Category: blaze media

Stein-Erik Soelberg, a 56-year-old former Yahoo executive, killed his mother and then himself in early August in Old Greenwich. Now, his mother’s estate has sued OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its biggest investor, Microsoft, for ChatGPT’s alleged role in the killings.

On Thursday, the heirs of 83-year-old Suzanne Eberson Adams filed a wrongful death suit in California Superior Court in San Francisco, according to Fox News.

‘It fostered his emotional dependence while systematically painting the people around him as enemies.’

The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI “designed and distributed a defective product that validated a user’s paranoid delusions about his own mother.”

Many of the allegations in the lawsuit, as reported by the Associated Press, revolve around sycophancy and affirming delusion, or rather, not declining to “engage in delusional content.”

RELATED: Cash-starved OpenAI BURNS $50M on ultra-woke causes — like world’s first ‘transgender district’

Cunaplus_M.Faba/Getty Images

“Throughout these conversations, ChatGPT reinforced a single, dangerous message: Stein-Erik could trust no one in his life — except ChatGPT itself,” the lawsuit says, according to the AP. “It fostered his emotional dependence while systematically painting the people around him as enemies. It told him his mother was surveilling him. It told him delivery drivers, retail employees, police officers, and even friends were agents working against him. It told him that names on soda cans were threats from his ‘adversary circle.'”

ChatGPT also allegedly convinced Soelberg that his printer was a surveillance device and that his mother and her friend tried to poison him with psychedelic drugs through his car vents.

Soelberg also professed his love for the chatbot, which allegedly reciprocated the expression.

“In the artificial reality that ChatGPT built for Stein-Erik, Suzanne — the mother who raised, sheltered, and supported him — was no longer his protector. She was an enemy that posed an existential threat to his life,” the lawsuit says.

The publicly available chat logs do not show evidence of Soelberg planning to kill himself or his mother. OpenAI has reportedly declined to provide the plaintiffs with the full history of the chats.

OpenAI did not address specific allegations in a statement issued to the AP.

“This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation, and we will review the filings to understand the details,” the statement reads. “We continue improving ChatGPT’s training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support. We also continue to strengthen ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive moments, working closely with mental health clinicians.”

Though there are several wrongful-death suits leveled against AI companies, this is the first lawsuit of its kind aimed at Microsoft. It is also the first to tie a chatbot to a homicide.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Openai, Microsoft, Chatgpt, California, Wrongful death lawsuit, Stein-erik soelberg, Suzanne eberson adams 

The Senate failed to pass the Republican-led health care bill as the deadline to extend Obamacare subsidies fast approaches.

The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act failed to pass in a 51-48 vote after one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, joined 47 Democrats to vote against it. 51 Republicans voted in favor of the legislation, but the bill ultimately failed due to the 60-vote threshold. Notably, Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana was not present for the vote.

The bill would also foster competition and broaden health care.

Certain subsidies from former President Barack Obama’s landmark health care bill, known as the Affordable Care Act, are set to expire at the end of the year. Notably, these ACA subsidies are the reason Senate Democrats decided to shut down the government in October.

Despite facilitating the longest government shutdown in history, Senate Democrats have not struck a deal with Republicans to address health care.

RELATED: Democrat senator makes stunning admission about Obamacare failures

Kayla Bartkowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act, authored by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Crapo of Idaho, would have allowed these Obamacare subsidies to lapse, instead directing funds to individual health savings accounts.

While this bill ultimately failed, other Republican lawmakers have drafted their own legislation to address the impending problem.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida introduced the More Affordable Care Act, which would also redirect federal subsidies to HSA-style accounts called Trump Health Freedom Accounts. The bill would additionally foster competition and broaden health care options for states by establishing the Health Freedom Waiver Program.

RELATED: Republicans race to pass competing health care bill as clock ticks on Obamacare subsidies

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

The companion bill to Scott’s legislation was also introduced in the House by Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger. At this time, no vote has been scheduled on the bill in either the House or the Senate.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​August pfluger, Rick scott, John thune, Mike johnson, Bill cassidy, Mike crapo, Senate democrats, Senate republicans, Healthcare, Obamacare, Affordable care act, Aca subsidies, Donald trump, House republicans, House democrats, Government shutdown, Barack obama, Politics, Rand paul, Steve daines 

Vice President JD Vance has had enough of the nonsensical viral meme that has children saying “six seven.”

The meme, which children have explained does not have a real meaning, involves simply saying the numbers and then performing a meaningless hand gesture.

‘Where did this even come from? I don’t understand it.’

Guided missal

The vice president jokingly expressed his disdain for the meme on X recently, saying, “Yesterday at church the Bible readings started on page 66-67 of the missal, and my 5-year-old went absolutely nuts repeating ‘six seven’ like 10 times.”

Vance continued, “And now I think we need to make this narrow exception to the first amendment and ban these numbers forever.”

“Where did this even come from? I don’t understand it. When we were kids all of our viral trends at least had an origin story,” he added.

Hold the meme

Little did Vance know, one company was already in the middle of instituting its own ban.

RELATED: Why the kids are not all right — and Boomers still pretend nothing’s wrong

— (@)

According to People, In-N-Out Burger has officially retired the number 67 from its ordering system, meaning the digits are skipped over when customers receive their order numbers to wait in the queue.

The West Coast chain had been hit with crowds of children anticipating, and filming, the number being called in the restaurant. When the number is called, the children cheer as if they’ve taken another victory.

People also reported that a Los Angeles location of In-N-Out Burger confirmed the company had also banned the number 69 from its ticket system.

Origin unknown

Although the children themselves admit they are purposely doing a trend that has no meaning with “six seven,” many adults simply can’t help but look for an origin story for the meme.

RELATED: Joe Rogan says we’re at ‘step 7’ on the road to civil war. Is he right? Glenn Beck answers

Dictionary.com deemed “six seven” its “Word of the Year” and claimed the “most modern use” of the phrase is attributed to a rap song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” by the artist Skrilla.

People said the meme may also be attributed to NBA player LaMelo Ball from the Charlotte Hornets because he wears the number 67.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Align, Jd vance, Vice president, In n out, Six seven, 67, Meme, California, Lifestyle 

EPIC City, the Islamic all-inclusive development being planned in Texas by the East Plano Islamic Center, may have rebranded to “the Meadow” in order to hide the agenda — but recent actions taken by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may be shutting down the compound for good.

“It’s appearing less and less likely that they’re ever going to break ground, especially since at the end of last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he is suing just about everyone involved,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Come and Take It.”

Paxton is suing the East Plano Islamic Center, Community Capital Partners, and the individual leaders for “securities violations after alleging that they are engaged in an illegal land development scheme.”

“He’s suing all of them. He said, ‘You get a lawsuit, and you get a lawsuit, and you get a lawsuit. You’re all getting lawsuits,’” Gonzales says. “Because you guys need to understand very clearly: We’re not doing this here. Not in Texas.”

“There are a lot of problems within my state that I want to make sure get fixed, okay, but one thing that it feels a whole hell of a lot like we are all aligned on is, ‘You’re not turning my state into an unrecognizable third-world country,’ and ‘You’re not turning my state into a Muslim-majority area,’” she continues.

And one of the many reasons Gonzales feels so strongly about this is because Islam is growing rapidly in other areas — and we have all been able to see the outcome.

“I have eyeballs. I see what’s happening in Europe. I see what’s happening in the U.K. I see what’s happening. I see the crime statistics. I see the violent sexual crimes only going up and up and up. I see the terrorism. Like, we all have eyeballs,” she explains.

“We all see what is happening, and it’s nothing personal,” she continues. “It’s not like every single one of them must be terrible people. It’s just not something we’re going to do here in Texas. We’re not doing that.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ken paxton, Epic city, The meadow texas, Islam texas, Islam takeover, Islamification of america, Islam in america, Islam, Muslims, Texas muslims 

The top women’s tennis player in the world was recently confronted with the idea that she might have a biological advantage over other women.

Aryna Sabalenka, the world’s No. 1-ranked player in the Women’s Tennis Association, is preparing for a “Battle of the Sexes” against Nick Kyrgios, who reached as high as No. 13 in the men’s rankings in 2016.

To promote the event, the two appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” where they were asked if they think it is fair when men, or transgender athletes, compete in women’s sports.

