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Before he became one of the 20th century’s most influential Christian writers, C.S. Lewis was a committed atheist who regarded religion with suspicion, irritation, and eventually contempt.

Christianity seemed to him a relic of humanity’s intellectual childhood — a comforting story for people unable to face reality without divine reassurance.

‘Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about “man’s search for God.” … To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse’s search for the cat.’

Return to sender

Lewis’ loss of faith began early. Though raised in a nominally Christian household in Belfast, his childhood belief collapsed after the death of his mother from cancer when he was just 9 years old.

“With my mother’s death,” he later wrote in his memoir, “Surprised by Joy,” “all settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared from my life.”

Prayer seemed useless. God, if He existed at all, appeared absent and indifferent. Lewis later compared the experience to writing letters to someone who never replied.

As he grew older, his atheism hardened. Immersed in classical literature, philosophy, and modern rationalism, Lewis came to regard Christianity as one mythology among many — no more objectively true than the pagan stories he admired in ancient texts.

At Oxford, he became known among friends as a “foul-mouthed and riotously amusing atheist.” The horrors of the First World War only deepened his disbelief. After surviving trench warfare and seeing death at close range, Lewis later remarked with grim pride: “I never sank so low as to pray.”

Yet even at the height of his atheism, cracks had begun to appear.

Deeper longing

Lewis found himself haunted by experiences that materialism could not easily explain: sudden moments of longing triggered by music, poetry, memory, or beauty. Reading certain books or encountering particular images awakened in him what he later described as an intense, almost painful desire for something beyond ordinary experience.

“An unsatisfied desire,” he wrote, “which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy.”

If human beings consistently longed for something no earthly experience could fully satisfy, what did that suggest? Hunger points to food. Thirst points to water. Why should this deeper longing exist at all if reality were ultimately meaningless?

Lewis slowly began to suspect that the longing was not accidental. Just as hunger points to food and thirst to water, this deeper want revealed something essential about human beings. As he would write in “Mere Christianity,” “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

He also found that his outrage at injustice itself suggested a moral framework that preceded humanity.

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?”

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Kicking and screaming

Lewis did not move suddenly from atheism to Christianity. He resisted all the way, considering himself “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

“Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man’s search for God,’” he wrote. “To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse’s search for the cat.”

Eventually, the chase ended. But having acknowledged God’s existence, Christianity itself remained a stumbling block.

Lewis loved mythology deeply and still regarded the Gospels as one myth among many. The breakthrough came largely through conversations with friends, including J.R.R. Tolkien, who challenged his assumption that myth and truth were opposites.

Christianity, Tolkien argued, was the “true myth”: the story toward which humanity’s myths and legends had always pointed, but one that had entered actual history.

The truth of myth

The idea struck Lewis with enormous force.

Themes that echoed through pagan mythology — sacrifice, death, resurrection, redemption — were not evidence that Christianity was fabricated, Lewis came to believe. They were signs that humanity had been reaching toward the same truth all along.

Soon afterward, while riding in the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle on the way to a zoo, Lewis realized the final barrier had fallen. “When we set out,” he wrote in “Surprised by Joy,” “I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.”

That belief shaped the rest of his life, which he would devote to helping make Christianity intellectually serious and imaginatively alive for millions of readers.

​Faith, Christianity, Lifestyle, Conversion, Cs lewis 

AI is infiltrating the church, and most Christians have no idea.

A recent Barna study found that while only 1 in 10 pastors (12%) were comfortable using AI to write sermons, 2 in 5 (43%) believed it was OK to use AI to research and prepare for a sermon.

The study also found that 3 in 4 U.S. pastors (77%) agree that “God can work through AI,” and 58% said they “are comfortable using AI to assist in some form of communication.”

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is horrified.

“Spiritual maturity is not going to happen through telling ChatGPT, ‘Write me a three-part sermon on gratitude,’ and then reading that off to the congregation,” she comments.

“Plus, using ChatGPT or any AI to write your sermon is dishonest because everyone is assuming that that’s something that you wrote that God revealed to you through his word and through prayer,” she says. “But it’s not. It’s not revelation from God, a special revelation that we find in Scripture.”

“It is something that was summarized by a computer, and it is also taking someone else’s work. Again, all of these artificial intelligence machines are just taking ideas that have already been iterated by someone else,” she continues.

“It also bypasses the pastor’s own engagement with Scripture and the work of preparing the sermon himself. You want your pastor to be sanctified and washed in the word. You want him to be engaging with Scripture. … You want him to be further ahead spiritually than you are,” she adds. “And that cannot happen if he is outsourcing that sanctifying act to AI.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Allie beth stuckey, Pastor, The bible, Artificial intelligence, Scripture, Christianity, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

Cities are starting to reject the idea of having surveillance cameras that promise to curb crime, but there’s a long way to go.

In fact, the largest surveillance company in the United States says it’s under attack from activists who want to defund the police.

‘Flock, and the law enforcement agencies we partner with, are under coordinated attack.’

Citizens can now view a comprehensive map of Automated License Plate Recognition cameras that are popping up in cities all along the coastline and the Great Lakes region.

As it stands, there are almost 100,000 of these cameras in place in the United States. According to DeFlock Maps, the exact number is just north of 97,000, with a vast majority of them (80,000+) coming from one company: Flock Safety.

This tech and surveillance company out of Atlanta has about 1,500 employees and has been steadily building its network that promises a decrease in crime in communities that implement its systems.

On its website, Flock cites that it is trusted by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies, providing examples like a 56% reduction in year-over-year crime in one California city and a 52% reduction in robberies in Cobb County, Georgia.

These solar-powered, AI-backed cameras are meant to operate as part of a complex grid of connected devices that allow police agencies to tap into surveillance inside stores, parking lots, and city streets to identify suspects and the cars they are driving; all to allegedly solve crimes.

However, some cities have rejected the service on grounds of citizen privacy.

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Hyoung Chang/Denver Post

In addition to Bend, Oregon, where a comprehensive report about the surveillance capabilities appeared on CNet, Charlottesville and Staunton, Virginia, both ended their contracts with Flock and both received an email from the company that was described as “pouting.”

“That email was sent to every client that they had, including us,” Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis said. “I looked at it and just, honestly, chalked it up to an unprofessional email from a venting CEO. I just ignored it, I’ll be honest,” he told Cville Right Now.

Staunton Police Chief Jim Williams shared the email he received from Flock CEO Garrett Langley, which claimed the company was under “attack” from activists.

“Flock, and the law enforcement agencies we partner with, are under coordinated attack. The attacks aren’t new. You’ve been dealing with this for forever, and we’ve been dealing with this since our founding,” Langley wrote.

The CEO continued, saying the same activist groups “who want to defund the police, weaken public safety, and normalize lawlessness” were behind critical YouTube videos and misleading headlines.

The letter, dated December 8, 2025, received a response from Williams four days later, which read:

“As far as your assertion that we are current[y under attack, I do not believe that this is so. … What we are seeing here is a group of local citizens who are raising concerns that we could be potentially surveilling private citizens, residents, and visitors and using the data for nefarious purposes.”

Just a week later, Staunton announced it was terminating its contract with Flock.

RELATED: ‘Everything on the internet is fake’: Social media marketers reveal that most online trends are fabricated

One of the organizations Langley may be referring to is the ACLU, which said last August that Flock was building a “dangerous nationwide mass-surveillance infrastructure.”

However, the ACLU’s main concern was that the resources were being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against illegal immigrants.

Still, Langley is consistently stating that voting Flock out of jurisdictions will hinder the prevention of gun crime. The CEO cited a Mississippi city that allegedly saw violent crime decrease by 79% and homicide by 90% in one year.

Langley wrote on X, “When the loudest voices tell you to vote Flock out of your community, ask yourself: are they also the ones outraged by gun violence when a shooting occurs, or in this case 12?”

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​Ai, Charlottesville, Return, Surveillance, Tech, Immigration and customs enforcement 

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the American founding, it’s important to point out that the Declaration of Independence does not begin with politics. Before it speaks of rights, consent, or government, it makes a claim about the structure of reality itself.

The rights it asserts are not the product of historical circumstance or collective will. They are grounded in a prior truth: that human beings are created by God.

The Declaration’s appeal to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” is not ornamental or rhetorical — it is the foundation on which its entire argument rests. The founders believed they were obligated to explain to mankind the reasons for their separation, and those reasons started with God and His law.

