Category: blaze media

Billions of taxpayer dollars in Minnesota have somehow gone to Somalia — including to Al-Shabaab — one of the worst terrorist groups in the world.

And Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey seems to care more about the feelings of the Somalian immigrants now under scrutiny than those of the taxpayers whose money has been stolen from them.

“We are here to respond to a number of credible reports from several media outlets relaying that there are as many as 100 federal agents that will be deployed to the Twin Cities with a specific focus on targeting our Somali community,” Frey said on December 2.

“To our Somali community, we love you and we stand with you. That commitment is rock-solid. Minneapolis is proud to be home to the largest Somali community in the entire country. They’ve been here for decades, in many instances. They’re entrepreneurs and fathers,” he continued.

“Is anybody arguing with this? Is anybody arguing with the Somali community? They are not coming in to target the Somali community. They are coming in to target the fraud that is happening in the Somali community,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck responds.

“He immediately jumps to race because that’s what that means. Once you start talking about a collective, ‘They’re coming after the Somali community,’” he mocks, “You know you’re into racism; you’re into some ism.”

Glenn points out that it’s actually “very reminiscent of Hitler.”

“That’s what he did. Everybody’s the same. Only the certain German elites, only the certain Germans with blue eyes and blond hair … can rule the world. That’s racism,” Glenn explains. “When you’re saying they’re coming after the Somali community, what you’re saying is, ‘Oh, well, they’re racists coming in.’ But what he’s actually saying is, ‘Look, we are lumping every Somali in our community as clean.’”

“That’s racism. Just like I can’t say every Somali is dirty. You send in teams of professionals to find out who’s involved in this. And I don’t care if they’re Somali or they’re the governor. If they broke the law, they need to go to jail,” he continues.

Frey went on to claim that fighting the fraud within the Somali community is “not American.”

“That’s not American. That’s not what we are about. And we’re going to do right by every single person in our cities,” Frey said, before going on to attempt — and fail — to speak in Somali.

“At least practice it in the mirror first,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere laughs.

“Why are you speaking Somalian to them?” Glenn asks. “Why? Have they not melted in?”

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One of the big three wireless carriers committed on Monday to ditching its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, AT&T’s Senior Executive Vice President David McAtee II stated that, after reviewing the company’s policies and relationships with external groups, he concluded that the “legal landscape governing diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) policies and programs has changed.”

‘We believe in the importance of advocacy and inclusion of our many suppliers in every aspect of AT&T’s ecosystem.’

AT&T, which employs more than 110,000 individuals in the U.S., cited the Trump administration’s recent executive orders, Supreme Court rulings, and guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as reasons it had decided to alter its “employment and business practices to ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and related requirements.”

The company claimed that it has always supported “merit-based” employment opportunities.

“AT&T does not and will not have any roles focused on DEI. … We do not and will not use hiring quotas based on race, sex, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristics,” the letter reads.

“Further, consistent with the current law, we removed training related to ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ as well as any references to it from our internal and external messaging and will ensure that future training is consistent with guidance released by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission addressing training that could facilitate discrimination in the workplace,” AT&T added.

A 2021 report in the City Journal claimed that AT&T once offered employee training titled “White America, if you want to know who’s responsible for racism, look in the mirror.” The resource called racism a “uniquely white trait,” adding that white people “are the sole reason [racism] has flourished for centuries.”

The company previously told the New York Post in 2021 that the mentioned resources were offered “on a voluntary basis” in an effort to “build a workplace that is civil, inclusive, and understanding.”

“Whether an employee uses these resources or not is up to them, and does not affect their annual performance rating,” a representative told the Post. “We have a long and proud history of valuing diversity, equality, and inclusion, and will continue to do so.”

RELATED: Verizon shuts down DEI policies for its 105,000 workers

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Photo by John McDonnell/Getty Images

While AT&T claims it has ditched DEI for good, it still hosts a “Culture and Inclusion” page on its website that features a quote from the company’s vice president of culture and inclusion, Michelle Jordan.

According to Jordan’s LinkedIn page, she previously worked as AT&T’s “Chief Diversity Officer” but left the role in February 2025, approximately a month after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to end DEI. In that position, which she held for roughly three years, she led the company’s “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts across the business, expanding equitable opportunities for our employees and the communities we serve, as part of how we generate equality for all.”

In November 2024, Jordan reportedly took on another role within AT&T as the vice president of culture and inclusion. In her current position, Jordan “leads initiatives that cultivate an inclusive workplace culture, ensuring all perspectives are valued and integrated into every aspect of the organization,” she writes.

“By championing programs that promote fairness and belonging, Michelle fosters an environment where innovation thrives, driving both employee engagement and business growth,” her LinkedIn reads.

RELATED: ‘I feel like I’ve been fired by America’: Cracker Barrel CEO nearly brought to tears over redesign backlash

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

AT&T’s website also boasts that it is still committed to fostering an “inclusive culture” through its “Supplier Inclusivity program.”

“AT&T’s Supplier Inclusivity philosophy centers around our culture and values. We believe in the importance of advocacy and inclusion of our many suppliers in every aspect of AT&T’s ecosystem,” reads a quote from the company’s assistant vice president of supplier inclusivity and sustainability, Alexis Dennard.

Dennard’s LinkedIn states that in her role, she focuses on “empower[ing] minority-, women-, disabled, and veteran-owned businesses in the U.S. and worldwide.” Dennard reportedly has over 20 years of experience at AT&T and previously oversaw an employee newsletter that provided updates on “new initiatives in diversity and inclusion.”

AT&T and the FCC did not respond to a request for comment.

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President Donald Trump’s administration is honoring fallen National Guard member Spc. Sarah Beckstrom in the wake of her horrific murder just yards away from the White House grounds.

The White House lowered all flags on the grounds to half-staff on Thursday after Beckstrom succumbed to her wounds on November 27, Thanksgiving Day. The suspect is a CIA-linked Afghan national who allegedly shot her and fellow guardsman Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe in Washington, D.C, the day prior.

Beckstrom was only 20 years old.

‘The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States.’

The proclamation from Trump’s administration extended the honor to “all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, December 4, 2025.”

The flags will also be lowered at American embassies, legations, consular offices, and military facilities across the world.

RELATED: Trump to ‘permanently pause’ migration from third-world backwaters in wake of National Guard member’s grisly murder

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

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President Donald Trump announced on Nov. 27 that he will “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries,” “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country,” and “deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

The announcement — which came hours after Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom’s death, allegedly at the hands of an Afghan, and days after the publication of a report detailing the extent of the corruption in Minnesota’s Somali community — enraged Democrats, open-border activists, and other radicals including Wajahat Ali, a former columnist at the Daily Beast and contributor to the New York Times.

‘We’re a breeding people — and the problem is you let us in in 1965.’

Ali launched into an anti-white, anti-MAGA tirade on a recent episode of his podcast, “The Left Hook,” suggesting that Trump’s proposed effort to rid the country of antipathetic foreign elements is a lost cause. In all his rage, however, the former Al Jazeera host appears to have unwittingly justified Trump’s plan as well as lent additional credibility to the so-called great replacement theory.

Early in his rant, Ali:

sang the praises of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the quota system that favored immigrants from Britain and Northern Europe and apparently enabled his fraudster Pakistani parents to migrate to the U.S.; ranted about past policies that prioritized the interests of native-born Americans over those of foreign-born interlopers;claimed that by “Western Civilization,” Trump is referring only to white Christians; defended the Afghan horde admitted into the United States without proper vetting by the Biden administration; andsuggested that National Guardsmen Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe were deployed in Washington, D.C., illegally when an Afghan allegedly shot them both.

After working himself up, Ali reached his central thesis: “We’re not going back. I want all the hatemongers who watch this — and I hope they do watch this because I know they hate-watch us — you’ve lost. You have lost. You lost. The mistake that you made is you let us in in the first place.”

