told Newsmax on Tuesday
that he expects Republicans to post major victories in the state's
primary runoff elections, predicting Attorney General Ken Paxton will
prevail in the Senate race and again in the general election this fall.
"I think we'll have a big win," Virdell said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Early," adding that he thinks Paxton will also defeat Democrat contender James Talarico this fall.
"James Talarico
has said enough crazy things in interviews and on the
internet and everything else that people will be in shock," said
Virdell.
He also praised President Donald Trump's endorsement of Paxton, and the president's comments about Talarico.
"I worked with Talarico in the House, and he's a nice guy. But when
he starts telling you what he believes, it just shocks people," said
Virdell.
But, Virdell said, Talarico has a "slick tongue," and he does not think voters will choose him because of that.
"If you listen to him, in some ways, people are like, 'Oh man, that
guy sounds like a very good preacher.' And then you listen to his actual
ideology, and it's just completely shocking. I hope nobody falls for
that," he said.
Virdell also weighed in on Gov. Greg Abbott's
reelection campaign
against Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa,
a current state
representative.
"I really want to see Governor Abbott pull a victory off there, but
we need voters to turn out," Virdell said. "That's the big thing,
including today. We can't just sit at home today."
On the Democratic runoff for lieutenant governor between state Rep.
Vikki Goodwin and labor organizer Marcus Velez, Virdell said he had not
heard much about the contest.
"I actually worked with Vikki Goodwin also in the Texas House," he
said. "Vikki also comes across as a very nice person. She's very quiet. I
don't know the other opponent, but she's a nice person, but she's also
very quiet. So I don't know how much she's actually been out there and
campaigning."
He added, "I haven't heard anything about that race, so I assume it's kind of a sleeper race going on there."
Democrats will tell you crime is getting better in
blue cities around the country. Does anyone actually believe that? Just
ask residents of Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass touts statistics showing that crime rates have lowered when, in reality, there’s been a home invasion wave, and street takeovers are as regular as the sunshine.
Or you could ask the beleaguered residents of Seattle, where some
residents feel forced to put up barricades to keep the perps out.
They
argued that they were getting no help from the police in the rainy
leftist enclave where a Democratic socialist with virtually no résumé, Katie Wilson,
was elected mayor in November 2025.
These folks had to take matters into their own hands:
In the above video, residents tell reporters about the constant fear of living under these conditions:
"There's been a shooting almost every night in the last couple of weeks," explained one woman.
A
male said the situation was unacceptable. "It's terrifying to live
here, and it's even more terrifying that the city is absolutely doing
nothing to protect the citizens in this neighborhood."
Reporter: "Which is why they're taking matters into their own hands. They put up these makeshift barriers.”
Another man: "It was a game-changer. We, you know, it made it feel much more safe there."
I’m glad they feel safer, but it’s beyond ridiculous that they felt forced into this position in the first place.
What led to their feeling that such a bold move was the only way forward? Bullets flying seemingly every night:
Frustrated
by recurring gunfire tied to Aurora Avenue’s long-running and
increasingly deadly crime problems, some North Seattle residents have
begun barricading neighborhood streets themselves.
Supporters call
it a safety measure, though it is also raising concerns that the
makeshift barricades could delay ambulances and fire crews responding to
emergencies.
In recent days, neighbors near North 97th, 98th, and
102nd streets hauled in large metal planter boxes, dirt, and gravel to
partially block residential roads feeding into Aurora Avenue North, one
of Seattle’s busiest corridors.
The barriers are intended to stop
gunmen from speeding through side streets during shootings connected to
turf disputes among people involved in prostitution and human
trafficking activity along Aurora.
The barriers
have their critics, however. Watch this wokester in the required
Seattle ponytail trying to tell one of the builders that “I just don’t
know that I feel like this is the right fix.” What’s your solution, pal?
Contrast that with the footage of the shootings in the same video, which is from a KING 5 Seattle report, that regularly plague the area.
"It's not a fix for sure," says one of the builders. "It's a Band-Aid. This is Tylenol for Stage 4 cancer."
This cancer has a name: progressivism. Leftist policies
have failed in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and, of course,
Seattle. Ponytail dude undoubtedly voted for them every single step of
the way. The progressive policy in cities like these seems to be
“managed decline” — and barely managed at that. People seem to be waking
up to the massive failures, proven by the fact that LA Mayoral
candidate Spencer Pratt
Most Americans are spending time with their families this weekend for
Memorial Day, remembering and honoring those who gave their lives for
our country.
