Category: blaze media

There’s a ghastly photograph of an 18-month-old Palestinian boy named Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq that’s gone viral. In the image, he appears severely malnourished, his spine protruding from his back while he lies in his mother’s arms in Gaza.

It’s a gut punch of a photo that makes even the staunchest Israel supporter wince.

That’s why major media outlets — including the New York Times, the Daily Express, the Guardian, CNN, and the Daily Mail, among others — have circulated the image. It’s top-tier pathos to push the narrative that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is the fault of genocidal Israel.

Except the photo is a lie.

“That child was dying, but he was dying from a disease that he had at birth,” says Mark Levin, condemning the framing of the photograph as “horrendous propaganda.”

While Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq’s condition is a tragedy — no child deserves such a fate — it adds insult to injury to use his predicament to further the lie that Israel is responsible for Gaza’s starvation.

“That photo made it around the world. Western media covered it. American media covered it. Prime ministers used it. Presidents used it. Everybody was using it to condemn Netanyahu and the Israelis as committing genocide and war crimes,” says Levin.

While it’s true that Gaza is indeed suffering from starvation, it’s Hamas who has blood on its hands, not Israel.

Levin plays a recent clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sharing the truth about Gaza’s crisis on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“Israel, since this war began, has supplied over 94,000 truckloads full of food. It’s enough food to feed 2 million people for two years. [They’ve been] trying to get that into Gaza, but Hamas has stolen the food. … In 2024, the numbers are that Hamas profited over $500 million in stolen food aid that was supposed to go to these poor people who needed it,” he told Kristen Welker.

“The U.N. needs to work with Israel to make sure that the food is getting to the people that need it most. … That’s Israel’s intention. That’s the U.S.’ intention and the U.N. as well,” he added.

While Levin praises Johnson for speaking the truth about Hamas being the cause of Gaza’s starvation, he corrects the narrative that the U.N. seeks to help starving Gazans.

“The U.N.’s working with Hamas, just like UNRWA worked with Hamas. The U.N. wants all the food to go through the U.N. so the U.N. can then work with Hamas,” he says.

To hear more of his analysis and commentary, watch the video above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

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​Levintv, Mark levin, Gaza, Gaza humanitarian crisis, Viral photo, Blazetv, Blaze media, Mike johnson, Israel, Genocide 

The newly declassified Durham annex released by CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed last month that the intelligence community was aware in 2016 of an alleged Clinton campaign plan to smear Trump, falsely link him to Russia, then have the deep state carry the ball down the field.

The newly declassified House Intelligence Committee majority staff report released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed that the consequential January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment appeared to be a work of fiction drawn up by the Obama administration that served to give the Clinton campaign’s narrative a patina of legitimacy and set the stage for years of attacks and two congressional impeachments.

While these documents made clear that the intelligence community and the liberal media played critical roles in the hoax, newly released FBI memos highlight they had a helping hand from Congress.

‘SCHIFF stated the information would be used to Indict President Trump.’

FBI 302 interview reports provided to Congress by FBI Director Kash Patel and obtained by Just the News detail allegations that beginning in 2017, then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) approved leaking classified information to undermine President Donald Trump and push the Russia hoax.

The whistleblower — a Democratic career intelligence officer who worked for the Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for over a decade and considered Schiff a friend — raised concerns about the Democratic lawmaker’s actions as early as 2017.

While working with the committee, the whistleblower attended a February 2017 meeting where Schiff “stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States Donald J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to Indict President Trump,” said the FBI interview report.

RELATED: Durham annex proves Russiagate was a coordinated smear

William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images

“[Redacted] stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured [redacted] that they would not be caught leaking classified information,” continued the document.

The whistleblower alleged that this was “not a one-time thing” but “rampant” and that damaging notes would be floated to Schiff “after which a decision was made as to who would leak the information,” said an FBI memo.

‘SWALWELL previously had been warned to be careful because he had a reputation for leaking classified information.’

When the information was leaked to the media, it was apparently flagged “on background,” meaning that the information would be published without a reference to the source. The interview report singles out NBC News as one of the outlets in contact with the committee offices.

There was one particular leak that struck the whistleblower as particularly egregious. He told the FBI that in early 2017, “a particularly sensitive document” was viewed by a small contingent of staff along with Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

“Within 24 hours, the information appeared in the news almost verbatim and [redacted] officials descended upon HPSCI’s offices, threatening to stop providing information unless the leaking ended,” said the report. “[Redacted] suspected that SWALWELL played a role in the leak and noted that SWALWELL previously had been warned to be careful because he had a reputation for leaking classified information.”

RELATED: Liberal media is dead silent about the damning revelations in the declassified Durham annex

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The whistleblower suggested that this alleged leaking operation was energized by Schiff’s fury over Trump’s win “as he believed he would have been appointed as Director of CIA had HILLARY CLINTON won the election,” said the interview report.

Schiff was allegedly desperate to push the “Russian involvement” narrative into something akin to the 9/11 Commission, and the purpose of the classified information leaks was apparently to “compel public opinion.”

Schiff — who also pushed bogus claims from the Steele dossier in Congress around the time of this alleged leak campaign — was long suspected of leaking classified information.

Ex-CIA Director Mike Pompeo publicly accused Schiff in 2023 of doing so, noting that when information was provided to the then-Democratic congressman and his staff, that information found its way into places where it did not belong “with alarming regularity.”

After determining that this activity was “unethical and treasonous,” the whistleblower reportedly went to the FBI to raise his concerns.

Despite the bureau briefly humoring his concerns, the whistleblower was ultimately informed that “the issue would not be investigated further by the DOJ, as Congressmen have immunity to all speech and actions made on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Under new leadership, the Justice Department may take greater interest even though the alleged leaks likely fall outside the statute of limitations for prosecution.

“We found it. We declassified it,” Patel noted on X with regards to the FBI interview memos. “Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives — and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people.”

“For years, certain officials used their positions to selectively leak classified information to shape political narratives,” Patel told Just the News. “It was all done with one purpose: to weaponize intelligence and law enforcement for political gain.”

“The FBI will now lead the charge, with our partners at DOJ, and Congress will have the chance to uncover how political power may have been weaponized and to restore accountability,” added Patel.

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​Adam schiff, Democrat, Russia hoax, Russian collusion, Kash patel, Fbi, Doj, Treason, Coup, Schiff, Pencil neck schiff, Whistleblower, Politics 

Vance Luther Boelter says he went to the home of Democrat Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman on June 14 to make a citizen’s arrest but ended up shooting at the senator, his wife, and his daughter when all three laid hands on him to push him out the door, the assassination suspect told Blaze News.

In an exclusive interview, Boelter told Blaze News that it was never his intention to shoot anyone that night, but his plans went wrong as soon as Sen. Hoffman, 60, opened the door to his Champlin home just after 2 a.m.

‘I kept shooting until I realized I was outside the door.’

Boelter said he did not expect the Hoffmans’ daughter Hope, 28, to be at the home that night, so his original plan to detain the senator and restrain his wife went off the rails. So he told the family instead, “This is a robbery.”

“As soon as I said it was a robbery, the senator got wide-eyed and closed the five feet between us and started to grab me,” Boelter said. “… After he grabbed me, then his wife came over and grabbed me, too. I still didn’t shoot because I didn’t go there to shoot people, just to do a citizen’s arrest.

“After his wife grabbed me, then his daughter came forward and grabbed me also,” Boelter said. “So I had six arms on me and realized I’m going to lose control of any shots [that] were fired.”

RELATED: How did a religious, small-town Minnesota boy morph into an alleged political assassin?

