It was a tale of two interviews for CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday’s Inside Politics as she sat down with Speaker Mike Johnson and left-wing activist and actress Jane Fonda. During her conversation with Johnson, Bash recited Democratic talking points on the government shutdown and wondered if there is “something to that.” Meanwhile, she laughed it up with Fonda and suggested that she had the credibility to say that President Trump actually does pose a grave threat to the First Amendment. During the Johnson interview, Bash basically endorsed the Democratic position: Okay, so the Democrats argue that it’s priorities, yes, that are maybe their policy priorities, but they also should be the priorities for people in your district and in Republican districts across the country. The biggest of which, they argue, is extending the subsidies for people who can't afford Obamacare to be able to afford Obamacare. I understand that they don't expire until the end of the calendar year. The argument that they make is that insurance companies start to make a plan, like, soon. And so by the time they make that plan, the subsidies will be — will expire. Isn't there something to that?     Johnson began to respond, “No, that's a December policy issue. It's going to take many months to—” but was interrupted. Bash then tried to double down, “But insurance companies have to make their decisions well before December.” Trying again, Johnson replied, “The benefits do not expire until December 31 and insurance companies can make different decisions. Okay. There's plenty of time on the clock. That's an eternity, as you know, in legislative terms, to have three months ahead of us to do that. The reason we put a simple seven-week extension of government funding is to allow for all that debate.” Later, during the Fonda interview, Bash played an audio clip of Richard Nixon saying Fonda was “on a wrong track.” After Fonda joked that she survived and Nixon, politically speaking, did not, Bash tried treating Fonda as if she was some authority on the issue of free speech, “He was talking about your anti-Vietnam War activism. You were on his enemies list, I believe. And so listening to that, knowing that history, living that history as you did, and you're still saying this is different. What makes this time so different?”     Fonda, who was on to promote the relaunch of the Committee for the First Amendment, declared, “No president has ever sent troops into the Democratic cities across the country saying 'full force.' No president, as far as I know, has tried to control the Federal Reserve, the central bank. He is amassing power in a way that will destroy our democracy.” She also tried to portray ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel as a victim of this effort, “But, we want to push back, and we want to model what creative, non-violent non-cooperation looks like. That doesn't mean just showing up for people who are under attack, like Jimmy Kimmel. A lot of us signed that ACLU statement protesting what happened to Jimmy Kimmel.” Fonda also insisted that, “We want to move forward with love, with unity, with solidarity, and we want to encourage everybody else and all the other sectors of this country to do the same. You know, we don't want to be a pillar of support to this regime that's forming.” Throughout the interview, Fonda would frequently turn and look away from the camera as if she were reading her talking points off a computer or giant cue card. Meanwhile, the tone of Bash’s interview changed depending on who she was talking to. Here is a transcript for the October 1 show: CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash 10/1/2025 12:02 PM ET DANA BASH: Okay, so the Democrats argue that it’s priorities, yes, that are maybe their policy priorities, but they also should be the priorities for people in your district and in Republican districts across the country. The biggest of which, they argue, is extending the subsidies for people who can't afford Obamacare to be able to afford Obamacare. I understand that they don't expire until the end of the calendar year.  MIKE JOHNSON: Right. BASH: The argument that they make is that insurance companies start to make a plan, like, soon. And so by the time they make that plan, the subsidies will be — will expire. Isn't there something to that? JOHNSON: No, that's a December policy issue. It's going to take many months to— BASH: But insurance companies have to make their decisions well before December. JOHNSON: The benefits do not expire until December 31 and insurance companies can make different decisions. Okay. There's plenty of time on the clock. That's an eternity, as you know, in legislative terms, to have three months ahead of us to do that. The reason we put a simple seven-week extension of government funding is to allow for all that debate. The month of October is going to be very important for us to determine all these things and to have a bipartisan discussion and deliberation over that. But we have to have the lights on in the building to do it. The first and most important function of Congress is to keep the government in operation. Every Democrat who's voting no today has said that many times. We're playing the highlight reel. Just listen to what Chuck Schumer himself has said until today.  … BASH: He was talking about your anti-Vietnam War activism. You were on his enemies list, I believe. And so listening to that, knowing that history, living that history as you did, and you're still saying this is different. What makes this time so different? JANE FONDA: No president has ever sent troops into the Democratic cities across the country saying “full force.” No president as far as I know, has tried to control the Federal Reserve, the central bank. He is amassing power in a way that will destroy our democracy. And so we're going to stand up, you know, we're creatives, we're storytellers. We can do it creatively. We can have a good time while we do it.  But, we want to push back, and we want to model what creative, non-violent non-cooperation looks like. That doesn't mean just showing up for people who are under attack, like Jimmy Kimmel. A lot of us signed that ACLU statement protesting what happened to Jimmy Kimmel. But, we want to also, we want to be proactive and we want to show what that can look like, and we want to—violence is not—we will not tolerate violence. We don't want any of that, but we want to move forward with love, with unity, with solidarity, and we want to encourage everybody else and all the other sectors of this country to do the same. You know, we don't want to be a pillar of support to this regime that's forming.

