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Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo does not take the issue of childhood vaccines likely — and is making major changes for the health and safety of Florida children.

Florida is seeking to end all vaccine mandates, including those for schoolchildren.

“The whole ‘means justify the ends’ that people are championing — our critics are championing — it’s a really bad way to make public policy,” Ladapo tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Ultimately, I get the interest in — you know, none of us want people to be sick. None of us want to have to deal with people catching different viruses or bacterial infections, going to the hospital, things that are part of life — but we want to minimize those for sure,” he continues.

“But you can’t do it through unethical means. The means do not justify the ends. If the means are bad, the means are bad. The means and the ends are two different things. And it’s just so clearly both a parents’ rights issue and it’s very clearly a moral and ethical issue,” he adds.

Ladapo believes that Americans have a God-given right to “control what goes into your body.”

“Otherwise, do you really own it?” he asks.

Gonzales couldn’t agree more.

“If the government says you don’t have the right to control what enters your body, you don’t have any rights,” she says. “Like, that is one of the most fundamental, basic ideas. I don’t understand how it’s controversial.”

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The Department of War has implemented new rules regarding news-gathering at the Pentagon such that now, according to Secretary Pete Hegseth, the building “has the same rules as every U.S. military installation.”

These rules, which reflect the fact acknowledged by the New York Times that “members of the news media do not possess a legal right to access the Pentagon” and that “legally, the press has no greater right of access than the public,” prompted apoplexy among scores of liberal news outlets.

‘It’s like college move-out day.’

After the Pentagon Press Association characterized the rules as a form of intimidation, the Associated Press, the Atlantic, CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, Politico, Reuters, Task & Purpose, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post announced that they were not going to sign an agreement signaling comprehension of the new policy by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

If the liberal reporters loath to sign a form indicating they “have received, read, and understand” the new rules thought that the Department of War was going to buckle in the face of their protest, they were greatly mistaken.

The Pentagon Press Association said in a statement that on Wednesday — a day after Hegseth gave select publications a virtual wave goodbye — the Department of War “confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America.”

The PPA claimed further that “Oct. 15, 2025, is a dark day for press freedom that raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance, to public accountability at the Pentagon, and to free speech for all.”

RELATED: While the lights are off, let’s rewire the government

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Footage shows shows a gaggle of reporters who apparently turned in their press credentials and vacated their Pentagon workspaces exiting the building, many wearing looks of self-satisfaction.

A reporter from an independent outlet that covers the military told the Columbia Journalism Review, “It’s like college move-out day.”

Nancy Youssef, a reporter for the Atlantic who has occupied space at the Pentagon since 2007, told the Associated Press, “It’s sad, but I’m also really proud of the press corps that we stuck together.”

One America News Network did not stick together with the liberal media outfits. It reportedly signed the form recognizing the new rules.

Hegseth indicated that the new rules rejected by the liberal media were, in essence, that reporters can no longer roam freely through the halls of the Pentagon; members of the press must wear visible badges; and the “credentialed press [is] no longer permitted to solicit criminal acts.”

The lengthy document detailing the new rules in full states that:

credentialed members of the press who are American citizens can access the Pentagon 24 hours a day;reporters must ensure their press credentials are visible and worn above the waist while in the Pentagon;reporters cannot roam around various locations within the Pentagon without an escort from an authorized War Department official;while members of the press are not required to submit their writings to the War Department for approval, DOW information “must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released by any military member, DoW civilian employee or contract employee”; andreporters could have their credentials revoked or not renewed if they “solicit government employees to violate the law by providing confidential government information.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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Florida authorities arrested a 9-year-old male last Thursday after they say he brought a knife into his elementary school the day before and threatened classmates with it.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said during one incident the suspect got into a fight with a victim during recess at Middleton-Burney Elementary School in Crescent City, and the victim told deputies the suspect said he was going to stab him and pulled a pocketknife from his backpack. The victim told deputies he ran and told a teacher.

‘We have not had any repeat offenders since we have put this in place.’

Another victim told deputies that the suspect tapped him on the shoulder on the playground, and when the victim turned around, the suspect had an open knife in his hand. The victim told deputies he ran away out of fear and tripped, after which the suspect stopped chasing him and walked away.

Another student told deputies the suspect walked over to her and showed her a knife and asked her not to tell teachers; she added that the suspect walked over to another child and “flicked open the knife” and pointed it at the child’s stomach. Authorities said that child was unable to be identified.

In the end, the sheriff’s office said deputies arrested the 9-year-old suspect and took him to the Putnam County Jail. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, officials said, adding that he was booked and then released to a parent until his court date.

However, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office is getting backlash for posting the suspect’s mug shot on Facebook. The sheriff’s office also named the young arrestee in the post.

About 48,000 comments have followed as of Thursday morning. Here’s what some opponents of the mug shot posting have had to say:

“I don’t agree with this at all,” one commenter said. “While I absolutely do not support his behavior or bringing a weapon to school, this is still a 9-year-old child. Arresting him, taking a mugshot, and publicly posting it like this can cause lasting psychological harm. At this age, the focus should be on intervention, counseling, and protection, not criminalizing him in a way that could follow him for life. There should be statutes in place to protect children this young, this feels more like trauma and child abuse than justice.””Posting a 9 YEAR OLD’S mugshot?!” another commenter exclaimed.”Yeah. I’m all about shaming criminals. But that’s a little far,” another commenter noted. “He’s still a baby and needs guidance not [shame]. That will only reinforce forms of hate and mistrust. Post his parents and get him help and positive encouragement.””Since when does law enforcement [show] pictures of a 9 yr. old child and [give] their name?” another commenter wondered. “What the child did I’m not condoning, but still he’s a very young child.”

But the sheriff’s office, for now, is not budging. In fact, it told WTSP-TV that the decision to post the child’s mug shot is a policy the agency has upheld since 2018, and it won’t remove the post.

“We have not had any repeat offenders since we have put this in place,” Allison Merritt with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office added to the station.

In fact, just a week earlier, the sheriff’s office posted a 10-year-old male’s mug shot for the same charge and circumstance. Officials said this child brought a pocketknife to school and threatened another student.

WTSP said state law doesn’t protect the confidentiality of juveniles charged with felonies, and their names, photos, and arrest reports legally can be released.

But the station added that the statute allows families to request that photos be taken down from websites — and if they’re not removed within 10 days, the posters can face civil penalties.

“Just because we can post a mug shot of a 9-year-old doesn’t mean we should,” attorney Shannon Schott, a legal expert in juvenile law, told WTSP.

Schott added to the station that posting a child’s mug shot online can have lasting consequences, including an impact on the child’s mental health, future schooling, and chances at rehabilitation.

“The juvenile justice system really is intended to keep things behind closed doors so a family can privately heal and move forward and help their child move forward,” she told WTSP. “It’s really just a conflict between the way the sheriff thinks that things should be done and how the system actually works.”

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​Mugshot, Minor, Juvenile, 9-year-old boy, Putnam county sheriff’s office, Florida, Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill charge, Elementary school, Threatening classmates, Knife, Felony arrest, Crime 

A President Trump supporter says he has been kicked out of countless stores and card tournaments simply for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.

Joe Brennan, a champion Magic: The Gathering player, made headlines last week after he was banned from an upcoming tournament over alleged behavioral issues stemming from anonymous complaints. However, most supporters pointed to a different culprit: the fact that other game players simply do not like Brennan for wearing his MAGA hat at tournaments.

‘There was a player that had a play mat with Trump’s bloody, severed head next to a guillotine on it.’

After Brennan’s ban, it was not hard to find posts online referring to him as a “Nazi” who made people “uncomfortable” with his hat or others that called for even greater restrictions on him.

