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Republican Rep. Randy Fine of Florida has maintained a steady track record of controversial comments in support of Israel’s war in Gaza, and it’s starting to catch up to him.

The freshman congressman gained notoriety for his pro-Israel posts that many, including some Jewish organizations, said went too far. Most recently, Fine said Gazans, including children, should “starve away” until Hamas releases all of its hostages while simultaneously claiming the reports of starvation are “Muslim terror propaganda.”

Blaze News reached out to Fine’s office to clarify these comments but did not receive a response.

These comments sparked outrage across the political spectrum, while criticism for Israel’s war tactics grows.

‘A Jewish US Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful.’

RELATED: Are Democrats reclaiming the ‘podcast bros’?

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Following the post, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee removed Fine from its database of pro-Israel candidates. This shift comes after AIPAC donated more than $126,000 to Fine’s campaign, with the Republican claiming to have secured the “fastest-ever endorsement” from the organization.

AIPAC later said reports suggesting that it severed ties with Fine are “speculative” and clarified that Fine’s endorsement is still under consideration.

“This reporting is based on an unsourced speculative piece. We will be endorsing candidates for the 2026 election throughout the cycle,” AIPAC said in a post on X. “Current endorsees for 2026 so far are listed on the AIPAC-PAC website. As Rep. Fine was elected only in April, consideration of his endorsement will take place later in the cycle, as is the case with many other freshmen members of Congress.”

Although AIPAC has not directly addressed Fine’s comments, other organizations like the American Jewish Community have outright condemned them.

“The serious humanitarian situation in Gaza must not be taken lightly, especially by those at the highest levels of government,” the post reads. “Implying that starvation is a legitimate tactic is unacceptable. All those in need of humanitarian aid should receive it promptly and safely. Our leaders must focus less on scoring political points and more on doing their jobs.”

Fine’s Republican colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) also condemned his comments, saying his rhetoric will only cause more anti-Semitism.

“I can only imagine how Florida’s 6th district feels now that their Representative, that they were told to vote for, openly calls for starving innocent people and children,” Greene said in a post on X. “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza. But a Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. His awful statement will actually cause more antisemitism.”

RELATED: Florida Republican mocks Dem leaders demanding apology over ‘unhinged, racist’ insult against Ilhan Omar

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

This is not the first time Fine has found himself in hot water over his controversial remarks. In 2021, one user on X replied to Fine’s post with a photo of a dead infant found in rubble, asking him how he could sleep at night.

“Quite well actually!” Fine said in response to the photo. “Thanks for the pic!”

In an interview with Fox in May, Fine suggested that Gaza should be nuked, comparing the ongoing conflict to World War II.

“In World War II, we did not negotiate a surrender with the Nazis. We did not negotiate a surrender with the Japanese,” Fine said. “We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here.”

“There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture, and it needs to be defeated,” Fine added.

When Fine was asked again about his remarks in June, he clarified that he was actually against nuking Gaza because the fallout would affect Israel.

“Nuking Gaza would be a terrible idea,” Fine said. “The fallout would drift into Israel; it would kill the hostages.”

When the CNN anchor pushed back, asking if he was worried about killing women and children in Gaza, Fine said, “War is a messy thing.”

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​Aipac, Randy fine, Gaza, Palestine, Israel, Bibi netanyahu, Marjorie taylor greene, American jewish community, Pro-israel, Zionist, Politics 

More than 25 state financial officers have drawn a line in the sand with corporate giants including BlackRock and Fidelity.

The group, made up of mostly treasurers, represents 21 states, 16 of which are governed by Republicans and five by Democrats. Together, they sent a damning letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, along with other major financial firms like JPMorgan Chase and Vanguard, announcing that their states are willing to cut off ties if certain stipulations are not met.

The letter is in reaction to a recent decision by Texan authorities to remove BlackRock from its state blacklist after the investment firm announced it would roll back its climate change initiatives. The other 21 states say, however, that BlackRock and others have not done enough.

‘These financial officers are doing the right thing for their states.’

The state reps, all of whom are Republican, said that these companies must return to a “traditional fiduciary duty” in which they focus 100% on financial return, instead of using capital to advance left-wing social and political agendas.

In their letter to Fink, the financial officers said that while some companies have started moving in the right direction by withdrawing from global climate coalitions, there is still more work to be done.

The treasurers outlined five actions the firms must take to demonstrate a “commitment to a fiduciary model grounded in financial integrity, not political advocacy.”

RELATED: BlackRock and friends may soon control your digital wallet

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (R) speaks with Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 15, 2025. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

The first term called for the end of “framing deterministic future outcomes as long-term risks to justify immediate ideological interventions through corporate engagement or proxy votes.” Climate change initiatives are listed as the most common example of this issue.

Other requirements demanded that companies “abstain from embedding international political agendas” within their company framework, which included “net-zero climate mandates” and the “EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).”

Additionally, in order to work with these states, firms must also divulge all “affiliations and collaborative initiatives” that could influence investment strategies or priorities.

“Participation in such groups must not compromise a fiduciary’s obligation to act solely on behalf of beneficiaries,” the state representatives declared.

RELATED: This investor is wiping out white-collar jobs

Photo by Barry Chin/the Boston Globe via Getty Images

“Actions always speak louder than words. Requiring America’s financial giants to prove their independence from woke ideology with concrete steps before doing business with a state’s dollars is fully necessary and just makes sense,” OJ Oleka, CEO of State Financial Officers Foundation, said in a statement provided to Blaze News.

Oleka added, “These financial officers are doing the right thing for their states and the taxpayers whose financial security they’ve been entrusted to protect.”

In total, 18 companies received a letter from the state financial officers: Amundi, BlackRock Inc., BNY Mellon, Capital Group, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton Investments, Geode Capital Management, Goldman Sachs, Invesco, JPMorgan Chase, Legal & General, Morgan Stanley, Northern Trust, Nuveen, State Street Corporation, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, and Wellington Management Company.

The states represented in the letter to investment firms were as follows: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

​News, Blackrock, Vanguard, Larry fink, Investments, Republicans, Firm, Fidelity, Jp morgan, Texas, Politics 

A study published last year in the Lancet revealed that fertility rates have declined in all countries and territories since 1950 and that “human civilization is rapidly converging on a sustained low-fertility reality.”

The fertility rate references the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime if she were to experience the age-specific fertility rates of a given year.

In 1950, the global fertility rate was 4.84. In 2021, it was 2.23. By the end of this century, it is expected to drop to 1.59 globally — a rate that Britain, Europe, and a number of Asian countries such as South Korea have long been well below.

This trend is catastrophic, especially for those hoping to bequeath their nations to native-born persons as opposed to imported multitudes and for those keen more broadly to stave off a global population collapse. After all, the fertility rate necessary for a population to maintain stability and replenish itself without requiring replacement by foreign nationals is 2.1.

The United States set a fertility record last year — in the wrong direction.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that U.S. fertility rates dropped to an all-time low in 2024, with 1.599 children being born per woman. By way of comparison, the latest reported fertility rates in Australia, England and Wales, Canada, and China are 1.5, 1.44, 1.26, and 1.01, respectively.

The data released on Thursday indicates that birth rates — the number of births per 1,000 females — dropped for women aged 15-34 between 2023 and 2024 while rising for women aged 40-44, signaling that some women are delaying having kids.

‘The number of births has declined 16%; the GFR is down 22% from 2007 to 2024.’

RELATED: Baby wars: Trump voter birth rate outpacing Democrat voters in record numbers

TanyaJoy/iStock/Getty Images Plus

“U.S. birth certificate data show that, from 2023 to 2024, the number of births increased by 1%, while the [general fertility rate] declined 1%,” the CDC stated. “From 2007 (the most recent high) to 2023, the number of births has declined 16%; the GFR is down 22% from 2007 to 2024.”

Last year, there were only 3.62 million births registered in the United States — 429,880 fewer births than reported in the U.S. in 2000 and 370,452 fewer births than in 2010, and only 1.5 million more than the known number of illegal aliens who stole over the southern border into the homeland last year.

