'Hold on'

'New world order'

The Houston Texans could face a harsh reality check when they travel to Gillette Stadium

News What to Watch What to Watch and Read This Weekend: Lord of the Rings Returns to Theaters Because It Is… 25 Years Old?! By Molly Templeton | Published on January 16, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share To put it mildly—absurdly mildly, really—this year is off to a rough start. If you want to spend your weekend lying around in soft pants and rewatching old favorites, I understand completely. But if you want to leave the house, or try something new, there are options! There are also a million options if you want to do something to help those who are suffering in this cold, icy winter. Stock up a little free pantry near your house, if there is one. Send some money to one of the many groups in Minneapolis who are working to support their neighbors—or find similar groups in your own area. It is hard to watch what’s happening in this country right now. It feels better to help, if and where you can. And, as ever, don’t forget to call your reps.  They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard: The Lord of the Rings is back in Theaters Do I have the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings films at home on DVD? Yes. Do I still have a great desire to go see them in theaters while they’re back this week? Yes. Yes, friends, the latest return-to-cinemas release is the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring turns 25 this year—in December, mind you—which means, I expect, that there will be a whole host of re-releases and new book editions and who knows what else. Not that I’m complaining.  The Two Towers might be my favorite of the movies—Helm’s Deep!—but I’m thinking about going to Fellowship just so I can get extremely weepy when Gandalf says the line. You know the one. The one that feels extra relevant right now? “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Sorry. Something in my eye. Perhaps a slight change in tone will alleviate the feelings I’m now having. An Anthology of Hope and Stories: We Will Rise Again Books published in December historically have it pretty rough. The year’s best-of lists have largely already happened; people are distracted by the holidays; people are distracted, period, in this particular day and age. This past December, a lot of air was taken up by a memoir—by all accounts truly terrible—that no one needs to read. So it’s entirely possible to have missed some of the month’s more interesting releases, including the all-star anthology We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope, edited by Malka Older, Annalee Newitz, and Karen Lord. This book couldn’t really be more timely. I keep thinking about the writer Karen Russell saying in essence, that at this point, everyone she knows can lie awake at 4 am and create a dystopia. It’s not hard to imagine. (I’m paraphrasing, but if you want to hear her and her fellow genius Omar El Akkad in conversation, you can listen here.) Hope is a little harder these days.  We Will Rise Again includes stories by R.B. Lemberg, Nicola Griffith, Samit Basu, N.K. Jemisin,  Izzy Wasserstein, and many more. Reactor’s Christina Orlando called it a book that “should be read by anyone who cares about the world around them and believes that sci-fi and fantasy can help us imagine real possibilities.”  There’s Coffee in that Nebula: Happy Anniversary, Star Trek: Voyager If multiple sources are to be believed, today, January 16th, is the anniversary of the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager. I love this little fact, because Voyager was the first show I remember wanting to see at its premiere: A lady captain? In space? I was so excited. It’s funny to look back now and think about how young Janeway looks, even though they put Kate Mulgrew in that stodgy hairstyle to make her seem older. (Now there was a captain who had her priorities straight.) At any rate, Voyager still has its charms, and is especially relevant given that the ship’s Doctor (Robert Picardo) is now on the just-premiered Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. What’s old is new again, what goes around comes around, and if Stars both Trek and Wars are struggling in the cinematic arena, at least the shows keep coming. You can get all your Trek fixes on Paramount Plus; Voyager is also on Pluto TV. A Daily Reading Habit I did not in fact succeed at any of the reading and watching plans I had for the holidays. I didn’t go to a single movie. I am an abject failure at movies. I read entirely different books than the ones I was supposed to read, but at least one of those was fully justified: I’d gone all of 2025 without reading any poetry, somehow? So I read Morgan Parker’s There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé on New Year’s Eve, and started all three of the translations of the Tao Te Ching that I somehow have in my house. (They’re by Stephen Mitchell, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ken Liu.) I’m reading one page per day, in all three versions. I’m reading these pages alongside the daily selection from John Darnielle’s This Year: 365 Songs Annotated; these things make total sense in my brain, if perhaps not everyone else’s. My point here, though, is that having a small thing that I read every day is just really, really nice. I do a lot of other reading! But these brief selections break up the day, and help cement a habit, and also the specific things I’m reading just feel good as a break from all the fiction and, let’s be honest, crap on the internet. Once I’m through the Tao Te Chings, I’ll go back to Mason Currey’s two Daily Rituals books and read an entry in each of those each day. The Darnielle will keep me company all year. Maybe there’s something you can find that’s like that. It’s fun! I promise![end-mark] The post What to Watch and Read This Weekend: <i>Lord of the Rings</i> Returns to Theaters Because It Is… 25 Years Old?! appeared first on Reactor.

