An eight-woman marketing team concocted a rebrand of the legendary breakfast spot Cracker Barrel — and it could not have gone worse.

The rebrand oversaw the removal of the old country white man and vintage type from the logo and replaced it with sterile, soulless lettering. This got the attention of Americans across the country, who then took a deeper look into the company’s policies.

“Look at all these DEI policies they have. Look at all the LGBTQ stuff they had,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Fearless.” “And the next thing you know, Cracker Barrel, its stock is plummeting. People are starting to boycott the way people boycotted Target.”

“This was a disaster put on by this eight-woman marketing team,” he adds.

Whitlock believes what’s happened to the once-beloved company is part of a bigger cultural issue and can be blamed on feminism.

“They’ve made diversity the ultimate goal rather than excellence. That’s what this is all about. And so they look at everything. They look at the logo and the branding and everything from the past when it was a competition among men. … They look at anything like that from the past as, ‘That’s bad, that’s evil, that must be eradicated, that must be erased,’” Whitlock explains.

“And so they get triggered,” he continues. “They see, ‘Why is an old white man the logo for Cracker Barrel? Let’s remove him.’ And they’re doing this throughout all of American society. Eliminating male leadership because they have convinced everybody that diversity is the goal.”

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During a press gaggle this week, President Trump casually announced that the United States would allow 600,000 Chinese nationals to enter the country as college students. He has long focused on improving relations with China, but the idea of importing and educating such numbers runs against the America First instincts of his voters.

When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked why these students were so important, he admitted that many U.S. universities would go out of business without foreign enrollment. For the right, that sounds less like a warning and more like a promise.

Republicans once opposed bailouts for failing businesses. Why make an exception for universities that train activists and foreigners to despise America?

Ending large-scale immigration from a rival power while letting bankrupt institutions fail should be an easy win. Instead, the Trump administration seems poised to prop up anti-American universities by training the children of our most dangerous adversary.

Why import students from our greatest rival?

Every conservative politician and pundit insists that China is America’s foremost threat. It has a massive population, vast economic leverage, deep investments in resources, and ambitions to expand its sphere of influence. Its military is large, its weapons advanced, and its spies operate regularly on U.S. soil. A hot war may be unlikely, but it is fair to call China our greatest economic and geopolitical rival. So why are we welcoming Chinese nationals into the country, much less into our most prestigious schools?

America’s broader immigration crisis has already ravaged our job market, housing market, health system, and education system. Illegal immigration rightly comes first: Illegal aliens are unvetted, often smuggled in by cartels and gangs, and begin their stay by breaking the law.

But the public is waking up to the damage caused by legal immigration as well. The administration recently admitted there are 55 million active visa holders eligible to enter the United States — a number equal to the combined populations of Florida and Texas. Voters want both illegal immigration ended and legal immigration slashed.

Chinese nationals should be first on the block. If China is truly our enemy, why would we let any of its citizens inside? The Chinese state is infamous for espionage. Its spy network has penetrated American government, military, corporations, and universities. These spies don’t just chase classified secrets; they steal research and technology from labs and departments. Commentators like Eric Weinstein have suggested that universities slow their own programs for fear that breakthroughs will be stolen by foreign students. America is holding back its own scientific progress to import spies. That’s insane.

Educating tomorrow’s rivals

The danger goes beyond espionage. Universities don’t just teach skills; they confer the credentials that grant access to elite institutions in business, science, and government. A Chinese student who returns home brings knowledge and prestige that strengthen a rival nation. One who stays uses that same credential to climb into elite corporations or agencies that shape American culture, policy, and economy. Why would we seed our leadership class with foreign nationals from our chief adversary?

This also raises the question of whom our universities exist to serve. In a Fox News interview, Howard Lutnick admitted outright that these Chinese students would displace Americans from top universities. That isn’t speculation; it’s an open admission. Under an America First agenda, displacing native students for the children of foreign rivals is indefensible. Taxpayer-backed institutions must put American children first.

The bailout excuse

Lutnick argues that Chinese students keep universities solvent. Foreign students pay higher tuition and receive less aid. So what? The idea that universities are too big to fail and must be bailed out with foreign visas is laughable. Many schools already hoard enormous endowments. If others collapse, that’s the market working. Republicans once opposed bailouts for failing businesses. Why make an exception for universities that train activists and foreigners to despise America?

