Category: blaze media

For generations, millions swallowed the lie whole. Earth meant nothing special. Humans amounted to cosmic dust. The universe spun as a random accident through meaningless space.

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Critics will scramble for explanations. Multiple universes. Anthropic selection. Observer bias. Anything but the obvious conclusion staring them in the face.

Fresh evidence undercuts the nihilist narrative. Earth sits dead center in a billion-light-year void. Not randomly. Not accidentally. Precisely where it needs to be.

As Britain’s Royal Astronomical society notes: “The existence of such a large and deep void is controversial because it doesn’t mesh particularly well with the standard model of cosmology, which suggests matter today should be more uniformly spread out on such large scales.”

Cosmic void … or cathedral?

This void transcends empty space. Call it a cosmic cathedral. It’s 20% less dense than the universe average. The perfect observatory. The only spot where intelligent beings can peer into the depths of creation and actually understand what they see.

Consider the implications. Trillions of galaxies. Countless worlds. Yet only one vantage point in the known universe where the cosmic expansion can be precisely measured, mapped, and understood. And that vantage point just happens to contain us.

The numbers tell the story. The so-called Hubble tension — that persistent discrepancy between local and distant measurements of the universe’s expansion rate — dissolves when calculated from Earth’s unique observational position.

Here, the math works. The instruments agree. From anywhere else, the data would be skewed. The light bent. The signals drowned. The expansion would appear warped or unreadable. Not because it isn’t happening, but because no other seat in the cosmic theater offers a clear enough view.

And we occupy that seat.

The VIP section

This discovery strikes at the heart of the Copernican principle — that ancient, philosophical wrecking ball that for centuries insisted we were nothing special. It told us we were average. Unremarkable. A cosmic accident swirling in a sea of indifferent stars.

But the data says otherwise.

We bear no mediocrity. We occupy no statistical middle ground. Our corner of space is not some forgettable speck, but the one location where the universe becomes legible. Where its expansion can be seen clearly, calculated precisely, understood fully. Not from anywhere. From here.

The fine-tuning argument was only the prologue. Carbon ratios. Nuclear binding forces. The strength of gravity. The charge of the electron. Every constant delicately poised, as if on a cosmic razor’s edge. Alter one decimal — just one — and the stars don’t ignite. The planets don’t hold. The chemistry of life never gets out of the gate.

The implications cut deep. Science spent decades trying to remove purpose from existence, to reduce everything to randomness, to convince us we represented accidents in an indifferent cosmos. The cosmos keeps disagreeing.

Every measurement points toward intention. Every discovery reveals design. Every breakthrough uncovers another layer of impossible precision. The void around us functions as more than our neighborhood. It serves as our pulpit, our designated spot for cosmic comprehension. The universe positioned us exactly where we needed to be to understand the universe.

That pattern suggests choreography, not randomness.

RELATED: Dawkins is wrong: Why you should still believe in miracles

Boonyachoat/iStock/Getty Images

Fear of meaning

Critics will scramble for explanations. Multiple universes. Anthropic selection. Observer bias. Anything but the obvious conclusion staring them in the face.

Some will resurrect tired statistical arguments, claiming we only think our place is special because we’re here to observe it. Others will leap into the multiverse, conjuring infinite realities to dilute this one into irrelevance. Theoretical physicists will pen papers faster than peer review can keep up, layering complexity upon complexity to mask the simplicity of what this suggests.

They’ll blame instrumentation. Measurement issues. Incomplete data. Anything to avoid confronting the raw implication: that the universe seems rigged for our comprehension, rigged in a way that mathematics alone cannot explain.

Journals will fill with damage control. Panels convened. Preprint servers flooded. Cosmologists will hedge, backpedal, reframe. “Yes, it looks that way,” they’ll say. “But it doesn’t mean what you think.” Because to admit what it does mean, to follow the evidence to its end, is to crack open a door they spent lifetimes trying to keep shut: a door not just to design, but to destiny.

Made to understand

The obvious conclusion becomes unavoidable. We arrived here not by accident, but by appointment.

The universe built us an observatory, then placed us inside it, then gave us the tools to recognize what we see — and then lit up the cosmic stage so we could watch the show.

This development extends far beyond astronomy. It represents a revolution in meaning. For centuries, we were told that consciousness represented an accident; that intelligence emerged as a fluke. That purpose amounted to a delusion.

But consciousness appears exactly where it can comprehend creation. Intelligence emerges exactly where it can measure infinity. Purpose reveals itself exactly where it can be recognized.

The pattern shows itself as unmistakable. The positioning proves intentional. The timing reveals perfection.

​Creationism, Astronomy, Cosmic void, Hubble tension, Physics, Faith, Christianity 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently opened a new diner in Hollywood that capitalizes on a strikingly unique retro futuristic aesthetic, the Tesla Diner.

It looks like it was dreamed up in mid-century America, when the culture was hopefully optimistic about technology’s evolution. It is shaped like a spaceship and adorned with two bright red strips of neon that make it look like a stop on Route 66.

New technology is extremely helpful for streamlining productivity. Unfortunately, the cost of this efficiency is counted in tangible relationships.

Outside, guests can drive up their Cybertrucks to a giant movie screen to watch a sci-fi flick on a 66-foot LED screen. Robots dole out buckets of popcorn for visitors to munch on while they peruse through the exclusive merchandise available in the gift shop. There is a kitchen, bar, and dining area where guests can order classic lunchroom favorites like burgers, fried chicken, and grilled cheese sandwiches.

The Tesla Diner is a sight to behold, a behemoth chrome-plated building surrounded by 80 different EV charging stations. It merges two contradictory aesthetics, pairing days-gone-by sentimentalism with one of the world’s most exciting technological corporations. Its changes feel almost unnatural.

For example, the diner uses geofence technology to track guests so that their pre-placed orders will be ready upon arrival. For those who prefer their meals to be hot and fresh, this is a welcome innovation.

Still, it can feel a bit dystopian and uncomfortable for a society unaccustomed to this robotic style of service.

RELATED: Musk-hating Tesla drivers go full irony to avoid backlash

AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

As a result, many people have been extremely critical of the new Tesla cafe. Internet critics have chastised it for replacing humans with robots and for leaning into a virtual design.

But most of these critiques can be repelled with the fact that it is not a virtual space. And despite its many touch screens, robots, and geofences, it is a physical gathering space. People can stroll around the diner, interacting with other curious tourists and locals, sharing in the simple pleasure of movies and meals.

Loneliness boom

Between 2003 and 2022, in-person socializing for adults fell by about 30%.

The amount of time that people share with friends in companionship settings has dropped from an average of 202 minutes per day to only 174 minutes per day. The problem is not just prevalent among teenagers, but the rise of social media and online spaces has pushed all age groups into secluded spaces. For example, 12% of U.S. adults claim that they have no close friends, a number that has quadrupled since the 1990s.

This is not only a young person’s problem, but a cultural shift. Video games and chat rooms have increasingly become spaces for people to meet. In only 10 years, live chat usage has increased by 400%. Online messaging has exploded, with billions of people worldwide using it to connect with one another. Phone calls, handwritten letters, and in-person meetings are constantly traded for emails. After the COVID pandemic, many office jobs shifted toward work-from-home positions, which further isolated individuals from their peers.

Some of this new technology is extremely helpful for streamlining productivity. Unfortunately, the cost of this efficiency is counted in tangible relationships.

Social desert

Physical gathering spaces are increasingly rare.

In the past, movie theaters, concerts, and restaurants were popular spots for people to gather with friends and meet new people. The rise of streaming services has caused movie theater attendance to drop significantly, a problem only exacerbated by production studios dropping movies online with little to no wait after theatrical releases. Smaller concert venues have closed while larger venues backed by mega-corporations, such as LiveNation, sell tickets at shockingly high prices. Restaurants have downsized due to remote work reducing foot traffic and online ordering rendering dining rooms useless.

In 2025, American culture is extremely isolated. People are seeking ways to get out of the house after the pandemic spent years discouraging people from going out. The country is re-emerging from online spaces, looking for physical places where they can people-watch, meet friends, and engage in public life.

The Tesla Diner is a strange but creative concoction that tries to fill the loneliness of modernity while understanding the needs of the present. As new technologies become an increasingly relevant part of culture, businesses can and should capitalize on their popularity to help rebuild a thriving American culture.

Charging up community

Musk’s diner is odd, but it’s filling a need for people.

The amount of people who have to wait to “charge” their cars has exploded. Rather than seeing this as an annoying downtime, Musk has decided to use it to create a new shared space. Its robots and geofencing are kitschy and novel enough to make people curious. Its food offerings and movies are pleasant and simple enough to draw people in.

Humanity is learning how to reconnect with itself. The era of drive-in theaters and soda shops feels like a distant memory, but it also symbolized a time when it was easier for people to connect with one another. As times have changed, most of our connections have slowly mutated to become primarily virtual.

Still, humans naturally seek out shared spaces. In 2024, the U.S. National Parks Service reported its highest attendance levels ever recorded. This shows that people are eager to emerge from their seclusion and get back into the world.

Some may call it ugly, some may call it strange, but the Tesla Diner is a physical place. At a time when people desperately want a reason to feel like they are a part of a community, having a place to park your car and sip on a soda feels like a luxury.

