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The place between wakefulness and sleep is a strange limbo where a number of odd things can happen. Some people experience an overwhelming sense of dread, terrifying visions of shadowy figures or intruders in the room, a crushing pressure on their chest, and the complete inability to speak or move anything except their eyes.

This phenomenon is called sleep paralysis.

According to the modern medical explanation, sleep paralysis is a temporary brain glitch that occurs during the sleep-wake transition, where the brain awakens while the body’s natural REM atonia (muscle paralysis that prevents acting out dreams) lingers.

But there’s a growing belief that sleep paralysis isn’t just some freaky biological occurrence but rather a spine-chilling spiritual attack.

On a recent episode of “Strange Encounters,” Rick Burgess dove into the ancient history of what modern science dubs a “harmless” sleep condition.

While Rick says that what science calls sleep paralysis “hallucinations” may be just that — the “brain playing tricks” — the dread, chest pressure, and shadowy figures sound suspiciously similar to stories of demonic attacks.

And in fact, in other countries all over the world, sleep paralysis is indeed believed to be the work of demons.

Citing Vicki Joy Anderson’s sleep paralysis book “They Only Come Out at Night,” Rick notes that horrifying tales of night monsters who sit on a sleeper’s chest date back to ancient times. This night hag takes different names depending on the country, but the core phenomenon — chest-crushing paralysis and malevolent presence — is remarkably universal.

“All these cultures with all their different names, they describe something demonic, and every single name seems to describe an experience where the demon is strongly pressing down on them and they cannot move — every single one of them,” he says.

Based on the anecdotes in Anderson’s book, Christians who experienced sleep paralysis and called on the name of Jesus experienced “instant relief.”

In addition to calling on the name of the “Lord Jesus” specifically, Rick advises Christians experiencing sleep paralysis to find a “prayer partner” who will commit to praying daily for relief, to confess sin and repent, to refrain from doing things or consuming content that could open demonic doors, and to recite Psalm 91 as a prayer each night before bed.

He then addresses those who are not Christians and thus cannot access the supreme power of Jesus.

“If you’re not redeemed, then that’s the first thing you got to do. You need to be under the authority of Jesus Christ. You need to be abiding in Him. You need to place your faith in him, not in rituals, not anything like that, but in Him — then access the power that He has.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Spiritual warfare, Christianity, Demonic attack 

Americans are breathing a sigh of relief at the apparent end of woke lectures masquerading as movies. The last few that slipped through have been sent to the box office graveyard.

But another problem remains.

What gives a human life ultimate meaning? That is a question woke ideology cannot answer. It is also the question every civilization, and every soul, must face.

As John Wick taught us, bad choices lead to consequences. And after 15-plus years of woke education and pop culture, one consequence may be that American audiences can no longer handle a movie that wrestles seriously with the deepest questions of human life.

Permit me to explain why this trouble looms on the horizon like Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.”

The woke agenda, with its oppression-studies degrees and DEI catechisms, has trained generations of students and audiences to think superficially. They are told suffering comes from “whiteness” and “heteronormativity,” and that if they elect enough democratic socialists, these problems will vanish and free stuff will rain down from heaven.

Spend enough time on a modern university campus, and you will see how often life’s deepest questions are flattened into identity categories.

Why do people suffer? Systems of oppression.

Why does life feel empty? Unjust structures prevent economic flourishing.

The standard DEI professor solves the problems of evil and meaning by reassuring one group of students that their hardships are caused by another group of students, and that each group can be identified by skin color and sexual preference.

The solution is always the same: Become an activist. Advocate for the marginalized. Restructure society. Stop whiteness.

Think of the Ralph Wiggum meme: “I’m helping.”

Movie after movie has thrown these inane answers at American audiences. Marvel has done more than most. It had a chance to get serious when Ultron sought a solution to the problem of evil. Instead, it simply got violent.

What was the franchise’s answer to evil? Some saccharine claim about the innate goodness of human beings when they are “free” under a nanny state of superheroes.

But those supposedly good humans are the same people who committed all the evil Ultron saw when he studied world history.

The Avengers are an existential nightmare, making one wonder whether each member of the team was meant to be a hero of the absurd after all.

RELATED: Give He-Man credit for mocking the unmockable

Screen Archives/Getty Images

These reflections made me wonder whether today’s audiences, ruined by DEI, could watch a movie like “Cool Hand Luke.”

The film would almost certainly never be made today. But even if it were, would anyone make it to the end? Better yet, would anyone understand what the movie asks us to confront?

Luke, played by Paul Newman, returns home from World War II to a life with no obvious purpose. In a drunken act of vandalism, he cuts the heads off parking meters and is sentenced to a southern prison camp.

The crime is almost beside the point. The movie is not really about criminal justice. It is asking an older question: What does a man do when he cannot find meaning?

Luke’s struggle is existential. He first fights the toughest prisoner, and his refusal to stay down becomes a declaration that he will not surrender his humanity. Later, when Luke wins at poker, the men call him “Cool Hand Luke.”

His coolness is defiance against a universe that appears silent. If nothing matters, why get upset?

The prison itself becomes a metaphor for human existence. The laws appear arbitrary. Luke tells another prisoner, “All I see is a lot of guys laying down a lot of rules and regulations.”

Then, Luke’s mother visits one last time as she is dying.

Their final conversation is painfully cold. He calls her “Arletta” rather than “Mother.” Neither expresses love. As she leaves, he simply says, “So long, Arletta. Take care.”

Harry Dean Stanton sings “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” as Luke walks back into the prison. The inability of sentimentalized religion to give Luke meaning becomes the movie’s second theme, after the helplessness of law.

Soon afterward, Luke receives word of his mother’s death. He sings a mocking song about the empty superstition of popular religion:

Get yourself a sweet Madonna
Dressed in rhinestones, sitting on
A pedestal of abalone shell.
Going 90, it ain’t scary,
’Cause I got the Virgin Mary
Assurin’ me that I won’t go to hell.

Popular religion pours opium over the suffering of this life with empty sentimentality and promises of a better afterlife.

Neither law nor sentimental religion can quiet Luke’s soul. So he runs.

Captured once, he hears the famous line from the captain: “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

After another escape attempt, the guards force him into a grotesque cycle of digging and filling the same hole.

“Luke, what’s your dirt doing in the boss’ hole?”

After Luke digs a grave-sized hole, another boss asks, “Luke, what’s your dirt doing on my yard? Put it back in that hole.”

This continues until his spirit finally breaks. He begs them to stop. He promises never to escape or back-sass again.

Yet he escapes once more.

RELATED: The left’s icons keep face-planting in public

Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

His final refuge is an empty church. There, Luke finally speaks honestly. He addresses God simply as, “Hey, Old Man.” He admits that he began strong but has grown tired. He wants answers. He wants someone to respond.

Silence.

“I guess you’re a pretty hard case too,” Luke concludes.

A fellow prisoner is sent in to persuade him to come out peacefully. Luke yells out the window, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate,” but he is shot and killed before he can finish.

The movie refuses every easy answer. The audience is meant to leave and wrestle with the problem of meaning.

Luke cannot be right about final emptiness. But where can we find meaning if neither law nor superficial popular religion can provide it?

That is precisely the sort of question our culture increasingly avoids.

The last 15 years have been a parade of DEI sermons and ideological mush. The worry is that Americans raised in this, educated in woke K-12 schools, and graduated into oppression-studies assumptions would not know how to contemplate existential meaning in a movie like “Cool Hand Luke.”

They would reduce the story to demographic categories. White prisoner. White guards. Southern prison. Oppression explained. Luke deserves what he got.

As a philosophy professor, I hope Americans have not lost the ability to appreciate stories that force us to confront the deepest questions. I hope they are not merely rejecting the stupidity of DEI but also rejecting superficial answers and longing for something deeper.

What gives a human life ultimate meaning? That is a question woke ideology cannot answer.

It is also the question every civilization, and every soul, must face.

​Cool hand luke, Evil, Movies, Woke hollywood, God, Opinion & analysis 

A huge brawl at an Arizona In-N-Out Burger was caught on video early last week, and customers are seen running for cover in the clip.

Tempe police told KSAZ-TV they were called to the fast-food restaurant near Rural Road and Playa del Norte Drive just after 7 p.m. Monday.

‘Bunch of future doctors and lawyers.’

The station said people were seen screaming and running for the door as the melee commenced.

