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Vice President JD Vance recently drew criticism for questioning the benefits of the dollar’s reserve currency status. In a 2023 interview, he argued that it encourages Americans to consume too much, describing it as a “resource curse.”

If you’ve followed Vance during his time in Congress, these comments are not particularly surprising. He has been one of the biggest proponents of rebalancing America’s relationship with the global economy through targeted industrial policy, much to the chagrin of the GOP establishment.

Sufficient industrial capacity gives a nation options in a crisis; dependence on foreign powers — especially China, our main adversary — is a path to decline and ruin.

Naturally, the response from Vance’s free-trade critics was immediate and severe. They argued that cheap imports increase consumers’ purchasing power, while an economy organized around offering high-value services is not necessarily a sign of economic weakness. In their eyes, what Vance proposed amounts to a command-and-control economy, snuffing out economic opportunity and raising prices at a time when families can least afford it.

Contrary to his critics, Vance had the right general diagnosis, even if his prescription risks creating problems of its own.

The dollar’s reserve-currency status means that every country on earth wants to hold dollars, mainly to facilitate international commerce and to buy Treasury bonds as a safe place to store its money. That demand keeps the dollar’s value higher than it would be otherwise. A stronger dollar, in turn, means cheaper imported goods for Americans, but it makes U.S.-made goods less competitive, both at home and abroad. This is one of the major reasons America stopped making so many things.

it’s also why Donald Trump’s long-standing emphasis on targeted tariffs and reindustrialization remains crucial today. An economy too dependent on foreign products can threaten national security and a country’s long-term health.

As demonstrated by the vehemence of Vance’s critics, the Trump administration’s economic refocus has elicited strong pushback. Libertarian dogma has dominated the Republican Party since the Reagan era, elevating consumer choice and being “free to choose” as the highest economic goods. The dominant theory before Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy was that greater economic freedom broadly spreads prosperity and raises living standards.

But that view captures only part of what an economy is supposed to accomplish. Economic freedom ultimately depends on the prudent use of national power. A nation that lacks the capacity to build ships, aircraft, energy infrastructure, and advanced technology — a nation that can easily have its supply chains interrupted, as we saw during COVID — cannot maintain freedom for itself or adequately protect its allies.

Sufficient industrial capacity gives a nation options in a crisis; dependence on foreign powers — especially China, our main adversary — is a path to decline and ruin.

History shows this to be the case.

For almost 200 years, Great Britain protected its shipping and textile industries before becoming one of the world’s leading advocates of free trade. It dropped its own tariffs in 1846 only after it became the most powerful industrial and naval power on earth. By then, British manufacturers were in a far stronger position to compete in an increasingly global market.

The United States followed the same path. In his “Report on Manufactures,” Alexander Hamilton pushed the nation to industrialize rapidly rather than remain dependent on European powers for goods. Had the country followed Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a more agrarian-based economy, America would likely have become a vassal state of a far stronger country for the foreseeable future.

For nearly two centuries after the founding, tariffs were a key component of America’s industrial growth, alongside plentiful natural resources, geographic advantages, hemispheric hegemony, and a rapidly expanding population. Only after two world wars left American factories standing while much of the rest of the world lay in ruins did Washington establish the framework for a global free-market economy, backed by a military and an industrial base nobody else could match.

RELATED: Trump’s next tax cut should make Americans owners

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Free trade became a key Cold War strategy. Lower trade barriers let the U.S. pull more nations into its orbit than the Soviet Union ever managed. But Washington paid a price, accepting a hit to its own industrial base to win the fight against communism.

A persistently strong dollar tends to make foreign goods cheaper for Americans to buy while making American exports more expensive for everyone else. Following that playbook for four decades, even after the Soviet Union’s defeat, led to exactly the economic problem that Trump and Vance now have to contend with: the decline of domestic manufacturing and the hollowing out of the American heartland. The result is a service-based economy heavily dependent on consumption, with a much-diminished industrial capacity and a working class that has borne the brunt of American economic statecraft.

The consequences are clear in shipbuilding, as the United States produces fewer than a dozen commercial ships a year while China turns out more than a thousand. China controls around 60% of the world’s shipbuilding market, with a total capacity more than 200 times ours.

China isn’t the second-most powerful country in the world because it practices free trade. It has rapidly developed industries that strengthen its national power while taking advantage of the United States’ determination that more open trade would encourage political liberalization in Beijing. China is a blatant currency manipulator, artificially lowering the price of its exports while maintaining state control over its economy. For these reasons, the Trump administration was right in principle to begin imposing tariffs on China to counter its blatant abuses while reinvigorating U.S. domestic manufacturing.

The United States must maintain demand for our $40 trillion in debt, and there is no reason to risk that demand drying up, forcing us to pay higher interest rates or, in the worst-case scenario, default.

But America should take the core of JD Vance’s prescription seriously. Invest deliberately in building real, finished goods again. Use targeted tariffs to encourage that rebuilding. And yes, let the dollar’s value come down some as a result.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at the American Mind.

​Alexander hamilton, American heartland, China, Dollars reserve currency, Economic weakness, Free trade, Global economy, Great britain, Industrial policy, National security, Soviet union, Vice president jd vance, Economic opportunity, Cold war, Trump, Opinion & analysis 

As thousands of women continue their support of Lindsay Clancy, and after Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea failed to stop female supporters from romanticizing him as a hero, Conservateur editor Bethany Miller has one question: “What is the state of American women today?”

This was the central question that underpinned her recent article “Lindsay Clancy, Luigi Mangione, and the State of American Women.”

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Miller joined the Blaze Media co-founder to unpack her theory about what’s causing a growing number of women to support confessed killers.

Miller explains that women’s disturbing advocacy surrounding people who have admitted to killing innocents is multifaceted and long-simmering.

“From the Millennial movement of the #MeToo and the therapeutic culture and ‘my truth is the only truth’ — this has been brewing for some time,” she tells Glenn.

These movements, Miller says, are the result of the divinely fashioned female psyche — with its bend toward empathy and relationality — being “weaponized” by “secular politics.”

“The left is capitalizing on [female instincts], manipulating women’s lenses of empathy and of relation and using that to get them to respond empathetically in a weaponized empathy to what’s happening with Lindsay Clancy,” she says.

“So instead of going, ‘Hey, what’s black and white here? This woman killed her children, therefore justice must be served,’ they’re saying, ‘Hey, actually, she struggled with postpartum depression, and she was anxious, and so let’s blame the man,’ or, ‘I can see myself in her; therefore me condemning her is condemning myself.”’

Glenn was particularly struck by Miller’s argument in her article that women have been conditioned to allow their instinctual empathy to lead them to dark outcomes. In the piece, she wrote, “I see her becomes I understand her. I understand her becomes I cannot judge her.”

“The blurring of that line, I mean, that’s what has … women holding newborns and posting “Same, Lindsay” or pushing a stroller outside of her trial, chanting that she’s innocent,” he sighs.

People must be able to tell the difference between understanding someone’s pain and agreeing with how they handle it, Glenn urges.

“Mental illness is real, and I can understand [Clancy] because my mother went through really bad mental illness … but that doesn’t mean I agree with her,” he says.

“Luigi Mangione — that is terrifying to me that they’re practically throwing themselves at this [alleged] murderer because they’re like, ‘Yeah, well, he’s been abused by the system, and I’ve been abused by the system.’”

Another factor playing into this issue, says Miller, is women’s obsession with true crime and fantasy.

“This is the type of entertainment and narratives that they inherit and consume on a daily basis and that we’ve seen … weaponize the way that they’re thinking about these things,” she says.

Add to that social media and the dawning of the AI age, where what’s real is quickly becoming impossible to know, and it’s no wonder, says Miller, so many young people especially are struggling to differentiate between genuine reality and “digital reality.”

“Beyond just the gender wars, discernment is something we’re losing as the American public,” she warns.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​Lindsay clancy, Luigi mangione, Mental illness, Glenn beck, Social media, Artificial intelligence, True crime, Blazetv show, Women 

In 1976, Frank Sinatra walked on stage with a couple of folded pieces of paper and handed them to Jerry Lewis.

They were both checks. Lewis thank Sinatra with a comical kiss on the cheek, causing the singer to joke: “You do that one more time, we’re gonna buy the furniture.”

But there was another surprise.

‘You’ll never walk alone.’

The annual Labor Day Telethon hosted by Lewis started in 1966 and lasted all the way until 2010. From age 40 until his mid-80s, Lewis performed, joked, and raised millions for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

It was a charitable tradition that often attracted unexpected celebrities.

That 1976 iteration was not special just because it featured Sinatra, but because Sinatra had a special guest. After 20 years and a very public professional breakup, Dean Martin walked onto center stage and embraced Lewis.

This was billed as the first public appearance by “Martin and Lewis” since their 10-year run from 1946 to 1956, and they picked up right where they left off. They sang, tripped over each other, and made Jewish-Italian jokes that couldn’t air today. This was just one of many star-studded moments on the program.

