Category: blaze media

As more Christian influencers on social media claim to receive signs from God in the form of symbols from the world, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is urging believers to exercise discernment.

While Stuckey believes that the intention and anxiety behind asking God for a sign is “natural and understandable,” she notes that “when we get into this mode of asking for God, for some particular natural sign … from the world, then we can actually foster more anxiety and more confusion.”

“Not only within ourselves, but also with the people that we influence,” she adds.

One social media influencer asked God for a sign in the form of a bluebird on a window sill, breaking down in tears as she recalled the story on her Instagram.

“She asked God for a bluebird sign, landing on the window sill, to indicate whether or not she should write a book,” Stuckey comments, pointing out that the sign of the bluebird has become very popular on social media.

“I do think it’s interesting that in a span of just a couple of months, all of these Christian creators happen to see bluebirds they claim as a sign from God. And they are encouraging others, some of them, to ask God for similar signs,” she says.

And while Stuckey urges believers to exercise caution, she does point out that there are examples in Scripture of asking God for signs.

“If we look at Genesis 24, Abraham’s servant prayed for a clear sign while searching for a wife for Isaac. He asked that the right woman would not only give him a drink, but also offer to water his camels. And Rebecca did exactly that,” Stuckey explains.

“And then Moses in Exodus 3–4 expressed doubt when God called him at the burning bush to lead Israel. In response, God gave him three confirmatory signs to show the people: his staff turning into a snake and back, his hand becoming leprous and then healed, and the Nile turning to blood when poured on dry ground,” she continues.

While these examples are clear indicators that it’s OK to ask God for a sign, Stuckey points out that Scripture also “warns against demanding them or asking God for them in order for Him to confirm His character or to confirm His will for you, especially when it stems from unbelief or a hardened heart.”

“I think when our theology is being influenced by New Age culture, we are in as much trouble as ancient Israel was when they were being influenced by outside pagan nations,” she explains.

“It is possible for this to really hurt our mind and our heart and our soul if that is what we’re doing,” she adds.

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​Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, Christianity, Lindsey gurk, Bluebird, God, Sign, Religion, Bible, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

Kathleen Kennedy may have left her post in January, but her influence is still being felt at Disney studio Lucasfilm.

The former studio president became synonymous with underperformance during her tenure and was often at odds with fans over her choices to feminize popular intellectual property.

Disney’s break-even point for the film is somewhere between $500 million and $600 million for a worldwide gross.

Kennedy curse

At the time of her departure, Kennedy still had two films yet to be released, and one of those was “Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu,” which opened on Memorial Day weekend.

While the film showed some promise with $33.8 million on opening night, attendance sunk to half by Memorial Day, concluding with about $82 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.

Disney had projected $97 million to $98 million for the four-day opening but got nowhere close. In fact, the movie now ranks below “Solo: A Star Wars Story” — which took in $84.4 million in its opening — as Disney’s lowest “Star Wars” debut. To make matters worse, the “Solo” movie only had three days to attract fans to its opening rather than four.

For many people, that is a boatload of cash, but for “Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu,” its worldwide total of $168 million is barely enough to recover its budget of an estimated $165 million.

Furthermore, Collider reported that Disney’s break-even point for the film is somewhere between $500 million and $600 million for a worldwide gross. The Han Solo movie, for example, only made $393 million worldwide.

RELATED: How Hollywood tries to masculinize femininity — and makes everyone miserable

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Disney

Vote Pedro?

Disney still has another Kennedy project slated for the same time next year with “Star Wars: Starfighter,” set for release on May 28, 2027. Kennedy is credited as producer for that film, which features much bigger star power than the most recent flick, which included the outspoken activist Pedro Pascal.

Pascal has openly talked about helping co-stars with their gender journeys and comes from a staunch communist family in Chile.

“Star Wars: Starfighter,” however, has more widely liked performers like Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams attached to the film.

RELATED: FEMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Kathleen Kennedy leaves ‘Star Wars’; is it too soon for fans to celebrate?

CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Fan slander

Kennedy took “Star Wars” fans head-on during her time at the studio, even accusing them of attacking women who were unhappy with her productions.

In what has now become a trope, Kennedy blamed a “male-dominated” fanbase for the reason the show “The Acolyte” underperformed.

“I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal,” she said in 2024.

Kennedy noted that “anyone who engages in bigotry, racism, or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”

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Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman expressed her anger at tents that appeared outside of her home, but it apparently wasn’t homeless people who took up residence on her sidewalk.

It was a prankster who claimed to have organized the encampment to protest against the failing policies in Los Angeles about the homelessness crisis.

Raman also claimed that the failures of the city government are what led her to run for mayor after claiming that she had successfully addressed homelessness as a city councilwoman.

Raman spoke about the tents on a podcast with Adam Conover and expressed anger at the political stunt.

“I woke up this morning to a sound of commotion outside of my window, and I looked out the window, and I realized that there were people setting up what was I think a fake encampment, like a homeless encampment outside of my house,” she said.

“Multiple people gathered there filming it … shooting something with cameras and things like that outside of my house!” she added. “I think to make a political video that would talk about how, I don’t want this at all, but … this is somebody who wants encampments on our streets.”

Conover claimed that she had actually cleared out more encampments than her predecessor, and Raman agreed.

“I have two little kids; they didn’t see it, luckily, this morning,” she continued. “But I feel badly that I’m even subjecting them to that at all. But it has definitely, this has gone far beyond what I expected the campaign to be about.”

The videos showed men acting like homeless people pushing tires, sitting on a mattress, and pretending to be strung out on drugs in front of her home.

Conover went on to claim that setting up fake tents outside of her home was “harassment” and blamed Spencer Pratt, who is also running for mayor, even though he had no apparent connection to the stunt.

Raman also claimed that the failures of the city government are what led her to run for mayor after claiming that she had successfully addressed homelessness as a city councilwoman.

The organizer of the tent stunt told KTTV-TV that he had nothing to do with the Pratt campaign, though he said he was a fan.

“This is happening all over the city. And we brought it to her doorstep so she can see what other people are going through,” said the organizer, who wanted to remain anonymous.

“We’re basically doing a parody ad for [Raman],” he added. “Like if we were in charge of her campaign, this is the ad that we would make.”

RELATED: TMZ tries to nuke Spencer Pratt’s mayoral campaign — and gets bitten in the Bass

The Pratt campaign responded by posting a video of Raman previously rolling her eyes at residents who were upset at their children being exposed to homeless encampments.

“I don’t think a kid’s going to be safer because a tent is 500 feet away from a school. It’s, like, whatever,” Raman says in the video.

“God blessed me with some stupid opponents,” Pratt added.

The organizer also responded to her comments on the Conover podcast.

“It’s a public street. I can see why she’s upset, but she should think about everybody else who’s going through the same thing constantly but being ignored,” he added.

The organizer said the effort was being funded by donors across the country.

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​Nithya raman, Homeless crisis, Los angeles mayoral election, Spencer pratt, Politics 

Military officials, defense analysts, and critics have warned in recent years about the state of America’s military readiness and the risk of exhausting its stores of critical munitions.

The U.S -Israel war with Iran — a conflict which saw a 39-day bombing campaign with over 13,000 targets struck followed by a fragile ceasefire interrupted in recent days and weeks by additional strikes — has spread America’s missile inventory particularly thin.

According to a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the U.S. “has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict. The time needed to rebuild those inventories has thus become a major concern.”

‘Democrats destroyed our military.’

War Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged during a Senate hearing on April 30 that it will take “months and years” to rebuild the military’s stockpiles of various munitions. The CSIS report attempts to give a better idea of the turnaround for replenishing the stocks of specific systems.

The think tank estimated, for instance, that the U.S. will not be able to replenish its prewar inventory of Tomahawk cruise missiles — over 850 of which were reportedly fired just in the first four weeks of the conflict and fewer than 200 of which are made per year — back to prewar levels until late 2030 or early 2031.

