As the United States navigates a fragile ceasefire in its conflict with Iran, the price of oil has remained volatile and high. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $104.21 per barrel at market close on Monday, nearly 57% higher than its pre-conflict price. Inflation has risen as a result and is in a territory it hasn’t been since 2023, according to an analysis by NBC News.

On Tuesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Consumer Price Index update for April. It reported that inflation in April was 3.8%.

A vast majority of Americans don’t trust either party to fix the economy.

The bureau stated in a press release that the rise in energy costs is responsible “for over 40% of the monthly all-items increase.”

In its report on the April inflation numbers, NBC News noted that in Friday’s April jobs report, average hourly earnings rose by 3.6% over the past year. This marks the first time since 2023, during the Biden administration, that wages have not kept pace with inflation.

Despite the runaway inflation of the Biden years, Democrat congressional leaders pounced on the inflation news. House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Penn.) said in a statement, “From his tariff taxes to his disastrous war in Iran, President Trump is making life even harder for American families. Today’s inflation data confirms what everyone can see: Costs are out of control.”

Republicans, on the other hand, are focused on the growth in jobs and the economy in general and reminding voters of the Biden-era inflation. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said, “While inflation has come down substantially since the 21% spike in prices seen when Democrats controlled all of Washington, American families are still looking for additional relief, and that is why Republicans acted to deliver the largest tax cuts in American history.”

Smith further highlighted the growth in GDP and hope that the new chairman of the Federal Reserve would be “a leader over monetary policy who understands that high interest rates have held back the true economic potential of our country.”

RELATED: The SAVE America Act won’t be enough to save the GOP from a midterm bloodbath

A consensus seems to be brewing among investment experts that unlike the broad-based inflation of the early part of the Biden presidency, this inflation could truly be transitory if energy prices come down.

“The report still showed only limited evidence of fully broad-based second-round inflation effects,” said Arielle Ingrassia, an investment specialist at Evelyn Partners, according to IFA magazine.

“That leaves the overall picture closer to an energy and transport shock than a full inflation spiral — at least for now.”

The inflation release Tuesday coincides with findings from a new CNN/SSRS poll that shows “roughly two-thirds of Americans say that Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country. And Trump’s approval rating stands at 30% on the economy, a career low,” according to CNN.

But Democrats do not fare well in this new polling either. A vast majority of Americans don’t trust either party to fix the economy.

As the nation heads into a midterm election being shaped by redistricting battles, Americans’ perceived economic outlook will continue to be a determining factor for the control of both the House and Senate in November.

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​Biden administration, Bureau of labor statistics, Consumer price index, Inflation, Interest rates, Iran, Jobs, President trump, Wages, Politics 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has a new solution for urban poverty: government-run grocery stores.

The plan, announced as part of his first 100 days in office, would spend roughly $70 million creating city-owned supermarkets across New York, beginning with a flagship location in East Harlem. The stores would operate through private contractors under city oversight, with subsidized staples — cheaper eggs, cheaper bread, cheaper basics — guaranteed by government rather than market competition.

Fast food, the supposed cheap fallback of the food-deprived, has out-inflated inflation itself and is now closer to a sit-down dinner than a quick bite.

Mamdani justifies this spending by invoking a persistent, infrequently examined assumption of liberal policymakers: that cities in America are riddled with blighted urban zones where fresh produce and healthy groceries remain frustratingly out of reach.

These are called “food deserts.”

Hunger games

Never mind that a quick look around the proposed East Harlem site reveals multiple grocery stores within walking distance, including produce markets sitting blocks from where the city plans to spend tens of millions constructing another one.

Yet the language persists. Reading recent coverage of America’s “food deserts,” you would be forgiven for thinking we have all woken up in the back half of “The Road,” scavenging tin cans in ash-choked ruins while a feral child clutches our pant leg.

ABC News informs us that 17 million Americans live in a federally designated food desert, a term so bleak it sounds like it should come with a Pulitzer and a black-and-white photo of a barefoot kid staring into the middle distance.

