The WNBA’s Chicago Sky is taking Enes Kanter Freedom to task while once again avoiding the actual issue on everyone’s mind.

Freedom wore a T-shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female” to the Chicago Sky vs. Indiana Fever game on Sunday, causing a stir that seemingly agitated one of the Sky players.

‘Most importantly, he took a step towards the court.’

After a whistle in the third quarter, 34-year-old point guard Natasha Cloud began yelling at Freedom, who stood up and raised his arms in the air while taking a step toward the court.

Cloud was irate as teammates ushered her away from the area, while Freedom was surrounded by security and subsequently ejected from the building.

According to Sky principal owner Michael Alter, Freedom’s presence near the court wasn’t just a form of protest; it was tantamount to a threat.

“[Kanter Freedom] has demonstrated to us unequivocally that he has the potential to be a threat,” Alter said while speaking to local Chicago media.

“That he is not able to control himself to the extent where we can be comfortable that he may [not] step towards the court again and towards the players.”

Alter continued, saying the team has decided to ban him from Wintrust Arena in Chicago indefinitely.

“So that is the basis for which we will not permit him into the building until such time as he can prove otherwise.”

RELATED: WNBA star has mid-game meltdown at former NBA player wearing pro-women shirt: ‘I think it triggered her’

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

The 6′-10″ former NBA player had told Fox News that the he had exchanged text messages with Chicago general manager Jeff Pagliocca before the game to give him a heads-up that he planned to attend.

Freedom said he told the GM he had no plans to disrupt the event and received the reply, “Enjoy the game.”

Alter called Freedom’s framing of that exchange into question, ESPN reported, telling media members that Pagliocca only said, “Appreciate the text,” and did not tell Freedom to enjoy the game or otherwise insinuate that the team was happy to have him.

“It was pretty clear to us that his purpose of coming here was trying to be provocative and just see how much attention he could get and stir up,” Alter said.

Alter went on to repeatedly suggest that Freedom is a potential security threat that was quelled by security.

“That all changed when he made a decision to stand up from his seat again, on the court, put his arms out, point a finger at the player on the court, Natasha Cloud,” the owner said. “And most importantly, he took a step towards the court. That changed everything, and he went from being a fan … to being a potential threat. And that is why the security acted as quickly and swiftly, very smoothly, as they did.”

RELATED: Former congressman sends warning to WNBA over blocking male player: Get ready for court

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Alter, a commercial real estate developer, rejected Freedom’s recent assertion that because he “did not step over the baseline,” he was not breaking any rules.

As if “that’s some magical threshold,” Alter said. “One reason he didn’t cross the baseline was because he was prevented from doing so. But regardless of that, the security people’s job is not to wait until a threat intensifies. It’s to avoid the threat from happening when [a] perceived threat occurs, and that’s exactly what they did.”

The owner further boasted that security “didn’t wait” to see how far Freedom got.

Freedom has not made public comment since the ban was announced on Tuesday night.

Freedom and the Chicago Sky did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Wnba, Basketball, Enes kanter freedom, Chicago sky, Sports 

A first-of-its-kind legal challenge seeking to block New York City Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-run grocery-store initiative has been filed by a coalition representing hundreds of immigrant-owned bodegas and grocers.

The Multicultural Business Coalition filed two separate lawsuits Monday in New York State Supreme Court seeking to derail Mamdani’s plan for five city-run grocery stores, which the group argues would place small, minority-owned markets at an unfair competitive disadvantage.

‘Many minority members of the MBC cannot compete with the municipal grocery stores, and therefore, will be put out of business.’

The legal action comes after weeks of attempts to resolve the dispute outside court and follows the city’s announcement that the city-run grocery stores would sell items — including fresh produce, meat, seafood, and “20 other essential items like cheese, milk, and bread” — at 30% below market rates.

The first lawsuit, a class-action civil rights complaint, alleges the program violates New York Civil Rights Laws and the Equal Protection Clause of the New York State Constitution. The MBC contends the city has “unduly discriminated against” minority-owned grocers by subsidizing grocery stores that can offer discounts private businesses cannot match, thereby denying them equal protection.

