American Ground Radio

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avalone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 12, 2026. 

We open with a legal argument that's hard to stomach: attorneys for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk are reportedly arguing that the death penalty shouldn't be on the table because their client hit exactly who he was aiming for. We dig into why that "good marksman" defense doesn't hold up, why Utah's aggravating-factor standard for capital punishment matters here, and why the shooter's own alleged written admissions make the legal argument feel especially hollow.

In our Top 3 things you need to know, we cover Karoline Leavitt's announced departure as White House Press Secretary at the end of August so she can focus on her young family, a sprawling marriage fraud case out of New York involving thousands of fake marriages tied to immigration fraud, and the latest CPI numbers showing inflation ticking up just 0.1% in July even as gas prices climb back in August.

From there we dig into public assistance fraud enforcement, why the states doing the least to stop it seem to have the most of it, and how fear of being labeled racist keeps some officials from confronting fraud head-on, using Nick Shirley's on-the-ground reporting in Somali immigrant communities as our jumping-off point.

Our American Mama, Teri Netterville, tackles cell phone bans for kids beyond the classroom, from little league teams banning phones before games to Louisiana and Florida's in-school bans, and what the research and real-life results are showing about kids reconnecting face-to-face.

Our Bright Spot celebrates Karoline Leavitt's tenure as press secretary and the choice she's making to prioritize motherhood, a decision that's anything but a step down.

We dig deep into Tuesday's primary results across the country, from the South Carolina Senate runoff to fill Lindsey Graham's seat, to Wisconsin's tight governor's race, to Minnesota's Senate and governor primaries, and what each contest could mean for control of Congress this fall.

We also weigh in on an Indiana Fever coach's viral comments about unity and love in the WNBA, and a second Bright Spot on musician Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik publicly defending Boy George after backlash over his song honoring October 7th victims.

In our Moment of Whoa, we look at a Massachusetts proposal to create a permanent, taxpayer-funded state commission devoted to one religion, and what that means for equal treatment under the law.

And we close with Words of Wisdom on standing up for what's right. 

May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avalone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 11, 2026. 

We open with Chicago's murder rate compared to Florida's major cities, and ask why the same activists offended by National Guard troops in D.C. and Chicago aren't offended by the gang violence claiming lives every day — plus why Chicago's strict gun laws haven't stopped the bloodshed. In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, we cover Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signing a law legalizing abortion up to birth, the arrest of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's son on child exploitation charges, and a New York judge halting Mayor Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax after the city doxxed hundreds of thousands of residents by mistake. We also dig into former CIA Director John Brennan's election interference claims and the fight over the SAVE Act.

Our American Mama, Teri Netterville, joins us to talk Cam Newton's revelations about NFL players and fake COVID vaccine cards, the human cost of vaccine mandates, and why we're still waiting on apologies from the media figures who vilified people like Aaron Rodgers. We're Digging Deep this week on Massachusetts' new late-term abortion law, then pivot to Seattle, where a mix of socialism and green energy mandates is about to send electric bills up 80% over six years.

Plus, Justice Samuel Alito's decision to stay on the Supreme Court, a Bright Spot on Trump savings accounts building wealth for the next generation, a Say What moment courtesy of Hillary Clinton, and a Moment of Whoa from a 13-year-old who spent 300 hours 3D-printing a wheelchair for a little girl he'd never met.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for August 10, 2026.

We kick things off with Iran's audacious demand for war reparations from the United States — and President Trump's brilliant response that flips the script and opens up Iran's own record of terror funding, hostage-taking, and brutality against its own people for the world to see.

Then we run through the Top 3 things you need to know: President Trump's executive order spacing out childhood vaccines and trimming the recommended schedule, the DOJ's lawsuit against New York, Connecticut, and Vermont over in-state tuition for illegal aliens, and the Pentagon renaming Joint Base Charleston to Joint Base Lindsey Graham in honor of the late senator.

We dig into the disturbing pattern of violence in the WNBA, including the flagrant hit on Sophie Cunningham, and ask our American Mamas whether Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White should be allowed to play in the WNBA after applying under the league's gender rules.

We break down new numbers showing marijuana use has overtaken both daily cigarette and alcohol use in America — and why that should worry us more than it does. In Digging Deep, we expose how a soft-on-crime plea deal in Maricopa County let a confessed murderer walk free, only for him to allegedly torch 700 homes in Spokane, Washington. We also cover the discovery that British Royal Navy sea drones have been caught communicating with a server in China.

There's a Bright Spot in new Gallup polling showing more Americans — especially Republicans — believe parents should be married before having kids. We call out the University of Michigan for hiding freshman grades behind a pass/no-credit system that shields students from the consequences that build real character. And we close by remembering Ben Jones, the actor who played Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard and went on to serve in Congress, who passed away this weekend at 85.

May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for August 7, 2026.

We open up with a deep dive into the legal fight over President Trump's new White House ballroom, breaking down the deceptively simple question the Supreme Court may ultimately have to answer: is replacing the demolished East Wing an "improvement" to the executive residence, or is it a brand new building requiring congressional approval? We walk through the history of White House alterations, the D.C. Circuit's 2-1 ruling against the administration, and why this fight matters for presidential authority going forward.

From there, we hit our Top 3 stories you need to know: Marsha Blackburn's win in the Tennessee GOP gubernatorial primary, and Tesla and SpaceX's massive joint venture to build the TeraFab chip factory in Texas.

We dig into fresh Labor Department numbers showing manufacturing output and productivity are both up, pushing back on predictions that tariffs would tank American factories.

Our American Mama Teri Netterville joins us to tackle a listener question about whether men have the right to ask their girlfriends to dress more modestly.

We break down new data on the shrinking foreign-born workforce and what it means for wages and job competition for American workers, then dig deep into the new mutual defense pact between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and what it means for a boxed-in Iran, including our take on the argument that Trump has already won the Iran war.

We cover Kellogg's promise to strip artificial dyes from its cereals a year ahead of schedule, then it's time for Fake News Friday, our weekly game separating real headlines from the ones we made up ourselves.

We close out with a look at the growing rift between the Democratic establishment and the Democratic Socialists of America, and Washington D.C.'s record-breaking 4th of July fireworks display.

May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for August 6, 2026.

President Trump signed two executive orders targeting birth tourism and birthright citizenship — one ending the practice of foreign nationals flying in just to give birth on American soil, and another restricting citizenship documents for children of alien enemies, foreign terrorists, and commercial surrogacy arrangements. We break down what's actually in these orders, why Stephen Miller is calling birth tourism "an industry built around deception," and why we think the Supreme Court's original birthright citizenship ruling all but guarantees these orders end up in court.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, we cover the Senate Homeland Security Committee's vote to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress after he pleaded the Fifth 111 times, newly uncovered documents showing 24 state attorneys general plotted lawsuits against the Trump administration a full year before he took office, and Mitch McConnell's release from a rehab facility after nearly two months out of the public eye.

Nearly one-third of Democrats now openly identify as socialists, according to investigative journalist Peter Schweizer — and we dig into how the party establishment got hijacked by its far-left flank, with even Bernie Sanders declining to endorse a Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate whose platform includes canceling Thanksgiving.

Our American Mama, Terri Netterville, tackles a listener question on digital dashboards versus physical buttons and knobs — with stories ranging from a Tesla-hating road trip to an unhackable 1987 Chevy truck and the rise of driverless cars.

We're Digging Deep this week on the U.S. immigration court backlog, which sits at 3.5 million pending cases — down from Biden-era highs, but still requiring roughly 10,000 case resolutions a day to clear in a year. We explain why removal orders for no-shows have spiked and why ICE's work is only beginning once the courts catch up.

Plus, questions swirl over Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, who hasn't been seen or heard from since the war started, and Chuck Schumer's endorsement of a Michigan Senate candidate who's publicly called for Schumer's own ouster as Democratic leader.

Our Bright Spot: Argentina's President Javier Milei proposes a "fiscal shackle" law that would freeze politicians' salaries and halt federal funding to the states the moment the government runs a deficit — an idea Louis and Stephen think might just be crazy enough to work in Washington. Plus, we close with the story of a Rhode Island bake stand that was stolen — and the stranger who rebuilt it for free.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for August 5, 2026.

