story of Chinese dominance is stark. Companies like CATL and BYD supply more than half of the world’s EV battery capacity. China hosts 78% of the world’s cell manufacturing capacity. It gained this position through a deliberate, long-term industrial strategy.

RELATED: Dept. of War contractor warns of ‘all-out war’ with China

Photo by VCG / Contributor via Getty Images

Consider the case of BYD. The company began as a battery maker and now produces not only electric vehicles but also the semiconductors and electronic components that go into them. Its method is a case study in vertical integration, a modern-day echo of the Fordist ideal of controlling the entire production process, from raw material to finished product. This approach to production is a cultural paradigm, a way of seeing the world that prioritizes resilience and control over the supposed efficiencies of globalized supply chains. In a world of increasing instability, the ability to make your own things, from start to finish, is a form of power.

From batteries, the electricity flows through power electronics, the domain of materials like gallium nitride and silicon carbide. These are the unsung heroes of the stack, the switches and converters that manage the flow of energy with unprecedented efficiency. They allow for faster charging, longer range, and more powerful computations. And they are, of course, dependent on the Chinese-controlled supply of gallium.

Electricity, now conditioned and controlled, finds its purpose in the electric motor, translating electrical energy into motion. The permanent-magnet synchronous motors used in most EVs are miracles of efficiency, thanks to those rare-earth magnets. The dependence on China has spurred a search for alternatives, for motors that can achieve similar performance without the geopolitical baggage. It is a quiet arms race, fought in research labs and engineering departments, to design a future that is not so heavily mortgaged to a single supplier.

At the apex of the stack is compute. The processors and AI models that make sense of the world, that turn sensor data into driving decisions, that optimize the flow of power through a smart grid. Here, the concentration is just as pronounced, but the geography shifts. Nvidia, an American company, controls over 80% of the GPUs used for AI training. Most of the world’s advanced semiconductors are manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan. The combination of motive power from the lower layers of the stack with the decision-making power of the compute layer is where the digital and the material worlds finally merge.

The stack enables a world of smart appliances and autonomous drones, a world mediated by algorithms and speech interfaces. Its story is still being written, in the language of geopolitics, of materials science, and of the quiet, persistent hum of a new electrical age.

​Tech 

Two years. Two long years since morning broke on Simchat Torah — the holy day whose name literally means “rejoicing in the Torah.” But instead of the sounds of worship and laughter, Israel’s skies were filled with sirens and synagogues were filled with sheer terror and endless tears. The country was under attack.

To the south, smoke rose where children should have been waking to the rising sun. Gunfire sounded instead of music at a wilderness festival for young people or tractors working the Holy Land’s soil. The air carried cries no mother should ever hear.

On this second anniversary of October 7, God’s call is clear.

For the past two years, a silence has fallen heavy on every heart that loves Israel. October 7, 2023, happened just two years ago. It’s not a distant memory, and it remains more painful than a healed scar.

On that day — and every day in the two years since — God has been here. In the bomb shelters where prayers mix with fear, God is there. In the corridors of hospitals where the sounds of prayer and pain mingle, God is there. In churches and synagogues and living rooms and bedrooms and classrooms across the globe, where prayers are lifted up to Him, God is there.

For two years, through the grief and the war and the prayers for peace, God has made His loving presence known.

I have seen that love with my own eyes. As president and global CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, I walk the narrow streets of Israel and travel the wide roads of America, and I see His presence through the people of faith that I meet — Christians and Jews who see Israel not through the fog of newsprint or the blur of the screen, but through scripture. They open the Bible and read about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they know that to bless Israel is to love God’s people and to live out His word.

And so, two years later, the Fellowship and our millions of supporters carry on this work of blessing God’s people.

We build shelters to shield children from rockets. We build trauma centers where wounds are healed and lives are made whole again. We build new lives for refugees fleeing persecution simply for their faith, and we welcome them to their biblical homeland. And we build bridges — of faith, of friendship, and of fellowship between Christians and Jews.

One of these bridges is adorned with flags. Flags of Fellowship is a global movement in blue and white. Outside churches and synagogues, and in yards and campus quads, tiny hands and wrinkled hands plant Israeli flags in the ground, each one remembering one of the 1,200 lives lost on that dark day two years ago. Each one is a proclamation of God’s love.