Year after year, Lewis racked donation numbers on the big board that remain impressive, even when adjusted for inflation.

A board in 1980 touted over $31 million in donations that came from entertained Americans who had called in, having their heartstrings pulled by a message from one of Jerry’s Kids — the children with muscular dystrophy featured on the broadcast.

RELATED: Jerry Lewis: Curious, risk-taking craftsman

In 1987, $39 million more poured in as special guest Sammy Davis Jr. made one of his many appearances.

Other appearances included the likes of John Lennon (1972), the Jackson 5 (1974), Aretha Franklin (1980), and Elton John (2004). Yes, the audience didn’t know how good they had it. Or perhaps they did.

As the years flew by, the telethon lost some steam, but still broke records in 2008 with a monstrous $65 million in donations.

This was not enough to keep Lewis on the airwaves, though.

Behind the scenes, Lewis and the MDA butted heads butted heads over the show’s content and length

When the Muscular Dystrophy Association announced plans to slash the marathon broadcast from 21.5 hours to a pre-recorded six-hour Sunday special, Lewis initially agreed to host the shortened 2011 event one last time. However, a fierce clash over control soon followed. Lewis insisted his final sign-off be entirely live, while the MDA demanded a pre-taped segment.

Combined with Lewis’ public criticism of modern reality TV shows, this battle over the broadcast’s format pushed the relationship past its breaking point. Just weeks before the broadcast, the MDA abruptly ousted the 85-year-old entertainment icon, forcing him to step down as national chairman and making his 2010 appearance — in which he cried as he sang the signature classic “You’ll Never Walk Alone” — his unexpected final telethon.

After the 2014 telethon, the MDA announced it was pulling the plug on the nearly 60-year-old tradition.

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel: It’s not ‘my job’ to make you laugh

The end came after decades of Lewis parrying criticisms that he was too mean in his approach and used too much “pity” to garner donations.

In 2007, he caught heat for making a joke using the words “illiterate fag.”

Even one of Jerry’s Kids eventually wrote that he felt demeaned by the whole focus of the show in the 1960s, when he and his sister were featured.

Through it all, the fundraiser managed to raise an estimated $2 billion.

Lewis died August 20, 2017, at age 91 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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​Jerry lewis, Frank sinatra, Dean martin, Jerry lewis telethon, Labor day, Entertainment 

God, Who rested on the seventh day “from all His work which He had done,” commanded that man should do likewise.

As part of their de-Christianization campaign, the French revolutionaries over 230 years ago rebuffed this divine commandment. Instead, they determined that anyone who managed to survive their historic bloodletting would have to rest on the final day of a 10-day cycle marked on a new calendar no longer commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.

‘An almost identical anti-clerical measure was applied nearly a century and a half later by Stalin.’

Fortunately for those who labor today, this calendar, like the bloodthirsty republic that invented it, is no more.

The National Convention, the assembly that governed France from 1792 to 1795, decreed in late 1793 that “the vulgar era” of marking time was “abolished for civil usage” and that the era of the French Republic began on September 22, 1792, “at 9:18:30 in the morning.”

The leftist regime that guillotined an estimated 17,000 people during the Reign of Terror determined that moving forward, every year would be divided into 12 equal months each comprising 30 days. These 12 months would then be followed by five days that didn’t belong to any month.

Each month was divided in three equal parts, which the leftists referred to as decades because they had 10 days: Primidi, Duodi, Tridi, Quartidi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi, Octidi, Nonidi, and Décadi.

RELATED: ‘Against the Machine’ offers playbook for battling leftist lies

Arterra/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Gilbert Romme, the Montagnard politician who oversaw the short-lived calendar’s development, noted in 1793:

The vulgar era was born among an ignorant and credulous people amidst the troubles that were precursor to the fall of the Roman Empire. For eighteen centuries it served to fix within duration the progress of fanaticism, the degradation of nations; the scandalous triumph of pride, vice, and stupidity; and the persecutions and disgust that virtue, talent, and philosophy suffered under cruel despots who allowed this to be done in their name.

While the supposedly enlightened leftists’ new week had extra days, it didn’t have additional days of mandated rest. Romme noted that only the 10th day was the “day of Repose.”

In addition to having more workdays between days of rest, the new week disrupted church attendance — by design.

Sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel noted that:

aside from the immediate symbolic significance of doing away with one of the most sacred elements within the Christian tradition, the introduction of the ten-day rhythm of social life played a major role in disrupting church-attending practices, since it presented both practical and cognitive difficulties in keeping up with the traditional, sacred seven-day cycle. It is interesting to note that an almost identical anti-clerical measure was applied nearly a century and a half later by Stalin.

The new calendar also stripped common folk of all the holy days, including Christmas, that filled up their rejected Christian calendar. They were instead allotted the five days that didn’t fit into any particular month to celebrate select values of the revolutionaries, including revolution and industry.

Unsurprisingly, the French people resented the new calendar, reported Radio France Internationale.

While coming between working people and their weekends was far down the list of the things the French revolutionaries got wrong, the Anno Domini of that particular failure is nevertheless worth marking.

Although it made an 18-day reappearance in May 1871, the French Republican calendar was abolished in 1806 by the republican turned dictator Napoleon Bonaparte.

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​Labor day, French revolution, Jacobins, Calendar, Republican calendar, Politics 

There is a certain kind of person, at a certain kind of barbecue, who announces, with the flat authority of Scripture, that white is not to be worn after Labor Day. No one has ever produced this law. It’s enforced like a grudge: the offense long forgotten, the point being the enforcement.

That, it turns out, is the whole personality of the holiday: a house built on a foundation nobody can locate, in honor of a man history can no longer confidently name.

Labor Day has spent a century accumulating quirky social rules no legislature passed but nearly everyone obeys anyway.

The first Labor Day — not yet official, just an idea a union decided to act on — took place on September 5, 1882, in New York City. Someone willed it into being. Who, exactly, that person was is where the record gives out.

Credit for organizing it sits between Peter McGuire, a carpenter and the co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, and Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the Central Labor Union. While their unions were rivals, their surnames were just one letter apart, as if fate couldn’t be bothered to keep them straight.

A former U.S. Department of Labor historian admitted in 2011 that she still couldn’t say which one deserved the credit.

What is known is that it cost something. Workers reportedly forfeited about $75,000 in lost wages to march that day — the Central Labor Union even fined anyone who skipped it. Roughly 10,000 walked from City Hall to Union Square.

Even while most of the world marks the labor holiday on May 1, the U.S. wanted no part of it. A Haymarket Square rally in Chicago that began on May 1, 1886, ended in a deadly bombing three days later, turning May Day into a symbol of radicalism.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland specifically pushed September into law instead so the holiday wouldn’t become a memorial to the Haymarket radicals.

From that origin — sacrifice, spectacle, and a little deliberate amnesia — Labor Day has spent a century accumulating quirky social rules no legislature passed but nearly everyone obeys anyway.

RELATED: The ‘tradition’ behind Nathan’s hot-dog eating contest is a fake news PR stunt

Aladdin Color Inc./Getty Images

For one, the white clothes were never really a rule so much as a gatekeeping test, likely invented by old-money New Yorkers of the Gilded Age terrified of being confused with the flanks of the industrial nouveau riche nipping at their heels.

Fashion historians trace it to Newport summers, where white linen signaled you had servants to launder it and no hard labor to dirty it.

After Labor Day, pools close with the solemnity of a curfew, though the reason behind that practice — the school calendar — is rather dull. Roughly a third of the country’s 309,000 public pools face shortages each year since so many lifeguards are teenagers who vanish the moment the school bell rings.

Mattresses also tend to go on sale at this time, but mostly because someone once noticed a day off is a day to shop — 30% to 50% across major brands.

And repetition, given enough years, effectively becomes law.

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​Chicago, Labor day, Union, Politics 

The towering figure of Anna Klobuchar Clemenc has returned to the streets of Calumet, Michigan, 70 years after she died.

Standing at 6’2″ tall, the woman known as “Big Annie” became the face of the copper miners’ strike in Copper Country, the northwestern counties of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where copper mines sprang up in the middle of the 19th century.

On Christmas Eve 1913, the plight of the strikers turned unthinkably tragic.

The conditions in the mines were brutal. With shafts reaching more than a mile underground, the darkness was deep and thick, and the cost of miners’ equipment, including the candles for their hats, was deducted from their wages.

Shifts sometimes lasted 10 or 12 hours, six days a week, and almost always involved back-breaking physical labor. According to one report, nearly one out of every three miners suffered serious injury and one out of 200 was killed on the job.

Below are photos taken from inside Quincy Mine, located about 11 miles south of Calumet. The Quincy copper mine operated more or less continuously from 1846 until 1945, and a private organization now offers tours.

