Suspected provocateur specifically stated, ‘We’re here to storm the capitol. I’m not kidding.’ In a new mini-documentary diving into Jan. 6, investigative journalist Lara Logan [more…]
Category: blaze media
‘Bulls**t piece published by a bulls**t rag’: Ted Cruz comms director lashes out at Texas flooding report from Daily Beast
While emergency officials continue to search for bodies and survivors from the devastating and lethal flooding in Texas, the Daily Beast is using the occasion to bash a Republican senator.
At least 108 people have died from the natural disaster at latest count, including many children who were staying at Camp Mystic when the floods rushed through Kerr County.
‘In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.’
On Monday, the Daily Beast published a report claiming that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was on vacation in Athens, Greece, as the rescue operations continued in Texas. Cruz and his wife were spotted at the Parthenon on Saturday, according to the report, about 24 hours after reports of the flooding started to surface.
Macarena Martinez, the communications director for Cruz, excoriated the outlet in a statement on social media.
“A bulls**t piece published by a bulls**t rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas. The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible,” Martinez wrote.
“I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter,” she added.
The Daily Beast updated its article with the statement from Martinez.
The report documented that Cruz returned to Texas by Sunday and indicated at a press conference about the flooding that he was on the phone with emergency officials within hours of the first report of flooding.
“In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. I was on the phone with Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and then I called President Trump,” said Cruz on Monday.
RELATED: Brian Stelter suggests media partly to blame for ‘warning fatigue’ amid tragic flood deaths
“He was having dinner at the time, it was still early in what was transpiring, and I wanted him to know,” he continued. “I said, ‘Mr. President, from everything we’re hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad.'”
Blaze News reached out to the Daily Beast reporters who worked on the article for comment. Political correspondent Farrah Tomazin had no comment but directed Blaze News to a statement from the Daily Beast’s executive editor.
“You asked to go off the record when we asked for comment, which we agreed to believing it was a good faith request,” wrote Hugh Dougherty to Martinez on social media.
“So yes you did explain it, but you didn’t want [to be] quoted by name and omitted to mention that in this post,” he added. “Now that’s changed we have updated our story.”
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Justice for Laken Riley at risk? Shocking court decision could give vicious killer a new trial.
The illegal alien gangster convicted in the vicious slaying of beloved nursing student Laken Riley may get a new trial after a shocking ruling from the same judge who found him guilty.
On Thursday, Judge Patrick Haggard ruled that Jose Ibarra must undergo a mental health evaluation. Ibarra’s appeals attorneys had claimed in court documents filed last month that Ibarra has a “congenital deficiency” and a diminished “mental capacity” that could have affected his ability to make decisions during Riley’s murder and the subsequent trial.
‘This court has found it appropriate for an evaluation to be conducted at the public expense.’
Ibarra is “suffering from congenital deficiency which could render the client incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial,” the lawyers wrote, according to the New York Post.
They added that Ibarra “lacks the mental capacity to understand the nature and object and proceedings and [counsel] believes that this was in existence at the time of the offense and at the time of the trial.”
RELATED: Trump signs Laken Riley Act, marking the first law of his new administration
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Last fall, Ibarra waived his right to a jury and instead opted for a bench trial. On November 20, Judge Haggard found Ibarra guilty of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstruction of a 911 call, tampering with evidence, and peeping Tom. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ibarra’s appeals attorneys argued that his alleged mental deficiencies may have impacted the decision to opt for a bench trial instead of a jury trial, noting that his trial attorneys did not have his mental health evaluated. They even claimed a “language barrier” may have exacerbated these alleged concerns.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross responded to the motion about a mental health evaluation by noting that nothing presented at trial indicated that Ibarra suffered from mental incompetence.
“There were no challenges or concerns about Defendant’s competency to stand trial during the pretrial and trial proceedings. Moreover, there is nothing in the trial record that would suggest that Defendant was not competent during his trial,” Ross wrote in a June 25 motion obtained by Blaze News.
She also dismissed the “language barrier” allegation, pointing to the “court-certified interpreter who is fluent in both Spanish and English” who assisted Ibarra at pretrial and trial proceedings. However, Ross ultimately did not oppose an evaluation, leaving the decision up to Judge Haggard.
“The mental competence of [Ibarra] has been called into question, and this court has found it appropriate for an evaluation to be conducted at the public expense,” Haggard wrote in his latest ruling.
Haggard demanded that Ibarra be given a “prompt evaluation” by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities either at a Georgia Department of Corrections facility or at a hospital, Fox News reported.
Whether any evaluation has yet been scheduled is unclear. Should authorities determine that Ibarra was mentally unfit, he may be granted a “trial redo,” the Post indicated.
The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia declined a request for comment from Blaze News, citing ongoing litigation.
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
On February 22, 2024, Ibarra attacked Riley, 22, in broad daylight while she was jogging near the campus of the University of Georgia. He ambushed her and attempted to rape her. After she fought back, he brutally bashed her skull with a rock, according to prosecutors. His DNA was discovered under Riley’s fingernails.
Ibarra, 27, and two of his brothers stole into the United States from Venezuela during the border crisis of the Biden administration. Days before his conviction in November, sources within Biden’s Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ibarra is a member of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
At least one of Ibarra’s brothers is a suspected TDA associate as well. Both brothers have had run-ins with the law since breaking into the U.S., pled guilty to possessing a fraudulent document, and are slated for deportation as part of Operation Take Back America under President Donald Trump.
Jose Ibarra was also arrested for other alleged crimes in New York City prior to moving to Georgia.
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Bench trial, Biden border crisis, Donald trump, Illegal alien crime, Jose ibarra, Laken riley, Patrick haggard, Politics
A man says he’s a woman — and his brain scan ‘proves’ it?
Transgender economist Brian Riedl, who now goes by “Jessica,” claims that his brain scans prove he’s neurologically female.
“Typical male and female brains contain subtle but real differences. And because our genes contain a full blueprint for both male and female development, it is possible even for some people with XX or XY genes to experience chemical changes in the womb that alter some of the gender development signals, particularly to the brain,” Riedl wrote in a post on X defending his transgenderism.
“I knew from age 4 that something was off with my gender, and later participated in several gender medical studies that confirmed a more female brain chemistry/architecture/functioning, hormone levels, and other biological characteristics,” he continued. “Most people who transition are merely aligning the rest of their body with other observable biological gender aspects (mostly in the brain) that emerged before birth.”
BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is disturbed that even some conservatives are falling for Riedl’s claims.
“This idea that brain scans can prove that you have a female brain — that’s just not true, and it’s not possible,” Stuckey says on “Relatable.” “Now, it could be possible that someone has true, true gender dysphoria.”
“But the remedy for that is to help someone accept their biological reality, not to get them to reject their biological reality, to try to change their outward appearance and try to force everyone else to accept something that will never be true, that a man can become a woman or a woman can become a man,” she continues.
“All of us have different kinds of things wrong with our brain or wrong with our thinking or ways in which our thinking is incongruent with reality. But we don’t try to bend reality to try to fit what our brain wrongly thinks,” she adds.
Riedl also claims that his family life with his wife and children hasn’t changed at all since he transitioned, but Stuckey isn’t buying it.
“I don’t believe you,” she says. “You have two young children, and you think that they accept this. They miss their dad, and this is sowing confusion in their lives. And you are sacrificing their stability on the altar of your desire, and that is the height of selfishness.”
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Interview with Joe Exotic’s deported husband goes OFF THE RAILS
Joe Exotic of “Tiger King” fame isn’t known just for his love of big cats, but also for his love of romance, which he found once again inside a federal lockup in Fort Worth, Texas.
It was there that he met his husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado — but their time together was short-lived. That’s because Maldonado, 33, was deported on May 17 after allegedly driving a car containing six other undocumented immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border.
The two were married in a prison ceremony last November.
Despite his predicament, Maldonado has found time for an interview from lockup with BlazeTV host Alex Stein of “Prime Time with Alex Stein” and tells him that while he and other inmates were aware of Exotic’s fame, he did not have to compete for his love.
“Did Joe Exotic have a lot of men trying to date him?” Stein asks, while his producer, JVT, translates.
“He said they were trying to get money out of Joe,” JVT says, adding that Maldonado says Exotic’s “health is doing bad” and “he needs a blood transfusion.”
