The head of the Surry County Board of Elections in North Carolina resigned after police say he was caught on camera drugging his step-granddaughter and her friend.

On August 3, Republican election official James Yokeley Jr. allegedly flagged down police officers at a gas station near a Dairy Queen in New Hanover County, North Carolina.

According to a report from local outlet NC Newsline, Yokeley claimed that the two teens had found hard objects inside their Dairy Queen Blizzards, a whipped ice cream treat. Police alleged that was not the case, however, after they saw surveillance footage from inside the restaurant.

‘I remain prayerfully confident that I will be exonerated of all accusations levied against me.’

“He can be seen placing something on the counter, and it’s pretty apparent that when the employees make the drinks, he’s trying to observe if anybody’s observing him,” Wilmington Police Lt. Greg Willett said in a press conference on Friday.

Willett said officers went to the Dairy Queen and asked for the in-store video, which Willett claimed “clearly shows Mr. Yokeley placing the pills in the ice cream.”

What was actually in the pills was perhaps more disturbing; police field tests showed that the small blue pills contained cocaine and MDMA. The girls did not ingest the drugs, though, police stated.

In a letter, Yokeley not only issued his resignation, but he also denied the allegations that have been levied against him.

RELATED: Woman shot in the face and dead man found in home where 2 children were sleeping safely, police say

“I am writing to formally resign from my position as Board Chair,” Yokeley wrote in the letter.

He concluded that it was in the “best interest” of the state and local board but described the case as his “own falsely accused circumstances.”

“Based on the truth and facts, I remain prayerfully confident that I will be exonerated of all accusations levied against me.”

Sarah Whisenant, owner of the Dairy Queen in question, told WECT-TV that she did not recognize Yokeley or the two teenagers, but emphasized that her staff would never do such a thing.

“Thank goodness we had video,” Whisenant said.

Four employees were working at the Dairy Queen at the time.

RELATED: Study warns of possible link between world’s most popular painkiller and autism

Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The North Carolina State Board of Elections and Surry County Board of Elections said they are both “aware of the charges against Mr. Yokeley” and will “continue to collect information about the situation and will provide support to the Surry County board, as needed.”

Yokeley was appointed as the head of the Surry elections board in June 2025. He has been charged with two counts of felony contaminating food or drink with a controlled substance, felony child abuse, and felony possession of Schedule I narcotics.

In court, the 66-year-old reportedly waived his right for a court-appointed attorney and was told he was not allowed to have contact with the teenagers. According to a report from NBC10 Boston, he posted $100,000 bond.

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​Republican, News, North carolina, Drugs, Mdma, Cocaine, Election official, Dairy queen, Ice cream, Politics 

It’s Burning Man week again. The “Man” will burn this Saturday, as it does every Saturday before Labor Day.

I used to be a devoted “Burner,” having attended faithfully every year from 2014 through 2022 (minus one year due to COVID). “Is Burning Man demonic?” is a question I see floating around several Christian circles, and as a newly baptized Christian, I’ve been asking myself the same question.

To even begin unpacking that question, several prerequisites for theological understanding are necessary. And please excuse me, as I am a new Christian, currently devouring large amounts of Christian literature and trying to educate myself. So bear with me as I navigate and unpack the overlay of theology on my personal experience of Burning Man.

The hidden, darker side of Burning Man, which prioritizes expression and freedom before safety and virtue, is a trade that everyone must make if they wish to attend the event, and it is rarely well informed.

On the nature of “demons,” “Satan,” and “evil,” I’ve found C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” and its companion essay, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” to be helpful illustrations of Satan at work. I recognize that Lewis was, at the end of the day, just a man and a novelist. Yet his gift lies in the way he translates spiritual truths into language that the everyday person can grasp. His ability to frame the unseen in terms we can see and feel is nothing short of remarkable.

Lewis portrays demons as subtle, manipulative beings who exploit human weaknesses rather than overtly monstrous entities. In “The Screwtape Letters,” hell is an organization with established hierarchies, laws, and menus for the consumption of souls. And the work of demons is not always loud or obvious, but often quiet, patient, and calculated, aimed always at one thing: the slow devouring of our God-given souls.

On the quality of souls: “The great (and toothsome) sinners are made out of the very same material as those horrible phenomena the great Saints.” This suggests that the most delectable souls for devils are those with strong, passionate qualities, whether for good or evil, as they provide more “substance” to feast on.

On the satisfaction of consuming robust sinners: “It was the souls of such as these, when we got them, that tasted so rich, so spicy, so full-bodied.” Screwtape laments the decline in quality of modern souls, reminiscing about the flavorful essence of historical figures like Farinata or Hitler, whose intense personalities made them a feast.

On the disappointment with modern souls: “The sort of soul I grew up on we got from a tragedy: something with some real guts to it, something that would make your mouth water.” Here, Screwtape contrasts the bland, petty souls of modern times with the more robust, hate-filled souls of the past that were more satisfying to consume.

Now, let me return to how Burning Man works. It is often described as more than a mere festival — many view it as a spiritual experience and call it “home.” I remember my own first arrival in Black Rock City: A volunteer crew of Burners greeted me, inviting me to ring a great bell, roll in the dusty sand, and declare, “I am not a virgin any more!” In that moment, I was welcomed “home.”

One of my first experiences there was boarding an art car, a double-decker bus dressed up as a dragon. It carried me to my camp, and I can still feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, the soft flutter of the fabric in the desert wind, and the strange, almost living spirit of that dragon-bus.

