Footage shows male senior swiftly strike ball in attempt to make goal, inadvertently hitting female player directly in mouth. A female high school lacrosse player [more…]
Trump’s Embrace of Economic Leftism Will Destroy the Legacy He’s Desperately Trying to Build
Trump’s embrace of economic leftism is not just politically foolish, it’s dangerous for the American people.
Schiff on Fox Business: Gold Soars as the Dollar Falters
“We are headed for an economic crisis, again, that will make the 2008 financial crisis look like a Sunday school picnic.”
The Most Socialist System in America Is the One Feeding Us—and It’s Failing
Our food system is not a free market. It is not capitalism in any recognizable form.
NFL Names Convicted Fraudster, Democrat Donor Dhar Mann “Chief Kindness Officer” & “Creator of the Week” Ahead Of Super Bowl 2026
Shady businessman appointed to league’s bizarre new role.
Surprise! Mamdani Is Governing Like a Socialist
Mamdani promised a rent freeze for starters and much more government intervention into private housing markets, and his first step was to hire Cea Weaver [more…]
NATO Creating Its Own Bank To Finance War Against Russia, Bypass Nation State Constraints
A NATO bank could feed Ukraine’s Dictator Vladimir Zelensky cash without needing him to pander. In 2023 he went on Fox News and begged Western [more…]
‘USADF is garbage’: Senior US foreign aid official will plead guilty to taking kickbacks, lying to feds
The U.S. African Development Foundation, a foreign aid agency that poured millions of taxpayer dollars into African initiatives over the past four decades, desperately fought the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency and audit its finances.
It’s now painfully obvious why there was so much resistance to transparency at the U.S. Agency for International Development-adjacent outfit.
Months after government watchdog Judicial Watch sued the USADF for records regarding its expenditures and in the wake of allegations that agency officials were abusing their positions and misusing funds, the USADF’s director of financial management, Mathieu Zahui, is now admitting wrongdoing.
‘The USADF Director of Financial Management’s fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people.’
Zahui, an official who denied DOGE access to the agency’s financial records last year, has agreed to plead guilty to taking secret payments and lying to federal law enforcement officers about those payments.
“Mathieu Zahui is charged with accepting payments from a government contractor and then abusing his position by directing USADF funds to that contractor for little-to-no work,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement on Friday. “Corruption by senior officials representing the United States cheats American taxpayers and rigs the system against honest work.”
RELATED: ‘STOP THE SCAMS!’ Trump announces new office in DOJ dedicated to investigating fraud
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The Justice Department indicated in court documents obtained by Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, chief content officer for Glenn Beck, and shared with Blaze News that Zahui, 59, arranged for the USADF to pay vendors and contractors through a Kenya-based company owned by a government contractor Zahui has known since 1999.
“Zahui arranged for ADF to pay certain vendors and contractors through Company-1 rather than pay them directly,” the DOJ noted in the filing. “Zahui then approved invoices for Company-1 and CC-1 that included mark-ups ranging from 17% to 66% on these pass-through invoices, even when Company-1 did no work justifying the mark-up.”
The company belonging to Zahui’s associate submitted over 20 pass-through invoices for the African Development Foundation for which Zahui had USADF shell out at least $617,625.49. His associate’s company allegedly kept $134,886.34 of that sum as a mark-up for “logistical support.”
Between 2019 and 2022, Zahui personally and directly received $12,000 in cash payments, the DOJ alleged.
Zahui and his associate’s company unsurprisingly failed to disclose the details of their little arrangement to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which oversaw and authorized USADF’s payment to external parties.
Adding insult to injury, Zahui told federal agents when interviewed in 2024 that he had never received any kickback from his friend’s company.
The USADF financial director has, however, since agreed to plead guilty to one count of accepting gratuities from his associate’s company and one count of making a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer. He faces a maximum of two years in prison for the first charge and five years in prison for the second.