But some were busy doing other things. For example, there were activists at the ICE detention center in Newark, N.J., over the weekend. Democratic politicians also made an appearance. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ)
was trying to get into the facility on Sunday.
Kim was back on Monday. Gov. Mikie Sherrill also showed up.
A
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said Kim personally
called Secretary Markwayne Mullin,
and that he was allowed in the
facility to conduct his congressional oversight responsibilities.
However, the spokesperson criticized Sherrill over the appearance at the
detention center.
"Governor Sherrill’s
visit to Delaney Hall is nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial
Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside the
facility," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Yesterday,
approximately 125 agitators surrounded Delaney Hall Detention Facility,
many carrying anti-ICE signs and Antifa flags. They formed a human chain
around entrances to the facility and set up barricades, blocking all
entries and exits."
The activists were at it again on
Monday. Here's one digging up large blocks to help add to their
blockade of an exit from the facility.
Here's the blockade they assembled, with all the random garbage they were able to grab.
They
were chanting, "Quit your job," and "Why are you hiding your face?" at
the federal agents — even though some of the activists were wearing
masks. The hypocrisy seemed to escape them.
Kim was telling the
activists to let the agents through the blockades, saying he would make
sure there were no detainees in the vehicles. Here on X.
Police reportedly had to deploy pepper spray, and carted away some of the agitators. Here on X.
And it looks like Kim may have been affected.
This was the same facility where Democrats created a scene last year.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) was later indicted on charges related to
that incident.
DHS denied there were any bad conditions in the facility,
All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries, "DHS said.
"Illegal
aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family
members and lawyers," the agency said. "Certified dieticians evaluate
meals. In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S.
prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens."
We need to revisit this because I have to hope
that our cousins across the pond are not lost, even though more and more
evidence suggests they might be. The nation is suffering under Prime
Minister Keir Starmer,
who could be on political life support as Labour
suffered a heavy defeat in the local elections earlier this month.
Immigration has finally come to a head, but how do you combat the
narrative when there is no codified freedom of speech?
held a Unite the Kingdom rally last week that was
smeared as some right-wing hate rally. Of course, the media framed it as
such (via CNN):
When
some 150,000 people descended on London in September for a rally
organized by Tommy Robinson – an agitator who spreads anti-Muslim
bigotry and has several criminal convictions – it felt like a watershed
moment in British politics.
“Something in our country changed,” Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London,
said at the time. “This felt different.”
And
so when at least tens of thousands gathered again in the British
capital on Saturday for the latest “Unite the Kingdom” march, it felt
less out of the ordinary. Views that would once not have been expressed
in public are becoming commonplace. Marches organized by Robinson, whose
real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, are becoming a regular outlet for
them.
“Millions have got to go,” said Pete, 64, from Derbyshire,
in the English midlands. He was referring to unauthorized immigrants.
“They shouldn’t be in this country,” he told CNN. “They’re claiming
benefits. ‘Benefit Britain’ has got to end.”
At September’s mass
rally, the mood was militant. “Whether you choose violence or not,
violence is coming to you,” Elon Musk told the crowd via video link.
“You either fight back or die.”
Oh, please. I almost
forgot who was there: Nick Shirley, the independent reporter and
YouTuber who uncovered the Somali fraud network and derailed Tim Walz’s
plans for a third term as governor of Minnesota.
Nick Shirley spoke powerfully today at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London.
He told the crowd:
“Your
media will call you far right, and your prime minister will call you
guys dangerous, but the ideas of freedom of speech aren’t dangerous. The
idea that you want to know who… pic.twitter.com/CjmaeBUTwT
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) May 16, 2026
“Your
media will call you far right, and your prime minister will call you
guys dangerous, but the ideas of freedom of speech aren’t dangerous. The
idea that you want to know who your neighbor is doesn’t make you
dangerous… It means that you have common sense,” Shirley said to the
attendees last week.
He’s not wrong. Over at Public,
Michael Shellenberger did a deep dive on how politicians like Starmer,
the atypical globalist bureaucrat, who also infest the Conservative
Party, have given rise to movements that fueled the Unite the Kingdom
rally in London and elsewhere:
The United Kingdom’s
globalist Conservative governments allowed net migration to rise to a
record 906,000 in the year ending June 2023, more than four times
pre-Brexit levels. Those same Conservatives passed a “net zero”
emissions by 2050 into law in 2019, accelerated subsidies for offshore
wind, and failed to tap North Sea oil and gas, even as energy bills
climbed. And conservative ministers adopted World Health Organization
guidance for Covid lockdowns, masking, and vaccination, and they
expanded gender self-identification guidance in English schools.
