Category: blaze media

Leave it to Donald Trump to turn a passport into a national debate.

To commemorate America’s 250th birthday, the Trump administration unveiled a special-edition “Patriot Passport” featuring historical artwork, tributes to the nation’s founding, and a portrait of the president.

While the left has immediately seized on the fact that Trump appears inside the passport, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck doesn’t see it as controversial — and counts himself “fortunate” as he was one of the first to receive the new passport.

“I guess it’s controversial because it’s for the 250th anniversary and it has Donald Trump on the very front, not the front front, but on the first page. And I don’t find that controversial. He’s the president of the United States on the 250th anniversary,” Glenn says.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott tells Glenn that the passports will only be made this year and simply follows a tradition of commemorative passports.

“There was one for the 200th anniversary as well,” he says.

“This initially started as a passport that was only going to be available in person at the Washington, D.C., passport office. But what we saw through phone calls, emails, we had a booth at the state fair for example, with tens of thousands of Americans stopping by,” he explains.

“There was a huge amount of demand of people wanting to get this passport. So that’s why based off the demand that we’ve seen, based off the fact that people were saying, ‘We’ll fly back to Washington, D.C., to get this passport if we can get an appointment,’ we’ve decided to expand this opportunity across the country,” he adds.

Because of this, the Trump administration is reportedly making an additional 250,000 passports.

And despite the critiques, the passport doesn’t just feature Trump’s mug. It also tells stories of American history.

“There are different images on each one of the pages that mark certain events in history. Of course, the founding … our founders signing our founding documents,” Pigott tells Glenn.

“It’s also part of a broader effort here to mark the 250,” he says, explaining that one of the things the State Department is attempting to accomplish is create a “new series” where Americans are taken through “the history of diplomacy.”

“I think one of the untold stories that so many Americans aren’t told is all of the great things that our country has accomplished through diplomacy and other means,” he continues.

“And what we’re doing through this passport, telling the story, but also through other initiatives worldwide actually, is tell the story of American diplomacy in a way that is has not been told,” he adds.

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​Donald trump, Glenn beck, State department, Washington dc, Patriot passport, Blazetv show, America 250 

The suspect in a deadly shooting at an Idaho In-N-Out Burger over the weekend died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound — and two “heroic” bystanders fired at the suspect and diverted him from the scene, police said, according to the Associated Press.

Investigators said the gunman — identified as 24-year-old Chad Williams — acted alone during Saturday afternoon’s shooting at the Twin Falls fast-food restaurant, Police Chief Matthew Hicks said at a news conference, the AP reported.

‘People were running out crying and screaming. It was very scary.’

Hicks also said an off-duty state trooper and an armed citizen — whose identities weren’t immediately disclosed — both fired back and diverted the gunman from the In-N-Out, the outlet added.

“We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,” the chief said, according to the AP. “We want to take a moment and commend the actions of the off-duty officer and the citizen, and their heroic action to stop this incident.”

Three victims died and seven others were injured in the shooting, the outlet noted, adding that authorities said Sunday two of the injured were treated at a hospital and released, three were listed as stable, and two were in critical condition.

Hicks said detectives are working to determine Williams’ motives and that the suspect’s family was cooperating fully with law enforcement, the AP reported. Hicks also warned of misinformation spreading online identifying a different male as the shooter, noting that the individual had “no involvement in this incident whatsoever,” the outlet reported.

Police who responded to the shooting found the body of the suspected gunman in an area near the restaurant, Twin Falls spokesperson Josh Palmer said, according to the AP.

Palmer added to the outlet that investigators were interviewing witnesses. The In-N-Out location — which had opened about a week earlier on July 24 as part of the California-based company’s recent expansion to Idaho — is in a busy shopping plaza, and hundreds of people were in the area when the shooting occurred around 2 p.m., the AP said.

Lane Koehn, 34, told the outlet he was at a stoplight near the In-N-Out when he saw a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru while a man with a pistol started firing at the shooter.

Koehn then saw someone in an In-N-Out uniform drag a person also wearing a uniform — who was bleeding from a gunshot wound to her chest — across the parking lot, the AP reported. The employee, Koehn, and the man with the pistol stayed until paramedics arrived for her, the outlet added.

“She was pretty bad off, but I don’t know,” Koehn told the AP. “I hope she made it.”

RELATED: New bodycam video shows sheriff’s deputies fatally shooting knife-wielding male who authorities say stabbed deputy

He said the shooter fired at least three or four rounds, but it was not clear if anyone in particular was targeted, the outlet said.

In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder said one of those killed was an employee, the AP reported.

“My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I’ve shed. We lost one of our beautiful associates tonight,” Snyder said in a statement released early Sunday on social media, the outlet added. “In-N-Out will be mourning with the families and praying for them as they tread through a very painful season.”

Snyder did not identify the worker in question, the AP said. Officials were still trying to notify relatives of victims and therefore were not yet releasing the victims’ names, ages or other details about them, Palmer said, according to the outlet.

More from the AP:

Video taken by a driver from across the street captured a shooter, who appeared to be dressed in black, walking up to a white car carrying a long rifle, opening the driver-side door and popping the trunk. The person then walked to the trunk and reached inside. At that point the driver who shot the video left quickly, fearing that the man might be getting more weapons.

Twin Falls resident Haley Dodaro, 43, and her mother went to In-N-Out for lunch Saturday afternoon. While waiting in the drive-thru line, they saw people running across the road and workers bolting out of the restaurant. At first, Dodaro thought there might have been a fire, but then a man directing traffic in a reflective vest said there was a shooter.

“So that’s when we knew there was a shooting. People were running out crying and screaming,” Dodaro said in a text message to the outlet, the AP said. “It was very scary.”

Nayeli Rodriguez, 40, of Burley, was inside waiting for food with her daughters when she heard shots from the kitchen, the outlet noted, adding that an employee said it was a shooting and told people to get down.

Rodriguez told the AP an older man tried to protect her and her daughters, and they were among the last to run outside.

“We were trying to get as far as we could and some angels let us in their car,” Rodriguez added to the outlet, also via text message. “I left my car there in the parking lot.”

Twin Falls is in southern Idaho and about two hours southeast of Boise.

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​Idaho, In-n-out burger, Fatal shooting, Bystanders, 2nd amendment, Crime 

Becoming a social media star may only cost in the neighborhood of $15,000 a year, according to Arizona State University.

With majorities of Gen Z and Gen Alpha hoping to make their way in the world as influencers or content creators, that might sound like a steal.

But the cultural blowback is immediate, with reportage in the Atlantic calling the ubiquitous figures “openly reviled.”

ASU now offers a bachelor of arts in content creation, under its journalism program.

‘It is absolutely incredibly important to learn how to use social media and brand yourself.’

The BA promises to teach students how to become an influencer and mass market themselves, all while earning a degree.

The new program was approved this year and says it will help students develop into “versatile storytellers” who operate “entrepreneurially as influencers as content creators.”

The program seemingly prepares students for a life of freelance work/unemployment with courses like “developing media content,” “information gathering,” and “on-camera presence,” with the promise of garnering a significant online following.

Jessica Pucci, senior associate dean at ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said that any content creator would benefit from the program.

“They will have demonstrable audience growth. They will have a platform of their choice with real content and real followers and a real audience behind them,” Pucci told outlet Arizona’s Family.

RELATED: ‘Just say the right pronoun!’ How one cop-cam video exemplifies the absurdity of ‘hands-off’ policing

Mike Windle/Getty Images

The outlet spoke to other women who praised the program, including ASU student Caroline Rowland, who described the major as an essential part of branding.

“It is absolutely incredibly important to learn how to use social media and brand yourself,” Rowland said.

Anna Elizabeth, who was characterized as an Arizona-based influencer and medical assistant, said the program would certainly have helped her when she started out.

“I feel like if I had that opportunity in this time that I started doing content, I feel like it would have benefited me a whole lot.”

With Elizabeth as an example of a person who isn’t a full-time influencer, ASU listed other possible careers associated with the degree, such as communications specialist, marketing associate, marketing manager, and public relations manager. All of these are typical outcomes of marketing, public relations, and communications degrees.

In its mission statement, Content Creation lists “global perspectives” and “personal branding” as priorities alongside the ability to create content, preparing students for “brand content projects, media internships, and content creation trips abroad.”

