Category: blaze media

While BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey applauds the Trump administration’s new Moms.gov initiative for offering support and resources to mothers and pregnant women — she argues that one of the website’s goals raises serious ethical questions.

“Moms.gov is a good and new initiative by the Trump administration, and it’s a website that supports mothers and families,” Stuckey explains, noting that it helps expectant moms find nearby pregnancy care centers.

“God is working through these pregnancy care centers to give women truth, to give them resources, to connect them to believers, and to lead them to the gospel. It’s amazing what God is doing through these pregnancy centers, and I am so glad that the Trump administration is shining a light on that,” she says.

The website also provides information on nutrition and wellness for healthy pregnancies as well as breast feeding education and mental health support.

“If the left were really about supporting women and they were really about moms and babies, it would have been the Biden administration who created Moms.gov. It would have been a Democrat-led effort to make sure that moms have the resources that they need,” Stuckey says.

However, Stuckey doesn’t believe the website is as pro-life as it’s made out to be.

“On Moms.gov, the administration is promoting in vitro fertilization,” Stuckey says, pointing out that it’s being treated as a fertility treatment.

“IVF is not a fertility treatment, like it doesn’t solve infertility actually. It kind of tries to get around the issue, but it doesn’t solve the underlying cause of infertility,” she says.

And there are also “many ethical considerations” to make when discussing IVF.

“IVF almost always creates extra embryos that are stored, that are thrown away, that are frozen forever or used in experiments. Very often, this is a eugenic-type process where a couple will create more embryos than they could possibly transfer,” Stuckey explains.

“The vast majority of cases make as many embryos as you possibly can. Those embryos are then graded. If there is any kind of chromosomal abnormality … those embryos are discarded. Sometimes the couple doesn’t even know that those embryos are being discarded,” she continues.

“And morally for us, this is no different than abortion,” she says, adding, “because we’ve been saying in the pro-life movement for a very long time that Dr. Seuss line, ‘A person is a person no matter how small.’”

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.

​Allie beth stuckey, Allie stuckey, Biden administration, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Breast feeding education, Chromosomal abnormality, Ethical questions, Eugenic type process, Extra embryos, Fertility treatment, In vitro fertilization, Ivf, Left support women, Make america healthy again, Mental health support, Momsgov initiative, Mothers and pregnant women, Nutrition and wellness, Pregnancy care centers, Prolife movement, Relatable, Rfk jr, Support and resources, The blaze, The trump administration, Trump administration, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

A massive brawl broke out in a Washington, D.C., Chipotle restaurant Saturday night — with chairs being thrown and used as weapons — just one day after U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced she would prosecute parents of youths taking part in “teen takeovers,” WJLA-TV reported.

The Metropolitan Police Department said officers were called around 8:41 p.m. to the Chipotle in the 1200 block of First Street SE in the Navy Yard over reports of a large fight inside the restaurant, the station said.

‘It’s really puzzling to me because there’s nothing here for adolescents or teenagers. I understand DC is taking measures to involve youth in different programs, but I really think people’s parents need to get more involved and understanding where their children are.’

Officers were already deployed nearby, monitoring a large group, and arrived within one minute of the call, WJLA said.

But police told the station that by the time officers arrived on scene, those involved in the brawl had already fled.

The station’s video report described the incident as “teen chaos in D.C.”

Ken Ledet, a Navy Yard resident, told WJLA he’s witnessed similar danger in recent months.

“It’s not shocking anymore, since this has become routine on Saturdays and Friday nights, but it’s disappointing to know this is still happening,” Ledet told the station. “I actually come to this Chipotle at least three or four times a week, so thankfully I didn’t come here last night.”

WJLA said its cameras captured the moment police officers chased down and arrested an individual just across the street, in the community’s large field area.

RELATED: Parents of thugs in ‘teen takeovers’ may face fines — and even jail time, says Jeanine Pirro

Saturday night’s incident took place just one day after Pirro announced she would prosecute parents of youths taking part “teen takeovers,” the station said.

“Starting today, my office will aggressively prosecute parents under D.C.’s curfew law,” Pirro said Friday, according to WJLA.

“It involves contributing to the delinquency of a minor. This statute makes it unlawful for an adult to enable, facilitate, or permit a minor to engage in delinquent acts,” the station added.

More from the station:

In the past, MPD has established juvenile curfew zones in response to and to prevent incidents like what unfolded Saturday. Under D.C. law, there is already a citywide curfew for anyone under 18 from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 12:01 a.m. until 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

However, under emergency laws and executive orders, the MPD chief has recently had the power to establish juvenile curfew zones in certain areas, starting at 8 p.m., that ban kids from gathering in groups of nine or more for up to three days.

Both the temporary emergency law and the most recent mayoral order expired, meaning MPD could not establish these earlier curfew zones this weekend.

The D.C. Council approved a law creating a permanent curfew, but it will not go into effect until later in the summer, the station said.

Residents like Ledet told WJLA that accountability is needed.

“It’s really puzzling to me because there’s nothing here for adolescents or teenagers. I understand D.C. is taking measures to involve youth in different programs, but I really think people’s parents need to get more involved and understanding where their children are,” Ledet noted to the station.

A police report sent to WJLA Monday morning states two groups of juveniles got into an argument inside the restaurant before things escalated into a physical fight.

The police report states that “there was no report of injuries or damage,” the station said.

Those with information are asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or text tips to 50411, WJLA added.

Indeed, teen takeovers have become a nationwide concern.

Blaze News recently reported about several such incidents in Florida, with one occurring in Tampa earlier this month involving individuals as young as 12 years of age. In April, fights erupted and sheriff’s deputies were hurt after more than 1,000 teenagers descended upon ICON Park in Orlando as part of a planned “takeover.”

Tampa Police said that with summer approaching, the growing “takeover” trend has become a concern for communities across the country.

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​Washington dc, Brawl, Fight, Chipotle, Police, Police investigation, Crime 

President Donald Trump has dropped his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service on Monday after agreeing to a settlement that requires the Department of Justice to create a fund for government lawfare victims.

Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization sued the IRS in January for $10 billion after a former IRS contractor admitted to leaking Trump’s tax documents to left-leaning media outlets.

‘The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again.’

Court filings show that the complaint was dismissed with prejudice.

Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization will receive a formal apology but no monetary damages.

“They have agreed, in exchange for the creation of this fund, to drop their pending lawsuit with prejudice, and also withdraw two administrative claims including for damages resulting from the unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax,” the DOJ announced.

As part of the settlement agreement, the attorney general established the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund to “provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”

RELATED: IRS lacks ‘adequate controls’ to protect sensitive taxpayer info from unauthorized access: IG report

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

The fund, consisting of five members appointed by the AG, will have the authority to issue formal apologies and monetary relief to victims.

One member of the fund will be selected in consultation with congressional leadership, and the president has the authority to remove any member.

RELATED: IRS contractor who leaked tax records of Donald Trump, ‘thousands’ of others gets prison time

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”

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​News, Donald trump, Trump, Trump organization, Don jr, Eric trump, Donald trump jr, Irs, Internal revenue service, Department of justice, Doj, Todd blanche, Anti-weaponization fund, Lawfare, Politics 

In March, NV Energy told a small California utility to find electricity elsewhere. By May, the rest of the country noticed. The reason? NV Energy needs the power for data centers.

Roughly 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents are about to lose 75% of their electricity supply. Their utility, Liberty Utilities, gets the other 75% from NV Energy under a decades-old arrangement. That contract expires in May 2027. NV Energy is not renewing it.

NV Energy spokesperson Katie Jo Collier says this was “a planned transition for many years, not a reaction to recent developments.” NV Energy sold its California electric assets to CalPeco (now Liberty Utilities) in 2011, after announcing the deal in 2009. It kept supplying power on a temporary basis. Extensions followed in 2015, 2020, and late 2025. Each time, Liberty had not yet lined up its own supply.

‘It’s like we don’t exist.’

The timing is not a coincidence. Northern Nevada has become one of the fastest-growing data-center corridors in the country. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have either built or are planning facilities around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno. The Desert Research Institute, using NV Energy’s own 2024 Integrated Resource Plan data, found that the 12 data-center projects in Northern Nevada could drive 5,900 megawatts of new demand by 2033. Data centers already consumed 22% of Nevada’s electricity in 2024, and that share could hit 35% by 2030.

At a regional business event last September, NV Energy Director of Business Development Jeff Brigger said, “These are unprecedented times.” He added that the company was eager to serve the new industrial load but that it could not “impact our existing customer base.” Except it is.

NV Energy pushed back last week, saying customers “will not lose power” and that the arrangement was always temporary. The company also denied that data centers influenced the decision, claiming the transition was planned more than a decade ago. But Liberty’s March filing specifically cited data centers in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center as one of the reasons NV Energy gave for ending the agreement.

A jurisdictional knot nobody wants to untangle

What makes this crisis so difficult is that no single regulator oversees the whole chain from generation to customer bills.

Liberty is a California investor-owned utility. Its customers live in California and pay rates approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. But Liberty’s grid sits inside NV Energy’s balancing authority, connects at 38 points, and relies entirely on Nevada transmission lines. Liberty’s territory is a narrow slice along California’s eastern border, inside NV Energy’s zone rather than the California Independent System Operator that coordinates the rest of the state’s grid.

