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Twelve years ago this week, the federal government shut down over a fight that should have mattered more than any budget squabble in modern history: Obamacare.

In 2013, House and Senate conservatives — led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — refused to fund Barack Obama’s budget unless the pending health care law was stripped of its most ruinous provisions. They warned it would crush Americans with skyrocketing premiums and limited choice.

Instead of begging Democrats for a short-term continuing resolution, Republicans should force the debate they’ve been avoiding.

They were right. And today, watching those predictions come true, the defeat still stings. Democrats always stay united on health care. Republicans, even now, act as if the issue doesn’t exist.

The lost fight

In that 2013 showdown, Republicans held the stronger hand. They controlled the House and could have passed a full funding bill minus Obamacare. The law was still unpopular, the website was collapsing, and millions were losing coverage.

Democrats had already lost more than 60 House seats and a generation of state-level power because of their support for the 2009 law. The “dependency” phase hadn’t yet taken hold, but the costs were already exploding — premiums jumped 47% in the first year alone.

Yet GOP leaders sabotaged their own side. After Cruz’s 21-hour Senate filibuster demanding a defund vote, the Republican establishment turned its fire inward.

John McCain scolded Cruz from the Senate floor for comparing the fight to World War II and calling it a “great disservice” to veterans. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dismissed the strategy as “not a smart play.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned against risking a shutdown “doomed to fail.”

Instead of hammering Democrats for creating unaffordable health care, the GOP obsessed over process. The pressure worked. On October 17, Republicans surrendered unconditionally — and Obamacare became untouchable.

At the time, I wrote:

If we are resigned to letting go of the Obamacare fight in the budget, there is no way it will ever be repealed, even partially repealed. By 2017 … there will be over 30 million people either willingly or unwillingly dependent on Obamacare. Even if it’s barely workable, it will be the only care they have. We cannot repeal it.

That prediction also came true.

Failure by surrender

Twelve years later, after winning full control of government, Republicans still couldn’t repeal the law. Now, even with a new GOP trifecta, they’re struggling to stop Joe Biden’s insolvent expansion of it.

On paper, Democrats should have the weaker hand today. They control no chamber of Congress and are threatening a shutdown to preserve health care subsidies no one voted for.

Yet they’ve managed to frame the fight around the “cost of health care” — a problem created entirely by Obamacare itself. Republicans’ silence only amplifies the lie.

Democrats are betting that voters no longer remember why premiums exploded or why subsidies now cover nearly every enrollee. They’re counting on a GOP that can’t articulate the obvious: Obamacare made health care unaffordable and fueled the broader inflation strangling families.

Even the Washington Post recently admitted in an editorial that “the real problem is that the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable.”

A second chance

Republicans now have the opportunity they squandered a decade ago. With control of the White House and Congress, they can finally make the case for repeal and for genuine, market-based reform.

They can remind Americans that we’re paying Cadillac prices for catastrophic coverage — massive deductibles, 33% denial rates, and bloated UnitedHealth plans protected by federal subsidy. They can expose the system for what it is: a monopoly masquerading as compassion.

RELATED: Smash the health care cartel, free the market

Photo by JDawnInk via Getty Images

Instead of begging Democrats for a short-term continuing resolution, Republicans should force the debate they’ve been avoiding. Health care can’t be fixed by tinkering at the edges. It must be freed from Washington’s grip.

Twelve years ago, Republicans claimed they lacked the leverage to stop Obamacare. Today, Democrats have no leverage at all — and they’re the ones complaining about the costs of their own creation.

God doesn’t hand out many second chances, especially in politics. Republicans just got one. They’d better use it.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Obamacare, Affordable care act, Affordable care, Healthcare, Health care prices, Republicans, Democrats, Congress, Ted cruz, Filibuster, Mike lee, John mccain, Mitch mcconnell, Barack obama, Budget, Cadillac insurance, Defeat 

Longtime CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour offered a lengthy apology for comments comparing the treatment of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the plight of the residents in the Gaza Strip.

Amanpour was reporting on the historic peace deal negotiated by President Donald Trump for Hamas to return hostages to Israel, both living and the remains of the dead. Even critics of the president have had to acknowledge his efforts to secure peace.

‘I regret also saying that they may have been treated better than many Gazans because Hamas used these hostages as pawns and bargaining chips.’

“Earlier live on air, I spoke about what a day of real joy this is, for Israeli families whose loved ones are finally being returned from two years of horrific Hamas captivity, and for civilians in Gaza, who have finally had a reprieve from two years of brutal, deadly war,” she wrote.

“I noted that for the hostages who are finally home, it will take a long time for them to recover mentally and physically. But I regret also saying that they may have been treated better than many Gazans because Hamas used these hostages as pawns and bargaining chips,” Amanpour added.

“It was insensitive and wrong,” she wrote.

“From speaking to many former hostages and their families, like everyone I’ve been horrified at what Hamas has subjected them to over two long years,” she continued.

“They’ve told me their stories of barely being able to breathe in the tunnels, not being allowed to cry, being starved and made to dig their own graves — and of course today, some of the hostages are coming back in body bags,” she concluded.

RELATED: New York Times writer mocked and ridiculed for regurgitating bizarre NPR claim against Israel

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

For some, Amanpour’s apology fell on deaf ears.

“This almost looks like an apology. But what you said didn’t surprise me even one bit,” replied former Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus.

“You have been consistent in your systemic disdain for Israel,” he added. “So many masks have fallen since October 7, yours being one of the first ones to fall and reveal your true colors.”

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​Christiane amanpour, Apology, Israel vs hamas, Hamas hostage deal, Politics 

Bill & Ted are Waiting for Godot.

That was the pitch. I’m going to attend a matinee performance of “Waiting for Godot,” Samuel Beckett’s tragicomedy in two acts, at the Hudson Theater on Broadway. After which I will review Bill S. Preston, Esquire’s and Ted “Theodore” Logan’s excellent adventure into the theatre (with a hard “re”) of the absurd.

Were I waiting for Godot, I’d pass the time pretty much the way I did during intermission: by deleting spam voicemails offering me personal loans and tax relief.

I’m sure that was also the pitch to bring together Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter to play Estragon and Vladimir, respectively. The marketing is right there. But the play itself — which has a couple of winks to the “Bill & Ted” trilogy — will keep you waiting for the Wyld Stallyns to show up.

Spoiler: They, like Godot, never do. Instead, Reeves and Winter are Estragon and Vladimir in full — waiting brilliantly.

Wither Wick?

It’s wild to watch an action-hero mainstay like Reeves pull off Estragon: weak, bootless (at times it’s one boot, other times it’s both), can’t remember yesterday or even parts of today, regularly beaten by thugs off stage …

There’s no sign of John Wick or Johnny Utah in his performance and certainly no Neo. If the play’s two acts were “The Matrix,” there’s no red pill to free him or Didi (his affectionate name for Vladimir) from it. If anything, it’s as if the companions have been damned by an overdose of blue pills.