Everyone was so friendly on the bus. Perfect strangers smiling, talking as if they had known one another for years. Beautiful men and women, radiant in their freedom, sharing drinks, snacks, and little “playa gifts.” The artwork is otherworldly, and the structures emerge seemingly out of the dust. I had never experienced anything close to this before.

Living in the Bay Area at the time, the only opportunity I would get to see this many people in motion was during commute hours. Yet here, movement was different. Not sullen, not weighed down. Thousands of people moved about with smiles, intoxicated by freedom and joy and navigating the city of Black Rock with an ephemeral air.

As a sensory experience, Burning Man hits all of them in a very short fraction of time. Especially if you’re from Silicon Valley, where so much of life unfolds indoors and in front of screens, it feels like a sudden immersion back into the elements. Out there, under the desert sun, people often receive more vitamin D in a single week than they might otherwise get in months back home. I know that was true for my first year, when I became “hooked” on the experience.

Most people who come to Burning Man are, in some way, searching. For some, it’s a search for identity or self-expression; for others, it may be healing from loss, or simply a desire to break free and let loose. Burning Man is a compressed version of the most exciting EDM concert you’ve ever been to: ecstatic dance classes, yoga lessons, group therapy sessions, expressive art installations, visits to the red-light district, and alcohol- and drug-fueled nights out with friends.

And when I say “compressed,” I don’t just mean within the span of a week. What unfolds on the playa (the name given to the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man is held) feels like an entire lifetime distilled into mere hours. A single “playa hour” can carry the weight of countless parties, one-night stands, profound conversations, and fleeting moments of human connection. This is why, after Burning Man ends, long-term Burners usually will attend “decompression parties,” which continue the communal living, partying, sex, massages, deep and longing connections, unabridged confessions to one another, and feigning affection. These can go on for several days or, in some cases, even weeks.

It all sounds intoxicating, doesn’t it? Unbridled ecstasy, shared communally, offered as the pinnacle of human experience. A sensory feast, a kind of temporary utopia. But here’s the catch: What feels like transcendence in the moment is, in truth, the flesh at its fullest — raw desire, fleeting connection, indulgence without anchor. It dazzles, it overwhelms, but it does not last. And it never will. When the dust settles, the hunger always returns.

For several years, I camped at “Founder’s Camp” or “First Camp,” located at Esplanade and 5 o’clock. (Black Rock City is mapped out as a precise grid: concentric half-circles marked by letters, crossed by roads laid out like the hours of a clock.) First Camp is more than just a location; it is the nerve center of Burning Man, the administrative and business hub that quietly runs the entire event.

Staying at First Camp afforded me a unique opportunity to spend time with leadership. I camped alongside Larry Harvey, the co-founder of Burning Man, and Marian Goodell, the current CEO. I would often find myself in personal conversations with them over meals in the dining tent or lounging in the common spaces. Yet over time, it became clear that First Camp was not only about logistics. It was also a place of access, where celebrities and dignitaries — tech founders, movie stars, diplomats, and even royalty — were hosted.

The day-to-day operators at Burning Man all carried walkie-talkies and communicated issues affecting the event, such as arrests, injuries, deaths, accidents, missing-person complaints, and other concerns. It was always bustling and hectic. The old guard of Burning Man now includes several people in their 60s and 70s, and they continually welcome new leadership. Most young people burn out due to the weight of responsibility. It isn’t all fun and games; hosting such a massive and detailed event is a year-round commitment for several dozen people.

The old guard is treated in an almost mythical fashion by newcomers, who love hearing about the founding stories and all the “crazy” years when things were “really wild.”

True Burners cloak themselves in their “playa names,” part of a chosen family forged in the desert. Sometimes I never even knew the real names of people I camped beside. “Crimson,” for example, the woman who has overseen pyrotechnics since the 1990s, wore long white braids and radiated a maternal presence. She once hand-knit a baby blanket for my daughter. And yet after all these years, I still do not know her name beyond “Crimson.”

Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty Images

Yes, there are constant orgies. Yes, drugs are consumed in staggering quantities. And yes, sexual assault and rape occur at Burning Man, along with tragic, often preventable deaths. Nudity is everywhere. Overdoses happen so frequently that they rarely interrupt a party or shut down a camp.

Yes, many openly practice magic, summoning spiritual entities as if for entertainment. Self-proclaimed “healers” abound, offering their versions of medicine and ritual. Occult symbols and ceremonies are practiced so frequently that they become ingrained in the fabric of daily life.

But does the presence of these things alone make Burning Man demonic? We’ll answer that question a little later. But I know what Burning Man did to my spirit and to my brain, and it was not good.

While everything started playfully for me at Burning Man, the truth is that dark and terrible things happened nearly every year I attended. My very first year, I heard about a young woman who was running to try to jump onto an art car and got sucked into its undercarriage and died.

Another year, a man hurled himself into the fire and died. One year, a girl impaled her vagina on rebar while attempting to build something that she had no experience constructing.

Although I never personally experienced any of the Orgy Dome events, I heard unsettling accounts from those who did. Stories of encounters with people who seemed, in their words, “possessed.” Even with moderators present to prevent outright abuse, some described locking eyes with people engaged in sex who seemed to “have no soul.”

There are endless stories of people “tweaking,” overdosing, or getting lost and unable to find their way back to their camp all night. While the organization tries to mitigate these tragedies, they continue to happen year after year. The dark side of Burning Man is an accepted reality and risk because the organizers and the most devout Burners believe that the upside of Burning Man is vital enough to risk a few lives here and there. Meanwhile, the event itself is sustained by some of the wealthiest donors in the world, many of whom treat it as their personal playground.

