Category: blaze media

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) uses Scripture to promote progressive political causes — and BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey warns that what he is selling as compassionate theology is actually distorting core Christian teachings.

“Satan knows the Bible. He makes his lies sound scriptural, sound holy, sound good, and sound palatable to the world. And slowly but surely, chips away at our conscience, chips away at our wisdom, and leads us down a literally damning path,” Stuckey says on “Relatable.”

“And I think the person who is most prominent that represents that best, that evil disguised as goodness, is James Talarico,” she adds, before using a clip of Talarico to prove her point.

“The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for ‘divinity.’ The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for ‘spirit.’ God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” Talarico said.

“So, it’s actually true that God is not male or female like we are. He doesn’t have a body like we do. And yet, this statement is inaccurate because God consistently refers to himself as father, as king, as Lord, in masculine terms,” Stuckey comments.

“Regardless of what you think about the masculine features or the feminine features of God the Father, what is clear is that he made us male and female. There are not multiple words there used for male and female,” she continues.

“So, we see Talarico, this theme over and over again, that he really uses God as a mascot, as a means to advance his political ends,” she says, before showing a clip of Talarico turning a sermon at a local church in Austin into “some kind of political stump speech about transgenderism and abortion.”

“This summer, more than half our population became second-class citizens. Every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state. And nothing, nothing is more un-Christian than that,” Talarico said.

“I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care too. Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day at the state Capitol. And you better believe I’ll be giving sermons on that too,” he continued.

“So, when I use the word ‘woman,’ it should not be understood as an exhaustive term but rather as a lens through which to understand, examine, and interrogate patriarchy,” he added.

“So, right there he gives us three positions that a Democrat of even 10 years ago would not have dared to represent publicly. One, that’s its normal and even moral to switch sexes, that it’s possible to actually switch sexes, and that it is important that people who do switch sexes, especially people who identify as so-called trans men, are able to have a taxpayer-funded right to kill their baby inside the womb,” Stuckey comments.

Stuckey also points out that by referring to women as “neighbors with a uterus” he is reducing “what a woman is into her just biological capacity” and “reproductive organs.”

And in an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last year, Talarico also claimed that the Bible supports abortion because of the story of Jesus being conceived.

“I say all this in terms of, in context of abortion, because before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary’s consent, which is remarkable. … She says, ‘If it is God’s will, let it be done. Let it be. Let it happen,’” Talarico told Rogan.

“So, to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent,” he added.

Not only does Stuckey refute his rendering of the story, she explains that Mary is “not actually consenting to that.”

“It’s not like a choice that she is making here. She simply is accepting the present reality, what God commands in that moment,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, James talarico, Satan, Good vs evil, Abortion, Transgenderism, Abortion rights, Trans rights, The bible, Religion, Christianity 

When the news broke that President Trump followed through on his promise to bar taxpayer-funded gender surgeries in federal prisons, the coverage quickly pivoted to one question: How will this affect transgender-identifying inmates?

As a former inmate — I served five years at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla — I kept thinking about the people the headlines keep skipping: the women forced to endure confinement while male inmates encroach on their privacy.

Women in prison deserve the dignity to heal without being sacrificed to an ideology.

After I did my time, I re-entered civil society and founded a nonprofit to help women build sustainable lives after prison. Not long after I got out, women still inside California’s prison system began calling me with alarming reports: Administrators were moving men into women’s prisons.

At first, I couldn’t believe it. No sane person should view placing males in a women’s prison as a “compassionate” policy. It only makes sense if you ignore what prison actually is — or if you want to impose a sinister ideology no matter who gets hurt.

Some of these males claim a female identity because women’s prisons tend to be less violent than men’s prisons. In some cases, they don’t even claim to be women. They claim to be “nonbinary” and gain admission anyway. These men do not always come with minor offenses or nonviolent histories. Some are rapists. Some are child molesters. Some committed brutal, unthinkable crimes.

For years, Bureau of Prisons policies on transgender health care moved forward with little acknowledgment of the harm they impose on incarcerated women. Women like me watched administrators apply sweeping ideological rules to an environment where the stakes involve physical safety, privacy, and survival.

Under the approach that dominated the last several years, officials treated the feelings and demands of men as more important than the safety and dignity of the women forced to live beside them.

Prison has never been, and never will be, a place for “one-size-fits-all” social experiments. Every decision inside a facility affects real human beings in extremely close quarters. Housing assignments, medical decisions, and institutional accommodations cannot follow slogans or pressure campaigns from outside groups. They must prioritize the safety and well-being of the people who live there.

Anyone who has lived inside prison understands how this plays out on the ground. Women cannot leave their cells without permission. They cannot lock their own doors. They cannot choose their cellmates. They shower under supervision, change clothes in shared spaces, and sleep just feet away from strangers. Many entered prison after surviving domestic violence, sexual assault, or trafficking.

Where is the compassion for those women — women trying to rehabilitate while they relive their trauma?

The system has told them, again and again, that their trauma doesn’t matter, their fear doesn’t matter, and their right to privacy doesn’t matter. Instead, officials tell them to prioritize the identity claims of men. Give an inch and the activists will take a mile — especially when you put men with histories of violence against women and children into living arrangements that involve showers, sleeping quarters, and constant proximity.

RELATED: Groomed for violence? The dark world of furries and transgenderism in America’s classrooms

Blaze News Illustration

President Trump’s executive order barring taxpayer-funded gender surgeries in federal prisons signals a shift away from treating prisons like laboratories for social experimentation. The order supports women and supports safety.

For incarcerated women, it means they no longer have to watch men receive treatments and accommodations designed to make them “feel like a woman,” while the women themselves lose basic standards of privacy and dignity the moment they enter custody.

Incarcerated people deserve humane treatment. That includes access to medical care, mental health care, and dignity.

But dignity cannot mean denying reality.

If you’ve lived behind the walls, you know what the outside world often forgets: These policies shape the daily lives of thousands of women. Their chance at rehabilitation suffers when officials force them to live in fear, relive trauma, and navigate needless threats of real violence. Women in prison deserve the dignity to heal without being sacrificed to an ideology.

​Opinion & analysis, Men and women, Transgender agenda, Transgender ideology, Women’s prisons, Men in womens spaces, Donald trump, Executive order, Compassionate care, Federal prison, Law and order, Abuse, Chowchilla, Liberal media bias 

Brady Boyd became the senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2007 after serving six years as associate senior pastor and elder at the Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. Elders at the church forced Boyd out last year after it became clear that he had misled his congregation about what he knew about Gateway Church founder Robert Morris’ sexual abuse of a child.

Apparently betting on Coloradans to forgive and/or forget, Boyd is launching services nearby.

Background

Cindy Clemishire came forward in 2024 accusing Morris of molesting her when she was a child.

‘I am qualified for ministry.’

Morris initially downplayed his interactions with Clemishire as “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” that was limited to “kissing and petting.” Clemishire contradicted Morris, suggesting that the pastor starting abusing her when she was 12 years old and continued doing so for roughly five years.

Days after Clemishire’s public accusation went viral, the church’s elders announced that they had accepted Morris’ resignation.

In October, several months after his indictment on child sexual battery charges, Morris pleaded guilty to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.

Boyd could not escape the fallout from Morris’ sex abuse scandal.

Boyd — who took over as senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2007 after its former pastor, Ted Haggard, resigned over allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a male prostitute and abused methamphetamine — claimed until 2024 that he was unaware that Clemishire was 12 when Morris started molesting her, the Board of Elders of New Life Church said in a June 22, 2025, statement.

RELATED: WATCH: Talarico self-owns when he warns fascism will ‘be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross’

Brady Boyd with former President George W. Bush in 2008. Craig F. Walker/Denver Post/Getty Images

“We believe that to be inaccurate,” continued the statement. “Brady also made statements in his public address to the congregation on June 8 that the Board of Elders knows to be inaccurate.”

On June 8, Boyd told members of his church that he had no previous knowledge of the allegations against Morris and portrayed himself as a victim of Morris’ deception. Court documents suggest, however, that he had some idea of the claims against his associate by late August 2007.

While acknowledging that “Brady had nothing at all to do with Robert Morris’ past abuse,” the elders claimed Boyd did mislead his flock.

“We believe that trust is the currency of leadership,” wrote the Board of Elders. “When Brady recently told our congregation, inaccurately, that he was unaware of certain details regarding Morris’ past abuse, trust was broken, and we, the Board of Elders, asked Brady to resign.”

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

New life

Within weeks of his resignation, Boyd launched a donation-collecting faith-themed organization called Psalm 68 Ministries, which he said in a July 22, 2025, post would “be operating under the authority of the elders of Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo, TX.” Months later, he began a weekly sermon podcast.

Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Late last month, Boyd and his wife, Pam, announced in-person services in the same commercial area of northern Colorado Springs.

“We believe we are still called to pastor in Colorado Springs. We received this mandate 18 years ago, and the calling has only grown stronger,” said the announcement. “After careful prayer and discussions with trusted counselors and friends, we feel led to start a Wednesday night church service in Colorado Springs that will focus on some simple, but powerful ideas. We’ll pray together, study the Scriptures together, share the Lord’s Table, and enjoy fellowship with each other.”

Boyd provided a reminder on March 11, writing, “In one week, we will gather and we cannot wait to see all of you at 6:30 at the Phil Long Music Hall.”

When asked whether the new services constitute church services, Boyd told ChurchLeaders, “We are going to worship, study the scriptures, receive communion, and pray. This is not a church plant.”

