Category: blaze media

New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly unveiled housing agenda called Fix the City represents a dramatic expansion of government power over private property — honing in on “the worst landlords in New York City” as a target.

“When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards,” he explained.

“Stewards that include community land trusts, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves,” he added.

“Pat Gray Unleashed” executive producer Keith Malinak is shocked to hear the cheers from the crowd during Mamdani’s speech, calling them “good little communists.”

“Wow, so they’re going to redistribute wealth. They’re going to take the property from the landowner and give it to the tenant,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments.

Mamdani also recently quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, telling a crowd, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

He quickly caveated, “If anything, my friends, it seems that you eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess.”

However, Gray doesn’t see it the same way as Mamdani.

“It’s worse than I imagined, I think. It’s even worse,” he says. “And it’s unabashed. And it’s unashamed. He’s just fully embracing Marxism.”

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​Communism, Housing plan, Keith malinak, Margaret thatcher, Marxism, New york city, Pat gray, Socialism, The blaze, Zohran mamdani, Pat gray unleashed 

Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee hoping to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, has in recent months polled relatively well and enjoyed the support of fellow travelers in D.C. despite a series of scandals — including one scandal that prompted multiple members of his campaign to jump ship.

Platner has managed, for instance, to maintain the support of Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), even after it was revealed he previously identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested that service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” smeared all police officers as “bastards,” mocked Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and adorned himself with an apparent “totenkopf” tattoo reminiscent of the skull image popularized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel elite guard.

‘He is an issue.’

While Platner’s campaign has always been plagued by controversy, it appears to finally have become too much for some Democrats to bear — especially after it was revealed that the married candidate sent at least six women sexually explicit texts.

Amy Gertner — Platner’s wife since 2023 — discovered the trove of debauched extramarital texts, then brought them to the attention of her husband’s Senate campaign during the vetting process last year, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

“The United States Senate is not a training ground for redemption,” Genevieve McDonald, the former Democratic state representative who resigned as political director of Platner’s campaign in October, told the Times. “It is a place for proven leaders with moral clarity and integrity.”

McDonald claimed that Platner sent sexually graphic texts to as many as a dozen women.

After current and former campaign officials confirmed the exchanges to the Times, Platner’s campaign confirmed to Politico that the candidate had indeed sent the texts.

RELATED: Squad-endorsed candidate once reportedly volunteered with group tied to al-Qaeda and testified for terrorist ‘blind cleric’

Graeme Sloan/Getty Images

Morris Katz — a strategist for Platner’s campaign who wrote that he wanted to use images of his penis in a 2020 children’s book — said of the reports about his boss’ wandering eye, “It’s no one’s f**king business what happened in Graham & Amy’s marriage before he was ever a candidate for office.”

Gertner — who receives money from the campaign for serving as its volunteer coordinator — tried on Saturday to turn her husband’s scandal on the media, noting in a video statement shared online by Platner, “It makes me really angry, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on.”

After insinuating that questions about Platner’s trustworthiness and fidelity aren’t relevant to the race, Gertner said that she and her husband went to marriage counseling and that she doesn’t “want a perfect marriage.”

Like Gertner, Rep. Ro Khanna reaffirmed his support for Platner, stating on Saturday that he was proud of Collins’ challenger “for having a vision for a new deal for our time.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), however, adopted a different tone, telling ABC News when asked on Sunday whether Platner might be jeopardizing Senate control for the Democrats, “Yes, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer.”

Levar Stoney, the former Democratic mayor of Richmond, Virginia, similarly knocked Platner, writing, “I can’t help but think that if this candidate were a person of color or a woman, my party would be asking them to consider stepping aside immediately. A Nazi tattoo! Now this. I want Democrats to take back the Senate — but not like this.”

Prior to the revelations about Platner’s sexting exploits, some Democrats were already airing their concerns about his candidacy.

“I think when we’re talking about moral clarity and what we want to see from Democrats, I think he is an issue,” former Biden press office chief of staff Yemisi Egbewole, told Fox News’ Bill Melugin last week.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) also denounced Platner last week, telling CNN, “I’ve been clear about Graham Platner. I find that tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying.”

“I hope Maine voters agree with me,” continued Auchincloss. “I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner’s brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country.”

Over the weekend, the Maine Wire reported that Platner appeared to have an account on the messaging application Kik — long a cesspool for perverts and child exploitation — with the username “phustle0331.”

CNN later confirmed that the account, which features a photo of a partially naked individual with tattoos identical to those sported by the Democratic candidate, belongs to Platner, the same person Sen. Warren said last month was her “kind of man.”

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​Graham platner, Democrats, Senate, Maine, Susan collins, Sex scandal, Sexual, Infidelity, Adultery, Ro khanna, Politics 

Artificial intelligence usage at a single company spiraled out of control and led to a half-billion-dollar bill, according to a recent report.

A consultant is sounding the alarm on what could become the norm for companies in the near future: paying for AI integration may not be all it is made out to be.

One token is equal to approximately four written characters in English text.

An AI consultant recently provided Axios with a stunning revelation that has sparked intrigue across the globe. According to the unnamed insider, one of the consultant’s clients spent approximately $500 million in a single month on AI usage.

These costs reportedly piled up because the company failed to put usage limits on its employees who have AI licenses for the large language model Claude.

Anthropic, Claude’s operator, has different pricing structures that go up to $25 per million tokens. This may seem low, but one token is equal to approximately four written characters in English text or “0.75 words,” Anthropic says on its website.

This of course includes punctuation marks.

Token consumption can be quite heavy when it comes to documents. For example, a PDF costs ~125,000 tokens, a large document is ~25,000 tokens, and a webpage is listed at ~2,500 tokens.

RELATED: The Trump phone is here — and so is the controversy. Is it any good?

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Images through Claude Vision are calculated using a formula based on picture size in pixels. The formula is width * height / 750.

For example, a YouTube thumbnail is 1280 × 720 pixels and would therefore cost about 1,229 tokens. While it might end up costing just under $5 to produce around 1,000 average-sized images, the high costs are believed to stem from the scale of employee usage as well as when Claude is used to code.

The unnamed company — which was described in a LinkedIn post as a U.S. corporation — reportedly gave employees unfettered access with zero spending caps or usage limits.

RELATED: Google’s AI overhaul of Search will overfish the internet to extinction

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Without any guardrails in place, a company that creates documents or webpages or even performs coding with AI could be passively spending tens of thousands of dollars.

One chief technology officer told Axios that employees had been using AI for some of the most trivial tasks, which included checking the weather. Token plans may not be as they seem and are not “all you can eat” buffets, the CTO said.

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​Return, Ai, Chatbot, Anthropic, Claude, Tech 

America is turning 250, and for the first time in years, its capital is starting to look the part.

Political insider Ken Farnaso has lived in Washington for 13 years. In that time, he never once saw a certain D.C. fountain turned on. Last week, he watched it run for the first time.

“Honestly, I don’t think many Washingtonians thought it would ever come back. … It’s more beautiful than I expected,” he wrote on X.

‘D.C. is looking beautiful. The fountains are almost all open.’

The transformation extends well beyond one fountain.

In July 2024, the phrase “HAMAS IS COMIN” was spray-painted onto the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain during large-scale demonstrations in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. The perpetrator later pled guilty to misdemeanor destruction of government property.

The U.S. Department of the Interior noted on X that the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain “has been dry since before the first iPhone launched,” but today, that same fountain is gleaming white stone again.

The White House official account has been making the before-and-after contrast explicit, posting side-by-side images of Columbus Circle by Union Station — once graffiti-covered, pristine today — captioned simply: “Decline is a choice.“

Since January, a quiet but visible transformation has been under way in D.C.’s public spaces — dried-up fountains restored, graffiti-tagged monuments scrubbed clean, parks that had grown shabby suddenly tended again.

The scope stretches across the city: Lafayette Square, Freedom Plaza, Meridian Hill Park, and six other historic fountains that had gone dark are being brought back to life, while nine more — including the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial — are receiving mechanical upgrades.

At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump touted the results. “D.C. is looking beautiful. The fountains are almost all open,” he said.

RELATED: 13 DC police officials placed on leave, pending termination amid crime stat manipulation scandal

Meridian Hill ParkBlaze News

Not everyone is cheering. Critics have zeroed in on the funding source: At least $60 million in National Park Service entrance fees — collected from visitors at parks across the country — is being channeled toward D.C. projects.

Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, called them “Trump’s vanity projects and the stuff that he can see from his golden throne off the Lincoln Bedroom,” arguing that crumbling infrastructure elsewhere in the park system should take priority.

The $60 million, however, comes not from the National Park Service’s main budget, but from a separate self-funded pool — entrance fees that, by law, the agency can redirect at its discretion to sites that don’t collect their own fees, like the National Mall.

That congressional budget, meanwhile, is hardly starved: Congress appropriated $3.27 billion for the National Park Service in fiscal year 2026 — 54% more than the Trump administration itself requested.

The Department of the Interior pushed back on the criticism directly, saying D.C. residents are “experiencing working fountains across the district for the first time in decades, all thanks to President Donald J. Trump” and that the agency has been addressing deferred maintenance “throughout the country.”

An additional $13.1 million is going toward the National Mall Reflecting Pool — a project that has drawn scrutiny of its own. Trump awarded a no-bid contract to a Virginia firm, and costs have ballooned from the original $1.8 million estimate to $13.1 million. Historic preservationists have filed suit, alleging that the blue coating being applied is “altering the historic character” of the pool without proper review.

RELATED: Trump reveals plans for ‘Independence Arch’ for 250th US anniversary — and it’s MASSIVE

Columbus CircleBlaze News

When Blaze News visited the newly restored fountains, not everyone in the crowd was a Trump supporter — but that didn’t seem to matter much. One D.C. resident said he hadn’t voted for Trump but that the restored fountains were a welcome sight regardless. “It’s the small things,” he said. “D.C. is my home, and it’s nice to have them back.”

A longtime Washingtonian nearby didn’t need much more than a look around. “I haven’t seen it like this for years,” she said. “It’s a beautiful day out.”

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​Dc, Decline, National mall, National park service, Politics 

Do you matter? Does what you do matter? Are you doing anything at all? Does your will have any impact on the world? Are you living with vitality?

Or are you just a hamster on a wheel in a little cage in the back of a middle school classroom thinking you are doing something when really you are just wasting your time here until lights out?

Because we can all do it, we forget that it’s special. It’s so ordinary, we forget it’s extraordinary.

To answer the first question: You do matter, and what you do matters. It doesn’t matter who you are; you matter, and you have an impact on the world. Maybe it’s a big one, or maybe it’s a little one. But even something as simple as saying good morning and smiling to the cashier who rings up your pack of cigarettes and full tank of gas is some kind of something or some kind of impact on someone else’s world.

Hamster wheel

But are you living with vitality? That’s not quite as simple. That bit about the hamster wasting time dinking around on the wheel — that’s certainly a depressing scene, but it’s a feeling all too common in a world in which many of our physical needs are satisfied whether we really do anything at all.

Everyone matters in our world, and everyone matters to someone. That’s a fact. But everyone doesn’t feel like they do, and many don’t feel like they are living a very vital life either. The hamster-wheel job that’s stable and hard to lose, the climate-controlled car that tells you when to slow down. An uneventful and seemingly predictable life finished off with some controlled simulated struggle at the gym three nights a week without an end, a shock, or a surprise in sight.

Some people dull the pain of the malaise with drugs, others zone out with Netflix or the internet.

Family matters

Still others seem to think that the only way to feel alive in our age is by seeking out extremes: dangerous travel, feats of endurance, and any other pursuit risking life and limb.

Fine for those who have the opportunity, I suppose. But honestly, vitality can be found much closer to home.

The real truth is that the most vital thing you can do in the year 2026 is something that just about everyone can do: raise a family.

Falling in love, getting married, having children, and raising a family is the last real, and completely real, thing on planet Earth.

It doesn’t matter if everything becomes entirely fake. It doesn’t matter if everyone has fake jobs, if no one owns anything for longer than six months, if all the food is processed, if all the appliances are designed with planned obsolescence in mind, and if AI takes care of just about all our needs. The entire world could be completely fake. But one last real thing will remain: family.

And it is the realness of the family that matters and that makes it so vital. When we raise a family, we are completely crucial. Our decisions determine real-world outcomes, both short term and long term. The family is not a theory or spreadsheet. It’s not a surrogate activity that stands in simply for the sake of simulating some kind of other struggle.

The family is real.

RELATED: Why I’m not worried about AI ‘replacing’ me

Universal Images Archive/Getty Images

Royal reproduction

A looming intuition in our postmodern, anti-vitalistic ennui is the feeling that we don’t have any control. Our health insurance policies, our jobs, the new charges that don’t make any sense on the phone bill, the screwed up politics, the fact that you can’t even talk to someone who speaks English on the phone anymore when you need something fixed, and that nothing seems to last very long either, and no one cares.

But of course, there is one domain where we are monarchs no matter how lowly our job or how faceless the large systems that govern our society may be.

The family.

A mother is a queen, and a father is a king. What Mom and Dad say goes. Mom and Dad don’t answer to anyone. They don’t need to ask permission, and they won’t be reprimanded by HR. When you are a parent, you are a monarch of a micro-kingdom. That might sound weird, but that’s the way to think about it. You dictate the religion, the calendar, the diet, the schedule, the language, the attitude, and everything about family life.

Dynasty building

It’s here, in this domain, where the most potent and impactful kind of vitalism still lives and will always live. Cultivating new life is the definition of impacting the world and the future. Yes, your kingdom might be small, but your impact is total, and it’s all yours.

Your vision is what matters. You are in control. What could possibly be more vital than conceiving children, naming them, raising them, teaching them, and then eventually sending them off to do the same things with the tools and ways they learned from you? You are creating a dynasty.

Because we can all do it, we forget that it’s special. It’s so ordinary, we forget it’s extraordinary. We might devote so much time and energy to thinking about money, influence, stability, the markets, the Middle East, geopolitics, sports, and work, but by far the most real and most vital thing you can do in 2026 is a seemingly most ordinary thing.

Raise a family.

​Men’s style, Fatherhood, Parenthood, Culture, Family, Lifestyle 

Joy Behar’s elitist meltdown on “The View” exposed exactly why disconnected celebrities fail ordinary American families. She hysterically claimed “we’re all going to die” because President Trump launched TrumpRx.gov to slash prescription drug prices.

While Behar lectures from her insulated bubble, millions of parents are choosing between groceries and lifesaving medicine for their sick children.

Reducing prescription drug prices by cutting out middlemen and forcing better pricing is not a death sentence. It is relief.

Behar warned viewers that the president uses TrumpRx to “put his name” on prescription drugs. Then, as a consequence, she declared, “we’re all going to die.”

Seriously?

Co-host Sunny Hostin piled on.

“He is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart,” Hostin told ABC’s nationwide audience. “He’s doing this to make money.”

No, President Trump does not profit from TrumpRx. The president receives no royalties, fees, or equity. TrumpRx is not a private entity. Several websites refer to it as “the government’s drug purchasing portal.” As anyone can see from the website address, trumprx.gov, it is a government operation.

TrumpRx delivers real relief through direct-to-consumer discounts, most favored nation pricing, and partnerships such as Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, which cut out middlemen and deliver major savings.

Consider children and individuals with serious medical needs.

Regeneron’s groundbreaking gene therapy, Otarmeni, treats a rare genetic form of deafness. Under the TrumpRx deal, it is available at no cost to American families, restoring a child’s hearing without bankrupting parents.

Families facing juvenile idiopathic arthritis or pediatric Crohn’s disease can access Humira through TrumpRx for about $950 per dose instead of nearly $7,000. That life-changing savings allows children to stay active and avoid debilitating pain.

Fertility drugs like Gonal-F dropped from hundreds of dollars to as little as $168 per pen, helping families begin the journey of conceiving and starting a family. Bevespi Aerosphere, an inhaler used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, fell from $458 to $51. Airsupra, an inhaler used to treat asthma symptoms and attacks, dropped from $504 to $201. Trulicity, used to manage type 2 diabetes, fell from $987 to $389.

RELATED: ‘The View’ co-host has bizarre response to ‘lifelong progressive’ Whitney Cummings refusing to vote for pedophiles

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images

For many families, those savings are immediate and concrete.

