Category: Blaze Media
Trump’s pardons expose the left’s vast lawfare machine
On Sunday night, the Oversight Project announced the culmination of a long effort: President Trump’s pardons for the so-called “alternate electors” and their affiliates who faced state-level prosecution for their role in the 2020 election.
Credit belongs to President Trump and Pardon Attorney Ed Martin for seeing this process through — and for having the political will and moral memory to leave no MAGA supporter behind. These pardons are the result of over a year of focused work by the Oversight Project. And because the corporate left-wing media has predictably denounced them for their politics, prudence, and legal effect, it’s worth explaining the pardons’ justification and impact.
Participation in a constitutional process is not a crime. Operation Arctic Frost and its imitators will not define the future of American justice. These pardons will.
First, terminology matters. “Contingent electors” is the correct phrase. “Alternate electors” or “fake electors” are loaded terms invented by the press to imply criminality.
In reality, these electors prepared slates to be submitted to Congress while investigations and legal challenges into the 2020 presidential election were still pending. Their purpose was simple: to preserve flexibility should fraud or irregularities be confirmed.
The 2020 election was unlike any in modern history. Under the pretext of COVID-19, officials across multiple states expanded mail-in voting without the safeguards required by law. Signature verification, chain-of-custody rules, and registration requirements were ignored. Courts refused to hear evidence, dismissing cases on procedural grounds rather than the merits.
And somehow, we were told that the vice president and Congress — bodies that have historically played a role in adjudicating electoral disputes — no longer had any role to play. As a result, President Biden’s victory will forever carry an asterisk in the history books.
Debunking modern myths
The notion that elections can only be challenged in court is a modern myth. Since the founding, Congress has played a central role in resolving disputed elections, as have state legislatures empowered to ensure the integrity of their own processes — including, when necessary, selecting electors directly.
The list of precedents is long.
- In 1797, John Adams, as president of the Senate, allowed time for objections to Vermont’s votes.
- In 1801, Thomas Jefferson counted Georgia’s contested votes — for himself.
- In 1857, a snowstorm kept Wisconsin’s electors from voting, but their ballots were counted anyway.
- In 1876, during the Hayes-Tilden standoff, Congress created a commission to adjudicate dueling slates from four states.
- In 1961, Hawaii submitted a contingent slate while its results were still being certified.
- In 2005, both chambers of Congress debated and ultimately rejected objections to Ohio’s votes.
- And as recently as 2017, multiple House members objected to electors from several states, though they lacked Senate co-sponsors.
This long record makes clear that the use of contingent electors is not criminal — it is, in fact, perfectly constitutional.
From constitutional to criminal
So why are good-faith contingent electors from 2020 now facing state prosecutions and financial ruin? The answer is weaponization.
During the Biden years, the federal government, blue-state prosecutors, and activist networks have coordinated to transform lawful political activity into criminal conduct. The same machinery that pursued President Trump through endless investigations was turned on ordinary citizens whose only “crime” was preserving constitutional options.
Operation Arctic Frost — the campaign of “map, harass, and isolate” tactics aimed at Trump allies — illustrates this perfectly. It was designed to intimidate lawyers, donors, and officials who supported Trump’s legal challenges, freezing them out of professional and financial life. The contingent electors were swept up in that same apparatus: coordinated prosecutions, media smears, and punitive lawfare intended to silence dissent.
RELATED: Biden FBI’s Arctic Frost surveillance of lawmakers could cost the government
Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
From Fani Willis’ politically motivated prosecutions in Georgia to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s efforts to organize partisan coalitions against perceived “threats,” the coordination has been unmistakable. Government, activist, and media arms all moved together with one goal: to erase the America First movement and criminalize its constitutional exercise of power.
That is the true definition of weaponization — using the law to destroy political opposition.
The legal case for Trump’s pardons
Critics claim the president cannot pardon state-level offenses. But that view collapses under constitutional scrutiny. States cannot prosecute conduct that falls under federal authority once it has been pardoned.