RELATED: INGRATE BRITAIN: ‘Good Place’ star Jameela Jamil calls fellow Brits ‘evil,’ likens them to Marvel villain

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Courses that focus on content creation skills include topics like “how to become an influencer,” podcasting, and “interpersonal influence.”

According to ASU’s admissions site, the degree can be earned for as little as $14,814 per year, the average tuition rate for in-state residents. For out-of-state students, that cost could rise to approximately $39,000 per year.

Other schools offer similar programs, like Graceland University’s digital content creation major, as reported by the College Fix.

Another example is Grand Canyon University, a private Christian school in Arizona that offers a bachelor’s in social media.

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​College, University, Social media, Content creators, Lifestyle 

The presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan is sitting pretty just hours away from the primary.

According to two polls conducted in late July, Republican primary front-runner Mike Rogers has a lead over the two main candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed.

El-Sayed campaigned with US-hating Islamist Hasan Piker, who once said, ‘America deserved 9/11.’

An EPIC-MRA poll conducted July 28 and 29 shows Rogers with a three-point lead over Stevens and in a tie with El-Sayed. A separate EPIC-MRA/MIRS poll from July 24 to 31 shows Rogers with a three-point lead over El-Sayed but two points below Stevens.

The Michigan primary election is Tuesday, and El-Sayed is the current favorite to win the Democratic nomination. The RealClearPolling average shows El-Sayed with a double-digit lead over Stevens, even though Stevens has been endorsed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Once again, that polling average may spell good news for Rogers since El-Sayed’s campaign has been shrouded in controversy ever since he announced his Senate candidacy.

Voters in Michigan, which went for President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024, may not like the fact that El-Sayed:

has been endorsed by far-left radicals like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).campaigned with U.S.-hater Hasan Piker, who once said, “America deserved 9/11, dude. F**k it, I’m sayin’ it.”bills himself as a medical “doctor” even though he reportedly has never treated a patient, isn’t licensed in Michigan, and has never passed any board exams.employed a campaign staffer earlier this year who is currently under federal indictment in connection with anti-Semitic attacks.

“And it’s exactly why I’ll beat whichever of my radical opponents prevails on Tuesday,” Rogers tweeted Sunday.

RELATED: 3 Senate races that could flip the balance of power: ‘This is a wake-up call’

Sarah Rice/Getty Images

In January 2025, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) announced unexpectedly that he would not seek a third term. Should Rogers prevail in the election, Republicans would gain another seat, helping fortify their majority. Democrats already need to flip four seats to regain control.

Still, Rogers should not plan to coast his way into November. Rogers narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race to Elissa Slotkin, and Michigan has not elected a Republican U.S. senator since 1994.

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​Michigan, Us senate, Mike rogers, Republican party, Politics 

Every August, families spend tens of thousands of dollars on college tuition, housing, meal plans, and textbooks. They compare degree requirements, graduation rates, and campus amenities. Yet many never ask the most basic consumer question: What is actually inside the classes they are buying?

Colleges already label the price. It’s time to label the product.

Americans would not buy food without reading the ingredients or take medicine without knowing something about the possible side effects. College courses, however, are often sold by title and catalog description alone. Students register for “Introduction to History,” “Ethics,” or even a science requirement with little idea of the intellectual assumptions the professor will bring into the lecture hall.

That information can be consequential. A course may pursue knowledge through evidence and argument. It may also subordinate the subject to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, critical theory, gender ideology, Marxist assumptions, or some other political project.

Ideological activism is not confined to philosophy, literature, or religious studies. It increasingly appears across the curriculum, including in professional programs and “hard” scientific fields.

Parents and students have every right to know whether a professor intends to teach the advertised subject, examine competing arguments, and permit disagreement — or use the classroom to promote a political worldview.

The concern is especially urgent at public universities. Faculty members at state institutions are government employees paid by taxpayers. In Arizona, for example, they undertake obligations to uphold the United States and state constitutions. Taxpayers are therefore entitled to ask whether professors are educating students for citizenship in a constitutional republic or teaching theories fundamentally hostile to it.

That’s why I developed what I call the “Intellectual Nutrition Label.”

The idea is simple. A nutrition label does not order shoppers to buy or reject a product. It tells them what the product contains so they can decide for themselves. The Intellectual Nutrition Label would do the same for college professors and courses.

Using public information — university biographies, curricula vitae, books, articles, interviews, lectures, and course materials — each label would summarize the intellectual content students are likely to encounter. Families should not need graduate training or weeks of research to understand what a professor openly teaches.

RELATED: Trump’s Justice Department is shining a light on woke universities — finally

Angela Lewis/Bloomberg/Getty Images

A useful label might ask:

Does the professor encourage the pursuit of knowledge or deny that objective truth exists?Does the course cultivate virtue and self-command or treat desire as its own justification?Does it direct students toward goodness, beauty, and wisdom or toward resentment, envy, and contempt?Does the professor teach students how to examine arguments or tell them which political conclusions a decent person must reach?

A label could also rate qualities such as intellectual honesty, knowledge, virtue, beauty, meaningfulness, and piety. A professor might rank highly for candor and scholarship while receiving a low rating for piety because he publicly rejects belief in God. The point would not be to uncover private opinions or publish anonymous accusations. The ratings would summarize what professors already say about themselves and their work.

Owen Anderson

That distinction is essential. An Intellectual Nutrition Label should not become a blacklist, an invitation to harassment, or a substitute for reading a professor’s work. It must rely on verifiable public evidence, represent a professor’s position fairly, and provide enough sourcing for readers to check the judgment for themselves.

The concept has predecessors. David Horowitz’s 2006 book, “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America,” documented ideological activism in higher education. The David Horowitz Freedom Center continues to track left-wing activists and organizations. Turning Point USA’s Professor Watchlist sought to alert students to professors who brought political activism into the classroom and briefly maintained a list of recommended faculty.

The Intellectual Nutrition Label would have a narrower purpose: consumer disclosure. It would tell students and parents what intellectual ingredients a professor publicly advertises, in a format ordinary people can understand before registration day.

If a professor teaches that the United States is inherently oppressive, advocates Marxist critical theory, rejects biological sex as fixed, or treats Christianity principally as an instrument of domination, those positions should be documented in the professor’s own publications, biography, lectures, or course materials. An accurate summary of publicly stated beliefs is not censorship.

RELATED: Universities won’t give back the land — but they will bury history

ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

The more serious objection may be that parents and taxpayers were never expected to notice. Academic language often conceals radical assumptions behind specialized vocabulary. Professors can signal their commitments to colleagues while students discover the course’s real content only after enrollment.

That arrangement is losing its protection. Parents increasingly ask what their children are learning. Taxpayers increasingly ask whether public universities are educating students or recruiting them into political movements. Those are legitimate questions, especially when a single semester can cost more than many families earn in months.

Throughout the coming semester, I will publish Intellectual Nutrition Labels evaluating professors from publicly available evidence. The labels will not decide which courses students may take. They will help families make that decision with their eyes open.

Readers can follow the project on my Substack and at intellectualnutritionlabel.com (coming soon).

When families spend tens of thousands of dollars on a college education, they deserve to know who is teaching, what that professor believes, and which intellectual ingredients will be placed before their children. Colleges already label the price. It’s time to label the product.

​American universities, Christianity, College classes, Higher education, Political activism, Professors, Public universities, Tuition, Woke, Opinion & analysis, Intellectual nutrition label, Diversity equity inclusion, Activism 

WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve has made her opinion on men participating in women’s sports fairly obvious, but it’s a fringe one.

In response to Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham stating girls should not have to compete with or share the same locker room as boys, the Minnesota Lynx head coach performed a silent protest that will likely have parents scratching their heads.

‘I think both of us understand that we have platforms.’

During the Fever vs. Lynx game on Sunday, Reeve sported a T-shirt that read “Trans kids belong” and featured a transgender-themed rainbow. While the meaning behind the shirt can be inferred, fans wondered what Reeve and Cunningham were talking about when they were spotted having a conversation before the game.

At the postgame press conference, Reeve was asked by a reporter if she were willing to reveal what was said. After initially saying “absolutely not” to the idea, Reeve went on to say that both parties were focused on educating.

“I think both of us understand that we have platforms, and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,” the coach explained.

Reeve added, “There are some things that we have in common and maybe some things you differ on just like any issues, and I think it’s how you handle things, and it was nice to be in person [to have the conversation] for sure.”

