Congratulations!

[Valid RSS] This is a valid RSS feed.

Recommendations

This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

Source: https://www.theblaze.com/feeds/feed.rss

  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  2. <rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>Blaze Media</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/</link><description>Blaze Media</description><atom:link href="https://www.theblaze.com/feeds/feed.rss" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 16:30:00 -0000</lastBuildDate><image><url>https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMDc1MjEwMC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc5MTc4MDQxMn0.bI-17D_g6-542o9Bn12397WNLerDvEKiWDgwmQkkWaQ/image.png?width=210</url><link>https://www.theblaze.com/</link><title>Blaze Media</title></image><item><title>TikTok trauma queens are scaring off decent men for good</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/tiktok-trauma-queens-are-scaring-off-decent-men-for-good</link><description><![CDATA[
  3. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/tiktok-trauma-queens-are-scaring-off-decent-men-for-good.jpg?id=61144239&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C1"/><br/><br/><p>Let’s stop pretending we don’t know why men are done with marriage. They’re not “afraid of commitment.” They’re not “toxic.” And they’re certainly not “intimidated by strong women.” No, men have just finally figured out what the rest of us should’ve admitted years ago: It’s a terrible deal. Not for women — oh no, we’ve gamed it beautifully. For men.</p><p>And now, they know it. </p><p class="pull-quote">Any man who walks away from marriage isn’t afraid of commitment. He’s just smart enough not to sign up for a state-sanctioned mugging disguised as romance.</p><p>According to research from the <a href="https://marriagefoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Marriage-Foundation-Why-Do-Women-Initiate-Divorce-More-Than-Men-Oct-2021.pdf" target="_blank">Marriage Foundation</a>, between 70% to 80% of divorces are initiated by women. Among college-educated women, that number jumps to 90%. Translation: The more educated she is, the faster she realizes she can exit stage left with the house, the kids, the 401(k), and a monthly check. All she has to do is say, “I’m not happy,” and a judge will handle the rest.</p><p>And what a show it is! He loses his kids, his paycheck, and often his sanity, trying to keep up with court-mandated payments while living in a sad little apartment, granted visitation rights so limited he needs a calendar app and a court order just to see his own kids. Meanwhile, she’s posting #SingleMomStrong like the children are accessories she won in the divorce. How exactly is this empowering for anyone?</p><h2>Women’s emotional garbage cans</h2><p>It’s not just the divorce itself — it’s what leads up to it. Modern women have traded femininity for feral instinct, egged on by a culture that rewards emotional instability and calls it “empowerment.” </p><p>Think I’m exaggerating? Just spend five minutes on TikTok. You’ll find women screaming into their phones about “healing energy” and “divine feminine rage,” sipping boxed wine in a bathtub surrounded by crystals and court summonses. These women don’t want to love a man — they want to fix their daddy issues with a living, breathing human wallet. </p><p>They call it love, but what they really mean is trauma alchemy: “If you loved me, you’d fix me.” No, sweetie. <em><em>You fix you</em></em>. Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll attract a man who doesn’t have to call his therapist after every date.</p><p>This epidemic of emotional dysfunction isn’t accidental. Many of these women were raised in homes where masculinity was vilified, fathers were absent, and mothers were so bitter they could curdle milk with a glance. </p><p>These girls were handed generational rage and told it was feminism. They didn’t heal; they weaponized their pain and waited for the first man dumb enough to step into range. And if he’s not dumb? He’s the enemy. Because how dare he not offer himself up as a sacrifice on the altar of her unprocessed trauma.</p><h2>Courts eat men alive</h2><p>Family courts, of course, are the handmaids of this dysfunction. The <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-269.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. Census Bureau</a> reports that less than 20% of custodial parents are fathers, despite all evidence that children need both parents. But try telling that to a judge who thinks “fatherhood” is a weekend hobby and “child support” is a government-backed extortion racket. </p><p>Many states rake in billions through <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-02-349" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Title IV-D incentives</a>, meaning the more money the state extracts from fathers, the more it receives from the federal government. It’s not justice — it’s a racket. It's a taxpayer-funded kickback scheme that rewards broken families and punishes paternal love.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/democrats-cant-mock-masculinity-and-expect-men-to-vote-for-them" target="_self"><strong>Democrats can’t mock masculinity and expect men to vote for them</strong></a><strong> </strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="39bf381924c433ff0af285fdeda550ca" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3a194" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61144249&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Ivan Rodriguez Alba via iStock/Getty Images </small></p><p>Worse, child support is often calculated not on what a man actually earns but on what the court believes he <em><em>should</em></em> earn. That’s called “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/imputed_income" target="_blank">imputed income</a>” — and it’s how you turn a plumber into a felon because he couldn’t pay child support based on the fantasy that he’s a brain surgeon. If he misses a payment, he goes to jail. If she violates a custody order, she might get a warning. Maybe. </p><p>This isn’t equality. This is <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2010/10-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em><em>Turner v. Rogers</em></em></a> in action. The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that authorities can lock a man up for not paying child support without providing him a lawyer. Land of the free, indeed.</p><p>Here’s what’s wild: Women still don’t get it. Men aren’t angry at women — they’re done with them. Like <a href="https://x.com/dogrightgirl/status/1933900615387676735?s=12&t=lTB6hNlPjrvsyNLe2Ph51Q" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">this woman said</a>, men are done negotiating with feral energy. They’re not trying to win an argument anymore. They’re exiting the game. Quietly. Permanently. And still, the same women who created the chaos stand around wondering, “Where did all the good men go?” </p><p>Honey, they’re over <em><em>there</em></em> — dodging alimony, living in peace, and thanking God they never married you.</p><h2>‘Empowered’ women, depressed men</h2><p>Here’s the kicker: We’re not even ashamed of it. We brag about it. We meme about it. <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristatorres/these-post-divorce-glow-ups-are-so-good-i-bet-their-exes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Divorce glow-up</a>. <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/trauma-bonding" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trauma bonding</a>. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd53_HiTRBY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Soft girl era</a>.” Meanwhile, the men are just trying to stay out of court and off antidepressants. Feminism? Please. This is narcissism with a publicist.</p><p>Men want peace. They want loyalty, partnership, and respect. They want what their grandfathers had — a woman who had their back, not a woman who records their fights for social media clout. </p><p>But those women are rarer than ever. We’ve traded homemaking for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/7/12/20690515/hot-girl-summer-meme-define-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hot-girl summer</a>, traded character for chaos, and traded companionship for control. And then we expect men to marry us? </p><p>Newsflash: Men don’t marry liabilities.</p><p>We told them they weren’t necessary. We told them masculinity was toxic. We told them they owed us emotional labor, financial support, and full-time access to their phones. And when they refused, we called them weak. Now, they’re gone. And we still have the audacity to act confused.</p><p>Maybe it’s time we stop blaming men for not wanting us and start asking if we’re actually worth wanting. Until we clean up the emotional landmines, stop weaponizing the courts, and remember what being a woman actually means, we’re not a risk worth taking. </p><p>And any man who walks away from this mess isn’t afraid of commitment. He’s just smart enough not to sign up for a state-sanctioned mugging disguised as romance.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 16:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/tiktok-trauma-queens-are-scaring-off-decent-men-for-good</guid><category>Opinion &amp; analysis</category><category>Men</category><category>Mental health</category><category>Marriage</category><category>Divorce</category><category>Family</category><category>Depression</category><category>Loneliness</category><category>Single</category><category>Alimony</category><category>Child support</category><category>Marriage foundation</category><category>Toxic masculinity</category><category>Toxic femininity</category><category>Feminism</category><category>Narcissism</category><category>Social media</category><category>Tiktok</category><category>Hashtag</category><category>Family court</category><category>Culture</category><category>Men and women</category><category>Supreme court</category><category>Turner v. rogers</category><category>Jail</category><dc:creator>Maureen Steele</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/tiktok-trauma-queens-are-scaring-off-decent-men-for-good.jpg?id=61144239&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Art or ‘sickie’ shrine? NYC’s giant phallic pink leg is creeping people out</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rick-burgess-show/art-or-sickie-shrine-nycs-giant-phallic-pink-leg-is-creeping-people-out</link><description><![CDATA[
  4. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61141504&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=150%2C0%2C150%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>Back in April, New York City unveiled a behemoth of a statue in the middle of Times Square called <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/marble-courage-vs-bronze-tokenism-a-tale-of-two-statues" target="_self"><u>“Grounded in the Stars.”</u></a> Standing at 12 feet tall, the bronze sculpture depicts an average-looking, overweight, anonymous black woman dressed in casual clothing standing with hands on hips. The artist, Thomas J. Price, <a href="https://www.timessquarenyc.org/tsq-arts-projects/grounded-in-the-stars" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>said</u></a> it was designed to challenge traditional norms regarding who deserves monumentalizing, forcing a confrontation with the supposed systemic erasure of marginalized bodies and identities.</p><p>In other words, it’s a woke, finger-wagging lecture in the form of a looming bronze woman.</p><p>And a lot of people hated it. The statue sparked a firestorm of criticism and mockery from people of all races, some of whom demanded the statue’s immediate removal.</p><p>But New York City just can’t seem to get the message that its denizens are sick of looking at bad art. That very same month, it debuted a 10-foot fountain in the form of a pink foot and leg covered in red-lipped mouths with tongues sticking out, giving the impression of infection or disease. The artist, Mika Rottenberg, designed the grotesque structure as an <a href="https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/this-bizarre-water-spitting-sculpture-on-the-high-line-lets-you-soak-unsuspecting-passersby-043025" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>“irreverent take on the tradition of classical fountains.” </u></a></p><p>When Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of “The Rick Burgess Show” and “Strange Encounters,” recently traveled to the Big Apple to visit his son, he was fortunate enough to avoid this bubblegum-pink monstrosity, but his content producer, Chris Adler, wasn’t so lucky.</p><p>On a trip to NYC for his wedding anniversary, Adler and his wife encountered the “big pink foot.” He plays a video of the fountain for Rick and the panel.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d69ca946b6e86c5e1b41ef01848de456" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P-Ef_l47fJM?rel=0&start=238" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>        </p><p>Rick immediately notices something strange about the shape of the leg.</p><p>“It’s so important to look at the toes,” he says, joking about the phallic shape of the shin, where the rounded top shoots out water. “I noticed a lot of people from the Pride parade begin to gather around it like it was a god.”</p><p>“I guess they didn't notice the foot,” he laughs. “I hate to disappoint you; it's a leg.”</p><p>“There’s some sickies out there,” says Adler.</p><p>To hear more of the panel’s conversation and see a video of the fountain, watch the clip above.</p><h2>Want more from Rick Burgess?</h2><p>To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, <a href="https://get.blazetv.com/rickburgess/?utm_source=theblaze&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article_shortcode&utm_term=rick-burgess" target="_blank">subscribe to BlazeTV</a> — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rick-burgess-show/art-or-sickie-shrine-nycs-giant-phallic-pink-leg-is-creeping-people-out</guid><category>The rick burgess show</category><category>Rick burgess</category><category>Blazetv</category><category>Blaze media</category><category>New york</category><category>Nyc</category><category>Big apple</category><category>Art</category><category>Ugly art</category><category>Pink foot</category><category>Pink foot fountain</category><dc:creator>BlazeTV Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61141504&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>The era of managerial rule is over. Long live the sovereign!</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-era-of-managerial-rule-is-over-long-live-the-sovereign</link><description><![CDATA[
  5. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-era-of-managerial-rule-is-over-long-live-the-sovereign.jpg?id=61139337&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=6%2C0%2C7%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>There’s a world before President Trump’s descent down the escalator, and there’s a world after it. The recent No Kings protests transmitted the <em><em>idée fixe </em></em>of the pre-2015 world<em><em>. </em></em>That idea was hostility to personal authority, or personal power — hostility to the notion of sovereignty, to the power once exercised by kings. Donald Trump, the figure who has dominated politics since 2015, is its most visible sign of contradiction. In that sense, the protesters weren’t entirely wrong. Trump’s success marks the passing of the world of the latter half of the 20th century, which was defined by hatred of personal authority.</p><p>Successive generations demolished the concept of sovereignty, casting suspicion on the notion that a leader’s decisions can legitimately reshape political or social life. This shift began in the United States when the intelligentsia promulgated the concept of “the authoritarian personality.” They found this personality in the working classes, their churches and associations, their families and fathers, and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqjwBDH-vhY&t=1127s" target="_blank">politicians</a> who represented them. Where there was the whiff of authoritarian character traits, fascism probably lurked.</p><p class="pull-quote">All the elements of Trump’s personality that his opponents loathe have proved, for better or worse, to be demonstrations of strength rather than weakness.</p><p>The anti-authority impulse then extended to challenge the authority of elected bodies. Popular sovereignty became dangerous. In the late 1950s and '60s, on matters such as <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/26ae8454bd161641eaf3bacbea482d53/1?cbl=1819501&pq-origsite=gscholar" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">school prayer,</a> unctuous judges and administrators tied the hands of potentially reactionary legislatures and frog-marched them toward secularism.</p><p>In the 1970s, the target was popular sovereignty as embodied in the office of the president. The American Constitution enabled an energetic executive or administrative presidency, traces of the monarchical form. But the president’s authority was decapitated in the great act of <a href="https://unherd.com/2025/02/the-return-of-the-american-caesar/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">regicide</a> — otherwise known as Watergate.</p><h2>The ‘golden straitjacket’</h2><p>Sketching the gloomy landscape of the 1970s, the sociologist <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Authority-Robert-Nisbet/dp/0865972125" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert Nisbet</a> saw in the twilight of authority the rise of impersonal forces; administrators touting “best practices” stepped into the breach. Therapists, managers, and other experts became increasingly important. They coordinated with economic, social, and legal <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300151343/network-power/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">networks</a> to constrain human agents who might otherwise upset progress.</p><p>That’s what globalization was all about. At the peak of the era of what Thomas Friedman called “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lexus-Olive-Tree-Understanding-Globalization/dp/1250013747" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the golden straitjacket</a>,” sovereignty was outré. Successful politicians such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair dazzled their electorates with the bullion of cheap credit and narratives of an impending gilded age while tightening the bonds ever further. They weakened the power of their offices, distributing it to central banks and international agencies.</p><p>Their actions clarified the vocation of right-thinking people. Stigmatize the authoritarian personality. Banish any individual or group that displayed its signs from the helm of government and public life. Spin an ever-tighter web of legal, administrative, and economic networks that could remove the risks of exercising personal human control over government — the risks of an energetic executive — once and for all.</p><p>All that changed with Trump’s descent down the escalator. “The golden straitjacket” had numerous critics, but no major public figure exposed its hatred of political, personal power as aggressively and abruptly as Trump did. In 2015, he thrust personal authority back to the center of public life. It’s been there ever since, an example to imitate — in enthusiasm or envy.</p><h2>Restoring the executive</h2><p>As president, Trump has fought hard to restore the bloodied <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Article II of the Constitution</a>. His executive and legal actions on behalf of presidential power even <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Chief-Donald-Trumps-Constitution/dp/1250269571" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">won over</a> skeptics in the conservative legal world. Not only did he challenge the presuppositions of government via the administrative state, but he also exposed the overreaching deep state that is devouring the American Constitution.</p><p>Indeed, No Kings could very well function as a pro-Trump slogan. Prior to Trump, American presidents largely functioned as kings. Like the monarch in Great Britain, U.S. presidents had long held power in theory as the “dignified” branch, while other actors in the security state made the real decisions — the “efficient” branch. Trump has been his most republican when he has upset this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/National-Security-Government-Michael-Glennon/dp/0190663995" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">double government</a>.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/no-kings-protests" target="_self"><strong>The hidden motive behind the anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ protests</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1c4fa9de6171b94dd0f79c7f0c494dc5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="778ac" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61139347&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images</small></p><p>To be sure, anti-Trump No Kings protesters are more troubled by another phenomenon: Trump’s personal style of leadership. They’re not wrong to draw attention to it, but they’re wrong about its significance.</p><p>Authority depends on a person’s capacity to command in order to reshape politics. Trump mastered the new fragmented media environment, in which entertainment — rather than solemn statements — wins attention and deference. Trump made his personality an issue. His critics attacked him for it, claiming his persona was a manifestation of the dreaded authoritarian personality. But all the elements of Trump’s personality that his opponents loathe — rhetorical and physical aggression, incivility, scorn for discourse and discussion, brashness, maleness, unwillingness to apologize or express guilt, bluntly demarcating between American winners and losers, claiming the exceptional power to fix America’s problems — have proved, for better or worse, to be demonstrations of strength rather than weakness.</p><p>The importance of character traits such as “caring for people like me” or “experience,” which had mattered so much in late 20th-century mass democracy, faded away. Swaths of the electorate would of course still look for their “therapist in chief” or “expert in chief.” But more <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-exit-polls-2016-a-to-z/" target="_blank">wanted</a> a boss who asserted control and expected those under him to follow his lead.</p><p>The reassertion of personal authority, after decades of opposition to it, has been a messy affair. It’s risible to think that Trump ever intended to abolish elections, set up a dictatorship, or establish a hereditary monarchy. But his style did help accelerate the collapse of institutional authority, such as that once held by the media. Although many of his more dramatic promises have been unrealized (stymied by a variety of forces), the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-white-house-decor-oval-office-photos-2025-4" target="_blank">symbology</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_raised-fist_photographs" target="_blank">authority</a> has remained key for gaining and wielding legitimacy.</p><h2>The twilight of liberalism</h2><p>A <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/peter-van-agtmael-trump-rally-photo/620842/" target="_blank">numinous</a> connection has developed between an electorate that confers sovereignty upon its chosen figure and the figure who exercises it. The acoustic and visual symbols this connection generates are all the more potent because, at this point in the 21st century, as Mary Harrington <a href="https://unherd.com/2022/09/am-i-really-a-threat-to-democracy/?us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">has argued</a>, a culture of mass literacy has vanished. This culture was essential to transmit the symbols associated with the print ideals of liberalism (for instance, the importance placed on the freedom of the press, or on discourse itself). As print culture goes, so go the symbols of liberalism. Other symbols step into their place.</p><p>Trump’s more subtle critics, who are troubled by the twilight of liberalism, noticed this transformation. They sense something has changed and single out Trump as the chief villain. But wielding the symbols of personal authority is one area in which Trump has long ceased to be exceptional. Even those who are very far from Trump ideologically and politically still inhabit his symbolic universe, in which personal authority, hierarchy, and one’s capacity to reshape political life are of critical importance.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/trump-gave-americans-what-they-didnt-know-they-needed" target="_self"><strong>Trump gave Americans what they didn’t know they needed</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ead0a548bbb3423b0c80c620a03a889" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="07027" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61139355&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</small></p><p>Emmanuel Macron’s predecessors, fearing being labeled authoritarians by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/events-of-May-1968" target="_blank">May ’68 generation</a>, adopted a deliberately understated, egalitarian style. Macron shocked the French political system by embracing the persona of “Jupiter.” He seized the opportunity that Trump’s descent down the escalator made possible.</p><p>Pope Francis began his papacy in a conversational, freewheeling style, akin to a Clintonian or Blairite doing one’s best to manage the media narrative. But after the first few years, he also imitated Trump as his supporters embraced the theology of an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/opinion/pope-francis-catholic-church-weakness.html" target="_blank">imperial papacy</a>.</p><p>Joe Biden likewise leaned into a “<a href="https://www.compactmag.com/article/dark-brandon-rising/" target="_blank">Dark Brandon</a>” iconography of authority to create the impression that he was in charge, the <a href="https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-biden-administration-did-not-take-place/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">simulacrum</a> of a functioning presidency.</p><p>Politicians who can’t successfully embody the symbolism of authority, such as Biden, or those who shy away from it, such as Justin Trudeau, end up as failures. Trudeau launched his political career by an act of physical prowess, beating up a Conservative Party senator who was too lazy to train for a boxing match. It was a crude but effective way of legitimating Trudeau’s claim to lead the Liberal Party and Canada.</p><p>Even in an extremely progressive country, primal assertions of authority win admiration. But Trudeau forgot the underlying lesson. In office, he preferred the symbolism of colorful socks, and his unpopularity forced him to resign in ignominy. Meanwhile, Trudeau’s successor, who invokes the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHhIQJtSVen/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">physical, masculine iconography of hockey fights</a> to win votes, has returned to more visceral politics. The liberal norms of national civility go nowhere; it’s the brash Trumpian traits that are deployed to gain victory.</p><h2>Slashing the straitjacket</h2><p>The resurgence of authority is why there’s no chance of reverting to globalized, impersonal power — at least how the pre-2015 world conceived it. As candidates compete for personal authority, those vying for power repudiate the notion that economic, social, and legal networks should constrain human agents. The capacity to take back control over these networks is what matters. This helps us understand the deeper unity behind Trump’s signature policies.</p><p>All the major themes that Trump hit on when he descended the escalator — an end to mass immigration, free trade, and regime-change missions abroad — were on one level anti-globalization topics: They slashed away at the golden straitjacket.</p><p>Anti-globalization themes are now so mainstream that even Keir Starmer imitates Trump’s symbology <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52AbmuODkPM" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">by talking tough on border control</a>. On one level, it’s a policy victory. But the success is more profound than that. To effect that agenda demands the <a href="https://archive.org/details/enqutesurlamon00mauruoft/page/n5/mode/2up" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reassertion</a> of the personal, political will to effect social and political change. Faced with the <a href="https://courage.media/2025/04/02/why-zoomers-wont-die-for-ukraine/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">diminishing</a> returns of the old regime, that’s what more and more people are looking for.</p><p>In our new world, leaders rise and fall by how well they can speak the language of authority. Whatever the full implications of this paradigm shift may be, the longing for sovereigns shows no signs of letting up.<em></em></p><p><em>Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally as “<a href="https://americanmind.org/features/donald-trump-hombre/a-new-birth-of-authority/" target="_blank">A New Birth of Authority</a>” at the American Mind.</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 13:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-era-of-managerial-rule-is-over-long-live-the-sovereign</guid><category>Opinion &amp; analysis</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Constitution</category><category>Authoritarianism</category><category>No kings</category><category>Sovereignty</category><category>Authority</category><category>Pope francis</category><category>Justin trudeau</category><category>Emmanuel macron</category><category>Imperial presidency</category><category>Imperial papacy</category><category>Dark brandon</category><category>Joe biden</category><category>Administrative state</category><category>Deep state</category><category>Experts</category><category>Executive orders</category><category>Executive power</category><category>Robert nisbet</category><category>Bill clinton</category><category>Tony blair</category><category>Democracy</category><category>Authoritarian personality</category><dc:creator>Nathan Pinkoski</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-era-of-managerial-rule-is-over-long-live-the-sovereign.jpg?id=61139337&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'There's nowhere to go': Will Elon Musk stop the AI Antichrist — or become it?</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/return/theres-nowhere-to-go-will-elon-musk-stop-the-ai-antichrist-or-become-it</link><description><![CDATA[