The U.S. has been on a downward trend for centuries, interrupted only by the mid-20th-century baby boom which saw a fertility rate of 3.7 at its zenith.

The new record was set under the Biden administration, which championed the slaughter of the unborn and the effective sterilization of vulnerable populations while enabling millions of foreign nationals to steal into the country — a demographic substitution that one Democrat referred to as a “replenishment” of the population and critics have long referred to as the “great replacement.”

The Trump administration has taken a different tack, not only protecting children from sterilization at the hands of gender ideologues and tackling chemicals linked to infertility, but promoting pro-natalist and pro-family policies.

Vice President JD Vance said in his address to pro-life advocates at the 52nd annual March of Life in January, “I want more babies in the United States of America; I want more happy children in our country; and I want beautiful young men and young women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them.”

RELATED: Netflix rebooting ‘Captain Planet’ to push pagan climate propaganda on new generation of kids

ullstein bild via Getty Images

With this aim, the Trump administration got Trump accounts — the baby bonus program that has the federal government contribute $1,000 to each qualifying child after the birth — passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and has taken steps to reduce the cost of in vitro fertilization.

‘They start seeing humans as a plague, a blight on the surface of the earth.’

Such policy efforts, the impact of which are not immediately clear but have not produced great results abroad, have enraged the likes of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who said earlier this year of conservatives’ supposed plan for America: “It’s all in there. Return to the family, the nuclear family, return to being a Christian nation, return to, you know, producing a lot of children.”

“[It’s] sort of odd because the people who produce the most children in our country are immigrants, and they want to deport them,” Clinton added.

Clinton is hardly the only Democrat who figures that immigration is the answer to low American birth rates.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, suggested while stumping for Kamala Harris last year that “America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work.”

Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said in 2022 that the answer to declining birth rates was amnesty for tens of millions of illegal aliens.

“We’re short of workers; we have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to,” Schumer said. “The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants — the Dreamers and all of them — ’cause our ultimate goal is to help the Dreamers but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here.”

Elon Musk, among those who have raised the alarm about the risk of population collapse, claimed last year in an interview with Tucker Carlson that the “civilizational suicide” under way in the West was caused in part by climate alarmism.

“The environmental movement in the extreme is fundamentally misanthropic and anti-human,” Musk told Tucker Carlson in an interview. “They start seeing humans as a plague, a blight on the surface of the earth — that earth would be this paradise if only the humans weren’t here.”

Morgan Stanley analysts told investors in 2021 that the “movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline.”

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​Fertility, Fertility rate, Birth rate, Birth, Life, Population, Collapse, Climate alarmism, Climate, Jd vance, Donald trump, Cdc, Centers for disease control and prevention, Politics 

On July 16, during a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts, a jumbotron “kiss cam” moment captured Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and his top HR representative, Kristin Cabot, in what appears to be a romantic embrace. The footage, which has gone viral on every social media platform, shows Byron ducking out of the camera and Cabot covering her face, fueling affair rumors. The incident led to Byron’s resignation after a company investigation, while Cabot was placed on leave.

Interestingly, this moment of probable infidelity has united the entire political spectrum. Everyone seems to agree: Byron and Cabot’s actions are condemnable.

But to disapprove of these actions is predicated on the belief that the bond of marriage is sacred and thus should not be violated. The left, however, has made every effort to undermine the bonds of marriage, making its censure of the alleged cheaters come across as incongruent.

Writer Lauren Washburn in her recent article pointed out this disparity: “The reaction [of the left] is somewhat surprising … for years, the left has tried to diminish the sanctity of marriage. Legalizing same-sex marriage, embracing transgender ideology, and normalizing hookup culture are a few examples. They’ve tried to rewrite reality to make people believe they will be happy if they ‘follow their heart’ and ‘live their truth,’” she wrote.

Does the left’s denunciation of the Coldplay cheating scandal prove that they do actually believe in the inviolability of marital vows?

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Lauren joined Glenn to discuss this query.

“The entire internet, regardless of political affiliation, they all have the exact same response, which is that cheating is bad and marriage should be protected. It’s wrong that these people were here and betraying their spouses,” Lauren says.

“I thought this was interesting that everybody had this reaction, despite the fact that the left for years has pushed ideologies that try to diminish the sanctity of marriage. Yet whenever rubber hits the road, we see everybody in agreement that marriage is sacred and should be protected,” she explains.

Glenn agrees, “You’re right, everybody universally was horrified by it … which led me to ask after reading your article: Is that maybe why they have to silence people on their side? Even when they come out and say, ‘Hey, there’s 95 genders, and you must agree or we’ll put you out of business.’ Is that why they do that, because they know the average person does not agree with them?”

“I think so. I think for a long time, they have tried to diminish the facts that are just very true” — facts that “we have an innate response [to],” Lauren says, noting that the “big shift” toward the left’s dismantling of traditional family began with the “legalization of same-sex marriage.”

Now that marriage is “no longer a covenant between one man and one woman” but rather “a contractual gender-neutral agreement,” the left can push any irreverent idea it wants, she explains. “We see story after story after story that the left tells of marriages where one person will decide that they want to pursue a gay or a lesbian lifestyle, and they will leave their spouse; they’ll leave their children … all in the name of self-expression, following your heart, living your truth.”

If they applaud these stories, why then was Byron and Cabot’s secret relationship problematic?

A man leaving his wife to pursue a gay lifestyle and Byron and Cabot’s infidelity are “no different,” Lauren says. “They’re both rooted in selfish desires … yet the left can make excuses and make exceptions for one because it fits their agenda.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Coldplay affair, Coldplay scandal, Coldplay, Andy byron, Kristin cabot, Astronomer, Lauren washburn, Left, Anti nuclear family 

A weekend profile piece on Democratic firebrand Jasmine Crockett revealed some unflattering details about the Texas representative.

On Sunday, the Atlantic published an article titled “A Democrat for the Trump Era,” a piece about Crockett’s “style of politics.”

‘Does that cause headaches for other members? 100 percent.’

The article, written by Elaine Godfrey, claimed that the representative’s “coarser” technique is a matched response to the “insult-comedy-style attacks” that the Republican Party has “embraced under Trump,” highlighting that multiple polls revealed Democratic voters are seeking “a fighter.”

However, the Atlantic’s piece did not fully portray Crockett positively, describing her at one point as “brusque” and effectively depicting her as a self-absorbed politician who continues to frustrate her Democratic colleagues.

According to the article, Crockett cited her social media following as a key reason she should have been selected by her fellow lawmakers to lead the House Oversight Committee.

“It’s like, there’s one clear person in the race that has the largest social-media following,” Crockett told the Atlantic.

Crockett reportedly “complained” that Congressional Black Caucus members were planning on throwing their support behind a representative who was not a member.

RELATED: July shows strong signs of a coming and violent Democratic implosion

Rep. Robert Garcia. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) ultimately grabbed the top spot, beating out three other opponents by securing 33 votes. Crockett landed in last place with only six votes.

The representative also told the news outlet that a May clip of her speaking out about Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing racked up over 797,000 views.

“I know this because she told me,” Godfrey wrote.

The Atlantic stated that Crockett “monitors social-media engagement like a day trader checks her portfolio,” noting that her phone’s lock screen “is a headshot of herself.”

During her campaign for the Oversight Committee position, Crockett reportedly joined a virtual meeting to pitch her candidacy, but afterward, she admitted to being unsure which committee she had just gotten off the call with.

“It was a virtual meeting of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, she’d explained to me beforehand. But then, after the call, she wasn’t sure. ‘CAPAC is the Asian caucus, right?’ she asked. ‘Yes,’ the aide confirmed. ‘That would’ve been bad,’ Crockett said with a laugh,” the Atlantic reported.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett somehow makes the Texas flood tragedy all about herself

Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Senior staffers told the news outlet that other Democratic lawmakers view Crockett as “undisciplined but are reluctant to criticize her publicly.”

One of the staffers told Godfrey that Crockett “likes to talk,” adding that she can sometimes be “a loose cannon.”

