Category: blaze media

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the first county recognition of the life and legacy of conservative activist Charlie Kirk would be installed in his state.

Kirk was struck and killed by an assassin’s bullet while he debated students at Utah Valley University and sparked a debate about the rise of political violence in the U.S., especially from the left-wing side of the aisle.

‘Every city and county in America should follow the lead of Lake County, FL.’

DeSantis said Thursday in a statement on social media that a highway in Florida would bear Kirk’s name.

“Charlie Kirk Memorial Highway has been approved by the Lake County Commission,” wrote the governor.

“The road is a section of Wellness Way from US 27 to the Orange County line,” he added. “Lake County’s dedication of the highway represents the first county to memorialize Kirk in the aftermath of his assassination.”

On Sept. 23, the Lake County Commission voted unanimously to support the name change that was proposed by Commissioner Anthony Sabatini.

The section of highway is located west of Orlando.

“This is amazing! I love how fast this happened,” responded Andrew Kolvet, spokesman for Turning Point USA. “… Every city and county in America should follow the lead of Lake County, FL and name a road or highway in honor of Charlie Kirk,”

RELATED: Viral video shows 2 women laughing while destroying Charlie Kirk memorial — now they’re behind bars

The commission meeting on the vote was occasionally contentious, as some members of the public voiced opposition to the name change, leading Sabatini to call one dissenter “petty” and “disgusting.”

Sabatini indicated that there would be a naming ceremony for the memorial.

Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has been named the head of TPUSA, the organization her husband founded to spread conservative ideas and debate on campuses across the nation.

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​Charlie kirk memorial, Lake county florida, Ron desantis, Charlie kirk assassination, Politics 

The Trump administration said it plans to enforce federal immigration laws at Super Bowl LX after Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was named as a performer for the halftime show.

The NFL made an announcement on Sunday, naming Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, as the Super Bowl LX halftime performer. The news caused significant backlash due to the singer’s recent comments about Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

‘We will find you. We will apprehend you.’

In September, Ocasio was asked if one of the reasons he was not touring in the U.S. was because of “the [mass deportations of] Latinos.”

He replied, “Man, honestly, yes.”

“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent,” he continued, according to the Guardian. “But there was the issue of — like, f**king ICE could be outside.”

On Wednesday’s episode of “The Benny Show,” Corey Lewandowski, an adviser to President Trump, was asked about Ocasio’s concern for illegal immigrants and their deportation. He confirmed that there will be ICE agents at Super Bowl LX.

“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” Lewandowski explained.

The 52-year-old, who works as a special government employee with the Department of Homeland Security, then issued a stern warning to illegal aliens.

“We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you. So, know that that is a very real situation under this administration, which is completely contrary to how it used to be,” he said.

RELATED: Anti-Trump artist Bad Bunny named Super Bowl halftime performer — immediately makes it political

Bad Bunny has not remained impartial regarding federal politics; he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election after he was offended by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico. Hinchcliffe joked about Puerto Rico’s garbage and landfill issues at a Trump rally and received criticism, despite this being a known problem on the island for years.

“I can understand that it’s a joke, but there’s people that doesn’t [sic] understand that it’s a joke. People who are going to agree with that joke,” Ocasio said at the time, according to NBCUniversal.

Bad Bunny also released a music video on July 4 that mocked President Trump and draped a Puerto Rico flag over the Statue of Liberty.

“It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime,” Lewandowski told host Benny Johnson. “We should be trying to be inclusive, not exclusive. There are plenty of great bands and entertainment people who could be playing at that show that would be bringing people together and not separating them.”

RELATED: Cross-dressing rapper Bad Bunny to headline Super Bowl — will it be DEMONIC?

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

The adviser concluded, “I don’t care if it’s a concert for Johnny Smith or Bad Bunny or anybody else. We’re going to do enforcement everywhere because we are going to make Americans safe. That is a directive from the president. And if you’re in this country legally, do yourself a favor. Go home.”

A DHS spokesperson also told Blaze News, “There is no safe haven for violent criminal illegal aliens in the United States.”

Super Bowl LX takes place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8, 2026.

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​Fearless, Super bowl, Ice, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Half-time show, Bad bunny, Sports 

As more candidates announce their campaigns ahead of the 2026 midterms, the race for the coveted Florida congressional seat currently occupied by Byron Donalds just got more crowded.

Madison Cawthorn, who represented North Carolina’s 11th congressional district from 2021 to 2023, announced that he will be running for Donalds’ congressional seat in a political comeback run in 2026.

‘I’ll fight to lower out-of-control insurance costs and stop crime in our streets and deport illegals.’

Citing Charlie Kirk’s death in a Wednesday Instagram post as an impetus for his decision to run, Cawthorn said, “I have been juggling this decision for some time now. Once Charlie was assassinated this became no decision at all. There is only one course of action for those of us who want to live in a free, prosperous, and safe land to do: Be extremely shrewd, fearless in the face of backlash and resistance, and to stand up and fight for our country.”

“I’m running for Congress to stand with President Trump, defend our conservative values, and fight to stop the radical left every single time,” Cawthorn said in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday. “I’ll fight to lower out-of-control insurance costs and stop crime in our streets and deport illegals.”

RELATED: Madison Cawthorn wins, becoming youngest member of Congress

Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Latino Wall Street

In an interview clip, Cawthorn expressed his intent to take up a bill championed by Donalds that would assist citizens impacted by flood insurance costs.

Cawthorn is joining a crowded field of candidates vying for Donalds’ congressional seat in Florida. Donalds has announced that he will not seek re-election to Congress and will be running for governor in 2026.

According to News-Press, the Republican field of candidates includes Chris Collins, a former U.S. representative from New York; Illinois businessman Jim Oberweis; retired Marine Mike Pedersen; and president of Sun Broadcasting Jim Schwartzel. On the Democrat side, Howard Sapp is the lone candidate at this time.

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​Politics, Madison cawthorn, Byron donalds, 19th district florida, Florida, Chris collins, Congress, 2026 midterms, Charlie kirk 

Democrat lawmakers were quick to pin the government shutdown on their Republican counterparts, conveniently sidestepping their role in the gridlock.

U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) shared a post on X blaming Republicans for the shutdown.

“Civics 101: Republicans control all three branches of government. It’s their responsibility to pass a budget,” Houlahan wrote.

Other Democrat allies have shared similar half-truths on social media.

‘This is the puzzling part, Senator Schumer actually voted for this exact same legislation multiple times.’

In response to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments that the Democrats were responsible, Matt Corridoni, a Democratic strategist, replied, “Republicans control all three branches of the government.”

Even former Vice President Kamala Harris chimed in on the debate, writing, “President Trump and Congressional Republicans just shut down the government because they refused to stop your health care costs from rising.”

“Let me be clear: Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. This is their shutdown,” Harris added.

While the Republicans control the White House and hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, Democrats’ remarks overlook a fundamental truth about how the U.S. government is designed to function, deliberately empowering the minority to block legislation.

RELATED: Trump trolls leftists as shutdown presents key opportunity to cut ‘Democrat Agencies’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Vice President JD Vance. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Republican lawmakers proposed a clean continuing resolution that, if passed, would have allowed the government to remain open by extending funding past the start of fiscal year 2026, which began on October 1. This CR would have acted as a temporary stopgap through November 21, allowing lawmakers time to negotiate a new full-year budget.

However, Democrats, who have refused to support the bill, blocked the bill by triggering a filibuster. Democrat lawmakers refused to budge unless Republicans allowed an extension for Affordable Care Act tax credits. It is important to note that these tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year, after the Republicans’ CR would already have dropped off.

Republicans refused to accept Democrats’ request, arguing that the health care programs use federal tax dollars to provide services to illegal aliens. Additionally, they contended that specific programs could be negotiated in the full-year budget.

To override the Democrats’ filibuster, Republicans filed for cloture, which, if passed, would have forced a vote on the CR.

With a slim Senate majority, Republicans theoretically have enough members to pass a CR in a straightforward vote. However, they do not have the supermajority, 60 votes, needed to invoke cloture and end debate.

RELATED: Democrats deny shutdown is about health care for illegal aliens — then one admits the truth

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republicans’ attempt to invoke cloture fell short by five votes, causing the CR to die by the October 1 deadline, thus triggering a shutdown.

Republicans have referred to the gridlock as New York Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s shutdown.

“Chuck Schumer has led them all to vote against it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stated.

“I sent them in good faith exactly what they had voted for before. We did not put any Republican provisions in that.”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) had a similar message about Schumer.

“This is the puzzling part: Senator Schumer actually voted for this exact same legislation multiple times,” she said.

“He voted for it once. He voted for it twice. He voted for it three times. And he voted for it a fourth time in March. But he won’t vote for it today to prevent a government shutdown.

