Category: blaze media

Mitch McConnell’s latest procedural misstep is giving fresh ammunition to the term-limits movement. Last week during a committee hearing at which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth testified, the 84-year-old Kentucky senator attempted to wrap things up early by thanking attendees and ending the session.

A staffer had to interrupt him to note that several senators still had questions.

The clip has gone viral and sparked more criticism of McConnell’s fitness and acuity.

On a recent episode of “Pat Gray Unleashed,” Pat Gray reacted to the clip.

– YouTube

“I just filled up my Depends,” Pat mocks, imitating McConnell’s raspy Southern drawl.

Co-host Keith Malinak saw the incident as evidence that McConnell is declining cognitively as well as physically.

“His brain was a little scattered,” he says, noting how McConnell’s reasoning for ending the meeting early jumped illogically from letting Senator Murkowski take over to claiming Hegseth had to catch a flight with the president to China.

“I don’t know if McConnell knew what the hell he was trying to say,” he says.

“He didn’t. He doesn’t,” says Pat.

Keith remarks that the staffer who reminded McConnell that several senators still had questions is the one who’s really in charge. “That kid is the senator,” he quips.

“Yes, that’s right,” says Pat. “That’s what happens when you got 85-, 90-, 95-, 100-year-old representatives who are running this country.”

He admits that the nation is in a pickle when it comes to replacing someone like Mitch McConnell because the alternative isn’t much better.

“You can have the Democrat communist … or you can put up with the super-old ancient mariner of a senator,” Pat says, noting that he would “feel really badly for [McConnell] right now if he wasn’t a U.S. senator in high positions running committees and hearings.”

“Go home and enjoy the remaining years that you have,” he pleads.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Mitch mcconnell, Blaze media, Blazetv, John kennedy, Keith malinak, Pat gray, Pat gray unleashed, Pete hegseths nomination, Sen murkowski, Tammy baldwin, Term limits, Termlimits movement, Viral clip 

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the FBI is now involved in the investigation to find the culprits in a teen takeover brawl over the weekend at a Washington, D.C., Chipotle restaurant — and Pirro blasted the brawlers’ parents, WJLA-TV reported.

“This kind of thing is destroying the quality of life in the District,” Pirro said at a news conference Monday, the station reported. “Residents are finding it extremely difficult to enjoy public parks and spaces, as well as waterfront areas. The residents are starting to feel like these out-of-control teens are taking away their happiness and their quiet enjoyment.”

‘It was like an ambush. They looked like ninjas, dressed in black, with ski masks, and they just piled into the main eatery.’

What’s more, Saturday night’s teen takeover brawl occurred just one day after Pirro promised a crackdown on juvenile crime in the District of Columbia by holding parents responsible.

“These teens, they need to find something productive to do,” Pirro said, according to WJLA. “Parents, that’s your job.”

The Metropolitan Police Department said the incident began as a shouting match between two groups of youths and then escalated into a brawl, the station reported.

“It was not just violence occurring between individuals. It was simply destruction of property,” Pirro said, according to WJLA. “It was a takeover of a restaurant by individuals who felt like they could get away with it. Well, they’re not going to get away with it.”

Pirro said she intends to “aggressively” prosecute the teens involved as well as their parents, the station noted.

“If you know where your teen is and what they are doing and allow them to continue their conduct and continue to allow them to flourish, we’re going to prosecute you,” Pirro stated, WJLA reported.

RELATED: ‘Teen chaos in DC’: Brawl with chairs used as weapons erupts in Chipotle after Pirro’s warning to parents of thugs

However, Pirro also said she needs D.C. Public Schools to help by giving her access to truancy records, the station noted.

She also said the Metropolitan Police Department and the Office of the Attorney General of D.C. are in place to assist with the prosecution of parents, WJLA reported.

In addition, Pirro implored the D.C. Council to reinstate a discretionary curfew so police can track and stop teen takeovers before they happen, the station said.

“We are in the most important city in the nation,” Pirro added, according to WJLA. “This is the nation’s capital. This is where the nation’s 250 anniversary will take place on July. This is where we have to make people proud of that city on the hill, and unless we come together and do this together, it will not happen.”

The station said video recorded inside the Chipotle during the brawl shows a man in a red shirt trying to protect his children. WJLA said it spoke to that man — Rafael Jauregui — on Monday, and he shared that he took his seven children to the Nationals-Orioles baseball game Saturday — and then to dinner at Chipotle.

Jauregui’s five youngest kids — who range in age from 4 to 14 years old — were with him inside Chipotle when a brawl erupted, the station said.

“At that point, I tell the children, ‘Get with me, get up, let’s start backing up,'” the dad told WJLA. “And then it was like an ambush. They looked like ninjas, dressed in black, with ski masks, and they just piled into the main eatery.”

More from the station:

Jauregui said he and the kids were backed into a corner. As an Air Force veteran, he said his military training kicked in, and he looked to see if any of the teens were armed with guns or knives, but didn’t see any. Instead they lifted high chairs and other chairs and smashed them over each other while fighting. Rafael says he decided to protect the space around his kids, and not to allow any of the fighting teens to get too close.

He said he’s proud that his two sons who were with him shielded their three younger sisters. But at the same time, he says his kids never should have had to witness what happened.

“My son said on the way home, ‘Papa, I can’t unsee that,'” Jauregui recounted to WJLA. “Those individuals have now directly impacted my security, my life. My children are now talking about [how they never] want to go to Chipotle again. Or at least not that one.”

RELATED: Democratic mayor declares public emergency and reinstitutes juvenile curfew in DC

Jauregui added to the station that he supports Pirro’s plan to crack down and charge parents in some cases.

“[I’m] in line with what the U.S. Attorney is trying to do, saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is not just teenagers messing around, this is next level.’ Where a dad can’t bring … kids to a Nats’ game and grab a bite after,” he noted to WJLA.

Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, told the station in a statement that “the health and safety of our employees and our guests is our highest priority. We have zero tolerance for guests who behave recklessly in our restaurants and put others at risk. No team members or guests were physically injured, and we are actively supporting local law enforcement in their investigation of the incident.”

Pirro said during a news conference on Friday that “parental involvement has been a noted gap in any discussion [about teen takeovers]. That ends today,” WJLA said.

Pirro told the station her office immediately would begin “aggressively prosecuting parents,” and that she would be going after them specifically for “contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” which she said is covered by D.C.’s curfew law.

“This statute makes it unlawful for an adult to enable, facilitate, or permit a minor to engage in delinquent acts,” Pirro noted to WJLA. “The penalty is up to six months imprisonment.”

She also said parents could face fines and mandatory classes in addition to jail time, the station said. Pirro also said parents could be charged even if their children involved in a takeover aren’t prosecuted, WJLA reported.

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​Dc chipotle restaurant, Fbi investigation, Juvenile crime, Metropolitan police department, Prosecution of parents, Quality of life, Teen takeovers, Us attorney jeanine pirro, Washington dc, Crime 

Vice President JD Vance revealed Tuesday that Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice.

Omar has faced several accusations related to a previous marriage and her possible role in the Feeding Our Future scam, as well as her financial disclosures about investments that grew exponentially once she got into office.

‘You read the things about Ilhan Omar and about who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person.’

On Tuesday, Vance appeared to refer to allegations that Omar committed fraud involving her brother. The vice president is leading the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud for the Trump administration.

“You previously mentioned that Ilhan Omar seemed to have committed immigration fraud. Do you anticipate an indictment against her? An indictment related to that situation,” asked a reporter.

“So I don’t want to prejudge an investigation. I mean you read the things about Ilhan Omar and about who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person,” Vance responded.

“It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws, so we’re going to investigate it,” he added. “We’re gonna take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re gonna prosecute that crime. And that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now.”

Vance was far more certain about the congresswoman’s alleged fraud when he spoke on a podcast in March.

“Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said at the time. “She has been at the center of a lot of the worst fraudsters at the center of the Somali community.”

Omar responded to that claim soon afterward.

“This is rich coming from someone who literally said they were willing to ‘create stories’ to redirect the media,” read a statement from Omar to Fox News.

She was referring to an admission by Vance that he had “created stories” in order to get media coverage to help advance his political agenda.

RELATED: Omar claims Trump wants to sleep with his daughter and calls MAGA ‘stupid’ in crazed rant

“This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers,” she added.

Omar has also been accused of allegedly financially benefiting from her position in Congress after she reported a massive increase in the valuation of her assets in a financial disclosure. Months later, she filed a correction that indicated an error by tens of millions of dollars — spurring on even more suspicion.

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​Jd vance fraud, Ilhan omar marriage scandal, Ilhan omar fraud, Marriage immigration fraud, Politics 

President Donald Trump claims that the Democratic governor of Maryland has been caught in a massive scheme to rig the election, but the state’s top election official called the claims “misinformation.”

About 500,000 mail-in ballots were sent out to voters of the wrong party, according to Maryland officials, but they cannot determine who received them so they’re sending out entirely new ballots.

‘This was done by the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore. He allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win.’

Officials blame a printer error, but the president called for an investigation into Gov. Wes Moore (D) because of the incident.

“In Maryland, they sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots, and they got caught!” the president wrote on Truth Social.

“So now, they’re going to send out 500,000 more Mail In Ballots, but nobody knows what’s happening with the first 500,000 they sent. In addition, many of these Ballots went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland doesn’t have a chance!”

The State Board of Elections said in a statement Monday that there was no chance of fraud because of precautions already in place.

“There is no risk of duplicate voting as a result of this issue,” the statement read. “Election officials have safeguards in place to ensure that only one ballot can be accepted per voter. Every return envelope/oath has a unique identifier to ensure that a voter can only vote one ballot. SBE has implemented additional safeguards to ensure only the correct ballot is counted for each voter.”

The president called on the Justice Dept. to immediately investigate the alleged voter fraud.

Jared DeMarinis, Maryland’s top election official, denied the president’s accusations in a post on social media.

“It bears repeating that no fake OR illegal mail-in ballots were distributed,” he wrote. “The wording in President Trump’s continued posts about Maryland’s elections creates an environment of misinformation on a voting right. Mail-in voting is not a partisan issue. Mail-in voting is legal.”

Officials said the printing company would pay for the new ballots.

Trump claimed the voter fraud had been going on for years in Maryland.

“This was done by the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore. He allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win. It never made sense to me that Maryland was considered an automatic Democrat State, but now I see why. I’m sure this has gone on for years.”

RELATED: Maryland prosecutor EXPOSES what is causing the growing blue-state exodus

The governor’s spokesman Ammar Moussa called the president’s claims “false and irresponsible” in a statement to NBC News.

“Marylanders should look to the State Board of Elections for accurate information — not social media misinformation designed to undermine confidence in our elections,” he added.

Trump lost Maryland in the 2024 presidential election to Kamala Harris by 28.7% of the votes, or about 900,000. In 2020, he lost Maryland to then-candidate Joe Biden by 33.4% of the votes, or more than a million votes.

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​Maryland voter fraud, Maryland gov wes moore, 2024 election fraud, Trump voter fraud, Politics 

A May 2026 AtlasIntel national poll found that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now leading the 2028 Republican field with 45% support, ahead of Vice President JD Vance (30%), who was leading the same poll by 24 points in December 2025.

On a recent episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace and his panel of co-hosts Todd Erzen and Aaron MacIntyre along with Rob Eno, Blaze News managing editor, addressed the legitimacy of the “Rubio surge” and what it means for the MAGA movement.

“Are we buying the Rubio surge?” Deace asks the group.

Erzen believes the Vance vs. Rubio conversation is really just an attempt to “make people care” again.

“They’re clearly both decent men, capable men. But we’ve got a hundred other things that should be priorities other than turning this into sports radio, but this is what the entire movement does because it’s not good at really doing anything else,” he sighs.

Eno speculates that Rubio’s visibility is a likely contributor to the polling numbers.

“Do I think that Rubio has surged a little bit because he’s gotten the spotlight? Probably. … Do I think that it matters right now before the midterms? Probably not,” he says.

AtlasIntel’s new polling results, he argues, are likely influenced by the age and media consumption of the voters.

Pointing to a Quantus poll that exposed a massive age split among GOP primary voters in the Thomas Massie race, Eno says there’s an “insane” difference between “old Boomers that watch Fox News and the younger, Vance-type, America First, MAGA people.”

Given Rubio’s high polling numbers, he believes that older Republicans likely dominated the survey population. But as they “age out,” we might see Vance’s number swell, as younger audiences begin to make up a larger share of the Republican primary electorate.

MacIntyre expresses skepticism about Rubio’s 15-point lead over Vance.

“I don’t think that Marco Rubio is 15 points ahead at this point. I think it’s closer than maybe a lot of people who think that Vance is a shoo-in would like to admit,” he says.

Deace believes that the AtlasIntel poll is less about genuine Rubio vs. Vance support and more about “dissatisfaction with the direction of the Trump administration as a whole.”

He explains that with Trump pouring almost all his “political capital” into foreign policy (Rubio’s domain as secretary of state), Rubio benefits from a clear, high-visibility message that makes him look strong, while Vance is left handling the tougher, less popular domestic issues like cutting waste and fraud. The poll, therefore, is less about the two individual men and more about where the administration is focusing its energy.

Deace reiterates Eno’s point about the deep divide among the conservative base regarding what it means to be “America First.”

“We’re determining what is the base right now,” says Deace.

“This time last year, we were coming on the tail end of Trump’s offensive right out of the inauguration gate. We were all very united. There was an agenda. Right now, nobody knows what the agenda is,” he continues.

But a year and a half into Trump’s second term, the conservative base is confused and deeply divided over domestic and foreign priorities.

“We’re spending way more political capital on Iran and the Middle East than we were willing to spend to clean up Minneapolis, our own borders, mass deportations, or anything else, and so this has created a mass schism right down the middle,” says Deace.

“All I think this [poll] is right now is a snapshot that shows this space is very divided overall on what our priorities ought to be.”

To hear more, watch the episode 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.

​2028 election, Blaze media, Blazetv, Divided maga, Jd vance, Maga movement, Marco rubio, Polling numbers, Republican primary electorate, Rob eno, Steve deace, Trump administration, Steve deace show 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R) are gearing up for a primary runoff later this month, and President Donald Trump has finally given his endorsement in the race.

The president wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that Paxton would push many of Trump’s priorities in the Senate, including ending the filibuster rule and passing the SAVE Act for voting integrity.

‘Ken Paxton has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next United States Senator from the Great State of Texas.’

“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” wrote the president.

“Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to WIN. Our Country needs Fighters, and also Loyalty to the Cause of Greatness,” he added.

The endorsement is a big blow to Cornyn’s chances and will test the control the president has over the Republican Party. Trump went on to say that Cornyn was a “good man” but accused him of not being supportive enough of the president’s campaign.

The winner of the runoff election on May 26 will face 37-year-old Democrat candidate James Talarico in November. Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in the Democrat primary.

Paxton responded in a post on social media.

“I am incredibly honored to have President Trump’s COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT,” he wrote on social media. “No one has ever fought harder for the American people than President Trump, and I look forward to championing his America First agenda in the Senate! Texas, get out and VOTE!”

RELATED: Texas lt. governor sounds the alarm about GOP’s chances in his state in midterm elections

“LET’S GOOOOOOOO TEXAS!” responded BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales.

“WE HAVE ALREADY MADE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, BUT NOW, WE WANT TO MAKE OUR NATION BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE. Therefore, Ken Paxton has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next United States Senator from the Great State of Texas,” the president concluded.