German
and French establishment parties enforced a cordon sanitaire or
firewall against the “far-right” Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the
Rassemblement National (RN) parties, denying them coalition partners and
most mainstream coverage, and American voters in 2020 elected Joe
Biden, who reversed Trump’s border policies and rejoined the Paris
climate accord on his first day in office. Biden restored Obama-era
diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks across the federal
bureaucracy and revived federal pressure on social media companies to
remove disfavored speech.
But then, the reelection of Donald Trump
in November 2024 dashed those hopes. Trump returned to power on
promises to seal the southern border, deport illegal immigrants, end the
electric vehicle mandate, withdraw from the Paris accord, and dismantle
federal censorship of social media.
[…]
…the globalists are
fighting back in Europe. European Commission officials in Brussels are
tightening their censorial grip on the digital public square through the
Digital Services Act and a “Democracy Shield” program to demand
censorship of the Right ahead of upcoming elections. In Britain, Labor
leadership challengers Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting have openly called
for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union. Streeting formally
launched his leadership bid in May 2026 by calling Brexit “a
catastrophic mistake” and saying “Britain’s future lies with Europe, and
one day back in the European Union.” And France’s Marine Le Pen lost
her right to run for the 2027 presidency on March 31, 2025, when a Paris
court convicted her of embezzling EU funds and immediately barred her
from public office for five years.
But right-wing nationalists are not far from taking power in major European capitals.
In
Britain, the right-wing Reform UK party gained more than 1,400 seats in
the May 7, 2026, local elections, while Labor lost more than 1,300
seats and the Conservatives lost over 500. Ninety-seven Labor MPs last
week called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign. Seventy percent of
British respondents told YouGov in May 2026 that Starmer was performing
“poorly.”
[…]
The Atlanticist establishment has responded
to nationalist victories by escalating its persecution rather than
reconsidering its policies. Last December, the European Commission fined
X $140 million for so-called deceptive practices and insufficient
transparency. The Commission demanded that X end user anonymity and
grant the Commission full access to American user data.
But that
persecution is driving much of the surge in support for the populist
right. Seventy-one percent of Europeans now tell pollsters that the EU
should give member nations greater control of their own borders.
Majorities in Germany, France, and Italy favor a large decrease in new
arrivals, with roughly half of voters surveyed supporting a complete
freeze and the departure of large numbers of recent migrants.
Sorry, left-wingers, but censorship will not kill us or our ideas. They should know these tactics do the opposite.
“The
more aggressively the establishment defends itself through procedural
and legal means, the more support flows to the parties and candidates
the obsessive globalist PMC [professional-managerial class] wants to
silence,” wrote Shellenberger.
U.S. forces have reportedly conducted self-defense strikes against Iranian mine-laying ships and missile launch sites.
Following
reports of explosions in the vicinity of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Howard
Altman has said that a U.S. Central Command spokesperson has told them
that U.S. self-defense strikes were conducted against Iranian fast boats
attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites. https://t.co/uegRx8Q66S
MORE details on US strikes vs Iranian targets today:
2
Iranian boats were caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, senior
US official tells me. The US military eliminated both IRGC vessels and
also struck at a SAM (surface to air missile) site in Bandar Abbas that
was… https://t.co/ew89rCfL5J
I
am told the US strikes are over for now. Again these were defensive in
nature not offensive and not an effort to break the ceasefire. The US
military says it reacted when they saw 2 IRGC boats laying mines and
then also when a SAM missile site targeted its warplanes. https://t.co/lJNPKp94kM
Two
Iranian ships were struck in the Strait of Hormuz, which CENTCOM has
considered to be eliminated. Surface-to-air missile batteries that
targeted American aircraft were also reportedly destroyed. Officials
were quick to announce that this was not an end to the on-going
ceasefire, but merely acts of self-defense.
Explosions and fires had been observed in a number of
locations across Iranian territory, including in the large port city of
Bandar Abbas and the vital economic location of Kharg Island.
