Category: blaze media

A harrowing story of bounty hunters pouncing on a mother of three children and detaining her illegally was completely undone when the feds investigated and found the mom at a shopping center in Bakersfield.

Left-wing activists had begun to make the claims of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon into a cause to show the inhumane and cruel treatment of illegal aliens, but that effort has blown up in their faces.

‘We don’t know where she is now. … But we do know that this is not how our country is supposed to function.’

Calderon’s family said that she was kidnapped on June 25 from the streets of Los Angeles by masked men who were armed with guns.

They said they received a call from her saying she had been taken to a warehouse in San Ysidro where many others were being detained. She claimed that she was being forced to sign self-deportation documents. The family said they believed the men were bounty hunters.

Activists and union members championing her cause held a tearful press conference in front of a McDonald’s on June 30 to pressure the Trump administration to reveal where Calderon was being detained.

“She was taken back to an unmarked van along with other travelers who were also insisting on their rights and taken to a warehouse where she was only given water,” claimed an Immigrant Defenders Law Center attorney who represented the family. “A warehouse where she was not given food. A warehouse where men and women were held together. A warehouse without any law enforcement employee, without any official there present.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to the claims in a statement on social media on July 1.

“KTLA fell for a HOAX. This woman was never arrested or ‘kidnapped’ by ICE. If the media would have bothered to ask — ICE does not employ bounty hunters to make arrests,” the statement reads. “This bizarre tale about being picked up by bounty hunters, taken to an unmarked warehouse without access to food, water, or an attorney were clearly fabricated.”

One of the family’s attorneys said they still did not know where Calderon was at the time.

“We don’t know where she is now, if she is in ICE custody or CBP custody, or in a warehouse held by vigilantes,” the attorney said. “But we do know that this is not how our country is supposed to function.”

Two weeks later on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office released a statement confirming that Calderon had been arrested.

The statement said federal officials began investigating the claims made by Calderon, who was identified as a 41-year-old illegal alien from Mexico. They began a search for the woman on July 3 and were able to locate her just two days later.

Calderon was found at a shopping plaza in Bakersfield.

Prosecutors say video surveillance from a Jack in the Box of the alleged kidnapping and phone records proves that Calderon invented the entire story. They said that she intended to produce fabricated photo “evidence” of her “rescue” from detainment and hold a rally on July 6 to garner more sympathy and donations.

RELATED: Black man blamed racism for arson at his home that killed 2 people — until an accomplice allegedly told police it was a scam

The feds cite a GoFundMe donation page set up by Calderon’s daughter that has since been deactivated.

If convicted, the woman faces five years in federal prison for a conspiracy charge and five years in federal prison for a charge of making false statements to an officer.

Calderon is a mother to three and had lived in California for over 20 years. She is a member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment activist group.

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​Illegal alien kidnapping hoax, Yurianna calderon kidnapping, Bounty hunters vs illegals, Illegal alien kidnap hoax, Politics 

A Mexican transgender asylum seeker was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after an order from a district court judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2024, ordered the release of a 24-year-old Mexican male asylum seeker who claims to be female.

‘OJM was detained for over a month simply for legally seeking asylum.’

The migrant, known only as “O-J-M” according to Fox News, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom in June before being transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.

The migrant’s case for asylum came with shocking claims from his legal team about his origins in Mexico.

Judge Baggio ordered O-J-M’s release from the all-male detention facility because he was allegedly deprived of liberty without proper procedural safeguards.

A different judge had previously granted a government request to dismiss the migrant’s asylum case, which was based on alleged death threats and assaults while he was in Mexico.

OPB reported in June that when the migrant sought asylum at the port of entry on the California-Mexico border, it was claimed that Mexican drug cartels “threatened to kill her because O-J-M is a transgender woman.”

“Fearing for her life, she fled and sought asylum in the United States in September 2023,” a court filing reportedly read. Fox News also reported that the migrant claimed he was “abducted and raped by cartel members.”

Death threats were not the reason for the release, however.

RELATED: ICE accuses media of peddling ‘FALSE narrative’ about non-criminal deportations

O-J-M’s attorneys from the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab claimed they were not granted access to their client and were not told of his whereabouts, violating due process standards. The Biden-appointed judge agreed and ordered O-J-M’s release.

“OJM was detained for over a month simply for legally seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is lawful, and a human right,” Innovation Law Lab wrote on Instagram. “This is a huge victory for our trans and immigrant communities in Oregon,” it added.

The organization then claimed, “President Trump’s anti-transgender executive order forced her into a men’s facility, and into solitary confinement for her own safety, adding layers of cruelty to an already unconstitutional detention.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told OPB in June that “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”

“If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation,” DHS noted.

Blaze News requested more details about O-J-M and his case, but DHS representatives were unable to provide further information.

RELATED: WATCH: Blaze Media writers to testify before Congress about NGOs’ suspected role in child exploitation and ICE evasion

Northwest ICE Processing Center on May 2, 2025 in Tacoma, Washington. Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images

As for Judge Baggio, she has experience on the bench for the Multnomah County Circuit Court and even helped free a Guantanamo Bay detainee from Afghanistan when she was an assistant federal public defender.

Time reported in 2012 that Nazar Gul was swept up by U.S. forces during a nighttime raid in Afghanistan. Gul had worked as a security guard for the government and was allegedly staying with a man who had ties to the Taliban.

He was sent to Guantanamo Bay and subsequently released in 2007 without charges.

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​News, Legal battle, Oregon, Washington, Biden, District judge, Deportations, Asylum seekers, Immigration, Politics 

The White House released numerous details about the president’s medical condition on Thursday after questions arose from photos showing swelling in his ankles and bruising in his hand.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president had noticed some minor swelling in his legs in recent weeks and sought a medical assessment.

‘The president remains in excellent health.’

“The president underwent a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies. Bilateral lower extremity intravenous Doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venous insufficiency,” said Leavitt, “a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70.”

The president is 79 years old.

She went on to say that there was no evidence of “deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease” and that all results from testing, including an echocardiogram, were “within normal limits.”

Leavitt addressed images that were being posted online of the president’s hand, which prompted some critics to accuse the White House of hiding a serious health issue.

She indicated that the images of Trump’s hand showed “minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.”

RELATED: Biden doctor refuses to testify on the ‘conspiracy’ to conceal the former president’s cognitive decline

“The president remains in excellent health,” Leavitt concluded.

Many contrasted the transparency of the White House under Trump with the now-confirmed collaboration between Democrats and the media to keep former President Joe Biden’s deteriorating health from the public.

That controversy has dogged Democrats even after Biden left the Oval Office, as Republicans are beginning to cast doubt on the legitimacy of pardons and other official documents signed by autopen rather than the personal signature of the ailing former president.

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​Trump’s health condition, Trump swelling, Vascular failure trump, Trump health, Politics 

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas dropped a bomb on Democrats’ denials about the autopen scandal and argued that many of the decisions ascribed to the former president could be “null and void.”

Cruz made the statements on his podcast as congressional Republicans continue their investigation into claims that former President Joe Biden’s health condition prevented him from officially making decisions attributed to him by staff.

‘An unelected aide running an autopen does not have the power to grant a pardon under the United States Constitution.’

Biden has come out to publicly address the controversy and deny the allegations, but Cruz argues that his denial actually undermines his argument.

“I think the Trump White House needs to go through the records … and examine what specifically has a paper trail that showed Biden signed off on the specific action. And those that there is no paper trail, that there is no evidence … those are null and void,” said Cruz.

He cited an explanation made by Biden and his aides to the New York Times on the process of issuing pardons by autopen.

“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed,” the Times reported.

Rather than individually consider each case, Biden drew up criteria for pardons, and the Bureau of Prisons provided a list of people who met the requirements he set out. The staff then signed the pardons through autopen, which they saw as a “routine procedure,” according to the account in the Times.

Cruz argues this means that the pardons were improperly signed and should be challenged.