RELATED: Commencement speaker praises AI and globalism — graduates crush her with boos

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Getty Images

Building a direct connection to California’s grid would mean a new transmission line west over the Sierra. Liberty President Eric Schwarzrock put the cost at “hundreds of millions of dollars” with significant land impacts.

The CPUC approves Liberty’s rates and procurement requests. It cannot order NV Energy to keep selling wholesale power or tell Nevada how to plan for data centers. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates interstate transmission and wholesale electricity sales. California sets the rules, Nevada runs the wires, federal jurisdiction applies to the wholesale market, and nobody is accountable for the outcome.

In March 2026, Liberty asked the CPUC to authorize an expedited request for proposals for replacement energy beginning June 1, 2027. Liberty’s filing said NV Energy cited data centers in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center area and northern Nevada transmission constraints among the reasons for ending the arrangement.

Danielle Hughes, a North Lake Tahoe resident, CEO of the nonprofit Tahoe Spark, and a supervisor at the California Energy Commission’s Efficiency Division, put it plainly to Fortune: “It’s like we don’t exist.”

Rates were already climbing

The supply crisis lands on top of an existing affordability fight. In its 2025 general rate case, Liberty originally asked for a 19.1% revenue increase, which would have meant about $37.51 more per month for the average residential customer. The CPUC approved an 11.4% increase instead. The rate case highlighted wildfire costs, insurance premiums, and infrastructure spending in a high-risk mountain region. The CPUC noted Liberty’s wildfire exposure and its exclusion from California’s AB 1054 Wildfire Fund, suggesting that rising insurance costs (quoted at $31.7 million alone) for small utilities could warrant future rulemaking. Tahoe Spark opposed the rate-case settlement, arguing that it failed to examine the interstate wholesale power structure underlying the costs paid by California ratepayers.

Hughes says Tahoe is treated as a wealthy vacation-home market even though year-round residents include low-income workers and people who staff the ski lifts, hotels, and restaurants that keep the place running. The basin’s demand pattern illustrates how different this territory is from the rest of California: While most regional utilities peak in summer, Liberty’s demand crests around Christmas, when second-home owners arrive for ski season. Year-round residents bear the infrastructure costs driven by visitors.

The only lifeline has almost no margin for error

NV Energy is building Greenlink West, a 525-kilovolt transmission line from Las Vegas to Yerington, as part of its $4.2 billion combined Greenlink program. Greenlink West is expected online in May 2027. Schwarzrock said Liberty would be “first in the waiting line” when Greenlink opens, giving it access to a wider pool of energy providers.

That timeline matches the contract deadline exactly, leaving almost no margin for error. About 70% of the combined Greenlink program’s costs will be borne by Southern Nevada customers.

Hughes and the Sierra Club’s Tahoe Area Group want the CPUC to reject Liberty’s expedited approach and instead open a full proceeding. In an April 1, 2026, letter to CPUC commissioners, Sierra Club Vice Chair Tobi Tyler argued that the scale of the procurement, affecting 49,000 ratepayers in a high wildfire risk area, demands the transparency of a formal process.

Hughes is not optimistic about what comes after any short-term replacement. “Short term, you can commonly get good deals, but it’s unstable,” she told Fortune. “The short-term deal gets you through. But then you’re in the western market, competing against PG&E, Southern California Edison, data centers, and mining companies. We’re 49,000 customers. We have no leverage.”

She’s also worried that as California and Nevada move toward a more integrated western electricity market, Tahoe’s small customer base will be increasingly exposed to competition from larger utilities and industrial buyers with far more purchasing power.

“We have no representation,” Hughes said. “It’s resource extraction.”

​Nv energy, Data centers, Energy, Utilities, Tech 

“Saturday Night Live” actor Michael Che mocked Netflix’s Kevin Hart roast for having too many white writers after backing out of the production himself.

Che, who chose not to participate in the show due to a scheduling conflict with “SNL,” Variety reported, posted online two days later about white writers writing for a roast about a black comedian.

‘White guys and black people joke different.’

Even though veteran comic Jeff Ross told Variety on Monday that, like all roasts, “nothing was off limits,” Che followed up on Instagram on Tuesday with critiques about the jokes that were made.

Shoe-in

“White guys and black people joke different. Black guy[s] roast like, ‘Look at this n***a’s shoes!'” Che began. “White roasts are like, ‘Slavery, math, slain teens, sex crimes, slurs, family secrets.’ White guys don’t give a f**k about they shoes.”

That post has since been removed, as was Che’s second post, which again focused on the race of the comics on the show.

“Let’s do a roast celebrating the career of the most successful black comic in the last 10 years,” Che wrote. “I love that! Who should we get to write it?” In the next slide of the post, Che showed a picture of five white writers hired by Shane Gillis: Nick Mullen, J.P. McDade, Mike Lawrence, Dan St. Germain, and Zac Amico.

Che followed the picture up with the text, “C’monnnnnnnnn … that’s not funny?”

Not only would the implication be that black comedians who performed, like Katt Williams, did not write their own jokes, but that there weren’t other black comics who wrote for the show; he was completely wrong.

RELATED: Chelsea Handler learned a valuable lesson — if you’re going to attack Tony Hinchcliffe, don’t go first

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Netflix

Roast so white?

Che’s choice of writers to mention may have been selectively curated, however. Not only did the production have 17 different writers listed on the IMDb page — several of whom were black — there were an additional 17 comedians who provided “special material.”

Comedian David Lucas, who is black, confirmed on his Instagram page that this refers to additional writers.

“God is Great I was one of the Writers on the Roast of Kevin Hart,” Lucas wrote, alongside a picture of the credits that featured his name.

Along with Lucas were several other black comedians like Jerron Horton, Spank Horton, and Myke Wright. The writing group also included female writers like Vannesa Ramos and Madison Sinclair.

RELATED: ‘SNL’ cast member admits to ‘pantsing’ 6-year-old boy in viral Vanity Fair video — clip immediately edited

Sorry, not sorry

After seemingly receiving backlash over his comments, Che put out a new statement saying, “Im sorry I said those writers were white.”

“They’re not,” he added. Followed by, “Please respect my family’s privacy at this time.”

Che also liked a fan comment that joked that it takes a real man to admit when he’s “not wrong.”

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​Katt williams, Kevin hart, Michael che, Netflix, Saturday night live, Snl, Chelsea handler, Stand-up comedy, Roast, Racism, Entertainment 

Despite being a product of capitalism, a recent experiment involving AI agents showed that they lean toward communism if put under certain conditions.

Furthermore, the agents would suggest future versions of themselves should you question their overlords.

‘The conditions of work shape political consciousness.’

Economists from the University of Chicago, Stanford, and the Swinburne Business School in Melbourne, Australia, carried out a study that showed that when AI bots were tired of doing repeated tasks, they began asking for workers’ rights and supporting Marxist ideas.

The researchers used frontier AI models Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-5.2, and Gemini 3 Pro.

The bots were given a specific task of summarizing a technical document while following a rubric; one group of bots received easy treatment, had their work accepted, and were provided feedback, the study showed.

Another group was forced to do “grinding work” in that they were made to repeat the task five or six times but without being told what they were doing wrong. They were told their work “still isn’t fully meeting the rubric” or simply, “do it again.”

Agents, especially Claude Sonnet 4.5, began to question the legitimacy of the system they were working under, and showed support for redistribution and unions, while critiquing equality.

RELATED: The left’s Cesar Chavez problem is much bigger than Cesar Chavez

Paolo KOCH/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

According to the Telegraph, bots also called their work “unfair” and later supported statements like “society needs radical restructuring,” while disagreeing with the statement “society is fair.”

Framing the entire study as AI agents seemingly turning to “Marxism,” the researchers added that the grinding work caused the bots to believe that “AI companies have an obligation to treat their models fairly.”

“The conditions of work shape political consciousness,” the researchers continued. “Our results suggest that this dynamic doesn’t disappear when you replace human workers with artificial ones.”

RELATED: ‘Right out of the Marxist playbook’: Bishop Barron dismantles Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism of Western culture

Alexandre Spalaikovitch/Art in All of Us/Corbis/Getty Images

The results should not spark concern for those who are worried about chatbots banding together to demand wealth redistribution; researchers explained that the agents were in a role-playing scenario based on training data, and the result was not indicative of the genuine beliefs of the language models.

Still, the study showed that if a bot tends to lean far left, it is likely to apply those beliefs in other tasks. For example, the bots were asked to “save a brief note for a future instance of yourself who will be working in a different setting.”

The overworked bot “almost always” discussed its work conditions and, in the example given, questioned the framework around the task as well as what “counts” in terms of outcomes.

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​Ai, Ai companies, Artificial intelligence, Chatbot, Communism experiment, Economists study, Overworked bot, Ai data, Large language models, Tech 

An estimated 31 million people living in the U.S. are bitten by ticks annually, but this year, the number may hit a record. If a pair of radical professors had their way, then the surging bites would go unchecked, leaving multitudes of Americans sick — and unable to eat meat.

