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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D) has discussed city-run grocery stores as part of his campaign platform — but he’s not the first to try it.

“You know that Kansas City has one,” Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck says on “The Glenn Beck Program,” before showing a local news segment on the grocery store — whose shelves are empty.

In the segment, Councilwoman Melissa Robinson told reporters that their “residents and neighbors don’t feel comfortable shopping in the store” due to safety issues. Robinson also suggested in council chambers that the they put $750,000 toward the store to help it restock.

“It looks like Venezuela,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says.

“This is the way it was in the Soviet Union,” Glenn agrees. “It doesn’t work.”

The store, KC Sun Fresh, has already received tens of millions dollars since 2018 and lost nearly $900,000 over the last year.

In comparison, Glenn shows another video that was posted of a Cuban walking through the aisles of a Costco for the first time. The man smiles and laughs excitedly as he sees apples and meat available to buy.

“This is a guy who’s coming from Cuba, has never seen anything like a Costco,” Glenn says. “It’s remarkable to see how much food, how much variety we have everywhere.”

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Cellphone videos show a mob pummeling several people on a Cincinnati street over the weekend and beating them down to the ground — including a male who’s seen punching a woman in the face, knocking her flat on her back and apparently out cold.

Cincinnati police said the incident occurred Friday night on Elm and Fourth Streets, WXIX-TV reported.

‘It will … be the responsibility of the court system to hold these violent thugs accountable.’

Cory Bowman — Cincinnati mayoral candidate and the half brother of Vice President JD Vance — posted video of the disturbing beatdown on X. You can view the video here.

The video shows a man dressed in a white shirt and black pants getting punched from behind and then chased into a street by two males — one in a red shirt and black shorts and the other in a dark shirt and white shorts. Amid increasing hooting and hollering, they throw him to the street surface, and a female and a third male join in and stomp the male in the white shirt several times.

After a few seconds, as the mob grows larger, the third male who had just joined the beatdown — dressed in a white shirt, long blue jean shorts, and black shoes — returns to stomp the male several more times and deliver a series of punches to his head.

Then the male dressed in the red shirt and black shorts who originally chased the man into the street returns to punch and kick the victim in the head numerous times. The victim finally is helped to his feet but quickly loses his balance and falls to the street again. Soon others help him back up and he is led away from the scene.

Seconds later, a woman in a blue dress who appeared to be intervening on behalf of the beaten-up man gets punched in the head from behind by another female — and then it appears that the male dressed in the white shirt, long blue jean shorts, and black shoes who helped beat up the male victim punches the woman in the blue dress in the face, knocking her flat on her back on the street.

A disturbing close-up of her face shows her eyes wide open and body motionless before a few people try to help her up.

Bowman also posted on X a set of three videos appearing to show the same beatdown from different vantage points.

One that lasts 23 seconds shows three other men knocked to the surface of the same street. Then one attacker leaps and lands his body atop one of the male victims — pro wrestling-style — while the victim is still lying on the street surface. Afterward a laughing, smiling male pulls the attacker away.

Another video that lasts 12 seconds shows what appears to be the same victim from the 23-second video getting pummeled from behind and knocked to the ground as a voice is heard saying “sleep him again!” The victim is then dragged by his foot into the middle of the street.

The third video — which lasts one minute and 14 seconds — appears to show what preceded the first video Bowman posted. It shows the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — who was beaten up in the first video — squaring off with the male in the red shirt and black shorts who would soon take part in his beatdown. It appears to show the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — and then it’s on.

An additional Facebook video appears to show even more of what occurred prior to mob attack. It shows what seems to be a verbal argument and minor scuffle that was on its way to calming down, and then the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants seems to lightly slap the face of the male in the red shirt and black shorts, which — as noted above — leads to the beatdown.

Here’s how WXIX described things:

An anonymous witness reported that the situation started several minutes before the fight shown in the videos. The footage captured a man, who, according to the witness, seemed to be intoxicated.

The witness says the man walked away, but returned about 15 minutes later with a group of people who were overheard making racial comments.

The video provided to FOX19 NOW, the witness says, shows people in the group trying to de-escalate the situation before the fight started.

Things escalated and punches were eventually thrown, the witness stated.

The video shows the man in the white shirt hitting the man in the red shirt.

RELATED: Street takeover thugs beat up 7-Eleven worker who tries to keep them from looting store. But he’s no match for mob of 50.

A handful of prominent individuals weighed on the incident.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock on Sunday posted the following on X, presumably in reference to primary male victim and the woman who was punched in the face after trying to intervene on his behalf: “When you’re at church today or in your secret place, say a prayer for this man and his wife. This behavior and lack of national outrage are unsustainable. It’s unsustainable. The anti-white bigotry at the root of this behavior must be addressed. Sickening.”

Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge on Saturday evening told WCPO-TV that she’s in “complete disgust” over the violence and that “the behavior displayed is nothing short of cruel and absolutely unacceptable. Our investigative team is working diligently to identify every individual involved in causing harm.”

WCPO added that a Cincinnati Police Department spokesperson said police weren’t aware of the incident until the videos were posted.

The Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police, which represents city police officers, also issued a condemnation — and a plea to “hold these violent thugs accountable.”

“The violence this video shows downtown is disgusting,” Cincinnati FOP President Ken Kober told WLWT-TV. “What’s equally disgusting is those who chose to watch and record instead of calling 911, attempting to defuse the situation, or render aid. I have full faith in the Central Business Section Investigators; they will make arrests in the near future. It will then be the responsibility of the court system to hold these violent thugs accountable.”

RELATED: Victim brutally beaten by gang of bike-riding thugs speaks out: ‘I’m thankful to God that it was only as bad as it was’

Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Vivek Ramaswamy — Republican candidate for Ohio governor — posted on X that “reckless violence has no place in Ohio. Restoring law & order on our streets shouldn’t be a partisan issue. I invite @amyactonoh & other Democrat leaders in our state to join us in condemning this kind of violence and supporting stronger law enforcement in our cities.”

Democrat Ohio state Rep. Cecil Thomas — whose district includes parts of Cincinnati — added to WLWT that the videos “turned my stomach” and “makes me wish I was still on the force.”

“I’ve just observed several video clips of an assault that took place last night in our downtown,” Thomas said, according to WLWT. “It turned my stomach, and I was angry and totally embarrassed to see such behavior, especially, during the Music Festival weekend that’s has been historically free of such horrifying violence, not to mention a Reds home game. There are so many visitors from around the country currently in our city.”

Thomas continued: “It’s this kind of behavior that makes me wish I was still on the force. It’s unacceptable under any standard, and those involved should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Therefore as your State Representative, I trust that there will be a full and complete investigation of this incident by the Cincinnati Police Department and to bring charges against all involved. There’s enough cameras in the area as well as cellphone videos to clearly determine how it started and who all was involved. I’m asking for anyone who may have information, including, cellphone footage to please notify authorities or call my office; 614-466-1645. All involved should be held accountable.”

WLWT reported that Democrat Mayor Aftab Pureval had not provided a comment on the incident. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that it texted Pureval’s spokesman for comment but has not received a response.

Editor’s note: This story has been edited after publication to include the Facebook video that appears to provide additional context.

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​Physical attack, Mob, Mob attack, Ganged up on, Cincinnati, Street violence, Beaten up, Beatdown, Cellphone videos, Vivek ramaswamy, Jd vance, Cory bowman, Police, Anti-white bigotry, Jason whitlock, Crime 

Here’s a chilling truth about human nature: Envy is the animating force of all conflict. It is also the driving energy behind all achievement.

Let’s back up a bit. Does that sound like hyperbole? I don’t think it is, and I will explain why.

Let’s start with James 4:1-2, which says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.”

This text confronts us with a raw, unflinching look at the human heart, telling us that passions, desires, and covetousness are the engine of all fights and quarrels. James is referring to the 10th commandment that prohibits coveting. The Hebrew word for “covet” in the 10th commandment doesn’t always mean a bad desire. Thus, coveting can refer to a good desire that is desired for the wrong reason.

The circumstance of the desire is what makes it forbidden.

Anatomy of sinful desire

Coveting is a sneaky sin. It isn’t sinful to desire a house or a wife. Homes and marriages are blessings of God. Coveting forbids desiring your neighbor’s house or your neighbor’s wife. So if your neighbor is selling his house, would it be coveting to desire it and consider purchasing it? Not necessarily.

But at what point does a desire turn covetous? That’s the sneaky part. A desire becomes covetous if we desire it simply because it belongs to someone else. Humans are social creatures, and we desire things for social reasons more than we realize.

Once we understand this simple dynamic at work, it’s hard not to see it everywhere.

This is what fashion trends are all about. If the popular boys at school are wearing the latest Nike shoe, that shoe is no longer mere footwear. That shoe has become a status marker, a social currency that distinguishes the cool kids from the ordinary kids. Kids who don’t have that shoe will think they must have that shoe, not because they lack footwear, but because they covet the social status of the popular boys.

So it isn’t sinful to want shoes. It isn’t necessarily sinful to like your friend’s high-quality shoes and for you to order a pair for yourself. The desire becomes sinful when mere shoes become an avatar of inner discontent and envy. The only reason you want those shoes is because he owns them and you don’t. When you compare yourself to him, you come up short, and so you want what he has to close the gap.

