Category: blaze media

Nearly 20 people were shot — three of them fatally — in Chicago over the weekend, police told WBBM-TV.

The station said the shooting victims’ ages range from 18 to 70.

A woman of an unknown age was found unresponsive in an alley behind the 11000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue at 10:18 a.m., WBBM said. She had been shot twice in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, the station said.

Police reported only one shooting on Friday. It took place just before 6:30 p.m. in the 5500 block of South Lafayette Avenue where police said an unknown person shot a 43-year-old woman on the street multiple times, WBBM noted. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, the station said.

The shootings ramped up on Saturday, as police said a dozen people were hit by gunfire — two of them fatally, the station said.

In one of the fatal shootings, police told WBBM that individuals in a red Dodge Charger were traveling westbound in the 4400 block of West Augusta Boulevard just before 5:30 a.m. when they were struck by gunfire, after which the vehicle crashed. The driver, a 37-year-old man, was shot in the back while his 29-year-old male passenger was shot multiple times in the head, the station said. Both victims were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital where the 29-year-old was in critical condition — but the 37-year-old, later identified as Mauro Josemartin, was pronounced dead, WBBM said.

RELATED: Thug on parole accused of breaking into woman’s home, raping her at gunpoint, robbing her is quickly caught because he’s dumb

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

In the other fatal shooting, a 23-year-old man was in a vehicle in the 4100 block of West Jackson Boulevard at 3:10 p.m. when he was hit in the chest by gunfire, the station said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County where he was pronounced dead, WBBM noted.

On Sunday, six people were shot, one of them fatally, the station said. In the fatal shooting, a woman of an unknown age was found unresponsive in an alley behind the 11000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue at 10:18 a.m., WBBM said. She had been shot twice in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, the station said.

Among the nonfatal shootings, four unknown gunmen approached a 43-year-old man in the 1500 block of East 75th Street just before 4 p.m. Saturday and opened fire at him, WBBM said. The man was hit in the ankle area and taken to a hospital in good condition, the station said.

On Sunday, two men — ages 18 and 19 — were in a business in the 100 block of East 51st Street just before 6 a.m. when a man came up and shot them both, WBBM said. The 18-year-old was shot in the upper right leg and transported himself to Provident Hospital of Cook County, the station said, adding that the 19-year-old was shot in the left calf and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center; both were in fair condition. Police told WBBM that the shooter was wearing a gray jumpsuit and fled east on foot.

Also on Sunday, police told the station that multiple people exited a dark-colored SUV outside a business in the 800 block of East 79th Street around 10:45 a.m. and shot two men, ages 66 and 70. The 66-year-old was hit in the right wrist, chest, and groin, police told WBBM, adding that the 70-year-old was hit once in the buttocks. Both victims were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where the 66-year-old was reported in critical condition, and the 70-year-old was in fair condition.

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​Chicago, Chicago police, Fatal shootings, Police, Shootings, Crime 

Joe Rogan may not be ready to call himself a Christian, but the former atheist does find himself rubbing shoulders with believers on many a Sunday.

The podcaster once again revealed details about his ongoing exploration of the faith, including his habit of regularly attending church.

‘It’s almost like everybody is under a spell.’

He also demonstrated a newfound appreciation of why someone would need God in his or her life. When recent podcast guest Francis Foster expressed amazement at how much a friend of his could rely on religion as a foundation for getting through tough times, Rogan didn’t seem nearly as surprised.

“If you really do believe that, it definitely will help you,” the comedian concurred.

Church going

At that point, fellow guest — and Foster’s “Triggernometry” podcast co-host — Konstantin Kisin chimed in that he himself had been becoming more religious.

“I haven’t got there, but I have started going to church every now and again,” Kisin explained.

“Do you enjoy it?” Rogan asked.

“I love it,” responded Kisin.

“I do too,” confessed Rogan, adding, “It’s a bunch of people that are going to try to make their lives better. They’re trying to be a better person.”

Rogan then described his church experience as getting together with a group of people who read and analyze Bible passages.

“I’m really interested in what these people were trying to say because I don’t think it’s nothing,” Rogan said.

No ‘fairy tale’

From there, the New Jersey native addressed claims he has heard from atheists and secularists who dismiss Christianity as being “foolish.”

RELATED: ‘He did horrible s**t!’ Joe Rogan rips into Gavin Newsom’s presidential aspirations — and he fires back

The 58-year-old pushed back against the characterization that Christianity as a collection of “fairy tales” by “self-professed intelligent people,” noting that a proper understanding of the faith requires considering historical context, translation difficulties, and oral vs. written tradition.

“I think there’s something to what they’re saying,” Rogan offered.

Trust the science

While noting that modern science has found physical evidence for the biblical flood story told in Genesis, Rogan said he also appreciated the Bible as a compelling depiction of society 6,000 years ago.

Further segments in the podcast revealed that, perhaps due to a renewed interest in faith, Rogan’s algorithm may have even changed.

RELATED: Dave Landau shares gritty journey with Joe Rogan — from Zoloft struggles and addiction to comedy redemption

– YouTube

This became evident when the group discussed some of Kisin’s protest journalism, where he asks befuddled liberals the reason they are attending the current protest of the day.

In response, Rogan pointed to a video of a man doing interviews at a left-wing No Kings protest. The man asks attendees if they believe in human rights, to which they affirm, until they are asked about human rights “in the womb,” which is when they dismiss the idea.

“It’s almost like everybody is under a spell,” Rogan laughed.

Rogan first confirmed he was going to church in June, after hinting at the idea that he was becoming more religious. He described his attendance similarly at that time:

“It’s actually very nice; they’re all just trying to be better people.”

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​Faith, Align, Lifestyle, Joe rogan, Comedy, Comedian, Church, Christianity, Bible, Religion 

Many people around the world are rightly celebrating the Israeli hostages who have been released from Gaza and the fragile ceasefire that is currently in place. Moments of reunion — and the prolonged agony felt by families of the remaining 13 deceased hostages — remind us that human life is precious beyond words.

Yet there is still another group of hostages in Gaza: countless Palestinian children trapped in fear, parents trapped in rubble, and a generation trapped between grief and uncertainty. For many Palestinians, this is a time to mourn.

What do we believe about the people who are different from us politically, religiously, racially, socially?

To speak of hostages today is to speak not only of those taken, but of all who have been bound by violence and loss. Every image of a freed captive should remind us that freedom is God’s design for every person made in His image. This is true for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

The Christian scriptures teach that every human being bears the imago Dei: the divine imprint of dignity, value, and worth. When we forget that truth, we become capable of anything.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of spending time with Rwandan Bishop Nathan Amooti. Rwanda is no stranger to pain. In the aftermath of genocide, Rwandans discovered that the first step toward national healing was re-humanizing one another — refusing to call a neighbor an enemy, rejecting demonizing language, and refusing to treat human souls as disposable.

That same work lies before us in Gaza. Rebuilding is not merely about bricks, electric lines, and water systems; it’s about reconstructing belief. What do we believe about the people who are different from us politically, religiously, racially, socially?

Rwanda’s recovery offers several lessons for all who long to see renewal in Gaza and beyond.

Rebuilding begins with re-humanizing

Bishop Amooti reminded me that genocide began when people stopped seeing one another as human.

The Hutus referred to the Tutsis as “snakes” or “cockroaches,” while the Tutsis called the Hutus “frogs.” Healing began when they rediscovered their shared humanity. Every act of compassion, every home rebuilt, and every hospital restored became a declaration that life is sacred.

Reconciliation is a process, not a moment

Rwanda learned that forgiveness and rebuilding take years of patient, communal effort.

Reconciliation started when individuals faced their trauma and chose life over revenge. True justice meant rebuilding community rather than pursuing more bloodshed. Bishop Amooti said that when a person kills someone who harmed their loved ones, “They become exactly like the person who first caused the pain.”

