Actor George Clooney says his children have a much better life growing up in France than they would have in Hollywood.
Clooney moved his family to France in 2024, taking root in Cotignac, a village in the southeast.
'I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life.'
After years of activism in the United States and abroad, Clooney revealed in an interview with Esquire that he did not want to raise his kids immersed in Hollywood culture, with their heads buried in technology and trying to avoid paparazzi.
"Yeah, we're very lucky," he told the outlet. "You know, we live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid I hated the whole idea of it. But now, for them, it's like — they're not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in."
The interview with Clooney was painted as a majestic refuge for a star looking for a simple life, living on a farm with hundreds of acres of sprawling grapevines and olive trees, driving his kids around on a tractor.
"They have a much better life," Clooney continued. "I was worried about raising our kids in L.A., in the culture of Hollywood. I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life. France — they kind of don't give a s**t about fame. I don't want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don't want them being compared to somebody else's famous kids."
Clooney's exodus from L.A. begs the question: Where in the world is a more progressive, Democrat-led landscape than California? The actor's history of activism would suggest he should feel right at home under Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
The tip of the iceberg is Clooney's endorsement, and then retraction of support, for President Biden in 2024. Perhaps a condemnation from former first son Hunter Biden was enough for Clooney to want to permanently check out, but that was not exactly his first rodeo in politics.
Clooney was pictured sitting with then-Vice President Biden in 2009 before claiming that electing him as president in 2020 would be a "return to civility."
In 2012, Clooney and his father were arrested and released at a Washington, D.C., protest against alleged human rights abuses in Sudan by its government.
In 2020, Clooney and his and wife, Amal, donated $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative following George Floyd's death during the infamous "Summer of Love." The organization claimed at the time that the "United States did not commit to racial equality, [and] slavery did not end in 1865."
In their statements regarding policing in America, the group urged the country to "reimagine public safety and community health, reallocate funds from traditional policing to services that promote public safety and more effectively address the conditions that create poverty, inequality, and community distress."
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Citing his father's insistence that it was his "civic duty" to stand up to bullies and racists, Clooney told People in 2020 that he felt he was in the same situation with his kids.
"I'm in the same situation as most fathers of 3-year-olds: I don't want my children when they're 15 years old to turn around and say, 'There was a time when they were putting kids in cages? ... And what did you do about that?'" Clooney boldly claimed.
"And if the answer is 'nothing,' then I would be ashamed," he said.
In 2019, Clooney continued his activism on behalf of Sudan, connecting it to a need for action against climate change.
"Global warming is making the desert larger; violence is moving people off the land — and they are moving by the millions,” he told CNN. "You care not just because it is the right thing to do, which it is, but because at one point or another, it is something that we will be dealing with," he claimed.
While the Clooneys call France their current home, they still own a villa in Italy, a home outside London, and residences in L.A. and New York City, according to Yahoo.
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According to recent reports, Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, intends to present photographic and scientific evidence in a U.S. defamation lawsuit against conservative commentator Candace Owens to debunk claims she was born male.
Earlier this year, Owens released an eight-part podcast series called "Becoming Brigitte," in which she made the claim that Brigitte Macron was born a male named Jean-Michel Trogneux.
But while everyone is anticipating what evidence Macron will provide, Glenn Beck can’t help but notice the glaring irony of the entire situation: Woman, according to the left, is an indefinable term.
“We've been told nothing proves that you are a woman. Nothing. It's a choice,” he laughs.
Glenn wonders if Owens’ deep dive into Macron’s biological sex might actually be aimed at proving this very point because as soon as Macron provides evidence that she is a woman, the left’s entire gender ideology unravels.
Stu Burguiere, Glenn’s co-host, has another theory: Maybe the Macrons’ decision to engage head on with the rumors swirling around Brigitte is an attempt to distract from the mysterious and highly disturbing origins of their relationship.
Brigitte was Emmanuel’s drama teacher in high school. When they met, he was 15 years old, and she was 40 and married with three children. When their relationship turned romantic while Emmanuel was still in high school, his parents moved him to a different school, but the separation did nothing to halt the relationship. The two married after Brigitte’s divorce in 2007.
Ultimately, Glenn differs from Owens, believing Brigitte is indeed a woman, albeit "an ugly" one.
To hear more of Glenn and Stu’s conversation, watch the clip below.
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.
In 2009, Glenn Beck was threatened by billionaire powerbroker George Soros.
“Your boss is hurting my boss, and it will end,” one of Soros’ goons told Joel Cheatwood, who at the time served as the founding chief content officer at the Blaze.
“And when Joel said, ‘No, I don't think that's going to end. I know my boss, and I don't think he's going to stop,’ [Soros’ man] said, ‘I don't think you understand. He is going to stop, and you should just let your boss know that the ship is about to sail,”’ Glenn recalls.
