Skepticism over whether the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) is qualified to keep his seat was greatly compounded on Tuesday by a troubling admission she made during a debate with Ralph Norman, the Republican congressman who is also running to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

Darline Graham, a former commissioner with the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, was appointed last month by Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to finish her brother’s term. Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly on July 11.

‘What are we doing here?’

Graham and Norman both advanced from the special GOP primary on Aug. 11 and are on the ballot in the primary runoff on Aug. 25.

Immediately after the candidates fielded some questions about the U.S.-Iran war and what to do about the apparent depletion of critical American munitions, debate moderator Greta Van Susteren asked Graham, “Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States?”

The Pentagon noted in its 2026 National Defense Strategy document that communist China’s historic military buildup affects America’s interests because “the Indo-Pacific will soon make up more than half of the global economy.”

“The American people’s security, freedom, and prosperity are therefore directly linked to our ability to trade and engage from a position of strength in the Indo-Pacific,” said the NSS document. “Were China — or anyone else, for that matter — to dominate this broad and crucial region, it would be able to effectively veto Americans’ access to the world’s economic center of gravity, with enduring implications for our nation’s economic prospects, including our ability to reindustrialize.”

RELATED: Drain the swamp? Meet the refill

As for Taiwan, the island nation sought by Beijing is a “semiconductor manufacturing powerhouse” that ranks among America’s top-five merchandise trading partners.

After having Van Susteren repeat the question, Graham responded, “I’m just going to be honest here. I’m not, on national security — I’m not that informed on national security.”

Graham paused for a moment, then added, “But I do support the military,” then referenced her brother’s and father’s military service.

‘This is not something you inherit.’

“I’m not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise,” continued South Carolina’s first female senator, “but I do support the military.”

Norman didn’t immediately make hay of Graham’s admission but instead answered the moderator’s original question, stating, “Taiwan is a definite ally, and we have a trading relationship with them that is beneficial to the United States, chips being one of them and others.”

RELATED: ‘Birthright senatorship’ betrays America First

Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

Norman further emphasized the need for America to deter China from taking over Taiwan, in part by sustaining Trump’s “peace through strength” approach abroad.

While Norman didn’t pounce on Graham’s admission, others on the right did en masse.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, noted, “I’m sorry, but respectfully, even accounting for her being new to the job, this is embarrassing and inexcusable. China’s threat toward Taiwan is a bit of a big deal, especially — it would seem — for a member of the U.S. Senate.”

BlazeTV host Steve Deace tweeted, “What are we doing here?”

“I did not think I had heard that right,” wrote South Carolina state Sen. Matt Leber (R). “This admittance should be the end of this race.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley tweeted, “Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States’ national security. Darline Graham admits she’s not. This is not something you inherit. And it’s critical in the U.S. Senate.”

Graham faced far less ridicule over her suggestion during the debate that there were “50 million people in South Carolina.”

President Donald Trump has endorsed Graham and is scheduled to attend a rally with her in Myrtle Beach on Friday.

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​Donald trump, Darline graham, Steve deace, Ralph norman, South carolina, Senate, Taiwan, Foreign policy, National security, Lindsey graham, Politics 

When I first entered the public arena, the focus of my work was almost entirely on why the right needed to take power seriously. Conservatives had suffered a devastating string of political and cultural losses because they focused on argument and ideology while paying little attention to the way power actually worked. That criticism drew plenty of hostility from defenders of the status quo who did not appreciate some rookie pointing out why decades of conservative leadership had produced so little.

It turns out I was not alone. Popular voices including Matt Walsh and John Doyle now openly support conservatives taking and wielding power effectively. That disagreement has launched another round of public debate over the pursuit of power, but the argument is only a proxy for a larger battle over JD Vance, foreign policy, and the future of MAGA.

The arguments breaking out across the conservative commentariat are not separate fights. They are proxy battles over the same question.

Donald Trump represented a serious threat to the established political order. Initially dismissed as a brash reality television host, he quickly demonstrated that he was tapping into something deeper than celebrity and catchy insults. Trump was not a career politician. He did not enter politics with deep ideological commitments, and he did not know or care about the established rules.

He fused law and order, economic protectionism, foreign policy restraint, immigration enforcement, and culture-war issues in a way no Republican candidate had since Pat Buchanan. Trump saw an untapped political market and, like any good businessman, gave the customers what they wanted.

Many prominent establishment figures declared themselves “NeverTrump” and vowed to resist MAGA’s takeover of the conservative movement. That strategy failed. Trump became a political steamroller. Some NeverTrumpers migrated into the Democratic coalition or created opposition “conservative” outlets such as the Bulwark. Others decided to wait.

MAGA had the populist momentum, but the establishment still controlled institutions, personnel, and much of the donor class. The bet was that it could outlast MAGA and co-opt it, just as the Republican establishment had absorbed the Tea Party.

The next opportunity came with Ron DeSantis. Establishment conservatives hoped Trump’s legal troubles would make him vulnerable to a popular governor with a record of victories. DeSantis was supposed to offer Trumpism without Trump: populist energy packaged in a form more compatible with the old ideological agenda.