In the clip, numerous individuals are seen trading punches, wrestling, and tackling each other all over the restaurant, KSAZ said.

A person who uploaded video of the fight told the station customers were “camping out” inside the restaurant during an active monsoon storm.

But by the time police arrived at the scene, all those involved in the brawl had already taken off, KSAZ said, adding that some fled on foot while others departed in cars.

The station said what sparked the fight is unknown, and no names have been released in connection with the case.

Police did tell KSAZ that officers were able to speak with witnesses and restaurant staff, and a follow-up investigation is under way.

RELATED: Male, 55, accused of grabbing 15-year-old by neck, throwing him to floor of In-and-Out Burger — and it’s all caught on video

Commenters who posted reactions under the KSAZ video report showing the brawl were disgusted by it:

“Bunch of future doctors and lawyers,” one commenter wrote.”Did they order it animal style?” another commenter quipped, referencing an In-N-Out Burger serving option.”Stay in school, kids,” another commenter suggested. “This is what happens when you drop out and become a loser. Becoming violent and then running away speaks volumes about your level of education.””In my day we took it outside,” another commenter recalled. “Not in front of women and children.”

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​Arizona, In-n-out burger, Brawl, Police, Crime 

McAllister, Montana, does not take long to drive through. We have a post office, a cabinet shop, and an empty lot where the old bar and restaurant once stood.

Yet there it was. The American flag hung at half-staff.

Somewhere between the Carolina foothills and a tiny town in southwest Montana, I was reminded that no matter how far life carries us, the places that formed us never quite let us go.

It was not for someone from Montana. It was for a boy from upstate South Carolina.

Standing in the parking lot of that tiny post office, I found myself thinking that southwest Montana might as well be another country from the red clay, pines, and dogwoods of northwest South Carolina.

Yet one lowered flag carried me back more than 2,000 miles, leaving me with an unexpected ache for both places.

Lindsey Graham’s passing felt different. There had been no long illness, no farewell tour, no gradual retreat from public life. He worked until the end. One day, he was in the middle of the nation’s business. The next, the flag in our little Montana town flew at half-staff for a man whose life began just a few miles from mine.

Washington knew him as a senator. The world knew him as a fixture on Sunday morning news programs, in committee hearings, and on diplomatic missions halfway around the globe.

Upstate South Carolina knew him simply as Lindsey.

Our paths crossed long before I could have imagined standing beside a lowered flag in a small Montana town thinking about him.

He grew up in Central. I grew up in nearby Anderson. We may even have been born in the same hospital.

When Lindsey first ran for Congress, my sister worked on his campaign. His district included my parents’ home. For a time, his sister lived only a few doors from them. Years later, one of my four brothers worked closely with him through the State Department on matters involving Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other countries.

RELATED: The internet makes monsters and saints before the body is cold

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The first time I met Lindsey personally was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where my wife, Gracie, had been invited to sing for wounded warriors. We shared dinner that evening with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and his wife, along with Montana’s Conrad Burns.

At one point, Lindsey laughed and said he and I could carry on a conversation without anybody needing subtitles.

After meeting several members of my family over the years, he ran into my parents somewhere back home, shook his head with that familiar grin, and asked, “How many of y’all are there?”

That was Lindsey. For all the demands placed on him, he remembered people.

We disagreed on more than a few things over the years. Some of those disagreements mattered. But disagreement is not the same thing as dismissal.

Somewhere along the way, we have forgotten that.

In an era when too many public careers seem measured by growing fortunes and lucrative opportunities after leaving office, Lindsey’s modest estate told a different story. Whatever history ultimately concludes about every vote he cast or every position he took, it is difficult to argue that he entered public life to enrich himself.

He seemed to take the title literally.

It was public service in the truest sense of the phrase.

Whether one agreed with him or not, Lindsey’s work ethic was undeniable. He left behind a reputation far larger than his estate.

Lindsey Graham died with his boots on.

Only hours earlier, he was still in motion — meeting with allies, working with foreign leaders, talking with colleagues, and carrying the responsibilities that had defined most of his adult life.

Then, almost in an instant, the meetings ended, the phones stopped ringing, and the man who had spent a lifetime helping shape history took his place within it.

Flags across America have been lowered. Soon, they will be raised again. The mail will be sorted. Ranchers will stop by the post office. Life will continue, as it always does.

But standing there in the parking lot of our little post office, I closed my eyes and sighed.

I was not thinking about Washington or the halls of power. I was thinking about upstate South Carolina.

RELATED: Consider the lilies — and one old Montana fir

Photo courtesy of Peter Rosenberger

I was thinking about the red clay my mother could never keep her five sons from tracking into the house. Boiled peanuts from a roadside stand. A sticky, hot Carolina afternoon with pine trees swaying just enough to remind you there was a breeze after all.

I was thinking about familiar voices, familiar roads, and a local boy from Central who somehow found himself helping shape the course of a nation without ever quite losing the cadence of home.

The United States lost a man who served first in uniform, then in the House of Representatives, and finally in the Senate.

South Carolina lost a son.

And somewhere between the Carolina foothills and a tiny town in southwest Montana, I was reminded that no matter how far life carries us, the places that formed us never quite let us go.

I suspect Lindsey Graham never heard of McAllister, Montana.

But that flag outside a tiny post office quietly testified that McAllister, along with countless other towns across America, paused to honor him.

​Lindsey graham, Opinion & analysis, Montana, South carolina, American flags, Caregiving, Senate, Republicans 

In 2019, Mercy Culture Church — a charismatic, conservative Christian church — was founded in Fort Worth, Texas. In the seven years since, it has planted numerous churches in Texas and elsewhere, the most recent satellite campus being in Washington, D.C.

Mercy Culture’s D.C. plant is pastored by none other than BlazeTV contributor Jaco Booyens and his wife, Philipa.

Sadly, getting Mercy Culture D.C. up and running has been something of a nightmare. On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Booyens pulled the curtain back on D.C.’s deeply entrenched spiritual battle, where historic churches allegedly function as gatekeepers against conservative biblical teaching.

Booyens explains that due to the Biden administration encouraging churches to sell their properties to developers, it’s been difficult to find a physical location for Mercy Culture D.C.

After much searching, they finally picked a building, but the nightmare was just beginning.

“We start getting complaints from the building. They’re saying … ’You’re very political … you’re saying you’re anti-abortion; you’re saying that there’s two genders; you’re saying that kids should not be trans-ified,”’ Booyens recounts, noting that he countered these complaints by arguing that these issues are “not political” but deeply “spiritual.”

Disturbed by the pushback, he started “digging” into D.C.’s long church history, and what he found was this: “There are demonic strongholds in [D.C.] that have been given right of passage, dominion — a home inside the church.”

He found the proof hiding in D.C.’s oldest churches.

“There are 13 churches in this city that are 200+ years old that run on the principle that they are — and they said it out loud to us in person — that they are the collective mind of the Holy Spirit, which is blasphemy,” he tells Glenn.

When he was touring the oldest of the churches (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, founded in the 1700s), the man conducting the tour bragged that the church of Mariann Edgar Budde — the female bishop who gained national attention for her progressive sermon at the Washington National Cathedral during Trump’s 2025 inauguration prayer service — was “one of the 13.”

He told Booyens, “We all approved that speech because that’s how correction gets made in this city; that’s how things pass through to Congress. [It] comes through this collective mind of the Holy Spirit.”

Immediately, Booyens could see the demonic “strongholds” controlling the city’s church ecosystem, ensuring the true gospel cannot spread.

This nefarious 13, he tells Glenn, is why Mercy Culture D.C. is having such a difficult time finding a permanent building. To them, Booyens is a “radical” who must be stopped.

“We are at our fourth location now,” he says, noting how evictions keep rolling in because his church is consistently labeled “too political” for standing against abortion and gender-transitioning procedures for children.

“[D.C.] is different than other cities. In this city, that which is evil often is led by the church.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Washington dc, Christianity, Church 

Jennifer Welch recently unleashed a tirade against Christian homeschooling families, calling homeschooling “trickle-down stupidity” and a “fundamental crazy Christian problem” and calling parents with traditional values “the worst, worst, worst.” She even dismissed the decision to homeschool as selfish.

Welch isn’t an education researcher or a homeschooling expert. She’s a progressive podcaster whose “I’ve Had It” podcast has built a large audience by channeling liberal anger at conservatives into viral commentary. Her latest target just happened to be Christian homeschool families. But her latest broadside is still worth answering, if only to correct the caricature she presented of millions of families who have chosen a different path.

