Category: blaze media

All those ignorant Trump voters worried about the price of food? Let them eat cake, says Madonna.

The Material Girl observed Donald Trump’s re-election by stuffing her face with a special celebratory confection — one bearing the slogan “F*** Trump.”

Academia is the new home for anti-Semitism, meaning young people are going into massive debt for the chance to hate an entire group of people.

A true blow to both MAGA Nation and The PatriarchyTM. How will Trump 2.0 survive?

In Madonna’s defense, she’s come a long way since 2017. That year found her dreaming of blowing up the White House.

Colbert’s cooked

Late-night TV isn’t handling Trump’s re-election quite as well.

Jimmy Kimmel fought back tears on the night following Trump’s landslide victory. John Oliver couldn’t muster the energy to make us laugh … or even try.

Now Stephen Colbert jokes (or confesses?). He’s stress-eating in reaction to the MAGA sequel.

“Over the weekend, what I like to do when I’m feeling stressed out, I cook.”

Wonder if he’s got a recipe for crow.

Glen Powell needs mom’s ‘Mission’ permission

One of the biggest new stars in Hollywood follows a tried-and-true formula for success. Listen to your mother.

Could Glen Powell, who broke out with “Top Gun: Maverick” and anchored the summer hit “Twisters,” replace Tom Cruise in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise?

Not so fast. First of all, no one has confirmed that news.

Secondly, Mama Powell is putting her foot down.

“My mom would never let me do that.” Powell said of the stunt-laden franchise. It’s the “worst gig in town; everybody knows that.”

Mom might have a change of heart if the assignment comes with Cruise-sized hazard pay.

Who’s sorry now?

Adam Carolla has a firm policy when it comes to jokes: no apologies. Ever.

That’s helped him build a sturdy career outside the Hollywood ecosystem. Now he can say whatever he wishes without a cancel culture care in the world.

He’s got company.

Tony Hinchcliffe, the comic who roasted Puerto Rico at President Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, isn’t sorry either.

The media desperately hoped Hinchcliffe’s “garbage” gag would turn Latinos against Trump.

It didn’t. Just ask the new governor of Puerto Rico, a Republican named Jenniffer Gonzalez.

Tony shared some warm thoughts about both Puerto Rico and its citizens following the election. Then he broke out his Carolla-approved philosophy.

“I apologize to absolutely nobody — not to the Puerto Ricans, not to the whites, not to the blacks, not to the Palestinians, not to the Jews, and not to my own mother, who I made fun of during the set. Nobody clipped that.”

He wasn’t done.

“To the mainstream media and to everybody trying to slander me online, that’s what I do. I go hard and that’s never going to change.”

Dwayne Johnson’s on-set ‘streaming’

OK, who’s gonna tell Dwayne Johnson he can’t use urine bottles on a movie set?

The former Rock is trying to explain a 2024 exposé that said he showed up late to the set of “Red One” … a lot. The superstar’s tardiness set the studio back millions, according to TheWrap.com.

Johnson is denying elements of that story, including the price tag for his tardiness. He does admit to a less substantial part of the narrative. Yes, he does pee in bottles on movie sets to save time.

It’s certainly not the kind of press a movie star craves. The bigger issue in play? “Red One,” an action Christmas comedy co-starring Chris Evans, cost a reported $250 million. The film’s projected box office this weekend? As low as $30 million. That’s hardly a trickle.

B.S. in Beyoncé

Universities have had a terrible, no-good 2024. Academia is the new home for anti-Semitism, meaning young people are going into massive debt for the chance to hate an entire group of people.

There is good news, though, at least on one college front.

Yale University is promising a new course titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music.” Graduates may not be able to make a dime from that knowledge, but they won’t have to hear, “from the river to the sea” chants as much as their peers.

​Entertainment, Celebrities, Gossip, Culture, Beyonce, Trump, Colbert, Kimmel, Toto recall 

Americans are tired of being told their intellect is limited by race or sex — especially women. Like other groups, women have long been taken for granted by the Democratic Party, as if pro-choice talking points alone are enough to secure their blind loyalty to the rest of the party’s platform.

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin certainly thinks this is the case, calling Trump’s victory a “a referendum of cultural resentment” merely because Americans overwhelmingly refused the policy platform of “a mixed-race woman married to a Jewish guy.”

No, women didn’t vote for Trump because they are ‘so severe upon their own sex.’

The Sunny Hostins of the Democratic establishment refuse to engage in serious self-reflection that could explain the surge of women and other traditionally Democratic groups voting Republican in this election. Are women simply suffering from a mass self-hatred that enticed them to vote for Donald Trump? Or have Democrats made a critical mistake in assuming that abortion is the only issue women care about politically?

Kamala Harris bet on winning the women’s vote by making reproductive rights the center of her campaign. This strategy isn’t new — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Democrats have used it before. However, this approach has arguably become one of the Democrats’ gravest miscalculations, and Harris paid the price.

Over the past four years, women have faced the same economic pressures as men — buying groceries, filling gas tanks, and dealing with higher interest rates. Men aren’t the only ones who care about the economy, and no matter how often politicians chant, “My body, my choice,” it can’t drown out the financial strain of Bidenomics. Women, like men, wanted economic solutions and found them with Trump. For them, Kamala Harris and “my body, my choice” were not nearly enough.

Women’s bodies seem to matter to Democrats only when it comes to abortion. After the COVID pandemic, women have led the push for greater medical autonomy, nutritional transparency, and broader access to holistic, cycle-based health care. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to address these issues by holding Big Pharma and Big Food accountable, and women rallied around him in droves. But instead of supporting RFK Jr. and the women’s issues he represented, the Democratic Party labeled him an “anti-vax conspiracy theorist,” dismissing both him and the women he galvanized. Is it any wonder they followed Kennedy across the aisle to Trump?

Democrats also seem indifferent to women’s health care standards beyond abortion access. Women are continually overprescribed birth control as a blanket treatment for almost any ailment, wreaking havoc on their bodies. When outlets like Evie magazine highlighted how Big Pharma profits from pumping women full of synthetic estrogens, the Washington Post labeled the writers “conspiracy theorists.” But don’t worry — if birth control fails, Democrats will ensure you still have access to abortion.

Yet the “my body, my choice” mantra doesn’t seem to apply to women’s sports, bathrooms, or sororities. Kamala Harris might have played Beyoncé’s “Girls Run the World” at her rallies, but when her party cheers for an Algerian man beating elite female athletes or celebrates Lia Thomas while dismissing Riley Gaines as a “right-wing extremist,” the pretense of “women’s empowerment” becomes hard to believe.

Women are also tired of being told by the “woke elite” that they’re “fatphobic” if they don’t laud Lizzo as a health and beauty icon while Adele and Rebel Wilson are criticized for promoting “unhealthy” beauty standards through their weight loss. According to MSNBC, fitness is a sign of “right-wing extremism,” so it’s supposedly better to sit on the couch and pop birth control.

When Democrats celebrate being an overweight, unhealthy, androgynous “menstruating person” over a mom who works out, wears dresses, and drinks raw milk, they risk alienating a significant portion of their base.

The Democrats assume women have an obligatory, blind allegiance requiring them to support any woman running for office regardless of her policies. Such an assumption that a woman’s political capacities are limited to a candidate’s sex is not only an insult to women’s intelligence — it’s frankly anti-feminist.

In response to Sunny Hostin: No, women didn’t vote for Trump because they are “so severe upon their own sex.” Like birth control, your party prescribed “my body, my choice” as a cure-all for any political ailment afflicting women over the past four years of Biden and Harris’ policy failures. Trump’s platform actually listened to women. You took them for granted.

​2024 presidential election, Donald trump, Kamala harris, Women, Abortion rights, Abortion, Transgender athletes, Lia thomas, Riley gaines, Democratic party, Sonny hostin, The view, Opinion & analysis 

As devastating as the images were coming out of Western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene in late September, sadly, it is all too easy for those of us personally unaffected by the storm to move on with our lives. Emotions were high leading up to the election, and now supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have focused much of their attention on the prospects of his second term.

Not so for those in North Carolina. Though voter turnout was still remarkably high in North Carolina, exceeding turnout in 2020 by more than 100,000 votes and exceeding 2016 numbers by more than 1 million, much of the western part of the state, normally protected from the storms that batter the coast with some regularity, remains wiped out from flooding.

Not content to carry on with the holiday season while their compatriots across the state still suffer, some Christians in an eastern region of North Carolina have made preparations to provide supplies, Bibles, and a hearty Thanksgiving meal to those in need.

To learn more about what has been dubbed Operation Thanksgiving Blessings, Blaze News spoke with the man behind the plans, David Burke, who in turn prefers to give all the credit to someone else.

“No way in the world would all this stuff ever have happened if it wasn’t for God,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I’m not that smart.”

Operation Thanksgiving Blessings

Blaze News spoke with Burke on multiple occasions and can verify that he is, indeed, that smart. By trade a project manager for a metal fabrication company, Burke has also been known to dabble in some cooking competitions.

“I was ranked as high as #3 in the state of North Carolina for whole-hog BBQ competition with the Roth Carolina Pork Council,” he noted proudly in a message to Blaze News.

After attending church one Sunday morning in early October, just a week or so after Hurricane Helene ravaged his state, Burke sensed that he had to do more for the victims than pray or write a check.

“The Sunday school lesson was on home community service, of all things,” he said. “I’m 59 years old. Never once have I had a Sunday school lesson on community service until about three weeks ago, four weeks ago.”

David Burke, speaking to children at a church that donated 100 Bibles for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. Photo used with permission.

After a series of coincidences, putting Burke in touch with people living hours away, he finally figured out what he was going to do: arrange to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for those living in an area that has thus far received little help from the government.

Citing Newland, North Carolina, Mayor Derek Roberts, who claimed his daughter received just $300 from FEMA after losing her entire house to the flooding, Burke claimed that government assistance has been almost nonexistent in some cases and that the people of Western North Carolina have more or less had to fend for themselves.

“I knew right then that’s where we needed to go,” Burke told Blaze News.

Burke lives near Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a rural area about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh and more than 260 miles east — about a six-hour drive — from Elk Park, the area he intended to feed. The distance and the scope of his plans meant that Burke needed help.

As so many people do these days, Burke turned to social media, creating a Facebook page as a landing site for those interested in getting involved. And, as it were, the floodgates opened.

Famed turkey company Butterball donated 100 turkeys weighing about 24 pounds each. Glover Construction is providing enough ingredients to make 300 gallons of Brunswick stew, a local staple that Burke described as “a thick vegetable soup.” Even an area prison with a farm on its grounds reportedly offered 180 dozen eggs — more than 2,100 total — for the effort.

