The Trump administration blasted U.S. District Judge Judith Levy over the weekend for her “truly wicked” praise and deferential treatment of a predator who stole into the United States multiple times and brutalized an American citizen.

Edys Renan Membreño Díaz, a 30-year-old Honduran national, is presently serving between six and 15 years in a Michigan state prison for raping and sodomizing a woman he knew was incapable of giving consent, who has cerebral palsy and cognitive delays. Díaz, who moved to Michigan in 2021, raped the victim on two occasions: on July 15 and July 17, 2022, leaving her with injuries.

‘This isn’t justice; it’s judicial activism prioritizing criminals over citizens.’

While Díaz could be a free man as soon as July 23, 2028, federal prosecutors want the rapist to serve an additional two years for his violation of U.S. immigration law. Díaz has illegally entered the U.S. seven times.

According to court documents, prosecutors believe that a sentence of two years would recognize the gravity both of the rapist’s repeated illegal entry into the U.S. and his criminal conduct while in the country and would serve as a deterrent to future criminal activity.

The rapist’s lawyer alternatively asked Levy, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who has made a big deal out of her lesbian identity, to give the rapist a sentence concurrent with his sentence in the state case such that he would still eligible for release in 2028.

Levy not only decided to spare Díaz from a longer prison sentence for immigration crimes but echoed his lawyer’s framing — that the rapist was a family man simply doing the work that Americans supposedly find unappealing.

RELATED: Portland man allegedly lured 15-year-old girl from public library and raped her for days, police say

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According to the sentencing transcript highlighted by the Detroit News, Levy said that while Díaz’s sex crimes were “horrible,” he has “taken responsibility for that, expressed remorse,” and is serving “a lengthy state sentence as punishment for that conduct.”

The Obama judge proceeded to paint the rapist as something of a victim of circumstance and a praiseworthy figure, going so far as to celebrate his efforts to displace U.S. citizen labor for the benefit of foreigners outside the country.

“You have lost two siblings to violence in Honduras, and your mother expresses her dependence on you in her need for the resources and love that you have provided to her,” said Levy. “So I commend you for supporting your family, for expressing your devotion to them, and for working here in the United States in jobs that Americans apparently do not want to work in.”

Díaz has recently indicated that he now wants to go home to Honduras, and Levy suggested further that the rapist’s vows not to enter into the U.S. illegally an eighth time and to dissuade his fellow Hondurans from jumping the border together signaled that he was “promoting respect for the law.”

The Obama judge decided to let the rapist off on his immigration crimes with time allegedly served and a special assessment fine of $100.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Fairchild told Levy that the sentence imposed constituted an “unreasonable departure from the guideline range.” The government subsequently appealed Levy’s decision.

In the appeal, assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Sweeney Bean noted, “Despite six prior removals from the United States, Membrano Diaz returned and raped and sodomized a disabled American citizen. A non-custodial sentence here was an abuse of discretion.”

In addition to noting that Levy “unreasonably discounted the serious nature of the offense and Membrano Diaz’s disturbing history and characteristics,” Bean pointed out that the Obama judge’s “time served” sentence was preposterous, as “the defendant cannot receive credit against his federal sentence for that period of prior detention, because it has already been credited against the state sentence.”

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in response to Levy’s decision, “Unspeakable Depravity.”

“U.S. District Judge Judith Levy refused to sentence him to 2 more years for immigration crimes and called this monster a future ‘ambassador for living up to our immigration restrictions,'” McLaughlin noted in a X post on Saturday. “This Obama appointed judge went on to praise him for ‘family devotion and willingness to perform work that it claimed Americans find undesirable.’ Truly wicked.”

Kevin Kijewski, a Republican who is running to become attorney general of Michigan, wrote, “This isn’t justice; it’s judicial activism prioritizing criminals over citizens and spitting on federal law enforcement’s work to secure our borders under President Trump’s leadership.”

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​Edys renan membreño díaz, U.s. district judge judith levy, Immigration, Rapist, Criminal, Illegal alien, Deportation, Federal judge, Judicial activism, Activist, Tricia mclaughlin, Dhs, Obama, Barack obama, Politics 

If you’re listening to the mainstream media, you’ll likely hear Kilmar Abrego Garcia referred to as the “Maryland father” — not an illegal alien gang member.