“Does that cause headaches for other members? 100 percent,” the staffer remarked.

The Atlantic reported that several days before the article was scheduled to publish, Crockett called to pull the plug on the piece, claiming she was unhappy that the outlet had contacted other lawmakers.

“As for her colleagues, four days before this story was published, Crockett called me to express frustration that I had reached out to so many House members without telling her first. She was, she told me, ‘shutting down the profile and revoking all permissions,'” the outlet wrote.

Crockett’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital or the New York Post.

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​Jasmine crockett, Democrats, Congress, Oversight committee, The atlantic, House oversight committee, Robert garcia, Congressional black caucus, Congressional asian pacific american caucus, Capac, Lawmakers, Politics 

Comedian Bill Maher opened up on his podcast and admitted that one of his biggest predictions about Donald Trump’s second term turned out to be wrong.

Maher hosted YouTuber Bryan Tyler Cohen on his podcast, “Club Random,” and spent a chunk of the conversation discussing political relations between the left and right wings. Maher stressed how important it is for both sides to “break bread,” saying that leftists’ refusal to even speak to Republicans is the “stupidest thing” they do.

Maher took criticism from his own political allies in April when he spoke about having dinner with President Trump and musician Kid Rock. Maher admitted that he saw things a bit differently after meeting the president but still wanted to hold his feet to the fire on some issues. On Monday’s podcast, he made another admission.

‘I don’t see a country in a depression at all. I see people out there just living their lives.’

While Maher’s guest said he makes it a point not to make predictions that he could be wrong about, Maher said he takes the honorable route of owning his mistakes when he gets something wrong.

“First of all, be honest. Don’t just be partisan,” Maher told Cohen.

“I will always call it as I see it, no matter what it is, and I don’t care who likes it or doesn’t. That’s my bond with the audience. It’s worked for me pretty well.”

Maher recalled a recent prediction he made about Trump’s economic plan that he actually got wrong.

“I remember I, along with probably most people, were saying at the beginning, oh, you know, by the Fourth of July — somebody had a thing out about how the economy was gonna be tanked by then,” Maher recalled. “And I was kinda like, ‘Well, that seems right to me,’ but that didn’t happen. Now, it could happen tomorrow. I’m just saying, that’s reality.”

RELATED: Bill Maher warns Dems to do something about ‘The View’ after Whoopi Goldberg compares Iran to US; GOP rep blasts her response

Maher continued his theme of working from “reality” rather than partisanship.

“‘I just hate Donald Trump.’ … That’s boring and doesn’t get us anywhere and leads you to dishonesty. Because the truth is, I don’t know what his strategy is. But look, the stock market is at record highs,” the comedian continued.

“I don’t see a country in a depression at all. I see people out there just living their lives, and I would have thought — and I gotta own it — that these tariffs were going to f**king sink this economy by this time, and they didn’t. So, you know, how do we deal with that fact? Because that’s the fact.”

At the time of his prediction, Maher was joined by Democrats like Sen. Adam Schiff (Calif.), who called tariffs a “disaster” for the economy, and Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost (Fla.), who said the economy was “flailing,” with tariffs “driving up the prices of everyday goods.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, said the average family stood to lose thousands of dollars per year due to the tariffs.

However, the Trump administration is projected to bring in hundreds of billions in tariff revenue in 2025.

RELATED: Trump comes out on top with EU tariffs deal, proving haters wrong and leaving some Europeans stunned

According to a report by Politico, tariff revenue stands at $127 billion as of July 25, 131% more than at the same time in 2024.

A Fox News report projected tariff revenue at around $300 billion for the entire year.

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​Politics, Align, Bill maher, Trump, Economy, Biden, Tariffs, Entertainment 

Youth retailer American Eagle just launched a new ad campaign featuring “it girl” Sydney Sweeney from “Euphoria” — and her well-endowed fame is turning heads and shaping markets. The campaign launch, featuring the bombshell known for her curves, drove the stock up 15% in a single day.

Whatever American Eagle paid Sweeney, it was worth it. The company’s market cap jumped $400 million in one day following a 47% decline in its stock price last year. After years of hawking body positivity, it appears “hot girl summer” is once again the way to go.

American Eagle is back, reignited by the formula as old as advertising itself: Sexy sells.

The idea that hot girls leaning on muscle cars sell jeans — or anything else, for that matter — is nothing revolutionary in the ad world. Who could forget Pepsi’s 1992 ad featuring Cindy Crawford at the gas station in jeans and a white tank top? No Gen Xer on the planet could forget this ad. It was iconic — and effective.

Bringing sexy back

American Eagle’s newest campaign is a major about-face after more than a decade of jeans, car, and beer brands forcing wokeness down our gullets. Ultimately, sex sells. And pretty girls with sexy stares can sell everything from men’s deodorant to the WNBA — if only they had more Sophie Cunninghams!

Calvin Klein jeans made sexy their stock-in-trade over 40 years ago. In 1980, the premium jeans brand gave us Brooke Shields seductively whispering, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”

She was 15, and it was both sordid and problematic. But it ushered in decades of “hot girls in jeans” advertising. From Kate Moss naked from the waist up in Calvin Klein jeans to Anna Nicole Smith doing her best Marilyn Monroe impression for Guess, the formula worked.

Abercrombie & Fitch gave sexy a twist with preppy hot girls and guys — shirtless — in black-and-white Bruce Weber photography. CEO Mike Jeffries was so obsessed with sexy that the brand was sued for hiring only good-looking people as sales associates in their stores.

Man boobs don’t sell

Then wokeness tightened its grip on corporate America. Sexy was out. Dylan Mulvaney cosplaying as Audrey Hepburn drinking Bud Light and overweight, nonbinary, hairy-chested men in bras and Calvin Klein jeans were in.

But the public didn’t buy it. Literally.

Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney in 2023 sparked a historic backlash. The brand plummeted from America’s best-selling beer to number three. Its market share tanked, and sales have declined more than 20% annually since.

RELATED: Go woke, go MEGA broke — this luxury company’s sales just plummeted 97%

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Walking back woke

But after years of brand-destroying body positivity, the remnants of normies at American Eagle took the wheel, and their sales and stock price soared. The brand is back, reignited by the formula as old as advertising itself: Sexy sells. Always has, always will.

Even Nike seems to be walking back its own woke phase. Just last week, the company ran a series of ads with U.S. Open winner Scottie Scheffler touting family values.

Another adage permeates advertising: Always include a cutaway shot of either a dog, a baby, or both. Cuteness, like hotness, sells. And nothing is cuter than golf champ Scheffler holding his baby.

Nike’s ad campaign with Scheffler comes on the heels of the company’s previous campaign with Dylan Mulvaney in a sports bra — without any boobs at all. Are we to believe that Nike has shed its wokeness? I think what’s more likely is that Nike was never woke to begin with.

Nike’s mantra is money. And execs will abandon Mulvaney as fast as you can say, “Just do it,” if it means reversing their sales decline and pleasing their shareholders.

Reigniting the normies

As Clay Travis famously put it, “The only two things I 100% believe in are the First Amendment and boobs.” We can gasp and pretend this is a controversial statement. But Travis only said what we all know to be true: Boobs are a reliable winner. Breast augmentation surgeries have experienced a compound annual growth rate of 13% per year since 2020 for a reason.

American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign is not remotely “body positive,” and that’s a good thing. It pays. And I predict other brands will take note.

Returning to normie marketing means brands can advertise normal ideas to normal people without feeling bad about it any more. And we can let it wash over us in all of its visual pleasantness.

Expect a wave of ad campaigns in which marketers quietly memory-hole the failed “body positivity” experiment and return to what actually works. The brands chasing social justice won’t say it out loud, but they’re breathing a collective sigh of relief.

​Opinion & analysis, Sydney sweeney, American eagle, Sexy, Advertising, Wokeness, Woke corporations, Nike, Bud light, Dylan mulvaney, Brooke shields, Calvin klein, Jennifer sey, Family values, Scottie scheffler, Golf, Denim, Pepsi, Cindy crawford, Beauty 

It’s impossible to talk about liberty without also addressing power. Concepts like unalienable rights are “nonexistent” if one doesn’t understand power structures, says Mark Levin. People can throw the words “liberty” and “rights” around all day, but oftentimes, especially on the left, they are ignorant to the “earthly application” of these terms.

