Category: blaze media

An anti-war veterans’ group has paid for a billboard near a California naval base to advise U.S. military members to refuse to follow “illegal orders” from the government.

The billboard echoed the message from six Democrats in a November video that was excoriated by President Donald Trump as “seditious.” At one point he seemed to warn that they could be put to death over the video.

‘To suggest and encourage that active-duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing …’

“The San Diego Veterans for Peace, Hugh Thompson Memorial Chapter #91, is very pleased to announce … a billboard reminding active-duty troops that they have a duty to disobey illegal orders,” read a statement from the group.

The billboard appears near the entrance of Naval Base San Diego in Barrio Logan and reads, “Active Duty & National Guard: You have a duty to refuse illegal orders.”

A spokesperson for Veterans for Peace said the group is rolling out billboards with the same message near military bases throughout the U.S.

Despite the brutal rhetorical attacks from the president as well as War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. attorney’s office reportedly dropped the effort to indict the six Democrats over the video.

Hegseth also sought to revoke military benefits from Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a veteran and one of the Democrats in the video, and warned that he could face a court-martial. That effort was also thwarted by a judge, who said it threatened to chill the free speech of other military veterans.

RELATED: Trump ally drops effort to prosecute Democrats over ‘seditious’ video, sources say

Defenders of the “illegal orders” message say they are merely reiterating what is in the U.S. military code. Critics say they are encouraging troops to commit sedition.

“To suggest and encourage that active-duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously. “And they should be held accountable.”

According to its website, the Veterans for Peace group was founded in 1985 and advocates against war as a policy solution for nations.

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On November 5, 2009, U.S. Army major and psychiatrist Nidal Hasan fatally shot 13 people on military base Fort Hood and wounded more than 30 others. The mass shooting goes down as the deadliest on an American military base and one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil since September 11.

Now, that same Texas military base once targeted by Islamic terror is celebrating Islam — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales can’t believe it.

“The Fort Hood Religious Support Office and Fort Hood Muslim Community warmly invite all to an evening of fellowship, reflection and community as we break the fast together during the month of Ramadan,” a social media post reads, before explaining the religious tradition more in depth.

“I actually love that it says, ‘The annual observance of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.’ Islam, the thing that’s incompatible with our way of life, with Western civilization, with this country,” Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“So, here’s the question I have, OK? Tell me this. If a Muslim is supposed to be faithful to Islam and Islam calls its followers to destroy those who do not follow Allah, … how can a Muslim be in the U.S. military?” she asks.

“The only excuse, the only reason that I could figure is those of you who might say, ‘Well, there are some peaceful Muslims. Well, there are some nice Muslims. Not all Muslims mean us harm,’” she says. “I would say it stands to reason that the only Muslims who would be capable and not dangerous to serve in our military would be bad at their religion, right?”

“This is a humiliation ritual at this point,” she continues. “And I’m not saying that I have all the answers, again, but I would like to pose the question: Does this seem like a disaster waiting to happen to anyone else?”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Us army, Ramadan, Fort hood, Fort hood terrorist attack, Islam, Islamic takeover, Islamic takeover of texas, Texas, Muslim, Muslims, Come and take it, Come and take it with sara gonzales 

The Department of Homeland Security criticized the left-wing media for overlooking the fact that most immigration arrests involve illegal aliens with prior charges or convictions.

The department highlighted Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Thursday arrests of pedophiles and other criminals in a press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

‘Instead of trying to score brownie points, sanctuary politicians should be thanking our law enforcement officers.’

Meanwhile, the DHS has remained without funding for one month, with Democrat lawmakers refusing to vote to reopen the agency without stringent reforms to ICE. On Thursday, senators voted for the fourth time against a bill that would fully restore funding to the DHS.

“Yesterday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more criminal illegal aliens convicted for sexual conduct against a child, sexual assault, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, and other horrific crimes,” the Friday DHS press release read.

Immigration agents captured Jose Mendez, an illegal alien from El Salvador who was previously convicted of sexual conduct against a child in Mineola, New York.

RELATED: ‘Heinous’ thug accused of shoving 83-year-old military vet onto NYC subway tracks was deported 4 times, charged 15 times: DHS

Jose Mendez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Edgar Martinez-Funez, an illegal alien from Honduras, was also nabbed by federal officers. He was previously convicted of attempted aggravated sexual assault of a child in Dallas County, Texas.

Edgar Martinez-Funez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

ICE arrested Victor Enrique Perez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was convicted of sexual assault in Lamesa, Texas.

Victor Enrique Perez-Sanchez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Hein Ngoc Nguyen, an illegal alien from Vietnam, was convicted twice for conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to distribute, and possession with intent to distribute MDMA in Fairview Heights, Illinois. MDMA is the drug more commonly referred to as molly or ecstasy.

Hein Ngoc Nguyen. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

The DHS also highlighted the arrest of Angel Geovanni Garcia-Bermudez. He is an illegal alien from Mexico who was convicted of trafficking fentanyl in Franklin County, Ohio.

RELATED: Spring break blues: DHS highlights outrageous airport conditions amid Democrat shutdown

Angel Geovanni Garcia-Bermudez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

“The media and sanctuary politicians continue to ignore that nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis stated.

“Yesterday, the brave men and women of ICE risked their lives to get pedophiles, sexual assailants, drug dealers, and other scumbags out of this country,” Bis continued. “Instead of trying to score brownie points, sanctuary politicians should be thanking our law enforcement officers for removing the worst of the worst from American communities.”

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​News, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Immigration enforcement, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Lauren bis, Politics 

The Florida 20-year-old accused of giving birth in a toilet, watching her newborn drown, and then burying the baby in her back yard has bonded out of jail.

Anne Mae Demegillo was granted a $250,000 bond and must follow conditions such as turning over her passport, wearing a GPS monitoring device, and having no contact with any minors, WESH-TV reported.

‘It baffles me, to be completely honest. Sometimes you can’t explain everything.’

The station noted that during the bond hearing, Flagler County Sheriff’s Detective Shannon Smith testified that “I did ask her, if knowing what she knew now during our interview, if she could go back 48 hours and change how she handled the outcome of this, if she would change it, she said she doesn’t believe that she would.”

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said Demegillo admitted to watching the baby drown and cleaning up the blood after giving birth in her bathroom, WFTV-TV reported: “She did tell us that she was hoping that the baby would hurry up and die.”

WESH said the state argued for no bond, citing Demegillo as a threat to the community and a potential risk for destroying evidence.

But Demegillo’s attorney, Michael Politis — who acknowledged that “there is something obviously that is off” regarding his client — argued that “there’s no diagnosable mental condition … but I think as far as the community and the danger to the community, I don’t think this is. This is an isolated episode,” WESH reported.

Records show Demegillo bonded out Thursday afternoon, and WESH cameras caught her quickly walking — and then running — away from the jail and ignoring reporters’ questions.