The abrupt assassination of a young husband and father — who joyfully invited strangers from all walks of life to debate him in public forums — was a barbaric assault on all Americans and our shared foundational values, free speech, and religious liberty.I was deeply disturbed by the deranged sickness of morally bankrupt Americans rejoicing at Charlie Kirk’s reprehensible murder. I’ve unceasingly prayed and wept for his family and friends as though they were my own.It's time to get the Bible back into schools to revitalize the true meaning of liberty and respect for your neighbor.Yet as a mom and a Christian, I know I must not despair. The Bible likens despair to a refusal of hope, justice, and goodness.At Kirk’s historic memorial, President Donald Trump mentioned a renewed urgency to including the holy Bible in public life. Erika Kirk modeled positive, convicted fortitude through motherhood — with grit, grace, and gospel — that I have never before witnessed in a publicly broadcasted forum. “Be an Erika Kirk in a Kardashian world” commentaries flood my social media feeds.But an exasperating and lingering question remains: “How did America get here?” Guns? Social media? Absent parenting? Ignorant education? A desensitizing news cycle?A root cause is expelling God from public schools.Foundation shatteredCharlie Kirk was wrongly labeled as a “hateful extremist” because millions of students have been brainwashed, for decades, to dissociate America’s foundation from God.Young people have been conditioned to be offended by truth and context and now automatically treat neighbors like garbage and claim that “words are violence” when they disagree.Historically, educators partnered with parents to reinforce our shared American values as they were rooted in the Bible. Through the 1800s, schools and colleges often included the Bible as a textbook. Our founding fathers stressed the importance of morals and religious knowledge for a functioning republic.In a 1798 statement, John Adams himself wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”But here’s where we are now:Most fifth-graders don’t learn that the 13 colonies required a declaration of faith to hold a public office.Very few eighth-graders are taught that our Declaration of Independence mentions God four times — a majority of the 56 signers were Bible-believing Christians.A majority of high-school students have zero knowledge that our Liberty Bell, as well as countless government landmarks, including our Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and more, are inscribed with biblical verses.Non-denominational prayer, Bible stories, the Ten Commandments, and the mere words “one nation under God” are disputed, degraded, and often prohibited from public gatherings at elementary schools through universities.Schools used to teach biblical principles like the Golden Rule to promote good character and conduct, but now secular-driven “restorative discipline” dictates that right, wrong, good, evil, truth, and lies are relative.Moral education begins at home, but what happens if that falls short?Chaos reignsWithout reinforcement in schools, we evidently get a generation of morally ignorant citizens unable to function in a republic. Kirk himself once explained that the way our government was set up is no longer compatible with our current, faith-rejecting citizenry and public institutions. I agree.Absent parents and the exclusion of 3,000-year-old wisdom from our school systems bear the blame.Now, students are actively taught that God is not and never was part of our nation’s founding, that there is no safety alongside someone who thinks differently from you, and that words are violence. Smartphone worship, disrespect for parents and teachers without consequence, and the abandonment of rules and order have infected our nation.Notwithstanding our rightful religious differences as Americans, it’s time to get the Bible back into schools — as a historical work that helped establish our nation and laws — to revitalize the true meaning of liberty and respect for your neighbor.Teaching students to understand our U.S. Constitution gets much easier if students are knowledgeable about the biblical ideals that shaped it. The Bible also provides practical order, like the Golden Rule, that chaotic classrooms can certainly benefit from today.Myth exposedBut what about Thomas Jefferson’s “separation of church and state”? It’s a stretched fabrication that I’m ashamed to admit I once believed.Five years ago, I supported keeping biblical mentions out of public schools and forums. As a baptized, lifelong Christian — active in church as a child and now a Sunday School teacher as an adult — even I was brainwashed and miseducated.RELATED: Why Trump's religious liberty agenda terrifies the left — but tells the truth plherrera/Getty ImagesIn 1947, the Supreme Court case of Everson v. Board of Education ruled that neither a state nor the federal government could "pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another." For