It takes humility and courage to stop the cycle of dehumanization.

Nation-building is moral and spiritual

When Rwandans returned to their homeland after the genocide, every system was broken: schools, hospitals, banks, and trust itself. They became innovators and social entrepreneurs, not simply out of ambition but out of necessity. The church played a vital role in helping rebuild communities by reminding people that identity runs deeper than tribe or politics.

Rebuilding Gaza will likewise require more than international aid; it will require moral imagination, shared responsibility, and courage to believe that neighbors can once again live side by side.

Healing requires shared responsibility

In Rwanda, citizens didn’t wait for government capacity; everyone participated in reconstruction. Pastors, teachers, farmers, and business leaders worked together to restore life.

The same must be true for Gaza. Governments can broker ceasefires, but ordinary people — Israeli and Palestinian, Muslim and Christian, local and global — will have to be ambassadors of goodness and peace with their own hands.

RELATED: How Tucker Carlson vs. Ted Cruz exposed a critical biblical question on Israel

BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images

Followers of Jesus Christ have a special responsibility; they are invited into this ministry of reconciliation. We rejoice with the families whose loved ones have come home; this is good, beautiful, and right. But to stop there would be to miss the heart of God.

We must also mourn with those who mourn — to grieve the staggering loss of life in Gaza and to join the sacred work of rebuilding.

If we believe that every person is made in the image of God, then every broken city, every grieving mother, and every frightened child becomes holy ground, a place where the Kingdom of God still longs to reign.

Freedom for Israeli hostages must include freedom for the people of Gaza: freedom from fear, despair, and ongoing dehumanization.

​Christianity, Christian, Bible, Jesus christ, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Image of god, Faith 

A small but significant percentage of Americans say they are open to having a friendship with artificial intelligence, while some are even open to romance with AI.

The figures come from a new study by the Institute for Family Studies and YouGov, which surveyed American adults under 40 years old. Their data revealed that while very few young Americans are already friends with some sort of AI, about 10 times that amount are open to it.

‘It signals how loneliness and weakened human connection are driving some young adults.’

Just 1% of Americans under 40 who were surveyed said they were already friends with an AI. However, a staggering 10% said they are open to the idea. With 2,000 participants surveyed, that’s 200 people who said they might be friends with a computer program.

Liberals said they were more open to the idea of befriending AI (or are already in such a friendship) than conservatives were, to the tune of 14% of liberals vs. 9% of conservatives.

The idea of being in a “romantic” relationship with AI, not just a friendship, again produced some troubling — or scientifically relevant — responses.

RELATED: US Army says it is not replacing ‘human decision-making’ with AI after general admits to using chatbot

— (@)

When it comes to young adults who are not married or “cohabitating,” 7% said they are open to the idea of being in a romantic partnership with AI.

At the same time, a larger percentage of young adults think that AI has the potential to replace real-life romantic relationships; that number sits at a whopping 25%, or 500 respondents.

There exists a large crossover with frequent pornography users, as the more frequently one says they consume online porn, the more likely they are to be open to having an AI as a romantic partner, or are already in such a relationship.

Only 5% of those who said they never consume porn, or do so “a few times a year,” said they were open to an AI romantic partner.

That number goes up to 9% for those who watch porn between once or twice a month and several times per week. For those who watch online porn daily, the number was 11%.

Overall, young adults who are heavy porn users were the group most open to having an AI girlfriend or boyfriend, in addition to being the most open to an AI friendship.

RELATED: The laws freaked-out AI founders want won’t save us from tech slavery if we reject Christ’s message

Graphic courtesy Institute for Family Studies

“Roughly one in 10 young Americans say they’re open to an AI friendship — but that should concern us,” Dr. Wendy Wang of the Institute for Family Studies told Blaze News.

“It signals how loneliness and weakened human connection are driving some young adults to seek emotional comfort from machines rather than people,” she added.

Another interesting statistic to take home from the survey was the fact that young women were more likely than men to perceive AI as a threat in general, with 28% agreeing with the idea vs. 23% of men. Women are also less excited about AI’s effect on society; just 11% of women were excited vs. 20% of men.

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Tech, Chatbot, Online friend, Liberals, Conservatives 

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.

The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

RELATED: How Bill Gates and friends turned global health into a profit machine — at your expense

AvigatorPhotographer via iStock/Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

​Opinion & analysis, Bill gates, Big tech, Climate change, Climate hysteria, Climate hoax, Environment, Artificial intelligence, Amazon, Jobs, Unemployment, Green tyranny, Weather, Freedom, Liberty, 15 minute cities, Identity, Social credit score, Carbon tax, Machines, Government, Algorithm, Ruling class 

It began in the crucible of a world at war. The word cybernetics was coined in 1948 by the MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener, a man wrestling with the urgent problem of how to make a machine shoot down another machine. He reached back to the ancient Greek for kubernétes, the steersman, the one who guides and corrects. Plato had used it as a metaphor for governing a polis. Wiener used it to describe a new science of self-governing systems, of control and communication in the animal and the machine. The core idea was feedback, a circular flow of information that allows a system to sense its own performance and steer itself toward a goal.

The idea was not about mechanics but about behavior. The focus shifted from what things are to what they do. A thermostat maintaining the temperature of a room, a human body maintaining homeostasis, a pilot correcting the flight path of an airplane; all were, in this new light, functionally the same. They were all steersmen. The conciseness of the concept was seductive, its implications unsettling. It suggested a universal logic humming beneath the surface of both wired circuits and living tissue, blurring the line between the made and the born.

You shape the algorithm, and the algorithm shapes you.

The primordial cybernetic device was James Watt’s centrifugal governor, that elegant pirouette of spinning weights that tamed the steam engine in 1788. As the engine raced, the rotating balls swung wide, closing a valve to slow it; as the engine slowed, they fell, opening the valve again. It was a perfect, self-contained conversation.

But it was the Second World War that gave birth to the theory. Human reflexes were no longer fast enough for the new calculus of aerial combat. Wiener and his colleagues were tasked with solving the “air defense problem,” which was really a problem of prediction. They treated the enemy pilot, the gun, and the radar as a single, closed-loop system, each reacting to the other in a lethal dance. By the war’s end, as one analyst starkly put it, autonomous machines were shooting down other autonomous machines in the “first battle of the robots.”

In the Cold War that followed, cybernetics became a tool of ideological contest. In the West, it was the logic of the military-industrial complex, of corporate automation and the game theory of nuclear deterrence humming away in the computers at Project RAND. It promised optimization and control.

Yet the idea proved too fluid to be contained. While men in uniform were designing command-and-control networks, Stewart Brand was on the West Coast, publishing the Whole Earth Catalog. He filled its pages with cybernetic theory, reimagining it not as a tool for top-down control but for bottom-up, self-regulating communities. The catalog itself was a feedback loop, constantly updated by its readers. For a generation of commune-dwellers and future Silicon Valley pioneers, cybernetics was the grammar of personal liberation and ecological harmony. Computers, Brand wrote in Rolling Stone, were “coming to the people.”

RELATED: ‘They want to spy on you’: Military tech CEO explains why AI companies don’t want you going offline

Photo by Matt Cardy

The Soviets, meanwhile, followed a more jagged path. Initially denouncing cybernetics as a “bourgeois pseudoscience,” they performed a complete reversal after Stalin’s death. Here was a science, they realized, that could perfect the planned economy. Visionaries like Anatoly Kitov and Victor Glushkov dreamed of a vast, nationwide computer network called OGAS, an electronic nervous system that would link every factory to a central hub in Moscow. It was an ambitious plan for “electronic socialism,” a rational, data-driven alternative to the brute-force dictates of the past. The system, they hoped, would offer a technocratic antidote to personal tyranny. OGAS was never fully built, stalled by bureaucracy and technical limits, but the dream itself was telling. Both superpowers saw in the feedback loop a reflection of their own ambitions: one for market efficiency, the other for state perfection.