Restaurants such as Napoli Pizza and Italian Restaurant in Murfreesboro chipped in by holding fundraisers. By pooling all proceeds from the fundraiser — including tips — Napoli’s alone collected $4,000 for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings.

Napoli’s owner, Mari Rizo, told Blaze News she was thrilled with the success of the fundraiser.

“At Napoli’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant, we’ve always believed in the power of community. When we heard about the devastating impact of the hurricane on families in Western North Carolina, we felt compelled to help. Our team wanted to do something meaningful to give back, especially with Thanksgiving approaching,” Rizo said in a statement to Blaze News.

“To the families in Western North Carolina who are facing difficult times, we want you to know that we are thinking of you. We hope that this gesture helps to bring some comfort and joy to your holiday. Our hearts are with you, and we will continue to do everything we can to support you through this difficult time.”

Photo of Napoli’s fundraiser. Used with permission.

The Seaboard Lions Club, of which Burke is a member, has also collected monetary and supply donations and stored them on the organization’s 20-acre site.

“Everybody knows somebody, and in our world, the more people you know … [the] better off you are,” Burke said of the growing network of donors and volunteers involved with Operation Thanksgiving Blessings.

Burke told Blaze News that his initial goal was to cook and serve about 5,000 total meals on Thanksgiving Day, but that goal expanded after he spoke with a woman who had a similar idea about feeding others living near Fletcher, North Carolina — about 90 miles away from Elk Park — on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

“We got another 40 turkeys donated and another 20 hams, and so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna cook all that food for those 500 as well on Thanksgiving Day, and we’ll pack it in bulk and send it to her. And then all she’ll have to do is warm it back up and serve 500 people on Saturday as well,” Burke explained.

As generous as a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal is, the food represents just a tiny fraction of the goods and services Operation Thanksgiving Blessings will offer those in Western North Carolina.

Burke and his team have loaded 53-foot trailers with other supplies as well, including clothes for the winter, heaters, blankets, baby supplies, gloves, hats, personal hygiene items, paper products, and cleaning supplies. ORBIS Corporation even donated 750 plastic bins for storage, a necessity for folks who lost not only all their possessions but a place in which to keep them.

“ORBIS is honored to support this incredible cause and support the people of Western North Carolina in their time of need,” the company told Blaze News.

Photo of supplies. Used with permission.

The details

The crew from the Roanoke Rapids area has already begun packing up trailers and trucks, ready to haul everything out to the western part of the state just a day or so before Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving Day, they will set up shop at Cranberry Middle School at 6051 N. U.S. Hwy 19E in Elk Park, North Carolina. Folks can begin arriving at 11 a.m. and sit down and enjoy their meal or pick one up and take it to go.

Screenshot of flyer featured on OTB Facebook page. Used with permission.

Burke told Blaze News that his group has all the supplies and donations it can handle. He suggested that anyone still interested in making a monetary donation mail a check to the Seaboard Lions Club at P.O. Box 76, Seaboard, North Carolina, 27876. Sending it to David Burke’s attention and including “OTB” on the memo line of the check will help earmark it for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings.

Burke emphasized to Blaze News that “every red penny” the Lions Club receives will be distributed to people living in and around Elk Park. Ever committed to transparency, Burke even offered to have Blaze News share his private phone number in this article, an offer that we politely declined.

“I don’t want people to sit around and wonder what we’re doing,” he explained. “I want them to see exactly what’s going on and see God at work.”

Feeding bellies and souls

Burke, a devout Christian, takes the biblical call to love and serve others seriously, and he is happy to use his talents as a project manager and as a chef to give those who have lost all their material possessions a Thanksgiving meal they will never forget.

However, he believes that evangelizing them for Christ is even more important.

“We’re looking for that one person out there that doesn’t believe, doesn’t think God is real,” he told Blaze News, “and it is our hope that we can change his mind or her mind.”

“By showing them that people care and that God has been working this whole time to make all this come together, maybe, just maybe, we’ll save that one,” he continued.

Burke is hardly the only Christian involved in Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. In fact, he has teamed up with members of churches across the state to identify and reach people in need.

For instance, Burke connected with a pastor from his hometown of Murfreesboro but now living in Boone, North Carolina, who began collecting supplies sent via Amazon from all over the country. Burke also made contact with the student body president of Appalachian State University, who once attended Sunday school taught by Burke and his wife.

“I called and talked to her, and I told her … ‘Go out there, and you tell these people that you’re gonna come bring some help to them at Thanksgiving. … And I’ll be standing right behind you,'” he recalled to Blaze News. “I said, ‘You’ve been on mission trips with me before. You know exactly what I want to get done. So let’s see if we can make it happen.'”

Burke acknowledged to Blaze News that some people, especially those who lost their homes, pets, and even loved ones in Hurricane Helene might struggle to believe in a loving, all-powerful God. But he added that faith in the face of doubt is still the answer.

“Why did God let this happen? I can’t answer that question, but it’s all within His plan,” he explained. “His plan has meaning. He doesn’t make any mistakes, and so all we have to do is we have to have the faith.”

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​Western north carolina, Hurricane helene, Thanksgiving, Christians, Operation thanksgiving blessings, Fema, Politics, Abide, T3 

Donald Trump won the election, but that isn’t the only win Americans are seeing.

“This was really not an election of Trump versus Kamala, it was really an election on reality and how many people had woken up to something roughly real that they were getting versus the endless lies of the mainstream media,” Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” explains.

“I mean, CNN is now talking about the podcasters and the online streamers and everything else. MSNBC is now for sale via Comcast. CNN, it’s now being reported, is about to axe a bunch of their top talent,” he adds.

Megyn Kelly is in full agreement, noting that unlike Kamala, who relied on the mainstream media, Trump utilized the podcast circuit to get his message out to voters.

“The young people do not watch cable news at all. Older people, senior citizens watch cable news,” Kelly says, adding that because of the memes, commentary, and fact checking on social-media, “mainstream anchors could not get away with the lies they were telling.”

“The Tim Walz stolen valor stuff, that exploded online. We all really had a massive role in shaping the narrative in a way that would have been unthinkable even four years ago,” she says, “It’s a totally new game now.”

When Kelly worked at Fox News, she recalls the media company refusing to entertain actress Jenny McCarthy’s claims that the childhood vaccine schedule was way over-the-top — and now it’s the same thing with trans ideology and pronouns.

“I remember Fox News being like, ‘Oh, hell no, we are not even going there,’ and now today the same thing is happening with the trans stuff. Fox News uses quote ‘preferred pronouns.’ That’s a news corp. policy. They say ‘he’ when it should be ‘she,’” Kelly explains.

“You could never have the frank and honest discussions that we have on our shows about race, race essentialism, the election denialism stuff, the COVID truths,” she continues. “I only would really put it together later that a lot of that is driven by just the agenda of the owners and the people at the top, and a lot of it is driven by the advertisers.”

“I mean, RFK Jr. is not wrong when he points out what a huge advertiser Pfizer is all over television,” she adds.

Want more from Dave Rubin?

To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Free, Video, Sharing, Camera phone, Upload, Youtube.com, The rubin report, Dave rubin, Megyn kelly, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Mainstream media, Donald trump, Rfk jr, Donald trump victory 

If you came to my house, you would see a myriad of crystals. They’re perched atop shelves, tucked into bookcases, and nestled among potted plants. I have tattoos of moons, suns, and stars on my arms.

I know what you’re thinking: You must be into New Age?

What begins as innocent curiosity, a desire for meaning and connection, or just a simple wow, that’s beautiful can set people on a path of consorting with the demonic.

Actually, no.

And I have a follow-up question: When did matters of geology and astronomy become emblems of the occult?

When did we agree that any part of God’s creation belonged to groups that, whether they know it or not, fraternize with the demonic?

I look around and wonder if any Christians are as nettled about this as I am. We already silently surrendered to the hijacking of the rainbow. Are we going to allow another group to lay claim to more aspects of nature that should point us back to God?

That’s not to say that we can stop New Agers, occultists, witches, or anyone for that matter from abusing God’s good creation — we can’t. If they want to infuse stones with dark magic and deduce faulty ideas from the skies, so be it.

But the Christian recoiling from anything involving crystals, astronomical bodies, or other elements of nature is a fundamentally flawed response.

A disclaimer

It’s unwise to purchase crystals or any trinket, no matter how innocuous it appears, from New Age shops and companies. There are telltale signs we should look for: tarot cards, books on modern witchcraft and spellwork, smudge sticks, incense, and anything claiming to “cleanse the energy” in the room.

Some of this merchandise is cursed intentionally. A pretty rock isn’t the only thing you’ll be bringing home with you.

New Age ideas found in books and games beckon the naive down paths of evil masked as “spiritual awakenings” and guides to connecting to the universe and other energy sources, all of which are demonic.

At bare minimum, purchasing products from New Age shops funds groups that practice and champion the dark arts. For the same reasons, Christians should avoid reading horoscopes or purchasing anything in that vein.

Why it matters

Isn’t it interesting that many of the things we associate with occultism and New Ageism, which is just a gateway drug to the occult, are not only part of nature but specifically the most ethereal parts of nature?

Ice tundras, scorching deserts, and mosquito-ridden swamplands do not embody the dark arts. But prismatic crystals, radiant celestial bodies, and deep, mysterious forests — things that are so striking they seem to exude the supernatural, because they do — these specifically we associate with witchcraft.

This is no accident.

Satan uses beauty — the very trait that defined him before his fall — to attract and ensnare. The most sublime elements of nature can be a kind of bait that draws people in. Anyone with an affinity for nature or metaphysics is especially at risk.

That’s why it’s common to see bohemians, naturalists, hippies, and the like gravitate toward the New Age. However, what begins as innocent curiosity, a desire for meaning and connection, or just a simple wow, that’s beautiful can set people on a path of consorting with the demonic. And before they know it, the jaws of dark magic are closing around them.

Further, nature isn’t just the game board on which the story of humanity plays out. Certainly there’s a practical side to oceans, mountains, and the moon, but these elements were also designed to reflect the nature of their Creator, who spoke them into existence, and elicit worship from the spectator.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them? —Psalm 8:3-4

These words from King David capture a divine purpose of the natural world. He gazes at the sky, bears witness to God’s creativity, His beauty, and His love for mankind, and he responds in worship.

Stealing wonder

But Satan hates the worship of God. It’s fitting that he would steal and pervert the elements of nature likely to stir up that feeling of awestruck wonder: If this exists, there must be a higher power out there. Which, of course, is the point. The complexity and beauty of nature shout the name of the One who created it.

Occultism does indeed lead to a higher power, but not the highest power. Not the power that heals, redeems, and saves but the power that confuses, corrupts, and destroys.