Peter Marocco, former director of the Office of Foreign Assistance and USAID deputy administrator, wrote in response to the agreement, “USADF is garbage. A culture of defiant fraud, waste and abuse that must come to an end. This is only scratching the surface. Abolish it!”
“The USADF Director of Financial Management’s fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people,” said Sean Bottary, the acting assistant inspector general at the USAID’s Office of Inspector General.
The USADF was one of the agencies President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” in February 2025.
Blaze News has reached out to USADF for comment.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify how Blaze News obtained the documents.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Usadf, Us african development foundation, Mathieu zahui, Zahui, Foreign aid, Corruption, Africa, African, Kenyan, Kenya, State department, Politics
Elderly man who falsely confessed to shooting Charlie Kirk sentenced to prison
The elderly man who was caught on video screaming, “Shoot me!” after falsely confessing to shooting Charlie Kirk has pleaded no contest to a third-degree charge of obstruction of justice.
71-year-old George Zinn added to the chaos on Sept. 10 when Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University by claiming to have been the shooter. He was dragged away while his pants slipped to his ankles.
‘I want to put the past behind me and move forward.’
After Zinn was questioned by police, they said they discovered child sex abuse material on his cell phone, which led to more charges.
On Thursday he also pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, but denied in a statement to the court that he was a threat to children.
Utah Fourth District Court Judge Thomas Low sentenced Zinn to up to 15 years for all of the charges. A parole board will ultimately decide how much time he spends in prison.
Zinn helped incite conspiracy theories about the shooting, but he was known for being a nuisance at high-profile political and cultural events in Utah. He had more than two dozen previous arrests, the most serious one involving an alleged bomb threat made to the Salt Lake City Marathon by email.
Police said that he admitted to trying to divert “the attention of multiple law enforcement officers from their efforts to secure the scene and find the actual shooter.”
22-year-old Tyler James Robinson was charged for the murder of Kirk based on a trove of evidence that included a confession note and extensive physical evidence.
RELATED: Panel explodes into chaos after leftist influencer defends mocking Charlie Kirk’s widow
Zinn did not mention Charlie Kirk in his statement to the court asking for mercy.
“I want to put the past behind me and move forward,” he said as he became emotional.
Zinn’s defense attorney, Carly Madsen, told the court that he never fit in and didn’t get the help he needed.
“Never really got the love or attention he deserved,” she added. “And never got the help he needed, resources that would that helped him years ago.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
George zinn, Who killed charlie kirk, Charlie kirk conspiracies, Zinn sentencing, Politics
Hawaii tells Supreme Court our rights should exist only with permission
Something shocking just happened between Hawaii — a state that already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation — and the Supreme Court, and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is sounding the alarm.
In defense of a sweeping gun restriction, Hawaii argued that Americans’ rights only exist if someone else gives permission, citing “Black Codes” written to disarm freed slaves as “historical tradition.”
This means that gun owners can’t carry on private property, unless the owner explicitly allows it.
“That means your constitutional right only exists if somebody else says yes. And the judges are like, ‘I’m sorry, how are you doing the math on this one?’ And Hawaii steps up to the microphone and says, ‘Yeah, your honor, don’t worry, history supports us on this,’” Glenn says.
The initial Black Code law that Hawaii’s new law is modeled after was written after the Civil War, and it was meant to disarm newly freed slaves so they were unable to defend themselves from mobs, the clan, or corrupt authorities.
“People who normally recoil from Black Codes, you know, like garlic with a vampire, suddenly embrace them because it helps restrict guns,” Glenn explains.
“But the case isn’t really about guns,” he says. “And that’s what I think everybody who is analyzing this case is missing. It is not about guns. It’s about whether your rights exist before government or only after permission is granted.”
“Hawaii says your right exists if someone else allows it. The Constitution says no, no, your rights exist because you exist and you’re free. And the court’s being asked to answer the question, do we define American liberty by its highest principles? Or by its darkest moments?” he continues.
