President Donald Trump has followed through on his threat to rename Lake Ontario as his trade war with Canada continues.

The president lambasted Canadian officials after they rejected a trade deal and responded with reciprocal tariffs to Trump’s newest tariffs.

‘Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.’

The president signed an executive order changing the lake’s name to “Lake America” on Thursday.

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario effective immediately to Lake America,” he said to reporters.

“We filed all of the necessary papers, documents, [and] everything else. We’ve notified all of the various people you have to notify,” he added.

The president previously changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” shortly after he retook office.

“If you think about it, we have a gulf, now we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean,” Trump joked. “Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has tried to match the president’s rhetoric, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has fired back against the U.S. with excessive threats.

“He can kiss my ass as far as I’m concerned,” said Ford. “We need to throw everything and the kitchen sink at him. He’s arrogant, he’s cocky.”

Ford has threatened to cut off electricity and minerals that Canada provides for the northern U.S. states.

“I’ll cut them off,” he added. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.”

RELATED: Trump says he will declare new US territory ‘pretty soon’ in the Middle East

The lake encompasses 7,340 square miles but is the smallest of the Great Lakes.

Canada is the second-largest trading partner to the U.S., behind Mexico in the top spot and ahead of China.

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​Canada, Tariffs, Trade war, Politics, Donald trump, Mark carney 

A Maryland judge ruled on Wednesday that the Democrats’ attempt to gerrymander their state’s lone Republican congressional district out of existence was legally deficient.

Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Robert Thompson held that the redistricting measure HB 2100 threatening Rep. Andy Harris’ (R-Md.) seat should not move forward as part of a November referendum. Anticipating an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court, Thompson stayed his order.

‘When are we going to be honest with the people and say, “Your government can do whatever it wants”?’

Oversight Project vice president of litigation Jeffrey Clark represented the plaintiffs, arguing that Maryland Democrats ran roughshod over their own deadlines and election statutes.

HB 2100 was introduced August 3, despite statutory codes mandating that any modifications to statewide ballot measures be submitted by July 1. Plaintiffs argued that HB 2100 violated the July 1 deadline and illicitly placed a redistricting measure on the November ballot.

However, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Kobrin insisted that the General Assembly’s constitutional authority was not restricted by statutes.

Judge Thompson ultimately bought Clark’s case. Throughout the roughly five hours of oral argument, Thompson repeatedly expressed skepticism toward the state’s case.

“Why not be honest with the people … and let them know if you have a three-fifths majority, you can do whatever you want?” Thompson asked Kobrin from the bench. “When are we going to be honest with the people and say, ‘Your government can do whatever it wants’?”

The state immediately filed an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court.

“We respectfully disagree with the Circuit Court’s decision and have already filed our appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court,” Maryland Governor’s Office spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “At a moment when states across the country are manipulating congressional maps to silence voters and undermine fair representation, Maryland cannot afford to sit on our hands.”

State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D) and Del. Kris Fair (D) attended the hearing. Kagan’s involvement in the ballot measure was highlighted by the plaintiffs.

RELATED: DHS investigation confirms FEMA left Trump supporters to fend for themselves after hurricane

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“There is no time to comply with the plain language of the law with our new law because July 1st is in the rearview mirror,” the senator said in early August when debating the bill. Clark referenced her remarks as evidence that Maryland Democrats intended to violate election statutes to get the redistricting measure on the November ballot.

Ballots may be printed as early as September 3, according to state law. The Maryland Supreme Court is providing expedited review in order to render a decision prior to ballot-printing.

“It is very rewarding to see that the Judge assigned to the case agreed with the catalogue of legal errors we laid out that the General Assembly and Governor [Wes] Moore made in their hurry-up Special Session,” Clark said in a statement after the ruling. “Now we will proceed with energy and this wind at our backs as we go up to defend this victory on appeal before the Maryland Supreme Court.”

Clark served as acting administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from March 2025 to March 2026, leaving to join the Oversight Project.

“This is a big win not only for Marylanders but fans of justice across the country. We had the facts and law on our side and won, and that won’t change if the state appeals,” Oversight Project president and affected Maryland voter Mike Howell said in a statement.

Howell, all seven Maryland Freedom Caucus members, and state Sens. Steve Hershey (R) and Justin Ready (R) jointly filed suit against the State Board of Elections regarding HB 2100 on August 6.

“Today’s decision is a victory for Maryland voters and the rule of law,” Rep. Harris said in an X post on Wednesday.

Kagan and Fair did not respond to requests for comment.

Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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​Gerrymander, Maryland, Oversight project, Wes moore, Politics 

The first democratic socialist to win a primary in Oklahoma’s history is getting some unwanted attention after a bizarre “burn book” video from her past resurfaced.

The video, posted last September, is a spoof of a scene from the movie “Mean Girls” where a crazed teenager cuts out a picture of her social foe and pastes it into a book with a mocking statement.

‘Are they mocking mental illness or promoting it? Why would they do this?’

N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas, the candidate for one of two Oklahoma seats in the U.S. Senate, casts herself in the role of the unhinged, hysterical teenager but holds up a photo of Markwayne Mullin, who was a senator from Oklahoma at the time.

Republicans resurfaced the video to give voters a taste of Thomas’ socialist hysteria.

“These people are cray-cray,” replied Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

“The Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma. Seems totally normal and stable,” responded the popular Libs of TikTok account.

