Category: blaze media

On October 26, National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher received the James C. Goodale First Amendment Award from Harper’s Magazine. The honor recognizes people who have demonstrated a consequential commitment to a free press and its constitutional protections. Apparently, demonstrating a commitment to those protections is easier when your own organization needs them.

Harper’s applauded Maher for defending NPR against President Donald Trump’s attempt to cut off its federal funding. NPR challenged the executive order, and in March, a federal judge ruled that the government could not use its spending power to punish speech it disliked. The judge, not NPR’s lawyer, supplied that First Amendment language.

The First Amendment is not a menu from which public figures may order only the protections that suit their politics.

I agree that the government shouldn’t punish a news organization for its opinions. But I would like to know when Katherine Maher discovered the merits of letting people express theirs.

In January 2021, after Trump was bounced from major social media platforms, Maher posted this little valentine to free expression: “Must be satisfying to deplatform fascists. Even more satisfying? Not platforming them in the first place.” She didn’t name Trump. The timing hardly required a decoder ring.

Six months later, during an Atlantic Council discussion of online misinformation, she described the First Amendment as the “number-one challenge” to governmental regulation because it provides robust protection for rights. Imagine that: The Constitution was getting in the way of government action against speech.

Maher also said those protections were important for platforms deciding what to carry. The problem is the ease with which she can celebrate keeping undesirable speakers off private platforms and then accept an award for defending speech against government interference. Different legal questions, certainly. But what a conveniently adjustable enthusiasm for expression.

CYA takes on new meaning here. Who gets to designate “misinformation”? Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? And what happens when the people appointed to decide the truth have a habit of declaring their political opponents unfit to be heard?

Sorry, but if Maher had renamed NPR “NPPR” — National Pol Pot Radio — after taking over in 2024, she might at least have spared the audience the pretense of ideological neutrality. NPR’s critics have long questioned the network’s political sympathies; she arrived with a social media archive that did nothing to reassure them.

Then Congress invited the free-speech laureate to explain herself.

At a March 2025 House hearing on public broadcasting, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted Maher with a tweet asserting that America was “addicted to white supremacy.” She acknowledged the post and explained that her thinking had “evolved” over the previous five years.

Evolved! How reassuring. Under congressional lights, old declarations become artifacts of a former self. For everyone else, an unwise social media post can remain an indelible mark of moral depravity.

Gill also asked about her January 2020 post announcing that she had taken a day off to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations.” Maher first said she didn’t think she had read the essay. Confronted with her own words, she said she couldn’t recall the post. He had the receipts. She had the amnesia.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom makes damning admission about socialist takeover on undercover camera

JP Yim/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative

It recalled, with apologies to Hillary Clinton, the pink-pantsuit “I do not recall” tour: plenty of confidence when issuing pronouncements, less when an inconvenient statement comes back for an encore.

Maher didn’t run NPR when it made some of the coverage decisions congressional Republicans criticized. She runs it now. That is reason enough to ask how the network treated Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19’s origins, and allegations involving Trump and Russia — and whether a news organization so eager to scrutinize others welcomes the same attention.

Of course, Maher can criticize Trump. She can call him names, cheer private companies that deny speakers a platform, and advocate tighter restrictions on “misinformation.” The First Amendment protects her right to make the case. It also protects the public’s right to notice the inconsistencies — and to ask why taxpayers should subsidize a network they regard as partisan.

What makes the Harper’s award so delicious is the timing. One year she is in Washington explaining the evolution of her thoughts and forgetting inconvenient tweets. The next she is at a glittering ceremony receiving a prize for constitutional principle. If that isn’t a career arc worthy of a statuette, what is?

Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009; two years later, his administration killed American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen. Apparently, once the medal is pinned on, the terms and conditions expire.

RELATED: Liberal media bends over backward to avoid ‘misgendering’ gunman who murdered kids in church

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Maher’s honor suggests an exciting new category of prizes for our part-time constitutionalists.

Why not a “Silence Is Golden Award” for a prosecutor who complains that suspects invoking the Fifth Amendment interfere with convictions — and then invokes it himself when a police officer pulls him over for drunken driving? Surely the citation would be magnificent.

Or a “Gun Violence Prevention Award” for a crusader against firearms who keeps a pistol by the bed and fires it at an intruder? An acceptance speech about the need for fewer guns would bring the house down.

Perhaps Harper’s could create a special trophy for people who find the Constitution irksome when it protects their adversaries and indispensable when it protects their friends. Given the competition, it might need an entire banquet hall.

The First Amendment is not a menu from which public figures may order only the protections that suit their politics. Maher can claim every one of those protections and good for her. But she cannot reasonably expect applause for her own freedom while escaping scrutiny for her apparent indifference to the freedom of those she dislikes.

Someone might explain that to the lovely, vivacious Katherine Maher before she accepts her next award.

​Barack obama, Donald trump, Federal funding, First amendment, Free press, Government spending, Hunter biden laptop, Katherine maher, Npr, Opinion & analysis 

Is Bigfoot finally “debunked”?

A newly enhanced version of the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film offers a much clearer look at the creature that has fueled decades of speculation — but BlazeTV host Pat Gray isn’t convinced.

“The 1967 Bigfoot footage officially got debunked,” producer Kris Cruz tells Gray and co-host Jeff Fisher, showing them a video of a clearer image of so-called Bigfoot walking through the woods.

“How does that debunk it?” Gray asks.

“Now it’s clear,” Cruz responds. “You can see that it’s an actual human.”

“He still has the fur,” Gray argues.

“If one were to believe that was Bigfoot, you still are not debunking that that’s Bigfoot,” Fisher says. “But we know that the guy already came out and said it was him and his buddies, right? It was debunked a hundred years ago.”

“I think it was, yeah,” Gray agrees. “But that is a much clearer shot of it.”

However, Fisher points out that there’s another Bigfoot sighting that needs debunking.

“What you need to do is debunk the Bigfoot in Boston on top of the building. We need that debunked,” he says.

There’s also a video of “Bigfoot” that was taken from a moving train in the desert, where he appears to hide behind brush as he realizes he’s been seen.

“I think that has been debunked,” Fisher says.

“I think that’s a guy, you know, that does it on purpose for the train rides,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

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

​Bigfoot, Conspiracy theories, Footage, Jeff fisher, Pat gray, Blazetv show 

America’s future depends on its children, but that future is only as promising as the world they inherit. What if they also inherited a piece of the company trying to take humanity to Mars? Elon Musk has floated the idea of giving every American child a share of SpaceX. If he follows through, the consequences could reach far beyond a child’s bank account.

Consider the standard portfolio traditionally passed down to an American kid. Parents hand a child a dusty piggy bank rattling with pennies barely worth the trouble of counting, a couple of savings bonds with returns about as exciting as watching paint dry, and a national debt tallying over $40 trillion. Granting a share of a high-flying rocket company looks less like standard financial planning and more like dropping a real asset into a crib and giving a young child a stake in the future.

It ties childhood financial hopes to something truly tangible: hardware soaring into the stratosphere.

SpaceX’s valuation sits at over $2 trillion, with individual private shares trading, at the time of writing, near $148. The giveaway would cost approximately $10.7 billion. For 72 million children, that‘s a potential foothold in one of the most ambitious commercial ventures in human history. Yes, for Musk, whose personal wealth fluctuates by that exact amount on a bad Tuesday, it barely registers. But for a kid in Brooklyn or Ohio, it beats another set of plastic toys made overseas and destined for the trash by Thanksgiving.

Wall Street hedge funds usually (and intentionally) keep ordinary Americans out of the biggest wealth-building opportunities, reserving them for the already well-off. Everyday citizens are usually invited to the party only after early-stage venture capitalists have had their fill, extracted every drop of private growth, and dumped the remaining husk onto public markets just in time for a crash. Directly distributing equity in a premier aerospace company to middle-class infants flips that script entirely. It turns toddlers into equity holders before investment banks can slap a 2% management fee on their futures.

