President Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill are pushing a crucial election integrity bill that continues to be championed by the MAGA base. Although most Republicans have touted the legislation, the usual suspects in the Senate have been stubborn.

The SAVE America Act passed the House with unanimous Republican support on Wednesday, with even one Democrat voting in favor of the bill. The legislation would put in place the bare minimum requirements to safeguard federal elections by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote as well as photo ID to cast a ballot.

‘Federal overreach is not how we achieve this.’

Despite the overwhelming support from Republican constituents, several lawmakers in the Senate have refrained from backing the key legislation.

As of this writing, 49 of the 53 Senate Republicans have co-sponsored the SAVE America Act, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.), according to Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. Senate Republicans who have withheld their support so far include Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, all of whom have a history of bucking Trump.

RELATED: Lone Democrat joins all Republicans to pass landmark election integrity bill barring noncitizens from voting

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Republican holdouts have argued the legislation is another case of government overreach that would federalize elections, while others have simply maintained a vague position on the bill.

“When Democrats attempted to advance sweeping election reform legislation in 2021, Republicans were unanimous in opposition because it would have federalized elections, something we have long opposed,” Murkowski said in a post on X. “Now, I’m seeing proposals such as the SAVE Act and MEGA that would effectively do just that.”

Notably, Murkowski was the sole Republican who voted to advance the same 2021 voter reforms she referenced.

RELATED: Lone Republican defies Trump, votes to tank the SAVE Act

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“Once again, I do not support these efforts. Not only does the U.S. Constitution clearly provide states the authority to regulate the ‘times, places, and manner’ of holding federal elections, but one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska.”

“Imposing new federal requirements now, when states are deep into their preparations, would negatively impact election integrity by forcing election officials to scramble to adhere to new policies likely without the necessary resources,” Murkowski said in a post on X. “Ensuring public trust in our elections is at the core of our democracy, but federal overreach is not how we achieve this.”

“I am looking at it,” Collins said Thursday. “The House made significant changes to it. … This is a work in progress.”

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​Donald trump, Save act, Save america act, Voter id, Proof of citizenship, Noncitizens voting, Election integrity, Voter fraud, Make elections great again, Lisa murkowski, Thom tillis, Mitch mcconnell, Susan collins, John thune, Senate republicans, House republicans, Politics 

Bright headlights have become a genuine safety issue for American drivers. Complaints about being blinded by oncoming vehicles are now commonplace, cutting across age groups, vehicle types, and driving environments.

For most of automotive history, safety innovations followed a clear principle: improve visibility without creating new risks. Today’s headlight crisis shows how far that balance has drifted. What began as a push for better nighttime illumination has turned into a widespread hazard — one driven not by reckless drivers or faulty equipment, but by outdated regulations and incentives that reward brightness without restraint.

A headlight that improves visibility for one vehicle can simultaneously degrade safety for everyone else.

Modern LED headlights are far brighter than anything federal regulators envisioned when lighting standards were written decades ago. As frustration grows, an uncomfortable truth is becoming clear: This problem is not a technological failure. It is the predictable result of rules that no longer reflect how vehicles are designed, tested, or driven.

Glaring data

Data backs up what drivers have experienced firsthand. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that average headlight brightness has roughly doubled over the past decade. Complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration increasingly describe glare so intense that it causes eye strain, headaches, and momentary loss of visual clarity. These reports come from drivers of all ages, in both older vehicles and brand-new ones, on city streets and rural highways alike.

The increase is not subtle. Traditional halogen headlights typically produced around 1,000 lumens. Many factory-installed LED systems now produce 3,000 to 4,000 lumens, while some aftermarket lights exceed 10,000 lumens — levels that would have been unthinkable when federal headlamp standards were last meaningfully updated.

At the center of the issue is Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108, which governs automotive lighting. Much of this regulation dates to the 1980s, when lighting technology was limited by the physical constraints of halogen bulbs. Brightness was naturally capped, so strict numerical limits were unnecessary. That assumption no longer holds.

Outdated standards

LED technology fundamentally changed how light is generated and controlled. LEDs can produce intense illumination using little power, and their output can be shaped and focused with remarkable precision. Yet instead of setting modern limits on overall brightness, federal standards still rely on beam-pattern measurements designed for older technology. As long as light output stays below certain thresholds in specific test zones, overall brightness can rise dramatically elsewhere.

