Since Hamas’ brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, pro-Palestine protests have erupted across the Western world. Two years in, these riotous events calling for the death of America and Israel, the fall of the West, and jihadi violence continue to rage.

But Mark Levin can’t figure something out: If these protesters are so concerned about the Palestinian people, why aren’t they upset about Hamas’ recent brutality against Palestinians?

Protesters are in the streets screaming about Israel starving Gazans — “a lie,” Levin says — but they don’t bat an eye when Hamas, just hours after releasing hostages as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and peace deal, orchestrates mass public executions of Palestinians.

Graphic videos and eyewitness accounts show masked Hamas gunmen dragging blindfolded and bound Palestinian men, whom Hamas deemed dissenters, into public squares in Gaza City and executing them at close range with high-powered rifles. Since the ceasefire began on October 10, numerous Palestinians have been killed in similar executions, including beatings, hangings in streets, and purges of suspected spies or anti-Hamas militias.

Further, the Doghmush clan, one of Gaza’s largest and most powerful Palestinian families and a longstanding enemy of Hamas, was targeted. A gang of Hamas military men infiltrated the family’s estate disguised as medical staff and proceeded to slaughter numerous clan members.

“Very few people are saying anything about this. I mean, this is coming out of reports out of the Middle East. It’s coming out of reports out of Gaza,” Levin says.

He wonders: Where’s the outrage from the same protesters who flooded campuses over false claims of Israeli genocide — while Hamas now unleashes a documented “reign of terror” on its own people in the territory Israel just surrendered?

Now Netanyahu’s threat to continue military operations against Hamas makes sense. The recent executions and Hamas’ refusal to return deceased hostages points to what Levin has been saying about the terrorist regime from the get-go: You can’t negotiate with them.

He laments the partial Israel Defense Forces withdrawal to enable the hostage release, as that’s what allowed Hamas to regroup and terrorize Gaza with public executions.

Levin warns that Israel will now insist on permanent security zones: “They’re going to have a defense security area — whether the Arab countries and Muslim countries like it or not, whether we like it or not — to protect their country. And they’re going to insist on it. This is what Netanyahu has said. This is what they’re going to do.”

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Truck driving was once a career path that epitomized the American dream, offering high pay and lifelong job security. Yet in recent years, the industry has become trapped in a cycle of high turnover, continually refilling positions with inexperienced drivers, prompting concerns about road safety and national security.

Multiple truckers told Blaze News that the industry’s challenges stem from the myth that it is battling a truck-driver shortage. This narrative has been used to justify heavy government intervention, including taxpayer-funded programs that cover training and recruiting costs, significantly reducing the financial burdens previously borne by carriers or aspiring drivers.

Those who reject the truck-driver-shortage claim argue that this taxpayer-subsidized setup effectively incentivizes labor dumping that masks high turnover caused by dismal wages and poor working conditions.

‘We have an artificial supply crisis, not a driver shortage.’

Despite numerous government programs over the past several years addressing the so-called driver shortage, the issue persists, according to the American Trucking Associations, the industry’s largest national trade organization. The association has claimed a driver shortage since the 1980s, estimating it to be around 60,000 drivers in 2023. It projected that the shortage may reach 160,000 by 2028.

Yet more than 450,000 new commercial driver’s licenses are issued each year, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and many of those drivers enter long-haul trucking. Under the Biden administration, states issued over 876,000 CDLs between January 2021 and April 2022.

The American Transportation Research Institute, the ATA’s research arm that conducts studies, including analyses to support its driver-shortage claims, has received over $8 million in government contracts since 2007.

In a 2024 report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine pushed back on the ATA’s driver-shortage studies, noting that they had “been conducted using proprietary techniques and assumptions that are not publicly defined,” adding that “it is not possible to evaluate the validity of their claims.”

“However, those claims are subject to, as a general matter, the basic economic principles of supply and demand. Notably, labor economists maintain that when demand for workers in an occupation increases, the normal response is to increase wages,” the report read.

