America has always been a nation of immigrants, and that legacy has been one of our greatest strengths. I know this because I lived it.

As a Lebanese-born American who came to this country legally, built a life through hard work, and now thrives as a venture capitalist and innovator in life sciences, I am living proof of what the American dream can deliver when immigration is done right. My family arrived through the proper channels, embraced the values, language, and culture of this country, and assimilated fully into the fabric of American society. That is how it should be.

The American dream is too precious to dilute. Let’s restore order, enforce the law, and keep it alive for generations to come.

For much of our history, controlled immigration brought talent, energy, and new ideas that fueled American growth and innovation. Waves of legal immigrants from Europe, Asia, and elsewhere contributed enormously while integrating into the American way of life. Immigration worked because it was lawful, deliberate, and tied to assimilation.

But something changed in the 2000s, and it has accelerated dramatically in recent years.

What we see today is an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration, arriving at a scale that overwhelms our systems and defies enforcement. This is not the merit-based, assimilable immigration that built America. It is mass unmanaged entry, often without the time, scale, or structure required for successful integration. The result is strain on communities, erosion of social cohesion, and enormous pressure on public resources.

Assimilation is not optional — it’s essential.

Successful immigrants learn English, respect our laws, adopt our civic values, and contribute positively over generations. When inflows are too rapid and lack incentives to assimilate, pockets of parallel societies form, weakening the national unity that has always been our glue. History shows that when we prioritize assimilation — through language requirements, civic education, and limits on scale — we succeed. When we don’t, division follows.

RELATED: Blame bias, not Bezos, for the Washington Post’s downfall

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This is not a moral indictment of individuals seeking opportunity. It is a condemnation of a broken system that rewards lawlessness and punishes those who follow the rules.

The economic damage is real, and it falls hardest on working Americans.

Illegal immigration represents a direct economic attack on America’s middle and lower classes. Illegal workers compete directly for jobs in construction, hospitality, agriculture, and service industries, driving down wages and displacing American citizens and legal residents who depend on those opportunities. Housing demand rises. Schools and hospitals become overcrowded. Social services are stretched thin, often while illegal workers pay little or no taxes.

The hardest hit are working-class Americans — the very people who built this country and deserve protection from unfair competition.

We are also told that our economy would collapse without this illegal labor. That claim is insulting hyperbole. Nevada, my home state, is resilient. Businesses can and will adapt by raising wages, investing in automation, or hiring legally through existing visa programs for workers who follow the rules and wait their turn.

RELATED: The taboo conservatives refuse to confront

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Legal, high-skilled immigration adds tremendous value through innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity gains. We do not need to sacrifice our sovereignty or our workers to achieve growth.

It is time for bold action.

I support a clearly defined, temporary moratorium on most nonessential immigration categories to secure the border fully, enforce existing law, and remove those here illegally. This pause would give us breathing room to reform the system: prioritize high-skilled talent, enforce strict assimilation requirements, limit family-based chain migration that bypasses merit, and restore a steady, controlled immigration pipeline that benefits America first.

That’s stewardship, not cruelty.

America saved my life and gave me opportunities I could never have imagined. I owe this country everything — and that is why I demand that we fix immigration now, before the damage becomes irreversible.

The American dream is too precious to dilute. Let’s restore order, enforce the law, and keep it alive for generations to come.

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Grappling with our role as Christians in politics and culture, my husband and I were recently asked: “Why does our involvement in politics matter if we’re living in a world not built to last?”

It’s a good question — an honest one. These friends genuinely wanted to understand the why behind the frenzy. Having spent our careers and large portions of our lives contending for truth in politics and in a culture gone mad, I felt the question deserved a thoughtful answer. They’re not the only ones asking it.

When the righteous abandon the public square, just laws disappear with them. A vacuum is always filled. If Christians refuse to engage, others will — eagerly.

As Christians, we know the world is not our home. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” as the Gospel of Matthew reminds us. Ecclesiastes tells us life is fleeting. We live for the eternal, not the temporal. So why does engagement in politics and culture matter at all?

It comes down to this: Politics matter because people matter. God calls us to be salt and light in a dark world and commands us to pursue justice in a world warped by evil. The Epstein files serve as a grim reminder of how depraved humanity can become — and what happens when the powerful are left unchecked and the vulnerable are abandoned.

