Liquid Glass is one of Apple’s more contentious design choices in recent memory. Some love its transparent surfaces and light refractions, while others hate its readability. Over the last year, Apple slowly rolled out ways to tone down the glassy look, and thanks to iOS 27, now you can almost get rid of it entirely.

I wasn’t a fan of Liquid Glass when it showed up in Apple’s operating systems last year. The glassy panels made text hard to read, and the light refractions around app icons and buttons cheapened the refined look of Apple’s mobile platform. Even a year later, I still don’t love it.

Instead of forcing a binary choice between clear and tinted surfaces, there is now a whole spectrum of options.

I wasn’t alone either. There was plenty of blowback online to the point that Apple caved and added a “tinted” surface option alongside the default “clear” aesthetic in iOS 26.1 that turned down the glassy appearance of its new design language. I enabled that the moment it was available and never looked back.

Now that iOS 27 is officially here, a quick dig through the settings shows that Apple has capitulated even further — or rather, it has given users the rare chance to customize the design language of their iPhone as they see fit. Instead of forcing a binary choice between clear and tinted surfaces, there is now a whole spectrum of options, thanks to a new Liquid Glass slider that lets you choose the level of glassy liquidity you want in your iPhone.

RELATED: The latest iPhone security threat has a nasty fix

Moor Studio/Getty Images

To locate the new option in iOS 27, open the Settings app and choose “Appearance.” Tap on Liquid Glass halfway down the page. Here, you will see the new slider with 100% clear on the left and 100% tinted on the right. Above that, you’ll find an example article about Apple Park with a search bar laid on top. Scroll up on the article, and you will see how the search bar interacts with the content underneath it.

Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max

It’s here where the mistakes of Liquid Glass are most apparent. As you scroll in clear mode, the words in the search bar mingle with the words in the article, creating an unreadable mess of content that I still find baffling. How did Apple ever approve this?!

Scroll through the same article in tinted mode, and the search bar remains completely legible without taking anything away from the main content. Although it isn’t as fancy, this mode is easiest to read, in my opinion. Meanwhile, the middle option offers a nice blend of both worlds.

Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max

The best thing Apple did, though, was make the slider completely moveable from left to right, so you can dial in the exact amount of transparency to fit your preferences and to save your eyes. Finally! We get to choose!

I’ve been using 100% tinted mode since iOS 27 launched, and although I vastly prefer this look to the full transparency of Liquid Glass, it’s still not perfect. Some of the surfaces throughout the operating system, like Control Center, appear the same in both modes, offering more transparency than I’d like. But beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m happy that Apple gave users the option to decide if they want to read their phones or not.

Screenshot by Zach Laidlaw/iOS 27 on iPhone 18 Pro Max

While iPhone will be the biggest benefactor of the new Liquid Glass slider, it’s not the only device in Apple’s lineup to get some relief. You can also find this option in iPadOS and MacOS, officially bringing opaque unity to the hero products in Apple’s ecosystem.

To access the new Liquid Glass slider, update your devices to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate, all available now.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Iphone, Ios, Update, Tech 

A former Wisconsin fifth-grade teacher admitted to sexually assaulting two 15-year-old boys, becoming the second educator from the same elementary school to be convicted of sex crimes involving minors, according to authorities. The teacher is also accused of kissing an 11-year-old student.

Abigail Faust, 25, pleaded guilty to child enticement and second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16 on Sept. 14, the Pioneer Press reported, adding that the prosecution dismissed “nearly a dozen” other charges, including allegations of her kissing a fifth-grade student. However, the charges were read in and still can be considered at sentencing.

‘[The victim] explained that during this time period, he believed he and [Faust] were in an exclusive relationship and that [Faust] referenced the two having a child together some day.’

“What I did was not a mistake or a lapse of judgment,” Faust said in St. Croix County Circuit Court, according to the Pioneer Press.

Faust admitted that she “violated trust” and has been undergoing therapy to understand “why I allowed myself to make those choices,” the paper reported.

Faust is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on Dec. 15.

Faust had been a fifth-grade teacher at the Rivercrest Elementary School in Hudson. However, she resigned in May 2024 after allegations that she kissed a fifth-grade boy.

KARE-TV reported that court documents allege a student told authorities that Faust kept him after class one day, pushed him against the wall, and kissed his cheek.

The boy later told a therapist that Faust kissed him on the lips after she had requested that he stay after class, and she left her phone number on his desk, according to the criminal complaint.

When police interviewed the boy about the incident, he was uncomfortable, scared, and cried when talking about the situation, the complaint said.

Parents of another boy saw reports about Faust and became alarmed since she had been the family’s nanny since 2021.

The Pioneer Press reported that the teen told a Washington County (Minnesota) deputy that Faust sent provocative Snapchat messages to him in December 2024 followed by pictures of herself wearing lingerie.