“See, that’s the thing with brown people, and I’m going to say this as a brown person. There’s a lot of us. Like, a lot. There’s like 1.2 billion in India. There’s more than 200 million in Pakistan. There’s like 170 million in Bangladesh. Those are just the people there,” continued Ali.

“There’s a bunch of us, and we breed. We’re a breeding people — and the problem is you let us in in 1965.”

RELATED: Noncitizen Kansas mayor accused of voter fraud has cast dozens of ballots since 2000, documents show

Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images

Ali suggested that it comes down to a numbers game — that migrant communities from the Indian subcontinent, Asia, and Latin America can’t be removed en masse because they are too numerous and enjoy too strong a foothold in the U.S. owing to chain migration, miscegenation, and their fecundity.

‘Heritage is an enduring aspect of identity that a multiple-choice civics quiz cannot immediately overcome.’

After framing the immigration debate in racial and religious terms — making sure in the process to indicate that his Muslim religiosity is on the winning side of the equation — Ali characterized Trump supporters as “crazy-ass whites” and “white supremacists,” then suggested their survival was dependent upon imported minority populations and that their music, food, and culture “suck.”

Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck said in response to Ali’s rant, “People on the left like Wajahat just hate White people and they couldn’t be more clear about it. At this point it’s our fault if we keep importing this hatred, not his for telling the truth about it. Also people like him didn’t use DEI for equality, they used it for supremacy.”

RELATED: Jean Raspail’s notorious — and prophetic — novel returns to America

Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

“Mass immigration is a form of revenge and conquest. Just ask Wajahat Ali,” wrote senior Federalist contributor Adam Johnston.

Conservative commentator Michael Knowles noted that Ali “perfectly exemplifies the problems of immigration. On the one hand, he’s a standard American lib: graduated Berkeley, bloviates in frivolous outlets, dresses sloppily, etc.”

“And yet,” continued Knowles, “he express[es] tribal hostility toward the native population of the country to which his parents fled. Almost as if, even in the best of circumstances, heritage is an enduring aspect of identity that a multiple-choice civics quiz cannot immediately overcome.”

Ali later suggested on X that he wasn’t anti-white but rather “just anti white supremacist.”

While Ali wants “hate-mongers” to “embrace the halal meat” and to abandon their efforts both to reform the American immigration system and to kick out bad actors, the Trump administration has already begun to take action on the president’s orders.

Joe Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, noted last week that at the direction of the president, he has “directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

USCIS has also paused all asylum decisions.

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​Remigration, Reverse migration, Immigration, Migration, Donald trump, Deportation, Denaturalization, Wajahat ali, Pakistan, Leftist, Trump, Politics 

In a Thanksgiving Day Truth Social post, President Trump didn’t just wish a happy holiday to the American people, but he took on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for his fraud scandal in classic, scathing Trump fashion.

“As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great state of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone,” Trump wrote.

“The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab … does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how ‘badly’ she is treated,” he added.

And when pressed on his comments by the media, President Trump stood his ground.

“In that same post, you mentioned Tim Walz, and you called him what many Americans do find an offensive word, uh, ‘retarded.’ Do you stand by that claim of calling Tim Walz ‘retarded’?” a reporter asked.

“Yeah, I think there’s something wrong with him. Absolutely, sure. You have a problem with it?” Trump responded.

“You know what, I think there’s something wrong with him. Anybody that would do what he did, anybody that would allow those people into his state and pay billions of dollars out to Somalia. We give billions of dollars to Somalia. It’s not even a country because it doesn’t function like a country. It’s got a name, but it doesn’t function like a country,” he continued.

“Yeah, there’s something wrong with Walz,” he added.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray is thrilled with Trump’s comments, cheering, “He’s right about that.”

“I love it,” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in, adding, “Accurate too.”

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.

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A rampant repeat offender has been accused of punching and then shoving an intellectually disabled man off a Chicago suburb train platform and upon the tracks below, seriously injuring the victim — and all over $1.

Tommie O. Carter, 39 — who law enforcement sources said has been arrested over 40 times in Cook County, Illinois — has been identified as the culprit, WGN-TV reported.

‘I am the victim!’

Forest Park officers were dispatched to the Harlem Blue Line stop just before 8:35 a.m. Monday for a report of a battery, the station said. Forest Park is a suburb just west of Chicago.

Officers found the 59-year-old victim lying on the train tracks, WGN said.

Prosecutors allege Carter approached the man and repeatedly asked him for a dollar, the station said, adding that the man replied that he had no money.

More from WGN:

Carter allegedly pushed the man to the ground, and he was able to get back up. Documents state the man walked to the train platform and Carter followed him.

He then struck the man in the head and pushed him from behind, causing the 59-year-old to fall to the tracks, prosecutors state. The man came “really close” to the electric third rail.

A train was approaching the station, but the train’s operator, who saw what happened, was able to stop the train in time. Authorities were able to cut off electricity to the rail so first responders could make the rescue.

Prosecutors said the alleged attack was captured on surveillance video, the station added.

RELATED: ‘Serial puncher’ accused of knocking out mother of 11 in Chicago over summer arrested yet again — this time while behind bars

WGN reported that the victim — who suffered multiple fractures to his right knee and a fracture in his left knee — was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Officers approached Carter on the train platform after witnesses identified him, the station said, citing court documents.

But Carter refused to comply with officers’ orders and fought back as they were placing him in handcuffs, police told WGN.

Carter continued to tense up and tried to pull away from officers as they took him to a squad car, the station said, citing an incident report.

More from WGN:

As one officer was placing the suspect in the back seat, he turned his head and spit on the officer, hitting him in the forehead and side of his face.

After driving to the police department, as officers were trying to remove Carter from the squad car to bring him inside for processing, he allegedly began to spit again, hitting one officer in his arm, and hitting another in the face mask, left shoulder, and on his body-worn camera mounted on his uniform.

An incident report shows once Carter was in the station, he was irate at first, and then began to speak with officers. He claimed the victim initially grabbed him, which caused his jacket to rip, and said he pushed the man after he was grabbed.

“Carter then became increasingly hostile, spitting towards officers, throwing a wet toilet paper roll and wet T-shirt,” the incident report stated, according to the station.

Carter was charged with attempted murder and three counts of aggravated battery to a police officer, WGN reported.

He also shouted, “I am the victim!” and “Let me out of here!” during his detention hearing, the station said.

A judge denied a request from Carter’s attorney that he should be allowed on electronic monitoring, WGN noted.

What’s more, Carter was on pretrial release in connection with a case just last month in which he was charged with criminal damage to government supported property, criminal trespass, and assault, the station said.

More from WGN:

According to an arrest report, Carter entered the Citadel Center without authorization, and when asked to leave, he refused. After being taken into custody, he allegedly started kicking the door of the Chicago Police Department squad car and tried to spit on one of the officers.

Carter also has seven felony convictions on his record, including a 2023 case for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, in which he was sentenced to two years in the Illinois Department of Correction.

He has six other convictions on his criminal record, including retail theft, attempted armed robbery, and armed robbery.

A judge ordered Carter detained, the station said; his next court date is scheduled for Dec. 19.

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Wherever you’re reading this, your day almost certainly began on an American road. You might have driven your kids to day care, headed to work, or grabbed a coffee. Even cyclists rely on the same system. Those routines rest on one basic assumption: The people operating massive commercial vehicles are trained, vetted, and accountable.

The assumption is disintegrating because the country is still digging out from the chaos of the Biden administration’s border collapse. President Trump is trying to put the pieces back together, but the wreckage didn’t disappear overnight — and we see the consequences on our highways.

America’s highways shouldn’t become another casualty of Washington’s failures. Neither should American workers.

A recent tragedy in Florida makes the point. A 28-year-old man from India made an illegal U-turn on the turnpike and allegedly killed three people. He reportedly entered the United States illegally and still obtained a commercial driver’s license. In California, a 21-year-old — also allegedly in the country illegally — slammed his semi into stopped traffic on Interstate 10, killing three more. Authorities say he crossed the border in 2022 during the peak of the Biden administration’s open-border surge.