That money and influence have elevated Burning Man into something much larger than a festival. It is now an institution, so culturally powerful that it has even garnered its own exhibit at the Smithsonian.

After my first year at Burning Man, I cannot deny that I was changed. Returning to San Francisco, the city felt almost unrecognizable. At a stoplight, I remember watching people cross the street and swearing I could see their souls suspended just outside their bodies, pulled forward a step or two beyond their physical selves. It was as if my own soul had been jolted awake, moving in ways it never had before.

That shift left me more fearless. I began to take risks without hesitation, emboldened by the realization I had at Burning Man: Life is a stage. I threw myself deeper into the culture, seeking out Burner communities and chasing that same sense of connection and openness I had first experienced on the playa.

Within three years, nearly everyone in my social circle was a Burner. It was like belonging to a secret society of sorts. Together, we believed we had access to a limitless reality, something hidden from the outside world, something you could only understand if you were a Burner.

However, the hidden, darker side of Burning Man, which prioritizes expression and freedom before safety and virtue, is a trade that everyone must make if they wish to attend the event, and it is rarely well informed. Whether you realize it or not, the moment you step into Black Rock City, you are signing on to that bargain.

It is a culture where sexuality and spontaneity are prized above comfort and contentment. Women don costumes designed to dazzle, only to suffer strange infections — UTIs, skin rashes, textile dermatitis — as the price of “looking hot.” Men are surrounded by exotic, beautiful young women, while their wives are at home taking care of their children. Once inside, the illusion is strong: The outside world seems to dissolve, and this is by design. Burning Man seeks to create a reality so consuming, so intoxicating, that nothing beyond its borders appears to matter.

For many, Burning Man is nothing short of a religious experience, especially for those who make a pilgrimage to the Temple. And I must admit, rather shamefully now, that I was once one of those people. Each year, I brought something to surrender there: a photograph of someone I had lost, an old wedding dress from my failed marriage, or some artifact heavy with pain that I longed to release.

The ritual was always the same. The Temple became a vessel for grief, sorrow, and suffering. When it burned, it was meant to be a collective release. As the structure collapsed, great spirals of smoke would rise into the sky and dust devils would swirl across the desert floor. Among Burners, these were spoken of as “the spirits.”

Year after year, the burning of the Temple was a profoundly moving moment, one that reduced me to tears as I stood among 60,000 others, all of us silent, all of us watching, all of us worshipping the flames in silence.

So I return to the question — for you and for myself: Is Burning Man demonic? When you read what I have shared, does it strike you as something rooted in light or in darkness? Does it sound like a culture that draws people closer to truth or farther into illusion?

Looking back now, through the lens of Scripture and Christian theology, I have come to believe that Burning Man is not just an eccentric festival, but rather a powerful vehicle for deception. In fact, it may be one of the most effective tools for Satan to misdirect souls away from our heavenly Father. When you surrender yourself to “the playa,” you do not simply embrace freedom; you also open yourself to profound distortions of what is good.

Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty Images

Year after year, I witnessed art installations that did more than provoke; they mocked virtue itself. There was, and remains, a striking irreverence for Christian tradition. Altars were erected where people were invited to offer confessions and prayers, not to God, but to idols. I saw effigies dedicated to symbols that stood in sharp opposition to the sacred: in 2024, a giant clitoris displayed as an altar; in 2015, a statue of a child’s lower body, arteries wired into what resembled a digital machine; in 2023, Chacc, a Mayan rain god once worshipped through human sacrifice. There are hundreds of these pieces of artwork scattered through Black Rock City, and each year, something new and perverse is introduced. My understanding is that these art pieces are considered “offerings” to the event, to be experienced by Burners.

Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty Images

Even the attendees are considered part of the art. Radical self-expression and participation are two of the 10 guiding “Principles,” and both are on full display. Over time, I began to notice that what surrounded the Man Effigy before it burned was not mere performance. The dance troupes encircling it were not simply entertaining; they were invoking. Their movements and chants served as ceremonial openings, calling on “spirits” to bear witness.

Julie Jammot/AFP/Getty Images

I remember the founder once telling me that the burning of the Man symbolized the release of the soul. But I cannot help but ask: To whom is that soul being released? If the whole point of Burning Man is to surrender the soul in ecstasy, where does it go? And to whom is it being sent? I am a newbie to demonology, but there is clearly something dangerous at work here.

Take the demon Morax, for example. Also known as Marax or Forax, he appears in several occult texts, including “The Lesser Key of Solomon” and “Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.” He is described as a great earl and president of hell, commanding between 30 and 36 legions of demons, each capable of taunting, tempting, and tormenting humans. He is often portrayed as a bull with a human face or a man with the head of a bull. What is striking are his supposed abilities: teaching astrology, liberal sciences, and the properties of herbs and precious stones, as well as bestowing spiritual docents. Does any of this sound familiar?

Burning Man draws scientists, executives, innovators, and leaders. On the playa, you glimpse sides of them that remain hidden in the everyday world. The stern executive suddenly wears crystals and stones around his neck; the scientist speaks freely of esoteric knowledge with a conviction you would never hear in a laboratory or boardroom.

This is part of what makes Burning Man unlike any other gathering. Within the span of a single week, it concentrates a kind of nucleus of power — intellectual, financial, spiritual — that I have never witnessed assembled in one place before.

For many years, I was intoxicated by the sophistication and wonder of it all. I remember one evening after a Burning Man leadership dinner, standing beside Larry Harvey as we waited for our cars. From his pocket, he pulled a sketch he had drawn of the oracle stone of Delphi, which, he explained, he planned to build inside the Man. This was not unusual for him. Each year, Larry would consider what form of divination he wanted to embed in the effigy, and each year it would be incorporated into the design.