​Tesla diner, Elon musk, Lonlieness, Physical space, Community, Culture 

Democrats, whose approval rating has plunged to its lowest in over three decades, have worked vigorously to prevent President Donald Trump from properly executing his agenda.

A big part of their strategy in the U.S. Senate has been to slow-walk the president’s nominees for the bench, assistant cabinet secretaries, and ambassadors by refusing their confirmation through unanimous consent or voice votes.

Republicans began to steamroll the opposition during a rare weekend session on Saturday, successfully voting on some of Trump’s nominees whom Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) smeared as “historically bad” picks.

In addition to confirming retired CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder as ambassador to the European Union earlier in the day, the Senate confirmed CatholicVote co-founder Brian Burch as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican in a vote along party lines.

“I am profoundly grateful to President Trump and the United States Senate for this opportunity to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See,” Burch said in a statement obtained by Blaze News. “I have the honor and privilege of serving in this role following the historic selection of the first American pope. In a remarkable coincidence, or what I prefer to attribute to Providence, Pope Leo XIV is from Chicago, which is also my hometown.”

When announcing Burch as his nominee in December, Trump noted that the Phoenix-born father of nine, who was president of CatholicVote until June, “received numerous awards, and demonstrated exceptional leadership, helping build one of the largest Catholic advocacy groups in the Country.”

Trump noted further that Burch helped him garner “more Catholic votes than any Presidential Candidate in History!”

Ahead of the election, CatholicVote helped raised awareness about Harris’ antipathy to Catholics — who make up roughly 20% of the U.S. population — as well as to Catholic organizations and Catholic moral teaching, running a multimillion-dollar ad campaign on theme in critical swing states.

RELATED: ‘Recess is for children’ — and Senate gridlock is for Democrats

Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

As part of this campaign, Burch provided Americans with a damning reminder about Harris’ suggestion in 2018 that a Trump nominee’s Catholic faith disqualified him from serving on the federal bench.

“Kamala Harris hates what we believe,” Burch said.

CatholicVote also released an eye-opening ad revealing Harris’ support for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an “anti-Catholic hate group” that has since its inception in 1979 mocked Catholic teaching and doctrine and ridiculed the church’s orthodox views on marriage, sexuality, homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion.

‘The relationship between the Holy See and the United States remains one of the most unique in the world.’

Burch’s group appears to have helped move the needle.

Trump enjoyed a 12-point advantage among Catholics over failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The Pew Research Center indicated that 22% of those who voted in the 2024 election and cast a ballot for Trump were Catholic.

RELATED: Joe Kent secures Senate confirmation to work alongside Tulsi Gabbard

Photo by Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images

Burch, also the president of Seton Academy Catholic Montessori School in Illinois, was set to be confirmed as ambassador in May — shortly after Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV — but Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz (D) put a blanket hold on all State Department nominees.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) told the Catholic News Agency at the time, “I never thought I’d see the day when Democrats would be willing to block the nominee for ambassador to the Holy See simply to score political points with their far-left radicals, but it seems they’re still searching for rock bottom.”

Despite the holdup, Trump ultimately got his way, and Burch got his confirmation.

“The relationship between the Holy See and the United States remains one of the most unique in the world, with the global reach and moral witness of the Catholic Church serving as a critical component of U.S. efforts to bring about peace and prosperity,” Burch said in his statement to Blaze News. “As a proud Catholic American, I look forward to representing President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary Rubio in this important diplomatic post. I ask for the prayers of all Americans, especially my fellow Catholics, that I may serve honorably and faithfully in the noble adventure ahead.”

Kelsey Reinhardt, who took over for Burch as president of CatholicVote in June, said, “For the past 17 years, Brian has faithfully championed CatholicVote’s mission to inspire American Catholics to live their faith in public life. We are confident that he will similarly excel in this new role and are forever grateful for the foundation he laid and the impact he had on millions of Catholics across the Nation.”

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​Brian burch, Catholicvote, Ambassador, Embassy, Vatican, Donald trump, Trump, Senate, Confirmation, Thune, Democrats, Democrat, Kamala harris, Catholic, Holy see, Catholicism, Politics 

Certain words and phrases take on new meaning as time goes by, often due to the politicization of our language. A clear example is the linguistic evolution of what it means to be an environmentalist.

Decades ago, concern for the environment largely centered on keeping the land free of clutter, the water protected from contamination, and the cities unpolluted by soot and smog. One of the major environmentalist movements of the 1960s was fronted by then-first lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, who initiated a campaign to “Keep America Beautiful.”

Trump’s executive order is a first step toward reclaiming environmentalism and unifying the country around the concept of a cleaner world.

Johnson explained that her passion for beautification was in perfect concert with other important objectives. “Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool,” she wrote in a 1965 diary entry. “All the threads are interwoven — recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks — national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else.”

The campaign to clean up the national landscape was bolstered by a heavy rotation of television ads showing litter along highways, in waterways, and in parks and imploring people to “Keep America Beautiful.” Most famous in the long-running campaign was an early 1970s ad ending with a close-up of actor Iron Eyes Cody, a tear falling from one eye as he surveyed a polluted environment. Cody turned out to be an Italian-American, not a Native American as portrayed, but that’s another story.

But as the “global warming” movement came into vogue, the definition of environmentalism began to shift. Left-wing media, politicians, and organizations began to define environmentalism almost solely on the basis of adherence to its greenhouse gas theories and demonization of the fossil fuel industry. In their world, anyone supporting our most reliable and dependable energy sources — natural gas, fuel oil, and coal — disqualified themselves as environmentalists. In fact, they were accused of being “anti-environment.”

Too often, the left’s political targets played right into their hands, struggling to defend themselves and sometimes even downplaying or ridiculing the importance of a clean environment. By allowing “environmentalism” to be redefined and co-opted by the radical left, true environmentalism was lost. Fortunately, a recent action by President Donald Trump will help reverse course.

Reclaiming true American environmentalism

While Independence Day weekend headlines were dominated by the passage and signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an executive order signed by Trump on July 3 went largely under the radar — but it may have an even more lasting impact. The president’s “Make America Beautiful Again” order “establish[ed] a council tasked with conserving public lands, protecting wildlife populations, and ensuring clean drinking water,” as the Washington Post described it, while adding that the order remained “silent on climate change.”

While the Post and other left-wing news outlets cling to the “climate change” definition of environmentalism, Trump’s executive order is a first step toward reclaiming the term and unifying the country around the concept of a cleaner world.

Trump’s order tasks all federal land management agencies with the following:

Promote responsible stewardship of natural resources while driving economic growth, expand access to public lands and waters for recreation, hunting, and fishing, encourage responsible, voluntary conservation efforts, cut bureaucratic delays that hinder effective environmental management, and recover America’s fish and wildlife populations through proactive, voluntary, on-the-ground collaborative conservation efforts.

Trump’s order was inspired by the years-long efforts of 27-year-old Benji Backer, a “conservative environmentalist” who leads a group called “Nature Is Nonpartisan.”

“This issue needs to get out of the culture wars,” Backer told the Post. “People just are so divided over President Trump, right? But if he could do one thing that brings people together, and it’s protecting the environment, it would change the course of the issue forever.”

RELATED: Environmental activists ‘horrified’ by Trump administration’s announcement on greenhouse gas rules

Photo by Documerica via Unsplash/Getty Images

By returning “environmentalism” to its original purpose of protecting the air, land, and water, the Trump administration will open the doors for those targeted by the left as environmental villains, welcoming everyone — right, left, and center — to actively engage in real environmentalism.

Environmentalism without costing energy

Those who provide America and the world with our most affordable and reliable energy sources have long cared about preserving the environment. In particular, they have continually invested in new technologies that make traditional energy cleaner than ever.

For example, advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies used to extract natural gas have allowed the United States to lead all major industrialized countries in carbon reductions. Home heating oil burner emissions have been reduced to near-zero levels, while sulfur content has been reduced from 1% to about 0.5%. Moreover, rapidly evolving coal plant technology means that modern pollution controls reduce nitrogen oxides by 83%, sulfur dioxide by 98%, and particulate matter by 99.8%.

As Benji Backer says, it’s time to move environmentalism out of the realm of the culture wars. Americans across the political spectrum love the environment and understand the need to protect it. Led by the president’s “Make America Beautiful Again” commission, the day is here when we can once again declare in unison that we are all environmentalists.

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published at the Empowerment Alliance via RealClearWire.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Environmentalism, Environment, Conservation, Make america beautiful again 

Last month, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee silently complied with President Donald Trump’s February executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The committee amended its policies to define women’s sports categories on the basis of biological sex and directed its affiliate national governing bodies “to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment.”

This policy change is cause for celebration.

As it turns out, ‘the thing that never happens’ has happened tens of thousands of times.

For more than a decade, Concerned Women for America and a few partners have been sounding the alarm on the dangers of male participation in women’s sports. But even as the USOPC moves to protect women in its sports and spaces, CWA will not allow the women and girls who have lost medals, missed scholarships, and endured sexual harassment in locker rooms to be quickly forgotten.

