Category: blaze media

Another effort by liberal activists to shut down America’s first state-run facility for federal immigration detainees has fallen flat on its face.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, empowered by the governor’s 2023 emergency declaration over the border crisis, got to work in June on transforming the virtually abandoned Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport into Alligator Alcatraz.

Within weeks, the airport’s 10,499-foot runway was crowded with tents and unsavory characters set for deportation.

Enraged by the Republican administration’s success in raising and filling the facility, liberal activists filed multiple legal challenges in hopes of shutting down the facility.

One of those challenges was filed in August by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Community Justice Project, and National Immigrant Justice Center on behalf of an anonymous plaintiff and a proposed class of foreign nationals who share in common their capture by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detention at the facility.

The lawsuit claimed that Florida lacked the authority to detain illegal aliens at Alligator Alcatraz and asked the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida for a preliminary injunction barring state officials from detaining the plaintiff, identified only as M.A., and others like him at the site.

‘Plaintiff is essentially asking this Court to close a sizable and expensive detention facility, all before any decision on the merits of its legality.’

“Florida has wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to unlawfully detain people in this abusive immigration detention center,” Amy Godshall, an illegal aliens’ rights attorney with the ACLU of Florida, said at the outset. “Not only have the conditions been abhorrent, but the detention itself is unlawful.”

“The harm being inflicted on our clients is immediate and irreparable, and it underscores why states are not allowed to overstep into federal immigration processes,” added Godshall.

RELATED: ‘I’ll get the heat’: Milwaukee judge is now a convicted felon after violent illegal alien dodged ICE from her courtroom

Blaze Media illustration. Note: This is a Blaze Media illustration, not the actual facility.

U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek, an appointee of President Donald Trump, delivered the activist groups and their noncitizen client some bad news on Thursday, denying their request to prevent the DeSantis administration from holding illegal aliens at the facility.

Dudek said in his six-page ruling that “preliminary injunctive relief ‘is an extraordinary and drastic remedy’ that is appropriate only in limited circumstances” and that one of the conditions that must be satisfied was that the movant must show “he will suffer an irreparable injury without the injunction.”

The Trump judge underscored that the noncitizen plaintiff has failed to prove irreparable injury.

“To meet his burden, Plaintiff first points to his incarceration at Alligator Alcatraz,” wrote Dudek. “He claims that ‘unlawful detention is a paradigmatic form of irreparable harm.’ But this argument makes little sense here because Plaintiff does not dispute that he (and the proposed class) is subject to confinement by the Attorney General.”

Dudek suggested further that the supposed evidence of systematic problems at Alligator Alcatraz that was given in support of the noncitizen’s claim of “downstream irreparable harms” was not only “months old and largely stale” but particular only to a handful of detainees and contradicted by other evidence.

“Plaintiff is essentially asking this Court to close a sizable and expensive detention facility, all before any decision on the merits of its legality,” wrote Dudek. “While there may indeed be deficiencies at Alligator Alcatraz that ultimately justify its dissolution, Plaintiff has not made the extraordinary showing needed to justify immediate relief of such magnitude.”

This gut punch for the liberal activist groups comes just months after the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta blocked an Obama-appointed federal judge’s order that the facility be shut down.

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​Donald trump, Alligator alcatraz, Immigration, Deportation, Illegal aliens, Illegal alien, Florida, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Politics 

A woman in the United Kingdom is in trouble with law enforcement yet again for daring to engage in silent prayers.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce learned in March that she had been under investigation by Midlands Police in the U.K. since January. She has now been criminally charged for praying in her head.

‘You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offense.’

More specifically, Vaughan-Spruce was allegedly charged because she “stood outside” an abortion facility in Birmingham, England, to conduct her silent prayers and, therefore, tried to “influence” visitors, which is prohibited.

According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the charge against Vaughan-Spruce is under Section 9 of the U.K.’s Public Order Act 2023, which outlines “Safe Access Zones” around abortion clinics in England and Wales.

Discretion under the act is left to each individual officer, but all decisions must be made “on a case-by-case basis and must be balanced and proportionate to the circumstances,” the document says.

The law states it is an offense to recklessly or intentionally “do an act” that:

Influences “any person’s decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic”;Obstructs or impedes any person “accessing, providing, or facilitating the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic”; orCauses “harassment, alarm, or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic.”

Violators are subject to a fine.

RELATED: ‘Your arrest is necessary’: Woman arrested for silent prayer, ‘anti-social behavior’ outside abortion clinic

Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images

In 2022, Vaughan-Spruce made headlines for admitting to possibly engaging in silent prayer near an abortion clinic. She was asked by an officer to voluntarily go to a police station, and, upon declining, was informed that she was under arrest for failing to comply and would be charged with “anti-social behavior.”

According to a city of Birmingham website, anti-social behavior “includes behavior which has caused or is likely to cause you harassment, alarm, or distress.”

Vaughan-Spruce was later charged with “protesting and engaging in an act that is intimidating to service users” but was reportedly acquitted because the facility was actually closed at the time she was there.

She was arrested again in 2023 for praying in an excluded zone, this time on the corner of a road.

“You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offense,” an officer told her.

Vaughan-Spruce claimed at the time that she assumed her acquittal meant she could now pray outside of the facility without causing offense.

RELATED: Real-life dystopia: Police arrest woman AGAIN after she silently prayed near abortion facility in UK

Similar charges were recently brought upon a retired pastor in Northern Ireland for preaching inside one of the protected zones.

According to the New York Post, the 76-year-old faces two charges and has pleaded not guilty to seeking to “influence” people accessing abortion services and for not immediately vacating the area when asked by police.

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​Christianity, Abortion, United kingdom, England, Northern ireland, Safe zones, Abortion clinic, Thought crime, Prayer, Faith 

Federal agents charged another Chinese national with allegedly trying to smuggle biological materials into the United States.

On Friday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency had filed charges against Youhuang Xiang, a postdoctoral researcher who is in the country on a J-1 visa.

‘To all universities and their compliance departments: Please be vigilant of this trend.’

These visas are issued to exchange visitors approved to participate in certain programs, such as studying or conducting research, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. J-1 visas are provided to professors, research assistants, and students.

Xiang allegedly smuggled Escherichia coli, commonly referred to as E. coli, into the country. He is also accused of making false statements about the smuggling scheme.

Patel explained that E. coli, when not properly controlled, can “inflict devastating disease to U.S. crops and cause significant financial loss to the U.S. economy.”

Xiang was listed on Indiana University’s website as a postdoctoral fellow. His “research interests” included “recognition specificity in host-pathogen interactions and engineering crop resistance to pathogen,” according to the website. As of Friday afternoon, the university removed Xiang from its Department of Biology webpage.

RELATED: University of Michigan’s bio-smuggling scandal explodes: More Chinese scholars busted in alleged plot

Kash Patel. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

“This is yet another example of a researcher from China — given the privilege to work at a U.S. university — who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China,” Patel wrote in a post on social media.

The FBI director noted that the agency and Customs and Border Protection partners “are committed to enforcing U.S. laws put in place to protect against this global threat to our economy and food supply.”

RELATED: University of Michigan now under fire after Chinese scholars allegedly smuggle bio-weapon

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

“The FBI will not tolerate any attempt to exploit our nation’s institutions for illegal activity — as we have seen in this case and the three Chinese nationals charged in Michigan in November for allegedly smuggling biological materials into the U.S. on several occasions,” Patel continued. “The FBI and our partners are committed to defending the homeland and stopping any illegal smuggling into our country.”