Responding to skepticism about whether he should continue in ministry, Boyd said, “Everyone in my trusted circle of pastors and advisers agrees wholeheartedly that I am qualified for ministry.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Faith, Megachurch, Robert morris, Morris, Clemishire, Brady boyd, Sexual abuse, Child sex abuse, Abuse, Church, Colorado, Colorado springs, Gateway church, New life church, Politics 

President Donald Trump’s lawyers are demanding the release of all communications between Michael Cohen and New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office after Cohen claims he was “compelled and coerced” to testify against Trump.

Cohen, Trump’s former attorney who testified against the president twice, published an article on his Substack in mid-January titled “When Politics Blind Justice.” In this piece, Cohen described how government lawyers made him the “key witness” in two cases against Trump.

‘In sum, the NYAG is blocking any discovery into, and possibly even preservation of, evidence of the “pressured and coerced” testimony that it used to convince the trial court to enter a wrongful judgment against Defendants.’

“From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office in connection with their investigations of President Trump, and through the trials themselves, I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” Cohen wrote.

He stated that prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office first approached him in 2019. At that time, Cohen was serving a three-year prison sentence, and he “wanted to do whatever” he could to return home to his family and resume his life. Cohen acknowledged that one of the first questions he posed to prosecutors was how he would benefit from cooperating with them.

He was released in September 2020 and permitted to serve out the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.

“After my release, I continued to meet with prosecutors and hoped that, in exchange for my cooperation, my home confinement and later my supervised release sentence would be shortened,” Cohen wrote. “During my time with prosecutors, both in preparation for and during the trials, it was clear they were interested only in testimony from me that would enable them to convict President Trump.”

He claimed that prosecutors asked “inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative.”

RELATED: Democratic lawmaker texted Epstein during hearing — appeared to use his tips to grill Trump’s ex-lawyer

Alvin Bragg. Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Cohen described a similar experience with Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case against Trump.

“Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump,” Cohen continued. “Her office made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony that would help them do just that. Again, I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking.”

He accused James and Bragg of sharing “the same playbook” and sacrificing their credibility by blurring “the line between justice and politics.”

“You may reasonably ask why I am speaking out now. The answer is simple. I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative,” Cohen added.

A mid-level appeals court in August threw out James’ $454 million penalty against Trump, which grew to $500 million with interest. James appealed that decision in September.

In Bragg’s case, Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts in 2024. However, he received an unconditional discharge, meaning that while the convictions stand, he did not face any punishment. Trump has since filed an appeal to have those convictions removed from his record.

RELATED: Trump felony conviction in doubt? President files appeal to clear his name

Letitia James. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

On Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys sent a demand letter to James’ office, requesting all records of communications with Cohen, the New York Post reported. It is unclear whether a similar request was made to Bragg’s office.

Trump’s attorneys argued that Cohen’s communications with James’ prosecutors “would have been vital for Defendants to use in crossexamining” him during the trial, according to the news outlet. They claimed that her office “never produced any of the Cohen Records concerning its meetings with Cohen about President Trump and his businesses, despite Defendants’ documented demands that the NYAG do so.”

“In emails and a meet-and-confer, the NYAG has taken the untenable position that (i) the NYAG ‘doesn’t know’ whether such Cohen Records exist (i.e., it has no idea whether it has records of its communications with its key witness); (ii) the NYAG will not even take a short amount of time to determine whether it possesses any Cohen Records, apparently because, in the NYAG’s mistaken view, discovery is over,” Trump’s attorneys wrote, the Post reported.

They expressed concern that these records may be “automatically deleted and purged,” as James has been “unwilling to take any steps to confirm whether such Cohen Records are being preserved.”

“In sum, the NYAG is blocking any discovery into, and possibly even preservation of, evidence of the ‘pressured and coerced’ testimony that it used to convince the trial court to enter a wrongful judgment against Defendants,” Trump’s lawyers added.

James’ and Bragg’s offices did not respond to a request for comment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Donald trump, Trump, Trump tracking, Trump trials, Alvin bragg, Letitia james, New york city, Nyc, Michael cohen, Manhattan, Politics 

Friday morning, I listened to a Pentagon briefing about the Strait of Hormuz. A reporter pressed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for clarity. What exactly was happening? What would the outcome be? How would this end?

General Dan Caine paused and offered a phrase that struck me immediately. He said the region was “a tactically complex environment.”

In a tactically complex environment, certainty about outcomes is rarely available. Clarity about the mission remains essential.

The military has a way of compressing enormous realities into a few calm words. Geography, enemy capability, shipping lanes, alliances, timing, logistics, unintended consequences. All of it folded into one sentence.

“A tactically complex environment” was not the answer the press wanted.

Reporters are trained to extract certainty, preferably in a sentence short enough to fit beneath a television chyron. A clean headline. A confident prediction. Something that sounds definitive before the next commercial break.

But responsible leaders know something the press room often does not. In environments like that, certainty is rarely available. Mission clarity is.

The Navy does not control the currents in the Strait of Hormuz. It cannot control every ship moving through that narrow passage or every decision made in Tehran. What it can control is the mission. Protect shipping. Maintain security. Avoid escalation when possible. Respond when necessary.

Clarity of mission matters more than clarity of outcome.

Listening to that exchange, I thought about how often life itself unfolds inside tactically complex environments.

A late-night conversation with a doctor where the scans are clear but the future is not.

A family meeting where emotions, responsibilities, and competing opinions collide in ways no one quite knows how to resolve.

A business decision where every option carries consequences that may not become visible for months or even years.

RELATED: After Rush Limbaugh, conservatives stopped listening together

Photo by John Medina/WireImage

In moments like those, people instinctively search for certainty. We want someone to tell us exactly how things will turn out.

But history has never offered that luxury.

During COVID, nearly every commercial began with the same solemn line: “During these uncertain times.”

I remember thinking, when exactly were times certain?

Wars have always been uncertain. Medicine has always involved risk. Markets rise and fall. Families face crises. The human story has never been a tidy script where outcomes are guaranteed.

Yet we keep demanding certainty anyway.

We demand it from generals.

We demand it from doctors.

We demand it from politicians.

And, if we are honest, we often demand it from God.

The Bible records that struggle with remarkable honesty. The Psalms repeatedly ask the same aching question: “How long, O Lord?”

Not from skeptics, but from believers. From men who trusted God and still found themselves standing in the middle of circumstances they could not fully understand.

Scripture does not hide that tension. It reveals it.

Faith does not remove complexity. It teaches us how to live within it.

The Bible does offer assurance about the final outcome of God’s purposes. But it rarely provides advance clarity about how today’s circumstances will unfold. The pain, confusion, and pressure of the present moment are not automatically lifted.

What Scripture does provide, again and again, is clarity about calling.

Love the Lord your God. Love your neighbor. Do justice. Walk humbly. Be faithful.

Those instructions remain clear even when circumstances are not.

Perhaps that is why General Caine’s phrase lingered with me.

“A tactically complex environment.”

Recognizing that reality does not solve every problem. But it does something important. It resets our expectations and reminds us that life is rarely as simple as the people shouting from the sidelines insist. Once that becomes clear, the insistence on certainty begins to fade.

Instead of demanding guarantees no one can provide, we begin asking the question that actually guides wise decisions.

What is the mission?

In a tactically complex environment, certainty about outcomes is rarely available. Clarity about the mission remains essential.

​Complex situation, Honesty, Responsibility, Clarity of mission, Focus, Scripture, Iran, Opinion & analysis, Dan caine, Pentagon, Department of war, Caregiving 

The cornerstone of the Christian faith — the supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ — isn’t just a theological claim found in Scripture. An abundance of evidence tied to this miraculous event exists in historical records and relics.

On this episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace speaks with scholar Jeremiah Johnston, author of the recent book “The Jesus Discoveries,” to discuss some of the most fascinating discoveries connected to the life and crucifixion of Christ.

Johnston opens the conversation by displaying an exact replica of the “Codex Vaticanus” — “the oldest, most priceless Bible that we have,” he says, noting that “it was produced in 330 A.D.,” just five years after the Council of Nicea in 325.

“It’s in Greek, has the Old and most of the New Testament inside of it, has the mountaintop passages of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Gospels, Paul’s epistles … and this is amazing because, again, it shows the great history of our faith,” he adds.

The second artifact Johnston displays is not a replica but an actual “crucifixion nail” from ancient Rome. The 6” square shaft is bent, he says, because the Romans, wanting to “minimize movement but … maximize torment,” would “adjust the nail” during a crucifixion.

“This [nail] shows us that the archaeological testimony of what we read of how Jesus was crucified smacks of complete authenticity,” Johnston exclaims.

The third piece of evidence he displays is an image of an inscribed chalice — often referred to as the “Magician’s Cup” — that was discovered by renowned underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio during excavations in the submerged ancient city of Alexandra in the Egyptian Nile Delta in 2008.

“This is the first archaeological find that we have with the name of Jesus on it,” says Johnston.

The cup reads, “Through Christ the Enchanter.” Johnston explains the meaning behind the phrase: “Remember your Gospels. Jesus is made famous, first and foremost, before his resurrection because he could heal diseases; he could exorcise demons; and no one was more effective than Jesus. So even all around the Mediterranean world, people realize, ‘Hey, if I insert this name Jesus, powerful things happen.’”

Johnston’s book chronicles the top 10 historical discoveries that “prove and corroborate the truth claims of Christianity,” but even those examples just scratch the surface.

“It turns out that we can actually build 65 facts about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus before I ever crack open the Bible,” he says.