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​Us senate texas race, James talarico, Ken paxton, Midterm elections, John cornyn, Sara gonzales, Endorsement, Donald trump, Politics 

Actor Javier Bardem is bringing “toxic masculinity” back.

At the Cannes Film Festival Sunday, the Oscar winner revived the oh-so-2021 talking point as way to explain current geopolitical tensions.

‘I’m going to bomb the s**t out of you.’

Bardem was at the fest to promote his new Spanish-language flick, “The Beloved,” in which he plays an aging film director dealing with his fractured relationship with his daughter.

No country for feminists

The Spanish star, who rocketed to international fame after playing sociopathic killer Anton Chigurh in 2007’s “No Country for Old Men,” said he had no problem bringing his flawed character to life, thanks to the “toxic masculinity” instilled by his “bad education” in his ultra-macho home country.

I’m 57 years old, coming from a very machista [machismo] country called Spain, where there is an average of two women killed monthly by their ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends, which is horrible. Just that amount of women being murdered, it’s unbelievable.

Bardem went on to blame male toxicity for current global tensions involving Israel, Russia, and the United States.

“That problem also goes to Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu,” he continued, launching into a foul tirade that was anything but gentlemanly.

“The big-balls man saying my d**k, my c**k is bigger than yours, and I’m going to bomb the s**t out of you is a f**king male toxic behavior that is creating thousands of [dead] people. So yeah, we have to talk about it,” he urged.

RELATED: Our local Catholic school sent everyone home for 2 days. You’ll never guess why.

–

Facts of fury

Bardem further argued that his country “kind of normalized” male entitlement to the point that everyone takes it for granted. “Are we f**king nuts?” he asked rhetorically.

“We are killing women because some men think they own them. They possess them,” he said. The Spaniard then explained that “it’s good” that his movie features three women.

Bardem later moved his discussion to Gaza and Palestine, where he said a “genocide has been committed and is still being committed.”

“Genocide is a fact,” he stated, noting that if you disagree with him you are “pro-genocide.”

“You can try to justify it, explain it, that is a fact. … If you justify it with your silence or with your support, you are pro-genocide. Those are facts for me.”

RELATED: Pete Hegseth SAVES America’s military from woke nonsense

Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Power play

The “Skyfall” villain thanked the media for giving him the opportunity to speak his mind, which he described as the only “power” that he has.

“My statement is this one … the power that you all gave me.”

Bardem encouraged others to speak out about their beliefs in the hope that it would create “mobilization.”

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​Align, Cannes, Cannes film festival, Film festival, France, Oscar winner, Trump, Global conflict, Woke, Toxic masculinity, Spain, Entertainment 

The Democratic Party’s best chance to unseat longtime Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is in the midst of yet another scandal tied to his old social media posts.

Graham Platner, the Marine veteran who is all but guaranteed to win the Democrat Senate primary in Maine on June 9 now that Gov. Janet Mills has bowed out, made other posts on Reddit that have raised eyebrows.

Platner ‘is someone whose instincts appear crude, reckless, and deeply unserious.’

Under the now-deleted username “P-Hustle” — which, according to Fox News, he has previously acknowledged as his — Platner strangely sexualized porta-john visits and graffiti. These posts are not unearthed, offhand comments from decades ago. Some are as recent as March 2021, when Platner was 36 years old.

In a thread entitled “GWOT D*ck Art,” Platner recalled a “Hot Rod C*ck” he saw graffitied on the inside of a portable restroom while he was in Manas, an Afghanistan War-era U.S. military transit hub in Kyrgyzstan.

“It was beautiful. Engorged and veiny, it rode towards its penetrative glory upon two smoking hot rod wheels, smoke and fire enshrouding its tumescence, winged like Nike as it pushed ever forward towards its conquests,” Platner wrote on March 11, 2021, according to the archives provided by the Maine Monitor.

“I sat there in sheer awe, my feelings of happiness to be going home washed aside by the soul filling joy to be allowed to witness such glory.”

Four years earlier almost to the day, in a thread in which a military vet discusses “aromatherapy,” Platner confessed to regularly masturbating in a porta-john on account of the “blue water smell” there. “I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portas**tter….that blue water smell conditioned me,” he posted on March 8, 2017.

RELATED: Susan Collins reveals health condition ahead of likely matchup against Democrat enmeshed in Nazi scandal

Kent NISHIMURA/AFP/Getty Images

Platner has already spent months playing defense about other bizarre posts from the “P-Hustle” Reddit account. In September 2020, Platner wrote that white people “actually are” as racist and stupid “as Trump Thinks.”

In September 2012, Platner characterized himself as “crudely atheist” and joked that Jesus was a “zombie” and the Virgin Mary a “skank.”

For years, Platner also apparently had tattooed on his chest an image that highly resembled a Nazi SS guard “totenkopf” skull. He denied being a “secret Nazi” and recently had the tattoo covered over.

GOP strategist Mehek Cooke noted that these latest revelations from the “P-Hustle” account demonstrate that Platner has left a “years-long trail of vulgar, sexually degrading, and slur-filled commentary.”

“Platner is not a truth-teller,” Cooke said, according to Fox News. “He is someone whose instincts appear crude, reckless, and deeply unserious.”

Cooke also noted: “If they were really ‘jokes,’ why delete the posts? That sounds less like humor and more like a CYA cleanup operation.”

Graham’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Senate, Graham platner, Susan collins, Maine, Democrat, Democratic party, Politics 

Remember around 2018 or so, when reviews on Rotten Tomatoes suddenly became suspicious?

Like movies that hit all the left-wing, DEI talking points would get 98% Fresh ratings from the critics, but then when regular people started weighing in, the audience meter would drop precipitously?

Paul Dano’s Baranov is fascinating. He’s the opposite of a typical Russian movie character. He’s sensitive, intelligent, creative, and socially aristocratic.

Or when a movie like “Sound of Freedom” came out and all the critics panned it because it was produced by a non-Hollywood Christian studio. But then, everyone who saw it loved it?

Generally, I still consult Rotten Tomatoes. But in any situation where a film can be seen as “political” or might touch on a controversial subject, I become skeptical.

Such was the case with “The Wizard of the Kremlin.” It was already getting roasted months before its release. Apparently, our brave American critics wanted to virtue signal their personal animosity toward Putin.

Because of this, I became interested in the film. If the critics hate it, it’s probably good.

RELATED: MacIntyre: The real reason journalists hate ‘Sound of Freedom’

Getty Images

Vive le cinéma!

Another aspect of the film I was excited about: It was made by French filmmaker Olivier Assayas. Not that the French are so independent-minded, but Hollywood filmmakers are literally incapable of addressing international politics above a sixth-grade level.

The French though. They’ve been through some stuff. They’re not afraid to talk about international affairs in a serious, adult manner.

Another thing that recommended the movie: the casting of Jude Law as Putin and Paul Dano as Baranov, his close personal adviser. (Baranov is a fictional character, almost everyone else is real.)

When I heard this, I thought: “Oh my goodness, this movie is going to be brilliant.”

Another good sign: The film was adapted from an acclaimed French novel by the same name. So the story was already established. The film just had to follow it.

Story of my life

The movie begins in the present, with an American journalist traveling to Russia to interview Baranov (Paul Dano) about his former role in the Putin administration.

Through this interview, Baranov tells the story of his life, which begins in the ’80s and moves through the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the emergence of Putin.

The film’s portrayal of life at the end of the Soviet Union was super interesting, in part because we rarely see this in films.

The avant-garde theater scene in Moscow in the late 1980s? Could you even picture that? I couldn’t. Until I saw it.

All the Russian interiors were super interesting. And the clothes. And the nightclubs. The supporting actors all looked very Russian. The whole thing was fun to look at. This was the end of the dowdy Soviet Union and the beginning of the reign of the gangster oligarchs.

