Category: blaze media

Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says a plan by the Trump administration to restrict welfare for immigrants is “cruel and unlawful.”

President Donald Trump is seeking to change the public charge rule to allow the administration to deny visa and green card applications to immigrants receiving welfare benefits.

‘We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome.’

Mamdani and New York Attorney General Letitia James are suing to block the plan.

“The new public charge rule seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades,” read a statement from the mayor Monday.

“New Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to,” he added. “That fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting. Families who remain fully eligible for benefits will feel a chilling effect, and all New Yorkers will pay for it.”

Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco are among the cities that are joining the lawsuit.

Mamdani went on to accuse the administration of intentionally dividing New Yorkers with the new policy, which would loosen the definition of a “public charge” in order to restrict far more immigrants from getting welfare.

“The new public charge rule not only sweeps aside more than a century of established law, it is intentionally vague as a means of creating uncertainty and fear to isolate immigrant New Yorkers,” he said at a press conference.

“Make no mistake, this is an undisguised effort to strip New Yorkers of the services they rely on, the public benefits they are entitled to,” he added.

Mamdani’s lawsuit included a coalition of cities and counties while James’ lawsuit included about 20 states. Both were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

RELATED: Illegal alien child abuser caught in US after being deported, Border Patrol tells Blaze News

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which is named as a defendant in both lawsuits, ridiculed the arguments made by the plaintiffs.

“Let’s get this straight, sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs,” said the spokesperson to Courthouse News.

“We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome,” the spokesperson added.

Unless the legal challenge is successful, the new rule change will go into effect on Friday.

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​Trump administration, Welfare, Immigration, Politics, Letitia james, Zohran mamdani 

When did facts or verifiable evidence get replaced by consensus within a specific community that continually repeats collectively held ideas or feelings? And is this trend why, everywhere we look, demonstrable truth is becoming subservient to imagination? Do we now live in a world where truth-seeking is taking a back seat to groupthink?

As far back as the 1980s, when regular folks were confronted with mics and asked for their man-on-the-street opinions on everything from when life begins to tactical strategy for war, I remember thinking, “This practice is going to be a problem.”

What happens to the fabric of society if what one personally believes attains precedence over what is proven to be true?

Why?

Because for the past 40 years or so, subjective constructs have been elevated to the status of fact and given far more credibility than verifiable truth. As if fallible human feelings determine what is true — they do not.

Granted, opinions are relative; we all have them, and in America, we can still freely express our point of view. This is also true of individual preferences and judgments, which remain relative. But more and more, people treat fictional beliefs and unsubstantiated claims as factual simply because large, loud, and strongly opinionated groups adopt and agree upon them.

Thus culture has become a delusional world where definitions can be altered to protect belief and political identity determines what is considered true or false.

This penchant for self-determined reality makes healthy debate almost impossible because what’s considered correct becomes tainted by distinctions shaped by a consensus around feelings rather than by credible substantiation.

The perversion of truth is increasingly evident in definitions of male and female, as well as in criteria defining human life.

Contemporary progressives seem most culpable for elevating subjectivism, self-perceived identity, and personal opinion above facts. Partisans on the left are so committed to redefining everything that moral or political debate has devolved into a one-way assault of accusations, denial, and the exaltation of fantastical beliefs.

One skill set missing from the relativists’ playbook is logic.

Viewed logically, calling something “my truth” concedes that whatever you believe or promote is personal rather than universally established as a certainty. The fallacy of “my truth” becomes most heated around topics like the dignity of life in the womb, biological sex, and who should ultimately bear personal responsibility when an “oppressed” woman commits a criminal act.

RELATED: Did Lindsay Clancy lose her mind — or her free will?

David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

That is where we have witnessed the tendency to promote personal opinion over what is morally, biologically, historically, legally, and philosophically accepted.

This is especially true when pro-life and pro-choice opinions clash. One side aligns with 95% of 5,502 biologists who agreed that human life begins at fertilization. Despite biological assurance, however, one side insists that a woman’s choice supersedes truth.

The looming danger is that if moral relativism continues to gain credibility, right and wrong vanish and opinion rules. The bad news is that opinions change, which means that on a collective whim, every life at whatever stage could become justifiably disposable.

What happens to the fabric of society if what one personally believes attains precedence over what is proven to be true?

What we have seen lately is that morally relativistic people are so steeped in the certainty that their opinions are correct that they applaud themselves for exposing those they view as evil, which seems not only an estimable goal but also a justification for violence.

Societal relativism has reached a boiling point and has put innocent individuals in the literal crosshairs of vigilantes responding to sentiments widely accepted as true.

According to this moral barometer, a conservative influencer can be assassinated publicly, and some who feel morally convicted by his views on biblical matters, politics, and traditional male and female roles think it’s fitting to cheer his death.

And these are the people who fancy themselves kindness warriors?

RELATED: Campus free speech is alive — barely

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Among progressives, this pattern has evolved to the point that a devoted husband and father like Charlie Kirk is derided, while a woman who admitted to strangling her three children is defended and supported by female activists who have convinced themselves that children are disposable and women are an oppressed class.

Because of political differences, these same women feel justified in demonizing Kirk’s grieving widow merely because she holds the same conservative convictions as her dead husband.

These people have convinced themselves that, based on personal opinion alone, Patrick Clancy should be strung up, drawn, and quartered and that one black, male juror, who they have collectively concluded is also guilty by reason of maleness, deserves condemnation.

As if feelings and thoughts were evidence, some online defenders have made extraordinary accusations against Patrick Clancy, not on demonstrable proof but solely on a fairy tale they have concocted in their own toxic minds.

So the kind of psychosis that accompanies the delusional reality our culture is currently steeped in — especially in political debate — has now been deemed the authority to determine who is considered insane by the insane?

If carried to its logical conclusion, a relativistic mind meld can lead to mob rule, which is now depicted as “democracy,” a political system in which the potential exists to have an innocent individual dragged to the guillotine merely because the crowd believed he or she deserved it.

We see this now when evidentiary truth is automatically dismissed as coming from the wrong source. Yet the truth remains true even if no one believes it; reality cannot be reinvented to suit our fallible human proclivities.

As Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally,” a more than 70-year-old observation that supports the contemporary idea that the clash between human self-deception and moral reality is nothing new.

​Biological sex, Charlie kirk, Children, Conservative influencer, Lindsay clancy, Moral relativism, Patrick clancy, Personal responsibility, Prolife, Psychosis, Authority, Objective truth, Mob rule, Verifiable evidence, Gender ideology, Opinion & analysis 

Federal immigration agents identified an “active scout” working near the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly apprehended him, U.S. Customs and Border Protection tells Blaze News.

Photographs provided to Blaze News show the man in camouflage clothing surrounded by federal agents whose identities were obscured.

‘This successful interdiction highlights the seamless integration of our air assets, surveillance technology, and specialized ground agents.’

The scout was located on Sept. 4 near the town of Ajo by “pre-positioned Border Patrol reconnaissance personnel” and an “MQ-9 aircraft crew from the National Air Security Operations Center in Sierra Vista,” according to CBP.

H60 Black Hawk helicopter crews responded to the scout site and transported five tactical agents who used a fast-rope technique to take the man into custody without incident.

Another photo shows what appears to be a large solar panel on top of boulders in the desert.

“This successful interdiction highlights the seamless integration of our air assets, surveillance technology, and specialized ground agents,” read a statement from acting Chief Patrol Agent Henry N. Laxdal.

“By combining these capabilities, we can quickly locate and arrest individuals attempting to facilitate illegal activity in our most remote desert areas, keeping our communities safe,” Laxdal added.

UCB said the man was processed by the U.S. Border Patrol at the Tucson Sector.

RELATED: Federal agents find fentanyl, meth, and heroin in minivan at US-Mexico border, CBP says

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

The U.S. military has begun using high-energy lasers to destroy drones sent into the U.S. by Mexican cartels, according to a previous report from CBP.

Ajo is an unincorporated community of about 3,000 residents. It’s located about 42 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border.

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​Border patrol, Customs and border protection, Mexican cartels, Immigration, Politics 

It’s National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, when the American Trucking Associations holds its annual hot dog and hamburger lunches for the same drivers it spends the rest of the year screwing through its lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.