The number of esoteric and occult encounters I had at Burning Man is now beyond count. For nearly a decade, these things felt normal to me because my entire world was steeped in that community. It was only later, while reading the Bible and books like “The Screwtape Letters” and learning about the grand hierarchy of demons, that I realized how eerily familiar it all seemed.

Burning Man itself carries its own hierarchies, not unlike the structures described in the Bible (“principalities and powers,” Ephesians 6:12) and those later explored by C.S. Lewis. You can see it even in the physical design of Black Rock City: who is positioned where, who gets access, who is allowed to stage for the Man’s burning. Camps mirror this stratification, each with its own social order.

The more exclusive the camp, the more valuable the roles become — “juicier souls,” to borrow Lewis’ language. There are the beautiful young women, prized for flattery and companionship. The builders, tasked with fixing things and running errands. The wealthy executives, underwriting it all. The celebrities, passing through on invitations. The trust-fund shaman-socialites, curating the “experience.” And, of course, the drug dealers, rebranded as psychedelic healers.

Screwtape warns his legion of tempters: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Such is true of Burning Man. There were no sudden jolts, no dramatic crossroads. Only a slow descent. Before you realize it, you become an empty vessel — lost, pretending, unable to find joy, and unable to find God. I was not just on the road to hell; I was already living it.

It has taken me years to rebuild what was broken inside me, and it took waking up from a near-death experience to see the truth finally — and to find the courage and humility to come to Christ for all the things I once went searching for at Burning Man.

I’ve spoken with other former Burners this year who have also been saved by Christ, and it is no coincidence that each of them has turned away from Burning Man. None of them misses it. For the first time in years, they are rediscovering joy and fulfillment in the ordinary rhythms of life.

The same is true for me. As I devote myself to Scripture, to my family, and to walking in the light of the Lord, I find that this process of renewal continues to unfold, deepening day by day, step by step. I no longer desire to “Burn the Man”; I now burn with zeal in the Spirit.

​Burning man, Demons, New age, Christianity, C.s. lewis, Screwtape letters, Faith, Spiritual warfare, Culture 

An alarming new survey reveals a dangerous blind spot in the medical community: Countless doctors still believe nicotine directly causes cancer. That myth has been repeated for decades, but science says otherwise.

The survey by Povaddo LLC included 1,565 U.S. medical professionals. Nearly half of health care practitioners (47%) and 59% of those treating heavy smokers incorrectly identified nicotine as a carcinogen. Another 19% weren’t sure. The result: Many physicians discourage patients from trying “tobacco harm reduction” products — like e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco — that contain nicotine but eliminate the thousands of toxins in combustible cigarettes.

It’s time for the FDA to cut through decades of propaganda and tell the truth: Nicotine is addictive, but it isn’t the cause of cancer.

This misunderstanding costs lives. By misidentifying nicotine as the killer, doctors steer smokers away from safer alternatives that could dramatically reduce cancer, heart disease, and lung disease.

Education matters. Health care providers need to know nicotine is addictive, but the real harm comes from the smoke. Until that distinction is clear, patients will remain trapped in the deadliest habit of all — traditional smoking.

Science has already proven the case. A conventional cigarette contains more than 600 ingredients and, when burned, produces over 7,000 chemicals, including arsenic, formaldehyde, tar, and lead. Smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, according to the CDC, making it the nation’s leading cause of preventable death. By contrast, studies show vaping or smokeless products cut exposure to those toxic substances by orders of magnitude.

Even the FDA admits this. In 2017, then-Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said, “Nicotine, though not benign, is not directly responsible for the tobacco-caused cancer, lung diseases, and heart disease that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year.” Yet years later, the agency continues to regulate vaping into oblivion while dragging its feet on promoting THR.

The public is ahead of the bureaucrats. A 2024 poll of U.S. voters found overwhelming support for FDA reform and a strong desire to reduce smoking. Congress has noticed too. Former Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), a physician, called risk reduction for combustible smoking not “a partisan issue.” Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.), co-chairman of the Congressional Tobacco Harm Reduction Caucus, added: “As we move from smoke-based to smokeless products … that’s going to reduce the harm [caused by] tobacco across this country.”

RELATED: WHO’s war on FDA: Science or sour grapes over US cuts?

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

Americans want safer alternatives. Lawmakers in both parties support tobacco harm reduction. The medical community, however, remains misinformed — and the FDA’s mixed messaging hasn’t helped. Every day doctors cling to the nicotine myth, more smokers stay chained to cigarettes.

It’s time for the FDA to cut through decades of propaganda and tell the truth: Nicotine is addictive, but it isn’t the cause of cancer. Doctors need to know it, patients need to hear it, and policies need to reflect it. Mislabeling nicotine has killed enough people already.

If regulators and medical professionals are serious about saving lives, they must stop demonizing nicotine itself and start promoting harm reduction. Millions of lives depend on it.

​Opinion & analysis, Smoking, Tobacco, Food and drug administration, Fda, Congress, Regulation, Scott gottlieb, Nicotine, Povaddo llc, Doctors, Medicine, Healthcare, Health, Maha, Gallup, Cigarettes, Education, Cancer, Lung cancer, Don davis, Larry bucshon, Tobacco harm reduction, Vape pens, Misinformation, Addiction 

President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to protect and bolster funding for Christian communities across the country in the aftermath of the atrocious Minnesota shooting that took place on Wednesday.

The latest effort from the administration comes from the Department of Homeland Security, where Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to direct $110 million of FEMA funds to more than 600 “faith-based” organizations across America.