Welch’s comments reveal a deeper, increasingly common assumption: the belief that educational institutions are better equipped than parents to shape children.

As a serious Christian who was homeschooled from kindergarten through 12th grade and intends to homeschool my own two children, I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, Welch’s contempt for families like mine is a reminder of exactly why I will never hand my children over to what have become taxpayer-funded ideological institutions.

The irony is hard to miss. At a time of collapsing birth rates, declining academic achievement, and a culture struggling to pass on its moral inheritance, America needs more strong families willing to invest their time, resources, and lives in raising the next generation.

Yet instead of encouraging those families, Welch chooses to mock them.

Here are three reasons Welch couldn’t be more wrong about families like mine.

1. Homeschoolers outperform their peers in nearly every measure

Study after study has found that homeschoolers outperform their peers across a wide range of academic measures. The facts simply don’t support Welch’s dismissive caricature of homeschooling or her claim that it produces “trickle-down stupidity.” Homeschooled students consistently perform well in standardized testing, reading, language arts, math, science, and social studies. Research has also found that homeschooled adults tend to be highly engaged in their communities and successful in higher education and professional life.

Interestingly enough, there were at least 16 U.S. presidents who received part or all of their education at home through their parents or tutors, which was a more common practice in early America.

Public schooling, by comparison, is a relatively recent invention — and one that is increasingly failing America’s students. If we’re going to question an educational model, perhaps we should begin with the one producing declining test scores and growing dissatisfaction.

If Welch believes homeschooling produces “trickle-down stupidity,” she’s overlooking a remarkable list of accomplished homeschool graduates. In addition to presidents, homeschooling has helped produce notable entrepreneurs, athletes, military leaders, and scholars for generations. More recently, figures such as Tim Tebow, Charlie Kirk, Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and Bethany Hamilton demonstrate that an education at home is hardly a barrier to excellence.

RELATED: Education without ‘schooling’: Why a godly home is the best place for children to learn and thrive

Heritage Art/Getty Images

2. Homeschooling puts our children’s needs before our own

Welch calls homeschooling “child abuse” and “selfish,” then goes on to admit she cannot imagine spending that much time with her own children: “For me personally, it was that I would have gotten up on my hands and knees and strapped them to my back and crawled to get them to school every day just to get them where I wasn’t.”

It’s difficult to square those remarks with the claim that homeschooling parents are the selfish ones.

Parents who educate their children at home invest thousands of dollars in curriculum, books, and educational resources while often sacrificing an entire income so one parent can teach full-time. They willingly make those financial and personal sacrifices because they believe giving their children a strong education, solid character, and a biblical worldview is worth far more than the cost.

This is exactly why, long before we ever started dating, my husband and I had each independently decided that homeschooling would be non-negotiable for our future family. If we couldn’t agree on homeschooling or Christian school for our children, it would have been a deal-breaker. That’s how deeply we care about raising children who love God, love their country, think critically, and become exceptionally well educated.

That isn’t selfish. It’s putting our children’s needs ahead of our own.

3. Parents — not the government — should raise children

Welch’s comments reveal a deeper, increasingly common assumption: the belief that educational institutions are better equipped than parents to shape children. But our children don’t belong to the state, to cultural elites, or to government institutions. Parents bear the primary responsibility for raising them. That isn’t simply a Christian conviction; it’s one of the foundations of a free society.

The Bible commands parents to teach their children diligently, pass on the faith, and train them in wisdom and truth, especially in a culture that has lost its bearings. Homeschooling is one way families can faithfully live out those convictions. As the late preacher Voddie Baucham famously warned, “If we continue to send our children to Caesar for their education, we need to stop being surprised when they come home as Romans.”

Whenever people ask why my husband and I plan to homeschool our children, the conversation almost inevitably ends with the same question: “How will they socialize?” — as though homeschoolers spend their childhood hidden away from society.

My own experience was exactly the opposite. I interacted with people of all ages and walks of life through church, sports, music lessons, homeschool co-ops, volunteer opportunities, and countless experiences outside the walls of a traditional classroom.

I still remember living and working in Washington, D.C., and watching people’s jaws drop when I told them I had been homeschooled.

“But you’re so normal?”

Exactly.

Homeschooling isn’t about hiding children from the world. It’s about preparing them to enter it with strong convictions, intellectual curiosity, and a sense of purpose.

Jennifer Welch is free to mock families like mine. We’ll keep raising our children according to our convictions — and we’ll let the results speak for themselves.

​Biblical worldview, Charlie kirk, Christian school, Serena williams, Simone biles, Tim tebow, Traditional values, Homeschooling, Education, Christian living, Indoctrination, Faith 

For decades, Hollywood fed us a steady diet of tracksuit-wearing Gambino soldiers whining about their mothers and cartoonishly tattooed cartel enforcers threatening to dissolve people in vats of premium tequila.

But those legacy brands are officially losing market share to a heavily armed, highly aggressive corporate competitor that weaponizes car horns to deafen the opposition. International syndicate networks tied directly to India are systematically restructuring the geography of global street violence, proving that globalization works beautifully for extortion rackets too.

By establishing these isolated, closed-off cultural zones, these factions maintain a fierce allegiance to old-world tribal hierarchies.

Playing ‘Hard Ball’

California serves as the primary battleground for a ruthless wave of Indian organized crime tearing through the state. These syndicates use major metropolitan hubs as operations bases for massive drug trafficking corridors and organized intimidation schemes. Federal agents recently dismantled a major cell during Operation Hard Ball, arresting 11 Indian operatives across targeted raids in Los Angeles and Sacramento.

Investigators seized massive stockpiles of high-grade narcotics, automatic weapons, and cash, exposing a highly sophisticated network built for domination rather than minor street theft. This aggressive expansion shows exactly how foreign syndicates import overseas violence directly into the heart of American suburban communities. India is best known for bowel-blasting street food and a population of drivers apparently trained exclusively in demolition derbies. The American public would do well to update its perspective — fast. That goes for the rest of the West too, because this brand of trouble spans continents.

The expansion strategy mimics that of a tech startup, rapidly scaling operations across Europe and the Great White North. Take Portugal, for instance. The historic streets of Lisbon and the sunny coastal regions of the Algarve are currently experiencing an influx of Punjab-themed turf wars. Rival Indian syndicates are actively fighting over localized human smuggling routes and synthetic drug distribution rights, turning once-peaceful European plazas into active combat zones.

RELATED: A Memphis mom was fired for telling the truth about crime; now she’s fighting back

Sen. Marsha Blackburn/Austin Johnson/Getty Images

Canada war zone

Meanwhile, Canada has become something of a war zone. In the suburban sprawl of Surrey, British Columbia, and the Greater Toronto Area, daylight drive-by shootings are now a standard feature. These are high-volume tactical ambushes executed on public streets with automatic weapons.

Organized crime expert Martin Purbrick notes that the massive Indian diaspora across the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States provides the perfect camouflage for foreign syndicates. Because these criminal networks integrate effortlessly into pre-existing social and cultural enclaves, they remain entirely invisible to outside law enforcement.

This insulating effect is particularly troubling in the United States, where a massive influx of Indian nationals flood the country utilizing heavily abused H-1B visa programs, fraudulent tech certifications, and rubber-stamped degrees from fake universities to set up illicit cash-heavy operations under the guise of legitimate business.

For those who argue that these people are simply desperate migrants seeking a better life, I would argue that if an individual is entirely comfortable breaking federal immigration laws and committing systemic document fraud just to enter the country, there is absolutely no reason to believe he will suddenly develop a moral conscience and stop breaking the law once he is safely inside.

Clannish communities

And once inside, the immediate consequences are clear. In Texas, suburban stretches outside Dallas and Houston have been completely overrun by waves of rapid migration. The sudden demographic shift is sobering because it features a total lack of assimilation. Instead of adopting local Texan culture, these highly clannish Indian communities stubbornly lock themselves into insular, self-governing pockets that refuse any meaningful integration with the broader American population.

This refusal to assimilate allows them to import third-world values directly into respectable neighborhoods from a nation where female genital mutilation, forced child marriages, and primitive honor killings are routine societal practices. By establishing these isolated, closed-off cultural zones, these factions maintain a fierce allegiance to old-world tribal hierarchies. This absolute rejection of Western legal and social standards provides a protected operational base for crime syndicates, allowing them to enforce their own brutal brand of street justice entirely outside the reach of American law.