“This is a candidate for the United States Senate. Care to guess her party affiliation?” said actor James Woods.

“Honestly just expecting scenes like this to be 3 of the 4 nights of the DNC in 2028,” replied commentator Scott Jennings.

“For US SENATE!??! What the actual f**k is going on at the DNC?? Senate seats are very important, this isn’t just a local council seat. For the love of God someone explain the absolute lunacy at the DNC right now,” said another detractor.

“So, someone stands filming for the girl to walk in, she acts like a moron, then post this to social media. Are they mocking mental illness or promoting it? Why would they do this?” said another critic.

RELATED: Democratic socialists honcho gives rambling, incoherent reply when asked simple question

“We are getting to the point where many democrat candidates are just people who should be in mental institutions or jail,” read another critic.

The video appears to still be on the TikTok account for Thomas, but the account has been restricted from most viewers.

Thomas won the Democratic primary despite being vastly outspent by the establishment candidate. She is facing Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) for the Senate seat after Mullin left to run the Department of Homeland Security.

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​Democratic socialist, Markwayne mullin, United states senate, N’kiyla jasmine thomas, Oklahoma, Viral video, Politics 

As I — and numerous others — anticipated years ago, the populist backlash against the dystopian possibilities of super-duper artificial intelligence has begun in earnest, with the rise of data centers as the inciting event.

It is easy to see why. Beyond the standard human response to unasked-for change at scale — isn’t there someone (me!) you forgot to ask? — the populist spirit in America has always run bone-deep.

Americans do not like feeling mogged by their fellow citizens, and we like even less being lectured by the moggers about how we are unentitled to feel that way.

Alexis de Tocqueville understood the democratic dynamics of envy and resentment. Under conditions of social equality, everyone feels precariously interchangeable with everyone else, so another person’s relative advantage can register not merely as inequality but as a wound to pride.

Extend that dynamic to the “global town square,” where we spend more and more of our waking hours watching other people’s breakout advances in real time, and the sensation of being left behind goes nuclear.

Americans do not like feeling mogged by their fellow citizens, and we like even less being lectured by the moggers about how we are unentitled to feel that way. Worse, somewhere beneath the resentment lurks the humiliating suspicion that we have helped put ourselves in the inferior position.

Sensitive young men of ambition today — reminding me of my own “Fight Club”-era preoccupations — are once again stalking some kind of Nietzschean-Christian syncretism that promises, amulet-like, supreme confidence and supreme humility. The reason is that both Nietzsche and Christ condemned resentment.

The gulf between the Übermensch and the God-Man is obviously enormous. Yet both traditions understand that resentment degrades the person who lives by it. And that is why the backlash against data centers has moved so quickly from personal grievance and political interest onto the higher plane of spiritual war.

More Americans across the political spectrum now speak of data centers as if they are not merely ugly, expensive, noisy, or intrusive but evil — evil as “tech” itself has become in their imagination, evil as the “tech lords” who build it are presumed to be.

On the secular left, where human justice perfected becomes an almost religious ideal, tech’s push toward superhuman capability readily appears sinister. On the woo-woo left, where witches warn that they cannot hex Trump, tech’s tilt toward post-humanity manifests as something post-natural and spiritually contaminating.

RELATED: Is this the number-crunchers’ come-to-Jesus moment?

Inkoly/Getty Images

On the right, spiritual conservatives with relatively weak institutional confidence often apply a precautionary principle: If it looks menacing, assume it’s evil. Those with stronger church lives have a different reason for suspicion: an acute awareness of man’s fallenness and the old Actonian warning that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Search a man for evil — beginning with yourself! — and evil, no doubt, you shall find. But this being America, where making me feel “less than” can register as a kind of spectral crime, the emotional incentive is to cast the first stone. And in an age when throwing a stick will almost certainly hit somebody culpable and “punchable,” it is remarkable that the techies did not prepare for the boomerang now whacking them upside the head.

But that should be the beginning of our rumination, not the end. Many, many techies are doing “this” because of what they regard as good intentions. Some sincerely believe they are acting, for our own good, out of their very best intentions.

Ignoring that fact will produce a maelstrom of resentment more destructive than the nightmares already filling our wounded and prideful imaginations.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. But the proverb should not tempt us to dismiss good intentions as meaningless. It should force us to take seriously the human yearning for the good, the wonderful, and the pure — especially in people whose projects strike us as dangerous.

Christians, in particular, are meant to remember that all creation cries out for reunion with God and that even badly distorted human desires can point toward something real that has gone wrong in the seeking.

RELATED: The question of the AI age: How much humanism is too much?

Moor Studio/Getty Images

That does not give the maddest of mad scientists a cosmic hall pass. It does mean that, if we look without fear at the grand plans of our technologists, we may see in them a powerful expression of the universal human longing for purification.

As the structure of our economic life increasingly leaves people feeling condemned by bad debts, bad surpluses, and obligations they cannot spiritually discharge, we desperately seek something powerful and authoritative enough to wipe the ledger clean and leave us new.

Hey, our best-intentioned techies keep shouting. There’s an app for that!

No purification, no salvation; this we have known for ages. But when time feels short, we become vulnerable to shortcuts — to the fantasy of a perfectly engineered “solve” for our human, all-too-human debt.

If we merely demonize one another — losing sight of the Lord’s hidden presence in us all — then the data centers may not be what finally tears us apart. We may do that job ourselves.