Under Satan’s sinister influence, glittering stones hidden among clay and rock become untapped sources of power instead of reminders of God’s creativity and whimsy. Constellations become pathways to phony insight and introspection instead of evidence of God’s artistry and brilliant design for navigation. The moon becomes an object of worship instead of a great stabilizer in God’s spoken cosmos. The deep woods become a gathering place for witches instead of singers of God’s glory (1 Chronicles 16:33, Psalm 96:12).

Shouldn’t Christians have something to say about this?

Everywhere I see warnings to stay away from New Age ideas and paraphernalia. And that’s good. People need to be educated about this pitfall.

However, I see nothing regarding the flip side of that pitfall — the erroneous belief that certain elements of nature now belong to the occult. They don’t. They were stolen and repurposed for evil, and I, for one, want them back.

Taking back beauty

On the darkest night when no moon can be seen, I know it’s still there in the exact same place it’s always been. I know that as it waxes and wanes, it’s not really changing its form. This is what I mean when I say that God infuses nature with elements of Himself.

Though from my fixed, finite perspective, He may appear to change with the coming and going of seasons, the moon reminds me that God is constant always — fully present, fully perfect, fully God.

And when I look at crystals — their erratic yet somehow ordered structure — I can’t help but think about how the same God who parted seas, sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and designed both the songbird and the anglerfish is the same logical, pragmatic God who gave Moses the Ten Commandments and invented mathematics. Beautiful, strange, mysterious, and evocative are both crystals and their Creator.

I’m also reminded of the New Jerusalem promised in Revelation 21 — a redeemed and holy city of pure gold surrounded by a wall made of layered stones, some of which are crystals.

“The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst” (Revelation 21:19-20).

Crystals and precious stones are quite literally reminders of God’s promise to create a new heaven and earth where toil, sickness, pain, and sin are forever defeated, but now that the occult has invented “crystal healing,” they’re off-limits to the very people who will inherit God’s redeemed Jerusalem? Now that moon rituals and dating parameters based on your “sign” exist, suddenly it’s taboo for Christians to marvel at certain elements of God’s creation?

I reject that.

I’m embracing my affinity for crystals, moons, and stars even if it means giving the “wrong impression.”

Ask me if I use my crystals for healing, and I’ll say, No, but let me tell you what will heal you. Ask me about my identity as a Libra, and I’ll tell you to Whom my identity is attached. Ask me about the sun and moon tattooed on my left arm, and I’ll point you to the Psalms.

I think it’s high time we stop retreating every time a new group sticks its flag in our territory.

​New age, Crystals, Constellations, Stars, Astronomy, Abide, Faith, Religion, Hailee boyd, Satan, Lifestyle 

Does character still matter in our politicians? Yes, it does, but not in the same way it did in the past.

“Character is on the ballot.” This is a common refrain from pundits and voters alike during any election season. But is that still true today? For many evangelicals and conservatives, the answer is “yes” — just not with the same weight it held in the past.

‘Who will support policies that reflect the character we want to see in our society?’

Since Donald Trump entered the mainstream political scene in 2015, evangelical Christians and conservatives have faced growing criticism. Observers note our opposition to Bill Clinton in the late 1990s after his sex scandal and then point to our support for Trump, a man with his own flaws and controversies. They ask, “What gives?” Are we hypocrites seeking only power? Is it a matter of having “our guy” in office while condemning “the other guy”?

I don’t think so. There’s more to it.

My co-host on “The Bully Pulpit” podcast, Eric Teetsel, has a theory about what’s changed. In the 1990s, the political landscape was different. Back then, the gap between Republican and Democratic policies was not as stark as it is today. On key issues like abortion, Democrats insisted it should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Both parties supported border security. Foreign policy views were more aligned than divided. The differences were there, but they weren’t chasms.

In this environment, character often served as the tiebreaker. Without a deep policy divide, integrity, honesty, and moral standing carried considerable weight in determining which candidate better represented the country’s values. For evangelicals, and voters in general, character was a critical factor because it provided insight into a candidate’s potential for leadership in a relatively aligned political field. Small scandals could derail campaigns because, in a landscape of similar policy positions, they served as differentiators. Think about Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign-ending scream; it seemed unbecoming for a presidential candidate. That standard feels almost unthinkable today.

The ground has shifted dramatically since then.

Today, we are faced with deeply contrasting policy platforms. The issues are no longer primarily debates over taxes or spending; they have become ideological battlegrounds. We’re at odds over fundamental moral questions that shape the future of society — marriage, gender ideology, religious freedom, unrestricted abortion, censorship, national security, and more.

The differences between parties aren’t incremental; they’re categorical.

In this polarized environment, the personal character of candidates no longer stands out as much. Moral shortcomings and scandals are now common across the political spectrum, leaving us without any truly “ideal” candidates. With candidates often leveling out on character flaws, policy has emerged as the clear differentiator.

To be clear, we still want leaders with strong character. But when both parties present candidates with moral failings, we must prioritize other factors. For many, the question has become, “Who will support policies that reflect the character we want to see in our society?”

This shift is not about justifying sin or minimizing integrity; it’s about the stakes in today’s political landscape.

Policies reflect values that will shape the future, determine rights and freedoms, and frame the moral fabric of the nation.

When policies differ as dramatically as they do now, the battle lines are clearer. For example, many evangelicals supported Donald Trump not out of blindness to his flaws but because his policies align more closely with their convictions than those of the opposing platform. The same logic applies to future candidates who may not be flawless role models but who will champion policies that align with our values and safeguard freedoms.

So is this hypocrisy? I don’t believe so. It’s a recalibration in light of the changed world around us.

People often throw around accusations of hypocrisy without accounting for how the political landscape has evolved. This isn’t about excusing moral failures; it’s about weighing them differently in an era when the stakes are impossibly high. Evangelicals aren’t saying that personal integrity in a leader is unimportant. But we have come to a place where the character of a candidate’s policies often speaks more to the future of the nation than does personal perfection.

Policies reflect a form of collective character. They determine the moral and ethical direction of society. While we still want leaders who can set a positive example, the truth is we can no longer afford to focus solely on personal lives.

Today, policies reflect values that will shape the future, determine rights and freedoms, and frame the moral fabric of the nation.

So does character matter? Absolutely. But in today’s climate, the character that matters most is embedded in the policies our leaders support. That’s not hypocrisy; it’s an adaptation to a political landscape where our values face unprecedented challenges. In this environment, we must weigh the complete character of a candidate — both his personal life and the values his policies will bring to the country.

For evangelicals, voting isn’t just about picking a person; it’s about choosing policies that align with biblical truths and protecting the foundations that allow the gospel to flourish.

Today, the character of policy speaks louder than the individual character of a candidate. That’s a choice we’re making for the sake of our children, our communities, and our faith.

​Christians, Christianity, Donald trump, Character, Faith 

Ironies abound in Donald Trump’s election victory.

It’s the people who truly believe he will end democracy or is literally Hitler who did the most to help him win through their total ideological commitment to open borders. They would rather see American democracy destroyed than merely enforce our existing immigration laws.

And it’s those who most enthusiastically tore down all the old Christian moral superstructure of America, the guardrails that would have barred the way to the Oval Office for someone like Trump, who are most horrified by his wins.

Donald Trump is truly the president for post-Christian America.

I noted that the decline of Christianity in America has gone through three phases or worlds: a positive world (1964-1994) in which it was declining but still seen positively by society; a neutral world (1994-2014) in which it was no longer seen positively but not yet seen negatively; and a negative world (2014-present) in which for the first time in the 400-year history of America, official, elite culture now views Christianity negatively or at least skeptically. And its moral system has been rejected.

When I tell this story about Christianity in America, people tend to think about what that means for American Christians. But it has profound implications for American society as a whole.

Donald Trump is only a plausible president in a negative world.

Trump had talked about running for president since at least 1988, but he never did it. The fake 2012 Reform Party bid doesn’t count. He knew that whatever his fame, America would not elect someone like him. In a country where Sen. Gary Hart had to drop out of the presidential race because he allegedly had an affair, Trump’s stormy personal life in that era would have disqualified him.

Another example of why Trump could not have gotten elected: He had owned gambling casinos. Back the 1980s, if you wanted to gamble, you had two choices. You could go to your local mob bookie, or you could go to Las Vegas or Atlantic City and bet at a casino that was probably mob-controlled. Gambling was a seedy business, publicly perceived as deeply tied to the Mafia. This was a major plot element in the “Godfather” movies. While Trump may never have been involved with the mob himself, the idea of America electing a casino owner was unthinkable.

Today, gambling is legal, pervasive, and socially approved. The major sports leagues are actually partners in the gambling industry. Clean-cut, all-American types like Peyton Manning and Eli Manning signed up to be gambling pitchmen, apparently without hurting their brands. Trump’s casino ownership is no big deal today.

Trump also benefited from the final decay of WASP norms in America. His gaudy consumption style, braggadocio, and love of celebrity are an affront to WASP values. But in a country that fetes Cardi B’s “WAP” and other such music, in which drug use is now mostly legal and approved of, tattoos are very common, becoming a social media star is one of the top career ambitions of young people, and consumption of expensive products and experiences is now a core element of the lifestyle of the American elite, how can Trump’s behaviors be critiqued? It’s hard to complain that he’s crude when we live in a crude society and people like it that way — except when it comes to him. In fact, compared to the rest of the country, Trump is a retro model of rectitude in not drinking or doing drugs, having a relentless work ethic, wearing suits, etc.

If we were still the America that elected George H.W. Bush or even George W. Bush, Donald Trump would not have won this election. In fact, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t even have run in the first place.

But in 2015, he saw that something had changed in the country, that there was now a viable path for someone like him to make it to the White House. He came down that escalator, and the rest is history.

Donald Trump is an example of what’s changed with the advent of the negative world in America.

The fallout will be pervasive. We see it in how everything you used to have to go to the Mafia for is now legal and approved at some level: drugs, gambling, loan sharking (payday loan stores), and, coming soon, prostitution (“sex work”). Maybe that’s one reason you don’t hear as much about the American Mafia these days. There’s not as much for them to do as there used to be. If Michael Corleone were real and alive today, he actually would be able to go legit.

Donald Trump’s presidencies are two of the first signs of the social implication of a negative world, post-Christian America. They’re unlikely to be the last.

This essay was originally published on Aaron Renn’s Substack.

​Donald trump, Negative world, Post-christian, Christianity, Faith 

People often ask how a former Bernie Sanders supporter like me could back Donald Trump. For me, it came down to one key issue: the Democrats’ abandonment of the working class. Sanders himself recently said it’s no wonder working Americans are leaving a party that no longer serves them.

The presidential election underscored this shift, as Trump saw record turnout among black and Latino voters. Yet instead of asking why, the left resorted to lazy stereotypes. MSNBC and other networks labeled black men “misogynists” and Latinos “racists” simply for voting Republican. These dismissive labels only deepen the disconnect. Rather than recognizing the cracks in their base, Democrats brush off real concerns, assuming they’ll regain minority support in a few years without changing their tone or agenda.