“That’s why this is called a Schumer shutdown. Republicans do have control of the House. We do have control of the White House,” Malliotakis continued. “But what people have to understand is that for a funding bill to get passed in the Senate, it does need seven Democrat votes.”

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​News, Government shutdown, Senate, House, Congress, Chuck schumer, Cr, Continuing resolution, Mike johnson, Nicole malliotakis, John thune, White house, Trump administration, Trump admin, Politics 

On Monday, Sept. 23, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Royal Canadian Mounted Police invaded and occupied Universal Ostrich Farms near Vernon, British Columbia.

They haven’t left. Hundreds of federal police and CFIA inspectors remain on-site, many now in hazmat suits they only donned after questions were raised about why, if the birds were truly a health threat, they had originally worn only uniforms without masks.

Pasitney and her mother were arrested that same day on charges of ‘animal cruelty.’ Their alleged crime was trying to feed their birds.

Karen Espersen and Dave Bilinski own the farm, which is managed by Espersen’s daughter, Katie Pasitney. Since an alleged H1N1 avian flu outbreak on Dec. 19, 2024, Pasitney has become the farm’s public voice. Although the ostriches have remained healthy for more than 250 days, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government still insists that all 399 birds must be destroyed.

Even interventions from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz have not persuaded Ottawa to reconsider.

‘Animal cruelty’?

What frustrates Pasitney most is that the CFIA refuses to test the birds — or even allow the farmers to do so. Under quarantine orders, testing a single ostrich could result in a $200,000 fine and six months in jail per bird.

After losing in the Federal Court of Appeal, the farm won a temporary reprieve last Wednesday when the Supreme Court of Canada granted an interim stay of execution while it decides whether to hear the case.

But the ordeal has only worsened. Pasitney and her mother were arrested that same day on charges of “animal cruelty.” Their alleged crime was trying to feed their birds. The Supreme Court ruling requires the CFIA to remain on the farm, now responsible for providing the ostriches with food and water. “It’s like putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse,” Pasitney told Align.

RELATED: Dead bird walking: RFK Jr. is the only hope for 399 healthy ostriches on Canada’s chopping block

David Krayden/Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

‘A classic display of punishment’

Exhausted after two nights without sleep — due to RCMP patrols circling the property with headlights flooding her home — Pasitney spoke to this reporter.

What you’re seeing here is a classic display of punishment. This is not justice. This is punishment for standing up for what’s right. It started as a request for collaboration — we explained that we know our animals and that they’re healthy. All we asked was to test them without facing six months in jail and $200,000 fines. Instead, the government is spending millions in taxpayer dollars to persecute humble farmers who love their animals.

Pasitney said political support has been slow. While some Conservative MPs have spoken out, party leader Pierre Poilievre — who narrowly lost the last federal election — has remained silent.

“Where are our leaders?” she asked. “When 40 police cars came down the highway at dawn, we knew it might be the last time we stood on our own property with our animals.”

Escalating intimidation

Pasitney recounted how she and her mother endured arrest, while hay bales were mysteriously set on fire and RCMP helicopters and drones harassed their livestock.

That should never happen to anybody, especially when you have healthy animals. The world is screaming for them to be saved. … Instead, our taxpayer dollars are being used to take down law-abiding farmers while real criminals — rapists, murderers, pedophiles — roam free.

​Ostriches, Ostrich farm, Bird flu, Mark carney, Canada, Lifestyle, Family business, Letter from canada 

As the government shutdown begins, President Trump has not only made it clear that he won’t be caving to Democrats’ demands to fund illegal immigrants’ health care — but that the Democrats are in deep trouble.

“Well, the Democrats want to shut it down. So when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And the Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” President Trump announced.

“As you know, this country, no country can afford to pay for illegal immigration, health care for everybody that comes into the country. And that’s what they’re insisting. And obviously, I have an obligation not to accept that. That would affect everybody,” he continued.

“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, they’d be Democrat things,” he added.

And one man, BlazeTV host Jill Savage says, “behind the scenes is going to be having the best week right now of anybody in Washington, D.C.”

That man is director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought.

“People need to know the Office of Management and Budget is exceptionally powerful, because they actually have to put together the budget, and that’s where a lot of the money flows out of. So the initial DOGE excitement was looking at, you know, money flow. Well, the actual organization that does this is the Office of Management and Budget, with which he is in charge of,” Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson says.

“And he’s, I think, very prepared for this moment, because … the big picture is you can talk about cutting the government all you want, but you have to know exactly what you’re doing and what levers to press,” he continues.

“And right now, we can see that Russ Vought is taking advantage of this opportunity. We see today that he’s frozen $18 billion of New York City’s infrastructure plan … and he’s just canceled $8 billion in the green new scam, climate funding throughout a boatload of blue states,” Savage chimes in.

“So when you look at how he’s operating right now, he’s trying to be pretty effective in the first few hours of this government shutdown,” she adds.

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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.

​Trump, Shutdown, Democrats, Blaze news tonight 

The post-Enlightenment West prides itself on having left religious myths behind. Sophisticated people scoff at demons, devils, and other silly superstitions. But ideas that once wore robes and halos simply change costumes. The idea of absolute evil re-emerges in secular form, and fascism plays the part of the devil in our political imagination.

Once a movement or person becomes the secular Satan, debate ends and violence begins to look like the only remedy. That is why leftists now call ordinary conservative positions “fascist” — they build the moral case for political violence.

Publicly branding an opponent ‘fascist’ with the expectation that it justifies violence should be as unacceptable as calling for a race-based lynching.

Consider the common thought experiment: “Would you travel back in time to kill baby Hitler?” Many answer yes. The image of a helpless infant collides with the scale of evil Adolf Hitler later embodied. For some, the calculus seems to justify murder when it prevents mass atrocity. Hitler stops being a human in that mental model; he becomes pure malignancy, and ordinary moral rules fall away.

That same process unfolded on American streets and campus quads over the past eight years. In 2017 Richard Spencer, a white nationalist, received a shove and a punch while speaking publicly. Spencer committed no violence that day. He threatened no one. He merely exercised his right to speak.

Still, many on the left cheered the assault. The assault collapsed an important boundary: If someone looks or sounds like a “Nazi,” is it now permissible to punch him? The Supreme Court long ago protected ugly speech, even the American Nazi Party’s right to march through a town with a large population of Holocaust survivors.

Anti-fascism as civic religion

But popular sentiment has shifted: Physical force against those denounced as fascists won moral approval from many progressives.

From insults to legal penalties to physical attacks, the escalation followed a familiar arc. Speech codes function as secular blasphemy laws. Labels like “bigot,” “racist,” or “transphobe” once carried distinct meanings; applied relentlessly, they blurred into a single category: heretic.

When those tags lost bite, the left raised the stakes. “White supremacist” replaced “racist” for positions like ending illegal immigration or opposing radical medical interventions for children. When that failed to stanch conservative influence, progressives reached for the final word: fascist.

That choice carries theological force. In secular modernity, defeating Hitler and the Nazis became a foundational myth. Anti-fascism assumed the status of a civic religion: a liturgical memory, a ritual cast of villains, and a duty of perpetual vigilance.

Paul Gottfried and other thinkers note how anti-fascism functions as a moral system after World War II. Comparing any enemy leader to Hitler became morally decisive. Nationalism, family veneration, and cultural continuity assumed guilt by association. The strong gods, once banished, left a moral vacuum that anti-fascism now fills.

RELATED: Calling MAGA ‘fascist’ is the smear of the century

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

We’re all ‘fascists’ now?

Yet, fascism as a coherent political doctrine remains a historical phenomenon tied to early 20th-century Italy and, in some respects, to German national socialism. Stretching the term until it fits every conservative position strips it of analytical meaning. Calling something “fascist” should require attention to ideology, not impulse. Treating the word as a universal moral obliterator turns politics into theology. You cannot bargain with demons; you must exterminate them.

The very online left sells a modern variant: “ontological evil.” Call someone ontologically evil and you deny that person’s capacity for change. Evil becomes an essential property, not a series of choices. A man deemed ontologically evil stops being a political adversary and becomes a predator to be neutralized. That rhetoric creates a moral climate in which killing a political opponent appears not merely excusable but necessary.

We hear that rhetoric applied to mainstream conservatives practically every day. News figures, pundits, and Democratic politicians label President Trump and his supporters “fascists” or, at the very least, “semi-fascist.” After Charlie Kirk’s murder, some commentators continued to call him a fascist. Those who declared him so while he lay dead turned vile accusation into a license for dehumanization. The slogans scrawled by the shooter evoked the same anti-fascist catechism.