“Who am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can’t tell them to you?” Estragon asks his friend, with whom he shares a waking nightmare.

Winter’s Vladimir compliments his Gogo (his nickname for Estragon). Not with kind words — there are many times when he’s quite brutal to his friend — but with warm embraces, his own coat, carrots and radishes, and ways to pass the time, as they wait for Godot, which Vladimir constantly has to remind Estragon that they’re doing.

For what purpose? Why are they waiting for Godot? No one knows.

1953: Pierre Latour and Lucien Raimbourg in the original Paris production of “Waiting for Godot.” Lipnitzki/Getty Images

Tunnel vision

Director Jamie Lloyd makes some great choices, from casting to staging and sound design. Every version of the play I’d seen before had kept the setting to Beckett’s minimal specifications. Act one opens on “A country road. A tree. Evening.” And in act two, we learn that some time has passed, hence, “The tree has four or five leaves.”

Instead of planting the tree on stage, Lloyd has the cast address the tree out somewhere in the audience. So I got to imagine the following happening somewhere above my face:

VLADIMIR
… What do we do now?

ESTRAGON:
Wait.

VLADIMIR:
Yes, but while waiting.

ESTRAGON:
What about hanging ourselves?

VLADIMIR:
Hmm. It’d give us an erection.

ESTRAGON:
(highly excited). An erection!

All the action happens in or around a huge tunnel that’s been built on the stage. The tunnel looks really cool — like something you could skateboard on — and it aids the physical comedy. Picture a barefoot Reeves running up a half-pipe only to slide down and pass out into sleep. At times, the tunnel appears to open and shut like the aperture of a camera, and its design is used to manipulate the sounds of the play, both the music and spoken lines.

The supporting cast is powerful. Pozzo, played by Brandon J. Dirden, is scary, imposing, and cruel — especially to his “pig” Lucky (played by Michael Patrick Thornton), who is in a wheelchair. I thought Lloyd chose to put the actor in a wheelchair, but it turns out Thornton is actually paralyzed in real life and uses one. So not a choice per se? — but it works. A lucky break.

Down in the hole

The first time I read “Waiting for Godot” was in high school. I have Brother Jeff — who was the sole Franciscan in a school of Marists — to thank for feeding me and the rest of our AP English class a bibliography of dread. So in addition to “Godot,” we read James Joyce’s “The Dead,” T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and other works that explored the meaninglessness and senselessness of life that I was not prepared for.

I may still not be prepared for it. It’s been 25 years since I graduated from Catholic school, and “Godot” still haunts me: “Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps.”

Going into the Hudson Theater, I thought Lloyd might play up the “Bill & Ted” angle and set the play in a Circle K parking lot — you know, where the dudes encounter the phone-booth time machine and Rufus (George Carlin) for the first time.

But phone booths aren’t a thing any more, so I thought a more accurate contemporary version of “Waiting for Godot” would be Vladimir and Estragon texting each other their dialogue — “Nothing to be done 😢” — followed by two acts of doomscrolling.

RELATED: Haunting play ‘October 7’ lets Hamas terror survivors speak

Phelim McAleer

The weight of waiting

The official Instagram account for the play shared a post that leaned into the year 2025 with a cute group chat between Estragon, Vladimir, and Godot. Godot is typing (as depicted with an ellipses), and the phone has existentially low battery life. But alas, none of the characters in the show has an iPhone — not even a beeper.

The play is a real nostalgia trip. Beckett’s masterpiece is over 70 years old, the leads were once teen heartthrobs, they’re wearing bowler hats, and it’s a throwback to a time when boredom was possible.

When was the last time you were bored — when you felt the weight of waiting?

Thanks to my phone, boredom is almost an impossibility. Before showtime, I scrolled — until I was told it was time to put my phone away. Were I waiting for Godot, I’d pass the time pretty much the way I did during intermission: by deleting spam voicemails offering me personal loans and tax relief. I could imagine purgatory doing nothing but this. What could be worse?

Well, “in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo performed in a Zoom version of ‘Godot.'” There’s your answer.

No play for young men

Ian McKellen as Estragon and Patrick Stewart as Vladimir. Robbie Jack/Getty Images

I think part of the greatness of “Godot” has to do with Beckett’s creation of characters that really take the form of the actors portraying them. Casting friends makes sense. I don’t know how close Pierre Latour and Lucien Raimbourg were when they were cast to perform the first presentation of “En Attendant Godot” in Paris in 1952. Maybe they were the Bill and Ted of their day?

On Instagram, actor Eric Stolz shares his memory of the 1988 production starring Robin Williams and Steve Martin: “I’ve often thought that Beckett would have loved that Production, the absurdity they embraced brought it into the realm of the Marxs [sic] Brothers, which to me is a great compliment.”

After going down the “Godot” rabbit hole, I found that the duo that really nailed it for me was Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. As much as I love Reeves’ and Winter’s performances, I have to admit my ageism. The boys — ages 61 and 60 — are just too young and fit for the roles.

McKellen and Stewart were in their 70s when they contemplated hanging themselves from that lone tree and argued over the salvation of the crucified thief in the Gospels. And it really works, because they’re old men. Vladimir has to piss uncontrollably, Estragon is senile, and they both stink like old men stink. Because they’re old men.

Vladimir and Estragon are excited over an erection — even if they have to hang themselves to get one — because they’re old and impotent. That joke’s been on my mind for 25 years — but now I realize that beyond the shock of the thought, the joke only really lands if we’re seeing old men deliver it. And while Keanu and Winter nail the back-and-forth — I literally loled — I don’t believe they’d need to commit suicide to get a hard-on.

I admit that I may have been influenced by a video I watched of Ian McKellen where he talks about “Waiting”:

But what are they waiting for? I think the play’s been so popular over the years because Beckett was the first person to realize that an awful lot of life is about waiting. You were probably all waiting to come tonight. Probably in the odd moments in the last week when you’ve been thinking [mimes looking at his watch]: Christmas, or birthday, or holiday, or examinations; waiting to go to college, waiting to meet the right person. My age, waiting for death. We’re all waiting. What we’re doing is passing time. Getting through. … And Godot’s just a bit of hope to make life a little better.

After the curtain call, when the house lights came up, an usher was waiting to speak to a woman in my row. Apparently the woman had been recording the performance on her phone. You won’t find her footage online. She was forced to delete it. The play runs through early January 2026. Don’t wait to see it. It’ll pass the time.

​Culture, Theater, New york, Plays, Samuel beckett, Bill & ted’s excellent adventure, Movies, Alex winter, Keanu reeves, Waiting for godot, Ian mckellen, Patrick stewart, Review 

You may not know Steve Eisman’s name, but you should. He was the investor who bet against Wall Street in 2008 and won big — to the tune of $800 million, with a current net worth in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion. If you saw “The Big Short,” Steve Carell played him as Mark Baum.

Americans are past living paycheck to paycheck. They’re living loan to loan.