It’s no surprise that Americans turned out in record numbers for Trump, drawn to his focus on real issues and his willingness to engage with them directly.

The truth is simple: The Democrats lost because they stopped listening to everyday Americans.

Over time, they shifted focus to appeasing radical supporters and coastal elites. Instead of tackling economic issues like jobs and inflation, Democrats centered their platform on identity politics and social issues that resonate mainly with urban and affluent progressives. This approach alienates Americans grappling with real-world issues — concerns Democrats used to prioritize but now dismiss as outdated or irrelevant.

This election cycle highlighted that disconnect. Democratic elites like Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and their Hollywood allies spent more time lecturing Americans on how they should think and vote than addressing their daily struggles. For voters barely getting by, these lectures felt out of touch and tone-deaf.

Democrats focused almost exclusively on women’s issues, especially abortion, neglecting the bread-and-butter topics most Americans care about: job security, rising costs, and public safety. Men — and the average voter — were left feeling sidelined by a party that once claimed to represent them. The Democrats’ relentless single-issue focus underscored a shift from uniting Americans to dividing them by identity.

Meanwhile, Trump and GOP leaders like JD Vance took a different approach. While Harris skipped major bipartisan events like the Al Smith Dinner, Trump showed up where it mattered — flipping burgers at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, while Vance poured beers at a Wisconsin pub. These weren’t just photo ops; they were genuine efforts to connect with everyday Americans, listen to their concerns, and emphasize shared values. By showing up, Trump and his team reminded voters that they’re willing to meet people where they are — a concept Democrats seem to have forgotten.

Trump didn’t stop there. Recognizing Americans’ desire for unity over division, his campaign built a coalition that crossed traditional party lines. He assembled a bipartisan “Avengers” task force, featuring figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and even Elon Musk. This team focused on issues that unite Americans — economic security, public safety, and national sovereignty. It was a sharp contrast to the Democrats’ divisive identity politics, and it resonated with voters tired of being labeled as “the problem” or forced to align on every single issue.

Harris’ campaign, in contrast, spent nearly three times as much as Trump’s, burning through close to $1 billion, only to underperform Biden’s 2020 numbers and end $20 million in debt. Harris simply didn’t connect with voters. Her race-driven messaging left many feeling overlooked and undervalued. Instead of addressing real concerns, her campaign focused on topics that, while important to some, missed the mark for a large slice of the voting population. It’s no surprise that Americans turned out in record numbers for Trump, drawn to his focus on real issues and his willingness to engage with them directly.

The Democrats’ refusal to listen or adapt led to a massive red wave, as voters from diverse backgrounds chose a path that aligns with their lived realities. Trump’s approach resonated because it addressed the everyday struggles Americans face.

People are tired of empty promises and tone-deaf lectures from leaders who seem out of touch. They want leaders who speak to their concerns about jobs, safety, and economic opportunity — leaders who prioritize practical solutions over ideological rigidity. While Democrats continue to alienate voters by talking down to them and dismissing dissent, Republicans are building a coalition that listens to and values Americans across all walks of life.

The facts of this election reveal that the Democratic Party’s focus on ideological purity has cost Democrats their connection to the everyday American. Working-class families, once the backbone of the Democratic base, are tired of empty promises and divisive rhetoric. They’re rejecting a narrative that labels them “racists” or “misogynists” simply for voting in their own best interests. Instead, they’re joining a movement that prioritizes their voices, addresses their concerns, and puts America first.

Trump’s win isn’t just a victory for one candidate; it’s a triumph for Americans who want their voices heard. It sends a message to Washington that people are finished with being dismissed and sidelined. They have chosen leaders who stand up for real issues and who are unafraid to challenge a political establishment that, for too long, has forgotten whom it serves.

​2024 presidential election, Donald trump, Donald trump victory, Working class, Middle class, Latino voters, Black voters, Identity politics, Bernie sanders, Opinion & analysis 

Twelve years ago, my mother had a manic breakdown. She was found in Molokai, Hawaii, after disappearing for several days. The fugue state — in which she turned into a nightmare version of herself, eyes afire, flagellating her loved ones with a stream of deranged insults and delusions — lasted about six months until someone finally got her on lithium.

As she returned to herself, I pressured her to get a dog. She lived alone, so it would help her get a grip on reality. She said she liked whippets, so I found a local breeder. I wanted to name him Knut after Knut Hamsun, but she decided on Eliot after T.S.

I lost many jobs, many friends, many family members, all of whom called me problematic crazy fringe incel bigot weirdo resentful loser failure. But I just couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t not see the lie.

When the fugue began, I was finishing law school. When it ended, I’d taken the bar and moved to Los Angeles. I’d already experienced my parents’ terrible divorce as an only child at 17, but this year, 27, was the toughest and most isolating of my life. The safety net had ripped open, and I’d fallen through. Everything was most definitely not going to be okay.

After hitting the ground and dusting yourself off, making sure you aren’t dead, there is a sense of relief. “That happened.” There on the ground, you see the world as most people on earth do, all victims of abandonment or neglect or abuse or poverty or other societal failure, just not the upper middle-class American suburban milieu I’d been comfortably incubated within.

And when you hit the earth, you suddenly want to tell the truth. You don’t want to “win” any more. You want to help other people figure this thing out.

I was always edgy, but a good boy politically. In fact, I thought if myself as edgy for a good cause, that cause being “equality.” I’d dutifully campaigned for Obama, and my diverse group of friends had tearfully celebrated when he won in 2008.

But now it was 2012, and I worked for a gay Hollywood agent with six other young men, all of whom were gay. The time came to vote for Obama again, but this time, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It felt phony, a little numb spot where my righteousness had once curled.

What the hell did this guy know about anything? He certainly wasn’t talking to me. I told my co-workers this, and they were deeply offended. Didn’t I understand their rights were at stake? I already didn’t fit in, but this made it terminal. I was out within three months.

And thus began a decade of professional, personal, and familial torment as I slowly came out of the closet as a political bad boy, just as much to myself as to the world. I was, and still am, a liberal — it’s not possible to completely erase my deracinated bohemian upbringing. But it became increasingly clear to me that the good guys were in fact a mask covering a barely perceptible leviathan pulsing under the surface, rapidly reaching its tentacles across the earth.

As Eliot grew and my mother healed, I lost many jobs, many friends, many family members, all of whom called me problematic crazy fringe incel bigot weirdo resentful loser failure. But I just couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t not see the lie.

In L.A., I became a lone Trump supporter. I had zero MAGA friends, zero contacts to celebrate with when he won, maybe only one or two even in 2020 to lament the loss. On Tuesday, I celebrated with 100 friends, all culture kids and almost all recent converts who, like me, just couldn’t bring themselves to lie any more.

The thing we share in common? A breaking. Some loss, failure, death — the cozy cloak of a bourgeois upbringing ripped off, however fleetingly. All men used to be broken by war. Now far fewer are. But everyone in that room had gotten a glimpse. Tuesday: a decade of pain vindicated in a single night.

Wednesday morning after the all-nighter, I drove down to San Diego to put Eliot to sleep. He had a tennis ball-sized sarcoma dangling off his arm and typical whippet heart issues. It was time. Two guys came to the house and did it — it took 20 minutes. A decade transcended in a few quiet moments.

Mom is doing better now, but she still hates my politics.

This essay originally appeared on the Carousel.

​Election 2024, Donald trump, Dogs, Pets, Family, Lifestyle, Culture, Los angeles, Maga, Isaac simpson, Essay 

Donald Trump’s landslide victory has inevitably resulted in a debate surrounding gender — and Jason Whitlock of “Fearless” is calling it what it really is.

“It’s a battle of the sexes. There are beta men who have jumped on the other side, but this has all been a program, and they program little kids. That’s why you see all these young people, they’ve been so immersed in this brainwashing process,” Whitlock explains.

“Kids’ minds are impressionable, and why all these young people are melting down, they’ve been fed a steady diet of Disney movies, of Disney princesses, a steady diet indoctrinating them into ‘you don’t need a man,’” he continues.

While older Disney films like “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty” required that a man come and save the princesses, the films that have followed, like “Mulan,” show the woman saving herself.

“They save themselves now, the men are evil and incompetent, and they’re generally stories about the princess saving herself, saving humanity, start sending little kids that message over and over and over, ‘You don’t need a man, you can save yourself,’” Whitlock explains.

But as Whitlock notes, it’s not just the kid’s movies. Movies like “The Woman King” and “Wakanda,” which feature characters like the female Black Panther, have only added fuel to the gender war fire.

“And you wonder why these black women are delusional,” Whitlock says. “The government came in and offered these black women a check, a welfare check, and now they got entertainment on a 24/7 loop that tells these black women, ‘Wakanda forever,’ and you can save the planet and over in Africa a bunch of women warriors wiped out the colonizers.”

“Donald Trump represents toxic masculinity, and there’s a group of women and their emasculated allies who think, ‘Oh, the world would be so much better if we just had less masculinity and more femininity,’” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Camera phone, Video, Free, Upload, Sharing, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Fearless, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Donald trump, Feminism, Disney princess syndrome, Disney, Gender wars, Gender ideology, Leftism, Leftist freakout 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey results, an annual assessment of various health-related behaviors among U.S. adults. Tobacco control advocates have reason to celebrate: The adult smoking rate has reached record lows, and in some states, young adult smoking rates are nearly nonexistent.

According to the BRFSS, only 12.1% of adults across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., smoked in 2023, down from 14% in 2022. This drop represents a decrease from 36.4 million smokers in 2022 to 31.7 million in 2023, a reduction of approximately 4.7 million. The decline among young adults aged 18 to 24 is even more notable: Only 5.6% smoked in 2023, marking a 23.5% decrease from 2022 and a dramatic 76.5% decline over the past decade.

Inaction and sporadic enforcement by federal agencies have contributed to widespread misperceptions about products that are less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

While tobacco control advocates credit these historic lows to policies like taxes and smoking bans, the rise in e-cigarette use also appears correlated with the reduction in smoking rates. From 2016 to 2023, vaping among young adults rose by 90%, while their smoking rates fell by 63.8%. Interestingly, young adult vaping rates have also started to decline, dropping 23.5% from 20.9% in 2022 to 18.9% in 2023.

In some states, such as Utah and New York, young adult smoking rates are exceptionally low, at 2.6% and 3.4%, respectively. Even Oklahoma, which has the highest young adult smoking rate at 9.1%, is still significantly lower than the national adult average of 12.1%.

