Category: blaze media

Egg prices fell almost 13% last month, but the cost is still sky-high for most consumers, averaging out at $5.12 a dozen. Worse, the USDA expects eggs to rise by up to 54% this year.

Bird flu is one reason for egg price hikes, but it goes much deeper than that.

Mercy for Animals wants to find an indirect route to eliminate natural eggs altogether and lead consumers to plant-based synthetic egg alternatives.

Especially in blue states like California, where strict regulations are pushing prices up, including on pork products.

A hidden tax

In particular, California’s Proposition 12 has forced non-California farmers to rebuild bigger barns for their chickens and raise pigs in larger pastures in order to be permitted to sell their eggs and pork products like bacon in California’s large market.

“It’s actually a hidden food tax that most don’t know about,” explains Will Coggin, research director with the Center for the Environment and Welfare.

A February survey by Country Financial found that 88% of Americans are worried about high food prices and have changed how they shop, including eating fewer eggs.

Farmers from Iowa to North Carolina are absorbing high costs to renovate and build new barns in order to have access to California’s market, pushing the national egg price average up and stopping a return to normal. California represents around 13% of the national market for eggs.

“Many farmers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. States shouldn’t be able to overreach into other states’ agricultural practices,” Coggin says, adding that a rollback of Prop 12 “could be worked into the farm bill passed by the end of September.”

… and a hidden agenda

Prop 12 bans common animal housing and is funded by an animal rights group called Mercy for Animals. In particular, it calls for hens to have time outside cages and for cages to be at least 144 square inches per hen.

Founded in 1999 by fifth-generation farmer turned radical animal rights activist Milo Runkle, MFA ultimately seeks to eliminate natural eggs altogether and lead consumers to plant-based synthetic egg alternatives.

Similar measures to Prop 12 are also being pushed forward in states like Washington and Oregon as well as Michigan and Colorado.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has spoken out against Prop 12 and is joined by CEW’s campaign to urge Congress to nullify Prop 12. It’s worth noting that national egg prices have spiked 103% since Prop 12 went into effect in 2022. In California itself, eggs have gone up 300% in price in that time and pork products have soared up to 40%.

With the current food price crisis affecting eggs and many staples, buying eggs closer to home or raising your own hens is also an increasingly viable choice for many Americans looking to get better options than overpriced eggs at the local supermarket.

Sourcing local eggs

There are many advantages to buying eggs locally. Although the price isn’t necessarily lower, the freshness and quality of the eggs are generally better and the consumer supports local farmers and leaves a smaller environmental footprint.

Visiting a local farmers’ market or farm stands is a great way to start. Another option is to join a local food co-op or box program where produce, eggs, and meat can be delivered to you on a weekly or biweekly basis.

What about raising your own chickens?

Raising your own chickens is becoming an increasingly popular option for Americans with the yard space and zoning allowance. Legally raising hens depends on local regulations and depends on each local jurisdiction, although even cities like Philadelphia, where it is illegal, have almost 12,000 backyard chickens being raised.

Raising chickens on your property has been normal for centuries, although over-regulation in some areas has made it trickier. After checking whether you can raise backyard chickens, it’s time to get to the specifics.

Buy healthy egg-laying chicks such as Isa Browns, Red Silkies, or other heritage breeds from your local farm store or a private seller online or in person. Not only do these breeds provide delicious eggs, they tend to be hardier in terms of health and standing up to weather.Ensure clean hygiene and keep chickens away from other wild birds in the area. Monitor the health of your cluckers and make sure they’re doing well. Hens will start producing eggs at around 24 weeks old.Build a simple chicken coop using two-by-fours, plywood, and chicken wire. You will want about four feet square per chicken in the henhouse and a chicken run attached to it where they can walk around. Chopped-up straw, recycled paper, or coarse sand makes an ideal floor surface for the coop.Make sure your chickens have enough food and water and check them every morning for eggs. Using a hanging feeder and waterer is a good option. Adding a drop of apple cider vinegar to their water helps prevent bacterial infections. The cost of a 50-pound bag of chicken feed runs about $25 and should last six chickens around a month.Eggs stay fresh outdoors for up to two weeks, but it’s best to collect them daily. Washing the eggs removes the protective biofilm, however, so they should be refrigerated immediately after.

For more comprehensive instruction, turn to YouTube. Shady Homestead’s Cory Shade offers a particularly useful guide.

Is becoming a backyard Frank Perdue harder than it looks? Probably. It’s never a good idea to underestimate the time, money, and effort these things require.

Then again, compared to the price of a year’s worth of supermarket eggs these days, what you spend on your own operation may end up being so much chicken feed.

​Maha, Egg prices, Proposition 12, Brooke rollins, Raising chickens, Homesteading, Lifestyle 

Donald Trump’s glowingly successful efforts at building relations with Arab leaders have evoked criticism from neoconservative skeptics. One such example appears in Rich Lowry’s column on “the Trump doctrine,” prominently featured in Friday’s New York Post. Though the Post has relentlessly exposed hypocritical and dishonest attacks on Trump’s domestic policies, its editors never seem quite able to throw off their constricting neoconservative view of foreign affairs.

Lowry quips that while George W. Bush sought to spread democracy everywhere, “Trump wants to spread gleaming high buildings.” While Bush appealed to high ideals, Trump, in his address to the Saudis, called for nothing more than “peace and prosperity.” In a supposedly uninspiring speech, our president praised Riyadh for “becoming not just a seat of government but a major business, cultural, and high-tech capital of the entire world.”

Before we embark on a crusade to export our values, we might first reckon with our internal troubles.

Lowry reminds his readers that Trump delivered these remarks before unworthy monarchs and emirs rather than democratically elected heads of state. “Standing for democratic ideals is an enormous part of America’s appeal around the world,” Lowry writes, “and if we get into competition with China purely over who is richer and can cut more deals, we are kicking away one of our major advantages.”

Allow me to question that assumption.

Are we really ‘democratic’?

It’s not clear why Western “democracies” in their present denatured state should be holding themselves up as a model for other societies. Before we embark on a crusade to export our values, we might first reckon with our internal troubles: the war launched by our media, educators, judges, and government bureaucrats against gender distinctions, white men, and free speech. Moreover, the deep state and its European and Canadian counterparts pose a significant threat to constitutional government — most notably, the judicial campaigns against conservative parties in Europe, particularly Germany, and the open-door immigration policies importing criminal gangs and unassimilable voters. Perhaps, we should address these matters before trying to make others more like us.

Moreover, what qualifies as a “sufficiently democratic” society in the eyes of Lowry and like-minded zealots? Is democracy compatible with gender restrictions on voting? If so, then the United States was not democratic until the passage of the 19th Amendment — or perhaps not until the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which established federal supervision of voting procedures to prevent racial discrimination. Presumably, Lowry would want us to bestow on Arab nations the exact version of democracy that suits him: American democracy in its latest manifestation — perhaps without diversity, equity, and inclusivity mandates.