Photos taken by Blaze News

By 1913, the development of a new drill had changed the pay structure at the mines to compensate for time rather than productivity, resulting in a dramatic reduction in miner pay, according to the Daily Press. On July 23 of that year, nearly 9,000 copper miners in the region went on strike.

Big Annie, of course, was not one of them. However, she often led the way in their daily parades, carrying a giant American flag and demanding an eight-hour workday, higher wages, and better conditions.

Then the wife of a miner and the foundress of the Western Federation of Miners’ Women’s Auxiliary no. 15, Big Annie was eventually dubbed the “Heroine of the Copper Country Strike” and even an “American Joan of Arc.” She was arrested multiple times and served time in jail.

During one particularly contentious run-in with law enforcement, Big Annie reportedly shouted: “Kill me. Run your bayonets and sabres through this flag and kill me, but I won’t move. If this flag will not protect me, then I will die with it.”

The strike was at best minimally effective. The governor sent in the Michigan National Guard almost immediately, a notorious strike-breaking firm from New York arrived as well, and while the strike did disrupt operations, so-called scabs and imported foreign labor kept the copper mines going to some extent.

Then on Christmas Eve 1913, the plight of the strikers turned unthinkably tragic.

Big Annie and the rest of the Women’s Auxiliary hosted a Christmas party in the Italian Hall in Calumet for the striking miners and their families. The event was festive and even featured Santa and some gifts donated by union members and other businesses.

But at around 4:40 p.m., a man suddenly interrupted the revelry by shouting, “Fire! Fire!” His cries prompted a stampede downstairs for one exit, and 73 people were trampled to death in the stairwell, 59 of them children.

There was never any fire, and the alarmist was never identified. Folk singer Woody Guthrie memorialized the deadly incident in his song “1913 Massacre.”

Afterward, the strike limped along for another four months but officially ended without formal resolution on April 13, 1914.

Mining companies in the area did eventually implement an eight-hour workday and boosted wages, though some scholars argue that those changes were part of a larger labor reform movement throughout the country rather than the result of the strike.

Big Annie moved to Chicago shortly after the strike ended and died there in 1956 at the age of 68. While there’s no doubt she brought spirit and resolve to the strikers and their families, her legacy is a bit mixed.

Two of her three marriages ended in divorce. She divorced her first husband, miner Joseph Clemenc, just after the end of the strike and then married Frank Shaws, an editor of a socialist Slovenian newspaper.

Like Shaws, Big Annie was also a socialist. The Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame characterizes her as:

devoted to the active participation of women outside the traditional confines of the home. Having graduated from eighth grade, she was a relatively well-educated woman at that time. Clemenc was an avid follower of Eugene Debs, Mother Mary Harris Jones, and the tenets of socialism. It was her independent nature and strong-willed character that inspired many men and women to take a stand for justice.

Still, WLUC-TV recently described her as “a symbol of persistence and the mining history that built Calumet,” and residents there have never forgotten their native daughter.

On August 22, they unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Big Annie, complete with a base made of Calumet street bricks dating back to 1913. A parade celebrating the occasion drew large crowds and included the pep band from nearby Michigan Technological University.

RELATED: First rule for surviving Michigan winter? A daily walk with my kids

Courtesy of Visit Keweenaw

The statue project was a labor of love all its own. Locals spent years and raised over $150,000 to honor Big Annie, who was inducted into Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1996 and Labor’s International Hall of Fame in 2013.

“If it wasn’t for people like Annie, who were so strong, I would have a hard time being a union member myself,” Bricklayers Union Member Adam Saari told WLUC-TV, “because the labor standards would not be the same.”

“I helped work on the statue, and I’m also someone who works in the mines,” said Bryan Latto, according to WLUC. “Our unique Upper Peninsula history is something that only we can preserve, so it’s something that we’ve got to do ourselves, otherwise nobody else is going to do it for us.”

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​Michigan, Copper, Upper peninsula, Politics 

President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 12 that one of his “most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt,” was departing the role of White House press secretary after 19 months so that “she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family.”

Leavitt, who gave birth to her second child on May 1, noted, “Serving as the White House Press Secretary over the past year and a half has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime.”

‘You’re a left-wing hack. You’re not a reporter. You’re posing in this room as a journalist.’

Unlike with her lesbian predecessor, Americans may soon come to miss Leavitt. After all, the unflappable Republican was responsible for a number of memorable moments. Three in particular stand out.

1. ‘They are criminals’

Just days after Trump retook office, a reporter noted Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already made roughly 3,500 arrests, then asked, “How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?”

Leavitt signaled right away that she wasn’t going to join the liberal media in downplaying the crime of stealing into the United States.

“All of them,” said Leavitt, “because they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and therefore they are criminals as far as this administration goes.”

The former press secretary acknowledged that after four years of the Biden administration, “It’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that’s exactly what they are.”

2. ‘Left-wing hack’

A year later, Niall Stanage, a White House columnist from The Hill, quoted then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as saying that ICE was doing “everything correctly.” After noting that some Americans have been arrested by ICE and invoking the name of Renee Good — an anti-ICE radical who was fatally shot while driving her SUV into an ICE agent — Stanage asked, “How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?”

RELATED: Karoline Leavitt rips into WaPo for ‘BS story’ about Trump and Hegseth

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

It didn’t take long for Leavitt to suss out Stanage.

“Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?” asked Leavitt.

Stanage replied, “Because an ICE agent reacted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.”

Leavitt delivered her diagnosis: “OK, so you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion. … You’re a left-wing hack. You’re not a reporter. You’re posing in this room as a journalist, and it’s so clear by the premise of your question.”

“You shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat,” added Leavitt.

The former press secretary continued to castigate Stanage, suggesting that he had a blind spot for the Americans killed by the very illegal aliens whom ICE works to detain and deport.

3. Maternal selection

President Trump revealed in October 2025 that he was planning to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”

The Huffington Post’s S.V. Dáte pressed the White House on why the capital of a friendly NATO country that’s a three-hour flight away from Moscow had been chosen as the destination for the meeting, writing, “Is the president aware of the significance of Budapest? In 1994, Russia promised, in Budapest, not to invade Ukraine if it gave up the nuclear weapons it inherited when the Soviet Union dissolved. Does he not see why Ukraine might object to that site? Who suggested Budapest?”

The tone of the query clearly rubbed Leavitt the wrong way. She answered, “Your mom did.”

“Is this funny to you?” said Dáte, evidently unaware that it would soon be funny to a great many Americans.

Leavitt later noted, “For context, S.V. Dáte of the Huffington Post is not a journalist interested in the facts. He is a left-wing hack who has consistently attacked President Trump for years and constantly bombards my phone with Democrat talking points.”

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​Karoline leavitt, White house, Donald trump, Liberal media, Press secretary, Politics 

After walking away from Islam, content creator Eternal Bread of Life thought she had found peace in New Age beliefs. Drawn to practices like tarot cards and manifestation, she spent years pursuing what she believed was healing, self-discovery, and enlightenment.

She tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey that her transition from Islam to witchcraft began when she started questioning what the Quran said was normal, like Muhammad’s child bride or his curse on women who “remove their hair from their eyebrows.”

“I was getting my eyebrows threaded, and so then this made me feel really guilty, and it also just made me feel frustrated and sort of resentful,” she says, “because like why would God care so much to the point that we’re cursed for doing that?”

She tells Stuckey that once she became a New Ager, she believed in “past lives, reincarnation, chakra balancing, meditation, mindfulness, psychic readings, [and] tarot cards.”

“I did find a lot of peace in it. Because, you know, there is a concept of trying to find your higher self. You know, doing shadow work to, like, heal the parts of yourself that are more broken or that need work,” she explains.

“Manifestation was also a big thing. And so I did find a lot of peace in it,” she adds.

Astrology was one of her favorite New Age beliefs, as she felt it related most to Islam.

“God created the planets, and there is some truth to astrology,” she says.

“Were you reading any particular books on the subject? Were they just kind of friends influencing you? How did you kind of go down that witchcraft-New Age rabbit hole?” Stuckey asks.

“It was mostly influencers online. You know, people who seemed very well versed in that kind of stuff,” she answers.

“I just always — because I had been taught the Bible was corrupted, the Quran is the final revelation, it’s the word of God, I never took it seriously. I never considered it.

“They basically drill it into you that Allah has no son. Jesus was just a prophet. When somebody’s telling you, like, ‘Oh, you know, Jesus loves you, Jesus, is God and He’s the son of God,’ you already have those guards up in your mind as a Muslim,” she explains.

However, when she did venture into New Age beliefs, others in the space reversed course and became Christians.

“They started to encounter Jesus in visions, or they had supernatural experiences, and then they immediately denounced all the New Age practice and they became a Christian,” she explains.

“I thought if I was ever going to go back to an Abrahamic religion, it would be Islam,” she continues. “So I wasn’t understanding. Why, like why is it Christianity?”

