The Reading Wars

As the war with Iran  enters week number three, the left wing media has managed to keep up the narrative that it is a war that we can not win, a war that will have chilling effects on our homeland both economically and otherwise, and  perhaps the most hyped narrative, a war that should never have have been started by President Trump. That last point was discussed Saturday on MS NOW's Velshi. Ali Velshi played part of an interview that fellow MS NOW Host Ayman Mohyeldin conducted earlier that morning with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who represented Iran in the three way talks with the U.S. and Oman in the days leading up to the start of the war, and questioned the honesty of our men in the room.  MOHYELDIN: Do you believe Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were good faith negotiators conveying accurate information back to the White House about Iran's position during these negotiations? There's been some reports that you shouted at Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner that you threatened that you had enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear weapons. I want you to set the record straight on on those negotiations in the final days before the war. ARAGHCHI: Well, I don't know what they have conveyed to their boss. What I know is that on 26th February, when we met in Geneva, we were able to make a good progress as Omani Foreign Minister the  intermediary said it was a significant progress....They want to justify and unjustifiable act of aggression. So they are trying to make some excuses for themselves. I never said that we are going to make bombs.... We are ready to dilute them to down, blend them into lower degrees.... But how they have interpreted that, I don't know, maybe, maybe because the lack of enough knowledge, maybe because of, you know, their intentions to justify, as I said, the act of aggression which cannot be justified. So Mohyeldin trusts a spokesman for a tyrannical regime that's slaughtered thousands of protesters as the straight shooter in any negotiation, not the Trump team. That account is not how Witkoff heard it. And as he began his interview with Ben Rhodes, former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor, and MS NOW Contributor, Velshi failed to mention that Rhodes, according to a 2016 House Oversight Committee Report, "made misleading statements about the ability of inspectors to have “anytime, anywhere” access to Iranian nuclear facilities" under the JCPOA which President Trump withdrew from in 2018. Nor did he mention the $400 million given by Obama to Iran in 2016. And Rhodes didn't disappoint, eventually praising Araghchi, while trashing Witkoff and Kushner, after Velshi made a surprising remark about Araghchi. VELSHI: You know this, but the the Iranian diplomatic corps and their foreign ministers tend to be very sophisticated. And so it becomes hard to know what they're whether what they're saying is true or not, it becomes hard to parse that. From day one of this war, we've had conflicting reports about what happened in Geneva between the Americans, the Omanis and the Iranians. The Omanis seemed to back up the the Iranian, the Iranian position that there was progress being made. How do you interpret that exchange that Ayman just had with the Foreign Minister? RHODES: I mean, it's, it's pretty plausible to me, Ali, in part because it's backed up by other information. And first of all, Araghchi the Iranian Foreign Minister, he was the lead negotiator for the Iranians during the negotiations that led to the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, under the Obama administration. He's been and I this is relevant because, number one, he's been in negotiations about the Iranian nuclear program for well over a decade, right. Steve Witkoff was, you know, selling real estate like a year and a half ago, right.  And Araghchi also was a part of a government that could be tough negotiators. They could have shifting positions, but they actually kept their commitments under the JCPOA. Right. It was Trump who pulled out of it. So this is a guy who knows what he's talking about. On the substance of nuclear negotiations, much more than Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who found themselves in that room for reasons that we still don't understand. Were they just there as a smokescreen because Trump was going to bomb all along? Certainly feels that way to me, Ali, because we were moving the largest military force to the region since the Iraq war while this negotiation was going on. Right. So you don't have to like Araghchi's politics to think he's a more credible voice on these issues than Witkoff, who seemed to not know what the International Atomic Energy Agency was before he walked into this negotiation. We are at war, and treating the authoritarian enemy as the more credible source of information in all this is simply obscene. 

