Category: blaze media

President Donald Trump’s administration is ramping up the pressure on Democrats who refuse to reopen the government over two weeks into the shutdown.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced Friday that he will be pausing over $11 billion of project funding across several blue cities. This pause will halt funds for “lower-priority” projects overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore.

‘We’re only going to cut Democrat programs, I hate to tell you.’

This pause comes more than two weeks into the Democrat-induced government shutdown after nearly a dozen failed votes on the Senate floor.

“The Democrat shutdown has drained the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to manage billions of dollars in projects,” Vought wrote in a post on X. “The Corps will be immediately pausing over $11 billion in lower-priority projects & considering them for cancellation, including projects in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore. More information to come from the Army Corps of Engineers.”

RELATED: White House deploys nuclear option amid Democrat-induced shutdown stalemate

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

This pressure is the latest of several actions taken by the Trump administration since the government shut down on October 1. Ahead of the shutdown, Vought notified agencies to begin drafting reduction-in-force notices that later resulted in over 4,200 layoffs across various prominent agencies.

A Clinton-appointed judge in California has since halted those RIFs.

Vought also previously paused billions of dollars‘ worth of infrastructure and environmental projects in other blue cities like Chicago and New York City.

At the same time, the Trump administration is working to minimize shutdown pains for the military, working through Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth to ensure that service members received their October 15 paycheck.

RELATED: White House dares Democrats with nuclear response to looming shutdown

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Image

Trump previously warned Democrats that his administration would take these actions if they did not join Republicans to reopen the government. Assuming all 53 Republicans vote in favor of the funding resolution, at least seven Democrats need to join the GOP to reopen the government.

“We’re only going to cut Democrat programs, I hate to tell you,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting last week.

“Chuck Schumer proclaimed this morning that every day gets better for them,” Trump added. “No, every day it’s actually getting worse for them, and they’re having a rebellion in the Democrat Party because they want to stop.”

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​Democrat shutdown, Schumer shutdown, Donald trump, Trump administration, Russell vought, Russ vought, Office of management and budget, Omb, Rifs, Mass layodds, Government shutdown, Senate democrats, Funding freeze, Pete hegseth, Politics 

CHICAGO, Ill. — The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview has been the site of many rowdy and sometimes violent protests as Operation Midway Blitz is well under way. With rioters consistently attempting to block the building’s driveway and road to disrupt operations, the federal government installed a temporary security fence to keep crowds at a distance.

That changed this week after a judge ruled the fence must come down after a lawsuit was brought by the city, saying the installment prevented emergency services from reaching other buildings behind the fence. The fence was effective in preventing agitators from blocking the driveway and forced the crowds to switch locations to gather. Border Patrol and ICE agents still had to repeatedly clear the roads to allow federal vehicles to reach the facility.

‘What’s happening is not just regular business there. It was rioting.’

Perhaps in an attempt to prevent the National Guard from being deployed, the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff’s Office have sent manpower to assist federal agents in keeping the roads clear. While the extra manpower has been put to use with the disruptive anti-ICE crowds, ICE says the removal of the fence means agents cannot use yet another tool in their toolbox to keep themselves, detainees, and the facility safe.

“Anyone should be able to come up to a federal building when they have some business there, but what’s happening is not just regular business there. It was rioting,” Sam Olsen, field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in Chicago, told Blaze News.

RELATED: Border Patrol squashes anti-ICE blockade outside ICE facility in Illinois

Julio Rosas/Blaze News

“That fence did give us some additional protection,” Olsen noted, adding that it was good to see local and state law enforcement on the ground after weeks of no support.

Concrete barriers now line the roads around the facility to keep crowds on the sidewalk, though sometimes those barriers do not deter people from jumping over them.

The security fence also gave ICE agents breathing room as they wait to see whether the National Guard can be deployed. While soldiers from Texas were sent to protect the building in Broadview and were seen patrolling behind the fence, their deployment has been halted in a similar fashion to the deployment in Portland, Oregon.

Olsen said the recent deadly shooting at the ICE facility in Dallas, which killed two detainees and injured a third, is fresh in agents’ minds as they work to secure the building near Chicago. Despite the over 1000% increase in attacks on federal agents, both Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) continue to blame the violence on Homeland Security personnel instead of anti-ICE crowds attacking agents conducting operations.

Friday morning saw more chaotic protests in Broadview down the street from the ICE building, with ISP troopers arresting multiple people who refused to leave the road when ordered. Some also expressed concern about the lack of fencing ahead of the No Kings protests slated to take place in Chicago as well as all over the country.

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​Politics 

Fresh off being schooled by Chicago residents on how illegal border crossings are indeed criminal, ex-CNN talking head Don Lemon suggested that non-whites in America should take up arms against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

At the outset of his recent appearance on Wajahat Ali’s podcast “The Left Hook,” Lemon noted, “I’m tired of like all the niceties because that doesn’t work in this administration. That doesn’t work in this era. You got to dispense with the niceties and … ‘let’s just be civil.'”

After expressing the extremist sentiment a recent poll indicated is common to a plurality of liberals, Lemon told Ali, “I think that these are the times that the Second Amendment was written for.”

‘Words have consequences, and this type of rhetoric is going to get one of our officers killed.’

Ensuring that there could be no confusion as to his meaning, Lemon characterized the Trump administration as “tyrannical,” then noted that the Second Amendment’s raison d’être is to ensure Americans can fight a tyrannical government.

Blaze News has reached out to Lemon for clarification on whether he meant to incite rebellion against the U.S. government.

Lemon, who previously criticized Republicans for defending the Second Amendment, further suggested that those individuals who are being targeted by ICE “need to really figure out what the Second Amendment is really about and go out, and do it legally, and purchase some things because you never know when someone’s going to come to your house and knock on the door and try to take you away.”

RELATED: ‘No Kings’ is the clown show covering for a coup

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors

Later in the podcast, Lemon once again suggested that individuals should be armed and ready in case federal immigration officials come to their residences.

“If you believe in the Second Amendment, if you believe in the Constitution — black people, brown people of all stripes, whether you’re an Indian-American or a Mexican-American or whoever you are — go out in your place where you live and get a gun legally,” said Lemon. “Get a license to carry legally, because when you have people knocking on your door and taking you away without due process as a citizen, isn’t that what the Second Amendment was written for?”

When asked about the apparently inciting nature of Lemon’s remarks, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Blaze News, “Don Lemon’s comments calling for people to ‘arm up’ with guns to use against ICE law enforcement officers are unhinged.”

“Calling for violence against law enforcement is un-American — officers are already facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them including terrorist attacks, cars being used as weapons, rocks thrown at them, and shot at,” continued McLaughlin. “Words have consequences, and this type of rhetoric is going to get one of our officers killed.”

Lemon made his recommendation just weeks after a leftist sniper opened fire on the ICE field office in Dallas. While the shooter, Joshua Jahn, had been targeting law enforcement officers, he ultimately hit three detainees — two of whom ultimately perished — then killed himself. The words “ANTI-ICE” were reportedly found engraved on ammunition recovered at the scene of the shooting.

Ali defended Lemon’s remarks in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“I only speak for myself, but Don Lemon has a right to express his views in the United States of America thanks to the First Amendment, which is allegedly championed by the Trump administration,” said Ali. “I’d assume Republicans would agree with him that Americans have the right to legally bear arms thanks to the Second Amendment. Unless, of course, they only believe that right exists for white Trump supporters? If so, they should admit that publicly.”

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​Don lemon, Lemon, Cnn, Guns, Second amendment, Insurrection, Rebellion, Leftism, Ice, U.s. immigration and customs enforcement, Dhs, Politics 

The Trump administration has used its influence to shut down an effort by a U.N.-backed organization to convince nations to impose a global carbon tax.

