Abdul El-Sayed's Bold New Crime Plan: What If We Just Let Everyone Out?

In what can only be described as the Democratic Party's latest audition for a reboot of Escape from New York, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has resurfaced comments advocating for the mass release of prisoners while participating in a webinar that featured a convicted murderer and a registered sex offender.

The August 2020 webinar, hosted by prison abolition activists and promoted with hashtags such as #FreeThemAll and #AbolishPrison, invited El-Sayed to discuss the "road to decarceration and abolition." For those unfamiliar with progressive jargon, "decarceration" is the fancy academic term for "let's see what happens if we stop putting criminals in prison."

El-Sayed enthusiastically embraced the concept.

"Not only are we taking people's rights from them, but also we have failed to provide them the basic means of a dignified life," he said. "Every choice we make about incarcerating somebody is about robbing that somebody from the people who love them and the people who need them."

Noticeably absent from the discussion were the people who got robbed, assaulted, raped, murdered, or otherwise victimized by the criminals in question. In the progressive hierarchy of compassion, crime victims increasingly appear to rank somewhere below convicted felons and slightly above carbon emissions.

El-Sayed went even further, declaring:

"Any and all efforts to get people out of jails and prisons and to keep people out of jails and prisons is policy that we need to be investing in."

Any and all efforts.

That's quite a slogan. Most politicians at least pretend to draw a distinction between a shoplifter and a serial violent offender. El-Sayed appears to have settled on a more streamlined approach: prison bad, freedom good, details unnecessary.

The webinar itself was a remarkable spectacle. Joining El-Sayed were former prisoners Martin Vargas, a registered sex offender convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl, and LaWanda Hollister, who served 34 years for second-degree murder. It was essentially a campaign event that accidentally wandered into the casting department for a true-crime documentary.

Yet this wasn't an isolated incident. Earlier that year, El-Sayed appeared on a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoe, a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty to soliciting a 14-year-old girl for sex. Rather than treating such a background as disqualifying for public leadership, El-Sayed encouraged Hoe and other former convicts to run for office because their "voice is needed."

One can only imagine the campaign slogan: Experience matters.

Republicans have already seized on El-Sayed's record, portraying him as a far-left ideologue whose political instincts seem permanently trapped inside a graduate seminar on prison abolition. His associations with socialist influencers, anti-Israel activists, and various progressive causes have already raised eyebrows. But telling voters that prisons themselves are the problem may be the kind of argument that sounds better in an activist Zoom call than in a general election.

After all, most Americans still cling to the quaint and outdated notion that people who commit serious crimes should face serious consequences.

El-Sayed and his allies appear determined to challenge that assumption.

The rest of Michigan may soon have an opportunity to decide whether that vision represents criminal justice reform or simply criminal justice surrender.

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Belfast Erupts After Sudanese Asylum Seeker Charged in Brutal Stabbing That Left Man Blinded

Europe's migration crisis has once again exploded into the streets.

Northern Ireland descended into chaos after a Sudanese asylum seeker was charged with attempted murder in a savage knife attack that left a Belfast man blinded in one eye, triggering nights of riots, arson, and renewed questions about immigration and border security.

Hadi Alodid, 30, appeared Wednesday by video in Belfast Magistrates' Court after prosecutors alleged he viciously attacked Stephen Ogilvie late Monday night in north Belfast. According to prosecutors, the assault left Ogilvie blind in his left eye.

Alodid faces charges of attempted murder, threatening to kill a radiographer, and possessing a knife. Using an Arabic interpreter, he declined legal representation and entered no plea. He was ordered held in custody.

The attack occurred shortly after 10:30 p.m. Monday and was captured on graphic video that quickly spread across social media. Police said Ogilvie, a man in his 40s, suffered severe injuries to his face, neck, back, and eyes. Investigators recovered what they believe was a kitchen knife at the scene.