RELATED: Florida female, 20, gives birth in toilet, leaves newborn girl there, waits until baby ‘stops crying and moving,’ cops say

Demegillo last week claimed she thought the infant was deceased, so she hid the infant in a duffel bag in her closet and went about her normal daily routine, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said.

When Demegillo returned home last Thursday night from a theater performance in New Smyrna Beach, she buried the deceased infant in a shallow grave in her back yard, officials said, adding that at no point did Demegillo contact emergency services for assistance.

Chief Deputy Joe Barile of the sheriff’s office noted to WESH in a previous story that “it baffles me, to be completely honest. Sometimes you can’t explain everything.”

The newborn girl weighed three pounds, six ounces, and measured 18 inches long, WESH reported added.

Demegillo faces aggravated manslaughter charges, WESH said. But the station noted that the state attorney’s office said it expects to file more charges against her, including tampering with evidence.

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As many lawmakers in Washington debate election rules and as tensions rise overseas, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says several headlines that appear unrelated are actually telling the same story about the state of American institutions.

“I want to connect a few stories that on the surface look completely unrelated, but they’re actually not. They’re all telling you the same thing about how power is working in America right now,” he says.

Glenn begins by pointing to the Senate’s expected vote on the SAVE Act, a proposal that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

“This is a complete sham,” he says. “Now, this is just a bill that says you have to prove you’re a citizen to vote in American elections. Think about that for just a second. Just this basic idea. If you’re voting in the United States, you should be an American citizen.”

Senate procedure, Glenn explains, allows lawmakers to avoid publicly defending their positions.

“Originally, if you wanted to block a bill, all you had to do is stand on the floor and talk hour after hour, day after day. … But today, you don’t have to do that anymore, because it’s hard. You just threaten a filibuster and then walk away. And you need a 60-person vote to bring it back to the floor,” Glenn says.

He argues the result is a process that lacks transparency and accountability.

“No speeches, no fight, no accountability, OK? No courage, just a zombie filibuster,” Glenn comments.

Lawmakers, he says, could force a more visible debate if they chose to.

“They could keep the Senate in continuous session for day after day after day, and if Democrats want to block voter citizenship requirements, then let them stand there for 24 hours a day explaining why. Make them hold the floor. Make them say it out loud,” Glenn says.

He then points out that the election debate is happening while larger global developments unfold.

“See, that’s the disconnect here,” he says. “The world is playing geopolitical chess for the whole game, and Washington is arguing whether the players are even allowed to sit at the board.”

For Glenn, the larger issue is what these headlines reveal about the condition of American institutions.

“The institutions that are supposed to protect trust, elections, law enforcement, government spending, the media are all under strain at the same time. They’re not broken beyond repair, but they are deeply strained,” he says.

Restoring confidence, he argues, will require “principles, transparency, and courage.”

“Transparency means letting Americans actually see the fight, whether it’s a Senate filibuster or an FBI investigation. Courage means you have to be willing to stand there and defend your position in the light and let the chips fall where they may,” he explains.

In the end, Glenn says the truth will eventually surface.

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

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A federal judge minced no words in his dissenting opinion regarding the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal on Thursday to rehear the case of a Christian-owned women’s spa forced by Washington state into admitting men.

Judge Lawrence VanDyke, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote, “This is a case about swinging d**ks.”

”Sometimes, it feels like the supposed adults in the room have collectively lost their minds.’

“The Christian owners of Olympus Spa — a traditional Korean, women-only, nude spa — understandably don’t want them in their spa,” VanDyke continued. “Their female employees and female clients don’t want them in their spa either. But Washington State insists on them. And now so does the Ninth Circuit.”

The family-owned spa was accused of discrimination in 2020 for refusing access to a trans-identifying male whose penis was intact, and has been fighting an uphill legal battle ever since. In May, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel ruled against the spa, holding that the First Amendment rights of its owners had not been violated by the state.

The spa subsequently petitioned the Ninth Circuit for a panel rehearing and/or a full-court rehearing of the case. Those were denied, prompting VanDyke to go nuclear:

Sometimes, it feels like the supposed adults in the room have collectively lost their minds. Woke regulators and complicit judges seem entirely willing, even eager, to ignore the consequences that their Frankenstein social experiments impose on real women and young girls. Yet if harmful and unfortunate consequences were all this case was about, we’d have to shrug and say: “That’s what comes with living in a democracy.” Unless the Constitution is implicated, we get what we voted for “good and hard.”

But some fundamental rights, like the right to the free exercise of religion, are constitutionally protected precisely to avoid majoritarian infringement. Unfortunately, in this case the panel majority has allowed Washington State bureaucrats to trample on such rights long secured by the Constitution.

VanDyke tore apart his colleagues’ reasoning, stating that:

“[Washington Law Against Discrimination] is not generally applicable because it treats comparable secular activity more favorably than Olympus Spa’s religiously motivated activity”;”WLAD’s application is not neutral because it facially differentiates among religions based on theological choices by granting an exemption to only a small set of favored religious activities”; and”WLAD’s woke redefinition of ‘sex’ undermines the hard-fought legal protections granted to women as a class and undercuts established criminal laws against voyeurism and indecent exposure.”

Some of the Trump judge’s colleagues couldn’t handle his criticism and frank language.

RELATED: WATCH: Talarico self-owns when he warns fascism will ‘be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross’

Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Mary Margaret McKeown, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton who previously ruled against the spa, said in a statement that was joined by over 25 other Ninth Circuit judges that the American legal system is “not a place for vulgar barroom talk” or a “place to suggest that fellow judges have ‘collectively lost their minds,’ or that they are ‘woke judges’ ‘complicit’ in a scheme to harm ordinary Americans.”

McKeown claimed that VanDyke’s language — not her decisions — “undermines public trust in the courts.”

VanDyke said in response to his colleagues’ pearl-clutching:

My distressed colleagues appear to have the fastidious sensibilities of a Victorian nun when it comes to mere unpleasant words in my opinion, yet exhibit the scruples of our dearly departed colleague Judge Reinhardt when it comes to the government trampling on religious liberties and exposing women and girls to male genitalia. That kind of selective outrage speaks for itself. The public deserves a court that is actually trustworthy. We should be earning that trust, not demanding it like petty tyrants.

“Sometimes ‘dignified and civil’ words are employed to mask a legal abomination. … Sometimes coarse and ugly words bear the truth,” VanDyke added.

Go deeper

The spa, owned by a theologically conservative Christian family, is modeled on jjimjilbang, sex-segregated bathhouses in Korea, and requires that guests be nude inside the pool area.

Court documents state the spa required that entrants “physically present in the nude as … female,” further noting, “Biological women are welcome.” Under the rules, female-identifying males were welcome just so long as they had “gone through post-operative sex confirmation surgery.” In other words, penises weren’t permitted.

