Category: Blaze Media
Soft-on-crime Democrat reaps his reward following armed robbery at his office
The Illinois Senate president’s office was subject to an armed robbery last week after a long history of leading efforts to crack down on police in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests and the death of George Floyd.
Democrat Senate President Don Harmon’s office was robbed at knifepoint on Friday, NBC 5 Chicago reported.
‘The Senate president … remains dedicated to ensuring that the laws in Illinois reflect that Black Lives Matter.’
According to reports, Scott Loeffler, 35, is suspected to have entered Harmon’s Constituent Service Office in Oak Park. After a brief exchange, a staffer found herself being held at knifepoint, with her phone in the suspect’s hand.
Loeffler allegedly entered the office at 11:11 a.m. and was arrested at approximately 12:51 p.m., almost two hours later. The staffer’s husband was able to track her phone after the suspect fled the scene.
John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Loeffler has been charged with felony armed robbery by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
In a statement, Harmon thanked the local police department and expressed his relief that his staff members were unharmed.
“I want to thank the Oak Park Police Department for a quick response, and I want to thank my staff for their bravery and unwavering commitment to public service. Their safety is my top priority,” Harmon said in his statement.
The Democrat added that there was no evidence that the robbery was “politically motivated.”
Harmon, for his part, has spent several years pushing legislation that has been criticized as “soft on crime.” For example, Harmon “worked closely with the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus to advance a reform agenda founded on four pillars: criminal justice reform; education and workforce development; economic access, equity and opportunity; and health care and human services.”
Harmon’s website adds, “The Senate president understands the importance of these changes and remains dedicated to ensuring that the laws in Illinois reflect that Black Lives Matter.”
The law, known as Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, was the subject of heated debate since it abolished cash bail and reformed several policing policies.
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‘You’re robbing me’: Morgan Freeman slams Tilly Norwood, AI voice clones
The use of celebrity likeness for AI videos is spiraling out of control, and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars is not having it.
Despite the use of AI in online videos being fairly new, it has already become a trope to use an artificial version of a celebrity’s voice for content relating to news, violence, or history.
‘I don’t appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that.’
This is particularly true when it comes to satirical videos that are meant to sound like documentaries. Creators love to use recognizable voices, like David Attenborough’s and, of course, Morgan Freeman’s, whose voice has become so recognizable that others have labeled him as “the voice of God.”
However, the 88-year-old Freeman is not pleased about his voice being replicated. In an interview with the Guardian, he said that while some actors like James Earl Jones (who played Darth Vader) have consented to his voice being imitated with computers, he has not.
“I’m a little PO’d, you know,” Freeman told the outlet. “I’m like any other actor: Don’t mimic me with falseness. I don’t appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that, so if you’re gonna do it without me, you’re robbing me.”
Freeman explained that his lawyers have been “very, very busy” in pursuing “many … quite a few” cases in which his voice was replicated without his consent.
In the same interview, the Memphis native was also not shy about criticizing the concept of AI actors.
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Photo by Chris Haston/WBTV via Getty Images
Freeman was asked about Tilly Norwood, the AI character introduced by Dutch actress Eline Van der Velden in 2025. The pretend-world character is meant to be an avatar mimicking celebrity status, while also cutting costs in the casting room.
“Nobody likes her because she’s not real and that takes the part of a real person,” Freeman jabbed. “So it’s not going to work out very well in the movies or in television. … The union’s job is to keep actors acting, so there’s going to be that conflict.”
Freeman spoke out about the use of his voice in 2024, as well. According to a report by 4 News Now, a TikTok creator posted a video claiming to be Freeman’s niece and used an artificial version of his voice to narrate the video.
In response, Freeman wrote on X, “Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me.”
He added, “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful.”
RELATED: Meet AI ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood. Is she really the future of entertainment?
Norwood is not the first attempt at taking an avatar mainstream. In 2022, Capitol Records flirted with an AI rapper named FN Meka; the very idea that the rapper was even signed to a label was historic in the first place.
The rapper, or more likely its representatives, were later dropped from the label after activists claimed the character reinforced racial stereotypes.
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Texas child gender transition still happening despite statewide ban
Texas state laws ban doctors from giving guidance on transgender medicine and procedures on minors — but the Texas Medical Association is still doing it.