“Those have no legal force, and my recommendation to [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice is they should look specifically at the most vulnerable and devise and implement a legal challenge to challenge these,” Cruz added, “and make clear that an unelected aide running an autopen does not have the power to grant a pardon under the United States Constitution.”

RELATED: NBC News is getting annihilated on social media over absurd defense of Biden autopen scandal

Biden has forcefully lambasted the accusations.

“They’re liars. They know it. They know, for certain. I mean, this is — look, what they, they’ve had a pretty good thing going here. They’ve done so badly,” he said to the Times.

“They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing,” he added.

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​Ted cruz autopen, Biden autopen scandal, Autopen controversy, Pardons null and void, Politics 

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani made it much harder for his supporters to argue that he’s not really a communist after video of an old interview resurfaced on social media.

Mamdani shocked many when he won the Democratic primary for the NYC mayoral election in June and defeated disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani is a socialist, but his defenders have claimed that he is not a communist and tried to argue that he’s not as extreme as his right-wing critics contend.

‘These are communist ideas right out of the playbook of Karl Marx.’

In the resurfaced video, the 33-year-old was discussing the housing crisis when he casually admitted that he would be in favor of the state doing away with private property.

“My platform is that every single person should have housing,” Mamdani said.

“And I think faced with these two options, the system has hundreds of thousands of people unhoused, right? For what? And if there was any system that could guarantee each person housing, whether you call it the abolition of property or a statewide housing guarantee, it is preferable to what is going on right now,” he explained.

“And I think that people try to play gotcha games about these things, and it’s like, look, I care more about whether or not somebody has a home,” he added.

Housing has been central to Mamdani’s rise, as many New York City residents feel the sting of living in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. He has supported a rent freeze despite economists’ warnings that such policies lead to dilapidated rental units and overall higher rents in the long run.

The video was posted to social media, where it quickly went viral.

RELATED: Establishment Dems say Mamdani and his allies are in for a ‘painful lesson’

Critics of the socialist pounced in the comments.

“He claims to be a socialist. Whether it’s wanting to abolish private property or wanting to seize the means of production, these are communist ideas right out of the playbook of Karl Marx,” said Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York to Fox News Digital.

“He is a communist,” responded Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

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​Mamdani is communist, Is mamdani communist, Zohran mamdani, Dems defend mamdani, Politics 

Two days ago, guerrilla journalist and O’Keefe Media Group founder James O’Keefe dropped a bombshell on Big Pharma: Johnson & Johnson knew all along that their COVID-19 vaccine was unsafe and ineffective. Joshua Rys, a lead regulatory scientist at the company, just boldly admitted it.

On a recent episode of “Blaze News: The Mandate,” O’Keefe joined Jill Savage and Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson to dive into the story of how a current employee came to make such a shocking admission.

When he made the confession that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was neither safe nor effective, Rys was unaware that he was the victim of a sting operation. He thought he was just getting ice cream with a pretty girl at Coney Island. Little did he know his date was an undercover journalist working for O’Keefe Media Group.

Jill plays the video footage capturing Rys casually admitting Johnson & Johnson knew their vaccine was bad from the outset.

“Do you have any idea the lack of research that was done on those products?” Rys asked his date. “None of that stuff was safe and effective.”

“People wanted it; we gave it to them,” he added, casually eating ice cream. “It’s like, all right, you know what? The cancer patient’s gonna die anyway.”

Rys is not a “low-level guy,” says O’Keefe. “This guy is the lead regulatory scientist for Johnson & Johnson in Brunswick, New Jersey, where he’s responsible for making sure that the product is safe and effective for consumers.”

Later, O’Keefe confronted Rys in person about his comments, but he tried to hide in a bathroom. When that failed, Rys “tried to manipulate [O’Keefe] to get [him] to not run the story.”

Rys and others caught in OMG’s undercover operations “tend to lie in public and be honest in private,” O’Keefe says, but Rys lied even when he was caught.

“That’s symbolic of the entire system right now,” Peterson says.

“The system is completely broken, and the cavalier way in which he just admits that it’s all a lie. And even the metaphor of him engorging himself with ice cream,” O’Keefe sighs. “How do these people sleep at night?”

While O’Keefe has no power to put Rys or others who have been caught making incriminating statements in jail, he is happy to continue being the “public sunlight,” which he says is perhaps the “best disinfectant” there is.

“I think the shame and the righteous indignation and the truth perhaps is most important,” he tells Jill and Peterson.

O’Keefe remains relentless in his pursuit of truth. To hear about OMG’s newest development — an investigative journalism program called “American Swiper” — watch the episode above.

Want more from ‘Blaze News | The Mandate’?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze news | the mandate, Blaze tv, Blaze media, Jill savage, Matthew peterson, James okeefe, Project veritas, Okeefe media group, Sting operation, Covid vaccine, Johnson and johson, J and j, J&j vaccine, Blaze news: the mandate 

The Gates Foundation and its partners announced the launch of NextLadder Ventures on Thursday, signaling their combined philanthropic investment effort to develop technologies for “frontline workers.” The group will invest $1 billion over the next 15 years, though the targeted group is not what many would expect.

The press release states that the founding group is “combining efforts to catalyze a thriving market that can attract ongoing investment in tools that ensure life’s pivotal moments don’t become permanent barriers to upward mobility.”

NextLadder Ventures will purportedly focus on helping nearly one-third of the US population ‘as well as the more than 1.6 million helpers like social workers, legal aid attorneys, and other frontline professionals.’

The Ballmer Group; the Gates Foundation; Stand Together, a nonprofit started by Kansas-based billionaire Charles Koch; the Valhalla Foundation, a group funded by Intuit billionaire Scott Cook; and John Overdeck are listed as founding members of the group.

RELATED: Would you let Bill Gates hack your DNA?

Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images

NextLadder Ventures will purportedly focus on helping nearly one-third of the U.S. population “as well as the more than 1.6 million helpers like social workers, legal aid attorneys, and other frontline professionals who guide people through critical life moments.”

It is unclear how they plan to reach over 90 million people through this program or why NextLadder Ventures considers social workers and lawyers to be “frontline professionals.”

NextLadder Ventures will initially be partnering with the AI group Anthropic to seek solutions for these “frontline workers.” The group’s AI is called Claude.

“Core to our mission is helping AI benefit humanity,” said Elizabeth Kelly, head of beneficial deployments at Anthropic. “This is exactly the kind of real-world impact we want to see — AI making essential services work better for the people who need them most.”

Ryan Rippel, who previously directed the Gates Foundation’s economic mobility and opportunity program, will serve as the CEO of NextLadder Ventures.

“To better serve those in need, we need new, practical pathways to opportunity that helps the helpers and the people they serve,” Rippel said in the press release.

This latest Gates initiative may raise some eyebrows given his own group’s questionable investments in the past.

Gates and his affiliates played a major role in funding the effort behind the COVID vaccines during the pandemic, partnering with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Gates has also invested heavily in African agriculture. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reportedly bought 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, which equated to roughly $23 million. Monsanto is known for developing genetically modified seeds.

The foundation also invested in Cargill, another agricultural giant that was widely criticized by small farmers.

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​Nextladder ventures, Bill gates, Charles koch, Anthropic ai, Valhalla foundation, Artificial intelligence, Gavi, Monsanto, Philanthropy, Politics 

There’s more news on embattled Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida.

Blaze News can confirm that back in April on a joint trip with Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), Mills made the highly unusual move of taking a private car from Damascus, Syria, to Beirut, Lebanon. Depending upon conditions and the number of checkpoint stops, that drive could take anywhere from 2.5 to four hours through territory that is dangerous and hostile to Americans.

Furthermore, according to an intelligence source from the region, Hezbollah controls much of the borderlands in both Syria and Lebanon, and Mills would have needed an authorized “pass” from the militant group to cross the border.

For some reason, Mills, a sitting US congressman, chose to drive through a region and across a border largely controlled by Hezbollah with no security detail.

