On July 4, the $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened its doors to the public — a public that, according to a letter in a library exhibit, Roosevelt felt was similar to cattle.

In the letter written to Charles Davenport at Cold Spring Harbor in his own hand, he explained that “society has no business permitting degenerates to reproduce their kind.”

Roosevelt wrote in the letter, “We have to refuse to apply human beings the same elementary knowledge every farmer applies to his own stock. And that’s madness.”

“The farmers who let all the increase come from the worst stock would be threatened as fit inmates for an asylum,” he added.

Roosevelt also wrote that the “inescapable duty of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his blood behind him in the world.”

“We have no business permitting the perpetuation of a citizen of the wrong type,” he said.

Like most progressives, Glenn points out that Roosevelt made it clear that he believed in “categories.”

“This fight is about categories,” he says. “It’s about, you know, the collective and not the individual in his own hand to the director of the Carnegie-funded scientific institute. This was not the fringe. This is the cutting edge. This is the settled science that you must pay attention to of the time.”

“Theodore Roosevelt believed in the science and in the expert and in the government strong enough and clever enough to act upon what the experts knew. That’s progressivism all in one letter,” he explains.

“Now, was he great with the national parks? Yeah, he was great on national parks. Was he great on the individual and the man in the arena? Yeah, he was brave. He was funny. He read a book every day. A book every day. He took a bullet in Milwaukee and finished the speech. He set aside 230 million acres. That’s not the argument,” he continues.

“The argument is what he thought the American government was for,” he adds.

Glenn explains that Roosevelt also believed that “property is subject to the community’s right to regulate its use” and that government officials were the “stewards of the public welfare” rather than “servants of the law.”

“In a speech he called a ‘Charter for Democracy,’ he proposed when a court strikes down a progressive statute, the people should be able to vote to overturn the court. Former president of the United States in 1912 proposing a popular recall of judicial decisions. That’s not constitutional. That’s not how it works,” Glenn says.

“Theodore Roosevelt is exactly what we’re seeing. He’s just dressed up in prettier clothes. He’s not a despicable man where Woodrow Wilson is just a despicable man,” he says, adding, “And I don’t think he actually saw what was coming.”

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​National parks, Presidential library, Progressivism, Theodore roosevelt, Woodrow wilson, The glenn beck program 

A couple of months have gone by since the last major security threat to plague Apple’s ecosystem, so we’re due for another round. This time, a fatal flaw has been identified for a very specific group of iPhone models, and unlike most bugs we cover here on Blaze Media, this one costs real money to fix. Here’s everything you need to know.

The flaw

The fatal flaw in question is a BootROM exploit known as usbliter8. For curious minds, BootROM is the on-device component that’s required to boot up a device, or turn it on from a power-off state.

It can’t be resolved by downloading a future iOS update.

This system relies on a “chain of trust” to validate a device’s hardware and software every time the phone boots up to ensure that all components are secure and uncompromised on a cybersecurity level. If BootROM is compromised in any way, hackers can install unauthorized code, downgrade your phone to a less secure version of iOS, and potentially leverage other exploits to access data.

Luckily, not all iPhones are at risk. The usbliter8 exploit specifically affects Apple devices with A12 and A13 chips under the hood. Drilling down deeper, these iPhone models are in danger along with several Apple Watches. Check the list to see if your phone is included:

iPhone XRiPhone XiPhone XS MaxiPhone 11iPhone 11 ProiPhone 11 Pro MaxiPhone SE (second generation)Apple Watch Series 4Apple Watch Series 5Apple Watch SE (first generation)

If you’re not sure which iPhone you have, open the Settings app, tap on General, then About, and find the model of your phone under Model Name.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw

The problem

What makes this flaw so tricky is that it takes place on the hardware level. Unlike software-related bugs that can be patched with a quick update directly from Apple, usbliter8 is attached to the chip inside your smartphone.

That means it can’t be resolved by downloading a future iOS update. The problem will remain on your handset for what’s left of its life.

The solution

So how do you fix a flaw that can’t be repaired with new software?

There’s only one solution, and you probably won’t like it.

RELATED: Dems launch new push to control more of what you do in your car

SergeyBitos/Getty Images

You have to upgrade your iPhone to a new model outside of the affected devices. In other words, if your phone is on the threat list, you need to replace your vulnerable device with an iPhone 12 from 2020 or newer.