On July 22, 2025 — the same day the press stumbled upon the USOPC’s hush-hush policy change — Concerned Women for America released groundbreaking research on male participation in women’s sports. Analyzing data compiled from an international women’s sports database, the study found that trans-identifying males have stolen over 1,941 gold medals from women and girls in the U.S., pushing each rightful champion down to second place.

That figure includes just gold medals — and with every gold, an entire podium of girls displaced.

CWA also found that:

Trans-identifying male athletes have stolen over $493,173 in prize money from women in professional sports.In California alone, over 521 women and girls have taken silver below a biological man.Trans-identifying males have competed in more than 10,067 female sports events, amateur and professional.The most frequent violations occurred in USA Track and Field events, USA Cycling races, NCAA events (in all sports), and Professional Disc Golf Association championships.

We have all seen the photos: hulking, muscular men with long hair, a touch of makeup, and victoriously lifted arms at the top of a podium with apprehensively grinning women dwarfed at second and third place to his right and left.

We have all heard the stories. Paula Scanlon was forced to change with a man in a women’s locker room. Payton McNabb suffered an almost-deadly concussion from a man’s volleyball spike, and Stephanie Turner was disqualified from a fencing championship for refusing to face a man.

Still, progressives call trans-identifying male participation in women’s sports a “non-issue.”

Just one day after the USOPC’s decision hit the press, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenburg reported, “The so-called ‘problem’ of transgender athletes dominating women’s sports is a ruse.” Rosenburg is wrong, and the left is wrong.

Numbers do not lie. Trans-identifying males do dominate in women’s sports.

RELATED: Aaron Rodgers drops truth bomb with Joe Rogan

Kirby Lee/Getty Images

The USOPC policy change will benefit the women and girls competing under its authority. But this change may not last. As soon as Democrats have the White House, President Trump’s executive order protecting women’s and girls’ sports is likely to be reversed, and the USOPC will be free to scrap its new policy.

Though the new policy is a huge step in the right direction for at least the next three years, women’s rights to safe sports should not waver with coming administration changes. Congress must pass the Protecting Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. This bill is a simple amendment to existing legislation that will stipulate that the USOPC and its affiliate NGBs cannot receive federal funds if males are permitted to compete in women’s categories.

The fight for women’s rights in sports is far from over.

Every woman and girl who lost a gold medal, podium placement, cash prize, record, or scholarship to a male must have restored her rightful honors and accolades, and every leaderboard must be changed to reflect biological reality and female accomplishments. CWA will continue to urge the NCAA and all independent and nonprofit NGBs to follow in the USOPC’s footsteps and reverse any discriminatory policies that allow males to participate in women’s sports.

As it turns out, “the thing that never happens” has happened tens of thousands of times. The USOPC has made a historic decision to protect female athletes, and the fix must be made permanent by law.

This issue is not a “ruse,” and tens of thousands of women can agree that not one more woman or girl should lose a hard-earned medal to a male.

​Women’s sports, Olypmics, Trans agenda, Lgbtq ideology, Trans ideology, Culture 

I descended into the cavernous belly of the New York City subway system last week and waited on the platform for the R train to come — an experience akin to waiting for the Virgin Mary to appear in a grotto: Maybe she will (inspiring us to rejoice), or maybe she won’t (a cause of great sorrow).

“D, R, and N trains are experiencing delays,” intoned the algorithmic voice of the MTA for the third time. Sweat trickled down my forehead and seeped into my shirt. The stench of garbage wafted through the air as rats weaved in and out of the tracks.

Modern technology had rendered the nave more suitable for meatpacking than meditation. Our Lady of Perpetual Help had become Our Lady of Perpetual Refrigeration.

Then the light of the train peeked through the tunnel. I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful for my imminent deliverance from the hell of the platform.

Shivering in eternal shade

A blast of arctic air greeted me as I stepped into the train car. The wet spots on my shirt began to freeze, sending me into a fit of shivers. I recalled that the ninth circle of Dante’s Inferno is not burning hot but rather freezing cold.

I was staving off hypothermia by the time I reached my stop. As I waded into the dank, putrid heat of the station, my intestines began doing tricks and turns. The frenetic shifts in temperature seemed to be causing my nervous system to short-circuit.

Finally I reached my destination: a pleasant cafe where I intended to get some writing done. A fresh bout of shivering shattered my focus; astonishingly, the temperature in the cafe was even lower than in the subway car.

Foul abuse the wretch poured out

No sooner did I take a sip of my latte than I was interrupted by another alert of sorts, one decidedly more intimate and urgent than the one about the R train. I obtained the bathroom code from the barista in the nick of time.

Once restored to gastrointestinal equilibrium, I remembered that I had a light jacket at the bottom of my bag, buried somewhere beneath my books, laptop, chargers, cigarettes, essential oils, and Benadryl. I retrieved it, wrapped it over my body, and began writing again.

But it was no use — the thin fabric offered little protection against the wintry chill. Reasoning that heatstroke was preferable to freezing to death, I decided to move to a table outside.

Plunged down from heaven’s height

It was still hot out when I made my way to evening Mass. Nonetheless, I naively hoped that a Christian spirit of moderation and poverty would prevail in the house of God. Perhaps some simple oscillating fans and a few open windows?

It was not to be. Modern technology had rendered the nave more suitable for meatpacking than meditation. Our Lady of Perpetual Help had become Our Lady of Perpetual Refrigeration.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the moderate use of technology to make the climate indoors more tolerable — especially for the elderly and those with fragile health. But this was overkill, an example of our tendency to blast air conditioning without regard to the needs of the people inhabiting the space — or whether the space has any inhabitants to begin with.

RELATED: Only the Lonely

O.W. Root

Arm your soul against all dread

The French writer Jean Baudrillard noted this tendency nearly 30 years ago. In his 1986 travelogue “America,” he finds himself both scandalized and seduced by the “mindless luxury” he encounters. “The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them.”

These days, I’m leaning toward “demented,” if not demonic. I hesitate to use the phrase “playing God,” but isn’t there something hubristic about our determination to eradicate all sensation of summer from our indoor spaces?

It is for this reason that I declare a crusade against air conditioning.

Note that I’m not advocating seizing the nearest CVS from the HVAC infidels and claiming it for piously perspiring Christendom. The battle we face is primarily within, against a certain spiritual malaise brought on by our relentless pursuit of comfort.

Consumerism compels us to create “needs” that don’t actually correspond with the good of our bodies and souls, needs that — in reality — often prove detrimental. The compulsion to maintain a certain ideal temperature at all times falls under this category.

To ascend into the shining world again

Baudrillard goes so far as to say that we seek nothing less than the “air-conditioning of life,” a state in which everything is processed, consumed, and “at last digested and turned into the same homogeneous faecal matter.” Cory Doctorow’s memorable term for this is “ens**ttification.” Perhaps that explains my volatile digestive system.

The late Pope Francis singled out our obsession with climate control in his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’.”

“People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity,” he notes, “but it has not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumption which, rather than decreasing, appear to be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning.”

It’s a shame that Pope Francis didn’t go farther in his condemnation of air conditioning, choosing instead to focus on vices like tobacco (the sale of which he banned in the Vatican) and the Tridentine Latin Mass.

I can only pray that God has delivered Francis from the extremes of both cold and heat our earthly bodies are subject to and into the kingdom where the thermostat never needs adjusting.

​Culture, Air conditioning, Pope francis 

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the chaos of day-to-day life and forget just how much has changed in recent years. But if we took a step back and considered what life was like just a couple of decades ago, we’d be mind blown at how different modern living looks today — especially as it relates to technology.

Back in 2024, Glenn Beck sat down for an extensive interview with Dr. Phil about the toxicity of our increasingly digital world. Given the expansion of artificial intelligence and social media algorithms in just the last year, their conversation is perhaps more relevant than ever.

“In 2002, the first text message hadn’t been sent. … We weren’t at all digital,” says Dr. Phil.

However, in the subsequent years, “We started to get much more into the internet, and then [2008-2009], it was like a bunch of C130s flew over and dropped smartphones on everybody,” he says, “and that’s when I saw as big a change in our society as has happened in my lifetime for sure — I think as big a change to mankind as has happened since the Industrial Revolution.”

Fast-forward to today, and the vast majority of people are “walking around with as much computing power in [their] hand as we had when we did the moonshot.”

This leap in technological progress has caused a lot of damage to the human soul. Glenn considers artificial intelligence’s projected growth over the next few years. “Man is not geared for that. I mean, we are animals and our instincts — everything — comes from millions of years of experience. We’re not ready for this,” he says.

“And it’s showing,” Dr. Phil agrees, “because if you look particularly at our young people who immerse themselves in this technology, we’re seeing the highest levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, [and] suicidality … since they started keeping records for that sort of thing.”

“Young people stopped living their lives and started watching people live their lives and comparing themselves to that, but the problem was they’re comparing themselves to fictional lives [of influencers],” he explains, recalling times he’s had influencers on his show who have admitted that their lavish lives on social media are a far cry from reality.

These phony content creators are setting unrealistic expectations for the younger generations, who buy into the lie that life is fun and easy and then find themselves depressed when their life doesn’t measure up.

Compounding the issue is the tragic reality that most people walk around looking downward at their phones instead of up where real life is happening. When the iPhone first came out, Glenn immediately noticed this shift in behavior and warned that these smart devices were a dangerous “experiment on humankind.”

