Ultimately, the victims are American taxpayers.

century-old tab

'I was very lucky'

Excerpts Science Fiction Read an Excerpt From The Hospital at the End of the World by Justin C. Key In a near future where artificial intelligence runs the world, a medical student must unravel family secrets to investigate his father’s death. By Justin C. Key | Published on January 15, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Hospital at the End of the World, a near-future science fiction thriller by Justin C. Key, out from Harper on February 3. In a time not so far from our own, society is run by a global AI system controlled by an all powerful corporation. The Shepherd Organization oversees every medical school in the country save one in New Orleans, the renegade Hippocrates which still insists on human-led medicine. It is the last choice school for an ambitious young New Yorker named Pok. But after his father—himself a physician—dies under mysterious circumstance that seems connected to “the shepherds” and their megalomaniacal young CEO, Pok finds himself on a quest for answers that leads right to Hippocrates. Once enrolled, he stumbles upon a further mystery: a strange illness is plaguing newcomers to New Orleans who grew up under shepherd rule. What is causing this fatal anomaly? And how does it relate to the mystery of Pok’s father’s death and his own mysterious past? One Decision Day The narrow overhang jutting out from the New York City apartment building did little to protect from the downpour. Pok’s back pressed against hard brick as he scanned the gray skies, his augmented reality glasses made pedestrian by the weather. The whir of an ambulance rose and dissipated, leaving behind the hum of rolling traffic. Directly above him, solid lines of rain ran from the air-conditioning unit hanging from their third-story window and cascaded off the fire escape. Where is it? The decision drone should have arrived ten minutes ago. After acquiring twelve of the country’s top medical institutions, the Shepherd Organization made clear their confidence in their state-of-the-art AI-centered medical curriculum by waiting until all other schools had sent out decisions before deploying theirs. It was a ballsy move. The stunt had paid off. According to the message boards, hardly anyone had accepted offers from non-shepherd schools even though most semesters started within the next month. Everyone was waiting on “The Prestigious Twelve.” “Decision day?” Skip James called above the rain and traffic as he stepped out of the small shop directly under Pok’s apartment. The longtime owner of Park Avenue Market, one of the last human-staffed brick-and-mortar stores in Manhattan, chucked two black bags into the garbage. Rainwater fell in sheets from the lid. “It’s all over my feed!” “They’re late,” Pok said. “Don’t catch a cold, kid.” You can’t catch a cold from the rain, Pok thought. He was about to check the message boards when a soft, persistent buzzing drew his attention. He stepped out from under the ledge, instantly drenched, a touch of metal on his tongue. The buzzing grew, steady and direct, and the drone emerged from between city buildings, cut through the rain, and stopped inches from Pok. The drone’s indicator blinked red; Pok raised his AR glasses and readily offered his irises for scanning. Verification done, its hatch opened and a silver case dropped on a string. Pok examined his delivery. The metal was warm. The Shepherd Organization’s insignia—a shepherd holding a stiffened snake as a staff—was engraved above the fresh stamp: Applicant Pok Morning. Verified at 12:14 p.m. Inside, his unique quick-response code. Kris Boles popped onto Pok’s glass display right as the decision page loaded. His friend’s temperament was spirited. His environment was dry. Yellow bordered his display. “Where’d you get in?” he said. “I haven’t checked. You got in?” “What do you mean you haven’t checked? How could you not check?” “It’s still loading.” Come on, come on. Every mentor and counselor had assured he’d have beautifully tough decisions to make at the end of this application cycle. Pok, who had applied to all twelve, had his heart set on the Shepherd School of Medicine at MacArthur Hospital, just up the street from his and his father’s apartment, where East Harlem met the Upper East Side. Outwardly unimpressive, the interior was intricately designed. The medical school was built atop the busy, three-tier hospital that served all five boroughs. Its website proudly proclaimed its future doctors sat upon the figurative shoulders of the medicine they studied. That was his dream school. Buy the Book The Hospital at the End of the World Justin C. Key Buy Book The Hospital at the End of the World Justin C. Key Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Pok swiped clear his glass; new drops immediately streaked across the silicon display. Logos for twelve of the country’s top medical schools—all now rebranded with the Shepherd Organization’s crest—popped onto the page. Adrenaline navigated open veins. Red Xs lined the margins. Beside all twelve schools. Every single one. “I didn’t get in.” Speaking the words made them real. “What?” Kris said. “I didn’t get in. Anywhere. This is bullshit.” They were both speechless. A digital delivery scooter honked for Pok to move. It knocked the back of his knee. He could have fallen face down onto the flooding sidewalk, mouth filling with gritty rainwater, and he wouldn’t have cared. This was bullshit. “What about that one school?” Kris said. “Gaylen or something? Down south?” “Hippocrates.” Under his