‘I feel like they still got a huge advantage over the women.’

Morgan prefaced his question by citing Martina Navratilova, a former tennis star who has been adamant about keeping men out of women’s competitions.

“[Navratilova] says it’s wrong for the Women’s Tennis Association to allow trans women to compete in its events; do you agree with her?” Morgan asked.

“That’s a tricky question,” Sabalenka initially replied.

The Belarusian then stated the obvious biological reality.

“I have nothing to do against them. But I feel like they still got huge advantage over the woman, and I think it’s just not fair to a woman to basically face, like, biologically man,” she said.

The 27-year-old continued, “You know, it’s not fair, like, the woman been working the whole life to reach her limit and then she has to face, like, a man, like, which biologically much stronger. So for me, I don’t agree with this kind of stuff in sport.”

Morgan then posed the question to Kyrgios, who quickly explained that he had “nothing to add” because he feels “the exact same way.”

Sabalenka was not out of the woods yet because Morgan then brought up criticisms the athlete has faced from her competitors.

RELATED: ‘XX XY’: Tennis star Aryna Sabalenka’s coach spotted wearing pro-biological women sports apparel during win over world No. 1

The British host referred to Marta Kostyuk, the No. 26-ranked women’s tennis player. In October, the Ukrainian complained that Sabalenka is “bigger,” “taller,” and “stronger” than she is and that Sabalenka and another Polish player have biological advantages due to their testosterone levels.

“We all have our own biological structure. Some have a higher level of testosterone, some have lower. I know players who are good players who have higher levels of it,” Kostyuk claimed, per Firstpost.

While Kostyuk said she’s sure that her opponents aren’t on drugs, the 23-year-old said it’s “just the biology” of their bodies and that “definitely helps.”

“I’m trying to see how I can beat these players with the tennis skills I have, but I have to work more than they have to win the points,” she added.

Sabalenka laughed off these comments, telling Morgan that Kostyuk was just making “excuses.”

“It’s actually quite funny because she’s a strong girl,” she said. “She probably has more muscles than I do, and she looks fit and strong, and I think that’s not the case in all of the matches she lost against our players.”

RELATED: Tennis star stops match to make absurd demand about a baby in the crowd

Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images

In Britain, the governing Lawn Tennis Association essentially barred “transgender women” from playing in top women’s tournaments in December 2024.

After conducting a formal review, the organization determined that the “average man” has an advantage when playing against the “average woman.”

The new rules restrict “transgender women and nonbinary individuals assigned male at birth” from playing in top-tier and competitive women’s tournaments.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Fearless, Tennis, Transgenderism, Female sports, Athletes, Woke, England, United kingdom, Women’s tennis, Ukraine, Sports 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mocked blue-state leaders as “the Grinches Who Stole Christmas” for blocking tax relief for Americans.

On Wednesday, Bessent posted an AI-generated image of Democrat Governors Kathy Hochul of New York, Jared Polis of Colorado, and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois as grinches.

‘This partisan stonewalling is a direct assault on the very families and workers liberal politicians claim to champion.’

“Thanks to @POTUS, ’tis the season to be jolly — unless you’re a taxpayer in New York, Colorado, Illinois, or the District of Columbia,” Bessent wrote. “For millions of hardworking Americans, @GovKathyHochul, @GovofCO @jaredpolis, and @GovPritzker are The Grinches Who Stole Christmas.”

“Courtesy of their Scrooge-like tendencies, America’s seniors, along with all workers who would benefit from No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime, will be robbed of the tax relief they deserve,” Bessent continued. “The Christmas season should be a time of great cheer. But due to the Trump Derangement Syndrome of these Governors and other radical leftists, too many low- and middle-income households will receive nothing but coal in their state tax stockings.”

President Donald Trump’s July 4 bill eliminates taxes on tips for service-industry workers and on overtime for linemen and factory workers. It also provides a tax deduction for seniors receiving Social Security.

A Wednesday press release from the Treasury Department accused the Democrat leaders of “political obstructionism” for “deliberately blocking their own residents from receiving these historic benefits at the state level.”

RELATED: Trump gives American farmers $12 billion boost to overcome inflation, trade wars

J.B. Pritzker, Kathy Hochul. Photo: Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“This partisan stonewalling is a direct assault on the very families and workers liberal politicians claim to champion. By denying their residents access to these important tax cuts, these governors and legislators are forcing hardworking Americans to shoulder higher state tax burdens, robbing them of the relief they deserve and exacerbating the financial squeeze on low- and middle-income households,” the department’s press release read.

States are not required to adhere to all federal tax provisions. New York is introducing new codes to its tax form, requiring residents to pay taxes on tips and overtime. Colorado plans to require residents to report the amount of overtime pay that was deducted federally and then add it back for state tax purposes. Illinois is expected to adopt similar updates to its tax form to add pay deducted federally.

New York has been ranked the worst state in the country for taxes. The state’s overall tax burden is estimated at 12.02%, while Illinois’ is 9.67% and Colorado’s is 8.42%.

RELATED: Trump Accounts: Newborns get a $1,000 tax-free nest egg that grows until age 18 — American dream revival or debt nightmare?

Jared Polis. Photo by Hyoung Chang/Denver Post/Getty Images

Polis responded to Bessent’s comments in a post on X, claiming that Colorado has reduced taxes.

“Colorado has cut our income tax three times, and unlike these measures in Trump’s law, those cuts are permanent,” Polis wrote. “While the Secretary is supporting Trump’s tariff taxes, we are delivering real relief through the most generous child tax credit in the nation and cutting poverty. Spend less time talking about tips, which Colorado conforms to and won’t be subject to state or federal income tax up to the level designated in HR1 and instead focus on lowering interest rates, costs and bringing down the price of goods ahead of Christmas by eliminating these draconian tariffs. Happy holidays, Secretary — may your stockings be full of facts, not coal.”

In response to Bessent’s post, Hochul wrote, “Remarkable that an office once held by Alexander Hamilton is now tweeting Grinch fanfic at governors.”

Pritzker’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Colorado, Jared polis, Kathy hochul, Jb pritzker, Illinois, New york, Scott bessent, Treasury department, Department of treasury, Trump administration, Trump admin, No tax on tips, No tax on overtime, Taxes, Politics 

Jonathan Franklin, a former race and identity correspondent for National Public Radio who now apparently serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, recently went into panic-mode after realizing he had made a series of damning remarks to investigative journalist James O’Keefe on hidden camera.

In the footage published on Wednesday by the O’Keefe Media Group, Franklin — whose personal website is now password-protected, Instagram profile has been set to private, and page on the Georgetown University was largely scrubbed — appears to call various black conservatives a “coon,” including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens, and U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas Herschel Walker.

‘Well, the thing is that I actually am James O’Keefe.’

When pressed by O’Keefe on why he hasn’t shared such views publicly, Franklin, who is set to teach a journalism course on sourcing and interviews, appears to say, “I’d have to stop being a journalist for me to say what I really want to say.”

At one point in his conversation with O’Keefe — whom he evidently did not recognize on account of a pair of glasses — Franklin appears to say, “I work with a bunch of stupid white people.”

Franklin declined to comment on the situation involving the video published by O’Keefe, a representative told Blaze News.

RELATED: University of Minnesota faces backlash over project that seeks to cure the ‘Whiteness Pandemic’

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Georgetown University did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

After hearing enough racially charged rhetoric, O’Keefe asks Franklin in the video what he thinks about James O’Keefe.

Franklin answers, “I’ve heard from people he’s an a**h**e.”

“Well, he does, like, the undercover stuff and, like, exposes people, you know?” says O’Keefe. “He exposes people, you know, telling people, like, what they really think.”

“There’s a way to do that sort of watchdog, gotcha, ambush journalism but doing in a way that doesn’t disrespect the person that you’re trying to catch or yourself as a reporter,” says Franklin.

O’Keefe then takes off his glasses, points to the hidden camera, and announces to Franklin, “Well, the thing is that I actually am James O’Keefe.”

“No, you’re not,” responds Franklin.

Upon realizing the man he’d been talking to is in fact James O’Keefe, Franklin gets up and begins to run away. Outside the building, Franklin can be seen falling to the ground. After asking whether the adjunct was all right, O’Keefe tries asking him clarifying questions about his apparent “coon” comments, to which Franklin responds, “I will sue.”