A woman is dead in Minnesota. An ICE officer killed her. Those two facts are undisputed.  Everything else has become a Rorschach test for American politics.  Within hours of the incident, the narrative crystallized: federal agents had become death squads hunting immigrants.   Protests erupted. Politicians demanded accountability. Mainstream news ran wall-to-wall coverage of a deportation regime “gone too far.”  But here’s the question nobody’s asking: If the video evidence shows a woman repeatedly breaking the law before being shot, why hasn’t the story changed? Why did public perception form in minutes and calcify into certainty, impervious to new information?  The answer reveals something far more troubling than one tragic incident. It exposes the machinery of how Americans now form opinions and why we can no longer agree on basic facts.  The Numbers Don’t Match What They’re Telling You  Let me walk you through what Cygnal’s polling actually shows, because it contradicts nearly everything you’ve heard.  In July 2025, we found 61% of voters supported deportation efforts. But 48% opposed using ICE raids as the mechanism, with 50% in support. That’s a statistical tie, not a complete lopsided opposition like the mainstream narrative has been pumping.  Fast forward to last week. Our latest poll showed 50% believed Trump’s deportation efforts were going “too far.”  Headlines screamed about massive opposition to ICE tactics. Pundits proclaimed a turning point.  But look at the actual numbers: 48% opposition in July. 50% “too far” in January. That’s a two-point movement over six months, well within any poll’s margin of error. In polling terms, that’s noise, not a signal.  More importantly, this January poll was conducted immediately after an ICE officer killed a woman who had broken multiple laws and attempted to harm him. If there were ever a moment when opposition might spike dramatically, that was it. And the needle barely moved.  So, where’s all this “growing opposition” coming from?  The composition of who opposes tells the story: 91% of liberals say Trump’s deportation efforts go too far. Ninety-one percent.  Now ask yourself: What ideology dominates mainstream newsrooms? What worldview shapes editorial decisions at major networks and newspapers?  When 91% of one ideological group believes something, and that group overwhelmingly controls media institutions, their perspective becomes “the” perspective. Their concerns become national crises. Their interpretation becomes the default frame.  The numbers haven’t changed. The megaphone amplifying one side of those numbers has.  The Radicalization of ‘Resistance’  Here’s a statistic that should alarm everyone, regardless of where you stand on immigration: 61% of white liberal women ages 18-44 believe it’s acceptable to go “beyond peaceful protests in response to immigration raids.”  Cygnal asked this question in October. Nationally, 70% of Americans disagreed. Only 24% said yes, effectively endorsing lawbreaking when you disagree with enforcement.  But within that specific demographic, nearly two-thirds said yes.  Think about what “beyond peaceful protests” means. Blocking traffic. Interfering with law enforcement operations. Physical confrontation. These aren’t abstract concepts. They’re the exact sequence of events that led to a woman’s death in Minnesota.  I’ve spent my career studying how emotions drive political behavior.   What we’re seeing here goes beyond passionate disagreement. One demographic slice has convinced itself that laws become optional when enforcement conflicts with their values.   And the media ecosystem they consume reinforces this belief daily. They’re the “oppressed”, and they must rise up against the oppressor.  When two-thirds of any group believes lawbreaking is justified, that belief will eventually manifest in action. Minnesota wasn’t random. It was inevitable.  The woman who died wasn’t acting irrationally by her own moral framework.   Renee Good absorbed years of messaging that Trump is a dictator, ICE agents are villains, that resistance is heroic, that “by any means necessary” had become literal rather than rhetorical. She blocked traffic. She interfered with a federal operation. She assaulted an officer. At each step, she was doing what her political tribe had told her was not just acceptable but righteous.  She believed she was the hero of the story. That belief killed her.  What Actually Happened in Minnesota  Let’s talk about the incident itself, because the sequence mentioned above matters.  Multiple videos exist showing how things went down. They’ve been available for days. And they have changed precisely nothing about the dominant narrative.  Why?  