Category: blaze media

Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency. Blockchain. A decade ago, most Americans hadn’t heard those words. Even now, many don’t fully grasp what they mean. Some still dismiss Bitcoin as an internet fad — yet with one coin worth roughly $119,000, the joke is wearing thin.

The real story isn’t the price. It’s what Bitcoin represents: freedom, trust, and control over your own money. Those are conservative principles — and conservatives should embrace them.

Honest money for a dishonest age

In Denton County, Texans understand independence. We work hard, save what we can, and expect our money to keep its value. But Washington keeps printing dollars to solve political problems, and every new round of “stimulus” steals a little more of what Americans earn. That’s a big reason groceries, gas, and housing cost so much more today.

At its heart, Bitcoin isn’t about tech or speculation. It’s about trust — and keeping financial power in the hands of citizens instead of bureaucrats and corporations.

Bitcoin doesn’t play that game. Its supply is capped at 21 million coins forever. No bureaucrat or central banker can “stimulate” the economy by diluting your savings. It’s steady, transparent, and immune to the inflationary habits of modern government.

That’s not radical — it’s a return to honest value. Early Texans traded cattle, crops, and tools, and a handshake sealed the deal. Bitcoin is a digital version of that same trust: value backed by proof of work, not political decree.

Freedom in your own hands

Bitcoin is, at its core, a conservative idea. It rewards effort, limits government control, and protects personal liberty. You can own every rifle and round of ammunition in the world, but if the government freezes your bank account, you’re stuck. With Bitcoin, you control your money. Nobody can seize it.

The network itself is decentralized — millions of computers around the globe share the ledger. No single government, company, or regulator can shut it down. If one node fails, the others keep the system alive. It’s built to endure.

Lessons for a digital age

That model should guide how we build other technologies. Take artificial intelligence. Meta just poured $14 billion into one massive data center — a single point of failure. One cyberattack or natural disaster could wipe it out. America should follow Bitcoin’s example: distribute computing power, build smaller centers across the country, and bring skilled jobs to local communities like ours.

RELATED: ‘Lipstick on a pig’: How printing cash is destroying America — and crypto could be next

dem10 via iStock/Getty Images

Bitcoin also saves money. Send $1,000 through a credit card processor and you’ll lose $40 in fees. Send it through Bitcoin and it costs about four cents. That difference matters to small businesses, churches, and local campaigns. Political donations in Bitcoin should be legal nationwide — transparent, secure, and independent of the big banks that profit from the current system.

A return to honest value

At its heart, Bitcoin isn’t about tech or speculation. It’s about trust — and keeping financial power in the hands of citizens instead of bureaucrats and corporations.

Here in Denton County, we understand that kind of freedom. It’s the same spirit that settled Texas: work hard, hold what’s yours, and keep government out of your pockets.

Bitcoin isn’t the future of money. It’s the return of honest money — and conservatives should lead the charge to make it America’s next great success story.

​Opinion & analysis, Bitcoin, Federal reserve, Money, Inflation, Dollar, Artificial intelligence, Speculation, Trust, Conservative 

A Minnesota state representative who once confessed to her own apparently unlawful entry into the United States won the St. Paul mayoral race on Tuesday.

It was later revealed that Her’s ‘uncle’ was actually not a familial relative but a family friend.

Rep. Kaohly Vang Her (DFL) secured an over-two-point victory over incumbent Mayor Melvin Carter (DFL). The election results were determined in the second ranked-choice voting round, with Her receiving fewer than 2,000 votes more than her opponent.

“My family came here as refugees,” Her said during her victory speech on Tuesday evening. “Never in their wildest dreams would I be standing here today accepting the position of mayor. I want to thank Mayor Melvin Carter for his many years of service to our city. I started my political career working for him, and I will always be grateful for that opportunity.”

On the state House floor in June, Her, who was born in Laos, made a startling confession while advocating for public health care for illegal immigrants. She claimed that her father, who worked at the U.S. consulate, brought her family to America by falsifying immigration paperwork.

Her’s uncle had worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and, because of that work, was immediately eligible to come to the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War, she stated at the time.

RELATED: ‘I am illegal’: Democratic lawmaker’s brazen confession of family fraud implodes after failed backtrack

Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. Photo by Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images

Her’s immediate family did not qualify for the same expedited process. However, Her’s father claimed on federal documents that Her’s maternal grandmother was his mother to circumvent their ineligibility, she explained to state lawmakers.

“My father, as the one processing the paperwork, put my grandmother down as his mother,” Her stated.

RELATED: Minneapolis mayoral race enters second round of ranked-choice vote counting

Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

“And so, I am illegal in this country,” she continued. “My parents are illegal here in this country.”

It was later revealed that Her’s “uncle” was actually not a familial relative but a family friend. She claimed that her family would have been eligible to come to the U.S. anyway and that the falsified records only sped up the process.

Since immigrating to the U.S., Her has become a U.S. citizen.

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​News, Minnesota, St. paul minnesota, St paul minnesota, St paul, St. paul, Kaohly vang her, Melvin carter, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Illegal immigration crisis, Immigration crisis, Politics 

Blaze News investigative reporters Steve Baker and Joseph Hanneman have spent years working to identify the masked individual who placed pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021.

Baker, whom the Biden FBI arrested over his January 6 reporting, revealed to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on Wednesday that they have finally locked in on a suspect. What’s more, Baker hinted that the suspect’s imminent identification will implicate and shame at least one federal agency.

‘It is monstrous.’

Baker told Beck, “When I pulled this thread, I was so shocked by what I saw, I immediately took it to a source in one of the most important, highest-level investigative federal agencies in the country. I immediately took it to our sources there, and I said, ‘You have to see this.'”

“After they looked at it for about two hours, the response that I got back was, ‘Holy F,'” continued Baker. “And then the follow-up response was, ‘She’s one of us!'”

— (@)

When pressed by Beck about his confidence level in the suspect ID, Baker said, “I will tell you that from gait analysis — that’s the analysis of the hoodied bomber … compared to the gait analysis of this individual in private life and at work — that the actual software hit at a 94% accuracy.”

“Human analysis from the experts in intelligence is much higher,” continued Baker. “They looked at it and went, ‘My God, that’s it. We got it.'”

RELATED: Analysis: FBI’s Jan. 6 pipe bomb update omits key evidence, withholds video

FBI

Forensic gait analysis — the scientific study of patterns in an individual’s style of movement in walking or running — is regarded as one of the most sophisticated approaches to identifying an individual from CCTV footage or video recordings and as especially valuable in the absence of other biometric identifiers.

The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Magazine noted in 2023 that gait analysis, which has been used to help secure criminal convictions throughout the Anglosphere for decades, “can be compelling, corroborating evidence,” especially since “criminals cannot hide their gait.”

Baker indicated that he left some “breadcrumbs” in recent reports.

Hanneman and Baker reported last week, for instance, that the 8.5-minute video about the Jan. 6 pipe bombs released by the FBI in October contained footage edited to exclude showing a U.S. Capitol Police SUV pull up directly across the street from where the suspect stood at 8:15 p.m. on January 5, 2021.

In addition to raising suspicion about the selective edit, the investigative duo claimed that the FBI also deliberately chose not to publicly acknowledge the theory that the pipe bombs were part of a poorly timed training exercise.

Baker told Beck on Wednesday that while the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department are offering a $500,000 reward for evidence that leads to an arrest in the case, he didn’t take the new evidence implicating the yet-to-be named suspect to the agencies “because we believe that they were actively engaged in the cover-up.”

Baker indicated that there are national security-related briefings under way, and Beck said that the suspect’s name will be released after the relevant agencies have “battened down the hatches.”

Beck said, “This is one of the biggest stories — I think it is the biggest scandal of my lifetime, maybe in the last 100 years. It is monstrous.”

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​Steve baker, Glenn beck, National security, Politics, Tulsi gabbard, Pipe bomb, Jan. 6, January 6, Jan 6, Fbi, Bureau, Nsa 

Coca-Cola has responded to criticism over its AI-generated commercials with even more AI-generated art.

Following backlash for its AI-generated 2024 “Holidays Are Coming” ad, the company says that this year consumers should react more positively, as AI generation is “going forward.”

‘Real hard work writing some prompts for AI.’

For 2025, Coke has not only doubled down with its commercial, but tripled down amid criticism. The recent ad, created with Real Magic AI, depicts hosts of anthropomorphized squirrels, rabbits, dogs, and the brand’s traditional polar bears. While the ad showed significant improvements since last year, it still has the usual AI follies of non-spinning wheels on Coca-Cola trucks and overdrawn hairlines that could still fool the naked eye.

However, Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola’s head of generative AI, says not to believe the haters.

“Last year people criticized the craftsmanship. But this year the craftsmanship is 10 times better,” Thakar said, per Hollywood Reporter. “There will be people who criticize — we cannot keep everyone 100% happy.”

Thakar added, “But if the majority of consumers see it in a positive way, it’s worth going forward.”

One place Coke was certain to receive positive reinforcement was from its own team, which it showcased in a behind-the-scenes video praising its own hard work on the ad.