The selection of electors is a hybrid function — both state and federal — but the contingent electors acted in service of a federal purpose: the certification of the presidency. By issuing these pardons, the federal government has declared that these individuals acted lawfully, in good faith, and consistent with historic precedent.
If the federal government deems their actions lawful, how can states claim they committed crimes? That’s a question any fair court — or any fair jury — should be able to answer easily.
If these pardons are treated honestly, the state cases will collapse. More important, this should reassure every American committed to election integrity that defending the Constitution will never again be treated as a criminal act.
RELATED: The bureaucracy strikes back — and we’re striking harder
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Now what?
The toll on those targeted has been immense. Many have endured years of legal harassment, public vilification, and financial ruin simply for acting according to their constitutional duty.
The Oversight Project is exploring every possible avenue to secure restitution for those harmed — whether through private support, legislative action, or further executive remedies. These pardons mark the first step in correcting the record and restoring faith in the justice system.
They are not merely acts of mercy; they are acts of correction. They affirm that Americans who act to preserve election integrity, often at great personal cost, were right to do so.
The message is clear: Participation in a constitutional process is not a crime. Operation Arctic Frost and its imitators will not define the future of American justice. These pardons will.
11-year-old arrested for alleged ‘kill list’ at Florida school — just 2 weeks after similar incident in same school district
For the second time in just two weeks, an 11-year-old has been arrested, handcuffed, and perp-walked after allegedly creating a “kill list” at school — and both incidents occurred in the same Florida school district but involved different students in different schools. In addition, both schools are “alternative education” schools.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said an 11-year-old male on Monday “wrote out a kill list at Highbanks Learning Center in Deltona.”
‘It’s not appropriate to post about a child of this age on social media.’
The 11-year-old is “facing a felony charge of making a written threat to kill,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that the school resource deputy confirmed that the suspect doesn’t have access to weapons.
Blaze News is not naming the suspect or showing his face because of his age.
However, the sheriff’s office did name the handcuffed suspect and posted video of him being walked to a jail cell.
Image source: Volusia County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office
Image source: Volusia County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office
While the sheriff’s office added that “school threats are down recently,” Blaze News reported that just two weeks ago — on Oct. 27 — an 11-year-old girl was arrested after writing a “kill list” at her school desk at Riverview Learning Center in Ormond Beach.
Riverview Learning Center and Highbanks Learning Center are “alternative education” schools, and both are part of Volusia County Schools.
The websites for both schools also tout the “iABLE (Intensive Academic Behavioral Learning Environment) program” which “provides a specialized program designed to meet the needs of students with intense emotional and behavioral needs.”
In the Oct. 27 incident, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said staff at Riverview Learning Center notified a deputy about the “kill list,” which contained four names. The suspect said she was just playing, officials said. The girl was charged with making a written threat to kill as well as violating her probation.
The sheriff’s office posted video after the girl’s arrest showing deputies perp-walking her into a jail cell. A deputy is heard asking her if she had been there before, and she replies in the affirmative.
Blaze News did not name the suspect or show her face because of her age.
Neither Volusia County Schools nor the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office immediately replied to Blaze News’ requests for comment regarding the two arrests.
However, about 4,500 comments — and climbing — so far have hit the sheriff’s Facebook post about Monday’s arrest. Here’s a sampling:
- “I know this young man personally, and he has amazing parents … [and] is a phenomenal football player, son, and brother,” one commenter claimed on the day of the 11-year-old’s arrest. “Yes, he gets in trouble sometimes, but I also think the kid would bullied and pushed … to his limit should [he] be in jail. After he was bullied today the teacher asked him to write his feelings, which I also feel is wrong because that’s what put him here, and it was not even what you guys think it is — but they took him [anyway]; all of this is messed up.”
- “Way [too] quick,” another user wrote, adding that “this young man is my friend’s son; he comes to where we work at all the time and volunteers his time to the elderly; I hate how this picture is painted.”
- “It’s not appropriate to post about a child of this age on social media,” another commenter said. “His actions were wrong, but it’s important to remember that he didn’t pull the trigger or bring a weapon to school. This should be seen as a mental health crisis and be treated accordingly.”