Because most Americans never saw the full videos. Major networks showed the shooting. They did not show the preceding minutes of escalating confrontation. They did not provide context about the legal violations that preceded the fatal moment. The edit determined the story.  And this is the harder truth: even complete video evidence might not have mattered.  The Deeper Crisis: Truth in the Age of Confirmation  Cygnal found this month that 73% of voters say they “very often” or “somewhat often” encounter information they later discover is false or misleading.  Three-quarters of Americans believe they’re regularly being lied to. And they’re right.  But here’s the paradox: everyone thinks they’re the one sorting fact from fiction. Everyone believes their sources are reliable and the other side’s sources are propaganda. My truth is your misinformation and vice versa.  Once someone forms an initial opinion, contradicting evidence doesn’t change their mind. It hardens their position.   Studies on motivated reasoning show that partisans presented with facts that contradict their beliefs actually become more confident in their original view. The brain treats the contradicting information as an attack and the existing belief as identity to be defended.  By the time the full Minnesota videos emerged, millions had already decided what happened.   The officer was a murderer or the woman was a criminal. No footage would change that because the footage wasn’t being evaluated as evidence. It was being processed as ammunition for the conclusion already reached.  We’ve built information systems optimized for speed and engagement, not accuracy and deliberation. Hot takes within minutes. Viral clips within hours. Cemented narratives by the end of the day. And corrections, retractions, and context arrive weeks later to an audience that stopped listening.  The Real Consequences  Here’s what happens when media narratives diverge from reality and nobody can agree on basic facts.  ICE officers now work under a target. When major media outlets frame enforcement actions as atrocities and significant portions of the population believe “going beyond peaceful protests” is acceptable, every agent conducting a lawful operation faces elevated risk. The Minnesota incident will not be the last.  Rule of law becomes optional. If laws can be violated without consequence when the cause is deemed sufficiently righteous, law becomes merely a suggestion to be weighed against ideology. Today it’s immigration enforcement. Tomorrow it’s something else. The principle, once breached, has no natural stopping point.  Media credibility continues its collapse.   I’ve polled media trust for years. It’s cratered. Not because Americans reject journalism as a concept but because they’ve watched outlets function as political actors while claiming neutral observer status. Every misleading frame, every selective edit, every story that doesn’t match the available evidence accelerates institutional delegitimization.  We lose the ability to solve shared problems. Democracy requires some baseline agreement about facts. Not values, not policy preferences, but basic factual reality. When we cannot agree that a video shows what it shows, we cannot deliberate about what to do about it. We’re just two populations shouting past each other, each convinced the other is either evil or deluded.  Where This Leaves Us  I started with a question: If video evidence shows a woman repeatedly breaking the law before being shot, why hasn’t the story changed?  The answer is that stories don’t change anymore. They’re chosen.  Ninety-one percent of liberals were always going to oppose these deportation efforts. That opposition was always going to dominate media coverage because of who controls media institutions. And young liberal women were always going to be disproportionately represented in “resistance” narratives because they’re the demographic most likely to believe lawbreaking is justified.  Minnesota wasn’t a turning point. It was a preview.  The machinery that produced this incident, emotional polarization amplified by ideological media driving radicalized behavior, remains fully operational. Another confrontation will come. Another narrative will crystallize before facts emerge. Another set of Americans will conclude their countrymen are either fascists or anarchists.  The stakes extend far beyond immigration policy. We’re testing whether law enforcement can function when media narratives and activist movements collaborate to obstruct it. We’re testing whether shared truth is even possible anymore.  So far, we’re failing that test.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Minnesota Incident: A Case Study in Media Narrative Versus Reality  appeared first on The Daily Signal.