To his credit, Trump is focused on addressing many of the internal problems I’ve mentioned. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance has called attention to the glaringly undemocratic practices in other members of the “free world.” Trump and Vance are interested in restoring what used to be our political traditions in the West instead of engaging in regime changes elsewhere.

President Trump also understands the benefits of peace and good relations in the Middle East. If he can de-escalate conflict by negotiating with monarchs in Saudi Arabia or parliamentary leaders elsewhere, he will. While neoconservatives may grumble about Trump’s unwillingness to proclaim their preferred ideals, even Democratic politicians have praised his efforts in advancing “peace and prosperity” in the Middle East. Trump also returned from the region with more than $1 trillion in commercial deals — hardly a failure by any measure.

I also fail to see how launching a global democracy crusade will help the United States gain the upper hand in its strategic rivalry with China. Such a mission might win applause from neoconservative think tanks and editorial boards, but it would do little to shift geopolitical realities. European “democracies” may decide to buy their energy from the United States rather than Russia, but the motivation for such a decision would be material interest or fear of Trump’s reprisals rather than membership in some vestigial value community. Even if governments cloaked such decisions in democratic rhetoric, their real motivation would be something other than ideology.

Are democracies more reliable?

This brings us to another one of Lowry’s canonical teachings: “Liberal societies are, as a general matter, more reliably our friends and more reliably achieve prosperity because it is less likely that they will be interrupted by civil war or revolution.” An America run by Kamala Harris and her party might quickly disprove Lowry’s rule about democracy bringing tranquility and prosperity. Constitutional democracies can degenerate into something less palatable, and looking at the parlous state of freedom in some Western countries, I wouldn’t rely any longer on what Lowry considers “reliable.”

While Lowry clearly does not approve of monarchical, theocratic Saudi Arabia, that non-democracy has not had a revolution or civil war for centuries. Is that “reliable” enough?

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Middle east, Diplomacy, Trillion-dollar deal, Saudi arabia, Qatar, Riyadh speech, Emirates, Democracy, Voting rights, Kamala harris, Jd vance, Free world, Freedom of speech, Censorship, China, Rich lowry, New york post 

Rick Burgess just launched a new podcast called “Strange Encounters.” The show aims to educate viewers about the reality of spiritual warfare and equip them with the tools needed to live well in this world that is inhabited by both angels and demons.

In this episode, Rick is joined by Blake Prime, who tells a tale equal parts harrowing and incredible about how the name of Jesus saved his daughter, who was suffering from a demonic attack.

After the death of a family member, Prime’s 9-year-old daughter, Lane, started experiencing “crippling” anxiety attacks. When her older sister was then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the fear worsened.

“I started noticing that there was something very dark in just the conversations that I was having with her around this topic of anxiety,” Prime tells Rick, noting that Lane was saying things like “it’s like it’s not me” when she was crushed with anxious thoughts.

Prime’s suspicion that this issue was spiritual in nature was confirmed when one day Lane said, “When I’m at school and I’m on the playground, it’s like I look out and all my friends are in the light and I’m stuck in the dark.”

One day, Prime was driving her to school when a “12 out of 10” panic attack hit.

“We’re in the the truck driving to school, and she is hysterical. … Then all of a sudden, she puts one hand on the console, one hand on the door, and it’s like something takes over her body, and she pushes back into the seat and her eyes are looking up, and they essentially roll in the back of her head, and she starts screaming, ‘Why is God abandoning me?”’ Prime recounts. “What I was looking at was not my baby girl.”

“So I just started speaking scripture over her. I was reciting Joshua 1:9 over and over again. I was speaking life, and I was not jokingly saying, ‘Not today, Satan,”’ he continues.

But it wasn’t working. Lane’s hysteria continued, as she screamed, “God doesn’t love me.”

“I said, ‘I rebuke you evil spirit from this car; leave my daughter right now; she is no child of yours; she is a child of the King; she’s a child of Jesus, and he is in control of this situation, not you. You have no authority here,’ and it was in that instant that it went from hurricane gale force wind to complete calm,” says Prime. “It was like a movie scene. She sat straight up, and she looked at me. She said, ‘Are we going to school?”’

“All of it was gone. She was breathing normally; the tears stopped; her heart rate calmed down; and she was speaking to me like she had just been resting,” he adds, noting that Lane seemed to have no recollection of the exorcism that had just occurred

Today, she still struggles with anxiety, but the name of Jesus continues to be a shield.

“It’s not that the anxiety has gone away. It’s just that we know how to battle it now,” says Price.

To hear more, check out the episode above.

Want more ‘Strange Encounters’?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Rick burgess, The rick burgess show, Strange encounters, Demonic attack, Blazetv, Blaze media, Bible, Christianity, Angels and demons 

Actor Pedro Pascal revealed more of his political sentiments during a press conference about his latest movie, which is described as anti-MAGA by Variety magazine.

Journalists asked Pascal if he was afraid of returning to the U.S. after making several political statements, and he vehemently rebuked the idea of fearing government retaliation. He made the comments during a press conference for his newest movie at the Cannes Film Festival.

‘It’s far too intimidating the question for me to really address; I’m not informed enough.’

Variety described the movie as critically portraying the pro-Trump movement. Pascal responded passionately when the actors were asked if they were afraid of retribution.

“Fear is the way they win,” the actor said.

“Keep expressing yourself and keep fighting to be who you are,” said Pascal while sitting next to Joaquin Phoenix. “And, I don’t know, f*** the people that try to make you scared, you know, and fight back.”

He was also asked to comment on the immigration policies of President Donald Trump and admitted he wasn’t informed enough to speak out definitively.

“I mean, it’s obviously very scary for an actor who participated in a movie to sort of speak to issues like this. It’s far too intimidating the question for me to really address; I’m not informed enough,” he said. “I want people to be safe and to be protected, and I want very much to live on the right side of history.”

He also cited his personal history as an asylum-seeker to explain his support for expansive immigration policies.

“I’m an immigrant; my parents are refugees from Chile. I myself was a refugee; we fled a dictatorship, and I was privileged enough to grow up in the U.S., after asylum in Denmark. And if weren’t for that, I don’t know what would have happened to us, and so I stand by those protections.”

He added, however, “I’m too afraid of your question; I hardly remember what it was.”

RELATED: Socialist actor Brian Cox calls Fox News ‘the devil,’ but also criticizes CNN for being redundant without nuance

Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Pascal was publicizing his new movie, “Eddington,” which is about a New Mexico town’s residents giving way to conspiracy theories during the coronavirus pandemic. The movie is scheduled for release in July.

Video of Pascal’s comments can be viewed on the YouTube channel for Guardian News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Pedro pascal, Politics and actors, Pascal anti-maga movie, Pascal on immigration, Politics 

To this day, courts insist you have no right to bodily autonomy when it comes to coerced vaccination and forced masking. They cite the “police powers” of the state as justification. But when the state uses those same powers to regulate public nudity or sexually explicit drag shows in front of children, suddenly the judiciary rediscovers the First Amendment.