- “As a child I got taken by my father to the city jail, [and] it was expressed to me that if I acted bad, this is where I would be staying — in that jail cell,” another user shared. “I learned from that, [and] learned from tail whoopings …”
- “Bullying should have the same if not similar consequences,” another commenter said. “I’m not sure why bullying is not taken so serious[ly]. Yes, what he did was wrong, but he is a child and is learning his lesson.”
Blaze News published a story earlier in October about another Florida sheriff’s office that was under fire after posting a 9-year-old male’s mug shot on Facebook after his felony arrest for allegedly bringing a knife into his elementary school and threatening classmates with it.
However, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at the time told WTSP-TV that the decision to post the child’s mug shot is a policy the agency has upheld since 2018, and it won’t remove the post. Indeed, the sheriff’s Facebook post was still up Thursday morning.
“We have not had any repeat offenders since we have put this in place,” Allison Merritt with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office added to the station.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Antifa burns, the media spin, and truth takes the hits
On Monday night, violence erupted at UC Berkeley. Again.
That sentence alone might not shock anyone. Berkeley and riots go together like gender studies and Marxist slogans — a tradition older than most of its students. But this time, the target was different.
Christians and conservatives should keep showing up. Every TPUSA Faith event, every lecture, every debate — attend them. The more witnesses, the less room for lies.
The mob didn’t come for a politician or a protest. It came for families.
The crowd surrounded a Turning Point USA Faith event hosted by an officially recognized student club, featuring Christian apologist Frank Turek and atheist Peter Boghossian, along with comedian Rob Schneider and British commentator and satirist Andrew Doyle. In one evening, TPUSA offered more intellectual diversity than the entire Berkeley humanities department has managed all year.
The riot that proved the stereotype
Picture families walking into a campus hall to hear a Christian and an atheist debate civilly. Now picture an angry crowd blocking the doors, throwing bottles, lighting fires, and chanting, “Punch a fascist in the face!”
Their only problem: No fascists were present. Unless, of course, you classify Turek, Boghossian, and a few Christian undergrads as Mussolini’s heirs. But that’s Berkeley logic — where “diversity” means everyone thinks the same and disagreement is treated like violence.
The radical left has no greater enemies than Christianity and free speech. Combine the two, and leftists melt down faster than a Berkeley sophomore trying to define the word “woman.”
How did we get here?
Berkeley has been the stage for riots since the 1960s. If campus unrest were Broadway, Berkeley would be “The Phantom of the Opera” — always running, always loud, always masked. But tradition doesn’t excuse terror.
The deeper problem is the culture feeding it. In today’s universities, students are marinated in ideology, not inquiry. The humanities have traded Socrates for slogans and replaced debate with denunciation.
This worldview breeds fragility and fanaticism: emotional dependence on outrage, intellectual intolerance, and the conviction that disagreement equals danger. It’s no wonder students’ activism now mimics the very authoritarianism they claim to resist.
Antifa’s unofficial motto might as well be: “Accuse your opponents of what you plan to do.”
The media’s complicity
Right on cue, the Guardian rushed to describe the riot as “mostly peaceful.” That phrase should be Berkeley’s new marketing slogan: Mostly Peaceful Since 1964.
The truth is simpler. The TPUSA attendees were peaceful. The rioters were not. They screamed in people’s faces, hurled debris, blocked exits, and called it “defending democracy.” Apparently, democracy now means assaulting Christians.
The radical playbook
If you want to decode the left’s method, just reverse the leftists’ accusations. They say, “Don’t demonize others,” while labeling everyone to the right of Lenin a fascist. They say, “All voices deserve to be heard,” while drowning opponents in primal screams.
They say, “Fight oppression,” while physically intimidating families trying to attend a faith event.
At Arizona State University, a colleague of mine once wrote, “I’m all for free speech — but not for bigots,” to justify banning Charlie Kirk from campus. Translation: I love freedom — as long as no one I dislike exercises it.
This is the moral logic of the modern left: Disagreement equals harm, and harm justifies censorship — or violence.