The tax was meant to decrease dependence on carbon-producing industries and to fund policies intended to combat “climate change.”

‘The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form.’

Supporters believed the global tax would be approved at the International Maritime Organization summit in London, but on Friday, the talks fell apart after the the U.S. State Department threatened to take action. President Donald Trump also lambasted the tax on social media.

“I am outraged that the International Maritime Organization is voting in London this week to pass a global Carbon Tax,” wrote the president Thursday.

“The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form,” he added. “We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR, the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams. Stand with the United States, and vote NO in London tomorrow!”

The tax had been approved in a meeting in April and was expected to be confirmed Friday. Opposition from the U.S. led Singapore to propose postponing the vote. The organization will meet in another 12 months to reconsider the global “scam” tax.

RELATED: MSNBC anchor tells audience all life is pointless if we’re not addressing climate change

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also posted a message in opposition to the tax.

“This week, the UN is attempting to pass the first global carbon tax , which will increase energy, food, and fuel costs across the world,” he wrote on social media.

“We will not allow the UN to tax American citizens and companies,” Rubio added. “Under the leadership of @POTUS, the U.S. will be a hard NO. We call on other nations to stand alongside the United States in defense of our citizens and sovereignty.”

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​Global climate change, International maritime organization, Trump vs global warming, Global carbon tax, Politics 

As mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani continues to lead the New York City mayoral race and Election Day for the next mayor looms closer, so does the city’s impending doom, according to BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales.

“He could be one of the most catastrophic mayors to ever, ever be in New York City,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

And while many Americans will drown out the goings-on in faraway places like New York City, Gonzales warns that just because you may not be potentially living under Mamdani’s rule, you will still be affected by it.

“The financial capital of the entire world — it actually affects all of us,” Gonzales says.

In a recent interview on Fox News, Mamdani was asked by Martha MacCallum if he had any intention of changing his mind on bail reform after hearing the story of an elderly man beaten to death on the subway by a 25-year-old who was out on bail when he allegedly killed him.

“Does that make you want to change your mind or think twice about reversing that?” MacCallum asked.

“What it makes me think about is the necessity of providing public safety in our New York City subway system and across the five boroughs. And also, how do we end the revolving door? Because when you look further into the case … what we find is so often the only mental health system that we have that’s functioning in this city is Rikers Island,” Mamdani said.

“It’s a revolving door because you keep letting them out,” Gonzales comments. “There’s a solution. You just keep them in prison. We keep the dangerous criminals away from society. It’s very, very simple, Zohran.”

And in a podcast interview, Mamdani was asked whether or not prisons are “obsolete.”

“I mean, what purpose do they serve?” Mamdani asked. “I think we have to ask ourselves that, which is that, you know, I think a lot of people who defend the carceral state, they defend the idea of it and the way it makes them feel.”

“I will be the first to admit it does make me feel much safer to have criminals locked up … and I will never be bashful about sharing that, ever,” Gonzales says.

“What purpose does it serve? Oh, I don’t know. It keeps law-abiding citizens safe. It’s really that easy,” she adds.

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​Video, Upload, Camera phone, Free, Video 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, Zohran mamdani, New york city, Nyc mayoral race, Andrew cuomo, Mamdani, Socialism, Bail reform, Fox news 

The walls are closing in!

Celebrities are turning up the rhetorical heat on President Donald Trump, proving once more that they didn’t learn their lesson from the last election.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s film oozes Oscar-season buzz. It’s a celebration of political violence and a mash note to anti-ICE attacks.

“Hacks” star Jean Smart just gave a shout-out to the latest No Kings rally, suggesting that President Trump is a dictator in waiting, or Hitler or, well, fill in the blank.

The current resident of the White House thinks that he has everybody fooled, but he has made it abundantly clear that he admires dictators and wishes to be one. And ironically this country was founded on a rebellion against having a king. So it’s ironic. The most patriotic thing that you can do is say, “No Kings.” A king does not belong in the United States of America. So please, find a peaceful No Kings protest near you.

Peaceful? Now, that’s funnier than any “Hacks” subplot.

Not to be outdone, former D-list doyenne Kathy Griffin joined the conspiracy mob in alleging that Donald Trump didn’t win the 2024 election fair and square. Her proof? Hey, who needs proof?

Griffin used Trump’s former bestie, Elon Musk, to explain the theft.

Anyway, he’s a, but he’s a professional Nazi in my humble opinion, and he’s good friends with Trump, and at one point, I don’t know if you remember, but he was giving out million-dollar checks to people if they would vote for Trump. That’s illegal. It’s unconstitutional and illegal, so that was happening, and the fact that Trump won all seven swing states, which has never happened in the history of the U.S., makes it all very suspicious to me.

It’s Fake News with a heaping helping of hysteria. At least no heads were severed along the way.

And then there’s singer/actress Renee Rapp. The “Mean Girls 2.0” star shouted “F**k ICE” and “F**k Trump” at a recent concert.

Gosh, Trump better resign before it’s too late …

Squander lust

A million dollars here, a million dollars there, and all of a sudden, you’re talking about real money.

That’s Hollywood accounting, and it explains why Warner Bros. won’t sweat losing a cool $100 million on “One Battle After Another.” That’s despite endless fawning media coverage and a star-studded cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s film oozes Oscar-season buzz. It’s a celebration of political violence and a mash note to anti-ICE attacks.

Liberal film critics love it, of course, but the inconvenient truth is that the movie will lose a fortune at the box office. The budget is just too big, and normie moviegoers would rather watch “Black Phone 2.” At least that film understands that the franchise’s child-killer, played by Ethan Hawke once more, is the bad guy and we’re meant to root against him.

For most companies, a loss like that would be catastrophic, but movie studios are perfectly fine with that kind of a fiscal gut punch. Why? The film is going to earn endless Oscar nominations and countless awards-season hosannas, and it’s the perfect Resistance storytelling.

Remember, it’s show “business,” with an asterisk …

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

Warner Bros. Pictures

Hamas helpers

Who knew there were adults in the room within the Hollywood community? Paramount recently punched back against nearly 4,000 stars blacklisting Israel-linked projects. Now, it’s Warner Bros.’ turn:

Our policies prohibit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, or ancestry. We believe a boycott of Israeli film institutions violates our policies. While we respect the rights of individuals and groups to express their views and advocate for causes, we will continue to align our business practices with the requirements of our policies and the law.

It’s no accident that the announcement came after the Trump administration’s historic peace agreement in the Middle East. Still, we’ll applaud any baby steps toward a steel spine in La-La Land …

West wingnut

Bradley Whitford isn’t a big name like Griffin or Rob Reiner, but his TDS can stand toe to toe with the best of the worst. The “West Wing” alum raged against ICE and the GOP in toto this week, out-hyperbolizing even “The View” crew.

“I am living in a world where we have internment camps. … And the thing that’s very upsetting to me right now, and we’re giving these internment camps funny names. Like, they’re some fun to be had in the inhumanity of it all. It’s a very strange time for me.”

Maybe he’s mad because he thought of “Alligator Alcatraz” first but didn’t copyright it?

​Entertainment, Hollywood, Trump derangement syndrome, Donald trump, Kathy griffin, One battle after another, Movies, Renee rapp, Jean smart, Culture, Toto recall 

Earlier this week, a federal grand jury convened to consider charges against Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. Following his Thursday indictment, Bolton surrendered to authorities and entered his plea at the courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Associated Press reported that Bolton, 76, pleaded not guilty in his initial court appearance following his Friday-morning surrender to authorities.

‘Weaponization of justice will not be tolerated, and this FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security.’

Bolton is charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI, per a DOJ press release.