These cases aren’t flukes. They reflect a system that stopped taking seriously who gets behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle.

The incentives run in one direction. The trucking industry faces a driver shortage. Instead of raising wages and restoring what used to be a proud, middle-class profession, too many companies cut corners by hiring illegal labor willing to work for less. That choice endangers families on the highway and robs American truckers of the wages they earned by playing by the rules.

Every illegal driver creates two problems. First, a safety threat to everyone sharing the road. Second, downward pressure on American workers’ earnings. Flood the labor market with illegal labor, and you weaken the people who keep the country moving.

Trucking remains a central pillar of the American economy. Nearly everything in your home arrived on a truck. These jobs once supported families. They now absorb the fallout from policies that ignore the consequences of illegal hiring.

Fixing this requires basic seriousness. That means, at the very least, strict verification, no loopholes, and no more rubber-stamped licenses issued without proof of legal status. And no more pretending that illegal immigration leaves public safety and wages untouched.

RELATED: Truckers push back on driver-shortage ‘myth’ that has led to flood of foreigners in long-haul industry

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The country depends on trucking. The system works only when drivers are properly trained, thoroughly vetted, and in the country legally. It fails when policymakers encourage shortcuts and lower standards to satisfy an open-border ideology.

This debate isn’t abstract. It’s about safety. It’s about economic fairness. It’s about recognizing that border policy shapes everyday life — including the safety of your morning commute.

America’s highways shouldn’t become another casualty of Washington’s failures. Neither should American workers. Both deserve leaders willing to enforce the rules that keep this country safe and prosperous.

​Opinion & analysis, Illegal aliens, Unlicensed truck drivers, Department of transportation, Joe biden, Open borders, Trucks, Trucking industry, Highway deaths, Indians, Florida truckers dead, California truckers, Immigration and customs enforcement, Interstate commerce, Long-haul trucking, Public safety, Maga 

As I watched Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked: For Good” last week, I kept thinking about another, very different filmmaker: David Lynch.

Specifically, the Lynch that emerges from Alexandre Philippe’s excellent 2022 documentary “Lynch/Oz,” wherein we discover just how deeply the infamously surreal filmmaker was influenced by one of cinema’s sweetest fantasy films: the original “Wizard of Oz.”

In the era of #WitchTok … a story like ‘Wicked’ has built-in appeal.

Philippe’s film includes footage from a 2001 Q and A in which Lynch confirms the extent of his devotion: “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about ‘The Wizard of Oz.'”

The logic of fairyland

And that shouldn’t be surprising given how much it shows up in his work. From Glinda the Good Witch making an appearance in “Wild at Heart,” to the hazy, dreamlike depiction of suburbia in “Blue Velvet,” his films exist in a dual state between the realm of fairyland and the underworld.

Indeed, Lynch doesn’t reject either. In proper Buddhist fashion, these two forces exist in balance, equally potent and true. There is both good and evil in his world. Neither negates the other’s existence. And when darkness spills over into the light, it may be tragic, but it is also just another part of the world. Like Dorothy, his protagonists find themselves walking deeper into unknown territory. The protagonists of his films truly “aren’t in Kansas anymore.”

“The Wizard of Oz” is potent because it captures the logic of fairyland better than almost any film ever made. Channeling the fairy stories of J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald, it transports the mind to a realm that is more real than real, where even the most dire intrusion of evil can be set right according to simple moral rules.

As G.K. Chesterton famously puts it:

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

Wicked good

“Wicked” and its new sequel reject this comforting clarity for something altogether more “adult” and ambiguous. Instead of presenting good and evil as objective realities that can be discerned and defeated, the films show how political authorities manipulate those labels to scapegoat some and exalt others.

They do so by swapping the original’s heroes and villains. The Wonderful Wizard is a cruel tyrant. Glinda is foppish and self-obsessed. Dorothy is the unwitting tool of a corrupt regime. And Elphaba — the so-called Wicked Witch — is reimagined as a sympathetic underdog with a tragic backstory, a manufactured villain invented to keep Oz unified in ire and hatred.

Elphaba exudes a whiff of Milton’s Lucifer — an eternal rebel in a tragic quest to upend the moral order. But unlike “Paradise Lost,” “Wicked” presents rebellion against its all-powerful father figure not as a tragic self-deception, but as a justified response to systemic cruelty.

Witch way?

“Wicked: For Good” takes the ideas of its predecessor even further than mere rebellion. If “Wicked: Part One” is about awakening to the world’s realities and becoming radicalized by them, “Wicked: For Good” is about the cost of selling out — the temptation to compromise with a corrupt system and the soul-crushing despair that follows.

This is where the irony of the film’s title, “Wicked: For Good” comes in. Once a person sees the world for what it truly is, they can’t go back without compromising themselves. They’ve “changed for good.” They’ve awakened and can’t return to sleep.

It’s worth considering why the “Wicked” franchise is so wildly popular. Gregory Maguire’s original 1995 novel has sold 5 million copies. The 2003 stage show it inspired won three Tony Awards and recently became the fourth longest-running Broadway musical ever. And the first film grossed $759 million last winter, with the sequel poised to make even more money.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that this outsize success comes at a time when Wicca and paganism have grown into mainstream cultural forces. In the era of #WitchTok, in which self-proclaimed witches hex politicians and garner billions of views on social media, a story like “Wicked” has built-in appeal. It offers glamorous spell-casting and a romantic tale of resistance to authority.

RELATED: ‘Etsy witches’ reportedly placed curses on Charlie Kirk days before assassination

Photo by The Salt Lake Tribune / Contributor via Getty Images

A bittersweet moral

The temptation of witchcraft is one that always hovers over our enlightened and rationalistic society. Particularly for young women, witchcraft offers a specific form of autonomy and power — over body, spirit, and fate — that patriarchal societies often deny. Many view witchcraft as progressive and empowering; “witchy vibes” have become a badge of identity.

Thus the unsettling imagery of Robert Eggers’ 2015 film “The Witch” comes into focus: A satanic coven kidnaps and kills a Puritan baby, seduces a teenage girl, and gains the power to unsubtly “defy gravity” through a deal with the devil.

“Wicked” is all about this power to transcend. Even as its protagonist grows despairing in the second film and abandons her political quest for the freedom of the wastelands, the film presupposes that it is better to resist or escape a corrupt system than submit to it.

Ultimately, the two films leave their audience with a bittersweet moral: Society is dependent on scapegoats. The Platonic noble lie upon which all societies rest cannot be escaped — but it can be redirected. A new civic myth can be founded that avoids sacrificing the vulnerable and overthrows the demagogues atop Mount Olympus. And the witches play the central role in overturning the world of Oz. Their rebellion sets it free.

But because the films blur the clear, objective distinction between good and evil — even while acknowledging that real evil exists — the characters in “Wicked” often drift in moral grayness, defining themselves mainly in relation to power. The world becomes overbearing, radicalizing, and morally unstable.

Sad truth

This is far afield from the vision of Oz presented in the 1939 film, the one David Lynch venerated as vital to his understanding of the world. But it reflects how modern storytellers often grapple with Oz. Almost every sequel or spin-off struggles to recapture the sincerity of the original. The 1985 sequel “Return to Oz” reimagined the land with a dark-fantasy twist. 2013’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” comes closest to the original tone but centers on fraudulence and trickery.

“Wicked,” too, falls in line with the modern tendency to subvert and complicate traditional stories of good versus evil. “Frozen,” “The Shape of Water,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” all explore morally conflicted worlds where bravery is futile or where Miltonian rebellion is celebrated.

Of course, seeing the stories of our childhood with a jaundiced adult eye can be quite entertaining; it’s perfectly understandable why even those not in covens love these films. They are well-made, well-performed, and especially irresistible to former theater kids (I am one).

Their popularity isn’t inherently bad either. They are perfectly fine in isolation. It is only when we contrast them with the clarity and beauty of the original — and place them within the context of our society — that a sad truth emerges: Finding fairyland is hard. Most of us prefer to live in the Lynchian underworld.