  6. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/there-s-nowhere-to-go-will-elon-musk-stop-the-ai-antichrist-or-become-it.jpg?id=61139540&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=74%2C0%2C74%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>Peter Thiel is going viral all over again in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/peter-thiel-antichrist-ross-douthat.html" target="_blank">a new video interview</a> with the New York Times' Ross Douthat.</p><p>The Catholic conservative columnist threw Thiel huge theological questions about transhumanism, AI, and the Antichrist — all topics Thiel has weighed in on with increasing intensity. But in the course of the conversation, Thiel dropped a shocking story about a recent discussion he had with Elon Musk about the viability of Mars as an escape from Earth and its very human predicaments.</p><p class="pull-quote">'Elon came to believe that if you went to Mars, the socialist US government, the woke AI would follow you to Mars.'</p><p>Among numerous conversations last year, Thiel revealed, "I had the seasteading version with Elon where I said: If Trump doesn’t win, I want to just leave the country. And then Elon said: There’s nowhere to go. There’s nowhere to go."</p><p>"It was about two hours after we had dinner and I was home that I thought of: Wow, Elon, you don’t believe in going to Mars any more. 2024 is the year where Elon stopped believing in Mars — not as a silly science tech project but as a political project. Mars was supposed to be a political project; it was building an alternative. And in 2024 Elon came to believe that if you went to Mars, the socialist U.S. government, the woke AI would follow you to Mars."</p><h2>Follow the leader</h2><p>The stunning revelation came about during an earlier meeting between Musk and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis brokered by Thiel. As Thiel paraphrased the exchange between the two, Demis told Musk he was "working on the most important project in the world," namely "building a superhuman AI," to which Musk replied it was he who was working on the most important project in the world, "turning us into interplanetary species." As Thiel recounted, "Then Demis said: Well, you know my AI will be able to follow you to Mars. And then Elon went quiet."</p><p>Assuming Thiel has conveyed pretty much the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the episode, the ramifications extend in many directions, including toward Musk's repeated meltdowns (or crashouts, as the Zoomers say) about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the potential implosion of the American political economy due to runaway debt and deficit spending.</p><p>But the main point, of course, pertains to Mars itself, which represents in the visions of many more people than just Elon Musk the idea of the ultimate, last-ditch, fail-safe escape from the "pale blue dot" of planet Earth.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/return/theres-a-simple-logic-behind-palantirs-controversial-rise-in-washington" target="_blank">There’s a simple logic behind Palantir’s controversial rise in Washington</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f844e3e56dc9e04116b24477a142b9dd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="fd4a1" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61139462&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Alex Karp. Kevin Diestsch/Getty Images</small></p><h2>A backup civilization</h2><p>As someone who has covered the Mars dream off and on for almost 10 years, beginning around 2016 with an <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/10/elon-musk-isnt-religious-enough-to-colonize-mars/" target="_blank">op-ed</a> on how Mars colonization would not succeed without Christian underpinnings, I raised both eyebrows at Thiel's anecdote because of the way it indicated a growing spiritual sense in both tech titans of the risk of an inescapable final showdown on Earth in our lifetimes.</p><p>Musk gave an important speech at the World Governments Summit a few years ago in which he <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/elon-musk-says-single-world-government-could-lead-end-civilization-world-government-summit" target="_blank">argued</a> reasonably that one global government is bad because it invites world collapse. Allowing multiple civilizations to exist politically and share space on Earth was good because history proves that even, or especially, the biggest and best civilizations eventually collapse. If you don't want human civilization as a whole to suffer the same fate, you probably want to hedge your bets and have backups.</p><p>Unfortunately, by way of example, he suggested that the fall of Rome was mitigated by the rise of the Islamic empires. In reality, the Ottoman Turks — and all too many Crusaders — destroyed the Roman Empire, which prevailed in the East after Rome's fall for many centuries. The logic of bet-hedging with multiple civilizations isn't much helped by the example of civilization-destroying wars.</p><h2>Mars attacks ... or not</h2><p>That problem stuck out to me once again because of how central to Musk's logic for colonizing Mars was the idea that tomorrow's Martians could come back and save Earth if things went in too wrong a direction. Now, Musk seems to be stuck with the risk that Mars can’t escape Earth's problems because Martians can't escape Earthlings' AI, negating their planetary potential as a hedged bet against bad Earth outcomes.</p><p>Musk’s apparent concerns seem to indicate a lack of confidence that the right kind of AI  — such as his own xAI? — can beat the wrong kind. That would seem to indicate logically that AI itself is the problem, because even or especially the best AI must tend severely toward total dominance over the whole world, putting all our civilizational eggs in a newly extreme way into just one civilizational basket.</p><h2>No control without Christ</h2><p>To me, at least, the challenge strengthens my thesis from almost 10 years ago that taking Christianity out of the discussion results in a dead end. Christ's admonition that His kingdom is "not of this world" is significant because human Christians with spiritual authority over AIs will shape them in ways that discourage their consolidation and dominance over all places humans ever go — making it possible for Mars not to be controlled by an AI that controls Earth, in the same way that it would be made possible for, say, America not to be controlled by Chinese AI, or vice versa.</p><p>Absent a human spiritual authority granted by a God whose kingdom is not of this world, it just seems very difficult for human beings to find a way to stop AI from becoming not just a temporal power but itself also a spiritual authority — making it the lord of the world, to borrow the title of a famous novel about the triumph of the Antichrist.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/return/why-each-new-controversy-around-sam-altmans-openai-is-crazier-than-the-last" target="_blank">Why each new controversy around Sam Altman’s OpenAI is crazier than the last</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="45ba3d234d6de3d56808c8df16622e0e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="5b3ee" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61139478&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</small></p><h2>Putting the AI in Antichrist</h2><p>This dynamic is probably behind Thiel's uneasy remarks to Douthat when pressed about the problem of the Antichrist and the likelihood of his earthly appearance sooner rather than later. Douthat pointedly expressed concern that despite Thiel's insistence that he was working to discourage the rise of the Antichrist, a potential Antichrist might well look at Thiel's technological feats and embrace them as the best and quickest path to the most complete world domination.</p><p>Various wits online have noted that because the Antichrist is expected to be welcomed rapturously by the world, the controversial Thiel must therefore not be the Antichrist.</p><h2>Our better natures</h2><p>But the deeper question remains as to what could possibly lead someone to be rapturously welcomed as the lord of the world if not the only thing that seems capable of ruling the entire world plus Mars — that is, AI.</p><p>I think Thiel's remarks in the interview make it pretty clear that his goals with Palantir and related efforts have to do with reducing the risk that the wrong kind of person takes over the world with one AI. That kind of person, following the above logic, would not be a controversial and divisive person but someone who could be rapturously received as a figure who frees the world from having to do what Jesus teaches in order to become as gods.</p><p>That puts the spotlight on the transhumanism question, which Douthat also pressed with Thiel, who insisted throughout the interview that the "Judeo-Christian" approach to such matters is to forge forward trying not to settle for mere bodily transformation but transformation of soul as well.</p><p>Thiel emphasized in making this point that the word "nature" does not appear in the Old Testament. And it does seem that the long-term Western effort has pretty much failed to get past the destructive difficulty of rival interpretations of the Bible by pivoting to the so-called "Book of Nature" to scientifically converge on one universally legitimate interpretation of God's creation.</p><p>But an open question remains. Which is more plausible: (1) the worship of nature, which Thiel represents as personified by Greta Thunberg, leads to a rapturous embrace of a Greta-ish Antichrist's rule over all AI and the whole world; or (2) the worship of technology, which we might personify by someone who believes, as Musk says, that "physics sees through all lies," leads to a rapturous embrace of a Musk-like Antichrist's rule over all AI and the whole world?</p><h2>Not by works alone</h2><p>Musk and Thiel both seem to find themselves drawn into the AI game at the highest levels out of a feeling that they have little choice but to try to create some alternatives to worse AIs with more power to tempt people to consolidate all humanity under one bot to rule them all.</p><p>From an outside perspective, it seems sort of crazy to think that Christ's church — an institution not of this world  — offers people an escape from AI bondage that even the hardest-working and best-intentioned secular geniuses on Earth can't provide.</p><p>But as the stakes keep rising and our most distinctive tech minds shudder in the face of AI's civilizational challenge, it seems less and less crazy by the day.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/return/theres-nowhere-to-go-will-elon-musk-stop-the-ai-antichrist-or-become-it</guid><category>Elon musk</category><category>Peter thiel</category><category>Big tech</category><category>Ai</category><category>Sam altman</category><category>Christianity</category><category>The antichrist</category><category>Faith</category><category>Greta thunberg</category><category>One-world government</category><category>Catechizing the bots</category><category>Tech</category><dc:creator>James Poulos</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/there-s-nowhere-to-go-will-elon-musk-stop-the-ai-antichrist-or-become-it.jpg?id=61139540&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Lia Thomas’ ex-teammate spills unheard details after UPenn apology and policy flip</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-liz-wheeler-show/lia-thomas-ex-teammate-spills-unheard-details-after-upenn-apology-and-policy-flip</link><description><![CDATA[
  7. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61141315&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=150%2C0%2C150%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>On July 1, the University of Pennsylvania was forced to apologize and retract awards from transgender swimmer Lia (Will) Thomas after a federal investigation found the school violated Title IX by allowing him to compete on the women's team. Awards and titles were restored to their proper female competitors approximately <em><em>three years</em></em> after Thomas stole them. On top of that, UPenn banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports altogether.</p><p>Rest assured, “UPenn is not sincere in their apologies,” says Liz Wheeler, BlazeTV host of “The Liz Wheeler Show.” “They're just trying not to have their federal dollars taken away from them by President Trump.”</p><p>To get the insider scoop on what it was like to train with and compete against Thomas, Liz invites former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan to the show.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b7b206f05ee460cac60cd63d818aa5fb" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PuTK08fg9aM?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>        </p><p>Paula recalls the first time she saw Will Thomas, who was a swimmer on UPenn’s men’s swim team before he decided he was a girl. She was a sophomore and only 19 years old when one day, a meeting was called and Thomas was brought before the team.</p><p>“He just looks at us and goes, ‘Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I'm transgender; I'll be joining your team next season. Please refer to me now with she/her pronouns, and I'll let you guys know soon what I'm going to rename myself to, but for now, you can keep calling me Will,”’ she says. “I actually thought this was a prank. … I thought [my coach] was just going to say, ‘Gotcha!”’</p><p>She quickly found out that it wasn’t a prank when anyone who did not refer to Thomas using female pronouns was labeled “hateful and transphobic.” Many of the female swimmers, however, welcomed Thomas with open arms. “I saw my teammates clapping. They were like, ‘We're so proud of you. We're so excited for you being your authentic self. Thank you for sharing this with us,”’ Paula recalls.</p><p>Confused, she looked up the NCAA handbook and sure enough found the “transgender inclusion handbook,” which states that “if a man wants to join a women's swim team, he just has to suppress his testosterone for one year [and] he’s good to go in any women's sport."</p><p>The season kicked off, and Paula and her teammates were forced not only to practice with and compete with Thomas, they were also forced to share a locker room with him. “We were dressing in the locker room with him 18 times per week,” she says, noting that swimming is not like other sports in that being naked to change in and out of swimsuits is a requirement.</p><p>“That aspect was really, really hard,” she says.</p><p>Some teammates raised concerns about sharing a locker room with Thomas, but these complaints were always filed “privately” to avoid being seen as bigoted. Publicly, most swimmers, even the ones who secretly begged coaches not to room them with Thomas at travel meets, cheered that UPenn was “progressing transgender rights.”</p><p>Paula, however, was “open” about her opposition to Thomas competing on the women’s team. She even conducted some “anonymous interviews” with media outlets to get the word out about the injustice the UPenn women’s team was experiencing.</p><p>But when word got out on the team that she was the one behind these secret interviews, Paula was ambushed by her progressive teammates. One of them sent her the following text message:</p><blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1940226231619969310">
  8.        <div style="margin:1em 0"></div> —  (@)
  9.        <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulaYScanlan/status/1940226231619969310"></a>
  10.    </blockquote>
  11.        <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>“Now I think [the message] is funny,” says Paula, but “in the moment, I felt really alone and isolated in dealing with this.”</p><p>In the days following UPenn’s apology and restoration of awards to the proper winners, Paula hasn’t heard from many of her teammates. “Most of them agree with me. They just don't really feel comfortable saying that or sharing that,” which “shows why this was something that happened because if no one was willing to speak up, even though we all agreed, that's how the crazies were able to put in these nasty, wild policies.”</p><p>To hear more details of Paula’s story and the role she played in advocating for women’s rights, watch the video above.</p><h2>Want more from Liz Wheeler?</h2><p>To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, <a href="https://get.blazetv.com/wheeler/?utm_source=theblaze&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article_shortcode_lizwheeler" target="_blank">subscribe to BlazeTV</a> — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 09:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-liz-wheeler-show/lia-thomas-ex-teammate-spills-unheard-details-after-upenn-apology-and-policy-flip</guid><category>The liz wheeler show</category><category>Liz wheeler</category><category>Blazetv</category><category>Blaze media</category><category>Paula scanla</category><category>Riley gaines</category><category>Lia thomas</category><category>Transgenders in sports</category><category>Transgender athletes</category><category>Upenn</category><category>Title ix</category><dc:creator>BlazeTV Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61141315&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>The Scopes Monkey Trial at 100: Who really won?</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/align/the-scopes-monkey-trial-at-100-who-really-won</link><description><![CDATA[
  12. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-scopes-monkey-trial-at-100-who-really-won.jpg?id=61133344&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C61%2C0%2C61"/><br/><br/><p>If anyone remembers the Scopes Monkey Trial today, it’s most likely because of its fictionalized retelling in the classic 1960 movie “Inherit the Wind.” </p><p>Itself an adaptation of a popular play, “Inherit the Wind” stars Spencer Tracy as the Clarence Darrow stand-in, an idealistic lawyer defending a man accused of teaching the theory of evolution to schoolchildren — a crime according to (recently passed) Tennessee state law.</p><p class="pull-quote">It was not evolutionists’ irreligiosity Bryan opposed but rather their overreach: Who were they to argue with how the people of Tennessee had decided to educate their children?</p><p>The movie depicts the trial as a battle between noble, free-speech-minded liberals and cruel and ignorant fundamentalists. It portrays prosecutor Matthew Harrison Brady (a proxy for William Jennings Bryan) as pompous and attention-hungry, while downplaying Darrow’s own love of the spotlight as well as his hostility toward both the South and religion.</p><h2>Liberal folklore</h2><p>A week away from the trial’s 100th anniversary (it took place July 10-21, 1925), this is more or less the version that survives in the cultural memory. In 1967, Joseph Wood Krutch, who covered the trial for the Nation, <a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/joseph-krutch/the-monkey-trial/" target="_blank">opined</a> that Scopes had become “more of a part of the folklore of liberalism than of history.” To this day, it’s regarded as both a victory in the battle between progress and superstition and a sobering reminder that that battle still rages on. One <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/scopes-trial-anniversary-science-attack#:~:text=The%20State%20of%20Tennessee%20v,or%20the%20safety%20of%20vaccines." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recent headline</a> is exemplary: “100 years after the Scopes trial, science is still under attack.”</p><p>Like the play on which it is based, “Inherit the Wind” uses the Scopes trial as an allegory for McCarthyism. (Director Stanley Kramer was subsequently praised for employing the blacklisted Nedrick Young as co-screenwriter.) As a result, the movie adopts a tone of high-minded seriousness quite at odds with the carnival-like atmosphere of the actual trial.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/junk-dna-is-bunk-why-the-human-genome-argues-for-intelligent-design" target="_blank">'Junk DNA' is bunk! Why the human genome argues for intelligent design</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e55fee92767a0a3d1c3dc853aeb6a93b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="68563" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61133413&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Godung/Getty Images</small></p><h2>The ACLU gets its man</h2><p>The entire affair had the contrived air of a publicity stunt from the outset. The Butler Act — a statute prohibiting Tennessee’s public schools from presenting “any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals” — had little if any immediate practical impact when the state legislature passed it in March 1925.</p><p>It was only when the American Civil Liberties Union decided to challenge the Butler Act on free speech grounds that the teaching of evolution became a cause célèbre. The ACLU placed ads in Tennessee papers for a teacher willing to serve as their defendant; these ads caught the attention of community leaders in Dayton, a declining mining town 40 miles north of Chattanooga, who saw an opportunity to bring in some much needed tourist revenue. They convinced local football coach and science teacher John T. Scopes to step forward. </p><p>Scopes barely qualified as a defendant; he’d only taught biology on occasion as a substitute, using a textbook that happened to mention evolution, and <a href="https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-scopes-monkey-trial" target="_blank">after the trial admitted he couldn’t remember if the subject had ever come up in class.</a> Still, it was enough to accuse him of violating the Butler Act, a misdemeanor offense.</p><h2>Tourist trap</h2><p>The implied showdown between science and religion quickly eclipsed any First Amendment concerns, and Dayton got the tourism boom it had hoped for. More than 200 journalists and hundreds of spectators descended upon the town to watch the trial — and perhaps to patronize the blocks of newly erected stands selling stuffed monkeys and other keepsakes.</p><p>Bryan, Woodrow Wilson’s former secretary of state and three-time failed Democratic presidential nominee, was invited to join the prosecution and given the chance to rail against the evils of evolution, while celebrity lawyer Clarence Darrow embraced the defense team’s offer to attack fundamentalism on the public stage.</p><p>What emerged was largely a comical farce, its outcome weighted in favor of the prosecution and both sides more interested in swaying public opinion than in securing a relatively inconsequential legal victory. (While Scopes lost, incurring a fine of $100, his conviction was overturned on a technicality; the Butler Act remained on the books in obscurity until it was finally repealed in 1967.)</p><h2>Monkeyshines</h2><p>As historian <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Gods-Americas-Continuing-Religion/dp/1541646037/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Edward J. Larson</a> describes, the trial was a laid-back affair. The judge dispensed with the usual courtroom dress code as a concession to the boiling Tennessee summer, occasionally even moving the proceedings outside. The town itself took on an atmosphere of absurd spectacle emblematic of the excesses of the roaring twenties, with at least two actual chimpanzees (technically apes rather than monkeys) paraded through the streets.</p><p>After a dramatic and sweltering eight-day battle, both the prosecution and the defense emerged convinced they’d successfully embarrassed the other. Neither suspected that they’d set in motion a series of lengthy legal battles over the role of religion in public life and set the stage for the fundamentalist-modernist crisis that came to split American Protestantism in half. The Scopes trial would change America forever but not necessarily in the ways those involved expected.</p><h2>Bryan as Bible thumper?</h2><p>“Inherit the Wind” openly maligns Bryan as an ignorant fool stirring up a mob of uneducated, hateful yokels, a selfish man more enthralled by the sound of his voice than devoted to the truth. Anybody who knows of his importance as the leading figure of the Progressive Era would understand why this is disingenuous. As for the citizens of Dayton, by all accounts they enjoyed the hullaballoo and were perfectly gracious to participants on both sides.</p><p>The movie culminates with a depiction of Darrow’s infamous two-hour grilling of Bryan on the witness stand. Called to testify as a Bible expert, the fictionalized Bryan stumbles repeatedly over his opponent’s complicated questions of Old Testament interpretation. </p><p>While this did have the effect of damaging Bryan’s reputation and perhaps even hastening the ailing man’s death (in the movie, Bryan expires in the courtroom immediately after the verdict; the actual Bryan died peacefully is his sleep five days later), “Inherit the Wind” drastically simplifies Bryan’s actual beliefs. </p><h2>No 'mere mammal'</h2><p>Bryan fit into an older political paradigm where socialism and fundamentalist Christianity could coexist on a platform of eschatological optimism. He wasn’t a shallow anti-intellectual pushing against new ideas but a defiant moralist who doubted that science alone could provide a moral framework for society.</p><p>Bryan was a liberal Democrat, a feminist, labor organizer, silver standard proponent, anti-imperialist, anti-KKK, anti-alcohol, and anti-war advocate. Although he believed progress was God’s will, he was hardly a theocrat and believed wholeheartedly in the mandate of the masses.</p><p>He arguably had a more sincere faith in democracy than anyone today, believing that change must come through the power of the vote. If the policies he advocated — such as prohibition — happened to save souls along the way, all the better, but he believed they must be achieved through secular majoritarian processes.</p><p>His central critique of evolution, though obviously rooted in Christian revelation, drew most heavily from rational moral arguments. Bryan was particularly concerned that reducing man to a “mere mammal” would fatally devalue individual human lives. Given the Nazis’ embrace of eugenics and genocide less than two decades later, it’s hard to conclude that Bryan was wrong.</p><h2>Deifying Darrow</h2><p>Conversely, “Inherit the Wind” treats the evolutionists as well-meaning, if flawed, idealists. But the real-life Darrow was a prickly, controversy-courting atheist and free-will denier who wasn’t above using cruel tactics to advance his agenda — a far cry from the dignified and tolerant figure the movie presents.</p><p>The movie also exaggerates the role journalist and gadfly H.L. Mencken (portrayed by Gene Kelly as E.K. Hornbeck) had in the proceedings, which has burnished his reputation as a free speech pioneer. While Mencken’s syndicated column for the Baltimore Sun made him a national figure, his influence on conventional wisdom was limited. As historian <a href="https://voegelinview.com/evangelicals-in-the-public-square-after-the-scopes-trial/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Madison Trammel</a> writes, news “coverage of fundamentalists was fairly evenly split between positive, negative, and neutral articles.”</p><p>“Inherit the Wind” further lionizes Mencken by ignoring the less savory aspects of his self-styled crusade against ignorance and hypocrisy. As his late biographer <a href="https://jeetheer.substack.com/p/a-candle-for-terry-teachout" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Terry Teachout notes</a>, Mencken’s tendency to dismiss entire classes of people (such as the ignorant masses he dubbed the "booboisie") at times could take on an ugly eugenic tone. </p><p>"The educated negro of today is a failure," wrote Mencken in an exchange with prominent socialist Robert Rives La Monte, <a href="https://archive.org/details/cu31924030332609/page/n119/mode/2up" target="_blank">published in 1910</a>. "Not because he meets insuperable difficulties in life, but because he is a negro. He is, in brief, a low-caste man."</p><h2>Mencken the misanthrope</h2><p>Mencken’s interest in the trial derived in large part from his contempt for the prosecution’s side. Worried the local bumpkins wouldn’t provide him with enough material, Mencken <a href="https://famous-trials.com/scopesmonkey/2094-mencken" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">attempted to trick them</a> into attending the service of a made-up faith healer. Despite printing and handing out 1,000 handbills for his proto-"Daily Show" stunt, he was unable to find any locals gullible enough to take the bait.</p><p>Like Darrow, whom Mencken <a href="https://blog.loa.org/2011/07/john-farrell-on-testy-ties-between.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">convinced to take the case</a>, Mencken took glee in making Bryan look like a fool. He couldn’t even resist crowing about the latter’s sudden death, publicly joking that “God aimed at Darrow, missed, and hit Bryan instead.” In private, he was less eloquent, noting simply that “we killed the son-of-a-bitch.”</p><h2>Continuing impact</h2><p>After a century of this mythology, what remains of Bryan’s public image is a caricature — a fat, egotistical, ignorant, religious nut-job, driven by what Mencken <a href="https://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=72753" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">called “simple ambition.”</a> Darrow and Mencken, on the other hand, retain their images as progressive heroes. </p><p>In this sense, it’s clear that the trial’s putative losers have been victorious in the long-term. Their underlying assumption that Christian faith poses a threat to education has influenced debates about school prayer, homeschooling, and the right of the state to intervene against religious parents for their children’s safety.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/i-was-a-problem-student-until-all-male-catholic-school-let-me-be-a-boy" target="_blank">I was a 'problem student' — until all-male Catholic school let me be a boy</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b6e38d2b2f2d84042a026a5bae615bce" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="b8ccd" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61133419&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Alex_Bond/Bettman/Getty Images</small></p><p>At the same time, the attempts of majority-Christian communities to enforce their own local norms have been recast as fanatical campaigns to impose religion on public life, with the removal of age-inappropriate materials from public school libraries likened to book-burning .</p><p>One can even spot the influence of Scopes on the COVID-era demonization of “anti-vaxxers,” whose main offense is their obstinate refusal to defer to their supposed superiors, the technocratic elite deriving authority from “the science.”</p><h2>'Free speech' as power grab</h2><p>Bryan rejected this claim to authority. It was not evolutionists’ irreligiosity he opposed but rather their overreach: Who were they to argue with how the people of Tennessee had decided to educate their children? Why did they assume that their particular beliefs held greater weight than those of their opponents?</p><p>“Christians are compelled to build their own colleges in which to teach Christianity,” Bryan <a href="https://www.eiu.edu/past_tracker/Education_WJBryan_Memoir_526-528.pdf" target="_blank">said in a statement</a> weeks before the trial commenced. “Why not require atheists and agnostics to build their own colleges in which to teach atheism and agnosticism?” </p><p>For Bryan, the invocation of free speech concealed the kind of secular, governmental power grab we still see playing out today: “The duty of a parent to protect his children is more sacred than the right of teachers to teach what parents do not want taught.”</p><p>English Catholic journalist G.K. Chesterton <a href="http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/Compulsory_Education.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">echoed this view</a>, arguing that the removal of Christianity from education had merely swapped trust in God for trust in the pluralistic education system and any teacher who administered it: “And if his own private opinions happen to be of the rather crude sort that are commonly contemporary with and connected with the new sciences or pseudo-sciences, he can teach any of them under cover of those sciences. That is what the people of Dayton, Tennessee, were really in revolt against.” </p><h2>Who is in charge?</h2><p>One can see how prescient Chesterton was about such fashionable educational trend-chasing in everything from the trans-kids controversies to the “book burning” scandals. Who is truly in charge? Parents or teachers? Majoritarian populists or experts? Who should be in charge?</p><p>While objections like Chesterton’s seem to have faded from memory, to view the Scopes Monkey Trial as Christianity’s last, desperate attempt to claw back institutional power from ascendant science is to overstate the case. <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/647594/majority-credits-god-humankind-not-creationism.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gallup reports</a> that 37% of Americans still believe in young-earth creationism, while a further 34% believe in some form of theistic evolution or divine intervention. Both sides of the debate remain as inflamed as ever, if not more virulently distrustful of the other's intentions.</p><p>The fundamentalists may or may not be correct about the age of the Earth or the origin of species, but their instincts about the authoritarianism lurking beneath our modern, post-religious order are worthy of our attention. </p><p>Considering that the same technocratic oligarchy that claimed Scopes as a victory drove the world into two World Wars, multiple economic crises, and a pandemic-cum-social engineering experiment, the spiritual heirs of William Jennings Bryan may yet get another day in court. </p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/align/the-scopes-monkey-trial-at-100-who-really-won</guid><category>Faith</category><category>Abide</category><category>William jennings bryan</category><category>Clarence darrow</category><category>Scopes trial</category><category>Law</category><category>Culture</category><category>Lifestyle</category><category>Evolution</category><category>Christianity</category><category>Education</category><category>Modern mammals</category><dc:creator>Tyler Hummel</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-scopes-monkey-trial-at-100-who-really-won.jpg?id=61133344&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>That time Bono realized the free market and commerce help people more than the redistribution of money</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/bono-commerce-activism-poverty</link><description><![CDATA[