It did not work. Trump’s primary and general-election victories removed any illusion that a direct assault on him from inside the party could succeed.

If the establishment could not oust Trump, the remaining option was to derail his movement and prevent anyone from carrying MAGA into future elections. Despite Republican control of the House, Senate, presidency, and Supreme Court, congressional Republicans have repeatedly clashed with the administration. The Senate has stalled key personnel and has not passed the SAVE Act. Republican politicians know they must praise Trump rhetorically, but many continue to resist important parts of his agenda.

RELATED: The right has a blind spot about young women

Blaze Media Illustration

Add a deeply unpopular war with no obvious end, and the result is an effective containment mechanism: MAGA divided, distracted, and exhausted.

That is why the fight over JD Vance matters so much. When Trump sent the vice president to negotiate a peace deal, critics who had spent years presenting themselves as Trump’s loyal allies suddenly questioned Vance’s ideology, associations, and viability as a successor. Like Trump, Vance is not wedded to neoconservative foreign policy. His role in the negotiations made clear that he is being prepared as a possible heir to the movement.

At the same time, some critics began presenting Marco Rubio as an alternative while attacking any attempt to withdraw from the conflict.

The fights over power, foreign policy, affordability, and the dangers of the New Right are therefore part of the same proxy war for control of the GOP. It is no accident that many establishment figures who favor expansive military commitments abroad also recoil from using political power aggressively at home.

We can always find money for war, but when the cost of living becomes unbearable, suddenly government action is communism. The overlap is not accidental. It reflects the old conservative settlement: Republicans may fight wars abroad and protect big business at home. They may talk endlessly about social issues, but they are not supposed to spend serious political capital addressing them.

That is why it may seem strange to watch figures such as James Lindsay, Joel Berry, and Ben Shapiro portray Matt Walsh as a socialist or JD Vance as a crypto-Nazi. The rhetoric makes more sense when viewed through coalitional politics. Whatever they think personally of Walsh or Vance, they recognize that both threaten an order that has existed for decades.

The conservative movement became comfortable as beautiful losers: controlled opposition rewarded with money, status, and institutional access while the country moved steadily left. Trump disrupted that arrangement. Vance threatens to continue disrupting it.

RELATED: It’s the economy, stupid — again

Blaze Media Illustration

If conservatism is ever to become a real political movement, it must escape the ideological shackles that keep it from acting. As Russell Kirk argued in “The Conservative Mind,” conservatism should not be about preserving an abstract ideology but a particular people and their way of life.

MAGA represented that shift. It was willing to pursue policies that improved the lives of Americans even when those policies fell outside neoconservative economic or foreign-policy orthodoxy. Achieving those goals requires the right to think seriously about power and how to wield it. Even reducing the size of government requires acquiring and applying state power.

The NeverTrump project now is to poison the well around Vance, prevent him from inheriting the movement, and return the GOP to establishment politics as usual.

That is the argument underneath the latest round of conservative infighting. The personalities change, the immediate controversy changes, and the slogans change, but the stakes remain constant. Someone will define what MAGA becomes after Trump, and the establishment has no intention of surrendering that decision.

The arguments breaking out across the conservative commentariat are not separate fights. They are proxy battles over the same question: Who gets to rule the Republican Party after Trump?

​Jd vance, Donald trump, Gop, Republican party, Marco rubio, Joel berry, Ben shapiro, Economy, Affordability crisis, Opinion & analysis 

Carmen Lizet Puch, a 42-year-old mother, was found brutally stabbed to death at Great Falls Park in Virginia on Monday.

After police arrested a suspect, the Department of Homeland Security identified him as an illegal alien who had been released into the U.S. under the Biden administration.

Cedillos-Campos knew Puch because they both worked at the Bitez restaurant in Herndon.

Puch was found on the ground near a 2011 Honda Civic in the parking lot of the park in McLean at about 6:45 a.m., WUSA9 reported. She was later pronounced dead at the scene.

On Wednesday, the Fairfax County Police announced on social media they had arrested 19-year-old Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos in connection with the case.

The DHS claimed in a statement that Cedillos-Campos was a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador arrested by Customs and Border Protection in 2024 for illegally crossing into the U.S. near El Paso, Texas.

The Salvadoran was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration, according to the DHS.

“The Biden administration recklessly unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities and abused the law to do so,” the statement continued. “President Trump and [DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin] are now enforcing the law, arresting illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country — and have reversed Biden’s deadly catch and release policy.”

Sources told WRC-TV that Cedillos-Campos knew Puch because they both worked at the Bitez restaurant in Herndon.

“I don’t know if you can process something like this. It’s not something you expect. It’s not something that anyone would ever want to happen,” said Abdul Anwari, the owner of the restaurant. “But you know, we’re still taking it [a] minute at a time.”

RELATED: ‘Monster’ suspected of brutally murdering DHS worker is a migrant naturalized by Biden: DHS

Anwari said they are setting up a GoFundMe to help Puch’s family with raising her daughter.

Puch is the mother of a young daughter and was jogging when she was brutally murdered.

