The Florida Department of Transportation has ordered all Flock cameras and other license plate readers to be shut down by law enforcement agencies.

A release from the department said that the “recent exponential increase” in plate-reading devices forced the agency to intervene in order to preserve Floridians’ “sovereignty and quality of life.”

‘It’s really none of the government’s damn business if you’re doing that.’

A nationwide campaign has arisen by citizens accusing Flock cameras of violating their privacy rights by tracking their movements.

Supporters of the camera network say the data is invaluable to law enforcement investigations and privacy concerns are overwrought.

Among those opposed to the cameras is Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who recently criticized the technology over privacy concerns.

“They claim that the companies aren’t going to misuse it, but no one’s watching that,” the governor said in Jacksonville on Monday. “And I know you can make some money selling cameras, but you really can make a lot of money if you can sell people’s data, and that’s what the legislature is going to need to address.”

He cited some examples in which the tech was abused and residents’ privacy was violated.

“We know there was an officer in Florida who was using the LPR data to track, like, an ex-girlfriend or something like that,” he added. “I don’t think we had really strong penalties at all for that type of misuse.”

The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office indicated in a statement responding to the order that it was already in the process of dismantling the cameras.

RELATED: FIVE police officers FIRED and charged after allegedly abusing Flock system

“Prior to this state directive, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office had already proactively initiated the removal of Flock ALPR cameras previously located along county-maintained rights-of-way,” read the sheriff’s office statement.

The removal did not apply to “approximately 20 privately owned and operated ALPR cameras” in the county, the statement added.

“You know, you want to get in your car, and you want to go to down to Buc-ee’s in Saint Augustine,” said DeSantis. “It’s really none of the government’s damn business if you’re doing that.”

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​Flock cameras, Florida, Law enforcement agencies, License plate readers, Privacy rights, Ron desantis, Politics 

Jelly rolls are meant to make people happy, not spout political messaging.

This might be why platinum-selling singer Jason DeFord, aka Jelly Roll, did not handle the backlash to his partisan jokes very well.

‘The American dream should be for everybody.’

Tears of a clown

Jelly Roll finished his week as the guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday, with a near-20-minute monologue addressing the blowback from his jokes about President Donald Trump’s weight.

While DeFord’s jokes did not approach the realm of egregious — although he remarked that the president likely couldn’t see his penis — he was seemingly unprepared for the responses a spot on the obviously liberal talk show would garner.

Jelly Roll spent most of his time trying to convince the audience he is neither liberal nor conservative.

“Just because I watched a fight on TV doesn’t mean I support everything this administration does,” he said, referring to the UFC event at the White House. “Just like hosting Jimmy Kimmel’s show doesn’t mean I have all of Jimmy Kimmel’s politics. Sure, I lean left on some things, but like most folks, I’m pretty down the middle. I am a Christian. I am a country music singer. I’m a farmer. I’m a bow hunter.”

Then DeFord made fun of the comrades on staff at Kimmel, describing them as “communist Antifa friends” and the most talented group of “Chihuahua-hugging, oat-milk latte-loving lefties on God’s green Earth.”

It was from there that the 41-year-old made an impassioned and tear-filled speech about loving thy neighbor, with the message that dignity and compassion are not partisan issues. However, Jelly Roll’s bottom line came across as supportive of illegal immigration.

“Pain and healing knows no partisanship,” Jelly Roll said. “Hurting hearts are more important than poll numbers, and there are no boundaries or borders for broken families.”

After claiming “the American dream should be for everybody,” the singer appealed to Jesus’ teachings for how to treat a “neighbor.”

“There wasn’t an asterisk after neighbor. There wasn’t a political party exemption. It did not require us to know what country you were born in. There wasn’t a sentence afterward that said, ‘Unless you’re afraid of them.’ It just said, ‘Love your neighbor.'”

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel has a plan to get Stephen Colbert back on late-night TV

Fair shake

In front of an awfully partisan audience, Jelly Roll felt the need to explain away the handshake he exchanged with the president at a UFC event in 2024.

The musician said he would “always” shake the POTUS’ hand when asked, noting that his father would have been “disappointed” had he not.