Normalized savagery

When a syndicate recruits enforcers raised in an environment where killing your own sibling is considered a legitimate way to preserve family reputation, putting a bullet in someone’s head to settle a drug debt becomes second nature. This normalized savagery feeds directly into the operational tactics used on streets in America and beyond.

Modern law enforcement agencies are forced to adapt to a criminal structure that operates like a multinational corporation rather than a traditional street corner crew. The hierarchy relies on distinct, siloed departments handling recruitment, international money laundering, transport logistics, and tactical intimidation. The primary advantage these syndicates maintain is their ability to exploit the immigrant communities they embed themselves within. Victims of extortion may refuse to contact authorities due to targeted threats directed at their relatives back in the homeland.

With over 3 million Indian nationals now residing in America, the scale of this blind spot is staggering. While the multiculturalist consensus assumes the vast majority are law-abiding, it is past time to acknowledge the harsh reality. A significant and growing number are not, having entered the country through illicit, fraudulent, or entirely illegal means. It is precisely this undercurrent of lawlessness that provides the perfect, impenetrable human shield, enabling foreign thugs to operate with total impunity on American soil.

​India, Immigration, Culture, Organized crime, Canada, Crime 

Latino voters overwhelmingly support requiring government-issued photo ID to vote.

A Poll conducted by Pew Research Center confirmed that 82% of Latino voters in the United States approve such a requirement. The SAVE Act would codify the popular supermajority opinion on voter identification into law, but while the House has passed it multiple times, it has stalled in the Senate.

As citizens, Latinos want to protect the democratic republic that has blessed their lives so richly.

It should be no surprise that Latino voters support the key feature of the SAVE Act.

First, immigrant voters highly value their citizenship and the right to vote that it conveys to them. It takes at least seven years of legal presence in the U.S. to become a citizen, and those who have gone through that process value what they learned and who they became in the process.

They are proud and patriotic and zealous to preserve the system they have adopted and mastered. They do not take their rights as citizens lightly, and they do not want noncitizens to vote. Second, immigrant voters highly value the rule of law, which they recognize as the main thing that makes the United States what it is — the best place in the world to work and build a prosperous and free life.

While writing my book, “The New Pilgrims: How Immigrants are Renewing America’s Faith and Values,” I interviewed many immigrants who specifically explained that they moved to America for the purpose of coming under the rule of law. They understand that no justice, no equal protection under law, is possible without it.

They can also articulate how lawlessness and cheating undermine prosperity in their home countries. They understand that the land of the free and home of the brave persists because of America’s deep cultural commitment to obeying the law. They understand how illegal voting would undermine the very thing they value most about life in America.

Third, Latino immigrants, whether they are here legally or illegally, do not want noncitizens to vote in our elections. While the vast majority of illegal immigrants in America lead disciplined lives characterized by arduous labor, careful observance of the law, and moral practices such as church attendance, Latino immigrants recognize that there is a criminal element among many new immigrants that they do not want to empower in the United States.

Many of the most vulnerable illegal immigrants fled to the United States to get away from such people in their countries of origin. They do not want to risk arrest, imprisonment, or deportation by voting illegally, and they certainly do not want the criminal element to do so.

Hispanic immigrants in the United States who have become citizens have a terrific record of success in building the American dream of prosperity and freedom.

RELATED: Where is the outrage over our stolen birthright?

Douglas Rissing/Getty Images

Many current U.S. government officials and members of Congress illustrate spectacular success stories of immigrants and children of immigrants from Latin America: Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), not to mention Sonia Sotomayor, Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.), and many others on both sides of the aisle.

Stories from industry, business, education, the military, the clergy, and every institution and profession in our society offer a literally never-ending story of Latino success in America. The system works beautifully for those who pay the price to become citizens and raise their children to love our country.

As citizens, Latinos want to protect the democratic republic that has blessed their lives so richly.

Latino voters are not a monolith. They voted for the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates in nearly equal numbers in 2024. In future elections, they will vote for the candidates that best represent their values and support them in Congress.

It’s time for both Democrat and Republican senators to represent the overwhelming Latino opinion and vote to pass the SAVE Act now, while there is still time to rescue America’s political integrity.

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

​2028 election, American dream, Congress, Immigration, Legal immigrants, Opinion & analysis, Pew research center, Rule of law, Save act, Voter fraud 

On July 4, the $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened its doors to the public — a public that, according to a letter in a library exhibit, Roosevelt felt was similar to cattle.

In the letter written to Charles Davenport at Cold Spring Harbor in his own hand, he explained that “society has no business permitting degenerates to reproduce their kind.”

Roosevelt wrote in the letter, “We have to refuse to apply human beings the same elementary knowledge every farmer applies to his own stock. And that’s madness.”

“The farmers who let all the increase come from the worst stock would be threatened as fit inmates for an asylum,” he added.

Roosevelt also wrote that the “inescapable duty of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his blood behind him in the world.”

“We have no business permitting the perpetuation of a citizen of the wrong type,” he said.

Like most progressives, Glenn points out that Roosevelt made it clear that he believed in “categories.”

“This fight is about categories,” he says. “It’s about, you know, the collective and not the individual in his own hand to the director of the Carnegie-funded scientific institute. This was not the fringe. This is the cutting edge. This is the settled science that you must pay attention to of the time.”

“Theodore Roosevelt believed in the science and in the expert and in the government strong enough and clever enough to act upon what the experts knew. That’s progressivism all in one letter,” he explains.

“Now, was he great with the national parks? Yeah, he was great on national parks. Was he great on the individual and the man in the arena? Yeah, he was brave. He was funny. He read a book every day. A book every day. He took a bullet in Milwaukee and finished the speech. He set aside 230 million acres. That’s not the argument,” he continues.

“The argument is what he thought the American government was for,” he adds.

Glenn explains that Roosevelt also believed that “property is subject to the community’s right to regulate its use” and that government officials were the “stewards of the public welfare” rather than “servants of the law.”

“In a speech he called a ‘Charter for Democracy,’ he proposed when a court strikes down a progressive statute, the people should be able to vote to overturn the court. Former president of the United States in 1912 proposing a popular recall of judicial decisions. That’s not constitutional. That’s not how it works,” Glenn says.

“Theodore Roosevelt is exactly what we’re seeing. He’s just dressed up in prettier clothes. He’s not a despicable man where Woodrow Wilson is just a despicable man,” he says, adding, “And I don’t think he actually saw what was coming.”

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​National parks, Presidential library, Progressivism, Theodore roosevelt, Woodrow wilson, The glenn beck program 

A couple of months have gone by since the last major security threat to plague Apple’s ecosystem, so we’re due for another round. This time, a fatal flaw has been identified for a very specific group of iPhone models, and unlike most bugs we cover here on Blaze Media, this one costs real money to fix. Here’s everything you need to know.

The flaw

The fatal flaw in question is a BootROM exploit known as usbliter8. For curious minds, BootROM is the on-device component that’s required to boot up a device, or turn it on from a power-off state.

It can’t be resolved by downloading a future iOS update.

This system relies on a “chain of trust” to validate a device’s hardware and software every time the phone boots up to ensure that all components are secure and uncompromised on a cybersecurity level. If BootROM is compromised in any way, hackers can install unauthorized code, downgrade your phone to a less secure version of iOS, and potentially leverage other exploits to access data.

Luckily, not all iPhones are at risk. The usbliter8 exploit specifically affects Apple devices with A12 and A13 chips under the hood. Drilling down deeper, these iPhone models are in danger along with several Apple Watches. Check the list to see if your phone is included:

iPhone XRiPhone XiPhone XS MaxiPhone 11iPhone 11 ProiPhone 11 Pro MaxiPhone SE (second generation)Apple Watch Series 4Apple Watch Series 5Apple Watch SE (first generation)

If you’re not sure which iPhone you have, open the Settings app, tap on General, then About, and find the model of your phone under Model Name.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw

The problem

What makes this flaw so tricky is that it takes place on the hardware level. Unlike software-related bugs that can be patched with a quick update directly from Apple, usbliter8 is attached to the chip inside your smartphone.

That means it can’t be resolved by downloading a future iOS update. The problem will remain on your handset for what’s left of its life.

The solution

So how do you fix a flaw that can’t be repaired with new software?

There’s only one solution, and you probably won’t like it.

