Category: blaze media

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has a new solution for urban poverty: government-run grocery stores.

The plan, announced as part of his first 100 days in office, would spend roughly $70 million creating city-owned supermarkets across New York, beginning with a flagship location in East Harlem. The stores would operate through private contractors under city oversight, with subsidized staples — cheaper eggs, cheaper bread, cheaper basics — guaranteed by government rather than market competition.

Fast food, the supposed cheap fallback of the food-deprived, has out-inflated inflation itself and is now closer to a sit-down dinner than a quick bite.

Mamdani justifies this spending by invoking a persistent, infrequently examined assumption of liberal policymakers: that cities in America are riddled with blighted urban zones where fresh produce and healthy groceries remain frustratingly out of reach.

These are called “food deserts.”

Hunger games

Never mind that a quick look around the proposed East Harlem site reveals multiple grocery stores within walking distance, including produce markets sitting blocks from where the city plans to spend tens of millions constructing another one.

Yet the language persists. Reading recent coverage of America’s “food deserts,” you would be forgiven for thinking we have all woken up in the back half of “The Road,” scavenging tin cans in ash-choked ruins while a feral child clutches our pant leg.

ABC News informs us that 17 million Americans live in a federally designated food desert, a term so bleak it sounds like it should come with a Pulitzer and a black-and-white photo of a barefoot kid staring into the middle distance.

Tara Colton of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority calls food deserts a product of structural racism, neighborhood redlining, and disinvestment — three abstractions stacked into one sentence, which is the literary equivalent of a turducken. Malcolm Gladwell is taking notes.

To be clear, there are real people in these stories who deserve real help. Take Knoxville, for instance, where an elderly disabled woman with a walker needs three to four hours to buy groceries. There are many like her. No car, no one to call when the fridge needs to be restocked.

But is that really a food problem, or is it a loneliness problem in disguise? A what-happened-to-neighbors problem? Whatever it is, it isn’t fixed by the nearest Kroger relocating two blocks closer, but by a person with transportation and 20 free minutes.

Couch-bound

Which brings us to the definition itself, because the definition is where this whole conversation instantly falls apart. Per the USDA, a food desert is a low-income area where residents live more than one mile from a supermarket in a city or 20 in the country.

The rural number is its own conversation. The urban one deserves a closer look. One mile. That is the apocalyptic threshold, the line past which we reach for the language of famine and structural decay. One mile is the distance between your couch and the place you were going to walk to anyway before you decided to “treat yourself” to DoorDash. There are CrossFit gyms charging $200 a month to make people walk farther than that carrying objects on purpose.

Then there is the part the hellscape correspondents won’t touch. A Big Mac combo now averages $9 nationally. A large pizza that feeds two or three people runs $15 to $20 before tip and delivery fee and the mysterious “service charge” that has crept onto every receipt in America. A medium fries alone is $4 now, a price point that used to get you the whole meal. Fast food, the supposed cheap fallback of the food-deprived, has out-inflated inflation itself and is now closer to a sit-down dinner than a quick bite.

Shop right

Meanwhile, in the so-called desert, a bag of dried lentils is $1.79. A pound of rice is a dollar. A dozen eggs, even after the great egg panic, is around $4 and gives you a week of breakfasts. Frozen vegetables, the great equalizer of American nutrition, run $2 or $3 at any Dollar Tree, which, surprise, exists in basically every “food desert” I’ve ever set foot in. A whole rotisserie chicken at Walmart is $5.97 and feeds a family for two days. A can of black beans is a dollar. An onion is 50 cents.

So when an able-bodied 28-year-old with a working car and a smartphone tells me he can’t eat healthy because he lives in a food desert, what he means is he doesn’t want to. He wants the Crunchwrap Supreme combo for $9. He wants the door to open and the food to be hot and the wrapper to crinkle.

That’s a preference, not a famine. Calling it a crisis is an insult to people who actually are in one — like, say, the woman with the walker — because it lumps her struggle in with some slob’s Tuesday-night laziness and gives both the same vocabulary.

Fertile ground

Either way, the term “food desert” seems deliberately designed to invoke panic. Maybe so taxpayers will look the other way when, say, New Jersey passes a $240 million Food Desert Relief Act and starts paying restaurants to deliver hot meals.

But there are no ash plumes. No one is barbecuing cats or plucking ducks from ponds. Well, very few are.

