Ryan Reynolds may have a point, but no one is hearing it.

Reynolds was talking about an upcoming film that focuses heavily on American culture in the 1980s when he described what he thinks the decade was really about.

‘Sociopolitical tensions everywhere.’

‘Gun’ shy

Speaking to a reporter from the red carpet, Reynolds said that looking back at the 1980s now, the decade tends to be seen through rose-colored glasses and not for how it actually was.

“What’s interesting about when you get far enough away from a time period that’s quite distinct, I think there’s always a lovely feeling associated with it. It’s almost like you pave over all the trauma with, like, puppy dogs and ice cream,” the actor began. “The ’80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a f**king mess.”

Reynolds was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976 and grew up in the province. Now 49, he described the American 1980s as being filled with political tensions.

“It was a tremendous strife,” he told Variety. “Sociopolitical tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban missile crisis, which was only like 15-20 years before. It’s a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. “Top Gun.” Cocaine!’ Like, no! It was really scary.”

RELATED: Mark Ruffalo writes endless progressive letters — gets called racist anyways

Manhattan, 1984. Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Gag him with a spoon

A significant number of notable accounts disagreed with the younger actor’s take, with women’s sports advocate Jennifer Sey commenting, “Literally no one was talking or worrying about the Cuban Missile Crisis. What is he talking about?!”

“I was born in 1972 and grew up in the 80s. I have no idea what he’s talking about. The 80s were awesome,” novelist Mathew Betley wrote on X.

Author Sarah Adams added, “The 80s were amazing, what the hell is this revisionist history.”

At least one reader agreed with Reynolds, though, pointing to ’80s issues like peer pressure and divorce.

“It was everyone for themselves,” he wrote. “Teflon Reagan shining through the sooty shadow of Vietnam and overthrowing democracies in Central America. Quadrupled national debt. Even as a teen I knew it was a bulls**t decade.”

RELATED: HBO star declares USA is suffering without Kamala Harris: ‘Consequences of not trusting a black woman’

Right said ‘Dead’

While the majority of comments strongly disagreed with Reynolds, perhaps the latter reaction was closer to what the “Deadpool” star was referring to.

Reynolds reportedly said that modern popular projects like “Stranger Things” paint a different picture of how society was. Particularly, he said the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union was surging and the exodus of American manufacturing was devastating the working class.

This, along with AIDS, serves as the true reality of the time, Reynolds explained.

“I think when you look back at 2026 and this era, I think they’re going to pick on the big-ticket items that don’t really leave the footprint culturally that you would think it would. I don’t know. … I wonder what it’s going to be. Is going to be like, ‘Oh, the COVID era’ or something. I have no idea,” Reynolds concluded.

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​1980s, Ryan reynolds, Entertainment 

A podcaster based in Los Angeles called repeatedly for the president to be assassinated and told his followers to harass the president’s personal lawyer and his family, prosecutors say.

40-year-old Benjamin Azariah Southworth was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of threats against the president, one count of cyberstalking, and one count of harassing telephone calls in interstate communications.

‘Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf**king pedophile in the White House.’

Southworth allegedly made the comments on several social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and his own website from January through May this year.

Court documents said one of the posts was made at Instagram on March 31.

“Since the Supreme Court has ruled today that psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical torture known as gay conversion therapy is free speech, I want to practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy for five years,” the message read.

“Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf**king pedophile in the White House,” the message continued.

“I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump” read another message documented in the court filing. “This government is illegitimate and out of control. It’s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump.”

In addition to calling for Trump’s death several times, he posted the personal information of his attorney Jay Sekulow in order to have his followers harass him.

“No peace for traitors,” Southworth allegedly stated at the time.

Southworth described himself as a “GLAAD-award-nominated artivist” on his website, which also said he used his platform to challenge “Christian nationalism, anti‑LGBTQIA+ bigotry, and Zionism.”

A Blaze News request for comment to Sekulow was not immediately returned.

RELATED: ‘We’re gonna hang him from the Statue of Liberty’: Man allegedly threatened to kill Trump

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement that there would be “zero tolerance” for such threats, especially against the president.

“Threatening an elected official with violence is a serious offense, and you will be arrested and charged, as Mr. Southworth found out this morning.”

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​Christian nationalism, Death threats, Los angeles, Zionism, Politics 

Just before a deadlocked Massachusetts jury of nine women and three men Thursday afternoon completed a sixth day of deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial with no verdict, there were fireworks in the Plymouth courtroom.

The prosecution and defense have agreed that Clancy — a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse — killed her three young children in 2023; the issue has been whether she is criminally responsible for their deaths due to her mental state, the Associated Press said.

‘If we come back here in a half-hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame — it’s a real shame.’