The second lawsuit seeks to block the stores from operating unless the city conducts what the coalition says are necessary studies and analyses of their economic impact. The MBC claims there is “no existing evidence” that officials undertook “any studies and/or any serious analysis” of how the competition would affect existing businesses.

RELATED: Immigrant business owners revolt against Mamdani’s ‘Soviet’-style grocery plan

In the filing, the coalition asserts that “many minority members of the MBC cannot compete with the municipal grocery stores, and therefore, will be put out of business.”

“The respondents’ running of five municipal grocery stores is arbitrary and capricious, in bad faith, and exceeds the scope of municipal authority,” the MBC added.

Mark Jaffe, the group’s general counsel and president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, argued the city is setting small grocers up to fail by forcing them to compete against the city-run stores.

“You cannot expect hardworking small business owners to compete with a supermarket that isn’t going to pay rent, won’t have to pay an electric bill, and won’t have to buy their products at full price,” Jaffe told CNN. “They cannot possibly compete because no one will be subsidizing them.”

When asked about the lawsuits during an unrelated press conference in Queens on Monday, Mamdani said he was “confident both in the legality of this, that it will stand up in court, and in the importance of delivering it.”

“We are talking about a reflection of a cost-of-living crisis that has seen grocery prices increase by about 30% over the last few years, and we’re also talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of 8.5 million people that has more than a thousand grocery stores,” the mayor responded.

Mamdani also pointed to Essex Street Market and Moore Street Market, two existing public markets directly administered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, arguing that the model has not had a negative impact on surrounding businesses. They have been in operation since the 1940s, along with La Marqueta starting earlier, and were established under Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

RELATED: Socialist Mamdani says city-run grocery stores will undercut supermarkets by 30%

Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Founded earlier this year, the MBC represents roughly 65 business organizations, with strong representation in the New York-New Jersey region, spanning Hispanic, Asian, Caribbean, African, Middle Eastern, Jewish, and South Asian communities.

To address concerns that the initiative could undercut privately owned stores in neighboring areas, Mamdani said the city-run grocery stores would not sell cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, or hot food — items that typically generate some of the highest profit margins for bodegas and convenience stores.

“My grandfather opened up one of the first bodegas in the late 1960s when East Harlem was burning and the A&Ps and Waldbaums were leaving,” said MBC Chairman Frank Garcia.

“He established the first Latino Grocery Association to protect the rights of immigrant store owners. I am proud to be following up in his tradition because what Mayor Mamdani is doing is disgracing his memory.”

As currently filed, the MBC itself is the only named plaintiff in the lawsuits, though the coalition has said it plans to add individual grocery store owners as plaintiffs later this week.

The first of the five publicly owned grocery stores is anticipated to open in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx by the end of 2027, with the remaining four storefronts slated to be operational by the end of Mamdani’s four-year term, including one in East Harlem.

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​Bronx, Grocery prices, Mayor zohran mamdani, New york city, Politics 

A Florida female allegedly tried breaking into a Leesburg home before dawn Tuesday, and the homeowner warned her that he was armed — and even fired a shot through his door — but the homeowner told police she just wouldn’t go away.

Police responded to the residence in the 1600 block of Crest Avenue after reports of a female trying to break into a home, WESH-TV reported.

The female then reached through the broken window in an attempt to open the door from the inside, the station said.

The homeowner told police he repeatedly ordered the woman to leave the property and warned her that he was armed, the station said.

Police told WESH that the female continued trying to gain entry, and the homeowner fired a shot from his handgun through the door, which shattered a window in the door.

The female then reached through the broken window in an attempt to open the door from the inside, the station said.

With that, the homeowner fired a second time, striking the female, police told WESH, adding that she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The station said the shooting took place shortly before 5 a.m.

RELATED: Florida crook accused of ditching stolen car, hiding from cops in home’s garage. But homeowner has a gun.