Independent journalist Roger Sollenberger also reported that Mills requested to meet with Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in private and spent 90 minutes alone with al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani. The men discussed a range of “sensitive” topics, including “U.S.-Syria relations, humanitarian concerns, and regional stability,” according to a screenshot of part of Mills’ travel filing.

In 2013, the U.S. designated al-Sharaa a global terrorist for his association with the rebel group al-Nusra. The State Department revoked the terrorist designation against al-Nusra earlier this month.

Kyle Shideler, the director and senior analyst for homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, described Mills’ private meeting with al-Sharaa as “worrisome,” claiming that the mere “appearance of impropriety … could be exploited by foreign adversaries.”

“Generally speaking, U.S. officials should just not be meeting alone with foreign dignitaries or leaders,” Shideler told Blaze News. “Even phone calls with foreign leaders include staffers and translators to help brief and keep the meeting on topic and in line with official U.S. policy. Even professional U.S. diplomats who actually have the responsibility to have such meetings don’t hold them alone but bring witnesses.”

Though Stutzman and Mills traveled to Damascus together on a joint itinerary, Stutzman did not participate in the private meeting with al-Sharaa and al-Shaibani. Stutzman also did not join Mills in the private car ride. In fact, screenshots of travel filings indicate that Stutzman flew from Damascus to Istanbul, Turkey, the day before Mills’ road trip.

RELATED: Cory Mills leaps into another scandal — this time with a 5-figure price tag and eviction notice

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

Blaze News has confirmed that neither Mills nor Stutzman received dignitary protection details from the State Department or Capitol Police for their official trip. Their only security came from Syria.

Yet for some reason, Mills, a sitting U.S. congressman, chose to drive through a region and across a border largely controlled by Hezbollah with no security detail.

The purpose of Mills’ side trip to Lebanon is unclear. A spokesperson for Mills did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Cory mills, Al-sharaa, Terrorist, Lebanon, Syria, Marlin stutzman, Politics, Kyle shideler 

Blue-collar hero and former host of “Dirty Jobs” Mike Rowe says claims of a massive deficit of trades workers in the United States are not hyperbole.

Rowe spoke at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where he sounded the alarm on a serious lack of young people going into the trades.

Providing stories from employers, politicians, and even the military, Rowe stressed the need to move away from computer programming and coding in favor of tougher, more traditional career paths.

‘I know where they are. They’re in the eighth grade.’

“We’ve been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code,” Rowe told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He then delivered a stark warning to those who may have followed Joe Biden’s infamous “learn to code” advice in 2019.

“Well, AI is coming for the coders,” Rowe remarked.

From there, the 63-year-old dropped some industry knowledge, detailing that the demand for tradespeople was not going away anytime soon: “[AI is] not coming for the welders, the plumbers, the steamfitters, the pipe fitters, the HVAC. They’re not coming for the electricians.”

Adopting a more serious tone, Rowe leaned into the audience to deliver the jaw-dropping numbers of exactly how many trade jobs remain vacant in the United States.

RELATED: Mike Rowe raises important question about Ivy League schools as ‘thugs and bullies’ protest Israel: ‘Truly lost its mind’

Recalling his time at the Aspen Ideas Festival in late June, Rowe said billionaire investor and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told him the U.S. needs “500,000 electricians in the next couple of years — not hyperbole.”

“This is me being the alarmist again,” Rowe continued, now tapping into America’s military industrial needs.

“The BlueForge Alliance, who oversees our maritime industrial base — that’s 15,000 individual companies who are collectively charged with building and delivering three nuclear-powered subs to the Navy every year for 10 years.”

Rowe explained that the head of the alliance called him and said, “We’re having a hell of a time finding tradespeople. Can you help?”

Rowe replied, “I don’t know, man, it’s pretty skinny out there. How many do you need?”

The man indicated to Rowe that the industry needed 140,000 people over the next seven years.

“They need 80 to 90 thousand right now,” Rowe emphasized. “These are for our submarines, folks. [If] things go hypersonic — a little sideways with China, Taiwan — our aircraft carriers are no longer the point of the spear. They’re vulnerable.”

Rowe added, “Our submarines matter, and these guys have a pinch point because they can’t find welders and electricians to get them built.”

The Trump administration drastically increased naval production in April 2025 through an executive order that placed at least $40 billion per year into shipbuilding efforts for the next 30 years.

With fewer than 300 battle force ships in the U.S. Navy currently, according to Military Times, the president set a goal for a 381-ship fleet.

To that end, the Discovery Channel host said he is consistently getting calls from tradespeople, companies, and even governors, who ask him a simple question.

RELATED: Mike Rowe: Parents didn’t get an ‘honest chance’ to consider college alternatives

Mike Rowe in 2014. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Where are they?” they ask Rowe, referring to tradespeople. “They’ve said, ‘We’ve looked everywhere.'”

Rowe revealed his response to industry leaders: “I know where they are. They’re in the eighth grade.”

The trades advocate stressed that a “clear and present freak-out” was happening under the surface in America in the automotive and energy industries, suggesting that children need to be encouraged to go into these fields.

“The automotive industry needs 80,000 collision repair and technicians,” he explained. “Energy, I don’t even know what the number is — I hear 300,000; I hear 500,000.”

The latter is likely to do with not only nuclear-powered subs but also small modular reactors that are popping up across the United States to supply the growing power demand from data centers, new and old.

Several large companies like Amazon and Microsoft are building new, massive data centers and campuses to house data and AI machine-learning systems. These new locations require so much power that they have put stress on existing power grids, necessitating their own energy sources.

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​News, Trades, Trade workers, Nuclear energy, Military, Submarines, Navy, Politics, Electrician 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney doesn’t appear to be taking President Donald Trump’s latest threat of an across-the-board 35% tariff on all Canadian goods very seriously.

He was on vacation when Trump issued the declaration last week and has remained on vacation ever since.

Canada’s ethics commissioner revealed Friday that Carney has control or interest in hundreds of Canadian and American companies.

The PM did announce an “emergency” meeting with his cabinet and all Canadian premiers for July 22 in Ontario’s cottage country. But that’s not until next week. And an emergency response usually entails dealing with issues right now, today, immediately.

So why is Carney so blasé about a tariff that could be catastrophic for the Canadian economy?

Fentanyl flow

Unlike Trump’s regular “51st state” jabs, this is not idle trolling. The president has indicated that any counter-tariffs will result in an increase in the U.S. tariff. He’s also restated his disappointment in Canada’s lack of resolve to address the flow of fentanyl across the Canadian border.

Whatever happened to that “fentanyl czar” that former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed, anyway?

Kevin Brosseau has literally not made the news since the announcement of his appointment in February. Since then, there have been increasing revelations of fentanyl precursors arriving at the port of Vancouver, where they are shipped to drug factories deep within the interior of British Columbia. FBI Director Kash Patel has called out this Canadian connection, yet we have heard nothing from Brosseau.

“If Canada works with me to stop the flow of fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter,” Trump wrote in his letter to Carney.

Out of office

Carney blandly responded to Trump on Thursday, saying in a post on X that the Liberal government had “steadfastly defended our workers and businesses” and “will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1.”

“Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America,” he claimed, without indicating just what kind of progress had been made.

Is Carney relying on his apparent friendship with Trump and the goodwill of the president who endorsed Carney during Canada’s recent federal election campaign?

Or is Carney deliberately brewing a crisis in order to further his control of the Canadian Parliament and distract attention from the real elephant in the room: Carney’s massive conflict of interest problems?

RELATED: Fentanyl from Canada is killing Americans — but Trudeau cares more about prosecuting the Freedom Convoy

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Blind trust

When Carney first won the leadership of the Liberal Party, he was quick to remind everyone that he was not legally obliged to reveal his corporate involvement and stock investments for months. He feigned outrage whenever he was asked about potential conflict of interests as a result of the financial matrix that has generated his personal wealth.

Well, the truth about Carney’s massive financial interests finally emerged last week. His response? There’s no problem because all of it is in a “blind trust.”