father’s insistence, he’d applied to the Louisiana-based anti-AI school as a “safety,” one he’d never expected to consider. They had fallen far off of TIME magazine’s yearly top medical school rankings after essentially eliminating the latest technology from their curriculum. Just the thought of moving to Louisiana—the most backward state in the country—twisted Pok’s gut. “I don’t understand. How many did you get into?” “I don’t think—” “How many?” “Eight.” Eight? The New York air somehow grew hotter; Pok could visualize the rain sizzling off his skin. He’d received perfect marks. He’d checked all the boxes. His own father was a physician who’d given fifteen years of his life to MacArthur Hospital. And eight of the Prestigious Twelve wanted Kris and none wanted Pok? He knew Kris’s application. Hell, he’d helped with the essays. There was no way Kris would be picked over him. No way. And eight times? No fucking way. Pok rounded his building’s corner, head down, embarrassment pounding at his ears and rain pelting the nape of his neck. He unlocked his apartment door remotely as he took the stairs two at a time—the elevator was broken again—and resented the smell of the city’s concrete summer. “It’s got to be a glitch or something,” Kris said. “Somebody messed up. You’re the smartest kid I know.” The Shepherd Organization’s algorithms didn’t make mistakes. Not like this. But Kris inadvertently sparked an idea that bloomed into an insatiable urge. Pok squinted against his bedroom’s harsh, swinging light. The building—which housed MacArthur’s many medical trainees, physicians, and personnel—offered to install ones that adjusted to pupil dilation. His father, old-fashioned but well-meaning, had refused. Pok cleared a spot on his bed, found his virtual reality gaming headset, and booted up Impact, an open-world, massively online multiplayer game about teamwork and survival. “I’m coming over,” Kris said. “Don’t.” Pok took a moment to finger-comb out his shoulder-length locs; water dripped onto his thighs and the edge of his bed. “What are you up to?” “Troubleshooting,” Pok said. “Don’t do anything stupid.” “You know me. I’ll catch you later. And congratulations.” Pok took off his glass and replaced it with his gaming set. His New York apartment fell away and Impact took hold. His temples hummed with adrenaline as he created a new profile and avatar and started anew as a lone nomad. He summoned a hovercraft and directed it away from active play, full speed. Impact advertised an endless world. It generated new maps—including towns, resources, and histories—whenever a player ventured into an uncharted area. When Pok was confident about the distance between him and any other online players, he ejected himself from the hovercraft, ran into the closest house—still rendering itself in real time—opened the first closet, and jumped inside. His avatar fell into darkness. Pok counted to three and activated his jet pack. Below him, disc-shaped platforms popped up in domino effect, one under the next, like giant floating stairs leading down an endless abyss. Each had its own unique landscape, from lush countryside to suburban neighborhoods to downtown districts replete with skyscrapers. He descended to a metropolis platform several levels down, landed on the tallest building, and found its control room. He went straight to the central kiosk, brought up its command line interface, and inserted his custom string of code. A door appeared and slid open. The bright room contrasted with the building’s otherwise dim, dark interior. Rows and rows of stacked computer screens aspired toward infinity. The Underground Web. A hacker’s portal to wherever they dared venture. Years ago, during AI’s great technological boom, a revolutionary driverless car company ventured into neuro-enhancing brain implants. Through the Underground, a hacker caused a violent psychosis in dozens of early adopters and triggered multiple concurrent killing sprees that left more than a hundred dead across five states. And because many of the neuro-hacked were social media influencers, the world watched much of it live. All tech companies subsequently banned the Underground, sucking it dry. Until the Shepherd Organization. It embraced and revitalized it, boldly proclaiming their system open to anyone with altruistic intentions. Any nefarious acts, however, would be immediately thwarted by powerful algorithms, leaving the perpetrator technologically exposed to TSO and buried in litigation. None of which Pok had an appetite for. He stayed pedestrian with his hacking, mainly using it to access betas of in-production games. Venturing into the Prestigious Twelve’s applicant database would be closer to the shepherd sun than he had ever dared to fly. Find the application, see what in the hell went wrong, and get out. Pok stepped inside and picked a random aisle. Identical screens ran various lines of code. One unit stood separate from the rest. An old-school computer connected to a physical keyboard sat atop a table. Pok paused the scrolling code with the tap of a key. A new line with a blinking cursor appeared. He typed: The Shepherd Schools of Medicine, Admissions. The screen flickered, scrolled more code, and soon his own face smiled out at him. Unease touched his belly. Exploring the Underground was like peeling back human flesh to see the inner biology at work. Only a skilled surgeon could hope to tamper without disastrous results. This was reckless; he should have stopped there. But every single medical school? Pok had to know why. He opened his file. “What the hell?” The application