Leftists fret over losing our democracy, but they spit on our Constitution when it’s the Constitution that establishes the “eternal truths” behind liberty and rights – the bedrock of democracy.

“Your Constitution is all about not liberty, not about rights, but power for the application of liberty and rights. Your entire constitution is about power – separation of power,” says Levin.

Compare that to Marxism, which is about the “centralization of power” via stripping citizens of their rights. It’s built upon “the phony argument about the state withering away,” but “the state never withers away,” he explains.

In his latest book, “On Power,” which is available for purchase starting today, Levin unpacks “why Marxism is not only defective, but completely flawed and inhumane from the very beginning.”

Marxism, Levin explains, “talks about the final stage being the withering away of the state … where the proletariat, the people, have risen up; they’ve thrown off hundreds, if not thousands, of years of labor enslavement” and “reached a point where we have this equality.”

Equality, to the Marxist, is “the end stage of humanity,” where the stateless society shares resources communally, and exploitation and imbalance have been forever eliminated.

The problem is true equality “is an impossibility,” and “there is no end stage in humanity,” at least as it relates to “man-made ideology,” says Levin. “Man continues to evolve or devolve, but man doesn’t stand still.”

The Marxist idea that if we just “eliminate the excesses, eliminate the barriers” (people included), we’d create this utopia, is a myth, he explains.

Our Constitution, on the other hand, understands the impossibility of a “perfect end stage” of humanity. Instead, it provides a timeless framework for protecting liberty and rights through balanced power – a principle Levin passionately defends against Marxist fallacies in “On Power.”

Levin’s explosive new book delivers a searing takedown of Marxism’s threat to freedom, brilliantly defending individual liberty and unalienable rights – get your copy today to join the fight for a free society!

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​Levintv, Mark levin, Maxism, On power, Blazetv, Blaze media 

A gunman stormed into a Manhattan office building on Monday afternoon and fatally shot four people, including New York Police Officer Didarul Islam.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the shooter as 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas and indicated that he had a “documented mental health history.”

Tamura, who supposedly suffered from a degenerative brain disease caused by head trauma, had allegedly driven from Nevada to New York — passing through Colorado on Saturday, then Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday — and had only been in the city for a few hours before he began shooting.

— (@)

Surveillance footage captured the shooter exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6:30 p.m., then heading toward 345 Park Avenue, where he shot Islam, who was working a corporate security detail, as well as a woman who desperately tried to take cover.

Tisch indicated that on his way to the elevator bank, the shooter shot a guard at a security desk, then gunned down another man in the lobby. The shooter then rode the elevator to the 33rd-floor offices of Rudin Management, the company that owns the building, where he murdered another victim, then killed himself.

Investigators found a rifle case, multiple magazines, ammunition, prescription medication, and a loaded revolver inside the gunman’s vehicle, which was left at the scene.

— (@)

Police were initially mum about potential motives on Monday, prompting a great deal of speculation, given that the skyscraper where the shootings took place houses the headquarters of the National Football League and several financial institutions, including the investment firm Blackstone and the accounting and financial advisory firm KPMG.

Mayor Eric Adams said in a Tuesday interview that the gunman was trying to shoot up the NFL offices but took the wrong elevator.

Sources told the New York Post that the gunman was carrying a note in his pocket expressing grievances against the NFL. In the note, Tamura allegedly referred to the former Pittsburgh Steeler player Terry Long’s suicide following his CTE diagnosis and indicated that he, too, suffered from CTE.

The shooter reportedly played high school football in Southern California.

“You never would have thought violence was something you’d associate with him,” former classmate Caleb Clarke told NBC News. “Everything he said was a joke.”

This is a developing story.

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​Politics, Shooting, Manhattan, New york, Jessica tisch, Shane tamura, Shooter, Mass shooting, Crime 

After the Cincinnati Music Festival this weekend, a fight broke out that left several people injured — including one white couple who were brutally attacked by a group of black men.

In the video a mob is seen attacking a white man who’s on the ground, and another video shows what onlookers assume to be the man’s wife getting knocked out by a black man and lying on the ground lifeless.

“I wouldn’t be talking about this today if we weren’t seeing a constant or a steady stream of these types of videos,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Jason Whitlock Harmony,” disturbed.

“I’ve seen some people try to rationalize or justify this level of violence toward the man and his wife.”

“The level of attack on this man: completely unjustified,” Whitlock adds.

“I don’t see how anyone could justify that,” BlazeTV contributor Shemeka Michelle agrees. “I saw people saying, ‘Well, you know, there was a mob of white people who did this to blacks’ and saying ‘it was the KKK.’”

“We are so far removed from that that I don’t understand how that’s justification,” she continues, shocked. “I was on X about 15 minutes yesterday, and I had racial fatigue. All I saw was black versus white, white versus black.”

“I don’t even understand what they could have said to deserve this. Even if it was the N-word, it’s not like it’s something we haven’t heard. And a word doesn’t hurt you,” she says.

“Black people don’t want to be equal, it seems; they want to get revenge.”

And they want revenge because they’ve been told their entire lives by the mainstream media and political leaders that they deserve it.

“We’ve been so programmed with a victimhood mentality and entitlement mentality and then a matriarchal emotional culture,” Whitlock explains, “that I’ve really reached the conclusion when I see these videos and then when I see the people defending these videos, I’m like, this is a demonic spirit.”

“There is a mass psychosis going on with black people that it’s like the videos are bad enough, but it’s the comments, the defense of the videos, that probably make me even more sick,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Camera phone, Upload, Video, Video phone, Sharing, Youtube.com, Jason whitlock harmony, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Shemeka michelle, Fearless, Fearless with jason whitlock, Cincinnati music festival, Anti-white racism, Anti-white, Anti-christian 

The Biden-era obsession with “AI safety” is officially over.

Last week, the Trump administration unveiled its long-anticipated AI Action Plan — a sweeping strategy that replaces cautious bureaucratic oversight with a clear mandate: Win the global AI race.

The plan aims to streamline permitting and spur domestic manufacturing, creating high-skilled jobs in fields like electrical engineering and advanced HVAC along the way.

Headlined by longtime Trump ally David Sacks, now serving as the White House’s AI and cryptocurrency czar, the plan prioritizes innovation, infrastructure, and American labor over hand-wringing about theoretical harms.

In fact, the administration recently rebranded the Department of Commerce’s AI Safety Institute as the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. It’s a symbolic but telling move.

During a press call, Sacks and Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, outlined the three pillars of the plan, which stem from Executive Order 14179 and incorporate feedback from more than 10,000 public comments.

1. Accelerate AI innovation

The plan’s top priority is unleashing American innovation by slashing red tape and promoting widespread adoption of AI tools. According to Sacks, embracing AI’s full potential is critical to maintaining America’s competitive edge — and the only way to secure “unquestioned and unchallenged” global technological dominance.

Kratsios emphasized that deregulation will play a major role in achieving that goal, especially in sectors like health care, energy, and scientific research. “Truth and objectivity,” he said, will guide AI development — not politically motivated filters.

2. Build infrastructure — fast

America’s AI dominance depends on physical infrastructure: chip fabs, data centers, and a power grid capable of supporting them. The plan aims to streamline permitting and spur domestic manufacturing, creating high-skilled jobs in fields like electrical engineering and advanced HVAC along the way.

3. Lead globally

Trump’s team wants to position the U.S. as the world’s go-to AI partner — offering full-stack export packages that include hardware, software, and trained models to allies across the globe. The plan envisions a vast international ecosystem anchored in American-made platforms.

Crucially, that includes drawing a hard line against ideological gatekeeping by only contracting with LLM developers who avoid “ideological bias,” particularly “DEI,” a senior government official familiar with the plan said.

RELATED: ‘There’s nowhere to go’: Will Elon Musk stop the AI Antichrist — or become it?

