Stembridge News Digest

  • Why today's kids don't know how anything works Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:00:00 +0000


    About a year ago, I went into Walmart with my friend Kevin to pick up fuel for our oil lamps. Refurbishing and using antique kerosene lighting is a hobby we share. Kevin also collects and rehabilitates radio sets from the 1920s through the 1960s.

    When you turn on one of Kevin’s art deco hardwood radios, the dial glows and the tinny AM voice comes through after about 30 seconds of warm-up. When I light my kerosene lamps room by room in winter, they literally light my way and heat the room. For us, the pleasure is not in polishing and displaying antiques as an exhibit, but in using the appliances for the job they were made to perform.

    Watching 'Little House on the Prairie,' I clapped along with Ma and Carrie when Pa installed a hand pump for the water well in Ma’s kitchen.

    This shopping encounter happened in a Walmart in a part of New York state we hadn’t been to before. It had an unfamiliar layout. We walked up to a blue-smocked staffer in her early 20s and asked her where to find the fuel.

    “What’s kerosene?” she asked.

    Fuel me once

    How do you respond to this? I didn’t know. We just quickly told her it was a kind of fuel and walked away because there was no possibility this young woman would be able to help us. Eventually, we found it on our own through the kind of contextual knowledge this young employee was missing (it was near the paint section because it’s in the same family of chemicals).

    This is one very small, and you may think inconsequential, example of an enormous social problem. Young people don’t know much of anything about the ordinary world, how it works, what it’s made of, and how to get things accomplished.

    No, this is not just the perennial complaint of the old about the young. It’s not “just how it’s always been.” I’m 50, which puts me in Generation X. Like other young people, I felt very modern, very “with it,” and much cleverer than my mother or grandmother when I was young.

    But not to the degree that Millennials and Generation Z feel.

    Off the cliff

    There is a cliff drop between Generation X and everyone who came after them; a sharp divide unlike anything we saw between generations beforehand. As a kid, I knew (and enjoyed much of) the music, culture, and movies that my mother and my grandmother grew up with. They played their music on the record player, and their favorite shows re-ran on TV.

    Notice that. A “record player” and “re-runs on TV” were equally familiar to my grandmother, my mother, and me. Not so today. There are young people today who have no idea what an “iPod” was, a piece of music tech that was ubiquitous just a decade ago.

    We no longer have any shared culture in the West because arts, music, “content,” and information are delivered through millions of “microchannels” on personal, handheld devices. And the brand name and operating system of these devices change every couple of years now, instead of every couple of decades.

    Busy signal

    Here's another anecdote. When I first told this story about 10 years ago, even my age-contemporaries thought I was exaggerating. It doesn't seem so outlandish now.

    Years ago, I was talking online about old rotary dial telephones. I posted pictures of the classics, as well as a picture of a 1950s black desk set I own. I expected that younger people would be curious, that they’d think they were cool, and would ask how they worked. That’s how I reacted when I was their age and my grandmother told me about butter churns and crank telephones on party lines.

    Nope. The reaction from them was a combination of insouciant dismissal (“lol/lmao” and “hopelessly laughing emoji”) and disgust. Yes, disgust. These young people weren’t interested, let alone charmed, by clever old devices. They thought there was something embarrassing, and maybe even a little bit prurient, about them. I remain shocked at this attitude.

    Virtual inanity

    But it’s not just the content and the ideas that we don’t share. It’s also the physical world. The level of electrification, automation, and digitization of everything all the time has become so extreme that young people born in this age have a warped perspective. The tasks they consider “hard,” the tasks they think require a digital device, leave me speechless pretty much everyday.

    Here are some examples:

    • Remote controls for the air conditioner that’s five feet away (so you don’t have to get up), which has led to ...
    • ... air conditioners and similar appliances that depend entirely on remote controls, with no buttons on the device itself. Lose the remote? Lose the entire appliance.
    • Remote controls for light switches (because flipping a plastic toggle switch takes effort and that's not even counting the strain of walking all the way to the wall).
    • Calculator apps on phones for the simplest arithmetic, like making change from a $20 bill when the sale is $16.50 (math is, like, super hard).
    • GPS navigation to get to destinations in your own town that you’ve been to three dozen times.
    • Automobiles that “correct” your steering and braking, that give you a visual overlay grid on a reverse camera to back up, and that won’t let you select the gear range or torque because “traction control” is “smarter” than you. (This is why I have a harder time getting up my snowy driveway in a modern car than in one of my old reliables.)

    RELATED: Cold plunge: How I survive winters in the sticks

    Mladen Antonov/Getty Images

    App-less aptitude

    These are only the tip of the iceberg. By themselves, without any other context, they probably seem like no big deal. But they are symptoms of a radically different model of reality shared by Millennials, Gen Z, and no doubt generations to come. Young people are shockingly unaware of the way the physical world works, how matter is transformed into useful materials, how to fix even simple devices, and how to figure out getting from A to B — or cook a meal — without an Android or Apple application.

    This is not their fault. But young people are increasingly helpless; it’s a fact even though they don’t like hearing it. What makes it harder is that many of us who are older can see the problem, and we could help them fix it, but they’re resentful if anyone older hints that they didn’t get the answer right or that they’re lacking a skill.

    About 10 years ago, I tried to help a flustered young cashier who got turned around when he typed in the wrong cash amount in his register. I remembered being a cashier, and I knew there was no reason to have to call a manager, or even get out a calculator, every time you mis-keyed.

    It was obvious he didn't know how to “count back up” to the original cash amount, so I offered to show this frustrated young man how to do it.