American Enterprise Institute fellows Mackenzie Eaglen and Todd Harrison noted in an assessment last year that the U.S. expended over 150 THAAD interceptors — terminal high-altitude area defense interceptors — defending Israel in June 2025 during its 12-day conflict with Iran.

At the time, that accounted for nearly 25% of America’s total number of THAAD interceptors — each valued at roughly $12.7 million — and reportedly three times the average annual procurement since 2010.

The new CSIS report puts the number of THAAD interceptors used in the current conflict somewhere between 190 and 290.

RELATED: US reaches new ceasefire deal with Iran — but there’s a catch

Aftermath of a missile strike on a building in Tehran on March 1. ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

With a projected annual production capacity of 96 THAAD interceptors at the current maximum rate and a potential expanded annual production capacity of 400 in light of the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal for 2027, the CSIS report predicts a replenishment of the prewar stock sometime in mid- to late 2029.

An estimated 1,060-1,430 Patriot missiles — a variety of missile Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently been begging Trump for more of — were fired in and around Iran since Feb. 28. Again, a return to prewar inventory isn’t expected until mid-2029.

The estimated turnaround for replenishing the prewar stock of standard missile-3s is early 2029; standard missile-6s is late 2028-early 2029; joint air-to-surface standoff missiles is mid-2027; and precision strike missiles is late 2026.

The analysts suggested that during this inventory gap, some munitions could be substituted, but swaps will invariably carry with them certain downsides.

“Alternative ground attack munitions, for example, are short- or medium-range and increase vulnerability of the launch platforms,” said the report. “Alternative counter-drone systems are expensive.”

The Trump administration evidently doesn’t share the outlook of the report’s authors.

Following the publication of the CSIS report, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to the Military Times that the U.S. military “has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond.”

“Even still, the president has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more made-in-America weapons, which are the best in the world,” continued Kelly. “Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it. Think-tank armchair quarterbacks are not read into sensitive information and have no idea what they’re talking about.”

While the military remains tight-lipped about how many missiles and munitions were expended during Operation Epic Fury, the administration was provided with some idea as to how much was spent monetarily.

Jules Hurst III, the Department of War’s acting comptroller, testified earlier this month that the U.S. had spent roughly $29 billion on the war.

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​Army, Defense contractors, Department of war, Iran, Israel, Military, Munitions, Navy, United states, War, Politics 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ comfortable lead has dwindled significantly, with the incumbent now in a tight race with L.A. City Councilwoman Nithya Raman and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, according to the latest polling.

A poll, conducted May 19-24 by the University of California Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, showed Bass receiving 26% of the vote, Raman close behind with 25%, and Pratt securing 22%.

‘It’s going to boil down to turnout.’

The Times reported that Bass’ slight lead was “statistically insignificant,” according to pollsters. It further noted that prior polls showed Bass with a stronger lead over her challengers, which has since narrowed. Meanwhile, Raman and Pratt have made steady gains.

Only 10% of the 1,913 registered voters surveyed said they were still undecided ahead of the June 2 primary, down from 26% in a March poll. Analysts predicted that Bass is likely to receive enough votes to head into a November runoff with either Raman or Pratt.

When asked which issues they care about most, nearly all surveyed Pratt supporters said they care about addressing waste and political corruption, as well as crime and public safety.

RELATED: The one big liberal media lie about Spencer Pratt that no one is mentioning

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Bass and Raman supporters, who gave similar responses to one another, prioritized protecting immigrants, moving the homeless indoors, and building more affordable housing.

In a one-on-one race between Bass and Pratt, those surveyed gave Bass an 18-point lead, with 12% undecided and 12% choosing neither or stating they would not vote. In a potential runoff between Raman and Pratt, Raman secured 45% to Pratt’s 28%, with 16% undecided and 11% choosing neither or declining to vote.

RELATED: Spencer Pratt’s viral campaign is turning into a political nightmare for Karen Bass

Etienne Laurent/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Although the mayoral race is nonpartisan, Pratt, a registered Republican, is running in a city where less than 15% of the population is registered as Republican.

“You’ve got three very different candidates, each with very different constituencies, all within the margin of error. It’s going to boil down to turnout,” Mark DiCamillo, the director of Berkeley IGS polls, told the Times. “Pratt is an unusual candidate and is generating a lot of enthusiasm in the primary, but he trails by double digits to Raman and Bass in a runoff.”

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​News, Spencer pratt, Karen bass, Nithya raman, California, Los angeles, Election, Politics 

Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback is running to succeed governor Ron DeSantis — and after he announced his radical plan to disrupt “teen takeovers,” Florida might just see him win.

Fishback stepped up to reveal his plan after 22 young people were arrested at a riot in downtown Tampa, Florida, this month, beginning with a controversial but true statement: “One thing that we have to confront is that black youth violence is a problem in Florida.”

The candidate pointed out that the group was “almost exclusively young and black.”

“There’s something to be said about the root causes that lead a 12-year-old who was arrested here on Friday night to riot without parental supervision. 72% of black kids born today will be born to an unmarried mother,” Fishback explained.

He went on to announce three policies that would take effect immediately if he were to win.

“We will be charging anyone who participates in a so-called teen takeover with Florida State Statute 8701, a third-degree felony of rioting. I’m also going to instruct state attorneys, including right here in the 13th Judicial Circuit, to make it so that any teen who is charged with aggravated rioting is charged as an adult,” he explained.

“Number two, we’re going to stand up a social media youth disruption unit tasked by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in my first month as governor to lawfully and constitutionally monitor incitement and threats of riots like the one that took place here, to disrupt them before they begin,” he continued. “And that includes me as governor activating the Florida National Guard.”

“And number three, what I’m going to direct the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to do is to convene a five-person panel of law enforcement, business leaders, and, most importantly, our church leaders to look at the root causes of black youth crime and to prepare a report to give to me as the governor within my first 90 days,” he added.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is thrilled.

“He’s addressing this teen takeover issue. He’s addressing the complications, the consequences of a fatherless culture, and it has to be addressed head-on,” Whitlock says, before asking Fishback himself, “Why have you chosen to step out here and make this a central part of your campaign for running for governor?”

“Because violence affects everybody, Jason,” Fishback says.

“You’ve got to hold people accountable. If you do an action and there are not consequences, that action is going to repeat. It is as old as time,” he adds.

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​Fearless 

The explosion of a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket resulted in an enormous conflagration that lit up the sky in Florida for miles around.

The rocket was being test-fired on Thursday at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station when it blew up at about 9 p.m. on the coast.

‘Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.’

The explosion destroyed the rocket, the erector-gantry used to move the rocket, and one of two lighting towers near the pad.

Space expert Ken Kremer explained how the explosion unfolded to WESH-TV.

“They were loading propellant into the rocket, and they started a static fire test, which is not a launch,” Kremer said. “The rocket is sitting on the pad, and they want to ignite the engines for several seconds to test them all out and make sure everything will work when they do the launch in the next few weeks. That was the plan.”

“All personnel are accounted for and safe,” Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said on social media about the incident.

“It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it,” he added. “Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”

The U.S. Space Force Eastern Range confirmed that there were no injuries and said first responders were on the scene.

The destroyed New Glenn rocket was scheduled to launch in June with 48 Leo internet satellites owned by Amazon that were intended to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system.

Musk, who has had his own rocket explosions as the founder of SpaceX, responded via social media.

“Sorry to see this, I hope you recover quickly,” he posted.

RELATED: William Shatner rips into European officials trying to ban ‘Star Trek’ motto over gender exclusion

The rocket was also intended to launch a moon lander on a test flight that would have rendezvoused with the NASA Artemis mission in Earth orbit.

“Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on social media. “We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets.”

Blue Origin was far more successful when it launched an all-female celebrity crew that included Katy Perry and Bezos’ then-fiancée, Lauren Sanchez. The space crew traveled 62 miles above Earth, experienced approximately four minutes of weightlessness, and then returned soon afterward.

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​Blue origin, Cape canaveral, Jeff bezos, Rocket explosion, Politics 

The Washington Nationals are in hot water over a player who dares to stand up for his Christian faith.

