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A new wave of sweeping “pardons” has triggered one of the most urgent constitutional alarms Glenn Beck has ever raised — not because the individuals involved are controversial, but because the actions themselves may not even qualify as pardons at all.

These “pardons” rewrite laws and push executive power into territory the founders explicitly warned against.

“This has gotten out of control. These pardons are out of control. Out of control,” Glenn says on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “It’s something constitutional; it’s been there since George Washington. The president has always had this right, and it is a privilege of his.”

However, under Biden, the privilege was wildly misused.

“All you have to do then is say, ‘I pardon everyone in my administration for anything that they might have done wrong. That can’t stand,” Glenn says.

“And you have the immunity deal, which again, I don’t see how a pre-pardon is even possibly covered. Like, it’s just such an insane concept. … Hunter Biden actually committed a crime, and pardoning him from that is, in theory, obviously outside of the family interest, was the way that was supposed to work,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere agrees.

“But they also pardoned him for multiple years of question marks, whether he committed crimes or not, right? That was all included in that. And to go a step farther on this, because I am on a bit of a personal jihad against the pardon, I’m done with it,” Burguiere continues.

While Stu notes that the “founders were very smart,” they also created a process for constitutional amendments.

“I would support one getting rid of the pardon power completely. I’m done with it,” he tells Glenn.

“It’s the most king-like power that the president has, and it doesn’t make any sense to me,” he adds.

Glenn notes that former President Barack Obama also took advantage of presidential pardons, as he “gave clemency for anybody who was convicted of a non-violent federal drug crime with no significant criminal history while serving extraordinarily long sentences, and anybody who was a violent offender was not eligible.”

“I think there were, like, 2,000 people that he pardoned on that,” he says.

“That’s creating a new law,” Stu adds.

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​Video phone, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Free, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Stu burguiere, Stu does america, Biden’s pardons, Hunter biden, Barack obama pardons, Presidential pardons, The founders, The constitution 

There was no shortage of crime this year involving repeat offenders — folks who get arrested, maybe even convicted, then somehow they’re let out of police custody or set free from jail, and then they’re accused of yet more crimes.

Among top five repeat offenders of 2025, we present to you a 32-year-old Florida male who was accused of lewd behavior against young girls more than once … a 13-year-old Baltimore male who got arrested with 18 felony arrests already on his rap sheet … and a thug with over 40 arrests under his belt who was accused of punching and then shoving a mentally disabled man onto train tracks outside Chicago — all over $1.

Read about them all below.

Florida creep — out on bond after allegedly exposing privates to girl, masturbating, saying ‘It’s big, isn’t it?’ — is caught again

A 32-year-old Florida male who was out on bond after a 2023 incident during which he allegedly exposed his privates to a 13-year-old girl, masturbated, and said, ‘It’s big, isn’t it?” was arrested again in late April.

About a year and a half ago, Lauderhill police said a 13-year-old girl was walking to school when she said a male in a vehicle told her, “It’s big, isn’t it,” while he pleasured his exposed privates, WTVJ-TV reported.

Detectives arrested Travis Davis on charges of lewd and lascivious exhibition and indecent exposure of sexual organs, WTVJ said in a separate story, which added that police said they received additional calls from others describing similar accounts.

Prosecutors at the time said Davis admitted to driving around schools and approaching underage girls, WSVN-TV reported. A judge ordered Davis to have no contact with minors and to stay at least 100 feet away from all public and private schools in the area, WSVN said. Records show Davis was released on bond while awaiting trial, WTVJ said.

A 16-year-old girl told Fort Lauderdale police that she was walking to school on April 28 when a male in a gray Dodge Charger approached her at the intersection, WTVJ said. The girl said the male rolled down his window, exposed his genitals, and made inappropriate gestures and movements before fleeing the scene, the station said.

Detectives later identified the male in question as Davis, and he was arrested the next day on charges of exposure of sexual organs (second offense) and violation of pretrial release, police added to WTVJ.

13-year-old with 18 felony arrests under his belt — and a GPS monitor on his ankle — charged in violent Baltimore crime spree

A 13-year-old male who already had 18 felony arrests on his record was charged in connection with a spree of armed carjackings and robberies over the summer, WBFF-TV reported, citing Baltimore Police.

Police identified one of the suspects as a 13-year-old male in question since his ankle monitor GPS placed him at the scene of each crime, WBFF reported.

The 13-year-old was arrested and taken to juvenile booking, where he was charged with carjacking, robbery, assault, and several other offenses, officials told the station.

“The juvenile has 18 previous felony arrests in Baltimore City,” police wrote on their official Facebook page, according to WMAR-TV. “The investigation is still ongoing to identify the other individuals involved.”

Former Baltimore City Police Deputy Commissioner Jason Johnson told WBFF in a follow-up story that young repeat offenders are a growing problem: “The state maintains juvenile detention facilities for a reason. And this is a poster child literally for the type of person that needs to be detained.”

Thug with over 40 arrests accused of punching, then shoving mentally disabled man to train tracks — all over $1

A rampant repeat offender was accused of punching and then shoving an intellectually disabled man off a Chicago suburb train platform and onto the tracks below, seriously injuring the victim — and all over $1.

Tommie O. Carter, 39 — who law enforcement sources said has been arrested over 40 times in Cook County, Illinois — has been identified as the culprit, WGN-TV reported.

Forest Park officers were dispatched to the Harlem Blue Line stop just before 8:35 a.m. Dec. 1 for a report of a battery, the station said. Forest Park is a suburb just west of Chicago.

Prosecutors allege Carter approached the man and repeatedly asked him for a dollar, WGN said, adding that the man replied that he had no money. Soon Carter allegedly punched the 59-year-old victim and shoved him onto the tracks, which is where officers found him.

WGN reported that the victim — who suffered multiple fractures to his right knee and a fracture in his left knee — was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Officers approached Carter on the train platform after witnesses identified him, the station said, citing court documents.

But Carter refused to comply with officers’ orders and fought back as they were placing him in handcuffs, police told WGN. He was accused of repeatedly spitting on officers throughout his arrest, the station said, adding that Carter was charged with attempted murder and three counts of aggravated battery against a police officer.

He reportedly already had seven felony convictions on his record as well as six other convictions. A judge ordered Carter detained.

Creep accused of slapping NYU student’s backside, knocking her to ground is repeat sex offender who was paroled just months before

A 45-year-old male accused of slapping a New York University student’s backside and knocking her to the sidewalk while she was on her way to class on Dec. 1 is a repeat sex offender who was paroled in September.

James Rizzo was arraigned late on the night of Dec. 3 in Manhattan Criminal Court, WCBS-TV reported. The station said Rizzo appeared emotionless while pleading not guilty to three new assaults — all the victims women — at his arraignment.

Rizzo — a level 2 sex offender with 16 prior arrests and a history of violence against women — was paroled in September after serving time for sex abuse, the station said, citing the New York State Department of Corrections.

Police told WCBS that Rizzo kept on attacking women while he was out on parole. The station said the most recent alleged attack occurred Dec. 1 in Greenwich Village; surveillance video shows NYU student Amelia Lewis walking to class when the suspect slaps her backside and shoves her to the ground.

Lewis, 20, spoke about the incident on a Wednesday podcast, WCBS said: “I wanted to report this, and after I did tell the cops I let NYU security know to let students know that this man is going around doing this to other women. They also told me they were already aware of the man in the blue towel around his neck running around the city.”

Officials told the New York Daily News that Rizzo’s criminal history stretches back to the 1990s, when he stabbed a 74-year-old woman in the face during a burglary in Brooklyn.

9-time convicted felon opens fire on man, woman outside Florida home; he allegedly was after money owed to him: Cops

A nine-time convicted felon opened fire on a man and woman outside a Florida home early in the morning of Dec. 7, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies responded around 2:15 a.m. to a report of two people who had been shot in the 3100 block of 11th Street Court East in Bradenton, officials said.

When deputies arrived, they found a 32-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to her face and a 41-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his chest, officials said, adding that both victims were taken to a hospital, officials said. The woman was later listed in stable condition, and the man’s injury was determined to be minor, officials said, adding that he has since been released.

An investigation identified the suspect as 26-year-old Exzavion Richardson, officials said, adding that he was located in a vehicle several blocks away and detained during a traffic stop.

Richardson is charged with two counts of attempted murder, home invasion robbery, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, officials said. Jail records indicate he was being held with no bond.

As for his criminal history, court records indicate Richardson has at least two battery convictions and multiple convictions for lewd and lascivious behavior, WFLA-TV reported. Jail records indicate Richardson stands 6’3” and weighs 205 pounds.

