Category: blaze media

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and LGBT activists in the Michigan legislature were dealt a massive defeat on Thursday after a lengthy battle over a law that threatened to ruin counselors who help gender-confused children by compassionately grounding them in reality, not affirming delusions.

Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and attorney for the counselors, said in a statement, “This is a major victory for children, counselors, and common sense.”

‘Michigan is now admitting its law is unconstitutional.’

“Kids who are hurting deserve compassion, not a one-way ticket to harmful drugs, hormones, and surgery,” added the attorney.

Democrats in Michigan and Colorado put smiles on fellow LGBT activists’ faces in recent years by passing laws prohibiting so-called “conversion therapy” for minors.

Under Democrats’ House Bills 4616 and 4617 in Michigan and House Bill 19-1172 in Colorado — which defined “conversion therapy” as efforts to “change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity” — psychiatrists and mental health care providers who failed to indulge delusions or affirm homosexual inclination could face disciplinary actions, lose their licenses, and/or receive enormous fines.

Of course, these laws did not similarly prohibit gender ideologues from encouraging confused kids in therapy sessions to embrace the delusion that they are actually members of the opposite sex or to undergo sex-rejection medical procedures.

RELATED: Oregon’s war on confused children, by the numbers: It’s REALLY bad

Alex Kraus/Bloomberg/Getty Images

After ratifying her state’s version of the prohibition on reality-affirming counseling in July 2023, Whitmer stated, “We are banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy in Michigan and ensuring this is a state where you can be who you are.”

“As a mom of a member of the community and a proud, lifelong ally, I am grateful that we are taking action to make Michigan a more welcoming, inclusive place,” added Whitmer, whose daughter identifies as a lesbian.

The following year, a licensed Catholic therapist living in Lansing, Emily McJones, and the Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee, and Hillsdale Counties filed a federal lawsuit against Whitmer and the state of Michigan, arguing that HB 4616 constituted an attempt to control counselors’ speech that violates several constitutional protections.

“It violates the Free Speech Clause because it regulates speech based on its content and viewpoint and cannot satisfy strict scrutiny,” said the complaint. “It violates the Due Process Clause because it employs vague, undefined terms that invite arbitrary and selective enforcement. And it violates the Free Exercise Clause because it targets religious speech and interferes with the right of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”

The lawsuit noted further that the law harms children, not only because it deprived them of the compassionate counseling they need but forced counselors “to ‘affirm’ children in the belief that they were born in the wrong body and help them undergo permanent, life-altering medical procedures that many will come to regret.”

The plaintiffs suffered an initial setback in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, where Judge Jane Beckering — an appointee of former President Joe Biden — denied their motion for a preliminary injunction and claimed that therapy amounts to conduct rather than protected speech.

In December 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the Biden judge’s decision. The case was subsequently kicked back to the district court, which issued a preliminary injunction against the law.

The final resolution of the matter was, however, put on the back burner pending the result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Chiles v. Salazar regarding the law in Colorado. On March 31, SCOTUS determined that Colorado’s ban “regulates speech based on viewpoint” in violation of the First Amendment.

In light of the decisions by the Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit, the district court in Michigan delivered a final ruling on Thursday, permanently banning the enforcement of Whitmer’s controversial law.

“The Court hereby DECLARES that HB 4616, as applied to licensed mental health professionals engaged in therapy that consists exclusively of talking, violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Beckering wrote in her final judgment. “The Court hereby PROHIBITS Defendants, their successors, agents, and all those acting in concert with them from enforcing HB 4616 against licensed professionals who engage in therapy that consists exclusively of talking.”

“Michigan is now admitting its law is unconstitutional,” said Goodrich. “Its surrender confirms that the Constitution and the best available science are on the side of counselors who help children find peace with their bodies. States still trying to censor that care should take note.”

Whitmer’s office did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Colorado, First amendment, Gretchen whitmer, Lgbt, Michigan, Politics 

Congress just passed one of the most significant housing reforms in decades, but the fine print tells a more complicated story.

While the new law prevents large corporate landlords from purchasing additional existing single-family homes, it leaves a major exception intact: Companies can still build and own entire rental communities from the ground up.

And Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is sounding the alarm.

“Two weeks ago, the biggest housing bill in decades became law,” he begins.

“Here’s what it does do,” he explains, “If you’re a company and you own more than 350 single-family homes, you are not allowed to buy up any more of America’s existing houses. Wall Street is now barred from bidding against your daughter on a starter home. That is really good news.”

However, there is an exception.

“If a company builds a neighborhood of houses designed as rentals from the foundation up, it can own every last one of them,” he says. “So American Homes for Rent now expects every dollar of its growth this year to come from new construction.”

And while the bill comes with good news, Glenn points out that the bad is enough to keep Americans down.

“Go to a home auction, and watch two bidders on the same house. A family and a company, the same house, same price. May the best offer win. Who’s going to win? The company is,” he explains.

“The company wins every time. Every single time. And the starter home disappears. And the people who are doing this, they’re not evil. All they’re doing is arithmetic,” he continues.

“Now, that’s not a moral failure of the buyer, it’s a design feature of the tax code,” he adds.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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​Congress, Glenn beck, Housing bill, Housing reforms, New construction, Wall street, Blazetv show 

Political campaigns have a rhythm. At first, the questions are easy: Who raised the most money? Who landed the biggest endorsement? Who dominates the headlines? Consultants love this stage because it allows them to declare winners before most voters have begun paying attention.

Then the race changes.

The primary is no longer simply a contest over money, endorsements, or online attention. It is becoming a test of who understands what comes next — and who has prepared to govern through it.

Momentum gives way to scrutiny. Personality must give way to policy. Candidates who looked inevitable begin answering questions about their records, judgment, and ability to govern.

Florida’s Republican primary for governor has reached that stage.

Only a few months ago, the race appeared nearly settled. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds had President Donald Trump’s endorsement, national attention, and a fundraising operation that dwarfed the rest of the field. Political insiders spoke of inevitability as though Republican voters had already rendered their verdict.

Donalds remains the front-runner. That position deserves acknowledgment — and scrutiny. Increased attention has brought new questions about his record, campaign, and legal controversies. Voters and the courts, where appropriate, will decide those issues. But they are now part of the race, whether his supporters welcome them or not.

James Fishback entered the race as an energetic outsider with a strong social media operation and a talent for commanding attention. He has proved capable of generating enthusiasm and headlines. Campaigns, however, eventually demand more than velocity.

Voters begin asking harder questions: Can this candidate govern? What’s the plan? How would bold promises become legislation and administration?

Those questions have become more urgent as Fishback defends himself against a legal challenge to his eligibility under Florida’s constitutional residency requirement. Fellow Republican candidate Jay Collins brought the challenge. Fishback disputes the allegations and says he meets the requirement. Whatever the outcome, the case has introduced uncertainty into a campaign built largely on momentum and personality.