Automakers have learned to design within these boundaries. By carefully shaping beams and managing shaded areas during compliance testing, manufacturers can produce headlights that are technically legal while delivering far more light on the road. This is not a violation of the law — it is the predictable exploitation of a regulatory framework that no longer matches reality.

Safety worst

Safety ratings have unintentionally made the problem worse. Headlight performance plays a significant role in evaluations by organizations such as the IIHS. Brighter headlights often score higher in controlled tests that measure forward visibility distance, giving automakers strong incentives to push brightness ever higher for better ratings and stronger marketing claims.

What these tests often fail to capture is glare’s impact on other drivers. A headlight that improves visibility for one vehicle can simultaneously degrade safety for everyone else. Current regulations and rating systems rarely account for this trade-off, allowing brightness gains to be celebrated without serious scrutiny of their broader consequences.

Vehicle design trends amplify the issue further. Modern trucks and SUVs sit higher than previous generations, placing headlights closer to eye level for drivers in sedans and smaller cars. Even properly aimed headlights can become overwhelming when mounted higher off the ground, particularly on uneven pavement or during braking and acceleration. Federal standards offer limited guidance on how brightness and mounting height interact in real-world conditions.

RELATED: Quick Fix: What’s the safest used car for my teenager?

CBS/Getty Images

Spotlight on adaptive tech

Adaptive driving beam technology is often cited as the solution — and it does hold promise. These systems can dynamically adjust light patterns to reduce glare for oncoming traffic while preserving illumination elsewhere. But adaptive headlights were only approved in the United States in 2022, long after they became common in Europe and Asia. Adoption remains limited, mostly confined to higher-end vehicles, and performance varies widely depending on sensors, software, and calibration.

Even with adaptive systems, the absence of a clear federal cap on brightness remains a fundamental flaw. Technology can mitigate glare, but it cannot replace modern standards that reflect real-world driving conditions.

The safety implications are serious. Night driving already carries higher risk due to reduced visibility and fatigue. Excessive glare increases reaction times, reduces contrast sensitivity, and impairs depth perception. For older drivers and those with vision conditions such as astigmatism, the effects are magnified. These are not minor inconveniences — they are factors that directly influence crash risk.

Minimal response

Despite growing evidence and public concern, regulatory response has been minimal. The last major federal investigation into headlamp glare occurred in 2003, before LEDs became dominant. Since then, vehicle lighting has changed dramatically, but the rules governing it have not.

This is not an argument against innovation. LEDs offer real benefits, including efficiency, durability, and the potential for smarter lighting systems. The problem is not brightness itself, but the lack of modern oversight to ensure that brightness improves safety without creating new hazards.

Updating standards would not require rolling back technology or limiting consumer choice. It would mean establishing meaningful brightness limits, accounting for vehicle height and beam placement, and ensuring that adaptive systems meet consistent performance benchmarks. Most importantly, it would recognize that safety on public roads is shared — not something that can be optimized for one driver at the expense of others.

Until that happens, drivers will keep adapting on their own. Some will avoid driving at night. Others will install even brighter aftermarket lights, escalating a cycle that benefits no one. Many will simply accept discomfort as the cost of modern driving, unaware that it is neither inevitable nor necessary.

The technology to fix this problem already exists. What’s missing is regulatory urgency. As headlights continue to grow brighter, the gap between legal compliance and real-world safety widens. Closing that gap is essential if we want innovation to serve safety — rather than undermine it.

​Headlights, Road safety, Lifestyle, Bright headlights, Halogen vs. led, Auto industry, Align cars 

Anyone can search the currently available Epstein files and see what turns up. As a professor at Arizona State University, I searched for my own school. I did not expect to find so much ASU-related material.

One reason: ASU employed Lawrence Krauss, paying him a substantial salary to write books arguing that the universe created itself from nothing.

Epstein’s philosophy collapses under its own weight because it begins with a lie about God.

That claim is its own story. You will object, rightly: “But we can’t get something from nothing.” Krauss replies, “By ‘nothing’ I mean quantum foam.” And you respond, “Then the title misleads. You don’t mean nothing. You mean quantum foam.”

Krauss also became close with Jeffrey Epstein. In one exchange, Krauss wrote: “I really do love you deeply as a friend Jeffrey. I don’t think I know anyone else who so honestly cares about me, and I don’t think I can ever truly express how wonderful that feels. Thank you. The cruise was a great reset.” In other messages, they discuss science and religion.

