Category: Blaze Media
‘Belief is what creates prosperity’: Glenn Beck shares empowering message with America’s youth
Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck delivered an empowering message to young conservatives in the AmericaFest crowd in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday.
Beck opened his speech by inviting Jeanie Beeman, a Target employee who was harassed by a shopper for wearing a Charlie Kirk shirt, to join him on stage. A video of the shopper’s altercation with Beeman went viral on social media, with conservatives praising Beeman for reacting calmly to the shopper’s expletive-filled rant.
Beeman described the flood of support as “overwhelming,” adding that she is “just a normal person.”
The crowd reacted with cheers.
‘America was never built for comfort. It was built for people who believed they could shape their own destiny.’
Beck wrapped his arm around Beeman and stated, “And that is why you’re here.”
“I wanted to thank you for being normal,” Beck told Beeman.
RELATED: VIRAL VIDEO: Sara Gonzales SLAMS Target shopper who films her own anti-Charlie Kirk meltdown
Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images
Beck continued his speech by urging people to stop fighting one another.
“You can’t stop darkness with more darkness. You can’t stop hate with more hate. You only dispel the darkness of lies with the light of truth,” he stated.
Beck detailed how today’s young people have been repeatedly deceived. He highlighted how the rise of cell phones and social media has divided society and how the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 lockdowns harmed ordinary Americans while sparing the elite.
“If I’m 25 years old, I would think absolutely everything is a lie,” Beck stated.
“You are not crazy. You are not lazy. You are not imagining things. The truth is, the rules have changed. Promises have been broken. Institutions have failed. Banks were rescued while families like yours weren’t.”
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Beck argued that the biggest lie told to young Americans is that they do not matter and are powerless.
“Every single generation since the beginning of time has inherited a mess. But only the great generations turn that mess into a mission, and that’s your calling,” Beck declared. “America was never built for comfort. It was built for people who believed they could shape their own destiny.”
He explained that prior generations did not have it easier, listing World Wars I and II, the draft, plagues, and the Depression as examples of the challenges they faced.
“But what they had that you don’t have is belief,” Beck continued. “Belief in God, belief in responsibility, a belief that there is a brighter tomorrow just over the horizon. They had that; you need that. Belief is what creates prosperity, not the other way around.”
He urged young Americans to discover their purpose, believe in themselves, and lead with courage.
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‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: The amazing UNTOLD story of the classic Christmas movie
“It’s a Wonderful Life” wasn’t always a beloved classic — in fact, it was a complete failure that nearly destroyed the careers of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart.
“It was actually born out of failure, it was born out of exhaustion, and it was born out of people who felt just like its lead character, George Bailey,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says.
“The movie was made by Frank Capra, and it was right after World War II. Frank Capra had just come back. He didn’t come home triumphant. He came home a changed man. He had spent the war making film for the United States government, the war department, about why the West is worth saving,” he explains.
Capra came back and started his own studio, betting “absolutely everything on it.”
“‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was supposed to be the movie that proved Frank Capra is still Frank Capra. And it nearly ruined him,” Glenn explains.
“The movie lost money. Critics really didn’t like it. They mocked how schmaltzy it was. Audiences stayed home. Jimmy Stewart, this was his first movie that he made when he came back home from the war. And this was his start,” he continues, pointing out that not even Stewart could save it.
“The most beloved man in America gave a really raw, shaken, almost too real performance for people at the time. He wasn’t the cheerful hero that is coming out of war as a victory. This was a man that was cracking under the weight of responsibility, a man who did everything right, but he still felt like he was a failure,” Glenn says.
The movie was what Glenn calls “a noble misfire,” before everyone forgot about it.
“And so, the rights lapsed. There was no grand relaunch. There was no marketing genius. Just a legal oversight that let the rights lapse,” Glenn says.
That’s where Ted Turner and Superstation TBS come in.
“They needed some holiday programming, and they needed it cheap. And when I say cheap, what Ted really meant was free. ‘We need a bunch of free programming that we can run all Christmas. … No rights, no royalties,’” Glenn explains.
“The vaults open up, and lo and behold, they find ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’” he says.
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Woke Colorado Dems target natural gas: 70% of homes face skyrocketing bills for unreliable electric heat
Colorado is the eighth-largest natural gas-producing state in the U.S., boasting 10 underground natural gas storage fields with approximately 141 billion cubic feet of combined storage capacity. Roughly seven out of 10 Colorado households use natural gas as their primary home heating source.