Collins faces a different test.

A decorated Green Beret with a compelling personal story, Collins entered the race with credentials few could dismiss. Yet campaigns turn on trust as much as biography. Critics have questioned whether his rhetoric and financial support align, particularly on hyperscale data centers and real estate development. Collins has defended his positions, but the dispute illustrates how quickly Republican voters now demand consistency between campaign language and governing priorities.

That leaves the most overlooked candidate in the field: Paul Renner.

Renner lacks Donalds’ financial advantage and has not relied on celebrity, inevitability, or viral attention. Instead, he has offered voters something less theatrical and potentially more consequential: a governing program.

Voters may disagree with parts of his First 100 Days agenda, but it is a road map rather than a collection of applause lines.

Renner has addressed property insurance, affordability, infrastructure, parental rights, election integrity, illegal immigration, and Florida’s response to the emerging artificial intelligence economy. More important, he has tried to show how those priorities connect.

RELATED: ‘It’s past time’: Florida launches investigation into Fauci

Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

That is where the race is changing.

Florida Republicans have spent years fighting over freedom. They are now asking how to preserve the quality of life that freedom was supposed to protect.

How does Florida keep teachers, firefighters, nurses, sheriff’s deputies, and young families from being priced out of the communities they serve? How can the state welcome investment without overwhelming roads, utilities, and water supplies? How should it embrace artificial intelligence while protecting property rights, local communities, and natural resources? How can growth enrich Floridians rather than merely raise their cost of living?

Those are real governing questions, not merely campaign slogans.

The next governor will inherit one of America’s fastest-growing states and most dynamic economies. He will also inherit rising insurance costs, strained infrastructure, rapid population growth, technological disruption, and mounting pressure on the affordability that helped make Florida attractive.

The primary is therefore no longer simply a contest over money, endorsements, or online attention. It is becoming a test of who understands what comes next — and who has prepared to govern through it.

Momentum changes. Fundraising advantages narrow. Polls rise and fall. Eventually, voters stop asking which candidate can win and start asking which candidate should govern.

Florida’s Republican primary has finally reached that question. The candidate who answers it most convincingly may discover that the race was never as settled as the consultants claimed.

​Governor, Opinion & analysis, Trust, Primary, Florida, Byron donalds, James fishback, Jay collins, Paul renner 

In 1993, I moved to an industrial city north of Prague, about 30 miles from the Czech/German border. Usti nad Labem had been around for almost a thousand years, but after half a century of socialist dictatorship, anything old had been replaced with hideous prefab housing estates and pollution-spewing chemical plants. It did have an old church from the 14th century, but I never went inside. It was just a relic of a time when being stupid and superstitious was the only option.

I had gotten a job teaching English to engineers at a local natural gas distribution company. I was a 22-year-old Ivy League liberal arts graduate. I had no experience or knowledge worth sharing, of course, and my students were older, with careers and families, and they treated me with deference anyway, as well as with kindness and hospitality. In return, I pitied them as hopelessly trapped in their small lives. I was meant for something bigger. I had no idea what, but I figured it would announce itself eventually.

Within seconds of meeting a girl at a party, he realized they had been lovers in prerevolutionary France, until he was garroted for trying to rescue her from prostitution.

East of Eden

I fell in with the small community of foreigners in town — about 10 Americans along with a few Brits and Canadians — but kept my distance. They weren’t the kind of friends I had in mind for myself — they were too provincial and unsophisticated.

Especially strange to me was a hulking gentle giant from Los Angeles named Chad. He was pushing 30 and lived off savings he had accumulated from a series of showbiz-adjacent jobs, including sales for a porn video distributer and caretaking an old Beverly Hills mansion now used for film shoots.

The mansion had been the site of a lurid, high-society murder-suicide in the ’20s and was haunted. He told us of strange encounters he’d had there alone late at night, the distant sound of piano music, which abruptly stopped as he moved toward it; a heavy, nauseating feeling of malice that descended upon him in certain rooms, the eerie sensation of being shoved.

These stories held our attention, but they didn’t seem like a big deal to him. He had always been particularly sensitive to the supernatural, he said, and he had an endless supply of anecdotes bearing this out.

‘Star 80’

There was overwhelming mutual attraction he shared with a girl within seconds of meeting her a party, only to realize they had been lovers in prerevolutionary France, until he was garroted for trying to rescue her from prostitution. He had vivid explorations of the lost city of Atlantis in lucid dreams, leaving him with an aching sense of being in exile. He was a connoisseur of 1970s femininity and could talk at length about the unearthly beauty and spiritual depth of murdered Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, whose distinct presence he could often feel, no matter where he was in the world.

I found all this unforgivably hokey. And I felt it reflected badly on me and my future. But I had to admit he was funny and intelligent. We became friends, even though I secretly regarded him with detached, ironic amusement. I enjoyed the matter-of-fact, unpretentious way he delivered even his boldest claims. Once, in one of my regular hungover tailspins of anxiety, I asked him if he wasn’t afraid of nuclear war. He sighed with slight exasperation and explained that obviously the higher beings protecting Earth would never allow it.

This idea didn’t reassure me, but his relaxed, confident demeanor did. And I began to realize that maybe thinking crystals were nonsense didn’t make me a better person. Even if Chad weren’t the conduit to the spirit world he claimed to be, he was uncommonly empathetic and perceptive when it came to other people, which is why we all liked to be around him. Whereas my constantly shifting sense of who I was and what it all meant kept me in a state of agitated self-obsession.

RELATED: Jesus in the temple (of progressivism): What I learned watching Portlanders debate a street preacher

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Under the bridge

I was too educated to believe that evil left some kind of spiritual mark on a place, but just 50 years ago, this city I used as the backdrop for my inner drama had been ceded to Hitler. Then, it was bombed by Americans. And just after the war, it was the site of a brutal massacre, in which a mob of Czechs attacked their ethnic German neighbors, shooting and stabbing some 100 men, women, and children and throwing them off the town bridge. Maybe Chad was a kook, but at least he made me consider that there might be something at stake in this world. That it mattered what we did and even what we thought. That transcendent good and evil were real and could touch us.

These abstract musings lost their appeal when Chad moved back to California and I moved to Prague. I was finally where the action was. Here the visionaries weren’t so gauche as to talk about communing with the dead or the melancholy of old souls lost in the slipstream of time. They were there to summon the coming techno utopia, which required optimism and an eagerness to let go of the past.

I was on board, but I was also undisciplined and easily discouraged. Everywhere I looked I saw monuments to martyrs: the heretic priest burned at the stake, the ordinary civilians killed in the doomed uprising against the Nazis, the young medical student who set himself on fire to protest the Soviet occupation. Their resolve, like my frantic strivings, seemed meaningless in the face of oblivion.