In 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 1438, a commonsense law that barred businesses from knowingly admitting children to “adult live performances.” The law defined such performances as any show that “depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities … [such as] lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.” Sounds reasonable.

Republicans made a strategic blunder by conceding to the myth that judges serve as final arbiters of public policy.

Yet last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 that the law violated the First and 14th Amendments.

Even before getting to the legal merits, the scope of the ruling itself highlights the absurdity of universal injunctions against laws passed through the democratic process. The plaintiff, Hamburger Mary’s — a restaurant that occasionally hosted drag shows — wasn’t under investigation or facing prosecution. Still, the court granted standing to pre-emptively strike down the entire law.

Everyone agrees the state has the authority to regulate such matters. The court’s objection? Some of the law’s terms might be too vague and could potentially affect protected speech.

Even if the court’s argument on vagueness held water, it still lacked the authority to block the entire statute. Courts may grant relief only in specific cases where enforcement clearly exceeds constitutional limits. Judges do not have the power to veto legislation — especially when most of it falls well within a state’s lawful regulatory authority.

On the merits, the claim that terms like “lewd conduct” are unconstitutionally vague is nonsense. Legislators have used this language for centuries, and it has held up in court. The 11th Circuit should have overturned the district court’s injunction. But in 2023, only Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch voted to stay it.

RELATED: How Trump can dismantle the imperial judiciary once and for all

Photodisc via iStock/Getty Images

Let’s be honest: Americans used to enjoy far more freedom and a more faithful interpretation of the First Amendment — yet still lived under far stricter laws governing public indecency. Many of those laws remain on the books. The federal government itself once enforced the Comstock Act of 1873, which banned the mailing of “obscene,” “lewd,” or “lascivious” materials — including sex education. That law could be called vague, too, but the courts upheld it for decades.

As for the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, the idea that protecting children from lewd public displays somehow undermines civil rights would have stunned the amendment’s authors. James F. Wilson, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and architect of both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment, made the intent clear. “We are establishing no new right, declaring no new principle,” he said. “It is not the object of this bill to establish new rights, but to protect and enforce those which already belong to every citizen.”

Someone should have warned Wilson that his push to secure property rights for freed slaves would one day be twisted into a supposed constitutional right to expose minors to nudity.

Beyond the absurdity of the 11th Circuit’s ruling, the larger issue lies in the unchecked power courts now claim over legislation. The Florida case highlights a troubling truth: The Supreme Court lacks a reliable five-vote majority willing to overturn lower court decisions that undermine state authority. Just last week, all three Trump-appointed justices joined a ruling that reversed a sound Fifth Circuit decision limiting the removal of criminal aliens under the Alien Enemies Act.

We must now confront the deeper problem: Courts no longer merely interpret law — they nullify it. Florida’s experience shows that even with supermajority Republican control, conservative laws will not survive unless we challenge the false doctrine of judicial supremacy. The courts have become a roadblock, not a referee.

Republicans made a strategic blunder by conceding to the myth that judges serve as final arbiters of public policy. They promised their base that stacking the courts would be enough. It wasn’t. Instead of reforming the system, they legitimized it — and now they pay the price.

That price includes a legal regime where exposing children to sexually explicit performances passes as a constitutional right.

Unless lawmakers begin pushing back against the judiciary’s overreach, even the most modest conservative reforms will continue to fall — along with every last parental right and public standard along the way.

​Opinion & analysis, Drag queens, Florida, Ron desantis, Public nudity, First amendment, 14th amendment, Alien enemies act, Comstock act, Obscenity, Donald trump, Supreme court, 11th circuit court of appeals, Rights, Constitution, Police powers, Drag shows for children, Lewd or lascivious conduct 

A top executive at CBS News has stepped down as the network deals with a $20 billion lawsuit from President Donald Trump over an allegedly biased interview.

CBS News President Wendy McMahon said in a note Monday that her disagreements with the network on the lawsuit led to her leaving the company.

‘It’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward.’

“It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership,” she wrote in the memo obtained by numerous news outlets. “It’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”

President Trump had accused CBS News of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2024 election, in order to help her campaign. In October, Trump sued the network, saying it had committed “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference.”

The network responded by claiming his accusations were false.

“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response,” read a statement from the network.

“When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate, and on point,” they added. “The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”

RELATED: We asked ’60 Minutes’ why it CHANGED Kamala’s answer on Israel

Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for BET

Curtis Houck, managing editor of NewsBusters, blasted CBS News in a statement to Blaze Media.

“Yet another CBS News executive is trying to play martyr and insist they’re being censored by President Trump. In reality, McMahon and Bill Owens before her were on borrowed time,” he wrote.

“It’s been clear that, whenever Skydance’s purchase of Paramount goes through, they will be clearing house and put their own imprint at the executive level. Quitting now allows them to cry uncle and claim they’re sacrificing themselves on the altar of the First Amendment or something pious like that, but make no mistake: They were already going to have to be looking for a new job in short order,” he added.

“Last year, McMahon notably stood by as the woke, anti-Israel mob held a struggle session against ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host Tony Dokoupil for the thought crime of pressing far-left author Ta-Nehisi Coates on his anti-Semitic views about Jews, Israel, and October 7,” Houck concluded. “Given her behavior during that hullabaloo, I say good riddance.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Cbs news chief steps down, Politics, Media 

In a recent congressional hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was caught off guard by the protests of none other than Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen — who was then promptly arrested.

Cohen was removed about 15 minutes into the congressional hearing for yelling that “Congress pays for bombs” while the Health and Human Services secretary was trying to speak.

“He’s protesting at RFK Jr., who would be completely aligned with him, I think, on that issue,” Stu Burguiere comments on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “I could be wrong on this, but maybe Ben might even be one of those old school socialist types that would maybe even agree with us on some of the censorship stuff.”

“They were for that when they were the ones being shut up,” Glenn Beck agrees. “And now that they’re not the ones being told to shut up, they’re like, we have every right to tell you to shut up.”

Cohen was also recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson, which Stu believes is actually a symptom of a bigger issue.

“I’ve noticed this thing that we’re doing, and I’m a little concerned,” Stu says. “Us on the right, the conservative side of the spectrum, find someone who has some crossover with us in some way but is really a figure of the left, and we kind of give this warm embrace and say, ‘Hey, come on over.’”

Stu uses Tulsi Gabbard as an example, who made the switch from the Bernie Sanders left to the Make America Great Again movement in the not so distant past.

“She’s great, so this is not a criticism,” Stu says. “But really, what Tulsi is doing in the government right now is she’s being consistent with her old left-wing views on things, like stopping wars and being tough on intelligence issues with the government.”

“Because we woke up on that,” Glenn interjects.