This year, however, drivers might enjoy the free food, cheap swag, and various other perks — if they happen to be in the yard for them — with just a little less cynicism. That’s because the industry’s annual PR stunt happens to coincide with something considerably more valuable: the kind of tangible political “appreciation” that actually produces real change.

Most Americans would probably be astonished by how easy it has been to summon a trucking company into existence.

On Monday, August 31, Vice President JD Vance gave a speech in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in support of Republican congressional candidate Mike Rogers ahead of the midterm elections.

Though Vance started with praise for Rogers and other members of the party, he quickly pivoted to problems in the trucking industry and the administration’s efforts to address them, while also highlighting the hard work and sacrifice of American truckers and the displacement they have faced in recent years.

“For too long … the Biden administration allowed American workers and American drivers to be endangered and have their jobs stolen by foreign fraudsters,” Vance said.

“Today is about restoring the basic principle that if you want to drive a big truck on America’s roads, you ought to be able to speak English, you ought to be a legal resident of the United States of America, and you ought to have basic qualifications because trucking is too important to let it go to foreign fraudsters.”

Flooded with foreign labor

Vance, like anyone else paying attention, can see that the trucking industry has been flooded with foreign labor, helping keep the freight costs of Fortune 500 America low while externalizing the real costs onto everyone else.

The Trump administration’s crackdown has illuminated the scope of the problem. A 2025 analysis prepared for J.B. Hunt by transportation economist Noël Perry estimated that the administration’s English-language requirements, immigration enforcement, and restrictions on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses could ultimately remove as many as 614,000 drivers from the industry — nearly 16% of the nation’s heavy-truck driver population.

Speaking more freely to Overdrive, Perry said the number could go as high as 800,000 — a figure more in line with estimates I’ve heard coming from administration insiders.

The obvious losers in all of this have been legitimate American trucking companies. An already brutal freight market has been made even harder by competition from unscrupulous operators willing to cut corners by skirting the licensing, training, labor, and safety standards responsible carriers have to meet.

And the problem is compounded by Mexican trucking companies engaging in illegal cabotage — hauling domestic loads between American destinations using Mexican trucks and drivers.

More than 20 trucking-related companies sought bankruptcy protection during one 30-day period this spring alone, and another 21 transportation and supply-chain businesses filed for Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 between late July and August 25.

The administration’s crackdown is finally beginning to tighten the freight market and push rates back up. But in a classic case of you win some, you lose some, diesel prices have now hit record highs.

License to kill?

Vance’s speech also coincided with an announcement from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy of a “whole-of-government” attack on another part of the problem: deficient CDL schools churning out poorly trained and sometimes completely unqualified drivers onto American highways.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a division of DOT, issued immediate shutdown notices to 110 truck-driving schools and put another 160 on notice that they could be removed from operation.

The stakes are much higher than faulty paperwork. According to DOT, non-domiciled drivers who would no longer qualify for licenses under the administration’s new rules were involved in at least 17 fatal crashes that killed 30 people in 2025 alone. Yes, 30 innocent Americans died thanks to drivers who can’t read road signs, don’t know the rules of the road, and have no business getting behind the wheel of what is essentially an 80,000-pound missile. On the other hand, somebody saved a bundle on labor costs.

Say their names

This summer has been just as deadly. In July, 21-year-old University of Massachusetts Lowell soccer player Tobias “Toby” Forsythe was killed on Interstate 71 in Ohio when a tractor-trailer driven by 42-year-old Bekhzod Asrarov slammed into the back of his car.

Asrarov, an Uzbek national who entered the United States through the diversity visa lottery in 2024, held an Ohio CDL but needed Google Translate to communicate with first responders at the scene. According to court records and law-enforcement sources, he also tried to destroy or conceal his dashcam and other electronic devices after the crash.

Ah yes, another highly skilled, conscientious immigrant doing his part to help alleviate America’s fake trucker “shortage.”

And the deaths continued during the very week of Duffy’s announcement.

In the early hours of September 4, in Mesquite, Texas, 33-year-old Lisa Maldonado was killed in a crash involving a truck driven by Khasan Begbaev, who was working for a subcontractor hauling for Knight-Swift, one of America’s largest trucking companies. Begbaev has been charged with manslaughter. Police say he was reversing down a freeway entrance ramp before the crash.

On September 3, 50-year-old Brenda Watson was killed in a head-on collision in Ohio after a semi driven by Manjit Singh pulled out to pass another vehicle and struck Watson’s car. Transportation Secretary Duffy subsequently said Singh was being held on an active Homeland Security detainer and that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was investigating both his carrier and the training school where he received his CDL.

Two days earlier, police in Moab, Utah, stopped 30-year-old Chamkaur Singh (no relation) after clocking him driving a semi-truck 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. When officers ran his name, they discovered a nationwide warrant for vehicular manslaughter stemming from a California semi crash that killed four people. California authorities had reportedly been searching for him for two months.

Amazon’s shame

Also on September 1, a horrific crash took place in Tennessee involving a tractor-trailer pulling an Amazon trailer. The truck crossed the median on Interstate 40, crashed into several vehicles, and burst into flames. Its driver, 35-year-old Farahov Fhsvaisov, was killed and three other people were hospitalized.

The cause remains under investigation, and little has been publicly reported about Fhsvaisov beyond his registered Brooklyn address — an essentially meaningless bureaucratic detail. As for Fhsvaisov’s actual citizenship and licensing status, that is precisely the kind of information Kathy Hochul’s New York is now suing to keep out of the Trump administration’s hands.

And it’s not just New York. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia have joined the challenge to federal demands for access to commercial-driver information held in state databases. The states cite privacy concerns and argue that the federal government lacks the authority to obtain the information; the administration says access is necessary to uncover fraud and illegally obtained commercial licenses.

Amazon’s apparent involvement in the Fhsvaisov crash can’t help but recall long-standing questions about the company’s enormous network of outside trucking contractors. A 2022 Wall Street Journal investigation found that frequent Amazon contractors were more than twice as likely as comparable carriers to receive poor unsafe-driving scores; a later CBS News analysis found Amazon contractors had unsafe-driving violation rates at least 89% higher than other carriers in every month of the six-year period it examined.

Highway to hell

Yet while Secretary Duffy and other elements of the Trump administration are trying to restore sanity to the trucking industry, truckers are being attacked not only by the forces bringing insourced labor to compete with them, but by many on the left who want to preserve that system.

Truckers are also being threatened by the clumsiness of some of Duffy’s reforms as well as elements in the Republican Party that want to replace truckers not only with insourced labor but eventually with robots.

Let’s start with licensing.

In March, the FMCSA issued a new rule limiting who can be issued what is called a “non-domiciled” CDL.

Non-domiciled CDLs began as a narrow exception for drivers who could not obtain a recognized commercial license where they lived, including certain foreign drivers. Under the Obama administration, the old “nonresident CDL” was renamed the “non-domiciled CDL.”

The category became far more consequential over time. In 2019, during Trump’s first term, the FMCSA issued guidance — later endorsed by the American Trucking Associations — allowing foreign nationals with federal work permits to obtain non-domiciled CDLs.

Then came the Biden immigration surge. As the administration extended work authorization to huge numbers of migrants, it also vastly expanded the pool of foreign workers who could take advantage of the non-domiciled CDL system. Investigations into the system through 2025 found that roughly 200,000 drivers had been issued these licenses illegally and would see them revoked, or at least would not be renewed on expiry.

The Trump administration has now effectively closed the broader EAD pathway, limiting non-domiciled CDLs to a much narrower group of foreign workers with specific employment-based visas.

‘Public’ menace

The new rule is now being challenged in federal court. The lawsuit was filed by Public Citizen, the progressive advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, on behalf of two immigrant truck drivers, AFSCME, and the American Federation of Teachers. It argues that the FMCSA does not have the legal authority to remove such a large class of legally authorized immigrants from CDL eligibility.

For their part, the unions claim to be advocating on behalf of immigrant members who could lose their jobs under the rule. That puts two major American labor unions in the strange position of fighting a reform that could remove a huge pool of foreign labor from competition with American drivers.

How organized labor wound up fighting to preserve cheap foreign competition is a question for another piece. Curious readers might begin by looking into the sprawling network of nonprofits and foundations funding Public Citizen; several of them are also major backers of more permissive immigration policies.

RELATED: The deadly trucker crisis — and why mass migration is to blame

Justin Hamel/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Dalilah’s Law

There is, however, a straightforward way for supporters of the crackdown to fight back: Put the reforms into federal law.