We now know from recent studies that he was right – smartphones are indeed rewiring the brain and harming the human psyche in ways we don’t fully understand yet.

Even more disturbing is the fact that those who are developing the algorithms that dictate the content we see should not be trusted. Dr. Phil points to a study conducted on a 13-year-old girl that proved that an algorithm is just a “money grab,” designed to get people “emotionally invested,” usually to their detriment.

“We’ve seen the information that the girls get anxious, they get depressed, their self-worth goes down. It hurts them to see [curated content],” he says, but “[social media companies] don’t care … so they continue to feed them upsetting content because they click more and get more ad exposure.”

“They’re victimizing your child consciously,” he warns.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the full interview 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 podcast, Glenn beck, Dr. phil, Digital age, Smartphones, Social media, Gen z, Influencer culture, Influencers, Algorithms, Social media algorithms, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Several U.S. military recruiting offices are communicating through a Chinese Communist Party-monitored messaging application as they seek to target Chinese nationals interested in enlisting, fueling concerns about potential national security risks.

CCP’s grip on recruiting

After looking into a Department of Justice affidavit filed in June, Blaze News has discovered that some recruiters have been using WeChat. The court document claimed that the U.S. Navy Recruiting Station Alhambra in San Gabriel, California, had a bulletin board displaying recent recruits, the majority of whom identified their “hometown” as “China.”

‘China is our nation’s greatest hegemonic adversary.’

The DOJ’s criminal complaint was filed against two Chinese nationals who have been accused of taking photographs of the bulletin board and sending them to an officer with the CCP’s Ministry of State Security.

The foreign adversary hometown designations spark serious concerns that individuals with divided loyalties and even potential CCP operatives have infiltrated the U.S. military.

While U.S. citizenship is required for officer and security clearance positions, noncitizens who are lawful permanent residents can enlist in the military. LPRs are generally eligible to naturalize after five years of continuous U.S. residence, and service members may qualify for expedited naturalization.

As of February 2024, roughly 40,000 foreign nationals were serving in the U.S. military. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ reporting, China ranks among the top 10 countries of birth for U.S. service members who have become naturalized citizens through the military. Just over 2,000 Chinese nationals were approved for military naturalizations from fiscal years 2020 through 2024.

RELATED: Patel’s FBI arrests alleged Chinese spies targeting US Navy

Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

Experts sound alarm

Dr. Lawrence Sellin, a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel and biological and chemical warfare defense expert, told Blaze News, “Infiltration of the U.S. military is a major goal of the Chinese Communist Party.”

“It is accomplished via Chinese immigrants to the United States who become permanent residents or U.S. citizens but remain loyal to the CCP, either directly by the Chinese immigrants themselves or their pro-CCP children,” he explained. “In fact, pro-CCP Chinese-American organizations are promoting such recruitment, facilitating CCP infiltration of the U.S. military.”

Gordon Chang, a Gatestone Institute senior fellow, similarly warned that China has “weaponized its nationals.”

He said in a comment to Blaze News, “China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires Chinese nationals and entities to spy if relevant authorities make demands.”

“Moreover, in the Communist Party’s top-down system, no person can disobey an order from the Party. Additionally, the regime coerces all ethnic Chinese, regardless of nationality, to do its bidding by threatening harm to loved ones and relatives in China,” Chang stated. “Therefore, ethnic Chinese pose a special risk of espionage and sabotage to the U.S. military. Except under special circumstances, the U.S. military should not accept recruits who are Chinese nationals.”

Lily Tang Williams, a Republican congressional candidate in New Hampshire and a survivor of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, also argued against allowing foreign nationals from adversarial countries, including China, to enlist in the U.S. military.

Tang Williams told Blaze News, “China is our nation’s greatest hegemonic adversary. They have made it very clear that they are seeking to usurp the United States’ position in the world by taking advantage of our open society and using their nationals and businesses to spread their influence, doing military and economic espionage. The ‘China Dream’ is Xi Jinping’s ‘Soft Power Invasion’ slogan to enable China overtaking the U.S. as the dominant number one global power by 2049.”

More evidence of CCP reach

The troubling information that emerged from the DOJ affidavit led to further concerning revelations.

Journalist Jennifer Zeng uncovered another alarming detail about the Navy recruiting office in San Gabriel. She discovered that a suspected Chinese influencer had filmed a tour of the facility, which was later posted online as an apparent advertisement aimed at Chinese nationals.

The original video, posted to YouTube with nearly 25,000 views, is entirely in Chinese. The video shooter, “Rocky,” joins EN2 Qlang Wang on his commute to work. He then interviews several suspected Chinese nationals as they go through the recruiting process at the office.

One recruit tells Rocky that he is 37 years old, has been residing in the U.S. for six years, and that he wants to join the Navy because it is “a chance for new opportunities [and] life experience,” according to Zeng’s translation of the video. Two additional recruits similarly attribute their decision to join the U.S. military to its opportunities.

The recruitment video concludes by listing WeChat as the first way to contact Zhong Yang, a presumed recruiter at the office. Initially, the video’s YouTube description also highlighted WeChat as the main contact option, but that information was later removed, according to Zeng.

A Navy spokesperson confirmed to Blaze News that Wang and Yang are in the Navy, though declined to comment further.

‘Given that the CCP views the US as its No. 1 enemy and has actively infiltrated and spied on the US military, it’s hard to believe that the US Navy would tolerate such a massive national security risk.’

Zeng wrote in a post on X, “EVERY recruiter here is Chinese, as well as all the people coming to enlist. The working language here is also Chinese.”

Following her discovery of the Chinese-language tour video, Zeng posted her own videos from outside the U.S. Navy Recruiting Alhambra office and the neighboring Marine Corps Recruiting Station that showed bulletins taped to the windows.

The flyers were written in Chinese, featuring the U.S. Marine Corps seal, contact information for “Sgt Liu,” and a QR code linking to Liu’s WeChat.

“Joining the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve does not force you to become a citizen; you can maintain your permanent green card status,” one of the flyers read, according to Zeng’s translation. “Fast track to citizenship is also an option.”

Image Source: Jennifer Zeng

A spokesperson with the Marine Corps told Blaze News that the flyers had been removed.

“In December 2024, materials featuring a QR code linking to a personal WeChat account were displayed at a Marine Corps facility in San Gabriel, California. WeChat is not an authorized platform for official use, and the materials were promptly removed following review,” the spokesperson stated.

When asked about the screening processes for U.S. citizens versus green card holders, particularly those from adversarial nations, the Marines said, “All applicants, whether naturalized or birthright U.S. citizens, undergo the same screening process. Additional vetting is conducted for individuals with ties to countries designated as potential security concerns.”

RELATED: University of Michigan now under fire after Chinese scholars allegedly smuggle bio-weapon

Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

Zeng told Blaze News that she was “truly shocked” that military recruiters were using WeChat for recruiting purposes.

“Virtually all Chinese dissidents — and many ordinary Chinese people — know that WeChat is 100% owned and monitored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). There are numerous documented cases of the CCP using WeChat to surveil and persecute Chinese citizens,” Zeng said.

“Given that the CCP views the U.S. as its No. 1 enemy and has actively infiltrated and spied on the U.S. military, it’s hard to believe that the U.S. Navy would tolerate such a massive national security risk,” she continued. “I sincerely hope the growing number of cases involving CCP agents stealing U.S. military secrets will serve as a wake-up call — and that the U.S. military and Navy will address this issue urgently.”

Zeng explained that after she posted her findings on social media, some of her followers informed her that another recruiting office in New York was similarly advertising with flyers written in Chinese.

Blaze News confirmed those claims.

A U.S. Army Recruiting Office in Flushing, New York, advertised reaching out via WeChat to contact the office’s recruiter in two posts on Google Maps.

Additionally, another U.S. Army Recruiting Office in Rowland Heights, California, similarly posted on Google Maps in Chinese, listing the recruiter’s contact information, including a WeChat account.

USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser told Blaze News, “USCIS’s first priority is rooting out malicious actors who seek to take advantage of our lawful immigration system, whether for their own enrichment or to attack and undermine our nation. Our agency was born out of the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, and every American counts on us to detect and stop threats to our country. Individuals from high-risk countries, or countries with known anti-American governments, may face enhanced measures to protect American interests.”

“USCIS screens all applicants for immigration benefits — regardless of military status. USCIS maintains the integrity in the U.S. immigration system through enhanced screening and vetting to deter, detect, and disrupt immigration fraud and threats to our national security and public safety,” Tragesser added.

When reached for comment, the White House directed Blaze News to the Department of Defense, stating that the department was looking into the allegations regarding WeChat. The DOD, in turn, referred the matter to the individual branches involved. Neither the U.S. Army nor any of the recruiters listed in the advertisements responded to a request for comment.