Battlefield Farm, a Knoxville nonprofit, understands this. It doesn’t tweet about food apartheid. Instead, it grows actual collards and drives them to actual people in an actual van. The company is planning a low-cost grocery store.

That’s the thing about real problems. They tend to have real, boring solutions, and they tend to require us to acknowledge reality before we can do anything about them.

The 53 million Americans the USDA classifies as having “limited” food access are not all starving in a wasteland. Most of them are within walking, biking, or one-bus distance of a place that sells apples and carrots. Most of them know this, and a lot of them are cooking meals right now. The ones who genuinely cannot get there need rides, ramps, and delivery — not a fatalistic op-ed painting America like a Ken Burns documentary nobody asked for.

​Food deserts, Make america healthy again, Zohran mamdani, Nutrition, Health, Battlefield farm, New jersey, Lifestyle 

As the United States navigates a fragile ceasefire in its conflict with Iran, the price of oil has remained volatile and high. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $104.21 per barrel at market close on Monday, nearly 57% higher than its pre-conflict price. Inflation has risen as a result and is in a territory it hasn’t been since 2023, according to an analysis by NBC News.

On Tuesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Consumer Price Index update for April. It reported that inflation in April was 3.8%.

A vast majority of Americans don’t trust either party to fix the economy.

The bureau stated in a press release that the rise in energy costs is responsible “for over 40% of the monthly all-items increase.”

In its report on the April inflation numbers, NBC News noted that in Friday’s April jobs report, average hourly earnings rose by 3.6% over the past year. This marks the first time since 2023, during the Biden administration, that wages have not kept pace with inflation.

Despite the runaway inflation of the Biden years, Democrat congressional leaders pounced on the inflation news. House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Penn.) said in a statement, “From his tariff taxes to his disastrous war in Iran, President Trump is making life even harder for American families. Today’s inflation data confirms what everyone can see: Costs are out of control.”

Republicans, on the other hand, are focused on the growth in jobs and the economy in general and reminding voters of the Biden-era inflation. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said, “While inflation has come down substantially since the 21% spike in prices seen when Democrats controlled all of Washington, American families are still looking for additional relief, and that is why Republicans acted to deliver the largest tax cuts in American history.”

Smith further highlighted the growth in GDP and hope that the new chairman of the Federal Reserve would be “a leader over monetary policy who understands that high interest rates have held back the true economic potential of our country.”

RELATED: The SAVE America Act won’t be enough to save the GOP from a midterm bloodbath

A consensus seems to be brewing among investment experts that unlike the broad-based inflation of the early part of the Biden presidency, this inflation could truly be transitory if energy prices come down.

“The report still showed only limited evidence of fully broad-based second-round inflation effects,” said Arielle Ingrassia, an investment specialist at Evelyn Partners, according to IFA magazine.

“That leaves the overall picture closer to an energy and transport shock than a full inflation spiral — at least for now.”

The inflation release Tuesday coincides with findings from a new CNN/SSRS poll that shows “roughly two-thirds of Americans say that Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country. And Trump’s approval rating stands at 30% on the economy, a career low,” according to CNN.

But Democrats do not fare well in this new polling either. A vast majority of Americans don’t trust either party to fix the economy.

As the nation heads into a midterm election being shaped by redistricting battles, Americans’ perceived economic outlook will continue to be a determining factor for the control of both the House and Senate in November.

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​Biden administration, Bureau of labor statistics, Consumer price index, Inflation, Interest rates, Iran, Jobs, President trump, Wages, Politics 

Former President Joe Biden was stumbling long before he took office. He fell behind in the first three Democratic primary elections of 2020, placing fourth, fifth, and second, respectively.

James Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone Democratic congressman, is credited with turning things around for the campaign and propping Biden up by delivering him a timely endorsement and South Carolina’s delegates.

Now, Biden’s political crutch is poised to lose his own footing.

‘This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation.’

During a heated meeting on Tuesday, lawmakers on the South Carolina House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee discussed legislation that, if successfully passed by both chambers of the legislature and ratified by the governor, would ultimately redraw the Palmetto State’s congressional maps and eliminate Clyburn’s district.

During the public testimony portion of the meeting, wild-eyed opponents accused Republican lawmakers of engaging in “fascism,” killing democracy in the state, disenfranchising black voters, and diluting liberal voting power.