“And once you use poisoned history to limit rights, rights stop being rights,” he adds.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Sharing, Camera phone, Video phone, Upload, Free, Video, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blaze news, Blazetv, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Hawaii, Supreme court, Black codes, Gun rights, Hawaii gun rights, Hawaii gun laws, Civil war, The constitution
Local sheriff refuses to help ICE with immigration enforcement around the Super Bowl
Santa Clara County Sheriff Bob Jonsen bizarrely pledged not to work with federal agents while claiming such non-cooperation would result in increased safety for residents.
Ahead of Super Bowl LX at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the local sheriff said he is refusing to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
‘We will not be working or supporting ICE immigration enforcement.’
The Trump administration has warned illegal aliens that there would still be enforcement around the Super Bowl, which takes place on February 8, but Sheriff Jonsen told residents he will not assist the Department of Homeland Security or its agents.
“We are gonna be here for you, side by side,” Jonsen said about his own officers. “So as you’re getting off those trains, … high probability you’re going to see somebody in uniform. But if they’re not masked, if they’re wearing tan and green or blue or black, trust me, they are there for your protection.”
Jonsen told reporters on Thursday that if residents or visitors see masked law enforcement who are “trying to hide their identity,” that means “somebody hasn’t communicated” with his department.
“We’ve made it very clear to our officers — our workforce is to be open, transparent, and engaged with this community for the next few weeks,” the sheriff added.
At that point, Jonsen made it clear to his constituents that his department would not be working alongside the immigration enforcement officers.
RELATED: Former Vikings player says ‘demonic’ Minnesota Democrats are upset ICE is ‘deporting their voters’
“I urge our federal partners — if there is something that you’re planning to do in our community, please be transparent and reach out to your local officials so we can work as best we can,” Jonsen announced to federal authorities.
“As mentioned, we are not going to be changing our policies or protocols. We will not be working or supporting ICE immigration enforcement,” he added.
In October, special adviser to Homeland Security Corey Lewandowski warned illegal aliens that if they went to the Super Bowl, there would be “repercussions to that.”
He added, “Just as there are if you are in any other neighborhood in this great country.”
DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin told TMZ this week that her department is still “committed to working with” local partners to ensure safety around the Super Bowl.
“Our mission remains unchanged,” McLaughlin noted.
RELATED: Wife of Super Bowl champion launches GOP campaign for Democrat-controlled NJ congressional seat
Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
The Santa Clara sheriff positioned his department as wanting to protect the level of trust it has built with its community over “decades” and expressed that he wants federal authorities to communicate their plans to him so he can relay it to his city.
Jonsen urged his constituents to contact “somebody wearing a uniform” if they see ICE operations unfolding.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Sports, News, Super bowl, Ice, Immigration, Customs, Dhs, California, San francisco, Politics
Police Arrest Illegals Who Blasted Guns on Packed Texas Highway On New Year’s Eve
Men were seen in viral New Year’s Eve video firing rifles off of I-30 in Downtown Dallas while traffic was at a standstill.
Trump Nominates Kevin Warsh For Fed Chair
An economist who joined Ron Paul to discuss the nomination said Warsh has been a critic of post-2008 Fed “overreach” policies such as quantitive easing [more…]
Board-certified in what?!
Bureaucracy is where accountability gets diluted and common sense is quietly asked to wait outside for safety reasons.
You can usually spot it by the signs. Laminated, taped, stacked one on top of another, each announcing a rule that probably once made sense
Arrows point in conflicting directions. Doors are locked “temporarily,” which often means indefinitely. A desk sits between you and the thing you actually need, staffed by someone whose job is to make sure you don’t get there the wrong way.
We may not be able to change systems or bureaucrats, but we can change how they hook us into drama.
Hospitals are particularly good at this.
Clipboards multiply. Protocols overlap. Nobody is quite in charge, but everyone is certain about what you’re not allowed to do. Hospitals tend to amplify a familiar human impulse: gathering in herds, exchanging judgment for the illusion of safety.