RELATED: The genocide that isn’t: How Hamas turned lies into global outrage

Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images

In a world where flags are burned in anger and hatred, these flags radiate hope.

Generosity runs like a river behind those flags. In these two years, the Fellowship has provided more than a quarter-billion dollars of aid. We have raised up hospital wings that withstand missiles. We have delivered food to the hungry, medicine to the frail, shelter to the weary.

These gifts are a proclamation of this love — for Israel and for God’s people.

To all the pastors, grandmothers, college students, and prayer warriors who love Israel with all their hearts — todah rabah. Thank you. Your love is a lifeline. Your love changes lives. Your love saves lives. And your love reminds us that here in Israel, we do not stand alone.

On this second anniversary of Oct. 7, even as we remember the hatred, the desperation, the violence, and the darkness of that day, God’s call is clear. Answer hatred with love. Answer despair with hope. Answer violence with healing. And answer darkness with light.

​Israel, Christians, Jews, October 7, Faith 

An upstate New York man was charged with more than 196 counts after police allegedly found hundreds of child sex abuse materials in his possession, according to a law enforcement release.

The Otsego County Sheriff’s Office said it received a tip in August from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and information from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force indicating that 29-year-old Toren R. Gray was disseminating child sex abuse material.

Police said their investigation was ongoing and other charges were pending against him.

An investigation found that Gray allegedly sent the material to others through various Kik social media accounts.

After obtaining a search warrant, police said they found more than 300 images of child sexual abuse material on the man’s accounts.

Gray was arrested on Wednesday and charged with 32 counts in the town of Laurens, including 4 counts of obscenity, 14 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, and 14 counts of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child.

He was also charged with 164 counts in the town of Otego, including 12 counts of obscenity, 75 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, and 77 counts of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child.

RELATED: Teacher caught taking photos of children in theater bathroom led to the arrest of second teacher, police say

Gray was processed at the sheriff’s office and awaits arraignment while being held at the Otsego County Correctional Facility. Police said their investigation was ongoing and other charges were pending against him.

Laurens is a small village of about 263 residents in the central part of New York state.

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​Child sex abuse material, Toren r gray, Upstate ny man arrest, Child abuse crimes, Crime 

In 1994, 17 Senate Republicans — including Mitch McConnell — lined up behind the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. They thought they were cutting a clever deal: In exchange for criminalizing anti-abortion protesters outside clinics, the law would also apply to anyone blocking access to churches.

Like every “bipartisan compromise,” the results were anything but balanced. For decades, pro-life activists — grandmothers singing hymns, young people praying on sidewalks — faced years in prison for nonviolent protest. Meanwhile, not a single violent leftist or Islamist was prosecuted under the FACE Act for harassing or assaulting people of faith.

Mitch McConnell and company signed on to the FACE Act thinking they were being clever and instead saddled conservatives with decades of one-sided prosecutions.

Until last week.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, under Harmeet Dhillon, filed civil charges against two radical groups — the Party for Socialism and Liberation and American Muslims for Palestine — along with six individuals. Their crime: violently blocking Jewish worshippers from entering Congregation Ohr Torah in West Orange, New Jersey.

A mob at the synagogue

In November 2024, about 50 agitators linked arms outside the synagogue, blasting bullhorns and physically charging congregants. Several Jews were attacked.

New Jersey authorities, true to form, looked the other way. In fact, the Essex County prosecutor charged two congregants — including one who fought to defend a 65-year-old man being choked unconscious — with aggravated assault and bias intimidation. Not one of the attackers was indicted.

The message was clear: When radical Islamists or communists attack Jews, the state shrugs. Imagine the reverse — 50 Christians or Jews storming a mosque. Washington would have treated it like January 6 all over again.

This time, the Justice Department did not look away. The government’s civil complaint details how defendant Altaf Sharif broke through a police line, blocked worshippers, and used a vuvuzela as a weapon, blasting it into a man’s ear to cause permanent hearing loss. He then grabbed another congregant by the throat, placed him in a chokehold, and tackled him down a hill — all while screaming anti-Semitic slurs.