RELATED: The fraud crippling American trucking: ‘Ghost’ carriers and ‘NO NAME GIVEN’ driver’s licenses issued to foreigners

Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Plummeting retention

Some critics of the driver-shortage narrative contend that the real issue affecting the industry is driver retention caused by an unnatural suppression of wages and unsatisfactory working conditions, exacerbated by the Biden administration’s open-border chaos. By the ATA’s own estimates, the driver turnover rate is over 90%.

American truckers in the 1980s reportedly made an annual salary of more than $110,000, and today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage in 2024 was just over $57,000. One report indicated that between 1980 and 2018, the industry experienced a 21% average wage decrease, while some areas of the U.S. experienced a 50% decline.

Shannon Everett with American Truckers United rejected the ATA’s narrative, arguing that if such a shortage did exist, wages would be on the rise.

“How can you simultaneously have a driver shortage and a collapse in pricing?” Everett told Blaze News. “The trucking industry shows no signs of escaping a three-year pricing crisis. We have an artificial supply crisis, not a driver shortage.”

He stated that the ATA’s shortage claims are “counterintuitive to supply and demand economics.”

Another issue impacting driver retention is declining working conditions. Truckers told Blaze News that many drivers are typically paid by the mile, meaning any time spent waiting to load or unload is not compensated. Drivers lose $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion in earnings to detention time, according to a 2018 study from the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.

Some truckers argue that these slowdowns can create safety issues, as many drivers are in a rush to get back on the road to make up for the lost wages. These logistical inefficiencies stem from outdated warehouses, a need for more warehouse workers, and the lack of any direct and easily measurable cost impact on the retailers that operate the warehouses.

RELATED: The shocking details behind another fatal illegal alien truck crash

Photo by: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Biden’s taxpayer-funded solutions

The Biden administration sought to address these issues by effectively throwing money at the industry. In December 2021, former President Joe Biden announced an action plan stating that the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would provide over $30 million to states to “expedite CDLs.”

The administration’s Department of Labor and DOT partnered to launch the Driving Good Jobs initiative, which in part set out to “identify[] effective and safe strategies to get new entrants in the field from underrepresented communities, including women and young drivers between the ages of 18-20.”

The driver-shortage narrative has also been used to justify taxpayer-funded tuition assistance to driving schools, some of which are operated by large carriers. Aspiring drivers may qualify for Pell grants, with some driving schools eligible for federal student aid. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act could also help to cover these fees.

In 2023, Biden’s FMCSA awarded roughly $48 million in grant funding to increase CDL “training opportunities and continue to improve the process to obtain a CDL.” The FMCSA also allocated $3.5 million to Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training Grants, intending to “help reduce the severity and number of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles on U.S. roads by expanding the number of CDL holders possessing operator training.” This grant program prioritized active military members and veterans, but noted that “special consideration is given to students from underserved communities and refugees.”

’It’s classic corporate welfare combined with regulatory capture, Washington doing the bidding of the largest players at the expense of everyone else on the road.’

The ATA responded positively to the trucking action plan, stating that it was “encouraged that the Biden administration has not only recognized the importance of adding new and well-trained Americans to the trucking workforce, but has announced a path forward with what we believe will become a robust training opportunity for future commercial truck drivers.”

“Using apprenticeships will help any American pursue a career in this great industry for good wages and benefits in a safe manner without the significant debt many jobseekers can sometimes incur,” the ATA stated. “We applaud the Biden administration for taking these important steps and we look forward to working with them to ensure a smooth and rapid implementation of the commitments made.”

Meanwhile, Biden rapidly expanded so-called “lawful pathways” for foreign nationals, allowing asylum seekers, refugees, and those with Temporary Protected Status — even those who entered the country illegally — to apply for work authorization, thereby allowing them to join the trucking industry.

Biden’s action followed the Obama administration’s decision to remove the requirement to place drivers out of service for failing to meet English proficiency standards, further contributing to the road safety and national security issues in America’s trucking industry today.

“We believe that hundreds of thousands of refugees were intentionally dumped into the trucking industry for profit,” Everett told Blaze News.

These government interventions prompted an artificial surge in new, inexperienced truck drivers entering the industry, which, in turn, justified depressed wages, as employers treat the roles as entry-level and disposable.