RELATED: ‘Paperwork Americans’ are not your countrymen

Blaze Media Illustration

The truth is that universities are ideology factories. They churn out left-wing radicals who hate America and despise Christianity. Yes, we still need doctors and engineers, but there is no reason to subsidize this industry with mass immigration. Republicans should be forcing universities to purge their bias or lose government funding. Instead, they are keeping them afloat with students from a hostile foreign power.

America First means Americans first

Trump often makes sweeping statements he never intends to enact. This may be a bargaining ploy in negotiations with Xi Jinping. But sovereignty should never be a chip in trade talks. Chinese enrollment peaked at 372,000 in 2020 and fell to 277,000 in 2024. Now the administration is talking about more than doubling it. The correct number isn’t 600,000. It isn’t 277,000. It’s zero.

The United States should stop importing enemies to enrich its ruling class. American universities should exist for Americans. That is what America First must mean.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, International students, Chinese students, Immigration, Immigration crisis, China, Spies, Espionage, Anti-america, Ideology, America first, Donald trump, Student visas, Howard lutnick, Trade 

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is executing a historic shake-up at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to maximize efficiency, save taxpayers money, and make America healthy again. The full-spectrum changes have enraged establishmentarians both inside and outside his agency.

It’s clear from the executive ouster and revolt that took place Wednesday at the Centers for Disease Control that Kennedy is not backing down and upsetting all the right people.

Susan Monarez — figured for a mainstream nominee after President Donald Trump’s first pick, Dave Weldon, was concern-mongered out of contention — was sworn in as CDC director on July 31. She was not long for the role.

Early Wednesday evening, HHS announced that “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

The department noted further that Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC “who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”

Hours later, attorneys Abbe Lowell and Mark Zaid released a joint statement noting that their client, Monarez, “has been targeted” for supposedly refusing “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts” and choosing to protect “the public over serving a political agenda.”

RELATED: Doctors sue CDC over childhood vax schedule, demanding proof it does more good than harm

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The attorneys noted further that Monarez “had neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired” and that she refuses to resign.

The White House was quick to burst their bubble, notifying her that she was fired.

White House spokesman Kush Desai told the New York Times in a statement both that Monarez was “not aligned with the president’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” and that “the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.”

The Washington Post editorial board hinted in June at Monarez’s “power to frustrate the anti-vaccine agenda of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” noting she was a champion of mRNA vaccines — the very vaccines Kennedy pulled the plug on this month — and that she could fight the health secretary’s appointees on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to protect the current childhood vaccine schedule.

Blaze News has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

‘They risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.’

While it’s presently unclear which straw broke the camel’s back, an official alleged to the Times that Kennedy ordered Monarez to his office on Monday and demanded her resignation. Upon her refusal, Kennedy allegedly told her to can the CDC’s top leadership by week’s end.

According to the unnamed official, Monarez tried to go over Kennedy’s head, complaining to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), chairman of the Senate health committee, and other senators. This reportedly infuriated Kennedy, prompting him to allegedly accuse Monarez of “being a leaker.”

Zaid claimed that because President Donald Trump had not personally told Monarez to hit the bricks, the notification of her termination was “legally deficient and she remains as CDC director.”

While Monarez is apparently resisting her ouster, the top leadership at the CDC went willingly.

RELATED: How Big Pharma left its mark on woke CDC vax advisory panel — and what RFK Jr. did about it

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

NBC News confirmed that at least four officials threw in the towel, including Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease; and Jen Layden, director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.

Demetre Daskalakis, the sex-obsessed homosexual “activist physician” who served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and previously served as Joe Biden’s monkeypox adviser, announced on Wednesday that he too was resigning, likening his decision to a Greek partisan’s fight against fascist forces.

Blaze News previously reported that Daskalakis, an LGBT activist with a track record of pushing drugs to facilitate promiscuous sexual behavior among homosexuals, had a history of denigrating straight Americans, sharing satanic imagery on social media, and showing up in public in bondage gear.

Daskalakis’ resignation letter, which he shared on X, is full of clues pointing to why Kennedy may have wanted someone else at the top of the agency.