RELATED: Dems launch new push to control more of what you do in your car

SergeyBitos/Getty Images

You have to upgrade your iPhone to a new model outside of the affected devices. In other words, if your phone is on the threat list, you need to replace your vulnerable device with an iPhone 12 from 2020 or newer.

The bright side

For many iPhone owners with these older models, this may be a hard pill to swallow. New phones are expensive, and they’re only growing less affordable, thanks to the RAM shortages brought on by AI.

So let’s say you can’t or don’t want to upgrade to a new iPhone to fix the problem. Should you be worried about someone hacking into your device?

By all accounts, the risk of an usbliter8 actually happening in a real-life situation is slim. In order to carry out an attack, the hacker would need physical access to your device, and he would have to be able to put the phone into Device Firmware Upgrade mode. As long as you keep your phone on your person or in a bag at all times, you’re probably safe.

Bonus tip: Never plug your phone directly into a public charging cable you might find at a restaurant, airport, rest stop, hospital, or a college campus. Sometimes these cables are tampered with or comprised in a way that exposes your device to bad actors. If you must charge your phone in public, bring your own cable and charging brick that plugs directly into a wall outlet.

That said, in the event that your phone is stolen or accessed via usbliter8, there isn’t much that can stop a hacker from breaking in. The hacker doesn’t need your password to access DFU mode and install malicious code. However, usbliter8 can’t break into encrypted data on an iPhone on its own, so always use a complex password and biometric authentication, such as FaceID or TouchID. Those are your best defenses.

​Iphone, Security, Hackers, Ios, Tech 

The U.S. Department of Homeland security said a video it posted on X Thursday shows Canadian “illegal alien” — Kaitlyn Tracey — slapping a teenager.

The DHS added that the “maple leaf menace” — who was arrested after the alleged assault in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, earlier this month and then placed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — “has no business being in our country.”

‘Our message is clear: If you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.’

The video the DHS posted shows a red-haired female with tattoos and wearing a black baseball hat appearing to twice slap another female on a boardwalk and then walking away with a male.

Police said: “The female suspect began yelling at the female juvenile over patriotic-colored sweatpants with political wording. The female suspect was then seen on video striking the juvenile female, once to the body and once to the face, with an open hand. The female suspect then left the scene without being identified.”

While the victim of the alleged assault seen on the video was wearing shorts, she does appear to be wearing a tank top with the numbers “250” on the front — presumably in regard to America’s 250th anniversary celebrated on July 4. The incident occurred July 3.

The following video contains a partial clip of the alleged slaps:

RELATED: Canadian female, 33, accused of slapping teen girl wearing pro-Trump clothing on NJ boardwalk. Now suspect is in ICE custody.

Police department detectives conducted an investigation, and police said they identified Tracey on July 6 as the suspect in connection with the incident.

Tracey was charged with simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, and obstruction, police said, adding that Tracey early on Monday was taken into custody without incident, processed, and transported to Ocean County Jail.

Blaze News on Wednesday morning checked ICE records, which show Tracey is in ICE custody at its Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, N.J. The DHS told Blaze News that is where Tracey “will remain pending her immigration proceedings.”

“She entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa set to expire on September 6, 2024,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “Our message is clear: If you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

Fox News said a man identifying himself on social media as Tracey’s husband, Matthew Geroni, disputed the allegations in an interview with NJ.com and said the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

Fox News added that Geroni told NJ.com: “A person like Kate does not belong in any facility. My wife has never been in trouble in her entire life. She’s never had any kind of situation like this. This one little situation that was really a nothingburger when it happened has been blown so out of control by conservatives online that it has caused my wife to be put in a detention center.”

More from Fox News:

Geroni also posted several emotional videos to social media after Tracey’s arrest, saying he was trying to find an immigration attorney and pleading for help.

“I need help. I don’t know what to do,” he said in one video. “I need an immigration lawyer. … I need my wife.”

Geroni also said he created a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Tracey’s legal defense and immigration costs before it was removed from the platform. Before it was taken down, the fundraiser said it had been organized by friends to help cover Tracey’s legal expenses and immigration-related costs.

In another video, Geroni claimed the campaign was removed after what he described as a coordinated mass reporting campaign by a “Facebook group of MAGA supporters.”

But Fox News said a GoFundMe spokesperson disputed Geroni’s claim and noted that the fundraiser was removed for violating the platform’s policies.

“GoFundMe’s terms of service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” the spokesperson said, according to the news network. “Consistent with this long-standing policy, the fundraiser was removed from the platform and fully refunded.”

Fox News said Francis R. Hodgson, Tracey’s attorney, declined to comment; court records show Tracey is scheduled to appear in Ocean County Superior Court on Aug. 4.

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​Crime, Canada, New jersey, Department of homeland security, Immigration and customs enforcement, Politics 

Major League Baseball was determined to wrap this year’s All-Star Game in red, white, and blue. But according to BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock, it felt less like a celebration of America and more like a carefully scripted PR campaign.

“They tried way too hard to have this great patriotic moment last night,” Whitlock says, pointing out that instead, it “came off as fake and gay.”

“They want you to fake it, and they want you to be as fake as they are. And so they had players standing on the field holding cards and pretending to interact with kids and holding sparklers, and Patti LaBelle sang one of the worst national anthems in the history of All-Star games,” he explains.

“America has slid off the rails, and you’re just trying to put a happy face on this, you’re trying to reconnect people to Americana and some sort of pride satisfaction with America, but it can’t be done. It can’t be faked. It can’t be manufactured. And that’s what it was last night,” he continues.

Whitlock also notes that the MLB “just spent the last month on its knees kissing the LGBTQ’s rear end and stuffing Pride Night down our throat.”

“It’s going to take real work, not nostalgic moments with players holding sparklers in between innings, celebrating the 250th birthday of America in a fake way,” he says.

“Patriotism is real and organic, and it’s about shared values and people that take pride, real pride … in their country,” he continues, “And Major League Baseball doesn’t do that. Professional sports don’t do that. Professional sports for the last decade have been a tool to denigrate America.”

“And you don’t just get to, ‘Well, we’re going to stop doing that and pivot, and now we’re patriotic again.’ No, no, no, no. The only way you get to do that is when you repent for what you’ve been doing for the last decade and a half, two decades,” he adds.

He recalls the MLB’s promotion of DEI, racial idolatry, Black Lives Matter slogans — and “Pride.”

Whitlock explains that the MLB participates in not the Christian culture of the country, but in being a “safe space” for “sexual perversion.”

“That’s why they can’t now turn around and say, ‘Hey, we’re about, you remember all that nostalgic stuff in the ’80s and ’90s. We’re about that. We’re about family.’ No, you’re not. You’re about the mirage. You’re about same-sex marriage. You’re not about what made America great,” he says.

“The whole thing was fake,” he says, adding, “I’m going to keep it 1,000% real.”

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​Fearless with jason whitlock, Mlb, Pride month, Fearless 

One of the most influential military strategists of the 20th century, U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd, developed a decision-making process known as the OODA loop: observe, orient, decide, act.

His model emphasized a simple but powerful principle: Move quickly, but only after understanding the strategic environment.

Nations that lead biotechnology will enjoy not only economic advantages but also strategic leverage during future global crises. China understands this.

The most important step is often “orient.” It requires leaders to look beyond the immediate problem, understand the broader consequences of their actions, and anticipate unintended outcomes. When leaders skip that step, they may solve today’s problem while creating a much larger one tomorrow.

President Donald Trump’s recent effort to reduce prescription drug prices illustrates that challenge.

One of the administration’s most significant health care initiatives is the adoption of a most-favored-nation pricing model. Under this policy, the United States would tie the prices of certain prescription drugs to the lower prices paid by selected foreign countries.

The objective is understandable. Americans often pay substantially more for prescription medicines than patients in Europe or Canada. Reducing those costs would help millions of families.

But sound public policy requires looking beyond immediate savings.

Economists have long recognized that government-imposed price controls often reduce investment and supply over time. In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon imposed broad wage and price controls in an effort to combat inflation.

Instead, the country experienced stagflation — the painful combination of high inflation and slow economic growth. Energy price controls contributed to gasoline shortages by reducing incentives for increased production. Rent-control policies in cities such as New York have similarly discouraged new housing construction, contributing to housing shortages.

Pharmaceuticals operate under similar economic realities.

Developing a single breakthrough drug often requires more than a decade of research, thousands of unsuccessful experiments, and billions of dollars in investment. The profits from successful medicines finance the research that produces tomorrow’s cures.