RELATED: AI can fake a face — but not a soul

The commentary video praised five of Coke’s AI specialists for parsing through 70,000 video clips in just 30 days to create the ad. Production used programs like OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Veo 3, and Luma AI.

“It really feels like this work is, you know, actively shaping how storytelling is evolving. It shows Coca-Cola really reimagining the creative workflow, especially in this AI era,” a female voiceover said.

“They landed on this super expressive hyperrealism, really cinematic scenes,” a male voiceover added.

The video poured praise over Coca-Cola’s team, which wrote prompts into AI programs about generating a “hyperrealistic panda animation,” for example, scouring through generated videos. Refinements and filters were then shown as further examples of the hard work.

“Post-production is the new pre-production. Advanced reasoning models let artists plan and solve them early and making scenes feel real before production locks in,” the female voiceover continued. “Combining human creativity with AI to turbocharge expression and imagination, giving creatives more freedom, speed, and control than ever before.”

Viewers did not respond with the same positivity, though, even accusing the voiceovers of being AI themselves.

RELATED: How H-1B hires broke USAA’s bond with veterans

“Real hard work writing some prompts for AI,” a viewer wrote.

“They’re acting like this is something they should be proud of,” another said.

One viewer called the idea of an “AI voiceover praising this ad compared to the actual human comments who dislike it” the beginning of a dystopian world.

Lost in the criticism of Coca-Cola’s shift to nonhuman artists is its continued refusal to mention Christmas. Despite depictions of Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and, of course, Santa Claus, the word Christmas is never displayed or uttered.

Both videos happily displayed all the Americana related to the holiday but were careful never to mention the forbidden words: Merry Christmas.

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​Ai, Coca cola, Christmas, War on christmas, Artificial intelligence, Coke, Tech 

Matt McChesney, a former University of Colorado star and Deion Sanders defender, has changed his tune on Coach Prime — and wants major changes to the coaching staff for the Buffaloes.

“I’m shocked that Pat Shurmur still has his job. I don’t see anybody else giving him another opportunity in college or the NFL. I’m stunned that he still has a job, especially with how quick Coach Prime in year one was to get rid of Coach Lewis at San Diego State,” McChesney tells BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock.

“I don’t see how we can look at the staff and say that they’re helping Coach Prime. And I don’t think Coach Prime is helping them necessarily. I think that when you put yourself in a situation where you’re surrounded by your friends, when it gets hard, are you going to fire them? And I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he continues.

“I think that the coaching staff needs to be extremely evaluated hard, and if they don’t make a bunch of changes, then they don’t want to get better because this is not acceptable,” he adds.

Whitlock agrees that there need to be changes, especially when it comes to their head coach and how they approach their next one.

“My concern, if I was a Colorado fan, would be, ‘Man, we went all-in on Deion. Will this administration, if Deion walks away or is fired, will this administration go all-in on the next coach?’” Whitlock says.

“Or will there be some hesitancy of, like, ‘Man, we just got burned. We owe Deion all this money.’ Any concern that there could be irrevocable or really serious damage done in the aftermath?” Whitlock asks.

“If Coach Prime were to walk away, selfishly, I hope if that were to happen, I hope that he would resign so they wouldn’t have to pay him. And that’s just, you know, that’s just the way it is,” McChesney says.

“Deion leaving without the money,” Whitlock laughs.

McChesney isn’t hopeful either.

“Usually, when nepotism and narcissism is involved at this level,” he says, “it’s really, really hard to get anybody to change doing anything.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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

​Camera phone, Free, Video, Sharing, Upload, Video phone, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Coach prime, Matt mcchesney, University of colorado, Colorado buffaloes, Deion sanders, College football, Nfl, Football 

The crushing defeats experienced on Tuesday by Republican candidates in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races as well as in the mayoral race in New York City are sure to be locally consequential as well as nationally telling.

After all, these elections provide insights into voter sentiment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats will likely be able to flip five House seats, owing to the successful passage of the gerrymandering measure in California championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Proposition 50.

It turns out that hostility toward President Donald Trump continues to animate a significant number of voters and that younger Americans, particularly young women, are receptive to radical candidates.

New York City

Socialist Zohran Mamdani took over 50% of the vote in the New York City mayoral race, beating Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa by 43.3 percentage points and disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by nearly nine points.

It’s clear from CNN’s exit polls that Mamdani’s pinko populism resonated with a great many voters, particularly younger voters, in a city where the cost of living is widely regarded as a bigger issue than the correlated strain of illegal immigration and the problem of crime.

Mamdani campaigned on freezing the rent for all stabilized tenants; building more affordable housing; raising taxes on millionaires and corporations; raising the minimum wage; “expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide”; and frustrating the efforts of the Trump administration to enforce federal immigration law.

The majority of voters who said that the most important issues facing NYC were immigration and crime indicated that they voted for Cuomo. Meanwhile, 66% of the clear majority of voters who said the cost of living was the number-one issue ended up supporting Mamdani.

Mamdani also secured the support of:

65% of voters who disapprove of Trump as well as 8% who approve of him;33% of voters who expressed an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party and 65% of those with a favorable view;46% of white voters and 54% of non-white voters;69% of voters ages 44 and younger, including 84% of women under 30;75% of the irreligious vote, 33% of the Jewish vote, 33% of the Catholic vote, and 42% of votes by those identifying as Protestant or other types of Christian;82% of the non-straight vote;82% of the votes cast by people who have been in New York City for 10 years or less; and65% of first-time mayoral voters.

President Donald Trump was a factor in the majority of respondents’ votes in the Virginia, New Jersey, and California, according to CBS News’ exit polls. In the New York City mayoral race, however, only 40% of respondents said Trump was a factor when deciding for whom to vote.

RELATED: Democrat who sent death-wish texts wins top law enforcement office in Virginia

Photo (left): Alex Wong/Getty Images; Photo (right): Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

While Trump was not a factor across the board in the NYC mayoral election, 76% of the people who said he was ultimately cast ballots for Mamdani.

New Jersey

In the New Jersey gubernatorial election, Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill beat Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli 56.2% to 43.2%, dealing him a more crushing defeat than he experienced in the 2021 gubernatorial election when he lost to Gov. Phil Murphy (D) by just over three points.

Exit polls show that Sherrill performed particularly well with women, non-whites, and college graduates and benefited greatly from voters’ hostility toward the president and his administration.

The New Jersey Democrat apparently secured the support of:

77% of non-white voters and 47% of white voters;67% of voters ages 44 and under and 51% of voters 45 or older;94% of liberal voters, 62% of moderates, and 11% of alleged conservatives;62% of female voters and 81% of female voters under 30; and62% of voters with a college degree.

Voters who felt that the state’s economy was faring poorly under Democrat management were more likely to cast ballots for Ciattarelli. Seventy-seven percent of voters who figured things were good voted for Sherrill.

It’s clear that voter sentiment about federal politics leached into New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.

‘An antipathy for Trump also appeared to be a factor for a majority — 51% — of California voters.’

Whereas those who expressed satisfaction with the way things were going nationally — 88% — voted for Ciattarelli, 77% of those who were dissatisfied voted Democrat.

Of the 40% of voters who said that opposing Trump was a factor, 97% voted for Sherrill. The Democrat also secured 93% of the majority — 55% — who signaled disapproval for the president.

The majority of voters — 53% — indicated that the Trump administration has gone too far with its immigration crackdown, and 49% suggested the next governor should not cooperate with the administration.

Virginia

In the Virginia gubernatorial election, Democrat Abigail Spanberger beat Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, 57.5% to 42.3%.

Like Mamdani, Spanberger enjoyed a great deal of support from the youth and appeared to benefit not only from voters’ antipathy toward the Trump administration but from their financial desperation.

CNN exit polls show that Spanberger secured the support of:

65% of the female vote, including 81% of women under 30;92% of the black vote, 67% of the Hispanic vote, 79% of the Asian vote, and 47% of the white vote;63% of voters with a college degree;56% of voters who earn $50,000 or more and 62% of voters who make less; and82% of non-white voters and 47% of white voters.

A majority of voters indicated that federal cuts impacted their finances, and 69% of those affected said they cast ballots for Spanberger.

In a reverse of the trend in New Jersey, those respondents who said Virginia’s economy was faring well majoritively voted Republican, while most of the 39% of voters who said the economy was not doing well or doing poorly ended up supporting Spanberger.

When asked what the most important issue facing the state was, a plurality — 48% — cited the economy. Of that cohort, 63% voted Democrat.

As was the case in the other races, those angry or dissatisfied with the way things were going nationally tended to vote Democrat 80% of the time.

Of the 38% of voters who signaled that opposition to Trump was a factor in their electoral decision-making, 99% voted for Spanberger, and 58% of all respondents signaled disapproval of his presidency.

It appears that disapproval of the Democratic Party was no guarantee of a vote against Spanberger, as roughly one in five of those who hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party voted for her.

California

Antipathy for Trump also appeared to be a factor for a majority — 51% — of California voters, 98% of whom voted in favor of the gerrymandering measure, Proposition 50.