In addition to using the term “pregnant people” in reference to expectant mothers, the monkeypox expert personally attacked Kennedy; retroactively rejected the “thoughts and prayers” shared by the health secretary and his colleagues in the wake of the Aug. 8 shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta; criticized recent changes to the adult and children immunization schedules; bemoaned Kennedy’s replacement of industry-compromised members on the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel; and equated support for natural immunity to “eugenics.”

Daskalakis also noted that he was resigning because of the “recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision.”

“If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States,” added the monkeypox expert.

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​Centers for disease control and prevention, Cdc, Health and human services, Hhs, Robert f. kennedy jr, Rfk, Kennedy, Susan monarez, Abbe lowell, Mark zaid, Demetre daskalakis, Politics 

Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas is taking charge of codifying President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

Pfluger, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, recently introduced a bill that would ensure only American citizens are counted in the United States census, according to bill text obtained exclusively by Blaze News. The legislation, dubbed the COUNT Act, will ensure that illegal aliens are omitted from the census in order to fairly apportion congressional seats.

‘We cannot allow Democrats to weaponize our census.’

“The Biden administration sabotaged our census system to count millions of illegal aliens as American citizens, robbing congressional seats from law-abiding Republican states, including shortchanging my home state of Texas by at least one seat,” Pfluger told Blaze News.

“This is nothing short of a constitutional crisis.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Congress pushes bipartisan bill preventing Mexico’s ‘illegal seizure’ of American assets

Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Under former President Joe Biden’s purview, the administration effectively rigged the census to include millions of illegal aliens into the census, skewing congressional representation in favor of Democrats. As a result, everyday American citizens were overshadowed and overlooked by Democrats’ desire to secure a political advantage.

The census currently does not require individuals to provide proof of citizenship, often including illegal immigrants into the official count, which later informs congressional apportionment. Despite the clear malpractice, Democrats are keen on keeping with the status quo.

In May 2024, 202 Democrats unanimously voted against the Equal Representation Act, which requires the census to include a citizenship questionnaire designed to prevent illegal aliens from being included in the total count. Senate Democrats also unanimously defeated an amendment proposed by Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee in March 2024, which would similarly require a citizenship questionnaire on future censuses.

RELATED: Exclusive: DHS reveals ‘record-shattering’ winning streak on immigration

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

“That’s why I’m introducing the COUNT Act to permanently codify the executive order President Trump signed into law during his first term, creating a citizenship database that ensures only American citizens determine congressional representation and funding, because we cannot allow Democrats to weaponize our census again,” Pfluger told Blaze News.

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The internet is sounding the alarm on a “wellness drink” that has been growing rapidly in popularity in recent years. While the marketing for the drink makes it sound like a harmless herbal supplement to take the edge off after a long day, the lesser-known ingredients in the drinks are causing unexpected, massive problems with users.

TikTok @yourbestiemisha recently described how a boy in his early teens approached him in a gas station, asking the man to purchase some “Feel Free” for him. When @yourbestiemisha refused, the teen reportedly lunged at his wallet in desperation. When he informed the gas station clerk, the clerk reported that it was a known problem and showed him the drink in the little blue bottle behind the craze.

Kratom’s opioid-like effects are pronounced enough that researchers have tried using it to treat opioid addicts — only to discover that kratom itself can create addiction.

Botanic Tonics touts its product Feel Free as a “feel-good tonic [that] features kava root and other plant ingredients known to help with relaxation, productivity and focus.” Left unmentioned is a crucial ingredient: kratom.

K-hole

According to the Mayo Clinic, the effects of kratom — derived from the leaves of a tree native to Southeast Asia — are largely unknown, and the substance is therefore labeled as “unsafe and ineffective.”

Furthermore, “kratom products have been found to have heavy metals, such as lead, and harmful germs, such as salmonella, in them. Salmonella poisoning can be fatal. The FDA has linked more than 35 deaths to salmonella-tainted kratom.”

Kratom also produces different effects depending on the dose. At low doses, it can act as a stimulant, which is what is often advertised in the health drinks. At higher doses, on the other hand, it acts as a depressant. Because kratom is not regulated in the U.S., the exact dosages on the labels may not be accurate.

RELATED: Study warns of possible link between world’s most popular painkiller and autism

Endah Widiarti/Getty Images

Kratom’s opioid-like effects are pronounced enough that researchers have tried using it to treat opioid addicts — only to discover that kratom itself can create addiction.