The fireworks started with a lengthy and animated sidebar — a private discussion between the judge and attorneys on both sides. The AP in a separate story called the sidebar “impassioned,” with Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington pointing his finger and Judge William Sullivan handing him a document.

As the sidebar stretched past the 10-minute mark, two court officers joined the discussion, which featured Reddington sighing, speaking to the judge, and slicing the air with his hand, the AP reported.

Then jurors began entering the courtroom one by one and were sworn in, after which the judge spoke to each juror, and then they were taken back out of the courtroom, the outlet said, adding that it wasn’t clear what was said.

The jury then re-entered the courtroom, and the outlet said the Judge Sullivan told jurors, “I want to remind you that you are required to follow my instructions on the law as I gave you.”

Sullivan also said, “It is not enough for prosecutors to show a probability, or even a strong probability, of guilt,” the AP noted, adding that the judge also said proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all possible doubt. He then sent the jury back to deliberate further — and the outlet said some in the audience gasped.

With the jury out of the courtroom, Reddington spoke in a microphone directly to Sullivan.

“The court has an instruction from the foreperson of that jury — that has been working for a week — now saying there is one juror who refuses to listen to the law that you have given him or her on reasonable doubt,” Reddington said, his voice rising, the AP reported. “I suggest respectfully that the soft instruction that you gave them, saying at the sidebar, can you listen to the law as I instruct you, does not focus on the issue.”

The outlet said Reddington asked the judge to remove the juror in question.

“If we come back here in a half-hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame — it’s a real shame,” Reddington said, according to the AP.

RELATED: Woman charged with juror intimidation at Clancy trial tells different tale than images on her phone: Prosecutor

But Sullivan said removing a juror from a “deliberating jury is a sensitive undertaking,” the outlet reported.

“I don’t feel it is proper for me to side with one side or the other of the deliberations. I don’t feel it’s appropriate for me to say I agree with one juror or 11,” Sullivan said, according to the AP. “At this point, I have asked if they are able to follow instructions. They swore earlier they could. They have said at this point they can.”

Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said the judge’s instruction was appropriate and no further action was necessary, the outlet noted.

Soon Sullivan called the jury members back into the courtroom and dismissed them until 9 a.m. Friday, at which time they again will resume deliberations.

Outside the courthouse, Reddington expressed hope that the trial will be resolved after the judge questions a juror on Friday, the AP said: “There will be an inquiry by the judge tomorrow at 9 o’clock. There’s a person who has doubt but will not listen to the judge’s instructions.”

Reddington also told reporters outside the courthouse that the jury foreperson’s note identified the holdout juror to the judge, the outlet noted, adding that Reddington is hoping that before the judge questions that juror on Friday, attorneys on both sides will get to argue in the open over the specifics of that inquiry.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — in their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023, WBZ-TV reported.

Reddington said his client was not criminally responsible for killing her children because she was overmedicated and suffering from postpartum psychosis, the station reported, adding that prosecutors said Clancy planned the killings and knew right from wrong when she strangled the children.

If the jury convicts Clancy of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter, she will go to prison, WBZ said, adding that if jurors find her not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be required to continue her stay at Tewksbury State Hospital, where her case will be reviewed periodically.

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​Massachusetts, Murder trial, Mother kills children, Postpartum psychosis, Judge, Attorneys, Lindsay clancy, Crime 

Why would anyone cheer for a woman accused of killing her own children?

That’s the question on BlazeTV hosts Sara Gonzales’ and Dave Landau’s minds as women across the country raise money for, post supportive TikToks of, and send letters to alleged child murderer Lindsay Clancy.

“Who cheers for an [alleged] child killer?” Dave asks.

“Like her lawyer said that she has gotten enough letters to support three bankers’ boxes,” he continues. “So it’s basically like ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ letters to a woman who [allegedly] murdered her children.”

“This is fan mail,” Gonzales agrees. “This is not like a sternly worded letter to the manager telling her how terrible of a person she is.”

And Dave wants to know why.

“Some [women] are like, ‘Well, it’s hormonal, you don’t understand how hard it is.’ And you know, you’re a woman, what is this supposed to mean?” Dave asks.

“What it means is that we now have a culture that hates motherhood,” Gonzales answers. “These women, they have been struck by the feminist bug, and they just hate motherhood because there really is no defense to this.”

And it’s not just the letters to Clancy that bother Dave and Gonzales.

“We are living in this sort of TikTok generation of people getting their advice on how to be mentally sound through a dopamine hit-app run by China,” Dave says.

“Seems like a bad idea,” Gonzales says. “Seems like a really bad idea … I just think that TikTok has made especially white liberal women, I just think it’s made them just worse people. It’s brain rot.”