Caregivers encounter this constantly. Not because we seek it out, but because care requires proximity to systems that prize procedure over discernment. By the time we reach the desk, our tension is already high and our patience nearly gone.
I found myself at a large teaching hospital with my wife, Gracie, as she prepared for a nine-hour surgery. We were staying with friends nearby. She had already been admitted, and the surgeon was clear about where I needed to enter so I could be with her in pre-op before they took her to surgery.
By now, most surgeons recognize that I’m not new to this. Forty years of caregiving tends to cure naïveté. I can follow the jargon, ask informed questions, and handle graphic medical realities without flinching. That familiarity earns a certain trust once you reach pre-op, recovery units, or the ICU.
The problem is getting there.
Between the parking lot and the patient lies a layered world of desks, checkpoints, screens, and policies, staffed by people who don’t know your history and aren’t allowed to consider it.
Which is how I found myself there with Gracie during her surgery, in the middle of COVID, a season I’ve come to think of as the high holy days of bureaucracy.
It was bitterly cold that morning in Denver. Montana cold I can handle. Denver cold is another matter. I had already made the long walk from the parking area to the emergency room and was not eager to be sent back outside to circle the hospital again in the frigid early morning.
At the ER security desk, I gave my wife’s name and said, “I’m here for her operation.”
The guard checked the screen and said, “You have to use the front entrance.”
“It’s closed,” I replied. “The surgeon directed me here.”
“You have to use the front entrance.”
I tried again, slower.
Same result.
So I asked, politely, “Ma’am, where did I lose you?”
She repeated herself.
Years ago, this is where I would have argued. Quoted instructions. Asked for a supervisor. Escalated things just enough to feel righteous while accomplishing nothing and raising my blood pressure.
Decades of caregiving taught me that nothing useful is changed that way.
So instead of arguing, I chose a different response. I met immovable force with irreverent restraint.
Since I have a full head of white hair, and with great hair comes great responsibility, I adopted my best Leslie Nielsen deadpan and said calmly, “Ma’am, I’m board-certified in cranial proctology. They’re waiting for me in pre-op.”
She blinked.
Her eyes widened.
She waved me through.
RELATED: The reform every society needs: Stop mistaking shock for success
Cienples / Getty Images
It later occurred to me that my last name may have served as the exclamation mark on the credentials I had just fabricated. Even nonsense, it seems, benefits from proper punctuation.
I arrived in pre-op on time, smiling to myself.
For the record, cranial proctology is not a recognized medical specialty, except perhaps in Washington, D.C., where demand appears chronic and widespread across multiple government buildings. My services, though sorely needed, remain unofficial.
Caregivers live with enough real emergencies. We don’t need to manufacture new ones by turning every bureaucratic impasse into a confrontation. We may not be able to change systems or bureaucrats, but we can change how they hook us into drama.
Not every obstacle deserves a skirmish. Some require restraint, a straight face, and conserving energy for what actually matters.
A little humor, a lot of deadpan, and the ability to avoid getting pulled into someone else’s craziness go a long way toward living a calmer life as a caregiver.
Maybe I’ll give it a try at the post office next.
Or, God help us all, the TSA.
Caregiving, Bureaucracy, Hospitals, Board certified, Patience, Opinion & analysis
Woke sheriff walks back ‘lies’: Dyer admits ICE did not make arrests at school bus stops after all
A far-left sheriff in Michigan has walked back some of her comments regarding federal immigration arrests in her jurisdiction.
On Wednesday, Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer took to her Facebook page — which the Detroit News described as her “personal” page, though the account name is Sheriff Alyshia M. Dyer and shares the address, phone number, and website for the sheriff’s office — to claim that four people had been arrested near school bus stops in Ypsilanti earlier this week just as schools were let out for the day.
‘ICE does NOT target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations.’
