Category: blaze media

I wanted a reckoning. I did not want Jason Arday dead.

Three days before he was found dead at his London home last week, I published a column entertaining what I admitted was a mischievous theory: Maybe the disgraced Cambridge professor was not merely a fraud but a world-class trickster who understood liberal institutions well enough to play their racial and ideological anxieties for all they were worth.

Maybe the cruelty was not that somebody finally checked. Maybe the cruelty was that almost nobody checked sooner.

I hoped someday he would confess. I even had the title of the book I wanted him to write: “I Thought You’d Believe Me.”

I wanted that book. I did not want an obituary.

Graeme Wood, writing this week in the Atlantic, makes a persuasive case that my trickster theory was a tad too generous. Arday apparently did not respond to exposure with the wink of a con man finally caught. He insisted he was not a liar. Wood reaches for Henrik Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck” and its livsløgn — the “life-lie,” a sustaining self-delusion that eventually becomes impossible to let go.

Maybe that’s closer to what happened. We’ll likely never know.

What we do know is that Arday lied. A lot. His public biography accumulated claims about academic appointments, fundraising, extraordinary athletic feats, and racist attacks that proved false, dubious, or impossible to verify. His scholarship contained extensive passages alleged to have been lifted from the work of less prominent academics. Cambridge ultimately opened investigations into his academic work and qualifications and, after his resignation, agreed to an independent inquiry into his appointment.

Enough of these lies!

That includes the lie now being told about the people who exposed them.

The fraud Ibram X. Kendi titled his response “The Media Lynched Jason Arday.” He says journalists have blood on their hands and treats Cambridge’s decision to investigate Arday as an abandonment of a prominent black scholar under racial attack. Wrong.

A lynching is not a metaphor for journalism you dislike. Reporting true and newsworthy facts does not become murder because the subject later dies.

What, exactly, should reporters have refused to investigate? The dissertation? The nonexistent appointments? The millions supposedly raised for charity? The 30 marathons in 35 days? The stories of racist attacks? The memoir?

RELATED: 5-star reviews for a fabulist memoir

Denise Baker/Getty Images

Precisely which question was forbidden?

Thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square on Monday to mourn Arday. The grief was real. So was the anger at the press and at Nathan Cofnas, the academic whose investigation of Arday’s work helped start the avalanche. Cofnas has controversial views about race. So what? If he found copied work, the relevant question is whether the work was copied. His politics cannot restore originality to somebody else’s prose.

This is how the evasion works: Stop talking about the evidence and start talking about the man who found it.

Now comes the possibility of “Arday’s Law.” A petition circulating in Britain actually proposes legislation limiting how many articles may be published about one individual within a given period, on the theory that excessive coverage causes mental anguish. It had garnered more than 3,500 verified signatures as of Wednesday.

The answer to too much journalism, apparently, is a government quota on journalism.

I sometimes fear Britain is lost. Thank God for the First Amendment!

This idea did not appear from nowhere. We have spent years teaching people that speech itself can constitute harm and that institutions therefore have a duty to build ever-safer spaces around anyone who might be harmed by it.

But no space is ever safe enough.

Once speech becomes violence, censorship becomes “care.” Eventually, as we’ve seen, the safe-space logic escapes the campus. A reporter asks too many questions. Too many newspapers publish the answers. Somebody suffers. Therefore, the state must decide when everybody has said enough. No thanks.

RELATED: No, the founders did not ‘tell you so’

Guy Smallman/Getty Images

That is not “liberalism.” Liberalism properly understood demands something harder: accepting that free speech can be intrusive, offensive, unfair, and occasionally cruel while recognizing that giving government power to decide when enough has been said is much worse.

If we want to talk about who failed Jason Arday, look first at the institutions that elevated him.

Graeme Wood’s harshest argument is also his most compelling. Arday was placed in a position for which the evidence increasingly suggests he was nowhere near prepared, while colleagues and institutions such as Cambridge, the BBC, and Simon and Schuster amplified an extraordinary biography instead of bothering to check it. Eventually somebody was going to notice.

Maybe the cruelty was not that somebody finally checked. Maybe the cruelty was that almost nobody checked sooner.

After I learned that Arday had been found dead, I wrote one of my writers: Hubris met Nemesis. And the outcome was invariably the same.

That does not mean Arday got what he deserved. Quite the opposite. Nemesis in tragedy is not proportional justice. It is catastrophe. Recognition comes too late, the machinery is already moving, and the ending is worse than anyone wanted.

Arday’s family and friends deserve compassion. His kids especially. They lost someone they loved.

But compassion does not require one more lie.

Death does not authenticate a false claim. It does not make plagiarism original. And if Arday took his own life, suicide does not retroactively turn reporters into murderers.

The tragedy is terrible enough. Don’t lie about that, too.

​Antiracism, Free speech, Ibram x kendi, Jason arday, Opinion & analysis, Racism, Plagiarism, Media, Truth, Cambridge university, Fraud 

Two years ago, high school freshman Colt Gray shot up Apalachee High School in Georgia, killing two teachers and two students and wounding nine others. School resource officers quickly ended the rampage, and Gray was taken into custody before the death toll climbed higher. His father, Colin Gray, who bought him the gun, was later convicted of manslaughter and second-degree murder.

Colin Gray’s prosecution drew much of the attention because it was a rare case of a parent being held criminally responsible for a child’s violence. But Colt Gray’s own punishment deserves attention too: life imprisonment without parole.

Healing is harder when justice is denied.

Gray’s age, troubled home life, and prior experience of being bullied could have been invoked as reasons for leniency. Instead, the judge concluded that his crime and his motives justified the harshest sentence available for a juvenile offender.

That’s significant because justice is not merely a tool for rehabilitation or deterrence. It also concerns what is owed to victims and to the community after an irreparable wrong.

Gray murdered four innocent people without anything resembling a justification. I would have no moral objection to the death penalty in a case like this. Because he committed the murders as a minor, however, life without parole is the most severe punishment available.

Even that cannot restore what was taken. As the older brother of one victim put it: “The defendant’s family will still get to see their son, talk to him, and know he is breathing. … My mother (and) my father don’t get that privilege. The only way to visit Christian now is by standing over his grave.”

Aristotle defined justice in terms of giving each person what he is properly owed. Whatever one makes of that formulation, it captures something modern criminal-justice debates often neglect: Punishment is not only about what might improve the offender. It is also about recognizing the gravity of the offense.

A sentence cannot bring the dead back. But a legal system that treats grave crimes with proportionate seriousness tells victims, families, and the broader community that what happened to them was not trivial and will not be waved away.

RELATED: ‘Why do we have an FBI?’ Georgia school shooter was on FBI’s radar months before attack

Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Justice should also force us to confront the nature of the crime. As I wrote at the time, Gray displayed warning signs before he ever brought a gun to school. The lesson is not that every troubled teenager should be treated as a future murderer. It is that threats, fixation on mass killers, access to weapons, and other concrete warning signs should be taken seriously before tragedy makes hindsight easy.

The strongest objection to a sentence like this is that even terrible offenders, especially young ones, may be capable of change. That is a serious argument. But mercy and rehabilitation do not erase agency, nor do they undo the harm already done.

In Gray’s case, the record described an obsession with school shooters and a desire for notoriety. He was obsessed with school shooters. His home life may have been chaotic and his parents may have failed him badly. None of that means he lacked the capacity to understand that murdering classmates and teachers was wrong.

Judge Nicholas Primm made the point directly, saying the shooting “wasn’t done out of fear or anger” but “for the infamy of it.” As such, he doesn’t deserve another chance at living a “normal life.”