Settling down

The obvious cure for this self-indulgent, existential dread was to move to New York City and get serious about my life. I temped and lived in cramped apartments in cool neighborhoods and got a low-paying but status-signaling media job. I ran into an old college girlfriend with a sensible career and many of the same friends I’d had. We got married and had children, and we relocated to her hometown of L.A., which I’d heard so much about from Chad.

Chad had moved to a small town outside Sacramento with a wife and son. My wife and I were still in the thick of it, upwardly mobile and cultured, with high expectations for ourselves and our kids. It went without saying that we were good, tolerant people. Church was an occasional, unobtrusive reminder to be grateful and give back. We didn’t have any commitments that might make things awkward with our friends or put us at odds with our community.

I was comfortably settled but still imagined myself as on the verge of transformative, clarifying success. Until one day I didn’t. I wasn’t special, my kids would soon abandon me, and I was going to die. I tried to ease the panic with therapy, running, and Ram Dass videos on YouTube.

Auto-da-Facebook

A goth girl I did plays with in high school re-emerged on Facebook as a devout Catholic stay-at-home mom and pro-life activist. After a few pointless arguments, I calmed down and started reading everything she posted without comment. It was fascinating to imagine being so gullible and narrow-minded. I watched videos she linked to and read books she mentioned. I embedded myself in this bizarre, backwards culture.

A few months later, I was sitting in my car, saying the rosary for the first time, just to see what would happen. I guess I showed her.

I entered the Catholic Church about a year later. Just before the COVID lockdowns, I got a call that Chad had had a massive stroke. We hadn’t been in touch for years. I gave money to his recovery fund and got added to a text group of friends and family who unselfconsciously offered their prayers and invoked the healing power of God’s mercy. I was surprised at how natural I felt doing the same. And how praying actually felt like doing something helpful. I still include him in my daily rosary.

Maybe it’s just guilt that I haven’t written or called, but I like to think he can pick up on it somehow. If so, I hope he humors me, like I humored him 30 years ago.

​California, Catholic, Ivy league, Los angeles, Rosary, Therapy, Culture, Lifestyle, Faith 

The peace and quiet of a residential street in Southern California was shattered on Wednesday evening when police shot and killed a man they watched allegedly shoot and kill a kidnapped victim after a car chase.

Video captured of the shocking incident shows the driver of the car getting out of his vehicle after being pulled over by police, then calmly walking back to the trunk and shooting someone lying inside.

‘It is disturbing. … Apparently there was a victim inside there who had been kidnapped.’

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies were dispatched to a home on Monteverde Drive in Chino Hills at about 10:14 p.m. over a report of gunshots and screaming, according to a press release.

While they were responding, they saw the suspect driving away at a high speed and attempted to pull him over.

He refused and led them on a chase that ended on Wandering Ridge Drive. Officers ordered the occupants out of the car, and a passenger complied and was taken into custody.

The driver did not comply.

After the driver fired into the open trunk, he was shot and killed by deputies.

“It is disturbing,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Orejel said. “Apparently there was a victim inside there who had been kidnapped from the previous Monteverde address.”

Police found a male victim in the trunk and attempted to revive him and the shooter, but they were both declared dead at the scene. They indicated that the officers were not aware of the person in the trunk before the shooting.

An investigation found that the victim had been shot and kidnapped from the Monteverde Drive address. No deputies were injured in the incident.

RELATED: Florida man who allegedly abducted 13-year-old gets shot and killed by 9 officers

The vehicle involved was a Nissan Altima with an Oregon license plate.

“I was shocked, to be honest,” said Gregory Uthus, a resident of the neighborhood. “This doesn’t happen in Chino Hills.”

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​High speed chase, Surveillance video, Police shooting, Kidnapping, Crime 

In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde imagines a portrait that records the corruption its subject refuses to see in himself. Dorian hides the picture because its truth is unbearable. The concealment is physical, but the deeper act is spiritual: Self-deception protects him from self-knowledge.

Anthony Fauci’s Wednesday appearance before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs supplied a modern version of Wilde’s image. Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times.

The legal questions are serious. The philosophical question is more intimate: How does Fauci live with himself?

The constitutional privilege against self-incrimination is fundamental. The government bears the burden of proving guilt. A witness need not assist the prosecution by supplying evidence against himself, and a jury ordinarily may not treat a criminal defendant’s silence as proof of guilt.

But Fauci’s silence invites a question larger than criminal liability. What does a public official do when the legal right not to answer collides with the moral obligation to confront his own record?

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have raised a narrower legal question. If President Biden’s pardon protects Fauci from prosecution for the conduct under examination, the basis for invoking the Fifth Amendment may be considerably weaker. Congress can also compel testimony after an appropriate grant of immunity. Those questions belong to lawyers and courts.

Cruz, meanwhile, accused Fauci of showing “contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people.” He argued that Fauci’s diaries reveal private doubts about the “wet market” explanation for COVID-19 and private satisfaction over persuading Democrat officials to keep schools closed while publicly distancing himself from those decisions. The consequences for millions of children, Cruz said, will last a lifetime.

Other controversies surrounding Fauci’s tenure at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases deepen the moral inquiry. NIAID funded research using human fetal tissue derived from elective abortions, including projects intended to create “humanized” mice for disease research. The Trump administration later restricted NIH scientists from acquiring new fetal tissue. One widely discussed study involved grafting fetal scalp tissue onto mice. The study appeared in Scientific Reports in 2020.

The legal questions are serious. The philosophical question is more intimate: How does Fauci live with himself?

The answer may be that he does so by dividing himself. There is the public Fauci, who speaks with certainty and moral authority, and the private Fauci, whose diaries preserve doubts, calculations, resentments, and self-justifications.

Self-deception tells a person that he has done nothing wrong. Self-justification supplies the explanation for everyone else. The first lie protects the conscience. The second protects the reputation.

“Taking the Fifth” can therefore become more than a legal act. The constitutional privilege is legitimate. The existential temptation it symbolizes is not: the desire to avoid the truth because the truth would collapse the identity one has built.

RELATED: ‘It’s past time’: Florida launches investigation into Fauci

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

A divided person does not merely conceal himself from others. Eventually, he loses the ability to recognize himself. Public statements serve one purpose, private reflections another, and the distance between them becomes a permanent feature of the soul.

Why keep a diary at all? Even teenagers know that diary locks are flimsy and private pages may someday be read. The impulse to record what one cannot say publicly suggests that self-deception never quite succeeds. A person may hide the portrait, but he still returns to the attic.

Fauci’s diary resembles a secular confessional. He did not confess to God or seek absolution from anyone beyond himself. He recorded his private account before the highest authority his worldview appears to recognize: Anthony Fauci.

That arrangement offers no forgiveness because it requires no repentance. The same man supplies the accusation, the defense, the verdict, and the pardon.

Wilde understood that self-deception cannot preserve the soul forever. The portrait keeps changing even when no one looks at it. The mind can suppress guilt, rename pride as duty, and call self-protection public service. But every evasion leaves another mark.