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​News, China, Chinese communist party, Ccp, U.s. military, U.s. army, U.s. navy, U.s. marines, Army, Navy, Marines, Chinese nationals, Ministry of state security, Department of justice, Doj, Lawful permanent residents, U.s. citizens, Foreign nationals, Lawrence sellin, Gordon chang, Lily tang williams, Jennifer zeng, Marine corps, New york, California, Politics 

Earlier this year, Millsap Independent School District in Parker County, Texas, faced a federal lawsuit after allegations surfaced that two staff members — special education teacher Jennifer Dale and paraprofessional Paxton Bean — abused special needs students. The pair have been charged with official oppression; Bean was also hit with an additional felony charge of injury to a child. Millsap ISD Superintendent Mari “Edie” Martin was charged with failure to report and intent to conceal the abuse allegations.

The lawsuit alleges that Dale and Bean physically abused special needs students, particularly a 10-year-old nonverbal autistic boy named Alex Cornelius. Video evidence shows Dale striking at Alex and Bean throwing an object at him, with additional claims of verbal and psychological abuse.

Martin is accused of attempting to cover up the abuse by failing to report it to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services or local law enforcement, as required by law. Martin also reportedly instructed a witness to destroy evidence.

Dale, Bean, and Martin were arrested, indicted, and fired from Millsap ISD. Three other educators, Jami Riggs, Jeannie Bottorff, and Shannon Krause, were also indicted on misdemeanor charges for failure to report child abuse by a professional.

When Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host of “Come and Take It,” heard the story, all she could think was, “If this had happened to my kid, I would be in jail right now.”

Sara plays the video footage taken by a whistleblower in the classroom that led to the lawsuit. “You’re going to want to take your blood pressure medication for this one,” she warns.

In the video, Dale can be seen aggressively taking a swing at Alex. Seconds later, Alex walks over to Bean, who repeatedly hits him with a toy before throwing it at him.

Further, according to the witness who took the damning footage, Dale and Bean “committed mental and verbal abuse against special needs elementary students, which included taunting, mocking, threats, profanity, and extensive timeouts.”

According to the probable cause affidavit, Dale and Bean are accused of “locking children in unlit closets for extended periods of time, where they screamed for help and pleaded to be released; assaulting children with their hands and objects and using other forceful measures; and verbal assaults calling the children names, mocking their disabilities, and commenting about their genitals.”

“In one documented incident, one plaintiff’s child accused Bean of punching him in the face while confining him in a calm-down room, which resulted in the boy being taken to the school nurse with a ‘gushing nosebleed,”’ Sara reads.

But it gets worse.

“This story … it’s like an onion,” says Sara. “The more layers that you peel away from it, it’s like the grosser that it gets.”

For example, the witness took the video evidence straight to the superintendent because the elementary principal of the school where the abuse was taking place, Roxie Carter, happened to be Paxton Bean’s mother. Carter even wrote her daughter a letter of recommendation to help her get another teaching job while the investigation was still pending.

When Superintendent Martin received the evidence, however, she tried to “intimidate the whistleblower into deleting the video,” says Sara.

Recorded audio captures Martin saying, “I would like us to take them off your phone. Those are educational records, and I now have them and our investigator now has them, and they’re put in a safe file, but I don’t want you to walk off with those because those are educational records, OK? So we need to delete them from your phone. … If you keep them on your phone, your phone likely will be sanctioned for an investigation.”

“Any sort of big, bloated government bureaucracy with way too much money gets corrupted. There are no exceptions. Public school is not an exception,” says Sara, “and that is why you are left with superintendents who want to cover for the teachers rather than actually hold them accountable.”

To hear more of Sara’s commentary and more wild details about the scandal, watch the episode above.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Come and take it, Texas, Sara gonzales, Blazetv, Blaze media, Abuse, Public education, Millsap independent school district, Special needs kids 

In typical fashion, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals completely misread the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and the congressional speeches of its principal framers in a July 27 decision, State of Washington, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al.

This ideologically motivated opinion was written by a three-judge panel composed of two Clinton appointees and a Trump appointee who registered a “partial concurrence and a partial dissent.” Overall, however, it was an embarrassment to the canons of legal reasoning and historical truth. It surely will be overruled by the Supreme Court — hopefully on an expedited basis.

The principal drafters, architects, and supporters of the 14th Amendment understood the meaning of ‘jurisdiction’ in terms of ‘allegiance.’

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump acted expeditiously to fulfill a campaign promise by issuing an executive order redefining who is “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”

I believe Trump is to be applauded for bringing the question of birthright citizenship to the attention of the public and provoking debate on this crucial issue. I have questions, however, as to whether an executive order in isolation is the most constitutional way of raising the question.

Constitutional end, questionable means

Congress clearly has power under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment “to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” One provision is that “no State shall make or enforce any law which abridges the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” This has been controversial because the language of the amendment is couched in negative terms.

The question of how a negative is to be enforced by positive legislation has always been an enigma. Congress passed a sweeping Civil Rights Act in 1875, which, in part, foundered on this issue along with the issue of “state action.”

In the 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases, Congress’ power to enact regulatory legislation under the Privileges and Immunities and Equal Protection Clauses was thoroughly hobbled. No serious attempt to revise civil rights protection was made again until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The judges in the Ninth Circuit decision, citing contemporary dictionary definitions of “jurisdiction” from the time of the 14th Amendment’s passage, find that the “ordinary meaning of jurisdiction” is simply “‘the authority of government; the sway of a sovereign power.’” They easily conclude that this is “consistent with Plaintiffs’ interpretation of ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ as subject to the laws and authority of the United States.” To drive this point home, the opinion alleges:

Defendants point to no contrary dictionary definitions that define jurisdiction in terms of allegiance and protection. Indeed, they make no arguments about the ordinary meaning of the Citizenship Clause at all. Defendants’ only argument based on the text of the Citizenship Clause is that “subject to the jurisdiction” cannot simply refer to “regulatory jurisdiction,” because that definition would render the Citizenship Clause’s requirement of jurisdiction surplusage. They claim that the United States has “exclusive and absolute” regulatory jurisdiction within its territory, so that all children born in the United States are subject to its jurisdiction.

It is entirely true that defendants do not prove their point about “jurisdiction in terms of allegiance” by recourse to contemporary dictionaries. Rather, they have recourse to the statements and arguments made during floor debates in the 39th Congress. The principal drafters, architects, and supporters of the 14th Amendment understood the meaning of “jurisdiction” in terms of “allegiance.”

The authors’ intent

Senator Jacob Howard (R-Mich.), a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, was the floor leader for the debate on the Citizenship Clause. It was a late addition to the amendment, proposed by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio (R-Ohio), which initially stated that citizens are “persons born in the United States or naturalized by the laws thereof.” Wade added that he believed the matter of citizenship had been settled by the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Wade’s proposal was referred to the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, and Senator Howard presented the committee’s draft, which became the first sentence of the 14th Amendment. The significant addition to Wade’s proposal was the clause that specifies its subject as those “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. Evidently, Senator Howard and the Joint Committee placed some importance on the addition of this jurisdiction clause.

This meant, at a minimum, that not all persons born in the U.S. were automatically citizens; they also had to be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. When he introduced the bill, Senator Howard said he regarded the Citizenship Clause as declaratory of the law as it already existed. He was clearly referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed over the veto of President Andrew Johnson by a two-thirds majority in both houses less than two months prior to the May 30, 1866, debate in the Senate.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 established the citizenship of newly freed slaves and the protection of their rights and liberties on the exact same basis as those of white citizens. This included the right to own, rent, inherit, and convey property; make contracts; the right to keep and bear arms; and all other rights and liberties pursuant to full citizenship. In short, this was a color-blind law.

Some believed the Civil Rights Act was unnecessary, arguing that the 13th Amendment had already accomplished the intended purpose. Others believed that the amendment guaranteed only manumission, so that security of citizenship and rights should be recognized in legislation as a social compact. Still others, however, feared that such legislation could be repealed by future majorities. This concern became the impetus for the 14th Amendment to “constitutionalize” the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and principal architect of the 13th Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, joined Senator Howard, agreeing that the “law of the land” in the U.S. meant that “subject to the jurisdiction” connoted “complete jurisdiction,” not “owing allegiance to anyone else” — the very definition of citizenship in the Civil Rights Act.

Redefining citizenship

The Ninth Circuit Court refers to the leading case on the issue of citizenship, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, decided in 1898. Based on this ruling, the Ninth Circuit argues, “Supreme Court precedent makes clear that reading ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ to mean ‘subject to United States authority and laws’ is not redundant.”

As proof, the Ninth Circuit Court, like the Wong Kim Ark court, cites an opinion by Chief Justice Marshall, Murray v. The Charming Betsy (1804). Justice Horace Gray, in his opinion for the court in Wong Kim Ark, alleges that Marshall’s opinion “assumed … that all persons born in the United States were citizens of the States.”

Justice Gray reports that the chief justice held that position, but it is nowhere stated in the opinion. The Charming Betsy was a complicated case, touching on various questions regarding whether a person can divest himself of American citizenship by swearing allegiance to one or more countries. In deciding the case, Chief Justice Marshall said:

Whether a person born within the United States, or becoming a citizen according to the established laws of the country can divest himself absolutely of the character otherwise than in such manner as may be prescribed by is a question which it is not necessary at present to decide. In other words, it was not necessary to decide the question of citizenship to determine the outcome of the case.