Traditional financial literacy programs in public schools spend semesters teaching teens how to balance a checkbook, an obsolete skill in an age of digital payments and endless inflation. Learning how capital ownership works in the real world hits differently when it’s your name on the company share certificate in your hand. Watching SpaceX land a booster rocket on a floating drone pad in the Atlantic Ocean suddenly means more than any idea, slogan, or vibe. You start seeing technological breakthroughs personally, not as expensive magic tricks performed by detached billionaires.

Obviously, minors cannot legally hold stock directly, so they would need custodial trusts, strict transfer rules, and safeguards against desperate parents liquidating shares for flat-screen TVs. A sudden flood of 72 million minor shareholders would create an administrative nightmare that could overwhelm traditional transfer-agent systems. SpaceX would have to pioneer new digital custody arrangements just to record newborn infants’ ownership rights.

The Musk-bashing brigade will argue that stock ownership carries real downside risk because private tech ventures can lose market share or fail at launch. Rockets occasionally turn into costly fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico, taking paper gains down with them. All of this is true, but owning a piece of a company pushing technological limits gives you a lottery ticket tied to real industrial output.

RELATED: ‘Defund Musk’: Robert Reich calls for government takeover of SpaceX and Starlink — and Elon responds

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American enterprise built the modern world through heavy manufacturing and ingenious engineering. Most importantly, its insatiable appetite for risk set it apart, leaving Europe in the dust. Somewhere along the line, the national economy pivoted toward trading complex financial derivatives and charging monthly subscription fees for phone apps. Handing tens of millions of kids a stake in sophisticated rocket engines, orbital satellite internet, and planetary exploration reconnects the national psyche with the American instinct to dream and dominate. It ties childhood financial hopes to something truly tangible: hardware soaring into the stratosphere.

The government usually treats younger generations as future tax revenue destined to prop up underfunded entitlement programs until the system buckles. Musk’s proposal offers a refreshing, humane alternative to the slow economic slide conventional politics guarantees. If SpaceX successfully builds commercial infrastructure from low Earth orbit to the red plains of Mars, those individual $148 stakes could grow into meaningful college tuition funds or down payments on a home. If he fails, the kids still walk away with a front-row lesson in how American capitalism operates, warts and all.

The country spent decades telling young people to trust the slow, predictable path of traditional savings accounts while printing money at a rate that eroded their purchasing power. A share in a frontier rocket business offers no smooth ride. It offers no guaranteed returns and plenty of volatility along the way. But that dynamic mirrors the real world far better than any outdated high school textbook. In the end, the takeaway lesson might be that wealth is built by backing ambitious ideas, not by hoping a few cents of interest can outpace inflation.

​Tech, Spacex 

On October 22, the U.K. government launched a campaign called Be Ready. It’s the start of a three-year national resilience drive that asks households to prepare for up to three days of disruption (from severe weather, power cuts, cyberattacks, or something similar) by stocking up on basic supplies — including water, non-perishable food that needs no fridge or cooking, a flashlight, medicine, a power bank, a battery-powered or wind-up FM radio, and cash.

“And Britain is not alone on this. Germany is telling its people to keep 10 days. France and Ireland and the Netherlands also want 72-hour kits in every home. The Dutch are even now telling their people how much cash to keep in a drawer,” Glenn Beck says.

“The European Union has asked all 450 million of its people to do the same: Prepare,” he adds.

In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched FORTRESS America — a program to make major U.S. military bases generate their own power independent of the civilian grid, harden them against cyberattacks and sabotage, and secure domestic supply chains and reserves so they can keep operating for at least 90 days without outside support if civilian infrastructure is disrupted.

In regard to FORTRESS, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told Fox News Digital: “The next conflict will likely be fought on multiple fronts. Look at the geopolitics behind any major war. When that happens, global supply chains will break.”

Glenn also highlights other recent stories:

On September 27 at RAF Fairford in England — the base used by U.S. B-1 bombers for Iran strikes — neighbors reported masked men and white vans near the fence. Five men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, and the bombers were later pulled out.

On October 27, Britain charged two 24-year-old British men under the National Security Act in connection with the case, with one accused of assisting Iranian intelligence and the prime minister saying the plot was almost certainly directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, amid dozens of Iran-linked plots in recent months.

Last week, the U.S. military placed an Avenger air defense system on a barge in the Intracoastal Waterway outside Mar-a-Lago, which NORAD confirmed was done at the Secret Service’s request. On October 23, the director of national intelligence issued a memo warning that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target Americans, with some plots reaching advanced stages.

“None of these stories mean the sky is falling,” Glenn says.

But put them together and they spell disaster.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” the Blaze Media co-founder issues a warning he says he hasn’t given since 2007.

Glenn ties these developments to a longer-term problem in Europe. After decades of mass migration, crippling debt, energy self-sabotage, and neglected defense, Europe, he says, is in a state of “managed decline.”

“And so what do you have?” he asks. “You have Islamists organizing in the open, telling you what they’re going to do. You have Marxists and communists now no longer bothering to hide what they want or who they are; they are telling you that they are going to overthrow the West and the United States of America.”

The people who are dismissing these threats, Glenn warns, are making a grave mistake.

“When someone says they’re going to kill you, they’re going to take your family, they’re going to destroy your culture, believe them. You’re an idiot if you don’t,” he exclaims.

Glenn argues that is the real reason European countries are telling their citizens to prepare, but they’ll never admit it because “the explanation ends in a confession” no leader would ever dare make.

“No one in Brussels or London is going to give the speech that says, ‘Boy, were we wrong. We should have listened to the people.’ So instead, you get a pamphlet about bottled water,” he says.

While Glenn prays that he is wrong, he fears a “massive war is coming.”

“It may not be a tank crossing a border on a Tuesday morning like we normally think about it. … More likely, it is the kind of war already begun but enough to cause massive disruption — vans outside of air bases; synagogues firebombed; power grids, water systems probed and bombed or destroyed; neighborhoods that are in trouble, in crisis, with people on the street and the state no longer fully controlling it,” he warns.

Americans, he says, “are not immune” to this brewing catastrophe.

“I beg you, please don’t write this off. The radicals are already inside our house. They are all over the West. And that includes here,” Glenn says.

Midterm elections, which are just a few days away, may “slow it down” — but only if the nation votes wisely, he says.

“If this election goes poorly … don’t expect a gentle correction,” Glenn warns. “Expect the radicals who have already told you what they want — to abolish the Senate, abolish ICE, erase the border, to treat the gavel as permission.”

“Prepare for impact.”

To hear more, watch the episode 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.

​Glenn beck, Europe, Blazetv show 

The election is almost here. Win or lose, do you know what time it is yet?

At a recent Turning Point USA “Pick Up the Mic” event at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a young woman stepped to the microphone determined to be heard, whether or not anyone wanted to listen.

When the social compact breaks down, political debates cease to be merely political. Spiritual warfare manifests itself through those debates.

This was her “poem”:

It was the night before the Kirkiversary, and all through the house.
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The flags were hung proudly.
The memes all on deck, as we solemnly remembered a shot to the neck.
The podcast fell silent.
The hot takes grew wary, for tomorrow, dear friends, is the great Kirkiversary.
So I’ll see everyone at the Squirt for Kirk.
We’re hosting that also on October 10th.
I’ll see y’all there to BYOE, you know, vaccines included, s**t’s free. See y’all there.

When Christian Collins, the event’s host, asked whether she was proud of herself, she answered, “Baby, I’m thrilled.” Then she told him he was “brave for being out here,” with “no protection, no nothing, no, like, neck brace.”

She prepared a poem and read it at a place where she knew cameras would be rolling. She wanted the attention. She seemed confident there would be no consequences for her devilry. But she had no trouble invoking the consequences a man like Collins might face.

Because when the social compact breaks down, political debates cease to be merely political. Spiritual warfare manifests itself through those debates. Whatever is happening in the unseen realm is manifesting itself here.