According to CNN’s exit polls, 64% of California voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing. Only 9% of the voters in that camp voted against Prop 50. Sixty-three percent of voters said the Trump administration’s immigration actions go too far, and 59% suggested Gov. Newsom shouldn’t cooperate with federal authorities.

Again, young women under 30 proved for Democrats a reliable cohort — 83% of women ages 18-29 supported the measure.

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​Exit polls, Mamdani, Spanberger, Sherill, Elections, Donald trump, Voting, New jersey, California, Virginia, Earle-sears, Politics 

The National Women’s Soccer League has entered crisis mode at the end of its season.

With the playoffs set to start, a recent opinion article sent shockwaves through the league because it mentions one simple issue: that men should not play in women’s sports.

‘That article does not speak for this team in this locker room.’

Elizabeth Eddy, a 34-year-old who plays for Angel City FC in Los Angeles, penned an article for the New York Post recently asking for the league to adopt gender testing in order to maintain an even playing field.

Eddy suggested one-time genetic testing through either blood sample or cheek swab, which would be kept confidential to protect player privacy.

The American’s level-headed essay even included the idea of “creating pathways for athletes traditionally excluded from competing at the highest level” in order to demonstrate “inclusion.”

Still, the vary notion of screening men out of the NWSL was met with heavy criticisms from Eddy’s teammates.

Angel City captain Sarah Gorden and vice captain Angelina Anderson held a press conference a few days later to publicly condemn Eddy’s comments, shockingly accusing her of racism and bigotry.

RELATED: JK Rowling says BBC ‘spit’ in women’s faces by naming soccer player who failed gender test as player of the year

Barbra Banda of Orlando Pride was removed from a Zambian roster over alleged elevated testosterone levels. Photo by Eakin Howard/NWSL via Getty Images

“That article does not speak for this team in this locker room,” Gorden stated vehemently. The captain said her teammates were “hurt,” “harmed,” and “disgusted” by some of the things that Eddy wrote.

Gorden went on to claim that Eddy’s essay had “undertones that come across as transphobic and racist as well,” but fell short of providing any quotes or specific details that fit her description.

However, Gorden did specify that she found it “inherently racist” for the article to feature a photo of Orlando Pride player Barbra Banda, claiming that it was likely because Banda looks different or is different.

However, Banda has been surrounded by controversy for years since being pulled from the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

As previously reported by Blaze News, Banda — along with teammate Racheal Kundananji — both allegedly had tested positive for impermissibly high levels of testosterone. An investigative report by the Telegraph stated that the players were removed from the Zambian women’s team because they did not want to take hormone suppressants, citing possible side effects.

Zambian officials told the outlet that Banda had abnormally high testosterone levels, and so did at least two other players, including Kundananji.

Banda has been praised through the controversy and was even named the BBC’s female footballer of the year in 2024. The award drew mass criticism, including from beloved writer J.K. Rowling, who called the award “more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women’s faces.”

RELATED: Blaze News investigates: Gender activism at the Olympics: How many transgender athletes are there?

Gorden added during the recent press conference that since she is a “mixed woman” with a black family, she was “devastated by the undertones” of Eddy’s article.

Anderson further cemented the team’s position and reinforced that Angel City was “founded upon inclusivity and love” for all.

The NWSL itself supported Banda’s recent selection to the FIFPRO World XI, which names the best female players in the world, annually.

The league said Banda is an “extraordinary talent” and that any “harassment or hateful attacks” have no place in the sport or its “communities.”

Kundananji was transferred to NWSL team Bay FC (San Francisco) in 2024. Banda missed a chunk of the 2025 season with a hip abductor injury.

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​Women’s sports, Fearless, Soccer, Women’s soccer, Transgenderism, Men in women’s sports, Nwsl, Sports 

On October 20, 2025, in a room scrubbed clean for statecraft, the leaders of the United States and Australia announced a pact. The numbers were large, commitments of $1 billion each, a pipeline worth $8.5 billion, and another $2.2 billion in letters of interest. The language was of strategic reassurance: “securing critical minerals,” “building an allied supply chain.” They spoke of a gallium plant in Western Australia, of the Nolans project in the Northern Territory.

What was stated only in the careful argot of diplomacy was the anxiety. The pact was not a gesture of optimism. It was a $10.7 billion hedge against a future held hostage. The objects of this anxiety are the rare-earth elements. They are the “vitamins” of modern technology, a group of 17 soft, silvery metals that, while not strictly rare, are rarely found in concentrations that make extraction anything but a geologic and chemical trial. We seldom see or think about them, yet they are the invisible underpinning of the contemporary world.

For all our talk of the virtual, our civilization runs on materials.

We carry them in our pockets, these bits of refined earth. Neodymium and praseodymium form the tiny, powerful magnets that make an electric vehicle motor turn and a wind turbine spin. Lanthanum and cerium provide the optical clarity for a camera lens. Europium and yttrium are the phosphors that make a smartphone screen vivid. They are virtually indispensable to the high-tech, high-speed, high-definition life we have constructed for ourselves. They are also indispensable to the machinery of modern defense: the precision-guided missiles, the jet engines, the radar systems.

There is a profound cultural dislocation at work here. We have come to believe in the immateriality of our age. We speak of the “cloud,” of data, of software, as if these things were weightless, existing only as light and logic. The rare-earth scramble is a reminder that the most ethereal digital experience is tethered to the physical crust of the Earth. The cloud has a body, and that body is dug from the ground, often with toxic solvents and radioactive tailings.

China has become the center of this industry, not by accident, but by design, and by a failure of Western imagination. Decades ago, Beijing designated rare earths as “protected and strategic minerals,” while the United States, under the sway of environmental regulation and market efficiencies, allowed its own production to atrophy. The Mountain Pass mine in California, once the world’s leader, went dark in 2002, while China embraced the dirty, complex, and unprofitable “downstream” work: the refining and processing of these rare earths.

The result is a near-monopoly.

RELATED: This city bought 300 Chinese electric buses — then found out China can turn them off at will

Photo by VCG / Contributor via Getty Images

By 2025, Chinese firms controlled perhaps 90% of global rare-earth refining and 93% of magnet manufacturing. And with control comes leverage. In 2010, a territorial dispute with Japan was punctuated by China’s abrupt halt of rare-earth exports, sending global prices into panic. By 2025, the mechanism was more refined: new export rules targeting high-performance magnets, rules that, when briefly tightened, shut down supply chains for automakers. This is the power to turn off the assembly line. This is the power to ground the jets.

We have seen this story before. We call rare earths “the new oil,” and in doing so, we betray a certain exhaustion. We are merely rerunning the script of the 20th century. The 1973 oil embargo revealed the strategic peril of relying on a single region for the nonnegotiable fuel of the economy. The current scramble, the U.S.-Australia pact, the Pentagon-funded reopening of Mountain Pass, the talk of “urban mining” to reclaim neodymium from old hard drives, is the same reflex. It is the belated, frantic effort to diversify, to stockpile, to rebuild what was lost, to avoid being held hostage.

The script is older even than oil. It is the story of the Bronze Age, defined by the desperate, sprawling trade networks required to secure tin. It is the story of the Iron Age, where mastery of a new metal conferred dominance. It is, as Plato observed in the Republic, the inevitable story of the “luxurious city.” A simple society, Socrates argued, a “city of pigs,” lives in peace. But the moment a society desires more (fine furniture, luxuries, or, for us, a high-speed data plan), it must expand. It “inevitably goes to war to secure resources.”

Our digital city is the luxurious city. We crave the wind turbine and the EV motor, what we call the “green” transition, but we find it relies on the same “rare green.” We crave the vivid screen and the smart missile. And so we are compelled to scour the globe, to make pacts, to engage in resource diplomacy.

This quest is not a move into a new technological future but a return to the oldest imperatives. It is the hard reminder that for all our talk of the virtual, our civilization runs on materials. The hunt for rare earths forces us to confront the weight of our lightness, to see the shadow that our digital lives cast upon the actual, finite earth. It is, and always has been, a scramble for the dirt.

​Rare earths, Tech, China, Minerals 

I do a lot of things for work. I take photos, I take videos, I write stories, I write columns, I write about style, and I write about life.

I also help guys dress better. Officially it’s called style advising, but down to brass tacks, it means me helping guys get clothes they are happy with. Helping them get rid of the junk that sits in their closet that they never wear and get into clothes that make them look, and feel, their best.

Exercising creative control in the physical space feels good in a way that’s deeper than exercising the same kind of creativity in the digital space.

It’s one of the most rewarding things I do. I know lots of guys dismiss the importance of clothes, but they do so at their peril. Our clothes really do have a huge impact on our psychological state. They can make us pretty unhappy or pretty happy.

Ready to wear

Does that make us “superficial”? No. It’s an acknowledgment of the fact that what we wear represents who we are to others —and to ourselves. If you aren’t happy with how you present yourself, you aren’t going to be happy with yourself. It’s that simple.

So I take personal satisfaction from watching a guy transform his wardrobe over the course of a year or two. What’s particularly satisfying is observing how his attitude toward clothing changes as he overhauls his closet.