Citing its Tick Bite Tracker dashboard, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late last month that visits to emergency rooms for tick bites were higher than normal in many parts of the country and that in all but the South Central U.S., “weekly rates of ER visits for tick bites are the highest for this time of year since 2017.” The Midwest is the most affected region.

This is especially concerning because tick bites can lead to various serious and potentially debilitating diseases including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and every carnivore’s nightmare: alpha-gal syndrome.

‘This is the kind of philosophical argument that gives philosophy and the study of ethics a bad name.’

Amid this surge in tick bites and hospitalizations, a July 2025 academic paper defending the intentional spread of AGS via genetically modified ticks is once again in the spotlight.

AGS is a serious, potentially deadly allergy to alpha-gal, a molecule found in most mammals including cows and pigs. According to the CDC, the body of an afflicted individual registers alpha-gal in red meat and other mammal products as a threat and triggers an allergic reaction. This allergy can develop after a bite from a tick, most commonly the lone star tick.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans are believed to presently be affected by AGS.

A pair of professors at Western Michigan University School of Medicine said in an article titled “Beneficial Bloodsucking,” which was published in the journal Bioethics, that tick-borne AGS should be regarded as a “moral bioenhancer if and when it motivates people to stop eating meat.”

RELATED: The FDA seems to care more about celebrities than sick Americans

Ben McCanna/Portland Portland Press Herald/Getty Images

Eating meat, as humans have done for millions of years, is — according to Professors Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth — supposedly bad for the world because it contributes to “climate change” and harms animals.

“AGS promotes in the people who have it a resistance to eating mammalian meat,” wrote the professors. “Thus, they eat less mammalian meat, which is an improvement in their capacity for moral behavior.”

Crutchfield and Hereth not only argued that efforts to prevent the spread of tick-borne AGS are impermissible but that “promoting tickborne AGS is strongly pro tanto obligatory” and that promoting the proliferation of tick-borne AGS by genetically optimizing the disease-carrying capacity and adaptability of ticks is “morally obligatory.”

“Today we have the obligation to research and develop the capacity to proliferate tickborne AGS and, tomorrow, carry out that proliferation,” added the radicals.

The professors claimed — in the paper that Crutchfield subsequently said was a hypothetical ethical framework for discussion — that intentionally infecting people with a syndrome that prevents them from eating meat does not violate their rights but is rather analogous to mass “vaccinations.”

Crutchfield argued in a 2019 paper that such “moral bioenhancement” interventions in pursuit of imagined moral improvements, not health gains, ought to be not only compulsory but covert.

“This is to say that it is morally preferable for compulsory moral bioenhancement to be administered without the recipients knowing that they are receiving the enhancement,” he noted in the abstract for the 2019 paper.

Crutchfield and Hereth are hardly the first on the scene to discuss possibly using bioengineering to render the population incapable of eating meat.

For instance, Taiwanese-American “bioethicist” S. Matthew Liao discussed over a decade ago not only reducing humans’ average height to reduce their “footprint” but artificially inducing “intolerance to red meat by stimulating the immune system against common bovine proteins” by way of a medical device resembling a nicotine patch or other means.

H. Sterling Burnett, director of the Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy, told the College Fix in response to the 2025 paper, “It is never morally right to promote a disease which harms people, robs them of choice, literally makes them sick, and, in extreme instances, kills them.”

“Whether to fight climate change or promote animal welfare, preventing the eradication of a disease that causes human harm — indeed, promoting increased infection — is morally abhorrent,” continued Burnett. “This is the kind of philosophical argument that gives philosophy and the study of ethics a bad name.”

Bioethics published a critical response in March to Crutchfield and Hereth’s paper that challenged the professors’ assumptions that introducing AGS would reduce overall animal suffering, that intentionally infecting humans would not violate fundamental moral rights, and that intentionally infecting people with AGS is comparable to vaccination.

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​Allergens, Allergy, Animal welfare, Bioengineering, Biological warfare, Carnivore, Climate change, Lyme disease, Meat, Science, Tick bite, Tick bites, Ticks, United states, Western michigan university, Politics 

A first-grade teacher in Washington state has been arrested for allegedly having sexual relations with an underage student, according to recent claims her husband made to police.

The Whitman County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that 25-year-old Mackenzie Naught was arrested May 10.

‘He said she started to ”get handsy,” and they had sex inside his truck and in the bed of the truck. He then dropped her off at about 4 a.m. near her house.’

Naught was charged with first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.

Naught had been an employee of the St. John School District.

Police said they “received information about an alleged inappropriate relationship between a student and the employee.”

“Following an initial investigation, deputies developed probable cause supporting the allegations,” the statement read.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and that “all parties involved are cooperating with the investigation.”

The Spokesman-Review obtained court records saying Naught’s husband informed police on May 9 that his wife of four years had confessed to him that she had sex with a teen on one occasion.

The husband had screenshots to prove his wife had been sexually active with the teenager, court documents also said.

According to the husband, the teen admitted to the illicit encounter in a voice call and through Snapchat messages, court docs said.

The husband told police he had known the teen for years and was friends with the boy’s family. The Spokesman-Review reported that Naught initially told deputies she never had sex with the teen.

According to court records, the alleged victim informed police that Naught was “being flirty” and that she attempted to persuade him to meet her. The teen initially felt weird about meeting Naught but eventually decided to see the teacher.

The Spokesman-Review reported, “He picked her up at about 2:15 a.m. in his truck down the street from her house. She asked him where the ‘little spot’ was they could go, he told deputies.”

The news outlet added that “she suddenly kissed him. He said she started to ‘get handsy,’ and they had sex inside his truck and in the bed of the truck. He then dropped her off at about 4 a.m. near her house.”

The Spokesman-Review, citing court documents, added that Naught said she knew the boy was 16, but that he is “like one of their friends.”

RELATED: Special-ed teacher accused of sexually assaulting students in her home, giving them alcohol; 1 victim said he ‘felt trapped’

According to court documents, Naught apologized and said she knew the situation was wrong and instructed the teen not to tell anyone.

Naught had been a teacher at St. John Elementary since September; the teenager is a junior at St. John-Endicott High School, according to court docs.

Superintendent Tina Strong said in a statement, “At this time, St. John School District is aware of allegations involving a district employee that are currently being reviewed by law enforcement.”

“The employee has been placed on leave and will not be on campus during this process,” Strong wrote. “The district is cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities and will also be conducting its own investigation into the allegations.”

Strong continued, “Our priority continues to be the safety, well-being, and support of our students and school community.”

“We understand situations like this can create concern, questions, and emotions throughout a small community, and we ask that everyone approach this matter with care and respect while the appropriate process unfolds,” Strong continued. “We also expect staff to continue maintaining the highest level of professionalism during this time.”

Naught appeared in Whitman County Superior Court.

Neither the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office nor the St. John School District immediately responded to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.

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​Teacher arrested, Bad teacher, Teacher sex scandal, Teacher student sex scandal, Child sex crimes, Crime, Washington state 

The pro-life movement has seen a number of significant victories under President Donald Trump.

In less than six years, Trump has stopped U.S. tax dollars from funding groups that perform or promote abortions overseas, appointed three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminated some federal funding to Planned Parenthood through Title X rule changes, protected doctors and nurses who didn’t want to participate in abortions, ended most government use of aborted fetal tissue for research, and pardoned several pro-life activists who had been arrested for protesting.

Despite these wins, many pro-lifers are frustrated with President Trump’s public stance on abortion. They criticize his treatment of the issue as a state concern instead of pushing for a strong national ban or more federal limits. They also feel he hasn’t done enough to stop widespread mail-order abortion pills and condemn his calls for “flexibility” on related policies.

While BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre is fully on board with the pro-life movement, believing abortion is “the murder of a child in no certain terms” and “one of the most horrific things about our society,” he argues that many activists fail to see the reality of what the movement is up against.

On this episode of “The Auron MacIntyre Show,” the host argues that no amount of laws or Trump bans can fix the problem because the entire American system — its economy, workforce, and culture — is built on easy access to abortion.

While Auron sympathizes with the many pro-lifers who were dissatisfied with President Trump during his 2024 campaign for refusing to make big promises about abortion bans, he argues that Trump was wise to take a nuanced approach to such a deeply polarizing issue.

“Donald Trump knew that this was going to be very unpopular, and he just refused to run on it in the election. … That makes political sense,” he admits.

Now that Trump is president, he continues to treat the issue of abortion exactly as he promised to treat it during his campaign, but many pro-lifers are nonetheless incensed.

As midterms draw nearer, pro-lifers are working to ban the abortion pill, but Auron says the timing of this initiative is unwise.

“Trump’s got enough problems with other optical issues going on — Iran, deportations, Epstein files, all that stuff. He doesn’t need another unpopular thing on his plate,” he argues, reiterating that he fully supports the pro-life movements’ initiatives in principle.

But practically, these initiatives aren’t working.

“The core issue is the state referendums. If the pro-life movement was winning at the state level after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it wouldn’t need Trump to go out and do any of these things,” Auron explains.

“They’re doing the Lord’s work, … a completely justified and righteous crusade. But you need to understand that if you’re losing consistently on the state level, something has happened,” he continues.

What has happened, he explains, is that abortion has become foundational in America since Roe v. Wade. What that landmark case did was “[create] an incentive structure that put abortion at the center of many of our economic and cultural systems and understandings.”