But it’s what came next that is perhaps most unnerving. The henchman added, “Everything that is needed is on board, and everyone's getting onto the boat, and it's about to set sail, and you do not want to be left on the dock, but it's setting sail, and it's going to leave, and your boss and you people are not going to be on it.”
Today, 16 years later, that cryptic omen is now manifesting before our very eyes.
France’s government just collapsed earlier this month when former Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly over his proposed austerity budget to tackle the country's ballooning debt and rising borrowing costs.
Predictably, the mainstream media is circulating the narrative that France’s financial predicament is the result of decades of deficit spending, COVID-era bailouts, and rising interest costs. But the truth couldn’t be more obvious: This the Cloward-Piven plan on full display.
France’s welfare system has been intentionally overwhelmed in order to collapse the system, and the country’s record migrant numbers have been a critical step in this process.
“What's happening with France here is exactly what happened in New York City — what Cloward and Piven did in New York City back in the '70s,” says Glenn’s head researcher Jason Buttrill.
France’s current financial crisis was “the point” of the nation’s open borders agenda, says Glenn — and so is the anarchy that’s on the horizon. Now that the country is forced to make significant cuts to its social welfare programs, those migrants and far-left extremists aren’t likely to sit idly by.
“When you stop paying them for not working, when all of a sudden all of that goes away, do you think they're going to be happy about it? Do you think they're going to not light the streets on fire?” Glenn asks.
But America would be ignorant to look at France’s situation as anything other than a mirror. “We are all on the verge of collapse, and nobody's recognizing it,” Glenn says.
Like France and the U.K., which has begun “arresting children for wearing T-shirts with the English flag on it,” the United States is also contending with the crime, anti-American movements, and financial strain of the Biden regime’s mass illegal immigration agenda.
“If we don't wake up soon, [America’s collapse] is going to happen because the entire West is going to collapse,” Glenn cautions.
And that’s what Soros meant when he said the ship is ready: The West has been intentionally teed up to fall into unspeakable darkness.
Glenn warns: “If this socialism thing goes, America, we're about to see one of the darkest predictions that I have made come true ... and that is: If America goes dark with the powers that we have, the technology that we have, the ability that we have, we will make the Nazis look like rookies.”
To hear more, watch the video above.
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European leaders are pushing for the implementation of digital identification.
Specifically, both French President Emmanuel Macron and former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair have urged sitting U.K. PM Keir Starmer to consider making digital IDs mandatory.
'The same playbook is being used as a justification for broader powers to the establishment.'
Starmer is under pressure from English activists to stem illegal immigration, with illegal transport by sea from France being the primary focus. For this reason, Macron said he wants Starmer to address the "pull factors" that are allegedly attracting illegal immigrants to the U.K.
Apparently, digital ID would be the best way to do that, according to the French president.
As reported by the Independent, a compulsory national ID card is being considered by the U.K.'s highest office.
"We're willing to look at what works when it comes to tackling illegal migration, ... in terms of applications of digital ID to the immigration system," the prime minister's spokesman said.
"The point here is looking at what works, ensuring that we're doing what we can to address some of the drivers of illegal migration, tackle those pull factors, ensure that we're doing everything we can to crack down on illegal working," the spokesman added, echoing Macron's reasoning.
Simultaneously, a push factor is coming internally from former U.K. leader Blair, who actually tried the scheme before during his third term as prime minister.
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The Daily Mail reported that Blair was pushing the idea behind the scenes, continuing his attempt from the early 2000s to enforce the mandatory digital ID.
"In 2005, there was a huge vote which unfortunately was narrowly passed for ID cards in order to crack down on crime," Lewis Brackpool, director of investigations at Restore Britain, told Blaze News. "Many ministers were incredibly skeptical on this move due to its ever increasing powers to the state."
Brackpool cited a 2004 BBC report that criticized the IDs as a "badly thought out" excuse to fight organized crime and terrorism. It noted then that plans for the cards included biometric data that carried fingerprints and iris scans, and would have become compulsory in 2013. The plan was abandoned in 2010.
The Englishman continued, "Now, 20 years on, the same playbook is being used as a justification for broader powers to the establishment. Tony Blair is somewhere in his evil lair rubbing his hands and cackling; his career ambition is coming to fruition."
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The implementation of digital ID is straight from the playbook of the World Economic Forum, the yearly gathering of world elites where globalist policy is discussed and planned.
Seven years before the WEF broadcasted its report on reimagining digital ID and before its ideas became globally criticized, it published "A Blueprint for Digital Identity" in 2016.
