New York City’s Canal Street has long been a hot bed for illegal immigrants selling knock-off designer bags to tourists, but after Turning Point USA reporter Savanah Hernandez caught it all in a video that’s now gone viral — that may all be about to change for good.

Following Hernandez’s video, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Canal Street and arrested nine illegal aliens, some of whom had criminal backgrounds.

“I was Ubering, and I saw this huge market of African migrants selling all of these bags along this sidewalk. This sidewalk was actually completely full of people. So I was like, ‘OK, pull over. Let me see what’s going on,’” Hernandez says in the video.

“Now, I spoke to some of the migrants, they were telling me they’re all from Senegal. And as I’m walking around, they all start grabbing their bags very quickly. Again, this entire block was filled with all these bags. And they picked them all up very quickly, within two minutes, they all started jumping in vehicles, running away,” she explained.

While speaking with one of the migrants, he admitted to Hernandez that they didn’t have licenses to sell the purses, and if the cops were to catch them, they’d take away all their products.

“I don’t have confirmation that DHS saw my post. All I will say is that it went extremely viral. I think it got about five million impressions, and the left wing took hold of it first, and they were roasting me, and they were like, ‘Congratulations on discovering Canal Street, this has been happening for decades,’” Hernandez tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Which, I still posted the video because I was like, ‘OK, congratulations. Criminal activity has been going on for decades. Let’s go ahead and get it fixed,’” she continues. “A couple days later, ICE goes and completely raids the area.”

“And as far as I’m concerned, this street is still cleaned up,” she adds.

“It’s just such a bizarre world that we’re living in where the argument is that it’s a bad thing to swoop up and grab illegal criminals off the streets … plus, they have criminal records on top of the fact that they’re already criminals for being here illegally,” Gonzales says.

“Why would anyone not want them off the streets is just very strange,” she adds.

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Stephen King got rich by tapping into something universal: the primal, human fears that haunt us all, regardless of race, class, or creed. Books like “The Shining” and “Salem’s Lot” are effective whether you read them in Borneo or Bangor, in Czech or Chinese.

Never mind the master of modern horror’s recent fixation on America’s president — a figure who (at least for King’s senescent Woodstock-generation cohort) represents an evil worse than Pennywise and Randall Flagg combined. The author’s late-career Trump derangement syndrome can’t undo the undeniable impact his more than 60 novels, countless short stories, and a flood of TV and movie adaptations continue to have on pop culture.

King once described organized religion as ‘a dangerous tool.’ His online tirades often single out Christians, casting them as theocrats, hypocrites, or villains.

That is an impact well-worth examining, especially for Christians. Beneath the lurid gore, King’s books can seem oddly comforting and even wholesome. King has a knack for creating heroes out of “regular” Americans, flawed but well-meaning small-town folk who watch “The Price Is Right,” drive Chryslers, and buy Cheerios at the supermarket.

What’s more, these heroes do battle in a world where good and evil are clearly delimitated, with the former always triumphing over the latter. King seems to adhere to the sort of “culturally” Christian worldview that still held sway in the America of his youth (he was born in 1947).

Folly of faith

But a closer look at King’s more than 50-year career reveals a consistent tendency to subvert Christianity. Indeed, it seems that King has applied his considerable storytelling gifts to denigrating faith as much as inducing fear.

King doesn’t simply tell tales of terror. He builds worlds where Christianity is a sickness, believers are lunatics, and God is either cruel or indifferent to our suffering. His work isn’t just critical of religion, but a deliberate inversion of it. The sacred becomes sinister, and devotion becomes disease.

In “Carrie,” King’s first novel, the villain is not the telekinetic girl but her mother — a wild-eyed Christian who punishes her daughter for being human. Blood becomes sin, the Bible becomes a weapon, and faith is presented as the root of madness. Millions of readers met Christianity through that book and learned to detest the believer more than the devil.

The monster in the pews

In his novella “The Mist,” he repeats the theme. Trapped townsfolk turn to a hysterical woman who quotes scripture on her way to presiding over human sacrifices. She becomes a prophet of panic, a parody of piety. The monsters outside may be frightening, but the believer inside is worse. Once again, King’s message is clear: The sacred is the scariest thing of all.