Dalilah’s Law is named after a California girl who suffered catastrophic injuries after the car her mother was driving was rear-ended by a commercial truck. If passed, the law would tighten CDL standards, reinforce English-proficiency requirements, restrict eligibility for non-domiciled licenses, and crack down on deficient driver-training schools.

It would also address the outsourcing of freight brokerages and dispatch services overseas, a little-discussed but important part of the problem. If a load broker in Serbia or Pakistan fails to perform necessary due diligence in vetting a carrier, holding that broker accountable from the United States can be extraordinarily difficult. Dalilah’s Law would bring more of this activity within reach of American regulators.

No good deed

While all this is going on, the FMCSA has undertaken a revamp of the federal system through which trucking companies register. In an interview with “60 Minutes” earlier this year, FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs described the industry as having a “front door” problem: It has been too easy for bad actors — including so-called chameleon carriers, unsafe trucking companies that shut down and simply reappear under new names — to enter or re-enter the market.

Most Americans would probably be astonished by how easy it has been to summon a trucking company into existence. Just pay the $300 federal operating-authority fee, provide insurance and paperwork, and list a U.S. business address.

On paper, that address has to check out, and within 12 months you’re supposed to undergo a safety audit, followed by monitoring for the rest of an 18-month probationary period. But that assumes an overwhelmed system actually gets to you.

To address this, our bureaucrats have decided to bureaucrat some more with a new system called Motus, which has produced the results typical of government: penalizing operators who attempt to obey the rules, while essentially giving a free pass to anyone determined to break the law.

In a detailed examination of the rollout, trucking-industry writer Danielle Chaffin documented legitimate carriers unable to operate because Motus incorrectly showed them as inactive or saddled them with erroneous insurance requirements. At the same time, she found carriers with out-of-service orders — including some with no insurance on file — still showing as active in the new system. As one carrier put it, Motus was “waving the bad actors through the gate and choking the honest ones out.”

It seems like decent American companies continue to get stuck in the pincer between the open border policies of the previous administration, and the seeming unwillingness of government agencies to go full Genghis Khan against the bad actors allowed into the industry.

Backing the bots

As if displacement and replacement by foreign labor weren’t bad enough, we are also looking down the barrel of driver replacement by automation — something the Trump administration is actively encouraging even while it takes steps to protect truckers from foreign labor.

On September 3, DOT released its “National Strategy for Automated Vehicles,” laying out the administration’s priorities for automated-vehicle technology through 2030. The document largely concerns the bureaucratic minutiae of regulating vehicles that may or may not accommodate a human driver at all. But it will also help guide how the government deals with autonomous trucks.

Congress is considering the BUILD America 250 Act, a major surface-transportation bill that includes a federal framework for autonomous commercial vehicles. Republicans are also behind legislation such as the AMERICA DRIVES Act, introduced by California Republican Rep. Vince Fong, provisions of which have been incorporated into the larger bill.

The legislation seeks to limit state-level regulatory authority over autonomous commercial vehicles, including state requirements that certain highly automated trucks have a human being aboard.

Supporters argue that a national framework is necessary to prevent a patchwork of state regulations from strangling an emerging American technology. But Republicans should understand why their messaging looks confused to America’s truckers and why Fong’s bill seems at odds with their usual commitment to federalism.

On one hand, the administration is finally addressing their replacement by foreign labor. On the other, Republicans are working to remove regulatory barriers for technology whose ultimate promise is to move freight without anyone sitting behind the wheel.

Stuck in the middle

Do we have any friends in government at all?

The left appears happy to defend policies that allow American trucking companies to replace domestic labor with cheaper foreign drivers. Republicans are finally addressing that problem, but they also appear remarkably credulous when dealing with autonomous-vehicle developers whose technology could eventually supplant truckers’ jobs altogether.

Vice President Vance said in his speech that “we care about America’s truckers because for generations they have represented something much greater … the very best of this country’s character, people who spend long hours away from their families.”

“In some ways, truckers are the modern cowboys.”

I would submit to Vice President Vance that the administration’s actions thus far have been welcome and helpful for America’s truckers, and they deserve to be commended. But the administration needs to do more. It should continue removing bad actors from the trucking industry, pass Dalilah’s Law, make sure its own bureaucracy doesn’t punish legitimate operators, and be more realistic about what emerging technologies mean for us and for our economy.

The modern cowboys would like to keep on trucking for as long as we can.

​American workers, Biden administration, Commercial drivers license, Foreign nationals, Midterm elections, Mike rogers, Open border policies, Jd vance, Sean duffy, On the road 

The left is determined to divide people into competing groups of oppressors and oppressed — and Christian apologist Frank Turek knows why.

“Marxism is all about the group, whereas Christianity is all about the individual. … That’s the focus of the war on reality right now,” Turek tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.

“They want people to identify everybody by an identity group,” he explains. “‘What identity group are you in?’ And if you are part of that collective, you’re oppressed. And if you’re not, you’re automatically an oppressor.”

“We’re not judging people individually any more,” he says. “We’re judging people by what? Even non-behavioral identity groups that they’re in. ‘Oh, you’re white, Glenn. You’re a bad guy. Oh, you’re a man. You’re a heterosexual. You’re a citizen of the U.S. You’re a Christian, Glenn. You’re an oppressor.’”

“But if you have the opposite qualities, you’re automatically oppressed,” he adds.

“It’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” Glenn agrees. “You must destroy that God because that’s the personal God. That’s the first personal, and the only personal, God — the one true God.”

“And so all of this — this is why people hate Jews and why they’re trying to get Christians to say, ‘We don’t need to remember that Jesus was a Jew.’ Because if you can get … yourself away from the Old Testament, now you don’t have the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob any more,” he continues. “And all of that falls apart.”

“You must have that. That’s why there’s this war. Everything boils down to that: the God of the individual,” he adds.

Turek agrees, noting that “it’s also why Marxism dispenses with the individual.”

“They think the state is eternal,” he says.

“Whereas we Christians know the state isn’t eternal,” he continues. “It’s individuals that are eternal, and they’re going to be judged individually.”

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​Christianity, God, Jews, Marxism, State, War, Jesus, Frank turek, Glenn beck, Blazetv show 

Picture a family with three cars. Mom and Dad both drive to work. The kids need rides to school and practice. The cars cost money, gas, repairs, and insurance, but they start when you turn the key. That is the whole point.

Then a salesman shows up with an amazing deal. He has a solar-powered car and a wind-powered car. No gas needed. The fuel is free. Who wouldn’t want that? They buy both, figuring they will save money and finally dump a couple of the old cars.

Regular people do not need politicians picking their power plants for them.

Then reality shows up.

The solar car runs when the sun is out. The wind car runs when the wind is blowing. Dad still leaves at 7:30 on dark winter mornings. Mom still has to pick up a kid at five o’clock when the air is dead calm. Families go where they need to go, not when the weather cooperates.

So they keep all three reliable cars. Now they own five.

Five cars do not fit in the driveway. So they pour more concrete and build a bigger garage. Someone suggests big batteries to store power for the days when the sun and wind quit. That costs a fortune too.

The salesman talked a lot about free fuel. He never mentioned the two extra cars, the bigger garage, the batteries, or the fact that you still need the old cars anyway.

Welcome to America’s electricity policy.

Wind turbines and solar panels really do make electricity without buying fuel. That is the selling point. But electricity has to be there the instant you flip the switch.

Factories cannot sit idle until the wind picks up. Hospitals cannot ask patients to wait for better weather. Families expect the furnace, the refrigerator, and the lights to work every single time.

Because wind and solar depend on the weather, adding them does not allow us to retire the dependable plants.

Natural gas, nuclear, coal, and hydro still have to be on standby when renewables produce little or nothing. We pay for two systems and get one grid’s worth of reliable power.

RELATED: Why are we teaching kids scarcity in an age of abundance?

Al Drago/Getty Images

Then come the wires. Wind and solar sit far from where people live, so they need new transmission lines, substations, and grid upgrades. The Energy Department’s own draft transmission study points to one of the largest build-outs in our history.

Batteries help, but only for a few hours. Most grid batteries can only run for about four hours.

None of this means wind and solar are worthless, but it does mean we should count the whole bill honestly.

The real question is not how cheap the electricity is when the generator is running. It is what it costs to keep reliable power available whenever people need it.