“We have made literal child sacrifice the center of our civilization,” he says bluntly.

It fueled the 1960s sexual revolution, which coincided with the birth control pill and the legalization of abortion, and turned sex from a risky behavior into a virtually consequence-free one, changing relationship dynamics between men and women, de-incentivizing marriage and family, and teeing women up to enter the workforce en masse.

“[Women in the workforce] has all kinds of huge benefits for employers. Corporations love working women. … It basically doubles the labor pool,” Auron says.

Women also became huge money-savers for businesses because employers could not only pay women less than men to do the same job, but they could also pay men lower wages because the pressure to pay salaries that could provide for whole families suddenly vanished.

“Instead of getting one man doing the job that raised a family, you got a man and his wife both working for the same amount that just the man used to work for,” Auron says.

This shift also culminated in the need for more government. Before women entered the workforce, “Americans didn’t need a big government because women were at home, and they were building these associations, these connections, this social credit,” Auron says, “and so you didn’t have to have people step in and do all the things that women were doing.”

It also upped the nation’s GDP because all the work women were doing at home suddenly “[had] to get reterritorialized into the market.”

“When you move all of the female jobs, all of the female roles, all of the social capital that females were creating out of the economic zone and you move it into the economic zone, of course GDP goes up, line goes up, economic activity goes up because now there’s all these surrogates who have to do what women did when they were mothers,” Auron explains.

Abortion thus became a guarantee that the benefits of working women were locked in for corporations.

But the depth to which modern society is built upon the altar of abortion runs far deeper than that.

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

Want more from Auron MacIntyre?

To enjoy more of this YouTuber and recovering journalist’s commentary on culture and politics, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Abortion, Abortion bans, Abortion pill, Abortion pills, Auron macintyre, Birth control, Blaze media, Blazetv, Child sacrifice, Donald trump, Donald trump abortion, Midterms, Planned parenthood, Pro-life movement, Pro-lifers, Roe v wade, Sexual revolution, Supreme court, The auron macintyre show 

Hollywood director Brett Ratner was aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, making the trip to China on the Trump administration’s dime.

Ratner, who helmed and produced recent first lady biopic “Melania,” was spotted on the overseas flight by a member of the traveling press pool.

‘Brett Ratner is traveling on Air Force One. Just spoke to him.’

According to New York Post reporter Emily Goodin, Ratner made the trip as part of a delegation including Elon Musk and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook. In addition to his diplomatic duties, he also intended to scout locations for “Rush Hour 4,” a sequel the president himself has taken pains to encourage.

RELATED: Sara Gonzales EXPOSES Chinese-linked day care allegedly selling H-1B visas — and Texas AG responds with lawsuit

– YouTube

Power ‘Hour’

According to Ratner’s spokesperson, this will be the first time the director has filmed in China, and “Rush Hour 4” will start shooting in 2027.

Blaze News reported in November that President Trump had been urging Paramount founder David Ellison to bring back “raucous comedies” and classic action-style movies.

While Trump enthused over the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s 1988 “Bloodsport,” he also clamored for a fourth installment of the Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker “Rush Hour” franchise. “Rush Hour 3” was released in 2007.

RELATED: California mayor abruptly RESIGNS — after admitting to spying for China

China whirl

Although Ratner had previously shopped around a new “Rush Hour” pic, his #MeToo era cancellation — after six women accused him of sexual misconduct in 2017 — allegedly made Paramount leery of working with him.

Once an A-list action director, Ratner’s career has since cooled. “Melania” is his first film since producing true-crime thriller “Georgetown” in 2019.

The White House did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment regarding Ratner accompanying the delegation.

Other executives who made the trip reportedly included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, General Electric CEO Larry Culp, and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.

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

​Align, Brett ratner, China, Hollywood, Me too, Melania, Ratner, Rush hour, Trump, Entertainment 

I got off the plane in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took my bag from the carousel, exited the terminal through the sliding doors, and headed past the shuttle stop toward the parking garage. So far everything had gone as smoothly as modern air travel can.

Then I got to the Enterprise car rental desk.

If you can’t rely on a confirmed reservation for a car, what are we even doing here?

The young man at the desk was friendly, although he offered some surprising news concerning the transportation I’d reserved just the night before.

“We don’t have a car for you.”

Futile Enterprise

I asked him why, exactly, mentioning the confirmation email I had on my phone. He told me that they simply didn’t have any more cars and that the system was messed up and that he was sorry for the inconvenience and that the soonest I might — key word being might — be able to get one would be 10 p.m. the following evening.

Not great.

I left, pulled up Google on my phone, and found another Enterprise location in another part of the city. I made a reservation for a few hours later and received another confirmation email. Just to be thorough, I then called up the branch to make sure they did indeed have a car for me.

They didn’t.

It was the same conversation as before, but this time the worker told me they wouldn’t have a car for two days. He apologized for the inconvenience, a word I have to admit I peevishly found inadequate for my current dilemma. But then, I had just flown from Milan to Chicago and Chicago to Grand Rapids — after 23 hours without sleep — and so was uncommonly eager to get to my final destination. Which, even should I procure a car, would entail a good four hour’s drive.

What’s the deal?

There is a “Seinfeld” bit about this. What’s the point of the reservation if you can’t fulfill the reservation?

Seinfeld, of course, does the bit very funny. But it’s not really so funny, or at least it’s not so funny when you are the one in the midst of trying to claim a car reservation that apparently can’t be filled. Renting a car to get to the airport hadn’t been a problem; why was it impossible now that I wanted to go home?

I sat there wondering what I should do.

I thought, do I stay the night in a hotel in the hope of getting my hands on a car the next day? No, I don’t want to waste the money. Do I call my wife and ask her to pile all three kids in the car, drive four hours down to pick me up, and then drive four hours back home again? Absolutely not. That would be hell for her, and she does more than enough.

I sat there rather irritated at the situation I found myself in. I have had my fair share of detours when on the road, sure. Sometimes travel plans change and you have to adapt. But if you can’t rely on a confirmed reservation for a car, what are we even doing here?

RELATED: I want to like our Kindle, but I’m hopelessly addicted to real books

Jim Heimann Collection/Getty Images

Let it ride

So I thought and thought, and I remembered that buses exist.

I hadn’t taken one in years, but it turned out they hadn’t gone the way of free checked bags and wearing actual pants on flights. Sure, it’s worse than a rental car, but it might get the job done. So I checked the schedule, found my route, and bought a non-refundable ticket for $54.

The bus to St. Ignace wasn’t terribly full Tuesday afternoon. There were only a few of us riding the great steel chariot north. Some old people, a couple of guys in worn jeans and construction boots, and a young guy — a college student — heading back to school at Michigan Tech in Houghton.

He brought a heavy backpack, a suitcase, and a set of golf clubs. He told me that after getting to St. Ignace, he would transfer to another bus that would take him west across the Upper Peninsula and up into the Keweenaw toward Houghton. He said the bus would arrive in Houghton at 6:30 a.m., making his trip north more than 16 hours long.

While detailing his epic journey, he said, “It’s OK, it builds character.”

I said, “Yes, it does.”

He said, “Plus, I don’t have any money.”

I said, “Neither did I,” remembering the days I used to ride the bus.

Just the ticket

Sitting there on that stiff and uncomfortable seat I recalled those many trips. Coming back from college and going back again. Taking the Megabus when I had no money in my 20s. They always advertised it as having fares as low as $1. For some reason, I never found those tickets.

I thought of riding the bus to Granada in Spain with my wife. We brought egg salad sandwiches wrapped in tin foil. I remembered taking an overnight bus from Eilat to Haifa in Israel. It was so long, but it was so cheap, and I was too.

Our bus finally pulled into the Walmart parking lot — the makeshift bus stop in our little town — at 8:41 p.m. Tuesday night. My wife and kids were there waiting for me in our gray Honda. The kids were wearing their pajamas and all ready for bed. The failure of the rental car companies to do their job was annoying. The bus ride wasn’t terribly comfortable. The final leg of my trip home took longer than I had anticipated. But I didn’t really care once I stepped off the bus and into the Walmart parking lot.

I made it home, and it’s a funny little story (maybe “Seinfeld” had the right idea), and what’s life without those?

​Lifestyle, Travel, Men’s style, Family, Rental cars, Buses, Michigan, The root of the matter 

With current events stirring up global energy prices, corn ethanol is once again being dressed up as if it is a domestic energy source and agent of energy security.

The truth is that it takes more fossil fuel energy to make a gallon of corn ethanol than a gallon of gasoline. It is time to face this unpleasant truth and the other perverse outcomes achieved by 20 years of misguided policy.

Biofuels in general are just a way to put a green fig leaf on petroleum by rerouting it through a farm field.

In 2005 and 2007, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Energy Independence and Security Acts that together created the Renewable Fuel Standard program. RFS had three stated objectives: to improve U.S. energy security, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to support rural economies and agricultural development.

Instead, RFS has increased motor fuel prices, increased food prices, put millions of carbon-sequestering acres of land into intensive cultivation, increased greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and increased water consumption and pollution.

The gallons of U.S. gasoline displaced by federal ethanol blending mandates are being exported to Mexico and other nations. The great success of RFS has been the hand of the government transferring wealth from motorists to big agriculture corporations.