The ‘radical’ minority that isn’t
We keep calling these leftists radicals, but that implies rarity. Surveys say otherwise. The ideological monoculture dominates academia. The “moderate left” isn’t moderating anything; it’s supplying the radicals with silence, funding, and applause.
The tenured class that claims to value “diversity of thought” has created an institution where dissenters are treated like heretics.
RELATED: The Antifa mob at Berkeley showed us what evil looks like
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
What must be done
First, Christians and conservatives should keep showing up. Every TPUSA Faith event, every lecture, every debate — attend them. The more witnesses, the less room for lies.
Second, tell your state legislators you don’t want tax dollars funding violent intolerance disguised as higher learning.
Third, warn every parent and student what really happens on college campuses. Prepare your kids to challenge the ideological orthodoxy behind DEI, critical theory, and the alphabet soup of new moral dogmas.
Finally, support alternatives. Seek out institutions that teach truth instead of propaganda — and organizations like TPUSA Faith that defend free inquiry.
That’s why I started my Substack: to expose the rot inside American universities before your children discover it the hard way.
The cure for intellectual darkness is light. The cure for ideological riots is courage. And the cure for the Berkeley disease begins with showing up, speaking truth, and refusing to bow.
DHS blasts ‘ACTIVIST’ Biden judge’s order to cut loose hundreds of illegal aliens in Chicago, pause deportations
Despite the ongoing obstructionism by Chicago’s deeply unpopular mayor, Brandon Johnson (D), and other open-borders activists, federal immigration agents continue to risk life and limb with the aim of unburdening the crime-ridden sanctuary city of some of the roughly 150,000 illegal aliens who have sapped its resources, strained its systems, and endangered its people.
‘An ACTIVIST JUDGE is putting the lives of Americans directly at risk.’
A Biden judge decided on Wednesday to undo some of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s hard work, ordering the Trump administration to free hundreds of the illegal aliens recently apprehended in the Chicago area, including some of those captured during the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Midway Blitz.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Blaze News in a statement. “At every turn, activist judges, sanctuary politicians, and violent rioters have actively tried to prevent our law enforcement officers from arresting and removing the worst of the worst.”
“Now an ACTIVIST JUDGE is putting the lives of Americans directly at risk by ordering 615 illegal aliens be released into the community,” added McLaughlin.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, a Biden appointee, ruled last month that ICE had violated a 2022 consent decree settlement that barred federal immigration agents from conducting warrantless arrests unless they have cause to suspect an individual is both an illegal alien and a flight risk.
The settlement, which was the result of a lawsuit filed by the open-borders advocacy organization National Immigrant Justice Center and the ACLU of Illinois, was set to expire on May 12, 2025. However, the NIJC filed a motion to continue enforcing the settlement earlier this year after ICE made a series of warrantless illegal alien arrests.
RELATED: Federal judge wildly oversteps her bounds with Border Patrol commander in Chicago
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Cummings, who previously claimed that NIJC’s pending motion kept the settlement alive, decided on Oct. 7 to extend the consent decree until Feb. 2, 2026, and ordered ICE to apply it to all agents nationwide.
On Wednesday, Cummings went even farther to appease the open-borders activists, ordering ICE to free 13 illegal aliens by Friday and to release another 615 illegal aliens on bond into a monitoring program by Nov. 21, unless the Trump administration appeals and/or demonstrates that the arrests were in keeping with the consent decree.
Lawyers for the government are considering an appeal, indicating that at least 12 of the 615 illegal aliens arrested in Chicago between June and early October are considered high flight risks, reported Axios.
The activist judge also ordered the Trump administration to pause deportation and voluntary departure procedures for all those illegal aliens who are pending release and to provide additional information concerning all arrests that have taken place since his October ruling.
Michelle Garcia, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Illinois, suggested that by committing to enforcing the consent decree, Cummings has set the stage for “even more of the hundreds of people illegally arrested and detained during Operation Midway Blitz to be released.”
Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation at NIJC, also celebrated Cummings’ apparent judicial activism, stating, “We are grateful that Judge Cummings sees the urgency of this moment and has ordered the Trump administration to allow hundreds to leave the inhumane detention centers where they are being unlawfully held and to have a chance at the due process our laws require.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Grand Obama ‘conspiracy’: The truth NYT tried to bury
Obama’s deep state tried to destroy Donald Trump, and in a recent New York Times article titled, “Trump Loyalists Push ‘Grand Conspiracy’ as New Subpoenas Land,” the publication is clearly trying to lie — claiming there’s no proof of that.
“Their theory of the case, still unsupported by the evidence: A cabal of Democrats and ‘deep state’ operatives, possibly led by former President Barack Obama, has worked to destroy Mr. Trump in a years-long plot spanning the inquiry into his 2016 campaign to the charge he faced after leaving office,” the article reads.
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales, however, has the receipts.
“The New York Times actually spent time and money on this to try to rewrite the narrative of what actually happened — what we watched happen. Multiple years, multiple years — hard evidence of what this actually was.”
“So here’s what actually happened, New York Times,” she continues. “Obama, and his deep state operatives — which very much are still alive and well, actually — did conspire to try and undermine Trump at every step the second he announced his candidacy.”
Gonzales points to the disproven Russiagate hoax and the surveillance for President Trump’s campaign — which Obama “knew about.”
“They abused the FISA court system to tap his phones. Remember when President Trump was like, ‘They’re spying on me. President Obama’s spying on me.’ And they were like, ‘What a crazy right-wing nutjob.’ No, I mean, it turns out he was right. It was happening,” she explains.
“And on top of that, Tulsi Gabbard just this year released a report proving that not only do we know that Russiagate was a total hoax, not only do we know that they literally spent, like, what, two years, millions of taxpayer dollars, to investigate the thing that they already knew wasn’t true,” she says.
“And when I say ‘they,’ I mean from the very top, the president of the United States at that time, Barack Obama, was in on the whole thing,” she adds.
“There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false. They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true,” Gabbard said at a White House press conference.
“It wasn’t. The report that we released today shows in great detail how they carried this out. They manufactured findings from shoddy sources. They suppressed evidence and credible intelligence that disproved their false claims. They disobeyed traditional tradecraft intelligence community standards and withheld the truth from the American people,” she continued.
“In doing so, they conspired to subvert the will of the American people who elected Donald Trump in that election in November of 2016. They worked with their partners in the media to promote this lie, ultimately to undermine the legitimacy of President Trump and launching what would be a years-long coup against him and his administration,” she added.
“Like, how much more evidence do you need, New York Times?” Gonzales asks, adding, “These are official documents.”
Want more from Sara Gonzales?
To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Why These Six Democrats Defied Hakeem Jeffries To End Shutdown
Six House Democrats defied Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday evening to support a Senate-passed deal to end the 43-day government shutdown. Though Jeffries tried to limit the defections, a handful of centrist Democrats, who all represent seats President Donald Trump won in 2024, crossed party lines to support reopening the government. The group cited […]
Bird by bird: The hobby healing millions of burned-out Americans
Ninety-six million Americans now call themselves bird-watchers.
That’s nearly one in three people. What was once the domain of retired dentists with too much time and too many thermoses has become a national pastime.
‘You don’t need equipment to go birding,’ he says. ‘Just walk outside and look or listen for birds. It’s like a treasure hunt — where can I find a new or different one?’
Or, as the bureaucrats insist, a “sport.” (Blame linguistic inflation, but that’s beside the point.) Bird-watching has gone mainstream, and America has fallen head over talons for it.
‘Exhausted by noise and nonsense’
Growing up in Ireland, I used to hunt pheasants with my father. But I also bird-watched with him. He had the patience of a saint and the binoculars of a spy. He could spot a kestrel from what felt like another county. I, on the other hand, had the attention span of a jackdaw. Yet even then, there was something strangely meditative about standing still, waiting for wings to appear.