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, among those who alternatively spoke in support of the legislation at the meeting, stated, “We have both the duty and the opportunity to maximize our conservative stronghold and ensure our people receive the representation they deserve, grounded in faith, freedom, family values, safe communities, and economic prosperity.”

RELATED: Virginia Democrats trying to force through illegal power-grab make ANOTHER humiliating mistake

South Carolina State House

“This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation,” Evette added.

The subcommittee ultimately signaled support for the legislation in a 3-2 vote that prompted heckles from the peanut gallery.

The full South Carolina House Judiciary Committee subsequently took up the matter.

Ahead of the state lawmakers’ meeting, President Donald Trump noted on Truth Social, “I’m watching closely, along with all Republicans across the Country who are counting on their Elected Leaders to use every Legal and Constitutional authority they have to stop the Radical Left Democrats from destroying our Country, including leveling the playing field against their decades of egregious Gerrymandering and Census Rigging.”

“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” Trump continued. “Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!”

Clyburn, now serving his 17th term and seeking re-election, is furious over the prospect of losing power.

In a series of tweets last week, the Democratic congressman complained, “Republicans are trying to break apart South Carolina’s 6th District. Not because voters demanded it, but because Donald Trump requested it.”

“This fight is bigger than one district,” Clyburn continued. “It’s about whether our democracy belongs to the people, or to politicians who change the rules when they don’t like the results. We cannot let them succeed.”

Clyburn was first elected to represent South Carolina’s 6th district after its borders were redrawn with the intention of making it a majority-black district.

Republicans are empowered to augment Clyburn’s district as the result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Callais, where the high court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and made clear that redistricting should effectively be color-blind.

Clyburn briefly dropped the alarmist shtick during a recent CNN interview, where he admitted that he could potentially still get re-elected in a district that’s not a racial gerrymander.

The 85-year-old Democrat suggested further that other Democratic candidates could benefit from new maps, telling talking head Jake Tapper, “When they finish with the redistricting, there will be the possibilities of at least three Democrats getting elected here in South Carolina to the United States Congress.”

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​Callais, Clyburn, Democratic congressman, Former president joe biden, Jake tapper, James clyburn, Lt gov pamela evette, President donald trump, Racial gerrymander, Republican lawmakers, South carolina, State house, Subcommittee, Us supreme court, Politics 

The chances of a socialist democrat becoming mayor of Los Angeles appeared to collapse after Spencer Pratt obliterated her during their recent debate.

Pratt crushed City Councilwoman Nithya Raman when she tried to claim that her policies had succeeded in easing the homelessness crisis in L.A., and the moment went viral on social media soon afterward.

‘Before any polls or punditry, prediction markets quantified exactly what we all saw with our eyes: the Titanic hitting an iceberg.’

Although polling since the debate has not yet been released, the Kalshi prediction market documented that Raman’s chances to win the election have absolutely cratered.

At one point in late April, Kalshi predicted that Raman had an astounding 64% chance of winning the mayoral race. After the debate on Wednesday, her chances precipitously dropped to 14% — a loss of 50 percentage points.

Much of that may have been her unsteady and unsure performance during the debate. When challenged on homelessness, Raman stumbled after Pratt beat her down.

“The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth,” Pratt explained about the homelessness crisis. “They are on fentanyl. The DEA statistic says 93% of this is a drug addiction problem. 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 some have doubted the value of prediction markets, BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere explained how they can be a leading indicator before polling can be completed.

“This is something that prediction markets do incredibly well,” he said. “Before any polls or punditry, prediction markets quantified exactly what we all saw with our eyes: the Titanic hitting an iceberg.”

He also pointed out that the large drop in her support was even worse than that of former President Joe Biden just before he dropped out of his re-election campaign in 2024.

“Joe Biden only dropped about 15 percentage points after his debate. That’s how bad she was,” said Burguiere of Raman.

RELATED: LA Times torched for trying to disqualify Pratt for mayor — because his home burned down

Raman has also pulled out of another mayoral debate, though she was preceded by incumbent L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Pratt as well. The debate has since been canceled.

Polling before the debate had Pratt in second place with 10% support and Bass in first place with 25%, but another 40% remained undecided, keeping the election up in the air.

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​Los angeles mayoral election, Spencer pratt, Pratt vs nithya raman, Prediction markets, Politics 

Christian persecution is happening around the world, and in some places that you would never expect — including Mexico.

Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey that his organization has a World Watch List that tracks persecution across the globe, and what’s happening inside America’s southern neighbor is shocking, to say the least.

“One of the very also present realities there are with the cartels and organized crime,” Brown tells Stuckey, explaining that the cartels target Christians because the church is “bad for business.”

Christianity hurts the cartels, as it keeps young men from getting drafted into their ranks as well as stops potential drug or alcohol users from buying what they make their living on.

This is why many cartel leaders view the Christian church as a threat, and sometimes they “strike with violence” in retaliation.

One Christian church, Brown explains, was targeted by the cartel for not doing as they said.

“The cartels came in one night … with guns ablazing … and, you know, forced people out with the clothes on their back. They corralled them in a school building and held them captive there, wouldn’t allow them to escape, wanted people to see that they were being held there,” he recalls.

“There was one bucket in the middle of the room to utilize as the bathroom for a period of 10 days. No water provided. They had to drink water from puddles,” he continues.

There’s also an area of several states in Mexico called “the circle of silence.”

Geographically these states form a circle and represent an area where Christianity and Catholicism are not heavily represented.

“So, you know, there is not a strong presence of the church there to vocalize and to make the message of the gospel known. So, that’s one area of silence,” Brown tells Stuckey.

“They want no presence of Christianity there. They want it to be silenced,” he adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Captive hostages, Cartel leaders, Cartel targets, Christian persecution, Circle of silence, Gospel message, Mexican cartels, Mexico, Open door, Organized crime, Presence of church, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Ryan brown, Silencing christianity, Targeted church, World watch list, Threat to cartel, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

The Virginia Supreme Court sent Democrats into conniptions with a ruling on Friday striking down as unconstitutional a ballot measure that would have all but guaranteed their party another four seats in the U.S. Congress.

Democrats’ desperation to force through their illegal power-grab in the wake of the 4-3 decision now has them considering truly extreme options, including lowering the retirement age for justices on the Old Dominion’s high court, purging its current lineup, and stacking it with liberals.

‘Baby steps.’

While their comrades plot alternative ways of disenfranchising millions of Republican voters in Virginia, Democratic state officials are trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to revive their gerrymandering initiative.

The Democrats behind the likely doomed petition are, however, having difficulties with spelling and differentiating between disparate courts.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, House Speaker Don Scott, and President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate Louise Lucas filed a joint motion late on Friday asking the Old Dominion’s Supreme Court to delay its order invalidating the gerrymander referendum and the corresponding constitutional amendment proposed on the ballot while they appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) highlighted a glaring spelling error in the court filing, which was submitted by state Solicitor General Tillman Breckenridge. Near the top, Virginia House of Delegates was spelled “Virgnia House of Delegates.”

RELATED: Democrats propose purging Virginia Supreme Court so they can force through illegal power-grab

Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images

Miyares wrote, “If you are going to appeal to SCOTUS maybe don’t misspell Virginia?”

Other keen observers — including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon — pointed out that in the document, “senator” was spelled “sentator.”

Miyares continued: “This is a motion that has zero chance to succeed and is [a] Hail Mary to save face after wasting $70 million in political money and $10 million in taxpayer money on an illegal, unconstitutional gerrymandering amendment. This motion will be declared dead on arrival.”

Democratic Virginia officials — evidently willing to test Miyares’ theory that their motion “will be declared dead on arrival” — filed an emergency application on Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting a stay of the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision that they claimed was “deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation.”

The emergency application not only contained the Democratic officials’ previous embarrassing spelling mistakes but a brand-new error on the first page, referring to an “emergency application to the Supreme Court of Virginia,” rather than the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Good News: Dems managed to spell Virginia correctly,” Miyares wrote on Tuesday. “Bad News: They sent their emergency application to SCOTUS to the wrong court. Baby steps.”

U.S. Supreme Court

Miyares’ quip aside, the Virginia Democrats managed to get their mistitled petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even still, Edward Whelan, a legal scholar and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, discovered other possible problems. “Very weird that cover page states ‘On Emergency Application to the Supreme Court of Virginia,'” noted Whelan. “That’s the styling for a petition for a writ of certiorari, but it makes no sense to say that the emergency application is ‘to’ the Supreme Court of Virginia.”

But the greater blunder, suggested Whelan, is that the Democratic petitioners do not appear to be asking for the right relief.