The Declaration of Independence is precisely that: a declaration of independence. It is not a confession of faith, a catechism, or a constitution.

With this foundation, we can then proceed to the Declaration’s most famous sentence — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Though it is often treated as a moral flourish or a proto-democratic slogan, it is in fact a tightly ordered philosophical claim that proceeds in three stages, each dependent on the one before it.

First, it makes an epistemological assertion: These truths are “self-evident.” They are not established by deduction, tradition, or positive law, but are known by reflecting on the observable world. Truths about God, human beings, and the good must be knowable if human beings are to be responsible for ordering their lives and laws accordingly.

To deny that such truths can be known is not merely to revise political theory, but to undermine moral accountability itself.

Second, the Declaration makes a metaphysical claim: Human beings are created and therefore possess a given nature. Equality is not asserted as a political preference but affirmed as a consequence of creation. It follows from the reality of a shared human nature, which exists because God created it. Human equality is intelligible only if there is something real that human beings equally are.

Third, the Declaration draws an ethical conclusion: Because human beings are created in this way, they are endowed with rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) that no just government may rightly violate. To say that human beings are created by God is to say that they possess a given nature grounded in divine intention, not in change, appetite, or contingency.

This sequence is as decisive as it is brilliant. Remove any part of it and the argument collapses. Without a grounding in self-evident truths, claims about rights become matters of opinion or will. Without creation, equality loses its grounding in nature and becomes a political assertion to be enforced rather than an a priori truth. Without both, liberty ceases to be a moral claim and becomes a grant of the state for licentiousness. What remains is a thinner conception of freedom — one incapable of sustaining either justice or joy.

The assumptions that creation is intelligible, that God is knowable, and that human beings are responsible for acknowledging both stand at the foundation of the American experiment. They are the stress points at which its coherence either holds or fails.

RELATED: Trump’s Supreme Court keeps finding ways to fail his voters

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Getty Images

At this point, the Christian reader may be tempted to object that the Declaration does not go far enough. It speaks of God as Creator but says nothing of Christ. It appeals to natural theology but makes no reference to revealed religion. Does it leave us stranded with a Deistic account of God or a thin moralism that cannot sustain the claims it makes?

The concern is understandable, especially when the Declaration is contrasted with documents such as the Solemn League and Covenant that explicitly confessed allegiance to Christ the King. Yet this objection rests on a misunderstanding of both the Declaration’s purpose and the relation between natural and revealed religion.

The Declaration of Independence is precisely that: a declaration of independence. It is not a confession of faith, a catechism, or a constitution.

It has a specific and limited purpose: to justify political separation from Great Britain by appealing to truths binding on all human beings as such. The absence of explicit Christological language does not indicate theological indifference, but a focus on the specific political question at hand.

It is also worth remembering that many of the founders likely assumed that explicitly Christian commitments would find expression elsewhere. Nearly every state constitution in the founding era contained explicit Christian language, often including affirmations of Christianity or requirements that officeholders affirm specific Protestant beliefs.

The Declaration was never intended to bear the full theological weight of American public life on its own. It establishes a common foundation; it does not exhaust the moral or religious commitments of the people who affirmed it.

Just as Romans 1 demonstrates there is a clear general revelation that shows the reality of universal sin and then explains our need for Christ, the Declaration’s three-fold assertion of knowability, God, and what is good provides a basis for the path to salvation.

This points to a second consideration: The Declaration’s appeal to natural theology is not compatible with every religious or philosophical system. The Declaration’s affirmation of God the Creator excludes belief systems that deny God the Creator.

It presupposes that God is distinct from the world, that the world is created rather than eternal, and that human beings possess a knowable nature grounded in that act of creation. Natural theology, in this view, is neither trivial nor thin; it is full and clear. It tells us a great deal about God, about ourselves, and about the moral order.

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H. Rick Bamman/Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

At the same time, natural theology is not redemptive revelation. Scripture does not merely restate natural truths more clearly or add moral instruction where reason falters. It answers a question that natural theology cannot answer on its own: how a just and holy God redeems sinners who suppress the truth they ought to know.

The founders were well aware of this distinction. The Bible was the most frequently cited book in their writings, and most took for granted that Christianity answered the question of redemption. Yet they also recognized that this answer could not be imposed by civil authority without corrupting both church and state.

They had no interest in adjudicating disputes among Protestants, much less between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The Declaration’s silence on these matters reflects not skepticism about Christian truth, but a judgment about political competence.

In this light, the Declaration’s appeal to natural theology appears not as a theological retreat, but as a principled boundary. It affirms all that reason can and must know about God and human nature, while leaving the work of redemption where it belongs: in the proclamation of the gospel and the ministry of the church.

The coherence of the American experiment depends on honoring both truths. Confuse them, and politics becomes a counterfeit religion. Separate them rightly, and both church and state are free to pursue their proper ends. This can serve as a call back to American Christians to remember the need for evangelical work if they hope for lasting positive change in America.

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

​Declaration of independence, Human nature, Natural theology, America 250, Founding fathers, American founding, Constitution, Opinion & analysis 

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey grew up listening to the Christian music group Avalon, whose song “Testify to Love” had become an anthem for Christians all over the country.

However, not even religious music is safe from the LGBTQ community.

“Here’s some bad news. Now, we are being told retroactively that ‘Testify to Love’ by the CCM band Avalon is actually an anthem of queer love,” Stuckey explains.

“I am not joking that this is now an LGBTQ-affirming anthem,” she says.

Former member Melissa Greene wrote in a substack post on the topic: “’Testify to Love’ drops today, originally recorded by Avalon, re-recorded by Michael Passons, Ty Herndon, and me. On Wednesday, we shot the music video. At the end of it, the three of us looked at each other, proud, and ultimately saying LOVE is for everyone.”

“She went on to talk about, in her Substack, her collaborator on the track, Passons, another former Avalon member who was removed from the group after he identified as gay many years ago,” Stuckey explains.

“In 2020, Passons appeared on an episode of a podcast and said that his bandmates visited his home and told him he was no longer allowed to be in the group because he was homosexual,” she continues.

While Greene now regrets viewing “some love as acceptable” and others as not acceptable, Stuckey explains that actually, some love is unacceptable.

“If you are talking about a grown-up loving a child in a way that is inappropriate, that kind of love is unacceptable. I’m not even making the comparison of pedophilia to LGBTQ right now. That’s not the point. I’m just saying that in principle, like you understand, the logic that some love isn’t acceptable actually does hold water,” she says.

Greene also wrote that Passons “never needed to be redeemed.”

“Uh-oh,” Stuckey comments.

“This phenomenon of believing that we are actually nicer than God, that we’re wiser than God, that we’re more compassionate than Him, that Romans 1 is too mean, that Genesis 1:27 is too cruel, that 1 Corinthians 6 is just too harsh, that passages that positively affirm the holiness of marriage between one man and one woman and the exclusive holiness of sexual activity within that marriage between one man and one woman,” she says, “it’s just too much to bear.”

“The truth is that we are not nicer than God. We don’t know better than Him. We’re not more compassionate than Him. And if something to us seems wrong or seems cruel or seems confusing when we go to the word of God, the problem is not with God,” she continues.

“It’s not with His word. It’s with us,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Avalon, Testify to love, Michael passons, Ty herndon, Melissa greene, Christianity, Lgbtq 

In the past, assassination attempts against a president were fairly simple, Glenn Beck says.

“It looked like one guy, one gun.”

But those days, he argues, are “absolutely gone.”

Today, assassination attempts — especially those against President Trump — look “really different.”

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck program,” Glenn exposes a terrifying pattern behind the numerous attempts on Donald Trump’s life.

The first attempt to assassinate Trump occurred in 2016 at a rally in Las Vegas when a young man tried to grab a police officer’s gun with the stated intention of shooting and killing Trump.

“That’s the old model,” Glenn says.

But in 2017, things began to take a darker turn.

In September of that year, during President Trump’s visit to a refinery in Mandan, North Dakota, a man stole a forklift and tried to enter the presidential motorcade route with the intent to flip Trump’s limousine and kill him.

“To me, this is the difference between planting a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center and then that not working, and then trying to fly airplanes into the side of the building five years later,” Glenn says, highlighting the growing desire for “spectacle.”

In 2020, things progressed again when a Canadian woman mailed a letter containing homemade ricin (a highly toxic poison) addressed to then-President Trump at the White House.

“Distance now is entering the picture,” Glenn says. “You don’t need access; you just need to find a way to get proximity.”