When likely presidential candidates like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) brand ordinary conservative beliefs — national sovereignty, for example — as “fascist,” they signal to zealots that violence is not just allowed but morally mandated.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom’s ‘fascist’ slur echoes in the streets

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

That dynamic plays out in organization and funding as well. Networks of activists and groups that tolerate or endorse violent tactics receive resources and cover. Antifa and similar formations act as paramilitary foot soldiers who can intimidate, disrupt, and, when they choose, kill. They do so with the encouragement of influencers who frame opponents as existential threats. Label someone a fascist, and the path to extra-legal action opens.

Argument, not extermination

Americans must treat such rhetoric with the same moral opprobrium once reserved for lynch mobs. Publicly branding an opponent “fascist” with the expectation that it justifies violence should be as unacceptable as calling for a race-based lynching. When progressives use “fascist” to mark a target for death, they weaponize language to strip victims of human rights.

We must also restore analytic discipline. Accurate political language matters. Fascism, nazism, and other totalizing ideologies warrant denunciation and opposition, but we dilute our ability to resist genuine threats when we scream “fascist” at any conservative who supports border security or traditional marriage. If every disagreement becomes a call to arms, the political space collapses into a permanent state of evisceration disguised as moral clarity.

Finally, recognize what this rhetoric teaches would-be killers. If violence succeeds in silencing a critic, networks that cheer the act learn an obvious lesson: violence pays. The civic cost is enormous. The social fabric frays. The state loses its monopoly on legitimate force when vigilantes and ideologues decide they hold moral authority to execute enemies.

Treat accusations of “fascism” with the contempt they deserve. And make clear that no label grants anyone the right to take a life. If we let secular Satan labels justify bloodshed, we will learn in short order how quickly a republic can abandon its own laws and become hostage to its worst angels.

​Opinion & analysis, Fascism, Fascist, Antifa, Donald trump, Joe biden, Gavin newsom, Free speech, Freedom of speech, Richard spencer, Punch a nazi, Baby hitler, Satan, Skokie, Hate speech, Violence, Incitement, Blasphemy, Bigot, Paul gottfried, Adolf hitler, Ontological evil, Stephen miller, Charlie kirk, Assassination 

In late August, I had the pleasure of visiting El Salvador for the first time. I didn’t know what to expect. The bar had been set high by both conservative and liberal media, who either praised or decried President Nayib Bukele’s vigorous war on crime. Within a few hours of arrival, I saw the media reports were true. El Salvador, once a violent, gang-ridden nightmare, was now a place of peace.

Much has been written about Bukele’s crackdown — understandably so, given the success of his efforts. El Salvador’s president deserves unending praise for transforming his country. Yet, this success has overshadowed his other policies. President Bukele’s Bitcoin adoption program, for instance, is of remarkable significance.

In September 2021, El Salvador shocked the world by becoming the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Businesses were immediately required to accept the cryptocurrency. Western Bitcoin enthusiasts were overjoyed. Many Salvadorans, most of whom had previously existed in a cash economy, were skeptical.

‘Paying tax liabilities denominated in Bitcoin was just, I guess, a hard no.’

After a few years, there were signs that the initiative had failed to meet expectations. In an August 2024 interview with Time, President Bukele conceded as much:

Bitcoin hasn’t had the widespread adoption we hoped for. Many Salvadorans use it; the majority of large businesses in the country have it. You can go to a McDonald’s, a supermarket, or a hotel and pay with Bitcoin. It hasn’t had the adoption we expected. The positive aspect is that it is voluntary; we have never forced anyone to adopt it. We offered it as an option, and those who chose to use it have benefited from the rise in Bitcoin.

But it wasn’t until the International Monetary Fund got involved that President Bukele made the difficult decision to scale back El Salvador’s Bitcoin program. As a condition for $1.4 billion in financial assistance, the IMF required El Salvador to revoke Bitcoin’s status as legal tender. Bukele accepted the IMF’s terms. In February 2025, the Salvadoran government passed an amendment to the Bitcoin law, which rendered use of the cryptocurrency voluntary and limited to the private sector.

Just like that, El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment was done. Or was it?

Seeing for myself

When I traveled to El Salvador, I had bought into the media narrative regarding its Bitcoin adoption program — that, however interesting a program it might have been, it failed. But curiously enough, no one I spoke to down there shared that perspective.

“I mean, it’s, like, pretty f**king amazing,” Jake Hamilton, an American computer programmer who splits his time between Austin and San Salvador, told me. “I can pay with lightning for oysters at a beach shack in Surf City.”

Jake’s enthusiasm for El Salvador is significant. He isn’t some casual Bitcoin fan who merely enjoys the novelty of paying for oysters in cryptocurrency. In many ways, Jake’s life — professionally, socially, and economically — revolves around Bitcoin. So when he praises El Salvador’s Bitcoin program, it means something.

His Bitcoin journey began in 2015. After completing his undergraduate studies, Jake busied himself researching philosophy graduate programs. During that period, he took a seminar titled Bitcoin and Philosophy. The instructor: Nick Land, the arcane techno-philosopher known for his accelerationist theories.

Jake didn’t know what to expect, but the seminar proved epiphanous. “He’s five minutes, 10 minutes of the first session, and I realize, like, holy s**t, the place to be doing philosophy — to be in actual philosophy of the world right now — is in Bitcoin: writing code and working in blockchain,” he explained to me.

RELATED: Right-wing investor to challenge traditional banking with national crypto bank

Photo by Bloomberg / Contributor via Getty Images

After the seminar, Jake decided to move to New York, where he attended a coding bootcamp and dedicated his time to becoming a programmer. Around 2019, he discovered Urbit, Curtis Yarvin’s niche operating system, which connected him to numerous right-of-center programmers and crypto enthusiasts. Along with a few friends from that crowd, Jake ventured to Central America and eventually landed in El Salvador, arriving at the beginning of President Bukele’s special operation.

It was a good time to be in El Salvador. Jake witnessed the restoration of order play out in real time. Yet, it was Bitcoin, not public safety, that drew him there. Jake knew a few Western lawyers in the country who practiced cryptocurrency law. They told him that something unique was taking shape in El Salvador — and that he wouldn’t want to miss it.

Although President Bukele didn’t sign the Bitcoin law until June 8, 2021, El Salvador had already developed a nascent crypto scene. Jake told me that an anonymous donor contributed $100,000 (in Bitcoin, naturally) to the beach town of El Zonte in 2019 to establish a circular crypto economy. This began attracting Bitcoin-inclined expats and tourists. Bukele’s national transformation only amplified that appeal.

Needless to say, Jake fell in love with El Salvador. When he isn’t in Austin, Texas, working on blockchain technology, he’s in El Salvador, working on blockchain technology — but also surfing, driving through the mountains, and brushing shoulders with El Salvador’s political elite. He’s become a central figure in the Salvadoran expat scene. He holds the lease on the Palestra mansion, a massive house overlooking the hills of San Salvador that often hosts parties and provides lodging for aligned travelers.

The view from the top

I visited the mansion a few times during my trip. The first time was at night following the Palestra Society’s annual conference. As I stood on the back patio, surrounded by a coterie of interesting people, I looked down at the lights of San Salvador and was struck by the peculiarity of it all. How did a small Latin American country with a GDP of $35 billion become a hub for heterodox right-wing Westerners? There are certainly several factors. But Bitcoin is a big one.

Despite Jake’s appreciation for El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption program, he conceded that it faced challenges. “They did have to negotiate with the IMF, obviously, and the paying tax liabilities denominated in Bitcoin was just, I guess, a hard no,” he lamented. Moreover, given the low level of education and tech literacy in El Salvador — a country where the average monthly salary is roughly $400 — teaching people the finer points of self-custody proved difficult.

While El Salvador reversed its decision to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, no other country boasts as much Bitcoin integration. Others have tried, but they don’t come close. “There’s a bit of Costa Rica that’s informally called Bitcoin Jungle, where there’s like a 20-mile radius where most of the businesses take Bitcoin,” Jake said. “But there’s nothing comparable to El Salvador in the world.”

So was El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption program a failure, as mainstream sources claim? Yes and no. On the one hand, its decision to no longer accept Bitcoin as legal tender is proof that the program didn’t entirely succeed. On the other, El Salvador is now the most Bitcoin-integrated country in the world — no small accomplishment.

Furthermore, since agreeing to the IMF’s terms, El Salvador has continued to purchase Bitcoin; hosted PLANB 2025, the largest cryptocurrency conference in Central America; passed a law allowing investment banks to hold Bitcoin; and promoted Bitcoin mining using geothermal energy from volcanoes.

It appears that Bitcoin is, in fact, alive and well in El Salvador. Abolishing its status as legal tender didn’t kill it — it merely altered the parameters. So while you cannot pay your Salvadoran taxes in Bitcoin, you can still do more with crypto there than anywhere else in the world.

​Tech, Bitcoin, El salvador 

Months after the high-profile deportation case of an alleged MS-13 associate began with a removal and then mandated return to the United States, a judge has denied the request to stay Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s final deportation from the country.