The report boasted of the Aadhaar program, a government initiative from India that was implemented in order to "increase social and financial inclusion" for Indians. The Unique Identification Authority of India holds a database of user information "such as name, date of birth, and biometrics data that may include a photograph, fingerprint, iris scan, or other information."
Over 1 billion Indians have enrolled in the program for the 12-digit identity number, and it continues today.
As for England, "It is not a reasonable solution," Brackpool says. "It is the very thing many concerned British citizens and campaigners have been warning about for years down the line."
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“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” President Trump declared last week in a Truth Social post.
Later that Monday, he promised an executive order “to end mail-in ballots because they are corrupt. You know that we are the only country in the world, I believe — I may be wrong — but just about the only country in the world that uses them because of what's happened: massive fraud all over the place.”
Mail-in voting reopens the door to the fraud and vote-buying America worked so hard to eliminate a century ago.
Trump has remained consistent; even before the 2020 election, he warned: “There is a lot of dishonesty going along with mail-in voting.”
Trump doesn’t need to hedge about voting rules abroad. Poland was the only other country that considered conducting its 2020 presidential election by mail during the pandemic, but it also abandoned the attempt.
Countries don’t use the kind of mass mail-in voting now used in eight states, where all registered voters receive ballots automatically and then mail them back. That system differs from absentee ballots, which require a request and traditionally demand a reason, such as being out of town on Election Day.
The United States doesn’t just stand out for its use of mail-in ballots — it’s also distinct for its unusually broad use of absentee ballots. Of 47 European countries, 35 — including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — ban absentee voting for citizens living in the country. Ten others — including England, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, and Spain — allow it only if voters pick up their ballots in person and present photo ID.
Six of those restrict absentee ballots to the military or hospitalized voters, and they require verification from the military or hospital itself. The United States, by contrast, lets anyone claim he will be out of town and receive a ballot by mail.
England once followed rules similar to America’s. But in 2004, officials uncovered a massive fraud in Birmingham City Council races. Six winning Labour candidates had acquired about 40,000 fraudulent absentee votes, mainly from Muslim neighborhoods. England responded by ending the mailing of absentee ballots and requiring in-person pickup with photo ID.
France once had similarly loose rules. But in 1975, authorities exposed large-scale fraud on the island of Corsica, where dead people “voted” in the hundreds of thousands and widespread vote-buying flourished. France responded by banning absentee voting altogether.
Concerns over absentee ballots once united both Democrats and Republicans. “Absentee ballots are the largest source of potential voter fraud.” That warning doesn’t come from Trump but from the bipartisan 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform, led by Democrat President Jimmy Carter and Republican Secretary of State James Baker III.
Voters across the spectrum still share those worries. A Rasmussen poll at the end of last year found that 59% of likely voters believe mail-in voting makes cheating easier. Majorities of black, Hispanic, and white voters agreed, along with both young and old. Only Democrats, liberals, graduate-school alumni, and those earning more than $200,000 disagreed. Earlier surveys saw similar results.
Even the New York Times once raised alarms. In 2012, the paper warned that the increased use of absentee ballots “will probably result in more uncounted votes, and it increases the potential for fraud.” But these days, that same newspaper insists voter-fraud claims for absentee ballots are “baseless” and “without evidence.”
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American history reinforces these concerns. Between 1888 and 1950, widespread vote-buying led states to adopt the secret ballot. Once voters could no longer prove to buyers how they had voted, the payments stopped. As one state after another started using secret ballots, turnout immediately fell by 8% to 12%, according to my research with the late Larry Kenny at the University of Florida — evidence of just how rampant the practice had been.
The Carter-Baker commission also highlighted how absentee voting enables coercion.
Citizens who vote at home, at nursing homes, at the workplace, or in church are more susceptible to pressure, overt and subtle, or to intimidation. Vote-buying schemes are far more difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail.
The problem is that both the buyer and seller have an incentive to hide the purchase.
Recent cases confirm the risks. Earlier this year, prosecutors indicted six Texans for harvesting ballots and buying votes by collecting absentee ballots. Absentee voting lets sellers prove how they voted, and ballot harvesting lets buyers ensure that the votes count — guaranteeing they get what they paid for.
Just this month, investigators in Hamtramck, Michigan, opened a fraud case after surveillance video showed a city council candidate’s aide stuffing three stacks of ballots into a drop box. The candidate had won by only a few dozen votes.
Mail-in voting reopens the door to the fraud and vote-buying America worked so hard to eliminate a century ago. That’s why countries such as Norway and Mexico prohibit absentee ballots for citizens voting domestically. Americans deserve the same safeguard — a voting system they can trust.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Trump should make clear that if Europe doesn't take the lead in supporting Ukraine, they cannot expect the U.S. to once again bail them out.
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