These days, Eisman hosts “The Real Eisman Playbook” on YouTube. And like in 2007, he’s warning again — this time about the fragile state of the American consumer.

He isn’t alone. In a recent episode, Eisman spoke with Lakshmi Ganapathi of Unicus Research, who shares her grim view of the U.S. economy. Their conversation, combined with the data, paints a picture more alarming than most headlines dare admit.

Consumers are broke

“If you deduct the AI expenditures,” Eisman said, “… the U.S. economy is not even growing, really, 50 basis points, outside of AI.” In plain English: Without the artificial-intelligence boom, growth would be nearly flat at around 0.5% growth — likely even lower — not the 3.8% the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported for the second quarter of 2025.

Ganapathi didn’t mince words either. “Consumers are broke,” she said. “The monthly budget math no longer works.”

That’s what happens when Washington spends decades pretending math doesn’t matter. During COVID, federal “stimulus” checks poured roughly $800 billion into households. The cash wave briefly made millions look creditworthy — even as the underlying economy collapsed.

“Subprime consumers became prime,” Ganapathi explained. With reporting on student-loan and credit-card delinquencies suspended, millions suddenly looked like perfect borrowers. Credit scores soared to 700 and 800.

“They got a check that made them look richer than they actually were,” Eisman noted.

Banks then bundled those inflated loans into asset-backed securities — the same shell game that fueled the 2008 meltdown. The illusion of “prime credit” returned, this time wrapped in COVID relief and moral hazard.

The debt pyramid

Ganapathi described auto loans now stretching to 84 months — seven years — at 22% to 23% interest, which is credit-card territory. Americans collectively carry $1.2 trillion in card debt and $676 billion in car loans.

Add mortgages and student loans, and the numbers turn grotesque. Americans owe $20.83 trillion on homes, with an average interest rate of 6.37% on a 30-year note, and $1.81 trillion on student loans. We pay roughly $1.6 trillion a year in interest alone.

And since Washington nationalized student lending under Obama, it can now garnish wages indefinitely. “If you file for bankruptcy,” Eisman said, “your student loan stays with you.” A debt you can never escape — courtesy of your government.

The federal government owes $38 trillion but somehow pays a third less in interest. Fairness, D.C.-style.

Kicking cans and eating debt

Ganapathi noted that 90-day-plus credit-card delinquencies have doubled since 2021. Consumers are defaulting on car loans. Banks, desperate to avoid repossession losses, simply “modify” the loans and call them current — the same can-kicking that defines Washington’s budget process.

At this point, 69% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Nearly a quarter of them now use “buy now, pay later” services to pay for their groceries.

RELATED: Jerome Powell proves the Fed’s ‘independence’ is a myth

Photo by Douglas Rissing via Getty Images

Yes — groceries.

Eisman spelled it out: People are literally financing food. They buy a week’s worth of groceries, then spend the next two or three months paying for them — often at interest rates that can hit 36% after a single missed payment.

Americans are past living paycheck to paycheck. They’re living loan to loan.

The illusion of prosperity

This is the real economy hiding beneath Washington’s sunny numbers — an economy where debt props up demand and borrowed time props up debt. It’s 2008 in slow motion, but this time it’s ordinary households, not hedge funds, holding the toxic paper.

When the middle class needs “by now, pay later” to eat, the “strong economy” line collapses into farce.

America’s consumers are tapped out, overleveraged, and fresh out of illusions. The only question left is how long the lenders — and leaders in Washington — can pretend otherwise.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Debt, Consumer debt, Credit card debt, Layaways, Groceries, Car loans, Loans, Inflation, Debt culture, Borrowed money, Steve eisman, Lakshmi ganapathi, Student loan debt, Interest rates 

Trump derangement syndrome is real. But it isn’t just about Donald Trump’s personality. Yes, he can be blunt and reckless with words. Still, the hatred aimed at him runs far deeper. It’s about what he represents — a direct challenge to the class that has ruled the West for decades through its bureaucracies, media networks, and cultural institutions.

Trump is an intolerable nuisance to a long-entrenched ruling elite. That class has spent years trying to drive him from power — through lawfare, propaganda, and, in the ugliest moments, open calls for violence. The same machine that tried to destroy him also works to crush anyone who resists its authority, from conservative governments abroad to immigration agents at home.

The left’s obsession with Trump comes from fear, not outrage. The new ‘Hitler’ endangers the networks that have empowered bureaucracies and weakened nations.

The network arrayed against Trump stretches across the Anglosphere and Western Europe: managerial states, political parties, NGOs, universities, and press conglomerates. The coordination isn’t perfect, but the pattern is unmistakable. Wealthy woke donors bankroll rioters and leftist institutions that push radical ideology. Bureaucrats cooperate with those same groups to expand state control. The Democratic Party benefits from the alliance and feeds it with public funds.

When leftist politicians or media figures foment violence against Trump supporters or ICE agents, their allies rush to justify it. Inside this international power bloc, there are truly no enemies to the left, no matter how destructive their behavior. Disorder is a feature, not a flaw.

Why they fear Trump

Trump has become the focal point of their rage because he can actually hurt them. Leaders such as Slovakia’s Robert Fico or Hungary’s Viktor Orbán defy the global left, but their small states can only resist the order. They can’t reshape it. The United States can.

Trump’s policies have done what no other Western leader dared attempt: strip money and legitimacy from the bureaucracies, NGOs, and “diversity” programs that prop up the global left.

He has halted tax-funded pipelines to ideological nonprofits, rolled back DEI patronage systems, and ordered federal agencies to eliminate regulations that shield entrenched interests. His vice president’s message to European leaders — stop censoring dissent or lose respect in Washington — cut to the heart of the Western establishment’s cultural monopoly.

Whether Trump acts from conviction or sheer defiance makes no difference. He’s fighting a war the left thought it had already won. His outrage at the Nobel Committee’s sneer that he lacked “courage and integrity” reflects something larger: a refusal to bow to the same institutions that now feign moral superiority while protecting their own corruption.

Trumpism without Trump?

Would the rage end if Trump left the stage? Only if his replacement posed no threat to the system he exposed.

The establishment would happily return to a “normal” presidency — a compliant Democrat like Kamala Harris or a “centrist” Republican such as Mitt Romney or the late John McCain — anyone who accepts the fiction of a “world community” managed by unelected elites. What they cannot tolerate is another president determined to dismantle their structure of privilege.

RELATED: If Trump labels Antifa a foreign terrorist organization, here’s what he can do next

Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images

Even a more “tactful” successor, like Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, would face the same fury if he pursued Trump’s agenda. The problem has never been Trump’s manners. The left tolerated Joe Biden’s corruption, mendacity, and incompetence because his handlers advanced their goals. They will never tolerate another president who threatens their control.

The real source of the hysteria

The left’s obsession with Trump comes from fear, not outrage. The new “Hitler” endangers the power networks that have enriched them, empowered bureaucracies, and weakened nations. If Trump had simply appeased the deep state, rewarded Democrat constituencies, and welcomed the illegal aliens who serve as future voters, their derangement would have vanished overnight.