In a copy of the decision obtained by ABC News, Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge Philip Taylor denied an emergency request from Garcia’s attorneys to reopen his case. The petition, filed in August, argued that Garcia’s removal from the U.S. followed by his return subsequently made him eligible to apply for asylum in the U.S.

‘This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets.’

However, Judge Taylor argued in his denial to stay the removal on Wednesday that Garcia’s application for asylum would be “untimely,” considering that Garcia’s original immigration proceedings began nearly six years ago.

A large part of the long-running deportation case hangs on the Trump administration’s charge that Garcia is affiliated with the violent gang MS-13. His attorneys have delayed his deportation for fear of persecution tied to these accusations, which Garcia and his attorneys deny.

RELATED: Judge ‘absolutely’ forbids Trump administration to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia — for now

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The prosecution has also indicated that the Department of Homeland Security “may” deport Garcia to another country such as Uganda or Eswatini.

However, Judge Taylor argued that the defense’s argument about possible persecution in these countries was ultimately insubstantial.

“The word ‘may’ is permissive and indicates to the Court that in sending this notification to Respondent’s counsel, the Department sought to convey that it reserved the right to remove him to Uganda, not necessarily that it intended to do so, that it had decided to do so, or that it would do so imminently,” Judge Taylor said, according to ABC News.

“This MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator will never be loose on American streets,” the DHS said in an X post on Wednesday evening. “His lawyers tried to fight his removal from the U.S. but one thing is certain, this Salvadoran man is not going to be able to remain in our country. He will never be allowed to prey on innocent Americans again.”

The Kilmar Abrego Garcia saga has stretched to this day since he was deported in March. He was then brought back to the United States to face human-trafficking charges in June.

The government shutdown, which began on the same day as this order, will delay deadlines for the case “by the total number of days of the lapse in appropriations,” as noted by the DOJ in the court document.

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​Politics, Kilmar abrego garcia, Kilmar garcia deportation, Deportation, Ice, Ms-13, Government shutdown, Judge philip taylor 

Former NCAA volleyball player Brayden “Blaire” Fleming has finally provided comment about allegations made by one of his coaches.

Blaze News originally reported on Fleming in September 2024 after his school, San Jose State University, got off to its best start in team history by employing the 6’1” male athlete on the women’s volleyball team.

This resulted in wall-to-wall coverage of opponents forfeiting games against SJSU, with some like Nevada’s Sia Liilii speaking out against having to play across from a man.

‘Blaire gets what Blaire wants.’

When SJSU associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose spoke out, however, she was promptly suspended indefinitely by her school. After filing a Title IX complaint against SJSU and alleging that the male athlete conspired against his own team, Batie-Smoose is now part of a lawsuit against the Board of Trustees of the California State University system, which SJSU falls under along with 22 other California schools.

The lawsuit alleges that SJSU was “retaliatory” in its suspension of Batie-Smoose, according to Fox News.

At the same time, the former coach told Fox News Digital that Fleming received special treatment from the team, which included, “Not showing up to practice with no excuses [and] sitting in the stands eating while practice was going on.”

These allegations were what sparked Fleming to finally speak out and address the recent claims.

“The only times I showed up to practice with ‘no excuse’ and sat in the stands was when I was injured and couldn’t play,” Fleming told the outlet. “Brooke Slusser and Melissa need to get a life,” he added.

Slusser, a former teammate of Fleming, is not only part of a class action lawsuit against the NCAA alleging Title IX violations, but she also had the unique experience of allegedly being forced to room with Fleming.

RELATED: NCAA coach suspended indefinitely after speaking out about male athlete on women’s volleyball team

Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons on October 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

“Blaire wanted to room with Brooke Slusser, and that’s who Blaire felt comfortable, so Blaire gets what Blaire wants,” Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital.

Slusser told Blaze News in an exclusive interview in 2024 that she originally roomed with Fleming when she first arrived to the team and was told there were “three girls on the team that are looking for a roommate.”

One of those “girls” was Fleming. After rooming with the transgender athlete on multiple road trips, Slusser was suspicious as to why she was routinely being roomed with Fleming despite other teammates being rotated around.

Slusser told Blaze News, “I found it very odd that everyone else was getting switched around on away trips, and I somehow kept getting roomed with the same person. Usually, you get switched around … and I just kept getting roomed with [Fleming].”

The former volleyball star also alleged that Fleming received preferential treatment, including team meetings focused on the transgender athlete’s well-being but no one else’s.

“We’ve had meetings, and it’s a lot of just checking in on Blaire. … We were like, ‘What about us?'” Slusser said. “It’s mostly just saying you can’t be the person to … identify Blaire’s gender identity. ‘Blaire needs to do that for himself.'”

RELATED: Exclusive: ‘We all know the reason the games are canceled’: SJSU volleyball player speaks out against transgender teammate

Brooke Slusser #10 of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

Batie-Smoose has since revealed that she was not told Fleming is male until after she accepted the job at SJSU, despite having moved her family from Connecticut to take on the coaching role. She also alleged that she was told she could not tell other players or their parents that a male was on the team.

“[Head Coach] Todd Kress told me in passing … because I was asking … ‘Oh, by the way, Blaire is a male,'” Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital.

As for Coach Kress, he vehemently defended the inclusion of Fleming on his team and even accused other squads that forfeited against SJSU of taking opportunities away from the girls on his team.

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​Fearless, Volleyball, Women’s sports, Transgenderism, Title ix, Ncaa, Sports 

Bad Bunny is a cross-dressing Puerto Rican rapper who has never released a song in English, and yet he’s starring in the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.

Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck isn’t an expert on the rapper’s work, but BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is well aware of who he is — and tells Glenn exactly what’s going on.

“Obviously they’re trolling Donald Trump. Obviously, they’re trolling ICE raids and the whole illegal immigration policy enacted by Trump. … They want to make a statement about illegal immigration. They want to make a statement about diversity and Spanish-speaking people. They want to make a statement about transgenderism and sexual fluidity, and Bad Bunny checks all those boxes,” Whitlock begins.

“This has nothing to do with football fans. This is about the left’s control of popular culture and control of the National Football League, which is the strongest thing in popular culture, and they’re using it to make a big, bold statement about how they feel about Donald Trump,” he continues.

Though there is one man more important than President Trump whom they’re attacking, and that is Jesus Christ.

“They didn’t have to pick someone who is so closely associated with demonic activities, so closely associated with promoting gender fluidity and the cross-dressing deal. They didn’t have to pick someone who’s so outspoken against Donald Trump in his illegal immigration policies. This is the poster boy for Trump hate, and this is the poster boy for sexual fluidity and redefining masculinity,” Whitlock says.

“And so parents will be having discussions with their kids on Super Bowl Sunday. ‘Mommy, Daddy, why is this man out here dressed as a woman during some part of this act? Why are his fingernails painted? Why is he taking subtle shots at Trump?’” he continues.

“This is, to me, part of it’s a reaction to the Charlie Kirk memorial service,” he adds, explaining that this is because it “was such a powerful pro-Jesus Christ deal.”

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.

​Camera phone, Free, Video phone, Sharing, Video, Upload, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jason whitlock, Fearless with jason whitlock, Bad bunny, Super bowl half time show, 2026 superbowl, Jay z, Demonic, Cross dressing, Bad bunny cross dressing, Drag show, Lgbtq agenda, President trump, Ice 

President Donald Trump has once again trolled Democrats for giving the administration the perfect opportunity to further implement the MAGA mandate.

As the federal government enters its second day of the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday that layoffs will likely be in the thousands. This estimate comes as Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought meet to identify which “Democrat Agencies” should be cut.

‘I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.’

“It’s likely going to be in the thousands,” Leavitt said. “It’s a very good question, and that’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here is unfortunately having to work on today.”

“These discussions and these conversations, these meetings, would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open,” Leavitt added.

RELATED: Vance makes Jeffries a hilarious promise if Democrats end the shutdown

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Vought already halted a few projects on Wednesday, totaling roughly $26 billion. Vought first paused $18 billion worth of projects in New York City, including the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Ave Subway. Vought also canceled nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda” across 16 different states.

Trump, likely trolling Democrats about their failed attempts last year to turn Project 2025 into an electoral liability, later announced that he would be meeting with Vought “of PROJECT 2025 Fame” to continue identifying programs and agencies to cut.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump added. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

RELATED: Government grinds to a halt after Democrats force first shutdown in 6 years

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Senate is set once again to vote Friday on the pair of continuing resolutions proposed by Republicans and Democrats respectively. The Republican-led CR is the same clean CR Democrats voted for to keep the government open over a dozen times prior, adding only an anomaly for increased security funding for government officials.