Then came the closest attempt in 2024, when at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop with an AR-15-style rifle, grazing President Trump in the ear.

“This is no longer chaotic. This is … well-planned and calculated,” Glenn says, drawing attention to all the “warnings” leading up to Crooks’ attempt, most notably the numerous sightings of Crooks on a strangely unguarded rooftop.

Two months later at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh hid in bushes along the course with an AK-47-style rifle and a scope, lying in wait to shoot President Trump while he was golfing, but was spotted by Secret Service agents before Trump arrived at that hole.

“This is not anger anymore. Now they’re stalking him,” Glenn says.

“Behind the scenes, federal prosecutors uncover a plot tied to individuals linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. … Not just Trump, but several U.S. leaders are targeted,” he continues.

“Now, that’s a different category. … That’s geopolitical; that’s foreign terrorism.”

And finally, the latest attempt on President Trump’s life occurred just last month when armed gunman Cole Tomas Allen allegedly tried to storm the security perimeter at the Washington Hilton where President Trump was hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He allegedly fired multiple shots in an attempt to kill Trump and other Cabinet officials, but Secret Service tackled and arrested him, preventing any casualties.

“I want you to think about the target. It’s not a rally; it’s not a golf course. It’s a room full of the leadership of the United States,” Glenn says. “That’s not an assassination. That’s destabilization. … That is the constitutional order being disrupted.”

Why have these assassination attempts become more organized and common?

Glenn answers that question by recapping three stories just from this month:

During a CNN interview, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow (Mich.) drew parallels between Nazi Germany and what’s happening under the Trump administration, citing an “authoritarian slide.” Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Raymond Chandler (Penn.) was arrested after allegedly leaving voicemails threatening to slit the throats of a Republican congressman and his young daughter, and making threats against President Trump.Mohamed Abdou, a former Columbia University professor who was fired in 2024 after publicly praising Hamas, Hezbollah, and the October 7 attacks, spoke at Virginia Tech as part of his “Death to the Akademy” tour. During the event, he openly declared support for Hamas/“Palestinian resistance”and explained the slogan “Death to America” as meaning a total end to the U.S. empire and the destruction of America as a “settler-colonial” project.

“What’s happening here, America? What’s changed?” Glenn asks.

“Everything,” he answers.

“It used to be one guy walking in behind President Lincoln and shooting him. … Now it’s layered. You have the lone actors; you also have the ideological extremists; you have the distance attacks, the mail, the surveillance, the infiltration,” he explains.

“But you also have something else. You have the failure points; you have the security gaps; you have the missed warnings; you have systems that don’t seem to be adapting, or at least not fast enough. But you also have, on top of that, foreign intelligence plots,” he continues.

But the media is silent on these matters.

Glenn pleads with his audience to “connect the dots.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​Glenn beck, The glenn beck program, Donald trump, Assassination attempts 

Whenever I see or hear the phrase “customer service,” I have to roll my eyes. Customer service? In the United States? No such thing.

There used to be. I remember it because I experienced it as a customer and I practiced it as a retail staffer.

The unspoken but obvious ethos is: ‘The customer is always wrong, and also he is oppressing me, a poor proletariat worker.’

We can get it back, but that requires understanding how we lost it. It also requires laying out the unspoken assumptions that drive the current “the customer is always wrong” attitude.

McDonald’s, Best Buy, Home Depot — sub in your favorite — all of them operate on these unspoken assumptions, and that’s why the “service” at all these places is nonexistent at best and hostile too often.

Service with a stare

First, let’s describe the problem with two anecdotes.

1. I walked into Tractor Supply. I asked the 19-year-old girl slouching against the counter where the kerosene was kept. “If we had any it would be, like … over on one of those aisles,” she said, waving her hand in a direction.

I said, “Are you able to check your system to find out where and if you have any in stock?”

She responded: “I can’t leave the register.”

That’s not what I asked. A second employee walked me to the aisle after (wait for it) logging into the register and checking the stock list. When I told him about the lazy response from his front-counter worker, he immediately defended her, with no apology: “Yeah, but she’s new.”

2. I went to a “casual dining” restaurant. It was the kind of local place that sells burgers for $19 along with local beer on tap. The waitress took our order, dropped the food on the table, and walked away. There was no silverware. No napkins. No salt and pepper. No plates for the shared dishes. It didn’t even occur to her.

When I asked, “May we have some silverware, please?” she stared at me with that blank look, turned around, got the silverware, and set it down. Yes, I’m saying she gave me the silent treatment; it’s common these days.

Communicating contempt

I’m going to stop at those two stories; they stand in for hundreds of similar transactions over the past 10 years or so. It doesn’t matter if it’s a chain restaurant or a corporate outlet store. Any time the staff are younger than about 40, this is what happens.

Several decades ago, I was a young staffer in my teens and 20s. I worked mall retail, then spent about a dozen years as a busboy, waiter, and barback. From my first job at 15 to my last retail job at 28, I would have been fired on the spot if I had behaved the way those employees did.

Why? Because it’s incompetent. It’s lazy. It’s not doing your job; it’s standing there getting paid while neglecting your work. And worst of all, it communicates contempt for the customer.

How did we get here?

I suspect we got here by the same means that brought us young adults who can’t do arithmetic, can’t write a topic sentence for a paragraph, and can’t sound out the word silhouette. That route can be called “lack of parenting” and “lack of teaching in public school.” Examining that is for a different article.

Whatever the reason, this is where we are today. It’s something we need to fix — and can fix, if we decide to.

Workers of the world … be polite!

When I was in retail, there was a too-hard bias toward the idea that “the customer is always right.” Too often, staff were expected to tolerate abusive behavior from customers — name-calling, lying to get free food, and so on — while the manager handed them their order for free.

But over the past decade or so, the pendulum hasn’t merely swung back toward protecting workers from abuse. It has swung toward a deeper assumption: that the customer himself is the problem.

Now we’ve reversed it in the other direction. The unspoken but obvious ethos is: “The customer is always wrong, and also he is oppressing me, a poor proletariat worker.”

The Marxist lens of “oppressed/oppressor” has seeped so far into our cultural fabric that restaurants openly admit they pay waiters low wages, then guilt customers into “remembering” to tip. If I had even hinted at that message when I was a waiter, I would have been clocked out and sent home permanently.

RELATED: The four Americans who just restored my faith in ‘customer service’

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Going off-script

Along with the customer-hostile attitude, modern retail tries to lock down employees’ actions with rigid steps. Maybe it’s fear of liability; maybe it’s not wanting to pay competent managers; maybe it’s something else. But the reason every customer-staffer transaction feels robotic is because it is. Businesses no longer allow staff to exercise judgment. You can hear it when the cashier works hard to recite the script verbatim. You can tell they’re not allowed to think, because if you ask a question the script hasn’t anticipated, they get flustered — and that part isn’t their fault.

Compare today with this McDonald’s training video from 1992.

– YouTube

First, marvel at how much emphasis they put on making sure employees are pleasant to customers.

But more surprising, the trainer in the video explicitly encourages staff members to use their own judgment and alter what they say based on context. That happens around the 1:47 mark: “I was talking to [an employee] a little bit earlier, and he said that he was feeling really stiff having to say, ‘Welcome to McDonald’s, welcome to McDonald’s,’ over and over again,” she said. “So I told him what we tell our people all the time: Say what feels natural. But say it with a warm, sincere smile.”

Customer feedback

Sound crazy? It used to be normal. And we can bring it back if we make that choice. Customer-employee interactions don’t have to be fraught and robotic; the business world chose this.

Here are some guidelines every retail establishment should return to, none of which cost a single cent:

Make eye contact with every customer who approaches you. Greet every customer, and do it pleasantly. Prepare your workstation before customers arrive. Put down your phone; that’s not for work time. Think like a customer and figure out what they’ll need. Do not write verbatim scripts for employees. Walk them through customer service basics and answer their questions. Act it out. Role-play. Encourage employees to use reasonable discretion. Tone and personality vary from person to person; successful customer service depends on adapting to the person in front of you. If you don’t trust your staff to have the wiggle room to modify the exact words they use with customers, you’re either hiring bad people or you don’t know how to run a business. If that’s the case, find another trade.

This is a taller order for employers in 2026, because it’s sadly true that a large percentage of young staff today are badly socialized — or not socialized at all. Employers shouldn’t have to do what parents failed to do, but they’re going to have to if they care about the quality of their service. Good luck.