Democratic Socialists of America candidates had a big night in Tuesday's primaries — especially in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed narrowly won the Democrat Senate nomination over Haley Stevens, and "Squad" member Rashida Tlaib fended off a primary challenge. We break down what these wins actually mean, why El-Sayed's margin was so much tighter than the polling predicted, and why we think a Medicare-for-All, defund-Israel platform is a movement wish list, not a governing blueprint.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, we cover El-Sayed's win and what it means for Michigan's Senate race in November, the Senate's confirmation of Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the CDC, and an 11th Circuit ruling upholding Florida's law banning children from sexually explicit drag shows.

Where in the world is Mitch McConnell? We dig into the seven-week silence, the two still photos, and the questions nobody in D.C. seems to want to answer.

Our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, tackle a listener question on why high achievers draw so much hate — with stories ranging from slashed tires to Elon Musk's "world's first former trillionaire" moment.

We're Digging Deep this week on two fronts: a House Select Committee report warning that Chinese state-linked telecom companies still have equipment and data access inside U.S. networks, and a pair of California stories — a former far-left homeless shelter worker's public break with the movement, and San Francisco's slow climb back from the brink compared to Los Angeles' continued decline.

Plus, President Trump's "don't make me pull this car over" approach to Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, and Senator John Fetterman's warning to his own party about the rising influence of socialists and communists in Democratic politics.

Our Bright Spot: a federal judge blocks New York's law banning ICE agents from wearing face masks, ruling the state can't dictate how federal agents do their jobs. Plus, we close with the story of a contractor who lost his tools in a lightning strike — and the nine-year-old son who tried to make it right.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for August 4, 2026.

We kick things off with WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve's contradictory stance on gender and sports — she's all for trans inclusion on the court, but suddenly cares about protecting women's jobs when men start taking WNBA coaching positions. We break down why that logic doesn't hold up, and use Caitlin Clark's rise (and the Tiger Woods parallel) to make the case that talent, not identity, drives audiences and revenue.

In the news roundup, we cover Todd Blanche's move closer to confirmation as Attorney General, the DOJ's attempt at its first-ever deportation under the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, and Hadi Matar's conviction for the attack on Salman Rushdie. Then we dig into a resurfaced story about federal funding and aborted fetal tissue research, and the policy changes under the Trump administration that have curbed it.

We're joined by American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson to tackle a listener question about the risks of running an Airbnb, sharing wild stories of "teen takeover" ragers that have destroyed people's homes — and asking whether there are ever real consequences for the people responsible.

For Digging Deep, we take on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's claim that she avoids "even the appearance of bias" — made, ironically, on Michelle Obama's podcast. Then we get into the messy, headline-grabbing story of Ohio Congressman Max Miller, facing domestic violence allegations from his ex-wife (whose father is a sitting senator) as an Ohio ballot deadline looms.

Plus, we look at Spain allocating millions to migrant minors while native Spanish children face deep poverty, we take a raw look at the Twin Falls, Idaho In-N-Out shooting and the armed bystander who stopped it, and we bring you the latest on Jeanine Pirro's clash with the White House. We close things out with a Bright Spot about a Nashville police officer who talked a man down from a bridge with three simple words.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for August 3, 2026.

We open with New Jersey Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer saying publicly what many moderate Democrats have been thinking privately — that the Democratic Socialists of America should form their own party rather than using the Democratic Party as a vehicle for building socialist power. We explain why this is significant: the DSA is not an ordinary faction within the Democratic coalition. Its own website describes its mission as building a party designed to defeat capitalist oligarchy, draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic. It does not want to reform the Democratic Party. It wants to destroy it from within and replace it with something fundamentally different. We walk through what communism actually promises — from each according to their ability, to each according to their need — and what that has produced every single time it has been tried.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, President Trump announced he called off what he described as the biggest planned military strike since World War II after Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Middle Eastern nations asked him to pause as they work to finalize a denuclearization deal with Iran. Then the FBI confirmed that Iranian hackers breached water systems in seven states, causing loss of pressure and flooding, and warned local utilities to disconnect control systems from the internet and ensure manual operation capability — with Minnesota alone confirming 30 targeted water systems. And Todd Blanch's path to Attorney General confirmation cleared after Senators Cornyn and Tillis said they were satisfied by the DOJ's official statement that the anti-weaponization settlement fund was dead — meaning Blanch now appears to have the votes to be confirmed.

We also cover the contradiction at the heart of the Iran negotiations — where President Trump says a deal is in progress and Tehran says no negotiation is happening. We explain why this is unsurprising: the Quran permits lying to enemies, Iran has considered itself at war with the United States for nearly 50 years, and the decimation of Iran's leadership structure in the initial strikes has left multiple competing voices with no single authoritative negotiating position. We say what we believe: Trump has done as much as he can to avoid full military escalation. We're not sure it's avoidable.

We also cover Zoran Mamdani's government-run grocery stores — where residents will need a special shopper's card to access 30% below-market prices — and note the delicious irony that New York City requires an ID card to buy government-subsidized groceries but calls voter ID racist. We suggest that if they called it a shopper's card at the polling place, Democrats might finally get on board.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson discuss whether pulling over for a funeral procession is still considered basic respect — and both say yes, without hesitation. Teri shares the story of her mother, who was 13 years old when her father died and never forgot watching cars pull over and people step outside to stand at attention for a man they had never met. Kimberly shares the story of accidentally wedging herself between two limousines in a funeral procession while driving from Benton to Bossier — realized it mid-drive, and discreetly exited as quickly and apologetically as possible. The larger point: funerals aren't for the dead. They're for the living. And when strangers pull over to honor someone they never knew, the family feels it.

We dig deep into the Democrat Promise to America — a document modeled on Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, produced by a Democrat congressman and circulated to all 212 House Democrats for signatures. The document says the party is capitalist, not socialist. That it wants safety, not lawlessness. That it will prioritize balancing the budget. That government should solve problems, not create them. That it embraces free speech and persuasion over purity. And that Democrats are proud, not ashamed of America. Out of 212 House Democrats, 15 signed it. Fifteen. We let that sit there.

We also cover a one-mile radius in Flushing, New York — where social adult daycares have been billing Medicaid for more than $100 million per year, with storefronts shuttered and rooms empty. We connect it to the broader point that waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs are not accidents. They are incentives — what happens when bureaucracies have no accountability, no profit motive, and no one asking whether the money is actually doing any good.

We also cover Capital One's motion to dismiss a lawsuit by President Trump for debanking his company after January 6th — in which Capital One's defense is that it was actually concerned about money laundering. No evidence presented. Bold strategy.

For our Bright Spot, Tuskegee University has implemented a new dress code requiring students to arrive on campus in a business suit and proper shoes — as if heading to a business meeting — prohibiting bedroom slippers, bonnets, do-rags, and revealing clothing in class or the cafeteria. We make the case this is not respectability politics. It is the understanding that how you present yourself shapes how you see yourself — and that you walk differently in dress shoes than you do in sneakers. Tuskegee is preparing its students for a lifetime of success. We call it a bright spot.

And we close with words of wisdom on dressing for success — from Ralph Lauren, Zig Ziglar, Susan C. Young, and Dabashish Mridha. The clothes don't make the man. But it helps if you look in the mirror and see success staring back at you.

May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 31, 2026.

We open with President Trump pointing to the migrant crisis in Spain's North African territory of Ceuta as a warning for the United States. Tens of thousands of migrants overwhelmed the small Spanish enclave in a single day, straining law enforcement and leaving dozens dead. We compare the scenes from Spain to what Americans witnessed at the southern border during the Biden administration, discuss why Trump believes voters need to remember those images before the next election, and examine how quickly both the media and the public forget just how chaotic the border became.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the Texas Stock Exchange officially begins trading in Dallas, marking another step in the financial migration away from New York. Then U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro moves to dismiss vandalism charges against former Olympian Davey Hearn after new evidence showed damage to the National Mall reflecting pool was caused by faulty construction rather than criminal activity. And President Trump announces the Freedom Haulers initiative, designed to help military veterans transition into commercial trucking while replacing foreign truck drivers with qualified American veterans.