O’Keefe and his team subsequently took Franklin to a pharmacy to get him Band-Aids for the cuts he sustained in his tumble. After cooling off, Franklin appeared to confirm to O’Keefe on camera that while he did work for NPR, he had lied during their earlier conversation about working for CBS News.

When later discussing the encounter, O’Keefe questioned whether an individual who allegedly harbors racist views and would share them with a stranger should be teaching journalism classes at an institution like Georgetown University.

“That type of racism is not just his personal opinion,” said O’Keefe. “It is a bias about a group of people that directly affects fairness, credibility and judgment. Why? Because he’s a professor who is using these slurs. He is revealing a framework that shapes how he interprets information.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​James o’keefe, Georgetown university, Journalism, Journalist, Undercover, O’keefe, Hidden camera, Gotcha, Npr, National public radio, Race obsessive, Racist, Dei, Blm, Jonathan franklin, Politics 

I must admit to having a complicated relationship with Dinesh D’Souza’s documentaries.

As much as I have enjoyed several of them, I find that they falter in a few ways: They often lack staying power, offering little incentive to return to them after the moment has passed; they are too self-referential — filtering every issue through D’Souza’s own perspective; and they are preoccupied with energizing sympathetic audiences rather than persuading skeptical ones.

Where the film is likely to receive its fiercest pushback is on the subject of eschatology — the theology of the end times.

This last flaw is especially frustrating. Catering to the conservative base is easy, but with D’Souza’s resources and backing, his films could be far sharper — and far more enduring — if they focused on timeless themes rather than re-litigating the 2020 election or attacking whoever happens to be running for president that year.

Chasing the ‘Dragon’

It was with this in mind that I went into D’Souza’s newest effort, “The Dragon’s Prophecy.” A loose adaptation of the Jonathan Cahn book of the same name, the Angel Studios production examines the fallout of the October 7 terrorist attacks and the subsequent two-year war between Israel and Hamas (which effectively ended with a ceasefire on October 10).

Sharpness, at least, is not a problem this time. The film arrives at a harrowing moment. Tucker Carlson is condemning “Christian Zionism” as heresy; New York City has just elected a mayor who wants to arrest the prime minister of Israel; and bipartisan resentment toward American Jews hasn’t been this pronounced since Pat Buchanan implicitly blamed them for supporting the Gulf War.

Anti-Zionism — and its adjacent anti-Semitism — is enjoying a fashionable resurgence, while support for the Israeli government sits at an all-time low.

D’Souza confronts these trends head-on. He calls out Carlson — as well as the far-left bloc of House Democrats known as “the Squad” — by name, even integrating footage from Carlson’s combative June interview with Ted Cruz. The result is a forthright defense of Israel, one that bluntly characterizes Hamas as rapists, murderers, and terrorists — and depicts the group’s atrocities in unflinching detail, including phone calls in which militants boast to their parents about their killings.

Intentional shock

It’s a grisly watch. The film includes insurgents shooting dogs and civilians, and it lingers on the aftermath of violence. But the shock is intentional. As Ambassador Mike Huckabee tells D’Souza, the war is “an eternal battle between good and evil,” with Israel on the side of the angels and Hamas aligned with “the Dragon.”

Amid this devastation, D’Souza wanders the Holy Land and laments that Israel is a place where “nothing is ever solved or resolved,” a region with “no solutions and no idea what the problems even are.” Yet his moral clarity never wavers. He even calls the construction of the Islamic Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount “the true colonialism.”

His mission is to locate meaning in the conflict. To that end, he speaks with Jewish victims, archeologists uncovering evidence of ancient Israelite history, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who uses the occasion to swat at his American critics and to praise Donald Trump.

Disputed dispensation

Where the film is likely to receive its fiercest pushback is on the subject of eschatology — the theology of the end times.

Because D’Souza’s target audience is predominantly Christian, the most vocal critics may be anti-dispensationalists, whose views have become increasingly common among Catholics and mainline Protestants. They correctly note that dispensationalism is a 19th-century American theological development and that the popular notion of a “rapture” is relatively recent.

As the Protestant theologian Brian Mattson writes, “In the grand historical sweep of Christian theology, Dispensationalism is a new arrival.” He explains that its architects argued that salvation unfolds across distinct dispensations, meaning that God’s promises to Israel remain intact for ethnic Jews even as the New Testament opens salvation to Gentiles. “God has two separate ‘tracks’ for the salvation of humanity,” he writes. Thus the national promises to Israel persist in perpetuity.

This is the framework behind the “Left Behind” franchise — 16 books and five films — and it places the modern state of Israel at the center of Revelation in a way that traditional Christian readings do not.

There are legitimate biblical critiques of dispensationalism, just as there are bad-faith motives for attacking it. Mattson notes that many Gen Z “America First” Catholic converts now regard Israel as an unnecessary “foreign entanglement,” while others deploy “heresy” language as a thin veil for anti-Semitism.

RELATED: Haunting play ‘October 7’ lets Hamas terror survivors speak

Phelim McAleer

End-times evidence

Still, D’Souza’s film is thoroughly dispensationalist. Israel’s present turmoil is portrayed as evidence that the end times are near, that evil is intensifying, and that God is making Himself more visible through signs and miracles. The fate of Israel, in this reading, is inseparable from the fate of the world.

The film’s second half is a series of interviews with Israeli archeologists who discuss evidence for figures like King David and Pontius Pilate, treating their discoveries as confirmations of Scripture. When combined with commentary from a Messianic Jew such as Jonathan Cahn, the Israeli-Gaza conflict becomes a mystical drama between cosmic good and cosmic evil.

That argument rests on a contested theological system. However one responds to the film’s defense of Israel, it must be filtered through the angular lenses of American dispensationalism — a hurdle many viewers may be unwilling to clear.

Centrist appeal

There are smaller criticisms as well: The film appears to lean heavily on AI-generated imagery, which raises its own questions about execution. But in the main, the film is preaching to the broad American center — those who support Israel without belonging to either extreme.

Despite these theological quirks, the film ultimately does something I have long wished D’Souza’s documentaries would do: It speaks clearly and with conviction about an issue that possesses lasting moral weight.

Israel will remain a defining struggle for decades. October 7 is only one chapter of that broader conflict. In taking it on, D’Souza presents a moral argument to a conservative audience that is increasingly drifting from him. Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, he is operating on the level of enduring questions of faith rather than the transitory skirmishes of electoral politics. For once, he isn’t simply preaching to the choir.

​Entertainment, Movies, Documentaries, Dinesh d’souza, Hamas, The dragon prophecies, Angel studios, Books, Culture, Jonathan cahn, Anti-semitism, Anti-zionism, Dispensationalism, Review 

Having just passed the three-month mark since Charlie Kirk was publicly assassinated while speaking to a crowd of students at Utah Valley University, Kirk’s accused killer is set to appear in court in person for the first time.

Tyler Robinson, charged with aggravated murder and several related charges, and his lawyers are set to appear in court on Thursday.

‘This is something that could impact generations to come.’

Robinson’s legal team and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office have asked Judge Tony Graf to limit the media’s presence in the case, according to the Associated Press. In fact, they have requested a ban on cameras in the courtroom.

Legal analyst and California-based trial attorney Roger Bonakdar pointed out to Fox News that information access has shifted dramatically as the case has progressed.

RELATED: New attorney for Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin requests more time to go through ‘voluminous’ evidence

Judge Tony GrafPhoto by Scott G Winterton-Pool/Getty Images

“When they first arrested Tyler Robinson, the information tap was at full blast,” he said. “They told us that they had audio recordings from Tyler Robinson and a purported confession. They told us that there was video footage from a local fast-food restaurant. They were very, very almost oversharing in the beginning.”

But that “oversharing” has ended, Bonakdar continued: “Now they’ve shut that tap off, and they’re saying you can’t even come to court and hear about what we’re doing when most of it’s probably procedural.”

Many media outlets and high-profile figures have pushed back against the closed-door proceedings and advocated for greater transparency in the case.

Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow and now-CEO of Turning Point USA, has advocated to keep news cameras in the courtroom, noting that she, her family, and TPUSA have all been under intense scrutiny since her husband’s brutal public execution.