“If we can’t believe that Jesus died and rose again based on the evidence, then please don’t believe that Caesar crossed the Rubicon, because we have more evidence for the resurrection than we do for Caesar crossing the Rubicon.”

To hear more of Deace and Johnston’s conversation, watch the video above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Steve deace, Steve deace show, Jeremiah johnston, Shroud of turin, Codex vaticanus, Blazetv, Blaze media, Jesus, Christianity, Resurrection 

The Bible is pretty straightforward about the most important command Christians have in regard to one another. It sounds so simple: Love one another.

When you want to really accomplish something for the kingdom, a very small discipleship group is an effective tool.

And yet it doesn’t seem so simple, perhaps. Where can we go for practical instruction on how to do this right?

I think a good place to start might just be the very first church.

It perhaps is a bit presumptuous to assume that we are in the “later” days of the church age — the church age being defined as the period between Christ’s ascension and His return. But aren’t there an awful lot of signals that we’re getting closer?

So for my purposes here, I’m going to call us — Christians on the earth today — the “late church,” as opposed to the early church, the first believers described in the book of Acts.

How are we doing compared to our brethren of 2,000 years ago? It’s a topic worth considering, since their example shines brightly for us.

They lived in an upside-down culture characterized by sin, idolatry, despair, pride, hatred, division, and societal expectations completely at odds with Jesus’ teaching. Sound familiar?

But they had it far worse than most of us in the Western world today. Thus far our culture hasn’t quite devolved into killing humans for entertainment on a regular basis.

Meet your oldest brothers and sisters

The very first report we have resulted from the day of Pentecost, when 3,000 souls joined God’s family in Jerusalem:

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. —Acts 2:42

“They were continually” indicates this became a pattern, so let’s break down how they were devoting themselves.

1. They were gathering together to hear teaching

At that point, there was no New Testament, so the apostles — men who had had personal contact with Jesus Christ — were directly sharing Christ’s teaching with His new children.

The apostles were also explaining how Christ fulfilled the scriptures they did have (the Old Testament), and helping the new believers understand how to imitate Him and be part of His family. Eventually these early believers became the first to hear the New Testament writings, as many were letters to their various congregations.

We no longer have apostles, but we do have the books the Holy Spirit inspired them to write that became the New Testament. Hearing all the scriptural teaching is of primary importance. Then, as now, God’s word should be the focal point of any good church.

2. They were fellowshipping, gathering together physically

Of course these days you can hear the word preached while sitting on your sofa — but they were gathering together physically. Plenty of scripture backs that up as a commandment we are to follow (Hebrews 10:24-25, Colossians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 14:26, to name a few).

How are we doing on that, Late Church? Are we still sitting on the sofa six years after COVID?

Fellowshipping — of course — is meant to be done in person.

Food for thought: Should churches stop sharing their worship services online? What are the pros and cons of continuing to make it easy for people to “do church” from home? I’m not sure of the answers, but I think the question is worth contemplating.

3. They were eating together

A couple of verses after describing Pentecost, Acts expands its description of the new believers’ day-to-day existence:

And daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. —Acts 2:46

So they weren’t just taking Communion (which is likely what verse 42 referred to), but after meeting together in the temple, they were breaking into smaller groups and going from house to house, sharing meals (gladly!).

4. They were praying together

Praying together, the last thing on this list, could well have meant larger corporate prayer — but likely also meant smaller groups praying together. This is the only way, logistically, that thousands of people can pray together meaningfully for each other. They have to break into small groups.

How are we doing on smaller, accountable groups of fellow believers, Late Church?

Unless your church is very tiny, you need a smaller group of believers to live out these excellent examples of eating and praying together in each other’s homes, as well as digging deeper into scripture, meeting each others’ needs, and providing and obtaining accountability.

But just because something is called a small group doesn’t mean it is. Some churches just throw everyone into a few Sunday-school classrooms each week and call it good. Others offer groups that are far too large for the kind of one-on-one accountability and care that a true small group provides.

RELATED: Reclaiming Pentecost: Fire, spirit, and the forgotten power of God

sedmak/iStock/Getty Images

A dozen does it

Jesus demonstrated that a very effective size for a small group is a dozen. That’s about the right size for fellowship where we get to know and trust one another well enough to pray for each other, know each other’s needs, and literally show love for one another. And with that number, you might even be able to meet — and eat — in each other’s homes.

My friend Pastor Sam Evans says the smaller the group, the greater the growth — and some churches understand this and encourage very small discipleship groups of two or three individuals (same-sex, usually, so that they can be intimately acquainted). This too is a pattern Jesus demonstrated with His “discipleship” group of just three disciples — the three He met with even more often: Peter, James, and John. When you want to really accomplish something for the kingdom, a very small discipleship group is an effective tool.

Our early brothers and sisters were easy to spot

Author Kristi McLelland notes that the early Christians were easy to spot because they refused to participate in that upside-down culture of their time.

First, they refused to worship the emperor or other gods — which meant they were branded as heretics because Roman emperors were to be worshipped as gods. Instead, they stood as committed followers of Jesus Christ.

How are we doing on worshipping what the world worships, Late Church?

Sports, politics, celebrities — any of that too high on our priority list? Too much of our budget?

Second, they revered life, in a culture that routinely abandoned newborn babies to die (often girls). Instead, they rescued and raised those children.

How are we doing on issues related to life, Late Church?Do we understand why it is always wrong to kill an unborn child, or do we waffle on that to be seen as more “center”?Do we support pro-life centers and causes?Do we reach out to help vulnerable young mothers, foster kids, kids who need a permanent home?Are our churches filled with families who have adopted at-risk kids?Do we speak out against societal trends, like gay marriage, that put adult desires ahead of children’s needs?Do we speak out against the destruction of innocent life in any form?Are we willing to risk being jailed, as we have seen happen to some pro-life activists?

Third, they ignored the ironclad stratifications of Roman society. Christians who were nobility fellowshipped and ate with Christians who were slaves.

How are we doing on true inclusiveness, Late Church?Do we ignore the boundaries that some mistakenly promote and reach out to individuals at their point of need?

Fourth, they gave generously, although many suffered significant financial loss as a result of becoming a Jesus-follower. They sold their belongings and shared so that “there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34).

How are we doing on generosity, Late Church?Do we buy in to the culture’s message that we deserve that new car, fancy vacation, or remodel of a home that’s practically new, or do we want to seek to help our fellow believers?Do we see the world’s needs through God’s eyes, remembering that everything we have comes from Him, and give accordingly?

Finally, they not only lost livelihoods, they often lost their lives.

Late Church, are we willing to lose our wealth — our freedom — our lives for the cross?

They were, and they did. Not one of them was perfect, just like we are not perfect. But shouldn’t we all work harder at engaging with the “late world” the way they engaged with the “early world” — while we still have the time?

BONUS RESOURCE

If your heart was stirred by the description of the early church here, you might want to consider a new church undertaking, if there’s one of these near you. Church Project is a church, and a project, aimed at building local church communities that mirror the early church, along the lines of the descriptions above.

A version of this essay previously appeared at She Speaks Truth.

​Pentecost, The early church, Bible, Christianity, Christian fellowship, Christian living, Prayer, Jesus christ, Lifestyle, Faith 

Apple has had a hard time lately with critical exploits plaguing iPhones all around the world. In mid-February, Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered a critical zero-day vulnerability in Apple’s iOS software that gave hackers full control of a “small subset” of targeted iPhones. This month, reports revealed that an entire exploit tool kit has been successfully used by hackers in Russia and China. The worst part is that mounting evidence suggests the kit came from the United States, possibly even from our very own government.

Chock-full of vulnerabilities

According to Google’s full report, the exploit tool kit — dubbed Coruna — consists of five exploit chains and 23 exploits in total, all targeted at iPhones running iOS 13 to iOS 17.2.1. Mobile security experts at iVerify corroborated the report, claiming that 42,000 iPhones were affected.

Are there more zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS that we don’t know about? Almost certainly yes.

An exploit chain is the path a hacker can use to bypass a device’s security controls via exploits to gain access. In other words, if your phone’s software was a map, an exploit chain is the route a driver could take through different toll areas to reach the final destination. Even one exploit chain — or route — is enough to break into a device, but the fact that five routes exist within Coruna makes it a sophisticated hacking resource unlike anything security researchers have seen on iOS.

Google notes that Coruna has already been exploited by a “customer of a surveillance company,” as well as foreign nations, namely China and Russia. More alarming than that, however, “multiple threat actors” have also gained access to exploit techniques that can be customized to leverage new and unknown vulnerabilities for future attacks.

Image credit: Google

Where did Coruna come from?

Now that Coruna is out in the open, it only makes sense to wonder where it came from. Its sophisticated nature makes it highly unlikely that an independent hacker threw it together. Instead, several pieces of evidence point toward government intervention.

For starters, the tool kit’s source materials are all written in native English, suggesting English origins. Second, two of the exploits in the chain are linked directly to Operation Triangulation, a hardware vulnerability discovered in Apple’s first-party processing chips by Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky. Russian government officials blamed the NSA for this exploit back in 2023, but the U.S. government denied any connection.

Third, iVerify’s co-founder and COO, Rocky Cole, reportedly called Coruna’s code “superb,” going on to state, “It was elegantly written. It’s fluid and holds together very well. There were comments in the code that, as someone who’s been around the U.S. defense industrial base for years, really are reminiscent of the sort of insider jokes and insider remarks that you might see from a U.S. based coder. Certainly they were native English language speakers.”