‘We are using this money to protect American communities — especially places where people gather in prayer.’

These funds are being administered through FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program so that churches and faith groups can invest in security enhancements such as “cameras, warning and alert systems, gates and lighting, access control systems, and training programs for staff.”

“In the face of violent criminals and radical organizations intent on hurting American communities, the Trump Administration is helping houses of worship, schools, and community centers to harden their defenses against attacks and protect themselves,” Noem wrote in a post on X.

RELATED: Tone-deaf Democrats lash out over prayers for Christians murdered in devastating Minnesota shooting

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

This announcement comes just days after 23-year-old Robert Westman, a man who claimed to be a woman, fired into Annunciation Catholic Church and School on Wednesday morning, killing 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski. A total of 14 children and three adults were also wounded during the service when Westman fired into the pews.

Minnesota Catholic schools had previously pleaded with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to increase security prior to the horrific shooting, but they were ultimately ignored.

In a 2023 letter, Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins and Minndependent President Tim Benz asked Walz to ensure that nonpublic religious schools were allocated funding to increase school security, but Walz failed to follow through. This plea came after a transgender individual killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know – our schools are under attack,” the letter reads. “In Minnesota, nonpublic schools, particularly our Jewish and Muslim schools, have experienced increased levels of threats, all of which we must take very seriously.”

A spokesperson for Gov. Walz’s office gave Blaze News the following statement: “The governor cares deeply about the safety of students and has signed into law millions in funding for school safety. Our office met with them, and the governor meets with the Catholic Conference on a regular basis. Private schools do indeed receive state funding. We remain committed to working with anyone who is willing to work with us to stop gun violence and keep our students safe.”

Blaze News has asked the governor’s office for proof of such payments.

RELATED: Attacks against American Catholics and churches are out of control

Photo by TOM BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

The administration has taken these threats seriously. Within days, the FBI announced that agents are investigating the shooting as an anti-Catholic hate crime, and the DHS has redirected funds to address threats facing Christian communities across America.

“Instead of using grant money to fund climate change initiatives and political pet projects, we are using this money to protect American communities — especially places where people gather in prayer,” Noem said.

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​Donald trump, Trump administration, Fbi, Kash patel, Dhs, Kristi noem, Minnesota, Minnesota shooting, Tim walz, Catholic schools, Anti-catholic hate crime, Mass, Fema, Fema funds, Annunciation catholic school, Transgender shooter, Robert westman, Prayer, Politics 

On paper, the U.S. Institute of Peace does exactly what its name suggests: It promotes peace and conflict resolution in global conflict zones.

But dig a little deeper into its operations, and it becomes clear that the quasi-governmental, quasi-private agency is a deep-state snake pit. According to newly appointed acting President Darren Beattie, the USIP pushed to restore the opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan, had former Taliban member Mohammad Halimi on its payroll, and attempted to destroy evidence during a chaotic takeover by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Beattie recently joined Glenn on “The Glenn Beck Program” to share the shocking details.

When the DOGE infiltrated the USIP in March of this year, the agency erupted into chaos.

“They barricaded themselves in the offices. They sabotaged the physical infrastructure of the building. There were reports of there being loaded guns within offices. There was one hostage situation where they held a security guard under basically kind of a false imprisonment-type situation,” says Beattie.

“In the course of all of that, they tried to delete a terabyte of data, of accounting information that would indicate what kind of stuff they were up to, what kind of people they were paying.”

Thankfully, the DOGE was still able to uncover a major scandal: “One of the people on their payroll was this curious figure who had a prominent role in the Taliban government,” says Beattie, referring to Halimi.

On top of that, the DOGE discovered that “that one of the U.S. Institute of Peace’s main policy agendas was basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade had dissipated under Taliban leadership.”

“They had multiple reports coming out basically saying ‘this is horrible that the opium trade has diminished under the Taliban. We need to find some way to restore it,’” says Beattie.

When ProPublica got hold of Halimi’s story, it published a twisted piece titled “DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family,” in which authors Avi Asher-Schapiro and Christopher Bing argued that Halimi was an “exiled Afghan scholar” victimized by Elon Musk and the DOGE, alleging that the payments he received from USIP were for legitimate work.

“I’m not an expert on this particular person’s history, but what’s very clear is he was a former Taliban guy, and he was probably one of these people who was playing all sides,” says Beattie.

He points out that the USIP’s hostile behavior upon the DOGE’s arrival stands in stark contrast to ProPublica’s narrative. If the payments were legitimate and Halimi had nothing to hide, then why the scrambling to delete data?

“This is the real deep-state stuff that I think bothers people so much,” says Glenn. “We expect our CIA to do stuff … but when it’s in the State Department, when every department is pushing out money to NGOs to overthrow governments and everything else, it’s out of control.”

To hear more details from the story, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Blazetv, Blaze media, Glenn beck, Darren beattie, Us institute of peace, Usip, Taliban, Propublica, Doge, Mohammad halimi, Deep state 

American business has lost the last shred of the plot.

Cracker Barrel’s bone-headed “rebranding” — more on this below — is only the ne plus ultra of a long, stupid march through formerly beloved brands toward a joyless, millennial-gray final destination.

These are choices we’re making. Bad choices. Anti-beauty choices. Anti-human choices.

Look around you. What do you see? Alleged restaurants that look like industrial warehouses. Businesses that we used to call bakeries — everything is just a “store” now in modern corporate-speak — now decorate their interiors according to surgical sterile-field protocols.

Everything is hard, not soft. Everything is gray, not green. Everything is fluorescent, not incandescent. Everything is aluminum, not velvet.

