A prominent Catholic leader took on criticism against Western culture from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and exposed its Marxist underpinnings.

Bishop Robert Barron posted a video to the X platform where he first applauded Sec. of State Marco Rubio on his speech defending Western culture at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

‘Your argument is, well, because cultures always change? Well, that’s a banality!’

“He was talking about the shared culture of Europe and America. He referenced gothic cathedrals and Dante and Shakespeare and even the Beatles,” Barron said.

“And his point was, we gotta get beyond just our political differences and find our sources in the great culture that unites us,” he added. “Then he took a further step that was very much in line with Pope Benedict XVI and Christopher Dawson, namely that culture is grounded in ‘cult’ — at the root of all culture is something like religion. And so he wasn’t afraid to reference the Christian faith as a key element in giving rise to the shared culture of Europe and America.”

Barron then turned his attention to Ocasio-Cortez, who tried to respond to Rubio’s speech by belittling the idea of a Western culture at all.

“I think it’s also important to note how thin that foundation is. … And so, the response that we have to have is, again, it’s material. It’s class-based. It’s common interest,” the congresswoman said.

“I was very struck by her answer. I thought it was very illuminating,” Barron responded.

“She said, ‘Oh, you know, this appeal to culture, it’s so ‘thin’ because culture is ephemeral. It’s always changing, and so we shouldn’t pay attention to the culture. We should just pay attention to the material foundations in the class struggle,'” he added.

“Well, all of that, everybody, is right out of the Marxist playbook,” Barron chuckled.

RELATED: AOC flaunts her historical illiteracy in ‘cowboys’ critique of Rubio’s speech in Munich

Photo by Andres Kudacki/Getty Images

“First of all, that Western culture, as Rubio invoked it, is ‘thin’? The culture that gave us all those great figures, that gave us the rule of law, that gave us respect for the rights of the individual, that gave us our democratic political system, that gave us the university system, that’s thin?” he asked rhetorically.

“And your argument is, well, because cultures always change? Well, that’s a banality!” Barron added.

“I mean, of course cultures are alive. They change and evolve. It doesn’t mean for a second we can’t identify the key elements within a culture that gives it its character. But also this, to characterize culture as ‘thin’ is a Marxist move,” he explained.

“Marx said that culture is simply an epiphenomenal superstructure on top of the economic substructure, and don’t be distracted therefore by ‘the culture.’ That’s just protecting the economics at bottom,” Barron added. “Well, again, listen to her. ‘Let’s pay attention to material conditions and to class struggle.’ Again, that’s the Marxist playbook.”

He went on to warn that Marxism is gaining popularity among politicians and cited New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and his comments about collectivism.

“What’s worrying me, everybody, is the extent to which political leadership on the left in America is becoming unapologetically Marxist,” Barron continued.

“Might I encourage followers of Mayor Mamdani and AOC: Talk to some of them — they’re still alive, some of them — the people that fled Marxist tyranny in Europe. People laboring under it to this day in Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, et cetera.”

RELATED: Socialist Minneapolis councilwoman calls Trump a ‘domestic terrorist’ — and proposes rental assistance over ICE surge

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

He went on to point out that religion was the first target of Marxism.

“It concerns me not just as someone who follows politics but as a bishop of the Catholic Church. Marx himself said the first critique is a critique of religion. And his political adepts followed him. The first thing the Marxist tyrannies went after in most cases was religion,” he continued.

“I am getting a little concerned that in some of these leading figures in our own politics, a Marxist philosophy is taking hold. As a religious leader, this is concerning me quite a bit,” Barron added.

“Take a look, everybody. Attend to the language. In a way, they’re telling us who they are and what they’re for. And I think that should be very concerning to everybody,” he concluded. “God bless you.”

Barron is the bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota.

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​Marco rubio vs aoc, Rubio on western culture, Bishop robert barron, Ocasio cortez vs western culture, Politics 

He may be a serial killer who wants to wear his victim’s skin, but “The Silence of the Lambs” sicko Buffalo Bill is no transphobe.

At least according to Ted Levine, who portrayed the troubled womenswear enthusiast — real name Jame Gumb — in 1991 Best Picture winner “The Silence of the Lambs.”

‘We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues.’

“There are certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well,” the actor recently told the Hollywood Reporter. “We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.”