An image from the home security system of Melissa and Mark Hortman shows Vance Luther Boelter wearing a mask with goatee and a wig as he rang the doorbell at 3:30 a.m. June 14, 2025, the FBI said. FBI image from Boelter indictment

Boelter said if it was his plan to kill people, he would not have stood at the Hoffmans’ front door talking to them prior to the shooting.

“If I had gone there just to shoot people, I could have just did three head shots and walked away,” Boelter said. “And if that was my intention, I would have had a suppressor and I sure would not have been standing around talking to people.”

Blaze News has reached out to acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson for comment on Boelter’s new statements about June 14.

In his first extended comments since being arrested June 15 after the largest manhunt in Minnesota history, Boelter said his original plan was to restrain Sen. Hoffman and his wife with zip-tie cuffs and place eye masks on each to prevent them from seeing what was going on. But Hope Hoffman’s presence at the door made it evident that would not work, he said.

“When the senator answered the door, I soon found out it was him, his wife and daughter,” Boelter said from the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minn., where he is being held pending federal trial on murder and attempted murder charges. “So I was trying to figure out and say, ‘This is a robbery.’

“My assumption was that the senator would put up his hands and say something like, ‘Take what you want and leave,’” Boelter said. “Especially when his wife and daughter were right there. I quickly [did] what I could do to get his wife and daughter out of the room just long enough to secure the senator and get him to the car.

‘I think about both of those families every day, and every night.’

“The only thing I could think of at the moment was to pull out my gun,” Boelter continued. “Had my gun out. Then my thought was I could tell his wife and daughter to go get whatever money they had and bring it to me. Just to get them out of the room. That was the only idea I had.”

Boelter said Hope Hoffman’s public comments that her life flashed before her eyes because a gun was in her face are accurate, but the gun was not aimed at her.

“If you read the quote of the daughter when they first started talking about it, the daughter said she saw her life flash before her eyes because the gun was right in front of her face,” Boelter said. “That was a true statement because the gun was inches from her face but pointing down when I started shooting.

Aimed at the ground

“They later said they pushed her out of the way, but that wasn’t true,” he said. “They all three had grabbed me before my gun in a matter of seconds. So I could have started shooting at people’s heads because they were all right by me, but I just aimed my gun down between them and me at the ground and started shooting.

“I started aiming in between us at the floor, hoping I would not shoot my own foot,” Boelter said. “But there were six arms on me at that point and one also on my shooting arm. My guess is if it ever comes out where the senator and his wife were hit will be in their arms, legs, and feet, but I have no idea.”

In a series of text messages with Blaze News between Aug. 8 and Aug. 11, Boelter began revealing more details of his alleged role in the crime that ended the life of state Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband, Mark Hortman.

Boelter said he knew prosecutors would be monitoring the text conversation, but added, “I’m just wanting the truth to get out. People can believe it or not believe it. God knows everything that happened.”

When asked by Blaze News if he ever thinks about Melissa Hortman or her husband, Boelter said he does.

“I can’t talk about my case, but I think about both of those families every day, and every night,” Boelter said on Aug. 8. “I also think about the hundreds of other Minnesota citizens that have died in the last several years that have not been talked about but should have.”

RELATED: Suspected Minnesota assassin claims he was part of a 2-year undercover investigation

Photos by FBI, Praetorian Guard Security Services

Boelter said his plan to make citizen’s arrests of state lawmakers grew out of a two-year undercover investigation he did while working for two Minneapolis-area funeral homes and the University of Minnesota eye bank. That investigation, he said, confirmed that the mRNA shots taken by millions of Americans in response to the COVID-19 virus were killing people.

The investigation involved what Boelter said were the sudden and unexpected deaths of some 400 Minnesota residents that were being covered up by the state government.

In the exchange of hundreds of text messages with Blaze News through the jail’s NCIC Correctional Services inmate communication system, Boelter said he went to work in the funeral industry to investigate the alleged mRNA deaths after seeing people he knew die prematurely after receiving the controversial shots.

Boelter earlier told Alpha News that his original plan to make citizen’s arrests of state lawmakers had gone “horribly wrong.” He insisted that it was never his intention to shoot or kill anyone.

The FBI said Boelter was dressed as a police officer and drove a 2015 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor SUV to visit or attempt to visit the homes of four Democrat state politicians in the predawn hours of June 14.

Boelter reportedly first pounded on the door of Sen. Hoffman just after 2 a.m. He was wearing a “hyper-realistic” silicone full-head disguise, the FBI said. Although he was shining a tactical flashlight in their faces, the Hoffmans realized Boelter wore a mask and told him he was not a police officer, the FBI said.

When the Hoffmans tried to push Boelter out of the home, he fired on them, striking Sen. Hoffman and his wife 17 times, the FBI and the Hoffmans said. Prosecutors said Boelter also fired at Hope Hoffman and intended to kill her, but her parents shielded her and she was able to call 911 at around 2:05 a.m.

The Hoffmans underwent emergency surgery and survived the bullet wounds.

RELATED: Accused Minnesota assassin: ‘If you want to save the country you have to get your hands dirty’

A confession letter the FBI said was written by Vance Boelter makes references to being trained by the U.S. military and ordered to commit murders by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Image via FBI

The FBI said Boelter first told the Hoffmans there was a report of a shooting and asked them if there were any guns in the home. Senator Hoffman said there were guns present but they were secured, prosecutors said in charging documents.

Although Boelter was shining his tactical flashlight in the Hoffmans’ faces, Yvette Hoffman noticed he was wearing a mask and told him he was not a real police officer, the FBI said. At that point, Boelter then apparently said, “This is a robbery.” Audio of the interaction was caught on a home security camera, along with a terrifying image of the perpetrator in a disguise.

Had intended August arrests

Boelter said despite claims by the FBI and prosecutors, the full-head silicone mask he wore as a disguise cost only $38, not $350 or more. The lower-quality mask became a problem during the scuffle with the Hoffmans, he said.

“The other thing is that mask wasn’t this high-end $350 mask,” Boelter told Blaze News. “I had looked at web sites that had high-end masks but wasn’t expecting to do these citizen’s arrests until August. So the one I had was just a $38 mask. Pretty poor.

“So as they grabbed me, the mask was getting shifted, so my ability to see was getting less and less,” Boelter said. “That is why I kept shooting until I realized I was outside the door.”

Once Hope Hoffman shut and locked the door, Boelter retreated to his Ford SUV and left the area. She told 911 dispatchers that her parents were shot and that her father is state Senator John Hoffman.

During the three-minute call placed at about 2:05 a.m., Hope Hoffman said, “My dad has been shot.” After being asked to repeat her address several times, Hoffman exclaimed, “SHOT. SHOT. MY PARENTS HAVE BEEN SHOT!”

After the dispatch center transferred the call to paramedics, Hope Hoffman indicated that her father is a state senator. Police said that detail was key, because word was sent to area law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the shooter in case the crime was targeted.

Boelter told Blaze News that he knew the Hoffmans had an adult daughter but did not expect her to be at her parents’ home on June 14.

“I had expected just two people at the first location,” Boelter said. “I was aware they had an adult daughter but thought she would be living somewhere else.

“I had probably a dozen sleeping masks, the kind you wear when you want to sleep,” he said. “Those were to restrict what people were seeing. I also had a bunch of long, thick wire ties for restraining people. But when I went to the first house, I just had two sleeping masks and four wire ties on me because I was only expecting two people.”

RELATED: Accused assassin clarifies that President Trump, pro-life views did not motivate shootings

Hundreds of police officers search for Vance Luther Boelter in Sibley County, Minn., a day after Boelter allegedly killed a top Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, and grievously wounded a state senator and his wife.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Boelter said he held his fire when Sen. Hoffman and his wife put hands on him because he did not want to shoot anyone. “If I had gone there to just shoot people, I could have just shot him in the face or in the heart,” Boelter said. “But I just held my fire because I didn’t go there to shoot anyone.”