had his name, date of birth, and unique applicant ID. Beyond that, nothing else was his. While his transcript was perfect, the one submitted had a subpar GPA with multiple withdrawn classes. The extracurriculars were without theme or merit. Pok had numerous peer-reviewed, first-author publications; here, the “Research” section was blank. This wasn’t the application he’d turned in. Not at all. Why? How? Important questions, but secondary. He had to fix it. From his personal files, Pok queued for upload his true application, complete with his encrypted genome, and hesitated. Months ago, when initially submitting, he’d grappled with the same ingrained apprehension. His father had diligently waived genome analysis at every turn of Pok’s childhood and adolescence. Antidiscrimination laws made it illegal to require DNA in applications—except in select fields like medicine. Once TSO had his genome, there was no reversing it. Pok completed the transfer. This done, he brought up the activity log, scrolled past the various review stages, and found his initial submission time stamp. Shit. “Upload Incomplete.” He’d never received that error. He quickly saw why: only minutes later was another, completed transfer, initiated by user CryingRabbits218. Not an error: a fake. Pok combed his memory for past rivals he’d hacked, gaming foes he’d humiliated. This could be the perfect revenge prank. The handle, however, didn’t ring a bell. The screen flashed red. The hue leaked out to the surrounding room. Pok groaned. He’d programmed a warning system into his hacking interface. The shepherds were investigating his activity; he needed to abort before he had deeper problems than an anonymous online enemy. Pok moved quickly but meticulously. Source or not, he’d just hacked into a subset of TSO. He needed to cover his tracks. Pok backed out of the Underground and spent the next hour scouring the newly rendered area to seek out and kill any rogue NPCs. Each represented an errant line of code that, if left unneutralized, could infect his entire system. He then deployed a kill code to eradicate this particular door to the Underground and turned off his console. His senses came back to the real world. The patter of rain on his window. The whir of the hallway air conditioner. The lingering hint of metal on his tongue. Beside him, his glass still showed the decision page. He put it on and refreshed. As if the algorithms would magically reprocess, see what an exceptional candidate he was, and immediately offer a spot. Still rejected. Still unanimous. Red marks, all the way down. Excerpted from The Hospital At The End of The World, copyright © 2025 by Justin C. Key. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>The Hospital at the End of the World</i> by Justin C. Key appeared first on Reactor.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed a doctor who was unable to answer the question of whether men can get pregnant. “Anyone in their right mind with common sense who’s speaking honestly and candidly will say that men cannot get pregnant,” Leavitt said on Thursday in response to a question from The Daily Signal, “and I think I can attest to that myself.” .@PressSec just reacted to a doctor being unable to tell @HawleyMO if men can pregnant."Anyone in their right mind with common sense who's speaking honestly and candidly will say that men cannot get pregnant, and I think I can attest to that myself." https://t.co/66l9MWWJMa pic.twitter.com/3YKNuNJy5X— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) January 15, 2026 Leavitt recently announced that she is pregnant with her second child, a baby girl due in May 2026. In a viral exchange at a Senate hearing on the abortion pill Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., repeatedly asked a Democrat witness, Dr. Nisha Verma, if men can get pregnant. Verma, an obstetrician-gynecologist and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, would not directly answer the question. “I hesitated because I wasn’t sure where the conversation was going or what the goal was,” she said. “I mean, I do take care of patients with different identities. I take care of many women. I take care of people with different identities.” Hawley repeated the question, and Verma said, “I do take care of people that don’t identify as women.” The Senator asked her if “science and evidence” show that men can get pregnant. “This is about science and evidence,” Hawley said. “And I’m asking you, you know, the United States Supreme Court just heard arguments yesterday at great length on this question. This is not a hypothetical question. This is not theoretical. It affects real people in their real lives, and you’re here as an expert, called by the other side as an expert, and you’ve been telling us that you that you’re a doctor, and you follow the science of the evidence.”“So I just want to know, based on the science, can men get pregnant?” “I am a person of science,” Verma said, “and I’m also someone here who’s here to represent the complex experiences of my patients, and I don’t think polarized languages, language or questions serve that goal.” The post ‘Anyone in their Right Mind’ Knows Men Can’t Get Pregnant, Leavitt Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Pennsylvania federal prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against 26 people for allegedly rigging bets on college and Chinese professional basketball games, the latest case to accuse athletes of cheating at legalized sports betting that has exploded in popularity in the U.S.  