“On Tuesday (1/27/26), we received multiple reports from community members that ICE detained a mother in front of her child in the Ypsilanti area, along with other residents,” Dyer wrote. She also attached a parent letter from Ypsilanti Public Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross, claiming that “several parents in our community were taken into custody while off school grounds.”
Dyer added that “parents connected to local schools” may have been “targeted at a bus stop in Ypsilanti during student drop-off times.” She noted that the arrests “did not occur on any school grounds.”
Dyer then blamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement because she could not “confirm details” about those reports: “Unfortunately, it is often difficult to confirm details, as ICE frequently provides no advance notice, does not contact Metro Dispatch, and leaves families, schools, and communities to process the impact on their own in the aftermath.”
RELATED: Woke ‘pansexual’ sheriff in Michigan excited to implement far-left agenda
Photo by Jim Watson – Pool/Getty Images
By Thursday, ICE had slammed Dyer’s allegations as “lies.” “ICE does NOT target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations. To be clear, NO children were present during these arrests,” the agency said in a statement to the Detroit News.
“Lies like these are just another reason why our officers are grappling with a 1,300% increase in assaults, a 3,200% increase in vehicle attacks and a staggering 8,000% uptick in death threats,” the statement added.
Dyer updated her claims on Thursday to note that she had spoken with “immigration enforcement leadership,” who reassured her that they had not and will not “do any enforcement on school grounds, or school bus stops.” She then passively blamed the officials for some kind of miscommunication.
“They have agreed to better communicate in the future when they leave Washtenaw County,” she wrote.
In the statement, ICE clarified that agents “were conducting targeted operations seeking to apprehend illegal aliens with final orders of removal from the United States.”
The agents tailed two vehicles leaving a targeted residence and then arrested four individuals during at traffic stop: Delmy Yamileth Molina Vasquez, Gissel Alejandra Pavon Nunes, and Elder Alberto Veliz-Mencia of Honduras and Carolina Hernandez-Aviles of Mexico.
ICE database records confirmed that, as of Friday morning, the three women are detained in an ICE facility in Michigan, but Blaze News could not find any record for Veliz-Mencia. Whether any of the four individuals have criminal records unrelated to immigration is unclear.
Dyer’s office and Zachery-Ross’ office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Dyer, who identifies as “pansexual,” was elected in 2024 on a radical agenda. According to her campaign website, she pledged to prevent the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office from “collaborating with ICE” and to provide the “undocumented” with driver’s license documentation.
The same month Dyer was sworn into office, the Ypsilanti City Council voted to discontinue saying the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings.
H/T: David Bondy
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Alyshia dyer, Ice, Washtenaw county, Ypsilanti, Politics
Trump’s Justice Dept. releases millions of pages from Jeffrey Epstein files
The Department of Justice announced the release of millions of new pages from the Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the 3 million files were released on a website available to the public and included 180,000 images and 2,000 videos.
‘We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect or not protect anybody.’
“Today’s release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people,” Blanche said at a media briefing.
Blanche, who previously worked as a personal attorney to President Donald Trump, denied claims that the administration had protected the president.
“We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect or not protect anybody,” he said.
He said the DOJ review of the Epstein files was complete. More than 125,000 pages of the investigation had already been released before Friday.
He also said that the White House had no involvement in the review of the latest documents.
“They had no oversight over this review,” he added. “They did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what to not redact.”
Republicans have threatened to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress after they refused a subpoena asking for documents related to the Epstein investigation.
“We are confident that any reasonable person in or out of Congress will see, based on everything we release, that what you are doing is trying to punish those who you see as your enemies and to protect those you think are your friends,” the Clintons said in a letter to Congress.
This is a developing story.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
New jeffrey epstein file release, Dept of justice epstein, Trump in epstein files, Ag todd blanche, Politics
“Ready For De-Escalation”: Zelensky Ready To Accept Energy Ceasefire If Putin Will
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on reports suggesting Moscow and Kiev had agreed to a so-called “energy ceasefire.”