That price includes generation, transmission, grid upgrades, storage, backup capacity, and enough always-on power for calm, cloudy days. It also includes where the hardware comes from. Most of the world’s solar panels are made in China, which is building coal plants to run those factories.

If wind and solar still look cheapest after every cost is counted, let them win on the merits. If nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydro, or something better delivers more value, that should win instead.

Regular people do not need politicians picking their power plants for them. They need honest prices, real competition, and electricity that shows up when the switch is flipped.

Free fuel sounds great. But before we buy the fourth and fifth cars, somebody ought to ask whether we are actually saving money or just paying for more cars, more concrete, and a bigger garage to get to the same places.

​America, Clean energy, Coal, Factories, Insurance, Natural gas, Nuclear, Power grid, Solar, Solar panels, Wind turbines, Politicians, Cole plants, China, Opinion & analysis 

Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, recently offered a reassuring vision of our technological future. Artificial intelligence, he predicted, will soon monitor police body cameras, security cameras, doorbell cameras, and vehicle dashboards. “Citizens will be on their best behavior,” he explained, “because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on.”

One is tempted to ask whether “best behavior” includes declining to construct an electronic surveillance state. Presumably, the algorithm will decide.

The surveillance state does not make good citizens. It makes practiced actors.

Ellison envisions AI supervising police officers as well as ordinary citizens. If an officer does something wrong, the system will detect the problem and report it to the appropriate authorities. Drones may even replace police cars during high-speed pursuits. The drone will follow the suspect while artificial intelligence records the proceedings and analyzes everyone involved.

Ellison, who is an atheist, wants an all-knowing being that is perfectly good and will judge our behavior.

It is difficult not to admire the efficiency. We have finally devised a deity suitable for the modern secular mind: omnipresent, nearly omniscient, and conveniently owned by a corporation, with promises of suitable oversight.

For generations, atheists and secularists have assured us that civilized people can dispense with belief in a God who sees our actions, judges our conduct, and holds us accountable. The notion of divine judgment was dismissed as primitive, oppressive, and psychologically unhealthy.

Enlightened people, we were told, do not need the threat of an all-seeing eye to behave morally.

Now, having removed God from heaven, our technological elites propose installing His replacement on every lamppost.

The secular project promised liberation from divine surveillance. Its culmination may be a camera that never blinks, connected to a machine that never sleeps, operated by authorities who never admit error.

Of course, artificial intelligence is not God. It is not even intelligent in the full human sense. It has no conscience, understands no moral law, and possesses no wisdom. It processes information according to purposes and standards supplied by human beings.

RELATED: The 9/11 generation may be building AI’s 9/11 moment

BlackJack3D/Getty Images

This creates a slight difficulty: If AI is to report “bad behavior,” someone must first tell it what bad behavior is.

Who will do that?

The programmers? Oracle executives? Government agencies? More AI? The same institutions that cannot define a woman may soon be entrusted with defining acceptable behavior for every citizen.

AI can recognize a face, track a vehicle, and perhaps identify a raised voice. It cannot tell us why assault is wrong, why citizens possess rights, or why the government should be restrained in its treatment of them.

The atheist insists that the universe contains no transcendent moral order. Human beings are products of impersonal matter, motion, and chance. Yet he continues speaking of justice, dignity, equality, and human rights as if these were eternal truths rather than temporary preferences produced by an unusual arrangement of atoms.

Having denied a Lawgiver above the state, he inevitably looks to the state to serve as lawgiver.

The God of Scripture sees everything, but His omniscience is joined to perfect knowledge, righteousness, and justice. He knows not merely what we do but why we do it. He judges the heart as well as the outward act.

Most importantly, God is not accountable to a government contractor, a political party, or Oracle’s quarterly earnings report because God is the standard for what is good, righteous, and holy.

RELATED: When government breaks the law, can you even sue?

DNY59/iStock/Getty Images

AI surveillance offers omnipresence without wisdom, judgment without righteousness, and accountability without any objective account of the good. It cannot produce virtue. At most, it can produce outward conformity in people who know they are being watched.

A man who refrains from stealing because theft is wrong possesses a measure of virtue. A man who refrains because six cameras and a drone are recording him possesses a measure of caution. The surveillance state does not make good citizens. It makes practiced actors.

Nor does recording everything solve the oldest political problem: Who watches the watchers? AI will report citizens to “the appropriate person,” Ellison tells us. This formulation is meant to be comforting, though history offers few reasons to assume that the person receiving unlimited information about the population will remain permanently appropriate.

The atheist rejected God because he did not want an authority above man. He is now constructing an artificial authority beneath man — but controlled by a small number of particularly powerful men. That is simply a transfer of divine attributes to institutions conspicuously lacking divine character.

We were told that when God disappeared, mankind would come of age. Instead, mankind immediately began shopping for cameras.

The choice is not between accountability and freedom from accountability. Every society will hold its members answerable to some standard. The real question is whether that standard rests upon a moral law higher than rulers or upon whatever rules the rulers program into their machines.

A God who judges governments as well as citizens is a barrier to tyranny. An AI system operated by the government is an instrument of it.

Our secular technologists have discovered that a society cannot survive unless people believe their actions are seen and judged. They have merely concluded that God’s principal defect was that He could not be purchased from Oracle.

​Ai, Anthropic, Athiests, Cameras, Christianity, Drones, God, Justice, Police, Religion, Scripture, Silicon valley, Surveillance state, Virtue, Opinion & analysis 

Democrats are raging at Joe Manchin, the former Democrat U.S. senator, after he endorsed Susan Collins, the incumbent Republican in the race for one of two Senate seats in Maine.

Manchin had represented West Virginia but was heavily criticized by Democrats for his moderate voting patterns. He left the Democratic Party in 2024 and became an independent.

‘Susan is always in there, always in the trenches.’

Rather than endorse the progressive candidate of his former party, Manchin told voters 73-year-old Collins needed to stay in the Senate.

“You lose the Susan Collinses of the Senate, you’re losing the soul of the Senate — basically, a person you can talk to, who wants to do the right thing all of the time,” he said on CNBC Monday.

“Now, everybody says, ‘Oh, she doesn’t do this, doesn’t speak up.’ Susan is always in there, always in the trenches,” he added.

Collins released a statement about his endorsement.

“Joe is a dear friend and trusted colleague with whom I have always worked closely to solve problems and deliver results for the people of Maine and America,” she said.

“From helping end government shutdowns and negotiating the Electoral Count Act to delivering COVID relief and historic investments in our nation’s infrastructure, we have shown what is possible when Republicans and Democrats work together to find common ground and get things done. I am honored to have his support,” she added.

Keeping Collins in the Senate is pivotal for Republicans’ hopes to maintain their control of at least one house of Congress.

RELATED: Graham Platner officially WITHDRAWS from pivotal Senate race

While Collins’ progressive challenger, Troy Jackson, is not a democratic socialist, he has been endorsed by the organization.

Manchin has previously said he could not support a socialist for office.

“How could you support some of the crazy stuff they’re for? Have you seen their platform?” Manchin said to CBS’ Margaret Brennan in an interview last month.

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​Joe manchin, Susal collins, Maine, Us senate, Politics 

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky returned to the Senate on Monday after a long absence due to his health issues.

The former leader of the Senate had been absent from Congress for three months before the newest session began Monday.

The slim Republican majority in the Senate meant his vote was pivotal toward passing any legislation opposed by the Democrats in the minority.

McConnell said in a statement that his recovery had been “a long and often frustrating process,” according to Axios.

“Today, I’ll cast my first Senate vote since I took a bad fall back in June,” he added. “I’m really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues.”

He added that his recovery had been stymied by the “lingering effects” of his bout with polio in childhood.

The slim Republican majority in the Senate meant his vote was pivotal toward passing any legislation opposed by the Democrats in the minority.

“I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors,” McConnell added, “I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”

Reporters posted at McConnell’s residence recorded video as the 84-year-old senator left his residence in a wheelchair on his way to the Senate.

In a brief statement at the Capitol, he said he was determined to vote on a farm bill and to punish Russia.

RELATED: Mitch McConnell’s replacement might be chosen in court first

McConnell is also expected to vote on the nomination of Matthew Byrne to be a district judge in Ohio.