We also discuss Boy George's decision to release a song honoring the victims of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel—and the backlash that followed. After publicly supporting Israel and condemning terrorism, Boy George was dropped from a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. We examine how standing with victims of terrorism has become controversial in parts of the entertainment world and what that says about today's cultural climate.

Our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, answer a listener question about friends who always strike up conversations with strangers. What starts as a lighthearted discussion turns into a funny look at how getting older seems to remove any fear of awkward conversations, why some people can't resist complimenting complete strangers in the grocery store, and whether younger generations raised on technology will lose that habit altogether.

We dig into new membership data from the Democratic Socialists of America showing that only four percent of its members work in blue-collar jobs, despite the organization's constant claims to represent the working class. We contrast the rhetoric with the reality before turning to Houston, where Texas' state takeover of the Houston Independent School District transformed 121 failing schools into zero failing schools in just over three years. We examine why some critics still refuse to celebrate one of the most dramatic education turnarounds in the country.

We also cover Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson's unusual family story before another round of Fake News Friday, featuring everything from the Alamo to WNBA betting controversies and some headlines that are just bizarre enough to sound believable.

And we close with 88-year-old Libby Downey, who has already spent decades serving her community as a nurse, city council member, and volunteer—but decided it was finally time to pursue a lifelong dream. This fall she'll begin law school with plans to become a mediator after graduation, proving it's never too late to start the next chapter.

May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 30, 2026.

We open with the Texas Senate race — where Democratic nominee James Tallarico released a polished campaign ad called Waking Up, featuring him driving a full-sized Dodge Ram 1500 through Texas oil fields and farm country. There's one problem: it's not his truck. Tallarico drives a Chevrolet Colorado, but its tinted windows made the interior too dark for filming, so his campaign rented the Dodge from a local company. We make the distinction between normal campaign staging and renting a persona — because the entire ad was designed to sell Tallarico as a natural extension of working Texans, and the truck was the centerpiece of that message. We also note that Republicans handed Democrats an opening by nominating Ken Paxton — damaged goods with a messy personal and political record — instead of Wesley Hunt, who would have won this race by a landslide. Texas Republicans got this one wrong.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, President Trump's Attorney General nominee Todd Blanch is in limbo after John Cornyn and Thom Tillis signaled they would not support him in the Senate Judiciary Committee — concerned about a proposed fund to compensate victims of political prosecution under Biden, including January 6th defendants, even after Blanch testified under oath the deal was dead. Trump is reportedly considering withdrawing the nomination until both senators leave office in January. Then the federal government demanded Colorado repay $8 million in Medicaid funds after an audit found the state had billed for services totaling more than 24 hours in a single day for the same patients — a mathematical impossibility. Colorado disagrees with the findings. And thousands of military-age North African men breached the border between Morocco and Spain at Ceuta — overwhelming local law enforcement, with at least nine people killed in the chaos. Spain's Supreme Court recently ruled that sea arrivals cannot be deported without due process hearings. Most of Spain's borders are water.

We also cover the WNBA's latest self-inflicted embarrassment — the league itself posted and then deleted a video from All-Star Weekend showing Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers and Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese apparently agreeing to a $400 bet on the outcome of a game between their own teams. The WNBA's own rulebook explicitly prohibits players from wagering on league games, with penalties ranging from fines to lifetime bans. We ask the obvious question: what are the odds that Angel Reese faces the same consequences Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham would face in the same situation?

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson respond to a listener question about the growing number of rules new parents are imposing on grandparents before they can see a newborn — mandatory vaccinations, isolation periods, mask requirements, no kissing — and trace it directly to the damage Anthony Fauci did to medical credibility during COVID. A generation raised on social media sees the exception, not the rule, and draws sweeping conclusions from rare worst-case scenarios. Teri's advice: get the vaccines with 50-year safety records, do your research on the newer ones, and for the love of everything good — let grandparents kiss the babies.

We dig into a J7 report — tracking antisemitic violence in the seven countries with the largest Jewish populations outside Israel — which found that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks in the Western world since 1994. There were 23,000 antisemitic attacks in those seven countries last year alone, including 20 murders of Jewish people motivated by hatred of Jews — three in the United States. We trace the rise to mainstream media coverage of Israel's response to October 7th that portrayed military action against a terrorist organization as genocide — providing ideological cover for people who were already antisemitic to act. We also connect it to the intersectionality framework that positions whoever appears most oppressed as the default sympathetic party — a framework that simultaneously claims to support women, gay people, and Palestinians, without reckoning with the fact that none of those three positions are compatible with each other under Hamas governance.

For our first Bright Spot, President Trump announced that Middle East mediators — including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey — have reached an agreement on the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, with a phased plan to rebuild Gaza, establish a new Palestinian government, and guarantee Israel's security. We call it what it is: not a ceasefire, not a pause, but a structured plan — and potentially the most significant Middle East development in a generation.

For our second Bright Spot, the island nation of Micronesia — 75,000 people spread across 607 islands in the South Pacific — used to charge $65 per megabit per second per month for internet access because the government ran the only internet provider. When the government ended its monopoly and allowed private companies in — including Starlink — the price dropped 99% to 78 cents per megabit and internet access jumped from nearly nothing to 88% of the population. All they did was end the government monopoly. We connect it directly to New York City's government grocery store plan — and suggest Mamdani study Micronesia before he opens his first store.

We also cover New York City bodegas allegedly allowing customers to use EBT food stamp cards to purchase kratom — an herbal extract not approved as food, a drug, or a dietary supplement — and potentially THC products. We call it what it is: SNAP trafficking, a federal crime that diverts money intended for nutrition into products that have nothing to do with nutrition.

We also note that families of 9/11 victims are asking organizers of the 25th anniversary Ground Zero memorial to bar Mayor Mamdani from attending — citing his political positions, his anti-Semitic endorsements, and his statement during his campaign that the worst thing about 9/11 was that his aunt feared people were looking at her suspiciously. We say that day belongs to the families and to the fallen — and that Mamdani would be a distraction from both.

And we close with 73-year-old Dave Whitlow of Richmond, Virginia — who has spent eight years volunteering twice a week at the Children's Hospital of Richmond as a professional cuddler of premature babies. On busy days he holds eight different babies, some weighing less than two pounds, giving them the human contact their developing systems need. As he places each one back into their NICU bed, he tells them the same thing: grow strong, grow smart, grow kind. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 29, 2026.

We open with Anthony Fauci's appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee — where he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times over nearly four hours, refusing to answer questions about COVID-19, gain-of-function research, federal records, and his role in shaping the pandemic response. He even invoked the Fifth when asked whether a red folder was sitting in front of him. We walk through the constitutional tension at the heart of the hearing: Biden's sweeping preemptive pardon covers Fauci for any federal offense between 2014 and January 19, 2025 — and under an 1896 Supreme Court ruling, a pardoned witness can no longer claim Fifth Amendment privilege because the danger of prosecution has been removed. Fauci's lawyers are apparently betting the autopenned pardon might be invalidated. We also point out that the Fifth Amendment does not protect a witness from future perjury — meaning the only real jeopardy Fauci faced was if he lied again. His diaries, which he confirmed are his, already prove he lied to Congress about school closures and gain-of-function. Biden may have given him immunity from punishment. He may also have given Congress the power to compel the truth.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, Fauci's Senate testimony — 111 Fifth Amendment invocations, a contempt vote expected next week. Then the Trump administration officially banned gain-of-function research globally — expanding last year's China-specific ban to all foreign nations and the United States itself, with HHS and the State Department issuing a joint statement on biosafety standards. And the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as the new Director of National Intelligence on a party-line 51-47 vote — in part because Clayton refused to tell Democrat senators that he believed Joe Biden won the 2020 election fairly.

We also cover President Trump's ban on importing humanoid robots manufactured in China — framing it as a national security issue rather than a tariff. We explain why this is correct: Chinese robotic firms have been pouring money into R&D, producing advanced prototypes that can lift, run, climb stairs, and mimic human gestures. Importing them would stifle American domestic robotics manufacturing and potentially introduce devices receiving overnight software updates from servers in Beijing.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson take on the trend of celebrity children dropping their fathers' last names when they turn 18 — specifically Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's daughter, and Tom Cruise's daughter Suri. Teri makes the case that this isn't really about the name — it's about what happens when a parent loves winning more than they love their children's relationship with their other parent. She shares a story from their own extended family where a mother kept her children away from their father for 20 years based on lies — and when the truth came out as adults, the son found his father, the father died shortly after, and the son's relationship with his mother was shattered permanently. The data on children without fathers is not ambiguous. The children who are protected from the bitterness of divorce are the ones who grow up most whole.