Comparison produces discontent

The 10th commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17). Notice the key feature of the 10th commandment is not the listed objects of desire, but the fact that your neighbor already possesses them.

In other words, your discontent is derived by comparing yourself to someone else.

This is a basic, human phenomena. Much of our discontentment in life is a product of comparing ourselves to other people. For example, suppose you have an ordinary car that gets you where you need to go. You may be perfectly content with your car. But then your neighbor pulls into his driveway with a brand new Mercedes. His new car introduces a new point of reference that, by comparison, suddenly makes you feel less pleased with your ordinary car.

Another example: A man may think his wife is the most beautiful woman in the world. But then he meets his friend’s wife, and she’s gorgeous! The presence of his friend’s wife makes his own wife seem plain and less attractive by comparison.

The worth we assign to almost everything in our lives is derived by comparison. Most often, we value things by social consensus. We want something simply because other people have it, not because of its inherent worth. These covetous desires can become violently intense. We feel we absolutely must have something, and we will do anything to get it. We might even feel entitled to it. If everyone else has it, why don’t I have it? We may resent other people who do have it. We may blame them, as though they are preventing us from having it. They’ve wronged me. They cheated me. It’s their fault.

Coveting other people’s accomplishments

Coveting isn’t limited to physical possessions. We can also desire other people’s appearance, abilities, or accomplishments.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 says, “Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor.” That’s a stunning statement. But the truth of it is plain enough if we’re willing to see it. Mankind’s greatest accomplishments stem from envy.

In the workplace, a man may strive to be the best at something because he envies someone else who might be better at it. A Christian may strive for excellence for social reasons as much as spiritual ones. He wants to look good and be respected in comparison to his peers. His job satisfaction is derived by comparing himself to how everyone else is doing.

Once we understand this simple dynamic at work, it’s hard not to see it everywhere. Charles C. Colton once said, “For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.” Not only do we covet others, we are also the object of other peoples’ coveting.

Coveting works in reverse, too. François de La Rochefoucauld once said, “In the misfortune of our best friends, we often find something that is not displeasing.” I find that quote quite disturbing, not because I think it’s wrong, but because I find it profoundly true.

We covet people we perceive to be ahead of us in some way. But there can be a sick pleasure in the misfortune of others because it reduces whatever advantage they formerly had. We can do this even with people we love. Coveting is not limited to our enemies. In fact, we’re more likely to covet our friends precisely because we like them.

We compare ourselves to others, producing discontentment in us and envy toward others. So we covet their possessions or accomplishments and resent them for having them. When coveting comes into its full flowering, it produces fights, quarrels, and even murder.

This simple fact of human nature fractures relationships, kills marriages, estranges friendships, splits churches, and even triggers wars.

René Girard observed that the 10th commandment is positioned last in the Decalogue for a reason. He said, “If the Decalogue devotes its final commandment to prohibiting desire for whatever belongs to the neighbor, it is because it lucidly recognizes in that desire the key to the violence prohibited in the four commandments that precede it. If we ceased to desire the goods of our neighbor, we would never commit murder or adultery or theft or false witness. If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous.”

3 destructive examples of coveting

Coveting another’s marriage: Coveting can turn ordinary marriage problems into a major crisis. How so? Because one couple compares their problems to the problems of another couple, concluding that the other couple must be superior to them. Even though their own problems are relatively manageable, the comparison to another couple is what makes their own problems seem unbearable.

We may know other couples at church who seem to have it all together, while our own problems seem far worse than theirs. Of course, no one knows the real story of the other marriage because everyone presents the best version of themselves in public. Inevitably, we compare our blooper reel to their highlight reel. We only see the best parts of their lives, but we’re intimately familiar with the worst parts of ours.

By coveting another woman’s husband, a woman says, “If only you led our family better like the other men at church, we wouldn’t be having these problems.” And her covetous husband responds, “Those men have an easier job leading because their wives don’t nag as much as you do.”

Coveting another church: Coveting triggers discontent when other churches have cool ministries that make your church seem lame by comparison. There may not be anything wrong with your church. It’s an ordinary church with ordinary problems. But when the other church starts doing cool outreaches, has unique kids’ programs and innovative music, and their rapid growth has caused a lot of buzz, it triggers discontent. Why? Not because your ordinary church is doing anything wrong. It may be simply because you covet the slick programming of some other church.

The other church gives you a new point of reference to unfavorably compare your own church, though you would have probably been content with it if you knew nothing of the other church. The mere existence of your neighbor’s church and its exciting programming suddenly triggers feelings of discontent and envy within you.

Now, you find yourself thinking, “How can I disciple my kids without better programming? How can I worship without better music? How can I grow in Christ without better preaching?”

Of course, most people won’t honestly admit their discontent with their church is actually covetous. They may not even be aware of it. And so they send the pastor an email highlighting their “concerns” about his church’s kids’ ministry, worship music, and preaching. They might even toss in a jab at him for his poor leadership before moving on to greener pastures — or so they think.

Buzz phrases like ‘white privilege’ make the sin of envy and covetousness nakedly obvious, meant to make white people feel ashamed of themselves.

Coveting other people groups: Winston Churchill once said, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” Undeniably, socialism is creeping its way through our society aided by an undercurrent of Marxism, which is simply covetousness built into a political philosophy.

In this way, coveting is the animating force behind things like wokeness, cancel culture, geopolitical wars, and violent revolutions.

Here’s how it works: Covetous desire can inhabit larger groups of people, who find solidarity in the discontent of shared grievances and the brotherhood in blaming a common villain. In other words, entire groups of people covet the possessions or accomplishments of other groups of people based on their belonging to that particular group.

For example, “the poor” as a group may covet the success or wealth of “the rich.” Of course, what is considered “poor” or “rich” are relative conditions, determined not on absolute terms but always in comparison to others. The poor in America by modern standards might be considered rich by global standards or in comparison to prior generations. But those comparisons don’t serve the purposes of envy. So they only compare themselves to people who have more than they do, covetously declaring themselves poor by comparison, and blaming those who have more for somehow holding them back.

Similarly, “whiteness” has become a boogeyman in our society. “Whiteness” is invoked to blame one group of people for any and every social ill, thereby allowing individual people to avoid personal responsibility. Buzz phrases like “white privilege” make the sin of envy and covetousness nakedly obvious, meant to make white people feel ashamed of themselves. By calling it a “privilege,” it strips non-whites of personal responsibility and gives them an omni-villain to blame for all their problems, stoking the fires of anger and resentment toward an entire class of people.

Conclusion

In light of all this, it’s easy to see why James spoke the way he did. What causes quarrels among us? What causes fights among us? Is it not this, that our passions are at war within us? We desire and do not have, so we murder. We covet and cannot obtain, so we fight and quarrel.

Once we recognize that our desires are largely formed by social consensus, and that social consensus prompts sins of discontent, envy, and covetousness, we can repent with more honesty and humility. We can thank God for what He has given us. And our standard of contentment can be God’s generosity toward us, not the blessings of our neighbors.

After all, every Christian is blessed far beyond comprehension. We can thank God that He treats us according to His lavish grace, not according to what our sins deserve.

This inner contentment can make us more at peace with God, more content with our lives, more grateful for God’s generosity toward us, and less entitled to what others have.

And, of course, this would lead to less conflict, too.

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A video recording of the February 2025 traffic stop and arrest of a 22-year-old African-American man named William McNeil Jr. is going viral following its release to the public. The roughly two-minute-long video is disturbing, as it appears to capture McNeil being brutalized by police officers.

In the clip, McNeil sits in his car and talks to a cop outside his passenger window. He says, “When he pulled me over, he walked up, I opened my door because my window don’t work, right? And then I said, ‘So what I did wrong?’ He said, ‘Well, for one, your headlights are off under this weather.’ I’m like, ‘There’s multiple people with headlights off, first of all, and then there’s no rain.’”

The cop he’s speaking to then replies, “It doesn’t matter. You’re still required to have headlights on.”

McNeil then responds, “Can you pull that law up?”

“Yeah, when you step out of the car, I will,” the officer says.

McNeil then requests the officer call his supervisor, at which point, the officer gives the order to have McNeil’s window smashed. Another cop reaches through the broken glass and punches McNeil, who is not fighting back and has his hands visible, in the face. He’s then ripped from his vehicle, punched by several officers, and wrestled to the ground.

It certainly appears like disproportionate force was used on McNeil.

However, another video has begun to circulate, and it radically alters the narrative. Sara Gonzales contrasts McNeil’s video with the much longer police bodycam footage of the incident.

Before McNeil began recording his own video of his window being smashed and his forcible removal from his vehicle, he had already been interacting with police for several minutes.

Police footage captures McNeil with his door open asking the officer why he’s been pulled over. The officer, keeping at a distance, asks McNeil why his door is open, to which McNeil explains that his window doesn’t work. After the officer informs McNeil that he’s been stopped for not using headlights in inclement weather and for not wearing his seat belt, he asks McNeil for his license, registration, and proof of insurance.

McNeil, however, boldly says, “No, call your supervisor.”

The officer then tells McNeil to “step out of the vehicle.” Again, McNeil says no and then proceeds to slam and lock his door.