Gray may someday understand the evil of what he did. He may repent. He may even become, within prison, a radically different person. But none of those possibilities can make four murdered people less dead or obligate society to restore to him the freedom he deliberately took from others. Explanations are not the same as excuses.

This is where some accounts of restorative justice become inadequate. Restoration may have a place in criminal justice, especially where offenders can make meaningful amends. Murder imposes a limit on that logic because the central harm cannot be repaired.

RELATED: Jordan Salinas: Another ‘good guy with a gun’ ruins the gun control lobby’s narrative

Jason Armond/Getty Images; Facebook/JordanSalinas

The same caution applies beyond this case. It is a mistake to assume that every young violent offender is beyond redemption. It is equally mistaken to assume that redemption, if it occurs, necessarily entitles an offender to release. Recidivism among released prisoners is a real problem, though rates vary substantially by offense, age, and time horizon. The point is not that mercy is impossible. It is that mercy must be ordered to justice, not substituted for it.

By holding offenders accountable, courts can give victims and their families something no therapy program can supply on its own: a public judgment that the crime was real, grave, and deserving of punishment.

Assuming Gray’s punishment sticks, the Apalachee High School community will still have a long road ahead. Students and faculty can honor those they lost, support one another, and take warning signs more seriously in the future. None of that requires pretending punishment itself is healing. But healing is harder when justice is denied.

In this case, justice prevailed.

​Death penalty, School shooting, Criminal justice, Colt gray, Apalachee high school shooting, Mental health, Justice, Nicholas pimm, Restorative justice, Opinion & analysis 

For more than a year, Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) has survived one revelation after another.

Questions about his marriage. Questions about his military record. Questions about the stories he told about being wounded in Iraq. Allegations involving the abuse and blackmail of women. Questions surrounding his businesses and finances. A House Ethics Committee investigation.

Was the story Cory Mills told about Cory Mills true?

Through all of it, the Florida congressman remained defiant.

Stories were dismissed as attacks while reporters were accused of spreading falsehoods. When Blaze News began asking questions about his marriage and religious history, Mills became combative and raised the prospect of litigation. When we later assembled 10 of the most significant contradictions in his public record, his spokeswoman offered a two-word response: “All gossip.”

On Tuesday night, the voters of Florida’s 7th Congressional District rendered a different verdict.

Mills lost the Republican primary to former television anchor Ryan Elijah, who took roughly 47% of the vote to Mills’ 34%. A two-term Republican congressman who once appeared to have a promising future in the party will now leave Congress in humiliating fashion.

The result cannot be credited to any single news organization or investigation. Mills faced scrutiny from law enforcement, congressional investigators, political opponents, local and national journalists, and ultimately members of his own party.

But long before his political support collapsed, Blaze News had begun asking a simple question: Was the story Cory Mills told about Cory Mills true?

What followed became one of the most extensive investigations Blaze News has ever undertaken.

Our reporters interviewed former soldiers and military contractors who had served alongside Mills. We tracked down records. We spoke with former girlfriends, business associates, political figures, and people who had known Mills before he entered Congress. We confronted Mills directly with what we found and gave him repeated opportunities to explain himself.

Again and again, the answers produced more questions.

Here is what we reported.

The marriage certificate

The investigation began after a February 2025 domestic disturbance call involving Mills, which drew attention to a fact that surprised even some people around him: Mills was still legally married and going through a divorce.

That led Blaze News to a 2014 Virginia marriage record. We obtained and verified the certificate. It showed that Mills and Rana Al Saadi had been married by Mohammed Al-Hanooti, a radical Islamic cleric who had been identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas financing case and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot.

Mills confirmed the marriage to Blaze News in an interview. He denied converting to Islam and said he had not known about Al-Hanooti’s background. However, the questions did not end there. Five former associates subsequently told Blaze News that Mills had told them he converted to Islam. Mills continued to deny that account.

The story also opened another avenue of inquiry: Mills and Al Saadi had gone into the international arms business together after their marriage, eventually building the company PACEM into a substantial defense interest. That raised questions about Mills’ relationship with the company after he entered Congress and about his financial disclosures, matters already attracting scrutiny from congressional ethics investigators.

RELATED: GOP Rep. Cory Mills explains why he was married by a radical Islamic cleric

Getty Images

The soldiers who remembered a different Cory Mills

Mills had built much of his political identity around his military and defense contracting experience. He presented himself as a battle-tested veteran and private military operative. His campaign told voters that he had been “WOUNDED TWICE WHILE DEPLOYED.” He repeatedly described himself as having been “blown up twice” in Iraq.

Several former colleagues disputed important portions of Mills’ account, including descriptions of his military qualifications and what happened during two roadside-bomb incidents in Iraq.

That is how investigative journalism is supposed to work.

Scott Kempkins, who was actually wounded in one of the attacks Mills referred to, told Blaze News that Mills could not have been wounded in that explosion because Mills’ vehicle was already about 50 yards away. Chase Nash, who was riding in Mills’ vehicle, likewise told Blaze News: “Cory was not wounded.”

That distinction would become enormously important.

RELATED: Stolen valor? Veterans dispute Cory Mills’ record: ‘He fooled a lot of us’

Anadolu/Contributor/Getty Images

Mills blows up his own ‘wounded twice’ story

Eventually, Mills himself provided perhaps the most damaging evidence against one of his signature biographical claims. His 2022 campaign advertisement had declared in enormous letters that Mills was “WOUNDED TWICE WHILE DEPLOYED.”

Blaze News pressed him on both incidents.

Mills said that during the first explosion, he hit his head inside an armored vehicle. He described suffering a concussion and being evaluated before returning to work roughly three days later. When Blaze News asked whether he had actually suffered a traumatic brain injury, Mills said he had been examined and was told to monitor himself.

Then came the second explosion. Mills acknowledged that he wasn’t inside the vehicle that was struck.

Blaze News asked the obvious question: Was he wounded?

“No, I wasn’t wounded on that,” Mills answered.

It was an extraordinary admission because Mills wasn’t contradicting some hostile characterization invented by a political opponent. He seemed to contradict the words in his own campaign advertisement.

The allegations from Miss United States

Then the investigation took a much darker turn.

Lindsey Langston, then the reigning Miss United States and a Republican official in Florida, told Blaze News in July 2025 that she had been romantically involved with Mills. After the relationship ended, Langston accused Mills of threatening to distribute intimate videos of her to men she might date.

Her allegations resulted in an investigation by the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also becoming involved. A Florida judge even eventually granted Langston a restraining order against Mills.

Langston also made allegations about Mills’ finances. She described people arriving at the home they shared with what she characterized as bags of cash and another incident involving money after a dinner.

RELATED: Miss United States accuses Rep. Cory Mills of sextortion, accepting ‘money bags’

Photos courtesy of Lake City Reporter

The political walls come down

With the 2026 midterms on the horizon, Mills appeared capable of surviving all of it. He was a Republican incumbent in a red district. He had built a national profile, and President Donald Trump endorsed him earlier this year. But political support began to disappear as the controversies accumulated.

Mills entered the primary under an active House Ethics Committee investigation, while prominent Florida Republicans, like Anna Paulina Luna, began abandoning him and backing his opponent. Trump, despite his earlier endorsement, conspicuously omitted Mills when he issued a new slate of Florida endorsements shortly before the Republican primary.

Then came Tuesday.

Our readers deserved better. So did Mills’ constituents.

Ryan Elijah defeated him decisively. It would be easy for a newsroom to take a victory lap after an election result like that. That would miss the point. Journalists do not get to remove members of Congress. Our job was never to defeat Cory Mills.

Our job was to find out whether what he told voters was true.