That is what caught my attention. As I read Epstein’s comments about religion — and listened to his interview with Steve Bannon on similar themes — a picture began to form of how Epstein made sense of the world and, more chillingly, of himself.

How a monster sleeps

A question hangs over every moral horror: How does a moral monster live with himself? Even if we limit ourselves to the explicit immorality in the files — without speculating about coded language or hidden networks — how did he sleep at night? What silenced his conscience?

Several pieces fit together.

In the ASU-related material and in interviews, Epstein does what I have often seen among intellectuals: He retreats into abstraction. He speaks about the history of ideas, mathematics, and cutting-edge research in a way that floats above concrete people and particular moral obligations.

That retreat protects a self-image. He can pose as the enlightened patron of science, funding humanity’s progress. That image sits in grotesque contrast with the cruelty he inflicted on actual human beings.

Abstraction as a moral anesthetic

This pattern tracks with Paul Johnson’s thesis in “Intellectuals”: Intellectuals who talk about serving “humanity” often treat individuals in their orbit badly. Grand claims become a shield. The rhetoric of progress becomes moral insulation.

Think of the professor who preaches liberation while using DEI programs to impose racial essentialism and ideological coercion. He can tell himself he is helping “the marginalized” even as he harms colleagues and students in the real world.

Or consider the pop star who repeats slogans like “no one is illegal on stolen land.” The moral performance happens at the level of abstraction. The carelessness happens at the level of reality.

RELATED: Why Christians should care about politics

Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Epstein’s ‘unknowable’ God

Epstein goes further by trying to dissolve moral accountability at the metaphysical level.

He argues that physicists once believed reality could be fully captured by mathematics. Now, he claims, we understand reality is irrational. Mathematics can only approximate what he calls “the limit,” but the limit itself remains unknowable. Some call that limit “God.”

But if God is unknowable, then God becomes irrelevant to our calculations about life and moral choice.

At one point, Epstein frames this as a male-female divide. The male mind, he says, runs on logic and mathematics. Reality, however, does not fit that paradigm. Reality is fundamentally irrational and accessed through feminine intuition. Ultimate reality, in his telling, is best understood as the divine female.

Humans, in Epstein’s view, are beasts with frontal lobes sophisticated enough to rationalize their impulses.

He may have believed he was elevating the feminine. The framework reads more like a metaphysical excuse: reason fails, therefore the standard fails.

The tension between reason and intuition is ancient. Epstein narrows “reason” to a single project: reducing the world to material causes through mathematics. When that project does not deliver what he wants, he does not abandon reductionism. He abandons reason.

Francis Schaeffer described this move in godless intellectual life: When autonomous reason cannot sustain itself, the thinker does not repent. He escapes into irrationality. Intuition becomes the alibi. Mystery becomes permission.

Religion as therapy, not truth

In conversation with Krauss, Epstein defends a kind of religion, but not biblical religion.

Krauss, echoing the New Atheists, treats religion as an evolutionary leftover — maybe useful in an earlier age, unnecessary for modern man. After all, modern man allegedly knows universes can create themselves out of nonexistence.

Epstein pushes back, but only to reduce religion to psychological management. Religion concerns the “inner world,” he suggests, while science and mathematics concern the outer world. We cannot ignore the inner world. Its purpose is peace. Anxiety and depression signal inner disorder; religion restores equilibrium. That, for Epstein, becomes religion’s function.

Not worship. Not truth. Not repentance. Peace.

That is New Age self-help with a faux religious vocabulary.

A Nietzschean pattern

Put the pieces together and a Nietzschean outline emerges.

Nietzsche described the dialectic between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian seeks order, reason, structure. Yet it can become sterile and suffocating. The Dionysian seeks raw experience — ecstasy, pleasure, intoxication, release. Dionysian revelry becomes not only indulgence but purgation: a controlled environment where darker impulses can be acted out so a man can return to ordinary life and call himself functional again.

God’s moral law is written on the heart. We are not left with “unknowable limits” as our excuse. We are without excuse.

Humans, on this view, are beasts with frontal lobes sophisticated enough to rationalize their impulses.

That is the worldview of the modern pagan: order and chaos, calculation and intoxication, “science” by day and ritualized transgression by night. Add Epstein’s skepticism about knowable truth and his reduction of religion to inner peace, and the method of self-justification comes into focus.