“Sometimes I even think, ‘Well, that’s behind us now.’ It’s actually not. Even here in the state of Texas because despite the fact that Texas outlawed this awful, brutal practice mutilating healthy body parts of children … there still seem to be doctors and associations that are trying to carry out this disgusting, brutal torture ritual,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
Gonzales pulls out a recent “lesson” from Texas Medical Association doctors where they claim that as primary care physicians, they “play a vital role in transgender and gender diverse … health care.”
“With a significant increase in TGD individuals seeking care, staying informed about best practices is essential. By understanding gender identity development and offering tailored support, you can improve outcomes and build trust,” the lesson states.
“They even make sure to highlight that this is for adolescent and adult care,” Gonzales says, noting that the lesson is $199.
“Wow, what a bargain to create a patient for life. Incredible,” she says.
Senate Bill 14 took effect in September 2023 and prohibits “gender transition” medical interventions, such as surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross sex hormones for minors — and Texas state Rep. Steve Toth (R) is trying to raise awareness that the law is being ignored.
“Has the Texas Medical Association responded to any of this?” Gonzales asks Toth, who responds, “Not a word.”
One mom from Florida, January Littlejohn, has become an activist in helping parents across the country get justice for their children.
“She said, ‘President Trump is trying to shut all this stuff down,’ but she said, ‘I’m getting swarmed now all across the United States with moms and dads calling me, telling me that their kids are being transitioned primarily in red states like Texas where we’ve banned it,’” Toth tells Gonzales.
“How is this happening?” Gonzales asks.
“The big mistake, the big failure from the 88th legislative session is we didn’t ban social transitioning. We banned the chemical and surgical transitioning, but we did not ban the social transitioning,” Toth explains.
“And so what you’re seeing happen now in the Texas Medical Association is they’re teaching doctors at like Texas Children’s and Methodists that here’s what you do, you just say that you’re going to put this little girl on Lupron, which is a puberty blocker, and you say that it’s for precocious puberty,” he continues.
“It’s not to transition her, it’s for precocious puberty. And then once she goes through … puberty, once she goes through that, then she’s going to be put on a cross sex hormone like testosterone and that’s really easy to get. You just get someone, a doctor from, you know, New Mexico or Arizona, to send that to you and now all of a sudden, she’s good to go,” he adds.
While those administering these treatments claim they’re “reversible,” Toth explains that they’re “not reversible at all.”
“You can’t just try and go through puberty at age 20. It doesn’t work that way,” he adds.
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‘I’m going to get myself in trouble’: Hunter Biden urges Democrats to race to ‘the bottom faster’ after Kirk’s assassination
Hunter Biden emphasized in a recent interview that his allies on the “leaderless” left should not tone down their extreme rhetoric in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination — but rather ramp it up against the MAGA movement.
After Biden suggested to “Wide Awake Podcast” host Joshua Rubin that Kirk was a representative of hate and should not be posthumously honored, the former president’s son was asked whether it was time for the left and right to tone down their rhetoric.
‘We need people to see … it for what it is.’
“Do you think the conversation should be about turning the temperature down completely on both sides?” asked Rubin.
“What I haven’t seen is people going, ‘We need to look at extremism in general and turn down the temperature.'”
“Yeah, no,” said Biden. “That’s not going to happen, Josh.”
Biden — whose father let him off the hook last year for his felony conviction on gun charges, his felony tax offenses, and whatever else he may have been involved in between January 2014 and December 2024 — prefaced his accelerationist proposal with, “I’m going to get myself in trouble for saying this.”
“We need to turn the temperature up,” continued Biden. “We need to turn the temperature up, and we need people to see … it for what it is.”
RELATED: The Antifa mob at Berkeley showed us what evil looks like
Leftists staged mock executions of an effigy of the president at a No Kings rally in Chicago. Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
Recent polling suggests the temperature is sufficiently high on the left, where Democrat politicians such as Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett seem to freely recommend and/or downplay violence against their opponents.
A survey conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab revealed in April that 55% of respondents who identified as left of center said that assassinating Trump would be at least somewhat justified.
When asked by pollsters about the September 2024 attempt on the president’s life at his golf course in Florida, 28% of Democrats told RMG Research it would have been better if Trump had been gunned down.
A recent Marist Poll found that 28% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Americans may have to resort to violence in order to get the country back on track.”
“I do not believe that we are going to get to the bottom until we get to the bottom,” said Biden, whose father smeared his political opponents as “extremists” and dubbed President Donald Trump’s supporters “garbage.”
Hunter Biden added, “I want to get to the bottom faster rather than through this slow kind of process of just being picked apart, a death by a thousand cuts here.”