    “My mom taught me this trick when she used to work at a 7-11, and I’ve used it ever since," I said.

    The dagger stare I got in response shut me up, and it wasn't the first time I'd gotten such a reaction. Since then, I tend to look away and pretend nothing is happening.

    Learning from 'Little House'

    Of course, they shouldn't need my rudimentary advice to begin with. So how did we get here? Lack of parental instruction as well as the appalling nonsense schools "teach" in place of useful skills are partly to blame.

    But I think the main problem is a fundamental alienation from the physical world. Digital, app-based technology has insulated our kids from hands-on experience — and it's made them shockingly incompetent at tasks we used to take for granted.

    As a boy, I remember being fascinated with outdated or simple technology that I read about in books or saw on TV. Watching "Little House on the Prairie," I clapped along with Ma and Carrie when Pa installed a hand pump for the water well in Ma’s kitchen. For the first time in her life, she didn’t have to hand-carry water in a bucket from outside. But how did that device work?

    By playing around with parts and reading books, I learned about differential air and fluid pressure. Now, I understood the basics of pneumatics and hydraulics. This helped me understand how brakes worked on cars and locomotives and how pilots were able to control the huge wings and flaps on jumbo jets. All that came from investigating why Caroline Ingalls’ “old-fashioned” water pump works.

    Water is wet

    I don’t think young people today are even aware that underneath the sleek gray and black exteriors, most of their modern appliances are just gussied up versions of Ma’s pump.

    These machines do actual work beneath their displays. Water is real, it’s not an LED picture of water. Heat comes from fire or electrical resistance, not from NuFire 2.0 Your Fireplace App (™). You can put a touchscreen on a washing machine (dear God, can we stop that?), but it still works on principles of water pressure, pumps, hydraulics, and torque from a spinning electromagnetic motor.

    The physical, three-dimensional world is real, and our lives depend on it. What’s going to happen when the majority of adults in charge of our economy, our military, and the old folks’ homes we’ll end up in don’t understand anything?

    We are already seeing people who will run out of the house and call the fire department, letting their house burn, before they’d even consider grabbing a box of baking soda and putting out the grease fire before it engulfs the kitchen.

    You know how I know this? Because I have young friends who have no idea that putting water on a grease fire only spreads the burning grease but that smothering it with bicarbonate of soda will safely put it out. I’m telling you the truth. Friends, this was considered basic, nonnegotiable, have-to-have-it, practical knowledge for kids when I was eight.

    How much worse is it going to get?

  • Youth-driven change is needed, but don’t let it be hijacked for evil Fri, 01 Aug 2025 10:00:00 +0000


    Youth is a powerful gift — one that comes with boundless energy, an insatiable hunger for change, and an idealistic desire to make the world better. It is a gift that has the potential to reshape society for the better, but it is also the most vulnerable to manipulation.

    Every generation has those who seek to co-opt the passion of the young for their own ends — and the consequences can be catastrophic. From the Nazis to Maoist China, from Rwanda to recent movements here in America, the youth have often been used as tools in the pursuit of power and destruction.

    History is filled with examples of youth movements that have been co-opted for evil ends. Don’t let your generation be another example.

    In 1933, a generation of young Germans, eager for a sense of purpose and meaning, was indoctrinated into Nazi ideology. They were told they could be part of something greater, that they could bring about change. And they did — by joining the Hitler Youth. They spied on their families, disrupted their churches, and helped push the Nazi agenda forward, ultimately playing a role in one of the most horrific genocides in history.

    Similarly, in Maoist China, the Red Guards — a youth-led movement — were manipulated into attacking intellectuals, destroying historical artifacts, and sowing chaos across the country. They were sold the idea that they were fighting for justice and social change. What they were really doing was aiding an oppressive regime.

    In 1994, youth militias were once again the driving force behind unimaginable violence during the Rwandan genocide. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in just 100 days, as young people were used by leaders to further their own violent ambitions.

    More recent history saw a similar pattern with Black Lives Matter in 2020. The youth took to the streets, driven by a desire for justice. Yet, despite their good intentions, the movement became marred by violence and destruction. The true purpose was lost, and the cause was hijacked by forces that used it to gain power, rather than to create lasting change. While using the youth as their pawns, BLM’s self-avowed Marxist leaders lined their own pockets.

    History repeats itself

    These examples demonstrate how the passion and idealism of youth were hijacked by those with ulterior motives. And it’s happening again today.

    The young people today, with their passion for justice and change, are the ones who can reshape our future. But you must be vigilant. Don’t let anyone manipulate you into believing that the easy answers are the right ones. Don’t let them twist your passion into a tool for their own ambitions.

    RELATED: Make college great again: Trump ‘has the spine’ to declare war on woke universities

    Photo by Kena Betancur / Contributor via Getty Images

    People who couldn’t fix the system themselves are now looking to you. They will tell you they need your help to make things right. But what they really want is your energy, your idealism, and your hope so they can use it to further their own agendas.

    Great power, greater responsibility

    Your ability to shape the world comes with responsibility. Your passion is the light the world desperately needs — but it is also the light that others will try to extinguish or twist for their own purposes. You must protect it. That responsibility requires the courage to walk away from popular movements that promise change but deliver only destruction.

    History is filled with examples of youth movements that have been co-opted for evil ends. Don’t let your generation be another example. Guard your passion. Protect it from those who would twist it into something that will mar history textbooks. Use your energy to build, not to tear down. Remember that the right kind of change is the one that builds, uplifts, and heals — it is never destructive.