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​Repeat offenders, Crime, 2025 

In our age of “love is love,” “live your truth,” and “don’t judge,” many people, Christians included, are hesitant to speak the truth. We don’t want to upset people, make situations uncomfortable, or scare anyone, so we either dodge opportunities to speak the truth about God, or we soften biblical concepts in hopes that they will be more palatable.

There’s never been a subject Christians tend to temper more than hell. “It’s becoming a little more trendy now to try to dumb down the severity of God’s wrath on those who reject Him,” says Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of the biblical spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters.”

On this episode, Rick lays bare the truth about hell and what it means to reject God.

Sometimes “even people within the faith [think] that maybe somehow what scripture says about God’s judgment on the unredeemed — maybe we have it wrong. Maybe he’s even going to be gracious and merciful to the unredeemed, even though they’ve rejected the only way to to receive God’s grace and mercy,” says Rick.

Others think that “maybe somehow hell isn’t as bad as it sounds in the Bible. Sure, they’re going to be punished, but it’s not going to be an eternal punishment.”

One prominent Christian figure who Rick says is “easing into this camp” is American actor, evangelist, and author Kirk Cameron.

Recently, on his podcast, Cameron rejected the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment — the belief that hell is a place or state where those who die without salvation in Jesus Christ experience ongoing, conscious suffering and punishment forever, without end or annihilation. Kirk said that while he once accepted this doctrine as true, today he leans more toward annihilationism – the belief that the unredeemed face judgment, possibly limited suffering, and then total destruction.

“It fits the character of God in my understanding more than the conscious eternal torment position, because it brings in the mercy of God together with the justice of God. It doesn’t leave judgment out. It is just, but it also fits with the Old Testament picture of the fate of the wicked, which is to be destroyed. It is to die, and it is to perish, not live forever in an eternal barbecue,” Cameron said.

“If conscious eternal torment is not a thing, that’s actually a great relief, and I would have joy in correcting somebody who says that the reason that they’re not a Christian is because of this merciless God who tortures people forever, and I could say that’s not what the Bible teaches. Good news. Still not good. You don’t want to go [to hell], but there is mercy even in His judgment,” he added, noting that this is what he believes “the scriptures teach.”

While Rick says he has “great respect” for Cameron and believes without a doubt he’ll “spend eternity” with him in heaven, he believes Cameron has some confusion about the character of God.

“It’s like he prefers God to be a certain way. And I really, really think that’s very shaky ground. … He doesn’t want that to be true because what? That makes him think less of God?” asks Rick.

When people try to soften scripture, they’re essentially believing that “God needs a PR agent” to say, “Hey, God, I really think people will get upset with you with this eternal conscious torment thing. You probably want to go with the annihilation of the soul and just kill these people because that’ll make you look more merciful,” he says. “I got a real problem with that because I think that God has gone on record about his mercy and grace because of the cross.”

“He’s been so gracious and so merciful, He has allowed you to become fully righteous, and the sacrifice and the wrath that should have been poured out on us was now poured out on his son,” Rick says.

But “if you choose to reject God’s grace and mercy, then all you’re going to get is his wrath and judgment, and that judgment from Him, because He’s perfect, will be correct.”

To hear Rick’s full breakdown, watch the episode above.

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​Strange encounters, Hell, Heaven, Kirk cameron, Christianity, Rick burgess, Spiritual warfare, Angels, Demons, Annhilationism, Eternal judgment, Eternal conscious torment, Bible, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Midterm elections go one of two ways. They are either a validation of the sitting president or a repudiation. Historically, they have almost always been a repudiation.

The 2026 midterms are shaping up to be no different — a firm rebuke to Donald Trump. That’s obviously bad for him. Congress will spend two straight years investigating and likely impeaching him.

If President Trump’s supporters don’t show up, Republican defeat is guaranteed.

But the bigger danger is to America. Democrat control of Congress will jeopardize Republicans’ efforts to restore an economy of opportunity for all. Worse, Democrats will lay the groundwork for recapturing the White House in 2028, at which point they will implement the most anti-opportunity agenda in American history. We’re talking welfare for all, funded by crippling tax hikes and a federal takeover of a once-free economy.

Can Donald Trump turn the midterms around? Only if he, his fellow Republicans, and their allies on the right make immediate changes. If they do, they could stem the losses in November — and maybe even defy the odds to expand their majorities in the House and Senate.

First and foremost: They need to realize that midterms hinge on turnout.

The reason midterms are usually a presidential repudiation is that voters from the other party are more motivated. They feel greater anger and intensity, and they show up. The president’s supporters, meanwhile, usually think they did their job when they elected their man. Why bother showing up again?

If President Trump’s supporters don’t show up, Republican defeat is guaranteed. The most urgent need, therefore, is to invest in a massive get-out-the-vote operation. The GOP needs one the likes of which it has never seen.

But such an effort also needs a message — something that resonates with voters and spurs them to action. That’s the second area where change is required. Because right now, Republicans don’t have any meaningful message at all.

The left certainly does. Democrat politicians, their allies in the media, and their associated army of activists and nonprofits have rallied around a single word: affordability. They’re tricking voters into thinking that all the inflation and financial pain that Joe Biden caused is really the fault of Donald Trump. The call to action writes itself: If voters want to make ends meet, their only hope is to vote the GOP out.

This message works, but only because Republicans are letting it work. They are largely silent in the face of Democrat attacks. Worse, in the president’s case, he is calling affordability a “hoax.” For voters who supported him because of Joe Biden’s inflation, nothing could be worse. It’s tantamount to saying their problems don’t matter.

Republicans must reclaim the economic high ground. They need to relentlessly hammer the point that Joe Biden’s enormous failures will take time to fix. They need to point to the relief they’ve given, especially the tax cuts the president signed in July. Most importantly, they need to lay out a unified agenda that speaks to Americans’ deep concerns, convincing voters that the GOP will, in fact, make life more affordable.

RELATED: The ‘blue-slip block’ is GOP cowardice masquerading as tradition

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Crafting that agenda is as much the work of policy wonks as it is public relations. Republicans and their allies should be relentlessly message-testing and focus-grouping to discover not only what policies Americans want, but how to sell the policies that Americans need — in health care, housing, and beyond. This can be done without compromising conservative principles. In fact, it is essential if those principles are to have a path to becoming policies.

There’s one more message the GOP needs. It’s not enough to make a positive case for Republicans’ own priorities. They need to remind Americans of the danger posed by Democrats relentlessly.

This isn’t hard. The return of crippling inflation. The collapse of our borders once again. Higher taxes on the middle class. Republicans have a simple case to make: If voters want all of America to look more like crime-ridden, welfare-defrauding, utterly unaffordable big blue cities, they should vote for Democrats.

Republicans needed these messages yesterday. They needed a turnout operation that was already delivering these messages to the base and undecided voters alike. If they and their allies don’t get their act together before the start of the year, the midterm elections will indeed be a repudiation of Donald Trump. Worse, they’ll put America’s future at risk. The clock is ticking.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​Affordability crisis, Affordability, 2026 midterms, Gop, Republicans, Democrats, Inflation, Opinion & analysis, Donald trump 

While most people are very familiar with and practice the lighthearted tradition of Advent calendars, many might be surprised by its relatively recent development as a Christian tradition.

The Advent calendar is a Christian tradition dating back only to the 19th century, making it less than 200 years old. Advent, derived from the Latin word “adventus,” means
coming” or “arrival.”

‘Lacking windows at first, Lang’s design is essentially the same style we have today, though war and a few subsequent alterations would change it slightly.’

The calendar counts down the days until Christmas during the Advent season, which is also the very beginning of the liturgical calendar. The Advent calendar then, in its most basic form, is a method of counting down the days until the coming of Christ on Christmas day.

RELATED: More than a countdown: Do you know the full meaning of Advent?

Photo by AMAURY CORNU/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Often, in more recent iterations, small treats, gifts, and pictures are placed in the doors of the calendar, the number of which usually range between 22 and 28 days depending on the day that Christmas Day falls on. Because of the possible range, most Advent calendars simply begin on December 1 and end on December 24, Christmas Eve.

Counting down

The Advent calendar has seen quite a few variations in its relatively short-lived existence, though the basic idea has always been the same.

A tradition originating among Lutheran Christians, Advent calendars first involved chalk marks that would be erased as the day approached. This practice helped believers anticipate the coming of Christ.

Originating in and around Munich, Germany, in the 19th century, Advent calendars were used to count down the days until Christmas Day.

Gerhard Lang is widely regarded as the creator of the modern Advent calendar. A partner at the lithographic institute Reichhold & Lang, Gerhard Lang is credited with printing the first Advent calendar in 1908, though some say it was some years later.

Lacking windows at first, Lang’s design is essentially the same style we have today, though war and a few subsequent alterations would change it slightly.