​Mcdonald’s, Culture, Customer service, Lifestyle, Manners, Marxism, Retail, Intervention 

For years, Americans were told newer cars would be harder to steal.

Smarter security and keyless entry were supposed to usher in a new era for car owners. Instead, car theft is becoming faster, quieter, and far more sophisticated.

Consumers shouldn’t have to rely on 1990s anti-theft devices to protect vehicles loaded with modern technology — but that’s where we’ve arrived.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., recently charged six people tied to an international theft ring accused of stealing more than 100 vehicles in the D.C. area.

No smash and grab

It’s how they did it that should make us all concerned: a simple handheld device that can reportedly program a new key fob directly into a vehicle’s system — sometimes in about a minute.

No broken window, no smashed ignition, no dramatic Hollywood-style escape.

Just unlock the vehicle, program a key, and drive away.

Handheld device

According to prosecutors, the group used a device known as an Autel to bypass vehicle security systems and generate working keys on the spot. These are tools designed for locksmiths and dealerships, but criminals are now using them to steal cars with alarming speed.

And this wasn’t random street crime.

Investigators say stolen vehicles were moved into parking garages and other “cool-off” locations where VIN numbers were altered, tracking systems disabled, and identifying information changed before the cars were shipped overseas — often hidden inside containers labeled as furniture.

The Autel MaxIM KM100 is commercially available online for a few hundred dollars. It’s small enough to fit in one hand and reportedly works on hundreds of vehicle models.

Automakers spent years selling convenience features as progress. But every layer of convenience also creates another possible vulnerability — something that criminals figured out quickly.

RELATED: Why Tesla’s latest road test could be BAD NEWS for Washington

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Daily drivers

The vehicles targeted in this case included mainstream models like Chevrolet Camaros, Corvettes, and Honda Civics — not rare exotics sitting behind gated mansions. This isn’t just a luxury-car problem anymore. It’s becoming a mainstream problem tied directly to how modern vehicles are designed.

When vehicles become easier to access electronically and harder to track once they disappear, organized crime adapts fast. And investigators believe this case may only expose part of a much larger network.

So what actually works now? Ironically, some of the best protections are old-school.

Police departments are once again recommending steering wheel locks and Faraday pouches because modern theft methods depend on speed. A visible steering wheel lock adds time and attention — two things thieves don’t want.

Consumers shouldn’t have to rely on 1990s anti-theft devices to protect vehicles loaded with modern technology — but that’s where we’ve arrived.

Automakers have raced to add more connected features, more apps, and more digital access points. Security hasn’t always kept pace, and now the industry is dealing with the consequences.

There’s also a growing debate over devices like the Autel system itself. These tools absolutely serve legitimate purposes for repair shops and locksmiths. But critics argue there are too few restrictions on who can buy them and how they’re used.

That conversation is only going to get louder as these thefts continue spreading.

The next time you park your vehicle, the real question may not be whether someone can break into it.

It’s whether he can simply program his way in.

​Law enforcement agencies, Lifestyle, Align cars, Car theft, Tech 

Following redistricting in the South, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) delivered a passionate speech on voting rights and political organizing in Alabama, where she called on activists from northern states to “pull up” on their southern neighbors.

During the speech, AOC argued that protecting voting rights leads to better schools, expanded health care, and broader political representation, while warning supporters that opponents fear people “coming together” across state lines.

“It is time for the North to pull up to the South,” AOC yelled, “It is time for New York to pull up to Alabama. It is time for all of us to come to Georgia, to Louisiana, to Tennessee, to Mississippi and let them know exactly what they have uncorked with this injustice.”

“Because when black Americans have the right to vote and that vote is protected, our schools get funded. When voting rights are protected, health care gets expanded. When voting rights are protected, our country moves forward,” she said.

“And Montgomery, that’s what they’re actually afraid of. They’re afraid of us coming together. They’re afraid of us protecting one another. Alabama is the crucible. Georgia is the crucible. Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi is the crucible,” she continued.

“It is time to pull up. Because what they thought was the final blow is actually just the opening silo,” she yelled.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray laughs, saying, “Of course, she means salvo. It’s ‘the opening salvo.’”

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

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

​Pat gray, Alexandria ocasio cortez, Voting rights, Redistricting, Aoc, Alabama, Pat gray unleashed 

Trump may be president, but his anti-woke approach isn’t saving Hollywood from itself — as some of its latest releases have been met with heavy criticism.

Most recently, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” has gotten the second-worst Rotten Tomatoes score in the “Star Wars” franchise — coming in at a barely fresh 65%.

BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau don’t believe it’s much of a mystery as to why that is.

“Well, Pedro Pascal’s in it. He was in my colonoscopy I had two weeks ago. The least s****y thing he’s done,” Dave jokes.

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Stu points out that “they’re going to the extremes on it,” which is too much for the fanbase.

“It’s a lot. The whole Mandalorian concept was like, ‘Hey, what if we did an adorable, puppy-dog version of Yoda?’ Like, it’s pathetic,” he says.

“I think it sucks,” Dave agrees.

“And Pedro Pascal sucks,” Stu adds.

The film “The Odyssey” from Christopher Nolan is also facing scrutiny for casting choices — specifically, for casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy.

“I guess she’s pretty,” Dave says. “She’s not really the face that launches a thousand ships.”

“She’s more the face you get frozen yogurt with once. You know, the Tinder face that you match up but never meet up with. That sort of face,” he continues.

Dave also notes that because of the color of Nyong’o’s skin, she adds value to the Hollywood crowd.

“The Academy … they have mandated all this stuff,” he says, adding, “You have to have certain people in certain roles. So he’s just stacking the deck in his favor.”

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Christopher nolan, Hollywood, Pedro pascal, Star wars, Stu and dave do america, The odyssey, The mandalorian and grogu 

Mary, a veteran Silicon Valley marketer who can’t find a job, considers herself a victim of an H-1B visa program run amok.

Her story, a U.S. native replaced by a foreign-born employee who is willing to work at a significantly lower wage, has become commonplace, particularly in the tech industry. Adding insult to injury, she says, her CEO, who hails from India, told her to train the man he selected to replace her before laying her off.

Despite stints at Google and Cisco and two years of job-hunting, Mary can no longer compete in a job market saturated with foreign-born H-1B visa holders. “I had experience. I should have walked right into these corporate jobs, but I didn’t. Why? Because Silicon Valley is flooded with people who work for two-thirds of the price, or even half price,” said Mary, who asked to be identified only by her first name.

Companies, on average, save nearly $100,000 per worker over six years by hiring an H-1B worker rather than an American.

U.S. tech workers like Mary are at the center of a battle brewing in Washington, D.C., over reforming the troubled H-1B visa program, which is designed to fill highly skilled positions when qualified American workers can’t be found. The controversy pits tough-on-immigration Republicans and some Democrats against the most formidable of opponents — Big Tech, the primary beneficiary of a program considered by critics to be little more than a pipeline of cheap labor.

In the last few decades, the California dream has gone global, as U.S. tech firms have filled their ranks and C-suites with employees born abroad. Intel is no longer the company of its founders, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, but of Malaysian-born Lip-Bu Tan, its CEO since March 2025. Microsoft is led by Satya Nadella; Alphabet Inc. by Sundar Pichai; Adobe by Shantanu Narayen; IBM by Arvind Krishna; and T-Mobile US by Srinivas Gopalan — all of whom were born in India.

All told, a remarkable two-thirds of the Valley’s nearly 400,000 tech jobs are now held by those born abroad, according to a 2025 report from the think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Today, more tech workers were born in India (23%) and China (18%) combined than in the U.S. (34%).

Low-cost talent

The influx of low-cost Asian talent has clearly helped fuel profits in one of America’s most influential sectors. But there is a downside to this tech boom — the sidelining of U.S. workers thanks to the H-1B visa program. Created in 1990, the federal program has morphed into a vehicle for employers, particularly in the nation’s tech centers, to recruit much cheaper foreign labor at the expense of U.S. tech workers, according to Harvard economist George J. Borjas.

While the H-1B program spans multiple industries, it is overwhelmingly concentrated in tech. Last year, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Tata Consultancy, and Google were the biggest visa users, with Amazon alone recording more than 13,000 applications. These companies find the savings from hiring foreign workers hard to resist. The job of software developer, for instance, accounts for 38% of all H-1B visa workers, according to a 2026 paper by Borjas. And these foreign software developers earn about 30% less than their U.S. counterparts, the economist estimates.