“Elaine and I are very grateful for all the continued well wishes from our fellow Kentuckians, and I’m glad to get back to more of business as usual on their behalf this month,” he added.

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​Mitch mcconnell, Us senate, Congress, Politics 

Over the past decade, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has continuously dodged allegations that she married her brother to help him obtain legal immigration status in the United States. Last week the controversy exploded anew as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Benny Johnson an investigation into the claim is under way.

On Sunday, another Trump administration official, border czar Tom Homan, confirmed the existence of an “ongoing criminal investigation” of Omar by the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division.

‘We’re gonna take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re gonna prosecute that crime.’

Homan’s admission came during a segment on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing.”

Homan told Fox News that “if someone committed immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law.” When pressed he further, confirmed the existence of a current criminal investigation into Omar.

Homan and Mullin are not the only Trump administration officials to claim that investigations into Omar and the validity of her citizenship are under way. In May, Vice President JD Vance told a reporter, “We’re gonna take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re gonna prosecute that crime. And that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now.”

For her part, Omar has consistently denied the allegations. In March, after an earlier claim of fraud by Vance, her chief of staff released a statement to Fox News: “This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers.”

RELATED: DHS secretary: Ilhan Omar married her brother, and consequences are coming

The allegations have dogged Omar since she won her primary for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016. In August of that year, Scott Johnson reported at Power Line blog that a since-deleted post on Somalispot claimed that “Omar married her brother Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, implying that the latter marriage assisted his entry into the United States.”

Power Line’s Johnson further looked into marriage records and reached out to those involved. He received a response from attorney Jean Brandl, which was the first in a long line of Omar denials regarding the allegations, “There are people who do not want an East African, Muslim woman elected to office and who will follow Donald Trump’s playbook to prevent it.”

Brandl continued, “Ilhan Omar’s campaign sees your superfluous contentions as one more in a series of attempts to discredit her candidacy.”

RELATED: JD Vance reveals Ilhan Omar is under federal investigation — and it may be about her marriage

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

In 2020 after the allegations again surfaced, Omar unequivocally denied the allegations via a statement. She wrote, “A number of baseless rumors have been made recently about my personal life and family. I will say it again here: they are absolutely false and ridiculous.”

Omar went on to detail her side of the marriage timeline.

The Department of Homeland Security and Rep. Omar have not responded to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

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​Department of homeland security, Federal investigation, Ilhan omar, Immigration status, Jd vance, Markwayne mullin, Tom homan, Politics 

Gen Z was told casual sex was no big deal while being promised a future with a loving partner through dating apps.

Dr. Debra Soh says young people, especially young women, are now dealing with the consequences.

“I don’t think casual sex is good for either sex, but especially for women,” Soh tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey, explaining that it’s “slightly different” for men.

“Women do tend to become more attached after sex. Whereas for men, hormonally it’s different,” she says.

While women release bonding hormones during sexual activity, Soh tells Stuckey that men’s hormones “go back to baseline.”

“So they actually disengage after sex and lose interest in their partner,” she says.

This is why Soh believes it’s “very irresponsible” that so many “feminist influencers and podcasters tell their young fans that they should be promiscuous or that they should have sex on the first date.”

“They’re telling their young fans to engage in behavior that is ultimately going to be self-destructive. And I do think this is an example of intrasexual competition in that women compete with other women and men compete with other men for sexual partners,” she explains.

“So I find that really sad, because I see it, especially with Gen Z women. I say Millennials, probably, too, really bought into this idea that having sex on the first date is not a big deal. That casual sex, if men can do it, women should do it,” she adds.

But it’s not just casual sex that’s killing modern love.

“You can kind of see some of the obvious issues with being able to swipe left or right,” Stuckey says. “It’s superficial. It’s based on aesthetics. But one thing that you said that I hadn’t thought about is that having more options is … a historical anomaly.”

“So our ancestors before us did not have this roster of people within a 200-mile radius that they were judging based on a self-assessment and pictures,” she continues.

“The paradox of choice speaks to this,” Soh explains. “So there have been studies showing that … when people are given fewer options, they’re more likely to actually make a choice and to be satisfied with that choice.”

“So when you’re on a dating app, it feels as though there is an unlimited number of potential partners. And so people are constantly seeking the next best thing,” she continues.

“I think there are very many of us who are just not present in terms of the dating process. … That’s a side effect of being online and just how so much of romantic interest or courtship is based through online connections or lack thereof, I suppose, nowadays,” she adds.

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​Allie beth stuckey, Casual sex, Dating app, Dr debra soh, Hookup culture, Hormones, Modern dating, Women, Blazetv show 

Carnegie Mellon University has been forced to take action against a Nigerian-born professor after yet another anti-white post she made on social media went viral.

Linguistics professor Dr. Uju Anya posted a message about dancing over the deaths of white males before online sleuths started reposting other previous anti-white missives. She also mocked critics who threatened to report her to the university.

‘I meant every word I said in my tweets responding to white men. … May they all eat s**t.’

“Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I’m dancing,” she allegedly wrote on the X platform on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. The message was in response to a critic who had asked her why she only celebrated the deaths of white men.

Screenshots of the post quickly went viral, and Anya ridiculed her detractors, who included tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“Carnegie Mellon University knows exactly who they have. They poached me from my previous job, aggressively recruiting me with a massive salary and stellar benefits. So baby, run tell them they f**ked up, and see if they pick up your call,” she reportedly wrote.

“Keep crying, loser. My department chair just texted me saying they’re throwing all of your emails in the trash,” she reportedly added with three laughing emojis.

Then the university responded hours later.

“Dr. Uju Anya is currently on voluntary professional leave from the university and is not teaching courses on our campus this academic year. We are deeply concerned by recent hostile and threatening social media posts by Dr. Anya and are reviewing this matter closely,” read the statement from the university.

“To be clear: These posts incorrectly imply our university’s endorsement and are contrary to our community standards and values as well as our commitment to fostering a safe, respectful and welcoming campus community,” they added in a second post.

Anya’s X account also does not exist any more.

Anya first made headlines in 2022 after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, when the academic posted an insidious message wishing that the queen had suffered greatly.

“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying,” she wrote. “May her pain be excruciating.”

She deleted that post, which was against Twitter policies at the time. Anya also later claimed that the British government had “massacred and displaced” half of her family.

RELATED: Black elementary school teacher posted alleged anti-white threats on social media

Anya had also reportedly responded, “May he rot in piss,” to the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death.

In a post on Instagram, she reportedly claimed to have been “doxxed” after “fascist white supremacist MAGA trolls” incited threats against her on social media.

“I meant every word I said in my tweets responding to white men and all others insulting and maligning me. I do not retract or apologize. May they all eat s**t,” she apparently added.

In 2024 Anya said black men doubting an activist’s claims of assault were using “white supremacist tactics” to “dehumanize” her. That story collapsed after a police investigation that included surveillance video that contradicted the activist’s claims.

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​Social media, Racism, Anti white racism, University, Politics 

A 15-year-old girl is accused of shoving a 29-year-old man off a moving Chicago train to his death after a fight — but she’s not the only suspect.

The girl returned to court Monday to face murder charges, WBBM-TV reported, adding that the victim’s family demanded that the other attackers, or their parents, come forward.

‘Fix the trains. Whatever’s happening with the trains, it shouldn’t have been that easy.’

Chicago police told the station that they arrested the teenage girl Friday — four days after authorities said she pushed the victim off the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train.

The girl was charged with felony counts of first-degree murder, mob action, murder by other forcible felony, and aggravated battery to a transit employee, WBBM reported.

The girl appeared in court Saturday, the station said, and a judge ordered her to stay in custody after finding probable cause on all counts. On Monday the girl again was ordered detained until her next hearing in October, WBBM said.

Police said the girl was one of three people who used force to push Kyle Bickham from a moving CTA train along the Dan Ryan Expressway last Monday around 2:30 p.m., which caused his death near 69th Street, the station said.

Police had not made any other arrests, WBBM said.

“Y’all took a part of me that I can’t get back. Like, just turn y’all selves in,” said the victim’s brother, Christopher Bickham Jr., according to the station. “Like, I forgive y’all already.”

RELATED: 11-year-old girl charged with aggravated battery after 8 to 10 youths brutally beat up 63-year-old man on Chicago train

Bickham was on his way home from work at the time of the attack, WBBM said, adding that police said some sort of fight preceded the shove off the train.