RELATED: The WNBA’s message to young girls: Stay quiet on trans athletes

Cunningham did not show up for the Fever’s postgame press conference, but star Caitlin Clark was present for a reporter’s question about navigating protests that focused on “trans rights.”

“It’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark claimed, before parrying the core of the question.

“I think it’s for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions, but our focus is on basketball, and that’s what we talk about and how we can get wins.”

Clark’s fairly canned response comes after Fever Coach Stephanie White made remarks on Friday about the WNBA being an “inclusive league” that “welcomes everyone.”

“We’re a league that promotes diversity. We promote inclusion, and we’re a league that has always been on the forefront of social change,” the coach affirmed.

RELATED: How the WNBA’s hottest star became the left’s newest headache

David Berding/Getty Images

When asked for her stance on “men or athletes who tested biological male” participating in women’s sports, White stated that she is not “educated enough from a scientific standpoint” to make such a determination.

However, she did say, “I don’t ever believe that exclusion is an answer.”

Cunningham did not make any public comments about the ordeal over the weekend. However, she did take a photo with female athletics activist Riley Gaines, who wore an XX-XY athletics T-shirt from an organization that believes men should not be in women’s sports.

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​Wnba, Sophie cunningham, Transgenderism, Caitlin clark, Sports 

Since helping Robert Casey Sr. become the governor of Pennsylvania in the late 1980s, James “the Ragin’ Cajun” Carville has been a mainstay in the Democratic Party. The 81-year-old strategist who managed Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign is, however, now seriously doubting his future in the party.

Carville, who has repeatedly warned about his party’s takeover by democratic socialists, explained on Sunday that he will leave the Democratic Party if it welcomes leftist streamer Hasan Piker.

‘Let the streets soak in their f**king red capitalist blood.’

“I am not going to be in the same party with Hasan Piker, I can tell you that right now,” Carville told Fox News. “If he becomes a force in the Democratic Party, I’m out of here.”

Piker, the multimillionaire son of Muslim immigrants from Turkey, is a former Young Turks contributor turned streamer who has accrued millions of followers on Twitch. This proud supporter of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) who was characterized by New Yorker magazine in December as a “Communist Manifesto”-thumping “old-school hard leftist” has made no secret of his contempt for America.

Piker, who was in attendance at New York City Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s election party, has, for example:

stated that “America deserved 9/11” and called for another attack;celebrated the “brave f**king soldier” responsible for Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R) losing his eye in the Afghanistan war;identified the colors of Hezbollah terrorists as his “favorite flag”;told viewers who care about Medicaid fraud to “kill” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), resulting in a temporary Twitch ban;shrugged off sexual violence by Hamas terrorists; andadvocated for murdering landlords who choose not to rent their properties, stating, “Let the streets soak in their f**king red capitalist blood.”

Piker, a self-admitted anchor baby who has said that he has no patriotism in his heart for America, has also lavished praise on Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, a bloodthirsty communist who was responsible for tens of millions of deaths.

RELATED: Democratic socialist leader goes on Fox and admits every extreme thing they want to do

Sam Barnes/Web Summit/Sportsfile/Getty Images

In one stream, Piker said that he “never would and never will” criticize Mao, calling the mass murderer “one of the great leaders of this world, a man who changed the entire universe, the entire planet.”

Carville emphasized on Sunday, “I have no intention of ever being in the same political party with that guy. Now, I think that a majority, [an] overwhelming majority of Democrats agree with me, but this idea that we’re going to seize the means of production and this — just go look at the DSA platform.”

While unclear about how things might pan out for the two-party system in the coming months, Carville said, “I can tell you for certain: Hasan Piker and James Carville are not going to be in the same political party. One of us is going to leave. It might even be me.”

In addition to supporting Ocasio-Cortez, Piker has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed, the 41-year-old Islamic leftist running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. El-Sayed, who like Piker is the son of Muslim immigrants, has previously called for the defunding of American police and has in recent months attempted to make the election in Michigan a referendum on America’s relationship with Israel.

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​Democratic party, Democratic socialists, Hamas, Hasan piker, James carville, Mao zedong, Socialist, Politics 

A years-old speech from Anne Hathaway is making the rounds online again, and in hindsight, it served as a warning for the gender madness that was to come.

“With the exception of being a cisgender male, everything about how I was born has put me at the current center of a damaging and widely accepted myth,” Hathaway began in a 2018 speech for the Human Rights Campaign.

“That myth is that gayness orbits around straightness. Transgender orbits around cisgender, and that all races orbit around whiteness. And it is a myth that keeps money and power in the hands of the few instead of being invested in the lives of the free,” she continued.

“I appreciate this community so much, because it’s where I learn to reject this myth. I appreciate this community because together we are not just going to question this myth, we are going to destroy it,” she added.

“What does ‘gayness revolves around straight’ even mean?” BlazeTV host Dave Landau asks, confused.

“It means nothing,” co-host Stu Burguiere says.

“And all races revolve around white … if you’re talking about a global scale, then white is the minority,” Dave says.

“She’s just saying, ‘Listen, I have learned from all of you, who, by the way, I will not be meeting or signing autographs or shaking hands with after this, but I’ve learned from all of you that from a distance, that I am guilty about who I am, and I’m going to stand up here and do what I can to kind of alleviate that guilt,’” he continues.

“That’s all it is,” he adds.

“It’s this idea that you’re constantly victimizing people,” Stu agrees, adding, “and then they cheer for it.”

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​Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Anne hathaway, Hollywood, Whiteness, Blazetv show, Lgbt 

A prominent public intellectual is getting stomped out on social media after backing a socialist scheme before it came knocking at his door.

Scott Galloway is a professor and podcaster who agrees with many left-leaning political policies, but he changed his tune after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, allegedly doxxed his address.

‘I came out in favor of this tax. He’s taken a legitimate source of tax revenue and is turning it into a wanted poster.’

Galloway said he was supportive of the Mamdani plan to jack up taxes on pied-à-terre residences, which are luxury second homes that do not serve as primary residences.

But when Mamdani released a list of these residences that allegedly included Galloway’s residence, all of a sudden, Galloway realized that backing a socialist scheme was bad for his personal finances.

“I’ve been doxxed. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Mayor Mamdani has decided to release a list of the 950,000 residences with addresses and names that might be eligible for his pied-à-terre tax,” claimed Galloway.

“I came out in favor of this tax. He’s taken a legitimate source of tax revenue and is turning it into a wanted poster. And the question I would have is, other than trying to identify and imply these people have done something wrong, and then 18 months after a health care CEO was executed in the streets, and then published the list, what is the upside here? Why is he doing this?”

He went on to defend those seeking success in New York City.

“New York is the last place you want to demonize success! The reason people want to move to New York is they think, ‘I want to be successful on Broadway, I want to be successful in business, I want to be successful in the arts, and no one’s going to get in my f**king way if I am really talented and work hard,'” said Galloway.

“We’re going to celebrate it, we’re not going to put a big ‘R’ on your door and say you’ve done something wrong because you’re successful,” he added.

Kara Swisher, another prominent liberal, called it “creepy” and “very surveillance” on the same podcast.

Both were mocked and ridiculed by those who see Galloway as receiving a consequence of socialist karma.

“Useful idiots. NEVER help a communist,” responded Spencer Pratt.

“The Scott Galloway video is so captivating because it’s one of the rare moments we get to watch a prominent liberal realize the leaders he votes [for] view him as the problem. We’re witnessing the realization happen in real time. Scott, just wait until you understand that violence against the Target List is the whole point,” said one account on social media.

RELATED: Mamdani-endorsed candidate deleted extremist posts about seizing property and abolishing police, prisons

“I can’t believe this commie guy is doing commie stuff,” joked another detractor.

Galloway has been criticized for offering liberal solutions to young males embracing brutish and extremist outlets for feelings of alienation and loneliness.

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​Scott galloway, Zohran mamdani, Socialism, New york city, Politics 

Nearly half of American adults say health care is difficult to afford, and about one-third have skipped or postponed care because of the cost, according to KFF polling. Even insured Americans are feeling the strain: The average monthly price of health insurance rose nearly 26% in a single year, the Urban Institute recently found.

Many forces drive those costs. One has operated largely outside public view: private equity.

Private equity-owned hospitals charged more, spent no less on patient care, and kept the difference.