During a brief arraignment in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Aug. 7, Boelter entered not-guilty pleas to six charges included in a grand jury indictment handed up July 15. Charges include stalking, murder, attempted murder, and firearms violations. Boelter could face the death penalty if convicted on the charges of murdering the Hortmans.

He also faces second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder charges in Hennepin County District Court, but those charges will wait for disposition of the federal criminal case against Boelter.

Blaze News learned that the 2015 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor SUV Boelter allegedly drove on June 14 was from his security company, Praetorian Guard Security Services, and was originally owned by the Osceola Police Department in Polk County, Wisconsin.

At 2:24 a.m. that night, Boelter also drove to the home of Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove), but she and her family were not at home, according to the FBI.

Twelve minutes later, Boelter was apparently seen parked a block away from the home of state Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope). A New Hope police officer tried to get his attention, but she drove away to check on the safety of Sen. Rest. Boelter, meanwhile, slipped away, the FBI said. In an alleged confession letter left in the suspect’s getaway vehicle on June 15, he said he did not want to harm police that night either.

“Cops were pulling up right next to me in their vehicles and I had an AK pistol aimed right at her head and I could have left a pile of cops dead, but I did [sic] shoot 1 bullet towards law enforcement,” the letter said. “You can ask them because I support the police and didn’t want to see them hurt.”

Boelter allegedly next drove to the home of the Hortmans in Brooklyn Park, ringing the doorbell and shouting, “Police! Welfare check!” After Mark Hortman answered the door, Boelter shone the flashlight in his eyes and said there had been a report of shots fired, police said.

Around 3:35 a.m., two officers from the Brooklyn Park Police Department arrived in front of the home. Boelter then allegedly began shooting Mark Hortman, opened fire on the officers, and forced his way into the home, the FBI said. As Melissa Hortman tried to flee upstairs, the perpetrator shot her to death, according to a federal indictment.

COVID death investigation

Boelter told Blaze News he took several jobs in the funeral industry to gather evidence that COVID shots were killing people.

“One hundred percent of [my] work in the funeral industry was all for the investigation,” Boelter said. “Only reason for doing all that. Had heard and read a lot about people dying after getting the Covid-19 shot.

“Then several who I was aware of personally died and saw the devastation on the families,” said Boelter, who declined to identify the deceased individuals.

Boelter said he had increasing access to the operations of the funeral homes and the deceased individuals whom he was in charge of picking up and transporting to the mortuaries. He also had access at hospitals and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, he said. He did not say what evidence he gathered at those locations.

After a career in the food industry, Boelter said he had no experience working for funeral homes doing transport, embalming, cremation, or other roles. He enrolled online in the mortuary science program at Des Moines Area Community College, which allowed him to start as a transfer specialist and eventually move up to working by himself doing body pickups.

RELATED: Accused assassin Vance Boelter ordered held for trial, tells judge he looks forward to the facts coming out

Vance Luther Boelter just after being captured June 15 in Sibley County, Minn., and (right) as he was booked into the Hennepin County Jail.Alpha News/Hennepin County Sheriff

His first job in 2023 was at Wulff Funeral Homes, a division of Dignity Memorial with locations in Woodbury and St. Paul. Dignity Memorial is a brand owned by Service Corporation International, based in Houston. In August 2023, he began working for Metro First Call LLC based in Savage, Minn. In 2023 he also enrolled in mortuary classes at DMACC, the college said in a statement.

Timothy Koch, owner of Metro First Call, said he knew nothing about Boelter doing an investigation.

“We have never heard of such an investigation,” Koch told Blaze News. “We had no idea that his time at our company was part of an investigation.”

“There was at least a three-month period, maybe four months, I can’t remember, where every two weeks I was working seven days at SCI [Wulff], and seven days at MFC, so basically seven days a week no days off for three or four months straight,” Boelter told Blaze News. “And these were eight-hour shifts at SCI [Wulff] and mostly 12-hour or 10-hour shifts at MFC.”

During this time, Boelter began renting a room from a childhood friend in north Minneapolis because his home in Green Isle was too long a long commute while working a demanding schedule, said David Carlson, who grew up with Boelter in Sleepy Eye, Minn.

“During that time I was probably transferring 28+ bodies a week,” Boelter said. “Then Minnesota created a new position called transfer care specialist. Which if you were trained in that role you were allowed to go by yourself to pick up bodies from places of death without having a funeral director go. So when that happened I became a transfer care specialist and no longer needed to be enrolled at DMACC and be taking classes there.”

Boelter declined to say what his investigation learned. He said doing so now could jeopardize the evidence he gathered.

“What I found confirms what I had heard when I started my investigation two years ago,” Boelter said, “that Covid-19 shots were directly causing the death of some people. That is all I’ll say on that.”

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​Vance boelter, John hoffman, Melissa hortman, Assassination, Minnesota, Politics 

Even skeptics now hail President Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods as a major win for the American economy. Goods and services form the backbone of economic activity and trade. As groundbreaking as Trump’s tariff policies have been, the next step to secure a new American golden age is clear: Target the theft of American service-sector jobs.

Trump’s America First doctrine reshaped the U.S. political and economic landscape. It put the forgotten worker back at the center of policy, revived domestic manufacturing, and challenged the long-entrenched dogma of globalist free trade. But one glaring weakness remains — the mass offshoring of service-sector jobs, especially in call centers and customer support, to low-wage countries.

Mr. President, make the service sector American again.

Trump can fix this. The most effective tool is a targeted tariff on companies that ship service jobs overseas.

Most Americans know about the loss of manufacturing jobs. Fewer realize the scale of the service-industry exodus.

Pick up the phone to call customer service and the odds are high you’ll hear a voice thousands of miles from U.S. soil. Companies offshore call centers, IT help desks, software engineering, and back-office support to places like India and the Philippines, where workers earn a fraction of U.S. wages.

These jobs once anchored communities across the Midwest and South, providing stable, middle-class incomes without requiring a college degree. Today, millions of American workers — especially women, rural residents, and non-college-educated individuals — have been displaced. Many now settle for lower-paying, unstable, often part-time work.

At the same time, offshoring heightens data privacy risks, and foreign call centers operate with little or no U.S. oversight.

The practice isn’t limited to a few bad actors. Many Fortune 500 companies — Amazon, AT&T, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Walmart, Wells Fargo, Target, and Verizon — all run offshore call centers in India and the Philippines. Many smaller firms do the same. For every call center in the United States, at least 10 operate overseas.

The numbers are staggering. The Philippines leads with an estimated 1.3 to 1.5 million call center workers. India follows closely with 1.1 to 1.3 million. Mexico, another popular outsourcing hub, employs more than 700,000 in the field.

RELATED: Main Street’s silent plea: Exempt us from the next tariffs

Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Trump has already proven tariffs can work, using them to force China to the negotiating table and to secure America First trade deals with the U.K., EU, and others. A service-import tariff would build on those wins.

Such a tariff could be assessed on every foreign-based call center employee serving U.S. customers. Companies that move jobs offshore after taking taxpayer bailouts or contracts could face additional tax penalties.

This isn’t protectionism — it’s patriotism. American tax dollars shouldn’t subsidize the destruction of American jobs.

Tariffs on offshored service-sector jobs could bring millions of positions back to U.S. soil. Trump has already targeted foreign goods. Now, it’s time for the second shoe to drop: Target foreign services.

Mr. President, make the service sector American again.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Tariffs, Trade, Philippines, India, Mexico, Call centers, Customer service, Jobs, Employment, College, High school diplomas, Wages, Tax dollars 

President Trump is doubling a $25 million reward to $50 million for the arrest of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro — after accusing him of being one of the world’s biggest narco-traffickers.