Instead, the anger has become a warning to anyone who might follow in his footsteps: Defy the ruling order, and the machine will destroy you. Trump derangement syndrome isn’t a psychological problem — it’s a political weapon wielded by a class terrified of losing its grip.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Antifa, Trump, Donald trump, Trump derangement syndrome, Deep state, Leftism, Leftists, Democratic party, Democrats, Trumpism, Jd vance, Kamala harris, Marco rubio, Nobel peace prize, Diversity equity inclusion, Ngos, Robert fico, Viktor orban, Censorship, European union, Dissent, Slovakia, Hungary 

Frances Staudt is a high school athlete in Washington state who refused to play against a basketball team with a trans player — and has now been silenced for standing up for her own safety and beliefs.

Staudt recalls that on February 6, 2025, a biological male from another high school brutalized her teammates “using his biological advantage” and “clearly and intentionally” overpowered his competition.

“I was incredibly distraught at the fact that nobody would step in on our behalf, including the staff, coaches, referees, and parents from both sides. This is due to the sheer fact that in our society, we have been pushed to be silent and bow down to the demands to accept what we know to be untrue,” she wrote in a statement following the incident.

Because of Staudt’s reaction, she was “met with allegations of discrimination” and “threats made by other players and a grown man.”

“It was obvious there’s clear biological differences between girls and boys,” Staudt tells Glenn, recalling the first time she saw the male on the court.

Staudt also recalls there was a lot of “roughness on the court” and “pushing girls down and nothing that a normal girl” would have been able to do.

When Staudt first decided to sit out, she tells Glenn that no one really seemed to care. However, when she became upset seeing the male hurt girls on her team, “people really started having issues.”

When she went to the principal, he refused to “misgender” the individual, who was 18 when she was 15.

“When I was 15 years old, the 18-year-old man was in my own locker room. That is quite the opposite of safe and supported that I should be able to feel,” she says.

Staudt has filed a lawsuit and is waiting to hear back, hoping it will be in her favor.

In the meantime, she’s going to continue speaking out on behalf of young women everywhere — and she credits the late Charlie Kirk for her courage.

“I was an incredible fan of Charlie Kirk,” she tells Glenn. “I think he was an amazing man, and I think he’s given me a voice to speak out and given me courage, and I think that it’s important, although we are young, to speak up for what we believe in.”

“It’s important. I’ve had those values instilled by my family as well, and my parents, and I think it’s very important. He did not die in vain. I think that we need to make our country proud, and we are going to be the future of America, and we need to start acting like it,” she adds.

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The mysterious deaths of four people, including two children, at a home in San Francisco may have been a result of financial distress the family underwent in recent months.

Police said the bodies were found on Wednesday at the residence at Monterey Boulevard at about 1:25 p.m., according to KRON-TV.

‘My brother and his two precious daughters were victims of a horrific crime.’

They were later identified as 57-year-old Thomas Russell Ocheltree, his daughters 12-year-old Alexandra Ocheltree and 9-year-old MacKenzie Ocheltree, as well as 53-year-old Paula Truong. Neighbors and relatives said the couple was married and the kids were their children.

Police did not release much information on the investigation and indicated the remains were being investigated by the medical examiner.

Bob Ocheltree, the brother of the deceased man, appeared to suggest in comments to KRON that Truong was the cause of the deaths.

“My brother and his two precious daughters were victims of a horrific crime,” he said Friday. “Our family is shocked and devastated, as you can imagine.”

A person close to the family told KRON that they owned several successful businesses in San Francisco, including a luxury auto repair shop and a number of Vietnamese coffee shops. The person knew the family for about a decade but wished to remain anonymous.

The person added that the family had faced financial hardship, and records showed that they took out a $2.2 million loan against their home in 2022. The home went into foreclosure in 2024.

RELATED: Remains of 4 dead infants found abandoned in recently vacated house, police sources say

The incident was called “suspicious” by the San Francisco Police Department, which turned the investigation over to its homicide unit.

Police said there was no threat to the public and the incident was an isolated event.

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​San francisco murder, Family murdered, Children murdered, Ocheltree family, Crime 

After the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal, President Trump was thrown into the hot seat by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who asked the president whether or not he intended to pardon her himself.

“You know, I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this: that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look,” he responded, asking Collins, “Did they reject that?”

“She wanted to appeal her conviction. They said that they were not going to hear her appeal,” Collins answered.

“I see. Well, I’ll take a look at it. I will speak to the DOJ. I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it; I don’t know anything about it. I will speak to the DOJ,” he answered.

“I have a lot of people who have asked me for pardons. I call him Puff Daddy, has asked me for a pardon,” he added.

“But she was convicted of child sex trafficking,” Collins interjected.

BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler isn’t impressed by Collins’ line of questioning.

“Kaitlan Collins was obviously trying to set President Trump up by asking whether he would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell because she wanted to be outraged by the idea that Trump would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell,” Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“I don’t think he will pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, but I think it was not a question that was asked in good faith by CNN. It was an attempt to trick Trump into appearing to go soft on Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein,” she continues.

“So CNN, as always, can be completely discounted,” she adds.

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Actor Martin Sheen vehemently criticized President Donald Trump in an unhinged screed during a live taping of “The Best People” podcast with Nicolle Wallace.

The far-left actor also bashed the president’s Cabinet before he said he wanted to give Trump some advice, and instead launched into his tirade.

‘There’s no heroes in there. There’s no music. There’s no laughter.’

“The big guy in the White House, if he would take some personal advice — you got to realize, sir, that you are the biggest nothing in the world. And sir, you stop there. You stop listening to all these people around you, these sycophants, who are encouraging you to be your nonhuman self,” he said.

“Stop fussing with your hair, and don’t worry about your tie. And stand up straight and speak clearly, not from your throat. Speak from your heart and start being human,” he continued. “That’s what you were made for, not golf. So there you are, Mr. President. With all due respect, sir.”

He said he could imagine a meeting of Trump’s cabinet members to have the smell of “ego and fear and false worship.”

Sheen added, “There’s no heroes in there. There’s no music. There’s no laughter. There’s no self-effacement. There’s no joy in that room.”

The actor not only endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, but he turned up at a pro-Harris campaign event to sing “America the Beautiful” for the cameras.

RELATED: Bette Midler gets slapped with vicious backlash after offering ignorant solution to baby formula crisis

Photo by SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images

He was also among those arrested at a climate change protest organized by Jane Fonda on Capitol Hill in 2020.

“We are called to find something in our lives worth fighting for, something that unites the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh,” he said in his speech, “something that can help us lift up this nation and all its people to that place where the heart is without fear.”

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Republicans in North Carolina are bringing the state into the redistricting fight between President Donald Trump and Democratic lawmakers.

They announced a vote for Monday to change the state’s map for the U.S. House districts.