After her favorite New Age creator went on a meditation retreat with Joe Dispenza and had a vision of Jesus during meditation three separate times, her tune changed.

“He said, ‘Open your heart to me,’ and then she had … crazy experiences after that. So then after hearing her testimony, I was like, ‘Okay, I will give Christianity a chance,’” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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​Astrology, Islam, Muhammad, New age, Quran, Tarot cards, Witchcraft, New ager, Allie beth stuckey, Blazetv show 

The battle for the soul of the Republican Party and the America First coalition is already under way. The midterm convention in Dallas this week gives anxious voters a chance to see what the party thinks it is fighting for now — and what comes next.

Democrats are building a case around what might be called Republican DEI: data centers, Epstein, and the Iran war. The examples differ, but the attack line is the same. Republicans, Democrats say, are beholden to special interests and major corporations, indifferent to the struggles of ordinary Americans and increasingly consumed by self-dealing and vanity projects.

Republicans have a chance to get their groove back before the midterms — the last federal election cycle that will shape Trump’s presidency.

Politics is a contact sport, and the Democratic Socialists of America are ascendant. Their critique will not be answered by dismissing it or by pursuing policies that seem to validate it.

The accusation is simple: Republicans protect the people who finance them. They will do unpopular things if donors want them done and avoid popular things if donors object. That critique has worked before — remember Mitt Romney’s collapse — and it can work again.

The Dallas convention is an opportunity to reconnect the Republican Party with the insurgency Donald Trump launched in 2015: opposition to a special-interest-dominated GOP, a focus on the economic and cultural condition of forgotten Americans, and resistance to mass migration that intensified those pressures.

Somewhere along the way, that focus shifted — in policy and in tone. Consider President Trump’s post last week on Truth Social, touting data centers: “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”

That sounds uncomfortably close to Barack Obama’s notorious quip about struggling small-town Pennsylvanians who “cling to guns or religion” because their communities had been left behind. Obama’s mistake was not noticing the economic pain. It was treating the people living through it with contempt. Republicans should not repeat it.

RELATED: The left uses primaries. The right wastes them.

id-work/iStock/Getty Images

Data centers are polling disastrously across party lines. Candidates are flipping positions and racing to oppose them. Put aside the merits of any individual project. The political signal is obvious: Americans do not trust the political and economic system to protect them from another massive technological transformation.

Their anxiety is not a messaging problem. It reflects lived conditions. Many Americans have watched factories close, wages stagnate, housing costs soar, communities deteriorate, and successive technological revolutions enrich people somewhere else. When they hear promises that AI infrastructure will make everyone richer, they remember how often “everyone” turned out not to include them.

That is why the socialist critique has traction. Too many Republicans reinforce it by behaving like the government-relations arm of Fortune 100 companies. Americans who feel abandoned by institutions will rage against the machine — and increasingly, against the machines themselves.

So Dallas arrives at the right time. To borrow an underrated movie title, Republicans have a chance to get their groove back before the midterms — the last federal election cycle that will shape Trump’s presidency. The convention should answer a basic question: What and whom does the Republican Party stand for?

RELATED: Republicans keep losing because they won’t take hostages

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The answer does not require a new slogan. It requires remembering the old promises. Trump’s rise was built on reindustrialization, immigration enforcement, hostility to corrupt special interests, and a conviction that government should pay more attention to the people who live in hollowed-out towns than to the institutions that profited from hollowing them out.

That agenda should again be squarely focused on working Americans whose finances have worsened, whose communities have been transformed, and whose confidence in the country’s institutions has collapsed. Reindustrialize. Enforce the border and remove the millions of people who have no lawful right to remain. Break the grip of special interests over the political class.

The midterm convention is an opportunity to assure voters that the Republican program is still about getting their country back — not telling them they are backward or poor for objecting to what Washington and corporate America have planned for them.

​Iran war, Mass migration, Midterm convention, Dsa, Socialism, Dallas, Texas, Republicans, Opinion & analysis, Donald trump 

They say diamonds are forever, but so are humans. We do not stop existing at the death of our bodies. And that is why the death of Gloria Steinem should cause us to think seriously about more than her political legacy as a leftist activist.

Steinem died Wednesday at age 92. She will be remembered as one of the most influential feminists of the last century, a co-founder of Ms. magazine, and a leader in the movement that made abortion a defining element of modern feminism.

Gloria Steinem’s death should remind us that human beings are forever. That makes killing infinitely more serious than our culture wants to admit.

But there is another person whose life must be remembered when we remember Steinem: the unborn child she aborted.

Steinem became pregnant at 22. She had broken off an engagement and was preparing to leave for India. Abortion was illegal in Britain except in limited circumstances, but a physician, John Sharpe, helped her obtain one.

Decades later, Steinem dedicated her memoir, “My Life on the Road,” to Sharpe. She remembered his words to her: “You must promise me two things.” One was that she not reveal his name. The other was: “You will do what you want to do with your life.”

Those words summarize an entire moral revolution.

But what about the other life? What did that child want to do with his or her life?

That child never went to India. Never went to school. Never chose a career. Never fell in love. Never held a child. Never traveled, wrote a book, changed political parties, found religion, rejected religion, made mistakes, sought forgiveness, or grew old.

The philosophy supposedly centered on “choice” began by taking every choice away from someone else. There is no higher level of selfishness than to end another person’s life so that person does not get in the way of your own plans.

What does this tell us about the human heart?

Steinem once said, “I didn’t go to school until I was 12, so I missed a little bit of social conditioning.” She considered freedom from conventional social expectations liberating. That theme ran through her life: question inherited rules, throw off imposed roles, and determine your own destiny. In its most radical form, modern feminism treats human rules as mere social constructs and “being yourself” as acting on your desires without discipline or correction.

RELATED: Chelsea Clinton put a price tag on abortion

Anthony Kwan/Getty Images for MEBO Group

There is something attractive about that message. Human beings should question unjust traditions. But there is a darker possibility. What if the moral law we are overthrowing is not merely “social conditioning”? What if some acts really are wrong regardless of what society says? Steinem’s questioning was not merely philosophical curiosity. It echoed the sin of Genesis 3: the desire to become one’s own god, even to claim power over the life of another human being.

The most frightening capacity of the human mind is not ignorance. It is self-justification. We can take something terrible and give it a noble name.

Steinem did not merely defend her abortion reluctantly. She later described it as taking “responsibility for my own life.” She said she tried to make herself feel guilty by imagining how old her child would have been. It is as if Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov had stopped midway through “Crime and Punishment,” still convinced that murder could elevate him above ordinary morality.

That is chilling precisely because the child disappears from the moral calculation.

Her life. Her responsibility. Her choice. Her future.

But another human being had a life too.

What does this say about the movement that followed her?

Steinem did not keep this reasoning private. She helped make it a political philosophy.

Millions of Americans were taught to describe abortion in the language of liberation, autonomy, and reproductive freedom. The unborn child became almost linguistically invisible. We learned to talk endlessly about the woman’s future while refusing to talk about the future being deliberately ended.

That is how moral revolutions work. They do not normally begin by convincing people to celebrate evil as evil. They rename it as something good.

Murder becomes “choice.”

The destruction of a human life becomes “health care.”

And denying another human being her entire future becomes “doing what you want with your life.”

RELATED: ‘That far’ always becomes here

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

The lesson of Steinem’s life is therefore larger than Steinem. She became influential because millions of people found that reasoning persuasive. A culture embraced the astonishing proposition that equality could be advanced by denying the most defenseless human beings even the equality of being allowed to live.

And now comes the question death forces upon us.

Christians believe Gloria Steinem still exists. We also believe her child still exists. Death does not make our actions disappear. It removes our ability to distract ourselves from them.

Imagine the question that child could ask: Mom, why did you kill me? Why was your future worth more than mine? Why did you get to “do what you want to do with your life” while deciding that I would never get to do anything with mine?

And widen the circle. What of the millions whose deaths were justified by the political movement Steinem helped lead? What happens when slogans about “reproductive freedom” meet the human beings whose lives those slogans helped extinguish?

Gloria Steinem’s death should remind us that human beings are forever. That makes killing infinitely more serious than our culture wants to admit.

And it makes repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God infinitely more urgent.

The great question is not whether history praises us after we die. It is whether the God who gave life agrees with what we did with it. Steinem now stands before His judgment seat.

​Abortion, Christianity, Death, Feminism, Gloria steinem, God, Judgment, Opinion & analysis, Repentance, Sin 

Twenty-two years ago, something extraordinary happened in American movie theaters.

Across the country, audiences sat in near silence as the final hours of the Lord’s life unfolded before them. There were no superheroes, no elaborate special effects, and no English dialogue. Instead, we watched a brutally realistic depiction of a scourged and bleeding man carrying a cross through the streets of Jerusalem toward His execution.