Trump has also accused Maduro of working with cartels to pump fentanyl-laced cocaine into the U.S.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice, and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video announcement.

During Trump’s first presidency, Maduro was indicted in Manhattan federal court in 2020 on federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. There was a $15 million reward for his arrest.

The Biden administration raised it to $25 million. Now Trump has doubled it.

“Oh, that’s so cute that you guys want to even pretend like you give a s**t about what Nicholas Maduro is importing into the country,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says about the Biden administration. “That’s very, very cute. Clearly, you don’t, ’cause the borders are wide open.”

“And so, now you have President Trump, apparently, with this coupled with the using military force to engage with drug cartels, he’s getting serious,” she continues.

“I mean, we’ve already closed the border. It’s what? President Trump said, like, 99.3% down from when Joe Biden was there. I mean, he’s pretty much solved that problem. But there are still problems that exist from that era, and it looks like he is putting a lot of time and energy into solving that problem,” she 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.

​Upload, Video, Camera phone, Video phone, Free, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, President trump, President of venezuela, President maduro, Fentanyl, Nicolas maduro 

Harold Bloom once told me that the squirrels outside his house were taunting him. He was old and wise, and therefore I believed him — even if it seemed crazy at the time.

Or did I believe him? I certainly remembered that he said that. And 15 years later, I learned why he was right.

Do you have any Bluetooth-enabled devices? Have you ever noticed that sometimes these devices don’t work when you most want them to? Or that they seem to fritz out at the most inconvenient possible times?

Is this really a tech problem … or is this a you problem?

Do you know exactly how Bluetooth works?

Of course you don’t — you just know when it doesn’t.

Maybe it causes cancer. Maybe it causes autism. Science couldn’t tell you.

You probably know it’s, like, a frequency issue. There are little wavelengths of something — electric, fundamentally. These wavelengths can connect your ear device to your handphone device. But sometimes it doesn’t work.

Sometimes it’s where you are, maybe. Sometimes the battery might be low. Sometimes there’s a wiring issue. You never really know.

You also never really know with the squirrels. Has a squirrel ever yelled at you?

You and the squirrel are also connected by some form of wavelength transmission communication. This is partly physical. Auditory. Visual. Probably electrical, somehow. But also you don’t know how a squirrel processes the world. Just like you can’t really imagine how a bat echo-locates or how a bee can look at another bee dancing and then fly to the exact flower patch.

Therefore, you and the squirrel are connected by organic Bluetooth.

If you really disturb it, it might yell at you. Or if it’s already yelling about something, and you get frustrated by it, it might continue to yell about something. Maybe it was originally yelling about something else. But if you tune in and get frustrated, the squirrel might get louder. Maybe it is yelling at you. Maybe it is kindly asking you to chill out. To touch grass. Maybe it’s requesting that you return to attending to whatever nut you were trying to bury or unearth.

Once I went not to the sacred store, but to a sacred lake. The squirrels there … they seemed to know. If you were at peace, then they were at peace. If you were not respecting their environment, they would kind of yell at you.

This is a Bluetooth connection. So to speak.

RELATED: A Faraday keeps the doomscroll away: Try these no-screen-time bags

Photo by Richard Baker/Getty Images

Of course, you are not — exactly — a Bluetooth-enabled device. But both you and the squirrel are alive, and if you are near it, maybe you are communicating with it along a frequency that you don’t even understand.

These things are obvious. But also unsettling. Because you don’t know what Bluetooth is doing to you. It’s not a “gamma ray” … or maybe it is. Maybe it causes cancer. Maybe it causes autism. Science couldn’t tell you. The other week, the Lancet denied that there is a sex binary.

Social desirability bias is a hell of a drug. Give it to a Harvard professor and to scientists who publish in academic journals, and they’ll promote the mass sterilization of children because that’s the latest thing that the academics have bought in to.

That makes a lot less sense than trying to peacefully communicate with a squirrel.

Therefore, Harvard professors are far less functionally sensible than little boys with BB guns. At least a little boy with a BB gun might use it to defend the screen window against a squirrel that has realized there is food to be had in his mother’s home.

This is a far more natural thing to do for a man than to use many words to try to push a false doctrine that defies all biology and common sense in order to join an enterprise dedicated to mutilating the children of men.

Harold Bloom was a Yale professor. He had read many books. He loved the books he read. Deeply. His mind was probably in the clouds when he went outside in the morning for a walk or for a newspaper.

Perhaps the squirrels sensed it. Maybe it gave them a headache. Maybe they complained. Or maybe they were trying to be as gentle as they could without speech to try to tell him to chill, go back inside, have his coffee, and read more.

I do not know.

But have you ever controlled someone else’s Bluetooth device with your mind? Maybe your mind disrupted the Bluetooth frequency, and that’s why it stopped working when you wanted it to and why it worked even less well when you got frustrated.

You would never know. Squirrels make more sense than Bluetooth, which may be carcinogenic. Squirrels may make annoying noises, but at least they don’t give you cancer.

​Digital superstitions, Tech 

President Donald Trump’s administration may have secured another border victory, this time concerning wall materials purchased by American taxpayers during his first term.

The materials, which were put up for auction by former President Joe Biden, will reportedly soon be returned to Trump following a fierce legal battle.

In December, a federal judge blocked Biden from selling off any more of the materials after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) accused the former administration of undermining Trump by selling the material “for pennies on the dollar.”

‘GovPlanet has reached an agreement, working with the Office of the Border Czar, to return border wall materials that were previously deemed surplus and sourced by the federal government to GovPlanet via existing contracts.’

The material, valued between $260 million and $350 million, was auctioned on GovPlanet, an online government surplus marketplace, in 2023 after Biden halted Trump’s border construction in January 2021.

Trump previously accused Biden of “deliberately selling off border-wall materials at a major financial loss” to undermine “pro-wall policy.” He claimed that the former administration’s conduct “likely constitutes a criminal act, such as a conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

GovPlanet has previously stated that most of the border wall materials were provided to “authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California.” It noted that the remaining roughly 40% of materials were listed for auction on the online marketplace.

Texas officials attempted to purchase some of the material with plans to return it to Trump once he reclaimed office in January, so he could finish constructing the border wall.

RELATED: Judge blocks Biden admin from selling Trump’s border wall materials in final days

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) stated in December, “I will bid on all of that wall, and we will buy it in Texas, and we will give it to Donald Trump.”

GovPlanet told Fox News Digital on Friday that it has plans to return some of the material to the Trump administration.

“GovPlanet has reached an agreement, working with the Office of the Border Czar, to return border wall materials that were previously deemed surplus and sourced by the federal government to GovPlanet via existing contracts,” the company stated.

“A third-party firm that has been contracted for construction of the border wall will take receipt of the materials over the next 90 days.”

RELATED: Trump moves to halt Biden’s ‘potentially criminal’ sale of border wall materials

ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images

According to GovPlanet, it will return the materials to the federal government “at cost” to “protect the millions of dollars that U.S. taxpayers had already invested in this initiative.”

“We are expediting the transfer of these materials to support the administration’s border protection plans. We value our long-standing partnership with the U.S. government and look forward to continuing to support America’s federal agencies,” the company added.

A White House official told Fox News Digital that the administration is “grateful for all third parties who are interested in helping keep America’s borders safe and secure.”

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​News, Border, Border wall, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Biden, Joe biden, Biden administration, Biden admin, Govplanet, Texas, Border security, Politics 

In the aftermath of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, America’s digital battlegrounds were scorched by censorship — not just from Big Tech, but from within.

On Jan. 9, Apple banned Parler from its App Store. Google Play followed the same day. Three days later, Wimkin — another fast-growing platform I founded in 2020 — was pulled from both stores while trending as the No. 1 download.