Canada’s ethics commissioner revealed Friday that Carney has control or interest in hundreds of Canadian and American companies.

Carney’s much-publicized sting as Brookfield Asset Management chairman of the board was only the beginning. It turns out his financial interests embrace a huge swath of green energy corporations and companies like Stripe Inc.

Free reign

But the ethics commissioner has essentially allowed Carney to self-regulate and to participate in broad matters relating to his companies “unless those interests are disproportionate to the other members of the class.” That means Carney will essentially be trusted to govern himself.

That is a recipe for disaster when it comes to a well-connected operator who is already aggrandizing power within the prime minister’s office.

To recap: The most conflicted prime minister in the history of Canada will be given the benefit of the doubt to maintain a financial empire without much oversight while being responsible for generating huge infrastructure projects under legislation that his government just passed.

Just say ‘Trump’

Sounds like an ideal time for Carney to demonize Trump and the United States again. Otherwise, Canada’s lapdog media might dwell too much on what Carney stands to gain from his green, China-friendly policies.

It’s also in keeping with the Liberals’ long tradition of never wasting a crisis. Trudeau was fairly efficient at finding opportunities to advance his party’s authoritarian agenda; recall his invocation of the Emergency Act to crush the Freedom Convoy protest.

But Carney — enmeshed in a tangled web of business interests and significantly more ambitious than his feckless predecessor — promises to go even further.

​Mark carney, Fentanyl, Freedom convoy, Culture, Tariffs, Donald trump, Letter from canada 

The Committee on Homeland Security’s Wednesday hearing on the role of non-governmental organizations in the immigration crisis erupted into a fiery partisan clash.

Oversight Project president and Blaze News contributor Mike Howell stood up against Democratic lawmakers, who repeatedly sought to derail the hearing with unscheduled procedural votes.

‘Congressman Thompson was an emotional hypocrite.’

The pushback began with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) interrupting Howell’s opening testimony to call for a recorded vote to declare his comments irrelevant to the hearing’s topic.

Howell’s opening remarks laid into Democrat lawmakers for fueling violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He claimed that many of the NGOs behind the Biden administration’s immigration crisis are now behind the anti-ICE movement.

The Republican majority ultimately voted to allow Howell to proceed. However, it did not stop Democrats from introducing repeated roadblocks by pushing motions to subpoena other potential witnesses.

— (@)

The frequent interruptions hindered the proceedings, and most Democrats did not use their time to ask the witnesses questions; instead, they delivered monologues.

Howell described the hearing as a “mess.”

He told Blaze News, “Congressman Thompson was an emotional hypocrite. He didn’t want me to explain how his own members’ calls for violence were predictably leading to violence. Remember, this is the man who chaired the January 6 committee. He tried getting me kicked out, and on the theory my testimony wasn’t relevant, then he and all Democrats proceeded to drone on for hours about completely irrelevant topics.”

RELATED: Desperate Democrats disrupt hearing while Blaze Media writers expose NGOs’ role in immigration nightmare

Image Source: Homeland Security Committee

Toward the end of Wednesday’s hearing, Howell engaged in a tense exchange with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), who is not a committee member but had requested to sit in on the session.

Ansari used her questioning time to try to challenge Howell, but it spectacularly backfired.

She claimed that one ICE detention center was mistreating immigrants.

“I spoke with more than a dozen women there who were desperate, devastated about the conditions that they’re living in, facing significant harassment. They described a situation where one of the staff members literally forced them outside to march outside in 110-degree Arizona heat, marching around for over two hours, yelling at them, ‘This is the price of the American dream.’ This is disgusting,” she stated.

Ansari then turned to ask Howell so-called “yes or no” questions.

“Do you support this type of treatment of human beings?” she asked.

Howell replied, “I’m sorry; I wasn’t listening. All the other Democrats haven’t asked a question, so I kind of wasn’t paying attention. Can you restate it?”

Ansari, clearly taken aback, repeated her question.

“For illegal aliens to be detained throughout their immigration proceedings? Yes,” Howell responded.

Ansari interrupted, “To be treated that way?”

“I’m not taking your word for it,” Howell declared.

RELATED: The Epstein memo is a joke — and the joke’s on us

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.). Image Source: Homeland Security Committee

Ansari moved on from the topic to question Howell about oversight authority, claiming that lawmakers are permitted to visit ICE detention facilities. Howell disagreed.

“You, as an individual member, do not have oversight authority,” he explained. “Oversight authority, by the rules of the House, flows through the full House to the chairman, and that, right now, is held by [Republicans]. So the statute that you cite is going to end up with more Democrats clogging our jails. I want to keep you out of jail,” Howell said.

Ansari attempted to catch Howell off guard regarding his views on the Epstein files, suggesting that he had reversed his stance on their release and was now echoing Trump’s claims that it was a Democrat hoax. But Howell fired back that Ansari had gotten her facts wrong.

“What did I say?” Howell asked. “What have I parroted about it being a hoax?”

“You said something false. I’m asking you to cite what you said, which is clearly false because I’ve not said what you said,” Howell replied. “My answer is written in an op-ed in TheBlaze, which you can read.”

“You are lying to the American people in your misstatements. You just told a lie in this committee room. I’m trying to clear up the record,” Howell continued.

“I think that the public deserves way more transparency than we’ve got. I’ve written that.”

“Bring the receipts. You’re lying, and everybody knows it,” Howell remarked.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) applauded Howell’s takedown. He wrote in a post on X, “Democrats clearly weren’t prepared for @MHowellTweets.”

— (@)

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​News, Mike howell, Oversight project, Homeland security committee, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Bennie thompson, Non-governmental organizations, Nongovernmental organizations, Ngo, Ngos, Yassamin ansari, Eli crane, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Politics 

Cynthia Diaz Sosa told Key West, Florida, investigators she stopped in traffic on Petronia Street on the evening of July 9 “waiting to let a chicken cross the road,” according to WPLG-TV, which said it obtained an arrest report of the incident.

‘This woman is to be admired! She’s a nature lover.’

However, Sosa told police another driver began honking at her, passed her, and then ran over and killed the chicken, the station said.

The 38-year-old told investigators she wanted to “teach her a lesson” — meaning the motorist who allegedly ran over and killed the chicken, WPLG reported.

With that, Sosa followed the other driver, the station said.

Law & Crime said the other driver told police she “was on her way to pick up her child from daycare” when Sosa’s “vehicle jumped in front of” her car.

RELATED: What Is the ‘Urban Chicken Retirement’ Phenomenon?

Why did the chicken cross the road? Chickens, cockerels, and baby chickens are allowed free range on the streets of Key West, Florida, March 23, 2019.Photo by Paul Harris/Getty Images

At Emma and Olivia Streets, Sosa began pulling on the woman’s door, soon got it open, and then doused the driver with bear spray — and sprayed another woman inside the vehicle as well — and then took off, WPLG said.

Key West Fire Department medics checked out the two victims at the scene, and police said they later located Sosa, the station said.

WPLG said Sosa was arrested on two counts of aggravated battery and one count of burglary with assault or battery, WPLG reported.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office told Blaze News that Sosa’s bond was $35,000.

WPLG said Sosa wasn’t listed Tuesday among active jail inmates, and her arraignment is scheduled for July 24.

Commenters underneath the WPLG story for the most part seemed squarely in Sosa’s corner:

“Seriously? The cops arrested her and not the animal abuser?” one commenter asked. “What is wrong with the genius cops in this country? All they want is to manufacture and get their arrest numbers up.””There’s so [much] low hanging fruit here, I’ll just pause on the chicken crossing the road thing,” another commenter said. “There are so many impatient and clueless drivers on our roads. I guarantee the ‘victim’ was on their phone without a clue of what was going on in front of them, and the entitlement comes out. Separately, hopefully people know it’s not just the usual mace being carried these days — it’s bear spray.””This woman is to be admired!” another commenter said. “She’s a nature lover.””Good for her; I would have done the same,” another commenter said. “RIP chicken.””What’s happened to the Key West that advocated for animal rights?” another commenter wondered. “They should’ve arrested the other lady.”