Mind Rot

Brennan has triggered liberals in his space for years, and the fact that he is seen as one of the best players in the world and the “poster child” for vintage Magic cards, all while wearing a MAGA hat, does not bode well for his online reputation. Past posts from 2023 that show threads complaining about Brennan wearing his hat while “knowing it irritates people” are still available.

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

Still, dozens of players stood up for Brennan after his ban and signed a letter asking for an adequate resolution. The completely reasonable document riled up even more agitators, who Brennan said went after his supporters.

“People [were] getting doxxed and extorted into giving money to charities that they may or may not have supported otherwise, but they were kind of pseudo-canceled,” Brennan told Blaze News. “Basically, as your penance you have to give money to this charity to show that you’re on the right team and things like that.”

Brennan called the reactions “egregious,” but also expressed great discomfort with the idea that not only were individuals engaging in such behavior but they “felt comfortable posting pictures of their messages engaging in that behavior and bragging about it, as if they knew that the community would celebrate them for doing ‘the right thing’ for doxxing and extorting these people for signing their names on this letter.”

Virtue’s Ruin

No stranger to a ban, Brennan revealed to Blaze News that these acts were just the latest in a years-long battle.

RELATED: MAGA hat triggers woke cardplayers into allegedly banning champion from entering tournament

Joe Brennan after winning the 2019 NYSE Open tournament. Photo courtesy Joe Brennan

Brennan stressed that he does not mind anyone wearing political attire or messaging in stores, public settings, or at tournaments; he simply wants to be able to wear his, too.

Describing the Magic card scene as like “the Seattle or the Portland” of hobby communities, Brennan said tournaments are rife with left-wing displays that are never challenged.

Bernie Sanders, President Obama, and even pro-Palestine materials are consistently on display, Brennan told Blaze News, while providing pictures of Magic players wearing shirts like “Smoke Meth & Hail Satan.”

“Even last year at this tournament there was a player that had a play mat with Trump’s bloody, severed head next to a guillotine on it,” Brennan explained.

Cast Out

The progressive bias even extends to brick-and-mortar locations. Reasserting that he does not mind if a company has political displays or allows patrons to wear attire he disagrees with, Brennan said that there have been many occasions when he would walk into a store and immediately face a ban over his MAGA hat.

“Most of the time I would just walk into the store, and oftentimes it was stores that had known me for years, but they would say, ‘Hey, either you have to leave,’ without really any discussion, or some of them would say, ‘You have to either take your hat off or leave.'”

Brennan has even faced bans despite being on amicable terms with organizers, before arriving at an event to face a public excommunication.

“[The tournament organizer] kicks me out in front of everybody as soon as I walk in the door. … It seemed to me like he was looking to make a public spectacle, like a virtue signal.”

Despite the ongoing crowd of distractions, Brennan has stayed out of the mud. In the most recent instance, he even reached out to the company that banned him, looking for a solution.

Shockingly, the two parties came to terms.

RELATED: DC liberals are escaping reality by pretending to be mermaids

— (@)

Collective Restraint

With the help of a fellow game player and lawyer, Brennan spoke with Card Titan, the organizers of a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tournament now in its 11th year.

While Card Titan had vaguely allegedly alluded to Brennan in a post on X about its “core values,” Brennan was surprised when the company agreed to put out a joint statement.

Both parties said they agreed to “bring down the temperature” and attempt to find unity. The statement also said “political discrimination has no place” in the community and that “wearing a MAGA hat” is “not a legitimate reason to remove” someone from an event.

Brennan said he was shocked that Card Titan agreed to the statement and said it was the first step in such a direction that the company or any relevant tournament host has ever made in their community.

“At this point I don’t believe that Card Titan in any way was discriminating against me like past companies certainly have,” Brennan explained. “But I do believe that the most likely scenario is probably that whoever made the underlying complaints, or whatever they were, I assume were just politically motivated.”

Brennan’s desire for positive outcomes cannot be ignored. He even described several instances when he has bitten his tongue in order to keep the peace.

Show of Valor

For example, Brennan recalled speaking to the organizers before the 2019 NYSE Open, a Magic: The Gathering tournament in New York. Brennan revealed that organizers told him at the time that even with a $500 entry fee, they were still not breaking even and that 2019 would be the final tournament.

Not only did Brennan promise he would win the tournament, but he vowed to return the first-prize winnings to the organizers to bankroll future tournaments.

“I said, ‘Listen, don’t sweat it. I’m going to go win the event, and I will give you back the first-place prize. … I will give you back that prize, and you’ll be able to run the next event — you know, use that as your startup money.’ And I did that,” Brennan remembered.

Brennan said the prize was four copies of the card Mishra’s Workshop, currently valued between $2,500 and $3,200 USD each. Due to his generosity, the tournament was able to live on. However, the next time it was set up, other players circulated a petition asking to have Brennan banned from the tournament, despite his actions to ensure that the tournament could continue.

“Now, these players didn’t know what I had done,” Brennan said. “They didn’t know that that tournament would not have existed were it not for my, you know, what I had done the previous year. But it was like, man, that really kind of hurt.”

Through all the insults and stressful situations Brennan has gone through, his spirit has not wavered, even when asked if he is putting too much faith in his opposition in terms of coming together.

“Really, we need to come together, man. This toxicity and polarization is just crazy. I would ask anybody who’s listening: Play out the current trajectory to its inevitable conclusion. And 10 years from now, is that a world you want to live in? You know? That’s all I’m saying.”

Brennan is set to return to Card Titan’s tournament in 2026. Card Titan did not return requests for comment.

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​Align, Magic, Card games, Progressive, Liberal, Maga, Make america great again, Trump, Entertainment 

The second anniversary of October 7, 2023 — the horrific day when Hamas attacked Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages — was marked yet again by sickening celebrations from pro-Palestinian activists worldwide, who lauded Hamas’ invasion as “resistance.”

But Mark Levin refuses to overlook the deeper implications. He recognizes that the support for Palestine’s cause extends beyond merely demanding that Israel relinquish Gaza and the West Bank — it’s a broader push tied to undermining the foundations of the entire Western world.

“Israel and the United States, [Islamists] view as one of the same. They view Europe as one of the same. Canada, Australia as one of the same. In other words, the West has to be overthrown,” he warns.

“Your nation is based on Judeo-Christian values combined with the Enlightenment. [Islamists] don’t believe in Judeo-Christian values or the Enlightenment. They’re seventh-century. This is what we’re up against,” Levi explains.

He calls out the Palestinians who claim that Gaza and the West Bank are their ancestral lands. Palestinians, Levin reiterates, is the new term for the people the Bible calls the Philistines — “enemies of the Jews” who were “not indigenous to that area.”

He explains that in the 1960s an Egyptian by the name of Yasser Arafat, who knew “the Western media are both stupid and ideologically driven hard left,” renamed the Bedouin Arabs “Palestinians.”

When we hear activists chant about Palestine being free, what it really means is the total evisceration of Israel, its people, and ultimately everyone in the West.

For those who think Islamic vitriol won’t touch America, Levin says it’s already happening. Not only are pro-Palestine protests allowed to run rampant across the country, but New York City is on the cusp of electing Zohran Mamdani — “a Hamas-supporting Marxist, America-hating, Jew-hating lowlife” — as mayor.

He warns that there’s a poisonous sect within the Democrat Party — run primarily by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — that will never stop campaigning for the Palestinians and their nefarious causes.

“This has to be fought every damn day, or we’re going to lose our country. Jews, Christians, other faiths, people who believe in the American system, in our values, in our belief system — we’re losing it, America. We’re losing it. And we’re losing it fast,” Levin laments.

To hear more of his analysis and commentary, watch the clip above.

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President Donald Trump may have resolved several bloody conflicts since retaking office, but he is clearly not averse to executing military strikes in the Western Hemisphere in the interest of protecting the American people.