At some point, only two paths remain. One leads through truth, repentance, and the surrender of the false self. The other leads deeper into silence, because every answer threatens the structure of excuses holding the person together.

That is the existential Fifth: not the lawful refusal to incriminate oneself before the state, but the lifelong refusal to testify honestly before one’s own conscience.

​Anthony fauci, Fifth amendment, Ted cruz, Rand paul, Covid, Lockdowns, Picture of dorian gray, Niaid, Plead the fifth, Fauci diaries, Opinion & analysis 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) promised to tax the rich, and he is keeping that promise. His newly announced pied-à-terre tax would impose an annual levy on many pricey second homes — and comes with a dose of public shaming.

“In true commie fashion — Muslim commie fashion — the new mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani … he’s like, ‘How can I go further and further commie?’ And so he just keeps outdoing himself,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Filtered,” before playing Mamdani’s initial announcement of the tax.

“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we’re taxing the rich. I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-a-terre tax. The first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city,” Mamdani said in a promotional video.

“They’re not actually taxing you for land and for homes that are supposed to be yours once. They’re taxing you twice, because who are you to have so much wealth that you have two homes? Who are you to work hard and enjoy the rewards of all of your hard work?” Gonzales asks, adding that “in true Muslim commie fashion, he’s gloating about it.”

In a post on X, Mamdani wrote: “If you have a second home in New York City worth more than $5M, check your mailbox when you’re back in the five boroughs — because you’ve got mail.”

“Today, we sent notification letters to property owners, letting them know that our new pied-a-terre tax is coming soon. The best city in the world deserves the best parks, libraries, and schools in the world. That’s only possible when we all pay our fair share,” he added.

“This certainly is going to put a bow on the destruction of New York City,” Gonzales says.

But Mamdani didn’t just notify the property owners. He “actually put out a hit list,” including all the names and addresses of those who could be hit with the new tax in a searchable database.

“He is doxxing you guys for the world to see,” Gonzales comments, noting that on the list are celebrities like Anna Wintour, Cynthia Nixon, and Woody Allen.

“It’s just insane how badly he wants to just doxx these people for working hard,” she adds.

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​Sara gonzales, Zohran mamdani, Muslim, Tax the rich, New york city, Cynthia nixon, Woody allen, Anna wintour, Piedterre tax, Communism, Blazetv show 

A 23-year-old who has been volunteering as a Little League umpire for a decade is getting rewarded with a chance to officiate the league’s World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

James Farque of Summerville, South Carolina, said he umpired his first game at age 13 after realizing he was not equipped to advance very far as a player in the sport.

‘I pride myself on volunteering and giving back to the community.’

“I realized I would not excel at the high school level, so I still wanted to stay connected to the game, so I started umpiring,” Farque said. “Umpired my first game [at age 13] and haven’t stopped since.”

He told WCIV-TV that he’s proud to be called up to the Little League Baseball World Series.

“This is every Little League umpire’s dream,” he added. “It’s a tremendous honor; there’s only 20 people each year that are chosen.”

His performance at four games of the contest will determine whether he gets assigned further spots. He said he is going to try not to be intimidated by the bright lights of the ESPN coverage of the event.

“That’s a big aspect of everything. Big mental side of umpiring is being in the spotlight,” Farque said. “Then again, it’s just another baseball game. Anytime you step on the field, it’s just another baseball game. Just a higher stage in front of more people.”

He said that volunteering as an umpire is how he gives back to the community.

“Little League is run by volunteers. It prides itself on volunteerism,” Farque added. “I pride myself on volunteering and giving back to the community.”

RELATED: Actress who played mom in ‘Little Big League’ now has a son playing Major League Baseball nearly 30 years later

Farque said that he has aspirations to make it to college baseball or the major leagues, but he’ll always return to the Lowcountry of South Carolina where he’s from.

“I don’t think I can ever hang it up. Even if I do the championship game at Williamsport, I still have this to come back to,” Farque said.

“The local level is what I enjoy the most, getting to mentor these kids and the sense of community around here,” he added.

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​World series, Little league, Baseball, Feel good story, Human interest 

An AI-backed robot teacher pilot program that was already under fire over privacy concerns has hit another bump in the road.

Teachers and parents had expressed concerns about having AI in the classroom and the possible replacement of humans, but that was before the latest revelations came to light.

‘It can help students engage with educational material and gain hands-on exposure to AI and robotics.’

Realbotix, the company behind the program, planned to implement “Sally,” a fembot of sorts with “lifelike appearance” that included silicone skin and long, brown hair. Sally was to be an in-classroom teacher who addressed students’ questions based on their identification codes, which are numbers assigned to the kids.

The pilot targeted high school students in the Salamanca City Central School District, which is reportedly located on the Seneca Nation of Indians reservation in New York state, according to Spectrum News 1.

As word of the program spread, the New York State Education Department stepped in to put a pause on the program to ask questions about privacy and intent. However, it has since been revealed that Realbotix shares the same parent company as another company involved in the production of sex dolls.

Parent company Realbotix Corp. operates both Realbotix LLC for “commercial robotics” and Intima LLC, which manufactures products “for the adult wellness and companionship market,” according to Morningstar. The Associated Press further reported that Intima LLC holds an ownership stake in RealDoll, which creates sex dolls.

RELATED: This ‘lifelike’ fembot teacher is so problematic she’s already been put on pause

Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

The teachers’ union has since caught wind, with president Melinda Person stating that “a robot built by a company associated with sex dolls has no business in our classrooms.”

The New York State United Teachers rep further stated, “Our students don’t need robots. They need real relationships with caring adults.”

Blaze Media reached out to Realbotix to ask about student privacy and its connection with using the bots for “companionship.”

A spokeswoman said the technology is meant to serve as a classroom resource for older high school students who participate in the district’s science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics curriculum.

“Like a calculator, laboratory apparatus, or other instructional tool, it can help students engage with educational material and gain hands-on exposure to AI and robotics, but it does not perform the work of a teacher,” Jessica Starman told Blaze Media on behalf of Realbotix.

“Characterizations suggesting that the technology would replace teachers or assume their responsibilities are false,” she said.

Starman addressed media reports that “falsely connected” the school project to adult products, stating that the Salamanca robot is a “newly manufactured, purpose-built educational unit; no existing consumer product or hardware is being modified or repurposed for the school.”

“No adult-products business has any involvement in the Salamanca project or in any product or initiative developed by Realbotix LLC,” Starman further explained.

As for student privacy, Realbotix said the robot would not be connected to “public internet” and does not record audio, video, nor use facial recognition.

“Realbotix would not receive, access, or store personally identifiable student information or student interactions,” the spokeswoman added.

RELATED: Before you say ‘no’ to a data center, here’s what you’re giving up

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

The company said it has no additional school deployments to announce at this time, and local news reports say the pilot program remains on pause.