Court documents note that the teen said Faust told him she knew what they were doing was “bad” and that they would both be in trouble if their actions came to light.

The criminal complaint states that Faust and the boy kissed and then “went through the motions of having sexual intercourse without actual penetration” in December 2024.

Faust and the boy she had babysat exchanged nude photos, according to court records.

Court docs say Faust told the minor they could have sex if he did well in the sport he was playing.

The Pioneer Press reported that Faust first sexually assaulted the boy in early January 2025 at her home in Hudson and then on two more occasions that month when she spent the night at his family’s home.

Faust sexually assaulted the teen approximately twice a week in the months following, the complaint said.

“[The victim] explained that during this time period, he believed he and [Faust] were in an exclusive relationship and that [Faust] referenced the two having a child together some day,” the criminal complaint states.

In April 2025, the boy went on a family trip to Florida, and Faust took care of the family’s pets.

While the teen was on vacation, Faust began a “sexual relationship” with one of the boy’s 15-year-old friends, the complaint states.

RELATED: Ex-mayor convicted of child sex crimes walks free after 90 days — judge admits key mistake he made in sentencing

People magazine reported that Faust was charged in Washington County, Minnesota, in connection with the sexual misconduct with the 15-year-old boy for whom she worked as a nanny. She pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct earlier this month.

Faust is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on Dec. 8, according to the Pioneer Press.

Another fifth-grade teacher at Rivercrest Elementary School — 27-year-old Madison Bergmann — was charged and convicted of child sexual assault of one of her own students in a separate case.

Prosecutors said the criminal investigation into accusations against Bergmann exposed allegations against Faust.

The criminal complaint states that investigators discovered Faust and Bergmann were friends and texted each other about their inappropriate relationships with the students.

WEAU-TV previously reported that prosecutors accused Faust of knowing about the inappropriate relationship between Bergmann and Bergmann’s victim and failed to notify authorities.

As Blaze News previously reported, Bergmann and her victim exchanged approximately 33,000 text messages, and the relationship became more sexual and explicit over time.

Bergmann pleaded guilty to child enticement and sexual misconduct involving an 11-year-old student.

Bergmann in December 2025 was sentenced to six years in prison.

St. Croix Circuit Judge Scott Nordstrand said Bergmann’s crimes were “deliberate, purposeful,” and “have been devastating to the victim, life-changing for that young boy,” according to the Pioneer Press.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Minnesota, Teacher student sex scandal, Wisconsin, Elementary school, Crime 

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) has made no secret of the impact that Jim Rigby, the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, has had on his thinking.

Talarico, the Texas Democrat now battling state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for a seat in the U.S. Senate, told the New York Times, for instance, that Rigby was one of “the biggest influences on [him] as a Christian, as a human being.”

‘This false shepherd managed to deny virtually every key doctrine of Christianity in less than two minutes.’

“He is my pastor in every sense of the word,” added Talarico, a part-time Presbyterian seminarian who has fought to keep the Bible out of school; attempted to use Scripture to justify abortion; taken money from an associate of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein; concern-mongered about traditional Christian views; and voted against sparing kids from sex-rejection mutilations.

Hidden-camera footage exclusively obtained by Blaze News appears to show that the pastor who shaped Talarico’s worldview doesn’t think too highly of evangelical Christians.

In a video dated Aug. 30, Rigby was asked by a person off-camera, “What’s wrong with evangelical Christians? Like, how do they read what they read, they claim what they claim?”

RELATED: Talarico’s pivot from ‘God is nonbinary’ is all just an act, admits minister at his church

The woke pastor says in response, according to the video, “My guess is that they’re people who are just not that smart in, like, abstract thinking, which is where a lot of the liberal stuff and the principles of human rights and all that stuff comes up — it’s like they just, it doesn’t show up on their radar.”

“They panic when that stuff is laid out in front of them,” Rigby stated further, according to the video. “They know there’s something they’re not seeing. It’s like they have black and white vision and somebody’s showing them [a] color photograph or something like that.”

Rigby appears to believe that President Donald Trump and even Adolf Hitler have exploited evangelicals and their allegedly simple way of thinking for political gain, claiming in the video that “what Hitler did and what Trump is doing is play off of that.”

The purported Christian pastor apparently complained further about evangelicals’ beliefs in the supernatural, specifically in hell, angels, and demons, suggesting that such beliefs are irrational.

“The church is a huge part of the problem — teaching people from the cradle that things are true because you believe them,” Rigby says, according to the video.

“A belief in hell shuts everything down, because when you think that you could be tortured for all eternity, and you believe in demons and angels and stuff like this, you can’t stay rational for long.”

Rigby adds, according to the video, “If you think that supernatural beings are affecting things, good logic wouldn’t make any sense.”