Perhaps the most popular incarnation of the cybernetic dream was Project Cybersyn in Salvador Allende’s Chile. From 1971 to 1973, the British cybernetician Stafford Beer designed a nerve center for the Chilean economy. In a futuristic operations room that looked like a set from “Star Trek,” managers sat in molded white chairs, surrounded by screens displaying real-time production data fed from factories across the country via a network of telex machines. It was an attempt to steer a national economy in real-time, to keep it in a “dynamic equilibrium” against the shocks of strikes and embargoes. Cybersyn was a short-lived project, ending with the 1973 coup, but it remains a powerful symbol of the cybernetic ideal: a society as a single, responsive, controllable system.

The feedback loop was not confined to the physical world. It began to shape our fictions, which in turn shaped our reality. William Gibson, who knew famously little about computers, coined the word “cyberspace” in his 1984 novel “Neuromancer.” The vision was so compelling it seemed to will itself into existence, providing the language and the imaginative blueprint for a generation of technologists building the early internet and virtual reality. Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel “Snow Crash” gave us the “metaverse” and the “avatar,” terms that have since migrated from fiction to corporate strategy. Cyberpunk literature provided the prototypes for the world we now inhabit.

Today, the word “cybernetics” feels archaic, a relic of a retro-futurist past. Yet its principles are more deeply embedded in our lives than Wiener could have imagined. We are all entangled in cybernetic loops. The social media algorithms that monitor our clicks to refine their feeds, which in turn shape our behavior, are feedback systems of astonishing power and intimacy. You shape the algorithm, and the algorithm shapes you. A self-driving car navigating city traffic is a cybernetic organism, constantly sensing, processing, and acting. Our smart homes and wearable devices are nodes in a network of perpetual, low-grade feedback.

We have built a world of steersmen, of systems that regulate themselves. The question that lingers is the one Wiener implicitly asked from the beginning. In a world of automated, self-correcting systems, who, or what, is charting the course?

​Tech, Cybernetics 

The Trump administration performed strikes in international waters in the eastern Pacific on Monday to stop several boats carrying illegal narcotics, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

‘We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.’

He announced on Tuesday the results of “three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels,” claiming that they were operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations.”

In January, President Donald Trump designated international cartels as foreign terrorist organizations for flooding the U.S. with “deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.”

Monday’s strikes killed 14 narco-terrorists, Hegseth said. No U.S. forces were harmed.

“Eight male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessels during the first strike. Four male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the second strike. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the third strike,” he explained. “The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”

Hegseth noted that there was one survivor.

“Regarding the survivor, USSOUTHCOM immediately initiated Search and Rescue (SAR) standard protocols; Mexican SAR authorities accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue,” he added.

RELATED: ‘We will stop you cold’: Trump announces successful strike against ‘narcoterrorist’ vessel

Pete Hegseth. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday condemned the most recent strikes.

“We do not agree with these attacks, with how they are carried out,” Sheinbaum stated. “We want all international treaties to be complied with.”

RELATED: Trump’s Caribbean ‘drug wars’ are forging a new Monroe Doctrine

Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A separate strike was carried out at President Donald Trump’s direction in the Caribbean Sea last week against a vessel reportedly operated by Tren de Aragua.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth stated on Friday. “Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters — and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”

The U.S. has performed more than a dozen strikes since September. At least 57 people have been killed, according to the Associated Press.

— (@)

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​News, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Pete hegseth, Department of war, Department of defense, Dod, Defense department, War department, Claudia sheinbaum, Drug trafficking, Narcotics, Drugs, Terrorist, Politics 

An 8 ½-minute FBI video on the Jan. 6 pipe bombs, released last week, omits key new evidence, relies on likely manipulated, low-quality footage, and excludes crucial hours of security video that could clarify the most persistent questions that surround the languishing investigation.

The bureau released the video to revive public interest in a case that has gone unsolved for nearly five years. Its timing comes just two weeks after a video sleuth briefed congressional investigators, alleging serious flaws in the FBI’s account of the pipe bombs. Despite those claims — including apparent video manipulation and ignored public tips — the bureau has stuck to its original story.

‘You releasing that info made it impossible for them to even float that excuse.’

The new footage also offers no hint that the FBI considered publicly acknowledging another theory: that the pipe bombs were part of a poorly timed training exercise. FBI sources told Blaze News weeks ago about rumors the bureau had been preparing to report that several federal agencies took part in a training exercise that diverted police resources from the Capitol as thousands of protesters breached its barricades at 12:53 p.m.

Those same sources said that once word of this alleged new theory leaked, the FBI abandoned it. The latest video reflects that retreat, repeating the same facts and framing first presented in 2021.

RELATED: FBI sent 55 agents to the Capitol Jan. 6, none for ‘crowd control,’ former Chief Steven Sund says

“The 7th floor guys were pissed at you for going public with the ‘undisclosed training event’ scenario as a potential cover-up,” a source close to the FBI Washington Field Office told Blaze News. “I’m told you releasing that info made it impossible for them to even float that excuse after you picked it apart.”

Another FBI source previously told Blaze News that the bureau floated the idea that several federal agencies were involved in the pipe-bomb plot and cover-up. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

New low-quality video

The FBI released snippets of new video of the alleged pipe-bomb suspect from the night of Jan. 5, 2021. That footage, of similar low quality as previously released video evidence, is edited in such a way that it excludes showing a U.S. Capitol Police squad SUV pull up directly across the street from where the suspect stood at 8:15 p.m.

The omissions come despite an independent video investigator telling Blaze News he has been feeding his findings to an FBI special agent at the Washington Field Office since late March. It is not clear what, if anything, the FBI has done with the extensive research done by an individual known on X as Armitas. He has asked Blaze News not to use his real name for security reasons.

Armitas’ report to Congress says video footage released by the FBI of the hoodie-wearing suspect was digitally altered. Software was used to crop the image area and reduce the video frame rate, he said.

RELATED: FBI Jan. 6 report sets off a firestorm: Why did it take 56 months to disclose 274 agents at Capitol?

Some of the video of the alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber released by the FBI was low quality. FBI

The FBI says an individual of unknown sex wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans, black gloves, and rare Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers planted pipe bombs at the Democratic National Committee and a short time later along the rear wall of the Capitol Hill Club not far from the Republican National Committee building.

The FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department continue to offer a $500,000 reward for evidence that leads to an arrest in the case.

Aside from some short segments of new footage, the FBI update video is nearly identical to one released Jan. 2, 2021. It comes after Armitas submitted 26 pages of findings to the new House Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6 — and months after he said he began sharing those details with an FBI special agent.

Sources told Blaze News that reducing the frame rate on video makes it very difficult to perform a forensic analysis of the bomber’s gait, or manner of walking. Gait-analysis could help narrow the list of suspects or lead investigators toward a person of interest.

Congressional Black Caucus a target?

The FBI video’s animated map of the suspect’s travels glosses over an apparent stop the person made at a bush on the north side of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, 413 New Jersey Ave. Southeast. It appears, based on the bomber’s behavior, that the CBCI was the original target of the first pipe bomb, Armitas said.

The FBI video said the suspect “pauses near the corner of D Street,” but it failed to mention anything about the suspect seemingly attempting to place the device under the bush at the CBCI.

Video from Capitol Police CCTV Camera 795 showed the suspect walking north on New Jersey Avenue, then turning left into an alley next to the Black Caucus Institute building at about 7:47 p.m. The suspect spent more than a minute near the bush — first bent over and then sitting down in front of the shrub, video shows. The individual appeared to lean into the bush while seated, then got up and continued west down the alley.