On the other hand, Democrats put forth an ideological bill that contains roughly $1.5 trillion worth of funding aimed at reversing everything accomplished in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Notably, three Senate Democrats initially voted for the Republican led-CR on Tuesday, indicating fractures in New York Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s base. The Senate needs 60 votes, or at least seven Democrats, to pass the funding bill to reopen the government, assuming all 53 Republicans vote in lockstep.

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​Chuck schumer, Hakeem jeffries, Donald trump, Jd vance, Senate democrats, Senate republicans, Schumer shutdown, Government shutdown, Continuing resolution, Mass layoffs, Omb, Russ vought, Russell vought, Politics 

G.K. Chesterton once wrote: “Fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. … What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. ”

I used to wake up every morning and read the news. Every morning the headlines would change, but the message was always the same: The dragon was winning.

But then I left the world for two years and lived in a Catholic religious community. I woke up each morning and prayed the psalms with my fellow religious. Every morning the psalms changed, but the message was always the same: The dragon had been defeated.

At the abbey I was introduced to a new world where evil could be defeated. It is a world that each of us, no matter our state in life, can choose to live in. It is a world full of sacrifice, suffering, love, and victory.

Most of us fall back into the old world from time to time. It takes great courage to live exclusively in the new one, because while there is victory in the new one, there is also much suffering.

Even great heroes fall back sometimes.

A hero is not someone who never falls back into the old world. He is simply a man who on the last day chooses to return to the new one. He chooses to fight the dragon one last time.

When he finally defeats the dragon, the hero dies, and when he dies, he gives us all a glimpse of the new world. He shows those who have eyes to see that there is victory after death.

Charlie Kirk has given us a great gift. He has shown us the new world that Christ created by his death and resurrection. He has shown us a world that is full of suffering, sacrifice, and love, but perhaps most importantly, he has shown us a world where St. George kills the dragon.

​Charlie kirk, Christianity, Psalms, Hope, Faith 

In a striking speech this week, Secretary Pete Hegseth — now head of the newly renamed Department of War — addressed a rare gathering of top military officials in Quantico, Virginia. He laid out his vision for reform and announced directives aimed at restoring the fighting spirit of the U.S. armed forces.

Hegseth began by explaining why the Department of Defense has once again become the Department of War. “To ensure peace, we must prepare for war,” he said, reviving the older and more honest title abandoned in 1948.

Circumstances change, and tactics must adapt. But adaptation should always sharpen lethality, not serve social experiments.

That explanation drew from the Roman writer Vegetius, who coined the maxim si vis pacem, para bellum — if you want peace, prepare for war. But Hegseth’s reasoning also echoes St. Augustine, the Christian bishop whose writings helped shape just war theory.

In a letter written in 418 A.D. to the Roman general Boniface, Augustine commended the nobility of military service. He reminded him — and us — that the proper object of war is peace.

“Peace should be the object of your desire,” Augustine wrote. “War should be waged only as a necessity, and waged only that God may by it deliver men from the necessity and preserve them in peace. For peace is not sought in order to the kindling of war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained.”

He concluded with a hard truth for every soldier: “Let necessity, therefore, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you.”

Peace through strength

Though peace may be war’s ultimate goal, necessity requires militaries to pursue their purpose without hesitation: engage and destroy the enemy. Only with that assurance can a nation’s people live free and fully.

That is the mission Hegseth intends to restore. “From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win,” he said Tuesday.

In practice, that means reversing the U.S. military’s long drift toward an agenda of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” This ideology, a hybrid of HR jargon and academic postmodernism, demands that “marginalized” groups be elevated into power regardless of merit.

Corporate America and universities may tolerate such illusions. The military cannot. A fighting force depends on unity and unflinching standards, not favoritism. When leaders promote based on identity instead of ability, when they lower fitness thresholds or soften training to accommodate politics, they weaken the institution tasked with defending the nation.

Even basic training, once the crucible that broke down civilians and forged soldiers, has been watered down. Risk aversion replaces rigor. Cosmetic rules are relaxed. Officers signal more concern with optics than with readiness. None of this produces warriors.

If the United States wants to remain the premier fighting force in the world, those trends must end. The alternative is a military built for press releases and photo ops, not for victory.

Two north stars

To begin reversing these trends, Hegseth offered two simple tests for every new policy: the “1990 test” and the “E-6 test.”

The 1990 test asks: What were the military standards in 1990, and if they changed, why? That baseline matters. Since then — arguably even earlier — political agendas crept in and steadily displaced common-sense practices. Policies that once kept the force lethal and focused have been diluted or discarded.

Hegseth acknowledged that modern battlefields evolve. Circumstances change, and tactics must adapt. But adaptation should always sharpen lethality, not serve social experiments. Policies that weaken cohesion or cater to fashionable causes betray the mission.

By holding today’s standards up against those of 1990, the military can begin identifying what was lost — and whether those losses made the force deadlier or merely more compliant with political fashions. The answer, in most cases, is obvious.

RELATED: Hegseth declares war on woke military policies: ‘We are done with that s**t’

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Image

The E-6 test asks a blunt question: Will this policy make the job of an E-6 easier or harder?

In the Army, an E-6 is a staff sergeant. In the infantry, that usually means a squad leader. A squad is the smallest real tactical unit — second only to the four-man fire team. It’s the squad leader who carries the burden of leadership where it matters most: training, maintenance, discipline, and, in combat, life-or-death decisions under fire.

So the E-6 test forces policymakers to think from the ground up. Will a new directive help the staff sergeant lead his squad more effectively, hold his soldiers accountable, and keep them lethal? Or will it mire him in distractions, paperwork, and politically driven nonsense?

In other words, the test measures policy by its effect on the sharp end of the spear. If it makes the staff sergeant’s mission harder, the policy has failed before it begins.

Long-overdue change

For too long, Washington has imposed policies without regard for the men who actually lead soldiers in the field. Often those policies made their jobs harder, not easier. The simple discipline of asking whether a change helps or hinders an E-6 restores the right focus: The military exists to fight and win wars. Nothing else.

War will never be pleasant, but it remains necessary. Peace and human flourishing require strength — an armed force capable of deterring aggressors and defeating enemies who would sow chaos and fear. That is the first duty of government: to ensure the military is as lethal and effective as possible in defense of the people.

Hegseth understands this. His reforms strip away the distractions of ideology and return attention to standards, readiness, and the hard truths of combat. As he reminded his audience, paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton, true soldiers fight not because they hate what is in front of them, but because they love what’s behind them.

That truth, often forgotten in recent decades, is the cornerstone of a warrior ethos worth rebuilding — an ethos that can win wars, safeguard peace, and keep the republic secure.

​Opinion & analysis, Pete hegseth, Department of defense, Department of war, Diversity equity inclusion, Woke military, Warfighter, Donald trump, Military, National defense, War, Vegetius, St. augustine of hippo, Duty, Honor, Country, Victory, Officers, Warrior ethos, 1990 test, E-6 test, G.k. chesterton 

A female is accused of trashing a Little Caesars pizza place in Louisville, Kentucky, and causing $1,000 in damages, after a store employee informed her that extra sauce would cost $1, WDRB-TV reported.

Breanna Haynes placed the phone order, then traveled to Little Caesars to pick it up, the station said, citing court documents.

‘Can’t afford a buck for sauce? Maybe you shouldn’t be buying pizza then.’

However, when Haynes asked for extra sauce with her order, an employee told her that would run her an extra dollar, WDRB reported.

RELATED: Street takeover thugs beat up 7-Eleven worker who tries to keep them from looting store. But he’s no match for mob of 50.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

More from the station:

Police said Haynes “created a disturbance in the store” and began knocking things off of the counter, including a custom-made computer stand and the computer register — which totaled over $1,000 in damages.

Haynes left the store, but employees were able to provide Louisville police with her name after comparing video surveillance with a known picture.

Haynes was charged with criminal mischief in connection with the January incident, but she wasn’t arrested until late last month, WDRB said.

Haynes on Sept. 22 allegedly threw a brick at a car belonging to the father of her child because he wanted to move back to Cincinnati, the station said, citing court documents.

Police said Haynes’ alleged brick-throwing caused more than $1,000 in damages, and she was charged with assault and criminal mischief, WDRB reported.

Numerous commenters on the station’s Facebook post about the incident reacted incredulously to it:

“That must be some good sauce!” one commenter wrote.”I guess she’d rather pay $1,000 plus lawyers instead of just giving up the dollar,” another commenter observed. “Smh, wish I had that kind of money.””Stay home if you don’t know how to behave in public,” another commenter advised.”Can’t afford a buck for sauce?” another commenter noted. “Maybe you shouldn’t be buying pizza then.”

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​Louisville, Kentucky, Arrest, Criminal mischief charge, Crime 

The horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10 has sparked a number of politically charged conversations, not only about the frightening increase in political violence but about the suspected killer’s associations with nonheteronormative relationships and so-called furries.