Bird-watching wasn’t about chasing or conquering. It was about listening, noticing, and finding a kind of peace that didn’t need words. Maybe that’s why it’s booming in America now — a country exhausted by noise and nonsense.
The modern American lives in a blizzard of screens, sound bites, and sirens. Every scroll and ping pulls the mind farther from the present moment. Bird-watching is the perfect rebellion against that chaos. It rewards stillness. It teaches patience. It’s meditation with feathers. You can’t doomscroll while trying to spot a warbler. And unlike most modern hobbies, it doesn’t demand equipment that costs more than your car. A decent pair of binoculars and a curious soul will do.
It also helps that bird-watching is wonderfully democratic. You can do it anywhere — city park, back yard, Walmart parking lot, even your ex’s front yard if you’re brave enough. Birds don’t discriminate by zip code. From Brooklyn to Baton Rouge, the same act of quiet wonder unites people who otherwise wouldn’t share a word. A cardinal on a branch can silence even the loudest partisan. Or can it?
Taking off with Birding Bob
Who better to ask than Robert DeCandido, Ph.D., more commonly known as “Birding Bob.” Bronx-born and proud of it, he’s been leading bird walks for the best part of 40 years, charming tourists and occasionally scolding squirrels. He’s studied owls in Central Park, falcons on skyscrapers, and raptors in Nepal — because, apparently, the city’s pigeons weren’t exotic enough. With his encyclopedic knowledge, laser pointer, and unflappable enthusiasm, the Bob has turned Manhattan into one big aviary.
When asked why bird-watching has suddenly become the new yoga, Bob doesn’t entertain the hype. “To me, this has been building since the late 1990s,” he says. “It seems to track the use of the internet in people’s lives. I’ve been leading bird walks since the late 1980s, so I’ve watched the growth.” In his eyes, birding is less a sudden craze than a steady cultural migration decades in the making.
As for the pandemic’s supposed role in reviving our hunger for slow living, Bob’s answer is brisk. “No,” he says. “I think birding was one of the few activities you could do early on in the pandemic — especially with others.”
When the world shut down, birding stayed open. “If you had a park in your neighborhood, you could just walk over. No need for mass transit or being in close proximity indoors.” For Bob, that’s when many realized bird-watching was accessible, social, and a way to stay sane in those rather insane times.
RELATED: Happy Trails: Ten national parks to explore with your family this summer
Image Courtesy of the National Park Service
‘Just walk outside and look’
And about that “retired dentist with binoculars” stereotype? Bob laughs it off. “Where or how did you come up with this idea? It was never, ever that.” His tours are proof. They draw everyone from teenagers to tech workers, stay-at-home moms to deadbeat dads. If anything, birding has become one of the few spaces in New York where social class often dissolves into shared curiosity.
Gen Z’s growing interest doesn’t surprise him either. “It’s cheap,” he says flatly. “People like nature. And the media’s pushing birding now, so different folks are giving it a go.”
It sounds simple, but it explains a lot. Birding offers something both primal and portable in an age hooked on algorithms and AI-fed sludge. It’s a dopamine hit that doesn’t come from Silicon Valley — though plenty of apps now let users flaunt their feathered finds. There’s Merlin Bird ID, which can identify a species from a photo or song; eBird, where users log sightings and climb leaderboards; and Birda, the “Strava of birding,” complete with challenges and badges.
Bob’s Bronx bluntness resurfaces when asked if birding could unite left and right.
“No. Americans will find a way to fight no matter what,” he says, half-joking. “Most birders are moderate to left, so the infighting has been mild so far. But it’s there.” He doesn’t hide where he stands — he lets his politics show — but never in a preachy or polarizing way. It’s more observational than ideological, the way a field biologist might note the plumage of a particularly noisy species.
Then, almost as if to re-center the conversation, he lands on what really matters. “You don’t need equipment to go birding,” he says. “Just walk outside and look or listen for birds. It’s like a treasure hunt — where can I find a new or different one? No need to make lists or find rare ones. Just go out and look. Have fun. Learn about your local environment.”