Following
reports of explosions on the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s
Mehr News Agency has said that the situation is normal and that the
sounds heard were from the east of the city. More to come. pic.twitter.com/VZav8Oiz6r
The
strikes come as the United States and Iran were on the cusp of coming
to an agreement to end the three-month-long conflict that began after
Operation Epic Fury,
Look, a lot has happened over the past few weeks,
with Operation Epic Fury being the least of it—particularly the fiasco
involving the January 6 pipe bomber who evaded the FBI for years. The
Blaze probably jumped the gun in its story, identifying former Capitol
Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff, 31,
as a potential suspect. This has led to a lawsuit since she had an alibi, and another suspect, Brian Cole,
was arrested and charged in December 2025.
Still, conspiracy theories
and palace intrigue will likely surround Ms. Kerkhoff since she
reportedly failed an FBI polygraph. She was cleared as a suspect, but in
this era, that will continue to fan the flames.
That aspect is also mentioned in The New York Times’ lengthy April piece
about her ordeal, though only at the end. It will likely be dredged up,
as Cole’s defense team is likely to cite that as part of their defense:
Mr.
Cole, the man now charged as the pipe bomber, pleaded not guilty and
awaits trial. His lawyers recently filed court documents that hinted at
plans for a possible defense: that it was Ms. Kerkhoff, not Mr. Cole,
who planted the bombs even though the F.B.I. had cleared her of doing
so.
The filings claimed that Ms. Kerkhoff failed her polygraph
test.
(Mr. Bunnell, who represented Ms. Kerkhoff during the
investigation, said that lie detector tests are a tool, not a truth
machine, and pointed out that they are not admissible as evidence in
court because their accuracy is unreliable.)
The same day Mr.
Cole’s lawyers filed the court documents, Ms. Kerkhoff’s lawyers
received an email from someone who threatened to shoot their client in
the face.
Kerkhoff was home when the bombs were placed at the headquarters of
the DNC and RNC before the riot. As for Cole, he’s been slapped with two
more charges (via CBS News):
The
man accused of planting pipe bombs outside of the Republican and
Democratic National Committee headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6
Capitol riot now faces two additional felony charges, according to a
superseding indictment made public…
Brian Cole Jr. was arrested
and charged in December with transporting and planting the two IEDs at
the DNC and RNC headquarters. The new indictment adds charges of
attempting to use weapons of mass destruction and committing an act of
terrorism while armed.
The bombs did not detonate, but the FBI has
said they were viable. The case had gone cold for years, and Trump
administration officials described solving it as a top priority.
Cole
pleaded not guilty to the initial charges against him but has not been
arraigned on the new indictment. In January, Cole was ordered to be
detained in jail in the run-up to his criminal trial.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that Mexico has agreed
to host Iran’s national soccer team during the upcoming 2026 FIFA World
Cup, after the United States refused to accommodate the squad for
overnight stays for obvious national security reasons pertaining to the
ongoing conflict.
Speaking during her daily press conference, Sheinbaum revealed that
football’s global governing body, FIFA, directly approached the Mexican
government to secure lodging and training facilities for the Iranian
team once Washington made its restrictions clear.
According to surfacing reports, the logistical shakeup has even
prompted the Iranian Football Federation to abandon its original plans
to establish a World Cup base camp in Tucson, Arizona.
Instead, federation president Mehdi Taj announced that the team will
relocate its headquarters to the Mexican border city of Tijuana,
situated in Baja California along the Pacific coast. According to
Iranian soccer officials, the shift to Tijuana not only circumvents the
overnight visa denials imposed by the U.S., but it also allows the team
to fly directly into Mexico via Iran Air.
Despite the diplomatic hurdle, Taj noted that Tijuana offers an
alternative, keeping the squad just a 55-minute flight away from their
opening match venues in Los Angeles. Geopolitical tensions between
Washington and Tehran have cast a long shadow over the expanded 48-team
tournament, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and
Canada from June 11th to July 19th.
While the White House and the U.S. State Department did not
immediately comment on the lodging ban, Sheinbaum emphasized that Mexico
maintains a “neutral” stance and views the situation purely through the
lens of “international hospitality.”
She reiterated to reporters that Mexico has no political or legal
basis to deny the sports delegation entry, describing the agreement as a
seamless solution coordinated in tandem with FIFA.
“We have no reason to deny the possibility of them staying in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said.
Iran is scheduled to make its World Cup debut on June 15th against New Zealand in Los Angeles, followed by a June 21st match against Belgium in the same city, before traveling further north to face Egypt in Seattle on June 26th.
Under the current arrangement, the players and technical staff will
commute from Tijuana into the United States strictly for their matches
and mandated pre-game sessions, returning to Mexican soil immediately
afterward.