Then comes 2014’s “Revival,” perhaps King’s clearest expression of his contempt for Christianity. It begins in a small New England town, where young Jamie Morton meets Reverend Charles Jacobs, a gifted preacher who wins hearts and fills pews. But when tragedy strikes his family, the reverend’s faith vanishes. From his own pulpit, he mocks belief, denounces God, and is driven out in shame.

Years later, Jamie — now a weary musician addicted and adrift — meets Jacobs again, no longer a man of God but a man of wires and obsession. The reverend has replaced prayer with experiments, chasing power instead of purpose. When he finally forces open the door between life and death, what he finds isn’t heaven or hell, but a monstrous parody of creation — an insect god ruling over the void. It’s less revelation than ridicule, King’s way of saying that only a fool would still look to God for guidance.

Pulling punches

It’s worth noting what King never touches. He spares Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism the same disdain he reserves for Christianity. To mock those faiths would be called “punching down” by the cultural gatekeepers he aligns himself with.

But his compass is as broken as his conscience — spinning wildly, always pointing away from truth. He pretends he’s striking upward at power when, in truth, he’s sneering downward at the poor and ordinary believers who build churches, not empires. It’s all fair game in art, so long as the victims are mostly white and Christian. Mocking Islam would be “insensitive.” Ridiculing Hinduism would be “problematic.” But tearing into Christianity? That’s considered brave. In King’s moral universe, faith is fair game, as long as it’s practiced in small communities, not gated ones.

RELATED: Stephen King forced to apologize for Charlie Kirk remarks, threatened with lawsuit, ripped as ‘evil, twisted liar’

Photo by BENJAMIN HANSON/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

‘Spiritual vandalism’

Another important point worth emphasizing is that King’s world isn’t godless. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s god-haunted, but the divine is turned on its head. His priests prey instead of pray. His crosses offer no comfort, only despair.

This is not accidental. King once described organized religion as “a dangerous tool.” His online tirades often single out Christians, casting them as theocrats, hypocrites, or villains. He preaches clarity while painting conviction as madness. The man who once wrote about demons now sees them in ordinary Americans.

What King practices is a kind of spiritual vandalism. He keeps the architecture of Christianity — the rituals, the icons, the language — but fills it with sacrilege. The chalice still shines, but the wine is poison. Grace becomes guilt, creation becomes cruelty, and salvation becomes surrender. It is not atheism but corruption — the gospel rewritten in reverse.

King vs. the King

Yet even in his rebellion, King can’t escape the faith he so clearly despises. His stories are soaked in scripture, each one haunted by the very God he denies. Every curse echoes a prayer. Every desecration betrays a longing for what was lost. Behind his hatred lies hunger. A need for meaning, even if that meaning must be mutilated to be felt.

The irony is almost biblical. King writes of hell because he still dreams of heaven. He rejects the transcendent but cannot stop reaching for it. That is why his work feels so spiritual even in its cynicism — because rebellion is, in its way, a strange kind of worship.

This Boomer icon may never kneel before Christ, but his stories do — in rage, not reverence. They curse the altar, yet can’t look away. Stephen King may write about death, but his real subject is the divine he can’t quite kill.

​Stephen king, Carrie, The stand, The mist, Revival, Literature, Entertainment, Trump derangement syndrome, Culture, Faith 

A 19-year-old man was arrested for attacking and killing a 52-year-old delivery worker at Chick-fil-A in the middle of the night, Illinois police say.

Darryl Lee Jr. of Kankakee allegedly broke into the restaurant at about 3 a.m. and attacked Tracey Land of Bridgeview with a knife and hammer.

‘The guy got my son on the floor, so I got out of the car, and I was trying to get him away from my son so he couldn’t hit my son anymore.’

Land died from the alleged attack.

Lee then reportedly attacked a 20-year-old maintenance worker at the same location. The man was stabbed but fought with Lee and was able to subdue him until police arrived.

He was helped by his mother, who was also a maintenance worker and happened to be in a car nearby and rushed in to help her son.

“There were hitting each other,” she said anonymously to WLS-TV. “The guy got my son on the floor, so I got out of the car, and I was trying to get him away from my son so he couldn’t hit my son anymore.”

Lee was charged with nearly a dozen counts related to the incident, including the following:

First-degree murder, a class M felonyAttempted first-degree murder, a class X felonyConcealment of homicidal death, a class 3 felonyAggravated battery, a class 3 felonyArmed robbery, a class X felonyArmed violence, a class X felonyBurglary, a class 2 felony

Oswego Police transported Lee to the Kendall County Jail.