“We are urging Governor [Abigail] Spanberger (D-Va.) to put her community first and turn over this criminal illegal alien to ICE,” the agency added.

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​Illegal alien, Department of homeland security, Murder, Virginia, Politics 

Median Strategies, which presented itself as an independent polling and research firm, recently shut down after the Los Angeles Times exposed it for fabricating a survey showing a large lead for Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Its other fabricated results, including one showing Francesca Hong with a large lead in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, were also revealed as part of the same operation.

After repeated inquiries from the Times, Median Strategies admitted the numbers were completely made up as a “short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

Once exposed, it withdrew all its prior polling releases, claimed no political funding or financial motives were involved, and shut down without revealing the identities of those involved.

Even more disturbing, Steve Deace’s producer and co-host Aaron McIntire points out, is that Median Strategies’ polling numbers for Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary “largely mirrored the results from established pollsters like Marquette and Public Policy Polling.”

The scandal begs the question: If fake numbers can so easily pass as legitimate and shape political reality, should public polling itself be banned?

On this episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace reacts to the Median Strategies scandal; the panel also proposes ideas to to curb the influence of unreliable polling.

“We’ve created this entire society now where stuff is determined by polling that most of us can’t ever recall we’ve ever taken part in,” says Deace, likening political polling to a sports betting scenario where a gambler loses his money before the game is ever played because an obscure panel of analysts already determined the outcome.

“What have I been saying about we should prosecute these polling institutions for fraud? Exhibit 666 right here,” says co-host Todd Erzen.

Deace has a proposal to fix the issue: “The elections determine who wins and what policies we’re going to do — like when people actually go and vote.”

Then “when you’re in office and if you won the election, do what you got elected to do, and then let the people decide in the next election whether they like that or not rather than constantly reacting and responding to things we’re not even sure are true,” he adds.

“I think this is a great idea, and here’s how you prosecute it. … If you ban public polling, the first defense is going to be, ‘Well, that’s freedom of speech.’ No, you prosecute it as a violation of freedom of speech,” says McIntire.

He argues that Median Strategies allegedly created its fake poll numbers to “deceive people” in order to “squash their vote.”

“That would seem to be a violation of the First Amendment to me,” he says.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

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​Elections, Francesca hong, Karen bass, Steve deace, Blazetv show 

I was recently treated to a free screening of a new documentary called “Thank You for Sharing” (2026). This funny and engaging film is a much-needed investigation into the dubious intentions of the mental health industry.

It’s also the first foray into feature-length filmmaking by upstart conservative press Passage Publishing. And Passage chose a novel way to get people to watch it.

You can see the lack of money on the screen. But you can also feel a sense of rebellion and scrappiness. A kind of upstart energy.

I hadn’t heard of “Thank You” until it popped up on my X feed. It would be available for one week, for free.

If the strategy sounds familiar, it may be because another low-budget, right-leaning film recently stumbled onto something similar — with spectacular results.

‘Citizen Vigilante’

Last June, “Citizen Vigilante” was already making waves online, particularly in right-wing circles, when Elon Musk stepped in and dramatically expanded its audience.

The film had received a conventional release through independent distributor Quiver, including a very limited theatrical run in the United States. But the movie had little prospect of reaching much of the rest of the world. Germany had even refused to give it a rating, effectively “banning” it.

Then Musk contacted director Uwe Boll’s team and, with their permission, made the entire movie available free on X for 48 hours.

The stunt worked. “Citizen Vigilante” climbed into the top 10 on video-on-demand platforms including Apple and Amazon, and Quiver subsequently acquired worldwide distribution rights, excluding a handful of territories.

“Citizen Vigilante” stars canceled Hollywood actor Armie Hammer as an American real estate heir living in Croatia who reinvents himself as a vigilante, hunting down rapists, bullies, and other criminals, many of them migrants.

From the start, the film generated huge amounts of controversy, its apparent anti-immigration politics constituting an almost unimaginable affront to the leftist entertainment industry.

Unfortunately, “Citizen Vigilante” is a terrible movie. The plot makes no sense, and the filmmaking is on par with Boll’s famously schlocky, gore-filled B-grade films.

But its release remained a major cultural event. Mainstream media felt obligated to comment on the film and denounce its politics. This, in turn, forced Western progressives to defend their widely unpopular open-border policies.

The rise of the right-wing film

I’ve seen a bunch of right-wing films over the last year. They tend to fall into a couple of different categories.

There are the Christian-influenced films, like “Sound of Freedom” (2023) or “Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist” (2023).

In these films, a high level of sincerity is immediately evident. There’s a minimum of snark. People profess their love of God or Jesus unabashedly.

It takes a while to get used to genuine people of faith as characters in a movie. Hollywood generally mocks or criticizes such people. But once the surprise wears off, it’s quite refreshing.

Matt Walsh in a wig

Then there are the satirical films. Matt Walsh has made several of these. His best two are “What Is a Woman?” (2022) and “Am I a Racist?” (2024). Both were made on limited budgets.

But they both work. In “Am I a Racist?” Walsh dresses up in ridiculous getups, impersonating leftoid weirdos of various types.