Police said three people pushed Bickham onto the third rail, and he was hit by another train, the station said.

“I wish this pain on no one. No one else. I wish that no one else has to go through this,” said the victim’s father, Christopher Bickham Sr., according to WBBM. “Fix the trains. Whatever’s happening with the trains, it shouldn’t have been that easy.”

Violence aboard Chicago trains is not a new problem.

In April, police said seven females and two males physically attacked a lone passenger aboard a Chicago train.In January, prosecutors said a male recorded cellphone video of himself fatally stabbing a sleeping man on a Chicago train in an unprovoked attack.In July 2024, an 11-year-old girl was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and felony robbery after eight to 10 youths brutally beat up a 63-year-old man on a Chicago train.In January 2023, an armed man tried to rob a passenger aboard a Chicago train — but it turns out the suspect picked the wrong victim: a concealed carrier who pulled out his own gun and shot the suspect.In July 2022, six robbers with weapons attacked and tried to rob a Chicago train passenger, but the victim pulled a knife and fought back. In the end, three of the suspects were wounded and hospitalized, all six were arrested — but the victim also was wounded and hospitalized.Just days after the July 2022 attack, another robbery victim stabbed to death a 15-year-old male who pulled a gun on him aboard a Chicago train.

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​Murder, Teen girl, Train, Chicago, Shove, Crime 

What was supposed to be a luxury getaway with his wife turned fatal for British-Nigerian influencer Igho “Tiny” Ubiribo.

The businessman and social media personality died after undergoing a penis enlargement procedure at a clinic in Thailand, where a cosmetic injection allegedly led to a pulmonary embolism.

The bizarre and tragic case has caught the attention of BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau — who are stunned not only by the deadly outcome but by the growing popularity of procedures like “penis enlargement.”

“He was a British-Nigerian businessman who documented his luxury lifestyle online, which is a really unique approach to social media,” Stu says.

“I didn’t even know that was a real surgery. I thought that was more of a joke,” he continues, noting that the choice of location for the surgery was a little strange.

“If you’re thinking through, like, where am I going to go to get a penis enlargement surgery? Would you go to Thailand for that?” he asks Dave.

“No, I wouldn’t go to Thailand. … I would never ever go anywhere except a first-world country if I wanted to get a surgery done,” Dave answers.

Stu points out that while the case is “ridiculous to talk about” because of the term “penis enlargement,” that what happened was “actually really bad.”

“A sudden blockage of blood vessels in the lungs, a pulmonary embolism,” he says.

“They say, by the way, it could result in loss of sensation, erectile dysfunction, infection, inflammation, and having a bend or kink in the new penis shape due to scarring,” he explains.

“There’s nothing good that can come of this,” Dave adds.

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​Dave landau, Penis enlargement, Stu burguiere, Surgery, Pulmonary embolism, Thailand, Igho ubiribo, Blazetv show 

Everyone deserves a second chance, according to Caroline Ellison’s new boss.

Upon reading Ellison’s Tumblr page and Substack, the CEO thinks readers will understand too.

‘I believe in redemption.’

Ellison infamously ran Alameda research, a crypto-investment firm, while dating disgraced crypto-exchange mogul and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

Alameda, which was also founded by Bankman-Fried, had a $65 billion line of credit with FTX and was used to lend Bankman-Fried money to allegedly make political donations.

Ellison was sentenced to two years in prison after she pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges, but she was released after 11 months.

Now, the CEO of a nonprofit says Ellison has been working for him since July and accepted a full-time role in August to “develop our funding platform and research how to effectively direct philanthropic dollars.”

Austin Chen runs Manifund, which describes itself as a nonprofit that “helps great charities get the funding they need.”

Chen admitted in a recent blog post that he felt indebted to the FTX Future Fund, the charitable arm of FTX that funded Manifold Markets, which was also founded by Chen, with Manifund operating as a side project.

“I believe in redemption,” Chen wrote. “Caroline has admitted her faults, worked to make creditors whole, and served her time in prison. I’d like to give her the opportunity to contribute back to the world; I hope that the world will concur.”

Chen boasted about Ellison’s online accounts as the first thing that attracted him to her professionally, including her Tumblr titled “Fake Charity Nerd Girl.”

RELATED: Caroline Ellison, Sam Bankman-Fried’s partner in FTX crime, sprung early from prison

Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The CEO also cited Ellison’s writings on an effective altruism website. While “EA” is described as a philosophical movement with the intention of providing the greatest amount of evidence-based good, it is effectively a nonprofit movement that justifies its decision-making by declaring its own moral leanings as impartial.

“Poverty and disease remain unsolved; billions of animals suffer hell on earth,” Chen wrote in relation to the hiring. “I, my team, and many EAs I know, are often burning the midnight candle to address these wrongs. I don’t wish to sideline a pair of capable hands.”

In the same post, Ellison was revealed to have been writing under the pseudonym “Carol” for the company and provided statements about her new role.

“I’m deeply sorry for what I did, and I completely understand why people may not want to work with me,” Ellison said of her past. “But I’m very grateful to Austin for giving me a second chance, and judging me on my current work performance rather than my past. I feel very lucky not only to have a job, but to be working somewhere that I think is doing great work and has a mission I believe in.”

RELATED: Caroline Ellison sentenced to 2 years in prison over massive FTX crypto-scandal

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

With Ellison at the head, Alameda Research allegedly used $100 million of FTX customer deposits to bribe Chinese officials. She blamed Bankman-Fried:

“He directed me to commit these crimes,” Ellison reportedly said in court.

During trial, Ellison reportedly told jurors that Alameda Research would lend money to Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives for political donations. Bankman-Fried donated a reported $70 million to Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms; he was the second-highest donor behind George Soros.

Ellison was making $20 million in salary and bonuses in 2021 as head of Alameda Research.

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​Cryptocurrency, Sam bankman-fried, Caroline ellison, Ftx, Manifund, Tech 

As you might expect, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck wasn’t going to miss the GOP’s first-ever 2026 Republican Midterm Convention. It was President Trump’s September 9 keynote speech that drew him in the most.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn walks through four moments from the speech that he says tell you who Trump is — and where the pitch still isn’t landing.

1. Long-term vision

Since Trump returned to office in 2025, Glenn has been defending his agenda as long-term foundation work — not short-term quick fixes.

One line in Trump’s speech, he says, confirmed this: “And I want you to remember me in four or five years when this country is rocketing. Remember, I’m the one that got it started.”

“That’s verification of everything I’ve been telling you. He’s working long-term,” Glenn says.

“He’s fixing the plumbing and the electricity and everything. … While everybody’s like, ‘Yeah, you know, this wallpaper is bad, and you know, our kitchen table is broken,’ he’s like, ‘No, we got to repoint the entire foundation of the house or nobody’s going to care about the wallpaper.”’

He also notes Trump’s humility in using the word “started.”

“Meaning, it’s not just him alone,” says Glenn, “which I know that’s little, but to me, I watch for moments of who he really is.”

2. Campaigning for a party that hasn’t delivered

Trump’s humility was far from subtle in the segment of his speech about the southern border wall.

“Ted Cruz worked very hard on the wall and so did John Cornyn,” he acknowledged.

“We built this massive, beautiful, great wall. Beautiful because it works. … Zero illegal aliens have entered our country from the southern border in the last 15 months,” Trump added.

Glenn believes this moment is crucial.

Trump, he explains, was “being gracious,” not only by praising the two senators but by showing up at the convention to help Republicans “who have really done nothing for him.” Add their poor midterm odds, and the near-certainty that the press will frame the loss as “Trump’s failure,” and his motive becomes obvious, says Glenn: he’s taking that on “for the country, not for him.”

3. An unpopular assist

Another remarkable moment, he says, was Trump highlighting Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) despite knowing it would be “unpopular.”

Over loud booing from the audience, Trump said, “John is working hard. … He’s got great opposition from the Democrat Schumer and these guys. They’re terrible. … He’s going to have great success, you watch. We are going to have great, great success with our Republican senators.”

“I have never seen Trump lose a room — never. Not once,” says Glenn.

“What he’s doing there is [saying], ‘Guys, I need this guy.’ … I don’t know if that’s a winning strategy with John Thune, but again, that’s something that all the people in the press said he’d never ever do,” he adds.