RELATED: Elderly man confesses to killing his daughter and wife with an ax to avoid homelessness after losing his job, police say

“This was an unprovoked attack and resulted in a tragic loss of life. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and everyone affected by this tragic incident,” reads a statement from Oswego Police Chief Jason Bastin.

“We are grateful for the bravery of those who intervened and for the coordinated response from our officers, fire personnel, and assisting agencies,” he added.

WGN-TV reported that Lee’s defense attorney expressed concern that he was not fit to stand trial.

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​Chick-fil-a lethal attack, Darryl lee jr of kankakee, Knife and hammer murder, Crime, Restaurant workers attacked 

With a divided Congress and the clock likely running out on GOP control, President Trump’s decision to forgo a second budget reconciliation bill is puzzling. Reconciliation is the only tool available to pass major priorities without a filibuster. So why refuse another chance to make the America First agenda permanent?

At a recent meeting with Senate Republicans, Trump told lawmakers, “We don’t need to pass any more bills. We got everything” in the big, beautiful bill earlier this year. “We got the largest tax cuts in history. We got the extension of the Trump tax cuts. We got all of these things.”

The first Trump presidency showed what executive courage can do. The second must prove what lasting law can achieve.

Really? That answer ignores reality. Tax cuts were never the full measure of the Trump revolution. The movement promised structural reform — from securing the border to dismantling bureaucracies. Limiting the victory to tax relief leaves unfinished the hard work of codifying executive policies into law before the next Democrat in the White House wipes them out with the stroke of a pen.

Biden’s first weeks in office in 2021 proved how fragile executive action can be. Nearly every Trump-era reform — on immigration, energy, education, and national security — vanished within days. The same will happen again if core policies remain tied to presidential discretion instead of actual statutes.

Immigration is the clearest example. Trump moved the country in the right direction, but many key policies remain blocked by courts or enjoined indefinitely. These include:

• Ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants,
• Defunding sanctuary cities,
• Cutting federal assistance for noncitizens,
• Requiring states to verify lawful status for benefits under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act,
• Expanding expedited removal of gang members under the Alien Enemies Act,
• Authorizing ICE arrests at state courthouses,
• Deporting pro-Hamas foreign students,
• Returning unaccompanied minors to Central America,
• Suspending refugee resettlement, and
• Ending “temporary” protected status for long-term illegal residents.

Each of these reforms can and should be codified through legislation. Courts can’t enjoin what Congress writes into law.

The same applies beyond immigration. Critical Trump policies remain trapped or reversible, including:

• Abolishing the Department of Education,
• Keeping male inmates out of female prisons,
• Blocking federal funding for hospitals that perform gender “transitions” on minors,
• Removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, and
• Requiring proof of citizenship to vote and restricting mail-in ballots in federal elections.

All of these measures would fulfill campaign promises. All of them will vanish the instant Democrats reclaim the White House — unless Republicans act now to make them permanent.

RELATED: While the lights are off, let’s rewire the government

Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

Meanwhile, the economic front remains unsettled. Inflation continues to crush families, and Washington’s spending addiction keeps prices high. Health care remains broken, with no Republican alternative to stop Democrats from reinstating Biden’s Obamacare subsidies. The challenges are mounting, not receding.

The reconciliation process exists precisely for moments like this. It allows a governing majority to bypass the filibuster and pass budget-related priorities with a simple majority — the same procedure Democrats used twice under Biden to jam through massive spending and climate legislation. Refusing to use it again would be an act of political negligence.

Trump has accomplished much, but claiming “mission accomplished” now risks repeating the failures of his first term — executive orders that were erased within weeks and policies undone overnight.

The task ahead is to legislate the revolution. Codify the border. Dismantle bureaucratic strongholds. Rein in judicial activism. Secure election integrity. Cement economic reform.

The first Trump presidency showed what executive courage can do. The second must prove what lasting law can achieve. If Trump wants his achievements to outlive his term, he must act now — not by declaring victory, but by legislating it.