“Even if the Supreme Court were to grant Virginia’s emergency application for a stay (it won’t), that would still leave in place the lower-court injunction that the state supreme court affirmed,” wrote Whelan.

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​Appeal, Assistant attorney general, Democrat, Democrats, Emergency application, Gerrymander, High court, Humiliation, Jay jones, Legal scholar, Political money, Richmond, Spelling error, Supreme court, Unconstitutional ballot measure, Us congress, Us supreme court, Virginia, Virginia attorney general, Virginia supreme court, Politics 

A large group of teenagers on e-bikes allegedly ganged up on a man who was riding a scooter with his wife on the boardwalk in Huntington Beach, California, over the weekend — and kicked and stomped him and hit him in the face with a glass bottle, KTLA-TV reported.

The Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed to KTLA that a report was taken in connection with the incident, which occurred around 8 p.m. Saturday in the area of 103 Pacific Coast Highway.

‘Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night. … It’s chaos; it’s terror.’

Sam El-Said — a business owner — told the station he and his wife were riding home when he noticed a few hundred teens, many of them with e-bikes, gathered on the beach, the boardwalk, and a nearby grassy area.

El-Said told KTLA he slowed down to navigate through the crowd, when someone threw a glass bottle that hit him in the face; he added to the station that bottle either shattered on impact or was already broken, and it left him with minor injuries.

After he stopped and got off his scooter to see what happened, El-Said told KTLA someone knocked him to the ground from behind, after which as many as six teens kicked and stomped him while he was down.

Cellphone video caught the final moments of the alleged attack, and it shows one teen dressed in a dark Playboy hoodie being pulled away from the victim, who was on his hands and knees in the sand.

Some teens are heard hooting and laughing on video during the aftermath of the attack.

KTLA said that when El-Said rose to his feet, blood was running down his face, red marks were visible near his left temple and cheekbone, and blood also was on the fingers of his left hand.

RELATED: Mom of teen thug arrested after body-slamming, head-stomping much smaller girl says he’s a ‘humble,’ ‘quiet’ Christian

Police told the station that El-Said was able to detain one of the teens involved, and that teen was arrested and cited for misdemeanor battery.

Authorities told KTLA that the victim declined medical treatment at the scene.

El-Said, who also suffered a black eye, noted to the station that he and his wife moved to Huntington Beach three years ago for a better quality of life — and the incident demonstrates to him that law enforcement needs to take a stronger stance against such crime.

“Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night, to this very spot and see what this looks like,” he told KTLA. “It’s chaos; it’s terror. If nothing happens and things don’t change, we’re going to keep seeing incidents like what happened to me, but far worse.”

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​California, E-bikes, Ebikes, Huntington beach, Man attacked, Misdemeanor battery, Physical attack, Teen arrested, Teen mob, Crime 

The U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that the mayor of a city in Southern California has agreed to plead guilty to operating as a spy for China for two years.

Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang agreed to resign from office after she was federally charged with acting as an illegal agent for a foreign country, according to statements on the city’s website.

‘How many more are there?’

“Mayor Wang admitted to acting as a foreign agent from at least 2020 through 2022 — promoting PRC propaganda in the U.S. and acting at PRC’s direction to promote their interests,” wrote FBI Director Kash Patel on social media. “She has agreed to resign from office and plead guilty.”

Wang pled guilty in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday and now faces 10 years in prison, the New York Post reported.

Wang ran a website called the U.S. News Center that claimed to be a resource for the local Chinese-American community along with Yaoning “Mike” Sun.

Sun was Wang’s campaign manager and fiancé. Both admitted to receiving and executing “directives from PRC (People’s Republic of China) government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website.” They also “sometimes sought approval from PRC government officials to circulate other pro-PRC content,” the DOJ said in the plea agreement, according to ABC News.

In one example from Nov. 2021, Wang wanted to promote an article about the Chinese and Russian ambassador calling on Americans to respect the “democratic rights” of the PRC, the DOJ said.

A statement from the Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said that none of the spying activity was conducted while Wang was in office.

“We understand this news raises serious concerns, and we want to be direct with our community about what we know and where we stand,” wrote Lazzaretto on the city’s website.

“The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling,” he added. “We want to be clear: This investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022.”

Lazzaretto indicated no city actions need to be invalidated despite accusations that the mayor worked as a spy for China.