Despite the Centennial State’s bounty of natural gas and the super-majority of Colorado households’ reliance on the affordable warmth it provides, officials are pushing for an electrification of heating in the state and putting utilities in a position where they’ll soon have to begin removing customers en masse.
‘You’re increasing the load on electrification without there being any way to fill it.’
State Democrats successfully passed legislation in 2021 aimed at reducing so-called greenhouse gas emissions through regulatory changes affecting gas distribution utilities.
To satisfy this law, the commissioners on the Colorado Public Utilities Commission — all of whom were appointed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis — have solicited and approved multiple “clean heat” plans.
Earlier this month, the PUC set GHG emission reduction targets impacting three investor-owned gas utilities — Atmos Energy, Black Hills Energy, and Xcel Energy — requiring them to cut the carbon emissions from their systems by 4% this year; by 22% over the next five years; and by 41% over the next 10 years.
While the commissioners declined to set targets beyond 2035, they noted in their formal decision that “because Colorado has a statewide goal of reducing greenhouse gas pollution by 100% by 2050, as compared to a 2005 baseline, we emphasize that clean heat plans submitted by gas utilities must account for that statutorily established future target.”
RELATED: 5 truths the climate cult can’t bury any more
Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Image
Colorado Energy Office director Will Toor is among those who have expressed skepticism about the aggressive nature of the switchover from natural gas to the state’s already strained electric grid, a system that Xcel Energy indicated will likely face skyrocketing demand in the form of 400,000 electric vehicles and 300,000 new heat pumps by 2029.
“The 41% target, from our perspective, is a pretty challenging target for utilities,” Toor told the Colorado Sun. “We certainly hope that utilities get there. I think we thought that 30% was probably more realistic.”
The Colorado Energy Office and the state health department’s Air Pollution Control Division reportedly asked for a 30% target by 2035.
In order to meet the new targets, the PUC noted that “utilities can propose to meet the clean heat targets using combinations of energy efficiency, electrification, recovered methane, green hydrogen, thermal energy, and pyrolysis of tires.”
Alternatively “customers may voluntarily participate in these plans by taking advantage of rebates and incentives to adopt electric heat pumps or complete energy efficiency upgrades in their homes and businesses,” said the PUC.
Before incentives, customers looking to satisfy climate alarmists by electrifying their gas appliances and homes are looking at costs in excess of $20,000 per home, Xcel noted in testimony about the state’s so-called clean heat plans.
Jake Fogleman, director of policy at the Independence Institute, a Colorado-based think tank, noted that the targets “will necessarily require removing customers from the system.”
“Utilities like Xcel, Black Hills, and Atmos may be able to nibble around the edges of the target by relying on recovered methane, improved pipeline leak detection and repair, and other non-demand-destroying strategies, but such approaches will not be enough to comply with state law,” wrote Fogleman. “This all but guarantees that gas customers around the state will soon face higher utility bills to subsidize households into switching from gas to electric heating and appliances.”
Those who can afford to make the switch will likely still be looking at jacked prices. Fogleman noted that last year, “Electricity was more than four times more expensive on average per unit of energy delivered to Colorado households” than natural gas.
Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, told the Denver Post, “They’re trying to regulate us away from any fossil fuels and taking away our appliances and our heaters. You’re increasing the load on electrification without there being any way to fill it.”
Republican state Rep. Ty Winter told the Post that when constituents raise concerns about the climate alarmist requirements, he tells them that “the only way to fix this is at the ballot box.”
“We’re going to fight this tooth and nail, and we’re going to use every avenue we have,” said Winter.
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‘Slow-walking’ safety? Trump DOT threatens to yank $24M over Colorado’s illegal CDL mess.
The Department of Transportation warned Colorado that the state could lose $24 million in federal highway funding if it continues to drag its feet on addressing illegally issued commercial driver’s licenses, according to a press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.
‘Colorado has two options: Revoke the licenses immediately, or I will pull federal funding.’
In September, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared the results of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit, which found “systemic noncompliance” among state driver licensing agencies in several states, including Colorado.
