Democratic attorneys general from 12 states are suing the Trump administration in hopes of barring the Department of Health and Human Services from defunding various gender ideology initiatives.President Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to gender ideology on his first day back in office, declaring in Executive Order 14168, "It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality."James noted that in New York alone, over $80 billion in funding is at risk because of the requirement that applicants comply with the president's reality-affirming order.In addition to requiring every agency to use the term "sex" and not "gender" in federal policies and documentation, the order tasked each federal agency with ensuring that federal grant funds "do not promote gender ideology."Pursuant to the EO, the HHS released guidance to the U.S. government, the public, and external partners that sex is an immutable biological classification and that there are only two sexes, male and female.The HHS also issued a new policy statement indicating that recipients of health, education, and research grants subject to Title IX requirements must be "compliant with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ... including the requirements set forth in Presidential Executive Order 14168 titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."The Democrat-run states of California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington claim in their new lawsuit that the HHS' enforcement of the directives in Trump's EO violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the guarantee of separation of powers, and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.RELATED: 'Not medicine — it's malpractice': Trump HHS buries child sex-change regime with damning report Luis Soto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images According to the states, the grant conditions are "impermissibly retroactive because they alter conditions attached to the funds Congress duly appropriated to HHS by imposing new conditions on existing appropriations of federal funds to the States."They further alleged that the conditions not only constitute an attempt on the part of the HHS to unilaterally amend Title IX but are discriminatory, serving to "exclude transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender-diverse individuals and make denial of their existence official policy."California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who was barred last month from enforcing laws that keep parents in the dark about whether their kids are masquerading as members of the opposite sex at school — said in a statement, "HHS has overstepped its constitutional authority and ignored proper procedures in an attempt to codify its hateful agenda."New York Attorney General Letitia James made clear what's at risk for each Democratic state: tens of billions of dollars in grant funding to ideologically captive institutions. James noted that in New York alone, over $80 billion in funding is at risk because of the requirement that applicants comply with the president's reality-affirming order.James suggested that the directive was "cruel and unjust."The Democrat-controlled states want the federal court in Rhode Island to declare the policy unlawful and to block the HHS from enforcing it.Blaze News has reached out to the HHS for comment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Liberal protesters have descended upon Minneapolis following the ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good — and after viewing footage from the protests, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales can’t help but get “civil war vibes.”“I do take them seriously that they want violence,” Gonzales says. “OK, I want to be clear. I do take them seriously that they are trying to take down America from within and that they do very much want a civil war.”“Over the weekend, you’ve got more civil unrest, once again, you have all of these people putting their lives on the line to protest and obstruct ICE agents who are there to round up criminals. Like that’s all there is to it. They are there to cause a problem for the law enforcement officials who went out there to round up actual criminals,” she continues.One clip from the weekend protests even shows a man screaming that he plans to buy a gun and learn how to use it because it’s “time for armed resistance against the United States of America.”“First of all, I need the administration to take this very seriously. They need to take this extremely seriously. Any of these protesters who are out there threatening these ICE agents who are out there threatening, saying, ‘I’m going to get a gun and then I’m going to kill you,’ should be arrested,” Gonzales says.“You’ve gone far over freedom of speech. You do not get to threaten someone with murder. You’re not allowed to do that. You know how I know? I’ve had people prosecuted for doing the same thing. You are not allowed to do that,” she continues.And Gonzales can’t help but notice that the reason for their protest is about as ridiculous as it was the last time Minneapolis saw riots.“And this is the state of leftism. They are rioting over a chick who tried to protect Somali criminals from being deported. And that is why I’m saying this is actually worse. People protesting this are actually like, this is actually dumber than the George Floyd protests,” she says.“It’s actually dumber ... if you obstruct ICE, if you make the wrong decision, if you put their life on the line and they are forced to defend themselves or their partners or any other innocent people, they will do that,” she adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