TrumpRx also lowers costs on dozens of other brand-name and generic medications for diabetes, asthma, migraines, and rare diseases that strike children and adults. Parents no longer have to skip refills because the price is impossible. Behar’s reflexive hatred of Trump blinds her to the suffering of working families crushed by prior high prices.

That is the real scandal.

The women of “The View” are not angry that medicine costs too much. They are angry that Trump found a way to cut costs and gets the credit for it. Their politics matter more than the families who benefit.

For a nurse, that is impossible to stomach. Families do not care whether a lower price arrives with Trump’s name attached to it. They care whether they can fill the prescription, pay the mortgage, and keep their child healthy.

TrumpRx is not perfect. No government program is. But reducing prescription drug prices by cutting out middlemen and forcing better pricing is not a death sentence. It is relief.

Behar and Hostin can sneer from the studio. Parents at the pharmacy counter know better.

​Asthma, Diabetes, Joy behar, Opinion & analysis, Politics, Regeneron, Sunny hostin, The view, Trumprx, Prescription drug prices, Big pharma 

Critics are raving about Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi film “Disclosure Day,” which is set to hit theaters June 12. Some are calling it his “best film in 20 years.”

But because the film coincides with the government’s declassification of UFO-related files, conspiracy theories are buzzing.

One popular theory posits that “Disclosure Day” is being deliberately hyped to generate more viewership because the film is secretly designed to prepare the public for real alien/UFO disclosure.

While Glenn Beck acknowledges the suspicious circumstances surrounding the film — the globally famous Spielberg coming out of retirement with a movie about disclosure right when the government is talking more about UFOs — he doesn’t believe “the chief storyteller of the modern age” is secretly working with the government or aliens on a big psyop.

While governments have long worked with Hollywood storytellers, including Spielberg, to generate propaganda that shapes public opinion, he believes “Disclosure Day” is likely just Spielberg “reading the room.”

“He might have just seen, oh, everybody’s paranoid about all of this stuff,” Glenn says.

But Glenn argues that even if the theory is true and “Disclosure Day” is some kind of soft propaganda or predictive programming, that still wouldn’t be the most important thing about the film.

“Here’s something I think is more interesting and more important than Spielberg working with the Pentagon or the CIA or aliens,” he says. “I believe this movie and Steven Spielberg may actually represent the end of a human era.”

In the very near future, “you’re not going to need Steven Spielberg anymore,” Glenn says.

“As government, power centers, advertisers, anyone else that’s trying to get you to buy something, act a certain way, believe something, just come over to their side of thinking, wear the mask, don’t wear the mask … you don’t need Hollywood or a Spielberg anymore because you now have the algorithm.”

There’s only one thing that’s truly with us all the time — in our beds, cars, pockets/purses, bathrooms, desks, etc. — our cell phones.

“And your phone studies you all the time,” Glenn says.

“What makes you angry? What makes you laugh? What scares you? What keeps you watching? What kind of voice do you trust? What headlines make your pulse jump? It tracks all of it.”

When that kind of scary, detailed data is combined with artificial intelligence, the result is something truly dystopian.

Effective persuasion no longer requires a creative genius like Steven Spielberg because your data married to AI make a “far more powerful” tool.

“The old system of broadcasting one message like I’m doing right now to millions of people — this is over,” says Glenn. “The new system builds millions of custom messages for individual people.”

“That’s a gigantic shift, probably the biggest shift in culture, propaganda, in thinking.”

Glenn warns that right now we are in an age that will witness “the death of free will.”

Soon, our opinions, passions, decisions, and beliefs won’t stem from our own thinking; they’ll stem from the content the algorithm curated for us.

And this content will be wildly different for each person.

“One [person] gets stories about hidden corruption, UFO disclosures, and secret programs; the other gets stories about safety and experts and the dangers of misinformation,” Glenn illustrates. “Both people become more emotionally certain and hardened; both believe they discovered that truth on their own, but the machine has studied them and is feeding that to them like lab rats.”

Unlike “human propagandists” that have been “manipulating crowds for a very long time,” the machine “never sleeps” and can “[run] billions of tiny emotional experiments every single day.”

“Maybe this is why Spielberg’s movie is landing at exactly the right moment,” Glenn says, “because beneath all of the UFO or UAP fascination now sits the biggest question humans have ever asked. … What is real?”

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

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Disclosure, Steven spielberg 

Microsoft’s leftist roots run deep, from its problematic co-founder Bill Gates and his “philanthropic” ventures to its partnership that gave birth to MSNBC — recently rebranded to MS NOW — which regularly spews left-wing talking points dressed up as actual facts. It even went out of its way to stuff leftist news stories into the widgets bar of every Windows computer via its MSN news aggregator, a service that prioritizes left-wing content over the right. That’s all about to change, though, as a string of complaints over Windows’ waning security and stability lead Microsoft to make its operating system a little more user-friendly, and the MSN feed is one of the first bad ideas on the chopping block.

A brief history of MSN

Microsoft launched the Microsoft Network all the way back in 1995, and the company has crammed it into the desktop operating system ever since. Debuting on Windows 95, it started as an online dial-up service meant to compete directly with the early internet juggernaut that was AOL.

One year later, Microsoft secured a lucrative joint venture with NBC News. In an effort to consolidate power across established cable TV and the new internet machine, the companies formed MSNBC. The nexus of their partnership saw that NBC News continued to provide 24-hour news coverage through conventional channels while Microsoft delivered those stories to its online users, boosting viewership ratings for both brands on the way to the top.

By 1998, Microsoft spun the MSN brand out into the news aggregation service known today as MSN.com. For maximum visibility, Microsoft set MSN as the homepage of its Internet Explorer browser, which, at the time, dominated the web with a 90% market share over second-place competitor Netscape Navigator. You can even see an early version of the original MSN.com thanks to web archives.

Microsoft ultimately walked away from MSNBC in 2012, selling its stake in the partnership to pursue its own venture. No longer in need of NBC’s reporting alone, Microsoft became an independent news distributor under MSN.com. This move would give Microsoft full control over which news outlets it chose to feature, as well as the right to hoard the spoils of its ad revenue from these stories. To make MSN virtually unavoidable, Microsoft injected its media influence into the Windows task bar in late versions of Windows 10 and all of Windows 11 under the name Microsoft Start. Now, any time you glance down at the task bar on your Windows PC, you’ll see messages from MSN that cover weather, finances, “breaking news,” and other topics, all begging for you to click and read.

Today, the MSN feed is one giant leftist propaganda billboard meant to promote any outlet that doesn’t espouse right-leaning ideas or values. What’s worse is that Microsoft can use this baked-in “feature” to serve left-wing content by default to Windows machines at workplaces, schools, and homes around the nation. Everywhere.

Screenshot by Zach Laidlaw/Windows 11

Microsoft’s mission to win back user trust

Unfortunately for Microsoft, a series of blunders have left users unhappy with the company’s portfolio of platforms and services. Here are just a few of its recent mistakes.

Windows has suffered from several critical bugs since the start of the year, all chipping away at OS security and eroding user trust.Microsoft’s aggressive push to inject its AI platform, Copilot, into every app and service has been poorly received, with users complaining about its ubiquitous integration that has only complicated usability.Xbox has suffered from major annual losses, with significant drops in hardware earnings and a small drop in software revenue.Where Windows once dominated the low-tier and mid-tier PC market, Apple’s new affordable Macbook Neo poses a significant threat to a computer segment that Microsoft historically kept mostly to itself.

In short, Microsoft is feeling the heat of competition, self-inflicted failures, and customer dissatisfaction on multiple fronts, and the only way to earn back user trust is to fix some of its more egregious mistakes. One of these is Windows’ user experience.

A new ‘Start’ for Windows

Microsoft Start is divided into two sections — the “Discover” view is powered by MSN propaganda, and the “Widgets” view shows only pertinent information without political commentary. By default, Microsoft Start opens to the Discover feed, filled with news stories designed to capture your attention. It’s clickbait. Meanwhile, the more useful Widgets are hidden behind an extra click; the default widgets include useful information, like weather, sports, finances, events near you, and a couple of other stragglers.

In an upcoming Windows update, Microsoft Start will show the Widgets view first, with the Discover feed as optional. Don’t get too excited, though. Microsoft will continue to pack left-wing stories into Microsoft Start, but on the upside, users can soon ignore it wholesale, making PCs a little less politically intrusive.