In 2020, Caleb Richmond — a trans-identifying male who was once married to a woman and now goes by Haven Wilvich — attempted to use the Washington Law Against Discrimination to gain access to the spa. The spa reportedly denied the man access, prompting him to file a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission.

When the WSHRC notified the spa that it had received a discrimination complaint, the spa asserted that its “biological women”-only policy was in keeping with state law and “essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers and employees,” court documents said.

‘Washington has perversely distorted a law that was enacted to safeguard women’s rights to strip women of protections.’

Although initially defiant, the spa signed a pre-finding settlement agreement requiring compliance with WLAD while reserving the right to mount a constitutional challenge.

Richmond reportedly boasted online that he had successfully found a way to legally invade the women’s sanctuary. He wrote, “I did it,” adding he got “the main naked lady spa in the area to change their policies and allow all self-identified women access regardless of surgery and genitals.”

Richmond further suggested that he was “more woman” than any of his female critics because he is “an intentional woman whereas they are only incidental.”

Myoon Woon Lee, the owner of the spa, sued the WSHRC, claiming that the WLAD, as enforced, impinged upon his “traditional, theologically conservative” Christian values and put his female clientele at risk.

A Washington District Court judge dismissed the case with prejudice in 2023, but Lee appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

A three-judge panel ruled in May 2025 that the spa cannot sue the WSHRC on First Amendment grounds. The majority held that the enforcement of WLAD “did not impermissibly burden the Spa’s free speech,” that the spa is “not an expressive association,” and that “eliminating discrimination on the basis of sex and transgender status is a legitimate government purpose.”

Judge McKeown stated in her May opinion for the majority, “The HRC’s enforcement action against Olympus Spa was a straightforward application of Washington’s statutory scheme.”

Judge Kenneth Lee, a Trump appointee, said in his dissenting opinion, “Washington has perversely distorted a law that was enacted to safeguard women’s rights to strip women of protections. The women and girls of Washington state deserve better.”

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​Washington state, Discrimination, Trans, Tranny, Transvestite, Lgbt, Judge, Judicial, Mckeown, 9th circuit court, Ninth circuit, Federal, Legal, Lawsuit, Korean, Spa, Nudity, Swinging dicks, Leftism, Vandyke, Politics 

Timothée Chalamet is in trouble for saying that opera and ballet are dying art forms. The 30-year-old Oscar-nominated actor, whose parents chose the most complicated way to spell “Timothy,” told fellow movie star Matthew McConaughey, “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this any more.’”

Realizing he may have made a PR boo-boo with his honesty, Chalamet added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership.”

Yes, my wife is a dancer. Spoiler: She’s not a stripper. Strippers make money. Dancers don’t.

No matter how much Chalamet may have upset the ladies of “The View,” he’s right. Opera and ballet are dying arts. And the 14 cents he may have lost in viewership will not be spent instead on the opera or ballet.

Tickets, please

I find it rather telling that so many of the people defending the honor of opera and ballet aren’t showing their receipts. Look at all the people who love these fine arts with a passion — and yet can’t produce a ticket to prove they have ever been patrons.

It reminds me of New Yorkers who mourn the closing down of local restaurants and bars they never went to. “How can something like this happen?”

Easily. It’s your fault. You’re not supporting the ballet. You’re not supporting opera.

Now, I play a role in this. I have never been to an opera. So when the murder of opera eventually goes to trial, I’ll be convicted — not of first-degree murder or manslaughter, but at most of negligent homicide. When the fat lady sings from the witness stand, she’ll be pointing her finger at me — and you too.

RELATED: Marc Maron, king of the ‘fascist’-fighting hacks

Victoria Sirakova/Rick Kern/Ulstein Bild Dtl./Getty Images

Betrayed by ballet

I’m sure lots of you are saying, “But I go to musicals all the time!” Well, so do I. Musicals ain’t operas. Let’s not pretend seeing “Kinky Boots” on Broadway counts.

But I have been to the ballet. I might be the only person who has seen more ballet than I’ve seen Timothée Chalamet flicks. Over the past 13 years, I’ve seen a lot of dance. It’s one of the perks of marrying a dancer. Yes, my wife is a dancer. Spoiler: She’s not a stripper. Strippers make money. Dancers don’t. (Although the “stripper index” indicates an industry downturn.)

Most recently, for my birthday, my wife bought us tickets to see the Lyon Opera Ballet at New York City Center. Even though it has “opera” in its name, it is just ballet. And it sucked. I won’t go into details. I’ll just say this: When you go to see a live performance, there’s always the risk that it will suck. I accept that risk. In October of last year, we saw the Paris Opera Ballet at the same venue. (Again, “opera” in name alone.) That show was good … until it wasn’t.

Empty seats

No matter if it’s good or bad, I always make sure to eat at a great restaurant either before or after the show. Drinks help. And if you’re driving into the city, a bad show — when experienced with a person you love — well, there’s nothing like it! It always makes for great car conversation.

Now that I have provided these receipts, please take me at my word: When I attend these shows and look around, either I see lots of empty seats or lots of elderly patrons. It’s just the reality.

If you don’t go to the ballet, then you don’t support the ballet. The same goes for the opera. I know ballet and opera are class-coded, but tickets aren’t really that expensive compared to the more popular performing arts. But talk is cheap. Complaining is free. I say, put your money where your mouth is and go out there and support the arts you want to keep alive. And when you do, share those receipts.

​Ballet, Opera, Timothee chalamet, High culture, Arts, Humor, The view, Entertainment, Movies, Culture 

The “heinous” male accused of shoving an 83-year-old military veteran off a New York City subway station platform and onto the train tracks last weekend was deported four times and has 15 prior charges on his record, the Department of Homeland Security said.

DHS on Thursday added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has asked New York authorities not to release illegal alien suspect Bairon Posada-Hernandez, whom Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis called a “heinous” and “serial criminal” who “should never have been able to walk our streets and harm innocent Americans.”

‘I hope he rots in hell.’

Posada-Hernandez was arrested for attempted murder Tuesday in connection with Sunday’s incident, during which he also allegedly pushed a 30-year-old man onto the subway train tracks, the agency said.

DHS said ICE on Tuesday placed a detainer on Posada-Hernandez, a Honduran national. Bis added that “DHS is calling upon New York sanctuary politicians to commit to this ICE detainer.”

More from DHS:

Posada-Hernandez first entered the country on January 2, 2008, and has been deported four different times, most recently in 2020. He entered illegally a fifth time at an unknown date and location.

The suspect has a lengthy criminal history, including 15 prior charges such as simple assault, domestic violence, obstruction of police, possession of a weapon, drug possession, and aggravated assault.

