We all understand the terrible state of our leftist-run education systems, whose main goal is to turn normal young people into progressive activists.

The good news is that many parents have had enough. Homeschooling is on the rise. Charter schools are booming.

I want the parents of our students to know that this man won’t just teach my son science or literature; he’ll be a role model for my son.

In some cases, brave, intrepid souls are even attempting to build entirely new kinds of schools, from the ground up.

I recently met with one of those brave souls, Warren Steury of Nashville, Tennessee. At age 29, Steury is the founder of Meriwether Academy, a school where “young men have the opportunity to experience a rich and rigorous classical and outdoor education.”

While the school itself is still in the planning stages, Steury has already established himself as a central figure in conservative intellectual circles in Nashville, through his Classic Book Study groups and adult workshops.

Recently, he was part of a four-man team that brought Peter Thiel to Nashville to present his Antichrist lecture series.

I was able to talk to Steury recently about his views on education, his current projects, and the future of Meriwether Academy.

Blake Nelson: What was your own education like?

Warren Steury: I grew up in North Carolina. I was a public school degenerate. I was doing what most boys do, which was rebelling against all forms of order and discipline.

I was sent to a program in the mountains, against my will, at 16 years old, where I lived out of a backpack for three months. I was making fire with rocks and sticks.

Then I was transferred to a disciplinary boarding school that was also in the mountains of North Carolina, on an old Scout camp. It was a boys’ school. It was the mountain of misfits.

BN: Was that an effective way of dealing with a kid like you?

WS: It was certainly better than me sitting in some fluorescently lit institutional room. My whole reason for building these schools was thinking about what periods of my childhood had the most impact on my character.

I saw that year in the woods, hiking, camping, living in the forest as having an instrumental effect on who I was. All the other years in public school were essentially a blur.

BN: What’s the thought process of creating a new kind of school?

WS: One question I work on answering is: Does this school need to exist, or is there another school that’s offering the same thing that you’re thinking of?

Like what is truly going to distinguish this school from others? My answer is that we have a pretty unique program with the classically inclined education, the heavy outdoor model, and then the martial arts.

BN: Are there other schools that have inspired you?

WS: One of my personal favorites is St. Dunstan Academy in Virginia, which is a very cool new Anglican boys’ school.

They got their hands on 200 acres in the mountains. They’re building the campus from scratch. They just put up their Great Hall, which is a 33.5-foot-tall, massive timber-frame structure.

The students are learning how to build. The students are literally building the campus.

BN: What will you look for in your teachers?

WS: Life experience. So much of academia is essentially this pipeline where you go to college, you study something, and then you immediately become a professor in that subject. And then you’re speaking from this vacuum, this fake world that you’ve been in.

A good teacher should be a role model, a mentor, a guide, in ways that expand beyond teaching calculus. I want the parents of our students to know that this man won’t just teach my son science or literature; he’ll be a role model for my son, and even if my son forgets the math, this man will make an impression on my son’s life that will influence him for the better.

BN: I enjoyed attending your Classic Book Study Group (Plutarch’s "Lives"). When did you start doing book study groups?

WS: I was 18, when I started my first book club with some friends. It was the "Celestine Prophecy." It was like five of us in Boone, North Carolina, when we were in college.

I always enjoyed book clubs and hosting dinners for my friends. And sometimes making it more formal and paying a speaker to come in.

BN: I noticed the Plutarch study group is men only.

WS: We want to do events for guys. It’s a different conversation. It’s nothing against women. You need male spaces, and you need female spaces, and then you need spaces that are shared. A healthy society needs all of those. I think that there is a coordinated attack on male spaces in America for the purpose of weakening or discouraging the culture.

BN: I liked a recent article you had on the Meriwether website, about the role of a father in a boy’s life.

WS: It’s so important to have that masculine guiding force in a young child’s life. We know with the Spartans, the boy was with his mother for the first nine years, and then the man came and took the boy and threw him into training, and that’s where he was made a man. So we shouldn’t expect mothers to be able to raise men on their own.

Fatherlessness is a massive societal issue, and is completely detrimental to the health of the child, but also to the nation as a whole. Whereas the mother provides emotional sustenance, the father has to toughen him up. He has to bring an energy that’s very different from the mother. Aristotle talks about this, how the family should be. It’s important to have both of those.

BN: Meriwether Academy co-hosted the recent Peter Thiel lecture series. What was that like?

WS: We threw it together in two weeks. I think people need to have more faith in themselves and their friends. A group of like three or four guys who are aligned can pull off some really cool stuff.

I feel like we’re quick to assume these things are more complicated than they are, when in reality, four guys who had this idea can go to work on it.

BN: You can just do things!

WS: You can just do things. There aren’t that many laws. The laws of physics. The laws of God. Other than that, it’s all made up.

While mermaids, werewolves, and alien abductions sound like the basis of a sci-fi film, in this case, they’re at the center of claims being made by self-proclaimed Christian minister Katie Souza.

And BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey points out that Souza has become “mainstream” in Christian circles and warns that she’s spreading “occultic lies” that are being “pushed in these circles” and “have power to entice Christians.”

In one clip that Stuckey plays from Souza’s podcast, Souza explains that she “was visited” as a young girl by aliens who “implanted an interdimensional device” inside of her that “harvested [her] eggs over [her] lifetime.”

In another clip, Souza discusses mermaids: “So, I don’t know if their wives that they took, their human wives, were part of that experiment of combining them with fish to create these mermaids or not. It’s quite possible ’cause these mermaids are really old. They are ancient. They’re sea hags. They’re witches.”

And in a clip that’s shockingly even more bizarre, Souza claims she has “dealt with shape-shifters.”

“I had a werewolf, who is a shape-shifting person. This is real, guys. This isn’t just the movies. Snap out of it. This is real,” she says.

Souza went from what Stuckey calls “a normal Christian minister” to now “having this very bizarre worldview.”

“When she has teachings that resemble more occult-like mythology than biblical Christianity and anyone like this has a platform in Christian circles, our ears need to perk up,” Stuckey says, explaining that initially, Souza’s ministry was built around her inspiring conversion story.

“She became a Christian while serving a federal prison sentence for drug and weapons charges. After years of addiction, meth dealing, violent behavior, finally culminated in a breaking point in solitary confinement,” Stuckey explains.

When she was released, she published a book about her conversion, began a prison ministry in 2006, and went on to have her own television program on Christian networks.

“So, how did she go from her prison ministry and that incredible testimony to talking about very strange supernatural things? The transition from that to this is kind of mysterious, a little strange. We don’t really know,” Stuckey says.

And while Christians do believe in the “supernatural realm,” Souza is pulling from places other than the Bible to create her understanding of it.

Stuckey explains that in Souza’s recent teachings, she “has veered heavily into reinterpreting creatures and concepts originating in mythology, folklore, occultism, paranormal culture as actually existing in the biblical supernatural world.”

In another extremely strange clip, Souza discusses mermaids again.

“We’re talking about the marine kingdom, most specifically mermaids and how these spirits actually will come — I’m sorry to say this — and SA you in your sleep. And sometimes those encounters are more than dreams,” she said.

Souza goes on to claim that these spirits “actually siphon off your youth.”

“This is real. This happens. They can make you sick. They can make you nauseous. They can have your vitality cause you to age,” she added.

“Oh my gosh,” Stuckey comments. “The marine kingdom has taken away your youth. That’s a new one.”

“In all seriousness,” she warns, “there are some things that are true that she says. And that’s why I actually think some Christians, maybe with too much time on their hands, ... could actually be attracted to this kind of message.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The adage that “all politics is local” seems a quaint concept these days. For much of this century, state and local races have been dominated by national political discourse. Gubernatorial candidates, county commissioners, and even would-be school board members have taken up the hyperpartisan mantle of their respective national political parties, injecting wedge and culture war issues into races with little connection to issues affecting their local constituents.

And for the last dozen years, this fixation on national politics has been supercharged by one happily polarizing presence. No matter how local the race, the question increasingly boils down to this: Are you for or against Donald Trump?

Localized politics may be the salve for a democracy in decline.

At first blush, this midterm election season feels like more of the same. Democrats are dominating airwaves with attack ads tying Republican candidates to a deeply unpopular president. Republicans respond with ads linking Democratic candidates to a socialist takeover. Negative ads can be quite effective, and they may have even greater resonance in a cycle where an increasing number of voters detest both national parties.

Ironically, it may be this “pox on both their houses” mentality that gives reason for optimism this election season. A toxic Republican president increasingly out of touch with even his own base and a leaderless Democratic Party still reeling from the self-inflicted wounds of the last election have forced more candidates to ignore national narratives and focus instead on intensely local matters of actual importance to voters.

Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for governor in Iowa, has expressly eschewed partisan talking points in favor of a laser focus on water quality and agricultural runoff in the state’s farmland. Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico has run ads featuring small-town mayors and local football coaches describing the detrimental impact of rural hospital closures in the state and expressing concern over data centers taking over farmland.

Both Senate candidates in Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Jon Husted, have run similar ads criticizing the presence of data centers and resulting higher electricity prices for Ohioans. And Republican candidates from northern border states with otherwise national brands and name recognition — Susan Collins, John Sununu, and Michele Tafoya — have decried the trade war with Canada as harmful specifically to their geographically proximate constituents.

