An analysis of voter registration says WNBA players have the biggest share of Democrats of any professional sports league in the country.

The data comes from reporters Peter Lutz and Zachary Donnini, who gathered voter registration numbers from professional athletes across five major American sports organizations: the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and WNBA.

The MLB could be considered the most Republican of the leagues and is the only one that is majority Republican.

The data showed that not only is the WNBA the only league in which the majority of voter registration is Democrat, but it by far has the lowest percentage of registered Republicans.

More than two-thirds (67.5%) of registered voters in the WNBA are Democrats, according VoteHub, which showed that 30.2% were independents, while just 2.3% were Republican.

The NBA was the next-most Democratic-leaning, with 42.9% registered with the left-wing party and just 10% Republican.

The NFL also had more Democrats than Republicans, 34.3% to 20.2%.

Registered voters in the NHL had the lowest percentage of registered Democrats, 5.6% versus 43.9% registered as Republicans.

Meanwhile the MLB offered the highest share of registered Republicans at 53.7% against just 7.8% registered Democrats. This means that the MLB could be considered the most Republican of the leagues and is the only one that is majority Republican.

Independents represented the highest share of voters for the NBA, NFL, and NHL.

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Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

More of the data was reported by America First Post, which showcased voter registration by position in the NFL. Defensive backs were most Democrat-leaning — defensive back was also the only position that was majority Democrat (51%).

Six of the 11 positions shown were more Republican than Democrat, with Republicans representing 50% or more of registered voters in three of those positions.

For long snappers (61%) and punters (57%), the majority of registered voters were Republican; kickers were 50% Republican. According to the data, none of the NFL's punters are registered as Democrats. Most teams carry just one punter, which means there are likely between 30 to 40 in the NFL.

For offensive linemen (26%), quarterbacks (33%), and tight ends (34%), more players were registered Republican than Democrat.

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Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The overall data tracks with exit polling from the 2024 presidential election, which shows that 53% of women voted for Democrats, although the women of the WNBA greatly exceed those numbers.

As of 2023, 70.4% of NBA players are black. In the 2024 presidential election, 77% of black men voted Democrat.

In the NFL, defensive backs are nearly entirely black, yet as mentioned, only 51% of those players are registered Democrat.

Outwardly conservative WNBA players are hard to find, given the league's 2.3% Republican voters. However most fans point to Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham as a possibility.

The 29-year-old notably shared posts from Charlie Kirk's memorial in 2025 and recently made a friendly post directed at Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe from her home state of Missouri.

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Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson (R) were scheduled to appear at Dallas Baptist University this morning, but their event was abruptly canceled after the school received unverified threats.

Dallas Baptist University was evacuated on Thursday morning, the Dallas Morning News reported.

'Out of an abundance of caution, the University has made the decision to cancel classes for Thursday, January 22.'

Turner was scheduled to give remarks at 9:30 a.m. as a part of the HUD Center for Faith's Opportunity Zones Summit. Opportunity Zones are "economically distressed communities," nominated by America's governors.

Johnson was also slated to speak about "public-private partnerships and uplifting underserved communities," according to the Dallas Morning News.

"Emergency response: Out of an abundance of caution, the University has made the decision to cancel classes for Thursday, January 22," a news release from the university reads. "The safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff remain our highest priority. Additional updates will be shared as appropriate as the situation continues to be monitored."

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Eric Johnson. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

"Dallas Baptist University has been made aware of several unverified threats involving the campus," the university said in a statement to Blaze News.

"While there is no confirmed indication of immediate danger, University leadership is proactively assessing the situation and working closely with law enforcement officials to ensure the safety of our community," the statement added.

The university stressed that the campus was evacuated "out of an extreme abundance of caution" so that it could "determine the legitimacy of these unverified threats." Classes remain canceled for the remainder of the day.

No injuries have been reported.

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Scott Turner. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Dallas Baptist University was founded in 1898 and is home to over 4,000 students.

"This event has been canceled due to a security concern on campus," a HUD spokesperson told Blaze News.

The Dallas mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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President Donald Trump has recently intensified his push to acquire Greenland for U.S. national security reasons, refusing to rule out military force or economic coercion, including tariffs on Denmark and European allies. The U.S. will get control of Greenland "one way or the other,” he told reporters on Air Force One on January 11.

Yesterday at a White House news conference, when asked how far he would go to obtain the ice-covered island, he cryptically replied, "You'll find out."

His determination to acquire Greenland has sparked significant backlash, including strong rejections from Denmark's and Greenland's leaders. Many call it a power-grab that will strain NATO ties and potentially ignite a war.

But Glenn Beck says we have to be smart about the way we think about this. “If you know anything about Donald Trump, he's been against war his whole life,” he says.

Trump’s latest moves, he argues, don’t indicate a desire for war; they indicate a desire to survive an inevitable one.

“What he's acting like is a man who believes the world is dying anyway. The old world is dying and that it's better to break it deliberately and ... grab the wreckage than inherit it by surprise and have to be fighting for the scraps,” he explains, reminding that history repeatedly shows that “only the disruptors ... have a chance of saving their nation.”

Glenn echoes Trump’s words that Denmark “cannot be responsible for the security of the northern hemisphere,” especially against the threat of Russia and China.

“The Danes and the EU are not going to be the ones that prevent war or protect the northern hemisphere. It must be the United States, so we must have control of Greenland,” he says, displaying a map of the country that highlights its strategic location in the Arctic.

Because it straddles the GIUK Gap (Greenland-Iceland-U.K.) between North America and Europe, Greenland is vital for monitoring Russian and Chinese submarines and missiles, providing early warning against attacks on the U.S., controlling access to emerging northern shipping routes, and securing the northern approaches to North America.

For these reasons, the United States has been expressing interest in controlling Greenland since the 1950s, says Glenn, but President Trump — in light of the swelling threat of China and Russia and the weakening of NATO — is actually trying to make it happen.

But this need for hemispheric control extends beyond Greenland.

Glenn suspects that Trump’s tariffs weren’t just economic tools but deliberate “stress tests” on allies and potential partners. By applying pressure equally, even on NATO members like Denmark or close neighbors like Canada, Trump forces the world to answer: Who stands with the West, and who is drifting toward adversaries like China?

Glenn plays recent clips of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney boasting about exporting massive LNG shipments to Asia — “By 2030, Canada will produce 50 million tons of LNG each year, all of which will be destined for Asian markets” — as an example of how tariffs have forced nations to show their true colors.

People might not like Trump’s tariffs or his push for Greenland, but they’re failing to see the big picture.

“The president sees war, and he's preparing for it,” says Glenn.

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary and predictions, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Anti-ICE activists' attempts to frustrate federal immigration law enforcement in Minneapolis and elsewhere hit a snag on Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and three Minnesota-based law firms filed a lawsuit on Dec. 17 against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging its agents violated the constitutional rights of several anti-ICE activists, including a Minnesota woman and a Somali-American who were both accused of attacking federal agents.

A federal judge who was nominated by former President Joe Biden ruled last week in favor of the radicals.

'A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents.'