It’s quite funny and effective. Though making fun of people like Robin DiAngelo isn’t that hard. But that’s the point.

American movie

Then there are patriotic movies, like “Young Washington” (2026) and “Reagan” (2024), in which Dennis Quaid plays the 40th president. .

“Reagan” wasn’t a perfect film, but it was fun to review Ronald Reagan’s long and extraordinary life. I teared up at the end, remembering the grace and humility — even in his final days — of one of our greatest presidents.

Dinesh D’Souza’s docu-drama “Death of a Nation” (2018) was well intentioned and strongly pro-American, but suffered from a lack of funding.

D’Souza has made a whole series of these low-budget patriotic films. He began making them way back before the first Trump administration. So kudos to him for blazing a trail.

MAGA by mistake

Then there is “The Apprentice” (2024), which depicted President Trump’s youth and rise as a businessman. This was not intended as a right-wing film, but I suspect more Trump supporters saw it than detractors.

I found the film interesting, even as it shamelessly attempted to smear Trump in the most mean-spirited ways. Ultimately, it made Trump seem shrewd and sympathetic, despite the bad intentions of the filmmakers.

Rumors of war

A similar film was “Civil War” (2024), by mainstream director Alex Garland. The story seemed inspired by the heated election-fraud discourse after the 2020 election. People thought we might actually have a civil war!

Right-wing viewers appreciated the realism of the film. Garland created a “low-intensity” war scenario, where some people are actively fighting and other people are going about their lives.

In the end, Garland sold out to the left, revealing a blubbering, cowardly Trump-clone dictator to be the cause of the conflict.

Still, the movie was intelligently done and possibly prophetic and thus was a hit with young conservatives.

RELATED: ‘Civil War’ gives journos their dumb Trump dictator fantasy

A24

Grit > $

Most of the right-wing movies listed above were clearly made without Hollywood-level financing. You can see the lack of money on the screen.

But you can also feel a sense of rebellion and scrappiness. A kind of upstart energy. These are the underdog films of their time.

When I watched the opening scenes of “Sound of Freedom” — a great film by any measure — and I saw the lack of slickness, the lack of pampered movie stars, the lack of smarmy leftism, I got excited.

This is what I want from movies: passion, effort, resourcefulness, and most of all filmmakers who believe in what they are doing.

​Armie hammer, Citizen vigilante, Civil war, Conservative filmmaking, Controversy, Dennis quaid, Dinesh dsouza, Documentary, Elon musk, Mainstream media, Mental health, Passage publishing, Uwe boll, Matt walsh, Movies, Entertainment, Hollywood, Blake’s progress 

Just a few months removed from NASA’s record-setting trip around the moon, the party will now abruptly stop.

In April, America’s Artemis II took humans farther away from home than they have ever been, completing a fly-by of the lunar surface that, after several delays, seemed like it was never going to happen.

But the space race isn’t over.

The size of the crater’s rims create permanently shadowed regions.

Before the end of August, all eyes will be on a familiar foe as they take their next stab at lunar exploration.

The Chinese version of NASA, the China National Space Administration, is set to launch Chang’e‑7. The lunar orbiter will fly equipped with a lander, rover, and mobile probe.

According to Ars Technica, the lander is several times larger than NASA-backed probes that have recently landed on the moon’s surface, most of which have been rather underwhelming.

The culmination of Chinese lunar rovers Yutu (2013) and Yutu-2 (2019), Chang’e‑7 has a bold and rather headline-grabbing mission: find water.

China’s mobile hopper probe will search Shackleton Crater, a barren part of the moon’s south pole. The size of the crater’s rims create permanently shadowed regions; researchers believe that if water ice exists on the moon, it’s there.

RELATED: The rockets are still blowing up. So why is Elon laughing on his SpaceX earnings call?

–

According to Our China Story, the “leaper” probe can repeatedly take off and land to get to its destination, making it “the best choice for challenging impact craters.”

“It is a water-seeking ‘hand-scattering’ tool,'” the rover’s description reads after a translation.

The master plan

But what’s below the lunar surface offers the real prize. Aside from looking for ice, National Science Review reports that the Chinese instruments will investigate the moon’s topography, internal structure, magnetic field, and thermal characteristics. Economic and military engineering on the moon depend on this kind of deep geological mapping and study.

The goal is simple: dominate moon knowledge to a degree that gives China a strategic edge against the U.S. in the crucial early stages of space colonization.

Chang’e‑7’s advanced fact-finding mission is about a year ahead of NASA’s Artemis III, with the Asian country saying it has already done the prep work to send humans to the lunar surface in the near future.

RELATED: Mars Needs Cowboys

ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

First, China well launch Chang’e 8, set for 2029, another robotic surface mission. The boots-on-the-ground mission is set for 2030. However, Beijing claims it already has a space station “steadily in orbit” that has served as a platform to verify manned lunar landings.

Falling behind?

This undercuts the mission statement of Artemis III, which is estimated to launch sometime in 2027. The mission was originally meant to include a lunar landing, but that idea has been pushed until Artemis IV. Now, Artemis III will serve as a preparatory mission to ensure a safe landing for Artemis IV astronauts, and while those parameters are behind China’s alleged accomplishments, if Artemis IV hits its goal launch of “early 2028,” it will establish permanent real estate on the moon for the United States.

