The Blaze

The latest violent attack on Caitlin Clark exposes the WNBA’s real problem

1 week 1 day ago


Since her debut in the WNBA in 2024 with the Indiana Fever, women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark has been the victim of an unprecedented number of flagrant fouls. In her rookie season alone, she accounted for roughly 17% of all flagrant fouls drawn league-wide that year.

These attacks unfortunately followed her into her second and now third professional season. On Wednesday, June 24, Clark drew one of her most violent fouls to date. In the Fever’s matchup against the Phoenix Mercury, Clark slipped while driving to the basket, leading to a scramble for the loose ball.

Phoenix power forward Alyssa Thomas made contact with a closed fist to Clark's throat and neck area while Clark was on the floor (also appearing to knee her thigh/groin area), then stepped over her. No foul was called in real time, drawing strong criticism from Fever coach Stephanie White. The WNBA later reviewed it and upgraded it to a flagrant foul 2 for "reckless" contact and suspended Thomas for one game.

On a recent episode of “Pat Gray Unleashed,” Pat and co-hosts Keith Malinak and Jeffy discussed how this latest attack on Clark exposes a dark truth about the WNBA.

“The violence against Caitlin is not going to stop unless she dies on the court,” says Keith, emphasizing the need for Clark to seek another league to play in.

Pat is outraged by the violence consistently waged against Clark as well.

“She's brought so many eyes to that league, and nobody cared about that league before — nobody!” he emphasizes.

“How are people not being fined, booted out of the league? Suspended, at least? Something,” he asks.

Producer Kris Kruz believes he has the answer — and it reveals the WNBA’s real problem.

Clark, who is widely considered the GOAT of women’s basketball despite being early in her professional career, is “white” and “straight” — a stark contrast to the WNBA’s predominantly black and/or lesbian player base.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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BlazeTV Staff

'Supergirl' star proclaims character is 'probably' bisexual and definitely doesn't need a man

1 week 1 day ago


"Supergirl" star Milly Alcock saved her best woke lines for right before the movie's release.

Just days ahead of the official drop, Alcock told reporters in London and New York City about how much of an independent woman the Supergirl character is as well as how the film relates to gay pride.

'What makes this film so beautiful is that it's not centered around a man.'

Kara chameleon

Although it should be obvious that Superman's cousin doesn't really need any help, the Australian actress fell into the age-old trap of spouting progressive dogma on the red carpet at the film's premier, telling journalists about how the girl from Krypton is actually a strong woman.

In London, Alcock was approached by an Associated Press reporter who bizarrely brought up comments he had seen online about "Kara's queerness"; Supergirl's name is Kara Zor-El.

"Was that something that you explored when you were preparing for the role?" the male reporter asked.

Alcock laughed hysterically.

"It wasn't," the 26-year-old began, saying she would try to answer "in honor of Pride Month."

She then praised the film for not having a romantic focus, void of any relationship with a male co-star, while saying her character is probably bisexual.

"I don't know. I think that what makes this film so beautiful is that it's not centered around a man, it's not centered around love at all. ... She'd probably go both ways."

RELATED: 'Supergirl' Milly Alcock's most fearsome foe? Christian dads

TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic

Modern Milly

In New York City, a reporter from Variety again asked the star about how "LGBT" people have related to the character, framing Alcock's answer as embracing "queer readings" of the film.

“I've just had a few people ask me about her because it’s Pride Month and all that, and I think that she's a really great representation of what a modern woman can be," she replied.

Alcock then again put focus on how she adores the film for not featuring any romance, before stating that homosexuals can relate to the character's resiliency.

"She can be strong, she can be tough, she can be messy. And I love how this film doesn't center around any sort of love ... or romance or anything like that at all. She has such resilience — and I think that that community is a community that is so, so resilient. ... I'm really honored that they can connect with her."

RELATED: VEEP TV: JD slays in 'View' ratings coup

Christian Kryptonite

In the lead-up to the film's release, Alcock has taken issue with male superhero fans multiple times — a near guarantee for a mainstream actress in such a role — telling "Vanity Fair" in March that when she was on "Game of Thrones," she realized "simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on," before adding, "We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women's bodies. I can't really stop them. I can only be myself."

She also took aim at Christian dads in late May, describing "people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts. Or someone's name and then 'Dad of four, Christian'" as those who harass her the most.

She concluded, "Which is hilarious to me. But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you're pissing the right kind of people off, you're doing OK."

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Andrew Chapados

'You stripped me of my innocence': Ex-teacher accused of sexually abusing teen in classroom indicted on new child sex charges

1 week 1 day ago


A former middle school teacher in New Jersey — who was already accused of sexually assaulting a student — has been hit with new concerning charges, according to authorities.

Blaze News previously reported that 36-year-old Ashley A. Fisler, who formerly went by her maiden name of Ashley Sulla, was arrested in March.

'I take the blame for all of this.'

Fisler was charged on March 26 with six counts of first-degree sexual assault of a minor, one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of second-degree official misconduct, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office.

The prosecutor's office stated that Fisler faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison for each of the first-degree charges and 10 years for each of the second-degree charges if convicted.

However, Fisler was indicted on a slew of child sex charges this week.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement released Wednesday that the Gloucester County Grand Jury indicted Fisler on 12 counts, including sexual assault of a minor, manufacturing child sexual abuse material, and pattern of official misconduct.

Citing court documents, the prosecutor's office said the alleged victim — who is now an adult — informed authorities in January that he had an "unlawful sexual relationship" with Fisler when he was a minor and while she was his teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School.

The alleged victim told investigators he engaged in "multiple sexual encounters occurring in 2021 in Fisler’s vehicle and in her classroom."

The prosecutor's office noted that investigators discovered text messages between Fisler and the alleged victim that confirmed the "unlawful sexual nature of their relationship."

According to WPVI-TV, prosecutors said investigators recovered "approximately 7,500 pages of text messages" between Fisler and the alleged victim.

NJ.com reported in April that Gloucester County Assistant Prosecutor Kylie Finley stated, "These text messages show not only the level of the grooming and manipulation by this defendant, but they also corroborate, multiple times over, the sexual relationship disclosed by this victim, including the specific sexual acts that the victim disclosed to police during his interview."

In the text messages, Fisler offered to buy a sex toy for the teen and told him to send photos of his genitals to her, the prosecutor claimed.

The assistant prosecutor said, "In December of 2023, the victim confides in the defendant that he’s struggling in school because he’s getting erections more frequently in school. And the defendant’s response was, quote: 'Oh my God, that’s fantastic.'"

"On January 20th of 2025, the victim told the defendant, quote, 'I've had to try really hard to rebuild the things you broke inside of me. You destroyed things inside of me. You stripped me of my innocence,'" the assistant prosecutor stated.

The assistant prosecutor added, "The defendant admits that she hurt him countless times and says, quote, 'I take the blame for all of this.'"

The assistant prosecutor continued, "She even admits that she put him in positions that she shouldn’t have and says, ‘I feel like I forced you to grow up abnormally quick.'"

The prosecution said Fisler sent text messages between May 2023 and January 2026 to the alleged victim, reminiscing about sexually assaulting the teen.

Fisler, of Washington Township, continued to contact the alleged victim through January 2026, when he tried to break off communication, officials said.

RELATED: Teacher accused of sexually assaulting student; court docs say she texted boy: 'I won't do well in jail ... I'm too pretty'

Defense attorney Rocco Cipparone argued there was a lack of evidence to support the damning accusations and that the "selective, salacious" text messages were "taken out of context."

Cipparone also claimed that all the text messages prosecutors cited were sent years after the alleged crimes and that there was no evidence from the years the alleged sexual assaults took place.

"What I did not hear the prosecution say is that there are any contemporaneous texts, images, evidence back in 2021 that reveal this alleged conduct," Cipparone stated.

The assistant prosecutor explained that technical limitations prevented officials from recovering messages during the years when the alleged sexual assaults occurred.