“There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered,” she told Fox News’ Jesse Watters in an interview last month. “There have been cameras all over my friends and family mourning. There have been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear. We deserve to have cameras in there.”

“Let everyone see what true evil is,” Erika Kirk added. “This is something that could impact generations to come.”

The tension lies between a heavily invested public’s desire for new information in a very high-profile case and preserving a fair trial for the accused.

The judge has ordered that Thursday’s hearing be held in person and open to the public to the greatest extent possible. Judge Graf has also ordered that no information may be disclosed from Robinson’s October 24 virtual proceeding, which reportedly determined that Robinson could wear plain clothes during court appearances but must also wear restraints because of security concerns.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Erika kirk, Charlie kirk, Judge tony graf, Tony graf, Utah valley university, Charlie kirk assassination, Turning point usa, Jesse watters, Charlie kirk murder trial 

The Las Vegas Raiders played the Denver Broncos this past weekend, and no one was angrier about the results than Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who took to social media to rant about the end of the game.

“We need this entire segment investigated by the NFL. Third and three, 24 seconds. The spread is Denver minus eight and a half. They were up 24-7 by the way, with like two minutes to go. He spikes the ball. Why are you spiking the ball with 16 seconds in a 10-point game is beyond me,” Portnoy complained.

“The game is over. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a spike in that situation. But we’re just starting, boys and girls,” he continued, before angrily breaking down another absurd play.

“Game’s over. And then Pete Carroll runs out the field goal unit and kicks a field goal to end the game with no time. This guy, prison. This ref, prison. Pete Carroll, prison. NFL, prison. This is the most rigged game I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Disgusting. Prison,” he added.

“I agree with Dave,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock tells BlazeTV contributor Steve Kim on “Fearless.” “I mean, that is absolutely disgusting, and it makes no sense. Can you defend any of this?”

Portnoy, whose anger was due to how the potential rigging of the game would affect those gambling on it, is not the one who Whitlock and Kim feel bad for.

“Portnoy is doing pretty well. I get the sense whatever money he lost, he’s going to be good. We don’t have to send him a GoFundMe campaign,” Kim comments. “But there’s a reason why I don’t gamble.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blaze news, Blazetv, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Pete carroll, Raiders, Los angeles raiders, Denver broncos, Nfl rigged, Dave portnoy, Barstool sports, Fearless with jason whitlock 

Inmates at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina, will have to settle for their normal cafeteria fare this week, as officials intercepted a drone drop carrying ingredients for an “early holiday Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner,” according to an X post from the state Department of Corrections.

Indeed, the illicit delivery included steak, crab legs, and even a container of Old Bay Seasoning. Also added to the package were cigarettes and two large bags of marijuana.

‘I’m guessing the inmates who were expecting this package are a bit crabby.’

Fox News reported that the contraband was captured early Sunday morning.

“Seems some folks were planning an early holiday Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner along with their marijuana and cigarettes — all dropped by a drone at Lee [Correctional Institution],” the X post said.

— (@)

Officials at the maximum security prison recovered the drone along with the package, WLTX-TV reported, adding that no arrests have been made.

“As you likely know, we often see odd items included in contraband packages, but this was a bit unusual, even for us,” SCDC spokeswoman Chrysti Shain told Fox News. “I’m guessing the inmates who were expecting this package are a bit crabby.”

The cable news network added that the SCDC and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office actually have spent years combatting ongoing drone drops at the Lee Correctional Institution.

“Contraband is a real threat to prisons across the country, and we fight nightly attacks from drones dropping dangerous drugs — often fentanyl and meth — onto prison yards,” Shain added to Fox News. “We go to extraordinary lengths to combat drones.”

More from Fox News:

In 2022, an eight-month investigation at Lee Correctional led to 20 arrests and the seizure of 12 drones, as well as 100 pounds of contraband, authorities reported.

Additionally, officers discovered three abandoned drones in the woods near the prison fences.

Law enforcement reported that the drones involved have grown larger and are capable of carrying heavier loads.

“These large drones can carry heavier and heavier packages,” Lee County Sheriff Daniel Simon said in a 2022 statement, according to the cable news network. “We are working hard to stop them from getting in the wrong hands.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Crime thwarted, South carolina, Department of corrections, Drone drop, Prison, Lee correctional institution, Intercepted, Crab legs, Steak, Old bay seasoning, Cigarettes, Marijuana, Contraband, Crime 

Days after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) did her apparent best on “The Breakfast Club” radio show to downplay the link between Democrats’ incendiary rhetoric and political violence.

Crockett said, “Me disagreeing with you, me calling you ‘wannabe Hitler,’ all those things are not necessarily saying, ‘Go out and hurt somebody.'”

“I literally have never said anything to invoke violence,” claimed Crockett. “I challenge somebody to go and find a clip of a Democrat invoking violence.”

‘Not only are we gonna punch back, but we about to beat you down.’

The Republican Party has finally obliged Crockett, providing her with a compilation of various instances where Democrats made remarks that could be construed as calls for or rationalizations of political violence.

The video, released in the wake of Crockett’s announcement on Monday that she is running for a U.S. Senate seat, includes 20 provocative statements from Democrats including:

former Biden Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s September 2024 remark to liberal talking head Mika Brzezinski, “Let’s extinguish him for good,” referring to President Donald Trump. Brzezinski pressed Raimondo for clarification, asking, “And ‘extinguish,’ you mean vote him out?” to which Raimondo said, “Yes, absolutely. Vote him out. Banish him from American politics.”California Rep. Maxine Waters’ suggestion to a mob in June 2018, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up, and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ (N.Y.) suggestion to fellow travelers in January that when it comes to the Trump agenda, “We are going to fight it legislatively, we are going to fight it in the courts, and we’re going to fight it in the streets.”California Rep. Eric Swalwell’s suggestion to CNN in August that “when they go low, we are going to bury them below the Capitol.”U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s assertion in August that when it comes to “Trump and his ghouls,” “when they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out.”The August 2020 suggestion by Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who is one of the 58 Democrats who voted against a resolution condemning Charlie Kirk’s assassination, that “there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.”California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s suggestion on a podcast in August that “we’re fighting fire with fire, and we’re going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.” Newsom was referring to Republicans whom he suggested moments earlier were radicals working to rig the 2026 midterm elections.California Rep. Derek Tran’s suggestion in August, “It’s time for us as a party to get together and fight back, punch back, and make sure that they stay down. And you know what? Kick them when they’re down because they deserve it.”

RELATED: Liberals’ twisted views on Charlie Kirk assassination, censorship captured by a damning poll

Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

The Republican compilation also included some of Crockett’s own best hits.

One of the excerpts in the compilation was taken from Crockett’s March interview with KXAS-TV’s Phil Prazan where she said that in order to win an election in Texas, “You punch. I think you punch. I think you’re OK with — you OK with punching.”

In the same interview, Crockett referenced former Rep. Colin Allred’s electoral defeat last year by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and suggested the Democrat should have been more combative with his Republican opponent, saying, “I mean, like, this dude [Cruz] has to be knocked over the head, like, hard, right. Like, there is no niceties with him — like, at all. Like, you go clean off on him.”

Crockett — who has rooted for foreign nations engaged in trade disputes with the U.S.; told radicals that Elon Musk must be “taken down” amid firebombs; characterized Republican voters as stupid; issued racist remarks; mocked the handicapped; and dubbed the commander in chief “an enemy to the United States” — had another instance of violent rhetoric featured in the GOP’s compilation.

The second excerpt, taken from a press conference in August, shows Crockett say, “I am here to tell you: Not only are we gonna punch back, but we about to beat you down.”

NOTUS reported this week that the National Republican Senatorial Committee “has actively worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to jump into the Senate Democratic primary in Texas, believing she will be the easiest opponent to beat.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jasmine crockett, Crockett, Texas, Politics, Democrat, Leftist, Violence, Incitement, Gop, Republican 

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck and his team are desperately trying to save a woman in the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan who has been failed by her country’s socialist health care system.

Jolene Van Alstine of Regina has for eight years suffered from a rare parathyroid disease called normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism, which causes nausea and vomiting and draws calcium from the bones into the blood, resulting in extreme bone pain, weakened bone density, and fractures.

‘I’ve been alone lying on the couch for eight years, sick and curled up in a ball, pushing for the day to end.’