Exercising dominion

From the very beginning, God established rule, authority, and government. Whether civil authorities or church leaders, governance is simply part of life. What Christians often overlook, however, is God’s second command in Genesis. The first is well known — “Be fruitful and multiply.” But in Genesis 1:28, God also commissions humanity to exercise dominion over creation, over “every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The Hebrew word for dominion, radah, means “to rule.” Why would this charge appear so early in Scripture if governing did not matter? If authority were meant to be purely secular, why would God create it at all? God designs nothing without purpose, and the structures of authority He established are no exception.

Positions of power were created to promote human flourishing — not to be exploited or abused, as history and our present moment so often reveal because of sin. That reality makes it all the more vital that the righteous lead with integrity.

“When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan,” Proverbs 29:2 tells us. We see this play out when those in power promote abortion, authorize irreversible medical interventions on minors, erode parental rights, normalize sexual exploitation, silence dissent, undermine religious liberty, weaken the family, encourage lawlessness, release violent offenders, and punish those who speak truth — all while calling it “progress.”

When we reach heaven’s gates, God will hold us accountable not only for what we did, but for what we failed to do. Apathy is not a virtue. Withdrawing from public witness is not spiritual superiority. Speaking truth in love on biblical issues is not optional obedience.

Since God Himself establishes governments, Christians have a responsibility to engage thoughtfully with those in power — guiding and influencing leadership toward justice, righteousness, and human flourishing. This does not mean we must all run for office or work in politics. But it does require basic stewardship, including something as simple and consequential as voting.

God placed Adam in charge of creation. He appointed Moses to lead Israel, commissioned Joshua to govern, and established judges to administer justice — a model echoed centuries later by the founding fathers. Kings were appointed. Prophets were sent. None of this was accidental. In a world fractured by sin, law and order are necessary. Evil cannot be restrained when those who govern are committed to it.

Driving a spoke into the wheel

Justice matters because without it, truth is silenced, the innocent suffer, and evil flourishes unchecked.

Somewhere along the way, Christians began to believe that withdrawing from politics and culture was noble — that pastoral ministry or missionary work is morally superior. It isn’t. Jesus spent the first 30 years of His life working as a carpenter. Why bother with ordinary labor if the world was destined to pass away? Why not remain permanently in the temple, removed from daily life?

Jesus told us to be in the world, not of it. Our obedience and stewardship here carry eternal weight. The idea that disengagement is more holy is a distortion of biblical teaching.

Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to action: “To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). The Hebrew word translated as justice here is tzedek — righteousness. Justice is not passive. It requires presence, courage, and participation.

When the righteous abandon the public square, just laws disappear with them. A vacuum is always filled. If Christians refuse to engage, others will — eagerly. Yet many believers now hesitate even to pray publicly for elected officials, let alone speak truth into the systems shaping society. This retreat has consequences. Christian theology gave birth to Western ideals of human dignity, ordered liberty, and justice. Walking away from institutions shaped by those truths is not humility; it is neglect.

King Lemuel’s mother understood this responsibility. In Proverbs 31:8-9 she exhorts him: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. … Judge righteously; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality — it is failure.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it plainly: “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice; we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

RELATED: Do you follow a diluted Jesus — or the full-strength one?

Don Bartletti/Getty Images

Good work, well done

There is always something worth fighting for. In “The Lord of the Rings,” Samwise Gamgee reminds Frodo: “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.” The line endures because it’s true. Surrender is not our calling.

Goodness and beauty are worth pursuing. Babies are worth protecting. Innocence is worth preserving. Shielding the vulnerable from evil is worth defending.

That said, a word of caution from experience: Politics can consume you. We must never let it become our religion. Faith must inform politics — not the other way around. God first. Family second. Everything else follows. Our identities must be anchored in Christ alone. Power, prestige, and influence are not the goal; glorifying God is. If He entrusts us with influence, we are called to steward it faithfully for the good of others.

Our vocations are about service, not self. In her essay “Why Work?” Dorothy Sayers reminds us that engagement in culture, labor, and governance is not a distraction from faith — it is one of the primary ways faith is lived out. “The only Christian work is good work well done,” she wrote. If God is Lord over all of life, then faith must shape how we build, govern, create, and serve.

When we stand before God Almighty, may we give a faithful account — that we contended for the good entrusted to us, defended the vulnerable, protected our children, and refused to surrender truth to fear. Goodness and beauty are worth pursuing. Justice must be upheld. Our involvement in politics and culture is not optional; it is part of our Christian stewardship. Let us therefore “run with endurance the race that is set before us” and not grow weary in doing good.