RELATED: Former national security adviser John Bolton indicted by federal grand jury

U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan, chief of the National Security and Cybercrime Section at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser between April 2018 and September 2019, was allegedly in unauthorized possession of intelligence concerning “future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign policy relations,” according to the press release.

The indictment alleges that sometime in the period between September 2019 and July 2021, “a cyber actor believed to be associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran hacked Bolton’s personal email account and gained unauthorized access” to classified information.

The indictment also claims Bolton sent classified information in “diary-like entries” to two unnamed individuals, described as Bolton’s relatives, during his tenure as national security adviser in Trump’s first term.

Among the lurid details of Bolton’s exchanges with his relatives, the indictment gives the following account:

On or about July 23, 2018, Bolton sent Individuals 1 and 2 a message that stated, “More stuff coming!!!” A few minutes later, Bolton sent Individuals 1 and 2 a 24-page document which described information that Bolton learned while National Security Advisor. Less than three hours later, Bolton sent Individuals 1 and 2 a follow-up messaged that stated, “None of which we talk about!!!” In response, Individual 1 sent a message that stated, “Shhhhh.” Individual 2 then sent a message that stated, “The only interesting thing is what [senior U.S. Government official] might have said from [foreign language] interpreter, which you didn’t tell us…”

Approximately two minutes later, Individual 1 sent a message in response that stated, “More to come with cloak and dagger…or something. So he says…”

The descriptions in the indictment list each document as “secret” or “top secret,” among other intelligence classifications.

The section that discusses Bolton’s exchanges with these two individuals ends by saying: “Bolton left the messaging chat group with Individuals 1 and 2 that he had used to send them more than a thousand pages of notes memorializing his time as National Security Advisor.”

In the press release, FBI Director Kash Patel stated, “The case was based on meticulous work from dedicated career professionals at the FBI who followed the facts without fear or favor. Weaponization of justice will not be tolerated, and this FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security.”

ABC News reported that Judge Thomas Sullivan set a November 14 deadline for pretrial motions to be filed in the case and set a scheduling conference for November 21.

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​Politics, John bolton, National security adviser, Bolton indictment, Greenbelt maryland, Judge thomas sullivan, Intelligence, Fbi, Kash patel 

Virginia attorney general candidates Jay Jones and Jason Miyares faced off in a debate at the University of Richmond Thursday night ahead of the November 4 election. While the debate covered topics ranging from crime and immigration to energy costs and civil rights, the conversation always returned to the topic on everyone’s mind: Jay Jones’ vile text messages.

Jones, a Democrat former Virginia House delegate, fought to defend himself over a series of text messages he sent a few years ago in which he seemingly advocated for political violence against then-Speaker Todd Gilbert (R) and death upon his children.

‘If you were truly sorry, you would not be running for this office, because you disqualified yourself.’

Jones addressed the controversy at the outset and accepted “accountability” multiple time over the course of the debate.

“I am ashamed, I am embarrassed, and I am sorry. I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert. I’m sorry to his family. I’m sorry to my family. And I’m sorry to every single Virginian. I cannot take back what I said. But you have my word that I will always be accountable for my mistakes. And you also have my word that I will spend every waking moment fighting for you.”

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

Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Jones used the words “accountable” and “accountability” more than 30 times during the hour-long debate. However, many instances were aimed at holding Donald Trump and Republicans “accountable” for their policies.

For example, after repeatedly refusing to directly answer why voters should trust Jones after his incendiary text messages in which he “doubled down,” as Miyares pointed out, on wanting the innocent children of a political opponent die, Jones insisted, “I’ve taken accountability for my mistakes, and I know that people in Virginia right now demand and deserve leaders who accept when they make mistakes and can acknowledge that and have been held accountable. This job right now demands someone who will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

In response, Miyares said, “He’s running for the wrong office. … I have to make this observation: He keeps saying that he is sorry. Jay, if you’re really sorry, you wouldn’t be running.”

In another heated moment, Miyares said, “If you were truly sorry, you would not be running for this office, because you disqualified yourself.”

Jones said he had a comprehensive public safety plan to get guns out of the commonwealth and protect Virginians.

In response, Miyares pointed out several instances in which Jones prioritized lenient punishment for criminals over the protection of victims of violent crime, some of them children.

Miyares continued, “And I find it a little bit stunning that today you say one of the pillars of your public safety platform is protecting children. Were you protecting [Jennifer Gilbert’s] children when you said you wanted to see them die in their mother’s arms?”

In his closing statement, Miyares pointedly asked, “Are we going to pass the test of decency?”

The full debate can be seen below:

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​Politics, Jason miyares, Jay jones, Jay jones texts, Jay jones text scandal, Gilbert, Attorney general, November 4 election, University of richmond, Debate 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have arrested a child predator, a murderer, and other violent illegal-alien criminals this week, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release obtained exclusively by Blaze News.

‘Some of the dirtbags arrested included pedophiles, murderers, and drug traffickers.’

ICE continues to take the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets despite the ongoing government shutdown, the release noted.

“Nothing will slow ICE down, not even the Democrats’ government shutdown,” it read.

The DHS highlighted the Thursday arrests of five convicted criminals who are in the U.S. illegally.

ICE officers captured Sergio Ivaan Martinez, a 30-year-old child sexual predator from Mexico who was living in Dallas, Texas. According to the Texas Public Sex Offender registry, Martinez was previously convicted in early 2014 of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact. His judgment was listed as “probation/community supervision.”

RELATED: Exclusive: ICE arrests alleged MS-13 gang leader on El Salvador’s ‘most wanted’ list

Sergio Ivaan Martinez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Law enforcement nabbed Chay Jungle Her, an illegal alien from Laos who was previously convicted of homicide-murder and assault with intent to do great bodily harm in Flint, Michigan.

Chay Jungle Her. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Jose Andres Gomez-Matarrita, an illegal immigrant from Costa Rica, had a criminal record in New Hanover County, North Carolina, for strangulation and second-degree kidnapping.

Jose Andres Gomez-Matarrita. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

ICE arrested Enzo David Fernandez-Morales, a Venezuelan national convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity in Hays County, Texas.

Enzo David Fernandez-Morales. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Officers also locked up Leonardo Estupinan-Nazareno, an Ecuadoran national with a criminal history in Weston, Florida, for importation of cocaine.

RELATED: DOJ files first terrorism-related charges against alleged ‘Antifa Cell’ after ICE attack: ‘Get to the rifles’

Leonardo Estupinan-Nazareno. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

“The Democrats’ government shutdown is not slowing ICE down from removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our streets,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated.

“Yesterday some of the dirtbags arrested included pedophiles, murderers, and drug traffickers,” McLaughlin continued. “These criminal illegal aliens have no business remaining in this country to terrorize innocent Americans. ICE will NOT stop making America safe again even during the Democrats’ government shutdown.”

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​News, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Politics 

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is under fire after invoking the Americans with Disabilities Act during oral arguments in defense of ensuring black representation in Congress — however, many are now accusing her of comparing black people to the disabled.

“The fact that remedial action, absent discriminatory intent, is really not a new idea in the civil rights laws. And my kind of paradigmatic example of this is something like the ADA.”

“Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act against the backdrop of a world that was generally not accessible to people with disabilities. And so it was discriminatory, in effect, because these folks were not able to access these buildings — and it didn’t matter whether the person who built the building, or the person who owned the building, intended for them to be exclusionary. That’s irrelevant,” she continued.

“Congress said the facilities have to be made equally open to people with disabilities, if readily possible. I guess I don’t understand why that’s not what’s happening here.”

“The idea in Section 2 is that we are responding to current-day manifestations of past and present decisions that disadvantage minorities and make it so that they don’t have equal access to the voting system, right?” she asked, adding, “They’re disabled.”

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock admits that it’s “a tricky conversation” and a “tricky subject.”