If government policies significantly reduce those returns, companies are unlikely to stop producing today’s medicines. More likely, they will reduce research and development spending, slowing the pace of innovation.

RELATED: Big Pharma’s miracle drugs have a nasty side effect

Bagira22/Getty Images

That slowdown would be both an economic and national security concern.

Biotechnology has become one of the world’s most strategically important industries. It influences health care, agriculture, artificial intelligence, military medicine, pandemic preparedness, and protection against biological threats.

Nations that lead biotechnology will enjoy not only economic advantages but also strategic leverage during future global crises.

China understands this.

Just as Beijing has invested aggressively in artificial intelligence, critical minerals, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing, it has identified biotechnology as a strategic national priority.

Between 2016 and 2021, the market capitalization of Chinese biotechnology companies grew to approximately $300 billion, while the Chinese government invested heavily in research centers, biotechnology hubs, and advanced scientific education.

The numbers tell an even more compelling story.

According to the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, China completed more than 7,100 clinical drug trials in 2024, compared with roughly 6,000 in the United States. China’s share of global clinical trials has grown from approximately 1% in 2009 to nearly 30% today, while America’s share has declined.

Chinese scientists now produce roughly 60% of the world’s most-cited biotechnology research papers, and China accounts for 22% of international pharmaceutical and medical technology patents — an increase of nearly 380% over the past decade.

China also graduates approximately twice as many STEM students as the United States each year.

These statistics show that China views biotechnology as a critical component of future economic and military power. The United States, by contrast, risks treating one of its greatest strategic advantages primarily as a domestic pricing issue.

That should concern every American.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities created by dependence on foreign supply chains for medicines and medical equipment. Imagine a future pandemic — or a deliberate biological attack — in which America depends not merely on foreign manufacturing but also on foreign research, patents, advanced therapies, and biotechnology innovation.

The leverage China now enjoys through its dominance of critical minerals could become far greater if it also dominates the technologies needed to develop vaccines, precision medicine, or defenses against biological weapons.

None of this means prescription drug prices should remain high. Americans deserve affordable medicines.

The challenge is finding policies that lower costs without discouraging the innovation that has made the United States the global leader in biomedical research.

Trump’s leadership style has often been characterized by speed — moving rapidly to implement broad policy changes and challenge long-standing assumptions.

Speed can be an advantage in business, where quick decisions often create competitive advantages. But governing a nation is fundamentally different from managing a corporation. Public policy affects industries, scientific leadership, national security, and future generations.

Decisions that appear successful in the short term can produce unintended strategic consequences years later.

Boyd understood this better than most. The goal was never simply to act quickly. It was to understand the entire battlefield before deciding how to act.

America should pursue reforms that make prescription drugs more affordable. But before adopting policies that could reduce investment in biotechnology, policymakers should pause long enough to complete Boyd’s “orient” step.

RELATED: Eli Lilly strikes a $3 billion Chinese drug deal

Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In an era of growing strategic competition with China, protecting America’s leadership in biotechnology may prove as important to national security as maintaining superiority in the air, at sea, in space, or in cyberspace.

Sometimes the most dangerous consequences of a decision are not the ones we see today.

They are the ones we fail to anticipate tomorrow.

​Drug prices, Donald trump, China, Prescription medications, Big pharma, Stem students, Biotechnology, Covid, Opinion & analysis 

A legal battle has cast an unflattering light on the ugly business of surrogacy as well as on the eugenicist mentality that predominates in Canada — a country whose health care system was founded by a eugenicist, where euthanasia is now a leading cause of death, and where there are no legal limits on abortion.

According to a damning new report from the National Post in which the names of parties involved were withheld, a homosexual couple is suing a surrogate mother who two years ago refused their request to abort the baby boy over whom they now have legal custody.

‘They are suing the woman who brought their son to them.’

The lawsuit, filed in Ontario Superior Court in May, alleges that the surrogate mother failed to keep the gay couple informed about the health status of the baby, endangered the baby, caused the homosexuals so much emotional distress that one missed work for two months, and violated the plaintiffs’ confidentiality, reported the Post.

The target of the lawsuit, a resident of Ontario’s Muskoka region who works as a correctional officer, has denied all of the allegations and told the Post, “You know I’m a single mom, you know I have a daughter, and you’re basically suing me for my house. It seems very s***ty, it’s just awful.”

“I just feel used,” continued the woman, who claimed that the plaintiffs have indicated they are seeking roughly $600,000 in damages. “They didn’t get the perfect child they wanted, and they threw me away.”

It is unlawful under Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act to pay a woman to be a surrogate mother or to pay to arrange the services of a surrogate mother. Surrogacy is not, however, prohibited “so long as a surrogate mother in Canada makes this decision for altruistic reasons (i.e., without financial or other gain).”

A surrogate mother can only be repaid for out-of-pocket costs directly related to her pregnancy.

RELATED: ‘There is no mama’: How a viral video accidentally exposed the true cost of gay adoption

BSIP/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Image

The surrogate mother targeted by the lawsuit told the Post that she became interested in surrogacy after seeing a pair of close friends face reproductive obstacles.

After her profile was shared on the website of the referral organization Surrogacy in Canada Online, the woman was inundated with messages from individuals seeking her services, she claimed. Following an extensive screening process, she ultimately entered a contract with the homosexual couple now suing her.

According to the surrogate mother who underwent in-vitro fertilization with embryos produced with a donor egg and each of the homosexual’s sperm, her relationship with the couple was positive until June 2024, when she informed them that an ultrasound indicated the baby had a cleft lip and potentially a cleft palate and minor heart defect as well.

The couple said in a letter reviewed by the Post, “Considering that medical tests indicate that the fetus has, or is likely to have, a genetic, chromosomal or other abnormality or defect, and in accordance with article 8.5 (a) of our surrogacy agreement … we want to inform you of our wish that the pregnancy be terminated.”

“Although very difficult, this decision is free and informed,” added the couple, which is being represented by Jonathan Lancaster, a litigator at the Toronto-headquartered firm Fasken.

While proposed legislation criminalizing the coercion of pregnant women to abort their babies was defeated in 2010, Juliet Guichon, a bioethics professor at the University of Calgary, told the Post that Canadian law makes clear that the decision of whether to abort a baby ultimately rests with the expectant mother.

The surrogate mother refused to kill the 22-week-old baby over what she regarded as a superficial condition.

After hearing from doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital that the baby was generally healthy, the homosexual couple allegedly greenlit the continuation of the pregnancy.

The relationship between the surrogate mother and the homosexual couple continued to deteriorate when the woman decided to keep to the original plan of having the baby delivered at home by midwives.

The surrogate mother noted that the child had breathing problems on delivery but was provided oxygen by the midwives and then promptly taken to a hospital.

The homosexual couple who sought the baby’s death ended up taking him home, then effectively suspended contact with the surrogate, according to the mother.

Under Ontario’s All Families Are Equal Act, “the child ceases to be the child of the surrogate and the surrogate ceases to be a parent of the child” if the surrogate has entered into a surrogacy agreement before the child is conceived, has received independent legal advice in advance of entering the agreement, and the child is conceived through assisted reproduction.

The surrogate mother only enjoys the rights and responsibilities of a parent with respect to the child until the baby is 7 days old.

RELATED: Britain’s first homosexual ‘parent’ via baby purchase charged with rape, sexual exploitation

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

After repeated requests for her outstanding expenses — including for lost income and transportation costs — allegedly went unanswered, the surrogate mother attempted to take the homosexual couple to small-claims court only to discover that her surrogacy contract required the resolution of such disputes by arbitration.

‘The practice of surrogacy itself cannot be reconciled with the dignity and rights of the two persons it most directly concerns.’

The Post reported that the homosexual couple subsequently filed a lawsuit, alleging that the mother put the baby’s health at risk by negligent behavior and by “failing to follow the (parents’) direction regarding decisions affecting the fetus’ medical care”; violated their confidentiality; and caused them emotional distress.

Blaze News did not immediately receive a response from the couple’s attorney.

“What I find most difficult in this is they are suing the woman who brought their son to them,” Sally Rhoads-Heinrich, the owner of Surrogacy in Canada Online, told the Post. “How is their son going to feel some day if he learns that?”

Guichon, who emphasized that the homosexual couple sought to end the baby’s life over a medical condition that “can be completely overcome by surgery and therapy,” noted that “the question arises as to whether it is in the best interests of the child to be raised by these people.”