“I’m proud that I was able to shake the president of the United States’ hand. I’m also proud that I live in a country where I can make jokes about him,” the country artist added.

But Jelly Roll made sure to reiterate to Kimmel’s studio audience that he disagrees with the president more often than he agrees.

“Taking a picture with a political figure or anybody else for that matter doesn’t mean you agree or disagree with their policies or politics. More often than not I f**king don’t.”

RELATED: HEAD CASE: Kathy Griffin whines she’s real ‘victim’ of tacky Trump decapitation stunt

Randy Holmes/Disney/Getty Images

Both sides now

The emotional diatribe culminated in the Tennessee native describing his appreciation for free speech and, despite making his liberal leanings obvious, his disdain for both political parties.

“[I support] the same freedom of speech that both sides of the aisle claim they want until they hear something they don’t want to hear,” he added.

He then placed blame on “politicians and algorithms” for convincing the public that the “person across the street” is the reason life is hard, before adding:

“Our leaders on both sides of the aisle are doing an absolute s**t job of trying to bring us together, y’all.”

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​Jelly roll, Donald trump, Jimmy kimmel, Immigration, Entertainment 

“The End of Oak Street” — the sci-fi thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor that follows a 1982 suburban family as their neighborhood is ripped through a wormhole into a dinosaur-filled prehistoric landscape — is garnering mixed reactions. While critics have been overwhelmingly positive in their feedback, audiences are conflicted, with some praising the spectacle as a fun, surprising throwback and others complaining about plot holes and pacing issues.

BlazeTV host Steve Deace falls into the critical camp, but his complaints have less to do with narrative gaps and uneven pacing and more to do with the “worldview” the film promotes.

On this episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace gives his brutally honest review — spoilers included!

“We have got to talk about the worldview of this film, and since this is not, you know, some cinematic brilliance, I’m fine spoiling it,” says Deace.

His primary issue is the characters.

McGregor plays Greg Platt, a struggling suburban dad who’s secretly working as a pizza delivery driver. Hathaway, who plays his discontented wife, Denise, also has her secrets. Unbeknownst to everyone save her embittered widowed neighbor, she’s been writing a book — but it’s not just any book. It’s a semi-autobiographical novel about a woman who wants to leave her family.

Their daughter is Audry, a cosmology-obsessed lesbian who dreams of going to Cornell to study under Carl Sagan, who famously wrote, “The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.”

Deace finds this ironic since “[Sagan’s declaration] turned out to be, according to modern science, completely total science fiction.”

“Modern conventional science doesn’t believe that anymore [but] believes the universe actually had a beginning and has an end,” he notes.

The family’s younger son Brian has his own coming-of-age subplot. He has a crush on the new kid in the neighborhood — a black Catholic girl named Jeanette who, much to his dismay, has a crush on his sister, Audry.

“Can you see some of the seeds getting planted here?” Deace smirks.

When the dinosaurs come out and wreak havoc on the neighborhood, the family’s happy facade begins to crumble.

“Here’s what you find out. The dad actually lost his job, OK? But he is so emotionally bullied by the wife that he doesn’t have the balls to tell her he lost his job because he doesn’t want to take it from her anymore, so he’s day-drinking in the garage and delivering pizzas at night to help pay the bills,” says Deace.

Greg, he explains, sneaks into the basement one day and finds his wife’s secret book.

“It’s basically her feminist manifesto: Nobody understands me. I’m taken for granted as a woman. I give give give give give. The kids are ungrateful. The husband doesn’t love me and cherish me the way that I should. I’m a desperate housewife here, and I want to leave my family and go and find my inner child and discover myself,” Deace summarizes.

Add to that the overlapping crushes between Audry, Brian, and Jeanette, and it’s clear what the film is trying to say, he argues: “Everything in the suburbs is a lie.”

“Your Reagan ’80s thing is a lie. The past you want to go back to that you think was taken away from you never was there,” Deace continues.