The Washington Post/DeAgostini/Getty Images

Heeding Orwell

Throughout the rollout, both Sacks and Kratsios made clear that the plan aims to protect free expression and resist “Orwellian” uses of AI. Systems that engage in social engineering or suppress politically disfavored speech will be excluded from federal contracts.

At the same time, the plan notably sidesteps the hot-button issue of AI’s use of copyrighted content. Officials said the matter falls under fair use doctrine and is currently being litigated, making it outside the executive branch’s current scope.

‘National security imperative’

The AI Action Plan opens with a preamble from President Trump, who calls the initiative a matter of national security.

As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance. To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation.

The plan is expected to be implemented over the next 6 to 12 months, led by the OSTP and in coordination with industry and international partners.

​Donald trump, Ai, Ai plan, Michael kratsios, David sacks, Lifestyle, Tech, Jobs 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed several agreements with Argentina’s government at Casa Rosada on Monday that marks a new chapter for both countries.

The most significant agreement was starting the process to allow Argentina back in the Visa Waiver Program. The South American country was in the VWP starting in 1996, but it was removed in 2002 as economic turmoil resulted in illegal migration to the United States. With President Javier Milei having taken drastic action to reduce the country’s inflation, the United States is looking to bolster its relationship with its ally on a continent filled with anti-Trump leadership.

Noem signed the declaration of intent alongside Security Minister Patricia Bullrich to begin the two- or three-year process to get Argentina qualified for the VWP once again. Noem and Bullrich also signed agreements to streamline repatriations and have enhanced fugitive enforcement to ensure fugitives are not released upon repatriation.

RELATED: Blaze Media’s Julio Rosas embeds with Noem’s DHS as it slams shut South America’s illegal migration pipeline

Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

“Under President Javier Milei’s leadership, Argentina is becoming an even stronger friend to the United States — more committed than ever to border security for both of our nations. Argentina now has the lowest visa overstay rate in all of Latin America and 25% more Argentines traveled to the U.S. in the first four months of this year compared to last year — the biggest jump of any of the top 20 international arrival,” Noem said in a statement.

— (@)

In response to a question from Blaze Media at a cultural event at the Campo de Mayo military base, Noem assured steps will be put in place during the recertification process to prevent abuse of the VWP.

“Every country that participates in the Visa Wavier Program has to meet certain qualifications in order to participate. … [Argentina is] looking to get back on track and re-enrolled. We’re excited about that. … Thresholds have to be met. Partnering with us on background disclosures, on individuals that are in the country and traveling is important,” Noem explained.

“It’s important for our economies, but also for the security of both countries that we know who’s traveling,” she added.

Bullrich said it will be incumbent on Argentina to uphold its end of the deal and that the nation wants to see it through.

When asked about the United States’ relationship with Milei, Noem said she appreciated his support of President Trump’s policies and that he has empowered Bullrich to keep both Argentinians and Americans safe through strong immigration vetting.

The only other Latin American country that is in the VWP is Chile. Noem will be traveling to Chile’s capital Santiago on Tuesday to sign more agreements to bolster international security.

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​Politics 

During a press conference last week in the Oval Office, a reporter asked President Trump how it’s possible that we know more about a couple from a Coldplay concert just hours after their extramarital affair was exposed on social media than we do about Thomas Crooks more than a year after he came within centimeters of killing the president in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Despite thousands of interviews and hundreds of hours combing through photos and videos, the public still knows very little about the would-be assassin. Not his motive, not how he gained access to a nearby rooftop, not even how he built two remote-detonated bombs he ultimately never used.

Until any of us are given reason to believe transparency in any particular case is harmful to the constituents we serve, our duty is to demand it at every juncture.

Trump responded that he believed the FBI when the organization told him investigators didn’t find anything, clarifying that his conversation was with the “new” FBI leadership, not the corrupt organization led by James Comey or Christopher Wray — leadership he would never trust.

Old rot, new clothes

Though Trump has placed widely trusted figures within the FBI, six months is hardly enough time to place faith in the same institution that has been weaponized against him for nearly a decade. Institutional rot undoubtedly runs deeper than its top brass.

The ambiguity surrounding Trump’s failed assassin should be met with absolute scrutiny. The lack of information about Crooks is not an anomaly — it’s the signature of a bureaucracy that hoards information from the public under the pretext of “national security” or “ongoing investigations.”

This culture of concealment has infected Washington for decades. Bureaucratic elites, along with their stakeholders, have presumed the authority to decide what the public should know — if anything — and release only information that suits their agenda.

Americans have been promised transparency and accountability across generations. They almost never get it. Such entrenched power calls into question who truly holds the keys to power in Washington.

A history of ambiguity

Consider the John F. Kennedy assassination. For more than 60 years, the public has doubted the official narrative pushed by the intelligence community — and rightly so. Just days after President Kennedy’s funeral, a Gallup poll revealed that a majority of Americans didn’t believe that the shooter acted alone. The lack of transparency that still persists decades following the case has only fueled speculation.

In one of my first hearings on the Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets, experts confirmed what President Trump’s March declassification made undeniable: The CIA repeatedly lied to Congress about its ties to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Just days ago, the agency tacitly admitted that its 1963 testimony — claiming to have had only limited knowledge of Oswald — was a lie. Newly released documents show that the CIA’s liaison to Congress, George Joannides, not only concealed an “off-the-books” anti-Castro operation that had interacted with Oswald, but he also earned the CIA’s Career Intelligence Medal for stonewalling Congress’ investigation.

For nearly 62 years, a bureaucratic agency commissioned by Congress, funded by Congress, and subject to congressional oversight lied to Congress. And not only did it get away with it, it was rewarded.

CIA gone rogue

If the body that created the CIA can’t hold the agency accountable, who can?

Not even the executive branch has succeeded. Republican and Democratic presidents alike have failed to force full compliance with the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Collection Act. Under Trump’s first term, the public was given the familiar excuse from the intel community: “It’s a national security concern.”

Do the American people have to wait six decades — and for all involved to be long dead — before knowing the truth about what their supposed representative government has done? Who decides when and what we get to know? If not the people, if not Congress, if not the president — then who?

RELATED: The CIA’s greatest failure: Intelligence

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

This is why the Jeffrey Epstein case matters to the public and why it can’t be swept under the rug. The “files” and our inability to even learn who was involved in the crimes that placed Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in jail are a testament to the ugly truth: In the words of James Madison, “A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.”

Transparency is our duty

The American people have become several steps removed from the decision-making power in Washington. Information and the means of acquiring it — and thereby, the ability to even know whom to hold accountable — have been almost entirely lost. Perhaps our government is, as Madison asserts, “a prologue to a farce or a tragedy.”

As members of Congress, it is our duty to do everything in our power to uphold the Constitution and deliver to the American people the transparency that sustains trust in our democratic Republic. Until any of us are given reason to believe transparency in any particular case is harmful to the constituents we serve, our duty is to demand it at every juncture.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Thomas crooks, Fbi, Cia, Kash patel, Dan bongino, James comey, Christopher wray, Weaponized justice, Weaponized fbi, Congress, Freedom of information act, Jfk files, Jfk assassination documents, Lee harvey oswald, Lies, Perjury, Secrecy, Transparency, Eric burlison 

The Armenian nation stands today at the edge of an abyss, facing the very real possibility of extinction. This is not rhetorical exaggeration. What lies just over the horizon in the South Caucasus is another long, expensive conflict that will only materially end in the death of more Christians.

So what’s going on in Armenia, and how is it relevant to larger regional and international current events?

Armenia’s survival is not simply a moral question. It is a test of whether America retains any coherent strategy to shape the balance of power.

A suicidal regime

Since the disastrous 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, the government of Nikol Pashinyan has systematically dismantled every safeguard that once protected the Armenian people from foreign conquest and internal tyranny. In that war, Pashinyan presided over catastrophic military failures and rushed to surrender swaths of historic Armenian territory, granting major concessions that emboldened Azerbaijan’s ambitions and left hundreds of thousands of Armenians displaced and defenseless.