Easy access

Unfortunately, it was not at all difficult to find Feel Free locally in the suburbs of Dallas. Two CBD stores and two gas stations into my search, I had a bottle of Feel Free ($10.91 with tax) in my hand. The clerk at the first gas station said they used to carry it but didn’t know why they don’t have it anymore.

The CBD stores did not carry Feel Free but were vaguely aware of it. Instead, they directed me to a wide selection of kratom in other forms: Full-size drinks, tinctures, powders, and capsules were on full display — all for a premium price.

‘Liquid heroin’

On X, commentator Mike Cernovich called out the harmful effects of Feel Free and other kratom-based drinks: “Those ‘Kratom energy shots,’ often with colorful packaging marketed to children, are anything but natural. They are loaded with 7-OH, which is liquid heroin. It’s a travesty that Secretary Kennedy hasn’t had these dangerous products removed, and that the DEA hasn’t made arrests.”

The DEA’s website confirms that “kratom leaves contain two major psychoactive ingredients (mitragynine and 7-hydroxymytragynine),” which cause addiction-like symptoms in its users. The DEA says symptoms include “hallucinations, delusion, and confusion, nausea, itching, sweating, dry mouth, constipation, increased urination, and loss of appetite. Long-term use can cause anorexia, weight loss, and insomnia.”

Road to ruin

Anecdotally, Reddit users have described financial problems stemming from dependence on the substance, which retails for around $10 per 2-ounce bottle. Others complain of side effects including dry or cracked skin, dependence, weakness, panic attacks, weight loss, extreme nausea, morning illness; and hangover-like symptoms.

Many lobby groups have pushed for tighter regulation on the processing and distribution of kratom, but the government has yet to take any decisive steps toward cracking down on this harmful substance. In the meantime, those looking for a quick pick-me-up should “feel free” to pass on this potentially venomous snake oil.

​Wellness, Kratom, Feel free, Opioids, Fda, Lifestyle 

Readers of Blaze News may recall the recent tale involving a male caught on surveillance video chucking a bottle of Orange Crush at a Florida convenience store worker and knocking out the victim.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the Seven Star store at 6940 Old Highway 37 in Bradley regarding a physical attack against a store employee on the evening of Aug. 3.

‘You ain’t gonna do nothin’ to me, boy!’

Authorities said first responders found the adult male victim “bleeding profusely” above his right eye — an injury that required 10 stitches and apparently resulted in a concussion.

An investigation revealed that a suspect entered the store along with two other men and accused the victim of “staring at him,” officials said.

The victim told the suspect to get his items and leave, officials said. But as you might guess, the suspect apparently didn’t take too kindly to the directive.

Authorities said the victim and suspect continued to “loudly” exchange words, after which the suspect “threw a full, unopened, plastic 2-liter [bottle] of Orange Crush at the victim’s head.”

The victim fell unconscious, officials said, and the suspect and his friends left the store.

In the below video of the attack, the suspect appears to state, “You ain’t gonna do nothin’ to me, boy!” after knocking the store employee to the floor.

RELATED: Florida thug caught on video knocking out store clerk with 2-liter bottle of Orange Crush. What set him off is an eye-opener.

Detectives identified the suspect as 30-year old Terry Lamar Johnson Jr. of Mulberry, officials said, adding that an arrest warrant was obtained for Johnson with a charge of felony battery causing great bodily harm, and cops began looking for him.

The sheriff’s office previously told Blaze News that Johnson was in jail in May after a charge of possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended or revoked license. The sheriff’s office also told Blaze News that Johnson in the past had been charged with grand theft, aggravated assault, battery, resisting, and “numerous” weapons violations.

Below is Johnson’s previous mugshot:

RELATED: Violent suspect actually bites K-9’s ear amid arrest, Florida sheriff says: ‘You can’t make this stuff up’

Terry Lamar Johnson Jr. Image source: Polk County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

Johnson finally was captured last Thursday, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office told Blaze News that Johnson’s charge of felony battery causing great bodily harm is a third-degree charge and that he posted a $10,000 bond Saturday just after midnight. The sheriff’s office added that Johnson’s arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 22.

The penalty in Florida for a felony battery causing great bodily harm conviction is up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

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Trans-identifying degenerates have carried out or attempted to carry out a number of mass shootings in recent years.