4. A number that doesn’t land

But the “biggest” moment of Trump’s speech, says Glenn, is when he addressed foreign investment numbers — but it wasn’t the “biggest” in a positive sense.

“We have more money being spent from outside countries and companies — over $20 trillion. That’s five, six, seven times higher than any country ever. Not just here, any country ever,” Trump said, noting that this figure could rise by the midpoint of his term.

Glenn believes that the applause Trump received for this comment was a “Pavlov response.”

“He doesn’t need to stop this point. He needs to stop saying it like this,” he criticizes.

Glenn argues that what Trump needs to highlight instead is how these foreign countries are investing in the United States and why that’s good for Americans.

“How are they investing? They’re building factories. This is a nation that is going to build cars again, in our own factories again. … That $20 trillion is the job for your son, or if you’re just getting into college, that factory will be open, and we’ll be taking applications. We are building America’s strength again. We’re going to be builders again!” he exclaims.

He pleads with Trump to focus on tangible outcomes instead of just numbers so that the “average person” can understand how what he’s doing benefits them directly.

“He’s not using the language the average person understands or relates to — and yet at the same time, I think everybody in that room walked away liking him.”

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

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​Donald trump, Rnc, Glenn beck, Blazetv show 

Two males kicked open an apartment door in Memphis last week and began beating a man in a bedroom — but the victim fought back and turned the tables in lethal fashion.

WREG-TV said the incident took place around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday.

‘I bet he doesn’t do that again.’

Citing an arrest affidavit, WMC-TV reported that Devonta Johnson and Zarian Sanders went to an apartment on Madewell Street to see the mother of Johnson’s child.

The pair allegedly kicked open the front door, which had been barricaded with a couch, WMC said.

Investigators told WMC the two men entered a bedroom and began beating a male victim.

During the attack, Johnson pulled out a handgun, WMC said, adding that a struggle over the weapon ensued, and the victim managed to shoot Johnson.

RELATED: Florida thug, 19, allegedly puts gun to head of man delivering banana pudding. But victim is armed — and turns the tables.

Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Johnson died from his injuries, WMC reported, adding that police said Sanders after the shooting threatened and hit the victim with a rifle, took the handgun, and fled the scene.

Sanders later was arrested and booked on charges of especially aggravated burglary, convicted felon in possession of a handgun, aggravated assault, and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, WMC said.

Police told WREG that Sanders, 23, later was identified as a felon who was convicted last September after pleading guilty to theft of a firearm less than $2,500.

Commenters underneath WMC’s Facebook post about the incident had little sympathy for Sanders and Johnson. To wit:

“If you don’t want the time, don’t do the crime,” one commenter wrote.”I bet he doesn’t do that again,” another user said.”I love a happy ending,” another commenter quipped.

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​Memphis, Fatal shooting, Home invasion, Turning the tables, Crime 

Vandals spray-painted what appeared to be messages mocking Charlie Kirk’s death only days after a new statue was unveiled in Phoenix, Arizona.

The statue at the headquarters of Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded, was meant to memorialize the conservative activist a year after he was shot and killed at Utah Valley University.

‘Demons don’t sleep, so we will just have to sleep less. We won’t be cowed.’

On Sunday police were notified about the vandalism on the statue in red spray-paint that appeared to mimic the lethal wound he suffered.

“It was horrifying,” said Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of TPUSA.

“It was clear that vandals came here, spray-painted what looked like blood, or what was intended to look like blood, both on the sign right there and on the statue,” he added.

The organization posted images of the vandalism that included a red “X” that was spray-painted over Kirk’s face.

Andrew Kolvet, TPUSA spokesman and the executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” told Blaze News that TPUSA will not be deterred from its mission.

“We will find the people responsible, and they will be held accountable. Americans of good faith, which is the vast, vast majority of Americans, by the way, are sick of this type of ugliness,” he said.

“Demons don’t sleep, so we will just have to sleep less. We won’t be cowed. We won’t stop,” Kolvet continued. “Every vile act only makes us more determined and only energizes more people to get off the sidelines and fight harder. Our Commit 100 volunteer ballot-chasing project has seen a surge in new volunteers, and donors are putting up reward money to find those responsible. What the enemy meant for evil will be used for good.”

TPUSA called the vandalism “diabolical” and pointed out that the name of Jesus Christ was painted over as well.

RELATED: Liberal college students reportedly plan celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s death on anniversary

Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, also released a statement on social media about the incident.

“Charlie once said we should be building two statues for every statue that they tear down,” she wrote. “His instinct was always to build, not to destroy. They thought a bullet would silence my husband’s voice but it only made it louder. They think spray paint can obscure his legacy, but it will only spread it further. Every attempt to tear down what Charlie built makes us root deeper and work even harder.”

She added, “We will never give up and never surrender.”

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​Charlie kirk, Vandalism, Statue, Turning point usa, Erika kirk, Politics 

Former NFL coach Jon Gruden is not happy about how many international games the NFL is playing, and he isn’t afraid to let everyone know.

Gruden was seemingly calm and collected recently, holding it together without bursting into one of his trademark tirades. That was until a fan started pushing him to accept the overseas games.

‘I never saw Ray Nitschke play in London!’

The Super Bowl winner went off during “The Gruden Family Football Show” on Thursday when a fan brought up the NFL’s international schedule, which this season has teams traveling to London; Paris; Madrid; Mexico City; Melbourne, Australia; Munich, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“I want a piece of you, Gruden,” the fan began, immediately piquing the coach’s interest.

“I listen to you bitch and moan about international games. Oh, how it ‘disrupts routine.’ Gruden, the game was built on sacrifice,” the comments continued.

The fan dragged Gruden, telling him how he has benefited from the sacrifices of former players and coaches who traveled across the United States to play grueling games on minimal rest.

“You need to embrace growing the sport globally. You understand that?” the fan added.

Gruden wasn’t having any of the fan’s globalist approach, though.

“Get him off!” Gruden yelled, cutting the remarks short. “I understand that completely. I mean, we’re not going overseas to play home games.”

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Gruden started screaming that while some of the NFL’s most historic players traveled a lot, they didn’t play in different countries.

“I didn’t see Red Grange playing in Australia. And I never saw Ray Nitschke play in London! OK?! So take that and stick that in your pipe,” Gruden exclaimed.

“If you want to grow the game, grow it in the United States. We got a lot of kids that aren’t playing football. So let’s play games where we need to grow the game in our country. And let’s start and end with that,” he screamed comically.

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Further endorsing an America-only schedule, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach said it wasn’t fair to have players traveling for 12+ hours before a game.

“I don’t want to be on a 16-hour flight, seven different time zones to play one of my home games. Sorry,” he told his co-hosts.

2026 will feature the most international regular-season games the NFL has ever seen, with nine total.

2025 had already seen an increase to seven after the league had previously maxed out at five, the number played the previous three years, as well as in 2017 and 2019.

While Australia, Brazil, and France will see their first official NFL games this season, countries like the U.K., Mexico, and Canada have all hosted multiple games dating back more than a decade.

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Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

The NFL used to promote itself internationally through the league NFL Europe, which consisted of American football teams based in European countries like the U.K. and Germany. The league existed in different forms from 1991 until 2007.

However, the first international regular-season game for NFL teams was in Mexico City in 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals hosted the San Francisco 49ers.

The league’s pursuit of global growth has seemingly been lucrative, though, as the NFL boasted $450 million in international revenue in 2023.

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​Fearless, Jon gruden, Nfl, Globalism, Sports 

Bad advice has always been abundantly available throughout history. But our ancestors were somewhat limited in how many sources of advice they could tap.

No such limitation exists today.

When Jesus named lust as a real, heart-level violation, He wasn’t handing people a new, more permissive category of ‘biblical grounds for divorce.’

Bad advice gushes from a firehose called the internet every minute of every day. On social media platforms, we’re drowning in it.

I’ve been writing about Christian women’s groups online and the bad theology they’re facilitating. To be honest, these kinds of groups are highly problematic, because anyone who claims to be a Christian can join, and a lot of the participants seem to consider the group a reasonable substitute for a church.

But no sound doctrine + endless opinions with zero scriptural basis + no personal relationships = a pretty awful “church.”

Imagine that. An army of young women, some of them with virtually no knowledge of Scripture, posting anonymously. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s almost like God knew what He was doing when He left us a book and instructions on how to learn it alongside fellow believers.

But I digress.