“That’s what I’m getting to here. What seems to be happening is we’re embracing things on the left, and it’s not us changing their views into ours,” Stu says, adding, “it’s us changing our views into theirs and then embracing some of those people. That’s not necessarily bad if we were wrong the whole time.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Free, Upload, Sharing, Camera phone, Video, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Stu burguiere, Ben cohen, Ben and jerrys, Rfk jr, Ben cohen arrest, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Conservative podcast, Tucker carlson, Congressional hearing, Ben cohen protesting, Ben and jerry’s politics 

Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York attempted to pin the blame for a Mexican boat crash against the Brooklyn Bridge on the policies of President Donald Trump, but he was quickly refuted.

The Cuauhtémoc, a 297-foot sailing vessel leaving New York City on its way to Iceland, lost power and veered into the bridge on Saturday. Two naval cadets were killed and at least 19 others were injured when three of the ship’s masts broke.

‘We encourage Minority Leader Schumer to get his facts straight before he misleads the American people.’

Schumer suggested that Trump’s cuts were responsible for the tragedy during his weekly press briefing on Sunday.

“There are indications that this service called the [vessel traffic services] may not have been fully or adequately functional in light of that hiring freeze. We don’t know the answer to that question. We need answers. If this were the case, Brooklyn Bridge accident could be a national harbinger, demanding immediate attention,” said Schumer.

“Furthermore, the current hiring freeze at the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, which the Coast Guard is part of, may have limited the ability of the Coast Guard to fully staff up at the VTS, the vehicle traffic service, the shore-wide system that provides quote air traffic control for the seas, especially in congested areas and restricted waters like New York Harbor,” he said.

RELATED: Chuck Schumer says the US has worker shortage because Trump didn’t let illegals flock into the country

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

On Sunday the U.S. Coast Guard said the VTS was “fully functional” at the time of the incident. The Department of Homeland Security also said in a statement that Schumer’s accusation was false.

“The U.S. Coast Guard has been fully supported and been exempt from hiring freezes. Additionally, this incident had nothing to do with Vessel Traffic Services — when a ship loses propulsion in a high-current area, the vessel needs to engage all capabilities to stop, and ideally tugs are nearby to support,” the statement from the department read.

“We encourage Minority Leader Schumer to get his facts straight before he misleads the American people,” they added.

Videos captured the crash into the bridge as well as the bloody, chaotic aftermath.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Cuauhtémoc boat crash, Brooklyn bridge crash, Schumer vs trump, Schumer blames trump, Politics 

Cellphone video caught the moment when a road-rage suspect repeatedly smashed the windows of a crashed car in Boston — and the unhinged fellow carried out the act with a hatchet, of all things.

Police said the aggravated assault took place just after 11:40 p.m. Friday in the 1000 block of Commonwealth Avenue in the city’s Brighton neighborhood.

The victim added that he felt disoriented after the crash but recalled that the suspect approached him and began smashing his vehicle windows with a hammer or axe.

Police said the suspect reportedly chased the victim in his vehicle at a high rate of speed, causing the victim to crash. Police said the suspect then exited a gray pickup truck, assaulted the victim, and used a hatchet to break the windows and windshield of the victim’s vehicle after the victim fled.

You can view video here of the hatchet attack.

RELATED: Boston judge holds ICE agent in contempt for depriving illegal alien of due process by detaining him in the middle of his trial

Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Police said the suspect fled on Babcock Street in the direction of Brookline.

What else do we know?

According to WBTS-TV, a preliminary investigation revealed that the victim was driving a Toyota Prius south on Commonwealth at a high rate of speed, veered to the right, jumped the median separating the road from the bicycle lanes, and crashed into a tree on the sidewalk.

Police told the station the Prius sustained extensive damage and that the airbags had deployed.

The Prius driver told police that the pickup truck driver chased and forced him off the road, WBTS reported.

The victim added that he felt disoriented after the crash but recalled that the suspect approached him and began smashing his vehicle windows with a hammer or axe, the station said, adding that the suspect also swung the hatchet at him and chased him down the street for a short distance.

More from WTBS:

Witnesses told police they saw the suspect chasing the victim along the sidewalk armed with an axe. One witness showed police clear cellphone video showing the suspect smashing the victim’s vehicle repeatedly with a small hatchet.

The victim suffered a hand injury in the crash and was treated at the scene but refused transport to a hospital.

Boston police on Sunday released photos of the alleged suspect and asked the public for help in identifying him, the station said.

RELATED: Far-left Boston mayor blasted for ‘condolences’ to family of thug shot dead by cop; suspect tried to stab 2 people: Police

Image source: Boston Police Department

Blaze News on Monday afternoon spoke to an employee of a business near the location of the incident, and the employee — who wished to remain anonymous — said things were back to normal, except for some pieces of broken glass on the ground and reporters and TV cameras roaming in the area.

Police said the suspect was described as a white male, approximately 25 years old, with a slight build, brown medium-length hair, and a short beard. The suspect was wearing a white T-shirt with a plain front and lettering on the back as well as blue jeans and brown sneakers, police said.

Police said they are actively reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident, and those with information are strongly urged to contact detectives at 617-343-4256. Community members who wish to provide anonymous information can call the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 800-494-TIPS, text “TIP” to CRIME (27463), or visit Boston Police CrimeStoppers, the department said.

RELATED: Horrifying viral video shows male body-slamming woman headfirst on road after fender bender; suspect released on $2,500 bail

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Road rage, Boston, Brighton, Boston police, Cellphone video, Suspect at large, Hatchet, Physical attack, Car crash, Crime 

Dozens of illegal aliens made their way home on Monday as part of a new push by the Trump administration to have migrants illegally in the country show themselves out, Axios reports.

Citing an unnamed Department of Homeland Security official, Axios claimed that the first so-called “self-deportation” flight took off from Houston around 9:30 a.m. The plane reportedly carried 65 illegal aliens from Colombia and Honduras and took the individuals to their respective countries of origin.

‘If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States.’

Those on the flight apparently took advantage of an offer from the Trump administration known as “Project Homecoming.” In exchange for electing to “self-deport” through the CBP Home app, they each received a free ticket home plus $1,000 upon their arrival, Axios said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has urged all immigrants in the U.S. illegally to participate in the program. “If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Noem said in a statement on May 5.

Those who voluntarily step forward on the app and make “meaningful strides in completing” their departure may have the opportunity to return to the U.S. someday. They will also avoid arrest and perhaps lengthy pre-deportation detention.

RELATED: Trump’s self-deportation plan: Genius or waste of money? Mark Levin weighs in

Photo by Juancho Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images

“In principle, [self-deporting] could be a very good option for people,” said Michelle Brané, President Joe Biden’s executive director of the Family Reunification Task Force.

“If people are not being coerced, are fully informed, and if it actually is a safe option that preserves people’s rights, it could be a successful program,” she told Axios.

Blaze News reached out to DHS for comment.

This is a developing story.