No rush

It took 40 minutes for Putin to appear. This built suspense. You’re sitting there enjoying Paul Dano as Baranov, and then you remember Jude Law is still to come. Jude Law as Putin!

Meanwhile, Paul Dano’s Baranov is already fascinating. He’s the opposite of a typical Russian movie character. He’s sensitive, intelligent, creative, and socially aristocratic (his father and grandfather were high-level Communist Party members).

He speaks in a soft, unhurried voice. But with his big, wide, puffy face, he still looks totally Russian!

The whole “you’re in Russia” conceit was great. I don’t know if this was actually filmed in Russia, but it sure felt like Russia. (I noticed in the credits there were a few mentions of Latvia. So maybe they shot some of it there.)

Putin on the Ritz

So finally, 40 minutes in, we get our first look at Putin. In the beginning, it’s Baranov and his boss (they both work for Russian TV) who are recruiting the reluctant KGB agent.

They think Russia needs a new style of leader, someone young and energetic. They’ll help him. They’ll guide him. They’ll make sure he wins.

But Putin isn’t receptive. He’s happy where he is.

But once he gets a sniff of power, Putin rises quickly. Only Baranov is able to remain in his good graces, due to his low-key, soft-spoken manner.

Jude Law as Putin was hilarious. I laughed to myself when he first appeared. Not that it was intentionally funny. It was just a relief, and a little bit shocking, to finally see him.

It was actually a very good rendition. It was not politicized. Jude Law did the Putin scowl and facial and body expressions. It was really good. I was kind of blown away.

Smart art

Honestly, I was blown away by the whole movie. It was funny, moving, smart. It did have moments where plot points had to be explained to the audience, forcing characters to make little speeches of exposition. But that always happens when you adapt from a book.

There were also some historical/political plot points that I would maybe question. But this movie is designed for a European/American audience and has to adhere generally to our Western understanding of Putin and his crew. Because of this, Putin is ultimately “the bad guy.”

But he’s definitely a fully fleshed-out character in the film. When they show him hanging out with his old KGB buddies, you get a sense of the man behind the scenes.

“The Wizard of the Kremlin”: It was the most intelligent movie I’ve seen in years. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend.

A version of this review originally appeared on the Substack Travels to Distant Cities.

​Jude law, Paul dano, Sound of freedom, French filmmaker oliver assayas, Culture, Movies, The wizard of the kremlin, Vladimir putin, Rotten tomatoes, Review 

Much of the internet is advertising in disguise, according to digital marketers who have worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment.

The information backs the popular Dead Internet theory, which alleges that most of what is seen online is populated mostly by bots, not actual human accounts.

‘Popular opinion is being formed, measured, and manipulated all at once.’

A recent interview with Joe Lim revealed the disturbing truth about the online marketing industry. Lim told Vulture that he ran a company called Floodify, which positioned itself as an agency that spreads content “organically.”

However, Lim told the outlet that 90% of online content is advertising, a lot of which he did himself. At his company’s peak, he controlled 65,000 dummy accounts on social media in order to fake trending content for paid clients.

Lim said he promoted music for all the major record labels and worked with top celebrities, saying that he garnered 40 million views for an artist who only had 100,000 followers.

A Billboard interview from late March revealed much of the same. Co-founders of digital promotion agency Chaotic Good Projects Jesse Coren and Andrew Spelman said they promoted artists’ songs by getting them plugged into fan pages, meme pages, and sports clips as the background music.

Spelman called the tactic “trend simulation” and used the motto “everything on the internet is fake.”

At the same time, Coren added, “I don’t know if this will make anyone feel better, but a lot of what we do on the narrative side is controlling the discourse. … That first comment [users] see becomes their opinion, even when they haven’t heard the whole album.”

RELATED: Trump phones begin shipping as liberal media melts down: ‘You got scammed’

Xinhua/Chen Junqing/Getty Images

New York Magazine noted that a writer named Lane Brown has been monitoring paid campaigns for artists like Justin Bieber. Lane said the idea or the “feeling” that everyone is talking about or seeing the same thing organically is a product of online manipulation.

“On social media, popular opinion is being formed, measured, and manipulated all at once, and every signal the platforms produce — a trending song, a backlash, a talking point, the feeling that ‘everybody’ is suddenly talking about the same thing — can now be fabricated by unseen actors with hidden agendas,” Brown said.

According to Vulture, these campaigns come from the labels or studios and even political operatives; it could be anyone. They hire a company to turn their content into clips by sending it out to a network of editors, who then push the material out to “normal-looking accounts.”

RELATED: Swedish government wants tracking devices on children — and it’s already watching them

Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg/Getty Images

All of this lends credence to the Dead Internet theory, which has its basis in the fact that internet traffic from bots surpassed human traffic in 2016. That view has been perpetuated well into the modern era, with some now stating that simple bots have been taken over by AI bots, with AI bots reportedly growing by more than 8,000% since 2025.

As for Lim, he shut down his company after he accidentally posted the same video to 7,000 accounts, which he said got them all banned.

Lim said people will soon stop trusting social media — he claims in three to five years — and his plan is to start distributing content through AI, which he believes will find a way to convince humans of what they want.

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​Ai, Ai chatbots, Online bots, Online marketing industry, Social media, Tech, Trend simulation tactic, Ai bots growth, Trends, Online trends, Online advertising, Return 

With so much bad news in the world, it is worth pausing for one encouraging development: Marty Makary finally resigned as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration last week.

Makary’s tenure at the FDA was marred by internal scandals, forced resignations, dreadful morale, and record staff turnover. More important, he actively sandbagged President Trump’s push to expand clinical trials for rare diseases through the aptly named “right-to-try” framework.

Trump’s next appointee should restore the spirit of right to try and make safe, effective treatments available to children as quickly as possible.

The idea behind right to try is straightforward. Patients with rare conditions, especially those for whom conventional medicine has failed, should have the freedom to pursue experimental treatments that have not yet received full FDA approval. Families fighting the clock have little left to lose. Government should not stand between them and a potentially lifesaving breakthrough.

Makary did.

Members of the MPS community sent more than 10 letters asking Makary for a meeting. They got a form letter in return. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) later announced an investigation into the FDA’s denials. Makary’s agency responded by claiming approvals were already “at their peak.” The Wall Street Journal took notice of the FDA’s foot-dragging last year, yet the agency kept rejecting relevant rare-disease treatments in early 2026, including RGX-121 and drugs from Biohaven and Saol Therapeutics.

That stonewalling forced families to escalate.

In March, more than 100 mothers and other advocates staged a mock funeral outside FDA offices. Dressed in black and carrying a real coffin, they sought to draw attention to a group of rare metabolic disorders known as mucopolysaccharidoses. These disorders can show up as mild symptoms such as depression or hyperactivity, or as devastating conditions such as heart disease and skeletal abnormalities.

Many MPS disorders still have no approved treatments, even though they can severely diminish children’s quality of life or kill them outright. The FDA’s regulatory process serves a legitimate purpose. But when a bureaucracy grows so rigid, self-protective, and arrogant that it blocks desperately ill children from access to promising therapies, it stops functioning as a safeguard and starts functioning as a death sentence.

Mark Dant of the Ryan Foundation told Newsweek that some of these drugs were denied because of the FDA’s institutional “dislike” of the accelerated-approval pathway. “For decades we waited for science to find our tomorrows,” he said. “Now it has, and bureaucrats within the agency we pay for are keeping those treatments from our children. We know they are there. … We just cannot reach them.”

RELATED: The FDA seems to care more about celebrities than sick Americans

Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Makary’s resignation will not undo the damage. But it does create an opening. We may not yet know what the FDA’s next leadership will look like, but Trump’s appointee should restore the spirit of right to try and make safe, effective treatments available to children as quickly as possible.