Fisler previously told police that she left her teaching job in 2023 because she "blurred the lines with another student," according to the assistant prosecutor.

Cipparone contended that his client had done nothing wrong: "Ms. Fisler told the police that the reason she left was because a female student had a hickey on her neck. She asked Ms. Fisler to buy her cover-up makeup so that she wouldn’t get in trouble from her parents."

Cipparone suggested the alleged victim may have a financial motive for his allegations, noting that he consulted an attorney before contacting police.

Fisler is no longer employed by the Washington Township school district or any other district, prosecutors said.

Eric M. Hibbs, superintendent of Washington Township Public Schools, released the following statement to Patch shortly after Fisler's arrest:

The district is aware of the charges announced by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office regarding a former middle school teacher. We take matters involving the safety and well-being of our students extremely seriously. The individual referenced is no longer employed by the district and separated from employment in April 2023. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement and will continue to do so. Because this is an active criminal matter, we are unable to comment further at this time.

Fisler was denied bail and is being held in Salem County Jail pending trial, according to jail records.

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Paul Sacca

UK cop failures, Sikh killer's lies in Henry Nowak case are EVEN WORSE than previously disclosed

1 week 1 day ago


A knife-wielding Sikh named Vickrum Digwa fatally stabbed 18-year-old Englishman Henry Nowak in Portswood, England, on Dec. 3, 2025. Adding insult to injury, police officers from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary treated Nowak as a racist and a criminal in his final moments — handcuffing him as he lay bleeding and brushing off his repeated complaints about having been stabbed and being unable to breathe.

The British public was confronted with some of the horrific details of the murder after Digwa's murder trial last month and after bodycam footage evidencing Nowak's mistreatment by police was released earlier this month. They erupted in protest, demanding the resignations and/or prosecution of the police involved and for the justice system to rectify its anti-white protocols.

'I'm pushing on a f**king stab wound.'

The scandal not only prompted condemnations from British lawmakers but a response by Vice President JD Vance, who stated that "the proper response — the only response — is righteous anger."

Additional police bodycam footage from the night of Nowak's death and a full transcript of the encounter released by the Crown Prosecution Service and published by the BBC this week shed more light on the insidious nature of the Sikh's lies and police officers' mistreatment of the white victim.

The footage shows Digwa setting the scene after police arrived with a torrent of lies, stating:

He pushed my turban off my head. ... So I'm a Sikh, obviously, and he started grabbing on my hair, started dragging me around, and obviously from there, then obviously an altercation's happened. My brother's then seen it, stopped it, and that's when [Nowak] then started stumbling around, started climbing around all these sort of bits and bobs and stuff like that.

Digwa falsely claims further in the footage that Nowak was "obviously drunk"; that Nowak had "just started escalating the situation" and called him a "Paki"; and that the blood on Nowak "must have been [from] when we punched him."

After Digwa said that he had been "racially attacked," an officer says, "I know, I know, OK, I know," adding, "But we don't know what's gone on, mate."

Never once does Digwa mention that he used his eight-inch Sikh blade to stab Nowak five times, including in the chest, face, and twice in the back of the legs.

RELATED: Vance defends 'righteous anger' over white English teen's death in police custody after Sikh murderer falsely cried racism

The footage also shows police arrest Digwa on suspicion of attempted murder — but treating him differently than they treated Nowak. Whereas police handcuffed the dying teen, the police never bothered binding the murderer's hands.

Mark Nowak, the victim's father, said earlier this month that unlike his son, the Sikh murderer was curiously "afforded decency. He was believed. He was not handcuffed when arrested. He was not handcuffed when transported to the police station. As far as we understand, he was never handcuffed at all."

Police confirmed to the BBC that Digwa was "never handcuffed" during his four days in custody prior to being formally charged for murder.

"The contrast is unbearable," added Mark Nowak.

The BBC highlighted that the officer who spoke politely to Digwa and refrained from handcuffing him is the same individual later heard in bodycam footage saying, "Don't think you have, mate," after Nowak says that he has been stabbed.

According to the BBC's review of the full transcript, it took police officers eight minutes to discover and locate the fatal stab wound in Nowak's chest after they arrived on the scene.

Nowak told police he could not breathe nine times and said four times he had been stabbed, but the officers initially brushed off those complaints and began taking them seriously only after Nowak became unresponsive, at which point one officer states in the transcript, "I'm not sure he's breathing."

After uncuffing the unconscious victim whom they had arrested, police started chest compressions.

Around the five minute and 24 second mark, a female officer asks for a flashlight so she can properly inspect Nowak for a stab wound. Two minutes later, she finally gets around to cutting Nowak's clothing and states, "Yeah, he's got a stab ... there's a mark there."

RELATED: Amnesty International frets about 'racial justice' again — just not for white people

Georgios Kostomitsopoulos/NurPhoto/Getty Images

One officer states, "That makes it worse. He's got a stab. ... I'm pushing on a f**king stab wound."

The female officer replies, "That's OK. It's fine. .... It's not coming out. It's fine. Keep going. Keep going. It's not bleeding out."

The officers continued chest compressions until a paramedic arrived on the scene, where Nowak was pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. on Dec. 4.

The officers' handling of the case is presently under investigation by a watchdog outfit, the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe said earlier this month, "Young, white British men are bleeding to death in the street as a direct result of our racist establishment. I will never forget, and I will never forgive."

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Joseph MacKinnon

Mamdani vows to protect migrants in apparent DEFIANCE of Supreme Court ruling on TPS

1 week 1 day ago


While some Democrats have decried a recent Supreme Court ruling that sided with the Trump administration on immigration, socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is going further.

Mamdani responded by suggesting he would defy the order of the highest court of the land and use his mayoral powers to protect migrants who lose protections against deportation.

'A Supreme Court ruling ... just opened the door to fear, instability, and the threat of deportation.'

The ruling said that President Donald Trump could lawfully end the Temporary Protected Status designation for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The ruling will likely apply to others protected by TPS, which could be more than a million migrants.

Mamdani directly addressed the migrants in a speech Thursday while he was surrounded by union members and officials.

"I am so proud that each of you has chosen to make your home in New York City," said the mayor.

"I want to be clear, you are a New Yorker today, tomorrow, and every day, you are a New Yorker. As health care workers, as teachers, as organizers, you have not just made your home in New York City, you have dedicated your lives to New York City," he added.

He went on to call the ruling "unconscionable" and "unacceptable" and directed immigrants to seek legal help from the city's resources.

"So hear me when I say this: The people of New York City are going to show up for you as we face down a Supreme Court ruling that just opened the door to fear, instability, and the threat of deportation for so many."

Opponents of the ruling had argued in court that the president was motivated by racist attitudes against the migrants, but a plurality of justices rejected that argument. Trump and his supporters have accused the Obama and Biden administrations of abusing the TPS program in order to surreptitiously bypass Congress for backdoor amnesty.

RELATED: Supreme Court hands Trump a MAJOR victory on deportation of Haitian and Syrian migrants

Others have argued that the constitutional remedy for those opposed to the president's policies was to pass a law strengthening the TPS program.

"New York City will do everything in our power to fight back," Mamdani continued. "This is a city where we look out for our neighbors, where we don't let those who are afraid of what makes this city great try to divide us."

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Carlos Garcia

Winning Mamdani-backed candidate is 'legitimately nuts': 'Apparently, all white women are ugly'

1 week 1 day ago


Democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is quickly emerging as a major force in New York politics after going three-for-three in recent primary races with those three candidates taking out Democrat-establishment incumbents.

“We had a clean sweep for Mamdani, three candidates he endorsed in New York in the primaries,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere explains on "Stu and Dave Do America."

“These are taking out incumbents in big races, and Zohran Mamdani takes three crazy socialists and goes three for three,” he adds.

Those three candidates are Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Brad Lander.