RELATED: DHS sets sights on California for allegedly providing federal benefits to illegal aliens

— (@)

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Kristi noem, Self-deport, Self-deportation, Houston, Department of homeland security, Colombia, Honduras, Politics 

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr. Casey Means for surgeon general has divided those within the Make America Healthy Again movement, and Liz Wheeler of “The Liz Wheeler Show” knows exactly where she stands.

“I support her very strongly, not because I agree with her on every single health-related conclusion that she draws,” Wheeler says. “But that’s OK, because I can’t think of a single doctor or person in the MAHA movement or political activist or politician that I agree with 100%. That just doesn’t exist.”

“So when I’m analyzing these picks, I say, ‘Does this person get it?’ And because I’m not looking for identical ideological conformity, I ask, ‘Is this person a net positive to the MAHA movement? Are they more right than they are wrong? And when I look at these different people through those two lenses,” she continues, “that tells me whether someone is going to be effective in this position.”

“And so, applying this framework to Casey Means, the answer to me seems very obvious. The answer to me is, ‘Casey Means gets it,’” she adds.

And Means made that clear in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, where she made it clear that lifestyle, processed food, and environmental toxins are a massive part of the skyrocketing disease epidemic.

“Casey Means is not only very passionate but very knowledgeable about ridding the United States and our families, our neighborhoods, our food, of these very pesticides,” Wheeler says.

However, Means has come under fire for her medical credentials — or lack thereof — but Wheeler doesn’t see a problem with it.

“I don’t care whether she has an active medical license,” Wheeler says. “Some of the best health care practitioners don’t have medical licenses, because to have a medical license doesn’t mean that you have a monopoly on health-related knowledge. It means that you’ve been given a pat on the head by medical schools, which are funded by and bought off by Big Pharma.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video, Free, Upload, Video phone, Sharing, Camera phone, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Casey means, Surgeon general, Make america healthy again, Make america great again, Maha movement, Maha, President donald trump 

American Catholics didn’t want an American pope.

The idea was off the table because everyone told them it was unrealistic. How could the world’s cardinals go into the conclave and give the world a pope from the world’s only superpower?

Although the media have hyped Pope Leo as a Francis protégé, expect the American pope to operate differently.

Impossible.

But God has a way of making the impossible a reality.

The choice of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics almost echoes what Donald Trump said in his recent inaugural address. “In America, the impossible is what we do best.”

For Pope Leo XIV, however, the real work is just beginning.

He was officially inaugurated yesterday, on Pope St. John Paul’s 105th birthday. Now the first American-born pope must begin mending the Vatican’s strained relationship with the United States, which was left in tatters by his predecessor, Pope Francis.

Francis, who died on April 21 after a lengthy illness, visited the United States only once. During his 12-year pontificate, his disdain for the home of the free was palpable.

The late pope became a worldwide media darling in 2013 after taking a soft stance on homosexual behavior. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?”

Francis also drew the ire of American Catholics in 2021 when he imposed restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass, which sharply contrasted with Pope Benedict XVI, who had loosened restrictions during his pontificate. Many were perplexed because the TLM attracted young Catholics and represented a growing segment of the church worldwide.

Francis regularly waded into American politics. In 2016, he challenged President Donald Trump’s policy of securing the U.S.-Mexico border by celebrating Mass in the border city of Ciudad Juárez.

Hours later, aboard the papal plane, he denounced Trump personally. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” he said. The irony, which most of us caught, was that he was returning to Vatican City, which has 40-foot walls.

The pope stepped up his criticism earlier this year in a letter to American bishops, knocking Trump’s treatment of migrants and claiming that deportations violate the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families.”

Before last week’s conclave, the new pontiff criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policy. His final X post before being elected was a retweet of a message from Philadelphia-based Catholic commentator Rocco Palmo, who on April 14 blasted Trump’s agreement with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele regarding the deportation of illegal migrants.

“As Trump & Bukele use Oval to [laugh emoji] Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident… once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC [auxiliary bishop] Evelio [Menjivar] asks, ‘Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?’” the post reads.

The Pope’s old X account @drprevost has been deleted. However, once the honeymoon period is over, Catholics should expect the new Holy Father to wade into politics as Francis did. I suspect Pope Leo will be far more diplomatic and nuanced than his predecessor in the political arena.

Pope Leo must also mend fences with American Catholics who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass. Under Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, TLM attendance boomed, particularly among young Catholics. The German pontiff loosened restrictions on the old form of liturgy, only to see Francis restrict its practice.

Pope Leo XIV buoyed the hopes of Latin Mass adherents last week when he began his Sunday Angelus message by singing the “Regina Caeli” (Queen of Heaven) in Latin. The new pope has expressed support for the Traditional Latin Mass, emphasizing the importance of maintaining sacred rituals and the Church’s rich heritage. His leadership is seen as a continuation of efforts to balance modernity with traditional practices in Catholic worship.

While rebuilding the Holy See’s relationship with the United States must be a top priority for Leo, he has bigger fish to fry. The pope has inherited a financial mess, including a pension time bomb that is worse than expected.

The Vatican has faced significant budget deficits for decades. The recent budget shortfall of $94.22 million and ongoing financial scandals persist despite Francis’s reform efforts.

The 69-year-old Chicago native will also need to grapple with the ongoing homosexual influence within the Vatican and in the American Church, as well as the decline of Catholicism in Europe, and heal worldwide divisions in the wake of Francis’ 12-year pontificate.

Although the media have hyped Pope Leo as a Francis protégé, expect the American pope to operate differently. His decades of service in Latin America, leadership in the Augustinian order, and two years at the Vatican have given him the credibility to implement the reforms the Church has desperately needed for the past two decades.

The challenges facing the new pope may seem impossible, but then again, so was his election.

​The vatican, Catholicism, Religion, Christianity, Pope francis, Culture, Politics, Faith 

President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law on Monday, a bill that toughens penalties for the distribution of revenge porn and AI-generated deepfakes.

The bill was first introduced by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota before it was additionally spearheaded by first lady Melania Trump. The bill, which passed both the House and the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, aims to hold both individuals and platforms accountable for distributing nonconsensual materials.

‘This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused.’

RELATED: Fiscal hawks send warning as ‘big, beautiful bill’ clears high-stakes vote: ‘We have to do more to deliver’

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

“The TAKE IT DOWN Act gives victims of revenge and deepfake pornography — many of whom are young girls — the ability to fight back,” Cruz said in a statement. “Under our bipartisan bill, those who knowingly spread this vile material will face criminal charges, and Big Tech companies must remove exploitative content without delay.”

“As we worked on the TAKE IT DOWN Act, more victims courageously came forward to share their stories to help end this horrific online abuse,” Cruz added.

The bill criminalizes individuals and platforms that “knowingly publish” deepfakes or revenge porn and requires platforms to remove the materials within 48 hours of notification. Although the majority of states already have laws prohibiting the dissemination of this nonconsensual content, the Take It Down Act implements these regulations at the federal level.