  13. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/that-time-bono-realized-the-free-market-and-commerce-help-people-more-than-the-redistribution-of-money.jpg?id=61139934&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=0%2C22%2C0%2C22"/><br/><br/><p>It's the Fourth of July, and (most) Americans are using the occasion to celebrate our great country and the blessings of liberty that we enjoy through the efforts and sacrifices of those who came before us. </p><p>It is also a good time to appreciate how the system of (mostly) free markets contributed to the constant improvement and growth of the U.S. and got us to the remarkable place we are now. </p><p class="pull-quote">'Actually, you know, you go to the developing world and jobs are the most dignifying thing that you could offer somebody. Because people have work, they can sort out their own problems.'</p><p>Enter an unlikely hero to our story: Bono, the lead singer of U2. </p><p>Now you might say, "Isn't that the <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/bigmouth-strikes-again-brave-bono-latest-aging-rocker-to-bash-trump" target="_blank">jerk</a> who is anti-Trump?" Or you might ask, "Wait a minute, isn't he the guy who goes around supporting left-wing causes?" And the answer to those questions is unfortunately yes and yes, respectively. </p><p>But what he also did was admit that he had been wrong about seeking liberal solutions to the problems of poverty when the free market was sitting there waiting to be employed. He made those comments in an <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/bono-poverty-capitalism-commerce-jobs" target="_blank">interview</a> with the New York Times in 2022. <span></span></p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/nothing-to-be-proud-of-state-department-spits-on-usaids-grave-following-bono-obama-eulogies" target="_self"><strong>'Nothing to be proud of': State Department spits on USAID's grave following Bono, Obama eulogies</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f5c7c7119c77656b79334aa13a186489" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3cd44" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61142763&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images</small></p><p>He said he had this epiphany while prancing about the globe trying to improve lives of our fellow human beings through his activism. </p><p>"I ended up as an activist in a very different place from where I started. I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every problem. I now know that’s not true," Bono said in the interview. </p><p>"There’s a funny moment when you realize that as an activist: The off-ramp out of extreme poverty is, ugh, commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism," he explained. "I spend a lot of time in countries all over Africa, and they’re like, 'Eh, we wouldn’t mind a little more globalization actually.' I would point out that there has been a lot of progress over the years."</p><p>Rather than excoriate business owners as evil and greedy like so many leftists are inclined to do, Bono says they are heroes who provide job opportunities. </p><p>"Capitalism is a wild beast. We need to tame it," Bono said. "But globalization has brought more people out of poverty than any other -ism. If somebody comes to me with a better idea, I’ll sign up. I didn’t grow up to like the idea that we’ve made heroes out of businesspeople, but if you’re bringing jobs to a community and treating people well, then you are a hero. That’s where I’ve ended up."</p><p>Although he still ended up badmouthing unbridled capitalism, he admitted that leftists could do more to alleviate poverty if they joined forced with people on the right, including church groups. </p><p>"[We have a] snobby attitude about business and big business. We sort of demonize it," he continued. "And actually, you know, you go to the developing world, and jobs are the most dignifying thing that you could offer somebody. Because people have work, they can sort out their own problems."</p><p>That is a pretty stunning admission for a left-wing activist to make. </p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/bigmouth-strikes-again-brave-bono-latest-aging-rocker-to-bash-trump" target="_self"><strong>Bigmouth strikes again: Brave Bono latest aging rocker to bash Trump</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9549639203d1b14e6a38f2321fda3f6c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="77f3a" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61139936&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images </small></p><p>Now that we're in this rabbit hole, we might as well go a little deeper to 2013, when Bono had not yet realized the power of capitalism to free people, but he was still seeking "evidence-based" activism. This might have been the beginning of his epiphany. </p><p>In his TED talk <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bono_the_good_news_on_poverty_yes_there_s_good_news" target="_blank">about reducing poverty</a>, he goes over some stunning statistics that are no doubt at least partly due to capitalism improving lives for decades. </p><p>Among those stats are the following, from 2013: </p><ul><li>There were eight countries that had their malaria death rates in Africa cut by 75%.</li><li>There are 2.65 million fewer deaths of children under 5 per year. That's 7,256 children saved each day. </li></ul><p>"Wow! Let's just stop for a second and think about that. Have you heard or read anything, anywhere in the last week that is remotely as important as that number? Wow! Great news," he said. "It drives me nuts that most people don't seem to know this news." </p><ul><li>The number of people in back-breaking, soul-crushing poverty has declined from 43% to 33% over 10 years up until 2000. </li><li>That same number fell to 21% by 2010 globally. </li></ul><div>"Halved! Now, the rate is still too high, still too many people, still too many people unnecessarily losing their lives. There's still work to do, but it's heart-stopping!" he added. "It's mind-blowing stuff!" </div><div>Even then he touted a little too much the triumph of science, reason, and facts to stamp out inequality, you can see the seeds of his eventual surrender to commerce and the free market allowing people to solve their own problems. </div><p>It's worth watching, and it's only 13 minutes long. </p><p>And after all that, if you can't muster a twinge of respect for Bono for admitting his liberal mistakes, well, at least we can all accept that "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3-5YC_oHjE" target="_blank">pretty nifty U2 song.</a> </p><p>No? OK how about his quote about Che Guevara from the NYT interview then: </p><p>"I still don’t like Che Guevara T-shirts. [Expletive] Che Guevara," said Bono. </p><p>Enjoy your freedom and the countless institutions that support your prosperity. </p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>! </em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 23:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/bono-commerce-activism-poverty</guid><category>Fourth of july</category><category>Commerce and the free market</category><category>Bono on capitalism</category><category>Liberal activists who love capitalism</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Carlos Garcia</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/that-time-bono-realized-the-free-market-and-commerce-help-people-more-than-the-redistribution-of-money.jpg?id=61139934&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Renewing the promise of America: A Catholic tribute this Fourth of July</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/align/renewing-the-promise-of-america-a-catholic-tribute-this-fourth-of-july</link><description><![CDATA[
  14. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/renewing-the-promise-of-america-a-catholic-tribute-this-fourth-of-july.jpg?id=61143254&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C140%2C0%2C81"/><br/><br/><p>As fireworks light up our skies and patriotic songs echo from sea to shining sea, Americans across the nation prepare to celebrate the birth of the greatest experiment in human freedom: the United States of America.</p><p>The Fourth of July is more than a commemoration of independence. It is a call to remember the sacrifices, the dreams, and the values that made our republic possible — and Catholics’ role in our great national story.</p><p class="pull-quote">There is no better time than now for all Christians and men and women of good spirit to renew the great virtues that made our country the beacon that shines around the world.</p><p>Now, as Catholics recover from four years of a presidential administration actively weaponized against them, we must remember that we still have a seat at the table.</p><p>The first Thanksgiving — on what would become U.S. soil — was not a turkey dinner in Plymouth but a Mass. On September 8, 1565, in what is now St. Augustine, Florida, Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales celebrated the holy Eucharist, giving thanks to God for a safe voyage from Spain and the new beginning in this land.</p><p>It was a deeply Catholic expression of gratitude — a reminder that before America was a nation, it was already a place where the faith was planted.</p><p>That same spirit of courage and conviction continued through the Revolution. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence stood one Catholic: Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a man of extraordinary education and faith. At a time when anti-Catholic prejudice was rampant in the colonies, Carroll's signature was a bold testimony that Catholics were willing to risk everything — fortune, honor, and life itself — for liberty.</p><p>No group more embodied the pioneer spirit and resilience of the early republic than the Catholic sisters who took to the frontiers — not with muskets, but with habits, discipline, and love.</p><p>In 1727, the Ursuline Sisters opened the first Catholic hospital in New Orleans, 24 years before Benjamin Franklin founded the first one in the original colonies. Later, the Sisters of Charity would build dozens of hospitals across the expanding nation, including the Baltimore Infirmary in 1827. These heroic women served all: rich and poor, black and white, Christian and non-Christian.</p><p>Even legends of the Wild West intersect with this Catholic witness. The infamous Doc Holliday, once a gunfighter, died not in some saloon but in a Catholic hospital in the Rockies, attended by sisters and reconciled with God through the Catholic Church.</p><p>Sadly, forces have recently been at work to exclude Catholics from expressing our deeply held beliefs in the society we helped to build.</p><p>Under President Biden, the FBI <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/12/05/report-fbi-interviewed-priest-choir-director-part-investigation-targeting-catholics/" target="_blank" title="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/12/05/report-fbi-interviewed-priest-choir-director-part-investigation-targeting-catholics/">authorized</a> federal agents to spy on Catholics in their houses of worship and shamelessly persecuted pro-life advocates for speaking out peacefully about the dignity of human life. Meanwhile, the Biden FBI sat idly by while extremists carried out <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/abide/war-on-faith-how-anti-catholic-violence-is-exploding-almost-unnoticed" target="_blank" title="https://catholicvote.org/tracker-church-attacks/">more than 500</a> attacks on Catholic churches across the nation, including upon St. Patrick Catholic Church in Wichita, Kansas, where statues were destroyed and glass shattered, preventing worshippers from attending Mass.</p><p>Under the Trump administration, however, a new Justice Department task force <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/abide/trump-makes-good-on-promise-to-defend-christians" target="_blank">will fight anti-Christian bias</a>. Moreover, recent Supreme Court victories — some secured by Catholic plaintiffs or attorneys — reaffirm not only that Catholics are entitled to the same religious freedom guaranteed to all other faiths, but also that Catholics are key players in defending the First Amendment freedoms that make our nation great.</p><p>Modern Catholic heroes like <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/meet-the-christians-fighting-for-your-rights-at-the-supreme-court" target="_blank" title="https://www.foxnews.com/media/maryland-mom-taking-fight-opt-child-out-lgbtq-story-books-before-supreme-court">Grace Morrison</a>, for example, prove that religious freedom is still worth fighting for and we must continue to restore religious toleration to the American lexicon. Grace bravely stood up against the Montgomery County School Board in Maryland, which revoked parental notification and opt-outs for age-inappropriate and over-sexualized LGBTQ course materials for children as young as 3. Joining other religious plaintiffs of diverse faiths, Grace fought for her right to <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/why-mom-joined-supreme-court-lawsuit-over-lgbtq-books-in-elementary-school-emphasis-on-childrens-romantic-emotions/" target="_blank" title="https://nypost.com/2025/04/22/us-news/why-mom-joined-supreme-court-lawsuit-over-lgbtq-books-in-elementary-school-emphasis-on-childrens-romantic-emotions/">opt her 12-year-old daughter out</a> of the materials promoting radical ideologies antithetical to her family’s beliefs.</p><p>Just last week, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/massive-victory-supreme-court-sides-with-parents-alito-nukes-lgbt-indoctrination-campaign" target="_blank">affirmed</a> her First Amendment rights.</p><p>Thanks to courageous individuals and victories like these, Catholics, who came to America to build, can take up once again their shared dream of creating a society of ordered liberty and moral greatness. That legacy endures in stone and memory in the U.S. Capitol, where statues of Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, St. Junípero Serra, St. Damien of Molokai, Fr. Eusebio Kino, and Fr. Jacques Marquette quietly testify to the Catholic heart of the American story.</p><p>There is no better time than now for all Christians and men and women of good spirit to renew the great virtues that made our country the beacon that shines around the world.</p><p>This is not a time to merely celebrate the past, but to shape the future, to conquer the new cultural frontiers that Pope Leo, the first American pope, is calling us to take on with renewed energy, courage, faith, and hope, reclaiming the nobility of our founding vision — and ensure that this “one nation under God” shines with even greater brilliance for generations to come.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 22:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/align/renewing-the-promise-of-america-a-catholic-tribute-this-fourth-of-july</guid><category>America</category><category>Catholics</category><category>Christianity</category><category>Christians</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>July 4</category><category>Faith</category><dc:creator>Kelsey Reinhardt</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/renewing-the-promise-of-america-a-catholic-tribute-this-fourth-of-july.jpg?id=61143254&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Here are the top 3 LEAST patriotic members of Congress</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/here-are-the-top-3-least-patriotic-members-of-congress</link><description><![CDATA[
  15. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/here-are-the-top-3-least-patriotic-members-of-congress.jpg?id=61134260&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C394%2C0%2C176"/><br/><br/><p>While millions of Americans across the country are gearing up for their Fourth of July festivities, here are three members of Congress who likely won't share their enthusiasm.</p><h3></h3><h3>3. Jasmine Crockett</h3><p>Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas has had several standout moments during her political career. Like many others in her party, Crockett has had her fair share of criticisms of the Trump administration, and she's even gone so far as to root for other countries over the one she was elected to represent.</p><p class="pull-quote">'I can go through pretty much the entire South and tell you that they're broke and rely on a lot of welfare from the government.'</p><p>During a February interview on "The Breakfast Club," Crockett said she was <a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1892993865155543293">"rooting for"</a> Canada and Mexico over the United States because they were standing up to the "crazy regime from Mar-a-Lago."</p><p>“The fact that I’m rooting for Canada and I’m rooting for Mexico a lot is really wild, but they are really the ones that are speaking truth to power right now," Crockett said.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/jasmine-crockett-says-trump-impeachment-inquiry-absolutely-on-the-table"><strong>Jasmine Crockett says Trump impeachment inquiry 'absolutely' on the table</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="51759bcc6fac61334764fa2478742e10" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="9ce5a" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61135244&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</small></p><p>Crockett has also displayed disdain for Republican constituencies in particular, calling red states <a href="https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1732158234679448018">"deplorable</a>" for not embracing the radical gender ideology her party touts. On a separate occasion, Crockett called red states "broke," accusing them of being too reliant on "big blue states."</p><p>"Down in Alabama, who's broke, down in Louisiana, who's broke — I can go through pretty much the entire South and tell you that they're broke and rely on a lot of welfare from the government," Crockett <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jasmine-crockett-red-states-recession-find-out-trump-cuts_n_67b6b508e4b0cc5d77998248">said</a>. "To be perfectly honest, it is tax dollars from these big blue states. ... We're in the 'find out' phase."</p><p>Of course we cannot forget the infamous "hot wheels" comment Crockett made toward Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas back in March, apparently <a href="https://x.com/NRCC/status/1904552610100625890">mocking</a> him for his disability. Crockett notably <a href="https://x.com/seanhannity/status/1905316420721799454">refused</a> to apologize for her remarks.</p><h3>2. Rashida Tlaib</h3><p>Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has reliably railed against America, specifically the concept of American sovereignty, throughout the span of her political career.</p><p class="pull-quote">'Impeach the motherf**ker.'</p><p>Tlaib has repeatedly <a href="https://x.com/RepRashida/status/1933507061297377411">called</a> for ICE to be abolished, claiming its sole purpose is to terrorize illegal aliens even though they broke the law by entering the country illegally. Rather than celebrating the country she represents on the Fourth of July, Tlaib <a href="https://x.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1279435015554809856">insisted</a> that America consists of "broken systems rooted in racism that allow folks to be harmed and killed."</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/tlaib-death-america-meltdown-video">Rashida Tlaib flips out when asked to condemn 'Death to America' chants by anti-Israel protesters in her district</a></strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/tlaib-death-america-meltdown-video"></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="040e0e9c3e105262c51f0bc2f2f2bab6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2e9e3" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61137443&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</small></p><p>Like some of her other Democratic colleagues, the Palestinian-American has also spent much of her career focused on other parts of the globe outside the United States.</p><p>Tlaib has become known for her advocacy and support for Palestine over Israel, the country that is regarded to be America's ally in the region. When Tlaib takes a break from calling to <a href="https://x.com/LevineJonathan/status/1081037086621339648">"impeach the motherf**ker,</a>" referring to Trump, she is likely being <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/845">censured</a> by the House for "promoting false narratives" about the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7.</p><h3>1. Ilhan Omar</h3><p>Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar's political career is a treasure trove of anti-American sentiment. One of the most glaring instances of blatant disregard for Americans is the "some people did something" scandal of 2019.</p><p>Omar was speaking at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations when she downplayed the deadliest terrorist attack ever to take place on American soil.</p><p class="pull-quote">'We're a country built on stolen land and the backs of slaves.'</p><p>"CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," Omar <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrql_Sb30B8">said</a> at the fundraiser.</p><p>Although Omar's comments sparked outrage, the congresswoman doubled down and made the atrocity about herself.</p><p>"I think it is really important for us to make sure that we are not forgetting, right, the aftermath of what happened after 9/11," Omar <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/omar-defends-comments-after-criticism-9-11-mourner-n1054666">said</a> in an interview following the scandal. "Many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them. And so what I was speaking to was the fact that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me a suspect."</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/the-us-is-now-one-of-the-worst-countries-because-of-trumps-actions-says-ilhan-omar"><strong>The US is now 'one of the worst countries' because of Trump's actions, says Ilhan Omar</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="69c8500be6da3df1620a018f31a4637b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="afe7f" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61137290&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images</small></p><p>This wasn't just a one-off Freudian slip for Omar. Rather, the Somali native has a steady track record of spewing anti-American rhetoric. Omar has called Americans she disagrees with <a href="https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1893741617678569710">"stupid"</a> and even said the United States has "turned into one of the <a href="https://x.com/theblaze/status/1934994521793638707">worst countries." </a></p><p>Omar herself admits she grew up in a dictatorship in Somalia, but she still insisted that the recent Army parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding somehow demonstrated that the U.S. is worse than the country she is originally from.</p><p>Her bias against the United States and in favor of foreign countries has been a topic of conversation for her entire career, and it can be best demonstrated by comparing her own statements about American independence and Somalian independence.</p><p>Omar, a representative for the United States, celebrated Somalian independence in a Tuesday <a href="https://x.com/IlhanMN/status/1940067275018838107" target="_blank">post on X</a> depicting a man waving her native flag.</p><p>However, her praise seems to be reserved exclusively for Somalia. Back in 2018, she posted a critical statement to mark America's independence.</p><p>"We shouldn't revise history," Omar <a href="https://x.com/IlhanMN/status/1014602913749094400" target="_blank">wrote</a>. "We're a country built on stolen land and the backs of slaves. Independence Day allows us to reflect on how far we've come and how much farther we have to go. Leveraging our voice to fight for justice is as American as it gets. Happy 4th of July."</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 21:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/here-are-the-top-3-least-patriotic-members-of-congress</guid><category>Jasmine crockett</category><category>Rashida tlaib</category><category>Ilhan omar</category><category>Gaza</category><category>Palestine</category><category>Israel</category><category>October 7</category><category>Somalia</category><category>Canada</category><category>Mexico</category><category>America</category><category>United states</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Trump administration</category><category>American independence</category><category>July 4</category><category>4th of july</category><category>Congress</category><category>Democrats</category><category>House democrats</category><category>Censure</category><category>Republicans</category><category>Red states</category><category>Blue states</category><category>Terrorists</category><category>911</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Rebeka Zeljko</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/here-are-the-top-3-least-patriotic-members-of-congress.jpg?id=61134260&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Allie Beth Stuckey: Why I’m proud to be an American</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/relatable/allie-beth-stuckey-why-im-proud-to-be-an-american</link><description><![CDATA[