Hamburglaring our history

You know what I mean because you see it everywhere. The built world has been drained of color, curve, ornamentation, and whimsy. The desiccated architectural corpses of abandoned Pizza Huts with their distinctive step-peaked roofs litter the suburbs. I found these sad to look at until I realized that Pizza Hut is in a better place now, where there’s no more pain.

It’s McDonald’s we need to worry about. Cast your mind back to your childhood when you first met Ronald, Grimace, and Mayor McCheese. Most McDonald’s restaurants had a playground for kids with colorful characters. The buildings themselves promised fun and piqued your imagination. Like Pizza Hut, McDonald’s roofs had angles and character. They were painted bright red with French-fry-yellow accents.

Francois Lochon/Getty Images

Observe a McDonald’s today. The buildings are the best representation of the Brutalist revival taking over modern architecture.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

At best, they’re abstract, cubist boxes that offer the eye no rest. Hard edge overlaps hard edge. All ornamentation is stripped. Color is canceled. You get gray and brushed aluminum, and you better damned well like it.

The worst part is how the company has kept one bit of color — the famed golden arches. Stuck on these industrial boxes as an afterthought, you’d be forgiven for thinking McDonald’s is making a joke at our expense: “Look what we took away from you. Lol. Lmao.”

These buildings aren’t restaurants; they’re wholesale crematories at the back of an industrial park.

Auto pilot

Automobiles are the same.

No, dear reader. Let me stop you before you start typing that comment. All cars don’t look exactly the same “because aerodynamics, and this is the optimal shape, and they have to do it to meet emissions standards.” That’s the “well, it’s not really as bad as you say” excuse.

It’s just not true (and it is as bad as I say). If it were true, then every single car would be exactly the same as every single other car. But they’re not. There are SUVs, for example. If “they have to do it for aerodynamics” were true, this size and shape of vehicle would not exist. Oversized, elevated rectangular boxes, by their nature, are un-aerodynamic. A Chrysler Airflow from 1934 has a much higher aerodynamic rating than any modern “luxury truck” and still manages to be pleasing to the eye.

It’s not “because they have to because government.” It’s because there’s something wrong with us. We’re sick at heart and sick in the soul, and our emptiness finds three-dimensional expression in the sea of white, black, gray, and silver cars that all look precisely the same as every other maker’s car in that vehicle class.

Crimes against coziness

These are choices we’re making. Bad choices. Anti-beauty choices. Anti-human choices.

You’ve likely heard of the recent kerfuffle over the “rebranding” of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain. Cracker Barrel is a chain of down-home restaurants that serve unfussy American food like your grandmother used to make. Created in 1969, the founders wanted to offer a restaurant that would remind people of the comfortable general stores and wayside diners that once dotted the American rural landscape. Nothing fancy, just plain food cooked well and served in an atmosphere that invited you to sit down, take a load off, and have supper with other good people.

Staff would travel to flea markets and estate sales to pick up real Americana to stick up on the walls. There were framed pictures of famous boxers and lacrosse sticks, big kerosene lamps that used to light and heat the general stores. The effect was a combination of grandma’s attic and grandpa’s work shed, with a little bit of Christmas thrown in.

Take a look at how Cracker Barrel used to look.

Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images

Now, take a look at the “refreshed” Cracker Barrel.

From your grandparents’ house to the prison commissary.

RELATED: Bud Light insider reveals what led to Dylan Mulvaney controversy

Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A woman’s touch

Who makes these decisions? What kind of person takes a beloved restaurant brand and sticks up her middle finger to the customers? A middle-aged, corporate, almost certainly liberal-woke-Karen type. And here she is, Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino, cackling on breakfast television behind oversized look-at-me glasses, telling the audience how much everyone just SUPER LOVES what we’ve done, and we’re doing it all out of LOVE 4 U!!!!!

American business apparently learned nothing from the Bud Light fiasco. In that case, a younger Karen named Alissa Heinerscheid sent the company’s profits into the toilet by making fun of her own brand’s “frat boy” image and slapping the face of a demented drag queen on the cans.

Keep the curves

America, we have to come back to our senses. The world doesn’t have to conform to Karen’s diktats. Karen hates us and hates the things we like, which is why she punishes us. But we’re not her children (do say a prayer for them), and we don’t have to listen to her.

God gave us a world of curve, color, romance, and beauty. For thousands of years, men have tried to follow this example by piling up stones and locking logs together in pleasing shapes that ennoble us and make our souls sing. The deracination of the beautiful and the divine started long ago with churches. We don’t build anything worthy of the name “cathedral” any longer; instead, we put up Brutalist boxes and stick a Mary-on-the-halfshell on the lawn.

The sickness that compromised matters spiritual is now devouring things temporal.

Beauty is our patrimony and our birthright. Let’s take it back.

​Lifestyle, Rebranding, Beauty, Cracker barrel, Bud light, Mcdonald’s, Branding, Intervention 

In an effort to prevent mass layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek (D) is proposing a new, mandatory tax program for electric vehicles. While Republicans say the governor’s proposal would be unnecessary if the state managed its money well, the tax proposal is set to be considered today in a special session announced last month.

Oregon is attempting to fill a $354 million budget gap for transportation infrastructure construction and repairs, possibly resulting from vehicles becoming more fuel-efficient.

‘We invite Democrats to join us in funding essential services without raising taxes, to stand with Oregonians who cannot afford to shoulder more costs.’