Patel was referring to several Chinese scholars from the University of Michigan who were accused earlier this year of being tied to a smuggling conspiracy. Some of the biological materials the individuals allegedly brought into the U.S. were described as potential agricultural terrorism weapons.

“To all universities and their compliance departments: Please be vigilant of this trend. Ensure your researchers know that there is a correct and legal way to obtain a license to import/export approved biological materials, and it must be followed without exception. Our continued partnerships will help to better secure our nation and ensure all parties are held accountable,” Patel wrote.

Indiana University did not respond to a request for comment.

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​News, Kash patel, Fbi, Federal bureau of investigation, Chinese nationals, Chinese scholars, Michigan, University of michigan, Indiana university, Iu, J-1 visa, J-1 visas, J-1, Visas, China, Smuggling, Bio-material smuggling, Politics 

As the Trump administration continues to clean up the administrative state, the Department of Justice just landed a potentially significant victory. In a major reversal, the Department of Justice has discarded a decades-old interpretation of a law that essentially allowed illegal aliens to collect welfare benefits.

In a 20-page slip opinion bearing Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser’s signature, the Department of Justice reversed its reading of “federal means-tested public benefit” in light of last year’s overturn of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc.

‘The existence of such reliance on federal welfare contradicts the textually expressed congressional policy that aliens must not rely on taxpayer support or burden the public benefits system.’

The previous interpretation, stemming from the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 under Democratic President Bill Clinton, extended welfare to illegal aliens by splitting hairs between mandatory and discretionary spending. The DOJ previously directed the Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development to interpret this phrase to allow the extension of benefits to illegal aliens under discretionary benefit programs.

RELATED: US Virgin Islands’ gun restrictions violate the Second Amendment, DOJ claims

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The new opinion rules that the PRWORA includes benefits under both mandatory and discretionary spending programs and withdraws the preceding 1997 opinion, effectively closing this loophole that allowed illegal aliens to collect welfare benefits.

The opinion notes that the PRWORA had many other parts that would seem to resist the old interpretation, particularly since the relevant section of the law was enacted “to address abuse of the welfare system by aliens in the United States.”

The opinion says that despite this clearly stated purpose, the old interpretation led to unrestricted discretionary funds flowing to illegal aliens over the ensuing decades from “many federal agencies.”

“Today, by some estimates, 59% of illegal alien-headed households receive government welfare,” the opinion reads, citing the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.

“While some aliens may have come to rely on means-tested public benefits funded through discretionary spending programs, the existence of such reliance on federal welfare contradicts the textually expressed congressional policy that aliens must not rely on taxpayer support or burden the public benefits system,” the opinion continued.

“American taxpayers have interests, too, in ensuring that their tax contributions do not encourage illegal entry into the United States. Americans are entitled to rely on duly enacted legislation crafted by their elected representatives and designed to protect the public fisc from abuse.”

The Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Politics, Chevron, Center for immigration studies, Illegal aliens, Mandatory spending, Discretionary spending, Hud, Hhs, Doj, Department of justice, T. elliot gaiser, Prwora 

The Republican-held Senate approved a third batch of nominees Thursday night, surpassing the confirmation pace from previous presidencies.

Under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), the Senate confirmed 97 more nominees in a 53-43 vote. In 2025 alone, the Senate confirmed 417 of President Donald Trump’s nominees, leaving just 15 nominees on the docket.

‘It’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty.’

This confirmation rate greatly outpaced former President Joe Biden, who had 365 nominees greenlit through the Senate in 2021.

This unprecedented confirmation pace came after Thune deployed the nuclear option in September to address the ballooning number of nominees awaiting their confirmations over the summer.

RELATED: John Thune to use Democrats’ own ‘nuclear option’ to defeat Senate confirmation blockade

Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Thune changed the vote threshold in September for sub-Cabinet level positions, allowing nominees to be confirmed in large groups as opposed to individual, tedious votes Democrats consistently tried to obstruct.

“It’s delay for delay’s sake, and it’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty in agencies across the federal government and robs our duly elected president of a team to enact the agenda that the American people voted for in November,” Thune said in an op-ed for Breitbart.

RELATED: ‘This is a must-win’: These 4 Republicans voted against banning trans surgeries on children

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

“Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this obstruction any longer,” Thune added. “We have tried to work with Democrats in good faith to batch bipartisan, noncontroversial nominees and clear them expeditiously, according to past precedent. Democrats have stood in the way at every turn.”

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​Donald trump, John thune, Senate, Senate republicans, Senate democrats, Joe biden, Trump nominees, Senate confirmation, Nuclear option, Politics 

And now … your Oscars host … Mr. Beast!

The Academy Awards, facing diminished ratings and cultural clout, is moving to YouTube starting in 2029. Yes, ABC didn’t fight hard enough to keep the once-mighty telecast on its airwaves, paving the door for the Google giant to take over.

If Marvel really wants to bring back disenchanted fans, just say Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel got lost in a black hole and can’t make the sequel.

And as one internet wag cheekily put it, calls to “smash that ‘like’ button” may blend with the boilerplate political speeches sooner than later.

It’s a sign of the times, of course, on two fronts. YouTube is a major part of the digital landscape, and ABC understands the Oscars’ cache isn’t what it used to be.

The funniest part? A Variety scribe cheered the news, hoping for an even longer Oscars telecast.

“The Oscars on YouTube could bring an unlimited runtime, unfiltered hosts, and the show we’ve always wanted” reads the hysterical headline.

Imagine enduring a three-and-a-half-hour celebrity lovefest and thinking, “More, please!”

Boulevard of memes

Hollywood could really use some good news at this point. Enter a spanking new study that shares a surprising take on Gen Z. Turns out the youthful demographic’s movie theater attendance climbed by 25% over the past year.

Video game-inspired films like “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” and “A Minecraft Movie” certainly helped, but the image of phone-obsessed teens eschewing theaters for their comfy couches may come with a caveat.

Speak to us directly, and we’ll line up to see what you have to offer. Imagine the lines around the block to see “6-7: The Movie” …

‘Peanuts’ allergy

Coming soon: a reimagined take on the Red Baron where he’s the hero and that dastardly Snoopy is the heel.

Sound crazy? Well we just saw a movie greenlit based on the villainous Gaston character from “Beauty and the Beast.”

“Wicked: For Good,” which makes the Wicked Witch of the West our unfairly maligned heroine, is crushing the box office.

And another reimagined classic spun from “Cinderella” will make those nasty stepsisters the heroes. It’s called “Steps.” Really.

So why wouldn’t Snoopy’s archnemesis ever get a cinematic closeup? It feels inevitable, especially after Sony purchased the rights to the “Peanuts” franchise for a cool $457 million.

Rats.

Who will stop team Sony from following this corrosive trend? And should it draw a crowd, expect more re-imaginings, like Brad Pitt playing a spiffed-up Pig Pen and Lucy joining the NFL …

RELATED: ‘The Case for Miracles’: A stirring road trip into the heart of faith

Fathom Entertainment

Avengers: Payday

The MCU is in full course-correction mode. But is it too late?

The mega franchise has stumbled in recent years following the two-part “Avengers” saga against Thanos. That coaxed Disney suits to call in reinforcements — AKA Robert Downey Jr.

But wait? The charismatic star’s alter ego, Iron Man, died in “Avengers: Endgame.” Disney craved his sweet, sweet name recognition so badly it brought him back for next year’s “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Except this time, he’ll play the villainous Victor von Doom.