Those concessions proved to be only the beginning. In 2023, the world watched with a shrug as Azerbaijan, with open material backing from Israel and tacit approval from the United States, completed the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, an ancient Armenian homeland populated by a Christian people whose roots in that soil predate any current Islamic inhabitants by centuries. 120,000 Armenians were forced to leave their homeland, as the Biden administration stuck its head in the sand.

A slap in the face

Today, the Pashinyan regime has shifted its focus inward. He’s not simply failing to defend Armenian sovereignty; he has actively antagonized it. Having sold off Armenia’s territorial integrity, Pashinyan and his cohorts are now targeting the last resilient pillars of Armenian identity: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the memory of the Armenian genocide, and the business leaders capable of sustaining national resistance.

In recent months, senior officials have publicly questioned the historicity of the Armenian genocide, a giant slap in the face to every Armenian who carries the memory of 1.5 million murdered ancestors. They have couched their transparent Turkophilia in euphemisms like “normalizing relations,” as if the only obstacle to peace were Armenian nationalism rather than Turkish ambition.

Most recently, in a move that should alarm every serious observer, Pashinyan met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, only to return home and unleash an unprecedented wave of repression against the Armenian Church and civil society. Armenian authorities have brazenly arrested clergy members, harassed Church institutions, and launched politically motivated prosecutions against billionaire businessmen like Samvel Karapetyan.

Pashinyan’s campaign of intimidation is no accident. It is a coordinated attempt, in collaboration with the Turkish and Azeri governments, to complete the total disenfranchisement of the Armenian people and make room for the ambitions of bigger regional powers.

It’s all very Zelenskyy-esque.

A forgotten American commitment

To understand the situation developing in the South Caucasus and the Middle East more effectively, we need to take a step back and look at the historical context (we always need to look at the historical context).

Once upon a time, the establishment of Armenian sovereignty was not just an abstract cause or a footnote to European diplomacy. It was an explicitly declared American interest, recognized in the highest acts of U.S. foreign policy.

In the aftermath of the First World War and the Armenian genocide, President Woodrow Wilson advanced a proposal for an independent Armenian republic, not merely as an act of moral redress, but as a strategic effort to reshape the post-Ottoman order in America’s favor.

Unlike the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which carved up Ottoman lands for British and French imperial gain, Wilson’s proposal sought to establish Armenia as a stable, pro-Western buffer state at the crossroads of Russian, Turkish, British, and Persian spheres of influence. His decision reflected a clear understanding: Without a sovereign Armenian state anchoring the region, the vacuum would be filled by rival empires.

A Greater Armenia, with secure borders and access to the Black Sea, would serve American interests by containing Bolshevik expansion from the north, checking pan-Turkic irredentism from the west, and limiting European colonial dominance from the south. It was a deliberate assertion of American influence in an increasingly competitive Eurasian theater.

Bettman/Getty Images

Wilson’s vision

This commitment took concrete form on November 22, 1920, when President Wilson signed the Arbitral Award of the President of the United States of America, formally delineating the frontiers of an Armenian homeland. Wilson’s award assigned to Armenia the provinces of Erzurum, Trebizond, Van, and Bitlis, along with a vital corridor to the Black Sea, territories that had formed the historic heart of the Armenian nation for millennia.

This was not a symbolic declaration. It was a legally binding arbitral decision rendered by the United States’ presidential office, independent of the unratified Treaty of Sèvres.

Yuval Mozes/r/imaginarymaps

Which means that even a century ago, America recognized that a sovereign Armenia served several crucial functions:

A strategic counterweight to regional hegemons.A test case of American credibility.A potential logistical hub in Eurasian trade.

Yet over the decades, as the world has descended into new conflicts, the White House’s commitment to Armenia has been quietly set aside. No treaty ever formally annulled the arbitral award (the Treaty of Lausanne superseded the Treaty of Sevres but did not explicitly nullify the Wilsonian arbitral award). No president ever renounced it. It simply disappeared from American memory.

The failure to enforce the award led directly to Armenia’s dismemberment and signaled America’s unwillingness to project power in Eurasia. And in that vacuum, Turkey and its allies have pursued the total subjugation of Armenia.

However, all this is to say is that since America’s push for a sovereign Greater Armenia was driven by strategic interests back then, its memory provides a precedent for realist engagement now.

Armenia as strategic imperative

It would be easy to dismiss Wilson’s arbitral award as an artifact of a vanished world. But doing so ignores the reality that the threats Wilson identified a century ago have not only returned; they’ve only compounded in complex layers of sophistication and danger.

The South Caucasus is not an irrelevant frontier. Especially now, with Iran, Israel, Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Azerbaijan all jockeying for geopolitical position, it is the epicenter of a new contest among regional powers.

Therefore, Armenia’s survival is not simply a moral question. It is a test of whether America retains any coherent strategy to shape the balance of power. Historical precedents set a century ago and current developments are now converging to create an imperative for renewed, interest-based American engagement.

Consider first the project of pan-Turanism, the ideology that envisions a unified Turkic world stretching from Anatolia to Central Asia, with Armenia standing inconveniently in the middle.

In the past decade, Turkey President Erdogan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev have made no secret of their ambition to dissolve Armenia’s independence once and for all. The conquest of Artsakh was not the endpoint of that campaign. It was just the beginning.

With every concession forced from Yerevan, Ankara and Baku grow bolder in their conviction that the entire Armenian state can be reduced to an even tinier vassal, stripped of all allies, and forced to “normalize relations” on Turkish terms.

Iran and Israel

Iran’s position, meanwhile, seeks to deter full encirclement by the Turkic states, Israel, and the U.S. Iran wants Armenia intact enough to buffer against Turkey and Israel, but not strong enough to become a Western base. This explains why Iran has:

Denounced Azerbaijani claims that Armenia is “Western Azerbaijan.”Have reported that Israel is using Azerbaijan as a base of operations to launch drones into Iran.

Israel’s role is obvious. It is seeking to surveil, strike, and destabilize Iran and, therefore, will leverage its alliance with Azerbaijan to do so. Armenia’s impending destruction is collateral damage in Israel’s rivalry with Iran.

The United States, meanwhile, has sought to complicate Russian and Iranian corridors and maintain influence, which is why the U.S. has recently proposed an American-run transit corridor through Syunik (that it would take control of under a 100-year lease), signaling support for the Pashinyan regime’s “normalization” efforts with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

American engagement in the region is transactional and ambivalent rather than principled. It tolerates Israel’s arming of Azerbaijan and prioritizes the logistics of the Zangezur corridor over Armenian sovereignty.

Because all major powers see Armenia as an instrument and not an end in itself, Armenia’s position becomes uniquely precarious and subject to external manipulation and, therefore, extermination.

Yes, extermination.

RELATED: Archaeologists discover one of the world’s oldest Christian churches in history’s first Christian country

kosmos111 via iStock/Getty Images

Perpetual hostage

As it stands right now, Armenia is the perpetual hostage of both rival empires and its own corrupt government. One could even say the pan-Turanic empire is complete, as Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the Pashinyan-led Armenia are all aligned in their pursuit of Turkic interests, with the only obstacle standing in the way being the Armenian people and Church.

And with Pashinyan getting set to sign a “peace deal” that would hand over the Zangezur corridor running through the south of Armenian territory to the Turks and Azeris, the very survival of the Armenian people is at stake.

Anadolu/Getty Images

A threat to Christendom

Yet beyond these calculations of pipelines, corridors, and spheres of influence lies something deeper. Amenia is the world’s first Christian nation. Its survival is not simply an Armenian concern. It is a civilizational concern.

The same forces that destroyed the ancient Christian communities of Northern Syria and Iraq are now setting their sights on the Caucasus. If they succeed, the precedent will be clear: Any Christian culture that stands in the path of Turkish, Islamist, or Israeli ambitions will be erased, and the United States will do nothing.

