Morning Brief 2022-06-06

Bottom of Hour 2
GUEST: Sen. Rand Paul
TOPIC: To discuss his budget plan and his challenger whose recent ad featured the Democrat candidate wearing a noose.

Top of Hour 3
GUEST: Michael Shellenberger
TOPIC: To discuss his primary and hopeful challenge to Gov. Newsome in California.

News...

If Joe Biden Cared About Gun Laws, Hunter Biden Would Already Be In Jail
Before Biden goes on lecturing Americans about responsible gun ownership and threatening to regulate ownership out of existence, some self-reflection is warranted.

Democratic senator Chris Murphy says Second Amendment restrictions are off the table
Congress is talking about changing the nation’s gun laws but won’t touch the idea of banning “assault weapons.”

500 Percent Spike In Biden Administration Shutting Down Gun Retailers Over Typos
Firearm license revocations for retailers have increased greatly, and overzealous inspectors risk retailers’ cooperation with law enforcement.

Uvalde mother claims police threatened her if she did not stop telling her story
Angeli Gomez said she was threatened by an officer who warned she would be charged with "obstruction of justice" if she did not stop telling her story. The charge would have serious consequences because she was on probation.

In San Francisco, Democrats Are at War With Themselves Over Crime
Fueled by concerns about burglaries and hate crimes, San Francisco’s liberal district attorney, Chesa Boudin, faces a divisive recall in a famously progressive city.

Pennsylvanians Say State on Wrong Path, Many Consider Leaving: Poll
Across parties, the top category of concern voters picked was “Rising prices and inflation,” followed by “The economy and jobs,” and third, “Taxing and spending.” Very few participants picked COVID, education, or public safety as a top concern.

Major corporate donors silent on Black Lives Matter's alleged self-dealing
Major corporations that made a show out of cutting checks to the national Black Lives Matter group in the aftermath of George Floyd's police killing in May 2020 now have nothing to say about the charity's corruption.

Hawaii man refuses to surrender 'FCK BLM' vanity license plate
The license plate appears to have been spotted on a red Pontiac Trans Am. The driver also had a sign that read: "Trump 2024 Because F*** You."

Texas woman shoots suspected stalker who kicked in front door
The unidentified man was pronounced dead at the scene.

30 dead dogs, cats found in home of South Carolina animal rescue CEO
Investigators uncovered the revolting scene while performing a wellness check after a neighbor reported a “smell of death”

Original Gerber baby dies at 95
Gerber, which began using Ann Turner Cook's baby portrait as its logo since its trademark in 1931.

Politics...

McCormick Concedes To Oz In PA Senate Primary
Conceded on Friday after a statewide recount, vows to back Oz candidacy.

Biden’s Approval Craters On Key Issues, Potentially Dragging Down Dems In Midterms: Poll
ABC News and Ipsos found that Biden’s approval rating on the economic recovery sits at just 37%; on inflation, just 28%. What spells trouble is the fact that those issues are the top two concerns for voters in the November elections.

WaPo: Black voters’ support for Biden has cooled, poll finds
Black voters overwhelmingly support Democrats and still back Biden more than other groups. But that support has fallen, and fewer say the election matters than in 2020.

GOP sharpens a new attack line: What Biden is doing to America is 'intentional'
From the border to inflated gas prices, Republicans now see a deliberate plan to alter the republic after months of suggesting Biden was clueless.

DeSantis tops Donald Trump in another straw poll
This weekend, the Western Conservative Summit 2024 straw poll in Colorado saw 71% approval for a DeSantis run, four points ahead of Trump.

Biden evacuated and military jets are scrambled after aircraft veered into airspace over Joe's beach house
Preliminary investigation revealed the small private plane entered the restricted airspace 'by mistake' and there was 'no threat to the President or his family,' a Secret Service spokesperson confirmed.

Three More Staffers Ditch Biden In One Week
One NBC report alleged that the West Wing is in for a significant shakeup over Biden’s stagnant and slumped polling numbers. More than a dozen top aides have left Harris’s office and more than 20 black staffers have left the White House since late 2021.

Young Democratic men think feminism has done more harm than good
The SPLC last week released a poll in which they asked men if they believe feminism has “done more harm than good.” Of younger Democratic men, 46% agreed, 41% disagreed and 13% stated they didn’t know.

J6 Show Trial Committee set to make its case public with prime-time hearings
The circus will start at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 9.