Tara Colton of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority calls food deserts a product of structural racism, neighborhood redlining, and disinvestment — three abstractions stacked into one sentence, which is the literary equivalent of a turducken. Malcolm Gladwell is taking notes.

To be clear, there are real people in these stories who deserve real help. Take Knoxville, for instance, where an elderly disabled woman with a walker needs three to four hours to buy groceries. There are many like her. No car, no one to call when the fridge needs to be restocked.

But is that really a food problem, or is it a loneliness problem in disguise? A what-happened-to-neighbors problem? Whatever it is, it isn’t fixed by the nearest Kroger relocating two blocks closer, but by a person with transportation and 20 free minutes.

Couch-bound

Which brings us to the definition itself, because the definition is where this whole conversation instantly falls apart. Per the USDA, a food desert is a low-income area where residents live more than one mile from a supermarket in a city or 20 in the country.

The rural number is its own conversation. The urban one deserves a closer look. One mile. That is the apocalyptic threshold, the line past which we reach for the language of famine and structural decay. One mile is the distance between your couch and the place you were going to walk to anyway before you decided to “treat yourself” to DoorDash. There are CrossFit gyms charging $200 a month to make people walk farther than that carrying objects on purpose.

Then there is the part the hellscape correspondents won’t touch. A Big Mac combo now averages $9 nationally. A large pizza that feeds two or three people runs $15 to $20 before tip and delivery fee and the mysterious “service charge” that has crept onto every receipt in America. A medium fries alone is $4 now, a price point that used to get you the whole meal. Fast food, the supposed cheap fallback of the food-deprived, has out-inflated inflation itself and is now closer to a sit-down dinner than a quick bite.

Shop right

Meanwhile, in the so-called desert, a bag of dried lentils is $1.79. A pound of rice is a dollar. A dozen eggs, even after the great egg panic, is around $4 and gives you a week of breakfasts. Frozen vegetables, the great equalizer of American nutrition, run $2 or $3 at any Dollar Tree, which, surprise, exists in basically every “food desert” I’ve ever set foot in. A whole rotisserie chicken at Walmart is $5.97 and feeds a family for two days. A can of black beans is a dollar. An onion is 50 cents.

So when an able-bodied 28-year-old with a working car and a smartphone tells me he can’t eat healthy because he lives in a food desert, what he means is he doesn’t want to. He wants the Crunchwrap Supreme combo for $9. He wants the door to open and the food to be hot and the wrapper to crinkle.

That’s a preference, not a famine. Calling it a crisis is an insult to people who actually are in one — like, say, the woman with the walker — because it lumps her struggle in with some slob’s Tuesday-night laziness and gives both the same vocabulary.

Fertile ground

Either way, the term “food desert” seems deliberately designed to invoke panic. Maybe so taxpayers will look the other way when, say, New Jersey passes a $240 million Food Desert Relief Act and starts paying restaurants to deliver hot meals.

But there are no ash plumes. No one is barbecuing cats or plucking ducks from ponds. Well, very few are.

Battlefield Farm, a Knoxville nonprofit, understands this. It doesn’t tweet about food apartheid. Instead, it grows actual collards and drives them to actual people in an actual van. The company is planning a low-cost grocery store.

That’s the thing about real problems. They tend to have real, boring solutions, and they tend to require us to acknowledge reality before we can do anything about them.

The 53 million Americans the USDA classifies as having “limited” food access are not all starving in a wasteland. Most of them are within walking, biking, or one-bus distance of a place that sells apples and carrots. Most of them know this, and a lot of them are cooking meals right now. The ones who genuinely cannot get there need rides, ramps, and delivery — not a fatalistic op-ed painting America like a Ken Burns documentary nobody asked for.

​Food deserts, Make america healthy again, Zohran mamdani, Nutrition, Health, Battlefield farm, New jersey, Lifestyle 

Former President Joe Biden was stumbling long before he took office. He fell behind in the first three Democratic primary elections of 2020, placing fourth, fifth, and second, respectively.

James Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone Democratic congressman, is credited with turning things around for the campaign and propping Biden up by delivering him a timely endorsement and South Carolina’s delegates.

Now, Biden’s political crutch is poised to lose his own footing.

‘This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation.’

During a heated meeting on Tuesday, lawmakers on the South Carolina House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee discussed legislation that, if successfully passed by both chambers of the legislature and ratified by the governor, would ultimately redraw the Palmetto State’s congressional maps and eliminate Clyburn’s district.

During the public testimony portion of the meeting, wild-eyed opponents accused Republican lawmakers of engaging in “fascism,” killing democracy in the state, disenfranchising black voters, and diluting liberal voting power.

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, among those who alternatively spoke in support of the legislation at the meeting, stated, “We have both the duty and the opportunity to maximize our conservative stronghold and ensure our people receive the representation they deserve, grounded in faith, freedom, family values, safe communities, and economic prosperity.”

RELATED: Virginia Democrats trying to force through illegal power-grab make ANOTHER humiliating mistake

South Carolina State House

“This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation,” Evette added.

The subcommittee ultimately signaled support for the legislation in a 3-2 vote that prompted heckles from the peanut gallery.

The full South Carolina House Judiciary Committee subsequently took up the matter.

Ahead of the state lawmakers’ meeting, President Donald Trump noted on Truth Social, “I’m watching closely, along with all Republicans across the Country who are counting on their Elected Leaders to use every Legal and Constitutional authority they have to stop the Radical Left Democrats from destroying our Country, including leveling the playing field against their decades of egregious Gerrymandering and Census Rigging.”

“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” Trump continued. “Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!”

Clyburn, now serving his 17th term and seeking re-election, is furious over the prospect of losing power.

In a series of tweets last week, the Democratic congressman complained, “Republicans are trying to break apart South Carolina’s 6th District. Not because voters demanded it, but because Donald Trump requested it.”

“This fight is bigger than one district,” Clyburn continued. “It’s about whether our democracy belongs to the people, or to politicians who change the rules when they don’t like the results. We cannot let them succeed.”

Clyburn was first elected to represent South Carolina’s 6th district after its borders were redrawn with the intention of making it a majority-black district.

Republicans are empowered to augment Clyburn’s district as the result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Callais, where the high court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and made clear that redistricting should effectively be color-blind.

Clyburn briefly dropped the alarmist shtick during a recent CNN interview, where he admitted that he could potentially still get re-elected in a district that’s not a racial gerrymander.

The 85-year-old Democrat suggested further that other Democratic candidates could benefit from new maps, telling talking head Jake Tapper, “When they finish with the redistricting, there will be the possibilities of at least three Democrats getting elected here in South Carolina to the United States Congress.”

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​Callais, Clyburn, Democratic congressman, Former president joe biden, Jake tapper, James clyburn, Lt gov pamela evette, President donald trump, Racial gerrymander, Republican lawmakers, South carolina, State house, Subcommittee, Us supreme court, Politics 

The chances of a socialist democrat becoming mayor of Los Angeles appeared to collapse after Spencer Pratt obliterated her during their recent debate.

Pratt crushed City Councilwoman Nithya Raman when she tried to claim that her policies had succeeded in easing the homelessness crisis in L.A., and the moment went viral on social media soon afterward.

‘Before any polls or punditry, prediction markets quantified exactly what we all saw with our eyes: the Titanic hitting an iceberg.’

Although polling since the debate has not yet been released, the Kalshi prediction market documented that Raman’s chances to win the election have absolutely cratered.

At one point in late April, Kalshi predicted that Raman had an astounding 64% chance of winning the mayoral race. After the debate on Wednesday, her chances precipitously dropped to 14% — a loss of 50 percentage points.

Much of that may have been her unsteady and unsure performance during the debate. When challenged on homelessness, Raman stumbled after Pratt beat her down.

“The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth,” Pratt explained about the homelessness crisis. “They are on fentanyl. The DEA statistic says 93% of this is a drug addiction problem. I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with [Raman], and we can find some of these people she’s going to offer treatment for. She’s going to get stabbed in the neck!”