His reported fascination with longevity technologies and strange diets fits too. Death becomes the great enemy. It must be cheated — through science, mythic elixirs, or Silicon Valley innovation.

RELATED: America’s old cultic trick: Sex, salvation, and the return of polygamy

cglade via iStock/Getty Images

Temptation is not his alone

The unsettling part: These temptations are not unique to Epstein.

Many people oscillate between cold rationalism and irrational indulgence. Many treat morality as a social construct and religion as therapy. Many use abstractions to excuse what they would never defend in plain language.

That should drive self-examination, not mere disgust. Are we living inside the Apollonian-Dionysian loop, shifting between self-justifying “reason” and self-excusing “release”?

The lie at the center

Epstein’s philosophy collapses under its own weight because it begins with a lie about God.

God has not hidden Himself. Scripture teaches that His eternal power and divine nature are clearly revealed through creation. His moral law is written on the heart. We are not left with “unknowable limits” as our excuse. We are without excuse.

The claim that reality is fundamentally irrational is not a profound insight. It is an evasion. It is a way to suppress what is plain.

That is why Lawrence Krauss’ self-creating universe and Epstein’s divine female belong in the same category: idols. They exchange the truth for something else — something that grants permission.

Romans 1 describes the pattern of Epstein’s life: the darkened mind, the suppression of truth, the exchange of glory for self-justification, and the descent into sexual corruption. The cure is not oscillation between sterile rationalism and ecstatic purgation. The cure is redemption. The cure is communion with God restored.

We need Christ, who alone frees us from the pagan dialectic — ancient and modern — and grants eternal life, “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

​Opinion & analysis, Jeffrey epstein, Lawrence krauss, Arizona state university, Epstein files, Department of justice, Philosophy, Nietzsche, Science, Colleges and universities, Quantum foam, Religion, Faith, Nihilism, Humanity, Coercion, Intellectual, God, Atheism, New atheists, Apollonian, Dionysian, Good, Evil, Paganism, Technology, Lies, Redemption 

The sheriff’s office in Bay County, Florida, said officers responded Tuesday to a reported home invasion robbery at a residence in the 8200 block of Random Road. The area is about 10 minutes north of Panama City Beach.

Patrol deputies made contact with the victim, who reported that two masked suspects entered his home while he was sleeping and stole a large amount of cash, officials said.

He said Swartz earlier in the evening contacted him by phone requesting to visit his home and stating that she got his number through a mutual acquaintance, officials said.

The victim stated he confronted the suspects inside the residence and chased them out, officials said, adding that the suspects then fled in their SUV.

The victim then entered his own vehicle and pursued the SUV off Random Road and eastbound on Highway 388, officials said.

During the chase, the victim reported striking the suspect vehicle multiple times in an attempt to stop it, officials said, adding that after the final impact, the suspect vehicle swerved and crashed into a ditch.

When deputies arrived, they learned that the occupants of the crashed vehicle fled on foot into a nearby wooded area, officials said.

Investigators soon learned that the crashed vehicle was registered to 22-year-old Sarra Swartz, officials said.

While processing the scene, investigators found a large amount of cash in the vehicle and on the ground near the driver’s door, officials said, adding that the cash appeared consistent with the victim’s report of money taken during the home invasion.

The victim amid the investigation also provided additional information about events preceding the robbery, officials said.

RELATED: Florida home invader threatens homeowner with weapon, advances toward him, refuses to leave. But crook picks wrong victim.

Image source: Bay County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

He said Swartz earlier in the evening contacted him by phone requesting to visit his home and stating that she got his number through a mutual acquaintance, officials said.

The victim agreed, and Swartz arrived soon after and remained at the residence for about 15 to 30 minutes before leaving, officials said.

The victim added that he displayed a large amount of cash while giving money to his girlfriend — and while Swartz was present — which may have been observed, officials said.

After Swartz left, the victim fell asleep, officials said, after which he said his girlfriend woke him up screaming that individuals were taking his money.

The victim saw two masked males inside the residence, officials said, and described one as a tall, larger white male and the other as a shorter black male armed with a baseball bat.

The victim’s girlfriend also reported seeing what appeared to be a handgun in the possession of one of the suspects, officials said.

