Are demons more likely to attack Christians when they’re vulnerable? According to BlazeTV host Rick Burgess, the answer is yes.

On a recent episode of “Strange Encounters,” Rick shared a deeply unsettling encounter he had with what he believes were demons while preaching to thousands of men at a convention in 2021.

Rick admits that at the time of his speaking engagement, he was overworking himself, neglecting his home life, and was physically and spiritually worn out.

“I think I opened myself up for this battle … because I was wore down,” he confesses.

When he took the stage to speak, he immediately sensed that something wasn’t right.

“I just could sense pretty quick that there was just kind a darkness. There was an oppressive spirit that was there,” he recounts.

Rick opened his speech by sharing the story of his son’s tragic death. As he “got to the part about [his] wife holding the lifeless body of [their] son,” he saw something strange among the grim audience members: a group of men with “wicked” and “distorted” faces laughing at him at the back of the convention center.

“I’m literally talking about the death of my son and this gruesome scene, and they’re laughing at me,” he says.

Shocked, Rick stopped his speech and asked, “Do you think this is funny?” but the men “just kept laughing.”

He moved on with his speech but later circled back to look for the men who had laughed at his son’s death, but he could never locate them again in the crowd.

“I keep looking to find them, and they’re not there. So then I realize … there’s a spiritual war going on in here,” he says.

After his speech concluded, Rick inquired about the mysterious group and even physically sought them out, but he never could find them. Even stranger, no one he spoke to had any recollection of seeing or hearing laughing men.

“I couldn’t find any evidence of them at all,” he says.

In the end, Rick came to this sinister conclusion: “I was being mocked by demons about the death of my son.”

To hear more details from his harrowing story, watch the full episode above.

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​Strange encounters, Strange encounters with rick burgess, Rick burgess, Spiritual warfare, Demonic oppression, Blazetv, Blaze media, Blaze podcasts 

It took less than a minute. Not for the show to find its rhythm — that never arrived — but for viewers to reach for the remote.

A more generous critic would say “Saturday Night Live: UK” stumbled out of the gate. Someone actually grounded in reality would say it arrived DOA, was resuscitated by optimism, flatlined again during the opening credits, and spent the rest of its run time as evidence that nobody in the commissioning process had ever actually watched British television.

The live format, in particular, punishes British reserve. The Brits, much like the Irish, don’t do collective euphoria on command.

The opening sketch — a Downing Street caricature so limp that it needed medical attention — felt like it was written by people who had heard of the place the way most people have heard of Uzbekistan: aware that it exists, entirely unclear on the details. Keir Starmer reduced to a bed-wetting schoolboy: accurate enough, but executed with all the surgical precision of a drunk toddler.

Satire requires stones. This was neutered at conception

Fey’s lemon

The host was former “SNL” head writer Tina Fey — parachuted in to anchor the spin-off in the history of television’s most durable comedy franchise.

Rather than evoking “Saturday Night Live,” however, her appearance called to mind “30 Rock” — Fey’s own sitcom about a sketch comedy show flailing within an absurdly corporatized NBC.

She stood there less like a master of ceremonies than like a faintly embarrassed consultant, as if tasked with explaining why this seemingly gratuitous product was actually a masterstroke of synergy and brand extension. You could almost hear the Jack Donaghy pitch behind it: familiar logo, international rollout, scalable format. Somewhere between the greenlighting and the greenroom, the only premise that mattered — making people laugh — had been quietly lost.

The audience noticed immediately. They always do. Forty seconds. One minute. Five, if you were feeling charitable. The reactions weren’t angry. They were worse. They were bored. There is no harsher verdict for comedy than indifference.

Stupid and sublime

It wasn’t always this way, of course. “Saturday Night Live” was once genuinely great. Not good. Not fine. Great. Belushi, Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy — dangerous, deranged, alive. Bill Murray doing a sort of dollar-store Sinatra. Chris Farley destroying every piece of furniture within reach. Phil Hartman doing impressions so precise that the subjects should have taken it personally. They probably did.

These were performers who understood that live television was a dare, not a format, and they took it every single week. Comedy that felt like it could go wrong at any moment, and sometimes did, and was better for it. Sharp, stupid, sublime in equal measure.

Those days are long gone — the show swallowed by Trump derangement syndrome and the passive-aggressive ritual of swiping at conservatives until the writers’ room mistook a political position for a punch line.

In its prime, it was still political, but at least it was anchored in something real — American culture, fast, furious, and occasionally brilliant. If today’s “SNL” is but a degraded facsimile of the show in its prime, this transatlantic fiasco is a facsimile of that facsimile: edges blurred, ink fading, soul entirely absent.