According to WOFL-TV, details about the relationship between the homeowner and the female have not yet been released, and officials have also not shared the female’s name or age.

Police are investigating the incident and working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if any criminal charges are appropriate, WESH said.

A spokesperson with the State Attorney’s Office told WESH the review could take a few weeks or a few months, depending on evidence and information available.

Those with information about the incident are encouraged to contact police at 352-787-2121, WESH added.

Leesburg is about 50 minutes northwest of Orlando.

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​Home invasion, Florida, Fatal shooting, Homeowner shoots intruder, Self-defense, Guns, Gun rights, Crime, Second amendment 

Caregiving has taught me to ask a simple question before making a consequential decision: “Is this healthy?” Will this solve today’s problem by consuming what we may need tomorrow? Does it respect the resources entrusted to me?

After 40 years as a caregiver, I have learned that money, time, strength, and even goodwill are finite. Wanting something does not make it wise, and good intentions do not eliminate consequences. A caregiver who confuses desire with capacity can hurt the very person he is trying to help.

We are financing today’s promises with tomorrow’s labor, then congratulating ourselves for our generosity.

Caring describes an intention. Stewardship requires an accounting. By that standard, Washington has failed spectacularly.

The United States has now crossed $40 trillion in national debt. The figure barely communicates anything. Forty trillion sounds like something a third-grader says when trying to name the biggest number in the world.

The national debt is what Washington has accumulated through borrowing. The annual deficit is how much more it spends than it collects each year. The debt is the hole. The deficit is how much deeper we dig it.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion federal deficit for fiscal year 2026. Congress has looked into a $40 trillion hole and concluded that what it needs is more digging.

Democrats invoke compassion to justify spending money the government does not have. Republicans campaign on fiscal restraint, win office, and then discover that their preferred spending somehow does not count. One party calls it caring. The other calls it necessary. Both send the bill to our children.

Each party points furiously at the other while passing the national credit card back and forth. Both help start the fire, then pass the collection plate while arguing over who bought the gasoline.

Now we enter election season, when, as Lloyd Christmas might say, the promises flow like the salmon of Capistrano. Candidates will tell us how deeply they care about families, seniors, veterans, national defense, and taxpayers. They will demonstrate their concern for one group by promising it money borrowed from all the others. A politician can always appear compassionate by promising benefits with other people’s money.

RELATED: It took 200 years to reach $1 trillion in national debt. 2026 said, ‘Hold my beer.’

Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Stewardship asks harder questions: How much will this cost? Who will pay for it? What has the existing program accomplished? What happens if your projections are wrong? If this is worth doing, why must we borrow the money?

Those are not cruel questions. They are the responsible ones.

Government cannot create resources by attaching the word “federal” to them. There is no government money. Government either collects money from today’s citizens or borrows against tomorrow’s taxpayers.

We are financing today’s promises with tomorrow’s labor, then congratulating ourselves for our generosity. There is nothing generous about giving away the money of someone not yet born. That is taxation without representation on a generational scale.

Stewardship does not require government to spend nothing or never incur debt. Families and nations face genuine emergencies. Caregivers understand that. Medical catastrophes rarely consult the household budget before arriving.

But caregivers often do without. Congress seems far more comfortable assigning sacrifice than accepting any. I have also learned that an emergency cannot become a permanent governing philosophy.

At my kitchen table, I cannot promise everything, spend without limit, blame someone else when the bills arrive, and then congratulate myself for caring. Yet Washington does just that.

RELATED: Scott Bessent is the secret weapon for Trump’s economic plan

Ludovic MARIN/AFP/Getty Images

Over the next few months, commercials filled with flags, farms, hard hats, classrooms, and concerned expressions will flood the airwaves. Recorded voices will warn that civilization depends upon our response before midnight.

As the onslaught escalates, keep asking one question: Is this candidate a good steward? Not only of public money, but of public trust, constitutional authority, and the extraordinary inheritance of self-government.

To our national shame, we may not be able to answer yes about many of them. That does not excuse us from voting. It makes our responsibility more sobering.