That, in the end, might explain why bird-watching has taken flight across the nation. In a culture obsessed with competition, Birding Bob reminds us that not everything needs to be a race. You don’t win at bird-watching. You simply show up, look up, and listen. It’s the most affordable form of mindfulness on the market. In an era powered by progress bars, birding is gloriously buffering. No feeds, no frenzy, just feathers in flight — and the occasional pigeon dropping on your $200 North Face jacket.
US man killed during mission trip in Angola — his wife is convicted for plotting his murder with security guard lover
The wife of a man killed in Angola has been convicted for orchestrating his murder during a mission trip with their family, according to a statement from their church.
44-year-old Beau Shroyer was found stabbed to death inside a vehicle on Oct. 25, 2024, in the town of Thienjo. His family had been sent to Africa on a mission trip in 2021 by the Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lake, Minnesota.
Law enforcement had ‘strong suspicions of a romantic relationship between the person who ordered the crime and her accomplice, the guard at the couple’s residence.’
Shroyer had stopped to help people who were pretending to have vehicle issues in a remote area. They stabbed him to death and fled in the rental car, as previously reported by Blaze News.
Local authorities eventually arrested the man’s wife, 44-year-old Jackie Shroyer, and accused her of being the “mastermind” behind the slaying of her husband.
Angola official Manuel Halaiwa said that law enforcement had “strong suspicions of a romantic relationship between the person who ordered the crime and her accomplice, the guard at the couple’s residence.”
They also arrested two people they said were her accomplices, identified as Bernardino Isaac Elias and Isalino Musselenga Kayoo “Vin Diesel.” A third alleged accomplice identified as Gelson Guerreiro Ramos is still on the run.
Authorities said Jackie Shroyer paid Kayoo $50,000 to commit the crime.
“Though this news is shocking and extremely difficult to comprehend, it’s important for you to know that this verdict follows a very thorough investigation and trial process that was monitored closely, conducted fairly, and carried out with integrity,” said the church’s pastor, Troy Easton, in a statement.
The couple’s five children were brought back the U.S. after their mother’s arrest to be with family.
Jackie Shroyer will serve her sentence in Angola, according to the church.
The church did not say what her sentence was.
The victim’s cousin Bret Shroyer told KSTP-TV that his death hit their family hard.
“Beau was a rock, just a really strong member of the family, he was doing good, all of the time,” he said. “He was supportive; he was always looking for ways to help somebody else out.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
America’s addiction to Chinese money runs deeper than we care to admit
In a recent interview, President Trump defended his earlier claim that bringing 600,000 Chinese college students into the United States would be good for the country. When the interviewer questioned how that aligned with an America First agenda, Trump replied that without those students, “Half the colleges in America would go out of business.”
To most Trump supporters, that sounds like a win-win — fewer foreign students and fewer left-wing universities to subsidize. But Trump seemed to view the issue as a business transaction: Closing locations is bad, losing revenue is bad, and the substance of those “economic units” doesn’t really matter.
Why should we play Russian roulette with our national security to pad universities’ bottom lines?
His comments revealed a deeper confusion about what America First really means.
The China contradiction
America’s relationship with China has long been incoherent. Every Republican politician insists China is our chief geopolitical rival — a totalitarian power bent on unseating the United States as global hegemon. Yet few make any effort to restrict Chinese immigration, investment, or influence. At some point, it becomes difficult to take any of the rhetoric seriously.
The problem is obvious: China has too many people and too much money. The country’s strength lies in what America abandoned: manufacturing. While American corporations chased financial gimmicks and “service economies,” China focused on making tangible goods at scale. That discipline built a vast middle class and positioned Beijing at the center of global production. Now nearly every Western industry — film, retail, education — depends on access to China’s markets.
The result: American institutions bend over backward to please a government they claim to fear. Chinese nationals can buy land, start companies, and enroll by the hundreds of thousands in U.S. universities. It would be funny if it weren’t so corrupt.
The university addiction
Trump knows mass immigration hurts Americans, but he struggles to say no when big money is involved. Foreign students pour billions into universities, and administrators have built their entire business models around them. But counting up dollars isn’t the same as serving the national interest.