​Entertainment, Culture, Lifestyle, Witches, Witchtok, Paganism, Wicked, Wicked: for good, David lynch, Movies, Movie review, Review 

Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, a pair of convicted hackers based in Alexandria, Virginia, were arrested on Wednesday over an alleged conspiracy to destroy government databases and other crimes.

After doing prison time for wire fraud and conspiring to hack into the U.S. State Department, the Akhter twins, one of whom previously served as a cybersecurity contractor with the State Department, managed to secure jobs as federal contractors — working as engineers for Opexus.

‘Their actions jeopardized the security of government systems.’

Opexus, a company that handles sensitive data for most federal agencies and has received over $50 million in contracts from various agencies over the past decade, determined earlier this year that it had been compromised in February by two employees.

A Bloomberg investigation revealed in May that after one of the agencies with which Opexus was working, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, flagged the twins as possible threats on account of their criminal records, the duo were fired on Feb. 18.

The company later discovered that while being fired and immediately afterward, the twins allegedly accessed sensitive documents and compromised or scrubbed dozens of databases, including those containing data from the General Services Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

The FBI, FDIC Office of Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

The brothers were indicted on Nov. 13 for allegedly working to harm Opexus and its U.S. government clients “by accessing computers without authorization, issuing commands to prevent others from modifying the databases before deletion, deleting databases, stealing information, and destroying evidence of their unlawful activities,” the DOJ said in a release.

RELATED: Could hackers target your car’s tires?

Muneeb Akhter. Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Washington Post via Getty Images

According to the indictment, Muneeb Akhter allegedly deleted approximately 96 databases storing U.S. government information — including databases containing records and documents related to Freedom of Information Act matters as well as sensitive federal investigative files.

Muneeb Akhter is also accused of asking an artificial intelligence tool how they could cover their tracks after deleting a DHS database.

After he got fired from Opexus, Muneeb Akhter allegedly obtained data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and is accused further of stealing copies of IRS information including federal tax information and other identifying information for at least 450 individuals.

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

“These defendants abused their positions as federal contractors to attack government databases and steal sensitive government information,” said Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, in a statement. “Their actions jeopardized the security of government systems and disrupted agencies’ ability to serve the American people.”

Muneeb Akhter has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and to destroy records, two counts of computer fraud, theft of federal records, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. His twin, Sohaib Akhter, was charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and to destroy records and computer fraud.

While Sohaib Akhter faces a maximum penalty of six years in prison, Muneeb Akhter faces a mandatory minimum penalty of two years of prison time for each aggravated identity theft count and a maximum penalty of 45 years for the other charges.

The duo pleaded guilty in 2015 to a different set of crimes.

Muneeb Akhter hacked into the website of a cosmetics company and stole thousands of customers’ credit card and personal information. He and his brother used the stolen data to pay for flights, hotel stays, various goods, and attendance at professional conferences. Muneeb Akhter proceeded to hand off the stolen data to a “dark net” operator who cut him in on the profits from the sales.

The other brother, meanwhile, used his contract position at the State Department in 2015 to steal personally identifiable data belonging to various people including co-workers and a federal law enforcement agent who was investigating him.

According to the Justice Department, Sohaib Akhter later hatched a scheme to ensure perpetual access to various State Department systems and, with the help of his twin, attempted to install an electronic collection device inside a State Department office, which would have enabled the hackers to remotely steal federal data.

Years earlier, Muneeb Akhter hacked into a Maryland-based private data aggregation company that he was performing contract work for, giving his brother access to a database of federal contract information to give their technology company an upper hand when bidding for contracts and clients.

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​Muneeb akhter, Sohaaib akhter, Diversity is our strength, Indian, State department, Hack, Hacker, Cybersecurity, Opexus, Department of homeland security, Fraud, Government database, Politics 

Let me explain what the New York Times just did to the Washington Post over Thanksgiving weekend. The Post tried to turn Secretary of War Pete Hegseth into a war criminal for blowing up maritime drug runners. But the attack didn’t gain traction — partly because Republicans are getting better at starving these narratives of oxygen.

So the New York Times read the room, climbed to the top rope, and elbow-dropped its own ideological ally to prevent serious blowback against the propaganda press. The Times wasn’t defending truth. It was defending future lies. The ability to run effective psyops in 2026 was on the line. And when the Times pretends to be an ombudsman, the calculus is always political.

You think sweating out one red-state special election against a hellish candidate who despises her own constituents is bad? Wait until November 2026.

Don’t kid yourself: No ethical journalism happened here. The Times simply concluded, “We will sell no psyop before its time.” They weren’t going to let DataRepublican or Steve Baker rack up millions of views muckraking the Post’s latest collapsing narrative. So the Gray Lady hit the panic button and aborted the mission.

What should we learn from this? The temptation on the right will be to ask why the corporate left-wing press broke ranks on the eve of maybe flipping a Tennessee district Donald Trump won by 22 points to a Democrat who is on tape saying she hates her own city and its constituents.

But that question misses a foundational truth I repeat constantly on my show: Worldview is destiny. And outside the biblical worldview, every worldview boils down to a will to power.

With that hermeneutic, you can see exactly what the Times leaders are doing. They’re thinking far past Tennessee. They’re signaling that they have an entire arsenal of new lies ready to deploy to steal the midterms. It’s that Don Draper meme — hands outstretched, smirking: “Lies … but better!”

Remember: The godless do not have limiting principles. Why wouldn’t they lie if lying helps them capture power? It doesn’t matter whether it’s godless atheism, godless occultism, or godless Islam. Where the one true God is absent, the father of lies dances to a raucous tune. Hell has denominations, too.

But in the biblical worldview, the hallmark of everything is repentance, redemption, and restoration. You know a tree by its fruit. So if you want to discern whether something reflects the kingdom of God or the spirit of the age, the first question isn’t “do I like this person?” or “is this how I would do it?” The first question is: Does it produce repentance, redemption, and restoration?

Look at the Charlie Kirk memorial. Several people spoke whom no one expected to have deep, serious thoughts about Christianity. Yet the event unmistakably pointed people toward repentance, redemption, and restoration. That’s the kingdom of God. Don’t focus on the proxy on the outside. Focus on what God is doing on the inside. That’s the through-line from Genesis to Revelation.

The spirit of the age rejects all of it. It is will to power, front to back. Which means you cannot analyze the opposition the same way you analyze our side.

RELATED: How GOP leadership can turn a midterm gift into a total disaster

rudall30 via iStock/Getty Images

Sure, Republicans won that Tennessee special election by nine points. But they lost the Nashville precinct — the same place the Democrat said she hated. That’s how cults behave. And that’s why political messaging on the right must account for the environment normie voters live in — the tension between two very different kingdoms vying for their attention.

The normie voter either doesn’t know about those kingdoms or doesn’t care. He just wants what he wants: an economy that boosts his bottom line and border and anti-crime policies that keep him safe. Voters want elections to be about them.

That’s why Hegseth taking out foreign drug traffickers instinctively sounds like a pretty good deal — something even the New York Times could grasp, if only for tactical reasons.

So here’s the math going forward: Leftists can lie all they want — and sometimes lie badly, as we just saw — but the GOP will still lose if it fails to fix the economy and security.

You think sweating out one red-state special election against a hellish candidate who despises her own constituents is bad? Wait until November 2026. With better lies behind her and normie voters feeling betrayed by lukewarm people in power, she — and people like her — will absolutely win.

​Opinion & analysis, 2026 midterms, Pete hegseth, Tennessee special election, Don draper, Biblical worldview, Spirit of the age, New york times, Washington post, Media bias, Lies, Propaganda, Donald trump 

Under his authority as commander in chief, the president can blow up pretty much anybody on Earth whom he deems a national security threat. He does not need permission from Congress, the media, or a panel of self-appointed commentators. The missile strikes on drug-running vessels operated by a designated terrorist group are lawful, routine, and predictable. What made the episode explosive was that it enraged exactly the faction that always reacts this way: the political left.