A political declaration calling for the global abolition of surrogacy was launched at a high-level side event at the U.N. Human Rights Council last month co-hosted by the Vatican and the governments of Italy, Chile, and Cameroon.

“The practice of surrogacy itself cannot be reconciled with the dignity and rights of the two persons it most directly concerns,” said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.

“The human person can never be the basis of a commercial contract. Every child has the right to an origin that is fully human. And under the convention on the rights of the child, the child also has the right to preserve his or her identity and as far as possible to know and be cared for by his or her parents,” continued Balestrero. “Surrogacy equally violates the dignity of the woman. It is rarely the privileged who carry children for others. The market of surrogacy is built overwhelmingly on the material need of women in situations of poverty and economic vulnerability.”

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​Abortion, Canada, Eugenics, Birth defect, Cleft palate, Ontario, Homosexual, Surrogacy, Surrogate, Pregnancy, Lgbt, Radicalism, Politics 

Narcissism has given itself a new name: socialism.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the generation that has grown up scrolling through social media feeds tends to be self-obsessed. This is evident in fewer marriages, lower birth rates, and a greater likelihood of mental illness. Politically, it is reflected in the alarming percentage of young people who have favorable views of socialism.

Socialism is rising in popularity because it allows today’s youth to engage in the self-absorption of influencer culture while also enjoying the faux moral superiority of communist propaganda.

Over the past few months, members of the Democratic Socialists of America have found success in political races across America. Whether it’s Zohran Mamdani’s cadre of candidates in New York City or Colorado’s Melat Kiros, it seems like no place is safe from the DSA’s growing influence.

The party’s prospects improved markedly after Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race last year. When he launched his campaign in October 2024, the DSA’s city chapter maintained a steady membership of about 5,000 and had only about 50,000 members nationally. But after Mamdani’s victory, NYC’s chapter tripled, while the national party doubled, hitting the 100,000 mark in February.

This happened as the DSA shifted its recruitment strategy, no longer relying on anger but preying on the egocentrism of today’s youth as it ramped up its focus on college campuses.

The Mamdani campaign’s many viral moments helped turn out the youth vote. His strong social media presence carried him across the finish line in America’s largest city. Other DSA candidates such as Claire Valdez and Abdul El-Sayed adopted Mamdani’s winning strategy.

They are gaining social status and expanding their voting blocs by putting themselves at the forefront of their campaigns.

The DSA candidates are having success because they aren’t painting themselves as politicians — they’re becoming influencers.

Their rallies look like nightclubs; they surround themselves with celebrities; and their TikToks show them enjoying an idyllic, manicured vision of the cities they represent. Their young followers aren’t being shown homeless encampments or violent drug addicts attacking their fellow citizens. Instead, DSA candidates shield them from the dangerous effects of the failed policies they would only accelerate.

I often hear older conservatives who grew up during or shortly after the Cold War ask the question, “Can’t these socialist kids see their city crumbling around them?” Indeed, they can. They see the graffiti, the unsafe public transportation, and the street takeovers. They choose to ignore these realities or blame them on “capitalism” as they look with awe at Zohran Mamdani joyfully walking shoulder to shoulder with his fellow New Yorkers on his way to get a poppy-seed bagel.

They’re caught up in his smile as he reads to a class of preschool children or encourages people to relinquish private property for the greater good.

RELATED: The media’s Democratic cover-up is collapsing

Chuwy/Getty Images

The DSA operates like any social media influencer, showing its audience how good life could be if they buy the right product, and in this case, that product is a trendy, Instagram-ready brand of socialism.

Perhaps no one has embodied the socialist influencer mindset more robustly than Hasan Piker. He has amassed a large following through daily, hours-long live Twitch streams, where he talks about communist theory and chats with his ever-growing group of followers.

Piker has been constantly seen with liberal elites and even made an appearance at Vanity Fair’s Oscar party, where he dressed like a chic Chairman Mao. He posts photos of himself thoughtfully “reading” Lenin or wearing expensive suits at Free Palestine rallies.

But for all of Piker’s radicalism, such as saying that the streets should “soak in red capitalist blood,” he could fairly be described as a communist MrBeast.

Piker and Mamdani represent the sinister narcissism underpinning the burgeoning socialist movement. Young people are obsessed with themselves: A recent Morning Consult poll found that 86% of respondents want to be influencers, the fourth most popular career aspiration for Americans between the ages of 13 and 38.

Socialism is rising in popularity because it allows today’s youth to engage in the self-absorption of influencer culture while also enjoying the faux moral superiority of communist propaganda. It is a match made in hell.

Kids looking to build audiences need only post about abolishing ICE or implementing rent control. Never mind that their iPhones and Instagram feeds were created by the very people and corporations they rail against. What matters is that they see their own image reflected in every inch of the world.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally in The American Mind.

​Birth rates, Celebrities, Hasan piker, Homeless encampments, Influencers, Narcissism, Socialism, Zohran mamdani, Rent control, Democratic socialists of america, Opinion & analysis 

Law enforcement officials said a search warrant of a 40-year-old man’s devices led to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of child porn images and videos.

The disturbing discovery was made after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by workers at a Stater Bros. grocery store in the picturesque mountain town of Lake Arrowhead.

Surveillance video from the store allegedly showed Quinn dropping the microSD memory card.

A worker found a microSD memory card and turned it over to police in June 2026.

Deputies reviewed the card and found “thousands of digital media depicting child pornography” that included “infants and juveniles performing sexual acts.” Some of the media was generated by artificial intelligence, but others were real.

Investigators were able to connect the card to Adam James Quinn, a resident of Lake Arrowhead. Surveillance video from the store allegedly showed Quinn dropping the microSD memory card.

Deputies then performed a search warrant at Quinn’s residence and seized other microSD cards as well as hard drives, flash drives, laptops, other computers, and his phone.

They allegedly found hundreds of thousands of child porn files on the devices.

Quinn was arrested on Wednesday and charged with possession of child pornography.

RELATED: 4 teachers and 1 cop in small Alabama town arrested over child pornography, police say

Lake Arrowhead. Don Kelsen/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Police released his booking photo in hopes of obtaining other information from the public that might help their investigation.

Lake Arrowhead is a small town with about 12,000 residents located in the San Bernardino Mountains.

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​Child porn, California, Surveillance, Crime 

Last year, here in Portland, I went to an author event at my local bookstore. The book was called “On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right.” It was a memoir by Josiah Hesse.

The event description said the memoir was about Hesse’s “bleak and difficult childhood in a small, rural Evangelical community in Iowa.”

My guess is that his literary agent or his editor understood how hungry mainstream publishers are for books that attack and slander the Christian faith.

Apparently, Hesse suffered mental anguish as a child when he was told by church elders that he was going to be tortured in hell for his sins.

Breaking with his church and family while still in his teens, he struck out on his own, eventually becoming a successful writer and journalist. Now he had written a book exposing the Christian right.

Dissing Christians

Hesse was doing a national book tour. He was traveling the country doing interviews and podcasts. He had just been featured on National Public Radio.

Needless to say, the mainstream media loved this book. A full frontal attack on the Midwestern evangelicals is always welcome in their circles. Especially if the author escaped the oppression of the church and found shelter in the safe spaces of progressive liberalism.

The book event began with Josiah Hesse making a grand entrance into the bookstore’s event area.

I didn’t know what to expect from such an author in terms of appearance, but I was definitely not expecting the rock-star shag haircut, the crisp white shirt, the shimmering black dinner jacket, or the elegant cravat around his neck.

Had this guy come here on his yacht? His face had definitely been moisturized. He looked like he could be in an ABBA tribute band.

Getting to know the author

Hesse took the stage and began his talk. He described growing up as an evangelical Christian.

As a young man, he was sensitive and imaginative and didn’t fit in. His parents, meanwhile, were loyal evangelicals. His dad believed in the “end times” and the eventual rise of the Antichrist.

In his teen years, Hesse’s feelings of alienation from his family and community got progressively worse. It didn’t help matters that he developed a taste for wearing high heels and trying on his mother’s clothes.

Small-town boy

So it turns out that Josiah was gay! Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Eventually, he did what so many young gay people do: When he was old enough, he moved to the nearest big city. In this case, Denver.

There, he scraped by, working odd jobs and picking up writing gigs. Over time, he was able to develop his talent and eventually got a literary agent and published a book called “Runner’s High” at a major publishing house.