For what it’s worth, Kaspersky recently denied that Coruna is linked to the NSA, despite the evidence outlined above. Regardless of the tool kit’s origin, researchers are unsure how it made it into the hands of foreign entities.

RELATED: Apple issues a critical software update for iPhone. Install it now!

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Bigger signs of Apple’s compromised security

Apple’s iOS mobile platform is notoriously hard for hackers to crack, thanks to its closed nature, often frustrating U.S. criminal investigation agencies with its strong end-to-end encryption practices. The Coruna tool kit, however, changes everything. It’s the biggest collection of exploits to hit iOS since its inception in 2007. It’s also part of a growing trend that undermines Apple’s once-impenetrable software security and privacy protocols.

Just last month, Apple released iOS 26.3 to patch a critical zero-day vulnerability dubbed CVE-2026-20700. Although this remains to be a major threat to iPhone users, this exploit is not part of the Coruna tool kit. These are completely independent issues. Are there more zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS that we don’t know about? Almost certainly yes.

Tips to secure your device

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. As software vulnerabilities become more prevalent, the best way to keep your devices safe and secure is to make sure you always have the latest iOS updates downloaded and installed on your phone, tablet, and laptop.

The exploits in the Coruna tool kit that plagued iOS 13 through 17.2.1, as well as CVE-2026-20700 for iOS 26, have all been patched. If you haven’t updated your iPhone to the newest software, or if you’re not sure which version you have, check for updates by opening the Settings app. Then go to General, Software Update, and make sure you’re on one of these versions, depending on your phone’s model:

iOS 26.3.1 (iPhone 11 and up);iOS 18.7.5 (Phone XS, XS Max, and XR);iOS 16.7.14 (iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X);iOS 15.8.6 (iPhone 6s and 7); oriOS 12.5.8 (iPhone 5s, 6, 6 Plus).

If you want even more protection from exploits and vulnerabilities, you can secure your private data with Apple’s Advanced Data Protection built directly into iCloud. Then for maximum protection, Apple offers Lockdown Mode, though this feature isn’t meant for everybody. Since it will ultimately restrict many of the features and functions of your device, it’s only meant for high-profile cyber-criminal targets like politicians, celebrities, and investigative journalists.

​Tech, Ios exploit, Iphone, Coruna, Cybersecurity, Operation triangulation, Kaspersky 

Events surrounding Iran’s women’s national soccer team continue to attract global attention. It started when the players refused to sing the national anthem before their opening match against South Korea at the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia — a silent protest that sparked backlash from Iranian officials, who labeled them “wartime traitors,” leading to fears for the women’s safety upon their return.

After the team was eliminated from the tournament, tensions escalated dramatically. Several players escaped team monitoring and sought asylum. Australia granted humanitarian visas to several of the players, allowing them to remain permanently.

But Glenn Beck says there’s a part two to this tragic story the mainstream media is neglecting: the aftermath in Iran.

While some stayed in Australia, several of the players bravely chose to return home.

“Those girls now live under a cloud they didn’t create,” Glenn says, “and the authorities are going to ask them questions. Security services are going to conduct interviews that might last hours or days. None of them sang the national anthem, so they’re all traitors to the regime.”

And then there’s the families of the players to consider.

“Sources say now that in Iran, families find themselves under quiet surveillance. Reports now speculate that some family members may have already been arrested, detained, or questioned,” Glenn says.

“Authoritarian systems protect themselves through pressure, and that pressure spreads outward from any act of defiance. One athlete leaves — the regime has to remind everyone else there’s a cost,” he adds.

That pressure to maintain control is higher than ever right now as the foundations of the regime begin to falter.

“Women are refusing the hijab. Students are marching through the universities. Workers are striking in oil fields and factories, and now athletes, people chosen to represent the nation itself, decide freedom is worth more than the career they were given,” Glenn says.

All it takes is “a few people [stepping] outside the lines” for the masses to realize that “the walls surrounding them might not be so permanent after all,” he says.

“Young girls all across the country will hear about it for decades. They’ll understand exactly what those players risked and exactly why they did it, and somewhere — maybe among the next generation of women — they’ll decide that life under the Islamic Republic is no longer the only future available. And that is how real change begins,” he adds.

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Iranian women’s soccer team, Iran, Blazetv, Blaze media, Iranian regime 

It used to feel good to be a Democrat in California.

Emphasis on used to — and President Trump’s recent State of the Union address illuminated exactly why I left the party.

California is not failing because it cares too much. It is failing because it confuses caring with governing.

In Silicon Valley, voting blue often feels like the default setting.

In many professional circles, especially in technology and venture communities, political alignment is assumed. Fundraisers double as social gatherings.

It feels compassionate, enlightened, on the right side of history.

But that night, the president challenged any member of Congress to stand who believes that the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Shockingly, Democrats remained seated, providing a stunning visual of the current values of the Democratic Party.

What changed my mind was not the rhetoric. It was the outcomes. California is the glaring example of the failure of liberal policies.

Three areas illustrate the pattern.

Elections: Confidence is a safeguard

California does not require photo identification to vote in person. A voter provides a name and address and signs the roster. More than 30 states require some form of voter ID, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Countries such as Canada, France, and Germany require identification to vote. A 2023 Gallup poll found roughly three-quarters of Americans support requiring photo identification at the polls, including majorities across party lines.

Even if large-scale fraud is difficult to quantify, administrative failures and inconsistent verification practices fuel public doubt. Visible safeguards deter misconduct and preserve confidence in the system.

When California Democrats treat voter ID as ideological heresy, they weaken the legitimacy of the system they claim to defend.

Family: When the state becomes the decision-maker

Under California law, minors ages 12 and older may consent to certain mental health services without parental notification if deemed mature enough by a provider. State law also allows minors to access reproductive health services confidentially. Recent legislation has expanded confidentiality protections in sensitive areas.

The justification is protection, but the effect is state supremacy in decisions that belong to parents.

The Supreme Court has long recognized parental rights as fundamental. Family authority is the first layer of civil society.

When the state positions itself as the confidential decision-maker in significant medical and psychological matters involving minors, it undermines that sovereignty.

It is not compassionate to expand state authority at the expense of parental sovereignty. It is government overreach into the most intimate sphere of civil society. As the co-founders of Moms for Liberty have put it, “We do not co-parent with the government.”

Compassion cannot justify dissolving the family as the primary unit of accountability.

Fiscal reality: Math still applies

California’s budget rests on a narrow and volatile base. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has documented that the top 1% of earners account for close to half of the state’s personal income tax revenue. That revenue is heavily tied to capital gains and is therefore inherently unstable.

Instead of broadening and stabilizing that base, state leadership has repeatedly targeted it. Wealth-based tax proposals focus on the very taxpayers who fund a disproportionate share of state commitments. Capital is mobile. IRS data shows sustained net out-migration of high-income households from California to states such as Texas and Florida over the past decade.

Then comes execution.

California’s high-speed rail project, approved in 2008 at an estimated $33 billion, is now projected to exceed $100 billion and remains incomplete. Florida, by contrast, expanded Brightline passenger rail through a public-private partnership model that attracted private capital and delivered major segments on time.

Between 2019 and 2023, California spent roughly $24 billion on homelessness programs. During that same period, homelessness rose statewide. In 2024, the California state auditor found the state failed to consistently track whether billions in spending produced measurable results.

The pattern is simple.

Spend expansively. Measure loosely. Promise morally. Deliver inconsistently.

The issue is not the stated goals, but the absence of discipline.

In each case, the rhetoric was noble, and the result was dysfunction.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom’s California is looting Medicaid in broad daylight

Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images

This is the governing model Kamala Harris rose within and that Gavin Newsom refined over time. Not because they lack intelligence, but because the system they represent rewards virtue-signaling over measurable performance. It resists basic electoral safeguards despite broad public support. It expands state authority into the family. It builds budgets on volatile revenue while accelerating out-migration. It spends billions without demanding outcome verification.

If that framework scales nationally, the consequences will be dire.

I did not leave the Democratic Party because I stopped caring about vulnerable people. I left because I care about institutional durability. Compassion matters. But governing requires discipline. California is not failing because it cares too much. It is failing because it confuses caring with governing. Compassion without competence becomes institutional rot.

If you are a Democrat in California who feels uneasy but cannot quite articulate why, I understand. I defended the language long after I stopped believing in the results. At some point, loyalty to outcomes must matter more than loyalty to a label. It did for me.

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

​California, California democrats, Gavin newsom, Right side of history, Voter id, Democrats, Radical left, High speed rail, Democratic party, Opinion & analysis, Compassion, Discipline, Illegal aliens, Immigration, Law and order, Budget, Technology, Silicon valley, Family, Education 

A police standoff at a children’s hospital ended tragically Thursday morning, but new, bizarre details about the story have emerged.

Dallas police were conducting an investigation into a man who had an active warrant. They followed him into the parking garage of Children’s Health hospital late at night.

‘He had a gun. He pointed a gun towards officers.’

Police say the man, known as Mike King, went into the parking garage, barricaded himself inside a vehicle, and refused to come out. According to Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux, at that time, police used tear gas to get the suspect out of the vehicle.

“He came out of the vehicle; he had a gun. He pointed a gun towards officers. Officers shot and fired,” Comeaux said, per KDFW.

SWAT medical services attempted to render aid, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect reportedly only displayed his gun but did not fire it, and no officers were injured.

It has since been revealed that the man is a longtime member of Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s security detail, pictured with her at several events.