Impeachment is the only real consequence available to the administration’s critics, and after two failed efforts, that prospect does not keep President Trump awake at night. Republican control of the House makes even a symbolic attempt unlikely.

It is time to put a moratorium on the online laws-of-armed-conflict ‘experts’ who materialize whenever a strike hits a target they sympathize with.

So the disloyal opposition defaults to its remaining weapon: information warfare. Media outlets, activist networks, and hostile bureaucrats have been carpet-bombing the information space with false claims designed to sow dissension among the ranks and mislead the public.

The country needs a president who can act decisively in defense of national security, without media gatekeepers, rogue judges, or partisan lawmakers running armchair military campaigns from the sidelines. The “Seditious Six” tried to undermine the president’s authority and cast doubt on lawful orders. The Washington Post attempted to turn that fiction into fact by quoting anonymous sources with unverifiable claims.

The central allegation is that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued an order to “kill everybody” on the vessel. The Post framed it this way: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. ‘The order was to kill everybody.’”

The headline amplified the accusation: “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all.”

A “spoken directive” means no record. The quote is a paraphrase. Nothing indicates that the source actually heard the Hegseth say those words. This is an anonymous, secondhand characterization of an alleged statement — precisely the sort of raw material the Post loves to inflate into scandal.

Even if the words had been spoken, the context would determine legality. If a commander asks, “How big a bomb do we drop on the enemy location?” and the answer is, “Use one big enough to kill everybody,” that exchange would not be criminal. It is a description of the force required to neutralize a hostile asset.

If these anonymous sources truly believed the secretary issued an illegal order, they were obligated to report it through the chain of command. Their silence speaks louder than any paraphrase. The most plausible explanation is that someone misunderstood — or deliberately distorted — an aggressive statement by Hegseth and nothing more.

The United States targets terrorists. The implication behind the Post’s story is that survivors remained after the first strike and that either the secretary or JSOC ordered a second engagement to kill them. No evidence supports that claim. No one outside the direct participants knows what the surveillance picture showed or what tactical conditions existed immediately after the first blast.

RELATED: White House names names in new ‘media bias tracker’ in wake of ‘seditious’ Democrat video

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Trump stated publicly that Hegseth told him no order was given to kill survivors. The fact that U.S. forces recovered two survivors from the submersible drug vessel undercuts the Post’s narrative even more. Pete Hegseth is far more credible than Alex Horton and the newsroom that elevated this rumor.

— (@)

It is time to put a moratorium on the online laws-of-armed-conflict “experts” who materialize whenever a strike hits a target they sympathize with. They insist that the presence of wounded combatants instantly transforms a hostile platform into a protected site and that destroying the vessel itself becomes a war crime. Even the New York Times — no friend of the administration — punctured that claim:

According to five U.S. officials … Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile failed to accomplish all of those things … and his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.

The mobs demanding Hegseth’s scalp will be disappointed. The voters who supported this administration expected firm action against terrorist cartels and open-ocean drug networks. Another hostile vessel was reduced to an oil slick, and most Americans see that as a success.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Pete hegseth, Department of war, Pentagon, Navy seals, Venezuela, Missile strike, Drug cartels, Drug trafficking, Survivors, Killed, Law, Illegal order, Seditious six, Media bias, Washington post, New york times, Lies, Caribbean 

The family of a 23-year-old student is grieving her death after she was mauled and killed by three pit bulls that she was caring for in Tyler, Texas.

Deputies found Madison Riley Hull lying in the backyard of the home when they were called on Nov. 21 and said the dogs appeared to want to attack them as well, according to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office.

‘She loved life with her whole heart and moved through the world with a free-spirit that lifted those around her.’

One deputy fired his weapon at the dogs, killing one.

That caused the other dogs to run off, allowing the deputies to carry Hull away from the home safely. She was later declared dead.

The other two dogs were ordered to be euthanized by a justice of the peace.

Investigators said they are considering criminal charges for the owners of the dogs.

“Obviously these people weren’t home at the time that this happened,” said Smith County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Larry Christian to KLTV-TV.

“We don’t know the dynamics of the relationship that this dog sitter, Miss Hull, had with these dogs, if she’s been around them before or whatever. But all of those things will be taken into consideration whenever they decide to make a decision on whether charges will be filed or will not be filed.”

Hull was a student at the University of Texas at Tyler.

RELATED: 1-year-old girl mauled to death by family’s pit bull, police say

Christian said the deputies were called to the home by a neighbor.

“This young lady had a dynamic future ahead of her. And, of course, she lost her life in a tragic manner, and it’s a tragedy for the family,” he added. “We do pray for them as well and just hope that they can gather the strength to get through this. We also pray for those who responded to the call and for the neighbor who had to witness what occurred out there.”

Hull’s mother, Jennifer Hubbell, wrote about her daughter in a post on GoFundMe.

“Madi was love, she was light, she was kindness, she was laughter, she was fierce in the most beautiful and disarming way,” Hubbell wrote. “She loved life with her whole heart and moved through the world with a free-spirit that lifted those around her.”

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​Pit bull attack, College student mauled, Dog mauling death, Madison riley hull, Crime 

In Memphis, Tennessee, where Elon Musk’s xAI initiative spun up a “compute factory” of some 32,000 GPUs, the local grid could not sustain the demand. The solution was characteristic of the era: 14 mobile gas turbine generators, parked in a row, burning fossil fuel to feed the machine. It was a scene of brute industrial force, a reminder that the “cloud,” for all its ethereal branding, is a heavy, hot, loud thing. It requires acres of land for the servers, rivers of water for cooling, and enough electricity to power a small nation.

The appetite of AI is proving insatiable. To reach the next plateau of synthetic cognition, we must triple our electrical output and are constrained by our capacity to do so. And so, with the inevitability of water seeking a lower level, the gaze of Silicon Valley has drifted upward. If the earth is too small, too regulated, and too fragile to house the machines of the future, we shall instead build them in the sky.

The high ground of the 21st century is not a hill, but an orbit.

The proposal is startling, in the way that leaps in engineering often are. In late 2025, Musk noted on social media that SpaceX would be “doing” data centers in space. Jeff Bezos, a man who has long viewed the planetary surface as a sort of zoning restriction to be overcome, predicted gigawatt-scale orbital clusters within two decades.

The pitch is seductive: In the vacuum of low-Earth orbit, the sun never sets. There are no clouds, no rain, no neighbors to complain. There are only the burning fusion of the sun and the cold of deep space, which turns out to be the perfect medium for cooling the heated circuits of a neural network.

The vacuum is valuable because it is an infinite heat sink. The sunlight is valuable because it is free voltage. The plan, as outlined by startups such as Starcloud (formerly Lumen Orbit), involves structures that defy terrestrial intuition. These are not the tin-can satellites of the Cold War but solar arrays and radiator panels four kilometers wide, vast shimmering sheets assembled by swarms of robots. These machines, using technology like the MIT-developed TESSERAE tiles, would click together in the silence, building a cathedral of computation that no human hand will touch.

RELATED: Trump leaves Elon Musk’s Grok, xAI off White House list of AI partners

Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

There is a stark beauty to the engineering. On Earth, a data center fights a losing battle against entropy, burning energy to pump heat away. In space, heat can be radiated into the dark. A server rack in orbit, shielded by layers of polymer and perhaps submerged in fluid to dampen the cosmic rays, swims in a bath of eternal starlight, crunching the data beamed up from below. Companies such as NTT and Sky Perfect JSAT envision optical lasers linking these satellites into a single, glowing lattice: a cosmic village of information.

Yet one cannot help but observe its fragility. The modern GPU is a miracle of nanometer-scale lithography, a device so sensitive that a stray alpha particle can induce a chaotic error. The environment of space is hostile, awash in the very radiation that these chips abhor. To place the most delicate artifacts of human civilization into the harshest environment known to physics is a gamble. The engineers speak of “annealing” solar cells and triple-redundant logic. The skeptic notes that a bit-flip in a language model is a nuisance, while a bit-flip in a battle management system is a tragedy.