FIFA emphasized that it has endorsed the cross-border operational
plan to ensure the Iranian team can compete fully without violating the
parameters established by U.S. immigration authorities.
President Donald Trump’s call for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iran to
sign the Abraham Accords is a bold move. It sounds hopeful and even
brave. But hope needs a plan, and a plan needs facts. Two of the three
countries he named are active sponsors of groups that openly seek
Israel’s destruction. Asking them to sign a peace deal is not just
optimistic; it might be a test to see who really wants peace and who
only pretends to.
A risky invitation: Can Iran and Qatar be trusted?
Asking
Iran and Qatar to join the Abraham Accords is like inviting arsonists
to a campfire safety meeting. Iran backs Hezbollah and other militant
groups and has long been a foe of the United States and Israel. Qatar
hosts and bankrolls factions linked to Hamas. That doesn’t make them
neighbors ready for handshakes and song. It makes them players with a
long record of funding violence and spreading influence where it suits
them.
What the Accords were meant to do
The Abraham
Accords were supposed to change the map of the Middle East. They were
meant to turn old grudges into new trade deals and security pacts. That
work is valuable. But success requires partners who want to build, not
burn. If a country’s leadership funds terror groups, buys influence in
foreign universities, or quietly supports anti-Israel campaigns, a peace
treaty is only paper—easy to sign, easy to tear up.
Use the offer as a litmus test, not a surrender
If
President Trump really wants more countries to join the accords, he
should make the offer a smart test. Let nations show their cards. Will
they cut off funding for terror? Will they stop supporting proxies that
rain rockets on civilians and undermine regional stability? If the
answer is no, then the United States should treat them as adversaries,
not partners. That means keeping pressure on regimes that fund
extremists and protecting American forces and allies.
We should
cheer for peace—and we must push for it—but not at the cost of common
sense. The Accords can be a tool to sort friends from foes. If some
countries want peace, great. If others want to keep funding terror while
smiling in public, we should call them out and act accordingly. In the
end, peace is worth pursuing, but only with partners who actually want
to make peace.
Carl Higbie’s recent provocation — asking what Democrats imagine as
their “perfect country” — landed like a cold bucket of reality for
millions of Americans tired of lectures from elites who live in gated
bubbles. Higbie, now the host of a primetime show on Newsmax, made the
point bluntly: too many on the left are pushing a vision of America that
substitutes government control for individual responsibility.
Look
at the policy playbook most prominent Democrats favor and you see the
outline of that “perfect country”: massive tax hikes on the wealthy,
expanded entitlement programs, and a bigger, more intrusive federal
state. Washington’s appetite for higher rates on capital gains and
steeper top income taxes has been on the table for years as a way to
fund this transformation, and conservatives rightly warn that those
proposals punish success and choke economic growth.
Climate
crusades like the Green New Deal are another example of utopian thinking
dressed up as policy, calling for sweeping economic re-engineering
while promising outcomes no bureaucracy can reliably deliver. Proponents
tout it as moral and necessary, but the playbook reads like a wish list
for centralized planning and industrial policy that will raise costs
and limit choice for ordinary Americans.
On education and economic
redistribution, leading Democrats have floated student debt
cancellation and free public college plans that sound compassionate
until you do the math and ask who pays the bill. These proposals shift
trillions of dollars of responsibility onto taxpayers, eroding fairness
for people who worked and sacrificed to pay for their kids’ educations
and rewarding borrowing over prudence.
Hardworking Americans
deserve a patriot’s answer: we will not trade liberty for government
guarantees, nor will we accept a version of the country that treats
citizens as mere units to be managed by technocrats. Conservatives
believe in opportunity, not entitlement; in rule of law, not rule by
commissars; and in flourishing communities bound by faith, family, and
freedom rather than by the dictates of distant bureaucrats.
This
isn’t idle partisan sniping — it’s a sober warning about what happens
when a ruling class pursues its image of perfection at the expense of
ordinary lives. Big-government schemes have real costs: higher taxes,
more debt, and incentives that warp behavior and punish productivity,
and the people who bear the brunt are the middle class and the next
generation.
I tried to track down a full transcript of the
specific Newsmax segment Higbie referenced, but could not find the exact
clip or transcript hosted on Newsmax’s public pages or elsewhere; what
is clear from his platform is that Higbie is using his Newsmax show to
press this argument and to challenge the left’s vision for America.
Conservatives should keep answering that challenge with plain talk and
concrete alternatives that defend liberty, common sense, and the dignity
of work.