A short time later, the alleged bomber came back up the alley past the bush toward New Jersey Avenue, then raced back into the alley as if he or she forgot something. The suspect then returned to New Jersey Avenue at 7:50 p.m. and walked south for a block before turning right onto Ivy Street Southeast toward the DNC, video showed.

Armitas posited that a piece of the pipe bomb broke off while the suspect was attempting to plant it at the CBCI. A construction worker appeared to notice the broken component at 1 p.m. on Jan. 6. The worker can be seen pausing to peer under the bush and then continuing down the alley.

The alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber (left) stops and sits down at a bush next to the Congressional Black Caucus Institute the night of Jan. 5, 2021. A Capitol Police countersurveillance officer (right) peers at something under the same bush just minutes before he discovered the pipe bomb at the nearby Democratic National Committee on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

A two-man team of U.S. Capitol Police countersurveillance agents walked west up the alley at 1:02 p.m., stopped to chat for about 30 seconds, then returned down the alley. One of the officers noticed something under the bush, then leaned in for a closer look just before 1:03 p.m. The officers walked back to the nearby DNC, where one of them discovered the pipe bomb under a bush next to a park bench at 1:05 p.m.

Two buildings were constructed immediately north of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute building in the nearly five years since Jan. 6, so the alley and the bush are no longer there, according to street view images from Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Congressional dormitory, police lights

One of the new video clips released by the FBI shows the suspect walking east along C Street about 8:15 p.m. The video cuts off just before the suspect stops in the front garden of the C Street Center, 133 C St. Southeast. The building has long served as a dormitory or rooming house for members of Congress and staff.

Armitas said it appears the suspect was attempting to place the pipe bomb in the bushes in front of 133 C Street but may have been interrupted by a Capitol Police squad car that turned onto C Street from the east with its emergency lights on.

The squad car pulled over a dark-colored Jeep that minutes earlier had driven down C Street, turned left onto First, made a U-turn, and then drove down D Street, turned left onto Second and left again onto C Street. It appears the squad engaged its emergency lights just as the Jeep turned onto C Street, video showed.

There is no mention in any of the FBI materials across 58 months of a Capitol Police squad car parking directly across C Street from where the alleged would-be bomber stood at 8:15 p.m.

RELATED: GOP-run Jan. 6 subcommittee goes after trove of data deleted by Pelosi-appointed Jan. 6 committee

The pipe bomb suspect (above left) walking west on C Street toward Rumsey Court, stopping in front of a congressional rooming house (upper right), possibly looking to place a pipe bomb on Jan. 5, 2021. Capitol Police squad cars (below) with lights engaged were across the street as the suspect walked down the court to plant the bomb. FBI/@Armitas/U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

The bright blue-and-red emergency lights from the squad car reflected off of the suspect’s gray sweatshirt as he or she walked down into Rumsey Court from C Street, Capitol Police CCTV video shows.

Interestingly, the Capitol Police squad car was the same one the suspect appeared to wave to minutes earlier as the police vehicle drove south on First Street and the suspect walked north past the front of the Capitol Hill Club.

A second Capitol Police car turned onto C Street from the west at 8:18 p.m., did a Y-turn and pulled in behind the first squad. Both officers approached the Jeep with flashlights on. They wrapped up the traffic stop at 8:30. The suspect by then had escaped Rumsey Court and apparently disappeared.

Escape through hidden gate

Armitas said he tracked the suspect’s exit from Rumsey Court through a garden on the property of St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill and onto Second Street Southeast. The FBI’s video does not include this detail, stating instead that the suspect was “last seen” at 8:18 p.m. heading east on Rumsey Court.

The fence between Rumsey Court and the St. Peter’s garden did not have an obvious gate. It appeared as a contiguous fence across the property, Armitas said. So the suspect would have had to know how and where the hidden gate could be unlatched to access the St. Peter’s garden and make the escape onto Second Street, he said.

Blaze News has twice inspected the gate. Without familiarity with the property, it is nearly impossible to recognize the existence of the gate or find a hidden latch.

Bomb retrieval, missing video

Armitas theorized that the DNC bomb assembly was broken by the suspect during the attempt to drop the device next to the CBCI building. So the device the suspect set at the base of a park bench next to the DNC could have needed repair, he said.

Also, the suspect appeared to place the pipe bomb with the short end — where a 60-minute kitchen timer was attached — sticking out toward the sidewalk. When the pipe bomb was discovered at 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6, the long end was sticking out with the egg timer pointed into the bushes, he said. Both facts would indicate the device was removed and later replaced, Armitas said.

RELATED: Bobby Powell gave his last breath working to expose Jan. 6 corruption

The pipe-bomb suspect places the device in the bushes outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters at 7:54 p.m. Jan. 5, 2021, the FBI says. FBI

Those assertions and others could be proven or disproven if the FBI would release the DNC security video for Jan. 6. Several key Capitol Police security cameras were turned away from the DNC at crucial times on Jan. 6.

So the DNC’s security cameras appear to have the only footage that can answer questions about the Secret Service’s security sweep of the DNC building the morning of Jan. 6. They also hold the answer to whether the bomb was present while bomb-sniffing dogs did a sweep of parts of the building exterior.

Depending what the DNC video shows, the pipe bomb was either missed by the Secret Service and still sitting under the bench as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris pulled into the DNC garage around 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, or the bomb was re-placed under the bench while Harris was inside the building.

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​Analysis, J6 

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took the stage at a rally for NYC mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani with a thunderous speech.

“We are not the crazy ones, New York City. We are not the outlandish ones, New York City. They want us to think we are crazy. We are sane,” AOC boomed.

“Jews escaping Holocaust, black Americans fleeing slavery and Jim Crow, Latinos seeking a better life, native people standing for themselves, Asian-Americans coming together in Queens, in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, in Manhattan, in Staten Island, in this country,” she yelled.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales can’t help but laugh, though she is well aware of the disaster that looms in New York City.

“There’s no way that anyone else gets elected as the mayor of New York City, and this guy is going out there telling fake stories about his aunt. So, we’re supposed to believe, what, that it was the Muslims that we really actually should feel sorry for after 9/11?” Gonzales says, referring to Mamdani’s recent statement that his hijab-wearing aunt was a victim in the aftermath of 9/11.

BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden is also concerned, saying that we not only have a “communist infiltration in the United States,” but an Islamic one.

And Mamdani is using the term “Islamaphobic” against those who recognize what’s happening.

“It really has been fascinating to watch him try to use this Islamophobia term. I would say, I will agree with him in part. I do agree. I am actually very scared of Islam,” Gonzales says.

“I just don’t agree that it is unreasonable, which would be the phobia part. … I am afraid. I just don’t think that it’s some sort irrational fear, is the thing,” she adds.

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At a packed rally in Queens on Sunday, New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani reinforced his far-left vision for remaking America’s largest city.

Among his proposals: government-run grocery stores, free public transportation, 200,000 government-built apartments, universal childcare, and a rent freeze for the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments.

Only a socialist could argue that taking away people’s property rights and centralizing power enhances individual freedom.

The price tag for Mamdani’s most ambitious ideas comes to nearly $7 billion a year — more than the city’s entire police budget.

Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, shared the stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), two of the country’s best-known socialist stars. Both praised Mamdani as the future of progressive politics.

Like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani claims he can fund his agenda by taxing the rich and targeting corporations. He wants to raise the top corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5% and increase the city’s income tax by two percentage points for anyone earning $1 million or more.

Those ideas have energized his base and helped him surge in the polls. Yet his lead is not secure. Critics from both parties warn that Mamdani’s high-tax, high-spending platform would drive wealthy residents and businesses out of New York, worsening the city’s economic and fiscal problems.