He added, “It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f**king wrong. And you can quote me on that.”

Basket case

At the same time, the 68-year-old Hollywood vet denied that his character was ever meant to be understood as transgender in the first place.

RELATED: ‘I wasn’t invited to those parties’: Kelsey Grammer mocks woke Hollywood hypocrisy

“I didn’t play him as being gay or trans. I think he was just a f**ked-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing,” Levine insisted.

Sick puppy

This interpretation was backed up by “Lambs” producer Edward Saxon.

“We were really loyal to the book,” Saxon said. “As we made the film, there was just no question in our minds that Buffalo Bill was a completely aberrant personality — that he wasn’t gay or trans. He was sick.”

Any connection to transgenderism was an oversight by the production, the producer explained.

“We missed it. From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm.”

Saxon said that given the fact those involved in the movie had “friends and family who were gay,” they thought it would be clear that Buffalo Bill is simply “incredibly sick,” not practicing some form of homosexuality.

RELATED: B is for butthead: Raunchy rapper threatens ‘bear mace’ for ICE agents

Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

‘It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.’

Skin in the game

Levine’s remarks came as the actor reflected on the 35th anniversary of his breakout role — and the staying power of a certain famous line.

“Pain in the ass, but it’s OK. Kind of put me on the map,” Levine laughed, “But [the annoyance recently] is less so. The edges have worn off. It’s not a big deal. It’s fine.”

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Reporter Steve Cortes’ new documentary, “China’s College Takeover,” takes on the influx of Chinese nationals infiltrating American colleges and universities — which BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales notes is yet another form of immigration that needs to be put under the microscope.

“The issue of immigration is something that, once you see the issue, once you see the real problems, you can’t unsee it. It’s peeling back the layers of an onion, and it just gets worse and worse and worse,” Gonzales says.

“We are kind of the laughingstock of the globe at this point. … All of these other countries are just like, ‘Hey, hey, we’re just going to utilize and abuse their system, and we’re just going to take over,’” she adds.

“I’m sure there are times when some of the party bosses at the CCP’s buildings in Beijing just laugh to themselves. They cannot believe how willingly the United States will act as a victim, will volunteer for victimhood at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party,” Cortes agrees.

“And in this case, I think it’s absolutely outrageous that our most selective universities, our top flagship public schools across the United States are inundated with foreign students,” he says.

What Cortes finds “particularly awful” is the CCP “sending its princelings … over here so that we can educate our enemies so that many of them can spy on us and commit espionage.”

“We know that’s happening. There have been charges and convictions already. And then take those skills that they learned at some of our top schools like University of Illinois and go back to Beijing so they can make our adversary more powerful, more wealthy, and better able to continue to take advantage of the United States,” Cortes says.

“So, I’m trying to expose this, as you are, and say, ‘Enough.’ Of course, illegal immigration is a scourge to this country, but even the way we’re tolerating legal migration, including the student issue, is just inexcusable, and I think it needs to be exposed,” he adds.

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Millions of modern Westerners are chained up in self-imposed terrors that prevent them from living in the real world. We’re terrified of “expired” food. We consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website while we peer at our digital meat thermometers to make sure we hit the government-approved specific temperature that reassures us that we won’t kill our families.

You can just cook things. Do you know that? Really. You can do the same things, with the same basic tools, that humans have been doing for countless tens of thousands of years before programmable stoves, digital scales, and tenth-of-a-degree meat thermometers came along. The only thing stopping you is unnecessary fear.

There is no reason to be reliant on complicated devices and prissy little scales in order to make bread. How do you think Laura Ingalls managed it?

It’s not just cooking that’s fallen prey to modern hysteria either. Alleged adults in the 2020s are skittish about checking the oil in their car or topping up the antifreeze (if they even think it’s “safe” to do without professional supervision).

Food for thought

But I can only focus on one thing in this piece, and that’s going to be food. Between the time I was a kid learning to cook in the ’80s and today, adult Americans have retreated into a mental padded cell where they quake with overblown fears about food technique and food safety.

I come from the Before Times, a land where children walked a mile each way to school, a land where kids could ride their bikes anywhere in town as long as they were home by dark. Now we have a new traffic jam at 3 p.m. around public schools. It’s not normal. It’s also not sane, necessary, or proportionate. Today only one in 10 children walk to school. Read that again. If that sounds normal, you’re the person I’m writing for.