After clarifying that he was “100% not saying that it needs to be violence,” Biden castigated liberal talking heads such as CNN’s Jake Tapper for supposedly not being antagonistic enough to the Trump administration.
Biden appeared desperate to suggest that political extremism is predominantly a right-wing issue, casting doubt on whether Charlie Kirk was assassinated because of his beliefs and and whether the assassin was a leftist and suggesting that Kirk’s killer was a disciple of right-wing commentator Nick Fuentes.
A recent Center for Strategic and International Studies report indicated that the first half of this year was marked by a significant increase in left-wing terrorist attacks and plots in the United States — and that those attacks are set to hit 30-year highs. While leftist terrorism is on the rise, right-wing incidents have dropped precipitously.
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‘Nothing To Hide’: Trump Says House GOP Should Vote To Release Epstein Files
‘it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown”
Joe Rogan says we’re at ‘step 7’ on the road to civil war. Is he right? Glenn Beck answers
On November 12, Joe Rogan made a comment on an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” that gained significant national attention. Referencing the sadistic celebrations of left-wingers after the death of Charlie Kirk, Rogan asked, “Where are we right now on the scale of one to civil war? … I thought we were like four or five. But after the Charlie Kirk thing, I’m like, ‘Oh, we might be like seven.’ This might be like step seven on the way to a bona fide civil war.”
Glenn Beck says Rogan’s words ring true. We are indeed inching closer to civil war, but just how close are we?
On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn breaks down the nine steps of civil war and explains exactly where America is.
Step 1: Loss of civic trust
“Every civil conflict begins when people stop believing that the system is fair,” says Glenn, calling America “so far past the doorway” on this one.
Recent Gallup and Pew polls reveal that faith in Congress, media, judicial courts, the FBI, and government are “at record lows.” The most recent report from the Edelman Trust Barometer classifies the United States as “severely polarized.” Republicans at large distrust federal elections, while Democrats at large distrust the Supreme Court.
“Americans are really united on one thing, and that is the other side is corrupt,” says Glenn.
Step 2: Polarization hardens into identity
“Political disagreement is normal; identity conflict is fatal. But that’s what Marxists push – identity politics,” says Glenn. “This is when politics stop being about policy and start being about who you are as a person.”
The more people adopt the oppressed vs. oppressor mindset, the more society fragments into “incompatible tribes.” Now “opponents aren’t wrong anymore; the opponent is dangerous,” says Glenn.
Sadly, “We’re neck deep in this.” The fact that the Public Religion Research Institute found that nearly a quarter of the population believes political violence may be necessary to save the country proves it.
Step 3: Breakdown of the gatekeepers
“The gatekeepers are kind of like the referees of society. It’s the media, political parties, churches, civic leaders. When they fail, extremism fills the vacuum,” says Glenn.
When you consider how the media has turned into “team coaches,” how tech platforms made rage its most lucrative commodity, how universities became Marxist indoctrination mills, and how churches have been utterly “useless,” it’s clear the nation has moved beyond step three.
Step 4: Parallel information realities
“Civil wars don’t require different opinions; they require different realities,” says Glenn.
Conservatism and progressivism are undoubtedly rooted in antithetical worldviews. One sees gender as immutable; the other sees it as a social construct. One believes experimenting on children is evil; the other calls it “care.” One says crime rates are surging in blue cities; the other blames spikes in violence on poverty, guns, and systemic inequities. One sees secure borders as a critical protection for citizens; the other calls it inhumane and xenophobic.
Then social media platforms capitalize on this divide by curating “customized political universes” that only cement the partisan factions. Dialogue, not to mention resolution, becomes impossible, as the paradigms of each camp are so radically opposed, they can no longer co-exist.
“Step four is complete,” says Glenn.
Step 5: Loss of natural rule of law
Glenn calls step five “the pivot point.” It’s the moment when civil war starts to look not just possible but promising. Once people at large begin believing that “the law is no longer neutral,” “the republic stands on borrowed time.”
Based on recent polling, America has ticked this box. A YouGov poll found that “67% of Americans believe the judicial system is used for political purposes.”
Glenn lists several examples that explain the loss of faith in the country’s justice system: “January 6 defendants given years in prison. 2020 rioters were released. High-profile political figures prosecuted or shielded based on party. FBI whistleblowers alleging pressure to inflate domestic extremism numbers. States like Texas directly defying federal directives on border enforcement and now leading the way with the federal government.”