Since many of these tech jobs pay six figures, the savings quickly add up. Borjas estimates that companies, on average, save nearly $100,000 per worker over six years by hiring an H-1B worker rather than an American. The arrangement “redistributes wealth from those who compete with immigrants to those who use immigrants,” Borjas wrote in 2016. That, in turn, helps account for the soaring stock prices of Big Tech since the 2008 financial crash.

RELATED: America should eliminate the H-1B and replace it with THIS

El Nuevo Herald/Getty Images

False rationale

The vaguely written H-1B law has been easy for companies to exploit. Hassan Abdullah, an immigration attorney and H-1B advocate, said the supposed congressional basis of the law — to fill highly skilled jobs with foreigners if Americans aren’t available — has always been a fiction. “The actual regulations don’t necessarily say that’s required,” said Abdullah, who helps companies get the visas. “Throughout all my years, I’ve never had to even consider that as a factor.”

One of the most glaring weaknesses of the law, critics say, is that most companies applying for these visas are not required to demonstrate that they were unable to find qualified American workers. Only companies with more than 15% of their workforce on H-1Bs must make small efforts to recruit U.S. citizens.

Companies are required to pay foreign workers at least the “prevailing wage” for the occupation and region, a provision that should theoretically reduce the incentive to hire employees from Asia. But the process relies on self-reporting and has been easy to manipulate because salaries are calculated using broad regional averages that often fail to reflect real market wages in the technology sector.

As a result, the number of H-1B visa workers has skyrocketed. 2025 was a banner year, with 406,348 approved visas, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Seventy percent of those visas were issued to Indians. That compares with a total of 275,317 visa approvals in 2015.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, who is part of the MAGA wing of the GOP, reacted to these numbers on X, calling the program “a national security nightmare. Enough. No more flooding the market with 400k+ H-1B visas while our people and our sovereignty gets screwed.”

After foreign-born employees take on leadership roles, including CEO, they attract and hire more foreigners by tapping their own professional and social networks.

With criticism of the visas dovetailing with broader anti-immigration sentiments, the Trump administration has made the most serious move yet to restrict the program. Six months ago, USCIS announced a new $100,000 fee that companies must pay per new H-1B worker living outside the U.S. While official figures have not yet been released, some immigration experts estimate that the fee may lead to a 30% to 50% decline in new visa applications.

“This is the first year we have not filed any H-1B visas for people outside the U.S. because tech companies don’t want to pay the $100,000 fee,” said immigration attorney Navdeep Meamber, who is based in Silicon Valley.

But companies have found a work-around. Meamber said she has seen an increase in the number of clients filing for the visas for workers already in the U.S., particularly those such as students who transferred from other visa types to H-1Bs.

“The $100,000 fee is discouraging some employers from bringing in brand-new H-1B workers, but it is not reducing the numbers, because foreign students, especially those who get on the Optional Practical Training program, can move into the H-1B pipeline without paying that fee,” said attorney Rosemary Jenks, a campaigner for immigration reform with the Immigration Accountability Project. “So there are still plenty of H-1B visas being issued every year.”

American ingenuity

Silicon Valley wasn’t always dominated by foreigners. Some claim the true birthplace of Silicon Valley can be found in a garage at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto. It was there that David Packard, a native of Colorado, and Bill Hewlett of Michigan founded Hewlett-Packard in 1939. Robert Noyce, a native son of Iowa and co-inventor of the integrated circuit, critically made from silicon, gave name to the valley after the substance. With his colleague, Gordon Moore of San Francisco, they founded Intel in 1968.

Throughout the postwar years, America’s booming tech industry was largely pioneered by natives. By the 1980s, however, concerns were raised about the dwindling number of young people available to fill STEM jobs in the future. Erich Bloch, director of the National Science Foundation, told the American Council on Education in 1985: “The pool of potential students from U.S. schools will become smaller. Demographic projections, of which you are all aware, show the number of 18- to 24-year-olds declining by about 20% over the next decade.”

The 1990 Immigration Act created the H-1B visa, a temporary work visa lasting a few years aimed at filling the labor shortages Bloch had warned about. Since then, tech firms have sometimes struggled to find employees, particularly specialized engineers, during times of rapid growth. But whether the industry faces a persistent shortage of American workers is a matter of debate among economists and labor analysts.

Major technology companies reject the criticism that the H-1B system is primarily a source of cheap labor. Executives stress that the program allows American firms to recruit engineers and researchers with advanced technical expertise in areas where qualified talent can be scarce.

They also contend that many H-1B workers are paid high salaries and that access to global talent helps keep American companies competitive against rivals.

Critics of the visas point to waves of layoffs accompanied by the growth in H-1Bs as evidence that a labor shortage is nothing more than a fig leaf. Michael Capuano of the Federation for American Immigration Reform wrote in a blog post last year,

Google laid off 951 U.S. employees in 2024, but found room for 1,058 new H-1B workers. Apple laid off 735 people in 2024, but signed on 864 new H-1B employees. Microsoft laid off 3,426 workers from 2022 to 2024 and hired 3,259 new H-1Bs during that same period.

A 2023 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute similarly found that the top 30 H-1B employers hired more than 34,000 new H-1B workers in 2022 while laying off at least 85,000 employees during the same period.

In addition to cheaper talent, critics say H-1B visas also provide a captive workforce. Because employers can sponsor visa holders for permanent residency, many workers become heavily reliant on keeping their jobs in order to remain in the United States. Critics argue that this dynamic discourages employees from changing companies or demanding higher wages, with some likening the system to a form of indentured servitude.

Tribalism at play

Critics say favoritism has also contributed to foreign dominance of the tech sector. After foreign-born employees take on leadership roles, including CEO, they attract and hire more foreigners by tapping their own professional and social networks.

Kevin Lynn, executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy, argues that “professionalism doesn’t exist in these IT departments any more,” adding that “when you look at the hiring, it gets very tribal. It’s really India versus the rest of the world.”

Microsoft saw the number of decisions on H-1B applications rise from 2,983 in 2014, when Nadella became CEO, to 6,258 in 2025. Google’s numbers jumped from 2,309 in 2015, when Pichai took the top job, to 7,868 in 2025. During these years, these companies also grew, making it hard to know if the percentage of foreign workers increased. At IBM, H-1B decisions have remained consistent since Arvind Krishna was named the leader.

Meamber, the immigration lawyer, disputes the idea that companies run by foreign-born leaders are more likely to rely on labor from their home countries. “The CEO doesn’t even know who is being hired. … These decisions are being taken at a lower level by the HR team and by the recruiters,” she said.

Stephen Vivien, an engineer, said he witnessed Indian employees helping each other get hired by sharing interview questions when he worked at Google. “There were a lot of H-1B workers … there’s a network.” he said.

“When one Indian guy would be coming up for his interview; the other Indian guys who had [already] gotten hired would call and share the questions.”

RELATED: America didn’t lose its tech edge — globalist CEOs gave it away

Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg/Getty Images

In April, a New York jury found New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions liable for $8.4 million after a former executive sued the company, which was founded in India, for discrimination against non-Indian and non-South Asian workers. The executive argued he was passed over for a promotion and was later fired for raising concerns about bias against non-Indian employees.

The decision follows a separate successful lawsuit brought by three other employees against Cognizant in 2017, all similarly claiming discrimination against non-Indian workers, though the company is appealing and denies all allegations. In both lawsuits, juries found in favor of claims that Cognizant had used the H-1B program as a tool to discriminate against American workers. Since 2009, the company has received tens of thousands of H-1B visa approvals.

Reformers vs. Big Tech

While restrictions to the program have yet to meaningfully slow its growth, some Republicans have called to abolish it. In February, Florida Rep. Greg Steube (R) introduced the EXILE Act, which would end the H-1B visa program entirely.

A proposed reform that might gain more bipartisan support targets the ineffective prevailing wage requirement that allows firms to underpay foreign workers. One idea floated by Republicans would create a minimum salary requirement for H-1B workers that is much higher than the current pay scale, thus removing the financial incentive to replace U.S.-born workers.

Ro Khanna, the Democrat congressman representing much of Silicon Valley, said on the “All-In” podcast last year that “there’s definitely abuse. … It needs to be corrected” in the H-1B program. Khanna said a new prevailing wage standard would be a reform he could support.