While Maldonado tells Stein that he’s not angry with President Donald Trump or border czar Tom Homan for his deportation, he does believe that he should be legally allowed back into the country.
He also believes Joe Exotic needs to be pardoned, telling Stein that Exotic is not only a “good kisser” but a “great person” who “has cancer.”
However, when asked in 2020 whether he planned to pardon Joe Exotic, Trump explained he didn’t know anything about the case but would “take a look.”
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Interview with Joe Exotic’s deported husband goes OFF THE RAILS
Joe Exotic of “Tiger King” fame isn’t known just for his love of big cats, but also for his love of romance, which he found once again inside a federal lockup in Fort Worth, Texas.
It was there that he met his husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado — but their time together was short-lived. That’s because Maldonado, 33, was deported on May 17 after allegedly driving a car containing six other undocumented immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border.
The two were married in a prison ceremony last November.
Despite his predicament, Maldonado has found time for an interview from lockup with BlazeTV host Alex Stein of “Prime Time with Alex Stein” and tells him that while he and other inmates were aware of Exotic’s fame, he did not have to compete for his love.
“Did Joe Exotic have a lot of men trying to date him?” Stein asks, while his producer, JVT, translates.
“He said they were trying to get money out of Joe,” JVT says, adding that Maldonado says Exotic’s “health is doing bad” and “he needs a blood transfusion.”
While Maldonado tells Stein that he’s not angry with President Donald Trump or border czar Tom Homan for his deportation, he does believe that he should be legally allowed back into the country.
He also believes Joe Exotic needs to be pardoned, telling Stein that Exotic is not only a “good kisser” but a “great person” who “has cancer.”
However, when asked in 2020 whether he planned to pardon Joe Exotic, Trump explained he didn’t know anything about the case but would “take a look.”
Want more from Alex Stein?
To enjoy more of Alex’s culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, 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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FBI, DOJ Epstein memo sparks right-wing outrage: ‘Nobody is believing this’
The joint memo from the FBI and Department of Justice was meant to provide transparency and increase trust. Unfortunately for the administration, it drew only rampant criticism and distrust that has spread like a wildfire.
On Sunday, the Trump administration released a memorandum that powerfully explained there was nothing to see or hear about the death of infamous financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The memo claimed that after a full investigation where every nook and cranny was searched, there was no “blackmail list,” no sign of co-conspirators, and certainly no evidence of wrongdoing in his death.
This sparked a flurry of negative reactions across social media, with only one prominent conservative backing the administration’s fumble.
‘Was she lying then or is she lying now?’
On Monday, BlazeTV’s Liz Wheeler immediately called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be fired.
“If I’m President Trump, I would not tolerate this behavior anymore. She has become a LIABILITY to his administration,” Wheeler told host Glenn Beck.
Wheeler added that if the Epstein memo is indeed telling it like it is, the attorney general should not have assumed “its veracity and publicize[d] it for clicks.”
Missouri Republican Rep. Eric Burlison made a series of similar remarks in which he called for releasing any missing documents.
“The DOJ can’t just say ‘case closed’ on Epstein and expect the American people to move on. Full transparency is not optional. This won’t cut it,” Burlison wrote on X.
The congressman even boldly claimed the administration could be concealing information.
“Nobody is believing this. Either they’re hiding something, or they’re inept. Or incompetent,” he added.
With such harsh criticisms being levied at the Trump administration, there were only a few willing to step in and defend them.
RELATED: The Epstein memo is a joke — and the joke’s on us
So far, the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro is the only prominent conservative to come out in defense of the administration, seemingly taking the facts presented in the memo at face value. Shapiro also insisted that any critics who are dissatisfied with the DOJ and the FBI’s findings ought to produce their own evidence supporting their theories on Epstein.
“Does this put to bed all inquiries? Of course not,” Shapiro said on his show Monday. “People can continue to speculate as much as they want, and I think there are still open questions here regarding how did Epstein make his money. That’s a very serious open question, and the speculation for a long time was he made his money from blackmail.”
Shapiro admitted that some major questions remained unanswered, but he also felt that FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino are telling the truth.
“But the DOJ and the FBI, again, run by people like Dan Bongino and Kash Patel and Pam Bondi … people you elected and put into these positions to get you the truth on this matter are telling you that he was not murdered, he did not keep a client list, and he did not blackmail powerful figures,” Shapiro said.
“If you are willing to throw that over and claim they’re lying, then I’d like to see you present your evidence that they are in fact lying because I know Dan. I don’t think Dan Bongino is lying to me,” Shapiro added. “I know Kash Patel a little bit. I don’t think Kash Patel is lying to me. I don’t think these people are lying to me.”
RELATED: Is the FBI salvageable? Here’s what bureau insiders have to say
Despite Shapiro’s defense of Bondi, Bongino, and Patel’s findings, others have noted that certain discrepancies remain unaddressed.
Critics point to Bondi’s previous remarks about the Epstein files being on her “desk” as evidence that the administration is not being as transparent as they claim.
“Sorry but this is unacceptable,” investigative reporter Robby Starbuck wrote on his X page. “Was she lying then or is she lying now?” he asked.
Similarly, commentator and actor Russell Brand asked what happened to Trump supporters’ aggression toward “deep state obfuscation.”
“We were promised the Epstein client list and flight logs — now we’re being told they don’t even exist,” Brand wrote on X.
Political pundits like Tucker Carlson have gone even further, accusing the FBI and the DOJ of fully participating in a cover-up.
“So let’s just assess this logically,” Carlson said on his show Tuesday. “The current DOJ under Pam Bondi is covering up crimes. Very serious crimes by their own description.”
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Epstein, Pam bondi, Fbi, Doj, Kash patel, Ben shapiro, Trump administration, Politics, Epstein files, Jeffrey epstein, Blackmail, Liz wheeler, Glenn beck, Donald trump, Eric burlison, Tucker carlson, Dan bongino, Russell brand, Robby starbuck
Drug middlemen launch attacks against MAGA allies pushing for health care reforms
Pharmacy benefit managers like CVS are going after President Donald Trump’s allies who are seeking meaningful health care reforms for their constituents.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) have become the primary target of PBMs, which are threatened by their push to implement reforms in drug costs. Threatened by MAGA allies, PBMs have now escalated these conflicts to legal disputes.
‘These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable.’
RELATED: Who is bankrolling the anti-MAHA movement?
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
In April, Huckabee Sanders signed legislation banning PBMs from “engaging in anticompetitive practices” by owning pharmacies. PBMs are tasked with negotiating drug prices between pharmacies and insurance companies, but by buying up pharmacies, they are able to take advantage of the health care system and inflate the cost of pharmaceuticals, pushing competitors out of business, according to Huckabee Sanders’ press release.
“For far too long, drug middlemen called PBMs have taken advantage of lax regulations to abuse customers, inflate drug prices, and cut off access to critical medications,” Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Not any more. These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable for their anticompetitive actions, but Arkansas has never been afraid to be a conservative leader for America.”
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association promptly retaliated and filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation, calling it a “fundamentally flawed law” that they say “could shutter pharmacies, restrict access to critical medications for patients and families, increase health care costs, and eliminate jobs.”
RELATED: Pharmacy middlemen didn’t break health care — the feds did
Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Landry has become involved in his own legal disputes with PBMs. Landry, alongside Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, filed three separate lawsuits against CVS in June for allegedly interfering with legislation that also would have prevented PBMs from owning and simultaneously operating pharmacies.
“PBMs are not health care providers,” Landry said. “They are corporate profiteers inserted into the most intimate part of your life and your health.”
Although several of Trump’s allies have been targeted by PBMs, criticism of the pharmaceutical industry is generally bipartisan.
Mark Cuban recently called out Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for claiming that Big Pharma is responsible for high drug costs when, he says, PBMs are the real culprit.
“It’s because PBMs corrupt healthcare,” Cuban said in a post on X. “Big Pharma wishes they could set their own pricing. They don’t. PBMs control formularies and manipulate prices, in exchange for providing pharma access to patients. It’s how they maximize rebate revenue. In fact, 3 PBMs NEGOTIATE MORE THAN 90% OF REBATES for commercial insurance plans. That’s your area of expertise, and you have done nothing.”