The district previously said it was working through “enhanced student data privacy agreements” with state education officials, but it is unclear what will be done moving forward.

“The physical robot has not been deployed,” Realbotix said.

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​New york, Robots, Artificial intelligence, High school, Tech 

President Donald Trump is escalating his pressure campaign against Senate Majority Leader John Thune, urging Republicans to scrap the Senate filibuster and remain in session until the SAVE America Act reaches his desk.

And in a fiery Truth Social post, Trump warned that Thune’s failure to take action could have devastating consequences.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!” Trump wrote.

“The Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!” he added.

“Very true,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments on “Pat Gray Unleashed,” before playing a clip of the president addressing questions about his relationship with Thune.

“He’s got to get his job done. It’s fine. I have a good relationship with John Thune. He’s just got to get his job done,” Trump told a reporter.

“You got to get the SAVE America Act passed. Or better than that would be the filibuster. If you terminate the filibuster, everything happens. If you don’t terminate the filibuster, only bad things will happen,” he added.

“For his part,” Gray says, “John Thune was like, ‘My hands are tied. Show me how I can do this. There’s no path. There’s no path.’”

“It’s maddening,” co-host Jeff Fisher comments.

“He just doesn’t seem to understand and grasp what needs to happen,” he adds.

“He’s not willing to do it,” Gray agrees. “He’s just not.”

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​Donald trump, Jeff fisher, John thune, Pat gray, Save america act, Senate filibuster, Truth social, Blazetv show 

Hispanic comedian George Lopez says he has given up his longtime devotion to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Lakers after discovering the owner’s investments in federal immigration detainment centers.

Lopez made the comments on a Facebook post and during an interview with Shaquille O’Neal on “The Big Podcast” released June 10. Clips from the episode have gone viral on social media this week.

‘So as soon as I found that out, I disassociated myself. … I lost two teams in one week.’

The team has tried to encourage its fandom among members of the Latino community in Los Angeles despite activists’ complaints about the displacement of a Latino community when the stadium was built in 1959.

Lopez, who was born in 1961, referred to that history when he said the team blocked him on Facebook after he called them out for not speaking out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in L.A.

“So they’ll take a stand on me, but not on the treatment of the families who called Chavez Ravine home before they decided to build a baseball stadium where they lived and where their families called home,” Lopez responded. “Also, no comment from the owners. … If anyone doesn’t belong, it’s the Dodgers.”

Lopez had been a common sight at the Dodgers games and had participated in many promotions with the team.

The Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter reportedly held a financial stake in the GEO Group, which operates for-profit detention centers. He also leads TWG Global, which has links to Palantir Technologies, a company that has received millions from ICE for data analytics.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Walter’s investment firm had completely divested from GEO Group as of March.

Lopez told O’Neal that he also dropped his support for the Lakers.

“Mark Walter owns detention centers and runs them for profit,” Lopez said.

“So as soon as I found that out, I disassociated myself from the Dodgers and the [Los Angeles] Lakers, unfortunately. I lost two teams in one week.”

RELATED: LA Dodgers say they blocked ICE at stadium after campaign to pressure team to condemn deportations

He added the complaint about Chavez Ravine.

“The idea that Dodgers Stadium was built on a Latino neighborhood that was, people were forcibly removed in the late ‘50s,” he continued.

“Then, when I found out they run that [detention] thing for profit and part of ICE and where they put people, I dissociated myself.”

While activists continue to call for Latinos and others to boycott the Dodgers, a recent report showed the team still enjoys the highest attendance rate in the entire league, with 50,544 per game.

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​George lopez, Immigration and customs enforcement, Sports, Boycott, Politics, Dodgers 

Thousands of migrants stormed the border into the small Spanish territory of Cueta from Morocco, leading authorities to order the military to restore order.

Videos on social media show the migrants streaming across the border in the territory located in the northernmost tip of Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.

‘It’s not possible to give precise numbers, but there are thousands of migrants crossing.’

Rachid Sbihi, a representative of Cueta border officers, told the Associated Press that the border had “totally collapsed” under the onslaught.

“The situation is absolute chaos,” he added. “It’s not possible to give precise numbers, but there are thousands of migrants crossing.”

The government indicated that nine bodies of people who died trying to make the crossing were recovered. Local authorities said that dozens have died this year trying to reach Cueta.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said that Moroccan officials were “closely cooperating” with Spain to bring order to the border and to secure “the return, as soon as possible, of all the people who entered Ceuta illegally.”

The mass invasion might be due to a recent Spanish Supreme Court decision that found migrants who arrived in Spain by sea could not be immediately deported without due process — unlike those who crossed by land.

Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of the regional government in Ceuta, had warned Spanish authorities that they were being overwhelmed with migrants and called for a national emergency to be declared.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni decried the breach and threatened to shut down an immigration agreement with Spain in order to defend her country’s sovereignty.

“The images coming from Ceuta are shocking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a real threat to the security of Europe’s borders,” she said in a post on social media translated from Italian.

RELATED: 8 immigrants with possible ties to ISIS caught in sting operation after crossing the southern border

“Italy will not stand idly by. We are convening the relevant bodies, and following these meetings, we are prepared to take action,” she added. “We will not yield an inch on the issue of illegal immigration.”

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre put the invasion into historical perspective.

“After a brutal civil war and decades of rule under Francisco Franco, the communists still managed to remerge and open the floodgates to destroy Spain,” he wrote. “This is why they banned ‘Camp of the Saints,’ because it accurately portrayed the future communists wanted for the West.”

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​Illegal immigration, Migrants, Morocco, Spain, Politics 

President Donald Trump says thousands of illegal alien truck drivers put Americans at risk on U.S. highways — but he has a solution.

Trump spoke at the White House on Thursday, providing plenty of context for his new program that hopes to encourage former military members to get back on the road.

‘They don’t speak the language for the most part. … They don’t want to learn the language.’

The president cited tens of thousands of illegal commercial driver’s licenses being distributed across the United States, which have resulted in the deaths of Americans in recent months.

One such case of an Indian truck driver, who is an illegal immigrant, was directly criticized by Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who took the state of California to task over the alien’s ability to get a CDL.

“For many years, American highways and roadways have been terrorized by unqualified illegal aliens dangerously driving big rigs,” Trump said from the podium.

“They don’t speak the language for the most part. Many of these illegal aliens don’t even come close. They don’t want to learn the language,” he added.

Trump then announced a new pathway for American veterans to replace the illegal truckers who are taking up space on the road. The government program is titled Freedom Haulers, and it will fast-track the licensing of veterans who have experience with air brakes, trailers, and the like from their time in the military.

“We want veterans to take the wheel of big rigs and secure the economic supply lines of the country you swore to defend,” the federal website reads.

RELATED: ROAD RULES REFRESH: Forgot how to drive? Let Uncle Josh bring you up to speed.