The process usually starts with a pragmatic interest in not looking like a slob. Achieving a baseline presentability eliminates any negative attention slovenly dress attracts. From that point he may start to notice that looking a little more “put together” actually attracts positive attention. And once he starts to experience the fruits of dressing decently in public, he’s ready to start enjoying his clothes.

This means he’s comfortable and confident enough that he no longer sees dressing himself as a test to get “right,” but as an opportunity for personal expression and creativity. Clothes finally become what they’re meant to be: fun.

Or as a client deep into his own wardrobe revamp recently told me, “I’m just blown away by how fun this stuff can get.”

What a difference in attitude and mindset. A realization like that is generally a sign that a certain kind of psychological transformation has been completed.

RELATED: Corduroys: The perfect winter trousers

Making the man

I’m aware that the word “fun” may connote something shallow or frivolous — and in some respects clothing can be both. But the pleasure we derive from clothing also derives from its deeper meaning: the way it reinforces the eternal forms of man and woman, emphasizes our dignity as human beings made in the image of God, and reflects our culture, values, and even religious beliefs.

Remember the pastel cars of the 1950s? It’s hard to believe it, but there was a time when when cars weren’t only black, gray, or white. There was a time when cars were fun. Well, it’s the same thing with clothes. If you really look at the stuff the guys were wearing back in those old movies, they were actually having much more fun than the guy who wears dark jeans, a black T-shirt, and a gray hoodie in 2025. Coming to the final realization that clothes should be fun is actually a kind of returning to tradition.

Creative control

The thoughtfully designed, personal interior of your home feels more welcoming than an airport terminal. A carefully cultivated garden is more beautiful than an expanse of artificial turf. And a well-fitting and harmonious combination of shirt, jacket, and trousers is more flattering than a prison-like monochrome sweatsuit.

There’s also a peculiar psychological benefit to embracing clothes as a domain of fun. Exercising creative control in the physical space feels good in a way that’s deeper than exercising the same kind of creativity it in the digital space.

In our screen-dominant era, the experience of joyfully controlling your personal environment is humanizing and refreshing. It’s good to like how you look and know that you are the one responsible for it. It feels like we are actually doing something rather than just moving pixels around.

Of course, it goes without saying that not all fun is good fun. We know that’s true about all sorts of stuff in life. Many a bad decision sure was fun at the time. So it goes with the temporary thrill of donning stupid neon graphic T-shirts, grotesque Crocs, alien-green sweatpants printed with pizza motifs.

Many men today begin their style journey as overgrown children who have enjoyed this “bad” kind of fun for most of their lives: the dumb T-shirts and the stupid shoes. But then they decide to grow up, and after working through their wardrobe, they come to understand that these classic clothes are not just good for the soul or society. They are fun, and they are the right kind of fun, the kind of fun that edifies and enriches us.

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Minneapolis is still counting votes in its ranked-choice mayoral race after no candidate received more than 50% of the votes in the first round.

‘Everybody, this city showed up once again. … We got what appears to be near record turnout. And I’ll tell you what — it looks damn good for us.’

Minneapolis residents cast their votes between incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey (D), who is seeking a third term, and over a dozen other candidates. Voters were allowed to rank up to three candidates.

Frey held a 10-point lead over state Sen. Omar Fateh (D), considered his top challenger, in voters’ first-choice results. Frey received approximately 61,000 votes, which accounted for only 42% of the total, not enough to declare him the winner.

The mayoral election will now proceed to a second round of counting to determine the winner. In each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their ballots are redistributed to the next-ranked candidates on voters’ ballots. This process continues until one candidate secures a majority of the votes.

The Minneapolis mayoral races have gone to at least a second round of tabulations since 2013. Frey won after six rounds in 2017 and after two rounds in 2021.

RELATED: Socialist surge: Minneapolis mayor left in the lurch after DFL Party endorses far-left challenger obsessed with race

State Sen. Omar Fateh, Rep. Ilhan Omar. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Fateh, a Muslim Somali American and progressive Democrat who has been compared to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, secured the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s endorsement in July, defeating Frey. However, that endorsement was rescinded a month later, citing “substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process.”

Fateh was endorsed by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who hoped to boost his campaign by joining him on the campaign trail.

“I am really excited to have her support,” Fateh said. “Minneapolis seems to be a tale of two cities: one for the wealthy and well-connected and one for everyone else.”

RELATED: The woke party’s favorite costume: Moderation

Jacob Frey. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) endorsed Frey.

While it is still possible for Fateh to squeak out a victory over Frey, the current mayor holds a comfortable lead.

“Everybody, this city showed up once again. … We got what appears to be near record turnout. And I’ll tell you what — it looks damn good for us,” Frey stated at an election night party.

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On November 3, Dick Cheney, former U.S. vice president under George W. Bush, passed away at the age of 84 from complications of pneumonia, compounded by longstanding cardiac and vascular disease.

He is a man who leaves behind a most “complicated legacy,” says Glenn Beck.

In 1989 as the secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush, Cheney brought the mentality that “a nation that can’t defend itself isn’t going to remain free” to the military. He modernized, refined, and finalized former President Ronald Reagan’s defense revival, leading to a swift and surgical Gulf War victory, all while masterfully navigating post-Cold War budget cuts.

“For the first time in decades, Americans felt pride without apology when it came to our military,” says Glenn.

In 2001, Republican candidate George W. Bush chose Cheney as his running mate — a decision Glenn says secured his presidency, as Americans trusted that Cheney’s military experience and success would balance Bush’s inexperience in national security. On September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers collapsed while the president was occupied at an event in Florida, Cheney stepped up as the acting president.

“He was steady, emotionless, and firm. He didn’t tremble. He didn’t panic,” says Glenn, “and in those first few hours, America needed that.”

But then Cheney — a key architect of the Iraq War that ensued after 9/11 — started down a dark path. “[The war] just stretched on and on and on, and the mission became blurry. Freedom became a slogan instead of a strategy, and freedom started to take a different meaning here in America,” says Glenn.

Cheney was a pivotal force in the rapid passing of the Patriot Act — a set of policies that expanded federal surveillance, detention, and intelligence-gathering powers — as well as the formation of the Department of Homeland Security and the expansion of FISA surveillance powers.

“None of those things had anything to do with freedom,” says Glenn.

Then when the anthrax attacks started, it was Cheney who insisted the U.S. expand its defensive bioweapons research programs, culminating in Project BioShield, which allocated $5.6 billion to accelerating research, development, and procurement of countermeasures against biological threats.

“So it was Dick Cheney that urged men like Dr. Anthony Fauci to push research further, faster into what we now call gain of function,” says Glenn.

Looking back at the mixed bag of Cheney’s accomplishments, Glenn says his life “offers both a chance to give medals and lessons.”

He teaches us both “the virtue of strength and the peril of excess.”

“He was the iron for many years in America’s spine after decades of doubt. But he was also a reminder that iron rusts if it is left unexamined,” says Glenn.

“Dick Cheney was a conservative for a man of his time, but he lost one of the main principles, and that is: Conservatives believe in the rule of law and the Constitution. He’s a patriot, yes, but he’s also a warning to us. He helped America find its courage, but he also taught us how easily courage can drift into control.”

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary and analysis, watch the clip above.

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Nebraska law enforcement officers said a 47-year-old woman early last week informed them that her 31-year-old boyfriend had strangled her five to six times that day and had been preventing her from contacting authorities and leaving his presence.

It turns out the alleged victim was able to finally get the attention of police — with the help of a Walmart employee.

Barnhouse didn’t let her leave for the previous two days, as she was trying to get her belongings from the camper and return home to Kansas, officials added.

Gage County Sheriff’s deputies around 5:45 p.m. Oct. 28 responded to the Diamond T Truck Stop Camper Row on US HWY 77 just north of Beatrice for an assault that had occurred earlier in the day, the sheriff’s office said.

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

Image source: Gage County (Neb.) Sheriff’s Office

Upon arrival, deputies made contact with the 47-year-old woman from Hutchinson, Kansas, who told deputies that her boyfriend — 31-year-old Justis Barnhouse — had strangled her five to six times that afternoon, officials said.

Barnhouse took the woman’s cell phone so she couldn’t contact police about the incident, officials said. Barnhouse didn’t let her leave for the previous two days, as she was trying to get her belongings from the camper and return home to Kansas, officials added.

However, officials said that when the woman and Barnhouse went to the Walmart in Beatrice, she got the attention of a Walmart employee and asked the worker to follow her to the restroom.

The sheriff’s office said that allowed the woman to give the employee details about the strangulation — and the employee notified law enforcement.

When deputies arrived at the Diamond T Truck Stop Camper Row, officials said Barnhouse was there — and deputies arrested Barnhouse for assault by strangulation as well as third-degree domestic assault with two priors.

Barnhouse was lodged at the Gage County Detention Center on his charges, officials said. Jail records indicate Barnhouse was still behind bars Wednesday morning.

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America’s legal immigration system is clearly broken, and there’s a Trojan horse hiding in plain sight: the visa system — which allows migrants to overstay their visas regardless of whether or not they pose a danger to society.

And the stories of these dangerous migrants continue to pile up.