The kicker: The congregant who intervened to save the victim was indicted by local prosecutors, while Sharif skated free. That’s blue-state Jim Crow in favor of Islamic radicals.

AMP’s terrorist roots

American Muslims for Palestine, one of the groups charged, is no harmless civic association. It is the successor to the Holy Land Foundation, Hamas’ old fundraising arm in the United States. When the Holy Land Foundation was forced to pay $156 million to a terror victim’s family, AMP was born in its place.

As the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals noted in 2021, AMP inherited its leadership, its conferences, and its mission. In other words, Hamas simply changed its letterhead.

The Islamic-communist axis

This case exposes a dangerous reality: Radical Islamists and communists are not just funding terror abroad; they are carrying it out here at home. That is why President Trump must follow through on his pledge to formally designate both the Muslim Brotherhood and Antifa as terrorist organizations.

RELATED: ‘Hypocrisy is palpable’: Former Trump lawyer blows up liberals’ gaslighting about Antifa crackdown

Photo by Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images

And it is why state attorneys general should continue investigating the “charitable” and “civic” groups that serve as their domestic cover. Just two weeks ago, a Virginia judge found AMP in contempt for failing to comply with an order from Attorney General Jason Miyares requiring the group to hand over documents related to terror finance.

Using a bad law for the right reasons

The FACE Act remains a terrible law. It was written to criminalize prayer and hymn-singing, not protect churches. It should be repealed.

But if old ladies can face 10 years in prison for praying outside Planned Parenthood, then yes — the law must be used against mobs who choke Jews outside synagogues. For once, the Justice Department is pointing the weapon in the right direction.

And let’s be clear: Republicans built this weapon and handed it to the left. McConnell and company signed on to the FACE Act thinking they were being clever and instead saddled conservatives with decades of one-sided prosecutions. If they want to show their repentance, they should join the fight now to repeal the law — or at the very least, stop pretending that “bipartisanship” ever serves our side.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Face act, Face act charges, Mitch mcconnell, Lawfare, Weaponization of government, Weaponized justice, Weaponization of the doj, Antifa, Islamic terrorists, Anti-semitism, Synagogue, Muslim brotherhood, Bipartisanship 

On September 25, President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7. The sweeping directive lays out a “whole-of-government strategy” for combating domestic terrorism.

Most headlines focused on Antifa’s new designation. But NSPM-7 is the real story. It’s the game changer, and the left is only beginning to grasp its scope. Expect it to define political battles for years to come.

Naming the enemy

For the first time in years, a presidential directive names threats with specificity instead of hiding behind euphemisms. NSPM-7 defines what it calls “the anti-fascist lie” — the framing of foundational American principles like border security and support for law enforcement as “fascist” to justify violent revolution.

NSPM-7 marks a historic break with the old rules. It calls the threats by name, orders the government to follow the money, and strips the Justice Department of its wiggle room.

That lie, the document states, has become the “organizing rallying cry” for domestic terrorists. And it spells out the ideological fuel behind the violence: anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, extremism on migration, race, and gender, and open hostility toward traditional American views on family and morality.

Political correctness has long forbidden that kind of bluntness. NSPM-7 throws it out.

In doing so, Trump’s memorandum recalls his 2016 insistence on naming “radical Islamic terror” despite Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s refusal to do so. As Trump said during his second debate with Clinton: “To solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is or at least say the name.”

NSPM-7 says the names.

Following the money

The directive goes further than definitions. It instructs agencies to act.

Perhaps most striking: The Treasury Department is ordered to identify and disrupt the financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence. That includes tracing illicit funding streams and coordinating with other agencies to choke them off.

The IRS is directed to ensure no tax-exempt entities are financing political violence — directly or indirectly. And when they are, the IRS must refer those organizations, their leaders, and their employees to the Justice Department for prosecution.

For years, Americans suspected billion-dollar left-wing institutions were underwriting street violence while hiding behind plausible deniability. NSPM-7 sets the stage to prove it. It establishes the long-demanded “follow the money” strategy — something only government agencies can do. Had it been in place before the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, the “Summer of Love” might have cost millions in damages, not billions, as resources dried up.

