California used to be a land of promise that produced fine Americans who mocked D.C. elites, a former U.S. Marine officer says.

In the face of failed state and federal leadership in the Democratic Party, an ex-soldier has a message for inland communities.

The coastal cities and elites are supported by the inland residents, says security expert and veteran Adam Castillo.

‘I’m tired of being the butt of jokes for MAGA.’

In an interview with Blaze News, Castillo explained that he found opportunity in Myanmar after being left as an “unemployed veteran as part of that massive sequestering period by the Obama administration around 2013.”

Promises from the Barack Obama administration of finding jobs for veterans turned into nothing more than a check-box item for hiring managers, Castillo claimed, who would then say, “Hey, we we interviewed a veteran,” and move on.

Castillo ran a security company during Myanmar’s 2021 coup d’état, which taught him a valuable lesson: things can be done properly with the right leadership, even under the harshest conditions.

It is that experience that brought Castillo to believe the inland communities of California should be the focus for Republicans while the rest of the state crumbles around them.

“To be frank, who do you think supports these coastal cities? The inland desert communities, right? We’re the ones commuting to the cities to make sure they’re run, to make sure that the sanitation infrastructure is run [and] the electricity is run,” Castillo declared.

RELATED: Self-driving trucks are about controlling the roads — not making them safer

George Rose/Getty Images

Republicans and conservatives should start with town councils, school boards, and the like before splintering outward into state legislatures, Castillo suggested.

“When you start going inland, specifically into the deserts, this is where it gets really conservative. … They are the power of California.”

“What we need to concentrate on in terms of organization at the community level is the inland communities, not the coastal cities,” he went on.

“School board, city council, mayor, state legislator, then congressman, then senator,” Castillo said.

For the coastal elites, Castillo says the voters need to deal with the consequences of their elections for a bit longer.

“I think we just let the liberal coastal cities rot,” the former officer bluntly stated. “Honestly. They’re already rotting. So let them continue to rot. They do not represent us. They don’t even have that many representatives.”

RELATED: The left spots fake reality only when Hollywood gets hurt

Your browser does not support the video tag.

While Castillo’s remarks could be seen as divisive or jarring by some, he remained confident that a Republican governor in 2026 and beyond would set an amazing precedent in smaller communities and provide much-needed inspiration.

In the end, his belief that Californians can still recapture their glory years serves as his ongoing motivation.

“I’m tired of being the butt of jokes for other states. I’m tired of being the butt of jokes for MAGA,” he concluded.

“We’re Californians. We were better than you people,” he said of D.C. elites. “We were born better than you people. It’s about time we reclaim our seat at that power.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Align, California, Maga, Marines, Republicans, Democrats, Lifestyle 

The House Armed Services Committee released its first draft of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization bill last week.

Section 224, a provision buried hundreds of pages into the $1.15 trillion defense policy legislation that outlines the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” has generated some controversy on the fringes of Capitol Hill.

‘This provision would flip the script on the current bilateral relationship.’

Committee member Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) is among those who rushed to characterize section 224 as benign, stating that it amounts to a “security agreement” that “will allow for the US to leverage advanced Israeli technologies.”

Some, however, have expressed concerns that the initiative will effectively mean a politically consequential integration of the U.S. and Israeli militaries along with their respective industrial supports.

The legislative proposal

Section 224 of the 2027 NDAA draft would have the secretary of war designate a Pentagon official to oversee the synchronization of “cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel, to expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.”

The designee would, among other things,

identify Israeli-origin or jointly developed technologies that the U.S. could integrate into its systems and programs;facilitate the transition of such technologies from research and development into procurement and acquisition pathways;establish “frameworks for joint ventures, licensing agreements, and United States-based co-production or manufacturing partnerships with Israeli industry”; andpromote “joint training exercises and information-sharing mechanisms to enhance operational readiness to deploy jointly developed technologies.”

The section clarifies that the “cooperative efforts” pursued under this technology initiative can be carried out through numerous domains including: counter-unmanned systems; anti-tunneling and subterranean threats; missile and air defense technologies; AI; directed energy; cyber warfare; biotechnology and biomanufacturing; network integration; and defense industrial base cooperation, manufacturing, and co-production.

Backlash

Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute, claimed in a recent analysis for Responsible Statecraft that “if fully enacted, this proposal would provide a higher level of military-industrial integration than the U.S. has with any other country in the world.”