The president announced on Sept. 2, for instance, that he had ordered a strike that killed 11 individuals on an apparent narcoterrorist drug boat that was headed to the United States. Following a series of similar attacks, Trump revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. military had conducted yet another lethal strike on an alleged narcoterrorist vessel, killing six men “just off the Coast of Venezuela.”

‘Venezuela is feeling heat.’

Trump, who has suggested that every such drug boat vaporized amounts to 25,000 American lives saved, confirmed on Wednesday that the U.S. will not limit its actions against Venezuelan cartels, which the administration does not distinguish from the socialist Maduro regime, to kinetic maritime strikes.

The president confirmed on Wednesday — months after the State Department increased the bounty for Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to $50 million and weeks after White House special envoy Richard Grenell reportedly cut off all diplomatic outreach to Venezuela on the president’s instruction — that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert actions on the ground in Venezuela.

During a news conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he made the authorization for two reasons: first because Venezuela has “emptied their prisons into the United States of America” and second because of the drugs Venezuelan terrorists smuggle into the U.S.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the New York Times reported earlier in the day that the authorization meant the CIA could execute lethal operations both in Venezuela — against Maduro and his regime — and elsewhere in the Caribbean, where Trump recently notified Congress that the U.S. is now engaged “in a non-international armed conflict” with several terrorist organizations.

Trump said of the efforts by South American cartels to smuggle drugs into the U.S., “We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we’ll stop it by land.”

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

The U.S. Navy warship USS Sampson docked in Caribbean waters. Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images

When asked whether he was considering executing land-based military strikes on enemy cartels, Trump said, “I don’t want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control.”

Three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie, and the littoral combat ship USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul are presently operating in the region.

Maduro, whom the Trump administration has recognized as leader of the specially designated global terrorist organization Cartel de los Soles, claimed last month in response to the American military buildup in the region, “in response to maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum readiness to defend Venezuela.”

Caracas has supposedly enlisted over 8 million Venezuelans as reservists.

When asked on Wednesday whether the CIA has “the authority to take out Maduro” — there is allegedly interest among a handful of senior officials in the Trump administration in orchestrating a regime change in Venezuela — the president said that was a “ridiculous question” for him to answer. Trump noted, however, that “Venezuela is feeling heat.”

Maduro, whose alleged electoral victories in 2018 and 2024 are not recognized by the U.S., stated in response to Trump’s remarks on Wednesday, “No to regime change that reminds us of the failed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. … No to coups d’état carried out by the CIA.”

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

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In June, the left launched its “No Kings” protest to denounce the horrific “authoritarian dictatorship” of Donald Trump. Deporting illegal alien gang members, preventing the mutilation of children, and punishing criminals all became proof of Trump’s incipient “fascism.”

Now that Trump has deployed National Guard troops to stop violent leftist mobs from attacking ICE officers, Democrats and the left have decided to stage a sequel on Saturday. The whole thing will look like farce — clever signs, bad folk music, and stale slogans — but behind the clown show, the left is radicalizing shock troops preparing to do real violence.

The ‘No Kings’ spectacle will fill news segments and late-night monologues, but it’s just camouflage.

No myth runs deeper in American life than the idea that peaceful protest drives reform. Boomers grew up believing that singing folk songs, waving witty signs, and smoking pot were powerful tools of change. The media sanctified the calm resolve of civil rights marches and the flower-child theatrics of the anti-war movement as the true engines of progress. As usual, Hollywood left out the ugly parts.

Those movements also produced riots, rapes, arson, bombings, and murders. The violence was so widespread that Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign ran one of the most famous ads in political history promising to restore law and order. The peaceful demonstrators made for good television, but it was the violence that moved the needle. No one likes to say it aloud, but the violence worked.

The first round of “No Kings” protests had respectable turnout but achieved nothing. Leftists filled the streets to mock Trump and chant about freedom, but no policies changed, and no momentum followed. Trump’s approval may have slipped to the mid-40s, but Democrats still wallow in the low-30s. Americans may be weary, but the protests haven’t persuaded them that the Democrats can govern.

Violence has been far more effective. The assassination of Charlie Kirk has made conservative campus events nearly impossible. Universities now demand absurd security fees or simply cancel appearances outright, citing “safety concerns.” The threat doesn’t come from the speaker — it comes from the activists university officials refuse to restrain. Several conservative commentators are stepping in to finish Kirk’s tour, but the assassin’s veto has reshaped the landscape.

Violence also brought Jimmy Kimmel back to late-night television. After he lied about Kirk’s assassination, sponsors complained, and two major affiliates refused to run his show. Sinclair Broadcasting even planned to air a Kirk tribute in his slot. Then came bomb threats, followed by gunfire targeting an ABC station in California. Sinclair folded, scrapped the tribute, and restored Kimmel to the lineup. Terrorism works. It succeeds where boycotts fail.

RELATED: Evil unchecked always spreads — and Democrats are proof

Blaze Media Illustration

Mob action has disrupted immigration enforcement too. Leftists have assaulted ICE officers, blocked arrests, surrounded vehicles, and tried to plant explosives. One would-be assassin aimed for agents but only killed detainees. Trump’s Justice Department has begun cracking down, but the left keeps escalating. They’ve learned that violence yields results.

It’s hard to take Democrats seriously when they wail about “authoritarianism.” They jailed Trump officials, abortion protesters, meme-makers, and even the president himself. They don’t fear power — they crave it. What they hate is losing it.

Organizers claim that more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests are set for the weekend. The biggest ones will draw crowds, mostly aging Boomers reliving their youth. They’ll march, sing, and pretend to matter. But the real movement isn’t in the drum circles. It’s with people like Jay Jones, the Virginia attorney general candidate who still enjoys Democratic support despite texting fantasies about murdering the children of conservatives. That’s the true face of the modern left. They’re not waving signs — they’re plotting.

The “No Kings” spectacle will fill news segments and late-night monologues, but it’s just camouflage. Behind it stands an organized, violent movement convinced that terror is legitimate politics. These people don’t want debate. They want obedience — and they’re willing to bleed us for it.

​Opinion & analysis, No kings, Protests, Political violence, Jay jones, Jay jones texts, Charlie kirk, Assassination, Security, Antifa, Leftism, Left wing violence, Donald trump, Terrorism, National guard, Immigration, Ice, Ice raids, Mass deportations, Richard nixon, Law and order, Baby boomers, Jimmy kimmel, Censorship, First amendment 

If only Ophelia had ditched the flowers and gotten herself a redwood tree, maybe she could have turned things around.

Such are the latest musings of pop’s most famous AP English student. Beware, all ye who listen here.

We have, in real time, watched Taylor Swift age but not grow. Her discography charts the elevation of emotional immaturity into an art form.

We weren’t surprised when a teenage girl struggled to control her emotions and thought that a boyfriend could save her. But to witness the “all grown up” version of that girl still in that same mental state is to feel a certain existential dread.

What we have in Taylor Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl” — her 12th studio release in a career spanning two decades — is a cautionary tale about a middle-aged woman in a perpetual state of arrested development. (Cue Ron Howard: “Hey, that’s the name of the show!”)

This new album earns an “explicit” label for bad words and sexual content. But the deeper problem is not the vulgarity of the body — it’s the vacuity of the mind. “Showgirl” is less a collection of songs and more a case study in what happens when emotional adolescence becomes a permanent condition. Swift is not merely immodest; she’s foolishly immature. Let’s look at a few songs to get the point across.

Get thee to a nunnery

Every Taylor Swift song addresses the same inexhaustible mystery: How does Taylor feel? At times the feelings are so big that Swift has no choice but to enlist the help of the kind of literary heavyweights they write CliffsNotes about.