While some have doubted the value of prediction markets, BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere explained how they can be a leading indicator before polling can be completed.

“This is something that prediction markets do incredibly well,” he said. “Before any polls or punditry, prediction markets quantified exactly what we all saw with our eyes: the Titanic hitting an iceberg.”

He also pointed out that the large drop in her support was even worse than that of former President Joe Biden just before he dropped out of his re-election campaign in 2024.

“Joe Biden only dropped about 15 percentage points after his debate. That’s how bad she was,” said Burguiere of Raman.

RELATED: LA Times torched for trying to disqualify Pratt for mayor — because his home burned down

Raman has also pulled out of another mayoral debate, though she was preceded by incumbent L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Pratt as well. The debate has since been canceled.

Polling before the debate had Pratt in second place with 10% support and Bass in first place with 25%, but another 40% remained undecided, keeping the election up in the air.

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​Los angeles mayoral election, Spencer pratt, Pratt vs nithya raman, Prediction markets, Politics 

Christian persecution is happening around the world, and in some places that you would never expect — including Mexico.

Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey that his organization has a World Watch List that tracks persecution across the globe, and what’s happening inside America’s southern neighbor is shocking, to say the least.

“One of the very also present realities there are with the cartels and organized crime,” Brown tells Stuckey, explaining that the cartels target Christians because the church is “bad for business.”

Christianity hurts the cartels, as it keeps young men from getting drafted into their ranks as well as stops potential drug or alcohol users from buying what they make their living on.

This is why many cartel leaders view the Christian church as a threat, and sometimes they “strike with violence” in retaliation.

One Christian church, Brown explains, was targeted by the cartel for not doing as they said.

“The cartels came in one night … with guns ablazing … and, you know, forced people out with the clothes on their back. They corralled them in a school building and held them captive there, wouldn’t allow them to escape, wanted people to see that they were being held there,” he recalls.

“There was one bucket in the middle of the room to utilize as the bathroom for a period of 10 days. No water provided. They had to drink water from puddles,” he continues.

There’s also an area of several states in Mexico called “the circle of silence.”

Geographically these states form a circle and represent an area where Christianity and Catholicism are not heavily represented.

“So, you know, there is not a strong presence of the church there to vocalize and to make the message of the gospel known. So, that’s one area of silence,” Brown tells Stuckey.

“They want no presence of Christianity there. They want it to be silenced,” he adds.

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To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Captive hostages, Cartel leaders, Cartel targets, Christian persecution, Circle of silence, Gospel message, Mexican cartels, Mexico, Open door, Organized crime, Presence of church, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Ryan brown, Silencing christianity, Targeted church, World watch list, Threat to cartel, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

The Virginia Supreme Court sent Democrats into conniptions with a ruling on Friday striking down as unconstitutional a ballot measure that would have all but guaranteed their party another four seats in the U.S. Congress.

Democrats’ desperation to force through their illegal power-grab in the wake of the 4-3 decision now has them considering truly extreme options, including lowering the retirement age for justices on the Old Dominion’s high court, purging its current lineup, and stacking it with liberals.

‘Baby steps.’

While their comrades plot alternative ways of disenfranchising millions of Republican voters in Virginia, Democratic state officials are trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to revive their gerrymandering initiative.

The Democrats behind the likely doomed petition are, however, having difficulties with spelling and differentiating between disparate courts.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, House Speaker Don Scott, and President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate Louise Lucas filed a joint motion late on Friday asking the Old Dominion’s Supreme Court to delay its order invalidating the gerrymander referendum and the corresponding constitutional amendment proposed on the ballot while they appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) highlighted a glaring spelling error in the court filing, which was submitted by state Solicitor General Tillman Breckenridge. Near the top, Virginia House of Delegates was spelled “Virgnia House of Delegates.”

RELATED: Democrats propose purging Virginia Supreme Court so they can force through illegal power-grab

Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images

Miyares wrote, “If you are going to appeal to SCOTUS maybe don’t misspell Virginia?”