But Mamdani’s biggest obstacle isn’t fiscal — it’s philosophical.

Even in deep-blue New York, voters hesitate to hand power to a democratic socialist. Socialism’s record is clear: It limits freedom, crushes economies, and breeds instability.

To ease those fears, Mamdani’s campaign has begun to reframe socialism as a path to freedom rather than its enemy. At his rally over the weekend, he told the crowd: “No New Yorker should ever be priced out of anything they need to survive. … It is government’s job to deliver that dignity.” Then he added, “Dignity, my friends, is another way of saying freedom.”

In Mamdani’s view, freedom comes from the state guaranteeing life’s essentials — food, housing, transportation, childcare. To provide those things, government must seize and redistribute private wealth. Mamdani calls this process “delivering dignity,” which he equates with liberty itself.

That logic turns freedom on its head. Only a socialist could argue that taking away people’s property rights and centralizing power enhances individual freedom.

This rhetorical sleight of hand is not new. It’s straight from the socialist and communist propaganda of the 20th century.

Article 39 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution claimed that socialism “ensures enlargement of the rights and freedoms of citizens.” Fidel Castro’s 1976 Cuban Constitution promised “the freedom and full dignity of man” through a state guarantee of social services.

Even Joseph Stalin cloaked authoritarianism in the language of freedom. In a 1936 interview, he insisted that socialism was built “for the sake of real personal liberty,” arguing that “real liberty can exist only where there is no unemployment and poverty.”

Intentionally or not, Mamdani’s speeches echo those same lines. And he’s far from the first democratic socialist to do so. Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Olof Palme in Sweden, and Aneurin Bevan in Britain all used similar arguments to justify state expansion in the name of “freedom.”

RELATED: Why Zohran Mamdani will be ‘one of the most catastrophic mayors ever’

Photo by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images via Getty Images

That’s no coincidence. Mamdani is a student of socialist history, and his rhetoric mirrors the Marxist premise that true liberty requires the abolition of private property. In his 1844 essay “Private Property and Communism,” Karl Marx wrote, “The abolition of private property is therefore the complete emancipation of all human senses and qualities.”

Every socialist movement since has repeated that creed, always promising “real freedom” while consolidating control over wealth, work, and speech.

History shows what those promises yield: less freedom, not more. The more government collectivizes decision-making, the less room individuals have to think, speak, or prosper.

New York City has enormous problems, but reviving the century’s old, failed ideas of socialism won’t solve them. If anything, they’ll accelerate decline.

The city’s revival depends on the principles that built it into a global capital in the first place — limited government, free markets, low taxes, and the liberty to rise through one’s own effort.

If Mamdani truly wants to bring dignity and freedom to New Yorkers, he should reject the hollow slogans of socialism and embrace the real promise of liberty that made America — and New York — great.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Zohran, Zohran mamdani, Mamdani, Mamdani is communist, Mamdani vs cuomo, Socialist, Communist, Soviet union, Redistribution of wealth, Joseph stalin, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Bernie sanders, New york city mayoral race, Big apple 

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently alluded to running for president in 2028, telling Robert Costa on “CBS Sunday Morning” that he’d be “lying” if he said he wasn’t planning to run and that he “can’t” tell a lie.

Of course, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales can’t let him get away with acting as though he can’t tell a lie — as it’s exactly what he’s been doing for years.

Most recently, Newsom told some childhood tall tales on the “All the Smoke” podcast about being raised by a mom who “came from no money and just hustled” with “two and a half jobs” to make ends meet.

“It was also about paying the bills, man. It was just, like, hustling, and so I was out there kind of raising myself, turning on the TV, started just getting obsessed, sitting there with the Wonder Bread,” he said while the host laughed.

“Come on, the macaroni and cheese!” he exclaimed. “This is how I grew up, bro. Every day in the backyard just bouncing the basketball, throwing the ball against the wall until the ball is just like fraying, man.”

“The problem with that is that it turns out that his dad worked for the billionaire heir Gordon Getty,” Gonzales comments, before pulling up a 1991 feature in the San Francisco Chronicle called “Children of the Rich.”

In one photo for the “Children of the Rich” feature, Newsom posed with several other young rich men.

“So, he was super poor, living off of Wonder Bread and mac and cheese, but he was also posing for ‘Children of the Rich’ articles in 1991,” Gonzales says. “Make that make sense.”

On his own show, while interviewing the late Charlie Kirk, Newsom also claimed that he had never used the term “Latinx.”

“We have the receipts because not only has your office talked about it, you yourself have tweeted using the term ‘Latinx,’ talking about ‘COVID-19 disproportionately impacts the Latinx community,’ ‘children in poverty — 31% Latinx,’” Gonzales says.

“That isn’t a thing. It’s not an actual term. It’s just made up because white people want to convince the Latin community that they are somehow oppressed with their language,” she continues.

But the lies don’t end there.

Newsom claimed that President Trump never called him before sending the National Guard to Los Angeles.

“There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to,” Newsom wrote in a post on X.

President Trump then released a screenshot showing a 16-minute call with Newsom.

“The crazy thing is, why lie about something we clearly have receipts for?” Gonzales asks. “You know that these call logs will exist. Why lie about it?”

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New York City voters may be on a different page than the rest of the state.

Despite Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani maintaining a significant advantage in the polls ahead of the NYC mayoral election, one Republican is looking to flip the state red next year.

For example, 60% of registered voters in New York … either strongly support or somewhat support returning to the pre-2019 bail laws.

RealClearPolitics has Mamdani boasting a 15-point lead average across the last six polls in October. With around 46 points, Mamdani’s lead has only widened since July.

In new numbers from the Manhattan Institute, the Democratic socialist and alleged communist maintains that lead over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a former Democrat now representing the Fight and Deliver Party.

Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is third, 24 points behind Mamdani and nine points behind Cuomo.

At the same time, however, pollsters asked respondents how they would vote if the 2026 N.Y. gubernatorial election were held today.

Shockingly, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) held a slim margin over Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul. Stefanik’s lead was just one point, 43% to 42%, while “someone else” had 9% support, and “not sure” was at 7%.

RELATED: LGBTQ champion Zohran Mamdani faces backlash over photo with ‘anti-homosexuality’ Ugandan lawmaker

Photo by Andres Kudacki/Getty Images

Stefanik’s team responded to the news:

“In a heavily Democrat-leaning state, an independent poll that is heavily weighted toward registered Democrat voters shows Republican Elise Stefanik leading Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul in a head-to-head matchup,” Stefanik’s spokesperson Bernadette Breslin said in a press release.

Breslin said it was the first time in decades that any Republican candidate for governor of New York has polled ahead of a Democrat incumbent.

The remarks continued, “In a decision that she will come to regret, Kathy Hochul lives up to her title as the worst governor in America when she chose to bend the knee and put New Yorkers LAST by desperately endorsing the defund the police, tax-hiking, raging anti-Semite socialist Zohran Mamdani who will destroy New York.”

Though rumors have swirled for months that Stefanik intends to run for governor, she has not formally announced her candidacy. Reports indicate that she will announce sometime after the November 4 election.

RELATED: Cuomo narrows gap in new poll

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images

While Mamdani maintains a strong lead in the city, some of his progressive policy positions range from somewhat unpopular to widely unpopular in updated polling.

For example, 60% of registered voters in New York, including 49% of Democrats, either strongly support or somewhat support returning to the pre-2019 bail laws. This pertains to allowing individuals to be “released until trial rather than being held.”

Mamdani has said he wants to reduce the jail population, specifically at Rikers Island.

One of Mamdani’s biggest promises, free bus services, saw 58% of New York City respondents oppose the idea. This figure included 48% of Democrats. Meanwhile, 42% of Democrats agreed with the idea that eliminating fares would make public transit more affordable and efficient for working New Yorkers while reducing conflicts between riders and operators.