In “The Fate of Ophelia,” it’s William Shakespeare’s turn. Swift casts herself as Hamlet’s doomed girlfriend — with a crucial revision: Instead of being undone by spiritual despair, Swift’s Ophelia is saved by romantic ecstasy. Why drown yourself in the river when you can dive into the sheets? It takes a certain talent to depict sexual yearning poetically without making the reader cringe in embarrassment. Shakespeare had it in spades; Swift emphatically does not.

Never mind: This is Swift’s vision, and her emotions are in the driver’s seat. But her peculiar vision of salvation through (finally) finding Mr. Right suggests serious spiritual depression rather than empowerment. Add to that her pride in thinking that referring to one of literature’s most well-known characters imparts intellectual depth, and you have no reason to think she will ever mature.

It’s not so much a feminist reimagining as it is the fan fiction of a sophomore lit major. In this story, Ophelia has some prurient advice for her would-be Hamlet, but more on that soon enough.

Feminists will hate that she wants to be saved by a man. Christian parents should warn their children that no man or woman can save you and that entering a relationship with that expectation will surely doom it to failure. They needn’t take Mom and Dad’s word for it; this is a lesson you can see play out again and again in Swift’s own songs.

Naughty ‘List’

While Swift’s “sex-positive” Ophelia has left her religious hang-ups behind, that’s not to say that “Showgirl” discards the numinous altogether. In “Wi$h Li$t” Swift prays to God for “a best friend who is hot.”

The chorus petitions for a husband, kids, and a basketball hoop in the driveway. Lest this vision appear too wholesomely straight and suburban, Swift punctuates it with the F-word. She’s also quick to acknowledge the listener’s weary skepticism: Haven’t we heard this all before? “I thought I had it right once, twice, but I did not,” she confesses. Yes, Taylor — we noticed.

This moment of honesty is meant to sound self-aware; instead it reads like the notes of a 20-year group therapy session that never progressed past week one. It’s a chronicle of romantic exhaustion mistaken for wisdom.

In some sense she sees her need for salvation, and she recognizes it must be personal/relational, but she looks for it in sex and not from Christ. A teenager missing this is sad but understandable. A middle-aged woman still missing it is culpable ignorance.

But wait. What if this really is the relationship that’s going to save her? Swift makes her case in the next song.

RELATED: Taylor Swift isn’t a role model — and it’s time for moms to stop pretending she is

Todd Owyoung/NBC | Getty Images

Stiff competition

It is called “Wood.” And if that title prompts some involuntary Beavis-and-Butthead-style snickering, you are on Swift’s wavelength.

The listener, having already endured the desecration of “Hamlet,” must now endure the anatomical metaphor of the redwood tree. “He ah-matized me and opened my eyes,” she sings, before clarifying: “His love was the key that opened my thighs.”

Just ponder this. Swift has been wrong more than once before. But this time she’s right, because this time she has proof: his “redwood.” Is it too cynical to conclude that the only thing this guarantees is future musical torture — yet another song tearing down another false savior? It’s too bad the title “Timber” has already been taken.

These are the kinds of lyrics that make one nostalgic for the intellectual rigor of bubblegum pop. Somewhere, Shakespeare’s ghost is filing a restraining order. Hamlet’s father bids us adieu.

But Swift needs more than an editor to fix her songwriting. Her problem isn’t just bad taste — it’s a disordered worldview. In one sense, the title “Showgirl” is sadly apt: On this album Swift puts her spiritual emptiness on full display. She craves deep and lasting love, but years of seeking it in fleeting infatuations have left her soul in a deplorable condition.

Taylor’s (re)version

We have, in real time, watched Taylor Swift age but not grow. From the dear-diary teenage angst of her self-titled debut to these latest middle-age manifestos of sensual self-affirmation, her discography charts the elevation of emotional immaturity into an art form. Taylor and her emotions are always in the center. There is no self-mastery, no self-discipline, no lessons learned. Just doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.

Even the most dazzling career is a cautionary tale in the making. Just ask Madonna, still gyrating unhappily at 67. Parents may one day scare their daughters with the warning, “You better shape up or you’ll end up like Taylor Swift.”

Some will say I’m a grumpy old man. So be it. But Swift could stand to be a little more pessimistic herself. While she revels in her freedom to use bad words and talk about sex, she can’t see that it changes nothing; she’s still fleeing the same profound emptiness. We all are, and the more frantically we try to escape it on our own, the closer we get to the same grim destination: spiritual death.

It’s only Christ’s love that can save us. That Swift has persisted for so long on the same fruitless path is a testament to the allure of the world and the stubbornness of the soul. Perhaps instead of Ophelia, Swift should have drawn inspiration from another of Shakespeare’s indelible creations: the Fool in “King Lear.”“Thou shouldst not have been [middle aged] till thou hadst been wise.”

In the world of this album, however, wisdom is passé and self-absorption is a virtue. Swift gives us a spectacle with endless costume changes and a plot that goes nowhere. But even as we turn away in boredom, we should hold out hope that Swift will someday find a better ending. God’s love has confounded expectations many times before. Even the most jaded showgirl sometimes gets a second act.

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Now that President Trump has designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, unleashing the Department of Justice to investigate its funding networks, operations, and supporters, the mainstream media’s marching orders are: Revive the narrative that Antifa doesn’t exist.

Jimmy Kimmel, CNN’s Erin Burnett, and “The View’s” Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, among a long list of other media figures and Democrat officials, are claiming that Antifa is nothing more than an “imaginary” entity — a boogeyman used by the far right to vilify leftist activism.

Glenn Beck, however, has been sounding the alarm on the very real and insidious network that is Antifa. Last week, he aired the following episode exposing the hidden support and funding networks propping up the terrorist organization.

Soon after the episode dropped, Glenn was contacted by the FBI.

“Saturday I get a phone call: ‘The director would like to send over some agents to speak to you, Glenn,’” he recounts.

Shortly after, three FBI agents were sitting in his living room. Glenn called his head researcher, Jason Buttrill, to come over, and they spoke with the agents for two hours.

While the experience was “surreal,” it was also eye-opening.

“Let me just say this: Finally, we have an administration and an FBI director that is willing to go in deep — not surface, but deep,” says Glenn. “I can only imagine what we could have avoided if anyone in an administration would have done this in 2011.”

Glenn has a warning for anyone who has even loose ties to Antifa: “I would be very concerned. … The FBI is deadass serious.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Donald Trump, Kash Patel, and all of the agents at the FBI,” he says.

This is what we’ve been waiting for.

As for the mainstream media talking heads pushing the narrative that Antifa doesn’t exist, Glenn says, that’s “like saying al-Qaeda doesn’t exist.”

Their “logic” is basically that since there’s no headquarters address or HR department, then it doesn’t exist.

“It is a real point used in an intentionally dumb way to mislead,” says co-host Stu Burguiere. If anything, the fact that Antifa is “disengaged from a centralized [entity]” makes the group “more dangerous.”

And yet mainstream figures are pushing a false narrative to make it seem like Antifa is “not a threat.”

“They know it’s not accurate, and they’re trying to mislead people,” says Stu.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.

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A Texas mother was arrested for allegedly abusing her 11-year-old autistic son by locking him up in horrific conditions at her mobile home on Homan Street in Baytown.

The Baytown Police Department said a police officer was called to the home of 41-year-old Rachel Nicole Blaylock in May and reported the strong smell of fecal matter and the presence of numerous flies.

The son reportedly had dried fecal matter under his nails and on his face, arms, and hands.

She said the smell was “bad enough she nearly threw up.”

Blaylock reportedly told the officer that her son had trouble going to the bathroom and would often toss his “poop” in his room and into the hallway.

The officer said she saw dried fecal matter on the floor of the home.

Blaylock began locking her son in his room after he ran out of the home naked several times. She took the door off his room and replaced it with a screen door so she could keep an eye on him but have him locked away.