U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez prohibited federal agents involved in Operation Metro Surge and related operations in the Gopher State from:

• "retaliating against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity";
• arresting such persons;
• "using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity"; and
• "stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles where there is no reasonable articulable suspicion that they are forcibly obstructing or interfering with Covered Federal Agents."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security promptly appealed the Biden judge's ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On Wednesday, the appellate court granted the defendants an administrative stay of Menendez's preliminary injunction.

Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared greatly pleased with the higher court's ruling.

RELATED: Anti-ICE lunacy hits new low: Activist allegedly air-horns cops investigating school threat that had nothing to do with ICE

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents who are enforcing the Nation’s immigration laws and responding to obstructive and violent interference from agitators," Bondi said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The 8th Circuit just granted an administrative stay HALTING these restrictions, which were designed to undermine federal law enforcement," continued the attorney general. "This DOJ will protect federal law enforcement agents from criminals in the streets AND activist judges in the courtroom."

Federal agents didn't waste any time taking advantage of their restored abilities.

Hours after the ruling, Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol was caught on tape warning a hostile crowd of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis that gas was coming, then tossing a gas canister their way.

The Department of Homeland Security indicated that "Border Patrol agents who were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as part of a targeted enforcement operation were repeatedly harassed and blocked by hostile crowds while simply trying to take bathroom breaks."

"At each gas station where the agents stopped to use the restroom, groups of agitators appeared, yelled at them, stalked them, and even tried to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving, creating unsafe conditions," said the DHS. "At one stop, individuals in the crowd threw food at the agents. At their final gas station stop, someone spit on an agent. When an agent moved to detain the person who spit on him, the crowed tackled and attacked the agents while surrounding them. To safely clear the area agents had to use crowd control measures to disperse the hostile crowd."

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House Republicans have opened an investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) after reviewing recent financial disclosure filings that show a sharp increase in her household’s reported wealth, according to multiple media reports.

The inquiry is being led by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, who say they are examining whether Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett, properly disclosed income and business interests as required by federal ethics laws. The review is in its early stages, and no formal allegations of wrongdoing have been announced.

'There are a lot of questions as to how her husband accumulated so much wealth over the past two years.'

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said the panel intends to pursue answers through congressional oversight channels.

“We’re going to get answers, whether it’s through the Ethics Committee or the Oversight Committee, one of the two,” Comer said.

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Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Omar, a Democrat who represents much of Minneapolis, reported significantly higher asset valuations in her most recent annual disclosure compared with previous years. The filings list increased valuations tied largely to Mynett’s business holdings, including consulting and investment ventures.

Comer questioned the plausibility of the reported increase, saying it raised immediate red flags.

“There are a lot of questions as to how her husband accumulated so much wealth over the past two years,” Comer said. “It’s not possible. It’s not. I’m a money guy. It’s not possible.”

Republicans say the size and timing of the reported increase warrant closer scrutiny. Oversight Committee members have indicated they may seek additional documentation to better understand how the assets were valued and whether the disclosures complied with House ethics rules.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, said the issue goes beyond routine disclosure review and merits formal examination.

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Scott Heins/Getty Images

“The explosion of wealth, plus the fact that convicted fraudsters helped fund Omar’s campaign, is worth an investigation by the Ethics Committee at the very least,” Emmer said.

The investigation comes amid heightened political attention on financial transparency in Congress and broader scrutiny of fraud cases in Minnesota, though Omar has not been charged or accused of involvement in those cases.

Omar has dismissed the investigation as politically motivated and has denied any wrongdoing. She has previously said her financial disclosures are accurate and that her husband’s business activities are lawful.

A congressional investigation does not itself imply misconduct. Lawmakers frequently review disclosures and request clarifications as part of routine oversight. The House Oversight Committee has not released a timeline for potential hearings or subpoenas.

Democrats have criticized the probe as partisan, arguing that Republicans are targeting a prominent progressive lawmaker. Republicans counter that the inquiry is about transparency and accountability.

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As the Trump administration celebrates one year in office, the Department of Homeland Security made a big announcement for its CBP Home App program in a bid to keep the deportation numbers high.

In a Wednesday press release, DHS announced that it will be increasing the self-deportation stipend the American taxpayer has been paying illegal aliens to self-deport.

'Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.'

The stipend will increase from $1,000 to $2,600. DHS' offer also covers the airline ticket price and forgiveness of any civil fines or penalties for failing to leave the country.

“Since January 2025, 2.2 million illegal aliens have voluntarily self-deported and tens of thousands have used the CBP Home program. To celebrate one year of this administration, the U.S. taxpayer is generously increasing the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally — offering a $2,600 exit bonus,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

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Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images

“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return,” Noem continued.

DHS explained in the press release that an enforced deportation costs a little over $18,000. With the new offer, the burden on the U.S. taxpayer for a voluntary self-deportation is substantially lessened, dropping to just over $5,000.

The department also claimed that the Trump administration finished its first year with over 675,000 deportations, though more specific breakdowns of the data have been difficult to obtain.

"Those illegal aliens who don’t take advantage of this special offer today have only one alternative: They will be arrested, deported, and they will never be able to return to the United States," DHS said. "The smart and simple thing to do is to start planning your trip home through CBP Home today."

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Many Americans have watched Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.” And many have read J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Some can quote whole passages and trace Tolkien’s deliberate references to the life of Christ and the horror of modern war.

Maybe House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) live in that camp. If not, they should.

The Republicans’ plan cannot be ‘use federal power while we have it, then trust the next guys.’

A crucial scene comes early in the saga. The council debates what to do with the One Ring, the ultimate source of power. Boromir makes an understandable, dangerous suggestion — a perfect expression of fallen man’s temptation: “Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him.”

Aragorn stops him with two sentences rooted in humility and truth: “You cannot wield it. None of us can.”

That is the lesson Republicans must learn now, while they still hold majorities.

Dismantle the machine, don’t borrow it

Many supporters of President Trump want Congress to act boldly. They also want something more important: They want Republicans to roll back the reach and scope of the federal government while they can. If the GOP refuses, Democrats will inherit the same machinery and use it without restraint. Not someday. Soon.

If you think I exaggerate by calling Democrats the enemy or warning that we are doomed, consider a recent message from the second-highest-ranking elected congressional Democrat in the country, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Jeffries posted a video of White House adviser Stephen Miller on X.com and wrote: “Donald Trump will leave office long before the five-year statute of limitations expires. You are hereby put on notice.”

Jeffries did not allege a crime. He did not explain what Miller did wrong. He did not argue facts or law. He issued a threat: We will punish you later because we can.

That is what Republicans keep forgetting. The federal government’s power does not idle in neutral. It exists to be used. If it remains in place, someone will use it — and progressives have already shown what they want to do with it.

Which raises the central point: Nobody can safely wield that power. Not congressional Republicans. Not any administration. The correct move is not to grab the weapon and promise better behavior. The correct move is to destroy the weapon.

Fraud stories shine a bright light

Start with something as basic as fraud.

Look at the unraveling of the Somali day-care scandal in Minnesota and the billions of stolen tax dollars. That story grew so large that it helped end Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s re-election ambitions. Yet the government did not uncover it.

Not the Government Accountability Office. Not the Congressional Budget Office. Not the Office of Management and Budget. Not House or Senate oversight committees. Not the IRS. Not the Small Business Administration. Not the armies of full-time staffers inside federal agencies reporting up to inspectors general whose job description exists for this very purpose.