And just for the record, this is not an abstract appeal to policy. It is a reminder of a promise personally made. Days before the 2024 election, Donald Trump spoke by phone with his holiness Aram I, catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, to discuss the crisis in Artsakh and the plight of Armenian prisoners of war. This came weeks after a post on Truth Social clarifying what was at stake:

— (@)

Today, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, faces the threat of intimidation and possible arrest by the Pashinyan regime, a traitorous act that should be recognized for what it is: the criminalization of the faith at the heart of Armenian identity.

Clarity and action

If President Trump still stands by his pledge to defend Christian communities in the Middle East, then this moment demands clarity and action. It’s not enough to speak of solidarity when the lights and cameras are on and then remain silent as the last Christian enclaves are dismantled. And any “peace deal” that tolerates Pashinyan’s continued abuse against the Church and the people is no peace deal at all.

A sensible foreign policy in the region would both protect American interests and defend Christendom from Islamic encroachment. What would this look like in the near term? Here are the steps I would suggest.

1. Recommit to the spirit of the Wilsonian award.

No policy will succeed if it begins from the premise that Armenia must accept perpetual subjugation. The U.S. should officially acknowledge that the Wilsonian arbitral award remains a foundational expression of America’s interest in an independent and territorially secure Armenia. This does not mean an immediate redrawing of borders, but it does mean recognizing that Turkey’s historic ambitions to dominate the South Caucasus have been historically incompatible with U.S. interests.

2. Establish clear red lines for Turkish and Azerbaijani aggression.

The Biden administration’s passivity has emboldened Turkey and Azerbaijan. Trump’s administration must reverse this. Washington should communicate unequivocally that any further attacks on Armenian territory, whether in Syunik, Tavush, or any other region, will trigger targeted sanctions on Turkish and Azerbaijani defense sectors, including the suspension of U.S. military assistance and the freezing of assets linked to senior officials. America did it with Russia at the onset of the Ukraine conflict without hesitation. This should be a no-brainer.

3. Sanction those who persecute the Armenian Church.

In the Global Magnitsky Act, the U.S. has an effective tool to hold human rights violators accountable. Pashinyan and other Armenian officials involved in the arbitrary detention of clergy and the harassment of religious institutions should face immediate personal sanctions: visa bans, asset freezes, and public condemnation.

4. End the pretense of “normalization” without accountability.

It is not normalization when one side holds the knife and the other is forced to surrender everything that makes it a nation. Any U.S. support for Turkish-Armenian rapprochement must be conditioned on verifiable commitments: the recognition of the Armenian genocide, the return of prisoners of war, and the cessation of territorial encroachments.

5. Get tough on Israel.

This commitment also requires the courage to acknowledge uncomfortable facts. Chief among them is that Israel, a state Trump rightly defended as an ally, has played a decisive role in arming Azerbaijan’s aggression. No serious policy to protect Armenia can ignore this contradiction. If America is willing to tolerate the sale of drones and missiles to a regime that ethnically cleansed Artsakh, then any pledge to defend Christian heritage rings hollow.

​Faith, Christianity, Armenia, Turkey, Pan-turanic alliance, Israel, Donald trump, The armenian genocide, Christendom 

For months, Republicans and Democrats alike have insisted on keeping the Medicaid subsidy scam alive — even as it drives inflation and enriches the health care cartel. With the Biden-era expansion of Obamacare “marketplace” subsidies set to expire in December, both parties want to renew them. But this moment offers Republicans a rare opportunity: Finally lower health care costs for Americans not living on government handouts.

Obamacare buried the middle class

The ill-named Affordable Care Act helped Republicans win more elections than any issue in recent memory. But since 2016, the party has run from the fight. The result: Individual plans became unaffordable for anyone not getting subsidies, and employer-based coverage got gutted. Workers earn less in take-home pay and pay more for thinner plans.

The signature feature of Obamacare was turning catastrophic coverage into a luxury item.

Rather than continually shielding consumers from Obamacare’s price hikes with subsidies, why not repeal the mandates that caused the pain in the first place?

The numbers speak for themselves. In 2013, just before Obamacare took full effect, the average unsubsidized premium for individual coverage was $197 per month. By 2017, it had nearly doubled to $393. Family plans saw a 140% jump in that same period, from $426 to $1,021. Today, a typical family policy without subsidies costs $2,000 to $2,500 per month.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, average family premiums climbed from $13,770 in 2010 to $25,572 in 2024 — an 85% increase. And that “Cadillac plan” price tag now buys you higher deductibles and fewer benefits than a cheap pre-Obamacare policy.

Younger workers don’t even know what hit them. They’ve inherited a system designed to fleece them and can’t afford to opt out.

Even employer-based insurance has suffered. Since 2014, family premiums have risen 52%, while workers’ share has jumped 31%. Deductibles for individual plans have increased 53%, reaching $1,787 in 2024. Americans now pay more out of pocket for less protection.

This wasn’t an accident. It was baked into the law. Obamacare banned insurers from pricing plans based on risk, age, or gender. That shifted costs from older, sicker Americans to younger, healthier ones. Those who don’t qualify for subsidies pay top dollar for a bloated, mandatory benefits package they didn’t ask for.

Meanwhile, over 70 million lower-income Americans got dumped onto Medicaid — and Republicans went along with it. If Medicaid expansion is the new baseline, then at least fix the rest of the system for the middle class.

Caught in the middle

The political class loves to talk about the millions who gained “coverage” through Medicaid expansion and premium tax credits. They ignore the millions who earn too much to qualify for substantial assistance but too little to afford the staggering premiums.

These Americans are Obamacare’s silent victims — and they’re forced to choose between health coverage and other basic needs.

Subsidies don’t solve the problem. They mask it. The real crisis is the cost of health care itself.

Republicans already get hammered for supposedly “cutting Medicaid,” even when they’re only targeting fraud. They pay the political price for Obamacare without reaping any of the reform benefits. So why not go on offense and start dismantling the cartel?

Demand real reform

Instead of rubber-stamping another round of subsidies, Republicans should demand one simple trade-off: Let states offer unregulated, cheaper health care plans.

Don’t extend subsidies for the wealthy or the idle. And if temporary subsidies are unavoidable, they should be tied to an overhaul next year.

The signature feature of Obamacare was turning catastrophic coverage into a luxury item. Letting states revive affordable catastrophic plans would free up cash for direct primary care — and crack the cartel’s grip on pricing.

RELATED: Pushing back against the big Medicaid lie

Yurii Karvatskyi via iStock/Getty Images

And that’s just the beginning. Congress should allow health savings accounts, self-employment deductions, and employer exclusions to apply to alternative options like health-sharing ministries and concierge care. Workers should be able to use HSA funds to pay their own premiums or direct care memberships.

Employers should receive the same tax benefits for contributing to an employee’s HSA as they would for funding a traditional insurance plan. That gives workers real purchasing power and puts pressure on the cartel to compete.

Break the cartel. Rebuild the market.

Even if Republicans won’t fully repeal Obamacare, they must scrap the ban on physician-owned hospitals. That carve-out handed a monopoly to corporate health systems and helped bankrupt rural hospitals — a crisis both parties now pretend to solve with more subsidies.

You can’t subsidize your way out of a bottomless pit of inflationary grift. The only real solution is to let Americans escape the sinkhole that turned affordable health care into unaffordable sick care.

This is the GOP’s last chance to fix what it failed to kill. Make it count.

​Opinion & analysis, Medicaid, Obamacare, Health care reform, Health insurance, Congress, Middle class, Catastrophic, Coverage, Kaiser family foundation, Affordable care act, Medicaid expansion, Free market, Hospitals, Rural, Subsidies 

Leftist TikTok is in meltdown mode yet again after a new American Eagle ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney made the claim that she has “good jeans.”

The “good jeans” is a play on words for “good genes” — which has sent those TikTokers spiraling and calling it full-on Nazi propaganda. In the ad itself, Sweeney is dressed in a pair of American Eagle jeans as she discusses her jeans/genes.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” she says.

“I’m not here to tell you to buy American Eagle jeans. And I definitely won’t say they’re the most comfortable jeans I’ve ever worn, or that they make your butt look amazing. Why would I need to do that?” she says in another ad, before adding, “But if you said that you want to buy the jeans, I’m not gonna stop you. But just so we’re clear, this is not me telling you to buy American Eagle jeans.”