In late October, a foreign graduate student allegedly stabbed two teens with a fork and slapped a passenger on a Chicago flight to Germany, which resulted in the flight diverting to Boston.

Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, 28, was arrested upon landing and charged with one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily harm.

“He just stood up and started randomly stabbing two 17-year-olds. One of them was sleeping, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I woke up to this random Indian guy stabbing me in the head with a metal fork,’” BlazeTV Sara Gonzales explains.

“He stabbed another teen in the back of the head,” she adds.

“But the guy came to the United States legally on a student visa, and then he overstayed. … It’s legal at first, until it’s not, and then he becomes a dangerous criminal and dangerous to our country,” she says. “This isn’t the first example of similar attacks.”

In Boulder, Colorado, an Egyptian man who came into the country on a visa in 2023 also overstayed and chose to continue residing in the U.S. as a criminal. Then on June 1 this year, he attacked pro-Israeli protesters with Molotov cocktails.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, threw Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine” at protesters. He injured five protesters, and one passed away from her injuries.

“He came in and he overstayed until he decided to just be a total nutjob criminal,” Gonzales comments, disgusted.

In 2021, another Egyptian man in the U.S. on a student visa stabbed a Jewish rabbi eight times outside a Jewish day school in Boston. The rabbi survived his wounds, and the attack has been labeled as a hate crime.

Khaled Awad, 24, was charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer.

“I wonder why it was a rabbi that he chose,” Gonzales remarks sarcastically, before continuing down the long list of violent criminals who overstayed their visas.

“I could just keep going, but I think that you get the point,” she says.

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Cory Bowman, Vice President JD Vance’s 36-year-old half-brother, decided to run for mayor of Cincinnati after watching President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. He told Politico earlier this year, “I was just really inspired, because I look up to my brother not just as a political model but as a role model.”

Bowman’s stated goal was to address the city’s “deteriorating infrastructure, unsafe streets, and misallocated funds.”

‘Government can’t fix everything.’

Evidently the residents of Cincinnati, who haven’t had a Republican mayor since 1971, weren’t ready for change.

According to the unofficial totals from the Hamilton County Board of Elections, the Democrat incumbent, Mayor Aftab Pureval, beat Bowman by over 55 percentage points — 78.21% to 21.76%. Bowman qualified for the general election after securing only 13% of the vote in the May primary.

“Pray for our leadership,” Bowman said after losing the race. “We have to pray for our city. We want them to win because — I’ve said this since the beginning of the campaign — we cannot copy and paste national politics when it comes to these city elections. We cannot just divide ourselves more and more when it comes to these cities. We want our cities to succeed.”

Although Bowman made abundantly clear that he is proud of his family, particularly his older half-brother, he focused his messaging during the campaign on the needs of the city. Pureval, on the other hand, appeared keen to make the election a referendum on the Trump administration, stating during the Oct. 9 mayoral debate that Bowman “represents MAGA” and “you either support the Trump agenda or you don’t.”

RELATED: Progressive wins VA race despite admitted indifference to ‘sexually explicit material’ in schools

Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“You can’t run for mayor and not be concerned with the federal employees who are getting fired, not be concerned with the racializing of our own public safety challenges here in our community,” said the Democrat mayor, who underscored in May that Cincinnati is a sanctuary city and should remain “a global destination for top-tier talent.”

Despite previously smearing his opponent and Bowman’s supporters as “MAGA extremists,” Pureval — who first assumed office in January 2022 — indicated in his victory speech that Bowman was “very classy” in how he handled the defeat and signaled an interest in possible collaboration down the road.

Bowman was one of several Republicans who experienced humiliating defeats on Tuesday.

Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor, lost her state’s gubernatorial election by double digits to Democrat radical Abigail Spanberger; Republican strategist John Reid lost the election for Virginia’s lieutenant governor to Democrat Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi; and Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli lost the New Jersey gubernatorial race to Democrat candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill.

Bowman wrapped up his concession speech with a Christian message, stating, “Government can’t fix everything, but you know what can fix everything is our relationship with Jesus Christ. And that’s why I want to encourage anybody watching, as well, if you’ve never given your heart to Jesus, if you’ve never even considered it, try it.”

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It was with great interest that I read Matthew Gasda’s latest essay, on the state of men in 2025, “Masculinity at the End of History.”

Gasda has a lot of things to say that are germane to my new book, “The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity” (out December 16), not least of all whether America — and indeed the Western world as a whole — exhibits what could be called a “crisis of masculinity” in the first place.

We have reams of data showing what can only be described as a civilizational decline in testosterone levels, a decline that may have no parallel in history.

There are plenty of observers — writers, social scientists, journalists, politicians, celebrity psychologists — who think so.

A crisis in need of a crisis

Gasda disagrees. In fact, he believes the absence of a crisis is precisely what’s ailing America’s young men. Men need crises in order to be men. Without crises, their mettle isn’t tested, they have no higher aspirations to direct themselves toward, and so they fall into a listless state, an aimless state, a kind of suspended adolescence.

Porn. Pot. Video games. Social media. Processed food. Logging on and dropping out. We all know what it looks like.

“Masculinity is desperate for a crisis,” Gasda writes in the opening paragraphs of his essay.

It is docile, unsure, and formless. At most, it is at the germinal phase of crisis, lacking a catalytic agent to propel it to its full-blown state, which at least can be registered and reckoned with. After all, crisis implies that something is happening, that something is at stake. The uncatalyzed proto-crisis, or the noncrisis, of American masculinity is repressed, unexpressed, yet omnipresent.

It’s a typical literary switcheroo — Gasda is a playwright, after all — but he’s not wrong. Nor is he the first to say that what men really need is a crisis — read: something extraordinary — to give full form to their potential.

Declaring ‘war’

Back in 1910, the pragmatist philosopher William James, brother of the novelist Henry, wrote an essay called “The Moral Equivalent of War.” A committed socialist and pacifist, James nevertheless regretted the march of progress and with it the (apparent) decline of war, because he recognized war’s power to form young men and inculcate in them the highest possible virtues. War teaches men to subordinate themselves and their needs to those of the collective, to pursue a higher goal, and, if need be, to give their lives for it. War teaches men courage, service, self-sacrifice, stoicism, and patriotism, and all of these things are necessary for a properly functioning nation in peace.

But war is also a terrible, terrible thing — and it was rapidly becoming much worse, though just how much worse James could not have foreseen. What we need, James argues, is a “moral equivalent” of war, a substitute that could teach men the same lessons without the enormous destructive cost.

James’ proposal is quite clever: Rather than a war against each other, we need a war with nature. Young men should be enlisted into a national struggle to conquer and tame nature and to revolutionize the means of production. Send boys off to build railroads and skyscrapers and ships, and they’ll return as men, ready to lead families and the nation.

Manufacturing manhood

This isn’t too different, actually, from what Gasda advocates in his new essay, when he says a national project in which all or many men could participate might be a great spur to masculine revival.

If the objective of America in the years ahead is to reclaim global leadership in industrial production, that is, in the making of things in the real-world economy, as opposed to just in the realm of bits and pixels, then new avenues for masculine exertion, discipline, creativity, and camaraderie may arise from such a project.

There’s much to like in Gasda’s essay and much to agree with. He’s right about how the breakdown of communities and the loss of tradition have hindered the transmission of masculine ideals across the generations. He’s right about the need for rites of passage to confer status on men. Countless anthropological studies have shown the crucial role, in virtually every kind of society except our own, of tests of courage and fortitude at key moments in life, and psychologists have demonstrated how pain and trauma bond people together and provide a sense of shared identity.

He’s also right to argue that Americans must “historicize” masculinity. That is, they must understand its peculiar focus on strenuous exertion and relentless self-making in its particular historical context: a masculine ideal developed in conflict with a frontier, both the physical frontier of western expansion and the social and moral frontiers of a new national identity.

And he’s right, obviously, that we live in an age that’s fundamentally hostile to expressions of masculinity and that we can’t simply return to the past and past ideals, as so many simple-minded critics of the modern world, especially on social media, seem to believe.

That’s all to the good. But there are also serious problems.

No country for men

For one thing, it’s not clear just how much American men really could get behind a drive to, in Gasda’s words, “reclaim global leadership in industrial production.”

If America does return to industrial pre-eminence, most if not nearly all manufacturing is going to be high-tech and automated — hardly the kind of gigantic Soviet five-year plan that could simply swallow up millions of men and give them jobs in factories or even give them jobs at all.

It’s not just manufacturing that is on the verge of making human labor largely a thing of the past. Whole swaths of industry and even white-collar fields are undergoing the same revolutionary changes. Librarians and lawyers and proofreaders and doctors will be replaced by AI and large language models too.

The testosterone decline

A far graver problem, from my perspective, is that like the vast majority of the so-called “crisis of masculinity” literature that he derides, Gasda fails to take seriously, or even acknowledge, the biological changes that are throwing men’s masculinity into doubt — in particular, a headlong decline in testosterone, the master male hormone that’s responsible for making men men and not women.

Testosterone is not just responsible for sexual differentiation — for the physical characteristics that define boys, beginning in the womb and proceeding through infancy and the teenage years into adulthood — but it also governs male mood, motivation, libido, and even things like political attitudes.