RELATED: White House says no worries after report claims rebuilding missile inventory used in Iran strikes will take years

YOAV LEMMER/AFP/Getty Images

While acknowledging that the U.S. has worked closely “with its NATO partners on co-production and shared supply chains, most notably via the Defence Production Action Plan,” Freeman said that section 224 would not only “fuse the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors in multiple areas vital to the battlefields of the future” but afford the foreign power “the opportunity to greatly expand one of the most powerful levers of influence in U.S. politics: jobs in the U.S.”

Beyond potentially setting the stage for more Israeli influence over American politics and fusing together the two nations’ military-industrial complexes at a time when the majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Israel, Freeman — echoing a colleague at the Quincy Institute — suggested that the initiative will shield the relationship from public scrutiny by migrating it from a visible aid vote in Congress “into the opaque machinery of defense acquisition, where oversight is limited and political accountability is minimal.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Pentagon did not respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

Responding to Freeman’s report, departing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted, “If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.”

“We are a sovereign country,” Massie added in a post Rep. Van Orden suggested was the “dumbest possible take.”

Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said that he will introduce an amendment in committee to axe section 224. Khanna noted further that “Trump can’t kill the Massie/Khanna partnership no matter how much he posts on Truth Social.”

A New Policy, the PAC founded in 2024 by a pair of Biden staffers who quit over the administration’s support for Israel, is campaigning against section 224.

“At a policy level, this provision would flip the script on the current bilateral relationship, shifting the leverage we currently hold because of our security assistance to Israel over to the Government of Israel who would be able to hold key [Department of Defense] capabilities hostage through the integration of Israeli technologies into the DOD supply chain,” states the PAC’s template letter to members of the House Armed Services Committee. “Section 224 also assumes a commonality of national security interests between Israel and the U.S., which, as the current conflict with Iran clearly demonstrates, does not exist.”

Code Pink, the leftist group co-founded by former Democrat political activist Jodie Evans, has also seized upon section 224 as a cause du jour, calling upon Congress to reject “US integration with the Israeli military.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Military industrial complex, Military, Israel, United states, Technology, Manufacturing, Business, Israeli, Ndaa, Section 224, Politics 

The Supreme Court of the United States has shut down the National Football League’s attempt to keep a major lawsuit hidden behind closed-door arbitration — which began when Brian Flores interviewed for a head coach job with the Broncos.

“This is a bizarre story — has been going on for years and years and years and years,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere comments on “Stu and Dave Do America.”

Flores’ lawsuit alleges that Broncos officials did not take him seriously as a candidate for the job because he’s African-American, as they showed up hung over and an hour late to interview him.

However, the Broncos released a statement that Flores’ allegations were not true and that he was a serious candidate.

“Now, what’s interesting about this is the reason why the background of all this is what’s called the Rooney Rule. Basically, it was an idea a while ago. They said there weren’t enough African-American coaches, and they said, ‘Hey, well, one way we can do that is force teams to interview African-American candidates for every job,’” Stu explains.

“The way they measure this and the way the complaint is sort of formed is, well, about 60%, let’s say, of the league’s players are African-Americans. So therefore, they say 60% of the coaches should be African-Americans,” he continues.

Stu points out that despite the statistics, there are wildly different skill sets used in each position.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this at all, but Andy Reid has a different build than, let’s say, [DK] Metcalf,” he says.

“It’s one of those things where you don’t need to be an incredible athlete to be a coach. So all of us whiteys go into coaching,” he adds.

Not only do the positions require different skill sets, but African-Americans are only 11% of the American population.

“They’re hiring to the best jobs available — the players — at seven times the representation of the population. That does not strike me as racist,” Stu says.

“I think they’re picking on merit because they want money and they want the best players on the field, and the best players typically wind up being African-American for whatever reason,” he adds.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Brian flores, The nfl, Rooney rule, Dk metcalf, Andy reid, Denver broncos 

A Michigan man was caught on video attacking and attempting to kidnap a 14-year-old girl last month, and the Kentwood Police Department said in a statement that it wasn’t the only assault he allegedly committed that day.

“A 66-year-old female reported that while working in her yard between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on May 12, 2026, a male suspect stopped his vehicle, engaged her in conversation, made unwanted advances, and physically assaulted her,” police said.

‘I think he chose me because he saw me as a woman alone.’