The officer reported seeing a mattress described as “filthy” and said there was fecal matter on the screen door and in the room.

The son reportedly had dried fecal matter under his nails and on his face, arms, and hands. He also suffered from rotting teeth and had dried urine on his legs.

The officer recorded Blaylock’s response when she told her that her son needed to go to a hospital.

“I just can’t drop everything I’m f**king doing and take him to the hospital so a quack-ass doctor can say, ‘Oh, I don’t know what’s wrong with him,’ so we can see another one,” she reportedly said.

RELATED: Elderly woman beaten to death with a rock — police said they found her daughter ‘covered in blood’

Police also spoke to the boy’s grandmother, who said Blaylock was not a good mother and confirmed many of the accusations of neglect.

The boy weighed 46 pounds, according to police, who said a boy of his age should weigh about 88 pounds. Officials said he was placed in foster care.

On Oct. 7, police arrested Blaylock and found that she had a cylinder container with contents inside on her belt. She claimed that they were her “baby daddy’s ashes,” but police said they determined the contents were actually crystal methamphetamine.

She was charged with injury to a child as well as possession of methamphetamine. She was booked into the Harris County Jail.

Baytown is a city of over 84,000 residents on Galveston Bay about 30 miles east of downtown Houston.

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Two teenage suspects whose assault on a former Trump administration engineer made national headlines avoided jail time and were sentenced to probation.

Edward Coristine, whose nickname is “Big Balls,” was defending his girlfriend from a group of about 10 juveniles when they turned on him and viciously beat him in August. He worked as a software engineer at the Department of Government Efficiency.

‘Think of your daughters and mothers. The same group attacked people before and after us, breaking ribs and stomping heads. This senseless crime must be stopped.’

The incident was cited by President Donald Trump as evidence that federal troops needed to be sent into Washington, D.C., in order to help law enforcement officials quell criminal violence. The president shared a photo of Coristine bloodied and beaten up after the incident.

Prosecutors called for neither 15-year-old to be incarcerated, and the judge respected that wish.

The teenage boy pleaded guilty to four counts related to a robbery and the separate beating of Coristine and received a year of probation. The girl received nine months of probation after pleading guilty to a count of simple assault for pepper-spraying someone during the robbery.

None of the other juveniles involved in the attack have been charged.

Judge Kendra D. Briggs told the two in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday that the goal of juvenile court was “rehabilitation, not punishment,” during the court hearing.

“I know you are not unfamiliar [with] trauma,” Briggs said to the girl. “I don’t disagree that the trauma you’ve already suffered in life is kind of how you ended up on U Street that day. But I think you also have to think about the trauma that you’re inflicting on others when you engage in the activities that you all chose to engage in a couple of months ago.”

The teenagers also have to complete 90 hours of community service and adhere to several behavioral restrictions, including drug testing.

Coristine responded to the sentencing on social media.

“To this day, they’ve only caught two out of the ten. Eight of them remain on the street,” he said.

RELATED: DC Dems are furious at Mayor Bowser for admitting Trump’s troops are lowering crime

“That night could’ve gone far differently,” Coristine continued. “Think of your daughters and mothers. The same group attacked people before and after us, breaking ribs and stomping heads. This senseless crime must be stopped.”

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also responded on social media.

“If these charges (against the teenagers who brutally beat Big Balls) had been brought in federal district court, the sentence would have been … very different,” Lee wrote. “But they weren’t, so they got a mild slap on the wrist.”

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Milwaukee Police on Monday released dashcam video showing a deadly shoot-out between an off-duty officer and a male who pistol-whipped him just prior to the shoot-out.

Police said the officer was involved in a minor car accident in the 4800 block of West Mill Road while on his way to work just before 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Police said video of the incident was released to the public ‘in the interest of transparency.’

Both drivers pulled over and exited their cars, police said, adding that as they were assessing the accident, the other driver approached the off-duty officer, pulled a gun, and struck the off-duty officer in the face with it.

Image source: Milwaukee Police dashcam video screenshot

The off-duty officer drew his department-issued firearm, police said, adding that they exchanged gunfire, and the 26-year-old male who struck the off-duty officer was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.

While no one else was struck by gunfire, police said the off-duty officer was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries as a result of the incident.

Police said the off-duty officer is a 40-year-old male with over 21 years of service and was placed on administrative duty, as is routine in officer-involved shooting investigations.

Police said the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team is investigating the incident, and the West Allis Police Department is the leading agency.

Police said video of the incident was released to the public “in the interest of transparency,” after regulations requiring police to give next of kin a chance to view relevant video within 48 hours of the incident and regulations requiring police to release relevant video within 15 days of a critical incident were met.

RELATED: Gunman firing rifle while walking along snowy Milwaukee street shoots cop; 2nd officer returns fire, killing suspect

What’s more, WISN-TV reported that the family of Elijah Wilks — the fatally shot male — wanted the video released early and called the shooting justified, as they believe the clip shows everything that occurred.

WISN added that the release of the video came after grainy surveillance video was posted on social media over the weekend.

Attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, who represents the family, told the station that “Elijah pulls out a firearm with his right hand, and … he’s essentially swinging it in the direction of the off-duty officer. One time. It’s almost like a punch is what actually transpired.”

Last Thursday, a neighbor said police pulled a 10mm bullet from his living room wall, WISN noted, adding that video indicates Wilks was facing that direction. Milwaukee police noted to the station that they don’t have 10mm service weapons.

“What this family has done is made the difficult decision, while they’re grieving, to put aside their privacy, put aside their grieving, to allow again the opportunity for accountability to actually exist where the public can see what they saw,” LaMarr added to WISN. “And just try to move past the situation and heal this city.”

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New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has been considered a questionable character by those on the right since he began his campaign — and now his wife, Rama Duwaji, is drawing their ire as well.

Duwaji took to social media to publicly mourn the death of Palestinian influencer Saleh al-Jafarawi, who openly celebrated the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

“Beloved Jafarawi,” she wrote on her Instagram story, pairing it with four broken heart emojis.

Jafarawi was confirmed killed Sunday in clashes between Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

“This guy that his wife is so enamored with was also a crisis actor. He was showing up at all kinds of different incidents, playing all kinds of different parts, blaming Israel for certain things. And the Palestinians have a real habit of faking these events and putting them on film and doing it for a camera, and then they show it to the world,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“And he participated in, I don’t know how many of those. And then he’s killed by some kind of Hamas, anti-Hamas gang. I guess the factions are now battling for control of Gaza right now,” he continues.

“It’s inconceivable that Zohran Mamdani and his wife are going to be the first couple of New York City,” he adds.

“It’s an insult to the history and the legacy of New York City,” Gonzales says.

“This is what happens when your other option is one of the worst people that humanity has ever provided to us, Andrew Cuomo, who is just awful in every single way,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere agrees.

“You’ll have to forgive me,” he continues, “for not rooting for a man who … basically is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, and the people he left in the state, he mostly groped.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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President Donald Trump’s order for mass layoffs of federal workers was temporarily halted by a federal judge who said the administration was acting out of political motivation.

Susan Illston, a U.S. district court judge for the Northern District of California, sided on Wednesday with two unions that filed a lawsuit against the layoffs.

‘It has a human cost. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.’

It’s been 15 days since the government shut down.

Illston accused the Trump administration of taking advantage of the “lapse in government spending and government functioning” and acting as if “all bets are off” and “the laws don’t apply to them anymore.”

Attorneys representing the administration said they would only address procedural questions about jurisdiction.

“You’re not making any statement concerning the government’s position on the merits … whether the [reductions in force] are legal?” Illston asked.

“Not today, your honor,” DOJ attorney Elizabeth Hedges replied.

