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Independent journalists Nick Sortor and Karlyn Borysenko were in serious danger on Saturday night after being confronted, threatened with death, and having their vehicle attacked ...
Gateway Pundit ^ | August 02, 2026 | Cassandra MacDonald

Posted on 08/02/2026 2:06:05 PM PDT by Red Badger

Independent journalists Nick Sortor and Karlyn Borysenko were in serious danger on Saturday night after being confronted, threatened with death, and having their vehicle attacked with vomit by Black Lives Matter rioters in a self-declared “autonomous zone” that has taken over several blocks of downtown Madison, Wisconsin. The zone, known as the “Corey Ruiz Autonomous Zone” or “CRAZ,” was formed in the days following the July 22 police shooting of Corey Ruiz, an armed serial felon who was killed while allegedly attacking an officer with a knife.

Protesters have built barricades of pallets, furniture, and spike strips, blocked streets, set up tents, and effectively seized control of the area around Williamson and Baldwin streets, using the playbook from Seattle’s 2020 CHOP/CHAZ.

Sortor, who was driving with Borysenko in the passenger seat, stopped near the encampment and stepped out of the vehicle in an attempt to make jokes and lighten the mood.

Instead, activists surrounded him, blocked him from returning to his car, swung a pole at him, sprayed vomit on him and his vehicle, damaged the left front quarter panel, and repeatedly threatened to kill him.

WATCH:

VIDEOS AT LINK.................

Video footage captured one individual warning, “hurry up and leave before your life ends out here” and saying “there’s a whole team of us.”

Borysenko, filming from the passenger seat with a hood over her head, captured the escalating confrontation.

WATCH:

VIDEOS AT LINK.................

She noted that the woman swinging the pole had previously appeared hostile toward her during an earlier visit to the zone and that the attackers did not appear to recognize either journalist, making the incident even more alarming because “this could happen to anyone.”

Sortor immediately called 911 after escaping.

Both journalists praised the responding Madison police officers as professional and helpful.

WATCH:

VIDEOS AT LINK.................

In follow-up posts, Borysenko suggested many of the individuals involved appeared to be connected to drug activity, with homeless people in the encampment allegedly being used as enforcers.

“BTW all of those people are likely drug dealers who are selling drugs out of that car, or the people they are selling the drugs too,” the journalist, known for extensively studying the far-left and going undercover at their protests and events, wrote.

“The leftists are giving the homeless people in that encampment drugs to use them as their security attack dogs.”

Speaking to The Gateway Pundit, Borysenko said, “Last night, we drove by the autonomous zone in Madison. Nick got out of the car to talk to the activists and cracked a few jokes. They got aggressive and violent and threatened multiple times to destroy the car and kill him. It was absolutely terrifying. One of the same people had been aggressive towards me in the autonomous zone earlier in the day. Hopefully the city will allow the cops to go and arrest the people who did this.”

Sortor called for federal involvement, arguing that allowing violent anarchists to control city blocks should never be tolerated.

Local reporting confirms the zone has disrupted businesses, blocked emergency access, and drawn criticism from Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, yet it has remained in place into early August.

As of Sunday, no arrests related to the specific assault on the journalists had been publicly announced.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: antifa; autonomouszone; craz; madison

1 posted on 08/02/2026 2:06:05 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

As Michael Savage said in 2015:

“Actually, we are already in a civil war but only one side is doing all the shooting.”

——promoting his book Stop the Coming Civil War.


2 posted on 08/02/2026 2:10:07 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: Red Badger

Madisonstan might be another city for Trump to send the National Guard in to bring some law and order into the place.


3 posted on 08/02/2026 2:11:53 PM PDT by SharpRightTurn (Giving money & power to government is like giving whiskey & car keys to teenage boys. P. J. O'Rourk)
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To: frank ballenger

Is Savage still around?
I’ve heard nothing about him for some time.


4 posted on 08/02/2026 2:12:01 PM PDT by Reily
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To: Red Badger

These leftist thugs believe everything they do is honorable and justified, like the murder of the insurance company man by shooting him in the back. They are inspired and agitated by the 99% hostile and slanderous words from the Dems, the Dem. Socialists and the leftist news media.


5 posted on 08/02/2026 2:12:25 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: Red Badger

These cretins are from a HMC. High Maintenance Cultures.


6 posted on 08/02/2026 2:13:09 PM PDT by AuntB (Trump is our Ben Franklin - Brilliant, Boisterous, Brave and ALL AMERICAN!)
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To: frank ballenger

a few people on this site support Luigi ...


7 posted on 08/02/2026 2:16:28 PM PDT by bankwalker (Feminists, like all Marxists, are ungrateful parasites.)
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To: Reily

RE: Is Savage still around?
I’ve heard nothing about him for some time.


That’s why loudmouth TV types try to make controversial statements and get into feuds with famous people. They get the publicity that he is not getting.

https://michaelsavage.com/

Podcasts.

NewsMax TV has his nightly half hour show Savage Nation.


8 posted on 08/02/2026 2:17:14 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: frank ballenger

Thanks!


9 posted on 08/02/2026 2:18:31 PM PDT by Reily
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To: bankwalker

As if I needed to be further disappointed.
Didn’t notice.

Just saw the first in the film series The Purge.
People allowed one night a year without arrest for any violence. Director thought he was indirectly knocking gun rights. The nice family of the man whose company sells security systems to protect homes is targeted due to jealousy because he is rich from earning his money honestly supplying the lifesaving systems that the people all want to buy.
So they set out to kill him and his family out of envy.

Illogical, like the mother saying to the father: “Do you know what you just did? You handed a gun to our son. What are you doing?” “I’m fighting back.” (Thugs surrounded the house, cars and trucks were pulling off the doors and windows do the armed types could kill them. So a gun is a good idea for the son. And wife and daughter.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0LLaybEuzA&t=2s


10 posted on 08/02/2026 2:30:37 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: Reily
Is Savage still around? I’ve heard nothing about him for some time.

He has nothing to complain about since Rush Limbaugh passed. He used to always seem miffed that Rush never talked about him.

I never listened to him much, but that was one of takeaways from the experience.

11 posted on 08/02/2026 2:36:47 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Reily

I seem to recall he had some terminal medical condition or illness.


12 posted on 08/02/2026 2:46:01 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: Reily

I looked it up, he apparently is tired of the whole thing and retired. I never listened to him myself, so I didn’t realize he was 84 years old.

Probably no surprise that when you reach the age of 84, it just isn’t worth it for the most part.

You probably start to realize that you might as well do things you like.


13 posted on 08/02/2026 2:53:29 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: Red Badger

The word “allegedly” is cute and unnecessary when the perp is dead. He can’t sue for defamation.


14 posted on 08/02/2026 3:09:49 PM PDT by arthurus (l| covfeve |_=\)
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To: Reily

Still there, with a podcast.


15 posted on 08/02/2026 3:10:42 PM PDT by arthurus (l| covfeve |_\=\)
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To: Red Badger

The appearance of BLM or Antifa terrorists within 50 feet of any civilians should be regarded as an eminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.

Law enforcement officials who fail to quickly end such an eminent threat to innocent civilians or themselves should be identified by name and charged with giving aid and comfort to the domestic and foreign enemies of the United States.


16 posted on 08/02/2026 3:32:04 PM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: SharpRightTurn

IMO-—NOT WORTH SAVING

THEY HAVE DELIBERATELY FROG MARCHED INTO THIS STATUS FOR A LONG TIME.


17 posted on 08/02/2026 3:39:53 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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