RELATED: Democrats swapped Crockett’s preening for Talarico’s pulpit — and it worked

KTVT showed a payment receipt for a “King, Mike” for $340 on March 28, 2025, for “security services,” allegedly from Crockett. The outlet also showed several images of King standing near Crockett, seemingly as part of her security detail at several events.

The man was wanted by police for impersonating law enforcement officers. He also allegedly drove a replica undercover police vehicle, while using license plates that were allegedly stolen from cars outside a military recruiting office.

According to CBS News, Mike King is not the suspect’s real name, and he had been using several different aliases while conducting his business, which was called Off Duty Police Services. The online platform connected North Texas police officers with off-duty work.

RELATED: ‘An unhealthy obsession’: James Talarico praises trans children as ‘perfect’ and ‘sacred’

Photographer: Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images

According to CBS News’ inside sources, the man also had a previous criminal background.

Rep. Crockett’s office has declined to comment on multiple reports. Blaze News has requested comment from Crockett. This article will be updated with any applicable responses.

Police have not released the man’s real name.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Crime, Texas, Dallas, Swat, Democrats, Jasmine crockett, Police, Politics 

A new paper finds that LLMs bend toward imitation, non-creation, and, despite requests for fresh takes, put out derivative conclusions.

The paper has some AI observers surprised, while others scramble for explanations. Simply put, the models trained on finite datasets could not originate anything of their own. Worse, all the models, whatever their external or corporate differences, wound up spewing almost the same results. The differences in input, apparently, made little difference in output.

“This research reveals a critical limitation in large language models,” said Yulia Tsvetkov, a lead researcher and author of the study. “Despite their diversity of architectures and training approaches, LLMs produce strikingly homogeneous outputs on open-ended queries, a phenomenon we termed the ‘artificial hivemind.’”

The limitations of the LLMs are baked into the facts of silicon and spirit.

“Hive mind,” believe it or not, is being generous. The LLMs cannot synch in the telepathic sense we attribute to honeybees or ants. All they are capable of is recursion, rehashing their inputs. There is no reflection but that which has been entrained to the models. No wonder they all sound the same.

The group of researchers working at various academic centers, including the Paul Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford University, trained approximately 70 different LLM models on a dataset they dubbed “INFINITY-CHAT.”

The researchers posed 26,000 open-ended questions to the LLMs , breaking out “the different queries that users pose to language models into six high-level categories and 17 fine-grained subcategories such as problem solving or speculative and hypothetical scenarios,” according to their report. “Of the high-level categories, creative content generation (58%) and brainstorming and ideation (15.2%) were among some of the most common — emphasizing users’ reliance on LLMs for direct inspiration and thought.”

There’s another disturbing angle we might consider.

The limitations of the LLMs are baked into the facts of silicon and spirit. Their limitations are unalterable, and they will never achieve “consciousness,” merely simulating it at most. We shouldn’t expect much in terms of pure creativity. But what about the nutritive and psychic value of the material upon which the models were trained? Is part of the problem highlighted in the “Hivemind” study due to the human-made material upon which they were trained?

RELATED: Shock report reveals just how much Gen Zers and Millennials dislike AI

Sakorn Sukkasemsakorn/Getty Images

A particular post on X.com flagged this study. It’s no exaggeration, nor is it meant to disparage the poster, as certainly he is simply following the incentives of our financialized social media conditions, but the post itself reads like LLM-speak. It uses the now-typical “it’s not A, it’s B” turn of phrase so often repeated by AI and those humans interacting with AI.

This effect of humans sinking into lexigraphical and semantic patterns displayed by LLMs was highlighted in another recent study, “Homogenizing effect of large language models on creative diversity.” “While LLMs can produce creative content that might be as good as or even better than human-created content,” the report surmised, “their widespread use risks reducing creative diversity across groups of people.”

Viral catchphrases and shopworn cliches come and go. Not too long ago, you couldn’t turn on the radio or crack a news site without seeing the phrase “it turns out that,” shortly followed by “is a dumpster fire.” We have a dangerous, but also useful, in-built tendency toward imitation. But we have, while LLMs do not, a number of tethers back to reality, back to the visceral and the spiritual.

How much of everything we’ve been reading over the last few decades has already been vastly watered down or filtered through, first, the criteria of market competition; second, government coercion and outright censorship; and lastly, through the highly dramatic corporate homogenizing process referred to as consolidation?

The alarm surrounding this latest “Hivemind” study will die down. Perhaps the models will be rejiggered to allow for output more convincing to human observers. But the more critical question, concerning how our own deteriorating capacities for discernment may have contributed to the ways these machines were modeled, will remain uncomfortable. We should try to unravel the mysteries of our own recent degeneration by looking at ourselves first.

​Tech 

Half a century after the book “Why Johnny Can’t Read” sounded an alarm about the rise of illiteracy in the U.S., the problem has only gotten worse. A quarter of all young adults, many of them high-school graduates, are now functionally illiterate. Unable to read more than basic, short sentences, their prospects in today’s information economy are bleak.

This crisis gave rise to a movement that embraced the science of reading and produced a surprising success story in the Deep South, a region dogged by the highest rates of childhood illiteracy in the nation. State leaders and education reformers in Mississippi and Louisiana led a remarkable improvement in elementary reading scores that now rank among the highest in the nation.

Advocates estimate that about half of the state’s districts are experimenting with or rolling out higher-quality curricula.

The turnaround was a long slog, requiring a heavy hand from the state to win buy-in for a wholesale transformation of curricula, teaching methods, accountability, and more. Former state education chief Carey Wright called it the “Mississippi Marathon.” One of the biggest questions in public education now is whether the southern surge can spread nationwide, turning millions of struggling students into proficient readers with a brighter future.

But such a top-down approach is running into resistance, particularly in blue states like New York and Illinois, where strong teachers’ unions have fought to preserve local control over schools. And nowhere is the political battle over who runs the classroom more pronounced than in Massachusetts, which has long boasted the nation’s best public schools.

Massachusetts’ governor is expected to sign a literacy bill in the coming months, making it one of about a dozen states to mandate adoption of curricula based on the science of reading in elementary grades. Laws in another 30 states merely encourage its use. Although these laws suggest a big step forward for the nation, Massachusetts illustrates the challenges ahead in some states — many of the educators responsible for implementing the mandated reforms see them as an affront to local control of classrooms.

The influential Massachusetts Teachers Association led the campaign against the legislation, suffering a rare defeat at the statehouse. At least 300 superintendents, principals, and teachers in about 40 Massachusetts districts also signed a letter opposing the mandate, arguing that local educators know what’s best for students.

The pushback in Massachusetts raises concerns among advocates about whether the reforms, especially the evidence-based curriculum and teacher training, will be fully implemented across the state. ExcelinEd, an advocacy group chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), has identified many science-of-reading policies, big and small, that have helped states boost literacy rates. The group’s research found that the difference between states with the biggest reading gains and those that floundered boils down to how thoroughly they implemented most of the reforms.

“We know what works, and we have state exemplars like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida that have actually done it,” said ExcelinEd senior policy fellow Christy Hovanetz. “So unless more states are willing to do the hard work, we’re not going to see improved outcomes for our kids. And that severely impacts our economic prosperity and future. So yes, I’m concerned.”

RELATED: My school’s AI challenge raised a scary question: What do students need me for?

SiberianArt/Getty Images

State versus local control

In the United States, most school districts call the shots regarding the curriculum — the crucial teaching materials that determine how kids are taught. Although research shows that the quality of curricula makes a big difference in whether Johnny and Jill learn to read, this area of public education remains largely unregulated by most states, leaving 13,000 districts to pick instructional materials based on convenience, corporate marketing, or price. And nobody knows what curricula most districts use since only six states require such disclosure, according to Karen Vaites of the Curriculum Insight Project.

Science-of-reading advocates say local control over curricula isn’t working. Consider fourth-graders, about the age when children’s reading skills strongly predict their future academic success or failure. In 2024, 40% of fourth-graders across the nation scored below the basic level, up from 34% in 2019 and nearly matching levels in 1992, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gold standard in testing. These students have trouble reading aloud, recognizing and decoding many grade-level words, and thus comprehending the meaning of text. They will struggle in all their classes through high school if they aren’t reading well in elementary school.

States like Massachusetts are responding with mandates that require districts to pick from a menu of approved curricula backed by research showing their effectiveness. The Massachusetts Teachers Association doesn’t dispute that there’s a literacy crisis. But the union opposed the mandate, casting it as a form of government overreach in complex curricular matters best left to trained educators.

“Our members have opposed legislated curriculum mandates for literacy education because they know losing flexibility to do their jobs and restricting their professional judgment inevitably means some students will continue to struggle with learning to read and write,” MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy said in a statement to RealClearInvestigations. “The law in Massachusetts will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, and that money would be better spent on hiring staff and increasing professional development opportunities for educators.”

The union says it supports the voluntary adoption of evidence-based curricula by districts, which has been spurred on by grants from programs like Literacy Launch. Advocates estimate that about half of the state’s districts are experimenting with or rolling out higher-quality curricula. The other half are still using less effective instructional materials, including Lucy Calkins’ popular Units of Study, which is based on the principles of a teaching strategy called Balanced Literacy.

Failed reform efforts

Balanced Literacy emerged during the “reading wars” of the 1990s in an attempt to address the nation’s literacy decline. At the time, the prominent approach to instruction, called Whole Language, required students to learn words and sentences by looking at simple picture books as they were read aloud and, if needed, guess at pronunciation and meaning by the story’s context and images. Experts hoped that this loosely structured method would inspire a love of reading.