When asked about the decision, Microsoft said, “We’re working to make Widgets feel less distracting and overwhelming by making the experience quiet by default. To do this, we’re testing a new set of default settings designed to reduce unexpected alerts and visual interruptions.”

Get rid of MSN now

The refreshed Microsoft Start is currently only available in preview builds of Windows for developers. However, you don’t have to wait to banish the MSN feed from your taskbar. If you really want to kick it to the curb now, open Microsoft Start, click on the Settings gear at the bottom, uncheck the green toggle beside “Discover,” and that’s it! Microsoft Start will now default to the widgets view, which you can customize to your liking.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Windows 11

You’re now free from leftist propaganda, at least in this section of your Windows PC.

​Tech 

An Oklahoma homeowner was arrested and jailed after fatally shooting a squatter in his vacant residence earlier this month — and an attorney is saying a self-defense claim may be difficult to prove.

Timothy Smith, 59, is facing charges of first-degree manslaughter and reckless conduct with a firearm after shooting a squatter in his vacant house in Oklahoma City on May 1, KOCO-TV reported.

‘At trial, I’m sure the defense will be self-defense. What’s going to make that difficult? He told the police that he didn’t see a weapon in the hand of the victim.’

Smith on Friday remained behind bars in the Oklahoma County Detention Center. Jail information indicates Smith’s next court date is June 18 and that he’s also charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

Smith told detectives he and his daughter checked on his house after having previous issues there with homeless people, KOCO reported.

Smith entered the home with a gun and found Justin King in the back bedroom with a woman, the station said.

Smith and his daughter told the pair to leave, but Smith said King stepped toward him, KOCO reported.

With that, Smith aimed at “the area” of King, and the gunshot struck King in the neck, the station said.

Criminal defense attorney Ed Blau told KOCO a self-defense claim on Smith’s part is complicated because Smith was not living in the home at the time of the shooting.

“There’s not the death penalty for squatting in the state of Oklahoma,” Blau told the station. “You can’t just take a gun in and shoot somebody.”

Blau added to the station that a self-defense argument also may be difficult to prove because Smith admitted to detectives that he did not feel threatened.

RELATED: Couple returns from vacation to find squatters who ate their brisket, drank their alcohol, and left meth in car, police say

“It would be difficult to have a stand-your-ground defense hold up,” Blau noted to KOCO.

The attorney added to the station that “at trial, I’m sure the defense will be self-defense. What’s going to make that difficult? He told the police that he didn’t see a weapon in the hand of the victim.”

Blau also told KOCO that while Oklahoma’s Castle Doctrine allows homeowners to use force against intruders in their primary residences, it’s different for vacant houses.

“If a trespasser or a burglar breaks in or comes into your home that you live in, and you’re there, you can pretty much shoot them or do whatever you want to with them because of the Castle Doctrine here in Oklahoma,” Blau told the station. “In a situation like this, an abandoned house, it’s much different. You can’t go in, put yourself in a situation, and say, ‘This is my house, so I felt I had the right to shoot him.'”

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​Squatter, Fatal shooting, Oklahoma, Homeowner shoots squatter, Manslaughter, Oklahoma city, Castle doctrine, Self-defense, Arrest, Crime 

Rural America was once a refuge from radical leftists. Fewer amenities and job opportunities were a price some conservatives were willing to pay if it meant their traditional values and patriotism didn’t have to compete with progressivism.

But those pastoral sanctuaries are being blotted out one by one thanks to two new phenomena: hicklibs and fail-libs.

“As media and universities became more radical, their disciples moved into rural America through government-mandated institutions like schools and libraries,” says BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre.

“Thus the hicklib was born.”

A hicklib, MacIntyre explains, is “usually a social outcast, a failson who needs a moral explanation for why he hates the community he never fit into.”

“His resentment searches for a theory that will dignify his rage, and the progressive missionaries installed in his local institutions are happy to provide one,” he says.

The message is one of moral superiority: America is evil; those who disagree are “racist, sexist, backwards religious fanatics, destroying the lives of minorities”; and “white Christian culture” is the real evil in the world.

“The hicklib’s failures to fit in become proof of moral superiority,” says MacIntyre.

Having found a solution to his inferiority complex, he sets out on a new mission.

“The hicklib shows up at town council meetings in a Black Lives Matter shirt to denounce minority oppression in a community with no actual black people. That absence naturally becomes further proof of the town’s intolerance,” says MacIntyre.

“He loudly organizes Pride events attended by two other hicklibs. That little clique stages protests, distributes flyers, and imitates urban activist rituals. By practicing the sacraments of their faith, they hope to summon the spirit of the age to judge their reactionary little town.”

The hicklib, MacIntyre argues, has become a “plague” for rural communities.

But as plagues often do, the hicklib has evolved.

“As the value of college degrees collapse, a new breed is emerging: the fail-lib,” says MacIntyre.

Unlike the failure-to-launch hicklib, the fail-lib is outwardly successful.

“The fail-lib worked hard in high school and gave progressive teachers every approved answer. She wrote her college entrance essay on the oppression of trans women of color in coal mining. On campus, she became an activist. She secured a degree in some woke humanities discipline and earned straight A’s by repeating everything her communist professor told her,” MacIntyre illustrates.

But despite her academic success, the fail-lib fails to land the “cushy corporate HR job” her expensive college degree promised her. Turns out, college degrees no longer come with the status they used to, and the “poor, oppressed immigrants” she’s long defended are now the preferred candidates.

Instead of moving to a big, liberal city like she planned, the fail-lib is forced to dwell among the rural “townies” she disdains.

She “was promised luxury and elite influence; now she serves the people she despises while searching for any opportunity to make their lives worse,” says MacIntyre, speculating that the rise of artificial intelligence will only “intensify this problem.”

“The fail-lib might make less money than you; she may be less respected than you; she may even be despised by the townies she once mocked, but in her heart, she knows she’s superior, and nothing could ever convince her otherwise.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Auron MacIntyre?

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​The auron macintyre show, Auron macintyre, Hicklibs, Fail-libs, Rural 

What happens when a government can order technology companies to create a back door into encrypted communications that even they cannot access?

A rare cross-border coalition of Canadian civil-liberties advocates and Republican lawmakers is warning that Canada’s proposed surveillance legislation could threaten privacy rights on both sides of the border.

‘Privacy is not a luxury in a free society.’

Sweeping vulnerability

Supporters of proposed Bill C-22 say such powers are necessary to help law enforcement investigate terrorists, organized crime, and other serious threats in an age of encrypted messaging. Critics counter that once a vulnerability is built into a system, it cannot be confined to one country, one agency, or one investigation.

Last Friday, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms presented a petition to the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. More than 40,000 people signed the petition opposing Bill C-22, which would expand the government’s ability to obtain electronic communications and other digital evidence during criminal and national security investigations.

US opposition

VPN providers are already threatening to leave the Canadian market if the bill becomes law. In a May 7 letter, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned Canada’s Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree that the legislation could jeopardize privacy rights in both countries.

“Canada’s Bill C-22, currently under consideration in Parliament, would drastically expand Canada’s surveillance and data access powers in ways that create significant cross-border risks to the security and data privacy of Americans,” the lawmakers wrote.

“We write to express our concerns that, if enacted, Bill C-22 would allow Canadian government officials to compel American companies to build backdoors into their encrypted systems, thereby introducing systemic vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers, foreign adversaries, and cybercriminals.”

The lawmakers also warned that the bill’s language is sufficiently broad to permit secret ministerial orders.

“If a U.S.-based provider is forced to redesign its system to facilitate Canadian authorized access to content that is currently inaccessible even to the provider itself, the resulting capability cannot be geographically limited,” they wrote. “This directly threatens the privacy of U.S. persons who expect and depend upon robust encryption to protect sensitive communications, health data, financial records, and personal correspondence from unwarranted intrusion.”

RELATED: Albertans are ready to vote on Canadian secession — so why is their premier stalling?

Separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre at a rally in front of the Elections Alberta headquarters in Edmonton, Canada. Henry Marken/Getty Images

Stark terms

At a Friday news conference before submitting the petition to Carney, JCCF board member John Robson, a prominent Ottawa historian and journalist, described the bill in stark terms.