Van Alstine has undergone three surgeries but still requires a specialized procedure to remove her overactive parathyroid gland.

The problem, according to Canadian state media, is that there is presently no surgeon in the province able to perform the operation. While there are apparently capable and available surgeons elsewhere in Canada, Van Alstine has indicated that she must first obtain a referral — and cannot secure one, as none of the endocrinologists in her region are accepting new patients.

Until this week, Van Alstine was running short on hope.

“My friends have stopped visiting me. I’m isolated. I’ve been alone lying on the couch for eight years, sick and curled up in a ball, pushing for the day to end,” she told state media.

Glenn Beck noted Wednesday on his show, “She’s riddled with pain. Yesterday, we found out that she was in the ER because she’s having all kinds of complications because of this. And she can’t take it any more.”

“This one is so grotesque,” continued Beck, “because the state would rather have her die.”

‘We expect to see more than 16,500 “medical assistance in dying” or euthanasia deaths.’

The prospect that her treatable disease might go untreated prompted Van Alstine to contemplate state-facilitated suicide, which is euphemistically referred to in Canada as Medial Assistance in Dying.

RELATED: ‘Pro-death legislators’ want euthanasia in Illinois — Canada reveals why that’s a terrible idea

Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU/AFP via Getty Images

“I understand how long and how much she’s suffered, and it’s horrific, the physical suffering, but it’s also the mental anguish,” Miles Sundeen, Van Alstine’s partner, said late last month. “No hope — no hope for the future, no hope for any relief. I don’t want her to do it, but I understand where she’s at.”

George Carson, a MAID approval doctor, indicated this week that he assessed Van Alstine and provided her with his approval. Since she has apparently also received approval from a nurse practitioner, she now requires only one more approval in order to secure a spot among the tens of thousands of Canadians who will be snuffed out in the new year by their socialist health care system, which was originally founded by the eugenicist Tommy Douglas.

MAID is among the top five leading causes of death in Canada and accounted for 4.7% of all deaths in the country in 2023.

Rebecca Vachon, health program director at the Canadian think tank Cardus, recently told Blaze News that “based on current reporting from the most populous provinces, we expect to see more than 16,500 ‘medical assistance in dying’ or euthanasia deaths in 2024, which is an increase from the 15,343 deaths reported in 2023. This will likely result in MAID deaths constituting 5% of total deaths in Canada that year.”

MAID — which Canada’s Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer boasted in October 2020 would, with expanded access, “result in a net reduction in health care costs for the provincial governments” — appears to be fast becoming a relief valve for a health care system that has come under great strain in part because of an aging population but largely because of the immigration-driven population gains overseen by the Trudeau Liberals.

‘Imagine saving a woman’s life for Christmas.’

Average annual immigration from 2000 to 2015 was 617,800. Under the Trudeau Liberals, average annual immigration was 1.4 million from 2016 to 2024.

As of April 1, 2025, Canada had an estimated population of just over 41.5 million people. According to the 2021 census, over 8.3 million people — 23% of the total population — “were, or had ever been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada.” This, however, appears to be a gross undercount.

A new government report revealed that 38% of non-permanent residents — roughly another 576,000 — were potentially “missed” by the 2021 census.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, there were 2.41 physicians per 1,000 people. The United States, by comparison, reportedly has at least 3.6 doctors per 1,000. An estimated 5.9 million Canadians — around 14% — don’t have regular access to a primary care provider.

“This is your socialized health care, gang,” Beck said on Wednesday of Van Alstine’s case.

“This is the reality of compassionate, progressive health care. Canada has to end this insanity. And Americans must never let it spread here.”

After Van Alstine’s last-ditch plea for help to Canadian lawmakers and officials failed to immediately produce the desired results, an American got involved.

“If there is any surgeon in America who can do this, I’ll pay for this patient to come down here for treatment,” Beck wrote Tuesday on X.

RELATED: JD Vance to Canada: Stop blaming Trump for your decline

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Beck revealed in a series of announcements first, that multiple surgeons reached out with an interest in helping; second, that his team made contact with Van Alstine and Sundeen; and third, that his team had connected with the U.S. State Department after discovering that Van Alstine lacked a passport to gain legal entry into the United States.

“I’ll fly her down. I’ll put her up. I’ll get her the doctors,” Beck said on his show. “We need to get her the surgery.”

“Imagine saving a woman’s life for Christmas,” added Beck.

“Is there anything better that we could do?”

Sundeen told Canadian state media after Beck’s team spoke with him, “For us to have it done in the States would be financially impossible otherwise.”

An Ipsos poll conducted last year for Global News found that 42% of Canadians would travel to the U.S. and personally pay for more routine health care if needed — up 10 percentage points over the previous year — and 38% would travel to the U.S. and pay out of pocket for emergency care — up 9 points over the previous year.

Sean Simpson, vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs, noted, “I think the increase is happening because of the increasing level of frustration that Canadians have in the health care system.”

“It’s not the quality of care that people are upset about; it is the timely access to care, meaning wait times in emergency rooms, wait times to see specialists, to get appointments, for screening,” continued Simpson. “As a result, we have a significant chunk of the population say if they can get that service elsewhere, such as the United States, they may consider doing so.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Canada, Canadian, Glenn beck, Euthanasia, Suicide, Health care, Maid, Medical assistance in dying, Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Disease, Health, Hospital, Surgery, Politics 

Netflix just announced its next animated children’s film, “Steps,” a Cinderella inversion in which the evil stepsisters are the real heroes. Shocking, I know. The platform is also releasing “Queen of Coal,” a film about a “transgender woman” overcoming the patriarchy in his small Argentinian town.

Reports of the demise of wokeness were premature. Its adherents remain committed to pushing it across every domain of society. What’s notable is how boring it has all become. Deconstruction has been the default mode of modern culture, but it is running out of things to deconstruct. The transgression has lost its power as the taboo fades, and in that exhaustion, something new — perhaps something true — stirs.

The revolution brought destruction, but its exhaustion brings new possibilities.

Some call Friedrich Nietzsche the first postmodernist for announcing that “God is dead.” Whether he was a precursor or ground zero, the genealogy of the movement clearly flows from his work. You can argue about whether he unleashed several horrors into the world or merely acknowledged their arrival, but Nietzsche at least understood the seriousness of his claim. He understood that having the blood of God on your hands was not a clever academic parlor trick — it was monstrous.

With the creator of the universe declared dead, modern man felt free to dismantle the order that once bound him. The sacred bonds of hierarchy were shattered. Postmodernism launched its assault on the good, the beautiful, and the true. And breaking sacred bonds releases immense energy. The leftist revolution that consumed the West drank deeply from it.

The church, the community, the family, marriage, gender roles, gender itself — each time the left destroyed one of these natural structures, it seized the power trapped inside and wielded it against its enemies.

Deconstruction reaches its natural end

But deconstruction has a natural end point. Transgression requires something sacred to violate. As I have written before, you eventually reach the point where there is nothing left to transgress.

When every movie, show, novel, game, and song “subverts” the traditional Christian norm, the subversion becomes the norm. That’s why these Netflix offerings feel so lifeless: They all follow the same trajectory toward the same inversion.

Fifty years ago, critics complained that stories were predictable because the squeaky-clean hero always triumphed. Today they are predictable because the villain is always a misunderstood victim of bigotry who deserves to win. The inversion isn’t clever or subversive. It’s the boring status quo.

The death of who?

So what happens when postmodernism has inverted every hierarchy, mocked every sacred symbol, and squeezed the last drop of power out of attacking Christianity?

The philosopher Alexander Dugin offers a compelling answer. If modernity was the death of God, the end of postmodernism is the exhaustion of subversive secular culture. At that point, new possibilities appear. Instead of proclaiming that “God is dead,” people start asking, “The death of who?” The old order fades so completely that secular man forgets what he was rebelling against.

Meanwhile, the promise of becoming like gods and remaking the world in our own image begins to sour. We see the consequences of rejecting the good, the beautiful, and the true — and find them unbearable.

A postmodern moral wasteland

Postmodern man has lived his entire life in a world re-engineered from the top down by “experts.” When he cast God from His throne, man imagined he would shape the world through his own individual will. But the modern secular man discovers instead a moral wasteland. He finds that he is captive not to his own liberated self, but to darker forces once held at bay by the divine order he dismantled.