Church invasion suspect arrested by feds is woke Minneapolis prosecutor’s right-hand man
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Friday morning the arrests of several radicals who allegedly stormed Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18.
One of Don Lemon’s fellow arrestees, Jamael Lydell Lundy, is a newly announced Democratic candidate for the Minnesota Senate who previously worked for Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum and now serves as the right-hand man for Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County’s Soros-backed prosecutor.
Moments prior to the church invasion, Lundy told Lemon on camera, “I’m here to support our community activists,” reported the New York Post.
‘They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.’
“I’m currently a candidate for Minnesota state Senate District 65,” Lundy told the former CNN talking head. “I feel like it’s important if you’re going to be representing people in office, that you’re out here with the people as well.”
“We all we got,” continued Lundy. “I’m actually married to an elected official; I work closely with elected officials, but direct action from the community, certainly within the lines of the law, is so important to show that we have one voice.”
In footage of the subsequent church invasion, Lundy appears fully engaged in the mob’s disruption of the Christian service and the parishioners’ worship, pumping his fist in the air and shouting near the altar.
RELATED: Don Lemon ARRESTED over apparent involvement in church invasion; Jim Acosta whines
Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
According to Lundy’s campaign website, he is married to St. Paul City Councilwoman Anika Bowie, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s former political director.
In his role as Moriarty’s intergovernmental relations manager, Lundy — who supported the “bananas with rice” Somali accused this week of spitting on federal agents — is responsible for interfacing with the federal government, reported the Daily Wire.
Lundy’s radicalism is in keeping with that practiced by his anti-ICE boss, who launched a project with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and other woke prosecutors on Wednesday aimed at “collaborating to ensure federal officials are held accountable when they exceed their lawful authority.”
The non-straight prosecutor has been one of the more unhinged critics of federal agents’ enforcement of federal immigration law in Minneapolis, claiming earlier this month, for instance, “If you do not have white skin, you are in danger of being approached by ICE.”
President Donald Trump suggested those who stormed the church were “agitators and insurrectionists.”
“These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act,” continued Trump. “They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing. They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.”
Blaze News has reached out to Moriarty’s office for comment.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Fbi, Arrest, Don lemon, Pam bondi, Jamael lundy, Lundy, Moriarty, Hennepin county, Face act violation, Radical, Leftism, Politics
‘Looksmaxxing’ and the war on male self-improvement
If you’ve been anywhere near social media lately, you have probably heard of the latest oddly named lifestyle: looksmaxxing.
It’s laughed at, pathologized, and treated as a digital disease. It is filed under narcissism, extremism, or maladaptation — anything that avoids taking it seriously.
What really offends critics isn’t the vanity but the accountability. Looksmaxxing puts the burden back on the individual in a culture addicted to external blame.
But what is it?
Checklist for Chads
At its most basic, looksmaxxing refers to a loose online movement encouraging men to improve their physical appearance through deliberate, practical self-improvement rather than passive acceptance. In practice, this usually means mundane, unglamorous changes: losing excess weight, lifting weights consistently, grooming properly, dressing with intention, fixing posture, and presenting oneself as a capable human being. It is not a philosophy so much as a checklist.
There are, inevitably, outliers — internet backwaters where bone-breaking routines are discussed without irony, extreme facial surgeries are contemplated, and pseudoscientific measurements of skull angles are treated as destiny.
These exist, and they’re easy to mock. But they don’t represent the broader phenomenon. They emerge at the margins, where men believe, rightly or wrongly, that they have exhausted ordinary options. The typical looksmaxxing example is far less exotic. A sedentary man quits junk food, joins a gym, gets a proper haircut, replaces stained hoodies with fitted clothes, and steps out of his mom’s basement.
Scarcity mindset
Looksmaxxing is a response to scarcity: romantic scarcity, social scarcity, economic scarcity. Young men are told relentlessly that confidence matters, that personality wins, that being “yourself” is enough.