Watching him talk, he seemed like an upbeat guy. He told funny stories. He didn’t seem traumatized by his Christian upbringing. He was just gay. And now he was a successful writer who was gay.

RELATED: My search for America’s last decent public libraries

Joe McNally/Getty Images

Family ties

I also noticed the “breaking with his family” part of the story wasn’t quite as severe as promised. In his talk, he described returning home, hanging out with his dad, meeting up with old friends, reconnecting as best he could.

It was an interesting and relatable story.

So what happened to the evil Christian right? That’s what the book was supposed to be about. Where’s the trauma? Where’s the abuse? Where are the scars?

The Portland audience seemed restless and disappointed. Where was the evil? That’s what they came for. WE WANT OUR CHRISTIAN EVIL!

Not following the script

I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know for sure what’s in it. Hesse did quote some statistics during his talk.

These statistics seemed designed to reassure the anti-Christian audience that he was on their side. Trump is bad. Conservatives are neanderthals. Christians are brainwashed and in some cases predatory.

But I was skeptical. I didn’t believe Hesse was really this simpleminded. He was clearly an intelligent guy. He wasn’t super political. He didn’t hate his family, or his town, or his old friends.

He had moved away from his rural community, as any talented gay person would do. He found his people in Denver. And now he was writing books and living his best life.

Go where the money is

My guess is that his literary agent, or his editor, or maybe Hesse himself understood how hungry mainstream publishers are for books that attack and slander the Christian faith.

They especially love books that confirm the stereotype: “small-town Christians = bigots + racists.”

These memoirs are so popular that there’s a formula:

The author is abused and humiliated by the sadistic locals.The author breaks free of their bigotry and finds his way to the “good people,” i.e. college-educated liberals in coastal cities.There, the formerly oppressed author can flourish and be his true self: gay, or nonbinary, or furry, or poly-whatever.Everyone lives happily ever after.

That’s the genre that Josiah Hesse’s “On Fire for God” supposedly belongs to. (See also “Educated” by Tara Westover, another memoir with almost the exact same storyline.)

Did Josiah strictly adhere to that formula? More or less. My main impression of the author: He looked happy. His writing career was going great. He was on a national tour. He was staying in nice hotels. He was wearing a cravat.

And I’m sure his publishers got what they wanted too. Another book that confirms that educated people, good people, moral people are uniformly against the Christian right, which is apparently an ongoing threat to our nation.

The only problem is: Whenever someone writes a book about the “dangerous Christian right,” it turns out he is just describing another small town in Iowa — usually, a town where, if you actually went there, you would find kind, decent people who, when you brought up the “Christian right,” wouldn’t even know what you were talking about.

​Antichristian, Memoir, Trauma, Books, Entertainment, Faith, Memoirs, Josiah hesse, Portland, Christian right, Blake’s progress 

Most Americans assume the ingredient label tells the whole story.

But according to Ashley and Patrick Sullivan, creators of the documentary “Breaking Big Food,” that assumption is usually wrong — and they’re exposing one loophole Big Food uses to keep cheap but toxic ingredients hidden from the public.

“What would you say is maybe one ingredient that people don’t know to look for? I’ve heard a lot of people talk about seed oils and different things, but what would you say is maybe one that doesn’t get enough attention that people need to look out for?” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey asks.

“I think natural flavors can be tricky. Sometimes, they can be from naturally derived sources, but specifically if they are used in savory foods, a lot of times it can be code for MSG,” Ashley tells Stuckey.

MSG is monosodium glutamate, which Patrick explains is an “excitotoxin.”

At specific dosages, this acts as a neurotoxin to the brain.

“So think of like your Stove Top Stuffing kind of thing that has natural flavors. That ‘natural flavors’ is likely a monosodium glutamate,” Patrick says.

“You’re saying it could be in something that’s marketed as healthy, that doesn’t have any other bad ingredients, but it does have natural flavors, which honestly a lot of times I’ve kind of just resigned myself to being like, ‘Well, that’s the only thing in it then whatever,’” Stuckey says.

“But you’re saying it could be MSG,” she adds.

“Yeah, and that would be something that you kind of look at the FDA and say, ‘I think they’re asleep at the wheel here on yet another issue regarding food labeling,’” Patrick says. “I think most Americans want to know, they want to educate themselves. They want to feed their families healthy food.”

“And they’re sort of expecting the FDA, whoever is in charge of what is on the grocery store shelves, they kind of expect that the FDA has kind of done their homework,” he continues. “They’re sadly mistaken that there are loopholes like natural flavors.”

But it’s not just “natural flavors” that consumers have to worry about.

“There’s also the loopholes of like GRAS, ‘generally recognized as safe,’ where in America, you have to prove harm rather than proving safety,” Patrick says.

“So for the past 30 years, the FDA was overwhelmed, and they allowed Big Food to begin introducing new chemicals into the food supply that they allow the food companies to self regulate as well. We think that’s generally recognized as safe,” he continues.

“And as a result, you hear claims, I’m not sure if the number is correct, but there’s about 10,000 chemicals in the United States that are allowed to be used under generally recognized as safe principles,” he explains, adding, “And those same chemicals are not allowed to be used in Europe.”

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, Ashley sullivan, Breaking big food, Excitotoxin, Fda, Gras, Msg, Natural flavors, Patrick sullivan, Seed oils, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

A worker at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center was booked on suspicion of attempted murder after shooting a protester, Colorado police say.

Aurora police said protesters were blocking ICE workers’ access to the ICE facility on Thursday evening when two female protesters got into a verbal altercation with the workers and took photos of their vehicles.

She was shot in the lower part of her body, but her injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.

Brandon Booth, 42, allegedly “retrieved his personally owned pistol” and fired it at the two protesters as they walked away, striking one. He got back into his car and drove away.

Police said they were notified about the shooting around 7:30 a.m.

Booth was detained about two blocks away from the location of the shooting on Nome Street with a gun in his vehicle, police said.

The victim, who has not been identified, was described as a protester by police.

She was shot in the lower part of her body, but her injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.

Both was booked on “probable cause of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon,” according to the police statement.

A spokesperson for GEO Group, which runs the ICE facility, released a brief statement about the incident to CBS News.

“We are aware that an off-duty Aurora ICE Processing Center employee was involved in a shooting incident,” the statement reads. “This individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain called the shooting a “tragedy on all fronts” in a statement Friday.

The Colorado District Attorney’s Office for Adams and Broomfield Counties declined to comment in an email to Blaze News.

RELATED: Sex toys, other objects allegedly thrown at cops at Minneapolis ICE facility, prompting dozens of arrests — but not by DHS

The district attorney’s office said official charges would be announced after the next hearing on July 22.

“We remain committed to ensuring an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review of this case. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society — violence is not,” Chamberlain concluded.

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​Attempted murder, Immigration and customs enforcement, Protesters, Politics 

California residents are expressing shock at the discovery of a swastika and a racial slur in a message left on an elementary school fence.

The message was found outside on a fence shared between Rio Seco Elementary School and the SportsPlex in Santee near San Diego.

‘Hate has no place in our schools or community.’

Someone snapped a photo of the message and posted it to the Facebook page “All Things Happening in Santee.”

The school district said in a statement that it notified the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office and immediately took the messages down.

“The Santee School District strongly condemns acts of hate and vandalism. Recently, we discovered an offensive and hateful symbol displayed on a shared fencing area,” the statement reads in part.

An image of the message on social media shows that the slur was the N-word.

“Hate has no place in our schools or our community. We remain strictly committed to fostering safe and welcoming learning environments for all students, staff, and families,” the district continued.

The incident comes as the City of Santee continues efforts to strengthen its reputation and promote unity following past incidents involving hate groups.

KGTV-TV spoke to residents who were enjoying the city’s weekly concert series near the school.

“It’s kind of sad that that’s happening because, you know, it’s the old saying, one bad apple,” resident Dion Milton said. “You can’t let it spoil the whole tree.”

“My sister-in-law grew up here when this was nothing but farmland,” he added. “It has changed, and I think for the better.”

RELATED: Auto shop vandalized with racist graffiti, so the owner installed cameras. Video captured two black suspects.

Milton went on to end with a hopeful message.

“You’re going to have your few that don’t know how to love,” he added. “You just try to show them love, and maybe they’ll catch on. If they don’t, then maybe next time.”

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​Racism, Vandalism, California, Hate crime, Politics