These trends extend to youth smoking and vaping statistics. According to the CDC’s National Youth Tobacco Survey, only 1.6% of U.S. middle and high school students reported current cigarette use in 2023. Youth vaping has also declined significantly, with only 5.9% of U.S. youth vaping this year — a 70.5% drop from 2019, when 20% were vaping. In just five years, America went from one in five youth using e-cigarettes to one in 20.

Despite these positive trends, many tobacco control advocates continue to push for strict policies and high taxes, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been slow to process authorizations for newer tobacco harm-reduction products. This has contributed to public misunderstandings about the relative risks of these products compared to traditional cigarettes.

Numerous organizations, including the American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the Truth Initiative, recognize the significant declines in youth vaping but remain concerned about the frequency of use among current users, particularly criticizing flavored tobacco and vapor products.

The ALA describes vaping as “a serious public health concern,” while CTFK emphasizes that youth e-cigarette use “remains a serious public health problem” and calls for an end to this “crisis” by urging federal agencies like the FDA and the U.S. Department of Justice to intensify their efforts to eliminate all illegal e-cigarettes from the market. Similarly, the Truth Initiative asserts that “youth nicotine addiction remains a serious public health concern.”

All these groups criticize flavored products, despite adults using these flavors in innovative tobacco harm-reduction products to remain smoke-free. These groups also focus their efforts on newer oral nicotine pouches, even though less than 2% of youth report using such products.

These groups are not alone. The inaction and sporadic enforcement by federal agencies have contributed to widespread misperceptions about products that are less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

Since 2015, the FDA has issued only 56 marketing orders for newer tobacco products introduced in the United States after February 2007. Despite authorizing more than 16,000 other tobacco products since 2012, the FDA has approved marketing for only 34 e-cigarette products. In contrast, in 2023, the agency issued more than 660 orders for combustible cigarettes, despite declining smoking rates among American adults. This disparity likely contributes to public confusion about the relative health benefits of e-cigarettes.

Policymakers and tobacco control groups should recognize and celebrate the historic reductions in cigarette use among both adults and youth. This is a significant public health achievement that may be driven by the availability of tobacco harm-reduction products, such as e-cigarettes and oral nicotine pouches.

Instead of resisting these market trends and products that have been associated with significant declines in smoking rates, these groups should advocate enhanced access to these alternatives to help end the use of combustible cigarettes once and for all.

​Vaping, E-cigarettes, Cigarettes, Tobacco, Nicotine, Cdc, Fda, Health, Opinion & analysis 

You are drowning in doom.

Everything only seems to go one way. The news always validates what you already suspect. It’s the same thing every day. It all just gets worse and worse.

If life were truly terrible, you would have no desire to spend every waking hour brooding over depressing predictions about how everything is only going to get worse.

You open your phone and you scroll just so you can get mad. The truth is that you don’t want to see any glimmer of hope.

You mad?

You want to be mad, you want to be sad, you want to know how bad everything is. You want the hard stuff. The dark stuff. The worse it gets, the better it is. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

Good. You are addicted. It’s making you miserable, but you are hooked. You can’t stop. You are like the strung-out crackhead at the safe injection site, but instead of a dilapidated room and glazed-over eyes, it’s you hunched over your iPhone on your couch next to the air conditioner.

Doomerism is addicting.

Mainlining apocalypse

It’s a modern drug of the internet. It’s like falling down a hole over and over again. You fall down and then you fall some more. And then you kind of want to see how far it goes, so you start running as fast as you can down into the black abyss.

You seek out more and more obscure accounts and sources. You want to feel like apocalypse is right around the corner. You want to know all the bad stuff first so you can say “told you so” when your nightmare (secretly a fantasy) becomes reality.

You want to get as depressed as you can about the state of the world. There is no future. That’s what you say. You are happiest when you are sad. That’s your dirty little secret, but you will never say it. You can’t. You have to pretend like you are dooming for the sake of the greater good.

You don’t ever want to fix it. You don’t want any solutions. In fact, seeing solutions ticks you off, so you scroll right past those. Deep down, you want to hear over and over again that everything is hopeless.

It’s dark. It’s twisted. And it could only exist in a time like ours. Relative material abundance, decent medical care, and a fairly predictable life when compared to most other times in history. These are the conditions for doomerism.

If life were truly terrible, you would have no desire to spend every waking hour brooding over depressing predictions about how everything is only going to get worse. No. You would be hoping for any kind of lifeboat. Any kind of hope.

Doomerism is a kind of LARP product of the internet and abundance-induced boredom.

Terminally online

A key to doomerism is the abstract nature of the engine. Doomerism is almost always primarily based on, and derived from, news or social media. The real thrust is almost never found in real, tangible life.

The primary drivers tend to be far away, abstract, or found primarily in the digital realm. The farther one moves from the actual world and into the digital, the deeper into the realm of doomerism one wanders.

Every doomer is terminally online. Of course, it’s very possible to be depressed offline. There are, tragically, far too many souls lost in the dark labyrinth of depression.

But this is not doomerism. Every doomer, without question, is addicted to the discourse, social media, or the news cycle. These abstract digital forces take up the majority of the doomer’s daily concern. Life and living have all but evaporated for the doomer. All that remains is discourse addiction and dooming.

The cure for doomerism

While doomerism is a serious affliction, it can be cured. The first step to treating doomerism is reclaiming your agency and reasserting control over your personal domain.

The news cycle, discourse, or latest and greatest rage-bait are worthless in your personal world. They don’t help you cultivate your culture; they don’t positively impact your personal growth or your quality of life in any meaningful way.

All they do is distract you from taking control in your personal domain. They draw more and more of your attention into the domain where you are helpless while you give up any hope of impacting the domain where you are most able.

Vital realism

Of course this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take an interest in world affairs or politics. Of course not. But you must put these things in the right place. You must realize that overly obsessive doom and gloom are like a cancer of the spirit. Even if the doomed analysis was correct, it doesn’t help in any positive way. It is worthless.

To overcome doomerism, you must return to the actual and the personal. You must learn to accept the things you cannot change and realize that all the pointlessly depressing discourse is like a drug wanting to drag you down into the toilet bowl.

It might feel like it is gravely important and you need to know it, but it really isn’t and you really don’t. Think for a moment about all the extremely depressing bits of info you have learned, worried over, and then forgotten. How much of your life did you lose?

We only have so much energy to expend. We can only spin so many plates at one time. If we focus every last drop of our hearts and souls on that which we are not a part of, we become spectators in our own lives. Watching carefully. Depressed about the outcome. Analyzing what could have been done differently after the fact. Dooming.

The solution to doomerism is not naive Polyannaism but vital realism. It’s allocating your effort and emotion to the domains where your action is most profoundly felt.

The world will not change because of doomerism. The world is indifferent to the doomer. It will change if we make positive change where we we stand. Cultivate our culture, live the values we believe, and make a positive impact on the world around us.

​Doomerism, O.w. root, Online, Lifestyle 

President-elect Donald Trump is already making good on his promise to “Make America Healthy Again” — starting with appointing RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

And conservatives everywhere couldn’t be happier.

“The gig is up,” Kevin Roberts, author and president of the Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.”

“The K Street-dominated, ridiculous policy that inverts the way America should work is coming to an end. It inverts it in this way, it prioritizes the interest of Washington and New York elites ahead of ordinary Americans.”

“If Trump and Vance’s victory means anything, it means that we’re restoring what this country is supposed to be about, which is that this is a place where ordinary Americans, regardless of where you’re from, where your people came from, run this country,” he adds.

“That’s why it’s a beautiful time to be alive,” Peterson agrees.

While Trump’s appointments are a great sign of things to come, Roberts says this is only the first phase.

“The second phase, in a lot of ways, it’s more important than Washington,” he says, explaining that we have to “revitalize federalism.”

“If in fact we want to devolve power from Washington back to the states, we have to make Washington a lot less important in our lives, and one of the ways we do that is to make sure that states have appropriate power and authority in a complimentary way with Washington,” he says.

But how do American citizens contribute to this change?

“The single, most important thing individuals can do at home is to pay attention to their families, to the relationships they have, and to be present in meetings of their county commission, of their county executive, of their school boards. In other words, federal politics, national politics, as important as they’ve been to us this year, are the least important when compared to what we do in our daily lives,” he says.

Want more from ‘Blaze News Tonight’?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Camera phone, Video, Free, Upload, Sharing, Youtube.com, Blaze news tonight, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze media, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze news, Jill savage, Matthew peterson, The heritage foundation, Rfk jr, Donald trump, Jd vance, Presidential election 2024, Drain the swamp 

Concerts are supposed to be fun. Unfortunately, the typical excitement and anticipation of attending a show or sporting event has been overshadowed by panic and stress. Nearly 50% of concertgoers recently admitted they’ve considered taking a second job just to afford tickets.

In addition to shelling out a small fortune for concert tickets, fans now have to worry if their tickets will vanish into thin air, thanks to one company’s epic data breach earlier this year. With the data from about 560 million people up for grabs, your ticket might just be the hottest item on a hacker’s wish list.

We find ourselves in this situation because Live Nation-Ticketmaster manages the artists, runs the venues, and sells the tickets — virtually every piece of the ecosystem.

Why is this all happening? The ticketing industry’s self-made monopolist, Ticketmaster, changed the game, and it’s time we as fans do something about it.

The merger of Ticketmaster with its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, back in 2010 has brought turmoil and frustration for artists, concert venues, and consumers alike. But while many affected by Ticketmaster’s monopoly in the live event and ticket ecosystem have spoken out, not much has happened.

Thankfully, the lawsuit from the Department of Justice and a bipartisan group of more than 40 state and district attorneys general compiles over a decade’s worth of evidence that true competition in live events and the ticketing industry is absent — leading to increased costs and fewer event opportunities for fans.

Ticketmaster’s latest blunder with Oasis’ highly anticipated 2025 comeback tour underscores the company’s ongoing failure to put fans first. At the outset, overwhelming traffic caused Ticketmaster’s system to crash, leaving thousands of U.K. fans stuck in queues without ever getting a chance to purchase tickets, while others paid considerably more than they anticipated.

Sound familiar, Swifties?

We find ourselves in this situation because Live Nation-Ticketmaster manages the artists, runs the venues, and sells the tickets — virtually every piece of this ecosystem. Its overwhelming control over ticketing, touring, and promotions has led to restricted consumer choices and inflated ticket prices, all while Live Nation-Ticketmaster becomes ever more profitable.

The lack of real competition between Ticketmaster and other ticket sellers is evident. Live Nation owns or manages 60% of the highest-grossing venues in the United States, granting Ticketmaster exclusive rights for initial ticket sales at those venues. Additionally, Live Nation directly manages more than 350 musical artists and their tours. Guess which venues they use?