On September 12, just hours after investigators revealed that an engraving on one of the bullet casings makes reference to an online meme mocking gay furries, the suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, was apprehended. In short order, details about Robinson and his alleged romantic relationship with roommate Lance Twiggs began to spread online. A photo of Twiggs wearing an animal costume went viral, and the New York Post and other outlets reported that an account name associated with Robinson appeared on the sexual fetish website FurAffinity.net, prompting speculation that Robinson has a “furry fixation.”

A strange trend infiltrates public schools

In general, furries are people known to don animal costumes and exhibit animal-like behaviors. Once the sort of topic discussed only in hushed tones and in private company, furry culture has since gone mainstream, infiltrating common discourse — and even K-12 public education systems across the U.S. Reports indicate that since 2012, furry-like groups have sprung up in school districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kentucky, and Texas.

‘Most furries are LGBTQ+.’

In April 2024, Blaze News exposed a growing furry problem at Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, about 20 miles or so south of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered. Students, parents, and even a former staff member at the school shared disturbing stories of students who identified as furries wearing animal-like costumes, barking at others, chewing on sticks in class, playing fetch in the halls, and even biting classmates who invaded their territory.

RELATED: Furry trend in Texas public schools will hibernate permanently, if Republicans have their way

— (@)

Despite extensive video and photographic evidence of furries at the school, Nebo School District initially denied the existence of a furry problem, repeatedly insisting to Blaze News that the issue was akin to kids occasionally dressing up as their “favorite basketball player or baseball player.”

“That’s just what kids this age do,” district spokesman Seth Sorenson said at one point. “These rumors are unfounded and are not occurring in our schools,” Sorenson told Blaze News in a separate statement.

Days later, the district moderated those denials, claiming to “take any and all harassment very seriously” and pledging that no group of students would be permitted “to target and harass other students without intervention and consequences.” The updated statement, however, still made no mention of the furry group at the center of the harassment problem.

‘Some degree of sexual motivation’

While Blaze News received numerous reports that Mt. Nebo furries were tormenting their classmates, none of the reported harassment there seemed to be sexual in nature. Yet admissions from furries and their supporters more broadly reveal that the furry culture is firmly grounded in sex and sexual identity.

A 2019 article published in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 99% of the 334 male furries who participated in the authors’ survey acknowledged “some degree of sexual motivation for being furries.” Eighty-four percent categorized their sexual orientation as something other than heterosexual.

In a 2022 Religion News Service article that noted the high rates of atheism and anti-Christian bias among furries, Courtney Plante, a Furscience researcher and associate professor of psychology at Bishop’s University in Quebec, confirmed that “most furries are LGBTQ+.”

Perhaps unwittingly, Debra Soh demonstrated the sexual foundation of the furry trend, even as she attempted to convince readers that furries are hardly “sex-crazed perverts.” On the one hand, Soh gushed that the furries she met at a 2014 furry convention were “all friendly and welcoming, offering hugs and agreeing to have their photo taken.” Yet in the next sentence, Soh noted that “they were mostly young, either teenaged or in their early 20s, male, and identifying as gay or transgender.”

Likewise, in a Psychology Today blog post in 2017, Hal Herzog, Ph.D., claimed that characterizations of furries as “fetishists or as psychologically dysfunctional people” are “misconceptions” that “are demonstrably false,” even as he admitted that “furries are seven times more likely than the general population to identify as transgender and about five times more likely to identify as non-heterosexual.”

Despite the widely understood association between furries and sex, furries and others on the left often pretend that furry culture is mainly about community, that the animal costumes and “fursonas” help otherwise socially awkward introverts interact with others and express themselves in everyday, family-friendly situations.

RELATED: Man who tried to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh identifies as transgender, new docs show

June 29, 2024, Furries in costume at the annual Pride in London parade. Photo by: Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

United Utah Furry Fandom, for example, characterizes its members as “free-spirited and creative individuals” who simply “enjoy embodying characters that look and act like anthropomorphic animals.” However, the group likewise acknowledges that “many members of the furry community tend to either have Autistic Spectrum Disorder, neurodivergence, or other traits that make social interaction in conventional spaces difficult.”

Of note, U2F2 adds that furries often “align with LGBTQ+ values” but insists that any presumed association between furries and sexual deviancy is “false.”

By contrast, Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, explained to Blaze News that such assertions are a form of gaslighting in which leftists claim that disturbing groups like furries do not exist or if they do exist, they pose no danger. In many cases, these gaslighters imply that those voicing concerns are either overreacting or manifesting latent bigotry.

“These people do this stuff because … it sounds unbelievable and like it’s not happening,” Schilling said. “That’s how the whole trans thing played out.”

Schilling indicated that so many parents and medical professionals have gotten away with mangling children through so-called “gender-affirming care” because until recently, the idea of letting “a kid get a sex-change procedure” was considered “preposterous.” He believes that the furry trend has spread for the same reason.

“It’s dangerous, and it’s hurting our education system.”

‘If you say we’re not going to have any rules, we’re not going to teach that anything’s right or wrong, well, then you get furries in your seventh-grade classroom.’

U2F2 did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News, but did offer a statement in response to the Kirk murder.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the spreading of hate, conspiracy theories, and misinformation from any side of the political spectrum. For years, our leaders and volunteers have dedicated themselves to creating safe, welcoming, and joyful spaces for others — a mission that has always been the foundation of the fandom. Our community is built on creativity, inclusivity, and mutual support,” U2F2 said, according to KTVX.

“We are saddened that our community has been dragged into this climate of hostility, and our thoughts remain with everyone directly affected by these tragic events.”

‘Sexual anarchy’

Like many others on the right, Schilling does not view the furry trend as a benign cosplay niche for weird adults. He made plain to Blaze News that furries are instead indulging in a “disgusting” sexual fetish.

“You can’t separate the sexual from the furries. It is part and parcel,” he told Blaze News. “They’re constantly fantasizing about hooking up in these costumes.”

Schilling further warned that the sexual component of furries is present in school-age groups too and has a particular impact on students who regularly use online forums and games. “These online forums are full of pornography. It’s a whole porn genre,” he said.

RELATED: ‘Red state privilege’: MD Anderson’s quiet LGBTQ+ push in Texas

Cosplayers known as “furries” march during San Diego Pride Parade on July 15, 2023, in San Diego, California. Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

Schilling believes that furries and other alleged sex-related deviancies like transgenderism have resulted from the overall “sexual anarchy” that has pervaded American culture, especially online and in public schools. “If you say we’re not going to have any rules, we’re not going to teach that anything’s right or wrong, well, then you get furries in your seventh-grade classroom,” he claimed. “You get complete disorder and chaos.”

“The online world is radicalizing these kids, and then the schools are actually supporting it,” he said in reference to furries. “Basically, the schools are treating it as a protected class.”

Ties to violence

Tyler Robinson is hardly the first accused assassin with ties to transgenderism. In fact, he’s not even the only suspected assassin with ties to transgenderism from Washington City, Utah, in just the last 16 months.

In June 2024, Mia Bailey, a 28-year-old man whose given name was Collin Troy Bailey, allegedly marched into the Washington City home of his parents — 70-year-old Joseph Bailey and 69-year-old Gail Bailey — and opened fire. Police found the couple shot to death. Joseph had been struck twice and Gail four times. Police also said the suspect attempted to gun down his brother, who locked himself in a room before making a daring escape to a neighbor’s home.

After an extensive manhunt, Mia Bailey eventually surrendered to police. While in custody, Bailey allegedly told cops, “I would do it again. I hate them.” In June 2025, he pled not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, seven counts of felony discharge of a firearm, and aggravated burglary.

Despite the transgenderism link to two Washington City-based murder suspects in just over a year, Washington City Mayor Kress Staheli called the Kirk shooting “an isolated incident,” while Police Chief Jason Williams claimed that it “wasn’t really a reflection of our community.”

“One individual doesn’t define who we are as a community,” Staheli added.

Staheli did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: It’s time to address America’s transgender ideology problem

Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance pay their respects at Annunciation Catholic Church.Photo by ALEX WROBLEWSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Transgenderism has also been a common theme in other national atrocities within the last few years.

Just weeks before Kirk’s horrific death on September 10, a trans-identifying male shot up Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, murdering two schoolchildren and injuring more than a dozen others attending Mass. The trans-identifying suspect in that case, Robert “Robin” Westman, who committed suicide at the scene, left behind a handwritten letter, journals, and a video that indicated he was motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump and the Catholic Church.

Goodwill-Yost had previously introduced her 17-year-old daughter to the furry ‘subculture,’ where the teen met Acosta and Frank Felix … described as ‘obsessed’ with the girl.

In March 2023, a trans-identifying female stormed into the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, and mowed down three adults and three children with bullets. The manifesto she left behind revealed deep-seated anti-Christian and anti-white bigotry.

