R Magic Brow

"Convert or get hurt." Three words, one warning. If you’re a new arrival at a British prison and unlucky enough to land in the wrong wing, they might be the first thing anyone says to you. A terrifying ultimatum delivered by men who know that they can do as they want and suffer no consequences for their actions, no matter how savage they may be.Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, recently detailed the Islamification of British prisons. His report described Islamist prisoners operating as “self-styled 'emirs,'" running private empires built on intimidation and plenty of beatings. Every single year, tens of thousands of American prisoners convert to Islam. Usman Khan, who murdered two young Cambridge graduates at Fishmongers' Hall in a 2019 terror attack, spent years before that pressuring other inmates to convert. Sudesh Amman, who stabbed two people in Streatham days after his 2020 release, did the same thing behind bars. Along with recruiting and converting, both men taught other Muslim thugs the most effective methods to spread extremism and ensure compliance.Coerced conversionHall's review also found evidence of systematic "recruitment" of non-Muslims. New arrivals who didn’t identify as Muslim were denied protection from the dominant faction on their wing. In prisons across the U.K., Islam has taken on clear gang characteristics. It operates through forced initiations, protection rackets, and severe punishment. There are designated lookouts enforcing control over prison wings, while prisoners are pressured to join gang-run prayer groups simply to stay safe.The numbers are alarming. Muslims make up 18% of the prison population in England and Wales, compared with 6.5% of the general population. But the most revealing stat is that one in five Muslim prisoners is white, a figure utterly detached from everyday Britain. It’s clear that white inmates are systematically targeted and pressured into converting, much like how Muslim rape gangs have targeted white girls across the U.K. for decades.The mainstream narrative about the rise of Islam behind bars rests on a particularly absurd modern myth. We’re repeatedly told that Islam is exclusively a religion of peace. Believing this requires ignoring vast swaths of foundational texts. The Quran contains explicit directives authorizing warfare, conquest, and the violent subjugation of nonbelievers. Examples include Surah 9:5, which commands the slaughter of non-Muslims wherever they are found, and Surah 9:29, which calls for war against infidels until they acquiesce and pay tribute to Allah. To claim that a faith rooted largely in the need for violence contains no theological blueprint for violence is utterly ridiculous.RELATED: To raise Christian children who become Christian adults, one simple habit matters most Eric Thayer/Getty Images'Cut-and-paste Islam'Equally ridiculous is the assumption that the Islamification of prisons is a uniquely British problem. It is not. Every single year, tens of thousands of American prisoners convert to Islam. Frank Cilluffo of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute spent years documenting the rise of "cut-and-paste Islam" or "prison Islam." In extensive congressional testimony and policy reports, Cilluffo detailed how American correctional facilities are hotbeds of Islamic extremism. Radical inmates assume the role of radical imams, using the Quran’s most aggressive verses to enforce territorial control and legitimize brutality among inmates. Many of these prisoners eventually re-enter American society, completely brainwashed by Islamic teachings.The exact same dynamic has played out in other Western nations, and the consequences have been deadly.In France, Cherif Kouachi, a terrorist responsible for the murder of innocent journalists, spent 20 months at Fleury-Merogis prison, where he met an unhinged imam connected to bin Laden. Amedy Coulibaly, a young man who murdered a policewoman and four hostages at a supermarket days later, was also radicalized while serving time.Australia provides another concrete example of this perverse pattern. In 2007, Bassam Hamzy, serving 21 years for murder at Goulburn's Supermax, converted more than a dozen fellow inmates to radical Islam, specifically targeting indigenous prisoners for recruitment. Through his Brothers 4 Life Gang, he sought out new followers and punished those who refused to comply.Brutal systemFrom London to Los Angeles, Paris to Perth, four Western countries have produced almost identical findings. Christianity might be losing its appeal among the incarcerated and the general population. The same isn't true of Islam.I’m not asking you to feel sorry for every non-Muslim inmate who is pressured into serving Allah. That would be an idiotic request. Many of these men are absolute animals. They belong behind bars and deserve no sympathy. But we must recognize that Western nations have become home to a brutal system that allows gang leaders to use Islamic identity as their primary means of domination. Unless the powers that be intervene to dismantle that system, this cycle of prison radicalization will continue in the U.K., the U.S., and beyond. What happens in prison doesn’t necessarily stay in prison; today’s incarcerated Islamist could become tomorrow’s suicide bomber. Ignoring the threat inside the cell block only guarantees that innocent people will have to face it outside.