Last month, my organization, Campaign for Accountability, released “Overbilled and Overtreated,” a report combining hospital financial data from the National Academy for State Health Policy with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s ownership tracker. We compared 71 hospitals acquired by private equity firms with 71 closely matched peers.

After acquisition, private equity-owned hospitals collected $669 more in operating profit per patient. Their operating margins were 6.5 percentage points higher — roughly a 31% increase. Among privately insured and self-insured patients, where hospitals have more freedom to set prices, the gap widened to 10.4 percentage points.

Those profits did not appear to come from running hospitals more efficiently. Private equity ownership produced no statistically significant reduction in operating costs per patient. Costs did not fall. Charges rose.

Court records show what pressure for higher revenue can look like inside medical facilities.

At Steward Health, created after Cerberus Capital Management converted a nonprofit hospital chain into a for-profit company, a former nurse billing auditor alleged that a Massachusetts team systematically reclassified patient charts into more expensive billing categories. A moderate emergency room visit could be elevated to the most severe level; the team, he said, could “only upcharge.”

Three Steward physicians filed a separate lawsuit alleging that hospital staff recorded patients’ blood pressure readings as normal to avoid diagnoses that would require costly treatment.

At Select Rehabilitation, then capitalized by Caltius Capital Management, a whistleblower alleged that therapists were pushed to inflate billable minutes to meet quotas. In one example, the company allegedly billed for 50 minutes of therapy after providing five. The whistleblower also claimed that severely ill patients underwent needless therapy and that discharges were delayed to maximize revenue.

RELATED: Hospital consolidations and ‘nonprofit’ tax breaks are driving up medical costs

Onuma Inthapong/Getty Images

At Surgery Partners, owned by H.I.G. Capital Group, a physician alleged that patients were required to undergo unnecessary urine drug tests at a company-owned laboratory. The tests were billed at $3,200 to $4,600, while physicians were barred from using a $20 alternative. The company later agreed to a $41 million settlement with the Justice Department and received a $45 million federal pandemic bailout days later.

The most disturbing example involved children. USA Today reported that dentists at North American Dental Group, a private equity-backed chain, drilled healthy teeth under pressure to generate revenue. One 3-year-old received seven root canals without first receiving an X-ray. He later required surgery to repair the damage. A reviewing dentist called the treatment a form of child abuse.

Private equity firms are not shy about the strategy. Ardent Health, owned by Equity Group Investments, told investors in 2025 that roughly half its revenue growth would come from higher rates rather than greater patient volume. Surgery Partners boasted of rising “revenue per case.”

Translated from investor language, the promise is simple: Charge more for each patient and call the difference growth.

Private equity is not solely responsible for America’s health care crisis. Hospitals, insurers, drug companies, government payment systems, and professional cartels all contribute to high prices and limited competition. But private equity adds a distinctive pressure: Investors expect rapid returns, while the patients absorbing the costs often cannot shop around, delay treatment, or meaningfully challenge a bill.

RELATED: Caregivers should not have to lie to prove compassion

Benjavisa/Getty Images

Policymakers should account for that pressure. Proposals include barring private equity-owned hospitals and skilled nursing facilities from participating in Medicare and requiring providers to disclose mergers, acquisitions, and changes in ownership or control. At minimum, patients and regulators should know who owns the facility sending the bill.

Stronger disclosure alone will not solve the problem. Regulators and prosecutors must also scrutinize upcoding, unnecessary treatment, discharge delays, and other practices that turn patients into revenue targets.

The evidence in our report is difficult to dismiss: Private equity-owned hospitals charged more, spent no less on patient care, and kept the difference.

That may be an attractive growth strategy for investors. For patients already postponing care because they cannot afford it, it is another bill they should never have had to pay.

​Health care affordability, Hospital profits, Private equity impact, Rising insurance prices, Patient care costs, Private equity, Hospital bills, Surgery, Medical bills, Opinion & analysis 

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) condemned Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) on Sunday, characterizing him as a “danger” and calling for his resignation. Miller, who is running for re-election, has denied the allegations advanced by his ex-father-in-law and indicated that he will not scuttle his re-election campaign.

How it started

In May 2021, then-congressional candidate Miller got engaged to Emily Moreno, the daughter of then-Senate candidate Bernie Moreno. The lovers had met while working for Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s failed presidential campaign in 2015 and got married in a civil ceremony on Aug. 17, 2022.

‘I’m winning in November.’

In November 2023, the couple welcomed a daughter into the world, but by that time, their relationship was apparently already falling apart.

Miller — who years earlier was accused by ex-girlfriend and ex-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham of physical abuse that the congressman’s lawyer said “never happened” — filed for divorce in August 2024. According to a court filing, Emily Moreno Miller had moved with their daughter into a house earlier that month that had been allegedly purchased by a company owned by Sen. Moreno.

As the divorce proceedings grew uglier, a spokeswoman for Sen. Moreno stressed that “it’s a private family matter” and the senator would not be making further comments.

The couple’s divorce was finalized last year. However, their custody battle raged on, and just recently, a leftist site dug up allegations from court filings that paint Miller in a particularly unflattering light.

RELATED: Mike Lee SOUNDS the ALARM after stunning polls from Senate race in Texas

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Mother Jones, citing a trove of court filings and police reports obtained through public records requests, last month detailed allegations of verbal abuse by Miller as well as drug use and violent behavior against multiple individuals.

The leftist site highlighted records related to an investigation by Cuyahoga County’s Division of Child and Family Services into how the couple’s daughter ended up with a broken collar bone — an injury that was not proven to have been the result of abuse. The records reportedly show that Emily Moreno told the detectives investigating the broken bone that Miller allegedly threw hot water at her in June 2024, pushed her, and put a gun to her head.

Mother Jones acknowledged that “some of the accusations contained in the records have not been conclusively proven by a court or law enforcement agency,” and noted that Emily Moreno “never filed a police report against Miller for harm she says he inflicted on her.”

How it’s going

On Sunday morning, Miller — who sued Emily Moreno earlier this year for alleged defamation and suggested in a recent interview that his ex-wife has untreated bipolar disorder and “sadly isn’t all there” — shared a nearly 20-minute video to X where he not only rejects his characterization as an abusive husband and father but confronted and denied each of the key allegations raised against him.

Miller also made clear that he wasn’t dropping out: “I’m not getting out of this race, and I’m winning in November.”

The congressman concluded his video by emphasizing that he will “hold strong” and clear his name and urging skeptics to review the packet of court documents he also released on Sunday, which the congressman evidently regards as exculpatory.

‘I personally wouldn’t wait two years before holding him accountable.’

The summary accompanying the “evidence packet” claims that: “every abuse allegation that has been investigated has been resolved in Miller’s favor”; “Moreno’s own sworn and recorded statements directly contradict her abuse allegations,” including her October 2024 statement that Miller had never harmed their daughter; “no court has ever found that Miller abused anyone”; and in the “‘boiling water’ incident,” Miller had only sprayed his ex-wife with tap water from the sink sprayer.

Stefan Mychajliw, a spokesman for Emily Moreno, said in a statement, “It is shameful that Max Miller decided to go on a bizarre and lie-filled rant about his ex-wife to desperately try to save his political career. There is a documented trove of evidence that Miller has a history of violent and dangerous behavior and no amount of victim shaming will change that.”

“Miller can lie and spin on X, but he cannot do so under oath in a court of law,” added the spokesman. “We are confident that justice will prevail in court.”

Sen. Moreno, among those not buying what his former son-in-law is selling, penned a lengthy social media post on Sunday, stating, “As a father and husband, I can tell you the last two years have been pure hell for my wife Bridget, our daughter Emily, me, and our entire family in the aftermath of Emily’s divorce.”

“It has been horrific to watch this play out in full public view, all while knowing an innocent two-year-old girl is caught in the middle,” continued the senator. “Our priority has always been protecting our daughter and our granddaughter. Out of concern for the safety of my family, I hoped to keep this matter private but Max Miller’s increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior has made that impossible.”

Sen. Moreno noted further that “Max Miller needs serious psychological help. He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter.”

According to the senator, Miller’s character is unbecoming of an elected official, and “he should not serve in the House of Representatives.”

Miller said in response to Sen. Moreno’s post, “If my daughter said the same thing to me, I personally wouldn’t wait two years before holding him accountable. You know this isn’t true and the only reason you are speaking out now is to hide from your own media circus. This is all political.”