I was taught to use a stove for simple meals by the time I was 8. Today? Fourteen-year-olds on average have never even made a box of macaroni and cheese on the stove top. A few years later, they become 25-year-olds who complain about the cost of eating because they think — yes, really — that DoorDash is the normal way to get supper.

I’m with soup-id

I knew something was happening to adult minds back in 1991 in the staff room of Perkins Family Restaurant in Camillus, New York. It was 2 p.m., and I was struggling to stay awake for an all-hands meeting on food safety (I worked the overnight shift).

District manager Phil was telling us about the dangers of poultry and salmonella. You have to know there was no raw poultry in the kitchen of this restaurant ever. Every chicken product we served had been pre-cooked, which means that any salmonella had already been killed. We merely reheated plastic-bagged refrigerated food from a factory.

Phil opened a bag of fully cooked chicken and dumpling soup and poured it into the steam table. Whipping out a thermometer, he stuck it into the next pot, which already had the same soup brought to serving temperature.

“This pot is not hot enough, and if we don’t keep it up to temperature, we risk giving our guests salmonella poisoning,” he said.

I bit my hand to stop myself from responding.

In case you don’t know why this is wrong: Once poultry has been fully cooked, all salmonella gets killed. It does not “regenerate” if the temperature falls. Sure, other microbes might get a foothold, but this guy really did believe that letting chicken cool off a few degrees would magically re-salmonellize it. I wonder if he believed the old tale about how raw meat spontaneously generates flies.

RELATED: How I stopped hating guns — and embraced self-reliance

Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The d’oy of cooking

As a longtime home cook, I’ve watched cookery become hystericized over the past four decades. As fewer parents cooked themselves, and as even fewer of them taught their children, I watched recipes get dumbed down. What would have taken a paragraph to explain to a person in 1985 now required 15 numbered steps: “Pour water into clear container. Bending down, use your eye to see if it hits the line that says ‘one cup.’ Then carefully pick up the cup, and tilt it so that the water falls out into the bowl. This is called ‘pouring.’”

I only slightly exaggerate. About 15 years ago, I looked up a recipe for chicken paprikash and made the mistake of reading the comments. This is a pretty accurate reconstruction:

“I made this recipe exactly as the author described, but she never told me that there were BONES in the chicken. I was appalled! I actually served my family chicken with bones inside it, and I was so embarrassed. My kids wouldn’t eat it. You should WARN PEOPLE.”

No, I don’t think this commenter was a troll. I’ve seen enough in real life to know there are millions of Americans walking around so disconnected from basic household tasks that they literally do not know that meat always comes with bones and that bones are normal.

Getting medieval

Last week, I got inspired to start baking again. That inspiration came from a YouTube channel I recommend called “Medieval Way.” The British guy behind it takes you through the simple, manual, methods of raising bread, stewing meat, and preserving foods that people did from muscle memory and common sense. And wouldn’t you know, their foodways (which were the foodways for all of us for thousands of years before the late 19th century) produce more nutritious meals than most of us eat today.

It’s a myth, and a damned scurrilous one, that a noticeable number of people died all the time in “the old days” from food poisoning because they didn’t have refrigerators or meat thermometers or the CDC. Pardon my frankness, but all humans who lived before us weren’t stupid.

I decided I was going to resume sourdough baking from natural leaven, no commercial yeast. But I also decided I wasn’t going to buy any special equipment like scales or filtered water or any of that. And I wasn’t going to measure anything.

I want to master my craft with my hands and heart and eyes. There is no reason to be reliant on complicated devices and prissy little scales in order to make bread. How do you think Laura Ingalls managed it? She learned how dough felt in the hand and gauged proper hydration and texture through feel and experience. I can too. So can you.

Maybe my project will inspire you. Here’s what I did. Don’t expect precise measurements or special tips: Get in there with your hands and learn it yourself.

For the starter

Stoneground organic whole rye flour. I’m not a hippie leftist; it’s just true that stone-ground flours without pesticides are nutritionally superior and give better results for this. Rye works faster than white flour.Water. I’m lucky enough to live on clean well water without chlorine. If you have city water, pour out a jug and set it on the counter to let the chlorine evaporate. That chemical will inhibit the bacteria and yeast you want to grow.