RELATED: On the ground: Texas voters pack Vance rally, give a clear message ahead of midterms

While affordability, tariffs, and data centers can certainly be described as national political issues, politicians’ focus on their local impact even when it bucks the party line reflects a growing comfort with running more localized campaigns independent of the national political machinery. A Brookings Institution analysis from September confirms that while national political forces remain powerful, state-specific issues are dominating and shaping individual races in ways not seen in recent years.

A return to local politics should be celebrated. Focusing on local issues has intrinsic value because the needs of a Maine lobsterman and an Iowa corn farmer will differ from those of a suburban Atlanta office worker or a Silicon Valley tech employee. We want our politicians to respond to our individual issues, and a local focus is the best way to promote that.

More fundamentally, localized politics may be the salve for a democracy in decline. For years, political scientists have described the nationalization of American politics and its resulting polarization as one of the defining features of our democratic regression. A 2023 study of congressional elections over nearly two centuries described the contemporary era as one of historically high nationalization and, as a result, polarization.

When Americans reflexively identify with one of two political camps as if they were sports teams and consume only national political news, they invariably interpret even local controversies through a national ideological lens. Campaigns know this. A 2026 study showed that campaign ads targeting a national donor audience were more ideologically extreme than locally targeted ads aimed at voters.

RELATED: Independents can bust Washington’s corruption racket

Zimmytws/Getty Images

And as Sand, Talarico, Tafoya, and others have shown, campaigns can refocus attention on nonpartisan, nonpolarizing issues that actually matter to people on the ground. In turn, a Democrat may become the governor of red-state Iowa at the same time a Republican may become the junior senator in blue-state Minnesota, because they successfully connect with the needs of those states and their citizens.

Sure, the case for optimism is a mild one. Politics still offers plenty to be disgusted about. Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for an ad questioning his opponent’s account of being raped as a child by her indicted stepfather sparked bipartisan outrage.

And the Mary Peltola campaign’s actions to prop up a candidate with the same name as her opponent to confuse voters (and then lie about it for months) have breathed unnecessary life into claims of election fraud chicanery.

And, of course, the national stakes — control of the House and Senate — remain front and center, with the outcome of many races undoubtedly to be decided by the singular unpopularity of one man who has been the center of political gravity in America for more than a decade.

But as Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall recently reminded voters, those elected to the Senate this year will serve twice as much of their term with Trump out of office as with him in office. What better time than now to start thinking about how to shape the future of politics?

With any luck, that future will be local.

When I was in high school, I began attending Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix. This was before dual enrollment became commonplace. Yes, I’m that old.

Why did I go to community college while still in high school? I wanted to study philosophy. I also enrolled in literature, political science, and English composition, eager to learn from professors who had devoted their lives to teaching.

A good education should answer two questions: How will I make a living? And what makes life worth living?

I’ll never forget the first day of my first philosophy class. The professor asked a simple question: What is the good for human beings?

Not merely one good among many, or what makes you happy this afternoon. What is the highest good for human beings?

We offered answers. A Socratic dialogue followed. The professor challenged our assumptions, pressed us to defend our reasoning, and showed us weaknesses in our arguments. I left with more questions than answers, but I had discovered something extraordinary: I wanted to know the truth about the good life.

That was my introduction to community college: dedicated teachers, serious questions, and an education that awakened the mind.

About 25 years into my career as a university professor, I now have two sons taking community college classes. I want them to have the same opportunity. But community colleges face serious challenges. Enrollment fell 22% between 2010 and 2023 — about 1.7 million students — according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Recent gains have not erased that decline.

That brings me to an election many voters overlook: the community college governing board.

In Maricopa County, three candidates are running together as Change4Maricopa: business executive John David Crow for an at-large seat, entrepreneur Ryan Caracciolo in District 4, and Susan Winder, an educator and administrator with 35 years of experience, in District 3. Their campaign emphasizes affordability, workforce and health care training, and restoring community college football. Not all three races appear on every voter’s ballot.

Their candidacies draw attention to four problems that governing boards nationwide should confront.

RELATED: Is ASU going to fire a Christian professor for being too Christian?

Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Financial accountability

Community colleges exist to offer affordable education. That requires something universities are not always known for: careful spending.

An August 2026 California state audit found inadequate reserve policies at several community college districts. Four of the six districts reviewed held reserves above their own limits or the statewide median, yet none of those with high reserves had formal plans to use the money to improve student outcomes.

Governing boards should be able to explain how expenditures improve instruction, student success, or career preparation. Ideological programs deserve the same scrutiny as every other expenditure. DEI initiatives should not get a free pass because administrators regard their objectives as virtuous.

Fiscal responsibility means remembering whose money is being spent and why.

Build a pipeline from classroom to career

For too many students, the familiar college story is four years of study, a mountain of debt, and a diploma that leaves them wondering where the jobs went. Community colleges can offer another path.

A student interested in becoming an electrician, nurse, welder, medical technician, or semiconductor specialist should be able to identify the qualifications, complete an affordable program, and enter the workforce. Employers know what skills they need and can help colleges design the training.

But I do not want community colleges to become mere job-training centers. A good education should answer two questions: How will I make a living? And what makes life worth living?

We should not sacrifice either question to answer the other.

Confront the myth of educational neutrality

Another question governing boards cannot escape: What values guide education?

For decades, Americans have been assured that public education can set Christianity aside and remain neutral. I call that the myth of neutrality. Christianity was pushed out, but competing ideologies did not stay at the door. Marxist assumptions and political activism filled the supposed vacuum.

Christians should not have to abandon their convictions to participate in public education. We should reject the claim that education can be separated from questions of truth, goodness, and, ultimately, God.

RELATED: The champagne communists who sold Millennials a bill of goods

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Restore educational hope for young men

Consider the persistent gap between young men and women in higher education. According to research published in July 2026 by the American Institute for Boys and Men, 43% of women ages 18-24 were enrolled in college in 2024, compared with 34% of men.

The causes are complex. But I doubt that lectures depicting young men as the problem make them eager to enroll. Some may simply vote with their feet.

A young man interested in advanced manufacturing should see a route from education to employment. So should one who wants to work in health care. Colleges should invite young men to develop their abilities, not treat them as presumptive offenders.

The election near the bottom of your ballot

What are community colleges ultimately supposed to accomplish?

I return to the professor who asked us about the highest good. He helped me imagine an intellectual future I had never considered, and that experience helped lead me to a career teaching philosophy.

Other students find their calling in nursing, engineering, construction, business, or technology. The paths differ, but education should give them hope by helping them discover and develop their abilities.

The people elected to governing boards now will shape those opportunities for years. Their races seldom command headlines or millions in campaign advertising. They still deserve your attention.

Community colleges can be great again. Do not stop at the top of the ballot. Keep going — and vote for conservatives who understand what these colleges can be.

Anakin Skywalker was supposed to be the chosen one. Instead, he became Darth Vader.

And yet his journey to becoming one of film’s most infamous villains is one that BlazeTV host John Doyle says many young white men relate to — and with good reason.

Doyle explains that Skywalker, who was “born into slavery, rescued by this ancient religious order,” and “told that he’s the most gifted person to ever walk among them,” would then spend his life “being lectured and distrusted and held back by the very people who were supposed to help him fulfill this destiny of his.”

“He wanted to bring order to this corrupt and dysfunctional society. He wanted to have it all, right? A beautiful wife, a family, the power to actually protect the people he loved who were being harmed,” he says.

“But instead, he’s surrounded by incompetent politicians, hypocritical religious authorities, and this disgusting, decaying republic that can’t actually accomplish anything,” he continues. “And so eventually, yeah, he decided that he’s had enough.”

This path would lead him to becoming the “bad guy” who helps a “dictator rule the galaxy with an iron fist.”

And Doyle says that despite the label of “bad guy,” there’s a great reason why so many young men relate to him.

“If you’re telling a story about a naturally gifted young man who is prevented from reaching his potential by old people who are lecturing him but ultimately refusing to answer his questions or address the problems he’s facing, yeah, it’s called being a young white guy,” he says.

Doyle notes that “the actual story” is about “an evil empire ran by white men with British accents representing authority, class, tradition, hierarchy” who are "being fought back against" by “diverse rebels fighting for democracy and equality.”

“Young white guys really just aren’t so interested in a story about a bunch of leftists teaming up with aliens to destroy this homogenous, hierarchical society,” he says.

“This is a story of a young guy who grows up to be, you know, disillusioned by the things around him. He’s withheld from positions which he has actually earned by merit. He’s told that he can’t have things that he looks for, such as, you know, a girlfriend, for these vague and silly reasons,” he explains.

“He’s tortured and harmed by weird alien freaks that society doesn’t actually bother with meaningfully dealing with,” he continues.

“And finally, he decides to turn to what he was told was evil and forbidden,” he adds.

Want more from John Doyle?

To enjoy more of the truth about America and join the fight to restore a country that has been betrayed by its own leaders, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

You don't have to be a Christian to know John 3:16.

You may not know exactly what the verse says. But if you've watched enough American sports, you've probably seen the citation: on a sign behind the goal posts, beneath Tim Tebow's eyes, or this summer, written on the Pride caps of three San Francisco Giants pitchers.

Convinced that the rapture was imminent, he wanted to warn the world before it was too late.

For decades, six characters and a colon have served as American sports' unofficial Bible verse.

Why this one? The answer begins long before television and eventually involves Martin Luther, D.L. Moody, a rainbow-wigged publicity seeker, Google, a hostage crisis, and a controversy this summer over Bible verses written on baseball caps.