GOP to go on the offensive, portray J6 Show Trial Committee probe as 'unconstitutional and illegitimate'
With little fanfare Republicans have gathered significant evidence about the Democrats' failure to preemptively protect the Capitol, turning down an offer for National Guard troops and failing to react to intelligence warnings.

TDS: Cheney claims Jan. 6 'attack' part of ‘extremely well-organized' conspiracy
“We are, in fact, in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack,” she added.

DOJ Decides Not to Charge Former Trump Aides; J6 Show Trial Committee Outraged
"...we find the decision to reward Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for their continued attack on the rule of law puzzling,” Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney said in a joint statement.

Economy...

This will end well: Congress pushes for a new national retirement plan
An estimated 57 million workers have no retirement plan offered through their job. Thankfully, the government has an answer and a legislative proposal is coming soon.

As food prices soar with no end in sight, Americans change habits
Report found that 46% of Americans are either dining out less or consciously spending less when dining out.

Average U.S. gas price surges to record $4.85 a gallon Sunday
As prices rise, consumer consumption is dropping at a rate of 3% to 5% the past seven weeks.

NY Times: Biden Has ‘Only Bad Options’ for Bringing Down Oil Prices
The president’s trip to Saudi Arabia is unlikely to reduce oil and gasoline prices, and it is not clear that anything else he might do would work, either.

Fed’s Mester says inflation hasn’t peaked and multiple half-point rate hikes are needed
Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said Friday that she doesn’t see enough evidence that inflation has peaked and is on board with supporting multiple interest rate increases.

A paradigm shift has begun in markets, says Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick
Global markets are at the beginning of a fundamental shift after a 15-year period defined by low-interest rates and cheap corporate debt.

Cardi B Wants To Know When ‘They’ Will Announce The Recession
“When y’all think they going to announce that we going into a recession?” she asked.

WAR News... 

Germany is on the brink of recession due to energy security, and other parts of Europe could be close behind
The EU's GDP could be slashed by 2.5% to 4.2% if energy imports from Russia were to be halted.

Russia Seeks Buyers for Stolen Ukraine Grain, U.S. Warns
American diplomats have alerted 14 countries, most in Africa, that Russian ships filled with stolen Ukrainian grain could be headed their way, posing a dilemma to countries facing dire food shortages.

Former NATO chief warns Black Sea will be next front in Ukraine war
“You’re going to see another … front open in this conflict, which is going to include escorting grain tankers in and out of Odessa,” former Admiral James Stavridis said in an interview.

Putin warns US against sending long-range rockets to Ukraine
Putin said Russia will retaliate by striking new targets

Japan's prime minister is expected to participate in an upcoming NATO summit
The Strait Times reported that Kishida’s move marks an “unusually aggressive stance for a Japanese leader.”

MONKEYVID-2219...

Special Olympics removes vaccine mandate after Florida threatens $27 million fine
A representative for DeSantis rejected the idea that the governor "threatened" the Special Olympics. "It’s not a matter of being 'threatened' with anything. Florida has laws, and nobody is above the law. Special Olympics International was in violation of Florida’s law banning vaccine passports..."

CDC director spoke with union leaders before tightening masking guidance
Rochelle Walensky, other CDC officials kept in close contact with teachers' unions throughout the coronavirus pandemic

Twitter in settlement talks with deplatformed journalist Alex Berenson to end COVID censorship suit
Parties agreed to a "modest extension of the discovery deadlines" to focus on resolving the dispute over former New York Times reporter's removal for COVID tweet now considered mainstream.

NY Times: CEO's think it's 2019
If some corporate leaders have their way, there will be a new test for workplace devotion — and anyone who opts for remote work gets a failing grade. But can CEOs really claw their way back to 2019?

DC confirms first case of Monkeypox
The CDC has now identified 24 monkeypox cases in the U.S.

Entertainment...

Maverick now Tom Cruise’s top-grossing film domestically
Maverick is expected to tally $85 million by the weekend’s end for a total of $290 million in domestic earnings — good enough for the smallest decline ever among movies that earned $100 million in their opening weekend.

Media...

Warnock using Herschel Walker podcast with Glenn Beck in attack ad
The clip comes from an August 2020 appearance Walker made on Beck's podcast.

Whoopi Goldberg: 'AR-15’s got to go' but you can keep your 'yee-haw guns'
"You can have your other yee-haw guns, whatever you want. The AR-15 is not a hunting gun. It is not a gun where you’re going to go out and shoot your dinner. This gun is meant to kill people. That’s what it’s for. And you can’t have it anymore.”