They took in a kitten living in a garage and went back, determined to find all his cat siblings. Laura @lauleon14Laura, a dedicated animal rescuer, was contacted about a feline family living in a garage and in desperate need of help.A feral cat had been raising her kittens in far-from-ideal conditions. When the property owners noticed them, they reached out for assistance. Without hesitation, Laura and her fellow rescuers rushed to the site, set a humane trap, and waited patiently.The first kitten to appear was in rough shape. He walked straight into the trap, as if he were ready for a new beginning. TokyoLaura @lauleon14The kitten, named Tokyo, was severely underweight and battling an upper respiratory infection along with eye issues. With the support of Catz 4 Life, a volunteer-run rescue, he was taken to the vet to receive the care he needed. Tucked securely inside Laura's shirt, he felt safe and drifted off to sleep.But the rescue mission wasn't over. Once Tokyo was settled into his foster home, Laura returned to the site to search for his littermates. Laura @lauleon14"The next day, we managed to trap Nikko and Mito (two of Tokyo's siblings), who were also sick," Laura told Love Meow.They were treated for the same conditions as Tokyo. After flea baths and gentle eye cleanings, the kittens were reunited with their brother. When they saw Tokyo, they recognized him instantly, snuggling close as if they had never been apart. Nikko and MitoLaura @lauleon14"Tokyo even welcomed them and went straight to sleep with them in the little bed as soon as they arrived."Overjoyed to have his brothers back, Tokyo nestled between them, rumbling with happy purrs. Nikko and Mito quickly adjusted to indoor life, sinking into a warm, fluffy bed instead of huddling in the cramped garage. Tokyo was reunited with Nikko and MitoLaura @lauleon14The kittens explored the room as a trio, inspecting every nook and cranny. They climbed the cat tree and tested out every cozy spot together. While they basked in the comfort of their new surroundings, Laura and her team continued their rescue efforts.They were determined to find the feral mother and ensure all her kittens had a chance at a better life. Laura @lauleon14A few days later, the mother cat and her remaining kitten were safely trapped. The kitten, named Sapphi, received medical treatment and was reunited with his brothers. The mother was spayed and could finally enjoy life without the burden of raising litter after litter.Tokyo immediately approached Sapphi, wrapping his long-lost brother in cuddles. Tokyo cuddled up to Sapphi when he arrivedLaura @lauleon14"I knew they were going to be okay when Sapphi arrived, and all four kittens were finally together, safe at home with me, receiving proper medical care, medications, and staying warm as they should."With cozy beds, nourishing meals, and endless affection, the kittens are truly thriving. Tokyo, the smallest of the litter, has the boldest spirit. "He's very active, fearless, and not afraid of anything." Laura @lauleon14Sapphi, the only non-seal-point kitten, is exceptionally sweet. Though the shyest of the bunch, he's gentle and delicate in everything he does.Mito eagerly follows in Tokyo's paw steps during their daily adventures. When nap time rolls around, he often cuddles up with Nikko on top of the cat tree. "Nikko is very observant and always watching the others. He's the biggest of the four and feels like the leader of the group." Nikki and MitoLaura @lauleon14The four brothers race through the house, pouncing on toys, chasing one another, and running around their humans. They leap on and off furniture like tiny parkour experts, showing off their agility and gravity-defying skills.Thanks to a second chance, these kittens will never have to spend another day outside. Their future is bright, filled with love and a lifetime of pampering. Sapphi and TokyoLaura @lauleon14Share this story with your friends. More on the kittens and Catz 4 Life on Instagram @_catz4life_ and Facebook. Thanks to Laura @lauleon14.Related story: Cat Spent Months Living from Yard to Yard, Soon After Moving Indoors She Has Kittens By Her Side