​Lifestyle, Christianity, Politics, Abortion, Scripture, Christian living, Faith 

Police are asking the public for help to identify other possible victims of a 19-year-old who referenced a satanic online cult and sent lewd photos to a child.

Jacob William St. Peter of Leonardtown was arrested by the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland on Feb 3., according to a statement from the Nampa Police Department.

‘It systematically targets vulnerable youth, beginning with seemingly harmless interactions, before escalating to coercion, blackmail, and demands for explicit or self-harm content.’

Police said they were contacted in December by a Nampa resident who reported that an unknown adult man had sent “unsolicited explicit images” to a minor online. A digital forensic examination of the minor’s devices found that the suspect had used the moniker “randysaystrade” on various platforms.

They found explicit content along with references to 764, an online grooming cult that police described as engaging in “coordinated grooming and coercive exploitation of vulnerable adolescents.”

Members of the 764 satanic network target emotionally vulnerable underage children and then coerce them into a spectrum of self-abuse that includes cutting, eating their own hair, and even suicide. The U.S. Dept. of Justice has said cult members often have the victims record the self-abuse, and then the footage is “circulated among members to extort victims further and exert control over them.”

St. Peter faces felony charges of sexual abuse of a child under 16 years of age. He remained under custody in Maryland and awaits extradition to Idaho after receiving a $100,000 bond.

Det. Noah Monroe of the Nampa Police Special Victims Unit said the case is a good reminder for parents to restrict and monitor their children’s access to social media.

RELATED: ‘Pure evil’: Feds charge alleged leader of ‘unthinkably depraved,’ violent group involved in child sextortion

“Communicating with strangers online carries serious risks, particularly for minors, as predators exploit trust to manipulate and harm,” Monroe said.

“The ‘764’ network exemplifies these dangers,” he explained. “It systematically targets vulnerable youth, beginning with seemingly harmless interactions, before escalating to coercion, blackmail, and demands for explicit or self-harm content. Parents and guardians must remain proactive in supervising online activity and educating children about these threats.”

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While BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales was thrilled when it was announced that the plans to build EPIC City in Plano were shut down, she isn’t surprised that more like it are popping up in Texas.

“If you’re noticing EPIC City, expect that there are 10 more EPIC cities happening very quietly in sleepy little areas where people probably would not be paying attention. And expect it. They’re not going to stop,” Gonzales says.

“So now the rural, sleepy Kaufman County in the state of Texas has some new land development interest,” she continues, noting that it’s “where nobody would expect.”

“But curiously enough, according to the Daily Caller, in 2022 … a company by the name of Kaufman Solar bought up a giant parcel of land, and no one batted an eyelash. No one thought anything of it until they now learned that a mysterious buyer from the Middle East is trying to buy up 2,000 plus acres right next to that solar panel farm to build a sustainable city,” Gonzales says.

In addition, at a recent county commissioner court meeting, Gonzales explains that a “lawyer came and gave notice that he was formally requesting a public hearing on approving three new water districts for this particular firm who wants to buy up this land.”

“Now it turns out a little bit later in that court hearing, the attorney confirmed that the potential developer is SEE Holding. Now this is a Dubai company. This is a UAE, like, it is a Middle Eastern company. So what do we make of this?” Gonzales asks after playing a clip of the meeting.

“What do we make of this new interested buyer who wants to buy up all of this, like, 20,000 plus people are just going to put right in here and like why?” she asks again.

“It smells weird. It’s a little fishy … the fact that it is Dubai money … that it is Middle Eastern money, the fact that it is SEE Holdings, it’s weird guys. It’s weird.”

“So be on high alert. The trend in this state is that Islam is coming and Islam is trying to take over,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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The Seattle Seahawks trampled the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, but the postgame chatter barely touched football. Fans and pundits argued about anthems, halftime, commercials, and what the whole spectacle “said” about America.

For better or worse, the Super Bowl serves as the premier civic liturgy of the American empire, a night when strangers share the same screens and offices share the same small talk. When that ritual becomes another front in the culture war, the country loses one more place to breathe.

Americans once used the game to share food, laugh at ads, and pretend for a night that they still belonged to one people. This year, the country used the game to rehearse separation.

Families fight. Politics intrudes. Resentments pile up. Holidays still force a pause. Thanksgiving and Christmas push people back to the same table, reminding them that the argument cannot become the relationship.

When even the ritual itself turns into the argument — when Thanksgiving and Christmas are no longer about gratitude or celebrating the birth of Christ but rather who can win a political debate — the family slides from conflict toward rupture. A nation works the same way. Shared ceremonies do not solve deep disagreements, but they keep disagreement from becoming total separation.