According to the most recent Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study, 27% of adults in Texas identify as evangelical Protestants.

Evangelicals are, however, hardly the only Christians who believe in the existence of hell, angels, and demons.

A 2021 Pew survey found that 62% of all American adults and 69% of all American Christians believe in hell. A 2023 Gallup survey found that 69% of Americans believe in angels and 58% believe in the devil.

“It’s not surprising an open and avowed heretic like James Talarico goes to a church led by fellow heretics,” BlazeTV host Steve Deace said in a statement to Blaze News, after reviewing the footage. “What is surprising, though, is how this false shepherd managed to deny virtually every key doctrine of Christianity in less than two minutes.”

“You have to be really committed to doctrines of demons and detesting Christ and His Word to display that level of deception masquerading as conviction,” added Deace.

RELATED: UNDERCOVER VIDEO: ‘Shady as f**k’ scheme paid people to vote for Talarico in ’roundabout way,’ Soros PAC leader caught admitting

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Rigby has issued plenty of other remarks that Talarico might want to distance himself from in the final months of his campaign. The pastor, who expressed hope that Talarico would follow in his footsteps at St. Andrew’s, has, for instance, made headlines for calling for a “true jihad” at a pro-Palestine rally; rejected belief in a literal resurrection; repeatedly cast doubt on whether Christ rose from the dead; emphasized that he doesn’t “believe Christianity is the only way, or even the best way for many people”; and expressed discomfort with the use of the word “God.”

Rigby and the Talarico campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

While supportive of Talarico, his message, and his candidacy, Rigby noted earlier this year, “I do not speak for him and he owes no one an explanation for things I have said.”

Despite noting that they do not speak with one voice, Rigby’s influence on Talarico is unmistakable — particularly in his eagerness to criticize Christians and mainstream Christianity.

Talarico noted, for example, in a March 2021 episode of the “Activist Theology” podcast that despite always getting “drawn back” in, “I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.”

Paxton has stressed that Talarico “is a threat to our values, our way of life, and the future of Texas.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Christ, Christianity, Donald trump, James talarico, Ken paxton, Steve deace, Us senate, God, Jim rigby, Austin, Presbyterian, Evangelical, Faith, Politics 

An individual identified by the Department of Homeland Security as an illegal alien from Venezuela was shot on Sunday during an immigration enforcement operation in Austin, Texas.

Democratic officials and the liberal media rushed to vilify Immigration and Customs Enforcement and characterize 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez as a victim who has been subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of federal authorities.

‘He entered illegally under the Biden Administration.’

The DHS has, however, cast doubt on the veracity of the anti-ICE crowd’s various claims regarding Perez’s case.

“Sanctuary politicians and the mainstream media have wasted no time in spreading lies about an ICE officer-involved shooting of an illegal alien in Austin, Texas,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.

“Contrary to their claims, this person is an illegal alien who has no legal status to be here and has been given some of the best medical care he’s ever received in his life,” continued Mullin. “No amount of smears and false narratives will slow down ICE from doing its job by removing dangerous illegal aliens from our communities and making America safe again.”

The DHS fact-checked numerous claims that have been advanced by Democrats and/or the liberal media since the incident.

RELATED: Texas shuts down rioters, Democrats fan the flames after ICE shooting

Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) and multiple news outlets pushed the claim by Perez’s immigration attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, that the Venezuelan was issued a work permit.

The DHS countered that Perez’s “work permit expired in 2025” and noted that “a work permit does NOT grant legal status.”

As for Goldfinch’s complaint that Perez was ordered removed in absentia, the DHS replied, “Yes. This is why aliens must show up to their removal proceedings. Legal obligations do not end because someone’s address changed.”

The DHS similarly rejected the suggestion by Castro and others that Perez lawfully entered the United States and is here legally, stating, “He entered illegally under the Biden administration. The illegal alien had no valid work permit, had no protective status, and had a final order of removal from a Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge.”

In a letter to Sec. Mullin dated Tuesday, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and about 100 other Democratic lawmakers also claimed that Perez “is not receiving the care he needs in detention,” has received no pain medication, and was forced to sleep on the floor.

The DHS said instead that Perez “is receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication,” and that he “was released from the hospital and arrived at the detention facility just a few hours later, where he slept on a bed.”

Democrats further claimed in the letter that “there is no indication Mr. Garces Perez posed a threat to officers.” However, newly released footage appears to show a car matching the description of Perez’s vehicle speeding away from law enforcement.

“Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public,” said the DHS. “We remind the public that resisting officers and evading arrest is a felony and a federal crime.”

His translator at a news conference Monday said, “He asked the ICE officer if he could please at least pull over so that they could detain him. They said no, and they side-swiped him, basically. He did a U-turn to try and find a spot to park so that he could go with them, and they basically ran into him and then shot him.”