“If you go back in history, there was legitimate racial discrimination that harmed black people politically. There are a number of us that think that that time has passed, that that sort of discrimination has passed, and there is no … racial impediment to seeking higher office in Congress, in the House, Senate, whatever,” Whitlock says on “Jason Whitlock Harmony.”

“So in her defense of gerrymandering, she’s saying that we have faced so much discrimination that we’re disabled,” he adds.

“She’s not on solid ground,” BlazeTV contributor Virgil Walker says. “She has a false view of mankind. She has a false view of blacks in particular, mankind in general. What she’s exposing in her response is actually her worldview. Her idea that blacks are handicapped, blacks are disabled, blacks are beholden unto white power structures and submitted to that.”

“She has an unbiblical anthropology. All that means is an unbiblical view of who we are, who man is, an unbiblical view that we are not image-bearers of God, that you can assess who we are on the basis of the level of melanin in our skin and the historic narrative that has been permeated throughout American culture and society,” he adds.

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Even United States military brass is looking to AI for answers these days.

The top United States Army commander in South Korea revealed to reporters this week that he has been using a chatbot to help with decisions that affect thousands of U.S. soldiers.

‘As a commander, I want to make better decisions.’

On Monday, Major General William “Hank” Taylor told the media in Washington, D.C., that he is using AI to sharpen decision-making, but not on the battlefield. The major general — the fourth-highest officer rank in the U.S. Army — is using the chatbot to assist him in daily work and command of soldiers.

Speaking to reporters at a media roundtable at the annual Association of the United States Army conference, Taylor reportedly said “Chat and I” have become “really close lately.”

According to Business Insider, the officer added, “I’m asking to build, trying to build models to help all of us.”

Taylor also said that he is indeed using the technology to make decisions that affect the thousands of soldiers under his command, while acknowledging another blunt reason for using AI.

RELATED: The government’s anti-drone energy weapons you didn’t know existed

Photo by Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“As a commander, I want to make better decisions,” the general explained. “I want to make sure that I make decisions at the right time to give me the advantage.”

In a seemingly huge revelation for an Army officer, Taylor also revealed that it has been a challenge to keep up with the developing technology.

At the same time, tech outlet Futurism claimed that the general is in fact using ChatGPT, warning that the AI has been found to generate false information regarding basic facts “over half the time.”

ChatGPT is not mentioned in Business Insider’s report.

Return reached out to Army officials to ask if the quotes attributed to Taylor were accurate, if he is actually using ChatGPT, and if they believe there to be inherent risks in doing so. An official Pentagon account acknowledged the request, but did not respond to the questions. This article will be updated with any applicable responses.

It was recently reported by Return that the military is already tinkering with a chatbot of its own.

RELATED: Zuckerberg’s vision: US military AI and tech around the world

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Military exercises in Fort Carson, Colorado, and Fort Riley, Kansas, recently took place, utilizing an offline chatbot called EdgeRunner AI.

EdgeRunner CEO Tyler Saltsman told Return that his company is currently testing the chatbot with the Department of War to deliver real-time data and mission strategy to soldiers on the ground. The chatbot can be installed on a wide variety of devices and used without an internet connection, to avoid interception by the enemy.

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NBC News has released several identity-based news teams that cover sexuality- and race-focused stories.

Not only were dozens of employees laid off, but the cuts seemingly came as a surprise.

‘Not their first gay rodeo.’

NBC News reportedly made the announcement early on Wednesday, and according to insiders, the bomb was dropped by Executive Vice President of Editorial Catherine Kim. At around 10 a.m., about 150 NBC News staffers were told they were no longer employed during a brief meeting that was described by one source as a “difficult day for a lot of us.”

LGB-free

The Wrap reported that the cuts completely eliminated teams who superficially covered news for black, Asian, Latino, and various gay identities. This includes NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino, and NBC OUT.

NBC OUT, for example, describes itself as content driven toward “the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.”

Recent coverage included, “Queer art faces widespread museum censorship,” and “Not their first gay rodeo: Celebrating 50 years of queer cowfolks.”

NBC BLK recently published a piece on how a “new exhibit highlights LGBTQ legacy of Harlem Renaissance.”

The bizarre content will still live on, but in a less dedicated format.

RELATED: No MAGA ‘Magic’ allowed? Champion card gamer faces bans for Trump support

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Wrap noted that the specific pages will still have stories published regarding the identity groups, but the content will come from a group of just five news team members who will contribute to the pages across the board. Another alleged inside source said the cuts were not meant to target the diversity teams, but rather were driven by budget concerns and a desire to “streamline its editorial efforts.”

Ruffled feathers

The shift in personnel comes after Comcast announced a realignment of its networks in August. As reported by Reuters, USA Network, CNBC, and MSNBC will branch off into a new company called Versant. MSNBC will also change its name to “MS NOW” and lose its peacock logo.

The new name is an acronym for “My Source News Opinion World.”

MSNBC was launched in 1996 and represented a partnership between Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company. Microsoft left the venture in 2012, however.

CNBC will keep the same name, which stands for Consumer News and Business Channel.

RELATED: God doesn’t make anyone gay: The case against banning ‘conversion therapy’

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Divesting diversity

NBC News’ total reductions make up about 7% of its 2,000 staffers. The move comes as several companies shift away from their divisive verticals, which haven’t always been amicable departures.

In April, Paramount agreed to terminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which included racial quotas for staff and writers, after it was sued by a white writer who said he was discriminated against.

Then-president and CEO of CBS George Cheeks had said publicly that he set a goal for CBS writing rooms to have 40% non-white staff members, with 17 of 21 networks allegedly meeting or exceeding that target.

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​News, Msnbc, Nbc news, Dei, Diversity equity inclusion, Lgbtq, Gay news, Television, News networks, Comcast, Peacock, Entertainment 

Jackie Norris, the chairwoman of the Des Moines Public School Board who once served as chief of staff to Michelle Obama, has pulled out of the race for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat as recommended by her Republican opponent, Rep. Ashley Hinson.

Hinson stressed earlier this month that Norris, a champion of DEI, had “lost all shreds of credibility” over the role she played in the hiring of the Des Moines district’s former superintendent, a criminal illegal alien who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sept 26.

‘The state is so red that having her albatross on the ticket all but assured a Democrat loss.’

Ian Andre Roberts, a native of Guyana, has a lengthy criminal record. In addition to being convicted in 2012 of reckless driving and in 2022 of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, Roberts — who served as superintendent and worked with children until late last month — was previously charged with criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell; criminal possession of narcotics; and criminal possession of a forgery instrument.

According to ICE, when agents went to arrest Roberts last month, he “identified himself then sped off, abandoned his vehicle, and hid in a brushy area about 200 meters away, where ICE officers located him with help from Iowa State Patrol officers.”

After apprehending Roberts, arresting officers allegedly found a loaded handgun, a hunting knife, and $3,000 cash in his vehicle. Roberts was subsequently charged with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms.

“Ian Andre Roberts, a criminal illegal alien with multiple weapons charges and a drug trafficking charge, should have never been able to work around children,” stated Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

RELATED: Exclusive: ICE arrests alleged MS-13 gang leader on El Salvador’s ‘most wanted’ list

Ian Andre Roberts. Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

“As chair of the Des Moines School Board, Iowa Democrat Senate candidate Jackie Norris hired an illegal alien with a rap sheet to be her superintendent and work with children,” Samantha Cantrell, the regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, noted in the wake of Roberts’ arrest. “Jackie Norris has put every single Des Moines student and family in danger. Democrats will stop at nothing to protect criminal illegal aliens.”

In addition to being a convicted criminal noncitizen, Roberts reportedly lied about his academic bona fides, falsely suggesting, for instance, that he had attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Norris seemingly made things worse for herself by suggesting in the immediate wake of Roberts’ arrest that the community should “engage in radical empathy as we work through the situation together.”