One of the victims of the subway shove, a 30-year-old man, reportedly is in stable condition, while the other, an 83-year-old Air Force veteran, remains in critical condition, the agency said.

RELATED: Exclusive: ICE urges Georgia sheriff not to release illegal alien ‘monster’ accused of sexually assaulting 10-year-old girl

The daughter of elderly victim Richard Williams told the New York Daily News, “He’s unresponsive. He’s on a respirator. No changes. He’s considered critical. We’re praying for a miracle. It’s horrible.”

As for Posada-Hernandez, Williams’ daughter told the Daily News, “I hope he rots in hell.”

“To push one person down and then to push another down? I thank God that young man that was pushed first — that man, I have to give him my thanks. He helped my father out of the tracks, carried him pretty much,” she added to the paper. “The people there that helped, it was amazing what happened.”

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​Crime, Nypd, Dhs, New york city, Subway, Shove, New york city police department, Department of homeland security, Politics, Bairon posada-hernandez 

It’s time to find out who runs the Republican Party: Donald Trump or John Thune (RINO-S.D.).

Trump can demand all the “leadership” he wants, but the SAVE America Act remains in limbo. Leadership would mean getting it past the filibuster. What Thune has scheduled for next week — a vote with no talking filibuster — won’t force the fight. It won’t even force the Democrats to own their position in public.

If Republicans can’t pass the SAVE Act in the face of brazen hubris and illegality, nothing else will matter.

Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) goes on camera and all but admits the quiet part: the rolls include millions of noncitizens, and Democrats don’t want ICE clearing them out before the next election. He’s saying it out loud.

So I’ll put this plainly. If Republicans can’t pass the SAVE Act in the face of that kind of brazen hubris and illegality, nothing else will matter — not Iran, not an economic rebound, not a shiny jobs report. Midterm obliteration is coming, and that means Trump 2.0 turns into impeachment 2.0.

People can argue about Iran. They can argue about tactics. They can argue about timelines. The SAVE Act hits a deeper fault line inside the GOP base. Few issues still win broad, consistent support — not just among Republicans, but among normies. The border does. The trans issue does. Election integrity absolutely does.

The SAVE Act sits right on that seam: Prove citizenship before voting in federal elections. That’s it.

Social media can make it seem like half of the right is populated with anti-Semites and that the most important argument right now is the war in Iran. Sorry, real voters aren’t living in that feed. I’ve done a handful of events for Adam Steen, the Iowa gubernatorial candidate I’m backing in my home state. Everywhere I go, voters ask about election integrity and voter fraud more than they ask about anything else.

Trump has room to absorb controversy on foreign policy and the economy. He has survived worse. He might even turn both into wins. But if he can’t deliver the SAVE Act — if he lets a feckless swamp rat like Thune outmaneuver him on the most basic promise of self-government — it’s game over.

Midterms already punish the party in power. Low turnout hurts. A sleepy base hurts. But failure here triggers a different kind of turnout: the “why bother?” turnout. People will stop believing civic responsibility matters if Republicans can’t secure elections after years of bitter, sometimes violent controversy.

RELATED: The common-sense case for nationalizing US elections

Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Remember the frustration of watching billions flow overseas with no accountability? Now picture South Dakota giving the country a civics lesson in futility because its senator can’t — or won’t — do the one thing that anchors every other fight: protect the vote.

South Dakota’s legislature is more than 90% Republican. Yet Thune looks ready to turn “stolen elections” into the hill the party dies on, thus torpedoing Trump’s second term and setting himself up as the next Mitch McConnell.

South Dakota already had the embarrassing Kristi Noem circus, shooting her dog between teeth-whitening appointments before getting canned from the Department of Homeland Security. But Thune’s folly could end MAGA entirely.

Perception becomes reality fast. If this administration is settling into the idea that mass deportations have limits — fine. But then it needs a second anchor: proof that Democrats can’t use noncitizens to usurp our elections.

Pass the SAVE Act, force Democrats to take a position in daylight, and lock down the rules. Fail and 2026 is doomed.

​Opinion & analysis, Voting, Fraud, Save america act, Save act, John thune, Donald trump, 2026 midterms, Voter id, Filibuster, Impeachment, Blue wave, South dakota, Kristi noem 

An armed man was able to walk into Zwink Elementary School in Klein, Texas, on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

Kyle Najm Chris, also known as Muhi Mohanad Najm, 39, was charged with possession of a weapon in a prohibited place after allegedly entering the school property after another visitor reportedly failed to properly secure the door.

The suspect has no known affiliation with the school.

One school employee told investigators that Chris was wearing full green military or tactical law enforcement attire, including a load-bearing vest, a taser, and a holstered firearm.

School and district officials explained in a letter to parents why they were not immediately notified of the incident.

RELATED: Who is the naturalized US citizen from Lebanon identified as the Michigan synagogue school attacker?

Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“From the moment the individual left the front office, we were actively working with multiple law enforcement agencies to identify and apprehend this individual,” they wrote, according to KHOU.

“Sending a public notification during that window could have jeopardized those efforts, tipped off the suspect, and delayed the arrest.”

Officials were able to track the suspect through security camera footage, facial recognition, and the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Flock license plate database after he left the premises. The suspect reportedly left the school property, got into a blue Dodge Charger, and was later arrested at his home about a half-mile away, KTRK reported.

The suspect has no known affiliation with the school. He was arrested on Wednesday night and booked into the Harris County Jail.

One neighbor was inclined to think that there was a misunderstanding, describing the suspect as a friend and veteran.

“He watches my kid all the time for me. When I was in California and gone for a couple of months, my son would come home, and he would go to the bus stop and walk him home, put him in the house, let him sit in there, he could go across the street and get the neighbor, you know what I mean,” the man, identified only as Randy, told KTRK.

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​Politics, Klein texas, Zwink elementary, Firearms, Military gear, Public safety, Flock database, Texas, Muhi mohanad najm 

A New York Magazine article highlights parents who regret having children — and BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere believes it simply cherry-picks miserable anecdotes while ignoring the deeper fulfillment many people find in raising a family.

“Sooner or later, everyone has to decide whether to give up lazy weekends, disposable income, and overall peace of mind to have a baby instead. For many of those on the fence, one anxiety looms large: ‘What if I make the wrong choice?’” New York Magazine wrote in a social media post promoting the article.

“Parent regret is more common than you might think — the r/regretfulparents sub-Reddit alone gets around 70,000 weekly visitors who anonymously commiserate — though stigma makes it hard to admit in real life,” the caption continued.

The article centers around the opinions of three people who regret their decision to become parents.

“Parenting can be very stressful. Parenting can have difficult parts to it. You can go through tough seasons where your kids don’t like you or they’re angry with you or your partner or you’re bringing them all over the globe to different events and it can get frustrating, and it can feel like, you know, you don’t really have a lot of me time,” Stu comments.