The gospel in miniature

John 3:16 appears during Jesus' nighttime conversation with Nicodemus in the Gospel of John:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Christians noticed early that the verse managed to pack an extraordinary amount of Christianity into a single sentence. Around the turn of the fifth century, John Chrysostom marveled that although John wrote concisely, "each word had much significance." From the verse, he drew God's love for sinful humanity, the giving of the Son, faith, salvation from destruction, and the promise of eternal life.

Martin Luther later became famous for calling John 3:16 "the gospel in miniature." By the 19th century, the verse had become especially important to evangelical preaching. The English evangelist Henry Moorhouse preached on God's love from John 3:16 repeatedly during a visit to D.L. Moody's church in Chicago. Moody later described the experience as transforming his understanding of God's love.

It was hard to compress the Christian message much further than John 3:16.

Then came the perfect way to distribute this message: live television.

Enter the Rainbow Man

Rollen Stewart initially had nothing to say about Jesus. He wanted to be famous.

According to Sam Green’s 1997 documentary, "The Rainbow Man/John 3:16," Stewart discovered the power of television during the 1977 NBA Finals in Portland. Wearing a rainbow-colored Afro wig, he danced for a cameraman filming the crowd and managed to get himself onto the broadcast.

During the 1977 NBA Finals, Stewart discovered that television offered a shortcut to celebrity. There was no need to get cast in anything if he simply went where the cameras were already going and made himself difficult to ignore.

So he put on a rainbow-colored Afro wig and started showing up at major sporting events. He danced for the cameras and learned to anticipate where they would point next.

"Once I saw the red light, I was hooked," he later recalled.

Soon the Rainbow Man was everywhere, and Stewart became surprisingly sophisticated about getting himself into the picture. At football games, he positioned himself between the goal posts, where the field-goal camera would find him. At baseball games, he appeared behind home plate. At the Masters, he maneuvered himself over Jack Nicklaus' shoulder as Nicklaus prepared to tee off.

Best of all, he carried a small battery-powered television. Stewart could stand inside a stadium, watch the broadcast he was attempting to infiltrate, and adjust his position according to what the director was putting on the screen.

He wasn't even much of a sports fan. "I despised sports," he admitted years later. The games were useful because television covered them live.

After the 1980 Super Bowl, Stewart returned to his hotel room depressed. He had spent years trying to become famous and discovered that being famous wasn't doing much for him. He turned on the television, encountered Bible prophecy teacher Charles Taylor, and subsequently became a born-again Christian.

The rainbow wig stayed. But Stewart now had something besides himself to advertise.

John 3:16.

6 characters and a colon

The choice was unusually well suited to what Stewart was doing. Christians had spent centuries treating John 3:16 as the gospel in miniature: In the King James Bible, the verse takes 25 words to move from God's love for the world to the promise of everlasting life. Stewart figured out how to shrink it even further. Forget the verse itself. All he needed were six characters and a colon, large enough to read on television. The viewer could look up the rest.

In 1984, Christianity Today reported that Stewart had displayed his banner at eight football stadiums in five days. He appeared at professional golf tournaments, championship basketball games, the World Series, football bowls, and even the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

The fact that many viewers had no idea what John 3:16 meant didn't bother him. It was part of the idea.

"If they don't know what John 3:16 means, most people will eventually try to find out," Stewart told the magazine. "And some will pick up their Bibles and begin reading it."

Television networks charged advertisers enormous sums to reach the audiences watching America's biggest sporting events. Stewart had figured out how to place his message inside the same broadcasts without buying airtime at all.

Live sports made the scheme possible. A network could edit an entertainment program before broadcasting it. It couldn't edit a field goal before showing it. If Stewart got himself behind the goal posts before the kick, by the time the director realized what was happening, John 3:16 was already in America's living rooms.

Eventually, the networks and sports organizations became less cooperative. Camera operators tried to frame Stewart out, while stadiums restricted his banners. By 1986, Christianity Today reported that all but one of the NFL's 28 teams had prohibited them.

At Washington's RFK Stadium, the fight became a federal lawsuit after security prevented Stewart and an associate from displaying John 3:16 banners. Elsewhere, Stewart devised Scripture banners that could be worn like ponchos and exposed by spreading his arms.

"They'd have to undress us to take away our gospel signs," he said.

By then, however, the mysterious citation was becoming part of the scenery of American sports.

Did anybody actually look it up?

There was an obvious question about Stewart's entire enterprise: Did anybody sitting at home actually do what he hoped?

Mike Kerrigan did.

The Charlotte attorney was about 11 when he kept noticing the Rainbow Man during football games. Eventually, he asked his father what John 3:16 meant.

His father didn't know either.

"Let's look," he said. They opened a Bible.

Kerrigan still remembered the moment decades later, when he wrote about it in the Wall Street Journal in 2024. Stewart had predicted that an obscure biblical citation on television might make someone curious enough to find a Bible. In at least one living room, that is exactly what happened.

Unfortunately, Stewart's own story didn't end nearly as happily.

Rainbow's end

His life began to unravel toward the end of the 1980s. His marriage collapsed. His money disappeared. His religious beliefs became increasingly preoccupied with elaborate predictions of an imminent apocalypse.

Television remained his constant companion. Living in cheap Los Angeles hotels, Stewart later described watching as much as 18 hours a day: Christian broadcasters, daytime talk shows, news magazines, reality television, and more preachers at night. He called it being "fed by the media."

Eventually, appearing on television was no longer enough. Stewart began trying to create events that would force television to cover him.

In 1991, authorities accused him of setting off foul-smelling devices at several Southern California locations, including the Crystal Cathedral, Trinity Broadcasting Network studios, and a Christian bookstore.

Then, on Sept. 22, 1992, he took over a room at a Hyatt hotel near Los Angeles International Airport with a gun. Two day laborers escaped. A hotel maid locked herself in the bathroom. Stewart covered the windows with religious messages and demanded a lengthy live press conference. Convinced that the rapture was imminent, he wanted to warn the world before it was too late.

Green's documentary includes an audio recording of Stewart speaking with a police negotiator during the standoff.

"I've watched the cops, you know, cop shows and tried to get a handle on what's going on," Stewart explains.

"Maybe you look at a little bit too much TV," the negotiator replies.

"I watch a lot of it."

After roughly nine hours, police stormed the room and arrested him. Stewart was sentenced in 1993 to three life terms with the possibility of parole.

From the family Bible to Google

Once the Rainbow Man was gone from sports television, the signs persisted.

On Jan. 8, 2009, Florida played Oklahoma for the national championship. Gators quarterback Tim Tebow had spent the season wearing Philippians 4:13 — "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" — on the eye black beneath his eyes.

For the championship game, however, he decided to switch to John 3:16. Coach Urban Meyer was horrified. A superstitious man, Meyer wasn't about to tamper with a winning formula. "That verse got us here!" he protested, according to Tebow's later recollection.

Tebow explained that John 3:16 expressed the essence of his Christian faith. Meyer relented.

Florida won the national championship, and Tebow had an advantage Rollen Stewart could only have dreamed of: The cameras were trying to find him.

During the game, viewers began searching the citation online. By the following morning, "John 3:16" had become Google's hottest search term.

Twenty-five years earlier, Stewart had imagined people seeing the citation and going to find a Bible. Well, now they had Google.

The story subsequently acquired an almost suspiciously neat postscript. On Jan. 8, 2012 — exactly three years after the national championship — Tebow led the Denver Broncos against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL playoff game. Denver won on an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime.

Tebow had thrown for exactly 316 yards. Because he completed 10 passes, he averaged 31.6 yards per completion.

RELATED: What Fulton Sheen understood about fame that today’s Christian influencers don’t

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The verse that wouldn't leave sports

By 2011, the connection between John 3:16 and televised sports was so familiar that a proposed Super Bowl commercial was built around it.

The ad showed football fans watching a game on television. The broadcast zoomed in on a quarterback with John 3:16 written beneath his eyes.

"I'll look it up," one of the fans says, reaching for his smartphone.

Fox declined to air the commercial under its policy against advertisements from religious organizations intended to advance particular beliefs or practices.

The citation continued turning up elsewhere. In 2012, a Texas school district became embroiled in a legal fight over cheerleaders putting Bible verses on the banners through which their high school football team ran onto the field.

And this summer, San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp employed a version of Stewart's old tactic — with a different Bible verse.

During the team's June 12 Pride Night, Roupp wore a special rainbow-logo cap but wrote "Gen. 9:12-16" across it, partially covering the logo.

Two other Giants pitchers, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker, also added biblical citations to their caps.

Roupp had chosen the passage in which God establishes the rainbow as the sign of His covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth with a flood.

The Giants' rainbow logo had acquired an unexpected biblical footnote.

MLB warned the three pitchers not to repeat the inscriptions, explaining that its uniform regulations prohibit unauthorized messages of any kind. The league emphasized that its warning "had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message."

Roupp was unapologetic. "That's just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that," he told reporters.

There was no indication that Roupp had taken inspiration from Stewart. But the resemblance was striking. Nearly half a century after the Rainbow Man first appeared on television, a baseball player had put another biblical citation in front of the cameras, leaving viewers to discover the verse for themselves.

Public school or homeschool?

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey warns that parents are asking the wrong question.

“These are not the only two options. It’s not public school or homeschool. It’s public school versus Christ-centered education. That can be homeschool. That can be a co-op. That can be a hybrid,” she explains, noting that a “hybrid” is a “Christian school.”

And while there are traditional Christian schools, college prep-type Christian schools, and classical Christian schools, Stuckey says that “they’re not all created equal.”