If that decision didn’t reek of flop sweat, the latest MCU news sure does. Chris Evans, who memorably played Captain America in nine MCU films, was given a poetic send-off in “Endgame.” The actor hung up his shield, eager to tackle roles where he doesn’t squeeze into unforgiving leotards.

Except he didn’t really go away. He’s back, according to the just-released “Avengers: Doomsday” teaser trailer. (Imagine the zeroes on the paycheck written to Mr. Evans.)

If Marvel really wants to bring back disenchanted fans, just say Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel got lost in a black hole and can’t make the sequel …

Kamala klarity

Kamala Harris may have been the most qualified person ever to run for the White House. Just ask her.

Yet the former vice president is still struggling to answer softball questions. During the campaign, she famously bungled a layup from Sunny Hostin of “The View.”

“How will you be different than President Biden?” Swiiiiiing and a miss.

This week, far-left “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel teed up another question for the ex-veep to swat out of the studio. Why didn’t the Biden-Harris administration release the Epstein files?

“To give you an answer that will not satisfy your curiosity, I will tell you, we, perhaps to our damage, but we strongly and rightly believed that there should be an absolute separation between what we wanted as an administration and what the Department of Justice did. We absolutely adhered to that, and it was right to do that,” Harris told Kimmel.

“The Justice Department would make its decisions independent of any political or personal vendetta or concern that we may have, and that’s the way it worked.”

Harris is rested and ready for the 2028 presidential campaign, no doubt.

​Hollywood, Entertainment, Culture, The academy awards, Oscars, Mr. beast, Marvel, Toto recall 

In his damning Dec. 15 article in Compact magazine titled “The Lost Generation,” Los Angeles-based writer Jacob Savage detailed the disenfranchisement of white male Millennials and their systematic exclusion from various industries, especially academia, entertainment, medicine, the news media, and tech.

While America has long been reckoning with the fallout of the DEI war on meritocracy, Savage’s viral article — which journalist Matt Taibbi indicated was initially accepted by the Atlantic on the condition that it avoid making the bigger societal point — crystallized for many, with the help of statistics and personal accounts, the extent and true impact of that racist campaign.

‘This was an injustice, plain and simple.’

After Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the article and the discrimination discussed therein, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chairwoman Andrea Lucas released a video on social media imploring white men to seek damages — a video that Vance subsequently shared.

“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws,” said Lucas, a Republican critic of DEI and mother of two who was appointed to lead the EEOC by President Donald Trump in January.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to probe and litigate against private companies for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.

RELATED: ‘Enough white guys already’: The war on white men because of DEI in the working world exposed in damning report

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Image

Lucas, who previously noted that Savage’s article told “a story chock full of unlawful discrimination,” said in the video that it was imperative that those keen on taking action contact the EEOC as soon as possible, as “time limits are typically strict for filing a claim.”

The EEOC chairwoman also noted in a follow-up message, “You may have waived your right to money, but you still have the right to blow the whistle and participate in the EEOC process — and EEOC can sue on behalf of a class.”

— (@)

Lucas has made no secret of her contempt for DEI.

In a May 2024 speech — nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC, banning race-based college admission — Lucas stated:

Race or sex cannot be even a plus factor, a tiebreaker, or a tipping point in the employment context. People sometimes think that race or sex can be part of the equation for an employment decision if race or sex is not the sole factor, the exclusive factor, or the deciding factor. That is dead wrong. If race or sex was all or part of an employer’s motivation, that violates federal employment law.

She noted during the Q&A following her remarks that “many employers, by doing lazy, high-level virtue signaling, paint-by-numbers DEI, have mass discrimination.”

Proponents of the DEI regime were evidently prickled by Lucas’ latest remarks.

David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the NYU School of Law, told the Associated Press that Lucas’ recent posts demonstrate a “fundamental misunderstanding of what DEI is.”

“It’s really much more about creating a culture in which you get the most out of everyone who you’re bringing on board, where everyone experiences fairness and equal opportunity, including white men and members of other groups,” Glasgow said. “If DEI has been this engine of discrimination against white men, I have to say it hasn’t really been doing a very good job at achieving that.”

RELATED: Trump takes a wrecking ball to the woke campus economy

Photo by Tom Brenner-Pool/Getty Image

Jenny Yang, a former EEOC chairwoman who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, similarly complained, suggesting it was “problematic” for Lucas to speak out about the disenfranchisement of white men.

“It suggests some sort of priority treatment,” said Yang, who served as deputy assistant to former President Joe Biden for so-called racial justice and equity. “That’s not something that sounds to me like equal opportunity for all.”

Hours ahead of Lucas sharing her video to social media, Vice President JD Vance noted on X that Savage’s article was “an incredible piece that describes the evil of DEI and its consequences.”

“A lot of people think DEI is lame diversity seminars or racial slogans at NFL games,” Vance wrote. “In reality, it was a deliberate program of discrimination primarily against white men.”

“This is why the Trump administration has so dedicated itself to eradicating racist discrimination. We’ve eliminated funding for DEI, required government grantees to certify that they’re not engaged in DEI, fired a number of DEI employees, and asked the great [Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon] to aggressively prosecute all forms of racial discrimination,” the vice president continued. “For too many Democrat leaders, racial discrimination was bad unless it targeted white men. This was an injustice, plain and simple.”

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​Eeoc, Jd vance, Vance, Discrimination, Anti-white, Equality, Work, Workplace, Erasure, Replacement, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Dei, Working, Quota, Affirmative action, White, White guys, White male, Andrea lucas, Politics 

An appointee for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, abruptly resigned after the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey exposed her past anti-Semitic social media posts.

On Wednesday, Mamdani announced that Catherine Almonte Da Costa would be his director of appointments.

‘As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.’

The ADL responded to the nomination by highlighting Da Costa’s numerous anti-Jewish online comments.

“Her social media footprint includes posts from more than a decade ago that echo classic antisemitic tropes and otherwise demean Jewish people. … We appreciate Da Costa has relationships with members of the Jewish community, but her posts require immediate explanation — not just from Ms. Da Costa, but also from the Mayor-Elect,” the ADL wrote.

The ADL continued, “Vetting the appointment of city leaders will be Ms. Da Costa’s responsibility and the Jewish community deserves to know: 1) Were these comments previously identified by the Mayor-elect’s team? If so, why were they excused? 2) What will be the policy of the new Administration if comments like these are discovered during the vetting process?”

The ADL’s post included screenshots of three X posts from Da Costa’s account, which has since been removed.

RELATED: Mamdani dares ICE to come get him — and throws the Constitution in the trash

Zohran Mamdani. Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images

“Money hungry Jews smh,” Da Costa apparently wrote in January 2011 on then-Twitter, presumably using an abbreviation for “shaking my head,” an expression of disapproval.

“Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps,” she apparently wrote later that year.

“Far Rockaway train is the Jew train,” a third post read from June 2012.

In 2020, Da Costa posted anti-cop sentiments, calling for the defunding of the New York Police Department by $1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year to “get cops out of our schools & subways,” the New York Post reported.

RELATED: NYC councilwoman lays into ‘rich,’ ‘entitled’ Mamdani voters as mayor-elect plans to leave homeless encampments alone

L to R: Zohran Mamdani, Jahmila Edwards, Catherine Almonte Da Costa. Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images

Da Costa announced her resignation on Thursday, following the resurfaced posts.