Over the past year, the Food and Drug Administration has done important work drawing attention to how food choices affect health. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deserves credit for shining a light on food additives and America’s dependence on processed foods.I’m a registered nurse and a mother. I applaud that work. But I also need to ask a hard question: Why aren’t childhood vaccines getting the same attention and urgency?We don’t force anyone to vaccinate. We shouldn’t. But we do owe families accurate information about the real risks of preventable diseases and the real protection vaccines provide.I’ve spent years in intensive care watching people of all ages fight respiratory illness. Even with experience, it’s brutal to see a patient cling to life through ventilators, intubation, or ECMO machines.Last year, I watched in horror as a measles outbreak took the lives of two unvaccinated children in Texas. Whooping cough killed two infants in Louisiana. Closer to home, my own child caught whooping cough. It was frightening and exhausting to see how coughing fits made it almost impossible for him to catch his breath.He was old enough to have received his vaccines. I believe that reduced the severity of his illness and likely kept him out of the hospital. That experience leaves me with one request to RFK: Give childhood vaccines the same serious focus you’ve given food safety.Kennedy says he cares about children. I believe him. That’s why I’m urging him to speak clearly about routine childhood immunizations — because I’ve seen what happens when preventable diseases return.Hospitals are treating illnesses that routine vaccines usually prevent or blunt. Last year, the CDC reported an increase in meningococcal disease, a dangerous illness that immunization can prevent. South Carolina is dealing with a record-breaking measles outbreak. These diseases can bring devastating outcomes: brain swelling from measles; brain damage, limb loss, or deafness from meningococcal infection.Gaps in routine immunization also open the door to pathogens we once had under control. A paralytic polio case in an unvaccinated person in New York in 2022 underscored what’s at stake: Irreversible paralysis still remains possible when vaccination rates fall.Childhood vaccines rank among public health’s most effective tools. They prevent outbreaks and protect children from serious infections and lifelong complications. They also fit comfortably inside a conservative framework. They’re voluntary. They’re widely available. They’ve been used for decades. Parents make informed choices for their families.RELATED: MAHA is sick: RFK’s FDA is drifting the wrong way Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesHigh vaccination rates also protect the most vulnerable. They reduce transmission, which helps safeguard infants too young to be vaccinated and children with medical conditions that keep them from receiving certain shots. That means fewer hospitalizations, less strain on health care systems, and healthier schools and communities.That’s why recent messaging from Washington worries me. Telling Americans to “talk to your doctor” sounds reasonable, until you face the reality on the ground. Roughly one-third of Americans lack access to primary care, and many children don’t have a regular provider. For millions of families, “talk to your doctor” translates to “you’re on your own.”Parents in small towns and working-class neighborhoods don’t always have easy access to specialists who can walk them through immunization questions. They want to do the right thing. They need clear, trustworthy guidance from national health leaders — not signals that create doubt about vaccines that protect kids.Vaccine conversations can get sensitive fast. Parents have questions, and they deserve honest answers. But they also deserve clear, consistent leadership that says what decades of evidence has shown: Routine childhood immunization works, and it protects children.We don’t force anyone to vaccinate. We shouldn’t. But we do owe families accurate information about the real risks of preventable diseases and the real protection vaccines provide.As a nurse, I work to prevent harm. As a mother, I refuse to accept a return to diseases we already know how to stop. As a conservative, I don’t want to break systems that save lives.We can make America healthy again by tackling chronic disease and by protecting kids from preventable infections. These goals don’t compete. They reinforce each other.