The bright side

For many iPhone owners with these older models, this may be a hard pill to swallow. New phones are expensive, and they’re only growing less affordable, thanks to the RAM shortages brought on by AI.

So let’s say you can’t or don’t want to upgrade to a new iPhone to fix the problem. Should you be worried about someone hacking into your device?

By all accounts, the risk of an usbliter8 actually happening in a real-life situation is slim. In order to carry out an attack, the hacker would need physical access to your device, and he would have to be able to put the phone into Device Firmware Upgrade mode. As long as you keep your phone on your person or in a bag at all times, you’re probably safe.

Bonus tip: Never plug your phone directly into a public charging cable you might find at a restaurant, airport, rest stop, hospital, or a college campus. Sometimes these cables are tampered with or comprised in a way that exposes your device to bad actors. If you must charge your phone in public, bring your own cable and charging brick that plugs directly into a wall outlet.

That said, in the event that your phone is stolen or accessed via usbliter8, there isn’t much that can stop a hacker from breaking in. The hacker doesn’t need your password to access DFU mode and install malicious code. However, usbliter8 can’t break into encrypted data on an iPhone on its own, so always use a complex password and biometric authentication, such as FaceID or TouchID. Those are your best defenses.

​Iphone, Security, Hackers, Ios, Tech 

The U.S. Department of Homeland security said a video it posted on X Thursday shows Canadian “illegal alien” — Kaitlyn Tracey — slapping a teenager.

The DHS added that the “maple leaf menace” — who was arrested after the alleged assault in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, earlier this month and then placed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — “has no business being in our country.”

‘Our message is clear: If you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.’

The video the DHS posted shows a red-haired female with tattoos and wearing a black baseball hat appearing to twice slap another female on a boardwalk and then walking away with a male.

Police said: “The female suspect began yelling at the female juvenile over patriotic-colored sweatpants with political wording. The female suspect was then seen on video striking the juvenile female, once to the body and once to the face, with an open hand. The female suspect then left the scene without being identified.”

While the victim of the alleged assault seen on the video was wearing shorts, she does appear to be wearing a tank top with the numbers “250” on the front — presumably in regard to America’s 250th anniversary celebrated on July 4. The incident occurred July 3.

The following video contains a partial clip of the alleged slaps:

RELATED: Canadian female, 33, accused of slapping teen girl wearing pro-Trump clothing on NJ boardwalk. Now suspect is in ICE custody.

Police department detectives conducted an investigation, and police said they identified Tracey on July 6 as the suspect in connection with the incident.

Tracey was charged with simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, and obstruction, police said, adding that Tracey early on Monday was taken into custody without incident, processed, and transported to Ocean County Jail.

Blaze News on Wednesday morning checked ICE records, which show Tracey is in ICE custody at its Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, N.J. The DHS told Blaze News that is where Tracey “will remain pending her immigration proceedings.”

“She entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa set to expire on September 6, 2024,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “Our message is clear: If you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

Fox News said a man identifying himself on social media as Tracey’s husband, Matthew Geroni, disputed the allegations in an interview with NJ.com and said the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

Fox News added that Geroni told NJ.com: “A person like Kate does not belong in any facility. My wife has never been in trouble in her entire life. She’s never had any kind of situation like this. This one little situation that was really a nothingburger when it happened has been blown so out of control by conservatives online that it has caused my wife to be put in a detention center.”

More from Fox News:

Geroni also posted several emotional videos to social media after Tracey’s arrest, saying he was trying to find an immigration attorney and pleading for help.

“I need help. I don’t know what to do,” he said in one video. “I need an immigration lawyer. … I need my wife.”

Geroni also said he created a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Tracey’s legal defense and immigration costs before it was removed from the platform. Before it was taken down, the fundraiser said it had been organized by friends to help cover Tracey’s legal expenses and immigration-related costs.

In another video, Geroni claimed the campaign was removed after what he described as a coordinated mass reporting campaign by a “Facebook group of MAGA supporters.”

But Fox News said a GoFundMe spokesperson disputed Geroni’s claim and noted that the fundraiser was removed for violating the platform’s policies.

“GoFundMe’s terms of service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” the spokesperson said, according to the news network. “Consistent with this long-standing policy, the fundraiser was removed from the platform and fully refunded.”