I put some flour in a bowl. Then I put some water in. Then I stirred it. Then I set it on the counter under a towel. Every day, I dumped half out and added back water and flour to give the nascent yeast new starch to grow on.

After a week, I wasn’t seeing much. I was on the verge of throwing it out and starting again when I lifted the towel and saw this:

Josh Slocum

That’s a thriving, frothing stew of natural yeast and accompanying bacteria that will leaven your loaf and give you a flavor you can’t get from commercial bread. It costs literally pennies and time.

For the bread

I put some all-purpose flour (again, organic, so no chemical traces to interfere) in a bowl. I added some lukewarm water. Then I dumped some of the starter in. How much? I don’t know. Maybe half a cup?

I mixed it all together and kneaded it just a few times until everything was incorporated. Tip: You don’t have to knead your dough at all if you’re willing to be patient. If you set a sourdough loaf to ferment in a room of about 60 degrees with a loose cover and wait 24 hours, the bacteria and yeast will do everything for you, and it’s better than hand kneading.

Here’s the loaf 12 hours later:

Josh Slocum

It’s only risen about 20% to 30% in size so far, but that’s because sourdough is slower than commercial yeast, and my house is on the cool side. I’m going to put it in the oven with just the oven light on to speed it up.

How long will it take to double in size? I don’t know. It might do so by 24 hours, or it might take 36 hours. The longer the fermentation, the more digestible the bread, the better the texture, and the better the flavor. Sooner or later, it will fully rise, and I’ll pop it in a preheated, covered dutch oven at 500 degrees, and I’ll get a beautiful loaf with that crisp, glass-shattering crust.

My hope is that you’ll find something — bread, cakes, roast meats, whatever you like — and just cook it. Put down your cookbook. Turn off the phone. Stop looking for a “foolproof” recipe for bolognese sauce. Stop watching step-by-step videos.

Learn it in your hands and in your mind. Even most “mistakes” in cooking aren’t fatal to the meal. We don’t have to be slaves to expert directions. None of this is arcane knowledge beyond mere 21st-century mortals. Peasants who lived quite literally on one penny a day turned out two or three meals a day for their families without any of the gee-gaws and expert hand-holding that we moderns have become dependent upon.

Just go cook things!

​Lifestyle, Cooking, How-to, Sourdough, Baking, Food safety, Intervention 

Investigators searching for Nancy Guthrie said they have a new lead relating to the suspect seen in a terrifying doorbell video last week.

Pima County (Ariz.) Sheriff Chris Nanos told CBS News that investigators believe the suspect’s clothing and face mask were purchased at Walmart, and they are trying to identify each brand.

The FBI previously described the individual in the surveillance video as a male with an average build who is about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, the news network added.

The news network said it first reported that the suspect’s backpack — identified as a black Ozark Trail Hiker — was sold exclusively at Walmart.

CBS News added that it’s not yet known if the items were purchased online or in an Arizona store — or somewhere else. Investigators have spent several days reviewing surveillance video at local Walmarts, the sheriff also told the news network.

Authorities believe Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie — was abducted from her Tucson home in the middle of the night, CBS News said, adding that she has been missing since Feb. 1.

Nanos called the backpack one of the most promising leads in the case, the news network reported.

More from CBS News:

Walmart has provided records of all Ozark Trail Hiker online and in-store purchases over the past several months, including sales beyond the Tucson area, to investigators, Nanos told CBS News.

CBS News has reached out to Walmart corporate offices but a spokesperson declined to comment.

Investigators believe the face mask the suspect wore is black but appears lighter on the video footage due to Nest camera’s infrared technology.

The FBI previously described the individual in the surveillance video as a male with an average build who is about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, the news network added.

RELATED: How the FBI actually got the Google Nest footage of Nancy Guthrie’s alleged kidnapper

More from CBS News:

Investigators have also collected other DNA evidence from Nancy Guthrie’s property as part of the ongoing investigation, but the results have not led to a suspect, according to Nanos.

Multiple law enforcement agencies spent hours Friday evening searching a residence less than two miles from Nancy Guthrie’s home.

Nanos told CBS affiliate KOLD that the activity was the result of following up on “a lead that led to a search warrant and no arrest.” Authorities did not release other details on what led them there or what, if anything, may have been found.