“I’m here on Parliament Hill today because we are delivering a petition with 42,344 signatures asking Parliament not to proceed with Bill C-22 … because [Prime Minister Mark Carney] is the moving force behind this bill, and we’re hoping to persuade him that all these signatures from Canadians across the country … represent legitimate, serious concerns about the scope of this bill,” Robson said.

Robson noted that many Canadians and the constitutional scholars at the JCCF “are concerned about Bill C-22 because it would require service providers to compile Canadians’ electronic data, to develop systems for extracting information from it and turning it over to the government.”

“It’s not that Canadians … are against law enforcement having appropriate powers, including to fight organized crime,” Robson said.

“It’s one more ham-fisted way of targeting ordinary, law-abiding people instead of adopting tailored measures suitable to the real crime problems. And privacy is not a luxury in a free society.”

​Canada, Mark carney, Digital surveillance, Vpns, Privacy, Hackers, Jim jordan, Lifestyle 

As soon as polls closed in Texas on Tuesday, the Associated Press called a decisive victory for state Attorney General Ken Paxton, presumably ending Sen. John Cornyn’s 35-year political career. The 30-point margin was also another feather in Donald Trump’s cap.

“Last night was very powerful,” the president said at the start of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting at the White House. In an earlier Truth Social post, he called Cornyn a friend and promised to headline “big, beautiful rallies” for Paxton in the upcoming months.

For the rest of the day, Trump posted screenshots of news outlets covering a 100% success rate in primary endorsements so far this year.

‘It’s an all time total collapse and embarrassment for the GOP establishment.’

In addition to showcasing Trump’s endorsement weight, the runoff election results also exposed the weakness of the Senate Republican establishment. For months, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott took to the morning news shows extolling Cornyn’s virtues while insisting that he was the key to keeping Texas safely red. The NRSC posted lists of Paxton’s various personal and professional scandals, as Cornyn called his opponent an embarrassment.

In his concession speech Tuesday night, Cornyn committed to supporting Paxton as the party’s nominee, despite spending months calling him scandal-ridden and morally unqualified to hold office. Chastened Senate Republicans are likewise reversing course.

“A vote for Ken Paxton in November is a vote for a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America. He has my endorsement and support,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) posted to X on Tuesday night. He had previously endorsed Cornyn. “[James] Talarico is too radical for Texas. Ken will be a key member of our Senate Republican majority fighting for America First.”

The same night, the NRSC deleted every critical post of Paxton it had made over the past year, even though its statement on the general election does not mention him by name. Some conservative activists now want the organization to clean house. Breitbart News Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle personally tagged NRSC staffers in posts on X, needling them for backing the wrong horse.

“It’s an all time total collapse and embarrassment for the GOP establishment,” Boyle wrote.

The NRSC faced a dilemma that Paxton’s backers will now confront. One of the most senior Republicans in the Senate, Cornyn has been a GOP fundraising heavyweight — a potentially significant factor in what is shaping up to be a strong Democratic year. He was also a former NRSC chair in 2010 and 2012. He could have largely funded his own race.

Paxton, however, will need party money to keep pace with newly emboldened Democrats who are pouring money into Talarico’s campaign. Furthermore, Paxton’s impeachment, messy divorce, and fraud allegations provide plenty of fodder for Democrat attack ads.

RELATED: JD Vance might be unstoppable in 2028

Akos Stiller/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Trump delivered his endorsement for Paxton on May 19 on Truth Social, after early voting had already begun in Texas. He did not notify the NRSC or Senate Republicans in advance of his post.

“He essentially let them know he didn’t care about their preferences at all,” Josh Blank, director of research for the Texas Politics Project, told RCP. “From a Republican elite perspective, not only does it look like you have to spend more money in Texas now, but you have to convince your donors that Ken Paxton is a good vehicle for that money — and Paxton has a challenging past to reconcile.”

As if on cue, the first Talarico ad dropped by Democrats detailed the many controversies that have dogged Paxton’s career. His wife filed for divorce in 2025, citing adultery. Former staffers have testified that he used his office to convince a friend to give his mistress a job.

In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives impeached Paxton on 20 articles for bribery, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power, but the state Senate voted to acquit and reinstate him. In 2024, he paid $300,000 and completed community service to settle an indictment for securities fraud.

Nevertheless, Cornyn’s re-election bid was already flailing even before Trump weighed in. Conservative voters were not enamored with his 2022 efforts to pass a bipartisan red-flag law. Last year, the National Association for Gun Rights PAC endorsed Paxton. In 2023, Cornyn suggested Trump might not be electable any more, a comment he walked back in 2024 and last year. But Trump remembered.

“I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough,” Trump wrote in a congratulatory post for Paxton.

Despite outspending the Paxton campaign 17-1 in advertising alone, Cornyn remained in a statistical tie with his opponent for most of his campaign.

“I think Paxton probably still could have won without Trump’s endorsement, but not at that magnitude. It was a blowout,” Conservative Partnership Institute Vice President of programs Rachel Bovard told RCP. “The Senate Republican conference is the chummiest place in America. Their political loyalties are to each other. So I think the dynamic is going to shift a little bit. The conference is being remade, and I don’t know that it’s going to be much help to Trump for the rest of the year.”

RELATED: How Trump can fix his endorsement problem

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

From the beginning of Paxton’s bid, it became clear that the race would become about who could relate better to Trump. Cornyn was never the thorn in the president’s side that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) or Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) often were.

But things came to a head when some media reports indicated that Trump was about to endorse Cornyn, at the urging of Senate Republicans. Then Paxton delivered a public promise to drop his campaign if the Senate passed the SAVE America Act, a voting reform bill that would require proof of identity and citizenship to vote.

“That was a pivotal moment in this election cycle,” Blank said. “Paxton demonstrated to Trump the lengths he would go to support his agenda and a key distinction between himself and Cornyn.”

The SAVE America Act passed the House but has not yet moved through the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said there is not enough support in the Senate to use a filibuster to pass the bill. Cornyn was one of several institutionalist members who said it is important to keep the 60-vote threshold, even if it means not passing the legislation. In March, Trump insisted that he would not sign any legislation until Congress passed the SAVE America Act, and he told the Senate to “kill the filibuster” to get it done.

“Cornyn long held that he did not think the filibuster should be changed because he held a certain amount of fealty to the institution of the U.S. Senate. Paxton demonstrated his fealty to the president, and that was ultimately much more persuasive,” Blank said.

Some analysts say this further cements Trump’s political kingmaker status, at least within the Republican Party, even while his popularity is sinking.

“There is zero doubt tonight that Donald Trump is in complete and total control of the Republican Party,” pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz posted on X on Tuesday night.

He can beat just about any Republican in just about any state in just about any primary. He is chief strategist, chief advocate, and chief voice of the GOP. His name may not be on the ballot in November, but make no mistake: Nothing and no one will have a bigger impact on voter behavior.

Trump’s involvement hardly guarantees Paxton’s win in November. The attorney general has advantages with name recognition and his record of winning statewide elections in the past. But Talarico is surging with his own fundraising, and Texas Republicans sometimes have a turnout problem in years when Trump is not on the ballot.

“We would expect most Cornyn-supporting Republican voters to support Ken Paxton come November, because they’ve voted for him in the past,” Blank said. “But if even a small share of Republicans decide that Ken Paxton is ethically unfit for office, as John Cornyn argued and spent nearly $100 million promoting, that makes a competitive election that much more competitive.”

In a Wednesday appearance on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” Thune described the GOP’s newfound advocacy for Paxton.

“Obviously, we are making the pivot,” Thune said.

“He’s all-in, ready to go for the fall election, and not taking any time off, already on the phone raising money and all the things you’re going to have to do to be successful.”

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

​Ken paxton, Texas, James talarico, John cornyn, Donald trump, Gop, Senate republicans, Save act, Opinion & analysis 

As theories about aliens, flying saucers, and disclosure swirl in the wake of the UFO file dump, an Allie Beth Stuckey interview from a few years ago has resurfaced.

In 2023, the “Relatable” host interviewed Jeremiah Roberts and Andrew Soncrant, hosts of the popular Christian apologetics podcast “Cultish,” a show that explores cults, high-control religious groups, and related movements from theological, sociological, and psychological angles.

Allie cut straight to the chase and asked the duo if aliens, UFOs, and the like are even something Christians should concern themselves with: “I could see a lot of people listening to this and be like, ‘Well, that’s just too much for me. It’s kind of scary. It’s kind of overwhelming.’ … Why do Christians — why should Christians really care about this?”