Former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan routinely has warriors on his podcast who have battled men using modern weaponry. Last week, he spoke to a warrior who battles demons using timeless weaponry: Christ's name, prayer, and the authority of his vocation.Over the course of his four-hour conversation with Ryan, Fr. Chad Ripperger — a Thomistic philosopher, psychologist, and founder of the Doloran Fathers — shared insights drawn from years serving as a Catholic exorcist in the Archdiocese of Denver, as well as from his study of church history and Christian theology.In addition to discussing potential signs of the Antichrist's imminence and the possibility that extraterrestrials might be the trappings of a demonic psy-op, Fr. Ripperger explained the different types of diabolic influence and described how the Church's major exorcism rite is carried out. Varieties of diabolic influence Fr. Ripperger — who stressed that he had "no intention of being an exorcist" and only does it out of obedience — identified several forms of diabolic influence, beginning with infestation, "where they infest houses or locations, inanimate objects, animals."'The demon's not necessarily in the driver's seat all the time.'The exorcist priest turned to Scripture for an example of animal infestation, referencing the ruination of pigs by the evil spirits cast out by Christ from the demoniac in Gergesa.Fr. Ripperger suggested that infestations are often the localized byproduct of sin: "It's because somebody has done something particularly evil in a location and, as a result, the demons have gotten their foot in the door there." Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty ImagesWhile occult activity can grease the way for an infestation, the exorcist said the sins demons tend to "gravitate toward the most — because they're easiest to get human beings to fall into — are the sins against the Sixth Commandment like fornication, masturbation, pornography, those types of things."Another form of diabolic influence — "the primary way" and a universal challenge — is ordinary temptation, where demons plant notions "in our imaginations," skew perspectives, and manipulate emotions. Though relatively subtle, Fr. Ripperger noted that this form of influence can still be destructive, particularly within relationships and families.Diabolic obsession is another variety in which demons "attack our interior faculties, specifically the imagination and emotions again — but unlike ordinary temptation, this is extraordinary, where it's very powerful and very strong," capturing the victim's attention and imagination and leaving them with a kind of spiritual "tunnel vision."While someone experiencing diabolic obsession may initially have periods of lucidity, Fr. Ripperger said those moments of reprieve can diminish over time if the influence persists. Eventually the victim may capitulate and commit a grave sin at the demon's urging — or possibly even become possessed.The priest described two kinds of diabolic possession. The first is "perfect possession, where the person has given themselves over to the demon entirely, and then the demon possesses the whole body, and the demon is manifested all the time."According to Fr. Ripperger, this condition — outward signs of which include malice, mendacity, animus, and destructiveness — is rare. Individuals in such a state rarely seek out priests, since they are not desirous of liberation.Partial possession, by contrast, refers to a temporary and localized possession of part of the body where "the demon's not necessarily in the driver's seat all the time."The exorcism riteWhen asked about the process of conducting an exorcism, Fr. Ripperger said the approach is structured, though the particulars vary depending on what is known about the individual, whether they have had prior encounters with dark forces, and what stage of diabolic influence they appear to be in."So in many cases, if the person who's possessed can tolerate it, we'll actually offer Mass so that the person can receive Holy Communion, which then weakens the demon significantly," he said, noting that confession is encouraged beforehand.After Mass but before the exorcism ritual begins in earnest, a series of prayers are recited "to provide everybody protection that's in the room.""So we do a series of prayers — binding prayers — which bind the demon from being able to do certain things, and then we'll actually start the formal ritual."The Latin ritual typically begins with the Litany of the Saints. According to Fr. Ripperger, this serves as a kind of diagnostic tool because a demon's reaction to the names of certain saints can reveal clues about "the demon's particular sin" and how best to proceed.From there, the exorcist alternates between "deprecatory and imprecatory prayer" — the former asking Christ for help and the latter commanding demons directly, ordering the evil spirits to consider specific truths that cause them pain.The goal, Fr. Ripperger explained, is to allow the demon's pain "to build to where they finally give you what you need to know in order to get them out."Canon law stipulates that "no one can perform exorcisms legitimately upon the possessed unless he has obtained special and express permission from the local ordinary."Such permission is granted "only to a presbyter who has piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life."The Catholic Church also requires that a suspected demoniac undergo "thorough