Ronald Reagan popularized “trust, but verify” when dealing with the Soviet Union. Washington has now given us $40 trillion reasons to apply it to our own government. We must choose the better steward and then hold that person accountable.

Campaign season is when politicians sell. Election Day is when we buy. Tax Day reminds us what we paid. Better hang on to the receipt.

After April 15, we begin to learn whether they can manage what they were so eager to sell.

Around my kitchen table, math eventually gets the final vote. At $40 trillion in debt, one wonders whether math even applies in the halls of Congress.

​National debt, 40 trillion, Washington, United states, Republicans, Fiscal conservatives, Government, Caregiving, Ronald reagan, Tax day, Congresss, Opinion & analysis 

It’s going to be harder for parents to say no to and even differentiate between AI and real life when it comes to entertaining their children.

Toddlers and kindergarteners are unlikely to hop onto an AI chatbot and ask about the weather or for the latest sports scores, but they are now more likely than ever to be driven into interactions with AI-driven content.

AI can enable ‘more continuous interaction between fans and brands.’

Thanks to a new entertainment-meets-tech deal, the slow walk to AI teaching the West’s children has quickened its pace.

WildBrain, the Canadian company known for having possibly the largest library of children’s television programming, has bought a tech company specializing in creating AI personalities.

That means that some of the most famous characters kids know and love will now be interacting with children in ways previously unimaginable. WildBrain, formerly DHX Media, bought the rights to “Teletubbies” back in 2013. It also owns characters like Strawberry Shortcake, Inspector Gadget, and the show “In the Night Garden.”

Personality AI is just a year-old company and focuses on creating interactive characters using generative AI and has already developed content for Amazon.

Under Amazon in 2025, Personality AI created “Hey Peppa Pig,” an interactive voice experience for kids that allowed them to speak with the character on Amazon’s Fire Kids Tablets, the Hollywood Reporter noted.

RELATED: Federal agents wanted to search his phone — now they say the trick he used to stop them is a crime

John Keeble/Getty Images

WildBrain and Personality AI will reportedly create interactive experiences with toys, apps, and different platforms using licensing agreements with different intellectual property owners.

In an attempt to address concerns over child interactions with artificial intelligence, Personality AI told the Hollywood Reporter that its AI products are not open-ended platforms and are tested to ensure safe interactions.

The deal itself is lucrative, with WildBrain paying roughly $11 million in cash along with one million shares, Variety reported.

There are also further incentives that can push the deal to upwards of almost $70 million.

RELATED: The $1 trillion social media addiction trial has begun — is the disorder real?

BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Personality AI will receive $2 million on the first anniversary of the deal’s closing and up to $56 million in cash based on meeting performance markers in the first three years of the deal, up to 2029.

WildBrain’s CEO Josh Scherba said that Personality AI can enable “more continuous interaction between fans and brands,” which would strengthen the company’s ability to “deliver end-to-end franchise solutions to partners.”

WildBrain did have a 41% stake in the “Peanuts” franchise but sold it in December 2025 to Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan for $460 million.

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​Artificial intelligence, Teletubbies, Tablet, Tech, Kids 

A group of Los Angeles residents are taking a stand against the latest effort in California to erase Christianity from public spaces.

A nearly century-old, hand-carved 10-foot cross stands within a stone’s throw of the birthplace of Los Angeles. While every year, over 2 million visitors pass the historic cross in El Pueblo, a self-identified “freedom of expression activist” unilaterally decided that the sight of the Christian symbol was too much to bear.

‘Los Angeles shouldn’t have to erase its own history every time someone takes offense.’

Jack Gerritsen — a resident of Bell, California, who was convicted decades ago for interfering with police radio transmissions — sued the city last year, claiming that the cross and the nativity traditionally displayed in the Old Plaza during the Christmas season violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Gerritsen said that the nativity “offends [him] and makes [him] feel excluded as a non-believer,” and the cross constitutes a “Christian endorsement on public land.”