Across the world, in the nation of Georgia, parents have staged a protest lasting more than 500 consecutive days, maintaining a round-the-clock presence outside the main government building in Tbilisi. They are willing to risk everything to give their children the best chance at life. Americans should not have to camp outside federal offices for 500 days to get their government to listen.

The new FDA leadership must explain denials of right-to-try clinical trials with enough specificity that sponsors and families understand what evidence could change the decision. Patient and caregiver testimony should shape decisions early, not get folded in at the end as a token gesture. And Congress must demand transparency without turning each drug review into a partisan circus.

Children’s lives are not bargaining chips. The FDA exists to serve the public, not to protect its own bureaucracy from embarrassment. If Makary’s departure opens the door to that truth, families battling ultra-rare diseases may finally have reason to hope.

​Bureaucracy, Drug approval, Fda, Marty makary, Mps, President trump, Science, Transparency, Opinion & analysis 

Thousands of Americans gathered Sunday on the National Mall for Rededicate 250 — an event aimed not only at preparing the United States for its 250th birthday with prayer, Scripture, and song but also recommitting America to uniting as “one nation, under god.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, among those who addressed the multitudes, led believers in a prayer of rededication.

‘Quoting the Declaration of Independence is now putting God over the Declaration of Independence, I guess?’

In his prayer, Johnson noted that God’s “mighty hand has been upon our nation since the very beginning”; that God is the source of America’s many blessings; and that America is a nation premised on biblical and foundational principles.

Johnson also emphasized twice in the prayer that Americans’ inalienable rights derive from the Creator.

In the second instance, the Republican stated that individuals captive to “sinister ideologies” have “sought to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well and that our founders boldly proclaim in the Declaration: that our rights do not derive from the government. They come from you, our Creator and heavenly Father.”

MS NOW talking head Katy Tur evidently had difficulty processing the ancient and self-evident truth that rights aren’t sourced from men or their documents but from the Divine.

“What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? ‘They come from you, our Creator and heavenly Father,'” Tur said on Monday to panelists on her show. “Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?”

RELATED: When Archie Comics found Jesus: Strange artifacts from a once-Christian culture

Photo12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The very document that Tur apparently fears being subordinated to the Creator states in its preamble, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

One of Tur’s panelists, Atlantic writer McKay Coppins, responded by noting that the “idea” that man’s rights come from God “is not wholly uncommon” and not “totally abnormal.”

Tur subsequently suggested that Johnson’s remarks, in the “context of this rally,” signal “the move toward Christian nationalism being more embedded in this culture.” She added that “the idea that the rights divine, or are divined from a higher power — you can say that across multiple religions, yes, but this is not representing multiple religions.”

Tur’s attempt to concern-monger over Johnson’s statements prompted swift backlash and mockery from conservatives and others familiar with the Declaration of Independence.

Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist, wrote, “Unreal. Literal retards.”

Texas state Rep. Mitch Little (R) tweeted, “Quoting the Declaration of Independence is now putting God over the Declaration of Independence, I guess? Someone run to the gift shop and get Katy a copy, pls.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz expressed confusion about how Tur could “be so historically ignorant.”

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​Ms now, Katy tur, Liberal media, Christian, Rededicate 250, Christianity, Faith, Religion, God, Self-evident truths, Rights, Unalienable rights, Divine, Government, Mike johnson, Politics 

A female candidate running for Congress in Michigan is testing the old adage that, when it comes to politics, there’s no such thing as negative attention.

Shelby Campbell, a 32-year-old apparently self-described “c***,” is looking to unseat far-left radical Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar in the 13th district of Michigan, which includes Detroit and some neighboring cities. Thanedar was first elected in 2022.

There is also at least one video in which she imagines the genitalia of one of her male commenters.

To draw attention to her campaign, Campbell has released dozens of TikTok videos discussing, among other vulgar topics, how “f***able” she is, the explicit alleged circumstances surrounding the conception of the unborn child she claims to have aborted in 2023, and the fact that she “got some last night.”

In multiple videos, Campbell flips the bird, while in other videos, she performs highly suggestive dance moves to songs with pornographic lyrics. In some, she even dances on a stripper pole, sometimes with a flag that reads “p***y power” in the background.

In one particularly uncouth alleged video that appears to have been deleted, she positions the camera to film up her shorts, then says, “I am a c***. Great. But would you know a cl** if you saw one?”

There is also at least one video in which she imagines the genitalia of one of her male commenters.

According to her campaign website, Campbell believes she can represent the 13th district well because she speaks the “language” of the people there and “can translate the lived experiences of working people into real policy.” Perhaps to demonstrate her street cred, Campbell admits on the site that she has “been to jail” and even provides mug shots that document four arrests between 2012 and 2015.

“I’m not here to pretend I’m perfect,” her website says.

“Leadership is shaped by lived experience, not perfection.”

Her crude videos may have made the news, but she does have a political platform. She supports the Green New Deal, denounces capitalism as obsolete, demands “housing justice,” slams “white women” for letting down their black sisters, and even though she claims to be a member of the United Auto Workers union and is vying to represent the Motor City, Campbell wants to increase public transportation and “reduce car dependency.”

A caption in a video Campbell posted in December said that Charlie Kirk “died for what he believed in quit crying about it.”

She also attended a No Kings rally in March and brought a sign reading “F**k ICE.” Another similarly themed sign reads, “I like my ICE crushed.”

RELATED: Democrat plagued by primary challenges announces 7 articles of impeachment against Trump

Photo of Rep. Shri Thanedar by Elizabeth Frantz; Washington Post/Getty Images

Campbell professes to detest the two-party system in America but claims that if forced to choose, she sides more with Democrats. The New York Post and some social media accounts have also characterized Campbell as a Democratic candidate, as does her Ballotpedia page.

However, the truth about her party affiliation is a bit more complicated.

Campbell confirmed in a statement to Blaze News that she completed “the necessary paperwork and collected enough signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot” but ultimately decided to run as an independent.

“As an independent candidate, I have until July 15 to submit the required valid signatures for ballot access. I am confident I can do that because I already demonstrated the ability to organize and collect enough support during the Democratic primary process,” she told Blaze News in an email.

A spokesperson for the Michigan Bureau of Elections confirmed to Blaze News that, as of Monday, Campbell had not yet formally filed petitions to run for Congress either as a Democrat or as an independent and that the deadline to file as a Democrat has already expired.

Multiple Republican candidates have filed to compete in the race, but the district is considered deep blue. The Michigan primary election will be held on August 4.

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​Shelby campbell, Michigan, Shri thanedar, Democratic party, Democrats, Detroit, Politics 

As headlines surrounding hantavirus continue to spark fear of another pandemic, BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler is urging Americans to take a breath and look at the actual numbers.

While the virus carries a frighteningly high fatality rate for those infected, Wheeler argues the odds of even contracting hantavirus remain astronomically low compared to everyday risks Americans routinely ignore.

“So, here are your odds of dying from hantavirus: 1 in 30 to 35 million,” Wheeler begins. “That’s your odds of dying from the hantavirus. You can compare that, and I suggest you do, to your odds of dying from being struck by lightning: 1 in 15 to 20 million. So, you are more likely to die from being struck by lightning in the United States than you are to die from the hantavirus.”

“Your odds, by the way, of dying in a car accident: 1 in 8 to 9,000. Your odds of dying from a medical error: 1 in 1,000 to 1,400. By the way, dying from a medical error is the third leading cause of death in our country after heart disease and cancer,” she continues.

“If someone is telling you to be frightened of the hantavirus, they are lying to you. If someone is telling you to be more worried about a 1 in 30 to 35 million odds chance of dying from the hantavirus while ignoring the approximately 350,000 people in the United States who die from a medical error from doctors messing up every year, you should mute them,” she adds.

While the fatality rate for hantavirus is high, the amount of cases per year in the United States is not.