examination including medical, psychological, and psychiatric testing" before being referred to an exorcist.The Church distinguishes between minor exorcisms — used, for example, in baptismal preparation — and major exorcisms, the rite discussed by Fr. Ripperger, which may only be performed by a bishop or an authorized priest.Fr. Ripperger told Ryan that "Protestants have a certain degree of efficacy [in exorcisms] by using Christ's name because it has a force of its own."However, he suggested that certain types of possession require the authority of the Catholic Church and its clergy — authority that traces back to Christ's commissioning of the apostles.Bad signs and end timesAsked where evil appears to be gaining ground in society, Fr. Ripperger said the forces of darkness have increasingly targeted good families — "families that historically led good lives, were raising their kids properly, very often very religious, doing the things that they're supposed to do."The priest suggested this "full-blown attack" on previously resilient targets may indicate that demons are emboldened by a worsening moral climate — or that they "know their time is short," possibly because a divine "corrective" is approaching.'That is not a reference to the Jewish temple.'Ryan asked whether such developments might signal the approach of the end times.While acknowledging that "we don't really have any certitude," Fr. Ripperger said several conditions traditionally associated with the Antichrist appear increasingly plausible.Among them: "A worldwide implosion of people's morality," in which "people just aren't following the laws of God or the natural law in any sense of the term"; The emergence of technological and institutional systems — such as unified global financial systems and digital currencies — capable of controlling populations on a mass scale; and Internal crisis within the Catholic Church prior to a future renewal. Fr. Ripperger also expressed skepticism about the idea that rebuilding a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem is a necessary precursor to the end times. He argued that the Church Fathers consistently held that such a temple would never be rebuilt and that the prophecy often cited in this context has been widely misunderstood.RELATED: Understanding hell — Part I Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images"The difficulty is people tend to misinterpret the Book of Daniel, which says when the abomination of desolation takes its seat in the temple," he said. "What they don't realize is that that is not a reference to the Jewish temple."Instead, he suggested that the New Covenant superseded the Old Covenant and that the "holy place" referenced in such passages should be understood as the Catholic Church. 'It permanently robbed a person of the possibility of the beatific vision.'Whatever the signs of the times, Fr. Ripperger emphasized that Christians must remain faithful.It is critical, he said, that believers "follow Christ regardless of the personal cost."Demonic psy-opFormer President Barack Obama claimed in an interview last month that aliens are "real."Although Obama later walked back the remark, President Donald Trump announced he would nevertheless be "directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)."Asked about UFOs and extraterrestrials, Fr. Ripperger suggested that some sightings could simply be government experiments — a suspicion reinforced by a 2025 Wall Street Journal report that found the Pentagon had at times disseminated false information about aliens to obscure sensitive weapons programs.However, he noted that many accounts of alien abductions closely resemble descriptions of demonic encounters.RELATED: What Shia LaBeouf's public struggle shows us about Christian redemption Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images"If you strip the veneer of the alien aspect of it off, then in point of fact what you're dealing with is just — they're just demons," he said.Fr. Ripperger added that some unidentified anomalous phenomena could also be what he called "diabolic mirage[s]" — supernatural illusions permitted by God in rare circumstances.Abortion: Demonic empowermentAfter Ryan brought up Baphomet — the goat-headed occult figure whose likeness the Satanic Temple adopted as its logo and displayed in a statue in the Iowa Capitol in 2023 — the conversation turned to abortion. Ryan asked about the demonic interest in child sacrifice.Fr. Ripperger said demons are empowered by abortion not only because it involves the killing of an innocent but because it denies the child the opportunity for baptism."We know of no other means of their salvation other than baptism. ... And so historically, the Church always considered abortion to be such a heinous crime because it permanently robbed a person of the possibility of the beatific vision. This is why the Church considered it so evil," he said.Obtaining an abortion is an excommunicable offense in the Catholic Church.The priest argued that demons "are so wed to" the widespread practice of abortion that they will "expend enormous amounts of energy protecting it" in order to prevent children "from ever seeing God."According to the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 1,038,000 abortions were executed in states without total bans in 2024. There were nearly 600,000 abortions in the first six months of 2025.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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