“We don’t have lots of child-care options — we do part-time day care and don’t have a lot of family able to help us; otherwise we use PTO and juggle our work schedules to have all the coverage we need — and it feels like the rest of my life is put on hold for motherhood,” one woman told the interviewer.

“I have good moments as a mom, but I get hung up on thoughts like, What I really wanted to do today was painting, or reading, or doing these chores alone,” the woman added.

“If what you’re thinking about life is ‘gosh, I really hate my life, I’d much rather do chores alone,’ I mean, I don’t think you’re just going to be a happy person. I think your life is going to be filled with misery,” Stu comments.

In another quote from the same unhappy mother, she admits that when “thinking about life without” her kids, she’d “be happier overall.”

Another mom admitted that she felt “angry and alone” after needing to take her daughter to the ER for a nosebleed.

“Everyone’s had a day where they just think things that are insane as a parent,” Stu says.

“It is about sacrificing a lot of things,” he adds.

Want more from Stu?

To enjoy more of Stu’s lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu does america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Leftism, Parenthood, Motherhood, Pregnancy, Sacrifice, Raising children, New york magazine, The cut 

BlazeTV+ subscribers unlock one of the best perks in conservative media: direct, unfiltered access to your favorite hosts through our invite-only “Off the Record” live chats.

Today at 1 p.m. ET, join us for a can’t-miss session with John Doyle, the unapologetically based Gen Z paleoconservative firebrand behind the viral “Black History Month Exposed” series that took February by storm.

Fresh off debunking mainstream narratives — from the real story behind Rosa Parks to hard truths about the transatlantic slave trade, Tuskegee Airmen, MLK Jr., redlining, Malcolm X, Rodney King, O.J. Simpson, and more — John faced fierce backlash from critics crying “revisionist!” Yet the series exploded across platforms, sparking debates on both sides of the aisle because the facts didn’t align with textbook versions.

This live, interactive chat is your chance to go deeper. Ask John your burning questions: What got left on the cutting-room floor? How did he handle the pushback? What’s the untold backstory that almost got him banned? He’ll respond in real time, sharing insights and unscripted takes you won’t find anywhere else.

These exclusive “Off the Record” moments are why BlazeTV+ subscribers stay engaged. They’re raw, unfiltered, truth-seeking conversations with personalities who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.

Tune in today at 1 p.m. ET exclusively on BlazeTV. Log in to your account, head to the live section (or check your subscriber invites), and bring your questions. Don’t let this one pass you by — it’s subscriber-only access at its best.

Not subscribed yet? Join BlazeTV+ today at BlazeTV.com (use code DOYLE for $20 off) and unlock these live chats, bonus content, and more. See you there!

​Blazetv, Blaze media, Off the record, John doyle, Black history month exposed, Blazetv specials 

Within hours of a radical shouting “Allahu akbar” and opening fire Thursday in an Old Dominion University classroom, an armed suspect rammed a vehicle into a Detroit-area synagogue and school, then exchanged fire with security personnel.

The suspect was killed, and the guard was injured.

‘Today’s attack is every community’s worst nightmare.’

Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield Township with roughly 12,000 members as well as a preschool and religious education school, revealed in a statement that “everyone is safe,” including the preschool students and staff members.

“As you have no doubt heard, Temple Israel was the victim of a terrorist gunman who was confronted and neutralized by our security personnel who are truly heroes. Our teachers followed their training and kept the children safe and calm,” stated Temple Israel, which ran an active-shooter training exercise six weeks ago.

Following reports that the vehicle used in the attack was registered to a naturalized U.S. citizen who lived in Dearborn, Michigan, the Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old Lebanese native who first entered the U.S. in 2011 on an IR1 spousal visa.

RELATED: Heroic students subdued suspected terrorist in Old Dominion attack and ‘rendered him no longer alive,’ says FBI

Jewish volunteer EMTs near Temple Israel following the attack. Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images

Ghazali was granted American citizenship “under the Obama administration” on Feb. 5, 2016 — just a year after applying for naturalization, the DHS noted.

A neighbor told the Detroit Free Press that Ghazali lived in Dearborn Heights and recently lost his family in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun, among the officials who promptly condemned the attack, confirmed in a statement that “earlier this month, [the suspect] lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”

A Lebanese official told NBC News that two of the suspect’s adult brothers — alleged members of Hezbollah — were also among those killed in the recent Israeli strikes. A March 6 report claimed that Qassem and his brother Ibrahim Ghazali were killed in Western Bekaa along with Ibrahim’s children Ali and Fatima.

Lebanese authorities claim that at least 687 people, including 98 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since Feb. 28, reported the BBC. The Israel Defense Forces noted earlier this month that as part of an “enhanced forward defense posture,” it had taken positions inside Southern Lebanon and was “conducting targeted strikes against Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure.”

“All of us have thoughts of maybe why this happened,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said on Thursday. “But we don’t operate in a world where we can presume something. We have to determine it through investigation.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) stated, “Today’s attack is every community’s worst nightmare. We saw incredible people step up today to save lives and stop the suspect. Our state is grateful to the security personnel for their bravery and law enforcement who jumped into action to keep students safe.”

The West Bloomfield Police Department said that it is working in concert with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police, and other agencies to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

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​Synagoguge, Anti-semitism, Lebanon, Israel, Israeli, Temple israel, Hezbollah, Naturalized, Paperwork americans, American, Dearborn heights, Dearborn, Michigan, Detroit, Attack, Terrorism, Politics 

Team USA is set for another rivalry game against Team Canada, this time on Friday night in the World Baseball Classic, after significant controversy has already rattled American fans.

The matchup comes after the Americans were almost eliminated from the tournament, which would have been under the most embarrassing circumstances.

‘This man belongs nowhere near Team USA in the future.’

Before the American side lost to Italy 8-6 on Tuesday, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa sparked headlines by appearing not to know the rules of the World Baseball Classic.

During an interview with the MLB Network’s “Hot Stove,” DeRosa said his team’s “ticket” was already “punched to the quarterfinals.”

However, that was not true. If Mexico had won its next game against Italy while scoring fewer than five runs in nine innings, Team USA would have been eliminated.

While there is no telling if DeRosa’s alleged lack of knowledge around tournament rules affected his coaching strategy during the team’s loss to the Italians, the team’s tournament future was out of their hands when Italy played Mexico on Wednesday.

Luckily for the Americans — and DeRosa — the Italians clubbed their way to a 9-1 win, ensuring that Team USA would advance.

RELATED: NBA turns Atlanta Hawks strip-club night on its head: ‘Canceling … is the right decision’

DeRosa told reporters after the Tuesday loss that he had simply misspoken and was not unaware of the way teams are ranked in the standings.

“Yeah, I misspoke. I was on ‘Hot Stove’ with a couple buddies today and completely misread the calculations,” DeRosa claimed. “We knew that Mexico was going to play Italy and then running all the numbers with, if we lost tonight, with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs. So I just misspoke.”