The type “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” then appears, while a male voiceover reads it.

The left has interpreted the spot as promoting eugenics and Nazism, with one TikTok user, who has a transgender flag in the background of her video, saying, “Should we be surprised that a company whose name is literally American Eagle is making fascist propaganda like this? Probably not. But it’s still really shocking.”

“Like, a blond-haired, blue-eyed white woman is talking about her good genes. Like, that is Nazi propaganda,” she added.

“It’s a very sensual ad campaign, but at least it’s hetero,” executive producer of the “Steve Deace Show,” Aaron McIntire, says. “As a result, American Eagle’s market cap shot up $200 million.”

“Naturally, lefties and rainbow jihadis are really upset that an objectively attractive white woman is being featured in a marketing campaign,” he continued. “So, the new rules are if a heterosexual, white, objectively attractive woman starts a marketing campaign for clothing, it’s literally Nazi propaganda.”

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Four members of a foster family in Florida have been arrested after some of the children reported being beaten, held in cages, and having their education neglected, according to police.

Police said they were alerted to the alleged abuse after one of the children was found to be in possession of an electric stun gun at a church camp operated by the Church of Latter-Day Saints in Branford. The children were living at the home of Brian and Jill Griffeth on Boundary Way in Fort White.

Children said the mother punished them by making them lie down, putting plywood on top of them, and pressing down to cause pain and splinters.

Officials found that four foster children were made to work and do chores while the five biological children were playing or watching television. The children were between the ages of 7 and 16 years old.

The investigation found that children claimed they were confined under a bunk bed with plywood secured by screws and that they were locked in their rooms and beaten with a cane.

Children also said the mother punished them by making them lie down, putting plywood on top of them, and pressing down to cause pain and splinters. They said they were sprayed in the face with vinegar, were given non-prescribed medication, and were not given proper schooling.

Some of the kids were illiterate and didn’t know their dates of birth.

RELATED: Children were drugged and raped in underground bunker, stunned police say: ‘Most horrible thing I’ve ever seen’

On Tuesday, the Griffeths were arrested along with two adult children, Dillan and Liberty.

All were charged with aggravated child abuse, booked into the Columbia County Jail, and given a bond of $500,000.

According to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, the children had been privately adopted in Arizona before the family moved to Florida.

“It’s a very nice compound, peaceful town, country town. Everybody keeps to themselves,” said Gerald Rodgers, a resident of the area, to WCBJ-TV. “I would never know something was going on like that. I’m glad y’all are out here reporting on it.”

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When one of Donald Trump’s strongest voting blocs starts to fall off after just six months of a largely successful second term, it’s time for some soul-searching.

Not just because the midterms loom or because 2028 is already on the horizon. The demographic in question — young men — will shape, defend, and lead this country well beyond the next election. If they’ve grown too cynical to bother, the rest of us may be left holding the bag.

When the past and present betray a generation, expect that generation to reshape the future.

Trump’s 2024 performance with 18- to 29-year-old men marked the best Republican showing since George W. Bush won that demographic in 2004 — the last time the GOP won the popular vote. Young men backed Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, then defected to Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Bush 43 pulled them back temporarily, but by the time Obama, Hillary, and Biden came along, Democrats had captured their hearts — and their votes.

Yikes. That’s no way to live. Yet today’s young men are angrier, more cynical, more disruptive — and more serious. They don’t want to “save” Social Security. They want to be saved from it. They aren’t starting out wide-eyed like the Boomers. They didn’t get the luxury of being idealists first and realists later. They started with realism, forged by debt, disillusionment, and betrayal.

These young men want a way of life back. They want accountability for the people who stole it from them.

The average 25-year-old white male is already more “based” than his Reagan-voting grandfather ever was or ever could be. And he’s not finding any comfort in Fox News. So the question is: Will anyone offer him a white pill before he plants the flag of “I just don’t care any more” at the 50-yard line of American life?

This generation won’t follow unless they’re given a mission worth sacrificing for. Trump’s brand won’t carry them forever. They can’t afford homes. They can’t find wives who aren’t steeped in feminist dogma. They can’t compete in a DEI-rigged job market. And now they’re expected to watch the people who ruined their future skate by without consequences?

That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

Young men like my son don’t want slogans. They want justice. They want our leaders to treat domestic traitors at least as ruthlessly as we’ve treated our allies in trade negotiations. They’ve seen enough memes. If the memes don’t end in prison time, they’ll see them as mockery. They want consequences — and they want them handed out with severe prejudice.

That’s the instinct of men who’ve been cornered for too long. Dread it, run from it — it’s coming. Unless we offer them something better, they’ll start making something worse.

Don’t count on them to keep voting Republican just because the Democrats are just that bad. That’s a losing bet. These young men reject the old paradigms — left, right, Reagan, Bush. Whatever. They’ve even begun questioning the biblical dispensationalism that guided American foreign policy for decades.

When the past and present betray a generation, expect that generation to reshape the future.

Our shot at shaping that future is now. If we fail to hold the deep state accountable yet again, then we’d better produce an economic boom big enough to distract from the urge to burn everything down.

We’ve convinced ourselves that soft, passive men define the modern male. But history — and nature — doesn’t work that way. Sooner or later, the animal comes roaring back — and a new generation rises, looking to settle scores.

Better get ready.

​Opinion & analysis, Midterm elections, 2026 midterms, Republicans, Democrats, Donald trump, Polls, Yougov, Cbs news, Gen z conservative, Gen z, Realignment, Angry young men, Youth vote, Justice, Apathy, Ronald reagan, George w. bush, Conservatism, Right, Leftists, History, Nature 

President Trump’s unpopular handling of the Epstein files may soon be rectified, after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche underwent two days of interviews with Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

However, while taking questions last Friday, Trump was asked whether or not he planned to pardon Maxwell — and his answer has drawn ire from skeptics across the country.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” he said. He was then pressed further and responded, “It’s something I haven’t thought about,” before adding, “I’m allowed to do it.”

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales isn’t concerned by Trump’s answers.

“I will say this, people want to read into President Trump’s responses to questions. I tend not to do that. He’s just a talker. He just talks,” Gonzales says, noting that when she was once given an opportunity to ask Trump whether or not he planned on pardoning January 6 protesters, he gave her a nonanswer as well.

“He’s like, ‘Well, we’re really looking into it. I can tell you that we’ve been looking at it, and the way that they’ve been treated is very unfairly, and we’re really looking.’ And I was like, ‘Why won’t you just give an answer?’ That’s just not him. He just doesn’t do it,” she explains.

Meanwhile, the White House has confirmed in a statement to the Daily Mail that “there have been no discussions or consideration of a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, and there never will be.”

“They said there will never be a pardon for her, but they are meeting with her. The DOJ has met with her. Who knows what’s going to come out of that. Again, I approached this entire thing with great caution because like, she’s here to tell a tale that a dead man cannot refute,” Gonzales says.

“So now we are left with just taking a convicted child sex trafficker at her word,” she continues, adding, “For lack of a better term, that feels icky. So it’s just not a good situation.”

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An active shooter is being sought by police in Midtown Manhattan after several shots were fired and a suspect was spotted with a long rifle. Early reports said at least two people were shot, including a police officer.

Some reports said that the man seen walking into a building with the gun had sunglasses and a mustache. An image was widely shared on social media apparently showing the suspect.

‘There is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity.’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams posted a message to the residents on social media.

“New Yorkers: there is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity and do not go outside if you are near Park Avenue and East 51st Street,” he wrote.

Video from the scene showed a police officer being taken away on a gurney, leading some to speculate that he was one of the victims of the shooting.

RELATED: 14-year-old active shooter shot and killed by police before he could enter middle school, Wisconsin police say

The building where the man was spotted reportedly has offices for the Blackstone group as well as the National Football League.

At about 7:52 p.m. ET, the police commissioner wrote on social media, “At this time, the scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.”

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