Perez is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 in connection to his attorney’s effort to challenge his deportation.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Democrats, Illegal alien, Markwayne mullin, Venezuela, Deportation, Politics, Immigration and customs enforcement, Texas 

President Donald Trump routinely catches flack both for acknowledging the vulnerabilities of American elections and for taking steps to ensure that citizens’ votes are properly cast, received, and counted.

While Democrats and the liberal media like to pretend that the president is off base and that “American elections are safe and secure,” evidence to the contrary continues to mount.

‘Ballot integrity is not a partisan issue.’

On Tuesday, a former letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service was arrested for allegedly singling out, then dumping hundreds of mail-in ballots at the beginning of his shift on June 3.

Damon Matai Seei, a 34-year-old resident of Payson, Utah, was reportedly covering a colleague’s mail route and tasked with delivering at least 300 mail-in ballots to Americans in the Eagle Mountain area so they could vote in the June 23 primary election.

The detention memo alleges that Seei admitted to chucking the ballots in a dumpster outside a church because he wanted to “lighten his workload” in order to go home earlier.

As the result of the alleged ballot dump, some voters were unable to vote in the election, said the detention memo.

The incident came to light after numerous voters in the Eagle Mountain area complained to Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson about not receiving their mail-in ballots.

RELATED: Surprise! The midterms are already happening

The dumpster in the Utah church parking lot. Justice Department.

Davidson investigated the matter and discovered that voter participation in the area “was remarkably low,” said the detention memo. An estimated 304 registered voters in the area never received their ballots.

USPS records helped identify which day the mail-in ballots were supposed to be delivered and by whom.

Seei is accused of driving to a church parking lot that wasn’t on his route roughly 1.5 hours into his June 3 shift, discarding mail into the dumpster, then clocking out of work three hours later.

The ex-postman allegedly suggested to investigators that he was motivated by sloth, not politics, claiming he is not a “very political person” and did not intend to “disrupt any political process.”

While Seei allegedly told investigators he just wanted to “get rid of advertisement mail,” the detention memo claims that he admitted to setting aside the mail-in ballots at the beginning of his shift.

The ex-postman has been charged with one count of unlawful secretion, destruction, and delay of mail.

If convicted, Seei could face up to five years in prison and/or a hefty fine. His next court appearance is set for Nov. 30. It is unclear when he left the USPS and under what circumstances.

Blaze News has reached out to the USPS and the Utah Federal Public Defender for comment.

“When the defendant allegedly threw away the mail he was entrusted to deliver, he also threw away the chance for those citizens to exercise their right to vote,” U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak for the District of Utah said in a statement.

“When American voters lawfully cast their vote, they should feel confident that it is counted,” said acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter. “Allegedly throwing away hundreds of ballots is a serious federal crime that undermines the integrity of our elections. Ballot integrity is not a partisan issue.”

During a press conference about the case on Tuesday, McCotter highlighted a USPS rule issued pursuant to Trump’s March election executive order that “would have required mail-in ballots to have special tracking and design features.”

“Unfortunately, but entirely predictably, that regulation was blocked by a judge in Massachusetts,” continued McCotter. “In fact, she blocked the rule before it was even issued. That was reversed, but she issued another injunction. And the litigation extended for so long that that regulation will not go into effect before the ’26 midterms.”

McCotter appears to have been referring to U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani.

The deputy AG added on X, “It’s a real shame that the courts blocked a commonsense USPS regulation that would have required enhanced tracking for mail-in ballots. It would have ensured that ballots stay out of the wrong hands — and also end up where they belong. Alas.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, Us postal service, Mail-in ballots, Election fraud, Voter fraud, Midterm election, Utah, Justice department, Politics 

If you disagree with a leftist, chances are you’ll be called a Nazi — and J.K. Rowling is no stranger to the now common, and thus meaningless, insult.

Her latest attacker is the transgender Lilly Wachowski, co-director of “The Matrix,” who accused the “Harry Potter” author of being a “literal Nazi.”

BlazeTV host Pat Gray explains that Wachowski is “upset with J.K. Rowling because J.K. Rowling doesn’t think that trans teens should have hormone blockers.”

“They shouldn’t have surgery to remove body parts. They shouldn’t have life-altering changes done to their body, which is still in the process of changing,” he says.

“Hang out for a while in that skin and see what happens,” he adds.

“These people are Nazis. They’re literal Nazis,” Wachowski had said in an interview with Variety after being asked about Rowling and Elon Musk.

“The Nazis, that you have taken to calling J.K. Rowling,” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in, “they actually did butcher and experimented on people in concentration camps.”

“People like you,” Gray adds.

Wachowski went on to say that Rowling is “funding trans genocide.”