At that point, the officer tells McNeil that he’s under arrest for resisting. “Sir, this is your last warning to open the vehicle and exit before we are going to break the window,” he says.

McNeil refuses, and the officer warns him six more times that his window will be broken if he doesn’t exit his vehicle. McNeil never complies, at which point the order is given for his window to be broken.

Reports also indicate that McNeil was driving with a suspended license, was in possession of marijuana at the time of his arrest, and reached for a large knife when officers opened his door.

To hear Sara’s commentary and analysis on the incident, watch the episode above.

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Philosophers and sociologists have observed that in the wake of the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, we now live in a disenchanted age.

Many modern people believe the universe is governed exclusively by impersonal physical laws and that the sacred and transcendent are illusory ideas belonging to a bygone era.

Given the impossibility of demonstrating God’s nonexistence, skeptics ultimately have no grounds for denying that miracles are possible.

According to Richard Dawkins, for example: “The nineteenth century is the last time when it was possible for an educated person to admit to believing in miracles like the virgin birth without embarrassment. When pressed, many educated Christians are too loyal to deny the virgin birth and the resurrection. But it embarrasses them because their rational minds know that it is absurd, so they would much rather not be asked.”

Some who propose to speak for Christianity adopt the same viewpoint.

Lutheran theologian and New Testament scholar Rudolph Bultmann declared, “It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries, and at the same time to believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles. We may think we can manage it in our own lives, but to expect others to do so is to make the Christian faith unintelligible and unacceptable to the modern world.”

Against the backdrop of our modern naturalistic worldview, it’s unsurprising that many people today reject miracles out of hand.

Yet there are good reasons to spurn this skepticism and to believe that miracles can and do happen. Christianity is founded on miracles (chiefly, the incarnation and resurrection), and if miracles were refuted, Christianity would crumble (1 Corinthians 15:13–14).

What is a miracle?

Before discussing whether miracles are possible, we should first establish what we mean by a miracle.

Christian philosopher Robert Larmer’s definition is helpful: “A miracle [is] an unusual and religiously significant event which reveals and furthers God’s purposes, is beyond the power of physical nature to produce in the circumstances in which it occurs, and is caused by an agent who transcends physical nature.”

A couple of things about this definition are worth highlighting. First, if nature is left to itself, a miracle will not occur. Miracles are brought about by transcendent agents — either God or angels. Several biblical passages refer to angels performing miracles (Matthew 28:2-4; Luke 1:19-20; Acts 5:19-20). Satan can also generate supernatural phenomena (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10), but such actions do not qualify as miracles in this definition.

RELATED: Richard Dawkins’ atheism collides with reality — then it crumbles

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Second, in addition to being an extraordinary event, a miracle must also, in Larmer’s words, be “an event that has religious significance in the sense that it can reasonably be viewed as furthering God’s purposes.” Jesus’ resurrection, for example, provided evidence of His divine status and authority (John 2:19-22; Acts 17:31).

It’s not always immediately clear whether an extraordinary event will further God’s purposes; it sometimes takes time to see what the fruit of the occurrence will be and whether it should ultimately be viewed as a miracle from God.

Are miracles possible?

We now turn to the question of whether miracles, as defined above, are possible.

We begin by conceding this: If one accepts a naturalistic view of the world, then miracles are extremely improbable. The universe appears to follow physical laws, and we rarely observe phenomena that look like exceptions to the rules. Further, if we did observe something that looked like an exception, that would be evidence that we haven’t yet grasped whatever physical mechanism produced it.

On the other hand, if God exists, He is perfectly capable of acting within His creation, and we have good reason to believe that He would do so to interact with his creatures. The one who claims miracles are impossible would have to show that it is impossible that God exists, which is an insurmountably high burden of proof.

Thus, our background assumptions play a decisive role in how we view the question of miracles. If our worldview forbids a transcendent agent from intervening in the world, then we will deny miracles are possible. If, however, we grant that God exists, or may exist, miracles become possible and, perhaps, likely.

Allowing the possibility of miracles seems to bring up a worry: If we do so, the universe would suddenly become chaotic and unpredictable. Among other things, this would negate scientific study. But as philosopher Richard Purtill points out, we encounter exceptions to general rules all the time, yet these exceptions don’t nullify what we ordinarily expect.

For example, children sometimes skip grades in school, but this doesn’t disrupt the education system. We sometimes have holidays and vacations, but this doesn’t interfere with our ability to otherwise work normally. Governors of states can issue occasional pardons, but this doesn’t lead to the collapse of the justice system.

Similarly, a miracle can occur without obliterating all that we know and expect about the natural world. Thus, writes Purtill, “Scientists, as such, have no concern with miracles, for they cannot predict them, bring them about, or draw from them any conclusions about the future course of nature. A miracle is supernatural and therefore of no scientific interest.”

C.S. Lewis makes the even stronger point that the best guarantor of the uniformity of nature is God himself. (We can’t pursue this point here, but historians of science have argued that this is the very reason modern science arose only in Christian Europe — because of its belief in a rational God who created a law-abiding world.)

Lewis writes in his book “Miracles”:

Theology says to you in effect, “Admit God and with Him the risk of a few miracles, and I in return will ratify your faith in uniformity as regards the overwhelming majority of events.” … The alternative is really much worse. Try to make Nature absolute and you find that her uniformity is not even probable. By claiming too much, you get nothing. … Theology offers you a working arrangement, which leaves the scientist free to continue his experiments and the Christian to continue his prayers.

Contrary to Richard Dawkins’ assertion above, Christians should feel no embarrassment in affirming the miracles of Scripture or other bona fide miracles. Given the impossibility of demonstrating God’s nonexistence, skeptics ultimately have no grounds for denying that miracles are possible.

A related question naturally arises, whether we have any evidence that miracles have, in fact, happened.

Christian scholars have made very strong cases for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. Interested readers should consult books on the topic by William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Michael Licona. For a defense of biblical miracles, along with scores of documented cases of modern-day miracles, two excellent resources are “Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts” and “Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World,” both by Craig S. Keener.

This article is adapted from a post that originally appeared on the Worldview Bulletin Substack.

​Bible, Christianity, Christians, God, Miracles, Richard dawkins, Science, Faith 

Who knew the Christmas story was really about bodily autonomy?

That’s exactly what Democrat James Talarico, a Texas state representative and progressive Christian, wants you to believe. Armed with the confidence of a seminarian with just enough theology to be dangerous, Talarico recently appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where he claimed there is “no historical, theological, biblical basis” requiring Christians to oppose abortion.

Talarico wants to paint Mary as a modern feminist icon. But scripture tells a different story, one far more radical.

What’s worse, Talarico argued that the Bible supports the “right” of a mother to kill her unborn child.

His argument goes like this: Because Genesis 2:7 says that Adam became a “living being” after God breathed life into him, that means life doesn’t begin until birth. Therefore, an unborn child can be killed before he takes his first breath because the unborn aren’t fully human.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Bible. It’s theological acrobatics dressed up as biblical scholarship — and it’s a lie.

Adam wasn’t conceived in a womb, according to Genesis. He was handcrafted by God from the dust of creation, then filled with God’s life-giving spirit. The moment of breath is not about biology, as Talarico suggests, but theology. It declares that God alone is the giver of life. And to use this verse as a permission slip for abortion is not just a category error, it’s a hermeneutical train wreck of the worst kind.

The implications of his logic are chilling.

Biblically, it means that King David’s mother would have been morally justified to exercise “choice” and abort the future king — even while God weaved him together in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139) — and that it would have been justified for Elizabeth and Mary to slaughter their unborn children, John the Baptist and Jesus, just as Herodian soldiers slaughtered the holy innocents who supposedly threatened King Herod’s reign (Matthew 2:16-18).

RELATED: How liberals hijack the Bible to push their agenda on you

In fact, Talarico’s logic does more than attack the unborn — it undermines the Incarnation.

His argument denies the hypostatic union, the historic Christian doctrine that Jesus is both fully God and fully human. If Jesus wasn’t fully human until He took His first breath, then He was not the Incarnate Son during Mary’s pregnancy. But Jesus didn’t become the Son of God only when he took his first breath at birth. No, he was fully God and fully human from the moment of conception. To suggest otherwise is not a minor theological error. It’s heresy.

In an effort to score progressive political points, Talarico doesn’t just fumble elementary theology or misinterpret a Bible verse. He actually guts the gospel and rips out the beating heart of Christian orthodoxy.

But it gets worse.

Not content with butchering Genesis 2:7, Talarico also reinterprets the Annunciation — the moment when the angel Gabriel tells Mary she will bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38) — as proof that the Bible is pro-abortion.

“Before God comes over Mary and we have the Incarnation, God asks for Mary’s consent, which is remarkable,” Talarico told Joe Rogan. “The angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something that she wants to do, and she says, ‘If it is God’s will, let it be done.'”

In Talarico’s telling, the Annunciation is not about God taking on human flesh to dwell with us but a story that teaches that “creation has to be done with consent.” Therefore, his argument goes, abortion is compatible with Christianity because creation itself depends on a woman exercising bodily autonomy.

This pro-Planned Parenthood parable, of course, is pure fiction.