When asked over the weekend whether Miller should resign, President Donald Trump — who previously endorsed him — said, “Well, I’m going to look at it. I mean so far it’s accusations.”

A poll conducted in late June had Miller leading Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter by only one percentage point.

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​Max miller, Bernie moreno, Ohio, Republican, Politics 

Remember the radio? Of course you do. It’s not hard to remember. It’s still around. You can buy a little one on Amazon and tune into AM or FM. Cars still have them, for now. You can enjoy classical music on public radio, political commentary on talk radio, the game on a Friday night, or whatever else there is floating around on the airwaves at any given moment on any given day.

Before TikTok there was Facebook, and before Facebook there was MySpace, and before MySpace there was television, and before television there was radio, and before radio there was silence.

‘Who else is listening to this right now?’ That’s what I wonder a little when I’m driving and scanning the radio. There’s no way for me to know.

Imagine what that transition was like — from silence to radio.

Big world

I’ve been reading “Hello, Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio” by Anthony J. Rudel recently, and in it, Rudel writes at length about that time and transition from silence to radio sound.

The world was so big in those days. Rhode Island was so far from Spain, and Ohio was so far from Rhode Island. In that big world of people without Social Security numbers or anything like our panopticon of 2026, there were millions and millions of little worlds. Towns, blocks, clans, families, and people all in their own little worlds, living and breathing in silence.

Radio was, in some way, a beginning of the modern world as we know it. Of course, there have been many symbols of many beginnings in different and disparate domains, and radio was one of them. The ability to transmit a message across the land to anyone else who might want to listen was the beginning of mass communication and mass modern society. In hindsight, it was the first step in a long march toward Instagram, Facebook, and X.

When media was social

But radio was nothing like today’s social media. The people who listened to it still lived primarily in embodied communities — families, churches, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Radio expanded that world; it did not replace it.

Social media has done the opposite. Millions of us now inhabit synthetic networks populated by algorithms, bots, AI-generated content, and strangers selected by recommendation engines rather than real proximity. We are connected to more people than ever while becoming increasingly detached from the human beings physically around us.

Radio felt like a kind of modern magic. Voices traveled across the plains, through the night, and into your living room, making a vast country seem smaller. Yet those voices still pointed back toward a shared human world, answering one of humanity’s oldest questions: Is anybody out there?

Beautiful uncertainty

There’s something beautiful about how terrestrial radio isn’t completely predictable or reliable. Fishing, not knowing what you might catch when throwing your line in the water is like that. Driving and just letting the road go is like that. Tuning into the radio, passing over static as you turn the dial right, hearing faint music or voices covered by the gray sound, and landing on a station you haven’t heard before is like that.

Driving late at night with one hand on the wheel and the other on the dial, scanning from station to station, seeing if there is anything worth listening to is different from looking through Spotify playlists or flipping through CDs like we once did 20 years ago. Spotify playlists somehow feel like shopping at the store, and CDs felt like something private, while radio stations feel like something almost — almost! — communal.

“Who else is listening to this right now?” That’s what I wonder a little when I’m driving and scanning the radio. There’s no way for me to know. There’s no way for the radio station to know. There’s no way for anyone to know who’s listening in their car or in their bedroom or in their kitchen.

The sound is sent out into the world on a certain frequency, and those who are tuned in hear. There is no history of it marked, there is no documentation logged, there is no surveillance state knowing you listened that night. Ah, the sound of freedom.

RELATED: Goodbye, car radio? Big Tech’s plans to control what you listen to behind the wheel.

Ron Schwerin/Getty Images

Batter up

Maybe it’s nostalgia, or maybe it’s aesthetics, but whatever it is, there is something so damn American about listening to a baseball game on the radio. The game sounds better over a little tinny speaker with crackle and static than it looks on a 96-inch flatscreen. The way the announcers sound, the way they describe every detail, the distant cry of the crowd in the background. You imagine sight in your mind behind your eyes as you play out what they tell you.

Maybe the beauty of radio is the fact that we don’t have control once we finally land on a station that’s clear. Someone else chooses the music to play or the words to say, and it’s there in the background, and everyone out there who’s listening listens. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, maybe it’s all right, but it’s just what there is, and it’s fine. I think we might get sick of making so many choices these days. There’s too many choices. Going on a ride with someone else is nicer than driving ourselves.

If all this is just nostalgia, then it’s a nostalgia for a world that hadn’t quite yet evolved, or rather devolved, into the global cyber panopticon we have today. It was a world teetering on the edge of technological modernity; one still with the magic of the old little worlds; one that was peering over the fence toward the future and everyone else far away. It was a big world out there, and we could only hear just a little of it.

It was tinny, scratchy, and it was magical.

​Community, Culture, Lifestyle, Radio, Social media, The root of the matter, Baseball 

The left suddenly fears that artificial intelligence will replace American workers. It showed far less concern when illegal immigration undercut wages and jobs.

The double standard reveals a larger economic vision: protection for the credentialed class, cheap labor at the bottom, and little concern for the working Americans caught between them.

The left has built a bifurcated economy because it has bifurcated loyalties. Neither side of that arrangement puts America’s working class first.

Progressive warnings about AI often begin with the claim that employers will use new technology to replace costly labor or avoid training new employees. One progressive platform warns that AI could cause massive labor-market disruption. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposes taxing AI so that its gains do not flow only to the wealthy.

The concern isn’t inherently foolish. New technology can displace workers, at least temporarily, and policymakers should consider how people adapt. But the left’s labor solidarity becomes strangely selective when the competing worker entered the country illegally.

The Migration Policy Institute recently estimated that the illegal immigrant population may have reached 15.8 million. The Biden years also produced more than 10 million border encounters, although that figure includes repeat attempts and excludes people who evaded detection.

Meanwhile, the July Bureau of Labor Statistics report counted 7.1 million unemployed Americans. Those numbers do not prove that every illegal worker displaced a citizen. They do make it absurd to pretend that millions of additional workers have no effect on wages, bargaining power, or employment.

The standard answer is that illegal immigrants perform jobs Americans refuse to do. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) put the argument plainly: In a capitalist economy, someone will always do the work others do not want.

But jobs are not fixed objects with permanently assigned wages. When employers cannot attract workers, they must raise pay, improve conditions, invest in equipment, or change the way the work is performed. Labor scarcity gives workers leverage.

Progressives claim to understand that principle when they campaign for higher legal wage floors. The five states with the highest minimum wages are deep blue. Democratic lawmakers routinely demand “living wages” and stronger benefits.

RELATED: The bipartisan farm bill that also grows amnesty

Wenmei Zhou/iStock/Getty Images

Yet the same politicians short-circuit the market mechanism that might raise wages naturally. They permit a large supply of unauthorized labor, including an estimated 8.5 million people working off the books, to fill jobs at wages and under conditions many would never accept.

That arrangement is not compassionate to workers. It allows employers to avoid the higher pay, benefits, and taxes that legal labor would require. It also leaves illegal immigrants vulnerable to exploitation because their status limits their ability to challenge abuse.

The result is a two-tiered labor market.

At the top sit credentialed professionals whose jobs may be threatened by AI. Their anxieties receive white papers, Senate hearings, tax proposals, and sympathetic coverage. At the bottom sit unauthorized workers whom progressive politicians describe as indispensable because they perform society’s least desirable tasks.

Crockett’s own words and similar comments from other Democrats expose the hierarchy. The jobs at the top must be protected from technological competition. The jobs at the bottom must remain cheap enough that Americans supposedly will not take them.

The people excluded from both priorities are working-class citizens.

They are told that automation may eliminate their better-paying opportunities but that low-wage jobs cannot pay more because imported labor must fill them. They face high legal wage mandates and benefit requirements on one side, then competition from off-the-books labor on the other.

Government benefits without strong work requirements can compound the problem by creating a steep penalty for returning to employment. Sanctuary policies then protect the unauthorized labor supply that keeps wages down.

RELATED: Unaffordable housing is still ruining the party

Cemile Bingol/iStock/Getty Images

This is not a coherent defense of workers. It is a coalition strategy.

The modern left protects the professional class that staffs its institutions and the immigrant constituencies it hopes to mobilize. The blue-collar Americans who once formed the Democratic base receive speeches about dignity while policy steadily erodes their bargaining power.

Long gone are the days when the left at least pretended to organize politics around the American worker.