There is a particular aesthetic that holds sway in vast territories of modern motherhood: the throw pillow stitched with Live Laugh Love, the stemless wine glass reading Mommy’s Sippy Cup, the Instagram reel joking that bedtime is encroaching on wine time.We’re meant to laugh and recognize ourselves in it. It’s harmless humor, we’re told. A coping mechanism. A wink at how hard motherhood can be and why we deserve a mental “break.”Alcohol allows us to take the edge off without ever naming what’s wrong, smoothing the dissonance between what we feel and what we think we should feel.But what if the joke isn’t harmless? What if this cultural script, especially the version adapted and shared among Christian women, teaches mothers that it’s better to cope than to heal? What if the cost isn’t just personal, but burdensome for their children in ways that may not appear for years to come?Jokingly giving women permission to booze it up guilt-free has helped wine sales skyrocket. Along the way, we’ve seen the rates of women dying from alcohol-related illnesses increase by 35%.These numbers aren’t a coincidence. Overdrinking has become an acceptable way of life, and it is destructive in ways women don’t realize when they first pick up a glass.Trading hope for copeMotherhood is exhausting, in both good and hard ways. We’re raising children in an era of constant stimulation, economic pressure, social isolation, and relentless comparison. Many are doing this with less community support than ever before. Their fatigue is real, and feeling overwhelmed is justified.But reaching for wine doesn't fix the problem. It just makes it worse.Instead of offering meaningful support or naming the loneliness created by distance from extended family and lives increasingly lived through screens, our culture handed women a temporary salve for wounds that require real presence and care.Never mind that alcohol worsens anxiety, disrupts sleep, and wreaks havoc with emotional regulation.This “wine-mom” culture didn’t emerge accidentally. It was marketed by alcohol companies that realized mothers were an untapped demographic. They rebranded drinking as self-care, reward, and relief.Christians didn’t stand apart from this trend. We joined it because it felt respectable and far removed from the caricature of addiction we were taught to fear. We weren’t legalists, after all.In my book "Freely Sober: Rethinking Alcohol Through the Lens of Faith," I argue that Christian women have been lured into the same trap — and need a pathway out. Intervarsity PressWomen's work-aroundChristian women are often taught, explicitly or implicitly, to be grateful, content, and joyful no matter their circumstances. Complaining feels sinful, and naming dissatisfaction feels unspiritual.Alcohol becomes a work-around. It allows us to take the edge off without ever naming what’s wrong, smoothing the dissonance between what we feel and what we think we should feel. It offers temporary relief without asking hard questions.And because wine is so normalized — at times celebrated — no one intervenes. In fact, friends often encourage it. Churches rarely question it, and the jokes keep coming, even from those who are well-meaning. Overconsumption becomes a socially acceptable sin, and then we feel ashamed when it is hard to quit or cut back.Numbing outMost mothers who participate in wine culture are not falling-down drunk. I was a Christian mom, and to the rest of the world, I appeared to be thriving. Like many women, I was functional — which made the problem easy to ignore.But our families don’t just get the part of us that keeps it together at the office or always makes it to the gym. They get us in every hard and holy moment. And a mother who is emotionally dulled night after night is less present, even if she’s physically there.A mother who relies on alcohol to cope is often quicker to irritability and slower to patience. She’s less attuned to her children’s needs, less engaged in conversations, and less available for the simple moments where connection is built. Alcohol dulls perception, and children often communicate distress in the quietest ways — ways that are easy to miss. I know I did.Children notice more than we think. They learn how adults handle stress, observe what celebration looks like, and internalize the message that hard feelings are something to escape, not endure. The damage of wine-mom culture is rarely dramatic, and that’s where the danger is. It erodes slowly, normalizing emotional absence and teaching that numbing out is fine.Live, laugh, lieThe slogan itself is revealing when you look at it this way:Live — avoid suffering.Laugh — drown discomfort in humor.Love — indulge yourself first.It is a shallow creed for a culture allergic to pain. Christianity offers a radically different vision. It does not promise escape from suffering, but promises meaning within it. It does not offer