However, these wins don’t come without risk — especially considering one of them seems to be "legitimately nuts."


“This is a risk for Mamdani in that, like, when you’re coming up, you’re rising in Democratic politics, you can either be the one who plays the game and goes along with everybody who’s got the job already and played this long game, or you can do what Mamdani did here,” Stu says, pointing out that politicians like AOC have tried this in the past.

“You go as far as you can and hope it works out. And so far for Mamdani, I don’t know if this is part of a Knicks hangover or what, but they love this guy,” he continues.

One of the Mamdani-endorsed winning candidates is Avila Chevalier, who is, like Mamdani, a democratic socialist.

“She’s legitimately nuts. She stormed out of a live interview when she was confronted with her old social media posts, which is I guess not a huge surprise considering what her old social media posts were,” Stu explains.

“I forgot to get napkins, so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me,” Avila Chevalier wrote in a now-deleted post on X in 2019.

“These are the people that they’re handpicking for these Democratic jobs,” Stu comments.

In another now-deleted post, she wrote that “black men” and “Arab men” both fetishize “ugly colonizer women.”

“Apparently, white women are all ugly,” Stu says.

“That reads a little jealous,” Dave adds.

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BlazeTV Staff

Trial for man accused of igniting deadly Palisades Fire comes to frustrating end

1 week 1 day ago


The case against Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of igniting the devastating Palisades Fire in 2025 that resulted in 12 deaths and over 6,800 structures being destroyed, came to a frustrating close on Friday.

Rinderknecht, a 30-year-old former Uber driver, faced three federal charges of destruction of property by means of fire, arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and timber set afire. He was accused of “maliciously” damaging and destroying buildings and property, but a mistrial was ultimately declared in his case.

'We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts.'

Rinderknecht faced up to 45 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty in October.

Prosecutors claimed that several of Rinderknecht’s Uber passengers described him as “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed off at the world.’” He also allegedly talked about Luigi Mangione, capitalism, and vigilantism.

When asked about why someone might have started the fire, Rinderknecht allegedly responded that it could be “out of resentment of the rich,” according to prosecutors.

After 13 hours of deliberations, the jury was deadlocked, with jurors on both sides “unwilling to change their opinion,” according to a note sent to U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang. The jurors informed Hwang that they were “at a standstill” and unsure of how to proceed after a final vote of 10-2 for acquittal.

RELATED: Suspect in deadly Palisades Fire was obsessed with Luigi Mangione, critical of rich: Prosecutors

AGUSTIN PAULLIER/AFP/Getty Images

Federal prosecutors agreed to a mistrial after the jurors confirmed they could not reach a unanimous decision on any of the three counts in the case.

“The court finds there’s a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial in this case due to a jury deadlock,” Hwang said.

Defense attorney Steve Haney stated, “Ten to two is a pretty resounding indication of what the jury felt about this case, and we felt that way from the very beginning.”

RELATED: Feds make arrest in connection with devastating Palisades Fire in Los Angeles

Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Shortly after the mistrial was announced, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli stated that he intends to retry the case.

“The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible for igniting the fire on January 1, 2025, which eventually became the Palisades fire. We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts,” Essayli wrote.

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Candace Hathaway

Democratic lawmakers organize to TAKE BACK the party from far-left socialists: 'We're proud of America'

1 week 1 day ago


A group of Democrats identifying as moderate say they are organizing to oppose the extremist policies of the far right as well as those of the socialists on the far left.

The moderate-identifying Democrats are unhappy about the recent victories of far-left extremists in places like New York City, where Democratic incumbents lost in primaries this week. About a dozen moderate-identifying Democrats signed on the pledge at the "Promise to America" website.

'Americans want safe communities and institutions that solve problems. We believe in building more to lower costs and expand opportunity.'

Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York appeared on Fox News to publicize the effort.

"You know there are certain things that I believe in that are not being reflected in the current environment, especially with some of these races on Tuesday," said Suozzi.

"As we said in our pledge, we're for capitalism, not socialism. We're for safety, not lawlessness. We're proud of America, not ashamed of America — and we need to be promoting those things," he added. "The far left and the far right, you know, they're all very well organized. But those of us that don't support those far-left or far-right principles need to do a better job organizing and getting our message out."

"America is stronger than our politics. Politics forces false choices between extremes on right and left. We reject them," the group said in the pledge.

"Too many Americans have not benefited from the last half-century of economic growth," they added. "Americans want an economy that lowers costs, expands opportunity, and rewards the people who work hard every day. Americans want safe communities and institutions that solve problems. We believe in building more to lower costs and expand opportunity. We believe Democrats succeed when we speak to the whole country and value persuasion over purity."

The website asks supporters of the cause to sign the pledge as well.

RELATED: Hunter Biden wants Democrats to learn EXTREME lesson from NYC elections

The victories of far-left socialists backed by Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have been seen by many as a revolution in the Democratic Party. Some, like Hunter Biden, have opined that the victories mean the Democratic Party needs to lurch into the far left and push harder for socialism.

Other Democrats who signed onto the moderate-identifying agenda include Rep. Adam Gray of California, Rep. Laura Gillen of New York, Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, among others.

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Carlos Garcia

Florida AG calls for impeachment after judge acquits mother who killed baby and blamed COVID

1 week 1 day ago


Precious Bland of Miami drowned her 15-month-old daughter Emii in a bathtub on Aug. 23, 2021, then proceeded to stab her husband — who attempted to save the infant — in the head and neck. When her stepdaughter tried to grab the drowned toddler, Bland slashed her, then proceeded to cut her own wrists.

According to a police report reviewed by CourtTV, Bland's husband told police that the killer had been ranting about how "COVID is going to kill us all," how Christ's return was imminent, and how she wanted to baptize her family in the bathtub.

'I’m sure that my family is very vigilant now.'

Bland, who subsequently spent four years in jail and additional time on house arrest while awaiting trial, was initially charged with murder, two counts of attempted second-degree murder, and two counts of aggravated child abuse.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Judge Miguel Manuel de la O of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida found the 43-year-old mother — who admitted to killing her child — not guilty of aggravated manslaughter and first-degree attempted murder by reason of insanity.

This ruling prompted swift backlash from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R), who said that de la O's impeachment is in order.

"This was a bench trial. It's time to impeach this judge," Uthmeier stated on Thursday. "My office will be drafting articles of impeachment, and we look forward to working with all legislators who will support."

RELATED: Florida man allegedly bragged about sexually abusing foster child — cops say he and his husband fostered 23 young boys

Uthmeier added on X, "It's time to start impeaching judges in this country."

In response to Uthmeier's call to action, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted, "Time for the Florida House to do its duty."

The Florida House can impeach a circuit court judge for a "misdemeanor in office" by a two-thirds vote. The Florida Constitution states that an impeached judge "shall be disqualified from performing any official duties until acquitted by the Senate, and, unless impeached, the governor may by appointment fill the office until completion of the trial."

A spokeswoman for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida told Blaze News that "judicial ethics canons do not permit comment on pending cases."

During the murder trial, state prosecutors suggested on the basis of remarks Bland allegedly made to investigators that the mother of six killed her baby partly because she believed her husband, Evan Bland, was cheating on her.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Utset further argued that the killer's insanity claim was bogus — Bland had, after all, allegedly told investigators that she had never heard voices prior to the day of the killing — and that even if genuinely mentally troubled, Bland knew full well what she was doing when she drowned her baby, reported WFOR-TV.

"It's odd behavior, Judge, it is, but it's not legal insanity," said Utset. "The voices and the COVID psychosis are a fabrication and an embellished story."

Judge de la O evidently couldn't bring himself to believe that the defendant used insanity as a cover for a horrible and intentional crime, stating, "That theory doesn't make sense to me that she decided to do all of the things that she did: going to all the neighbors, calling her family members, putting the kids in the water, all of it because she was angry due to some perceived infidelity."