Other topics — like New York’s gifted and talented programs, corporate taxation, and fare evasion — were covered in polling conducted with 600 likely voters in the NYC mayoral election and 300 registered voters across New York state between October 22 and 26. The poll was weighted to reflect the electorate.

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​Polls, News, New york, New york city, Democrat, Socialist, Hochul, Cuomo, Mamdani, New york state, Republican, Stefanik, Politics 

In the fiercely competitive race for New Jersey governor, just one point separates the Democratic and Republican candidates, a new poll shows.

Mikie Sherrill (D), a current U.S. representative, held a narrow lead against Jack Ciattarelli (R), a former New Jersey state representative, in an October 27 co/efficient poll. Males, individuals ages 55 and older, and those with no party affiliation preferred Ciattarelli, while females and those ages 18 to 54 favored Sherrill, according to the recent survey.

‘Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World?’

Separate poll results from Emerson College, dated September 25, gave Ciattarelli the best odds, showing the two candidates tied.

All other polls gave Sherrill a more substantial lead over Ciattarelli, ranging from one to seven points, with the RealClearPolitics poll average showing her 3.8 points ahead of her Republican rival.

By Sunday, roughly 90,500 New Jersey residents had returned their early-voter ballots, according to Newsweek. Of those turned in, 38,039 were from registered Democrats, 35,512 were from Republicans, and another 16,895 ballots belonged to those with other party affiliations.

Only New Jersey and Virginia are holding gubernatorial races this year.

RELATED: Trump DOJ to monitor polling sites in 2 blue states in response to concerns about voter fraud, ‘irregularities’

Mikie Sherrill. Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has weighed in on these races, stating Sunday in a post on Truth Social, “Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World? VOTE REPUBLICAN for massive Energy Cost reductions, large scale Tax Cuts, and basic Common Sense!”

Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in May, calling him “a terrific America First Candidate.”

While New Jersey has traditionally been a blue stronghold, Ciattarelli has grabbed at least eight endorsements from local Democrats, according to the New York Post.

RELATED: Pressure mounts for New Jersey Democrat gubernatorial candidate as past catches up to her

Jack Ciattarelli. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

On Saturday, New Era Democrats President Celia Iervasi stated, “We are proud to endorse Jack Ciattarelli for Governor of New Jersey.”

“As life continues to become unaffordable for the working class and New Jersey continues to be one of the highest taxed states in the country, Jack is the right person that is needed to make life more affordable for the residents of the Garden State,” Iervasi said. “We look forward to joining a coalition of organizations that are supporting Jack in the upcoming election and know that he is the right person to lead New Jersey in the right direction.”

Other New Jersey Democrats to support Ciattarelli include North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco, North Bergen Commissioner Allen Pascual, Dover Mayor Jim Dodd, Branchville Mayor Anthony Frato, Branchville Councilman Jeff Lewis, and former Hudson County Democratic Organization Chair Anthony Vainieri. Garfield Mayor Everett Garnto also endorsed Ciattarelli and, at the same time, announced he was leaving the Democratic Party to switch to the GOP.

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​News, New jersey, New era democrats, Donald trump, Trump, Mikie sherrill, Jack ciattarelli, Ciattarelli vs sherrill, Ciattarelli, Sherrill, Virginia, Politics 

A trio dressed in Halloween horror costumes were caught on doorbell video banging on the front door of a Northern Virginia home late at night and threatening those inside earlier this month.

“It’s either you coming out or we coming in!” one voice can be heard on the video, WUSA-TV reported, adding that another shouted, “Open the door!”

‘My heart dropped when they said that they were gonna take a chair and break down the door.’

A woman named Shayla — who told the station she was staying with her mother in her Alexandria home — added that “they kept, like, knocking on the door. The knocks would get harder and harder.”

Shayla told WUSA she called 911 and warned the group that police were on the way, but she said that didn’t deter them, and they continued shouting and trying to force their way in.

Worse still, Shayla told the station the trio “threatened to kill us.”

Plus, she added to WUSA that when they couldn’t get in through the front door, they moved to the back of the house.

“This whole thing they broke down, as you can tell,” Shayla explained to the station in the aftermath as she showed damage to the backyard fence.

“They hopped up on here and went through there,” she added to WUSA as she showed a now-damaged screen-in back porch.

Shayla also told the station that the intruders still ramped things up: “They were just hitting the window. My heart dropped when they said that they were gonna take a chair and break down the door. That is just too much.”

RELATED: NYPD vehicle trashed while cops respond to domestic violence call on Halloween: ‘Trick or treat, motherf**kers’

She added to WUSA that “they tried to enter into the home.” Shayla explained to the station that other factors made the ordeal worse, especially for her mother: “My dad recently just died, so it’s just, like, I’m just glad I was there. But now [my mother’s] in fear. She don’t wanna stay there by herself.”

Fortunately, the ordeal ended after 10 minutes, as she remarked what could have happened — to the intruders.

“It could have been bad,” Shayla told WUSA. “Our Second Amendment right was not used and could have been, like being very transparent.”

She added a message to the perps, the station said: “The time frame alone, 10 o’clock at night to knock on someone’s door in costume is never OK. Halloween, not Halloween, it’s never OK.”

By Oct. 17, police said they were investigating the case as an attempted burglary.

“This is a very serious matter,” Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said in a news conference, WUSA noted in a follow-up story. “They began to make threatening and alarming comments to the family … specifically, they said, ‘If you do not come out, we will come in,’ and also threatened to do bodily harm, stating that they would ultimately kill them.”

Well, police eventually got to the bottom of it — and considering what could have happened, the revelations were disturbing to say the least.

It turns out relatives of the victims in the home were responsible and had been recording video of what they called a prank, WRC-TV reported.

McGuire in a Monday update told WRC that the prank “could have been deadly,” especially considering that one of the victims called her brother for help prior to calling police — and he arrived with a gun.

RELATED: Missouri town’s residents are finding creepy dolls everywhere, and police warn someone might get hurt

What’s more, McGuire added to the station that several officers dedicated over 100 hours to the investigation.

Several tips from the community led to the suspects — and a female relative confessed, saying that she, her two teenage sons, and a teen nephew approached the home as two adults and a child stood in the background recording video, McGuire noted to WRC.

In the end, the victims didn’t press charges, and neither will police, the chief added to the station — with the following caveat: “This will hopefully be a learning experience for this family.”

McGuire added to WRC that the adults were guilty of a “moral failure” since they “were engaging in this behavior but also encouraging this behavior.”

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Nearly a month into the shutdown, Senate Democrats have refused to reopen the government over a dozen times. Even still, Democrats are pointing the finger at Republicans.

Although Republicans hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, there’s been a hang-up in the Senate. Instead of a simple majority, the Senate actually needs 60 votes in order to pass the continuing resolution. Republicans do hold a 53-seat majority in the Senate, but they need the help of at least seven Democrats to reopen the government.

Senate Democrats have effectively voted to continue withholding paychecks from federal workers and critical benefits from the American people over a dozen times.

This is easier said than done. When the Senate voted on the GOP’s clean continuing resolution on September 30, only three Democrats crossed the aisle in an attempt to keep the government open: Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Angus King of Maine.

Both Cortez Masto and King origianally voted against the bill on September 19 but flipped their votes ahead of the funding deadline. Notably, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has consistently voted with Democrats.

As a result, the government shut down and has remained closed ever since midnight of October 1.

RELATED: Democrat senator blocks vote to end shutdown to protest Trump’s ‘authoritarianism’ in drawn-out rant

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Republicans’ funding bill is clean and entirely non-ideological, while the Democrats’ hyper-partisan alternative boasts a hefty $1.5 trillion price tag. Democrats have also insisted on renegotiating the Obamacare subsidies despite the fact that they won’t expire until the end of the year.