“Return to the moon before the end of President Trump’s term, build a moon base, establish an enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in March.

That is the real mission, and if NASA can successfully pull off its landing, the race for the moon will effectively be over.

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​Nasa, Moon landing, Artemis iii, Artemis iv, Chang’e‑7, China, Tech, Space 

Passwords have been under threat lately, with attacks hitting big-name password manager apps and vulnerabilities found inside the “more secure” Passkeys, but these aren’t the only pieces of personal information at risk right now.

The FBI issued a new warning that cybercriminals are scouring personal accounts and social media for explicit photos of adults and minors that can be used to stalk, harass, and extort victims for personal gain.

Images are usually taken without users’ knowledge and sold online on the black market.

Here’s what you need to know and what you can do to stay safe.

Warning from the FBI

In mid-August, the FBI released a stark warning that sexual exploitation (SE) actors are on the prowl looking for compromising photos of potential victims to sell online for profit. These criminals aren’t just using one attack vector — like leaked passwords online — to gain access to accounts either. Instead, they’re employing “a variety of social engineering and cyber intrusion tactics to target specific individuals of interest.” Targets can be anyone: public officials, celebrities, common civilians who pique their interest, and even complete strangers. Everyone is fair game.

The explicit images in question are usually taken without users’ knowledge, and when they’re sold online on the black market, sellers include the victim’s name, date of birth, email, phone number, and even their social media username for maximum impact and potential re-targeting campaigns by other criminals who may also wish to exploit the same victim.

3 ways criminals gain access to intimate photos

The FBI notes that these SE actors are gaining access to user accounts through the following methods:

Password and pin targeting is a process where criminals test a combination of pins and passwords to gain access to a targeted account. Considered a brute-force hack, this process can be both arduous and tedious. However, criminals are reportedly using recent password and data leaks to narrow down the possibilities, making everyone an easy target. Criminals are posing as customer service representatives on major social media platforms where they send threatening messages to potential targets, warning them that their account will be locked or disabled unless they reset their password using a spoofed system hosted by the criminal. When all else fails, an old-fashioned phishing scheme is their last line of attack. In this case, bad actors send emails to potential victims telling them that their account was breached and that the password must be changed, again using a spoofed website hosted by the criminal where they get direct access to the new password in the end.

How to protect yourself from SE actors

Luckily, there are things you can do to shore up security on your accounts and keep your most private photos safe. The FBI outlines several clear recommendations, to which we’ve added our own tips.

RELATED: How to get Google AI off your smartphone now

Yurii Karvatskyi/Getty Images

Together, all of these can keep you and your data much safer online:

Refrain from storing private images on social media, websites, or cloud-connected accounts where they can be accessed by a third party. Don’t even keep these images in your drafts. If your accounts are breached, everything saved inside belongs to the intruders. If you do keep any sensitive images on your phone, make sure they’re saved inside a password-protected or locked folder to add an extra level of security and scrutiny. Both Apple Photos on iOS and Google Photos on Android and iOS have these options built in. Use complex passwords to secure all of your accounts, and make sure you change these passwords often — every three to six months is generally a good idea. Rely on Passkeys when applicable. Even though there is a bug on iOS that can expose your IP address to websites when using iCloud Private Relay, Passkeys are still more secure overall as they require someone to physically have your device in their hand in order to access your account. Enable two-factor authentication for even more protection. This requires hackers to have access to your email or phone number, in addition to your other account information, making a successful attack less likely. Never click on embedded links sent to you through email or a messaging app, even if you think they originated from an official social media company. Instead, always go directly to the host website to change your password. If you ever receive a password reset PIN that you did not request, ignore it. Then log onto the website directly and change your password manually from there to ensure your account is secure.

Cyber criminals are getting bolder these days, but you’re smarter. Follow these tips, and you have a much better chance at thwarting any future attempts to access your accounts and steal your photos or other personal data.

​Tech, Security, Privacy, Photos 

America’s public schools are increasingly opening their doors to Islamic indoctrination, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm.

“Islam has come to conquer,” she says.

“There is a big shift happening lately where they seem to be targeting children now. Now, even here in the state of Texas,” she continues, pointing out that in Texas a high school was handing out Qurans and candy to children.

“But now, they’re actively shuttling children to mosques to indoctrinate them. Now, thankfully, this was not in Texas. It was in California,” she explains, reading a headline from the New York Post.

“California high school students were given Qurans and encouraged to wear hijabs during class trip to mosque,” the headline reads.

“Now, these kids were taken to the mosque. They were taught that Islam in particular promotes social justice. I wonder if that extends to women … does that extend to women who get publicly lashed if they don’t wear their hijab properly?” Gonzales asks.

“Something tells me no. How about, does that extend to homosexuals?” she asks again. “Cause I don’t know. To me, the idea of promoting social justice doesn’t mean throwing someone off a rooftop. But maybe that’s just me.”

Female students were encouraged to wear hijabs, and some of the students in attendance were Jewish.