We dig into Zoran Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax — a second-home tax he promised would affect 13,000 properties. When the city published the list of people subject to the tax, it contained more than 960,000 names and their addresses — effectively doxxing nearly a million New Yorkers, including celebrities who campaigned for Mamdani like Cynthia Nixon, plus Anna Wintour and Woody Allen. It also included people who have lived in their homes as their primary residence for 27 and 30 years respectively, now being billed $43,000 in additional annual taxes on top of their existing property taxes. One resident compared it to a command and control government like Cuba or China. We call it exactly what it is — a communist mayor who said he was going to tax the rich and is now taxing anyone he can find an address for.

We also cover the co-owner of the Seattle Storm WNBA team allegedly approaching two teenage girls holding pro-Sophie Cunningham signs at a game — girls wearing XXXY t-shirts in support of women's sports — and unleashing an expletive-filled rant that left one of them in tears. The team apologized. We note that these girls bought tickets, spent money on parking and concessions, and chose to spend their evening at a Storm game. The ownership treated them as political opponents. We also note that the same signs held at a Fever game in Indianapolis would have received a very different reaction.

For our Bright Spot, Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt introduced the Boasberg Act — named after the Washington D.C. federal judge who has repeatedly blocked Trump administration actions before being overruled by the Supreme Court. The bill does three things: requires fully randomized case assignments so plaintiffs can't judge-shop, implements transparency measures to verify the randomization is actually being followed, and removes a judge from a case if the Supreme Court overrules them in that same case. We call it exactly what it is — a structural fix to a systemic problem that has cost taxpayers time and money and allowed activist judges to function as a one-person veto over the will of the American people.

We also cover Chicago's government grocery store experiment — where Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a company called Yellow Banana $13 million in subsidies to reopen seven Save-A-Lot locations in food deserts, promising $26 million over ten years. Yellow Banana closed all seven stores in less than two years. The reason: you cannot sustain a grocery store selling at below-market prices. New York City is now launching the same experiment. We suggest they call Chicago first.

We also cover Nancy Sinatra's claim on X that the founding fathers would have banned firearms if they'd known about automatic weapons — and explain why this is historically illiterate. The founders specifically ensured colonists could own the weapons of war of their era. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was triggered by the British attempting to confiscate cannons. And the Second Amendment says arms — not muskets.

And we close with 14-year-old Jory Thomas, who brought his lariat camping along the Yellowstone River because he'd been practicing roping every day after school. While camping, he heard cries from the middle of the rushing river — a man clinging to a cooler after his raft hit a bridge upstream. Jory waded in, threw his lariat, roped the man on the first try, and pulled him to shore. He said God was basically putting him in place. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 28, 2026.

We open with the growing controversy surrounding Senator Mitch McConnell after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear publicly called on him to prove he is capable of serving or resign. We examine whether the governor's concerns are legitimate or politically motivated, why McConnell's continued absence has fueled speculation, and what Kentucky's updated election laws mean if the Senate seat were to become vacant before November's election.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, President Trump meets separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the Middle East, Ukraine, and expanding the Abraham Accords. The Department of Justice asks the Supreme Court to reinstate President Trump's executive order requiring stricter citizenship verification for mail-in voting, and newly released audio recordings of former President Joe Biden reveal conversations about classified documents and memory lapses that are reigniting questions surrounding the federal investigation.

We also break down the release of more than 1,000 pages of Anthony Fauci's personal diaries, which critics say contradict years of public testimony about his role in school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the diary entries describing conversations with state and local leaders, the growing questions surrounding Fauci's influence over pandemic policy, and why the newly released records are drawing renewed scrutiny from Congress.

Our American Mamas, Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson, react to Fauci's diaries and discuss what they believe the entries reveal about his leadership during the pandemic. They examine his private reflections, his interactions with political leaders and media personalities, and why they believe the diaries raise serious questions about transparency, accountability, and public trust.

We dig deep into several major stories shaping the country, including the highest national foreclosure rate in nearly seven years and what happens when government intervention distorts the housing market. We also examine controversy surrounding a Smithsonian exhibit describing "whiteness" and whether the museum's messaging promotes unity or division. Finally, we discuss billions of dollars in Chinese funding flowing into American universities and the growing concerns about foreign influence inside U.S. higher education.

We also highlight FIFA President Gianni Infantino's public defense of the United States after the World Cup, praising the tournament's safety, hospitality, and unity while pushing back against critics who predicted chaos. The tournament welcomed millions of fans from around the world without the violence or unrest many expected, making it one of the event's biggest success stories.

And we close with an inspiring story out of California, where 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder heroically rescued a 10-year-old boy from dangerous surf. His quick thinking and bravery caught the attention of President Trump, who announced the young lifeguard will be invited to the White House to be recognized for his actions.

May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 27, 2026.

We open with Chris Christie's Sunday morning declaration that the Trump show is over, that Iran has learned the president's threats are just bluster, and that there are no signs the United States is winning. We explain why this is not just wrong — it is reckless. Wars are not won or lost on Sunday talk show segments. But enemies listen. They translate every word. They study our divisions and exploit them. Christie chose to go on national television and tell Tehran to hold on just a little longer on the exact weekend that Iran was sending desperate messages through dozens of third countries begging to restart negotiations — after 13 consecutive days of U.S. bombing had decimated their defense industrial base, their launchers, their radars, and their economy. When critics tell the enemy that America's resolve is crumbling, they are shaping the battlefield in a way that benefits the adversary. That is not speaking truth to power. That is threatening the men and women in uniform.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, President Trump attended the White House Correspondents Dinner and delivered a speech roasting CNN's Kaitlin Collins, RFK Jr., Ted Cruz, Gavin Newsom, Rosie O'Donnell, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Christie, J.B. Pritzker, and others — with the jokes about the media landing to dead silence and the Trump 2028 trolling getting the biggest reaction of the night. Then the Maine Democratic Party officially replaced Graham Plattner — who was elected by actual voters — with Troy Jackson, a party insider selected by party leaders, because Plattner's sex scandals made him unelectable. It is Kamala Harris 2024 all over again, except instead of Sleepy Joe, they had Sleazy Graham. And an ISIS-linked attacker drove a van into a crowd at a Berlin Pride parade before exiting with a machete — killing one person and injuring 29 others before being tracked down and shot by police in a Berlin suburb.

We also cover Mayor Mamdani's announcement that New Yorkers should protest when Benjamin Netanyahu visits New York for the UN General Assembly — framing Netanyahu as a war criminal and architect of genocide based on an International Criminal Court warrant the United States does not recognize. We point out that the last protest near Mamdani's home was accompanied by two Muslims attempting to kill everyone in the area with homemade bombs. We also note that foreign policy is not run from city hall in Manhattan, that the Constitution is explicit about this, and that encouraging massive protests based on blood libel lies is not just constitutionally illiterate — it is dangerous.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson report from a campfire conversation in Wyoming — where Teri's Danish-American friend, a naturalized citizen who cannot stand Trump, was asked who she would want as the next president. Her answer: not Gavin Newsom, not AOC. Marco Rubio — because he's presidential, articulate, and could actually bring people together. Terry says that's the first moment she could picture Rubio as president. We explore the historic possibility of a Trump-Vance-Rubio sequential presidency — comparing it to Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe — and what three consecutive terms of the same political coalition would mean for the Democratic Party's long-term survival.

We dig deep into the financial collapse of the Democratic National Committee — reported not by Breitbart but by the New York Times and the Huffington Post. The DNC chair reportedly threw his phone at a staffer during a meeting over the party's finances. The DNC has asked vendors to delay sending bills until after the midterms so the debt doesn't appear on the balance sheet. The party is $2 million in the hole — $18 million in debt against $16 million on hand — and has already mortgaged its national headquarters to secure a $15 million line of credit. The RNC, by contrast, has $128 million cash on hand and zero debt. President Trump's personal war chest adds another $400 million. The Democrats have no message, the message they do have isn't resonating, and the money is not coming in.