    The future is yours to shape, but it requires discernment, rooted in truth, and guided by wisdom. Don’t let others use you. Stand firm, stay true to what is right, and the world will be better for it.

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  • Cop caught having sex with married teacher in her classroom while on duty; bodycam video captured flirting Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:30:00 +0000


    The Lebanon Police Department found that a police officer had sexual relations with a grade school teacher in her classroom while he was on duty, and the officer resigned soon after.

    The department report said that Brian Gilley, who had been assigned as a D.A.R.E. officer at Castle Heights Elementary School, initially denied having sex with teacher Shelby Moss but later confessed.

    'It was a mistake, and it will never happen again.'

    The internal investigation found that the incident occurred in Sept. 2024, after hours on the school property. Gilley admitted that there might have been students on the campus at the time.

    There is no bodycam footage of that incident, according to WZTV-TV.

    However, the outlet obtained video from the body cam that captured some of his flirtatious conversation with the teacher. They also obtained screenshots of the texts that the officer and the teacher sent to each other but reported that "some are too salacious to show."

    The report said that the teacher was married at the time of the relationship.

    Gilley had asked for leniency at a hearing in April.

    "I know I've done wrong, but I've also impacted that community in so many ways," Gilley said. “It was a mistake, and it will never happen again."

    The teacher was given a two-day suspension, and she resigned in May.

    RELATED: Ohio high school teacher tried to arrange sex with 14-year-old through undercover agent he believed to be child's mother, FBI says

    The incident was reported to the Tennessee State Board of Education, which will review for possible additional consequences.

    "We need to make sure we're reinforcing with parents that their child will be safe and protected and not exposed to bad situations," said J.C. Bowman, the executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee.

    Lebanon Police Department Chief of Police Mike Justice released a statement about the incident.

    "The policy violations also included being untruthful during the inquiry. These facts were presented during a POST decertification hearing. While Gilley’s actions did not align with our department’s standards or policies, the conduct was not criminal in nature, did NOT involve children, and did NOT occur in the presence of children or in the classroom," Justice said in part.

    Gilley is banned from working as an officer in Tennessee.

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  • JD Vance GOES OFF on lib media frauds for their ‘Epstein scandal’ hypocrisy Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:00:00 +0000


    Epstein’s egregious crimes were ongoing for decades, but not one political administration went after him. And after unwavering media criticism of President Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, JD Vance decided to remind the country of what inaction truly looks like.

    “There’s an interesting thing about this case that the American media seems to totally ignore. For four years under Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, the media didn’t give a damn about the Epstein files or about the Epstein case,” Vance said.

    “For 20 years, you had Obama and George W. Bush’s Department of Justice go easy on this guy. They didn’t fully investigate the case. They didn’t show any curiosity about the case. And now, Donald J. Trump is asking his Department of Justice to show full transparency. And somehow that’s a criticism of Donald J. Trump, and not Barack Obama and George W. Bush,” he added.

    BlazeTV host Jill Savage is impressed with Vance’s handling of such a delicate situation.


    “He’s actually going through and turning this back on the establishment, because this isn’t something that has just come up in the last six months. You guys, this is something that has been going on for years and years and years,” she tells BlazeTV host Matthew Peterson on “Blaze News: The Mandate.”

    “The way that he went through and actually, rightfully so, put some blame on even W. Bush and Obama, it’s not just a Trump issue,” she adds.

    “Well, what happened here,” Peterson replies, “is that the right, or the Bondi, you know, DOJ sort of came out and then balked a little bit, and there was a pause, right? And so they threw a punch, but it was sort of a half-hearted punch, and that got the left excited.”

    “So the Democrats all of a sudden thought, ‘Oh, we finally have something.’ It took them a while,” he says.

    “And then this was like the uppercut, you know, just right to the chin, saying, ‘Wait a minute, you guys want to talk about Epstein? You didn’t want to talk about Epstein for years. We actually are. You can screw off,’” he continues. “So, a very powerful turn of the frame.”

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  • Sex offenders can’t adopt. But they can buy a baby? Fri, 01 Aug 2025 08:00:00 +0000


    Last week, a gay couple — Logan Riley and Brandon Mitchell — went viral for posting photos of the baby boy they acquired through surrogacy. What began as a celebration quickly unraveled after it emerged that one of the men is a convicted sex offender.

    Social media users raised obvious concerns. Was this arrangement in the best interest of the child? What risks come with separating a baby from his mother and placing him with unrelated adult males, one of whom has a record of sex crimes? Critics asked these questions and were met, as usual, with accusations of bigotry from gay activists. But once the facts surfaced, the activists who rushed to defend the couple fell silent.

    Children are not accessories. Women are not rental space. And no one should be allowed to buy a baby — least of all someone who wouldn’t be permitted to adopt one.

    The pattern is familiar. Critics of surrogacy are smeared until reality breaks through the narrative. By then, the damage is done — and the child is the one who suffers.

    From fallback to moral imperative

    The original case for gay adoption was flimsy. It presented same-sex couples as a last resort, a solution for children who would otherwise languish in the foster system. Even its advocates admitted that two men raising a child could not replicate the contributions of a mother and father. The goal was to offer love and stability in the absence of better alternatives.

    That framing has since disappeared. As the LGBTQ movement moved from acceptance to dominance, the rhetoric shifted. Gay adoption was no longer a concession. It was equal to heterosexual couples adopting, then it was superior. Religious adoption agencies that prioritized married mothers and fathers were accused of discrimination and extremism. State governments and national organizations began steering children toward same-sex households, now presented as the cultural ideal.

