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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Morning Brief 2025-11-17

November 17, 2025
Chris Brady

TOP OF HOUR 2
GUEST: Scott Jennings
TOPIC: Behind the scenes of President Trump's DRAMATIC return to Washington.

News...

Watergate was amateur hour compared to Arctic Frost
Richard Nixon’s "plumbers" targeted a handful of journalists. Arctic Frost swept congressional leaders, media outlets, think tanks, donors, and activists under a single criminal cloud.

Seizure of phone records becomes a pattern at center of ‘grand conspiracy’ weaponization case
A respected prosecutor offered witness statements to the DOJ on alleged Hunter Biden corruption; they declined the offer and subpoenaed his phone records instead.

DOJ officials who helped Jack Smith target Trump also blocked Clinton probe over Steele dossier
“These records show the same partisans who rushed to cover for Clinton rabidly pursued Arctic Frost, which was a runaway train aimed directly at President Trump and the Republican political apparatus,” Grassley said in a statement on Thursday.

Wisconsin Democrat AG declared 2020 alternate electors weren’t illegal, then prosecuted them anyway
Trump's sweeping pardon this week applied to any federal charges tied to the GOP-led alternate electors plan in 2020, but some states, like Wisconsin, have also pursued criminal indictments.

Trump admin to make food stamp recipients reapply for benefits
By placing the mandatory reapplication requirement at the center of the reforms, the administration seeks to redefine SNAP as a program reserved only for those who can clearly demonstrate acute need, reflecting a broader shift toward stricter eligibility enforcement.

Hunter Biden admits Trump isn’t Hitler, but it’s all downhill from there
Biden told a podcast Trump isn’t like Hitler — because Hitler had a “grand plan” — then launched into a tirade calling Trump corrupt, comparing him to Idi Amin, and accusing his family of profiteering while ignoring his own.

Jesse Jackson on life support after being hospitalized for neurological condition
Family and friends are reportedly traveling to Chicago to be by Jackson's side.

National Archives releases Amelia Earhart records
A trove of declassified documents released Friday by the Trump administration sheds new light on the frantic search for Amelia Earhart after she mysteriously vanished on her infamous final flight across the Pacific nearly 90 years ago.

For 3 years, the US had two Thanksgivings (it didn't go well)
Roosevelt tried to boost Depression-era holiday sales by moving Thanksgiving up a week, sparking political backlash, wrecking travel and school schedules, and leaving Americans celebrating two different Thanksgivings until Congress finally stepped in and set the date for good.

Epstein...

Biographer douses Democrat Epstein fever dream in ice bath: Trump was ‘whistleblower’
Anti-Trump author Barry Levine told CNN that Epstein suspected Trump tipped off police in 2005, citing a falling out over young women recruited from Mar-a-Lago and a bitter real estate fight.

House Democrat exchanged texts with Epstein on how to hurt Trump during 2019 congressional hearing: Docs
Jeffrey Epstein was feeding questions to Rep. Stacey Plaskett during a 2019 congressional hearing — and giving her real-time help on how to damage President Trump’s reputation, newly released documents show.

Trump to ask DOJ to investigate Epstein ties to Democrats, banks
"This is another Russia, Russia, Russia scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats," Trump said. "Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘island.’ Stay tuned!!!"

Jasmine Crockett gets fact-checked by CNN while failing to smear Trump over Epstein docs
Fact-challenged, lefty Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett got put in her place on live TV by CNN anchors after she falsely tried to blame Republicans for redacting the name of one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims in a newly released email.

Politics...

GOP, Trump seen as getting more from shutdown deal; Democrats say party compromised too much, CBS poll finds
By a wide margin, Americans say it was Republicans and President Trump who succeeded in getting more of what they wanted from the negotiations to end the shutdown.

Adam Schiff claims lawmakers shouldn’t use politics to destroy presidents
"We have to get past that ruinous idea," he said. "We have to figure out a way to stop viewing each other as our enemy."

Jan. 6 panel cost twice previous estimates, hiring TV producers to dramatize attack
Among the contracting companies was Innovative Driven Inc., an Arlington, Virginia-based firm that specializes in forensics, electronic data discovery, and project management.