CNN Enters the Post-Jeff Zucker Era. Bye-Bye ‘Breaking News’ Banners.
Chris Licht, the new CNN chairman, is encouraging a more nuanced approach to coverage. Some at the network are skeptical.

WaPo Issues Corrections To Taylor Lorenz’s Article After Two Sources Accuse Her Of False Reporting
YouTubers alleged Taylor Lorenz never reached out to them for comment after her story said she did

Washington Post reporter blasts colleague for retweeting 'sexist' joke
Weigel retweeted a post by a Twitter user who joked: “Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”

Terrorism...

UN: Al-Qaeda Now Has ‘Safe Haven’ In Afghanistan Under Taliban
“Member State assessments thus far suggest that Al-Qaeda has a safe haven under the Taliban and increased freedom of action."

Terrorists Massacre 50+ Christians In ‘Vile And Satanic’ Attack On Nigerian Church
The terrorists rode up on motorcycles and began shooting those who showed up for mass at St Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo. Guns are strictly regulated in Nigeria as citizens have “no legal right to gun ownership”

LGBTQIA2S+...

Videos from 'Drag the Kids to Pride' event in Texas show children handing money to drag queen dancers
A Texas gay bar hosted a "Drag the Kids to Pride" event where drag queen dancers provocatively gyrated in front of children as young as toddlers. Tensions flared when protesters demonstrated outside the venue hosting the drag queen show for children.

Five Tampa Rays players refuse to wear Gay Pride logo
The group of players opted to peel off the rainbow logo and wear the standard Rays hat for the team's 16th annual Pride Night celebration Saturday.

Education...

School Board closes Title IX investigation over wrong pronouns
The Kiel School District has closed its Title IX sexual harassment investigation into three eighth-grade students who allegedly used the wrong pronouns when addressing another student who uses they/them pronouns.

DeSantis Torches Biden For Holding School Lunches Hostage Over Gender Ideology In Schools
“Totally off his rocker to be doing that,” DeSantis continued. “We’re fighting on that, don’t worry."

Health...

A Cancer Trial’s Unexpected Result: Remission in Every Patient
It was a small trial, just 18 rectal cancer patients, every one of whom took the same drug. The cancer vanished in every single patient. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Dr. Diaz said.

Doctors transplant 3D-printed ear made from human cells
Doctors have successfully transplanted a 3D-printed ear made from human cells onto the face of a 20-year-old woman who was born with a misshapen ear, a notable breakthrough in tissue engineering with the first-of-its-kind procedure.

Meet THE AMERICAN who invented the donut in 1847
96% of Americans say they enjoy donuts. But who are the 4%?

DailyMail Claim: Doughnuts are a British invention
The recipe for 'dow nuts' included sugar, eggs, nutmeg, butter and yeast, which are made into a dough which is rolled out and cut into 'nuts'. The nuts are then deep-fried in 'hogs-lard' before being covered in sugar and left by the fire to rise.

Technology...

"Lots of luck on his trip to the moon": Biden responds to Elon Musk's 'super bad feeling' about US economy
"...Intel is adding 20,000 new jobs for making computer chips," Biden said. "So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon. I mean I don't know. I mean. Uh. You know."

Elon Musk asks questions about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, the media, and the DOJ
"Only thing more remarkable than DOJ not leaking the list is that no one in the media cares. Doesn’t that seem odd?" Musk then joked, "Sometimes I think my list of enemies is too short, so …"

Elon Musk's feud with Bill Gates continues
Gates argued he had put more money toward climate change than Musk or anyone else, and shorting Tesla's stock didn't hurt Musk.

Artificial intelligence spotted inventing its own creepy language
DALLE-E2 is OpenAI‘s latest AI system – it can generate realistic or artistic images from user-entered text descriptions. But the system has one strange behavior – it’s writing its own language of random arrangements of letters, and researchers don’t know why.

2007: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, cu labores definitionem mel, ex nisl conclusionemque sed

2012: Ea sed ocurreret disputando, amet salutatus pri ex, dico facer nec ea. Ad nonumy insolens eos, sed cu facete ornatus urbanitas, ut euripidis dissentiunt eum.

2020: Nam diam saperet accumsan ea, id tacimates dignissim cum, id mea audiam ceteros.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.