“Underneath the surface, these women were taken advantage of and wanted to be freed by feminism, and the men were a bunch of wussies and wouldn’t provide or do their jobs … and you’re raising sons to be creepers, and the daughters want to expand to their lesbian fortunes, and they’re being also inhibited by the strident tyrannical standards of the suburbs.”

But eventually this undercurrent shifts.

“It’s girlbosses against dinosaurs until they go up against the Tyrannosaurus rex,” laughs Deace.

“Guess who leaps in to save them? … The dad! The dad that they all betrayed, they all looked down on, they all thought they were better than, that they all emasculated,” he answers.

“And in the process, he gets bitten in half by the Tyrannosaurus rex and sacrifices himself … and it’s at that moment now the family realizes what douchebags they’ve really been this entire time, and they just explode in appreciation and tragic sadness for the loss of the dad.”

The film concludes idyllically, with the Platts going back in time through the wormhole to save Greg and the rest of the slaughtered victims.

“The idyllic ending they all get to at the end is the very nuclear family they spent the entirety of the film deconstructing on the way there,” scoffs Deace. “What does this all mean? I have no idea.”

To hear more of his analysis and commentary, watch the video above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Anne hathaway, Steve deace, Nuclear family, Movie review, Blazetv show 

Numerous Americans have died horrifically after foreigners were issued commercial driver’s licenses and took to the roads in what U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has characterized as “80,000 pound missiles.”

To neutralize these threats, the Trump administration has cracked down on unqualified drivers and taken off the road those commercial truck drivers who can’t speak English; purged thousands of unqualified training schools from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration registry; and barred DACA recipients, asylum-seekers, refugees, TPS holders, and other noncitizens from obtaining, renewing, upgrading, or transferring non-domiciled CDL licenses.

‘Congress must now do its part.’

Expanding on this campaign to keep American roads safe, the DOT announced on Monday that it has executed the emergency closure of over 110 commercial driver-training schools linked to thousands of drivers who failed English language proficiency tests.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration checked the records of over 5,000 CDL holders who failed the ELP requirements against records in the Training Provider Registry to determine which schools were certifying these failed assimilators. The agency ultimately identified over 110 entry-level driver training providers that must now cease all operations.

The FMCSA also launched nearly 400 investigations into training schools in 40 states. Investigators found “serious cases of non-compliance,” resulting in hundreds of additional proposed removals from the Training Provider Registry.

According to the DOT, drivers certified by the over 160 training schools that were served with notices of proposed removal are linked to 239 commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities.

“To fully root out the scourge of fraud, hold criminals accountable, and restore safety, we need the support of federal law enforcement,” Duffy said in a statement. “I am so grateful for President Trump raising the alarm on this issue, and to Vice President Vance for leading the charge to crack down on fraud nationwide. From states failing to follow the law to shady training schools and illicit companies, together we will tackle every link in the chain.”

The DOT is hardly alone in this campaign to spare Americans from incompetent foreign truckers.

RELATED: Massachusetts fought the rule that would have kept Pennsylvania trooper’s alleged killer off the road

Homeland Security Investigations is working with the DOT and FMCSA on a criminal investigation initiative focused on “CDL fraud, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, financial crime, money laundering, labor exploitation, and potential links to human smuggling, drug trafficking, and cartel activity.”

Starting Monday, HSI conducted a surge at over 200 driving schools and targeted CDL-related businesses, schools, carriers, and employers.

“Criminals who exploit our nation’s transportation systems through fraud and deception are not only breaking the law — they are putting the safety and security of the American public at risk,” said HSI acting Executive Associate Director John Condon. “HSI will bring the full weight of our investigative authorities, financial expertise, and global law enforcement capabilities to this historic, whole-of-government effort.”

Enforcement and Removal Operations will participate in the surge this week, which will focus on Maine, Michigan, and Wisconsin. ERO officers will work with FMCSA-certified inspectors to “conduct commercial vehicle enforcement activity and inspection checkpoints at separate locations.”

The Justice Department, which is also involved, announced on Monday the formation of Joint Task Force Crossroads of America — an interagency task force committed to enhancing roadway safety in part by deterring illegal trucking practices and holding offenders accountable.

