America makes a solemn promise to its servicemen and women: If you risk your life for this country, we will care for you when you return. For too long, that promise has been broken by a federal bureaucracy more devoted to protecting its unions than serving veterans.That changed this year. In a bold and long-overdue move, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins ended most collective bargaining agreements for the department’s 430,000 unionized employees. His action follows a March executive order designed to put veterans first and strip away the union roadblocks that slowed hiring, blocked accountability, and siphoned resources away from patient care.For the first time in decades, the VA can operate as what it was meant to be: a service organization dedicated entirely to those who served.For decades, outdated contracts tied the hands of VA managers. They could not reward high-performing employees, fire underperformers, or recruit top talent. In some cases, they were forced to keep workers on the payroll even after serious misconduct — all because unions defended them regardless of the cost to veterans.The American Federation of Government Employees was the worst offender. It fought even bipartisan reforms like the Mission Act of 2018, which allowed veterans to access private medical care when VA hospitals were over capacity. That law cut wait times, but the American Federation of Government Employees resisted because it threatened the union's control over the workforce.The union's goal was never better care. It was raw power.The cost of that power was staggering. In 2024, VA union officials logged more than 750,000 hours of taxpayer-funded “official time,” collecting government salaries to conduct union business instead of serving veterans. Some drew paychecks of more than $200,000 a year without performing a single VA duty. That money and manpower were stolen from the mission.Collins’ reforms are beginning to change the culture. As of April 25, the VA stopped automatically deducting union dues from paychecks. Workers now decide for themselves whether to send their earnings to a union or keep the money for their families, savings, or personal needs.The department has also reclaimed 187,000 square feet of office space once occupied by unions and eliminated millions in costs for union-provided equipment. Those savings are being redirected to training, performance bonuses, and modern tools for VA staff. The principle is simple: Every dollar and every hour should serve veterans, not union bosses.Critics argue that these changes weaken worker protections. The opposite is true. The reforms create a merit-based culture where good employees can thrive and bad ones can no longer hide behind endless grievance procedures. Veterans will benefit from faster, more responsive care delivered by a workforce motivated by performance, not politics.The impact will be felt across the system. Hiring can move quickly without layers of union sign-off. Misconduct will bring swift discipline. Resources once wasted on union perks will flow to medical equipment, expanded telehealth services, and modernized facilities. Veterans will finally see shorter wait times, higher-quality care, and a culture that puts them at the center of every decision.RELATED: Disabled vets denied dignity as VA claim backlog becomes unbearable Photo by MivPiv via Getty ImagesBy freeing the VA from entrenched unions, Collins has restored accountability, strengthened the workforce, and realigned the department’s mission with its values. For the first time in decades, the VA can operate as what it was meant to be: a service organization dedicated entirely to those who served.America owes its veterans nothing less than excellence. Collins’ actions are a decisive step toward honoring that debt. The men and women who wore the uniform kept their promise to the nation. Now their government is finally keeping its promise to them.

A fictional band called HUNTR/X just topped the charts, and while some parts of the musical elements are human-generated, the band, the songs, and the movie from which the band originates all indicate that acceleration into a global, mediocre, and homogenized sim world is palatable for huge swaths of the world audience.The hit song, “Golden,” is a sterile masterwork in modern musical homogeneity. The hooks, the bridge, and musical acumen are all risk- and invention-free. With a few minor tweaks, it could be a country song. Remix it, and it plays in dance clubs in NYC or on a seniors' cruise ship. In viewing some of the social media response — and this is the disturbing part — it actually is being played in most of those milieus and venues.Monoculture.The hit song has logged about 6 billion listens across all platforms. The scope is unprecedented.Unlike the entirely fake AI band Velvet Sundown, which made a splash earlier this year, the HUNTR/X band is — so it would seem — technically real, at least in the sense that humans actually sang and played physical instruments. We have a lot of precedent for fictional bands or musicians situated in shows and movies making a leap into their own form of quasi-independent success. "John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together" was a major hit, as one example, where most of the human talent was disguised behind puppet masks. (John Denver excepted.)The HUNTR/X and "KPop Demon Hunters" episode seems a far cry from the Jim Henson universe. Befitting the demon theme, there’s something darker, less human even than puppets in operation.The “Golden” lyrics, even though they’re human-voiced, are little more than warmed-over, plasticized, girlboss pablum circa 2009. Consider: “Put these patterns all in the past now / And finally live like the girl they all see / No more hidin’; I’ll be shinin’ / Like I’m born to be” … because they (the female heroines and listeners alike) are actually “hunters, voices strong.”The film, "KPop Demon Hunters," sounds like something that could blister the mind, in the best possible ways. One imagines possibilities for spiritual depth, adventure, action, grand human emotional stakes. None of that is actually on offer, however. It’s all so lacking in genuine nutritive value that it’s tempting to chalk it up to a now-familiar pop culture emptiness and move on. After all, the movie/song hit combo is nothing new. Packaging a band and song with a movie was a successful recipe in the 1980s.Take a crowd favorite, "Top Gun," for which no less a musical talent than Kenny Loggins was brought on board to create the audio accompaniment, hit single “Danger Zone.” If we take the average ticket price in 1986 when "Top Gun" was released, we get an estimate of about 48 million viewings. "KPop Demon Hunters" is clocking 158 million unique streams so far. The hit song has logged about 6 billion listens across all platforms. So the sheer mass of psychic real estate under contract is jarring in scope. It’s maybe irresponsible to dismiss it all as “silly.”RELATED: The Annabelle doll tour is a demonic death trap — but nobody's taking it seriously Photo by David Benito / Contributor via Getty ImagesThe scope is unprecedented. What we’re seeing with HUNTR/X is a convergence of social narrative lines wherein feminism, global corporate homogenization, and the technological preoccupation of minds are congealing into a sort of foul stew, and while it’s been brewing long enough that it seems maybe innocuous, consider again the terrifying size of the audience. Hundreds of millions of people are very content to liquefy their brains, subject their children to husk-like personages devoid of traditional signifiers of soul or spiritual value, and generally just ride the wave provided to them without any consternation as to their mental or psychic diets.What HUNTR/X may be signaling is the next instance of market bifurcation. On the one hand, we have the feedlot model, where the entertainment is just that — slop, served in tremendous quantities to non-critical, careless audiences. On the other, maybe we are gifted for our trials levels of curated, niche, analog, the old ways that we thought were impossible. Such markets are necessarily very small. They are purveying the highest-quality human-made art and entertainment, and their contributors have to be content with the absence of scale and combinations of audience attention that made possible works like "Top Gun" and "The Muppet Movie."