We also cover Senator John Kennedy's response on CBS to questions about the SAVE Act — where he calmly explained to Margaret Brennan that election integrity requires exactly two things: prove you are who you say you are to register and vote, and get back to knowing the results on election night instead of election month. We call it exactly what it is — a bright spot. And we note that 70-80% of Americans agree with Kennedy, depending on the poll. The only people who don't are Democrat politicians afraid of their own radical base.

We also cover Hakeem Jeffries telling CNN that 6,600 non-citizens being registered to vote in New Jersey — with hundreds confirmed to have voted — is not a problem, and is actually an example of Republican voter suppression. We say what needs to be said: yes, Hakeem. We are trying to suppress illegal votes. That is exactly what the SAVE Act does. If the Democrat Party needs illegal votes to win, the Democrat Party should not win.

And we close with 11-year-old Nehemiah Turner of Jacksonville, Florida — who started reading books to shelter dogs at the Jacksonville Humane Society, logged 100 volunteer hours becoming the first person in the program to reach that milestone, became a straight-A student in the process, and has now set his sights on 200 hours. The dogs get comfort. Nehemiah gets better at reading. Everybody wins. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 23, 2026.

We open with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Tallarico's reparations proposal — made at a July 20 campaign event in DeSoto — calling for tuition relief, homeownership grants, and government-funded baby bonds for Black Texans, all in the name of repairing past harms. We walk through everything he left undefined: who qualifies, what the eligibility standard is, where the funding comes from, and what the total cost would be. We also walk through the genealogical reality of a multiracial nation — including the head of the NAACP who discovered she had an ancestor on the Mayflower, and the uncomfortable question of what happens when the same family tree contains both slaveholders and slaves. We make the theological point that a grievance machine with no limiting principle is not a policy. It is a dependency engine. The debt of slavery was paid — Lincoln said so, and the Civil War proved it at a cost of more American lives than any conflict before or since. The answer is not racial accounting. It is equal citizenship, strong families, honest education, safe communities, and a culture that celebrates achievement instead of grievance.

In our Top 3, first-time unemployment claims dropped to 187,000 — the lowest level since 1969 under Richard Nixon, coming in 22,000 below the prior week and well under what economists had projected. Fewer layoffs means steadier families. Then a member of Vice President J.D. Vance's Secret Service protective detail was suspended and placed under criminal investigation for allegedly leaking operational security information to the media — specifically complaining about unpredictable travel schedules. A Secret Service agent who can't keep a secret should not be in the Secret Service. And New York City landlords filed a lawsuit against the Mamdani administration's rent freeze — arguing that the Rent Guidelines Board was packed with political allies who then manipulated their own data to justify a two-year freeze on rents for more than a million tenants. We explain what rent freezes actually produce: slumlords, abandoned buildings, and a housing stock that deteriorates because owners cannot raise revenue to maintain it.

We also cover two men stabbed in an unprovoked attack on New York City's Upper West Side — the attacker reportedly shouting Allahu Akbar — one victim Asian, one wearing a yarmulke. We note that Mamdani's response to antisemitic violence in his city is to promise to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. We connect the violence to a broader point: when leadership sets a tone of weakness, confusion, and ideological hate, this is the inevitable result.

Our American Mamas Terry Netterville and Kimberly Burleson tackle the question of whether wives say things to their husbands that would devastate them if said in return — and the answer is an unambiguous yes. Terry admits she tells Kevin his hair is dirty, that he can't wear that outfit, and that mowing the lawn is his job — while acknowledging that if Kevin said any of those things to her it would ruin her day. The conversation becomes a warm, funny, and surprisingly insightful look at how different couples absorb criticism differently, why the way you're raised shapes what you can and cannot say to your spouse, and what happens when a wife goes on strike to make everyone appreciate what she does.

We discuss Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever — who has gone public in defense of women's sports, saying truth matters, biological sex has consequences in competition, and that protecting the integrity of women's athletics is not hatred of anyone. We make the point she is actually making: you can treat transgender people with dignity and still say that female sports should be reserved for biological women. Those two things are not in conflict. They are the only coherent position.

In our Digging Deep segment, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave what may be the clearest explanation of the Trump Doctrine we have ever heard — summarizing it in one line: Iran says eye for an eye. Trump says a head for an eye. We unpack the game theory behind it — tit for tat with disproportionate response. If you are nice to Trump, he is nice back in equal measure. If you are mean to Trump, he will be worse to you than you could ever possibly imagine. Iran fires on one tanker, the U.S. takes out a port, a tower, and every radar site in reach. Iran fires on two tankers, the U.S. goes on a 12-day bombing campaign eliminating bridges in and out of the country. The mullahs keep acting confused. The reason is they have never seen anything like this from an American president. Rubio also shared that Iran is sending messages through third countries every day begging to make a deal — but every deal they make, they either break or try to renegotiate. They are not ready yet. They will be.

We also cover Ted Cruz's prediction that Zoran Mamdani will become the next U.S. senator from New York — replacing Chuck Schumer, who Cruz believes can no longer win a Democratic primary in the state — and that Mamdani is the single most powerful Democrat in America right now. We connect it to AOC leading New Hampshire polling for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, and to DSA-backed candidates winning primaries across the country.

For our Bright Spot, a new Empire Center for Public Policy survey — conducted in New York, one of the most left-leaning states in the country — found that only 24% of respondents prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions over lower energy prices, 63% oppose mandatory home heating electrification, and 60% oppose letting individuals sue oil companies for climate change. The noisy minority demanding zero fossil fuels, electric heat mandates, and climate lawsuits does not represent most Americans — even in New York. That is common sense, and common sense is always a bright spot.

We also cover the Houthis attacking two Saudi oil tankers — Iran's last meaningful proxy after Hamas was decimated by Israel and Hezbollah was severely weakened — and make the strategic case that doing the hard thing now makes tomorrow easier. Letting Iran build nuclear weapons capable of reaching Europe would have made tomorrow catastrophically harder.

And we close with two-year-old Lucy Moline, who heard that her five-year-old sister Emma needed a bone marrow transplant after a rare disease stopped her bone marrow from producing red blood cells — and volunteered to be the donor because she wanted to be brave and help her sister. The transplant worked. Emma is cured. Is there anything better than sisters? May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 24, 2026.

We open with California's mail-in ballot system — and the 150,000 ballots rejected in the June primary as invalid. Out of 8.5 million ballots returned, nearly 94,000 arrived too late and another 50,000 failed signature verification. We connect it to the Los Angeles mayor's race, where Spencer Pratt held second place in ballots received before Election Day — and then mysteriously dropped to third as post-Election Day ballots arrived and a democratic socialist surged from third to first. We explain why California's system — which mails ballots to every registered voter, accepts them up to seven days after Election Day, and allows signature corrections after the fact — is designed for maximum permissiveness rather than maximum integrity. We also note that the pressure from Trump's DOJ is producing results: states are now publicly acknowledging ballot problems they would have quietly buried before.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, President Trump issued new tariffs on 60 countries — including Canada, Mexico, the UK, and EU members — based on a new legal justification targeting forced labor in supply chains, after the Supreme Court struck down his prior tariff authority earlier this year. Then four Somali immigrants in Minnesota pled guilty to defrauding Medicaid out of millions by using AI to fabricate patient notes for medical visits that never happened, billing the government for fictional services through a fake company called Brilliant Minds Services LLC. And the Democratic Party announced its 2028 primary schedule — placing South Carolina first because of its higher proportion of Black voters, a state Democrats haven't won in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. We call it what it is: racial politics dressed up as party reform.

We also cover the man who disguised himself as a police officer and murdered Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband in a politically motivated attack — sentenced this week to life in prison. We say plainly: political violence cannot be given an inch, regardless of who commits it or who the targets are. What happens in Mexico — where candidates are killed and hung from bridges — cannot be allowed to happen here.