Deadly meeting through furry ‘subculture’

Furries have also been implicated in heinous crimes as well.

In September 2016, Jennifer Goodwill-Yost, 39; her husband, Christopher Yost, 35; and their friend Arthur “Billy” Boucher, 28, were shot to death by Joshua Acosta, a 21-year-old Army mechanic stationed at Ft. Irwin in Barstow, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Goodwill-Yost had previously introduced her 17-year-old daughter to the furry “subculture,” where the teen met Acosta and Frank Felix, then 25, who soon began a relationship with the girl, despite her parents’ objections, and later supplied the gun and ammunition used in the commission of the crime. The D.A. described Felix as “obsessed” with the girl.

On the night of the murders, Acosta and Felix drove to the teen’s house. After she jumped in their truck, Acosta went into her home and shot Boucher, who was sleeping on the couch, followed by Goodwill-Yost, whom the teen had previously accused of abuse. Lastly, Acosta shot Yost, the girl’s stepfather, whom she accused of molesting her, as he was attempting to flee.

Two children, ages 6 and 9, were left alive and woke up the next morning and called 911 after discovering the dead bodies.

For their crimes, Felix was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, and Acosta was sentenced to life plus 75 years. Neither man has the possibility of parole.

The LockJaw Arts murder

In March 2020, a Las Vegas couple tied to the furry world enticed 57-year-old Michael Crabtree to invite them to his home under the pretext of a threesome and then savagely murdered him. Police also indicated that the pair confessed to killing and skinning a dog.

Tonya Dillard, 33, and Jacob Berkovitz, 29, both pled guilty, though Berkovitz pled “guilty but mentally ill.” Dillard will spend at least 14 years behind bars, while Berkovitz has a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years plus a consecutive minimum sentence of eight years.

In the furry world, Dillard was known as “Vincent Vex,” while Berkovitz went by “Jax.” The pair is believed to have operated LockJaw Arts, offering furry costumes and furry-related art. An Instagram account for LockJaw Arts shares violent and pornographic depictions of furries.

RELATED: Video shows Colombian porn actor dancing nude while covered in blood after decapitating gay couple he was living with

Screenshot of Nevada corrections website

Child sex trafficking at a furry party

In 2017, David Parker pled guilty to sex trafficking involving a minor and was later sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Reports indicate that in 2009 he began taking a boy under 10 years old to furry parties, where he offered the boy to an adult male for sexual purposes.

Four others besides Parker were charged in connection with what lehighvalleylive.com described as a “furries’ child predator sex ring,” but at least one of the defendants, Kenneth Fenske, accused of raping the child, was acquitted of all charges.

Online grooming

In September 2024, 41-year-old Adam Woolacott pled guilty in a court in Vancouver, British Columbia, to sexual interference, arranging a sexual offense against a child, and making sexually explicit material available to someone under 16.

Woolacott was sentenced to spend just six years behind bars despite having five separate sexual encounters with a girl he met in a furry group on Facebook. The girl was only 12 when she first made contact with Woolacott, who was then 35, according to Vancouver Is Awesome.

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Donna Senniw claimed that Woolacott knew the victim’s age from the start. “[The victim] said he was the reason other men exploited her and had been abused, used, and groomed,” Senniw stated.

‘It’s totally demonic’

Considering the surge in cases of trans-related violence and the alarming link between LGBTQ identities and furries, Schilling told Blaze News that parents must stay alert and “raise holy hell” about any instances of furries they see in their local school district. Otherwise, the furry fetish will metastasize and morph into something even worse.

“It’s not always going to be furries,” he said. “It’s going to be something else totally crazy and something that we didn’t even imagine. I mean, think about this: Ten years ago, would you have ever imagined that furries would be a new sexual fetish and that children in schools would be identifying as it? No, because it’s unthinkable. It’s unimaginable.

“It’s demonic. It’s demonic,” he reiterated. “It’s totally demonic.”

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​Charlie kirk, Furries, Mia bailey, Trans, Trans violence, Transgenderism, Tyler robinson, Utah, Washington city, Politics 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a bracing address Tuesday to the nation’s generals and admirals on restoring the warrior ethos and “unwoking” the military. His words hit their mark. But if the United States wants real warriors, the work starts with education — and ends with the National Guard.

The collapse of military education

Mr. Secretary, I have taught at the National Defense University and the National Intelligence University since 1992. Over three decades, I have watched the steady decline of military education, especially in American military history.

The rot deepened after 2021, when NIU was shifted from the Defense Department to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The move made little sense, and the result has been worse: a pipeline of “graduates” sent into your War Department who bear the marks of the politicized training they received.

What good are polished bayonets and perfect push-ups if our enemies own the digital battlefield?

Until last year, NIU’s executive vice president, Patricia A. Larsen, pushed a cartoonish form of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Imagine Rube Goldberg and Cruella de Ville designing education policy after a bender, and you get the idea. She maximized DEI, minimized rigor, and turned classrooms into therapy circles for “sensitive” intelligence students — while riding roughshod over her faculty and staff.

The result? A crop of intelligence officers shaped by Larsen’s priorities: officers less like warriors and more like the “less-than-warriors” you warned about. And no amount of push-ups or rifle drills will fix that mindset. Bad intelligence has destroyed the best warfighters before — Pearl Harbor, Chosin Reservoir, Tet. It can happen again.

Citizen soldiers and information war

If you want a different kind of warrior, look to the citizen soldier. Men like Gen. Dan Caine, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Or like yourself.

Citizen soldiers carry the heart and soul of warriors into the non-kinetic fight: information warfare. China fields armies of hackers and propagandists who corrupt American culture, flood social media with poison, and wage psychological war around the clock. They don’t need to fire a shot to weaken us.

What good are polished bayonets and perfect push-ups if our enemy — say, China — owns the digital battlefield? Unlike the kinetic fight, information war shifts daily. By the time the Pentagon recognizes a problem, builds a school, and launches a course, the enemy has already moved on.

That’s where the Guard excels. Citizen soldiers live in this world every day — coding, marketing, designing, working AI prompts and hardware. They bring practical knowledge the active-duty military cannot match.

I know this firsthand. Years ago, I organized and trained an experimental National Guard unit for the Pentagon. In their world, physical fitness matters less than mental agility. Discipline, imagination, and technical mastery were the weapons they carried. And they were lethal.

RELATED: Hegseth restores warrior ethos after years of woke Pentagon rot

Photo courtesy of Chuck de Caro

Back to the Roman model

The founders understood the power of the citizen soldier because they themselves defeated the world’s strongest army with farmhands who knew terrain, seasons, and the hunt. Today’s equivalent may be a Guardsman in sunglasses, leaning against a Corvette, laptop and phone in hand — ready to beat Beijing in the digital fight.

As you purge the woke and the unfit, Mr. Secretary, think about a new standard for an old class: the citizen soldier.

You like to quote the Romans. Let me remind you of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the farmer who left his plow to lead Rome to victory, then refused power and returned home. He wasn’t just a warrior. He was a victor.

That’s the model America needs now. Not just warriors — but victors who know when to fight, when to win, and when to go home. The Roman way. The American way.

​Opinion & analysis, Pete hegseth, Information warfare, National guard, Warrior ethos, Department of war, Diversity equity inclusion, Dei, National defense, National intelligence, University, Fitness, Education, Officers, Generals, Admirals, Woke military, Romans, Lucius quinctius cincinnatus, Citizen soldiers 

We’ve reached day two of the first government shutdown since 2019. It’s the fourth shutdown since the 2013 showdown between Barack Obama and the “Wacko Birds” in Congress.

I remember asking a senior Senate staffer who championed the 2013 tactics what the plan was now that the shutdown had begun. His answer was blunt: “There is none!” It was the first shutdown in decades, and Republicans had no idea what to do next. “We’re basically the dog that caught the car,” he admitted.

Surrender, it seems, remains the Democrats’ only option. The dirty little secret in DC is that shutdowns don’t offer real off-ramps once they begin.

Now Democrats find themselves in the same position. And the early signs suggest they won’t have the stomach to take the pressure for long.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) didn’t have much choice. Their sizeable left flank still calls the shots in the party, despite losing the White House 11 months ago. But the polls are in, and Americans aren’t buying the Democrats’ party line that Republicans are to blame.

Democrats may have grown somewhat accustomed to losing of late, but they’re not used to losing shutdown PR fights. The way they’ve told it the previous four times, the Republicans are the “terrorists” and “arsonists,” while the Democrats are the responsible adults safely guiding the ship of state.

When nearly every Republican in Congress votes to keep the ship steady, Democrats find it harder to play the blame game. Even their allies in the D.C. press aren’t impressed. Punchbowl’s Tuesday newsletter immediately set out to “reiterate that such shutdowns are harmful, counter-productive, and a major detriment to the country.”

The authors went farther: “The party looking to force a policy change via a shutdown rarely gets what it wants.”