Zero tolerance

The president’s directive also mobilizes Joint Terrorism Task Forces and makes domestic terrorism a national priority area. But its most consequential piece comes at the Justice Department’s expense.

The attorney general is instructed to prosecute all federal crimes tied to domestic terrorism “to the maximum extent permissible by law.” Every word matters. “All” means no discretion. If it can be charged, it must be charged. “Maximum extent” means no plea deals designed to make cases go away.

RELATED: Hollywood goes full antifa with ‘One Battle After Another’

Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

That language is a direct rebuke to the Justice Department’s pattern of selective prosecution. Think back to the Eastern District of Virginia’s refusal to pursue James Comey until a new U.S. attorney had to take it on. Trump’s team drafted NSPM-7 to make sure that kind of deep state resistance doesn’t happen again.

The test ahead

The proof will come quickly. Attorney General Pam Bondi now must prosecute at scale. No more leniency for “unpermitted protests” that turn into riots or for assaults on ICE officers. The Justice Department’s past record has been sparse, at best. NSPM-7 removes its excuses.

NSPM-7 marks a historic break with the old rules, and I’m here for it. It calls the threats by name. It orders the government to follow the money. It strips the Justice Department of its wiggle room.

The left sees the danger in this because it exposes its networks of funding and protection. Conservatives should see the opportunity.

Trump has delivered a strategy that treats domestic terrorism not as a nuisance, but as a war to be fought and won. Now, it must be enforced.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Antifa, Antifa terrorist group, Anti-trump, Fascism, Trump, Democratic establishment, Leftists, Leftism, Domestic terrorism, Law and order, Portland, Donald trump, Law enforcement 

Two of the biggest news stories of late involve crimes by former military officers. On September 27, 40-year-old marine veteran Nigel Max Edge opened fire from a boat into a crowd at the American Fish Company waterfront bar in Southport, North Carolina, killing three people and injuring eight others before fleeing and being arrested.

The very next day, Thomas Jacob Sanford, also a 40-year-old Marine veteran from Burton, Michigan, opened fire on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, killing four people and injuring eight others before being killed by police.

Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters,” has seen the writing on the wall for some time: “Our military is becoming more and more secular and more and more unfriendly to the Christian faith.”

Years ago, Rick was speaking to his gym trainer, who used to serve in the military, and he told Rick that the United States military had begun to bend away from Christianity and toward Norse paganism.

For those unfamiliar, Norse paganism, also called heathenism, is an ancient, polytheistic religion of the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia, centered around gods like Odin, Thor, and Freyja, with beliefs in cosmology, rituals, and an afterlife in Valhalla.

“A lot of the people in the military are beginning to wear tattoos of these Viking gods. … They’re now looking at themselves as warriors that are pleasing these gods of war, as opposed to serving their country under the authority of the one and only living God,” Rick says.

“It’s very concerning. Why? Because these Scandinavian gods don’t exist. This mythology is false. So really, if you’re worshipping these things, and you’re building these little altars and you’re practicing these things, what you’re really worshipping are demons,” he says frankly.

Rick can’t help but wonder if there’s a connection between the growing paganism in the military and the uptick in crimes committed by former military veterans.

“When I keep seeing these former military people turning into cold-blood killers against civilians, it makes me wonder: Did they participate in [paganism] when they were in the military?” he asks.

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

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​Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Blazetv, Blaze media, Norse paganism, Heathenism, Military vets 

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon struck out when he tried to get a New Yorker to criticize the mass deportation policies of President Donald Trump on his livestream video.

Lemon talked to several people walking around in New York City before he sat down with a black man who said he was enthusiastic about the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

‘I want for him to concentrate on nothing but immigration and getting them out of here!’

“How do you feel about the ICE raids?” Lemon asked the unidentified man.

“I feel good about them,” the man said.

“You want them to crack down?” Lemon asked.

“More, yes!” the man responded. “Been wanting it for years — all my life!”

Lemon asked if he supported federal agents “roughing people up” during raids.

“Nah, nah. That s**t crazy. Don’t put your hands on nobody, that’s crazy. Don’t hurt nobody. Do it the legal way,” he replied.

“At the same time, get them out of here!” he smirked. “Get them all out of here. Please and thank you!”