Knock, knock

The small, numbered doors, a staple of contemporary calendars, were introduced in 1920. They sometimes had Bible verses or little pictures behind them.

Lang produced around 30 different calendar designs up until the end of the 1930s, when paper shortages and a national ban on paper calendars forced him to shutter the popular business.

However, Advent calendars made a post-war comeback. Richard Sellmer, the founder of the Sellmer Verlag publishing house, published the first Advent calendar after the Second World War, reviving the tradition.

Eighty years later, Sellmer Verlag still sells Advent calendars.

Coming to America

It is believed that American soldiers brought these calendars back after the war, and the tradition spread to the United States.

According to Britannica, the tradition of chocolate behind the doors was introduced in the 1950s, presumably to keep children engaged.

In America, the Advent calendar’s popularity spread quickly in the post-war era. These days, children and adults alike can enjoy counting down the days until the Lord’s Nativity with a vast array of different calendar designs.

​Align, Advent, Advent calendar, Christmas, Christmas eve, Germany, Munich, Christmas tradition, Tradition, Gerhard lang 

I live in Montana. Driving in snow is simply part of life here.

When the storm is heavy and the road is bad, you do not pass the snowplow. You go at its speed. You let it clear the way. Trying to rush past does not make the road safer or the journey faster. It only increases the risk.

Does God wink at sin in order to bless a nation — or does Scripture teach the opposite?

I have watched people try anyway. Confidence surges, patience thins, and effort begins to feel like wisdom. Some get away with it. Some do not. Either way, the plow keeps moving — unhurried and unmoved by urgency.

The rush to declare victory

As we approach a new year, I find myself thinking about that lesson while listening to Christians talk about the future of our country.

Some are already calling 2026 a coming “golden age of America.” Others argue that Christian nationalism offers the corrective path forward — that the nation must reclaim explicitly Christian leadership, laws, and identity. Christians, they say, must take the reins.

Christians should care deeply about their culture. Scripture calls us to be salt and light. Many believers already serve faithfully in the highest offices of the state, and we should encourage and equip more to do so. The question is not whether Christians should serve, but what posture we bring with us when we do.

Scripture is remarkably clear about order. In 2 Chronicles, healing and restoration are promised only after God’s people humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their ways. The sequence is not optional. Humbling comes before healing.

So why does the language of a coming golden age seem so detached from the language of repentance?

There is no denying that our culture has lost moral traction. Christians are not imagining the collapse. And more than 60 million abortions since 1973 are not a statistic a nation simply absorbs and leaves behind. Scripture never treats the shedding of innocent blood lightly.

Outrage is easy. Obedience is harder.

When sin is not merely tolerated but established as policy, what is the response of the people of God?

Outrage may be understandable. Indignation is certainly warranted. Resistance, in some form, may be necessary. But resistance to what — and by what means?

Scripture tells us plainly that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We say we believe that. The question is whether we act like it. If the battle is spiritual, why do so many of our responses rely almost entirely on human strength, political leverage, and cultural power?

If we are not fighting flesh and blood, why would we expect victory through our own understanding rather than by seeking God’s? And how can we presume upon His wisdom while bypassing the very repentance Scripture says must come first?

Where is the snowplow in this moment?

Prosperity is often treated as evidence of God’s blessing, but Scripture never makes that equation automatic. Drug cartels are prosperous. Entire industries built on sexual exploitation generate staggering wealth. So the question is not whether something flourishes, but why.

Does prosperity always signal God’s approval — or can it also reflect restraint removed, a people being given over to what they insist on pursuing? If abundance alone proves blessing, how do we account for how easily sin thrives?

Invoking God does not obligate Him

We frequently say, “God bless America,” but what do we mean when we invoke God’s name publicly? In 2013, a sitting U.S. president closed a speech to Planned Parenthood by saying, “God bless Planned Parenthood, and God bless America.”

That raises a serious question for Christians. When a national leader invokes God’s blessing in that way, does the language function merely as personal sentiment, or as representative speech? And more importantly, can those appeals be reconciled biblically? Can the same God who condemns the shedding of innocent blood be invoked to bless both its defenders and the nation at large without contradiction?

Does God wink at sin in order to bless a nation — or does Scripture teach the opposite?

This question is not aimed at unbelievers, who feel no obligation to repent. It is aimed squarely at the church.

Throughout Scripture, when God’s people finally grasped the weight of their sin, the response was not triumphal language or claims of destiny. It was confession. Leaders did not announce renewal. They acknowledged guilt. Only then did rebuilding begin.

So why does so much talk of a coming golden age contain so little talk of repentance?

The passages often cited to support Christian political dominance proclaim Christ’s authority. That authority is not in dispute. What is less often examined is how Christ exercises it. Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world. The early church did not secure influence through force or control, but through obedience, suffering, prayer, and faithful witness.

And through that path, it changed the world.

Conservatism is not holiness. Holiness runs deeper than alignment, platforms, or policy wins. Scripture places the deepest problem of any nation not in its laws, but in the human heart. Legislation may restrain behavior, but it cannot regenerate souls. That work belongs to the gospel.

RELATED: Christmas without Katie — and without accountability

Photo by: Philippe Lissac/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

God is not in a hurry

As a caregiver, I have learned the hard way that effort is not the same as health. When the pressure is high and the outcome uncertain, urgency can feel responsible. Control can masquerade as diligence.

But we do not get credit for effort if it lands us in a ditch. Trying to pass the plow does not create progress. It creates wreckage.

God is not rushed. He moves at His pace, not ours.

Repentance is not the abandonment of influence; it is the only ground on which influence survives.

If God is who He says He is, what wisdom is there in rushing ahead of Him?

Which leaves a final question for the people of God: Are we asking the Lord to bless what we refuse to repent of?

Scripture’s order has not changed. Humility precedes healing. Repentance comes before restoration. And when we declare a golden age without repentance, we should not be surprised if what we have built turns out to be a golden calf.

​Golden age, Usa, Christian nationalism, Repentance, Christians, Planned parenthood, 2026, 2026 midterms, Opinion & analysis, Faith, Christmas 

From Michigan to Melbourne, exorcisms are rising — an odd trend in an age when Christianity is supposedly retreating.

Odd, that is, if you accept the official story: that faith has faded, churches have emptied, and modern life has supposedly outgrown such concerns. Yet behind parish doors and rectory walls, priests report the opposite: more calls, cases, and urgency.

Evil persists not because it is misunderstood, but because it is minimized.

The demonic, it seems, didn’t get the secular memo.

I began making inquiries recently, speaking with clergy who have dealt with what most people would rather joke about, pathologize, or turn into content. One name surfaced repeatedly: Fr. Michael Shadbolt, a veteran priest who had performed numerous exorcisms and spoke of them with measured calm. I reached out to him for insight. Instead, I received word that he had recently passed away.

Thankfully, there was another source, carrying decades of experience where spiritual and psychological care meet. Fr. Stephen Rossetti, an American Catholic priest and seasoned exorcist, spoke without qualification.

“Yes, requests for exorcisms are on the rise in the U.S. and in other countries as well,” he told me. “There may be many reasons for this, but one obvious one is the decline of the practice of the faith.”

That observation runs counter to the fashionable narrative. The usual explanation for the rise in exorcisms is framed as a paradox: Christianity declines, so belief in demons increases.

But that framing flatters modern assumptions. It treats belief as an all-or-nothing package. Either accept the creed or discard the lot. But human experience has never worked that way.

One doesn’t need to believe in God to believe in evil — it’s everywhere. A loved one consumed by addiction. The husband who revels in beating his wife. The wife who revels in beating her husband. The son who turns on parents with lethal force.

RELATED: Interview with an exorcist: ‘God always takes the first step’

D-Keine/Getty Images

Evil doesn’t depend on belief to function. It advances through repetition, fixation, and the gradual loss of restraint. The language shifts with each generation, but the pattern remains. Every day, roughly 137 women and girls are killed worldwide in acts of femicide. Child sacrifice, usually relegated to ancient Peru or remote civilizations, still occurs in parts of Africa today. In the U.S., one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18.

No vocabulary of Pinkertonian progress dissolves these facts. Calling evil “trauma” or “dysfunction” may describe the damage left behind, but it doesn’t confront the force itself. Such language manages outcomes while leaving causes untouched.

The modern world prefers to believe that evil is a misunderstanding, a system failure, or a lack of education. History suggests otherwise. Evil persists not because it is misunderstood, but because it is minimized. It thrives where it is renamed, rationalized, or treated as an embarrassing superstition.

Fr. Rossetti put it plainly, “Increasingly people are not protected by faith, and many are involved in occult practices, which are a clear opening to the demonic.”

That point is crucial. Militant atheism is seldom the starting point. The entry point is engagement with practices the Church has long warned against.