Other keen observers — including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon — pointed out that in the document, “senator” was spelled “sentator.”

Miyares continued: “This is a motion that has zero chance to succeed and is [a] Hail Mary to save face after wasting $70 million in political money and $10 million in taxpayer money on an illegal, unconstitutional gerrymandering amendment. This motion will be declared dead on arrival.”

Democratic Virginia officials — evidently willing to test Miyares’ theory that their motion “will be declared dead on arrival” — filed an emergency application on Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting a stay of the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision that they claimed was “deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation.”

The emergency application not only contained the Democratic officials’ previous embarrassing spelling mistakes but a brand-new error on the first page, referring to an “emergency application to the Supreme Court of Virginia,” rather than the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Good News: Dems managed to spell Virginia correctly,” Miyares wrote on Tuesday. “Bad News: They sent their emergency application to SCOTUS to the wrong court. Baby steps.”

U.S. Supreme Court

Miyares’ quip aside, the Virginia Democrats managed to get their mistitled petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even still, Edward Whelan, a legal scholar and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, discovered other possible problems. “Very weird that cover page states ‘On Emergency Application to the Supreme Court of Virginia,'” noted Whelan. “That’s the styling for a petition for a writ of certiorari, but it makes no sense to say that the emergency application is ‘to’ the Supreme Court of Virginia.”

But the greater blunder, suggested Whelan, is that the Democratic petitioners do not appear to be asking for the right relief.

“Even if the Supreme Court were to grant Virginia’s emergency application for a stay (it won’t), that would still leave in place the lower-court injunction that the state supreme court affirmed,” wrote Whelan.

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​Appeal, Assistant attorney general, Democrat, Democrats, Emergency application, Gerrymander, High court, Humiliation, Jay jones, Legal scholar, Political money, Richmond, Spelling error, Supreme court, Unconstitutional ballot measure, Us congress, Us supreme court, Virginia, Virginia attorney general, Virginia supreme court, Politics 

A large group of teenagers on e-bikes allegedly ganged up on a man who was riding a scooter with his wife on the boardwalk in Huntington Beach, California, over the weekend — and kicked and stomped him and hit him in the face with a glass bottle, KTLA-TV reported.

The Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed to KTLA that a report was taken in connection with the incident, which occurred around 8 p.m. Saturday in the area of 103 Pacific Coast Highway.

‘Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night. … It’s chaos; it’s terror.’

Sam El-Said — a business owner — told the station he and his wife were riding home when he noticed a few hundred teens, many of them with e-bikes, gathered on the beach, the boardwalk, and a nearby grassy area.

El-Said told KTLA he slowed down to navigate through the crowd, when someone threw a glass bottle that hit him in the face; he added to the station that bottle either shattered on impact or was already broken, and it left him with minor injuries.

After he stopped and got off his scooter to see what happened, El-Said told KTLA someone knocked him to the ground from behind, after which as many as six teens kicked and stomped him while he was down.

Cellphone video caught the final moments of the alleged attack, and it shows one teen dressed in a dark Playboy hoodie being pulled away from the victim, who was on his hands and knees in the sand.

Some teens are heard hooting and laughing on video during the aftermath of the attack.

KTLA said that when El-Said rose to his feet, blood was running down his face, red marks were visible near his left temple and cheekbone, and blood also was on the fingers of his left hand.

RELATED: Mom of teen thug arrested after body-slamming, head-stomping much smaller girl says he’s a ‘humble,’ ‘quiet’ Christian

Police told the station that El-Said was able to detain one of the teens involved, and that teen was arrested and cited for misdemeanor battery.

Authorities told KTLA that the victim declined medical treatment at the scene.

El-Said, who also suffered a black eye, noted to the station that he and his wife moved to Huntington Beach three years ago for a better quality of life — and the incident demonstrates to him that law enforcement needs to take a stronger stance against such crime.

“Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night, to this very spot and see what this looks like,” he told KTLA. “It’s chaos; it’s terror. If nothing happens and things don’t change, we’re going to keep seeing incidents like what happened to me, but far worse.”