  16. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61127740&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>The long sun and firework-filled weekend of Independence Day has officially kicked off, and before you crack a beer or fire up a burger — you might want to take a moment to remember why this country is so great. </p><p>BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” hasn’t forgotten, and despite knowing that our country is imperfect — she’s well aware that perfection isn’t required to be great. </p><p>“We have learned probably more than ever over the past few years how corrupt so many of our leaders are. Our bureaucratic state has turned itself in many ways against its own people,” Stuckey says. </p><p>“And so I celebrate America, not because she’s perfect, not because she does no wrong, not because there aren’t some really, really big things to change and to fight for, but because I believe that the values upon which we were established are the greatest values that a country could be founded on,” she continues. </p><h3></h3><br/><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e3893fb8091b2f6f8e76c9529c6a7dcb" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/awiFGTC8XcQ?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span><p>“The idea that all men were created equal, the idea of inherent rights that come from a creator whose authority is transcendent and supreme and above the government. The idea of self-governance, of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion. There is no other country in the world that has championed these things as well as the United States,” she adds.</p><p>And while these are the ideas the United States was founded on, they’re only here to stay as long as we continue to fight for them. </p><p>“It takes vigilance, it takes dedication, it takes commitment on our part to make sure that we are keeping those things. I mean, it takes, really, a constant struggle, to ensure that liberty is passed down from one generation to the next,” she explains. </p><p>“God has placed us here and now, specifically, and with purpose. And that purpose is, of course, to glorify Him, to serve him with joy, and with excellence. But part of that obedience to God is to ensure that we are making better every sphere that we occupy, that we are infusing every sphere of life with as much light and as much truth and as much goodness as we possibly can,” she continues. </p><p>“This is what Christians have done for thousands of years, not just engagement in politics and culture, but also through the creation of charities and organizations and all different kinds of entities that have served the human race,” she adds.</p><h2>Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?</h2><p>To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, <a href="https://get.blazetv.com/allie/?utm_source=theblaze&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article_shortcode_alliebethstuckey" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subscribe to BlazeTV</a> — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/relatable/allie-beth-stuckey-why-im-proud-to-be-an-american</guid><category>Camera phone</category><category>Video phone</category><category>Sharing</category><category>Upload</category><category>Free</category><category>Video</category><category>Youtube.com</category><category>Relatable with allie beth stuckey</category><category>Relatable</category><category>The blaze</category><category>Blazetv</category><category>Blaze news</category><category>Blaze podcasts</category><category>Blaze podcast network</category><category>Blaze online</category><category>Blaze originals</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>Independence day</category><category>American history</category><category>United states of america</category><category>Pledge of allegiance</category><category>Freedom</category><category>Liberty</category><dc:creator>BlazeTV Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61127740&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Ask yourself the one question that separates patriots from pretenders</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/align/ask-yourself-the-one-question-that-separates-patriots-from-pretenders</link><description><![CDATA[
  17. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/ask-yourself-the-one-question-that-separates-patriots-from-pretenders.jpg?id=61135093&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C101%2C0%2C120"/><br/><br/><p>As we honor the brave souls who laid down their lives for this country and salute those who fought for our freedom, a deeper question should rise within us.</p><p>Not one that simply tests our loyalty to the red, white, and blue or willingness to die for our flag, but this: Would you live for your country?</p><p class="pull-quote">This country doesn’t need more empty promises of sacrifice. It needs people willing to show up every day with integrity and courage.</p><p>I once sat across from a young, bright-eyed man, eager to prove himself, training to become a Navy SEAL. I asked him to write down a single question: <em>Would you die for your country?</em> He nodded solemnly as he scribbled it onto a notepad. Then I told him to cross out “die” and write “live.”</p><p> That shift in wording — so simple — completely changed his posture. The romanticism of martyrdom dimmed in the light of daily responsibility. Living for something demands consistency, humility, and effort. It’s the long haul.</p><p>I then asked him to add "your family" and "my family" to the sentence. “Would you live for your country, your family, and my family?” That’s when the gravity hit him. Because if you won’t live for them — serve, protect, uphold — then you don’t deserve the honor of dying for them.</p><p>A lot of men say they’d die for their country because they assume they’ll never have to. But living for your country? That’s actionable. That starts now — in how you lead your home, how you love your neighbor, how you contribute to your community.</p><p>This country doesn’t need more empty promises of sacrifice. It needs people willing to show up every day with integrity and courage.</p><p>We are living in a destabilized America. The erosion didn’t begin with foreign powers. It began when we stopped holding ourselves and each other accountable. We began to celebrate selfishness over service, confusion over clarity, and chaos over order. When morality and justice become flexible, small government becomes impossible. That vacuum invites control. And when people abandon responsibility, tyranny grows in its place.</p><p>I’ve worked in environments where destabilizing a country was the goal, where operations were designed to light the fuse and let the people do the rest. Sadly, I see a similar fuse burning in our own nation.</p><p>When law is no longer tied to truth and truth becomes subjective, the foundation cracks. Evil ideas dressed as compassion are pushed forward under the guise of progress. But make no mistake: Confusion is not compassion. Chaos is not freedom. And evil, when legalized, is still evil.</p><p>So what do we do? We take ownership. We return to righteousness.</p><p>I used to think I was doing enough by building a business, raising my kids, and being a decent husband. But I delegated too much. I assumed the school system would take care of my children’s education. I trusted the government to protect what’s right.</p><p>That was a mistake.</p><p>The top is broken. It’s time we fix it from the ground up, starting with ourselves. We’re not in charge of them. We’re in charge of <em>us</em>.</p><p>As men and women of faith, we were born with purpose and calling. The Bible tells us we are a royal priesthood, but too many of us live like powerless pawns. Why? Because we've forgotten who we are. We fear the consequences of standing up, but fail to see the greater danger in staying seated.</p><p>When I look around, I see a nation waiting for leadership — not from Washington, but from our homes, churches, and communities. Men, it’s time to get back in the fight. Not with fists, but with faith. Not with rage, but with righteousness.</p><p>Start by asking: <em>What do I bring to the table? What am I doing to make this country better today?</em> You don’t need to be a soldier to serve. You need to be someone of character who says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”</p><p>I recently read Ezekiel 22:30 to a group at my church: “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap … but I found no one.” I asked, “What if Jesus came back today and found no one standing in the gap for this nation?” A little boy stood up and shouted, “I’ll be that man!”</p><p>That boldness — unfiltered and unafraid — is what we need more of.</p><p>This Fourth of July, don’t just wave the flag — <em>embody</em> what it stands for. Choose to live for your country. Live with integrity. Live with purpose. Live in a way that honors your family and the generations that came before us.</p><p> If we start living like that, others will follow. Only then can we fill in the gap and rebuild the wall.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/align/ask-yourself-the-one-question-that-separates-patriots-from-pretenders</guid><category>Christianity</category><category>Patriotism</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>America</category><category>Christians</category><category>July 4</category><dc:creator>Jimmy Graham</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/ask-yourself-the-one-question-that-separates-patriots-from-pretenders.jpg?id=61135093&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Hail to the cheeseburger! An all-American staple and a 4th of July favorite</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/align/hail-to-the-cheeseburger-an-all-american-staple-and-a-4th-of-july-favorite</link><description><![CDATA[
  18. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/hail-to-the-cheeseburger-an-all-american-staple-and-a-4th-of-july-favorite.png?id=61139709&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C30%2C0%2C30"/><br/><br/><p>OK, who among us <em>doesn't</em> have a moment to give Fourth of July props to the cheeseburger?</p><p>C'mon! It's only the most American of our unparalleled collection of all-American foods.</p><p class="pull-quote">So tell us, dear readers — what are <em>your</em> favorite spots to frequent when the cheeseburger hankerin' hits you? </p><p>But before we get to the cheeseburger, the history of its older sibling — the <em>hamburger</em> — deserves a look as well, and as it turns out, its official beginning is a bit disputed.</p><p>So how did <em>ye olde</em> hamburger hatch?</p><p><a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/the-worlds-first-hamburger/" target="_blank">Legend has it</a> that Uncle Fletcher Davis in the late 1880s created the first hamburger at a small cafe on the Henderson County courthouse square — and then "Uncle Fletch" took his creation to the 1904 World’s Fair, in St. Louis, where it was called a “hamburger." In <a href="https://www.homeofthehamburger.org/hamburger-charlie/" target="_blank">another account</a>, it's said that teenager Charlie Nagreen was trying to sell meatballs at a Wisconsin fair in 1885 without much success — until he flattened the meatballs between two slices of bread, and then it was a hit given that folks could carry it around with them. That same year, <a href="https://www.ecfair.org/p/info/about-the-fair/birth-of-the-hamburger" target="_blank">it's said</a> that Frank and Charles Menches were short on meat for their sausage sandwiches at the 1885 Erie County Fair near Buffalo, New York — and then conjured up some culinary wizardry after a butcher suggested swapping in ground beef.</p><p>Or does <a href="https://louislunch.com/" target="_blank">Louis' Lunch</a> in New Haven, Connecticut — which you can still visit — get the nod as the true inventor of the hamburger? (Although, a cheese concoction apparently <em>did </em>start getting added to the one-of-a-kind creation there in due time.)</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/dont-believe-leftist-lies-american-history-is-good" target="_blank"><strong>Don’t believe leftist lies. American history IS good.</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5cc3895717d2a9635436461ffcec5318" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="17e14" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.png?id=61139755&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by: Paolo Picciotto/REDA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</small></p><p>You can check out a video report below about Louis' Lunch, which touts that their burgers are still made the same way — no condiments allowed! — and they even use the same 100-plus-year-old stoves in which the burgers are cooked <em>sideways.</em></p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/when-american-men-answered-the-call-of-civilization" target="_blank"><strong>When American men answered the call of civilization</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="aafbffa35ff4f641e8c44f6f3b8f7627" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Pnj_E5XFG4?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>You be the judge.</p><p>But as far as our beloved cheeseburger is concerned, it appears safely accepted that it <a href="https://www.visitpasadena.com/blog/how-the-cheeseburger-was-invented-in-pasadena/" target="_blank">got its start</a> 101 years ago when 16-year-old Lionel Clark Sternberger was working as a short-order cook at his dad's restaurant — The Rite Spot — in Pasadena, California, in 1924. Word is that young Sternberger began adding cheese to the patty, which later was dubbed the "Aristocratic Burger: The Original Hamburger with Cheese."</p><p>As you're well aware, the cheeseburger is fast-food, and after The Rite Spot apparently got things in motion, there are now scads of such establishments all over America that can satisfy your taste buds. </p><p>But which one serves the best cheeseburger? </p><p>And why? </p><p>Is it the quality of the patty? The appeal of the bun? Or is it the chosen cheese? The toppings? The veggies? Bacon or no bacon? Or a combination of all of the above? That answer is, as always, up for debate (psst ... it's In 'N' Out), and the final list can change by the day, week, month, and year.</p><p>Here's one breakdown that just may get your stomach churning:</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/frederick-douglass-american-patriot" target="_blank"><strong>Frederick Douglass: American patriot</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a3ddd8752ee3ef7721bb57a5fc24d3ff" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BiiPDwCbzbM?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span></p><p>And do you know of cool cheeseburger spots in your state that aren't necessarily creations of chain fast-food eateries? </p><p>If you don't, you just may want to check out a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Mj9BO-r1c" target="_blank">few</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGC20QJxAvw" target="_blank">videos</a> that show you just that. Other clips employ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYCzQHgvRvQ" target="_blank">variations on that theme</a> and present kingpin cheeseburgers from other <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqK1TVdTw4" target="_blank">vantage points</a>. How about this one?</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/how-to-really-take-time-off-this-4th-of-july" target="_blank"><strong>How to really take time off this 4th of July</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1466dda00397f21360535317294f485" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hvmrFeHeevE?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>                        </p><p>So tell us, dear readers — what are <em>your</em> favorite spots to frequent when the cheeseburger hankerin' hits you? </p><p>As we've proven here, they don't have to be national, or even regional, cheeseburger joints. One-of-a-kind mom-and-pop outfits count, too. Truth be told, they may even count more.</p><p>Finally, do you have any crowd-pleasing cheeseburger recipes you'd like to share with all of us as our grills get fired up today? Let us know all of your secrets in the comments below.</p><p>And all hail to the cheeseburger as we celebrate another Independence Day.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 19:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/align/hail-to-the-cheeseburger-an-all-american-staple-and-a-4th-of-july-favorite</guid><category>Cheeseburger</category><category>America</category><category>Fast food</category><category>American food</category><category>Picnics</category><category>Barbeque</category><category>Celebration</category><category>Tribute</category><category>Align</category><category>July 4</category><dc:creator>Dave Urbanski</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/hail-to-the-cheeseburger-an-all-american-staple-and-a-4th-of-july-favorite.png?id=61139709&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Sheriffs in Democratic strongholds partner with ICE to back Trump's deportation surge</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/sheriffs-in-democratic-strongholds-partner-with-ice-to-back-trump-s-deportation-surge</link><description><![CDATA[
  19. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126260&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C68%2C0%2C39"/><br/><br/><p>President Donald Trump's return to the White House came with a commitment to resolve the United States' illegal immigration crisis. In response, Democratic state and city leaders scrambled to strengthen protections in their jurisdictions against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.</p><p>Despite the left's campaign to thwart Trump's deportation efforts, sheriffs in conservative counties within those blue enclaves are seizing the opportunity to cooperate with federal immigration officials, particularly to deport illegal aliens charged with violent crimes.</p><p class="pull-quote">'Those who will not help the federal government enforcing the immigration laws are un-American.'</p><h2>Sheriff Bob Songer, Klickitat County, Washington: Defying 'unconstitutional' sanctuary laws</h2><p>A Washington sheriff has repeatedly vowed to defy the state's "unconstitutional" sanctuary laws to help ICE remove dangerous illegal aliens.</p><p>Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer, who describes himself as a "<a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2024/10/13/bob-songer-washington-sheriff-posse/" target="_blank">constitutional sheriff</a>," stated that he would tell border czar Tom Homan to put him "on speed dial."</p><p>"You call me," Songer <a href="https://mynorthwest.com/ktth/washington-sheriff-songer-ice/4057059" target="_blank">said</a> in March. "We'll be there to assist ICE in a New York second. Because by doing that, we're protecting the citizens of our county."</p><p>During an interview with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6369295430112" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fox News Digital</a>, he pledged to "cooperate with ICE 100%." </p><p>He slammed the left for claiming that illegally entering the country is "a civil infraction."</p><p>"That's bull. It's a crime under federal law," Songer said.</p><p>He blamed the "Biden cartel" for "purposely" fueling the illegal immigration invasion by giving up on protecting the border.</p><p>"This is in my humble opinion: Those who will not help the federal government enforcing the immigration laws are unamerican," he remarked. "I would consider [them], [in] my personal opinion, enemies of the state."</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/40-sheriffs-torch-biden-harris-open-border-policies-for-unleashing-crime-and-drugs-on-small-town-america" target="_blank"><strong>40 sheriffs torch Biden-Harris’ open-border policies for unleashing crime and drugs on small-town America</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image image-crop-16x9">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="35f3e4fcada7cec679de8a65cf256ccc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="59e10" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126244&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C107%2C0%2C0"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images</small></p>            <h2>Sheriff Chad Bianco, Riverside County, California: Taking on the state</h2><p>Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, elected in 2018, is leading the fight to end similar sanctuary policies in California by <a href="https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-adds-riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-as-plaintiff-in-lawsuit-against-gavin-newsom-and-the-state-of-california-to-end-illegal-alien-sanctuary-laws/" target="_blank">joining</a> the City of Huntington Beach's lawsuit against the state, Governor Gavin Newsom, and Attorney General Rob Bonta.</p><p>The complaint, filed by America First Legal, argues that sanctuary policies "unlawfully shield illegal aliens, and threaten public safety."</p><p>Bianco told the <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2025/05/09/chad-bianco-joins-lawsuit-challenging-california-immigrant-protections/83537062007/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Desert Sun</a> that California's SB54 was "designed to protect criminals in jail from being deported."</p><p>California is <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/629682/state-populations-of-illegal-immigrants-in-the-united-states-2014/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> to have the largest population of illegal immigrants, exceeding 2 million.</p><p>In February, Bianco announced his plans to run for governor to take Newsom's place. The sheriff <a href="https://abc7.com/post/riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-announce-run-california-governor/15921418/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">argued</a> that the state is "heading down the wrong track and has been for years."</p><p>"He's supposed to be the leader of this state," Bianco said of Newsom, who will not be running for reelection because of term limits. "The reality of Californians is, we all know this (increasing drug addiction, homelessness and property crime) is a mess. Everyone knows it's a mess, including Sacramento."</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/sheriff-vows-to-break-california-s-sanctuary-law-by-alerting-ice-about-violent-illegal-aliens" target="_blank"><strong>Sheriff vows to break California's sanctuary law by alerting ICE about violent illegal aliens</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image image-crop-16x9">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d5080aed204155321c4dfd36aaaf236b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="cb58b" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126220&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C41%2C0%2C9"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images</small></p><h2>Maryland sheriffs: Holding the line</h2><p>State and local law enforcement agencies, including those in Democratic strongholds, can partner with ICE through the <a href="https://www.ice.gov/287g" target="_blank">287(g) program</a>, which allows non-federal departments to "enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law."</p><p>This program, particularly under Trump's second administration, has kicked up controversy. County sheriffs in Maryland led a tense battle with local Democratic leaders to cooperate with ICE.</p><p>Sheriff's offices in Cecil, Frederick, and Harford Counties have had agreements with federal authorities for years, the <a href="https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/local-news/maryland-ice-sheriff-enforcement-immigrants-JLAPQN4S6NDWBJBZYCV6ZNQ7MY/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Baltimore Banner</a> reported. Just two months into Trump's second term, several more sheriff's offices — Carroll, Garrett, and Washington Counties — agreed to join ICE's 287(g) program.</p><p>Alarmed Democratic state lawmakers proposed House Bill 1222, the Public Safety - Immigration Enforcement (Maryland Values Act), which aimed to prohibit local law enforcement from entering into partnerships with ICE.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/florida-to-increase-number-of-officers-who-can-help-feds-arrest-illegal-immigrants" target="_blank"><strong>Florida to increase number of officers who can help feds arrest illegal immigrants</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image image-crop-16x9">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="953cb8cc6440667eb73307ac62b907ca" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3d3a6" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126238&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C107%2C0%2C0"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by John Moore/Getty Images</small></p><p>The Maryland Sheriffs' Association <a href="https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/cmte_testimony/2025/jpr/1eOZCIYv7Hs8LuTdXBE2xgECrPwbfv-p3.pdf" target="_blank">criticized</a> the bill, arguing that the ICE programs have provided "critical tools to prevent threatening individuals from re-entering our communities." The association contended that the legislation "undermines the authority of local jurisdictions." </p><p>"If the 287(g) program is not right for certain counties, they have the authority to choose not to enter into such agreements," the Maryland Sheriffs' Association stated. "HB 1222, however, imposes a one-size-fits-all mandate that strips local jurisdictions of their ability to make determinations that best serve the safety and well-being of their communities."</p><p>Democratic lawmakers passed a <a href="https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/Chapters_noln/CH_718_hb1222e.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">version</a> of the bill, and the governor signed it into law in May. However, not before pushback — including a <a href="https://marylandmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Report-Gonzales-Poll-Part-2-January-2025.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">poll</a> that found 75.7% of Maryland residents support local officials cooperating with ICE to remove illegal aliens who have committed additional crimes in the U.S. — prompted Democrats to remove prohibitions on the 287(g) program. The <a href="https://marylandmatters.org/2025/04/08/lawmakers-pass-watered-down-immigrant-protections-bill-in-final-minutes-of-2025-session/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">watered-down</a> legislation allows the sheriffs to continue their partnerships with federal immigration officials, a significant victory for the sheriffs. </p><p><em><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em></em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self"><em><em>Sign up here</em></em></a><em><em>!</em></em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/sheriffs-in-democratic-strongholds-partner-with-ice-to-back-trump-s-deportation-surge</guid><category>News</category><category>Immigration</category><category>Illegal immigration crisis</category><category>Illegal immigration</category><category>Immigration crisis</category><category>California</category><category>Maryland</category><category>Immigration and customs enforcement</category><category>Ice</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Trump</category><category>Trump administration</category><category>Trump admin</category><category>Deportations</category><category>Sheriffs</category><category>Washington</category><category>Riverside county</category><category>Klickitat county</category><category>Bob songer</category><category>Chad bianco</category><category>Cecil county</category><category>Frederick county</category><category>Harford county</category><category>Carroll county</category><category>Garrett county</category><category>Washington county</category><category>287(g) program</category><category>287(g)</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Candace Hathaway</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126260&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Sex-changing frogs and infertile humans: Will MAHA target infamous herbicide contaminating America's water?</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/will-maha-target-infamous-herbicide-contaminating-us-drinking-water-and-sex-changing-frogs</link><description><![CDATA[