Cuban’s criticisms promptly earned the unlikely praise of some of the most prominent voices in MAGA world.
“Didn’t think I’d be RTing Mark for a while, but he’s 100% right on this issue,” Donald Trump Jr. replied in a post on X.
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Pbm, Big pharma, Pharmacy benefit managers, Donald trump, Cvs, Healthcare, Maha, Maga, Sarah huckabee sanders, Jeff landry, Drug costs, Drug prices, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceutical companies, Pharmaceutical care management association, Arkansas, Louisiana, Republicans, Elizabeth warren, Mark cuban, Donald trump jr., Liz murrill, Politics
Vance identifies the perfect mascot for the Democrats — then outlines what America actually needs
The Claremont Institute kicked off its “Golden Age Agenda” in San Diego on Saturday by honoring Vice President JD Vance with its 2025 Statesmanship Award.
The conservative think tank appears to regard Vance, who is far and away the front-runner in the 2028 Republican nomination contest, according to a recent Emerson College Polling survey, as best positioned and dispositioned to carry on President Donald Trump’s project of “American renewal and greatness.”
Vance provided additional insights into what his leg of the race might look like should he be handed the baton, as well as into the nature of the left.
RELATED: Exclusive: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’
Ahead of the vice president’s remarks, however, Ryan Williams, the institute’s president, reflected on President Donald Trump’s selection of Vance to be his running mate — a decision that was made nearly a year ago and just days after the attempted assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Williams emphasized that Trump’s “gutsy pick” broke the mold of conventional Republican vice presidential selections, as the decision appeared to be motivated not by improving the president’s chances of winning Ohio nor by reassuring the establishment.
If anything, Vance actually terrified the establishment, as evidenced by various deep-pocketed Republican donors’ open denigration of the Appalachian populist and Rupert Murdoch’s reported lobbying campaign to dissuade Trump from picking Vance.
Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Williams suggested that Vance was instead chosen because of who he is and what he stands for.
Vance is a “premier advocate” “for a transformative course correction after years of middle American economic stagnation, a bipartisan blindness on the importance of secure borders and sovereignty, and a return to prudence and strategic clarity in foreign policy,” said Williams.
What’s more, “Vance’s story is an American story — a kid rising from tough family circumstances in middle America; serving his country honorably in the Marines and then making his way in law and business; becoming a senator from his home state and then ascending to the vice presidency. This kind of success and political ascent is really only possible in America.”
After expressing gratitude for the award as well as to both the institute and his wife, Vice President Vance — fresh off casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate last week to pass the president’s “big, beautiful bill” — provided a survey of the political landscape.
Vance noted that rather than learn their lesson after their trouncing at the polls in the 2024 election, the Democrats have embraced the politics that alienated so much of the electorate, as evidenced by Democrats’ support for “33-year-old communist” Zohran Mamdani in the New York Democratic primary.
‘They hate the people in this room.’
Whereas Trump’s victory in 2024 was “rooted in a broad, working- and middle-class coalition, Mamdani’s coalition is almost the inverse of that,” said Vance.
“If you look at his electoral performance, precinct by precinct, what you see is a left that has completely left behind the broad middle of the United States of America. This is a guy who won high-income and college-educated New Yorkers, and especially … young, highly educated New Yorkers, but he was weakest among black voters and weakest among those without a college degree. That’s an interesting coalition,” said the vice president.
RELATED: Vance: Trump’s growth plan ditches cheap labor for real jobs that will fuel American greatness
Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
After pointing out the various contradictions manifest on the left, Vance underscored that the elites-championed coalition of “Islamists, gender studies majors, socially liberal white urbanites, and Big Pharma lobbyists” is not bound together by shared affinities — not even the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or Karl Marx — but by hatred.
“They hate the people in this room. They hate the president of the United States. And most of all, they hate the people who voted for that president of the United States in the last election in November,” continued Vance. “This is the animating principle of the American far left.”
While careful not to conflate everyday Democrat voters with the American far left, Vance said the label accurately applies to the party’s leadership, who are “arsonists” willing to “make common cause with anyone willing to light the match.”
‘There is something about Western liberalism that seems almost suicidal or at least socially parasitic.’
The vice president further suggested Mamdani is a perfect mascot for the Democratic Party, as he “captures so many of the movement’s apparent contradictions in a single human being” and is “not trying to build prosperity. He’s trying to tear something down.”
After faulting the left for lacking a positive vision for the future, Vance discussed ways of maximizing American prosperity and continuing to usher in the “golden age” promised by Trump on Jan. 20.
The vice president noted that by employing the “stick” that is tariffs and the “carrots” that are lower taxes and fewer regulations, the administration hopes to make it easier to save, invest, build businesses, work dignified jobs, and support a family in the United States.
Vance made abundantly clear that this work under way to bring about American renewal is not another liberal project that treats the U.S. as an economic zone and an “idea” with an infinitely replaceable population.
Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
“We are not just producers and consumers,” said Vance. “We are human beings made in the image of God, and we love our home, not just because we earn a living here but because we discover our purpose and our meaning here.”
“Every Western society, as I stand here today, has significant demographic and cultural problems. There is something about Western liberalism that seems almost suicidal or at least socially parasitic. It tends to feed off of the healthy host until there’s nothing left,” continued the vice president.
“They’ve gotten awfully good at tearing things down, but they haven’t gotten good at building back.”
‘This country is not a contradiction.’
After hammering themes of disorientation, disenchantment, and disaffiliation and emphasizing the importance of social cohesion and satisfying the “obligations that we have to our fellow countrymen,” he then identified a number of remedies, many of which the Trump administration is presently pursuing, including defending American sovereignty by securing the border and protecting citizens from “unfair foreign taxes” and “preserving the basic legal privileges of citizenship” like voting or access to state-run benefits programs. He indicated that the government must also avoid entangling Americans “in prolonged, distant wars.”
Vance noted further that citizenship in the 21st century not only means respecting American heritage but necessarily building upon it “together as one American family” — to advance “groundbreaking innovations and to leave homes, and libraries, and factories that our descendants will look at someday and feel a sense of awe.”
“This country is not a contradiction,” he concluded. “It’s a nation of countless extraordinary people across many generations. It’s a land of profound ingenuity and tradition and beauty, but more importantly, it’s our home.”
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Liz Wheeler unleashes fury: FIRE Pam Bondi over Epstein cover-up scandal!
Yesterday, the Department of Justice and the FBI dropped a bombshell: The Epstein client list – the one promised by President Trump and the one Attorney General Pam Bondi said back in February was sitting on her desk pending review – doesn’t exist. The memo asserted that Epstein did not maintain a “client list” for trafficking underage girls and concluded their investigation with no further disclosures planned.
The MAGA outrage was swift. No client list means no accountability for the elites who were complicit in Epstein’s exploitation of young girls.
Many people smell a cover-up, including BlazeTV’s Liz Wheeler. On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Liz told Glenn she believes it’s time for President Trump to fire Pam Bondi.
“People care deeply about the Epstein files because there was a grisly crime that we know for a fact was committed. Epstein was convicted of that,” says Wheeler, adding that it’s no conspiracy theory to say that “there’s evidence of a cover-up.”
Back in February, Liz was among a handful of conservative influencers invited to the White House for the release of what was dubbed “The Epstein Files: Phase 1,” which was presented in official-looking binders that, to many people’s disappointment, contained mostly public documents.
At the event, “Pam Bondi bragged to us about making that cover sheet on the binder – the one that read ‘The most transparent administration in history,’” Wheeler scoffs, noting that Bondi also told her that “she had not seen the SDNY documents” and was anticipating their delivery.
Wheeler claims she’s “tried every way to Sunday to square that behavior with the announcement we got last night from the Department of Justice,” but the only thing that makes sense is duplicity.
“Contextualizing all of this, suddenly this seems like unforgivable behavior,” she says. “How could she give the American people those Phase 1 binders that contained nothing while at the same time bragging about the cover sheet … and tell us that the SDNY had the real goods, that the binder was just proof of a deep-state cover-up … only now to say, ‘Sorry, there’s actually nothing’?”
What’s the truth then?
Wheeler says “it’s possible, maybe even probable” that Bondi was “set up by some deep state FBI career officials trying to make a fool of her.”