Mary Raab, the first alleged victim, told WOOD-TV she was planting flowers by her mailbox when a man approached and told her that he was struggling because his brother had died.

“He got out and said, ‘I have had this very traumatic incident happen to me, my brother passed away, and I am in deep grief, and I do not know how to deal with it,'” Raab said.

Raab added, “I am thinking, ‘Well, this is very weird.'”

Raab said the man then asked her if he could use her restroom and wash his hands. Raab said she declined and directed him to a local gas station.

“I went to shake his hand, and then he put his arms around me and went to kiss me on the mouth, and I turned my head away, and he planted his lips between my jawbone and my neck,” Raab said.

She continued, “He made it kind of difficult to break out of his embrace.”

Raab added, “It is violating somebody’s space; why do you think you have the right to do that?”

“I think he chose me because he saw me as a woman alone. He was definitely testing me to see how vulnerable I was, and luckily I was calm enough and level-headed enough to make him go away without having anything devastating and dramatic happen,” Raab said.

At around 6:40 p.m., police officers responded to a report of an attempted kidnapping.

Video appears to show a dark-colored SUV pulling up alongside a teen before a man jumps out of the vehicle, runs toward her, and assaults her.

“A 14-year-old female reported that the suspect stopped his vehicle, approached her, physically assaulted her, and attempted to restrain her while she was walking on the sidewalk,” the statement read.

Police said the victim was able to fight off the suspect, who fled the crime scene in his vehicle.

Court records obtained by WWMT-TV noted that the girl told investigators the suspect grabbed her and told her, “I got you,” before she fought him off.

Police described the teen’s acts as “heroic.”

“That victim absolutely saved her own life that day; she did amazing things and fought hard and made that suspect jump back in the car and take off,” Kentwood Police Department Captain Tim Wierenga told WOOD.

Investigators interviewed witnesses, utilized license plate information, and obtained surveillance video from a resident. Detectives determined that the same suspect committed the assault and attempted kidnapping.

Police identified the suspect as 29-year-old John Moore and arrested him within 24 hours of the alleged crimes.

Records from the Kent County Correctional Facility show that Moore was arrested and booked on May 13. Moore is being held on $140,000 bail.

Moore was charged with unlawful imprisonment and assault and battery.

Citing records from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, the New York Post reported that Moore also was hit with two probation violations.

“Obviously age didn’t matter to him; he was just looking for a victim,” Raab said. “But I am glad that I kept my head. I am glad I didn’t let him into my house.”

RELATED: Teen abducted from Dallas Mavericks game tells harrowing story of being sex-trafficked, raped — and how God saved her

WOOD reported that Moore had been previously arrested for being a “bathroom peeper who recorded an upskirt video” at a grocery store in September 2023.

WOOD at the time reported that a woman was in a restroom stall of the store when she noticed Moore “peering down at her from the next stall over.”

Surveillance cameras also caught Moore recording an upskirt video in the store’s common area and “crouching down behind the victim” to position his cell phone to record up the shopper’s dress, according to WOOD.

In 2025, Moore allegedly sexually assaulted women at a different grocery store.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told WOOD that Moore walked around the store telling female customers they had spiders on their backs and then grabbed their buttocks.

Three women reported that Moore assaulted them, Becker said.

Moore was sentenced to time served; he had already spent six months in jail. Moore also was given three years of probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Moore’s public defender at a hearing called him “kind” and “gentle,” WOOD reported.

“He’s kind, and he’s gentle, and he’s patient,” attorney Laura Joyce said of Moore. “And I don’t think these crimes are reflective of the person that he is.”

“I think that he’s had a reckoning while he’s been in jail regarding some potential substance abuse issues that he has to handle,” Joyce added.

Those who witnessed suspicious activity related to the case or the suspect are urged to contact the Kentwood Police Department at 616-656-6580 or send an anonymous tip through Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.

The Kentwood Police Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Kidnapping attempt, Michigan, Sex offender, Assault, Arrest, Repeat offender, Crime 

New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly unveiled housing agenda called Fix the City represents a dramatic expansion of government power over private property — honing in on “the worst landlords in New York City” as a target.

“When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards,” he explained.

“Stewards that include community land trusts, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves,” he added.

“Pat Gray Unleashed” executive producer Keith Malinak is shocked to hear the cheers from the crowd during Mamdani’s speech, calling them “good little communists.”