That required months of work that was often considerably less glamorous than the final headlines. Our reporters tracked down people who had worked with Mills decades earlier. We compared recollections against records. We went back to sources. And when evidence contradicted something we had been told, they kept digging.

A congressman who had constructed much of his political appeal around an extraordinary personal biography increasingly found that biography subjected to ordinary scrutiny.

Mills had every opportunity to answer. Sometimes his explanations became part of our stories. Sometimes he denied the allegations, and his representatives attacked the reporting. And sometimes, as with the claim that he had been wounded twice, his answers created problems larger than the original question.

That is how investigative journalism is supposed to work.

Not by beginning with a verdict and searching for evidence to support it, but by refusing to stop asking questions because the subject is powerful, popular, politically useful, or on your own side.

Cory Mills is not a Democrat being investigated by a conservative news organization. He is a Republican congressman, a Trump-backed candidate, a fixture of conservative television, and a politician whose public positions often aligned with those of Blaze News’ audience.

None of that made the questions less important. It made them more important.

Our readers deserved better. So did Mills’ constituents. He was a rising star who reached the heights of political fame, power, and wealth in an extraordinarily short period of time. Unfortunately, it seems he never could escape his demons.

On Tuesday, those constituents got the final word.

Cory Mills spent years building a remarkable story about himself. Blaze News spent more than a year checking it. What was uncovered was a man with a serial allergy to the truth.

In the end, the truth proved harder to outrun than any political opponent.

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​Cory mills, House ethics committee, Miss united states, Politics 

When organizers began preparing for a Jesus March in Chicago, they were shocked to find a large Muslim demonstration already taking place at the same location.

“We’ve got Muslims conquering Chicago as well now. They haven’t conquered the entire country, just most of it,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments. “So it’s good to see that they’re infiltrating Chicago as well.”

In a video posted to Instagram, Christian Sean Feucht revealed what he stumbled upon when he went to get ready for the Jesus March.

“Can’t make this up, guys, I am standing in the exact place where we are doing a Jesus March in one hour. And look who’s here. A massive march, a massive Muslim march where right now they’re singing over Chicago, ‘Muhammad is the only one. May Allah be lifted up,’” Feucht said.

“They’re declaring that all Jews and all Christians would be removed from this city,” he explained.

“Our cities in our nation are being fought for in the spirit. I don’t know if you need any more example than this right here. We didn’t make this happen,” he continued. “We literally just walked up to the exact place where we’re doing a Jesus March today in Chicago. There’s a massive Muslim march where they have been declaring over the city.

“And you know what? The church in America is asleep. I’ve been saying it over the last week. This is a perfect example. The church in America is asleep. We need to wake up,” he added.

“Makes me want to vomit,” executive producer Keith Malinak says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“Yeah, we should wake up here,” Gray adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Pat gray, Sean feucht, Jesus march, Islam, Chicago, Muslims, Jews, Christian, Blazetv show 

A viral video of a high school soccer player’s alleged attack on another player in South Dakota led to a police investigation.

The match between the Brookings High School Bobcats and Rapid City Central Cobblers spiraled into chaos after one player retaliated against another for a defensive play.

The viral video of the incident garnered over 18 million views on the X platform.

The game was being streamed online as the incident unfolded just before the end of the first half on Friday.

A Cobblers player shoves the Bobcats player out of bounds onto the ground and then kicks him in the back before raining punches down on the boy.

The recipient of the blows tries to shield his face as other players and adults run toward them to break up the beating.

A second later, another Bobcats player rushes in and starts punching as well.

The Cobblers player was issued a red card violation and ejected from the game. According to league rules, he will have to undergo sportsmanship training.

He might also face criminal charges.

Brookings Police Chief Michael Drake told KELO-TV that police were investigating the incident and would interview more than a hundred witnesses. They are also reviewing at numerous videos beyond the viral footage.

The viral video of the incident garnered over 18 million views on the X platform.

The Rapid City Area School District released a statement about the incident to Dakota News Now.

“Rapid City Area Schools is aware of an incident involving a player from Central High School’s soccer program and players from another South Dakota team during a soccer match,” read the statement.

“We expect all students to demonstrate respect, sportsmanship, and appropriate behavior at all times, both on and off the field,” the district added. “We do not condone behavior that does not meet these expectations. Appropriate actions will be taken in accordance with RCAS policies and procedures.”

RELATED: Viral video shows middle school officials barely react as 13-year-old is viciously beaten

The South Dakota High School Athletic Association also released a statement calling the incident “unacceptable” and said it was cooperating with school officials.

“In general, disciplinary actions beyond our general ejection policy are worked through more on the school side, and Rapid City Central is currently doing that within the framework of their own training rules and district policies,” the statement read. “They will keep us up to date on that work and we will support them in whatever is needed.”

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​Viral video, South dakota, High school, Soccer, Assault, Crime 

The family of a student in a viral video of a disturbing high school wrestling match with a transgender-identifying opponent has filed a lawsuit to end the policies at the school.

The alarming video showed the female student suddenly appear distressed during the match and yell to her mother for help.

‘Despite mandatory reporter laws, officials ignored the incident until it became a national news story weeks later. Even now, they refuse to take it seriously.’

She later said that the opponent had sexually assaulted her during the match.

According to the lawsuit, the student did not know she was competing with a transgender-identifying athlete during the Dec. 2025 match at Rogers High School in Puyallup, Washington.

Pierce County prosecutors declined to prosecute the student on the basis that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The principal and athletic director of the school are facing separate charges because they failed to report the allegation for two months to law enforcement officials.

The school has claimed the two acted in accordance with the information known at the time and that the district launched an investigation immediately upon learning about the incident.

The mother said that the school did nothing about the allegation despite her presenting them with the video of the incident. They only responded, according to her, after the issue gained national attention.

“Despite mandatory reporter laws, officials ignored the incident until it became a national news story weeks later,” read the lawsuit. “Even now, they refuse to take it seriously — to deal with the assault, to reserve girls sports for girls, or even to give parents the necessary notice so they can keep their daughters safe.”

The family is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

On Tuesday the family’s attorneys appeared in court asking for an injunction to stop the school from making females compete with biological males.

RELATED: LA Times hit with vicious online backlash for bizarre headline about trans-identifying athlete

“The most important thing is that parents have a right to know if their child is going to be put in an unsafe situation, like being on a wrestling mat with a male athlete,” said Hal Frampton of the ADF. “They deserve notice and the right to opt out of that situation.”

While some reports describe the alleged assault as “groping,” the lawsuit asserts that the victim’s vagina was digitally penetrated.

Attorneys for the district say the incident is being investigated, but they dispute that the student’s Title IX protections were violated.

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​Alliance defending freedom, Title ix, Sexual assault, Transgender-identifying athlete, Politics 

A Chinese national was arrested Wednesday in Massachusetts for orchestrating a bizarre scheme involving the alleged framing of another national for voter fraud.

33-year-old Yupeng Sun impersonated another Chinese person who had legal permanent status and tried to frame the victim for voting in the 2024 election, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.

He then submitted numerous anonymous tips to Homeland Security Investigations and US Citizenship and Immigration Services accusing the victim of illegally voting.

Sun also allegedly submitted two fraudulent immigration forms in the name of the victim and his wife, which led to their green cards being confiscated. They were also entered into removal proceedings.

Prosecutors said Sun impersonated the victim in order to register online to vote and then submitted an early voting ballot at Malden City Hall.

He then submitted numerous anonymous tips to Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accusing the victim of illegally voting in the presidential election.

Sun went on to impersonate the couple in order to request the abandonment of their legal permanent status.

The couple discovered the scheme when they returned to the U.S. from an international trip in June 2024 and their green cards were confiscated during secondary inspection at the airport in Boston.