“But here’s the thing,” she says, “if you are smart, if you are savvy, if you are sharp enough to be the attorney general of the United States, you verify such information; you don’t assume its veracity and publicize it for clicks, and that’s what she did.”
If this is true, then Bondi’s judgment must be called into question, Wheeler argues, asking, “Is she just click-thirsty? Is she wanting to be a Fox News star?”
“I say this somewhat sorrowfully: If I’m President Trump, I would not tolerate this behavior anymore,” she says. “[Bondi] has become a liability to his administration. … It’s time to move on.”
To hear more, watch the clip above.
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Trump’s inner circle under attack: AI fraudster impersonates Rubio to manipulate top officials
President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly battling impersonation campaigns amid warnings that artificial intelligence-powered security threats are becoming increasingly more common.
An unknown culprit reportedly used AI to imitate Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s voice to contact top officials, according to a July 3 cable from the State Department obtained by the Washington Post.
‘The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal.’
The individual reportedly used text messaging and Signal to contact “at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress.”
The imposter apparently began the scheme in mid-June, creating a Signal account with the display name “Marco.Rubio@state.gov,” which is not Rubio’s official email address.
“The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,” the agency’s cable read.
The State Department speculated that the culprit was likely attempting to manipulate the officials “with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts.”
The department’s correspondence did not reveal the names of the officials whom the imposter contacted, the contents of the messages, or whether those officials responded.
RELATED: Deep-staters threaten to use color revolution tactics against Trump admin: Report
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Bad actors also impersonated other State Department personnel, according to the federal agency.
The State Department told the Post that it would “carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.”
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is investigating the incident. The State Department urged U.S. diplomats to report any impersonation attempts to the bureau, while non-State Department personnel should alert the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
This is not the first time that the Trump administration has faced impersonation attempts.
RELATED: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act hides a big, ugly AI betrayal
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In May, a fraudster reportedly breached the phone of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The culprit impersonated Wiles while making calls and sending messages to senators, governors, and business executives.
Around the same time, the FBI issued a public service announcement warning that “malicious actors” had been impersonating U.S. officials since April, sending text messages and AI-generated voice messages to gain access to personal accounts.
“One way the actors gain such access is by sending targeted individuals a malicious link under the guise of transitioning to a separate messaging platform. Access to personal or official accounts operated by U.S. officials could be used to target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using trusted contact information they obtain,” the FBI’s alert read.
The FBI declined a request for comment from the Post.
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News, Marco rubio, Rubio, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Department of state, State department, Artificial intelligence, Ai, National security, National security threat, Fraud, Impersonator, Ai impersonation, Politics
School censorship backfires in costly free speech beatdown
Last year, I took a stand against the Pulaski County School District in Kentucky when the district tried to silence me for speaking out against its unlawful political advocacy. Today, I’m proud to announce a resounding victory for free speech.
The district has agreed to a consent decree admitting it blocked me from its social media page and censored my voice. The district has also been ordered to pay $30,000 in attorneys’ fees to cover the costs of my legal battle and must train staff on First Amendment principles to prevent future violations.
When government entities like school districts use social media platforms to push their agendas while silencing critics, they erode the foundation of free expression.
This win, secured with the help of the Liberty Justice Center, sends a clear message: Government entities, including public school districts, cannot suppress dissent without consequences.
Taxpayer-funded censorship
The trouble began on August 11, 2024, when Pulaski County Schools used its official social media pages and website to lobby against Amendment 2, a ballot measure to advance school choice in Kentucky. As an advocate for educational freedom, I criticized the district for using taxpayer-funded platforms to engage in political advocacy — something clearly prohibited under Kentucky law.
In response, the district froze comments on its posts and temporarily blocked me from its social media page. It was a blatant attempt to silence criticism and stifle debate — a textbook violation of the First Amendment.
Sadly, Amendment 2 was defeated at the ballot box in November, denying Kentucky families greater educational options — at least for now. School districts like Pulaski County, by breaking state law to campaign against the measure and silence critics like me, put their thumbs on the scale to sway the outcome. Their actions may have undermined the democratic process in 2024, but this legal victory ensures they won’t get away with such tactics in the future.
I wasn’t about to let their censorship slide. With support from the Liberty Justice Center, we sent demand letters to the district on August 14 and August 26, 2024. The pressure worked. The district removed the offending posts and unblocked me. But it stopped short of promising not to censor others in the future.
That’s when we decided to take the district to court. On January 15, we filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, alleging that Pulaski County Schools violated my First Amendment rights by punishing me for my views.
RELATED: Canada declares independence from Liberal censorship — with Donald Trump’s help
Eightshot Studio via iStock/Getty Images
This case was never just about me. It was about every American silenced by a government official for speaking the truth.
Public school districts don’t belong to superintendents or school boards. They’re funded by taxpayers and accountable to the public. When officials censor dissent or block critics, they violate the core principles that make self-government possible.
The First Amendment protects free and open debate. It doesn’t exist to shield bureaucrats from scrutiny.
Our legal strategy centered on a 2024 Supreme Court ruling — Lindke v. Freed — which made clear that public officials using social media in their official capacity cannot block users based on viewpoint without violating the Constitution.
That ruling changed everything. It gave us the legal leverage to hold Pulaski County accountable.
A win for free speech
While this victory may be personal, its implications are far-reaching. Social media has become a public square, where ideas are debated and policies are scrutinized. When government entities like school districts use these platforms to push their agendas while silencing critics, they erode the foundation of free expression.
My case sets a precedent that other districts across the country should heed: You cannot hide behind a “block” button to avoid accountability. The First Amendment applies online just as it does offline.
I’ve spent years fighting for educational freedom, advocating policies that empower parents and students. The defeat of Amendment 2 was a setback, but the fight for school choice continues. None of this work is possible without the freedom to speak out. Pulaski County Schools thought it could shut me up. Instead, the district amplified the message that censorship won’t be tolerated.
The $30,000 in attorneys’ fees is a signal that those who violate free speech will pay a price. The mandatory First Amendment training ensures the district’s staff will think twice before trying to silence anyone else. And the consent decree puts them under a judge’s watchful eye, ensuring compliance.
Don’t be afraid
This win wouldn’t have been possible without the Liberty Justice Center, whose legal team fought tirelessly to defend my rights and the rights of every American to speak freely. The center’s work, grounded in the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, shows that the law is catching up to the realities of the digital age. Government officials can no longer hide behind vague policies or technicalities to suppress dissent.
The Constitution is clear, and so is the message from this case: Free speech is non-negotiable.
To my fellow advocates, parents, and citizens: Don’t be afraid to speak out. When you see a school district or any government entity overstepping its bounds, call it out. The First Amendment is your shield, and cases like mine show that it still has teeth. Pulaski County Schools learned that lesson the hard way. Let’s make sure others don’t have to.
Opinion & analysis, School choice, First amendment, Freedom of speech, Advocacy, School board, School district, Kentucky, Pulaski county, Censorship, Blocked, Consent decree, Free speech, Election, Ballot initiative, Lindke v. freed, Supreme court, Unconstitutional
Gunman receives deadly comeuppance during ambush on Border Patrol agents — just days after officer shot near ICE facility
A gunman clad in tactical gear was shot dead after ambushing U.S. Border Patrol agents outside a federal annex facility in Texas — just days after a police officer was shot in the neck while responding to a suspicious person near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security said an armed man opened fire at the entrance of the U.S. Border Patrol sector annex in McAllen on Monday morning. The gunman was wearing tactical gear and wielding a rifle, according to Fox News.
‘The Department has zero tolerance for assaults on federal officers or property and will bring the full weight of the law against those responsible.’
The suspect – identified by authorities as 27-year-old Ryan Luis Mosqueda – engaged in a deadly firefight with Border Patrol agents and local police.
McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said at a news conference that Mosqueda was “loaded for bear” and that “another rifle and other assaultive weapons” were discovered in the suspect’s vehicle.
Rodriguez noted that the suspect shot dozens of rounds of ammunition at law enforcement officers.
Two local police officers and one Border Patrol employee were injured in the firefight, and all three were transported to the hospital.
Rodriguez said an officer with the McAllen Police Department was struck in the knee, but the police chief added that the cop was in stable condition and would be “fine.”
