'The left’s playbook hasn’t changed'

News Frankenstein Guillermo del Toro Compares Adapting Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to “Marrying a Widow” Director Guillermo del Toro offers a unique perspective on the challenges of staying true to Mary Shelley’s novel. By Matthew Byrd | Published on October 16, 2025 Photo: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Netflix During a recent interview with various outlets (as covered by Forbes), Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro discussed the various challenges and joys that came from bringing his new movie to life. Naturally, the conversation involved the topic of adapting and remaining “faithful” to Mary Shelley’s work. As we have discussed, there have been many great Frankenstein adaptations over the years, but none have ever offered an entirely accurate adaptation of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Those adaptations have even gradually reshaped the popular perception of that story over the decades. Naturally, that long history of variations and interpretations has fostered a fascination with the idea of a Frankenstein movie or show that at least attempts to offer a more accurate interpretation of the source material. For his part, though, Del Toro makes it clear that he is not aiming for such a strict retelling. His version of Frankenstein will instead draw upon not just the novel but Shelley’s life, other works, and the culture they helped inspire. “I have dedicated my life to the Romantic movement and Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Gothic literature. This is decades of study and absorption,” del Toro says. “My Frankenstein is an amalgam of her biography, my biography, the Romantic movement, the novel, et cetera, et cetera. The movie is not just the book, and Mary Shelley is not just that book.” Del Toro goes on to describe his movie as a “complete act of love that has taken so many decades to create.” And while he says that he would “exchange my entire career for an afternoon having tea with Mary Shelley or the Brontë sisters,” he points out that Shelley accepted less-than-accurate theatrical adaptations of Frankenstein in her lifetime. He also offers a rather… unique perspective on what it’s like adapting such a story and making changes along the way. “Adapting a book is like marrying a widow,” del Toro muses. “You have to respect the late husband, but on Saturdays, you are allowed to get it on.” Well, okay then. Rather than leave the gathered media members with that thought, del Toro goes on to say that he doesn’t want to tell people what they should take away from his version of the story, but he does hope they will open their hearts to the emotion of the experience. “In the world we live in now, a lot of people are scared of emotion. They find it really corny,” del Toro suggests. “I don’t. I think emotion is the new punk. It’s the new anarchy. We’ve got to rebel and say, ‘To all that wisdom you bring with your irony, to all that callousness you bring with your certainty, well, I give you this emotion and f**k you.’” Frankenstein will receive a limited theatrical release starting on October 17 and will be available to stream on Netflix beginning on November 7. [end-mark] The post Guillermo del Toro Compares Adapting Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i> to “Marrying a Widow” appeared first on Reactor.

Federal immigration officials have arrested a police officer in a Chicago suburb who was living in the U.S. illegally.   Radule Bojovic, an illegal alien from Montenegro, recently began working for the Hanover Park, Illinois, Police Department, according to an August social media post from the department congratulating the officer on graduating from a law enforcement program. Bojovic overstayed his visa, which expired in 2015, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Montenegro is a Balkan country in Southeastern Europe. When he was arrested, Bojovic presented officers with an ID showing that he is an employee of the police department, according to ICE. He did not have a firearm on him, but told officers he is only allowed to carry his firearm while on duty.   “Illegal aliens are prohibited from owning or possessing firearms—full stop,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Chicago Field Office Director Sam Olson said.   “This is the second known instance in recent months of a local police department hiring an illegal alien and unlawfully issuing him a firearm while on duty in violation of federal law,” Olson continued. “It is alarming how local jurisdictions continue to disregard federal law to the detriment of their communities.”  Bojovic was earning an annual salary of $78,955, according to the Department of Homeland Security.  .@GovPritzker doesn’t just allow illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois’s communities, he allows them to work as sworn police officers.Radule Bojovic overstayed a B2 tourist visa that required him to depart the U.S. on March 31, 2015. Over a decade later, he was still illegally… pic.twitter.com/7rQFULQh20— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) October 16, 2025 The Daily Signal made a number of attempts to contact the Hanover Park Police Department, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.   “The fact that a police department either missed or overlooked a B-2 [visitor visa] overstay, which is a federal statute, to me that’s not a good thing,” an immigration officer told Ben Bergquam of Real America’s Voice News in an exclusive interview.  “How long have you been a police officer?” an ICE agent can be heard asking Bojovic upon his arrest.   “Since Jan. 8,” Bojovic says, adding that he “just finished the academy.”   Bojovic confirmed to Real America’s Voice News that he was allowed to carry a firearm while on duty.   Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, following the news of the arrest, calling him “completely corrupt.”   “Radical sanctuary politicians have allowed criminal illegal aliens to infiltrate our school districts, communities, and even police departments,” Noem said.   Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.   Illinois is a sanctuary state, meaning that local and state law enforcement are restricted from cooperating with federal immigration officials.   The Trump administration is currently carrying out a targeted immigration enforcement operation called Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois. The operation is specifically targeting criminal illegal aliens who have fled to Illinois due to the state’s sanctuary policies, DHS announced in September.   The operation has been met with protests in Chicago that have grown violent at times.   Federal Judge Sara Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, an appointee of President Barack Obama, issued a temporary restraining order last week restricting federal immigration enforcement officials from using certain crowd-control methods, such as types of gas and chemical irritants, “on members of the press, protesters, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others.”   Following concerns that immigration officials were not abiding by the temporary restraining order, Ellis on Thursday ordered agents to wear body cameras while conducting activities that are part of Operation Midway Blitz.   The post ICE Agents Arrests Police Officer Who’s Been Living in US Illegally for a Decade   appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. There’s a very controversial ballot measure here in California, Prop 50. It involves redistricting congressional districts in a special ballot mandate that would empower Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to draw up new congressional districts. And the gist of it is that the Democrats feel that in the next midterms, they want to get at least five or six more congressional Democratic seats. They say it’s in reaction to what Texas has done. Texas has redistricted and it is going to pick up more Republican seats than it had before. Gavin Newsom, who was running for president in 2028, has thrust himself into the controversy and said: I will do what Texas did. But there’s a problem. If you look at all the gerrymandered districts in all 50 states and you compare them with the national vote—contemporary national vote—of Democrat, Republican, they’re already gerrymandered in favor of Democrats. Here in California, to take the most relevant example that involves Prop 50, we have 52 congressional districts—52. Currently, there are only nine Republicans out of that 52. That represents about 17% of the congressional district. However, in most statewide and national elections, Republicans usually poll about 40%. So, in other words, California is 23% underrepresented in its congressional districts, in terms of Republican representatives, right now. How did that happen? That happened because about a decade ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ran as a conservative and metamorphosed into a centrist or moderate or maybe left-center in his last years in office, created what he said was a nonpartisan redistricting commission. But when you actually looked at the people on that commission, they were either Left or center-left, and they gerrymandered California under the guise of a nonpartisan or bipartisan commission that took politics, supposedly, out of the equation. So, what am I saying? We’re going way beyond nonpartisanship. That wasn’t nonpartisan. We’re going into extremism that is going to end up with just four or five Republican Congress representatives out of 52 seats. And it’s even worse than that when you look at the map. It makes jigsaw puzzles look proportional. They’re stretching and pulling these districts well beyond any semblance to geographical reality. And the point is, they want to combine Republicans into about five districts. And that way they would free up moderates and independents and Democrats and create the other 47 districts that would be sure winners for the Left. And in these five districts, these nine existing Republicans would be forced to run against each other. So, they would destroy half of the incumbents, and some of them serve on, you know, very important committees in Washington, they have seniority. Gavin Newsom, moreover, when he’s been asked about that, he says that he wants to punch these people. I guess he was referring to Republicans in general or the Texas Republicans in particular. He wants to “punch them in the mouth.” He said he wants to punch President Donald Trump in the mouth. The rhetoric is heating up, but will Proposition 50 pass in a state that is 60%, in most elections, voting toward the Left or for Democrats? It probably will. And we in California, who are on the conservative side, will go from 17% representation—not 40%, which reflects our actual numbers, but 17%—now to about 9% after Proposition 50 passes. So, I would urge everyone to take a very good look in California at this proposition. And whatever your political affiliation is, you can see that this is a desperate attempt to destroy a once idealistic but not very good bipartisan commission, but far better than turning over redistricting to Gavin Newsom and hardcore leftists in the California Legislature. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Newsom’s Redistricting Ploy Makes a ‘Jigsaw Puzzle Look Proportional’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Maryland on charges related to mishandling of classified information. Bolton is said to have shared extremely sensitive documents dealing with national security matters through an AOL email account that he operated personally following his appointment in the first Trump administration. Bolton’s home was raided by the FBI in August.  The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of a total of 18 counts of unlawfully retaining national defense information and unlawfully transmitting national defense information. Bolton, 76, could face decades in prison if convicted of just some of the charges. The indictment contends that Bolton “abused his position as national security adviser by sharing with family members more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities.” Bolton became an ardent critic of President Donald Trump after he was fired in September 2019 as the president’s national security adviser during his first term. He earned a reported $2 million advance for his political memoir discussing his time in the Trump White House. The Justice Department argued before a federal judge that the book contained sensitive information that could hurt national security. Bolton previously served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush.  This is a breaking news story and might be updated. The post Trump Adviser-Turned-Foe John Bolton Indicted in Maryland appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Heritage Action is investing in winning key districts in Virginia away from “far-Left candidates backed by national progressive groups.” On Tuesday Heritage Action announced the Virginia Battle Plan 2025—a significant investment strategy targeting vulnerable blue districts in the Virginia state legislature. Although all eyes are on the statewide elections for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, all 100 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates are also up for election this November. Heritage Action has targeted four key seats that could flip the state house and bring power back to Republicans in Richmond. “Virginia is the frontline of the fight for America’s future,” Heritage Action Executive Vice President Tiffany Justice shared in a press release. “The only way to stop the Left’s radical takeover is to win elections. That starts by flipping key seats in Virginia and standing firm for faith, family, and freedom.” Amid the current outrage over Democrat attorney general nominee Jay Jones’ text messages calling for the murder of a political rival and his children, Heritage Action states it is protecting Virginia from “extreme leftists,” like Jones and his allies in the state legislature. “Jones has become the latest example of how extreme the left has become in Virginia politics,” the press release states. “Heritage Action says Jones’ record and rhetoric make him completely wrong for Virginia.” Heritage Action is a conservative grassroots and advocacy organization founded in 2010 as the lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation. Its mission is to “fight for conservative policies in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals across the country. (It turns) ideas and policies researched by The Heritage Foundation into bills—and turn those bills into laws.” The organization is a 501(c)(4) and does not align with any one political party. Among the Virginia candidates receiving support are Republican Sean Steinway in Fredericksburg District 65, Republican Timothy Anderson in Virginia Beach District 97, Republican Mike Lamonea in Chesapeake’s District 89 and Republican Felisha Storm in Suffolk District 84. “All politics is local politics,” Storm told The Daily Signal.   When she’s not running for office, Strom works with grassroots organizations to support the policies she cares about. “Groups like Heritage Action are fortunate enough to have really secure donor funding and people that believe in breaking down these issues, bringing them to voters. Focusing the education to voters so that they feel really engaged in this process is what’s holding the line from apathy taking over the electorate.”  “By focusing on the issues and focusing on local races, they’re able to have that impact and start really whipping up an electorate that is issue focused, that is well educated, and that is willing to demand good representation.”  The organization is not just supporting candidates but also exposing ones with far-left agendas. In District 65 Democrat Delegate Joshua Cole is being held accountable for allowing boys in girls bathrooms and in Districts 84 and 97 Heritage Action is targeting voter education.  This grassroots effort is what Heritage Action does. It has a national group of over two million advocates known as Sentinels. They are responsible for the passage of dozens of pieces of legislation on Capitol Hill and across the country every year. Heritage Action’s most recent achievement was the passage of Senate Bill 8—the Women’s Privacy Act—in Texas. Heritage Action Sentinel group worked extensively on this bill, which Gov. Greg Abbot signed into law on Sept. 22. The bill enforces “separate bathrooms for men and women in public schools, universities, and government buildings, and codifies the objective differences between men and women.” The post Heritage Action to Take Back Richmond and Protect Virginia from ‘Extreme Leftists’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

