Over the holiday weekend, rumors began circulating on the left that President Donald Trump had passed away after going several days without a public appearance — but he quickly shut them down.

“NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Aug. 31st. “Also, DC IS A CRIME FREE ZONE! President DJT.”

“The left was really excited,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments. “There was, like, a gleam in their eye. You know, usually they have dead eyes. I think it’s ’cause they take too many SSRIs, but they usually have the dead eyes.”

On August 30, “Donald Trump” was the number-one trending topic on X after the left began excitedly repeating that the president was nowhere to be seen.

In the trending sidebar on X, it revealed that 49,000 posts claimed that “TRUMP IS DEAD,” 17,500 posts claimed that “TRUMP DIED,” and 110,000 posts said “It Happened.”

Even Tim Walz got in on the deranged and deluded excitement.

“You get up in the morning and you doomscroll through things — although I will say this. The last few days you woke up thinking there might be news,” Walz told an audience, to laughter. “Just saying, there will be news sometime.”

“Breaking: People die,” Gonzales comments, disgusted.

“Or is that his cowardly call to violence?” BlazeTV contributor Jaco Booyens chimes in. “Because that’s what they really want. What a sick, sick human being. I don’t recall ever in this network or anyone here ever talking about wanting Joe Biden to lose his life.”

“They say the quiet parts out loud, at least,” he continues. “So let them announce themselves.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Sharing, Free, Camera phone, Video, Video phone, Upload, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Trump died rumors, Leftists, Tim walz, Joe biden age, The trump administration, Jaco booyens 

If you’ve ever tried to buy tickets to a major concert or sporting event, you know the scam. You spend hours in a “virtual queue,” only to watch tickets vanish in seconds. Scalpers and bots scoop up thousands, then flip them for double or triple the price. Fans refresh their browsers over and over, while Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, pocket the profits.

It’s a racket, and for decades the people who keep live entertainment alive — ordinary fans — have paid the price.

Fans don’t want excuses. They want a system that works for them, not one designed to funnel cash into a corporate machine while leaving families priced out.

That’s why President Trump plans to unveil a ticket reform package this month. His proposal promises to take on the corporate monopoly that dominates the industry and restore fairness to fans.

The problem is straightforward: Live Nation and Ticketmaster control roughly 70% of the ticketing and live events business — and about 80% of the primary ticketing market. According to the Justice Department, that dominance has allowed the conglomerate to dictate what fans can buy, what they must pay, and who gets access at all.

As Trump FTC Commissioner Mark Meador explained last year, “Live Nation Ticketmaster created a dominant conglomerate with an unprecedented amount of control over the live ticketing market, resulting in monopoly power it has used to entrench its position in the marketplace.”

Fans lose twice under this scheme. They pay outrageous fees when Ticketmaster sells the tickets the first time. Then they pay again when scalpers resell them — because Ticketmaster takes another cut.

Trump’s plan should target the obvious abuses by cracking down on bots that grab tickets before real people even have a chance, establishing distribution systems that treat fans fairly, and encouraging competition in a market currently controlled by one corporate behemoth.

Those reforms would finally level the playing field. But Live Nation-Ticketmaster has other ideas. The company now wants government-imposed price caps on resale tickets — a move that sounds like “reform” but would entrench its monopoly even further.

RELATED: It’s time to join the fight and expose Ticketmaster

Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Former Trump Justice Department official Brian Pandya warned that such price controls would bankrupt Ticketmaster’s smaller rivals, eliminating competition altogether. Meanwhile, the $38 billion conglomerate could take the hit, since it also profits from artist management, promotion, and the 400-plus venues it controls nationwide. Price caps would squeeze everyone else out while leaving the monopoly stronger than ever.

The better path is obvious: Open up the marketplace. Strengthen enforcement against ticket bots. Redirect regulations to protect fans, not corporations. And if necessary, break up the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly entirely.

Fans don’t want excuses. They want a system that works for them, not one designed to funnel cash into a corporate machine while leaving families priced out of concerts, plays, and ball games.

Trump’s plan could finally deliver that. For once, fans might win — and the monopoly might lose.

​Opinion & analysis, Tickets, Ticketmaster, Live nation, Monopoly, Antitrust, Donald trump, Justice department, Price controls, Conglomerate, Prices 

Do you count? Does your life count?

A priest once told me that I don’t count. But later, he asked me if I coded. Because, he said, I spoke English like a coder. I bet you can count. I bet you do count. This is a safe bet, because you were made in the image of God. But also, you are a man. Or a woman. So, therefore, you cannot count the same as God. But you can count as God counted through man.