The audit revealed that 22% of Colorado’s non-domiciled CDLs were issued illegally. Most of those licenses were reportedly issued to Mexican nationals. Drivers who are citizens of Mexico or Canada are ineligible to obtain non-domiciled CDLs and must instead acquire licenses from their home countries.
Some of the CDLs issued to immigrants by Colorado reportedly had expiration dates that exceeded the drivers’ lawful presence in the U.S.
The DOT demanded that the state immediately pull the illegal licenses to come into compliance with federal laws.
A Monday press release from the department claimed that Colorado had “admitted that these violations were not accidental, but the result of a 2016 statewide policy decision to disregard federal law and give trucking licenses to ineligible Mexican citizens.”
Blaze News reached out to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles, and the governor’s office for comment. The Colorado DOT directed Blaze News to contact the state’s Department of Revenue, which oversees the Division of Motor Vehicles.
RELATED: Exclusive: DOT withholds $40M from blue state for flouting English requirements for truckers
Sean Duffy. Photographer: Ryan Collerd/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The DOT asserted that the state has been “slow-walking a purge of illegally issued truck licenses,” cautioning that Colorado could lose $24 million in federal highway funds. The DOT also warned that it could decertify Colorado’s CDL program.
According to the department, Colorado has not produced a complete audit or accounting of the illegal licenses.
“This continued delay signals a lack of urgency that puts public safety at risk,” the press release read.
RELATED: Trump’s DOT claims 53% of New York’s non-domiciled CDLs were issued illegally
Photo by GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images
“Colorado doesn’t get to pick and choose what federal rules it follows — especially when the driving public is at risk,” Secretary Duffy stated. “It’s been nearly two months since Colorado admitted that they knowingly broke the law and gave Mexican nationals trucking licenses. Colorado has two options: Revoke the licenses immediately, or I will pull federal funding. Every day that goes by is another day unqualified, unvetted foreign truckers are jeopardizing the safety of you and your family.”
Colorado received notice of its noncompliance in September, the same time the DOT also issued a similar notice to Texas. On September 29, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced that it had complied with the DOT’s request and immediately suspended the issuance of certain CDLs.
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Nicki Minaj stuns crowd in surprise appearance at TPUSA conference, praises Trump and Vance
Rapper Nicki Minaj surprised the audience at the Turning Point USA conference on Sunday and voiced her enthusiastic support for President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The star has been using her social media platform to defend Israel and criticize many leftist policies, but few expected her to show up to AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona.
‘He has, I don’t know if he even knows this, but he’s given so many people hope that there’s a chance to beat the bad guys and to win.’
Minaj and Erika Kirk hugged on stage before answering questions from the audience. Minaj made it very clear she is a Trump supporter.
“I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president,” she said. “He has, I don’t know if he even knows this, but he’s given so many people hope that there’s a chance to beat the bad guys and to win and to do it with your head held high and your integrity intact.”
She went on to praise the president as well as the vice president.
“I can relate to them. When I hear them speak, I know that they’re one of us. … They haven’t lost touch of the world, you know,” Minaj said. “They’re still connected to the world and what’s happening in the world, with the younger people and older people, with the richer people and not-so-rich people. They have the ability to still connect and be real and make us feel proud to be American.”
The rapper touched upon the plight of Christians under persecution around the globe.
“We won’t be silenced ever again. We will speak up for Christians wherever they are in this world!” she said to loud applause.
RELATED: Rapper Cardi B calls America ‘ghetto’ and complains about Vance in rant praising Saudi Arabia
She also continued her tirade against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is widely considered to be seeking to run for president in 2028.
“‘We don’t have a problem cleaning up the scum if we have to. Please tread lightly.’ That’s what I would say to Gavie-poo,” she said.
President Trump has frequently insulted the Democrat by referring to him as “Gavin Newscum.”
Minaj previously noted when Vice President JD Vance posted his support for her side in a very public feud she has had with fellow rap artist Cardi B.
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Trump Admin Reportedly Orders Dozens Of Ambassadors Home In Shakeup
‘This is a standard process in any administration’
Did Biden win Georgia? 2020 election results now in doubt after county admits counting perhaps 315,000 uncertified votes
Earlier this month, Fulton County made a major admission in the ongoing election integrity cases surrounding the 2020 election. While it won’t change anything, the moment may help set the record straight about one of the most questioned elections in United States history.