Although we should be careful not to say testosterone determines political views, social psychology experiments reveal that a testosterone boost will make a man more likely to defend his position even when he’s outnumbered by people who disagree with him; it will make him more likely to continue fighting against a much stronger opponent; it will make him more accepting of hierarchy and inequality; it will make him more generous to his in-group — his own people — and more aggressive toward his out-group — potential enemies.

In short, testosterone and its effects are complex, but they work in ways that obviously tend toward behavior we associate with traditional masculinity. The less of it men have, the less masculine they become, as a basic rule.

Aggressively overlooked

Open a best-selling book like Richard Reeves’ “Of Boys and Men,” head to the index, and look for “testosterone,” and you’ll find a poverty of references. Reeves talks about testosterone for just a few pages, but only to dispel the notion that boys “are their hormones,” meaning boys aren’t doomed to be aggressive because they have more testosterone (pop science’s “aggression hormone”) than girls. That’s it. Apparently, biology just isn’t important when we’re talking about the serious problems with men today.

It’s a strange oversight. We have reams of data showing what can only be described as a civilizational decline in testosterone levels, a decline that may have no parallel in history. We know what this decline entails, and if we don’t, we really should try to find out.

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Compelling evidence

The first real herald of a civilizational decline in testosterone levels was the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a gold-standard double-blind controlled study of men in the Boston area. The study took place over a period of around 20 years, from the end of the 1980s to the early 2000s. Men of all ages were selected at random and given a battery of tests at regular intervals. When the testosterone data was finally analyzed in 2007, it showed testosterone levels were declining year over year at a rate of about 1%.

That might not sound like much, but over a period of 20 years, that’s 20%, or one-fifth. On a longer timeline, say 50 years, that’s half of all testosterone — gone.

Researchers in other countries, including Finland and Israel, wanted to see whether the same trend was happening in their countries. In Finland, where male reproductive parameters are generally better than in the U.S., the researchers believed the Boston trend would not be replicated. Guess what? The trend was actually worse, and the researchers showed it was taking place over a much longer period of time. The results of the MMAS were replicated in Israel, too, and in other American studies.

Quantifying maleness

It’s hard to quantify exactly how many men have low testosterone, in large part because nobody agrees on exactly how little testosterone counts as low. Ask one doctor and he’ll give you one figure; another will tell you it’s half or double that amount.

Symptomology is generally the best way to go looking for low testosterone, and what we see, everywhere we turn, is men who look and behave like they have low testosterone.

In Japan today, there are millions of hikikomori, or extreme social recluses — young men who simply refuse to participate in society. They hide themselves away at home, often with their parents, and play video games, eat junk food, and just “rot,” to use a current term.

At least one expert believes there may be as many as 10 million hikikomori, in a nation of 120 million people — that’s one in 12 people. Unsurprisingly — to me at least — research has shown young Japanese men are at significantly greater risk of becoming hikikomori if they have low testosterone.

America has its hikikomori too, although they aren’t called that. Maybe as many as 6 million, by some estimates.

Some of them congregate in special subforums on the website Reddit, like r/lowT, where they discuss what it’s like to be a man with low testosterone: how they have no motivation, no libido, can’t sleep, can’t get an erection, are developing gynecomastia — man boobs — and are overweight and anxious all the time.

Many of these men also describe the miraculous effects of increasing their testosterone, more often than not through a doctor’s prescription of testosterone in gel or injectable form.

Spermageddon?

What’s even more worrying about this decline is that it’s part and parcel of a broader decline in reproductive health parameters among men.

This isn’t a surprise: If men’s testes aren’t functioning properly and producing enough testosterone, they’re unlikely to be producing enough of other important things either. Sperm counts and sperm quality — a measure of sperm’s ability to swim properly and do their job — are declining so rapidly that one expert, Professor Shanna Swan, is predicting a “spermageddon” scenario, in which humans are unable to reproduce by natural means.

Swan made this the subject of a 2021 book, “Count Down.” Simply by extrapolating the data for sperm-count decline, Swan has shown that by around 2050, the median man will have a sperm count of zero. One half of all men will produce no sperm at all, and the rest will produce so few that they might as well produce none, because they won’t be able to get a woman pregnant, try as they might.

What’s causing these changes? It’s lots of different things, a whole range of lifestyle factors — lack of exercise, smoking, bad diets, poor sleep, stress — but also widespread exposure to harmful chemicals known as “endocrine disruptors,” for their negative effects on the body’s hormonal (endocrine) system.

From low-T to trans

When I say endocrine disruptors are everywhere, I mean it: They’re in the food, the air, the water, the clothes we wear, our bedding and furniture, the deodorants and fragrances we put on our bodies, the little scented trees we put in our cars, anything that’s made from plastic.

A significant proportion of these harmful chemicals directly or indirectly mimic the effects of the hormone estrogen, interfering with the body’s crucial hormonal balance (more testosterone and less estrogen for men, the opposite for women). This is a nightmare for both sexes. As well as reducing testosterone and fertility in men, exposure to endocrine disruptors can lead to genital abnormalities, weight gain, and metabolic issues and even certain kinds of cancer.

New research has linked exposure to endocrine disruptors during gestation to transgenderism. French boys exposed to the chemical diethylstilbestrol, which used to be given to mothers at risk of miscarriage, had a massively increased risk — perhaps as much as a hundredfold — of undergoing gender transition later in life. On paper, it was always plausible that exposure to endocrine disruptors should be linked to gender dysphoria, but since transgenderism is such a toxic issue politically, there’s been little desire, until now, to pursue research into the link.

In a very real sense, then, not only have we created a society where masculinity is ridiculed, dragged through the mud, and denounced as retrograde, we’ve also created one where the biological constituents of masculinity, its very building blocks, are under direct attack at the same time. It’s a complicated problem, and it’s viciously circular. Biology and society exist in feedback loops, with negative effects reinforcing each other, deepening the spiraling decline.

While Gasda, like William James before him, may be right that men need a crisis to bring out the best in them, the very real danger today is that when one finally comes, men won’t have the energy or enthusiasm or desire to put down the controller, stand up, and answer its call. And if that really is the case, testosterone — the lack of it — will be to blame.

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Rural Illinois near the Indiana border, about an hour south of the bright lights of Chicago, is dotted with small cities with the hometown feel for which the Midwest is well known. With small populations and low crime, police officers in these areas are familiar faces who are revered for their service to their community.

But in this region is at least one cop, Officer Quincy Spears, who has bounced around from department to department, carving out a lengthy career in law enforcement in spite of a troubling track record that dates back decades.

‘He’s a bad person, and he shouldn’t be wearing a badge.’

Internal affairs investigations at Watseka Police Department, where Spears is still believed to be employed, seem to have escalated since Blaze News began looking into complaints against Spears in early September.

In response to public records requests, the City of Watseka told Blaze News on September 4 that its police department did “not have any complaints against Officer Spears.” The city reiterated on October 9 that the police department did “not have any email communications regarding Quincy Spears” and that he had “no disciplinary records” there.

By October 29, the city had discovered email complaints and incident reports about Spears that it sent along to Blaze News, and WCIA had reported that “multiple” Watseka police officers were under investigation by the Illinois State Police. While Police Chief Eric Starkey declined to identify the officers involved, he confirmed to WCIA that they have been on leave since July.

Screenshot of letter sent to Blaze News

Screenshot of letter sent to Blaze News

A public records request to Watseka asking for Spears’ work-related gas receipts through October 24 revealed that Spears had been submitting receipts for his patrol work regularly until September 28, when the submissions abruptly stopped.

Despite the breadth of accusations against him, Quincy Spears did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Blaze News.

Who is Quincy Spears?

Quincy Spears is a 47-year-old native son of this area, born in Kankakee, Illinois, according to an application he completed for the Manteno Police Department in March 2006, and currently living in Momence, about 10 miles east of Kankakee. Spears married in 2002, and he and his wife have at least two children.

Spears began his career in law enforcement “right after” he graduated high school in 1997, he wrote on the Manteno application.

‘Ptlm. Spears Incidents’

That career got off to a rough start. Spears admitted on the application that he had been “asked to resign” from his job as a corrections officer at the Kankakee County Detention Center after less than a year “for horseplaying on the job.”

Since that brief stint at the correctional facility, Spears has worked either part-time or full-time for police departments in four different Illinois municipalities: Grant Park, population 1,300; Momence, population 3,100; Manteno, population 9,200; and most recently, Watseka, population 4,700.

The vast majority of that time, more than 15 years, was spent with the Manteno Police Department, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.

The accusations against Spears are rather wide-ranging and start from his earliest years as an officer. In 2005, he ignored direct instructions from his supervisor and administered a breathalyzer test on a subject who “did not appear at all intoxicated and was cooperating fully,” according to a report that appeared to be signed by the then-chief of Momence PD.

According to another document titled “Ptlm. Spears Incidents,” believed to have been created by Manteno PD, Spears:

hit a parked car just before 1 a.m. in February 2008,had a “dog bite” incident at his residence in February 2012,”blew” a stop sign in front of a fellow officer on an “unknown date and time,”and was involved in two disturbances and one alleged “fight” at various bars while off duty.