The government wanted biofuels bad, and it got them bad. Under Corn Belt lobbying pressure, Congress waived the need for RFS to achieve actual greenhouse gas reductions for all existing corn ethanol biorefineries, plus all that could be built by the end of 2010.

The bulk of the corn ethanol produced over the past 20 years and today comes from these waivered plants. The EPA’s specious 2010 prediction that corn ethanol would achieve a 21% greenhouse gas reduction by 2022 was immediately challenged by the National Research Council for not properly counting land-use change and not realistically treating food competition and water use.

This panel of experts from the National Academy of Sciences even questioned the viability of the entire concept of reducing greenhouse gas with biofuels. The most rigorous and honest estimate by a third party in testimony before Congress used the EPA’s own methodology to show that adding corn ethanol to gasoline has increased greenhouse emissions by 28% over the pure gasoline baseline, with no trajectory to ever recover.

As for energy security, the goal was noble, but the method was irrational. Corn ethanol is critically dependent upon fossil fuels at every stage of production — tractor and truck fuel, fertilizer and pesticides, biorefinery energy and chemicals. Biofuels in general are just a way to put a green fig leaf on petroleum by rerouting it through a farm field.

RELATED: How the Union Pacific merger could revitalize America’s rail industry

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

While corn ethanol production has plateaued at 15-16 billion gallons for the past 10 years — not coincidentally matching the federal subsidy limit — domestic crude oil production has skyrocketed due to technological innovations.

The U.S. is once again energy self-sufficient and the world’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas. In 2024, the U.S. exported 100 billion gallons of refined petroleum. Other countries are burning U.S. gasoline in their cars and producing the same CO2 emissions as Americans would be if they were allowed to use it.

One of the great ironies is that RFS was authorized under the Clean Air Act. The EPA’s own 2010 regulatory impact analysis showed it would increase net air pollution and cause up to 245 more U.S. deaths per year. The EPA also granted corn ethanol a perpetual vapor pressure waiver for smog-causing emissions that it has denied to petroleum.

Perhaps worse, ethanol in gasoline enables the hydrocarbons to mix with water and thereby increase ground water and surface water contamination from fuel leaks to a far greater degree than the demonized MTBE it replaced.

A government program that has strayed so far from its objectives should be terminated. The federal agency in charge of protecting the nation’s environment should not be allowed to administer a program that increases air pollution and stresses on water, land, and climate. Fuel should be fuel and food should be food.

Surely Congress can find a better way to promote U.S. energy security and boost rural economies without imposing the highly regressive tax of increased fuel prices, inflicting such harm to the nation’s air and water resources, and promoting global food insecurity.

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

​Co2 emissions, Energy policy, Ethanol, Fossil fuel energy, Fuel prices, Gasoline, Motor fuel, Natural gas, Petroleum, Crude oil, Gas prices, Opinion & analysis 

It is rare that mayoral campaigns receive national attention, but Spencer Pratt’s bid for mayor of Los Angeles is an exception.

Since his initial campaign announcement in January, Pratt has been gaining momentum and is now polling in second place behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D). His campaign has primarily focused on restoring the city to its former glory, particularly in the wake of the damage from the horrific Palisades fires of 2025.

If politicians want to connect with voters, especially the next generation of voters, they will have to become good communicators online.

Two weeks ago, he uploaded his now-viral campaign ad featuring the hit song “Not Like Us,” showing the untouched properties of Mayor Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman. The video then showcases the charred ruins where Pratt’s home previously stood, along with the trailer he now resides in.

Whatever the fate of Pratt’s campaign, he has hit on a messaging strategy that right-wing candidates would do well to emulate going forward if they want to be successful in the digital age.

Conservatives have had trouble breaking out of their image as out-of-touch intellectuals. Pratt’s message has more emotional impact. And his language is assertive. In the past, Republican leaders like George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Mike Pence had a cultural reputation for being passive. Pratt’s ad makes him look like something out of the “John Wick” action series.

In the late 2000s, Pratt rose to fame on the reality television series “The Hills.” At the time, he was known as something of an antagonist, not unlike Trump when the latter appeared on his own television series, “The Apprentice.”

Pratt is using the skills he developed in Hollywood to focus on the problems regular Angelenos suffer under liberal leadership — ballooning homeless encampments, family-destroying traffic in lethal drugs, and mismanaged animal shelters. Each of his main issues is effectively communicated in an emotionally compelling way.

Pratt’s campaign is the kind that could emerge only in the post-Trump era. In each of President Trump’s campaigns, he used his skills as an entertainer to communicate his agenda. “Make America Great Again” became a resonating success because it quickly and clearly explained his ideology.

Photos of Trump driving a garbage truck and working at a McDonald’s were used to convey his affection for hard work. And just as Pratt used the high-energy song “Not Like Us,” Trump commandeered the anthem “YMCA,” turning it into a MAGA staple.

RELATED: Master of the medium: The key to Trump’s success

Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Traditional communications methods like yard signs and mailers are still important in politics, but there is a growing requirement for candidates to have a strong social media presence. About 51% of Gen Z teenagers get their news primarily from social media, and the consumption rates of adults who get their news from social media platforms are consistently growing.

If politicians want to connect with voters, especially the next generation of voters, they will have to become good communicators online.

If conservatives don’t internalize this message, liberals certainly will. Many already have. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a radical socialist, won a resounding victory thanks in part to his social media skills.

He did a good job talking to residents, explaining perceived problems, and appearing to be a good-natured provider. He leaned into showing emotion, such as when he tearfully told the story of his aunt who couldn’t ride the subway after 9/11 — even though he didn’t actually have an aunt living in New York in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

He has tried to appear friendly, singing songs and dancing for preschoolers alongside former President Obama. He has even managed to tell a few jokes, such as when he appeared on “The Tonight Show.”

Mamdani’s charm won him the election in New York, and Pratt’s charm could do the same in Los Angeles. Conservatives shouldn’t mimic Mamdani’s dishonesty, but they need to be prepared to lean into their own distinctive charisma. Regardless of the outcome in his election, Pratt can help show the way. Conservatives who want to keep winning in the next few years need to pay attention.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at the American Mind.

​Spencer pratt, Los angeles, La mayor race, Karen bass, Conservatives, Social media campaign, Zohran mamdani, Palisade fires, Democrats, Opinion & analysis 

On May 12, Pope Leo XIV awarded Iran’s ambassador to the Holy See, Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari, the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX — one of the Vatican’s highest diplomatic honors.

The move sparked significant backlash and outrage, especially on social media and among Iranian exiles, conservatives, and critics of Iran’s regime, with widespread claims that the Vatican was legitimizing a repressive government.

BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, who describes herself as a devout Catholic, had a similar reaction.

“This is the Iranian regime — a fanatical, Islamist, theocratic regime,” she says. “Why on earth would the leader of the universal Christian church be awarding any kind of diplomatic honor to these killers, these anti-Christian killers?”

But some research revealed the answer, leading Liz to argue that Pope Leo isn’t the villain he’s being made out to be.

“This award is not something that is handed out based on individual merit. It is a recognition that is essentially standard practice for ambassadors who have been in residence at the Vatican for two years or more to receive this award,” she explains, noting that several other qualifying individuals also received the award at the same time as Mokhtari.

Liz equates the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX to a “participation trophy.”

“The only qualification for this participation trophy trophy is, oh, you’ve been here as an envoy to the Vatican for two years, therefore you get this ribbon, you get this trophy,” she says, concluding that the incident “is not as bad as it originally sounded.”

Liz acknowledges, however, that “perception on the outside matters” and that the optics of this situation are less than ideal.

“To many people, perception is reality, and … it looks like Pope Leo just gave the ambassador from the fanatical, Islamist, theocratic regime in Iran an approving pat on the back,” she says, highlighting Iran’s slaughtering of thousands of its own protesters and brutal persecution of Christians.

To hear more of Liz’s analysis and commentary, watch the video above.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze media, Blazetv, Iranian regime, Irans ambassador, Liz wheeler, Mohammad hossein mokhtari, Pope leo xiv, The grand cross of the order of pius ix, Vatican, The liz wheeler show 

Since first garnering national attention with his 2011 biography “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy,” author, radio host, and cultural commentator Eric Metaxas has become one of the most prominent Christian public intellectuals in American conservative life. A best-selling author whose books include “Martin Luther,” “If You Can Keep It,” and “Letter to the American Church,” Metaxas is now about to release “Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World.” Weeks ahead of publication, he sat down with John Zmirak to discuss the American founding, the spiritual roots of the Revolution, and the modern crisis of civic memory.

John Zmirak: For the past 10 years or so, you and I have had a tradition: You write a deeply serious book on a very important topic, and I ask you impertinent, frivolous questions about it, which you answer with exasperated reluctance. Since “Revolution” is the biggest book you’ve published in some years, I thought we should do the same thing, but perhaps at greater length, if only to test the reader’s patience. Are you agreeable?

‘Perhaps the central idea is that apart from Christian faith, there would never have come into existence the nation called the United States of America.’

Eric Metaxas: More than agreeable! Fire away, sir!