All that government power — and it did nothing.

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mathisworks via iStock/Getty Images

The scandal came to light because of the tenacity of a 23-year-old guy with a camera. If the federal machine can miss fraud on that scale, imagine what else it misses.

Fraud saturates the system. Estimates run as high as $500 billion — roughly 7% of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. That budget still reflects COVID-era spending levels. In 2019, Washington spent $4.45 trillion. Why did we never return to pre-COVID levels?

Because money is power. And like Boromir, too many people convince themselves they can wield it.

Ethics are not enough

Energy policy shows the same temptation in real time.

My nonprofit organization, Power the Future, sent another letter to House and Senate oversight committees and to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging investigations into Biden’s energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm. In the final days of the Biden administration, Granholm awarded $100 billion in green-energy grants — more than the previous 15 years combined. Many recipients had previously supported her political campaigns.

Green money poured out of Washington through the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated $60 billion for “environmental justice” — a phrase so deliberately amorphous that it has no fixed meaning. Team Biden spent $1 trillion “going green,” a statistic Vice President Kamala Harris bragged about during her lone 2024 debate with Donald Trump.

That entire structure still stands.

Nothing prevents the current energy secretary, Chris Wright, from spending billions on his favorite projects except his ethics. I believe Wright has ethics in abundance. We should feel grateful. But one man’s ethics do not qualify as a system of government.

The next secretary could be worse than Granholm. If the power remains, someone will use it.

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Viktoriia Melnyk via iStock/Getty Images

Empty the arsenal

Just as in Tolkien’s masterpiece, our enemies do not wait quietly. They scheme. They train. They amass armies of lawyers, activists, operatives, and bureaucrats. They build institutional pipelines that outlast elections. They do not go home after losing once. They plan the return.

Republicans need to plan as well — and their plan cannot be “use federal power while we have it, then trust the next guys.”

One party will not hold Washington forever. When conservatives lose power, they should make sure the left inherits a reduced federal government: weaker, narrower, stripped of the patronage systems and enforcement tools that now function as political weapons.

That is why it is incumbent upon congressional Republicans to do everything in their power — everything — to destroy the Ring.

America’s founders envisioned a weak federal government for this reason. In America’s 250th year, Congress should act like it understands the danger of concentrated power. If Republicans keep the machinery intact, they will regret it. If the Ring finds its next master, it will not spare the people who once held it.

Radicals from Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and BLM Twin Cities assembled on Sunday for a so-called "ICE Out Action," then stormed a Christian church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday morning that at her direction, Homeland Security Investigations and FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, the founder of the Racial Justice Network and former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, who claimed responsibility for the disruption.

— (@)

The AG indicated that Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a radical lesbian who has led BLM Twin Cities and worked for the Saint Paul School Board since 2020, was also arrested.

"Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP," wrote Bondi.

'President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.'

FBI Director Kash Patel indicated that both Armstrong and Allen were arrested for alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon indicated in the immediate aftermath of the radicals' incursion into Cities Church, which apparently has a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-affiliated pastor, that her office was looking into potential FACE Act violations "by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers."

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Photo by Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

"We don’t want to prejudge, but I think it is fair to say that I saw multiple federal criminal incidents yesterday, and there will be charges," Dhillon told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck Monday. "It's only a question of when we can get a judge to sign off on arrest warrants and exactly what the charges would be."

The law prohibits the use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.

Violations can result in prison time and hefty fines as well as civil lawsuits.

Footage of the church-storming appears to show the mob led by Armstrong blocking the altar, yelling Renee Good's name, and pressing parishioners individually to answer whether they support ICE. One pair of visibly upset churchgoers can be seen in the video comforting one another while the radicals angrily condemn members of law enforcement.

In one video of the mob action, Armstrong apparently yells, "Someone who claims to worship God, teaching people in this church about God, is out there overseeing ICE agents. Think about what we experienced. The murder of Renee Good at the hands of ICE. A Venezuelan national shot by ICE."

Armstrong references a pair of individuals who were shot while allegedly attacking federal agents, then yells, "How dare you claim to be a pastor of God? ... You are involved in evil in our community," video appears to show.

"President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday. "The Department of Justice has launched a full investigation into the despicable incident that took place earlier today at a church in Minnesota."

Bondi suggested that there are more arrests to come.

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A felon who had spent time behind bars for kidnapping and other crimes tried to abduct a Florida woman who was walking her dog in the area of 18th Place East in Bradenton on New Year's Day, WFLA-TV reported, citing the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman managed to run away from the suspect's car and made it to her home — and then warned her husband about what happened, the station said.

'Chalk one up for the good guys!'

Detectives said the husband went outside and confronted the suspect, who behaved “in a threatening manner” toward the couple, WFLA reported.

But when the suspect began approaching, the husband shot the suspect once in the driveway, the station said.

The sheriff’s office told WFLA the entire incident occurred in a matter of minutes.

Deputies responded to the shooting at 12:27 a.m., and the suspect — 36-year-old Nicholas Palomo — died at the scene despite efforts to save him, the station said.

RELATED: Crook forces way into home, stabs resident amid fight. But victim's wife grabs gun, opens fire — and permanently ends threat.

Mugshot of Nicholas Palomo from 2023Image source: Manatee County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office

More from WFLA:

After collecting further evidence in the shooting, investigators determined that Palomo did not know the couple, classifying the shooting as a “random incident.”

Detectives also found that Palomo previously caused a disturbance at a Circle K before the shooting. It is believed he may have been under the influence of narcotics.

An autopsy found Palomo died of a single gunshot to the chest, and toxicology testing is being done to determine what drugs were in his system at the time.

The State Attorney’s Office classified the shooting as self-defense, justifying the homeowner’s actions, the station said.

As you can imagine, commenters under WFLA's Facebook post about the incident gave the husband hearty kudos.

• "Husband of the year!" one commenter declared.
• "I got his next beer," another user promised.
• "Chalk one up for the good guys!" another commenter exclaimed.
• "Hero husband," another user stated.
• "The south don’t play games," another commenter wrote.

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The House Oversight Committee issued deposition subpoenas on Aug. 5 to failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton requiring their testimony "related to horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein."

Evidently the Clintons didn't feel that they should be held to the same standard to which Democrats previously held President Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon and current trade adviser Peter Navarro, who were both jailed for defying subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 committee.

'The Clintons were legally required to appear and instead responded to our good-faith negotiations with defiance.'

After repeated warnings that the Clintons risked criminal exposure by failing to comply with the subpoenas, the committee advanced two resolutions on Wednesday recommending that the House of Representatives find them in contempt of Congress.

The resolution finding Hillary Clinton in contempt passed in a 28-15 vote. The three Democratic lawmakers who joined Republicans in supporting the resolution were Reps. Summer Lee (Pa.), Melanie Stansbury (N.M.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.).

The resolution finding Bill Clinton in contempt passed in a 34-8 vote with the help of Lee, Stansbury, Tlaib, and six other Democrats: Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Stephen Lynch (Mass.), Emily Randall (Wash.), and Lateefah Simon (Calif.).