“We have a number of cases of people who drifted away from the faith and then got into the occult,” Rossetti explained. “After a few years, they found themselves afflicted by evil spirits.”

The remedy is clear. “The first thing we do is have them go to confession, start practicing the faith, and live a virtuous life,” he said. “All sin is an opening to evil in some way, and the worse the sins, the greater the opening.”

It is precisely for this reason, Rossetti continued, “that exorcisms are very effective.” However, he stressed, there’s no wand, no instant result. “Sometimes the process takes time. It is typically not one and done,” Rossetti said. After years of spell-casting, curse-making, and demon worship — often misidentified as “self-discovery” or “ancient wisdom” — it can take far longer to undo the damage.

He was explicit about the timeline. “It typically takes three to five years of exorcisms to liberate the person.” The process, he added, is one of conversion and purification.

“An exorcism is not magic,” he said.

The hierarchy is clear and always has been: Christ reigns, angels serve, demons defy — and ultimately lose.

What we are witnessing, then, is not the complete disappearance of belief but its fragmentation. Christianity retreats institutionally while belief itself goes feral. Old anchors are cut loose. New fixations rush in. The vacuum does not remain empty.

Look around. Astrology, once harmless nonsense, has become a personal operating system. It graduated from brainless fun to life-management software, complete with a $3 billion price tag. Tarot cards are sold as “self-care.” Witchcraft is rebranded as empowerment, paganism as wellness. Social media is saturated with spiritual freelancers promising protection, manifestation, and power — usually bundled with a payment link.

None of this is neutral, and none of it is consequence-free. Doors opened casually tend to stay open.

This is where the supposed paradox dissolves. Christianity isn’t retreating because belief vanished, but because belief lost its footing. Structure recedes, so superstition rises. When doctrine disappears, disorder follows. There is no neutrality — only exposure.

For those skeptical because of Hollywood portrayals, exorcism is not a medieval curiosity revived for effect, but a practical response to persistent realities. The Church isn’t inventing demons to stay relevant. Rather, it is reacting to what it actually sees — a culture defined by isolation, instability, and constant immersion in content that destroys self-control and sanity.

Fr. Rossetti was clear on the final point, one that many increasingly resist.

“It is critical to understand that Jesus is Lord and not Satan,” he said. “The big mistake people make today is thinking that Satan is so very powerful. He is not.”

Compared to Christ, “Satan is dust.” He has no authority unless it is surrendered.

Christian theology has never been ambiguous on this point. Satan is not a rival god, not an equal force locked in cosmic balance. He is a created being who rebelled, fell, and was expelled. His power is parasitic rather than inherent. He doesn’t rule a kingdom by right, but lurks in territory abandoned through disobedience and pride.

The hierarchy is clear and always has been: Christ reigns, angels serve, demons defy — and ultimately lose.

That, it seems, is the warning embedded in the rise of exorcisms. Not that evil has grown stronger, but that we have grown careless. We treated the spiritual realm as a curiosity, then a hobby, then a marketplace — and acted surprised when something followed us home.

Fr. Rossetti put it without hesitation: “Jesus is Lord and has smashed Satan’s kingdom.” The tragedy is that many live as though He hasn’t.

​Evil, Demons, Spiritual world, Christianity, Christian, God, Jesus, Exorcism, Faith 

Liberals across the nation are in full tantrum mode after a shade of white was declared 2026’s top hue.

On December 4, Pantone LLC — which is considered the global authority on color standardization — announced “Cloud Dancer,” described as a “billowy white imbued with serenity,” as its 2026 Color of the Year.

“Similar to a blank canvas, Cloud Dancer signifies our desire for a fresh start. … An airy white hue, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer opens up space for creativity, allowing our imagination to drift so that new insights and bold ideas can emerge and take shape,” wrote Pantone Vice President Laurie Pressman.

Pantone Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman echoed the VP’s words: “The cacophony that surrounds us has become overwhelming, making it harder to hear the voices of our inner selves. A conscious statement of simplification, Cloud Dancer enhances our focus, providing release from the distraction of external influences.”

Despite these rationales and Pressman’s statement that skin color “did not factor into” Pantone’s selection, furious liberals are accusing the company of being tone-deaf and racist.

Allie Beth Stuckey dives into the hilariously absurd reactions of several unhinged lefties.

X user @svviftlet tweeted:

— (@)

In another social media video, two girls denounced Pantone’s Color of the Year, claiming it gives “Sydney Sweeney has good genes vibes.”

Back in July, Sweeney was lambasted for starring in an American Eagle denim commercial using the double entendre that Sydney Sweeney has good jeans/genes.

“You’re not allowed to say if you have blonde hair and blue eyes that you have good genes. … She clearly does have good genes. She’s beautiful,” scoffs Allie, “but if you’re a white person, you can’t say that.”

In another video, Feng Shui expert Katie Rogers literally set her Pantone color swatches on fire:

Another Instagram reel features influencer Charlotte Palermino, who ironically filmed her video in an off-white sweater in front of white-colored walls, whining, “It’s giving conservative.”

“It’s literally just a color, okay? It’s an inanimate color,” says Allie, “and the subliminal message is far more offensive than any supposed message that Pantone is communicating.”

The message these social media users are hammering is that “it’s not okay to be white. … You need to be ashamed of that, that white — having white skin — symbolizes something bad, that we need to reject the color of our skin.”

“In this age of self-confidence and self-love, it’s only white people who have to hate themselves or associate their skin color with the collective sins of people who lived elsewhere at a different time? No,” Allie says.

She encourages everyone, but especially Christians, to reject this social justice nonsense. “It’s completely unbiblical. That is not just. Justice is impartial. Justice is individual. Justice is direct. You don’t carry the sins of someone who kind of looked like you,” she says.

To see the videos and hear more of Allie’s commentary, watch the video above.

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​Relatable, Relatable with allie stuckey, Allie beth stuckey, Blazetv, Blaze media, Woke mob, Woke, Liberal hysteria, Cloud dancer, Pantone, Color wheel 

For years, we were warned that artificial intelligence would eventually eliminate the need for writers. In mere seconds, it would be able to crank out essays, articles, reports, blog posts, you name it, rendering flesh-and-blood writers obsolete.

Well, those days are here. AI writing floods our inboxes, social media feeds, and web pages every single day.

But it’s not quite the product we were pitched. While bots can indeed string coherent sentences together, the end result is mediocre at best. Its flat, em-dash heavy, idiosyncrasy-free, polite prose is easily recognizable to average readers, most of whom are disenchanted by the lack of human touch.

It turns out AI — beholden to algorithms and formulas — cannot counterfeit the voices of the deeply complicated, unique creatures that are human beings.

Christopher Rufo and Jonathan Keeperman, BlazeTV hosts of “Rufo & Lomez,” believe that AI writing may actually make writers more valuable — but just the ones with genuine talent.

AI is undeniably eliminating the massive class of mediocre writers. The kind of text AI produces is quickly becoming “the default sound or voice of people who don’t have talent, who can’t do things on their own. … It’s becoming the default voice of stupidity,” says Keeperman.

On the flip side, “Anybody who can write at a level above [AI] now has more value.”

The pervasiveness of AI copy seems to suggest that those genuine talents are few and far between.

“I am seeing [AI writing] everywhere. I am seeing it in published books. … Tons of ad copy even for really prominent companies that obviously have huge marketing departments [are] leaning on these sort of tripartite adjectival phrases. … There’s all these sort of syntactical signals that are giveaways,” says Keeperman, “but it’s also making me attuned to people who can write really well, and I find myself gravitating towards those people.”

But that doesn’t mean writers can’t use AI to their advantage. It is an excellent tool for “research,” “aggregating a lot of information,” “analysis,” and “brainstorming,” Keeperman adds.

Rufo agrees. “Terrible writing, [but] it’s good for discovery. … I think for certain tasks, it’s better than a Google search or a search engine search.”

For someone like him, who conducts large-scale research, AI can expedite the process of sifting through hundreds of pages of PDFs, but it’s not fail-proof.

AI is “maybe comparable to an undergraduate research assistant but … an unreliable [one],” says Rufo.

“You double-check the work, and you realize that the AI makes up 30% of the things that it’s telling you.”

“It seems like something that has huge potential, but I just see it slowing down in its improvement. I see it still having some fundamental flaws that would prevent it from being a trustworthy object of delegation,” he says.

“I remain extremely skeptical of the AI doomers or AI fatalists who think that this is going to take over the world and the machines are going to be controlling everything. It’s like it can’t even format citations. I think we’re a long ways away from the AI taking over the world.”

To hear more, watch the episode above

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Women have been fighting back for a long time now when confronted by crime, and the year 2025 was no exception.