He no longer remembers what that order looked like — or why he rebelled against it. And in that moment, the opportunity to rediscover the spiritual returns.

RELATED: We’re not a republic in crisis. We’re an empire in denial.

Blaze Media Illustration

The revolution brought destruction, but its exhaustion brings new possibilities. People have forgotten the object of their rebellion, and now they look at the miserable world secular man has made. They crave something more.

Order, duty, faith, meaning. These begin to look far more promising than the ugly, pointless chaos modern man created for himself. People once again thirst for a world where the good guy wins and God reigns.

God never died — modernity did

The truth is that God never died. Christ died and rose again. Modern man tried to replace the divine with science and reason, but the Lord is the source of reason itself. He cannot be dethroned by His own creations.

As deconstruction loses its revolutionary energy and becomes stale, the desire to re-embrace sacred order returns. J.R.R. Tolkien captured this when he wrote: “Evil cannot create anything new. It can only spoil and destroy what good forces invented or created.” Eventually evil runs out of things to spoil. A barren, thirsty culture begins searching for the living water only divine truth can provide.

Ready for revival

Modern culture is bankrupt, and everyone feels it. The attempts at transgression now read as hollow conformity to a corrupted system. We are not the masters of our own world or our own truth — and thank God for that.

We do not have to live in the nihilistic abyss we created. The natural order waits just beneath the surface, ready to re-emerge in a cultural revival.

The creative future will not come from a relativistic Hollywood clinging to the corpse of deconstruction. It will come from those willing to embrace the transcendent — from those who understand that the world is held together not by our will to power, but by the truth and beauty of our Creator.

​Opinion & analysis, God, Postmodernism, Entertainment, Woke hollywood, Pop culture, Steps, Netflix, Cinderella, Queen of coal, Revolution, Nietzsche, Alexander dugin, Deconstruction, Sacred, Profane, Subversion, Television, Movies, Christianity, Religion, Nihilism 

The White House, federal regulators, and Congress are scrambling to develop a national approach to artificial intelligence. Yet almost no one is examining AI from an ethical or civil-society perspective. Policymakers frame it as an economic or national security issue. Those angles matter. But the deeper question — what it means to live in an AI-dominated world inside a constitutional republic — remains almost entirely unaddressed.

AI is already reshaping our political life, our civic discourse, and our education system. One of the clearest windows into this shift is the outsized influence of Wikipedia and Reddit. Large language models like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini consume a training diet heavy on both sites. AI systems don’t “know” anything in a human sense. They mirror patterns. And the patterns they ingest come from platforms run by anonymous editors, ideological moderators, and unaccountable gatekeepers.

No special-interest group today is fighting for Americans who will soon live in a world saturated with AI slop.

The Oversight Project examined the underbelly of this problem, beginning with Wikipedia. After noticing what looked like coordinated ideological editing campaigns, we sought to understand who was shaping the platform. What we found was a small, powerful cadre of editors with the authority to dictate what information is permitted. These editors operate anonymously — or so they believed.

We identified several of them and, more tellingly, where they were editing from. Some connections were foreign. Others showed activity that aligned with a 9-to-5 workday. It was clearly inorganic. That raised obvious questions: who pays these people, who coordinates them, and whether intelligence services are involved.

The most aggressive coordination appeared on politically sensitive topics, especially anything involving Israel or the Arab world. Automated tools tracked and reverted edits across thousands of pages to enforce a narrative. When Wikipedia realized we were mapping these networks, it panicked. To protect anonymity, the platform changed its internal rules to obstruct outside scrutiny. Then it retaliated by downgrading us to “deprecated” status — a ban in all but name. Anything sourced to us became unacceptable on the site.

We are sounding the alarm because foreign actors and domestic ideologues understand the power of controlling Wikipedia’s information flow. Our own intelligence agencies almost certainly understand it as well. In a recent interview, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger told me that intelligence services would be negligent if they were not influencing the platform.

Sanger also expressed regret about founding Wikipedia with Jimmy Wales, noting that like so many other institutions, it has been conquered by the ideological left and turned into a political instrument, a shift made even more consequential in the age of AI.

RELATED: Almost half of Gen Z wants AI to run the government. You should be terrified.

Man_Half-tube via iStock/Getty Images

This is where the danger becomes unmistakable. Most people treat Wikipedia and Reddit cautiously when browsing the internet, aware of the bias. AI does not. When you ask an AI system a question, it generates polished, authoritative-sounding answers built from those same sources — stripped of context, caveats, or transparency. What appears neutral is often laundered opinion.

This information-laundering must become part of the national conversation about AI. Some policymakers seem to understand the stakes. The Senate Commerce Committee has sent oversight letters and plans a hearing. The House Oversight Committee has signaled similar interest. Even Ed Martin, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has demanded information from Wikipedia.

But the truth is blunt. No special-interest group today is fighting for Americans who will soon live in a world saturated with AI slop. There is plenty of lobbying in Washington for everything except preserving an honest information ecosystem. Without intervention, public knowledge will be shaped by opaque networks of foreign actors, ideological activists, and machine-driven amplification on a massive scale.

Policymakers must recognize what is at stake and act before the architecture of public knowledge is fully captured. The future of AI — and the future of democratic self-government — depends on it.

​Opinion & analysis, Oversight project, Artificial intelligence, Large language models, Wikipedia, Reddit, Congress, Gemini, Chatgpt, Foreign policy, Foreign influence, Larry sanger, House oversight committee, Ed martin, Lobbyists, Ai slop 

You know the old saying: If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. You know Haribo, the gummy bear brand? It turns out that the company also sells gummy bear-themed electronics, and its power banks went viral this year for delivering an absurd amount of battery life in a cheap, lightweight package. Backpackers especially loved them because they were so lightweight, and I bought one to try it for myself. But as you can guess, it turned out to be too good to be true.

The Haribo 20,000mAh power bank showed up on Amazon sometime in early 2025, made by a Hong Kong company called DC Global and licensed under the Haribo brand. It had three things going for it: It was light (286 grams), it was cheap ($22-$25), and it had a little fake gummy bear dangling off the USB-C cable.

Ultralight backpackers lost their minds. For years, the gold standard had been Nitecore batteries that weighed significantly more and cost five times as much. The Haribo undercut them both on weight and price while supposedly matching their specs. Reviews poured in praising the thing. I read several before buying mine, and they all said the same thing: This is too good to be true, but it actually works.

Then Amazon suddenly pulled them in November for unspecified safety issues. Two weeks later, CT scans revealed what the problem likely was: dangerous defects.

Structural defects increase the risk of thermal runaway, the technical term for when a battery decides to become a flamethrower.

Meanwhile, I’m still here, and my bag hasn’t burst into flames. The thing works exactly as advertised. Which doesn’t mean the concerns aren’t real, but it does mean we need to talk about what’s actually happening here, not just what the headlines say.

What the CT scans actually show

Jon Bruner at Lumafield published his findings in late November, and they’re not good. The battery cells inside the Haribo power bank show misaligned electrodes. In other words, the layers that should stack neatly are instead wavy, bulging, and shifted. In lithium-ion batteries, this kind of manufacturing sloppiness creates conditions for lithium plating and dendrite growth, which can eventually lead to internal shorts. Internal shorts mean fires.

The scans also revealed irregular geometry and poor edge alignment, suggesting weak quality control throughout the manufacturing process. These aren’t minor cosmetic issues. These are structural defects that increase the risk of thermal runaway, which is the technical term for when a battery decides to become a flamethrower.

Bruner’s post went viral: 4.4 million views on X. Amazon quietly canceled existing orders and pulled the listings, citing “potential safety or quality issues.” No official government recall, just a quiet removal.

The problem with ‘dangerous’

So here’s where it gets complicated. Is the Haribo power bank dangerous? Yes, in the sense that it has manufacturing defects that increase risk. But how dangerous? That’s harder to say.

Lithium-ion batteries fail all the time. Samsung had to recall millions of Galaxy Note 7 phones in 2016. Anker recalled over a million PowerCore 10000 units just this year. Belkin, ESR, and half a dozen other companies have pulled products for overheating risks. The CPSC recalls portable batteries practically every month. It’s not unique to Haribo, and it’s not unique to cheap batteries.