‘We are doing everything we can to protect President Trump’s agenda, which means safeguarding Republican control of Congress.’

The Republican leaders said in a press release that the efforts in California to redistrict that state and counteract the redistricting in Texas led to their decision.

“President Trump delivered countless victories during his first term in office, and nine months into his second term, he continues to achieve unprecedented wins,” Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger said.

“We are doing everything we can to protect President Trump’s agenda, which means safeguarding Republican control of Congress,” he added. “Picking up where Texas left off, we will hold votes in our October session to redraw North Carolina’s congressional map to ensure Gavin Newsom doesn’t decide the congressional majority.”

House Redistricting Chairmen Brenden Jones and Hugh Blackwell, both Republicans, released a joint statement endorsing the policy.

“We’re stepping into this redistricting battle because California and the radical left are attempting to rig the system to handpick who runs Congress,” they wrote. “This ploy is nothing new, and North Carolina will not stand by while they attempt to stack the deck. President Trump has called on us to fight back, and North Carolina stands ready to level the playing field.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) fired off a response from his social media account soon afterward.

“Oh look, another lap dog Republican desperate to suck up to Trump. The GOP is rigging elections and trying to cover it up with lies. Americans are not that stupid, Phil,” he wrote.

“This started in Texas — and if North Carolina gives in, CALIFORNIA PATRIOTS WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR AMERICA,” he added.

RELATED: Resurfaced video of Democrat admitting the real reason leftists want immigration is going viral

Democrats in New York have announced their intention to redistrict as well, but that effort would not be in time to affect the 2028 elections.

“There’s a phrase, ‘You have to fight fire with fire.’ That is a true statement of how we’re feeling right now,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said in August.

“And as I’ve said, another overused but applicable phrase, ‘All’s fair in love and war,'” she added. “That’s why I’m exploring with our leaders every option to redraw our state congressional lines as soon as possible.”

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​Redistricting battle, Trump vs democrats, Newsom redistricting, Politics, North carolina 

President Donald Trump was snubbed from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize despite negotiating peace deals all over the world, and instead, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Machado won the prize for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

“Hold on,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says. “It says here it was ‘her struggle to achieve’ the ‘transition from dictatorship to democracy.’ Did she actually pull any of that off? Because as far as I can tell, the country is still being ruled by a dictator and carries out a whole bunch of human rights abuses.”

“And on top of that, they also are still sending a bunch of drugs to our country to kill our citizens. So this woman is in a struggle session, has not been successful, and they’re like, ‘Well, she tried, but she tried really hard, guys. She gets a participation trophy,’” Gonzales continues.

“I mean, this is just laughable at this point. I don’t know why anyone would take this seriously at all,” she adds.

In an attempt to justify why Trump didn’t win, the Nobel chairman explained, “In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen any type of campaign media attention. We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what for them leads to peace.”

“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,” he continued.

“Oh, okay,” Gonzales comments. “Like good old Barack Hussein Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in, what was it, 2009? Less than nine months after taking office his first term. Like, dude had not done anything yet, but the Nobel committee said it awarded him the prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

“And by the way, Obama actually himself admitted that he did not even deserve it,” she says, noting that under Obama, America was led into two wars.

“How many wars is America in under President Trump?” She asks, adding, “Oh, zero.”

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A Portland trauma hospital’s emergency helicopters were forced to divert, significantly adding to their travel time, when local anarchists threatened to “ground” aircraft with laser lights — a federal crime.

Oregon Health & Science University told KGW that several air ambulance vendors refused to land on the hospital’s helipad Saturday evening because of the planned attack. The threatened interruption to air travel added 45 to 60 minutes of travel time for these emergency helicopters.

‘If enough lasers are pointed at the aircraft, we think it will not be able to safely stay in the air for long enough to continue to pinpoint the source for law enforcement, and numbers will make it difficult to focus on a single person.’

“For most patients, that will be an acceptable delay. However, for some sensitive situations, such as unstable trauma patients, STEMIs and strokes, the delay could have real impacts,” OHSU stated.

Rose City Counter-Info, an online anonymous anarchist blog based in Portland, shared a flyer advertising the protest.

“You’re invited: Laser tag!” it read. “Every night for weeks, we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us.”

The flyer encouraged readers to “mask up” and “go to a park, a field, or some other public place” to point lasers at “cop copter[s]” at 9 p.m. on Saturday.

RELATED: If Trump labels Antifa a foreign terrorist organization, here’s what he can do next

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

“It won’t take many of us to ground the helicopters!” the flyer stated.

The blog post provided further instructions on how to evade law enforcement while engaging in this illegal act.

“If enough lasers are pointed at the aircraft, we think it will not be able to safely stay in the air for long enough to continue to pinpoint the source for law enforcement, and numbers will make it difficult to focus on a single person,” the blog post read. “Be ready to dispose of the laser if you need to — wear gloves and clean it with alcohol in case you have to toss it in a hurry. Consider taking precautions to keep DNA off of it as well.”

The Portland Police Bureau told Fox News that no laser incidents were reported that evening. However, the department said it did arrest one individual earlier in the week.

RELATED: Flyer posted on Antifa-affiliated website appears to call for laser attacks on police helicopters in Portland

Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security vowed to stop “Antifa domestic terrorists” from taking over cities.

“We will bust their networks and bring every one of them to justice,” the DHS wrote in a post on X.

The website that shared the flyer has also recently doxxed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, posting photos of alleged officers and their alleged home addresses.

“We put together some posters for people to slap up around town. Name and shame these Gestapo clowns. No peace. No safety. Not welcome in our town,” one blog post stated.

​News, Portland, Oregon, Portland oregon, Portland police bureau, Department of homeland security, Anarchists, Antifa, Oregon health and science university, Oregon health & science university, Ohsu, Lasers, Laser, Laser attack, Politics 

On October 1, the U.S. government entered a partial shutdown, as Congress remains deadlocked over federal budget appropriations.

On paper, a shutdown just means Congress is bickering over federal funds, but Mark Levin rips back the curtain, exposing what’s really going on behind closed doors: Democrats are fighting to slip health care for illegal immigrants into the budget.

He plays a clip from “MSLSD’s” Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, during which they argue that House Speaker Mike Johnson is lying about the shutdown — specifically that Democrats are pushing to reinstate taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits for illegal aliens.

“They’re lying to their own followers, saying Democrats want to shut down the government because they want to give great health care benefits to illegal immigrants. It’s a total lie,” Scarborough said. “I’m wondering where in the Bible does Mike Johnson read Jesus saying, ‘You know what? Tell the truth, except well when it might serve you well politically.”’

“Why don’t you spread lies about those who are on the outskirts of society, those who are suffering right now the most? Why don’t you lie about the weakest among us, Mikey?” he spat.

What Johnson has said is “absolute fact,” Levin says.

“I don’t know why this should surprise anybody. Remember the big, beautiful bill eliminates this in health care and Medicaid for illegal aliens? Biden put it in. Trump took it out. The Democrats are trying to put it back,” he asserts, calling Scarborough’s Jesus insult an “attack on the fact that Mike Johnson is an evangelical Christian.”