Fox News said Francis R. Hodgson, Tracey’s attorney, declined to comment; court records show Tracey is scheduled to appear in Ocean County Superior Court on Aug. 4.

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​Crime, Canada, New jersey, Department of homeland security, Immigration and customs enforcement, Politics 

Major League Baseball was determined to wrap this year’s All-Star Game in red, white, and blue. But according to BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock, it felt less like a celebration of America and more like a carefully scripted PR campaign.

“They tried way too hard to have this great patriotic moment last night,” Whitlock says, pointing out that instead, it “came off as fake and gay.”

“They want you to fake it, and they want you to be as fake as they are. And so they had players standing on the field holding cards and pretending to interact with kids and holding sparklers, and Patti LaBelle sang one of the worst national anthems in the history of All-Star games,” he explains.

“America has slid off the rails, and you’re just trying to put a happy face on this, you’re trying to reconnect people to Americana and some sort of pride satisfaction with America, but it can’t be done. It can’t be faked. It can’t be manufactured. And that’s what it was last night,” he continues.

Whitlock also notes that the MLB “just spent the last month on its knees kissing the LGBTQ’s rear end and stuffing Pride Night down our throat.”

“It’s going to take real work, not nostalgic moments with players holding sparklers in between innings, celebrating the 250th birthday of America in a fake way,” he says.

“Patriotism is real and organic, and it’s about shared values and people that take pride, real pride … in their country,” he continues, “And Major League Baseball doesn’t do that. Professional sports don’t do that. Professional sports for the last decade have been a tool to denigrate America.”

“And you don’t just get to, ‘Well, we’re going to stop doing that and pivot, and now we’re patriotic again.’ No, no, no, no. The only way you get to do that is when you repent for what you’ve been doing for the last decade and a half, two decades,” he adds.

He recalls the MLB’s promotion of DEI, racial idolatry, Black Lives Matter slogans — and “Pride.”

Whitlock explains that the MLB participates in not the Christian culture of the country, but in being a “safe space” for “sexual perversion.”

“That’s why they can’t now turn around and say, ‘Hey, we’re about, you remember all that nostalgic stuff in the ’80s and ’90s. We’re about that. We’re about family.’ No, you’re not. You’re about the mirage. You’re about same-sex marriage. You’re not about what made America great,” he says.

“The whole thing was fake,” he says, adding, “I’m going to keep it 1,000% real.”

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​Fearless with jason whitlock, Mlb, Pride month, Fearless 

One of the most influential military strategists of the 20th century, U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd, developed a decision-making process known as the OODA loop: observe, orient, decide, act.

His model emphasized a simple but powerful principle: Move quickly, but only after understanding the strategic environment.

Nations that lead biotechnology will enjoy not only economic advantages but also strategic leverage during future global crises. China understands this.

The most important step is often “orient.” It requires leaders to look beyond the immediate problem, understand the broader consequences of their actions, and anticipate unintended outcomes. When leaders skip that step, they may solve today’s problem while creating a much larger one tomorrow.

President Donald Trump’s recent effort to reduce prescription drug prices illustrates that challenge.

One of the administration’s most significant health care initiatives is the adoption of a most-favored-nation pricing model. Under this policy, the United States would tie the prices of certain prescription drugs to the lower prices paid by selected foreign countries.

The objective is understandable. Americans often pay substantially more for prescription medicines than patients in Europe or Canada. Reducing those costs would help millions of families.

But sound public policy requires looking beyond immediate savings.

Economists have long recognized that government-imposed price controls often reduce investment and supply over time. In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon imposed broad wage and price controls in an effort to combat inflation.

Instead, the country experienced stagflation — the painful combination of high inflation and slow economic growth. Energy price controls contributed to gasoline shortages by reducing incentives for increased production. Rent-control policies in cities such as New York have similarly discouraged new housing construction, contributing to housing shortages.

Pharmaceuticals operate under similar economic realities.

Developing a single breakthrough drug often requires more than a decade of research, thousands of unsuccessful experiments, and billions of dollars in investment. The profits from successful medicines finance the research that produces tomorrow’s cures.

If government policies significantly reduce those returns, companies are unlikely to stop producing today’s medicines. More likely, they will reduce research and development spending, slowing the pace of innovation.

RELATED: Big Pharma’s miracle drugs have a nasty side effect

Bagira22/Getty Images

That slowdown would be both an economic and national security concern.