In one instance, a woman was shopping in a store and used her Second Amendment rights against a male who reportedly was groping other customers and even pulled out a gun and threatened their lives … then we have a story about a mother who hid in a closet with her baby after a man broke into her home, and she permanently ended the threat … and then there was a tale that might make you smile about a woman who faced down a crook and took care of business with her bare hands, to the amazement of her husband.

Here are our top-five moments of 2025 when women decided to take matters into their own hands when facing down criminals:

Video: Woman pulls male intruder out of her car, throws him to the ground with ease — while her amazed husband watches

Astonishing surveillance video from a Hollywood gas station shows the moment when a woman pulled a male intruder out of her car and threw him to the ground with ease.

The woman, Star Carter, was sitting in the driver’s seat of her red Alfa Romeo at the gas station Nov. 4 when a male stranger walked up and tried to open her passenger door, KCBS-TV reported.

Her husband, Michael Carter, was pumping gas at the time and was on the other side of car — and initially thought he successfully told the guy to get lost.

But after Michael got back in the passenger seat, the crook sneaked back and opened the driver-side rear door closest to the gas pump and actually got into the back seat, video shows.

“I’m wrestling with him inside the car,” Michael told the station, “and I’m kinda pushing him and pushing him, and all I know is he just disappeared.”

With that, Star’s husband smiled and told KCBS that “I’m looking over the back, and I said, ‘Oh … ohhh!'”

Michael’s, shall we say, starstruck reaction was due to the fact that his wife got out of her driver’s seat, got to the back door, ripped the intruder right out the car, and tossed him to the ground.

“I don’t condone violence, but I do condone self-defense,” Star told KCBS in the aftermath.

Wisely, the intruder ran off after Star introduced him to the concrete. But she also had some parting advice for him: “I just said, ‘Don’t you ever do no stupid [word redacted in KCBS video] like this again!'”

The station said the Carters actually continued their night out, going to a comedy show at the Hollywood Improv. In the end, her husband was grateful that Star stood up to the crook.

“She is indeed my hero,” Michael noted to KCBS with a laugh in the aftermath. “Thank you, Star!”

Creep with violent past allegedly gropes store customer, threatens to kill others — so woman in store shoots him dead instead

A 42-year-old man followed another customer into the Pink Beauty Supply store in Compton, California, on Oct. 19 and “groped her once inside” the store, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lieut. DeJong told KCBS-TV.

When employees told him to leave, the man allegedly refused and began to verbally assault them and some customers before he started throwing objects inside the store, KCBS added.

Employees and customers noted that the male had an object in his hand that they believed was a knife, the sheriff’s department said, adding that the male made verbal threats that he was going to kill and harm everyone in the store.

With that, one of the customers — not the one he allegedly groped — pulled out a gun, KCBS said.

Fearing for the store employees, herself, and other customers, the sheriff’s department said she fired a warning shot at the male. But the male turned toward her, officials said — and fearing she was going to be attacked, she fired a second shot, striking the male.

DeJong noted to KCBS that “he went down.” The sheriff’s department said the male was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators noted to KCBS that the woman who pulled the trigger was a customer at the store, and she remained at the scene to cooperate with officials. Detectives added to the station that parking lot surveillance video indicates the man was loitering in the area and drinking alcohol.

“He alleged he was a gang member, and LASD says it appears he was a gang member; unknown if still active,” DeJong told KCBS while adding that the male had a lengthy criminal history that included assaults, robberies, thefts, and disturbing the peace.

KNBC-TV said the woman is in her 50s, that she surrendered the gun, and that no one was arrested.

Mother hid from home invader in closet with her baby — then shot thug in the head, police say

A man with a long criminal record faced the ultimate penalty for breaking into the wrong home after discovering an armed mother, according to Illinois police.

The Joliet Police Department said they responded to a residence on Hadrian Drive on the far west side of Joliet around 10:30 p.m. Aug. 15.

Police said they saw signs of forced entry at the home and found an unresponsive man on the second floor with gunshot wounds. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

They also found a woman at the home with her baby. She told them she hid in a closet in her bedroom with her child after she heard the break in. She also had a handgun with her, and when the man entered the bedroom, she shot him in the head.

Police said they found a screwdriver in the man’s possession and noted he was wearing gloves at the time of the shooting.

The Will County Coroner’s Office identified the man as 36-year-old Shelby Hurd of Chicago. Hurd had been convicted of burglaries in 2022 and 2023 as well as identity theft and burglary in another county. He had been paroled on Feb. 24.

Stalker shows up at woman’s workplace, begins punching her, cops say. But victim has a gun — and she uses it.

A stalker showed up at a woman’s workplace in Pensacola, Florida, on the morning of Feb. 10 and began punching her, police said.

But the victim had a gun on her and shot the male once in the leg in self-defense, police added.

Marquise James, 35, was arrested in connection with the 11:30 a.m. incident at the Downtown Pensacola Holiday Inn, WEAR-TV reported.

Records show James was in the Escambia County Jail on charges of stalking, battery, smuggle contraband, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana, resisting an officer, and simple assault. His bond is set at $26,500.

Pensacola Police Officer Mike Wood told WEAR that the stalking “has been going on for quite some time” and that “this male individual has been … using social media, using phones” to do so.

Wood added to the station that “he’s come to her place of employment before, and she told him to leave, and he did. But this time when he came, he saw her in the laundry room, he approached her and began punching her.”

With that, Wood told WEAR that the victim “drew a handgun that she had legally and shot him once in the leg.”

“He’s much larger than she is, and she did what she had to do,” Wood noted to the station, adding that “she did nothing wrong. She was protecting herself like she should have done.”

Police told WEAR that no charges are being filed against the woman.

Wood added to the station that when James “was at the hospital, he kicked one of our officers.” Wood also told WEAR that James “had cocaine and marijuana on him.”

Thug allegedly recorded himself raping woman at gunpoint — before she shot him

A woman said she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint before she was able to retrieve her own gun and shoot the accused rapist, according to Indiana police.

The victim said she was assaulted on the afternoon of Sept. 16 at her home on Meadowlark Drive on the northeast side of Indianapolis, according to court documents.

She said that she was forced to have sex at gunpoint with the male, who was also recording the assault on his cell phone. When the man left the home, she got her gun and shot at him. She appeared to have shot the back window of a blue Toyota that was parked on an adjacent street.

A neighbor called police, and the victim identified the alleged attacker as 23-year-old Trevon Haynes.

About an hour later, a police officer noticed a car with its hazard lights flashing and saw that the driver had been shot in the leg. Haynes was arrested, and police said they found a firearm in the car.

He was charged with rape, intimidation, and burglary, while being armed with a deadly weapon.

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​2025, 2nd amend., Crime, Fighting back, Women 

Millions of Americans fled deep-blue states like California and New York because they believed the rules were different elsewhere. They moved to places like Alabama to escape lockdowns, mandates, and ideological capture of public institutions. They believed red states meant red lines.

That belief is proving dangerously naïve.

If red states cannot enforce their own parental rights laws, then the red-state refuge is a myth.

Alabama is one of the most conservative states in the country. It has a Republican supermajority and some of the strongest parental rights laws on the books: bans on gender-transition procedures for minors, curriculum transparency requirements, legal definitions of male and female, protections for girls’ sports, and a rare requirement that parents must opt in before schools provide any mental health services, including discussions of suicide or bullying.

And yet those protections are now being quietly hollowed out — not by legislators, but by bureaucratic subversion.

The footnote loophole

The Alabama State Department of Education is undermining parental consent by inserting exceptions into the fine print of a required opt-in form distributed after a new parental consent law took effect Oct. 1.

The law itself is unambiguous. Parents must provide prior written consent before schools offer mental health services, including discussions related to suicide or bullying. But the department claims in the footnotes that mental health-related conversations may still occur “as appropriate” in other school settings — and that these interactions do not require parental permission.

The ALSDE has stated that “instruction, advisement, and occasional interventions are not subject to opt-in requirements, as these are regular duties of school counselors and other educators.”

That language does more than stretch the statute. It appears designed to bypass it entirely. When schools engage minors in discussions with clear psychological or therapeutic implications — trauma, gender identity, suicidal ideation — without parental consent, they move into legally and constitutionally questionable territory.

Same playbook, new label

Parents have seen this before. During COVID, mandates were imposed first and justified later. Dissent was sidelined. Authority flowed downward, not outward.

Now the same model is being applied to school-based mental health. Whether embedded in social-emotional learning, “student wellness,” or character education, the result is the same: psychological interventions delivered by school employees, not licensed physicians, without parental oversight.

This is not a gray area. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed parents’ fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children. When school systems create end runs around opt-in requirements — especially on matters involving suicide or gender ideology — they invite serious legal and civil rights challenges.