Every person watching the film also carries a reality we prefer not to contemplate: With every passing day, we move closer to our own death and our own face-to-face encounter with the living God.

I saw “The Passion of the Christ” four times on the big screen — and I was hardly alone in going back more than once. Each viewing was emotionally overwhelming. I shed plenty of tears, but none more than during this scene, as Jesus is beaten nearly beyond recognition.

Shared encounter

Mel Gibson’s 2004 film became a cultural phenomenon. It ultimately earned more than $610 million worldwide and, for 20 years, remained the highest-grossing R-rated movie in domestic box-office history. More importantly, it became something increasingly rare in American culture: a shared encounter with the story at the heart of Christianity.

Now, “The Passion” is back.

From September 10 through 17, the film returns to theaters nationwide, newly remastered in 4K with Dolby Atmos sound. Audiences will also see an exclusive behind-the-scenes preview of Gibson’s long-awaited sequel, “The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One,” scheduled for release in May.

For those of us who saw “The Passion” in 2004, its return offers an opportunity to revisit a remarkable cinematic experience. But nostalgia isn’t the most important reason to go.

An entire generation has never experienced this film in a theater.

The oldest members of Gen Z were only grade-schoolers when Gibson’s epic debuted. Many were toddlers or not yet born. They’ve grown up in a radically different culture from the one that encountered “The Passion of the Christ” 22 years ago.

An urgent invitation

They should see it.

Not simply because Mel Gibson made a powerful movie, but because of whom the movie is about: Jesus Christ. The Word incarnate. The man who walked willingly toward Calvary, stretched out His arms on a cross, and gave His life for humanity.

That is exactly what makes this rerelease different from the return of some beloved Hollywood classic. We aren’t simply being invited to revisit a movie. We are being invited to contemplate an event that changed human history.

And just maybe we need that invitation now more than ever.

Look around.

Wars rage. Natural disasters bring scenes of devastation into our homes. Human life is discarded through abortion and euthanasia. Families are fractured. Loneliness, addiction, and despair afflict millions. Technology connects us instantly, yet people seem increasingly incapable of understanding one another.

The world is shaking. What will awaken us?

RELATED: Mel Gibson’s long-awaited biblical sequel is finally happening

Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

Confronting the familiar

Christianity offers a startling answer. A crucified man.

The central image of the Christian faith is not a throne, a sword, or a display of worldly power. It is God giving Himself away.

“For God so loved the world,” Scripture tells us, “that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).

“The Passion of the Christ” forces us to confront what those familiar words mean.

The scourging is difficult to watch. The road to Calvary is exhausting. The Crucifixion is horrifying, and that is precisely the point.

Sin is not trivial. Love is not mere sentiment. Our redemption came at a price.

Every person watching the film also carries a reality we prefer not to contemplate: With every passing day, we move closer to our own death and our own face-to-face encounter with the living God.

Seen in that light, “The Passion of the Christ” is not entertainment. Instead, it’s a question: Who do you say Jesus Christ really is?

The only question

It’s a question every human being should struggle with. It’s precisely the question that has drawn Christian leaders like Cardinals Raymond Burke and Gerhard Müller, Rev. Franklin Graham, and Pastor Samuel Rodriguez to tout the film’s rerelease — and to encourage Christians to prepare spiritually for what comes next.

The original film also changed what Hollywood believed was possible. Its enormous success opened new opportunities for religious filmmaking and raised expectations for how biblical stories could be portrayed on screen. The renaissance that followed eventually gave us productions such as “The Chosen,” which has introduced the gospel to millions worldwide.

But “The Passion” remains unique; perhaps because it refuses to make Christianity comfortable.

It reminds us of Christianity’s astonishing claim: The Creator entered His creation. God became man. He suffered. He bled. He died.

For you.

And then comes the most important part. The story does not end at the cross. That’s why the forthcoming sequel matters.

Christ dies on Good Friday. But Sunday comes.

More than two decades after “The Passion of the Christ” first stunned audiences, its return offers our troubled culture another opportunity to stand at the foot of the cross.

​Abortion, Entertainment, Euthanasia, Gen z, Gospel, The passion of the christ, Mel gibson, The chosen, Christianity, Faith 

Imagine America in 2032. The forms remain. There’s still a Congress. Still a Supreme Court. We all carry on with our campaigns, debates, yard signs, cable panels, and concession speeches. Children are still told they live in a democracy.

But the substance has changed. The Court has been expanded and brought to political heel. Election rules have been totally federalized. Mass mail voting is permanent. New states have added new senators. The bureaucracy is no longer merely hostile to the political opposition; it is fully “fortified” against removal. Banks, universities, corporations, platforms, and prosecutors all understand the same rule: Opposition is permitted, but only as theater.

Our road divides. Which future will it be?

A Republican may run. A conservative may speak. A dissident may complain. But the machinery effortlessly ensures none of it matters very much, if the voices are even heard.

This is the future now gathering inside the Democratic Party. Its energy has left the old, once-familiar liberalism of free speech, hard work, earthy patriotism, and equal citizenship. What pulses now is the politics of the DSA: racial spoils, censorship, open borders, anti-police politics, climate command economics, anti-Western foreign policy, and bureaucratic control.

The recent socialist victories in New York and Colorado are not local curiosities. They’re previews of coming attractions.

In this future, DEI returns, not as a national faculty lounge but as ruthlessly, preemptively enforced federal law. Race communism becomes the operating system of government, education, finance, hiring, medicine, housing, and contracting. Private property is no longer treated as sacred but as morally suspicious. Wealth taxes impose “fairness.” Reparations stake permanent claims against the dwindling producer class. Upward mobility vanishes for those lacking inside connections. “Privilege” means guilt, and guilt means punishment.

And yet America does not collapse all at once. Managed downward, its factories go elsewhere and its capital, fearing crushing exit taxes, simply hides. Energy costs are surcharged to the moon. Police retreat, schools decay, families shrink, and the dollar weakens. Our best people stop building and start hedging. And China takes full advantage.

The country still has symbols, ceremonies, flags, and slogans. But underneath them is a nation poorer and angrier, more censored, racialized, and frightened. A “managed democracy,” as the Russians call it, in which elections continue, but real political reversal becomes nearly impossible.

That’s one future. Now imagine another.

Civilization renewed

Populist nationalists hold Congress and the White House. The Court is preserved. Elections are secured. The border stays closed. The intelligence community and the administrative state are brought back under elected control. Equal citizenship replaces racial spoils. Cheap energy remains, and fuels, national policy. Building becomes honorable, durable, and beautiful again.

The wind at its sails, the country turns outward with confidence. The Monroe Doctrine is revived for the 21st century. China is pushed back from the Western Hemisphere. America finds and supports more Bukeles and Mileis — leaders who restore order, unshackle markets, defend sovereignty, and repel socialist decline and decay. Europe is no longer encouraged to censor its own people in the name of democracy. The peoples of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and the rest of the West are allowed to speak and vote without managerial supervision.

RELATED: A swarm of hidden Chinese bots are built to control what you think

NurPhoto/Getty Images

America also begins to think civilizationally again. We realize the West cannot afford to treat every historic Christian nation as a permanent enemy while China organizes the non-Western world into a rival economic and strategic bloc. A wiser American strategy, where possible and on terms favorable to American interests, aims to pull countries such as Russia back toward the broader family of Western civilization rather than leave them as raw material for Beijing’s empire.

Peace, trade, energy cooperation, commodity flows, technology markets, and a larger sphere of nations aligned against Chinese world dominance doesn’t solve America’s debt problem, but the resulting American economic growth can. Cheaper energy. Larger markets. More efficient and defensible force postures. It all makes for a less fragmented, much less deracinated West. If America is going to pay down its debt rather than inflate it away or surrender its sovereignty to creditors, it needs a bigger, stronger, more productive civilization behind it — not a shrinking coalition of guilt-ridden post-national states managing decline.

In this future, America wins.

Reclaiming our machines

Meanwhile, an irony lays in wait. AI and robots, the very technologies so often described as dehumanizing, may be what finally allow human beings to live human lives again. For two centuries, modernity has promised liberation while chaining families to commutes, paperwork, credential mills, medical costs, school failures, housing shortages, industrial drudgery, and the endless anxiety of keeping up. As a result, many Americans view another wave of highly hyped change with fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

But properly ordered, the machine can give time back for the soul. Robots can do dangerous, repetitive, exhausting work. AI can help tutor the child, assist the doctor, accelerate the engineer, guide the farmer, protect the soldier, and multiply the builder. Automation need not mean a cold world of isolated consumers watched by rigged algorithms. In a sane civilization, it can mean parents home earlier, children taught better, elders cared for longer, towns rebuilt faster, medicine delivered sooner, and ordinary people freed from scarcity enough to rediscover family, faith, friendship, craftsmanship, worship, and wonder. The machine, if governed by men who still know what man is for, can help restore the conditions of real life.