James O’Keefe’s guerrilla journalism outfit published undercover footage on Tuesday featuring an apparent admission by the Washington Nationals’ director of community relations that the team has avoided using pitcher Trevor Williams in Nationals social media content on account of his criticism of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — a group that mocks the Catholic Church, its rituals and beliefs, and its nuns.

Background

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a San Francisco-based radical group that touts itself as a “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns.”

‘The public has a right to know whether that view is tolerated, encouraged, or operationalized by the organization.’

Since its inception on Easter Sunday 1979, the SPI — whose motto is “go forth and sin some more,” an inversion of Christ’s command — has ridiculed Catholic teaching and doctrine, mocking the church’s orthodox views on marriage, sexuality, transgenderism, and abortion.

This anti-Christian group regularly holds “Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary” contests; held a “condom savior mass”; saw one of its members arrested for allegedly masturbating in public; routinely mocks the crucifixion; participated in drag shows targeting children; and according to Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, once “tricked an archbishop into giving them the Eucharist — the most important sacrament of the Catholic faith — so they could defile it.”

Pitcher Trevor Williams, who is Catholic, was among the handful of players in the Major League Baseball league who spoke out in 2023 after the L.A. Dodgers decided to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with a “Community Hero Award” for “their countless hours of community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges, in addition to promoting human rights and respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment.”

RELATED: Five standout denunciations and warnings in Pope Leo XIV’s new papal encyclical

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

“A Major League Baseball game is a place where people from all walks of life should feel welcomed, something I greatly respect and support. This is the purpose of different themed nights hosted by the organization, including Pride Night,” wrote Williams on May 30, 2023.

“To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion, and the religion of over 4 million people in Los Angeles county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization,” added the pitcher.

“I believe it is essential for the Dodgers to reconsider their association with this group and strive to create an inclusive environment that does not demean or disrespect the religious beliefs of any fan or employee,” Williams continued. “I also encourage my fellow Catholics to reconsider their support of an organization that allows this type of mockery of its fans to occur.”

Blacklisted

Sean Hudson, the community relations director whose LinkedIn page was recently deleted, appears to tell an undercover reporter in the footage published by James O’Keefe that Trevor Williams “is very Catholic.”

“He’s super Catholic — all these tattoos that mean a lot,” Hudson appears to say. “But last year, I don’t understand the full scope, the Dodgers had a group out to the stadium who were drag queens who sometimes dressed up as nuns. … He went on like a social media like — ‘this is wrong, this is my religion, you all are mocking it.'”

“So we don’t use him,” continued Hudson. “Because of that, we don’t use him on social.”

Later in the video, Hudson appears to state, “If you’re a sports fan and we piss you off, where else are you going to go?”

The Washington Nationals X account does not appear to have referenced Williams since September 2025 and has only sporadically made mention of him since he criticized the SPI in 2023.

Neither the MLB nor the Washington Nationals responded to Blaze News’ request for comment.

O’Keefe’s journalism outfit suggested that Hudson’s “admission raises legal questions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which explicitly prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on religion, including limiting their opportunities or visibility due to sincerely held beliefs.”

When later confronted by conservative commentator Alex Stein about his claim, Hudson said, “That doesn’t sound like something I would say.”

The team, however, told EWTN News that it was “aware of comments made by an employee, which were recorded without the employee’s knowledge and disseminated without his permission.”

“The statements are not only factually incorrect, but do not reflect the views, opinions, or actions of the Washington Nationals,” the team said in its statement. “The Nationals are dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for our players, fans, and staff, and we vehemently deny any allegations to the contrary.”

Backlash

Kelsey Reinhardt, the CEO of CatholicVote, wrote to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon on Wednesday, urging the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to “investigate possible unlawful religious discrimination by the Washington Nationals Baseball Club against pitcher Trevor Williams.”

Reinhardt suggested that if Hudson’s remarks are accurate, an MLB “franchise may have taken an adverse employment-related action, reputational action, promotional action, or workplace action against a player because of his religion and his sincere public expression of Catholic belief.”

“This matter is not merely a private dispute between an athlete and his employer,” said Reinhardt. “The Washington Nationals are a Major League Baseball franchise in the nation’s capital. Their conduct sends a public message. If a senior executive of such an organization believes that a player should be excluded from official team communications because he is ‘very Catholic’ and because he defended Catholics from religious mockery, then the public has a right to know whether that view is tolerated, encouraged, or operationalized by the organization.”

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.) has also asked the DOJ to take “decisive action.”

Williams, who hasn’t posted on X since 2023 and hasn’t posted on Instagram since January, said in an Instagram post on Friday, “The first reading from today comes from 1 Peter 4:7-13. The writer of this epistle is addressing newly baptized Christians, reminding them that they are holy and they should act like it. This entire chapter really addresses the social costs of the faith — not necessarily persecution, but the sometimes awkward ‘ehh I don’t do that anymore.'”

“As my friend Fr. Joshua said ‘Sometimes we lean into it and bravely bear witness to Christ’s truth; sometimes we dodge it and regret it later, feeling we’ve let Jesus down,'” continued Williams. “Therefore Christians are called in those moments to love, to suffer, and to sacrifice, for when we act like Christ in those moments, we imitate Jesus. We even share in the merciful work of Jesus when we choose to act like him in the face of even the smallest insult.”

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​Catholicvote, Christian faith, Civil rights act, Drag shows, Major league baseball, Sisters of perpetual indulgence, Washington nationals, Civil rights division, Justice department, Trevor williams, Faith, Catholic, Politics, Lauren boebert, Kelsey reinhardt 

Discussions about demographic decline in the West tend to focus on mass immigration, with good reason. Debates over borders, assimilation, and the so-called “Great Replacement” dominate political discourse across Europe and America, often framed as a demographic transformation imposed by elites.

But there is another kind of “replacement” under way — one that appears far less imposed and more self-managed. Across much of the developed world, societies are suppressing the primal biological imperative to reproduce, turning instead toward technological, emotional, and economic substitutes for children and family life.

Playgrounds grow quiet as kindergartens are repurposed into elderly care homes.

Birth rates are falling off a cliff, and the debate has long since outgrown dry statistics, morphing instead into a full-blown dystopian spectacle. As biological motherhood retreats, a new era of artificial and symbolic surrogacy is emerging. From robotic companions to the vicarious consumption of mommy blogs, the traditional cradle is being replaced by market-driven alternatives.

Fur-baby boom

While I often praise South Korea for its socially conservative traditions, its penchant for great zombie movies, and its willingness to lock up annoying American YouTubers in labor prisons, the country also faces an unfortunate distinction: It now has the world’s lowest fertility rate. At 0.8, this figure is far below the 2.1 replacement level needed for population stability without immigration.

As a result, unusual trends have emerged among Korean women. For example, 2023 marked the first time that pet strollers outsold baby carriages. This is more than a passing trend — last year the number of South Korean households with “fur babies” hit 15 million — or one in three.

The country’s infrastructure is visibly transforming to reflect its shrinking youth population. This March, at the start of the academic year, more than 200 elementary schools admitted no new pupils. The result is the rise of ghost schools across rural provinces — empty buildings that once housed children but now stand silent.

With nearly half of South Korea’s population expected to be senior citizens within 30 years, the government has taken drastic measures. Playgrounds grow quiet as kindergartens are repurposed into elderly care homes. What was once celebrated as the miracle on the Han River has evolved into a cautionary tale of a society that has optimized itself for productivity at the expense of its continuity.

RELATED: Meet the ‘femosphere’: Angry young women who love to hate men

Francis G. Mayer/Getty Images

Cartoon courtship

While South Korea replaces children with pets, Japan has pioneered replacing human intimacy with a Wi-Fi connection. Some young woman have adopted a new sexual identity — 2D exclusive. A product of otaku (geek) culture gone mainstream, 2D aficionados — including Japanese Minister of State for Economic Security Kimi Onoda — prefer anime characters over living, breathing men, who tend to be less compliant and far more demanding.