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​California, E-bikes, Ebikes, Huntington beach, Man attacked, Misdemeanor battery, Physical attack, Teen arrested, Teen mob, Crime 

The U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that the mayor of a city in Southern California has agreed to plead guilty to operating as a spy for China for two years.

Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang agreed to resign from office after she was federally charged with acting as an illegal agent for a foreign country, according to statements on the city’s website.

‘How many more are there?’

“Mayor Wang admitted to acting as a foreign agent from at least 2020 through 2022 — promoting PRC propaganda in the U.S. and acting at PRC’s direction to promote their interests,” wrote FBI Director Kash Patel on social media. “She has agreed to resign from office and plead guilty.”

Wang pled guilty in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday and now faces 10 years in prison, the New York Post reported.

Wang ran a website called the U.S. News Center that claimed to be a resource for the local Chinese-American community along with Yaoning “Mike” Sun.

Sun was Wang’s campaign manager and fiancé. Both admitted to receiving and executing “directives from PRC (People’s Republic of China) government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website.” They also “sometimes sought approval from PRC government officials to circulate other pro-PRC content,” the DOJ said in the plea agreement, according to ABC News.

In one example from Nov. 2021, Wang wanted to promote an article about the Chinese and Russian ambassador calling on Americans to respect the “democratic rights” of the PRC, the DOJ said.

A statement from the Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said that none of the spying activity was conducted while Wang was in office.

“We understand this news raises serious concerns, and we want to be direct with our community about what we know and where we stand,” wrote Lazzaretto on the city’s website.

“The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling,” he added. “We want to be clear: This investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022.”

Lazzaretto indicated no city actions need to be invalidated despite accusations that the mayor worked as a spy for China.

“Following an internal review, we can confirm that no city finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved,” he added.

Sun had been arrested in Dec. 2024 on suspicion of conspiring with Chen Jun, aka John Chen, a Chinese national who had been convicted of federal crimes, as previously reported by Blaze News. Sun was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in Jan. 2025.

RELATED: Retired Air Force major allegedly trained Chinese pilots — spying, hacking network involved

The alarming development bolstered critics of China, who warned about communist-funded infiltration into American society, including local governments as well as institutions of learning.

“How many more are there?” wondered Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.

“Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” said John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for National Security.

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​Arcadia mayor eileen wang, Chinese spy convicted, Communist china infiltration, Socal chinese spy, Politics 

The Department of War has begun releasing the UFO files — and the most recent footage has left Americans questioning what they’re really seeing.

Ross Patterson of the “Drinkin’ Bros Podcast” tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales that conversations he’s had with insiders over the years have left him convinced that something far stranger may be happening behind the scenes.

“I’ve got some insight into this. It’s super weird,” he says, recalling a conversation with the late producer John Brenkus, who used to “host all of those UFO shows on Sci-Fi Channel for years.”

“I asked him, ‘Hey, let’s get real here. What’s the actual sitch?’ And he goes, ‘Look, do I think they’re manned by an alien, like a person?’”

“He goes, ‘No, I think the tech is so advanced. If they’re sending things here, … you don’t need to man that,’” he explains.

Patterson likens it to manning a drone, where there’s no risk of an occupant being injured.

And while he admits he’s “not a conspiracy dude,” he explains that some of the “crazier stories” he’s heard from “friends over there” involve “communication” with other “beings” over the years.

“They have a unique way of talking,” he tells Gonzales, noting that according to his source, it took years to figure out a code in order to communicate.

“I said, ‘Well, what were the conversations like?’” he recalls. “And they said it was mostly about energy and how they were able to use magnetic fields.”

While Patterson admits he doesn’t “know what’s real and what’s not,” there are a few theories he’s entertaining regarding the files — one of them being that their release is a “cover-up” to distract from the Epstein files.

“But I don’t know,” he says, adding that another theory is that “Hollywood has always been in communication with the White House and then pumping out movies to get Americans used to what’s coming.”

The most recent example is a new Steven Spielberg film about an alien encounter that will be released in June. The film is called “Disclosure Day,” which Spielberg himself said is “more truth than fiction.”