A return to the soul transforms our vision of the future. The menace and alienation drains away from images of robot aides in every classroom; robot surgeons and AI doctors; 3D-printed schools, hospitals, homes, and factories; and nuclear reactors providing clean, sovereign, abundant energy. With rebuilt American manufacturing, accelerated scientific discovery, and an economy where American workers once again build, supervise, own, maintain, secure, and profit from their ingenuity, the most productive economy in human history beckons.

No third way

And so our road divides. Which future will it be? There is no third option where the comfortable get to keep their illusions, and the machinery keeps tightening but liberty somehow survives. There is no version of the future in which the groups who want to rewrite the rules gain the power to do so and then politely decline.

That’s why the next two years of elections are not normal. They’re not just about which rear ends fill which seats. They’re about whether elected offices will lose the ability to change the direction of the country at all.

Whatever differences divide our friends and allies, we need to win now, while winning still means something. Or we can explain to our children and grandchildren why we stood by and watched the door close on their future.

​Tech, Socialism, Western civilization, Supreme court, Ai 

By the time you read this, my friend and managing editor Rob Eno and I should be somewhere in the Mountain West, headed southeast toward Dallas.

We are taking the scenic route.

The Republican Party is a house divided.

We took off Friday in a rental car from Inland Southern California. This was not entirely my idea. My doctor advised me not to fly for the time being, on account of a “blood pressure-induced event” in late March. Eno required remarkably little persuasion to turn a business trip into an expedition. He collects counties. He loves Buc-ee’s. He is weirdly excited about a 13-foot Sasquatch at a Terrible’s in Jean, Nevada.

We are also stopping in Moab, Utah, on purpose.

I have owned Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” for years and have never read it — an oversight I have always assumed I would get around to correcting eventually.

So naturally, we’re going to Moab to pay homage to a writer I respect but haven’t read.

There will be plenty more levity along the way. I expect Rob and I will have developed three podcasts and sketched out a couple of book proposals before the trip is over.

The destination calls for a bit more gravitas, however.

We’re going to Dallas as part of Blaze Media’s coverage of the Republican National Committee’s first-ever midterm convention, a two-day spectacle at the American Airlines Center. President Trump will appear both nights. Vice President JD Vance will keynote the first night.

This is a big deal. Not necessarily because the convention needs to happen. Good Lord, no.

Nobody is being nominated for anything. There are no delegates fighting over a platform or credentials. Republicans are spending a princely sum of money to stage something resembling a presidential nominating convention two years before the next presidential election.

It’s political theater, pure and simple.

Donald Trump, of course, understands the business of show very well. He wants a spectacle ahead of a midterm election that could be very bad for Republicans.

Notice the conditional: could.

RELATED: Sorry, socialists: The internet saved your homework

Rob Eno

I offer no predictions. The conventional wisdom says the president’s party loses seats in a midterm. Republicans have a razor-thin House majority. Trump has political problems. Nobody likes the war in Iran. Nobody likes the high cost of living. Nobody wants to pay $20 for a burrito, assuming such a thing exists. Republicans know they need to persuade voters that the country is moving in the right direction. Those anxieties are part of the reason Dallas is happening at all.

But Democrats possess a remarkable talent for self-immolation.

We have seen it with Graham Platner in Maine. We may be watching it in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed has spent precious weeks creating problems for himself with Jewish Democrats that Republicans would be foolish not to exploit.

Then again, Democrats can be ruthlessly effective when they choose to be. They have killed candidacies that became liabilities and cleared paths for stronger nominees. Anyone who remembers what the party establishment did to Bernie Sanders in 2016 — or how quickly Democrats jettisoned Joe Biden in 2024 — should hesitate before assuming they will simply stand around while Republicans win.

The Republicans have problems of their own, and they run deeper than any generic ballot.

Like it or not, the Republican Party is very much a house divided.

What remains of the Bush-Romney establishment still possesses considerable institutional power, especially in Congress. It is conservative in the least attractive sense of the word: hidebound, risk-averse, and frequently several election cycles behind its own voters.

MAGA defeated that establishment without entirely replacing it.

Trump transformed the Republican electorate. He changed its language, its priorities, its geographic base, and its relationship with the working class. But he also made himself indispensable to the coalition he created.

That’s dangerous.

Trump is 80. The Constitution bars him from another term. Sooner rather than later, Republicans will need to answer a question they have spent a decade avoiding: What is Trumpism without Trump?

RELATED: Who gets the GOP when Trump is gone?

Win McNamee/Getty Images

If the answer is “nothing,” the Republican Party is in much worse trouble than any poll can measure.

Maybe Dallas will provide a glimmer of an answer. Maybe JD Vance will be the heir. Maybe, just maybe, economic nationalism, immigration restriction, and a less interventionist foreign policy can become a durable governing program rather than the preferences of one extraordinary political personality.

Or maybe the convention will simply be a very expensive show about Donald Trump.

Eno and I should have a better idea by Wednesday.

But first we need to traverse the mountains and the desert.

And see the Sasquatch.

​Donald trump, Graham platner, Jd vance, Joe biden, Midterm convention, Opinion & analysis, Republican national committee, Working class, Foreign policy, 2026 midterms, Dallas, Mitt romney, George w. bush 

The Western church has stepped back from the political and cultural fights shaping our world — and in a conversation with BlazeTV host Nick Freitas, Christian apologist Frank Turek explains why it’s necessary that changes.

“Why do you think that the church has retreated from what we might more broadly call the political world or even just the cultural fights that we see? Why do you think the Western church in particular seems to have kind of just washed their hands of that fight and not all of them,” Freitas asks Turek.

“We don’t want to say anything offensive because we want people to hear the gospel,” he adds, asking, “Why do you think the West took this position?”

Turek explains that the West “dove into anti-intellectualism about 100 years ago when it didn’t think it could answer Darwin.”

“So instead of engaging the culture, it retreated from the culture and just created its own Bible colleges and seminaries,” he says.

“It’s all blind faith,” he adds.

And Jesus’ own words reveal one of the most powerful reasons Christians should remain engaged in politics rather than turning a blind eye.

“He said, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free,’” Turek says. “Now, that implies if you don’t have the truth, you’re in bondage. So we have to be engaged. And unfortunately, many in the church think, ‘Oh, we ought not to get involved in politics because that’s going to detract from the gospel.’”

“In fact, when pastors say to me, ‘You know, I don’t get involved in politics, I just preach the gospel.’ I say back to them, ‘I guess you don’t think the gospel is very important then.’ And they say, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ I say, ‘Because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel,’” he explains.

“Why don’t you go to North Korea and try and start your church?” he recalls asking. “It’s not going to happen. Why? Because politics affects your ability to preach and live the gospel. That’s number one.”

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Frank turek, Nick freitas, North korea, Pastors, Western church, Christian apologist, Jesus, Blazetv show, Bible 

A newly released mug shot reveals the bloodied face of a Florida man who allegedly challenged a police officer to a fight inside a hospital.

Ronald Jeffery Johnson, a 51-year-old man from Fort Lauderdale, reportedly was involved in an incident at the Broward Health Medical Center on Aug. 29.

‘I physically subdued his intentional, aggressive, and violent behavior towards me, and he was taken into custody.’

According to the arrest report obtained by the New York Post, Johnson allegedly was yelling at medical staff in the emergency department when an off-duty police officer in full uniform was notified of the alleged disturbance.

“I observed the defendant yelling at medical staff from the opposite side of the registration desk, causing a breach of peace in the waiting room and creating fear in the surrounding patients,” the officer wrote in the arrest report.

Once Johnson saw the cop, he allegedly confronted the officer.

“I want to fight you,” Johnson reportedly yelled to the cop before charging toward the officer.

“A physical altercation between me and the defendant ensued, where he initially grabbed me in an attempt to fight me and resisted me from controlling him,” the arrest report stated.

WPLG-TV reported that police said Johnson grabbed the officer and resisted efforts to restrain him.

The officer wrote in the report, “I physically subdued his intentional, aggressive, and violent behavior towards me, and he was taken into custody.”

The arrest report said the officer suffered a cut on his left hand during the alleged confrontation that required multiple stitches.

After receiving medical treatment at the hospital, Johnson was arrested and transported to the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail.

According to jail records, Johnson was charged with aggravated battery on an officer, resisting an officer with violence, assault on an officer, and disorderly conduct.

Records show Johnson was being detained on an $8,500 bond.

Johnson garnered notoriety online for his mug shot, which showed him propped up; his face was severely swollen and bloodied, and he had a black eye.

RELATED: Florida man faces felonies after furious feud with neighbor erupts into alleged fecal attack, fistfight, and scooter threat

(WARNING: Graphic image)

Image source: Broward County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

WPLG reported that Johnson was wanted in Georgia in connection with a terroristic threats case.

Johnson reportedly was arrested in 2023 on a terroristic threats charge after he allegedly threatened to attack an individual with a boat paddle at a park in Cave Spring, Georgia.

