A NATO That Doesn’t Support U.S. Action Shouldn’t Exist
If Europe wishes to be protected while reserving the right to sabotage its protector’s actions, let it build and fund its own shield.If Europe wishes to be protected while reserving the right to sabotage its protector’s actions, let it build and fund its own shield.If SCOTUS Values Free Speech, It Will Stop California’s Persecution Of John Eastman
In the eyes of the bar and California court, Eastman's thoughtcrime, punishable with professional destruction, was 'lawyering for MAGA.'Dead or vanishing scientists tied to NASA, JPL, and Los Alamos: Glenn Beck’s take may surprise you
A growing list of U.S. scientists and researchers — many tied to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, defense, nuclear, or advanced tech programs — have died or gone missing since 2023.
Nine names are dominating the headlines:
- Michael David Hicks — NASA JPL research scientist; died July 30, 2023, age 59; cause never publicly disclosed, no autopsy record found.
- Frank Maiwald — NASA JPL principal researcher (longtime colleague of Hicks); died July 4, 2024, age 61, in Los Angeles; cause not released, single obituary only, no autopsy reported.
- Anthony Chavez — Former Los Alamos National Laboratory employee; vanished May 2025, age ~78; left home on foot with belongings left behind; still missing.
- Monica Reza — Aerospace/materials scientist with NASA/JPL and AFRL-linked rocket propulsion work; disappeared while hiking in Angeles National Forest, June 22, 2025, age 60; still missing after extensive searches.
- Melissa Casias — Los Alamos National Laboratory administrative assistant (reported security clearance); vanished June 26, 2025, age 53; left after dropping off husband, phones factory-reset, car/belongings left behind, seen walking on highway; still missing.
- Nuno Loureiro — MIT plasma/fusion physicist and professor; shot multiple times at his Brookline, Massachusetts, home on December 15, 2025, and died December 16, age 47.
- Carl Grillmair — Caltech astrophysicist with significant NASA/JPL-supported work; shot and killed on his front porch in Llano, California, February 16, 2026, age 67; suspect arrested and charged.
- William Neil McCasland (Ret. Air Force Maj. Gen.) — Former AFRL commander with classified space/defense program ties; disappeared from his Albuquerque home on February 27, 2026, age 68; still missing, search ongoing.
News coverage has ramped up significantly in the past couple of weeks over this story and continues to garner national attention, but Glenn Beck thinks the conspiracy theory that these cases are all somehow connected jumps the gun.
On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn pushes back on the hype by illustrating how easily one can ignite a conspiracy theory.
Glenn notes that these nine cases, while speculated to be connected, are really “a mixed data set.”
“If you go through all of these things, there are some confirmed crimes with explanations. ... Some of them are missing person cases. ... Some are isolated homicides,” he says.
The narrative that these nine scientists worked in closely related fields, Glenn argues, is a stretch.
“Pharma, fusion, space. ... That doesn't mean that there isn't a connection there, but nobody is showing the connection here. That's not a tight network,” he says. “That's anyone who is near defense-adjacent technology.”
He also rejects speculation of "institutional silence.”
“Universities and laboratories and government, they rarely disclose the details. Privacy, ongoing investigations, legal liability, phrases like ‘passed away suddenly’ — that's standard. ... That's not evidence of concealment,” he says.
“I'm not one to dismiss conspiracy theories, but it seems like we go out looking for some things,” he continues.
To illustrate how easily a conspiracy theory can gain traction, Glenn shares some recent data from his own industry.
“In the last 12 months, I've had eight people in my industry die,” he says, citing longtime radio syndication executive Gary Krantz, Pittsburgh radio icon and conservative talk host Jim Quinn, award-winning Texas radio journalist Matt Thomas, WMAL radio host John Lyon, and conservative talk radio pioneer David Gold, among others.
“Of course, Charlie Kirk, we know,” he adds.
“None of these are connected, but if I wanted to, I could do [it],” says Glenn.
“I have a list of maybe 25 names. They all died in the last year.”
Glenn issues a stark warning: “Be very, very careful about propaganda. ... There's a lot of information out there, but you can take information and make it into anything you want.”
To hear more, watch the video above.
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Trump forced allies to pay up — and it worked
In the fifth century B.C., a group of Greek city-states formed a defensive alliance known as the Delian League to protect them against the Persian Empire.
Athens, the most powerful member, gradually increased its power. Its rulers moved the league’s common treasury from the island of Delos to Athens (to keep it safe, of course), attacked allies that attempted to secede, and started casually referring to the alliance as “our empire.”
If you want good allies, you need to be a good ally.