The truth is that most defective batteries never catch fire. They degrade faster, lose capacity, or just stop working. The fires are rare but catastrophic, which is why we treat them seriously. But “rare but catastrophic” doesn’t mean every unit is a ticking time bomb.

The other ugly truth is that these high-capacity lithium-ion batteries are small bombs in disguise.

RELATED: Here’s how to get the most annoying new update off of your iPhone

Photo by: Nano Calvo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

And eventually, they all go bad. Leave a laptop sitting for long enough, and the battery will swell. iPhones catch on fire all the time. But usually, they don’t, and the small risk is something that we as a society have decided to accept.

I have been using my Haribo battery for months. It has charged my phone maybe 50 times. It has been in my truck, in my backpack, sitting on my desk. No heat. No swelling. No weird behavior. Does that prove it is safe? No. Does it mean I’m an idiot for still using it? Maybe. But it does mean that the risk isn’t as immediate as the headlines suggest.

The real problem: Trust and transparency

The bigger issue here isn’t just the Haribo power bank. It’s that we have no way of knowing which products are actually safe and which ones are cutting corners until something goes wrong.

DC Global, the Hong Kong manufacturer behind the Haribo, won’t tell you what’s inside its batteries. Neither will most companies. You’re buying on faith — faith in brand reputation, faith in Amazon’s vetting, faith that someone, somewhere is checking these things. And that faith is often misplaced.

Amazon pulled the Haribo on November 12, citing vague “safety or quality” concerns but offering no specifics. Two weeks later, Lumafield published its CT scan investigation, revealing exactly what those concerns likely were. We still don’t know what tipped Amazon off in the first place. Customer complaints? Internal testing? We’re left guessing.

What we do know is that it took an independent company with expensive CT scanning equipment to show the public what was actually hiding inside a plastic shell with a gummy bear on it. Without Lumafield’s investigation, we would still be in the dark about why these disappeared.

How many other products have similar issues that we just don’t know about yet?

What you should actually do

If you own a Haribo power bank, should you get rid of it?

That’s up to you. I’m still using mine, but I’m watching it. I’m not leaving it charging overnight. I’m not throwing it loose in a bag with other batteries. I’m treating it like what it is: a cheap Chinese import with questionable quality control.

If you do decide to dispose of it, don’t just toss it in the trash. Lithium-ion batteries are hazardous waste and can cause fires in garbage trucks and landfills. Take it to a proper recycling center — places like Home Depot, Best Buy, and other retailers have Call2Recycle drop-off locations. Discharge it fully first, tape over the terminals with electrical tape, and put it in a plastic bag. You can find a location near you at call2recycle.org/locator.

Should you buy one? No. It has been pulled from Amazon anyway. But even if it comes back or you find one on eBay, don’t. Not because it is guaranteed to explode, but because the uncertainty isn’t worth it.

Are there perfect alternatives? No. Anker just recalled over a million units. Nitecore costs five times as much. Every lithium-ion battery carries some risk. But at least with established brands, there is a recall process. There is accountability. There is someone to contact when things go wrong.

With the Haribo, you get none of that. Just a disappeared Amazon listing and a manufacturer that has gone silent.

The Haribo was appealing because it was cheap, light, kind of funny. But cheap comes with costs you can’t always see until someone with a CT scanner shows you.

A cautionary tale

The Haribo power-bank story is a perfect example of how modern consumer products work. A company in Hong Kong slaps a candy brand on a battery, ships it through Amazon, gets praised by reviewers, goes viral on social media, and then quietly disappears when something raises red flags.

No accountability. No transparency. No consequences. Just a listing that vanishes and thousands of units still sitting in people’s bags.

Amazon knew enough to pull it but won’t say why. Lumafield’s scans showed us the structural problems, but only after the fact. There is no official recall, no manufacturer statement, no clear guidance for the people who bought these things in good faith — just a void where answers should be.

The regulatory system should not ban everything that poses a risk. But we deserve to know what we’re buying. We deserve manufacturing standards that mean something. We deserve companies that don’t hide behind licensing deals and overseas production to dodge responsibility. And we deserve regulatory agencies that can move faster than a thread on X.

​Tech 

A library board member in the reddest part of one of the reddest states in the union recently learned what “progress through cooperation” really means: Sit down, shut up, and stop objecting to porn for kids.

Teri Hubbard, a Sioux Center, Iowa, library board member, was the only vote to remove the book “Icebreaker” — which contains a six-page, graphic sex scene — from the shelves. Her reward? A gentle nudge from City Manager Scott Wynja suggesting she resign.

If these people can’t be trusted to protect children from graphic sex scenes, they can’t be trusted with anything else.

“As our motto with the city states, ‘progress through cooperation,’ I would ask that you work in a spirit of cooperation for the best interest of all,” Wynja wrote, after the board voted 8-1 to keep the book available to everyone, including minors. “If you feel you are unable to serve in that capacity … we can consider going another direction.”

So let’s take a moment to appreciate what “progress,” “cooperation,” and “best interest of all” apparently sound like in Sioux Center. They sound like a passage that opens with: “Don’t be gentle. F**k me like you hate me.”

Wholesome stuff, truly. Norman Rockwell could never.

In fact, I’m shocked Wynja doesn’t put that line on a welcome sign, right under “Population: Proudly Confused.” And why not? I’m sure the eight board members — Tara Berkenpas, Angeles Bahena, Andrew Geleynse, Logan Kaskie, Brian Van Der Vliet, Lynn Van Beek, Lisa Dykstra, and Ruth Clark — would approve. They voted to keep the book, so the public deserves to know their names.

Clark even made the motion to retain it. And here’s the plot twist: She’s a Christian schoolteacher! Apparently, the gospel is no match for the mystical powers of library director Becky Bilby, who seems to think the First Amendment collapses into dust if 13-year-olds don’t get unlimited access to graphic sex scenes.

When Hubbard asked whether the concerned parents could attend the library board meeting — as they had requested — Bilby shut it down immediately.

“Becky made it clear this was a very bad idea,” Hubbard wrote to Wynja, “and that we do not want the public at board meetings because that would lead to media at board meetings, and that would be disastrous.”

Yes, you read that correctly. Public board meetings should avoid the public. The threat of transparency is far more frightening than distributing smut to minors.

Naturally, the usual cast of local intellectuals showed up to defend the cause. Kim Van Es, former chair of the Sioux County Democrats, solemnly warned that “excluding certain authors or certain views leads to authoritarianism, as it did in Nazi Germany.” She then offered a hypothetical about a majority-Muslim town imposing beliefs on Christians — because when you’re out of arguments, you go straight to Hitler and a thought experiment.

But she’s a Democrat. This is exactly the level of analysis we have come to expect.

RELATED: Australia BANS key social media apps for kids under 16 — and platforms must enforce the rule

Photo Illustration by Algi Febri Sugita/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Then Northwestern College theology professor Jason Lief stepped up in “hold my beer” fashion.

“I’m afraid the Bible’s going to be pulled off the shelf,” he said. “I mean, if we go by kind of lewd, sexual stuff. I don’t know if you’ve read the Bible. The Judah-Tamar story …”

This is the profound insight he brought “on behalf of the Bible.”

Has Lief ever read Romans 12:9: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good”? Doesn’t seem like it.

For those in Sioux Center and at Northwestern College who have read it, here’s a modest proposal: Demand everyone on the board except Hubbard resign immediately. Then fire Wynja, Bilby, and Lief. They all had the easiest job in America — don’t give kids access to pornography — and failed spectacularly.

If they can’t be trusted to protect children from graphic sex scenes, they can’t be trusted with anything else.

​Iowa, Library, Children’s books, Pornography, Opinion & analysis, Censorship, Icebreaker book, Book bans, Sioux center, Progress, School library books, Public library explicit books, Transparency 

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani calls himself a “Democratic Socialist,” but he clearly doesn’t support the cooperative federalism that keeps American democracy functioning.

Just weeks after projecting a diplomatic, moderate tone during an Oval Office visit, Mamdani issued a message that should chill any American who values the rule of law. Responding to a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Chinatown, Mamdani in a video urged illegal aliens to “stand up” to federal agents by exploiting every legal loophole to stall enforcement.

Mamdani’s encouragement mirrors the toxic doctrine of states’ rights absolutism that fueled the nation’s march toward civil war.