“This could still be prevented today, without a special session, if Democrats made the decision to use existing revenue from the emergency board. We can still protect these jobs without raising taxes — and we should,” Oregon House Republican Leader Christine Drazan said last month. “We invite Democrats to join us in funding essential services without raising taxes, to stand with Oregonians who cannot afford to shoulder more costs.”

RELATED: Out of juice: Only 5% of US car buyers want an electric vehicle

Christine Drazan, former Oregon gubernatorial candidate and current House Republican Leader.Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images

The proposal, according to the AP, includes an EV road-usage charge that is equivalent to 5% of the state’s gas tax. It also includes raising the gas tax by six cents to 46 cents per gallon, among other fee increases.

EV drivers would be required to enroll in a pay-per-mile system based on road usage. They could either pay 2.3 cents per mile or a flat $340 annual fee, with a break-even point just under 14,800 miles per year.

ODOT policy adviser Scott Boardman said drivers would have several options for the government to track their mileage, including a smartphone app and the vehicle’s telematics technology.

Oregon’s existing system, OReGO, which was launched on July 1, 2015, is currently a voluntary program. Kotek’s proposal would mark a departure from this system by making it mandatory. Skeptics warn that this may discourage car buyers from considering buying electric vehicles in the future, with the program set to take effect starting in 2027 and extending to hybrids in 2028.

If it passes, Oregon will join Hawaii as the only states to begin a mandatory pay-per-mile program for electric vehicles. Oregon lawmakers will debate and vote on the bill, which requires a supermajority in both the House and Senate to pass.

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​Politics, Electric vehicle, Taxes, Oregon, Hawaii, Oregon department of transportation, Christine drazan, Road usage charge, Odot 

President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to slash billions more in foreign spending with the White House’s latest rescissions package.

Trump notified Congress Thursday night of his proposed rescissions package, which is set to slash nearly $5 billion in foreign aid programs, Blaze News confirmed.

‘Russ is now at the helm.’

The latest cuts include $3.2 billion in USAID funding, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, $521 million of State Department contributions to other international organizations, $393 million in State Department contributions to peacekeeping activities, and another $445 million in peacekeeping aid.

“Since January, we’ve saved the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X.

RELATED: Exclusive: GOP lawmaker introduces bill barring illegal aliens from ‘sabotaged’ census

Photo by Demetrius Freeman/Washington Post via Getty Images

“And with a small set of core programs moved over to the State Department, USAID is officially in closeout mode,” Rubio added. “Russ is now at the helm to oversee the closeout of an agency that long ago went off the rails. Congrats, Russ.”

Trump, alongside Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, got a $9 billion rescissions package passed through Congress back in July, which similarly cut back on foreign aid spending as well as funding for public broadcasting.

The Senate narrowly passed the rescissions package 51-48 after an overnight vote-a-rama on July 17. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine bucked their party and voted against the spending cuts.

The House promptly passed the cuts the following afternoon in a 216-213 vote. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Turner of Ohio voted against the package.

RELATED: After decades of promises, GOP finally defunds PBS and NPR

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Congress now has 45 days to pass Trump’s rescissions package. Notably, Congress will also be tasked with tackling the budget before the September 30 funding deadline. Despite the urgency, lawmakers have been out of town for August recess and are expected to come back into session starting September 2.

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​Donald trump, Russ vought, Trump administration, Doge cuts, Rescissions package, Usaid, Foreign aid, Jd vance, Office of management and budget, Marco rubio, State department, House democrats, House republicans, Mike johnson, Congress, John thune, Senate democrats, Senate republicans, Susan collins, Lisa murkowski, Politics 

A simple hand-me-down has turned into a lively debate about having children at an early age and retro video games.

The retro-gaming community has become a gigantic industry (worth between $3 billion and $10 billion depending on the source), so large in fact that an old box of games or forgotten console could be worth thousands depending on the condition.

So when a third-generation gamer took to 4chan to post about whether or not it was worth it to fool around with an old PlayStation, readers’ brains imploded at his remarks. Not necessarily because of his apprehension over playing the system, but because he was receiving it secondhand from his grandfather.

‘This is nature healing.’

The unknown gamer posted his dilemma, which was then copied to an X post; it read: “Hey guys, I got this PS1 from my grandpa. Should I play it? I know there a lot of uncs here so maybe you would know if it’s good or not.”

Flabbergasted, readers immediately asked if the original poster was purposely trying to enrage them with his remarks, with some introspectively asking, “am I an ‘unc’?”

The new console owner calmly replied, “My grandpa is 58 and my dad is 38. He got the PS1 when my dad was 8, and my dad had me at 20, so I’m 18 now. My grandpa said he got the PS1 when it was released so he was 28 then.”

This spawned a flood of comments on X, ranging from support for young grandparents to disbelief at the idea that gaming consoles are now so old that they can be passed down by grandparents.

RELATED: Legendary Halo composer unravels the video-game industry’s woke collapse

— (@)

“Normalize being grandparents in your 50s,” one X user replied, while another pointed to the grim reality that retro gamers are the new antique hunters.

“Wait until you see tube tv prices[;] we’ve become the old people collecting antiques,” he wrote.

Other replies were seemingly more sarcastic: “What’s that grey rope wrapped around the controller?” an X user asked, referring to the connecting cord.

Another reader boldly claimed it is those ages “60-70 who paid for Duck Hunt on NES.”

He was not that far off. Duck Hunt was released on the NES in 1984, and a 60-year-old would have been 20 or a 70-year-old would have been 30 at the time.

RELATED: Rainbow Batman from LEGO sparks outrage: ‘We don’t need gay Batman!’

Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images

Others were more philosophical, stating that “Millennials understanding technology better than our grandparents was an aberration.”