Offended by the religious nature of the displays, Gerritsen — who appears to be behind a Facebook account that has demeaned Christianity, idolized the anti-Christian Marxist-Leninist Che Guvera, and made excuses for terrorists — joined Henry Frederick Ramey Jr., with whom he previously sued multiple regional authorities, in asking a federal court to order the removal of the cross and prohibit the city from ever again putting up the nativity. The two are also seeking $5 million in damages.

The district court rejected their request.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the lower court noted that because the cross was erected nearly a century ago, it met the “presumption of constitutionality” as “established” and “longstanding.” The court also noted that there was no evidence to suggest that the cross was “maintained with discriminatory intent” or that it conveys deliberate disrespect on the basis of religion.

While the court did not find that the nativity display was similarly “established,” it recognized it as “part of a broader national tradition,” “a central piece of a longstanding local cultural practice,” and “consistent with this country’s history.” Therefore, the court determined, it does not violate the Establishment Clause.

RELATED: The anti-Christian myth of First Amendment ‘neutrality’

Courtesy of Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

The plaintiffs kept the legal battle alive by appealing the ruling. Gerritsen did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday to permit a group of local merchants to join the case and defend the historic displays.

“For generations, the merchants of Olvera Street have kept the neighborhood‘s rich Mexican-American heritage alive,” Andrea Butler, counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the merchants, said in a statement. “Now one observer wants to take down the parts of that heritage that include religion.”

“Thankfully, the First Amendment doesn’t include a third-party veto over history and culture merely because it acknowledges religion,” added Butler.

The Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed to protect and promote the traditional, historical, and cultural events in the area, whose members have a “significant protectable interest in the historical and cultural preservation of Olvera Street,” Becket said in its motion. For starters, the foundation’s board of directors “comprises merchants whose families have been part of the Olvera Street merchant community since its inception in 1930.”

Becket noted in its proposed intervenor-defendant’s brief that “El Pueblo has been preserved as a State Historic Park and a National Historic District specifically to protect its historic and cultural heritage, dating back to the founding of Los Angeles itself. … The displays at issue here are a key part of that heritage.”

“Los Angeles shouldn’t have to erase its own history every time someone takes offense,” stated Butler. “The cross and nativity are woven into the fabric of El Pueblo. Nothing in the Constitution requires those traditions to be torn away. The city should be free to keep its full history, including the parts that happen to be religious.”

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​Becket, Christianity, Establishment clause, Federal court, First amendment, Los angeles, Religion, Politics 

Canada often enjoys a reputation as America’s friendly neighbor, but Vice President JD Vance says the relationship has been anything but fair for U.S. workers and farmers.

In a recent speech on cross-border trade, Vance went in on Canada for imposing steep tariffs on American products while benefiting from the security and economic advantages provided by the United States.

The recent tariffs include 250% on Maine dairy while providing a free pass for Chinese goods through the back door and zero reciprocity.

“First of all, I’d say we’re very mindful of the fact that Maine is a border state with Canada. There’s a lot of cross-border transactions between Maine and Canada. And what we’re trying to do here is just make sure that Maine actually gets a fair deal,” Vance began.

He went on to say that not just Canada but China have “been the two worst countries when it comes to trade policy anywhere in the world.”

“Canada is a country that has underinvested in its military that quite literally would get invaded by a foreign country were it not for the umbrella of protection provided by the United States of America,” he said, asking, “And so how does Canada actually respond to that? By treating the people of Maine fairly?”

“No, they apply ridiculous tariffs and other nontariff duties on Maine products coming into Canada and they don’t expect Maine or anybody else to fight back,” he answered.

“We’re sick of that. We are actually going to fight back against unfair trade practices whether it’s coming from China or Canada,” he added.

“Good. And that is true. He’s absolutely right about that,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments.

“And by the way, it’s not just Maine products. It’s all U.S. products,” he adds.

Vance continued to explain that while you buy “dairy, cheese, butter, milk that comes from Canada into Maine, you probably are buying a product that has 0% tariffs on it.”