“You really have to go into these schools if you’re looking for Christian private education, hybrid academy, classical, whatever. You have to go into these schools. You have to tour. You have to look at if they rely on technology or not, which is a no-go for me,” she says.

“You have to look at their statement of belief, their statement of faith. You have to really understand if they are infusing Christ into all of their curriculum. No matter what you do, education is not an opportunity for you to outsource discipleship to the teacher,” she explains.

“The education should be seen as coming alongside you as the parent and helping form your child as a disciple of Christ,” she continues.

Stuckey believes that this is the “point of education,” and public school cannot accomplish this.

“Even the most wonderful Christian teacher cannot shape your child as a disciple of Christ because she’s not allowed to teach the Bible,” she says.

“She’s not allowed to share the gospel. She is not allowed to talk about history and English and math and science, which God all created, in light of the fact that God is the author of all of those things. She’s not allowed to do that,” she explains.

“She is barred by the law from doing that,” she continues. “And so, the question is Christ-centered versus public, secular education. Maybe not even just public secular, but all kinds of secular, private or public. Do you want your child to be discipled by a secular, sometimes anti-God worldview for 40-plus hours a week? Or do you want them discipled by a Christ-centered, biblical worldview for 40-plus hours a week?”

If parents choose public school, Stuckey argues, they’re choosing “thousands of hours over your child’s life from kindergarten to 12th grade” where “they will be taught from an anti-God perspective.”

“To me, it’s a no-brainer,” she says. “I’m not going to send my 6-year-old into the mission field as a missionary to a public kindergarten.”

“And if you say, ‘Well, I live in South Lake, Texas’ or, ‘I live on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, and I know all of our public school teachers. They go to our church. I know that they’re all great. They’re not teaching the woke stuff. They’re not teaching gender,’” she continues. “But are they teaching John 3:16?”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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I was a little shocked by my own reaction to hearing Bill Gates, the famous face of the unelected world elite, push yet another omnicrisis on a prominent podcast. Especially for someone in the informal guild of prognosticators, the temptation is always strong to get caught up in what techies call “hyperstition” — and the rest of us call self-fulfilling prophecies. The urge to get swept up in the current wave of “futurist” forecasting can become almost irresistible when the tenor of the times tilts toward the apocalyptic.

But as most Americans know, we have been living under a state of elite-induced crisis for decades on end. Nuclear annihilation. Deadly pandemics. Ruinous climate change. The plot of “The Terminator” come to life. A catastrophic flip of the planet’s magnetic poles. It’s always something. And whatever it is, if you’re not running down the street clawing your face off, you’re not paying attention.

And what is a crisis, anyway? It is whatever authorizes the people with the most power to exert that power over you, personally, and ultimately anyone else, as they see fit. It’s genius!

Furthermore, if you’re not paying attention, you’re contributing to the real crisis, the one that somehow maps on top of whatever freak-of-the-week existential horror show is on the menu. Try to drop out of the apocalypse, and you’ll be deemed a moral criminal. People are suffering. It will get worse. What makes you think you’re special? How can you shirk your responsibility to the greater good? And after all, don’t forget, if you don’t cast the right votes, display the right signs, post the right expressions of solidarity, don’t be surprised when the angry mob — online and off — shows up at your door.

Because, well, we’re gonna send them. Because this is a crisis, and the only way we can ensure that it affects everyone is for everyone to believe they’re affected.

This, I think, is the principle hidden at the heart of the COVID-19 era’s inescapable hectoring that you must “believe the science.” We’re never told we have to believe anything when normal, healthy life is possible. We’re only told we must believe when the belief in question is absolutely essential to the propagation of a mass sense of total, all-consuming crisis.

And what is a crisis, anyway? Well, it is whatever authorizes the people with the most power to exert that power over you, personally, and ultimately anyone else, as they see fit. It’s genius!

Did I feel these feelings as my eyes glazed over at Gates’ all-too-convenient claims, the cure for which must surely somehow involve Gates flexing his unaccountable muscle over the Earth? No — I’m actually pretty sure I speedran that emotional experience five or six years ago.

This time, my reaction oddly made me laugh. Yes, I thought for a moment about those believe-the-science signs. But I quickly flashed on a form letter the management of my apartment building once posted in the elevators in the weird little era just before lockdowns.

It was, for its time, highly tech-saturated, but in a way that still had a lot of fluffy-bunny feelings attached to it. Founders were twee, logos were playful — the general attitude was: What could go wrong? But at ground level, where the streets had begun brimming over with abandoned scooters and bikes, the collective mood was already beginning to sour, and corporations adversely affected by all the “permissionless innovation” unfolding in tech-forward cities had begun to get wise.

RELATED: A tech-fueled Antichrist would be bad. Obsessing over the Antichrist is worse.

Gremlin/Getty Images

And so THE MANAGEMENT of my apartment building — a megacorp in its own right — posted a toneless memo in our elevators about its current policies regarding short-term rental apps. With all the low-effort audacity of what is now called the Gen Z stare, the memo explained that, per corporate policy, the apartment building, like all THE MANAGEMENT’s properties, did “not participate in Airbnb.”

I remember standing there with the feeling of having in fact to hand it to them. It was true — there were a lot of units in that brand-new building that were being flagrantly Airbnb’d, a scheme that especially seemed to benefit the many Chinese tenants. No hate, of course; that whole five-block radius of freshly risen high-rises was fueled by Chinese money and Chinese developers, and American locals such as myself reaped the benefits in the form of shut-up-and-take-my-money rental deals and round-the-corner access to some of the city’s most coveted reservations.

But I didn’t particularly want a revolving door of randos as my neighbors, and THE MANAGEMENT surely did not want tenants of any nationality cashing in on those move-in deals only to arbitrage their residence for big sublease cash. The corporation therefore decided simply that its buildings were just not participating in that reality any more.

RELATED: Marco Rubio’s spicy Greece speech left out the most crucial ingredient

Mark Schiefelbein/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

And like Gates’ onetime buddy and rival Steve Jobs, the corporation acquired what Jobs fans called a reality-distortion field.

Wow, I thought. I want a reality-distortion field …

Returning to 2026 reality, I noticed Gates also actually countersignaled himself on that podcast. “Let’s be like the Amish, and let’s only use AI for certain things,” he imagined certain future Americans agreeing. Later, he spoke of what people get from “helping each other or coming up with unique ideas.” What a concept — faithful families working together to strengthen one another in freeing ways?! It sounded like some sort of big old reality-distortion field.

Except instead of keeping out our given human reality, it was keeping it alive.

A little more clicking around the internet quickly revealed that many people, none Amish, are already choosing not to participate in crisis culture. “Constant warnings of collapse desensitize us,” Bruce Gilley writes in the Wall Street Journal. We “overestimate the likelihood of very salient threats,” according to the Financial Times. “Perhaps collapse is not, actually, a thing,” one can read in the New York Times magazine.

For once, it seems, the elites are becoming aware that overhyping crisis has led above all to a great populist longing, as the kids say, to “just not.”

“My vote won’t make a difference. Why bother?” Because we still can.

I keep thinking about my ancestors. Our family history reaches back to the 1500s in what is now Germany. Eventually, members of that family left everything familiar and traveled to America.

The people on the ballot are applying for a job. If you owned a business, would you hire this person?

I cannot quote their conversations, but I imagine someone finally saying, “Wir müssen nicht so leben.” We don’t have to live this way. Taxes, control, and oppression had made staying unbearable. They had little say in the system governing their lives, so they crossed an ocean and accepted the dangers of a frontier for the chance to work, build, and keep the fruits of their labor. They expected hardship. They wanted a chance.

I cannot imagine looking those people in the eye and saying, “I have a voice in choosing who holds authority over my liberty, safety, and money. I just decided not to use it.” Yet election fatigue tempts us to do exactly that. We get disgusted, tune out, or decide one vote won’t count. I cannot control an election’s outcome, but I am responsible for using the voice I have.

That is stewardship. And part of stewardship means examining the ballot. Government must protect life and property, including infrastructure, national security, and fair commerce. Officials need clear responsibilities, limits on their power, and consequences when they abuse it.

Start with the term “public servant.” How many abuse both words? They serve, all right — themselves. And when the public asks questions, plain English suddenly becomes a foreign language.

Consider two recent examples. At a July Senate hearing, Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. He had the constitutional right to do so, of course. That does not make the spectacle reassuring.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), meanwhile, rejected the allegation as “insane” that her former husband was her brother. But when asked whether she was related to her former husband, she answered, “Not to my knowledge.” A federal court filing also identified her as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi” — a designation the filing did not explain and that Omar disputes. What does it mean? The public deserves a straightforward explanation, supported by evidence.

Before defending either official, ask whether you would accept the same conduct from someone you opposed. Public scrutiny comes with public service. Demand answers, including from those on your own side.

Trump may be the first president in our lifetime so public that he scarcely needs a press secretary. Sometimes I wish he would use one more. But that is another column.

Four questions help me evaluate the people asking for my vote.

Have they built anything?

A business, a farm, a household — what have they been responsible for? Have they ever met a payroll? When Friday comes, employees need their checks. A speech about good intentions won’t cover them. Experience alone does not qualify a candidate, but I want evidence that the person understands work, responsibility, and consequences.

RELATED: The GOP’s favorite business model: Lose, beg, repeat

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Would they return my wallet?