In a December 9 Georgia State Elections Board hearing, a representative of Fulton County admitted that hundreds of thousands of votes were uncertified. The admission came in response to a March 2022 challenge brought by local election integrity activist David Cross.
‘When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.’
Cross alleged that Fulton County violated Georgia statute in the handling of advanced voting in the lead-up to the November 2020 election. Specifically he claimed that election officials failed to sign off on vote tabulation tapes, a crucial step in the certification process.
Cross claimed that his group paid nearly $16,000 in open records requests and received “over 77 megabytes of records” representing more than 315,000 votes.
Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Cross also claimed to have found polls opened at “impossibly late hours” and other issues with the polls that he said represent “catastrophic breaks in chain of custody and certification.”
The activist emphasized that seeking redress in this case is above partisan politics: “This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law. When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.”
Ann Brumbaugh, an attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, admitted to the Georgia State Elections Board during the hearing: “I have not seen the tapes myself, but we do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule.”
Noting that the training, facility, and leadership have all been changed since the 2020 election, Brumbaugh added, “We don’t dispute the allegation from the 2020 election.”
During the hearing, Cross asked that Fulton County be sanctioned by the state elections board, that the county “publicly acknowledge their violations,” and for the state to decertify the 2020 advanced voting results.
Cross stressed that this was not a matter of score-settling “but instead to place an indelible and permanent asterisk on the record and finally force accountability.”
According to results reported at the time, Joe Biden won the state of Georgia and its 16 electoral votes by just under 12,000 and defeated Donald Trump in the Electoral College, 306-232.
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DHS to send illegal aliens ‘home for the holidays’ with new Christmastime incentive
The Department of Homeland Security is running an end-of-year Christmas special to further incentivize illegal aliens to self-deport.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the department will be tripling the cash incentives from $1,000 to $3,000, urging illegal aliens to leave the country on their own. Illegal aliens who choose to self-deport through the CBP Home App will receive this bonus through the end of the year and may be eligible to re-enter the country legally in the future.
‘We’ll buy your ticket.’
“Well, it’s home for the holidays season,” Noem said on “Fox & Friends” Monday.
“Not only are we returning those kiddos back to their families that Biden lost, we also are saying that if you voluntarily want to go home now to your country, if you’re in this United States of America illegally, we will give you $3,000 through the holidays to send you home,” Noem added.
Photo by ALEX BRANDON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, an estimated 1.9 million migrants have self-deported and another 622,000 have been removed by law enforcement. Noem is looking to boost those numbers, noting that illegal aliens who self-deport may have a future path to legal residency unlike migrants who are deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other law enforcement agencies.
“We’ll buy your ticket, give you $3,000 to go home, and that includes people that have not been detained, maybe have interacted with us, are detained and don’t have criminal charges against them,” Noem said. “Raise your hand! We’ll help you get home. We’ll facilitate it, and you might get the chance to come back to this country the right way someday.”
Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images
“If you wait until we interdict you and detain you and arrest you and have to deport you ourselves, you’ll never get the chance to come back.”
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Seattle professor punished for mocking land acknowledgments fights back, scores win against woke university
A professor at the University of Washington was punished for having the audacity to poke fun at the school’s moral exhibitionism. Stuart Reges, a professor at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, fought back and, on Friday, secured a decisive victory.
Reges ruffled feathers at the university where he has worked for decades by including a parodic land acknowledgment in his 2022 course syllabus.
‘The Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land.’
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the outfit that represented Reges, the university recommended in its “best practices” guide that instructors incorporate an “Indigenous Land Acknowledgment” in their course syllabi, providing the following as an example statement: “The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.”
In a December 2021 faculty email thread, one of Reges’ colleagues referred to an article that characterized land acknowledgments as “moral onanism.” Reges said in response that he was uncertain about the value of making such statements and noted that he might include a mock statement in his syllabus.
Sure enough, the professor included the following land acknowledgment on the syllabus of his winter 2022 computer science course: “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”
Administrators at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering punished Stuart Reges over his failure to conform, which they claimed had caused a “disruption to instruction” but had in reality enraged only ideologically delicate members of the faculty and the school’s DEI student committee.
Stuart Reges. Courtesy of Twinkle Don’t Blink
The director of UW’s computer science department, Magdalena Balazinska, ordered Reges to remove the statement because it was supposedly “offensive” and generated a “toxic environment.”