The threat allegedly occurred in front of the victim’s 8-year-old child, which led to a cruelty to children charge.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Aggravated battery, Assault, Florida, Georgia, Mugshot, Physical attack, Crime 

The text from my friend contained one of the stranger questions I have ever received from a family planning a funeral: “Do you know ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’?”

I stared at my phone, a bit wild-eyed. My first instinct was to reply, “Why do you ask?” Instead, I simply wrote, “Yes.”

In that sanctuary, the music served something greater than itself.

His mother had died after a long battle with Parkinson’s. The song was one of her favorites, and the family had sung it with her for years. They hoped I could play it during a slideshow at her memorial service.

I have been a pianist longer than I have been a caregiver, which is saying something. Over the years, families have invited me to play at hundreds of funerals, and I never take that invitation lightly.

As a preacher’s kid, I began as cheap labor for my father’s church: Sunday services, weddings, funerals. I did it all. I no longer play weddings unless enormous amounts of money or extraordinary affection are involved. There is simply too much drama. Funerals are different. If possible, I still play them.

A grieving family does not need entertainment or musical pomp. They need someone willing to serve the moment. Music should give grief room to breathe while gently lifting people’s eyes, even if only an inch.

That assignment becomes considerably more demanding when the requested song is “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

I could have treated it as a novelty, played the familiar tune, collected a few smiles, and moved on. But this family was not asking for a joke. They were asking me to honor their mother.

A funeral is one of the few remaining places in American life where we must confront the difference between entertainment and reverence. Our culture can turn nearly anything into content, spectacle, or argument. A family’s grief deserves better.

My father had died not long before this service. He was a pastor who understood ceremony. He did not confuse reverence with stiffness or ceremony with showmanship. He knew some moments deserve the very best we can bring to them. His lessons sat close as I worked on the arrangement.

RELATED: The oldest cure for doomscrolling in one lyric

CorbalanStudio / Getty Images

Before moving to Montana, I lived and played in Nashville. Nashville taught me polish. Montana reminded me of intimacy. In a small rural sanctuary, every note sits close to the people who need it.

I did not try to make “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” sacred. The song was not sacred. The moment was.

A family’s love was sacred. A life well lived was sacred. So was the faith that endured years of Parkinson’s and the long goodbye that accompanied it.

I arranged the piece more slowly than usual, but not sorrowfully; tenderly, but not timidly. I added a few chords no one expects to hear in “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.” My wife calls them my “non-sanctified chords.”

When I played it for her at home, she wiped her eyes. “You played it so respectfully,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”

I called one of the daughters and asked for the exact length of the slideshow. Then I shaped the arrangement to fit it.

At the service, the pastor introduced the slideshow: “It is set to one of her favorite songs, ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,’ played by Peter Rosenberger.”

After decades at the piano, I had never received an introduction quite like that. Chuckles rolled through the sanctuary. I understood. Then the pictures began.

Childhood. Marriage. Ranch life. Children. Grandchildren.

As her life unfolded across the screen, the novelty disappeared. The room settled into stillness. A playful song associated with happy memories in her home began carrying the weight of a family’s love and loss.

I timed the final chord to the last photograph of her face. For a moment, no one moved. The chuckles had given way to misty eyes. That familiar little tune had slipped past everyone’s defenses and carried something deeper than anyone expected.

RELATED: Gratitude is not perspective. It is remembering mercy.

Everything bagel / Getty Images

Christians do not pretend that Parkinson’s is beautiful or that death is merely another happy chapter. Scripture calls death the last enemy. But it also declares that Christ has defeated it. For those in Christ, suffering does not receive the final word. Neither does Parkinson’s. Neither does the grave.

The song was not the gospel, and I did not pretend it was. But it carried the memory of a woman who had sung it through years of suffering. In that sanctuary, the music served something greater than itself.

My father’s death still weighed heavily on me as I played. Perhaps that helped me understand the assignment. Even amid our own grief, we can offer the best of what we have to someone walking through theirs.

Sometimes grief calls for a great hymn. Sometimes it calls for silence. And every now and then, it calls for “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

Because for those who belong to Christ, everything really is … satisfactual.

​Family, Funeral, Gospel, Grief, Parkinsons, Love, Montana, Marriage, Christians, Death, Opinion & analysis 

The story of Jonah and the whale is one of the most well-known stories in all of Scripture. But there’s a hidden historical detail the vast majority of people don’t know, says Lakepointe pastor and “Live Free with Josh Howerton” co-host Carlos Erazo.

In this episode, he shares a little-known fact about the pagan city of Nineveh that will change the way you think not only about the story of Jonah and the fish that swallowed him but also about God, who he says never wastes a single detail.

Most people, even many non-Christians, know the basics of Jonah’s story: He was an Israelite prophet whom God commanded to go to the wicked city of Nineveh and warn it of coming judgment, giving the pagans who lived there a chance to repent before God destroyed their city. Wanting judgment, not mercy, to fall upon the Ninevites, Jonah refused God’s command and fled on a ship.

God sent a violent storm, and the sailors, knowing Jonah was the cause of God’s wrath, threw him overboard, where he was swallowed by a giant fish. For three days, he remained in the beast’s belly until it spit him out on dry land. Repentant, Jonah went to Nineveh, where the people believed God, turned from their violence, and were spared from divine judgment.

“That’s basically the whole story. … It’s a short book,” says Erazo, “but there’s something more happening behind the scenes that a lot of people have no idea.”

He explains that Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire — a military superpower in Jonah’s day and Israel’s mortal enemy.

“If you know a little bit about the culture, Mesopotamia back in the day, it would be a polytheistic culture, which means that they would have a lot of different gods, little g pagan gods, that they would worship,” says Erazo.

One of those gods was named Oannes. Ancient art and writing describes him as a man-like being with a fish’s head and tail who comes out of the water to teach people divine wisdom.

Erazo displays a picture of an ancient stone relief of Oannes. He is depicted as a bearded man with a fish head and skin worn as a cloak.

“It looks like it’s a man with a fish on top, or you could say a man coming out of a fish,” he says.

“If you were a pagan fisherman at the time, and you’re kind of out there doing your thing at the coast … and all of a sudden you see this fish literally come out, and there’s this man coming out of the mouth of the fish, and he’s out there preaching repentance in the name of this deity, in the name of God, and all of a sudden people are listening to this,” he tells fellow pastor and co-host Paul Cunningham.

Erazo explains that there’s speculation that Jonah was received by the Ninevites because he initially appeared as Oannes coming out of the sea to share wisdom.

“But at some point, they would have realized, ‘Hey, actually this is not one of these little g gods. This is the real God revealing Himself, giving us wisdom and telling us that if we don’t repent, He will destroy us in judgment,”’ he notes.

This fascinating historical detail, says Erazo, is an example of how free will and God’s sovereignty beautifully co-exist.

“Jonah may have been running from God, but he was never outside of the sovereignty of God,” he says.

“God knew from the very beginning that Jonah was going to be swallowed by a fish, and he was going to spend three days and three nights inside the fish, which would be a prophetic sign for the Messiah,” he continues, highlighting how Jonah’s three days and three nights in the whale before emerging to save the Ninevites parallel Jesus’ time in the grave before His resurrection that would save humanity from eternal damnation.

“The whole process of him rebelling and running away from God and eventually repenting and obeying God, God knew He was going to use that testimony, that story, that experience, and eventually He was going to use all of that for the people to hear the gospel. … With God, no detail is ever wasted,” Erazo beams.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Join BlazeTV+ and start watching Josh today at blazetv.com/JOSH. Use promo code JOSH40 to get $40 off your subscription.

​Josh howerton, Bible, Christianity, Blazetv show 

Heading into midterm elections this fall, Washington is zeroed in on socialism, party loyalty, and political power, but Glenn Beck warns that the issue capable of overwhelming every political talking point is sitting at the bottom of voters’ grocery carts.

“Pew just asked voters in July what they would most want to hear about, and it was prices,” he says. “People ask which party they trust on the economy, and it’s 37 to 36 so it’s a coin flip.”

“People are tired, and they want normal,” he concludes.

But the nation being exhausted and desperate for relief is a scary place to be, Glenn warns. What this Pew data reveals, he argues, is that tired people don’t carefully pick a philosophy or ideology; they pick whichever path sounds more promising — even if it leads off a cliff.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn goes back to 1920 to show what a worn-out country actually does with its vote.

“We’ve been here before. 1920, this country was wrung out in a way that makes us look coddled right now — a war, then a flu that killed more than the war, strikes, bombs in the mail, riots, prices that were eating a paycheck alive, socialism and progressivism gone wild,” Glenn recalls.

Ohio newspaperman Warren Harding campaigned on one word: “normalcy.” The message resonated so deeply with the public that he won in a huge landslide. But in that same election, roughly one million people still voted for socialist Eugene Debs, who at the time was in federal prison and couldn’t even campaign.