A 70-page indictment names more than a dozen former National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball players, a former NBA player and two sports-betting influencers who were previously charged in a sweeping NBA bet-rigging investigation. The charges include bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud and conspiracy.  “The criminal charges we have filed allege the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics through an international conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni, and professional bettors,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, calling them “yet another blow to public confidence in the integrity of sport.”  39 Players Said to Be Involved Prosecutors in Philadelphia allege the scheme began in 2022, when several of the defendants began recruiting and bribing Chinese Basketball Association players to intentionally underperform in games to ensure certain bets placed on their teams.  The scheme widened to U.S. college basketball during the 2023-2024 season, according to prosecutors, who said the defendants recruited players to accept bribes for helping to ensure their teams fell short of their projected margins of victory, or spreads.  Prosecutors said the scheme involved 39 players on more than 17 Division I college basketball teams, millions of dollars in wagers on fixed games and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.  Prosecutors said the proliferation of legalized sports betting allowed the fixers to avoid detection by spreading their wagers around widely.  Two of the defendants, sports-betting influencers Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were charged in October alongside Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones with rigging bets on NBA games by placing wagers using insider information, including undisclosed player medical reports. All four men pleaded not guilty in that case.  Fairley’s attorney Eric Siegle declined to comment on the new charges. Hennen’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.  The charges against Rozier and Jones were unveiled in Brooklyn federal court alongside a related case against more than a dozen defendants, including Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, who is accused of conspiring to cheat at illicit poker games using high-tech equipment. Billups and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty.   Brooklyn federal prosecutors have also charged Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz with rigging bets on their pitches during MLB games. Both men pleaded not guilty in the case.  (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Nate Raymond; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Rod Nickel and Bill Berkrot) The post US Charges 26 People With Rigging College, Chinese Basketball Games appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A Texas congressman has introduced a bill to eliminate all capital gains taxes on primary residence home sales, if the homeowner has lived at the property for at least two years. Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Texas, introduced the “Don’t Tax the American Dream Act,” aiming to incentivize older homeowners to sell their homes and downsize; increase the housing supply across the nation; and repeal costly taxes on American homeowners. Goldman got the idea for the bill from a constituent, he told The Daily Signal. “He and his wife sold their house, and were questioning me why they had to pay such incredible, costly capital gains on that home sell,” Goldman said. “And I said, I don’t know, but I’ll find out. But when I saw the ridiculousness that we all pay capital gains on home sales, this is the reason why we filed the bill.” Currently, homeowners can be exempted from capital gains taxes on up to $250,000 of their gain for single tax filers, and up to $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. However, Goldman’s bill would remove the caps entirely and allow for home sales without any capital gains tax bills. As a means of boosting the housing market, President Donald Trump also floated eliminating capital gains taxes on home sales In July. “If the Fed would lower the [interest] rates, we wouldn’t even have to do that,” he said. “But we are thinking about no tax on capital gains on houses.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned in December of a “structural housing shortage,” adding that many homeowners who secured low mortgage interest rates during the pandemic would be reluctant to take on new mortgages with significantly higher rates. Goldman called his policy “common sense.” “This bill makes common sense,” he said. “And I don’t know anyone in America who would say it doesn’t make common sense.” The Texas Republican hopes the bill will encourage more young people to start families by making home ownership more easily attainable. “Even a young family who’s out there who, let’s say, they bought their starter home and want to sell it and move on to something else, and they look at the affordability, or they look at whether or not in paying the capital gains off a home sale, and they can make that upgrade, they’re more than likely not going to do it,” he said.“Because it’s the first time they’ve potentially ever made an increase in their wealth and see a capital gains.” “It’s just ridiculous that we have this in the United States of America,” Goldman said. “It doesn’t promote anything other than government greed.” The post EXCLUSIVE: Lawmaker Introduces ‘Common Sense’ Bill to Eliminate Capital Gains Taxes on Home Sales appeared first on The Daily Signal.