Meanwhile, Mosqueda was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents and local police officers.
RELATED: Republicans clash with Democratic lawmakers defending violent anti-ICE rioters
As far as a motive, Rodriguez said, “There is not enough known.” However, he added, “When someone drives onto a parking lot and opens fire, there is some premeditation involved.”
A local law enforcement official and a source familiar with the matter told CNN that the suspect’s vehicle was spray-painted with the phrase “Cordis Die,” which is a main antagonist in the “Call of Duty” video game. Law enforcement noted that the vehicle had Michigan license plates and that Mosqueda was connected to an address in Michigan.
The FBI said it is leading the investigation.
An FBI spokesperson told Newsweek, “The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we will continue working with our local, state, and federal partners to ensure the safety of this community. Since this is still a developing incident, no further information will be shared at this time. Once there is additional information to publicly release, we will do so.”
The National Border Patrol Council – the union that represents Border Patrol employees – stated, “We are thankful for the prayers for our agents and personnel. Targeted violence will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly. Justice will be served. Our agents and law enforcement partners will not back down.”
The White House said it is aware of the Border Patrol shooting and that it is “working with the appropriate federal agencies to get to the bottom of what happened.”
When asked if Democrats need to “tone down their rhetoric” following Monday’s attack on Border Patrol agents, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied, “We certainly call on Democrats to tone down their rhetoric against ICE and Border Patrol agents who are, again, everyday men and women.”
Leavitt called on Democrats to meet with Border Patrol agents.
“These are honorable Americans who are just simply trying to do their job to enforce the law,” Leavitt said during the press briefing. “They go home to their families every night just like we all do, and they deserve respect and dignity for trying to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and to remove public safety threats from our communities.”
Monday’s shooting at the Border Patrol sector annex comes only days after a local police officer was shot in the neck near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Alvarado, Texas.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that officers with the Alvarado Police Department were responding to a call regarding a “suspicious person” near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Prairieland Detention Facility around 10:56 p.m. on July 4.
Officers located the suspicious individual, who they said appeared to be carrying a firearm.
“As the first responding officer attempted to engage the person, multiple suspects opened fire on the officer,” the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office stated.
The suspects fled the crime scene, but officers from the Alvarado Police Department, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, and neighboring agencies took several armed suspects into custody.
Police said an officer was struck in the neck and was flown to the Harris Methodist Hospital Ft. Worth. The officer was treated and released, according to the statement.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said the motives of the suspects are “unclear” at this time.
Blaze News requested a comment from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Alvarado Police Department but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Anyone with information regarding the shooting is urged to contact the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office at (817) 790-0910.
As Blaze News reported last month, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, had been attacked multiple times.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Saturday, “We are closely monitoring the attacks on DHS detention facilities in Prairieland, TX, and Portland, OR, and are coordinating with the USAOs and our law enforcement partners. The Department has zero tolerance for assaults on federal officers or property and will bring the full weight of the law against those responsible.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated last week, “Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers are facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults against them. If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, this administration will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
RELATED: Sheriffs in Democratic strongholds partner with ICE to back Trump’s deportation surge
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Shooting, Ice, Police shooting, Officer shot, Cop shot, Ice detention center, Ice attacks, Immigration and customs enforcement, Dhs, Kristi noem, Border patrol, Border patrol shooting, News
Vance identifies the perfect mascot for the Democrats — then outlines what America actually needs
The Claremont Institute kicked off its “Golden Age Agenda” in San Diego on Saturday by honoring Vice President JD Vance with its 2025 Statesmanship Award.
The conservative think tank appears to regard Vance, who is far and away the front-runner in the 2028 Republican nomination contest, according to a recent Emerson College Polling survey, as best positioned and dispositioned to carry on President Donald Trump’s project of “American renewal and greatness.”
Vance provided additional insights into what his leg of the race might look like should he be handed the baton, as well as into the nature of the left.
RELATED: Exclusive: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’
Ahead of the vice president’s remarks, however, Ryan Williams, the institute’s president, reflected on President Donald Trump’s selection of Vance to be his running mate — a decision that was made nearly a year ago and just days after the attempted assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Williams emphasized that Trump’s “gutsy pick” broke the mold of conventional Republican vice presidential selections, as the decision appeared to be motivated not by improving the president’s chances of winning Ohio nor by reassuring the establishment.
If anything, Vance actually terrified the establishment, as evidenced by various deep-pocketed Republican donors’ open denigration of the Appalachian populist and Rupert Murdoch’s reported lobbying campaign to dissuade Trump from picking Vance.
Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Williams suggested that Vance was instead chosen because of who he is and what he stands for.
Vance is a “premier advocate” “for a transformative course correction after years of middle American economic stagnation, a bipartisan blindness on the importance of secure borders and sovereignty, and a return to prudence and strategic clarity in foreign policy,” said Williams.
What’s more, “Vance’s story is an American story — a kid rising from tough family circumstances in middle America; serving his country honorably in the Marines and then making his way in law and business; becoming a senator from his home state and then ascending to the vice presidency. This kind of success and political ascent is really only possible in America.”
After expressing gratitude for the award as well as to both the institute and his wife, Vice President Vance — fresh off casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate last week to pass the president’s “big, beautiful bill” — provided a survey of the political landscape.
Vance noted that rather than learn their lesson after their trouncing at the polls in the 2024 election, the Democrats have embraced the politics that alienated so much of the electorate, as evidenced by Democrats’ support for “33-year-old communist” Zohran Mamdani in the New York Democratic primary.
‘They hate the people in this room.’
Whereas Trump’s victory in 2024 was “rooted in a broad, working- and middle-class coalition, Mamdani’s coalition is almost the inverse of that,” said Vance.
“If you look at his electoral performance, precinct by precinct, what you see is a left that has completely left behind the broad middle of the United States of America. This is a guy who won high-income and college-educated New Yorkers, and especially … young, highly educated New Yorkers, but he was weakest among black voters and weakest among those without a college degree. That’s an interesting coalition,” said the vice president.
RELATED: Vance: Trump’s growth plan ditches cheap labor for real jobs that will fuel American greatness
Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
After pointing out the various contradictions manifest on the left, Vance underscored that the elites-championed coalition of “Islamists, gender studies majors, socially liberal white urbanites, and Big Pharma lobbyists” is not bound together by shared affinities — not even the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or Karl Marx — but by hatred.
“They hate the people in this room. They hate the president of the United States. And most of all, they hate the people who voted for that president of the United States in the last election in November,” continued Vance. “This is the animating principle of the American far left.”
While careful not to conflate everyday Democrat voters with the American far left, Vance said the label accurately applies to the party’s leadership, who are “arsonists” willing to “make common cause with anyone willing to light the match.”
‘There is something about Western liberalism that seems almost suicidal or at least socially parasitic.’
The vice president further suggested Mamdani is a perfect mascot for the Democratic Party, as he “captures so many of the movement’s apparent contradictions in a single human being” and is “not trying to build prosperity. He’s trying to tear something down.”
After faulting the left for lacking a positive vision for the future, Vance discussed ways of maximizing American prosperity and continuing to usher in the “golden age” promised by Trump on Jan. 20.
The vice president noted that by employing the “stick” that is tariffs and the “carrots” that are lower taxes and fewer regulations, the administration hopes to make it easier to save, invest, build businesses, work dignified jobs, and support a family in the United States.
Vance made abundantly clear that this work under way to bring about American renewal is not another liberal project that treats the U.S. as an economic zone and an “idea” with an infinitely replaceable population.
Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
“We are not just producers and consumers,” said Vance. “We are human beings made in the image of God, and we love our home, not just because we earn a living here but because we discover our purpose and our meaning here.”
“Every Western society, as I stand here today, has significant demographic and cultural problems. There is something about Western liberalism that seems almost suicidal or at least socially parasitic. It tends to feed off of the healthy host until there’s nothing left,” continued the vice president.
“They’ve gotten awfully good at tearing things down, but they haven’t gotten good at building back.”
‘This country is not a contradiction.’
After hammering themes of disorientation, disenchantment, and disaffiliation and emphasizing the importance of social cohesion and satisfying the “obligations that we have to our fellow countrymen,” he then identified a number of remedies, many of which the Trump administration is presently pursuing, including defending American sovereignty by securing the border and protecting citizens from “unfair foreign taxes” and “preserving the basic legal privileges of citizenship” like voting or access to state-run benefits programs. He indicated that the government must also avoid entangling Americans “in prolonged, distant wars.”