As for Scarborough’s lamentation that illegal immigrants are the “the weakest among us,” Levin counters, “Our government’s damn near bankrupt in the name of the weakest, in the name of redistributing wealth.”

The shutdown, he argues, is a deliberate Democratic strategy to manufacture a crisis for political gain and to “hurt Republicans” like Johnson. Democrats are stalling a routine temporary funding bill — something that is supposed to be “non-controversial” — by pushing for health care for illegal immigrants. On top of that, they’re exaggerating the shutdown’s impact, when only a small portion of the budget is affected.

“The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of the government’s open — over 80% of it. The fact of the matter is that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are going to keep running. Government keeps collecting taxes. The veterans’ programs will continue. Food stamps continue. … Other programs — redistributing wealth to the poor and the needy and so forth and so on — those are continuing,” he says.

“The Democrats decide to use [a government shutdown] because they’re fighting among themselves, because they’re trying to empower their party. They’re trying to get their … swagger back, and this is all they have,” Levin explains.

“But it’s not going to create that much pain” because the majority of the government will continue running. “So, unless you’re so desperate to go to a national park … or the Smithsonian or some of these other things or unless you’re a bureaucrat who’s affected by a cut or reduction, you’re not going to feel it,” he says.

As the shutdown drags into its second week with no end in sight, Levin insists Democrats are playing a dangerous game, using the budget battle to score political points while most Americans carry on unaffected.

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​Levintv, Mark levin, Blazetv, Blaze media, Government shutdown, Msnbc, Joe scarborough, Healthcare for illegal immigrants, Illegal immigration 

After some public outrage, the Department of Homeland Security released details about the criminal accusations against a minor who was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The mother of the teenager told the media that she didn’t know why he was arrested. She also claimed that when she went to pick him up from the Everett Police Department, she was told he was being detained by ICE and then transported to a detainment center in Winchester, Virginia.

‘Here are the facts: he posed a public safety threat with an extensive rap sheet including violent assault with a dangerous weapon …’

Critics pounced on the story to criticize the administration.

“This makes NO SENSE. A 13-year-old was arrested by local police for unknown reasons, and then turned over to ICE, which is detaining him far away from his mother — who is going through immigration court, has an asylum application on file, and is legally authorized to work,” claimed Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, who heads an immigration activist group.

On Monday, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released information about the teen’s legal troubles.

“Here are the facts: he posed a public safety threat with an extensive rap sheet including violent assault with a dangerous weapon, battery, breaking and entering, destruction of property,” she wrote on social media. “He was in possession of a firearm and 5-7 inch knife when arrested.”

RELATED: Democratic senator accuses Trump administration of faking anti-ICE rioting

On Sunday, Judge Richard Stearns told ICE and the Department of Homeland Security that they must release the boy unless they produce a legitimate justification for his detainment. He also ordered that they must have a hearing no later than Oct. 17 for bail.

The mother said that her son is a seventh-grader and they are both from Brazil but have pending asylum claims.

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Video shows an Austin, Texas, police officer appearing to throw a single punch — and a male crumpling to the ground and lying flat on his back a second later.

The video is part of a KXAN-TV report about a “crowd control” incident Friday night on Sixth Street, and the station said it received “two witness videos of the scene.”

‘The action is inexcusable and indefensible.’

One of those videos “appears to show an officer in a blue shirt shoving a bystander in an orange shirt. Another officer wearing a black shirt appears to throw a punch. The man in the orange shirt is later seen on the ground,” KXAN said. The male seen lying on the ground also is wearing blue jeans and a backward white baseball cap.

The video included in the station’s story — which contains no sound — shows just one angle of the officer’s apparent single punch.

However, another video circulating on social media shows what apparently is a much closer view of the punch from a front-facing angle — and the crowd reacts strongly as a male wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a backward white baseball cap is motionless on the ground.

But that wasn’t the only incident involving police recorded on video that night in Austin.

KXAN said a second video it received shows an “officer on top of a person, appearing to punch them multiple times.”

Indeed, KVUE-TV in its report said it received two videos of this second incident “from witnesses at the scene. Both videos show an officer on top of a person, appearing to punch them numerous times. Another officer, who is holding a separate person down, then assists the first officer, putting his knee on the back of the person being held down and appearing to throw a punch at him.”

Here’s a video report showing another angle of the second incident. Interestingly, it shows a male dressed in an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a backward white baseball cap — apparently the same one who was knocked flat on his back in the video of the single-punch incident — standing off to the side and watching the officers punch the male on the ground:

Officers’ names reportedly revealed

In a follow-up story, KVUE said it obtained documents from the District Court of Travis County revealing more information about what took place in the second incident caught on video.

The station said Austin Police Officer Leger was working in the downtown area when he heard a radio call reporting a “physical altercation” outside the Voodoo Room nightclub. With that, Officer Leger and Officer Garcia responded to the scene, where two men reportedly were fighting, KVUE said.

The station, citing court documents, reported that Officer Leger tried to break up the fight when he was struck in the back of the head, after which he “executed a controlled takedown maneuver” on one of the men, who allegedly resisted. KVUE noted that the court documents indicate Officer Leger struck the man in the face several times in response.

Documents added that a crowd reportedly formed around the officers, and people began throwing objects and pushing and kicking, the station said.

KVUE reported that the male accused of attacking Officer Leger was identified as 19-year-old Johnny Acuña-Jacobo, and he was arrested on a charge of assault on a peace officer, a second-degree felony, and booked into the Travis County Jail on a $10,000 bond. Jail records on Monday indicated Acuña-Jacobo was booked into jail at 4:16 a.m. Saturday and that he was still behind bars Monday. The jail on Monday told Blaze News that while his bond has been paid, Acuña-Jacobo remains incarcerated until an ankle monitor arrives for him.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis in a statement to KXAN early Saturday said “last night, an Austin police officer struck an individual during a crowd control incident on Sixth Street. After reviewing the video footage, I share the community’s concern and take this matter very seriously. The officer has been removed from patrol and placed on restricted duty pending a thorough investigation.”

While two officers were named in the follow-up KVUE story — Officer Leger and Officer Garcia — it doesn’t indicate which officer was placed on restricted duty.

Blaze News reached out to Austin police for clarification on which officer was removed from the street in regard to which incident, but the department on Monday afternoon didn’t immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for clarification.

Maria Delgado told KXAN that Acuña-Jacobo is her son and that on Saturday afternoon she saw the video of him getting punched and hasn’t slept much since then. When asked how she is feeling, Delgado replied to KXAN, “Tired, frustrated, [and] helpless. When are these individuals going to face criminal charges? That’s a crime, what they committed.”