There is also the matter of the debris. We have already cluttered orbits with the husks of our previous ambitions: spent rocket stages, dead weather satellites, flecks of paint moving at 17,000 miles per hour. To introduce massive, kilometer-scale structures is to invite the Kessler syndrome, a cascade of collisions that could imprison us on the surface for generations. We are proposing to solve the environmental crisis of terrestrial computing by potentially creating an environmental crisis in the exosphere. It is the American way, the frontier way: When one room gets messy, simply move to the next, larger room.

The drive to do this is not merely economic, though the economics are potent. If Starship can lower the cost of launch to under $200 per kilogram, the math begins to close. If energy in space is effectively free, the initial capital outlay is justified by the lack of a monthly utility bill. But the impulse is also older, that of the Russian scientist and mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who called Earth the “cradle” of humanity, which, like a mature human being, eventually we must leave. We are seeing the embryonic stages of the “noosphere,” a sphere of pure mind encircling the planet. By exporting our cognition to the heavens, we are externalizing our logic. The logos of our civilization will physically reside above us, a silent pantheon of servers ordering and facilitating the lives of the creatures below.

There is a geopolitical texture to this as well. The concept of “sovereign cloud” takes on a new meaning when the data center is orbiting over international waters. Intelligence agencies and defense contractors are quietly investing, sensing that the high ground of the 21st century is not a hill, but an orbit. To control the compute is to control the speed of thought.

Whether this will work remains to be seen. The history of spaceflight is a graveyard of optimistic PowerPoints. It is possible that the radiation will act as a slow acid on the silicon, that the robotic assembly will jam, that the cost will remain stubbornly high. But the momentum is real. The mobile gas turbines in Memphis are a stopgap. The data centers consuming the aquifers of Arizona are a liability. The logic of the market and the machine points upward.

We stand at a peculiar intersection. We are attempting to use the most primal forces of the solar system, the burning star and the freezing void, to power our most refined tools. It is a grand, ambitious, and entirely human endeavor. We are building a computer in a jar and hanging the jar in the sky, hoping that the view will be clear enough to see the future.

​Tech 

Costco is suing the Trump administration.

Yes, Costco. The warehouse temple of middle-class stability where Americans stock their freezers, fill their carts, and feel briefly insulated from the chaos of the broader economy. Costco thrives when the American consumer thrives.

Remember, when faced with a choice between standing with the American worker or protecting the globalist status quo, Costco sided with the status quo.

So why file suit against the administration? The company’s board donated heavily to Democrats in the 2023-2024 cycle, and now its leadership wants its tariff money back. The lawsuit doubles as a political favor and a financial windfall.

In short, Costco refuses to accept the new populist moment.

Fighting the populist tax revolt

Trump’s tariff program funds his most audacious promise: eliminating income taxes for working Americans and issuing a $2,000 tariff “dividend” as early as next year. This would mark the largest direct transfer of economic power to workers in modern history.

Costco wants to stop it.

The company that markets itself as the moral alternative to Walmart now positions itself as the moral critic of tariff-driven tax abolition. For decades, Americans have trusted Costco as the “good” warehouse store — high quality, honest pricing, reliable value. But the rotisserie chicken glow fades fast when the company sues to block a working-class tax cut.

Costco insists its lawsuit is about fairness. Please. It’s all about politics.

Stuck in a pre-Trump mentality

Trump upended the left’s narrative by putting workers — not donors, not multinationals — at the center of national policy. The tariff-funded tax revolution threatens decades of Democratic posturing about “helping the little guy.”

So Costco’s leadership had to intervene.

The company claims it fears a pending Supreme Court ruling that overturns tariffs without refunding the money companies paid. In reality, Costco wants a heads-I-win, tails-I-win scenario.

If tariffs stay, Costco raises prices to recoup costs. If tariffs fall, Costco demands a refund. What it will not do is refund customers who paid higher prices.

Costco argues that tariffs fall under Congress’ taxing authority. A federal circuit court agreed, ruling that tariffs are a core congressional power. That argument never troubled Democrats when they rebranded an Obamacare tax as “not a tax” to shove it through the courts.

When Democrats extract revenue for their political projects, the courts call it progress. When tariffs return money to American workers, Costco calls it unconstitutional.

The truth about taxes

Income tax is the burden of wage earners, not the wealthy. Costco knows it. Democrats know it. Everyone knows it.

The wealthy use capital gains, trusts, foundations, and investment shelters. Eliminating income taxes barely touches them. It liberates the working class — precisely the group Democrats once claimed to defend while quietly shifting their coalition toward illegal aliens and the ever-expanding alphabet of sexual identities.

Trump exposed the contradiction: Democrats talk about workers. Trump delivers for them.

RELATED: Is a tariff a tax?

Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Costco chose poorly

Costco’s lawsuit will not collapse its business model. Americans will still buy their bulk salsa, tires, kayaks, paper towels, and of course, the hot-dog combo that has famously resisted inflation for decades.

But they will remember this moment.

When faced with a choice between standing with the American worker or protecting the globalist status quo, Costco sided with the status quo. A company famous for its generous return policy may soon see a return movement of its own as consumers decide they want their tariff-inflated dollars back.

The company’s lawsuit reveals something not so flattering about the “good” big-box store: Liberal elites love talking about helping workers — as long as it never requires losing money for workers.

The Trump tax-and-tariff revolution threatens that arrangement. And Costco’s leadership made its position clear. I’ll still eat their hot dogs after making a few returns and taking a few extra free samples.

​Opinion & analysis, Costco, Democrats, Lawsuit, Donald trump, Tariffs, Trade, Tax rebate, Refunds, International trade, Economy, Prices, Inflation, Hot dogs, America first, Workers, Income taxes, Elites, Wealthy 

For all of human history, the four-stage debt cycle has remained the same: Discipline leads to economic prosperity; prosperity creates complacency; complacency tees up excessive spending; excessive spending turns into debt, which reaches a breaking point, necessitating discipline and restarting the cycle.

This has been true for every great empire the world has ever seen.

While the rise and fall of nations is nothing new, what is happening right now in global economics, says Glenn Beck, is indeed new — and it should terrify everyone.

“For the very first time in world history … the entire globe is riding the same wheel at the same time,” he warns.

“Right now, America, Europe, China, Japan, and every other major power … have all hit stage four at the same time.”

“The bond markets are shaking. The currencies are all volatile. Politicians are praying that no one notices the numbers. … Stage four is not coming. We are now living inside the opening act,” Glenn warns.

And yet a recent report from the National Retail Federation’s annual holiday forecast estimates that U.S. holiday retail sales will surpass $1 trillion for the first time ever.

Glenn, who says he is floored by the prices of food and goods and often wonders how the average person can afford to live right now, fears that the American people are making the same mistake as these governments on the brink of financial collapse.

“We’re spending, spending, spending, and I don’t understand it. … We’re just spending because we think we can get out of it,” he laments.

But our government and its constituents would be wise to remember what happens when stage four of the debt cycle is complete.

“It’s called the reset,” says Glenn, and it culminates in either crushing inflation, outright default and political chaos, or war.

For this to happen in any one country is terrible, but imagine the unmitigated catastrophe that would unfold if several global superpowers collapsed simultaneously.

“Rome collapsed by itself. France collapsed alone. Weimar collapsed by itself. Britain declined while America rose. It was always one country coming down and another country coming up,” says Glenn, but “this time all countries on both sides — the free world and the not-so-free world — there’s no one rising.”

“So what does that mean?” he asks.

While the history books can’t inform us, as this widespread teetering is unprecedented, we can only assume it means that rampant inflation, political upheaval, and war won’t be regional but “global” and “systemic.”

The silver lining is that collapse also “[creates] the conditions for renewal.” But until then, we are faced with a choice: Will we continue to spend ourselves into oblivion, or will we exercise the discipline it takes to create prosperity?

“The next chapter is not written. What happens to us is not written,” says Glenn, “and whether we rise or fall from what’s coming depends not on Washington, not on Wall Street, but on us in our homes and our families and our churches and our communities.”