Vice President JD Vance emphasized the importance of cracking down on fraud in the trucking industry, telling reporters on Monday that fraudulent CDLs in recent years not only made American streets and highways “a lot less safe” but were “bad for people’s jobs” and undercut American wages.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association lauded this interagency initiative.

President Todd Spencer said in a statement given to Blaze News, “OOIDA and professional truck drivers across America commend Secretary Duffy and [FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs] for taking concrete actions to crack down on fraudulent training operations and restore rigorous English language proficiency enforcement.”

Spencer added, “Congress must now do its part and pass Dalilah’s Law to ensure CDL mills remain closed and English language proficiency enforcement is permanently made the law of the land.”

H.R. 5688, Dalilah’s Law, would ban states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and limit issuance to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and holders of specific work visas. The legislation would also require the revocation of any existing ineligible CDLs.

The proposed law takes its name from Dalilah Coleman, a little girl injured in a car accident allegedly caused by an illegal alien from India who obtained a commercial driver’s license from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

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​Department of transportation, Sean duffy, Markwayne mullin, Ice, Justice department, Cdl, Truck drivers, Politics, Commercial drivers license 

Longtime White House correspondent Maggie Haberman of the New York Times angered President Donald Trump after her report on events commemorating the 9/11 attacks.

Haberman, who has previously interviewed the president many times, reported that Trump refused to attend the World Trade Center event for 9/11 because he would not be given the opportunity to give a speech.

‘She’s been falsely writing about me for years — She’s a stalker, and should be forced to turn over any and all money that she’s made through her fake reporting on me.’

The president forcefully denied the report and then excoriated Haberman in a screed on Truth Social Monday.

“Maggot Hagerman, the Fake Reporter from The Failing New York Times, an unattractive person both inside and out, and who knows less about me than most reporters on the beat (She’s a SCAMMER!),” he wrote, “made up a story that on September 11th, I’m not going to the World Trade Center, in New York City, because they won’t let me make a speech, and I’m going to the Pentagon in D.C., because I’m a featured speaker.”

The president went on to say he preferred not to give a speech at the event.

“I never even thought of what Maggot made up,” he continued.

“Maggot Hagerman is a PHONY, and The New York Times knows it!”

He threatened to sue her as well as the New York Times and accused her of falsely reporting on the Russian hoax.

“If she were ever forced to reveal her ‘sources,’ you will find out they either don’t exist, or didn’t say what she reported. She’s been falsely writing about me for years — She’s a stalker, and should be forced to turn over any and all money that she’s made through her fake reporting on me,” he concluded.

CNN’s Jake Tapper took exception to the insults against Haberman and defended her on social media.

“I’m not going to repost the filth the president wrote about Maggie Haberman, but suffice it to say she’s a great person, beautiful inside and out, an incredible mom and wife and colleague, and an amazing journalist. The president’s comments are disgusting and beneath the office,” he wrote in one post.

RELATED: NY woman who allegedly thanked Allah for 9/11 schemed to BOMB state Capitol

“We should never get used to this deterioration in our expectations for how a president should behave. Never,” he added in another.

Haberman responded to the president’s insults in an interview on MS NOW.

“We went to the White House. We were quite transparent with them about what we were reporting, including the part about that part of the reason why he was not going to New York was because he did want to speak, and the White House did not say anything, pushing back on what we were reporting,” she said.

“And then 24 hours later, the president started attacking the piece,” she added. “You know, so readers can make their own assessment about a denial that comes a day later.”

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​New york times, President donald trump, Fake news, 9/11 memorial, Politics 

If it seems like more conversations today than ever before go nowhere, that’s because it’s true. And according to Frank Turek, this is happening because Americans are increasingly operating from entirely different understandings of reality itself.

In his new book, “The War on Reality,” Turek and co-author Phoenix Hayes tackle what they see as a growing assault on truth, reason, and common sense.

And BlazeTV host Nick Freitas is no stranger to this attack either.

“Once upon a time, you kind of understood how to respond to things. If you were arguing about tax policy or you were arguing about abortion or whatnot, you just went through the process,” Freitas tells Turek.