“Following an internal review, we can confirm that no city finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved,” he added.

Sun had been arrested in Dec. 2024 on suspicion of conspiring with Chen Jun, aka John Chen, a Chinese national who had been convicted of federal crimes, as previously reported by Blaze News. Sun was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in Jan. 2025.

RELATED: Retired Air Force major allegedly trained Chinese pilots — spying, hacking network involved

The alarming development bolstered critics of China, who warned about communist-funded infiltration into American society, including local governments as well as institutions of learning.

“How many more are there?” wondered Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.

“Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” said John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for National Security.

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​Arcadia mayor eileen wang, Chinese spy convicted, Communist china infiltration, Socal chinese spy, Politics 

The Department of War has begun releasing the UFO files — and the most recent footage has left Americans questioning what they’re really seeing.

Ross Patterson of the “Drinkin’ Bros Podcast” tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales that conversations he’s had with insiders over the years have left him convinced that something far stranger may be happening behind the scenes.

“I’ve got some insight into this. It’s super weird,” he says, recalling a conversation with the late producer John Brenkus, who used to “host all of those UFO shows on Sci-Fi Channel for years.”

“I asked him, ‘Hey, let’s get real here. What’s the actual sitch?’ And he goes, ‘Look, do I think they’re manned by an alien, like a person?’”

“He goes, ‘No, I think the tech is so advanced. If they’re sending things here, … you don’t need to man that,’” he explains.

Patterson likens it to manning a drone, where there’s no risk of an occupant being injured.

And while he admits he’s “not a conspiracy dude,” he explains that some of the “crazier stories” he’s heard from “friends over there” involve “communication” with other “beings” over the years.

“They have a unique way of talking,” he tells Gonzales, noting that according to his source, it took years to figure out a code in order to communicate.

“I said, ‘Well, what were the conversations like?’” he recalls. “And they said it was mostly about energy and how they were able to use magnetic fields.”

While Patterson admits he doesn’t “know what’s real and what’s not,” there are a few theories he’s entertaining regarding the files — one of them being that their release is a “cover-up” to distract from the Epstein files.

“But I don’t know,” he says, adding that another theory is that “Hollywood has always been in communication with the White House and then pumping out movies to get Americans used to what’s coming.”

The most recent example is a new Steven Spielberg film about an alien encounter that will be released in June. The film is called “Disclosure Day,” which Spielberg himself said is “more truth than fiction.”

“He didn’t expand on it,” he adds.

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​Alien encounter, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Conspiracy theories, Department of war, Disclosure day, Epstein files, John brenkus, Magnetic fields, Ross patterson, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Scifi channel, Steven spielberg, The blaze, Truth than fiction, Ufo files, Ufo shows, White house 

The Amazon Kindle was released on November 19, 2007. A little tablet full of countless books you can take with you anywhere — it was a cool idea then, and I suppose it’s still a cool idea now. Over the years there have been a bunch of new versions. Amazon updated theirs, and other companies have released their own versions of what is now known as an e-reader.

My wife’s got one. She just bought it a few months ago. She wanted it because she was sick of looking at her phone when nursing our daughter in the middle of the night. It’s worked well. She hasn’t been scrolling; she’s been reading instead.

Sometimes I like thinking about my kids coming across my books when I’m old or dead and gone and finding these little things I’ve written.

I’ve held hers and played with it a little. It’s very cool, and I want to like it. I want to load one up with lots of books, read it on the airplane or right before I drift off after midnight with all the lights off in the bedroom, and join the future with all other fellow e-readers (the people, not the object).

But I just can’t; I like books too much.

Judging covers

I like the way the real pages feel on the pads of my fingers. I like how it sounds when I flip the page. I like to fold back the edge and mark my spot. There’s something about the smell too, especially the old books. You know that smell, don’t you? If you put your nose near the inside of the binding and sniff, you will get it. It’s the faint scent of a college library and an old house.

I love the covers of paperbacks and how they change over the years as new editions are released. I most particularly love the old(ish) ones most. I can always pinpoint the decade based on the fonts and colors. It’s funny how deeply infused a book is with the aesthetic sensibilities of the decade in which it was printed and just how easy it is to discern when one was released.

The 60s were simple and modern. The 70s had loopy fonts with lots of brown, greens, and yellows. The 80s were colorful with floral patterns, some neon, and sharp lines. The 90s were classy and simple with understated serifs and an air of sophistication.