Deputies detained one suspect in the woods, later identified as 37-year-old James Crowe, officials said, adding that Crowe provided information identifying two additional suspects and detailed events leading up to and following the robbery.

As the search continued, investigators found Swartz walking along a road west of the crash site, officials said.

A short time later, investigators saw the third suspect, Devarius Stewart, seated in the passenger seat of a vehicle stopped in the area, officials said.

Stewart initially refused commands to exit the vehicle, officials said. However, with the arrival of additional units, Stewart and Swartz were detained and transported to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office for interviews, officials said.

RELATED: Armed Florida homeowner fights back against 4 thugs who reportedly try to force their way into his residence

(L to R) James Crowe, Sarra Swartz, Devarius Stewart. Image source: Bay County (Fla.) Jail, composite

Crowe, Swartz, and Stewart were arrested and charged with home invasion robbery with a deadly weapon, officials said.

Bay County Jail records indicate that all three remained behind bars Friday morning; Swartz’s bond is $75,000, Stewart’s bond is $100,000, and Crowe is being held without bond. Records also indicate that Crowe faces an additional charge of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon; his bond is $20,000 for that charge.

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​Crime thwarted, Arrests, Florida, Florida crime, Bay county sheriff’s office, Vehicle chase, Woods, Fighting back, Ome invasion robbery with a deadly weapon, Crime 

A Massachusetts city in the Greater Boston area has made abundantly clear that it will not be dominated by the sensitivities of activists — those whose apparent discomfort with America’s Christian inheritance has them fighting to hide civic symbols of courage, honor, and bravery.

Dealt a legal setback in October, the city of Quincy is now asking the state’s top court to weigh in on the matter of an angel and a saintly firefighter.

Saints and iconoclasts

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch commissioned renowned sculptor Sergey Eylanbekov to design two 10-foot-tall bronze statues heavy with cultural and historical significance to honor police and firefighters outside their new public safety headquarters.

While the city had erected other statues by Eylanbekov without issue, this time was different as the new statues also carried religious significance — one depicting Florian, a 3rd-century firefighting Roman Christian, and the other depicting the winged archangel Michael stepping on the head of a demon.

The statues have many fans in the community, including Quincy Police Chief Mark Kennedy, who indicated he feels “honored” by the Michael statue, and Quincy Firefighters Local 792 president Tom Bowes, who said, “Florian embodies the values that are most important to our work as firefighters: honor, courage, and bravery.”

Not all were, however, pleased.

‘If beautiful art has religious meaning to anyone, it must be hidden away from everyone.’

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State joined a handful of locals in suing last May to block the installation.

Among the plaintiffs are:

a Unitarian social justice warrior; a self-identified Catholic who finds the “violent imagery” of good triumphing over evil to be “offensive”; a local synagogue member who suggested the images “may exacerbate the current rise in anti-Semitism”; an Episcopalian who believes that walking past such statues would amount to “submission to religious symbols”; and a lapsed Catholic who suggested the image of Michael stepping on the head of a demon was “reminiscent of how George Floyd was killed.”

Their lawsuit claimed that “affixing religious icons of one particular faith to a government facility — the city’s public safety building, no less — sends an alarming message that those who do not subscribe to the city’s preferred religious beliefs are second-class residents who should not feel safe, welcomed, or equally respected by their government.”

The complaint strategically neglected to mention the significance of Michael in other religions, in the Western literary canon, and pop culture. Similarly, it largely glossed over Florian’s potential secular appeal, emphasizing his recognition by Catholics as a saint.

RELATED: ‘Scandal’: Abortion radical’s appointment at University of Notre Dame has local Catholic bishop outraged

Detail from 17th century painting of Michael vanquishing Satan. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Mayor Koch emphasized in an affidavit that “the selection had nothing to do with Catholic sainthood, but rather was an effort to boost morale and to symbolize the values of truth, justice, and the prevalence of good over evil.”

The plaintiffs evidently saw things differently as their complaint suggested the statues’ installation “will not serve a predominantly secular purpose,” but rather to “promote, promulgate, and advance one faith, subordinating other faiths as well as nonreligious traditions.”

Setback

Norfolk Superior Court obliged the iconoclasts in October, blocking the planned installation of the already purchased and completed statues while the case proceeds.

Judge William Sullivan, a Democratic appointee, said in his ruling that “the Complaint raises colorable concerns that members of the community not adherent to Catholicism or Christian teaching who pass beneath the two statues to report a crime may reasonably question whether they will be treated equally.”