Now 28 days into the shutdown, Senate Democrats have effectively voted to continue withholding paychecks from federal workers and critical benefits from the American people over a dozen times. Here is a breakdown of every time Democrats voted to keep the government shut down.

RELATED: ‘These people are sick’: Trump admin slams top Dem for justifying shutdown suffering

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Friday, September 19, 2025, Roll Call No. 528 (44-48)Tuesday, September 30, 2025, Roll Call No. 535 (55-45)Wednesday, October 1, 2025, Roll Call No. 537 (55-45)Friday, October 3, 2025, Roll Call No. 543 (54-44)Monday, October 6, 2025, Roll Call No. 545 (52-42)Wednesday, October 8, 2025, Roll Call No. 551 (54-45)Thursday, October 9, 2025, Roll Call No. 558 (54-45)Tuesday, October 14, 2025, Roll Call No. 571 (49-45)Wednesday, October 15, 2025, Roll Call No. 572 (51-44)Thursday, October 16, 2025, Roll Call No. 573 (51-45)Monday, October 20, 2025, Roll Call No. 576 (50-43)Wednesday, October 22, 2025, Roll Call No. 581 (54-46)Tuesday, October 28, 2025, Roll Call No. 590 (54-45)

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​Government shutdown, Democrat shutdown, Schumer shutdown, Donald trump, Senate republicans, Senate democrats, John thune, Mike johnson, John fetterman, Angus king, Catherine cortez masto, Rand paul, Politics 

Lufthansa flight 431 from Chicago to Germany was forced to make an emergency landing in Boston on October 25 after an Indian national allegedly attacked multiple passengers.

The suspect reportedly stabbed two minors, both 17, with a metal fork and slapped a female passenger before being subdued by crew members. The condition of the victims is unclear, but the injuries do not appear to be serious.

He then allegedly ‘raised his hand, formed a gun with his fingers, put it in his mouth, and pulled an imaginary trigger.’

According to the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office, the assailant is Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, a 28-year-old Indian national who was previously admitted to the U.S. on a student visa and who enrolled in a master’s program in biblical studies. According to the DA, “Usiripalli presently does not have lawful status in the United States.”

The DA report stated that Usiripalli allegedly struck the first victim, who was sleeping, in the shoulder area, then lashed out and attacked the second victim in the back of the head. The crew attempted to subdue him, and he then allegedly “raised his hand, formed a gun with his fingers, put it in his mouth, and pulled an imaginary trigger.”

The DA stated that he allegedly managed to slap a female passenger and attempted to slap a crew member before being restrained.

RELATED: Mass shootings at, near 2 historically black colleges on their homecoming weekends raise concerns about possible deadly trend

Photo by Anadolu / Contributor via Getty Images

The flight was diverted to Boston Logan International Airport. Immediately upon landing, Usiripalli was taken into custody with the assistance of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel. He has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon while traveling on an aircraft with intent to do bodily harm.

An initial court date has yet to be announced. The incident took place in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, meaning Usiripalli could face 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, as well as deportation if convicted.

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​Stabbing, Fbi, Da, Indian national, Airline, Politics 

The House Oversight Committee published a damning 100-page report on Tuesday deeming invalid those executive actions and pardons issued without proper authorization and with machine-generated signatures in former President Joe Biden’s name.

In a corresponding letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) noted that the committee had found “President Biden’s aides coordinated a cover-up of the president’s diminishing faculties” and “that these same aides utilized an ad hoc, inconsistent, and ineffective process to obtain President Biden’s assent to certain key decisions, which raises significant questions about whether President Biden knew — let alone provided a decision regarding — the ‘decisions’ that, often through the use of an autopen, ultimately bore his signature.”

Comer asked Bondi to investigate all executive actions taken during Biden’s time in office “to ascertain whether they were duly authorized by the president of the United States.”

Hours after the publication of the report and the committee’s assertion that Biden’s executive actions are “NULL and VOID,” Bondi revealed on X that her “team has already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons.”

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on June 4 directing the White House Counsel’s Office to investigate, in consultation with Bondi and the head of any other relevant agency, “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the president.”

Trump specifically tasked the investigators with looking into the “circumstances surrounding Biden’s supposed execution of numerous executive actions” and reviewing the policy documents for which the autopen was used, including clemency grants and executive orders.

RELATED: House committee declares unauthorized Biden autopen pardons ‘void’ in damning new report

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The Oversight Project, a government watchdog group, concluded in a Monday report that after reviewing approximately 1,597 enrolled copies of documents bearing Biden’s signature, 846 of 958 executive orders, pardons, commutations, and proclamations were signed with autopen.

Of the Biden-era documents analyzed, Oversight Project indicated that 75% of the pardons — including for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee — and 51.8% of the commutations were signed with autopen.

‘The “Pardons” that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.’

Bondi noted that Comer’s “new information is extremely helpful, and his leadership on this issue is invaluable,” adding that the DOJ will continue working with the House Oversight Committee “to deliver accountability for the American people.”

Ed Martin, the DOJ’s pardon attorney who announced a similar investigation into the matter of Biden’s alleged pardons in May, responded to Bondi’s statement with emojis signifying police and the scales of justice. Martin also suggested that the Oversight Project’s statistics regarding autopen usage during the Biden administration warrant “closer review.”

A determination that some or all of the Biden-era pardons are invalid could prove consequential for many of the recipients, including Fauci, the fifth director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who received a “full and unconditional” pass for possible federal crimes going back to 2014, and for Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom Trump has accused of committing “treason.”

However, Trump has made clear that he especially wishes to see consequence visited on the former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee.

Trump announced after the Oversight Project’s initial exposé about the liberal use of the presidential autopen during the Biden administration,

The “Pardons” that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.

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​Fauci, Milley, Pam bondi, Donald trump, Pardon, Ed martin, Department of justice, Doj, Justice, Joe biden, Politics 

As the government heads into its fifth week of a shutdown, critical programs are beginning to unravel. The military is now being funded by private dollars; air traffic controllers will stop receiving paychecks tomorrow; and SNAP food stamp benefits are next on the chopping block.

Democrats may claim to be the party of the people, but it’s they who are preventing Congress from passing a continuing resolution, Glenn Beck says.

“The party that purports to represent the weakest among us, the ones who are like, ‘They want your children to starve in the middle of the street!’ … are going to take the food out of their mouth,” he says.

Horrible as it is, it gives the country an honest picture of who the Democratic Party really is at its core: not the party of the people.

“Their inaction is truly a choice. … After they have enslaved people on these government programs, they’re just yanking the carpet out,” Glenn says.

SNAP currently feeds roughly 42 million people a month. “That’s 12% of all of the people that live here in the United States in fiscal year 2024.”

What we are witnessing right now, Glenn says, is the Democrats “weaponizing hunger,” even though “the SNAP program traces all of its roots back to the Democrats.”

While Glenn loves a good government shutdown, as it shows the nation exactly which federal employees are nonessential, he draws the line at genuine hunger.

“Now we have a shutdown that threatens to pull the food out from American children. I say this kind of with glee because they’ve always said we want to harm children. … It is their choice to pull funding they say is absolutely necessary to feed children in America, and they’re okay with it,” he scoffs. “This is the party of social compassion, remember.”

“Democrats are now leading us into the longest shutdown in our history, and they are knowingly using hungry children and babies to do it.”

But the most important question is, why are they doing it? Glenn says there are two reasons.

Number one: “Chuck Schumer is doing it so he is not primaried by the left wing of his own party.”

Reason number two is as sinister as it gets. They want revolution.

Glenn explains that the loss of SNAP benefits means more than just hungry people. It also means stress will skyrocket. Suicide, sickness, and hospitalizations will increase. Food banks will be overrun. Theft and other crimes will surge. Public unrest will explode.