The DOJ said the Lexington Police Department and the Andover Police Department were instrumental in the investigation to unravel Sun’s alleged scheme.

Sun was charged with one count of fraudulent voter registration and one count of fraudulent voting.

RELATED: Convicted scammer and former aide to Minneapolis mayor arrested… AGAIN

United States Attorney General charging documents online

The charging documents indicated that the victims told police Sun was their tenant but had been evicted and retaliated by harassing them and ultimately trying to get them deported. Sun had been arrested for allegedly attacking the victims’ daughter, but the charges were dropped.

Sun admitted that he was “very, very” angry at both the victim and his daughter in an interview with police and appeared to confess to signing some of the documents.

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​Chinese national, Voter fraud, Immigration, Deportations, Politics 

Rosie O’Donnell had never been a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” before she accepted an offer to host the show.

Replacing Jimmy Kimmel during his summer vacation, O’Donnell was brought on for a week with one simple goal: to upset President Trump.

‘I don’t know how she can live with herself.’

I see Nazis

Kimmel said himself O’Donnell was being used as a “special treat” for the president, perpetuating the unlikely notion that, of course, the president is a nightly viewer.

O’Donnell told Variety that while she and Kimmel had never spoken in person, while saying they have an “adversarial relationship,” she was happy to take the opportunity to stick it to Trump.

Particularly, O’Donnell took shots at Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison — due to his apparent closeness with the president — for the pending takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which would give him control of CBS and CNN.

“It would be like Fox taking over all news channels. Imagine if Fox was not one outlier and Fox was the mainstay? That’s what’s happening with Hollywood now and the Ellisons, and it’s tragic,” O’Donnell claimed.

“Look at what’s happened to CBS News and ’60 Minutes,’ which was the gold star of their entire network, and they blew it up,” O’Donnell declared.

Seemingly with no room for upward trajectory left on her insults, O’Donnell then alluded to the idea that CBS News editor Bari Weiss, who is Jewish, is siding with “Nazis.”

“This Bari Weiss person, I don’t know how she can live with herself. There are people who are sidling up to him and history will record all of their names, what they did, and who they stood next to,” O’Donnell continued.

She added, “If you’re in a room with 10 Nazis at a table and you’re the only one who’s not, there’s a pretty good chance you’re a Nazi.”

RELATED: ‘I wasn’t invited to those parties’: Kelsey Grammer mocks woke Hollywood hypocrisy

Spite night

Fellow television host Piers Morgan was one of the most vocal opponents of O’Donnell’s Nazi comparisons.

Morgan said a day later, “Calling Jewish people ‘Nazis’ is so disgusting.”

Morgan labeled the comments “such a pathetic line of attack that it makes me want [Bari Weiss] and David Ellison to succeed in shaking up TV News as all the hateful trolls like O’Donnell will them to fail.”

The spite-based (temporary) return to hosting comes after O’Donnell revealed on a recent podcast that she got a tattoo to remind herself of her daughter’s pronouns. O’Donnell said that her 13-year-old, who believes she is “nonbinary,” became annoyed with her mother’s inability to remember how to address her.

“They first told me that it was ‘they/them,’ I tried my best, but I kept saying ‘she,'” O’Donnell said.

“And so they wrote on a cardboard paper ‘they,’ and then they would hold it up above their head every time I said ‘she,'” O’Donnell laughed.

This led to a tattoo that says “they” on O’Donnell’s wrist, so that she will “never forget.”

RELATED: Rosie O’Donnell takes drastic measure to stop herself from ‘misgendering’ her ‘nonbinary’ teenager

Hoda Davaine/Getty Images/SXSW London

Irish goodbye

O’Donnell also revealed that while she thought her tattoo was a loving gesture, her daughter was completely numb to the idea.

“I thought she’d be very touched, and she didn’t give two s**ts. She could not care less.”

O’Donnell has lived in Ireland since Trump took office in 2025, where she has pursued citizenship on grounds of her ancestry. It is unclear whether or not it has been awarded. On the other hand, Trump threatened to revoke O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship last summer.

As a talk show host, O’Donnell’s “The Rosie Show” had one season in 2011-2012, while “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” had six seasons from 1996 to 2002.

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​Donald trump, Jimmy kimmel, Piers morgan, Rosie o’donnell, Nazis, Entertainment, Bari weiss 

Republican Nancy Mace shocked the internet this week when she decided to debut her heavily tattooed arms for the first time — after keeping them under wraps for months.

Mace revealed that she got the tattoos in order to experience “the pain that I need to feel.”

“When you say something like ‘I need to feel pain’ or ‘I deserve to feel pain,’ there are just warning-sign alarms going off all over the place for me,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere comments, disturbed.

“Yes, that’s something I expect to hear from a cashier at Hot Topic, not a congresswoman,” co-host Dave Landau agrees.

“Also, ‘pain I need to feel’ sounds like a Nine Inch Nails song or like a Clive Barker movie. It doesn’t sound like a reason you get tattoos. I have tattoos. They’re hidden. I mean, I suppose are emotional pain, due to who I got them for, which is also why they’re hidden,” he says.

Dave notes that it reminds him of an acquaintance he has who got an “end racism” tattoo on his lower back.

“He came over on his motorcycle, and this was maybe 2000. And he showed me, and half my friends there were black, half were white. And he showed us his ‘end racism’ tattoo. And if you ever want to see black people laugh harder … show them your almost-a-tramp-stamp ‘end racism’ lower back tattoo,” he says.

“That must have gone over really well,” Stu says.

“Oh yeah, he ended up getting it removed,” Dave adds.

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​Congresswoman, Nancy mace, Republican, Tattoos, Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Blazetv show 

A special education teacher at a California elementary school is being investigated after concerned members of the community sent the district disturbing social media posts attributed to her.

Kenisha Daily of Fresno said she was “starting a black militia” and wanted to go “rob some white people” in the posts on Instagram, according to video shared by KFSN-TV.

‘I viewed the post as entertainment and never meant to threaten, harm, or alarm anyone.’

“Starting today I’m starting a black militia, so if you’re black and you wanna shoot some guns, come find me! We gonna rob some white people,” she said in one video. She also posted video of herself handling a long gun as well as a handgun, KFSN reported.

The controversial videos appear to have been removed from her account.

The Madera Unified School District put Daily on administrative leave from teaching at Lincoln Elementary School, though as of Wednesday afternoon, she is still listed among the staff on the school’s website. A temporary restraining order has also been ordered against Daily, according to KFSN.

Law enforcement officials told KFSN that they are investigating the videos.

In a statement to KFSN, Daily apologized for posting the videos.

“I viewed the post as entertainment and never meant to threaten, harm, or alarm anyone,” she said in the statement.

“I am genuinely heartbroken that a careless post has caused people to question my character and the trust they have in me,” she added. “For anyone who has been impacted or made to feel uncomfortable, I am truly sorry.”

RELATED: VIDEO: Cop turns in her badge and gun after posting racist rant against black people online

KFSN noted that Daily had been featured in a few news stories, including one from 2024 in which she received free braces as a part of the “Smiles for Teachers” program.

“I realize that I am an avenue for my students to be able to integrate into the classrooms, into the community,” she said on a newscast at the time. “And so, I’m reflective of them. And I have to make sure that I’m reflecting the best parts of them.”

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​Social media, Anti-white racism, Teacher, California, Politics 

Sophie Cunningham responded with style, grace, and domination after fans in Canada booed her relentlessly during the Indiana Fever game against the Toronto Temper Tuesday.

The star guard has come under fire after she made a powerful statement in support of women’s sports and against biological males competing against females.

‘I think that’s what sports is all about. You’re going to get boos. You’re going to get cheers.’