“So if you support Harry Potter, you’re supporting trans genocide,” Wachowski added.

“So the author of ‘Harry Potter’ is actually paying people to murder transgenders?” Gray says.

“If that’s the case, she should be arrested, tried, and probably convicted,” he continues.

“The rhetoric coming from these extreme left-wing psychos is just so butt-stupid you can’t put it into words,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Harry potter, Jk rowling, Lilly wachowski, Nazi, Pat gray, Transgender, Blazetv show 

Love him or loathe him, but one thing is certain about Vice President JD Vance: He’s one of the most unique and bold political figures we’ve seen in the modern era.

And this proclamation has nothing to do with his tenor, tone, or party proclivities. Amid the normal cacophony of political chaos, Vance has offered a remarkably consistent narrative — an open discussion of evil, the demonic, and even aliens — that we have never quite seen from a sitting politician.

Vance paraphrased a claim first popularized by French poet Charles Baudelaire — “the devil’s great trick is to convince people he never existed.”

We have certainly not observed it in a vice president, arguably the second-most powerful position in the entire world. Typically, people in such prominent roles are intensely buttoned up and even pretentious, watching every word and making carefully crafted proclamations.

Personal encounters

But Vance has taken a starkly different route, specifically when it comes to conversations about combustible and seemingly bizarre topics like aliens, demons, and evil.

Rather than treating these matters as too ethereal to discuss in the mainstream, he has been talking about them with relative ease. Vance has discussed evil in broad terms, and he has even said he feels it personally in his role as vice president.

Most recently, he told influencer Bryce Crawford that he has sensed spiritual darkness from various world leaders. For the typical, run-of-the-mill politician, any question about evil would most certainly be met with a secular and safe response. But Vance went much deeper.

“People that are around you sometimes give you a very, very bad feeling,” the vice president told Crawford. “Definitely, I’ve been in meetings with world leaders where various issues are being discussed, and somebody will say something or somebody will make an observation, and I will feel a certain darkness about it.”

Vance continued, “It sort of sets off every spiritual alarm bell in my body.”

He also went on to say that there are even locations like Gettysburg, where past history with the Civil War and death has led him to feel “a very dark spiritual energy.”

Aliens … or demons?

This was hardly the first time Vance dove headfirst into such conversations, with intentionality and ease.

Earlier this year, conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked the vice president about the UFO files, and the conversation took some fascinating turns, veering into Vance’s personal perspective about the origins and nature of aliens and unidentified flying objects.

“I don’t think they’re aliens,” Vance said of supposed extraterrestrials. “I think they’re demons anyway.”

When pressed further, Vance dove deeper into his personal explanation for what is truly happening behind so many alien claims that keep making their way into the mainstream.

“I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people — I think that the desire to describe everything celestial … to describe it as aliens — I mean, every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there, and there are things that are very difficult to explain,” Vance said.

“And I naturally go — when I hear about, sort of, extra-natural phenomenon — that’s where I go to is the Christian understanding that, you know, there’s a lot of good out there, but there’s also some evil out there.”

Vance paraphrased a claim first popularized by French poet Charles Baudelaire — “the devil’s great trick is to convince people he never existed.”

RELATED: Evil unmasked: How Charlie Kirk’s murder exposed a diabolical spiritual war

MELISSA MAJCHRZAK/AFP/Getty Images

Spiritual warfare

A few months later, Vance again tackled the topic with podcaster Joe Rogan, further arguing that he believes what many perceive as aliens are actually demonic entities.

“Just because I believe in the supernatural doesn’t mean I believe in everything supernatural,” he said. “But if we’re talking about an extraterrestrial being that is human-like but not human, that contains effectively infinite powers and is torturing human beings, you can call it an alien if you want.”

And Vance wasn’t done there. He added, “But I think there’s a lot of historical precedent to call that a demon.”

The vice president’s conversations have been truly remarkable, considering few politicians would ever be caught opining about such matters. He’s probably the most outspoken vice president in history — and certainly the most outspoken in modern times — on matters of spiritual warfare and evil.

There are a few compelling reasons that this deeply matters. In a world where people are hyper-obsessed with the material, Vance is open to fully understanding spiritual matters that are very likely impacting our culture and world.

And if those matters are impacting our world, we are left wondering how we can possibly confront, fix, or heal anything if we reject the notion that a spiritual component is at play.

Vance not only considers these issues, but he is also actively opening up a conversation about them. He deserves a lot of credit for acknowledging the spiritual war so many others have chosen to ignore.

​Aliens, Demonic, Extraterrestrials, Jd vance, Joe rogan, Lifestyle, Spiritual warfare, Ufos, Vice president, Ufo files, Christianity, Catholicism, Faith 

You may not realize it, but Americans are already voting in the 2026 midterm elections.