“This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused,” Melania Trump said at a press conference before the bill signing.

RELATED: Vance tells Glenn Beck Congress needs to ‘get serious’ about codifying DOGE cuts

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

“As a father of three young girls, I’m deeply concerned about the rise of deepfakes and nonconsensual intimate images in our country. It is sickening, it is harmful, and it must be stopped — and this law is a major step forward in protecting victims and restoring online accountability,” Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas told Blaze News.

“I was proud to co-lead this legislation in the House and commend Rep. Salazar, Senator Cruz, and first lady Melania Trump for their leadership in driving it across the finish line,” Pfluger added. “I also thank President Trump for taking decisive action to cement this legislation into law.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, Melania trump, Ted cruz, Amy klobuchar, Take it down act, Revenge porn, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Deepfakes, Senate, House, Senate democrats, Senate republicans, House democrats, House republicans, August pfluger, Politics 

Failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz faced brutal criticism after accusing agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of acting like Nazi police during a commencement speech.

The Democratic Minnesota governor criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration policies by referring to ICE as his “Gestapo” while speaking to students at the law school of the University of Minnesota.

‘It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo.’

“Some would say, ‘Boy, this is getting way too political for a commencement address.’ But I would argue, I wouldn’t be honoring my oath if I didn’t address this head on,” Walz said Saturday.

“I’m gonna start with the flashing red light — Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons. No chance to mount a defense. Not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye. Just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans and disappeared.”

Walz was likely referring to controversial deportations of accused gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a terrorist prison in El Salvador and of Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk.

The Department of Homeland Security responded in a scathing statement on its official social media account.

“It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo. Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong,” read the statement. “ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults. Our message is clear: DO NOT come to this country illegally. If you do, we will arrest you, deport you and you will never return.”

RELATED: Feds arrest radical leftist for making threats against ICE officers and DHS

Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images

Many online were bewildered and angered by the comparison to Nazi Germany, and they let Walz hear it.

“Gov Tim Waltz indulging in extreme Nazi talk criticizing roundups of undocumented immigrants,” said Geraldo Rivera of NewsNation. “Inflammatory language helps nobody. Better to pursue injunctions preventing expulsions and demanding due process. Don’t hate on cops doing their jobs.”

“Dude can never resist an opportunity to show off his TDS,” said Townhall columnist Dustin Grage.

“Walz should either read a book on the Gestapo or shut his mouth and stop trivializing the Holocaust to score cheap political points,” responded Eyal Yakoby.

“Attacking ICE agents with Nazi comparisons is reckless and wrong. Enforce the law? Debate policy. But don’t smear those doing their jobs,” read another response.

“I find that personally offensive as most of my family were murdered by the actual Nazis. Schmuck,” said another detractor.

The official White House rapid response account called Walz a “disgraced loser” over the comments.

Trump’s efforts to fulfill his promise of mass deportations have been stymied by court challenges filed by Democrats and other political opponents.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Tim walz vs ice, Ice gestapo, Backlash to tim walz, Democrats crushed, Politics 

Retired undercover FBI agent Scott Payne spent much of his career infiltrating motorcycle gangs and white supremacist groups, including the Klan. There are no words to describe some of the horrors he’s witnessed over the years.

“I’m sitting across the table from a pedophile who’s hiring me to kill the kid that he molested,” he recalls from his undercover days. “There’s a lot of people out there that just don’t know how evil the world can be.”

A rock solid faith in God, he tells Glenn Beck, is what got him through then and what helps him fight the ghosts of the past now.

But he didn’t always have a relationship with God to strengthen him. In fact, there was a time in high school when dabbling in witchcraft led to a terrifying face-to-face encounter with a demon in his friend’s basement that scared him so deeply, he ran to Jesus and never looked back.

But that wasn’t his last encounter with the demonic. From children pledging to shoot their own fathers and pagan rituals, Payne has seen things most of us couldn’t fathom.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Podcast,” he shares some of his wildest stories.

In 2019, Payne infiltrated “the Base” — a neo-Nazi, white supremacist group founded in 2018 that promotes accelerationist ideology, which aims to collapse society through violence and terrorism to create a white ethnostate.

One event he attended, which he calls “Halloween hate camp,” involved “hand-to-hand combat training,” “firearms training,” “burning Bibles, burning American flags,” and a “ceremony of paganism” that included animal sacrifice.

Some members of the group stole a goat from a nearby farm, planning to sacrifice it to Odin – the central figure in Norse mythology who is the god of both war and death. The sacrifice was meant to symbolize the kicking off of the “Wild Hunt” — a midwinter ghostly procession of spirits and supernatural beings led by Odin to destroy enemies and send mortals to the underworld.

The Wild Hunt was seen as symbolic of the Base’s desire to “cleanse the world of anti-fascist non-whites.”

“We’re all in a circle on our knees around the goat,” says Payne. “He comes down full-fledged with the blade.”

However, the blade was dull and failed to pierce the animal’s skin, so the executioner used a gun to finish the job.

“You think you’re done, and you’re not. They go and slice the throat of the goat, fill up a big cup with its blood,” says Payne, who went by the moniker Pale Horse.

The executioner then passed out acid to the group.

“They chase it with the blood as part of the sacrifice,” Payne tells Glenn, noting that he was able to avoid the acid but still had to “[dip his] whole finger” in the cup and “[suck] all the blood off.”

“Then, they cut the head of it off, threw its innards in the creek. Some members tried to cook it … and then we carried the head around for, like, three more days,” he recalls.

Glenn then asks the question we’re all thinking: How did you reconcile such a job given your faith?

“I’m in work mode, and I know that somebody had to kick Satan out of heaven,” he says.

To hear more of Payne’s wild stories, including Bibles that wouldn’t burn and the time he nearly was found out, watch the episode above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The glenn beck podcast, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Scott payne, Demonic, White supremacy, Fbi, Klan, The base 

The top leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed in a recent interview that the evidence in the suspicious death of sex offender billionaire Jeffrey Epstein pointed to a definitive conclusion.

While the circumstances of Epstein’s death have led many to suspect that he was killed in order to protect those who were complicit in his alleged underage trafficking ring, FBI Director Kash Patel said the evidence supported the official explanation of suicide.

‘You know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.’

Patel made the admission while he and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino were being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business. Video of the interview aired on Sunday.

“You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide,” said Bartiromo. “People don’t believe it.”

“They have a right to their opinion,” Patel replied, “but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who’s been in that prison system, who’s been in the metropolitan detention center, who’s been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.”

“He killed himself,” Bongino agreed. “Again, I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

Video of the interaction between Bartiromo, Patel, and Bongino was widely circulated on the internet, where it garnered millions of views. Some members of the Trump administration had been criticized for promising to release Epstein files and apparently stalling on the issue.

RELATED: Federal judge orders dozens of names of Jeffrey Epstein associates be unsealed

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck responded to the admission from the FBI on social media.