While it worked for some students, critics said the lack of any explicit instruction in methods to decode words left many students struggling. Balanced Literacy came about as a compromise, adding a dash of phonics to help these students sound out words while keeping the fundamentals of the Whole Language strategy.

States with new literacy laws are not all doing a good job of vetting curricula to ensure they give districts the strongest options.

De’Shawn Washington, winner of the 2024 Teacher of the Year award in Massachusetts, saw the damage Balanced Literacy’s Units of Study did to his elementary students. In his Boston and Lexington classrooms, students who were already proficient readers advanced at a fast clip. But most students, who were one or two grade levels behind because they didn’t have exposure to reading at home or suffered from a disability, learned at a much slower pace, if at all. A few of his third-graders were unable to read books for kindergarteners or write their names. Washington did his best to supplement Units of Study with more phonics, but it wasn’t much help.

“The struggling readers tended to get left behind, and the disparity between them and the proficient readers widened,” said Washington, whose experience turned him into an advocate of Massachusetts’ mandate.

Calkins, a professor at Columbia, has publicly acknowledged her curriculum’s shortcomings. Yet Units of Study remains entrenched in more than two dozen Massachusetts districts, which are part of the “widespread” resistance to literacy reforms, including in Boston Public Schools, says Darci Burns, executive director of HILL for Literacy, which trains Massachusetts teachers in evidence-based literacy practices.

Burns says many of the gatekeepers of instructional materials, such as assistant superintendents and directors of curriculum, were trained to use Balanced Literacy and remain wedded to it like a religion. Teachers like its unscripted approach, giving them more freedom. Burns predicts they will try to skirt the mandate rather than support it.

“These districts might adopt a reading program that’s the most aligned with Balanced Literacy,” Burns told RCI. “And then they’ll go through the motions, but they won’t really do it.”

RELATED: Kentucky’s school choice push could trigger a domino effect

Olekcil Mach/Getty Images

The science of reading

In 2000, a National Reading Panel of top experts was set up to distill what several hundred gold-standard studies revealed about literacy instruction. Although the panel didn’t explicitly reject Balanced Literacy, it found that a more structured approach to instruction in five areas was the most effective: phonemic awareness (learning word sounds), phonics (matching sounds to letters), fluency (reading aloud), vocabulary (learning word meanings), and comprehension (gleaning the meaning of text).

The science-of-reading movement was built on these five pillars, with Massachusetts and other states incorporating them into legislation. Although more recent research has brought new insights — leading scholar Louisa Moats says language skills need much more emphasis in the five pillars — they remain the best approach to improved literacy.

Yet two decades after the panel’s findings, most universities still haven’t read the memo. Signaling the challenges of wholesale reform, only a quarter of teacher preparation programs cover all five pillars, denying most instructors the training they need to be effective.

This leaves educators in an unusual position — unlike most professionals, they are not trained in, and sometimes reject, the best practices of their trade. It’s another knock on the relevance of higher education that Massachusetts and other states are now addressing by requiring teacher preparation to include the five pillars.

“Most teachers don’t know the science of reading — that the point of phonemic awareness is to facilitate word recognition with an alphabetic writing system, or that the primary comprehension enabler is vocabulary,” said Moats. “I don’t want my grandkids in a classroom where the teacher has the autonomy to do whatever the hell she wants, because I have seen the results of that.”

The five pillars may be on solid footing, but the curricula based on them are a work in progress. Some are comprehensive, others are too narrowly focused on the foundational skills like phonics and don’t include enough reading and writing; some don’t focus enough on building students’ knowledge about subjects like history and science, which is key to reading comprehension; some haven’t been around long enough to have a proven track record.

States with new literacy laws are not all doing a good job of vetting curricula to ensure they give districts the strongest options, says Vaites of the Curriculum Insight Project. The varying quality of curricula has given ammunition to critics of mandates, such as Superintendent Julie Hackett, whose affluent Lexington district in Massachusetts uses Units of Study.

Southern states found that a new curriculum isn’t worth much unless teachers are trained to master it.

“We’ve done some looking into results around districts that have adopted new curricula, and we are not seeing the results that would necessarily justify” spending up to $1 million to buy new instructional materials, Hackett said at an MTA event.

Vaites wrote that Hackett’s concerns are overblown. Although Massachusetts’ current list isn’t perfect, it does offer comprehensive programs covering the five pillars, with an emphasis on reading books and building knowledge.

“Most of the curricula on Massachusetts’ list are pretty good, and now with the mandate, most people think that state leaders are savvy enough to make it even better,” Vaites told RCI.

Arduous training

Southern states found that a new curriculum isn’t worth much unless teachers are trained to master it. Washington, the former teacher, says adopting a new curriculum is a lot of work, and classes and coaching give teachers more confidence about handling such a big transition.

“The training shifts the conversation away from resistance because teachers realize they are not going into this new situation blind and that there’s a big investment being made to improve the profession,” Washington said.

The bills in Massachusetts offer training to all teachers rather than requiring it, as 18 other states, including Louisiana, have done, according to ExcelinEd’s literacy policy tracker. If that’s a concession to opponents, so is the decision by Massachusetts lawmakers not to adopt another reform that has proven effective in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other states: retaining third-graders who can’t read at or near grade level from promotion.

It’s a highly controversial policy that parents almost always oppose, despite the long-term literacy benefits, according to a study of Mississippi that found retention “led to substantially higher ELA scores in sixth grade.”

In all, ExcelinEd has identified 18 reforms, including dyslexia screening and parental notification of reading problems, that the most successful states have implemented. Given the heavy lift, it’s not surprising that some states have stumbled.

Of the 15 states that had adopted most of the 18 policies by 2019, 10 outpaced the national average in fourth-grade NAEP reading scores by 2024, with Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina far out in front, according to Hovanetz, the policy fellow. These 10 states illustrate the effectiveness of the reforms.

But test scores in four of the 15 states declined more than the nation’s did, and Michigan tied, showing the difficulty of implementing the reforms. Among the backsliding states, Hovanetz says, New Mexico didn’t train and deploy all of its reading coaches, and Oklahoma and North Carolina ended their third-grade retention policy.

“States get a whole bunch of constituent calls saying, ‘It’s not fair you’re retaining my kid.’ Then they back off of the policy and lose any momentum that they had gained,” says Hovanetz, a former Florida education official.

RELATED: Florida teachers’ unions would rather play politics than do their jobs

Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Minnesota illustrates how things can go wrong when districts are encouraged, rather than mandated, to adopt evidence-based curricula and teacher training.

“Some teachers took the training. Not everyone did, and when they went back to their schools, teachers didn’t have the instructional materials to support what they learned in training, and they might not have had a leader at the school to support them,” Hovanetz said. “So Minnesota probably wasted a whole lot of money.”

A number of other states haven’t bothered to pass meaningful science-of-reading laws. They include liberal states like Washington and Illinois and more conservative states like Montana and Maine.

In Massachusetts, a conference committee is reconciling the two bills, with the rollout of reforms set for 2027. The Senate bill requires districts to regularly assess K-3 students’ reading abilities and create improvement plans for those who score significantly below grade level. It’s a measure of accountability that advocates hope will produce positive results in a state that’s moving backwards in literacy on the NAEP test.

In another concession to opponents of the mandate, lawmakers gave districts a narrow escape hatch. They can apply for a waiver from the mandate if their alternative curriculum is backed by research evidence. While the waiver could open the door to the adoption of Calkins’ revised Units of Study, it will have to pass muster with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Mary Tamer, who convened the Mass Reads coalition of 40 education groups to support the legislation she helped write, is bullish about adopting reforms. Despite the opposition, she says the political momentum, underscored by the unanimous votes for the literacy bills in both the House and Senate, is strong enough to compel most districts to buy in.

“Our expectation is that districts will move toward evidence-based instruction as quickly as they can because it’s proven to teach children how to read,” she said. “And that is our goal here.”

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

​Literacy crisis, Literacy rates, Teachers unions, Red states, Learn to read, Public schools, Reading programs, Curricula, Balanced literacy, Reading wars, Opinion & analysis, Realclearinvestigation 

After CNN botched some recent coverage, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is enjoying “watching the death spiral that CNN is having to deal with in real time and the ways that they are trying to stay relevant.”

“All the cool kids are on Instagram, right? And CNN is like, ‘Oh, oh, hold on a second. Hold on a second. We’re new. We’re hip. We’re cool with the youths. What if we started uploading these totally not staged and impromptu selfie videos,’” Gonzales mocks, before playing a CNN selfie video of Jake Tapper.

“See that fancy ceiling? I’m at the House of Representatives. I wanted to show you something. So, in 1890, journalist Charles Kincaid shot and killed, ultimately, Congressman William Taulbee of Kentucky. And right here, you can see the bloodstains,” Tapper said.

“That is Jake Tapper. He’s realized, ‘Oh crap, nobody’s watching, and the kids are not watching because everything I do is boring,’” Gonzales comments.

“You might think this is a Jake Tapper problem. It’s not. This is apparently CNN’s new strategy across all of their social platforms with all of their anchors,” she adds, before playing a selfie video of CNN anchor Dana Bash.

“I just got off the phone with President Trump, who gave himself a 15 out of 10 on how the war is going so far,” Bash said while sitting in her car.

“This is not genuine. This is not authentic. This is CNN’s last desperate gasp here, OK? And it’s just not working. It’s not working for you, Dana,” Gonzales says.