The Ninth Circuit also discusses the Supreme Court’s decision in Elk v. Wilkins (1884). In this case, the Supreme Court gives a social compact account of the status of native persons in the U.S. that could have been written by James Madison himself. The Ninth Circuit Court seems unaware that the opinion was written by Justice Gray (he does not admit he is the author in the opinion).

However, the opinion in Elk cannot be squared with the Wong Kim Ark opinion, and it remains a mystery why Justice Gray changed his mind on this important issue of the common-law basis of American citizenship.

RELATED: How the Supreme Court can shut off the left’s migrant-to-school pipeline

Photo by Win McNamee / Staff via Getty Images

The Ninth Circuit closes its opinion by arguing that “post-ratification public understanding of the 14th Amendment supports the Plaintiffs’ interpretation of the Citizenship Clause.” That understanding was that jurisdiction was equated with being subject to the laws of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln didn’t live to see the ratification of the 14th Amendment, but it is difficult not to see his spirit embedded in its first section. Lincoln said presciently in his First Inaugural Address that the “intention of the law-giver is the law.” This is a perfectly Aristotelian statement and undoubtedly understood by Lincoln as such.

Nothing can be more obvious, even to the most unpracticed eye, than that the intentions of the framers, architects, supporters, and friends of the 14th Amendment were that “jurisdiction meant, owing complete allegiance to the U.S. and to no other foreign jurisdiction.”

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published by the American Mind.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, 14th amendment, 14th amendment section 3, 14th amendment trump, Birthright citizenship, Constitution 

Washington, D.C., is home to some of the most important political activity in the world, but it is also allegedly home to a budding society of wannabe mermaids.

The mermaid community in D.C., Maryland, and the surrounding area has become a popular place for liberals to “escape” reality and get in touch with their “inner child.”

Unfortunately for the population at large, this means that at least some of the mermaid hopefuls actually work for the federal government.

‘To escape into something magical, anything as far from this reality as you can, feels really nice.’

A recent report from the Washington Post shined light on this community, with many of its members indicating they are looking to escape the “pressure-cooker environment” of D.C.

“Living here is fast; everything is fast. There’s traffic. There’s so many people, and it feels so suffocating sometimes,” Maryland resident Montara Hewgill told the Washington Post. “But, to escape into something magical, anything as far from this reality as you can, feels really nice, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.”

The Metro MerFolk group, a Facebook community with nearly 1,000 followers, consists of “dancers, swimmers, government workers, military spouses, and parents” seeking an escape from their actual lives.

“It was just creating space for people to have fun,” said Colleen McCartney, the group’s founder. McCartney calls herself the Celtic Siren and says the costume group includes women, men, and nonbinary people.

“There’s also a lot of people who needed a place to feel accepted, whether they were neurodivergent or they were the alphabet mafia, the LGBTQIA — finding a place that you can let your guard down and actually get in touch with your inner child and play. That’s not a space that exists very often,” McCartney said.

Groups like this gathering are just the tip of the spear, as D.C. also hosts its own annual convention where hundreds of mermaids, mermen, and others who wish to dress in sexually provocative underwater costumes gather to swim in a large pool.

RELATED: Trump is ‘serious’: NFL star refers to his team as the ‘Redskins’ as pressure mounts to change name

Admittedly, the mermaid group members are in higher income brackets, according to the Post, describing them as “residents with enough disposable income to spend on tails that can cost several thousand dollars.”

These expensive pieces are shown off at annual events like D.C.’s MerMagic Con, which boasts group swimming sessions and speaker panels with a cast of extremely colorful characters. For 2025, this includes MerBeast Irie, Opal Whiptail, and Mermaid Chè Monique, founder of the Society of Fat Mermaids.

MerMagic Con also boasts strict anti-harassment policies, which organizers warn that if breached, can result in arrest.

The policy notes that “gender identity” and “gender presentation” must be respected, while any attendee can report harassment if they feel uncomfortable at any time.

“Keep your hands and opinions to yourself,” the website reads.

The event also explains in its terms of participation that any attendee can force others to show their event pass, because “we are all equals.”

“At MerMagic Con we are all mermaids. Please check your ego at the door.”

RELATED: DC police commander under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime stats

A woman poses in a mermaid costume following the 43rd Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, June 2025, in New York City. Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images

Rebeka Zeljko, Capitol Hill reporter for Blaze News, says that while she is vaguely aware of these communities, she has not witnessed them for herself. At the same time, she finds them disturbing.

“A lot people have an obsession with making normal adult activities as interesting or as ‘fun’ as possible. It reminds me of adults who reject traditional family values and, as a consequence, are devoid of purpose and meaning in their life,” Zeljko stated.

She added, “A legitimate portion of adults, especially with liberal or untraditional values, refuse to bear common responsibilities that come with adulthood.”

When asked if she would consider joining one of the cosplay groups to escape the stress of the D.C. environment, Zeljko replied, “I just exercise like a normal person.”

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​Entertainment, Align, Mermaid, Mental health, Health, D.c., Capitol hill, Liberals, Self care, Democrats, Lifestyle 

A female police officer in Texas is under investigation for posting on TikTok a video — which went viral — containing a suggestive joke.

The Precinct 5 constable deputy joked in the video that she was handing out traffic tickets because she hadn’t engaged in sexual activity the previous night.

‘It’s very unprofessional. You shouldn’t be doing things like that.’

Although the officer blurred out some of her uniform, she didn’t blur out her name, allowing people to find out that she worked for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

A recording of the deleted video was included in a report from KRIV-TV and showed the officer writing up tickets with the caption reading, “Din’t get cracked last night so everyone is getting a ticket.”

The phrase “cracked” is a slang term among young people for having sex. The “cracked” meme is popular on TikTok.

“Got cracked this morning so everyone getting extra fries with there [sic] order,” reads one example from a Reddit discussion about the meme.

The video shows that the officer had garnered more than 3,500 followers on TikTok and 194K likes.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office released a brief statement only confirming the investigation.

“Our administration is aware and internal affairs has opened an investigation,” the statement reads. “We have no other comment at this time.”

RELATED: Transgender worker fired from Starbucks after viral altercation with customer over misgendering accusation

Residents of the area told KRIV they were disappointed in the behavior of the officer and called it unprofessional.

“It’s very unprofessional,” one resident said. “You shouldn’t be doing things like that. When you’re a professional, you carry yourself a certain way. What you do outside of work is cool, but I don’t think she should’ve done that.”

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​Cop viral video, Got cracked meme tiktok, Fired over tiktok video, Fired over viral video, Politics 

Steve Hines is the author of “Salt, Light & Kids: Parenting Well in Today’s Culture” and a longtime friend of Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of “Strange Encounters” — a podcast centered around spiritual warfare.

On the latest episode, Steve joined Rick to share stories from the period of his life when God gave him a daunting assignment: casting out demons.

Steve grew up in “a church that was more law-driven than spirit-driven,” but in his mid-30s, he started seeking the Holy Spirit, asking questions such as, “How does the Holy Spirit affect my life? What are the gifts of the Spirit? What are the fruit of the spirit? And how does this all manifest itself?”

He embarked on this journey alongside a few of his good friends who were asking the same questions and experiencing the same desire for depth in their faith.

“So we started getting together roughly once a week, and we would just praise and pray and worship and talk and no agendas, but it was just a transformational period in my life and the life of these friends of mine as well,” he tells Rick, noting that these gatherings took place for about four years.

One night during this period of meeting with his friends, Steve experienced “an overwhelming prompting from the Spirit to pray for God to reveal His will in a dream.” That night he “went right to sleep and all of a sudden was in the middle of a dream that was surreal in that it was so real it didn’t feel like it was a dream.”

“In the dream, I was casting out demons out of people,” he says.

A few weeks later, the dream became reality. Steve’s group had begun inviting other people interested in seeking depth with God to join their meetings. One night, a newcomer became “physically agitated” during worship.

“All of a sudden, he started making sounds that were not of himself and his eyes were not of himself,” says Steve, who knew immediately that this was what the dream was preparing him for.

The group understood that they were in the presence of a demon but “didn’t know what to do.”

“We started laying hands on him and praying over him and anointing him with oil, and as this went over half an hour, it got more and more physical, more and more violent,” says Steve. “We ended up actually having to restrain him physically because it was getting so violent.”

“We kept praying and invoking the name of Jesus over him … and after a while, as it got more and more intense, all of a sudden, he just went limp,” he says.

“We knew what had happened: A demon had been present, and we cast it out through the power of the Lord.”

But the group’s experience casting out demons was just beginning. As they continued to invite more people to join their group, the same experience occurred again and again with different newcomers.

“It was always so consistent,” says Steve. In each case, the afflicted person “would have been fighting us if we hadn’t been restraining them, and the language would change and it would be kind of guttural … and the eyes were always really crazy because you could just tell that it was not them looking at us.”

When under demonic influence, their physical strength would become remarkable. “It would require three or four of us to bear-hug them or sometimes hold them down on the ground,” says Steve, adding that the language they used was “the foulest language you could ever imagine.”

He compares the experience to the Christian horror film “Nefarious,” which was co-written by BlazeTV host Steve Deace, based on his 2020 book, “A Nefarious Plot.”

“The actor who portrayed the guy that was possessed by a demon was exactly like what we experienced,” he tells Rick.