This story isn’t just about app stores or privacy. It’s about who actually fights for liberty — and who cashes in on the illusion of it.

Apple reinstated Parler just two weeks later. Big Tech doesn’t reinstate fighters. It rewards compliance. Parler capitulated, big-time.

Parler’s infrastructure wasn’t just negligent; it became a surveillance tool. The platform required government ID to create an account and failed to scrub GPS metadata from user-uploaded media. That metadata was easily scraped and used to locate users inside and around the Capitol on Jan. 6.

IDs plus GPS equals turnkey doxxing. Parler didn’t resist the feds — it did their job for them.

Wimkin held the line

Wimkin, by contrast, required no ID and stripped metadata to protect user anonymity. But even though we did everything right, Apple and Google deplatformed us at the height of our momentum.

At the same time, the U.S. Postal Service’s secret surveillance unit — iCOP — began monitoring Wimkin for “threats.” The message was clear: The surveillance state had our platform in its crosshairs.

Then came two separate demands from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the January 6 committee, ordering Wimkin to turn over internal communications. Wimkin refused.

Wimkin, in fact, was one of the few companies to hold the line. That is what fighting looks like.

And where were the conservative influencers? The so-called “free-speech warriors” refused to promote Wimkin unless they were paid $5,000 or more per post. They’d praise Parler — which helped get users arrested — but wouldn’t lift a finger for the one platform actually resisting federal pressure.

RELATED: We say we want free speech — until we hear something we hate

Photo by Malte Mueller via Getty Images

Resistance is not futile

Wimkin wasn’t unprofitable — we were demonetized, targeted, and shut down at every turn. We burned through legal fees to protect users and stand up to Congress. And we received practically no media defense, no major promotion, and no institutional support.

But we stood our ground. And now, Wimkin is going public on the NASDAQ.

This story isn’t just about app stores or privacy. It’s about who actually fights for liberty — and who cashes in on the illusion of it.

Parler bent the knee. Wimkin planted a flag.

​Opinion & analysis, Wimkin, Parler, Big tech censorship, Big tech, Apple, Google, App store, January 6 committee, Bennie thompson, Congress, Nasdaq 

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has traditionally backed Democrat politicians, is increasingly directing its support toward Republicans ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Teamsters, representing 1.3 million members, did not endorse the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate last year.

‘Our members are working people whose interests cut across party lines.’

President Sean O’Brien claimed the union’s decision not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris was due to her failure to answer all of his members’ questions during a roundtable discussion and her alleged arrogant remark that she would win “with you or without you,” referring to the union.

Leading up to Harris’ failed race against President Donald Trump last year, O’Brien openly declared that the Democratic Party had abandoned working-class Americans.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m a Democrat, but they have f**ked us over for the last 40 years,” he remarked at the time.

While the union did not endorse either presidential candidate, O’Brien spoke last year at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

RELATED: Union boss slams Harris for boasting she’d win election ‘with or without’ endorsement

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Following the presidential race, the Teamsters have continued to place more financial support behind Republican candidates, Politico reported.

The Teamsters’ political action committee — Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education — reportedly donated $112,000 to Republicans, including $5,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and $50,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association.

When asked for comment, Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz directed Blaze News to her previous statements made to Politico.

“Our members are working people whose interests cut across party lines,” Deniz told the outlet. “And there’s no value in living in a bubble … where you only talk to certain people to the exclusion of others.”

Republican candidates who received Teamster contributions included Reps. Rob Bresnahan (Pa.), Mike Kelly (Pa.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), and Chris Smith (N.J.). The Teamsters also donated to several Republican senators, including Deb Fischer (Neb.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Jon Husted (Ohio), and Dave McCormick (Pa.).

RELATED: Amazon workers go on strike — union blames company’s ‘insatiable greed’ for potential delivery delays

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella told Politico, “Hardworking men and women across the country are rallying behind Republicans up and down the ballot because we fight for their jobs, their families, and their future.”

“Democrats have abandoned them for their deeply out-of-touch, radical policies. We’re bringing these voters home, and they will be key in growing our House majority,” Marinella said.

While the Teamsters’ contributions to Republicans have significantly increased, the union still gives more donations to Democrats. The DRIVE PAC reportedly dished out $200,000 to the Democratic Attorneys General Association and $100,000 to the Democratic Governors Association during the second quarter.

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​News, Teamsters, International brotherhood of teamsters, Democrats, Republicans, Midterms, Midterm elections, Kamala harris, Sean o’brien, Harris, Donald trump, Trump, Democrat republican independent voter education, Drive, Drive pac, Kara deniz, National republican congressional committee, Nrcc, Politics 

Earlier this summer, the Trump Organization announced T1 Mobile, a new 5G cellular service, and promised an upcoming T1 phone that would be “proudly built in the United States.” Many regarded it as an extension of President Donald Trump’s push for a renaissance in American manufacturing — a new golden age for American business.

But recently, the company has had to walk back its claims about the U.S. provenance of its flagship phone.

Apple limits consumer freedom and makes the prospect of a new ‘American’ phone far less likely to succeed, no matter how patriotic its marketing.

While the pursuit of a truly American phone that is both designed and built in the United States is a worthy endeavor, the likelihood of its success has been greatly diminished by one company — ironically, an American one: Apple. The tech giant has spent decades building a fortress around the smartphone market, keeping competitors out and locking customers in.

Apple’s China ‘Marshall Plan’

Apple didn’t simply outsource a few manufacturing jobs. It created what Patrick McGee calls in his landmark book “Apple in China” a “super-Marshall Plan.”

While the original Marshall Plan rebuilt a battered Europe after the Second World War, Apple poured $275 billion into China between 2015 and 2020 — twice what America spent rebuilding postwar Europe, adjusted for inflation.

That staggering investment of money and American innovation didn’t just churn out iPhones. It built China’s manufacturing prowess and enabled its rise in precision industries. It effectively underwrote Beijing’s climb to global tech superpower status — fueling its dominance in everything from electric vehicles to artificial intelligence to 5G.

In creating a supply chain so vast and sophisticated — one dependent on China’s unique, massive labor force — Apple made it nearly impossible for American manufacturers to match its cost, quality, or speed. In exchange for global market share, Apple forsook American manufacturing and secured its dominance over competitors.

The walled garden

But China’s supply chain alone didn’t forge the heights of Apple’s smartphone walled garden. The company painstakingly designed a digital ecosystem around its platform that complicates deciding which phone to buy beyond basic considerations like price and performance.

Apple’s trap is both psychological and digital — not just logistical. Switching from iPhone to Android may be harder than escaping Alcatraz. Your cloud-stored memories, those precious photos, notes, bookmarks — are all locked in iCloud, with no convenient way to be transferred to competitors’ products.

Your AirPods and Apple Watch become expensive paperweights outside the Apple ecosystem. Try messaging your friends from an Android, and you’re marked by the dreaded green bubble — a stamp of second-class status among teens.

It’s not just peer pressure; it’s proprietary lock-in, and Apple wrote the manual.

For developers, Apple’s wall is even higher. The company controls the App Store with an iron fist — dictating terms, collecting fees, and stifling new entrants who dare challenge the status quo. It’s the digital equivalent of a company town: Innovators get in line or get left out in the cold. Both competitors and lawmakers alike are calling foul.

RELATED: Trump’s tariffs reportedly prompt Apple to make game-changing investment

Photo by ozgurdonmaz via Getty

Taken together, these choices trap users, limit consumer freedom, and make the prospect of a new “American” phone — like Trump’s T1 or any other real competitor — far less likely to succeed, no matter how patriotic its marketing.

Unleashing American smartphone competition

While sheer will can’t revive the great American supply chain overnight, opening competition in the smartphone market could. Legal and regulatory reform could break Apple’s digital monopoly and restore real competition.