“I spoke with the mayor-elect this afternoon, apologized, and expressed my deep regret for my past statements,” Da Costa said. “These statements are not indicative of who I am. As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused. As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.”

In a separate statement, she contended that her “tweets from well over a decade ago … do not in any way, shape, or form reflect who I am or my views and beliefs today.”

Mamdani called Da Costa’s past remarks “unacceptable,” adding that the posts “absolutely do not represent him or the values of his administration.”

“Catherine expressed her deep remorse over her past statements and tendered her resignation, and I accepted,” he added.

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​News, Catherine almonte da costa, Democratic socialist, Socialist, Zohran mamdani, New york city, Nyc, New york, Antisemitic, Antisemitism, Anti-defamation league, Adl, Defund the police, Politics 

I oppose Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist agenda. But if Republicans are serious about winning elections next year and in 2028, they need to take a hard, unsentimental look at how he just won one of the most consequential mayoral races in the country.

This was not an ideological earthquake. New York did not suddenly “discover” socialism. What happened was a marketing and mobilization breakthrough. Mamdani’s campaign understood attention, simplicity, participation, and distribution better than anyone else in the race.

Republicans often confuse seriousness with stiffness. Mamdani showed that message discipline does not require lifelessness.

Joe Perello, the city of New York’s first chief marketing officer, noted in PRWeek after Mamdani’s victory that the campaign did more than communicate a message. It built an engine that converted online engagement into real-world turnout.

“For marketers and strategists alike, the implications are clear,” Perello wrote. “Growth hacking, iterative testing, and data-driven amplification can convert digital sentiment into real-world behavior. In Mamdani’s case, that meant converting hearts, clicks, and hashtags into ballots.”

Here is the part many on the right do not want to hear: Mamdani did not spend his time lecturing working-class voters about the virtues of socialism or defending failed economic theory. He focused on immediate, kitchen-table concerns and paired them with simple, slogan-ready answers.

Is halal food expensive? Make it cheaper. Struggling to get to work? Free buses. Grocery bills too high? Government-run grocery stores.

He took Bernie Sanders’ 2016-era talking points and filtered them through a polished, Obama-style optimism that voting-age New Yorkers were willing to engage with.

Most voters do not have the time — or patience — to think through how these promises would actually work. They just want to hear that someone intends to make their lives easier.

As Citizens Alliance CEO Cliff Maloney observed during Mamdani’s surge in the polls, the public’s lack of understanding about how government operates — and how socialism consistently fails — created the political environment Mamdani exploited. He did not create that environment. He mastered it.

Republicans’ digital blind spot

For years, Republican campaigns have treated digital media as messaging rather than infrastructure. Social platforms are used as megaphones for press releases, fundraising tools, or dumping grounds for cable-news clips. The underlying assumption is that persuasion happens elsewhere — on TV, at rallies, through mailers — and that digital simply amplifies those efforts.

Mamdani reversed that logic. Social media was not an accessory to his campaign. It was the campaign.

His approach drew praise even from outlets like the Guardian, where journalist Adam Gabbatt noted that Mamdani “has won social media with clips that are always fun — and resolutely on-message.”

His team treated TikTok and Instagram like serious growth channels. Short videos were not vanity content; they were experiments. Different neighborhoods, different faces, different tones, different pacing. What held attention? What sparked comments? What traveled across boroughs? Each post generated data, and each data point informed the next iteration.

This was politics run as a full-funnel acquisition strategy. Awareness led to engagement. Engagement led to identification. Identification led to turnout. Republicans can mock the aesthetics, but the mechanics work.

Energy is a signal

One of the most underrated elements of Mamdani’s campaign was how it looked. He was constantly in motion — walking Manhattan, running a marathon, bouncing between boroughs. Rarely behind a lectern. Rarely static. Always visible.

That energy communicated youth, optimism, and confidence in the same way John F. Kennedy outperformed Richard Nixon on television in 1960. A similar contrast appeared in 2024, when Donald Trump’s unscripted, high-visibility media strategy stood in sharp contrast to Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ tightly controlled appearances.

The predictable response on the right is dismissal. ‘That’s just TikTok nonsense.’ ‘Our voters aren’t like that.’ Those excuses are comforting — and dangerously wrong.

In an age of low trust and low information, energy reads as competence. Movement suggests effort. Visibility substitutes for familiarity. Mamdani’s omnipresence created the impression — fair or not — that he was accessible and engaged with everyday life.

Republicans often confuse seriousness with stiffness. Mamdani showed that message discipline does not require lifelessness.

RELATED: When Bernie Sanders and I agree on AI, America had better pay attention

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

From supporters to fans

The most uncomfortable lesson for traditional campaigns is that Mamdani did not just mobilize voters. He activated fandom.

Much of the campaign content that flooded social media did not come from official accounts. It came from supporters remixing clips, creating fan art, cutting moments to music, and sharing them within their own networks. The campaign made Mamdani easy to clip, easy to celebrate, and then got out of the way.

Wired magazine described it as a rare case of participatory political culture usually reserved for celebrities.

This matters because peer-to-peer persuasion scales faster and carries more credibility than anything a campaign can manufacture. Fan-made content travels further, feels more authentic, and costs nothing. Republicans, by contrast, tend to over-police their messaging, choking off organic enthusiasm in the name of control.

Younger voters understand fandom instinctively. They grew up online. Mamdani did not lecture them about politics; he gave them something to belong to.

The wrong reaction

The predictable response on the right is dismissal. “That only works for Democrats.” “That’s just TikTok nonsense.” “Our voters aren’t like that.”

Those excuses are comforting — and dangerously wrong.

Trump understood this dynamic in 2024 when his campaign was largely shut out of legacy media. Figures like Charlie Kirk reached millions of Gen Z voters by blending serious political content with the humor and energy of youth activism.

Algorithms do not have ideologies. Participation is not a left-wing monopoly. Visibility, simplicity, and community are not progressive inventions. In a low-information, high-attention environment, the side that understands distribution wins.

The real danger is not Mamdani’s policies alone. It is a Republican Party that keeps confusing being correct with being effective.

RELATED: How anti-fascism became the West’s civil religion

Blaze Media Illustration

What Republicans should learn — now

First, treat digital as organizing, not advertising. Stop thinking in posts and start thinking in systems. How does attention become action?

Second, simplicity wins. Republicans often pride themselves on being right — and then lose because they are incomprehensible. Clarity scales. Long explanations do not.

Third, loosen control. Let supporters remix, clip, and share. Reach matters more than perfect phrasing.

Finally, build communities, not just campaigns. Email lists decay. Ad budgets run out. Communities endure.

The bottom line

I do not agree with Zohran Mamdani’s politics, and I do not want his policies implemented anywhere. But ignoring how he won would be malpractice.

He demonstrated how power is built today — not through party machinery or television dominance, but through attention, participation, and relentless simplicity. Republicans can learn from that reality, or they can keep losing to it.

Disagree with his ideology. But study his marketing. Ignore the lesson at your own risk.

​Opinion & analysis, Zohran mamdani, Victory, Socialism, New york city, Marketing, Campaign, Elections, 2026 midterms, 2028 presidential election, Social media 

The suspect in the fatal shootings at Brown University last weekend and of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor just days later was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday night in Salem, New Hampshire, officials said.

The body of Claudio Neves Valente, 48 — a former Brown student and a Portuguese national — was found in a storage facility, WCVB-TV reported.

‘We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students, and why this classroom.’