Egypt was once the demonic hub of the world, holding God’s people hostage. Why did God choose 10 plagues to establish dominion over His enemies when He could have chosen any of an infinite number of means? To understand the character of our heavenly Father, in whose image we are made, we should ask.

Back when Moses was running point on the culture war, those plagues were specific judgments against the demonic fiefdoms of Egypt’s pantheon. God worked His way through that pantheon and left no stone unturned. The message was unmistakable: God is God, and you are not.

RELATED: Brazil’s election is a chilling warning for America

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So when Moses told Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” he was no mere political operative. He was a spiritual herald. So must we be in confronting the enemies in our midst.

The forces of evil that provoked that young woman’s poetry are not natural. The darkness required to perform it so proudly is sociopathic. She behaved as though she and her demons were the true gods and had declared dominion over you. People say the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Nonsense. He wants to be worshiped like the one true God, and he wants to impose his own upended “order” — on his timing and his terms.

That time is now, says the pretty young coed, as you can almost see blood dripping from her lips while she casts spells upon the land. She, too, is a spiritual herald. Right in your face.

Even the best political movement has no chance against that level of demonic conviction. No chance. Even if you deported her tomorrow, she is Legion now. She is around every corner, even teaching your kids at school. Her dark religion excels at making devoted disciples. But what about ours?

RELATED: Christians: Don’t fall for Talarico’s performative messaging

Danielle Villasana/Getty Images

Are we anywhere near the critical mass of people willing to stand up to the darkness — more willing to suffer for what they believe than to play the fool in the name of perpetual comfort and interfaith dialogue with Baal worshippers? What, Mr. Nicer Than Jesus, you didn’t know this was a fight?

That’s why you’re losing, laughs Nefarious.

If a remnant still wants to win, it will require discipleship no culture or political party can produce. The church equips the saints for the work of ministry, and that ministry goes forth into all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is the river feeding any victory worth winning — any victory that can last.

It must come from the church, where people hunger to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers, and Michigan pastors aren’t leaving the heavy preaching about the dangers of Islam to the itinerant campaign sermons of RFK Jr.

Will we be spiritual heralds? Will we remind the world of the true order of things? We already have MAGA and MAHA. Are we ready, willing, and able to Make America Christian Again?

​Turning point usa, Spiritual warfare, Midterm elections, God, Culture war, Christians, Maha, Maga, Holy spirit, Michigan, Church, Opinion & analysis 

A male dressed in a costume resembling a character from the movie “Dumb and Dumber” allegedly tried to force his way into a Houston apartment early Thursday morning, police told KPRC-TV — and paid a painful price.

Investigators told the station a man in an apartment in the 2300 block of Bering Drive was awakened just before 2:30 a.m. by someone kicking his apartment door and trying to open the handle.

‘Well, seems the costume was appropriate for his ignorance.’

Investigators added to KPRC that the man’s girlfriend and their 1-year-old child also were inside the apartment.

The man asked his girlfriend if she recognized the person outside, but she said she did not know him, the station reported.

Police told KPRC the resident grabbed an AR-15 rifle and opened the door, which led to an argument with the suspect.

But when the suspect allegedly tried to push his way into the apartment, the resident shot the suspect, the station said.

KPRC said the suspect was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to his upper body and was listed in critical condition.

Investigators added to the station that the suspect was wearing a Halloween costume resembling a character from the movie “Dumb and Dumber” — including an orange suit and a top hat.

RELATED: Male allegedly breaks into Texas home in middle of night — and learns right quick why that’s a foolish idea

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KPRC said police believe the suspect may live in the same apartment complex and may have been intoxicated after returning from a party and mistakenly gone to the wrong apartment.

Both men are believed to be in their 30s, the station said.

Citing police, KIAH-TV said the resident, his girlfriend, and the child were unharmed.

To say the comments under KPRC’s story about the incident are humorous is an understatement. Here’s a primo example: “Well, seems the costume was appropriate for his ignorance,” one commenter wrote. “Thank goodness the resident had the means to defend himself and his apartment.”

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​Dumb and dumber, Costume, Shooting, Houston, Texas, 2nd amendment, Guns, Gun rights, Self-defense, Crime 

So-called climate change gets a bad rap.

Manufactured fears over the climate have not only been weaponized for decades against Western industry, affordable energy, and consumer choice, but have also contributed to mental instability and the demographic crisis underway.

‘We have jolted the system.’

Now, it turns out the alarmists may have been way off about everything — including the severity, impact, and timeline of anthropogenic climate change and even about climate change being a problem in the first place.

A new study published on Thursday in the esteemed journal Science shows that humanity’s global heat generation has spared North America from freezing over once again.

During the most recent cold glacial period, better known as the Ice Age, most of Canada and the northern U.S. was buried under the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Ice thickness in some areas is estimated to have reached upwards of 2.48 miles, and the LIS, at its largest, stretched from Chicago to above the Arctic Circle.

Thousands of years ago, this sheet melted away such that today, all that remains of it is the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island, Canada.

Having studied the LIS and its remains, researchers determined that roughly 3,600 years ago, the ice sheet had gotten as small as it was going to get, then began re-expanding around the time of the Resurrection, “marking the onset of the next glaciation.”

RELATED: Start your engines! Climate experts now blame rising temperatures on reduced emissions.

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According to the study, warming temperatures in the latter half of the 20th century staved off further glaciation.

“The new LIS reached maximum dimensions in ~1960 CE, after which anthropogenic summer warming resulted in a negative mass balance, ice margin recession, and the termination of the next glaciation,” the researchers noted in the abstract for their paper.

According to the study, rising summer temperatures “is mirrored by the increase in net effective radiative forcing associated with the measured increase in well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs) since ~1750 CE.” In other words, the industrial revolution and its fruits have saved America from a slow and icy invasion.

Geochemist Nicolas Young, an associate research professor at Columbia Climate School and co-author of the study, stated that another ice age “was just getting started, everything was normal, the next glaciation was about to happen — and yet it stopped.”

“It’s a very powerful example of how we have jolted the system,” added Young.

This study also gives an out to the alarmists of yesteryear who clutched pearls about global cooling.

“It actually was happening,” said Young. “They couldn’t quite prove it, but now we sort of have the evidence.”

Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory noted that while human emissions saved the continent from an icy fate, “technically we are still living in an ice age — the Late Cenozoic Ice Age — which started about 34 million years ago.”

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​Climate alarmism, Climate change, Greenhouse gases, Ice age, Science, Study, Politics 

Here is the tough truth: Modern countries have pretty similar family policy profiles. Marriage is weakened everywhere. Most countries allow obscenity and divorce. Contraception is legal, as is abortion in the majority of countries. Many have same-sex marriage and anti-sex discrimination laws. Nearly all have family subsidies of one kind or another, and most subsidize care outside the home.

The differences that do exist do not always support social conservative expectations. What modern country has the lowest out-of-wedlock birth rate? Here’s a hint: It also has no same-sex marriage and arguably the tightest regulation of obscenity. This country has a strong family culture in a sense. But that country is South Korea, which features the world’s lowest birth rate and is the only country where fewer than 50% of adults are married.

More women think of themselves as oppressed and discriminated against today than in the 1970s. The revolution never reaches its end point.

The institution of marriage is strong in South Korea; it’s just that relatively few enter it. The industrial-scale familial indifference makes South Korea the basement for family life in the modern world.

Perhaps Italy or Spain are basements in Western modernity. The average age of first marriage in both countries is around 37 for men and nearly 35 for women, who are already past peak fertility. Both countries have fertility rates in the low 1s, and both have pretty high percentages of kids born to unmarried parents, between 40% and 50%.

Perhaps surprisingly, Italy and Spain have nearly the same family policy profile as Israel. The country is the ceiling for modern countries. Its total fertility rate is nearly 3 children per woman, while the next highest modern country is Mexico at 1.89. Israel is at the top (or near the top) in the percentage of people over 18 who are currently married (72%) and in early marriage (women marry at an average age under 25). Few children in Israel are born outside of wedlock. Israel’s relative health is not due to distinctive policies.

Two things stand out. First, Israel’s religious observance rates are higher than most countries, but not extraordinary. Second, interestingly, secular women in Israel marry and have children at rates much higher than secular women in other countries. Secular Israelis resemble practicing Christians in America, more or less.

The reasons for Israeli exceptionalism must be understood. My guess is that its state of emergency and religious observance point Israeli men and women toward marriage and children. Israeli sexes seem less suspicious of one another. Sex role realism is much more deeply accepted in Israel.

No country can have a fruitful marriage system without clearly defined roles for men and women in the family and in society generally. There simply must be more Israeli manliness and motherliness. I’m reliably told that the Jewish mother of ancient provenance has not disappeared. Israel’s men either have a military bearing or a religious patriarchalism. I have noticed both kinds of manliness during my travels in Israel.

Here is the question for Israel: If the emergency disappeared, would the family culture be as good? However we resolve this question, let’s congratulate Israel for being a modern outlier.

Even in Israel, however, the ceiling for family life is pretty low. Family decline seems a providential fact of modernity. It is universal and enduring and largely escapes the ability of human beings to reverse it. Efforts to reverse the decline often end up accelerating it.

RELATED: A roomful of young conservatives … and just one parent

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What is it about modernity that puts a low ceiling on family life and a seemingly ever-lower basement?

Novelists and political philosophers saw family decline coming. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoy, and Oswald Spengler all worried that the move from a more natural, rustic way of life to a technological, urban one would coincide with declines in fertility, marriage, and human vitality.

This transition is best understood as the move from “culture” to “civilization.” What Spengler says in his Decline of the West distills the reality. For “cultures,” family life is natural, unreflective, and almost instinctual. Tolstoy’s peasants just did it. Fathers worry that the family name may be extinguished, and both fathers and mothers act on a duty to perpetuate their families.

But as civilization arises, people cease caring about their family name being extinguished. “World-cities” arise, less fit for human habitation, isolated from ancestors, continually abstracted from nature.

People weigh having children, litigating the pros and cons, instead of consulting duties. The rise of great nations therefore coincides with the decline of family duties and sentiment. With the rise of “world-cities” comes an “appalling depopulation” lasting centuries, as Spengler wrote. Rousseau imagined the corruption in Paris in “Julie.” Tolstoy, in “Anna Karenina,” depicted the barrenness, decadence, and unfaithful marriages in Petersburg. Spengler described the “sterility of civilized man.”

Our post-civilized era makes family decline the object of policy, not just an indirect product of modernity. I call state-directed family decline the “Rolling Revolution.” The Rolling Revolution turns numbness toward familial destiny into a moral duty. This acceleration in the move from “culture” to “civilization” is present everywhere in the modern world. It is what I mean when I say that most countries in the Western world have roughly similar policy profiles.

Modernity begins with the fading of duty, where people no longer sense the extinction of a family line as a doom. It culminates with the state and economy promoting the Rolling Revolution. Laws cannot restore a duty souls no longer feel. The state now dismantles remaining duties as vestiges of cultural oppression, and it puts its thumb on the scales of calculation. This Rolling Revolution is the basis for the Left’s continual mobilization.

How does the Rolling Revolution work?

Men and women must be officially thought of as interchangeable and androgynous. But since men and women are different, the promised world of androgyny never arrives. Women can always think of themselves as less than or different from men. The grievance industry, fueled by highly credentialed female college graduates, is organized around goals that can never be reached.

RELATED: Young men are being left behind

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The Rolling Revolution seeks to break the bonds between parents and young children, replacing them with experiences that can be regulated and mediated. Since the most fundamental human bonds are built around natural differences and natural hierarchies, the state’s work can never be completed.

The revolution also attacks and stigmatizes biological expressions like mother and child and man and woman. Mother is recruited to work in mega-corps or as a government bureaucrat instead of slaving away in the nursery. The tired, old feminist complaints about motherhood have been largely relieved. Legal subordination has ended, and chores are split. Many women work for wages. Still, husbands are thought of as oppressors, and now children are oppressors, and murdering them is no longer universally seen as reprehensible.

More women think of themselves as oppressed and discriminated against today than in the 1970s. The revolution never reaches its end point.

Still, as Spengler notes, no situation is permanent. Civilizations cycle. Rome and China had their decadence. And modern countries now have theirs. Family decline will break modern countries. At some point, the compulsive campaign leading to neuroses and nihilism culminates in collapse. Perhaps it will happen with a whimper, perhaps with a bang. Governmental and financial structures probably cannot survive two or three generations of absolute population decline. Immigration crises continue too.

These crises will keep getting more acute until countries can no longer print enough money, pass on their debt to generations of decreasing numbers, or import enough foreigners.

Our freedom of action is real, but limited. Providence traces a fatal circle around each man and each country that none can leave, but within its vast limits, man and peoples are free and powerful. Israel is a country of national conservatism in a sense, just as South Korea is. Both mind their borders. Both face existential threats and daily reminders of them. Yet one is the ceiling for the modern world, and one is the basement — and the ceiling is a lot lower than it used to be.

National conservatism, united with religious believers, is the only force in the modern world opposing this Rolling Revolution. Only the covenantal are reproducing at decent rates today. Only they are marrying. Only they manifest the virtues associated with family life. They are the basis for a future, better national conservatism, but they are not exactly products of our current order. The counterrevolution will have to exist on fundamentally different ground than the Rolling Revolution.

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

​South korea, Families, Israel, Italy, Spain, Secular, Marriage, Religion, Family life, Opinion & analysis, Birth rates, Population 

A major Big Tech investor who leans libertarian is doing all he can to try to keep Democrats from power in red and purple states.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Scott Banister is first and foremost a “capitalist.” He was an early investor in some of the biggest tech-driven enterprises, including PayPal, Uber, and SpaceX, and co-founded the anti-spam solution IronPort.

‘It’s clear that state legislatures are the next frontier in expanding political power.’

Now, he is using his wealth to try to invest in America’s future — by stopping radical Democrats.

Banister has pledged $40 million to Make Liberty Win, a right-leaning PAC dedicated to sending mailers, knocking on doors, and making phone calls to share with voters the truth about the Democrat agenda.

State filings confirm that Banister, through Make Liberty Win and First Amendment LLC, has spent more than $6.7 million to oppose state House and Senate Democrats just in Michigan alone. All of the nearly two dozen Michigan filings from First Amendment LLC note that Banister made the donation on September 21 and list his occupation as “angel investor.”

One of the Michigan Democrats targeted by Make Liberty Win is state Sen. Chedrick Greene. Back in May, Greene won a special election to represent Senate District 35, a blue-collar area in the web of the thumb of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

The district is light blue, so Republicans have a shot at flipping it red on Tuesday. Make Liberty Win has allocated an eye-popping $625,000 toward that effort.

Some of the direct mail has already reached registered voters:

Photo given to Blaze News

RELATED: Vance blasts ‘psychopath’ El-Sayed over ‘anti-white’ hatred

Photo given to Blaze News

“These paid, third-party advertising efforts are shining a spotlight on Michigan Democrats’ record of failure,” Greg Manz, senior communications adviser for the Michigan GOP, told Blaze News.

“It’s crucial that Great Lakes State voters are provided proven facts, transparency, and a clear picture of what’s happening in Lansing in order to hold these Democrat senators accountable for their reckless policy positions.”

Make Liberty Work did not respond to a request for comment, and efforts to reach Banister for comment were unsuccessful.

Michigan is not the only state infused with funding from Banister and Make Liberty Work. Funding has also been distributed to Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, with plans to reach at least three more before Election day on Tuesday, Fox News reported.

A press release about Banister’s largesse said, according to Fox News:

Self-described socialists are running for office and winning in the Democratic Party, like recently elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Make Liberty Win’s campaign will stem the tide of the far-left by mobilizing student and youth activists to knock on the doors of more than two million voters in key states.

The Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group dedicated to assisting the GOP at all levels of government, believes the resources could help close the funding gap between state-level Democrats and state-level Republicans.

“Democrats are making clear that no amount of money is too much when it comes to taking control of state legislatures. With more than $200 million already committed by the largest Democratic state legislative groups, and wealthy outside donors pouring even more money into the fight, it’s clear that state legislatures are the next frontier in expanding political power,” RSLC President Edith Jorge Tuñon told Blaze News in a statement.

“Their growing investment in DSA-aligned candidates makes the stakes even higher. That’s exactly why Republicans in every state across the country need to get out and vote Tuesday. The fight for our state legislatures, congressional majorities, and the political map heading into 2028 depends on it.”

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​Michigan, Big tech, Libertarian, Democrats, Politics 

The family of 44-year-old Joshua Cochran knew there was something wrong when he went missing over the weekend from his residence in Alexandria, Virginia.

On Tuesday, police found his remains in the closet of his 63-year-old neighbor’s home. Cochran suffered from blunt force trauma to the head, Alexandria police said.

‘When they opened that door, the suspect gave an immediate confession.’

The family told WUSA-TV that he was not answering his phone, but they didn’t imagine he had died.

“When we stopped hearing from him, we knew pretty quickly something was up,” said Michelle Cochran, the victim’s sister-in-law, to WUSA.

“It was certainly the farthest thing from our mind that that would happen,” she added.

Investigators said surveillance video showed that Cochran had gone out drinking on Saturday with John Stremple III, who is a registered sex offender.

Cochran’s family said they didn’t know Stremple, but it was just like Cochran to befriend strangers.

“In chatting with a couple of friends, I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be so on-brand for Josh to, like, have befriended the old guy in the complex?’ Like, that was just him,” Michelle said.

Police said they knocked on Stremple’s door and were surprised when he opened the door and responded with a confession.

“It is an unexpected statement,” police said. “When our detectives knocked on the door, they were just following up on the leads that had been established. And when they opened that door, the suspect gave an immediate confession.”

He was charged with second-degree murder.

Michelle Cochran said her brother-in-law had moved to Alexandria to be closer to his 8-year-old son.

Fox News released a statement about the death of its employee.

RELATED: Woman calls 911 after making tragic and gruesome discovery inside dumpster in Los Angeles

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of our colleague Joshua Cochran,” the statement reads, according to WUSA. “He was a dedicated member of our FOX News Media team who will be dearly missed. Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to his family.”

Michelle Cochran said police took the family’s concerns seriously from the time her brother-in-law went missing.

Stremple was convicted in 2014 of sodomy against a minor.

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​Missing person, Surveillance video, Tragic death, Registered sex offenders, Virginia, Crime 

Tonight, millions of Halloween revelers will crown themselves with red devil horns and grab plastic pitchforks.

Whether their devilish guises point to irreverence, mockery, or just fun, Glenn Beck knows there is a real devil, and his intentions are far more sinister and sneaky than any costume.

In this striking monologue, the Blaze Media co-founder echoes Paul Harvey’s famous radio essay “If I Were the Devil” and warns that the real threat isn’t dramatic — it’s subtle, constant, and has already deeply transformed society.

“If I were the devil, I’d want everybody laughing at me because a man who thinks the devil is a joke will never check his own house for one,” Glenn begins.

“If I were the devil, I wouldn’t burn a single book. Book burning just means martyrs. I would just make sure that nobody could ever sit still long enough to read a book. I’d put a glowing rectangle in everybody’s hand.”

“I would teach it to know you better than your mother does — what you fear, what you want, what makes your jaw tighten. Then I would feed you that daily, all day, forever. And I’d do it for free,” he continues.

This inconspicuous conditioning, Glenn argues, would also have a profound spiritual impact.

“If I were the devil, I’d never ask you to hate God. That’s too direct. People would push back. I think I’d just keep you busy. I’d fill every single quiet minute — the car, the line at the store, the last 10 minutes before sleep — I’d fill it with noise,” he explains.

The devil’s quiet voice, he says, would then whisper warnings to each political camp.

“If I were the devil, I’d go to the right and I’d whisper, ‘They hate you. They want to destroy everything that you love. You can’t afford to wait. You can’t afford to play fair anymore. Don’t do it,’” Glenn says.

“And then I’d walk across the street, and I’d whisper exactly the same words to the left, word for word — ‘You can’t afford to play fair.’ And both sides would believe me.”

The church would become infected with these whispers as well.

“If I were the devil, I would take the church, and I’d split it right down the middle. Half of it I’d turn into a political rally so the cross becomes a campaign sign, kind of like the flag has. The other half I’d turn into a coffee shop with a band where nothing is ever a sin and nobody ever needs to change,” Glenn continues.

“I’d have one side all conviction and no grace and the other all grace and no conviction. Because either one would work for me if I were the devil.”

To the youth, he would corrupt not with temptation but with “despair.”

“I’d tell the young men that they were dangerous and useless at the same time. I would tell young women that a husband is a risk and a child is a mistake. It’s a career setback,” he notes.

“I’d make marriage a punchline, parenthood a lifestyle choice, kind of like buying a boat. And then I would just stand back, and I would watch the loneliest generation in American history call its loneliness freedom.”

To twist the knife, he would then attack their sense of worth.

“I would replace friends with followers, confession with posting, repentance with rebranding. If I were the devil, I would teach you that your worth is a number at the bottom of a photo, and I would make sure that that number was never quite high enough,” Glenn adds.

Easing the pain would look like sports betting or AI “companions.”

“I’d put a casino in your pocket. I’d call it sports. I’d make it legal. I’d make it fun. I’d put it in a commercial during every time-out and make sure that the kid who lost his rent money at 2 a.m. feels too ashamed to actually tell anyone,” he continues.

“I could give every lonely person in the world a voice that always agrees with them … a companion that never says no, never gets tired of you, never asks you to be better. Why would anyone do the hard work of loving a real person when a fake one is so much easier?”

Next, he would undermine the idea of truth — and ultimately the necessity of Jesus.

“I would teach you that the truth is whatever you feel — your truth, my truth. It sounds so kind. But if everyone is right, then nobody is wrong. If nobody is wrong, nobody needs to be forgiven. If nobody needs to be forgiven, nobody needs a savior,” Glenn insists, adding that for the devil, this would “do more of my work than a thousand horror movies.”

At the same time, though, he would sow fear, outrage, and hopelessness into the very fabric of society.

“I would make outrage profitable and gratitude boring. I’d make fear the most reliable product in America. … I would tell you that the end is coming. … I would tell you it’s all rigged and nothing you do will make a difference,” Glenn explains, “because a man who believes nothing … he will ever do will ever matter, he’ll eventually stop doing anything at all — not evil, just nothing. And nothing is all I ever really needed.”

And then he would pull out his “oldest trick.”

“I’d whisper one more thing to each and everyone privately. ‘Shhh … you know, you’re the only one that feels this way. Don’t tell anyone. They won’t understand, but I do,’” warns Glenn ominously.

“Isolation is my oldest trick. The wolf never takes the sheep in the middle of the flock. He always takes the ones on the edges, the ones that are alone. That’s the plan.”

“Look around,” Glenn says. “It’s working.”

To hear more of his powerful monologue and what the devil himself is really “afraid of,” 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.

​Glenn beck, Halloween, Blazetv show 

As a Brit growing up in the 1980s, Halloween was something of a rite of passage.

In October 1988, the buzz in our school canteen wasn’t over who fancied the new girl or who pissed in the swimming pool. It was about who was going as Freddy Krueger. We traded algebra for art as we painstakingly designed costumes in the back of our exercise books.

To light his way, the devil tossed Jack a burning ember from hell, which Jack put inside a hollowed-out turnip.

Of course, back then, we lived in a high-trust society: Parents let us roam the night streets unaccompanied, knocking on strangers’ doors until our pillowcases bulged with sweets we had to drag home and divide.

Fast-forward nearly 40 years, and Halloween in the U.K. feels as dead as a George Romero zombie.

Pooka power

Every year it’s the same. The commentariat inveighs against American cultural imperialism, and the British public prepares for what feels like a hostage situation. Entire streets plunge into darkness as homeowners tape up their letterboxes, turn off the lights, and pretend to be out.

I don’t blame them. If a teenager in a tracksuit and Ghostface mask knocks on a door on a typical English housing estate, he’s unlikely to be a fan of Wes Craven’s postmodern horror franchise. The knife he’s carrying will probably be real, and he won’t be after a Snickers bar.

In contrast, America seems to love Halloween. Entire neighborhoods build haunted houses, while parents dress up alongside their children and have street parades. It’s all very communitarian and, more importantly, fun!

The joke, of course, is on us. That wholesome, happy American family yelling “trick or treat” isn’t celebrating a homegrown invention. America didn’t invent Halloween. Like cricket, we gave it to you. But unlike cricket, you glammed it up, put it in a blood-soaked plastic body bag, and sold it back to us.

As with all eccentric British traditions, you have to go back over 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated in Ireland and elsewhere in the Celtic world around the end of October. Marking the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, it was associated with the turning of the year and the supernatural.

In later Irish folklore, this was a night when the boundary between the living and the spirit world grew thin, allowing creatures like the Pooka to roam the earth. Disguises, bonfires, and attempts to ward off troublesome spirits became part of the traditions associated with the season.

A proper carve-up

In the eighth century, the Catholic Church added another layer to the festivities. Pope Gregory III established a November 1 observance honoring the saints in Rome, a date later adopted more widely for All Saints’ Day. Whether the timing was intended to supplant Samhain remains disputed, but Christian and older folk customs eventually became intertwined. The night before All Saints’ Day became known as All Hallows’ Eve — what we now call Halloween.

British and Irish traditions helped lay the foundation for what we do today: souling and guising. In England, long before kids demanded an industrial-size bag of M&Ms or your car keys under threat of violence, children and the needy went door-to-door singing and offering prayers for souls in exchange for “soul cakes,” sweet spiced cakes. Across Scotland and Ireland, the locals were guising, a custom involving dressing in grotesque disguises and performing songs for fruit and money.

The tradition of carving jack-o’-lanterns has strong roots in Ireland, including the legend of Stingy Jack. According to Irish folklore, Stingy Jack was a notorious trickster who pranked the devil. After his death, God refused him entry to heaven for being too sinful, but the devil — aware of his shenanigans — didn’t want him either, casting him out to wander the night for eternity. To light his way, the devil tossed Jack a burning ember from hell, which Jack put inside a hollowed-out turnip. The Irish carved disturbing faces into root vegetables to frighten away wandering spirits.

During the 1840s, when famine devastated Ireland, a massive influx of Irish immigrants arrived in North America, joining Scottish immigrants who brought related customs of their own. They packed up their meager possessions and brought their traditions with them.

One thing they were happy to leave behind was the turnip. In America, pumpkins were plentiful, larger, and easier to carve. It sowed the seeds, literally, of a cultural revolution — even if some in the Protestant majority regarded the newcomers’ customs as backward, popish superstitions.

Guy tried

As America took its first steps toward cementing this new tradition, Brits were, as usual, busy dismantling their own. Halloween as we know it now didn’t really exist in 19th- and much of 20th-century England. The closest we got was “Penny for the Guy,” a tradition associated with Bonfire Night on November 5. That was when Britain celebrated sticking it to the Catholics, commemorating Guy Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605.

By the 19th century, children were pushing straw-filled dummies around the streets of Britain in wheelbarrows, asking for pennies to buy fireworks. The life-sized effigy would then sit atop a bonfire and be subsequently burned.

By the 1980s, this once-popular custom was disappearing from the streets where I grew up. “Penny for the Guy” was either carried on by a small handful of die-hard traditionalists or turned into a rich person’s hobby, children bedecked in bespoke Victorian clothes pushing a cart the price of small sedan.

The practice was dying through a combination of classic British tropes: apathy and regulation. Fireworks were being legislated out of our tiny hands. As someone who sat at the crossroads of a new cultural era, I had no interest in building a guy. Spending an entire weekend stuffing clothes with straw and shredded newspaper was too much to ask a generation discovering video games and MTV.

RELATED: Dear America: Please give cricket a chance

Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Blast from the past

Sourcing illegal explosives, however? We’d work overtime for that. Our autumn side hustle involved pyromania. Like all boys through recorded history, we thought explosions were awesome. Shopkeepers were legally banned from selling to under-16s and kept fireworks under the counter away from youthful eyes, but it was no deterrent.

This was the 1980s. Laws were merely suggestions, never enforced. All it took was an older mate or a “cool” adult — one who would probably buy you beer as well — and voila! A world of blowing stuff up awaited. Parents were also more liberal (in a good way) and often took a libertarian view of our minor pyrotechnic carnage. One year, we put a friend in a dustbin, threw in half a dozen lit bangers, and sat on the lid. When he climbed out, all we did was roll around laughing. He looked like Wile E. Coyote after being given a cigar marked TNT. Glory days.

Enter America with a rebrand. Recognizing a Jason Voorhees gaping knife-wound-sized void in the British calendar, Hollywood and the American retail machine swooped in. America deconsecrated Halloween. They took its ancient folk customs, stripped them of their myth, and repackaged them in lowbrow, high-fructose glitzy consumerism.

I don’t blame them. They saw a bunch of kids who wanted some fun without the tedium of manual labor. But we didn’t adopt trick-or-treating simply because we loved watching serial killers slash cheerleaders in dormitories. It was because we were too lazy to build a life-sized doll.

The irony? We now fork out £20 for a tacky “Scream” mask and a bag of imported Hershey’s, forgetting that the whole freak show was ours in the first place.

​Halloween, Lifestyle, Guy fawkes, Penny for the guy, Uk, Britain, England, Samhain, All saints day, Christianity, Letter from the uk 

The Trump administration lost a bid to force California to set aside ballots from a list of likely noncitizen voters.

The Department of Justice had flagged about 20,000 likely noncitizen voters and asked California to either verify their status as legal voters or segregate any ballots from those on the list.

‘There is a public interest in maintaining the integrity of elections. But as discussed, the district court found that the risks that noncitizens are voting are, at best, uncertain.’

California officials resisted, claiming that the list was vague and could lead to the disenfranchisement of legal voters.

The legal battle has worked its way through the court system and now may go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A two-judge majority on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the list was not credible, as a lower court had found.

“As the district court found — and we discern no clear error — there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system,” the unsigned ruling reads.

U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented from the majority.

“Throughout history, federal courts have acted to protect the voting and civil rights of our citizens by enjoining state action that violates the law,” Bumatay wrote. “And common sense also tells us that the federal government shouldn’t have to sit on its hands while a State allows the violation of federal law, especially when the integrity of federal elections is at stake.”

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber previously accused the federal government of making “vague and unsubstantiated allegations” in the list from the Department of Homeland Security.

“If the federal government possesses proof that certain registered voters in California are ineligible, we will welcome the opportunity to review that evidence and any supporting data or methodology,” Weber said.

The appeals court appeared to agree with that argument in its split ruling Friday.

“To be sure, there are countervailing public interests at stake,” the majority ruling reads. “There is a public interest in maintaining the integrity of elections. But as discussed, the district court found that the risks that noncitizens are voting are, at best, uncertain.”

The Trump administration could request that the entire Ninth Circuit Court review the case, or it could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The election is in four days.

RELATED: Newsom is OUTRAGED over Justice Department lawsuit to block votes from 20,000 ‘likely noncitizens’

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted a brief statement about the ruling.

“The courts have thrown out Trump’s desperate and dangerous attempts to meddle in the California election process. We’ll continue to fight their illegal power grabs and deliver a free and fair election,” he wrote on social media.

The appeals judges who signed the majority included one nominated by President Donald Trump and one appointed by former President Joe Biden.

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​Department of justice, Election integrity, Ninth circuit, Trump administration, Politics 

Popular and controversial women’s basketball player Sophie Cunningham opened up about why her Christian faith is pivotal to her life.

On Thursday’s episode of his “This Past Weekend” podcast, comedian Theo Von asked the Indiana Fever player to talk about her religious beliefs.

‘There’s nothing that you can or can’t do that’s gonna separate you from God’s love and grace and forgiveness.’

“Let’s talk about your faith. You got baptized as an adult, right?” Von asked.

“I’m gonna bring you to church with me,” she responded.

Cunningham said she doesn’t have a home church because of her lifestyle but said she is very connected to her faith.

“I was raised Catholic, but now I’m just like more Christian. I can never say this word — nondenominational? Just said it,” she joked.

“I love Jesus, and I’ve actually listened to you a little bit that you’re starting to kind of maybe get into it or intrigued by it a little bit,” she added.

“Oh, yeah,” Von responded.

“Or maybe that was just you not actually. I don’t know, but it’s OK. But all I’m saying is, I rely a lot on my faith because of what I do for a living. You get a lot of hate; you get a lot of praise. And I think that just morally in my head, everything, it just keeps me stable, and it keeps me to be who I am,” she added.

“I don’t care what people’s opinions are about me because I’m not living for their praise,” Cunningham said.

Von said that he really liked having a prayer connection with God but admitted that he felt bad when he neglected that connection.

“I feel you. … There’s nothing — I’m just gonna say this, and this is for the people listening too, but there’s nothing that you can or can’t do that’s gonna separate you from God’s love and grace and forgiveness,” she responded.

“That’s why Jesus came and died on the cross because He already knew everything you were going to do. So, I mean, that’s up to you now to kind of educate yourself and read the Bible,” Cunningham added.

“But you’re already forgiven,” she added.

“I understand that. … I just feel more of personal connection when I’m prayed up,” he said.

“Yeah!” she responded.

“My buddy say, ‘Stay prayed up.’ My buddy, he say that all the time. ‘Stay prayed up.’ It’s almost like if you talk to somebody every now and then, then you don’t have to catch up with them,” he added.

“Well, that’s a thousand percent what it is,” she replied.

“That’s what I’m saying,” he added.

Von reiterated that sometimes he gets busy and neglects his prayer life.

“That’s natural. That’s what it is to be human. You just gotta prioritize the good,” she replied.

Cunningham went on to praise the people who were “bold and courageous” about speaking out publicly about their faith. She said she believes there is a revival under way.

RELATED: Black WNBA player blames ‘white privilege’ after getting ejected for flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham

Cunningham also told Von he should bring on experts to talk more about the interaction between science and faith.

“Yeah. We want to have the pope on, but he won’t. I don’t even know if he has a phone,” Von responded.

“I mean, someone has a phone around there,” she responded. “They’re not the Amish. And even the Amish have phones.”

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​Christian faith, Jesus christ, Sophie cunningham, Theo von, This past weekend, Womens basketball, Politics 

Two popular financial platforms came under attack Thursday within hours of each other. The cryptocurrency platform Binance and prediction market platform Polymarket both suffered huge losses totaling billions of dollars, and it was all stolen directly from users’ accounts.

Both platforms are juggernauts in their categories. Binance is by far the biggest cryptocurrency exchange on the planet, boasting 335 million users, which makes it a prime target for hackers. Meanwhile, Polymarket is the leading prediction market, edging out Kalshi for global dominance.

Binance revealed that it set aside $6.34 billion to recuperate the losses suffered by its users.

Binance was the first to take a hit. According to an official post sent out by the company’s X account:

Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating. User funds are completely safe.

Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information.

Users should remain cautious of scams and should not trust unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information.

Unfortunately, the claim that user funds were safe and secure quickly fell apart. In the next 24 hours, Binance revealed that it set aside $6.34 billion to recuperate the losses suffered by its users, all of which Binance vows to pay back in full.

Users can currently deposit money into their Binance accounts, but withdrawals are paused as the company works with law enforcement and blockchain experts to investigate the attack. So far, they know it is linked to TraderTraitor, a hacking group based in North Korea.

RELATED: Another major AI attack hits the internet — this time targeting the backbone of American capitalism

Black_Kira//Getty Images

Around the same time, Polymarket was hacked, with bad actors siphoning $2.7 million from 737 users’ accounts. The attack was made possible through a vulnerability in a third-party system that allowed the attackers to intervene in active trading sessions and take funds.

Just like Binance, Polymarket has vowed to repay the affected users. Trading on Polymarket was halted temporarily while the issue was resolved. All systems are now back online.

Although the Polymarket story may be over, the Binance debacle is still developing, even as it closes out a tumultuous Black October. Blaze News will have an update on the latest early next week as more details unfold.

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​Cryptocurrency, Attack, Hackers, Tech 

A former Minnesota high school special-education teacher who was accused of booking hotel rooms to have sex with a student has learned her fate, and she doesn’t have to return to jail.

Ann Margaret Bacon, 27, pleaded guilty in September to third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a prohibited occupational relationship.

‘Please be assured that the trust and safety of our students remain our utmost priority.’

On Monday in Ramsey County District Court, the former teacher was sentenced to 180 days, according to the Pioneer Press. But Bacon will be permitted to serve her sentence on electronic home monitoring.

Judge Thomas Gilligan Jr. also sentenced Bacon to two years of supervised probation, and she will receive two days of credit for time already served in custody.

In August 2022, Bacon was hired as a special-education teacher at Tartan High School in Oakdale, according to the school district.

The Pioneer Press reported in February 2024 that a criminal complaint stated that a witness and her friend in July 2023 sounded the alarm about a possible teacher-student relationship of concern “because they did not feel the situation was appropriate.”

Another witness told police that the alleged male victim, who was 18 years old at the time, had been “acting secretively” and spending time with Bacon, according to the complaint.

The Pioneer Press said “Witness B” told police about sexually explicit messages and photos of Bacon and “Victim 1 on Victim 1’s phone.” There also were photos of them in a hotel room, the paper said.

The victim told authorities that he first had sex with Bacon in her car near his house in July 2023, according to the complaint.

The criminal complaint also said police obtained records showing Bacon rented hotel rooms on four different occasions for one night each time.

RELATED: VIDEO: Married teacher shows cops where in classroom she allegedly had sex with student — offered to leave husband for him

Witnesses allegedly informed investigators that Bacon purchased alcohol for minors, according to the New York Post.

The criminal complaint noted that she received a $40 Venmo payment that was labeled as “liqq” but that Bacon “claimed she didn’t remember who it was from or what it was for.”

The Pioneer Press also reported that Bacon resigned from her teaching position on Feb. 8, 2024 — the same day police interviewed her regarding accusations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Tartan Principal Bethany DeCent notified families and school staff in February 2024, “Please be assured that the trust and safety of our students remain our utmost priority. We are cooperating fully with law enforcement’s investigation and will continue to do so throughout the process.”

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​Teacher sex scandal, Bad teacher, Teacher arrested, Minnesota, Crime 

The ideological transformation of Britain started far before Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s time, but British commentator Rafe Heydel-Mankoo tells BlazeTV host Nick Freitas that it was done quietly — and the British people didn’t notice.

“I see someone very, very rooted in Marxist ideology,” Freitas tells Mankoo of Starmer. “Even if he doesn’t call himself a Marxist or a communist, there’s still a heavy influence.”

“I never got that impression of Tony Blair,” he continues, noting that he always “seemed to be proud to be British.”

“Oh, believe me, the core of the Blair project — the masterstroke — was essentially the fact that they were wolves in sheep’s clothing, if I can put it that way,” Mankoo responds. “Tony Blair used to be a card-carrying communist at university.”

“A huge number of his Cabinet ministers were formerly card-carrying Communist Party members, Trotskyists and Maoists and the like. And that was their secret,” he explains. “The British public weren’t aware of the revolution that they were going to unfurl on the country.”

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” he continues, “but in essence, you know, classic Marxism was always about seizing the means of industrial production. But this new cultural Marxism … at the end of the Russian Revolution, people didn’t understand why Britain and Germany hadn’t become communist because they thought it was going to happen in the industrialized West.”

The Marxists, Mankoo tells Freitas, “realized that the working classes were small-C conservative patriots” whose “worldview was very much cast in the traditional worldview.”

“And so the cultural Marxists said, we need to change the way they perceive the world,” he says.

“So we need to seize the means of cultural production — the universities, the media, the cultural institutions, the civil service, everything that shapes their worldview,” he continues.

“And that essentially is what happened under Tony Blair — the complete control of the universities and the capture of our civil service, of essentially every institution in this country.”

“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 NICK for $20 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Nick freitas, Keir starmer, Tony blair, Rafe heydelmankoo, Britain, Marxism, Blazetv show 

A mother allegedly abandoned her infant daughter at a Jiffy Lube in Cobb County, Georgia, over the weekend — and then things got downright dangerous soon after.

Assistant Manager Jarayya Mayes was beginning her shift Saturday morning at the oil change outlet on Floyd Road when a woman approached the service bay pushing a stroller, WAGA-TV reported.

‘Where’s the baby? I need the baby. I gotta go, I gotta go. Some stuff just went down. I gotta go.’

Mayes had seen the woman walking along the street near the business, the station said, but the two had never spoken before.

“She came up to me and my coworker, Elijah, with a stroller,” Mayes told WAGA. “And she was like, ‘Hey, doesn’t my baby look so cute? Is my baby so cute?’ We were like, ‘Yeah, baby’s adorable.’ And she was. She was absolutely adorable.”

The woman asked the Jiffy Lube workers to watch the infant girl, telling them she had something to do, Mayes added to the station.

Then the woman reportedly left the stroller behind and claimed paperwork was inside a bag — and even told the workers that they could keep the child if she did not return, WAGA reported.

“She just kept saying, ‘The paperwork is in the bag. You guys can just have her if I don’t make it back,'” Mayes recalled to the station. “Once she said that, red flags immediately.”

Mayes called 911 after the woman walked away, WAGA said, adding that Mayes also checked on the baby, discovering she was wearing a soaked diaper and had rashes on her neck and body.

Then about 15 minutes later, while Mayes was on the phone with dispatchers, the mother allegedly returned to the shop and demanded the child back — while carrying a knife, the station said.

Mayes told WAGA the woman said, “Where’s the baby? I need the baby. I gotta go, I gotta go. Some stuff just went down. I gotta go.”

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

Emergency dispatchers said during the 911 call not to allow the mother leave with the baby, the station said — but fortunately police officers soon arrived at the scene.

WAGA said police arrested 35-year-old Laraven Davis and took her to jail on charges of child abandonment and reckless conduct, while paramedics took the infant to a hospital for a medical evaluation.

WSB-TV reported that Davis was granted a $4,000 bond in the wake of her misdemeanor charges.

As for Mayes, she told WAGA that her maternal instincts took over the moment the Davis left her workplace.

“As a mom, it broke me down, I did cry a lot,” Mayes recalled to WAGA. “I was just a mom looking out for another kid. I just, I couldn’t let that baby go like that. That was heartbreaking.”

Police have not disclosed what prompted the mother’s actions or where the child will be placed following medical clearance from the hospital, WAGA added.

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​Georgia, Jiffy lube, Mother, Infant, Child abandonment, Arrest, Crime 

The Trump administration has suspended what it says was a loophole used by Chinese citizens for birth tourism and possibly even espionage in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program was created under the Biden administration by a Department of Homeland Security rule published in January 2024, easing visa restrictions for Chinese people in order to encourage tourism to the U.S. territory.

‘We are ready to work with our federal partners on solutions that protect both our national security and the economic future of the people of the Marianas.’

Under the new rule implemented in Feb. 2025, prescreened Chinese nationals could visit the islands for up to two weeks without having to obtain a U.S. consular visa.

The Department of Homeland Security indicated in a press release Thursday that the program could be abused by pregnant foreigners to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children. Other concerns involved human trafficking and espionage near military facilities.

The suspension of the program went into effect on Friday.

The congressional delegate for the islands expressed disappointment with the decision.

“Our tourism industry is already facing tremendous challenges, and a prolonged disruption would have serious consequences for our businesses, workers, and families,” said Northern Mariana Islands congressional Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds, a Republican.

King-Hinds added that she will talk to DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin and President Donald Trump in an effort to restore the policy.

Others warned that the reduction in travelers could lead to flights being canceled to the islands as well. No flights have been affected yet.

The Marianas Visitors Authority called on the government to find other solutions to the problems they identified.

“Tourism is the primary economic driver of our economy,” the agency said in a press release.

RELATED: Texas AG Paxton sues Chinese ‘birth tourism’ center over alleged birthright citizenship abuse

“We are not asking the federal government to ignore legitimate concerns,” the agency added. “We are ready to work with our federal partners on solutions that protect both our national security and the economic future of the people of the Marianas.”

The islands are also still reeling from the effects of Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which hit them earlier in 2026. The Marianas economy depends solely on tourism since it has few natural resources.

The DHS said more than 3,000 Chinese nationals used the program to visit the Mariana Islands in the 2025 fiscal year.

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​Birth tourism, Department of homeland security, Human trafficking, Politics, China 

With control of Congress at stake, Americans will head to the polls Tuesday, November 3, for the 2026 midterm elections, setting the stage for a consequential night in American politics.

As election results begin rolling in across the country, Nick Freitas, John Doyle, Steve Deace, Glenn Beck, Sara Gonzales, Pat Gray, Dave Landau, Auron MacIntyre, and more will join BlazeTV’s live 2026 midterm election coverage, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on November 3.

The broadcast will feature live election results, political analysis, and real-time reactions as Republicans and Democrats compete for control of the House and Senate.

A consequential election for both parties

The 2026 midterms arrive at a pivotal point in President Donald Trump’s second term, with Republicans and Democrats competing for control of Congress.

The results will help determine the political landscape for the remainder of Trump’s presidency, with implications for congressional priorities, federal spending, immigration policy, and the direction of both major parties heading into the 2028 presidential election.

From competitive Senate races to closely watched House contests, election night will provide an early picture of how voters are responding to the first two years of Trump’s return to the White House.

BlazeTV’s coverage will follow the biggest developments as they happen, with commentary from hosts offering their perspectives on the results and their implications.

A different approach to election night

Rather than relying exclusively on traditional election-night panels and electoral maps, BlazeTV’s special will bring together personalities from across the network for candid discussions, live reactions, and analysis as the results unfold.

The evening begins at 7 p.m. ET with John Doyle leading the opening coverage before Steve Deace takes over the main election-night broadcast at 9 p.m. ET.

Throughout the night, viewers can expect updates on key races, conversations about the changing political landscape, and reactions from familiar BlazeTV voices as states report their results.

The broadcast is designed to give audiences more than election returns, offering a broader conversation about what those results could mean for the country.

Viewers will have a chance to join the conversation

BlazeTV subscribers will also have an opportunity to participate directly in the election-night coverage.

Throughout the broadcast, hosts will take questions submitted exclusively through the BlazeTV live chat, allowing viewers to raise issues, ask about election developments, and potentially have their questions answered on the air.

The interactive element gives subscribers a way to engage with the discussion as the night unfolds.

How to watch BlazeTV’s 2026 midterm election coverage

BlazeTV Midterms 2026

Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Where: BlazeTV and the BlazeTV YouTube channel

The entire election-night broadcast will be available to watch free on YouTube, with no subscription required.

Viewers who want to participate in the exclusive BlazeTV chat can also take advantage of a free seven-day trial of BlazeTV+, which includes access to the network’s programming and on-demand content.

To watch on BlazeTV or join the live conversation, you can subscribe here.

With major congressional races on the ballot and the direction of Washington at stake, BlazeTV’s election-night special will bring together its hosts and viewers for a night of live coverage, discussion, and analysis.

​Election results, Midterm elections, Political analysis, Blazetv specials