Biotechnology has become one of the world’s most strategically important industries. It influences health care, agriculture, artificial intelligence, military medicine, pandemic preparedness, and protection against biological threats.

Nations that lead biotechnology will enjoy not only economic advantages but also strategic leverage during future global crises.

China understands this.

Just as Beijing has invested aggressively in artificial intelligence, critical minerals, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing, it has identified biotechnology as a strategic national priority.

Between 2016 and 2021, the market capitalization of Chinese biotechnology companies grew to approximately $300 billion, while the Chinese government invested heavily in research centers, biotechnology hubs, and advanced scientific education.

The numbers tell an even more compelling story.

According to the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, China completed more than 7,100 clinical drug trials in 2024, compared with roughly 6,000 in the United States. China’s share of global clinical trials has grown from approximately 1% in 2009 to nearly 30% today, while America’s share has declined.

Chinese scientists now produce roughly 60% of the world’s most-cited biotechnology research papers, and China accounts for 22% of international pharmaceutical and medical technology patents — an increase of nearly 380% over the past decade.

China also graduates approximately twice as many STEM students as the United States each year.

These statistics show that China views biotechnology as a critical component of future economic and military power. The United States, by contrast, risks treating one of its greatest strategic advantages primarily as a domestic pricing issue.

That should concern every American.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities created by dependence on foreign supply chains for medicines and medical equipment. Imagine a future pandemic — or a deliberate biological attack — in which America depends not merely on foreign manufacturing but also on foreign research, patents, advanced therapies, and biotechnology innovation.

The leverage China now enjoys through its dominance of critical minerals could become far greater if it also dominates the technologies needed to develop vaccines, precision medicine, or defenses against biological weapons.

None of this means prescription drug prices should remain high. Americans deserve affordable medicines.

The challenge is finding policies that lower costs without discouraging the innovation that has made the United States the global leader in biomedical research.

Trump’s leadership style has often been characterized by speed — moving rapidly to implement broad policy changes and challenge long-standing assumptions.

Speed can be an advantage in business, where quick decisions often create competitive advantages. But governing a nation is fundamentally different from managing a corporation. Public policy affects industries, scientific leadership, national security, and future generations.

Decisions that appear successful in the short term can produce unintended strategic consequences years later.

Boyd understood this better than most. The goal was never simply to act quickly. It was to understand the entire battlefield before deciding how to act.

America should pursue reforms that make prescription drugs more affordable. But before adopting policies that could reduce investment in biotechnology, policymakers should pause long enough to complete Boyd’s “orient” step.

RELATED: Eli Lilly strikes a $3 billion Chinese drug deal

Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In an era of growing strategic competition with China, protecting America’s leadership in biotechnology may prove as important to national security as maintaining superiority in the air, at sea, in space, or in cyberspace.

Sometimes the most dangerous consequences of a decision are not the ones we see today.

They are the ones we fail to anticipate tomorrow.

​Drug prices, Donald trump, China, Prescription medications, Big pharma, Stem students, Biotechnology, Covid, Opinion & analysis 

A legal battle has cast an unflattering light on the ugly business of surrogacy as well as on the eugenicist mentality that predominates in Canada — a country whose health care system was founded by a eugenicist, where euthanasia is now a leading cause of death, and where there are no legal limits on abortion.

According to a damning new report from the National Post in which the names of parties involved were withheld, a homosexual couple is suing a surrogate mother who two years ago refused their request to abort the baby boy over whom they now have legal custody.

‘They are suing the woman who brought their son to them.’

The lawsuit, filed in Ontario Superior Court in May, alleges that the surrogate mother failed to keep the gay couple informed about the health status of the baby, endangered the baby, caused the homosexuals so much emotional distress that one missed work for two months, and violated the plaintiffs’ confidentiality, reported the Post.

The target of the lawsuit, a resident of Ontario’s Muskoka region who works as a correctional officer, has denied all of the allegations and told the Post, “You know I’m a single mom, you know I have a daughter, and you’re basically suing me for my house. It seems very s***ty, it’s just awful.”

“I just feel used,” continued the woman, who claimed that the plaintiffs have indicated they are seeking roughly $600,000 in damages. “They didn’t get the perfect child they wanted, and they threw me away.”

It is unlawful under Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act to pay a woman to be a surrogate mother or to pay to arrange the services of a surrogate mother. Surrogacy is not, however, prohibited “so long as a surrogate mother in Canada makes this decision for altruistic reasons (i.e., without financial or other gain).”