​Ai, Data centers, Fight club, Big tech, Americans, Religion, Nature, Opinion & analysis, Alexis de tocqueville, Donald trump, Christianity 

Manosphere influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate have been forced to admit an embarrassing truth that destroys the brand they have sold to young men across the world: They were apparently lying about their wealth.

The brothers are in federal custody in Miami battling extradition to the U.K. on rape and sex-trafficking charges and have been outed by their lawyers for allegedly not owning but renting all their fancy displays of a lavish playboy lifestyle.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock has been calling what they’ve been doing a grift for years, and he’s not surprised in the slightest to find out he seems to be right.

“The mansion was a renovated warehouse at the end of a dead-end street across a swamp from the airport. $600,000 or $700,000 of building. The Guardian called it a ‘run-down meat factory.’ Black paint, red neon, strip-club lighting sold as a villain lair,” Whitlock says.

“Romanian seizures, cars, watches, some Bitcoin, 15 properties totaling about $2 million. Combined, the brothers were being discussed in the neighborhood of $10 million,” he continues.

“Andrew had already said on tape he did not own the cars, a trust, a percentage of a company, access to a Bugatti he did not own,” he adds.

His lawyers told a Miami judge that their $2.1 million Aston Martin and the $12 million Bugattis he showed off were rented. The $50 million yacht they boasted wasn’t theirs either, but rather a prop they received payment to promote.

“That is not new information. That is notarized information,” Whitlock says.

“Tate sold a world where the righteous measure of a man is the thing he can park. Superfly lighting. A driveway full of other people’s cars,” he adds.

But the Tate brothers’ grift has revealed even more about the pair than just lies.

“You will know them by their fruit,” Whitlock says. “The love of money is the root of all evil. Not money; the love. The hunger that will rent a yacht and call it testimony.”

“They told the judge they were playing a role. Every boy who copied the role was the audience. Every dollar that role pulled was the box office. What that hustle kills is a young man’s ability to tell a father from a pimp,” he continues. “A healed boy is a threat to that revenue.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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​Andrew tate, Extradition, Grift, Jason whitlock, Lawyers, Tristan tate, Uk, Wealth, Blazetv show 

Vice President JD Vance just put a spotlight on Abdul El-Sayed and his real priorities — and the Michigan Democrat Senate candidate wasn’t happy about it.

“It’s sometimes actually hard to understand what do these modern Democrats actually stand for. But look what they say. Pay close attention, and they’ll leave these little hints of what they actually care about,” Vance said.

“El-Sayed, this guy running for Senate in Michigan, he once argued, not too long ago, that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy,” he continued.

“I’d love to go back in time and tell my papaw that there’s a man who claims to stand for working people who says, ‘Not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticize it, you’re a white supremacist.’ That’s not my papaw’s Democrat Party, my friends,” he added.

El-Sayed responded to the criticism in a post on X, “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no …”

Executive producer of “Pat Gray Unleashed,” Keith Malinak, points out that this isn’t the first time El-Sayed has spoken about Usha Vance.

“‘What do you think is going through Usha’s head when he talks?’ … ‘She’s like, damn, I have to sleep with him.’ Another quote. ‘I guess she’s pregnant, so something is happening,’” Malinak says, quoting El-Sayed.

“Another quote, he referred to Vance’s ‘brown kids’ … and the ‘awkward conversation that Vance is going to have to have with them about hating people who are different,’” he continues.

“I mean, this guy is so obsessed with JD Vance’s family,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

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​Jd vance, Keith malinak, Michigan, Pat gray, Sharia law, White supremacy, Blazetv show, Abdul el-sayed 

Earlier this month, the Democtatic Socialists of America threw a “Y2K Prom” in Los Angeles, pitching it with a straight face: “Do you hate capitalism, but love to dress up?”

The irony of charging up to $40 a ticket for anti-capitalist role-play is almost too easy to laugh at. While a room full of socialists discovering ticket markup is objectively hilarious, the event shouldn’t be dismissed as a joke.

Conservatives cannot win this battle by simply shouting historical facts at 20-year-olds at a podium.

That’s because it offers a window into a much bigger problem.

Nationwide playbook

The recent prom is part of a nationwide playbook for leftist indoctrination. Across the country, DSA-aligned groups host book clubs, communist-friendly summer camps, “queer movie nights,” and free clothing swaps. They hijack normal social spaces and turn them into political pipelines.

First, they offer community and entertainment. Next, they teach youth to blame capitalism for every personal problem. Finally, they turn those kids into foot soldiers who march, canvass, and vote the next lunatic into office. The left understands that capturing youth culture means capturing America’s future, one dance party at a time.

Those sipping punch at these gatherings rarely pause to consider the savagery they are embracing. In the Soviet Union, the 1932 Holodomor starved nearly 4 million Ukrainians to death in the name of collective “progress.” Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward in 1958 managed to exterminate roughly 45 million Chinese citizens through sheer economic idiocy and central planning.

Yet today, a 22-year-old armed with an iPhone and a liberal arts degree considers it a human rights violation that people actually have to prove their worth once they leave the insulated incubator of higher education.

Disguising brutality

Modern socialism disguises its brutality with talk of fairness and equity. The old pitch promised equal opportunity, which required actual work and personal responsibility. Equity tosses individual merit into the gulag, favoring mandated outcomes and systematically penalizing anyone who dares to excel. It’s the ultimate political embodiment of tall poppy syndrome, dedicated to decapitating high achievers so the rest of the garden feels better about blooming late or never blooming at all.