“Gee, now who would want that except all of those Democrats who are already sowing the seeds of revolution, pushing for chaos in the streets, and taking officers off the field while putting criminals back into the game?” Glenn asks.

“The seeds of desperation have been sown by this party. And what are they doing? They’re turning up the heat. And then what does this mean?” he continues.

“If the government doesn’t pay for it, that means the states have to pay for it, which will make all of our states more vulnerable because they’ll all have to dip into their rainy-day fund, which makes what? All of our states more vulnerable to collapse.”

Which is precisely the point: They want national collapse.

This is evident, Glenn says, in the fact that Democrats are trying to stop conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon from donating his personal money to help cover active-duty military pay during the ongoing government shutdown while simultaneously funding the No Kings protests to the tune of $300 million.

“You can’t rely on a party that refuses to pass a clean funding bill when they actually say out loud all the time that the ends justify the means,” Glenn says.

He then tells listeners how they can help struggling communities amid the shutdown and looming loss of food benefits. Watch the clip above for Glenn’s call to action.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Democrat party, Government shutdown, Snap, Snap benefits, Chuck schumer 

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates alleged in a 2021 work of climate alarmist agitprop that if humanity failed to eliminate so-called greenhouse gas emissions, “climate change will keep getting worse, and the impact on humans will in all likelihood be catastrophic.”

In addition to championing a radical upheaval of modern life — advocating for major changes to the way people travel, grow their food, and manufacture goods — in the interest of staving off some prophesied disaster, the billionaire backed the development of an aerosol technology that would dim the sun and trigger a global cooling effect.

‘Using more energy is a good thing.’

After spending years fear-mongering about the calamities that would supposedly visit humanity unless governments kneecapped certain industries, regulated into extinction certain behaviors, and redistributed wealth to the right places, Gates has acknowledged that climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise.”

In a Monday memo titled “Three tough truths about climate,” Gates rejected the “doomsday view of climate change that goes like this: In a few decades, cataclysmic climate change will decimate civilization. The evidence is all around us — just look at all the heat waves and storms caused by rising global temperatures. Nothing matters more than limiting the rise in temperature.”

“Fortunately for all of us, this view is wrong,” Gates wrote just weeks ahead of the 2025 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Brazil, where participants will enjoy easy access to the venue thanks to the government’s decision to flatten over 8 miles of rainforest.

Gates suggested that if the world takes “moderate action” to curb climate change — doing what it’s presently doing or just slightly more — the Earth’s average temperature 75 years from now will be only 2-3 degrees higher than it was in 1850.

RELATED: Al Gore wrong again: Study delivers good news for Arctic ice trends, bad news for climate hucksters

Photo by BAY ISMOYO/AFP via Getty Images

During a 2021 online Harvard Science Book Talk, Gates spoke of dying corals, acidifying oceans, forest fires, and disappearing beaches. He further claimed that unless various changes in global practices were undertaken, “It’s going to be essentially unlivable at the Equator by the end of the century.”

He has since adopted a more optimistic outlook, suggesting that warming might make Iowa eventually feel more like Texas, and Texas more like northern Mexico, and that life in countries near the equator may require governments “to invest in cooling centers and better early warning systems for extreme heat and weather events” — but that “people will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”

In addition to admitting that climate doomsday isn’t coming and that the global temperature that radicals frequently cite as a metric for universal well-being “doesn’t tell us anything about the quality of people’s lives,” the billionaire stated that “using more energy is a good thing,” as “more energy use is a key part of prosperity.”

Gates indicated that his newfound optimism about so-called climate change is the result, in part, of recent policy changes, innovation-driven emission cuts, and corresponding readjustments in emissions projections, but his change in tune appears to primarily come down to priorities.

“The doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it’s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world,” Gates wrote, stressing later in the document that “the biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been.”

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​Climate change, Climate alarmism, Doomsday, Bill gates, Gates, Gates foundation, Environment, Planet, Temperature, Global warming, Lunacy, Leftism, Politics 

AI and LLMs appear to be in a bit of a slump, with the latest revelatory scandal coming out of a major study showing that large language models, the closest we’ve come yet to so-called artificial general intelligence, are degraded in their capacities when they are subjected to lo-fi, low-quality, and “junk” content.

The study, from a triad of college computer science departments including University of Texas, set out to determine relationships between data quality and performance in LLMs. The scientists trained their LLMs on viral X.com/Twitter data, emphasizing high-engagement posts, and observed more than 20% reduction in reasoning capacity, 30% falloffs in contextual memory tasks, and — perhaps most ominously, since the study tested for measurable personality traits like agreeableness, extraversion, etc.— the scientists saw a leap in output that can technically be characterized as narcissistic and psychopathic.

Sound familiar?

The paper analogizes the function of the LLM performance with human cognitive performance and refers to this degradation in both humans and LLMs as “brain rot,” a “shorthand for how endless, low-effort, engagement-bait content can dull human cognition — eroding focus, memory discipline, and social judgment through compulsive online consumption.”

The whole project reeks of hubris, reeks of avarice and power.

There is no great or agreed-upon utility in cognition-driven analogies made between human and computer performance. The temptation persists for computer scientists and builders to read in too much, making categorical errors with respect to cognitive capacities, definitions of intelligence, and so forth. The temptation is to imagine that our creative capacities ‘out there’ are somehow reliable mirrors of the totality of our beings ‘in here,’ within our experience as humans.

We’ve seen something similar this year with the prevalence of so-called LLM psychosis, which — in yet another example of confusing terminology applied to already confused problems — seeks to describe neither psychosis embedded into LLMs nor that measured in their “behavior,” but rather the severe mental illness reported by many people after applying themselves, their attention, and their belief into computer-contained AI “personages” such as Claude or Grok. Why do they need names anyways? LLM 12-V1, for example, would be fine …

The “brain rot” study rather proves, if anything, that the project of creating AI is getting a little discombobulated within the metaphysical hall of mirrors its creators, backers, and believers have, so far, barged their way into, heedless of old-school measures like maps, armor, transport, a genuine plan. The whole project reeks of hubris, reeks of avarice and power. Yet, on the other hand, the inevitability of the integration of AI into society, into the project of terraforming the living earth, isn’t really being approached by a politically, or even financially, authoritative and responsible body — one which might perform the machine-yoking, human-compassion measures required if we’re to imagine ourselves marching together into and through that hall of mirrors to a hyper-advanced, technologically stable, and human-populated civilization.

RELATED: Intelligence agency funding research to merge AI with human brain cells

Photo by VCG / Contributor via Getty Images

So, when it’s observed here that AI seems to be in a bit of a slump — perhaps even a feedback loop of idiocy, greed, and uncertainty coupled, literally wired-in now, with the immediate survival demands of the human species — it’s not a thing we just ignore. A signal suggesting as much erupted last week from a broad coalition of high-profile media, business, faith, and arts voices brought under the aegis of the Statement on Superintelligence, which called for “a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is 1. broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and 2. strong public buy-in.”

There’s a balance, there are competing interests, and we’re all still living under a veil of commercial and mediated fifth-generation warfare. There’s a sort of adults-in-the-room quality we are desperately lacking at the moment. But the way the generational influences lay on the timeline isn’t helping. With boomers largely tech-illiterate but still hanging on, with Xers tech-literate but stuck in the middle (as ever), with huge populations of highly tech-saturated Millennials, Zoomers, and so-called generation Alpha waiting for their promised piece of the social contract, the friction heat is gathering. We would do well to recognize the stakes and thus honor the input of those future humans who shouldn’t have to be born into or navigate a hall of mirrors their predecessors failed to escape.

​Tech, Superintelligence, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Brain rot, Llm, Large language models