However, he went on, “If a Maine farmer sends dairy products into Canada, they could be paying as much as a 250% tariff.”

“Now, how is it fair to the farmers of Maine that they pay 250% when the Canadian farmers pay nothing? That unfairness is something that we just have to fix,” he added.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Canada, China, Farmers, Jd vance, Pat gray, Tariffs, Trade policy, Vice president, Blazetv show 

In 2019, I moved back to Portland, my hometown, to help with a family health situation.

I rented an apartment near where I grew up. I began doing my food shopping at the local Fred Meyer supermarket, which I remembered from when I was a kid.

When I saw the sign and the locked gate, it felt like an assault. It was another closing door. Another innocent pleasure snatched away.

It was fun to go back to “Freddy’s.” It was in a quiet, affluent neighborhood, so the store was always neat and clean.

They hired local high school kids to work there. As part of their job, they would always greet you, or ask if you needed help finding anything.

I found this incredibly charming. After living in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for many years, to have these nice young people smiling and asking how my day was going … well, once I got over the shock, I came to appreciate it.

Toilet paper

A year into living there, COVID began. At first, the only real problem this created was a toilet paper shortage. But being sane, reasonable Oregonians, my neighbors and I restrained ourselves. No one was panic-buying Charmin Ultra-Soft at Fred Meyer.

But soon after, the pandemic got serious. The government announced “two weeks to stop the spread.” Everything closed. People stayed in their homes. Supermarkets were one of the only places you could go.

At Freddy’s, the teenagers quickly disappeared. The grown-up workers who remained suddenly looked nervous and scared.

As the pandemic dragged on, Fred Meyer was forced to advertise for new employees. The company offered generous bonuses. Soon there were retirees working there and borderline homeless people.

The tone of the place changed. Customers would hurry in and out. People would freak out if you stood too close to them. Everyone was suspicious of each other. It had become the exact opposite of what it had been before.

The mask wars

Then masks became a thing. First, they made people feel safer. Then they became a new source of division and conflict.

Fred Meyer was now in survival mode. Store hours were cut. The store limped along with reduced staff. There began to be rows of empty shelves. I think they actually did run out of toilet paper at one point.

That summer, the George Floyd protests began and became a nightly occurrence in downtown Portland.

At Fred Meyer, you’d occasionally see young protesters and members of Antifa on their way home to their parents’ houses in the suburbs — after a night of throwing rocks at the police.

One night, I encountered two young kids in black bloc. With great excitement and fervor, they told me about being tear-gassed by the “fascist police.”

They might have been the same kids who had been bagging groceries the year before.

Vibe shift

When the worst of COVID had passed, Fred Meyer recovered somewhat. It reinstated its original hours. It seemed to have steady employees again, though I noticed the kindly people who worked there in 2019 had been replaced in 2022 by sullen, silent workers with neck tattoos.

There were no bright-faced teenagers. Nobody said “hi” to you. The place was not as clean as it once was. Shelves continued to be empty. You couldn’t count on certain items being available. You had to adopt a “buy it when you see it” shopping strategy.

Soon after, Freddy’s began instituting new security measures. The company put in gates you had to pass through going in and out. You could see yourself in a video monitor as you entered. Plainclothes security people sometimes stood guard at the exits.

It was obvious why. Unsavory characters had begun to appear at the store, especially at night, though there was no reason for them to be in that neighborhood.

You’d see broken-down cars in the parking lot with strange people sitting inside them. Were they doing drugs? Or maybe sleeping there overnight?

Early one morning, a car was set on fire in Freddy’s back parking lot. The suburban fire department came and put it out. It made the local news. There was no word on what happened or why.

To its credit, Fred Meyer still doesn’t have armed guards on site. But it’s coming. I’m sure.

RELATED: Is this a new era of conservative filmmaking?

Jean-Louis Atlan/Getty Images

The nursery

One last thing: Fred Meyer has a large open-air nursery attached to the grocery store. It’s full of flowers, houseplants, and gardening supplies.