The judge suggested further that the statues “serve no discernable secular purpose.”

“Although defendants argue that the public has an interest in inspiring the city’s first responders in carrying out their work to maximum effectiveness, the court does not conceive the ability, commitment, and enthusiasm of members of the Quincy Police and Fire Departments to serve the communities will be appreciably undermined if the two statues are absent for the duration of this litigation,” added Sullivan.

The ACLU — which has alternatively defended the erection of satanic displays on public grounds — celebrated the ruling with Massachusetts chapter staff attorney Rachel Davidson thanking Sullivan for “acknowledging the immediate harm that the installation of these statues would cause.”

Onwards and upwards

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed last month to hear an appeal of the lesser court’s ruling — an opportunity welcomed both by the ACLU of Massachusetts and the city of Quincy.

“We look forward to defending Quincy’s plan to honor our brave first responders at the Massachusetts high court,” Mayor Koch said at the time.

The city — represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Quincy solicitor James Timmins — filed a brief with the SJC on Wednesday, making mince meat of the activists’ arguments and underscoring the statues’ permissibility under the law.

The brief reiterated that the statues have a secular purpose; their primary effect will not be to advance religion; and their prohibition based on religious hostility would violate the U.S. Constitution.

The brief noted further that the plaintiffs lack standing “since merely observing public symbols one finds disagreeable is not a cognizable injury” and that “the placement of inanimate statues as public art on a public building does not implicate direct support of religion in any manner, let alone the subordination by law of some faiths to others.”

To prohibit the statues would also be “at odds with the robust history of public display of other symbols with religious significance” in the state, said the brief.

There are, for instance, statues of Moses and “Religion” in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Courthouse; a statue of Pope John Paul II — a Catholic saint — in the Boston Common; and a statue of Quaker martyr Mary Dyer outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

“The ACLU’s theory in this case is tragically simple: If beautiful art has religious meaning to anyone, it must be hidden away from everyone,” Joseph Davis, senior counsel at Becket and an attorney for the city of Quincy, said in a statement.

“The ACLU’s radical rule flouts our nation’s civic heritage and decades of court decisions,” continued Davis. “The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court should reject the ACLU’s Puritanical demands and make clear that artworks don’t have to be purged from the public square just because they might make someone think of religion.”

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​Massachusetts, Religion, Faith, Catholic, Statue, Quincy, Aclu, Iconoclasm, Iconoclast, Art, Artwork, Symbol, Christian, Angel, Saint, Saint michael, Florian, Politics 

The Super Bowl halftime show is one of the most powerful cultural platforms in the world, and Turning Point USA’s Jack Posobiec was well aware that challenging would not be easy — but the organization took it on anyway.

“I’ve heard the NFL tried to get you guys not to do it,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says to Posobiec.

“So here’s what I can say. … Kid Rock himself came up — Bob came out and said, ‘It’s David and Goliath,’” Posobiec explains.

“This is what he was referring to because I knew that by picking a fight with the biggest cabal in America … we’re talking Hollywood, we’re talking corporate America, the biggest sports event in the country — the most money that goes into this thing because it has the most cultural power — that we were going up against Goliath,” he says.

“I don’t think we realized the ways that they can get you — the ways that they can gatekeep you and block you. Now, look, I’m not going to sit here and say that I, you know, I have an email from Roger Goodell that says, ‘You shall not do this,’ right?” he continues.

“This is the way that these elite events work is that it’s a trickle-down system, but they’re all connected through the sponsorships, the advertisers, the venues, the musicians, the music rights, the labels,” he adds.

Posobiec points out that there were times where artists would say, “Love to do it; can’t wait.”

“But then something would always happen, Glenn, somewhere along the line in that conversation, with — I want to say at a very large percentage of people we talked to, suddenly it was, ‘Oh, you know, something came up and we just can’t do it,’” he tells Glenn.

“And then they play games with the rights to the songs as well … because the publishers and the licensers have the song,” he explains, noting that the organization would have been sued to the tune of “tens of millions in liabilities” because “somewhere back in the office someone says ‘No Turning Point USA.’”

“This happens all the time in our world,” Glenn responds, “but it only happens, Jack, when you’re making a difference.”

“That shows how terrified they were of this,” he adds.

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