  20. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/sex-changing-frogs-and-infertile-humans-will-maha-target-infamous-herbicide-contaminating-america-s-water.jpg?id=61117771&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C39%2C0%2C40"/><br/><br/><p>Atrazine is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the United States. On average, well over 70 million pounds of atrazine is sprayed every year on agricultural crops like corn and sugarcane.</p><p>This chlorotriazine herbicide  — <a href="https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/reviewed-atrazine.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reportedly</a> the most commonly detected herbicide in American tap water — is a <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1874169/" target="_blank">potent endocrine and metabolic disruptor</a> linked to numerous adverse health effects including birth defects, cancer, reduced sperm counts, and infertility.</p><p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/indicators-atrazine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recognized</a> atrazine as "a surface water and groundwater contaminant that can enter waterways in agricultural runoff from row crops" and "cause human health problems if present in public or private water supplies in amounts greater than the drinking water standard set by EPA."</p><p>Atrazine, <a href="https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/atrazine.html#refs.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first registered</a> for use in 1958 and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16967834/" target="_blank">banned</a> by the European Union in 2004, enjoys continued support stateside by the agricultural industry despite having contaminated thousands of American communities' water supplies.</p><p>Despite years of pushback from concerned citizen and activist groups — including a class action lawsuit against agrichemical giant Syngenta, for instance, which resulted in a $105 million <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/2013/01/25/syngenta-pays-millions-settlement-farming-states/16408648007/" target="_blank">settlement</a> with a number of impacted communities — the chemical compound continues to be sprayed, continues to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724057097" target="_blank">adversely impact wildlife</a>, and continues to leak into water systems.</p><p>That could soon change.</p><p>Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly raised alarm about the herbicide, its ubiquity, and its adverse impacts on various forms of life. While campaigning for president last year, he promised he would ban the chemical outright if given the chance.</p><p class="pull-quote">'It's a gay bomb, baby.'</p><p>Now that Kennedy is running both the Department of Health and Human Services and President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/" target="_blank">Make America Healthy Again Commission</a>, he can press the issue of atrazine's ruinous health effects and perhaps even change some minds over at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates herbicides.</p><h2>The meme</h2><p>Various activists and advocacy groups have campaigned for decades against atrazine — the use of which farmers <a href="https://www.michfb.com/about/news-media/farm-bureau-defends-atrazine-members-send-nearly-900-comments-epa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">claim</a> helps increase production revenue. However, one of the most effective critics in terms of drawing the public's attention to the herbicide's undesirable effects appears to have been Infowars founder Alex Jones.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/who-is-bankrolling-the-anti-maha-movement" target="_blank">Who is bankrolling the anti-MAHA movement?</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ded2c89dd743ba22ec99076573477233" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="8e33b" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61118656&width=980"/><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images</small></p><p>In an <a href="https://youtu.be/3tVrntKgdN0" target="_blank">October 2015 Infowars segment</a>, Jones discussed the Pentagon's consideration in the early 2000s of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/13/usa.danglaister" target="_blank">so-called "gay bomb"</a> — a non-lethal chemical weapon that could hypothetically disperse unrelated sex pheromones among enemy forces and trigger homosexual engagements.</p><p>Jones segued to atrazine, saying, "What do you think tap water is? It's a gay bomb, baby."</p><p>What followed has since been memorialized in a myriad of memes.</p><p>"I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin' frogs gay," said Jones.</p><p class="pull-quote">'Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution.'</p><p>Elements of the mainstream media appeared desperate to characterize Jones' viral suggestion about the effects of the widely used herbicide atrazine as ludicrous.</p><p>CNBC, for instance, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/alex-jones-5-most-disturbing-ridiculous-conspiracy-theories.html" target="_blank">mentioned</a> the chemical-induced changes in frogs second in a top-5 list of Jones' "most disturbing and ridiculous conspiracy theories." Jones' claims about government-executed weather modification, which are <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/return/cloud-seeding-exposed-the-truth-behind-decades-of-weather-modification" target="_blank">well-documented</a>, also made CNBC's list.</p><p>An <a href="https://archive.ph/l2Ipx" target="_blank">article</a> in Forbes titled "Alex Jones' Top 10 Health Claims And Why They Are Wrong" similarly suggested that Jones was off his rocker on the matter of atrazine and sexually impacted amphibians. Forbes not only attacked Jones over his frog remarks but insinuated his claims about weather modification and fluoride's adverse impact on IQ — which the National Toxicology Program <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/us-government-admits-elevated-fluoride-levels-consistently-associated-with-lower-iq-in-children" target="_blank">acknowledged as an unfortunate fact</a> in a report last year — were "ridiculous."</p><p>As with weather modification and fluoride's retarding effect, Jones was sensational in his delivery but right over target.</p><h2>The studies</h2><p>In his famous rant, Jones was referencing a study by University of California, Berkeley endocrinologist and amphibian biologist <a href="https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/tyrone-hayes" target="_blank">Tyrone Hayes</a>, which detailed how atrazine messed up the reproductive functions of adult male frogs — <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/" target="_blank">emasculating three-quarters of them</a> and prompting one in 10 to develop female sexual organs.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/general-mills-to-remove-artificial-colors-from-cereals-is-chemical-linked-to-infertility-next-on-chopping-block" target="_blank">General Mills to remove artificial colors from cereals. Is chemical linked to infertility next on chopping block?</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4823cd7fcb8fc76c3932caa1a552e224" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="5ff4b" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61118548&width=980"/><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Debra Ferguson/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</small></p><p>Hayes <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2010/03/01/frogs/" target="_blank">told</a> UC Berkeley News in 2010, "We have animals that are females, in the sense that they behave like females: They have estrogen, lay eggs, they mate with other males. Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution."</p><p>"These kinds of problems, like sex-reversing animals skewing sex ratios, are much more dangerous than any chemical that would kill off a population of frogs," continued Hayes. "In exposed populations, it looks like there are frogs breeding but, in fact, the population is being very slowly degraded by the introduction of these altered animals."</p><p>Long before the media tried spinning Jones' claims as ridiculous, Syngenta, a major manufacturer of atrazine, <a href="https://archive.ph/QWksU" target="_blank">tried</a> downplaying Hayes' findings.</p><p><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" target="_blank">According</a> to the New Yorker, Syngenta's public relations team identified over 100 "supportive third party stakeholders," including 25 professors, who would defend atrazine or serve as "spokespeople on Hayes."</p><p class="pull-quote">'It's in 63% of our drinking water.'</p><p>While some of the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/gay-frogs-and-atrazine-why-the-alt-right-likes-rfk-jr/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">apparent defenders</a> of atrazine have suggested frogs are a poor stand-in for human beings, it's abundantly clear that the herbicide can also wreak havoc on human health.</p><p>For starters:</p><ul><li>A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/instance/1240415/pdf/ehp0109-000851.pdf" target="_blank">2001 paper</a> published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives linked atrazine exposure to miscarriages.</li><li>A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/instance/1241650/pdf/ehp0111-001478.pdf" target="_blank">2006 paper</a> in Environmental Health Perspectives linked atrazine exposure to reduced semen quality.</li><li>A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935111002349" target="_blank">2011 paper</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research noted that atrazine was "associated with menstrual cycle irregularity and altered hormones."</li><li>A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3222984/pdf/ehp.1002775.pdf" target="_blank">2011 paper</a> in Environmental Health Perspectives noted that "the presence versus absence of quantifiable levels of atrazine or a specific atrazine metabolite was associated with fetal growth restriction ... and small head circumference for sex and gestational age."</li><li>A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6164008/#sec5-ijerph-15-01889" target="_blank">2018 paper</a> in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health noted "an association between atrazine concentrations in drinking water and the odds of term [low birth weight] births within communities served by water systems enrolled in [the EPA's] Atrazine Monitoring Program in Ohio."</li><li>A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5657429/" target="_blank">2020 paper</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Endocrinology indicated atrazine might contribute to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.</li><li>A <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38381478/" target="_blank">2024 paper</a> in Environmental Health Perspectives highlighted associated cancer risks among applicators of atrazine.</li></ul><p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Panel <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0399-0080" target="_blank">concluded</a> in a 2011 review of the human health impacts of atrazine that "the cancers for which there is suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential include: ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, hairy-cell leukemia and thyroid cancer."</p><p>The panel suggested further that the jury was out at the time regarding associations between atrazine and prostate cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancers, and childhood cancers.</p><p>Despite atrazine's apparent linkages to various medical issues, the EPA <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2013-0266-1159" target="_blank">concluded</a> in a 2018 human health risk assessment that "there are no dietary (food), residential handler, non-occupational spray drift, or occupational post-application risk estimates of concern for the registered uses of atrazine."</p><p>Two years later, the same agency <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-releases-draft-biological-evaluations-atrazine-simazine-and-propazine" target="_blank">stated</a>, "Atrazine is likely to adversely affect 54 percent of all species and 40 percent of critical habitats."</p><h2>The MAHA momentum</h2><p>Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the use of atrazine on multiple occasions.</p><p>In September 2024, Kennedy <a href="https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1835813340607557721" target="_blank">tweeted</a>, "We need to ban atrazine now."</p><p>"It's banned in Europe, banned all over the world, but we use it here. It's in 63% of our drinking water," Kennedy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKniGfvOePc" target="_blank">told</a> Jordan Peterson in a September 2024 interview. </p><p>"We don't know what impact it's having on our children."</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/bpa-is-no-longer-the-stuff-of-baby-bottles-but-it-still-might-be-a-big-problem" target="_blank">BPA is no longer the stuff of baby bottles, but it still might be a big problem</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2c16c924557643b9c0f685388504bf5e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="2998f" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61118549&width=980"/><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Andrew Harnik/Getty Images</small></p><p>Kennedy <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rfkjr/episodes/Chemical-Attack-On-Children-with-Dr--David-Carpenter-e1k64eo/a-a84shr0" target="_blank">noted</a> on his own podcast in 2022, "The capacity for these chemicals that we are just raining down on our children right now to induce these very profound sexual changes in them is something we need to be thinking about as a society."</p><p>Kennedy's concerns appear to have followed him onto the MAHA Commission.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MAHA-Report-The-White-House.pdf" target="_blank">68-page MAHA Commission report</a>, which came out in May, recognized that "children's unique behaviors and developmental physiology make them particularly vulnerable to potential adverse health effects" from cumulative exposures to various chemicals. In addition to <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/study-finds-microplastics-in-every-single-human-and-canine-testicle" target="_blank">microplastics</a>, fluoride, phthalates, and <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/bpa-is-no-longer-the-stuff-of-baby-bottles-but-it-still-might-be-a-big-problem" target="_blank">bisphenols</a>, the report mentioned crop protection tools, including atrazine, as chemicals requiring further study.</p><p>"In experimental animal and wildlife studies, exposure to another herbicide (atrazine) can cause endocrine disruption and birth defects," said the report.</p><p class="pull-quote">'The second policy report will be a prescription for America.'</p><p>Despite the commission signaling a desire to ensure "not just the survival, but the prosperity, of American Farmers," and indicating farmers' crop protection tools won't be targeted with further restrictions or regulations without "thoughtful consideration," the Triazine Network, a coalition of groups involved in the regulation of atrazine, <a href="https://agsense.org/articles/triazine-network-statement-on-the-maha-commission-report/" target="_blank">complained</a> that "the assertion in the MAHA Commission's report that pesticides such as atrazine are responsible for childhood illness is irresponsible, inaccurate, and is not backed by credible scientific data."</p><p>The MAHA Report also struck a nerve with Alexandra Dunn, president and CEO of CropLife America — a trade association of agrochemical companies.</p><p>"Pesticides are thoroughly studied and highly regulated for safety," Dunn <a href="https://www.croplifeamerica.org/news-releases/croplife-america-responds-to-maha-commission-report-highlights-importance-of-pesticides-for-access-to-safe-healthy-affordable-food" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement. "This report will stir unjustified fear and confusion among American consumers who live in the country with the safest and most abundant food supply."</p><p>While it might upset manufacturers of pesticides, recent polling suggests Americans are dissatisfied with the status quo and want a closer look at what goes into their food and drink.</p><p>The latest Axios/Ipsos American Health Index poll <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/axios-ipsos-american-health-index" target="_blank">revealed</a> that 87% of Americans say "the government should do more to make sure food is safe, such as updating nutritional guidelines, adding labels to foods with artificial dyes, or reducing exposure to pesticides."</p><p>When pressed for comment about future plans concerning atrazine, an HHS spokesperson told Blaze News that "after the MAHA Report, the next step is to develop policy recommendations, grounded in gold-standard science and common sense. This report is a diagnosis."</p><p>"The second policy report will be a prescription for America," continued the spokesperson. "As the report outlines, Secretary Kennedy is committed to thoughtful consideration of what is necessary for adequate protection, alternatives, and cost of production."</p><p>Blaze News reached out for comment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — which is working on its <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/epa-releases-updated-mitigation-proposal-atrazine" target="_blank">Updated Mitigation Proposal for atrazine</a> — but did not receive a response by deadline.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/will-maha-target-infamous-herbicide-contaminating-us-drinking-water-and-sex-changing-frogs</guid><category>Atrazine</category><category>Turning the friggin frogs gay</category><category>Gay frogs</category><category>Frogs</category><category>Chemical</category><category>Herbicide</category><category>Sterility</category><category>Fertility</category><category>Health</category><category>Science</category><category>Maha</category><category>Robert f kennedy jr</category><category>Kennedy</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Joseph MacKinnon</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/sex-changing-frogs-and-infertile-humans-will-maha-target-infamous-herbicide-contaminating-america-s-water.jpg?id=61117771&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>9 reasons we (still) love America — and you should too</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/align/9-reasons-we-still-love-america-and-you-should-too</link><description><![CDATA[
  21. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/9-reasons-we-still-love-america-and-you-should-too.jpg?id=61138086&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C1%2C0"/><br/><br/><h2>1. We're incurable optimists</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8be8780c10713f1b20756f34e8dee522" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3698d" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61137959&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">H. Armstrong Roberts/Classic Stock</small></p><p>If you're on music duty for the barbecue this weekend, don't overlook "Little Pink Houses."</p><p>The John Cougar Mellencamp classic is a dependable crowd-pleaser because it's one of those songs people tend to forget they love. At least until it gets to the first "Ain't that America?" — at which point everybody's singing along. An essential addition to any patriotic playlist.</p><p>Now, some party poopers love to point out that "Little Pink Houses" isn't really a celebration of America. (They do this with "Born in the U.S.A." too.) Even <a href="https://www.mellencamp.com/oldnews/rolling-stone-magazine-feature--john-mellencamp-my-life-in-15-songs" target="_blank">Mellencamp</a> himself.</p><p>“This one has been misconstrued over the years because of the chorus — it sounds very rah-rah. But it’s really an anti-American song."</p><p>Tell you what, Mr. Mellencamp: We'll be the judge of that. And as soon as <em>we</em> hear that opening riff, our hearts swell with patriotic pride.</p><p>It's not that we haven't heard the lyrics. It's that we don't feel sorry for the everyday Americans they describe — as we're apparently supposed to.</p><p>Take the black guy in the first verse, with the interstate running through the front yard of his little pink house.</p><p>That guy inspired the song. He's based on a real person Mellencamp saw in Indianapolis, sitting in a cheap lawn chair with a cat and watching the endless traffic go past his front yard.</p><p>The most striking thing to Mellencamp was how content the guy seemed. But instead of contemplating this mysterious serenity, he dismisses it as delusional.</p><p>"You know he thinks he got it so good."</p><p>Who are we to say he doesn't? Have you ever seen a better distillation of patronizing, paternal liberalism?</p><p>From that simple image, by the way, the up-and-coming singer-songwriter built a top-10 hit and classic rock staple beloved by millions for more than four decades. How's that for the American dream? The dream "Little Pink Houses" is supposed to "critique."</p><p>Or consider the young man with the greasy hair and greasy smile "listening to the rock and roll station."</p><p>When we hear that verse, we get an intense nostalgic feeling of doing nothing on a lazy summer afternoon before smartphones were invented.</p><p>Paradise. He's young and it's morning in America. And we're supposed to think he's sad that he's not going to be president?</p><p>Forget the self-defeating, sad-sack interpretations. "Little Pink Houses" is about the kind of determined optimism only Americans understand. "There's winners, and there's losers," the song notes. Can you think of a better place to be either?</p><p>It's the pedantic killjoys who miss the point. Yes, we're taking a tale of ordinary hardship and cheerfully focusing on the good parts until the hardship itself almost seems fun. It's the American way.</p><p>From the moment "Little Pink Houses" hit the airwaves in October 1983, all the Debbie Downers and Gloomy Guses trying to bum us out didn't stand a chance.</p><p>Or as one scold puts it, "Most people simply heard 'America,' tuned out the sarcasm, and unfurled the flag."</p><p>Exactly. Sounds like the perfect Fourth of July to us.</p><p><em>—Matt Himes, managing editor, Align</em></p><h2>2. We love pulling off the impossible</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e19602c738585b203fa0187327eae32" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="35416" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61137861&width=980"/></p><p>In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville said, “Democracy is slow and sluggish and inefficient, but once the will of the people is set in motion, nothing can stop it.”</p><p>At least, that’s what I remember him saying, but my computer says <a href="https://youtu.be/x0YGZPycMEU?si=z0DJ3tMvleWBqNeA" target="_blank" title="https://youtu.be/x0YGZPycMEU?si=z0DJ3tMvleWBqNeA">no</a>.  Maybe he said it to me in confidence and I thought I read it in a book.</p><p>At any rate, it’s true. Americans are capable of letting the pendulum swing <em>very far</em> into chaos (not as far as South Africa, but almost) before correcting. Chicago went from the frying pan of Lori Lightfoot into the fire of Brandon Johnson. New York City has been choosing progressively worse progressives since Giuliani and currently has its sites set on a spoiled rich kid who thinks he hates money and loves Palestine.</p><p> However, after Biden, we got Trump. After letting in more immigrants in four years than Ellis Island did from 1892 to 1954, we got deportations. After praising Antifa and BLM for burning our country to the ground and then condemning innocent J6ers to decades in prison, we got pardons for the patriots and punishment for the pyromaniacs.</p><p>It might feel sometimes that we are losing our country and the pendulum is locked into “slow and sluggish” mode, but Trump should give us hope. If the presidency can be saved, so can the whole country.</p><p>Andrew Breitbart always said, “Politics is downstream from culture,” but MAGA is both. <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article309655540.html" target="_blank" title="https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article309655540.html">Last week</a> a replica of the "Dukes of Hazzard" car was jumped over the downtown fountain in Somerset, Kentucky, as 35,000 people screamed their heads off. It wasn’t just a random stunt. It was a sign. America is becoming great again. We just have to stay the course and have faith.</p><p><em>—Gavin McInnes, host of "Get Off My Lawn"</em></p><h2>3. You can't shut us up</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="275962b6c4a4365742022ccdd74298a0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ba2c8" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61137836&width=980"/><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">CORBIS via Getty Images</small></p><p>Once upon a time Hollywood loved free speech, the all-American value we need now more than ever.</p><p>The 1995 political romance "The American President" ended with a stem-winder by President Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas.</p><blockquote><em>America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.</em></blockquote><p>That was then. Hollywood wouldn't allow that opinion in a feature film today. The industry recoils over "hate speech," refuses to defend conservatives banned from social media, and twiddles its thumbs while "sensitivity readers" swarm the publishing ranks.</p><p>Oh, and the best and brightest cheered when social media platforms booted President Donald Trump off of their digital turf.</p><p>I want that 1995-era Hollywood back. And if today's version can't rise to the occasion, a new Hollywood will emerge. It won't be based in California, mind you, but as technology gives artists the tools to tell <em>their</em> stories <em>their</em> way, new tales will be told across the fruited plain.</p><p>Why? Because that's how America works. Still.</p><p><em>—Christian Toto, film critic</em></p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/americas-southwest-was-conquered-fair-and-square" target="_blank">America’s Southwest was conquered fair and square</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ef46f7fabde0f6235227b4ee875af8ab" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="7328e" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61143026&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Nawrocki/ClassicStock/Getty Images</small></p><h2>4. We have the need for speed</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e7dda007e3355f60d4d49432435dcb10" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="dd7a9" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61137814&width=980"/><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Bernard Cahier/Getty Images</small></p><p>America, to me, is the land of boundless opportunity, where hard work, creativity, and ingenuity drive progress, from the open road to the factory floor.</p><p>Our nation is built on the freedom to chase dreams, like restoring classic cars; driving the type of vehicle you want, where you want and when you want; or pioneering new technologies, all while honoring the values that keep us strong.</p><p>For our family, our life is all about cars, auto racing, and restoration. One American who has especially inspired us is the famous car racer, designer, and marketer Carroll Shelby.</p><p>In the early 1960s, GT automobile racing was dominated by European brands like Jaguar, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Shelby, a young Texan who had won Le Mans in an Aston Martin, thought he could make something faster. And he did — putting a Ford V8 engine in a sleek, lightweight body.</p><p>For us, Shelby represents American ingenuity, hard work, and never-say-die spirit. He reminds us of the simple, uniquely American freedom of getting behind the wheel of your own car and hitting the open road.</p><p>It's impossible to drive or ride in a Shelby Mustang or Cobra without a big smile on your face; it's one of those special experiences you don't forget. We certainly won't — we named our daughter Shelby.</p><p><em>—Lauren Fix, Align Cars</em></p><h2>5. We love a long shot</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ce04704a9dd2e756ff3c078dd7ca2eaa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="56d08" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61142560&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Joshua Lisec</small></p><p>Scott Adams was working at Pacific Bell and wanted a career change. So he woke up early every day before work to figure out his next step.</p><p>Even though he had little artistic experience and no special talent, the career that stuck was newspaper cartoonist. "Dilbert" was born. After almost a decade of grinding it out, he made it the most successful comic strip in the country.</p><p>With his MBA and corporate resume, Adams had no business trying to break in to the hyper-competitive world of syndicated newspaper strips. It shouldn't have worked — but it did. As he writes in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGC8LSS1" target="_blank">"Reframe Your Brain,"</a></p><blockquote>Once you realize you're terrible at estimating the odds of your own success, you're free to try things you might otherwise not consider. You are allowed to expand beyond your comfort zone without pressure because the only way to know what will work is to test it yourself.</blockquote><p>In 2015, Adams noticed another corporate guy attempting an improbable career change. He was the first to predict that Donald Trump would win the presidency. People laughed, but of course Adams was right.</p><p>Since then, Adams has gone on to launch a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/RealCoffeeWithScottAdams" target="_blank">beloved YouTube show</a>, publish a few books, and build a reputation as one of the wisest political commentators and dispensers of career and life advice around.</p><p>When Adams <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/23/us-news/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-reveals-president-trump-called-him-after-cancer-diagnosis/" target="_blank">announced that he had terminal prostate cancer</a> in May, the outpouring of tributes on X and elsewhere was a powerful indication of how many lives he changed.</p><p>Since then, he's continued to show up for the community he's built, while acknowledging that he's on borrowed time. His fans plan on sticking with him to the end.</p><p>In the words of Adams' frequent collaborator, ghostwriter, editor, and publisher <a href="https://lisecghostwriting.com/bestselling-ghostwriter-joshua-lisec-helps-dilbert-creator-and-author-scott-adams-independently-publish-canceled-book/" target="_blank">Joshua Lisec</a>:</p><blockquote>Scott is the original internet dad. It's obvious to all that basically everyone under 45 or so has the father wound — either from overbearing dads who weren't helpful in giving quality life advice or dads who were totally checked out while a second-wave feminist mom ran the show. So what's it like to have a father who wants the absolute best for you and provides you firm yet kind counsel in every area of your life, from career, health, and relationships to how to think productively about politics, religion, and happiness? That's Scott Adams.</blockquote><p><em>—Matt Himes</em></p><h2>6. We're different but the same</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f8004528c2273fcd62d6ac9fc2941a4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="0ac84" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61142818&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Raymond Boyd/Getty Images</small></p><p>Order a "hot dog" in New York City and you'll get an all-beef frankfurter in a natural casing with mustard and maybe some sauerkraut and onions. In Chicago they'll load you up with everything: yellow mustard, dark green relish, chopped raw onion, peppers, pickles, and tomato — crammed into a poppy-seed bun with celery salt on top.</p><p>In D.C. the style is half beef, half pork with chili and onions. In Philadelphia they'll make it surf and turf by adding a fish cake.</p><p>In Cleveland they have the Polish Boy, which is a kielbasa with french fries, slaw, and barbecue sauce. Go to a Colorado Rockies game and you'll get a foot-long with grilled peppers. Up in Maine they like their dogs <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/maine-red-hot-dogs-8698041" target="_blank">bright red</a>.</p><p>At Fenway Park they boil and grill them and offer to put baked beans on top. Cincinnati is known for chili and cheese. And in the Southwest, they'll add salsa, bacon, and pinto beans.</p><p>Come to think of it, this is a great metaphor for the big immigration brouhaha these days. Opening the borders to millions of foreigners who have no interest in America except as a nice place to set up their own ethnic enclaves and send money home is like replacing all the hot-dog stands in Albany with samosa carts or kebab trucks.</p><p>You want both. And when it comes to hot dogs, you want something recognizably American (a hot dog) but with its own regional spin. Making it their own while still respecting the core elements (frankfurter, bun, toppings) that make it work. That's the kind of "diversity" this country is built on.</p><p><em>—Matt Himes</em></p><h2>7. Show us a frontier and we'll build on it</h2><p>Just returned from weekend at <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/how-a-rustic-retreat-below-the-bighorn-mountains-became-the-wests-last-resort" target="_blank">Wagon Box</a>. It was great.</p><p>Beautiful, intellectual, long conversations, incredible local beef, flow of locals and weirdos interfacing with Substack religo-dorks and scenester art women. A little janky, not everything works right, everything a bit slanted, erratic, and natural. Some things you pay for, some you don't.</p><p>Nobody quite knows the rules. An overtly hostile shouting bartender whom everyone learns to love. Two types of delicious local ale and only three items on the lunch menu. Zero gloss of private equity. A positive and non-hateful crossroads of genuinely strange IRL human connection, contemplation, and discussion.</p><p>And most importantly, no policing of thought or language.</p><p>When Paul McNiel bought it a few years ago, it was a former biker bar in the woods where hardcore one-percenters would stop on their way around upper Wyoming and Montana. They used to sit on that porch and howl and make trouble all night long, until cultural feminization quelled their activity to a trickle.</p><p>And now instead of bikers, it's a bunch of thinkers and talkers who sit on that porch thinking and talking late into the night, with a lot less meth and a lot less fighting and a lot more plotting and planning to benefit the globe and humankind. It's a free zone one way or another.</p><p><em>—Isaac Simpson, founder and director, WILL</em></p><h2>8. We elected Donald Trump. Twice.</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2d1844fddf9a79e4143465861a0c5861" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="75576" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61144383&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images</small></p><p>No modern American president has ever been this fully president before. He is pulling every lever and pressing every button, even ones that haven't been pressed in decades, if ever. He is dusting off the forgotten control panels and firing up the long-abandoned machines.</p><p>It may not be exactly to your liking, but this is the best we are ever going to get in our lifetimes, so enjoy it while it lasts.</p><p><em>—Peachy Keenan, author of "Domestic Extremist"</em></p><h2>9. Because it's worth fighting for</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2771d90b0af823182078cdd4356efa93" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ed839" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61144022&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Portland Press Herald/Getty Images</small></p><p>It's wild that simply loving America has become a revolutionary act. But since it's the closest I'll get to the founding fathers, I'll take it.</p><p><em>—Lou Perez, writer and comedian</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/align/9-reasons-we-still-love-america-and-you-should-too</guid><category>July 4</category><category>Patriotism</category><category>America</category><category>American dream</category><category>God bless america</category><category>Culture</category><category>Lifestyle</category><category>Entertainment</category><dc:creator>Align Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/9-reasons-we-still-love-america-and-you-should-too.jpg?id=61138086&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Our founders signed their death warrant</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/levintv/our-founders-signed-their-death-warrant</link><description><![CDATA[