Fans did not exactly believe DeRosa, with one New York Yankees fan saying he couldn’t “fathom” how unbelievable it was that the Team USA manager “made the lineup today not knowing how the tournament works.”

Another fan on X wrote, “This man belongs nowhere near Team USA in the future.”

“This might be the biggest instance of coaching malpractice in the history of international USA sports,” another viewer said in reaction to DeRosa’s original comments.

RELATED: Charles Barkley defends Team USA White House visit — but says Trump needs to stop doing one thing

Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images

With those hijinks now in the rearview mirror, Team USA will play Team Canada Friday night in the quarterfinals at 8 p.m. ET in Daikin Park in Houston. The game marks the latest in an ongoing and inflamed rivalry between the two nations, which exploded during the Olympics in the men’s and women’s ice hockey events.

The United States beat Canada for the gold medal in both categories, which subsequently caused rage when the men’s hockey team received a phone call from President Trump that contained a joke at the expense of the women’s team.

Canadian media melted down and repeatedly questioned American players who play for Canadian teams about the phone call, asking them to apologize.

South Korea will begin the quarterfinals against the Dominican Republic at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday from LoanDepot Park in Miami. On Saturday, Puerto Rico plays Italy at 3 p.m. ET in Houston, then Venezuela plays Japan at 9 p.m. ET in Miami.

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​Fearless, Nationalism, Baseball, Wbc, World baseball classic, Canada, Team usa, Usa men, Sports 

Housing prices have locked millions of working- and middle-class families out of the market. Congress, prodded by President Trump, has finally started to respond. The opening move is the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — and corporate America, along with its think-tank megaphones, is already howling.

In January, on the one-year anniversary of his return to the White House, Trump signed an executive order directing his Cabinet to lay out rules that would ban large financial firms from buying up massive chunks of single-family housing.

Some Republicans are treating the legislation as if it’s ‘Liz Warren’s bill.’ It isn’t. It’s exactly the kind of policy populist conservatives have wanted for years.

It was a smart move. Private equity has targeted entry-level homes in fast-growing markets, paying cash and converting starter neighborhoods into permanent rental pools. The D.C. commentariat loves to point out that institutional ownership is “small” nationally. That argument obscures the real numbers. The harm is local, concentrated, and immediate — exactly where young families are trying to buy.

Wall Street’s favorite targets sit in the Sun Belt: Atlanta, where a 2024 Government Accountability Office study put the share of single-family rental homes owned by investors at 25%; Jacksonville and Tampa, where the shares stood at 21% and 15%; Charlotte at 18%; and Phoenix at 14%. Other major targets include Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, Orlando, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Trump put a human face on the policy during his State of the Union address.

“With us tonight is Rachel Wiggins, a mom of two from Houston,” he said. “She placed bids on 20 homes and lost all of those bids to gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash, and turned all those houses into rentals, stealing away her American dream.”

Then he made the point that matters: Executive orders don’t last.

“Now I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent, because homes for people — really, that’s what we want. We want homes for people, not for corporations.”

That line is the essence of the fight. Most executive orders are glorified press releases. Sure, agencies can move the levers of government. But regulations can be reversed as quickly as they’re written. Congress makes law. In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Republicans should lock in what works and build from there.

Three weeks after the address, the Senate passed its version of the bill, 89-9-1. It’s a compromise package, as any major bill must be without a filibuster-proof majority. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) negotiated it. Now it’s in the House, where senators warn that gutting the compromise could kill the whole effort for the year.

The backlash from the think-tank world came quickly. The American Enterprise Institute’s Ed Pinto complained the bill “would turn what has been a legal and permissible activity … into a suspect activity heavily regulated by the U.S. Treasury.” American Compass founder and chief economist Oren Cass had the correct response: That’s not a rebuttal so much as a basic definition of public policy.

“The observation that Congress has identified an activity that has been permissible and is proposing to give an agency authority to regulate it is not an argument against the proposal,” Cass wrote on X.com.

“Sometimes public policy is good.”

The ever-irrelevant Cato Institute went farther, insisting it makes no sense for “corporations” to buy homes “to the detriment of other people.” The quotation marks do most of the work there. Corporate money doesn’t buy up neighborhoods out of charity.

“The interests of the American family and corporations diverge when it comes to housing prices,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told the Brief. “Their interest is to increase the housing costs so they can make more money, period. And if that’s not it, they’re not a very good corporation.” (Disclosure: I serve on the APP’s board of directors.)

House Republicans have their own skeptics. Some are treating the legislation as if it’s “Liz Warren’s bill.” It isn’t. It’s the first tiny step Congress has taken in years to confront inflated home prices and the corporate churn making starter homes harder to buy. It’s exactly the kind of policy populist conservatives have wanted for years.

Some conservatives also argue that Washington shouldn’t interfere. But Washington already interfered — it built the corporate legal structure that shields institutional players in ways ordinary families and small businesses cannot possibly match. Pretending the market is “pure” now is a choice, not a principle.

Large investors do play a role in housing finance and construction. Nobody denies that. But families form the foundation of stable towns, neighborhoods — and nations. A first home is how families build wealth, put down roots, and get ahead.

“Let me put this in a way Republicans can understand,” Schilling said with a grin. “We need a preemptive strike against the corporations that are jacking up our housing prices.”

Corporate ownership of single-family homes isn’t a passing blip. It’s a growing problem — and one Congress can start clipping now if House Republicans will back the president and pass the Senate’s proposal.

“My administration,” Trump declared in February, “will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America’s neighborhoods like a trading floor and empower American families to own their homes.”

One bill won’t fix the housing market problem. But Congress can take a first step — and prove it still knows the difference between market orthodoxy and the American dream.

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​Opinion & analysis 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is facing scrutiny online after hosting a Ramadan iftar at City Hall. Critics worry this event is a sign of a shift in American culture.

A video of the gathering quickly went viral after it was shared by a purported attendee, who tagged City Hall in the post and called the event an iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan when Muslims break their fast. The video shows Muslim attendees performing prayers, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” and sharing a meal while seated on prayer rugs beneath the U.S. and city flags.

‘Genuinely speechless. Stun locked. We’ve come a long way from 9/11.’

The timing intensified the criticism. Just last weekend, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi allegedly attempted to detonate explosives as part of a suspected ISIS-inspired terrorist attack outside the mayor’s residence.

Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of the interior, said of the Mamdani iftar video, “The Great Replacement is happening in front of your eyes.”

Author and news commentator Oli London posted, “New York has fallen.”

Political commentator Jason Jones added, “I can’t believe this is happening in the same city as 9/11. They didn’t even have to fire a single shot.”