“The parents are now suing the school and the district. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who’s been paying attention. I’m like shouting from the rooftops about it because there is going to come a point where we’ve reached the breaking point and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” Gonzales says.

“We need to take them at their word. They have been preaching about their plans to take over,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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​Sara gonzales, Jewish, Islam, Muslim, California, Texas, Students, Public school, Indoctrination, Blazetv show 

Alexander Vindman, an import from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic who zealously criticizes President Donald Trump, ran as a Democrat to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate.

Despite his apparent “Election Day survival kit,” Vindman’s political career did not survive the day Tuesday. He failed miserably in the Democratic primary — and the president has made sure to let everyone know about it.

‘The most gratifying loss last night.’

Vindman — a former Kamala Harris booster who served as a star witness in the impeachment inquiry regarding Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — got trounced by Florida state Rep. Angela Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

With over 95% of the votes in, the Associated Press showed Nixon leading Vindman by 56.1% to 43.9%.

“Who would’ve ever thought that a Jewish refugee would make it to the U.S. Army, to the White House, and to becoming a candidate for the U.S. Senate,” Vindman stated after losing. “Only in America is that possible, and it would not have been possible without you, Florida.”

“Rep. Nixon ran a strong campaign. I will be standing by her side in the fight against [incumbent Republican Sen.] Ashley Moody. I hope you’ll join me,” added Vindman.

RELATED: Cory Mills goes down in flames in Republican primary

Kent NISHIMURA/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump noted in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, “The most gratifying loss last night was that of a real treasonous creep, Alexander Vindman, to a Radical Left Lunatic, who can’t speak or think properly, and who will go down to certain defeat at the hands of Ashley Moody, a truly Fantastic Senator, from the Great State Florida.”

Moody was sworn into the U.S. Senate on Jan. 21, 2025, after being appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the seat Marco Rubio vacated to become secretary of state. The president endorsed Moody last summer for her run to return to the U.S. Senate.

Trump noted further: “Vindman, if you remember, was the one who lied about my ‘Perfect Call’ with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, only to find out that the conversation was routinely recorded and proved that I was 100% in the right (Completely Innocent!). It was, indeed, a Perfect Call, and the Dumocrats Fake Impeachment effort massively failed. Vindman should be prosecuted for what he did!”

Vindman, who served as director for European affairs at the U.S. National Security Council from 2018 to 2020, was among the individuals who had their access to classified information yanked last year by then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The anti-Trump critic’s loss on Tuesday is all the more humiliating since he raised roughly $16 million in his race and spent over $9 million by the end of last month, while Nixon couldn’t even raise $1 million, reported ABC News.

“We did it. We won this primary without taking a dime of corporate PAC money. No corporate checks. No billionaire-funded machine. Just a 100% grassroots campaign powered by people like you,” Nixon tweeted.

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​Alexander vindman, Angela nixon, Democrat, Democratic socialists of america, Donald trump, Florida, Impeachment, Senate, Ukraine, Politics 

David Morens, a longtime acolyte of Anthony Fauci, has pleaded guilty to his role in the attempted cover-up of federal records pertaining to the origin of the COVID-19 virus and to a clandestine initiative to restore U.S. funding to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology via disgraced British zoologist Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance, according to the Department of Justice.

“This is potentially the watershed moment in seeking long overdue and morally required accountability for perhaps the biggest travesty ever foisted upon the American people,” stated BlazeTV host Steve Deace.

‘The race now is on for Fauci’s felons to rat each other out.’

Morens served as senior adviser to Fauci in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022. In April, he was indicted and charged with conspiracy, destruction of records in federal investigation, and concealment of records.

Under the deal he ultimately struck with federal prosecutors, Morens pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He now faces up to five years in prison.

“Morens obstructed the Oversight Project’s investigation and pled guilty to it today,” Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News. “I hope this serves as a lesson to other bureaucrats that it is our government and we pay them to work there and for us. It’s our information, and they should never hide it from us.”

Morens’ attorney, Tim Belevetz, said in a statement to Blaze News, “By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did, and he will continue to do so.”

RELATED: Fauci was apparently warned to save ‘

David Morens. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

While speculation abounds, it remains unclear whether Morens has agreed to testify against the unnamed co-conspirators in his case.

FBI Director Kash Patel noted, however, that “this FBI investigation remains ongoing.”

Over concerns that COVID had leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where dangerous gain-of-function experiments were conducted on coronaviruses, the National Institutes of Health terminated in 2020 a grant to EcoHealth Alliance titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” which EcoHealth Alliance had subawarded to the WIV.

‘There will be no “there” there.’

The Justice Department noted on the basis of Morens’ guilty plea that after the grant was terminated, Morens and “Co-Conspirator 2” helped “Co-Conspirator 1” restore the grant “and counter the narrative that COVID-19 leaked from a lab.”

Context appears to indicate that “Co-Conspirator 1” in this case is Daszak.