The most brazen assertion came when the Athenian leader Pericles raided the league treasury to fund building projects in Athens (including the Parthenon).
When the other league members objected, Pericles insisted that the treasury was less like a common military budget and more like protection money: As long as the Persians aren’t breaking down your doors, we can spend league funds however we want.
Obviously, this is no way to treat one’s allies. It is not just exploitative; it is counterproductive. During the ensuing Peloponnesian War, Athens spent as much time fighting its own rebellious allies as it did fighting Sparta.
The United States, however, has spent the last several decades conducting its foreign relations on the opposite principle. We have the same hegemonic role Athens held, but instead of robbing our allies, we let them rob and betray us.
A few months ago, the government of Kuwait — a country hundreds of Americans died to defend just a few decades ago and that continues to rely on us for protection against Iran — launched a “Kuwait-China Friendship Club” to strengthen military ties with Beijing.
And if cozying up to our biggest geopolitical rival weren’t enough, Kuwait is also ripping us off.
The United States played a huge role in building Kuwait’s massive Al Zour oil refinery, and the country’s government still owes us hundreds of millions of dollars.
Closer to home, Mexico — which Bill Clinton bailed out to the tune of $20 billion — takes in more than $60 billion a year in remittance money from the United States, all while its socialist oil company refuses to pay the $1.2 billion it owes to American contractors.
RELATED: Trump makes America dangerous again — to our enemies
The NATO countries are even worse. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, just six of the alliance’s 32 members spent the required 2% of GDP on defense.
Meanwhile, these countries used the money they weren’t spending on guns to build massive welfare states (their equivalent of Pericles’ Parthenon). They also eviscerated their domestic energy production and became increasingly reliant on oil from Russia, the country the alliance is supposed to keep in check.
Thankfully, a combination of Vladimir Putin’s aggression and Donald Trump’s bullying has increased the number of countries meeting the 2% threshold from six to 23.
If you want good allies, you need to be a good ally.
That means no more meddling in the name of “international development” or “advancing democracy.” Just mutual clarifications of national interest and frank discussions about how to advance those interests.
Athens’ focus on its own self-interest was its undoing. America’s neglect of it might have been ours. Under President Trump, however, it looks like that is starting to change.
Congress fights Trump admin to keep more US troops in Europe and Korea
The Trump administration indicated in its newly released National Security Strategy that "the days of propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over" — that American allies will have to "take more responsibility for security in their neighborhoods," especially as America orients its focus to the Western Hemisphere and hardens its presence in the Western Pacific.
The strategy document specifically called for "Europe to stand on its own feet and operate as a group of aligned sovereign nations, including taking primary responsibility for its own defense."
It appears, however, that members of Congress want America to shoulder the burden of European defense indefinitely.
In order to withdraw US forces past the 76,000 mark, the Trump administration would have to demonstrate to Congress that such a move would not adversely impact American or NATO security interests.
The version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act finalized by both House and Senate negotiators and released on Sunday — a budget that exceeds President Donald Trump's $892.6 billion budget request for the Pentagon by $8 billion — would block the Pentagon both from reducing the number of troops "stationed in or deployed to the area of responsibility of the United States European Command below 76,000 for longer than a 45-day period" and from using any funds appropriated under the act to move any Pentagon equipment originally valued at $500,000 out of Europe.
In order to withdraw U.S. forces past the 76,000 mark, the Trump administration would have to demonstrate to Congress that such a move would not adversely impact American or NATO security interests. The number of U.S. troops stationed in Europe fluctuates between around 80,000 and 100,000.
Citing five sources familiar with the discussion, including a U.S. official, Reuters reported that Pentagon officials told European diplomats during a recent meeting that Washington expects Europe to take over most of NATO's conventional defense capabilities such as troops and missile defense by 2027. Failure to do so might prompt America to end its participation in certain NATO defense coordination mechanisms, said the sources.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement, "We've been very clear in the need for Europeans to lead in the conventional defense of Europe. We are committed to working through NATO coordination mechanisms to strengthen the alliance and ensure its long-term viability as European allies increasingly take on responsibility for conventional deterrence and defense in Europe."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau added on X that "Europe must take primary responsibility for its own security."
"Successive US Administrations have been saying this in one form or another pretty much my whole life — look up the 1969 'Nixon doctrine' — but our Administration means what it says," added Landau.
The current version of the NDAA would also prohibit the administration from letting the head of U.S. European Command — Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich — relinquish his role as NATO supreme allied commander in Europe.