One bipartisan proposal, the Open App Markets Act, aims to do exactly that — forcing Apple to open app distribution and payment systems. In theory, the act could give consumers the power to install what they want, how they want, from whom they want — tearing down Apple’s walled garden and letting a hundred new “American phones” bloom.

If passed, this law would give Americans the right to choose, switch, and control their digital lives. Only then, as cracks in Apple’s walled garden form, will we have a fighting chance at seeing a truly American-made phone compete with the iPhone.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Apple, China, American manufacturing 

How much of America’s rural landscape, power, water, quality of life, and heritage will be wiped out by one industry — AI data centers? Big Tech firms won’t say. Evidently, it’s as much as we’re willing to tolerate.

David Sacks and his Silicon Valley allies know the stakes. They tried to slip a provision into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to block all zoning and regulation of AI facilities. Why? Because the only way to cover the country with thousands of hyperscale data centers is to turn rural America into one giant industrial park — with no transparent public plan, no limits on power or water use, and no end in sight.

Zoning remains one of the few tools citizens can use to say no — not just to data centers, but to the entire agenda of unaccountable technocracy.

Before Mark Zuckerberg’s Manhattan-sized complexes even break ground, the United States is already on track for these facilities to consume more energy annually than Poland — a nation of 36.6 million people — used in 2023. That’s not a tech “footprint.” That’s a tech crater.

But a counterrevolution is building.

Loudoun County: The canary in the coal mine

If you want to see America’s future under digital colonization, look at Loudoun County, Virginia. The growth of hyperscale data centers there is so unnatural that some neighborhoods now want to rezone themselves as industrial just to escape.

Patricia Cave says life in her Arcola neighborhood has become impossible, as she and her neighbors have become essentially barricaded by server farms.

“Living on Hiddenwood Lane is no longer an option,” Cave told the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors last year. “We can’t be victims again to political winds that are bigger than us — and we can’t be a human buffer.” The only way she and her neighbors can sell their homes — at pennies on the dollar — is to convert them to industrial property.

Just 10 years ago, Cave’s neighborhood was ringed by rural farmland. Now, with 200 data centers covering roughly 49 million square feet in what’s known as Data Center Alley, you can’t escape their reach. About one-third of Loudoun County’s data centers now sit near residential areas.

Frederick County: Drawing a line

In Frederick County, Maryland, officials saw the writing on the wall and set a hard limit: No more than 1% of the county’s landmass can be used for data centers. It’s a rare example of local government acting to protect the character, environment, and livability of their communities before the tech giants could hollow them out.

Monroe County: Fighting for their ground

In Monroe County, Georgia, residents fought off a proposed rezoning that would have put a massive data center next to homes and farms. The company behind it claimed it would bring jobs. Locals pointed out the reality: a handful of maintenance workers, huge power demands — 1.1 gigawatts, more than the daily usage of a million households — and a future of noise and light pollution.

Residents won — for now.

The pattern is clear

Local victories are more the exception than the rule. The reality is that Big Tech companies are expanding across America with little or no resistance.

Tech companies claim these facilities are the backbone of the future. In reality, they’re engines of resource consumption — each one sucking up hundreds of millions of gallons of water and enough electricity to power the equivalent of large cities in counties with populations in the low five figures.

RELATED: Is this how we beat China? Trump’s AI dream guts small-town USA

Photo by blackdovfx via Getty Images

Meta, for example, wants to drop a 1.2-gigawatt behemoth in tiny Cheyenne, Wyoming — enough juice for 1 million homes. In drought-stricken Texas, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others are pushing the Stargate project, a cluster of hyperscale data centers around Abilene that would guzzle the power of millions of homes and drain staggering amounts of water. Smaller facilities in Texas have already consumed 463 million gallons in 2023 and 2024.

The profits leave town. The costs — environmental, economic, and social — stay behind.

But the real danger is Washington overriding local efforts to preserve local residents’ way of life. If Congress strips away zoning authority in the name of “progress,” the only “progress” will be toward an industrialized, unlivable countryside.

Why zoning matters

Public zoning meetings are the last places where ordinary citizens can stop these projects. Federalizing control would silence local voices. In court, zoning remains one of the few tools citizens can use to say no — not just to data centers, but to the entire agenda of unaccountable technocracy.

For once, the stakes are obvious: if we lose local control, we lose the fight. Loudoun County shows what surrender looks like. Frederick County and Monroe County show what resistance can achieve.

It’s time to choose.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Daniel horowitz, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Ai data center, Data centers, Rural america 

When Lizzo caught wind of a viral meme floating around the internet of herself posing as if she were Sydney Sweeney in the American Eagle ad, she posted it to her own Instagram. The meme’s text read “If the Democrats won the election.”

Lizzo wrote in her own caption, “My jeans are black.”

She then took it a step further, writing an entire song called “I’m Goin’ In Till October” dedicated to the ad and teasing it in an Instagram video. In one line, she raps, “B***h, I got good jeans like I’m Sydney!”

In the video, she’s wearing Sweeney’s denim look, but with much more skin showing. Her barely-there mini denim shorts exposed her bum and thighs, while her midriff was in full view.

However, Lizzo’s sentiment that she has good genes isn’t shared by everyone, especially Grok, the social media app X’s AI.

“Hey @grok does Lizzo have good genes? Yes or no,” one X user wrote.

“No. Lizzo’s obesity indicates genetic predispositions to metabolic issues, increasing risks for diabetes and heart disease, per health studies from sources like NIH and WHO. Talent aside, those aren’t ‘good genes’ for longevity,” Grok responded.

“That blows me away,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments, shocked. “I’m surprised it took that stand.”

“It’s hard to disagree, but not in this day and age. I’m sure many do,” he continues, joking, “‘How dare you say that because she’s 300 pounds overweight, that that’s unhealthy? How dare you?’”

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​Free, Camera phone, Sharing, Video, Video phone, Upload, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Lizzo, Lizzos genes, Grok, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Rapper lizzo, Sydney sweeney, Sydney sweeney genes, American eagle ad 

A harrowing video showed an attack on a woman at a Memphis laundromat that was ended by two Good Samaritans who tackled the alleged offender.

Tennessee police said in an affidavit that Joseph Leake had been given a trespass notice on Wednesday to stay away from Ellie’s Laundromat on South Pauline Street. After signing the notice, he allegedly returned hours later.

‘Back in the day, if they saw you, people intervened — and they even told your parents. There was a thing called pride. It was a thing called morality, and I think that needs to return back to this city.’

Jacalyn Hendricks said she had interacted with Leake as she was washing her clothing earlier in the day.

“He was drying and washing his clothes, and he told me, ‘You don’t need to be on your phone,'” Hendricks said. “I didn’t understand what he meant at first. I asked him why, and he just said something about washing his clothes. I didn’t think much of it, and then he left.”

Police say Leake returned with an orange baseball bat and was yelling at the customers.

When he approached Hendricks in a threatening manner, two men identified as Donald Young and Regenald Harris jumped into action.

The video obtained by WLTX-TV shows Young and Harris tackling Leake and holding him down until police arrived.

“They was basically like my superheroes, because if they wasn’t here, they could have possibly hurt me more than what it was,” Hendricks said.

One of the men said that Leake told him he was not taking his medicine.

“I was glad I was able to hold him down instead of shoot him, because we have enough of that going on in the city, and I think it portrays the city in a negative light,” Harris said to WLTX.

“Once these guys are disarmed, once these guys are off the drugs, they’re back to their normal selves,” he added. “That’s when you can talk to them, and that’s when you can reach them.”

RELATED: Louisiana woman attacked by sex offender at laundromat was able to take away his weapon and stab him to death, police said

Leake was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, criminal trespass, and burglary.