Vance noted further that citizenship in the 21st century not only means respecting American heritage but necessarily building upon it “together as one American family” — to advance “groundbreaking innovations and to leave homes, and libraries, and factories that our descendants will look at someday and feel a sense of awe.”
“This country is not a contradiction,” he concluded. “It’s a nation of countless extraordinary people across many generations. It’s a land of profound ingenuity and tradition and beauty, but more importantly, it’s our home.”
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‘Elio’ was lame. Making him gay wouldn’t change that.
Would Disney’s latest flop, “Elio,” have been saved if the company made the film “lame and gay” instead of just lame? Some of its creators seem to think so.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Elio” was originally conceived as a story about a lonely, bullied 11-year-old gay boy who gets whisked away by spacefaring aliens to represent humanity in the “Communiverse” — an intergalactic version of the United Nations. In the original version, Elio’s ability to empathize with outsiders, shaped by his own struggles as a bullied homosexual, helps him save the universe from hostile invaders.
If ‘Elio’ teaches Disney anything, it’s this: Wokeness isn’t a narrative. It’s a trend. And it’s over.
But that version never saw the light of day.
After disappointing test screenings and intervention from Pixar’s chief creative officer Pete Docter — the force behind hits like “Toy Story,” “Up,” and “Inside Out” — the studio sidelined the film’s openly gay director, Adrian Molina, and toned down the “queer-coding.” According to one Pixar artist, “Studio leaders were constantly sanding down these moments in the film that alluded to Elio’s sexuality.”
Gone was the scene where Elio designs clothes from pink trash and holds “trash-ion shows” for crabs. The male crush poster? Removed. The environmentalist bent? Dialed back. What’s left is a generic misfit who rises to the occasion — not by discovering his sexual identity but by finding courage and strength.
Predictably, the movie tanked. Despite a rumored $250 million budget, “Elio” grossed just $21 million in its opening weekend. Critics panned the film as derivative and dull. Pixar, once hailed for original storytelling and cross-generational appeal, recycled old tropes and slapped them onto a limp narrative.
As Federalist writer Gage Klipper put it: “Elio, crushed under the weight of its derivative storytelling and animation, might as well have been an umpteenth sequel. The viewer walks in and, within moments, already knows he’s seen this film a thousand times.”
So would making Elio “lame and gay” instead of just lame have saved the movie?
Of course not. A more flamboyantly queer lead might have offered marginal character development — but at the cost of turning yet another kids’ movie into a vehicle for ideological affirmation. And audiences have already seen that show. Multiple times.
Just look at “Lightyear” (2022) and “Onward” (2020). Both featured brief LGBTQ references — a kiss in one, a lesbian reference in the other. These scenes had zero impact on plot or character. They were token gestures meant to signal virtue. But even that was enough to stigmatize both films as woke propaganda, unfit for children and alienating to mainstream audiences.
Executives at Disney and Pixar likely concluded that “Lightyear” and “Onward” flopped because of the gay content. That’s why they stripped it from “Elio.” But “Elio” failed for the same reason those other films did: weak characters and lousy storytelling.
RELATED: The culture war isn’t a distraction — it’s the main front
Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images
Even the queerness in those earlier films seemed less like sincere inclusion and more like a cynical marketing ploy — a way to gin up press during peak woke culture. While it may not have delivered blockbuster numbers, the controversy generated buzz.
That trick doesn’t work anymore.
In 2025, the political moment has passed. The original version of “Elio” would have been as embarrassing as Marvel’s “Ironheart” — the new Disney+ series about a young black woman who builds her own Iron Man suit of armor so she can steal money and become famous. Maybe that premise sounded edgy in 2022, but now it just looks desperate and dumb.
If “Elio” teaches Disney anything, it’s this: Wokeness isn’t a narrative. It’s a trend. And it’s over.
Whatever moral high ground advocates claimed — about representation, equity, and tolerance — was always more about pandering to activists than elevating art. Audiences saw through it then, and they definitely see through it now.
Pixar’s former magic lay in telling universal stories. That’s the vision Pete Docter championed. But his colleagues and subordinates ignored it, instead giving audiences mediocrity wrapped in buzzwords. Unsurprisingly, audiences walked away.
Maybe now, finally, the message will stick.
Opinion & analysis, Disney woke, Disney plus, Elio woke bomb, Pixar woke bomb, Woke hollywood, Elio, Gay agenda, Lame and gay, Ironheart, Wokeness, Lightyear, Onward, Federalist, Lesbians
Federal judge just dealt some bad news to Wisconsin judge who allegedly helped illegal alien evade ICE
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted by a federal grand jury in May on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of the law.
Dugan — who has been characterized by Democratic lawmakers both as a courtroom hero and as a victim of the Trump administration — is desperate to avoid going to trial for allegedly helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien from Mexico charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, get away from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dugan, whose actions on April 18 were largely caught on courthouse cameras, evidently figured the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States condemned by Democrats last summer was her ticket out of trouble.
‘This, however, is not a civil case.’
Citing the court’s determination that the president “may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” lawyers for the Milwaukee judge claimed in a May 14 motion to dismiss the case that “the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts.” Dugan’s lawyers suggested further that her prosecution violates the limits of federal power under the 10th Amendment.
A federal judge suggested otherwise this week.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Joseph recommended on Monday that Dugan’s motion to dismiss be denied and torpedoed the Milwaukee judge’s arguments for dismissal one by one.
RELATED: Courthouse footage spells trouble for Wisconsin judge accused of helping illegal alien evade ICE
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
“It is well-established and undisputed that judges have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits for monetary damages when engaging in judicial acts,” wrote Joseph. “This, however, is not a civil case. And review of the case law does not show an extension of this established doctrine to the criminal context.”
‘Trump says nothing about criminal immunity for judicial acts.’
“Does judicial immunity shield Dugan from prosecution because the indictment alleges she violated federal criminal law while performing judicial duties? The answer is no,” wrote Joseph.
The federal judge underscored that there is “no firmly established absolute judicial immunity barring criminal prosecution of judges for judicial acts.”
Joseph also made mince meat out of Dugan’s attempt to use Trump to avoid criminal prosecution for alleged improper conduct within her courtroom.
“While Dugan asserts that Trump simply extended to the president the same immunity from prosecution that judges already have, this argument makes a leap too far. Trump says nothing about criminal immunity for judicial acts,” wrote Joseph.
“And in Fitzgerald, while the Supreme Court looked to the historical jurisprudence regarding civil judicial immunity, the Court was clear that the grant of absolute immunity for civil damages for ‘outer perimeter’ acts of the president was due to the ‘special nature of the president’s constitutional office and functions,'” added Joseph.
Joseph further recommended that the court declines Dugan’s invitation to dismiss the indictment on the canon of constitutional avoidance.
RELATED: Trump fighting ‘unconstitutional power grab’ by Obama judge who reopened the floodgates
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
While the U.S. magistrate judge made abundantly clear that Dugan’s motion to dismiss has no legs to stand on, the decision rests with U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman.
As Blaze News previously reported, Adelman is a Clinton-appointed U.S. district judge and a former Democratic state senator with a history of attacking President Donald Trump, claiming, for instance, that the president makes no effort “to enact policies beneficial to the general public” and behaves like an “autocrat.”
Dugan, relieved of her duties as a judge in April by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, was originally scheduled to go to trial later this month, but Adelman took the trial date off the calendar last month pending the outcome of her motion to dismiss.
“We are disappointed in the magistrate judge’s non-binding recommendation, and we will appeal it,” Dugan attorney Steven Biskupic said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. “This is only one step in what we expect will be a long journey to preserve the independence and integrity of our courts.”
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Hannah dugan, Wisconsin, Immigration and customs enforcement officials, Ice, Department of justice, Felony, Evasion, Aiding, Illegal alien, Illegal immigration, Milwaukee, Dugan, Politics
Two weeks post-bombing: No WWIII, ceasefire holds, Levin calls out ‘isolationists’
It’s been two weeks since the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities as part of Operation Midnight Hammer, and thus far, it’s been quiet — no World War III, no involvement from Russia or China, no unrest in surrounding Arab nations, and no unrest on American soil. On the contrary, a ceasefire has been reached between Iran and Israel, and despite initial violations, it’s holding.