That may have been the impetus for the Canadian fans booing passionately whenever Cunningham got the ball during the WNBA matchup. Several viewers posted videos of the booing on social media.

Cunningham hit all three of her three-point attempts and helped the Fever defeat the Tempo, 101 to 95.

After the game, she was gracious in a postgame press conference and complimented the fans in the arena.

“I want to shout out the Tempo crowd and the city. I think we’ve had so much fun. It’s my first time being in Canada. It’s a lot of our first times being in Canada,” Cunningham said unprompted.

“But the crowd was absolutely amazing, and, you know, I think that’s what sports is all about. You’re going to get boos. You’re going to get cheers,” she added. “But just the fact that they’re so passionate, they’re loud, and they’re putting on for the city, I think it’s amazing.”

In an on-court interview after the game, she also appeared to reference the controversy over transgender-identifying athletes.

“What a great environment for women’s basketball. It was a hell of a crowd. It was a lot of fun to play in front of,” she said.

When asked about her role among the “big three” scorers, she referenced girls playing sports again.

“I’m just here. I’m just here. Whatever the team needs of me, I’m going to do,” she insisted.

“Like I said, I’m just going to come, have some fun. Maybe inspire some young girls to come beat me one day!”

RELATED: Black WNBA player blames ‘white privilege’ after ejection for hitting Sophie Cunningham

Cunningham’s support for women athletes has led to some fans appearing at her games with signs thanking her for standing up against unfair competition.

This in turn has led to some angry responses from many, including the co-owner of the Seattle Storm, who cursed out two teenage girls at a game. She was later suspended and fined by the league.

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​Sophie cunningham, Wnba, Womens sports, Transgender athletes, Sports 

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced that it is turning old federal land — including Cold War uranium sites, closed military facilities, and other public parcels — into part of the physical backbone of America’s artificial intelligence buildout, pairing new data centers with the power generation needed to run them. The projects could also create new domestic jobs.

Critics will focus on the benefits to big technology companies. The larger issue is harder to dismiss: Energy security is national security. The country that can build and power the next generation of AI infrastructure will hold an enormous economic and strategic advantage.

Whatever disagreements Americans have over individual energy sources, China is not waiting for us to resolve them.

That means the United States cannot afford an ideological energy policy. Whether the resource is natural gas, nuclear power, solar, battery storage, or the critical minerals needed to build advanced technologies, domestic supply should be treated as a strategic asset.

AI is already changing the scale of America’s power needs. Data centers alone could soon consume as much electricity as the entire country of Malaysia. Advanced manufacturing is returning to American soil and will require still more reliable power.

The military is modernizing with increasingly energy-intensive technology as well. As retired U.S. Air Force Lt. General David Deptula argued in the Washington Post, data itself has become a strategic military asset. The countries that lead the next generation of AI will need more than talented engineers and sophisticated algorithms. They will need the infrastructure to power the entire ecosystem.

China understands this. Beijing has spent years pursuing an aggressive all-of-the-above energy strategy. It continues to build coal plants while investing heavily in solar, nuclear power, hydropower, and battery storage. Whatever disagreements Americans have over individual energy sources, China is not waiting for us to resolve them.

The Energy Department’s plan is therefore a timely step. It creates opportunities to pair new power generation with the infrastructure that will consume it. But if America intends to win the AI race, policymakers across the political spectrum will have to go further and remove unnecessary obstacles to new energy supply.

Solar power, for example, has been the fastest-growing source of new U.S. electricity generation for five years running. In 2025, the United States added 43 gigawatts of new solar capacity, enough to power over 32 million homes. Where permitting and regulatory barriers needlessly delay viable projects, Washington should remove them.

RELATED: Water, watts, and workers: 3 persistent myths about AI and data centers

Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The same urgency should apply to critical minerals. The United States has spent years allowing dependence on foreign supply chains to deepen even as minerals became indispensable to batteries, electronics, defense systems, and energy infrastructure. Domestic mining and processing cannot expand at the speed national security demands if projects spend years trapped in permitting and regulatory limbo.

This is not an argument for replacing traditional energy with newer technologies. It is an argument for abundance. Oil and gas remain essential. Nuclear power can provide large amounts of reliable electricity. Solar and storage can add capacity quickly in the right places. Critical minerals underpin all of them. The strategic question is not which source wins an ideological contest. It is whether America can produce enough energy, reliably and affordably, to meet the demands ahead.

China is already acting on that logic. The United States should do the same. The next phase of economic and military competition will be shaped not only by who invents the best technology, but by who can build the plants, mines, transmission, data centers, and generation needed to deploy it at scale.

The Energy Department’s announcement is a good start. Now we need to make abundance the policy: build more, permit faster, secure domestic supply chains, and stop treating energy sources as political footballs.

America will need all the reliable energy it can produce, however we can produce it. The country that powers the future will have a much better chance of leading it.

​Artificial intelligence, National security, Natural gas, Opinion & analysis, Solar, Data centers, China, Rare earth minerals, Electricity, Department of energy, Big tech 

Skepticism over whether the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) is qualified to keep his seat was greatly compounded on Tuesday by a troubling admission she made during a debate with Ralph Norman, the Republican congressman who is also running to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

Darline Graham, a former commissioner with the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, was appointed last month by Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to finish her brother’s term. Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly on July 11.

‘What are we doing here?’

Graham and Norman both advanced from the special GOP primary on Aug. 11 and are on the ballot in the primary runoff on Aug. 25.

Immediately after the candidates fielded some questions about the U.S.-Iran war and what to do about the apparent depletion of critical American munitions, debate moderator Greta Van Susteren asked Graham, “Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States?”

The Pentagon noted in its 2026 National Defense Strategy document that communist China’s historic military buildup affects America’s interests because “the Indo-Pacific will soon make up more than half of the global economy.”

“The American people’s security, freedom, and prosperity are therefore directly linked to our ability to trade and engage from a position of strength in the Indo-Pacific,” said the NSS document. “Were China — or anyone else, for that matter — to dominate this broad and crucial region, it would be able to effectively veto Americans’ access to the world’s economic center of gravity, with enduring implications for our nation’s economic prospects, including our ability to reindustrialize.”

RELATED: Drain the swamp? Meet the refill

As for Taiwan, the island nation sought by Beijing is a “semiconductor manufacturing powerhouse” that ranks among America’s top-five merchandise trading partners.

After having Van Susteren repeat the question, Graham responded, “I’m just going to be honest here. I’m not, on national security — I’m not that informed on national security.”

Graham paused for a moment, then added, “But I do support the military,” then referenced her brother’s and father’s military service.

‘This is not something you inherit.’

“I’m not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise,” continued South Carolina’s first female senator, “but I do support the military.”

Norman didn’t immediately make hay of Graham’s admission but instead answered the moderator’s original question, stating, “Taiwan is a definite ally, and we have a trading relationship with them that is beneficial to the United States, chips being one of them and others.”

RELATED: ‘Birthright senatorship’ betrays America First

Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

Norman further emphasized the need for America to deter China from taking over Taiwan, in part by sustaining Trump’s “peace through strength” approach abroad.

While Norman didn’t pounce on Graham’s admission, others on the right did en masse.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, noted, “I’m sorry, but respectfully, even accounting for her being new to the job, this is embarrassing and inexcusable. China’s threat toward Taiwan is a bit of a big deal, especially — it would seem — for a member of the U.S. Senate.”

BlazeTV host Steve Deace tweeted, “What are we doing here?”

“I did not think I had heard that right,” wrote South Carolina state Sen. Matt Leber (R). “This admittance should be the end of this race.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tweeted, “Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States’ national security. Darline Graham admits she’s not. This is not something you inherit. And it’s critical in the U.S. Senate.”