The problem with ‘Christian’ social media groups

These groups are growing and becoming more dangerous because the sheer volume of bad teaching being bandied about is mushrooming. Recently, I wrote about people who say they don’t need church (they’re wrong; you can read why here). This, of course, is just one of many examples of bad teaching: Christians are commanded to love and care for one another, which is pretty much impossible to do from your sofa.

But perhaps the most common bad advice given in virtual so-called Christian groups is something along these lines:

You gotta run, girl.

This is a common response to someone complaining about almost anything a husband has done. Of course, due to the nature of anonymous storytelling, we have no way of knowing if any given anecdote is a creative writing exercise designed for attention and clicks (yeah, that’s definitely a thing), or a genuine account of abuse (in which case, anonymously sharing it with a bunch of strangers is a profoundly unhelpful waste of time).

So if a woman shares that her husband gave her an STD or a whack across the face, of course people are going to respond with “you gotta run, girl.” Although in a case like that, I wonder if a bunch of strangers has ever been successful in persuading someone to make a life-altering decision. Because a bunch of randos on the internet for sure shouldn’t be your counsel for that kind of decision.

Common ‘grounds’

But what I see more often — very often — is a woman reporting a husband who is emotionally unavailable. Or spends too much time at the office. Or has some bad habits (ranging from very serious, like porn usage, to just irresponsible and immature, like extended video game sessions).

Yet in almost every case, SOMEONE will spin it up into “you gotta run” because, she’ll argue, if he spends too much time working that means he’s abandoned you and the marriage — you have a biblical right to a divorce. He isn’t meeting all your emotional needs, he’s not fulfilling his marriage vows to care for you — you have a biblical right to divorce.

You can twist almost anything into a “biblical right to divorce” if you’re looking at it that way, so that’s maybe not the right way to look at it.

Yes, there are biblical grounds for divorce. They are pretty narrow. And there are situations (physical safety) where separation is the wisest course, whether a divorce is sought or not.

The problem with twisting everything into “grounds for divorce” should be self-evident. For one thing, those being invited to opine are only getting one side of the story, in most cases anonymously at that. It gets lots of clicks in the Facebook group, but it’s absolutely awful for the souls of the people involved.

Let’s be clear: God hates divorce. Because of people’s hard hearts (and to protect women), He allows divorce in certain very limited scenarios. But He still hates it, and note: Divorce is NEVER required.

There are so many better options, especially when children are involved. A few that can be used individually or in combination:

Fervent prayer (and asking other trusted folks to join in prayer);Counseling with a biblically minded pastor;Marriage strengthening ministries/books/programs;Some time apart;In cases involving danger/abuse, formal separation; andIn cases involving adultery or abandonment, divorce is allowed — but not required, especially if there is true repentance/confession, along with willingness to work toward reconciliation and rebuild trust.

What happens to the young woman who takes her complaint to a group like this, and gets countless admonitions that she needs to get out? That her feelings trump any other considerations? That his behavior is abusive (a definition I’ve seen stretched to include such “abuses” as leaving his socks on the floor, since it shows disrespect for her work caring for the home)?

If dozens or even hundreds of people tell you you’re being abused, you will start to believe it. You’re going to lean hard in that direction. The direction that God hates.

The cancer of pornography

One of the most common complaints, sadly, is that the husband is using porn. This is 100% a cancer to the marriage, and it defiles the holy union. Many claim that porn itself is grounds for divorce because Jesus said if you even look at a woman with lust, you’re committing adultery.

I asked a pastor friend to comment on this passage, and he was gracious enough to provide full context around this portion of Scripture, so that we can bring the whole counsel of God to the topic. Anyone contemplating divorce due to this issue would do well to consider his points:

First, in Matthew 5, Jesus is declaring Himself the pivotal point of history; the One to whom all the law and the prophets point — and He then shows how the Old Testament is validated and finds perfect continuity in His teaching (5:17-18).

But there’s a problem: Jesus knows that much of what the crowd on the mountain has heard about the Old Testament is not actually Scripture, because the Pharisees treated certain oral traditions as carrying equal authority with Scripture itself.

That’s why Jesus begins each of His next five teachings with the same formula: “You have heard it said (whatever the Pharisees claimed) … but I say to you (Jesus’ perfect teaching).”

In each teaching, His concern is to correct people’s distorted understanding of the Old Testament and point to the true direction the law was always aiming.

In 5:27-28, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Apparently, some believed that as long as they didn’t actually sleep with someone, they were in the clear.

But Jesus wasn’t satisfied with mere formal obedience to the letter of the law. He wanted to expose the heart of purity the law was always meant to protect. He deepens the seventh commandment by connecting it to coveting another person’s spouse; in fact, the Greek word translated “lust” in most Bibles (epithymeō) is the very same word used for “covet.”

It’s worth noting this doesn’t mean noticing someone’s beauty or feeling attraction.This coveting another person is the deep-seated greed to take and possess someone who doesn’t belong to you.

RELATED: Dolly Parton never had to leave her husband to find herself

Michael Putland/Getty Images

‘Adultery in the heart’

Some today do use this passage to argue that porn is grounds for divorce, which is understandable given the real sin of lust and the real pain of betrayal and the devastating consequences they carry. But the distinction Jesus makes is important: The offender has committed adultery “in his heart.” Sinning in your heart is not the same as committing the act itself.

In the teaching just before this one, Jesus addresses murder and anger the same way: “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court” (5:22). Obviously, being angry with someone in your heart is different from actually killing them, and the consequences are not identical. If we use the same logic that some use, claiming that lust is automatic grounds for divorce, then everyone who has been angry with someone should be in prison.

None of this excuses porn usage or lust. But it is not the same thing as having sex with someone else.

Consider this: If Jesus truly meant that “adultery in the heart” constituted biblical grounds for divorce, then just about every marriage would have legitimate grounds for divorce — unless a husband and wife made it through their entire life together without ever once lusting after someone else.

Even more importantly, that reading would also make marriage trivial, which is the very opposite of what Jesus intended. He wanted to raise the bar for marriage, not lower it. He wanted to protect its sanctity, because mainstream Judaism at the time had taken an extremely lax position that allowed a man to divorce his wife for practically any reason, like burning food, or if the man just found another woman better looking.

So when Jesus named lust as a real, heart-level violation, he wasn’t handing people a new, more permissive category of “biblical grounds for divorce” that simply met the culture where it already was. He was doing the opposite: confronting the culture’s careless view of marriage with the values and standards of the Kingdom of Heaven.

That said, the waters get murkier in cases of unrepentant, habitual lust, which Jesus addresses in Matthew 19:9. But if we want to stay faithful to the text, here is the distinction: a repentant heart; one that is doing everything it can to slay the dragon of lust (see the call to gouge out an eye in Matthew 5:29-30) presents no biblical grounds for divorce.

Jesus never asked married couples for perfection. He asked for a fight: a relentless, ongoing pursuit of purity that guards the marriage — not an excuse to escape it.

So what’s a girl to do?

What do we tell a woman whose husband is entangled with porn?

It is critical to not go this issue alone. Your church must be involved. Counsel from your elders and pastors, for both husband and wife, will help everyone understand and apply biblical teaching.

If you don’t go to church, this is a good time to seek out a strong Bible-teaching congregation. There are a number of resources, programs, and books to help (here’s one).

Unrepentant, habitual lust — where the husband continues making excuses for porn use, or lying about it — is blatant sexual immorality, and that is grounds for divorce. It doesn’t mean the wife has to divorce, but she has biblical grounds.

If, however, the husband is repentant, taking steps to fight, waging a relentless ongoing battle for his own purity and the purity of the marriage union — it’s not right to walk away from a man who is willing to fight that battle and honor his vows.

That is a biblical response, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy, because trust has been betrayed, and rebuilding can be arduous and painful. That’s where those elders and pastors can meaningfully support a couple in crisis.

But remember that God is a reconciling God, a healing God, a God who not only hates divorce, but wants every marriage to reflect His love for us, His church — which He will never divorce.

Of course, no couple will meet that perfect standard. But it’s what we’re all to strive for.

So no, girl, you don’t gotta run. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you have to, but know what the Bible demands from marriage, and hold your husband accountable to move toward that standard — even as you hold yourself accountable to the same.

​Christianity, Christian living, Marriage, Divorce, Jesus, Adultery, Pornography, Prayer, Lifestyle, Faith