“Some CNN consultant … got paid however the hell much money they got paid to be like, ‘OK, hold on. Hold on. I got it. Selfie videos. Selfie videos. That’s going to save you guys,’” Gonzales jokes. “Everyone wants to hear what Jake Tapper thinks while he’s driving down the f**king road.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jake tapper, Dana bash, Mamdani, Cnn 

An alumni group is questioning the academic value of a course on offer at the taxpayer-subsidized University of Virginia — a course taught by a non-straight poet who apparently encourages students to consult animals about their supposed oppression.

The Jefferson Council, an alumni group “committed to leading the University of Virginia back to Thomas Jefferson’s legacy of freedom and excellence,” noted Wednesday on X, “A course titled ‘Ecofeminist Poetry & Poetics’ being taught this spring at the University of Virginia has students ‘listen’ to plants and animals to better understand how ‘settler colonialism’ and slavery ‘thrive off of the intrinsic interconnectedness between species.'”

‘Birds, goats, willow oaks, and lichen will accompany us through the semester.’

“This is a real taxpayer-funded class,” the group continued. “Is this what higher education has become?”

The description for the graduate course on the UVA English department’s website — which contains quotes from identitarian feminist and LGBT activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs — states:

This interdisciplinary course will interweave brief readings from ecofeminist theory, ecopoetics, and black and indigenous environmental theories with books of contemporary ecofeminist poetry. This curriculum will encourage each of us to see what happens when we “rethink and re-feel,” writes Gumbs, our own “relations, possibilities, and practices” in conversation with the more-than-human world.

The course syllabus notes that “birds, goats, willow oaks, and lichen will accompany us through the semester as we too attempt to listen across species,” reported the College Fix.

University records show that associate professor Brian Teare, a “queer”-identifying climate alarmist who specializes in environmental humanities and “queer theory,” has taught versions of the ecofeminist course for several years.

RELATED: Why do state schools bankroll people who despise the state?

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

John Gardner, president of the Jefferson Council, told the College Fix, “It is surprising to the extent that such an inane and clearly agenda-based politicized course could find its way into the curricula of any respectable institute of higher learning.”

“It is not surprising to the extent that over the past decade or more the increasingly left-wing politicized faculties of most universities have turned their curricula into woke fantasylands,” added Gardner.

‘It is more suitable to be a course taught in Orwell’s “1984.”‘

Teare and the university did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Gardner referred to three other radical courses at the university that warrant concern: “Women and Gender in the Deaf World”; “Gender, Body Image, and Social Activism”; and “Queer Judaism,” which poses the question, “What if we approached Judaism as a queer religion?”

“There are many others with the common theme that they are mostly narrowly focused on allegedly marginalized ‘identity groups’ based on race, gender, or ethnicity and are often intended to promote a predetermined agenda,” said Gardner.

The alumni group’s president noted that Thomas Jefferson founded the university because “he felt it was important to have an educated and informed citizenry to sustain a successful republic.”

Gardner suggested that courses like Teare’s “are not meant to follow truth, but to advance a political/social agenda. It is more suitable to be a course taught in Orwell’s ‘1984’ than at Mr. Jefferson’s university.”

In 2025, UVA received over $338 million dollars in funding from the state.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Education, University, Woke, Leftism, Feminist, Queer, Homosexual, Propaganda, Indoctrination, Thomas jefferson, History, University of virginia, Uva, Virginia, Educator, Brian teare, Animals, Politics 

A 22-year-old man allegedly attacked a 94-year-old woman who was sitting in a rocking chair on her front porch and brutally raped her in broad daylight, police say.

The suspect, identified as Jeremiah Taylor, had numerous allegations of sexual assault in his background, including one against his own foster mother.

‘I don’t know what word you really use. I’m really dumbfounded to try to explain it.’

The Baton Rouge Police Dept. said officers responded to a report of a sexual assault on March 5 and identified a suspect within minutes of releasing images to the public the next day.

Taylor was initially booked on charges of first-degree rape, second-degree battery, and cruelty to the infirm. He is being held at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. He is being held without bond.

Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said the evidence against Taylor is overwhelming.

“When you’re looking at one of the most vulnerable parts of our population, the elderly, to take advantage of them in this way, horrendous, unacceptable,” Morse said. “I don’t know what word you really use. I’m really dumbfounded to try to explain it.”

WLBT-TV reported that sources indicated the victim suffered broken bones during the assault.

Morse also expressed frustration that Taylor had a violent criminal history but had been released from jail in January after the most recent arrest was dismissed by a district attorney.

“It is a source of contention. It is a source of frustration on our department and with our officers,” he added. “Why this has happened is some questions that I would love you all to ask the rest of the judicial system.”

Taylor had prior arrests for simple burglary, first-degree rape, theft, and second-degree battery.

After an investigation, he was charged with raping another victim three times, one of which was the day after he was released from jail in January.

RELATED: Long Island mom raped in front of her daughter during brutal home invasion. Police have arrested a 14-year-old suspect.

A WBRZ-TV report showed that a man matching Taylor’s description was caught on video appearing to stalk another woman before she walked into her house, and he turned around immediately.

Another woman who said she had been his foster mother during the COVID pandemic claimed that he had sexually assaulted her as she slept.

“Jeremiah was with me maybe six to eight months before he thought it was OK to inappropriately touch me,” the woman said to WBRZ.

She says she pressed charges but believes nothing happened because he was underage at the time.

He was accused of raping a family member as well, but those charges were dropped when the victim could not be located by the district attorney.

Taylor had two words to say when reporters asked him if he raped the 94-year-old woman as accused.

“F**k no,” he said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jeremiah taylor rape, 94-year-old raped, Baton rouge rapist, Failed criminal system, Crime 

It may be one of the most remarkable technological breakthroughs in human history. Ask the American public, though, and you’ll hear something else entirely about artificial intelligence.

A recent NBC News survey asked registered voters how they feel about a range of public figures and political topics. The results were striking. While Pope Leo posted a net favorability rating of +34, artificial intelligence came in at -20. That puts AI near the bottom of the list, ranking ahead of only the Democratic Party and Iran. According to the poll, only 26% responded “positive” to AI, while 46% responded “negative.”

Who designs the systems? Whose values do they embed? Who gets accountability when they fail? The public does not have satisfying answers, and the industry hasn’t given them many.

Think about that for a moment.

A technology widely touted as capable of curing diseases, discovering new materials, and unlocking unprecedented productivity is viewed more negatively than every U.S. politician and institution included in the poll.

Artificial intelligence may be revolutionary, but unless its architects confront the distrust surrounding it, AI risks losing the public confidence it will ultimately depend on.

A perfect storm of distrust

As someone who follows AI closely, I can’t point to a single cause of the unease. It looks more like a perfect storm.

For decades, science fiction trained audiences to associate AI with dystopia. From “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “The Terminator,” AI often appears as the moment humanity loses control of its own creation. Fiction isn’t the whole story, but it primes the public to expect the worst.

Many Americans also worry about what AI will do to the workforce. Automation has threatened certain industries for years, but AI scales the threat. It now appears poised to hit huge swaths of white-collar work, including creative fields and even decision-making roles once assumed to require human judgment.

Then came the explosion of what critics call “AI slop.” Across the internet, AI-generated articles, videos, images, and posts flood the feed. Much of it is low-effort content built to attract clicks, not provide value. The internet already buckles under misinformation and spam. AI has supercharged this problem.

Americans also distrust the companies building these systems. The left has long been skeptical of massive corporations wielding too much power. The right grew more suspicious after years of fights over social media censorship and ideological activism. ESG efforts, which used corporate power to reshape incentives around political priorities, only reinforced the sense that tech and finance elites want to run the country by proxy.

In short, both sides now distrust many of the institutions developing artificial intelligence. That is a bad position for an industry trying to introduce world-changing technology.

When the experts sound the alarm

Public unease also draws fuel from the people closest to the machine. Several prominent voices in the AI world have issued stark warnings about risk.

Elon Musk has suggested there may be “only a 20% chance of annihilation” from future advanced AI systems. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has cited a 25% chance AI development goes “really, really badly.” Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of AI,” has floated human extinction-level risk in the 10% to 20% range over the coming decades.

When the builders of a technology openly speculate about catastrophic outcomes, it’s not surprising the public grows uneasy. To the average voter, it can sound like civilization is playing Russian roulette — and the people loading the cylinder are asking to be trusted.

RELATED: Ex-NFL player asked ChatGPT for advice after allegedly murdering his fiancée

Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

Power, control, and fear of the unknown

Beyond jobs and misinformation, a deeper concern lies underneath: AI is becoming an infrastructure of decision-making.

Algorithms already shape what news we see, what products we buy, and what ideas spread online. As AI grows more capable, it will influence public opinion, political discourse, and cultural norms even more.

In authoritarian systems, that becomes an obvious tool of surveillance and control. But even in a constitutional republic, concentrating that much power in a handful of corporations — or in government — raises hard questions. Who designs the systems? Whose values do they embed? Who gets accountability when they fail? The public does not have satisfying answers, and the industry hasn’t given them many.

The AI industry should pay attention

Despite the excitement in Silicon Valley and Washington, the NBC poll reveals a simple truth: Much of the public does not trust AI. For the companies racing to build ever more powerful systems, that should be a wake-up call.

The industry often sells AI in near-utopian terms: medicine, energy breakthroughs, scientific discovery. Those gains may come. But many Americans see something else. They see massive data centers consuming energy while the internet fills with synthetic garbage. They see tech firms raising and spending billions while ordinary life gets harder. They see executives talking openly about betting civilization on tools they admit they don’t fully control.