The defense argued that Bland killed her baby due to a psychotic episode induced by a COVID infection. Utset claimed, however, that there was "no clear and convincing evidence that COVID made this defendant drown her 1-year-old daughter."

De la O bought the COVID defense, however, stating, "There is zero credible explanation other than her psychotic state."

"There's so much we don't know about COVID," said Bland's attorney, Larry Handfield. "And this was the first case in the country to go to trial on COVID being the defense to murder."

While his client was apparently crazy enough to drown her baby and stab her family members, Handfield doesn't think her crazy enough to warrant institutionalization.

Handfield said on Monday that he is not looking to put Bland in a mental health facility, citing determinations from a pair of psychological evaluators that such treatment would be unnecessary, reported WFOR. Judge de la O similarly suggested that he didn't see any need to institutionalize the killer.

After her acquittal, the baby-killer stated, "God is good. This doesn't bring back my daughter."

"I'm thankful," continued Bland. "I love my children."

When asked about whether she trusts herself around her remaining children, Bland told WPLG-TV, "Absolutely, without a doubt, and I’m sure that my family is very vigilant now as well."

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Joseph MacKinnon

Texas woman UNDER FIRE after confronting Muslims in public — justified or too far?

1 week 1 day ago


A video has gone viral after a Texas woman was filmed telling a Muslim to leave the country in a grocery store. While the left believes the woman was in the wrong — and promptly got her fired from her job — BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales isn’t so sure she agrees.

“Get the f**k out of here. You’re really not welcome in this state or this country,” the woman is shown saying in the viral clip.

“You are wearing scrubs,” the Muslim fired back.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you worship a terrorist who is a warlord, a pedophile, and Islam is a terrorist organization, not a religion,” the woman replied.

“Yeah, because you’re not educated about it,” the Muslim said.


“I’m very educated on this subject. ... This is not a Muslim country. This is a Christian country,” the woman answered.

“You need to go back to your Islamic country where you came from. Everybody’s aware of why you’re here. So don’t think that we don’t know, and don’t think you’re going to get away with it.”

“I would invite you to show me the lie,” Gonzales comments.

“If our politicians in this country were honest, if they were honest, and they were not bought and paid for, they would be saying the exact same thing. Islam is a terrorist organization, not a religion. It is a terrorist ideology, not a religion. It is organized terror,” she explains.

“Islam is antithetical to our founding principles. And they’ve come to conquer and terrorize. And by the way, by the way, don’t take it from me, Sara Gonzales. Take it from them. Straight from the horse’s mouth,” she continues, before playing a clip of a Muslim explaining their faith.

“We’re commanded to terrorize the disbelievers. And this is a religion like I said. The Quran says very clearly in the Arabic language, ‘Torhibuna.’ This means, ‘Terrorize them.’ It’s a command from Allah,” the man in the clip said.

“We are seeing the direct result of mass Muslim immigration play out over in the U.K., where they have just dropped a report that you will have nightmares about if you read,” Gonzales says, referring to the recent "Rape Gang Inquiry Report."

“The government over there covered it up because they were too scared of being called a mean name because they were too scared of admitting that this mass migration policy was bad,” she continues.

“We have Muslims saying what they want to do. We have in their written books exactly what the plan is. We have history to show us exactly their path. We have what’s happening in the U.K. as an example, as a blueprint of what they will do,” she adds.

And despite all of that, the left still wants to let them in.

“Somehow, someway, the left still can’t help themselves. They still can’t help themselves because, you know, facts hurt their feelings,” Gonzales says.

“And they didn’t like that this woman was spitting facts,” she adds.

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BlazeTV Staff

VEEP TV: JD slays in 'View' ratings coup

1 week 1 day ago


Vice President JD Vance gave “The View” plenty to chew on last week. Facts. Knowledge. Arguments that didn’t require a tinfoil hat.

The Republican did something else during his trip to the far, far-left showcase. He gave the gals a ratings boost. The show’s 3.3 million viewers represented the highest “View” tally since 2024.

81-year-old Rod Stewart recently canceled a few shows due to illness. When he returned to the stage, he needed oxygen to get through a Utah performance.

That makes sense, since the ABC showcase rarely offers opposing views from the right and Vance has a reputation for being a thoughtful guest.

Even “View” haters wanted to see what went down.

So will this open the floodgates for more right-leaning guests on the show?

Of course not. In fact, co-host Joy Behar took heat from her fellow panelists for being friendly with Vance. Plus, a steady stream of smart, thoughtful conservatives would expose “The View” audience to sane opinions that clash with the show’s conspiratorial blather.

That ratings boost sure was nice, but you can bet ABC won’t let it happen again …

Super stupor

You can’t say Milly Alcock isn’t committed to “the bit.” And by that, we mean being as woke as possible while promoting her new film, “Supergirl.”

She previously trashed Christian dads and played the victim card over viewers who allegedly objectify her physique. That drew swift comparisons to Rachel Zegler, whose woke musings in the run-up to “Snow White’s” release built enough bad buzz that the film never recovered.

The live-action update lost a reported $170 million for Team Disney.

Alcock is walking, nay running, in Zegler’s footsteps, even as box office predictions suggest “Supergirl” will lose millions, too. This week, she did it again.

“I think that [Supergirl is] a really great representation of what a modern woman can be. She can be strong, she can be tough, she can be messy. And I love how this film doesn’t center around any sort of love or romance or anything like that at all. She has such resilience — and I think that [the LGBTQ+] community is so, so resilient. I’m really honored that they can connect to her.”

She later declared that her Supergirl would be bisexual.

That sound you hear is Zegler’s agent popping open a bottle of champagne ...

RELATED: Tan-splaining Colbert celebrates 'scandal-free' Obama at new presidential center opening

Mandel Ngan/Scott Olson/Anadolu/Getty Images

Bourne that way

Wait, did Kathleen Kennedy get a new job?

The woman many blame for the demise of the “Star Wars” franchise is no longer with Lucasfilm or Disney. She still set a curious standard for woke storytelling, from her “the force is female” mantra to trashing iconic characters like Luke Skywalker.

Even “South Park” mocked her “Star Wars” reign: “Put a chick in it! Make her lame and gay!”

Kennedy is not attached to the “Bourne” franchise, but that popular saga may be taking a very Kennedy-like approach to its future.

The InSneider reports that Zendaya is in play to replace franchise star Matt Damon in the saga. It wouldn’t be the first “Bourne” film sans Damon. Jeremy Renner starred in “The Bourne Legacy,” a 2012 film that didn’t light up the box office as expected ($113 million stateside).

It’s a potential gender AND race swap, two staples of the woke Hollywood era. Zendaya is a young, talented star, but physically she looks like she would struggle to open an aspirin bottle, let alone tackle an army of thugs.

We’ll have to see if this is a trial balloon of a story or signs that the Kennedy-ization of Hollywood continues …

Rock till you drop

The Who sang, “Hope I die before I get old” on “My Generation” back in 1965. Now, some aging singers are proving how hard it is to keep rocking into their golden years.

First, 81-year-old Rod Stewart recently canceled a few shows due to illness. When he returned to the stage, he needed oxygen to get through a Utah performance. Then, Lionel Ritchie, 77, left the stage early on the first stop of his current tour in St. Paul, Minnesota, after feeling dizzy on stage.

Some stars simply refuse to retire. Others love performing so much they can’t imagine calling it a career. There’s something noble about older stars giving their all to the fans, especially those who are roughly the same age as them.

We want them to be forever young, but their mortality is a stark reminder of our own. Perhaps that’s why the Who’s 2025 North American tour, the band’s farewell, was called “This Song Is Over.”

Christian Toto

'Symbol of a country adrift': White French boy 'lynched' by pack of thugs who smiled while filming the murder

1 week 1 day ago


The leader of the top opposition party in France's National Assembly has joined numerous other lawmakers in raising the alarm about the horrific case of Louis of Narbonne — a white 17-year-old foster kid who was ambushed on the night of June 19 and effectively left for dead by several individuals.