Then there are the concerns around its business tactics that box out other market participants. Its network of exclusive contracts eliminates choice, forcing venues and artists into the hands of a single corporate player.

And of course, as we just saw with Oasis and many other high-demand sales, the lack of competition results in poor execution and poor customer service.

In some instances, Live Nation even exclusively sells its own canned water — Liquid Death — at its venues. The list goes on.

The federal government must take decisive action to dismantle this monopoly and introduce real competition in the live event industry. With former President Donald Trump decidedly winning the election, we can only hope his new team at the Justice Department will continue to keep antitrust enforcement at the forefront.

Transparency in primary ticketing is nonexistent, while venues, artists, and promoters remain under the control of a single entity. Restrictive terms and conditions limit what people can do with a ticket.

Now is the time for fans to say, enough is enough — especially if you are one of the 145 million Americans who plan to attend a live event in the next year and don’t want to see the tickets you spent a small fortune on disappear.

​Oasis, Taylor swift, Tickets, Ticketmaster, Live nation, Concerts, Monopoly, Antitrust lawsuit, Opinion & analysis 

It had a billion-dollar budget, lavish sets, and some of the biggest names in entertainment — so why did the Democrats’ latest presidential campaign tank at the voting booth?

Yes, there was that desperate, last-minute casting change. But new lead Kamala Harris seemed to get the notoriously troubled production back on track despite a predecessor unwilling to give up his former role and co-star Tim Walz’s troublingly erratic public behavior.

Megan Thee Stallion, Lady Gaga, and Charli XCX just weren’t up to the task of rescuing Harris from herself.

The sheer star power on hand seemed to guarantee a runaway hit: Gen Z favorite Alex Cooper (“Call Me Daddy”), as well as proven draws like Will Ferrell, Rihanna, George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, and even Oprah Winfrey.

Pay to play

Winfrey’s glorified cameo was said to cost a cool million. Also rumored to have gotten a seven-figure payday was Beyoncé — who perversely enough appeared in a non-singing role — and any number of other artists ranging from Taylor Swift to Eminem.

Whatever the exact line items were, one thing is certain: A campaign that still had more than $100 million in the bank in October now finds itself $20 million in the hole.

In retrospect, maybe that GloRilla performance wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Or maybe the era of the big-budget, mass-marketed, four-quadrant blockbuster is over.

Joy division

Where was the big-name actor or actress who would come along and save Harris from her floundering campaign?

The tear-streaked viral post recorded on the spur of the moment by Lady Gaga that would finally convince regular people in Pennsylvania and North Carolina that Harris really was the answer to their prayers — and not just a Polly POC-et puppet who couldn’t string two sentences together without cackling like a banshee and waxing poetic about the joy of abortion rights?

Indeed, what happened to the days of influential celebrity videos with warnings about “fascism” and “democracy”? Did they stop uploading them, or did everybody just stop watching?

Falling stars

The answer seems to be a bit of both. A recent YouGov poll found that only 10% of Americans say a celebrity’s opinion has caused them to cast a vote or rethink their vote. Another poll by USA Today and Suffolk University found that political endorsements had a much larger effect on swaying the Democratic vote than celebrity endorsements.

The study also found that conservatives were rarely swayed by either, including from within the conservative movement’s leadership. (The influence of Hulk Hogan’s bodice-ripping howl of support for Trump remains a subject for future historians.)

Perhaps this is why the standard-issue Democratic endorsements Harris got from Obama and the Clintons didn’t do much: They weren’t delivered with much conviction. It probably didn’t help that the DNC brand was tainted by the still-fresh memory of Joe Biden’s public stab in the back.

Megan Thee Stallion, Lady Gaga, and Charli XCX just weren’t up to the task of rescuing Harris from herself. Even those who somehow enjoy their music apparently found it hard to get very excited about their political opinions.

Box office poison?

The celebrities who did endorse Harris did so with smug certitude that didn’t do much to reach independents. Their urgent pleas to “get out and vote” (with the obvious insinuation that meant voting for Harris) also clearly backfired, since Trump won men under 30 by 14 points and Harris won young women under 30 by only 18 points. Gen Z voters just weren’t pulling the lever for the Democrats the way their celebrities and pop culture puppets told them to.

As Jimmy Vielkind and Aaron Zitner point out, Harris’ result for young women was “down from the 32-point margin for Biden among that group in 2020.”

Trump’s mastery of social media and popular podcasts like Joe Rogan’s show also clearly bolstered his already well-known brand and put him front and center in the mind of many undecideds.

Triple threat

But the fact remains that Trump didn’t really need anybody’s endorsement — at least not the way Harris did. Our former and future president is a consummate entertainer. He sings, he tells jokes, he does his own stunts. He even dances. Who needs celebrities when you can groove out with the candidate himself?

Expensive disasters tend to end with a lot of finger-pointing, and the Harris campaign is no exception. The Democrats might as well take the opportunity to clean house — starting with those among them who insist on blaming the voters.

If the incredible comeback of Donald Trump can teach us anything, it’s that fewer and fewer people are waiting for the media to tell them what’s worth their time and attention. After years of having their taste underestimated and dismissed, Americans are finally confident enough to call out real, once-in-a-generation talent when they see it. Anyone who wants to win the people over better start with that.

​Kamala harris, Beyonce, Lady gaga, Celebrity endorsements, Donald trump, Paul r. brian, Tim walz, Culture, Politics, Election 2024 

As Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House in January, the push to police “truth” is gaining momentum.

Literally. With real cops.

Police1, a powerful arm of “public safety policy management” behemoth Lexipol, is reshaping law enforcement across the United States — though certainly not for the better.

Barring decisive pushback, the madness spreading across the UK and Ireland will soon find its way into the United States.

You see, Police1 is busy preparing officers to confront what it labels the “misinformation” crisis of the digital age. If they’re not already prepared, the author of a recent article on the Police1 website, Joseph J. Lestrange, insists they should be.

But Lestrange isn’t your average op-ed writer. As a former high-ranking official in the Biden administration, he sees misinformation and disinformation not as minor nuisances but as direct threats — ones that erode public trust, fuel hostility toward officers, and undermine police operations. With AI-powered tools like deepfakes and manipulated audio, he warns, these threats have reached unprecedented sophistication, opening the door to ever more calculated assaults on public perception. At the same time, these threats open the door to another possible assault — specifically, law enforcement overreach.

As the fight against misinformation intensifies, “Big Brother” risks morphing into an even more pervasive “Bigger Brother,” blurring the line between protection and control. More of the latter. Much less of the former.

Lestrange suggests that police agencies adopt “Misinformation/Disinformation Units” to identify, fact-check, and counter false narratives. This move would position law enforcement as responders and architects of public perception, armed with the power to collaborate with tech giants and preemptively flag “harmful” content. Lestrange frames the unholy alliance to protect officers and rebuild community trust.

But these units, if created, would cast a dark shadow and raise serious concerns about transparency, civil liberties, and unchecked power. If Edward Snowden taught us anything — now over a decade ago — it’s that government tools meant for “protection” can easily slip into surveillance and control tools, threatening the very freedoms they claim to defend.

Not surprisingly, Lestrange’s promises of “impartial policing” ring hollow. These units risk becoming tools for selective narrative control — amplifying certain voices and silencing others. The report’s concerns about eroding public trust underscore how fragile this balance is; if law enforcement assumes the role of “truth arbiter,” any misstep or bias will swiftly deepen public distrust. Let me be clear here. This isn’t an attack on officers. Most boys (and girls) in blue are decent, honorable people. The real issue lies with the powerful few who officers must answer to. Those behind the curtain pull the strings not to protect us but to manipulate and control us.

The implications are potentially dire with Police1 and Lexipol driving this model nationwide. By framing narrative control as essential to policing, Lexipol pushes departments to blur the line between traditional duties and digital influence. This shift should raise alarms: It marks a slippery slope into content moderation — a realm typically reserved for independent platforms, not government agencies. We’re on the verge of Orwell’s Thought Police becoming a reality.

Some essential questions must be asked. Who will hold these “misinformation” units accountable? What will prevent personal or political biases from determining what gets flagged as “harmful”? Without strict transparency and oversight, these units risk becoming unchecked gatekeepers of information, placing the public’s right to knowledge — and the integrity of law enforcement — in jeopardy.

The threat is not hypothetical; it is already a reality in the U.K., where similar units have been established, wielding considerable influence over what is deemed “truth.” In my own country, Ireland, people are already being arrested for “misgendering” others. Referring to a biological man who believes he’s a woman isn’t just expected — it’s now mandatory. Calling him what he truly is can land you in prison for years. In other words, speaking the truth is now a punishable offense.

This raises crucial concerns about who holds the power to decide what constitutes “mis” or “dis” information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public witnessed how accurate yet dissenting narratives were swiftly demonized, labeled misinformation, and suppressed. Such tactics delegitimized valid perspectives, leading to a chilling effect on open dialogue. In the U.S., if Lexipol’s framework for misinformation units is adopted without strict oversight, the implications could be similarly far-reaching, threatening the plurality of voices that is fundamental to democracy.

And as public safety agencies venture into content moderation, the question of who defines “truth” will become increasingly critical — and potentially contentious — highlighting the need for clear, accountable practices to safeguard public trust and democratic integrity. Barring decisive pushback, the madness spreading across the U.K. and Ireland will soon find its way into the United States.

As Trump’s team readies to take charge, his allies like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy must push back against a state apparatus eager to police thought — a system the current administration eagerly embraces.

​Orwell, Big brother, Ireland, Irish censorship, Orwell 1984, Tech 

Democrats have latched onto Pete Hegseth’s past as a Fox News personality as a negative attribute, but Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” doesn’t agree in the slightest.

“Pete Hegseth is going to be an excellent head of the Department of Defense. Not only his track record, but as a television personality, he will be able to get up there and deal with the tough questions and communicate the policies properly,” Rubin explains.

In a recent interview, Hegseth made this crystal clear.

“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” he said, explaining how the Trump administration could course correct after a disastrous four years under the Biden administration.

“You’re going to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI, woke s***, has got to go,” he continued.

“You’ve got to get DEI and CRT out of military academies so you’re not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking, and then whatever the combat standards were say in, I don’t know, 1995, let’s just make those the standards,” he added.

While Hegseth admits the trust has been broken between the military and the people, he doesn’t believe it’s too late.

“You have to reestablish that trust by putting in no-nonsense war fighters in those positions who aren’t going to cater to the socially correct garbage,” he concluded.

Rubin is thoroughly impressed.

“I think you can see right there, exactly why I think he’s the right pick. He can communicate the ideas, he’s been in the belly of the beast, he’s got the TV presence, and he just laid it out. You got to fire a whole bunch of people at the top. We have to get DEI and the woke stuff out,” Rubin says.

Want more from Dave Rubin?