RELATED: Counter-protester lights explosive amid anti-Mamdani protest, utters ‘Allahu Akbar’ — but NYC mayor rips ‘bigotry and racism’

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The citizen-journalism account Autism Capital posted: “Genuinely speechless. Stun locked. We’ve come a long way from 9/11.”

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, has not publicly responded to the criticism. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Politics, Mamdani, New york city, Mayor, Muslim, Isis, Mamdani is communist 

One does not usually think of the Patagonian desert or the Andean highlands as front lines of a strategic threat.

But geography has a way of asserting itself in surprising places.

In the dry, thin air of Neuquén, Argentina, or the high-altitude silence of Amachuma, Bolivia, the landscape is being remapped by high-gain dish antennas operating in S-, X-, and Ka-bands. They are described as instruments of science, part of a “Global South” solidarity that promises peaceful modernization and multipolar governance.

In the vocabulary of space systems engineering, however, these sites are something else entirely: They are the “ground segment,” the nervous system that makes a satellite controllable and its data harvestable.

In recent decades, the distinction between civilian and military space has effectively collapsed.

Because the Earth rotates and orbits are indifferent to national boundaries, a space program requires a global footprint to maintain a reliable contact window. To command a spacecraft or manage sensitive telemetry, one needs a station on the other side of the globe to fill the coverage gap. In recent decades, China has found this “other side” in Latin America, accumulating a geographically distributed set of access points, some operated through joint ventures, others through 50-year leases.

A ground station translates geography into data flows and turns orbital motion into actionable schedules, providing the ability to track satellites, receive their transmissions, and map space objects as a strategic inventory. These functions are logistical accelerators: They shorten delays and stabilize communications. They are militarily meaningful even when they are not overtly militarized.

Consider the Neuquén deep-space station in Argentina. The 2014 Cooperation Agreement, registered with the United Nations, is a masterpiece of legal clarity and operational opacity. It grants China broad tax exemptions and includes a clause stating that the Argentine government “will not interfere with or interrupt” the station’s normal activities. The term of the agreement is 50 years. While a 2016 Additional Protocol stipulates that the facility is exclusively for nonmilitary use, the enforcement mechanism is nonexistent. Argentina has no physical oversight of the station’s operations; the host state owns the territory but lacks visibility into the software configurations, encryption layers, and the routing of the signals being collected. The station is a “black box” protected by treaty.

RELATED: Russia’s and China’s superweapons are stunning the world. The US is struggling to catch up.

Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

In recent decades, the distinction between civilian and military space has effectively collapsed. Contemporary militaries depend on satellites for navigation, intelligence, and command-and-control. The ground facilities that return that data occupy a gray zone where science and security share the same hardware and the same personnel. This is what the U.S. Department of War calls “military-civil fusion”: the strategy of building military requirements into civilian infrastructure. The same 35-meter antenna that downlinks images of a distant nebula can eavesdrop on a competitor’s satellite or provide the tracking data necessary for counterspace targeting.

The institutional arrangements reinforce this interpretation. The Neuquén site is managed by the Xi’an Satellite Control Center, which operates under China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General. Western analysts note that CLTC was previously integrated into the PLA Strategic Support Force’s Space Systems Department. While a 2024 restructuring replaced the Strategic Support Force with a new Information Support Force, the strategic logic remains the same: tight integration of civilian and military capabilities under party-state direction.

In Bolivia, the dynamic takes on a different hue, one of national prestige and financial dependency. The Amachuma ground station, while serving Bolivia’s communications satellite, also enables Beijing to surveil skies far beyond its own borders. The project arrived as a package: infrastructure plus credit, training, and political symbolism. It is a 21st-century iteration of dependency theory, where development arrives as a structural constraint. Whoever controls the “black box” controls not only the capability but also the narrative of what that capability is doing.

The story repeats across the continent with minor variations. In Venezuela, ground stations like El Sombrero are physically embedded in military-adjacent geography, located within the Captain Manuel Ríos Aerospace Base. In Chile and Brazil, the infrastructure is softer: scientific collaborations and radio telescopes that can track near-Earth objects and improve space situational awareness, a foundational requirement for modern warfare.

China’s 2025 policy paper on Latin America frames these projects as aerospace cooperation and an invitation to join the International Lunar Research Station. It uses a rhetoric of solidarity against unilateral bullying. By contrast, the 2026 House Select Committee report sees an integrated network that boosts the PLA’s warfighting capacity. This divergence results from the dual-use nature of the technology and the secrecy surrounding it. When the evidence is encrypted or contractually insulated, knowledge becomes a matter of which authority one trusts.

Whoever can shorten the cycle from sensing to command gains the edge in a crisis. Latin America has become a geographically valuable extension of China’s ground segment, filling gaps in its coverage. These stations may not be actively engaged in military operations at the moment. One may nevertheless question why an infrastructure capable of such functions is being embedded so deeply, and so quietly, into the soil of the Western Hemisphere.

​Tech 

The American dream of owning a home — a yard, a fence, a stake in the neighborhood — is slipping out of reach for many young adults. Policymakers keep treating this as a pure affordability problem. Prices, interest rates, and down payments are all important, but the real culprit lies beneath the numbers: family formation, especially marriage.

First-time buyers made up just 21% of home purchases last year, the lowest share on record. The median first-time buyer is now 40 — up from 33 in 2021 and 29 in 1981. Census data show homeownership for Americans ages 25-34 at about 35%, roughly 19 percentage points lower than in 1980, when mortgage rates were much higher.

We keep treating the symptoms and ignoring the disease.

Affordability helps explain some of that decline. Housing is cyclical, and prices will soften if government stops inflating asset bubbles. But a newer analysis argues the bigger driver is cultural, not fiscal: the drop in marriage.

American Enterprise Institute scholar Scott Winship analyzed census data for the Institute for Family Studies and found that most of the generational decline in young homeownership tracks the collapse in marriage. While overall homeownership among Americans under 35 sits around 35%, the rate for young married couples remains about 63%.

“As recently as 2023, 63% of young married couples were homeowners,” Winship wrote. “That was the same as in 1983 and only 3 percentage points lower than at the height of the 2000s housing bubble. The 2023 rate was also higher than in any year through 1970 and any year from 1985 to 1999.”

That should change the argument. The big generational slide in homeownership hasn’t hit married couples the same way. The bigger collapse is marriage itself. The share of Americans ages 25-34 who are married fell from about 67% in 1980 to about 37% in 2025 — a 30-point drop. That’s the hole in the bucket.

So the answer shouldn’t just be “more programs.” It should address the cultural drivers behind the marriage collapse — because no housing bill can substitute for family formation.

That’s why the usual Washington approach misses the point. After decades of affordability initiatives dating back to the Clinton era, homeownership still hasn’t surged. Yet Republicans in the Senate just passed Elizabeth Warren’s housing bill — another expansion of HUD programs that would rope more people into an inflated market while rewarding the same political class that helped inflate it.