Across the West, the refusal to reproduce is commonly framed as a personal choice. Scratch the surface, however, and you often find a reaction to powerful external forces. Chief among these is eco-anxiety about climate change, a sentiment especially pronounced among Western women.

Much like postcolonial studies, green ideology has inculcated a sense of guilt and victimhood, convincing many that bringing children into the world is reckless because of the Earth’s inevitable heat death. A major survey published in the Lancet revealed that 52% of Americans under 25 hesitate to have children, specifically due to concerns about the climate. The prevailing belief is that the worst thing a woman can do is increase her carbon footprint by bringing a baby into a doomed world.

The sharent trap

The vacuum left by declining birth rates has also allowed a strange new form of parasocial parenting to emerge. In the United States, the rise of a kind of “digital godmother” culture enables millions of childless followers to experience motherhood vicariously. Influencers like Savannah LaBrant carefully curate a highly scripted version of domestic life, offering their vast audiences an illusion of participation in parenthood.

LaBrant engages in “sharenting” — because everything fashionable now needs a stupid portmanteau — where parents share intimate details of their children’s lives online. Her followers develop deep one-sided emotional bonds with her three children, Rosie, Zealand, and Sunday, witnessing their lives from ultrasound images to toddler — yes, even their births were documented. Strangers offer advice, believing they are actively participating in raising the children.

The constant stream of photos and videos drives engagement and enhances the most important thing — brand value. Sponsorships range from HelloFresh to mobile gaming apps. (Nothing quite says “home and hearth” like an ad for RAID: Shadow Legends.)

Unbirth of a nation

In the United Kingdom, mass immigration goes hand in hand with reproductive policy. The number of abortions performed since 1968 — 10.9 million — almost equals the number of immigrants currently residing in the U.K. Immigration has replaced a generation of unborn children and sustained the workforce. Rather than incentivizing native births, state policy has increasingly adopted a neoliberal model that treats people as fungible units — importing adults to fill labor needs, instead of nurturing local family growth.

This global trend is more than a simple decline in birth rates — it marks a paradigm shift in our assumptions about what gives life meaning. For many, it used to be the simple yet profound drive to leave a legacy for the next generation. The free market has proven itself quite adept at selling quick-fix alternatives to this rewarding, yet often thankless, pursuit. Immigration reform is badly needed, but no amount of border security will sustain a culture that cares so little about its future.

​Climate change, Fertility rate, Great replacement, Mass immigration, South korea, Unborn children, Border security, Culture, Europe, West, Lifestyle 

Video captured an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protester in New Jersey seemingly threatening to kill ICE agents and their families, and the Justice Department has vowed to find him and arrest him.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department is actively seeking to identify and arrest the man from the protest at an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey.

‘I promise you, we will find him. And when we find him, we will arrest him.’

Footage of the apparent threats was aired during Blanche’s appearance on “The Will Cain Show” on Fox News.

“I will kill your whole f**king family!” the protester appeared to scream.

“Your whole f**king family is dead! Your children, your wife, all dead!” the suspect added. “I have your face, motherf**ker! You’re dead!”

Blanche said the Justice Dept. was actively seeking to identify the man.

“That’s a federal crime. Not only threatening the ICE officer, but think about how disgusting this individual is, threatening his family and his children with death,” said Blanche.

“What is this man [the ICE officer] doing? He’s just doing his job standing there,” he added.

“We see [the protester’s] face, and I promise you, we will find him. And when we find him, we will arrest him.”

The video was apparently recorded by journalist Nick Sortor, who related on social media that he had warned the man at the scene.

“I politely warned him last night that he was committing a federal felony, and recommended he stop,” said Sortor. “He said ‘I don’t care man’ and kept up.”

RELATED: WATCH: Protester screeches ‘Nazi b***h!’ at Fox News reporter on air during NJ protest

“Someone’s going to get a VERY unwanted door knock here shortly,” added Sortor.

Anti-ICE protests have continued for months at the center, but they escalated in recent days after there were reports of a hunger strike from detainees protesting the allegedly poor living conditions in detainment, including lack of medical attention.

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​Anti-ice protest, Political violence, Immigration enforcement, Ice detention center, Politics, Ice 

You’re likely familiar with the cultural script on aging.

It reads less like a list of life stages and more like a slow-motion obituary. Hit 50, and the back gives out. Hit 60, and the memory springs a leak. Hit 70, and sleep comes in seven installments, courtesy of the bladder. Hit 80, and people start congratulating you for standing up. Hit 90, and they congratulate you for waking up.

Consistency, the least marketable word in wellness, turns out to be the key to thriving well past retirement age.

The script is, and always was, a lie.

Boomer bashing

My Irish grandmother is in her 80s and still as sharp as a tack. She remembers names, dates, family scandals, who owed whom money in 1987, and every embarrassing thing any grandchild ever did. You don’t win an argument with her. If you’re lucky, you survive it. She runs mental laps around people half her age. She’s not an anomaly or some statistical freak. This is what a properly engaged human brain looks like in its ninth decade.

So why does society treat people like her as exceptions to a rule that isn’t real? Because ageism remains the last fully acceptable prejudice in America and beyond.

Try selling a birthday card that mocks any other group. Now walk into any drugstore and count the ones mocking the elderly. There’s a whole aisle. Sitcoms cast grandparents as lost souls who can barely use a cell phone. Tech companies build entire pitch decks around how hopelessly out of touch anyone over 40 has become.

“OK, Boomer” was marketed as a joke. In reality, it was thinly veiled contempt, aimed at the very people whose work made possible the lives of those mocking them. The bias is so normalized that it barely registers as bias, which is exactly how the worst ones operate. And ageism is the most destructive of them all. Every other prejudice targets a group most of us will never belong to. Ageism targets the group nearly all of us will join.

Brain boost

That casual contempt fuels the narratives about aging more than biology ever did. Tell a population for 50 years that decline is destiny, and the population obligingly declines. Tell people they become invisible at 60, and many will retreat into the shadows.

The trouble is that the data has stopped cooperating with the cruel, condescending script.

A recent study from the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas suggests it never should have. Researchers tracked nearly 4,000 adults between the ages of 19 and 94 across three years and found measurable improvements in brain performance at every age. People in their 70s and 80s improved. Some of the biggest jumps came from those who started with the lowest scores. The brain behaves less like a dying battery and more like a muscle. Train it, and it adapts. Ignore it, and it atrophies.

And by training, I don’t mean learning Mandarin or memorizing pi to a thousand digits. Small daily habits did most of the heavy lifting. A few minutes of intentional mental work: a crossword, sudoku, some journaling. Real conversation with real humans. No magic pills, no ice baths, no hyperbaric chambers in the garage. Consistency, the least marketable word in wellness, turns out to be the key to thriving well past retirement age.

RELATED: To lose weight, ditch the ‘unisex’ approach

ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images

Geriatric gains

Aging is real, of course. Time charges rent. But modern culture keeps confusing aging with abandonment, and those are entirely different events.

Consider muscle loss. The standard line is that getting weaker after 60 is simply nature taking its course. But research on resistance training in older adults keeps producing very different results. Nursing homes that add basic strength programs see residents regain and even improve their balance and mobility.

The brain, as the aforementioned study shows, follows the same pattern. Older cab drivers memorizing routes, musicians practicing scales, retirees picking up chess, grandparents who refuse to stop hosting Sunday dinner: These people keep their wits because their wits never get a day off.

Meanwhile, plenty of 35-year-olds are already mentally cooked. Screen addiction, sleep deprivation, isolation, ultra-processed food, chronic stress, and the dopamine slot machine in everyone’s pocket are producing cognitive burnout in people who still rely on Mommy and Daddy for money. A 20-year-old flicking through TikTok at red lights may have a shorter attention span than a 60-year-old who reads two books a month and still finds silence tolerable.

Seasoned seniors

The myth that older people cannot learn is exactly that — a myth, and a lazy one. They process some things more slowly, then make up the difference with pattern recognition, emotional regulation, and the kind of patience that only comes from having already survived the worst version of yourself. Communities that lose their elders lose their memory. Civilizations that worship only youth end up run by impulsive adults trapped in permanent adolescence, which explains a great deal about the past few decades.