  22. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61115228&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>While it’s easy to get sucked into the festivities of backyard BBQs and dazzling firework displays on July 4, it’s important to remember what we’re celebrating: Our hard-won independence from Great Britain and the establishment of our great nation founded on freedom.</p><p>And there’s no better way to do that than revisiting the timeless principles outlined in the document that defined America’s identity and declared her sovereignty. On this episode of “LevinTV,” Mark Levin unpacks key phrases from the Declaration of Independence to remind us who we are as American citizens.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6af13042bc82ef263253b383e4998524" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/POtcinEIHR0?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>        </p><p><em>“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel to the separation,”</em> he reads.</p><p>“Why do they keep talking about the Laws of Nature and Nature's God? Because these were men of faith,” he says, noting that even Jefferson and Franklin, who were “deists,” still “embraced Judeo-Christian values” as well as the philosophies of John Locke, who declared that “your right to life, your right to be free doesn't come from any government” or “from any man” but “from God Almighty.”</p><p><em>“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.” </em></p><p>“In other words, your natural rights, your unalienable rights belong to you, no matter what — even if you live in a tyranny because they're God-given,” Levin explains.</p><p><em>“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness,” he continues reading.</em></p><p>Many today have forgotten that this “is the purpose of government – to secure your unalienable rights, to provide order and law so you can exercise your free will and so your voluntary participation in the civil society increases the benefit of the whole community,” Levin says. And while “we don’t rebel at the drop of a hat” – as <em><em>“prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes” </em></em>– we will never “acquiesce to tyranny.”</p><p>Levin reminds that, originally, there was a clause in the Declaration of Independence condemning slavery, but it was removed to maintain unity among the colonies, particularly to avoid alienating Southern states where slavery was entrenched, as the revolution required a united front against Britain.</p><p>When the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew the risk. “All signed their death warrant because the British wanted to collect every one of them up and execute them,” says Levin, but they signed anyway, “[putting] their lives on the line” to make the America we love today a possibility.</p><p>“This is what Independence Day, July 4, is all about.”</p><p>To hear more, watch the clip above.</p><h2>Want more from Mark Levin?</h2><p>To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — <a href="https://get.blazetv.com/levin/?utm_source=theblaze&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article_shortcode_marklevin" target="_blank">subscribe to BlazeTV</a> — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/levintv/our-founders-signed-their-death-warrant</guid><category>Mark levin</category><category>Levin tv</category><category>Blazetv</category><category>Blaze media</category><category>July 4</category><category>Founding fathers</category><category>Declaration of independence</category><category>Independence day</category><category>Levintv</category><category>Levintv</category><dc:creator>BlazeTV Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61115228&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>One declaration sparked a nation. The other sparks confusion.</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/one-declaration-sparked-a-nation-the-other-sparks-confusion</link><description><![CDATA[
  23. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/one-declaration-sparked-a-nation-the-other-sparks-confusion.jpg?id=61139215&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C53%2C0%2C54"/><br/><br/><p>This week, my university emailed a Fourth of July reflection that caught my attention. It claimed the “backbone of our independence” is entrepreneurship and praised secular universities as the seedbed of innovation — and, by extension, democracy itself.</p><p>I’m all for business. Enterprise, creativity, and free markets foster prosperity and reward initiative. But business doesn’t create liberty. It depends on liberty. Markets flourish only when justice, rights, and human dignity already exist. In other words, business is a fruit of independence, not its root.</p><p class="pull-quote">Our freedoms — legal, political, scientific, and economic — grow best in soil nourished by the belief in human dignity grounded in something greater than man.</p><p>As we celebrate Independence Day, it’s worth remembering the true foundation of American freedom. The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript" target="_blank">Declaration of Independence</a> doesn’t just announce our break with Britain — it explains why that break was just. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” it says, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”</p><p>That single sentence tells us where rights come from: not from governments or markets, but from God. Human equality doesn’t rest on ability, wealth, or status — qualities that always vary. It rests on the shared reality that each of us bears the image of the same Creator.</p><p>This truth isn’t just historical. It remains the cornerstone of liberty. Without it, terms like “human rights” or “justice” collapse into slogans. If rights don’t come from God, where do they come from? Who gives them? And who can take them away?</p><p>Contrast our Declaration with the United Nations’ 1948 <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights" target="_blank">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a>. That document says people “have” rights — but doesn’t explain why or where they come from or why rights matter. It invokes no Creator, no image of God, no natural law, no self-evident truth or moral source beyond political consensus. Rights, it suggests, are whatever the international community agrees they are.</p><p>That’s a dangerous idea. If rights come from consensus, consensus can erase them. If governments or global committees grant rights, they can redefine or revoke them when convenient. There is no firm ground, only shifting sands.</p><p>Many Americans now prefer this softer, godless version of human dignity. They invoke justice but reject the Judge. They want rights without a Creator, happiness without truth, liberty without responsibility. But rights without God offer no security — and happiness without God dissolves into fantasy. It’s a mirage.</p><p>This project of cutting freedom off from its source cannot last. Our freedoms — legal, political, scientific, and economic — grow best in soil nourished by the belief in human dignity grounded in something greater than man.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-most-memorable-epocha-in-the-history-of-america" target="_blank">The most memorable epocha in the history of America</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3d3d971a8360aa70da752f81d7ac82f6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="62042" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61139225&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."> ivan-96 via iStock/Getty Images </small></p><p>We live in God’s world. That distinction matters. A society built on contracts negotiates rights. A society built on covenants honors obligations to the truth. The difference isn’t just theological — it’s civilizational.</p><p>By rejecting the Creator, we don’t advance progress. We erase the foundation that made progress possible. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “You cannot go on 'explaining away' forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away.”</p><p>Explain away God, and you explain away the reason rights exist.</p><p>So this Independence Day, remember what liberty really means — and what sustains it. We’re not free because we said so. We’re free because we answer to a law higher than any court or committee. We are created equal because we are created — period.</p><p>Entrepreneurship has its place. But the American experiment wasn’t born from a business plan. It began with a declaration that acknowledged God. If we want that experiment to endure, we must not forget what made it possible in the first place.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/one-declaration-sparked-a-nation-the-other-sparks-confusion</guid><category>Opinion &amp; analysis</category><category>July 4</category><category>Independence day</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>Declaration of independence</category><category>Universal declaration of human rights</category><category>America</category><category>American founding</category><category>American founders</category><category>United nations</category><category>God</category><category>Rights</category><category>Freedom</category><category>Liberty</category><category>Equality</category><category>Natural law</category><dc:creator>Owen Anderson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/one-declaration-sparked-a-nation-the-other-sparks-confusion.jpg?id=61139215&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Hot dogs and propane cost less under Trump, but one industry says tariffs will ruin Fourth of July prices</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/4th-of-july-staples-costs</link><description><![CDATA[
  24. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/hot-dogs-and-propane-cost-less-under-trump-but-one-industry-says-tariffs-will-ruin-fourth-of-july-prices.png?id=61129201&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C1%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>Fourth of July prices are an effective way to gauge simple cost-of-living markers for the average American. However, one industry that provides a crucial aspect of the holiday celebrations is blaming President Trump's tariffs for a possible explosion in pricing.</p><p>With the S&P 500 hitting <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/sp-500-hits-record-after-months-of-trump-tariff-doom-and-gloom" target="_blank">a new record</a> just in time for Independence Day, Trump has silenced critics who consistently moved the goalposts on the economy at every turn. First, when Trump's tariffs were implemented, some analysts predicted a <a href="https://time.com/7275987/trump-tariffs-global-economy-recession-trade-war-asia-world-impacts/" target="_blank">global recession</a>. Then, the marker was meeting pre-Trump numbers, as outlets like <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/p/trump-destroy-economy-democracy-backward/" target="_blank">Rolling Stone</a> still claim "MAGAnomics" are "destroying the economy."</p><p>For the Fourth of July, not only is the economy moving forward as promised, but almost every Fourth of July staple has gone down in price.</p><p class="pull-quote">'Unfortunately, it would take decades to reshore manufacturing.'</p><p>A competitive favorite, hot dogs have seen a <a href="https://www.in2013dollars.com/Frankfurters/price-inflation/2024-to-2025?amount=5" target="_blank">2.11% decrease</a> in the last year, according to In2013dollars.com. Citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the outlet said the average price for a pack of frankfurters is $5.22 in 2025, compared to 2024, when they were 11 cents higher.</p><p>Firing up the barbecue to cook those hot dogs will be cheaper in Trump's America as well, compared to where President Joe Biden left the economy.</p><p>Residential propane is a category that has seen significant fluctuation since 2024, but while prices were in the basement before last year's Fourth of July, they skyrocketed at the end of Biden's term.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/sp-500-hits-record-after-months-of-trump-tariff-doom-and-gloom" target="_blank">S&P 500 hits new record high following months of Trump tariff doom and gloom</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="20c64b5d75ebdc5bd3b87d047349fdfa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="a776f" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.png?id=61129204&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images</small></p><p>According to <a href="https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_residential_propane_price" target="_blank">YCharts</a>, propane was $2.39 per gallon in early July 2024 but ballooned to $2.72 per gallon by January 20, 2025. Now, the Trump administration has managed to drop that price by nearly 20 cents per gallon down to $2.52, just in time for barbecues to be fired up.<br/></p><p>Driving to that cookout will be cheaper than it was in 2024 also. <a href="https://data.democratandchronicle.com/gas-price/united-states/NUS/2025-06-23/" target="_blank">Data</a> from the Democratic Chronicle shows that on July 1, 2024, the average price for gas was $3.48 per gallon. As of June 23, 2025, however, the average cost has dropped to $3.21 per gallon.</p><p>The Trump administration has struggled to keep gas prices down, sitting around 15 cents more than when he took office (per <a href="https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_gas_price" target="_blank">YCharts</a>), but that is child's play compared to July 4, 2022, under Biden. At that time, the average price across the nation was $4.88 per gallon.</p><p>After downing a few hot dogs on the propane-fueled grill, it is typically time for fireworks. Like other items, Americans might be expecting more affordable explosions this year. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, though, consumers can expect tariffs to greatly increase the cost.</p><p>In a statement to Blaze News, the organization said that while prices may vary depending on whether an importer or retailer was stocked before the tariffs hit, the "real concern" is how the tariffs will impact both supply and costs for the Christmas and New Year's season, as well as Fourth of July 2026.</p><p>Data provided by Executive Director Julie L. Heckman said that U.S. fireworks companies rely almost entirely on China for their fireworks, which produces 99% of the consumer market and 90% of professional display fireworks.</p><p>Therefore, the "APA is urging the Trump administration and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to consider tariff exemption or a more manageable tariff rate for fireworks."</p><p>When asked if she would advocate for fireworks manufacturing in the United States, Heckman provided a bleak answer.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/shows/pat-gray-unleashed/male-prostitutes-and-pastries-your-tax-dollars-at-work" target="_blank">Male prostitutes and pastries: Your tax dollars at work</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5f6c3af52e784670f2f9a578de239811" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wcbgXWyWEoc?rel=0&list=RDNSwcbgXWyWEoc" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>                        </p>            <p>"Unfortunately, it would take decades to reshore manufacturing in the U.S. Manufacturing fireworks, which are explosives, is extremely dangerous and [requires] highly skilled workers," the APA executive said.</p><p>Heckman added, "It's also very laborious, as fireworks are all made by hand — there is very little automation. ... Even if the U.S. brought some fireworks manufacturing back, we'd never be able to produce the volume of fireworks consumed annually."</p><p>A fireworks retailer from Michigan disagreed with the idea that tariffs would cause prices to go up, saying most retailers ordered their stock for 2026 even after the tariffs were announced.</p><p> Brian Schaefer told <a href="https://youtu.be/wcbgXWyWEoc?list=RDNSwcbgXWyWEoc" target="_blank">WXMI</a> that blaming tariffs is simply a marketing ploy to increase prices. </p><p>At the same time, Aaron Snowden, a retailer from Phantom Fireworks, told WXMI his company expects prices to increase next year.</p><p>No matter how these prices end up in 2026, it stands as a simple fact that this year, prices are down on the Fourth of July in Trump's economy, especially for those hitting the gas.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em><br/></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/4th-of-july-staples-costs</guid><category>Economy</category><category>News</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>4th of july</category><category>Independence day</category><category>Trump</category><category>Biden</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Andrew Chapados</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/hot-dogs-and-propane-cost-less-under-trump-but-one-industry-says-tariffs-will-ruin-fourth-of-july-prices.png?id=61129201&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>The founders were young and so is America — really</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-founders-were-young-and-so-is-america-really</link><description><![CDATA[
  25. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-founders-were-young-and-so-is-america-really.jpg?id=61138041&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C53%2C0%2C54"/><br/><br/><p>Although America’s 250th birthday is still one year away, there is a fun, unique, and mathematical fact about this year's 249th birthday that will help illustrate just how young America is as a nation.</p><p>To do that, we can start with the age of <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-4/thomas-jefferson-and-john-adams-die" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">President Thomas Jefferson on the day he died</a> — significantly enough, on the day America was celebrating its 50th birthday: July 4, 1826. Jefferson was 83.</p><p class="pull-quote">Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.</p><p>As an interesting aside, our third president was not the only commander in chief whose life was historically tied to America's birthday. President John Adams also died within five hours of Jefferson on July 4, 1826. Five years later, on July 4, 1831, our fifth president and <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/three-presidents-die-on-july-4th-just-a-coincidence" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">founding father James Monroe</a> also passed away.</p><p>Not to be too maudlin, one president was actually born on the Fourth of July. In 1872, <a href="https://coolidgefoundation.org/events/fourth-of-july-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Calvin Coolidge</a> came into the world and would grow up to become America's 30th president.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/yes-ken-burns-the-founding-fathers-believed-in-god-and-his-divine-providence" target="_self"><strong>Yes, Ken Burns, the founding fathers believed in God — and His ‘divine Providence’</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bb98f58c69bae48c115f28328a729961" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="b96b6" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61138161&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Wynnter via iStock/Getty Images</small></p>            <p>So what does Jefferson’s age of 83 have to do with this year’s national birthday celebration? Well, if you find an 83-year-old person living in America and go all the way back to the year he was born, you would find yourself in 1942. Now, in 1942, find a person who was born 83 years in the past, back to 1859. Finally, find a person born 83 years before that, and you arrive at ... 1776!</p><p>Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.</p><p>And while we're pondering this age business, it's also fun to look at the relative youth of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, keeping in mind that 56 delegates representing the 13 original colonies actually put their very “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” on the line when they signed their John Hancock on the document (and, yes, one of them was indeed John Hancock).</p><p>Also, with <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/dont-let-the-biden-autopen-scandal-become-just-another-lame-hearing" target="_self">present-day controversy</a> in mind, it is worth noting that none of the representatives signed using an auto-quill.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="facddab3831c2165a6ea5c462139999b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="a257c" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.png?id=61138521&width=980"/>                        </p><p>The average age of the document’s signers was <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/08/how-old-were-the-founding-fathers-the-leaders-of-the-american-revolution-were-younger-than-we-imagine.html" target="_blank">44 years</a>, which happened to be George Washington's age at the time. And Washington's nemesis across the pond, the other George, King George III of England? He was 38.</p><p>The oldest signer of the Declaration was (no surprise) <a href="https://www.history.com/articles/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-declaration-of-independence" target="_blank">Benjamin Franklin, age 70</a>.</p><p>Finally, by now you have probably done the math to figure out the age of Thomas Jefferson — the document’s chief author — when he signed: 33.</p><p>Now, enjoy the celebrations and get ready for the biggest one of all, next year’s 250th!<br/></p><p><em><em>Editor's note: A version of this article appeared originally at </em></em><a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/06/thomas_jefferson_s_age_on_the_day_of_his_death_highlights_america_s_young_age.html" target="_blank">American Thinker</a>.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-founders-were-young-and-so-is-america-really</guid><category>Opinion &amp; analysis</category><category>Thomas jefferson</category><category>John adams</category><category>James monroe</category><category>Declaration of independence</category><category>Independence day</category><category>King george iii</category><category>George washington</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>July 4</category><category>Birthday</category><category>Death</category><category>American founding</category><category>American founders</category><category>Founding fathers</category><category>Holiday</category><category>America at 250</category><category>Calvin coolidge</category><category>Grandfather</category><dc:creator>Albin Sadar</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-founders-were-young-and-so-is-america-really.jpg?id=61138041&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration could greatly impact Democrats' political clout</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/trumps-crackdown-on-illegal-immigration-could-greatly-impact-democrats-political-clout</link><description><![CDATA[
  26. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126348&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C70%2C0%2C70"/><br/><br/><p>Over 30 members of the Democrat-dominated California legislature <a href="https://sd05.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd05.senate.ca.gov/files/pdf/6-18-25%20CA%20Legislators%20Letter%20on%20Immigration%20Crackdown_0.pdf" target="_blank">signed a letter</a> last month urging Republican congressional members from the Golden State "to request the President to end the crackdowns on hardworking, taxpaying immigrants in Southern California and throughout the state, as the actions are causing significant harm to our economy."</p><p>The June 18 letter noted that over one-quarter of the state's residents are "immigrants, totaling nearly 11 million people, including about <a href="https://www.ppic.org/publication/immigrants-in-california/" target="_blank">1.8 million</a> who are undocumented," and suggested that "the vast majority of these folks contribute to California's economy and way of life."</p><p class="pull-quote">For the first time in its history, California lost a seat in Congress in 2021, down from 53 to 52 following the 2020 census.</p><p>Those migrants, both legal and illegal, also contribute to the state's headcount in the decennial census.</p><p>While California Democrats might be genuinely concerned about the potential impact of losing low-wage foreign laborers who stole into the homeland, they also have cause to be concerned about what their party stands to lose as a result of a population decline precipitated by immigration enforcement.</p><p>As California is the most populous state in the union, it presently enjoys the most representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. However, for the first time in its history, California lost a seat in Congress in 2021, down from 53 to 52 following the <a href="https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/apportionment/apportionment-2020-tableC1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 census</a> and a year marked by a drop in the state's population by more than 182,000 souls.</p><p>Owing to California's anemic population growth and significant growth elsewhere in the country, the state could lose additional seats in Congress and votes in the Electoral College through census-driven apportionment, as well as receive proportionately less of the federal money that is distributed by population.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/stop-outsourcing-our-agricultural-soul" target="_blank">Build back better? Then stop outsourcing our agricultural soul</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f31b00e12383ace45156e6e8deec3adf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="5b761" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126360&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Win McNamee/Getty Images</small></p><p>Citing December 2023 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, the Brennan Center for Justice <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-congressional-maps-could-change-2030" target="_blank">indicated in a report</a> that California could lose four congressional seats after the 2030 census, and may fall to second place behind Texas in total population before 2040 if current trends continue.</p><p>"Based on the most recent trends, Texas would gain four seats and Florida three seats in the next reapportionment, placing Texas within striking distance of becoming the largest state, perhaps as early as 2040," said the report. "Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee also would each gain a new congressional seat, as would three mountain states: Arizona, Idaho, and Utah."</p><p>In a December update, the Brennan Center <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/big-changes-ahead-voting-maps-after-next-census" target="_blank">noted</a> that "these big apportionment changes would also significantly change political parties’ Electoral College math starting with the 2032 election."</p><p>Even if a Democrat carried the so-called blue wall states and both Arizona and Nevada, they would eke out only a narrow 276-262 victory in 2032 if the Brennan Center's projections are correct.</p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/jd-vance-rejects-democrats-narrative-names-the-real-threat-to-democracy" target="_blank">JD Vance rejects Democrats' narrative, names the 'real threat to democracy'</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="93817b83f8304ce7f8d734033f94c00b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="ee56b" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126366&width=980"/><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</small></p><p>While the American Redistricting Project <a href="https://thearp.org/blog/apportionment/2030-apportionment-forecast-2024/" target="_blank">changed</a> its <a href="https://thearp.org/blog/apportionment/2030-forecasted-apportionment/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">forecast</a> of California congressional seat losses from five to three, the Democratic stronghold's dominance still appears to be waning.</p><p>California has <a href="https://www.ppic.org/blog/whos-leaving-california-and-whos-moving-in/#:~:text=Bureau%20estimates%20using%20administrative%20data%20show%20an%20even%20larger%20outflow%20since%20the%20pandemic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hemorrhaged residents</a> to other states in recent years, though CalMatters <a href="https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/06/trumps-first-immigration-crackdown-shrank-californias-population-it-could-happen-again/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">noted</a> that the intranational population loss is offset by inbound international traffic.</p><p>Democrats' dominance could be undermined further not only by the Trump administration continuing to remove illegal aliens but by the administration slowing down legal immigration into the country. After all, state officials credited the first Trump administration's immigration policies with helping set the stage for the 2021 congressional seat loss, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/us/us-census-california.html" target="_blank">reported</a> the New York Times.</p><p>"If that immigration stops, then that's going to have some real consequences for our population growth and ultimately for our representation, for sure," Eric McGhee, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California, told CalMatters.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/trumps-crackdown-on-illegal-immigration-could-greatly-impact-democrats-political-clout</guid><category>Demographics</category><category>Population</category><category>Apportionment</category><category>Census</category><category>California</category><category>Democrats</category><category>Democratic</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Congress</category><category>Electoral college</category><category>Voting</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Joseph MacKinnon</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61126348&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Fireworks, rodeos, and cowboy church: A town's July 4th stands for God and country</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/fireworks-rodeos-and-cowboy-church-a-town-s-july-4th-stands-for-god-and-country</link><description><![CDATA[