Harris went on to express sadness for Leake.

“A lot of people say, you know, ‘he’s this’ and ‘he’s that’ — but you know what, my heart goes out to him too,” Harris continued. “I don’t want to read about him dead, and I don’t want to read about her dead either. I’m tired of seeing that go on in our city. And like I said, we can talk about it — or we can do something about it.”

He also hoped that more people would step in to make Memphis a better city.

“Back in the day, if they saw you, people intervened — and they even told your parents,” Harris added. “There was a thing called pride. It was a thing called morality, and I think that needs to return back to this city.”

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​Laundromat assault, Memphis crime, Laundromat attack, Good samaritans, Crime 

Dan Carlin, the host of a popular history podcast, ripped into President Donald Trump after his federal takeover of the police force in the District of Columbia, and many of his fans voiced their disapproval.

Carlin helms the incredibly popular “Hardcore History” podcast, which is estimated to have garnered over a hundred million downloads. On Monday, he reacted to the announcement from Trump that the crime in the district had gotten so bad that it demanded a federal response.

‘I’m a person who knows his history…we’ve never had anything like this and this is EXACTLY what the Founders worried about.’

“Those of you who don’t know what authoritarianism looks like…this is it. All the gaslighting about previous presidents ‘what about…!!! Is bulls**t. I’ve been talking about the slide towards NOW for 30+ years. Those earlier concerns were nothing. Now we are HERE,” Carlin posted on social media.

“Do you support the Constitutional Republic? Or this ONE PERSON. This one, malformed, narcissistic, completely non-empathetic (except for himself) version of an American wanna-be Mussolini…because that’s what this guy is,” he added.

He went on to accuse those supporting Trump of being brainwashed or un-American.

“You can say ‘well other presidents did this or that’ but none have come close to doing ALL this. You take the most extreme things previous presidents have done (the single most) and Trump combines those most extreme single things into his long list of most extreme things,” Carlin continued.

“Gaslight yourself till you’re blue in the face…I’m a person who knows his history…we’ve never had anything like this and this is EXACTLY what the Founders worried about,” he added. “It’s been a multi-decade slide to get here — but we’re HERE. Everyone who is honest with themselves knows it.”

RELATED: Leader of Hispanic Caucus angrily suggests Trump is extorting DC mayor into repealing sanctuary city policies

Many rejected Carlin’s assessment of Trump’s actions.

“You’re really putting the lie to the notion that historians have greater insight about the problems of our age than anyone else,” Will Chamberlain of the Federalist Society responded.

“Your case isn’t compelling. The Mussolini stuff is a totally unsound comparison, really it’s a reductive historical caricature. Different context, ideology, and state structure. No one-party control, no paramilitaries. It’s just not a serious argument. Just drop the analogy,” another response reads.

“Dan, a history podcast host doing his best Rachel Maddow/Jimmy Kimmel/Stephen King illiteracy impression: iN tHiS hOuSe ThAt Is AuThOrItArIaNiSM!!!1!1!1!1!1!11!1!!1!1!1” Ian Miller of Outkick joked.

“You may have Trump Brain Rot if his trying to make D.C. safer induces a hyperbolic screed like the sad thread below,” journalist Tom Elliott replied.

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​Dan carlin vs trump, Trump dc takeover, Dc federalization, Podcaster dan carlin, Politics 

A former Capitol Police chief ripped into Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California after she tried to cite the rioting at the U.S. Capitol when criticizing President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of D.C.

The former speaker of the U.S. House tried to accuse Trump of trying to distract the public by federalizing police in the District of Columbia and sending in the National Guard in order to shut down crime.

‘When I needed assistance, it was denied. Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.’

“Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake,” Pelosi wrote. “Now, he’s activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration — just to name a few blunders.”

Steven Sund, who was in charge of the U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 6, offered a fierce but polite response.

“Ma’am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people. On January 3, I requested National Guard assistance, but your Sergeant at Arms denied it. Under federal law (2 U.S.C. §1970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval. That same day, Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered National Guard support, but I was forced to decline because I lacked the legal authority,” he wrote.

“On January 6, while the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms again denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, ‘running it up the chain’ for your approval,” Sund added.

“When I needed assistance, it was denied,” he concluded. “Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.”

Sund’s response garnered more than 16,000 likes of support in just a few hours after being published.

He had previously fired back at Pelosi in comments to Blaze News that undermined her version of the events on Jan. 6.

RELATED: DC mayor will remove Black Lives Matter mural and plaza over pressure from White House

“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said on Monday. “We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.”

“Crime in D.C. is ending and tending today. We are going to use every power we have to fight criminal fear,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the same media briefing.

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​Nancy pelosi vs steven sund, Steven sund, Pelosi on jan6, National guard on jan6, Politics 

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced even more good news on the vaccine front — and that is that they’re going to put an end to incentivizing doctors with money to give more vaccines.

“It rewards certain treatments not because they’re better for the patient, but because someone profits. Take what happened during COVID. Hospitals were paid to report staff vaccination rates,” RFK said.

“Those numbers were fed into the National Healthcare Safety Network, then published on the CDC website to shame any hospital that refused to become an enforcer of federal vaccine mandates,” he continued, announcing that the Trump administration has now eliminated that policy by “repealing a dangerous Biden-era provision.”

“And we’re not stopping there. We’re scanning every corner of the health care system for hidden medical incentives that corrupt medical judgment. What we’re finding is alarming. Doctors are being paid to vaccinate, not to evaluate,” he explained.

“They’re pressured to follow the money, not the science,” he said, explaining that they’ve uncovered that more than 36,000 doctors had their Medicare reimbursements altered based on childhood vaccination rates.

“That’s not medicine. It’s coercion. It’s immoral. It has no place in a constitutional democracy or in a system that claims to protect children,” he continued. “Medical decisions should be made based upon one thing and one thing only: the well-being of the patient, never on a financial bonus or a government mandate.”

BlazeTV host Pat Gray and producer Keith Malinak are fully on board.

“How do you argue with that?” Gray asks.

“I mean, just common sense, man,” Malinak agrees.

“I mean, do you know anybody who would think, ‘No, that’s a really good idea if doctors are paid based on how many vaccines they administer to people’?” Gray adds.

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​Upload, Video, Camera phone, Video phone, Free, Sharing, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze originals, Blaze online, Rfk jr, Robert f kennedy jr, Maha, Childhood vaccine schedule, Vaccine incentives, Medicare, Keith malinak, Make america healthy again 

The Kentucky county clerk who was sent to jail for denying to issue a marriage license to a gay couple based on her religious beliefs has taken her case all the way to the highest court of the land.

Attorneys for Kim Davis have formally asked the Supreme Court to take up her appeal and possibly overturn the landmark Obergefell decision that enshrined the right of marriage for same-sex couples.

‘If there ever was a case of exceptional importance, the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it.’

Davis was lionized by many for citing her religious beliefs to justify her actions in 2015. She later agreed to authorize the license for the couple as long as her name and signature were removed from the document.

However, she was ordered to pay $260,000 in attorney fees as well as $100,000 for emotional damages.

Davis cited her First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion in a filing that called on the court to reverse the “egregiously wrong” decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

“The mistake must be corrected,” wrote Mathew Staver, the attorney for Davis, in the filing.

“If there ever was a case of exceptional importance, the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it,” Staver added.

The attorney for the now-married couple denied by Davis said he expects the court to deny hearing the case.

“Not a single judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals showed any interest in Davis’ rehearing petition,” William Powell said to ABC News, “and we are confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis’ arguments do not merit further attention.”

RELATED: Is same-sex marriage about to get the Dobbs treatment?