"Louis, 17 years old, was lynched to death with unimaginable violence, filmed by his gleeful assailants, left to agonize through an entire night, and found lifeless on a construction site in Narbonne," Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally party, wrote on Wednesday.

'This everyday barbarity that can no longer be minimized, downplayed, or concealed.'

"He is the symbol of a country adrift, undermined by a barbarization that neither the laxity nor the blindness of our leaders can halt," continued Bardella. "We must dare to break with 30 years of failures if we are to restore order in France."

The suspects — a diverse crew who reportedly knew one another from child welfare facilities — filmed themselves at an under-construction seniors residence punching and kicking in the head of the dying teenager.

The nightmarish footage — which one of the attackers reportedly shared on social media — not only shows the thugs' relentless attacks on the already-unconscious boy but also shows suspects posing for pictures beside the dying teen, whose agonal breathing can be heard throughout.

RELATED: 'White lives matter': UK erupts over footage of English teen's demise in handcuffs after stabbing by Sikh thug

Olivier MORIN/AFP/Getty Images

According to the French investigative outlet Frontières, the family authorized the release of the footage "in order to challenge the version put forward by some media outlets describing it as a mere 'brawl.'"

Frontières noted further that "despite the pain, his loved ones refuse anonymity and want the truth to be known."

La Montagne reported that one of the suspects sent the footage to an acquaintance who, seeing the attack and the boy's injuries, promptly alerted the Aude Departmental Fire and Rescue Service. Since the concerned caller allegedly didn't know where Louis had been attacked, first responders were unable to swiftly locate and rescue the boy.

David Leyraud, national supervisor of the Police Alliance, said that Louis was ultimately found on Saturday morning by a construction worker.

Jean-Philippe Rey, the prosecutor of the Republic of Narbonne, said that "when they arrived, the firefighters took the victim, still unconscious. He had bruises in the eyes, multiple bruises on the forehead as well as bleeding in the mouth and nose."

The victim was placed in an artificial coma and succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday.

'While our children are dying, our leaders look the other way.'

Louis was placed in a child welfare facility in May. According to records obtained by L'Indépendant, he filed a complaint with police on May 22 alleging assault by a group. Earlier this month, he filed another complaint — this time accompanied by his youth worker — alleging yet another attack.

One of the suspects allegedly conspired with the other four suspects and lured Louis — who had recently secured a job offer and was set to leave child welfare services — to the construction site in Narbonne on false pretenses, reported L'Indépendant. At the destination, the thugs ambushed the teen.

On the basis of the viral footage, phone records, and the insights provided by the individual who first alerted authorities to the attack — and who contacted authorities with more information after allegedly being threatened by one of the attackers — police arrested and charged five individuals with attempted murder.

The suspects are between the ages of 16 and 19, a senior police officer said. They have been placed in pre-trial detention.

The two adult suspects were previously on the radar of police for alleged minor offenses, including theft and drug use, reported L'Indépendant.

While some of the suspects allegedly gave partial admissions about their roles in the attack, most reportedly claimed ignorance of the plot and said they were just following the others.

Investigators ruled out a racist motive in the attack, according to L'Indépendant, which reported: "The initial findings, resulting from the rapid investigation, in any case rule out a racist motive, as some people hastily suggested."

When asked for more information about the suspects, the Préfecture de l'Aude told Blaze News an investigation is underway. Blaze News has reached out to the Narbonne Public Prosecutor's Office and the City of Narbonne for comment.

One of the victim's friends told Frontières, "I am in a nightmare. I am struggling to believe that Louis is gone."

"While our children are dying, our leaders look the other way," Julien Leonardelli, a National Rally member who serves as a member of the European Parliament, wrote in the wake of Louis' death.

Marine Le Pen, co-founder and parliamentary leader of the National Rally party, wrote, "The ordeal of young Louis, 17 years old, lynched in Narbonne, breaks the heart and fuels immense anger among the French in the face of this everyday barbarity that can no longer be minimized, downplayed, or concealed."

"Through endlessly refusing to swiftly and effectively punish acts of delinquency, those in power, backed by the left and the far left, have sent a disastrous message: that of permanent impunity," continued Le Pen.

The National Rally leader stressed that 2027 — when France will hold its next presidential election — will mark an end to "this savagery and this unbearable ultraviolence."

The news of yet another brutal slaying of a young teen by remorseless individuals quickly crossed the Atlantic.

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey wrote, "The video of that poor boy in France, Louis, is too much to bear. Why is it the same kinds of people *everywhere* who commit these acts of subhuman violence? Truly animalistic monsters. God help us."

While multitudes around the world condemned the boy's lynching, Raphaël Arnault — a leftist activist who serves in the National Assembly as a member of the radical France Unbowed party — downplayed the attack, noting, "For years this kind of tragedy has existed for young people left abandoned," and complaining about "the media uproar and the racist horrors of the far right."

A march is planned in Narbonne this weekend in remembrance of the victim.

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Joseph MacKinnon

Trump should force Congress to pass the SAVE America Act — now

1 week 1 day ago


I have been adamant throughout our months of Iran coverage that President Trump needs to turn his attention back home and start using his domestic political leverage to address our problems here.

So watching him threaten not to sign the housing bill Congress just passed unless lawmakers also pass the SAVE America Act is music to my ears.

We live in an era of survival. The enemy is an unrelenting demonic construct, and my conscience tells me without ambiguity that it must be defeated before we are.

Demanding election integrity is exactly the sort of fight Trump should pick. The housing bill is already divisive within the MAGA base, so the president risks little political capital by holding it up. If anything, he is postponing an internal coalition fight he will eventually need to have while using his leverage to improve his overall bargaining position.

This maneuver should not be necessary. Trump’s own party controls Congress for the time being. But we have to live in the world as it is. And in the world as it is, John Thune (R-S.D.) still sucks.

If Trump vetoes a housing bill that does not include the SAVE Act, I would wager the odds are roughly 50-50 that Congress overrides him. In a strange way, that might not be the worst outcome. An override could provoke Trump to get Hulk-mad on the domestic front, which is exactly where we need his attention from now through the midterms and beyond.

I do not see a real loss here for the president unless he caves.

He cannot pick this fight now and fail to follow through. This is a game of chicken. As “The Hunt for Red October” taught us, the hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch.

It is also almost America’s 250th birthday. Asking Congress to protect one of the people’s birthrights — free and fair elections — seems modest enough. It is one of the main reasons we are celebrating at all.

Good thing, then, that “The Art of the Deal” has always been Trump’s favorite hill to die on. He is a subject-matter expert in leverage-based negotiation. This is his game.

Get busy living or get busy dying.

The meter is running not only on Trump’s presidency but on the fate of the entire nation. New York, for example, continues to be handed over to Islamic socialists.

Three Democratic congressional district primaries just went exactly the way socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) wanted them to go as he turns the Big Apple into his own private Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, too many of the Republicans we regularly vote for have no interest in reading the signs of the times, assuming they are capable of reading them at all.

That is why voters turned to Trump in the first place. It is also why he is almost all they have to rely on right now.

What kind of political party needs to be leveraged into passing legislation that would make it easier for that party to win elections — and that an overwhelming majority of the people want passed?

RELATED: America turns 250 with a broken heart

Matthew Hatcher/AFP/Getty Images

How politically brain-dead does that sound when you say it out loud?

But that is the GOP for you.

Decades of such institutional stupidity have made our politics more existentially binary than ever. We are out of options other than making the best use of what we have. It is Team GOP or bust.

I desperately dislike being in that position. In fact, I have spent much of my career trying to avoid such a fate. But again, we have to live in the world as it is.

You may have deep theological or philosophical disagreements with members of your government that, in another era, would not be reconcilable. But that is not the era we inhabit.