The answer they gave was compelling.

According to Roberts and Soncrant, the alien conversation “shouldn’t be taboo” for Christians. If anything, it’s a subject that demands a biblical response.

“Everything — all the creation, both visible and invisible — they’re created by Christ and for Christ,” says Roberts, “so we as Christians, we should have confidence that this whole discussion of aliens, demons, unidentified aerial phenomena exists in the universe that Christ is upholding by the word of his power, so that’s why this is something as Christians we can’t ignore.”

Soncrant agrees and cites 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

“We need to be able to have a defense — a reasonable defense — for what we are seeing with this phenomenon,” he says.

Soncrant argues that when Christians “shrink back from popular culture,” they “end up letting the secular world interpret the evidences through their own presuppositions and come up with conclusions that are antithetical to the biblical worldview.”

“We need to be in God’s word, and we need to be speaking out in the public sphere. That’s why God commands us to,” he declares.

Roberts notes that when they first began “Cultish” in 2018, his friend and Presbyterian minister Colin Samul reached out and urged them to prepare to speak on the alien/UFO subject.

Samul predicted they would see “the whole UFO conversation showing up in the news on a regular basis” and encouraged them to “embrace” the subject in a biblical way so that they could then field questions from their audience.

“And sure enough, a lot of what he initially talked to me about has come to fruition,” says Roberts.

Today, both he and Soncrant continue today to address the alien/UFO debate through a biblical lens, offering a reasoned Christian response to recent UAP disclosures and the growing cultural fascination with non-human intelligence.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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​Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, Jeremiah roberts, Andrew soncrant, Cultish, Disclosure 

A United States Postal Service employee has been caught dipping her hand into both public and private payments.

Joyce Smith, a 51-year-old former postmaster, pleaded guilty to one count of theft by government employee after she was caught scheming with citizens’ cash and government payments.

‘Smith even brazenly issued herself around $3,700 in money orders.’

The Scott City, Kansas, ex-postmaster was caught when it was revealed that she had taken more than $57,000 from the USPS between January 2023 and February 2025.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas documented in a press release on Tuesday that Smith’s biggest score came from typically normal services. Regular check payments for permits or mass mailings were reportedly routine for some of the post office’s customers, and while Smith accepted the checks and provided the services, she did not log the receipts into the USPS records system.

These payments constituted the majority of the money stolen, totaling just under $40,000. This includes checks for a total of $16,788 issued by the City of Scott City, Kansas, which has a population of just over 4,000 and a median income of $54,800.

Other missing funds included $5,850 from the Scott County Landfill and another $17,108 in checks from a local newspaper. All of this money is unaccounted for, according to the USPS.

RELATED: Postal worker allegedly tried to help detainee escape from ICE — and she was on duty at the time

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

In addition to taking money from the businesses and government entities, an audit indicated that Smith stole approximately $10,600 in cash payments from customers, but that was not all.

Smith even brazenly issued herself around $3,700 in money orders. The government employee is also said to have embezzled another $3,400 from fees customers were paying for their P.O. boxes, bringing Smith’s grand total of stolen funds to more than $57,400.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser said that Smith likely thought her position would allow her to continue to “fill her pockets with money” that didn’t belong to her and likely thought she would not get caught or face any consequences.

Kriegshauser added that Smith’s behavior “reminds us of why audits and other forms of government oversight of financial records are necessary.”

RELATED: Modern life isn’t so bad (even if my furnace is out again)

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is currently investigating the case, but released a statement saying that the guilty plea was the result of “hard work and dedication” by special agents in the U.S. attorney’s office.

Special Agent in Charge Dennus Bishop said that law enforcement partners remain committed to “safeguarding the U.S. Mail and ensuring the accountability and integrity of U.S. Postal Service employees.”

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​News, Kansas, Usps, United states postal service, U.s. attorney’s office, Crime, Politics 

“Why not just stay in your lane and focus on caregivers?”

A listener to my radio program for family caregivers reached out recently with that question. He appreciated the program, he said, but felt troubled when I “went political.” Then he added, “I reached out because I thought you would listen.”

People retreat from politics because the noise exhausts them. But avoiding politics and refusing to morally examine the world unfolding around us are not the same thing.

Fair enough. So I did. I listened while doing dishes and folding laundry because that is caregiver life. Then he asked what I thought.

I spend my days speaking with families navigating catastrophic injury, dementia, trauma, chronic illness, memory care centers, prosthetics, bureaucratic failure, and exhaustion. Caregivers do not have the luxury of pretending reality is negotiable. Family caregivers now provide more than $1 trillion worth of unpaid care annually in the United States. We sit at kitchen tables staring at medical bills, insurance statements, pharmacy receipts, and impossible spreadsheets while trying to keep another human being alive, safe, and cared for.

We pinch pennies. We know what groceries cost, but we also know the price of wound care supplies. We know what one wheelchair repair can do to a monthly budget. Meanwhile, we keep discovering billions in taxpayer dollars flowing through fraud and “quality learing centers” bilking people already struggling to pay the IRS.

Caregivers notice things like that because caregiving quickly introduces a person to reality. So yes, I have become exasperated watching people in power lecture the country about “compassion” while families quietly drown at their kitchen tables.

Recently, I was at a cancer center preparing for prostate treatment. Before I reached the medical history section, the form opened with questions asking what sex I identify as and what sex I was assigned at birth. I sat there staring at the page for a moment and thought: This whole trans movement seems built for virtue signaling until “she/her” has to get “her” prostate checked.

Prostate cancer does not care how I identify.

Then I asked the caller a question: “Which political worldview do you think put that language on that form?” When a civilization loses the ability to say plainly what a man or woman is, even inside medicine, something foundational has broken.

My wife lost both legs after years of struggling with catastrophic injuries from a car accident decades ago. Not once did either of our sons say, “I think I should amputate my leg to look like Mom.” Had they done so, I would have sought psychiatric help immediately. If a physician had offered to remove healthy body parts from a confused child, I would have reported that doctor immediately.

Again, I asked the caller, “Which political party aligned itself with removing healthy body parts from children?” In his silence, I pressed further: “And you’re wondering why I’m not staying in my lane?”

I told him I am not here to carry water for the Republican Party. But right now, only one major political movement seems increasingly hostile to objective, biological, and theological reality. That matters to caregivers because we deal in reality every day.

I asked him point-blank, “What do you actually like about the Democratic Party?” He repeated a phrase I have heard for years: “Democrats seem to be the party that cares.” The word “seem” leapt out.

RELATED: What my colonoscopy taught me about stewardship

Benjavisa/iStock/Getty Images

So I asked what exactly was caring about any of this. What is caring about allowing millions of illegal immigrants to overwhelm already strained schools, hospitals, and social systems while corporations benefit from cheap labor and America absorbs the consequences? What is caring about enabling addiction and destructive behavior? What is caring about encouraging irreversible medical interventions for confused children? What is caring about demanding that citizens deny biological reality to prove compassion?

Political parties do not care. They exist to wield power. Government’s role is not to love us. Its role is to preserve equal justice, protect liberty, and provide conditions where citizens can work, worship, raise families, and pursue opportunity. That is very different from emotional branding.

I also shared the moment something changed for me as a broadcaster. I watched Barack Obama stand before Planned Parenthood as president of the United States and say, “God bless Planned Parenthood.” I remember thinking: Which God? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The God who said, “You shall not murder”?

I asked the caller, who professed Christianity, “How do you shake hands with that?” He said he agreed with much of what I said. “How would anyone know?” I asked. “I guess I have to say something,” he replied. “And that’s what I do on my show.”

Then, I asked him to name one major idea currently being advanced by Democrats that he believed would genuinely strengthen the country. “They’re not in power,” he protested. “Ideas are power,” I countered. “Give me one. Not opposition to Donald Trump. An actual idea.”

Finally, he admitted, “I can’t think of anything, and I haven’t been paying attention to the news.”

I told him, “You have my number. If you come up with one major idea being advanced by Democrats that makes you say, ‘This is genuinely good for America,’ let me know, and I’ll talk about it on my program.”

People retreat from politics because the noise exhausts them. I understand that. But avoiding politics and refusing to morally examine the world unfolding around us are not the same thing. I do not drift into politics for sport. I was preparing for prostate cancer treatment when politics invaded the top of the questionnaire.