Are you ready? Do you trust yourself enough to count to 10? Let’s try it. Maybe say a prayer first, though — just to be safe.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

I wonder whether you did that right the first time. I didn’t. It took me the better part of four decades to learn this secret. Although it is widely known to any 4-year-old. You could try again. For yourself. With your fingers.

Did you do it?

It’s up to you, anon. But if you were to have done it, you could do it again at any time. Perhaps it could become a prayerful meditation. Do you know who else had ten fingers? Moses. David. Jesus. Constantine. Elizabeth I. Shakespeare. Do you, then, know them all like the back of your hand as you count?

It is simply not possible to care in a human fashion at scale.

You cannot know anything like the back of your hand when you are typing … or when you are reading on a computer screen. Try typing and reading what you type at the same time. I guarantee that you cannot closely examine the back of your hands as you type and read at the same time. Your mind is too limited. You can focus on one thing at a time.

This is the most profound digital communication I can provide to you right now, anon.

Do you get the pun? Digital. My hands typed this. You probably have two thumbs, too. This makes you human. But also, a monkey could do it. Some liar once said that monkeys with keyboards could eventually produce Shakespeare. Not even very high-IQ monkeys, banging out code to train large language models on everything that has ever been digitized, could produce anything with an ounce of the artistic worth of William Shakespeare.

Do you remember the Mayan Apocalypse? Did anything happen? (Of course it did. It was the end of the world as we know it. The end of the world actually comes every night when the sun goes down. When is the last time you saw a sunset?) The Mayans counted, too. But not just on their hands, under base 10. They also counted their toes and therefore had a base 20 calendar: 20-hour days, 20-day months, 20 of them. They were very superstitious about the end of the world, probably. At least, the Aztecs were. They would sacrifice children en masse to make sure the sun came up again the next morning.

But then the Aztecs’ prophecy was fulfilled, and Cortez annihilated them.

This was right and just. I mean, what would you have done if you were Cortez? Cortez, probably, counted on his hands, too. Just like you. He, too, wore shoes. With closed toes. Can you count to 10 on your toes? One toe at a time? Probably not. But the Mayans probably could.

RELATED: The mental health crisis is worse than you think — but the solution is obvious

Photo by Alain Jocard/Getty Images

They were grateful to Cortez for helping them exterminate the Aztecs. But then … they had to deal with the Mexicans. Poncho Villa. Not a nice hombre. And now the cartels. Not nice hombres, either. They treat men and women like they don’t count. Like they are only numbers. Little figures entered into Excel tables.

Do you work for a cartel? Probably. Most everyone is employed by a corporation.

Corporations are not people. They do not count on their hands, because they do not have hands. Sometimes they are owned by families. If so, they can be good. Very good, even, to their employees, who also have families.

Can you count the number of lives that depend on your life? You are asked to every year, by the tax man, who shall surely cometh every year until you are dead. And then he will tax you, too.

How many lives depend on yours? How many lives have you taken through your carelessness? Taken for granted? You must, necessarily, take for granted almost every human life you ever see. It is simply not possible to care in a human fashion at scale.

It has been said that humans cannot manage more than 150 relationships at once. That’s too big a number to count, really. If you are human. Which you are.

So try to count to 10 again. The 10 most important lives to you. Count on your fingers. Love each finger as though it were a loved one. If there are 10 you can love truly, you shall not suffer the fate of the Sodomites. Hopefully.

​Tech, Culture 

A comedian lands at Heathrow and finds himself met by officers as though he posed a terrorist threat. His offense? A social media joke about trans people. He’s released on bail on the condition he doesn’t post on X.

Another man prays silently outside the “safe zone” of an abortion clinic and is hauled off, given a two-year conditional discharge, and fined £9,000 (just over $12,000).

We hope Britain pulls up from its nosedive, but let’s not delude ourselves. America faces the same temptations.

A third man waves the Union Jack at a pro-Palestinian march in England — only to be arrested. Reuters quickly ran interference: not for the flag, they said, but for a “racially aggravated public order offence” and “homophobic abuse.” As if that makes it better.

And we’re still not mentioning the Islamic child-rape scandal that grows worse with every new revelation. The United States watches Britain collapse into a kind of Reformation-era persecution, this time in the name of Islam, paganism, and sexual license. Americans shake their heads, maybe reassure themselves: We fought a revolution to escape this. Charles II jailed Christians. Charles III praises Islam. And we have the First Amendment. Case closed.