"By voting to hold the Clintons in contempt, the Committee sent a clear message: No one is above the law, and justice must be applied equally — regardless of position, pedigree, or prestige," Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in the wake of the votes. "The Clintons were legally required to appear and instead responded to our good-faith negotiations with defiance, delay, and obstruction."

RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell scheduled to testify before House Oversight Committee

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.

The Clintons' lawyers, apparently aware that the other shoe was about to drop, proposed that Comer travel to New York for a conversation with Bill Clinton where "no official transcript would be recorded and other Members of Congress would be barred from participating," Comer indicated on Tuesday.

Comer noted both that the "Clintons' latest demands make clear they believe their last name entitles them to special treatment" and that the proposal for a transcript-free interview was unworkable because "Clinton has a documented history of parsing language to evade questions, responded falsely under oath, and was impeached and suspended from the practice of law as a result."

Angel Urena, deputy chief of staff to Bill Clinton, denied Comer's framing and stated hours ahead of the votes that "we have offered to help, we have helped, and to this very moment we are ready to help. But the Republicans REFUSE to say yes."

Urena suggested that the dealbreaker was ultimately lawmakers' alleged refusal to "keep their questions about the Epstein investigation to questions about Jeffrey Epstein."

House GOP leaders are reportedly not expected to vote on whether to refer the contempt findings to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution until lawmakers return in February. The Washington Post suggested that the delay will afford the Clintons time to talk their way out of hot water and into an arrangement with the committee.

Democrats have a history of evading consequence for defying congressional subpoenas.

Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama's attorney general, was held in contempt of Congress in a decisive 255-67 vote in 2012 for refusing to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal.

The Obama Justice Department rewarded Holder for keeping Obama's documents from the American people's elected representatives by refusing to prosecute.

In 2024, House Republicans voted to hold former Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas for audio recordings of former President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

The Biden Department of Justice revealed on June 14, 2024, that it would not bother prosecuting the Democratic official.

House Republicans talked a big game in early 2024 about possible repercussions after Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena. Biden managed to get out unscathed as lawmakers dropped their proposed contempt resolution to give the pardoned felon's attorneys more time.

Republican allies have not been so lucky.

After the Democrat-controlled House voted 229-202 in 2021 to hold him in contempt of Congress, the Biden DOJ energetically prosecuted Steve Bannon, securing a conviction and recommending that he serve at least six months in prison and pay a $200,000 fine. He ultimately served four.

Navarro received a similar treatment and ended up serving a four-month prison sentence as well.

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Castelion, a California-based defense manufacturing startup, has been tapped by the Pentagon to produce hypersonic missiles, and the company is promising lightning-fast delivery at costs much reduced from what Americans have grown to expect. The Blackbeard missile, which is said to far exceed enemy capabilities, will be scaled and brought to market using streamlined techniques borrowed from SpaceX methodology.

The company’s chief executive, operations, and financial officers are all former SpaceX employees now working to fill the market for a missile system to cover gaps in the current European geopolitical defense situation.

Elon's manufacturing innovations are set to fast-track the next epoch of tech war.

Insiders are calling this the post-Oreshnik era, referring to Moscow's recently showcased, devastatingly new and improved hypersonic missile. The Russian missile tech instantly changed the coercion/deterrence calculus. European options are dwindling. NATO is at odds with the Trump administration.

Going forward, we’re in a era when, once again, as in the Cold War years, military technological advancement on the part of the major geopolitical oppositional players (Russia, China, and friends) necessitates bold reallocation of funds and brainpower. It’s the same race with new technologies.

Missiles are much faster. Cheap mass production of highly effective, small suicide-style drones reshapes every battle space. Bioweapons — illegal, insane, and otherwise — continue to haunt the future. Meanwhile, the whole of the defense contractor sector is being rejiggered. War Secretary Pete Hegseth just last week ordered a revamp of SBA 8(a) contracts; commonly associated with old DEI practices, they're said to be rife with fraud, waste, and abuse.

From mass destruction to mass production

We’ve lived through many iterations of this “great game”-style military tech race. While the urgency around AI in military applications continues to burn through government budgets, good old-fashioned kinetic munitions are in no way being left in the dust.

Castelion, in addition to its SpaceX vet C-suite cadre, also boasts a number of manufacturing specialists also brought over from Elon’s rocket company. A recent analysis from writer R.C. Maxwell sums it up well:

The company vertically integrates key technologies like rocket motors and guidance systems while conducting high-tempo flight testing, with more than 25 developmental tests completed in under 18 months. Castelion designs for manufacturability, compressing development cycles from years to months and potentially cutting costs by 10x compared to traditional weapons. This approach enables industrial-scale production of Blackbeard at commercial prices, positioning it as the first U.S. hypersonic system built for mass production.

Perhaps we may surmise from this that a good bit of Elon’s applied manufacturing innovations, coupled with AI's precise technical analysis and the urgency of a geopolitical reset, are set to fast-track the next epoch of tech war.

The arsenal of freedom

In a press release, Castelion CEO Bryon Hargis said the announced Pentagon contracts "validate that affordability and speed are critical to modern deterrence.” This is consistent with Secretary Hegseth’s stated position regarding an attitudinal shift within the contracts and acquisitions sector of his department.

RELATED: Rubio reportedly reveals Trump's plan to acquire Greenland to bolster US defense

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Hesgeth affirmed, in what is now referred to as the “Arsenal of Freedom” speech, that "innovation is stifled not by ill intent but by institutional inertia. Just as we must transform American’s military capability to meet changing threats, we must transform the way the department works and what it works on.”

The quick and the deadly

Asked for comment on how scalable the new missile tech might be, global risk analyst Ronald Dodson, CEO of Dallas North Capital Partners, compared the situation to a new Wild West, faster and more lethal than ever. “In the Old West, where the presence of the overarching magistrate was only an occasional luxury, everyone carried a gun — and usually two," he said. "The primitive version of MAD wasn’t perfect, but it provided for a much higher bar for a disagreement to break containment. The chase for ever-greater missile tech is the equivalent of practicing an ever-quicker draw.”

It’s been less than a week since Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn in as Virginia’s governor, and already her unhinged liberal policies are poisoning the state, says BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales.

“She's a deranged, liberal, white woman, so she's handling it about how you would expect,” she sneers.

As one of her first actions after being sworn in, Spanberger signed an executive order rescinding her predecessor Glenn Youngkin's directive that required state law enforcement, including Virginia State Police and corrections, to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on immigration enforcement.

“I've explained this to you multiple times,” says Sara. “They want the criminals.”

“You had Glenn Youngkin. You could have actually made some progress to not be a total hellhole, and instead, they were like, ‘Nope, nope, nope — we want the law-abiding Americans to not feel safe."’

On top of that, just days before Spanberger’s swearing-in, Democratic delegates rushed in bills that critics argue will fuel crime and anti-white racism in Virginia.

For example, Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D) introduced a bill (HB912) that will “guarantee illegal alien children free education in Virginia.”

“Come on over. It's all free,” retorts Sara.

Delegate Sam Rasoul (D) introduced a bill (HB1070) that aims to “prohibit the state from mentioning an accused criminal's prior conviction to the jury during the guilt phase of the trial.”