For instance, in March 2023, a trans-identifying woman stormed into a Presbyterian elementary school in Nashville and murdered three 9-year-old children — Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs — and three adults — teacher Cynthia Peak, custodian Mike Hill, and head of school Katherine Koonce.

‘She identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.’

In April 2024, a male-identifying woman planned to shoot up an elementary school and a high school in Maryland but was thankfully stopped in time by police, then later convicted.

The liberal media has consistently used used the preferred pronouns of these and other murderous trans-identifying criminals in an apparent effort to coddle the offenders and to placate LGBT activists.

A trans-identifying man formerly known as Robert Westman shot up a Catholic church full of children in Minneapolis on Wednesday, injuring 17 and killing two kids, ages 8 and 10. After the shooter was revealed to be a so-called “transgender,” the media once again feverishly rushed to accommodate and reinforce this delusion.

CNN talking head Jake Tapper noted on his show that the gunman’s mother “applied to change her child’s name in 2019. It was at one point Robert Paul Westman.”

“But since she identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification, was underage, it’s now Robin Westman,” continued Tapper, faithfully employing the killer’s preferred pronouns.

RELATED: Attacks against American Catholics and churches are out of control

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

While Newsweek initially referred to the shooter using male pronouns, it updated its article on the gunman, referring to him as a “her.” The Daily Mail went the distance, using both she and her pronouns in reference to the dead man.

‘If you’ve noticed, they are misgendering and dead-naming the murderer.’

In a section that has since been scrubbed, the Washington Post referred to the shooter as Mary Westman’s “daughter” — a term the publication Le Monde also used in reference to Mary Westman’s murderous son — and called the gunman a “she.” The Post later added that the gunman was “assigned male at birth.”

While the Independent dared to call Westman a “he,” it similarly referred to the trans-identified shooter as a plurality, using the possessive pronoun “their.”

The New Republic and the Guardian both opted to avoid male pronouns although the former noted that Westman “shot themself in the back of the church” and the latter stated that Westman “killed themself.”

When several liberal publications correctly referred to the trans-identifying female shooter behind the Covenant School massacre in 2023 as a woman, James Kirchick, a contributing writer to the New York Times, aped out, telling Bill Maher, “If you’ve noticed, they are misgendering and dead-naming the murderer. Right? They are referring to the murderer by their given name, not their chosen name … referring to her as a woman, as opposed to what her identity apparently was — was a man.”

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears weighed in, telling Maher and the liberal writer, “Hang on, you know what: This person murdered six people. I don’t really care who you say you are. You murdered six people, and three of them were children.”

“You don’t get a say,” continued Earle-Sears, noting that’s a forgone conclusion in this case because “she’s dead now, so you know.”

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​Church shooting, Minneapolis, Annunciation, Catholic, Catholic church, Mass shooting, Tranny, Troon, Transgender, Transvestite, Robert westman, Robin westman, Media, Liberal media, Jake tapper, Politics 

“Individual and human rights, liberty, and equality predate governments because they do not originate from governments.”

This is a line out of Mark Levin’s new book, “On Power” — a deep dive into the nature of power, its historical roots, and its impact on liberty and governance in America.

It’s also a reiteration of the most critical part of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

“Those two sentences are so important,” says Levin.

He explains that this idea that “God is sovereign and God’s children on earth are His sovereign children” is what distinguishes America – a “fusion of the Judeo-Christian value system” and “the Enlightenment” — from “Marxism and all the isms.” We the people get to decide how we’re governed.

If this is who America is, then why do we have bureaucrats and unelected judges calling so many of the shots?

“The bureaucracy has nothing to do with the consent of the governed,” Levin condemns, castigating the unelected judges and bureaucrats who continue to “devour the powers of the executive.”

This clash between America’s founding principles of individual liberty and the opposing ideology of centralized control by unaccountable powers is unsustainable, he argues.

“The basis for America’s founding and the ideology of the American Marxists are utterly incompatible,” he says, pointing to the “power struggle that exists today and has for 100 years or more” between worldviews about individual liberty and centralized control.

Levin’s “On Power” calls for reclaiming the consent of the governed, urging Americans to resist encroachments on their God-given rights by unaccountable powers, echoing the revolutionary spirit of the Declaration.

If you haven’t already, get your copy today.

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