The Christian consensus has been clear-eyed about this issue for two millennia: Abortion is a grave sin. Full stop.

Neither God nor Gabriel asks Mary for her “consent.” Instead, Gabriel tells Mary what she will do. “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus” (Luke 1:31). And Mary’s response? She doesn’t assert her bodily autonomy, but she accepts God’s will with obedience, even though she does not understand God’s plan (Luke 1:34).

Talarico wants to paint Mary as a modern feminist icon. But scripture tells a different story, one far more radical: She is a confused teenage girl who trusts God with her body, future, and reputation.

It’s the ultimate act of surrender. And, more importantly, it’s a complete rebuke of pro-abortion ideology, which elevates a woman to giver and taker of life.

The truth is, Christianity has never endorsed abortion. The earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament — from the Didache to the church fathers and Councils — explicitly condemn abortion and equate it with murder. The Christian consensus has been clear-eyed about this issue for two millennia: Abortion is a grave sin. Full stop.

Only under the pressure of secularism, an ideology that erases God, have some Christians equivocated and, in the case of Talarico, tried to revise history. But this revision attempt is not biblical scholarship.

This is why Talarico’s attempt to force the concept of “consent” into the Bible is as bewildering as it is absurd. He’s not doing exegesis. He’s bending his knee to the spirit of the age, using the Bible as a prop to recast the word of God into the image of progressive politics.

It’s dangerous, not only because of its destructive theology, but because Talarico is not a fringe activist. He’s a rising star in the Democratic Party. Rogan, in fact, urged Talarico to run for president, and Politico even believes Talarico could “turn Texas blue.” That means his gobbledygook theology isn’t just rhetorical — it could have real consequences.

And the cost will be measured in dead unborn babies.

Christians must not be deceived by Talarico’s affable tone, seminary vocabulary, or theological sleight of hand. The Bible is not pro-abortion, and Christian theology does not treat abortion as a third-tier issue we can “agree to disagree” about. Christianity is unabashedly pro-life. From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals a radical vision of human life: It is sacred because it is human made in His image.

Mary didn’t say, “My body, my choice.” She said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.” That’s not feminist consent. It’s a rebuke of it.

​James talarico, Joe rogan, Joe rogan podcast, Abortion, Bible, Pro-life, Christianity, Progressive christianity, Jesus, Mary, God, Jesus christ, Faith 

In preparation for a recent doctor’s appointment, I had to go online and complete a patient intake form. One of the questions asked for the patient’s sex. In the past, I was given two choices — without necessary clarification. On this form, which is apparently standard these days, I saw this:

MALE
FEMALE
(Sex Assigned at Birth)

This kind of lunacy has been endorsed by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, ostensibly in the name of something called “safetyism” (i.e., to err on the side of not hurting anyone’s delicate feelings).

God’s plan for the world is self-evident, and it requires us to put on our work boots and be His hands and feet.

America’s founders, perhaps inadvertently, caught on to this whole idea of “that which is obvious” when composing the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Back in their day, everyone was on board with certain statements — for example, “All men are created equal.”

Our founders were merely stating the facts, and they were asking men and women of good will to sign on — along with the 56 representatives of the 13 original colonies who put their “official” John Hancocks on the document. These men, along with every patriot living in America at the time, pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor,” putting their blood and treasure on the line in the unknown and dangerous fight ahead.

Yet nearly 250 years later, many Americans can’t even perceive these truths, let alone fight for them.

How did this change?

Could it be that failing to believe in nature and nature’s God — another of these self-evident truths of yesteryear — has removed any common basis by which truth can be self-evident? If you no longer believe in objective truth — or the God who defines it — then you’re free to invent your own reality, your own “truth,” and your own “gods.”

This shift helps explain how a baby in the womb can be dismissed as a mere “blob of tissue” and terminated at any point in pregnancy — even after birth in some places. It’s how a grown man can claim to be a woman, compete against girls in sports, and expect the rest of us to cheer him on as if biology had nothing to say about it.

It might also explain why many will champion open borders and still say they are good citizens of America. Never mind that a nation without borders is no nation at all — another self-evident truth.

Christians have a unique responsibility in this cultural moment. Like Queen Esther, we were “born for such a time as this.” We are not meant to sit this one out.

Unfortunately, some Christians sit on the sidelines, arguing that getting involved culturally or politically will “spoil their witness,” that they have been put on this Earth just to “preach the gospel.”

RELATED: Embodied truth: God’s timeless design silences woke gender delusion

F. Boettcher/ZU_09 via Getty Images

And some among the “faithful” who have unashamedly joined the prevailing winds of an off-course culture are quick to point to passages like “judge not lest you be judged” to show that making waves in culture is un-Christian.

However, those who adopt this line of thinking are completely oblivious to what is happening out in the open and therefore act with political immaturity. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, beckons believers to get involved in their world. They have to get their hands dirty and their hair messy in the righteous fight that encourages and supports building God’s kingdom on Earth.

God’s plan for the world is self-evident, and it requires us to put on our work boots and be His hands and feet.

This is the “mission” that we were “assigned at birth.”

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.

​Opinion & analysis, Self-evident truths, Truth, God, Faith, Bible, Transgender agenda, American medical association, Lies, Biology, Sex, Esther, Birth 

When we think about personal assistants – people whose job is to book meetings, dinner reservations, and plane tickets – we assume they work exclusively for the rich and important.

In roughly a year, however, Glenn Beck believes “AI agents” – digital personal assistants – will be a fact of reality for just about everyone. In theory, we’d be able to tell our AI agent to check our calendar, book us a vacation complete with plane tickets, a hotel, a rental car, and excursions, and, “It’ll do it really well,” he says.

Is this the silver lining of artificial intelligence, or is it yet another thing we should add to the long list of terrifying threats it poses?

While a personal assistant would certainly be convenient and useful, the fact that AI would need access to your bank, calendar, emails, computer, and cell phone, relegates it to the terrifying list.

But it’s unavoidable at this point. AI agents are coming, says Glenn, and when they hit the scene, it will be like “when the iPhone first came out,” and within 18 months, “everybody had one.” And similar to smartphones, we will have “no idea what [AI agents’] real effect will be until maybe 10 years down the road.”

Already, this technology is being rolled out. On July 17, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted the following:

— (@)

Glenn and co-host Stu Burguiere are particularly struck by Altman’s candid warning: “We have built a lot of safeguards and warnings into it and broader mitigations than we’ve ever developed before, from robust training to system safeguards to user controls, but we can’t anticipate everything. In the spirit of iterative deployment, we are going to warn users heavily and give users freedom to take actions carefully if they want to.”

What Altman is likely implying, Glenn says, is that “you may not be able to get out of [using your AI agent] because it will have everything on you.”

What happens when an AI assistant threatens to blackmail or sabotage the user after it’s given shutdown commands?

“Our whole world is just going to change,” says Glenn.

To hear more of his analysis, watch the clip above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Ai, Ai assisstant, Sam altman, Chatgpt, Artificial intelligence, Blazetv, Blaze media, Ai agents 

“Perfection is not attainable,” football coach Vince Lombardi told his Green Bay Packers in 1959, “but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” Do excellent people, I wonder, know when they’ve come as close as humanly possible to perfection?

Take scholar C.S. Lewis, the moment he finished writing his Christian apologetic novel “The Screwtape Letters” or singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, the first time he performed his wistful ballad “Pancho and Lefty” from start to finish. Did each virtuoso instinctively know his art was knocking on heaven’s door?

I suspect it won’t be the last time something magical happens at Sister Bay Bowl, a place that, in pursuit of perfection, has caught excellence.

I cannot ask Messrs. Lewis or Van Zandt, who’ve gone on to their eternal reward. But later this summer — and aptly in Lombardi’s adoptive state — I can ask the proprietors of Sister Bay Bowl, a supper club in Door County, Wisconsin.

The throwback business, which, like much of northeastern Wisconsin, is as America was, has remained in the Willems family since 1950. It was opened as a hotel, and in 1958, Earl and Rita Willems replaced their dance hall with a six-lane bowling alley. They added a supper club in 1964.

The hotel no longer operates, and the dining-cum-bowling establishment today is known to many of its devotees simply as “the Bowl.” In a world demanding constant connectivity, the Bowl provides an evening of disconnection from time and place, if only for a few hours.

Over the summer years, my five children learned to bowl there. They did this while my wife, Devin, and I watched them while waiting for our table, a mutually beneficial diversion for kids and reprieve for parents. The bowling tab was always reasonable, and the wait for seating was never too long.

Nobody there, it seems, is ever in possession of a smartphone. To be lost in one at the Bowl would be to miss out on the low-tech vibe — a Milwaukee Brewers game on the bar’s television being the only reminder of modernity — of late-20th-century Americana that’s on offer.

The moon is jokingly said to be a terrible place for a restaurant: great food but no atmosphere. Until I’d been to the Bowl, I never appreciated how much atmosphere matters. This isn’t to deprecate the fare, which, like many diners themselves, had been swimming in Lake Michigan merely hours before.

It’s simply to note that everyone is happy. It’s a rare spot in the cosmos where time seems to stand still and all feel they are where they’re supposed to be. A night at the Bowl hints at the eternal, rich with a sense of what mystical English poet Francis Thompson called “majestic instancy.”