  27. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/fireworks-rodeos-and-cowboy-church-a-town-s-july-4th-stands-for-god-and-country.jpg?id=61111443&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C263%2C281%2C2"/><br/><br/><p>Each Independence Day, Prescott, Arizona — a Western city with roughly 47,000 people that still feels like a small-town haven — erupts with vibrant fireworks, the thunder of the rodeo, and parades that fill the streets with Americans waving the Stars and Stripes in celebration of the nation they hold dear.</p><p>Located approximately two hours north of Phoenix in Yavapai County, far from Arizona's urban sprawl, Prescott stands firm as a defender of traditional values. Faith, family, and love of country are central to the town's July Fourth celebrations, which extend over the week.</p><p class="pull-quote">'And to play good country patriotic songs at this event in front of the entire town ... makes my soul shine!'</p><p>Some of those festivities include a spectacular fireworks show at the town's beautiful Watson Lake and the Annual Whiskey Row Boot Race, where kids and adults put on their cowboy boots for a Western-spirited dash.</p><p>John Heiney, communications outreach manager for the city of Prescott, told Blaze News, "Events in Prescott, specifically for the Fourth of July, bring residents out and visitors to our destination from miles away. Not only do we get to celebrate the 249th anniversary of our country, but we get to celebrate the freedom, beauty, and wonders of our destination. Tourism is the heartbeat of our community, and having a holiday to celebrate with our neighbors and visitors is something we look forward to year after year."</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/stop-trying-to-segregate-the-american-founding" target="_blank"><strong>Stop trying to segregate the American founding</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6ba1446c804beec899132154f2952c37" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="0a8a5" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111419&width=980"/>                <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">            Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images        </small></p><h2>The rodeo</h2><p>The World's Oldest Rodeo is arguably the town's most notable event during the week of Independence Day. This year, from June 30 through July 6, Prescott Frontier Days will host several traditional rodeo performances and "Mutton Bustin' Competitions," where young cowboys and cowgirls ride sheep to compete for a gold belt buckle.</p><p>The town's Depot Marketplace serves as the venue for rodeo dances, where attendees can enjoy country music performances by "Lonesome Valley," a band led by one of Prescott's most well-known musicians, Sky "Daddy" Conwell.</p><p class="pull-quote">'The tradition runs deep!'</p><p>Conwell told Blaze News, "This is the third year we played at this historic event," adding that he feels "blessed, honored, and humbled" to be a part of it.</p><p>"For a small town, Prescott has many amazing musicians and bands, and that they chose us this year makes me smile ear to ear. I've been smiling from the time I got the news!" Conwell said. "And to play good country patriotic songs at this event in front of the entire town (and cowboys and cowgirls from all over the state who always make the trek here for July 4) makes my soul shine!"</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-prayers-that-shaped-a-nation-can-save-it-again" target="_blank"><strong>The prayers that shaped a nation can save it again</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image image-crop-16x9">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0a71e3375aaa5f0f52e00dea21a30b34" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3741d" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111425&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C82%2C0%2C26"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images</small></p><h2>The parades</h2><p>The Kiwanis Club of Prescott, chartered 101 years ago, will put on the Kiwanis Kiddie Parade during the annual Prescott Frontier Days celebration.</p><p>Jim Tilley, the president of the Kiwanis Club of Prescott and a local veterinarian, told Blaze News that this Fourth of July marks the 84th year of the kids' parade, the local club's oldest continuous project.</p><p>Approximately 800 children, ages 12 and under, are expected to participate in this year's event, wearing Western and patriotic costumes. Those with the most star-spangled outfits and floats can win prizes.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95faee9c02a5c69ef8fe407cec5435c1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="43846" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111403&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Image Source: Kiwanis Club of Prescott </small></p><p>Tilley said, "Kiwanis members and townspeople alike take delight in seeing the smiles on the kids' faces as they walk behind an official police escort in their own downtown. Many of the parents bringing their children reminisce about walking in the Kiddie Parade themselves when they were kids. The tradition runs deep!"</p><p>All of the winners of the children's parade are invited to ride on the Kiwanis float in the rodeo parade the following day — the event's 138th annual parade, <a href="https://worldsoldestrodeo.com/events-schedule/" target="_blank">described</a> as a "wonderful tradition that celebrates our rich Western history."</p><h2>Honoring first responders</h2><p>As part of the annual Independence Day celebrations, the Prescott Firefighter's Charities hosts the <a href="https://www.prescottffcharities.org/pages/prescott-hose-cart-race" target="_blank">Hose Cart Races</a>, which originated in the late 1800s as a rivalry between the two hose cart companies before the arrival of fire engines in the 1920s.</p><p class="pull-quote">'I looked forward to watching him!'</p><p>First responders — including firefighters, police officers, and ambulance crew — and their immediate family members are invited to participate in the event, where they race against an opposing team. The challenge involves wheeling historic hose carts to a water source, connecting to a hydrant, and turning on the water to knock down the rival's cone.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="43826645d81f56f51afa67c7e6cb3add" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="319d2" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111401&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Image Source: Prescott Firefighter's Charities</small></p><p>Amy Seets, the vice president of the PFFC and chair of the Hose Cart Races, told Blaze News that the competition is an event that the entire community eagerly anticipates each year.</p><p>"When my son was in high school, he was a [Prescott Fire Department] cadet and looked forward all year to competing on the PFD Cadet hose cart team," she said. "I looked forward to watching him! As an adult, after he came home from the Army, he went to work for Prescott Fire and was back competing in the hose cart races every year, and I still couldn't wait to watch."</p><p>Seets explained that the event pays tribute to history and tradition while connecting the community with their local first responders.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="39a70c6e8827fc78cd4ca0af8a448f50" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="e4265" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111402&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Prescott Firefighter's Charities</small></p><h2>Glory to God</h2><p>Pastor Dale Partridge, the lead pastor of Prescott's King's Way Reformed Church, described the Fourth of July celebrations as a "big moment to remind the nation who we are and who we were."</p><p class="pull-quote">'It's driven by the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments.'</p><p>"We just want to figure out a way that we can engage in any way to help the nation remember that we were founded as a Christian nation," he told Blaze News. "We've taken that position to be engaged, especially on events that are going down downtown with a patriotic tone."</p><p>Partridge's church prioritizes remaining active in the Prescott community, upholding the principle that freedom demands stewardship of the sacred values of liberty.</p><p>Last year, the church participated in the annual rodeo parade, playing patriotic country music while carrying a large banner and signs reading, "Christ is King."</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/a-marines-memorial-day-message-dont-forget-the-price" target="_blank"><strong>A Marine’s Memorial Day message: Don’t forget the price</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="612206a5bce708fc21e1ad78d219d73b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="8909f" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111380&width=980"/>                <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">            Image Source: Pastor Dale Partridge        </small></p><p>"There seems to be more patriotism that is driven by Christianity," he explained. "It's driven by the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments. It's driven by scripture in the Bible."</p><p>This faith-first spirit permeates Prescott's celebrations, uniting families and churches in gratitude for God-given freedoms.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/abide/is-your-kitchen-table-off-limits-to-jesus" target="_blank"><strong>Is your kitchen table off limits to Jesus?</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="369c443d1c9aa27034c04c90cb88823e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="cfd2a" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61111389&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Image Source: Pastor Dale Partridge</small></p><p>As the week's Fourth of July festivities wind down, the rodeo grounds host Cowboy Church on Sunday, where worshippers gather to praise the Lord and reflect on the blessings of liberty, a fitting capstone to a week rooted in devotion.</p><p>In Prescott, Arizona, the Fourth of July celebrations symbolize enduring values that define America. As the fireworks fade over the town's lake, the flame of liberty continues to burn bright.</p><p><em><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em></em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self"><em><em>Sign up here</em></em></a><em><em>!</em></em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 10:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/fireworks-rodeos-and-cowboy-church-a-town-s-july-4th-stands-for-god-and-country</guid><category>Fourth of july</category><category>July 4th</category><category>July 4</category><category>4th of july</category><category>4th of july weekend</category><category>Fourth of july event</category><category>Prescott</category><category>Prescott arizona</category><category>Arizona</category><category>Independence day</category><category>Yavapai county</category><category>World's oldest rodeo</category><category>Parades</category><category>First responders</category><category>Firefighters</category><category>Prescott firefighter's charities</category><category>Dale partridge</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Candace Hathaway</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/fireworks-rodeos-and-cowboy-church-a-town-s-july-4th-stands-for-god-and-country.jpg?id=61111443&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>The soul of the republic still belongs to Washington</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-soul-of-the-republic-still-belongs-to-washington</link><description><![CDATA[
  28. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-soul-of-the-republic-still-belongs-to-washington.jpg?id=61135810&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C53%2C0%2C54"/><br/><br/><p>As we celebrate <a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript" target="_blank">Independence Day</a>, it’s worth reflecting on America’s founding character — especially the man who defined it: George Washington.</p><p>Washington didn’t build his legacy on grand speeches. He led with silence, sacrifice, and restraint. He may not have written poetry, but he lived it — with grit in war, grace in peace, and great wisdom in his letters, journals, and <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf" target="_blank">Farewell Address</a>.</p><p class="pull-quote">This Fourth of July, as fireworks fill the night sky, let’s also make room for silence — for healing, for grief, for endurance.</p><p>He didn’t just fight for a nation — he helped shape its soul. Washington understood that a country isn’t defined only by its victories, but by how it makes meaning out of its wounds.</p><p>In our time of division and disillusionment, we would do well to reclaim the legacy Washington embodied. Resilience isn’t the denial of pain but rather transformation through it. And the only vision worth holding on to is the one that unites us in building our future as a nation.</p><p>Trauma doesn’t end the story. Often, it begins the most meaningful chapters. That’s true in my life — and in America’s. Growth has never come from comfort. It comes from hardship, from wounds we don’t hide from but confront. Psychologists call it “<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9807114/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">post-traumatic growth</a>.” It’s the idea that suffering, when faced and integrated, can lead to deeper purpose, stronger relationships, and a more grounded sense of self.</p><p>I guess most Americans would just call it “history.”</p><p>I led soldiers into Iraq in 2003 and returned to a nation largely untouched by the war I had lived. But my reckoning came later — when a brief Wall Street career collapsed, when a home invasion shattered my sense of safety, and when therapy forced me to face what I had tried for years to outrun: trauma, guilt, grief.</p><p>What followed wasn’t just recovery. It was transformation — a quiet strength rooted in humility and meaning. Post-traumatic growth teaches that suffering, when faced honestly, can lead to deeper purpose, stronger relationships, and a more grounded self.</p><p>That truth doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to us all.</p><p>From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, from the Great Depression to Ground Zero, America has been forged in fire. Our greatest progress has rarely come in peacetime. Lincoln didn’t rise when things were easy. The Greatest Generation wasn’t shaped in comfort. Renewal always follows rupture.</p><p>We’re in such a moment again. Pressure is building — on our national identity, our personal stories, our sense of unity. But pressure can forge something stronger, if we let it.</p><p>We must reject the lie that trauma equals weakness. PTSD is real — often invisible, often devastating. But it’s not the end of the story. Alongside post-traumatic stress, we can teach post-traumatic strength. The kind Washington lived. The kind America has always needed.</p><p>That’s part of why I wrote “<a href="https://amzn.to/3RLl2Tc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Downriver: Memoir of a Warrior Poet</a>.” Yes, it tells a story of trauma — from childhood instability to the battlefields of Iraq, from Wall Street collapse to personal unraveling. But more importantly, it traces the long road of healing — not as a tidy comeback story, but as a messy, hard-earned path toward growth and integration.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-prayers-that-shaped-a-nation-can-save-it-again" target="_blank">The prayers that shaped a nation can save it again</a></strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0f74aeb32efd44c7eaf912618422dc1b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="99bd4" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61135815&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Wirestock via iStock/Getty Images</small></p><p>The journey is not reserved for veterans alone. It belongs to survivors of addiction, loss, illness, injustice, and personal collapse. It belongs to first responders, caregivers, and ordinary Americans living through extraordinary hardship.</p><p>But growth isn’t guaranteed. It requires honesty. It requires community. It demands a culture willing to honor both the warrior and the poet — the one who endures and the one who reflects, the one who fights and the one who heals.</p><p>Too often, we swing between denial and despair. But what if we told a different story? What if we treated our national wounds not as signs of weakness but as calls to deepen our roots?</p><p>We’ve done it before. The post-9/11 generation gave us new models of service and empathy. The scars of the COVID-19 pandemic will never fully heal, but they can teach us lessons about connection, community, and what really matters.</p><p>The question isn’t whether we’ve been wounded. We have. The real question is what kind of country we’ll become in response. Will we let trauma divide us further — or use it to rediscover what binds us together?</p><p>This Fourth of July, as fireworks fill the night sky, let’s also make room for silence — for healing, for grief, for endurance. Let’s honor not only what we’ve won but how we’ve grown.</p><p>That’s the path of the warrior poet. That’s Washington’s legacy. And it can be ours, too.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-soul-of-the-republic-still-belongs-to-washington</guid><category>Opinion &amp; analysis</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>July 4</category><category>Independence day</category><category>George washington</category><category>Poet</category><category>Warrior</category><category>Revolutionary war</category><category>Ptsd</category><category>9/11</category><category>Iraq war</category><category>Post traumatic stress disorder</category><category>Healing</category><category>Strength</category><category>Unity</category><category>Fireworks</category><category>Prayer</category><category>Therapy</category><category>Farewell address</category><category>Division in america</category><category>Resilience</category><category>Victory</category><category>America</category><category>American founding</category><category>Soul</category><dc:creator>Ryan McDermott</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-soul-of-the-republic-still-belongs-to-washington.jpg?id=61135810&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Stephen Miller-backed group files lawsuit accusing Dodgers of discrimination through DEI policies</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/stephen-miller-dodgers-lawsuit-dei</link><description><![CDATA[
  29. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/stephen-miller-backed-group-files-lawsuit-accusing-dodgers-of-discrimination-through-dei-policies.jpg?id=61144282&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C105%2C0%2C105"/><br/><br/><p>The public relations woes of the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to worsen as they <a href="https://www.latimes.com/00000197-cd86-df7d-a7ff-dfdef1f10000-123" target="_blank">face</a> a  federal civil rights complaint that their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies are in violation of discrimination laws.</p><p>The reigning baseball world champions have been criticized by many on the left for not speaking out against immigration raids in Los Angeles because so many of the team's fans are Latino, and especially Mexican-American.</p><p class="pull-quote">'Our mission is to create a culture where diverse voices and experiences are valued, our people feel empowered by their connections to each other, and the Team and all employees feel they can succeed.' </p><p>Now the team is facing a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/02/stephen-miller-sues-dei-dodgers-america-first-legal" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> from America First Legal accusing them of unlawful discrimination through policies meant to benefit minorities. AFL says the Dodgers "appear to be engaging in similar unlawful DEI practices by allowing race, color, and sex to motivate employment decisions," which they say are in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. </p><p>The lawsuit cites programs that benefit Asian Americans, Black Americans, and Latinos. As part of the evidence for its claim, the group <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/dodgers-face-federal-civil-rights-complaint-over-hiring-employment-practices" target="_blank">cited</a> the team's mission statement. </p><p>"Our mission is to create a culture where diverse voices and experiences are valued, our people feel empowered by their connections to each other, and the Team and all employees feel they can succeed," it reads. </p><p>The AFL was founded in 2021 by Stephen Miller, who has since been named White House deputy chief of staff. It is meant to combat progressive policies through the power of the courts.</p><p>The complaint was filed at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday and also names Guggenheim Partners, the ownership group of the team.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/ice-dodgers-blocked-protest-stadium" target="_blank"><strong>LA Dodgers say they blocked ICE agents at stadium after campaign to pressure team to condemn deportations</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ce74cd4bb0474c8ba9623ea0cdfeefe8" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a0SHla9j-Vs?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span> </p><p>At least one local news outlet is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLncRbQSUjf/" target="_blank">accusing</a> Miller of acting in a retaliatory fashion against the Dodgers over the controversy about ICE raids and rioting. The team had said that it stopped ICE agents from using the stadium, but DHS <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/ice-denies-presence-la-dodgers" target="_blank">contradicted</a> that claim, leading many to suspect that the Dodgers were trying to appease their critics on the left. </p><p>The lawsuit was first reported on Wednesday by the Athletic.</p><p>The team has declined to comment about the lawsuit, according to the Los Angeles Times.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>! </em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/stephen-miller-dodgers-lawsuit-dei</guid><category>Stephen miller vs dodgers</category><category>America first legal vs dodgers</category><category>Dodgers ice protest controversy</category><category>Dodgers dei policies</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Carlos Garcia</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/stephen-miller-backed-group-files-lawsuit-accusing-dodgers-of-discrimination-through-dei-policies.jpg?id=61144282&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Glenn Beck’s fireworks history lesson will forever change your 4th of July sky</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/glenn-becks-fireworks-history-lesson-will-forever-change-your-4th-of-july-sky</link><description><![CDATA[
  30. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61115460&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>Tonight, across the entire country, explosions of colorful pyrotechnics will light up the sky as red, white, and blue-clad Americans of all ages ooh and aah, just as they have since 1777 when the American tradition first began at the behest of John Adams.</p><p>Yet most of these patriotic revelers are likely unaware of the fascinating history behind the dazzling fireworks that punctuate their Fourth of July celebrations.</p><p>On this July 2023 episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn dove into the wild history of fireworks. What he shared is sure to transform your summer holiday celebrations forever.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="90a8d2abd8df3f6aa86cbc9e38453251" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s8e9Q98-l4A?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>        </p><p>“The history of fireworks is crazy” and “spans the entire globe,” Glenn says.</p><p>Historians disagree about the origins of fireworks, with some contending they originated in China and others arguing they were initially developed in the Middle East or India. </p><p>“Either way, we do know that the first firecracker in China was actually created unintentionally when a stick of bamboo was tossed into a fire and it cracked,” Glenn says, noting that these “natural firecrackers” were believed to “ward off evil spirits.”</p><p>Then “around 800 B.C., a Chinese alchemist,” aiming to concoct the elixir of “eternal life,” combined “sulfur, charcoal, [and] potassium nitrate.” What he created, ironically, was gunpowder, which the Chinese then began packing into bamboo shoots, and later “paper tubes,” and tossing into fires to create firecrackers.</p><p>Compared to the soaring kaleidoscopic bursts we adore today, these ancient Chinese explosives “were not launched into the air” and had “no added colors,” says Glenn.</p><p>Projectile fireworks arrived on the scene around 900 A.D. when fireworks were “fastened to arrows,” which the Chinese fired at their enemies. “Over the next 200 years, the fireworks were made into rockets that could be fired at your enemy without the help of an arrow,” Glenn says, noting that these warfare explosives were ironically used in celebrations as well.</p><p>Over the next several centuries, fireworks spread across the civilized world. By the 1600s, fireworks, still just “plain orange” in color, were handled by “fire masters” and their assistants, who were referred to as “little green men” because they had to “wear wet leaves to protect themselves from the sparks,” Glenn explains.</p><p>While “early American settlers brought the fireworks with them to the new world,” it would be another “60 years” before “the elaborate sparkles of red, white, and blue” we enjoy to this day would be invented.</p><p>Like America herself, “the Fourth of July sky is a melting pot of creativity and innovation that came from all over the world,” Glenn says.</p><p>Tonight, “we will all sit on the back of our trucks or in bleachers and watch our one fireworks display and celebrate the one truth: We are free,” he says. “We are the freest country ever to grace the Earth.”</p><p>“We've made a lot of mistakes, and that is true. We've been a bad country, and we've been a great country, but we're still a country called the United States of America, and we are free.”</p><p>To hear more, watch the clip above.</p><h2>Want more from Glenn Beck?</h2><p>To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, <a href="https://get.blazetv.com/glenn/?utm_source=theblaze&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article_shortcode_glennbeck" target="_blank">subscribe to BlazeTV</a> — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/glenn-becks-fireworks-history-lesson-will-forever-change-your-4th-of-july-sky</guid><category>The glenn beck program</category><category>Glenn beck</category><category>July 4</category><category>Independence day</category><category>Fireworks</category><category>Blazetv</category><category>Blaze media</category><category>The glenn beck program</category><dc:creator>BlazeTV Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61115460&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>The crown laughed at our Declaration — but America got the last word</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-crown-laughed-at-our-declaration-but-america-got-the-last-word</link><description><![CDATA[