Not so fast. We may be on the same road. Once you begin policing speech to protect feelings, the end point looks very much like the UK. And we have plenty of warning signs.

The university test case

Universities may be the clearest early indicator. Professors tell us every profession must “look like” society — except their own. If a field is 97% male, they call it systemic bias. But in the academy itself, where atheists and leftists dominate, they see no problem.

The numbers don’t lie. At Arizona State University, a December 2024 survey found just 19 Republicans among 544 faculty members. At the University of Arizona, only eight Republicans out of 369. Entire departments lacked a single Republican. A 2023 Harvard Crimson study found only 2.5% of Harvard faculty identify as conservative. If any other profession looked this skewed, professors would scream about bias. In their case, they call it “normal.”

And the consequences? They’ll defend freedom of speech for burning an American flag. Burn a trans flag, and suddenly you’ve committed a hate crime. That is one step removed from Graham Linehan’s arrest in the UK for an X post.

Censorship in practice

Students already know what this means. A 2022 FIRE survey found they self-censor in class. They parrot leftist slogans on gender and race, not because they believe them, but because they want the grade. We are teaching them to lie to advance. No one is being asked to confess Christ; they are being asked to confess Ibram Kendi and John Money.

I’ve seen it firsthand. At ASU’s Honors College, faculty blocked Charlie Kirk, Dennis Prager, and Robert Kiyosaki from speaking, smearing them as “white supremacists.” That label alone was enough to push the event off campus. These professors weren’t interested in argument. They wanted silence.

RELATED: Why the English flag now terrifies the regime

Blaze Media illustration

Truth vs. lies

How do they justify it? With “hate crimes.” Not crimes that incite violence, but crimes of opinion. Disagree with LGBTQ ideology? That’s hate. Straight to jail. Professors sleep well at night because we’ve accepted their framework: society divided into oppressors and oppressed. Bad outcomes aren’t the result of choices, but of systemic injustice. Victims must be coddled, even at the expense of truth.

Once you accept that, feelings erase the First Amendment.

We need a spine. Sexual sins are real and destructive. Abortion ends a life. A comedian may say this through jokes; a philosopher may say it through essays. Either way, it’s the truth. The mob can gnash its teeth, plug its ears, strip away free speech, and jail comedians, but reality doesn’t change.

We hope Britain pulls up from its nosedive, but let’s not delude ourselves. America faces the same temptations. We must pray for the end of abortion, speak plainly about the damage sexual ideology inflicts on children, and reject the false frame of “oppressors and oppressed.” The real categories are truth and lies. Choose wisely, while you still can.

​Opinion & analysis, Censorship, Free speech, First amendment, Freedom of speech, Hate speech, Hate crimes, Truth, Lies, Great britain, Prayer, Abortion, Buffer zones, Safety, Universities, Social media, Police, Diversity, Union jack, Charles iii, Islam, Graham linehan, Fire, Harvard, Arizona state university 

An 18-year-old man who was detained at the site of a lethal triple shooting at an apartment complex had killed two of the victims, according to California police.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said they were called to the Lance Apartments along El Camino Avenue in Carmichael on Sunday at about 7 a.m. over a report of bullet holes and possibly dead people.

Police did not release the identities of the three men killed and later said they were gang-related and knew each other.

When they arrived, they found three men dead from gunshot wounds at the apartment and detained one man, identified as 18-year-old Jaylen Davis. All of the men were in their twenties, and they were all found with guns next to them.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper criticized a low-income housing complex for delaying its investigation by not providing security video when requested. After obtaining a subpoena, police identified a witness that aided in the investigation.

Police determined that two of the men were robbing the third man at the apartment and shot him during a struggle. That man died.

Davis, who also lived at the apartment complex, then retrieved his gun and killed the two robbers. The witness interviewed by police confirmed the details relayed by Davis.

The sheriff’s office said the four men in the incident had prior felony convictions and were restricted from possessing guns.

RELATED: California couple ran over man until he was pinned under truck wheel, then pepper-sprayed him

Police said the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office would not seek homicide charges against Davis.

However, Davis is going to face charges related to the gun possession and also because he was on parole and had an ankle monitor at the time of the incident. He is not eligible for bail.

Police did not release the identities of the three men killed and later said they were gang-related and knew each other.

Sgt. Amar Gandhi told KTXL-TV that Davis would not likely face a strict punishment for the low-level offenses.

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​Sacramento apt killings, Three men shot and killed, Jaylen davis kills two men, Armed robbers killed, Crime 

Power always seeks to expand. It never halts for principles or words on paper, but only for rival powers strong enough to resist it. Those rivals must have deep roots, independent resilience, and the ability to demand loyalty. They must project sovereignty in ways the state cannot easily replicate, establishing spheres of influence that can resist government overreach without ever firing a shot.

Historically, strong communities provided this check. Their religions and folkways became the rhythms of life, passed down through generations. These beliefs drew authority from transcendent sources no earthly power could reproduce. Families built churches, schools, libraries, civic organizations, unions, and fraternities to preserve culture, transmit values, and care for members.

Communities with shared traditions can limit state commands. But diversity dissolves those limits.

Such communities formed spheres of sovereignty. They made competing demands on their members and provided services the state could not: spiritual grounding, mutual aid, a sense of identity. Membership required specific behaviors to remain in good standing, norms the state could not easily reshape. Because traditions were deeply ingrained, the state had to respect them or risk serious resistance.

Over time, these communities often accumulated wealth. Virtue and stability generated surplus capital, which supported robust institutions and provided safety nets. Their members no longer relied on government in times of need. They relied on each other. These were the kulaks — the middle class — people whose independence created natural barriers to state expansion. Not atomized “self-reliance,” but communal reliance: stability rooted in culture and habit. That is precisely why governments sought to break them.

High and low vs. the middle

The political theorist Bertrand de Jouvenel, in “On Power,” described the classic formula: high and low versus the middle. The ruling class always wants more power, but the middle class resists. The poor, being dependent and disorganized, cannot mount opposition. Only the middle class, with property, institutions, and traditions, can stand in the way. To expand power, rulers must dissolve these spheres of sovereignty.

Their method is alliance with the dependent lower classes. Sometimes this means the domestic underclass. But that group still shares culture and traditions with the middle, making it less reliable as a tool. Importing a foreign underclass works better. Immigrants lack roots in the land or its traditions. They can be counted on to side with rulers against the entrenched middle.

Mass immigration delivers cheap labor to the wealthy while creating a new political client base. The upper class benefits from gardeners and nannies. Politicians gain millions of new voters to whom they can promise state benefits.

Dependence as a weapon

Immigrant groups rarely possess cohesive culture or resilient institutions. They lack roots, leisure, or unity to resist. They depend on the ruling class for entry, employment, rights, and welfare. Many don’t speak the language. They need the state to survive — and they reward the state with loyalty. This isn’t passive dependence. To succeed, they actively require the state to expand.

To serve this new underclass, rulers pillage the middle. Kulaks are blamed for inequality. They are guilted, taxed, or coerced into surrendering what they built. That wealth is transferred to immigrants, cementing the state’s power over both. The middle grows poorer, loses property, closes institutions, and becomes more unstable. Families that once resisted government control now depend on it.

RELATED: ‘Paperwork Americans’ are not your countrymen

Blaze Media illustration

Mass immigration also erodes culture, another obstacle to power. Communities with shared traditions can limit state commands. But diversity dissolves those limits. Forced to mingle with newcomers, the shared identity frays. Cultural separation becomes taboo. Institutions that once passed on values and provided aid collapse. Charities are drained. Public spaces decay. And those who maintained them see no reason to sacrifice for strangers.

The state ensures that escape is impossible. First taboo, then law, forbids communities to separate and reform. Those who try are smeared as bigots, then prosecuted. The middle is barred from reconstituting its way of life. Virtue fades. The spheres of sovereignty are gone. Everyone becomes a rootless dependent, giving the state a blank check to expand its power.

Why immigration became policy

This is why mass immigration became a priority across Western liberal democracies. It doesn’t just dismantle barriers to state power; it builds a machine to demand more of it. Rulers gain cheap labor, grateful voters, and excuses to raid the middle. The cost is cultural dissolution, but to elites that is a feature, not a bug.

If we want an elite that serves its people rather than undermines them, we must choke off this supply of outside populations. Stop importing clients. Stop dissolving communities. Restore the middle class and the spheres of sovereignty that protect liberty. Only then can the leviathan be caged.

​Opinion & analysis, Immigration, Assimilation, Customs, Folkways, Power, Bertrand de jouvenel, Community, State, Ruling class, Middle class, Underclass, Culture, Virtue, Force, Sovereignty, Dependence, Control