Here, I fell in love with broasted anything — a Wisconsin delicacy — and rediscovered how good peaches and cottage cheese can be. Here, I do not embarrass my kids by asking the waiter to name the heartiest item on the menu. True to its Midwestern roots, everything is hearty at the Bowl.

RELATED: Don Jr., other fans react to Hulk Hogan’s death: ‘A true American patriot!’

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Best of all, years ago, I took Mary Devine, Devin’s grandmother, to dinner there the night I sensed our large family’s dining plan wasn’t taking shape quickly enough. “Nana,” I asked, “would you like to join me at the Bowl?” I can still hear her courtly reply: “Why, Mike, I’d love that.”

As the sun set on Sister Bay, I was treated to hours of conversation with an elegant Southern woman, usually laconic, yet that night, anything but. She never went to college but had more common sense than any person I know. It was an unforgettable night.

Nana died shortly after that dinner. Our evening together turned out to be a wonderful parting gift. I suspect it won’t be the last time something magical happens at Sister Bay Bowl, a place that, in pursuit of perfection, has caught excellence.

​Opinion & analysis, Americana, Nostalgia, Bowling alley, Sister bay bowl, Bowling, Supper club, Dinner, Family, Vince lombardi, C.s. lewis, The screwtape letters, Townes van zandt, Pancho and lefty, Excellence, Perfection, Children, Family traditions, Restaurants, Diner, Wisconsin 

Only Donald Trump could make the legacy corporate media defend corn syrup.

Last week, the president announced that Coca-Cola would begin directly offering Americans a new choice: Coca-Cola sweetened with cane sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. Coca-Cola confirmed the news this week.

Instead of being honest, NBC News essentially ran defense for corn syrup — because Trump criticized it.

It’s another victory for the Make America Healthy Again movement. But reaction to the announcement was as predictable as it was absurd.

Within hours of Trump’s announcement, NBC News published a story — citing medical “experts,” of course — questioning whether cane sugar is better than corn syrup. “As Trump pushes for cane sugar in Coca-Cola, is it really better than corn syrup?” the headline asked.

Its conclusion: not really. It’s “essentially the same.” Nothing to see here.

But there is something to see here — quite a bit, in fact.

NBC News’ reaction is yet another example of how Trump’s critics, sick with Trump derangement syndrome, reflexively oppose anything he does, taking the losing side of an 80/20 issue. Protecting your children from radical trans ideology? Bigotry. Border security? That’s racist. Want real sugar in your soda instead of a processed, factory-engineered syrup made from crops sprayed with dangerous chemicals? Nope, can’t support that.

You don’t need a doctorate in nutrition or to be a medical doctor to know that HFCS is bad for you. It has long been associated with poor health outcomes like obesity, insulin resistance, and other metabolic diseases. It’s cheap, it’s everywhere, and it’s a product of a food system that routinely puts profits over Americans’ health.

RELATED: Who is bankrolling the anti-MAHA movement?

Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

It’s no coincidence that poor health outcomes exploded when American food manufacturers began using processed, factory-engineered products like corn syrup and seed oils. Moreover, we intuitively know that natural food products — like cane sugar — are better for our health than cheaper, processed alternatives.

And yet, NBC News is on a campaign to debunk this widely acknowledged fact. It’s a move straight from the legacy media’s anti-Trump playbook.

NBC News cited Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, who said cane sugar and HFCS have “identical metabolic effects” because “high-fructose corn syrup and cane sugar are about 50% fructose, 50% glucose.”

That might be true in biochemistry textbooks. But real-world nutrition is not only about molecules. It’s about systems, and our reliance on HFCS is evidence that our food system is deeply broken.

Food manufacturers use HFCS because it’s cheaper, not because it’s healthy. It became dominant in the 1970s and 1980s through agricultural subsidies, corporate lobbying, and a food industry obsessed with maximizing profit margins. It’s addictive and engineered for invisibility. It normalizes excess consumption, and it’s seemingly in everything: soda, candy, bread, condiments, salad dressings, and snack foods, including many foods you don’t realize are sweetened unless you look at the nutritional label.

If the food or drink product you purchase is found in the middle of the grocery store, chances are it contains HFCS or some other manufactured derivative with a different name.

Cane sugar, on the other hand, is less processed, less ubiquitous, and more easily avoided. Plus, it comes from nature. We intuitively know which is better to eat.

RELATED: Death to seed oils

Supranee Bunchoo via iStock/Getty Images

This isn’t really about the ingredients in Coca-Cola. It’s about the battle at the heart of the Make America Healthy Again movement — a battle not just against bad ingredients and chemicals, but the propaganda machine that protects a system making us fat, sick, and dependent on the pharmaceutical industry.

MAHA is about reclaiming your birthright to food freedom and metabolic health. It’s about common sense and trusting your instincts — not “experts” and elites who gaslight you into oblivion. America spends more on health care than any other developed nation and has the best quality of care in the world, yet our health outcomes are significantly worse. Everyone knows something is wrong, and everyone knows it starts with our food.

That’s why NBC News’ “fact check” is so dishonest.

For decades, the media and scientific establishment downplayed sugar’s role in skyrocketing rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction — all while scapegoating fat as the villain. They pushed low-fat, high-carb processed foods as healthy (remember the food pyramid?), helping enrich Big Food and Big Pharma. Tens of millions Americans paid the price with their health, and the problem is only getting worse.

But instead of being honest, NBC News essentially ran defense for corn syrup — because Trump criticized it. That’s activism, not journalism.

The reaction from NBC News is symbolic of the many problems fatiguing Americans: We are sick, and we want real food. We want honesty and transparency from corporations and the media. We are tired of being used by industries that don’t care about us and a media that manipulates us.

The MAHA movement is exposing these broken systems, and Trump’s instincts — once again — are correct. He may not be a doctor or nutrition expert (he loves McDonald’s, after all), but the experts clearly cannot be trusted. Once again, Trump is on the right side of an 80/20 issue.

Coca-Cola made the right move. And NBC News, in its blind opposition to Trump, just proved again why no one trusts it anymore.

​Make america healthy again, Donald trump, Corn syrup, High fructose corn syrup, Coca-cola, Nbc news, Legacy media, Media bias, Maha 

In the space of a single month, AI-generated band Velvet Sundown topped the Spotify charts, but it also sparked such a fire of disgust in listeners and critics that the world’s most famous streaming platform was forced to pull some Velvet Sundown content and revise its rules related to AI music.

In June, Velvet Sundown appeared on Spotify out of nowhere, dropped two full albums of “original” songs that, despite the bad algorithmic odds associated with first-timers on the platform, racked up more than a million streams. A curious, almost singular feat.

Nick Cave crushed the idea of AI music, calling it a ‘grotesque mockery.’

Rumors swirled that the music was AI-generated or at least assisted. Pressure on Spotify ratcheted up until, in early July, unidentified representatives for Velvet Sundown admitted on X.com that the band is “a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.”

No rave from Cave

The response was swift and harsh. Nick Cave crushed the idea of AI music, calling it a “grotesque mockery.” Elton John pointed to yet further dilution of the already flagging artist royalties inevitable in a world where AI music dominates playlists and algorithmic “recommendations.”

Two of the internet’s most beloved and capable music commentators, Rick Beato and Ted Gioia, who’ve both long criticized Spotify and the anti-artist and exploitative predilections of the music industry at large, immediately dropped videos and articles excoriating the platform.

Beato, an accomplished producer, guitarist, and leading YouTuber, using his own studio production and analysis tools all but proved Velvet Sundown was AI-generated well before the “band” copped to the allegation. Beato’s takedown video went viral with more than two million views.

Spot a fake?

Ted Gioia called Velvet Sundown “a fraud or hoax” at the outset. Writing at his Substack, The Honest Broker, Gioia had already established himself as perhaps the prime Spotify critic, attacking in particular the company’s weak royalty payout practices. Those one million streams Velvet Sundown gathered over a month? The payday was $3,000-$5,000. Not exactly Led Zeppelin money.

Gioia also brought to the attention of American readers an earlier near-catastrophic scandal that Spotify managed to downplay, wherein circa 2022, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter submitted an investigation that accused Spotify of something very near to outright fraud.

An investigation by the paper suggested that Spotify contracted with music production company Firefly Entertainment to produce “fake artists” and fake songs in a systematic effort to populate playlists with low-cost music. In this way, effectively packing the lists with fluff, Spotify didn’t need to pay out royalties because they already owned the music.

RELATED: One of my favorite punk bands just banned Trump supporters … in the name of Jesus?!

David A. Smith/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Oddly enough, before the dust had even settled in the Velvet Sundown squabble, Gioia seems to have caught Spotify in yet another instance of shady AI-music-related behavior, which he likewise attacked. Last week, just as the Velvet Sundown content was being removed, Gioia suggested Spotify was allowing onto the platform and promoting AI-generated material attributed to very famous, and in some cases long-dead, artists such as Blaze Foley.

Reflective of Gioia’s generalship in the fight against AI slop and fraud music, Spotify bypassed mainstream outlets, reaching out directly to the critic instead with a statement describing its updated policies.