A surrogate mother can only be repaid for out-of-pocket costs directly related to her pregnancy.

RELATED: ‘There is no mama’: How a viral video accidentally exposed the true cost of gay adoption

BSIP/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Image

The surrogate mother targeted by the lawsuit told the Post that she became interested in surrogacy after seeing a pair of close friends face reproductive obstacles.

After her profile was shared on the website of the referral organization Surrogacy in Canada Online, the woman was inundated with messages from individuals seeking her services, she claimed. Following an extensive screening process, she ultimately entered a contract with the homosexual couple now suing her.

According to the surrogate mother who underwent in-vitro fertilization with embryos produced with a donor egg and each of the homosexual’s sperm, her relationship with the couple was positive until June 2024, when she informed them that an ultrasound indicated the baby had a cleft lip and potentially a cleft palate and minor heart defect as well.

The couple said in a letter reviewed by the Post, “Considering that medical tests indicate that the fetus has, or is likely to have, a genetic, chromosomal or other abnormality or defect, and in accordance with article 8.5 (a) of our surrogacy agreement … we want to inform you of our wish that the pregnancy be terminated.”

“Although very difficult, this decision is free and informed,” added the couple, which is being represented by Jonathan Lancaster, a litigator at the Toronto-headquartered firm Fasken.

While proposed legislation criminalizing the coercion of pregnant women to abort their babies was defeated in 2010, Juliet Guichon, a bioethics professor at the University of Calgary, told the Post that Canadian law makes clear that the decision of whether to abort a baby ultimately rests with the expectant mother.

The surrogate mother refused to kill the 22-week-old baby over what she regarded as a superficial condition.

After hearing from doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital that the baby was generally healthy, the homosexual couple allegedly greenlit the continuation of the pregnancy.

The relationship between the surrogate mother and the homosexual couple continued to deteriorate when the woman decided to keep to the original plan of having the baby delivered at home by midwives.

The surrogate mother noted that the child had breathing problems on delivery but was provided oxygen by the midwives and then promptly taken to a hospital.

The homosexual couple who sought the baby’s death ended up taking him home, then effectively suspended contact with the surrogate, according to the mother.

Under Ontario’s All Families Are Equal Act, “the child ceases to be the child of the surrogate and the surrogate ceases to be a parent of the child” if the surrogate has entered into a surrogacy agreement before the child is conceived, has received independent legal advice in advance of entering the agreement, and the child is conceived through assisted reproduction.

The surrogate mother only enjoys the rights and responsibilities of a parent with respect to the child until the baby is 7 days old.

RELATED: Britain’s first homosexual ‘parent’ via baby purchase charged with rape, sexual exploitation

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

After repeated requests for her outstanding expenses — including for lost income and transportation costs — allegedly went unanswered, the surrogate mother attempted to take the homosexual couple to small-claims court only to discover that her surrogacy contract required the resolution of such disputes by arbitration.

‘The practice of surrogacy itself cannot be reconciled with the dignity and rights of the two persons it most directly concerns.’

The Post reported that the homosexual couple subsequently filed a lawsuit, alleging that the mother put the baby’s health at risk by negligent behavior and by “failing to follow the (parents’) direction regarding decisions affecting the fetus’ medical care”; violated their confidentiality; and caused them emotional distress.

Blaze News did not immediately receive a response from the couple’s attorney.

“What I find most difficult in this is they are suing the woman who brought their son to them,” Sally Rhoads-Heinrich, the owner of Surrogacy in Canada Online, told the Post. “How is their son going to feel some day if he learns that?”

Guichon, who emphasized that the homosexual couple sought to end the baby’s life over a medical condition that “can be completely overcome by surgery and therapy,” noted that “the question arises as to whether it is in the best interests of the child to be raised by these people.”

A political declaration calling for the global abolition of surrogacy was launched at a high-level side event at the U.N. Human Rights Council last month co-hosted by the Vatican and the governments of Italy, Chile, and Cameroon.

“The practice of surrogacy itself cannot be reconciled with the dignity and rights of the two persons it most directly concerns,” said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.