Intact and without expecting anything in return. Would you trust this person with your property or to help your family in an emergency? Does the candidate’s conduct support the promises? If neither candidate inspires confidence, compare their records. Which one would need less watching?

Do they help people get on their feet?

Are public officials helping people become independent or dependent? A Center for Immigration Studies analysis of 2014-2023 census survey data estimated that 81% of Minnesota households headed by Somali immigrants received cash assistance, food assistance, or Medicaid. That figure alone cannot tell us which recipients work, how long they need help, or whether programs are succeeding.

Those are questions for the officials spending public money. Are families gaining the ability to support themselves? Is independence even the goal? People who cannot provide for themselves because of age, disability, or sickness need help.

But unable and unwilling are different things. Compassion requires us to examine what happens to the people we claim to help. Stewardship requires us to examine those claiming to help them with our money.

RELATED: Pray for the country. Then do your part.

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Will they protect life and property?

For me, that begins with unborn life and includes opposing medical gender interventions for children. It also means enforcing consequences against those who harm people or take what belongs to others. Examine candidates’ records on border security, bail, and sanctuary policies. Who was protected? Who paid the price? What did the official do when something went wrong? Apply the standard regardless of race, religion, wealth, connections, or party.

Compare what candidates promised with what they have actually done. Invite a neighbor to do the same. The people on the ballot are applying for a job. If you owned a business, would you hire this person? Would you bring this person in as a consultant?

Then vote.

My ancestors came here because they had so little voice in the decisions governing their lives. They accepted enormous risks for an opportunity their descendants now enjoy. I cannot promise them I will always choose wisely. But I will vote.

Because I still can.

On the October 21 episode of “Call Her Daddy” — the number-one podcast listened to by American women — host Alex Cooper and guest Sophia Bush discussed divorce while talking about Bush’s past relationships and current marriage to former women’s national soccer team player Ashlyn Harris.

“We can get really, really in our heads about ‘oh my God, I feel like I'm, maybe I shouldn't leave this marriage because can I even get better?’ And the answer is always yes,” said Cooper.

Bush agreed and added, “The answer is always yes. And this idea that it’s too late or you’re too old or who are you to want more? That’s patriarchy. That is crazy. We don’t need it.”

Josh Howerton, Blaze TV host and pastor of Lakepointe Church, believes “Alex Cooper might be worse for women than Andrew Tate is for men.”

Howerton admits that the nonchalance with which the two women discuss divorce makes him “[get] a little worked up.”

“They don't got to counsel the man, the children, or the wife who has their life absolutely cratered because you just got to sit on a podcast and say what you thought would go viral,” he says.

He cautions young women to avoid the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

“I want to love you enough to tell you the actual truth, and I'm telling you right now, inputs create outcomes in your life, and if that's your input, you're going to have some real crappy outcomes,” he warns.

Howerton points out that Sophia Bush has been married three times. “One of those marriages lasted five months. Great job. ... Her second marriage lasted 13 months. … And her third quote-unquote ‘marriage’ is to a chick,” he says.

He stresses the importance of choosing role models wisely.

“The women that young women need to be listening to, they're not on podcasts; they're not on TikTok; they're not putting out four Instagram reels per day. You know what they're busy doing? Raising their kids. … Serving at their local church,” he says.

Howerton also notes that the duo’s proposition that a woman, regardless of age, can always find a better partner is “a lie” statistically.

“In general, your best chance to attract and keep a good husband … is when you're a little younger,” he says. “So they're giving actually damaging advice to women. It doesn't play like out like that in the real world.”

“Listening to stuff is how you end up a single lonely spinster cat lady with nobody to visit on the holidays and nobody to visit you in the nursing home.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

“Live Free with Josh Howerton” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms. Join BlazeTV+ and start watching Josh today at blazetv.com/JOSH. Use promo code JOSH to get $20 off your subscription.

Progressive Christians have long found support for their politics in the Bible. Often, the argument begins with what Scripture doesn’t explicitly condemn: Jesus never mentioned gay marriage or abortion, for example. From there, they appeal to Christ's compassion for the poor, the stranger, and those rejected by society to justify positions on contemporary issues ranging from immigration reform to gun control.

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico takes a different approach. A seminary-trained Christian, Talarico has argued that the Virgin Mary’s consent to bear Jesus supports abortion rights and that God is “nonbinary.”

The Jesus revealed in Scripture cannot be reduced to the portions of His teaching that satisfy a contemporary ideology.

Talarico isn’t merely arguing that Christianity is compatible with progressive politics. He’s making the more ambitious claim that Scripture itself supports particular progressive positions.

With November’s midterm elections approaching, Talarico’s campaign raises a question that extends well beyond Texas: Are we allowing Scripture to shape our understanding of politics, or are we allowing politics to reshape our understanding of Scripture?

According to your word

Take two of Talarico’s public arguments. During a July 2025 appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, he treated Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel as a model of consent in support of abortion rights. “God asks for Mary’s consent,” Talarico said, arguing that the story demonstrates that “creation has to be done with consent.”

But that is not what Luke records. Gabriel does not ask Mary whether she wishes to become pregnant. He announces what will happen. Mary asks how it can happen, and after Gabriel explains, she responds with willing submission to God’s word: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The passage does not establish a doctrine of abortion. Questions of unborn human life require Scripture’s broader teaching on creation, human dignity, and the image of God.

Separately, Talarico has described God as “nonbinary.” He made the remark during a 2021 debate in the Texas House, arguing that God is “both masculine and feminine and everything in between.” Talarico has since acknowledged that the language was deliberately provocative and said his underlying point was that God cannot be defined by human categories.

Christian theology has long affirmed that God transcends human biological distinctions. But that is not the same as reading a contemporary category of gender identity back into God’s revealed nature.

Christ of convenience

Faithful biblical interpretation begins with the text, its historical context, and the author's intended meaning — not with a political conclusion in search of scriptural support. When a political figure invokes Scripture to establish the moral authority of a campaign stance, that use of the text deserves careful examination on its own biblical merits.

These concerns are not limited to one candidate. We live in a culture that increasingly judges religious beliefs by their compatibility with prevailing social and political convictions. Teachings that affirm popular positions get attention; those that challenge them are treated as inconvenient and often silenced. It is easier to float with the current than to swim against it for the sake of biblical consistency. And when the church simply drifts downstream, it risks reflecting the culture instead of witnessing to it.

That risk often shows up in a selective portrait of Jesus. A politically convenient Jesus may talk frequently about love while rarely confronting sin. He may offer grace without repentance, mercy without judgment, or justice detached from righteousness. His words are celebrated when they support a preferred social vision and neglected when they challenge it.

The Jesus revealed in Scripture cannot be reduced to the portions of His teaching that satisfy a contemporary ideology. He extends mercy while commanding a departure from sin. His love does not require the abandonment of truth, and His grace does not eliminate the necessity of repentance.

James puts the issue more starkly: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

RELATED: 5 times Christians lost debates with atheists — and what they did wrong

Mark Sullivan/ullstein bild/Getty Images

Usurping authority

When Scripture is adjusted, softened, or selectively applied so that it no longer conflicts with a preferred political outcome, interpretation becomes accommodation.

Christianity becomes a political instrument when Scripture is cited to confer divine legitimacy on a policy position while discouraging honest examination of what the text actually teaches. Religious language can make an argument appear morally unquestionable even when the connection between passage and interpretation remains contested.

Talarico’s statements illustrate the problem. Whatever one thinks of his politics, the relevant theological question is whether his interpretations faithfully communicate what God has revealed. The same standard must apply across the political spectrum. No party, candidate, or movement possesses the authority to determine what Christianity means.

The problem is made worse by the speed at which theological claims now travel through podcasts, television, social media, and campaigns. A fragmentary interpretation can quickly be received as settled teaching by audiences that have never examined the passage themselves. Christians have a responsibility to distinguish what Scripture says from what others claim it says.

The controversy surrounding Talarico will eventually pass, as will the election that elevated his arguments. The underlying question will remain: Will the church measure its convictions against Scripture, or will it allow political culture to decide which parts of Christianity are acceptable?

Jesus Christ does not need to be reinvented for the political moment. He does not need to be reshaped to accommodate an ideology, repackaged to win an election, or stripped of the truths that make His teaching uncomfortable.

Anyone who invokes Christian teaching publicly assumes a responsibility of spiritual stewardship. We are not called to make Scripture more politically useful. We are called to communicate it faithfully.

America does not need a Jesus fashioned in the image of its politics. It needs the truth of Christ faithfully proclaimed.

They don’t even try to hide it anymore.

Late-night hacks are now full-on DNC pitchmen in the days leading up to the midterm elections. The only thing missing? Door hangers and lawn signs.

Imagine an agent handing a Hollywood star a script written by a prominent 'conservative influencer.' They might fire him or her on the spot.

Maybe they’ll have them by 2028?

Jimmy Kimmel threw softballs at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) this week while gushing over leftist Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico.

To quote Robert Plant, “Does anybody remember laughter?”

And then there’s Jon Stewart, destroying his legacy in the grand Howard Stern style by going full Dem pitchman on his latest “Daily Show” monologue.

“Send a message to this reckless s**tshow of an administration,” he barked on Monday, the only day of the week he now works. Stern, too, is down to a once-a-week schedule.

The old Stewart might at least have found a way to make a pro-Democrat message funny ...

Parrish the thought

Wait. I thought she was merely "Jenny from the Block"?

Jennifer Lopez is throwing her weight around, according to reports tied to the upcoming Netflix film “The Last Mrs. Parrish.” Lopez and director Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”) are butting heads on the project.