If you've been shopping for a used car lately and wondering why your money doesn't seem to go very far, you're not imagining it.On a recent episode of “The Drive,” my co-host Karl Brauer and I looked at just how much the used-car market has changed since before the pandemic. Karl is executive analyst at iSeeCars, which tracks vehicle prices, and one number jumped out immediately.A 3-year-old Hyundai Elantra that might have cost $12,000 or $13,000 in 2019 is now around $24,000.The average price of a three-year-old used car has risen 38% since 2019. That's roughly $9,000 more for a car of the same age.That's a lot. But another number may tell you even more about what has happened to ordinary car buyers.Going olderIn 2019, a $20,000 budget put nearly half — 49.5% — of all one- to five-year-old used cars within reach. Today, that same $20,000 gets you access to just 11.4%.And if you can't increase your budget, there's really only one place to go: older.In 2019, you only had to look at cars about four years old before a majority of the used market fell below $20,000. Today, you have to go back about seven years.Edmunds is seeing the same thing. Its second-quarter 2026 data found that a $10,000 to $15,000 budget now buys a used vehicle averaging 8.7 years old and nearly 98,000 miles. In 2019, that same money bought a car averaging just 4.7 years old with about 58,000 miles. In other words, the same budget now gets you a vehicle roughly four years older with about 40,000 more miles.RELATED: This used-car odometer scam is everywhere — and impossible to detect CBS Photo Archive/Getty ImagesNot the sameThere's nothing inherently wrong with buying a seven- or eight-year-old car. I've owned plenty of older vehicles, and a well-maintained car can have years of life left in it. But you're not buying the same thing. Mileage is probably higher, maintenance history matters more, and repairs that aren't much of a concern on a three-year-old car start becoming part of the equation.Karl gave me a couple of examples that put the change in perspective. A three-year-old Hyundai Elantra that might have cost $12,000 or $13,000 in 2019 is now around $24,000. A comparable Toyota Camry went from roughly $14,000 or $15,000 to about $24,000.I still tell people to consider used or certified pre-owned before automatically buying new. Used cars can offer tremendous value, particularly because somebody else has already absorbed that initial depreciation. But “buy used” isn't enough advice in today's market.Know your worthKnow what the vehicle should be worth. Look at its history. Find out what maintenance has already been performed and what expensive service may be coming. If a seller can't provide satisfactory answers about the condition or maintenance of an older vehicle, be prepared to walk away.And don't let today's prices convince you that spending $20,000 means you're buying the kind of car $20,000 bought a few years ago. That's the real problem with the current market.The price may look familiar. The car attached to it isn't.

Last summer, European news outlets reported that “volunteers” from Mexican and Colombian drug cartels had infiltrated Ukraine’s military — considered the world’s “drone superpower” — to learn cutting-edge drone warfare so they could use the knowledge to kill their enemies back home.Claims that this problem is ongoing have not yet been publicly verified by the U.S. intelligence community or the media. As yet, however, they remain undisputed. They now demand further scrutiny and broader attention in the United States to prompt appropriate action. If it’s not too late, and if the reports are correct, the U.S. urgently needs to terminate this knowledge transfer from Ukrainian soldiers to Latin America’s crime lords.'The drone industry has exploded, and criminals have adapted the technology for attacks, which is a major challenge to battlefield aerial supremacy.'American military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel are deployed for clandestine work inside and around Mexico and Colombia, working to eradicate the very same criminal organizations now siphoning drone expertise from Ukraine.This means that top-of-the-line, battlefield-proven tech and tactics could empower vengeful cartel murderers to do to U.S. ground personnel what the Ukrainian army claims it did to 30,000 Russian soldiers in July alone.One might hope that, after the problem was made public in 2025, Ukraine quickly moved to clear out all cartel infiltrators. One would be sadly disappointed. The Financial Times reported that Ukraine has discovered yet more Colombians with organized crime connections in-country, demonstrating “unusual obsessions” about battlefield drone fighting. The exfiltration problem persists.“Former paramilitaries, former guerrillas, and former soldiers are fighting and learning together here how to operate drones,” a Colombian aid worker in Ukraine told the Financial Times for the August 6 story. U.S. outlets, meanwhile, are largely sitting this one out so far.U.S. lawmakers should note the bitter irony that the drone warfare knowledge America’s enemies are stealing was funded by some of the $70 billion in U.S. taxpayer money appropriated to Ukraine. Then they should use that as leverage: There are tens of billions more dollars in the pipeline, which should be withheld until the gang operatives are purged.What we think we knowOn July 30, 2025, the French website Intelligence Online first reported that Ukraine’s Security Service launched an investigation after Mexico’s National Intelligence Center warned that Mexican cartel fighters had infiltrated Spanish-speaking units of the International Legion.Their alleged intention was to learn how to fly first-person view drones, gather ideas for drone-attack tech, and study battlefield tactics that Ukraine’s armed forces have famously used to stall Russia’s invasion.Foreign outlets keep turning up new information. Poland and Bulgaria have begun their own investigations into smuggling pipelines through their territories. Granular details seem to bolster the reports. For instance, some volunteers already accomplished in drone fighting have joined the legion’s specialized tactical intelligence combat unit, known as “Ethos,” in the