“Wow, so they’re going to redistribute wealth. They’re going to take the property from the landowner and give it to the tenant,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments.

Mamdani also recently quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, telling a crowd, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

He quickly caveated, “If anything, my friends, it seems that you eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess.”

However, Gray doesn’t see it the same way as Mamdani.

“It’s worse than I imagined, I think. It’s even worse,” he says. “And it’s unabashed. And it’s unashamed. He’s just fully embracing Marxism.”

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.

​Communism, Housing plan, Keith malinak, Margaret thatcher, Marxism, New york city, Pat gray, Socialism, The blaze, Zohran mamdani, Pat gray unleashed 

Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee hoping to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, has in recent months polled relatively well and enjoyed the support of fellow travelers in D.C. despite a series of scandals — including one scandal that prompted multiple members of his campaign to jump ship.

Platner has managed, for instance, to maintain the support of Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), even after it was revealed he previously identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested that service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” smeared all police officers as “bastards,” mocked Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and adorned himself with an apparent “totenkopf” tattoo reminiscent of the skull image popularized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel elite guard.

‘He is an issue.’

While Platner’s campaign has always been plagued by controversy, it appears to finally have become too much for some Democrats to bear — especially after it was revealed that the married candidate sent at least six women sexually explicit texts.

Amy Gertner — Platner’s wife since 2023 — discovered the trove of debauched extramarital texts, then brought them to the attention of her husband’s Senate campaign during the vetting process last year, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

“The United States Senate is not a training ground for redemption,” Genevieve McDonald, the former Democratic state representative who resigned as political director of Platner’s campaign in October, told the Times. “It is a place for proven leaders with moral clarity and integrity.”

McDonald claimed that Platner sent sexually graphic texts to as many as a dozen women.

After current and former campaign officials confirmed the exchanges to the Times, Platner’s campaign confirmed to Politico that the candidate had indeed sent the texts.

RELATED: Squad-endorsed candidate once reportedly volunteered with group tied to al-Qaeda and testified for terrorist ‘blind cleric’

Graeme Sloan/Getty Images

Morris Katz — a strategist for Platner’s campaign who wrote that he wanted to use images of his penis in a 2020 children’s book — said of the reports about his boss’ wandering eye, “It’s no one’s f**king business what happened in Graham & Amy’s marriage before he was ever a candidate for office.”

Gertner — who receives money from the campaign for serving as its volunteer coordinator — tried on Saturday to turn her husband’s scandal on the media, noting in a video statement shared online by Platner, “It makes me really angry, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on.”

After insinuating that questions about Platner’s trustworthiness and fidelity aren’t relevant to the race, Gertner said that she and her husband went to marriage counseling and that she doesn’t “want a perfect marriage.”

Like Gertner, Rep. Ro Khanna reaffirmed his support for Platner, stating on Saturday that he was proud of Collins’ challenger “for having a vision for a new deal for our time.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), however, adopted a different tone, telling ABC News when asked on Sunday whether Platner might be jeopardizing Senate control for the Democrats, “Yes, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer.”

Levar Stoney, the former Democratic mayor of Richmond, Virginia, similarly knocked Platner, writing, “I can’t help but think that if this candidate were a person of color or a woman, my party would be asking them to consider stepping aside immediately. A Nazi tattoo! Now this. I want Democrats to take back the Senate — but not like this.”

Prior to the revelations about Platner’s sexting exploits, some Democrats were already airing their concerns about his candidacy.

“I think when we’re talking about moral clarity and what we want to see from Democrats, I think he is an issue,” former Biden press office chief of staff Yemisi Egbewole, told Fox News’ Bill Melugin last week.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) also denounced Platner last week, telling CNN, “I’ve been clear about Graham Platner. I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying.”

“I hope Maine voters agree with me,” continued Auchincloss. “I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner’s brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country.”

Over the weekend, the Maine Wire reported that Platner appeared to have an account on the messaging application Kik — long a cesspool for perverts and child exploitation — with the username “phustle0331.”

CNN later confirmed that the account, which features a photo of a partially naked individual with tattoos identical to those sported by the Democratic candidate, belongs to Platner, the same person Sen. Warren said last month was her “kind of man.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Graham platner, Democrats, Senate, Maine, Susan collins, Sex scandal, Sexual, Infidelity, Adultery, Ro khanna, Politics