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Financial collapse, Economic crisis, Christmas, Holiday sales, Global collapse, Global superpowers, Debt cycle, Debt, National debt, Debt crisis, Blazetv, Blaze media 

A Kansas mayor who is not a U.S. citizen, despite residing in the state for most of his life, has been accused of illegally voting “multiple times” — and documents obtained by Blaze News seem to support those allegations.

Last month, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) held a press conference to announce that Coldwater Mayor Jose “Joe” Ceballos, 54, had been charged with three counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury, all felonies.

He could face more than five years behind bars if convicted. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, added that a conviction would also prompt “removal proceedings” for Ceballos.

Ceballos appears to have cast a ballot at least once every year or every other year, beginning on August 1, 2000.

“In Kansas, it is against the law to vote if you are not a U.S. citizen. We allege that Mr. Ceballos did it multiple times,” Kobach said.

Voter registration applications and voting history records sent to Blaze News in response to a public records request seem to confirm Kobach’s allegations.

The two voter registration applications for Ceballos, one dated April 1999 and the other December 2012, indicate he established Kansas residency all the way back in 1986.

Both documents asked the applicant to confirm U.S citizenship. “I Swear or Affirm that I am a citizen of the United States,” the 1999 application states.

On the 2012 application, the “yes” box next to the question “are you a citizen of the United States of America?” is marked. The signature section then reiterates: “I swear or affirm that I am a citizen of the United States and a Kansas resident.”

Ceballos appears to have signed the 1999 application as “Joe” Ceballos and the 2012 application as Jose. He did not register for a party on either application.

RELATED: Noncitizen Kansas mayor accused of illegally voting ‘multiple times’ after winning re-election

Screenshot of documents sent to Blaze News

Screenshot of documents sent to Blaze News

The criminal complaint filed November 5 stated that Ceballos is “not a citizen of the United States,” and DHS noted that he received a green card in 1990 but remains a citizen of Mexico.

He was convicted of battery in 1995, according to DHS.

Moreover, Ceballos’ voting history revealed that he participated in dozens of primary and general elections since 2000, the earliest records the Comanche County clerk claimed to have.

According to the records, Ceballos cast a ballot at least once every year or every other year, beginning on August 1, 2000. The records indicate Ceballos voted in November 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024.

It is unclear why a Republican Party affiliation was recorded for votes cast in the November 2004 and 2024 general elections.

RELATED: Thousands of possible illegal aliens found on Texas voter rolls, officials say

Screenshot of documents sent to Blaze News

Allegations that Ceballos had voted first made headlines after he won re-election as Coldwater mayor on November 4, and City Attorney Skip Herd claimed that Ceballos had applied for U.S. citizenship just this year.

“He applied for citizenship in February of this year and, through that, raised the issue of whether he was a legal citizen,” Herd said.

Ceballos admitted to the Wichita Eagle that he did come to America as a child — the outlet described him as being “undocumented” at the time — and that he has since voted in every local, state, and federal election since 1991. However, he explained that he simply misunderstood the law, believing that the “permanent resident” designation on his green card meant that he was a citizen.

“I haven’t seen Mexico since I was four,” he said. “I don’t speak Spanish anymore. If I get deported, it would wreck my life.”

His attorney, Jess Hoeme, indicated that since Ceballos did not intend to vote illegally, “he’ll beat this” case with the jury.

Records from the Comanche County clerk’s office revealed that Ceballos’ voter registration was canceled on October 17, 2025. Those records further showed that he had been registered to vote in federal elections since at least February 2003, that he was at some point registered as a Republican, and that he filed a change of address in 2013.

Ceballos told the Eagle that he “probably” voted for Kobach to be state AG and for Donald Trump to be president every time they ran, even though in general, the twice-elected mayor is rather indifferent to politics.

“If politics comes up in Coldwater, I generally just get up and walk out,” Ceballos said.

RELATED: Trump plans major shake-up of how Americans vote ahead of 2026 midterm elections

Screenshot of documents sent to Blaze News

Ceballos, who received nearly 83% of the vote from fellow Coldwater residents just a few weeks ago, enjoys continued support from his community.

“As a mayor, he’s done a wonderful job,” said Britt Lenertz, president of the Coldwater City Council. “As a city councilmember, he’s done a wonderful job. He’s always put our community first in everything he does.”

In an official statement, Lenertz acknowledged that the allegations were “concerning” but called for patience as the legal process unfolds: “We will allow the proper legal process to take its course before making any further comments. It’s important that we respect both due process and the integrity of our local government.”

Longtime friend Ryan Swayze described Ceballos as good-hearted and well-intentioned but also a bit naive. Swayze and his dad as well as Ceballos’ old special-education teacher all partially blame themselves for not explaining to Ceballos during his formative years the differences between permanent residents and U.S. citizens.

Ceballos did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment, but he did hint to the Wichita Eagle that the charges have greatly affected his well-being.

“I’m scared,” he told the outlet. “I’m not sleeping.”

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​Kansas, Ceballos, Mayor, Coldwater, Kris kobach, Voter fraud, Noncitizens voting, Politics 

Homeowners’ associations exploded across America beginning in the 1960s. No one describes HOAs as “popular,” and the horror stories of petty rules and bureaucratic neighbors are legion. Yet more Americans fight for the privilege of buying into them every year. The reason is simple: The HOA is the last legal mechanism Americans have to artificially recreate something the country once produced organically — a high-trust society.

People want neighborhoods where streets feel safe, houses stay maintained, and neighbors behave predictably. We call these places “high trust” because people do not expect those around them to violate basic standards. Doors remain unlocked, kids play outside, and property values rise. Americans once assumed this was the natural condition of ordinary life. It never was.

Everyone complains about HOAs, but they remain the only defense against the chaos modern culture produces.

High-trust societies are not accidental. They emerge only under specific cultural conditions. Trust forms when people can understand and predict the behavior of those around them. That requires a shared standard — how to act, how to maintain property, how to handle conflict. When those standards come from a common way of life, enforcement becomes minimal. People feel free not because they reject limits, but because the limits match their instincts and expectations.

Every social order requires maintenance, but the amount varies. When most residents share the same assumptions, small gestures keep the peace. A disapproving look from Mrs. Smith over an unkempt lawn prompts action. A loud party until 1 a.m. results in lost invitations until the offender corrects the behavior. Police rarely if ever enter the picture. The community polices itself through mutual judgment.

Several preconditions make this coordination possible. Residents must share standards so violations appear obvious. They must feel comfortable addressing those violations without fear of disproportionate or hostile reactions. And they must value the esteem of their neighbors enough to respond to correction. When those conditions collapse, norms collapse with them. As New York learned during the era of broken windows, one act of disorder invites the next.

American culture and government spent the last 60 years destroying those preconditions.

Academics and media stigmatized culturally cohesive neighborhoods, and government policies made them nearly impossible to maintain. Accusations of racism, sexism, or homophobia discourage the subtle social pressure that once corrected behavior. The informal network of mothers supervising neighborhood kids vanished as more women entered the corporate workforce. And as Robert Putnam documented, social trust deteriorates as diversity increases. Residents retreat into isolation, not engagement.

The HOA attempts to reconstruct a high-trust environment under conditions that no longer support it. Ownership, maintenance, and conduct move from cultural consensus to legal contract. Residents with widely different expectations sign binding agreements dictating noise levels, lawn care, parking, paint colors, and countless other micro-regulations. A formal board replaces Mrs. Smith’s frown. Fines replace gentle rebukes. Gates and walls replace the watchful eye of neighborhood moms.

What once came from community now comes from bureaucracy.

With home prices surging, families dedicate larger portions of their wealth to their houses. Few want to gamble on declining property values because their neighborhood slips into disorder. Everyone complains about HOAs, but they remain the only defense against the chaos modern culture produces. People enter hostile, artificial arrangements where neighbors behave like informants rather than partners — because the alternative threatens their largest investment.