The entire apparatus relies on the concept of eternal victimhood. Socialism is the official philosophy of the entitled and the lazy, providing a convenient intellectual cover for those who refuse to take control of their own destinies. When a person fails to pay rent on time, capitalism gets the blame. When a career stalls, systemic oppression gets the credit. The ideology replaces individual pride with a perpetual stream of excuses. It tells a young adult that his shortcomings are never his fault and that the neighbor down the street owes him a living simply for existing.

This is precisely what makes the summer camps, the dance parties, and the Y2K proms so insidious. In a relaxed social setting, far removed from the sterile classroom environment, the subtext is far easier to instill. It equates tyranny with good times, good music, and moral superiority. The socialism Gen Z worships owes less to Karl Marx and far more to Zohran Mamdani. And while the New York mayor radiates all the raw masculinity of an oat milk latte, Gen Z absolutely adores him for it.

RELATED: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the cruel lie of egg-freezing

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Utopian dance party

Redistribution sounds fantastic to a generation conditioned to receive participation trophies for showing up to seventh-grade soccer practice. The illusion falls apart the moment the government runs out of other people’s money to redistribute. At that point, the utopian dance party ends, leaving behind empty grocery store shelves and widespread rationing. The promise of free health care and subsidized housing morphs into a mandatory queue for bread in the dead of winter.

But democratic socialists are having a moment, largely because they actually understand the modern digital landscape. Their activists craft viral TikTok clips. They run sophisticated social media campaigns. Leftist organizers show up where young people hang out, offering a sense of belonging, even if that belonging is rooted in mutual resentment and economic suicide.

Conservatives cannot win this battle by simply shouting historical facts at 20-year-olds at a podium. Blasting socialism on cable news panel shows accomplishes nothing when the targeted demographic streams content on phones.

Right-leaning movements need better ideas, better messaging, and actual cultural spaces that appeal to young Americans. The defense of free markets, personal liberty, and individual achievement must sound energetic, daring, and fundamentally superior to the dreary alternative of state control.

Self-reliance builds genuine strength, while externalizing failure ensures permanent weakness. Securing the future requires proving that creating value through hard enterprise beats nursing grievances at an overpriced vintage prom. But if conservatives ever hope to win that fight, they first need to step onto the battlefield the left actually occupies.

​Dance party, Democratic socialists of america, Free markets, Karl marx, Mao zedong, Redistribution, Soviet union, Tall poppy syndrome, Y2k prom, Zohran mamdani, Lifestyle, Socialism 

It’s official: diversity is not strength. At least not here in the U.K.

The recent publication of a Home Office document reminding asylum-seekers that rape, child abuse, and female genital mutilation are not accepted in our country is a tacit admission from the managerial class that the mass importation of people from backward countries meant bringing backward values to our shores.

Around the same time the brochure appeared, two Afghan migrants were convicted of raping a woman at knifepoint in a park in east London.

For those of us who have spent years writing about immigration and migrant crime, this realization is hardly news. And one suspects it’s no surprise to the heavily credentialed ideological clones who staff the civil service.

Keep calm and carry on

There is something quintessentially British about trying to correct human behavior through a strongly worded public statement.

“Now look here, chaps. We’ve noticed a significant number of your tribe engaging in some rather brutish behavior. It’d be remiss of me not to bring this up. I’ve had a word with some of the boys, and if you don’t mind, it’d be awfully nice if you could stop.”

For centuries, British political thinking has conformed to this Victorian notion — that given the right script and a decent education, even the most unrepentant savage can be reformed into a productive, law-abiding citizen.

This is nothing more than progressivism dressed in the robes of 19th-century colonial paternalism. Believing that those who commit savage and barbaric practices can magically shed such vile and antiquated customs simply through exposure to Western values is an act of naivety so staggering it defies belief.

Sickening surge

Between 2021 and 2024, the number of foreign nationals convicted of sexual offenses surged by 62% — compared to 39% for British citizens. By 2025, foreign nationals accounted for one in seven sexual offense convictions, roughly 14% of the total.

When broken down by specific demographics, the disparities become even more alarming. Police data indicates that Afghan nationals are 22 times more likely to be convicted of sexual offenses than their British counterparts, with Eritreans following closely behind. Looking at these figures, one can only deduce that the British state hates its own citizens.

Since 2018, roughly 200,000 migrants have arrived in Britain on small boats, with a mere 4% ever returned. The rest are dispersed nationwide, disproportionately housed in poorer communities.

RELATED: Pakistani cousin marriage has no place in UK

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Under siege

Protests recently erupted in Piddington, a small rural village in Oxfordshire with a population of 400, over proposals to house 1,250 asylum-seekers in a nearby former military base. Lacking basic infrastructure — the village does not even have a shop or a pub — residents expressed concerns over safety, with parents terrified that they will not be able to let their children play outside. So great was their anger, fear, and frustration that villagers held a symbolic referendum voting to secede from the United Kingdom.

The Piddingtons of our country have every reason to be worried. In Epping, furious locals took to the streets outside the Bell Hotel after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum-seeker staying at the facility, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old schoolgirl within days of arriving in the town. Due to the escalating tension with the local community, the asylum-seekers were eventually relocated — though not before the High Court initially ruled they must stay.

Around the same time the brochure appeared, two Afghan migrants were convictedof raping a woman at knifepoint in a park in east London. Just months earlier, an Afghan asylum-seeker who arrived on a small boat was sentenced to 10 years after raping a 13-year-old girl in Nottingham.