Universities are publicly subsidized and supposedly dedicated to educating Americans first and foremost. Instead, they’ve turned into pipelines credentialing foreign elites — and sometimes, spies. Every seat filled by a Chinese student is one less for an American, and every dollar that props up a hostile regime’s protégés deepens our dependence on that regime.
The Department of Justice has charged three Chinese nationals at the University of Michigan for smuggling research materials and stealing technology. Eric Weinstein has even suggested that theoretical physics is being throttled for fear of espionage. Yet the universities — and now, apparently, Trump — seem unfazed.
Why save the enemy’s seminary?
Propping up higher education with Chinese cash isn’t just shortsighted — it’s insane. Colleges and universities have become leftist seminaries, charging astronomical tuition for courses that teach Americans to despise their parents and their nation. They already receive lavish government subsidies and still demand more.
Trump’s claim that “half the colleges” would collapse without Chinese money is dubious, but if it were true, those institutions deserve to fail. Let them. Destroying the patronage networks that produce radical activists was once a Trumpian goal. Reviving them with foreign money would be an act of political masochism. Why should we play Russian roulette with our national security to pad their bottom line?
RELATED: The ‘China class’ sold out America. Now Trump is calling out the sellouts.
Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The broader threat
Chinese money poisons more than academia. Nationals and shell companies routinely buy American land — including, alarmingly, property near military bases. One recent purchase of an RV park in Missouri by a Chinese couple just happened to place them next to Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 stealth bomber fleet. Similar shadowy transactions dot the map.
The pandemic exposed the madness of this dependence. The same regime that unleashed a virus on the world also controlled the supply chains for the medicine and protective gear we needed to fight it. Yet America’s political class still refuses to sever the tie. They are too addicted to Chinese money — and too invested in pretending that dependency equals diplomacy.
If the GOP is serious about confronting China, it must start by cutting every cord of reliance. Banning Chinese students from U.S. universities would be a simple, symbolic first step — and it would strike directly at the heart of the progressive academic machine.
Trump officially ends ‘pathetic’ Democrats’ record-breaking shutdown
President Donald Trump officially ended the Democrats’ record-breaking shutdown after House Republicans passed the funding bill Wednesday night.
Trump signed the GOP’s continuing resolution into law after the House passed the bill in a 222-209 vote, bringing the 43-day shutdown to a close. The House vote largely fell on party lines, with 216 Republicans voting in favor and 207 Democrats voting against the funding bill. Notably, two Republicans voted against the bill and six Democrats voted in favor of it.
‘Don’t forget what they’ve done to our country.’
“People were hurt so badly,” Trump said from the Oval Office Wednesday night. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like this one. This was a no-brainer. This was an easy extension. But they didn’t want to do it the easy way. They had to do it the hard way.”
“They look very bad, the Democrats do,” Trump added.
Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Trump urged Americans across the country to remember the pain inflicted by the Democrat shutdown when the 2026 midterms come around.
“I just want to tell the American people: You should not forget this,” Trump said. “When we come up to midterms and other things, don’t forget what they’ve done to our country.”
Democrats initiated the government shutdown after blocking the GOP’s clean continuing resolution from passing in the Senate before the September 30 funding deadline.
After prolonging the shutdown for over 40 days, eight Senate Democrats caved and passed the funding bill in the Senate, sparking intraparty outrage for agreeing to a “pathetic” political deal.
The only concession Democrats managed to secure was a reversal of reduction-in-force notices implemented during the shutdown and the prevention of any more RIFs through January 30, the day the new funding deal expires. This affects only about 4,200 of the roughly 150,000 federal layoffs that have taken place during President Donald Trump’s second term.
RELATED: Democrat senator makes stunning admission about Obamacare failures
Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
The main reason Democrats shut the government down in the first place was to renegotiate Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Rather than securing any commitments from Republicans to negotiate or amend any health-care-related policies, Democrats walked away with a promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to hold a vote on extending the subsidies.
This is the same deal that was on the table since day one of the government shutdown.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