RELATED: Corrupt cops, silent press: Legacy media ignores Capitol Police’s decades of corruption

Screenshot of police documents

‘Without her consent’

Perhaps the most alarming accusations against Spears relate to his treatment of women. Blaze News first learned of Spears after a father in Momence reached out to express concerns about Spears’ alleged harassment of his daughter.

Though nearly 30 years old, the man’s daughter has special needs, and Spears, a fellow Momence resident, routinely makes comments to her while she walks to and from work that make her “uncomfortable,” the man explained to Blaze News.

‘On several occasions,’ Spears ‘placed his hands between her legs near her vagina,’ one woman claimed.

“He drives by in his golf cart and, you know, wolf-whistles and harasses and yells her nickname at her all the time and basically does not leave her alone,” said the father, who asked not to be named.

The father indicated that his daughter does not have the wherewithal to defend herself against this alleged treatment. “She just kind of puts her head down and keeps walking,” he said. When the father confronted Spears about the comments, Spears “laughed it off,” the man recalled. “He thought I was joking.”

The father noted that while these alleged instances occur while Spears is off duty, his daughter knows Spears and recognizes him as a police officer.

RELATED: Minneapolis cops say Derek Chauvin should get a federal pardon: ‘Railroaded’

Heather Freinkel/Getty Images

To the best of the father’s knowledge, Spears’ alleged comments to his daughter, while unwelcome, have never been sexually explicit or crossed the line into inappropriate physical contact. Other women in the area have told a different story.

In a report filed with Manteno PD on March 7, 2018, two adult sisters told officers that Spears had repeatedly touched them inappropriately under the guise of affectionate friendliness.

On “numerous occasions,” Spears had “placed his hands on her breasts and buttocks without her consent,” one woman said, according to the report. She claimed he does so “in a joking manner … often while hugging, greeting, or approaching her.” She estimated he had done so “at least 100 times over the past several years.”

When he touches her rear end, Spears “doesn’t just put his hands on it but puts it [as] deep and low in between her legs as he can,” she claimed.

Her sister added that “on several occasions,” Spears “placed his hands between her legs near her vagina,” the report said. Both women claimed they asked Spears to stop, but the behavior continued.

The first sister also insisted she had seen Spears similarly “groping” other women, sometimes with “their husband or boyfriend” standing nearby. Though the men objected, Spears “uses his status as a police officer to intimidate or deter them from taking it any further,” she claimed.

Despite their apparent discomfort with Spears, the women declined to file a formal complaint, telling officers they “did not want him to lose his job and cause problems for his family.” Their allegations were first raised by a concerned uncle.

The “Ptlm. Spears Incidents” document also mentions a “battery call” to the department made after Spears allegedly “was kissing a women [sic] on the neck and she burnt him with a cigarette and ended up punching him.” According to the incident report, Spears had called the police but later declined to press charges. The female involved was described in the report as one of Spears’ “family members.”

Momence Mayor Chuck Steele, who has known Spears for more than 30 years, described Spears as “touchy-feely” with women and said he would never hire Spears for the Momence department under any circumstances. “He’s a bad person, and he shouldn’t be wearing a badge,” Steele told Blaze News.

‘Allegedly intoxicated and exhibiting obnoxious behavior’

Spears’ file is also filled with reports of disturbing behavior related to alcohol consumption and public intoxication.

The “Ptlm. Spears Incidents” document mentioned above references a bar “fight” on February 27, 2010. Even though no physical altercation appears to have taken place that night, Spears’ behavior before and after the alleged “fight” nonetheless infuriated cops.

Spears was ‘unprofessional and hostile toward both the clerk and the cook who had prepared his order’ because of an apparent ‘dispute over a coupon,’ the attendant claimed.

Hours before the bar “fight” incident, Spears called off sick for a shift that was scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. the following day. When the sergeant on duty arrived at the bar about the “fight” at about 1:15 a.m., less than five hours before Spears’ scheduled shift, he saw Spears “drinking alcohol” and speaking “with slurred speech and appear[ing] to be intoxicated,” the sergeant documented.

Even though he was supposed to be sick, Spears pled his case about his role in the alleged “fight,” claiming that a white male “aggressor” at the bar had insulted Manteno police as “a bunch of p**sies” and called him the N-word, the sergeant reported.

A short time later, after the sergeant had left to attend to a different case, Spears called the sergeant and insisted on reporting for his scheduled shift. After some back-and-forth, the sergeant eventually had to threaten Spears with a breathalyzer before Spears agreed not to come in.

RELATED: The carnage no one talks about: Drunk driving and illegal aliens

ANGHI/Getty Images

The “Ptlm. Spears Incident” document, likely drawn up by Manteno PD, also alleged Spears had called his police chief “while in a ditch drunk,” had “called numerous officers highly intoxicated while off-duty,” and even that he had his firearm owner’s identification “suspended” at an unknown date and time after he was transported to the hospital because he was “extremely intoxicated and … Suicidal.”

Spears was also involved in off-duty incidents at bars in December 2023 and January 2024, according to documents from Watseka PD.

Then on January 27, 2025, a gas station attendant approached a Momence cop who happened to be pumping gas to report an incident involving Spears. The attendant recalled that Spears arrived to pick up a food order in an “allegedly highly intoxicated state” and proceeded to cause “a scene,” the cop wrote in the “Incident Report Involving off duty Officer Spears Quincy.”

Spears was “unprofessional and hostile toward both the clerk and the cook who had prepared his order” because of an apparent “dispute over a coupon,” the attendant claimed, according to the cop’s summary.

The attendant further claimed that it “was not the first time” Spears had entered the store “allegedly intoxicated and exhibiting obnoxious behavior,” the report said.

‘You have some racist black people’

None of the many troubling allegations mentioned above prompted the disciplinary hearing that resulted in Spears’ voluntary resignation from the Manteno Police Department after 15 years on the force.

The two incidents that did lead to the hearing involved his interactions with fellow officers.

‘I never felt more discriminated on in my entire life as a black man.’

The first occurred on December 17, 2020, when a sheriff’s deputy confronted an off-duty Spears outside his home after the deputy reportedly witnessed Spears speeding and failing to signal.

The situation escalated quickly, with Spears demanding to know, “Do you know who I am?” and the deputy warning that the situation could turn into a traffic stop if Spears “continued to talk to [him] that way,” according to the deputy’s statement. Tensions seemed to dissipate a bit after Spears mentioned he was a Manteno officer, and the deputy ultimately left without recording anything or filing an initial report since it was not an official traffic stop.

Spears, however, did not drop the incident. Instead, he called Sgt. Andy Mackin, the Manteno midnight shift supervisor, at around 3 the next morning, more than four hours later, to complain about the deputy’s behavior, and the two spoke for “approx. three hours,” according to Mackin’s statement.

Mackin noted that Spears said “multiple times” that he wanted the deputy “fired” for his actions, which Spears claimed amounted to racial profiling.

“I never felt more discriminated on in my entire life as a black man as that frickin’ day there,” Spears railed during the April 2021 disciplinary hearing, which can be heard in full here. “That’s one of the reasons why African Americans do not complain about the police because of crap like that.”

Though Manteno Chief Alan Swinford noted at the hearing that the deputy involved is also black, Spears was not deterred, replying: “Chief, you have some racist black people as well when it comes to [the] African-American community, as we all know.”

RELATED: White liberals: Stop using ‘racism’ to excuse black crime

Screenshot of photo featuring Officer Quincy Spears and a K-9 officer on the Grant Park Police Department Facebook page

Despite admitting during the hearing that he hoped someone would train the deputy on “how to properly talk to people,” Spears vehemently denied calling for the deputy to be fired, decrying Mackin’s statement that he had as “a bald-face lie.”

The second incident that led to his departure from Manteno PD related to apparent attempts to use his status as a police officer to influence a case involving a friend who had been pulled over for an alleged DUI in March 2021. Spears contacted the deputy involved in the stop as well as other law enforcement personnel to see whether he might convince them “to reduce or drop charges” against his friend, Manteno PD claimed in the notice of allegations.

“Quincy asked if there … was anything I could do to help [redacted] out, since he was his guy,” the deputy wrote in a statement.

During the disciplinary hearing, Spears repeatedly insisted he could not “recall” mentioning anything about the “charges” his friend may have been facing to any of the involved personnel.

Manteno PD did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

‘Not representative of a professional police officer’

Spears resigned from Manteno PD effective June 30, 2021. By November of that year, Spears had already landed a full-time job with the Watseka Police Department.

Momence Mayor Chuck Steele told Blaze News that he spoke with the then-mayor of Watseka to warn him about Spears before the police department hired him. “Don’t even think about putting him in as chief or even anything,” Steele recalled saying. “I said, ‘I’d be afraid to have him. You’re going to end up in lawsuits.'”

It seems Mayor Steele was right as Spears’ behavior did not appear to change.

In December 2023, Spears walked into Momence PD, asking for a job application. When the officer on duty, Sgt. Jeffrey Crocker, directed him to the online application portal, Spears became incensed, contacting Mayor Steele and two city aldermen to complain about Crocker’s alleged mistreatment of him.