“They’ll leave out the fact that he is, of course, an alleged MS-13 gang member and human trafficker. He’s just a Maryland father. I mean, it’s just that there’s, like, minor details of gang-related activity and minor details of human trafficking,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says sarcastically.

“It’s been a long journey with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but he of course was released from immigration detention yesterday back into the United States,” she adds.

An Obama-appointed judge, Paula Xinis, said federal authorities had detained him again after his return to the United States “without any legal basis.”

“You mean to tell me, Mrs. Obama-appointed judge, that there is not a legal basis to detain an illegal immigrant?” Gonzales asks.

“That’s the legal basis. He’s here illegally, and we need to detain him so we can remove him. Otherwise why have any laws at all?” she adds.

However, that’s not the worst of what Xinis has done.

“This Obama-appointed judge has also granted this man more power than the president, that he can’t be locked up again. We are not allowed to lock him up. We are not allowed to keep Americans safe from this criminal,” Gonzales explains.

“What is this country, you guys?” she asks, adding, “What is this country if we can’t arrest and detain criminals? Like, have you ever heard of an American citizen getting this treatment? Oh, you committed a crime? Oh, we’re going to arrest you, and we are going to what? Detain you. That’s how it works for every American who commits crimes in this country.”

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.

​Free, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Kilmar abrego garcia, Maryland father, Paula xinis, Ms 13, Gang member, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, President donald trump, Trump, Trump administration 

In the fifth century B.C., a group of Greek city-states formed a defensive alliance known as the Delian League to protect them against the Persian Empire.

Athens, the most powerful member, gradually increased its power. Its rulers moved the league’s common treasury from the island of Delos to Athens (to keep it safe, of course), attacked allies that attempted to secede, and started casually referring to the alliance as “our empire.”

If you want good allies, you need to be a good ally.

The most brazen assertion came when the Athenian leader Pericles raided the league treasury to fund building projects in Athens (including the Parthenon).

When the other league members objected, Pericles insisted that the treasury was less like a common military budget and more like protection money: As long as the Persians aren’t breaking down your doors, we can spend league funds however we want.

Obviously, this is no way to treat one’s allies. It is not just exploitative; it is counterproductive. During the ensuing Peloponnesian War, Athens spent as much time fighting its own rebellious allies as it did fighting Sparta.

The United States, however, has spent the last several decades conducting its foreign relations on the opposite principle. We have the same hegemonic role Athens held, but instead of robbing our allies, we let them rob and betray us.

A few months ago, the government of Kuwait — a country hundreds of Americans died to defend just a few decades ago and that continues to rely on us for protection against Iran — launched a “Kuwait-China Friendship Club” to strengthen military ties with Beijing.

And if cozying up to our biggest geopolitical rival weren’t enough, Kuwait is also ripping us off.

The United States played a huge role in building Kuwait’s massive Al Zour oil refinery, and the country’s government still owes us hundreds of millions of dollars.

Closer to home, Mexico — which Bill Clinton bailed out to the tune of $20 billion — takes in more than $60 billion a year in remittance money from the United States, all while its socialist oil company refuses to pay the $1.2 billion it owes to American contractors.

RELATED: Trump makes America dangerous again — to our enemies

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The NATO countries are even worse. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, just six of the alliance’s 32 members spent the required 2% of GDP on defense.

Meanwhile, these countries used the money they weren’t spending on guns to build massive welfare states (their equivalent of Pericles’ Parthenon). They also eviscerated their domestic energy production and became increasingly reliant on oil from Russia, the country the alliance is supposed to keep in check.

Thankfully, a combination of Vladimir Putin’s aggression and Donald Trump’s bullying has increased the number of countries meeting the 2% threshold from six to 23.

If you want good allies, you need to be a good ally.

That means no more meddling in the name of “international development” or “advancing democracy.” Just mutual clarifications of national interest and frank discussions about how to advance those interests.

Athens’ focus on its own self-interest was its undoing. America’s neglect of it might have been ours. Under President Trump, however, it looks like that is starting to change.

​Opinion & analysis, America first, Nato, Defense, Military spending, China, Russia, Donald trump, Kuwait, Al zour oil refinery, Foreign policy, National security, National interest, Greece, Athens, Delian league, Pericles, Peloponnesian war, Bill clinton, Mexico, Remittances, Economy 

I have lost grandparents, childhood friends, and college friends. As you age, death becomes familiar. Each loss shakes you briefly, reminds you that life is fragile, and then fades. You drift back into the illusion that tomorrow is guaranteed. That you will have time later to become a better Christian, husband, and father.