Emotionally, older adults often report more gratitude, steadiness, and perspective than they had at 30. After enough funerals and failures, trivial drama loses its grip. An 80-year-old who buried a husband and raised five kids on a tight budget has a much more grounded perspective on reality than a heavily medicated influencer melting down over a comment thread.

The brain stays dynamic longer than anyone assumed. The body stays trainable longer than anyone assumed. The real tragedy isn’t aging but how early people are taught to give up on themselves.

There is your chronological age and your biological age, and the two are often barely on speaking terms. Plenty of 40-year-olds are running on fumes and ibuprofen. Plenty of 80-year-olds are operating with the energy and mental wattage of someone half their age. My grandmother certainly is.

​Make america healthy again, Aging, Brain health, Fitness, Ageism, Boomers, Lifestyle 

It has never been easier for hostile foreign powers to weaken the United States, and leftist influencer Hasan Piker is a great example of why that is.

“The Cuban regime wanted him in Cuba,” Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck says. “Not just as a tourist or, you know, a curious American. According to Hasan himself, the Cuban government reached out through the embassy contacts and essentially said, ‘Hey, if internet access is the problem, we’ll provide it.’”

Piker discussed the situation during a recent podcast appearance, explaining that the Cuban government “hit [his] contact” and told him that if the “only thing stopping [him] from coming to Cuba was the consistent internet access,” the government could “make it happen.”

“So they want him over there now. Why? This is a communist dictatorship,” Glenn says. “A regime that jails dissidents, kills them, censors free speech. A regime that has survived decades through propaganda, intelligence operations, anti-American agitation.”

“You’ve got hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Cubans living here in the United States that escaped this monstrous regime. And they wanted to facilitate one of America’s biggest online political voices,” he continues.

Glenn points out that hostile governments don’t accidentally invest in Americans with large political platforms.

“Cuba’s not calling me and going, ‘Oh, you want a landline? We’ll get you a landline,’” he says.

“Let me be really clear on something here. That does not make Hasan Piker a Cuban spy, OK? More of a useful idiot,” he says, explaining that it’s more “about influence networks.”

“This is about how foreign states cultivate narratives inside free society. And America’s been asleep at the switch while this has been happening for years,” he continues. “The Soviet Union understood this. China understands this. Iran understands this. Cuba understands this. Hell, America, our CIA — we probably invented it.”

“And what we all learned is you don’t defeat — especially America — tank versus tank any more. You have to weaken trust. You fracture identity. You radicalize citizens,” he says.

“You convince young Americans that their country is evil, irredeemable, racist, colonial, genocidal, corrupt beyond repair, whatever the popular thing is this week. And once you get enough people believing that, then the republic just begins collapsing from the inside voluntarily,” he explains.

“That’s ideological warfare,” he adds. “And that’s what is happening.”

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​China, Cia, Glenn beck, Hasan piker, Iran, Soviet union, The blaze, Cuba, The glenn beck program 

As the Pentagon continues releasing highly anticipated UFO files that so far span 80 years of sightings, the public continues asking why all of the video is grainy.

And Republican Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.) is one of them.

“The stuff they’re dropping right now is just — I mean, this is the deep-state classic,” Burchett said.

“You know, they won’t show y’all some of the stuff that we’ve seen. They’re going to show stuff that is easily identifiable,” he continued after the latest UFO files drop.

“So there obviously is footage of easily identifiable UFOs,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

However, the newly released UFO files aren’t the only recent evidence of extraterrestrials.

Unlike the grainy footage in the UFO files, executive producer Keith Malinak plays one clip of a volcanic explosion in the Philippines — where a mysterious object appears after a meteor shoots behind the Mayon Volcano.

“Looks like a lightning strike almost,” Gray comments.

“So if later today you hear about aliens in the Philippines, well, now you understand why they originated there, because that’s where they landed,” Malinak says.

“Yeah, if you’re an alien,” Jeff Fisher jokes, “you want to land in the Philippines.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The phillippines, Pat gray, Keith malinak, Jeff fisher, Ufo, Uap, Aliens, Tim burchett, Pat gray unleashed 

A naked man emerged from the Biloxi River in Mississippi last weekend and physically attacked a homeowner who approached the man to see if he needed help, police told WLOX-TV.

But the homeowner shot the man several times after the attack, the station said.

‘How awful for everyone involved.’

The incident began around 8 p.m. Saturday when the Biloxi Police Department got a report of a naked man coming out of the Biloxi River and walking up to homes on Woolmarket Lake Road, WLOX said.

Officials said one of the homeowners — who wasn’t in his residence at the time — saw the man on his doorbell camera and called his next-door neighbor, the station said.

The neighbor walked to the home to see if the man needed help, but the man attacked the neighbor, police told WLOX.

With that, the neighbor shot the man multiple times, the station said.

The man got the gun away from the neighbor and re-entered the river, officials told WLOX.

A search and rescue team was called, and the man was found dead in the river around 2 a.m. Sunday, the station said.

RELATED: Home invasion suspect comes face-to-face with gun-toting homeowner — who is more than ready for him

Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer identified the man as 31-year-old Peter Virden III of Gulfport, WLOX reported.

Switzer said Virden was found dead in the river with multiple gunshot wounds, the station added.

The neighbor suffered facial cuts and bruises from the attack but was not severely injured, police told WLOX.

The station said officials reviewed video from the home’s security system, which recorded the whole incident.

A number of commenters let their thoughts be known under WLOX’s Facebook post about the incident. The following are a few of them:

“How awful for everyone involved,” one commenter wrote.”I feel for the neighborhood. How traumatic for him,” another user said. “Just going about your day one minute then having to [shoot] someone to defend yourself.””So sad,” another commenter shared. “Prayers for everyone involved in this. Heartbreaking.””Prayers to the brave neighbor [who] not only checked on his neighbor’s property when called but also had to defend himself,” another user said. “He was totally justified. Please try to tell me if a naked man comes to my porch (AND ATTACKS me) that I’m not justified.”

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​Physical attack, Biloxi river, Biloxi, Mississippi, Fatal shooting, Self-defense, Naked man, Crime, Second amendment 

The widow of assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk will join Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey, and other influential conservative women in San Antonio next month for the Turning Point Women’s Leadership Summit — an event geared toward “women who are ready to rise fully into the life they were created to lead and who value courage, conviction, and clarity in every season.”

News of Erika Kirk’s imminent arrival enraged at least one radical. Jacob Wenske, 26, allegedly threatened to murder the TPUSA CEO and bomb the event.

Wenske was arrested on Thursday and slapped with a pair of third-degree felony charges of making a terroristic threat involving public fear or serious bodily injury or public disruption. His bond has been set at $120,000.

‘God’s justice is certain.’

According to the arrest warrant obtained by KSAT-TV, Wenske allegedly replied to an April social media post about the three-day TPUSA event, writing, “I know exactly where to bomb.”

Wenske allegedly said in a separate post, “I can’t wait to be the valet for her escort,” apparently referring to Erika Kirk, who is scheduled to be a featured speaker at the event.

An email sent in January 2026 from an account that is registered to Wenske stated, “Death to Erika Kirk and every single speaker there!! America will live on without those scum on this earth. Every Christian nationalist shall perish in the bombing that will take place at every single Turning Point rally and event,” said the warrant.

RELATED: TPUSA speaker hit with death threats after trans-identifying student is killed — suspect turns himself in

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Leftists in the Democratic Party, the media, academia, and elsewhere have fearmongered for years about the imagined threat posed by “Christian nationalism” — a catchall term used to describe their ideological foes who also happen to be Christian in a nation almost entirely founded by Christians and where today over six in 10 adults are Christian.