Earlier Thursday multiple reports indicated a person of interest had been identified in the Brown shooting, which took the lives of two students and wounded nine others Saturday at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island. Authorities also were investigating possible ties between the Brown shooting and the fatal shooting Monday of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Providence police released several images and videos of a person of interest in the days following the deadly Brown shooting with no apparent luck.

RELATED: Person of interest ID’d in deadly Brown U. shooting; warrant issued: Multiple reports

Image source: Providence (R.I.) Police

But police told WCVB a witness provided investigators with a key tip: He saw someone who looked like the person of interest with a Nissan sedan displaying Florida plates.

That bit of information led Providence police to dive into a network of more than 70 street cameras operated around the city by surveillance company Flock Safety, the station said, adding that those cameras track license plates and other vehicle details.

Providence officials said the suspect then placed a Maine license plate over the rental car’s plate to help conceal his identity after he left Rhode Island for Massachusetts, WCVB reported.

The station said in a separate story that surveillance video from MIT professor Loureiro’s Brookline neighborhood allegedly shows the gunman there days before the deadly shooting, according to Leah B. Foley, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

Investigators said video from inside Loureiro’s apartment shows Neves Valente wearing a specific set of clothes before shooting the professor in the lobby Monday, WCVB reported.

A neighbor said in a WBZ-TV video report that the fatal shooting of Loureiro was a “surprise … and a shooting in a state where it’s so hard to even have a gun?” The neighbor also said fellow neighbors noted a nearby car was “parked in the wrong direction” and “seemed to be waiting.”

RELATED: Prominent MIT professor — reportedly Jewish, pro-Israel — shot to death in his home; no suspect in custody

Hours after the Loureiro shooting, Foley said surveillance video from a storage unit facility in Salem, New Hampshire, shows the gunman wearing the same clothes seen on the Brookline cameras, the station added. Neves Valente was found dead inside the storage facility Thursday night.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at the college from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001, the station said, adding that he was admitted to the graduate school to study physics beginning in September 2000. Paxson said he had “no current affiliation with the university,” WCVB reported.

Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa and obtained legal permanent residence status in September 2017, the station said, adding that his last known residence was in Miami.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told WCVB there are “a lot of unknowns” in regard to motive: “We don’t know why now, why Brown, why these students, and why this classroom.”

RELATED: Brown U. suspected shooter’s DNA gathered; images, video of person of interest match eyewitness descriptions: Police

Foley said Neves Valente and Loureiro were former classmates at an academic program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000, the station noted.

Loureiro graduated in 2000 from the physics program at Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal’s premier engineering school, WCVB reported, citing his MIT faculty page.

Neves Valente in 2000 was let go from a position at the Lisbon university, the station said, citing an archive of a termination notice from the school’s then-president in February 2000.

More from WCVB:

Loureiro, 47, who was married, joined MIT in 2016 and was named last year to lead the school’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he worked to advance clean energy technology and other research. The center, one of MIT’s largest labs, had more than 250 people working across seven buildings when he took the helm. He was a professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering.

Prior to the discovery of Neves Valente’s body, police in Providence said the DNA of the Brown University suspected shooter had been gathered, and images and video of the person of interest matched eyewitness descriptions.

A person of interest was initially detained last weekend before law enforcement determined they had the wrong individual.

The Brown University students who were killed and wounded Saturday were studying for a final in a first-floor classroom in an older section of the engineering building when the shooter walked in and opened fire, WCVB said.

Sophomore Ella Cook, 19, and freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in the shooting, the station said.

Cook, whose funeral is Monday, was active in her Alabama church and served as vice president of the Brown College Republicans, WCVB said, adding that Umurzokov’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan when he was a child and that he wanted to be a doctor.

The station added in regard to the wounded students, six were in stable condition Thursday, and the other three had been discharged.

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​Fatal shootings, Suspect found dead, Brown university, Massachusetts institute of technology, New hampshire, Claudio neves valente, Crime, Mit professor, Nuno loureiro, Providence, Rhode island, Police, Fbi, Storage facility 

A second 9/11 wasn’t prevented by Marines kicking in doors or drone strikes overseas. It was prevented by accountants.

After the attacks, the Bush administration issued an executive order to freeze the assets of organizations tied to terrorism, cutting off their ability to operate. The strategy worked. The United Nations and other international bodies soon joined the financial front in the war on terror, targeting money flows instead of just militants.

After 9/11, the United States used financial warfare to cripple terrorists abroad. We now need the same resolve at home.

It wasn’t glamorous. There were no dramatic accounting-themed visuals, let alone battlefield footage. But it starved terrorist networks of oxygen — and it saved lives.

That same approach now needs to be applied at home.

With Antifa finally designated a domestic terrorist organization, the administration should be treating these violent, unhinged groups the same way it treated Al-Qaeda: by dismantling their financial infrastructure, freezing assets, and prosecuting leadership. That makes the president’s nomination of Ken Kies as chief counsel and assistant secretary for the Internal Revenue Service baffling at best — and dangerous at worst.

Kies is a Washington hired gun with divided loyalties. He has operated inside the revolving door since 1981, moving between government and lobbying, registering more than 500 times on behalf of various clients. His political contributions suggest close ties to the Pence wing of the party — precisely the faction that has resisted President Trump’s effort to dismantle the IRS deep state and confront politicized nonprofit networks.

Instead of cleaning house, Kies appears to be preserving it.

He has been reluctant to remove entrenched IRS officials tied to past abuses, including Holly Paz (top deputy of Lois Lerner), Robert Choi, and Anthony Sacco. Paz and Choi were deeply involved in the Tea Party targeting scandal. Sacco publicly pledged to “resist” President Trump. Paz, an Obama donor, was accused of lying to Congress by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in 2013 — yet she remained in a senior IRS role until being placed on leave in August.

To this day, there is no public confirmation that any of these officials have been officially terminated.

Kies has also aggressively defended Kevin Salinger, his protégé and a senior IRS official who oversees day-to-day tax policy operations and supervises an army of government attorneys. Salinger wields enormous influence over whether Trump’s tax agenda is implemented — or quietly buried.

At a recent Tax Council meeting, Kies praised Salinger for working “tirelessly to faithfully implement President Trump’s agenda across all of the tax policy initiatives.” Really?

Salinger has a long record of involvement with progressive activist organizations, including extensive pro bono work for Immigration Equality, a group that pushes open-border policies, especially for LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants. He also served on the board of El Barrio Angels, which provides immigration legal services in Los Angeles. These are not neutral civic activities. They are ideological commitments.

If one of the president’s core goals is to depoliticize the IRS after its weaponization under the Biden administration, placing figures so deeply embedded in Democratic activist networks into senior roles is a recipe for sabotage.

And the stakes are not abstract.

RELATED: Warlord, terror, and taxpayer theft: Somali scheme allegedly bilks millions from Maine Medicaid to fund foreign army

Dmytro Lastovych

As we speak, Soros-linked nonprofits and so-called charities are laundering foreign money, taxpayer funds, and aid dollars through opaque networks — think of the Somali charity rip-offs in Minnesota and Maine — funding radical activism, facilitating mass immigration, and fueling domestic instability. These same networks help bankroll groups tied to street-level violence, intimidation, and riots. They worsen the affordability crisis Democrats endlessly complain about while escaping scrutiny themselves.

Violent left-wing extremists have already crossed from rhetoric into bloodshed. Organized threats have forced senior Trump officials to relocate their families for safety. National Guardsmen have been killed. The idea that this is merely symbolic radicalism is no longer defensible.