That illusion shattered on September 10, the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a leftist.

Charlie Kirk showed us how a Christian lives and how a Christian dies. His race is finished. Ours must now begin.

I did not know Charlie personally. I worked as his publicist last summer for what became his second-to-last book, “Right Wing Revolution,” but we never spoke directly. Still his death devastated me in a way no other loss had.

I had to understand why. Answering that question became the genesis of this book, “For Christ and Country: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk.”

On the day Charlie was killed, I joined my wife to pick up our 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter from preschool. The day before, she had asked again and again, “Dada in car? Dada here?” This time, I wanted to be there when she came running out.

As we pulled into the parking lot, my phone lit up. Charlie Kirk had been shot. My stomach dropped.

I had felt that dread once before. On July 13, 2024, I was rocking my daughter to sleep when an alert flashed that President Trump had been shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. Minutes later, dread gave way to relief. Trump survived.

This time, the dread did not lift.

While my wife walked toward the school entrance, I sat frozen in the car, refreshing news feeds. Then I saw the video. The moment the bullet struck Charlie.

One look told me no one could survive that wound.

Then my daughter appeared.

Her face lit up when she saw me. Pure joy. The same joy Charlie’s daughter would never experience again.

As my little girl ran toward the car shouting, “Dada!” another child had just lost her father forever. His daughter. His son. His wife. They would never again live a moment like the one unfolding before me.

Nothing had changed for my daughter. Everything had changed for me.

That night, I slept on the floor beside my oldest daughter’s crib. I lay awake for hours, listening to her breathing and thinking of Charlie’s children and of Erika, facing the impossible task of explaining why their father would never walk through the door again.

In the days that followed, I cried more than I ever had. I am not a man who cries. But something in me died with Charlie, and something else was born.

I began studying Charlie’s words, speeches, debates, and sermons. Not as content but as testimony. What I saw changed me. Charlie possessed a maturity beyond his years, a steadiness most men twice his age never reach. He knew who he was and whom he served. He knew his mission and the cost of it. He accepted that cost.

In Charlie, I saw the man I wanted to be. Strong yet gentle. Courageous yet humble. Unmoved by hatred because he feared God more than man. That recognition exposed an uncomfortable truth. I shared many of Charlie’s convictions but not his courage.

I had spoken boldly only when it was safe. I avoided conflict when it was convenient. The wounds of losing lifelong friends in 2020 because I voted for Trump still stung, and I carried a residual fear of losing more.

Charlie did not hesitate. He lived Matthew 5 and Mark 8 not as verses but as marching orders. He carried his cross onto hostile campuses and into debates before crowds that despised him, knowing exactly what it cost.

When that hatred finally culminated in a sniper’s bullet, it ended his life but not the mission that made him a target.

His death exposed my compromises. It forced me to confront the gap between the man I was and the man God was calling me to be. It demanded that I stop postponing courage and start living the truth now. Costly truth. Dangerous truth. Biblical truth.

Charlie’s life and death were not political events. They were spiritual ones.

He defended the family because God commanded it. He rejected identity politics because every person bears God’s image. He championed fathers because fatherlessness destroys nations. He defended black Americans by insisting on their dignity as individuals created by God, not as pawns of a political movement. He confronted transgender ideology because lies about human nature are lies about God Himself.

For that, he was vilified, dehumanized, and finally murdered.

The ideology that killed Charlie did not emerge overnight. It grew in the silence of those who knew better but feared the cost of speaking. Evil advances when good men retreat, and too many of us did.

RELATED: America’s new lost generation is looking for home — and finding the wrong ones

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Charlie did not retreat. Now none of us can afford hesitation.

The man I was — cautious and hesitant — died with Charlie. In his place stands a man who understands that truth requires sacrifice, that silence is surrender, and that the only approval that matters comes from God.

My daughter deserves a country where political murder is condemned, not excused. Where truth is spoken even when it is dangerous. Where courage is not outsourced to a handful of men like Charlie Kirk but lived by millions.

That is why I wrote “For Christ and Country: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk.” Not simply to remember Charlie but because his death demanded my transformation and now demands yours.

Charlie Kirk showed us how a Christian lives and how a Christian dies.