The temporary restraining order halts the mass layoffs planned to be announced by the president on Friday.

“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated,” Illston said.

“I believe that the plaintiffs will demonstrate, ultimately, that what’s being done here is both illegal and is in excess of authority,” she added.

RELATED: Trump says a very wealthy ‘gentleman’ offered to pay troops’ wages through government shutdown

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland praised the ruling in a post on social media.

“A judge just confirmed what has been obvious: Trump’s firings of federal workers are politically motivated and likely ILLEGAL,” Van Hollen wrote.

“He is weaponizing his shutdown to terrorize federal workers and deprive Americans of the services they provide,” he added. “These RIFs should be permanently reversed.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for the layoffs in previous comments.

“Unfortunately, because the Democrats shut down the government, the president has directed his cabinet, and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can me made,” Leavitt said. “And we believe that layoffs are imminent. They are unfortunately a consequence of this government shutdown.”

Illston was nominated by former President Bill Clinton.

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in Louisiana v. Callais.

The outcome of the case, which centers on the creation of a second black-majority congressional district in the Bayou State, may not only impact the Voting Rights Act and states’ corresponding ability to undertake race-based gerrymandering, but the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives as well.

Conservative justices on the high court — including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted in 2023 to uphold the relevant VRA provision in a similar case pertaining to Alabama’s map but who warned that “the authority to conduct race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future” — appear skeptical over the continued use of race in redistricting.

Background

Section 2 of the VRA, which the Supreme Court indicated in 1980 was a restatement of the protections afforded by the 15th Amendment, enables private citizens and the federal government to challenge allegedly discriminatory voting practices, including minority-vote dilution.

The Supreme Court has previously held that under certain circumstances, Section 2 may require the creation of one or more majority-minority districts in a redistricting map.

The Congressional Research Service noted that in its 1986 Thornburg v. Gingles decision, SCOTUS established a three-prong test for proving vote dilution under Section 2:

“The minority group must be able to demonstrate that it is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district”;”The minority group must be able to show that it is politically cohesive”; andThe minority group must be able to prove that the majority group “votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it … usually to defeat the minority’s preferred candidate.”

In 2022, a group of black voters took Louisiana to court, complaining that the state legislature adopted a congressional map where, despite the state being one-third black, only one of six districts was majority black. The plaintiffs, who alleged that the map violated Section 2, won the day.

RELATED: North Carolina Republicans will ‘follow Trump’s call’ to redistrict the state

Photo by Chip Somodevilla / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

A federal court agreed that the map was likely violative, prohibited its use in future elections, and told Louisiana to draft a new map, this time with two majority-black districts.

‘Explicit race-based districting embarks us on a most dangerous course.’

Obliging an order from an Obama U.S. district judge, Shelly Dick, the Louisiana legislature drew a new map last year that boasted a second race-based district that stretches roughly 250 miles from Shreveport in the northwest to Baton Rouge in the southeast, and cuts strategically through black metropolitan areas.

This proved intolerable to another group. This time, the plaintiffs were one dozen non-black voters who contended the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that violated both the 14th and 15th Amendments.

“The State has engaged in explicit, racial segregation of voters and intentional discrimination against voters based on race,” the lawsuit said. “The State has drawn lines between neighbors and divided communities. In most cases, the lines separate African American and non-African American voters from their communities and assign them to Districts with dominating populations far away.”

The case was kicked up to SCOTUS after a three-judge district court agreed with the plaintiffs and blocked the state from using the second map.

The high court issued an unsigned order in May 2024 putting the lesser court’s ruling on hold, thereby setting the stage for the election of Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields in the newly drawn district.

The high court first heard oral arguments in the case in March, but in June, it rescheduled the case for reargument.

Justice Clarence Thomas noted in his dissenting opinion at the time of the order for reargument that the case should have been decided then, particularly when the court’s approach to Section 2 is “broken beyond repair,” and the conflict the high court’s Section 2 “jurisprudence has sown with the Constitution is too severe to ignore.”

Growing skepticism

The court heard oral arguments on Wednesday regarding the constitutionality of drawing majority-black districts to comply with the VRA.

While Louisiana previously supported the new map, it is now singing a different tune, suggesting that race-based redistricting is unconstitutional. The Trump administration has also weighed in, stating in a brief opposing the second map that “as Louisiana now concedes, Section 2 cannot justify the racially gerrymandered majority-minority district created to appease the Robinson court.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the other liberal justices appeared largely convinced during oral arguments that race-based redistricting was not only lawful but a social good. Conservative justices, on the other hand, expressed deep skepticism over the practice.

In his colloquy with Janai Nelson, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who was arguing on behalf of a group of black voters supportive of the second map, Justice Kavanaugh invoked former Justice Anthony Kennedy, noting:

He said the sorting of persons with an intent to divide by reason of race raises the most serious constitutional questions. And he added that explicit race-based districting embarks us on a most dangerous course. It is necessary to bear in mind that redistricting must comply with the overriding demands of Equal Protection clause.

Kavanaugh did not appear entirely convinced by Nelson’s subsequent argument that “Section 2 is addressing a pre-existing problem. It is not producing it, and in fact, it reduces it more broadly across society.”

‘It would be a seismic development both legally and politically.’

While Justice Amy Coney Barrett pressed the matter of whether Section 2 was itself constitutional but improperly interpreted and unlawfully applied, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito questioned whether the redrawn maps satisfied the three-prong Section 2 test previously established by SCOTUS, specifically asking whether the new black-majority district was sufficiently compact.

Alito also insinuated that contrary to the purportedly noble cause guiding the creation of the black-majority district, the real objective appeared ultimately to be “seeking a partisan advantage.”

Meanwhile, Justice Neil Gorsuch expressed concern that states are effectively given license under the current interpretation of Section 2 to “intentionally discriminate on the basis of race” — a hard sell, especially on an indefinite basis.

Justices Coney Barrett and John Roberts played their cards closer to their chests.

It’s clear by the left’s pearl-clutching over the case that the stakes are high.

Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ nonprofit Fair Fight Action claimed in a recent report that a ruling defanging the VRA provision at issue “could help secure an additional 27 safe Republican U.S. House seats when compared to the 2024 House maps” and “cement one-party control of the U.S. House for at least a generation.”

Law professor Jonathan Turley noted that “if the Court were to reject such districts or declare a sunsetting of the provision, it would be a seismic development both legally and politically.”

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Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California was caught on video snapping angrily at a reporter who pressed her about her acts during the Jan. 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol.

The former House speaker was walking out of the Capitol building on Wednesday when a reporter from Mike Lindell of My Pillow fame confronted her.

‘Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you’re a serious journalist?’

“Congresswoman Pelosi, are you at all concerned that the new January 6 committee will find you liable for that day?” Alison Steinberg asked. “Are you at all concerned about the new January 6 committee finding you liable for that day? Why did you refuse the National Guard on January 6?”

“Shut up!” Pelosi blurted out.

“I did not refuse the National Guard. The president didn’t send it,” she added. “Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you’re a serious journalist?”

Pelosi has been accused of failing to allow the National Guard to respond to the Jan. 6 protests after a video recorded by her daughter on that day showed her talking about the decision.

“We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there — and we should have,” said Pelosi to her chief of staff, Terri McCullough, on the recording released by HBO in 2024.

“This is ridiculous. You’re gonna ask me in the middle of the thing, when they’ve already breached the inaugural stuff, ‘Should we call the Capitol Police?’ I mean, the National Guard. Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” she added.

McCullough says that they believed there were “sufficient” resources to handle protesters.

“It’s not a question of how they had — they don’t know,” Pelosi replied. “They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”

Critics have used the footage to accuse Pelosi of falsely claiming President Donald Trump was to blame for the lack of National Guard resources, though she has denied the allegations.

“Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed again and again that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination on January 6,” a spokesperson for Pelosi said in June.

RELATED: Pelosi has unbelievable response to Dem candidate who issued death wish against Republican

“As the footage in its entirety plainly shows, Speaker Pelosi sprang into action in response to the attack on the Capitol — mobilizing the defense of the Capitol, urging the administration to deploy the National Guard, and coordinating the continuity of government,” the spokesperson continued. “Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips do not change the fact that the Speaker of the House is not in charge of the security of the Capitol Complex — on January 6 or any other day of the week.”

However, as many as 20,000 National Guard troops were authorized by Trump for duty on Jan. 6, but Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser rejected the offer one day before the protests.

The LindellTV account mocked Pelosi for her reaction.

“No answer. Just insults. This is how the democratic so called Speaker of ‘the people’ treats the press when they don’t fall in line,” the post reads. “@SpeakerPelosi’s meltdown says everything. What is she trying to hide?”

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While the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is dominating the news cycle and letting citizens of the world breathe mass sighs of relief, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck believes there’s something brewing silently — and we should remain on our toes.

“Beijing just tightened its grip on rare earth elements. These are the minerals that make absolutely everything possible: your smartphone, your electric car, your missile defense system, your refrigerator. Everything depends on these rare earth minerals,” Glenn says.

“China, because of our inaction and stupid policies over the last couple of decades, control now 80% of the world’s supply chain. That cannot stand. Now, what they’re doing is they’re choking it off. They are now closing it up, and they are threatening the West, ‘No more rare earth minerals,’” he explains.

“If that happens, we cannot defend ourself,” he adds.

Glenn also notes that out of nowhere, the Pentagon has made a billion-dollar emergency order for those same rare earth minerals.

“That’s not normal. That’s not paperwork. That is the sound of a military quietly preparing for something — a shortage, possibly in a storm,” Glenn says.

In addition, JPMorgan Chase has just announced a $1.5 trillion investment plan in security and resilience.

“That’s not going to mom-and-pop shops. That’s not going to community loans. That money is being funneled straight into AI, defense manufacturing, and critical minerals. It’s as if the Pentagon and Wall Street just linked arms and decided to build a fortress economy together,” Glenn explains.

And interestingly, Glenn notes that the Dutch government has seized control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker on its own soil.

“They invoked emergency powers and nationalized the company to stop the Chinese influence over the semiconductor industry,” he says.

“That’s not good. Four stories, four continents, four quiet tremors in the ground. When you weave them all together, that’s when you begin to understand what all of this means,” Glenn continues.

And what it means is that “the old world as we know it is dying.”

“The world of free markets, the world of open trade, individual enterprise, the world that lifted billions out of poverty is being replaced now, slowly but surely, by something new. And this one is being done in the name of security,” he explains.

“This is the government aligning themselves with tech, rare earth minerals, et cetera, et cetera, to be able to win the AI war. All of this is a single unspoken motive, and that is the race to dominate artificial intelligence,” he continues.

“This is the new arms race. This is the new Manhattan Project, the new nuclear weapon, except this is a million times more enslaving than nuclear weapons could ever hope to be,” he adds.

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Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Wednesday that he is withholding significant funds from a blue state that has failed to comply with English language proficiency standards for commercial drivers, Blaze News has exclusively learned.

Last month, Duffy shared the results of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit, which found “systemic non-compliance” among state driver licensing agencies in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.

‘California is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big-rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement.’

Duffy warned that there would be consequences for states that failed to comply with ELP standards.

This issue within the American trucking industry was thrown into the national spotlight in August when an illegal alien truck driver was accused of making an unlawful U-turn and killing three people in Florida. The Indian national obtained his license in California.

The DOT previously described California as “the most egregious” offender in meeting the English proficiency requirement for commercial driver’s license holders.

“My message is very simple,” Duffy warned. “Get into compliance now, or we’ll pull funding and we’ll force you into compliance.”

RELATED: ‘Imminent hazard’: Trump administration shuts licensing loophole after illegal alien trucker allegedly causes fatal crash

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In addition to demanding immediate compliance, the DOT also paused California’s issuance of non-domiciled CDLs in September. The state was required to identify all unexpired licenses that failed to comply with regulations.

Duffy indicated Wednesday that California had failed to comply and, as a result, the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program — which provides grant funding for roadside inspections, traffic enforcement, safety audits, and public education campaigns — would withhold $40,685,225 from the state, according to a press release obtained by Blaze News.

“I put states on notice this summer: Enforce the Trump administration’s English language requirements or the checks stop coming. California is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big-rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement. This is a fundamental safety issue that impacts you and your family on America’s roads,” Duffy stated.

“Let me be clear: This is valuable money that should be going to the great men and women in California law enforcement, whom we support. Gov. [Gavin] Newsom’s insistence on obstructing federal law has tied my hands,” Duffy remarked.

RELATED: American trucking at a crossroads: Deadly crash involving illegal alien exposes true cost of Biden’s border invasion

California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

To receive the now-withheld federal funding, the state “must adopt and actively enforce a law, regulation, standard, or order that is compatible with the federal ELP requirement for commercial drivers,” the press release read.

“This means state inspectors need to begin conducting ELP assessments during roadside inspections and place those who fail out of service,” it added.

The California Highway Patrol indicated to Overdrive in July that it had no plans to place truck drivers out of service for failing to meet ELP standards.

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​News, Gavin newsom, California, Department of transportation, Dot, Transportation department, American trucking industry, Trucking industry, Commercial driver’s licenses, Commercial driver’s license, Cdl, Cdls, Sean duffy, English language proficiency, Elp, Politics 

Swarms of sophisticated chatbots enabled by China are embedded in platforms like Reddit and Discord to radicalize America’s youth, foment political division, and encourage violence, according to intelligence experts.

The ability to create millions of online personas to invade chat groups and social media sites to, in essence, destabilize American society is one of the sinister uses of the Chinese-built SIM farms like the ones shut down around New York City in September, Blaze News has learned.

‘Our population is being literally divided and radicalized to destroy our nation.’

“They’re able to use this [SIM] network to initiate social media accounts by the millions,” said one intelligence analyst familiar with the ongoing SIM farm investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secret Service, and other federal agencies.

“Social media accounts by the millions,” the analyst reiterated. “Because all of them have the ability to do multifactor authentication, they can create millions of digital personas that are real.”

So far, he said, the American government is “clueless.”

“Our biggest issue is that both the American political class and U.S. government officials are completely clueless on this threat,” he said. “Our population is being literally divided and radicalized to destroy our nation. This is provable, but I think it would require so much more investigation to be able to show people, even on our side, how bad the problem is.”

SIM farms pair with AI

The process is started manually in China. It can have a deep reach into American society.

“It appears they have thousands of people in China that set this up manually. And then they use really sophisticated AI like ChatGPT to spread certain themes and certain messages — all designed, obviously, to divide our country and to create division,” the analyst said.

Election-themed chat threads are often flooded with nefarious bots pushing anti-Trump propaganda. From the outside, these often look like U.S. voters engaged in simple political debate.

However, the threats are not limited to chatbots.

After a series of high-profile swatting incidents targeting senior Secret Service officials and Secret Service protectees last spring, an investigation discovered the presence of SIM farms that are likely spread across America to carry out cyber terrorism and threaten cellular networks and internet access.

RELATED: Patriots targeted by hoax SWATs react to China’s role in shocking SIM farm operations

A New York City SIM farm raided by federal officials in September is tied to China.Photos by U.S. Secret Service

Homeland Security Investigations and the Secret Service raided five SIM farms in the greater New York City area. They disabled and seized more than 300 SIM servers operating from nondescript corporate office locations.