combat-heavy Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, according to the reports.Polish officials reportedly revealed that private Mexican and Colombian security companies with alleged ties to drug trafficking networks financed and smuggled the volunteers into Ukraine through neighboring countries. One Colombian security firm based in Cali and Medellín reportedly recruited former Colombian Army rangers.One smuggled Mexican legion volunteer, operating under the alias “Aguila-7,” registered in March 2024 using fraudulent Salvadoran documentation. He proved so technically proficient during drone training in Lviv that instructors called for an investigation, which later found probable connections to Mexico’s elite GAFE air-mobile special forces. Former GAFE personnel have joined cartels, the reports said.RELATED: The Navy has a choice: Get better or become less relevant HUGE PERALTA/AFP/Getty ImagesWhy it mattersThe infiltrations coincide with President Trump’s day-one declaration of a U.S. war to eradicate the cartels, designating many as foreign terrorist organizations. If cartel leaders are out to avenge what they have suffered, their drones can find many more targetable American personnel.No one should have been surprised, for instance, when two CIA officers died this past April in a Chihuahua State car accident while traveling with Mexican forces after a drug lab raid. They were present because Trump has surged military and CIA personnel into Mexico and Latin America, as well as naval and aircraft assets for lethal boat bombing operations that have killed hundreds of drug smugglers. The operations have included supposed CIA-facilitated assassinations in Mexico.An “Americas Counter Cartel Coalition” of 19 Latin American countries is heavily reliant on local national security forces within which U.S. intelligence community operatives are embedded. Additionally, some 9,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed along 845 miles of the U.S. southern border in expanding “National Defense Areas” intended to deny cartel drug-load entries along with illegal immigration. By many accounts, gangs in Colombia and Mexico are angry about the resulting killings, drug lab raids, boat bombings, profit disruptions, and imprisonments on U.S. terrorism charges.By now, we would know if the cartels were killing more American personnel. They are not, likely deterred by the knowledge that crossing such a bright line would incur even more painful American wrath. But are the cartels building that capacity to get Trump off their backs in due time?Before any reporting about cartels in Ukraine, Mexico’s cartels were already using sloppily repurposed commercial drones to drop grenades and explosives on rivals and indigenous security forces. That’s still happening in Mexico and Colombia, including the first recent attacks by FPV drones. In October 2025, a coordinated three-drone FPV attack hit the state prosecutor’s office in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, destroying six vehicles a mile from the U.S. border.Senior Colombian officials told the outlet they are already seeing Ukraine-style first-person-view drones in recent widespread use. However, a Colombian drone pilot in Ukraine told the Financial Times that pilots still hadn’t mastered how to replicate some technology or set explosive charges.“The drone industry has exploded, and criminals have adapted the technology for attacks, which is a major challenge to battlefield aerial supremacy,” Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez told the newspaper.What to do nowUkraine-style drone attacks against Americans in Mexico or Colombia could upend U.S. counter-cartel initiatives tactically and politically. Body bags returning home are a tragedy. But they also have a way of undermining public support in any war. Tactics and strategic trajectories change as a result. Just ask Moscow.To head off this shameful outcome, the White House must forcefully leverage direct U.S. military aid to have Kyiv immediately remove cartel operatives from its formations, subject to direct verification by American investigators.Next, the U.S. must speed up and diversify current efforts to counter the emerging drone threat along the border and to help foreign allied governments protect embedded U.S. personnel. The U.S. should do what it can to intercept drone equipment and technology imports into Latin America. And leadership should make sure American soldiers and operatives posted abroad burrow deeper out of sight.In the meantime, if anyone wonders whether the U.S. might actually redouble its efforts if the cartels kill any Americans, the Trump administration should loudly message that they had better believe we will.Editor's note: This article was originally published in the American Mind.

The greatest threat to America isn’t military invasion or economic collapse — but a slow, conscious effort to change how Americans perceive reality itself.In a discussion on psychological warfare and ideological subversion, BlazeTV host Nick Freitas revisits a famous Cold War-era warning from former KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov, who argued that nations can be weakened from within through a decades-long process of demoralization.“Psychological warfare,” Bezmenov began in his now famous warning. “What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”“It’s a great brainwashing process, which goes very slow, and it’s divided in four basic stages,” he continued.The first stage, Bezmenov said, is “demoralization.”“It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation,” he explained.“Marxism Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students without being challenged ... by the basic values of Americanism, American patriotism,” he continued.“You cannot change their mind. Even if you expose them to authentic information,” he added.“Think about what Bezmenov says there,” Freitas comments. “And again, ladies and gentleman, he’s saying this in the 1980s. This is during the Reagan administration.”“He’s like, ‘No, no, you’re too far gone with too many of your students with your younger generation because they’ve just been fed this relentlessly. This was by the '80s,” he continues.“Well, we’re in 2026,” he adds.“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.