Allegedly. Page Six has the skinny on the film, which the site says has tested poorly. Netflix, Lopez, and Zemeckis united long enough for share an official statement denying every aspect of that account.

That's Hollywood these days. Another behind-the-scenes kerfuffle that could be more entertaining that the film itself ...

Breaking snooze

When the Nazis rose to power in Germany, a few brave souls dared to resist. Sophie Scholl distributed anti-Nazi leaflets until the Gestapo caught her and sent her to the guillotine. Dietrich Bonhoeffer joined the resistance against Hitler and ended up on the gallows. Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in Hitler's headquarters and was executed by firing squad.

But where are such courageous citizens now that America has been crushed beneath the size 12 Florsheim cap-toe Oxford of Der Orange Man? Who among us will risk everything to take a stand?

Kathy Griffin, that's who. At least that's how we imagine the thinking behind her latest unsolicited political screed, which equates voting GOP to keeping fascists in power.

"Can any of you guys not sleep because of fascism? Me too. I'm obsessed with it."

May we recommend a glass of warm milk, Ms. Griffin? Believe us, nobody wants to deprive you of your beauty rest.

Aaron can handle the truth

In Hollywood, we’ll take any sign of self-awareness. Enter Aaron Sorkin. The far-left filmmaker’s scripts are so smart and engaging even some conservatives praise his pen. Sure, “The West Wing” was pure Democrat fantasy, but it was snappy and fun.

As a director? Well, let’s just say he’s a great screenwriter. Sorkin’s latest film, “The Social Reckoning,” came and went at the box office without leaving a mark. He wrote and directed the film, a not-so-subtle attack on both Facebook and President Donald Trump.

Now, Sorkin is questioning his directorial chops.

"There are parts of screenwriting — important parts — that can be taught and can be learned, but there are parts that can’t be. And those parts that can’t be? That’s usually what we mean when we use the word 'talent.’ I’m very worried that the parts of directing that I’m not good at are those parts that you can’t learn.”

Hey — admitting it is half the battle ...

Rom-con?

Hope Skydance asked for a receipt.

The company formerly known as Paramount Skydance just completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing the fabled film studio and its valuable franchises under the same corporate roof. DC Comics. "Harry Potter." "The Lord of the Rings" saga.

And potentially, a heaping helping of red ink.

World of Reel reports (citing unnamed sources quoted by Page Six) that Warner Bros.' 2026 theatrical releases are projected to lose more than $800 million. Think major duds like “Digger,” “Supergirl,” and “The Bride!” Ouch. And more ouches may be coming next year.

Upcoming titles like “Panic Carefully” and “Paris Paramount” (ironic?) arrive with massive budgets. The latter should be the most expensive rom-com ever made.

Why would any rom-com break the budget? That’s Hollywood accounting, and Paramount is learning about it the hard way ...

RELATED: FALLING STARS: Hollywood woke-erati on the outs as Skydance soars

Bloomberg/Roy Rochlin/Mondadori Portfolio/NBC/Getty Images

Write wing

Imagine an agent handing a Hollywood star a script written by a prominent "conservative influencer." They might fire him or her on the spot.

Or not?

“Confession,” coming to select theaters on Nov. 11 along with the company’s streaming site, stars Rob Lowe, Nick Nolte, James Franco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”).

The screenwriter? Ben Shapiro.

The film is set in 1938, and Lowe stars as a professor accused of harboring anti-Soviet thoughts. His former student (Franco) is tasked with breaking his spirit.

It’s no secret that stars are punished for having right-leaning views. Just ask Oscar-nominee James Woods, who hasn’t had a sizable film role in more than a decade.

“Confession” could be a dud or a winner. It almost doesn’t matter. Seeing recognizable faces sign up for a project that spoke to them, ignoring the cultural fallout that might ensue, is a positive sign for the culture.

On October 26, National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher received the James C. Goodale First Amendment Award from Harper’s Magazine. The honor recognizes people who have demonstrated a consequential commitment to a free press and its constitutional protections. Apparently, demonstrating a commitment to those protections is easier when your own organization needs them.

Harper’s applauded Maher for defending NPR against President Donald Trump’s attempt to cut off its federal funding. NPR challenged the executive order, and in March, a federal judge ruled that the government could not use its spending power to punish speech it disliked. The judge, not NPR’s lawyer, supplied that First Amendment language.

The First Amendment is not a menu from which public figures may order only the protections that suit their politics.

I agree that the government shouldn’t punish a news organization for its opinions. But I would like to know when Katherine Maher discovered the merits of letting people express theirs.

In January 2021, after Trump was bounced from major social media platforms, Maher posted this little valentine to free expression: “Must be satisfying to deplatform fascists. Even more satisfying? Not platforming them in the first place.” She didn’t name Trump. The timing hardly required a decoder ring.

Six months later, during an Atlantic Council discussion of online misinformation, she described the First Amendment as the “number-one challenge” to governmental regulation because it provides robust protection for rights. Imagine that: The Constitution was getting in the way of government action against speech.

Maher also said those protections were important for platforms deciding what to carry. The problem is the ease with which she can celebrate keeping undesirable speakers off private platforms and then accept an award for defending speech against government interference. Different legal questions, certainly. But what a conveniently adjustable enthusiasm for expression.

CYA takes on new meaning here. Who gets to designate “misinformation”? Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? And what happens when the people appointed to decide the truth have a habit of declaring their political opponents unfit to be heard?

Sorry, but if Maher had renamed NPR “NPPR” — National Pol Pot Radio — after taking over in 2024, she might at least have spared the audience the pretense of ideological neutrality. NPR’s critics have long questioned the network’s political sympathies; she arrived with a social media archive that did nothing to reassure them.

Then Congress invited the free-speech laureate to explain herself.

At a March 2025 House hearing on public broadcasting, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted Maher with a tweet asserting that America was “addicted to white supremacy.” She acknowledged the post and explained that her thinking had “evolved” over the previous five years.

Evolved! How reassuring. Under congressional lights, old declarations become artifacts of a former self. For everyone else, an unwise social media post can remain an indelible mark of moral depravity.

Gill also asked about her January 2020 post announcing that she had taken a day off to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations.” Maher first said she didn’t think she had read the essay. Confronted with her own words, she said she couldn’t recall the post. He had the receipts. She had the amnesia.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom makes damning admission about socialist takeover on undercover camera

JP Yim/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative

It recalled, with apologies to Hillary Clinton, the pink-pantsuit “I do not recall” tour: plenty of confidence when issuing pronouncements, less when an inconvenient statement comes back for an encore.

Maher didn’t run NPR when it made some of the coverage decisions congressional Republicans criticized. She runs it now. That is reason enough to ask how the network treated Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19’s origins, and allegations involving Trump and Russia — and whether a news organization so eager to scrutinize others welcomes the same attention.

Of course, Maher can criticize Trump. She can call him names, cheer private companies that deny speakers a platform, and advocate tighter restrictions on “misinformation.” The First Amendment protects her right to make the case. It also protects the public’s right to notice the inconsistencies — and to ask why taxpayers should subsidize a network they regard as partisan.

What makes the Harper’s award so delicious is the timing. One year she is in Washington explaining the evolution of her thoughts and forgetting inconvenient tweets. The next she is at a glittering ceremony receiving a prize for constitutional principle. If that isn’t a career arc worthy of a statuette, what is?

Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009; two years later, his administration killed American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen. Apparently, once the medal is pinned on, the terms and conditions expire.

RELATED: Liberal media bends over backward to avoid ‘misgendering’ gunman who murdered kids in church

Chris Haston/WBTV/Getty Images

Maher’s honor suggests an exciting new category of prizes for our part-time constitutionalists.

Why not a “Silence Is Golden Award” for a prosecutor who complains that suspects invoking the Fifth Amendment interfere with convictions — and then invokes it himself when a police officer pulls him over for drunken driving? Surely the citation would be magnificent.

Or a “Gun Violence Prevention Award” for a crusader against firearms who keeps a pistol by the bed and fires it at an intruder? An acceptance speech about the need for fewer guns would bring the house down.

Perhaps Harper’s could create a special trophy for people who find the Constitution irksome when it protects their adversaries and indispensable when it protects their friends. Given the competition, it might need an entire banquet hall.

The First Amendment is not a menu from which public figures may order only the protections that suit their politics. Maher can claim every one of those protections and good for her. But she cannot reasonably expect applause for her own freedom while escaping scrutiny for her apparent indifference to the freedom of those she dislikes.

Someone might explain that to the lovely, vivacious Katherine Maher before she accepts her next award.

Is Bigfoot finally “debunked”?

A newly enhanced version of the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film offers a much clearer look at the creature that has fueled decades of speculation — but BlazeTV host Pat Gray isn’t convinced.

“The 1967 Bigfoot footage officially got debunked,” producer Kris Cruz tells Gray and co-host Jeff Fisher, showing them a video of a clearer image of so-called Bigfoot walking through the woods.

“How does that debunk it?” Gray asks.

“Now it’s clear,” Cruz responds. “You can see that it’s an actual human.”

“He still has the fur,” Gray argues.

“If one were to believe that was Bigfoot, you still are not debunking that that’s Bigfoot,” Fisher says. “But we know that the guy already came out and said it was him and his buddies, right? It was debunked a hundred years ago.”

“I think it was, yeah,” Gray agrees. “But that is a much clearer shot of it.”