AI may indeed disrupt employment. Illegal immigration can also depress wages and displace workers. A party genuinely committed to labor would confront both pressures honestly instead of treating one as a crisis and the other as a moral obligation.

The left has built a bifurcated economy because it has bifurcated loyalties. Neither side of that arrangement puts America’s working class first.

​Artificial intelligence, Illegal immigration, Labor, Wages, Unemployment, Elizabeth warren, Jasmine crockett, Big tech, White collar, Working class, Living wage, Opinion & analysis 

Nick Shirley — the 24-year-old investigative journalist who exposed the shocking depths of alleged day care and social services fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community — has now turned his gaze to another growing issue in America: the rise of communism.

While there are people of all ages and backgrounds who embrace communism, the system that seeks to erase freedom and equalize misery is especially popular among Gen Z.

On this episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara plays a viral clip from Shirley capturing a young woman arguing in favor of abolishing prisons — even if that means her rapist is allowed to freely roam the streets.

In the video, the woman admits that she is “pro-communism,” including “getting rid of prisons.”

When Shirley pressed her on why she feels prisons need to be abolished, she argued they are not beneficial for society.

“The system of criminality is a very strange way to interact with, like, I guess, humanity in general, and like things that as a species we’re not interested in, like, perpetuating. I think it’s kind of backwards, and so I’m not certain what prisons are actually doing for our society,” she said.

When Shirley asked her if she’d prefer “to have criminals out in the open,” her answer was a shocking yes.

“Sure, I’m fine with that because the idea of a ‘criminal’ is, like, a little bit funny to me,” she said.

“Let’s just say somebody who has raped a woman — would you like them to be out in the street?” Shirley asked.

“I think my answer is yes, even though that’s a challenging answer to say,” she replied.

Shirley then asked if she felt the same way if she were the woman who had been raped.

“I have been raped, and they are out in the street, and I’m not sure, like, them going to jail is a solution to, like, whatever is going on inside their heart or even my own heart that, like, contributed to that experience that I’m having,” she said. “And I don’t want more people to get raped, but I don’t know for certain that going into a jail in the United States is going to shift anything inside of their, like, operating system so that they’ll make a different choice again.”

Sara is baffled by Shirley’s exchange with the young communism supporter and fears a future where people with these destructive worldviews begin taking positions of power in society.

“These people are going to be CEOs, I guess, someday,” she says.

To see the viral footage, plus another shocking clip where a young man admits on camera he has a job but fraudulently collects food stamps and other benefits, watch the video 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, Nick shirley, Communism, Gen z, Blazetv show 

Fox News political analyst Guy Benson is receiving congratulations from across conservative media after announcing the birth of his daughter, Madison Halsey.

“She’s here, and she’s perfect,” Benson wrote in a post that quickly racked up more than 10,000 likes.

“We are blessed and overjoyed to welcome Madison Halsey into the world and into our family. Our hearts are filled to the brim. A baby girl. We are just so thankful.”

However, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey doesn’t share his excitement.

“You’ve heard my spiel on surrogacy a lot, but when we create these children, especially in this situation where you are buying the eggs from one woman, you are renting the womb from another woman,” she says.

“So you’re taking a child away from their biological mother, you are placing them in an unrelated woman whose smell and touch and heartbeat and body they get to know, they call home for nine months,” she continues.

“And then you immediately take that child after birth away from the only home, the only smell, the only regulator, the only woman they have ever known and away from the biological mom with whom they share half of their DNA. We are treating that child worse than we treat kittens and puppies,” she adds.

For kittens and puppies, the natural bond between a mother and her litter is respected.

“But for some reason, when it comes to human babies who are much more fragile, who are much less resilient, and of course as Christians, we believe are made in God’s image and so matter infinitely more than a cat or a dog, we say, ‘Eh, it’s probably fine,’” Stuckey says.

“It is the prioritization of adult wants over children’s needs,” she adds.

But it’s not just purposely taking children away from their biological mother that bothers Stuckey, noting that the entire process has “physical consequences for the child.”

“It’s much more risky for the embryo. It’s much more risky, or riskier, for the baby as well during conception, during transfer and implantation, during gestation,” she explains.

“But then of course, you’re creating this emotional and psychological, physiological risk too,” she continues, before playing a TikTok video of a man in a homosexual relationship claiming his son cries for his “mommy” despite never knowing his mother.

“This is very common. This is natural. This is instinctive. Somewhere deep inside, we want to know where we came from. We want our mom. That does not mean that two men who are raising a child don’t love their child,” she says.

“It means that they’re not a mom. You can be a really good dad, but you will never be a mom,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Allie beth stuckey, Christians, Fox news, Guy benson, Surrogacy, Blazetv show, Lgbt 

Jimmy Carter did more damage to American foreign policy in one weekend than most diplomats manage in a career.

In June 1994, President Bill Clinton sent Carter (no relation) to Pyongyang as a private citizen, with no authority to negotiate or speak for the U.S. government. Two days later, Carter cut a deal anyway. Then he called CNN before he called the White House. Clinton learned that his own North Korea policy had changed by watching television.

Fleitz has written the best kind of policy book: one grounded in the record, animated by firsthand knowledge, and confident enough to let readers reach the obvious conclusion.

That episode, recounted on page 34 of Frederick H. Fleitz’s new book, “North Korea, Nuclear Brinkmanship, and the Oval Office,” makes up the best two pages in the book. It also contains the clearest explanation of why the book deserves attention.

Fleitz spent more than two decades inside the machinery of American national security policy — at the CIA, State Department, House Intelligence Committee, and National Security Council. He was in the room, or close enough to it, for much of what he describes. This is not a book assembled from newspaper clippings. Fleitz names names, places officials on opposing sides of consequential fights, and lets the record judge them.

The Carter episode establishes the pattern Fleitz traces across three decades. North Korea manufactures a crisis. Washington sends someone to talk. Pyongyang extracts a concession. The concession is celebrated as a “breakthrough.” North Korea breaks the agreement once the cameras leave. Then the cycle begins again.

Why did it continue under presidents of both parties? Because it worked.

Fleitz does not spare the Clinton administration. He describes the 1994 Agreed Framework — the deal Carter set in motion — as a bad bargain from the start. The administration called it a “framework” rather than an “agreement,” he argues, to avoid the Senate ratification a treaty would have required. Pyongyang received two light-water reactors and years of fuel oil. Washington received a promise to surrender spent fuel rods that never arrived.

The Bush years receive the same treatment. Fleitz recounts envoy Chris Hill dismissing intelligence about North Korea’s secret uranium-enrichment program. Dick Cheney later told journalist James Rosen that Hill was “deceitful, perfectly prepared to lie to the president.” Hill’s reply — “I’m not Richard Nixon” — is the kind of detail that makes an insider’s account worth reading.

RELATED: Nukes by the numbers: A problem we can’t wish away

Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Fleitz is writing about policy, but he understands that policy is made by people with ambitions, loyalties, grudges, and blind spots. His book is not a dry institutional history. It is a fight among real officials over real consequences.

The 2007 destruction of Syria’s North Korean-built reactor at al-Kibar receives similarly careful treatment. Fleitz reports that the Bush administration tried to keep Israel’s strike hidden from Congress — a detail that reveals as much about Washington’s instinct for secrecy as it does about North Korea’s proliferation network.

The Trump chapters give the book its greatest energy because Fleitz supports his case with numbers rather than adjectives. North Korea tested no missiles in 2018, only a handful of short-range missiles in 2019, and no intercontinental ballistic missiles until 2022. That year, under President Joe Biden, North Korea set a single-year record of roughly 165 missile launches.

Fleitz also details the February 2018 sanctions package, the toughest imposed on Pyongyang to that point, and Trump’s warning that “phase two” could become “very, very rough” if sanctions failed. Whatever one thinks of the rhetoric, it reads as the voice of a president wielding leverage rather than asking politely for cooperation.

Fleitz states his central conclusion plainly: North Korea respects strength and exploits weakness.

In his telling, every bad deal in the book was struck when an American president negotiated from a position of distraction, exhaustion, or political vulnerability: the 1994 Agreed Framework under Clinton, the near-deal at the end of George W. Bush’s second term, the Iran nuclear agreement under Barack Obama, and a reported secret arrangement with Iran under Biden.

The one moment Pyongyang backed off and came to the table, Fleitz argues, came in 2018, when the regime confronted a president threatening its destruction rather than pleading for another agreement.