American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ad has conservatives everywhere cheering for a return to normalcy — but BlazeTV hosts Jason Whitlock and Allie Beth Stuckey aren’t convinced it’s that simple.“Everybody is celebrating hot conservative girls,” Whitlock says. “I’m not sure how I feel about it, because I think it leans into men’s lustful nature. It’s certainly a big struggle of mine, and so, you know, I'm glad that Sydney Sweeney isn’t afraid of being a Republican, but I'm not sure if this is some sort of great victory for us.”Stuckey believes the topic is “layered.”“Do I think it is a better indicator of where society is that we have Sydney Sweeney modeling jeans for American Eagle than some obese nonbinary person? Yes,” Stuckey says.“Like I am glad that we are at a point where we can say, ‘Wow, this person is objectively beautiful. She’s in shape. She looks great in jeans, and beautiful people who are in shape sell clothes,’” she continues.“At least we’re back to the point to where we can see that, that the body positivity movement went in such an extreme, toxic direction where we tried to pretend that obesity was beautiful and normal and healthy, and it’s not. So I applaud that,” she adds.Stuckey also is impressed that American Eagle put a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes in an ad, as “so few people do that.”While she explains that it’s “okay to admire beauty and appreciate beauty and recognize its value in society,” she also acknowledges that Sweeney is essentially an example of sexual objectification, lust, immodesty, and even selling her body for money.She calls it “wrong” and notes that it's “part of what led us to this point in the sexual revolution, where there is no right and wrong and therefore there’s no male and female.”“There’s a lot of conservatives, I would say, in the MAGA camp who just want to go back to like 1998, who think if we just went back there, everything would be fine. And things were better then, but we were already on the path to degeneracy,” she explains.“So I think the only way forward is a moral revolution and a spiritual awakening,” she continues. “And that’s got to include an anti-sexual-objectification stance for those of us who are serious about the country becoming better.”Want more from Jason Whitlock?To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The 5-CD + Blu-ray collection features new stereo and Dolby ATMOS mixes of the original by acclaimed producer Steven Wilson, all three concerts newly remixed, and several rare single edits. The post Deep Purple’s ‘Made in Japan’ Goes Super Deluxe appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

The late night TV series aired 450 episodes for nearly a decade and was often the only opportunity for music fans to see their favorite recording acts perform. The post Remembering ‘The Midnight Special’: Rock Edition appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Gov. Newsom Press Office's Victory Lap Cringe AF Because They're Too Dumb to Know They Just Did the Meme

Apple Maps is a great way to get where you want. But, what if the sound stops working on the app? You'll want to follow these tips to help solve the issue.

Apple Maps is a great way to get where you want. But, what if the sound stops working on the app? You'll want to follow these tips to help solve the issue.

A new study argues that a 3,000-year-old hymn from the ancient Syrian port city of Ugarit shares remarkable musical patterns with sacred texts from ancient India, suggesting the existence of a global musical culture during the Bronze Age. The theory challenges our understanding of how isolated ancient civilizations were and claims music is perhaps history's first universal language. The Hymn to Nikkal Reveals Ancient Connections The Hymn to Nikkal, discovered in Ugarit's royal archives, represents the earliest known musical score complete with both lyrics and musical notation. Written in the Hurrian language on clay tablets, this sacred song honored Nikkal, goddess of orchards and fertility. Recent research by Dan C. Baciu from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a not yet peer-reviewed paper published in Preprints, demonstrates that this ancient composition shares extraordinary similarities with the Rig Veda, one of India's oldest sacred texts. Read moreSection: ArtifactsAncient WritingsNewsHistory & ArchaeologyHistoryAncient TraditionsRead Later 

President Donald Trump remains adamant that American soldiers will not be on the ground with him as president, despite pledging participation in "Article-5" type security guarantees in a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal.