As America approaches its 250th birthday, patriots are gearing up for festivities and traditions, while many Democrats are fantasizing about living in another country.

In a new poll from Elon University conducted by YouGov between April 30 and May 4, 55% of Democratic respondents answered that there is another country they would rather live in than the United States.

Glenn Beck was disheartened by the data.

“If anyone on this continent ever had a right to say, … ‘This country is a fraud. These documents are a lie,’ … it was Martin Luther King and the people who lived at that time,” he says.

He recounts how in King’s day, “Black Americans [were] being beaten for trying to vote; children [had] fire hoses turned onto them; men [were] being lynched, and the murderers [were] walking free.”

But instead of listening to the voices in the Civil Rights Movement denouncing the American project as “rotten to the root,” King, Glenn says, “reached for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution … and he called them a promissory note.”

“This is the solution to our problems!” he exclaims.

In his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, King expressed genuine belief in America’s promise that all had a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” but argued that black Americans had received a “bad check … marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

This hopeful yet demanding position Glenn calls “extraordinary.”

“He could have torn the note up; he could have said that promise is worthless. But he didn’t. He said he refused to believe that the bank of justice was bankrupt,” he declares. “He didn’t come to Washington to renounce the founding; he came to cash the check.”

This is what allowed King to change the world, Glenn says.

But many of today’s disgruntled Americans wouldn’t fit in with King. Unlike him, they don’t believe in the American project.

“King said, ‘The promise is real, so pay it.’ Today, they say, ‘The promise is fraudulent, so what’s the point of staying or living within the system?’” Glenn says.

The latter group, he says, is perpetuating a dangerous narrative: “If the documents are the disease, then there is no cure to be found inside the house. There’s no way out except the exit door or the match.”

To the 55% who long to leave the country, Glenn gives a sobering message: “Nearly every country on the menu you’d flee to has a lot more [soft despotism], not less.”

The “antidote,” he says, is neither flight nor destruction; it’s the Bill of Rights.

“That is the tool that Frederick Douglass picked up. That’s the tool that King picked up. When the majority had failed him, he didn’t appeal to a foreign flag; he appealed to the promise the majority had signed and broken — and he demanded America honor it,” Glenn passionately recounts.

“The Declaration is your check. … The Constitution is that check. The Bill of Rights is your enforcement clause. They are not the thing standing between you and a country worth loving. They are the only road to that country worth loving.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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A Mexican prosecutor said authorities discovered the naked body of an Indiana woman abandoned in a ditch in the state of Chiapas over the weekend.

Maurica Lambert said 30-year-old Makala Pendley was raped and beaten to death, according to local authorities who informed the family of the woman’s death.

‘It just never would have crossed my mind that it would have been him. I’ve never gotten, like, that type of, like, feeling from him or anything.’

Lambert says her sister was over six months pregnant.

“It just still does not feel freaking real,” Lambert said to WXIN-TV. “It just doesn’t feel real at all.”

A local prosecutor said in an online broadcast that she had been dead between eight and 12 hours before her body was found in the ditch in a small village in the municipality of Zinacantán.

“The deceased woman’s death was caused by traumatic brain injury secondary to blunt force trauma,” the prosecutor said.

Pendley’s death led to a frantic search for her seven children. By Tuesday, Mexican officials said they had located the children and arrested the children’s father.

WXIN said it was unable to confirm the arrest with the local prosecutor, but other online reports also reported the arrest.

“I thought it was somebody else. I still feel like it’s someone else,” Lambert said. “It just never would have crossed my mind that it would have been him. I’ve never gotten, like, that type of, like, feeling from him or anything.”

Lambert said her sister had fled from Indianapolis to Mexico with the children and their father out of fear that the children would be taken away.

In February 2026, Pendley and the children were reported missing to Indianapolis authorities. Mexican officials reportedly found the children and returned them to Pendley.

The Mexican prosecutor said the children’s father previously had been detained for numerous crimes that included rape, assault, robbery, fraud, illegal possession of weapons, and intimidation to cause bodily harm.

Lambert admitted her sister had a “toxic, on-and-off relationship” with the father.

RELATED: 23-year-old stripper decapitated 55-year-old boyfriend and immediately fled to Mexico, police say

“We will seek the maximum sentence of 100 years for this perpetrator of femicide,” the local prosecutor said about the father of the children.

The prosecutor said the children were in good health and that authorities were working with the State Department to return them to the U.S.

Lambert confirmed the children were returning to Indianapolis along with the remains of their mother.

“She was a good mom,” she added. “As moms, you know, we have our bad days, you know what I mean? And she was a good mom, though. She put her kids before she put anything.”

Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico and includes a large indigenous population that maintains the Mayan language and culture. Indigenous activists accuse Mexican officials of discriminating against them.

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​Missing children, Mexico, Pregnant woman murdered, Femicide, Crime 

After decades of brutal race and gender politics from the left, conservatives began treating identity itself as toxic. That reaction is understandable after fighting a sinister ideology for years, but ignoring identity is not an option. Human beings need a firm sense of who they are and where they belong. Progressives exploited that impulse in twisted, artificial ways, but the impulse remains natural and healthy.

As the United States confronts mass immigration, the question “What is an American?” has become unavoidable on the right once again. It is a question about identity. For the first time in decades, conservatives must navigate one of the most important parts of human life.

Defining American identity will be difficult, but it begins with friction. Borders must be closed and illegal aliens deported. That part is nonnegotiable.

Identity feels dangerous because it is dangerous. From the beginning of time, identity has been something men kill and die for. People can fight over voluntary commitments, but identity largely consists of things we did not choose. We do not choose where we are born or to whom. We do not choose to be a brother, sister, son, or daughter. Even religion, though it requires voluntary practice, is usually inherited before it is chosen.

Identity is what you cannot leave behind, often because you never chose it in the first place.

That is why identity produces existential conflict. Its involuntary nature means people cannot simply opt out when the pressure rises. If someone wants to kill everyone who likes the movie “Jaws,” you can stop being a fan. If someone wants to kill everyone born English, you cannot stop being English. You have no option but to fight.

This explains why the post-World War II consensus tried to suppress as many thick identities as possible. If people lack strong attachments to heritage, tradition, nation, or religion, they are less likely to treat those attachments as matters of life and death. The impulse is understandable. No sane person wants another war of religion or world war fought over nationalism.

But the shift carries a cost. Without the boundaries of nation and religion, we drift toward open-borders globalism, which is deeply unhealthy.

A nation without identity has no coherent sense of the public good. The man whose family has lived in America since the founding has different priorities from a newly arrived immigrant hoping to move his extended family here. The Christian who wants his faith reflected in his ancestral nation has conflicting interests with the Muslim who wants his new home to implement Sharia law.

The state cannot remain neutral between these visions. It must decide which identity takes priority and which public good it will pursue. Neutrality is a lie. Identity is inescapable.

RELATED: Two-tier Britain finally has its George Floyd moment

Blaze Media Illustration

As America tries to unwind the open-borders disaster liberalism produced, the need for concrete identity becomes obvious. Illegal immigration is a massive problem, but legal immigration has also been destructive. If being American means more than obtaining paperwork, uncomfortable lines must be drawn. Identities are inherently exclusive. Some people are in, and some people are out.

That feels dangerous because it is. But we no longer have the luxury of avoidance. Turning a blind eye to these questions created the mess. We will not escape it by doing the same thing again.

Modern people like rigid categories, but identity has always had strong centers with some flexibility at the margins. A traditional biological family is the best outcome and should be preferred above alternatives, but an adopted child can still become part of a family. People know what a woman is, but progressives exploit overly rigid definitions to destroy the category. If you say a woman is someone who can bear children, they immediately point to a sterile female and ask whether she is still a woman.

The rigid category becomes the tool of deconstruction.

Identity should be understood not merely as a scientific fact or a voluntary choice, but as a situated-ness that draws us toward particular ends. Americans are born with inalienable rights, but also particular duties. Our identities as Americans, Christians, sons, brothers, or fathers should cost us something. They are not merely about rights, choices, and freedoms. They are also about limits.

There are things you cannot be when you are a father, a Christian, or an American. These categories are flexible, but they are not fluid.

Our globalist order hates borders and limits because they create friction for economies of scale. McDonald’s wants to sell the same hamburger to everyone the same way. If it must accommodate Hindus or Catholics, or close Sunday in America and Saturday in Israel, efficiency and profitability suffer. Uniformity maximizes scale. That is why governments, corporations, and NGOs work to homogenize every population on earth.

But identity should create friction. People need borders and limits. Only when we know who we are and who we are not can we chart a beneficial course for our nation.

RELATED: The collapse of conservatism nobody wants to admit

Blaze Media Illustration

Defining American identity will be difficult, but it begins with friction. Borders must be closed and illegal aliens deported. That part is nonnegotiable. Legal immigration should be radically limited, or ended altogether, until we work through this crisis. Every tribe has had a path for outsiders to join, but the cost should be steep. If someone is granted the gracious opportunity to become American, it should require real sacrifice.

The Bible gives us a model in Ruth, who abandons her homeland and pledges, “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” She does not cling to her former identity. She leaves her former people, her former gods, and marries into the tribe.

Becoming part of the Hebrew people involved friction. It came at great cost. That is how you know it was worth it.

To be American is to be distinct and set apart. If anyone is to have the privilege of joining that identity, it should be difficult. Only through sacrifice can a stranger prove worthy of our great nation.

​American, Assimilation, Borders, Family, Globalism, Identity, Immigration, Nationalism, Naturalization, Opinion & analysis, Religion, Tribe, United states 

Workers at a bar in Ohio said that two men ripped down their Pride flag just hours after they put it up and then returned to break a window with a rock.

Beth Rea of O’Reilly’s Pub in Clintonville said she had put up the flag for Pride Month just that afternoon hours before the alleged incident.

‘We are definitely a regulars bar. We are very close with our customers. We’re very accepting of everybody in here.’

“I stapled it here. You can see there’s still a little remnants,” Rea said while pointing to the spot for WBNS-TV.

At about 10:45 p.m., the two ripped the flag down and were confronted by some customers, according to Rea.

“The gentlemen then pulled off and came back probably about five minutes later with the rocks,” she added.

They allegedly threw the rock through a window.

“Luckily, nobody was sitting there,” Rea said, “which was concerning because we were worried about safety, of course, initially.”

The report showed other decorations for Pride Month inside the bar, including other smaller flags and a sign reading “Pride Month.”

She said the incident was unsettling.

“I mean, we are located in Clintonville,” she added. “We are definitely a regulars bar. We are very close with our customers. We’re very accepting of everybody in here.”

They shut down the bar for the night after the incident and boarded up the window, but she said they will be not be intimidated into taking down their Pride decorations.

RELATED: LGBTQIA+ center workers outraged over vandalism on Pride flags outside Presbyterian church

“Absolutely not going to stop us from putting up our decorations, not gonna let that intimidate us to the point that we can’t, you know, celebrate Pride,” she added.

WBNS said that Columbus police are investigating the incident and are looking for the two alleged vandals who drove away.

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The workers who restored the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial were all grins and laughter when they visited the president at the White House Tuesday evening.

President Donald Trump signed hats for each of the workers after they completed their mission to clean up the reflecting pool in time for the 250th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence.

The president joked to reporters that the pool might become filthy again under another president but that it would remain ‘perfect’ while he was in office.

A video of their visit was posted to social media by White House communications adviser Margo Martin. She said each of the workers also received an official presidential challenge coin.

The renovation was completed last week and included draining the pool, cleaning it up, painting and sealing it, and then refilling it.

“This was highly sophisticated material, industrial strength, that could last for 100 years, applied by very talented people, many of whom came from the Great State of Oklahoma,” the president said on Truth Social.

“The material is thick, strong, flexible, and has a natural, beautiful color, the dark blue of the American Flag!” he added.

The president joked to reporters that the pool might become filthy again under another president but that it would remain “perfect” while he was in office.

“It’s really beautiful. It’s something for you to see. It’s incredible,” the president said after the pool reopened. “You know, it’s really amazing.”

The pool was constructed and opened in 1922. A new circulation and filtration system was installed at the pool during renovation under former President Barack Obama.

RELATED: Outrage erupts over new passport for America’s 250th — and guess whose image is on it

The president said the renovation would also keep the pool from leaking.

“I’m very proud of it,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “I’m very good at building things and constructing things.”

The restoration of the reflecting pool was initially estimated to cost $1.8 million but ballooned to more than $13 million. A group of historic preservationists filed a lawsuit claiming the application of a blue coat altered the “historic character” of the pool without proper preservation review.

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Two-time NBA champion Mychal Thompson has been a Caitlin Clark fan since she started in Iowa, but he’s not liking what he’s seeing with the Indiana Fever.

In a now viral post on X, Thompson wrote: “I’m hearing from a reliable source the Fever don’t want Caitlin no more … SPARKS … Go get her … NOW!!!”

The tweet piqued BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock’s interest.

“Do you stand by your original tweet that, according to a reliable source, the Indiana Fever do not want Caitlin Clark?” Whitlock asks Thompson.

“Well, that’s what I’m hearing, you know, from all the contacts we have around the basketball world,” he responds, pointing out that from just watching the Indiana Fever, it “looks like they don’t want the Caitlin Clark that we fell in love with at Iowa.”

“They seem to want more of a benign, more of a pedestrian point guard. So, I don’t think her style fits the way they’re using her,” he continues.

“They prefer to have more of a traditional type of point guard, not a point guard who can shoot from the logo threes. We want that Caitlin back, and we’re not seeing that Caitlin anymore,” he adds.

And according to Thompson, what’s happening to Caitlin Clark is rare in the world of sports.

“Have you ever seen this before where you have this transcendent superstar and they seem to have adopted a system that doesn’t work for Caitlin Clark?”

“Never seen this in any sport,” he responds.

“It’d be like taking the serve away from Serena Williams. A coach telling her, ‘No, I don’t like that big serve you have, so let’s have a more traditional serve,’” he continues.

“They’ve taken away Caitlin’s superpowers,” he adds.

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Allegations of voter fraud in the Los Angeles mayoral primary election were bolstered by some homeless people on Skid Row claiming they were paid to vote for the leftists in the race.

Republican-leaning Spencer Pratt was shut out of the jungle primary, which allows the top two vote-getters to proceed to the general election.

‘I was just trying to make 5 bucks, you know? But I didn’t do the fraud.’

Some Pratt supporters became suspicious after Pratt initially won second place in the partial results announced on Election Night and then the gap whittled away with each tranche of ballots that were counted.

A pro-Pratt TikTok account posted video of the claims from homeless people recorded in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.

“It was like two bucks,” said one unidentified woman who claimed she was paid $2 to vote for Bass.

“Yeah, they come out here all the time,” she added.

The TikTok creator told the New York Post that he was tipped off by a friend who worked in the area and claimed to have seen political volunteers operating in the neighborhood.

One of the men in the video called himself Kevin Shepherd and said he was paid $4 to vote for Bass. He said he negotiated the price up from $2 and that he was also allowed to vote for Raman, but not Pratt.

“They gave you an optional choice,” Shepherd said.

Rene Johnson, 39, claimed she was paid $5 to vote for Bass but was unclear about the documents she signed.

“But, you know, at the time, I didn’t know that that was going on,” she said. “I was just trying to make five bucks, you know? But I didn’t do the fraud.”

However, an investigation into her claims found that there was no vote under her name from Skid Row, but there was one with that name and age in the nearby Inglewood election, which has a mayor separate from that of Los Angeles.

The Post said it was unable to independently verify the claims in the video.

“Everybody said it was normal,” the content creator said to the Post.

RELATED: Socialist mayoral candidate is outraged at encampment outside her LA home — it’s not what it seems

The Justice Dept. said it was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the California elections but noted one claim, that Pratt received no votes in one tranche of ballots, was untrue.

California’s electoral system was widely mocked after results were delayed far past what is typical in other states. Some pointed to the delays as evidence of fraud, but officials have denied the claims.

One report indicated that 185 voters for Raman were registered in a homeless shelter in Venice that had received $600,000 through the efforts of the socialist city councilwoman. Others pointed out that the hundreds of votes in the Skid Row area would not have made much of a difference in the gap between Pratt and Raman.

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​Homeless people, Karen bass, Los angeles mayoral, Nithya raman, Skid row, Politics