“The human person can never be the basis of a commercial contract. Every child has the right to an origin that is fully human. And under the convention on the rights of the child, the child also has the right to preserve his or her identity and as far as possible to know and be cared for by his or her parents,” continued Balestrero. “Surrogacy equally violates the dignity of the woman. It is rarely the privileged who carry children for others. The market of surrogacy is built overwhelmingly on the material need of women in situations of poverty and economic vulnerability.”

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​Abortion, Canada, Eugenics, Birth defect, Cleft palate, Ontario, Homosexual, Surrogacy, Surrogate, Pregnancy, Lgbt, Radicalism, Politics 

Narcissism has given itself a new name: socialism.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the generation that has grown up scrolling through social media feeds tends to be self-obsessed. This is evident in fewer marriages, lower birth rates, and a greater likelihood of mental illness. Politically, it is reflected in the alarming percentage of young people who have favorable views of socialism.

Socialism is rising in popularity because it allows today’s youth to engage in the self-absorption of influencer culture while also enjoying the faux moral superiority of communist propaganda.

Over the past few months, members of the Democratic Socialists of America have found success in political races across America. Whether it’s Zohran Mamdani’s cadre of candidates in New York City or Colorado’s Melat Kiros, it seems like no place is safe from the DSA’s growing influence.

The party’s prospects improved markedly after Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race last year. When he launched his campaign in October 2024, the DSA’s city chapter maintained a steady membership of about 5,000 and had only about 50,000 members nationally. But after Mamdani’s victory, NYC’s chapter tripled, while the national party doubled, hitting the 100,000 mark in February.

This happened as the DSA shifted its recruitment strategy, no longer relying on anger but preying on the egocentrism of today’s youth as it ramped up its focus on college campuses.

The Mamdani campaign’s many viral moments helped turn out the youth vote. His strong social media presence carried him across the finish line in America’s largest city. Other DSA candidates such as Claire Valdez and Abdul El-Sayed adopted Mamdani’s winning strategy.

They are gaining social status and expanding their voting blocs by putting themselves at the forefront of their campaigns.

The DSA candidates are having success because they aren’t painting themselves as politicians — they’re becoming influencers.

Their rallies look like nightclubs; they surround themselves with celebrities; and their TikToks show them enjoying an idyllic, manicured vision of the cities they represent. Their young followers aren’t being shown homeless encampments or violent drug addicts attacking their fellow citizens. Instead, DSA candidates shield them from the dangerous effects of the failed policies they would only accelerate.

I often hear older conservatives who grew up during or shortly after the Cold War ask the question, “Can’t these socialist kids see their city crumbling around them?” Indeed, they can. They see the graffiti, the unsafe public transportation, and the street takeovers. They choose to ignore these realities or blame them on “capitalism” as they look with awe at Zohran Mamdani joyfully walking shoulder to shoulder with his fellow New Yorkers on his way to get a poppy-seed bagel.

They’re caught up in his smile as he reads to a class of preschool children or encourages people to relinquish private property for the greater good.

RELATED: The media’s Democratic cover-up is collapsing

Chuwy/Getty Images

The DSA operates like any social media influencer, showing its audience how good life could be if they buy the right product, and in this case, that product is a trendy, Instagram-ready brand of socialism.

Perhaps no one has embodied the socialist influencer mindset more robustly than Hasan Piker. He has amassed a large following through daily, hours-long live Twitch streams, where he talks about communist theory and chats with his ever-growing group of followers.

Piker has been constantly seen with liberal elites and even made an appearance at Vanity Fair’s Oscar party, where he dressed like a chic Chairman Mao. He posts photos of himself thoughtfully “reading” Lenin or wearing expensive suits at Free Palestine rallies.

But for all of Piker’s radicalism, such as saying that the streets should “soak in red capitalist blood,” he could fairly be described as a communist MrBeast.

Piker and Mamdani represent the sinister narcissism underpinning the burgeoning socialist movement. Young people are obsessed with themselves: A recent Morning Consult poll found that 86% of respondents want to be influencers, the fourth most popular career aspiration for Americans between the ages of 13 and 38.

Socialism is rising in popularity because it allows today’s youth to engage in the self-absorption of influencer culture while also enjoying the faux moral superiority of communist propaganda. It is a match made in hell.

Kids looking to build audiences need only post about abolishing ICE or implementing rent control. Never mind that their iPhones and Instagram feeds were created by the very people and corporations they rail against. What matters is that they see their own image reflected in every inch of the world.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally in The American Mind.