The farms use hundreds of thousands of SIM cards to create online cell numbers that can send out mass texts and synchronized attacks to lay siege to America’s critical infrastructure.

Among the more chilling aspects of these SIM farms is the ability to mimic humans to carry out sophisticated propaganda campaigns to promote progressive causes and radicalize people against the government and each other, intelligence officials told Blaze News.

“They actually groom you. Believe it or not, there’s a chatbot that can pretend to be 27 personalities and is designed to groom you, to groom anybody that asks certain questions or that mentions certain topics,” one expert said. “It’s just a chatbot, and it has very little human supervision.”

Having a real mobile telephone number associated with the SIM cards gives the system flexibility and secrecy. Each server can have up to 512 SIM cards to send texts, make calls, and run apps. Millions of the SIM cards are likely engaged in this SIM farm network at any one time. Each farm location likely has racks and racks of servers and modems working in tandem.

’It allows you to assume someone else’s identity, their phone, their phone number.’

“Having a real phone number that can be associated to a social media account and having that avenue with multifactor authentication capability makes for a nearly undetectable bot account,” he said. “As long as your AI can avoid repetitive or ‘bot-like’ messaging, you will be undetectable.”

A real phone number that can continuously be associated with a particular social media account is a key, he said.

This activity has developed “under the radar,” he said, and the U.S. government is not aggressively seeking out and destroying this nefarious system. The need is urgent.

“Here’s the problem,” he said. “Despite the fact that foreign governments are radicalizing our sovereign nation’s citizens to destroy this country, they are not doing it in a way that the government employees can feel is so important that they would investigate it.”

Private companies that do social media and open-source intelligence can detect the bots, “but nobody is paying them to investigate or report it,” the analyst said.

RELATED: While the lights are off, let’s rewire the government

By adopting the $8 per month blue-checkmark authentication system, X has greatly limited the penetration of chatbots, experts say.Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images

The bots have dynamic and parallel capabilities that allow such subtle messaging. The War Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ran a “Defeat Disinfo” project that identified the best way to create a subtle social media messaging system “to brainwash an entire population in a completely undetectable way,” he said.

The bot technology is especially prevalent on platforms like Reddit and Discord, the analyst said. After Elon Musk purchased Twitter and rebranded it X, the prevalence of nefarious chatbots on that platform dropped precipitously, he said. By charging $8 a month for an authenticated blue checkmark, X limits the ability of fake accounts to penetrate its huge user base.

‘Our own telecoms are hosting a Chinese act of war against us.’

On Oct. 12, X announced it had purged 1.7 million bot accounts for engaging in reply spam.

“You should start experiencing improvement in the coming days,” Nikita Bier, head of product at X, wrote. “We will be focusing on [direct message] spam next.”

The analyst estimated that X is no more than 20%-30% bots. Reddit, however, “is like 80% bots,” the intelligence analyst told Blaze News. “It’s absolutely horrible.

Foment violent division

“The open-source intelligence community, who are mostly contractors that monitor and look for bots, estimate Reddit is about 80% bots. All designed to push a Democrat narrative or a very highly progressive narrative towards the left, but also to foment violent division. Violent division.”

The bots have built-in safeguards so as not to be flagged by the system for “bot-like behavior,” the analyst said. “So they usually don’t mention firearms. They’re normally very, very subtle. It’s so subtle. You would never know. You might be responding to the same dude that’s just hitting likes on your thing for three years.”

While the SIM farms create massive numbers of new identities, each with its own phone number, they can also co-opt existing accounts.

“A lot of these SIM farms allow you to clone an identity,” the analyst said. “So it allows you to assume someone else’s identity, their phone, their phone number.”

Homeland Security Investigations agents led September raids on five SIM farms tied to a secret nationwide network built by the Chinese communist government.Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The SIM farm networks are used by China, but also by criminal syndicates, drug cartels, and other malefactors, allegedly including Antifa. No matter who the user is, all of the data from the transactions is copied back to China, he said. The Chinese communist government requires all manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and computers to spy on behalf of the Ministry of State Security.

“Everything that’s happening on those devices is all going back to China,” he said, “even when the cartel uses them; or even when the United States government uses them; or even when the swatting people are using them; when the terrorists are using them; even when Antifa is using them.”

The SIM farms can be used to recruit radicals who are ready and willing to engage in violence outside immigration facilities — as is happening in Chicago and Portland.

‘We’re in a difficult position. It’s a catch-22.’

The analyst said there’s a good chance that China has been behind the establishment of Antifa chapters in the United States.

“It’s possible that they’re coordinating all of these chapters so that there’s a good chance that Antifa is actually a foreign terrorist organization,” he said. “In other words, it is a distributed terrorism network being unwittingly influenced by a Chinese sabotage network.”

Getting serious about stamping out these SIM farms will require the involvement of regulatory agencies including the Federal Communications Commission, he said.

A recent Reddit discussion on the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.Reddit

“The FCC should be engaged to fine $100 million or $200 million per telecom until they get rid of every single one of these [farms] they are hosting. Our own telecoms are hosting a Chinese act of war against us.”

The effort will also require action by Congress, he said, to make radicalizing American citizens by foreign actors a crime.

“The U.S. Secret Service subpoenaed Google to get the MFA short codes for the Google voice accounts that the bad guys were using,” he said. “But until we make ‘intentionally radicalizing U.S. citizens to destroy their own country’ something that is illegal and also important to prosecute, the U.S. government will never even look into it.”

Major resources are needed to analyze each SIM farm in hopes of finding more of the estimated 80-100 sites operating in the United States.

“You could start up a whole new government program office just to deal with the forensics and to find the rest of these sites,” he said.

“So we’re in a difficult position. It’s a catch-22,” the analyst said. “We won’t discover how urgent and destructive this problem is until we investigate it. We won’t investigate it until they discover how urgent and destructive it is.”

Blaze News reached out to Reddit, Discord, and the U.S. Secret Service for more comment.

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​National security 

Los Angeles County officials have declared a state of emergency over federal deportation raids, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement fired back immediately.

Four of the members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the declaration Tuesday, while only one voted against.

‘Perhaps the board should “supervise” funds to support law-abiding fire victims who still haven’t recovered instead of criminal illegal aliens.’

The resolution said that the raids have created a “climate of fear” for residents and caused them to be “fearful of leaving their homes to go to work, take public transportation, and access County services.”

The motion will allow officials to request state assistance as well as federal resources to protect the communities affected by the immigration operations.

“What’s happening in our communities is an emergency, and Los Angeles County is treating it like one,” said Supervisor Lindsay Horvath. “Declaring a local emergency ensures that the full weight of county government is aligned to support our immigrant communities who are being targeted by federal actions.”

Supervisor Janice Hahn called the raids a “man-made” disaster similar to an earthquake.

“I want our residents to know that we are in this crisis with them — and I want us to have every tool at our disposal in this effort,” she added. “For that reason, I think this emergency proclamation is not just symbolically important as a message to our residents, but critical to our response moving forward.”

ICE spokesperson Emily Covington released a statement criticizing the declaration and accusing the officials of insulting law enforcement officials.

“The only state of emergency is the one the residents of Los Angeles face after electing officials who give a middle finger to the law. Perhaps the board should ‘supervise’ funds to support law-abiding fire victims who still haven’t recovered instead of criminal illegal aliens seeking refuge in their sanctuary city.”

RELATED: Outrage ensues when 13-year-old is arrested by ICE — then DHS releases devastating accusations

The board said the state of emergency would continue until the board decides to terminate it.

The Trump administration’s increased focus on deporting illegal aliens has led to some violent attacks from anti-ICE protesters and rioters. At least one Democrat lawmaker has accused the administration of faking some of the violence in order to justify invoking the Insurrection Act.

Trump has mentioned invoking the Insurrection Act but as of Wednesday afternoon has not yet done so.

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