‘I have no legal basis for disciplining his off-duty conduct.’

According to statements given to Momence Police Chief Patrick Siemsen, Spears told Mayor Steele that Sgt. Crocker appeared “pissed off that he had to deal with” him and treated him “like a piece of s**t, like a second-class citizen.”

Then-Alderman Romel Huddleston, who is black, told Chief Siemsen that Spears had approached him at a bar two days after the incident and accused Sgt. Crocker of racism. Spears “was attempting to play the ‘Race Card’ and gain sympathy,” Huddleston indicated, according to Siemsen.

Spears also interrupted another alderman out on a date to lodge similar complaints about Crocker, Siemsen reported. Spears then apparently scribbled his version of events on a yellow legal pad and gave it to the alderman. A copy of that note was included in Siemsen’s report.

The note, aptly described as “difficult to understand,” is believed to read: “Tom I went in to apply I talked to Crocker he was so unprofessional, look at his body cam. This might hurt me to be a officer.”

Screenshot of incident report

Frustrated with the man-hours and expense associated with investigating Spears’ allegations of mistreatment, Siemsen filed a formal complaint with the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, accusing Spears of “knowingly and intentionally” making “a false complaint” against Crocker.

“Mr. Spears’ conduct and behavior was egregious, highly unprofessional, unethical, and not representative of a professional police officer,” Siemsen wrote.

Jeremy Douglas, then the Watseka police chief, seemingly shrugged his shoulders, claiming that Spears’ comments were a matter of “opinion” and therefore “protected by the First Amendment.” “I have no legal basis for disciplining his off-duty conduct,” Douglas wrote Siemsen in a letter reviewed by Blaze News.

Huddleston did not respond to a request for comment.

Blaze News sent Watseka PD a series of questions about the vetting process associated with hiring Spears and officials’ level of awareness regarding the allegations against him. We also called and left a message following the news report about the officers under investigation. The department did not respond.

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North Carolina police said that a 13-year-old accused of killing his grandmother charged at police with a two-by-four piece of lumber when they tried to arrest him.

The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to a call for a wellness check at a home on Pearce Place in Raeford at about 9:20 a.m. on Thursday.

‘I can’t even imagine how this happened, truthfully. … I never once saw any of the kids angry about anything. They just seemed like happy, normal kids.’

A second 911 caller said a woman was found unresponsive in the home. Emergency medical services responders pronounced her dead at the scene.

The woman was identified as 68-year-old Connie Linen.

During the investigation into her death, detectives identified her 13-year-old grandson as a suspect, and he was charged with first-degree murder as numerous law enforcement agencies searched for him.

Police said they located the teen inside a stolen car that belonged to his grandmother.

The teen ran away from the car on foot from behind an abandoned mobile home on Black Road in Cameron. Police gave chase and followed him into the woods.

The teenager allegedly charged at police with a two-by-four from a nearby home. Police fired at the teenager and struck him.

He died at the scene, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

RELATED: Man sentenced to 50 years for ‘staggering’ torture of daughter, including force-feeding of laxatives

A neighbor named Bailey Arndt who had recently moved there said she was shocked by the incident.

“It’s so cliche to say that, but you don’t expect to see it on your own street,” Arndt said. “I just pray for them, that they find peace and find a way to cope with all of this.”

Another neighbor said Linen was nice and friendly, and her grandchildren were always well-mannered and respectful.

“Everybody seemed pretty happy. I can’t even imagine how this happened, truthfully,” he said. “I never once saw any of the kids angry about anything. They just seemed like happy, normal kids.”

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The proposition that would allow Democrats in California to further manipulate congressional districts has passed easily, just minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. local time.

Both the New York Times and the Associated Press almost immediately called the contest. Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom had campaigned for the proposition on the basis that it would help combat redistricting schemes in Texas to help Republicans gain seats in Congress.

‘What Proposition 50 represents to those that have been bullied … to those that are concerned about not only themselves but each other, our community, the city, our state, our nation, and, for that matter, what we represent to rest of the world.’

Proposition 50 was the only item on the ballot in California.

Former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came out forcefully against the plan and campaigned to persuade against voting for the proposition.

California spent hundreds of millions of dollars sending 23 million ballots out to the California electorate. It’s expected that five more Democrat seats will be gained in the U.S. Congress because of the proposition.

The president blasted the proposition earlier on Tuesday in a post on social media.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED. All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review,” he wrote.

Newsom characterized the proposition as a referendum against Trump’s policies, including on immigration.

“People are on edge. Communities of color are on edge. Folks scared to death to go out trick-or-treating the other night, scared to walk their dogs, go to a playground, or go to a park or go to a loved one’s funeral because they might be disappeared on the basis of what they look like, where they congregate, the language they speak,” he said to a group of supporters.

RELATED: ‘He did horrible s**t!’ Rogan rips into Newsom’s presidential aspirations — and he fires back

“The essence of this moment, what Proposition 50 represents to those that have been bullied, to those that have been demeaned, to those that feel powerless, to those that are concerned about not only themselves but each other, our community, the city, our state, our nation, and, for that matter, what we represent to rest of the world,” he added.

“That’s what Prop. 50 represents,” Newsom concluded.

Polling prior to the election had the proposition ahead with the support of about 56% in one poll, while only 43% said they would vote against the measure.

“Donald Trump asks for 5 seats and [Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott automatically bends the knee,” wrote Newsom in a post from July.

“The 2026 election is being rigged. California won’t sit back and watch this happen,” he added.

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The controversial Democrat who was caught wishing death on a Republican and his children has astoundingly won the election to be Virginia’s attorney general.

Incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares was unable to defeat former Virginia Del. Jay Jones despite a damaging scandal involving death-threat texts.

‘Are we going to pass the test of decency?’

The contest was called for Jones at about 9:50 p.m. local time by Fox News, only a few hours after the polls closed in Virginia at 7 p.m. local time.

The campaign was the most expensive in U.S. history for a state attorney general’s race. Republicans spent $21.9 million and Democrats spent $14.9 million on the race, according to AdImpact. CNN exit polls showed Miyares winning men by 18 points, 40-58, but Jones winning women by 12, 55-43.

The contest was roiled by the texts from Jones, which were obtained and released by National Review. The messages were sent in August 2022 about then-Virginia Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert (R). Republicans demanded that Democrats withdraw their endorsements for Jones, but many resisted and Jones remained in the race.

“Three people, two bullets,” read the text from Jones. “Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot.”

He added, “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head… Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”

He reportedly went on to wish harm on the Republican’s children as well.

Jones did not deny writing the texts in an initial statement responding to the report.

“Like all people, I’ve sent text messages that I regret, and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics,” Jones wrote in statement to WTVR-TV.

“Let’s be clear about what is happening in the attorney general race right now,” he continued. “Jason Miyares is dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign. This is a strategy that ensures Jason Miyares will continue to be accountable to Donald Trump, not the people of Virginia. This race is about whether Trump can control Virginia or Virginians control Virginia.”

He later apologized and took responsibility for the texts.

RELATED: Democrat Jay Jones tries to pivot debate away from vile texts wishing death on a rival’s kids — but Virginia AG won’t let him

A Fox News exit poll found that 46% of Virginia voters said the texts were disqualifying. Others said they were concerning but not disqualifying or that they hadn’t heard enough about the texts.

Miyares is 49 years old and was the first Hispanic American elected to statewide office in Virginia.

He called on Jones to step down from the campaign during their fiery debate, but the Democrat refused.

“Are we going to pass the test of decency?” Miyares asked the voters in his final statement.

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Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani became the first openly socialist candidate to sweep the New York City mayoral race Tuesday night.

Mamdani secured 50% of the vote, while independent candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo won 41.4%, according to the Associated Press. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who was widely regarded as a spoiler candidate for Cuomo, won just 7.7% of the vote.

His brazen embrace of socialism raised eyebrows across the political spectrum.

Current New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) did attempt to run for re-election, but eventually dropped his bid in September.

RELATED: Is Trump meddling with Mamdani’s candidacy?

Photo by Hiroko Masuike-Pool/Getty Images

Mamdani consistently campaigned on progressive policies, offering a socialist antidote to New Yorkers who struggled with affordability. Some of these policies include rent freezes, free buses, city-run grocery stores, and free child care.

Although this clearly appealed to residents of America’s most expensive city, his brazen embrace of socialism raised eyebrows across the political spectrum. Despite living in Brooklyn, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) declined to say whether he voted for the Democrat candidate.

Zohran’s candidacy created a unique alliance between President Donald Trump and Cuomo. Leading up to the election, Trump urged New Yorkers to vote for Cuomo instead of Mamdani or even Sliwa, the Republican candidate.

RELATED: Zohran Mamdani’s Soviet dream for New York City

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

“I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday. “He was nothing as an Assemblyman, ranked at the bottom of the class and, as Mayor of potentially, again, the Greatest City in the World, HE HAS NO CHANCE to bring it back to its former Glory!”

“We must also remember this — A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” Trump added. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

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