Four states have already opened in-person voting. Within two weeks, at least 12 states will begin welcoming early and mail-in votes.

‘The 2026 election begins now.’

Virginia, Minnesota, and South Dakota opened their ballot boxes statewide on Friday. Vermont law states that all ballots must be mailed by Oct. 1, and the process begins by Sept. 21. Illinois is rolling out on Thursday, but only in particular polling places.

By Oct. 7, many more will be joining them.

Maine, Nebraska, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Wyoming, and Arizona open their early voting periods between Oct. 4 and 7.

There are two fundamental categories of pre-Election Day ballot-casting: true early voting and in-person absentee voting.

In true early voting states, voters deposit an anonymous ballot directly into a tabulator or sealed box. This is how votes are received by polling places on Election Day. Voters’ names are recorded in poll books to thwart attempts at double voting.

RELATED: Deadlines are fast approaching on Trump’s mail-in ballot initiatives as election season begins

Mehmet Eser/Anadolu/Getty Images

Under the alternative in-person absentee voting model, voters fill out a mail ballot at the polling place, seal it in a named envelope, and hand it over to the clerk. That envelope is later cured, accepted, or rejected.

The curing process allows voters to fix envelope defects, such as mismatched signatures compared to voter registration files, absent ID numbers, and so on. If the incongruities are not amended by a given deadline, the ballot is discarded.

Despite their misgivings, conservative groups are embracing the early voting period to mobilize their base and win over new voters.

“2024 taught us that we no longer have Election Day in America,” Citizens Alliance CEO Cliff Maloney told Blaze News. “It’s not election weekend, election week, or even election month. Now the standard is ‘election season.'”

“Vote-by-mail ballots are now out in many battleground states,” Maloney continued. “Citizens Alliance is competing toe to toe with the Democrats to make sure that every single Republican ballot is returned. The 2026 election begins now.”

Democratic state parties treat the early voting period as a time to maximize their base’s turnout. From early-vote weekends to ballot-chasing, Democrats gather as many votes as possible before Election Day.

“Vote early in person,” DNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb told NBC News. “Go to your county election office and vote early in person.”

Earlier in 2026, the Trump administration sought to secure mail-in and early voting systems across the country after supporters became concerned noncitizens were voting.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March directing the United States Postal Service to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots. The order also instructed the Department of Homeland Security to compile state voter data, including citizenship status.

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible what’s gone on. It’s very clearly covered. … I think this will help a lot with elections,” Trump said when signing the order.

Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani blocked key portions of that order from taking effect, and a lengthy legal battle ensued. The Supreme Court declined to lift her injunction on Sept. 14, citing timeline concerns.

Despite those obstacles, Maloney believes it is incumbent upon conservatives to vociferously engage in get-out-the-vote efforts during the early voting period.

“At Citizens Alliance, our motto is ‘doors win wars,’ and we’re using that tactic right now to create real impact,” Maloney told Blaze News. “We must beat the Democrats at their own game and fight fire with fire to win.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Absentee voting, Early voting, Midterm elections, Polling places, Voting, Politics 

President Donald Trump will greet Chinese President Xi Jinping personally when his plane lands at Joint Base Andrews for the start of his historic state visit.

The trip on Wednesday will be the first state visit for Xi in the U.S. for over a decade.

‘This is a very tough ticket for me. I’ve told a lot of very good friends of mine, “You just can’t come.”‘

The main portion of the visit will begin Thursday at an arrival ceremony on the State Floor of the White House when Trump and first lady Melania Trump will greet Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan.

The first lady and Xi’s wife will have a separate engagement from the presidents.

Later the Chinese president and his wife will be the guests of honor at a state dinner in the East Room with Trump and the first lady. Both presidents will give remarks at the dinner.

“Thousands of people would love to be at that dinner,” said Trump to reporters at the White House Friday.

“This is a very tough ticket for me,” he added. “I’ve told a lot of very good friends of mine, ‘you just can’t come.'”

Among those that are invited to the state dinner are Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Google, Sam Altman of OpenAI, as well as Tim Cook formerly of Apple.

At the end of the ceremony, a B-2 Spirit bomber and four F-22 Raptors will reportedly conduct a flyover.

The Trumps will also later give Xi and his wife a tour of the National Archives.

RELATED: Trump claims ‘incompetent’ Minnesota responsible for cyberattacks, not Iran

Critics of the communist government in China point to China’s aggressive posture in the South China Sea as one of the country’s most provocative actions.

Xi’s last state visit to the U.S. was in Sept. 2015 during the last term of former President Barack Obama.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Chinese president xi jinping, Elon musk, First lady melania trump, President donald trump, State visit, White house, Politics 

On July 31, 2026, a buddy of mine whom I’ve had on my podcast, a fellow trucker who really put down the miles and kept this country fed, turned over his last mile and passed on to the great truck stop in the sky.