RELATED: 9 must-have devices for detecting leftist threats in your area

CBS Photo Archive/Monika Graff/Getty Images

Fawlty hour

The failure here is structural, not superficial. British comedy is built on irony, understatement, and a very specific species of darkness. “Fawlty Towers.” “Brass Eye.” “The Office.” “I’m Alan Partridge.” Comedy that watches you squirm and enjoys it. Comedy that finds the precise point of maximum discomfort and builds a home there. Comedy forged in restraint and bad weather, in class anxiety and institutional distrust, in the particularly British conviction that authority is always, at some level, ridiculous. You cannot import that.

If British comedy runs on slow-burning cringe and the precise calibration of discomfort, the “SNL” format runs on volume — loud, broad, relentlessly American, built around celebrity cameos and political impressions that reset with each news cycle and evaporate by Sunday morning.

Hiring Lorne Michaels doesn’t transplant the institution any more than putting a McDonald’s in a country farmhouse makes it rural. The live format, in particular, punishes British reserve. The Brits, much like the Irish, don’t do collective euphoria on command. They do collective embarrassment, the kind that makes you leave the room on someone else’s behalf, change your name, and book a one-way ticket to the aforementioned Uzbekistan.

Nothing much

Crucially, nobody asked for this. Nobody petitioned. Nobody wrote in. Sky’s decision to commission eight episodes before a single one had even aired suggests the company was already nervous — hedging against failure by pretending it was a plan.

The deeper problem is one of fundamental incompatibility — a cultural mismatch so obvious that it’s almost impressive that no one in the commissioning process named it aloud. Or perhaps they did and were overruled by someone with a spreadsheet. Comedy, at its best, feels dangerous. This felt focus-grouped. Safe. Sanitized. A show that promised the sun, moon, and stars but instead delivered, with full confidence and considerable expense, a urine-scented underpass.

Of course, the next episode could be great. Revelatory. The best television in years. But judging by the first, almost anything else would have been better. Including nothing. Nothing would have been better. Nothing, at least, doesn’t waste your Saturday night.

​Saturday night live uk, Television, Culture, Lorne michaels, Tina fey, Sky news, Kier starmer, Review 

The Department of Homeland Security is calling on Chicago officials to enforce an immigration detainer on a man accused of shooting and killing a freshman college student.

Eighteen-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman went out with friends to the Tobey Prinz Beach early in the morning on Thursday to see the northern lights.

‘We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime.’

A 25-year-old man named Jose Medina-Medina approached Gorman while wearing a mask, and when she tried to flee, he allegedly shot and killed her, according to a DHS statement.

DHS said Medina-Medina is a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and blamed the former Biden administration for his presence in the U.S.

“Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration,” the agency said on social media. “He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”

The family of the victim also blamed government failures for Gorman’s death.

“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” a family statement reads. “When systems fail — whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act — the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent.”

Medina-Medina was charged with first-degree murder and gun charges but did not appear in court because of his continuing hospitalization. Prosecutors indicated to Judge Luciano Panici that the suspect is being treated for tuberculosis.

RELATED: ‘Cold-blooded’ illegal alien murdered 15-year-old who was trying to stop him from raping his mother, ICE says

Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis excoriated the former administration in statement about the incident.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” Bis said.

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​Sheridan gorman killed, Illegal alien murderer, Biden releases illegal alien murderer, Jose medina-medina, Politics 

A left-wing member of the Los Angeles City Council is getting hammered for her hypocrisy in hiring police officers for her event while pushing to deny similar protection for her residents.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has campaigned against the police, but the California Post discovered that she hired a large police presence when it came to her event celebrating Mexican Independence Day.

‘Apparently, she has no problem spending taxpayer dollars for her safety but opposes doing the same for the residents she represents. It is time for change in Council District.’

Hernandez pushed to “abolish” police and to divert police funding toward investing “in housing, economic mobility, education, child care, and public health infrastructures.”

But surprisingly, when she needed security for a celebration of Mexican Independence Day at City Hall in September, Hernandez hired 13 armed LAPD officers for the event at a cost to the taxpayer of $135,000 in overtime pay.

The event, titled “El Grito 2025,” was expected to include about 500 attendees, which means Hernandez paid about $270 for police protection for each person for just that one day. The per capita spending on police for the entire year is about $420, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

She also advocated that police be unarmed when providing security for the City Council and advocated for a “mediation-based model” for cops.

The Post found that Hernandez voted in 2025 against the City Council contract that authorized using the LAPD for special events like the Mexican Independence Day event she publicized.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League condemned Hernandez for her hypocrisy.