The program promises up to 100% of tuition coverage for approved CDL programs that can result in annual salary of $70,000 for truckers.

The administration also stated that after annual earnings of truckers were down 3% under President Joe Biden, they have risen by 7.42% under Trump, which will provide great opportunity for the 25% of military veterans who are truckers.

“Any American who has driven a heavy truck for our military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver’s license. … We’re going to make it as easy as possible for the veterans,” the commander in chief explained.

RELATED: TATTLETALE EXPRESS: School buses may soon become America’s largest mobile surveillance network

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The president also claimed that federal authorities had “already removed more than 24,000 non-English speakers from behind the wheel.”

“We’ve also forced states to cancel more than 28,000 commercial driver’s licenses unlawfully issued to illegal aliens. They were given illegally,” Trump added.

Secretary Duffy firmly stated on Thursday, “Illegal alien truckers are OUT, and American Veterans are IN.”

“Thank you, [President Trump,] for putting OUR safety first,” Duffy added.

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​Illegal immigration, Transportation, Donald trump, Military, Politics 

Actors from the Sam Altman biographical movie are not surprised.

Amazon said in June that the Altman biopic would be better served by going to another studio after dropping the film on mysterious grounds.

‘I’m shocked they picked it up in the first place.’

Drop it like its hot

Amazon parted ways with the film, “Artificial,” saying it had the “utmost respect and admiration” for director Luca Guadagnino, despite no longer distributing the film.

“We believe that ‘Artificial’ will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home,” the company added.

Little was known about the split, despite obvious theories made about the Big Tech connections between Altman and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Now, stars of the film have gone on the record about the movie, with actor Cooper Hoffman offering the most intriguing take.

Son of deceased actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, the 23-year-old was asked by a reporter if it caught him off guard when the movie left Amazon.

“Were you surprised?” Variety’s Marc Malkin asked Hoffman.

“That it got dropped? No!” the actor replied emphatically. “I’m shocked they picked it up in the first place.”

Hoffman continued, “I was like, this feels like you all are in, like, I don’t know — I don’t know who’s running everything,” the young star went on, seemingly stopping his train of thought.

“When they dropped it, I was kinda like, ‘Oh, yeah, that actually kinda, I guess, makes sense,” he added.

RELATED: Amazon drops Sam Altman biopic — and everyone wants to know why

Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images

Neon dreams

Andrew Garfield, who plays Altman, told the reporter, “I was and I wasn’t [surprised].”

“I think there are certain things that fit certain places and don’t fit other places and they [Amazon] were nothing but supportive and nothing but encouraging while we were making the film,” the former “Amazing Spider-Man” actor explained.

Garfield added that he was grateful to Amazon for helping the film find new distribution.

That new company is Neon, the New York-based distributor behind films like Stephen King’s “The Monkey” and “Ferrari” from 2023.

Hoffman said he “couldn’t be more happy” about working with the company.

RELATED: OpenAI wants to make its losses public property

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Too close to call

Critics have pointed to Altman’s appearance at Bezos’ wedding last year as evidence of a possible relationship responsible for the movie not fitting in at Amazon.

Meanwhile, actor Ike Barinholtz — who plays Elon Musk in the film — added fuel to the Big-Tech fire last year when he was asked if he had considered meeting Musk before portraying him.

“I’m OK,” Barinholtz said, adding that Musk is “famous enough that you get it.”

The “MADtv” alumnus added, “All I hope is that if he puts me into a gulag, it’s one with all of my friends. That way we can have a party.”

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​Sam altman, Andrew garfield, Elon musk, Cooper hoffman, Amazon, Jeff bezos, Entertainment 

Anthony Fauci spent years commanding Americans to “trust the science.” But when faced with real questions about his approach to the pandemic, the longtime public health bureaucrat had almost nothing to say.

The health “expert” accused Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) of having an “obsession” with calling for his prosecution, before going on to invoke the Fifth Amendment a whopping 111 times.

“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci said.

But BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere believes Paul’s obsession is actually the right kind of obsession to have.

“That’s not an obsession that’s unhealthy,” Stu says. “Being obsessed with fitness is not unhealthy. Being obsessed with eating right is not unhealthy. Being obsessed with making sure we hold people accountable for horrible things that occurred to the people of this country is not an unhealthy obsession.”

Stu also calls Fauci’s refusal to answer questions “unbelievable” and disrespectful.

“You have no respect for the legislative branch of government. The whole point — your entire career — is a long series of decisions made as essentially a technocrat without responsibility to the legislative branch,” he says.

Even when Fauci was asked simply whether or not there was a folder in front of him, he pleaded the Fifth.

“Even in mob hearings, they’ll answer some stuff,” co-host Dave Landau adds. “Yeah, he’s so guilty he’s not going to answer anything,”

Senator Josh Hawley also had a chance to go after Fauci — and he did not waste it.

“Let’s just get one thing straight. You don’t have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you’ve been pardoned, as you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more,” Hawley said, as Fauci looked on in silence.

Hawley pointed out that Fauci’s lawyers were sitting behind him “shifting nervously in their chairs” after he brought up his pardon.

“This isn’t about the Constitution. This isn’t about the law. This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people. But I think I know why you’re doing it,” he said.

“It’s because you don’t want to answer questions. It’s because you did all kinds of terrible things. It’s because during the pandemic, you got rich, didn’t you? You got rich while people were dying — hundreds of thousands of Americans, over a million in the end. And you were getting rich,” he continued.

“And not only were you doing that,” he added, “you were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally. Cash prizes totaling over a million dollars. You did all of that during the pandemic, didn’t you?”

Fauci then, unsurprisingly, invoked the Fifth Amendment again.

“I mean, look,” Stu says, “if he answers them, he’s going to lie anyway. But he knows that he’s going to lie. He’s not going to tell the truth. And if he does that, then he opens himself up for even more.”

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​Anthony fauci, Fifth amendment, Rand paul, Trust the science, Stu burguiere, Josh hawley, Covid-19, Vaccine, Pandemic, Blazetv show 

Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats failed in 2024 to heed political strategist James Carville’s warning about repelling potential male voters with “too many preachy females.” Their resultant unpopularity among red-blooded American men helped lose them both the White House and the U.S. Senate.

Last year, cash-strapped Democrats blew tens of millions of dollars in hopes of figuring out how to attract male voters, especially young men who shifted to the right by 15 points between 2020 and 2024, providing Republicans with a 56-42 edge.

‘55% of men said the party had gone too far to the left.’

Democrats’ efforts appear to have been in vain.

According to a Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters published on Wednesday, 67% of all respondents expressed disapproval for the job that Democrats are doing in Congress. Only 23% signaled approval.

By way of comparison, 63% of respondents expressed disapproval for the job done by congressional Republicans, and 29% signaled approval.