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson released the following statement Saturday to KXAN: “I have seen the video of an Austin Police Officer on 6th Street last night. The action is inexcusable and indefensible. There is no room in APD for such violent behavior or for someone who claims to be a public servant and acts that way. I know that Chief Davis will take appropriate action, including action that leads to termination. Again, there is no room for such offensive, ridiculous action.”

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The chaotic protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, took a different turn over the weekend when hundreds of nude cyclists appeared at the federal property.

The naked cyclists temporarily blocked the ICE facility’s driveway, according to NewsNation correspondent Jorge Ventura. A large crowd showed up on Sunday despite the heavy rain.

Several arrests were made after some in the crowd refused to move away from the driveway when ordered.

As has become common during these rowdy demonstrations, agents with the Federal Protective Service, Border Patrol, ICE, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons had to move the crowd back from the driveway and street to allow vehicles to access the facility. Several arrests were made after some in the crowd refused to move away from the driveway when ordered.

Video from Sunday shows some in the crowd fighting against the federal agents and trying to prevent people from being arrested.

— (@)

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Portland is one of the cities to which President Donald Trump is trying to send federalized National Guardsmen. While Blaze News was in Portland the previous week, a judge blocked the California National Guard from being deployed after originally blocking Oregon’s troops from being sent to the facility.

RELATED: Inside the Portland ICE facility under siege by Antifa extremists

Inside the Portland ICE facility under siege by Antifa extremists Julio Rosas/Blaze Media

A lawsuit filed by Portland and Oregon is still being deliberated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. At least two of the judges on the three-judge panel, both appointed by Trump in his first term, seemed skeptical of the lower-court judge’s ruling. The circuit court’s ruling is expected to be handed down sometime this week.

The protests and riots outside the ICE facility have taken a toll on the residents who live near the contested area. In addition to loud noise and tear gas, Chris Hayes, FPS assistant director for field operations, previously told Blaze News the constant traffic disruptions have posed a hazard to demonstraters and drivers.

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​Politics 

Journalist James O’Keefe has done it again, this time exposing a U.S. State Department diplomat via hidden camera for dating a CCP leader’s daughter and hiding it from the government.

“‘I Defied My Government for Love’: US State Department Foreign Service Officer Dated Senior CCP Leader’s Daughter, Admits ‘She Could Have Been A Spy,’ Refused to Report Her,” reads the headline of O’Keefe’s latest exposé.

“This is Daniel Choi, worked at the State Department for almost 20 years and was in charge of vetting all student visas from China, a program that recent arrests show has become less about education and a pipeline for infiltration and espionage,” O’Keefe tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“This is a guy in the State Department talking to a random stranger about how he’s sleeping with a Chinese spy,” O’Keefe explains.

“And now he’s been fired, which is really extraordinary because it’s the first time in American history that the executive branch of government has fired a State Department official in this way,” he continues.

“I understand, James,” Gonzales responds, “you are the best at what you do, and I wouldn’t ever ask you — just as you don’t ask a magician to reveal his secrets, I wouldn’t ask you to reveal all of your … behind-the-scenes secrets, but I just keep watching these, and I’m like, ‘How are you getting these people to talk?’”

“I think we have to look at it a little differently than the way that people look at it when they ask that question, because it’s a good question. But I think if you change your perspective on the way things are in the world, that all around us, everything’s a lie,” O’Keefe explains.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s so much fraud. Things are so systemically broken in our world, in our politics, in our government. There’s a conspiracy of silence that everyone maintains. We all know it’s B.S., but we don’t talk about it,” he continues.

“So,” he adds, “when the official narrative is so far afield from reality, all you have to do is point your hidden camera in any direction, and you’ll contradict what the official narrative is.”

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“Let those who are accustomed to finding fault and censuring ask, while they sit in security at home, ‘Why did you not do so and so under such circumstances?’ I wish they now had this voyage to make. I verily believe that another journey of another kind awaits them, or our faith is nothing.” So wrote Christopher Columbus of his contemporary critics, demonstrating his humor, diplomacy, and faith. All three were instrumental in his tumultuous career as an explorer and colonial governor.

His letter also makes it clear that our current anti-Columbus sentiment has been in fashion before. When Columbus refused to allow the Spanish settlers of the West Indies to enslave the natives, they summoned one Francisco de Bobadilla from the homeland. Eager to claim the spoils of the colony for his own, Bobadilla fabricated accusations against Columbus and shipped him and his brothers back to Spain in chains. He then proceeded to establish a reign of slavery, rape, and murder often carelessly attributed to the man he deposed.

The truth is, despite incomplete, out-of-context quotes to the contrary, Columbus respected the indigenous people he encountered and wished to make them both Spanish citizens and Christians. Born into obscurity to a Genovese wool weaver, Columbus was a self-made man and an impressive autodidact. He was also a man of vision, determination, and courage, embarking on a journey many discouraged (it took Columbus eight years and multiple rejections to secure funding) and few dared attempt. He was one of the first immigrants to the New World, and like many immigrants after him, he faced his share of injustice and prejudice. But he bore his struggles with grace and dignity, leaving a heritage that all Americans should claim with pride.

If you know any young people who have recently encountered Howard Zinn for the first time, a useful corrective on the subject of Columbus is Samuel Eliot Morison’s masterful “Admiral of the Ocean Sea.” Or perhaps they just need a thrilling, true-life tale to activate their own dormant sense of adventure. For that, I recommend Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s “The Worst Journey in the World,” his account of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova Antarctic expedition of 1910-1913.

Young, inexperienced, and unqualified, Garrard was an Oxford-educated aristocrat who won his place on the crew through connections, persistence, and a sizeable donation. However, he quickly proved to be an asset, not least because he could withstand the freezing temperatures, poor visibility, and near-starvation without complaint.

Fortunately for the reader, Cherry-Garrard is not so taciturn on the page, leaving us with an elegantly written, witty, and unsparing look at a venture gone horribly wrong. Beaten to the South Pole by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, Scott and four of his men died on the return journey. They managed to carry everything with them to the very end, including diaries and the first Antarctic fossils. Though ultimately the record of a failure, “The Worst Journey in the World” survives as a testament to their courage and resolve.

With typical understatement, Cherry-Garrard called his adventure “the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.” Such character-fortifying and mettle-testing ordeals may not be easy to come by for most of us, but it could be that we are called to chart a different, if also hazardous, course.

History may be written by the victors, but those currently revising our national story do so in a distinctly loserish spirit. They are less guided by zeal for truth than by resentment and self-aggrandization; in their hands the past is primarily a weapon with which to demand status and power for their particular aggrieved tribe. But this frenzied, compulsive “debunking” diminishes us all.

The American founding, like all foundings, rests on both historical fact and edifying myth. To keep this country together, we have to clarify the former while restoring the latter. Today, the holiday formerly known as “Columbus Day,” is as good a time as any to start.

Editor’s note: This essay was originally published in 2023.

​Culture 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims to have arrested an illegal alien truck driver who was issued a commercial driver’s license by New York State, reading, “NO NAME GIVEN.”