“This despicably misleading headline is exactly why the American people have completely lost faith in the mainstream media,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained Wednesday, calling out The New York Times for the way it framed an incident in which a violent illegal immigrant was shot by an ICE agent. On Wednesday, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis was being attacked by an illegal alien fleeing arrest and two others - one using a shovel. The headline of the New York Times article simply says a “man” was shot by a “federal agent,” failing to mention that the man was an illegal alien resisting arrest and that the agent was an immigration enforcement officer under attack: “Federal Agent Shoots Man in Minneapolis, Prompting Tense Protests” The sub-headline adds that the man is a Venezuelan who resisted arrest, but not that he was in the U.S. illegally: “The agent shot a Venezuelan man who was resisting arrest, an official said. Protesters and law enforcement officers clashed for hours, as city officials urged people to go home.” Omitting key details, the story’s first paragraph paints an equally misleading picture of what happened: “A federal agent shot and injured a man in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, federal officials said, an incident that touched off hours of clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers and that came just one week after an immigration agent killed a woman in the city.” “Breaking News: A federal agent shot an immigrant in the leg in Minneapolis, federal officials said, one week after an ICE officer killed Renee Good in the city,” The New York Times says in a X.com post linking to its article. “This journalist knows the facts, was given the truth, and adamantly REFUSES to report it,” DHS responded: “This despicably misleading headline is exactly why the American people have completely lost faith in the mainstream media. This journalist knows the facts, was given the truth, and adamantly REFUSES to report it.” “Here are the facts,” DHS explains: “At 6:50 PM CT, federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the country by Joe Biden in 2022. “In an attempt to evade arrest, the subject fled the scene in his vehicle and crashed into a parked car. “The subject then fled on foot. The law enforcement officer caught up to the subject on foot and attempted to apprehend him when the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer. “While the subject and law enforcement were in a struggle on the ground, two subjects came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle. “As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, the original subject got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick. “Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life. The initial subject was hit in the leg. “All three subjects ran back into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside. “The attacked officer and subject are both in the hospital. Both attackers are in custody.”