RELATED: Broke and desperate DNC gambles its HQ after getting email-scammed

Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The responses broken down by sex reveal that while unpopular across the board — even with 38% of registered Democrats — congressional Democrats are hugely unpopular with men.

Seventy-one percent of male voters said that they disapproved of the Democratic Party, and only 20% signaled approval. Disapproval for the Democrats among women was still high at 62%.

When asked whether the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left, too far to the right, or hasn’t moved too far in either direction, 55% of men said the party had gone too far to the left. Only 37% of women said the same.

“Looking good,” responded conservative commentator Scott Jennings.

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​Congress, Midterms, Democratic party, Republican party, Politics 

A WNBA team co-owner who berated and cursed at two teen girls showing support for Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham will be fined and suspended by the league for her behavior.

At the Fever-Storm game in Seattle on Tuesday, the girls wore shirts for the XX-XY brand, which opposes biological males in women’s sports, and held up signs thanking Cunningham for speaking out on the issue.

‘Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is.’

A woman later identified as Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton confronted the pair and cursed at them, according to the teens’ account of the incident. They said other fans also harassed them and even tried to trip them.

On Thursday, the WNBA confirmed to Yahoo Sports that Keaton would be punished for her actions by being suspended for five games and assessed a fine, though the Yahoo Sports report did not reveal the amount of the fine.

The team’s majority owner already quickly apologized after getting backlash online from fans and others who were outraged at the treatment of the teens.

“We are aware one of our co-owners made comments to two fans in attendance at last night’s game,” Ginny Gilder said in a statement. “We apologize that this happened. Everyone who attends a Storm game deserves to feel welcome, and we remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where every fan is treated with respect.”

Cunningham also addressed the controversy in a post on social media.

“I truly believe there is a safe space and love for EVERYBODY. Biological girls, biological boys, trans women, and trans men. Everyone is welcome at my table! You can disagree and still be kind,” she wrote.

“Bravo to those girls for standing up for what they believe. You’ll be hearing from me soon,” she added with a heart emoji. “Yay for gifts.”

RELATED: Caitlin Clark puts black lesbians at risk of death, USA Today writer suggests — and cites Emmett Till lynching

She added, “Truly embarrassing of the co-owner. Unfortunately shows the type of leader she is.”

Some on social media criticized Cunningham’s statement for what they saw as a capitulation to the transgender agenda.

The Indiana Fever defeated the Seattle Storm, 105 to 95.

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​Sophie cunningham, Wnba, Xxxy brand, Transgender, Seattle, Politics 

A California behavioral clinician is facing multiple felony charges after she allegedly groomed and sexually assaulted a teenage boy, according to authorities.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that 26-year-old Sofia Ann-Buitron Drotts of San Francisco is facing two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, two counts of oral copulation of a person under 18 years of age, two counts of sending harmful matter to a minor, one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object, and one count of possession of child or youth pornography.

‘We trusted this professional with our son’s healing and well-being, and that trust was fundamentally shattered.’

The statement noted that Drotts was a behavioral health clinician at the John A. Davis Juvenile Detention Center in Martinez.

The district attorney’s office said Drotts was assigned as the alleged victim’s therapist.

“During the two years in which Doe was incarcerated at the juvenile hall, Drotts abused her position as his therapist to establish an inappropriate emotional connection with Doe, ‘grooming’ him with the objective of sexual abuse,” according to court papers the New York Post obtained.

SFGate reported that John Burris, who represents the boy’s family, claimed Drotts began grooming the teen in 2024 when he was 14 or 15 years old.

Drotts continued seeing the boy and his mother as a county therapist after he was released, according to the Post.

The statement said after the alleged victim was released from detention, Drotts engaged in a sexual relationship with him between April 1 and July 14 of this year.

Citing Burris, the Post reported that Drotts later “masqueraded as the teen’s girlfriend” and used a burner phone to stay in contact with him after he was released from custody.

Burris accused Drotts of meeting the teen in her car and in her apartment.

The Post, citing Burris, added that Drotts “schemed” to build trust with the teen’s mother through extended phone calls during which she assured the mom that her son was progressing well during his incarceration.

“Drotts would participate in these meetings with the mother, and she would speak in glorious details about how well he was doing, and at the same time she was having secret meetings with him,” Burris said.

Burris said Drotts encouraged the teenager to skip school and violate his curfew by spending the night with her.

“Turns out he was spending the night with this woman. The mother was duped,” Burris noted.

“The duplicitous nature of it is really outrageous,” Burris stated. “She’s engaged in this nefarious conduct, and she’s covering her tracks with different kinds of lies.”

A supervisor at the county’s probation department provided a tip about the alleged relationship to the Concord Police Department, according to the DA.

Following a “thorough investigation,” police arrested Drotts on July 14, the statement said.

RELATED: Former HS counselor arrested for allegedly ‘abusing her position’ to gain ‘inappropriate relationships’ with students

SFGate reported that the family has filed a claim against Contra Costa County.

The claim accuses Drotts of encouraging the boy to miss school and ignore his curfew “to rendezvous with Drotts in violation of his probation.”

The claim states that a “team of county agents and supervisors failed to identify the red flags or supervise Drotts, and so the sexual abuse continued.”

KNTV-TV reported, “The claim targets Contra Costa County, Contra Costa Health, Contra Costa County Juvenile Detention and Contra Costa County Juvenile Probation Department, among other agencies.”

The mother of the alleged victim said Drotts betrayed her family: “We trusted this professional with our son’s healing and well-being, and that trust was fundamentally shattered.”

A second report from the New York Post noted that the teen’s mother said the family had come forward to protect other potential victims of abuse.

“We are speaking out to ensure that no other family has to endure this pain, and to encourage anyone else who may have been harmed to find the strength to come forward,” the mother explained.

Burris added, “We hope the criminal process will go forward expeditiously, and we will go forward in our civil case.”

Contra Costa Health told KPIX-TV that it’s “aware of the claim filed against the county involving a former temporary employee and allegations involving a minor. Because this is an active legal and personnel matter, Contra Costa Health cannot provide additional comment at this time.”

Drotts has been released from jail, according to the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office.

The John A. Davis Juvenile Hall did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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​Grooming, California, Child sex abuse, Crime, Therapist, Teenage boy 

If you didn’t like Anthony Fauci before, his newly released diaries most likely won’t change your opinion. They paint a picture of a spotlight-hungry functionary who projected certainty where little existed and punished dissent when it proved inconvenient.

Meanwhile, the “In Fauci We Trust” set are crowing about a new study that claims conservatives are dying at significantly higher rates than liberals largely because they don’t trust doctors.

It’s a predictable, entirely rational counter-reaction to an establishment that completely torched its own credibility.

The narrative is less public health finding than moral vindication: Voting red is apparently a terminal diagnosis, and skepticism toward the medical establishment is a self-inflicted death sentence. It’s a beautifully smug theory, provided you don’t look too closely at how the physical universe actually works.