We live in an era of survival. The enemy is an unrelenting demonic construct, and my conscience tells me without ambiguity that it must be defeated before we are.

Two worldviews enter. One must leave. That is the only playbook before the GOP, whether the party understands it or not. Our team is on the field.

One way or another, I plan to win.

Steve Deace

25 years after 9/11, a Muslim who wiped her hands on the American flag wins path to Congress

1 week 1 day ago


Millions of Americans remember where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001, and they have never forgotten the horror they felt when they watched jetliners crash into the Twin Towers in New York city, killing more than 3,000 innocent people.

“I’m sure you remember the creepy feeling that we all felt as the identities of these Muslim terrorists were unveiled, realizing these Islamists hated you,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“Well, here we are 25 years later. This same burning, smoldering hatred for America in the form of this Muslim woman is now likely being sent to represent New York City in the U.S. Congress,” she explains.


The Zohran Mamdani-endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier won her primary election in New York City last night, beating a five-term incumbent.

However, the issue Wheeler has with her is that Chevalier, a Muslim, has openly talked about her hatred for the United States.

“I forgot to get napkins, so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me,” she wrote in a now-deleted post on X.

After her win, Mamdani thanked Allah.

And Chevalier herself has promised to reflect Islam in the halls of Congress.

“I know that we all deserve a representative who isn’t bought by AIPAC. I’m also the only Muslim in my family. I reverted three years ago,” she said, explaining that her friend pushed her to join the faith.

“It was seeing how all of my friends who were showing up to organizing, who are Muslim, were showing up in the space and the grace and love and passion that they had in these spaces of social justice that really pushed me to join the faith,” she went on.

“And wanting to make sure that we are reflecting that, that I’m reflecting that in every space that I’m in and that, you know, inshallah, if we make it to Congress that we’re reflecting that in the halls of power as well,” she added.

“That 25 years after September 11, these people control New York City — Zohran Mamdani is the mayor, Darializa likely on her way to the U.S. Congress representing New York City — is just appalling,” Wheeler comments.

“It’s shocking,” she adds.

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BlazeTV Staff

Sorry, socialists: The system isn’t the savior

1 week 1 day ago


What is wrong with man? Every political philosophy begins with an answer to that question. Scripture’s answer changes everything.

As New York celebrated the victories of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidates this week, I recalled something he said after his own victory last fall: “Praise be to Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.” Predictably, much of the conversation has centered on his politics and, as we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, his public invocation of Allah.

Government can restrain the effects of evil. It cannot regenerate the human heart.

Those discussions are important, of course. But I found myself thinking about something else.

Gratitude reveals theology because we instinctively thank the one we believe governs reality. Some thank fortune. Some thank the market. Some thank government. Some thank the universe. Some thank themselves.

Our gratitude reveals what we ultimately believe about reality.

New York’s mayor publicly thanking Allah does more than express personal devotion. He is acknowledging a theological authority. Theology never stays inside the sanctuary. Eventually, it walks into the courtroom, the classroom, the legislature — and the voting booth.

Theology inevitably shapes our understanding of human nature. That understanding eventually produces a political philosophy.

Most Americans assume we are arguing about taxes, health care, immigration, education, or economics. We are not. Beneath every political argument lies another question.

What is wrong with man?

Every political philosophy answers it.

If man is basically good, then his deepest problem lies outside himself. The system is broken. The economy is broken. The institutions are broken. Change the system, and people should improve with it.

That assumption helps explain socialism’s enduring appeal. If people are basically good but trapped inside unjust structures, then changing those structures becomes the highest moral priority. Build a better system, and society should improve.

Scripture begins somewhere else.

Jeremiah addresses the heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” Jesus locates murder, theft, adultery, greed, envy, and slander in the heart as well. Paul affirms the same conclusion when he writes in Romans that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

RELATED: Trump showed voters the con behind the curtain

Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images

If Scripture is right, no political system can solve mankind’s deepest problem.

The reformers understood that sin had not merely damaged humanity but corrupted every faculty of our being. We still bear God’s image and remain capable of astonishing courage, creativity, generosity, and sacrifice. But we are also fallen.

Those convictions profoundly influenced the political imagination of the men who framed the Constitution. The framers did not write the Constitution for basically good people. They wrote one for sinners.

They divided power through checks and balances because they knew power does not sanctify fallen people. It magnifies them.

Their greatest political achievement was not trusting themselves. As a result, the framers collectively produced a document better than they were.

Checks and balances are not expressions of political optimism. They reflect theological realism. They acknowledge that no office, no election, and no majority vote can cure what Jeremiah identified in the human heart.

The same view of human nature should shape how we think about wealth. Whenever someone accumulates great wealth, someone inevitably says, “Think what we could do with all that money.”

Elon Musk’s extraordinary wealth has simply made that argument impossible to ignore.

“Think what we could do with all that money.”

Notice what is quietly assumed. We imagine our compassion is purer, our judgment sounder, and our motives less corrupted.

RELATED: Who wants to eat a trillionaire?

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

When Mary poured perfume worth nearly a year’s wages on Jesus’ feet, Judas objected.

“Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

On the surface, it sounds compassionate, practical, even responsible. Then the apostle John adds one sentence that changes everything.

“He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.”

John does not debate Judas’ proposal. He exposes Judas’ motive.

There is a kind of generosity that costs us nothing because it spends someone else’s resources. Judas voiced it. John exposed it. Every generation repeats it.

Before we recognize Judas in someone else’s politics, we ought to recognize him in ourselves.

When I stand before God, he will not ask me what others did with their resources. He will ask what I did with mine.

That question reaches far beyond money. It reaches into our families, churches, communities, opportunities, and even our suffering. How we steward each of them reveals our theology.

Politics asks, “Who should control this?” Stewardship asks, “Lord, what would you have me do with what you have entrusted to me today?”

Good government, the rule of law, checks and balances — all of those things matter. But they can only restrain the effects of what Scripture says is already there. They cannot create what Scripture says is missing.

Government bears the sword. Christ bore the cross.

Government can restrain the effects of evil. It cannot regenerate the human heart.

Only the gospel can make sinners new.

We do not merely need a better system. We need a new heart.

Peter Rosenberger

The KIDS Act would turn web browsing into a TSA line

1 week 1 day ago


Lawmakers never tire of devising new ways to undermine digital privacy and First Amendment rights, always under the guise of “protecting kids.”

The KIDS Act — the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act — is the latest piece of smug political branding and virtue-signaling to dress up heavy-handed federal overreach in the gentle language of child welfare. Lawmakers considering this legislation should ask a simple question: Could its broad and vague provisions someday be wielded by their political opponents to muzzle speech they favor?

Children deserve real and meaningful protection in the digital age. But true safety comes from empowering parents and holding actual bad actors accountable under existing laws.

Congress should reject the KIDS Act and defend the constitutional rights of all Americans.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) claim this latest “safety package” is about “empowering parents, establishing safety as a default, strengthening privacy for children and teens, increasing transparency around data brokers, and holding Big Tech accountable.”

Washington has heard this pitch before. Wide-ranging digital legislation is routinely sold as a privacy measure even when it undermines privacy.

As Taxpayers Protection Alliance research director David McGarry wrote in December, “Consensus [around digital safety legislation] remains elusive, and for good reason. The regulation of the internet is shot through with difficulties.”

The Kids Online Safety Act proves the point. McGarry observed, “Seeing the imprudence and constitutional vulnerabilities of the bill, its supporters have continuously trimmed and reshaped the legislation, each time declaring that this time — finally — the bill had been rid of its deficiencies. Each time, however, the amendments proved wanting, and further efforts to amend KOSA were undertaken.”

That analysis applies just as well to the current version of KOSA included in the KIDS Act.

Supporters claim the latest version removes the “duty of care” requirement that would have forced platforms to withhold poorly defined categories of online content from underage users. But the bill still targets broad categories of constitutionally protected speech.