To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Camera phone, Video, Free, Upload, Sharing, Youtube.com, The rubin report, Dave rubin, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze media, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Pete hegseth, Secretary of defense, Trump administration, Trump victory, Woke military 

When I woke up on Nov. 6, I knew I would see a lot of disappointed and angry people posting online. Still, the sheer volume of unhinged and hysterical videos surprised even me. Coming, as I do, from the Bosnia of the 1990s — an actual war-torn country where people, in fact, had reason to fear political outcomes — it is difficult to understand these posts as the activity of serious people. It is impossible to avoid secondhand embarrassment for those engaging in it.

Did you know that when people are actually scared, they don’t post videos of themselves screaming and threatening “the other side” for public consumption?

These contrived pieces of performance art are not products of fear. They are vile propaganda.

I was 17 during the first multiparty election in Bosnia. The media was already spreading fear prior to the election, and it became evident early on that the three nationalist ethnic parties were the favorites. I wasn’t eligible to vote at the time, but even if I had been, none of the three ethnic parties would have had a home for me, the child of a mixed marriage.

I don’t remember who won, but I do remember that when I woke up, there was neither a celebration nor an angry mob. Instead, there was a sudden shift. No one from the outside would have noticed it. People went to work. They went grocery shopping. The kids went to school. But there was an unbearable quiet. When fear settles over a town, it becomes quiet.

People don’t talk about fear. The conversations become shorter; the jokes are fewer. People become emotionally disengaged.

I remember there was no talk of anyone leaving because of the omnipresence of fear. They might mention in passing about going on a “short trip” to visit family, but most simply left, and most simply knew what was going on when this was mentioned. This is when I yielded to fear.

The weirdest thing I learned about fear is that it makes you act normal, maybe too normal. This kind of fear is not what people feel when their lives are in imminent danger and the threat is easy to recognize. Our bodies and our instincts are designed to deal with that kind of fear. But in the situation I describe, the very system designed to protect you from threats becomes a threat. Instinctively I knew I had to signal to the system that I was not a threat to those operating it. Opinions became too expensive and insults to myself or those I loved nonexistent.

In short, I became invisible, but that was easy. The harder part was that I couldn’t show my fear. Acting fearful is a threat in itself. I learned to measure my speech and my gestures. My answers were short and vague, and I was the smallest person in every room. Every interaction was exhausting.

The social media performance actresses need to learn something important: Anger is not fear. Disappointment is not fear. Openly threatening people is not what people do when they are in the grip of fear. In other words, they are not coping with fear. They are coping with the reality that they did not get their way. There’s a world of difference.

Disappointment is easy to understand, too, and people who have been indulged by a system that permits them to believe reality is something they can escape — that a man can be a woman; that we can live peacefully in a world without borders; that other people will work so that you can eat; that silence is the same thing as violence — these people are going to lack fully developed skills of communication and self-awareness. When confronted, as they always are, with reality, they will act out their frustration in ways that are not constructive.

Unmet emotional needs will also cause some people to seek validation from those who are screaming the loudest. But if you are setting up a camera to record yourself screaming and crying and then taking the time to edit and upload it, then you are not afraid. You are ignorant and self-indulgent.

Memes like those I am seeing on the bluest parts of my social media feeds include numbers for suicide prevention hotlines, women shaving their heads and vowing celibacy, and people pretending to seek escape routes from the country to which frightened people have been escaping to defy tyranny for centuries. These contrived pieces of performance art are not products of fear. They are ridiculous tantrums designed to provoke strong emotions and galvanize people for political purposes. They are vile propaganda.

Real fear, as I have experienced, is isolating and anonymous. In this digital age and in this largely (thank God) still free country, almost nothing is hidden or anonymous.

I am not impressed with the attempts to gaslight me into believing I am facing danger again.

Editor’s note: This article appeared originally at Chronicles: A Magazine of Culture.

​2024 presidential election, Leftists, Tiktok videos, Fear, Rage, Donald trump, Bosnian genocide, Civil war, Opinion & analysis 

It wasn’t as if the Tar Heel State didn’t see Hurricane Helene coming. On Sept. 25, one day before Helene stormed ashore, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as the storm’s path showed it churning northward toward Appalachia after making landfall in Florida.

Yet, that advance declaration was not followed by any state evacuation orders, and the population largely sheltered in place as Helene hit the steep, wooded hills of Western North Carolina, squatting over the area, unleashing more than an inch of water per hour for more than a day. The unprecedented, relentless downpour, falling on ground already saturated by rain the week before, tore old pines and hardwoods out by the roots, creating arboreal torpedoes that rocketed down the steep inclines; water that turned photogenic stony creeks into whitewater torrents, lifting ancient streambed boulders and tossing them like chips on to roads and into homes and buildings. The storm left 230 people dead, nearly half of them in North Carolina, with dozens still missing as of early November.

There is no such thing as a ‘perfect response,’ but the one following Helene teaches important lessons.

As residents in Asheville, Chimney Creek, and other smaller communities continue to pick up from the carnage, after-action reports indicate government agencies at the federal and state levels were slow to react. Interviews with several private relief groups that sprang into action after Helene, along with statistics provided by congressional sources, indicate that Cooper’s office and the Biden administration were slow to activate military personnel and assets like helicopters that were critical in the days after the storm. In addition, budgetary moves and internal communications have also drawn questions about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency is spending its money and how it envisioned its purpose in a Biden administration suffused with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” mandates.

FEMA is also wrestling with revelations that politics had influenced some of its relief efforts. The agency fired a staffer who told crews to avoid houses in storm-damaged parts of Florida that displayed Donald Trump campaign signs. The dismissed worker said this week her orders were not an isolated incident and that FEMA avoided “politically hostile” zones in the Carolinas, too.

“There seems to have been a priority shift, period,” said Eric Eggers, the vice president of the conservative Government Accountability Institute. “It seems impossible to separate its mission creep and its ideological pursuit of an agenda when its duties are to fix that bridge or clear that road.”

As devastating and increasingly expensive natural disasters continue to be a fact of life in the United States, FEMA’s halting response, especially in the early days after Helene, when lives were in jeopardy, suggests both the capabilities and limits of state and federal responses.

Communication breakdowns

In the first days, survivors told RealClearInvestigations that the impact of governments’ slow-footed efforts was countered by the heroic efforts of private citizens and groups who rushed to provide help. As FEMA and others began to assert themselves, some conflicts arose between government representatives and volunteers, although everyone RCI spoke with agreed that such disasters inevitably spawn chaos. There is no such thing as a “perfect response,” but many people said the one following Helene teaches important lessons.

Helene didn’t slam into Western North Carolina the way hurricanes typically do but instead squatted like an angry demon over the region in which the economically vital fall tourist season was just swinging into gear.

In Avery County, a parks and recreation gymnasium had been set up as a shelter with approximately 40 beds and generators for backup power, according to Jamie Shell, the editor of the weekly Avery Journal-Times and a lifelong Tar Heel.

“On the day prior to the storm, we were in touch with the county emergency management office and county manager to get a feel for where they were in terms of initial response,” he said. “I remember a number of generated auto-calls and emails from the county to the county residents informing them of the historic and potentially devastating nature of the event, warning people to make plans to seek higher ground and evacuate as needed due to the torrential rains and damaging winds that would arrive.”

By Friday morning, Shell said people were fending off the elements as best they could.

“It was a case where most everyone who were not necessary (emergency) personnel were pretty much sheltering in place, as roads were being littered with fallen trees and high water, with the worst damage along creeks and rivers,” he said.

Power soon went out, making communication difficult for both survivors and potential rescue efforts, and creeks crested, complicating overland travel. Shell said some roads remained passable, but without power or an aerial view, it was impossible for people to find shelter if their homes were damaged or lost, and for relief efforts that didn’t have small planes or helicopters to get to wrecked spots, and even then potential landing zones were unclear.

Here, too, politics has emerged to cloud the relief picture. Shell said he relied on a Starlink hookup, the satellite company launched and owned by Elon Musk, and that county officials were also reliant on Musk’s system. Private relief agencies told RCI that Starlink provided thousands of Starlinks, which they distributed via helicopter after Helene, offering torn-up zones their only method of communication.

Between them, the United Cajun Navy and Operation Helo, two of the private groups that operated rescue and relief operations with helicopters, distributed nearly 1,000 Starlink hookups to powerless homes. Musk trumpeted the fact that Starlink’s services would be free in the remainder of 2024 for Helene and Hurricane Milton victims, although there are reports users are still being hit with hardware starter costs.

Such assistance from Starlink might have been greater, according to some congressional sources, had the Federal Communications Commission not canceled an $885.5 million deal with Starlink to expand rural broadband access. Instead, the Biden administration sunk $42 billion into a rural broadband access program that has not hooked up any customers — a failure that dogged Vice President Kamala Harris in her failed presidential campaign, as Harris was the point person on that project.

Some Republican officials in Washington have grumbled that Cooper and the Biden administration moved too slowly in terms of activating the National Guard or the huge U.S. Army assets at Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. Information provided by the state to Congress and shared with RCI shows the state’s “rotor and fixed-wing aircraft” made available rose from fewer than 10 in the storm’s initial 48 hours to 20 by Sept. 30, but it stayed at that number for three full days. North Carolina Highway Patrol provided fewer than five helicopters through Oct. 9.

Congressional sources also provided information showing there were fewer than 1,000 troops available for relief efforts until Oct. 3.

‘None of us were prepared’

Private relief agencies, untangled by orders, swung into action more quickly.

“When I got there, all I heard was, ‘Where’s FEMA? Where’s FEMA?’” said Brian Trascher, a leader of the United Cajun Navy, a private disaster relief outfit that formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “In fact, FEMA moves fairly quickly once they know where the problem is but otherwise everything was a clusterf***. They didn’t have anything prepositioned and so for about four or five days, most of the search and rescue was done by private people.”

But Trascher offered praise to FEMA, too. He had been meeting with FEMA officials in Washington as Helene approached, part of an ongoing effort by the feds and the Cajun Navy to cooperate better in response to disasters. It is not true that FEMA was invisible in Helene’s immediate aftermath — Trascher said he ran into a top official he knows within hours of his arrival in North Carolina — and FEMA staff on the ground were committed and hard-working, he said.

That take was echoed by others deeply involved in the first few days of Helene’s response. Of the four private relief groups that discussed the situation with RCI, all agreed FEMA officials in Western North Carolina were earnest but said both the federal bureaucracy and the military response proved creaky.

The air over the Helene-ravaged landscape was wide open in the first few days, and the private helicopters were free to go wherever they could. That began to change once federal agencies came into the picture. The Federal Aviation Agency did give out some “squawk codes” to the flyers working with private groups, Trascher said, but more codes and a better-coordinated response with the FAA are needed going forward, according to Trascher and Eric Robinson, a co-founder of Operation Helo.