In December 2025, two 17-year-old Afghan migrants were given 10-year custodial sentences for the rape of a 15-year-old girl. The court described the case as “horrific.” One of the attackers held his hand over her mouth while the other filmed the attack on his mobile phone. They entered the U.K. just a few months earlier.

In March 2026, Ahmad Mulakhil, another Afghan asylum-seeker, was jailed for 15 years after abducting a 12-year-old girl and filming himself raping her — sparking riots in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Travel warning

You will excuse me if I doubt that a document informing asylum-seekers about the legal age of consent will do anything to stop these monsters. We have imported these “customs” along with the people who bring them.

In Afghanistan, Bacha bazi (boy play) is defended by warlords as an ancient custom; in reality it is institutionalized pedophilia. In Iraq, Shia Islam allows the marriage of girls as young as 9. One of the highest rates of female genital mutilation — as high as 98% — is found in Somalia, the country of origin for many immigrants to the U.K. In Pakistan, marriage between first cousins remains commonplace, contributing to disproportionately high rates of inherited genetic disorders.

When Britain imports large numbers of people from societies where such practices remain common or tolerated, it inevitably imports some of the attitudes that sustain them. Indeed, the British government itself warns citizens traveling in these countries that they may encounter laws and social customs profoundly at odds with British norms. The curious assumption of our immigration regime is that those differences become irrelevant when the direction of travel is reversed.

​Asylum seekers, Female genital mutilation, Migrant crime, Afghan nationals, Lifestyle, Immigration, Somalia, Cousin marriage, Piddington, Anti-immigration protests, Europe, Great britain, Letter from the uk 

Amid ruinous pro-trans policies advanced by Democrat lawmakers around the country and a seemingly interminable string of horrific attacks allegedly plotted and/or executed by trans-identifying radicals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commissioned a study on the connection between gender ideology and leftist authoritarian beliefs.

The findings in the study published on Wednesday are damning — but likely won’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention.

‘Greater political liberalism independently predicted higher justification of political violence as well.’

The new study commissioned by HHS, titled “Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left- Wing Authoritarian Psychology?,” is the latest addition to the genre of scientific literature confirming what the right already knew.

The research team behind the study included Joel Finkelstein, chief science officer and co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute; Lee Jussim, head of the Social Perception Laboratory at Rutgers University; and Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist who serves as a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Together, they developed a “Clinical Gender Affirmation Scale,” measuring endorsement of five positions related to gender ideology.

The five positions derive from official guidance issued by organizations that “represent the official scientific and clinical establishment on care for individuals who identify as transgender,” according to the researchers.

RELATED: El-Sayed gives bizarre defense for cutting off kids’ genitals … on Fox News

Bob Riha Jr./Getty Images

The five consensus positions with which respondents were asked to agree or disagree included:

“Failure to affirm a transgender person’s gender identity increases the risk of serious psychological distress to the trans person.””People should be supported in expressing their transgender identity.””Using the name a person chooses as part of their gender transition is a necessary form of support.”

‘Biological-sex classifications and traditional parental or familial authority is seen as structures of harm.’

Using a questionnaire provided to over 1,200 majoritively Democrat-leaning Americans, the researchers tracked whether there was any correlation between endorsement of these organizations’ consensus positions in the CGAS and left-wing authoritarianism.

“Our results shocked us,” said Colin Wright.

“All correlations were substantial,” said the study.

“The relationship was not merely descriptively correlational; endorsement of CGAS was a strong statistical predictor of left-wing authoritarianism.”

The study noted that endorsements of both the CGAS and left-wing authoritarianism “were significantly positively correlated with justification for political violence” against President Donald Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, wealthy Americans’ property, the police, and two recent victims of assassination — Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, and Brian Thompson, the late CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

“CGAS was a consistent and statistically significant predictor of political violence justification,” said the study. “… Political identity was also a significant predictor across all six outcomes, indicating that greater political liberalism independently predicted higher justification of political violence as well.”

RELATED: Christian family seeks SCOTUS win against trans insanity in ‘case about swinging d**ks’

Daniel Knighton/Getty Images

Since the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have supported the five positions at some point, the findings of the research “raise a question of scientific responsibility,” continued the study.

The researchers cautioned, however, that gender ideology “was not simply standing in for being politically left-wing; it explained additional variation in political violence justification beyond political identity. Thus, its association with political violence cannot be reduced simply to ordinary left-right political identification.”

According to the researchers, gender ideology appears to function as a framework through which left-wing authoritarian tendencies can be concentrated.

After all, it not only provides left-wing authoritarians with potential targets to go after — including straights, Republicans, conservative Christians, and law enforcement — but “mandates institutional norm enforcement” by way of compelling speech, crackdowns on parental resistance, and institutional discipline.

This framework also provides left-wing authoritarians with “a third form of ideological fuel: a conventional order to dismantle. As such, biological-sex classifications and traditional parental or familial authority is seen as structures of harm requiring a moralized project of institutional correction.”

“This study raises important questions about what happens when ideology is given the authority of medicine,” said Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brian Christine. “The association between sex-rejecting clinical beliefs, authoritarian attitudes, and the justification of political violence warrant[s] serious scientific scrutiny.”

Christine noted further that “HHS will continue to pursue rigorous research that examines these relationships and gives the American people the evidence they deserve.”