While many are surprised at the lack of aftermath, Mark Levin isn’t. The aftereffects many isolationists feared were never even in the cards, he says.
“The radical isolationists were dead wrong. They predicted a regional war,” but “the Arabs are behind Israel, even if they can’t actually say it. They predicted World War III. … Obviously, that didn’t happen. … They predicted actual intervention by Russia and China, who sat on their hands. They did absolutely nothing.”
“I think it’s been proven now that what the Israelis did and what the president did — our military, Netanyahu, his military — was right. The debate is over,” says Levin, noting that “94% of Republican MAGA supported [the strikes].”
Given that there were no American casualties, that there was no damage to U.S. military equipment, and that the mission was executed flawlessly, to “debate whether we should or shouldn’t have” is futile. “Obviously, we should have,” he says.
“Those who want to stop nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, ballistic missiles, from getting into the hands of a death cult are not warmongers,” he explains. “They’re peace lovers. The enemy is the warmonger.”
“The truth is those of us who said [bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities] has to be done, including the president of the United States, were right. Those who went on to create these hysterical fearmongering calculations” were wrong, Levin continues.
Even though a ceasefire has been reached and Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been drastically reduced, the worst thing we can do, according to him, is sit back and relax.
“I don’t believe the Iranian regime intends to have a ceasefire for long – at best maybe through the presidency of Donald Trump — but their mindset is their mindset, and they believe God is telling them what to do,” he says. “I don’t need to predict. It is a fact; it is a truism that they will be back.”
For now, however, “we have a very unique circumstance with these two great leaders … Trump and Netanyahu.”
To hear more of his commentary and analysis, watch the clip above.
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Mark levin, Levin tv, Donald trump, Benjamin netanyahu, Israel iran, Iran, Israel, Isolationists, Warmonger, Midnight hammer, Blazetv, Blaze media, Iran nuclear program, Levintv
Exclusive: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’
Vice President JD Vance tore into the Democratic rising star Zohran Mamdani in a Sunday night speech over his apparent ingratitude and disregard for American tradition as he vies to helm the United States’ largest city.
During his keynote speech for the Claremont Institute on Sunday, Vance methodically detailed how Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy insults the very culture, history, and generosity of the country that allowed him to succeed, according to a transcript exclusively obtained by Blaze News. Mamdani, whose family fled political persecution in Uganda, won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and is shaping up to be the front-runner in the contested race against current NYC Mayor Eric Adams (independent).
“If our victory and President Trump’s victory in 2024 was rooted in a broad, working- and middle-class coalition, Mamdani’s coalition is almost the inverse of that,” Vance said.
‘Hatred … this is the animating principle of the American far left.’
Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images
Although he campaigned on progressive policies that are typically targeted toward “underprivileged” and protected classes, Mamdani won high-income, college-educated voters. He also did particularly well in New York City’s gentrified neighborhoods, like Ridgewood and Bushwick. At the same time, he struggled among black voters and voters without a college degree.
“That’s an interesting coalition,” Vance noted. “Maybe it works in the New York Democratic primary. I don’t think it works particularly well in the United States at large.”
“His victory was the product of a lot of young people who live reasonably comfortable lives but see that their elite degrees aren’t really delivering what they expected,” Vance added. “And I say that not to criticize them, because I think that we should care about all the people in our country. … But we have to be honest about where its coalition is. It is not the downtrodden. It’s not for Americans. It is not about dispossession. It’s about the elite.”
Vance describes Mamdani and his supporters’ progressive worldview as ultimately paradoxical, uniquely motivated by a disdain for the American tradition.
“How could privileged whites march around with a straight face and decry white privilege?” Vance asked. “How could progressives pretend to love conservative Muslims despite their views on gender and sexuality? The answer is obvious. … The radicals at the far left, they don’t need a unifying ideology of what they’re for, because they know very well what they’re against.”
“What unites Islamists; gender studies majors; socially liberal, white urbanites; and Big Pharma lobbyists? It isn’t the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or even Karl Marx,” Vance added. “It’s hatred … this is the animating principle of the American far left.”
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Photographer: Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Vance takes issue with the progressives’ disregard for American history and, by proxy, for American values. In Mamdani’s case, Vance criticizes his ungrateful attitude toward the very country that welcomed him and allowed him to prosper.
“The person who wishes to lead our largest city had, according to multiple media reports, never once publicly mentioned America’s independence today in earnest,” Vance said. “But when he did so this year, this is what he said, an actual quote: ‘America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country, even as we constantly strive to make it better.’ There is no gratitude in those words, no sense of owing something to this land and the people who turned its wilderness into the most powerful nation on Earth.”
“I wonder, has he ever read the letters from boy soldiers in the Union army to parents and sweethearts that they’d never see again?” Vance asked. “Has he ever visited the grave site of a loved one who gave their life to build the kind of society where his family could escape racial theft and racial violence? Has he ever looked in the mirror and recognized that he might not be alive were it not for the generosity of a country he dares to assault on its most sacred day? Who the hell does he think that he is?”
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Jd vance, Zohran mamdani, Claremont institute, American history, American heritage, Eric adams, New york city, America first, Progressivism, The left, Democrats, Republicans, Conservatism, Progressives, Conservatives, Political violence, American values, American independence, July 4, Politics
Trump unplugged! One Big Beautiful Bill ends EV tax credit September 30
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act just sent a jolt through America’s automotive industry — and this time, it’s not about subsidies or mandates. It’s about getting Washington out of the driver’s seat.
Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025, the legislation is packed with major changes that will affect your next car, your fuel bill, and maybe even your job.
Gas-powered vehicles are poised for a strong comeback. With emissions penalties gone and EV credits phasing out, automakers are incentivized to focus on what already works.
Whether you’re a mechanic, a car dealer, or someone simply trying to afford a reliable ride, this bill deserves your full attention. It dismantles a decade of EV favoritism, slashes penalties for automakers, and puts gas-powered vehicles squarely back in the spotlight.
Let’s break it down — without the fluff — and explain exactly why this matters to you.
USPS fleet unplugged
This legislation starts by hitting reverse on the U.S. Postal Service’s $9.6 billion push to electrify its fleet, which began in January 2024 with the purchase of 7,200 Ford E-Transit electric vans, developed especially for the USPS.
Now that this entire program has been marked “return to sender,” USPS can get back to delivering mail instead of testing environmental policy.
While an earlier version of the bill called for the USPS to sell off the electric vans, that provision was missing from the final document.
Hard reset on EPA overreach
Next up: the Environmental Protection Agency.
This bill takes direct aim at overreaching green energy policy eliminating California’s ability to set its own tougher vehicle emissions standards. California’s EPA waiver had long allowed the state to push automakers into building more EVs and hybrids — regardless of what the rest of the country wanted. That’s over. And with it, the ripple effect on nationwide vehicle standards could collapse.
More importantly, the bill removes the penalties automakers faced for missing fuel economy targets. Companies like Stellantis paid nearly $191 million in fines during just one two-year window (2019–2020) under CAFE standards. Now, those penalties are set to zero.
This gives automakers breathing room — and the ability to focus on building vehicles Americans actually want to buy: SUVs, trucks, and gas-powered cars with real utility or hybrid vehicles. Not battery-powered compliance boxes.
EV tax credits ending sooner
Here’s the part that really flips the EV market upside down: The tax credits are going away — and sooner than expected.
The $7,500 tax credit for new EVs and the $4,000 credit for used EVs will vanish after September 30, 2025 — a full three months earlier than the House originally planned. And it gets more aggressive: Leased EVs from non-U.S. automakers lose their credits immediately. The EV charger tax credit also ends in June 2026.
What remains? A manufacturing tax credit for U.S.-built EV batteries, but even that excludes any company with links to China.
This is a major economic pivot. With EVs costing an average of $9,000 more than gas-powered vehicles, losing these incentives could price many buyers out of the market. Analysts are forecasting a 72% drop in projected EV sales over the next decade, along with a possible loss of 80,000 U.S. jobs and $100 billion in expected investment.