The user’s assertion that grandparents know “more about literally everything than their grandkids,” including entertainment, was enough for him to determine that society is quickly resetting itself in terms of reverting back to righteousness.

“This is nature healing,” he wrote.

If nature equates to gamers scooping up old consoles, that user is right. However, PlayStation 1 is actually one of the cheaper retro systems currently on the market, likely due to the volume at which they were purchased. A used unit goes for about $100 USD if complete, or around $335 for an in-box version, according to current prices on PriceCharting.

Readers may be shocked to find out that a special-edition Nintendo 64 can sell for more than $3,700, and a single Pokemon game (Emerald, 2004) will fetch around $2,000.

Either nature is healing itself or nostalgia is. Entire store chains now exist dedicated to old video games, and it will not be long before great-grandparents are handing down their Gameboy Color to grandsons, who will likely scoff at the 8-bit monstrosity.

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​Return, Gaming, Nostalgia, Retro, Video games, Playstation, Tech 

The Trump administration — and the country by extension — has enjoyed tremendous success over the past seven months.

The administration has, for instance, secured the border; reformed the foreign aid establishment; fired thousands of bureaucrats across the government; exposed elements of the deep state; routed racist DEI initiatives in the federal government; turned international trade on its head in America’s favor; brokered historic peace deals between warring nations across the globe; taken meaningful steps to make America healthy again; driven down the foreign-born population and rounded up multitudes of dangerous criminal noncitizens; and set about the demolition of the child sex-change regime.

Rather than join their countrymen in enjoying the fruits of the administration’s efforts, Democrats have apparently grown more bitter and resentful.

Polling data published on Wednesday by Gallup revealed that whereas 93% of Republicans approve of President Donald Trump’s overall job performance, only 1% of Democrats signaled approval — a 92-point gap.

The polling outfit noted that this chasmic difference ties the record for the largest partisan divide in Gallup’s presidential approval trends, which was set in June.

When polled this month, 35% of independents signaled approval for the job done by the president.

RELATED: The numbers hold terrible news for the Democrats’ future

Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Trump’s record disapproval among Democrats is not entirely surprising. After all, a poll revealed late last year that nearly one in three Democrats would have preferred to see the president murdered in cold blood.

What is surprising, however, is that Democrats are similarly dissatisfied with the state of the country at large.

‘Partisan perceptual biases that lead Democrats to see things as worse than they are and Republicans better than they are.’

Overall, 31% of Americans say that they are satisfied with the direction the country is going — up from 26% in October and the average 22% throughout Joe Biden’s presidency.

Whereas 76% of Republicans say that they are satisfied with the direction of the country, less than 1% of Democrats said the same — a 76-point gap, the highest Gallup has ever recorded on this measure.

— (@)

Although in July 2024, only 1% of Republicans said that they were satisfied with the direction the country was heading, the partisan divide on the question was far less dramatic because 62% of Democrats were dissatisfied with the state of play.

Robert Shapiro, a professor of government at Columbia University, told Newsweek, “Two things are at work. One is genuine Democratic dislike of what is happening in the economy regarding prices, tariffs, etc. and then all the opposition to what Trump has been doing.”

“Second is partisan perceptual biases that lead Democrats to see things as worse than they are and Republicans better than they are,” continued Shapiro. “It is only good news for the Democrats if this mobilizes voters in 2026. The voters are not so happy with the Democratic Party and its leaders.”

That is a major understatement.

A CNBC poll revealed earlier this month that favorability toward the Democratic Party among registered voters was 56% negative and 24% positive. The poll indicated that Trump had a 46% approval rate. Gallup indicated in late July that only 73% of Democrats had a positive opinion of their own party.

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As the investigation continues into the atrocious shooting at a church in Minneapolis on Wednesday, authorities have reported that they have been unable to contact the suspect’s mother.

‘There is a connection between the shooter and this particular parish.’

Mary Grace Westman, the mother of the trans-identifying 23-year-old male who opened fire on Annunciation Catholic Church during Mass, has retained criminal defense attorney Ryan Garry, according to Fox News Digital.

Westman is reportedly not cooperating with investigators.

“I know there were dozens of interviews that have been conducted with relatives, friends, associates of the shooter, as well as people — obviously, individuals, witnesses — that were present at the scene yesterday,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara stated during a Thursday press conference.

“I know we have not been successful in talking to the shooter’s mother yet at this time,” he remarked. “But there continue to be efforts made to get that done.”

O’Hara confirmed that authorities have been in touch with the shooter’s father.

RELATED: RFK Jr. investigating whether Minneapolis church shooting may have been sparked by gender transition drugs

Photo by TOM BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

When asked why Westman hired a criminal defense attorney, Garry told Fox News Digital, “She is completely distraught about the situation and has no culpability but is seeking an attorney to deal with calls like this.”

Westman is a former parish employee, and her son previously attended the school.

“So, obviously, there is a connection between the shooter and this particular parish,” O’Hara stated.

RELATED: Attacks against American Catholics and churches are out of control

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Westman applied for her son to legally change his name in 2019 while he was still a minor, claiming that he “identifies as female and wants her name to reflect the identification.”

FBI agents reportedly attempted to make contact with Westman at her apartment in East Naples, Florida, on Wednesday, following the horrific shooting that killed two children and injured 18 others. Westman did not answer the door.

At least nine victims remain in the hospital as of Friday, the New York Post reported.

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​Minneapolis, Minnesota, Annunciation catholic school, Annunciation church and catholic school, Shooting, Robin westman, Robert westman, Minneapolis police, Minneapolis police department, Politics