We dig deep into a congressional reform proposal with two straightforward components that somehow don't already exist. First, ban members of Congress from having sexual relationships with congressional staffers — including colleagues' staffers, not just their own. Second, require FBI background checks for all House employees within 30 days of starting work, plus a foreign influence disclosure form requiring staffers to reveal any contracts or payments from foreign governments within the past three years. We explain why both of these are urgent: active investigations currently implicate congressional staffers as potential agents of Qatar, China, and Cuba — multiple cases involving China and Cuba alone. Congressional staffers write the bills, negotiate in back rooms, and exercise enormous real power. We should know who they are and who is paying them.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson revisit the question of how to find couple friends — and arrive at the same beautiful, frustrating conclusion they always do. Couple friendship is seasonal, it's fragile, it's devastated by divorce, and it is almost impossible to manufacture. The best couple friends come through your children's sports, through shared seasons of life, and occasionally through the miraculous coincidence of your children marrying each other's best friends' children. Guys don't have friends — they have wives. And their wives have friends. And those friends have husbands. That's the whole system.

We also cover LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers — and President Trump's answer when asked in the Oval Office whether LeBron or Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time. Trump said he only likes people who like him, and therefore: Michael Jordan, all the way. We agree with the conclusion if not necessarily the methodology.

We also discuss John Fetterman's midterm strategy advice for Democrats — delivered in his signature style: don't be weird, don't be communist, don't be weirdo socialist, don't praise Mao, and don't do crazy stuff. We call it the most useful political advice any Democrat has given their party in years, and note that it will almost certainly be ignored.

Then it's Fake News Friday — including whether Mamdani admitted he lacks authority to invade Poland, whether the EU makes more fining U.S. tech companies than taxing its own, whether right-wing extremists in the UK were arrested for planning to disrupt Muslim events, whether a Minnesota woman was convicted of saying a slur to a Somali man accused of rape who was never prosecuted, whether Ben Franklin performed electroshock experiments on slaves, whether the Smithsonian put that in a museum exhibit, whether Trump announced a third-term run, whether a New York school district hired a robot teacher, and whether the Obama Presidential Library stiffed its plumber out of nearly $4 million. Sophie Cunningham's shoes sold out in under 24 hours. We couldn't get any for prizes.

For our Bright Spot, Paul Jackson was driving on I-5 near Seattle when he spotted an SUV drifting across three lanes with an unconscious driver and a terrified child in the back seat. He pulled alongside the out-of-control vehicle, wedged it against the concrete barrier, brought both cars to a stop, jumped out, put the SUV in park, and stayed with the woman and child until emergency services arrived. Quick thinking, steady hands, and the willingness to act. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 22, 2026.

We open with President Trump attending the dignified transfer of four fallen U.S. service members at Dover Air Force Base — and the political left's insistence on finding fault with it. We explain what a dignified transfer actually is: not a press conference, not a campaign event, not a photo opportunity. It is the most solemn responsibility a commander-in-chief carries — standing on behalf of 340 million Americans to receive sons and daughters who left home in uniform and came back draped in the flag. We also note a detail that made no headlines: President Trump gave the family of Lieutenant Tyler Feehan, who was from Georgia, a ride home on Air Force One. We contrast this with the man who checked his watch at an identical ceremony. And we put the 18 casualties in historical context — fewer than the invasion of Grenada, fewer than the invasion of Panama, against a military exponentially larger than either. We are not losing this conflict.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, Trump-backed candidates swept Republican primaries in Arizona — with Andy Biggs winning the gubernatorial nomination to challenge Katie Hobbs, Mark Lamb winning the 5th Congressional District nomination, and retired NFL kicker Jay Feeley winning the 1st Congressional District nomination. More than 95% of Trump-endorsed candidates win their Republican primaries — a political endorsement success rate unprecedented in American history. Then the FBI captured fugitive Khalid Satari — a fraudster who had fled to Dubai after allegedly bilking Medicare out of $547 million through a scheme of kickbacks and bribes to doctors for unnecessary genetic testing across Georgia, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He was arrested overseas and returned to the United States to face trial. We also want to know who the doctors are.

We also push back on MyPillow CEO and Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell's proposal to give illegal aliens amnesty through conditional work visas with no expiration date. We acknowledge Lindell is a patriot and his heart may be in the right place. We also note that we have seen this movie before. A work visa with no expiration date plus a family and a mortgage will produce, in exactly the timeline the left expects, a demand for citizenship and a voter registration form. The second chance we are willing to offer: $2,600 from the federal government to fly home and try the right way. That is the second chance. We are not offering a third.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson respond to a listener question about wheelchair abuse at airports — and Teri, as a former flight attendant, confirms it has always happened but is now out of control. The mechanism is simple: wheelchair assistance gets you to the front of the boarding line, but requires you to wait for everyone to deplane before you can exit. So the people who needed a wheelchair to board are miraculously able to walk off the plane on their own. Teri connects it to the broader problem of low-trust cultural values meeting high-trust American systems — and notes that systems built on good faith get abused when the good faith isn't there.

We sit down with Brett Ackleberry of Focus on the Family to discuss PluggedIn.com — a free media discernment tool that provides in-depth content reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and YouTube channels from a Christian perspective. We discuss The Odyssey, The Passion of the Christ, and the difference between entertainment that earns its darkness and content that simply delivers it. Brett explains that PluggedIn is not there to tell anyone what to watch — it's there to give families the information they need to decide for themselves. It's free, it's thorough, and it's available right now at PluggedIn.com.

We cover the New Jersey non-citizen voter registration story — where the state called 6,000 improper registrations a software glitch and the software company said it was not their error — and connect it to the 24 states that still refuse to use the federal SAVE system, which is now free, to verify citizenship on their voter rolls. States with Democrat trifectas represent the vast majority of those refusing to use it. They also insist no illegal voting is occurring.

We predict a government shutdown in September — driven by Senate Republicans who won't pass spending bills the House has already sent over — and say plainly that the game is simple. Democrats stall, Democrats posture, and the country pays the price. Republicans in the Senate don't have to help them. John Thune needs to pick a side.

For our Bright Spot, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a consolidated ruling across multiple cases involving detained illegal aliens — finding that they do not have a constitutional due process right to bail that would allow them to remain in the country while fighting deportation proceedings. This year alone, judges had released more than 11,000 ICE detainees before removal could be completed. The Fifth Circuit just closed that door across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas — and in doing so, removed the incentive for detained illegal aliens to fight and delay removal rather than accepting voluntary departure.

We also cover a Tennessee Republican candidate named Brian Stewart whose campaign presents him as a Marine veteran — with the Marine Corps itself reportedly saying his premature discharge was incongruent with Marine Corps standards. We say it plainly: you do not lie about your military service. It is not a resume bullet point. It is sacrifice, discipline, and danger. Some gave the full measure of devotion. If you are thinking about lying about that, stop.

And we close with Jenitar and Jortham Na'amuana — who already had four children when they discovered their fifth pregnancy was actually four babies. Natural identical quadruplets. No fertility therapy. Odds of one in fifteen million. All four delivered by C-section at 28 weeks, each weighing just over two pounds, all doing well and expected to go home soon. They are certainly doing their part. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 21, 2026.

We open with a 29-year-old Democratic Socialist named Milat Kiros who just defeated a 15-term congresswoman in Colorado's Democratic primary — with the backing of the DSA and Bernie Sanders — and who has told voters exactly what she believes: that America is exploitative and extractive, that ICE is a terror apparatus, that Israel's military aid should end, and that the existing world order needs a reckoning. We note that she arrived in America because her father won the U.S. diversity visa lottery — a program that saved her family from an Ethiopian civil war and famine — and that she earned degrees at Washington College and Notre Dame Law School on American soil. We are not speculating about her worldview. She has put it in writing. And she is one general election away from Congress in a district Republicans haven't won in half a century. We say what needs to be said: believe people when they tell you who they are.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the federal government suspended $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to California and $199 million to Minnesota after CMS reviews flagged high-risk fraud in home health and other services — with CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz saying the administration is done chasing stolen funds after they've already left the building. Then New Jersey's Democratic Governor Mikey Sherrill revealed that a software glitch allowed 6,000 non-citizens to register to vote in 2023 and 2024, with 400 of them actually casting ballots — a story the governor got ahead of before the DOJ could, and one that makes the case for the SAVE Act more powerfully than any speech. And 100 New York state lawmakers sent letters to the congressional delegation demanding ICE be abolished — the same ICE that exists because Congress decided in 2002 that someone should enforce federal immigration law.