While ignoring how an ICE agent was attacked and beaten by three men (including an illegal) the previous night and the local police were given stand-down orders to live ICE lives forfeit, the cast of ABC’s The View praised far-left Governor Tim Walz for prepping his state’s National Guard to be deployed against ICE. Among these were faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin, who refused to call out the violence against ICE. “I think the most important thing in this moment is that there's de-escalation, that we keep peace in the streets. And Governor Walz said, about a week ago, that he has the Minnesota National Guard on standby,” Farah Griffin said. What she failed to mention was Walz suggesting his state was at war with the federal government. “So they’re prepared to deploy in case these altercations between protesters and ICE keep getting more violent and it's necessary,” she added. “And I think, this is a prudent action by the Governor who received a lot of criticism after 2020 during the George Floyd protest for waiting for too long to call in the National Guard.”   Alyssa Farah Griffin praises Governor Walz for threating to deploy the National Guard against ICE. pic.twitter.com/AgEg6iJgWO — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 15, 2026   In nearly the same breath, she expressed relief that President Trump was talked out of sending in the National Guard during the George Floyd riots that Walz allowed: Now, the state National Guard is very, very, very different than federalizing U.S. troops and putting them into American streets. I see the Insurrection Act as the most-extreme step that a president could take to deal with quelling domestic protests. The last time, I believe, it was used was during the Rodney King protests in 1992. President Trump, I've said this before, he talked about doing it in the summer of 2020; was ultimately talked out of it by General Milley, Mark Esper and others. And it was a good thing, All of this came during a segment about Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to send in the Guard to protect ICE and restore order. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg flaunted her profound ignorance by leading into the segment by admitting she thought the federal deployment had already happened: “So this morning, you-know-who posted that he may invoke the Insurrection Act to end the protests, which would lead him to deploy the military in Minneapolis. Now, I thought he had already done that.” After being corrected, Goldberg tried to excuse her ignorance by blaming federal authorities. “I just find it so odd, because you've already made everybody feel like you've put the military out there because, you know, you've bypassed the police. You've bypassed people whose jobs it is to take care of their city,” she whined.   Whoopi claims Trump has already deployed the military to invade Minneapolis (he has not). pic.twitter.com/eb8coXoU2Q — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 15, 2026   Co-host Sunny Hostin followed up by lashing out at any soldier sent to Minneapolis, suggesting they’re poorly trained and would just make things worse. She even expressed a fear that Trump would somehow invoke the Insurrection act in other countries: And U.S. military aren't trained to provide local law enforcement and so that's just a tinderbox waiting to explode. And I also think it would be much more difficult legally to challenge their actions in court if the Insurrection Act was invoked. And so, that really frightens me actually for the people of not only Minneapolis but and Minnesota but the people in all states in every country because he could do that anywhere.   Sunny Hostin attacks the Minnesota National Guard as poorly trained and will make things worse. She's worried that invoking the Insurrection Act would make it "much more difficult legally to challenge their actions in court." She claims Trump could do it "in every country." pic.twitter.com/dsn5a73hTL — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 15, 2026   Hostin wasn’t the only cast member living in an alternate reality. Co-host Joy Behar had to be talked off a ledge because she had convinced herself that ICE was Trump’s personal stormtroopers who loved to carry out “illegal orders.” “I feel very much alone! I feel like these institutions are not protecting us!” she shrieked. “But when Senator Kelly says don't obey an illegal order, they're not going to obey -- they're going to obey the illegal order.”   Joy Behar suggests ICE is part of the military and claims they want to follow "illegal orders." pic.twitter.com/lFMIqBRBh2 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 15, 2026   All this misinformation came from an ABC “News” show. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View January 15, 2026 11:03:51 a.m. Eastern WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So this morning, you-know-who posted that he -- he may invoke the Insurrection Act to end the protests, which would lead him to deploy the military in Minneapolis. Now, I thought he had already done that. Because I've seen – [Crosstalk] GOLDBERG: - it's the National Guard. SARA HAINES: You know hat, they could have used that Insurrection Act. GOLDBERG: Well, yes, but funny –  I just find it so odd, because you've already made everybody feel like you've put the military out there because, you know, you've bypassed the police. You've bypassed people - SUNNY HOSTIN: It's true. GOLDBERG: -- whose jobs it is to take care of their city. So, you're adding fuel -- my question is supposed to be, do you think he's adding fuel to the fire? I think he is. HOSTIN: He would if he invoked the Insurrection Act and I think people -- that would be militarizing the state. HAINES: Yes! HOSTIN: And U.S. military aren't trained to provide local law enforcement and so that's just a tinderbox