    Once equality became unquestionable dogma, the conversation shifted again. Adoption was no longer enough. Activists turned to surrogacy — not to rescue unwanted children, but to commission biologically related ones. The moral justification evaporated. This wasn’t about saving lives so much as satisfying adult desires.

    Adoption and surrogacy are not the same

    Surrogacy is sometimes described as a form of adoption. That’s misleading. Adoption involves accepting responsibility for a life that already exists, often in difficult circumstances. Surrogacy deliberately creates a child to be separated from his mother and sold to strangers.

    The physical and emotional toll on the mother is severe. Surrogates are often poor, vulnerable, and pressured into contracts they don’t fully understand. Children are ordered like designer fashion accessories. There are cases of forced abortions, abandoned babies, and severe trauma — all downstream from the commodification of life.

    This is not a rare byproduct. It is built into the practice.

    The risk to children is real

    Children raised by unrelated adults face increased risks of abuse. One study found that preschool-aged children are 40 times more likely to be abused in a household with a stepparent than in one with both biological parents. The data is not absolute, but the trend is clear: Adults, especially men, are far more likely to abuse children to whom they are not biologically related.

    This should alarm anyone watching the rise of surrogacy arrangements, particularly those involving male couples. These are homes where the child has no biological connection to either adult. And in some cases, as with Riley and Mitchell, one of the men has a criminal record that would disqualify him from adopting under state law.

    RELATED: Trump moves to defund hospitals mutilating kids for money

    chrupka via iStock/Getty Images

    In Pennsylvania, sex offenders are barred from adopting. But surrogacy remains unrestricted. The child in this case remains in the custody of a man the law has deemed unfit to parent.

    This is not some oversight. It is a structural and legal failure.

    The moral inversion is complete

    We are told that the buying and selling of human beings was one of history’s greatest evils. Our education system and popular culture treat slavery as the ultimate moral horror. Yet, in the name of equality and inclusion, we now celebrate the legal sale of children — so long as it occurs under the banner of LGBTQ rights.

    And so we have elevated identity above accountability. In any other context, a convicted sex offender taking custody of a newborn would be a national scandal. But when the arrangement involves a same-sex couple, basic standards are suspended. The child becomes secondary to the cultural narrative.

    Enough of this

    Surrogacy did not enter the mainstream through a national debate or democratic vote. It arrived through the back door, marketed as compassionate and modern. Most people didn’t understand the process. They didn’t consider the ethical costs. That time has passed. Ignorance no longer justifies our complacence.

    We now see surrogacy for what it is: a commercial industry that exploits vulnerable women and treats children as consumer goods. The law must catch up with the reality.

    This is not just a problem for gay couples. Surrogacy as a practice should be banned for everyone. No adult has a right to manufacture a child for personal fulfillment. No amount of wealth, influence, or legal maneuvering justifies the creation of human life as a transaction.

    Children are not accessories. Women are not rental space. And no one should be allowed to buy a baby — least of all someone who wouldn’t be permitted to adopt one.

  • Baby mauled to death by 130-pound dog on mother's birthday, police say Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:10:00 +0000


    Florida police said that a dog mauled a 5-month-old baby to death as the mother was out celebrating her birthday.

    The young couple had left their baby in the care of his great-grandmother and great-aunt at their home on Carolina Avenue in Ormond Beach. The couple had gone to dinner for the evening, according to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.

    'On what started to be a great night, ends up when you return home, your child is dead.'

    When they returned, the baby was gone.

    Chitwood said that the two had placed the baby in a bedroom and locked the door. The great-aunt then released her three dogs out of a cage, and she and the great-grandmother went to prepare food.

    When they noticed the door to the bedroom was open, they went in and found one of the dogs next to the bleeding body of the baby, who appeared to be lifeless.

    The parents rushed home and brought the baby to a hospital, but the staff was unable to revive the boy.

    The dog was described as a Great Dane and husky mix that weighed 130 pounds.

    "This is tragic," Chitwood said. "Tragic all the way around. You have a young mother who will remember on her birthday that her child is dead. And the grandparents. I mean, I just don't know how anybody feels about this."

    RELATED: 1-year-old girl mauled to death by family's pit bull, police say

    Volusia County Animal Services took possession of the dog, and it was humanely euthanized.

    Chitwood said they would continue to investigate to make sure no neglect was involved.

    "It is so, so, so tragic. On what started to be a great night, ends up when you return home, your child is dead," he added.

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  • Pam Bondi slaps Judge Boasberg with misconduct allegations Thu, 31 Jul 2025 23:55:00 +0000


    U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took action against one of the judges who has been blocking the agenda of President Donald Trump.

    Bondi filed a complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg, the judge who is presiding over the administration's deportation of illegal aliens to a notorious prison for terrorists in El Salvador.

    'These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that.'

    "Today at my direction, @TheJusticeDept filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration," Bondi wrote on social media.

    "These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that," she added.

    Boasberg reportedly commented that the administration could cause a constitutional crisis if Trump defied court rulings. The comments were first reported by the Federalist, which obtained a memo summary of the Judicial Conference.

    Bondi's complaint called for an investigation and for the case to be reassigned to another judge. Depending on the results of the investigation, Boasberg could also be impeached.

    Boasberg had found probable cause to hold the president in contempt for refusing to end deportation flights after a ruling from the judge.

    “The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the judge said in April.

    RELATED: Federal judge says court's 'hands are tied' and rejects Trump administration's bid to release Epstein transcripts

    The president has publicly called for the impeachment of Boasberg, which led to a rare public comment from Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

    "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," Roberts wrote in March.

    "The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose," he added.