No state is immune

This is not an Alabama anomaly.

Illinois now mandates mental health screenings for public school students, with no opt-in. Mississippi is rolling out a statewide “youth wellness platform.” Tennessee is placing mental health clinicians in every public school through a $250 million trust fund. Ohio is expanding school-based health centers that embed mental health treatment directly on campus.

These programs erase the line between education and health care. They normalize a system in which children’s emotions are monitored, recorded, and interpreted by the state without parental consent. That is state-sponsored emotional profiling.

Who decides what helps?

This debate is not about whether children need support. It is about who decides what support looks like — and who has the authority to provide it.

Parents possess a fundamental right to make decisions about their children’s mental and physical health. The Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor reaffirmed that when schools impose ideologically loaded services or content without notice or opt-out, they burden parental rights and religious liberty.

RELATED: ‘Incredible victory’: Federal judge prohibits trans-related grooming efforts in California schools

Photo by Luis Soto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Alabama’s counseling framework includes DEI-driven language encouraging students to “identify individual differences” and “describe and respect differences among individuals.” In practice, that language provides a vehicle for embedding gender ideology and values-based content into guidance lessons.

When that content is paired with school-based interventions, the issue is no longer education. It is ideological formation funded by taxpayers and imposed without consent.

Alabama’s warning

If this can happen in Alabama — arguably the most pro-parental-rights state in the country — then no state is safe.

Agencies should not be allowed to bury statutes in footnotes, reinterpret laws by memo, or use therapeutic language to bypass parental authority. These are not technical disagreements. They are unconstitutional and demand legal pushback.

If red states cannot enforce their own parental rights laws, then the red-state refuge is a myth.

Strong laws matter, but enforcement matters more. Parents must demand both.

​Opinion & analysis, Education, Administrative state, Public schools, Alabama, Parental consent, Parental rights, Mental health, Counseling, Student wellness, Red states, Blue states, Bullying, Loophole 

A dystopian surveillance state is what so many Americans fear their country is becoming, while some have just accepted that a surveillance state is our past, present, and future.

“There comes a point where, as a society, we just end up getting used to the massive surveillance state that we live in,” Glenn Beck’s head researcher and former DOD intelligence analyst Jason Buttrill tells Glenn.

However, while we’re used to the surveillance state, it doesn’t appear to be doing its job — especially when you look at the response to the recent shooting at Brown University.

On Saturday, Dec. 13, a gunman opened fire inside a first-floor classroom at the Barus and Holley building on Brown’s campus — and the gunman remains elusive.

“If you go back to around 2021, there were people writing about how Brown University was one of the most surveilled campuses in the United States,” Buttrill explains.

“How is it we only have one picture of this guy from the back?” Glenn interjects, adding, “Apparently the one thing that will help you get away with any crime is a hoodie.”

“Yeah, wear something over your head and a coat. Apparently that foils the entire surveillance state, y’all,” Buttrill agrees. “So I guess we have nothing to worry about with surveillance.”

“And on top of that, Kash Patel, the FBI director, said that, you know, they sprung into action and they activated their cellular monitoring system to help identify the person that has now been let go,” he continues.

“Again, that’s another layer of this surveillance state that I think a lot of us should be worried about, and that didn’t do anything either,” he says, adding, “That helped give us the wrong suspect.”

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The top songs this Christmas should certainly offend anyone who thought “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was worthy of outrage.

At the height of the woke era, media outlets argued over whether the 1944 Frank Loesser classic should be banned, as radio stations pulled the song because its lyrics allegedly alluded to “date rape.”

‘Baby, I’m a dog, I’m a mutt.’

The media apparatus sprung into action with parody after cross-dressing parody. Few defended the song — surprisingly, Variety was one of the biggest outliers — and the “Me Too” mantra carried on looking for more scalps to take.

Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” soon received similar treatment, despite garnering almost a billion views on YouTube. With featured artist Pharrell saying the song he profited off of was evidence of a prominent “chauvinist culture,” that art was not allowed to exist as art.

While offense can be taken in any generation’s music, it seems appropriate to note that it seemingly goes one direction, and progressive cookie-cutter sexual content cannot be questioned.

This has not changed in 2025, as slop tops the charts with stereotypical soft-core imagery.

Sombr, ‘Back to Friends’

Topping the Billboard charts in the rock and alternative category as of Dec. 17 is “Back to Friends” by Sombr. In this song by New Yorker Shane Michael Boose, he talks about the difficulty of returning to a normal friendship with some one he has slept with.

The song about being forgotten by a presumed love one remains fairly generic until the music video is taken into account, which features multiple gay make-out scenes juxtaposed with explosions of lava.

RELATED: Taylor Swift isn’t a role model — and it’s time for moms to stop pretending she is

Leon Thomas, ‘Mutt’

The R&B and hip-hop category is led by Leon Thomas’ “Mutt.”

Although the song came out in 2024, it is hitting new highs for the 2025 Christmas season, with lyrics about Thomas convincing a woman that there is no need for them to wait to have sex, because, “Baby, I’m a dog, I’m a mutt.”

Thomas notes that he wishes for him and his new lady to “break in” his new apartment, while adding that he believes in the Second Amendment, with the lyrics: “Thirty-two, like my pants size ’cause a n***a tried breaking in.”

The song is really not offensive, but neither are lyrics from the 1940s saying, “My mother will start to worry.”

RELATED: The viral country anthem that has girlboss Twitter melting down and trad women cheering

Kehlani, ‘Folded’

Not to be forgotten at No. 2 on the R&B list is Kehlani’s “Folded.”

Kehlani Ashley Parrish, an Oakland-born singer who once aspired to be a Juilliard-trained dancer, shows off her moves in the video, where she sports a completely see-through dress and essentially dances naked alongside women in their underwear.

Again, while this is not a new phenomenon for a music video, it seems extremely egregious when placed next to the 1949 film “Neptune’s Daughter” that popularized “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

While Kehlani carries laundry and talks about folding clothes in her music video, the obvious inference is that she is talking about her preferred sexual position.

The lyrics website Genius states, “Here, Kehlani seems to be implying she can ‘fold’ her body for her lover if they decide they want to become romantic again.”

Taylor Swift, ‘The Fate of Ophelia’

It comes as no surprise that Taylor Swift is topping the pop charts with “The Fate of Ophelia,” even though the music video came out in October. Swift obviously sexualizes herself — maybe Dean Martin did too? — as a 1950s showgirl, but the song centers on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and has Swift nearly dying from heartbreak in the lyrics.

Some lyrics are almost direct lifts from “Hamlet,” but the song as a whole is light-years away in terms of degeneracy in comparison to the other items on this list.

However, it is hard to imagine how it is conceivable that Swift dancing in lingerie and being groped on a pirate ship is less controversial than, “My sister will be suspicious (Gosh, your lips look delicious).”

While music lovers may notice that wild offense-taking now skips the industry unless it serves a political purpose, that equilibrium rarely holds forever. Cultural pendulums do swing.

When they do, the correction sometimes arrives loudly — through provocation, politics, or spectacle. But just as often, it comes quietly, in the form of art that refuses to scandalize at all.

Ella Langley, ‘Choosin’ Texas’

Which brings us to Ella Langley. Topping the country charts this Christmas with “Choosin’ Texas,” the Alabama native commits a far subtler transgression: She sings plainly about heartbreak, drinking alone, and the ache of love gone wrong — without sexual exhibitionism, ideological signaling, or manufactured outrage. She even manages to say a few positive things about Texas and Tennessee. In 2025, that kind of restraint may be the most disruptive posture left.

​Align, Christmas, Carols, Holidays, Christmas song, Pop, Country, Hip hop, Rap, R&b, Rock music, Lifestyle 

A certain smug comfort belongs to people who have never stood between a riot line and a camera, never smelled accelerant on the wind, never watched their phones lose signal while fire chewed through an entire neighborhood. They talk about “heated rhetoric” and “charged atmospheres” as if danger were theoretical. For women reporters on the ground, it isn’t.

The front line is not a metaphor. It is a place. And it is getting more dangerous by the year.

This is not a gadget story. It is a survival story.

I have covered Antifa riots where the mob knew my name before I reached the sidewalk. I have been screamed at, followed, and threatened by people who publicly denounce violence while privately practicing it. I have watched law enforcement stand down under progressive policies that place the comfort of agitators above the safety of citizens. And I have learned, the hard way, that when cities become unlivable, women pay first.

The left loves to talk about “lived experience.” Here is mine: Democrat governance has made America’s major cities objectively less safe, and being a female independent journalist in them now requires the mindset of a survivalist.

That became brutally clear during the Los Angeles wildfires of 2025.