Glenn draws one conclusion: Exhaustion ≠ moderation.

“I think that’s what we keep getting wrong. A tired country does not move to the center. It just moves away, and it moves away in any direction that’s open,” he says.

He fears that the 2026 midterms will mirror the 2020 and 2024 elections, where people voted based on their overwhelming desire for “rest” instead of which candidate had the soundest philosophy.

“A man doing math in a grocery store … is not being propagandized, OK? He’s doing math, and his arithmetic is right,” says Glenn, “and no microphone, no propaganda beats arithmetic — not mine, not a cable news network’s, not the president’s, nobody.”

“You can be entirely right about the direction of the country and still lose to a receipt from the grocery store, and I think that’s what’s happening,” he warns.

But many of the Democratic midterm candidates are “Marxists,” Glenn points out, and while voting for them may scratch the normalcy itch, there’s nothing normal about Marxism.

Normal, he explains, isn’t really something we can vote for. Only “programs” can be voted for — and that applies to both sides of the political aisle.

Glenn reminds that Harding’s promise of normalcy may have won over voters, but “his administration became synonymous for corruption.”

“Any man who promises you that he’s going to take you back to that place [of normalcy] is selling you something, and he’s selling you something he doesn’t have,” he says.

There’s only one standard for measuring if what a candidate is offering is truly “normal,” says Glenn, and that’s the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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​Glenn beck, 2026 midterms, Socialism, Marxism, Blazetv show 

“Convert or get hurt.” Three words, one warning. If you’re a new arrival at a British prison and unlucky enough to land in the wrong wing, they might be the first thing anyone says to you. A terrifying ultimatum delivered by men who know that they can do as they want and suffer no consequences for their actions, no matter how savage they may be.

Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, recently detailed the Islamification of British prisons. His report described Islamist prisoners operating as “self-styled ’emirs,'” running private empires built on intimidation and plenty of beatings.

Every single year, tens of thousands of American prisoners convert to Islam.

Usman Khan, who murdered two young Cambridge graduates at Fishmongers’ Hall in a 2019 terror attack, spent years before that pressuring other inmates to convert. Sudesh Amman, who stabbed two people in Streatham days after his 2020 release, did the same thing behind bars. Along with recruiting and converting, both men taught other Muslim thugs the most effective methods to spread extremism and ensure compliance.

Coerced conversion

Hall’s review also found evidence of systematic “recruitment” of non-Muslims. New arrivals who didn’t identify as Muslim were denied protection from the dominant faction on their wing. In prisons across the U.K., Islam has taken on clear gang characteristics. It operates through forced initiations, protection rackets, and severe punishment. There are designated lookouts enforcing control over prison wings, while prisoners are pressured to join gang-run prayer groups simply to stay safe.

The numbers are alarming. Muslims make up 18% of the prison population in England and Wales, compared with 6.5% of the general population. But the most revealing stat is that one in five Muslim prisoners is white, a figure utterly detached from everyday Britain. It’s clear that white inmates are systematically targeted and pressured into converting, much like how Muslim rape gangs have targeted white girls across the U.K. for decades.

The mainstream narrative about the rise of Islam behind bars rests on a particularly absurd modern myth. We’re repeatedly told that Islam is exclusively a religion of peace. Believing this requires ignoring vast swaths of foundational texts. The Quran contains explicit directives authorizing warfare, conquest, and the violent subjugation of nonbelievers. Examples include Surah 9:5, which commands the slaughter of non-Muslims wherever they are found, and Surah 9:29, which calls for war against infidels until they acquiesce and pay tribute to Allah. To claim that a faith rooted largely in the need for violence contains no theological blueprint for violence is utterly ridiculous.

RELATED: To raise Christian children who become Christian adults, one simple habit matters most

Eric Thayer/Getty Images

‘Cut-and-paste Islam’

Equally ridiculous is the assumption that the Islamification of prisons is a uniquely British problem. It is not. Every single year, tens of thousands of American prisoners convert to Islam.

Frank Cilluffo of George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute spent years documenting the rise of “cut-and-paste Islam” or “prison Islam.” In extensive congressional testimony and policy reports, Cilluffo detailed how American correctional facilities are hotbeds of Islamic extremism. Radical inmates assume the role of radical imams, using the Quran’s most aggressive verses to enforce territorial control and legitimize brutality among inmates. Many of these prisoners eventually re-enter American society, completely brainwashed by Islamic teachings.

The exact same dynamic has played out in other Western nations, and the consequences have been deadly.

In France, Cherif Kouachi, a terrorist responsible for the murder of innocent journalists, spent 20 months at Fleury-Merogis prison, where he met an unhinged imam connected to bin Laden. Amedy Coulibaly, a young man who murdered a policewoman and four hostages at a supermarket days later, was also radicalized while serving time.

Australia provides another concrete example of this perverse pattern. In 2007, Bassam Hamzy, serving 21 years for murder at Goulburn’s Supermax, converted more than a dozen fellow inmates to radical Islam, specifically targeting indigenous prisoners for recruitment. Through his Brothers 4 Life Gang, he sought out new followers and punished those who refused to comply.

Brutal system

From London to Los Angeles, Paris to Perth, four Western countries have produced almost identical findings. Christianity might be losing its appeal among the incarcerated and the general population. The same isn’t true of Islam.

I’m not asking you to feel sorry for every non-Muslim inmate who is pressured into serving Allah. That would be an idiotic request. Many of these men are absolute animals. They belong behind bars and deserve no sympathy.

But we must recognize that Western nations have become home to a brutal system that allows gang leaders to use Islamic identity as their primary means of domination. Unless the powers that be intervene to dismantle that system, this cycle of prison radicalization will continue in the U.K., the U.S., and beyond.

What happens in prison doesn’t necessarily stay in prison; today’s incarcerated Islamist could become tomorrow’s suicide bomber. Ignoring the threat inside the cell block only guarantees that innocent people will have to face it outside.

​British prison, Christianity, Convert, Islamic extremism, Islamification, Prison population, Radicalization, Muslim rape gangs, Lifestyle, Culture, Uk, America, Faith 

If you’ve been shopping for a used car lately and wondering why your money doesn’t seem to go very far, you’re not imagining it.

On a recent episode of “The Drive,” my co-host Karl Brauer and I looked at just how much the used-car market has changed since before the pandemic. Karl is executive analyst at iSeeCars, which tracks vehicle prices, and one number jumped out immediately.

A 3-year-old Hyundai Elantra that might have cost $12,000 or $13,000 in 2019 is now around $24,000.

The average price of a three-year-old used car has risen 38% since 2019. That’s roughly $9,000 more for a car of the same age.

That’s a lot. But another number may tell you even more about what has happened to ordinary car buyers.

Going older

In 2019, a $20,000 budget put nearly half — 49.5% — of all one- to five-year-old used cars within reach. Today, that same $20,000 gets you access to just 11.4%.

And if you can’t increase your budget, there’s really only one place to go: older.

In 2019, you only had to look at cars about four years old before a majority of the used market fell below $20,000. Today, you have to go back about seven years.

Edmunds is seeing the same thing. Its second-quarter 2026 data found that a $10,000 to $15,000 budget now buys a used vehicle averaging 8.7 years old and nearly 98,000 miles. In 2019, that same money bought a car averaging just 4.7 years old with about 58,000 miles. In other words, the same budget now gets you a vehicle roughly four years older with about 40,000 more miles.

RELATED: This used-car odometer scam is everywhere — and impossible to detect

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Not the same

There’s nothing inherently wrong with buying a seven- or eight-year-old car. I’ve owned plenty of older vehicles, and a well-maintained car can have years of life left in it. But you’re not buying the same thing. Mileage is probably higher, maintenance history matters more, and repairs that aren’t much of a concern on a three-year-old car start becoming part of the equation.

Karl gave me a couple of examples that put the change in perspective. A three-year-old Hyundai Elantra that might have cost $12,000 or $13,000 in 2019 is now around $24,000. A comparable Toyota Camry went from roughly $14,000 or $15,000 to about $24,000.

I still tell people to consider used or certified pre-owned before automatically buying new. Used cars can offer tremendous value, particularly because somebody else has already absorbed that initial depreciation. But “buy used” isn’t enough advice in today’s market.

Know your worth

Know what the vehicle should be worth. Look at its history. Find out what maintenance has already been performed and what expensive service may be coming. If a seller can’t provide satisfactory answers about the condition or maintenance of an older vehicle, be prepared to walk away.

And don’t let today’s prices convince you that spending $20,000 means you’re buying the kind of car $20,000 bought a few years ago. That’s the real problem with the current market.

The price may look familiar. The car attached to it isn’t.

​Edmunds data, Used car market, Lifestyle, Used cars, Iseecars, Auto industry, Used car dealers, Karl brauer, Automotive