From national pastime to litmus test

Americans rarely stop living their separate lives to watch the same thing at the same time. Streaming splinters audiences. Social media isolates communities. Even big films and best-selling books now fall into ideological silos.

The Super Bowl remains one of the few national events that still compels common attention. People who hate sports tune in for the ads so they can follow the conversation at work the next day. A shared celebration, however frivolous, still binds people who otherwise share little else in common.

This year’s Super Bowl looked like a country at war with itself.

The broadcast opened with two national anthems: the familiar Francis Scott Key standard and the newer “black national anthem” that appears at more NFL events each season. The league has leaned hard into woke activism, from corporate rituals to social campaigns, and it rarely hides the moral it wants viewers to absorb. Two anthems signal two constituencies. Two constituencies begin to behave like two nations.

A cultural sorting mechanism

The halftime show sharpened that divide. The NFL chose Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican artist who performs almost entirely in Spanish, and the set centered on Hispanic identity. The stage recreated a bodega, complete with an “EBT welcome” neon sign. The performance leaned into sexual provocation, with dancers simulating sex acts and same-sex grinding played for shock and applause. The show ended with performers hoisting foreign flags, a tableau that read less like cultural flair and more like a victory lap.

RELATED: Bad Bunny preached in Spanish. The NFL hides behind tax perks in English.

Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

A large portion of the audience did not buy what the league sold. Ratings suggested many viewers tuned out during the set. Some did so out of prudishness, others out of irritation at the message, others out of confusion. Either way, the halftime show did not function as a shared moment. It became a sorting mechanism.

Turning Point USA offered a competing halftime program featuring country artists singing about America and Jesus Christ. The stream broke records and reportedly became YouTube’s largest live broadcast. The accomplishment deserves credit. The need for it should worry anyone who wants a coherent nation. Instead of one shared celebration, Americans built parallel ceremonies, then congratulated themselves for avoiding each other.

Who is the customer here?

The commercials followed the same pattern. One spot from a mortgage lender portrayed a family of color moving into a mostly white neighborhood and encountering casual racism until they instructed the residents on diversity and inclusion. The ad did not wink. It preached.

Another strange commercial, backed by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, aimed to address rising anti-Semitism. It showed a Jewish student harassed in a school hallway as classmates mocked him and stuck a note reading “dirty Jew” to his backpack. The boy reached his locker, where a black student offered solidarity based on shared experience with hatred from whites. The ad then unveiled a “blue square” social media campaign modeled on the “black square” campaign that followed George Floyd’s death in 2020.

NFL owners did not back away from the woke script. They turned the dial higher.

Two different worlds

The next day I went to my barber, and he described the shift in real time. Small talk drives that job. For most of his life, the Monday after the Super Bowl brought lively chatter about the best plays and the funniest ads. This year, customers wanted to talk politics. They complained about the anthems, the halftime, the messaging, the moral scolding. The game itself barely came up. Friendly banter about the MVP and next season’s prospects gave way to arguments about what kind of country this still is.

That exchange captured the larger problem. Conservatives and liberals increasingly inhabit different worlds. They share geography, but they do not share premises. They do not share authorities. They do not share the same media diet, the same moral language, or the same sense of what counts as a fact. When they occupy the same room, they talk past each other. When they can avoid the room, they do.

RELATED: Americans aren’t arguing any more — we’re speaking different languages

Photo by Taurat Hossain/Anadolu via Getty Images

The old American civic fracture ran along a map. The new fracture runs through families, workplaces, churches, and neighborhoods. The country did not divide into North and South. It divided into competing moral nations layered on top of the same territory. Each tribe builds its own institutions, its own entertainers, its own narratives, and, increasingly, its own rituals.

No stable regime can endure that kind of division indefinitely. One side will eventually impose cultural dominance on the other, with power used to punish dissent and enforce conformity. Or the country will choose some form of national divorce, formal or informal, with communities separating as much as law and logistics allow.

The Super Bowl did not create this crisis. It revealed it. A shared civic ritual lets people practice unity without requiring uniformity. Americans once used the game as a harmless excuse to share food, laugh at ads, and pretend for a night that they still belonged to one people. This year, the country used the game to rehearse separation.

A nation that cannot share a football game cannot share much else for long.

​Opinion & analysis, Super bowl, Culture war, Bad bunny, National divorce, Unity, Diversity, Multiculturalism, Halftime show, Civil war, Narrative, Leftism, Entertainment, Football, Nfl