“You looked at the facts. You looked at the evidence. And both of you could do that and you could come to different conclusions and maybe share different perspectives,” he says.

“But more and more people are finding themselves in arguments and debates where they’re like, ‘I don’t even understand where this person is coming from. It’s like we don’t even share the same reality,’” he adds.

“So much of reality is under attack,” Turek agrees. “I mean, just in the past, say, 10 years, Nick, notice we’ve had people say to us after 5,000 years of human history that what we thought was reality suddenly isn’t.”

“That there are an infinite number of genders. That, you know, men can get pregnant. That math is racist … that reason and logic are tools of oppression,” he says, explaining that even “pulling baby parts out of mothers” is now called “health care.”

“The war on reality is everywhere,” he adds.

And the inability to agree on what reality is has reached the point of violence more than once. Most notable, however, was the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“When people are confronted with logic that they can’t answer, they emote, and sometimes they even get violent. Our mutual friend Charlie Kirk was a victim of that. Here we had a trans person or a person involved in a trans relationship emoting to a point where he didn’t think Charlie Kirk should live any more,” Turek says.

“He tars him as a fascist, because we all know, Nick, that a fascist tactic is to hand your opponent the microphone and say, ‘Please give me your case. Make your case and we’ll have a discussion,’” he adds.

Freitas points out that this is why “defining one’s terms” has never been more important or, unfortunately, more difficult.

“Defining one’s terms is absolutely critical because otherwise you end up talking around each other, and emotions get involved, and people have different perspectives or they understand words differently,” he says.

“Because when you say the ‘war on reality,’ OK, define your terms. What’s reality?” he asks.

“First of all, truth corresponds to reality, and reality is the sum of all truths. And the only one that knows all of reality is, of course, God, because he’s omniscient,” Turek says.

“We know some of reality but not all of reality. Now, you can deny reality, you can fight against reality, but ultimately reality is going to win. Reality is undefeated,” he continues, noting that within his book is the argument that “reality does not have pronouns.”

“There’s not my reality and your reality,” he explains. “You may perceive reality different than me, but there’s a reality out there independent of both of us. Maybe you’re closer to it than I am. OK, fine. That’s what we call a disagreement.”

“Secondly, there’s not my gravity or your gravity. There’s not my math or your math. There’s not my laws of logic or your laws of logic. There’s not my law of morality that says, ‘Thou shalt not murder,’ but you have a different law that says it’s OK to murder,” he continues.

“These are all fixed in reality based on the nature of God,” he adds.

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Assassination, Charlie kirk, Common sense, Genders, Reality, Truth, Logic, Frank turek, Nick freitas, Blazetv show 

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberals in dissenting from a stay that lets President Donald Trump continue White House ballroom construction.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the lawsuit to halt construction, claiming the president did not have the power to unilaterally build the ballroom.

‘We have repeatedly held that mere offense, disagreement, or distaste does not qualify as a concrete and particularized injury.’

The trust was able to obtain an injunction against the building from the D.C. District Court, but the ruling Monday allows the president to continue construction.

“Today, we do not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project. We conclude only that, based on the submissions before us, the government is likely to prevail in showing that the Trust lacks … standing to challenge the project in federal court,” read the majority decision.

Roberts had previously allowed construction to continue while the rest of the court considered the full issue, but he joined the liberal justices in the dissent Monday.

“Construction of the ballroom has proceeded apace for the better part of a year. That construction is likely unlawful,” Roberts wrote.

The trust claimed a preservationist member who lives in Washington suffered “professional and personal injuries” while walking by the White House. However, the majority said the government could “likely” show that such distaste would not be enough for the trust to have standing.

“To the contrary, we have repeatedly held that mere offense, disagreement, or distaste does not qualify as a concrete and particularized injury,” the court said.

RELATED: Trump team mocks outrage of ‘unhinged leftists’ as construction of ballroom begins

The trust had argued that the president needed the “express authority of Congress” before ordering construction on federal land in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration argued that the construction was necessary in part because of threats of political violence and the lack of sufficient security at venues available for political events.

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​John roberts, Supreme court, White house ballroom, Politics, Donald trump