James Talarico, for instance — the Democrat nominee running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat — recently claimed that “Christian nationalism is a threat to democracy” and that “when fascism comes to America, it’ll be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”

CNN, which has advanced similar fear narratives, released a documentary earlier this year titled “The Rise of Christian Nationalism.” The hour-long agitprop not only warned of the ascendancy of “white evangelical culture” but identified Erika Kirk’s murdered husband as a proponent of the movement — even though Charlie Kirk stated in 2024 that “Christian Nationalism” is “a boogeyman they’ve invested to silence you” and noted before his assassination that he had never described himself as a Christian nationalist.

“Turning Point USA takes all threats seriously and we work closely with law enforcement at all levels to respond to and resolve any threats,” the organization said in a statement. “We are grateful to the San Antonio Police Department and the FBI for their rapid response and arrest of the individual making these threats.”

TPUSA noted further that the safety of its attendees, speakers, and staff is its top priority and that all of its events “include enhanced, multi-layered security measures that are enforced by both private security and local police.”

“We refuse to let threats silence us,” added TPUSA.

Erika Kirk wrote the following in a Thursday post on X, “The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Psalm 37:12-15.”

Kirk added, “God’s justice is certain.”

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​Christian, Erika kirk, Tpusa, San antonio, Texas, Terrorism, Leftism, Christian nationalism, Threat, Bomb, Politics 

You’re not supposed to say it out loud, Tilda.

Actress Tilda Swinton admitted this week what many likely suspected all along. Awards galas sometimes hand out trophies for films that align with their political views first and foremost.

Carolla has never played the Hollywood game, building his own podcasting empire ‘pirate ship’ to avoid having to bow to industry groupthink.

Quality? Yeah, that matters, but not as much as you think.

Take “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s cartoonish 2004 film excoriating President George W. Bush. The documentary won the Palm d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Now, Swinton is admitting that the film’s hard-left politics helped seal its victory:

I was a very vocal advocate of that film getting the Palme d’Or. For a very specific reason, which was a political reason. Not necessarily party political, but my argument was, at that time, Michael Moore was making extremely important statements that were not admissible in any other medium.

Yes, the mainstream media made sure that Moore’s opinions couldn’t be heard in any venue. Now, will Oscar voters admit the same about the award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth”? Given how few predictions Al Gore got right in the film, the chances are getting better by the day …

Stuporgirl

The forecast for the next DC Comics blockbuster is, well, not so super.

“Supergirl,” set to fly into theaters June 26, lacks the cultural cache of the character’s cousin, the Man of Steel — to say the least.

Still, the upcoming film could be a nice fit for audiences eager for popcorn entertainment. Except the film’s star, Milly Alcock, keeps getting in the way.

The actress started trouble a few weeks back by declaring herself the victim of the “male gaze” as part of the “Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon.” Pop culture observers rolled their eyes, hard, over that position.

If you thought men with functioning eyeballs were evil, wait until you meet Alcock’s latest formidable foes — Christian fathers.

Great Scott!

Here’s what she told Variety about her online critics.

“And it’s from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts … or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me.”

You never go the full Rachel Zegler — the “Snow White” actress whose chronically divisive press comments helped sink that live-action update.

Can you guess what happened next? Yes, “Supergirl” is tracking poorly, with box office estimates somewhere between previous super duds “The Marvels” and “Black Adam.”

Was it something she said? Well, yes …

RELATED: ‘ROAST’ BEEF: Chelsea Handler scolds fellow comics for ‘racist,’ ‘sexist’ jokes

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Barker’s blank check

Here’s $10 million. Now, what did you have in mind?

Young director Curry Barker is Hollywood’s new “it” talent. He made a few YouTube videos, including the creepy “Milk & Serial” horror film, which opened the industry’s eyes.

Now that his big-screen debut, “Obsession,” is raking in millions from a microscopic budget, everyone wants to be in the Curry Barker business.

Badly.

He’s already been given the keys to the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise. Here you go, kid. Make it interesting again.

Now, one studio has offered Barker $10 million for his next film, according to the Hollywood Reporter — any film, apparently, since Barker hasn’t had time to even pitch a concept to the studio in question.

Every teen with a YouTube account just stood up straight in his gaming chair, dreaming of a Barker-like payday …

Kimmel kayfabe?

Adam Carolla got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, an unexpected honor in more ways than one. Carolla has never played the Hollywood game, building his own podcasting empire “pirate ship” to avoid having to bow to industry groupthink.

And his old “The Man Show” buddy, Jimmy Kimmel, showed up to mark the occasion.

The two don’t see eye-to-eye politically speaking, and that’s an understatement. Carolla leans to the right but isn’t a political creature by nature. He’s driven by common sense, mostly. Kimmel is to the left of Bernie Sanders, and he spends every waking hour obsessing about a certain world leader.

Kimmel remains close with Carolla, a tribute to their friendship and an ability to see past political differences. He said as much during the ceremony honoring the former “Loveline” co-host.

So why does Kimmel and his wife claim they’ve ended ties with friends and family members for disagreeing with their political views? Stephen L. Miller, AKA @redsteeze on X, suggested Kimmel’s anti-MAGA mien feels more like a pose given his admiration for Carolla.

Either way, the Hollywood Walk of Fame got a little brighter this week.

​Cannes film festival, Jimmy kimmel, Michael moore, Rachel zegler, Texas chainsaw massacre, Toto recall, Curry barker, Adam carolla, Culture 

To many Americans, Alberta may seem like a distant Canadian province. But the oil-rich western region increasingly resembles a northern version of America’s populist red states — deeply distrustful of liberal federal power, economically tied to energy production, and increasingly willing to challenge the legitimacy of national institutions.

The difference is that Alberta’s growing independence movement is no longer content merely to complain about Ottawa — it wants out.

‘Who amongst us thought when we were growing up that one day we’d have the opportunity to create a new country?’ Rath said. ‘How much fun is this?’

Now, Alberta independence advocates are accusing Conservative Alberta Premier Danielle Smith of blocking a referendum on separation in order to maintain relations with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government in Ottawa.

Pipe dream

Jeff Rath, legal counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Project and one of the leading voices advocating Alberta independence, claims Smith is quietly delaying a provincial referendum on separation in hopes of securing federal support for a pipeline route through neighboring British Columbia.

Rath does not oppose pipelines themselves. In fact, many Alberta separatists increasingly argue that the province’s economic future lies in deeper integration with American energy markets rather than continued dependence on Ottawa and Eastern Canada.

Rath also questioned whether the proposed pipeline is even necessary, arguing that Alberta will soon have substantial additional export capacity through existing and expanding infrastructure connected to U.S. markets.

In his view, Smith is trading away referendum momentum for a politically compromised deal that still leaves Alberta subject to Ottawa’s climate and energy policies.

“She’s literally sold out everybody in Alberta for a completely unnecessary pipeline,” Rath said. Rath told Align that a source close to Smith informed him of what he described as a behind-the-scenes arrangement between the premier and Carney.

Slowing momentum

The dispute highlights growing tensions inside Alberta’s separatist movement, which has increasingly clashed with Smith despite her frequent criticism of Ottawa and the Liberal government. While Smith has positioned herself as a defender of Alberta’s autonomy within Canada, many independence advocates now accuse her of slowing momentum at a moment when they believe public support is surging.

The conflict intensified after Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice Shaina Leonard questioned the legitimacy of an independence petition signed by more than 300,000 Albertans. Leonard ruled that Elections Alberta may have improperly assessed the petition because some indigenous bands oppose Alberta separation.

Leonard, who was appointed by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has since become a target of separatist frustration over what many in the movement view as judicial interference in a democratic process.

RELATED: FREE ALBERTA! Nod from US energizes Canada sovereignty movement

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Referendum on a referendum

But Rath insists that neither the courts nor Smith can prevent Albertans from voting on independence.

The lawyer — who has met several times with members of President Donald Trump’s administration — said he was astonished that Smith is now proposing what critics have described as a referendum on whether to hold a referendum.

Rath argues that Smith already possesses the legal authority to move forward immediately.

When asked by Align whether an independence referendum can proceed despite Leonard’s ruling, Rath replied: “One hundred percent.”