Digital platforms are instructed to “establish, implement, maintain, and enforce reasonable policies, practices, and procedures” addressing supposed harms to minors, including the “use of ... alcohol”; “threats of physical violence so severe, pervasive, or objectively offensive that such threats impact a major life activity of a minor”; and “financial harm caused by deceptive practices.”

RELATED: Digital tyrants want your face, your ID … and your freedom

imaginima/iStock/Getty Images

Those terms are vague and dangerously elastic. What counts as the “use” of alcohol? Could a platform face scrutiny for allowing video clips featuring champagne toasts? Could a joke between friends be treated as a threat of physical violence? Because “deceptive” remains undefined, virtually any online transaction or promoted product could become a federal enforcement hook.

This minefield of liability makes a mockery of the First Amendment and chills expression across the digital domain.

The bill’s most insidious provision involves age verification.

On paper, the KIDS Act says it does not mandate age verification. That language sounds reassuring, but it functions as a legislative bait and switch. The bill imposes a legal standard holding tech platforms liable for content if they “know or should have known” a user’s age.

Consider the real-world meaning of “should have known.” If a company faces massive legal penalties or federal lawsuits for failing to determine a user’s age, it will feel compelled to verify the identity of everyone who logs on — children and adults alike.

That creates a de facto mandate requiring adults to upload driver’s licenses, biometric data, or government IDs just to read a news article, browse a forum, or use a search engine. Web users would be asked to hand over their most sensitive personal information to corporate databases that have repeatedly proved vulnerable to data breaches and foreign hackers.

Age verification on this scale is not a “best practice,” as the bill’s language suggests. It is constitutional malpractice.

The KIDS Act also responds to alleged online harms by expanding federal bureaucracy and spending more taxpayer dollars. It establishes a asinine array of busywork for busybodies: Federal Trade Commission and Health and Human Services studies, a four-year National Institutes of Health longitudinal study, public awareness campaigns, and a new “Kids Internet Safety Partnership” inside the Department of Commerce.

RELATED: Age verification laws do not make us safer

Waldemarus/iStock/Getty Images

This amounts to a major expansion of taxpayer-funded bureaucracy tasked with creating a “playbook” for more age verification.

Supporters will note that lawmakers stripped the highly controversial “duty of care” provision from previous versions of KOSA and retained explicit protections for data encryption. But removing the worst elements of an inherently broken bill does not transform it into good policy.

Children deserve real and meaningful protection in the digital age. But true safety comes from empowering parents with robust tools, advancing media literacy, and holding actual bad actors accountable under existing criminal laws.

It does not come from turning the internet into a surveillance state where adults must show their papers to browse the web.

Congress must reject the KIDS Act and protect both the Constitution and the digital domain.

Ross Marchand

GOP bill aims to gut online censorship funds — and where the money is going will shock you

1 week 1 day ago


A Republican-sponsored bill wants to make sure no money goes toward censoring Americans' speech online.

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) is credited with making key additions to the text that people who feel they have been blacklisted online will surely appreciate.

Prohibitions on any form of deplatforming, deboosting, demonetizing.

The appropriations bill, H.R. 8595, contains text specifically designed to prevent NGOs and nonprofits from aiding tech companies in online censorship.

This includes prohibitions on any form of deplatforming, deboosting, demonetizing, suppressing, or otherwise penalizing lawful speech online in the United States.

Funds also cannot be used to affect advertising, sponsorship, payment, or revenues on the basis of lawful online speech.

Additionally, no programs can help, directly or indirectly, "create, disseminate, share, or operationalize any blacklist or similar designation system."

Mike Benz, director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, described portions of the bill as prohibiting NGOs, contractors, or subcontractors from supporting or helping a foreign government looking to wield censorship laws on platforms like X, Meta, Google, or YouTube.

RELATED: The empire cannot drone-strike its way out of decline

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty Images

However, among many of the appropriations in the bill, which includes money to the Offices of Inspector General, the State Department, and the Treasury Department, are appropriations to a series of organizations most Americans are likely are not aware of.

Many of these organizations are spending money in a way most Republicans would not approve of either, even if they are not even in the realm of censorship.

This includes appropriations for the National Endowment for Democracy, which has a stated goal of supporting "projects of nongovernmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 100 countries."

The organization's board of directors includes several sitting U.S. House members and senators.

Appropriations also go to the Israeli Arab Scholarship Program, which "funds scholarships for Israeli Arabs to attend institutions of higher education in the United States."

RELATED: DYSTOPIA NOW? UK will scan 'all content' on users' phones without face scan or uploaded ID

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The Center for Middle Eastern-Western Dialogue Trust Fund also gets support in the bill, an organization that has historically served as "a bridge between Iranian and U.S. scholars and experts by including Iranian citizens in its conferences when possible."

It also pushes dialogue on topics including "the Caspian Sea and its neighbors, unity and diversity in Iraq, and the future of Afghanistan."

Other appropriations are provided to the East-West Center, which has a "lush 21-acre campus" in Hawaii that "promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific."

At the same time, the Asia Foundation has a "Strategy 2030" program that aims to "build inclusive, future-ready economies."

The House will hold a final passage vote on the bill this week.

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Andrew Chapados

New lawsuit claims Ring's smart doorbell spyware is taking photos of millions without their consent

1 week 1 day ago


Blaze News readers spotted this problem from a mile away when we covered Ring’s creepy AI-powered surveillance features earlier this year. Ring should have seen it coming too, given the company's penchant for spying on everything within viewing distance of its nearest camera — at least that’s what this new class-action lawsuit alleges. According to the suit, Amazon Ring is collecting and storing photos of passersby without their consent, and if the court finds for the plaintiff, the company will pay up to the tune of $5 million.

The lawsuit

In the class-action lawsuit filed by a Virginia man, Ring is charged with violating the privacy of millions of Americans through AI-powered facial recognition and analysis features included in many of its cameras embedded in video doorbells, mounted outdoors, and even placed inside homes.

The sad truth of the modern world is that mass surveillance is nothing new.

The suit specifically goes after Ring’s Familiar Faces feature, which is designed to detect the faces of “friends, family, and frequent visitors over time.” Once a familiar face is identified, Ring owners receive a notification that tells them which person is at the door.

In order to pull off this trick, Ring cameras allegedly must scan the faces of everyone who walks by and compare them with the facial images saved in its system. This includes friends and family members as well as complete strangers who have no idea that the camera mounted nearby is analyzing their likeness with AI. Just like that, a feature built for user personalization is now a potential tool for creating AI-generated profiles of vast numbers of unwitting Americans who did not agree to participate in Ring’s alleged public surveillance operation.

Even more problems for Ring

The lawsuit doesn’t even take into account Ring’s known spy-like feature called Search Party. Billed as a helpful tool to find lost pets, Search Party taps into a vast network of Ring cameras in a specific area to scan for lost dogs, cats, and other critters, identify them, and help owners bring them back home.

The concern here is that finding lost pets is merely the tip of the iceberg. If Ring’s surveillance dragnet can find animals, it can also scan for people, subverting privacy and crossing ethical boundaries. Even worse, a leaked email from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff admitted that mass surveillance was the true purpose of Search Party all along, concealed under the guise of stopping crime in neighborhoods.

According to Siminoff, Ring doesn’t use captured footage without users’ consent, stressing that “sharing has always been the camera owner’s choice.” This is only half true. While Familiar Faces is locked behind a manual setup process that requires users to opt in, Search Party is enabled on supported cameras by default; you must disable it manually in the Ring app to limit Ring’s spying capabilities.

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JDawnInk/Getty Images

Unfortunately, if the allegations are true, the anonymous people who walk in front of Ring cameras with Familiar Faces or Search Party enabled don't get a choice in the matter, and images of these people are recorded, stored, and analyzed directly on Ring’s servers, often without their knowledge. Absent opt-in or opt-out options for these pedestrians, we come to the crux of the lawsuit.