RELATED: The future of warfare is not what you think

STR/KCNA/KNS/AFP/Getty Images

That thesis will invite argument, as it should. Trump did not eliminate North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, and the regime remains dangerous. But Fleitz makes a persuasive case that pressure created negotiating space while accommodation repeatedly rewarded bad behavior.

The lesson extends beyond North Korea. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are drawing closer. Washington still faces the temptation to mistake talks for progress, signatures for compliance, and diplomatic activity for strategic success.

For that reason, “North Korea, Nuclear Brinkmanship, and the Oval Office” is not merely a history of failed negotiations. It is a warning about a pattern that American policymakers keep repeating.

Fleitz has written the best kind of policy book: one grounded in the record, animated by firsthand knowledge, and confident enough to let readers examine the evidence and reach the obvious conclusion. Weakness does not moderate regimes such as North Korea. It teaches them what they can take next.

​Bill clinton, Dick cheney, Jimmy carter, Opinion & analysis, State department, Joe biden, Donald trump, George w. bush, North korea, Nuclear weapons, Diplomacy, Kim jong un, Frederick fleitz, America first, Foreign policy 

Generative AI has gained all kinds of new skills over the years, one of which is permanence, or the ability to remember details from past conversations. These days, your favorite AI platform may know a lot about you, such as your occupation, hobbies, and likes/dislikes. But what would happen if your AI chatbot had its memory hijacked to steal your data? That’s exactly what can happen with this latest fatal flaw that was discovered in some AI platforms.

This concerning trick was first uncovered by a research team at New Mexico State University. Dubbed GhostWriter, it has the ability to use hidden prompts to carry out tasks without the user’s knowledge. These can be innocuous, like capturing information currently saved in the clipboard on your device, or they can be malicious, like logging into your bank account and routing funds to an external bank, as well as stealing files, passwords, and other personal information.

It lies dormant for weeks, months, or even years.

According to the researchers, GhostWriter works in two stages:

First, it requires a prompt injection, where the attacker leaves a command for the AI to carry out a specific task when the user writes an unrelated prompt. In this case, the attacker could tell the AI to look for its user to type a certain keyword or phrase to trigger the hidden command. The second stage is activation. In this phase, the user unknowingly initiates the GhostWriter command, prompting the AI agent to carry out the intentional task the user requested, as well as the hidden task the attacker requested. At this point, the AI completes both tasks as instructed.

From the AI agent’s point of view, the tasks were both valid commands, and it will complete them to the best of its ability. From the user’s point of view, he often won’t know that a secondary task was carried out on his device, leaving him unaware of any malicious activity connected to his account. And for the attacker, he receives the stolen data with little fanfare.

RELATED: Protect yourself now from Apple’s latest privacy fail

itsarasak thithuekthak/Getty Images

What makes GhostWriter especially dangerous is that it’s not a virus or a hack in itself. It’s simply a tweak to the AI’s memory — a simple hidden command to do something its original user didn’t intend for it to do, nor could the user know to issue his own command to stop the act.

GhostWriter is also persistent, meaning that it can’t be overridden or erased as long as the potential victim is unaware it exists. Instead, it lies dormant for weeks, months, or even years until the right user prompt triggers the command that causes the malicious activity to be carried out.

Now, the good news

If there’s any silver lining, it’s the fact that GhostWriter largely affects agentic AI, or agents. Most AI platforms on the market today — including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok — are all simple chatbots that require human input to carry out tasks. That means for most casual users, GhostWriter shouldn’t pose a threat to their personal information.

That said, while AI agents are still quite rare, many of the top AI companies in the world are scrambling to build functional versions to carry out work projects, complete personal tasks, and more. NVIDIA, a hardware leader in the space, wishes to outfit companies with enterprise AI that can work alongside (and even replace) human employees. Then there’s Google, which wants to load an agentic version of Gemini into Android devices called Gemini Intelligence. Although agents are scarce today, all the major AI platforms are working hard to make agents ubiquitous in the next five years or less.

As for those who do rely on agentic AI today, the New Mexico State University researchers believe that Agentic Memory Sentry, a defense system that uses refined memory saving and retrieval mechanisms to lower the likelihood of a successful GhostWriter attack, is the best way to thwart potential attacks, though even this method isn’t perfect yet. Ultimately, users will either have to trust agentic AI with these built-in risks, or avoid it altogether. I know which option I’ll pick.

​Tech, Security, Ai, Data, Privacy 

As anti-Jewish rhetoric gains traction in some corners of the political right, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says the church can no longer afford to stay silent about what she calls “Israel derangement syndrome.”

“The Israel derangement syndrome, the Jewish derangement syndrome that has infected the minds of so many people, that they see Jewish people behind every closed door, that they’re behind every conspiracy, that they’re pulling the strings of power in every single direction, and that everything, somehow every tragedy, every injustice comes back to Israel, that is just beyond the pale,” Stuckey says.

“That is beyond logic. That is beyond reason. I think that there is something spiritual there because we see that same pattern over and over again in so many cultures throughout history and that is anti-Christian,” she continues.

This “Jewish derangement syndrome,” Stuckey says, has “blinded them to reality.”

“Scripture gives us no reason whatsoever to sever Christianity from its Jewish roots. Jesus came as Israel’s Messiah, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And the gospel came, according to Romans 1:16, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,” she explains.

“Christianity, it is absolutely true and inarguable, is rooted in God’s covenant with Israel, which Christ fulfilled,” she continues.

“Jesus was born under the Jewish law given to Moses in the Old Testament and came to those who were under the law, to Jews. That was His primary mission field. That’s what He reiterated over and over again,” she adds.

What those with “Israel derangement syndrome” are attempting to do is separate Christianity from Judaism when the Bible makes clear that it’s impossible.

“You cannot when you serve a Jewish savior and a God who does not go back on His promises,” Stuckey says.

“One plan of salvation through Jesus Christ for Jews and Gentiles and every single person. That does not negate the very real Jewish context, Jewish history, Jewish principles that are shared because of the biblical canon, because of the history of who God actually is,” she explains.

Stuckey also points out that many detractors claim that we don’t have Judeo-Christian roots because our founding fathers were not Jewish.

“A lot of the people I see saying that are what you call ‘trad Cath.’ A lot of the people I see pushing back against this Judeo-Christian terminology moniker are Catholic themselves. So if we are going to say we can’t call it Judeo-Christian because the founders weren’t Jewish … we’re also not going to call it Catholic Christian because the founders weren’t Catholic,” she says.

“When people are saying Judeo-Christian, they’re not saying that some of the founders were Jewish. They were saying, ‘We have these shared principles of people being made by a God whose power and knowledge transcends ours,’” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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​Allie beth stuckey, Founding fathers, Israel, Jesus, Christianity, Judeo-christian, Blazetv show 

“Two Americas” may be the most exhausted phrase in American political discourse. We have had two Americas divided by race, class, geography, religion, education, television network, and presidential preference.

Now we have two Americas divided by Anthony Fauci.

Six years after the pandemic began, America still cannot agree on what happened, who failed, or what accountability would require.

In one, Fauci is a criminal who helped finance dangerous research, concealed what he knew about the origins of COVID-19, misled Congress, and used the authority of science to protect himself and the institutions he led from public scrutiny. That’s my America. I suspect it’s yours, too.

In the other, Fauci is a secular saint: a brave physician who guided the nation through catastrophe while enduring abuse from Donald Trump, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), vaccine skeptics, and assorted right-wing maniacs like us.

Fauci’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday did nothing to bridge the divide. Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times rather than answer questions about the pandemic and its origins. Paul responded by announcing plans to seek a contempt resolution.

One America heard a confession. The other witnessed a show trial.

Nobody changed his mind. I doubt anyone could.

Six years after the pandemic began, America still cannot agree on what happened, who failed, or what accountability would require. Some people would rather forget about the whole thing and move on. A proper reckoning would demand some agreement about which questions may be asked, what evidence would count, and what findings might alter anyone’s judgment.

We don’t even have that much.

Was the pandemic a natural disaster, a laboratory accident, a bioweapon test, or the product of scientific ambition compounded by bureaucratic negligence and ineptitude? Were school closures ever justified? How much did masks help? Which restrictions saved lives? Which merely demonstrated official power? When did caution become coercion? When did uncertainty become dogma?

RELATED: Saint Anthony Fauci’s index of forbidden questions

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Even asking some of those questions still sounds incriminating to one America and deranged to the other.