Rep. Hinson suggested that instead of “radical empathy,” it was time for “radical accountability.”

Norris later suggested the school board had similarly been victimized by Roberts’ deceit, then attempted to displace blame over the decision to hire him, filing a lawsuit against the headhunting firm JG Consulting for alleged negligence in the process of offering Roberts as a candidate, reported the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

In addition to facing significant backlash from parents, the district is now under investigation by the Trump Justice Department over its alleged discriminatory hiring practices.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon noted in a Sept. 30 letter to Matthew Smith, the interim superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, that “DMPS may be engaged in employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants, and training program participants based on race, color, and national origin in violation of Title VII.”

Just days after telling Axios she was going to stay in the race, Norris announced she was instead calling it quits.

“The recent Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent crisis demanded my full attention as Board Chair and, overnight, put the School Board, our community, and me personally in the crosshairs of vicious and coordinated attacks,” said Norris. “Those realities took time and oxygen away from the work I set out to do: stand up for our kids and families — and the backbone of our communities, their educators and caregivers.”

Norris, who was the state director for Barack Obama’s 2008 general election campaign, noted further, “I leave this race with my head high.”

Blaze News has reached out to Norris for comment.

“Do not think Jackie is the first Democrat in recent memory to have any sense shame or self-awareness in ending her bid,” BlazeTV host and Iowa native Steve Deace told Blaze News. “This is still the party that won’t denounce their attorney general nominee in Virginia who has a murder fetish.”

“Rather,” continued Deace, “Jackie is ending her bid because Iowa isn’t Virginia. The state is so red that having her albatross on the ticket all but assured a Democrat loss, and obtaining power is all Democrats care about. Now it’s time to pursue her criminally and make an example out of her.”

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​Jackie norris, Michelle obama, Obama, Senate, Iowa, Democrat, Illegal alien, Criminal noncitzen, Thuggery, Teacher, Ashley hinson, Politics 

Since former DOJ special counsel Jack Smith’s alleged surveillance scheme surfaced earlier this month, House Republicans are leading the charge to bring justice.

Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, a member of the Republican Study Committee, urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to open a criminal investigation into Smith for his apparent involvement with Operation Arctic Frost, according to a letter obtained by Blaze News. During former President Joe Biden’s administration, the FBI obtained private cellphone information from nine Republican lawmakers, an internal document indicated, in what appears to be an ideologically motivated instance of government weaponization.

‘Weaponizing the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency to spy on political opponents is what we expect from authoritarian regimes.’

Brecheen’s call for an investigation is also in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” which Trump signed the same day he was inaugurated.

Since the scandal broke, the FBI has opened an internal investigation, firing several agents who were involved in the operation. As of this writing, the Department of Justice has not yet opened a criminal investigation, leading Brecheen and his co-signatories to be the first federal group to call for a criminal investigation into the operation.

RELATED: ‘WORSE THAN WATERGATE’: Republicans demand answers after documents reveal FBI spied on 9 GOP lawmakers

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Image

“The Biden administration used Operation Arctic Frost to target its political opponents by authorizing covert surveillance on elected members of the Republican Party,” Brecheen told Blaze News. “We cannot let the Biden administration and special counsel Jack Smith get away with this direct violation of the Constitution.”

Many prominent lawmakers, including Brecheen, have characterized the scandal as a modern-day Watergate, according to the letter obtained exclusively by Blaze News. Brecheen also warned that if high-profile politicians can have their privacy violated for ideological purposes, ordinary Americans could too.

‘The Bureau could easily be directed against individual citizens.’

“The revelation that the Biden Administration directed the FBI to surveil duly elected American lawmakers is indeed a scandal of magnitude our country has not seen since Watergate,” the letter reads. “Let us be clear: weaponizing the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency to spy on political opponents is what we expect from authoritarian regimes such as North Korea or Iran, not the United States.”

RELATED: Corrupt Stacey Abrams groups once led by Sen. Raphael Warnock go extinct after admission of guilt

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“The ramifications of this unprecedented scandal, however, stretch far beyond the lawmakers who were surveilled,” the letter reads. “By empowering federal agents to secretly monitor the private phone calls of sitting United States Senators, Jack Smith set the sinister precedent that the same form of covert surveillance can and will be deployed against law-abiding American citizens.”

“If the FBI could be so readily weaponized against powerful figures in our government, then it is not difficult to conclude that the Bureau could easily be directed against individual citizens.”

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​Josh brecheen, Republican study committee, Jack smith, Operation arctic frost, Pam bondi, Donald trump, Kash patel, Fbi, Doj, Federal weaponization, Government weaponization, House republicans, Senate republicans, Joe biden, Watergate, Surveillance, Government surveillance, Politics 

October 11 marked the end of another Banned Books Week, the American Library Association’s annual campaign celebrating works it claims have been unjustly kept from the reading public.

While the event has skewed liberal since its 1982 founding, this year’s theme seems to make a direct appeal to those worried about the Trump era’s incipient fascism.

A book does not need to induce the behavior it depicts to have an ideological impact; it just has to imply a world in which such behavior is either normal or inevitable.

“Censorship Is So 1984 — Read for Your Rights” rebukes recent successful conservative campaigns to rid local school libraries of books deemed to promote racial, gender, and Marxist ideology or to expose children to inappropriately explicit material.

Censor censure

On its website, the ALA dismisses these campaigns as either disingenuous, hysterical, or malicious.

“The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice.”

The recent Kanopy documentary “Banned Together” exemplifies this perspective, portraying book challenges as the work of fearmongering politicians like Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) or “dark money” groups such as the Heritage Foundation and Moms for Liberty.

Not for teacher

Opponents of these “bans” do have a point. At times overprotective adults can underestimate the capacity of high-school students to handle challenging subject matter. I recall reading Kafka, Camus, and Sherman Alexie as a senior without becoming either a nihilist or an activist.

But there is a deeper question at the heart of this debate: What rights do parents have when it comes to their children’s education?

Teachers, progressives argue, are certified experts entrusted with the crucial duty to help students navigate complex issues and protect them from abusive home environments. Who are the parents — relative amateurs when it comes to the formation of young minds — to meddle?

Yet given the recent injection of what used to be considered radical ideas about race, sex, and religion into curricula, skepticism at this expertise is understandable. Educators may laugh off the idea of “liberal indoctrination,” but any parent who has been called “racist” or had his faith “deconstructed” by his newly minted college student may disagree.

‘Sold’ out

The ALA may be technically correct that the books it defends don’t meet the strictly legal definition of “obscenity,” but something is nonetheless rotten in the state of Denmark (if the reader will permit me a Eurocentric “Hamlet” reference).

Consider the ALA’s “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024.” Without exception, each has been flagged by concerned parents as “sexually explicit.” It’s telling that the ALA diminishes these characterizations as mere “claims.” Unlike “pornography,” the label “sexually explicit” generally implies no judgment; it’s merely descriptive.

So perhaps something more than prudishness is motivating parents. To what end do these books employ explicit depictions of sex? In Patricia McCormick’s “Sold,” the first-person account of a 13-year-old Tibetan girl sold into sex slavery, detailed scenes of rape and abuse are used to convey the horrors of sex trafficking.

In its defense of “Sold,” the ALA clearly sides with McCormick, who says “To ban this book is a disservice to the women who shared their stories with me so the world could know about their plight. And to ban this book is disrespectful to the young readers who want to know about the world as it is.”

Conveniently overlooked here is the obvious truth that we regularly educate our children about “the world as it is” while still leaving out age-inappropriate details.

Gender fear

“Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins is another unsparingly graphic account of the sex trade, detailing the stories of five American teens who fall into prostitution. “Crank,” Hopkins’ other novel on the list, charts a teenager’s descent into drug addiction.

Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is a slice of high school life that includes a ninth-grader taking LSD, a tumultuous love affair between two teenage boys, a middle-schooler’s suicide, and a teen pregnancy that ends in abortion.

“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews addresses cancer and mortality through the profanity-laden, sex-obsessed voice of its adolescent male protagonist. John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” is a coming-of-age novel with a heavy emphasis on drug use and sexual experimentation.

Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” is a multigenerational saga that pivots on a father’s brutal rape of his daughter and her subsequent descent into insanity.

The memoirs “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “Flamer” by Mike Curato each recount an adolescent’s discovery and eventual embrace of his same-sex attraction, while Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel “Gender Queer” charts the author’s journey toward a “nonbinary” identity and the use of “e, em, eir” pronouns.

RELATED: Librarian group fights woke ‘banned books’ narrative

Getty Images/Anadolu

Groomer doomers

Likening those who advocate putting such books in the hands of minors to “groomers” only obscures the real issue. A book does not need to induce the behavior it depicts to have an ideological impact; it just has to imply a world in which such behavior is either normal or inevitable.

The “reality” these books represent is in fact the relatively recent consensus of a small liberal elite, imposed on our society from the top down. It confidently asserts that racism is an intractable quality of “whiteness,” premarital sex and drug abuse are normal parts of growing up, homosexual relationships are in no way less preferable than heterosexual pairings, and one’s “gender” is open to interpretation.

This consensus casually dispenses with the de facto Christian values that have guided America — with varying degrees of success — since its founding.

Slaves to fashion

Most of the “banned” book defenders act not out of malice but rather from an unthinking adherence to fashionable opinion. As G.K. Chesterton observed, compulsory secular education inevitably produces an inoffensive, pluralistic system that offends no one and invests enormous moral authority in teachers:

And if his own private opinions happen to be of the rather crude sort that are commonly contemporary with and connected with the new sciences or pseudo-sciences, he can teach any of them under cover of those sciences.

In other words, educators possess enough authority to smuggle personal beliefs into the classroom. The Ten Commandments and school prayer are impermissible in our secular age, but theories of gender and race are treated as objective truth. Indeed, many insist it would be irresponsible not to teach them.

A glance at what doesn’t appear on the Banned Books list reveals the imbalance. Are activists urging students to read banned right-wing literature? To restore the Bible to school libraries? To study “The Turner Diaries” — a genuinely vile book — in the name for of intellectual freedom? Of course not.

Meanwhile, the publishing industry’s broken business model incentivizes controversy. Slapping a “Banned Book” sticker on a new release is can lead to a major boost in sales.

School for scandal

That might be harmless if confined to a Barnes & Noble display. But it occurs in the context of public education, where foundational classics have been quietly displaced by shallower contemporary novels. Teachers boast about removing Homer, Shakespeare, and other “dead white men” from curricula. “Huckleberry Finn” languishes while legislators debate striking him from schools altogether.

A student’s reading years are limited. Prioritizing great works that shape moral and intellectual formation is essential. Yet in an age of collapsing institutional trust, progressive educators flaunt their credentials and demand the state’s blessing to teach whatever they see fit.

Despite left-wing rhetoric, there is no great epidemic of book-burning in America. Aside from the occasional Pentecostal preacher torching “Harry Potter” for headlines, such incidents are rare. Conservatives, generally, are classicists who want their children reading Homer and Shakespeare. Yet even modest debates over age-appropriate material draw accusations of illiteracy and bigotry.

And that’s by design. Banned Books Week is little more than a marketing campaign — an annual ritual of ginning up demand for “forbidden” books and laundering blatant activist propaganda into the merely “controversial.” Conservatives who approach this debate on the ALA’s terms only add fuel to the fire, as it were. When it comes to the left’s persecution narrative, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

​Banned books, American library association, Banned books week, Genderqueer, Education, Lgbtq, Censorship, Pornography, Culture 

On October 12, Los Angeles-based YouTube media company Jubilee dropped an episode of its popular series “Surrounded,” where 20 progressive Christians formed a ring around a single conservative Christian opponent. Over the course of nearly two hours, the surrounders competed for a chance to sit in the hot seat, where each contestant had a short window of time to debate the lone dissenter over a range of controversial issues.

To be in the eye of the storm — literally hemmed in by opponents who outnumber you 20 to one — is not for the weak of heart. It takes grit, self-control, an armory of rhetorical skills, and extensive expertise to stand a chance of holding your own.

But for Blaze Media’s very own Allie Beth Stuckey, host of the compelling podcast “Relatable,” it was just another day of dismantling progressive “Christian” narratives.

In an hour and 40 minutes, the “Toxic Empathy” author put on a clinic of what it looks like to crush liberal Christian arguments without ever forsaking the kindness Jesus calls us to. With surgical precision, Allie graciously picked apart argument after argument over marriage, gender, abortion, empathy, and the compatibility of progressivism and Christianity.

Using a wide range of scripture from both the Old and New Testaments, Allie made an iron case for conservative Christianity: God, the creator of the universe, gets the final say on everything. The Christian, regardless of his or her emotions or natural-born proclivities, is called to submit to God’s ways, trusting that He alone is perfect in love.

Allie condemned the progressive Christian tendency to read the Bible through the lens of “what can I get away with?” and encouraged reading scripture in search of “what God calls good.” Reading the Bible to glorify God, she argued, yields conservative convictions: Marriage unites one man and one woman, gender is fixed, abortion is a moral evil, and love speaks truth (1 Corinthians 13:6)

The episode has gone viral — already over 1.5 million views on YouTube. The conservative Christian world, which is experiencing revival after the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, has been in awe of Allie’s performance, specifically her articulate defense of traditional Christian values and ability to engage respectfully with opposing viewpoints while maintaining her convictions.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck said of Allie’s “Surrounded” appearance: “She’s so happy. She’s great.”

— (@)

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh echoed Glenn’s praise, claiming “God has clearly called [Allie] to do what she’s doing.”

But Allie’s Jubilee appearance isn’t just a how-to course on debunking “Christian” progressivism. It embodies the question all conservative Christians must answer, especially given the moment we’re living in: Are we going to sit on the sidelines, hoping the lost find their way, or are we going to enter the fray armed with biblical truth?

Conservative media outlets have noted the importance of Allie’s Jubilee episode as a fire-starter for hesitant Christians who feel unequipped or unsure about engaging in theological debates.

Patriot Powered News Network praised Allie for doing what most of us wish we had the courage to do: “She stood resolute in her faith and made the left’s muddled theology look exactly like the moral confusion it is.”

Allie’s masterful skill in gracious apologetics was coached by none other than Charlie Kirk himself, whom Allie praised as “an incredible debater” on a recent episode of “Relatable,” where she recapped her Jubilee experience. A week before he was assassinated, Charlie urged Allie to agree to the debate, and he also taught her key strategies, like challenging opponents’ claims with questions such as “Is that biblical?” and “By what standard do you believe that?”

Even though filming couldn’t have been scheduled for a worse time — just days after Charlie was murdered — Allie, committed to honoring God and her friend, bravely entered the “Surrounded” arena armed with the truth of scripture and a deep knowing that it “never returns void,” as she so often reminds her “Relatable” audience.

In an X post following the recording of “Surrounded,” Allie wrote, “I’ve seen a lot of people say this was different than other Jubilee debates. Everyone felt that in the moment — even the producers, who are progressive, said so. You’ll just have to believe me when I tell you the Holy Spirit was there.”

Her words are a reminder that we are not called to be self-reliant truth-tellers. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is what empowers us to go forth boldly, bringing light where there is darkness.

The question is: Will we pick up the baton?