‘Allowing illegal aliens to obtain commercial driver’s licenses to operate 18-wheelers and transport hazardous materials on America’s roads is reckless and incredibly dangerous to public safety.’

In September, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) shared a photo of a New York State CDL belonging to “NO NAME GIVEN,” whom he described as an illegal immigrant. Much of the identifying information on the Real ID was redacted.

Stitt indicated that the individual was apprehended as part of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s enforcement actions, adding that troopers had captured 125 illegal immigrants.

ICE announced Friday that it had arrested Anmol Anmol, an alleged illegal alien from India who had been issued a CDL by New York State.

A photo of the license reads, “Anmol NO NAME GIVEN.”

The CDL appeared to match the one previously posted by Stitt, as both displayed the same issue and expiration date. Blaze News contacted ICE to determine whether the license previously shared by Stitt belonged to Anmol.

A search of the online ICE database confirmed that as of Monday afternoon, an individual named Anmol Anmol from India is being held at an ICE detention facility in Oklahoma.

RELATED: The fraud crippling American trucking: ‘Ghost’ carriers and ‘NO NAME GIVEN’ driver’s licenses issued to foreigners

Image source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

ICE stated that OHP encountered Anmol during a routine inspection at a weigh station on I-40.

Anmol reportedly unlawfully entered the country in 2023, amid the Biden administration’s open-border crisis. He was arrested as part of a three-day enforcement operation partnership with OHP and placed in removal proceedings.

“Allowing illegal aliens to obtain commercial driver’s licenses to operate 18-wheelers and transport hazardous materials on America’s roads is reckless and incredibly dangerous to public safety. Thanks to the successful 287(g) partnership of ICE and Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Anmol Anmol is no longer posing a threat to drivers,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated.

RELATED: American trucking at a crossroads: Deadly crash involving illegal alien exposes true cost of Biden’s border invasion

Image source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

“New York is not only failing to check if applicants applying to drive 18-wheelers are U.S. citizens but even failing to obtain the full legal names of individuals they are issuing commercial driver’s licenses to,” McLaughlin continued. “DHS is working with our state and local partners to get illegal alien truck drivers who often don’t know basic traffic laws off our highways.”

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“To see that on a driver’s license issued by a state, ‘No name given,’ and the worst part, there’s a Real ID star right up there in the corner,” acting ICE Director Todd Lyons stated during an interview with Fox News.

“You have these sanctuary states that want to go ahead and try to just make it welcoming for these people that we don’t even know who they are,” Lyons continued.

New York State Department of Motor Vehicles told Blaze News last week that the license in Stitt’s social media post “was issued in accordance with all proper procedures, including verification of the individual’s identity through federally issued documentation.”

“The individual has lawful status in the United States through a federal employment authorization and was issued a license consistent with federal guidelines,” the DMV’s statement continued. “This document was not issued under the Green Light Law. It is not uncommon for individuals from other countries to have only one name. Procedures for that are clearly spelled out in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy manual, and it is important to note that federal documents also include a ‘no name given’ notation.”

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Debate over Donald Trump’s tariff doctrine has turned toxic for one simple reason: Critics keep mistaking the tool for the target. The tariffs aren’t the policy. They’re the lever.

The real goal is to dismantle anti-competitive market distortions, which have strangled global growth for decades. According to a recent paper from the Growth Commission, which I chair, roughly 80% of the world’s economic drag from trade barriers doesn’t come from tariffs at all. It comes from domestic distortions that tilt markets toward protected incumbents and away from new entrants.

Trump’s trade doctrine is not a rejection of free trade. It’s a correction.

If Trump’s doctrine succeeds in forcing other nations to roll back those distortions, U.S. tariffs will fall — and global growth will surge.

Hidden barriers

What counts as an ACMD? The test is simple and pro-market: Does a policy block voluntary exchange and weaken efficiency? If it does, it’s distortionary.

These distortions take many forms: subsidies that protect national champions, licensing rules that freeze out competition, or “harmonization” regulations that entrench advantage under the guise of fairness. We propose a clear diagnostic: measure the GDP loss per capita caused by these distortions. We found three pillars that predict income performance: international competition, domestic competition, and property rights.

The results are striking. A one-point gain in domestic competition correlates with an 11.2% rise in GDP per capita. Strengthening property rights adds about 7%, and boosting international competition adds roughly 4%.

The conclusion is obvious: the fastest path to prosperity isn’t another tariff round. It’s aggressive pro-competition reform.

Where globalization went wrong

The failure of the modern trading system didn’t come from liberalizing at the border — it came from stopping there.

Since the 1990s, global institutions have trimmed tariffs but tolerated an explosion of industrial policy, subsidies, and regulatory frameworks that quietly cripple competition.

Look at the U.S. trade representative’s annual National Trade Estimate report. The latest edition runs 397 pages cataloging barriers to global growth. Fully 80% aren’t tariffs. They are behind-the-border distortions — ACMDs — doing the real damage.

Trump’s trade doctrine is not a rejection of free trade. It’s a correction. It uses America’s market access as leverage: Reduce your distortions and our tariffs go down. Refuse and face penalties. The measure of success isn’t political theater — it’s income growth. How much GDP per capita can be restored by real reform? That’s the metric that aligns incentives at home and abroad.

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Photo by Dilara Irem Sancar/Anadolu via Getty Images

Reform by incentive

Future deals should include an ACMD chapter requiring competitive neutrality, limits on subsidies, and mutual recognition between trading partners. This turns tariff negotiations into something productive: a race to open markets, not close them.

The doctrine also turns inward. The Trump administration has directed federal agencies to identify and eliminate domestic rules that block competition. That matters both for credibility and growth. If America expects others to reduce distortions, it must show the same resolve at home — in health care, licensing, and sectors riddled with protectionist rules.

What companies should do

Business leaders should treat this as a once-in-a-generation opening. First, expose distortions. Identify anti-competitive market distortions and report them to the U.S. trade representative.

Second, de-risk supply chains. Avoid jurisdictions that refuse to reform. Tariffs will make them unviable.

Third, coordinate with allies. Work with like-minded firms to propose reforms where tariff relief can follow.

The incentive is powerful: Reform your markets, gain access to ours.

The strategic payoff

Reducing market distortions isn’t just about economics. Ultimately, it’s about power. State-backed distortions — especially in economies built around state-owned enterprises — fuel geopolitical coercion. They channel wealth into non-market dominance. Linking market access to ACMD reduction forms a “coalition of the willing” that ties prosperity to liberty.

Critics call tariffs blunt instruments. They’re right. But they may be the only tools sharp enough to cut through the web of distortions that standard trade talks have ignored for 30 years. If America can use its market power to unlock true competition abroad while cleaning up its own regulatory excess at home, the result will be stronger wages, higher productivity, and renewed global leadership.

That’s the promise of the Trump doctrine — not a wall of tariffs, but a bridge to freer markets and faster growth.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Trump tariffs, Tariffs, Tariff policy, Free trade, Trade, Competition, Markets