“They won't hold it against them that they've just gone on to commit crime after crime after crime after crime” scoffs Sara.

“But wait, there’s more.”

Delegate Rae Cousins (D) introduced a bill (HB863) that removes mandatory minimum prison sentences for many crimes, including rape, manslaughter, assaulting a police officer, possession and distribution of child pornography, and repeat violent felonies.

“You guys think that I'm being hyperbolic. I'm not,” Sara insists. “They want the crime and the criminals to thrive in the state of Virginia.”

But perhaps the worst bill came from Delegate Jeion A. Ward (D), who introduced a bill (HB61) that proposes giving state contracts under $100,000 almost exclusively to businesses owned by women, minorities, or veterans — effectively shutting out white men unless no one else qualifies — and even then allows the state to award the contract to a preferred business if their bid is up to 5% higher than a white male-owned bid.

“Guys, the DOJ needs to sue them like yesterday. ... That is blatant discrimination,” says Sara.

“By the way, if you live in Virginia, get the hell out. [Spanberger] is raising taxes on basically everything from retail delivery — so like Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, UPS, guns and ammo, you name it.”

Virginia, she says, “had something good,” and then it elected a “crazy, liberal, white [woman],” and now “just like that,” it’s been “run into the ground.”

To hear more of Sara’s commentary, watch the full episode above.

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Google once had an informal motto: “Don’t be evil.” How about be ideologically driven? Opaque? Arbitrary?

Google sells itself as online Switzerland — a neutral search engine that doesn’t tilt one way or the other. That neutrality vanishes fast when you search for something its algorithm doesn’t like. Suddenly the thing you want becomes strangely hard to find unless you already know exactly where it lives. If you don’t, good luck.

You can’t fix what you’re not allowed to understand.

And good luck advertising it, too — if Google disapproves.

Most people still think of Google as a search engine. That’s outdated. Google is the 900-pound gorilla of online advertising through Google Ads. It has vacuumed up so much of the market that anyone who wants to advertise online usually has to go through Google’s pipeline, under Google’s terms, with Google acting as judge and jury.

This isn’t the print era, when advertisers bought space from newspapers and magazines directly, publication by publication. Today, a huge share of the ad economy runs through a single gatekeeper.

Some might call that a monopoly. Monopolies become even more dangerous when they turn ideological.

Google — and it is far from alone — leans hard left. It dislikes conservative and Christian content, and it has learned how to suppress it without leaving fingerprints. It buries the content in search rankings so that almost no one sees it unless they already know where to look. It throttles monetization. It blocks ads with vague warnings and “policy” language designed to end the conversation.

Google and TikTok now appear to be doing the same thing to faith-based content.

Have you heard of TruPlay? Probably not. That’s the point.

TruPlay is an entertainment app that offers faith-based games and videos for kids. It’s explicitly family-friendly — no sexual themes, no violence, no garbage disguised as “content.” Parents want that. Millions of them. There’s a market for wholesome screen time, and there’s money to be made providing it.

But according to the American Center for Law and Justice, Google has refused to do business with TruPlay for ideological reasons. The ACLJ says Google rejected TruPlay’s efforts to launch advertising campaigns, citing “religious belief in personalized advertising.”

Read that again. Google flagged religious belief as the problem.

The ACLJ says TruPlay tried to comply, filing appeals and revising its ad content repeatedly, only to receive the same rejection notices no matter what changes it made. The ads weren’t inflammatory. They were straightforward: “Turn Game Time into God Time,” “Christian Games for Kids,” “Safe Bible Games for Kids.”

Google’s policy supposedly prohibits “selecting an audience based on sensitive information, such as health information or religious beliefs.” But TruPlay wasn’t targeting a religious audience or harvesting private data. It was advertising Christian kids’ content to the general public.

Google’s response wasn’t “you’re targeting.” It was “your content is too sensitive to advertise.”

That’s the move. “Sensitive” once meant porn, violence, or content not suitable for children. Now it means “Christian games for kids.”

TikTok, the ACLJ says, applied the same logic with even less transparency. The platform allegedly suspended TruPlay’s advertising account over unspecified “repeated violations,” without explaining what those violations were. The ACLJ says one rejected ad contained the word “church.” Another issue allegedly involved an App Store preview image showing Jesus on the cross — not in the ad itself, but in the app’s images. The ACLJ claims TikTok barred advertising anyway.

RELATED: Google’s new plan: To learn everything about you from your online shopping

Photo by Idrees MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images

You can’t fix what you’re not allowed to understand. That’s the point of opacity. You don’t get a rule you can follow. You get a verdict.

What makes this even more revealing is the economic angle. This isn’t Google or TikTok avoiding ads that risk scaring off customers. TruPlay offers the kind of content parents actively want. Platforms should want that money. Instead, they appear willing to lose revenue just to suppress anything overtly Christian and family-friendly.

The ACLJ has sent a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, urging an investigation into what it calls “systemic discrimination” against Christian content creators and advertisers — part of a broader pattern of viewpoint-based censorship.

Google and TikTok will respond with the standard defense: We’re private companies. We can do what we want.

Fine. But stop pretending you’re Switzerland. If you present yourself as a neutral platform open to all, while quietly functioning as a political gatekeeper, you don’t get to hide behind the language of neutrality when people notice the double standard.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you’re Switzerland — or you’re not.

Google and TikTok are not. It’s time to treat them accordingly.

Rep. John James, a Michigan Republican running for governor, has launched a new ad tying the fate of Trump's second term and the America First agenda to James' home state of Michigan.

On Thursday, James released an ad titled "Impeached," claiming that Michigan, with its open U.S. Senate seat and four competitive House races, is "ground zero" in the fight to keep Congress under Republican control.

Recent polling indicates that James holds a commanding lead in the Republican primary and a slight edge in the general election in November.

The ad suggests that if Congress falls into the hands of the Democrats after the 2026 midterms, Trump will be "impeached" and his "Cabinet dragged before hearings led by AOC and Rashida Tlaib," referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tlaib (D-Mich.).

In the ad, James, currently a Michigan congressman who has "backed President Trump every time," makes the pitch to MAGA Michiganders that his election to be their next governor is vital to protecting Trump and his ability to continue implementing his policies: "If you care about President Trump, you must stand up for John James."

RELATED: Gov. candidate John James hammers Michigan GOP over political failures: 'What are we even talking about?'

In a press release given to Blaze News, James' spokeswoman Hannah Osantowske stated: "This ad makes the stakes unmistakable. If Republicans lose Michigan, Democrats will move to impeach President Trump and grind the America First agenda to a halt. John James is the conservative fighter who can win — and who Michigan families can trust to hold the line."

As of Thursday morning, Trump has made no endorsement in the Michigan gubernatorial Republican primary, though he previously endorsed James' Senate and congressional campaigns and even referred to the Iraq War Army aviation officer as "legendary."

Osantowske told Blaze News that James is "committed to earning" Trump's endorsement once again. "John James is a proven winner. President Trump likes winners, and he remembers those who’ve been loyal," she added.

Recent polling indicates that James holds a commanding lead in the Republican primary and a slight edge in a hypothetical three-way matchup against Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Democrat-leaning independent Mike Duggan in the general election in November.

The RealClearPolitics average currently has James ahead by 3.5 points.