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  • Watch: CNN FAILS to expose Alligator Alcatraz Thu, 31 Jul 2025 23:30:00 +0000


    In an attempt to paint the Florida ICE facility known as Alligator Alcatraz as a dystopian concentration camp run by a tyrant, CNN put together a dramatic piece on the facility — and instead proved the opposite.

    Speaking to illegal alien criminals held at the facility, the news channel played a recording of one of them saying, “This is sad. Sad. Hopeless. It’s a type of torture.”

    “These are the stories of migrants held at Alligator Alcatraz, a new detention facility deep in the Florida Everglades,” a voice-over said dramatically, before showing a 3D rendering of the exterior and interior of the facility.

    “Why, when you have the photos?” BlazeTV host Pat Gray asks on “The Glenn Beck Program.”


    “What they’ve done here, as Pat points out, is take an actual photo of the inside of Alligator Alcatraz and then formed it into a 3D model of the same photo. So what you’re seeing are a couple of beds, and then there is a 3D model of a couple of beds. What is possibly the purpose of that?” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere agrees.

    “I think it’s to make it more mysterious,” Gray says. “It’s like, ‘We can’t even get a camera in there.’ Well, you just showed us the actual photo, and now you’re doing the 3D mock-up.”

    One of the inmates, Gonzalo Almanza Valdes, says in the segment that “because of the way that we have been treated, it has been a very terrible experience.”

    Valdes was detained by ICE while in a meeting with his probation officer. Another inmate who was interviewed by CNN, Juan Palma Martinez, was also picked up by ICE while meeting with his probation officer.

    “He has a probation officer, which leads you to believe he might be on probation, which also leads to he committed crimes,” Gray laughs, adding, “I love that.”

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  • US senator shares grisly photos of woman's bruised, battered face after Cincinnati mob attack Thu, 31 Jul 2025 23:25:50 +0000


    Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio late Wednesday shared on X grisly images of a woman's face after she was beaten up and apparently knocked out cold during last weekend's mob attack in Cincinnati.

    "This is Holly," Moreno wrote in his post, which has been viewed 3.7 million times as of Thursday afternoon. "She wanted to have a nice evening out with friends. Instead, she got this."

    'Holly appreciates the kind words and prayers from patriots across the country.'

    One image shows the woman's badly blackened right eye; bruised, swollen, and gashed lips; and bruising throughout her face as well as around her left eye. Another image shows her right eye and lips looking slightly better but bruising looking worse on the right side of her face. A final image shows bruising on her neck and at the top of her chest.

    Moreno said Holly gave him permission to release the photos "so that others will never suffer what she did. We need and deserve change."

    RELATED: 5 charged in Cincinnati mob attack — and new details emerge about woman punched in face, apparently knocked out cold by thug

    Cellphone video (1:34 mark) shows the victim, who's wearing a blue dress, apparently trying to intervene on behalf of a beaten-up man, but instead another female punches her in the back of the head — and seconds later, a male punches her in the face, knocking her flat on her back on the street.

    Vivek Ramaswamy — who's running for Ohio governor — shared a disturbing close-up image of the woman's face after she hit the ground; her eyes are wide open, and her body is motionless. Video shows a few people soon trying to help her up.

    Ramaswamy added in his X post that he spoke to Holly on Monday, noting that she's a single working mom "who went to a friend's birthday party" before she became a target in the mob attack. "Holly appreciates the kind words and prayers from patriots across the country," Ramaswamy also shared.

    Another image in Moreno's X post shows a Facebook comment from Cincinnati council member Victoria Parks saying that "they begged for that beat down!"

    As you might guess, Parks' incendiary words drew intense, widespread backlash.

    Included among Parks' detractors is BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock, who on Thursday criticized Parks on “Jason Whitlock Harmony" and said she's "on the wrong side" of this situation.

    RELATED: 3 arrested in Cincinnati mob attack; 1 reportedly was out on bond for weapons charges at time of street beatdown

    Apart from the aforementioned first video of the mob attack, a second clip shows three other men knocked to the surface of the same street. Then one attacker leaps and lands his body atop one of the male victims — pro-wrestling-style — while the victim is still lying on the street surface. Afterward, a laughing, smiling male pulls the attacker away.

    A third video shows what appears to be the same victim from the previous clip getting pummeled from behind and knocked to the ground as a voice is heard saying, "Sleep him again!" The victim is then dragged by his foot into the middle of the street.

    A fourth video, however, appears to show what preceded the beatdown as depicted in the first video. It shows the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — who was beaten up in the first video — squaring off with a male in a red shirt and black shorts who would soon take part in the mob attack. It appears to show the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — and then it's on.

    An additional Facebook video appears to show even more of what occurred prior to the mob attack. It depicts what seems to be a verbal argument and minor scuffle that was on its way to calming down, and the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants seems to lightly slap the face of the male in the red shirt and black shorts, which — as noted above — leads to the beatdown.

    However, Whitlock on Monday stated on "Jason Whitlock Harmony" that he's heard the argument that the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — a white man — "started it" by making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — a black man — and that was justification for the mob attack.

    But Whitlock wasn't having it.

    "That's ridiculous to me," Whitlock said. "The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified."

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  • BlazeTV's 'The Coverup' reveals how the corporate media became 'proxies for the national security apparatus' Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:25:00 +0000


    On the latest episode of BlazeTV's "The Coverup," host Matt Kibbe and investigative journalist Matt Taibbi discuss the recent collapse of the corporate media, attributing it to the industry's shift in coverage strategies in response to Donald Trump's first presidential election.