Then reality arrives, usually with a swift kick to the nether regions. Faces, frames, height, grooming, fitness, posture — these things open doors long before a sentence is spoken. They decide who gets seen, who gets listened to, who gets to move on to the next round. The lie isn’t that personality matters, but that it matters first.
Critics default to dismissal because it requires no engagement. It costs nothing to tell a struggling man that he should simply “be kind” or “work on his inner self.” It costs nothing to shame him for caring about how he looks, while a culture sells beauty as destiny and desire as status.
The same people who insist looks don’t matter meticulously curate their appearance through filters, lighting, angles, brands, and cosmetic interventions. They publicly reject the rules while privately enforcing them. Everyone else pays for the pretense, most notably the average American man.
And the term average couldn’t be more apt. Overweight. Sedentary. Winded by a flight of stairs, pausing halfway like he’s summiting Everest. He is the product of abundance without discipline, comfort without consequence, a culture of convenience, couches, and calories. And he is told, endlessly, that his problems are emotional rather than physical.
Law of attraction
Looksmaxxing begins where denial ends. It says the body matters; the face matters; presentation matters. It refuses to treat biology as a slur. It doesn’t ask permission to acknowledge that attraction is selective, visual, and often cruel.
In a dating environment dominated by apps, where most singles are judged in a fraction of a second, this isn’t ideology but reality. That honesty unsettles people who have built careers telling men soothing stories about how the world ought to work rather than how it does.
As noted above, looksmaxxing can become obsessive. That pattern is familiar in any movement shaped by exclusion. But remove the extremes, and what remains is entirely reasonable. Lift weights. Lose the gut. Fix posture. Groom properly. Dress like you respect yourself. Sleep. Eat like an adult. Stop looking like you lost a bet with your mirror. None of this is radical. None of it is hateful. It is common sense.
Man up
What really offends critics isn’t the vanity but the accountability. Looksmaxxing puts the burden back on the individual in a culture addicted to external blame. It tells men that improvement is possible, but optional excuses are not. That message is intolerable to systems that profit from passivity. It is far easier to medicalize male dissatisfaction than to admit that a doughy, slumped, self-neglecting body will be judged accordingly.
There is also a class element no one wants to touch. Good looks are increasingly a luxury good: time to train; money for decent food; knowledge of grooming, style, and fitness. These are not evenly distributed. Telling men that looks don’t matter is a convenient way to ignore how much effort the winners quietly invest. Looksmaxxing is, in part, a grassroots attempt to close that gap — crude at times, desperate at others. But earnest.
There is also an undeniable element of misandry at play. When women improve their appearance, it is framed as empowerment, self-care, or self-expression. When men do the same — deliberately, analytically, and without apology — it is framed as an illness requiring immediate intervention. Looksmaxxing, a movement dominated by men, is treated as evidence of a psychological defect. The behavior is identical; the judgment is not. The double standard is structural.
RELATED: You can’t be 50 in Hollywood
Alexandre Guerra/Getty Images
What about both?
And most straight women, if they are honest, aren’t confused about what they find attractive. Who doesn’t want a good-looking man? Who doesn’t respond positively to a strong frame, a defined jawline, a body that signals health and self-command?
This doesn’t negate the need for depth. No one wants a handsome face paired with the emotional range of a vacuum cleaner. But the inverse is no more appealing. Emotional intelligence struggles to shine when it is housed in a body that signals neglect. The idea that a man must choose between substance and appearance is false. It is entirely possible — indeed reasonable — to demand both.
Looksmaxxing doesn’t promise eternal happiness, but it does promise leverage — a chance to be seen before being dismissed. A chance to compete rather than be invisible. For the overweight man incapable of doing a single pull-up, it offers something rare: a clear target and a measurable path.
Looksmaxxing exists because the social contract broke first. When institutions stopped offering stable work, when dating turned into a market, when community receded and screens advanced, men adapted.
Mock looksmaxxing if you want. Call it vain. Call it sad. But don’t call it irrational. It isn’t the sickness but the symptom. And until we are willing to tell the truth about attraction, status, and the price of neglect, young men will keep gravitating toward the only strategy that abandons pretense.