But legislation that would raise labor costs would be opposed by Big Tech, armed with its war chest of money and influence in Washington. Jenks, the lawyer, said H-1B reformers face a tough fight. “The donors on this issue include all of the high-tech companies, whether it’s Microsoft, Facebook, all of them,” she said. “They put millions and millions of dollars every year into lobbying.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire. The article was reported in conjunction with a GB News documentary, which can be viewed here.

​H-1b visa, Immigration, Trump administration, Big tech, Foreign labor, American jobs, Tech layoffs, India, Google, Facebook, Opinion & analysis 

“You’re a traitor to your race!”

Hearing this insult made me realize I was not truly a moderate, but a conservative who needed to be more vocal.

When I was a 1L at Rutgers-Camden in my constitutional law class, we discussed issues such as affirmative action and disparate impact theory. I expressed the opinion that the law should be colorblind and merit-based, and that Asians were often harmed by these policies.

The left only celebrates minority success when it serves progressive grievance.

We also covered the Japanese internment camps. As a member of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, I reminded the class that the Japanese people at the time followed their political leadership with near-religious devotion and that it could be reasonably argued the camps were necessary at the time. I noted that while the internment camps were wrong, they did not rise anywhere near the level of the German death camps.

I was used to seeing dismay from students and professors when a minority student expressed conservative beliefs. But during this conversation, I first heard someone question my relationship with my mother’s heritage solely because of my political views.

To the best of my recollection, this statement came from a white law student who once bragged about working on Senator Ted Kennedy’s campaign on Martha’s Vineyard. I was a mixed-race student who had worked as a bartender while attending Penn State and as a roofer during summers just to make ends meet.

Identity politics has produced more division than unity. It becomes discriminatory by enforcing ideological litmus tests within racial groups. Those who prioritize colorblind merit, individual responsibility, and limited government are labeled traitors or inauthentic.

The liberal media and Democratic rhetoric claim to champion minorities while viciously attacking prominent minority conservatives personally — often without engaging their arguments on policy or evidence.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a black conservative who rose from poverty in the segregated South, embodies the self-made success story that identity politics struggles to accommodate. Rather than debate his skepticism of race-based policies, critics frequently resort to personal attacks and racial slurs. More recently, Charlamagne tha God called Justice Clarence Thomas a “coon” on “The Daily Show.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been one of Trump’s most popular cabinet members, recently gave a passionate defense of the American dream. It’s a dream he has long believed in, but Rubio has long been labeled a traitor to his own culture primarily because of his policy positions on immigration and economics.

Kash Patel is an Indian-American FBI director. He has been a victim of personal attacks and racist death threats, yet little has been offered to criticize his results on crime and national security. Identity politics won’t allow it.

Even prominent black voices in sports and entertainment take risks when they deviate. Stephen A. Smith has faced fierce backlash for simply suggesting black voters consider voting Republican or for criticizing certain Democratic policies.

Economist Thomas Sowell, one of the most influential black thinkers of our time, has been repeatedly smeared with terrible racist attacks for documenting how culture, incentives, and policy explain disparities better than systemic racism narratives. Refusal to conform comes at a personal cost.

RELATED: Democrats love free speech — until conservatives get some

Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

A glaring example of this selective outrage appears among prominent Asian-American Democratic politicians. Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.), the first Korean-American U.S. Senator, frequently highlights his identity as the son of Korean immigrants and advocates greater Asian-American representation in politics.

Yet when the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) that race-based admissions policies violated the Equal Protection Clause — policies that data showed penalized Asian applicants with higher academic standards — Kim expressed dismay and pivoted to criticizing legacy admissions rather than the clear anti-Asian discrimination.

In contrast, retired Navy Captain Hung Cao, a Vietnamese refugee and decorated veteran recently appointed acting secretary of the Navy, was immediately mocked by the Democratic Party’s official X account. (The post has since been deleted.)

These examples reveal identity politics’ discriminatory core: The left only celebrates minority success when it serves progressive grievance. When Asians or other minorities succeed through merit, service, and conservative principles, that success becomes a problem.

These Democrat lawmakers embrace group-based advocacy when it aligns with progressive causes — pushing for representation and condemning hate when politically convenient, and supporting affirmative action frameworks that benefit some minority groups. Yet when high-achieving Asians suffer from the very racial preferences identity politics demands, the commitment to fighting discrimination evaporates.

Identity politics demands loyalty to the liberal ideologies above consistent principle or the specific interest of their communities.

True equality comes from judging individuals by character and content, not enforcing racial political blocs.

​Affirmative action, Clarence thomas, Hung cao, Identity politics, Kash patel, American dream, Minorities, Democrats, Opinion & analysis 

An Arizona woman known as “GrammaCrackers” said she will not give in to the haters who called in a dangerous “swatting” call on her while she was livestreaming online.

Sue Jacquot has hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube, but she got a shock on Monday during a 24/7 livestream campaign she ran to raise money to pay her grandson’s cancer bills.

‘They’re not going to tell me what I can do. They’re not going to make me afraid to do that.’

Jacquot had posted videos of herself playing Minecraft with her grandsons, Jack and Austin Self. Then one of the kids was diagnosed with cancer.

“He’s had 200 chemo treatments in like a year and a half, and that’s a lot of expensive bills that the insurance company won’t touch,” the 81-year-old said to KPNX-TV.

The family was planning to livestream for 15 days when the cops showed up at their doorstep.

“We got a call that Jack shot his grandma and killed her and that he was going to kill himself, and right then, I was like, ‘Whoa,'” Jack Self said. “It was kind of like a punch to the stomach.”

Swatting is a very dangerous tactic where police are falsely alerted to a violent crime at a victim’s home in the hope that the victim might be harmed during the emergency police response. Some of these incidents have resulted in lethal shootings.

More than a dozen Queen Creek police officers reported to the home and swarmed the residence after the call. The livestream showed police waking up Jacquot from her bed.

“They just sort of escorted me out, and they were apologizing,” GrammaCrackers said. “I just wondered what my grandkids had done.”

RELATED: Romanian man pleads guilty to orchestrating online ‘swatting’ campaign against US lawmakers, including an ex-president

Police said they are investigating the incident, but Jacquot says she won’t let the startling incident stop her.

“They’re not going to tell me what I can do. They’re not going to make me afraid to do that,” she said.

Jacquot recalled the swatting incident in a video on her YouTube channel, where she said she had never gotten so many hugs and attention from her grandsons afterward.

“It was kinda fun!” she said.

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​Swatting, Cancer bills, Livestream gamer, False police reports, Crime 

America’s gambling problem has a new face, and it looks suspiciously like yours. Or your brother’s. Or the guy next to you at Mass who keeps checking his phone during the homily.

A recent Ohio State University study found that religious affiliation does almost nothing to prevent sports betting. Catholic men ranked among the most enthusiastic gamblers in the dataset. The pew and the parlay, apparently, get along fine.

It trains people to seek deliverance through randomness rather than work, discipline, family, or faith.

Americans love believing that gambling addiction belongs to someone else: the degenerate, the Vegas burnout, the man at the racetrack, clutching losing tickets and emitting fumes that could strip paint.

Bottoming out

That stereotype has expired. Online gambling has democratized self-destruction, and the business of bottoming out is booming.

Personal responsibility matters — nobody disputes this. No app physically forces a man to wager his rent on a Tuesday game between two NBA teams he has never watched or followed and whose rosters he couldn’t name under torture. Adults make choices, and adults must own those choices. But treating this purely as a failure of weak individuals overlooks the scope of the problem.

America built a digital temptation machine that previous generations couldn’t have imagined. Old-school gambling required some effort. You drove somewhere. You walked through doors. You made bets in person. It also carried a healthy stigma: Someone might spot you. Shame had room to operate.

Online gambling vaporized that friction. The casino now follows you to the kitchen, the office bathroom, your daughter’s soccer game, and, yes, occasionally a funeral reception.

Value play

The trick of online gambling is that it markets itself as entertainment and finance at the same time. You’re not gambling. No, you are “making picks.” “Building parlays.” “Finding value.” The jargon sounds vaguely like a hedge fund internship for guys in tank tops.

The apps borrow heavily from social media design. Bright colors. Instant dopamine. Notifications calibrated to land at psychologically vulnerable hours. Near-misses engineered to keep users emotionally hostage. Vegas relied on free drinks and flashing lights. Modern sportsbooks use behavioral science perfected by Silicon Valley.

Sports betting hits young men particularly hard because it bonds with masculine identity. Sports have always offered escape, but now they double as a cruel promise of freedom from economic anxiety.