RELATED: Exclusive: DOT withholds $40M from blue state for flouting English requirements for truckers

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Who does the ATA represent?

Collin Long, the director of government relations for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told Blaze News, “The real issue isn’t a shortage of drivers, it’s a shortage of drivers willing to stay in an industry that treats them like disposable labor.”

“The big carriers prefer to churn through cheap, inexperienced drivers instead of investing in training and fair pay for professionals,” he said. “It’s a dangerous business model that puts every family on the highway at greater risk. Experience leads to greater safety, and ATA’s churn-and-burn approach undermines both.”

While the ATA maintains that there is a driver shortage, critics argue that the organization does not fully represent the industry, citing that its board is dominated by executives from large carriers. Yet the ATA reports that 91.5% of the country’s trucking companies operate 10 or fewer trucks. Critics also contend that the ATA has not adequately protected smaller trucking companies, instead prioritizing the interests of mega carriers.

‘If the ATA’s sole existence was to put the small guys out of business, they are very, very bad at their jobs.’

Long told Blaze News that the ATA’s policies have often been “detrimental to small-business truckers and to highway safety.”

“Whether it’s taxpayer-funded CDL mills or pushing to let 18-year-olds operate big rigs across the country, ATA’s agenda serves corporate megacarriers, not the men and women who actually keep America moving,” Long stated.

“OOIDA fights for small-business truckers trying to make a living, while ATA lobbies for policies that let the biggest carriers use taxpayer funds and government red tape to hamstring their competition,” he continued. “It’s classic corporate welfare combined with regulatory capture, Washington doing the bidding of the largest players at the expense of everyone else on the road.”

Everett similarly contended that the ATA “has evolved into an entity entirely focused on the interests of the billion-dollar mega carriers and power-only brokerages.”

When asked whether he believes the ATA has helped or hurt smaller trucking companies, Justin Martin, a 15-year trucking industry professional who goes by SuperTrucker on X, told Blaze News that it was a “very complicated issue.”

“The gut instinct of most trucking companies, like the smaller guys, they think that the ATA hurts them. And if the ATA had their way, that is 100% true,” he explained. “But everything that the ATA has done has actually helped the small guys over the years because there are over half a million trucking companies in the United States. … So if the ATA’s sole existence was to put the small guys out of business, they are very, very bad at their jobs.”

However, Martin argued that the ATA has been “messing with the wage mechanism” within the industry. He explained that by constantly pushing the claim of a driver shortage, it not only justifies government-funded driver training, but it also allows the ATA to increase rates for shippers.

The ATA did not respond to a request for comment.

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Liberal actor and podcaster Michael Rapaport has come a long way since calling President Donald Trump the “worst possible motherf**ker we could have in power,” referring to Melania Trump as a “dumb animal,” and wishing ill on Barron Trump in March 2020.

Rapaport, among the Jewish liberals who ditched the Democratic Party over its capture by anti-Semitic radicals and its ruinous approach to immigration, supported Trump in last year’s presidential election. Now, he’s throwing his support behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in hopes of sparing New York City from having socialist New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) become its mayor.

“I’m a lifelong New Yorker born and raised in Manhattan. This is the most importance race for mayor in my lifetime. Zohran Mamdani is not fit for office,” Rapaport said in a recent video.

‘You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’

“His warped mind and hate-filled heart are rotten to the core,” continued the actor. “‘Freeze rent?’ Come on. Freezed rent will lead to less buildings, fewer apartments, and higher rents. ‘Defund the police’ will lead to more crime. ‘Raise the taxes’ will lead to less money in your pockets. He’s a moron. Zohran the moron.”

Mamdani has indicated that if elected, he will “immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants,” raise the corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5%, and slap New Yorkers earning more than $1 million annually with an additional 2% tax.

Mamdani suggested in a June 28, 2020, tweet that the New York Police Department “is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and stressed that it was necessary to “defund the police.” While the socialist has vowed to frustrate the enforcement of federal immigration law in the New York City, Mamdani now claims that he doesn’t want to defund the police.