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​Chicken, Chicken crossing road, Bear spray, Physical attack, Florida, Florida keys, Arrest, Aggravated battery charge, Burglary with assault or battery charge, Chicken allegedly killed, Chicken allegedly hit by driver, Key west, Crime 

Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk is in hot water after suggesting that the Austin fire chief was a DEI hire whose decisions may have led to more deaths during the incident — but after investigating his claims, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales believes he might be right.

“The Democrats are not lifting a finger to remember the well over 100 people that have died in Texas Hill Country. What you are not being told by the media anywhere is that the death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn’t for DEI,” Kirk said on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”

“This Texas tragedy is just the latest example. It’s not just incompetence. This is DEI working to undermine meritocratic institutions, and more people likely died than otherwise would have because of DEI,” he added.

“Anytime Charlie is in trouble, usually you can pretty much know that something that he has said has been taken out of context,” Gonzales says on “Come and Take It,” noting that it was “obviously a very bold statement.”

While Kirk is being called “racist” by the left-wing media, Gonzales says it’s because they’re taking what he said at face value rather than investigating it.

“This particular fire chief has gone on record saying that he has diversity goals. Not like put-fires-out-in-record-time goals. Diversity goals. Are you kidding me?” Gonzales says.

Not only does the Austin fire chief have “diversity goals,” but he was himself celebrated as a diversity hire when a news outlet reported in 2020, “The City of Austin made history when it hired its first African American fire chief a little over a year ago.”

“I don’t try to dwell on me being the first African American fire chief, because that’s not important. What’s important is that I’m not the last African American fire chief,” Chief Joel Baker was reported saying in the same article.

“I don’t know sir, I think what’s important is that you guys save as many lives as possible and put out as many fires as possible. That’s a good start. I think what’s important is emergency response time. I think what’s important is making sure that you guys have the supplies that you need to put fires out and help people,” Gonzales says.

The article also reported that Baker boasted that one of his goals “is really to increase the diversity at Austin Fire Department,” including African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and people in the LGBTQ community in order to inspire the youth to become firefighters, as well.

“Those are his goals. And I do think that that is relevant to the conversation about what happened in the Texas Hill Country, especially in light of what just happened with the Austin Firefighters Association,” she adds.

The Austin Fire Department had deployment orders on July 2, and the Austin Firefighters Association president Bob Nicks claims they had boat crews ready to go help — before the flooding even began.

However, they were told by the Austin chief to stand down.

“It is absolutely outrageous that the Austin Fire Chief, Joel G. Baker, would not allow highly trained firefighters from Austin to respond to Kerrville. Because of this egregious dereliction of duty, LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION,” the Austin Firefighter’s Association wrote in a Facebook post.

“That is not something that this firefighter’s association just decides to just flippantly make the decision to go write something like that on Facebook,” Gonzales says, adding, “These are men who are trained to save people, and these men are pissed that they weren’t allowed to do that.”

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​Video, Camera phone, Video phone, Upload, Free, Sharing, Youtube.com, Come and take it, Come and take it with sara gonzales, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Turning point, Charlie kirk, Texas floods, Austin fire chief, Austin firefighters association, Dei austin fire chief 

Comedian Shane Gillis has been synonymous with the downfall of cancel culture ever since his firing from “Saturday Night Live” skyrocketed his career.

Gillis was fired from the sketch-comedy show in 2019 for doing impressions of Chinese people on his podcast, and since then, he has filled arenas, starred in his own Netflix series, and become a podcasting juggernaut.

The comedian’s love of sports, especially football, has kept him connected to that world, and surprisingly, he was tapped by Disney’s ESPN to host its annual award show last night, the ESPYs.

Gillis was as offensive as always, leaving mouths agape in shock more than once.

‘Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, guess it got deleted.’

Gillis wasted no time bringing up deportations of illegal immigrants and President Trump, saying that Trump was hoping Gillis would capture New York Mets’ Dominican baseball star Juan Soto at the award show.

“Joe Rogan wanted me to be here to host this award show so that I could capture [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver, because Joe thinks he’s an alien. And Donald Trump wanted me to be here to capture Juan Soto for the same reason.”

As audience members buried their heads in their hands, Gillis added, “It’s an alien joke. Who booed? Shut up!”

The Philadelphia comedian then poked fun at the president for wanting to host a UFC event on the White House lawn.

“The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died,” Gillis joked about January 6, 2021.

The crowd was more receptive to that joke, with Gillis telling the audience they did not have to keep quiet. “You don’t have to do that, it was fine, I didn’t write it,” he laughed.

Then, Gillis hammered the president with a Jeffrey Epstein joke.

RELATED: Shane Gillis rocks Austin, Texas, as Donald Trump

“Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, guess it got deleted,” Gillis immediately continued. “Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move on as a country and ignore that.”

While jokes at the president’s expense got cheers from the crowd, Gillis took huge shots at athletes and even the WNBA that quieted the room for a brief period.

As is typical of award show hosts, Gillis calmly pointed to an apparent female basketball player in the crowd and thanked her for being there.

“Four-time WNBA All-Star Brittany Hicks is here, give it up for Brittany,” he said. The crowd responded to the prompt with loud applause. But Gillis had set a trap for the audience.

“I’m joking around, that’s my friend’s wife. I knew none of you knew WNBA players. That’s crazy you clapped for that,” he revealed.

The comic was not done with the WNBA, shocking the crowd with a joke about how when star player Caitlin Clark retires, she will work at a Waffle House so she can “continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting black women.”

RELATED: ‘I didn’t do it at rehearsal’: Shane Gillis explains how he got his hilarious uncensored SNL monologue to air

Shane Gillis and Grace Brassel at the 2025 ESPY Awards. Photo by Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage

The monologue was another monumental win for free speech, with Gillis bemused that his own content was allowed on a Disney network, no matter how offensive it was.

Gillis expressed his awe when joking about North Carolina coach Bill Belichick’s personal relationship. The coach, who is 73 years old, is dating a 24-year-old. Gillis joked that Belichick would read his girlfriend bedtime stories but asked the audience why they would not support such a relationship.

“What happened to this country?” the comedian asked, before telling the crowd that if they had won as many Super Bowls as Belichick, maybe they would not be sitting next to a “fat, ugly dog-wife.”

Just as shocked as the attending athletes, Gillis said, “This is Disney. They allowed that.”

Like an after-action report by a sergeant, Gillis admitted he still delivered jokes that he should have taken out. This shows just how far American culture has gone in recent years, from woke to Waffle House brawl jokes, with Gillis topping mainstream platforms no matter what he decides to say.

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​Disney, Espn, Fearless, Comedy, Stand up, Espys, Woke, Offensive, Shane gillis, Sports 

President Donald Trump was struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet this time last year in an attack that injured two others and claimed the life of Corey Comperatore. The U.S. Secret Service has since been under intense scrutiny.

Two reports released over the weekend highlighted the agency’s deadly failures in Butler — saying nothing of the agency’s other potential failures with regard to the alleged attempt on Trump’s life 64 days later at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

The first report, which was requested by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and released by the Government Accountability Office on Saturday, highlighted numerous USSS procedural and planning errors that helped set the stage for the July 13 shooting.

‘I’m liberal, voted that way since I was 18.’

The second report, released Sunday by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, described the events at the bloody Pennsylvania rally as a “cascade of preventable failures that nearly cost President Trump his life” and emphasized that the “consequences imposed for the failures so far do not reflect the severity of the situation.”

Project Veritas provided a damning indication this week that the USSS has yet to learn its lesson and shape up.

According to the investigative journalism outfit, an officer violated Secret Service protocol, possibly compromised White House security, and disparaged the president, all in an apparent attempt to woo a stranger he met on a dating site who turned out to be an undercover reporter.