Every game now functions as a financial event. A chance to win. A chance to recover. A chance to prove you outsmarted the algorithm. I say this as someone who enjoys the odd wager, maybe 20 bucks on a soccer match or a UFC fight every few months. Plenty of my friends go harder. A few are clearly addicted, though they would never admit it.

RELATED: Predatory gambling apps are using loopholes to avoid state laws

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Undue influence

This is not a male-only problem. Women participate too, in growing numbers. The image of gambling addiction as a strictly male affliction belongs to the era of landlines, fax machines, and Blockbuster late fees. Apps market aggressively to everyone, repackaging an old vice as lifestyle entertainment.

Casual. Social. Empowering. America took compulsive wagering and gave it influencer branding. Lives ruined, families wrecked, mounting debt across every demographic. Yet the celebrity endorsements roll on without a hint of hesitation.

Joe Rogan and Theo Von have both taken DraftKings sponsorships.

Neither man invented gambling. Neither forces a listener to do anything. Both have every right to accept advertisers.

But there’s an important question worth asking. At what point does cultural influence carry moral weight? Both men are multimillionaires. Neither needs the sponsorship money to keep the studio lights on. With tens, perhaps even hundreds, of millions of dedicated listeners, they could sell practically anything. Sneakers, protein powder, trucks, premium tequila, leather wallets thick enough to stop a bullet, ergonomic office chairs, mattresses that promise spinal enlightenment. The list is endless.

But they choose gambling, which is reckless given that many of their listeners are young men who treat an ad read by either of them as an endorsement, a recommendation from a trusted voice, practically a green light from an older brother who has supposedly figured life out. Von, in particular, should know better. He has spoken honestly about his battles with addiction, and yet here he is, reading copy for an industry built on the same psychological hooks.

Gaming addiction

A ruthless and exploitative industry, I might add. The online gambling giants don’t build empires on casual users dropping five dollars on the Super Bowl. Profits come disproportionately from heavy users chasing losses at 2 a.m. while insisting they are “due.” America has normalized this sickness into something that no longer registers as strange. Ads run during games, before games, after games, across social media, and occasionally during segments warning about gambling addiction itself. “Call this hotline if you have lost your house. Also, use code TOUCHDOWN for a risk-free bet.”

The damage runs deeper than money. Online gambling sells the fantasy that rescue is one lucky bet away. One hit. One miracle payout. It trains people to seek deliverance through randomness rather than work, discipline, family, or faith.

The isolation makes it uniquely dangerous. Alcoholics gather in bars. Drug users move through visible circles. The online gambler hemorrhages money for years beside a sleeping spouse who trusts that everything is under control. Across the country, an increasing number are rolling the virtual dice, each one believing he is the exception.

He is not. The house always wins, and these days the house fits in your back pocket.

​Gambling, Addiction, Joe rogan, Theo von, Culture 

As BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales continues her investigations into H-1B fraud in the state of Texas, the Indian media is growing more angsty.

“The Indian media is going crazy over my latest H-1B video,” says Sara, referring to her recent exposé in Frisco/Plano, where she confronted Great America Technologies’ owner Nagarjuna Reddy Sakam over suspected fraud.

Even though Sara’s H-1B investigations have sparked significant legal action from the state — including Attorney General Ken Paxton’s investigations, CIDs, and lawsuits against nearly 30 North Texas businesses, plus Gov. Greg Abbott’s freeze on new H-1B petitions by state agencies and universities — the Indian media continues to frame the Indian community as the victims.

“The Indian media is working overtime to try to discredit what I show in my videos,” says Sara.

She points out the irony of Indian media outlets trying to invalidate her investigations using an obscure report by a self-proclaimed entrepreneur who goes by the name James Blunt (@JBlunt1018), who apparently claimed that he “looked into the company and found nothing wrong.”

Given his strongly pro-Indian immigrant stance and an X profile picture that appears to be AI-generated, Sara strongly suspects that Blunt is “some sort of an Indian national.”

She then plays a clip from Times XP, a video news platform from the Times of India, where a news anchor claimed that America’s “social media activism,” “immigration politics,” and Sara’s “online investigation” are creating a “dangerous coalition” that might hurt Indian immigration efforts.

“This story is no longer just about H1B visas or the companies in Texas. It is becoming a part of much larger battle over immigration identity and who gets to define the American workforce in the years ahead,” the anchor said.

“I got a big problem with people in India trying to dictate to America what our workforce looks like or should look like,” says Sara in response.

She notes that according to “credible sources,” she is now being “monitored by the Indian government.”

But Sara isn’t phased.

“I’m not going to stop. We’re going to keep going until all your buddies get sent home,” she declares.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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The Taliban government in Afghanistan issued a rule on separation of child brides in marriage, and the United Nations responded by expressing its “grave concern.”

Afghanistan’s justice ministry issued a decree containing several provisions regarding the lawful separation of a married couple but included an order pertaining to girls that had reached puberty.

‘This situation reinforces structural discrimination and limits women’s autonomy in matters fundamental to their dignity, safety, and well-being.’

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said the rules allowed men to interpret the silence of a girl reaching puberty as consent for marriage. Another section implied that child marriage was permitted, according to the agency.

“This undermines the principle of free and full consent and failing to safeguard the best interests of the child,” reads a statement from the organization.

The rules also say that a marriage can be declared invalid if a father or grandfather gives a minor girl or boy without any dowry or sufficient dowry.

The Taliban decree is “part of a broader and deeply concerning trajectory in which the rights of Afghan women and girls are being eroded,” said U.N. Special Representative Georgette Gagnon.

The agency said the rules allow women to seek divorce from men but make it far easier to men to seek divorce.

“While men retain the unilateral right to divorce, women must pursue complex and restrictive judicial avenues to separate from a spouse,” UNAMA said. “This situation reinforces structural discrimination and limits women’s autonomy in matters fundamental to their dignity, safety, and well-being.”

RELATED: Pete Hegseth orders investigation into ‘catastrophic’ withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden

A spokesperson for the Afghan regime said “those who contradict the religion of Islam are not new, and we should not pay attention to them.”

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after former President Joe Biden ordered U.S. military forces out of the nation in 2021. The government almost immediately fell into terrorist hands, and they were able to seize massive amounts of abandoned military assets.

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​Afghanistan, Child brides, Child marriage, Taliban, Islam, Politics 

Police made a grisly discovery in a Texas residence that resulted in murder charges against three individuals, according to multiple reports.

KMID-TV obtained an arrest affidavit saying an individual alerted the Midland County Sheriff’s Office on May 11 claiming he witnessed a possible murder at a local home.

Esparza told police that Ramos held him at gunpoint and forced him to shower and change clothes — and then tried to make him dismember the victim’s body with a hacksaw, the affidavit stated.

Deputies soon conducted a welfare check of 43-year-old Sandra Ramos at her home.

When deputies arrived at the property, investigators said they found a double-wide trailer with covered windows, large dogs, trenches being dug behind the residence, and multiple RV spaces on the property, KMID reported.

No one answered the door when deputies knocked, according to the arrest affidavit.

The affidavit added that deputies obtained phone numbers for Ramos and contacted her, and while she agreed to meet with law enforcement, she never showed up.

According to the affidavit, investigators interviewed 31-year-old Victor Esparza — the alleged witness who originally contacted police about the possible murder.

Esparza appeared “disorganized” and was “inconsistent” with his details about the alleged killing, KMID reported.

The arrest affidavit said Esparza gave police a cell phone reportedly belonging to Ramos, along with recordings of conversations between him and another suspect.

Esparza told police the victim had been involved in a money dispute, according to the affidavit.

Court documents said Esparza told investigators that Ramos picked up him and the victim from a hotel and brought them to a residence, where multiple individuals were using methamphetamine.

Esparza told law enforcement that Ramos contacted another suspect through FaceTime and talked about assaulting the victim.

KMID reported that the second suspect arrived at the residence disguised with a bandanna, sunglasses, and a hat.

The affidavit said Esparza told police that Ramos was armed with a Springfield 1911-style handgun and held the victim at gunpoint while the other suspect beat the victim with a baseball bat.

According to the affidavit, Esparza claimed Ramos assaulted and stabbed the victim, and the victim’s body was placed into a large-wheeled storage container.

Esparza told police that Ramos held him at gunpoint and forced him to shower and change clothes — and then tried to make him dismember the victim’s body with a hacksaw, the affidavit stated.