For starters, the DOJ noted that the NIH terminated “Co-Conspirator 1’s” grant and named the grant, which documents show was received by Daszak’s now-defunct company, EcoHealth Alliance. The DOJ noted further that Co-Conspirator 1 made the subaward to the WIV, which his company had done. Furthermore, Daszak’s name repeatedly comes up in the Morens emails previously released by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which show them discussing ways to hide their communications from public view.

Politico identified “Co-Conspirator 2” as Gerald Keusch, a former director of NIH’s Fogarty International Center who now works with the NIAD lab at Boston University.

Neither Daszak nor Keusch has been charged with a crime in this case, and neither responded to Blaze News’ request for comment.

“In anticipation that their communications would be requested through FOIA Requests, Morens, Co-Conspirator 1, and Co-Conspirator 2 agreed in writing to intentionally hide their communications from public view by corresponding using Morens’s personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH email account,” said the DOJ.

Emails previously published by the subcommittee highlight the intentional nature of Morens’ evasiveness.

In an April 21, 2021, email to Daszak, Morens wrote, for instance: “I forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony [Fauci] on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”

In a May 13, 2021, email to Keusch with Daszak CC-ed, Morens referred to “our ‘secret’ back channel.”

In another email to Keusch dated Nov. 19, 2021, Morens wrote, “BOTH my gmail and phone calls are now safe. Text is NOT, as it can be FOIA’d, as can my govt email. So you and Peter and others should be able to email me on gmail only.”

Morens allegedly even sought the help of the NIH FOIA office for instruction on how to delete federal records.

“I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d but before the search starts, so I think we are all safe,” he wrote in a Feb. 24, 2021, email. “Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.”

RELATED: Days after Biden inauguration, FBI shielded Wuhan lab collaborator from investigation after China trip

Disgraced zoologist Peter Daszak. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Justice Department noted that “the co-conspirators used Morens’s personal Gmail account to exchange non-public NIH information; correspond about their efforts to influence NIH to fund Company 1; exchange edits to drafts of letters addressed to NIH leadership for Company 1 and Co-Conspirator 1; and ‘back-channel’ information to Senior NIAID Official 1.”

In addition to admitting to his efforts to keep Americans in the dark about federal employees’ damning discussions, Morens admitted to conspiring with “Co-Conspirator 1” to pay illegal gratuities.

“Co-Conspirator 1” is alleged to have said that he would treat Morens to meals at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world and gifted him wine for his “behind-the-scenes shenanigans” and even arranged for its delivery.

‘Fauci and Morens were on a radical mission to remake America.’

Morens’ guilty plea has inspired hope that Fauci might soon similarly be visited by consequence.

“Despite Anthony Fauci’s attempts to distance himself, David Morens was Fauci’s trusted consigliere and fixer for some 30 years,” Matt Kibbe, the host of BlazeTV’s docuseries “The Coverup,” told Blaze News. “They had coauthored over 40 articles together, including this Orwellian nugget from November 2020 in the academic journal Cell: ‘Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence.'”

“Fauci and Morens were on a radical mission to remake America, mad scientists who viewed the rest of us all as caged beagles in their laboratory,” continued Kibbe. “But then they got caught, and Morens’ guilty plea gives me new hope that justice will find Fauci as well. Much more receipts on Morens and Fauci in my series ‘The Coverup,’ particularly Episode 2 featuring Rand Paul.”

Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told Blaze News, “Morens’ guilty plea is an important first step in holding accountable the malfeasant U.S. officials who funded the reckless gain-of-function research in Wuhan that caused COVID and who then defrauded the global public about the origin of COVID.”

“It seems possible, even likely, that Morens was ‘flipped’ and that Morens’ guilty plea is the product of a plea bargain in which Morens has agreed to testify against Fauci, Daszak, Keusch, and others,” continued Ebright.

Justin Goodman, the senior vice president of the White Coat Waste Project, told Blaze News that Morens’ guilty plea, Fauci’s recent contempt vote, and other recent steps toward accountability “are signs that knives are finally out for the conniving animal experimenters who caused and covered up a likely lab leak in Wuhan. Hopefully more heads will roll.”

Fauci’s legal representative and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland did not respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

“The COVID cartel has one less member,” wrote Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R). “Accountability has begun, and much more needs to follow.”

Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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​Anthony fauci, David morens, National institutes of health, National institute of allergy and infectious diseases, Coverup, Covid-19, Wuhan institute of virology, Steve deace, Matte kibbe, Ecohealth alliance, Peter daszak, Gain of function, Politics 

There is an innate desire for young actors to be in Hollywood, something that draws them in to the light.

At some point, that light dims for everyone, and their attitude completely changes. Then, an appreciation for Americana builds.

‘There’s no such thing as a perfect little town.’

Gone pear-shaped

Iconic actor Bruce Campbell knows this feeling, and he figured it out through trial and error.

Campbell has been beloved for decades for his comedic horror franchise “The Evil Dead.” He played his character, Ash Williams, in five films spanning 1981-2023, as well as a successful TV show that lasted three seasons.

Now 68, the Michigan native is clairvoyant as to why the film industry has left Hollywood behind, both personally and professionally.

In his own words, both actors and writers have “managed to piss off the industry so much” that production has fled to greener pastures.