Rath pointed to paragraph 76 of Leonard’s decision, which he says explicitly affirms the Alberta government’s authority under the province’s Referendum Act to place the question on the ballot without relying on the Citizen Initiative Act petition process.

“What’s going up to the Court of Appeal is whether or not … there’s a requirement for First Nations consultation or whether it’s unconstitutional — not whether the question goes on the ballot at all,” Rath said.

Rath sharply criticized Leonard’s ruling, calling it political rather than legal.

“This is fundamentally a political decision and not a legal decision,” he told Align.

Gathering steam

He also argued that the ruling has backfired by energizing the independence movement rather than slowing it.

“People in Alberta are furious,” Rath said. “Even people that are sitting on the fence are telling me, ‘I was sitting on the fence until I see that all it takes is one liberal justice to tell me that I don’t have a right to do something, and I’m done with this.’”

Rath said frustration with Canada’s judiciary is now fueling broader constitutional discussions inside the province, including calls for an elected judiciary similar to the American system.

The controversy, he argued, has transformed Alberta independence from a fringe political idea into a serious constitutional debate.

“This is probably good for another 5%,” Rath said, referring to support for separation.

Once in a generation

Despite the legal battle and political uncertainty, Rath described the movement in optimistic terms, framing Alberta independence as a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

“Who amongst us thought when we were growing up that one day we’d have the opportunity to create a new country?” Rath said. “How much fun is this?”

Smith, meanwhile, remains in a politically precarious position. Although she has repeatedly said she opposes Alberta separation and would campaign against it in any referendum, many members of her governing United Conservative Party support giving voters the opportunity to decide the issue directly.

Even many Albertans who oppose separation still support holding a referendum, Rath said.

“100% of those people believe that Albertans are adults and should have the right to be able to answer this question.”

Whether Smith can continue balancing Alberta nationalism with her federalist instincts may determine not only the future of her government but also the trajectory of a separatist movement that no longer appears willing to wait patiently for Ottawa to change course.

​Alberta, Alberta independence, Canadian secession, Donald trump, Letter from canada, Mark carney, Oil, Lifestyle 

For a decade, not one lukewarm Republican incumbent senator or governor has lost a primary and been replaced by a more conservative challenger under Donald Trump’s leadership of the GOP. That changed Tuesday night.

Four-term U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) did not merely lose to state Attorney General Ken Paxton. He got routed by 28 points.

The Paxton endorsement and Cornyn’s defeat should have marked a turning point in Trump’s political strategy. Instead, they look like the high point of the cycle.

The decisive factor was obvious: Trump finally endorsed the challenger instead of the RINO incumbent. Now, imagine what the party might look like if he had done that over the past five election cycles.

The point is not to dwell on missed opportunities. Upcoming primaries in red states will determine whether conservatives retain any real statewide fighters.

Paxton’s victory proves Trump could finish his term by draining the swamp. Sadly, he more often sides with the swamp or stays silent long enough for moneyed interests to crush more principled candidates.

Most insurgent challengers lack Paxton’s name recognition. But if Trump’s endorsement could move Paxton from a close race to a 240-county rout, it could make lesser-known challengers competitive against weak incumbents. In open seats, a grassroots conservative with Trump’s backing would be nearly unbeatable.

Several upcoming races offer conservatives a chance to make red states actually govern like red states. Too often, Trump is absent or on the wrong side.

Start with Iowa.

Gov. Kim Reynolds is retiring, and Democrats have fielded a credible challenger pretending to be a moderate while running against land grabs. Republicans need a non-corporatist nominee who does not carry the baggage of the status quo Republicans in Congress.

Betting markets have RINO Rep. Randy Feenstra as the heavy favorite for the GOP nomination because he has the most money and name identification. Conservatives have fielded multiple candidates, but with only days until the election, Zach Lahn has the most traction and the clearest message against data centers and land grabs.

Thankfully, Trump has not endorsed Feenstra. But if he endorsed Lahn, Lahn could win outright without a runoff.

The Iowa Senate race shows the opposite problem. Former state Sen. Jim Carlin challenged Sen. Joni Ernst after she obstructed Pete Hegseth’s nomination. Trump should have endorsed Carlin. Instead, he encouraged Ernst to run again. Then, when Ernst retired thanks to Carlin’s hard work, Trump endorsed RINO Rep. Ashley Hinson, ensuring no improvement over Ernst.

RELATED: Trump-backed candidate easily wins primary to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky

Luke Sharrett/Getty Images

Trump made a similar move in Louisiana. Sen. Bill Cassidy was already politically wounded, with conservative challengers in the race. Trump could have helped finish him. Instead, he helped clear the field for Rep. Julia Letlow, a carbon capture supporter backed by major AI money who declined to run when the race looked difficult.

South Dakota presents the next major red-state test.

Sen. Mike Rounds represents everything MAGA claims to hate on social, fiscal, and national security policy. Yet Trump endorsed him last year, clearing the field and guaranteeing no serious opposition. This has become a familiar pattern. A Trump endorsement effectively cancels the primary.

The biggest prize in South Dakota is the governor’s race. After MAGA Inc. promoted Kristi Noem as a conservative champion, many of us warned she was a capricious establishment Republican. Her lieutenant governor, Larry Rhoden, took over the term and now seeks a full one. Rep. Dusty Johnson, former leader of the RINO Main Street Partnership, is also running. So is wealthy businessman Toby Doeden, who claims the MAGA label while pushing data centers.

Speaker Jon Hansen is the only conservative in the race. He led the fight against carbon capture land grabs, helped build a conservative majority in the state House, and fought the abortion amendment, marijuana amendment, and COVID tyranny in South Dakota. Now, he is fighting data centers.

A Trump endorsement would likely win the race for Hansen. Instead, conservatives have to worry that Trump might intervene on the wrong side if the race heads to a runoff.

Anyone who thought Trump’s late endorsement against Cornyn signaled a strategic turning point should look at South Carolina. Trump recently reaffirmed his endorsement of Sen. Lindsey Graham ahead of the June 9 primary against Matt Lynch and several other candidates.

Trump’s endorsements of Graham in 2020 and again now have driven off stronger challengers. That is clearly why, barring a miracle, one of the most obnoxious Republicans in the Senate will probably remain there until he dies.

Even when conservatives cannot defeat incumbent RINOs, they should at least ensure that open seats produce better Republicans. Montana shows how hard the establishment works to prevent that.

Trump and the RINO establishment that runs the Montana GOP helped execute a sleazy scheme around Sen. Steve Daines’ retirement. Daines announced his retirement on the filing deadline while the establishment had U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme lined up to walk into the seat without a primary. The goal was obvious: avoid a competitive race from a member of the Montana Freedom Caucus.

Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Gianforte, another RINO Trump ally, is at war with the state Freedom Caucus and is spending heavily to defeat conservative incumbents in the legislature next Tuesday.

RELATED: JD Vance might be unstoppable in 2028

Matt Rourke/Pool/Getty Images

This pattern keeps repeating. Trump elevates, preserves, and empowers statewide GOP leaders who hate conservatives. Those leaders then turn their guns on freedom caucus members in their own legislatures.

Idaho proved the point last week. Trump’s endorsement of Gov. Brad Little for a third term helped keep him in power. Little then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars helping defeat five conservatives in the legislature.

North Dakota shows the same dynamic. Trump cleared the field for governor two years ago and helped install Rep. Kelly Armstrong, one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress. Armstrong is not up for re-election this year, so he is using his money and clout to target the few conservatives in a legislature with almost no official Democrats but plenty of undocumented ones.

Trump has generally stayed out of state legislative races. But his long shadow of RINO endorsements now creates a greater headwind against conservative candidates than ever before.

And don’t even get me started on Trump’s endorsement of Byron Donalds in Florida to replace the greatest governor of this generation.

The Paxton endorsement and Cornyn’s defeat should have marked a turning point in Trump’s political strategy. Instead, they look like the high point of the cycle.

From here, conservatives have every reason to worry that Trump will return to his old habit: rewarding the swamp, clearing the field for weak Republicans, and leaving the movement’s best fighters to fend for themselves.