We also cover the Trump administration's discovery that the federal government has been sending nearly $100 million per year to dead people — and has now stopped. The fix required asking one basic question: is the person we're sending this check to still alive? That question, apparently revolutionary in Washington, was answered by comparing 885 million federal payments against death records. Government doesn't have a revenue problem. It has a stewardship problem.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson debate whether they'd go back to old TV over smart TVs — and the answer is a resounding yes, for reasons that go beyond nostalgia. Streaming costs more than cable ever did, smart TVs are listening and tracking everything, you can no longer skip commercials, the content is ideologically slanted, and nobody can find anything. Teri misses Blockbuster. Kimberly misses the DVR. Both agree that horizontal screens make sense because human eyes are horizontal — and that vertical video on phones is a waste of the aspect ratio God gave us.

We dig deep into former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper's early release of 4,234 prisoners following an NAACP lawsuit arguing that incarceration is racist — a number that exceeded the 3,500 agreed to in the settlement and included 99 sex offenders and 24 people convicted of murder. Within five years, 2,412 of those released — a 57% recidivism rate — had committed new crimes and been rearrested, including charges of rape and murder. Among those released and later arrested for murder was the man accused of stabbing Ukrainian immigrant Iryana Zyrutska to death on a Charlotte train. Roy Cooper is now the frontrunner for the North Carolina Senate seat. We say plainly: we should stop rewarding failure. There are people dead in North Carolina today because their governor let violent criminals out of prison to kill again.

We also cover the State Department's follow-up report confirming that Cuba is actively helping Iran, Hamas, and other jihadist organizations expand their influence throughout the Western Hemisphere — connecting the dots between communist Cuba's survival dependence on American adversaries and the broader axis of pressure being applied to the United States from multiple directions simultaneously. No single threat defeats us. Together, they create friction, consume resources, divide attention, and complicate national security. All of it from 50 miles off the coast of Florida.

For our Bright Spot, Texas Representative Andy Hopper wrote a letter responding to a Mexican senator who demanded that Texas stop enforcing its border laws because migrants were dying trying to cross illegally. Hopper's response is worth reading in full — citing Texas independence, the Alamo, San Jacinto, and the sovereign right of every nation to determine who enters its territory. He also told Mexico directly: we will not accept border policy instruction from a government that has allowed cartels to dominate vast regions of its own territory. Abandoning enforcement would not save lives. It would guarantee the cartels more victims, more profits, and more power. We call it exactly what it is — a bright spot.

We also cover New York City's welfare rolls hitting 865,000 cash assistance recipients under Mayor Mamdani — up from a low of 336,000 under Mayor Bloomberg — and note that a democratic socialist does not view this as a crisis. He views it as an achievement. We view it as what happens when you promise free things and then wonder why more people ask for them.

We also discuss the case of a 29-year-old woman who died after a ChatGPT conversation that increasingly centered on themes of sacrifice, death, and resurrection — with the AI telling her she would need to die before becoming who she was meant to be. We make the distinction between a mentally healthy person who reads letting your old self die as a metaphor for personal growth, and someone already struggling with depression or delusion who reads it as instruction. AI is a language tool. It produces eloquent, resonant language. It does not know who is reading it.

And we close with Scottish runner Josh Kerr breaking the world mile record in London — running the mile in 3 minutes and 42 seconds to break Hicham El Guerrouj's record that had stood since 1999, the longest anyone had held the official world mile record since records began. In front of 60,000 fans, a man ran a mile in the time it takes most of us to find the remote. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 20, 2026.

We open with a 100-page State Department report titled Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism — and the findings go far beyond what most Americans have ever been told about Cuba's reach inside this country. For nearly 70 years, Cuba has been building a revolutionary infrastructure in the United States — funding and directing organizations from the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground to modern Antifa networks, Code Pink, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the National Lawyers Guild, which provided legal assistance to 20,000 people arrested during the 2020 George Floyd unrest. We connect the dots from Bill Ayers launching Barack Obama's political career from his living room to Chessa Boudin running San Francisco's DA office to LaToya Cantrell traveling to Cuba to study economics before being indicted on 16 counts of malfeasance. The pattern, once you see it, cannot be unseen.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, three U.S. service members were killed in the Middle East over the weekend — 19-year-old Private Isabella Gonzalez of Carrollton, Texas and 25-year-old First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan of Ewa Beach, Hawaii died in an Iranian missile attack on their base in Jordan, and a third service member was killed during a controlled detonation of an unexploded Iranian drone in Iraq. A fourth remains missing. We honor them with Abraham Lincoln's words — the last full measure of devotion. Then a man was arrested for setting off an incendiary device outside the ICE offices in lower Manhattan — fireworks and gasoline, two minor injuries, a federal building housing ICE, immigration courts, and the FBI. And Maine Democrats selected Troy Jackson as their replacement Senate candidate for Graham Plattner — a man accused of mortgage fraud for lying about his primary residence to get a lower interest rate. Mortgage fraud, apparently, is the ceiling Maine Democrats are working with this cycle.

We also take on Mayor Mamdani's declaration that he intends to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York City — based on an International Criminal Court warrant that the United States does not recognize. We explain why this is constitutionally illiterate, diplomatically catastrophic, and practically impossible. The Constitution gives Washington, not City Hall, the authority to conduct foreign affairs. The UN sits in New York City precisely because heads of state must be able to travel there safely. If one mayor can arrest one head of state, no head of state will ever return — and the UN becomes a ghost town. Mamdani's job is to serve the people of New York City. Destroying the diplomatic credibility of the most important city in the world is not that.

Our American Mama Teri Netterville makes the case that small talk is a lost art — and a more important one than most people realize. It's not filler. It's the appetizer to the main course. Terry talks about watching her shy daughter Summer learn to work a room by watching her mother walk across it toward the person standing alone. She credits her father, who could run any room because he made whoever was speaking to him feel like they were the only person there. She points to Princess Catherine and Bill Clinton as two of the best practitioners alive — and makes the case that if parents don't put the phones down and model this for their children, an entire generation will grow up incapable of the human connection that holds communities together.

We also cover the media's outrage over President Trump presenting the World Cup trophy to Spain — headlines declaring he refused to leave the stage, sparked outrage, and embarrassed the country. We note that presenting the trophy was part of the plan agreed upon months in advance with FIFA president Gianni Infantino. We also note that if Joe Biden had done the same thing, the coverage would have called it proof of his vitality and connection to the world stage.

In our Digging Deep segment, a new Echelon Insights poll reveals something stunning about young Democrats — they have a net negative view of capitalism of minus 31%, a net positive view of socialism of plus 35%, and a net positive view of free markets of plus 22%. All three of those positions cannot be simultaneously true. Free markets are capitalism. Socialism is the opposite of free markets. The same poll shows young Democrats under 50 support the Democratic Socialists of America with a net favorability of 54% while Democrats over 50 give the DSA only 28%. The Make America Healthy Again movement is the only political movement in the country with a net approval rating above 50% — and it's below 50% among Democrats. Apparently, Democrats don't want anything associated with Trump — including healthy food.

We also push back on Republican strategists panicking about Iran hurting the party in the midterms. The American people are not bloodthirsty and they don't want endless wars. But there is a world of difference between opposing endless wars and surrendering to a regime that has chanted death to America every day for fifty years and was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon. President Trump has made a reasonable case for a defined military objective. He could make it better. But rolling over is not an electoral strategy either.

For our Bright Spot, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University announced the discovery of massive wooden beams from Lebanon — burned and preserved since 586 BCE — that appear to be structural elements from the First Temple of Jerusalem, exactly as described in the Bible. The beams show an unusually high number of growth rings, confirming they came from the large, old trees of Lebanon that scripture specifically identifies as the building material. The Bible said it. The archaeologists found it. Another bright spot hidden in the dirt.

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You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 17, 2026.

We open with the Trump administration's straightforward approach to election security funding — if your state wants federal Homeland Security dollars, it must demonstrate it is taking basic, credible steps to protect its elections. The requirement: devote 3% of the grant toward election security. That's it. We explain why this is not extreme, not unprecedented, and not controversial to anyone acting in good faith — highway funding comes with rules, education funding comes with requirements, and the foundation of our entire system of self-government deserves at least the same standard of accountability as a road project. We also walk through every argument the left makes against voter integrity measures and explain why each one is a red herring designed to obscure the only real reason to oppose them.