The FBI on Tuesday released video and images from a security camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door; an FBI press release said the man was armed.

A post on the X platform from FBI Director Kash Patel stated that authorities had been working “to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie’s home that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors — including the removal of recording devices. The video was recovered from residual data located in backend systems.”

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — whose name has been bandied about as a possible 2028 presidential contender — took issue over the weekend with some of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference.

Rather than successfully critique anything Rubio said on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez instead exposed more of her historical illiteracy.

Rubio’s speech

Vice President JD Vance enraged a crowd of European officials last year at the Munich Security Conference by calling out their suppression of popular political movements and ideas, crackdown on religious liberties, and ruinous mass migration policies.

While pointed, Vance’s criticism of Europe’s censorious and self-destructive ways was constructive and imbued with the hope that Western nations across the Atlantic might return to the values they once shared in common with the United States.

‘Rubio’s speech was a pure appeal to “Western culture.”‘

In a less-scathing sequel to Vance’s speech, Rubio discussed on Feb. 14 the deep civilizational bonds that he figures the U.S. and Europe still share, the opportunity for concerted renewal, and the way forward to a “new century of prosperity.”

“We are part of one civilization — Western civilization,” said Rubio. “We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.”

Rubio noted further that the U.S., under President Donald Trump, has embarked on the “task of renewal and restoration, driven by a vision of a future as proud, as sovereign, and as vital as our civilization’s past.”

“While we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe,” added the secretary.

Whereas Europeans couldn’t stomach Vance’s speech on-theme last year, the audience gave Rubio a standing ovation following his speech on Saturday.

Bucking the revisionism

While Europeans were receptive to the secretary’s discussion of civilizational inheritance and common responsibility, Ocasio-Cortez apparently had trouble with one of Rubio’s passing remarks.

During a softball interview at the Technical University of Berlin on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez cited Rubio’s speech as evidence of the “ascent of the right even in places like Munich.”

“Marco Rubio’s speech was a pure appeal to ‘Western culture,'” said the congresswoman, employing scare quotes in reference to Western culture.

RELATED: ‘Qualm your t*ts’: Ocasio-Cortez makes embarrassing mistake while defending Don Lemon — and the ridicule is hilarious

Cornado sets out on his expedition for Quivira in 1540. Getty Images.

“My favorite part,” continued Ocasio-Cortez, “was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain. I believe the Mexicans and descendants of African slaves — enslaved peoples — would like to have a word on that.”

In his speech, Rubio stated:

Our expansion into the interior followed the footsteps of French fur traders and explorers whose names, by the way, still adorn the street signs and towns names all across the Mississippi Valley. Our horses, our ranches, our rodeos — the entire romance of the cowboy archetype that became synonymous with the American West — these were born in Spain. And our largest and most iconic city was named New Amsterdam before it was named New York.

Ocasio-Cortez’s critics were quick to point out that horses and cowboy culture were, as Rubio suggested, a European export to North America — including to New Spain, which ultimately became the home of Ocasio-Cortez’s would-be fact-checking, Spanish-speaking Mexicans.

‘Your IQ is lower than the temp in my freezer.’

While ancient horses once roamed North America, they apparently went extinct around 10,000 years ago. The species hitherto unknown to the native population was, however, reintroduced to the continent by Spaniards and other Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, imported the first horses the continent had seen in thousands of years on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. Twenty-six years later — and after decades of Europeans breeding horses in the Caribbean, where Ocasio-Cortez’s family hails from originally — the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés brought 16 horses to what is now Mexico.

With continued European exploration and expansion, horses were ultimately bred and spread across the continent, and mastered by European settlers and Indians alike. The corresponding horseman culture also didn’t appear ex nihilo.

Although it also references the Irish “Cau-boys” of the High Middle Ages, Fort Worth’s Sid Richardson Museum notes in its relevant overview that “cowboy culture in the American West can be traced to the Spanish tradition of the vaquero.”

“Derived from the word vaca (Spanish for cow), the vaqueros would become renowned for their skills and adaptability as Spain expanded their North American empire westward from what is now Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to the Franciscan missions in California by the late 1700s,” noted History.com.

Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck responded to Ocasio-Cortez, writing, “Yeah literally every culture learned the cowboy trade from Spanish vaqueros. I’m sorry that your IQ is lower than the temp in my freezer.”