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Democrats, ever desperate for one-party control, filed a lawsuit in October claiming that New York City's only Republican-held congressional district was unconstitutionally drawn because it allegedly "dilutes black and Latino voting strength."

The Staten Island plaintiffs, represented by the Washington, D.C.-based Elias Law Group, demanded that the map — which was approved by the Democrat-controlled state legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in 2024 — be redrawn such that it'd be virtually impossible for Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis to defend her district.

'This entire exercise is a cynical attempt to enact an illegal partisan gerrymander under the guise of a voting rights case.'

Jeffrey Pearlman, a justice on the New York Supreme Court who was not only appointed by Hochul but previously served as her lawyer and chief of staff, delivered the plaintiffs a win on Wednesday, claiming that the configuration of New York State's 11th congressional district is unconstitutional.

"It is clear to the Court that the current district lines of CD-11 are a contributing factor in the lack of representation for minority voters," wrote Hochul's former chief of staff.

While the Democratic plaintiffs proposed new gerrymandered district lines for the Hochul judge to adopt, he noted that the New York state Constitution leaves it to the legislature to correct the law's legal infirmities in the event that a congressional map is invalidated by a court.

RELATED: Christians win BIG: New York caves on forcing nuns and churches to fund abortion after knockout SCOTUS ruling

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

Accordingly he ordered the New York Independent Redistricting Commission to draw a new map by Feb. 6.

Days ahead of the ruling, Malliotakis told "The Point with Marcia Kramer" that the Democratic campaign to redraw the map was "ludicrous" and "an insult to the people of Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn, who had a Democrat, by the way, Max Rose, who represented them, and they fired this individual."

"So they had a choice here between a Republican and a Democrat, and they decided they didn't want the Democrat representing them anymore," continued Malliotakis. "And here comes this Washington firm saying they don't care about the will of the voter. They're going to set it up so a Republican can never win and it'll always be one-party rule."

Aria Branch, a partner at the D.C.-based Elias Law Group, claimed that the decision was "a victory for every voter in New York’s 11th Congressional District who has been denied an equal voice."

Hochul also lauded her former underling's decision.

"The New York State Constitution guarantees the principles of fair representation, and New Yorkers in every community deserve these protections," stated Hochul. "The court's decision underscores the importance of these constitutional principles and directs the congressional map be redrawn by the New York Independent Redistricting Commission so impacted communities are fully represented and have a voice in our democracy."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) characterized the apparent effort to disenfranchise Republican voters in New York City as "the first step towards ensuring communities of interest remain intact from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan."

Rep. Mike Lawler (R) rejected Jeffries' framing, suggesting the Hochul judge's order amounted to an "absurd fraud" perpetrated against those "New Yorkers who demanded independent redistricting and overwhelmingly rejected partisan gerrymandering."

Ed Cox, chairman of the New York Republican Party, similarly condemned the ruling.

"This was a partisan ruling made by a partisan judge in a case brought by a notoriously partisan attorney," stated Cox. "Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats did not alter this district when they had a chance in 2024. This entire exercise is a cynical attempt to enact an illegal partisan gerrymander under the guise of a voting rights case."

The district Hochul's former underling deemed unconstitutional has been represented by Malliotakis since 2021, when she beat her Democratic opponent in a landslide, 63.8% to 35.8%.

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Imagine standing in a war-torn city overseas, as I have on numerous deployments, walking through communities shattered not just by bombs and sectarian conflict, but by the follow-on failure of basic systems — water, power, food, even the educational system.

It's a stark reminder that resilience isn't abstract; it's the difference between chaos and recovery. Back home, over 20 million Americans reported in 2023 that they could last at home for a month or more without publicly provided water, power, or transportation, a rate more than double that reported in 2017.

This trend is not occurring because of government guidance, but rather because of a perceived fear of government failure. Across the world, civil defense and national preparedness are surging in discussions, extending beyond disasters or war to encompass health, economics, energy, and the social, spiritual, and built environments of our communities.

Civilians have an active role to play and should not passively wait for government salvation.

The core question remains: Are we truly resilient?

Identifying gaps

In 2019, Quinton Lucie, a former attorney for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, wrote a blistering academic piece in Homeland Security Affairs. He argued that America no longer has the institutional experience or framework required for civil defense, a large pillar in overall national resiliency. In his words, the U.S. “lacks a comprehensive strategy and supporting programs to support and defend the population of the United States during times of war.” Retired Air Force General Glen D. VanHerck, the former commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, recently commented that America needs to be able to “take a punch in the nose ... and get back up and come out swinging” regardless of whether the attack came in the cyber realm or something conventional.

An all-inclusive plan is not optional. Presidential Executive Order 12656 mandates whole-of-government responsibilities for various national security emergencies. Article Three of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, which created NATO, stipulates resilience, focusing on continuity of government, essential services for citizens, and military support. Implicitly, it calls on individuals to step up too — not just for war, but for natural disasters, economic slumps, or grid failures.

While non-binding, the 2020 NATO NSHQ Comprehensive Defence Handbook states that “resilience is the foundation atop the whole-of-society bedrock” and “is built through civil preparedness and is achieved by continually preparing for, mitigating, and adapting to potential risks well before a crisis.” The challenge is that civil preparedness requires this whole-of-society approach, not just a whole-of-government one. That is, we can’t have a strong nation without strong individuals and communities.

Facing perils head-on

What other perils might we confront? Food security is a prime example. During the U.S. government shutdown, food banks near bases experienced a 30%-75% surge from military families. This comes at a time when 42 million Americans are on food stamps and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. push for a healthier fighting force and populace. Globally, a February 2025 report by the U.K.’s National Preparedness Commission indicated that civil food resilience is highly vulnerable to myriad shocks to the status quo and that the populace was underprepared.

RELATED: Minneapolis ICE protesters are BEGGING for civil war — and we need to take them seriously

Photo by DAVID PASHAEE/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Utilities failures like water and electricity are another concern. In October 2025, the former top general of the National Security Agency warned of China's aggressive targeting of U.S. critical infrastructure. This aligns with China’s “Three Warfares” strategy, which seeks to manipulate or weaken adversaries via public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, and legal warfare. China’s gray-zone activities against the U.S. also include synthetic narcotics like fentanyl and online actions to deepen political fissures.

Leaders are not sitting still. President Trump supports reshoring manufacturing capacity in the U.S. Onshoring and friend-shoring are hot topics among various industries, given rare-earth metal availability, tariffs, and general uncertainty. The U.S. Army is bolstering energy resilience, planning nuclear small modular reactors on nine bases by late 2028 and reclaiming a "right to repair" in contracts.

Big business is also in on the action. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase recently announced a $1.5 trillion plan for a more resilient domestic economy, seeing it as an issue of national security. With two Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025 potentially fueling inflation, hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio advises 15% portfolio allocation to gold. Even Jan Sramek of California Forever is investing hundreds of millions to build a resilient city near San Francisco. Resilience, clearly, permeates every facet of life.