The IRS should be the tip of the spear in dismantling these financial pipelines — not a sanctuary for the very people who looked the other way while the agency was weaponized against the right.

The American people did not vote in 2024 for Washington lifers like Kies and Democratic-aligned operatives to remain entrenched in power. They voted to end the culture that financed, protected, and excused political violence.

After 9/11, the United States used financial warfare to cripple terrorists abroad. We now need the same resolve at home. The question is simple: Why are we appointing people who appear unwilling — or unable — to do that job?

​Opinion & analysis, Irs, Terrorism, Antifa, 9/11, Finances, Forensic audit, Weaponization, Ken kies, Kevin salinger, Lois lerner, Holly paz, Robert choi, Anthony sacco, Donald trump, Accounting, Internal revenue service, War on terror 

Illegal immigration has long been a contentious issue, but Rep. Chip Roy believes those who are very against illegal immigration aren’t going far enough. Rather he believes that we need to go after legal immigration as well.

“We’ve now got a situation where we have millions of people in our country that are not seeking to assimilate, not seeking to be the quote ‘melting pot,’ but rather are trying to kind of re-establish their cultures from other countries here rather than becoming fully American,” Roy tells Glenn.

“To put it in perspective, we have 51 and a half million foreign-born people here in the United States. The vast majority of whom did not come here illegally, right? But legally. But they’ve kind of been abusing the process in the system because we’ve got this broad use of H-1B visas. We’ve got these things called diversity visas,” he explains.

“We have chain migration where you’ve got everybody’s cousin, uncle, aunt, whatever, and they’re just growing the population here. And this is now unlike it was a century ago … and at that point, we didn’t have a welfare state. We had schools that were teaching that America was great,” he continues.

And to Roy’s point, despite how well everything was going, America still “flatlined” immigration.

“And I think our country was stronger for it. Today it’s worse because we’ve got so many people coming here who are not assimilating. We have schools that are not teaching people that America’s great, and we certainly are continuing to have a welfare state now that is causing a big problem,” he tells Glenn.

That’s where Roy’s Pause Act comes in.

“We should pause legal immigration until we fix a lot of things. Fix diversity visas, fix chain migration, fix H-1B,” Roy says.

“Until you fix all those things … then we’re going to lose our country. We’re going to lose our culture,” he adds.

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Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan tried her best to avoid consequence for her role in Eduardo Flores-Ruiz — an illegal alien from Mexico who later pled no contest to one count of battery and guilty to re-entering the U.S. — briefly evading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Her best was evidently not good enough.

Dugan, relieved of her duties as a judge in April by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, was found guilty on Thursday of obstructing federal agents — a felony. The jury did not, however, find Dugan guilty of the lesser misdemeanor charge of concealing a fugitive from justice.

‘Dugan’s actions to obstruct this violent criminal’s arrest take “activist judge” to a whole new meaning.’

“The defendant is certainly not evil nor is she a martyr for some greater cause,” Brad Schimel, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, told reporters after Dugan learned her fate. “We must all accept the verdict peacefully.”

Schimel emphasized that “experience and common sense as well as the evidence presented in this case” demonstrate that the safest place to execute an arrest warrant is within a public area of a courthouse that has security screening — and that the 66-year-old judge’s actions endangered multiple people.

“The defendant’s actions provided an opportunity for a wanted subject to flee outside that safe courthouse environment, which led to a dangerous foot chase through automobile traffic and eventually to an agent taking the subject to the ground, which is always hazardous for both the officer and the suspect,” said Schimel. “There was certainly potential for many other dangers as well.”

RELATED: ‘Truly wicked’: Trump administration blasts Obama judge over praise of illegal alien who raped disabled American woman

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

ICE agents accompanied by both FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 18, 2025, to arrest Flores-Ruiz, aware that the previously deported Mexican national was scheduled to attend a pre-trial hearing overseen by Dugan.

Upon learning of ICE’s presence from an attorney, the now-felonious judge “became visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers” while Flores-Ruiz was seated in the gallery of the courtroom, according to the original FBI charging document.

The indictment claimed that Dugan proceeded to commit several affirmative acts to aid the illegal alien in evading arrest, including:

confronting members of the ICE task force and falsely telling them they needed a judicial warrant to effectuate the arrest; directing the federal agents to go to the chief judge’s office after she learned they had the required administrative warrant for Flores-Ruiz’s arrest;dealing with Flores-Ruiz’s criminal case off the record while the ICE task force was in the chief judge’s office;directing the illegal alien and his counsel to flee the courtroom via a non-public jury door; and advising the Mexican’s counsel that he could appear remotely for his next court date.

The judge’s actions were observed by multiple witnesses and captured on film.

— (@)

With Dugan’s help, the Mexican national ran out of the building. Federal agents were, however, able to catch up with him.

Flores-Ruiz was ultimately deported on Nov. 13.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, noted at the time, “Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a previously removed illegal alien, has a laundry list of violent criminal charges, including strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. Judge Hannah Dugan’s actions to obstruct this violent criminal’s arrest take ‘activist judge’ to a whole new meaning.”

In the lead-up to the trial, Dugan’s lawyers tried desperately to get her case dismissed, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States and claiming that the radical judge was immune from criminal prosecution for judicial acts, that her prosecution violates the limits of federal power under the 10th Amendment, and that her indictment should be dismissed under the canon of constitutional avoidance.

Such efforts proved fruitless.

The jury saw and heard plenty of damning evidence during the trial that began on Monday.

They heard, for instance, an audio recording where Dugan told a court reporter that Flores-Ruiz could escape through a side door, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Although Dugan’s court reporter volunteered to walk the illegal alien out, Dugan said she instead would do it: “I’ll get the heat.”

The jury also heard from numerous witnesses, including Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Kristela Cervera, who testified, “Judges should not be helping defendants evade arrest.”

Cervera was the individual who escorted the federal agents to Chief Judge Carl Ashley’s office.

For her felony conviction, Dugan could face up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

The disgraced judge’s attorney, Steve Biskupic, indicated Dugan’s team will file a motion with the Clinton-appointed federal judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, asking to set aside the conviction.

“The case is a long way from over,” said Biskupic.

While Dugan has been on administrative leave for several months, the New York Times indicated she has continued to collect her $174,000 salary.

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California police say that three teenagers told them a story that unraveled after the discovery of allegedly contradicting video on social media.

The incident unfolded after a mother in Twentynine Palms called police to report that her 15-year-old child had been attacked by their neighbor, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

One of the teens also tried to ignite curtains to start a fire before they left the residence.

When deputies arrived, they found three teenagers claiming to be victims of assault.

After determining that one of the teen’s accounts had been fabricated, police said they discovered a video on social media that showed what actually happened.

The video allegedly showed two girls and a boy brutally attacking a man who has an intellectual disability. Police said one of the girls slashed the victim’s head and arms with a large kitchen knife while he pleaded for his life.

One of the teens also tried to ignite curtains to start a fire before they left the residence.

Deputies obtained search warrants for the residences of the victim and all of the suspects, and they were able to obtain evidence of the assault, including the kitchen knife.

One of the teenage girls claimed that she suffered lacerations from being attacked by the man, but police determined that she was injured by punching through the actual victim’s window.

The three teens were booked into the San Bernardino County Juvenile Detention Center.

Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The suspects face numerous charges, including assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, burglary, and criminal threats. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is considering additional charges as well.

Police are asking for help from the public in their ongoing investigation into the case.