“FBI Director @Kash_Patel and @dbongino now claim they believe Epstein’s death WAS a suicide,” wrote Beck. “They didn’t used to believe that. I STILL don’t believe that. However, I know Dan Bongino. I think he’s a credible guy. He loves his country. I know Kash Patel. I think he’s an honorable guy. He loves his country.”

Beck listed the evidence that the FBI must release in order to alleviate the suspicions of many who doubt the official story of Epstein’s death.

“I tend to believe Patel and Bongino. I don’t believe there’s some sort of conspiracy inside MAGA,” Beck added. “But I also believe that Epstein didn’t kill himself with a PAPER SHEET. So, show us the facts. We must restore trust.”

One of the Epstein accusers, Virginia Giuffre, died in April from suicide, according to a statement from her family, which sparked even more speculation. The 41-year-old had been in a bus accident and accused her husband of abuse prior to her death. Authorities have initially said the suicide was not suspicious.

RELATED: Pam Bondi says Epstein client list is sitting on her desk ‘right now’ and being reviewed for release

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Kash patel on epstein, Don bongino on epstein, Jeffrey epstein suicide, Epstein killed himself, Politics 

President Donald Trump stated Monday that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin negotiation talks.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump revealed some details regarding a two-hour call he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that the conversation went “very well.”

‘I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going.’

He announced that Russia and Ukraine would immediately begin talks to reach a ceasefire deal and ultimately agree on an “END to the War.”

“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of. The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later,” Trump wrote.

RELATED: Russia, Ukraine resume talks for first time in years — all thanks to Trump

— (@)

The president noted that Putin expressed interest in engaging in “largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over.”

“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth,” Trump continued. “Its potential is UNLIMITED. Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country.”

Trump further noted that the Vatican had agreed to host the negotiation talks.

RELATED: Trump reveals Ukraine ceasefire challenges and who he blames most

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and Pope Leo XIV. Photo by Simone Risoluti Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also suggested that the Vatican could be the venue for the discussions.

“I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going,” Rubio stated. “So we’ll talk about all of that and obviously always grateful to the Vatican for their willingness to play this constructive and positive role.”

The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Donald trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Vladimir putin, Putin, Marco rubio, Vatican, The vatican, Pope leo xiv, Russia, Ukraine, Russia ukraine war, Politics 

No moment offers a political party a better opportunity for self-examination than losing the White House after a single term. But the Democratic Party refuses to seize that opportunity. Instead, party leaders and media allies have turned their ire toward the one man with no role in shaping the party’s future: Joe Biden.

Yes, Biden’s four years exposed real structural problems worth sorting out. Friday’s release of special counsel Robert Hur’s tapes exposes just how far gone the president was and raises serious questions about how closely he must have been managed.

Tapper, Thompson, and the rest are covering up the Democrats’ own failings, giving them the excuse they need to avoid any real soul-searching.

Then came Sunday’s revelation that Biden is suffering from an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer — two years after he slipped up and said he had it and one year after his doctor publicly presented a clean bill of health (but declined to take questions).

The White House claimed at the time his claim of having cancer referred to skin cancers that were removed (a common procedure for the elderly), but we know for a fact that the White House lied to the public about his mental health, and the Biden family only revealed this information as the country gets ready for another week of scrutiny on the former president.

None of those problems, however, touch the core philosophical rot Democrats must confront. The reality is that Biden didn’t defeat the Democrats; Vice President Kamala Harris did — and she was a candidate more wounded by her ideas than her campaign’s short runway.

Now, ahead of Tuesday’s release of “Original Sin” — the new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson — the salacious details of Biden’s mental and physical decline have become political gossip. But the truth remains unchanged: Everything the book reveals was painfully obvious to anyone not peering through Democrat-colored lenses for the past five years.

We already knew the president couldn’t remember the names of senior staff. We watched him forget his own defense secretary’s name — even when they stood side by side. We saw the signs of dementia. He stood frozen in place, staring blankly into space for minutes at a time. When asked about it, Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler shrugged and said Biden just doesn’t dance.

We saw the mumbling, the sudden outbursts of anger, the muttered non sequiturs. We saw it again and again. We saw the physical decline, too — how he abandoned the main stairs of Air Force One, how he fell repeatedly in public. After watching him on camera for decades, we could tell his gait had stiffened and grown unsteady.

The book’s only meaningful new claim is that Biden’s staff believed he might need a wheelchair after the campaign. While historically relevant, that detail pales in comparison to the deterioration the public witnessed in real time. He looked bad even before Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary!

So how did a clearly declining man who handily lost both of these primary races end up reversing the narrative and taking the nomination in a barnstorm? That question points to the party’s structural troubles on the one hand, but also to the pox on Democrat priorities infecting them to this day.

For all their talk, the Democrats have a very top-down party structure. The bosses can really move chips around the table when they need to, as was on display when the full weight and power of the party came down on Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ unsanctioned and insurgent 2016 primary campaign against anointed champion Hillary Clinton. In 2020, we saw these gears turn for Joe Biden — starting first in South Carolina.

Joe Biden wasn’t Barack Obama’s first choice. He wasn’t the Clintons’ either. He stood far from the top of his game. So why did Democratic Party leaders rally behind him? Because he was, quite simply, the least insane option on stage. And that points directly to the party’s deeper sickness.

Think back to that 2020 stage, if you can. You had Bernie Sanders, well past his prime and weakened by his reluctant acceptance of woke ideologies; clucking Harvard professor and scold Elizabeth Warren; New York technocrat Michael Bloomberg; nightmare drunk aunt Amy Klobuchar; tiny town mayor Pete Buttigieg; global warming fanatic and hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer; high school snitch Michael Bennet; latecomer Deval Patrick; unknown tech guy Andrew Yang; and veritable Democratic apostate Tulsi Gabbard.

That doesn’t even include perennial loser Beto O’Rourke, Manhattan cuckold Bill de Blasio, China enthusiast Eric Swalwell, illegal immigrant devotee Julián Castro, séance medium Marianne Williamson, or Kamala Harris — all of whom dropped out before the primary even began.

Early on in the debate, moderators asked the candidates if they would decriminalize illegally crossing the border into the United States. Biden was the only one who actually made it to Iowa who opposed this idea. The only one!

Well, this would not do in November, and so nobody’s first choice to take on Donald Trump was anointed in South Carolina, cruising toward Super Tuesday looking like a moderate and a winner, with no need to hold rallies or even a convention, and a corporate press willing to do anything it needed to in order to defeat the incumbent and see a Democrat in the White House again.

Party leaders saw what everyone else saw: Biden was the only candidate who appealed to the Democratic base and could still sell his platform to the broader public. His scripted rise allowed Democrats to gloss over the mess — open borders and a slate of fringe ideas pushed by nearly every other serious contender.

But once in office, the radicals he had outmaneuvered took control. They implemented the very policies voters had rejected. And four years later, when his debate with Trump showed Democrats the charade was finally, mercifully over, they got their woman.