numbing, but transformation. Alcohol promises rest, but Christ actually gives it.Wine is a counterfeit, temporary relief that ultimately does more harm than good when taken in excess. The gospel does not call women to white-knuckle their pain, but neither does it tell them to anesthetize it. True rest comes from truth-telling, community, repentance, and renewal, not a drug-based substitute.The hardest easyFor years, I believed the joke, or pretended to. I wasn’t reckless or spiraling and told myself I was just doing what everyone else was doing. Drinking to unwind, to cope, to feel “normal” again.But slowly, I realized that alcohol promised something it could never deliver. It made hard days easier (for a few hours), but meaningful growth harder (for years). I justified my drinking based on cultural encouragement, running from the idea that sobriety might be a better choice for me.When I finally quit drinking five years ago, sobriety didn’t magically fix my life, but it forced me to face it honestly — and that is the beginning of freedom. I want other women to know they too can feel that freedom.RELATED: 3 healthy habits to bring you closer to God in 2026 Bettman/Getty ImagesChoosing clarityIn modern America, mothers are often told they are victims — of systems, expectations, and circumstances beyond their control.What we really need is permission to tell the truth — to admit hardship, even when it forces us to confront the ways we have chosen to cope with it. We need communities and opportunities that acknowledge this season of life without offering numbing as the solution. We need churches willing to name alcohol honestly, not as a forbidden fruit, but as a false savior. We need friendships built on presence, not punch lines or escape rooms.Most of all, we need to hear that our motherhood struggles aren’t a failure. The desire to overcome the hard moments is totally normal, and it is understandable that we would look for an easy way to do so. But there are better, healthier ways to walk through these times. One of the most countercultural things a mother can do today is stay awake to her own life.Choosing clarity, and the courage to seek better ways to live, changes a woman, her relationship with God, her family, and the mark she leaves on the world.

Prosecutors said a male recorded cellphone video of himself fatally stabbing a sleeping man on a Chicago train in an unprovoked attack early Saturday morning, WGN-TV reported.Police responded to the Clark and Lake station just before 2:30 a.m. for a report of a stabbing, WGN said.'Somebody got his ass.'The victim, Dominique Pollion, had been asleep on the CTA Blue Line train for about an hour and had no interactions with the attacker before the stabbing, the station said, citing court documents. Police said the victim was 37 years old.Prosecutors said Demetrius Thurman, 40, entered the train just before 2:20 a.m. and walked up behind Pollion while holding his phone in his right hand and a knife in his left hand, WGN reported.Thurman began recording and allegedly stabbed Pollion once in the chest and once in the abdomen, the station said.Pollion screamed, backed away down the aisle, and then collapsed, WGN said.Thurman was accused of fleeing between train cars and then recording the scene through the window once the train stopped at Clark and Lake, the station said.He allegedly told security officers "somebody got his ass" before leaving the station, WGN reported.Security officers initially did not know Pollion had been stabbed since he was wearing multiple layers of clothing, the station said.Paramedics found the stab wounds, WGN reported, but Pollion was pronounced dead at a local hospital.RELATED: NYC subway rider pays brutal price after asking fellow passenger to stop talking loudly on cell phone Detectives recovered CTA surveillance video of the incident, the station said, adding that Thurman was identified through the secretary of state’s facial recognition program using a still photo taken from the surveillance video.In addition, a Chicago police officer recognized Thurman from a police bulletin about the stabbing, remembering he interacted with him a few days before on a Blue Line train, WGN reported.Thurman was arrested Sunday wearing the same clothes he wore during the incident, the station said, citing documents. WGN said in its video report that Thurman also had the cell phone in his possession.A relative of Thurman identified him to detectives, the station said, citing court documents — and he reportedly admitted to the crime.A judge ordered Thurman detained during a Tuesday hearing on a first-degree murder charge, WGN reported.His criminal history includes three traffic offenses — most recently in 2023 — as well as a DUI in 2017 and a disorderly conduct in 2014, the station said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