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​Transgender, Gender ideology, Leftism, Authoritarianism, Study, Science, Health and human services, Politics 

My daughter recently went shopping for something that shouldn’t have been particularly exotic: a big American SUV with three rows, room for a growing family, and a diesel engine.

She had been driving a Ford Expedition but wasn’t happy with the fuel economy or some of the problems she had experienced. Her husband drives a diesel Ram, so she already understood the advantages of diesel torque and range. With two children and hopes for more, she still wanted the space of a true full-size SUV.

Our dealer told us that used diesel Suburbans don’t tend to sit around for long. A quick look at owner forums suggests our experience wasn’t unique.

A diesel Chevrolet Suburban seemed like the obvious answer.

Then she tried to find one.

Our local dealer didn’t have one. Other dealers didn’t seem to have them either. Rather than settle for what she could find on a lot, she ordered exactly what she wanted: a Suburban RST with GM’s 3.0-liter Duramax turbo-diesel.

After driving it, I understand why people who own these things don’t seem eager to give them up.

Econo-size

The Duramax produces 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque. Chevrolet rates the diesel Suburban at up to 21 mpg city and 26 highway, with as much as 728 miles of EPA-estimated highway range on a tank. My daughter’s real-world experience has been about 24 mpg combined.

Think about that for a moment. This is a Suburban.

It’s a huge, three-row, body-on-frame SUV capable of hauling a large family and all their stuff, yet she is seeing fuel economy that wouldn’t have seemed unusual in a much smaller crossover not long ago.

Her RST came in at about $83,000 after options, and three months later she loves it. So does her husband, who keeps finding reasons to drive it.

The experience got me wondering why there aren’t more vehicles like it.

Look around the full-size SUV market in 2026, and you’ll find plenty of powerful engines. Ford’s Expedition offers a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter gasoline V6 making as much as 440 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque. Jeep’s Grand Wagoneer uses a 3.0-liter twin-turbo gasoline inline-six producing 420 horsepower and 468 lb-ft.

What you mostly won’t find is diesel.

General Motors is the notable exception. Chevrolet offers the Duramax in the Tahoe and Suburban, while GMC offers the same basic diesel powertrain in the Yukon and Yukon XL. Ford doesn’t offer a diesel Expedition. Jeep doesn’t offer one in the Grand Wagoneer.

Missing in action

That’s strange because diesel makes an enormous amount of sense in exactly this kind of vehicle.

You don’t buy a Suburban because you’re looking for sports-car acceleration. You buy it because you need space, range, towing capability and the ability to move a lot of people and equipment without stopping constantly for fuel. Diesel’s low-end torque and efficiency are particularly well suited to that job.

The numbers bear that out. Ford rates most four-wheel-drive Expeditions at 15 mpg city and 22 highway. Chevrolet’s diesel Suburban can reach 21/26, depending on configuration.

Yet try finding one.

Our dealer told us that used diesel Suburbans don’t tend to sit around for long. A quick look at owner forums suggests our experience wasn’t unique. Buyers describe searching across multiple states, waiting months for orders, or traveling hundreds of miles when the diesel configuration they wanted finally appeared.

New ones haven’t always been easy to find, either. For 2026, GM placed significant production constraints on the 3.0-liter Duramax used in the Tahoe and Suburban. According to GM Authority, the diesel was temporarily unavailable on LT and High Country trims, while RST, Z71 and Premier production was limited to 20% of planned volume.

RELATED: America’s salvage yards are on fire — and drivers are the ones getting burned

Andy Cross/Getty Images

Right for the job

What’s striking is that the Duramax makes such a compelling case for itself in a vehicle this large. Diesel Suburbans have offered dramatically better fuel economy than their V8 counterparts since the current generation arrived, while delivering the low-end torque that suits a big, heavy SUV.

I understand why owners might be reluctant to give them up.

I have my own version of this problem. I own a low-mileage 2016 Porsche Cayenne diesel that I custom-ordered. People regularly ask me to sell it.

I’m not selling it.

There was a period when American buyers could choose diesel versions of all kinds of SUVs and luxury vehicles. Many disappeared as emissions regulations tightened, Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal poisoned the technology’s reputation, and manufacturers shifted their investment toward electric vehicles and hybrids.

Still good

But the Suburban is a reminder that diesel didn’t suddenly stop being good at what diesel engines do.

In a large, heavy vehicle that may carry a family, tow a trailer, and travel hundreds of highway miles at a time, the basic proposition remains compelling: lots of torque, long range, and surprisingly good fuel economy.

This isn’t an argument that everyone should buy a diesel. Plenty of buyers will prefer gasoline engines, hybrids, or EVs, and they should buy whatever works best for them.

But my daughter’s experience raises a different question.

If a diesel powertrain works this well in a vehicle as big as a Suburban — and buyers are apparently willing to search for one when dealers don’t have them — why have so many manufacturers abandoned the choice?

The auto industry spends an enormous amount of time predicting what consumers will want next.

Sometimes it might be worth paying attention to what they’re already trying to buy.

​American suv, Auto industry, Ford expedition, Fuel efficiency, General motors, Gm, Jeep grand wagoneer, Used diesel suburbans, Yukon, Duramax turbodiesel, Chevy suburban, Lifestyle, Automotive 

You can’t drain the swamp by refilling it with the same sorts of politicians backed by the same special-interest money driving the status quo. The leftist base learned that lesson for its own dangerous purposes this primary season. The conservative base, meanwhile, has somehow unlearned what it knew during the Tea Party years.