John Daniel Davidson, a senior editor at the Federalist, quipped, “Just wait till she finds out where Mexicans came from.”

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The “deep state” — the hidden network of unelected bureaucrats, intelligence officials, military leaders, and other insiders who secretly control government policy regardless of who is elected — has long been written off as a conspiracy theory.

But BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says seven recently declassified documents from Richard Nixon’s 1975 grand jury testimony are evidence that the deep state doesn’t just exist — it’s been forcefully active for decades.

On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz interviews Newsmax chief Washington correspondent James Rosen about the bombshell he helped bring to light.

Rosen, author of the 2008 book “The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate,” has been digging into this story for over 30 years. He explains that the seven newly unsealed pages from Nixon’s secret 1975 grand jury testimony finally confirm one of the most explosive (and deliberately buried) scandals of the Nixon era: the Moorer-Radford espionage affair.

Back in 1971, top military leaders felt ignored by President Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger. They were upset that big foreign-policy decisions were being made without them.

In response, the Joint Chiefs of Staff launched a secret spying operation inside the White House. They used a young Navy yeoman named Charles Radford to steal thousands of top-secret documents.

“He took a copy of every document that came across his vision. What he couldn’t copy, he memorized. He dove through waste baskets and burn bags. He literally rifled the briefcases of Henry Kissinger while he slept on overnight flights,” says Rosen.

“It’s estimated that this yeoman stole 5,000 classified documents from the National Security Council over a year’s time, 1970 to ’71, in wartime, and delivered those documents to the Joint Chiefs of Staff through the admirals,” he adds.

When these ultra-sensitive documents Radford had stolen started appearing in newspaper columns just days after high-level meetings, Nixon’s “plumbers” — which Rosen describes as a White House “special investigative unit” — quickly traced the leaks back to Radford and the Pentagon spy ring.

The White House was stunned to discover that the U.S. military had been running an espionage operation against its own commander in chief during wartime.

“[The Senate Armed Services Committee] held classified closed-door hearings, but everybody involved had good reason to want to let the matter drop, and ultimately nothing was done,” says Rosen.

For starters, Nixon didn’t want to publicly “vilify” the military during the Vietnam era, when returning veterans were already facing widespread scorn and being labeled “baby killers,” Rosen explains. Further, Attorney General John Mitchell reminded Nixon of his own administration’s secret operations, making a full-blown scandal risky for everyone.

So the affair was hushed up. Radford and the involved admirals were quietly reassigned to remote posts; the Pentagon liaison office was dissolved; and no charges were filed. Brief classified Senate hearings in 1974 fizzled out amid the Watergate storm.

Rosen, who first detailed this from Nixon’s 1971 White House tapes in his 2002 Atlantic article “Nixon and the Chiefs,” says these seven newly declassified pages from Nixon’s 1975 grand jury testimony add the former president’s own sworn account of the betrayal.

It shows unelected military leaders actively undermining an elected president over policy disagreements — proof, he argues, that the deep state isn’t a modern myth but a decades-old “beast.”

Check out the full eye-opening interview above.

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A partial shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security entered its third day Monday, leaving thousands of Transportation Security Administration agents and other essential workers without pay as they continue performing critical duties at airports nationwide.

The funding lapse, which began early Saturday, stems from a breakdown in negotiations between congressional Democrats and Republicans over proposed restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

‘This is getting very old, and we’re hoping this is not going to become the new normal.’

Even WPRI in Rhode Island noted Democrats’ role in the shutdown: “The Department of Homeland Security officially shut down on Saturday after Democrats refused to fund it. They want new restrictions on ICE agents following the deadly shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.”

The shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have intensified tensions surrounding immigration enforcement. Democrats have insisted on new limits on DHS funding, while Republicans have accused them of holding up critical funding to secure policy concessions.

RELATED: Government shutdown looms after Democrats tank key DHS vote

TSA screeners, deemed essential personnel, are required to report for duty despite the funding lapse.

Reporting from T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island, WPRI’s Sophia Szabo said TSA agents are still recovering from a 43-day government shutdown last year.

“That’s a long time to work without a paycheck,” Szabo said, noting lawmakers have roughly two weeks to reach a deal before another missed pay period.

The impact on workers is mounting.