RELATED: Secret Service suspends 6 agents over Trump assassination attempt — but some argue the real story is who didn’t get punished

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for the Washington Post via Getty Images

The Bold.pro profile for Marc Hendrickson Jr. indicates that he is a USSS uniformed division officer who “provides protection and access control for all White House events to include official state visits and state dinners, congressional events, bilateral meetings, bill signings, receptions, daily tours etc.” and whose protectees include the president, the first lady, the vice president, and Cabinet members.

Hendrickson has supposedly been with the agency since July 2021.

Project Veritas alleges that Hendrickson, without knowing the identity of the female journalist, invited her on a dating app — which appears to be Bumble — to “come here” and see him at the White House; sent a photo from the White House, boasting that he works there “every day”; disclosed potentially sensitive operational details; and denigrated the president.

‘Nothing is more important to the Secret Service than the safety and security of our protectees.’

Hendrickson allegedly texted, “If you want, I can show you where I am right now for work,” then shared a picture taken on the White House South Lawn.

In another message, the agent confirmed that he was at the White House.

Hendrickson allegedly stated in another message thread, “I’m liberal, voted that way since I was 18.”

When the female journalist later wrote, “I can’t stand the felon in office,” Hendrickson allegedly responded, “Yeah he’s doing a lot of whacky [sic] s**t right now,” adding, “It seems like everyday [sic] it’s something new.”

— (@)

“Hendrickson’s reckless actions — inviting an unknown individual to the White House, sharing sensitive photos, and disclosing operational details — expose a severe lapse in judgment and a dangerous breach of security,” said Project Veritas. “This behavior reveals how easily he could be compromised or manipulated by adversaries, potentially granting hostile actors critical access or intelligence that jeopardizes the safety of President Trump and the nation.”

The USSS reportedly told Project Veritas that the matter is under review.

Blaze News has reached out to the White House, to the USSS, and to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

“Nothing is more important to the Secret Service than the safety and security of our protectees,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement last week. “As director, I am committed to ensuring our agency is fully equipped, resourced, and aligned to carry out our important mission each and every day.”

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​Secret service, Usss, White house, Donald trump, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Security, Assassination, Safety, Politics 

This is part of an ongoing series on the relationship between the campaign for redefining marriage and trans activism.

“The greater acceptance of trans people is a huge step forward for all of us,” writes prominent gay marriage advocate Andrew Sullivan in a recent New York Times opinion piece. “But abolishing the sex binary for the entire society? That’s a whole other thing entirely. And madness, I believe.”

So no, Mr. Sullivan: Despite your rosy-colored memories of an earlier, more civil era of gay activism, you have no right to be surprised by the excesses of the trans rights lobby.

Sullivan is hardly alone among fellow LGBT activists in thinking that the movement with which he once identified has gone too far.

But the trans radicals are not so different from the “mainstream” that now disavows them. In fact, these trans radicals use tactics pioneered and perfected during the fight to redefine marriage.

Imposed tolerance

As one who defended (and continue to defend) marriage between a man and a woman as good public policy, I can only say this: We tried to tell you.

Mr. Sullivan’s 1996 book “Virtually Normal” presented gay marriage as a modest demand for “formal public equality” before the law, while rejecting the “political imposition of tolerance” and “the regulation of people’s minds and actions.”

Ten years after Obergefell finally made this “equality” the law of the land, Sullivan is scandalized to find that the newly ascendent trans wing has no intentions of stopping there:

Dissenters from gender ideology are routinely unfriended, shunned, and shamed. Almost all of the gay men, trans people, and lesbians who have confided in me that … they think that J.K. Rowling or Martina Navratilova have some good points, have said so sotto voce lest anyone overhear. That’s the extremely intolerant and illiberal atmosphere that now exists in the gay, lesbian, and transgender space. This little community used to champion all manner of expression or argument or speech, eccentrics and visionaries. Now it’s fearful, self-censored, and extremely uptight.

Sullivan may be surprised that people in the “LGBT space” suppress dissent within their own ranks, but I’m not.

A history of harassment

Remember Brendan Eich, who donated $1,000 to the pro-marriage Proposition 8 campaign in 2008? Gay activists did not have a rational conversation with him. They harassed him so much that he had to resign from the company that he founded.

“Marriage equality” activists published interactive maps showing names and addresses of Prop 8 donors so they could be systematically doxxed. Anti-Prop 8 protesters surrounded the Mormon temple in Los Angeles and beat people to the ground. In the years since Prop 8, many people have become fearful for their jobs if they say anything that could be construed as “hateful.”

Welcome to our world, Mr. Sullivan. Some of us have felt “fearful, self-censored, and extremely uptight” for some time.

Free speech foes

We share Sullivan’s alarm at ACLU lawyer and trans activist Chase Strangio’s reaction to a book criticizing childhood transition: “Stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on.”

But he loses us when he goes on to portray the gay rights movement as First Amendment champions. “If censorship was in the air, gay men and lesbians were the first to oppose it.”

That’s not how I remember it, Mr. Sullivan. Didn’t you know that gay activists pressured Amazon to remove books by authors like ex-gays Joe Dallas and therapist Joseph Nicolosi?

Maybe you forgot the time when the Log Cabin Republicans insisted that the pro-family group Mass Resistance be banned from a Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in 2018 because of its book “The Health Hazards of Homosexuality”?

I haven’t forgotten. I wrote an article about the book and the controversy it sparked when it first came out in 2017. Amid the ubiquitous outcry, not one critic bothered to offer evidence countering even a single claim in the 600-page, meticulously footnoted book.

In 2020, gay activists succeeded in getting the book banned from Amazon, where it remains unavailable.

And so it is that much harder for people with same-sex attraction to access a resource providing accurate, albeit unpleasant, information about the medical and psychological risks associated with acting on those attractions. Is removing this book from the biggest book distributor in the world really a way of “treasuring” free speech?

RELATED: Gay marriage has a hidden cost — and children are paying the price

Valerii Evlakhov/iStock/Getty Images

Live and let live?

Mr. Sullivan writes, “The gay rights movement, especially in the marriage years, had long asked for simple liberal equality and mutual respect — live and let live . … We will leave you alone.”

Baker Jack Phillips would dispute the “live and let live” claim. He did not challenge the legal right of same-sex couples to wed; he just didn’t want to bake a cake celebrating that union. So in 2012, activists dragged him to court.

When the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, another activist dragged him back into court for not baking a cake to celebrate his “transition.” Phillips’ nightmare didn’t come to an end until 2024.

A new version of ‘homophobic’

Despite his misgivings about the radical trans agenda, in his article, Mr. Sullivan uses the word “transphobic” without a hint of irony. It is a word meant to cast any disagreement with trans ideology as “hate.”

It is the direct successor to the word “homophobic,” which similarly attempted to discredit our objections to gay marriage. We learned that “hate” was the only possible reason anyone would disagree with such obviously correct views.

I should know. I ended up on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate list for my unacceptable, intolerant views that prioritize children’s rights to their parents over adults’ rights to feel good about themselves.

And who invented the term “heteronormative,” the (supposedly erroneous) belief that heterosexuality is normal? (News flash: Heterosexuality is normal, in all mammal species.) Perhaps the same person who later came up with “gender affirming care” as a euphemism for drugs and surgeries performed on perfectly healthy, though confused, young people.

So no, Mr. Sullivan: Despite your rosy-colored memories of an earlier, more civil era of gay activism, you have no right to be surprised by the excesses of the trans rights lobby.

I implore you to rethink your presumptions. Your tactics laid the groundwork for the trans movement. If you are sincerely appalled by their tactics (and I hope you are), I would appreciate an apology. I bet Brendan Eich, Jack Phillips, and the Mormon Church would, too.

But I’m just getting started. My next column will describe how “gay-friendly” policies set the stage for “trans-friendly” policies.

​Obergefell v. hodges, Obergefell, Lgbt, Trans, Chase strangio, Aclu, Gay marriage, Andrew sullivan, Lifestyle, Culture, Countering ‘pride’ 

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues conducting raids to lawfully remove violent illegal alien criminals from the country, making American cities safer, radical left activist groups are doing everything they can to stand in the way.