After it became clear to the group that casting out demons was an “assignment” they’d been given from God, they began inviting people who they suspected might be experiencing demonic oppression or possession.

From a freakishly strong man with an OxyContin addiction who left “blood on the floor” to a sex addict who had “laughter coming out from inside [his] body,” Steve has experienced things most of us couldn’t imagine.

To hear his story, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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

​Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Demonic oppression, Demonic posession, Demons, Angels, Spiritual warfare, Steve hines, Blazetv, Blaze media, Exorcism 

The electric vehicle bubble has burst. Consumers have emphatically rejected EVs as nothing more than a niche car with limited range, minimal utility, terrible resale value, and time-consuming charging hassles.

This consumer rejection began long before President Donald Trump returned to the White House and started repealing Biden-era regulations that essentially instituted a de facto EV mandate. In addition to these critical repeals, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act just eliminated the $7,500 per unit federal tax credit on each new EV sold in the U.S. effective September 30, 2025.

It’s long overdue for the General Motors’ board to put the EV distraction behind them. If Mary Barra won’t do it, then they need to find a CEO who will.

Other than Tesla, auto manufacturers have been hemorrhaging red ink on their EV ventures — and that was when they could pad the sale of each unit with $7,500 in federal incentives. Legacy automakers have been taking a financial bath on their EV programs. Many are starting to back away from their electric ambitions and pivot back to gasoline-powered vehicles that consumers actually want to buy, including hybrids.

For some manufacturers, however, it may be too late.

GM’s electric obsession

Blaze Media contributor Lauren Fix recently warned on her “Car Coach Reports” podcast that auto manufacturers might not survive the failed “EV transition.”

Yet amidst the carnage of the EV collapse, the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, remains unyielding in her commitment to an all-electric future. Sadly, unless GM’s board steps in soon, she may be dragging the entire company over a cliff.

It’s fair to ask at this point, “Who is Barra working for?” She clearly isn’t serving GM’s customers, dealers, or shareholders. Drivers aren’t buying EVs. Dealers can’t sell them. And the EV distraction is dragging down the stock price.

During the Biden administration, Barra pledged to completely purge the GM lineup of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. That’s a direct slap in the face to the company’s loyal customer base — especially truck buyers — who overwhelmingly prefer gas engines.

Now that Donald Trump is back in the White House, the Biden-era regulatory hammer that pushed automakers like GM toward EVs is gone. What, then, is motivating Barra to remain steadfast in her EV commitment?

As recently as late May — four months into Trump’s second term — Barra told the Wall Street Journal, “We still believe in an all-EV future. I think EVs are fundamentally better.” She added, “So I see a path to all EV. It will depend on how much we get the infrastructure ready. But I do believe we’ll get there because I think the vehicles are better.”

Unfortunately, outside of their niche as a daily commuter car for those with a charger at home, EVs have barely any utility at all. They are not “better” in any respect than a multi-purpose, gasoline-powered vehicle that can drive anywhere, at any time, for any distance — without charging hassles.

Most consumers know that. GM’s dealers definitely know that.

So, how does GM still have a CEO who doesn’t?

On “Car Coach Reports,” Lauren Fix speculated that Barra’s public EV commitment may not reflect GM’s actual intentions. Maybe she’s just covering for a busted product pipeline — trying to save face while GM begins its years-long pivot toward hybrids behind the scenes. If that’s true, the best-case scenario is that the CEO is lying to shareholders and dealers — it’s a very bad look.

Whether or not Barra is being honest about her intentions for an all-EV future, GM’s website still has a “sustainability” tab which reads, “We aim to achieve an all-electric, zero emissions world while advancing an equitable and inclusive transition to our carbon-neutral future.”

It might as well read: “We’d rather drive off a cliff in the name of a net-zero future than keep building the profitable cars and trucks Americans actually want.”

Investors call Barra’s bluff

Wall Street is finally taking notice — as well it should. When EV hype peaked in June 2021, GM stock was trading around $63 per share at its height. Today, it’s down 15%.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up 50% since June 2021. Put another way: $1,000 in GM stock back then is now worth $850. That same $1,000 in the S&P 500 would be worth $1,500. That’s a 75% gap — and GM investors are the losers.

During a recent earnings call to discuss Q2 2025 results, a Morgan Stanley analyst finally confronted Barra about the elephant in the room: “How does GM expect to be profitable with EVs when players like Tesla apparently cannot?”

RELATED: Car dealers stuck with unsellable EVs have nobody to blame but themselves

Photo by UCG / Contributor via Getty Images

Tesla is facing stiff headwinds with a 13% drop in sales and a 16% drop in profits for Q2. Even with the tax credits still in place, Tesla’s per-unit profit is only around $3,000. But those tax credits are about to vanish with the impending elimination of the $7,500 per unit federal tax credit. Moreover, Tesla is also about to lose another revenue stream: regulatory credits, worth about $1,500 per vehicle, paid to Tesla by non-EV manufacturers to meet emissions rules.

In summary, Tesla will be losing up to $9,000 per unit in revenue sources against a profit of $3,000 per unit — an unsustainable path for a sustainable car company. If Tesla can’t make it work, what chance does GM have?

The imminent EV reckoning

Barra had no real answer. Just vague talk about “manufacturing optimization.” She won’t admit to the writing on the wall — that General Motors has no path to profitability selling electric vehicles.

It’s long overdue for the General Motors’ board to put the EV distraction behind them. If Mary Barra won’t do it, then they need to find a CEO who will.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Ev, Evs, Electric vehicles, Ev tax credits, One big beautiful bill 

Vice President JD Vance mocked Democrats over the debacle related to the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad and explained how it revealed the party’s weaknesses.

Some on the left have accused American Eagle of putting out “Nazi propaganda” in the form of the provocative jeans ad. Defenders of Sweeney’s jeans have responded with ridicule against the more hysterical accusations from the left.

‘They’re trying to sell jeans to kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing, and it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?’

On Friday, the vice president laughed at the buffoonery from the left at a time when the party is trying desperately to persuade males to jump on their campaign.

“My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance said on the “Ruthless” podcast.

“That appears to be their actual strategy. It actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though, which is that you have a normal, all-American beautiful girl doing a normal jeans ad,” he added. “They’re trying to sell jeans to kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing, and it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?”

American Eagle finally weighed in on the controversy Friday and released a very brief and defiant statement defending the ad.

RELATED: Sydney Sweeney’s provocative ad for jeans leads to complete liberal meltdown: ‘That’s Nazi propaganda!’

“Like, I actually thought one of the lessons [Democrats] might take is they’re gonna be less crazy,” the vice president continued.

“The lesson apparently taken is, ‘We’re gonna attack people as Nazis for thinking that Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.’ Great strategy, guys, that’s how you’re gonna win the midterms,” he joked. “Especially young, American men.”

The devastating election loss for Democrats can be blamed in part on a shift in support from male voters who rejected the Democratic Party, leading many on the left to seek new strategies to bring males back onto their side of the political aisle.

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Either Dunkin’ Donuts is using the same ad agency as American Eagle, or shoving leftist ideology into every commercial has finally come to a long-awaited end.

The coffee giant has come under fire and sparked another debate — right after the internet was up in arms over Sydney Sweeney’s “genes” ad — over promoting certain “genetics” with its ad featuring “The Summer I Turned Pretty” star Gavin Casalegno.

In the ad, Casalegno sits by the pool while explaining his tan — ensuring viewers know that it’s natural.

“Look, I didn’t ask to be the king of summer. It just happened,” he says. “This tan? Genetics. I just got my color analysis back. Guess what? Golden summer, literally.”

“I can’t help it. Every time I drink a Dunkin’ Golden Hour Refresher, it’s like the sun just finds me,” he says. “So if sipping these refreshers makes me the king of summer? Guilty as charged.”

Of course, the left is furious, accusing Dunkin’ Donuts of white supremacist messaging.

“So, now because they said the word ‘genetics’ in that ad, is that also Nazi propaganda?” BlazeTV host Pat Gray asks, annoyed.

“Look, I love the culture shift back to just normal American fun,” executive producer Keith Malinak agrees. “No more of this woke crap, please.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sharing, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Video phone, Free, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

Cincinnati officials on Friday said six people are now charged in connection with the mob attack that took place in the city’s downtown area last weekend — and the mayor said a man seen on video issuing a “slap” prior to the beatdown is being “actively investigated.”

Earlier this week, police said five people had been charged in connection with the mob attack, and three of them have been arrested to date. With the new development that six people have been charged, that leaves three people who have yet to be taken into custody.

‘The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified.’

According to video of Friday’s news conference, after a reporter asked if a charge is coming to the man who issued the “slap” prior to the mob attack, Mayor Aftab Pureval said that man is being “actively investigated.”

“We take all violence very seriously,” Pureval said, adding that “we expect more charges and more arrests.”

The mayor also said during the news conference that he “profoundly disagrees” with city council member Victoria Parks, who infamously declared in a Facebook comment that the victims of the mob attack “begged for that beat down!“

In addition, Police Chief Teresa Theetge said at the news conference that next week she may be releasing “additional footage … that tells a little bit more of the story” surrounding the mob attack.

RELATED: US senator shares grisly photos of woman’s bruised, battered face after Cincinnati mob attack

You can view cellphone videos of the mob attack here, here, here, here, and here.