Last weekend, the 6,700 women who attended Allie’s Share the Arrows conference said yes to that question, committing to bold and courageous witness in their spheres. The rest of the conservative Christian world’s reaction to Allie’s Jubilee appearance suggests that they’re ready to step up to the plate, too.

In her closing speech at Share the Arrows, Allie urged, “We do what God calls us to do, even when it’s painful, even when it’s unpopular, even when it’s scary, even when it requires sacrifice, even when we lose friends and we lose family and we lose jobs.”

That charge, rooted in sacrifice and truth, captures the heart of a movement ready to rise.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Jubilee, Jubilee debate, Surrounded jubilee, Allie jubilee, Blazetv, Blaze media, Progressive christianity 

Kansas lawmakers are debating whether to expand health care providers’ access to the federal 340B drug pricing program. If passed, Senate Bill 284 would hand even more power to large hospital chains while shrinking consumer choice. It would also deepen the program’s existing problems — lack of accountability, rising costs, and market consolidation — all without helping the patients it was supposed to serve.

The 340B program, created in 1992, was meant to help safety-net providers serving uninsured and low-income patients by requiring drug manufacturers to sell medications at steep discounts. Today, it has ballooned into the second-largest prescription drug purchasing program in the United States, behind only Medicare Part D, costing $66.3 billion in 2023.

The 340B program no longer fulfills its stated purpose. It fuels industry consolidation, drives up costs, and reduces access to care — especially in rural communities.

SB 284 would make that worse. The bill would block drugmakers from denying access to certain drugs, reduce transparency, and discourage innovation. It would do nothing to stop hospitals from exploiting the program. Instead, it would encourage them to expand the same practices that drive up costs for Kansans, small businesses, and rural health care providers.

The 340B shell game

The myth behind 340B is that big health systems use their windfalls to support rural hospitals. The reality is the opposite. As 340B has expanded, rural hospitals have closed by the dozens. The law’s original purpose — to subsidize drug purchases for clinics that serve the needy — has been lost.

What began as a narrow, temporary safety net for vulnerable populations has evolved into a profit engine for massive hospital systems. Many 340B participants today are large urban hospitals, cancer centers, and wealthy institutions that do little charity care. Once a hospital buys an outpatient clinic, it can immediately declare that clinic 340B-eligible, regardless of the patients it serves. Those discounted drugs can then be billed at full price to insurers or government programs, and the hospital keeps the difference.

Federal watchdogs, including the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Inspector General, have repeatedly documented the program’s lack of oversight. Hospitals aren’t required to report how they use 340B revenue or whether they pass savings on to patients.

The rich get richer

Hospitals buy drugs cheap, bill high, and pocket the profits. Those profits fund expansion — not lower costs for patients. The lure of easy money drives hospital consolidation across the country. Smaller, independent clinics — often more efficient and affordable — can’t compete with heavily subsidized giants and are forced to sell out.

This pattern has repeated hundreds of times nationwide, inflating 340B spending and diverting subsidies far from the low-income patients the program was meant to help. Since 2014, when 340B abuse accelerated alongside the Affordable Care Act, nonprofit hospitals have gone on a buying spree, snapping up local clinics, raising prices, and squeezing out independent providers.

Each participating hospital can also contract with hundreds of retail pharmacies, creating sprawling networks that capture 340B discounts far removed from any needy patient. The result is “mission creep” on a massive scale — a program once justified by compassion now serves as a revenue stream for billion-dollar systems.

Instead of cutting costs, 340B creates a hidden subsidy that enriches institutions while obscuring the real price of care. Worse, some hospitals use their freed-up funds to expand abortion and gender-transition services, sidestepping Hyde Amendment restrictions on federal money for those procedures.

RELATED: Dr. Oz exposes the nonprofit lie at the heart of US health care

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

A program beyond saving

The 340B program no longer fulfills its stated purpose. It fuels industry consolidation, drives up costs, and reduces access to care — especially in rural communities. Expanding it in Kansas would cement a broken system, trapping the state in a cycle that benefits hospitals and harms taxpayers.

Congress and the Trump administration are working to reform 340B and Medicare to curb waste and corruption. Kansas lawmakers should follow that lead. Instead of handing big hospital chains another windfall, they should restore accountability, competition, and transparency — so that health care serves patients, not institutions.

​Opinion & analysis, Drug prices, Hyde amendment, 340b program, Rural america, Rural hospitals, Kansas, Medicare part d, Subsidies 

Failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) founded a pair of voter turnout groups over a decade ago with the apparent aim of registering largely Democrat-leaning, non-white voters across the Peach State.

The groups, the New Georgia Project — for which Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was listed as CEO on corporate filings in 2017, 2018, and 2019 — and the associated New Georgia Project Action Fund, reportedly knocked on millions of doors, registered tens of thousands of voters, and were credited with helping turn Georgia blue during the 2020 presidential election.

Abrams’ New Georgia groups, which turned out to be as corrupt as they were energetic, have finally been shuttered.

‘There is one less way for Stacey Abrams Inc. to fleece people and get rich.’

NGP and NGP Action Fund — which sought to help Abrams in her pursuit of power, sided with alleged domestic terrorists in 2023, and campaigned against election integrity initiatives — were slapped in January with a $300,000 fine, which the Georgia State Ethics Commission indicated was both the largest fine it has ever imposed and possibly also “the largest Ethics Fine ever imposed by any State Ethics Commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case.”

The groups, which Abrams supposedly walked away from in 2017, admitted to violating 16 state laws, largely by illegally contributing to Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign while masquerading as a nonpartisan voter turnout group.

RELATED: Conservative SCOTUS justices appear skeptical about race-based redistricting

Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images

The ethics commission found that the NGP failed to disclose over $4.2 million in contributions and over $3.2 million in expenditures during the 2018 election cycle, prompting House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) to request that the Internal Revenue Service investigate and ultimately revoke the group’s tax-exempt status.

“This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered,” the ethics commission noted at the time of the fine’s imposition.

With the ruse both exposed and admitted, Abrams’ groups were evidently not long for this world.

The board of directors for the NGP and NGP Action Fund indicated in a statement on Thursday that both scandal-plagued groups “will officially dissolve as organizations.”

Despite their groups’ flagrant violation of state law and the allegation that the board unlawfully fired employees in retaliation for their unionization efforts, the board wrote, “Reflecting on our journey, we are proud of the milestones we have achieved, the communities we have engaged, and the countless individuals whose lives have been strengthened by our work.”

James Woodall, board chair of the NGP Action Fund, said the news of the groups’ dissolution was “difficult,” and implored “all who continue in the fight” to “stay grounded, keep the faith, and don’t come down from the wall.”

Garrison Douglas, a spokesman for Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), said in a statement to Blaze News, “Georgians everywhere can rest easy tonight knowing that there is one less way for Stacey Abrams Inc. to fleece people and get rich.”

Blaze News has reached out to Abrams and Warnock for comment.

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​Georgia, Stacey abrams, Abrams, Democrat, New georgia project, Raphael warnock, Warnock, Ngp, Kemp, Election, Election integrity, Voter, Voter turnout, Politics 

An Austin, Texas, police officer who was caught on video last week punching a male in face and knocking him flat on his back has been named by the department and taken off the street, KVUE-TV reported.

Earlier this week, Blaze News highlighted a video showing what appeared to be that officer seeming to throw a single punch — and a male crumpling to the ground and lying flat on his back a second later.

‘I know that Chief Davis will take appropriate action, including action that leads to termination.’

But that clip from a KXAN-TV story about a “crowd control” incident last Friday night on Sixth Street shows just one angle of the officer’s apparent single punch.

The KVUE video report, however — which ran Thursday night — shows a much closer view of the incident from a front-facing angle. It clearly shows the officer throwing a face punch at a male dressed in an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a backward white baseball cap — and that male falling to the ground and lying flat on his back.