the first time in American history, the First Amendment was now not only about the prohibition of establishing a national religion; it was also about not giving any encouragement to any religion. The modern “strict separation” view was born.The five justices drafted their decision not based on the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, but on a brief letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, citing his personal conviction that religious belief should include “building a wall of separation between Church & State.”In 1962, the Supreme Court further ruled in Engel v. Vitale that a generic school prayer violated the Court’s new definition of the First Amendment. “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country."The prayer was not specific to Christianity or any religion and was reminiscent of the language of the Declaration of Independence. Yet it was still deemed unconstitutional.Since then, the "separation of church and state" language has been used to remove God and appreciation for our foundational morality from public life and, most tragically, from our schools.Do we have happier or better-educated student citizens because of this?Dismal test scores, school shootings, record numbers of mentally ill teens, campus violence, increasingly anti-American curriculum, and depraved TikToks celebrating the public execution of an innocent man exercising peaceful free speech in a public forum prove otherwise.Bring God backIs it possible that those Supreme Court decisions were misguided and wrong for our society?This sickness is destroying each of us — and our country — in real time. This is why we do what we do at PragerU Kids.Parents and teachers, now is the time to bravely support and include:the Bible in academic historical discussions.non-denominational prayer at school events.the Ten Commandments as they relate to America’s founding values for freedom.saying God’s name at your child’s school … no matter who may be irrationally triggered.Don’t let anyone trick you into thinking these things are hateful. The life, liberty, and happiness of our republic literally depend on it.I'm grateful for the White House’s nationwide “America Prays” initiative, as well as state leaders in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and more who are taking action to get Bibles and/or the Ten Commandments included in public school classrooms again.I’m not suggesting a mandated belief in the theology of the Bible, but rather a general and practical K-12 education and inclusion of how the Bible’s rules, order, and tenets were foundational to our nation.Just as kids should learn that slavery is abhorrent (as the Bible teaches), it's imperative that young Americans learn how our founders’ vision of limited government, through faith-based values of blind justice and truthful morality, only works when citizens have a mutually respected moral compass. Countless historical writings, works, and landmarks prove that America’s hard-fought liberty is contingent on ethical citizens.Get God — and the goodness, hope, virtue, and equality taught in the Bible — back into our schools and communities now, because what we’ve been doing for the last 75 years isn’t working. And time’s running out.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that the U.K. will force all workers to have a digital ID, which he claimed is a tool to help crack down on out-of-control immigration. But Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is well aware that’s not the real purpose of the digital ID — and that Americans need to watch out for this kind of government response to similar issues.“This government will make a new, free-of-charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this parliament. Let me spell that out. You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID,” Starmer said, addressing U.K. citizens.“It’s as simple as that. Because decent, pragmatic, fair-minded people, they want us to tackle the issues that they see around them. And, of course, the truth is we won’t solve our problems if we don’t also take on the root causes,” he continued.“Looking upstream to tackle poverty, conflict, climate change, issues that aren’t just intolerable for those of us who care about inequality and injustice where it’s found in the world, but which have clear consequences for our own citizens,” he added.Glenn sees right through Starmer's attempt to explain the dystopian system away. “They have a problem in England with people coming across the water and just invading the country. And then they’re taking all the jobs from, you know, decent Brits. And they haven’t stopped them, you know, they’re welcoming them in. They’re not turning them away. They’re not sending them back home or anything,” he says. Instead of turning immigrants away or sending them back to solve the problem of illegal immigration, they’re implementing the digital ID.“This is the way progressivism works. They create the idea and then they cause the problem so that they can go back and say, ‘We need to do this to solve this problem.’ OK? So they’ve caused the problem of illegal immigration. They’ve caused the problem of all of these things happening on their streets. But don’t worry, they’ve already designed the answer and it’s a digital ID,” Glenn says.And what’s more worrisome, Glenn explains, is that the digital ID will “have complete control and oversight of your entire life.”“They want digital ID to control the population. That’s what all of this is about. Control your every movement, your every thought, your every word. Control it, regulate it, and make sure that you’re kept in line,” he adds.Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The teenager suspected of brutally beating an elderly worker at a rap concert in Kansas City over a week ago finally has been charged.The Juvenile Office of the 16th Judicial Circuit in Jackson County on Tuesday filed one felony assault charge and one misdemeanor assault charge against the teen suspect, WDAF-TV reported.'Kind of sad things got to this point.'A viral cellphone video shows a young male knocking down an elderly worker at a Sept. 21 NBA YoungBoy concert at the T-Mobile Center and then delivering well over a dozen blows to the worker's face and head.Police confirmed to Blaze News that the suspect is under the age of 16.WDAF in a previous story said the suspect also assaulted a security guard who ejected him from the venue.A T-Mobile Center spokesperson told Blaze News that the staff members "sustained serious injuries. After receiving prompt care from on-site first aid personnel, they were later treated at a local hospital for their injuries."RELATED: Viral video: High schooler physically attacks teacher in front of other students — then cop gives kid brutal wake-up call Officer Alayna Gonzalez of the Kansas City Police Department told Blaze News that the "juvenile male was detained and subsequently released to his guardian pending further investigation." However, police later told Blaze News that detectives on Friday submitted a case file to juvenile court "for consideration of applicable charges" against the teen suspect.The victim of the attack caught on video — 66-year-old Thomas Schlange — is seen on the clip trying to push away the teenager who towers over him, but Schlange has no chance. The teen begins delivering a flurry of lefts and rights as Schlange is flat on his back and trapped on the floor between two rows of seats.Schlange told WDAF in a follow-up story, "I went down and had blows to my head," and that his priority in those moments was "just getting him off, getting him off of me ... because he was so enraged, so we were just, in essence, trying to protect the fans."So what allegedly set off the suspect?Witness and local pastor Robert McDaniel told the station the attack commenced after the suspect was told his ticket didn't match the seat he was in."He was asked to move to another place because his ticket wasn't where he was sitting, and immediately he just completely lost it," McDaniel recounted to WDAF.In the viral video of the attack, a man is pulling the teen off Schlange, who appears dazed, and blood is visible around his mouth.That man who intervened — the only person who stepped up and stopped the brutal beating — is Antonio Clayter.He described to WDAF in another story what he saw in that moment, noting that Schlange was "just doing his job" when "the kid ... just spazzed out, and he pushed him." When the teen suspect began pummeling Schlange, Clayter appeared in the camera frame and pulled the attacker off."I had to," Clayter recalled to WDAF. "It wasn't even a feeling; it was something that had to be done. Like, I have family members that are that age. This isn't right. ... I was raised with morals and values. You can't act like that, especially to our elders."RELATED: Male, 19, accused of hitting girlfriend's baby in head so hard that little girl had to go on ventilator. Now she's dead. Clayter also offered a warning to the teen, the station said: "You can't grow up with that type of mentality, because you're not gonna get far in life at all. ... I've been in trouble, and I know what road that you can go down. ... You're not gonna get anywhere good besides prison or dead that way, bro."After the charges against the teen were announced Tuesday, Schlange told WDAF that "accountability is important. But [it's] actually kind of sad things got to this point. Restraint, cooperation, and respect are important lessons to learn."The station said hearings in the case are closed to the public, and Missouri law requires the names of juveniles in the juvenile justice system to be confidential.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

"Someone left the cake out in the rain/I don't think that I can take it 'cause it took too long to bake it." Love it or hate it, here's the story. The post ‘MacArthur Park’: The Jimmy Webb Recipe for a Hit appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

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