Resilience is global

This is not unique to the English-speaking world. Latvia, a small Baltic state bordering Russia and Russia’s ally Belarus, exemplifies a whole-of-society approach. The nation's 2020 State Defense Concept — currently in execution — is comprehensive in its approach, both to potential perils and responsibilities. Accidents, pandemics, war, severe weather, and cyberthreats all require a citizenry-to-parliament strategy. The church plays a major role, as does physical fitness, patriotism, and education, which is why state defense is now compulsory in Latvian schools.

Germany is getting back into the bunker business and has earmarked €10 billion through 2029 for civil protection. Many Polish citizens do not see their governments doing enough and are taking matters into their own hands by building bunkers and attempting — unfortunately without much success — to establish neighborhood civil defense groups.

What resilient citizens can do

What should we take from this? First, preparedness is neither fringe nor irrational. It is a global movement involving politicians, billionaires, and everyday people. Second, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Resilience spans the full human spectrum: social, physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual components, as I outline in my book "Resilient Citizens" through frameworks like the five archetypes (from Homesteaders to the Faithful) that show diverse, adaptable paths. Third, civilians have an active role to play and should not passively wait for government salvation. Tiered responsibility requires each echelon — from state to citizen — to play their parts, own up to their agency and responsibility, and act. Will you?

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have launched one of the largest Medicaid fraud crackdowns in American history. Raids. Indictments. Billions of dollars. A system designed to help the poor became a loot bag for criminals and grifters.

California saw those headlines and said, “They should have consulted us!”

Taxpayers don’t care whether fraud happens the Minnesota way — through day-care centers and nonprofits — or the California way — through health care accounting games.

Sacramento’s progressive class has spent years perfecting a cleaner version of the same scam — one that stays inside the lines, collects federal dollars on paper, and sends the bill to taxpayers everywhere else. Call it “legal.” Call it “approved.” Call it “routine.” None of those words makes it legitimate.

In 2004, the Government Accountability Office warned Congress that states were gaming Medicaid through intergovernmental transfers. States would shuffle public money through a circular process to make spending look real, inflate federal matching payments, then cycle the funds back to themselves. The GAO described “round-trip” arrangements that generated federal dollars without exposing states to true financial risk and that undermined the balance Congress intended.

Washington shrugged. Some states backed off. Others refined the trick.

California scaled it.

Medi-Cal, the state’s massive Medicaid program, now serves as the vehicle for this legal laundering operation. State officials insist that the system complies with federal rules. Fine. A loophole still remains a loophole, and taxpayers still pay the tab.

Paragon Health Institute, a conservative health policy organization, has laid out the mechanism clearly. Counties and public hospital systems transfer funds to the state through IGTs. The state counts that money as the “non-federal share” of Medicaid spending, then claims a larger federal match. Sacramento sends the combined state and federal funds back to government-owned providers through supplemental payments and formula-driven reimbursements.

The math almost always works in the contributors’ favor. The entities that send money in get reimbursed in full — and often receive more than they put up.

RELATED: $300M frozen: California allegedly forced Americans to fund illegal alien Medicaid — so Dr. Oz drops the hammer

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

California’s ambulance program shows how ugly this gets. Under the state’s Ground Emergency Medical Transport program, California bars payments from the state’s general fund. Public ambulance agencies instead receive “supplemental payments” that California largely restricts to public providers, limiting private companies’ access.

The result: California pays public ambulance providers about $1,065 per transport, while it offers private ambulance companies roughly $339 for the same job.

Then the federal government matches the inflated payments.

This isn’t just favoritism. It warps the market. It pushes private providers out and leaves patients with fewer options.

California has also expanded Medi-Cal eligibility regardless of immigration status. The state claims it funds routine coverage for “undocumented” adults with state dollars, but emergency Medicaid remains federally reimbursable. Sacramento still taps federal funds through the back door, even as it sells the program as a self-funded moral gesture.

This system stinks — even when regulators bless it.

And the political contrast tells you everything. Minnesota’s fraud scandal has created enough public anger to drive its Democrat governor out of the next election. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), whose administration runs a program built on the same kind of federal exploitation — just with better paperwork — remains a top Democrat presidential prospect in 2028.

The federal government could stop this tomorrow. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could clamp down on the abuse of IGTs and demand a genuine state contribution, not an accounting illusion. Instead, under the Biden administration, CMS approved major expansions and encouraged the same incentives that fuel the problem.

Audits don’t fix it, either. Regulators review what states claim on paper, not what taxpayers actually fund. If a state can justify the scheme in bureaucratic language, CMS signs off. Fraud analysis often misses the point for the same reason. A state can structure IGTs so the “state share” exists largely as a bookkeeping device. Federal taxpayers remain the only party exposed to real financial loss.

Congress never designed Medicaid to serve as a revenue stream for local governments. It created Medicaid to help the poor. California’s 12-to-1 payment disparities punish the poor by reducing competition, shrinking access, and driving private providers out of business.

RELATED: The insane little story that failed to warn America about the depth of Somali fraud

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

Congress already has the solution. The GAO outlined it two decades ago, and the George W. Bush administration backed the basic idea: Close the loophole by prohibiting Medicaid payments that exceed actual costs for government-owned facilities.

In plain English: Stop rewarding government-owned providers with inflated reimbursements that private providers can’t touch. Set equal rules. Require real state contributions. Cut the circular funding schemes that turn Medicaid into a federal ATM.

Taxpayers don’t care whether fraud happens the Minnesota way — through day cares and nonprofits — or the California way — through health care accounting games. We care that Washington keeps subsidizing systems designed to break the rules everyone else has to follow.

California built this machine. Congress can shut it down.

A homeless Florida man allegedly attacking a teenager was beaten in the face with a toolbox by a Good Samaritan before police arrived and took him into custody.

Christopher Steven Schwable, 36, of Pierson was restrained by bystanders when he choked and beat a 13-year-old at a school bus stop in DeLand on Tuesday morning.

The man had been in jail for just over three weeks on charges of indecent exposure and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police said they responded to a call about a possible stabbing at the intersection of Clear Lake Dr. and North Spring Garden Ave. when they saw Schwable being held down by another man.

The man said that he hit Schwable with his toolbox after driving by the bus stop and seeing him attacking the child. He said that the man threatened him with a knife, so he hit him twice.

Schwable had a head injury and was bleeding.

Police bodycam footage showed their interaction with the boy, who said that Schwable had pulled out a knife, grabbed him, and hit him. Two witnesses corroborated the boy's account, according to police.

In addition to the witnesses' corroboration, police said they found a green-and-black folding knife in the man's pocket and confiscated it as evidence.

WOFL-TV reported that Schwable had been released from jail on Jan. 13, just a week before the alleged attack on the teenager. The man had been in jail for just over three weeks on charges of indecent exposure and possession of drug paraphernalia. WOFL said that those charges were dropped by prosecutors, according to court documents.

Police said those charges were not related to the bus stop incident.

Schwable's booking photo appeared to show a large wound on the right side of his face.

RELATED: Security video captures homeless man with young woman he allegedly tried to rape before assaulting a second woman in Los Angeles

Schwable was charged with aggravated child abuse and aggravated assault.

A spokesperson with Volusia County schools confirmed that the boy was a seventh-grade student at Southwestern Middle School.

Officials also confirmed that Schwable was currently homeless.