Graham faced far less ridicule over her suggestion during the debate that there were “50 million people in South Carolina.”

President Donald Trump has endorsed Graham and is scheduled to attend a rally with her in Myrtle Beach on Friday.

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​Donald trump, Darline graham, Steve deace, Ralph norman, South carolina, Senate, Taiwan, Foreign policy, National security, Lindsey graham, Politics 

When I first entered the public arena, the focus of my work was almost entirely on why the right needed to take power seriously. Conservatives had suffered a devastating string of political and cultural losses because they focused on argument and ideology while paying little attention to the way power actually worked. That criticism drew plenty of hostility from defenders of the status quo who did not appreciate some rookie pointing out why decades of conservative leadership had produced so little.

It turns out I was not alone. Popular voices including Matt Walsh and John Doyle now openly support conservatives taking and wielding power effectively. That disagreement has launched another round of public debate over the pursuit of power, but the argument is only a proxy for a larger battle over JD Vance, foreign policy, and the future of MAGA.

The arguments breaking out across the conservative commentariat are not separate fights. They are proxy battles over the same question.

Donald Trump represented a serious threat to the established political order. Initially dismissed as a brash reality television host, he quickly demonstrated that he was tapping into something deeper than celebrity and catchy insults. Trump was not a career politician. He did not enter politics with deep ideological commitments, and he did not know or care about the established rules.

He fused law and order, economic protectionism, foreign policy restraint, immigration enforcement, and culture-war issues in a way no Republican candidate had since Pat Buchanan. Trump saw an untapped political market and, like any good businessman, gave the customers what they wanted.

Many prominent establishment figures declared themselves “NeverTrump” and vowed to resist MAGA’s takeover of the conservative movement. That strategy failed. Trump became a political steamroller. Some NeverTrumpers migrated into the Democratic coalition or created opposition “conservative” outlets such as the Bulwark. Others decided to wait.

MAGA had the populist momentum, but the establishment still controlled institutions, personnel, and much of the donor class. The bet was that it could outlast MAGA and co-opt it, just as the Republican establishment had absorbed the Tea Party.

The next opportunity came with Ron DeSantis. Establishment conservatives hoped Trump’s legal troubles would make him vulnerable to a popular governor with a record of victories. DeSantis was supposed to offer Trumpism without Trump: populist energy packaged in a form more compatible with the old ideological agenda.

It did not work. Trump’s primary and general-election victories removed any illusion that a direct assault on him from inside the party could succeed.

If the establishment could not oust Trump, the remaining option was to derail his movement and prevent anyone from carrying MAGA into future elections. Despite Republican control of the House, Senate, presidency, and Supreme Court, congressional Republicans have repeatedly clashed with the administration. The Senate has stalled key personnel and has not passed the SAVE Act. Republican politicians know they must praise Trump rhetorically, but many continue to resist important parts of his agenda.

RELATED: The right has a blind spot about young women

Blaze Media Illustration

Add a deeply unpopular war with no obvious end, and the result is an effective containment mechanism: MAGA divided, distracted, and exhausted.

That is why the fight over JD Vance matters so much. When Trump sent the vice president to negotiate a peace deal, critics who had spent years presenting themselves as Trump’s loyal allies suddenly questioned Vance’s ideology, associations, and viability as a successor. Like Trump, Vance is not wedded to neoconservative foreign policy. His role in the negotiations made clear that he is being prepared as a possible heir to the movement.

At the same time, some critics began presenting Marco Rubio as an alternative while attacking any attempt to withdraw from the conflict.

The fights over power, foreign policy, affordability, and the dangers of the New Right are therefore part of the same proxy war for control of the GOP. It is no accident that many establishment figures who favor expansive military commitments abroad also recoil from using political power aggressively at home.

We can always find money for war, but when the cost of living becomes unbearable, suddenly government action is communism. The overlap is not accidental. It reflects the old conservative settlement: Republicans may fight wars abroad and protect big business at home. They may talk endlessly about social issues, but they are not supposed to spend serious political capital addressing them.

That is why it may seem strange to watch figures such as James Lindsay, Joel Berry, and Ben Shapiro portray Matt Walsh as a socialist or JD Vance as a crypto-Nazi. The rhetoric makes more sense when viewed through coalitional politics. Whatever they think personally of Walsh or Vance, they recognize that both threaten an order that has existed for decades.

The conservative movement became comfortable as beautiful losers: controlled opposition rewarded with money, status, and institutional access while the country moved steadily left. Trump disrupted that arrangement. Vance threatens to continue disrupting it.

RELATED: It’s the economy, stupid — again

Blaze Media Illustration

If conservatism is ever to become a real political movement, it must escape the ideological shackles that keep it from acting. As Russell Kirk argued in “The Conservative Mind,” conservatism should not be about preserving an abstract ideology but a particular people and their way of life.

MAGA represented that shift. It was willing to pursue policies that improved the lives of Americans even when those policies fell outside neoconservative economic or foreign-policy orthodoxy. Achieving those goals requires the right to think seriously about power and how to wield it. Even reducing the size of government requires acquiring and applying state power.

The NeverTrump project now is to poison the well around Vance, prevent him from inheriting the movement, and return the GOP to establishment politics as usual.

That is the argument underneath the latest round of conservative infighting. The personalities change, the immediate controversy changes, and the slogans change, but the stakes remain constant. Someone will define what MAGA becomes after Trump, and the establishment has no intention of surrendering that decision.

The arguments breaking out across the conservative commentariat are not separate fights. They are proxy battles over the same question: Who gets to rule the Republican Party after Trump?

​Jd vance, Donald trump, Gop, Republican party, Marco rubio, Joel berry, Ben shapiro, Economy, Affordability crisis, Opinion & analysis 

Carmen Lizet Puch, a 42-year-old mother, was found brutally stabbed to death at Great Falls Park in Virginia on Monday.

After police arrested a suspect, the Department of Homeland Security identified him as an illegal alien who had been released into the U.S. under the Biden administration.

Cedillos-Campos knew Puch because they both worked at the Bitez restaurant in Herndon.

Puch was found on the ground near a 2011 Honda Civic in the parking lot of the park in McLean at about 6:45 a.m., WUSA9 reported. She was later pronounced dead at the scene.

On Wednesday, the Fairfax County Police announced on social media they had arrested 19-year-old Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos in connection with the case.

The DHS claimed in a statement that Cedillos-Campos was a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador arrested by Customs and Border Protection in 2024 for illegally crossing into the U.S. near El Paso, Texas.

The Salvadoran was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration, according to the DHS.

“The Biden administration recklessly unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities and abused the law to do so,” the statement continued. “President Trump and [DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin] are now enforcing the law, arresting illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country — and have reversed Biden’s deadly catch and release policy.”

Sources told WRC-TV that Cedillos-Campos knew Puch because they both worked at the Bitez restaurant in Herndon.

“I don’t know if you can process something like this. It’s not something you expect. It’s not something that anyone would ever want to happen,” said Abdul Anwari, the owner of the restaurant. “But you know, we’re still taking it [a] minute at a time.”

RELATED: ‘Monster’ suspected of brutally murdering DHS worker is a migrant naturalized by Biden: DHS

Anwari said they are setting up a GoFundMe to help Puch’s family with raising her daughter.

Puch is the mother of a young daughter and was jogging when she was brutally murdered.

“We are urging Governor [Abigail] Spanberger (D-Va.) to put her community first and turn over this criminal illegal alien to ICE,” the agency added.