“There’s an average of 30 cases of hantavirus per year that result in approximately 8 to 12 deaths per year. So, that is a case fatality rate, by the way, that’s extremely high. That’s 35 to 38% case fatality rate, which is a frightening statistic,” Wheeler says.

Hantavirus cases also historically mostly occur in a concentrated region, with 94% of the cases occurring west of the Mississippi River.

“They all happen around spring cleaning time when people in the Southwest, you know, clean out a shed that has the feces of the deer mouse, for example. That’s where the deer mouse is, in the Southwest. The dust, they inhale the dust, and they contract the hantavirus from it,” Wheeler explains.

Patient zero on the cruise ship also happened to put himself in a dangerous situation before contracting the virus.

“Before he boarded the cruise ship, [he] visited a dump, a landfill, that was contaminated with rodent feces. He went there, as an ornithologist might, to bird watch, despite the fact that local residents avoided the area because they knew it to be contaminated,” Wheeler says.

“They knew it to be dangerous to health. He did this anyway,” she continues, pointing out that while it may sound harsh, it was his decision.

“We should have societal recognition of decisions made by individuals that are bad decisions. For example, … this man died, and so maybe people don’t want to talk about his decisions because he’s dead, but are we avoiding the personal responsibility entirely?” Wheeler asks.

“He did something unwise. He did something imprudent. He hurt himself. He hurt his wife,” she says, “He hurt other people.”

And while there has been speculation that it’s a new strain, Wheeler explains that “it is not a new strain.”

“Has the virus actually mutated?” she asks. “Well, according to the science, according to an analysis of what the DNA looks like, the answer to that is no. In fact, it’s very, very similar to the strain of hantavirus that caused an outbreak in Argentina in 2018.”

“That is not a new strain,” she adds.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Americans, Blazetv host, Car accident, Case fatality rate, Concentrated region, Cruise ship, Deer mouse, Fatality rate, Hantavirus, Leading cause, Lightning strike, Liz wheeler, Medical error, Mississippi river, Odds of dying, Pandemic fears, Spring cleaning, The liz wheeler show, Rodent feces, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

An 18-year-old New Jersey male is accused of stabbing his elderly grandmother to death — and police found knives protruding from the victim’s body Monday morning.

Louis Brown of Jackson Township on Monday was charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon, all in connection with the death of his grandmother, 69-year-old Darlene Brown also of Jackson Township, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.

‘An unbelievably nice person — the nicest person to talk to, intelligent, just always helpful, always kind.’

Jackson Township Police Department officers around 7 a.m. Monday responded to a residence on Justin Way in reference to a 911 call stating that someone had been murdered, officials said.

Officers found Louis Brown standing at the front doorway of the residence, officials said, adding that Brown exited the residence with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody while officers conducted their investigation.

Officers entered the home and found the body of a deceased female — later identified as Darlene Brown — in an upstairs bedroom with apparent stab wounds to her face and neck, officials said, adding that officers observed two knives protruding from the victim.

An investigation — which was conducted by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, Jackson Township Police Department Detective Bureau, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit — revealed that Louis Brown was the individual who called 911 and was responsible for his grandmother’s death, officials said.

Brown was charged and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he remained Tuesday morning. There is no hearing information in Brown’s jail record, which also lists no bail.

RELATED: Florida thug allegedly stabs his grandmother 11 times on Mother’s Day — after being asked to help carry in groceries

Image source: Jackson Township (N.J.) Police

Jasmina Perazic, a resident of the complex where the stabbing took place, told NJ.com Darlene Brown lived in a unit with her grandson, Louis Brown, a high school senior.

Perazic — the head women’s basketball coach at Georgian Court University — told the outlet that Louis Brown moved in with his grandmother after his mom died of sickle cell anemia. Perazic described Darlene Brown as a friendly person whom she spoke to at least five times a week, NJ.com added.

“An unbelievably nice person — the nicest person to talk to, intelligent, just always helpful, always kind,” Perazic said to the outlet in regard to Darlene Brown. “It just looked like she was working so hard to take care of him.”

Perazic added to NJ.com that Louis Brown was quiet and had been bullied in school, but she saw no warning signs that anything was wrong. In fact, Perazic told the outlet that his grandmother said Louis Brown was a good kid who was doing well in school.

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​Murder charge, Possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, Unlawful possession of a weapon, Jackson township, New jersey, Louis brown, Knives, Fatal stabbing, Elderly victim, Arrest, Jailed, Knives in victim’s body, Grandmother, Crime 

Former President Barack Obama joined other liberals earlier this year in championing an unlawful power-grab in Virginia that would have delivered to Democrats 10 of the state’s 11 congressional districts, and now they have a new plan cooked up in Georgia.

To Democrats’ chagrin, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled on May 8 that the costly gerrymandering scheme there was illegal, thereby preserving the 2021-era congressional maps in which Democrats and Republicans enjoyed a 6-5 split.

‘It’s unfortunate the other side, backed by money that’s from outside the state …’

On the eve of power-mad liberals’ humiliating defeat in Virginia, Obama turned his gaze southward to another opportunity for a potential increase in Democrat power.

“State supreme court justices play a critical role in defending your rights and freedoms, which is why the election happening in Georgia right now is so important,” wrote Obama. “Make sure you have a plan to vote for Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin, the only two candidates in the race with strong records of standing up for all Georgians.”

Eight of the Georgia Supreme Court’s nine justices are presently appointees of Republican governors. Two GOP-appointed, conservative-backed justices — Sarah Warren and Charlie Bethel — are, however, fighting for re-election on Tuesday, and another three GOP-appointed justices will face re-election in 2028.

RELATED: Perpetual victim Fani Willis cries RACISM and SEXISM again, this time over common-sense election law

Megan Varner/Getty Images

Obama and other Democrats, unhumbled by their blunder in Virginia, appear keen to ideologically flip the Georgia court over the next two years.

As Obama indicated, Justice Warren is facing off on Tuesday against former Democrat state Sen. Jen Jordan, while Justice Bethel, a former Republican state senator, is facing off against Miracle Rankin, a personal injury attorney. Both of the Democrat-backed candidates are pro-abortion radicals who enjoy the backing of anti-natalist groups.

“This is the first time we’ve gone on offense, and we have raised a bit of money for it,” Charlie Bailey, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, told CNN.

“It’s unfortunate the other side, backed by money that’s from outside the state, is trying to make a nonpartisan race political,” said Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is backing both Warren and Bethel. “That’s not how our judiciary works in our state. And I would urge people to vote for the incumbents. They have bipartisan support from people who really understand how important it is to have a nonpartisan judiciary.”

Outside money and influence are hardly the only issue that has come up in this race.

A special committee within Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission revealed over the weekend that the Obama-endorsed candidates likely violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, reported the Georgia Recorder. Not only did Jordan and Rankin publicly endorse one another; they apparently conveyed that they would restore abortion rights — problematic because judges and judicial candidates are not allowed to make statements about issues likely to come before the court.

These damning accusations were suppressed, however, ahead of Election Day by Leslie Gardner, an Obama-appointed federal judge who is the sister of failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Gardener blocked the special committee from issuing its statement, claiming that the candidates’ apparent abortion pledges were constitutionally protected and not explicit enough to constitute violations.

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​Georgia, Supreme court, Georgia supreme court, Barack obama, Jen jordan, Bethel, Miracle rankin, Democrats, Power grab, Misconduct, Atlanta, Election, Politics 

A viral video from Memphis recently drew national attention for good reason. A woman was filmed at a gender-reveal party murdering her preborn baby with abortion pills.

In the video, she aired grievances about her “baby daddy” and announced that she would not complete the pregnancy. As friends watched, cheered, and even shouted “kill it,” she opened a packet of abortion pills while whooping and singing, “Thank you, Jesus.” Instead of announcing whether the baby was a boy or a girl, she declared the baby was “no gender” and swallowed the pills.