“He didn’t expand on it,” he adds.

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​Alien encounter, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Conspiracy theories, Department of war, Disclosure day, Epstein files, John brenkus, Magnetic fields, Ross patterson, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Scifi channel, Steven spielberg, The blaze, Truth than fiction, Ufo files, Ufo shows, White house 

The Amazon Kindle was released on November 19, 2007. A little tablet full of countless books you can take with you anywhere — it was a cool idea then, and I suppose it’s still a cool idea now. Over the years there have been a bunch of new versions. Amazon updated theirs, and other companies have released their own versions of what is now known as an e-reader.

My wife’s got one. She just bought it a few months ago. She wanted it because she was sick of looking at her phone when nursing our daughter in the middle of the night. It’s worked well. She hasn’t been scrolling; she’s been reading instead.

Sometimes I like thinking about my kids coming across my books when I’m old or dead and gone and finding these little things I’ve written.

I’ve held hers and played with it a little. It’s very cool, and I want to like it. I want to load one up with lots of books, read it on the airplane or right before I drift off after midnight with all the lights off in the bedroom, and join the future with all other fellow e-readers (the people, not the object).

But I just can’t; I like books too much.

Judging covers

I like the way the real pages feel on the pads of my fingers. I like how it sounds when I flip the page. I like to fold back the edge and mark my spot. There’s something about the smell too, especially the old books. You know that smell, don’t you? If you put your nose near the inside of the binding and sniff, you will get it. It’s the faint scent of a college library and an old house.

I love the covers of paperbacks and how they change over the years as new editions are released. I most particularly love the old(ish) ones most. I can always pinpoint the decade based on the fonts and colors. It’s funny how deeply infused a book is with the aesthetic sensibilities of the decade in which it was printed and just how easy it is to discern when one was released.

The 60s were simple and modern. The 70s had loopy fonts with lots of brown, greens, and yellows. The 80s were colorful with floral patterns, some neon, and sharp lines. The 90s were classy and simple with understated serifs and an air of sophistication.

Paperback delighter

One of my favorite things to do is lie in the hammock on a Saturday afternoon reading. A small, flimsy paperback in my right hand, two fingers on the inside holding the pages open, and three others on the outside for support. The summer breeze, the leaves on the birch above, the ropes of the hammock on my back, and a little paperback.

I love to write in my books too, mostly the more intellectual ones. I underline sentences, bracket paragraphs of importance, and write things in the margins. They are things I want to remember. Even if I don’t know when I will come back to the book again, I want to make a note in the event I do. Sometimes I like thinking about my kids coming across my books when I’m old or dead and gone and finding these little things I’ve written. Maybe they will want to read what I wrote; maybe they won’t.

I’ve heard that we don’t remember words we read on the screen as much as words we read on a page. I don’t know the science behind it, but I feel like it’s true — or at least it is for me and my wife. I asked her what she thought as a newly minted e-reader enjoyer, and she said she agrees. She said it feels like she remembers ever so slightly less. Like it doesn’t stick quite as much or like it just doesn’t go deep enough into her brain.

Slightly foxed

The books on the e-reader remain perfect forever. They look the exact same on every single device. In the event the device falls in the lake, you might be out $200, but soon enough you’ll have a new one, and all 500 books will appear on that little screen just as they were before.

Real books don’t stay perfect for very long. The pages get bent, the binding gets broken, the margins are full of ink, and the edges of the pages yellow as the years pass. The more we read a book, the more we know a book, and the more beaten a book becomes. Old floppy paperbacks that look like they’ve been through a war are coveted in the same way leather bags with beautiful patina are.

I want to like the e-reader. I want to join the future. I would feel so futuristic and so efficient with one in my hand. But I can’t, and I won’t. I like the physicality of books too much. I like the wear they have; I like the time they show; I like the fact they tell a story of who and where we were when we read them.

​Men’s style, Books, Kindle, E-readers, Amazon, Lifestyle, Culture, Family life, The root of the matter