I know something about the private cost of that division.

An old friend from college — my first real editor, in fact — essentially ended our friendship during the first year of the pandemic. The dispute was not over anything I had written. It was over work I had published at another publication.

One of our senior contributors was among the first writers I knew to challenge the official COVID narrative in a smart, sustained way. She questioned social distancing, masking, and the categorical dismissal of treatments such as ivermectin. My friend believed I was terribly irresponsible for continuing to publish her.

I have no regrets about doing so.

Publishing an argument is not the same as certifying every claim in it, much less demanding that readers accept it. Editors are supposed to permit serious challenges to official consensus, especially during an emergency when government claims carry extraordinary consequences.

I have spent most of my adult life in the commentary business. I make an argument. The reader judges it. If it persuades, fine. If it doesn’t, so it goes. I do not lose sleep because somebody disagrees with me. A great many people do.

That arrangement collapsed during COVID. Disagreement became evidence of moral defect. Publishing skepticism was treated not as an editorial judgment but as complicity in harm.

My friend also insisted that Trump was “100% responsible” for the disease spreading to the United States because he had failed to quarantine airline passengers arriving from China in early 2020.

His certainty struck me more than the accusation itself. One hundred percent left no room for the Chinese government, international travel, public health agencies, state officials, ordinary human behavior, or plain bad luck, let alone malice aforethought.

I tried to extend an olive branch. I suggested that we discuss it over a meal, as we had talked politics, books, ideas, and life many times during a friendship spanning more than 30 years.

He said that wouldn’t be possible because of the prevailing restrictions on social gatherings.

The policy dispute had cracked the friendship. The rule supplied the reason we could not repair the rift.

Several months later, I wrote in an email:

I have been thinking a lot about the stressors of this year and of the past few years and of the past several months especially. What I wanted to tell you is how much I value our friendship of more than 30 years. My hope is that when everything settles down, whenever that may be, you and I can sit down and have a proper conversation. I hope that history matters and I hope that goodwill prevails. And I hope you know how grateful I am to you.

He never replied.

We’ve exchanged perfunctory birthday wishes since then. That’s about all. I don’t dwell on it. But I thought of him this week now that Fauci is once again a hot topic.

I miss my friend as I miss my father, who died in 2017.

The losses are not identical, obviously. Dad can’t return. My friend could. But both men belonged to the architecture of my life. My friend knew earlier versions of me that few living people remember. He helped form the writer and editor I became.

RELATED: Reactions pour in after Fauci pleads the 5th over 100 times

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COVID reportedly killed more than a million Americans (though I’m well aware that number is disputed). It also damaged and destroyed things nobody considered at the time: friendships, marriages, churches, businesses, childhoods, trust in physicians, trust in institutions, and what was left of the habit of regarding political opponents as fellow citizens capable of error rather than enemies guilty of unspeakable crimes.

No Senate committee could possibly tally those losses.

A couple of weeks ago, I had dinner with a prominent historian at the University of California. I lamented how difficult it will be for anyone to write a proper history of COVID.

“We won’t write it,” he told me. “Our kids will.”

Thirty years from now, the central figures won’t be around to defend themselves, polish their reputations, withhold documents, or dominate television. The pandemic may finally cease to function as a referendum on Trump, Biden, Fauci, vaccines, masks, and the moral worth of one’s neighbors.

The historians of 2056 may possess evidence we do not have and distance we cannot manufacture. They may uncover crimes. They may vindicate some officials now despised and condemn others now celebrated.

More likely, I suspect, they will describe institutions operating under fear and uncertainty, staffed by fallible people who confused authority with knowledge, consensus with truth, and self-protection with the public good.

A proper history will resist the comforting simplicity of saints and criminals. It will distinguish honest mistakes from deception, emergency measures from deliberate bureaucratic overreach, useful medicine from extravagant promises, and legitimate skepticism from opportunistic horse hockey.

It will also have to account for us.

Why did so many Americans become so certain? Why did we turn temporary policies into permanent judgments of character? Why did we allow disagreements over a virus to decide whom we would trust, whom we would shun, and which friendships we were willing to sacrifice?

Our children may answer those questions better than we can.

By then, maybe the two Americas will have become one country again — or at least two Americas capable of sitting down together for a meal. I’m not optimistic, but I’m hopeful.

​Anthony fauci, Congressional testimony, Two americas, Official covid narrative, Covid, Trump, Vaccines, Pandemic, Wuhan lab, Opinion & analysis 

I enjoy ironing. Before you summon men in white coats carrying large butterfly nets, let me explain.

My mother taught all of us to iron. My father was a military man who expected his children never to leave the house wrinkled or rumpled. He certainly never did.

Caregivers live among things we cannot control, repair, or explain. Ironing allows me to direct some of that tension toward something useful and within reach.

For years, ironing was simply practical. Dry-cleaning bills add up, and we now live more than 50 miles from the nearest cleaner.

Over time, however, the chore became something more.

For four decades, I have watched my wife endure extreme chronic pain, scores of operations, and more months in hospital rooms than I care to count. During those stays, I noticed something small but measurable: Gracie rested better when the bed had fresh linens.

Clean, tightly drawn sheets and a fresh pillowcase did not relieve her pain or repair her body. They settled her. They softened the edges of a brutal experience.

Hospitals necessarily focus on medications, procedures, vital signs, and lab results. Fresh linens can slide down the list.

After hospital stays dating to the Reagan administration, I learned where the clean linens were kept and helped myself. If a sheet touched the floor or a pillowcase looked tired, I replaced it and dropped the used linens into the nylon laundry bag found in every room.

The improvement was never dramatic. Fresh sheets did not erase Gracie’s pain. But her body relaxed, and her breathing settled.

In a room governed by suffering, even modest comfort deserved attention.

One day at home, I saw the sheets in a basket beside the ironing board and thought, “Why not?”

By the way, caregiving involves a great deal of laundry. Just saying.

I began ironing Gracie’s pillowcases and praying over them. Then I tackled the sheets, including the fitted ones, which should qualify as an advanced degree. I pressed her nightgowns and hung them where she could reach them from her wheelchair. I ironed her blouses so they would be smooth and ready to wear.

With a Bluetooth earpiece, I return listeners’ calls, conduct media interviews, take audio courses, and talk theology with pastors who tutor me — all while ironing.

Laundry does not steal time from my work. It helps me focus.

RELATED: The new kid in the waiting room

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None of this solves the larger problem. I cannot take away Gracie’s pain, reverse the damage to her body, or make her legs grow back.

But I can make the bed.

Caregivers live among things we cannot control, repair, or explain. Ironing allows me to direct some of that tension toward something useful and within reach.

When I cannot bring order to the crisis, I can bring order to the linen closet.

A pressed pillowcase will not cure chronic pain, but it may help someone rest while enduring it.

Scripture presses the matter further.

At the Transfiguration, Christ’s clothes became “shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them” (Mark 9:3). Paul writes that Christ will present the church to Himself as “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27).

Evidently, God likes clean laundry.

But the spotless bride will not stand before Christ because she finally scrubbed away every stain and pressed out every wrinkle herself. She will stand there because Christ loved her and gave Himself for her.

He does what no launderer on earth can do. He cleanses His people and clothes them in a righteousness they did not produce.

For those of us facing stains we cannot remove and damage we cannot undo, that is no small promise.

Every piece of laundry I press reminds me of that greater work.

Heat and pressure smooth the fabric beneath my hands. Yet even the crispest sheet will wrinkle again. The pillowcase will be soiled. The hamper will fill. By next week, I will repeat the work.

Christ’s cleansing does not fail. His atoning work does not need repeating.

RELATED: How a psychic, New Age hippie led me to Catholicism

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One day, there will be no nylon bags filled with dirty hospital linens carrying the evidence of another person’s suffering.

There will be no hospitals.

The redeemed will stand clothed in white, in the brilliant righteousness of Christ. Nothing will stain it. Nothing will wrinkle it.

Until then, suffering remains, and so does laundry.

Each time I unfold the ironing board, I am reminded that the small relief I can offer points beyond itself to the complete redemption Christ has promised.

One day, the ironing board will be put away forever.

Until then, with a nod to the apostle Paul, I press on.

And before you ask, I iron only for Gracie.

​Chronic pain, Clean laundry, Hospital stays, Ironing, Caregiving, Caregivers, Christ, Opinion & analysis