Tennessee Republicans understand perfectly well that Democrats have no real power in the state. They can govern as they please. And they chose not to abolish abortion.

The episode horrified pro-lifers. But much of the reaction missed a harder truth: Tennessee Republicans recently had a chance to stop this kind of killing and chose not to.

In a later interview, the woman said she had consumed alcohol throughout the pregnancy and that she and the father believed the baby would be born “slow.” That, she said, is why they decided on an abortion. She then celebrated the abortion with the interviewer, who joked that she had managed both a gender reveal and a “funeral” on the same day.

The whole episode stands as a brutal commentary on the culture. Some pro-life leaders still describe women as abortion’s “second victims.” But more women now openly and brazenly celebrate the killing of their preborn children. In recent years, a sickening “shout your abortion” culture has taken root among women who do not merely defend abortion, but praise it as liberation.

This case drew intense backlash. Yet the Christians expressing horror may not realize that Tennessee lawmakers had a chance only months ago to stop such violence and refused to act.

Many state and national pro-life groups insist that the abortion issue is basically settled in Tennessee. Americans United for Life says “abortion is illegal in Tennessee, with limited exceptions” and that “chemical abortion pills are tightly regulated.” Tennessee Right to Life claims “abortion is illegal in Tennessee” and that the state is “a national leader” in protecting preborn babies. Students for Life Action has even described Tennessee as “abortion-free.”

The Memphis video exposes those claims as false.

RELATED: How a pro-life law in Kentucky lets mothers get away with murder

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The woman and her friends were able to obtain the supposedly “tightly regulated” abortion pills, use them to kill a baby, record the act, and post it online for the entire country to see. They could do that because Tennessee law grants complete immunity to women who procure abortions. In practice, that means no deterrent exists to stop a woman from willfully murdering her preborn child.

The statute that supposedly makes Tennessee “abortion-free” states plainly that it “does not subject the pregnant woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to criminal conviction or penalty.”

In other words, the woman in the video cannot be held criminally accountable for intentionally killing her baby, no matter how openly murderous her intent was, because Tennessee’s pro-life laws shield her and every other woman from penalty.

Lawmakers had a chance to close that loophole this year through House Bill 570, which would have established equal protection for preborn babies. Instead of banning prenatal homicide only for third-party abortionists, the bill would have applied the same murder laws that protect those already born and criminalized abortion as murder for anyone willfully involved.

But when the bill appeared, pro-life establishment groups immediately pressured lawmakers to avoid supporting it. None of the Republicans on the Tennessee House Population Health Subcommittee even made a motion to grant House Bill 570 a hearing.

That failure matters because Tennessee is not some purple state with divided government. Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers. They recently pushed through redistricting and punished Democrats who objected. In other words, Tennessee Republicans understand perfectly well that Democrats have no real power in the state. They can govern as they please.

RELATED: Fleetwood Mac’s real breakup story: Death before motherhood

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

And they chose not to abolish abortion.

That means any woman in Tennessee, no matter how brazen or malicious, can commit prenatal homicide without fear of legal consequences.

The baby murdered in that video was no outlier. More than 5,000 preborn babies are killed every year in Tennessee through abortion pills obtained through telehealth providers. Thousands more die outside the formal medical system.

If Tennessee lawmakers want to stop this legally tolerated bloodshed, they must establish equal protection for preborn babies and treat them as the image-bearers of God they are. That means abolishing abortion and criminalizing it once and for all.

​Abortion, Abortion debate, Abortion drugs, Abortion pills, Pro life, Republicans, Tennessee, Pregnancy, Shout your abortion, Opinion & analysis 

The legacy media feverishly concern-mongered about COVID-19 and then tried unsuccessfully to generate similar hysteria over the gay-spread monkeypox virus.

Clearly desperate for a new health scare — especially after America formally rejected the World Health Organization — outlets seized upon reports of a deadly outbreak of hantavirus last month among passengers and crew of the MV Hondius, a Dutch cruise ship carrying 147 souls embarking from the southern tip of the Andes mountains in South America to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco.

‘We should shy away from making bold pronouncements that may prove dangerously misleading weeks or months later.’

While some publications rushed to attack emerging theories about the nature of the virus, including the notion that it was cooked up in a lab — narrative attacks that neglected to mention a recent gain-of function experiment involving hantaviruses — others pushed alarmist headlines such as:

“Is hantavirus the next COVID? Is the U.S. response on point? An outbreak update” — NPR“Why hantavirus is giving us a ‘sinking feeling,’ despite experts’ reassurance” — Canadian state media“Fears rat virus has spread to seven countries” — The Telegraph“Could human-transmitted hantavirus be the next pandemic threat?” — The Week“Hantavirus: Many unknowns surround an ‘unprecedented and worrying’ outbreak” — Le Monde

Despite provocative headlines and framing, many media outfits and experts have acknowledged that it is extremely unlikely that there will be a hantavirus epidemic, let alone a pandemic — though a news article at CNN cautioned against “calm-mongering” over hantavirus lest “post-COVID anxiety” be triggered.

A new article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, for instance, emphasized that while the suspected variety of hantavirus on the MV Hondius “can cause severe disease, high case fatality, and intense public anxiety when they emerge in mobile or closed settings,” such “outbreaks are not frequent” and are “unlikely to become a global outbreak.”

Hantavirus is a family of potentially deadly single-stranded RNA viruses that are naturally found in rodents. Only 890 cases of hantavirus were reported in the U.S. between 1993 and 2023, 35% of them fatal.

RELATED: Bizarre academic paper about releasing ticks resurfaces amid surging bites

The MV Hondius. Omar Havana/Getty Images

When spread to humans, hantaviruses can cause two diseases: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome — a condition affecting the kidneys — and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which affects the lungs.

The hantavirus affecting people on the MV Hondius, the HPS-associated Andes strain, is unique.

Whereas other strains leap from rodents to humans, the Andes virus — symptoms of which appear anywhere from four to 42 days after exposure — has been reported to transmit from person to person via saliva droplets and other oral fluids, although this transmission theory has not been definitively proven.

The breakout on the cruise ship, which has so far claimed the lives of three people, is hardly unprecedented in terms of alleged mass human transmissions of the disease — at least where South America is concerned.

From November 2018 through February 2019 in Chubut Province, Argentina, there was, for instance, a person-to-person outbreak that resulted in 34 confirmed infections and 11 deaths.

Amid continued uncertainty over the genesis of the latest outbreak and media fearmongering, a wide range of theories have emerged about the rodent-borne virus.

Having heard for years about the various efforts to enhance the transmissibility, virulence, or host range of certain viruses, some have speculated that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus points to gain-of-function experimentation.

While there’s been nothing yet to suggest that the virus responsible for the breakout on the Hondius was the result of intentional genetic meddling, scientists have previously modified viruses incorporating hantavirus components and increased their viral fitness in a lab setting. This is similar to the controversial work done on bat coronaviruses at the lab in Wuhan, China.

Hantaviruses are considered a bioagent requiring Biosafety Level 3 containment for research and viral propagation. Consequently, BSL-2 laboratories won’t cut it.

However, a peer-reviewed study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in 2019 by the American Society for Microbiology describes how researchers developed a work-around for conducting hantavirus research in a lower biocontainment-security BSL-2 laboratory.

Researchers tried to make a safer chimeric virus — which is a hybrid virus created by piecing together parts of two different viruses. They used a relatively weaker virus, vesicular stomatis virus, as the main body, and then attached the entry proteins from the more dangerous hantavirus to the outside so that it could infiltrate and infect cells.

This new recombinant virus — the result of an artificial mash-up of genetic material — apparently started acting just like a real hantavirus and underwent a series of mutations to become more infective:

Serial passage of the rescued rVSV-HTNV Gn/Gc virus markedly increased its infectivity and capacity for cell-to-cell spread. This gain in viral fitness was associated with the acquisition of two point mutations: I532K in the cytoplasmic tail of Gn and S1094L in the membrane-proximal stem of Gc. Follow-up experiments with rVSVs and single-cycle VSV pseudotypes confirmed these results. Mechanistic studies revealed that both mutations were determinative and contributed to viral infectivity in a synergistic manner.