    During this time, the press moved in lockstep to promote the Russian collusion allegations against Trump, while simultaneously suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story. Later, the corporate media also collaborated to stifle COVID-era lockdown skepticism and the lab leak theory.

    'You have people coming out of the National Security Council or the FBI, and they go right on air.'

    Taibbi, one of the investigative journalists behind the Twitter Files, told Kibbe, "When Trump arrived, there was a belief that the old-school, objective form of journalism, where we tell you the stuff and you do what you want with it — that was the tradition for ages in America — that had to go out the window," Taibbi told Kibbe. "Now, it was too important. Trump was too dangerous."

    Taibbi rejected this change, adding that "journalists should have distance from politics, even if we were opinionated." Instead of working in competition with one another, journalists began operating "as a team," he explained.

    "It's anathema to how journalism, I think, is supposed to work," he continued. "I quickly found myself on the outs."

    Kibbe credited the Twitter Files for revealing that a nonprofit organization had been "groom[ing] reporters to sing from the same song sheet and suppress stories before they even happened."

    Taibbi stated that a group of the country's most prominent national security reporters were invited in 2016 to "war game what would happen if a story about Hunter Biden and Burisma and a laptop came out."

    "This was months before the story came out," Taibbi said, noting that the reporters agreed to participate in the event off the record.

    RELATED: Matt Taibbi looking to make congresswoman pay big-time for repeating her smear online

    Matt Kibbe, Matt Taibbi. Image Source: BlazeTV

    Kibbe described some reporters as "useful idiots."

    "Maybe that's not fair," Kibbe said.

    "No, I think it's worse than that," Taibbi remarked. "I think they're essentially proxies for the national security apparatus."

    Taibbi stated that there are entire news organizations that have relationships with federal government agents, allowing for "a superhighway of information."

    "One is broadcasting PR for the other, and beyond that, they're hiring people," he continued. "You have people coming out of the National Security Council or the FBI, and they go right on air."

    Taibbi called it "a complete corruption and a complete breakdown of the system." He explained how the media suppresses stories.

    RELATED: The media’s misinformation machine is built to last — here’s why

    Matt Taibbi. Image Source: BlazeTV

    "If you go to work in these big organizations, it's not like anybody tells you, 'Okay, don't write this story, and do write that story,'" he said. "Over time, the values of the organization, they're sort of suffused through the entire bureaucracy. And even at the very lowest level, as a cub reporter, you learn very quickly what your editors want and what they don't want."

    "You just learn, 'Well, this is what's gonna get me promoted. This is what's gonna get me a better gig.' And you start writing those stories," he added.

    Taibbi noted that reporters with "difficult personalities wash out eventually."

    He concluded that the "corporate media is done now" because "they've now screwed up so many stories."

    "Even if they try to reorient themselves in the direction of journalism, they're gonna have to start at square one. And they're gonna be beaten out by all these independent sources that are already way ahead of them," Taibbi said.

    Blaze News asked Taibbi how he sees the evolution of America's media landscape over the next decade, considering that corporate outlets are experiencing a significant credibility crisis.

    "Obviously independent sources will benefit both from a trust standpoint and in terms of audience as the corporate press deals with fallout from mistakes and politicized coverage," he responded.

    "The U.S. has a long history of innovating new journalism forms, and I'm pretty confident something great will emerge. However, the new media landscape still hasn't figured out how to monetize long-form investigative reporting, nor does it have the ability to fund full-time beat writers or foreign bureaus yet," Taibbi stated. "So there are serious gaps."

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  • Eric Swalwell challenges Greg Gutfeld to bench press contest after getting mocked — and gets ridiculed again Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:10:05 +0000


    Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California is facing an onslaught of mockery after first posting videos of himself bench pressing and then challenging Greg Gutfeld to a competition.

    Swalwell was trying to criticize Republicans for ending a congressional session early before a vote could be taken to release information related to Jeffrey Epstein, when many ridiculed his bench press limit.

    'With a bench press like that, no one will mind if you use the women's locker room.'

    "I should be working right now. I should be at the Capitol. I should be in a suit. Instead, Republicans sent us home because they would rather stand up for Donald Trump than release the Epstein files and stand up for victims," he said in a video posted to social media showing him on the bench press.

    "I should be working right now. But Republicans shut down Congress. So instead, I'm pumping iron at the gym," he wrote on the post.

    The video was widely mocked by his critics.

    "You need to slap two more 45s on each side of that bar if you're going to post a video bench pressing. Embarrassing. My wife does more than you, Swalwell," writer Jack Windsor responded.

    "Apparently @ericswalwell thinks that benching less than my 14 year old son is a flex," attorney Haytham Kenway replied.

    "You might not get shredded at the gym, Eric, but you are definitely getting shredded in the replies," another critic said.

    Gutfeld covered the post on his late-night show, where he also mocked Swalwell.

    "With a bench press like that, no one will mind if you use the women's locker room," he joked.

    Swalwell then fired off his challenge to Gutfeld.

    "Here's a deal for @Gutfeldfox. (Never heard of him til he spent 8 mins criticizing what I bench press)," he wrote on social media. "*The deal: if tough guy benches more than me for 10 reps I'll leave Congress. If not, he leaves Fox News. I'll give Greg 48 hrs to accept, then I'm calling him GUTLESSfeld."

    That challenge was similarly ridiculed.

    "So thirsty ...," actor Dean Cain replied.

    "This is such a cringe move, congressman. Very weird. He was joking, obviously, so challenging him to a weightlifting competition seems ... unnecessary. Also, it's psychotic," Blaze News contributor Justin Haskins responded.