Liberal voters are knocking out very liberal Democrats for candidates even further left. Republican voters are not only keeping their moderates; they are knocking out some of the few members who actually fight for the party’s stated goals. What gives?

The left built a movement. The right built an industry. The results show.

There are only a few dozen full-spectrum conservatives among the 219 House Republicans who keep the pedal to the metal on immigration, fiscal, and social issues. Contrast that with Democrats, where you’d be hard-pressed to find a member outside a swing district who dissents from party dogma on a major issue. Yet seven Democratic incumbents have already lost primaries this cycle.

In Texas, Rep. Al Green lost to fellow incumbent Christian Menefee, while Julie Johnson lost a rematch with former Rep. Colin Allred. In New York, Dan Goldman lost to Brad Lander, and Adriano Espaillat lost to Darializa Avila Chevalier. Diana DeGette lost to Melat Kiros in Colorado. Shri Thanedar lost to DSA-backed Donavan McKinney in Michigan. John Larson lost to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin in Connecticut.

These were not moderates. DeGette, for example, was a House manager during Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021. Yet to the Democratic base, she might as well have been Trump.

Most significantly, not one incumbent on the left lost to someone more moderate. You’d be hard-pressed even to find serious moderate challengers against Democratic incumbents.

Now contrast that with the GOP. Last cycle, the only Republican incumbent to lose was Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good. This cycle, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, one of the caucus’ most conservative members, was unseated by a Republican backed by a green energy PAC. In Kentucky, Thomas Massie was defeated by a candidate generally to his left, with President Trump’s help. The one clean ideological defeat from the right was Dan Crenshaw, who lost to Texas state Rep. Steve Toth — in a race where Trump thankfully declined to rescue the moderate incumbent.

Cory Mills also lost in Florida, and good riddance, but scandals and corruption drove that race more than a groundswell to move the party toward its base.

Overall, with Freedom Caucus retirements added in, we are backsliding. And that doesn’t begin to capture the lost decade of conservative primaries.

For several cycles, as Trump endorsements refilled the swamp in statewide and federal races, the bright spot was the State Freedom Caucus Network. It gradually won open seats and knocked off incumbents in state legislatures, peaking in 2024 when its members took control of the South Dakota and Wyoming Houses.

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

darenwoodward/iStock/Getty Images

Two years later, the establishment came back with a vengeance. South Dakota’s Freedom Caucus was essentially wiped out, and the Wyoming caucus lost 13 seats and its majority. In Idaho, five conservatives were defeated by Republicans backed by Gov. Brad Little, whom Trump endorsed for a third term. Elsewhere we have gained some and lost some, but the advance of liberty has largely stalled.

During the Tea Party era, we invested in activists. Today we invest in podcasters, TikTokers, and sycophantic grifters who sniff Trump’s rear end all the way to financial success. You reap what you sow. We have endless content, endless influencers, and endless Mar-a-Lago high rollers — but comparatively little money and activism flowing to conservative candidates in primaries.

Meanwhile, the Democratic base is dragging its party closer to the left goal post even in state races. In New York, DSA-backed candidates — many aided by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political network — toppled a string of incumbent legislators.

I watch right-leaning propagators online, and they are already obsessed with the next presidential election. What they fail to understand is that even if their dream candidate wins the primary and the White House, he will inherit a generation of Lindsey Graham’s sister acolytes who oppose the reform agenda these same influencers claim to want.

And they will have nobody to blame but themselves for sleeping through the lost decade of primaries.

The left built a movement. The right built an industry. The results show.

​Opinion & analysis, 2026 midterms, Democrats, Republicans, Rinos, Primaries, Donald trump, Democratic socialists of america, Zohran mamdani, Tea party, Freedom caucus 

An Israeli judge concluded on Wednesday that while Yona Simcha Schreiber was apparently the man behind the savage attack on a French Catholic nun in Jerusalem on April 28, he just couldn’t help himself.

Footage released by police appears to show Schreiber, a 36-year-old settler from the West Bank wearing a kippah and ritual tassels, run up behind an unsuspecting habited nun nearby King David’s Tomb and shove her to the ground.

‘We understand the difficult feelings of the complainant.’

His victim — a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research in Jerusalem as well as a nun — writhes in pain on the ground, having struck her head against the stones, and the attacker begins to walk away, the footage shows.

However, he abruptly turns and resumes his attack, kicking the woman until a passerby intervenes, according to the video.

The nun suffered facial bruising and injuries to her leg, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli authorities condemned the violent episode, which generated international outrage, and suggested that the attacker would be held to account.

“We strongly condemn this despicable attack. Violence against innocent individuals, and especially against members of religious communities, has no place in our society,” the Israel Foreign Ministry said in a statement the day after the brutal assault.

“This shameful act stands in direct contradiction to the values of respect, coexistence, and religious freedom upon which Israel is founded and to which it remains deeply committed.”

RELATED: Christianity-hating activist moves to tear down historic Los Angeles cross — but proud LA group is having none of it

After Schreiber’s arrest “on suspicion of an assault motivated by racism,” George Deek, Israel’s special envoy to the Christian world, noted that legal proceedings against the attacker were underway, demonstrating “Israel’s clear commitment to enforcing the law and ensuring accountability.”

Schreiber, who was formerly indicted in May for what prosecutors recognized as a religious-based assault, was acquitted on Wednesday by reason of insanity.