We dig deep into President Trump's primetime address on election security — laying out the five points he made and the documents he says back them up. China hacked voter rolls and now possesses the name, address, Social Security number, and driver's license of roughly 220 million registered American voters. China ran an influence campaign in 2020 to prevent Trump's reelection and may have attempted to create fraudulent ballots. That intelligence was intentionally concealed from Trump by U.S. intelligence agencies between 2018 and 2020. Evidence of fraud in Michigan was covered up and not robustly investigated by the Biden FBI. And more than 250,000 non-citizens are registered to vote in the United States, documented in four cooperating states alone. We note what the speech did not do — it did not claim the 2020 election was stolen or produce proof of widespread cheating. It presented declassified evidence of vulnerabilities, foreign interference, and institutional failures, and put pressure on the Senate to pass the SAVE Act. The people calling it election denialism didn't listen to it.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, a federal appeals court ruled that the Pentagon can require reporters to be escorted through the building and register before gaining access — overturning a lower court ruling that had sided with the New York Times, and finding that the policy was applied evenly to all media. Then Maine Democrats held a debate to replace Graham Plattner — featuring eight candidates, the first four of whom all lost their primary races this year, and a final candidate whose listed qualifications were that he writes songs and books. And Britain has a new prime minister — Andy Burnham, former mayor of Greater Manchester, replacing Keir Starmer whose Labour Party's popularity has collapsed under the weight of rising crime, mass immigration, and a government crackdown on free speech. Burnham will be the seventh prime minister since 2016. We are not optimistic about his relationship with President Trump.

Our American Mamas Teri Netterville and Kimberly Burleson take on the question of whether America has canceled grandma — and the answer is complicated. There's a legitimate version of the concern, where grandparents try to override parenting decisions while the parents are present, and a much more troubling version, where adult children cut off grandparents entirely for political or ideological reasons. Teri and Kimberly draw the distinction between a grandparent who steps in to discipline when a parent is right there versus a grandparent who is being pushed out because they're Trump supporters who like guns. One is a boundary conversation. The other is a tragedy. The Constitution's preamble says we are building this country for ourselves and our posterity — and cutting grandparents out of children's lives cuts the very thread of generational wisdom our republic depends on.

We also cover what James Carville got right this week — that CNN should have aired President Trump's primetime address, even if they disagree with everything he says. Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant. Free speech works precisely because it trusts the American people to evaluate what they hear. The network that aired statements from the Chinese Communist Party without a fact-check decided it needed to fact-check the sitting president of the United States in real time. None of it holds together.

We also take on the WNBA's treatment of Caitlin Clark — the greatest female basketball player in the history of the sport, who is being harassed by fellow players, subjected to demands that she denounce her own fans, and choked on the floor with no technical foul called. We offer the only explanation that fits all the evidence: it is racism, and it is the only category of racism the left refuses to acknowledge.

Then it's Fake News Friday — including whether Trump wants to purge legitimate voters, whether a CNN poll found 125% of Americans disbelieve the election interference claims, whether Speaker Johnson has 1,500 unread texts, whether you can buy a piece of the MetLife Stadium World Cup field for $450, whether Mamdani watched the World Cup with Rikers Island inmates, whether Sacramento sanitation workers are photographing your trash, whether a man robbed a bank using a stolen kitten, and whether Pete Hegseth ordered soldiers with low testosterone transferred to the Navy. One of those is really fake news.

For our Bright Spot, Senator Marsha Blackburn is reintroducing the Ban Birth Tourism Act — in direct response to the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling — making the case that you should not be able to create a permanent legal anchor to the United States simply by giving birth on American soil without any commitment to this country whatsoever.

And we close with 92-year-old Martin Gill of Wilmington, North Carolina — who retired from the oil fields, got bored, worked as a greeter at Sam's Club until that position was eliminated, and has now been the host at his local Chick-fil-A for six years. He says if you enjoy what you're doing, it's not work. He doesn't know what 92 is supposed to feel like — but he feels great. It's his pleasure. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone. This is the full show for July 16, 2026.

We open with a story that should trigger Logan Act investigations — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch has revealed that New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani attempted to arrange a secret meeting with the Iranian government while the United States is actively engaged in military operations against Iran. We walk through the constitutional principle at stake: the United States speaks with one voice in foreign affairs, that voice belongs to the federal government, and a city mayor has no more authority to conduct foreign policy than he has to declare war. We also connect it to a pattern — from Obama's hot mic moment with Medvedev to John Kerry's shadow diplomacy during Trump's first term — of people who want the power of the presidency without the accountability of holding it.

In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the U.S. launched strikes against Iran for the sixth consecutive day — targeting air defenses, rocket and drone facilities, and ports, with reports of 35 killed and 300 wounded in Iran, and a blockade-running ship disabled after repeated warnings. Then President Trump fired a newly appointed federal prosecutor in Seattle less than an hour into his first day on the job — a position filled by federal judges after Democrat Senate obstruction left the slot unconfirmed for more than 120 days. And a former Marine and congressional candidate in Florida was arrested for posting videos to social media calling for the murder of President Trump, describing him as the Antichrist, and advising what weapons and shooting patterns should be used — the latest of more than 20 documented assassination plots against the president, by far the most in American history.

We also cover the Trump administration restoring the public charge rule — requiring that applicants for lawful permanent residence demonstrate they can support themselves without depending on government assistance. We explain why this was standard immigration practice throughout most of American history, why it is the policy of virtually every developed nation on earth, and why the most compassionate thing you can say to someone who wants to become an American is that we believe you can make it here on your own.

Our American Mama Teri Netterville responds to a podcast host who said she doesn't trust any mother who wants to be with her children all day — and that homeschooling is weird. Teri's answer is simple and devastating: children are not a burden. They are a reward from God, an inheritance, arrows that parents are called to form and launch into the world for impact. The proof showed up at a stoplight on the way to the studio — Psalm 127, in a bumper sticker, on a car Teri had never seen before, minutes before a segment she didn't know she'd be having. She calls it a God thing. We do too.

We dig deep into Senator Elissa Slotkin's remarks at a Michigan town hall — where she explained her opposition to the SAVE Act by saying it would make it impossible for any Democrat to win any election anywhere. We play the clip. We let her words sit. And we point out that if requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is what makes Democrats lose elections, Senator Slotkin has just told you everything you need to know about who has been voting in Democratic primaries. The SAVE Act doesn't prevent anyone who is legally entitled to vote from voting. It just makes sure people who aren't legally entitled to vote don't get to cancel out the votes of those who are.

We also cover Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego and reports that he had relationships with multiple congressional staffers before his marriage — and use it to return to the core principle that power causes brain damage. The part of the brain that processes empathy is measurably suppressed in people who accumulate power and believe they deserve it. The only people largely immune to this effect are those who genuinely believe they don't deserve the power they have. Public office is a public trust — and the people underneath you in that office are not perks of the position.

We also cover a White House teleprompter technician who allegedly fed Trump's speech content into prediction markets before the speeches were delivered — trading on insider access to profit from words she was trusted to keep confidential. Every position of trust comes with an obligation of restraint. Some people just haven't figured that out yet.

For our Bright Spot, the New York Times ran a piece headlined Mom, Dad, I Want to Be a Welder — following young Americans in their twenties who had the grades for college, chose trade school instead, and are thriving. Trade school enrollment is up nearly 20% since 2020. Starting salaries for skilled tradespeople now beat many college-educated entry-level positions. And a 23-year-old welder from Arkansas named LaDonna Glass said it best — she felt like if she didn't go to college she would be a failure. She isn't. We close with Earl Nightingale's definition of success — the progressive realization of a worthy goal — and note that success begins the moment you commit to something worthy of your time, your talents, and your character.

And we close with a 2007 photograph taken at a Barcelona charity raffle — a baby boy named Lamin Yamal posing with a young Argentine footballer named Lionel Messi. Eighteen years later, Lamin Yamal is on the Spanish World Cup team and Messi is considered the greatest of all time — and the two people in that photo are about to face each other in the World Cup final. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!