Kevin Kenneth Koehnke died as he lived, out on the road and working, a lifestyle he hardly strayed from in his four decades over the road. Kevin had some kind of health episode immediately after completing a delivery in San Jose, California. An ambulance came to get him from his customer’s driveway, and he didn’t make it to the hospital. Kevin was only 64 years old.

‘Awww, when I got to the yard, they had a hot load going down to Pennsylvania and they asked me to go, so I took it. Sorry, Gordo.’

Man of many hats

I came to know Kevin, like so many other people in my life these days, from the internet. At some point a few years ago, selfies Kevin was posting on Facebook began to be copied and were circulated around various corners of the internet, often with commentary attached written by posters who were imagining what someone who looked like Kevin would say, and were congruous with the custom-made trucker caps that Kevin had become known for.

Kevin Koehnke

There was an incongruity to Kevin’s habit of printing these hats, which come off as abrasive and unnecessarily inflammatory to some; by all accounts, Kevin was a very warm and talkative guy who really liked people and had friends all over the country. There is an innocent quality to these photos that Kevin took of himself that I believe connected with people at a deeper level than the sort of online meme legend that grew around him. That said, the memes followed the messaging on the hats, and once unleashed on Twitter, they touched a particular nerve.

x.com/Tha_Big_Dog

x.com/Tha_Big_Dog

x.com/Tha_Big_Dog

Conversation with a ‘Bub’

I’m a follower and friend of the poster “Big Sib,” who first introduced me to these images of Kevin, and I became intrigued by the guy. Being a trucker myself, I’m familiar with the type that spends a lot of time on the road and, in times past, perhaps consumed a little too much AM radio, which provided a weird mental placeholder for the “normal” lives one cannot live while out over the road. Sib seemed to channel a particular “Bub” working-class outlook in the commentary he added to Kevin’s photos, especially those of Kevin enjoying a hard-earned meal, and it all sort of worked. Sib was one of the guys who helped Kevin become somewhat infamous online.

At some point I decided to try to seek Kevin out and invite him on my podcast, and sure enough, his contact details were found on a Facebook post he had made of his business card. I made a few phone calls and got in touch with him, and he agreed to come on my show, which you can listen to right here or on most podcast players of your choice.

Kevin Koehnke

Kevin had stopped at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop to call in and speak with me, and he filled my listeners in on much of his life story, from working on his parents’ cabbage farm in Wisconsin as a kid, where he came into contact with the type of truckers made famous in films like “Smokey and the Bandit,” through his life on the road, to various adventures and misadventures with police, abusive employers, and friends along the highway who helped him out when times were tough. It’s a fun listen and one of the most downloaded episodes of my podcast. You will also hear a lot about truck stop food and the types of freight Kevin hauled.

‘Just like his dad’

When I received news of Kevin’s passing, I asked to be put in touch with his family by the folks at the Konrad-Behlman funeral home, who have been helping them along at this time. I’ve had a couple of phone calls with his mom, Pat, who is pretty spry and a great conversationalist at the ripe old age of 86. She had listened to the podcast at some point as well and got quite a chuckle out of it.

”Kevin told some pretty tall tales,” she said, laughing. “He certainly was not born in the cab of his father’s dump truck. I spent 24 hours in labor trying to push him out.”

Pat did mention that much of Kevin’s career was spent away from home and family and that he was indeed a very high miler. When Kevin’s father died, Kevin couldn’t be there and was a day and a half late getting home.

”Kevin was just like his dad — loved being on the road. Before we bought the farm, his father would drive the dump truck all day and then hop in an 18-wheeler at night for another company and run up to northern Michigan and back overnight. He often only lived on two or three hours of sleep.”

Pat tells me that Kevin worked for about 10 different companies throughout his career, and a certain pattern emerges from her confirmation about things he told me on the show. Kevin is what we in the industry call a “runner,” a guy who basically lives in his truck, works his tail off, and almost never goes home. As of 2023 when Kevin came on the podcast, he told me that he had worked for 17 years straight, mostly only ever taking the mandatory 34-hour reset periods truckers are subject to under Hours of Service regulations. So no weekends, no going home, living in the truck, putting miles behind him as he crisscrossed the nation he loved so much.

The problem with “runners” is that trucking companies become dependent on them, reliable as they are, but often do not return much in the way of gratitude for all that hard work and sacrifice. Kevin told me he was fired from one company after requesting four days off to go visit family, being told he could take it, but when the time came, they wanted him to keep going. He had put over 1 million, 300,000 miles on one truck for that particular outfit and was thrown out the door as replaceable. This in an industry that has been whining about a supposed shortage of truckers since the mid-1980s. The real shortage, in Kevin’s case, was making it home for Christmas or almost anything else important.