More Green Dregs and Scam Day: Dim Bulbs and Solar

Despite overseeing a denomination that’s been cratering in support for its far-left views, celebration of genital mutilation, and downplaying the Word of God (among other things, making its Christian bona fides questionable), Episcopalian Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde was heralded on Thursday’s CBS Mornings for her new young adults book about bravery and her January scolding of President Trump at an inaugural interfaith service. And, to make it even more palatable for the liberal hosts and viewers, Budde never mentioned God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, or any character in the Bible as examples of bravery. Rather, Budde and the co-hosts focused on her selections of Martin Luther King Jr. and Harry Potter. “Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde was brave enough to tell President Trump to welcome refugees to America. She’ll tell us why she is bringing that lesson of bravery to kids in a new book,” gushed featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers in one of two teases. Of course, the interview itself began with the snippet of her homily ripping into the President from the National Cathedral pulpit as xenophobic. Co-host Nate Burleson reacted in triumph: That was the leader of Washington’s Episcopal Diocese, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde making a plea to President Trump during the Inaugural Prayer Service earlier this year. She writes about that moment in a new book for young readers. We Can Be Brave: How We Learn to Be Brave in Life’s Decisive Moments. She highlights examples from Harry Potter to Martin Luther King, Jr.  Duthiers had the first question, wondering why she “open[ed] the book writing that for you, ‘parenting was a master class in courage,’ this is directed to young people[.]”   Budde replied with the “our Creator” reference, replacing God’s name with a catch-all, feel-good term (click “expand”): BUDDE: Well, to watch children grow up and to realize that nearly every day, they asked to do something they’ve never done before, from the beginning and it seems like our Creator has made us so that we can face thresholds of unknowing and things that we’ve never, ever been asked to do, and then we cross them, time and time again, so when they were very young, to when they were teenagers facing really hard things, I watched them, sometimes wanting to protect them and not being able to, seeing how they responded when they failed and got back up again, I think it’s one of the great privileges of parenting. KING: Well, if they’re asked to do something, and I hadn’t thought about it until you put it in the book this way. BURLESON: Right. KING: Whether they are riding a bike or doing something they’ve never done before, young people are asked to do brave things all the time. So do you think that bravery or courage is taught, learned or is it something we are born with? BUDDE: All of the above. All of the above. KING: All of the above? BUDDE: It’s clearly innate. It’s part of our — the way we are created to move towards things that we cannot do, and we learn it, and we’re inspired by others. BURLESON: Yes. BUDDE: Certainly, if we have people around us who encourage, whose life examples we follow, it is all of those things and that is one of the things I wanted to say. It’s a lifelong journey. Burleson took a turn putting the ball on the tee: “[A]nother thing that you say, you write in the book, ‘accepting what we do not choose and cannot change is one of the most courageous decisions we make.’ I love that.” Budde made the pivot to not-so-veiled activism, declaring “some of the most courageous people” are those who “made change started by accepting something and then making their life choices from there.” Duthiers cited Dr. King as an example and what Budde dubbed “dangerous unselfishness.” This was where the only mention of anything remotely connected to the Bible came up with Duthiers noting Budde brought up the Good Samaritan (from the Gospel of Luke): DUTHIERS: You know, one of the most moving chapters in the book is one where you talk about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And you illustrate what he used to call dangerous unselfishness. And you use that to illustrate the Good Samaritan story. The Good Samaritan, where the two members of the clergy walk by a wounded man, and they say, if I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? But the Samaritan who is one of the most hated classes — BUDDE: Hated people. DUTHIERS: He says what? BUDDE: He says, if I don’t stop to help this man, what will happen to him? And King used that as an example of his justification for going to be part of the sanitation worker strike in Memphis, which is where he was killed, because people didn’t want him to go. And he said, if I don’t go, what will happen to them? BURLESON: Yes. BUDDE: As opposed to, if I do go, what will happen to me. Co-host Gayle King used the remaining time to focus on Budde’s lecturing of the President a day after his swearing-in:   If Budde’s message were so compelling like she’s been portrayed in the press, why is attendance and membership in the domination plummeting? To see the relevant CBS transcript from October 16, click here.