Looksmaxxing, Clavicular, Men, Dating, Marriage, Plastic surgery, Memes, Lifestyle
‘It’s way too manipulated’: Whitlock bashes NFL after Bill Belichick snubbed as first-ballot Hall of Famer
In a major shock to the football world, eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
While the Hall of Famers were being voted on earlier this month, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed in order to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility.
“There’s two, like, first-ballot Hall of Fame guys,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Fearless,” referencing Larry Fitzgerald and Drew Brees.
“If I were them, I would consider, like, ‘No, I’m good. Put me in with Bill next year,’ because going in this year, everything is going to be about, ‘Y’all left Bill out,’” he continues.
“The actual players, Drew Brees, Larry, they’re going to be overshadowed and would be better served going in with Bill Belichick next year,” he adds.
And Whitlock believes this is a deeper issue.
“The whole process has been headed this direction for years. The writers have egos. … It’s way too manipulated,” Whitlock says, pointing out that voters include women like Lisa Salters, who “doesn’t watch football.”
“She stands on the sidelines after games and says, ‘Hey, in the third quarter you threw for 300 yards, and in the fourth quarter you only threw for 150. What changed?’” he explains.
“It’s just a quota box at this point. Do you fit a quota,” he adds.
“The National Football League, the people that write about the National Football League, the people that coach in the National Football League, the front office folks, it’s not for everyone,” BlazeTV contributor Matt McChesney chimes in.
“The NFL is a very specific niche … and to assume that everybody belongs is not the right way to do this. So, I just don’t understand how they can put themselves in this position,” he adds.
Want more from Jason Whitlock?
To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Free, Sharing, Video, Upload, Video phone, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Bill belichick, Drew brees, Larry fitzgerald
Exclusive: Republicans pen OMAR Act, targeting lawmakers who have ‘blurred’ ethical lines
Republican lawmakers are pushing new legislation on Capitol Hill aimed at reining in members of Congress who take advantage of campaign finances for personal gain.
Wisconsin Republican Reps. Tom Tiffany and Tony Wied introduced the Oversight for Members And Relatives Act on Friday, known as the OMAR Act, which would prevent candidates’ campaign funds from benefiting their spouses. The legislation would also mandate the disclosure of campaign-related payments made to their immediate family members, according to the bill text obtained exclusively by Blaze News.
‘The American people are sick of it.’
“Public office should never be used to pad a family’s bank account,” Tiffany told Blaze News. “For years, members of both parties have blurred ethical lines by paying their spouses with campaign funds and labeling it ‘campaign work.'”
“The OMAR Act ends this practice and restores integrity to a system that’s been abused for far too long.”
RELATED: Exclusive: SAVE Act hangs in the balance as Republican Study Committee pushes for Senate passage
Exclusive: GOP lawmaker Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
A prime example of these “blurred ethical lines” is none other than Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who reportedly paid nearly $2.8 million to her husband’s political consulting firm during the 2019-2020 election cycle.
According to Fox News, these payments accounted for nearly 70% of her disbursements during her third quarter, exceeding the total amount all congressional candidates combined paid their immediate relatives during the 2012 election cycle.
“Members of Congress are sent to Washington to represent the interests of their constituents — not to line their spouses’ pockets with campaign funds,” Wied told Blaze News.
RELATED: Biden DOJ’s probe into Ilhan Omar’s finances dropped same year her net worth surged
Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
“We’ve seen far too many egregious examples of politicians exploiting loopholes for personal gain, and the American people are sick of it,” Wied added. “I’m proud to stand with Rep. Tiffany to introduce the OMAR Act and put a stop to these shady practices once and for all.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
House republicans, Capitol hill, Congress, House democrats, Ilhan omar, Minnesota, Minnesota fraud, Somali fraud, Tom tiffany, Tony wied, Omar act, Campaign finance, Politics