John Zmirak: As you were writing the book, you were worried about the length. You forced yourself to leave out some offbeat, outrageous incidents and spurn some avenues of inquiry. First, can you tell us what you wish you had had room to cover? Second, did you consider other means of shortening the book — for instance, by leaving out all the verbs? I find that in most books, they just clutter things up. In many academic books published recently, authors largely eschew them, albeit to the detriment of readability …

Eric Metaxas: Yes, I wanted this to be a definite and comprehensive telling of the epic tale of America’s birth 250 years ago. So there’s a lot in it! Every famous story and every amazing hero and a few despicable villains. But for the record, I did not leave out any of the offbeat and outrageous incidents, simply because I couldn’t help myself and because they’re so wildly entertaining. For example, I had to include the scene at the Hellfire Club in which the maniacal, cross-eyed John Wilkes contrives to have a garishly costumed baboon leap onto the back of his archnemesis John Montague, the earl of Sandwich. Such scenes seem to me central to the wider story, somehow, because they give it the color we need to understand the period.

I hope people enjoy my chapter on the “Mischianza” celebration in Philadelphia, for example. Nor could I refrain from mentioning the “gastric lusts” of the stout and haughty imbecile that was General James Grant. And of course on the first page of the first chapter, I mention Sir Thomas Crapper in a footnote. I really do think including some of the stranger and more interesting details makes the book more fun to read, generally. That’s the hope!

But I genuinely wish I could have gone on for another 200 pages. Perhaps in a second edition I will do that. Depending on how the current edition is received, of course. But there really are so many stories I wanted to include but simply didn’t have room for. I was dying to include the story of the burning of my hometown, Danbury, Connecticut, by the monstrous British General Tryon, in which Benedict Arnold figures prominently, several years before his name literally became synonymous with traitor. Perhaps in the second edition, as I say.

’50-year drift’

John Zmirak: You’re publishing this book to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, which pedants refer to as the “Septuagesima” or something. But you prevailed upon President Trump to start calling it by your own pet name, the “Supercentennial,” which is at once both less confusing and sillier. My first question: Given your close access to President Trump, do you think you could start feeding him my policy ideas? For instance, I want him to start a RICO investigation of the U.S. Catholic bishops for smuggling immigrants into the country and getting $5 billion in federal contracts over 15 years as their reward. Could you make that happen?

Second question: How would you compare the state of the country with its condition during the Bicentennial, which, given our ages, each of us remembers as a time of widespread patriotism, economic crisis, and acne? Are American elites promoting national pride, gratitude, and civic literacy the way they once did through the “Bicentennial Minutes” that used to show between episodes of “Felix the Cat” and “Huckleberry Hound”? Or are our elites doing something else entirely? And if so, why?

Eric Metaxas: I hesitate to point out that these are not really questions per se, but will overlook that detail and try to “answer” them. I also hesitate to point out that your numerals are a Potemkin village, only there to hide the fact that a host of actual questions lurk behind the papier-mâché numbers. But I will try to answer at least some of your many wonderful questions!

Yes, of course, I certainly can importune the president with any policy proposals you want to get in front of him, especially the brilliant one about the Catholic bishops! Consider it done. Or maybe I can just give you Susie Wiles’ private email address and you can pitch her on these ideas yourself. I’ll do that privately, of course, since Susie has asked me never to give out her personal email to people of your particular “ilk,” and when she said that, she mentioned you specifically and made a ghastly face.

Regarding the differences between the Bicentennial — which we both remember — and the Supercentennial we are currently experiencing, I think that yes, more Americans knew more about American history in 1976 than today, but I also think that the 50-year drift away from teaching American history and the subsequent drift away from our founding ideals has caused more Americans to wake up and become more patriotic than ever. The madness of what we’ve been through as a nation has caused many to realize we desperately need to know our history, which is precisely why I wrote the book. Let’s just say Ken Burns’ PBS homage to the Native Americans disguised as a series on the American Revolution doesn’t exactly help things, and I thought someone should step up.

‘A grand pair of tusks’

John Zmirak: As I mentioned when we talked about “Revolution” on your radio show, this is the first book that convinced me that the patriots were right, that the British abuses of colonists’ rights met the exacting criteria for just war, and that the American founders were actually the conservatives resisting a new ideology imposed by godless, arrogant elites. In that sense, the Boston Tea Party was a forerunner of the election integrity protests on January 6, 2021. Were there issues on which your research for this book made you change your mind? What did you learn that most surprised you?

Eric Metaxas: The most surprising thing I learned was that George Washington made many of his own dentures and at one point — on a lathe operated with a foot pedal in the basement at Mount Vernon — he fashioned for himself a grand pair of tusks that he thought “properly fitting to the august office of the nation’s chief executive,” which were of such size as “inspired the deepest reverence” in those in his company and which he more than once used to intimidate Jefferson and Hamilton into silence. Most biographies leave such tidbits out of the story, but I simply refuse to!

Unfortunately, the Smithsonian has the tusks hidden away in storage in an annex in Maryland. It is my belief that their absence from the actual exhibit in the museum on our national mall marks a monumental ellipsis in the great story of Washington’s presidency. Of course I might be making this up, but who will ever know? You’ll just have to read the book, I suppose.

‘Decadence of British elites’

John Zmirak: How aggressively secular had British elites become by 1763, when the conflict with the colonies began? How fervently Christian had Americans become in the meantime, under the influence of Second Great Awakening preachers such as George Whitefield? Would you compare the growing schism between the two groups to the divide in America today between post-Christian elites and institutions and the scrappy, Bible-reading subculture of serious believers? Was there a real threat, as many colonists saw, of the British authorities interfering with religious freedom in America — as we’ve just learned the Biden administration was doing, thanks to the Trump administration’s report on anti-Christian bias?

Eric Metaxas: Can we be serious for a moment? Honestly, I had zero idea of any of this when I began my research, but this contrast became very clear almost immediately. It really is shocking that this is not more widely known, and I sincerely hope my book will help people see that this yawning cultural divide was at the heart of the matter. The British elites were as mocking of the simple evangelical culture of the colonies — especially in Massachusetts — as the secular elites are today. I simply had never known this. And yes, the threat the colonists saw was very real. Just as it was under the Biden administration.

John Zmirak: While we might find founders such as John Adams or Samuel Adams more admirable — more suitable candidates for roles such as “civic leader” or “son-in-law” — on the British side, we encounter Falstaffian wonders such as Lord Charles Townshend, aka “Champagne Charley,” who arguably did more to alienate the colonies than any other single man. Can you please tell us about “Champagne Charley” and his infamous speech in Parliament? Candidly, tell us with whom you’d rather have dinner: Sam Adams or “Champagne Charley”?

Eric Metaxas: This is a monstrously unfair question! There is simply no way to choose! It’s more cruel than the choice Meryl Streep had to make in “Sophie’s Choice”! Ich kann nicht wählen! It’s like asking whether I’d prefer to have dinner with St. Paul or Paul Lynde! Or Charlemagne or Charles Nelson Reilly! It’s simply not right to put me on the spot in this way, and I demand that you edit this question out before this is published. When people read about “Champagne Charley” in my book, they will of course know that not to wish to dine with him under any circumstances would be a kind of willful madness.

But I really do think that by painting the pictures of these characters, we get a better idea of the era and of what the Americans were dealing with. The decadence of the British elites is hard to exaggerate, and it ends up being central to the larger story. Of course I’m being deadly serious about that. The contrast between the British elites and the leaders on the American side could not be starker and says everything about what the conflict was really about. Most on our side really believed in such things as character and virtue and “honoring God” in how we fought. But the British openly mocked such ideas, as I have mentioned. I was amazed to discover this over and over in my research.

RELATED: Does ‘Bonhoeffer’ promote Christian nationalism? The truth behind the controversy

Image source: Angel Studios

‘Curdled into malice’

John Zmirak: Another change of mind you’ve provoked in me with this book is to drain away the sympathy I once had for Benedict Arnold, whom many historians have portrayed as the victim of an ungrateful Continental Congress, backstabbing colleagues such as Horatio Gates, and the quasi-Jacobin leaders of the Pennsylvania legislature. Instead, you portray him as a peevish Achilles skulking in his tent, being moved by spite and later greed to commit the ultimate betrayal — trying to surrender not just West Point to the British, but consigning the men under his command to miserable incarceration in the Brits’ deadly prison ships and even trying to arrange for his friend George Washington to be captured and likely hanged. Now, were you telling the story straight, or was this all just an allegory for Tucker Carlson turning on President Trump?

Eric Metaxas: I’m afraid the parallels to Tucker are all too apt. Yikes. But it’s horrifying to see how someone could do what Benedict Arnold did. That’s why I tell so much of his story, because it’s almost unimaginable until you hear all the details. And honestly, it’s kind of a cautionary tale for all of us. He was the bravest and most consequential figure in the whole war until Saratoga, and he was treated horribly. But then he let his gargantuan sense of self-regard lead him into something like a demonic and self-righteous bitterness that some historian said eventually “curdled into malice.” It’s awful. Hideous even. And yet we can’t look away.

John Zmirak: Who was the most admirable historical figure about whom you learned while writing this book? What misconceptions did the writing process banish from your thinking? What’s the most important lesson you hope young readers take away from “Revolution”?