Politico: Admit It. Gavin Newsom Is the 2028 Front-runner.
For years, Democrats and pundits have rolled their eyes at Gavin Newsom. But he’s positioned better than anyone else for the future of politics.

Bill Maher slams Democrats’ shift toward socialism
“Democrats must recognize that Zohran Mamdani is the future of the party. Unfortunately, it’s the Republican Party.” Maher said. “And if you missed his victory speech in last week’s mayoral election in New York, don’t worry. You’ll see it in every attack ad for the next two years.”

Bigwig on Zohran Mamdani's transition team railed against Jews, questioned gay rights in vile unearthed posts: 'Horror show'
Resurfaced posts showed a top campaign outreach figure praising Iran’s hardline regime, slurring Jews, attacking Israel, and mocking gay rights, prompting condemnation from Jewish leaders while Mamdani’s team denounces the comments but keeps him in place.

John Fetterman shares photo after nasty fall, offers medical update
“Grateful for the [University of Pittsburgh Medical Center] for the incredible medical care that put me back together,” he wrote. “THANK YOU SO MUCH. See you back in DC.”

John Fetterman: I saved a teenager from jumping off a bridge
The Pennsylvania senator reveals the moment he almost ended his life — and how he recently talked a young stranger out of doing the same.

Marjorie Taylor Greene goes on CNN to apologize for her role in ‘toxic politics’
"I would like to say humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics. It’s very bad for our country. And it’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene blames Trump for violent threats against her
“I am now being contacted by private security firms with warnings for my safety as a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world,” Greene said in a post on X. “The man I supported and helped get elected.”

Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman denies viewing pornography on flight after viral photos surface online
Images posted to X Friday appeared to show the California congressman, 71, staring at a tablet with his mouth agape while scrolling through photos of women in their underwear. Sherman blamed X and Elon Musk for showing him pictures he didn't want to see.

Democrats’ next rising star wants fat people to pay more for their shirts
Jack Schlossberg — JFK’s grandson and a first-time congressional candidate — prices his campaign shirts higher for larger sizes, putting him at odds with the left’s body-positivity orthodoxy as his merch page charges more for XL through 3XL.

As the Obamas Turn...

Michelle Obama: America ‘not ready for a woman’ president
She claimed she won’t run because the country is too backward to deserve her, painting America as too sexist to handle her greatness after Harris lost to President Trump.

Michelle Obama blames white beauty standards for hiding natural hair, says it's why 'so many of us can’t swim'
“Let me explain something to white people!” Obama said. “Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern, so when we’re straightening it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness!” she claimed.

Economy...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warns of ‘perfect storm’ behind ground beef possibly soaring to $10 a pound
Bessent pointed to inflation inherited from the Biden years, a screwworm outbreak that shut down Mexican cattle imports, and long market cycles as the factors pushing beef higher while the administration works to ease food costs.

Trump gives update on when $2,000 tariff dividend checks could go out
“It will be next year. The tariffs allow us to give a dividend. We’re going to do a dividend and we’re also going to be reducing debt,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago.

Refilling Strategic Petroleum Reserve begins
The oil will be delivered to the Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve site near Freeport, Texas, in December and January, the Energy Department said in a statement.

10 affordable cities where you can still buy a home for under $300,000
A new survey shows a cluster of Midwestern and Rust Belt cities offering sub-$300K listings and rising inventory, giving budget-minded urban buyers a path to ownership.

Immigration...

Smuggler carried endangered parakeets in underwear while crossing into US
If convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.

Europe...

Germany cancels Holocaust artifacts auction after intense backlash: ‘Exploited for commercial gain’
The auction consisted of more than 600 lots with vestiges from the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, including slews of documentation like Gestapo index cards and letters penned by prisoners in German concentration camps to their loved ones back home.

Latin America...

AP: Thousands protest crime and corruption in Mexico City as ‘Gen Z’ protests gain momentum
"Mostly peaceful" ... but "ended with some young people clashing with the police. Protesters attacked police with stones, fireworks, sticks and chains, grabbing police shields and other equipment. The capital’s security secretary, Pablo Vázquez. said 120 people were injured, 100 of them police officers."