On Wednesday, a grand jury convened to consider charges against John Bolton, a national security adviser in President Trump's first term and a longtime Trump critic. On Thursday afternoon, the grand jury came to a decision. A Justice Department official previously told the New York Post that the case they had against him was 'airtight.'The 76-year-old former Trump adviser was indicted by a grand jury on 18 counts related to mishandling classified information, eight counts of transmission of national defense information, and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI, according to a DOJ press release.“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, according to the press release. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”RELATED: 'NO ONE is above the law': FBI raids former national security adviser John Bolton's home Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesAccording to a Wednesday New York Post report, the grand jury considered charges against Bolton over his alleged sharing of highly sensitive classified materials on a private email server. A Justice Department official previously told the New York Post that the case they had against him was "airtight."Bolton stands accused of sending classified information on a private AOL email account as well as keeping "diary-like notes" during his time in the first administration. Thursday's indictment signals a major milestone in a months-long investigation — with potentially dire consequences. According to the heavily redacted search warrant affidavit, reviewed by AP upon its September release and used by the FBI to justify its August raid of Bolton's Maryland house, an unredacted section heading reads, "Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity."More details on the nature of the hack or the "foreign entity" were unavailable due to redactions. If convicted, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison for each count, the press release said. According to CNBC, Trump said in response to the news of Bolton's indictment: "You're telling me for the first time, but I think he's, you know, a bad person. I think he's a bad — yeah, he's a bad guy. It's too bad. But that's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is facing brutal and hilarious ridicule on social media after making an embarrassing mistake during a tirade against Republicans.The congresswoman was lambasting her opponents Wednesday during a town hall on CNN when she bizarrely accused the Deloitte company of dumping toxic chemicals into waterways.'AOC needs to go back to acting school because her little performance was embarrassing.'Ocasio-Cortez was asked how she was going to respond to President Donald Trump withholding billions of dollars of federal spending on infrastructure in New York during the government shutdown. She made an apparently unrelated point about the Environmental Protection Agency."Once again, this administration is making a foolish mistake by saying that they think that investments in housing and in energy are so-called Democrat priorities," Ocasio-Cortez responded."Cutting the EPA as a Democrat priority. You know what this country looked like before the EPA? Rivers in rural areas were on fire because of corporations poisoning the people who lived in those areas — poor, middle-class communities getting poisoned and dumped on by corporations like Deloitte and 3M, pouring chemicals into these places. And they want to call it a Democratic priority," she added."And that's why they want to eliminate the FDA!" she said, likely meaning EPA instead."Well, you know what? You're damn well right that it's a Democratic priority to keep people from getting poisoned," she added, "from identifying dangerous chemicals that are being dumped and causing cancer in people without their knowledge."Video of the gaffe was posted to social media, where it quickly went viral with millions of views.Critics immediately noted that Deloitte is an accounting agency and had nothing to do with any alleged chemical-dumping. Some believe she meant to say DuPont, the chemical company."Deloitte is an accounting firm, how are they pouring chemicals into rural areas. @AOC needs to go back to acting school because her little performance was embarrassing at the CNN Townhall," one popular response reads."As a former Deloitte employee, I can guarantee that the only thing you'll ever see them pour is a glass of wine. Plus, AOC must not know that Deloitte has gone all in on the climate con and the green new scam," another user responded.RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez makes embarrassing mistake while trying to dunk on Republicans about the migrant crisis "Oh boy, Deloitte is going to ask AOC to issue an apology, and they should make it stick. This mistake is not just a slip of the tongue; it misrepresents Deloitte's business and could damage its reputation," another reply reads.Others used the occasion to mock Ocasio-Cortez."As a young child, one of my earliest memories are the television stories of Deloitte secretly dumping thousands of old accountants into rivers in my hometown," one user joked."Deloitte does a lot worse than this. If you don't wish everyone a deloitteful weekend on your last Friday call, they take you out back and break your kneecaps," reads another jab at Ocasio-Cortez.A Blaze News request for comment to Deloitte was not immediately answered.The entire program can be viewed on the congresswoman's YouTube channel.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!