Caregivers deal with reality every single day.

And in the exam room, reality should have the last word.

​Caregivers, Family, Opinion & analysis, Politics, Democrats, Republicans, Transgender agenda, Planned parenthood, Abortion, Christianity, Faith, Health care 

Interest in the extraterrestrial continues to mount in the wake of President Trump’s recent order to declassify government documents on UFOs/UAPs. Theories about what aliens and flying saucers really are dominate social media every day.

On a recent episode of “Unashamed,” Jase and Al Robertson along with Zach Dasher welcomed Marine veteran, Mighty Oaks founder, and author Chad Robichaux to the show to share his wild biblical theory on UFOs, giants, and demons.

Whether or not what’s in the government files — historical sightings, military encounters, astronaut reports, etc. — is real or fake, Robichaux believes the church is obligated to address the subject so it doesn’t “throw people off their faith.”

The majority of Christendom, he explains, holds an “anthropocentric view,” meaning it interprets humanity as the epicenter of the created cosmos.

Robichaux fears that if something related to the extraterrestrial proves true, it would shatter this widely held worldview and throw Christians into a state of confusion and doubt.

He highlights the biblical passages about the “secret places and secret things” of God’s universe and the numerous mentions of various celestial beings.

“I think [humans] are special,” he caveats. “God sent His only son on earth to die for us. We’re special and made in His image, but that doesn’t mean necessarily we’re the only one.”

Robichaux believes that “The Book of the Watchers,” the first section of the Book of Enoch — an ancient Jewish text that expands on the origins of Genesis 6’s mysterious half-human/half-god Nephilim — provides reliable information as it “doesn’t contradict the gospel in any way.”

According to the text, a group of 200 “Watchers” (angels assigned to watch over humans on the earth) rebelled by mating with human women, producing the Nephilim and necessitating the Noachian flood.

But being neither fully human nor fully god, the Nephilims’ fate was unique, says Robichaux.

“They can’t go to eternal death or life like us, and so their spirits … roam the earth, and this is what the Book of Enoch says: The demonic world that we’re facing, the spiritual demons that we see in our world, are the disembodied spirits of these giants,” he explains.

Perhaps modern UFO sightings and “alien” encounters are these same Nephilim spirits manifesting in physical or interdimensional forms to deceive humanity.

If Christians want to stay rooted in truth, Robichaux argues that their anthropocentric perspective must be replaced with a Christocentric view that sees Jesus Christ as the hub of the cosmos’ wheel and humans — as well as every other created being — as spokes.

If this becomes the Christian worldview, “little green men [coming] off a spaceship” won’t shake believers’ faith, he says.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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​Unashamed, The robertsons, Disclosure, Aliens, Chad robichaux, Book of enoch 

Christian affiliation in America has been in steep decline for decades, with church attendance falling and nearly 30% of adults religiously unaffiliated.

Pew Research Center has argued that there is “no clear evidence of a religious revival among young adults,” but sports fans might reach a different conclusion when tuning in to post-game interviews and press conferences, where they frequently hear athletes boldly professing their faith and giving glory to Jesus Christ.

‘You’re not alone in seeing it, and you’re not alone in recognizing that it is a revival.’

While Pew’s latest polling shows that the long decline has only plateaued, New York Times bestselling author and sports journalist Steve Eubanks believes there are undeniable and meaningful signs of revival, particularly among athletes.

Teed up

In his forthcoming book, “Godball: How Athletes Are Saving Christianity,” which releases June 9, Eubanks takes a deeper look at the faith resurgence sweeping America and how these outspoken athletes have become Christianity’s most powerful evangelists.

“I don’t think I would have noticed it if it hadn’t been for the event that you and I talked about three years ago,” Eubanks told Blaze News, referring to a 2023 incident in which the leading golf publication he then worked for attempted to censor his interview with professional golfer Amy Olson. When Global Golf Post refused to run the piece unless Eubanks removed Olson’s references to her Christian faith and pro-life views, he “resigned on the spot.”

At the time, Eubanks told Blaze News that widespread leftist bias had created a “sad state of affairs” for journalism.

But now Eubanks says the experience had a silver lining: showing him that outspoken Christian athletes like Olson were more common than he realized.

“I thought, ‘Wow, for an athlete to say something like this is extraordinary,’” Eubanks told Blaze News.

“Well, then I started paying attention, and I thought, ‘Maybe it’s not that extraordinary; maybe it’s something that’s happening every day, and I just hadn’t noticed.’”

Jesus first

Combing through press conferences and pre- and post-game interviews proved his hunch correct. More and more athletes seemed to be using the spotlight to profess their faith, sidestepping questions about athletic performance to give thanks to Jesus and share the gospel.

“It’s a huge movement now,” Eubanks declared. “Really, it’s a revival.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Golf writer says staff ‘went ballistic’ over story on pregnant golfer’s pro-life, Christian views — and outlet’s higher-ups refused to run it

Steve Eubanks. Image source: Steve Eubanks

When asked why athletes tend to be more outspoken than other public figures, Eubanks pointed to the confidence that comes from succeeding in “one of the few meritocracies left.”

Leaderboard

Sports also instill a willingness to resist the herd, Eubanks said.

“From the time they were 7 or 8 years old, they were the leaders of the teams,” Eubanks said. “They had been told by the coaching staff, ‘Look, you’re the person who has to step up.’ And it’s a natural extension of that.”

Eubanks asserts one of the main reasons these athletes are speaking out now is tied to the COVID lockdowns. He highlighted that an athlete’s career is significantly shorter than most other professions and that, during the lockdowns, everything they had dedicated their lives to was put on hold for an uncertain, lengthy period.

“I just think COVID radicalized these kids,” he stated. “Those people realized that their entire lives could be taken away from them in an instant and that it was important for them to stand up for the things that were really important and to go ahead and make these proclamations of faith.”

He argued that athletes have become the “cultural drivers” of American society, more so than artists and musicians.

Bad bets

Eubanks hopes that church attendance, particularly among young men, continues to grow, but expressed concern about one emerging threat within the sports community that could impact the current Christian revival.

Image source: Steve Eubanks

“If there’s anything that could derail it, it is the sports gambling,” Eubanks told Blaze News. “It can compromise the integrity of the sports themselves.”

He detailed how throwing a game used to mean deliberately manipulating the entire outcome, but recently, some athletes have been indicted for allegedly engaging in spot-fixes, rigging small moments, such as a specific baseball pitch, for prop bets.

Eubanks also noted that the barrier to gambling has been substantially lowered, from having to seek out a local bookie to using your phone to place numerous bets in seconds.

“It’s almost the slot machine effect. There’s just enough bells and whistles to keep you engaged and to keep you throwing money down the rathole,” he said. “There’s a huge, huge addiction problem out there with this that we haven’t recognized yet, but that could really derail this revival movement in my eyes.”

RELATED: When Archie Comics found Jesus: Strange artifacts from a once-Christian culture

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Walking the walk

To sustain and grow the revival, Eubanks believes athletes must become more vocal about their faith and take a stand against immoral practices in the sports industry, including opposing sports betting and the playing of songs with obscene lyrics at stadiums and arenas.

“In order to walk the walk, you’re eventually going to have to stand up and say, ‘This is not right; we shouldn’t be doing this,’” he said.

Eubanks hopes that readers of “Godball” understand this revival movement is significant and expanding. He also aims to inspire young athletes to express their faith publicly, which could spark a domino effect of fans being drawn to Jesus Christ.

“There’s an entire legion of people out here who are seeing exactly the same thing. You’re not alone in seeing it, and you’re not alone in recognizing that it is a revival,” he stated.

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​Steve eubanks, Sports, Faith, Christianity, Revival, Athletes, Jesus christ, Sports betting, Culture, Books, Lifestyle 

A Florida sheriff’s deputy a few months back pulled over a driver and proceeded to tell her that she was “holding a phone” with her “right hand,” which would be a violation of the state’s wireless communications while driving law.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy told the woman during the Feb. 11 stop in Lake Worth Beach that “we’re doing an operation for distracted driving, and you drove past me holding a phone with your right hand,” according to bodycam video of the traffic stop.

‘Hand to God — you did not have a phone in your hand?’

But there was a big problem with that accusation.