I was there when the sky turned orange and evacuation orders contradicted one another. Cell towers failed. Emergency lines were overwhelmed. Friends and family lost homes — not hypothetically, not statistically, but completely. In that chaos, the only reason I was able to coordinate help, locate people, and call for assistance was a satellite phone. While 911 systems collapsed, that device worked. No signal dependency. No excuses.

That is not a gadget story. It is a survival story.

The same lesson repeats itself elsewhere. In Washington, D.C., shootings now occur in places that once felt immune — near offices, events, and corridors of power. I was at Butler. I have been steps away from moments that could have gone very differently. Anyone insisting that “these things don’t happen here” is either lying or sheltered by privilege.

When whistleblowers reach out to me, they do not do it over casual cell calls. They use secure satellite communications, because they understand something our leaders prefer not to acknowledge: privacy is safety. Satellite phones are resistant to interception, independent of fragile infrastructure, and immune to spam and shutdowns. When people have something dangerous to say, they choose tools that help keep them alive.

This is not paranoia. It is pattern recognition.

People have died hiking because there was no signal. Boaters have vanished because help could not be reached. Hurricanes do not care about ideology. Fires do not check voter registration. Yet one party consistently opposes disaster preparedness, energy independence, and resilient infrastructure — while demanding blind trust in systems that fail precisely when they are needed most.

Preparedness is not extremism. It is common sense.

Redundancy in communication is not political. Neither are solar-powered backups or hardened devices. Nor is concern about electromagnetic vulnerabilities when our lives run through centralized, fragile networks. Thinking ahead does not make you radical. It makes you female in a country that keeps telling women to be brave while stripping away the tools that make bravery survivable.

And yes, it matters who builds those tools.

If I am calling for help, I want American customer service — American voices, American-owned companies. Safety should not come with a foreign accent and a hold button. Trust is part of security.

This is why satellite phones, solar chargers, emergency kits, and hardened cases are no longer niche products. They are rational responses to an increasingly unstable political and physical environment. They are also meaningful gifts — because nothing says you care like giving someone a way to come home alive.

RELATED: A nation without trust is a nation on borrowed time

Photo by Jay L Clendenin/Getty Images

Which brings us to 2026.

Around President Trump, TPUSA events, or Republican members of Congress, the threat environment is asymmetric. The left has normalized political violence while denying it exists. Media figures excuse it. Politicians minimize it. Prosecutors decline to prosecute it. And women journalists who refuse to conform are expected to absorb the consequences quietly.

I won’t.

The question voters should ask heading into the midterms is not which party sounds kinder on cable news. It is which party acknowledges reality — and equips Americans, especially women, to survive it.

One side treats chaos as a political tool. The other treats safety as the foundation of freedom.

I know which one kept me connected when the fires closed in. I know which one refuses to pretend riots are “mostly peaceful.” And I know which one understands that strong borders, strong policing, resilient infrastructure, and personal preparedness are not luxuries in dangerous times.

The front line is expanding. It runs through our cities, our forests, our streets, and our inboxes. Women are already on it — whether policymakers realize it or not.

The only question left is whether America will choose leaders who take our safety seriously or continue sacrificing us to ideology.

Because the danger is real. And pretending otherwise is the most reckless policy of all.

​Opinion & analysis, Disorder, Law and order, Civil unrest, Riots, Natural disasters, Wildfires, Floods, Emergency, Preparation, Supplies, Satellite, Power grid, Mostly peaceful protests, Anarchy, Border security 

When it comes to gas prices, what a difference one administration can make. After peaking above $5 a gallon under President Biden, prices at the pump are now at their lowest levels in more than four years — and still falling. Today, the national average for regular gas sits at about $2.85, and a growing number of stations are dipping below $2. That’s a real Christmas gift for working families, one that makes a meaningful difference.

Falling gas prices bring immediate relief to households worried about affordability while also easing pressure across the broader economy. Compared with this time last year, Americans are saving a collective $400 million per week at the pump, according to GasBuddy.

Cheaper fuel deserves celebration, but there is more work to be done to lock in these gains and drive prices even lower.

Most people associate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act primarily with tax cuts. But it may prove to be one of the most consequential pro-energy laws passed in years. Lower gas prices do not happen by accident. They are the result of deliberate policy choices — specifically, President Trump’s reversal of the anti-energy agenda pursued by the Biden administration.

That agenda, driven by radical environmental activists, sought to force a rapid transition away from oil and gas regardless of cost. It relied on higher taxes, blocked infrastructure projects, restricted leasing, and constrained production. Taken together, those policies drove up prices and fueled inflation that hit working families hardest.

On day one, President Trump moved quickly to unwind many of those decisions, issuing nearly half a dozen energy-focused executive orders that restored certainty for producers. That early action was followed by his signature legislative achievement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which combined broad-based tax relief with policies designed to restore American energy dominance.

The bill reduces production costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s misguided fee increase on oil and gas produced on federal lands. It cuts that fee by 25%, making domestic production more attractive and more affordable for drillers.

Just as important, the OBBBA restores predictability to federal leasing. The law mandates nearly 40 offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of America, Alaska, and other regions. It also establishes quarterly onshore lease sales and biannual offshore sales, giving the private sector long-term certainty. Under President Biden, leasing all but ground to a halt, with fewer leases issued than at any point since the 1960s — crippling the pipeline of future energy projects.

The bill also repeals or tightens a range of Green New Deal-style tax credits that heavily subsidized renewables at the expense of oil and gas. Those credits masked the true costs of renewable projects and distorted electricity markets, contributing to grid instability and higher energy prices.

RELATED: 5 truths the climate cult can’t bury any more

Justin Hamel/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The bottom line is simple: The OBBBA encourages more oil and gas production at lower cost. Over the next decade, that means a steadier supply of crude ready to be refined into affordable gasoline.

Still, Congress and the administration should not take their foot off the gas. Cheaper fuel deserves celebration, but there is more work to be done to lock in these gains and drive prices even lower.

At the top of the list is permitting reform. Energy projects routinely take longer to permit than to build. Environmental reviews intended to inform decisions have morphed into open-ended processes that stretch on for years. Even approved projects can be tied up indefinitely by duplicative reviews and serial lawsuits from activist groups. The result is uncertainty that discourages investment and delays infrastructure Americans depend on every day.

America First energy dominance is working, and families are saving real money because of it. The House has already passed several pro-energy permitting reforms, but meaningful engagement with the Senate will be required to deliver a comprehensive overhaul to the president’s desk. Without permitting reform, the full benefits of the OBBBA’s energy provisions will remain unrealized.

The lesson is clear: Energy dominance follows when government gets out of the way. If permitting reform advances next year, producers will gain the certainty and speed they need to deliver reliable, affordable energy to consumers. In 2026, Congress should finish the job.

​America first, Gas prices, Energy policy, Trump administration, President trump, Opinion & analysis, Joe biden, One big beautiful bill, Oil, Economy 

An educational program meant to help students make up for their mistakes in school is apparently being misused by racial equity proponents and leading to children receiving high grades for very little work.

Credit recovery is a practice in which students, usually of high-school age, are given a second chance to learn a subject and prove their proficiency in that subject outside of normal class time.

‘Credit recovery is the scandal hiding in plain sight in American education.’

Proponents say the practice can be very positive and effective when students fail because of circumstances out of their control, such as a death in the family or sudden financial loss and duress.

But in recent years, the program has seemingly been manipulated by diversity, equity, and inclusion advocates, resulting in even worse educational outcomes. Rather than giving students a second chance to prove themselves, the policy is being abused to unfairly allow failing students to pass on to the next grade level without actually completing learning objectives.

Some manage to complete the “recovery” work through make-up courses that can last a few hours or even a few minutes.

“The credit recovery classes have become, in many instances, get-out-of-jail-free cards for students who are chronically absent, truant, or are chronic disruptions in class,” wrote Mike DiMatteo, a former teacher, for the Freedom in Education organization.

“They’re receiving the same credit, but doing significantly less work — often as little as one-third to one-half of what a traditional course requires,” he continued. “The evidence supports these concerns: Critics have raised alarms when students complete a semester of work in a matter of weeks or even days. In one egregious example, the NCAA discovered students receiving grades and credits for a semester’s worth of work in a matter of days, sometimes hours, and in some cases just minutes.”

DiMatteo cited one anecdote of a student who received an A- and a year’s worth of credit in biology after only one four-hour recovery class split over two days.

“In Los Angeles, which reported that 16,000 students took at least one credit recovery course in 2016-2017, a student described raising his biology grade from an F to a C in one week,” he added.

One study from 2020 found that credit recovery policies were being used to help disadvantaged black students but that often they ended up hurting rather than helping the students.

RELATED: Mass. teachers union says standardized tests have allowed ‘white supremacy to flourish’

Robert Pondiscio, a teacher and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow, calls it an educational “scandal.”