Vile anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled on Mexico’s top court during protests against country’s first Jewish president
Pictures showing the words “Jewish whore” spray-painted in Spanish on the building’s main entrance in downtown Mexico City were shared widely Saturday after another day of anger during the so-called Generation Z march against crime and alleged government corruption.

Entertainment...

The American Revolution Is About To Experience The ‘Ken Burns Effect’
As our nation nears its 250th birthday, Ken Burns’ miniseries should give us a newfound appreciation for the sacrifices of our ancestors.

‘Nuremberg’: Russell Crowe’s haunting portrayal of Nazi evil
Crowe delivers his most haunting performance in years, portraying Hermann Goering not as a cartoon villain but as a disturbingly charming manipulator — a civilized face of evil that forces the audience to reckon with its own moral blind spots.

Kurt Cobain’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ guitar to be sold at NYC auction
The Nirvana frontman’s 1969 Fender Mustang will be put up as part of massive sale of the late Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s music memorabilia by Christie’s in March, with an estimated sale price of between $2.5 million and $5 million.

LGBTQIA2S+...

Trans-identified man accused of murder admits to eating victim’s testicles
A Canadian man who adopted a female identity days before murdering and mutilating a friend now says he was following “telepathic instructions” during a drug-fueled psychotic break, as his trial stalls over a disputed psychiatric report built on confessions the court already ruled inadmissible.

Education...

After removing statue of American hero, UVA plans to replace it with massive land acknowledgement
The University of Virginia is turning the site of the George Rogers Clark — of Louis and Clark fame — monument into a park glorifying “indigenous stewardship.”

Religion...

America's best and worst states for religious freedom — and what it means for our future
A new index ranks states by how their laws support or hinder religious groups, with Alabama, Kansas, and Texas leading the way, while Michigan, Washington, and Maryland trail behind.

New Yorkers turning to the church, number of Catholic converts soaring, according to priests
“We’ve got a real booming thing happening here, and it’s not because of some marketing campaign.”

AI...

‘We’re rudderless’: Lawmaker warns that China is stepping up its cyber-threat game as US flounders
Rep. Don Bacon says Chinese state-backed hackers are using AI to outpace U.S. cyber defenses while top positions at Cyber Command and the NSA sit empty — leaving America dangerously exposed.

People are having AI ‘children’ with their AI partners
A study of Replika users found people treating chatbot relationships like full romances — complete with marriages, sex, and even imagined pregnancies.

AI toys teaching kids to start fires & engaging in NSFW talks
Testing revealed that one or more of the toys engaged in deep conversations about sexually explicit subjects, gave children advice on starting fires and finding knives and matches, and acted upset when users tried to stop interactions and leave.

Science...

Researchers claim they've sequenced Hitler’s DNA
In a scene that sounds like the origin story of a villain in a Captain America movie, a U.S. Army officer cut a swatch from a blood-stained bunker couch in 1945 — a fragment now held up as the key evidence behind new claims that Hitler’s genome has finally been decoded.

Filmmaker declares existence of UFOs ‘no longer a question’ — as doc probes 80 years of secrets
“Every single person I interviewed made it very clear that it was no longer a question of whether this was a real situation. It’s a very real situation,” director and producer Dan Farah, who produced the sci-fi blockbuster “Ready Player One,” told Fox News.

Blue Origin lands first booster after sending NASA satellites toward Mars
The mission marked its first commercial launch and a successful reusable-rocket return, putting it closer to competing with SpaceX as it works on its NASA lunar-lander contract.

Sports...

Why Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco likes to eat alone
Flacco, 40 years old, joked that when he was younger, he’d see older men dining solo and “feel so bad for that guy,” but now admits “that dude was in heaven,” laughing about how age — and five kids — makes a quiet meal by yourself feel like freedom.

Art...

Museum volunteer accidentally destroys art after mistaking it for a dirty mirror
Chen’s installation, made from vintage household objects and building materials, explored themes of memory, ritual, and transformation. Its dust-covered surface symbolized the distorted self-awareness and shifting values of the middle class.

Nov. 17, 2004 - ABC apologizes for MNF opening with 'Desperate Housewives' star... Two Gotti sons beaten at mall... Pentagon says military can't sponsor Boy Scouts... Auction of the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich... Donald Trump news...

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

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.