Step 6: Normalization of political violence
“This is where violence stops shocking the system,” says Glenn. He points to Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who was elected after it came out that in 2022, he sent text messages fantasizing about Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert getting “two bullets to the head” and expressing hope that his wife would have to “watch her own child die in her arms.”
Couple that with the dismissal of 2020 BLM rioters and the widespread celebrations of political violence, and it’s clear: We’re beyond step six.
Step 7: The rise of militias and parallel forces
This happens “when a state loses its monopoly on force” and political factions “start forming their own police forces,” says Glenn.
We’re seeing the beginnings of this with the organized groups that target ICE, but we haven’t moved past step seven quite yet, he says, confirming that Rogan’s estimation was dead on.
Step 8: The trigger event
“Civil wars don’t begin with a plan; they begin with a spark,” says Glenn. “We’re not here yet either, but the conditions are right.”
A “disputed election,” a “political assassination or a major attack,” a “Supreme Court decision that ignites mass unrest,” a “financial crisis or dollar crisis,” or a violent “state federal standoff” are all things that could light the match, he warns.
“Nothing is ignited yet, but the room is soaked in gasoline.”
Step 9: The point of no return
Once “police, military, or federal agencies split,” the war is on, says Glenn.
While this hasn’t happened yet, we can certainly hear foreboding rumblings. In New York City, police officers are leaving the force or relocating after socialist and defund-the-police advocate Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor. Glenn also points to the “tension between the state National Guard and the federal directives.”
“States openly defying federal rules on immigration, drug laws, sanctuary policies, whistleblower claims of internal politicization — all of these things are in play,” says Glenn.
He pulls it all together with a stark verdict on where America stands: “Steps one through four: completed. Step five: happening. Step six: happening. Step seven: beginning. Step eight: just waiting for it. And step nine: avoidable only if step eight never happens.”
“I’m not telling you for doom purposes. This is diagnosis,” says Glenn.
“The nation that refuses to look and wake up and stop calling their neighbors enemies is the nation that fails.”
To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the video above.
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‘Climbing into the ceiling tiles’: DHS immigration raids hit Charlotte, where 1 in 6 residents are foreign-born
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations have expanded to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Operation Charlotte’s Web launched on Saturday, as federal agents aimed to arrest criminal illegal aliens.
‘An illegal alien from Mexico gets deported 4 times, strolls back to Charlotte, then racks up a hit & run AND a DUI/DWI?’
Of the 900,000 residents in Charlotte, 150,000 are foreign-born, according to CBS News.
The Department of Homeland Security blamed “sanctuary politicians” for the state’s failure to honor 1,400 detainer requests, choosing instead to release offenders back onto the streets.
“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens hurting them, their families, or their neighbors,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated. “We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed. There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens. President Trump and Secretary Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.”
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino stated that, on the first day alone, federal agents arrested over 80 individuals. He noted that most of those arrested have “significant criminal and immigration history.”
RELATED: Anti-ICE mob turns hostile, breaching barriers outside detention facility — several officers injured
Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images
A leftist activist confronted Bovino over the weekend while federal agents were arresting an alleged illegal alien, according to a video uploaded to social media.
“Are you doing nice things?” the activist asked Bovino.
“Absolutely, making the community safer for you,” Bovino responded.
The Border Patrol commander highlighted some of the recent Charlotte arrests on X.
“Let’s paint this picture for you. An illegal alien from Mexico gets deported 4 times, strolls back to Charlotte, then racks up a hit & run AND a DUI/DWI?” Bovino wrote. “It’s time to go back home.”
RELATED: VIDEO: Leotarded liberals protest ICE facility with ’80s-themed aerobics class
Gregory Bovino. Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images
“Who’s at the same grocery store as you?” he wrote in a separate post. “This illegal alien from Honduras with a criminal history. He has arrests for aggravated assault, assault with a dangerous weapon & DUI. He has also been removed from the U.S. twice, so now that he’s here AGAIN, he committed a felony by re-entering the U.S.”
Reports surfaced on Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot an individual amid the ongoing operations; however, those claims were debunked by McLaughlin.
“This criminal illegal alien from Mexico had a panic attack and was taken to the hospital where he attempted to escape by climbing into the ceiling tiles from the hospital bathroom. He was unsuccessful and was apprehended inside the ceiling by law enforcement,” McLaughlin stated. “He has a prior arrest for assault.”
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