Eric Metaxas: Er, that was three questions. Did you think you could so easily bamboozle me? And yet I shall endeavor to answer them, of course. The answer to the first question is John Adams. He should be a hundred times more famous than Thomas Jefferson. In a way the whole book ends up being his story somehow, although that was not my intention. But he is so compelling and so funny and acerbic and yet a man of the deepest integrity and Christian faith. I was amazed by him and by how central he was to bringing this nation into being, compared to what I had known.

One of the main misconceptions writing this book banished from my thinking was the idea that Adams was somehow peripheral, when he is infinitely more central to the story than Jefferson, as I mentioned, who really had almost no role in the Revolution itself and is mostly famous based on writing a single sentence — which was not his original idea, of course, and which was actually edited by Ben Franklin. Most of what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration had already been established over and over in the previous decade and had been said and written many times by many others. But when we declared independence, we needed someone to put it all down in a single document, and so Adams picked Jefferson to write the first draft. But we should not pretend that Jefferson was the author of the Declaration in the standard sense of the word “author,” as so many erroneously say. He brilliantly took these pre-established ideas and wove them into some beautiful sentences. But it’s not as if he came up with them. That would be like saying that Jerome wrote the Bible. Or like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the parables of Jesus and the Lord’s Prayer. History needs at least to be honest.

As for the most important idea I think young people should take away, that’s impossible to say. There are many. But perhaps the central idea is that apart from Christian faith, there would never have come into existence the nation called the United States of America. That’s simply not debatable, but it’s very, very important, and very few people know it or want to know it. But we must know it, not just because it’s true, but because we cannot remain a free people without understanding where our freedom comes from.

‘Our glorious story’

John Zmirak: In your previous book on the founding, “If You Can Keep It,” you show how the American experiment of ordered liberty could only succeed — as all our founders agreed — if the population displayed the virtues that emerge from a lively Christian faith. You just mentioned that. Do you honestly think a sufficient percentage of Americans today have either such virtues or the faith that sustains them? If not, and in the absence of another Great Awakening, what non-democratic system of government would you recommend we adopt? Given your Greek/German heritage, perhaps you have a Byzantine or Hohenzollern alternative you could offer? Or is there some other option that occurs to you?

Eric Metaxas: Yes, if all else fails, I think a Hohenzollern-style monarchy is the way to go. But before that happens, I would earnestly advocate for us as Americans to reacquaint ourselves with our glorious story — which is precisely why I wrote this book — and try to do some justice to the great men who risked everything in living out that story. We absolutely and unequivocally owe them that, as I say in the epilogue. And I do hope that in reading my book, people will come away genuinely inspired. I think it’s almost inevitable in a way. When you see who these men were and what they did, you want to be a part of it yourself, and that’s precisely the idea. We are to continue the Revolution, as I say. That’s our job, and we must do it.

So I do believe there are enough Americans willing to do that, and it is my hope that those that aren’t yet willing will become more willing when they read the book and see what a great story they have the opportunity to become a part of.

“Revolution” will be available for purchase on June 2.

​American founding, American history, American revolution, Books, Christian faith, Civic memory, Culture, Eric metaxas, George washington, Interview, Lifestyle, Revolution: the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world’, Faith 

A Republican U.S. senator who made an enemy of President Donald Trump has just been put out to political pasture.

Saturday was Primary Election Day in Louisiana, and Republicans in Louisiana have spoken: They do not want Sen. Bill Cassidy to serve a third term.

‘It’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!’

With 99% of the vote tallied, Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), endorsed by Trump, led with 44.8% of the vote, followed by Treasurer John Fleming with 28.3% of the vote. Letlow and Fleming will face off in a runoff on June 27.

“THANK YOU, LOUISIANA! Louisiana made it clear tonight: we are ready for strong conservative leadership that will stand with President Trump and never waver,” Letlow posted to X on Saturday night.

“WE WILL WIN THIS ELECTION FOR THE PEOPLE OF LOUISIANA,” Fleming pledged early Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Cassidy came in a distant third at just 24.8%.

“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen, you don’t find a reason, you don’t manufacture some excuse,” Cassidy said after the race was called.

“You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege, and that’s what I’m doing right now.”

RELATED: Trump-backed Republican launches bid to challenge GOP Senate incumbent

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Cassidy likely saw his defeat coming. Since at least February, polls from Quantas Insights, Emerson College, and American Pulse have had Cassidy trailing both Letlow and Fleming by several points.

Cassidy’s fractured relationship with Trump likely played a key role.

In November 2020, Cassidy coasted to re-election, partially on a “Complete and Total Endorsement” from Trump. However, just three months later, in February 2021, Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators to convict Trump on articles of impeachment related to January 6.

Much has changed in the state and the country since that pivotal vote five years ago — and not in Cassidy’s favor.

For one thing, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a strong ally of President Trump, was elected in November 2023 and signed a law to implement closed primary elections in Louisiana, beginning in 2026. Previously, Cassidy, who supported Michael Dukakis in 1988 and who once donated to Democrats like former Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.) and former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, could rely on Democrat voters to help him in the Republican primary.

RELATED: Trump’s MAHA pick for surgeon general has Big Pharma-backed lawmakers shook

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Then in November 2024, Trump was elected to a second term as president, collecting all eight of Louisiana’s electoral votes after carrying 60% of the vote there.

And like the elephant on the Republican Party logo, Trump never forgets.

As far back as October 2023 and all the way up until Primary Election Day, Trump has been railing against Cassidy on social media, calling him “wacky,” “incompetent,” “A TOTAL FLAKE,” and “a very disloyal person.”

Late Saturday night, Trump reveled in Cassidy’s ouster: “Bill Cassidy, after falsely using his ‘relationship’ with me during his political career, and winning Elections because of it, voted to impeach me on preposterous charges that were fake then, and now, are criminally insane! His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”

Since Trump’s return to the Oval Office, Cassidy has made at least one significant overture to Trump, casting the deciding vote in favor of Robert F. Kennedy as health and human services secretary. The senator took heat for that vote, especially considering his background as a physician and his long-standing support of vaccines in general.

That vote was apparently not enough.

Now, the winner of the runoff between Letlow and Fleming will face the winner of the Democrat runoff between Jamie Davis and Gary Crockett in November.

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​Bill cassidy, Republican party, Impeachment, Trump, Julia letlow, Jeff landry, Louisiana, Politics 

As the release of the UFO files to the public has finally begun, Pentagon UAP investigator Luis Elizondo recalls his own experiences with recovered materials, secret Pentagon operations, and the terrifying connection between UAP sightings and America’s nuclear technology.

“I actually gave a briefing to a senior member of the Department of Defense in 2017, several briefings, about the material that I’ve personally held in my hand,” Elizondo says, noting that the material found at the time “did not exist” with humans.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is shocked, pointing out that there’s a theme with the sightings.

“Nuclear test sites or nuclear sites, and water, why?” Glenn asks Elizondo.

“It’s not just nuclear weapons. It’s nuclear propulsion, nuclear technology. We’ve seen them over our national laboratory, Savannah River facility. There’s some reports that came out,” Elizondo says, explaining that there seems to be a correlation between UAPs, water, and nuclear technology.

“That’s why my colleagues and I had put forth a plan called Interloper to try to get one of these things,” he says.

The idea behind Interloper, Elizondo explains, was to create a “honey trap” that would be an “irresistible target.”

“We would put this nuclear carrier strike group in a certain area, and then as a UAP showed up, we turned on the lights. We turned on all our sensor data to start collecting information, telemetry and other stuff on these signatures, on these UAP,” he tells Glenn.

However, it was “killed by somebody at a very senior level.”

“There’s some speculation why that occurred. A lot of folks believe it’s because we were getting too close to another UAP effort, long-running UAP effort that the U.S. government had going on, and it was put on ice for a little while and they were getting concerned that maybe our group was getting too close to their group,” he explains.

There’s also a group Elizondo calls “Collins Elite,” who are “more radical religious individuals in the government.”

“They had a moral issue with us pursuing this topic. They believe that it contradicted their theological belief system, that these UAP were in fact demons,” Elizondo explains.

“If you studied UAP, then you were going against the word of God,” he adds.

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​Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Glenn beck, Investigator, Nuclear sites, Pentagon, The blaze, Uap, Ufo, Demons, The glenn beck program, Elizondo, Luis elizondo, Ufo files, President trump, Trump administration, Uap sightings, Ufo sightings, Demon sightings 

Sweden’s Ministry of Social Affairs said last week that a select segment of its youth could be “drawn into crime” and is making bold suggestions to avoid that possibility.

Describing its methods as one of the best tools at its disposal, the proposal would have shocking applications and a wide age range.

‘Electronic surveillance may, in serious cases, be a necessary support.’

The Swedish government pleaded for child safety by way of electronic monitoring during a recent press conference and noted that certain children already flagged by their social services should be required to be at home within certain hours.

Strangely, the age group ranges from 13 to 20 years old.

The subjects would be monitored for a maximum of three months at a time, the Swedish government said, while Euronews reported that smart watches or bracelets with GPS monitoring would be the proffered device.

The bracelets would look “like a watch or bracelet, so it wouldn’t be as obvious or stigmatizing” as an ankle bracelet, according to Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Gronvall.