According to court documents, when Reges refused to remove his dissenting statement, Balazinska unilaterally removed it, then apologized to Reges’ students, detailing ways that they could file complaints against their professor.
‘Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted.’
In addition to inviting students to switch out of Reges’ computer programming course and into a “shadow” class section taught by a different professor, university administrators launched a years-long disciplinary investigation into Reges.
In July 2022, Reges sued Balazinska, then-UW President Ana Mari Cauce, and other school officials, accusing them of violating his First Amendment rights.
“University administrators turned me into a pariah on campus because I included a land acknowledgment that wasn’t sufficiently progressive for them,” Reges said at the time. “Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted, even if it lands you in court.”
U.S. District Court Judge John Chun, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, dismissed Reges’ lawsuit last year, claiming that “the disruption caused by Plaintiff’s speech rendered it unprotected.”
Reges appealed and found a court that viewed his case differently.
In a 2-1 decision on Friday, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel disagreed with and reversed the Biden judge’s ruling, remanding the case for further proceedings.
Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, writing for the majority, noted, “Debate and disagreement are hallmarks of higher education. Student discomfort with a professor’s views can prompt discussion and disapproval. But this discomfort is not grounds for the university retaliating against the professor. We hold that the university’s actions toward the professor violated his First Amendment rights.”
Bress, an appointee of President Donald Trump, highlighted the long-standing debate over the value, factual basis, and political nature of land acknowledgments as well as Reges’ sense that they are part of “an agenda of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ that treats some groups of students as more deserving of recognition and welcome than others on account of their race or other immutable characteristic.”
While acknowledging the right of members of the UW community to speak out against Reges and his views, Bress stressed that “Reges has rights too. And here, we conclude that UW violated the First Amendment in taking adverse action against Reges based on his views on a matter of public concern.”
Will Creeley, the legal director of FIRE, said that the ruling “recognizes that sometimes, ‘exposure to views that distress and offend is a form of education unto itself.'”
“If you graduate from college without once being offended, you should ask for your money back,” added Creeley.
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Illegal alien truck driver walks out of jail after allegedly killing American — and sanctuary policies appear to be to blame
An illegal alien truck driver, accused of causing a fatal crash, was reportedly released from custody after authorities failed to follow up with a case for prosecution.
‘How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public’s safety ahead of politics?’
Kamalpreet Singh, an Indian national who illegally entered the U.S. in 2023, is accused of causing a deadly multi-vehicle wreck on a Washington freeway on December 11.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that the Biden administration released Singh into the country despite his illegal entry. He obtained his commercial driver’s license in California, according to Fox News.
Singh allegedly rear-ended a Mazda driven by Robert Pearson, a 29-year-old American. The Mazda was pushed into a Peterbilt truck, causing the car to catch fire, Fox News reported.
Pearson died at the scene. Singh and the driver of the Peterbilt were not injured.
The semitruck driver reportedly spent just one day in King County jail before being released after posting $100,000 bond. The news outlet claimed that the bond money was returned to Singh after the arresting authority, the Washington State Patrol, failed to pursue a case for prosecution.
A WSP spokesperson told Blaze News, “In the course of our investigations, we have found [an] additional detail and needed to withdraw the original complaint so we can refile in the near future with that additional detail included. The case remains under active investigation.”
RELATED: Border Patrol nabs 49 illegal aliens with commercial driver’s licenses
Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer against Singh, it was not honored due to the state’s sanctuary policies.
“These demented and dangerous sanctuary policies have deadly consequences,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Robert Pearson would still be alive today if the Biden administration hadn’t released this illegal alien into our country. How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public’s safety ahead of politics?”
The DHS noted several recent crashes allegedly caused by illegal aliens.
Photo by: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The department stated that Washington also ignored ICE’s detainer against truck driver Juan Hernandez-Santos, despite the criminal illegal alien being accused of causing a multi-vehicle pileup on December 4.
Rajinder Kumar, an illegal alien from India, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment after allegedly causing a crash in Oregon that resulted in the deaths of two people.
DHS also highlighted a detainer against Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India who was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, and Partap Singh, who allegedly caused a crash in California that left a 5-year-old with critical and life-altering injuries.
Kamalpreet Singh, Harjinder Singh, and Partap Singh are not believed to be related to one another.
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