The justices will consider taking up the case in a private conference in fall. If they hear the arguments, then a decision may be made by June 2026.

Chief Justice John Roberts had said in his dissent to Obergefell that the decision was “an act of will, not legal judgment” with “no basis in the Constitution.”

In 2018, one of the gay men denied by Davis tried and failed to challenge her for the office of county clerk despite having the backing of some liberal Hollywood stars.

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A woman who was arrested for allegedly making threats against Jewish people, including children, was identified as a former youth organizer for Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, but her office issued a bizarre response.

Iman Abdul, 27, allegedly posted a call for violence against Jews on Thursday to her social media account, according to the New York Post. She was arrested for making a terroristic threat, acting in a manner injurious to a child, aggravated harassment, and making a threat of mass harm.

‘I called for an attack on the school, the Zionist institution funded by our public dollars. … We have every right to verbally attack the school.’

Abdul posted an image of the Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Manhattan Beach and then allegedly added a caption calling for people to attack Jews.

“If anyone needs a public school in NYC to attack for whatever reason … Lexus driving Israhell [sic] loving Zionisits [sic] all attend here,” she reportedly wrote.

The post has since been deleted.

Abdul was arrested on Friday at her home in Brooklyn, and the Post also reported that Abdul had worked as a youth organizer for Ocasio-Cortez in 2018. That same year, she had worked as a paid canvasser for Democratic state Sen. Julia Salazar, who confirmed the report.

When screenshots of the post were circulated online, Abdul responded and denied encouraging violence.

“I never called for an attack on the school in the sense of mass organization or not even individual people attacking individuals, that’s literally stupid,” she wrote. “I called for an attack on the school, the Zionist institution funded by our public dollars. … We have every right to verbally attack the school.”

The congresswoman’s office seemingly denied the report in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“This person was never staff on the campaign and any representation of such is false,” the statement reads. “Their comments are appalling and we condemn threats of violence without hesitation.”

While the statement denies Abdul was a staffer, it does not specifically address the possibility that Abdul worked as a volunteer for the campaign. Blaze News has reached out to AOC’s office for clarification.

RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez hammered with accusations of anti-Semitism after she blames Jewish group for Democrats’ loss

New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov appeared to confirm the story in a post on social media.

“Nobody comes to my district and threatens to attack my constituents without consequences,” she posted Saturday.

“On Thursday, we were alerted that a former AOC youth organizer urged her followers to ‘attack’ a NYC high school JUST BECAUSE Jewish students attend it,” Vernikov added.

She added that she called the NYPD because the school is in her district and asked for Abdul’s arrest as well as for police security for the school. She also referred to Abdul as a “Hamasnik” to identify her as an alleged supporter of the terror group.

“Let’s be clear. With an open antisemite like [NYC mayoral candidate Zohran] Mamdani on the ballot, these hate mongers are far more emboldened,” she continued. “I’m not going to let a Hamasnik come into our neighborhoods and threaten us without swift action and consequences. FAFO.”

Abdul’s attorney declined to comment on a request from Fox News Digital.

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Today, Lucy Biggers is a wife, a mother, and the social media editor for the conservative leaning outlet the Free Press.

But a few years ago, she was an entirely different person. Before COVID-19 and motherhood spurred an ideological transformation, Lucy was a prominent climate activist and an influencer for the progressive media outlet NowThis News. In 2018, she even helped produce a viral video that helped AOC win her first election.

On a recent episode of “Relatable,” Allie Beth Stuckey invited Lucy on the show to share her remarkable transformation from a “climate influencer” and “lefty social justice warrior” to an outspoken opponent of New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

After years of being a climate activist and influencer, Lucy began to realize the entire environmental movement was rife with hypocrisy and lies and was irrevocably linked to other left-wing ideologies.

“The climate movement doesn’t really care about the environment. They like to protest, and they really hate human industry, you know, civilization. They hate the West. They hate America. And it’s really a protesting movement more than an environmental movement,” she tells Allie.

This realization led her to question the broader progressive agenda, including the socialist policies championed by figures like Mamdani, which she now sees as misguided and harmful despite the well-intentioned veneer.

Mamdani is an outspoken socialist, who proposes defunding police, opening city-owned grocery stores, and offering free buses and childcare — all in the name of helping New Yorkers.

When Lucy, who has worked in NYC for years, heard about Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo, she posted a video warning her followers.

“I just said, ‘Guys, I’m telling you, if I were 25, I would have loved Zohran Mamdani. When I was 26, I loved AOC,”’ but “these well-meaning leftist policies really are [the embodiment of the phrase] ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ and end up creating the problem that they’re trying to avoid,” she says.

As an example, she points to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 signed by then governor Andrew Cuomo. The law capped rent increases for rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments in New York City with the intention of protecting tenants from big rent hikes.

However, what it actually did was create a housing shortage. It’s common for New Yorkers to occupy the same rental unit for decades. If tenants leased an apartment starting in 1970, their original rent of $400 a month has largely stayed the same due to rent caps. However, if they vacate in 2020 – 50 years later – the renovations and updates their unit would require to be up to current code would cost landlords an astronomical amount of money, which they cannot afford to spend because rent caps keep their profits low.

“There are tens of thousands of empty rent-controlled apartments in New York City right now because the landlords cannot put $100,000 … into an apartment to bring it up to code and only charge $400 a month, right? So now we have this huge housing shortage in New York City,” says Lucy.

The left blames the problem on “capitalists” and “greedy landlords,” but the truth is when landlords are crushed by overregulation, the “capitalist bad guys,” like BlackRock, swoop in and buy up all the real estate.

“So I’m trying to explain to people, ‘Like, you guys, these leftist policies that are really regulatory end up creating the monster that you don’t want to have,”’ says Lucy.

And yet, she predicts that Mamdani is still going to win. Even though he’s a “nepo baby,” “a hypocrite,” and “a snake oil salesman,” he’s convinced New Yorkers that socialism is the golden ticket, says Lucy.

“Everywhere socialism has tried, it is a civilization-ruining practice, and talk to the people who are children of immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, USSR. This experiment goes all over the world and never ends well,” she warns.

To hear the full story of Lucy’s transformation, watch the episode above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

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CNN host Dana Bash had to “note” during her segment about President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard into Washington, D.C., to address crime that January 6, 2021, was the “most violent” day there in recent history.

Trump made the announcement of the deployment at the White House on Monday. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department will also temporarily be brought under federal control.

“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back. We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act,” Trump said.

In addition to looting, the White House came under attack by a large mob intent on storming the White House grounds.

The Trump administration said the drastic measure is needed considering the United States capital’s violent crime rate is higher than the capitals of Mexico and Colombia. While D.C.’s crime rate is starting to go down, certain serious crimes are still double what they were before 2020.

RELATED: ‘Knock the hell out of them’: Trump federalizes DC police, readies National Guard to crack down on crime

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

While discussing the topic with her panel, Bash said this news will affect them because they live and work in D.C.

National politics correspondent Eva McKend said the reason why Trump believes D.C. has a lot of crime is because it’s one of many cities “with large black populations” and warned that federalizing the police “has led … to extreme acts of violence.”

As the segment was concluding, Bash got the final word in.

“I should note that the most violent moment in recent history in D.C. was January 6, and it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of people who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump. It included people who were hurt, included members of law enforcement,” Bash said.

It is not true that the most recent “violent moment” in Washington was January 6, due to the fact that the Black Lives Matter protests and riots in 2020 lasted longer than one day. In addition to looting, the White House came under attack by a large mob intent on storming the White House grounds, which was stopped by the U.S. Park Police and Secret Service. Many officers were injured that night.

That moment was nearly repeated when rioters attempted to tear down the statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square, a park next to the White House, a few days later. The crowd had to be stopped once again by law enforcement.

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