However, Fisher points out that there’s another Bigfoot sighting that needs debunking.

“What you need to do is debunk the Bigfoot in Boston on top of the building. We need that debunked,” he says.

There’s also a video of “Bigfoot” that was taken from a moving train in the desert, where he appears to hide behind brush as he realizes he’s been seen.

“I think that has been debunked,” Fisher says.

“I think that’s a guy, you know, that does it on purpose for the train rides,” he adds.

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America’s future depends on its children, but that future is only as promising as the world they inherit. What if they also inherited a piece of the company trying to take humanity to Mars? Elon Musk has floated the idea of giving every American child a share of SpaceX. If he follows through, the consequences could reach far beyond a child’s bank account.

Consider the standard portfolio traditionally passed down to an American kid. Parents hand a child a dusty piggy bank rattling with pennies barely worth the trouble of counting, a couple of savings bonds with returns about as exciting as watching paint dry, and a national debt tallying over $40 trillion. Granting a share of a high-flying rocket company looks less like standard financial planning and more like dropping a real asset into a crib and giving a young child a stake in the future.

It ties childhood financial hopes to something truly tangible: hardware soaring into the stratosphere.

SpaceX’s valuation sits at over $2 trillion, with individual private shares trading, at the time of writing, near $148. The giveaway would cost approximately $10.7 billion. For 72 million children, that‘s a potential foothold in one of the most ambitious commercial ventures in human history. Yes, for Musk, whose personal wealth fluctuates by that exact amount on a bad Tuesday, it barely registers. But for a kid in Brooklyn or Ohio, it beats another set of plastic toys made overseas and destined for the trash by Thanksgiving.

Wall Street hedge funds usually (and intentionally) keep ordinary Americans out of the biggest wealth-building opportunities, reserving them for the already well-off. Everyday citizens are usually invited to the party only after early-stage venture capitalists have had their fill, extracted every drop of private growth, and dumped the remaining husk onto public markets just in time for a crash. Directly distributing equity in a premier aerospace company to middle-class infants flips that script entirely. It turns toddlers into equity holders before investment banks can slap a 2% management fee on their futures.

Traditional financial literacy programs in public schools spend semesters teaching teens how to balance a checkbook, an obsolete skill in an age of digital payments and endless inflation. Learning how capital ownership works in the real world hits differently when it's your name on the company share certificate in your hand. Watching SpaceX land a booster rocket on a floating drone pad in the Atlantic Ocean suddenly means more than any idea, slogan, or vibe. You start seeing technological breakthroughs personally, not as expensive magic tricks performed by detached billionaires.

Obviously, minors cannot legally hold stock directly, so they would need custodial trusts, strict transfer rules, and safeguards against desperate parents liquidating shares for flat-screen TVs. A sudden flood of 72 million minor shareholders would create an administrative nightmare that could overwhelm traditional transfer-agent systems. SpaceX would have to pioneer new digital custody arrangements just to record newborn infants' ownership rights.

The Musk-bashing brigade will argue that stock ownership carries real downside risk because private tech ventures can lose market share or fail at launch. Rockets occasionally turn into costly fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico, taking paper gains down with them. All of this is true, but owning a piece of a company pushing technological limits gives you a lottery ticket tied to real industrial output.

RELATED: 'Defund Musk': Robert Reich calls for government takeover of SpaceX and Starlink — and Elon responds

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg/Getty Images

American enterprise built the modern world through heavy manufacturing and ingenious engineering. Most importantly, its insatiable appetite for risk set it apart, leaving Europe in the dust. Somewhere along the line, the national economy pivoted toward trading complex financial derivatives and charging monthly subscription fees for phone apps. Handing tens of millions of kids a stake in sophisticated rocket engines, orbital satellite internet, and planetary exploration reconnects the national psyche with the American instinct to dream and dominate. It ties childhood financial hopes to something truly tangible: hardware soaring into the stratosphere.

The government usually treats younger generations as future tax revenue destined to prop up underfunded entitlement programs until the system buckles. Musk’s proposal offers a refreshing, humane alternative to the slow economic slide conventional politics guarantees. If SpaceX successfully builds commercial infrastructure from low Earth orbit to the red plains of Mars, those individual $148 stakes could grow into meaningful college tuition funds or down payments on a home. If he fails, the kids still walk away with a front-row lesson in how American capitalism operates, warts and all.

The country spent decades telling young people to trust the slow, predictable path of traditional savings accounts while printing money at a rate that eroded their purchasing power. A share in a frontier rocket business offers no smooth ride. It offers no guaranteed returns and plenty of volatility along the way. But that dynamic mirrors the real world far better than any outdated high school textbook. In the end, the takeaway lesson might be that wealth is built by backing ambitious ideas, not by hoping a few cents of interest can outpace inflation.

On October 22, the U.K. government launched a campaign called Be Ready. It’s the start of a three-year national resilience drive that asks households to prepare for up to three days of disruption (from severe weather, power cuts, cyberattacks, or something similar) by stocking up on basic supplies — including water, non-perishable food that needs no fridge or cooking, a flashlight, medicine, a power bank, a battery-powered or wind-up FM radio, and cash.

“And Britain is not alone on this. Germany is telling its people to keep 10 days. France and Ireland and the Netherlands also want 72-hour kits in every home. The Dutch are even now telling their people how much cash to keep in a drawer,” Glenn Beck says.

“The European Union has asked all 450 million of its people to do the same: Prepare,” he adds.

In September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched FORTRESS America — a program to make major U.S. military bases generate their own power independent of the civilian grid, harden them against cyberattacks and sabotage, and secure domestic supply chains and reserves so they can keep operating for at least 90 days without outside support if civilian infrastructure is disrupted.

In regard to FORTRESS, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, told Fox News Digital: “The next conflict will likely be fought on multiple fronts. Look at the geopolitics behind any major war. When that happens, global supply chains will break.”

Glenn also highlights other recent stories:

On September 27 at RAF Fairford in England — the base used by U.S. B-1 bombers for Iran strikes — neighbors reported masked men and white vans near the fence. Five men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, and the bombers were later pulled out.

On October 27, Britain charged two 24-year-old British men under the National Security Act in connection with the case, with one accused of assisting Iranian intelligence and the prime minister saying the plot was almost certainly directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, amid dozens of Iran-linked plots in recent months.

Last week, the U.S. military placed an Avenger air defense system on a barge in the Intracoastal Waterway outside Mar-a-Lago, which NORAD confirmed was done at the Secret Service’s request. On October 23, the director of national intelligence issued a memo warning that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target Americans, with some plots reaching advanced stages.

“None of these stories mean the sky is falling,” Glenn says.

But put them together and they spell disaster.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” the Blaze Media co-founder issues a warning he says he hasn’t given since 2007.

Glenn ties these developments to a longer-term problem in Europe. After decades of mass migration, crippling debt, energy self-sabotage, and neglected defense, Europe, he says, is in a state of “managed decline.”

“And so what do you have?” he asks. “You have Islamists organizing in the open, telling you what they’re going to do. You have Marxists and communists now no longer bothering to hide what they want or who they are; they are telling you that they are going to overthrow the West and the United States of America.”

The people who are dismissing these threats, Glenn warns, are making a grave mistake.

“When someone says they’re going to kill you, they’re going to take your family, they’re going to destroy your culture, believe them. You’re an idiot if you don’t,” he exclaims.

Glenn argues that is the real reason European countries are telling their citizens to prepare, but they’ll never admit it because “the explanation ends in a confession” no leader would ever dare make.

“No one in Brussels or London is going to give the speech that says, ‘Boy, were we wrong. We should have listened to the people.’ So instead, you get a pamphlet about bottled water,” he says.

While Glenn prays that he is wrong, he fears a “massive war is coming.”

“It may not be a tank crossing a border on a Tuesday morning like we normally think about it. ... More likely, it is the kind of war already begun but enough to cause massive disruption — vans outside of air bases; synagogues firebombed; power grids, water systems probed and bombed or destroyed; neighborhoods that are in trouble, in crisis, with people on the street and the state no longer fully controlling it,” he warns.

Americans, he says, “are not immune” to this brewing catastrophe.

“I beg you, please don’t write this off. The radicals are already inside our house. They are all over the West. And that includes here,” Glenn says.

Midterm elections, which are just a few days away, may “slow it down” — but only if the nation votes wisely, he says.

“If this election goes poorly ... don’t expect a gentle correction,” Glenn warns. “Expect the radicals who have already told you what they want — to abolish the Senate, abolish ICE, erase the border, to treat the gavel as permission.”

“Prepare for impact.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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The election is almost here. Win or lose, do you know what time it is yet?

At a recent Turning Point USA “Pick Up the Mic” event at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a young woman stepped to the microphone determined to be heard, whether or not anyone wanted to listen.

When the social compact breaks down, political debates cease to be merely political. Spiritual warfare manifests itself through those debates.

This was her “poem”:

It was the night before the Kirkiversary, and all through the house.
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The flags were hung proudly.
The memes all on deck, as we solemnly remembered a shot to the neck.
The podcast fell silent.
The hot takes grew wary, for tomorrow, dear friends, is the great Kirkiversary.
So I’ll see everyone at the Squirt for Kirk.
We’re hosting that also on October 10th.
I’ll see y’all there to BYOE, you know, vaccines included, s**t’s free. See y’all there.

When Christian Collins, the event’s host, asked whether she was proud of herself, she answered, “Baby, I’m thrilled.” Then she told him he was “brave for being out here,” with “no protection, no nothing, no, like, neck brace.”