RELATED: Democrats face their ‘David Duke moment’ in New York City

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

On Saturday, Rapaport — who is actively campaigning against Mamdani and soliciting donations for a political action committee to “promote anti-Mamdani speech” — noted in another video that early voting had begun and urged New Yorkers to take action, stating, “We’re going to send this dead-eye, fake-smiling, black-hearted 34-year-old back to the unemployment line.”

The latest Victory Insights poll indicated that Mamdani is the clear front-runner in the race, leading Cuomo by over 18 percentage points, 46.7%-28.6%.

The poll indicated further that “a whopping 26% of voters are considering moving out of the city if Mamdani is elected.”

“There was a time when I exclusively, blindly voted for Democrats,” said Rapaport. “I do not recognize who they have become, and anyone with eyes, ears, and a shred, an ounce, of moral decency cannot disagree with what I am saying.”

The actor suggested further that the Democratic Party “needs to take a long f**king look in the mirror as to who they want to lead in this country, because it is heading down the wrong path.”

Rapaport mocked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), both of whom have endorsed Mamdani, then hammered the socialist mayoral candidate over his repeated refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.”

After alluding to Mamdani’s recent meeting with Siraj Wahhaj — a jihad-supporting imam whom federal prosecutors characterized as being an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — Rapaport noted that Mamdani was living in New York City at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, stressing, “Don’t you remember what that did to the city? Don’t you remember the devastation, how families were ripped apart? 9/11 — 9/11 was globalizing the intifada.”

“You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” added Rapaport.

The actor indicated that for donations of $25 or more to his anti-Mamdani PAC, supporters secure the chance to win a flight to New York to meet Rapaport and to hang out with him before one of his comedy shows.

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Halloween may be marketed as a harmless night of costumes and candy — but mental health experts have been warning for decades that the holiday can unleash very real psychological trauma.

“We need to understand that Halloween can actually amplify some of the psychiatric disturbances of people who were either victims of satanic ritual abuse or who were just traumatized by the fear and the just depravity that some people like to showcase on Halloween,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey explains.

A 1991 Washington Post article documents how Halloween has historically triggered emotional breakdowns, suicidal episodes, and violent behavior among patients suffering from multiple personality disorder (now classified as dissociative identity disorder).

Many of those patients linked their trauma to childhood abuse — and in some highly disturbing cases, alleged satanic ritual activity.

“Patients with multiple personality disorder (MPD) exhibit bizarre behavior in which personalities with distinct histories and voices — called ‘alters’ — emerge from a ‘host’ personality under the influence of severe stresses. The illness is believed to arise most often as a defense against child abuse that is typically sexual and physically painful,” the article reads.

“Of the 12 patients in the hospital today, six are having trouble with memories related to Halloween,” said Bruce Leonard, a psychiatrist who treats child abuse victims at the Columbine Psychiatric Center outside Denver, the article continues.

In the article, Leonard explained that a former patient of his was flying to Colorado from her home in Michigan to spend Halloween in the hospital, after “physically threatening her psychiatrist in Michigan” for the weeks leading up to it.

Another psychiatrist, Bennett G. Braun, told the Washington Post that “patients become increasingly suicidal, increasingly agitated” around Halloween.

Five of Braun’s hospitalized patients were “reliving Halloween trauma,” while one of his patients “with a history of satanic cult abuse” was being kept in the hospital until the holiday was over.

Another patient of his attempted suicide on Halloween the year prior and claimed to have been a childhood participant in “rites involving human sacrifice.”

“About 20% of MPD patients … claim that their childhood abuse involved organized satanic rites. Although few psychiatrists treating these patients today deny that their patients have a history of child abuse, there is great debate about whether the ‘satanic’ events actually occurred or are fantasy grafted onto recollections of more conventional abuse,” the article reads.

“So we don’t actually know if they actually endured satanic ritual abuse or if it had something directly to do with Halloween, although some of them seem to be able to cite specifically what happened to them on Halloween, or if this is a symptom of their psychiatric problems,” Stuckey says.