NY TImes Takes Another Try at Analyzing the Shooting Video

Too Good to Check: Minneapolis Police Department Bleeding Officers

Boys playing on the girls' soccer team? It's the American way. That's the bizarre message of a new ad in which a motley assemblage of actors and athletes lecture the viewer on the importance of allowing male high school athletes to compete against females.'Time and time again, we see powerful politicians fixate on trans kids.'Released Monday, the 30-second clip kicks off the ACLU's "More Than a Game" campaign, which seeks to draw attention to two Supreme Court cases the organization brought challenging state bans on transgender-identified biological males playing women's sports. 'Free'-for-allIn the spot, celebs ranging from soccer player turned activist Megan Rapinoe to actors Naomi Watts and Elliot (née Ellen) Page deliver feel-good, fact-free slogans like, "Supporting trans youth isn't just about sports. It's about freedom."The ad also claims that transgender children are "the living, breathing fabric of this country.""Sports are for every kid who wants to play — including trans youth," the ACLU wrote in a message underneath the clip.RELATED: ACLU's Alligator Alcatraz lawsuit CRUSHED: Trump judge smacks down liberal bid to close facility meant for illegal aliens Targeting 'trans'The group simultaneously released a petition against what it calls the Trump administration's "attacks" on "trans kids.""Over the last several years, politicians across the country have targeted trans people and our families — and under the Trump administration, these attacks have only gotten more unconscionable and cruel," the organization wrote in a statement accompanying the petition. "One of their most consistent targets? Trans student athletes. Time and time again, we see powerful politicians fixate on trans kids and attempt to ban them from playing school sports with their friends." Without providing any citations, the ACLU claimed children have been subjected to "invasive and demeaning sex testing" which has allegedly resulted in "all of us [being] less safe and free to be ourselves."As of this writing, the petition has secured some 23,500 of the 25,000 signatures it seeks. RELATED: Pro-transgender Seattle Kraken jersey enrages NHL fans: 'Feel some trans joy' Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images Ban wagonOther notable personalities to appear in the ACLU's commercial included former WNBA player Sue Bird, current WNBA player Brianna Turner, actress Kara Young, and fashion designer Willy Chavarria.Following oral arguments Tuesday, a majority of the justices signaled skepticism toward the challenges, suggesting the bans are likely to be upheld. The Court is expected to issue a formal ruling by late spring or summer.

A leftist congressional candidate launched a lousy attempt to further conflate President Donald Trump with literal Nazis, but failed miserably. Candidate Mark Davis of Florida sounded the alarm Thursday, noting the website "Nazis.us" redirects users to the Department of Homeland Security page. Davis implied that he stumbled upon this website and urged supporters to "give them a donation." 'I pointed it directly at Kristi Noem's department.'"OK, I think I have it figured out....if you go to Nazis.us it takes you to our DHS website because, of course it does," Davis said in a post on X. "It just makes sense. Whoever did that, give them a donation."Despite his attempt to frame the Trump administration as Nazis, X users quickly found out that Davis was actually the one who created the website.RELATED: Florida Panthers praise Trump during White House visit: 'Nothing beats this' Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesAfter getting brutally ratioed in his comment section, Davis changed his tune and openly admitted that he purchased the domain himself."If Kristi Noem and donald trump didn't know my name before, they damn sure do now," Davis said. "I bought nazis.us. I pointed it directly at Kristi Noem's department. And now the whole damn world is watching. I just held up a mirror ... and they hate their reflection. And it's a middle finger they can't erase. You want to cry about 'decency'? Then maybe don't prop up fascists while killing women, immigrants and the working class. You built this. I'm just handing out the receipts."RELATED: 'Lectern guy' from Jan. 6 running for election in Florida to promote 'MAGA principles' Photo by Win McNamee/Getty ImagesDavis, who is running in a deep-red district represented by Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan for over a decade, continued his unhinged rant on X, even urging people to divorce their spouses if they support Trump. "If your husband or wife still supports trump, leave them. Divorce them. Kick their sorry f**king ass to the curb," Davis said."They backed a pedophile. They cheered for a wannabe dictator. They watch this country burn ... and f**king clap[.] And if they chose the rapist who wants to end elections, they don't deserve your loyalty. Or your home. Or your f**king silence. They f**ked the country. Don't let them f**k your life too."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!