It’s a first sign of spring when it opens in April and marks the beginning of winter when it closes in October.

But just this week — mid-August — staff began locking the outside gates. Now the nursery is only accessible through the front entrance. Were people stealing the flowers?

When those gates were open, I often entered the store via a stroll through the cheerful nursery. It was a highlight of shopping there.

Closing doors

When I saw the sign and the locked gate, it felt like an assault. On me personally and on the entire community. It was another closing door. Another innocent pleasure snatched away.

And who exactly could you blame for this? The government, the store, the social democrats, the understaffed police?

Back in 2019, when those smiling high school kids asked me how I was doing, I always said, “Great.” Because I was great. Because Freddy’s was great. Because America was great.

It’s probably good they aren’t there any more. I don’t know what I would say to them.

​Brooklyn, Childhood memories, Covid, Fred meyer, George floyd protests, Homeless people, Mask wars, Nursery, Portland, Supermarket, Toilet paper shortage, Retirees, Lifestyle, Culture, Portland oregon, Blake’s progress 

Exactly one year ago, Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed publicly rejected calls for peace and said, “We take them to the mud and choke them out.”

While the mainstream media regularly promotes every story that portrays those on the right as the main source of political violence, there are plenty of examples available of left-wing calls for political violence.

‘Their ongoing bloodlust for President Trump and those they disagree with is reckless and unhinged.’

Here are just 14 of those instances.

El-Sayed inverted Michelle Obama’s famous advice to “go high” when her political opponents “go low,” before his call for violence. “When they go low, we don’t go high,” he said.Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said of Republicans during a podcast interview from Aug. 2025: “We’re going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth!””He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has be eliminated,” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York said of President Donald Trump in Nov. 2023.In a speech from Aug. 2025, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said that Democrats would “beat” down Republicans: “They expect Democrats to kind of be the nice guys that we are. They expect us to take the punch and say, ‘Thank you.’ Well, I am here to tell you, not only are we going to punch back, but we about to beat you down!”In 2018, Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York hinted at using the Second Amendment to stop Trump: “This is where the Second Amendment comes in, quite frankly, because you know, what if the president was to ignore the courts? What would you do? What would we do?”During his failed 2026 campaign, Ohio Democratic attorney general candidate Elliot Forhan promised to “kill Donald Trump” by prosecuting the president and obtaining a conviction with a capital punishment sentence.Disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), once thought to be a possible presidential contender, said of his political opponents in August 2025: “When they go low, we‘re going to bury them below the Capitol. That‘s what we‘re going to do, because this is about protecting democracy.”Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey screamed at supporters at a February 2025 rally that “we are at war” with Trump and Elon Musk and that “we will not take this s**t” from them.In January, the normally civil Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that “heads need to roll” in the Trump administration.Openly lesbian Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones (D) specifically rejected Michelle Obama’s call for peace and made a throat-slashing gesture to accompany her rhetoric in Oct. 2025: “If you hit me in my face, I’m not going to punch you back in your face. I’m going to go across your neck!”In March 2024, Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas compared Hispanic Trump supporters to Jews supporting Adolf Hitler.In private texts leaked to the press, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D) once fantasized about shooting “two bullets” into the head of a Republican opponent and about the death of the Republican’s children.In an MSNBC interview from June 2023, Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands stumbled over her words and tried to correct herself after calling for the assassination of Trump: “He needs to be shot — stopped.”In resurfaced comments from 2020, failed Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong used a euphemism for murder: “I’d say it’s about f**king time we 86 Trump.”

RELATED: Democrat gov. tries to gaslight Americans on liberal violence — gets hit with fierce backlash

Special mention goes to Hasan Piker, the far-left terrorist-defending online influencer who has called numerous times for political violence in addition to saying America “deserved” the terror attacks of 9/11. Piker has campaigned for El-Sayed and other Democrats.

Republican National Committee national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre slammed Democrats in a statement to Blaze News.

“Democrats have always been the party of violence dressed up as virtue. Their rhetoric is like a bat signal for violent extremists to commit political violence and further divide our country.”