One group — ironically called the Save America Movement — is getting close to meeting its goal of raising $1 million to mobilize response teams to follow and confront ICE officers during raids in real time. The organization has already raised over $750K to funnel into its efforts.

This particular group has specifically objected to ICE agents “raiding L.A. in masks without badges, names, or accountability,” says Glenn Beck, who finds it hilarious that masks are an issue for them when a huge percentage of anti-ICE protesters — the “bad guys” who commit crimes — wear masks to avoid being identified and prosecuted. But it’s an issue when law enforcement officers wear masks to avoid being doxxed for doing their jobs.

The Save America Movement is currently gearing up to launch its “Liberty Vans,” which will include “mobile response teams with cameras, chaplains … lawyers, and veterans,” Glenn says, adding that the group’s “steering committee” is made up of the “usual suspects” — Erika Alexander, Rev. William J. Barber II, Billy Ray, Ryan Busse, and Steve Schmidt, among others.

This coalition of leftists taking matters into their own hands is evidence that Democrat voters are dissatisfied with what they perceive as the party’s inaction and lack of aggressive opposition to President Trump’s policies.

“[Democrats’] own constituents are saying, ‘You know what? Maybe you should die so we could get some attention to our cause. … We need some blood to be spilled for a real revolution,’” Glenn says, noting that this is why recent polling shows that some Democrat lawmakers are becoming “afraid of their own constituents.”

But Democrats shouldn’t be surprised that their radical voters are turning against them. Volatility is their MO.

Glenn remembers warning about the consequences of linking arms with radicals as early as 2008. “I was like, ‘You cannot get into bed with crazy radicals. … They’ll kill you when they don’t think that you’re taking this revolution seriously enough,’” he reflects.

“That’s what happens in revolutions. If you’re not revolutionary enough for the most bloodthirsty, they come after you, and they come after you first. That’s what’s coming, America,” Glenn warns. “What is happening on the streets right now is a lead-up to serious, serious trouble on the streets and a bloodbath on the streets. Pray for our law enforcement.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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My husband and I visited our families for Independence Day. For millions of Americans, that’s a typical summer tradition. For us, it was an extraordinary day. Kyle is an active-duty naval officer who has spent several years of our marriage deployed overseas and across the United States.

Kyle and I expected the challenges of military life: the deployments, the stresses on mental health, even the risk of homelessness or divorce that looms over many military families. Yet the one issue we weren’t prepared for — one we are keenly aware of as Kyle approaches retirement — is the shock of seeing firsthand the Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly fail those who have served.

The VA made all veterans a promise: dedicated care after service. Today, that promise is broken daily.

From December 2023 until June of this year, I served as the ombudsman for my husband’s ship, the USS Harry S. Truman. My role was to bridge the gap between command and families, ensuring that they had access to critical resources and could reach command in case of emergency. In that position, I watched closely as families ahead of ours navigated life after active service, applying for the VA benefits they had been promised.

What I’ve observed is nothing short of betrayal.

A broken promise

Veterans aren’t just denied their hard-earned benefits by bureaucratic red tape. Their entire lives are often put on hold, causing untold mental health, family, and professional suffering in addition to what is endured during deployments.

One of the most common struggles veterans and their families face is the historic backlog of claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs. While the number has improved in recent months, nearly 185,000 backlogged disability claims remained unprocessed as of June.

RELATED: Anti-American ideology still festers at West Point

DepthofField via iStock/Getty Images

Veterans regularly spend months — or even years — in limbo, trying to secure the benefits they’ve earned while dealing with disabilities incurred while serving.

Partially disabled veterans with treatable conditions like tinnitus or various levels of post-traumatic stress disorder want to work in the private sector, but they need specialized care to do so. Getting approval for that care is a nightmare, with many giving up altogether or resorting to expensive — or sometimes shady — advocates for assistance.

Lawmakers must step in

That’s why states and Congress must intervene where the VA has failed. In Rhode Island — my home state and possibly our future home — the legislature introduced the Save Act, a state-level version of the federal Choice Act. Both bills aim to expedite the benefits process by allowing veterans to hire certified consultants. Importantly, these measures would safeguard veterans from exploitation by setting payment caps, ensuring that providers have VA approval, and mandating that consultants only receive payment after veterans do.

Unfortunately, Rhode Island’s legislature rejected the Save Act, instead passing a more restrictive bill that prohibits veterans from consulting experts during their initial claims for benefits. Despite this setback, momentum in several states and Congress to support veterans is encouraging.

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins says he’s made progress on the backlog, but decades of mismanagement and corruption can’t be unwound in a matter of months. Moreover, a supposed 25% reduction in claims backlog raises troubling questions: How many veterans were hastily denied to meet bureaucratic quotas?

I’ll be old and gray before this bureaucratic nightmare is fixed — if ever.

Our veterans deserve better

When Kyle first raised his right hand, America made him — and all veterans — a promise: dedicated care after service. It’s the same promise that has been made to veterans for decades in return for enduring stressful deployments, risking both their lives and family bonds. Today, that promise is broken daily. Families are subjected to unbearable delays and bureaucratic hurdles, often forced to fight for benefits they’ve already earned or tragically never receive.

I’ll always cherish Independence Day 2025, which took us up and down much of the East Coast — together, for once, as an entire family. It offered a glimpse into the life we dream of when Kyle retires — a life we earned together through sacrifice. The VA should help us realize that dream, not obstruct it.

It’s past time for lawmakers and VA leadership to fulfill their obligations and put veterans first.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Veterans affairs, Veterans, Department of veterans affairs, Claims, Sickness, Post traumatic stress disorder, Ptsd, Treatment, Leadership, Uss harry s. truman, Backlog, Doug collins, Save act, Choice act, Congress, Reform 

When my friend asked me to drive him to a town 30 minutes south of where we live in Colorado to pick up a gallon of milk, I thought he had lost his mind. But as he explained a few things to me as we drove, I realized there was nothing wrong with my friend — it was the government that had really gone off the rails.

As it turns out, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill gallon of milk, and this trip was dangerously close to being illegal. Our crime? We were going to buy a gallon of raw milk.

You can tell things are backward and upside down if California is one of the most deregulated states in the nation for raw milk sales.

Driving down to Castle Rock, Colorado, I tried to figure out how my friend had gotten into such a niche trend (as it seemed to me at the time). He told me that influencers like Paul Saladino, M.D., played a major role in pushing him over the edge and starting his life of crime.

What is raw milk?

Raw milk is milk that has not undergone the high-temperature pasteurization process. This process purportedly kills bacteria that contaminates milk, but this contamination occurs when the dairy farm is kept in poor conditions. Raw dairy farms are known for their superior cleanliness, which not only produces a better product but also lowers the risk of contamination. Pasteurization simply corrects for the lower standards connected to mass production.

By scientists’ own admission, moreover, pasteurization was implemented in the early 20th century to accommodate mass consumption. Poor sanitation conditions in cities led to greater risks of contamination of the milk, which pasteurization corrected for.

Raw milk is also remarkably similar to human breast milk, which is widely considered to be the most nutrient rich “superfood” humans can possibly consume. Breast milk is obviously not regulated or pasteurized, which makes it odd that cow milk needs to be regulated to such a high degree.

Federal regulation, 21 CFR § 1240.61, mandates that all milk products “intended for direct human consumption” shall be heated to varying high temperatures in order to destroy “microbial organisms of public health significance.” It also prohibits the sale of raw milk across state lines but leaves the regulation of raw milk to the discretion of individual states beyond that.

RELATED: The truth about raw milk the government doesn’t want you to know: ‘Close to a perfect food’

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Pasteurization is a requirement for selling milk at the federal level. It has become standard practice for the production and sale of milk, and alternatives like raw milk have become an almost unshakeable taboo. Luckily, there are very few places where raw milk is completely illegal to acquire, but there are many shades of legality between full acceptance and full prohibition.