Tesla may survive the fallout. But other automakers — like Ford and Hyundai — will likely delay or scale back future EV development. Expect fewer EV ads, slower rollouts, and more conventional models hitting showrooms.
More choice, more questions
So what does all this mean for you, the driver?
Gas-powered vehicles are poised for a strong comeback. With emissions penalties gone and EV credits phasing out, automakers are incentivized to focus on what already works. Expect more variety, lower prices, and vehicles designed for the actual demands of American families and businesses.
RELATED: WATCH LIVE: Trump kicks off 250th anniversary of the US with patriotic rally
Fuel demand is expected to stay high — and that’s good news for domestic energy production. Oil and gas industries have long warned that EV policy was artificially distorting the market. Now, that distortion is being corrected.
The bill also helps car buyers more directly with a proposed tax deduction for buyers saddled with auto loan interest — a nod to the growing number of Americans financing vehicles in a high-rate environment. It’s a way to offer relief without distorting the product landscape.
And while an annual $250 EV road-use fee didn’t make it into the final bill, don’t be surprised if that resurfaces in the next round of negotiations. Right now, gas drivers pay federal fuel taxes that help fund roads and infrastructure. EVs pay nothing. That imbalance may not last. This fight could be taken up by the EPA or the Department of Transportation.
Winners and losers
This legislation favors automakers willing to build vehicles Americans want — not those chasing regulatory credits. It’s a win for traditional manufacturers, oil and gas workers, and dealers in heartland states where EV demand has always been low.
It’s a loss for global automakers betting big on electric growth in the U.S. market — especially those with heavy investment in Chinese battery supply chains. And it’s a headache for urban planners, utilities, and environmental groups counting on mass EV adoption to hit clean energy targets.
The National Automobile Dealers Association, CarMax, and others were pushing for a longer transition period. They feared a sudden market disruption. Meanwhile, critics of the bill claimed it jeopardizes climate goals, raises future utility bills, and hands the EV lead to countries like China.
Why you should care
This isn’t just a debate about cars or clean air — it’s a fight over how much control government should have over your choices, your money, and your mobility.
Do you want a vehicle that fits your life, your budget, and your needs? Or do you want a central planner in Washington — or Sacramento — dictating your options? That’s the question this bill forces us to ask.
By pulling back mandates, cutting artificial market manipulation, and letting consumers — not bureaucrats — drive the demand, this bill aims to restore sanity to an industry that’s been distorted by politics and ideology for too long.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
So think carefully about what this means, not just for the next car you buy — but for the future of freedom on America’s roads.
For more, check out my video here.
Evs, Ev mandate, Donald trump, Auto industry, Gas-powered cars, Gas prices, Oil prices, Lifestyle, Align cars, Big beautiful bill
The Epstein memo is a joke — and the joke’s on us
Late Sunday evening, the Department of Justice and the FBI quietly dropped a two-page memo on Axios — a pathetic attempt to bury the Jeffrey Epstein scandal once and for all.
Instead, they lit a fire.
If the goal was to rebuild trust, this failed spectacularly.
Even longtime Trump supporters are furious. The memo offers nothing new. It doesn’t present fresh evidence. It doesn’t announce new investigations. It simply reviews old files and claims to find nothing of interest.
The first sentence tells the tale: The Justice Department and FBI “conducted an exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein.” In plain English: They looked at what they already had. That’s it. No digging. No subpoenas. The Federal Bureau of Investigation simply acted as the Federal Bureau of Review.
They may as well have stamped the two-pager: “Nothing to see here.”
No client list. No blackmail ring. No suspicious circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death. According to the memo, none of it exists — at least not in the files current political leadership received.
So what happened to the promise of transparency? Of real oversight? If reform means letting the same entrenched bureaucrats investigate themselves, then nothing has changed.
The FBI and Justice Department officials have spent years turning a blind eye to crimes committed by the ruling class — crimes that threaten national security and corrupt the very institutions charged with upholding the law. Just ask anyone who remembers the Clinton email scandal, the Alfa Bank hoax, the Biden family’s foreign cash pipeline, or the Uranium One deal swept under the rug.
Now we’re supposed to believe they took Epstein’s crimes seriously?
Shifting the blame — with vague suggestions that “Epstein belonged to the intelligence services” — doesn’t cut it. It’s a dodge, not an explanation. Jurisdictional excuses don’t fly when public trust is on the line. Americans want answers from the people who once claimed they would deliver them.
The entire premise of public skepticism surrounding Epstein was that the U.S. government never truly investigated him. He was widely believed to be an asset. If that’s the case, why would the FBI have a smoking-gun confession just lying around in its files?
And even if someone had written down every sordid detail, would we really expect a mid-level bureaucrat to produce it on command?
The memo only accounts for one corner of the federal government. What about the intelligence community? What about foreign actors? What about the rest of the system?
The choice to give this exclusive to Axios is equally baffling. This is the same outlet to which the Trump administration handed the Biden-Hur audio tape — the story co-authored by a reporter who collaborated with Jake Tapper on a book abetting the cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. That release was botched too: dropped on a Friday evening, selectively edited, and spun to discredit critics.
So why trust Axios with another political bombshell?
Predictably, Axios buried the lead and used its piece to promote a tangential swipe at President Trump, implying — via Elon Musk’s speculation — that Trump might be named in the Epstein files. That’s the kind of media framing the Justice Department and FBI just handed to the American people.
And let’s not forget: This wasn’t just a Justice memo. It was a joint DOJ-FBI release. In Washington, that means one of two things. Either both agencies want credit, or both want cover. This reeks of the latter.
Nothing in the memo aligns with public statements from political leadership.
RELATED: Is the FBI salvageable? Here’s what bureau insiders have to say
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now.” That same month, she wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel saying she had Epstein’s contact list and that the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York still hadn’t turned over thousands of documents. Then in March, Bondi said she had a “truckload” of evidence. But now we’re told no such list exists and all of that evidence amounted to nothing?
Patel promised, “I will do everything, if confirmed as FBI director, to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened.” A two-page memo? That’s the “full weight”?
Deputy Director Dan Bongino vowed, “I’m not letting it go, ever.” So why does this feel like a shoulder shrug? Are we just supposed to “let it go” now?
It all adds up: grandstanding promises, empty symbolism, pointless stunts — like handing out Epstein binders to influencers at the White House — and now, a slapdash memo dumped just as Bibi Netanyahu sits down with President Trump, which will only fuel speculation that Epstein was connected with Israeli intelligence. If the goal was to rebuild trust, this failed spectacularly.
The Epstein saga isn’t going away. This memo doesn’t answer questions — it raises more. And the longer officials play games, the more the public will suspect they’re hiding something.
Until leaders stop playing defense and start delivering real accountability, don’t expect the American people to move on. They won’t.
Opinion & analysis, Pam bondi, Kash patel, Dan bongino, Justice department, Fbi, Jeffrey epstein, Suicide, Epstein list, Epstein files, Whitewash, Client list, Transparency
Police responding to disturbance call over PlayStation arrest mother of 3 small children after seeing living conditions
A disturbance call about a PlayStation video game console led to the arrest of a mother of three after police said they witnessed horrendous living conditions at her apartment unit.
Louisiana police responded to the residence at the Village Square Apartments on June 5 and found a cockroach infestation so bad that they described it as “hazardous” and “unsanitary” to the children, according to a press release from the Shreveport Police Department.
‘Roaches were also seen coming through holes in the walls, further compromising the health and safety of the environment.’
They identified the mother of the children as Cavinitri White and arrested her after an investigation.
“The infestation was observed on nearly every surface, including furniture, kitchen cabinets, and inside the refrigerator,” the release read. “Roaches were also seen coming through holes in the walls, further compromising the health and safety of the environment.”
The children were aged 1, 3, and 4 years old.
Police alerted the department’s Youth Services Division, which opened a child neglect investigation into the incident.
The Department of Children and Family Services also responded to the scene and released the children to the custody of their father after determining the living conditions to be unsafe.
White was booked into the Shreveport City Jail and charged with three counts of neglect of family. In Louisiana, a conviction on a charge of neglect of family is punishable by a fine of $500 or 6 months in jail, or both, in addition to probation.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
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Shreveport mother arrest, Cavinitri white arrest, Cockroach infestation, Cockroach arrest, Crime