“They get one there. They, you know, like think that it’s cool now to hate motherhood. So now you’ve got all of these TikTokers that are going on and throwing ice in bathtubs to control their rage that they have at their children so that they won’t get in a screaming match with their toddlers. I kid you not,” Gonzales says, referencing a recent trend of women who have been filming themselves trying not to freak out at their kids by throwing ice cubes.

“And I’m just like, what is happening to us?” she asks.

“The only reason why you would get into a screaming match with your toddler is because you were at the same mental level with your toddler,” Dave says.

But this issue doesn’t begin with the Lindsay Clancy case or even postpartum.

“When you say that it’s OK to kill innocent babies in the womb, and then you say it’s OK to kill innocent babies in the womb up until the point of birth,” Gonzales says, “can you really be surprised that you find yourself in a place in society where now women are like, ‘OK, but not just up to birth. What about the first couple years?’”

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​Mental health, China, Tiktok, Feminism, Lindsay clancy, Abortion, Motherhood, Postpartum, Liberal, Leftism, Sara gonzales, Dave landau, Blazetv show 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the foreign policy and economic worldview of the Trump administration in a speech in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Rubio and others in the Trump administration were introducing the Foundry School, a national program to train Americans in manufacturing and design.

‘The nation-state still does matter, nationalism is real, national borders still matter, and … countries are going to always in act in their best interest.’

Rubio asserted that the policies of the Trump administration were just the first steps in undoing the errors of American economic policies of the last 35 years or so.

“Let me put it to you this way. I think we made a terrible mistake in this country many years ago, under people that were in charge at the time, especially at the end of the Cold War, and that was the idea that the ability to make things no longer mattered,” said Rubio.

“That it didn’t matter any longer where things were made. They were to be made in the most efficient place at the lowest possible cost. That meant more profits for the company, lower costs for the consumers, and that was the way the world would work,” he added.

“There was this fantasy, really, that the whole world would become … free-enterprise democracies and that everyone would look like us. That ran into reality,” Rubio said, “the reality that that is not how human events have ever worked, that the nation-state still does matter, nationalism is still real, national borders still matter, and that countries are going to always act in their best interest.”

He said it would take multiple administrations to undo the errors of those policies.

“The result of it is that it de-industrialized America. We lost our ability and our capacity to make things. And not just big things. Not just the kinds of big machinery and things that we normally identify with industry,” Rubio continued.

“But even some of the most basic components that are necessary, that underpin economic life, especially in the 21st century,” he added, “and we woke up to the reality, just a few years ago, that we are, suddenly, as a nation, dangerously dependent, dangerously dependent on other nations for all sorts of things that we need … for our national security and our very survival as a prosperous nation-state.”

He concluded, “And so now, we are involved in this endeavor across the board to try to reverse those mistakes.”

RELATED: Trump SLAMS Canada with MASSIVE tariffs over rejected trade deal — they respond defiantly

Economic expert and Blaze News contributor Carol Roth responded in comments to Blaze News.

“The dollar being the global reserve currency was always about trade-offs. The U.S. received cheap government financing, cheap consumer financing, and cheap access to goods, which raised our standard of living. As Secretary of State Rubio noted, the flip side is that it hollowed out a large part of our manufacturing base, which was devastating for communities across the U.S. Ultimately, though, we transformed our economy to service-dominant and became the largest, most powerful country on the planet,” she said.

“Rubio is also correct in noting that our movement away from manufacturing has created economic and national security issues by being over-reliant on other countries for important goods and components, which we should be prioritizing making within the U.S.,” Roth continued. “However, there are many goods that we will likely never make again in the U.S., based on issues related to labor, laws, costs, and infrastructure. We should be focused on bringing back manufacturing specifically in areas like defense, pharmaceuticals, and other industries and sectors where dependence on other countries is particularly risky.”

Rubio is considered a possible Republican presidential contender in 2028, but Vice President JD Vance is widely seen as the current front-runner.

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​Marco rubio, Nationalism, Economics, Globalism, Industrialism, Manufacturing, Politics 

A Trump administration lawsuit against the city of Rochester, New York, for its sanctuary city policies hit a brick wall in the form of an Obama-appointed federal judge.

The lawsuit originated from an incident in March 2025 when local Rochester police assisted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the arrest of a Guatemalan man during a traffic stop.

‘They simply recognize the different functions of each governmental body. … They do not dictate how the federal government must act and therefore do not violate the intergovernmental immunity doctrine.’

City leaders criticized the police and said their actions violated their sanctuary city policies. The officers were taken off the street to receive additional training.

The Department of Justice sued the city, the mayor, and the city council president and accused them of violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

Judge Frank Geraci of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York rejected the argument from the federal government.

“Rochester’s Sanctuary City laws and policies are not a prohibition on or interference with the federal government’s role in enforcing immigration policy,” he wrote in the ruling dated Tuesday. “Instead, they simply recognize the different functions of each governmental body.”