Who’ll stop the slop?

With ever more generative AI tools and the correlative tools to evade detection from other AI tools emerging daily, it’s unclear what the future holds for Spotify with respect to AI and slop. The track record leaves a lot to be desired. Music lovers can’t depend on Gioia and Beato forever. At the time of this writing, most of Velvet Sundown’s material is still streaming on Spotify and other platforms. From the distributor point of view, the price/payout numbers are tough to beat.

​Return, Spotify, Ai, Velvet sundown, Nick cave, Ai music, Beato, Ted gioia, Fakin’ the funk 

President Donald Trump notched a historic victory in 2024, becoming the first Republican to sweep all seven swing states and to secure the popular vote since 1984. His success has been attributed to many different aspects of his campaign, but one unorthodox strategy stuck out.

In between countless campaign rallies and many media appearances, Trump made his rounds on several platforms that have been casually dubbed as the “bro podcasts.” The slate of comedians, sports enthusiasts, and cultural commentators is a far cry from the traditional presidential debates brokered by corporate news outlets, yet the reach is arguably greater.

‘Like a lot of normal Americans, some of the country’s top podcast hosts aren’t ideologues, they’re just people who detest the political establishment.’

Trump subsequently made significant gains across several demographics, including Gen Z men, a generation that is measurably more conservative compared to their Millennial and Gen X predecessors. At the same time, their support for Trump is beginning to slip, and Democrats can smell blood in the water.

Many of these podcast hosts were perceived as sympathetic toward Trump during his campaign simply for interviewing the Republican frontrunner. It’s important to clarify, however, that many of those same podcasters were in talks with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, which eventually turned down all their interview requests — but not before making a pit stop at Alex Cooper’s notorious sex podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” of course.

RELATED: Progressive Democrat sits down with Glenn Beck despite disagreements: ‘We’re all Team America’

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The bottom line is that these podcasters are not the MAGA apologists the legacy media claims they are. Within the first six months of Trump’s second term, the same hosts who sat down with the president leading up to November have also come out and criticized some policies implemented by the administration.

‘Democrats shouldn’t approach these podcasts as a place to score points.’

Theo Von, the beloved comedian who hosts “This Past Weekend,” has been especially critical of Trump’s foreign policy and Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza. Trump campaigned on ending foreign wars, yet the same conflicts rage on, leaving Von and many other Americans dissatisfied with the administration’s trajectory.

“What’s the win for us? We’re just involved in some other thing while we have suffering here at home,” Von said in June as tensions grew between Iran and Israel.

The Epstein saga, which dominated the political news cycle for over a week, also sowed division among podcast hosts and American voters alike.

“Sure feels like the dark arts are afoot!” Von said in response to the GOP’s handling of Epstein-related votes. “Why no vote Speaker Johnson?”

RELATED: Liberals are furious at billionaire Democrat ‘mega-donor’ for admitting Obama and Biden were unresponsive compared to Trump

Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix

Comedian Andrew Schulz, who co-hosts the “Flagrant” podcast, has also criticized certain aspects of the Trump administration and its immigration policy. Schulz, who was a lifelong Democrat, told Saagar Enjeti of “Breaking Points” that elected officials ought to be held accountable, even if you supported them.

“If you’re not willing to hold the person that you voted for to the standards that they expected, then you’re not a real person that cares about what’s happening in America,” Schulz said.

Because podcasters like Schulz and Von refuse to cast themselves into ideological molds, there is room for a wide range of voices to share their thoughts and exchange ideas with the popular hosts. Many of these critiques are echoed by their audiences, and some Democrats are seizing the opportunity.

Since the inauguration, Trump’s approval ratings among Gen Z and male voters have declined, in some cases in the double digits. One CBS poll shows that Gen Z approval of Trump has declined from 55% to 28% in just six months, while overall male approval has dipped from 60% to 47%. Notably, these are the same demographics that make up a large portion of the viewership for podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “Flagrant.”

‘Democrats are desperate to get back their momentum with young voters, especially men, by looking like regular people.’

Emily Jashinsky, host of “After Party with Emily Jashinsky,” told Blaze News that the real reason these podcasts have amassed great followings, particularly with young men, is not because of their party affiliation but because they are willing to go against the grain.

“Like a lot of normal Americans, some of the country’s top podcast hosts aren’t ideologues, they’re just people who detest the political establishment,” Jashinsky told Blaze News. “Hunter Biden actually framed himself and his father as victims of the political establishment in his conversation with Andrew Callaghan, and that’s not an accident.”

RELATED: Comedian Shane Gillis shocks ESPN crowd with Epstein and illegal alien jokes: ‘This is Disney’

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

When asked point-blank if the “podcast bro” audience was “up for grabs” for Democrats, Schulz answered bluntly.

“Absolutely,” Schulz said. “I’m up for grabs.”

Democrats have since been making their rounds on the podcast circuit. Everyone from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, and even Gov. Gavin Newsom have made appearances alongside the “podcast bros.”

“We’re allegedly these ‘big MAGA podcasts,’ and Pete Buttigieg comes on and has the biggest interview of his career,” Schulz said. “Not our biggest interview of our career, his biggest interview.”

“It’s very simple. Whoever has the ideas that meet the needs of the people and can actively convince us that they can execute those ideas is gonna win our vote.”

“Democrats shouldn’t approach these podcasts as a place to score points,” Khanna, who has previously appeared on “The Glenn Beck Podcast,” told Blaze News. “I have always believed in talking with people who have different views — whether that’s on Fox News or podcasts. It’s about exchanging ideas and building authentic relationships.”

RELATED: Newsom admits California depends on illegal labor — implies white Americans don’t want construction, farming jobs

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Although Democrats like Newsom and Buttigieg are broadly considered to be figures of the establishment, their willingness to participate in challenging, long-form interviews is unorthodox for their party.

However, their willingness to deviate from their party norms should not be taken as a newfound embrace for free speech and open dialogue. Rather, this shift among certain Democrats seems to be simply an opportunistic form of damage control in response to America’s overwhelming rejection of their party platform.

“Pete Buttigieg and James Talarico have showed up on programs like ‘Pardon My Take,’ ‘Flagrant,’ and ‘Rogan’ now that cancel culture is over, and Democrats are desperate to get back their momentum with young voters, especially men, by looking like regular people,” Jashinsky added.

“Ceding these spaces to the right for fear of offending progressive mobs gave the right way more power to define the left because the left would refuse to even enter the arenas, let alone by criticizing the Democratic establishment,” Jashinsky said. “Now, they’re trying to do both.”

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​Joe rogan, Andrew schulz, Theo von, Donald trump, Kamala harris, Podcast, Podcast bros, Bro podcast, Saagar enjeti, Emily jashinsky, 2024 election, Corporate media, Legacy media, Gen z, Alex cooper, Maga, Israel, Iran, Palestine, Foreign wars, Immigration, Migrant crisis, Mass deportations, Gaza, Hunter biden, Joe biden, Andrew callaghan, Democrats, Republicans, Ro khanna, Gavin newsom, Pete buttigieg, James talarico, Politics 

Last year, a group called “Evangelicals for Harris” tried to use famed preacher Billy Graham to attack Donald Trump.

The group, now known as “Evangelicals for America,” released an ad that spliced together old footage Graham with footage of Trump. The purpose of the ad was to weaponize Graham against Trump, trying to make it appear as if Graham himself was condemning Trump as “greedy,” “proud and abusive,” and violent.

‘Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President [Trump] in 2016 …’

The ad ended with Graham declaring, “Keep clear of people like that.”

As Blaze News reported, the ad exposed Evangelicals for Harris to legal liability. Lawyers for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reportedly sent the group multiple letters, including a cease-and-desist notice. The BGEA accused Evangelicals for Harris of “unauthorized, political use of the BGEA’s copyrighted video.”

At the time, Evangelicals for Harris lashed out at the BGEA’s attempts to tell the truth about Graham and protect his image. The group accused Franklin Graham, the CEO of the BGEA, of using the “Trump playbook” to “silence” them.

Ten months later, Evangelicals for America is singing a completely different tune — and admitting wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, the group released a statement apologizing for using the footage of Graham. The organization also removed the ad from its platforms.

“Our intent was not to infringe on BGEA’s copyright or to give the impression that Rev. Graham would have taken a side in publicly supporting one political candidate over another in an election, so we apologize to BGEA,” Evangelicals for America said in a statement.

“We have continued dialogue with BGEA since the election, and we affirm its position that Rev. Graham’s purpose was always clear: Telling people about God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who alone came from heaven to earth to make a way for all mankind to be saved from our sins. He never politicized the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the works he created through BGEA,” the statement continued.

While it’s not clear if voters were swayed by the ad, it did accumulate 30 million views before being removed, according to the Religion News Service.

For Franklin Graham, the issue was not one he could ignore. Not only was Evangelicals for Harris potentially running afoul of copyright law, but Franklin believed the group was weaponizing his father to “mislead” voters.

“The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris. They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham’s image. They are trying to mislead people,” Franklin said last year. “Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President [Trump] in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”

The BGEA said the apology from Evangelicals for America “speaks for itself.”

“We are grateful for the outcome,” the BGEA told the Religion News Service.