Video circulating online also showed members of the public confronting the suspect, with one bystander using a hurling stick. PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson praised those who intervened, calling them "heroic" and crediting their actions with helping save Ogilvie's life.

Authorities said Alodid entered Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum, and received a five-year permit to remain. Police initially identified him as Somali before later correcting his nationality to Sudanese.

Henderson also sought to tamp down speculation about the motive, saying investigators had "no information to suggest that this was a terrorist-related incident" and that police were not searching for additional suspects.

That did little to calm public anger.

Violence erupted across Belfast as masked rioters torched homes they believed were occupied by immigrants, set fire to garbage bins, burned a city bus, and hurled projectiles at police officers. Firefighters rescued multiple people trapped inside burning homes as authorities declared a critical incident and surged additional officers into affected neighborhoods amid fears of further unrest.

The violence highlighted the deep tensions simmering over immigration throughout the United Kingdom.

Belfast resident Anselme Shima, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, described the fear gripping immigrant communities.

"I've lived on my street for almost 10 years, I have a good relationship with my neighbors, but last night was a horrific one," he told Reuters. "We don't know what to do. I'm scared. Seeing this, I'm wondering if I'm next."

Northern Ireland's political leaders condemned the riots.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Fein called the violence "thuggery."

"Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice," she said.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the Democratic Unionist Party added that "taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also weighed in, denouncing both the stabbing and the riots.

"The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable," Starmer wrote on X. "There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it."

The unrest gained momentum online through anti-immigration activists, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.

Meanwhile, the attack has reignited debate over the largely open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Some lawmakers argue the case demonstrates the need to reassess cross-border movement, though the issue remains politically explosive because unrestricted travel is a cornerstone of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that helped end decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles."

Much of the rioting occurred in working-class neighborhoods where former paramilitary organizations still retain influence.

The Belfast stabbing also arrives as Britain continues grappling with the political fallout from another high-profile knife attack.

Last week, Vickrum Digwa was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years for murdering freshman student Henry Nowak in Southampton in December 2025. Digwa, a Sikh man, falsely claimed to police that Nowak had carried out a racist attack against him. Officers initially treated the severely wounded Nowak as the suspect before realizing he was the victim and attempting to save his life.

The murder sparked national debate over policing, race, and public safety. Protests following the killing also turned violent, with demonstrators attacking officers using chairs and rocks. Multiple participants were later charged with violent disorder.

With Belfast now engulfed in unrest following another gruesome knife attack involving an asylum seeker, immigration and public safety are once again front and center in Britain's increasingly heated political debate.

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Venezuela Earthquake Death Toll Climbs Past 1,400 as Rescue Window Narrows: UPDATE

AI Generated image

The death toll from the devastating twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 has climbed to more than 1,430, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the country in recent history.

According to Venezuelan officials, including National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, at least 1,430 people have been confirmed dead, while some reports place the number above 1,450 as recovery crews continue pulling victims from the rubble. More than 3,150 people have been injured.

The powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, leveled neighborhoods across parts of Caracas and La Guaira, reducing apartment buildings, businesses, and public infrastructure to piles of concrete and twisted steel. Rescue teams continue searching collapsed structures despite persistent aftershocks that have complicated recovery efforts and endangered first responders.

Officials say the chances of finding additional survivors are fading with each passing day. While thousands of rescue workers remain on the ground, the operation has increasingly shifted from rescue to recovery.

Reports regarding the number of missing people remain uncertain. Some tracking systems have suggested that tens of thousands may still be unaccounted for, though authorities caution that those figures likely include duplicate reports and communications disruptions caused by the disaster. Government officials have indicated that the verified number of missing persons is significantly lower, though they have not released a definitive total.

The confirmed death toll has risen steadily since the immediate aftermath of the quakes, when early estimates counted only dozens of fatalities. As emergency crews gain access to previously unreachable areas, officials expect the number of confirmed deaths could continue to increase.