​Birth rates, Celebrities, Hasan piker, Homeless encampments, Influencers, Narcissism, Socialism, Zohran mamdani, Rent control, Democratic socialists of america, Opinion & analysis 

Law enforcement officials said a search warrant of a 40-year-old man’s devices led to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of child porn images and videos.

The disturbing discovery was made after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by workers at a Stater Bros. grocery store in the picturesque mountain town of Lake Arrowhead.

Surveillance video from the store allegedly showed Quinn dropping the microSD memory card.

A worker found a microSD memory card and turned it over to police in June 2026.

Deputies reviewed the card and found “thousands of digital media depicting child pornography” that included “infants and juveniles performing sexual acts.” Some of the media was generated by artificial intelligence, but others were real.

Investigators were able to connect the card to Adam James Quinn, a resident of Lake Arrowhead. Surveillance video from the store allegedly showed Quinn dropping the microSD memory card.

Deputies then performed a search warrant at Quinn’s residence and seized other microSD cards as well as hard drives, flash drives, laptops, other computers, and his phone.

They allegedly found hundreds of thousands of child porn files on the devices.

Quinn was arrested on Wednesday and charged with possession of child pornography.

RELATED: 4 teachers and 1 cop in small Alabama town arrested over child pornography, police say

Lake Arrowhead. Don Kelsen/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Police released his booking photo in hopes of obtaining other information from the public that might help their investigation.

Lake Arrowhead is a small town with about 12,000 residents located in the San Bernardino Mountains.

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​Child porn, California, Surveillance, Crime 

Last year, here in Portland, I went to an author event at my local bookstore. The book was called “On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right.” It was a memoir by Josiah Hesse.

The event description said the memoir was about Hesse’s “bleak and difficult childhood in a small, rural Evangelical community in Iowa.”

My guess is that his literary agent or his editor understood how hungry mainstream publishers are for books that attack and slander the Christian faith.

Apparently, Hesse suffered mental anguish as a child when he was told by church elders that he was going to be tortured in hell for his sins.

Breaking with his church and family while still in his teens, he struck out on his own, eventually becoming a successful writer and journalist. Now he had written a book exposing the Christian right.

Dissing Christians

Hesse was doing a national book tour. He was traveling the country doing interviews and podcasts. He had just been featured on National Public Radio.

Needless to say, the mainstream media loved this book. A full frontal attack on the Midwestern evangelicals is always welcome in their circles. Especially if the author escaped the oppression of the church and found shelter in the safe spaces of progressive liberalism.

The book event began with Josiah Hesse making a grand entrance into the bookstore’s event area.

I didn’t know what to expect from such an author in terms of appearance, but I was definitely not expecting the rock-star shag haircut, the crisp white shirt, the shimmering black dinner jacket, or the elegant cravat around his neck.

Had this guy come here on his yacht? His face had definitely been moisturized. He looked like he could be in an ABBA tribute band.

Getting to know the author

Hesse took the stage and began his talk. He described growing up as an evangelical Christian.

As a young man, he was sensitive and imaginative and didn’t fit in. His parents, meanwhile, were loyal evangelicals. His dad believed in the “end times” and the eventual rise of the Antichrist.

In his teen years, Hesse’s feelings of alienation from his family and community got progressively worse. It didn’t help matters that he developed a taste for wearing high heels and trying on his mother’s clothes.

Small-town boy

So it turns out that Josiah was gay! Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Eventually, he did what so many young gay people do: When he was old enough, he moved to the nearest big city. In this case, Denver.

There, he scraped by, working odd jobs and picking up writing gigs. Over time, he was able to develop his talent and eventually got a literary agent and published a book called “Runner’s High” at a major publishing house.

Watching him talk, he seemed like an upbeat guy. He told funny stories. He didn’t seem traumatized by his Christian upbringing. He was just gay. And now he was a successful writer who was gay.

RELATED: My search for America’s last decent public libraries

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Family ties

I also noticed the “breaking with his family” part of the story wasn’t quite as severe as promised. In his talk, he described returning home, hanging out with his dad, meeting up with old friends, reconnecting as best he could.

It was an interesting and relatable story.

So what happened to the evil Christian right? That’s what the book was supposed to be about. Where’s the trauma? Where’s the abuse? Where are the scars?

The Portland audience seemed restless and disappointed. Where was the evil? That’s what they came for. WE WANT OUR CHRISTIAN EVIL!