Esparza informed investigators that he fled the residence after Ramos exited the home and left in a vehicle, according to the affidavit.

However, another witness at the residence reportedly told police a different story.

The affidavit said the other witness told police Esparza assaulted the victim and stomped on him until he lost consciousness.

The other witness said Ramos and Esparza strangled the victim to death, court records indicated.

On May 12, law enforcement arrived at the residence where the alleged murder took place.

Police found a locked door at the home, forced their way into a room, and discovered a storage bin with wheels, the affidavit said.

Police said a portable air conditioning unit — which was in a bathroom connected to the room in question — was blowing air directly on the storage bin.

Court records said investigators found inside the storage bin the remains of an adult male who had been dismembered.

The affidavit alleges Ramos and a second suspect intentionally killed the victim “by shooting the said person with a firearm; by cutting and stabbing the said person with a knife; by striking and hitting the said person about the head and body with a baseball bat; and dismembering the victim’s body and placing the remains into a storage bin.”

RELATED: Woman missing for over a year found buried beneath garage after chilling tip from suspected killer’s friend: DA

Police arrested Ramos on May 12 and Esparza on May 13.

Both suspects were booked into the Midland County Detention Center, and both were held on $2 million bonds.

Ramos and Esparza were charged with first-degree murder, according to KOSA-TV.

Citing the Midland County Sheriff’s Office, KWES-TV reported that a third suspect — 49-year-old Jose Luis Garcia Grimaldo — was arrested May 14.

According to KWES, Grimaldo told detectives he had been at the residence on May 10 to confront the victim — later identified as Victor Nunez.

Grimaldo informed investigators that he struck the victim with a baseball bat and punched him several times with a closed fist, the affidavit said.

Grimaldo stressed that the victim was alive when he left the residence, according to court docs.

However, Grimaldo was charged with murder and a second-degree felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, KWES reported.

Grimaldo was being held at the Midland County Detention Center on a bond of $2.25 million.

The investigation is ongoing.

The Midland County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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​Dismembered body, Midland county, Murder, Texas, Arrests, Crime 

A retired police officer said he missed his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter because he was in jail for refusing to take down a meme from Facebook about the death of Charlie Kirk.

Larry Bushart, 61, received $835,000 in a settlement on Wednesday after suing Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems over the incident.

‘Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.’

Bushart posted several memes after Kirk was shot and killed in Sept. 2025. One of the memes quoted President Donald Trump on a separate shooting case where he said, “We have to get over it.”

While Weems admitted that some of Bushart’s posts were protected by free speech rights, he claimed that this particular post had caused people to fear the possibility of political violence.

The meme referenced the president’s comments about a shooting at Perry High School in Iowa, but the sheriff said it made people believe Weems was calling for a shooting at Perry County High School in Tennessee.

“This has everything to do with a guy coming onto a Perry County page posting this picture leading people in our community to believe that there was a hypothetical Perry County High School shooting that caused fear in our community — and we done something about it,” Weems said to WTVF-TV in Oct. 2025.

When Bushart was arrested, he was informed about the threat to a school.

“At a school?” Bushart responded. “I play on Facebook. I threatened no one.”

The sheriff admitted that the police knew Bushart was referring to a different school but added that the public did not know that.

Weems put Bushart in jail, and a local judge set his bail at $2 million.

After 37 days, the felony charge was dropped and Bushart was set free.

Bushart also said he lost his post-retirement job while in jail.

“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said after the settlement was reached. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”

RELATED: Beto O’Rourke blames ‘powerful memes’ and Democratic incompetence for ‘incredible performance’ of Trump among Mexican-Americans

Cary Davis, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, praised the ruling as a warning to other government officials. FIRE represented Bushart in the case.

“It’s in times of turmoil and heightened tensions that our national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” Davis said.

“When government officials fail that test, the Constitution exists to hold them accountable,” Davis added. “Our hope is that Larry’s settlement sends a message to law enforcement across the country: Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.”

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​Charlie kirk, Facebook meme, First amendment, Politics, Foundation for individual rights and expression 

A federal judge ruled in favor of a Salvadoran illegal alien and dismissed smuggling charges after accusing the Trump administration of unfairly retaliating against him.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has become a cause célèbre of the left after he was scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to be deported after living in Maryland for more than a decade.

‘Only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights did the Executive Branch reopen that investigation.’

The Trump administration was forced by a federal judge to bring Garcia back to the U.S. in April 2025, but then immediately turned around and charged him with smuggling crimes related to an arrest incident in 2022.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw agreed with Garcia’s defense that the Trump administration’s prosecution was acting out of vindictiveness against him.

Crenshaw gave the government attorneys space to argue against the finding but concluded eventually that “the evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power.”

While the judge said there was not enough evidence to prove actual vindictiveness, he said the government did not argue well enough against the “retaliatory taint” alleged by the defense.

“The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly,” the judge wrote. “The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution. The Executive Branch closed its investigation on the November 2022 traffic stop. Only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights did the Executive Branch reopen that investigation.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department said the department would appeal the decision.

The media had come to the defense of Garcia from the beginning and was mocked for identifying him as a “Maryland man” in headlines in order to garner sympathy for his plight.

His family pleaded in the media that he was not a violent criminal and was a good husband and father, before it was revealed that he was reported for domestic violence.

RELATED: VIDEO: Democrat melts down during hearing over evidence that Kilmar Garcia is an MS-13 gang member

During a hearing about the case, a Justice Department attorney admitted in court that Garcia had been deported to El Salvador due to a clerical mistake. That attorney was later suspended and has since become a vocal critic of the administration’s legal policies.

Garcia has been accused by the Trump administration of being an MS-13 criminal gang member, but he has denied the allegations.

Judge Crenshaw was nominated to the court by former President Barack Obama in 2015.

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Emmy award winner Ilana Glazer described former NCAA swimmer turned anti-trans activist Riley Gaines as delusional for her campaign to keep biological men out of women’s sports.

In a podcast posted Thursday, Glazer and her guest Matt Bernstein continually insulted Gaines while simultaneously saying she is part of a cruel, right-wing grifter movement.

‘She is mad she lost fifth place in a swimming competition to a trans woman.’

Bernstein, a makeup artist and activist who refers to himself as a “queer Jew with long nails,” gleefully insulted Gaines on the podcast “It’s Open with Ilana Glazer,” while calling the former NCAA swimmer a bully.

All wet

Bernstein said Gaines has been “grifting millions of dollars” for years through “bullying people with no societal capital.”

Glazer then chimed in to refer to specific “right-wing people” as “sociopathic” before jumping all over Gaines. After referring to topics surrounding Gaines as “garbage,” Glazer boiled the athlete’s work down to being mad that she “lost fifth place.”

“She is mad she lost fifth place in a swimming competition to a trans woman,” she added.

Gaines tied William “Lia” Thomas — a man — for fifth place in the 2022 NCAA women’s 200-yard freestyle final. The two failed to mention that Thomas also won the women’s 500-yard freestyle final, making him a national women’s champion.

Thomas was also famously ranked as low as No. 554 when competing in men’s NCAA swimming, as opposed to reaching No. 1 against women.

RELATED: ‘I do nothing for the approval of man’: Riley Gaines delivers masterclass response after Trump’s ‘not a big fan’ jab

Shallow end

Gaines’ work resulted in an executive order to keep women’s sports for women only, but Glazer described the activism as “so stupid.”

“That is so uncreative. That’s literally stealing,” Glazer said, likening Gaines’ work to “anti-trans messaging, which genuinely leads to violence against trans women.”

With significant vocal fry, Bernstein then stated that Gaines and other women’s rights activists ignore “statistics or reality or truth” and instead profit off “the most minoritized people” in the country, referring to men who think they are women.

Nice Gaines

Bernstein did correctly characterize early comments from Gaines, however. In a 2022 interview with the Daily Wire shortly after her competition, Gaines said about Thomas, “I am in full support of her and full support of her transition and her swimming career and everything like that.”

She added, “because there’s no doubt that she works hard too, but she’s just abiding by the rules that the NCAA put in place, and that’s the issue.”

RELATED: Olympic Committee adopts new policy on ‘trans’ athletes

Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Bernstein concluded that it was the right thing to do for Gaines to simply “move on” and ultimately wish Thomas well.

Glazer then described Gaines as having a “money-making scheme” that has now merged with “some new semblance of reality that she was robbed.”

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