“It should come as no surprise that some politicians act like hypocrites, but Eunisses Hernandez takes the cake,” reads a statement from the union’s board of directors to the Post.

“Hernandez has repeatedly voted to defund and disband the police, yet she saw nothing wrong with requesting police security at a community event to keep herself and others safe,” the union added.

RELATED: Police release body-cam video after lawsuit over 9-year-old who was handcuffed at school

Photo by Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

“Apparently, she has no problem spending taxpayer dollars for her safety but opposes doing the same for the residents she represents. It is time for change in Council District,” the union concluded.

Hernandez says in her biography that she’s the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a community organizer.

Hernandez did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​La council member eunisses hernandez, Hypocrite la anti-cop democrat, Mexican independence day, Defund the police hypocrites, Politics 

When BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock sat down with Cam Newton on “4th & 1,” the result was more than just a heated debate; it was a revealing and surprising dialogue — despite their well-known differences.

The pair engaged in a respectful conversation that left Whitlock with the feeling that it was a rare moment where two opinionated men with fundamental disagreements were able to understand each other.

“I’m so glad that I agreed to appear on Cam Newton’s ‘4th & 1’ program,” Whitlock begins. “It was an opportunity for me to show a fuller picture of myself, takes me out of my comfort zone, and was an opportunity for me to get a bit more insight into Cam Newton.”

“I thought it was a very healthy discussion. I thought it was a very entertaining discussion. I thought it was a very authentic discussion, and I tip my hat to Cam Newton,” he continues.

Whitlock points out that not only was it “authentic” but that it was one of the first times he’s seen two black men who have almost nothing in common ideologically — and have a fair amount of tension in their relationship to boot — sit down together and have a “respectful” conversation.

And Steve Kim agrees, telling Whitlock that he “really enjoyed that interview.”

“On a global scale, this is like Reagan and Gorbachev coming together, and you guys tore down that wall. I actually think you guys might have a little bit, dare I say it, a friendship,” Kim jokes.

“I can honestly say, at least from what I observed … I thought he came away with a clearer understanding and a heightened respect for you, Jason, as a person, after that conversation,” he adds.

Shemeka Michelle also believes the pair had an “excellent conversation,” but she admits there were moments of frustration.

“There were times that I was on the edge of my seat, a little bit frustrated by Cam’s explanation, and I feel like he wasn’t bending sometimes the way I wanted him to bend or actually understand your point of view,” Michelle tells Whitlock.

Michelle also notes that she saw a different side of Whitlock in the interview.

“When you’re on ‘Fearless,’ I don’t think you’re very confrontational. Like there are times when I think you could have body slammed a few people. I’m not going to name any names. Like you really could have given them a verbal body slam, but you were kind,” Michelle says.

“But this time, I feel like you didn’t do that. You were in a different space, and I just saw a different Jason,” she adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Cam newton, 4th and 1 podcast, National football league, The nfl, Cam newton vs jason whitlock, Cam newton interview 

One of personages repeatedly targeted for erasure in the American left’s violent iconoclasm in 2020 has at last found asylum on the White House grounds, thanks to President Donald Trump and some other unrelenting American patriots.

Toppling giants

Liberals appear to have no issue raising and keeping statues in public spaces so long as they are culturally, morally, and/or historically subversive.

Take, for example, the golden statue of a horned monster that was erected atop the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in January 2023.

The dehumanized figure — which Pakistani-born propagandist Shahzia Sikander purportedly designed to capture the “spirit” of the movement seeking to legalize abortion across the United States — was celebrated by radicals in and outside the courthouse. Claire Bishop, professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, excitedly told the New York Times, “Maybe she can help channel us back to reinstating Roe v. Wade.”

Another statue that liberal activists not only tolerated but celebrated was the ram-headed Baphomet statue the Satanic Temple installed at the Iowa Capitol along with a satanic altar ahead of Christmas that same year.

While evidently unperturbed by demonic imagery, liberal activists have evidenced an aversion in recent years to sculptures reminiscent of America’s proud past, noble beginnings, and Christian character.

‘These monuments matter.’

Amid the Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination campaign of 2020, radicals vandalized and/or toppled — in many cases through official actions — numerous statutes across the country, including those depicting Spanish missionary Junípero Serra and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.

Christopher Columbus — the Italian “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” who sailed under the Spanish flag and whose four transatlantic voyages set the stage for American civilization — was one of the 2020 iconoclasts’ most popular targets.

RELATED: Satan is real — whether his depraved fashion-world followers believe it or not

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city’s Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, then toppled a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan — a destructive act brushed off by city officials.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the explorer, the cheering mob threw the remains into the harbor.