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​3 teens attack disabled man, Twentynine palms attack, Video on social media, Children attack adult, Crime 

You’ve heard of DEI in the workforce, but DEI in the National Football League isn’t all that different of a ball game. And after looking at the stats, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock determines it’s been doing far more damage than good.

In 2018, 19 quarterbacks averaged more than 250 passing yards per game. Now, in 2025, there are only five quarterbacks who average more than 250 passing yards per game.

“There are five quarterbacks that average more than 250 passing yards per game: Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff, Patrick Mahomes, and Drake Maye. … What are we watching? What is going on with the National Football League?” Whitlock asks, disturbed.

“Has gambling and fantasy football distracted us so much and covered up all the flaws of the National Football League that we’re sitting here watching … quarterback play go directly into the toilet, and we’re pretending like we don’t see it at all,” he continues.

However, Whitlock has a theory as to why this is happening.

“My contention is, the hyperfocus on DEI and black quarterback play has diminished merit, has diminished competition, has undermined the pursuit of excellence for the pursuit of quotas. And everybody’s play has dropped because of the hyperfocus on DEI,” Whitlock explains.

“DEI degrades everything in sight, including the National Football League,” he adds.

In 2018, Whitlock points out that there were three black quarterbacks who had more than 250 passing yards.

“Now, we’re in this time in 2025 where there are 14 black quarterbacks who have started eight or more games, and only two black quarterbacks are averaging more than 250 yards per game,” he explains.

“So, we’ve increased the number of black quarterbacks playing, but we’ve decreased the number of black quarterbacks playing at a high level. Once you quit pursuing excellence, everybody gets hurt, even the black quarterbacks,” he says.

“DEI isn’t elevating the play of black quarterbacks. It’s actually diminishing the play of all quarterbacks,” he continues. “Coaches, organizations — they’re not thinking about, how can we be the best we can possibly be.”

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​Sharing, Free, Video, Camera phone, Upload, Video phone, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Nfl, Nfl stats, Dei in the nfl, Nfl quarterback stats, National football league, Football, Sports coverage, Woke sports, Woke football 

Last week, Arizona State University’s provost sent faculty another familiar message ahead of the spring semester: Ensure all digital course materials meet accessibility standards. After 25 years teaching philosophy at ASU, I’m well aware of the institution’s growth and its long-standing commitment to accessibility. That commitment, in itself, is not controversial.

But recent data should give universities serious pause.

A society can medicalize despair, bureaucratize despair, and accommodate despair. None of that answers the question despair is asking.

Two reports — one from the Harvard Crimson and another from the Atlantic — put numbers to what many faculty have observed for years. At Harvard, 21% of undergraduates received disability accommodations in 2024, up from roughly 3% a decade earlier. The Crimson notes that Harvard is now aligned with a national average hovering around 20%.

The Atlantic goes further, describing what it calls an “age of accommodation” at elite schools. At Brown and Harvard, more than 20% of students are registered as disabled. At Amherst, the figure reaches 34%. The most common accommodation, professors report, is extra time on exams.

When disability becomes elastic

To be clear, accommodations for genuine physical disabilities are not in dispute. A wheelchair ramp is not a moral scandal. A student with a real impairment should not be excluded from education. That principle remains sound.

What has changed is the nature of disability itself.

Both articles describe a shift away from visible, physical impairments toward diagnoses that are invisible, elastic, and difficult to distinguish from ordinary hardship in a competitive academic environment. ADHD, anxiety, and depression now dominate accommodation requests, treated as qualifying disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act framework. The Crimson ties much of this surge to the COVID era, quoting one professor who described the pandemic as a “mass disabling event.”

That explanation may be partly true. Many students are not gaming the system; they are shaped by it. But even granting that, the trend raises three problems universities can no longer dodge.

The fairness and standards problems

First is fairness. When extra time becomes widespread — especially among high-performing, well-resourced students — faculty are right to wonder whether accommodations are providing access or advantage.

The Crimson acknowledges faculty suspicion that accommodations are used to “eke out advantages.” The Atlantic warns that a system designed to level the playing field can begin to distort the very meaning of fairness.

Second is standards. If a significant share of students receive individualized modifications — extra time, deadline extensions, alternate testing environments — then faculty must ask an uncomfortable question administrators prefer to avoid: Is the course still the same course?

Exams exist to measure knowledge and skill under shared constraints. Remove those constraints for many students, and results no longer mean the same thing. At best, the system becomes two-track. At worst, rigor is quietly redefined as cruelty and education collapses into credentialing.

The deeper crisis

Third — and most important — is meaning.

If vast numbers of young adults now pass through education labeled as anxious and depressed, and if that diagnosis becomes the gateway to academic survival, we should ask what kind of culture we have built. What account of life, purpose, and human flourishing are students receiving in K-12 and college?

For years, students have been immersed in a worldview that frames them primarily as victims — of structures, systems, identities, and histories beyond their control. They are told meaning is socially constructed, morality is relative, and human beings are little more than biological accidents shaped by power. Hardship, in this framework, becomes pathology. Suffering becomes injustice. Endurance becomes oppression.

At that point, anxiety and depression cease to be merely medical categories. They become rational responses to a life stripped of purpose.

Education with meaning

Here the philosopher cannot remain silent. A society can medicalize despair, bureaucratize despair, and accommodate despair. None of that answers the question despair is asking.

Have we taught students how to face difficulty? To endure frustration? To pursue excellence despite pain? Or have we trained them to interpret hardship as harm — and then rewarded that interpretation with institutional permission slips?

The philosopher Westley (disguised as the Dread Pirate Roberts) said, “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” But there is suffering, and there is suffering well to attain what is good. We stopped teaching this, and the young adults are experiencing the consequences.

RELATED: Christian students are pushing back — and universities are cracking

simpson33 via iStock/Getty Images

Universities love to talk about “student success.” But education is not merely success. It is formation. And formation requires truth: truth about what a human being is, what suffering is for, what excellence demands, and what life ultimately aims at.

When universities exile God, moral realism, and any shared account of human purpose, they should not be surprised when students seek refuge in medicalized identities that turn pain into paperwork.

This crisis is not simply about abuse of accommodations or even about mental health statistics. It is about whether higher education can still tell students the truth: that limits are not always oppression, that hardship is not always injustice, that discipline precedes freedom, and that meaning is discovered, not administered.

If universities cannot say why education aims at the highest good, then they should not be shocked when students conclude it means nothing — and despair follows.

It is time to return education to what it was meant to be: the formation of souls ordered toward wisdom and virtue.

​Opinion & analysis, Arizona state university, Disability, Americans with disabilities act, Anxiety, Depression, Harvard, The atlantic, Ivy league, Higher education, Colleges and universities, Accommodation, Rigor, Life, Pain, Hardships, Christianity, Truth, Philosophy, Meaning, Despair 

President Donald Trump said the 250th anniversary celebration of the U.S. founding will include “Patriot Games” between high school athletes.

The president made the announcement in a video posted to social media on Thursday that also listed several other events and structures planned for the national celebration.

‘Frankly, you’ll never see anything like it.’

“In the fall, we will host the first-ever Patriot Games, an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes,” Trump said.

“One young man and one young woman from each state and territory, but I promise, there will be no men playing in women’s sports,” he added. “You’re not going to see that. You’ll see everything but that.”

He said that construction would begin on the “National Garden of American Heroes” that would include “statues of all-time greatest Americans,” as well as a “triumphal” arch.