“Credit recovery is the scandal hiding in plain sight in American education,” he wrote. “When districts say they’ve raised graduation rates to pre-COVID levels, ask what percentage of graduates finished with one or more classes completed with ‘credit recovery.'”

The policy is just one part of the puzzle explaining how public schools are seemingly failing children more and more, as standardized testing shows across the nation.

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​Grade credit recovery, Grade inflation, Why schools are bad, Education in america, Politics 

The youth are always cooking up some new saying, joke, or dance move that makes older generations scratch their heads and shrug. Most of the time, these trends are innocent and silly, but there’s one that’s wildly popular right now that has a much deeper meaning than most realize.

Earlier this year, a song titled “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Philadelphia rapper Skrilla went viral on social media, sparking a trend where kids randomly yell “six seven.” The phrase gained explosive traction through youth basketball culture — syncing with highlight reels of 6’7″ NBA star LaMelo Ball and viral courtside chants at games — before spreading widely among children.

While the phrase in the song is speculated to be a reference to 67th Street in Philly, the meaning behind the internet trend is ambiguous, with some interpreting it to mean “whatever” or “so-so.” Most agree, however, that it’s just a nonsensical, internet-fad slang phrase intended to be absurd and annoying.

Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of the spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters,” however, says parents who dismiss this trend as the foolish whims of adolescents have the wool pulled over their eyes.

The phrase “six seven” in Skrilla’s song may be pitched as a reference to a street in Philadelphia to squash any skepticism surrounding the viral phrase that has our youth in a chokehold, but it’s really a dark Easter egg pointing to the sinister beliefs of the artist.

Rick plays a clip that’s gone viral of Pastor Nathan Bentley at LifePoint Church in San Tan Valley, Arizona, warning that Skrilla is “a self-confessed member” of the Church of Satan, who has boldly admitted in podcast interviews that he worships pagan gods — even sacrificing animals to them for career success in Hollywood.

“He talks about since he’s really dedicated himself to this, since he’s begun to put blood oaths into it, his career took off,” Bentley said from the pulpit.

And it’s true. Last year, on the “No Jumper” podcast with Adam Grandmaison, Skrilla admitted to sacrificing animals as part of his religion.

Bentley also pointed out the song’s strange combination of sex and drug themes and the iconic “Baby Shark” earworm composed for children. “Now, tell me, why would a rapper, who’s got this hardcore persona, who’s singing about things that are very mature and whatnot, throw in the middle of his song the ‘Baby Shark’ thing?” Bentley asked, positing that the artist’s explicit intention was to lure children.

Rick, who dove into the research himself, confirms everything Bentley warned of.

“It’s ugly, ugly stuff,” he sighs.

“Do you want your children doing some sort of ritual with six and seven that comes out of a pagan religion … and includes worship of pagan gods, animal blood sacrifices, omens, mysticism, [and] blood oaths?” Rick asks.

If the answer is no, he encourages squashing this trend in our homes.

“The demons that I think are clearly at the root of this six-seven thing — I think one of the things that they have banked on is that all of us, as parents and grandparents, will think it’s cute and will determine it is no big deal,” he says.

“And if you let it continue with your children and grandchildren, that’s certainly your decision. … But I would go find out everything I could possibly find out about ‘six seven.’ … And I pray that your children are not about to experience a strange encounter.”

To learn more, watch the full episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Spiritual warfare, Demons, Demonic ritual, Animal sacrifice, Blazetv, Blaze media, Skrilla, Six seven, 6 7, 6 7 trend 

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd related a horrific series of alleged crimes that spun out of a disagreement over a football game.

47-year-old Jason Kenney shot and killed his wife at their Lakeland home before shooting his 13-year-old stepdaughter twice, once in the face, according to Judd.

‘You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. … You need God.’

Kenney and his wife got into an argument after she suggested that he turn off the television as he was watching “Monday Night Football.” The argument escalated and led his wife to tell their son to go call the police.

The 12-year-old boy ran over to their neighbor’s home, but as he left the home, he heard gunshots.

When deputies arrived, they found the man’s wife, Crystal Kenney, dead, and the stepdaughter shot twice. They rushed her to the hospital in critical condition.

Judd said that Kenney fled the scene and called his sister in upstate New York. He allegedly told her that he had done something terrible and that he would not let police take him to prison for the rest of his life.

Police caught up with the man at his father’s home, where he had barricaded himself inside a shack.

They heard a gunshot and found his dead body when they entered the shack.

Judd said that police found a note written by Kenney’s wife to him, but said they could not determine when it had been written.

“You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God,” she wrote.

He said that she had been a regular churchgoer and donated to her church every week.

“When you go in there, there is a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under it, just like the nuclear family should be,” said Judd. “The only thing he did right that night was shoot himself.”

RELATED: Wife and son helped father dismember man’s body with a chainsaw after a lethal poker game

Judd said the 12-year-old boy was unharmed and noted that he was Kenney’s biological son. Also unharmed was his wife’s 1-year-old daughter, who was found sleeping in a crib.

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​Jason kenney murders, Family murder suicide, Murder over nfl football game, Niners fans murder, Crime 

The social media team for the Los Angeles Chargers was reviled by many for apparently editing a video to make it appear as if an opponent team’s player had yelled a racial epithet on the field.

The video was posted to the X platform but deleted after Cooper Beebe of the Dallas Cowboys criticized the post and denied the suggestion that he had used a racist slur.

Beebe’s words were bleeped out, which he said gave the false impression that he had said something racist.

“Imagine bleeping out what I said to make me seem racist. You guys are POS,” Beebe posted in response.

Beebe explained that he was calling out a play on the field but was accused of using an expletive. The exchange led to a penalty on the team and more trash-talking.

“He was talking s**t to me,” said Chargers player Daiyan Henley in the video. “He called me a bad word. I don’t know what he said — he said something, he pointed at me, [and] he called me a bad word. That’s called karma. Instant karma.”

Beebe’s words were bleeped out, which he said gave the false impression that he had said something racist. He later deleted his message from social media.

The Chargers’ social media team was castigated by many for the post.

“So we just move on pretending like the [C]hargers twitter account didn’t delete a tweet accusing [C]ooper [B]eebe of being racist?” read one very popular response.

RELATED: Christian NFL star apologizes for reference to kids’ game that likely left LGBTQ crowd seething

“Cooper Beebe is literally one of the nicest people in the league. @chargers Stop being mad cuz you have like 5 total fans and a stadium nobody likes,” read another response.

The Chargers went on to beat Dallas by a score of 34 to 17 in the game depicted in the video.

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​Chargers social media team, Cooper beebe racist, Dallas cowboys racist, Nfl racism, Sports 

A failed Democrat vice presidential candidate was mocked and ridiculed on social media after trying to mock President Donald Trump on student loans.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tried to bring up the president’s past history in business to assail him for new rules on student loans that will force borrowers to pay their debts back.

‘If you had a shred of shame maybe you’d resign. … You’re a disgrace.’

“Says the guy with 6 bankruptcies,” wrote Walz in response to the CNBC headline: “Trump administration to start seizing pay of defaulted student loan borrowers in January.”

The odd response was immediately assailed by many on social media who brought up the investigation into massive government benefit fraud in the Minnesotan Somali community. Walz has been accused of obstructing efforts to uncover the alleged fraud schemes.

“STFU, Tim. If you had a shred of shame maybe you’d resign before Christmas after allowing billions of dollars to go to Somali 3rd world pirates. You’re a disgrace,” responded Eric Daugherty of Florida’s Voice.

“Bold talk on ‘responsibility’ from a governor whose own state is under investigation for industrial‑scale fraud in federal nutrition and social‑service programs,” read another response.

“Lots of businesses file bankruptcy, Tampon Tim. What businesses have you created? Except the Somalian Small Business Association of Minnesota, of course,” read another popular response.

“You talking about anything related to tracking money is like [M]agic [J]ohnson talking about safe sex,” joked another critic.

“Funny how he’s lecturing on fiscal responsibility while presiding over historic fraud and theft,” said another detractor.

RELATED: Minnesota news outlet gets wrecked for story on Somali migrants’ economic impact

Earlier in December, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced an investigation into the fraud and what role Walz might have had into the scams.

“Today, I have ordered an investigation into the network of Somali organizations and executives implicated in these schemes,” said Loeffler at the time. “Despite Governor Walz’s best efforts to obstruct, SBA continues to work to expose abuse and hold perpetrators accountable, full stop.”

While it is true that Trump has filed for bankruptcies for six of his businesses, that is a small percentage of the over 540 businesses he has been associated with.

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​Tim walz pantsed, Walz vs trump, Trump on student loan debt, Social media vs tim walz, Politics