Thanks to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the NDAA as written would also codify the Baltic Security Initiative, hamstringing any efforts on the part of the administration to suspend the program, which uses American funds to bankroll Baltic states' defense capabilities. Billions of U.S. dollars have been poured into the BSI in recent years even as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia began investing more into their own defense.
In addition to ensuring that America remains bogged down in Europe, the 2026 NDAA as written has other provisions that might hamper the administration's ability to realize its national security strategy in full.
The legislation states that it is "the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Defense should continue efforts that strengthen United States defense alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region so as to further the comparative advantage of the United States in strategic competition with the People's Republic of China."
To this end, the legislation would prohibit obligating or expending any funds to reduce the total number of troops that are permanently stationed in or deployed to Korea below 28,500 or "to complete the transition of wartime operational control of the United States-Republic of Korea Combined Forces Command from United States-led command to Republic of Korea-led command" unless War Secretary Pete Hegseth provides an assessment and certification to Congress showing that doing so is in America's national interest and is being undertaken only after consulting with several foreign nations, including Korea and Japan.
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Liberal outlets cry about Pentagon's new media rules — Hegseth bids them farewell
The Department of War has implemented new rules concerning press privileges and news-gathering at the Pentagon.
Even though the policy concerning reporter access is far less restrictive than an earlier version — the draft of which was floated last month — liberal publications have thrown fits and refused to acknowledge the new rules in exchange for press credentials.
'Pentagon access is a privilege, not a right.'
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell emphasized last week that reporters and publications do not have to agree with the new "common-sense media procedures" but "just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is."
Despite acknowledging that press credentials are conditioned on an understanding of the rules, not an agreement with them, the Pentagon Press Association characterized the rules as a form of intimidation, going so far as to suggest that they dishonor American military families.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth used an emoji to wave goodbye on Monday to the Atlantic, the New York Times, and the Washington Post when they pushed the PPA's framing and pronounced on X that they were not going to sign the agreement by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
Matt Murray, the Post's executive editor, who received Hegseth's pixelated adios, stated, "The proposed restrictions undercut First Amendment protections by placing unnecessary constraints on gathering and publishing information."
Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic's editor in chief, who has pushed his weight in fake news, and NYT Washington bureau chief Richard Stevenson similarly complained that the rules violated their teams' First Amendment rights.
The Associated Press, Breaking Defense, CNN, Newsmax, Reuters, Task & Purpose, and the Wall Street Journal are among the other publications that have indicated they will not agree to the new policy by deadline.
After bidding the liberal publications farewell, Hegseth noted for edification of "DUMMIES" in the media that the new rules are, in essence, that reporters can no longer roam free through the halls of the Pentagon; members of the press must wear visible badges; and the "credentialed press [is] no longer permitted to solicit criminal acts."
RELATED: Hegseth restores warrior ethos after years of woke Pentagon rot
Hegseth added that "Pentagon access is a privilege, not a right." Blaze News reached out to the Pentagon for clarity about that statement.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson noted that "despite good faith negotiations with representatives of the Pentagon Press Association, reporters would rather clutch their pearls on social media than stop trying to get warfighters and DOW civilians to commit a crime by violating Department-wide policy."
"We stand by our media policy," continued Wilson. "It's now up to them whether they'd like to report from the Pentagon or their newsroom."
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Trump set to re-establish Defense Department's 'warrior ethos' by restoring original name
President Donald Trump intends to restore the original name of the Department of Defense.
Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday that will designate the Department of War as the DOD's secondary title, according to a White House fact sheet obtained by Fox News Digital. The change will also name Pete Hegseth the secretary of war.
'Call the endless WARS what they are. And maybe then, we'll finally put an end to this cycle.'
Further, the order seeks to make the alteration permanent by instructing Hegseth to propose legislative and executive actions. The Trump administration plans to update public-facing websites and the Pentagon's office signage, a White House official told Fox News Digital.
The Department of War title was used for the United States' military agency until 1949.
"We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War," Hegseth told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday. "As the president has said, we're not just defense, we're offense."
RELATED: Tim Kaine trying to weasel a ban on Hegseth changing base names into the military budget
"We've re-established at the Department the warrior ethos. We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy," he continued. "We don't want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So we're working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by."
Trump told reporters last week that the name change was imminent.
"We're just going to do it," Trump declared. "I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that."
RELATED: Congress must kill DEI before it kills our military readiness
Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck reacted to Trump's plans to change the agency's name.
"Renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War would remind both the world and OURSELVES what our tax dollars are funding: Bombs will be dropped. Our children will die. I think that's what Trump is trying to do. Call the endless WARS what they are. And maybe then, we'll finally put an end to this cycle," Beck wrote in a post on social media.
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