If AI’s architects want public buy-in, they will have to address these fears directly.

A good place to start would be a clear public commitment to the constitutional principles Americans still expect: free speech, individual liberty, and personal autonomy. If AI will play a larger role in shaping information and decisions, the public needs confidence that these systems will protect fundamental freedoms rather than erode them.

AI will be shaped, in part, by trust. Right now, that trust is in short supply.

​Ai, Ai slop, Artificial intelligence, Elon musk, Dario amodei, Geoffrey hinton, Ai takeover, Ai approval, Opinion & analysis, Public opinion poll, Nbc news poll 

As the military conflict between the United States and Iran approaches its third week, many are asking questions like, “How many warheads do we have left?”; “How many missiles do they have left?”; “What is this going to cost?”; and “What is this going to do to oil?” says Glenn Beck.

While these kinds of questions are only natural, the bigger concern, he says, is “what [we’re] fighting.”

“I’m not making a case to fight Iran or this war or anything,” he assures.

But “you have to understand what you’re dealing with.”

And what we’re dealing with is an apocalyptic form of Islam known as “Twelver Shi’ism.”

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn exposes this radical theology that has guided Iran’s top leaders, military operations, and possibly even its lethal responses to Trump and Israel’s joint attacks.

“The name [Twelver Shi’ism] comes from their belief in the 12th Imam — divinely appointed leader … that succeeded Muhammad. … Muhammad was the first; the 12th one, Muhammad al-Mahdi, he was believed to have disappeared in the ninth century in a well when he was a child,” Glenn explains.

“According to the Twelver belief, he’s going to climb out of that well, and he’s going to return in the end days, OK? And when he returns, he’s going to establish a perfect Islamic justice that will oversee the entire world; he’s going to defeat all evil; he will convert everyone to Islam; and he’ll rule from Jerusalem, and the world’s transformed,” he continues, emphasizing the parallels in Christian end-times prophecies.

But what does this have to do with the current conflict with Iran?

“[Twelvers] truly believe that they can hasten [Mahdi’s] return if they plunge the world into chaos. … That crisis prepares the ground for the final victory of Islam,” says Glenn, drawing a parallel to Revelation’s prophetic warnings of “global upheaval, wars, famine, [and] pestilence” followed by “a powerful figure … promising peace and justice,” who is actually the Antichrist — “the deceiver.”

“The hero in one story looks very much like the villain of the other story.”

Even though “not every Shia Muslim believes in accelerating chaos … the most powerful clerical authorities in Iran do believe it,” says Glenn.

“In fact, Iran’s leadership, they frame the military mission in these terms,” he adds, noting that Iran’s “armies reference the Mahdi directly” and are taught that “they’re preparing for the Mahdi’s return.”

Even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — the central religious and political leader of the Iranian regime that drove out the Shah in 1979 — thought the “Twelvers were too dangerous,” despite believing in hastening the return of the Madhi through chaos.

“The ones [Khomeini] said were too dangerous because they were so unpredictable and could get everybody killed … those are the people that are in charge of [Iran] right now,” Glenn warns.

“That’s not religious speculation. This is state ideology. And these are the people that are arming the terrorist groups and sending signals to sleeper cells possibly here in America.”

Currently, Iran is actively launching missile and drone strikes on several of its Arab neighbors, which seems counterintuitive to us.

But we have to “stop thinking like a Westerner,” says Glenn.

If Iran’s goal is to “get everybody at war with each other,” starting with “setting the Arab world on fire” makes sense in its grand scheme to hasten the Mahdi’s return.

“So we have to ask ourself: Who are we actually dealing with?”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Twelver shi’ism, Iran, Iran war, Blazetv, Blaze media, Mahdi, Islam, End times 

Quentin Tarantino is going way out of his comfort zone with his next project.

No grind-house gore, 1970s-style banter, or even bare feet. Tarantino’s new project is a play, not a movie. “The Popinjay Cavalier,” to open in London’s West End next year, is an 1830s-set comic farce.

‘We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.’

It sounds like a twee Wes Anderson project, but it’s merely the Oscar winner stretching his creative wings for a new kind of story, all the while stalling on what his 10th and final film will be.

Here’s guessing Rosanna Arquette won’t be invited to opening night …

Crock lobster

Should late-night TV shows go the “legal notes” route? We’ve already seen “The View” adopt that survival strategy after one too many Fake News stories.

Colbert and Co. are often just as bad, and this week, they’re even worse. The usual late-night suspects ripped into Team Trump for spending way too much on surf and turf. The phony narrative ignored historical precedent. The U.S. military routinely treats soldiers to great grub to thank them for putting their lives on the line.

To hear folks like Seth Meyers tell it, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is eating large 24/7 with a greasy lobster bib around his Fox News neck.

Here’s Kimmel pushing the false narrative to its illogical conclusion:

Again, just in September, [Hegseth] spent $2 million of taxpayer money on Alaskan king crab. He spent $6.9 million on lobster tail. $140,000 on doughnuts. $124,000 on ice cream machines. $26,000 on sushi preparation tables. And $15.1 million on ribeye steak. What is this, “My 600-Pound Defense Department”?

Stop it, you’re killing us!

RELATED: Tarantino torches ‘Pulp Fiction’ actress for crying ‘racist’ — 30 years later: ‘You took the money’

Photo by Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images

Too ‘Late’

When you’ve lost Variety, it’s not a good sign.

Legacy outlets like the Hollywood Reporter and Variety routinely carry late-night TV hosts’ water. They regurgitate their tepid punch lines while protecting them against serial fact-checks.

But Variety did something unexpected this week. The rag mocked Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” for becoming a never-ending ego trip in his final weeks on the air.

The show’s focus on its own host’s misfortune has become outsized and a bit dramatic, especially because so many other institutions are in crisis: With everything else going on in the world, we have to go through a months-long celebration of life for a comedian whose job is coming to an end?

The site’s readers were not happy with the column. The Facebook comments section uniformly raged against the op-ed. We could have warned them. Never expect things to go smoothly when you peek your head outside the progressive bubble …

Gay abandon

Margaret Cho can’t get her talking points straight.

The lesbian comic savaged you-know-who while accepting an award from the website Queerty.

“It’s a f**king nightmare, we’re in a f**king war, they want to draft people for this incontinent child molester who doesn’t even know what he wants out of anything. It’s just insane.”

She also said the trans community faces a genocide under President Trump. A few beats later, she changed her tone so violently that a few in the crowd may have suffered whiplash.

“So what we have to do as gay adults, if you’re a gay adult, you have to stand up and be proud. Throw your shoulders back and look happy all the time. Because trans kids will see you, gay kids will see you, and they will see you and they will say, ‘Hey, that person made it. They’re happy. Maybe I can grow up to be like them, maybe I can be like that happy person.’”

Right. Because nobody sounds happier than Margaret Cho …

The Docter is in

My, have things changed at the Mouse House.

Disney animators saw themselves as the tip of the woke spear not long ago. Animators injected sexual themes into kiddie fare, purportedly to change young hearts and minds. Or, as one infamous Disney employee described it, the company’s “not-at-all-secret gay agenda.”

A few mega-flops later, Disney is singing a different tune. Screaming it, to be precise. The company stripped a trans character from its Pixar TV series “Win or Lose.” Recent sequels like “Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2” delivered joyous fun without the woke lectures.

Now, veteran Pixar director Pete Docter is delivering the smackdown on those demanding that Disney sexualize its content. Docter previously helmed “Monsters, Inc.” and “Up,” among notable Pixar projects, and he explained to the Wall Street Journal why the company removed gay themes from its 2025 dud release, “Elio.”

“We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy,” he said.

Here’s betting some Disney employees might need some after hearing that quote.

​Hollywood, Celebrities, Entertainment, Culture, Jimmy kimmel, Quentin tarantino, Pete hegseth, Margaret cho, Movies, Tv, Toto recall 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proudly announced the creation of the Office for LGBTQIA+ Affairs and nominated a transgender-identifying male to lead it.

Mamdani said that New York City had the highest number of “queer” people of any city in the U.S. during the announcement Friday. Attorney Taylor Brown will be the first transgender person to lead an agency or office in New York City.

‘With Taylor Brown as director of the new Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, the city’s queer community will not only be celebrated, but protected at every turn.’

“New York City is proud of its LGBTQIA+ community and will refuse to deny health care, safety, or dignity to anyone on the basis of their identity,” Mamdani said in a statement. “With Taylor Brown as director of the new Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, the city’s queer community will not only be celebrated, but protected at every turn.”

Brown said the office would protect members of the LGBTQIA+ community from “hostile actors” in his statement.

“New York has given me everything — life-saving health care, education, a home, a career, my chosen family, and a life of purpose. I am so proud to serve this city as the inaugural director of the Mayor’s Office for LGBTQIA+ Affairs,” he said.

“I will work every day to ensure that the doors of New York City remain open to all and to continue New York City’s legacy as a beacon of opportunity and hope for those who have been ignored, discriminated against, and intentionally excluded,” Brown added.

The office will absorb the previous NYC Unity Project established under the de Blasio administration.

RELATED: ‘Tax them to the white meat!’ Mamdani’s new ‘equity officer’ posted now-deleted X posts against white women.

Mamdani said the office will also work to make sure transgender and other LGBTQ+ members get as many city services as possible.

Trans activists previously praised Mamdani for naming Abby Stein, a transgender-identifying man, ex-Orthodox Jew, and activist, to his transition team.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Mamdani transgender, Office for lgbtqia affairs, Trans lawyer taylor brown, Lgtbqia agenda, Politics