The disaster has left Venezuela facing an enormous humanitarian challenge, with thousands displaced from their homes and critical infrastructure severely damaged. Relief operations remain underway as emergency personnel race to assist survivors and provide aid to devastated communities.

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Iran Declares World's Busiest Shipping Lane Now Subject to "Supreme Leader's HOA Rules"

Iran's ruling mullahs apparently woke up Sunday and decided that one of the world's most important shipping routes now belongs to them.

An Iranian lawmaker announced that Tehran intends to keep a firm grip on the Strait of Hormuz, confidently informing the rest of the planet that everyone else will simply have to obey. It is the diplomatic equivalent of the neighborhood bully claiming ownership of the public sidewalk.

"We unequivocally support the ever-victorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' decisive action against the American enemy and the assertion of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz," Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the Parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, wrote in a post on X.

Apparently, "ever-victorious" now means repeatedly picking fights with countries that possess aircraft carriers, stealth bombers, and a habit of responding when provoked.

Rezaei doubled down on the fantasy by declaring, "The Strait of Hormuz will not return to its previous state, and others have no choice but to submit to Iran's directives in the Strait."

The statement was widely interpreted as Iran's version of posting a handwritten "My Pool, My Rules" sign on an international waterway.

The bravado came after President Donald Trump warned on June 27 that the U.S. military would "complete the job" if Tehran failed to honor the ceasefire agreement. History suggests that when Trump starts talking about "completing the job," Iranian officials suddenly become very interested in underground architecture.

The interim Memorandum of Understanding between Tehran and Washington includes provisions governing the Strait of Hormuz intended to guarantee toll free passage for commercial vessels during a 60 day period.

Whether Iran plans to honor that agreement or simply continue issuing royal decrees over waterways it doesn't own remains to be seen. Fortunately for the world's shipping industry, international law has traditionally carried a little more weight than an angry post on X.

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Rubio and Vance Offer Competing Visions While White House Insists Everyone Is Singing From the Same Hymnal

For an administration that likes to remind everyone it's playing four-dimensional chess on the world stage, the Trump White House has found itself looking like a family trying to assemble IKEA furniture after losing the instructions. Everyone insists they're building the same bookshelf, but one guy is holding a hammer while another is convinced the leftover screws are decorative.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spent the past week doing something that used to be considered a basic qualification for running American foreign policy: acknowledging that the Iranian regime is exactly what decades of history say it is. Vice President JD Vance, on the other hand, has been floating a more optimistic theory that suggests the mullahs are just one reconstruction package and a few friendly conversations away from becoming respectable neighbors. What has he been smoking?

The White House would like everyone to stop noticing.

Rubio has consistently defended Israel's campaign against Hezbollah for what any honest observer can see it is: a response to years of rocket attacks, terrorism, and the bizarre international expectation that Israelis should quietly absorb missiles because it makes European diplomats feel more comfortable and besides, Jews need to be annihilated because, you know, the Qur'an and stuff.

While visiting the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain, Rubio worked to reassure nervous allies following the preliminary U.S.-Iran agreement signed on June 17. Critics have questioned whether the deal hands Tehran far too much for far too little. Rubio answered those concerns with a sentence so grounded in reality that it almost sounded old fashioned.

"While we want a deal, we don't want a deal at any price," Rubio said.

Imagine that. A Secretary of State who remembers that negotiations are supposed to benefit America instead of serving as therapy sessions for hostile dictators.

That practical approach stands in pretty stark contrast to the messaging coming from the vice president.

Vance, on the other hand, has defended the agreement against Israeli criticism while arguing that Israeli strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut could complicate American diplomacy. That assumes Hezbollah is simply misunderstood and that their biggest obstacle to peace is poor calendar coordination with U.S. negotiators rather than an obsessive commitment to wiping Israel off the map.

Does he know nothing about Islamic anti-Semitism?