He raised his fist in the air and said loudly, “Trump four more years for that! Just for that!”

Lemon asked him if he voted for Trump, and he said he did not because he lost his voting rights when he was 22 years old. But he went on to say that he would be happy if the president served a third term.

“Just because I want for him to concentrate on nothing but immigration and getting them out of here, just for that!” he added.

“Well, you’re a cool dude,” Lemon said at the end of the interview.

“Let me give a shout-out to my mommy!” the man replied.

RELATED: Don Lemon says he lost ‘liberal friends’ after he predicted that Trump would win the presidency

The Department of Homeland Security said that 2 million illegal immigrants have either been deported or self-deported from the U.S. in the first 250 days of the president’s second term.

Lemon was fired from CNN in April 2023 and began creating his own content on social media. He made headlines in December when he launched into an expletive-filled rant over the fissure that broke out between Trump supporters over H-1B visas.

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​Don lemon, New yorker supports trump, Mass deportations, Live streaming video, Politics 

The Democratic mayor of Chicago is trying to shut down deportation operations by creating “ICE-free zones,” but the White House doesn’t appear to respect the decision much.

Mayor Brandon Johnson made the announcement establishing the zones in a media briefing Monday. The Trump administration has put Chicago and its sanctuary-city policies in its crosshairs.

‘This is SICK. He is aiding and abetting criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, traffickers, and gang bangers.’

“Today we are signing an executive order aimed at reining in this out-of-control administration,” Johnson said. “The order establishes ICE-free zones. That means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids.”

He went on to say that the city would take further steps to stop federal operations if Immigration and Customs Enforcement escalated its efforts.

“The order builds a broad civic shield that limits the reach of harmful enforcement practices,” Johnson added.

“It strengthens neighborhood solidarity, and it reaffirms Chicago’s role as a welcoming city,” he said. “The fact is, we cannot allow them to rampage throughout our city with no checks or balances. Nobody is above the law. If we break the law, you should be held accountable. If Congress will not check this administration, then Chicago will.”

The order also included signs to be posted on those properties to deter federal operations.

“This property is owned and/or controlled by the City of Chicago,” the sign reads. “It may not be used for civil immigration enforcement, including as a: Staging area, processing location or operations base.”

RELATED: Chicago’s liberal mayor scolds reporter for using ‘mob’ to describe hundreds of teens looting and trashing store

A missive from the White House rapid response social media account decried the order.

“This is SICK. He is aiding and abetting criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, traffickers, and gang bangers,” the statement reads.

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​Chicago mayor brandon johnson, Ice free zones, Chicago vs trump, Federal immigration enforcement, Politics 

At the Raising Hope conference in Rome last week, Pope Leo XIV blessed a 20,000-year-old piece of Greenland glacial ice brought onstage by an artist whose work explores natural phenomena.

While climate change believers were enamored by the pope’s blessing, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler were not as excited.

“Let’s start with the good news first,” Wheeler says, after Glenn asks her what she thought of the pope’s actions. “The Catholic Church is the Davidic kingdom, and it will endure regardless of infiltrators. So it’s not a political organization, it’s a spiritual one.”

“The second piece of hope is that young men entering the priesthood today are incredibly based. So the next generation is not going to be dealing with the boomer liberal priests that we have to deal with right now,” she continues.

However, she does admit that “it is demoralizing” as a Catholic to see the pope engaging in what he calls “climate justice.”

“What does that mean? And I’m not saying that rhetorically. Climate justice is a very thin mask over communist political aspirations. So it feels scandalous,” she says.

“I mean, he blessed that water. Throw that holy water on these communists, see how many demons hiss out of them. I mean, this is a communist ideology that he’s playing around with,” she continues.

“I’m not trying to stand here and define what sins have been committed or anything like that. Far be it from me,” she explains, adding, “but it seems to me that when you stand quite literally next to communists and take part in their rituals, that it’s going to be very confusing.”

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​Video phone, Video, Free, Sharing, Upload, Camera 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, Pope leo, Pope blessing a block of ice, Pope leos comments on abortion, Pope leo pro life, Pro leo pro choice, Pope leo climate change, Liz wheeler