Today's spyware could be even more dangerous with AI

The sad truth of the modern world is that mass surveillance is nothing new. CCTV, which was first deployed in Nazi Germany to watch V-2 rocket launches from a safe distance during World War II, became a mainstay of American public security by the 1980s. Past is prologue. Fast-forward 40 years, and the powers that be have found an array of creative ways to spy on us — warrantless FISA investigations, smart TVs, smart glasses, and the list goes on.

Throughout these privacy violations, mass surveillance captured plenty of footage, but it used to take time and effort for real people to pore through it all and give it meaning. Today, AI can do all the image analyzing for governments, corporations, and bad actors in record time, allowing underground organizations to identify and monitor Americans so efficiently that it would make Communist China blush. The facade of privacy and online anonymity in America is effectively gone.

Thankfully, we still have some rights in this country, and one way we hold offenders accountable and test claims for truth is through our legal system. The class-action lawsuit against Ring was filed in June, and now the two parties have the option to settle or go to trial. While we wait, you can read the complete lawsuit here.

Zach Laidlaw

Neocons love Trump only when he bombs

1 week 1 day ago


The day-to-day status of negotiations may be uncertain, but the Trump administration appears to be doing everything it can to reach a deal and end the conflict with Iran.

The war had solid support from Trump’s more Fox News-oriented voters, but it remained unpopular with much of the country. It cost Trump several high-profile supporters. It also earned him the favor of political operators who previously despised him. Several figures who had declared themselves “Never Trump” suddenly discovered a strange new respect for the president once they believed he was willing to launch another regime-change war in the Middle East.

Stop allying with neoconservatives. They will always betray you in the end.

Those fair-weather allies are now melting down over the prospect of peace between America and Iran.

In his farewell address, George Washington warned the fledgling republic that foreign entanglements were dangerous to freedom and independence. He encouraged commerce with all nations but cautioned against permanent alliances and favored nations. Washington understood that favoritism toward a foreign power would invite foreign influence and lead some citizens to mistake loyalty to an ally for loyalty to the United States.

No event has vindicated that warning more clearly than the war with Iran.

Trump immediately stood out in conservative politics by taking three positions that were popular with the base and dangerous to the establishment. He opposed open borders, unfettered trade, and endless regime-change wars.

Republican politicians, conservative pundits, and Washington think tanks loathed him for all three positions, but especially for the third. Endless conflict created job security and enormous income streams for permanent Washington. The war class did not appreciate a reality television star barging in and threatening the gravy train.

Many neoconservatives abandoned the GOP once they realized Trump was not going away. Others stayed because the war-hawk establishment had deep roots in the Republican Party. They realized they could gain more influence by pretending to convert to the MAGA movement and working from within to steer policy.

Several figures who swore they would never support Trump began presenting themselves as his greatest champions, hoping they could define what MAGA should become.

When the war with Iran began, these neoconservative champions viciously attacked anyone who pointed out that the conflict contradicted Trump’s previous foreign policy. They invented slurs to brand opponents as traitors to the president and insisted that total ideological conformity was the only acceptable position.

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ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

The strategy worked for a time. It drove many anti-interventionists away from their previous support for Trump. That made it even more revealing when Trump moved to end the conflict and his new allies suddenly attacked him in blind rage.

America and Israel entered the conflict with very different goals. For the United States, the only real concern was preventing Iran from gaining the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon. It is unlikely an Iranian nuke could threaten the U.S. directly, but keeping hostile regimes from obtaining that capacity is a legitimate goal.

Israel saw Iran differently. For Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran was an existential threat that had to be taken off the table entirely. His goal was always to collapse the current Iranian regime, replace it, or let the country become a failed state.

As Marco Rubio indicated after the war began, Israel insisted on starting the fight knowing it would force the United States to join. The two allies were out of step from the beginning, so it is no surprise that Netanyahu has done everything possible to disrupt the peace process and achieve every military objective he can while still under the protection of American arms.

The reaction in Israel to Trump’s pursuit of peace has not been gratitude. The president’s popularity there has plummeted, and headlines accusing him of betraying Israel have appeared across the country’s newspapers. One Israeli media figure even suggested America deserved another 9/11-style terror attack so the public would be frightened back into fighting Iran.

Hardcore Israel supporters in America have reacted no better. Figures such as Ben Shapiro, who briefly departed the Never Trump camp to push for war, are now turning back against Trump. At times they try to hide their anger by blaming Vice President JD Vance for the peace deal, but no one is fooled.

Neocons pushed relentlessly for a conflict that had little to do with American interests. Once they got their war, they expected military escalation to force Trump into the wider regime-change conflict they desperately desired.

Very few presidents would have had the fortitude to exit the Iran war after realizing it was unwise. Trump did. The neoconservatives will never forgive him for that outrage.

It turns out all the rhetoric about loyalty to Trump was a farce. The neoconservatives always hated Trump and his voters, despite their change in tone after his second election. Many pundits who praised Trump’s decision to bomb Iran had tried to replace him with Ron DeSantis in the primary. The people who believed their rhetoric and followed their lead were foolish. They are notably silent now that the neoconservatives are losing their minds and turning on the president.

RELATED: A real nation knows who is in and who is out

Blaze Media Illustration

What should we learn from this unwise detour into foreign adventurism?

First, Americans have little interest in extended foreign conflicts. They elected Trump to address crises at home, not to fix the Middle East.

Second, Washington was right about entangling alliances. Israel is its own country with its own priorities. It cares about the United States to the extent that America helps advance those priorities. Entering a war with an ally that does not share your interests is foolish.

Third, neoconservatives are not domestic political allies. They have no loyalty to Trump or the MAGA base and will turn on both the moment either stops serving their purposes.

The lesson is not complicated, but it is expensive. Movements that cannot distinguish temporary agreement from real alliance eventually wake up serving someone else’s agenda in wars they never wanted to fight at all.

Stop allying with neoconservatives. They will always betray you in the end.

Auron MacIntyre

Florida man allegedly bragged about sexually abusing foster child — cops say he and his husband fostered 23 young boys

1 week 1 day ago


A Florida man arrested for allegedly bragging about sexually abusing his young foster child also fostered 23 other young boys with his gay husband, police say.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a media briefing that 51-year-old John David Ballard was arrested after police received a cyber tip on May 7.

'By his own statements, he was using these kids for his sexual pleasure.'

Ballard had allegedly admitted on the messaging app Kik that he had been sexually abusing the 7-year-old boy in his care.

Gualtieri said the messages were explicit, graphic, and "gross."

Ballard allegedly admitted to the conversations to deputies when they served a search warrant on his phone in June. He also told officers that he's "into some really weird stuff" after they found videos of bestiality on his phone, according to police.

Deputies allegedly found dozens of graphic child pornography images that included victims as young as 2 months old.

The investigation expanded when investigators discovered that Ballard and his husband, Bradley Borsuk, were very active in the foster community. The couple had fostered 23 young boys between 2017 and 2023 and had adopted five children between 2015 and 2023, according to police.

All of those boys were between ages 4 and 12 years old.

Gualtieri said officers had spoken to most of the boys, some of whom were now young men, and said some had described "concerning behavior" in the ongoing investigation.

Some allegedly said that Ballard would punish them by making them undress and stand in front of a window, and others said Ballard watched them take baths or showers.

Gualtieri said Ballard and his husband had even authored a book described as an adoption journal.

On June 17, Ballard was arrested and charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of sexual activity involving animals.

Ballard's husband has not yet been arrested, and authorities are still considering what to do with the four adoptive children they have living in their home.

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"This is really a very difficult case, because it involved the betrayal of trust that the Child Welfare System puts into people who volunteer to help the most vulnerable among us. And those are children who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected," the sheriff said.

"One thing that is really maddening about the situation is the fraud that Ballard committed on others by holding himself out as this model foster and adoptive parent," Gualtieri added. "By his own statements, he was using these kids for his sexual pleasure.

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