The vice president has also spoken favorably about Gulf nations helping finance Iran's reconstruction and has entertained the possibility of a more cooperative relationship with the Islamic Republic. Apparently decades of hostage taking, proxy wars, terrorism, and "Death to America" chants are now considered minor misunderstandings that can be smoothed over with enough infrastructure spending. He needs to forget about running for POTUS in '28.

Then came Thursday's interview.

Vance revealed that Washington had invited an Iranian intelligence official to serve as a deconfliction liaison with the Pentagon in Qatar. That's one of those ideas that sounds like it came out of a brainstorming session where someone asked, "What's the foreign policy equivalent of letting the bank robber install the security cameras?"

Naturally, everyone in the administration insists there isn't even the slightest disagreement.

"There is one camp, President Trump's camp, and the entire administration is fully behind the president's efforts to ensure Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott dismissed reports of friction as a "tired and fake" narrative before adding, "The entire administration is 100% in lockstep behind President Trump."

Rubio offered the same assurance Thursday.

"Everyone here is aligned behind the president."

Maybe they are.

But from where everyone else is sitting, this doesn't look like perfect harmony. It looks like one side is reading Ronald Reagan while the other is speed-running Barack Obama's Middle East playbook. Both keep insisting they're singing the same song, but one sounds like "God Bless America" while the other is humming "Kumbaya" with the ayatollah.

If this really is one unified strategy, somebody might want to hand out the same script before the next press conference.

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Left Eats Its Own: Pro Hamas Activists Chase Scott Wiener Out of San Francisco Pride Event Anyway

If anyone still needed proof that the modern Left eventually devours everyone who isn't sufficiently revolutionary, California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a gay Jewish activist, just volunteered as Exhibit A.

Wiener, a Democrat, is one of the architects of California's progressive agenda, discovered the hard way that decades of faithful service to the activist class earn you exactly nothing once the mob decides your loyalty to Israel is unforgivable.

Video posted to X shows Wiener attempting to walk through crowds gathering for San Francisco's Trans March before being greeted with the sort of tolerance, inclusion, and acceptance progressives are always promising everyone else.

"You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of sh*t!" one participant screamed in a high-pitched falsetto.

Nothing says "love is love" quite like informing a gay Jewish man that his sexual orientation has been revoked because he refuses to hate the Jewish state.

Ironically, the video begins with the person filming praising Wiener's record on LGBT legislation. Apparently all of those years of advancing progressive causes were erased the instant Israel entered the conversation.

"I think your policy on the genocide of Gaza is terrible," the person filming Wiener said as masked activists converged around him. "I think you do not belong here."

Soon, more masked protesters surrounded the senator, shouting that he was a "genocidal piece of sht" while chanting, "We fcking hate you!" Because they love Hamas.

It was another inspiring display from the same political movement that constantly lectures America about kindness, empathy, and stamping out hate. 

To view the video, click here

Former MTV reality star Spencer Pratt could not resist pointing out the poetic justice.

"Hey, Wiener guy! Remember when you called me a 'McBigot'?" Pratt wrote on X. "How does it feel now that the Frankenstein you created is coming for you? Every stupid communist learns this history lesson the hard way. Enjoy!"

That may have been the most accurate political analysis of the entire episode.

The activists repeatedly insisted Wiener had betrayed the LGBT community by refusing to adopt their preferred anti Israel orthodoxy.

"It sucks because you've been wonderful, you've been wonderful for trans people, and you've been terrible, and you've been terrible, you've been terrible, you've been terrible on Gaza!" one protester yelled as Wiener kept walking.

Dimitry Yakoushkin, who shared the video online, celebrated the confrontation by declaring Wiener insufficiently radical.

"Scott Wiener showed up to the trans march and for the first time we kicked his a** out," Yakoushkin wrote. "It's sad because while he's written some good legislation for queers, hes [sic] ultimately a genocidal-supporting center right shill."

Imagine being a California Democrat who helped push one of the most progressive agendas in America only to be branded "center right" because you failed the latest ideological purity test. On today's Left, anyone to the right of Che Guevara is apparently a conservative.