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The intentional implosion of the United States via mass immigration — often called the “Great Replacement” theory — has been “debunked” as a baseless, racist conspiracy theory by left-wing organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But what Glenn Beck just heard from bestselling author Peter Schweizer is proof that it’s not theory. It’s happening right now — and in places we wouldn’t expect.

Schweizer’s new book, “The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon,” is a deep dive into the weaponization of mass migration as a political tool to influence U.S. elections, undermine national security, and reshape demographics and power structures.

While the book presents documented evidence exposing multiple foreign adversaries, including China, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Muslim Brotherhood, for weaponizing immigration for political gain, its revelations about Mexico are among the most disturbing.

“I always thought of Mexico in the context of, OK, you’ve got kind of this hapless government, and it’s corrupt, and they’re kind of glad for mass migration because now they don’t have to feed their own people,” Schweizer says.

But he’s been giving Mexico too much credit.

“The reality is — in their own words — they view immigration very differently,” he tells Glenn.

According to a December 2024 report written by one of President Claudia Sheinbaum's top aides, Mexico sees mass migration to the U.S. as a means of reconquest.

“We already know that the Mexican population in the United States reaches 39.9 million. We Mexicans are reclaiming our territory,” Schweizer reads directly from the report.

On top of that, another “powerful senator” in Sheinbaum’s progressive, populist Morena Party, who “sits on the National Defense Committee,” is on record saying: “We Mexicans are in our territory — California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming. We’re going to take back the territory that was stolen from us.”

“You hear these quotes, and you think, ‘OK, well maybe this is just bravado,’” Schweizer says. But when you see the “network and infrastructure inside the United States” Mexico has built, it’s clear that it’s far more than bombast.

“This infrastructure — this includes Mexican government officials inside the United States who are organizing violent protests, like those that hit Los Angeles, those that are in Minneapolis, and they are actively participating in our politics,” he explains.

“They are working to elect Democrats ... who are sympathetic to them on immigration and working to defeat President Trump through Mexican consulates that are across the United States.”

Glenn is shocked by these revelations and wonders why we’re just now hearing about Mexico’s reconquest plans, especially given the pile of evidence that’s out there.

Schweizer says that Mexico has “masked what they're doing quite effectively.”

He reads a 2023 quote from the “head of the Mexican News Agency” that captures the intentional covertness of Mexico’s immigration agenda: “We are quietly carrying out the reconquest of our territories in the U.S. taken from us in 1848. The reconquest of the Aztec territory is silent, and the day that the gringos realize this, their diabolical fundamentalism will become macabre.”

“In other words, we need to keep this quiet ... because when the ‘gringos,’ as he says, find out, they’re gonna be really, really angry about it,” Schweizer says.

These quotes from powerful Mexican officials, he says, are just a sprinkling of what’s out there. "The Invisible Coup” lays out a wealth of evidence on Mexico’s “Reconquista” and pulls no punches in naming key figures.

To hear more about it, watch the video above.

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Conservatives want to be left alone. They have families, jobs, churches, hobbies. They love their country, but they stay busy and comfortable. Politics feels like something for other people — activists, ideologues, the perpetually aggrieved. The left may dream of tearing the system down in a fiery Marxist revolution, but one solid vote every couple of years or so should keep the crazies in check. Then it’s back to work, back to Little League, back to the barbecue.

That belief sustained many on the right for decades. It has become a liability.

A vote followed by retreat no longer suffices. Saving the country requires engagement, sacrifice, and the willingness to place political reality over personal comfort.

The sunshine conservative lives under the assumption that the American system more or less runs itself, that excesses can be corrected with minimal effort, and that power remains constrained by shared norms. Those assumptions no longer hold. The times that try men’s souls have returned, and the sunshine conservative is about to discover that comfort carries a cost.

For years, a bipartisan consensus reshaped the country through mass immigration. Call it conspiracy if you like, but incentives explain it better.

Democrats saw a reliable path to permanent power. Immigrants arrive without wealth, social capital, or political leverage. They gravitate toward the party that promises redistribution and protection. Every program — health care, housing, loans, benefits — tilts toward newcomers. Open borders grow government, entrench dependency, and expand the progressive patronage machine.

Republican incentives looked different but proved just as corrosive. Conservative voters opposed mass immigration, legal and illegal alike, but party leadership feared one thing above all else: being called racist.

Progressive programming successfully framed the idea of America as a homeland — run for the benefit of its people — as morally suspect. Any attempt to articulate national interest became “nativism.” Chamber of Commerce Republicans exploited that fear, importing millions of workers willing to accept suppressed wages while silencing critics through ritual denunciation.

While the country changed, conservatives largely stood aside. The transformation unsettled them, but lawn care got cheaper and food delivery faster. The sunshine conservative preferred comfort to confrontation. Political activism felt vulgar. Winners, after all, make money and buy boats.

Now the bill has come due.

Human trafficking. Drug flows. Violent crime. Overcrowded hospitals. Stagnant wages. Exploding housing costs. The social fabric frays under the weight of policies designed to benefit elites while disciplining everyone else.

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The Trump administration’s effort to remove the worst offenders collides with a system addicted to inflow. Obvious solutions exist — employer enforcement, E-Verify, ending the H-1B visa scam, taxing remittances heavily — but those measures threaten donor interests. Instead, enforcement proceeds piecemeal, state by state, criminal by criminal.

Each attempt to exercise authority triggers panic among mainstream conservatives. They fret about optics. They warn about norms. They clutch abstractions while the left shoots at or runs over federal agents, storms churches, and treats public order as optional. Establishment voices agonize over power even as their opponents wield it without hesitation.

A friend of mine returned from the Global War on Terror with what doctors labeled post-traumatic stress disorder. The diagnosis missed the point. His trauma didn’t come from violence alone. It came from clarity. He had lived in a world where stakes mattered, where power operated openly, where failure carried consequences. Returning to a culture submerged in therapeutic language, pronouns, and safe spaces proved disorienting. Everyone else lived inside a fantasy and demanded that he play along.

Eventually, he learned to stay quiet. He still regards much of what surrounds him as childish and unmoored from reality.

That reaction mirrors what many feel toward sunshine conservatives. They cling to a story about politics that bears no resemblance to how power functions. When confronted with evidence, they demand that reality conform to their narrative. It never does. That narrative existed to pacify them, to make them manageable. They defend it with the same fervor with which the left defends its own delusions.

Each crisis cracks the façade. An assassination. A church invasion. A city surrendered to disorder. Every time, a few more conservatives wake up — only to be swarmed by those demanding a return to small talk about tax rates and process. The problem never lay with those who saw the danger. It lay with those insisting everyone else look away.

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The question no longer concerns policy tweaks. It concerns survival. One side believes the country deserves preservation and repair. The other treats it as illegitimate and disposable. That divide cannot be bridged by nostalgia or proceduralism.

The sunshine conservative era has ended. Saving the country requires engagement, sacrifice, and the willingness to place political reality over personal comfort. It requires choosing the future of one’s children over quarterly returns. It requires the disciplined use of power to defend the nation’s institutions, borders, and communities — even when that makes polite society uncomfortable.

A vote followed by retreat no longer suffices. The fantasy that it does belongs with other comforting lies. The right can either shed it or be ruled by those who never believed it in the first place.