The incident took place just days after President Donald Trump, then in his first term, issued an executive order aimed at protecting such statues from destruction — an order where he stated that extremists’ “selection of targets reveals a deep ignorance of our history, and is indicative of a desire to indiscriminately destroy anything that honors our past.”

Stoop and build ’em up

Some Americans proved unwilling to let the tide wash away American history.

Tilghman Hemsley, a local painter, sculptor, and fisherman, hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family’s art studio. Hemsley’s son, Will, used scans of the recovered pieces to create a replica of the 13-foot statue.

The New York Times reported that the recreation project received $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded funds in October 2020 “to help repair and restore statues of iconic historical figures that have been damaged or vandalized, and to construct new ones, in an effort to revitalize public interest in American history in advance of the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.”

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the Washington Post that he and his allies also chipped in, raising and spending over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United — the group that not only commissioned and owned the original statue but reportedly backed the reconstruction efforts — told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

RELATED: Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police

Will Hemsley. Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Basil Russo, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, had reportedly reached out to the Trump administration after Baltimore officials refused to install the replica in public.

‘In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero.’

“Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent,” Russo said in a statement.

“For over a century, Columbus’ legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country,” Russo continued. “Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans. This history remains central to why these monuments matter.”

Working in coordination with the Italian American Organizations United, the COPOMIAO gifted the statue to the White House.

On Sunday, the statue — which was reportedly transported to the White House by Tilghman and Will Hemsley along with Randsallstown resident Jeff Bayer — was installed on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House.

Trump thanked the COPOMIAO in a letter on Sunday for its “incredible generosity in gifting the Federal Government a beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus,” noting that he is “truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House.”

The president said further that the statue will “stand as an eternal memorial to courage, adventure, and the noblest aspirations of the human spirit as well as the extraordinary pride of our wonderful Italian American community.”

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Times in a statement Sunday, “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come.”

Tilghman Hemsley told the Baltimore Sun that the statue’s installation “was very climactic and it was very fulfilling.”

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​Iconoclasm, Iconoclast, Christopher columbus, Donald trump, White house, Statue, History, Deracination, Monuments, Historical, Black lives matter, Blm, Hemsley, Politics 

Val Kilmer would have wanted it this way, the late actor’s daughter claims.

Kilmer was originally cast in the film “As Deep as the Grave” in 2020 but grew too ill to participate in the production.

The actor’s battle with throat cancer saw him never make it to set, with the 65-year-old tragically passing in 2025.

However, that will not stop him from being in the movie.

‘It was very much designed around him.’

Writer and director Coerte Voorhees said that Kilmer was indeed the actor he had wanted to play the role of Father Fintan, a Native American Catholic priest.

“It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest,” Voorhees said, per Variety. Kilmer is reportedly Cherokee, German, Irish, and Swedish.

“I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it,” the director recalled.

Now through a deal with Kilmer’s estate and cooperation from his family, the star of “The Doors” and “Batman Forever” will posthumously appear on screen again.

RELATED: Val Kilmer: Two movies to celebrate the late actor’s peculiar ‘Genius’

Kilmer’s family “kept saying how important they thought the movie was,” the director stated, and that Kilmer “really wanted to be a part of this.”

As such, Kilmer’s estate was allegedly compensated according to SAG Guidelines, People reported.

Website Greenslate states actors must be paid their typical rate for any time saved using an “employment-based digital replica” of the performer. Therefore, it is likely that Kilmer’s estate would be paid the actor’s going rate as if he were alive.

However, consent is not required for changes made to the production using AI, which of course limits actor control (or in this case, the estate’s) in terms of the final product.

Daughter Mercedes Kilmer has openly supported the use of her father’s likeness, Variety reported, claiming her father was a “deeply spiritual man” who connected with the film’s “story of discovery and enlightenment.”

RELATED: 50 Cent will open a film studio in the Deep South, not Hollywood, to create ‘stories that need to be told’

Val Kilmer 2004. Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images

“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes added. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”

Kilmer’s son is also reportedly in favor of the AI representation of his father.

It is important to note that in 2022, Kilmer said he was “grateful” to work with tech company Sonantic, which recreated his voice for the “Top Gun: Maverick” sequel.

“A phrase we often hear is ‘having a creative voice.’ But I was struck by throat cancer. After getting treated, my voice as I knew it was taken away from me,” Kilmer said, per Men’s Health. “But now I can express myself again, I can bring these dreams to you, and show you this part of myself once more. A part that was never truly gone, just hiding away.”

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Actor, Likeness, Estate, Hollywood, Ai actor, Tech