A government psychiatrist diagnosed Schreiber with schizophrenia and told the court that while there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that his supposedly psychotic thoughts were the cause of the attack, they were nevertheless an influence, reported the Jerusalem Post.

The psychiatrist suggested further that at the time of the attack, Schreiber could neither understand what he was doing nor stop himself from doing it.

The victim’s attorney, Zaki Sahlia, cast doubt on this convenient psychiatric assessment, suggesting Schreiber’s supposed illness may not have been the driving factor behind the attack and his choice of target. After all, suggested Sahlia, Schreiber singled out the nun in a street where there were multiple other would-be victims.

Ophir Tischler — the judge overseeing the case — accepted the psychiatrist’s suggestion that Schreiber was psychotic when he attacked the nun such that he couldn’t be held criminally accountable. The judge ordered the settler to be hospitalized for a maximum of six years.

The Post noted, however, that a psychiatric committee can bring an earlier end to Schreiber’s hospitalization with a determination that his condition has improved.

Schreiber’s lawyer, Idan Gamlieli, said in a statement obtained by the Times of Israel, “The district psychiatrist determined that the unfortunate incident was the result of the accused’s mental illness and that he needs to be hospitalized for psychiatric treatment, and we hope that the medical treatment will help him to function normally again.”

“It is important for us to note that we understand the difficult feelings of the complainant and wish her well in overcoming the consequences of this unfortunate incident,” added Gamlieli.

The French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Middle east, Israel, Jerusalem, Nun, Assault, Christianity, Catholic, Politics 

Biden-era federal employees purposely ignored some Trump voters amid Hurricane Milton disaster response, according to a new Department of Homeland Security report.

The DHS’ Office of Inspector General found that at least 11 homes were passed over by disaster survivor assistance teams because they displayed pro-Trump signs. The OIG was stymied in a broader investigation of alleged anti-Trump supporter bias in other disaster responses because former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem failed to approve a contract that covered the maintenance of relevant records in a timely manner.

‘Did not visit due to Trump flag.’

Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel violated the Hatch Act when at least one Disaster Survivor Assistance team politicized disaster response, according to the OIG. The report attributes these failures to insufficient training and education.

“FEMA DSA crews did not receive ethics and Hatch Act training before deploying to disasters, DSA policies and procedures did not require crews to explain why they skipped homes, and DSA crew leaders were not required to conduct quality control reviews of survivor interactions,” the OIG report stated.

The report noted that Marn’i Washington, a DSA team leader, was charged with two Hatch Act violations in 2025 for instructing her team to avoid Trump supporters amid Hurricane Milton response. Washington engaged in political activity while on duty and used official authority to interfere with an election, according to the Office of Special Counsel.

Washington accused Trump supporters of hostility, claiming her instructions originated from legitimate safety concerns.

RELATED: Immigrant business coalition takes Mamdani to court over city-run grocery stores

CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

“Firstly, I’m being framed. There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders,” Washington told NewsNation in 2024. “Safety precautions are not politically driven.”

“It just so happened that, unfortunately, most of the hostile encounters, those running trends, did have those [Trump] campaign signs,” Washington said.

No public decision has been disclosed in OSC’s case against Washington.

“The first instance of a note indicating a DSA crew skipped a home due to political signage occurred on October 19, 2024. A subsequent note on October 22 stated, ‘did not visit due to Trump flag.’ Nine additional notes concerning political signage followed,’” the OIG report noted regarding Washington’s crew.

Unfortunately, the OIG was unable to determine just how many crews followed Washington’s anti-Trump lead. The Field Assessment and Collection Tools used to document government interactions with civilian survivors became unavailable to investigators after Noem ignored requests to provide funding.

“We could not determine if crews skipped locations for unallowable reasons during other disasters because the support contract for FEMA’s Field Assessment and Collection Tools ended in September 2025 when then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem did not act on FEMA’s request to fund it before expiration,” the report reads. “We requested access to the data in March 2025, but FEMA delays prevented us from obtaining the data prior to the contractor abruptly shutting down the system.”

“FEMA exported and retained all survivor assistance data, but only in a non-readable format that cannot be searched or analyzed unless FEMA procures a new system to restore access,” a source familiar with the data told Blaze News. “DSA crews conducted their work using electronic tablets connected to this system and did not use paper notes, so there are no hard-copy records to review.”

If the contract was renewed and the system remained active, the DHS investigators planned to review more natural disaster responses to see whether other DSA crews skipped homes that displayed Trump signs.

The OIG provided FEMA with several recommendations to prevent politicized disaster response in the future, including Hatch Act training and a mandatory survivor interaction documentation process for response teams. FEMA concurred with the OIG’s assessment, according to the report.

“This situation eroded public trust in FEMA’s ability to treat everyone impartially, offer unbiased and consistent assistance, and ensure equal access to resources and tools,” the report reads.

We may never know just how many Trump-supporting Americans were abandoned by the government officials responsible for helping them.

“The loss of access prevented us from assessing whether political bias in canvassing was a systemic issue during the scope period of this audit,” according to the OIG.

FEMA temporarily suspended door-to-door disaster response in 2025 while it reviewed its operations.

FEMA, the DHS, and the OSC did not respond to requests for comment. Washington could not be reached for comment. Noem could not be reached through the State Department or her lawyer of record.

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​Department of homeland security, Fema, Hurricane milton, Political bias, Trump voters, Politics