If Netflix absorbs Warner Bros., the far left will secure a cultural monopoly unmatched in American history. This would place iconic franchises, mass distribution platforms, and elite political influence under a single ideological command structure.Most coverage treats Netflix as a hybrid of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. That framing misses the decisive fact: The company already operates well inside the Democrat political ecosystem. Susan Rice’s role on Netflix’s board makes that unmistakable.Susan Rice, Reed Hastings, Barack Obama, and their allies stand within reach of the most powerful political messaging system in American history.Rice joined Netflix’s board in 2018 after serving in senior positions in the Obama administration. She returned in 2023 after leading Biden’s Domestic Policy Council. Her career spans national security, intelligence, and domestic governance, placing her at the intersection of political power and narrative control.Rice represents a specific governing class. She served as Obama’s national security adviser and later ran domestic policy for Biden, exercising authority over both foreign and internal priorities. She has shown a willingness to use state power for partisan ends, including her role in the unmasking of Trump transition officials. She has also promoted the most aggressive progressive social policies, including medical interventions for minors under gender ideology.Rice understands that political power does not rest solely on legislation or elections. It rests on shaping public perception. Institutions that control culture define what ideas appear reasonable, what questions seem illegitimate, and which outcomes feel inevitable.That instinct was clear in her 2019 New York Times op-ed, “When the President is a Bigot, the Poison Spreads,” in which she accused President Trump of “overt racism” and “almost daily attacks on black and brown people.” The piece functioned less as analysis and more as moral instruction issued from elite authority.Since returning to Netflix’s board, Rice has intensified her attacks on the Trump administration. She accused Vice President JD Vance of showing “fealty to Vladimir Putin” and derided Trump as a “surrender monkey” for resisting constant military escalation. These are not isolated remarks. They reflect an entrenched worldview that treats deviation from the foreign policy consensus as disqualifying.RELATED: Can conservatives reclaim pop culture? Photo by Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty ImagesRice’s presence alone should concern anyone who values media pluralism. A Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. would raise the stakes dramatically. Such a merger would consolidate production, distribution, and political alignment inside a single corporate structure.Warner Bros. controls some of the most influential properties in American entertainment, including DC Comics, "The Lord of the Rings," Harry Potter, and a deep film and television catalog. These assets shape cultural imagination at scale. No serious observer believes they would remain politically neutral under unified ideological control.Netflix’s existing output already shows how entertainment becomes a delivery system for political messaging. Iconic characters are refashioned to signal progressive virtue. Narratives favor mass migration, abortion, and sexual politics without engaging dissent. Ideology enters through repetition rather than argument.The most consequential impact would involve foreign policy and the national security state. Entertainment does not debate policy; it conditions instinct. Audiences absorb stories that normalize permanent crisis, global intervention, and moralized obedience to authority long before they encounter those ideas in political form.Rice is not operating alone, obviously. Netflix founder and chairman Reed Hastings is a major Democrat donor who tried to blacklist Peter Thiel in 2016 for supporting Trump. That same year, Netflix signed Michelle and Barack Obama to a reported $50 million production deal, renewed in 2024 for an undisclosed amount.RELATED: Trump is right: Netflix’s merger would create a woke media monster Photo by Vincent Feuray/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty ImagesThese relationships form a coherent network. Political power feeds cultural production. Cultural production shapes public opinion. Distribution ensures saturation. The loop closes without voters ever being asked.My organization, the Oversight Project, will soon release an interim report examining Netflix’s role in social engineering under the guise of entertainment. The report documents how elite political priorities migrate into mass culture through corporate platforms that present ideology as entertainment.A constitutional republic depends on a citizenry capable of self-government. America’s founders emphasized this repeatedly, and the First Amendment reflects their concern. Self-rule requires access to information and culture that are not filtered through ideological monopolies.When dominant media platforms operate as unified political actors, that condition erodes. Citizens no longer encounter competing interpretations of reality. They receive moral direction from institutions that treat politics as settled doctrine.A Netflix-Warner Bros. merger would accelerate this consolidation. It would fuse cultural memory, creative output, and political alignment into a single apparatus. The result would not be persuasion but control through saturation.Susan Rice, Reed Hastings, Barack Obama, and their allies understand what is at stake. They stand within reach of the most powerful political messaging system in American history. President Trump must not allow it.