waiting to explode. And I also think it would be much more difficult legally to challenge their actions in court if the Insurrection Act was invoked. And so, that really frightens me actually for the people of not only Minneapolis but and Minnesota but the people in all states in every country because he could do that anywhere. JOY BEHAR: But he owns everything. He owns the Department of Justice. HOSTIN: Yes. BEHAR: It's like you say we're not alone and yet I feel very much alone. HOSTIN: It does feels like it's own his private law firm which is not supposed to happen. There's supposed to be checks and balances. (…) 11:06:11 a.m. Eastern ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I think the most important thing in this moment is that there's de-escalation, that we keep peace in the streets. And Governor Walz said, about a week ago, that he has the Minnesota National Guard on standby. So they’re prepared to deploy in case these altercations between protesters and ICE keep getting more violent and it's necessary. And I think, this is a prudent action by the Governor who received a lot of criticism after 2020 during the George Floyd protest for waiting for too long to call in the National Guard. Now, the state National Guard is very, very, very different than federalizing U.S. troops and putting them into American streets. I see the Insurrection Act as the most-extreme step that a president could take to deal with quelling domestic protests. The last time, I believe, it was used was during the Rodney King protests in 1992. President Trump, I've said this before, he talked about doing it in the summer of 2020; was ultimately talked out of it by General Milley, Mark Esper and others. And it was a good thing, because what happens is this, so, say Governor Walz has the Minnesota National Guard who are there to make sure protesters aren't getting injured and ICE officers aren't getting injured. Then you bring in a federalized force that answers to the federal government. You could have tremendous clashes. You could have a lot of confusion about authority and it makes this tinderbox situation even more dangerous. GOLDBERG: But that's -- I feel like that's what he wants. BEHAR: Yup. (…) 11:10:12 a.m. Eastern BEHAR: That's why when you say ‘we're not along’ I feel very much alone! GOLDBERG: I know you do. BEHAR: I feel like these institutions are not protecting us! GOLDBERG: You know what, the institutions are. Our police forces, they are trying to do their jobs. Our police guys. They are in the middle of how to deal with these folks who say they are in charge and how to do their jobs. You know, because that's their job to protect us. BEHAR: Yeah. GOLDBERG: So, I've -- you know -- BEHAR: But when Senator Kelly says don't obey an illegal order, they're not going to obey -- they're going to obey the illegal order and then the other side – GOLDBERG: Who are you talking about? BEHAR: The guys who are on Trump's side. HOSTIN: ICE BEHAR: ICE, yeah. GOLDBERG: Some of them may but some of them may not because, remember, there's a whole plethora of people involved in this. So, we'll keep our eyes on it and, Joy, as long as we're here at this table and people are watching, you are not alone. We'll be right back.

In 2017, an Australian-American yoga teacher named Justine Damond called the police because she heard strange noises in the alley behind her house and thought someone was being hurt.When she called 911, police officers showed up to her house.One of their names was Mohamed Noor, and he was an immigrant from Somalia. While she was talking to the other police officers, Noor shot through the driver’s open window at Damond and hit her in the chest, killing her immediately.He was sentenced to only 12 years in prison.“Now you might not have ever heard that story because there were no riots. There were no protests. Nothing burned down. There was no shouts and insistence upon saying her name or rest in power. Your favorite social justice activist, your racially conscious pastor, didn’t post anything about her,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says on “Relatable.”“And in fact, in 2021, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned Noor's murder conviction due to insufficient evidence, sending the case back to the district court where he would be sentenced instead for the manslaughter conviction,” she continues.Noor testified that the loud noises made him fear for his life, and that’s why he shot her.“So he was spooked. He wasn’t approached with a vehicle. This woman wasn’t armed. She came outside in her pajamas,” Stuckey says.“Now I want you to ask yourself, if this had been an ICE agent who killed a liberal woman, or if this had been a white police officer who killed a black man ... Minneapolis would have burned,” she continues.In comparison, $1.5 million has been raised for Renee Nicole Good — who drove her car at an ICE officer in protest and was shot and killed as a result.And celebrities like Ariana Grande are wearing pins to the Golden Globes that say “ICE Out.”“The Golden Globes had a border. Like it had a hedge, and it’s got dogs, and it’s got guards. It’s got armed security officers. Like if I tried to go in there and cause chaos ... someone would have been shot for doing that possibly. They at least would have been tackled,” Stuckey comments.“What do you think Ariana Grande’s house looks like? Do you think her gates are open? Do you think that she has a lock on her door? Do you think that she has bodyguards?” she continues.“These people believe that they deserve security and that normal Americans who can’t afford to live in gated mansion communities deserve to bear the brunt of it and that innocent moms and dads in Minnesota deserve to be stolen from by Somalian migrants,” she says, adding, “That’s what they believe.”Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.