“We are the only major city, we are the only major capitol, we are the only major place without a triumphal arch, a beautiful triumphal arch, one like in Paris, where they have the great and beautiful arch — they call it the Arc de Triomphe,” he added. “And we’re gonna have one in Washington, D.C., very soon.”

The administration is also organizing a “Great American State Fair” that will include exhibits from each of the states on the National Mall. That event will run from June 25 until July 10.

“Frankly, you’ll never see anything like it, and you’ll never see anything like it again,” he added.

A new public-private partnership called Freedom 250 was formed for the purpose of planning and funding the events, and it includes companies and corporations across the country.

RELATED: Trump touts his economic record in live prime-time speech to the nation: ‘I inherited a mess’

“This will be a time like you’ve never had in your lives!” he concluded. “America 250! Thank you! I love you all.”

Critics of the Patriot Games mocked the idea as being far too similar to the “Hunger Games” books and movies series.

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FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has announced that he’s stepping down from the FBI, and the rumor mill is now swirling as to why he decided he was no longer right for the job.

“When I woke up this morning, I saw a Daily Mail article that said, ‘Dan Bongino set to quit the Trump administration after FBI job put strain on his marriage,’” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales recalls, “and that was the only thing. It was, like, it was just a rumor, right?”

“It also said Bongino’s reported intention to step down just comes two days before the deadline to release the Epstein files on Friday, which I found interesting. But we did know, I mean, there were some signs of this,” she continues.

In an interview on “Fox and Friends” months ago, Bongino did mention that he was struggling with the distance his new job put between him and his wife.

“I gave up everything for this. I mean, you know, my wife is struggling, and I’m not a victim. I’m not Jim Comey, it’s fine. I did this, and I’m proud I did it. But if you think we’re there for tea and crumpets …” Bongino said.

“I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., you know, by myself, divorced from my wife. Not divorced, but I mean, separated, divorced. And it’s hard. I mean, you know, we love each other, and it’s hard to be apart,” he added.

President Trump echoed this sentiment when he commented on Bongino’s departure, saying, “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”

“I think he wants to go back to podcasting,” Gonzales repeats. “I am rendered speechless. One of the only moments in my life.”

“He’s done so much for the country,” she says. “And, by the way, I appreciate the sacrifice that he mentioned, but it’s like, yeah, we know. Can you stop complaining? Do your job.”

“This is my take on it,” BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden chimes in. “Dan is a patriot. We all knew when he gave up his show that he was sacrificing millions of dollars for the country.”

“It’s not like he’s someone that came out of something completely different to go into the FBI. He knows the job. He knows the job. So, he knew what the strain would be on his marriage. And I’m not saying that it’s not having a strain on his marriage, but what I will say is, those difficulties are worth it if you are seeing a change and if you are seeing results,” he continues.

Gonzales points out that through his social media posts, Bongino often alluded to uncovering major details regarding the Epstein case — which she believes may have led to him being frustrated that he couldn’t share them later.

“He’s leaving all of these nuggets to make it sound like, ‘Oh, we are uncovering all sorts of crazy things. I can’t wait to share it with you.’ And then we never quite got the other part of that, right? We never were told really what it is,” Gonzales says. “And so, you have to wonder, like, okay, he must be very frustrated.”

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A series about a closeted gay soldier in the military during the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” era of the 1990s has been canceled by Netflix after being previously criticized by the Pentagon.

“Boots” was about a gay Louisiana teen named Cameron Cope who “finds new purpose — and unexpected brotherhood — with his motley team of fellow recruits,” as described by Netflix.

‘It’s clear #BOOTS is getting canned so Netflix doesn’t offend the big nasty b***h living in the White House.’

The series lasted only one season and had been lambasted by officials of the Trump administration in a statement to Entertainment Weekly in October.

“Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos. Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex-neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight,” said Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson.

“[The military] will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children,” Wilson added.

Many online blamed President Donald Trump for the cancellation.

“Boots was critically and commercially successful, but because the President and his Secretary of Defense are such man baby snowflakes who are mad gay service men are more manly than they’ll ever be Netflix cancelled the show so they could get the WB merger to go through,” said one person on the X platform.

“It’s clear #BOOTS is getting canned so Netflix doesn’t offend the big nasty bitch living in the White House, which might make him get in the way of their Warner Bros purchase. We are truly living in an era of censorship and spineless bootlicking,” another detractor said.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom tries to hit Trump administration on energy prices — and gets humiliated

“Netflix has cancelled their show Boots after 1 season. … Despite a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes & making it to #2 on Netflix, they’d rather lick Trump’s balls to get their merger approved,” another message reads.

The series is based on the memoir titled “The Pink Marine” by Greg Cope White. The show was highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes, with 90% approval and a 7.9 rating on IMDB.

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Iconic NASCAR driver Greg Biffle died in a plane crash on Thursday in a horrific incident that reportedly involved his family members.

Biffle, 55, had 56 NASCAR national series wins throughout his career, including two championships.

‘We are devastated. I’m so sorry to share this.’

On Thursday, Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina reported that an aircraft had crashed while landing at 10:15 a.m.

The FAA arrived to investigate the incident at around 12 p.m., the airport stated.

Iredell County officials soon confirmed the plane crash, with the county sheriff confirming that several people had died in the crash, according to WCNC-TV. WCCB-TV later reported that multiple witnesses and family friends confirmed that Biffle and his wife were on the plane.

Jordan Bianchi, motorsports reporter for the Athletic, wrote on X that North Carolina State Highway Patrol stated there were seven total fatalities from the crash and that they “believe that Mr. Greg Biffle was one of the deceased occupants.”

Garrett Mitchell, a YouTuber who goes by the name Cleetus McFarland and has over 4.5 million subscribers, made a Facebook post with similar remarks.

“Unfortunately, I can confirm Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, daughter Emma, and son Ryder were on that plane … because they were on their way to spend the afternoon with us. We are devastated. I’m so sorry to share this,” Mitchell wrote.

RELATED: NASCAR owner sells vehicles to ICE — and liberals are outraged

Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

Mitchell lives in Florida, and Biffle’s plane was reportedly headed to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Florida before it crashed, with the airport CEO issuing a statement.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of the Cessna C550 aircraft crash at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina and en route to SRQ this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with those on board and with their families and loved ones during this difficult time. Our thoughts also go out to the first responders who we know are diligently working to assist all those involved,” the statement said.

Last year, Mitchell and Biffle teamed up to deliver disaster relief supplies in North Carolina via helicopter after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina.

RELATED: Beloved race car driver dies after mid-race catastrophe has officials tearing his car apart

Geoff Burke/Getty Images

Flight logs reportedly showed that the aircraft was traveling over 100 mph at the time of the crash, WCCB stated. The plane was described as a Cessna C550 business jet with tail number N257BW. The outlet also confirmed the plane belonged to Biffle.

Republican Rep. Richard Hudson (N.C.) wrote on X that he was “devastated by the loss of Greg, Cristina, and their children, and my heart is with all who loved them.”

The congressman added, “They were friends who lived their lives focused on helping others. Greg was a great NASCAR champion who thrilled millions of fans. But he was an extraordinary person as well, and will be remembered for his service to others as much as for his fearlessness on the track.”

Biffle was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023 for his “spectacular start in the 1990s” that ran through the 2000s.

“Though Biffle has stepped away from full-time competition at the NASCAR national level, the longtime veteran made five starts in 2022, including the season-opening Daytona 500. His last full season was in 2016,” NASCAR wrote.

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