Old news

Let’s start with the most glaringly obvious flaw in this supposedly groundbreaking research. The authors act utterly baffled by a widening mortality gap between 2020 and 2022, noting with analytical horror that more “very conservative” respondents suffered fatal health failures than “very liberal” ones.

They claim they controlled for age, but anyone with a basic grasp of American demographics knows who populates these ideological buckets. The conservative base overwhelmingly skews older, grayer, and more rural. The “very liberal” cohort is heavily populated by 20-something urbanites whose greatest health risk is a poorly navigated electric scooter.

Shocking news, everyone: An aging population of grandparents in America’s heartland are dying of heart disease and stroke faster than a bunch of college-educated baristas in Brooklyn. You don’t need a multimillion-dollar grant to solve that mystery.

Trust fall

The study’s real target isn’t biology but the conservative psyche. The researchers discuss a trust deficit, lamenting that the right has developed a pathological aversion to medical authorities. They treat this skepticism like a bizarre, localized mental glitch, completely ignoring the fact that the medical establishment spent years earning every single ounce of that hostility.

Conservative mistrust of institutional science didn’t emerge from a vacuum, nor was it cooked up by unhinged lunatics on social media. It was forged in the absolute dumpster fire of the COVID-19 response.

For two years, the public was subjected to an unprecedented psychological experiment run by federal health bureaucrats who changed their official directives as often as they changed their socks. Remember when masks were useless, then mandatory, then so effective you needed to wear two at once, all based on “The Science” that conveniently shifted to match political pressures?

RELATED: Puppy love: Diary exposes Fauci’s crush on Julia Roberts

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Shot in the dark

Then came the vaccines, rolled out at warp speed with the solemn institutional promise that they would stop transmission dead in its tracks.

When that turned out to be completely false, the goalposts weren’t just moved — they were loaded onto a flatbed truck and driven across state lines. Instead of acknowledging the technology’s numerous limitations, the establishment doubled down, turning a pharmaceutical product into a loyalty oath.

If you want to know why a farmer in Ohio is hesitant to take blood pressure medication today, look no farther than the sheer cruelty of the mass lockdowns.

People watched their life savings evaporate as local authorities forced small, independent businesses to close while letting multibillion-dollar corporate retail giants stay open with zero restrictions.

Tens of thousands of workers were handed an ultimatum: Take an experimental shot or lose your livelihood. Those who refused were promptly unpersoned. They were banished from polite society, labeled domestic threats, and, in some of the most dystopian twists, de-banked and financially marooned by institutions that decided political compliance was a prerequisite for access to their own money.

Screen death

Worst of all was the profound, institutionalized inhumanity enforced at the hospital doors. Americans across the country were forced to watch their parents and spouses die through FaceTime screens because draconian hospital policies forbade them to hold loved ones’ hands in their final moments.

Meanwhile, health officials suddenly discovered that the virus was highly politically literate, giving a free pass to the massive BLM and George Floyd riots because they deemed the cause to be a higher priority than viral containment.

Apparently, the COVID-19 virus was deeply moved by the social justice movement and agreed to pause transmission for the summer, so long as you were burning down a local Wendy’s instead of trying to run your small business. The hypocrisy was loud, proud, and thoroughly televised.

Survival instinct

So when federal health policy undergoes a massive shake-up and movements like “Make America Healthy Again” gain real traction, it’s not an anti-science cult. Quite the opposite. It’s a predictable, entirely rational counter-reaction to an establishment that completely torched its own credibility. Trust is slowly earned and quickly lost, and institutions spent two years treating their remaining credibility like a game of Jenga.

Skepticism toward a medical system that got so much wrong, so destructively, is less a sign of ignorance than a basic survival instinct. If conservatives are looking at the medical establishment with a heavy dose of side-eye these days, it’s for good reason. The memories of being locked down, masked up, and lied to still burn like a bad rash.

​Anthony fauci, Conservative skepticism, Covid era, Covid19 response, Lockdowns, Small businesses, White house diaries, Vaccine rollout, Medicine, Make america healthy again 

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has asked Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes to resign, KIRO-TV reported, citing sources.

The report comes days after a shooting at a city food festival in which three people were killed and four were wounded.

‘I have been here working as hard as I can for this city from the day I got here. Do you got that?’

KIRO said Seattle Police had no comment about the chief, and the mayor’s office had not yet responded to the station.

The station added that sources also confirmed that Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis — who’s been with the department since 1999 — will be the next appointment, but it’s not clear if that is an interim or permanent position.

The city of Seattle and its police department have come under scrutiny for waiting several hours Sunday before addressing the public or providing updates about the deadly shooting, KIRO said.

KIRO added that Barnes was out of town Sunday when the shooting took place — and was absent from the initial press conference held late Sunday night. He told reporters he was attending the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Officers conference in Dallas, the station said.

RELATED: Deadly Seattle shooting: Arrested suspect is just 15 years old; cops say there were 2 other suspects — 1 killed, 1 unknown

Barnes was back in Seattle on Monday. KIRO said a local reporter during a news conference grilled Barnes about his travel schedule and splitting his time between Seattle and Chicago, where his family lives.

Then things got heated, with Barnes telling the reporter, “I don’t have to tell you where I go. … I have been here working as hard as I can for this city from the day I got here. Do you got that?”

Barnes defended his reaction at another news conference, saying he wouldn’t have described the exchange as “heated” but rather that his “passion” was on display while he defended his integrity, the Seattle Times reported.

More from KIRO:

KIRO 7 was set to interview Barnes on Wednesday to talk about his travel schedule, but it was rescheduled. According to other news outlets in the area, Barnes had several interviews scheduled for Wednesday, July 29, but they were all canceled or rescheduled.

KIRO 7’s interview was rescheduled for today, Thursday, July 30, but we have not heard whether Barnes will still be doing that interview.

A coalition of black community organizations in Seattle is coming together to support Barnes and oppose his apparent removal, the Seattle Medium reported.

The coalition includes the NAACP Seattle Branch, Community Passageways, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Seattle Clergy, Parents for Student Success, 100 Black Parents, Creative Black Brilliance Braintrust, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the outlet added.

Barnes was sworn in on July 9, 2025, as the city’s 38th police chief, KIRO said, adding that he previously served as interim police chief starting in January 2025 following the departure of former Chief Adrian Diaz.

The Times said Barnes had been brought to the department as a “hard reset” following Diaz’s firing, adding that former Mayor Bruce Harrell let him go amid allegations that Diaz covered up an affair with a subordinate.

After Diaz, the city opened the police chief candidate pool to a nationwide search, KIRO noted.

The Times reported that after Wilson defeated Harrell by just over 2,000 votes last fall, Wilson announced in December that she was keeping Barnes as chief.

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​Deadly shooting, Resignation, Seattle, Chicago, Katie wilson, Shon barnes, Crime, Politics