The truly remarkable part is that Wiener has hardly been an unwavering defender of Israel. After the October 7 Hamas massacre, he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and by January 2026 even declared in a video that he does "believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza."

That dramatic shift earned him exactly zero forgiveness.

The revolutionary tribunal had already reached its verdict.

"You're a piece of sh*t on Gaza!" the person filming shouted. "How could you do that? How could you betray queers? How could you oppress people?"

For years, conservatives have warned that identity politics eventually collapses into endless purity tests where no amount of ideological conformity is ever enough. Scott Wiener spent years helping build that machine.

This week, it finally decided to run over one of its own.

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Venezuela Earthquake Death Toll Rises

While some predictions believe there will be up to 20,000 or more deaths from the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela last Wednesday, June 24th, around 6:04 p.m. local time, followed by another quake 39 seconds later, the most recent official toll rose to 920 deaths. 

The first quake registered 7.2 magnitude followed by a 7.5 earthquake, a significantly stronger one about 100 miles west of Caracas.

Caracas was devastated, flattened in parts and the government has estimated hundreds of people are still trapped and missing since the disaster.

The president of the national assembly, Jorge Rodriguez released the official death toll, but obviously, it's expected to rise as more information is revealed.

A website established to collect reports of missing individuals had registered more than 50,000 unaccounted-for people as of midday Friday. The United Nations’ chief aid official provided a similar estimate.

Foreign rescue teams and humanitarian aid began arriving in the country on Friday, while desperate Venezuelans and an increasing number of international volunteers worked urgently to locate survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings and debris.

Rodriguez reported that 871 international rescue workers were operating in Venezuela by Friday afternoon. Among the nations dispatching teams were Mexico, El Salvador, and Spain. The U.S. Geological Survey has forecasted a high likelihood of more than 10,000 fatalities, which would rank these earthquakes among the deadliest in Latin America over the past century.

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Hezbollah Furious That Lebanon Might Stop Letting Hezbollah Run Lebanon

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem is having a rough weekend. The terror group's secretary general blasted the newly signed Israel-Lebanon framework agreement as "null," a "humiliation," and an outrageous assault on the sacred tradition of heavily armed militias operating their own private state inside another state.

Apparently, nothing says "national sovereignty" quite like taking orders from Tehran while stockpiling rockets in civilian neighborhoods.

Speaking on Saturday, Qassem declared that any effort to tie Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah giving up its arsenal crossed "all red lines." Translation: Israel is expected to leave, but Hezbollah is expected to keep enough missiles to redecorate northern Israel whenever the mood strikes.

“We say to the Lebanese authorities, it is time for you to retract your sins that are destroying Lebanon,” Qassem asserted.

That is certainly one way to describe the situation. Another would be to ask whether the organization that has dragged Lebanon into repeated wars, frightened away investors, and treated the country's sovereignty like an optional suggestion is perhaps looking in the wrong mirror.

The framework agreement, signed Friday by the United States, Israel, and Lebanon after days of negotiations in Washington, lays out a step by step plan to dismantle Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure, disarm the group, and allow the IDF to withdraw from southern Lebanon as the threat disappears.

In other words, somebody finally proposed the radical idea that a country's army should be the country's army.

The agreement also calls for the United States to strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces so the nation's military, instead of an Iranian proxy, can provide security within Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the deal, calling it “a major achievement for the State of Israel” in a public address.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the agreement as “the first step on the path to restoring Lebanon's sovereignty” in a post on X.

Qassem, meanwhile, appears to believe Lebanese sovereignty is best preserved by ensuring Hezbollah remains more heavily armed than the Lebanese government itself. It is a fascinating constitutional theory, albeit one that seems to exist nowhere outside the offices of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

For years Hezbollah has insisted it is merely defending Lebanon. Now that someone has suggested Lebanon might defend itself, Hezbollah suddenly finds the proposal deeply offensive.

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