The final two videos appear to show a man dressed in a white shirt and black pants — who would soon be beaten up by the mob — making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts, who soon would take part in the mob attack.

However, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock on Monday stated on “Jason Whitlock Harmony” that he’s heard the argument that the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — a white man — “started it” by making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — a black man — and that was justification for the mob attack.

But Whitlock wasn’t having it.

“That’s ridiculous to me,” Whitlock said. “The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified.”

RELATED: ‘Despicable human being!!’ Cincinnati official triggers venomous reactions to her comment about mob attack victims

BlazeTV contributor Shemeka Michelle agreed, telling Whitlock the attack was “definitely unjustified. When they tried to show the video of the guy in the red being pushed and acting as if that was justification. … But for all of these people to jump in — and it wasn’t just men jumping in; there were women jumping in as if they were men.”

Whitlock on Sunday posted a message on X calling out the mob attack, saying that “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.”

The FBI on Monday opened an investigation into the mob attack, WXIX-TV reported. The incident is under investigation as a potential hate crime, according to Fox News.

Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio late Wednesday shared grisly images of a woman’s face in an X post after she was beaten up and apparently knocked out cold during the mob attack.

The mother of one of the arrested mob attack suspects defended her ‘honor roll’ son earlier this week — a 34-year-old who’s been charged with felonious assault and aggravated riot — saying, “My child is in school, he has five kids, he’s on the B honor roll in school.”

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​Charges, Arrests, Cincinnati, Mayor aftab pureval, Cincinnati police chief teresa theetge, News conference, Slap, Mob attack, Mob violence, Crime 

The national debate over the provocative blue jeans ad featuring Sydney Sweeney has gotten American Eagle a lot of attention, but they are refusing to bow down to the woke mob.

The company released a statement Friday dismissing the bizarre criticism from many on the left that putting a blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress in blue jeans was an act of white supremacy.

‘We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.’

“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” reads the brief statement from the company.

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone,” the statement concludes.

The bizarre controversy over the seductive jeans ad immediately erupted in accusations of racism and ableism, especially from young women on TikTok, and then came the inevitable backlash and ridicule from many on the right.

On the latter end of the outrage cycle, some on the left are now saying that the entire controversy was manufactured by exaggerations from anti-woke antagonists.

Some praised American Eagle for not backing down.

“Good for them for not backing down to the woke mob!!!” Donald Trump Jr. replied on social media.

RELATED: Sydney Sweeney’s provocative ad for jeans leads to complete liberal meltdown: ‘That’s Nazi propaganda!’

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The controversy arose in part because of the play on words in the ad, in which Sweeney talks about her “jeans,” but in a manner that sounds like she’s talking about genes. The use of an actress who is blue-eyed and blonde-haired was also seen as a callback to genocide.

“I will be the friend that’s too woke because those Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle ads are weird. Like, fascist weird, like, Nazi propaganda weird,” one user said on TikTok, as documented previously by Blaze News.

“Should we be surprised that a company whose name is literally American Eagle is making fascist propaganda like this? Probably not,” she added. “But it’s still really shocking. Like, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white woman is talking about her good genes. Like, that is Nazi propaganda!”

Sweeney had previously made headlines when she marketed soap made from her bathwater.

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A former Missouri teacher dodged a jail sentence regarding accusations of being involved in a teacher sex scandal with a student, according to reports.

As Blaze News reported in October 2023, a 25-year-old teacher was accused of sharing explicit photos and videos with a 16-year-old student. The teacher also reportedly invited the teen to have sex with her at her home while her husband was away.

‘The victim said Laughlin also tried to solicit sex from the victim.’

On Oct. 19, 2023, the Maries County Sheriff’s Office purportedly opened an investigation into Rikki Lynn Laughlin — a then-special education teacher at St. James High School, located about 95 miles southwest of St. Louis. The Maries County Sheriff’s Office allegedly received a tip that a St. James High School teacher was having sexual contact with a student.

According to a probable cause statement, the alleged victim claimed that Laughlin first contacted him on the Snapchat social media app.

The boy informed investigators that he had kissed the teacher in a classroom, according to court docs.

KSDK-TV previously reported, “The victim said the conversations escalated quickly and Laughlin sent him nude photos and videos of herself. He said she also requested he send nude photos of himself, which he did on two occasions. The victim said Laughlin also tried to solicit sex from the victim.”

Court documents said the alleged victim informed authorities that Laughlin invited him to her home when her husband was away on Oct. 14. However, the teen formulated excuses to not appear at Laughlin’s home because he did not feel comfortable, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Court documents stated that Laughlin urged the teen to delete all photos and videos she sent him because she was afraid of going to jail.

RELATED: Ex-Christian school teacher accused of sexually assaulting female student, rearrested after allegedly contacting another teen

RELATED: Ex-teacher accused of grooming, sexually abusing teen boy; mother rips suspect as ‘sick, twisted, calculating sex offender’

Laughlin was arrested and initially charged with possession of child pornography, tampering with a victim, second-degree statutory rape, sexual exploitation of a minor, tampering with physical evidence, furnishing pornographic material to a minor, and second-degree child sex trafficking.

Laughlin reportedly got a sweetheart deal to avoid a jail sentence.

KRCG-TV reported this week that Laughlin pleaded guilty on July 24 to endangering the welfare of a child creating substantial risk in the first degree, noting that it was her first offense and there was no sexual contact.

Laughlin was sentenced to five years of probation.

RELATED: Married ex-teacher hit with 52 additional child sex charges related to multiple alleged trysts with 15-year-old male student

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​Rikki lynn laughlin, Teacher sex scandal, Child sex crimes, Teacher student relationship, Bad teacher, Teacher arrested, Child sex abuse, Crime 

The ex-girlfriend of a Delta Air Lines pilot — who was recently arrested on child sex abuse charges after touching down in California on a commercial airliner — has also been charged in the disturbing case that allegedly involves her young daughter, according to officials.

As Blaze News reported on Tuesday, federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations reportedly stormed the cockpit of a Delta Air Lines plane and dragged the co-pilot off the commercial airliner that landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 26.

Court documents said the child sex abuse began when the alleged victim was just 6 years old and continued until she was 11.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, “Detectives from the Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff Investigation Division have been conducting an investigation since April 2025 after receiving a report of sex crimes against a child.”

The pilot — 34-year-old Rustom Bhagwagar of Florida — was arrested and booked into the Martinez Detention Facility. Bhagwagar was initially charged with five counts of oral copulation with a child under 10 years of age.

However, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office levied a total of 24 felony counts against Bhagwagar on Wednesday. The charges include engaging in a sexual act with a child 10 years old or younger, oral copulation with a child, forceable lewd acts upon a child, and aggravated sexual assault of a child.

A judge raised Bhagwagar’s bail from $5 million to $15 million.

‘By pursuing these cases vigorously, we not only seek justice for victims but also work to safeguard our entire community from those who would prey on children.’

Law enforcement recently revealed that Bhagwagar’s ex-girlfriend is also accused of being involved with the sickening allegations of child sex abuse.

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that 45-year-old Jennifer Powell was arrested on Wednesday.

Detectives from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Powell in “connection with an ongoing investigation into sex crimes against a child.”

Police said Powell is the mother of the alleged child sex abuse victim.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said Powell was “charged in a related felony complaint and has been booked into the Martinez Detention Facility.”

The DA noted that both Powell and Bhagwagar face sentences of 15 years to life in state prison.

RELATED: Ex-Christian school teacher accused of sexually assaulting female student, rearrested after allegedly contacting another teen

RELATED: Father allegedly catches therapist in autistic son’s bedroom closet with boy’s pants down: DA

KTVU-TV obtained a probable cause statement, which allegedly stated that Powell was aware that her young daughter was being sexually abused by her then-boyfriend, and that she observed and even participated in the alleged sexual crimes of her child.

Court documents said the child sex abuse began when the alleged victim was just 6 years old and continued until she was 11. Prosecutors noted that the suspected child sex abuse ended when Powell and Bhagwagar broke up.

Prosecutors reportedly said the daughter did not live with her mother.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said the sexual abuse of a minor occurred between 2018 and 2023.

Bhagwagar and Powell did not enter pleas when they appeared in court on Wednesday, according to KTVU. Both suspects are reportedly scheduled to return to Contra Costa County Superior Court in August.

Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton stated, “Our office stands firmly committed to protecting children and holding those who cause harm accountable. Every child deserves to feel safe, protected, and heard when an injustice like this occurs. By pursuing these cases vigorously, we not only seek justice for victims but also work to safeguard our entire community from those who would prey on children.”

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the Investigation Division at 925-313-2600, email tips@so.cccounty.us, or call 866-846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message.

Once the appalling accusations surfaced, Delta Air Lines immediately suspended Bhagwagar pending the investigation.

A Delta spokesperson told KTVU, “Delta has zero tolerance for unlawful conduct and will fully cooperate with law enforcement. We are appalled by reports of the charges related to the arrest.”

RELATED: NYPD officer sent obscene material to undercover cop posing as 14-year-old girl: DA’s office

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​Child sexual assault, Child sex crimes, Delta pilot, Child sex abuse, Child abuse, Crime