“This is getting very old, and we’re hoping this is not going to become the new normal, but it does seem that it’s going in that direction,” a union representative for TSA agents in New England said. “A lot of the officers are very anxious because we’re in the middle of winter, and now we’re going to have to choose between paying for heat and paying for food and rent if the checks don’t come through in the next couple of weeks. Because in two weeks, in the next pay period, we’re only going to have half a check, and so choices are going to have to be made — and we shouldn’t be put in this position again.”

RELATED: ‘We do not support ICE’: Speedway gas station sparks backlash after booting Border Patrol boss

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Szabo added that staffing shortages have worsened since the previous shutdown.

“According to a union representing TSA agents across New England, there has been a significant shortage of these agents since that last shutdown, and they’re already struggling to recruit more,” she reported.

The shutdown affects agencies within DHS, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service.

Congress is currently in recess until Feb. 23, leaving a narrow window to resolve the impasse before broader operational impacts emerge.

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​Politics, Dhs, Government shutdown, No pay, Tsa, Tsa agents, Airport, Democrats 

A group of 10 students in California caused a controversy after spelling out a controversial word with letters on their T-shirts last week.

The students were originally part of a photo celebrating the class of 2026, but then decided to pull a prank that they may end up regretting.

‘A small group of students made the poor decision to publicly spell out a message.’

Originally, more than 20 students wore coordinated T-shirts for a photo in the bleachers at Redwood High School, located southeast of Fresno, California, in the Visalia Unified School District.

Surrounded by a crowd of their peers, the students spelled, “Always Legit, Class of 2026,” with each student having a single letter on the chest.

According to Your Central Valley, some of the students then rearranged themselves for a different photo during the school event.

Seven students spelled out the word “faggots,” utilizing a “6” T-shirt in place of a “G” when spelling the word. Another student sat to the left wearing a “2” T-shirt, while two students sat three rows behind in the photo. All of the students were criticized for smiling or placing their arms around each other in the picture.

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School officials sent out an apology letter to families that same night, KFSN reported, saying the school prides itself on respect, integrity, and leadership.

“Good afternoon, Ranger Families, I am writing to inform you about a recent incident in which a small group of students made the poor decision to publicly spell out a message that was derogatory and disrespectful,” the letter read.

The school added that “this behavior is unacceptable” and “does not reflect who we are as a school community.”

In a statement to Your Central Valley, Visalia Unified Superintendent Kirk Shrum indicated that the district was made aware of students who coordinated to “spell out a hateful, homophobic slur.”

RELATED: 2 Florida 15-year-olds accused of threatening to shoot up high schools

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

“This is unacceptable behavior, and this matter is being thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action will be taken,” Shrum went on. “Every student deserves to feel respected, protected, and valued on our campuses. We will continue working to ensure our schools are places where dignity, belonging, and accountability guide our actions.”

On Friday evening, Visalia Unified School District announced that it had taken “appropriate disciplinary action” against the students for spelling out a “hateful” slur.

It has also been noted that some of the students were reportedly members of the school student government.

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​News, Slur, Censorship, High school, California, Lgbt, Gay agenda, Politics 

Robert Selden Duvall has died at the age of 95, according to a statement from his wife.

The iconic actor was best known for his roles in “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now.”

‘To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything.’

Duvall’s wife posted a statement on Facebook Monday saying that he had died the day before.

“Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend, and one of the greatest actors of our time. Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort,” Luciana Pedraza, the actor’s fourth wife, wrote.

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court,” she added.

A statement from his public relations agency said he died “peacefully” at his home in Middleburg, Virginia.

Duvall was nominated seven times for an Academy Award and won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role as Mac Sledge in the 1983 film “Tender Mercies.”

He was also known for being openly conservative and campaigned for several Republicans including John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

“What a double standard,” he said about feminists. “They witter on about having the vote and then elect a guy like Clinton because he’s good-looking and puts through women-friendly policies.”

RELATED: Gene Hackman’s death riddled with suspicion

“For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented,” his wife continued.

“In doing so, he leaves something lasting and unforgettable to us all,” she added. “Thank you for the years of support you showed Bob and for giving us this time and privacy to celebrate the memories he leaves behind.”

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​Rubert duvall dead, Iconic actors die, Conservative hollywood celebrities, Robert duvall’s politics, Politics