His race is finished. Ours must now begin.

The torch is ours to carry — for Christ, for country, and for Charlie.

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from the author’s new book, “For Christ and Country: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk” (Bombardier Books, Post Hill Press).

​Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk assassination, Christians, Courage, Opinion & analysis, Leftists, Parenthood, Death, Christianity 

Pizza Hut Classic is evidence that even if a company gets its branding right, customer service is the oil that keeps the machine running.

Since 2019, Pizza Hut has been spreading its retro vibes across the continent by reintroducing its 1990s decor, design, and dining experience.

‘The interior features cozy red booths and old-school Pizza Hut lamps.’

From Warren, Ohio to Hempstead, Texas, the iconic Pizza Hut chandeliers are being rehung, and the fantastic buffet is being put out once again. According to Chefs Resource, some locations have even brought back the beloved dessert bar.

Slice of life

With the return of the 1974 logo and nostalgic appeal, Pizza Hut did the inverse of Cracker Barrel. Instead of trying to modernize and simplify their decor, the pie-slingers retrofitted and cluttered theirs.

A page called the Retrologist dissected the formula and determined exactly what the word “Classic” in Pizza Hut Classic really means. To meet the new (old) standard, the writer pinpointed that each location must include the following:

1. The old logo is used in pole signage as well as at the top of the (usually but not always) red-roofed restaurant. The pole sign features the addition of the word “Classic.”
2. The interior features cozy red booths and old-school Pizza Hut lamps.
3. Stickers featuring the long-discarded character Pizza Hut Pete are found on the door.
4. Posters feature classic photos from Pizza Huts of yore.
5. A plaque displays a quote from Pizza Hut co-founder Dan Carney, explaining the concept as a celebration of the brand’s heritage.

While many of the revamped locations have received rave reviews, there still exists a way to make such a fine dining experience awful, even if surrounded by everything that made customers flock to the buffet 30 years ago.

RELATED: The ‘rebranding’ brigade’s war on beauty

Photo by Andrew Chapados/Blaze News

Word salad

For a Pizza Hut Classic ruined by modern belief systems, look no farther than north of the border, in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough.

While the restaurant did include the iconic chandeliers and some of the retro furnishings, it did not have old soda fountains or the memorable menus spotted at other locations. Instead, this unique eatery represented a new (low) standard of lackluster customer service, coupled with sprinklings of unfettered immigration policy.

These accommodations, or lack there of, will surely split customers down political lines. Yes, there are retro red Pepsi cups, but the waitress who literally speaks no English may fill that cup with Diet Pepsi with ice instead of “water with no ice.”

Is there a salad bar? Yes. Is the salad bar limited to plain lettuce and croutons? Also yes. Were there pieces of lettuce dropped in the ranch dressing (the only available dressing) for the duration of the visit? Definitely.

RELATED: Cracker Barrel’s logo lives — but like every digital-age public space, it now looks dead inside

Photo by Andrew Chapados/Blaze News

Meat and greet

A steady rotation of cheese, deluxe, and Hawaiian pizza was only broken up by one couple’s complaints about the lack of variety. A manager — also largely unintelligible in her speech — replied first with a refusal to change the rotation. Strangely, about 10 minutes later, she eventually brought out two meat lovers’ pizzas, in an apparent act of defiance.

The damaged seating in the restaurant combined with a chip out of the “Hut” portion of the building’s exterior revealed years-old paint and, along with it, a yearning for more care to be given. A restaurant that could be so nostalgic, but ruined by the apparent comforts of a district that has voted Liberal in its last three federal elections for a woman from the U.K. who holds citizenship in three countries, including Pakistan.

“I wanted to go to a dine-in, because in most places, including the U.K., you can’t do that now,” said reporter Lewis Brackpool, who visited the location. He added, “I come to one, and what do you know — it sucks.”

In at a massive discount due to the exchange rate, Brackpool could not help but feel like many who are from the area: that what had been promised was robbed.

The experience can be summed up in the words of an anonymous would-be customer who, upon seeing a commercial of what a Pizza Hut buffet looked like in the 1990s in comparison to the location in question, said, “They took this from us.”

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​Culture, Align, Pizza hut, Restaurant, Nostalgia, Retro, Dine-in, Immigration, Canada, America, United kingdom, Pizza, Lifestyle, Review