Austin police didn’t tell KVUE what led up to that punch, but the station said police confirmed it was the incident that resulted in one officer being placed on restricted duty and taken off patrol. The department identified him as Officer Garcia but did not release his first name, citing policy, KVUE reported.

You can view that punch at the 24-second mark in the below KVUE video report.

RELATED: Video: Texas cop appears to throw single punch — and a male is flat on his back a second later

The KVUE video report also notes another incident that same night involving Austin police throwing punches.

A KVUE story that ran earlier this week indicated the station received a pair of videos of a second incident “from witnesses at the scene. Both videos show an officer on top of a person, appearing to punch them numerous times. Another officer, who is holding a separate person down, then assists the first officer, putting his knee on the back of the person being held down and appearing to throw a punch at him.”

Interestingly, a KVUE video report of that second incident shows a male dressed in an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a backward white baseball cap — apparently the same one who was knocked flat on his back in the video of the single-punch incident — standing off to the side and watching the officers punch the male on the ground:

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In another KVUE story, the station said it obtained documents from the District Court of Travis County revealing more information about what took place in the second incident caught on video.

The station said Austin Police Officer Leger was working in the downtown area when he heard a radio call reporting a “physical altercation” outside the Voodoo Room nightclub. With that, Officer Leger and Officer Garcia responded to the scene, where two men reportedly were fighting, KVUE said.

The station, citing court documents, reported that Officer Leger tried to break up the fight when he was struck in the back of the head, after which he “executed a controlled takedown maneuver” on one of the men, who allegedly resisted. KVUE noted that the court documents indicate Officer Leger struck the man in the face several times in response.

Documents added that a crowd reportedly formed around the officers, and people began throwing objects and pushing and kicking, the station said.

KVUE reported that the male accused of attacking Officer Leger was identified as 19-year-old Johnny Acuña-Jacobo, and he was arrested on a charge of assault on a peace officer, a second-degree felony, and booked into the Travis County Jail on a $10,000 bond. The Austin-American Statesman on Tuesday reported that Acuña-Jacobo had been released on bond.

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Police previously indicated that an officer was placed on restricted duty but did not state which officer and for which incident.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis in a statement to KXAN early Saturday said “last night, an Austin police officer struck an individual during a crowd control incident on Sixth Street. After reviewing the video footage, I share the community’s concern and take this matter very seriously. The officer has been removed from patrol and placed on restricted duty pending a thorough investigation.”

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson (D) released the following statement Saturday to KXAN: “I have seen the video of an Austin Police officer on Sixth Street last night. The action is inexcusable and indefensible. There is no room in APD for such violent behavior or for someone who claims to be a public servant and acts that way. I know that Chief Davis will take appropriate action, including action that leads to termination. Again, there is no room for such offensive, ridiculous action.”

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​Texas, Cop punches man, Austin police department, Police officer taken off street, Police officer placed on restricted duty, Crime 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing network of nongovernmental organizations, politicians, and corporations have pushed for sweeping global health initiatives. They lobby for massive funding, insisting it will prevent the next international health crisis.

Groups such as the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation, and the U.S. government have saturated the media with calls for “equity” and “preparedness.” Together, they established the Pandemic Fund — a financial pool designed to channel money into their shared vision of global health management.

It takes little imagination to see how a fund directed by Gates-linked institutions could steer money — intentionally or not — toward companies in which he holds a stake.

According to its website, the Pandemic Fund “finances critical investments to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.” In practice, it serves as a central clearinghouse for governments, NGOs, and business coalitions to move money under the banner of “health security.”

The funds flow to “implementing entities” such as the World Bank; the WHO; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and UNICEF. These organizations, in turn, decide how the investments are distributed — and to whom. Each claims to act on behalf of public health, but their reach and influence often extend far beyond medicine into politics, surveillance, and control.

Convenient ambiguity

Who actually gets paid to implement these objectives? What do “surveillance” and “prevention” mean in practice? How is “preparedness” measured? Which corporations manage the process, and whose services are contracted for the lab upgrades? None of these questions has a straight answer. The fund’s language reads like a bureaucratic fog — dense, opaque, and unaccountable.

What the Pandemic Fund does provide is a clear list of donors: the United States, the Gates Foundation, and several European governments. It also highlights 47 active projects spanning 75 countries.

What it doesn’t provide is equally telling. The site omits the names of officials who manage the money in each country, the ownership of the laboratories, and the companies installing the surveillance systems. Even the identities of those delivering “medical support” remain concealed behind the veil of “global cooperation.”

Conflicts of interest

Beyond its opacity, the Pandemic Fund is riddled with conflicts of interest. The Gates Foundation ranks among its largest institutional donors, while Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, acts as an “implementing entity” responsible for distributing those same funds.

Gavi’s own website acknowledges that the Gates Foundation was both a founding partner and a seed donor, contributing $750 million at its launch in 2000. That relationship alone should raise questions. Gavi now helps allocate the Pandemic Fund’s grants, meaning one of its original funders plays a direct role in deciding where new money goes.

The potential conflicts run deeper. Bill Gates has invested heavily in Moderna and BioNTech, two of the world’s leading mRNA vaccine manufacturers. The Gates Foundation funded Moderna’s early mRNA work, and public records show that Gates himself owns more than 1 million shares of BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to produce the COVID-19 vaccine.

It takes little imagination to see how a fund directed by Gates-linked institutions could steer money — intentionally or not — toward companies in which he holds a stake.

The web of influence extends into policy enforcement. The World Health Organization’s director-general oversees the International Health Regulations, a global framework that allows governments to impose quarantine, testing, or vaccination requirements during declared health emergencies. The United States accepted the IHR in 2005 but rejected the most recent amendments adopted in 2024, formally withdrawing from those obligations in July of this year.

Even so, the structure remains in place. If Washington — or any other government — adopted tighter compliance measures, it could channel money from the Pandemic Fund to purchase vaccines and “countermeasures.” Pharmaceutical companies would profit handsomely from policies that treat mass vaccination as the first and only line of defense. The more the world relies on vaccines as a universal solution, the more secure the profits for investors like Gates.

The Gates Foundation’s influence doesn’t stop at funding or investment. It appears on the WHO’s list of official “non-state actors,” a category that allows direct collaboration on projects and participation in committee meetings. In other words, the foundation helps set global health standards and then funds the programs that enforce them.

RELATED: Researchers tied to Fauci’s COVID cover-up still scoring big NIH grants

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

American taxpayers foot the bill

At the end of the chain, American taxpayers pay for it all. Washington’s seemingly benevolent $700 million “donation” to the Pandemic Fund comes straight from the U.S. Treasury. Every dollar funneled into this global health consortium began as someone’s paycheck.

In practice, the fund operates less like a charity and more like a taxpayer-financed slush fund for international health bureaucrats and private interests. The U.S. government collects money from citizens, passes it through the fund, and watches as the Gates Foundation, the WHO, and their network of NGOs redirect it to vaccine manufacturers, foreign governments, and organizations with which they maintain deep financial and institutional ties.

This system of influence moves wealth in one direction — up and out. Money leaves the hands of American workers and flows to a global health elite that hides behind the language of “pandemic prevention.” The slogans of safety and preparedness disguise a network that rewards insiders and deepens the dependence it claims to end.

Congress and federal auditors need to dig into where this money actually goes and who profits from it. Americans deserve to know whether their taxes support genuine public health or line the pockets of the same institutions that cashed in during the last pandemic.

​Opinion & analysis, Bill gates, Gates foundation, Vaccines, Mrna vaccines, Moderna, Pfizer-biontech, World health organization, Who, Unicef, Gavi the vaccine alliance, Surveillance, Public health, Pandemic fund, Centers for disease control, National institutes of health, Taxpayer money