He argued that the sanctuary city laws “only dictate” that the police officers cannot participate in immigration enforcement.

“As such, they do not dictate how the federal government must act and therefore do not violate the intergovernmental immunity doctrine,” Geraci added.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis responded to the ruling in a statement to Blaze News.

“These sanctuary policies make Americans less safe,” she said.

“Extreme Democrats’ sanctuary policies result in criminal illegal aliens being directly released from jail back into American communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more innocent American victims,” she added.

Bis cited the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley in 2024 by an illegal alien who had been previously released over a “lack of detention space.”

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, a Democrat, responded in a statement about the ruling.

“Once again, grandstanding of the Trump administration has been found to be without any legal legitimacy,” Evans wrote. “The City of Rochester remains committed to guaranteeing public safety for all, not being coerced into doing the federal government’s work of immigration enforcement.”

RELATED: Mamdani cites the Quran and quotes Muhammed while ordering new illegal alien protections

Seven out of the 10 safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with ICE, according to Homeland Security.

The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the Justice Dept. is unable to refile the complaint against Rochester.

Geraci was appointed to the court by former President Barack Obama in 2012.

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​Department of justice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Rochester, Supremacy clause, Sanctuary cities, Politics 

It all started on a patch of waterfront property in New York, right next to the East River.

The latest wave of perceived liberal activism made its way to Joe Rogan and Shane Gillis’ ears through the sage wisdom of a traveling entertainer: They were tearing apart a park.

‘The park should be defended!’

Instead of a sign-wielding mask-wearer debating the merits of universal basic income and banning landlords, the news came from comedian Ari Shaffir. Typically, Shaffir is telling tales about getting an exorcism in South America or doing stand-up comedy in China, but this time he was looking to stop the destruction of a beloved New York City landmark.

Shaffir told Rogan and Gillis about Manhattan’s East River Park, land that had been torn apart by floods from Hurricane Sandy. In response, New York City officials planned to raze the park, add eight feet of dirt, and rebuild the park anew on top, all in the name of flood prevention.

Activists agreed with Shaffir and said removing access to the 57 acres next to the water was unfair to locals.

Gillis did not agree.

“You’re not defending parks!” he said, badgering Shaffir. “F**k that park!”

“The park should be defended!” Rogan chimed in.

From that moment, “Protect Our Parks” was born: an impromptu news panel with no preparation and no censorship, addressing actual issues.

Averaging between 2 million and 5 million views per episode on YouTube alone, the series of podcasts has not only become one of Rogan’s most popular iterations, but it has become a battle of political perspectives.

RELATED: CANCEL-PROOF: Tim Dillon’s big, gay get-out-of-jail-free card

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images

Across 17 episodes and counting, Gillis brings his Bud Light-American viewpoint, backed by historical knowledge. This is often at odds with Rogan’s “question everything” mantra, while Shaffir offers real-world traveler’s experience.

The fourth member of the group, Mark Normand, is admittedly usually on substances and just looking to add punch lines. He’s not lacking in intellect; he just picks his punches.

The resulting conversations within the group often turn out to be newsmakers because of the sheer number of viewers each comedian represents. Normand has a quarter-million podcast subscribers on YouTube alone and another 2 million+ social media followers. Shaffir has well over a million combined, too. Add those to Gillis’ and Rogan’s reach, and each episode is dwarfing network news.

Most recently, discussed topics ranged from immigration and trans athletes to Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War. The opinions are unpredictable.

When Rogan talks about how the WNBA “can’t define what a woman is,” or when Gillis declares America needs “somebody who’s willing to abuse their executive power,” progressive minds will not be surprised.

But when Shaffir says the U.K. “hate[s] immigrants so hard,” viewers understand this isn’t an echo chamber.

RELATED: Pat McAfee refused to fold, and ESPN paid up. There’s a lesson there for young men.

In fact, the show is far closer to a real discussion than anything cable news could hope to accomplish. No filters or network notes means Gillis can counter anti-American hearsay from Rogan while Normand criticizes Israel to Shaffir, even if viewers label the show as “compromised.”

Critics have further attempted to demonize the podcasts for having hypocritical moments, or “effortlessly” forgiving “racism” by even having these discussions.

But others have seen the forest through the trees; friends don’t let each other get away with everything. One video, seen 250,000 times, compiled Gillis’ opposition to Rogan’s political views. This is not exactly partisan programming.

Progressives should get on board with protecting our parks. If they want to chant, ad nauseum, “Show me what democracy looks like!” (and they do), perhaps they will get their answer by watching.

As for East River Park; the city agreed to reconstruct the area in parts to allow access to different sections at different times. However, the project that started in 2021 is still unfinished to this day.

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​Comedy, Podcasts, Joe rogan, Shane gillis, Ari shaffir, Mark normand, East river park, New york, Entertainment