“But I think it’s an interesting phenomenon, and I do think that we should give more weight to presenting very scary, gruesome, morbid things to children before they have the ability to be able to understand it,” she continues.

“I don’t think it’s lighthearted to scare children and to present them with things that celebrate death and darkness and fear. I do think that you are setting them up for some kind of trauma. … And I think we do need to take that seriously,” she adds.

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At Arizona State University, where I teach, faculty were recently told to “decolonize our curriculum.” On the surface, the directive sounded progressive: Expose power structures, elevate marginalized voices, and promote inclusion. But a closer look revealed something deeper.

“Decolonization,” as defined by many academic theorists, has less to do with confronting material exploitation and far more to do with dismantling the Christian worldview itself.

Leftists celebrate the new archbishop as a victory for progress. Yet the victory coincides with the collapse of the church that achieved it.

In today’s universities, decolonization has become a framework for deconstructing Western civilization — its moral assumptions, its epistemology, and, most of all, its biblical foundations. The movement borrows heavily from Marxism: Everything becomes a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, and redemption comes not through faith but through revolution.

Christianity has long condemned greed, injustice, and oppression. It calls for compassion, justice, and humility. The biblical ethic already provides a moral standard against exploitation. What “decolonization” targets, then, is not exploitation itself but the very source of the Christian moral order: creation, sin, redemption, and divine authority. Strip those away, and what’s left is a vacuum quickly filled by ideology — Marxism, postmodernism, or nihilism disguised as liberation. Think Antifa in the ivory tower.

The church follows the university

That same dynamic now defines the Church of England. The recent appointment of Sarah Mullally as archbishop of Canterbury — the first woman ever to hold the title — was heralded as a triumph for “equity” and “representation.” Yet the decision has fractured the Anglican Communion. Churches in Africa and the Global South have declared they will no longer recognize Canterbury’s authority.

Their leaders insist the move abandons biblical teaching: The pastoral office, they say, is reserved for men — not as a symbol of domination but as a form of service patterned after the Old Testament priesthood and Christ Himself. Scripture, not patriarchy, defines this calling.

The irony is painful. The very church that once sent missionaries to Africa now lectures African believers on theology — in the name of “decolonization.” British progressives who claim to defend the oppressed now reject the self-governing authority of African churches, imposing instead a white, European moral framework they no longer believe in.

The logic of ‘liberation’

The academic rationale behind this mirrors what I see on campus. In decolonization theory, patriarchy is treated as a system of control, and dismantling it becomes an act of liberation. But the Christian vision of leadership never equated masculinity with power. It defined male pastoral authority as a burden of service, not a privilege.

This distinction matters. In pagan antiquity, priestesses wielded ritual power at Delphi and other shrines, while biblical religion defined priesthood in terms of obedience and sacrifice. Christianity’s inheritance of that pattern was countercultural — not oppressive. To erase that distinction under the banner of equality is to mistake service for subjugation and hierarchy for injustice.

The irony of ‘progress’

Leftists celebrate the new archbishop as a victory for progress. Yet the victory coincides with the collapse of the church that achieved it. Attendance across England has cratered; belief is evaporating. The light they claim to be spreading has gone out.

Meanwhile, Christianity burns brightly in the very regions now scolded for their “backwardness.” African churches remain faithful, growing, and theologically vibrant — a continuity stretching back to Augustine of Hippo, the African theologian whose writings shaped European Christianity for a millennium.

RELATED: The castration of Christendom

Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images

If decolonization truly sought to redistribute power, it would look to Augustine’s model: a church grounded in scripture, not ideology; global, not provincial; rooted in divine order, not social theory.

The lesson

When my university asks me to “decolonize” my teaching, I ask in return: into what? If the answer is Marx, Freud, or Foucault — the very European thinkers who replaced faith with power analysis — then the process is just another colonization under a different name.

But if the goal is to return to the Bible’s vision of creation, fall, redemption, and service under Christ, then by all means, decolonize. Reclaim what ideology stole. Because the alternative is what we now see in England — a church that traded revelation for relevance and ended up preaching nothing at all.

Christians should take heed: The light leaving Canterbury won’t stay confined to England.

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