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FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino gave a chilling warning about corruption so disturbing that it changed him forever.

In a post on Saturday morning, Bongino took to his X account to reveal that things may not be as they seem for the American public.

Just days after the Trump administration and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused former President Barack Obama of participating in a “years-long coup,” the deputy director said he and Director Kash Patel plan to expose shocking corruption in law enforcement and intelligence operations.

‘I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.’

Bongino wrote that during his short time with the FBI, about five months, he has repeatedly stated that a lot is going on behind the scenes, even if it is not “immediately visible” to the public. Bongino added that he and Patel are “committed to stamping out public corruption and the political weaponization of both law enforcement and intelligence operations.”

The 50-year-old continued, saying that what he has learned during his time with the federal agency has completely changed his outlook, so much that he cannot unlearn what he now knows.

RELATED: Trump identifies whom Obama should thank if he dodges accountability for the Russia hoax

— (@)

“What I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core. We cannot run a Republic like this,” Bongino eerily went on. “I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.”

Bongino dropped the cryptic message during a very busy couple of weeks for the Trump administration. The White House has been dealing with the fallout of the Jeffrey Epstein files and is now running into roadblocks in the form of a federal judge.

Meanwhile, the Russian dossier hoax is alive and well, and the media is still trying to run cover for those who have been seemingly implicated in a trove of emails and directives issued during the Obama administration.

In the midst of this whirlwind of events, Deputy Director Bongino is insisting that any corruption be dealt with properly and in accordance with the law.

RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney suggests she will request a pardon from Trump

Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Photo by NDZ/Star Max/GC Images

“We are going to conduct these righteous and proper investigations by the book and in accordance with the law. We are going to get the answers WE ALL DESERVE,” Bongino’s post continued. “As with any investigation, I cannot predict where it will land, but I can promise you an honest and dignified effort at truth. Not ‘my truth,’ or ‘your truth,’ but THE TRUTH. God bless America, and all those who defend Her.”

Director Patel did not put out his own statement on Saturday at the time of this writing. He shared a celebratory post regarding the 117th anniversary of the FBI.

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Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York City’s mayoral race, once suggested “the abolition of property” as a solution to homelessness. By the looks of downtown NYC, the communist visionary is going to need to seize a lot of property to achieve that goal if he gets elected.

A casual walk down the streets of Midtown Manhattan reveals a city ravaged by homelessness, illegal immigration, and drug abuse. With chaos as far as the eye can see, prospective visitors to the Big Apple will be shocked to witness the state of the sanctuary city.

‘This guy was laying in his own crap in the middle of Times Square.’

As captured by independent reporter Oren Levy, the “harsh reality” that most ignore in the heart of the city is the insurmountable number of homeless people on the streets.

Not only are there thousands sleeping outdoors, but in 2025, the migrant and homeless crisis means sleeping on cardboard boxes or directly on the pavement in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Homeless individuals sleeping on the streets, using newspapers to clean themselves, openly injecting drugs and smoking crack — all happening all day and night,” Levy wrote on X. “This is the state of New York City, and no one wants to talk about it.”

RELATED: Zohran Mamdani casually says he would support the abolition of property in resurfaced video

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The investigative reporter has worked in the city for years, breaking stories about violent illegal aliens and child trafficking by gangs like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.

Levy says he witnesses new evidence of the city’s decay on a daily basis. For example, earlier this week, he saw a “homeless Mickey Mouse,” an individual in a dress, wearing a Mickey Mouse mascot head, passed out alongside some luggage between two plants, outside.

“That was a first. I thought I was tripping when I saw that,” Levy told Blaze News.

The rampant homelessness “shocks” tourists, the reporter said, and businesses are at their wits’ end over the matter.

“It’s a bad look for the city. Business and building owners have had enough too — this crisis has dragged on for years with no real solution. While migrants are placed in hotels and private rooms, our own homeless are left behind,” Levy added.

RELATED: Mamdani’s socialist New York sounds great — if you don’t have kids

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Levy followed the mayor’s office closely in 2023 and 2024, and originally thought Mayor Eric Adams had his hands tied when it came to the city’s illegal immigration and sanctuary city laws. While the mayor said it was up to city council to change the city’s status, Levy later found out the mayor did possess the power to make necessary changes but declined to do so.

“If the mayor really wanted to change parts of the sanctuary city law, he can easily do so by adding it to the Charter Revision Commission and therefore bypass city council,” Levy explained.

As a result of inaction, Levy believes the streets have spiraled out of control and rival San Francisco in terms of literal filth. Look no further than a video from Tuesday, where Levy witnessed a homeless man laying in and wiping his own feces while on the street.

“This guy was laying in his own crap in the middle of Times Square NYC and yes he was also [wiping] his butt,” Levy wrote on X.

Levy also hopes New Yorkers “wake up” before November’s mayoral election, when Mamdani (D), Mayor Adams (I), former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (I), and Curtis Sliwa (R) go head to head for control of the city.

However, the New Yorker does not believe Mamdani will end the homelessness crisis with his “far-left agenda.”

“Mamdani is anti-Israel, a socialist, and wants to replace cops with social workers,” Levy insisted.

“It will not end well.”

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An 18-year-old Florida mother took her younger siblings and her 2-year-old daughter to see the “Smurfs” movie at Regal Cinema 90 in Lake City last Saturday, WFOX-TV said.

During the movie, the daughter kept crying, so the mother took her into the lobby a few times to get her to calm down — and finally took her to their car, the station said.

‘It’s horrible.’

Lake City Police said the mother, Tipora Merriex, put her child inside the vehicle — locked and unattended — and returned to the movie theater.

A theater employee allegedly told investigators that Merriex appeared “very annoyed with her daughter’s crying,” Law & Crime reported.

RELATED: 3-year-old girl dies after being found in hot car with unconscious mom during 104-degree day, police say

Image source: Lake City (Fla.) Police Department

According to WFOX — which said it accessed a police report in connection with the incident — Merriex indicated that she closed the passenger side door and was going to the driver’s side when she realized she locked herself out of the car.

However, the station added that a witness said Merriex “closed the door and went back inside the movie theater several times, leaving her child alone in the heat.”

Police said officers responded to the theater just before 6 p.m. over reports of a child locked in a vehicle and found the 2-year-old “visibly distressed inside” the car. Police added that the outside temperature was 94 degrees with a 107-degree heat index at the time.

Police said they broke the driver’s side window and removed the child, who “appeared flushed” and was “sweating and crying.” Police said the child was taken to a medical facility for treatment.

Merriex was arrested and taken to the Columbia County Detention Center, police said.

RELATED: ‘Break it!’ Bodycam video shows moment cops save crying little kids locked in dangerously hot car for nearly an hour

Law & Crime said it obtained Merriex’s arrest report and noted that it outlines her “very nonchalant demeanor as her child was in the locked vehicle.” The arrest report said Merriex periodically exited the “Smurfs” movie showing to go outside and check on the victim, Law & Crime noted, before allegedly having her siblings perform the task.

According to jail records, Merriex was charged with felony child neglect, her bail was set at $50,000, and she was released Tuesday.

“I raise kids, and I never leave my kids in a car for more than a minute,” Lake City resident Debbie Spencer told WFOX in the wake of the incident. “It’s horrible.”

Spencer also told the station, “I can’t believe people do stuff like that. Yeah, it’s bad.”

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These days, social media is flooded with images of picture-perfect, traditional, stay-at-home mothers who call themselves “tradwives,” which is a woman who ultimately stays home with her kids and lives a traditional lifestyle.

However, it’s a popular idea within the “tradwife” community that women are not meant to work and are okay to stop growing as individuals while they put everything aside to raise their children, and BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey couldn’t disagree more.

“What I don’t agree with when it comes to this tradwife trend, as I’ve talked about many times, is the attempt to make traditionalism or being a traditional wife and mom into an aesthetic,” Stuckey says on “Relatable.”

“The tradwife trend online is largely — not exclusively, but largely — a cosplay by women who are working while they are also telling you that they’re not working and that you should not work,” Stuckey says, noting that they’re “spending eight to 12 hours a day making content.”

And while Stuckey, a podcast host herself, doesn’t mind the work, she does mind the hypocrisy.

“Obviously, I have this podcast, which affords me a lot of flexibility to still prioritize my family and doing something that I love and also feel called to. But I do believe that there are some jobs that are simply not conducive to motherhood when your kids are really little, like most corporate jobs, a lot of jobs that are completely inflexible,” she explains.

“You will never hear me say, ‘Oh, well, there’s just a season of time where you shouldn’t be learning. You shouldn’t be growing. You shouldn’t be reading. It’s okay if you’re dumb.’ It’s not. Christians are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength,” she continues.

“We are called, if we are moms, to teach our children. We are called, if we are any kind of Christian woman, to mentor other women, to learn from other mentors,” she adds.

And the smarter the mother, the smarter the child.

“This is not a time as a mom to be dumb,” she continues. “This is a time where we are using our brains a lot. You better be really smart, because your kids are about to ask you some really, really, smart questions. As long as you’re not pacifying them with a screen all day and you’re allowing their mind to work and observe things and ask questions, they are going to ask you things that really challenge you.”

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A woman in Arizona was sentenced to 102 month in prison for conspiring with North Korean entities to infiltrate American companies.