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Blaze Media Illustration

This analysis is not about suburban frustration. The HOA reveals a far broader truth: Modern America replaced a high-trust society with a trustless system enforced by administrative power.

As cultural diversity rises, the ability of a population to form democratic consensus declines. Without shared standards, people cannot coordinate behavior through social pressure. To replicate the order once produced organically by culture, society must formalize more and more interactions under the judgment of third parties — courts, bureaucracies, and regulatory bodies. The state becomes the referee for disputes communities once handled themselves.

Litigiousness rises, contracts proliferate, and coercion replaces custom. The virtue of the people declines as they lose the skills required to maintain trust with their neighbors. Instead of resolving conflict directly, they appeal to ever-expanding authorities. No one learns how to build trust; they only learn how to report violations.

The HOA problem is not really about homeowners or housing costs. It is a window into how America reorganized itself. A nation once shaped by shared norms and informal enforcement now relies on legalistic frameworks to manage daily life. Americans sense the artificiality, but they see no alternative. They know something fundamental has changed. They know the culture that sustained high-trust communities no longer exists.

The HOA simply makes the loss unavoidable.

​Opinion & analysis, Civilization, Cities, Homeowners association, Homeownership, Private property, Property rights, Surveillance, Nosy neighbors, High-trust society, Trust, Social capital, Robert putnam, Bowling alone, Neighborhood, Dispute, Fines, Contract 

The Girlguiding organization of the U.K. announced reluctantly that it would no longer allow transgender-identifying boys from joining the organization, and many on the left are imploding.

The association is a part of the global Scout Movement that includes the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in the U.S.

‘This is yet another horrible act of violence against the most vulnerable trans people for which the government is ultimately responsible.’

In its statement posted on Tuesday, the group said that the decision was made after a Supreme Court decision related to sex and gender.

“From today, 2 December, it is with a heavy heart that we are announcing trans girls and young women will no longer be able to join Girlguiding,” the group said. “This is a decision we would have preferred not to make, and we know that this may be upsetting for members of our community.”

The organization serves about 300,000 girls in groups named Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, and Rangers.

“Girlguiding believes strongly in inclusion, and we will continue to support young people and adults in marginalized groups,” they added. “Over the next few months, we will explore opportunities to champion this value and actively support young people who need us.”

Many on the left were outraged over the announcement.

“This is f**king horrific. The statement makes it clear that they don’t actually want to do this, but feel they have no choice given the current climate and the fact a legal challenge would take more resources than they have. Transphobia: harming children since forever,” said one account on the X platform.

“Enjoy living on the side of the far right, Nazis, and the worst misogynists in society … I’m sure history will look kindly on that,” he added in a second post.

“This just made me burst into tears. It’s pure cruelty,” replied another user, who identified as queer.

Tammy Hymas, the policy lead for the TransActual group, decried the decision.

“It’s awful that an organization, which would happily be inclusive and has been for many years, is being forced to exclude young trans girls by adults with bigotries and institutional power,” Hymas said. “There is no problem being solved here, only harm being done.”

RELATED: Girl Guides says it will stop calling members ‘brownies’ because ‘racialized’ girls are ‘harmed’

Hymas went on to call it an act of violence.

“This is yet another horrible act of violence against the most vulnerable trans people for which the government is ultimately responsible,” she added. “Another trauma that will leave a generation of young LGBTQ+ people scarred for life.”

“F**k @Girlguiding. I’m absolutely f**king fuming and absolute ashamed to be part of an organization which can make such exclusive and divisive decisions,” another user replied on social media.

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​Trans-identifying boys, Girlguiding organization, Transphobia meltdown, Liberals meltdown on x, Politics 

A northwest Washington state sheriff’s deputy spotted a black sports car taking over the intersection of 112th Street South and Pacific Avenue South doing donuts around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said. The intersection appears to be in Parkland, which is about 20 minutes south of Tacoma.

However, as the deputy approached the intersection, the vehicle took off, officials said.

Deputies knocked on the door of a residence, and a male answered and claimed his friend had dropped off the Corvette earlier and did not know anything about it, officials said.

The deputy attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle failed to stop, and the deputy was unable to catch up to it, officials said.

The deputy used his radio to share the vehicle’s direction of travel, and a sergeant picked up the pursuit — but lost sight of the car, officials said.

However, the sergeant later learned a black Corvette was listed as stolen and numerous other jurisdictions had similar encounters with the vehicle but were unable to catch it, officials said.

RELATED: Blaze News original: A dozen times vehicular street takeovers and ‘sideshows’ resulted in violence, injuries — even death

About an hour later, another deputy spotted a black Corvette in the area where police lost sight of it, officials said, adding that the Corvette matched the description of the vehicle that eluded deputies earlier.

Deputies soon learned the Corvette was stolen — and was the same vehicle they had been chasing, officials said.

Deputies knocked on the door of a residence, and a male answered and claimed his friend had dropped off the Corvette earlier and did not know anything about it, officials said.

But a bit more investigation revealed that the male being questioned had a social media account containing videos of him driving the stolen Corvette and doing donuts and other reckless driving crimes, officials said.

RELATED: Sheriff gives punks bad news about 88 cars towed and impounded after major street-takeover bust: ‘No need to keep calling’

Image source: Pierce County (Wa.) Sheriff’s Office bodycam video screenshot

Deputies arrested the 21-year-old suspect for eluding, possession of a stolen vehicle, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, officials said, adding that the male also had warrants in another jurisdiction for reckless driving and unlawful exhibition of speed.

“It’s probably not a good idea to record yourself in a stolen vehicle doing donuts — and then post it to your social media,” Dep. Carly Cappetto wisely warned on the sheriff’s office clip.

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​Arrest, Crime solved, Donuts, Eluding, Obstruction of a law enforcement officer, Possession of a stolen vehicle, Reckless driving, Social media post, Stolen car, Street takeover, Unlawful exhibition of speed, Warrants, Washington state, Watch, Crime, Pierce county sheriff’s department 

The left is attempting to paint Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a war criminal — and it’s backfiring miserably.

Hegseth is being accused of ordering a second strike on 11 Tren de Aragua terrorists who were running a drug-trafficking boat, while the left is attempting to spin it into an evil, unthinkable act.

“Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all,” a Washington Post headline reads. The subhead follows, “As two men clung to a stricken, burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6, the Joint Special Operations commander followed the defense secretary’s order to leave no survivors.”

“Am I supposed to feel bad for the drug runners? Am I supposed to feel bad for the narco-terrorists? I don’t feel bad for the narco-terrorists. Who I feel bad for are all of the families in this country who had to bury their loved ones due to the importation of these drugs from these narco-terrorists,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments.

“So, I don’t know, Washington Post, I don’t really feel bad for these two men clinging to a stricken burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6,” she continues.

Now, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is claiming that what Hegseth allegedly did crossed a line that he should “never step over.”

“If what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over,” Kelly said in a segment on CNN.

“This was the same guy who was just, like, last week telling the military to basically commit treason, telling the military to be insubordinate when it comes to the commander in chief and when it comes to orders that they are being given. So, it’s really, really rich,” Gonzales says.

But Kelly isn’t the only one who went after Hegseth, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) telling ABC, “It’s very possible there was a war crime committed.”

“Of course, for it to be a war crime, you have to accept the Trump administration’s whole construct here, which is, we’re in armed conflict at war with this particular, with the drug gangs. Of course, they’ve never presented the public with the information they’ve got here. But it could be worse than that,” Van Hollen said.

“If that theory is wrong, then it’s plain murder. But even if you accept their legal theory, that it is a war crime. And so, I do believe that the secretary of defense should be held accountable for giving those kinds of orders,” he added.

“You’re going to be shocked to hear,” Gonzales comments, “that it turns out, all of this was total bulls**t because Pete Hegseth, according to the White House, was not even in charge when the second strike was ordered.”

“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” she adds.

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​Camera phone, Free, Upload, Video phone, Video, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Washington post, Pete hegseth, War crime, War criminal, Tren de aragua, September 2, President trump, The white house, Mark kelly, Chris van hollen