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​Illegal alien, Department of homeland security, Murder, Virginia, Politics 

Median Strategies, which presented itself as an independent polling and research firm, recently shut down after the Los Angeles Times exposed it for fabricating a survey showing a large lead for Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Its other fabricated results, including one showing Francesca Hong with a large lead in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, were also revealed as part of the same operation.

After repeated inquiries from the Times, Median Strategies admitted the numbers were completely made up as a “short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

Once exposed, it withdrew all its prior polling releases, claimed no political funding or financial motives were involved, and shut down without revealing the identities of those involved.

Even more disturbing, Steve Deace’s producer and co-host Aaron McIntire points out, is that Median Strategies’ polling numbers for Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary “largely mirrored the results from established pollsters like Marquette and Public Policy Polling.”

The scandal begs the question: If fake numbers can so easily pass as legitimate and shape political reality, should public polling itself be banned?

On this episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace reacts to the Median Strategies scandal; the panel also proposes ideas to to curb the influence of unreliable polling.

“We’ve created this entire society now where stuff is determined by polling that most of us can’t ever recall we’ve ever taken part in,” says Deace, likening political polling to a sports betting scenario where a gambler loses his money before the game is ever played because an obscure panel of analysts already determined the outcome.

“What have I been saying about we should prosecute these polling institutions for fraud? Exhibit 666 right here,” says co-host Todd Erzen.

Deace has a proposal to fix the issue: “The elections determine who wins and what policies we’re going to do — like when people actually go and vote.”

Then “when you’re in office and if you won the election, do what you got elected to do, and then let the people decide in the next election whether they like that or not rather than constantly reacting and responding to things we’re not even sure are true,” he adds.

“I think this is a great idea, and here’s how you prosecute it. … If you ban public polling, the first defense is going to be, ‘Well, that’s freedom of speech.’ No, you prosecute it as a violation of freedom of speech,” says McIntire.

He argues that Median Strategies allegedly created its fake poll numbers to “deceive people” in order to “squash their vote.”

“That would seem to be a violation of the First Amendment to me,” he says.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

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​Elections, Francesca hong, Karen bass, Steve deace, Blazetv show 

Just a few months removed from NASA’s record-setting trip around the moon, the party will now abruptly stop.

In April, America’s Artemis II took humans farther away from home than they have ever been, completing a fly-by of the lunar surface that, after several delays, seemed like it was never going to happen.

But the space race isn’t over.

The size of the crater’s rims create permanently shadowed regions.

Before the end of August, all eyes will be on a familiar foe as they take their next stab at lunar exploration.

The Chinese version of NASA, the China National Space Administration, is set to launch Chang’e‑7. The lunar orbiter will fly equipped with a lander, rover, and mobile probe.

According to Ars Technica, the lander is several times larger than NASA-backed probes that have recently landed on the moon’s surface, most of which have been rather underwhelming.

The culmination of Chinese lunar rovers Yutu (2013) and Yutu-2 (2019), Chang’e‑7 has a bold and rather headline-grabbing mission: find water.

China’s mobile hopper probe will search Shackleton Crater, a barren part of the moon’s south pole. The size of the crater’s rims create permanently shadowed regions; researchers believe that if water ice exists on the moon, it’s there.

RELATED: The rockets are still blowing up. So why is Elon laughing on his SpaceX earnings call?

–

According to Our China Story, the “leaper” probe can repeatedly take off and land to get to its destination, making it “the best choice for challenging impact craters.”

“It is a water-seeking ‘hand-scattering’ tool,'” the rover’s description reads after a translation.

The master plan

But what’s below the lunar surface offers the real prize. Aside from looking for ice, National Science Review reports that the Chinese instruments will investigate the moon’s topography, internal structure, magnetic field, and thermal characteristics. Economic and military engineering on the moon depend on this kind of deep geological mapping and study.

The goal is simple: dominate moon knowledge to a degree that gives China a strategic edge against the U.S. in the crucial early stages of space colonization.

Chang’e‑7’s advanced fact-finding mission is about a year ahead of NASA’s Artemis III, with the Asian country saying it has already done the prep work to send humans to the lunar surface in the near future.

RELATED: Mars Needs Cowboys

ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

First, China well launch Chang’e 8, set for 2029, another robotic surface mission. The boots-on-the-ground mission is set for 2030. However, Beijing claims it already has a space station “steadily in orbit” that has served as a platform to verify manned lunar landings.

Falling behind?

This undercuts the mission statement of Artemis III, which is estimated to launch sometime in 2027. The mission was originally meant to include a lunar landing, but that idea has been pushed until Artemis IV. Now, Artemis III will serve as a preparatory mission to ensure a safe landing for Artemis IV astronauts, and while those parameters are behind China’s alleged accomplishments, if Artemis IV hits its goal launch of “early 2028,” it will establish permanent real estate on the moon for the United States.

“Return to the moon before the end of President Trump’s term, build a moon base, establish an enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in March.

That is the real mission, and if NASA can successfully pull off its landing, the race for the moon will effectively be over.

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​Nasa, Moon landing, Artemis iii, Artemis iv, Chang’e‑7, China, Tech, Space 

I was recently treated to a free screening of a new documentary called “Thank You for Sharing” (2026). This funny and engaging film is a much-needed investigation into the dubious intentions of the mental health industry.

It’s also the first foray into feature-length filmmaking by upstart conservative press Passage Publishing. And Passage chose a novel way to get people to watch it.

You can see the lack of money on the screen. But you can also feel a sense of rebellion and scrappiness. A kind of upstart energy.

I hadn’t heard of “Thank You” until it popped up on my X feed. It would be available for one week, for free.

If the strategy sounds familiar, it may be because another low-budget, right-leaning film recently stumbled onto something similar — with spectacular results.

‘Citizen Vigilante’

Last June, “Citizen Vigilante” was already making waves online, particularly in right-wing circles, when Elon Musk stepped in and dramatically expanded its audience.

The film had received a conventional release through independent distributor Quiver, including a very limited theatrical run in the United States. But the movie had little prospect of reaching much of the rest of the world. Germany had even refused to give it a rating, effectively “banning” it.

Then Musk contacted director Uwe Boll’s team and, with their permission, made the entire movie available free on X for 48 hours.

The stunt worked. “Citizen Vigilante” climbed into the top 10 on video-on-demand platforms including Apple and Amazon, and Quiver subsequently acquired worldwide distribution rights, excluding a handful of territories.

“Citizen Vigilante” stars canceled Hollywood actor Armie Hammer as an American real estate heir living in Croatia who reinvents himself as a vigilante, hunting down rapists, bullies, and other criminals, many of them migrants.

From the start, the film generated huge amounts of controversy, its apparent anti-immigration politics constituting an almost unimaginable affront to the leftist entertainment industry.

Unfortunately, “Citizen Vigilante” is a terrible movie. The plot makes no sense, and the filmmaking is on par with Boll’s famously schlocky, gore-filled B-grade films.

But its release remained a major cultural event. Mainstream media felt obligated to comment on the film and denounce its politics. This, in turn, forced Western progressives to defend their widely unpopular open-border policies.

The rise of the right-wing film

I’ve seen a bunch of right-wing films over the last year. They tend to fall into a couple of different categories.

There are the Christian-influenced films, like “Sound of Freedom” (2023) or “Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist” (2023).

In these films, a high level of sincerity is immediately evident. There’s a minimum of snark. People profess their love of God or Jesus unabashedly.

It takes a while to get used to genuine people of faith as characters in a movie. Hollywood generally mocks or criticizes such people. But once the surprise wears off, it’s quite refreshing.

Matt Walsh in a wig

Then there are the satirical films. Matt Walsh has made several of these. His best two are “What Is a Woman?” (2022) and “Am I a Racist?” (2024). Both were made on limited budgets.