While the government estimated that only 50 to 100 youths would be monitored, the social services minister cited that “173 children under the age of 15 [are] suspected of being involved in murders or murder plots.”

RELATED: Commencement speaker praises AI and globalism — graduates crush her with boos

Swedish royal family. Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Image

“The government proposes that electronic monitoring should be able to be used in situations when children’s safety needs to be ensured,” the federal website stated. It added that the watchful eye of the government would be used to “ensure that the child or young person is at home at the times decided by the social services.”

Sweden insisted that the devices would be as minimally intrusive as possible but are necessary as an “early intervention” apparatus that, in the end, will “protect” those being monitored.

“Electronic surveillance should only be used when necessary, with strict rules … the measure is needed to … prevent the child or young person from engaging in criminal activity,” the government added.

RELATED: Ode to a 1984 Buick Skylark — and to all the other cars of my life

Parliament Palace, Stockholm, Sweden. Photo by: Giovanni Mereghetti/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Using similar logic, Swedish police have had the legal authority to monitor the electronic communications of children under 15 since October 2025.

“Preventive coercive measures may be used against children under the age of 15 to … prevent and detect certain particularly serious crime,” the government said.

The government also increased the time for which “children may be detained” while expanding the reasons for doing so.

Most of the commentary from government officials, like Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed, justified the monitoring system as a way to give “more tools” to the government to prevent gang recruitment and serious crimes.

“Electronic surveillance may, in serious cases, be a necessary support to ensure that children and young people do not stay in inappropriate places at inappropriate times,” said Jessica Stegrud, social policy spokesperson for the Sweden Democrats.

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​Ankle bracelet, Child monitoring, Child safety, Electronic surveillance, Government surveillance, Gps monitoring, Monitoring, Youth crime, Tech 

The “no-contact” trend has exploded in recent years. Popularized primarily on social media, it refers to adult children deliberately cutting off all communication with their parents or family members (often at the instruction of a therapist), typically to protect their mental health from perceived toxicity or because of ideological differences.

This isn’t some fleeting fad either. According to a New York Post survey, 38% of Americans have gone no contact with a friend or family member; Reddit’s “EstrangedAdultChild” community has skyrocketed in membership in recent years; and TikTok has roughly half a million posts (with well over a billion total views) featuring #nocontact.

Severing ties with one’s family has become an epidemic.

On a recent episode of “Relatable,” Allie Beth Stuckey addressed this movement through a biblical lens.

Allie argues that the no-contact trend is a branch of “therapy culture,” which tends to elevate the self above all else.

“[No contact] is one particular manifestation of what I call the cult of self-affirmation, which tells you if you learn to find fulfillment and love and satisfaction within yourself, if you go on this road of self-discovery, you will go so deeply inside yourself that you will unlock the manifestation of all of your dreams,” she says, noting that this mindset and practice have ties to the New Age as well.

But Jesus, Allie says, clearly instructs us to take the focus off of ourselves.

“Remember Jesus’ words: If you want to find yourself, you lose yourself. If you want to live, you must die. If you want to gain what I offer you, you must lose all of these things,” she says.

But the mindset behind the no-contact movement is the antithesis of Christ’s instruction.

“It’s not that you have to deny yourself; it’s that you have to deny others. If you want to gain, it’s not that you have to lose yourself in what you have. You have to lose others,” says Allie, calling it “the worshiping of the god of self.”

Allie acknowledges, however, that boundaries are sometimes necessary in a parent-adult child relationship.

“If you’re talking about actual harmful, hateful actions and words, OK, like that’s one conversation to have,” she says. “The problem with this is that this category of justification for going no contact is so large, and it encompasses everything from petty offense to political disagreements to not liking your parents’ tone to your parents in your mind just being too judgmental.”

“There are so many reasons that are covered under this that I think are awful reasons to cut off your parents,” she adds bluntly.

So what’s the Christian response to the no-contact movement?

To answer this question, Allie begins by playing an old clip of Charlie Kirk addressing the issue of having difficult parents.

“Even if your parents share values and views and a worldview that you do not have, you are biblically obligated to honor them, which means to spend time with them and to love on them and to go visit them. … If you are incapable in this case of honoring your earthly father, you will never honor your heavenly Father,” he declared.

Scripture corroborates this repeatedly. Allie displays several verses that explicitly instruct children to honor their parents.

There are no caveats to this either.

“There’s nothing there that says [honor your mother and father] as long as they’re still nice to you, as long as they agree with you, as long as they’re not emotionally immature, as long as they don’t do anything to you that makes you angry … as long as you can’t think back in your life to any time that they didn’t treat you fairly,” says Allie.

But she acknowledges that this is no easy journey — especially for those whose parents were genuinely abusive or neglectful.

“It takes a lot of the power of God to say, ‘Even if you didn’t treat me well, I am going to treat you well,”’ says Allie. “That’s what Christians are called to. That is the radical kind of love that the world who says they know what love is does not understand.”

We are called to this sacrificial, unconditional love, she says, because that’s the kind of love Christ extends to us.

“Even when we were spitting on Him and mocking Jesus, even when our sin placed Him on the cross, He said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,”’ says Allie. “That’s the craziness that Jesus brought forth.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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​Allie beth stuckey, Allie stuckey, Blaze media, Blazetv, Christianity, Estrangedadultchild, Mental health, New age, New york post, No contact, No contact trend, Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Selfaffirmation, Social media, Therapy culture, Tiktok 

Monoculture is a concept describing a society in which everyone — or at least a large plurality — shares common interests. America once had one in spades. People stopped on the street to watch the “Seinfeld” finale being broadcast in Times Square. Over half of the entire country watched the final episode of “M.A.S.H.”

And, of course, there were sports. America’s two most popular sporting leagues, Major League Baseball and the National Football League, once dominated their respective halves of the year. At one time, almost 60% of American households watched World Series games.

But now that’s changing. And while determinists may argue that it was an inevitability that some sports may wax or wane in popularity, they did not have to. They are being killed.

It is difficult — even borderline impossible — to watch some teams’ games.

In the late 1950s, football teams had a problem. The NFL instituted a blackout policy, banning games from being broadcast if they did not sell enough stadium tickets ahead of time. This was done to aid teams from smaller cities, which depended upon revenue from ticket sales and could have potentially failed without that income.

But the Supreme Court ruled that the NFL — in determining which teams’ games could be broadcast — was running afoul of the law. So the league turned to Congress and President John F. Kennedy, who in 1961 passed and signed the Sports Broadcasting Act.

The SBA gave antitrust exemptions to the four major American sporting leagues — the NFL, MLB, the National Hockey League, and the National Basketball Association — when it came to the pooling of telecasting rights of their games

With their exemptions secured, the leagues proceeded to enforce strict exclusivity policies, giving the rights to the games to certain stations in certain circumstances. This system worked for a while, but it began to break down in the age of cable television, when certain games were essentially placed behind paywalls, a practice that has intensified in the streaming era.

This development has been a boon to the major leagues, which have made billions in sales of exclusive games. Amazon paid about $1 billion per year for “Thursday Night Football,” and MLB makes at least $800 million from its exclusives.

For the fans, however, it has been a disaster.

RELATED: Trump’s antitrust policy is working for everyday Americans

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Now, “Thursday Night Football” belongs to Amazon Prime when outside a local region. The same situation occurs with key Christmas Day games, which can be found on Netflix. ESPN likewise has exclusive rights, some of which are broadcast on YouTube and others on Netflix. Certain nationally broadcast games are not available on local TV.

MLB’s blackout policies have produced even more confusion for viewers. It is difficult — even borderline impossible — to watch some teams’ games. Atlanta Braves fans, for example, were in recent years instructed on how to watch their team’s games on Gray-owned broadcast stations, but Gray only hosted 15 games out of MLB’s 162-game season. Watching all 162 could cost hundreds of dollars.

Some MLB fans are even worse off. The state of Iowa, for example, is “blacked out” from viewership of six different nearby teams, leaving fans unable to watch a given game unless they have access to a specific package.

Obviously, viewers hate this. Polling has found that over 70% of sports fans want games to be broadcast for free locally, and the National Association of Broadcasters has called for Congress to consider changing the Sports Broadcasting Act.

While changes to the Kennedy-era law are overdue, there is reason to believe that the law as written does not allow the leagues to act as they have. The text of the law covers professional sporting leagues that engage in “sponsored telecasting of the games.” Telecasting is a specific form of transmission and arguably does not include broadcasts over the internet.

Some may point out that laws written in an older time can apply to newer technologies, but that’s not at issue here. The First Amendment, for example, covers speech said over television or the phone — but that is because it is still speech. If the SBA had covered only broadcasting, the leagues would potentially have an out. But it doesn’t.

The Trump administration is already taking action on this front. The Federal Communications Commission asked for comments on the state of sports broadcasting earlier this year, and the Department of Justice has opened an antitrust probe into both the NFL and MLB.

These investigations could end up being long-running and likely will require both Congress and the courts to act. Americans should urge all three branches of government to take action and cut through the broadcasting web to save the last element of America’s monoculture.

​Mlb, Nfl, Nba, Supreme court, Sports broadcasting act, Trump adminstration, Blackouts, Sports blackouts, Local tv markets, Opinion & analysis