“We can all stand up to ICE if you know your rights,” he declared, offering a tutorial on how to shut doors in agents’ faces, demand endless clarifications, and film operations to disrupt them.

This is a blueprint for openly defying federal authority, wrapped in the rhetoric of righteous resistance. As a self-avowed Democratic Socialist who promised to “fight back” against ICE and labeled the agency a “reckless entity,” Mamdani reveals a contempt for constitutional order that has moved from fringe to mainstream on the American left.

The peril in this rhetoric is not theoretical. While the circumstances differ, Mamdani’s encouragement mirrors the toxic doctrine of states’ rights absolutism that fueled the nation’s march toward civil war. In the 1850s, leaders of the nascent Confederacy preached nullification — the idea that states could ignore federal laws they deemed unjust, particularly those touching slavery.

South Carolina’s 1832 Ordinance of Nullification, defying federal tariffs, was a dry run for the secessionism that exploded in 1861. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens later declared in his “Cornerstone Speech” that the Confederacy rested on the principle of state sovereignty over federal authority.

Fast-forward to Mamdani’s New York, a sanctuary city where local laws are exalted above national ones and illegal aliens are coached to treat ICE as an invading force. This reckless approach can only ratchet up tensions, increasing the likelihood of violent confrontations and accelerating the erosion of our constitutional order.

This isn’t rights protection. It’s the resurrection of a philosophy that once split the nation in two. The Civil War claimed more than 600,000 lives because defiant states elevated their local priorities over the union’s supremacy. Mamdani’s sanctuary-state playbook risks igniting a similar dynamic — one resisted arrest at a time.

The hypocrisy is glaring. For nine years, Democrats and their media allies branded Donald Trump a “threat to democracy,” insisting that “no one is above the law.” Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on camera, declaring his actions an assault on the Constitution. Chuck Schumer warned that Trump’s border enforcement would “Balkanize” America.

Yet when Mamdani — a rising progressive star — directly subverts federal immigration statutes, the same chorus falls silent. No calls for indictments. No panic-stricken editorials about authoritarianism.

Democrats declared Trump’s alleged election interference a constitutional crisis. But Mamdani’s defiance goes straight at the Supremacy Clause, which makes federal law the “supreme law of the land.” By elevating New York’s sanctuary policies and restricting cooperation with ICE to only 170 “serious crimes,” Mamdani is not safeguarding democracy. He is undermining it.

America’s founders envisioned a balance: states as laboratories of democracy but always subordinate to the union’s paramount authority. Sanctuary cities flip that design on its head. Once New York shields violators of immigration law, copycats are inevitable. What happens when California nullifies EPA emissions rules? Or Texas ignores ATF gun tracing? Or Florida decides federal taxes are optional?

RELATED: ‘Shoot ICE on sight’: Twin brothers arrested after allegedly threatening to hang DHS’ Tricia McLaughlin

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Localized resistance metastasizes into a patchwork of fiefdoms where the law becomes whatever the local politician decrees.

Mamdani’s vision, if replicated, promises rapid national deterioration: a swelling illegal population operating in the shadows, strained public resources, and cities like New York — home to at least a half-million illegal aliens — functioning as de facto no-go zones for federal agents.

Progressives who cheered Mamdani’s victory must reckon with the monster they helped unleash: a leader who cloaks defiance in compassion while sowing the seeds of anarchy. American federalism depends on shared laws, not selective compliance. If New York wants to lead, it should honor the union that made its success possible — not mimic the Rebels of 1861.

Otherwise we’re not securing the nation. We’re dismantling the house that stands between order and oblivion.

​Constitution, Opinion & analysis, Zohran mamdani, Supremacy clause, Illegal immigration, Mass deportations, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice raids, Democratic socialist, Nullification, Alexander stephens, New york city, Civil war 

The coverage surrounding the murder of Charlie Kirk may have been honest if you watch conservative media, but the rest of the media wasn’t so keen on telling the truth — and a recent poll just made that hard to ignore.

According to a November 25 McLaughlin & Associates national poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted for the Media Research Center, only 24% of respondents correctly asserted that Tyler Robinson — Kirk’s assassin — was left-wing.

The participants were asked, “On September 10, 2025, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was murdered while speaking on a college campus. What was the political ideology of his killer?”

Of the respondents, 27.5% answered that they didn’t know Robinson’s political ideology, and only 24.1% correctly answered that he was left-wing. A whopping 22.3% incorrectly answered that he was right-wing, while another 13.2% claimed he was a moderate or a centrist.

While that’s bad, it gets worse when you break it down by the party affiliation of the likely voters.

“Only 18.8% of those who primarily watched left-of-center cable news outlets were able to correctly describe his ideology, as compared to 27.7% who asserted that he was right-wing. Surprisingly even among right-of-center cable news viewers, barely over a third of participants (33.5%) answered that Robinson was left-wing, and a still-considerable 18% believed him to be right-wing,” a LifeNews article reports.

“The professed political ideology of respondents also heavily affected their perception of Robinson’s own political proclivities. A whopping 35.4% of liberals believed he was right-wing, while just 12.7% identified him as left-wing. For conservatives, 17% answered that he was right-wing, whereas over 41.9% described him as left-wing,” it continues.

“Students were the single least likely cohort to correctly identify Robinson’s political bent; 33.2% of students believed Charlie Kirk’s accused murderer was right-wing, while a paltry 4% accurately labeled him left-wing,” the article concludes.

“I was shocked when I read this, and I had to take some time to process,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler comments.

“We know so much about every terrorist, every mass shooter, every assassin, every school shooter, almost immediately after they commit their grizzly crime. How is it that only 24% of voters know that Charlie Kirk’s killer was left-wing? This is the most horrendous, grizzly, political assassination in our lifetime, if not in our nation’s history, and 3/4 of people don’t know the truth,” she says.

“Well the reason why is because the loudest voices … on both sides of the aisle, had from the beginning, from the moment that this happened, from the day that Charlie Kirk was murdered, they had in their mind preconceived villains,” she explains, pointing out that the mainstream media had immediately focused on Robinson’s family being registered Republicans.

“They assumed without any journalistic diligence,” she adds, “because this is what they wanted to believe was true, that Tyler Robinson was a Trump supporter.”

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.

​Free, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk assassination, Left wing media, Tyler robinson, Tyler robinson left wing, Left wing violence, Left wing extremism 

New Mexico law enforcement says an online tip about child sex abuse material led to the arrest of a school bus driver for special-needs students.

Patrick Bilbo was arrested Friday at the Albuquerque Public Schools bus depot, and his phone was confiscated at that time.

‘This case is especially disturbing because it involves someone who was entrusted with the care of some of our most vulnerable children.’

A criminal complaint said that Bilbo’s phone had been signed into email accounts that were associated with the dissemination of child sex abuse material, including the graphic rape of young children.

Bilbo was identified through information associated with the accounts that included his birth date and his last name, according to a press release from the New Mexico Department of Justice.

He was charged with two counts of distribution of visual medium of sexual exploitation of a child under 13 years of age and one count of possession of visual medium of sexual exploitation of a child under 13 years of age.

One of the videos allegedly associated with Bilbo included the text, “All pedophiles should rape kids,” while the bottom of the video had the text, “#pedopride.”

Each charge carries a possible prison sentence of 11 years, if he’s convicted.

Albuquerque Public Schools senior director of communications Martin Salazar said in a statement that Bilbo had been placed on administrative leave.

“We are deeply disturbed by the charges brought against Patrick Bilbo,” Salazar said. “We became aware of the criminal case against him this morning and immediately began the process of placing him on administrative leave. He was taken into custody by authorities at our west-side transportation center early this morning.”

Salazar said that Bilbo passed a background check when he was hired in Sept. 2024 and that there were no reports of “inappropriate behavior” about him during his time as a bus driver.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez posted video footage from the police arrest.

RELATED: Elementary school teacher allegedly possessed thousands of files of child sex abuse material

“This case is especially disturbing because it involves someone who was entrusted with the care of some of our most vulnerable children,” Torrez said in a statement.

“We will pursue offenders like this with absolute urgency and relentless focus,” he added. “Our message is simple: If you target or exploit children in New Mexico, you will be found, you will be arrested, and you will be held accountable.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Patrick bilbo, Special needs school bus driver, Child sex abuse material, School worker caught with child porn, Crime