“There’s a little piece of paper floating back down to the ground in Hollywood, you know, and it’s the last call sheet that they made for some guy,” he told fellow actor Michael Rosenbaum recently on his podcast.

Comparing it to a flailing auto industry and the dying pear production where he lives in Oregon, Campbell says Hollywood has only itself to blame. The actor’s exodus from the city was a long time coming.

“When I was 40, I just was like, ‘What the hell am I doing in a city that I never would have lived here if it wasn’t for the film business?'” he explained. That was his first run.

Campbell said he tried living without cell service for 20 years before Hollywood’s siren call lured him back, only for him to learn the same lesson again.

“[I] ran away with my hair on fire, screaming,” he said, after just one year. Next, he tried suburban San Francisco, where his daughter lives.

“Same thing after a year: screaming. How many times can a guy light his hair on fire? You know, not that many. So I bailed,” Campbell recalled.

The solution for the aging star has been simple: Trade the glitz and glamour for small-town America. Short walks to the village and a slower pace at the store have been the prescription the actor needed.

RELATED: Transgender ‘Matrix’ director says Hollywood won’t make his new film — and there’s one insane reason why

Our town

Campbell said that he came to a realization that at some point he was supposed to stop putting his “nose to the old grindstone” and instead shove his nose “in a flower.”

The flower isn’t Hollywood, and it isn’t remote living, he found out. It’s his little town.

“Our little town is not a perfect — there’s no such thing as a perfect little town,” he told the host. “There’s so many annoying things: shopping at my local co-op, where everyone is moving at 50% of their normal speed.”

Those annoyances turned to appreciation, and when he came back to the little town he “had grown annoyed with,” all of a sudden he realized, “I’m not annoyed any more.”

In fact, his opinion shifted to: “This is charming.”

RELATED: Joe Rogan & Shane Gillis say we’re never going back — and young men should listen

1996. Albert Ortega/Stringer/Getty Images

That sucking sound

As for the industry side, Campbell said he saw Hollywood do nothing to keep a stronghold on production even back in the 1970s, when the town had no plan to “stop it from going to Toronto.”

“They were faking New York City in Toronto in the ’70s. And L.A. did nothing about it because it went, ‘Ah, we’re still 92% of the business,’ you know, so they didn’t do anything,” Campbell described.

From there, the production moved to different states like Georgia, where Campbell says he can now hear an air-lock “sucking” noise as those jobs are pulled from that state, as well.

Campbell is happy where he is in small-town America, because if your next favorite miniseries sounds a bit off, like an American imitation, “you’ll know they just bailed on the country entirely. They’re shooting in Bulgaria.”

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One week after President Donald Trump retook office, a trans-identifying radical marched on the U.S. Capitol with the intention of killing an incoming Cabinet official. That would-be assassin was handed down his sentence on Tuesday.

Ryan Michael English — a 26-year-old man from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, who pretends to be a woman named “Raleigh Jane” — intentionally traveled to the Capitol on Jan. 27, 2025, with the knowledge that that was the day of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s confirmation vote.

‘F**k them for pushing us so far.’

English was armed with a folding knife and a pair of Molotov cocktails, each constructed of a 50-milliliter bottle of vodka affixed with gray starter cloths soaked in an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, according to the Justice Department.

In a letter to his roommate that police later found in English’s pocket and referenced on Tuesday by the DOJ, the would-be assassin stated, “This is terrible but I cant do nothing while nazis kill my sisters. I love you. This is awful. Im so sorry. I love u. Please stay alive and heal. you can. you are strong enough. F**k them for pushing us so far. you dont deserve this. Im so sorry for lying and plotting and lying.”

Fortunately, the transvestite had second thoughts when he reached the Capitol grounds.

According to the affidavit filed by the U.S. Capitol Police in support of the criminal complaint against English, the would-be assassin approached a USCP officer around 3:12 p.m. and stated, “I’d like to turn myself in.”

RELATED: Another assassination plot? Feds charge Hispanic man named ‘Jeanine’ caught with hollow-point rounds at Trump’s golf club

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

English ultimately admitted to traveling to Washington with the intention of killing Bessent and/or burning down the Heritage Foundation.

English pleaded guilty on March 26 to one count of unlawful receipt, possession, and/or transfer of a firearm and one count of carrying a firearm, dangerous weapon, explosive, or incendiary device on the grounds of the Capitol.

While prosecutors asked for English to be sentenced to over a decade in prison, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, sentenced English on Tuesday to six years along with three years of supervised release.

“No one was harmed,” said the Obama judge, reported Fox News Digital. “The plan was basically impossible to succeed, and she turned herself in before it came anywhere near fruition.”

“You’ve had a very difficult life with a lot of challenges,” Contreras told the trans radical, whom he referred to as “Miss English.”

Contreras added, “You’re young, you still have a significant portion of your life. Good luck to you.”

“My office will not tolerate attempts to intimidate or harm public officials that strike at the heart of our democratic process and are antithetical to the values we all depend on,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro in a statement. “The defendant is now a convicted felon and is headed where he belongs: prison.”

Neither the Treasury Department nor the Heritage Foundation immediately responded to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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