RELATED: Elizabeth Warren’s housing fix could make home buying even tougher

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

We keep treating the symptoms and ignoring the disease.

In the long run, the country won’t face a shortage of houses. The baby boom generation holds a huge share of the housing stock. Those homes will enter the market as boomers age and pass away, often transferring to heirs. The deeper question is whether the next generation will form families stable enough to buy them — and want them.

So, why is marriage declining?

Contrary to a popular assumption, it’s not mainly the housing crisis depressing family formation. The bigger driver is spiritual and cultural: a rejection of God and biblical values. Rising costs can pressure families at the margins. But a slightly higher child tax credit won’t reverse a collapse that began generations ago with the decline of worship and the rise of a culture that treats marriage as optional.

Europe has run the experiment. Many countries tried generous incentives — paid leave, universal child care, expanded benefits — and still can’t restore stable birth rates. Money can ease sacrifice. It can’t create the desire for marriage and children.

But faith can.

Institute for Family Studies senior fellow Brad Wilcox has noted that the birth rate for religiously oriented people has never fallen below replacement. A large Harvard study found that frequent religious service attendance (more than once a week) correlates with a 50% lower divorce rate compared with those who never attend. Strong marriages create the conditions for stable family life — and stable homeownership.

Anyone raised in an orthodox Christian or Jewish home learns the opening chapters of Genesis early: Marriage and children aren’t lifestyle accessories. They’re duties bound up with meaning, responsibility, and love. Faith-based communities also create thicker social bonds and clearer norms — including a dating pool that doesn’t feel like a battlefield.

A new Pew Research survey shows worship and practice dropping across every region over the last two decades. In the South, only 51% say they pray daily — still the highest region, but down 14 percentage points in a decade. The share of religiously unaffiliated Southerners rose to about a quarter of the population. In the West, 35% report no religious affiliation.

That decline makes the marriage decline easier to understand — and it helps explain why young homeownership is falling with it.

If we want more young Americans to buy homes, we should stop pretending this is only about interest rates and HUD programs. We need cultural repair. We need marriage. And to rebuild marriage, we need to rebuild the house of God.

​Sunday school, American dream, Affordability crisis, Housing crisis, Republicans, Marriage rates, Faith, Tax credits, Opinion & analysis, Elizabeth warren, Senate, Corporations, Blackstone, Housing and urban development, Economics 

Just weeks after New York legalized physician-assisted suicide, a tragic case out of Canada should stop Americans cold.

Kiano Vafaeian died under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program. He was 26. Reporting suggests his family was not notified beforehand. After a severe car accident at 17 derailed his plans, he struggled with physical and mental health challenges. He also lived with Type 1 diabetes and lost vision in one eye.

Will we measure human worth by convenience, health, and achievement? Or will we defend human dignity from conception to natural death?

His family is devastated. His mother told reporters, “We never thought there would be a chance that any doctor would approve a 22- or 23-year-old at that time for MAID because of diabetes or blindness.” But one did.

And the system isn’t slowing down. Canada is on track to surpass 100,000 assisted-suicide deaths before the program reaches its 10-year anniversary — a staggering number for what was sold as a narrow policy for the terminally ill.

The left calls this “compassion.” But once a society treats life as conditional, moral boundaries blur fast.

Kiano’s mother issued a warning every lawmaker should hear: “We don’t want to see any other family member suffer, or any country introduce a piece of legislation that kills their disabled or vulnerable without appropriate proper treatment plans that could save their lives.”

None of this should surprise us. A culture that treats abortion as the solution to inconvenience will eventually treat death the same way. The pro-life movement has warned for decades that when a society declares life disposable before birth, it becomes easier to declare it disposable after birth too.

Once suffering — even ordinary suffering — becomes the test of whether life is worth living, the list of “acceptable” deaths expands. The disabled. The depressed. The chronically ill. The elderly. Canada is already living that logic, and the United States is starting to flirt with it.

But life and hope don’t come from despair. They come from courage — the kind displayed by mothers like Kiano’s who refuse to let hardship write their children’s endings.

That courage still shows up every day. Last month, on the first day of the Lenten 40 Days for Life campaign, the first baby saved was on Long Island, New York. A mother arrived at an abortion facility intending to take abortion pills. After encountering volunteers peacefully praying outside, she chose life.

That decision points to a truth pro-lifers see constantly: Hope outweighs despair.

RELATED: The winning message is the one pro-lifers keep avoiding

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

History is full of people born into hardship who built families, communities, and civilizations. Our ancestors endured wars, poverty, disease, and loss — and still understood that life was not the problem to be solved.

Today, our culture sells a darker story. It tells young people suffering makes life meaningless. It tells women children are burdens. It tells the sick and elderly their worth depends on productivity and independence. It teaches people to fear dependence more than they fear death.

If difficulty becomes the standard for deciding who deserves to live — or even be born — eventually no one qualifies.

The West is already sliding into what sociologists call a “demographic winter”: collapsing birth rates, shrinking populations, and cultural exhaustion feeding a doom spiral. A civilization that stops believing life is a gift stops creating it — and starts finding reasons to end it.

That’s why assisted suicide isn’t just an end-of-life policy debate. It’s a civilizational question. Will we measure human worth by convenience, health, and achievement? Or will we defend human dignity from conception to natural death?

We cannot let Canada’s hopeless logic take root here. Nationally — and in every state — we must fight for life at every stage. We should work for fewer families grieving like Kiano’s and more families celebrating.

When life becomes conditional, no life is safe. When life is received as a gift, even in the hardest moments, hope wins.

​Assisted suicide, Maid program, Canada, Demographic winter, Abortion, Culture of death, Pro life, Opinion & analysis, Euthanasia, 40 days for life 

Texas state Rep. James Talarico handily defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Democratic primary for Senate — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is not thrilled.

“He really seems to love trans kids, like to an unhealthy degree,” Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

And he made that clear in an appearance on “A Superbloom Podcast,” where the host asked Talarico to tell her something that he loves “that’s not family or friends.”

“I love, I’m just saying this because it’s on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state Capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn’t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch,” Talarico responded.

In another clip of Talarico, he explains that “trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image.”

“There’s nothing wrong with them. Nothing at all. They are perfect. They are beautiful. And they are sacred. Bullying children is immoral. It’s a sin. A special kind of sin,” he continued.

“Yes, I agree. God designed them how they were born, and that’s how they should stay,” Gonzales comments.

But that’s not the end of Talarico’s pro-trans commentary.

“I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care too. Defending trans Texans is something that we have to do every day at the state Capitol. And you better believe I’ll be giving sermons on that too,” Talarico said.

“Oh we know you will,” Gonzales says. “We know you’re going to give the sermons on the trans kids because he has himself an obsession.”

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