    RELATED: Gavin Newsom threatens to redistrict California after Texas GOP drops new district map proposal

    "Don't act tough when you get winded benching half your body weight," another response reads.

    Some pointed out that the challenge was tilted in Swalwell's favor because he is 44 years old, while Gutfeld is 60 years old.

    The Hill reported reaching out to Fox News for comment.

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  • Liberal media is dead silent about the damning revelations in the declassified Durham annex Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:50:00 +0000


    CIA Director John Ratcliffe teased on Sunday the release of previously classified intelligence pertaining to a "Hillary Clinton plan to falsely accuse Donald Trump of Russian collusion."

    On Thursday, Ratcliffe delivered the goods, providing Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the public by extension with the appendix to the 2023 Durham report concerning the origins of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into bogus Trump-Russia collusion allegations.

    At the time of publication, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, and other longtime purveyors of the Russian collusion hoax had apparently not yet touched the story, prompting journalist Glenn Greenwald to conclude, "The corporate media will not report on these new disclosures showing the CIA/FBI/Hillary Russiagate fraud because they were its leading perpetrators (they gave themselves Pulitzers for it)."

    "They have no shame," responded Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University.

    The appendix, commonly referred to as the Durham annex, provides additional insights both into the FBI's willful failure under former Director James Comey to investigate credible intelligence implicating the Clinton campaign in the creation of the Russian collusion hoax and into the bureau's subsequent cover-up.

    The annex also appears to reveal:

    • Intelligence indicating that "the Clinton staff, with support from special services, is preparing scandalous revelations of business relations between Trump and the 'Russian Mafia'";
    • The expectation by Leonard Benardo of George Soros' Open Society Foundations — who was apparently in touch with Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic National Committee — that the FBI would play along and ultimately "put more oil into the fire";
    • Benardo's suggestion that the bogus narrative could be laundered to the media absent "direct evidence" via the companies CrowdStrike and ThreatConnect;
    • Intelligence indicating Hillary Clinton personally signed off on the collusion narrative;
    • The FBI's understanding that the intelligence concerning the Clinton plan was credible; and
    • The FBI's decision to silo the information about the Clinton plan.

    Blaze News has reached out to Schultz and to Obama's office for comment.

    When pressed for comment about the Durham annex and its contents, the White House referred Blaze News to the FBI, which did not respond by deadline.

    RELATED: Ratcliffe releases damning Durham annex. Here's what it reveals about Obama-Clinton Russia collusion hoax.

    Photo (left): Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images ; Photo (right): Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

    Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was among those whose lives were turned upside down by Crossfire Hurricane — an investigation that special counsel John Durham revealed was based on "raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence" and reliant on the Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier.

    "The conclusion of the declassified Durham index today: George Soros' team, along with Clinton, Obama and Brennan knew the whole Clinton plan for Russiagate four days before FBI opened up probe," Papadopoulos noted on X. "The FBI happily did their dirty work for them. And this is still the beginning of declass."

    Grassley told Fox News shortly after publishing the annex that it's "evidence of the great depth that the deep state will go to to cover up weaponization that was going on in the FBI and the executive branch of government generally under the Obama administration."

    "We know that ... the Steele dossier, paid for by the Democrats and the Clinton campaign — that it was all an effort of total distraction and to make it look like Russia was playing a very major role in helping Trump to be elected, and now we know none of that was true," Grassley added. "Now with this Durham report annex out, it finally proves that the FBI was covering up."

    "The smoking gun kind of dovetails with things that Tulsi Gabbard has put out in the recent two weeks and things we had with the Crossfire Hurricane annex that I released a couple weeks ago," the senator added.

    RELATED: Obama and Brennan set to reap the whirlwind: Gabbard refers evidence of 'years-long coup' to DOJ for criminal probe

    Photo (left): Kevin Dietsch/Getty Image; Photo (right): Ethan Miller/Getty Images

    Ratcliffe said in a statement that the declassified annex shows "the false Trump-Russia collusion narrative for what it was — a coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump’s presidency."

    "The American people deserve the full, unfiltered truth about the Russia collusion hoax and the political abuse of our justice system it exposed," FBI Director Kash Patel said. "Today’s declassification and release of documents tied to the Durham report is another step toward that accountability. The FBI will continue working tirelessly with our federal partners at DOJ, CIA, and more to uncover the facts that should have been brought to light years ago."

    While some of the bureau's baggage is now out in the open, former FBI special agent Steve Friend suggested to Blaze News that the FBI is still replete with bad actors.

    When asked whether some of the same personalities who sat on the Russian collusion origins are still at the bureau, Friend said, "I know there are people that are still there and have not been flushed out — and have actually been promoted."

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  • We FINALLY know what’s in the FBI’s hidden room that Kash Patel teased to Joe Rogan Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:30:00 +0000


    On June 5, 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel told Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience” that years ago, when he was serving in an intelligence role, he stumbled upon a secret room brimming with burn bags containing sensitive documents and hard drives in the FBI’s Hoover Building.

    “When I first got to the bureau, [I] found a room that Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover Building full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of, locked the key and hid access, and just said, ‘No one's ever going to find this place,”’ Patel told Rogan. “So my guys are going through that right now.”

    Yesterday, almost two months after Patel’s comments, a Fox News article broke the news about what was in that room: thousands of sensitive documents related to the Trump-Russia probe, including a 29-page appendix to John Durham’s 2023 report, which was just declassified today. The appendix claims that the FBI used flawed foreign intelligence to push false narratives of Trump-Russia collusion in 2016.

    Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” reads from the Fox report: “The U.S. intelligence community had credible foreign sources indicating that the FBI would play a role in spreading the alleged Trump-Russia collusion narrative — before the bureau ever launched its controversial Crossfire Hurricane probe.”

    “You're looking at this, and you're like, ‘They really didn't think that we were going to win … [and] that these would ever come out, I guess,” she tells British actor Matthew Marsden and investigative journalist Steve Baker. “They never thought that there would be people in a position to go in and look for these documents and expose them for who they really are.”

    “I can't hate the people that were under the Obama administration enough because this is literally what they had back then … a banana republic,” says Marsden.

    “One of the reasons why I fell in love with America was because it's a free country — like it truly is a great country and for all the values that it was founded on – and they just trashed that,” he adds.

    “They need to go to jail.”

    To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode below.

    Want more from Sara Gonzales?

    To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

  • Progressive Democrat calls ICE the 'Nazi Gestapo' and threatens to 'confront' agents: 'It will be a day of reckoning' Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:20:00 +0000


    A Democratic Rhode Island state representative appeared to threaten to confront federal immigration agents after he referred to them as the "Nazi Gestapo."

    State Rep. Enrique Sanchez made the comments on his social media account after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents completed an operation in Providence on July 13.

    'It will be soon the day that I confront these Nazi ICE thugs in person for terrorizing our communities.'

    "The Nazi Gestapo ICE thugs kidnapped another of our neighbor in Providence this morning," Sanchez wrote on social media. "This time on Alverson st. The ICE thugs damaged a couple cars that belonged to residents as well. They think they are above the law. I strongly condemn this act of terror and will be demanding answers and seeking action tomorrow. I am tired of this s**t. Providence doesn't want ICE thugs in our city."

    However, the "neighbor" that ICE was supposedly terrorizing was an admitted member of the violent MS-13 gang, according to ICE sources who spoke to Fox News. They also said that the cars were damaged because the gang member attempted to flee and struck several ICE vehicles.

    When confronted by WJAR-TV about the man's alleged criminal past, Sanchez said that he was willing to admit his mistake about that case but continued to defend his comparison to Nazi Germany.

    On Wednesday, Sanchez doubled down on this rhetoric against ICE.

    "It will be soon the day that I confront these Nazi ICE thugs in person for terrorizing our communities. It will be a day of reckoning and no going back," he wrote in a second post.

    "I hope the people of Providence and Rhode Island have our back. They will try to end our work and put down our struggle," he added.

    RELATED: Illegal alien activist group demands Phoenix end 'racist' police stops on broken taillights and tinted windows

    Blaze News reached out to Sanchez for clarification about his comments, and he did not respond via email but posted a response on social media.

    "Clarify what comments?" he posted, with laughing emojis. "Also, can this administration condemn the actions and violence that ICE thugs impose on individuals seeking a better life?"

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  • 'Fantastic Four' star fantasizes about fighting 'fascists' in ridiculous response to fan question Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:05:00 +0000


    Actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach could not help himself when answering a fan question at a recent press junket.

    The cast of yet another movie rendition of "The Fantastic Four" sat down for an interview with IMDB, where he was asked a series of fan questions ranging from silly to thought-provoking.

    While fans are likely familiar with wildly progressive public comments from star Pedro Pascal, who plays Mister Fantastic, Moss-Bachrach, who plays The Thing, may have surprised fans with the way he chose to answer one of their questions.

    'There's a handful of fascists that I would just throw into outer space.'

    The cast were prompted with the question: "If you could borrow your character's powers for one day, what's the first thing you would do?"

    First, Pascal said that he would love to borrow the Invisible Woman's powers so that he could go swimming and not have sharks attack him. Joseph Quinn, who plays the Human Torch, said he would go on holiday and cook his co-stars a barbecued meal "with my own fire."

    Moss-Bachrach, meanwhile, did not hesitate to give a political answer when it was his turn to respond.

    "I would — there's a handful of fascists that I would just throw into outer space. That's what I would do."

    Pascal chuckled, then reached out his hand, and the two high-fived.

    "F**king A," Pascal immediately replied.

    RELATED: All in the family: Hollywood golden boy Pedro Pascal's loony leftist pedigree

    Before "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," Moss-Bachrach starred alongside Jon Bernthal in the obviously right-wing series "The Punisher," so the actor's remark may come as a surprise given he rarely makes public political comments. However, he was part of a group that called for a ceasefire between Palestine and Israel in 2024, specifically stating that it stands with Palestinians.

    Pascal, on the other hand, has consistently gone above and beyond to include political messaging in public interviews, and he has also provided unprovoked public commentary on cultural issues.

    For example, Pascal slammed President Donald Trump over his immigration policy while in Cannes, France, in May.

    The Chilean actor also lashed out at author J.K. Rowling when she celebrated the U.K. Supreme Court's decision that the definition of a woman should only include actual women.

    Pascal called her celebration "awful disgusting s**t" indicative of "heinous loser behavior."

    RELATED: What Pedro Pascal’s stardom reveals about Hollywood — and its war on real men

    Cast of 'Fantastic Four' July 24, 2025. Photo by Jeff Neira/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. via Getty Images

    Pascal, whose brother who began presenting himself as a woman at age 29 in 2021, comes from a family of devout communists who were forced to flee Chile in the 1970s after harboring the leader of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a Marxist-Leninist group.

    His real name is José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal. The Balmaceda family is deeply rooted in Chilean political history, with about a dozen politicians in the family, including former Chilean President José Manuel Balmaceda (1886-1891).

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