Really, she
wasn’t their woman. She did not even make it to Iowa in 2020 because people didn’t like her, and she hadn’t improved at all since joining the administration. Democrats can claim Biden’s refusal to bow out in time held stunted her ability to convince voters they liked her, but that doesn’t comport with the facts. She had one of the most high-profile jobs in the world for four years, checked (or at least smudged) all the Democratic boxes for being a woman and whatever ethnicity she is, and had the full power of a media coronation behind her.

Kamala Harris served an administration that had divided the people and weakened the country. She was unwilling to offer either a convincing defense or any alternative to the course we were on, and she hoped she could wall herself off from cross-examination. She had spent more than a decade pronouncing and enacting radical policies, and when she ran for president, she could not escape her record, no matter how many flags they put up for the convention.

Remember how her campaign refused to let her talk to reporters until she was obviously trailing? They can complain all they want about not having the time, but when given time, they left it on the table.

The Republicans, meanwhile, ran against the Democrats’ past record, current policies, and future proposals and won the popular vote for the second time in 36 years. Now Democrats and their friends in the news business had both an important and opportune time for introspection.

They chose to do otherwise.

Tapper, Thompson, and the rest aren’t simply covering up the press’ complicity in the farce of the past decade — they’re covering up the Democrats’ own failings, giving them the excuse they need to avoid any real soul-searching. “It’s not our fault,” you can hear the press saying. “It’s the White House’s fault! They lied to us!”

And the Democrats can’t be to blame for their deep unpopularity, either. “It’s Joe’s fault! He stayed in too long! He was too old! Kamala never stood a chance because of him!”

Well, Joe’s gone now. And it’ll be mighty difficult to pick up the pieces while Democrats and their reporters are pretending nothing is broken.

Blaze News: Democrat lawmakers completely flip on Biden’s mental acuity

Glenn Beck: Biden was a puppet, not a president. So who signed the pardons?

Blaze News: The party of democracy just stole an election from itself

Blaze News: Democrats pick Beijing over Trump in shocking trade war poll

Blaze News: Illegal alien teen in blue state avoids jail time despite killing woman in car crash

Blaze News: Harvard staff fall over each other to aid comedian’s fake deportation claim, offer tips to evade ICE

Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter

Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford’s newsletter.

​Opinion & analysis, Politics 

Oklahoma might be one of the deepest red states in the country, but that hasn’t stopped woke policies from infiltrating the school system.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is leading the fight against the takeover, and he tells James Poulos on “Zero Hour” just how he plans to win the war for America’s future.

“It’s unreal how bad the problem is,” Walters tells Poulos. “When I first got into office, we banned pornographic material from the classrooms, we banned transgender ideology from the classrooms. I was sued by our own administrators.”

Walters was sued by the administrators to keep the books “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” in grade school classrooms — both of which contain pornographic material depicting homosexual relationships.

“Inclusivity? You want ‘Gender Queer’ and ‘Flamer’ in the classroom? You guys are the same ones that then turned around and sued me to keep the Bible out of the classroom. So it was inclusivity except when it came to the most read book in American history,” Walters says.

But it’s not just the books that has Walters concerned.

“I had two school districts, one of them sent out a handout to a classroom of high school kids asking them about their favorite sexual preferences in graphic detail, about which of these sexual preferences do they have,” he tells Poulos.

“That is completely inappropriate in the classroom,” he continues. “We have pulled over 100 teacher certificates from sending sexually explicit text messages or committing sex acts with kids in the state of Oklahoma.”

“We’ve had to pass all these rules, all these requirements, because of again, people that have crossed the line, people that have indoctrinated kids, and then people who have taken even a step further to engage sexually with kids, and that’s where we have got to protect our young people,” he explains.

And again, this is all happening in Oklahoma, one of, if not, the reddest state in the country.

“If we’re dealing with it in Oklahoma,” Walters warns, “I’m telling you, it’s happening in every state.”

Want more from James Poulos?

To enjoy more of James’s visionary commentary on politics, tech, ideas, and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Free, Upload, Sharing, Camera phone, Video, Youtube.com, Zero hour, James poulos, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Oklahoma, Child predators, Lgbtqia agenda, Lgbtq agenda, Lgbtq activists, Ryan walters, Gender queer, Flamer, Zero hour with james poulos 

A fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, was the apparent target of a car bomb on Saturday.

The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus, who was killed in the explosion, as the suspect in the attack.

‘I think we need a war against pro-lifers.’

Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, stated that the incident appeared to be “an intentional act of violence.” Davis also referred to the attack as “terrorism,” linking the suspect to “nihilistic ideations.”

“This was a targeted attack against the [in-vitro fertilization] facility,” Davis said. “Make no mistake: We are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”

Interim U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli confirmed that the explosion was intentional.

“My office along with the FBI will be leading the terrorism investigation into this incident. Federal prosecutors and special agents are on scene,” Essayli said. “We do not believe there is any further threat to the public at this time. We will release as much information as possible that does not jeopardize our active investigation.”

The explosion, which occurred in the facility’s parking lot, caused significant damage to American Reproductive Centers and nearby buildings. Bartkus, 25, died in the blast, and at least four others were injured. No embryos were destroyed, according to the clinic.

RELATED: Wyoming abortion ban blocked hours after suspect arrested in connection to clinic fire

— (@)

American Reproductive Centers stated in part, “We are immensely grateful to share that no members of the ARC team were harmed, and our lab — including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials — remains fully secure and undamaged. We are heavily conducting a complete safety inspection and have confirmed that our operations and sensitive medical areas were not impacted by the blast.”

The FBI believes that Bartkus had planned to livestream the attack. It is currently investigating “a possible manifesto.”

In an alleged online manifesto, the suspect shared his anti-natalist beliefs.

“The end goal is for the truth (Efilism) to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilizing this planet of the disease of life,” it reportedly read. “Life can only continue as long as people hold the delusional belief that it is not a zero sum game causing senseless torture, and messes it can never, or only partially, clean up.”

“I think we need a war against pro-lifers,” it added.

The alleged manifesto also encouraged viewers to “download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic.”

RELATED: War on faith: How anti-Catholic violence is exploding almost unnoticed

On Sunday, KTLA spoke with Bartkus’ father, Richard Bartkus, who claims he had not spoken with his son for over a decade.

He claimed that his son had a history of setting fires, including burning down their family home at 9 years old.

“What my [former] wife, what my daughter knows, I really don’t know. But they had to see a change in him. They don’t just go off like that and nobody sees a change,” he told KTLA.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that she had been briefed about the attack.

“We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable,” she wrote in a post on X.

— (@)

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Palm springs, Palm springs california, California, Fertility clinic, In vitro fertilization, Ivf, Fertility clinic bombing, Fbi, Bill essayli, Pam bondi, Pro-life, Pro-lifers, Anti-natalist, Politics, Crime