Paul Saladino has been a vocal advocate online for raw milk and has been a leading figure in the MAHA movement. And he isn’t niche, either: He has even taken a raw milk shot with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the White House as he raised awareness about what he calls a suppressed superfood.

The raw milk circus

The states have interpreted and enforced federal regulation of raw milk in various ways, leading states to adopt several strange loopholes. However, the amount of hoops that raw-milk enjoyers have to jump through in some states is astounding.

Surprisingly, California has some of the most lenient laws in the country regarding the regulation of raw milk. You can see from Raw Farm USA’s website that the company is, however, strictly limited to intrastate sales for its whole product line. The company can only sell a small and very qualified selection of its products across state lines.

You can tell things are backward and upside down if California is one of the most deregulated states in the nation when it comes to raw milk. And it only gets stranger from here in this hall of mirrors.

In Colorado, where my friend and I bought raw milk, he had to join what is called a “herd share.” Colorado state law defines a herd share as “an undivided interest in a cow, goat, or herd of cows or goats, created by a written contractual relationship between a consumer and a farmer.” The herd share stipulates that “the consumer has an interest with the farmer for care and milking, and under which the consumer is entitled to receive a share of milk from the cow, goat, or dairy herd.”

RELATED: RFK Jr., meat eaters, raw-milk drinkers slammed for ‘conspiratorial beliefs’ for daring to go against medical establishment

Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images

In case you skipped over that nonsense, it essentially says that if you want to buy raw milk, you have to buy part of a cow, similar to how you would buy stock in a company. Investors derive benefit from the success of the companies they invest in, and herd shareholders derive milk from their investment in the herd. More practically, herd shares are like a subscription to the farm and to a cow in the herd in which you pay monthly for the amount of milk you need.

This is a popular arraignment in several states, but it gets stranger in others. Here are two different maps that show the raw milk regulative landscape of the United States.

In North Carolina, for example, farms can sell raw dairy products but are required to label them “animal feed” or “not fit for human consumption.” This label also appears as “pet food” in some places. This seems to have a deterrent effect on a lot of people, but influencers like Paul Saladino have insisted on its safety. Here’s Paul Saladino’s explanation of why he has no problem eating pet food (raw kefir).

The experts weigh in

The medical establishment pushes out article after article warning against the potential harms of raw milk, yet these same articles from the “experts” warn that the consumption of raw milk poses particular risk to “pregnant people,” for example. Don’t they mean “pregnant women”? Their unscientific approach to biology makes many people hesitant to accept their nutrition advice.

Not to open a can of worms, but I can’t imagine trusting the CDC for health advice after the COVID vaccine fiasco, to name one example. And yet, the CDC says, “Choosing pasteurized milk is the best way to keep you and your family safe.”

There is also an obvious bias from the “experts” when they talk about the choice to consume raw milk. As explained earlier, states can choose to regulate the sale of raw milk as they deem fit, but some studies make it sound like the states that allow the sale of raw milk in some capacity are “cheating the system”: “These arrangements have been used to attempt to circumvent state and federal law prohibitions on traditional retail sales of unpasteurized milk.”

RELATED: FDA’s newest recall proves Elon Musk right — and boosts the MAHA movement

Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images

Allow me to translate: By “circumvention,” the experts mean to say that people voted to allow for the limited sale of raw milk within regulation.

It starts to become clear that the scientific consensus is the only allowable opinion for raw milk — among many other things — and all other choices should be off the table, according to the experts.

Risk management

The experts say that raw milk can kill you, and many people point to the same figures: 675 illnesses, two deaths in six years. While this may sound alarming at first, raw milk has a smaller chance of killing you than a shark attack, which is incredibly rare and unlikely.

While it is true that more people consume pasteurized milk than raw milk, it’s a surprise to many that pasteurized milk, in fact, carries a risk of death that is numerically higher than raw milk, according to a 2022 study:

Thirty-two disease outbreaks were linked to dairy consumption. Twenty outbreaks involving unpasteurized products resulted in 449 confirmed cases of illness, 124 hospitalizations, and five deaths. Twelve outbreaks involving pasteurized products resulted in 174 confirmed cases of illness, 134 hospitalizations, 17 deaths, and seven fetal losses. Listeria accounted for 10 out of 12 outbreaks from pasteurized products from 2007 through 2020.

When you think about the statistics in this broader view, fearmongering statements like, “Some people say raw milk is a ‘natural’ food that provides health benefits. But no matter how clean and well-cared-for an animal is, bacteria can still make their way into the milk. And without pasteurization to kill them, these bacteria can cause serious illness and death,” start to sound pretty outlandish.

Plus, the COVID fiasco proved the government doesn’t really care about your safety. Why do we still follow its “recommendations”?

So before you buy into the surface-level fear tactics that scientists and the government throw at you, do your own research and come to your own conclusions. And the next time you have $11.95 to spend, consider giving raw milk a fair chance.

​Align, Raw milk, Cdc, Rfk jr, Paul saladino, Pet food, Colorado, Herd shares, Overregulation, Government overreach 

A Florida woman says she was arrested and jailed for seven days over HOA complaints that began with brown grass in her front yard.

Irena Green said the harrowing journey began when an HOA management company sent her a complaint about the grass in front of her home in Riverview, which is near Tampa.

‘There was no bond. So I couldn’t even go home to my family. I sat in there for seven days.’

Green told WFTS-TV that the HOA told her to reseed her lawn or install sod to respond to the violation, but she said the problem was partly caused by shade from a large tree as well as watering restrictions in the city from drought conditions.

“If you drive around my neighborhood, you’ll see there’s plenty of yards not up to par,” Green said.

The HOA then hit her with other minor violations, including a small dent in her garage, a dirty mailbox, and having a commercial cargo van. WFTS noted that other residents had similar vans.

Green failed to respond to a request for mediation, so the HOA company filed a lawsuit against her. When she appeared in court, her handwritten response was rejected by the judge as well as the HOA company. Green said she was given instructions on how to fix the complaints.

“My grass had to be brung up to par. He said you can get seed, you can do something, but you’ve got 30 days to get it corrected. So I said fine. He said, ‘If it’s not done in 30 days, you’re gonna go to jail,'” Green said.

She said she sold the van, cleaned up the mailbox, and bought grass seed and watered the lawn to comply.

However, she failed to show up in court for the next hearing in August. She said she did not receive a notice about the hearing and had tried to get information about it.

“I was supposed to receive documentation. Nothing was sent to my home. And I reached out to the courthouse several times to try to find out when was my court date,” she explained.

Because she failed to show up, the judge held her in contempt of court and issued a warrant for her arrest. She was pulled over in late May by an officer as she was driving her daughter to a cheerleader practice. That’s when she found out about the warrant for her arrest.

She was arrested and placed in jail. Then she got even worse news.

“There was no bond. So I couldn’t even go home to my family. I sat in there for seven days. Seven days in the jailhouse like a criminal,” she said.

The warrant for her arrest was made at the request of Francis Friscia, an attorney for the HOA.

RELATED: Entire HOA board resigns after outrage over vote ordering each homeowner pay $60K assessment in Florida

Green says a paralegal relative asked for an emergency hearing to request her release and provided pictures of the lawn. She said she was shackled from head to feet during the hearing. The attorney for the HOA opposed her release because they wanted the entire lawn resodded.

Instead, she was released the next day.

Video of the WFTS interview with Green can be viewed on the news report on their YouTube channel.

The attorney released a lengthy statement that said in part that Green was at fault for not responding to legal requests.

“Ms. Green received notices of violations. She disregarded them. Legal action was filed by the association after she failed to accept the offer to mediate the matter, pre-suit, as is required before a lawsuit can be filed,” he said in part.

Green says she was humiliated over very minor issues and thinks HOAs have too much power.

“It makes me feel horrible. I work hard to buy this home for me and my kids in a better neighborhood and environment, and to be taken to jail and to be treated like that for brown grass at my own home … that’s horrible,” she said.

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​Woman jailed brown grass, Hoa arrest, Hoa abuse, Jail over brown grass, Crime