​Ashley hinson, Bill cassidy, Brad little, Donald trump, Dusty johnson, Greg gianforte, Jd vance, Jim carlin, John cornyn, Joni ernst, Julia letlow, Kelly armstrong, Ken paxton, Kim reynolds, Larry rhoden, Lindsey graham, Mike rounds, Opinion & analysis, Randy feenstra, Byron donalds, Rinos, 2026 midterms, Elections, Republicans, Congress, Maga 

A Muslim woman has been reassigned after only one week as a high school principal after troubling posts on social media were brought to the attention of the Texas school district.

The Fort Worth Independent School District said Tuesday that Shayma Alzubi was removed as the principal of Western Hills High School pending an investigation into the posts.

The post about Sharia law apparently compared the Islamic regulations to other faith-based rules such as those in Christianity.

Alzubi, who has a decade of experience in education, allegedly posted messages on Facebook defending Sharia law as well as the Black Lives Matter movement.

She also reportedly posted a message reading, “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine,” and one that showed support for COVID mask mandates in the district.

The district said in a statement to KDFW-TV that the posts violated its rules about personal politics.

“Our district leaders, educators, and staff will not inject personal political perspectives into classrooms,” reads a statement from the district to Fox News Digital. “Fort Worth ISD serves a wide array of families and students that are civically engaged and maintain a variety of perspectives. As a taxpayer-funded entity, we will remain focused on our mission of providing a high-quality education for all students.”

The post about Sharia law apparently compared Islamic regulations to other faith-based rules such as those in Christianity.

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

Alzubi’s supporters have planned a news conference at the Islamic Unity Center and are expected to demand the district immediately reinstate Alzubi as principal.

They blame “multiple right-wing bloggers” who complained that a “visibly Muslim woman was appointed as principal,” according to a press release.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations also blamed an “anti-Muslim witch hunt” in its release, which said Alzubi was targeted because she wore a traditional Islamic head scarf, or hijab.

RELATED: Arizona mother shoots woman she found with her husband — then sends him horrific photo of their child

Among those who posted about Alzubi on Tuesday was the popular Libs of TikTok account.

Alzubi was working as the assistant principal at Southwest High School before she was elevated to the principal position.

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​High school principal, Islamophobia, Black lives matter, Politics, Sharia law 

The first Trump-branded phone is officially out in the wild, but not without some controversy. While it may don the name of the 45th/47th president of the United States, the company is actually owned and operated by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Still, that didn’t stop the left-wing media from lambasting anything with the “Trump” badge simply for existing. We dig through the muck to uncover the truth about whether this device is any good. And, more importantly, is it made in the USA?

Trump Mobile T1 phone, spec for spec

I should start by saying that Blaze Media wasn’t one of the outlets that received a Trump Mobile T1 phone sample. As much as I would love to have it in my hand, I haven’t had the chance to test it outright. Without a review unit, it’s impossible to judge the build quality, materials, and snappiness of the Android launcher.

The attempt here is commendable.

Still, there are some things we can gather about the phone based on its specs, while the other stuff will have to wait for if/when a device lands on my desk.

Screenshot by Zach Laidlaw/Trump Mobile T1 phone spec sheet and preorder form

Looking over the spec sheet, there are several notable benefits the Trump Mobile T1 packs under the hood. The 512GB default internal storage option exceeds the industry standard of 128GB and 256GB found in most mid-to-high-end phones on the market, providing plenty of space for apps, photos, videos, music, and more. The battery size is exceptional, matching the milliamps found in this year’s flagship Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and just barely undercutting the 5088mAh power pack offered in the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The display size designates the T1 as a larger device, though it is 1.2 inches smaller than the top flagships. It’s also nice to see an AMOLED panel on board with its historically legendary deep blacks and vibrant colors; theoretically, content should look beautiful on the display when it’s powered on.

There are also a couple of sore spots on this phone that can’t be ignored. For starters, the Trump Mobile T1 comes with Android 15 out of the box. With Android 17 primed to launch within months or less, T1 is already behind on the software front. For the processor, Trump Mobile chose a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 series, a chipset that strictly targets mid-range devices. Unfortunately, there are four generations of the 7 series chip dating back to 2022, and without the proper number on the spec sheet, there’s no confirmation as to which one we have here. That said, based on a revelation you’ll find further down this page, we can safely suspect that the Trump Mobile T1 uses a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 from 2023, making the T1 concerningly underpowered compared to current-generation smartphones.

The Trump Mobile T1 phone comes in at an attractively low promotional price of just $499. However, based on the aged mid-range chipset and outdated version of Android, there are certainly better, more performant mid-tier devices on the market, namely the Google Pixel 10a for $499, Samsung Galaxy A57 5G for $549.99, and iPhone 17e for $599.

I’m happy to re-evaluate the phone if we receive a review unit. Otherwise, I can’t recommend the T1 on its specs alone.

A scandal, so-called

The left-wing tech media was quick to pounce on both the T1’s shortcomings and Trump supporters for buying in, calling it a low-end phone that was “embarrassing MAGA voters.” Trump Mobile certainly didn’t help the situation, either, as a new scandal emerged just as preorders began to ship.

The company is looking into reports that the personal information of 27,000 T1 preorder customers was leaked online. This data includes users’ names, shipping addresses, and phone numbers — enough to doxx someone if it landed in the wrong hands. According to the Guardian, Trump Mobile confirmed the leak to be real, though the company doesn’t believe at this time that its systems suffered a security breach. Trump Mobile went on to state that “payment card information, banking information, Social Security numbers, call records, text messages, or other highly sensitive financial data” were not compromised.

Is it really made in America?

Specs and scandals aside, let’s go back to President Trump’s original promise to release a phone that was “made in the USA.” This phrase was posted proudly on the Trump Mobile website for months before it changed to “proudly American” last year.

RELATED: Trump phones begin shipping as liberal media melts down: ‘You got scammed’

Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

That’s not the same thing, of course, but slogans are merely that. What matters most is the brass tacks of it all:

For starters, Trump Mobile is an American-made company owned by American businessmen. That’s made in the USA.The Trump Mobile T1 runs on Android, an operating system made by Google right here in Mountain View, California. That’s also made in the USA.The phone is reportedly assembled in Florida. That’s made in the USA too.Unfortunately, many of the phone’s components are made outside the USA, largely due to the manufacturing and trade policies of the 1900s. That’s just the nature of the tech industry at the moment. While Trump is trying to bring more manufacturing jobs to the USA, we don’t have the means yet to fully build a smartphone on American soil.

Three out of four isn’t bad for an “American-made” phone when China, Vietnam, and India usually dominate the phone manufacturing market. The attempt here is commendable.

Here’s where things get dicey.

While the phone may be assembled in the USA, its design is allegedly foreign. Based on the body of the phone and its specs, the T1 may actually be a rebadged HTC U24 Pro, a device that was originally released only in Taiwan and a limited segment of European countries in mid-2024.

iFixit/HTC U24 Pro, Trump Mobile T1 phone

Looking at the devices side by side, they do share some striking similarities, especially in terms of the front display and top speaker grill. Now, that doesn’t mean the T1 is an HTC U24 Pro. It’s not terribly uncommon for phone OEMs to use similar reference designs for their devices, thus cutting down on R&D to ship a product that’s mostly ready to go sooner rather than later. There are also some notable differences between the device designs, namely the camera bar and flash placement.

Still, it’s one of those things that makes you go, “Huh …” Is it an HTC? Is it just a case of imitation as the sincerest form of flattery? We may never know.

How to get a Trump Mobile T1 phone

If you’re still interested in checking out the Trump Mobile T1 for yourself, it’s available for preorder now on Trump Mobile at the introductory price of $499. There’s no telling what the final MSRP will be after the preorder period has ended, which could be any day now, so if you want one at the best rate, get it while you can. At the very least, you’ll own an interesting piece of American history.

​Tech, Trump mobile t1, Eric trump, Donald trump jr, Made in america