Some Democrats already know it. Before the House adjourned last month, only one Democrat voted to fund the government. But on Tuesday, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) of Nevada and Angus King (I) of Maine broke ranks and joined John Fetterman (D) of Pennsylvania in voting to keep the doors open.

These senators face more moderate constituencies than shutdown champion Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts. And they aren’t alone. Others in the caucus are nervously watching the clock, waiting for cracks to widen enough so they can slip through and surrender without paying too steep a price with the party faithful.

Surrender, it seems, remains the Democrats’ only option. The dirty little secret in D.C. is that shutdowns don’t offer real off-ramps once they begin. They work only as leverage. Once the bluff is called, the fight becomes a war of attrition. In 2025, the corporate left-wing press no longer has the clout to ride in and save Democrats from themselves.

President Trump, for his part, holds the detonator. He could allow tens (hundreds?) of thousands of federal employees to be furloughed or laid off if their programs lack funding. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is gung-ho to follow through. But Trump wants a deal more than bureaucratic Armageddon.

The president is willing to let Vought trim bloated and unfunded projects. Yet unless Democrats push the standoff far longer than they seem capable of, conservatives shouldn’t expect the wholesale slash-and-burn they’ve been hoping for.

That leaves Senate Democrats caught between their restless base and the reality of a losing hand. Schumer needs to decide how much damage to allow Warren and her faction to inflict before pulling the plug. His personal fortunes — and his grip on power — hang in the balance.

My bet? It won’t be long.

Blaze News: Mass firings to begin ‘in a day or two’ over government shutdown, Trump official warns

Blaze News: Vance makes Jeffries a hilarious promise if Democrats end the shutdown

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​Opinion & analysis, Politics 

Let’s face it: In today’s culture, being a traditional, Christian, Proverbs 31 woman is seen as outdated at best — and oppressive at worst. Feminism, goddess worship, and self-idolatry have replaced biblical womanhood, pushing a false idea that true power comes from rebellion, not obedience.

We see it everywhere.

As we face the growing pagan threat in America, we must raise up more Erika Kirks.

In 2018, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral hosted a “Beyoncé Mass,” calling it a “womanist worship service” that praised Beyoncé as a goddess. Social media echoed the sentiment: “God is a woman and her name is Beyoncé.” Not long after, Taylor Swift’s fans held a Taylor Swift-themed “worship” experience in a 600-year-old church. Swift’s own performances have leaned into witchcraft-inspired visuals, while other pop icons like Ariana Grande (whose song is literally titled “God Is a Woman”), Nicki Minaj, Vanessa Hudgens, and Lady Gaga flaunt occult imagery and sexual empowerment wrapped in faux liberation.

This cultural shift is not new. It’s rooted in a long-standing rejection of Christian orthodoxy. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her 1875 work “The Woman’s Bible,” sought to rewrite scripture, even calling for the “emancipation of the woman” and the “exoneration of the snake.” Feminism’s earliest architects viewed biblical womanhood as the enemy to be dismantled.

The fight wasn’t for equality — it was for dominance.

Today, that legacy lives on. Women are praised not for motherhood, humility, or holiness, but for independence, sexual expression, and self-glorification. We now live in a culture where being a godly woman is seen as laughable, something to be mocked, dismissed, or feared.

But then came Erika Kirk.

Gospel power

On Sept. 21, just 11 days after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated allegedly by one of the very people he dedicated his life to reaching, Erika stood before the world — with tears in her eyes — and said these words: “That man, that young man: I forgive him.”

There were no calls for vengeance. No bitterness. No rage. Just grace. And a power that only the gospel can provide.

More than 100 million people were watching the broadcast when she said it.

RELATED: How Erika Kirk answered the hardest question of all

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Charlie was shot in the neck while answering student questions on a university campus — microphone in hand, actively engaging with those who disagreed with him. In one violent moment, Erika lost her husband and their two young children lost their father.

And yet, days later, she stood next to the empty chair where Charlie had hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” and declared: “The movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. … My husband’s mission will not end, not even for a moment.”

Sharp contrast

Since then, Erika has become one of the most talked-about women in the world. Her Instagram following has skyrocketed from a few hundred thousand to over 7 million. But she didn’t seek the spotlight — she stepped into it because her faith and the moment demanded it.

Before Charlie’s death, Erika was largely known within Christian and conservative circles. She ran a clothing brand, Proclaim Streetwear, led BIBLEin365, and hosted the “Midweek Rise Up” podcast, all while raising their children and supporting Charlie in his work at Turning Point USA.

“I was Charlie’s confidante. I was his vault, his closest and most trusted adviser, his best friend,” she said at his memorial. “I poured into him and loved him so deeply, empowered him, because his love for me drove me to be a better wife.”

Compare that to the culture’s role models: women who flaunt their bodies, reject motherhood, and redefine empowerment as self-worship. At the Grammy Awards this year, Bianca Censori wore nothing but a sheer dress that fully exposed her body — a display heralded by the media as “bold,” but more accurately described as a humiliation paraded as liberation.

How far have we fallen, when being a godly wife and mother is seen as weakness, while degrading yourself publicly is considered power?

Spiritual war

This is the spiritual battle we are facing. The pagan threat is real — and Erika Kirk stands as a holy contradiction to it.

She is not just a grieving widow. She is a modern-day Deborah. A Proverbs 31 woman. A warrior in the fire.

At a Turning Point USA event earlier this year, Erika issued a challenge:

After you leave here, please go confuse the culture. Confuse the crap out of it. … Do not conform to it. Let them stare at you. Let them write the meanest Instagram comments. Let them wonder. Let them whisper. … Because that’s just noise. Build your family. Go raise a family. Go build a life of holy defiance. Go love your husband. Go love your babies. Go teach your children how to blaze a trail of glory. Go lead in truth, and go be the light.

This is exactly what we need — holy defiance. A new generation of women who aren’t afraid to embrace their God-given roles. Women who don’t need the culture’s validation because they have God’s calling.

And Erika wasn’t done. At Charlie’s memorial, she challenged both women and men with a call to biblical courage.

“Women, I have a challenge for you too: Be virtuous. Our strength is found in God’s design for our role. We are the guardians. We are the encouragers. We are the preservers,” she said. “Guard your heart; everything you do flows from it. And if you’re a mother, please recognize that is the single most important ministry you have.

“To all the men watching around the world — accept Charlie’s challenge and embrace true manhood. Be strong and courageous for your families. Love your wives and lead them. Love your children and protect them. Be the spiritual head of your home, but please be a leader worth following,” she said. “Your wife is not your servant. Your wife is not your employee. Your wife is not your slave. She is your helper. You are not rivals; you are one flesh working together for the glory of God.”

This is the antidote to cultural decay: biblical men and women who refuse to bow to the false gods of modernity and recognize that our design is divine. That submission to God is not weakness but strength. That humility is not shameful but honorable. That motherhood is not bondage but ministry.

Holy defiance

As we face the growing pagan threat in America, we must raise up more Erika Kirks — women of fire-tested faith, uncompromising in truth, fearless in love, and grounded in scripture.

The culture is watching. And in Erika, people are seeing something they can’t explain: a woman standing in the ashes of atrocity, radiant with hope. A woman of grace. A woman of gospel power.

A woman the culture tried to erase — but couldn’t.

​Erika kirk, Christianity, Feminism, Biblical motherhood, Christian, Charlie kirk, Jesus christ, Faith 

The horrifying case of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska — in which the young woman was brutally stabbed to death by a career criminal on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina — is unfortunately just one of many.

“I’d like to tell you about another woman who I don’t think got the same coverage, but should have — Logan Federico. She was brutally murdered, shot to death back in May in South Carolina,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales reports.

“This was a repeat offender who allegedly broke into the house that she was in, dragged her out of bed, and murdered her in cold blood,” she adds.

“We’re talking about a guy, Alexander Dickey, who was arrested 39 times, okay, in 10 years. You know, 25 felonies. And I keep saying this. I mean, he was committing more crimes on average a year than most people do in a lifetime,” Stephen Federico, Logan’s father, tells Gonzales.

“But for him to only spend a little over 600 days in prison in 10 years — he’s only 30 years old. He started his crime spree when he was 15,” he explains.

And while there’s no getting his daughter back, Federico does believe there’s a way to prevent more murders like hers.

“I think you kind of have to reboot. I think you have to reboot the DA, the solicitor process altogether, and who’s cutting deals, who’s qualified to cut the deals. That includes judges. I think we need to reboot it and start from scratch,” he says.

“I’m sure there’s some really good magistrate judges out there. I’m sure there really are. But I think we have to start from the beginning,” he adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Iryna zarutska, Logan federico, Say her name, Alexander dickey, Decarlos brown jr, Criminal justice system, Criminal justice reform, Soft on crime