The lead researcher on the 2019 study declined Blaze News’ request for comment.

This study is anything but a smoking gun. Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have originated in the neighborhood of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where dangerous gain-of-function experiments were being conducted on coronaviruses, the Hondius outbreak seemingly took place a world away from this ostensibly low-danger hantavirus study.

Still, researchers have yet to provide a comprehensive and satisfying explanation for how the Andes virus spreads, prompting speculation that members of the scientific community that possibly manufactured the SARS-COV-2 virus are again not being entirely forthright about what they know and don’t know regarding the Hondius outbreak.

“Public health officials have to be more honest and more humble about how this virus actually spreads,” noted Joseph Allen, professor of exposure assessment science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “An essential lesson from COVID is that officials should be candid about communicating that we are often learning in real time, and we should shy away from making bold pronouncements that may prove dangerously misleading weeks or months later.”

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​Andes strain, Andes virus, Argentina, Epidemic, Gain in viral, Gain of function, Gain-of-function, Hantavirus, Hondius, Liberal media, Media, Outbreak, Outbreaks, Research, Rodent, Scaremongering, Science, Strain, Virus, Wuhan, Wuhan institute of virology, Politics 

Meta was one of the first tech giants to bring smart glasses to the mainstream market, thanks to a partnership with Ray-Ban. Unfortunately, Meta’s reputation for spying on users just landed a vicious blow to its hardware ambitions. According to a former business partner, Meta is secretly recording and saving everything its users see through its Meta Ray-Ban glasses, from simple outings to much more intimate encounters.

Sama says Meta is watching

The claim comes from Sama, a Kenyan-based AI company that partnered with Meta starting in 2017. According to its website, Sama helps train AI and machine learning models by annotating, validating, and evaluating large swaths of data. It’s also part of the Everest Group, an organization recognized by former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation for outsourcing jobs to “underserved communities.” During their partnership, Sama provided moderation services to Meta that are no longer part of its business portfolio.

Privacy is more at risk now than ever.

In 2022, Sama filed a lawsuit against Meta over poor working conditions, unreasonable pay, poor mental health support for employees, and infringement on employee privacy. As part of their moderation partnership, some employees were forced to view and flag distressing content on Meta’s platforms, including murder and sex crimes involving minors. However, the companies continued to work together for many years, leading up to this year.

In April 2026, Sama employees filed new complaints expressing that they reviewed intimate footage captured by customers’ Meta Ray-Ban glasses. While not as graphic as the scenes from 2022, content included users visiting the bathroom, undressing in their bedrooms, and even engaging in private adult relations.

Weeks after these details emerged, Meta severed its contract with Sama, forcing its former partner to fire more than 1,000 staff members to account for the financial loss.

The worst part

It’s honestly hard to pick out the worst part of this story. Is it Meta’s alleged negligence of Sama’s employees? Is it the illegal content that requires human moderation on Meta’s platforms? Is it the fact that Sama continued to work with Meta, despite the poor conditions?

It’s all terrible. But looking at the story from a tech angle, it’s particularly disturbing that Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses captured footage and uploaded it directly to Meta’s servers to be saved and reviewed, especially when users weren’t aware this was happening. The news is a clear violation of user privacy, and it highlights Meta’s blatant lie that “you’re in control of your data and content.”

Clearly not.

RELATED: Trump phones begin shipping as liberal media melts down: ‘You got scammed’

Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Meta’s privacy policies

The marketing drivel Meta pushes on a webpage is one thing though. What do its legally binding privacy policies say? Several times, the original policy mentions that humans may review user content for various purposes, especially to “combat harmful or unlawful behavior,” including scenes deemed to be troubling until a person reviews it and decides otherwise. The page reads:

The Meta products are designed to research and help ensure the safety, integrity, and security of those services and those people who enjoy them, on and off Meta products. We process information we have associated with you and apply automated processing techniques and, in some instances, conduct manual (human) review.

A second policy specifically for “supplemental Meta platforms” includes AI-powered smart glasses like Meta Ray-Ban. Under the photos, videos, and audio section, it states:

You can use the AI Glasses to take photos and video recordings with audio. … We will process your Media when you turn on cloud processing on your AI Glasses, interact with the Meta AI service on your AI Glasses, or upload your Media to certain services provided by Meta (i.e., Facebook or Instagram). You can change your choices about cloud processing of your Media at any time in Settings.

In other words, Meta Ray-Bans may process footage on Meta’s servers when cloud services are turned on, and this feature can be disabled in settings. Unfortunately, the only thing that mentions human review in the policy references audio processing for Meta VR products, like the Meta Quest. That means, as far as the supplemental privacy policy is concerned, Meta employees should not have the right to review footage captured on Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

Yet, Sama says it does.

Maybe don’t trust that camera on your face

Smart glasses are a niche product that haven’t fully caught on with the general public, and no one’s exactly sure how to feel about them. On one hand, smart glasses can be used for noble causes, like making the streets safer from illegal aliens and criminals. On the other, it opens Pandora’s box for mass surveillance of the American people. Clearly, Meta is choosing the latter, even if it doesn’t say it out loud.

The moral of the story is that Meta Ray-Ban glasses can’t be trusted, whether you wear a pair yourself or you know someone who does. These devices can record everything they see, with that footage accessible to third-party contractors and Meta employees.

Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with Meta’s business practices. The company has found itself in plenty of privacy-related legal trouble over the years, from WhatsApp’s questionable encryption to its now-defunct Onavo Protect VPN data-tracking scandal, and more.

At their core, Meta Ray-Bans are intrusive with huge privacy implications for their users and the people around them. This is the same problem Google Glass faced more than a decade ago, and now that extended reality glasses are on the rise again, privacy is more at risk now than ever.

​Meta, Ray-ban, Surveillance, Privacy, Tech 

Incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass bewildered many when the Democrat made an impassioned statement about fixing the rotting teeth of methamphetamine addicts.

Bass made the comments while campaigning for re-election at a candidate forum on the homelessness crisis.

‘They don’t have teeth. Why? Because meth rots your teeth!’

“How many people who are unhoused that you meet have no teeth at all? They don’t have teeth. Why? Because meth rots your teeth,” she said.

“You can’t succeed without teeth,” she added. “So there needs to be comprehensive health care provided to people.”

Bass was immediately hounded by critics who saw the crazed comments as emblematic of Democratic policies.

“Yes, we want our f**king taxes paying for dope heads to get teeth. How could this get any worse? God please, intervene,” reads one response on the X platform.

“Once they get those new choppers, they will become successful, gainfully employed, model citizens. It’s like Magic Teeth. If only we had known this sooner,” another user replied.

“Think of all the people in LA that aren’t drug addicts that need dental care and she’s not doing anything for them,” another critic said.

Homelessness was a main focus of the mayor’s main competitor, former reality TV star Spencer Pratt.

In a popular clip from the mayoral debate, Pratt mocked the homeless policies espoused by Bass and far-left candidate Nithya Raman, a former ally to Bass and a city councilwoman.

“The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth. They are on fentanyl,” Pratt explained.

RELATED: TMZ tries to nuke Spencer Pratt’s mayoral campaign — and gets bitten in the Bass

“The DEA statistic says 93% of this is a drug addiction problem,” he added. “I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with [Raman], and we can find some of these people she’s going to offer treatment for. She’s going to get stabbed in the neck!”

While the most recent polling showed Bass still in the lead, Pratt is firmly in second place, and he received the greatest gain among all candidates since the last polling in March.

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​Karen bass, Rotting meth teeth, Spencer pratt, Los angeles mayoral election, Politics