She prepared a poem and read it at a place where she knew cameras would be rolling. She wanted the attention. She seemed confident there would be no consequences for her devilry. But she had no trouble invoking the consequences a man like Collins might face.

Because when the social compact breaks down, political debates cease to be merely political. Spiritual warfare manifests itself through those debates. Whatever is happening in the unseen realm is manifesting itself here.

Egypt was once the demonic hub of the world, holding God’s people hostage. Why did God choose 10 plagues to establish dominion over His enemies when He could have chosen any of an infinite number of means? To understand the character of our heavenly Father, in whose image we are made, we should ask.

Back when Moses was running point on the culture war, those plagues were specific judgments against the demonic fiefdoms of Egypt’s pantheon. God worked His way through that pantheon and left no stone unturned. The message was unmistakable: God is God, and you are not.

RELATED: Brazil’s election is a chilling warning for America

Blaze Media Illustration

So when Moses told Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” he was no mere political operative. He was a spiritual herald. So must we be in confronting the enemies in our midst.

The forces of evil that provoked that young woman’s poetry are not natural. The darkness required to perform it so proudly is sociopathic. She behaved as though she and her demons were the true gods and had declared dominion over you. People say the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Nonsense. He wants to be worshiped like the one true God, and he wants to impose his own upended “order” — on his timing and his terms.

That time is now, says the pretty young coed, as you can almost see blood dripping from her lips while she casts spells upon the land. She, too, is a spiritual herald. Right in your face.

Even the best political movement has no chance against that level of demonic conviction. No chance. Even if you deported her tomorrow, she is Legion now. She is around every corner, even teaching your kids at school. Her dark religion excels at making devoted disciples. But what about ours?

RELATED: Christians: Don’t fall for Talarico’s performative messaging

Danielle Villasana/Getty Images

Are we anywhere near the critical mass of people willing to stand up to the darkness — more willing to suffer for what they believe than to play the fool in the name of perpetual comfort and interfaith dialogue with Baal worshippers? What, Mr. Nicer Than Jesus, you didn’t know this was a fight?

That’s why you’re losing, laughs Nefarious.

If a remnant still wants to win, it will require discipleship no culture or political party can produce. The church equips the saints for the work of ministry, and that ministry goes forth into all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is the river feeding any victory worth winning — any victory that can last.

It must come from the church, where people hunger to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers, and Michigan pastors aren’t leaving the heavy preaching about the dangers of Islam to the itinerant campaign sermons of RFK Jr.

Will we be spiritual heralds? Will we remind the world of the true order of things? We already have MAGA and MAHA. Are we ready, willing, and able to Make America Christian Again?

A male dressed in a costume resembling a character from the movie "Dumb and Dumber" allegedly tried to force his way into a Houston apartment early Thursday morning, police told KPRC-TV — and paid a painful price.

Investigators told the station a man in an apartment in the 2300 block of Bering Drive was awakened just before 2:30 a.m. by someone kicking his apartment door and trying to open the handle.

'Well, seems the costume was appropriate for his ignorance.'

Investigators added to KPRC that the man's girlfriend and their 1-year-old child also were inside the apartment.

The man asked his girlfriend if she recognized the person outside, but she said she did not know him, the station reported.

Police told KPRC the resident grabbed an AR-15 rifle and opened the door, which led to an argument with the suspect.

But when the suspect allegedly tried to push his way into the apartment, the resident shot the suspect, the station said.

KPRC said the suspect was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to his upper body and was listed in critical condition.

Investigators added to the station that the suspect was wearing a Halloween costume resembling a character from the movie "Dumb and Dumber" — including an orange suit and a top hat.

RELATED: Male allegedly breaks into Texas home in middle of night — and learns right quick why that's a foolish idea

New Line Cinema/Getty Images

KPRC said police believe the suspect may live in the same apartment complex and may have been intoxicated after returning from a party and mistakenly gone to the wrong apartment.

Both men are believed to be in their 30s, the station said.

Citing police, KIAH-TV said the resident, his girlfriend, and the child were unharmed.

To say the comments under KPRC's story about the incident are humorous is an understatement. Here's a primo example: "Well, seems the costume was appropriate for his ignorance," one commenter wrote. "Thank goodness the resident had the means to defend himself and his apartment."

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So-called climate change gets a bad rap.

Manufactured fears over the climate have not only been weaponized for decades against Western industry, affordable energy, and consumer choice, but have also contributed to mental instability and the demographic crisis underway.

'We have jolted the system.'

Now, it turns out the alarmists may have been way off about everything — including the severity, impact, and timeline of anthropogenic climate change and even about climate change being a problem in the first place.

A new study published on Thursday in the esteemed journal Science shows that humanity's global heat generation has spared North America from freezing over once again.

During the most recent cold glacial period, better known as the Ice Age, most of Canada and the northern U.S. was buried under the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Ice thickness in some areas is estimated to have reached upwards of 2.48 miles, and the LIS, at its largest, stretched from Chicago to above the Arctic Circle.

Thousands of years ago, this sheet melted away such that today, all that remains of it is the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island, Canada.

Having studied the LIS and its remains, researchers determined that roughly 3,600 years ago, the ice sheet had gotten as small as it was going to get, then began re-expanding around the time of the Resurrection, "marking the onset of the next glaciation."

RELATED: Start your engines! Climate experts now blame rising temperatures on reduced emissions.

Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto/Getty Images

According to the study, warming temperatures in the latter half of the 20th century staved off further glaciation.

"The new LIS reached maximum dimensions in ~1960 CE, after which anthropogenic summer warming resulted in a negative mass balance, ice margin recession, and the termination of the next glaciation," the researchers noted in the abstract for their paper.

According to the study, rising summer temperatures "is mirrored by the increase in net effective radiative forcing associated with the measured increase in well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs) since ~1750 CE." In other words, the industrial revolution and its fruits have saved America from a slow and icy invasion.

Geochemist Nicolas Young, an associate research professor at Columbia Climate School and co-author of the study, stated that another ice age "was just getting started, everything was normal, the next glaciation was about to happen — and yet it stopped."

"It's a very powerful example of how we have jolted the system," added Young.

This study also gives an out to the alarmists of yesteryear who clutched pearls about global cooling.

"It actually was happening," said Young. "They couldn't quite prove it, but now we sort of have the evidence."

Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory noted that while human emissions saved the continent from an icy fate, "technically we are still living in an ice age — the Late Cenozoic Ice Age — which started about 34 million years ago."

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A major Big Tech investor who leans libertarian is doing all he can to try to keep Democrats from power in red and purple states.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Scott Banister is first and foremost a "capitalist." He was an early investor in some of the biggest tech-driven enterprises, including PayPal, Uber, and SpaceX, and co-founded the anti-spam solution IronPort.

'It's clear that state legislatures are the next frontier in expanding political power.'

Now, he is using his wealth to try to invest in America's future — by stopping radical Democrats.

Banister has pledged $40 million to Make Liberty Win, a right-leaning PAC dedicated to sending mailers, knocking on doors, and making phone calls to share with voters the truth about the Democrat agenda.

State filings confirm that Banister, through Make Liberty Win and First Amendment LLC, has spent more than $6.7 million to oppose state House and Senate Democrats just in Michigan alone. All of the nearly two dozen Michigan filings from First Amendment LLC note that Banister made the donation on September 21 and list his occupation as "angel investor."

One of the Michigan Democrats targeted by Make Liberty Win is state Sen. Chedrick Greene. Back in May, Greene won a special election to represent Senate District 35, a blue-collar area in the web of the thumb of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

The district is light blue, so Republicans have a shot at flipping it red on Tuesday. Make Liberty Win has allocated an eye-popping $625,000 toward that effort.

Some of the direct mail has already reached registered voters:

Photo given to Blaze News

RELATED: Vance blasts 'psychopath' El-Sayed over 'anti-white' hatred

Photo given to Blaze News

"These paid, third-party advertising efforts are shining a spotlight on Michigan Democrats’ record of failure," Greg Manz, senior communications adviser for the Michigan GOP, told Blaze News.

"It’s crucial that Great Lakes State voters are provided proven facts, transparency, and a clear picture of what’s happening in Lansing in order to hold these Democrat senators accountable for their reckless policy positions."

Make Liberty Work did not respond to a request for comment, and efforts to reach Banister for comment were unsuccessful.

Michigan is not the only state infused with funding from Banister and Make Liberty Work. Funding has also been distributed to Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, with plans to reach at least three more before Election day on Tuesday, Fox News reported.

A press release about Banister's largesse said, according to Fox News:

Self-described socialists are running for office and winning in the Democratic Party, like recently elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Make Liberty Win’s campaign will stem the tide of the far-left by mobilizing student and youth activists to knock on the doors of more than two million voters in key states.

The Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group dedicated to assisting the GOP at all levels of government, believes the resources could help close the funding gap between state-level Democrats and state-level Republicans.

"Democrats are making clear that no amount of money is too much when it comes to taking control of state legislatures. With more than $200 million already committed by the largest Democratic state legislative groups, and wealthy outside donors pouring even more money into the fight, it’s clear that state legislatures are the next frontier in expanding political power," RSLC President Edith Jorge Tuñon told Blaze News in a statement.

"Their growing investment in DSA-aligned candidates makes the stakes even higher. That’s exactly why Republicans in every state across the country need to get out and vote Tuesday. The fight for our state legislatures, congressional majorities, and the political map heading into 2028 depends on it."

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