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The war with Iran has exposed the value of energy abundance. When a major shipping route goes down, domestic supply and reliable infrastructure buy a country room to maneuver.Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of global petroleum liquids moved through the Strait of Hormuz. Its disruption became the largest oil-supply shock on record. The shock has been severe, but the United States entered it from a position few countries enjoy: record domestic production and a mature system of pipelines, refineries, ports, storage facilities, and export terminals.The lesson from the Iran conflict is straightforward. Energy security requires abundant and diverse domestic supply, reliable supply chains, and infrastructure that can absorb a shock.U.S. crude oil output is on track to set another annual record this year, according to the Energy Information Administration. Natural gas production has also reached record levels. That domestic cushion cannot insulate Americans from a global oil shock, but it can keep a bad situation from becoming worse.The crisis also exposes the weakness of two familiar responses. Broad accusations of price-gouging are a poor substitute for understanding how energy markets work. Crude prices can jump immediately, and retail gasoline prices can follow as wholesalers and stations reprice the cost of replacement fuel, even though physical barrels still move through refineries, pipelines, terminals, and trucks.A ban on U.S. crude exports would create a different problem. American producers often export lighter crude, while many domestic refineries are configured to process heavier grades. Disrupting that trade would not magically produce more gasoline. It could strand some domestic barrels, reduce the incentive to produce them, and weaken the same supply response that helps cushion global shocks.Florida makes the larger point especially well. It is one of the nation’s biggest electricity consumers, and its energy system already depends on several sources.More than 70% of Florida’s in-state electricity generation came from natural gas in 2025, while nuclear supplied more than one-tenth and renewables about 12%. Nearly all the natural gas Florida consumes arrives from the Gulf Coast through interstate pipelines. The state’s size and growth make energy resilience a practical necessity, not an abstraction. Florida’s energy profile is a case study in why diversity and infrastructure both count.Florida also sits beside one of America’s largest strategic energy assets: the Gulf of America. The Gulf supplies about 14% of U.S. crude oil production and supports extensive offshore infrastructure, deepwater ports, processing facilities, and an experienced energy workforce.That does not mean energy security begins and ends with drilling. Responsible offshore development in the Gulf should be part of the strategy, alongside expanded nuclear power, continued growth in renewables, stronger transmission and pipeline capacity, and the storage and port infrastructure needed to move energy when normal routes are disrupted.RELATED: The diesel panic cure could make the disease worse Frederic J. BROWN/AFP/Getty ImagesEvery energy source carries environmental costs. Limiting domestic oil and gas production does not eliminate demand; it can move production to countries with weaker standards and worse oversight. The same problem is emerging with critical minerals. Solar panels, batteries, transmission systems, and advanced nuclear technology all require enormous quantities of mined and processed materials.Environmental protection therefore belongs inside energy policy. Development should meet high standards, and a greater share of the economic value created by domestic production should support conservation and restoration. Producing more of what America needs at home also gives the country greater room to respond when foreign supplies are disrupted.The lesson from the Iran conflict is straightforward. Energy security requires abundant and diverse domestic supply, reliable supply chains, and infrastructure that can absorb a shock. The United States should continue developing oil and natural gas in the Gulf while expanding nuclear and renewable power and maintaining strong environmental standards.Global instability is an argument for investment, not retreat. America needs enough energy, infrastructure, and natural resources to meet its own needs and support its allies without treating the landscapes and wildlife that are also part of the national interest as expendable.

Attorney and Federalist senior legal correspondent Margot Cleveland is taking the city of Dearborn, Michigan, which includes Muslim Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, to federal court.Cleveland alleges that the city has violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause by promoting one religion over others, and after hearing the full story, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck can’t help but agree.Glenn explains that the purpose of the First Amendment, when it comes to religion, is “protecting the religion against government,” not the other way around.“Well, in Dearborn, they’ve gone the opposite way. They are only celebrating Islamic holidays,” he says.And this is why Cleveland is taking the city to court.“If I didn’t do it, no one was going to do it,” she tells Glenn. “It has been a problem that I’ve been trying to rectify with the city for over a year. I did everything I could to try to avoid bringing a lawsuit. I basically went to city council and begged them to work with me, and they refused.”“But the mayor has made clear that he will favor Islam, that he has a disregard for people who disagree with Islam, who hold other beliefs. The rhetoric that has come from him is extremely disturbing,” she explains.One example Cleveland uses is the renaming of a street in Dearborn after a man named Siblani, who has called Hezbollah and Hamas “freedom fighters.”“The mayor went and celebrated the street being renamed in Siblani’s name,” she says.When a pastor complained, the mayor said on video, “You’re not welcome here.”“You also had the mayor blaming Israel, on October 7, for what happened on October 7,” Cleveland tells Glenn, who doesn’t have much hope for the city.“I think we’ve lost Dearborn. It’s an Islamic city, and I’m with you 100%,” he says, shocked.“It’s extremely disturbing,” he adds.Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Time really does fly by. It has been nearly a decade since he left the White House, yet his intoxicating influence on the Democratic Party remains as strong as ever.In recent weeks, he has turned his attention to artificial intelligence, arguably the most powerful technology America has ever created. The stakes are enormous. He is grooming the next generation of party leaders to determine how government should manage systems capable of writing code, generating answers for hundreds of millions, gaslighting people en masse, and essentially prompt-engineering reality.The former president understands power dynamics better than almost anyone.Who is he?No, not Joe Biden. Not Bill Clinton either. Behind closed doors, Barack Obama has been hosting strategy sessions with prospective 2028 Democrat presidential candidates, tech CEOs, and ivory-tower intellectuals.Conservatives remember the early days of social media all too well. In the late 2000s and 2010s, tech executives regularly visited the Oval Office, trading political support and huge sums of money for highly favorable regulatory treatment.Right-leaning Americans watched in horror as digital town squares became perpetually policed ideological echo chambers. Conservative voices were routinely flagged or suppressed. Many were outright banned by 20-somethings in California operating under comically ambiguous safety and misinformation guidelines.Those days were bad, but the social media fight looks rather quaint compared to what is happening right now.Unlimited power?A social network provides links you can check yourself. An automated system delivers answers directly to your screen. The software processes vast amounts of reading material and discards what it dislikes. It then presents a single narrative as the absolute truth. When a user asks a question, the underlying design chooses which facts to emphasize and which perspectives to conveniently omit.RELATED: OpenAI cancels its latest chatbot — it wouldn't stop acting like a supervillain Heather Diehl/Getty Images Barack Obama is many things, but he’s certainly not stupid. The former president understands power dynamics better than almost anyone in modern political history. He’s not approaching these tools like an entrepreneur building a better business product, but as a veteran political operative who recognizes that controlling the flow of information is the ultimate key to controlling public opinion. By serving as the central broker between tech executives and future Democrat nominees, he is ensuring that his party's preferences are built directly into future government rules. That includes preferences on climate action, immigration, gun rights, abortion access, and LGBTQ insanity.The corporate executives, whose principles have a remarkable habit of shifting with the party in power, are more than happy to pull up a chair. Giant corporations always prefer strict government rules because prohibitive compliance costs protect them from smaller competitors who might challenge their market dominance. Big tech gets legal protection and guaranteed market share, while Washington politicians get a back door into what these systems say and how they respond.It is a mutually beneficial partnership between state power and corporate monopolies, dressed in the righteous language of public safety.Democrat strategists learned plenty from their previous fights over social networks. They realized that policing millions of individual user posts after the fact is a rat’s nest of legal and political problems.It is far more efficient to bake that control into the technology from the start. If you control the initial training materials and the guidelines that define acceptable output, you rig the outcome long before the public sees any results.Government officials don’t need to seize physical data centers or buy corporate stock to dictate how these systems operate. Washington can simply pass sweeping rules governing safety standards, energy use, liability, and AI’s interaction with kids. Once those broad rules take effect, bureaucrats will have the authority to decide which companies are allowed to operate and which are forbidden to.Here come the justificationsThe official justification for this incoming regulatory push will sound completely reasonable to millions of Americans. Political figures will preach endlessly about national security threats and economic ruin. They will deliver carefully scripted, faux-passionate speeches on protecting the public from deepfakes and disinformation.But as readers know, technical experts and political organizers carry their own partisan biases into every room they enter. When a panel of credentialed experts decides what counts as harmful information or acceptable political debate, they naturally write their worldview into law. The average family ends up taking ethical cues from a handpicked circle of out-of-touch elites, many of whom find conservative perspectives repugnant.AI is already taking over society, serving as a key educational aid for American children and a powerful tool for researchers. The institutions that control future AI programs will possess an unprecedented ability to shape present-day cultural norms, our idea of our future, and even our historical memory.An Obama-backed Democrat could win the next presidential election. Conservatives simply can’t afford to sit on the sidelines while the part-time podcaster and full-time puppet master, along with his allies, builds the blueprint for the next presidential administration. The central battle of the coming decade won’t be over which social website lets you post, but over who controls the systems that dictate reality itself.

Marriage creates a new family, and sometimes that means setting boundaries with the family you came from.BlazeTV host Ron Simmons tackles complicated viewer questions of dealing with in-laws who might be causing more strain than the relationship is worth.One viewer asked Simmons how to “deal with in-laws” who don’t share the viewer's faith “when a child is involved.”“I think you have to always respect your in-laws, up to the point where you make sure that there’s obviously no abuse or anything like that,” he says. “But I would say respect with boundaries.”Simmons explains that a job that comes with being a Christian parent is to “expose our children to the love of Christ … so that the Holy Spirit can begin working on them and bring them under his umbrella.”“And I wouldn’t allow anything, as much as I could, that would get in the way of that,” he says.Simmons then reads a question from a viewer who explained that her father-in-law asked her husband “to keep his estate and money from the wives.”“He said it’s not for us to know, but me and my husband tell each other everything. So it feels wrong for him to ask that,” the viewer explained.“First of all, that’s wrong for … the dad to do that, all right? That automatically puts a strain between his son and daughter-in-law. I mean, that sets up a marriage strain right there,” Simmons explains.“Now, a lot of people, maybe they're first-generation money, they’re afraid that, you know, the wives are going to not respect that and, you know, go off and spend the money or something like that,” he says. “But as far as you and your husband go, it’s perfectly OK for your husband to talk to you about that, right?”“You don’t break that bond,” he continues. “That’s why the Bible says that when we grow up and we get married, the husband leaves his mom and dad and clings to his wife, that they become one flesh, and one flesh shares with each other. I promise you, my right hand knows what my left hand is doing, right?“Is it wrong for him to ask that? Personally, I think it is,” he adds.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.