RELATED: Despite welcome reform, the war on America’s truckers rages on

Anadolu/Getty Images

No days off

I invited Kevin to join my friends and me at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March 2024 and even managed to get him a media pass, which comes with access to a room with catered breakfast and lunch, something he would have taken full advantage of. I told everyone that he was coming, and there was quite a bit of anticipation about “Uncle Kevin” or “the Big Dog” coming to MATS. Having never met him in person, I was pretty pumped about getting to meet the guy myself.

Kevin told me months prior that he had booked the time off and that he was most likely going to rent a car and drive down to Louisville from his company’s yard up in Michigan. When I arrived at MATS, Kevin was nowhere to be found, and it took me a little while to get ahold of him on the phone.

”Awww, when I got to the yard, they had a hot load going down to Pennsylvania and they asked me to go, so I took it. Sorry, Gordo.”

He sounded almost embarrassed on the phone, as if he knew he had let me down.

”But they knew you were coming here. What the hell, man?”

”You know how it is. No one wants to work, and I couldn’t say no.”

No one wants to work. An eternal Boomerism.

I’m not sure if his excuse was true or not, but it followed a pattern set by himself and his previous employers. Being a runner becomes a lifestyle for a certain kind of trucker, a badge of honor for being institutionalized to the truck. Kevin was 61 years old at that time and had never been married, no kids, and he didn’t see his family much.

Kevin’s mom, Pat, was not surprised by the MATS story.

”I haven’t seen Kevin in 15 years. He doesn’t come home.”

Heavy load

On my podcast, Kevin relayed the story of how he hurt one of his big toes, but didn’t think too much of it and kept on working. Eventually it got so bad that he had to stop and have surgery to prevent gangrene at a hospital near Atlanta, Georgia, pretty far from Wisconsin. He took a couple of months off afterward to recover at his friend’s place in Michigan, and that may have been one of the only, if not the only, vacation the man ever had.

Kevin turned 64 on June 13 of this year, and Pat tells me that four days later, Kevin was in the hospital with pneumonia, having water in his lungs. The type of trucking lifestyle he led was clearly not good for his health. Once he recovered, he went straight back to work, taking little oxygen bottles in the truck to help him breathe. Pat is not sure whether Kevin lied to his employers about being fit to return or if they looked the other way, or perhaps failed to engage in any due diligence on a driver returning to duty. I contacted them to ask a few questions about what went down, and their head safety guy said it was “not their place to discuss a personal matter.”

Well, a man died on the job under their employ, and I doubt they would give a stock answer like that to an investigator from OSHA or the Workers Compensation Board.

It seems to me that Kevin Koehnke was one of these guys who had some kind of hurt deep inside him and either ignored it or escaped it by just staying on the road. Many Old Hands know such a person, and to be honest, its an easy way out that I myself have undertook in the past. Always working long hours away from home is a good way to let the sleeping dogs lie, but a bad way to manage your own mental health. This scheme is then compounded by employers who take full advantage of the situation, almost like a drug dealer who is always there with the next hit to soothe the pain.

The trucking industry makes a good show of highlighting health and safety, managing hours of service, trying to color between the lines where so many shady operators do not, and end up as part of the steady stream of collisions and chaos on our newsfeeds. But it strikes me that the business is also opportunistic in its use and abuse of runners like Kevin and failing to ask why such a nice man would just keep on working like that, never saying no, always getting it done no matter the cost to his own health — mental and physical — or the cost to relationships with family.

“Having an intervention” is a phrase often tossed around for those with serious problems like addiction. Maybe interventions are needed for the runners like Kevin.

Save me a seat at that truck stop in the sky, Kevin. I’ll be there sooner or later, too, and I’ll be darned if you won’t need a hug.

*******

Pat Koehnke tells me they have yet to see any of Kevin’s personal items returned to them, including his phone or his wallet with all of his ID. If anyone has intel on Kevin’s things, please email me at gordilocks@protonmail.com, and I will see to it that you are connected with his family.

He was cremated in California and thus made easier to ship home, obviating the need for assistance from an organization like Truckers Final Mile, which assists families in retrieving the bodies of loved ones who pass on the road but whose companies refuse to help with getting them back home. It tells you something about certain players in this industry that such an organization exists at all.

You can read Kevin’s official obituary here. There are links to leave a message about Kevin or purchase a memorial tree at the link above.

And make sure you reach out and say hello to someone distant. You never know what they might be going through or how much it would make their day to hear from you.

This essay originally appeared in the Autonomous Truck(er)s Substack.

​Bub, Culture, Lifestyle, Memes, Mental health, Truck stops, Truckers, Trucking industry, Wisconsin, Working class, Kevin koehnke, Obituary, In memoriam