Not following the script

I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know for sure what’s in it. Hesse did quote some statistics during his talk.

These statistics seemed designed to reassure the anti-Christian audience that he was on their side. Trump is bad. Conservatives are neanderthals. Christians are brainwashed and in some cases predatory.

But I was skeptical. I didn’t believe Hesse was really this simpleminded. He was clearly an intelligent guy. He wasn’t super political. He didn’t hate his family, or his town, or his old friends.

He had moved away from his rural community, as any talented gay person would do. He found his people in Denver. And now he was writing books and living his best life.

Go where the money is

My guess is that his literary agent, or his editor, or maybe Hesse himself understood how hungry mainstream publishers are for books that attack and slander the Christian faith.

They especially love books that confirm the stereotype: “small-town Christians = bigots + racists.”

These memoirs are so popular that there’s a formula:

The author is abused and humiliated by the sadistic locals.The author breaks free of their bigotry and finds his way to the “good people,” i.e. college-educated liberals in coastal cities.There, the formerly oppressed author can flourish and be his true self: gay, or nonbinary, or furry, or poly-whatever.Everyone lives happily ever after.

That’s the genre that Josiah Hesse’s “On Fire for God” supposedly belongs to. (See also “Educated” by Tara Westover, another memoir with almost the exact same storyline.)

Did Josiah strictly adhere to that formula? More or less. My main impression of the author: He looked happy. His writing career was going great. He was on a national tour. He was staying in nice hotels. He was wearing a cravat.

And I’m sure his publishers got what they wanted too. Another book that confirms that educated people, good people, moral people are uniformly against the Christian right, which is apparently an ongoing threat to our nation.

The only problem is: Whenever someone writes a book about the “dangerous Christian right,” it turns out he is just describing another small town in Iowa — usually, a town where, if you actually went there, you would find kind, decent people who, when you brought up the “Christian right,” wouldn’t even know what you were talking about.

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Most Americans assume the ingredient label tells the whole story.

But according to Ashley and Patrick Sullivan, creators of the documentary “Breaking Big Food,” that assumption is usually wrong — and they’re exposing one loophole Big Food uses to keep cheap but toxic ingredients hidden from the public.

“What would you say is maybe one ingredient that people don’t know to look for? I’ve heard a lot of people talk about seed oils and different things, but what would you say is maybe one that doesn’t get enough attention that people need to look out for?” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey asks.

“I think natural flavors can be tricky. Sometimes, they can be from naturally derived sources, but specifically if they are used in savory foods, a lot of times it can be code for MSG,” Ashley tells Stuckey.

MSG is monosodium glutamate, which Patrick explains is an “excitotoxin.”

At specific dosages, this acts as a neurotoxin to the brain.

“So think of like your Stove Top Stuffing kind of thing that has natural flavors. That ‘natural flavors’ is likely a monosodium glutamate,” Patrick says.

“You’re saying it could be in something that’s marketed as healthy, that doesn’t have any other bad ingredients, but it does have natural flavors, which honestly a lot of times I’ve kind of just resigned myself to being like, ‘Well, that’s the only thing in it then whatever,’” Stuckey says.

“But you’re saying it could be MSG,” she adds.

“Yeah, and that would be something that you kind of look at the FDA and say, ‘I think they’re asleep at the wheel here on yet another issue regarding food labeling,’” Patrick says. “I think most Americans want to know, they want to educate themselves. They want to feed their families healthy food.”

“And they’re sort of expecting the FDA, whoever is in charge of what is on the grocery store shelves, they kind of expect that the FDA has kind of done their homework,” he continues. “They’re sadly mistaken that there are loopholes like natural flavors.”

But it’s not just “natural flavors” that consumers have to worry about.

“There’s also the loopholes of like GRAS, ‘generally recognized as safe,’ where in America, you have to prove harm rather than proving safety,” Patrick says.

“So for the past 30 years, the FDA was overwhelmed, and they allowed Big Food to begin introducing new chemicals into the food supply that they allow the food companies to self regulate as well. We think that’s generally recognized as safe,” he continues.

“And as a result, you hear claims, I’m not sure if the number is correct, but there’s about 10,000 chemicals in the United States that are allowed to be used under generally recognized as safe principles,” he explains, adding, “And those same chemicals are not allowed to be used in Europe.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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