“It’s utterly unacceptable, and their ongoing bloodlust for President Trump and those they disagree with is reckless and unhinged,” she concluded.

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​Political violence, Mainstream media, Abdul el-sayed, Violent rhetoric, Politics, Democratic party 

I walked into my first DSA meeting looking for an answer to a very specific question: How do modern Marxists reckon with communism’s long history of atrocities?

In recent weeks, clips of Democratic Socialists of America leaders praising countries such as Cuba and China have gone viral. Other prominent socialists, including Hasan Piker, openly admire Lenin and Stalin and post pictures of themselves reading “What Is to Be Done?” while wearing Cartier.

Power is not only money or property. It is also the power to decide which history gets remembered and which gets reduced to a footnote.

Communist regimes killed tens of millions of people in the 20th century. So when I sat down for a DSA 101 lecture and was greeted as a comrade, I wanted to hear how the organization taught that history.

The answer was one of the more impressive acts of historical revisionism I have ever heard.

The DSA has built a coalition around oppression. Transgender people, racial minorities, immigrants, women, and people angry about the cost of health insurance are presented as members of classes exploited by a capitalist ruling order. In the room, confidence in the American dream was scarce. Resentment of the capitalist class was not.

That framework extends abroad. As the leader of my DSA 101 session put it, “A socialist approach is built on international solidarity and support. Socialists are internationalists.” Hence the fixation on Cuba, Venezuela, Gaza and the West Bank, and other places cast as victims of American power.

The problem is that several regimes the DSA treats sympathetically were devastated by Marxist rule itself.

Take the Soviet Union. During the Great Terror, roughly 700,000 people were executed. Millions more died through forced resettlement, the gulag, famine, and other state policies. One widely cited estimate puts the Soviet communist death toll at about 20 million.

Yet during the entire two-hour DSA course, the Soviet Union came up only once. The instructor praised it: “Socialists can be proud of our history. Some of the very first, most striking work [for feminist rights] occurred just after the October Revolution in the Soviet Union.”

That was it. The mass killing disappeared. Progressive feminism remained.

China received similar treatment. While discussing planned economies, the instructor praised the Chinese system for combining planning and markets in service of human need. Missing from that account was Mao Zedong’s rule, under which historians have estimated that as many as 70 million people died, many during famines ushered in through Marxist policies.

Cuba got the same reframing. The instructor blamed blockades, embargoes, and sanctions for depriving Cubans of “the chance to live in prosperity and dignity,” while praising the government for resisting America’s “oppressive” economic influence. Castro’s regime, according to historian R.J. Rummel, was responsible for as many as 141,000 deaths.

RELATED: Hasan Piker is the anti-Charlie Kirk

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The pattern became hard to miss. Marxist countries were not presented as failures so much as unfinished projects. Their progressive achievements were foregrounded; their victims were backgrounded. When socialist systems failed, capitalism, American imperialism, or the political class usually entered the explanation.

“The general attitude of socialism, which goes back to Marx and Lenin,” the instructor said, “is that when we are assigning blame … [it] is with the political class.” He spoke at length about the Pentagon and American power as sources of death and destruction. The deaths caused by Marxist governments? Nothing to see there.

If you let your opponent talk long enough, he will often tell you his strategy. That’s why I went.

The DSA did not exactly deny the horrors of 20th-century communism. It did something more useful: It barely taught them. The history was filtered through a moral framework in which socialists remain the champions of the oppressed and capitalism remains the prime suspect.

“It is the intention of the DSA to take power and wealth away from the capitalist class and put it in the hands of the working class,” the instructor said.

Power is not only money or property. It is also the power to decide which history gets remembered and which gets reduced to a footnote.

If young people learn about communist regimes chiefly through their promised ideals and progressive “wins,” while the bodies disappear from the lesson plan, they are not being taught communism’s history. They are being taught how to forget it.

​Dsa, Feminism, Soviet union, Communism, Great terror, Cuba, Venezuela, Marxists, Americans, China, Opinion & analysis