But they both work. In “Am I a Racist?” Walsh dresses up in ridiculous getups, impersonating leftoid weirdos of various types.

It’s quite funny and effective. Though making fun of people like Robin DiAngelo isn’t that hard. But that’s the point.

American movie

Then there are patriotic movies, like “Young Washington” (2026) and “Reagan” (2024), in which Dennis Quaid plays the 40th president. .

“Reagan” wasn’t a perfect film, but it was fun to review Ronald Reagan’s long and extraordinary life. I teared up at the end, remembering the grace and humility — even in his final days — of one of our greatest presidents.

Dinesh D’Souza’s docu-drama “Death of a Nation” (2018) was well intentioned and strongly pro-American, but suffered from a lack of funding.

D’Souza has made a whole series of these low-budget patriotic films. He began making them way back before the first Trump administration. So kudos to him for blazing a trail.

MAGA by mistake

Then there is “The Apprentice” (2024), which depicted President Trump’s youth and rise as a businessman. This was not intended as a right-wing film, but I suspect more Trump supporters saw it than detractors.

I found the film interesting, even as it shamelessly attempted to smear Trump in the most mean-spirited ways. Ultimately, it made Trump seem shrewd and sympathetic, despite the bad intentions of the filmmakers.

Rumors of war

A similar film was “Civil War” (2024), by mainstream director Alex Garland. The story seemed inspired by the heated election-fraud discourse after the 2020 election. People thought we might actually have a civil war!

Right-wing viewers appreciated the realism of the film. Garland created a “low-intensity” war scenario, where some people are actively fighting and other people are going about their lives.

In the end, Garland sold out to the left, revealing a blubbering, cowardly Trump-clone dictator to be the cause of the conflict.

Still, the movie was intelligently done and possibly prophetic and thus was a hit with young conservatives.

RELATED: ‘Civil War’ gives journos their dumb Trump dictator fantasy

A24

Grit > $

Most of the right-wing movies listed above were clearly made without Hollywood-level financing. You can see the lack of money on the screen.

But you can also feel a sense of rebellion and scrappiness. A kind of upstart energy. These are the underdog films of their time.

When I watched the opening scenes of “Sound of Freedom” — a great film by any measure — and I saw the lack of slickness, the lack of pampered movie stars, the lack of smarmy leftism, I got excited.

This is what I want from movies: passion, effort, resourcefulness, and most of all filmmakers who believe in what they are doing.

​Armie hammer, Citizen vigilante, Civil war, Conservative filmmaking, Controversy, Dennis quaid, Dinesh dsouza, Documentary, Elon musk, Mainstream media, Mental health, Passage publishing, Uwe boll, Matt walsh, Movies, Entertainment, Hollywood, Blake’s progress 

Passwords have been under threat lately, with attacks hitting big-name password manager apps and vulnerabilities found inside the “more secure” Passkeys, but these aren’t the only pieces of personal information at risk right now.

The FBI issued a new warning that cybercriminals are scouring personal accounts and social media for explicit photos of adults and minors that can be used to stalk, harass, and extort victims for personal gain.

Images are usually taken without users’ knowledge and sold online on the black market.

Here’s what you need to know and what you can do to stay safe.

Warning from the FBI

In mid-August, the FBI released a stark warning that sexual exploitation (SE) actors are on the prowl looking for compromising photos of potential victims to sell online for profit. These criminals aren’t just using one attack vector — like leaked passwords online — to gain access to accounts either. Instead, they’re employing “a variety of social engineering and cyber intrusion tactics to target specific individuals of interest.” Targets can be anyone: public officials, celebrities, common civilians who pique their interest, and even complete strangers. Everyone is fair game.

The explicit images in question are usually taken without users’ knowledge, and when they’re sold online on the black market, sellers include the victim’s name, date of birth, email, phone number, and even their social media username for maximum impact and potential re-targeting campaigns by other criminals who may also wish to exploit the same victim.

3 ways criminals gain access to intimate photos

The FBI notes that these SE actors are gaining access to user accounts through the following methods:

Password and pin targeting is a process where criminals test a combination of pins and passwords to gain access to a targeted account. Considered a brute-force hack, this process can be both arduous and tedious. However, criminals are reportedly using recent password and data leaks to narrow down the possibilities, making everyone an easy target. Criminals are posing as customer service representatives on major social media platforms where they send threatening messages to potential targets, warning them that their account will be locked or disabled unless they reset their password using a spoofed system hosted by the criminal. When all else fails, an old-fashioned phishing scheme is their last line of attack. In this case, bad actors send emails to potential victims telling them that their account was breached and that the password must be changed, again using a spoofed website hosted by the criminal where they get direct access to the new password in the end.

How to protect yourself from SE actors

Luckily, there are things you can do to shore up security on your accounts and keep your most private photos safe. The FBI outlines several clear recommendations, to which we’ve added our own tips.

RELATED: How to get Google AI off your smartphone now

Yurii Karvatskyi/Getty Images

Together, all of these can keep you and your data much safer online:

Refrain from storing private images on social media, websites, or cloud-connected accounts where they can be accessed by a third party. Don’t even keep these images in your drafts. If your accounts are breached, everything saved inside belongs to the intruders. If you do keep any sensitive images on your phone, make sure they’re saved inside a password-protected or locked folder to add an extra level of security and scrutiny. Both Apple Photos on iOS and Google Photos on Android and iOS have these options built in. Use complex passwords to secure all of your accounts, and make sure you change these passwords often — every three to six months is generally a good idea. Rely on Passkeys when applicable. Even though there is a bug on iOS that can expose your IP address to websites when using iCloud Private Relay, Passkeys are still more secure overall as they require someone to physically have your device in their hand in order to access your account. Enable two-factor authentication for even more protection. This requires hackers to have access to your email or phone number, in addition to your other account information, making a successful attack less likely. Never click on embedded links sent to you through email or a messaging app, even if you think they originated from an official social media company. Instead, always go directly to the host website to change your password. If you ever receive a password reset PIN that you did not request, ignore it. Then log onto the website directly and change your password manually from there to ensure your account is secure.

Cyber criminals are getting bolder these days, but you’re smarter. Follow these tips, and you have a much better chance at thwarting any future attempts to access your accounts and steal your photos or other personal data.

​Tech, Security, Privacy, Photos 

America’s public schools are increasingly opening their doors to Islamic indoctrination, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm.

“Islam has come to conquer,” she says.

“There is a big shift happening lately where they seem to be targeting children now. Now, even here in the state of Texas,” she continues, pointing out that in Texas a high school was handing out Qurans and candy to children.

“But now, they’re actively shuttling children to mosques to indoctrinate them. Now, thankfully, this was not in Texas. It was in California,” she explains, reading a headline from the New York Post.

“California high school students were given Qurans and encouraged to wear hijabs during class trip to mosque,” the headline reads.

“Now, these kids were taken to the mosque. They were taught that Islam in particular promotes social justice. I wonder if that extends to women … does that extend to women who get publicly lashed if they don’t wear their hijab properly?” Gonzales asks.

“Something tells me no. How about, does that extend to homosexuals?” she asks again. “Cause I don’t know. To me, the idea of promoting social justice doesn’t mean throwing someone off a rooftop. But maybe that’s just me.”

Female students were encouraged to wear hijabs, and some of the students in attendance were Jewish.

“The parents are now suing the school and the district. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who’s been paying attention. I’m like shouting from the rooftops about it because there is going to come a point where we’ve reached the breaking point and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” Gonzales says.

“We need to take them at their word. They have been preaching about their plans to take over,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Sara gonzales, Jewish, Islam, Muslim, California, Texas, Students, Public school, Indoctrination, Blazetv show