​Congress, Department of education, Donald trump, Federal reserve, Government overreach, Government shutdown, Government spending, Government waste, Immigration, Maga, Mass deportations, Midterm elections, One big beautiful bill, Opinion, Opinion & analysis, Reconciliation, Republicans, Supreme court, Tax cuts, The courts 

When you hear the name George Soros, one of the words that comes to mind is “globalist.” However, despite his obvious intentions for the world, what few know is what truly fuels his ideology.

“You think ‘open borders,’ which is accurate, but that doesn’t actually describe what he believes. He’s been somewhat reticent to admit publicly what his beliefs are. And so, some people will be like, ‘Oh, he’s a communist. He’s a Marxist. He’s a socialist,’” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“Well, not exactly. … In a sense, it would be easier if he were because it would be easier to define and identify the various parts of his ideology and his work, but he’s not. So, what is he? Because globalism and open borders — that’s not really an end. That’s a means to an end,” she continues.

That’s why Wheeler has done a deep dive into Soros’ background, and in doing so she stumbled on a 1998 interview Soros did on “60 Minutes.”

“Are you religious?” the interviewer asked.

“No,” Soros replied.

“Do you believe in God?” the interviewer pressed further.

“No,” Soros again replied, short and quick.

“Soros told us he believes God was created by man, not the other way around, which may be why he thinks he can smooth out the world’s imperfections,” the interviewer narrated.

“So, not to sound preachy here, not to sound religious, but George Soros’ hatred of the United States and our norms and our traditions and our sovereignty is based on hatred of the foundational principles on which our country was built, that of God and Christianity,” Wheeler says.

“And isn’t this always the case? It’s always a hatred of God that motivates them. That’s why they killed Charlie,” she continues.

“They want to destroy all definitions of objective reality, because that is written by God. That’s natural law,” she adds. “That’s why they’re seething with hatred at the United States, because we’re built as a Christian nation to allow us to glorify God. That’s why they want to dehumanize us, because we are made in the image of God.”

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When 250 state ballots arrive in your Amazon order, faith in election security gets harder to defend. Yet that’s exactly what happened to a woman in Newburgh, Maine, who opened her package of household items to find five bundles of 50 official Maine referendum ballots.

Adding to the irony, the ballots were for Question 1 — a measure asking voters whether to tighten absentee ballot rules and require photo ID. The woman did the right thing and called authorities. But what if she hadn’t?

How can citizens trust the vote when ballots appear as shipping mistakes?

Now under investigation, the bizarre mix-up raises urgent questions. Who had access to the ballots? Were chain-of-custody rules violated? How many more ballots might be “out for delivery”?

For years, skeptics of election fraud have claimed concerns about ballot integrity are overblown. Yet events like this prove the opposite: The system is riddled with vulnerabilities. When official ballots wind up in an Amazon box, the process is beyond merely “flawed” — it’s broken.

Election officials and lawmakers must confront an uncomfortable truth: The safeguards meant to protect our democracy aren’t working. Anyone arguing against stronger voter ID laws should look to Newburgh. How can citizens trust the vote when ballots appear as shipping mistakes?

This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a test of whether Americans still believe their votes matter. A democracy depends on a transparent, verifiable process — from printing to counting. When that chain breaks, confidence collapses.

Newburgh should be a wake-up call. Every ballot must be tracked, every voter verified, every election beyond reproach. Reassurances and press conferences won’t cut it. Citizens deserve a voting system that’s airtight, accountable, and secure. Anything less insults the republic.

Commonsense reforms aren’t complicated. Require a government-issued photo ID to vote — the same standard used to board a plane, buy a beer, or enter a federal building. For mail-in ballots, require proof of identity both when requesting and returning a ballot. Without that, the system leaks from every seam.

RELATED: Honor system? More like fraud system

Photo by Moor Studio via Getty Images

When ballots get rerouted into cardboard boxes unnoticed, the integrity of democracy itself comes into question. It signals a culture that prizes convenience over vigilance, treating ballots like junk mail instead of sacred instruments of self-government.

Democracy doesn’t collapse in secret; it erodes in daylight while people look away. That’s why reform must be bold, not bureaucratic. States need top-to-bottom reviews of how ballots are printed, stored, distributed, and tracked — and consequences for failures.

If democracy is worth defending, ballots are worth protecting. Anything less, and we’ve already surrendered what makes the vote sacred.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Voter fraud, Election fraud, Fraud, Stolen election, Stolen election claims, Ballots, Ballot initiative, Election integrity, Security, Democracy, Maine, Question 1