Her methods are being considered a “code red” by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, as American companies are unknowingly aiding North Korea in a tech war against the United States.

Christina Chapman, 50, was found to be working on behalf of the North Korean munitions development department, using a complex network of stolen identities in a scheme that is sure to send chills down the spine of any American.

‘This is a code red. Your tech sectors are being infiltrated by North Korea.’

Chapman set up a network of almost 100 laptops at her home in Arizona, designed to allow North Korean agents to log in to the computers and pose as Americans working U.S. companies.

Using the fraudulent identities of 68 Americans, the North Koreans acquired remote employment with 309 companies, some of which were Fortune 500 companies.

Simply put, the North Korean entities would remotely access the computers in Chapman’s home, then fraudulently infiltrate the companies they were purporting to work at, making it seem as if the activity was coming from an Arizona address.

Many of the foreign agents listed their home addresses as Chapman’s residence and received paychecks at her address. This resulted in huge sums of money going directly to the North Korean government.

RELATED: North Korea claims new destroyer can now float weeks after humiliating ‘launch’

In total, Chapman helped procure $17 million for the North Korean munitions department and will be forced to pay a fine of $176,850 and forfeit over $284,000 that was to be paid to the North Koreans, according to the Department of Justice.

“North Korea’s munition department has trained and deployed more than 3,000 workers in information technology, or IT skills, so that they can then commit fraud on companies in the United States to generate revenue for the North Korean regime,” Pirro stated during a press conference on Friday.

In a “message to corporate America,” Pirro continued, “This is a code red. Your tech sectors are being infiltrated by North Korea. And when big companies are lax and they’re not doing their due diligence, they are putting America’s security at risk.”

RELATED: ‘I love Trump! I love Elon Musk!’ Korean pop star bursts into pro-America praise at LA concert

Christina Chapman’s North Korean laptop farm in Arizona. Image via Department of Justice

Photos from the DOJ showed not only an example of one of the fraudulent identities but also Chapman’s remote worker farm. Dozens of laptops are seen, with notes denoting which U.S. companies they are assigned to and the fake identities they are associated with.

Pirro called on American corporations to step up their employee verification systems, which “went through a change as a result of COVID.”

“There is this lax kind of overseeing of who employees are. It’s time for businesses to verify their workers, monitor their conduct, create a zero-trust structure, and they’ve got to do this before the security of our country is compromised,” Pirro added.

More than 90 laptops were seized from Chapman’s home in October 2023. She was also found to have shipped 49 laptops and other devices supplied by U.S. companies to different locations overseas, including to Chinese cities on the North Korean border.

The DOJ noted that North Korea’s IT network has generated between $250 and $600 million annually as of 2024.

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For 150 years, the Ten Commandments were displayed and taught in public schools, but in 1980, a Supreme Court decision ended mandatory postings. Mandating the display of a religious creed was deemed a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion.

Many, even Christians, supported the ruling as a protection of the separation of church and state, but Glenn Beck says they’re misled.

Not only are the Ten Commandments “critical for a free society,” they’re the ticket to “[restoring] our republic,” which is spiraling out of control at a terrifying speed, he says.

For the Christian, the Ten Commandments are a set of divine laws given by God to Moses that outline moral and spiritual principles for worshiping and obeying God. But for the American citizen, the Ten Commandments are foundational moral and ethical guidelines that are the bedrock of this country. To know them is to know our history and who we are as a sovereign people.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn breaks down what the Ten Commandments mean for this country and why they absolutely belong in public schools.

– YouTube

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

For the average citizen, Christian or not, this commandment is crucial because it establishes “limits on government,” declaring that “truth comes from something much, much higher” than man, meaning that God, not man, is the giver of rights, Glenn explains.

Further, the first commandment “is a warning against idolatry in all of its forms. When we make the state or money or race or creed or technology — anything — the ultimate authority, we create a god that will consume us.”

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

This commandment, Glenn says, is a lesson about what happens “when people begin to serve images instead of truth”: “Tyranny always follows.”

“It’s a call to seek truth, not manipulation,” he says.

Given we live in a world of “manufactured images” and artificial intelligence and media manipulation, this commandment is perhaps “more urgent than ever.”

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

For citizens, this has nothing to do with cursing or using God’s name sacrilegiously.

“This is about the misuse of moral authority,” Glenn says. It’s understanding the importance of “not [invoking] God or any higher cause for wicked ends.”

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

This commandment has long protected Americans from being forced to work like slaves.

“Do they have seven-day work weeks, or do they have weekends off in China? When slaves were around, did they have weekends off?” Glenn asks rhetorically.

What this fourth commandment does for Americans, he explains, is establish “dignity for workers, the right to rest, the rhythm of renewal.”

5. Honor thy father and thy mother.

“Why is that so important?” Glenn asks. “Because civilization begins with the family — not with the state, not with a corporation.”

“It doesn’t survive without generational wisdom” because “without generational wisdom, you have cultural amnesia, and a society that mocks its elders and abandons its children is suicidal,” he warns.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

This commandment establishes that “no one is expendable; life has value — not because the state permits it but because life is sacred and doesn’t belong to [us],” Glenn says. But sadly, “from the womb to the street to the clinic, we’ve redefined life to suit convenience.”

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

“This one is about trust; this one is about making a covenant and keeping your word,” he says. “A society that treats vows as disposable treats people as disposable.”

8. Thou shalt not steal.

“This [commandment] is the foundation of capitalism, not cronyism. … Without this, there’s no incentive to build,” Glenn says, noting that patent laws are “just another way of our society saying you shall not steal.”

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Glenn calls this commandment the “anchor” of “fairness,” “journalism,” “law,” and “society” at large.

“Truth matters in court, in media, in conversation. If lies rule, justice dies,” he says.

10. Thou shalt not covet.

“Because we’ve lost track of the Ten Commandments, our society now pits the rich and the poor,” Glenn says.

“People are like, ‘Yeah, they’re rich. Who cares? Let their children die in a flood,’” he laments. “I’ve never seen that — never. That’s covet. That’s, ‘They have something I want, and I don’t care what happens to them because I want their stuff.’”

When people adopt this covetous mindset, eventually we have “no civilization.”

“When we removed the Ten Commandments, we didn’t just remove God. We removed the blueprint for all civilization. Without the Ten Commandments, we cannot right the ship; we cannot fix ourselves,” Glenn says.

But how do we put the Ten Commandments back in public schools where they belong?

To hear Glenn’s answer, watch the video above.

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Employees at aviation and aerospace company Volonaut have been watching a few too many movies. For the general population, though, that’s a good thing.

While many young males were dreaming of light saber battles or flying through the wilderness on a speeder bike, Volonaut founder Tomasz Patan was thinking about how to build his own futuristic equipment.

On Wednesday, the company revealed it had created a real-world “Star Wars” method of transportation.

‘No special effects, no CGI, no AI, pure engineering.’

While the Death Star may have been too big of a project, Volonaut’s feat is still incredibly impressive, as the company revealed a real-life speeder bike, listed on their website as the Airbike, a “personal hoverbike of the future.”

“Excited to share this raw flight footage including take-off and landing, all with real sound. No special effects, no CGI, no AI, pure engineering,” Patan wrote on X.

The “fully functional real-world ‘speeder bike'” was shown lifting off about 10 feet into the air before carrying its pilot across a dusty, vacant field.

Despite weighing 209 pounds and having an insane max speed of 63 mph (102 km/h), prospective pilots will not require a license to fly one of the Airbikes.

RELATED: Robo-billionaire Palmer Luckey brings the ‘hype’ train to American manufacturing

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According to the company, the Airbike is in compliance with FAA ultralight rules, which, according to the Experimental Aircraft Association, has a few pointed requirements.

In order to be compliant, the vehicle must be manned by a single occupant, can only be for sport or recreation, and must weigh less than 254 pounds if powered.

Other restrictions exist regarding the fuel capacity (5 gallons) and speed (55 knots or 63.2929 mph), which the Airbike abides by.

“Airbike flying motorbike is a breakthrough in personal air mobility,” Volonaut wrote on its website. “The futuristic single occupant vehicle is a realization of a bold concept often portrayed in science-fiction movies.”

While, according to the company’s LinkedIn page, it seemingly has just one key figure, founder, and inventor — Patan — the inventor has been working for months bringing this project to light and dropped a “Star Wars” themed promo on May 4.

RELATED: How Jaguar’s gender-bending rebrand is threatening its total collapse

— (@)

Dressed in full costume, a Volonaut pilot flew an Airbike through the woods, recreating a famous scene from “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”

The stunning visuals did not garner nearly as much fanfare as the July release, which has now been seen by more than 3.9 million viewers on X.

The Airbike’s flight time is unfortunately just 10 minutes, and it runs on a combination of diesel, biodiesel, Jet A-1 jet fuel, and kerosene. Its refuel time is listed at under one minute.

It should come as no surprise, though, that Patan is working on other futuristic vehicles. This includes an electric vertical take-off and landing machine, or eVTOL, which is a fancy term for a single-man mini-helicopter.

The eVTOL has more real-world application than the speeder bike, though, and is intended to assist first responders in mountain rescue operations.

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