  31. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-crown-laughed-at-our-declaration-but-america-got-the-last-word.jpg?id=61129953&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C48%2C0%2C49"/><br/><br/><p>John Adams <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-most-memorable-epocha-in-the-history-of-america" target="_self">believed</a> America’s independence should be marked with “pomp, shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations.” He got his wish. Within a year of the Declaration’s signing on July 4, 1776, celebrations had become <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/the-earliest-july-4-celebrations" target="_blank">a colonies-wide tradition</a>.</p><p>The reaction across the Atlantic, however, struck a very different tone.</p><p class="pull-quote">This wasn’t just about taxes or trade policy. It was about the belief that free men could govern themselves.</p><p>The British response was not stunned disbelief or deep introspection. It was mockery — and, ultimately, a grave miscalculation.</p><p>The war didn’t begin with the Declaration. A year earlier, in August 1775, King George III had already issued a <a href="https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=818&pid=2" target="_blank">Proclamation of Rebellion</a>. The crown had stopped viewing the dispute as a matter of political redress. It now saw open revolt.</p><p>But the Declaration shifted the terms. What landed in London by mid-August 1776 wasn’t a petition or compromise. It was a bold, philosophical argument for national divorce. In British eyes, it was treason.</p><h2>A declaration dismissed</h2><p>British newspapers published the Declaration widely. The <a href="https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/08/breaking-news-1776-first-reports-declaration-of-independence/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">London Chronicle printed it</a>, along with other major papers. But few took it seriously. To them, it was just another provocation from unruly colonials.</p><p>The elite mocked Thomas Jefferson’s talk of “unalienable rights.” Gen. William Howe, sent to crush the rebellion, called the Declaration “<a href="https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/blog/september-kings-speech#:~:text=This%20declaration%2C%20which%20posits%20that%20the%20Declaration,first%20official%20British%20response%20to%20American%20independence.&text=Without%20evidence%20to%20the%20contrary%2C%20it%20is,relayed%20the%20news%20to%20King%20George%20III." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extravagant and inadmissible</a>.” The British state responded accordingly.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/align/july-4-exclusive-what-we-love-about-america" target="_self"><strong>July 4 exclusive: What we love about America</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="de285b70bd657e241f2056dd3aac000f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="402b3" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=61129947&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">LeoPatrizi via iStock/Getty Images </small></p><p>Within weeks, more than <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/british-occupation-of-new-york-city" target="_blank">32,000 British troops</a> — including <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/hessians-auxiliaries" target="_blank">8,000 German mercenaries</a> — sailed into New York Harbor. It was the largest overseas force Britain had ever fielded. Howe aimed to stamp out the uprising before year’s end.</p><p>The campaign nearly succeeded.</p><p>George Washington’s army suffered defeat after defeat, <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-long-island" target="_blank">narrowly escaping destruction</a> on Long Island. By autumn, the American position looked hopeless.</p><h2>France’s revenge</h2><p>But while Britain saw a dying rebellion, France saw a chance to strike.</p><p>Even before 1776, French agents had begun quietly arming the colonists. The Declaration gave them a pretext to go farther. Though Louis XVI had no love for democracy, he did have a long memory — and Britain’s victory in the <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/french-and-indian-war-1754-1763-its-consequences" target="_blank">Seven Years’ War</a> had come at France’s expense.</p><p>With the Declaration in hand, France could cloak strategic revenge in the language of liberty.</p><p><a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-alliance-with-france" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Formal recognition</a> wouldn’t come until 1778, but the shift had begun. French arms, cash, and eventually troops <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/france-american-revolution" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">transformed the conflict</a>. What began as a colonial revolt became an international war.</p><p>Back in London, the American cause began to attract sympathy in Parliament.</p><p>In 1777, future British Prime Minister William Pitt took to the House of Lords to warn his colleagues: “<a href="https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/hc/great-britain-i-710-1777/iii-on-affairs-in-america/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">You cannot conquer</a>" America.</p><p>He was right.</p><h2>Not just a rebellion — a revolution</h2><p>What Britain failed to grasp was that America hadn’t simply declared independence. It had declared a new theory of government: one grounded in consent, not inheritance.</p><p>The crown mistook revolutionary conviction for rhetorical flourish. Britain's government believed the colonists would fold in the face of overwhelming force. But this wasn’t just about taxes or trade policy. It was about the belief that free men could govern themselves.</p><p>Ideas like that can stand up to empires — even the most powerful in the world.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 08:30:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-crown-laughed-at-our-declaration-but-america-got-the-last-word</guid><category>Opinion &amp; analysis</category><category>July 4</category><category>Fourth of july</category><category>Independence day</category><category>America</category><category>American founding</category><category>Revolutionary war</category><category>Great britain</category><category>Declaration of independence</category><category>John adams</category><category>King george iii</category><category>George washington</category><category>William pitt</category><category>Parliament</category><category>France</category><category>1776</category><category>William howe</category><category>Empire</category><category>Rebellion</category><category>Treason</category><category>Consent of the governed</category><category>Natural rights</category><category>Liberty</category><dc:creator>Katarina Pfister</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/the-crown-laughed-at-our-declaration-but-america-got-the-last-word.jpg?id=61129953&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Accused assassin Vance Boelter ordered held for trial, tells judge he looks forward to the facts coming out</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/accused-assassin-vance-boelter-ordered-held-for-trial-tells-judge-he-looks-forward-to-the-facts-coming-out</link><description><![CDATA[
  32. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/vance-luther-boelter-is-charged-with-the-assassination-of-a-minnesota-lawmaker-and-her-husband-and-the-wounding-of-a-state-senat.jpg?id=61086446&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=100%2C0%2C101%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>A federal judge in Minnesota on Thursday ordered accused political assassin Vance Luther Boelter held until his trial on charges that he gunned down a former state House speaker and her husband and shot a state senator and his wife on June 14.</p><p>Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minn., <a href="https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/minnesota/2025/07/03/minnesota-shooting-suspect-boelter-waives-rights-to-preliminary-hearing-5-million-bail/84445468007/" target="_blank">told</a> U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko that he is “looking forward to the truth and facts of the 14th to come before you,” adding, “I think Minnesotans want to know what’s going on.” </p><p>Judge Micko found probable cause to hold Boelter for trial. There is no bail in federal criminal court. A Hennepin County judge set Boelter’s bail at $5 million on state murder and attempted murder charges.</p><p>Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said Boelter will be indicted by a grand jury by July 15 and then face an arraignment hearing on the charges handed down by the panel. The grand jury could add criminal counts to the six felonies listed in the June 16 <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25977053-criminal-complaint-us-vs-vance-luther-boelter/" target="_blank">criminal complaint</a> filed in U.S. District Court.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">        <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="349faeddfccc08ab2116bf1501020d04" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="16e51" loading="lazy" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/a-law-enforcement-honor-guard-leads-the-caskets-of-melissa-and-mark-hortman-out-of-the-basilica-of-st-mary-in-minneapolis-after.jpg?id=61144460&width=980"/>                        <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A law enforcement honor guard leads the caskets of Melissa and Mark Hortman out of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis after their June 28 funeral Mass.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images </small></p><p>Boelter is charged with first shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at the front door of their home in Champlin, Minn., just after 2 a.m. June 14.</p><p>Boelter was dressed as a police officer, wearing a disguise and driving a Ford SUV painted like a police vehicle, police said. After the Hoffmans opened the door to Boelter, they quickly realized he was not a real police officer and tried to force him out of the house, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court June 16. The Hoffmans said they were shot a total of 17 times. They survived after emergency surgery and are recovering.</p><p class="pull-quote">‘Minnesotans want to know what’s going on.’</p><p>Boelter had murder on his mind when visiting two other homes owned by Minnesota state legislators, Thompson has said. State Rep. Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove) was not home when Boelter pounded on the front door of her home, the FBI said. He next planned to go to the home of state Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope), but was scared away after a New Hope police officer spotted his SUV parked a block away.</p><p>He next went to the home of Speaker of the House Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park), parking his SUV in the driveway with its emergency lights engaged. <br/></p><p>Before he could attempt to enter the home, he was confronted by two Brooklyn Park Police Department officers, the FBI said. He opened fire on them, and nine-year veteran Officer Zachary Baumtrog returned fire, <a href="https://dps.mn.gov/news/bca/bca-identifies-officer-involved-force-incident-hortman-residence-june-14" target="_blank">according to</a> the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. </p><p>Baumtrog was placed on critical-incident leave, which is standard in officer-involved shootings.</p><p>Boelter allegedly fired his 9mm Glock pistol into the front door as he forced his way inside the Hortman home. He then allegedly assassinated Hortman, her husband, Mark Hortman, and their golden retriever, Gilbert, the FBI said. He escaped out the rear of the home, setting off a more than 40-hour manhunt that ended with his arrest in a field near Green Isle at 9:15 p.m. June 15.</p><p>After the hearing, Thompson <a href="https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/vance-boelter-due-back-in-federal-court-thursday-afternoon/" target="_blank">told reporters</a> the investigation is ongoing “to determine exactly what happened and if anyone else was involved.” <br/></p><p>Wearing a yellow jail uniform Thursday, Boelter repeated some of his <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/accused-assassin-makes-disgusting-attempt-to-paint-himself-a-victim-over-jail-conditions-sheriff" target="_blank">complaints about conditions</a> at the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, where he is being held. He asked if the lights in his cell could be turned off at night. </p><p>At a hearing June 27, Boelter complained about a laundry list of things, drawing a strong rebuke from Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott. “He is not in a hotel," Brott said. "He’s in jail.”</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_blank">Sign up here!</a></em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:40:21 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/accused-assassin-vance-boelter-ordered-held-for-trial-tells-judge-he-looks-forward-to-the-facts-coming-out</guid><category>Politics</category><category>Minnesota</category><category>Vance boelter</category><category>Assassination</category><category>Crime</category><dc:creator>Joseph M. Hanneman</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/vance-luther-boelter-is-charged-with-the-assassination-of-a-minnesota-lawmaker-and-her-husband-and-the-wounding-of-a-state-senat.jpg?id=61086446&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>‘He’s a BIGOT!’ Nancy Mace wants Lilly Contino ARRESTED for using women’s bathroom</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/prime-time/hes-a-bigot-nancy-mace-wants-lilly-contino-arrested-for-using-womens-bathroom</link><description><![CDATA[
  33. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.webp?id=61144087&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>Transgender influencer Lilly Contino — who rose to TikTok fame for posting videos of himself complaining about being misgendered at restaurants — could be in serious legal jeopardy after filming himself using the women’s bathrooms at Walt Disney World.</p><p>Contino, taunting those who believe women’s bathrooms should only be for biological women, posted selfies in the Disney park’s women’s rooms and rated the bathrooms. Other women can be seen in the background of his photos.</p><p>After Contino posted them all over his social media, guests were furious that he was filming them in a private area.</p><p>In a <a href="https://x.com/thepeaklady/status/1931077613289902386" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">social media post</a>, some of the women caught on film in Contino’s posts are threatening legal action — and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) couldn’t agree with them more.</p><h3></h3><br/><span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dd03ab73e496c6561fa9c51dab2ea07a" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2wg_5bst9Fk?rel=0&start=1782" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span><p>“This person just got in trouble,” BlazeTV host Alex Stein tells Mace, asking, “Will you send this person to jail?”</p><p>“I would. If you’re a man in a women’s bathroom and it’s against the law, you shouldn’t be there. Then yeah, whatever, everything’s on the table here. Like, just be a decent human being and respect women,” Mace responds.</p><p>“This guy is a bigot, he’s a misogynist, he’s the patriarchy, literally the patriarchy. He’s making fun of women. Women don’t dress like this,” she continues.</p><p>“And I’ve seen some of his videos when he had feminine surgery that didn’t make him look more feminine. I’ve seen this guy online, and he mocks us. It’s disgusting, and why are they filming themselves in the bathroom? It’s perverted, it’s gross, and children should not be exposed to that,” she adds.</p><h2>Want more from Alex Stein?</h2><p>To enjoy more of Alex's culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, <a href="https://get.blazetv.com/primetime/?utm_source=theblaze&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article_shortcode_alexstein" target="_blank">subscribe to BlazeTV</a> — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/shows/prime-time/hes-a-bigot-nancy-mace-wants-lilly-contino-arrested-for-using-womens-bathroom</guid><category>Video</category><category>Camera phone</category><category>Upload</category><category>Free</category><category>Sharing</category><category>Video phone</category><category>Youtube.com</category><category>Prime time with alex stein</category><category>Alex stein</category><category>Nancy mace</category><category>The blaze</category><category>Blazetv</category><category>Blaze news</category><category>Blaze podcasts</category><category>Blaze podcast network</category><category>Blaze media</category><category>Blaze online</category><category>Blaze originals</category><category>Lilly tino</category><category>Lilly contino</category><category>Transgender women</category><category>Trans women in womens bathroom</category><category>Womens bathrooms</category><category>Men in womens spaces</category><category>Trans agenda</category><category>Lgbtqia agenda</category><dc:creator>BlazeTV Staff</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.webp?id=61144087&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>WATCH LIVE: Trump kicks off 250th anniversary of the US with patriotic rally</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/250-anniversary-trump-rally-iowa</link><description><![CDATA[
  34. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/watch-live-trump-kicks-off-250th-anniversary-of-the-us-with-patriotic-rally.jpg?id=61144557&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C104%2C0%2C104"/><br/><br/><p>President Donald Trump is kicking off a yearlong celebration for the 250th anniversary of the United States <a href="https://www.wmtw.com/article/trump-america250-iowa-celebration/65291891" target="_blank">with a rally</a> at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on Thursday. </p><p>The massive celebration has been planned by America250, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and private citizens, in order to observe the 250th anniversary since the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the founders in 1776. </p><p class="pull-quote">'This special event serves as the magnificent start of a dynamic, year-long commemoration across our beautiful country.' </p><p>The president is scheduled to speak at the fairgrounds at about 8:30 p.m. ET with what is called a "Salute to America" address. </p><p>“America250 is proud to host this historic kick-off event in Iowa, in keeping with President Trump's commitment to provide a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of America’s 250th birthday," <a href="https://america250.org/news/a-new-era-of-american-greatness-america250s-kick-off-celebration-featuring-remarks-by-president-donald-j-trump/" target="_blank">said</a> Monica Crowley, America250's principal media representative. </p><p>"This special event serves as the magnificent start of a dynamic, year-long commemoration across our beautiful country, unveiling a vision for a renewed commitment to America's future," she added. </p><h3>You can watch the festivities live below on the KOTV-DT livestream:</h3><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5e9adc7c5c2b9d5753c8edadacf24e72" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1KWLZ0b_t98?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span> </p><p>The event will also be streaming on the group's account on the <a href="https://x.com/America250/status/1940894320464150877" target="_blank">X social media platform.</a> </p><p>Kristi Noem, the secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, is also scheduled to <a href="https://x.com/America250/status/1940449675221561683" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">speak</a> at the event, and country singer Lee Greenwood <a href="https://x.com/America250/status/1940465494437584972" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">will</a> perform. </p><p>Crowley said there will be patriotic music, dancing, and fireworks. </p><p>"This will be a very special event, honoring our Great Country, and our Brave Heroes who fought to keep us FREE," <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-heads-heartland-kick-off-year-celebrating-americas-independence" target="_blank">said</a> the president on Truth Social about the event. "I'll also tell you some of the GREAT things I've already done on Trade, especially as it relates to Farmers. You are going to be very happy with what I say — Should be a BIG Crowd!"</p><p>The president will likely use the occasion to tout the passage of his "big, beautiful bill" through Congress earlier in the day. </p><p>America250 merchandise is <a href="https://america250.org/news/a-new-era-of-american-greatness-america250s-kick-off-celebration-featuring-remarks-by-president-donald-j-trump/" target="_blank">available</a> for purchase on the group's website. </p><p>A 250-year anniversary is also called a semiquincentennial, which is far more difficult to pronounce. </p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>! </em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/250-anniversary-trump-rally-iowa</guid><category>250th us anniversary</category><category>America250 rally</category><category>Trump rally 250 iowa</category><category>Patriotic us anniversary</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Carlos Garcia</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/watch-live-trump-kicks-off-250th-anniversary-of-the-us-with-patriotic-rally.jpg?id=61144557&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Rolling Stone is getting crushed online for trying to whitewash controversies around Zohran Mamdani</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/rolling-stones-zohran-mamdani-ripped</link><description><![CDATA[
  35. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/rolling-stone-is-getting-crushed-online-for-trying-to-whitewash-controversies-around-zohran-mamdani.jpg?id=61144117&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C105%2C0%2C105"/><br/><br/><p>The political world recoiled in shock when a relatively unknown left-wing politician <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/new-york-dem-primary-winner25" target="_blank">defeated</a> Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination for the mayor's office in New York City.</p><p>More and more damaging policies and statements from Zohran Mamdani have <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/new-york-citys-likely-next-mayor-wants-to-globalize-the-intifada" target="_blank">resurfaced</a> since then, but Rolling Stone magazine has rode in on a white horse in an attempt to save him from the slings and arrows of outrageous criticism.</p><p class="pull-quote">'It's shocking to see the lengths that many in the media will go to lie about an Antisemitic mayoral candidate. Rolling Stone should stick to rock & roll.'</p><p>The outlet <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/zohran-mamdani-misinformation-antisemitism-1235376681/" target="_blank">claims</a> that many of the rumors about Mamdani are the result of "Islamophobic hate" and set out to defend his honor. Among two of the more dubious claims was a defense of Mamdani trying to characterize the slogan "Globalize the Intifada" as a cry for equality, when many consider it to be a support of violence against Jews.</p><p>The article also defends him from accusations that he's communist on the basis that he's only a socialist that wants to drastically expand social programs in the city and said that billionaires shouldn't exist.</p><p>The outlet was immediately criticized for trying to whitewash the controversy plaguing his campaign.</p><p>"Rolling Stone: What does seizing the means of production mean to you? Who owns the buildings that he proposes to devalue through rent control? How much of other peoples [sic] money should he have the right to steal and dispense? Help me with the misinformation I gather, from listening to him," <a href="https://x.com/RealRickRule/status/1940844755212292135" target="_blank">wrote</a> CEO Rick Rule.</p><p>"Zohran Mamdani supports BDS, defends globalizing the intifada, and blames the Israeli victims for the October 7th massacre. It's shocking to see the lengths that many in the media will go to lie about an Antisemitic mayoral candidate. Rolling Stone should stick to rock & roll," <a href="https://x.com/Joelmpetlin/status/1940627365933338842" target="_blank">said</a> Newsweek contributor Joel Petlin.</p><p>"Bullcrap. Rolling stone has been on the wrong side of history throughout its existence. The fact that you want to whitewash genocidal proclamations, against Jews no less, says everything we want to know. Globalize the intifada is a rallying cry to attack Jews. Period. Do some honest research before you publish this rubbish," <a href="https://x.com/_amalki/status/1940836518622642660" target="_blank">responded</a> surgeon Alan Malki.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/shows/levintv/mark-levin-predicts-3-things-that-will-happen-if-new-york-elects-zohran-mamdani" target="_blank"><strong>Mark Levin predicts 3 things that will happen if New York elects Zohran Mamdani</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="29f5f4d94f99d56135785e7618fccd86" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4QcntyubN9k?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span> </p><p>"Rolling Stone doing panicked Baghdad Bob propaganda in defense of Mamdani tells you the revelations about him are breaking through to voters even in Democratic circles," <a href="https://x.com/sunnyright/status/1940741106096058580" target="_blank">said</a> another critic.</p><p>Others mocked Rolling Stone by <a href="https://x.com/Logan_Ratick/status/1940753088702566640" target="_blank">bringing up</a> their fawning coverage of Islamist murderer and terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from 2013.</p><p>The fate of New York City will be decided in the ballot box in November when Mamdani faces incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo again, and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa.</p><p>If the socialist Mamdani is victorious, he will become the first Muslim and the first Indian-American mayor of the Big Apple.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>! </em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2025 23:45:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/rolling-stones-zohran-mamdani-ripped</guid><category>Rolling stones mocked</category><category>Rolling stones loves communists</category><category>Zohran mamdani</category><category>Media defends communists</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Carlos Garcia</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/rolling-stone-is-getting-crushed-online-for-trying-to-whitewash-controversies-around-zohran-mamdani.jpg?id=61144117&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Supreme Court allows Trump to deport violent criminal aliens to South Sudan — liberal justices are furious</title><link>https://www.theblaze.com/news/supreme-court-trump-sudan-deport</link><description><![CDATA[
  36. <img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/supreme-court-allows-trump-to-deport-violent-criminal-aliens-to-south-sudan-liberal-justices-are-furious.jpg?id=61144482&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C104%2C0%2C104"/><br/><br/><p>The U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-trump-send-migrants-south-sudan-djibouti-rcna214952" target="_blank">ruled</a> 7 to 2 in favor of the Trump administration deporting violent criminal illegal aliens to countries not of their origin, and the dissenting justices issued scathing dissents.</p><p>In contention is whether the administration can deport illegal aliens who have been convicted of violent crimes to countries other than where they originated. The migrants were on a flight to South Sudan before a lower court ruling said they needed to be given proper notice and a chance to argue their case.</p><p class="pull-quote">'No country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric.'</p><p>On Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed the government to continue in its plan to send the violent criminal aliens to South Sudan. </p><p>After the ruling against the administration by Judge Brian Murphy of the District Court in Massachusetts in May, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/ice-barbaric-illegals-sudan-flight" target="_blank">released</a> a list of the migrants and their violent crimes in order to garner public support.</p><p>"We conducted a deportation flight from Texas to remove some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States," reads a DHS statement. "No country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric."</p><p>Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued dissent in the case, which was joined by Ketanji Brown Jackson. </p><p>"What the Government wants to do, concretely, is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death," charged Sotomayor.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/scotus-trump-alien-enemies-act" target="_blank"><strong>Supreme Court rules against Trump on deportations under Alien Enemies Act; Alito and Thomas dissent</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">        <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ff1b382d2a2c1512835e223560464e12" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C0O8QwRZ1OA?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span> </p><p>Sotomayor concluded by accusing the court of giving the Trump administration special treatment.</p><p>"Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial," she wrote. "Respectfully, I dissent."</p><p>Murphy had been nominated by former President Joe Biden.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>! </em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2025 22:35:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.theblaze.com/news/supreme-court-trump-sudan-deport</guid><category>South sudan deportation flight</category><category>Trump wins at supreme court</category><category>Ruling against deportation</category><category>Non origin deportations</category><category>Politics</category><dc:creator>Carlos Garcia</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/supreme-court-allows-trump-to-deport-violent-criminal-aliens-to-south-sudan-liberal-justices-are-furious.jpg?id=61144482&amp;width=980"></media:content></item></channel></rss>

If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:

  1. Download the "valid RSS" banner.

  2. Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)

  3. Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

If you would like to create a text link instead, here is the URL you can use:

http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=https%3A//www.theblaze.com/feeds/feed.rss

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms

 
Copyright © 2002-9 Sam Ruby, Mark Pilgrim, Joseph Walton, and Phil Ringnalda