The private relief executives also expressed doubts that FEMA had the most experienced hands on deck. In addition, although many National Guardsmen in the area are native Tar Heels and were champing at the bit to help, they were repeatedly snarled by delays in orders, according to several people familiar with the first days of response.

“We ran it like a military op,” Robinson said of Operation Helo, a group based in North Carolina that was born in Helene’s aftermath. “But the strength of the storm, the amount of water, I don’t think anyone anticipated that.”

Robinson described whole towns annihilated, saying there were lakes “that it looked like you could walk across, there was so much debris floating.” His team distributed more than 517 Starlinks and was also assisted personally by Ivanka Trump in the week after Helene struck.

At one point, Robinson said there were people marooned on a hilltop, and his group asked the National Guard to handle the job. Though more than willing, the guardsmen had to wait more than three hours for their orders. “We just went and got them in the meantime,” he said.

Another group distributing emergency aid and Starlinks was Samaritan’s Purse, the international relief agency whose Boone headquarters left it literally at Helene’s ground zero.

“We all knew the storm was coming, and we were ready,” said Franklin Graham, the group’s president and chief executive. “But none of us were prepared for the infrastructure’s collapse.”

Like other private officials involved in relief efforts, Graham was far from biting in his criticism of FEMA and North Carolina agencies. Similarly, he acknowledged, as Trascher and Robinson did, that private groups enjoyed freedom from the red tape that customarily snarls government bureaucracies.

“I do think FEMA might be better if it wasn’t run by a political appointee,” Graham said. “It was working in our favor initially that there were no rules, and what we saw was a true example of neighbors helping neighbors.”

Budgetary woes

As of early November, FEMA said it had spent “approximately $4.3 billion on Hurricane Helene response and recovery.” Of that total, some $213 million went in direct assistance to 126,000 North Carolina households, with another $202 million “for debris removal and reimbursement of emergency protective measures for the state.”

Helene also brought new attention to FEMA’s budgeting. Even as it pushed money out to storm victims, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees FEMA, and other Biden administration officials began raising alarms that the agency could run short on hurricane relief money.

But along with those calls came revelations from Homeland Security’s watchdog inspector general that the agency was sitting on $73 billion in unliquidated funds committed to previous disasters — including $8.3 billion for those declared in 2012 or earlier. The agency has also spent nearly $4 billion on COVID relief in September, the same month as Helene — including for funeral expenses, vaccination and testing sites, and personal protective equipment. That spending was paused in September to shift money to its Immediate Needs Funding, FEMA said, but it acknowledged $3.8 billion was “obligated” for the virus that peaked in 2021.

Gov. Cooper’s office also pushed back against reports it may have been tardy in calling up the National Guard or responding to hard-hit zones.

“The North Carolina National Guard was activated and on the ground before, during, and after the storm, and we believe this was the fastest and largest integration of active-duty military soldiers under Title 10 working with the National Guard in North Carolina history,” said Jordan Monaghan, a spokesman for the governor. “Immediately following the storm, staged equipment and personnel began moving into Western NC, using Asheville’s airport as a staging area where supplies were flown in, loaded onto helicopters, and flown into counties that couldn’t be reached by road. Where roads were passable, supplies were delivered by truck.”

On Sept. 30, Cooper asked Biden to “make all necessary federal resources available,” and that so-called “Title 10” request was approved by the Defense Department on Oct. 2, according to Monaghan. At that point, helicopters and other key assets took to wing.

Both FEMA and Cooper’s office stressed the unprecedented nature of Helene, and that view was echoed by Trascher, who said some of the areas the Cajun Navy serviced were “the worst I’d seen since Katrina.”

As of early November, power outages had fallen from more than 1 million to fewer than 900, while roughly 1,000 of the 1,300 closed roads have been opened, according to Cooper’s office. All told, there have been “2,024 FEMA workers and thousands of Department of Transportation workers, utility workers, law enforcement officers, and volunteers on the ground.”

‘Disaster equity’ and government failure

Yet, under the Biden administration’s “whole of government” emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, there are indications FEMA has moved away from a broad-based relief template.

In the past two weeks, FEMA also became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the orders of the now-dismissed staffer that Hurricane Milton relief crews should bypass homes displaying Trump campaign signs. The former supervisor, Marn’i Washington, told the Black Star Group’s digital platform that her orders were not an isolated incident. Instead, they reflected long-standing agency policy that calls for avoidance of areas or homes it considers “politically hostile.”

“FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation, so this is not isolated,” she said. “This is a colossal event of avoidance not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.”

In an in-house 2023 Zoom meeting that has received renewed attention, FEMA and other federal officers focused on how disasters allegedly hit the LGBTQ community with special fury. In that meeting, FEMA Emergency Management Specialist Tyler Atkins said LGBTQ people and others who have been disadvantaged “already are struggling,” and natural disasters compound their struggles.

Maggie Jarry, a senior emergency management specialist with the Department of Health and Human Services, then chimed in, saying emergency management in the U.S. must shift from prioritizing “the greatest good for the greatest amount of people” to “disaster equity.”

“We have to look at policies and understand to what extent they have disadvantaged communities that have less assets, communities that have pre-existing vulnerabilities in accessing disaster-related recovery supports,” Jarry said.

A FEMA spokesperson told RCI that any notion the agency has lost touch with its core mission is false.

“FEMA’s mission remains clear and unchanged — to help people before, during, and after disasters,” he said. “We are fully committed to ensuring that all communities have the support they need to prepare for and recover from disasters. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and recovery programs are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.”

FEMA’s Helene response enjoyed considerably better coverage than it received during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when media accounts blistered the agency and the Bush administration for weeks. This time around, there were many stories outlining what FEMA does and does not do, with the former primarily involving reimbursement to state and local projects for debris removal, reconstruction, and the like. It also provides cash to survivors in the immediate aftermath of declared disasters.

Many media outlets also magnified FEMA’s attempt to combat “misinformation,” and these reports frequently blamed the Trump campaign for spreading unfounded rumors. At one point, FEMA even paused relief operations in parts of North Carolina over unfounded rumors that vigilantes were “hunting” FEMA workers.

Those pro-FEMA slants lost considerable traction days after the presidential election, however, when the story broke about FEMA relief teams in Florida deliberately bypassing homes that displayed support for Trump’s campaign.

All of these threads — the Biden administration’s “Justice40” for diversity, equity, and inclusion; the spending on matters unrelated to natural disasters or tied up in endless projects going nowhere; federal contracts to help rural America canceled — add up to an unsavory “politics of disaster relief” according to the Government Accountability Institute.

Eggers and Peter Schweizer, GAI’s leader, examined the problem in a recent podcast by that name. What happened after Helene is further evidence of that problem, Eggers said.

“In some ways, it’s a triumph of the human and American spirit, but in other ways, it seems like a failure of the American government,” he said.

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

​Fema, Hurricane helene, Disaster relief, Dei, Disaster equity, North carolina, Cajun navy, Donald trump, Opinion & analysis 

The golden hair. The golden penthouse. Yes, he turned down the golden toilet, but surely Donald Trump is to be believed when he offers Americans a new golden age.

Who’s on board? Not the Guardian — which recently rage-quit X — where one column warns, “Trump’s ‘golden age of America’ could be an unrestrained imperial presidency. Emboldened by a strong mandate,” the paper laments, “the Republican will bring his dark Maga vision to the US with little resistance.”

Pride still comes before a fall, and as even the wisest ancient pagans remind us, the pinnacle of civilization typically tips all too fast under the weight of decadent luxury into rack and ruin.

But the golden age pitch is also getting more serious and perhaps unexpected blowback — from certain corners of the anti-globalist right. Elon Musk’s choice to caption his post celebrating Trump’s election win with the phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum — one of the two Latin mottos on the Great Seal of the United States — has set off skeptics worried that the rise of an antichrist might be around the corner.

“This phrase resonates with the term ‘Golden Age,’ which has been referenced by Donald Trump and is echoed by various new age teachers and high-degree Freemasons, who at higher levels, are known to worship Lucifer,” one popular X account warns. “These expressions align with Biblical warnings of a great deception, where people are described as welcoming what is referred to as the beast system with open arms.”

It’s always alarmingly easy to see how the world’s most powerful people could give in to what must be the enormous temptation to sell their souls for control of the planet. So far, Musk’s biggest ambitions concern not Earth but Mars, population zero. And both he and Trump are assembling a governing team focused on avoiding world war and countering China’s bid for global domination. They’re also both friendly to Christians — a stark contrast to many leaders of the other political team.

Nevertheless, we’d do well to carefully discern how to avoid paving our way to hell with intentions as good as gold. Pride still comes before a fall, and as even the wisest ancient pagans remind us, the pinnacle of civilization typically tips all too fast under the weight of decadent luxury into rack and ruin.

They say there’s a tweet for everything — sorry, a post — and in this case, it’s true. In typical X dot com fashion, it’s a half-joke with a deeper meaning written by a pseud: “Golden age Hollywood actor’s wikipedia biographies are like, ‘he worked as a train conductor, ranch hand, denim model, and itinerant drifter before being drafted to serve in WWII. When he came back he decided to become an actor and two weeks later was discovered by Fritz Lang.’”

Interesting, isn’t it? How radically different is that “golden age” culture from the one that scares critics of the gilded empire across the political spectrum? Doubtless, the Hollywood golden age itself was one all too festooned with excess and corruption. But the films themselves, which give the era its name, brought a refined yet accessible beauty and grace to the public — and they did it by welcoming ordinary people with real experience living in the rough-and-tumble world onto the screen.

The point isn’t that we ought to romanticize a bygone age or value the appearance of virtue over the reality of vice. It’s that when Americans circulate fruitfully with one another, that energy enlivens and elevates our institutions, setting fresh standards for our social, cultural, and economic life.

I often go back to Alexis de Tocqueville when measuring the pace and scope of change in America — sometimes what seems to be a new twist is something he saw coming long ago — and, in that spirit, here’s one of my favorite of his observations, as timely and instructive now as ever.

Men connect the greatness of their idea of unity with means, God with ends: hence this idea of greatness, as men conceive it, leads us into infinite littleness. To compel all men to follow the same course towards the same object is a human notion; — to introduce infinite variety of action, but so combined that all these acts lead by a multitude of different courses to the accomplishment of one great design, is a conception of the Deity. The human idea of unity is almost always barren; the divine idea pregnant with abundant results. Men think they manifest their greatness by simplifying the means they use; but it is the purpose of God which is simple — his means are infinitely varied.

Now, there’s a MAGA vision everyone should be able to get behind.

​James poulos, James poulos zero hour, Trump tech, Trump elon musk, X, Ai musk trump, Tech