The driver quickly lifted up her right arm and showed the deputy that she has no right hand. In fact, it appears most of her right forearm is missing too.

The motorist laughed and told the deputy, “So, obviously not!”

RELATED: Video: Florida motorist decides to drive in reverse for a while — and then comes face-to-face with deputies

The woman then asked the deputy, “So, you wanna just call this a day, or …?”

But the deputy persisted: “I don’t want to call it day — you had a hand up manipulating a phone.”

The woman argued back, “You just said my right hand.”

The deputy replied that he “thought” he saw her “right hand.”

She then insisted, “You didn’t” — and then held up her arm with no right hand and moved it closer to the open driver-side window.

“You didn’t see me with my right hand,” she added.

The deputy persisted and asked the woman if she had a phone in her hand, not specifying right hand or left hand.

“I did not,” she replied.

Almost comically, the deputy came back with, “Hand to God — you did not have a phone in your hand?”

The woman then raised her right arm that lacked a hand and replied, “Hand to God.”

The deputy then asked, “Your other hand to God — you didn’t have a phone in your hand?”

The woman then raised her left arm — which has a hand attached — and repeated, “Hand to God.”

With that, the deputy issued her a citation anyway for “wireless communication handheld while driving” — and the pair began sparring again before the deputy acknowledged to her that he did, in fact, say that he saw her holding a phone in her right hand and that she can take the citation to court.

The woman posted video of the traffic stop on TikTok, WPEC-TV reported, and as you can imagine, the station said the case drew widespread attention.

What’s more, the station said the civil penalty amounted to $116.

Naturally, the woman said she requested a hearing date and planned to fight the citation in court, WPEC said.

But it turns out that it wouldn’t be necessary.

RELATED: Police stop bicycle-riding male for traffic violation; turns out he has a gun and then runs from cop. It doesn’t end well.

WPEC said a hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday of this week — May 26 — but the hearing was canceled after the case was dropped.

In fact, court records show the citation was dismissed at the request of the deputy who issued it, the station said.

WPEC added in a video short published Friday that the incident is now “under agency review.”

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​Traffic stop, Florida, Palm beach county sheriff’s office, Deputy, Disabled woman, Ticket, Crime 

The new movie “I Love Boosters” asks us to root for thieves who steal designer clothes sans regret. Next month’s “Carolina Caroline” follows a pair of adorable, lovestruck thugs who swindle strangers for cash.

Whatever happened to actual “good guys”?

‘When he looked into the eyes of the 101st division, he took the time to ask their names, to shoot the breeze about fly fishing and their girlfriends.’

Look no further than “Pressure,” a new World War II saga based on incredible true events.

Extraordinary heroes

Honor. Loyalty. Courage. Heroism. The ability to make a tough decision and stand by it, no matter what. No victim complexes or complaints about rough childhoods. Just extraordinary heroes taking history into their hands.

It’s one reason we still can’t get enough of World War II films. Those qualities are front and center in this well-told tale. And it helps that the premise behind “Pressure” will strike audiences as unfamiliar, even shocking.

Rain day

The most consequential battle of World War II almost got rained out, a story that proves a snug fit for America’s 250th birthday.

Brendan Fraser stars as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander ready to storm the beaches of Normandy and liberate northwest Europe. That risky plan required an assist from Mother Nature.

Would the forecast allow for a massive amphibious assault? Or should the Allied powers wait a few days, even weeks, jeopardizing the element of surprise in the process?

Andrew Scott of “Fleabag” fame plays James Stagg, the meteorologist brought in to advise Gen. Eisenhower on the best path forward. He predicts that conditions will turn D-Day into a disaster. Is he right, or does the existing weather expert (Chris Messina) have the right forecast?

Earned respect

Fraser, the “Whale” alum who once again changed his physique to play “Ike,” told Align why he admires the man who not only helped win the war but later became a two-term U.S. president.

“He was an excellent communicator; he was a diplomat of sorts,” Fraser said. “He conducted military operations over dinner tables. Apparently he was very funny and charming at them. … That’s a form of communication too.”

There was a method to his unorthodox ways, the Oscar winner said.

“He did all this because he cared intensely about the troops’ well-being,” Fraser said. That extended to bonding with the men facing daunting odds of survival, especially in the D-Day invasion.

“When he looked into the eyes of the 101st division, he took the time to ask their names, to shoot the breeze about fly fishing and their girlfriends. He was respected because he earned it. … It was almost like a secret weapon in the operation,” the actor noted. “They wanted to please him, and they knew what they were up against.”

RELATED: ‘Call Sign Courage’: One soldier’s fight against creeping Marxism in the military

Root/Cause

Historic battle

Director Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” captured the early stages of the Normandy invasion without flinching. It’s one of the goriest war sequences ever shot, showing how soldiers ran toward a wall of bullets that took hundreds of lives in a flash.

“Pressure” doesn’t attempt to out-do Spielberg’s version, but the film shows how the beaches were quickly stained a deep red color.

“It was no secret that they were going into a bare-knuckle fight with a chainsaw,” Fraser said of that historic battle.

The project gave Fraser, now gearing up to shoot another “Mummy” film with co-star Rachel Weisz, an appreciation for Ike’s role in history.

“He was the type of leader who did not want to punish his foe, his enemy. … He didn’t let him off the hook, either. … He partnered with them, neutered them that way, and made them accountable,” he said.

Little-known perspective

Fraser’s co-star, Irish actress Kerry Condon, gets a less splashy but still consequential role in the war drama. She plays Captain Kay Summersby, Gen. Eisenhower’s loyal aide.

“She brought the emotional intelligence when the men were struggling,” the actress said of her role, including a critical subplot involving Stagg’s pregnant wife. Summersby would later move to the U.S. and become captain in the Women’s Army Corps.

Many moviegoers may not have realized the role weather played in the D-Day invasion. Count Condon among that group.

“It was shocking to think it was one person who changed the course of history. … That’s why I wanted to do [the film]. It’s a very interesting perspective on World War II.”

​Culture, Movies, World war 2, Brendan fraser, Dwight d. eisenhower, Entertainment, Review, Interview, Lifestyle 

The June 27, 2024, debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will go down in history as one of the most disastrous performances ever delivered by a presidential candidate. Many say that Biden’s shaky delivery, verbal stumbles, and moments of confusion sunk his campaign right then and there, as it confirmed everyone’s fears that he was experiencing serious cognitive decline.

Almost two years after the fact, former first lady Jill Biden is now suggesting that Joe might have been having a stroke during that debate — starkly contradicting her initial public praise of his performance.

In a recent “CBS News Sunday Morning” interview, she said, “I was frightened because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never. … I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales believes Jill Biden, whom she dubs “the former elder abuser in chief,” is “trying to rewrite history.”

Sara points out that if Jill was actually concerned that her husband was having a stroke, then surely she would have sought immediate medical attention.

But instead, she let him flounder until the debate was over and then gushed praise over his performance.

Sara plays the infamous clip of Jill congratulating Joe, exclaiming: “Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question; you knew all the facts!”

“She was so concerned that he was having a stroke that she paraded him on stage to look like a toddler … to tell him, ‘You answered all the questions, Joe. You did so good’?” Sara sarcastically asks.

She then recounts how after the debate, Jill and Joe made a spectacle of going to Waffle House to celebrate.

“If you really think your husband’s had a stroke, it doesn’t seem like that would be the best place to go for medical care,” she says.

But conservatives aren’t the only ones who refuse to buy Jill’s new narrative.

“Even CNN, I’ll point out, isn’t buying her bulls**t,” Sara says.

She plays a clip of CNN’s Abby Phillip calling out the deceptiveness of Jill Biden’s updated story.

“What kind of political system covers that up and makes it OK to lie to people about what everybody knows is true?” she asked on a segment of “NewsNight.”

“You tell me, Abby!” Sara exclaims. “You guys were the ones who were doing it every day.”

As for Jill’s claim that Joe’s debate performance was some kind of one-off incident, Sara says that we all have “receipts upon receipts upon receipts of Joe Biden declining.”

She plays a compilation of the various blunders he made throughout his presidential career and after.

“It was just an isolated incident, other than the entirety of his life now,” Sara mocks.

“Jill Biden, I am calling you out. That is a lie. You did not think he was having a stroke.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, Jill biden, Joe biden