Paperback delighter

One of my favorite things to do is lie in the hammock on a Saturday afternoon reading. A small, flimsy paperback in my right hand, two fingers on the inside holding the pages open, and three others on the outside for support. The summer breeze, the leaves on the birch above, the ropes of the hammock on my back, and a little paperback.

I love to write in my books too, mostly the more intellectual ones. I underline sentences, bracket paragraphs of importance, and write things in the margins. They are things I want to remember. Even if I don’t know when I will come back to the book again, I want to make a note in the event I do. Sometimes I like thinking about my kids coming across my books when I’m old or dead and gone and finding these little things I’ve written. Maybe they will want to read what I wrote; maybe they won’t.

I’ve heard that we don’t remember words we read on the screen as much as words we read on a page. I don’t know the science behind it, but I feel like it’s true — or at least it is for me and my wife. I asked her what she thought as a newly minted e-reader enjoyer, and she said she agrees. She said it feels like she remembers ever so slightly less. Like it doesn’t stick quite as much or like it just doesn’t go deep enough into her brain.

Slightly foxed

The books on the e-reader remain perfect forever. They look the exact same on every single device. In the event the device falls in the lake, you might be out $200, but soon enough you’ll have a new one, and all 500 books will appear on that little screen just as they were before.

Real books don’t stay perfect for very long. The pages get bent, the binding gets broken, the margins are full of ink, and the edges of the pages yellow as the years pass. The more we read a book, the more we know a book, and the more beaten a book becomes. Old floppy paperbacks that look like they’ve been through a war are coveted in the same way leather bags with beautiful patina are.

I want to like the e-reader. I want to join the future. I would feel so futuristic and so efficient with one in my hand. But I can’t, and I won’t. I like the physicality of books too much. I like the wear they have; I like the time they show; I like the fact they tell a story of who and where we were when we read them.

​Men’s style, Books, Kindle, E-readers, Amazon, Lifestyle, Culture, Family life, The root of the matter 

Last month, while many veterans celebrated Joe Rogan and President Donald Trump’s support for psychedelic drugs, those in the Huntington’s disease community like me faced another disappointment. UniQure, a company with a promising treatment, may be abandoning the U.S. market because of bureaucratic roadblocks.

I’m not the president or the world’s most popular podcaster. What I am is a daughter who has tested positive for the Huntington’s disease gene and will one day exhibit the same symptoms of this disease that ate away at my father’s personality and his mind until he took his own life.

The FDA’s answer always seems to be the same when it comes to rare disease treatments: Wait, wait, and then wait some more.

I have advocated for the Huntington’s disease community, both in my father’s memory and with the hope that my future will be different from his. The outlook is dim for those like me unless the Food & Drug Administration allows access to treatments like AMT-130, which UniQure is now advancing first in the U.K. after the FDA’s unreasonable demands pushed the United States down the priority list.

Those demands are disastrous for Huntington’s disease patients. Launching a placebo trial under the FDA’s proposed new criteria would require non-therapeutic injections into the brains of study patients — hardly aligning with medical ethics.

Even without the basic inhumanity of this type of trial, Huntington’s patients simply cannot afford the years it would take to complete it. We are living on a much shorter timeline, defined by a merciless disease that is both progressive and fatal.

I’m glad that veterans are getting the attention they deserve and that they have the support of influencers like Rogan. But it raises an important question: Why should it take a celebrity and the president to push the FDA to follow basic common sense and medical best practices?

For years, the rare-disease community has done everything we were told would make a difference. We organized, advocated, and pushed for change with whatever strength we had, often while managing devastating diagnoses and worsening symptoms.

Parents of children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Sanfilippo syndrome, to name but two groups, have advocated while watching their children decline.

The FDA’s answer always seems to be the same when it comes to rare disease treatments: Wait, wait, and then wait some more. That means we’re running down hours on a clock that ticks ominously louder with every passing month. We don’t have time for years of unnecessary testing.

RELATED: Want to live to 100? Don’t expect Big Pharma to help.

Tom Merton/Getty Images

Rogan’s intervention shows that the system can move quickly when it wants to — certainly the president will listen when voices with direct access amplify a cause. Now we need to see that same urgency applied to treatments for rare diseases.

Families like mine are not looking for special treatment. We are only asking for the choice to take the risk of trying new medicines when all the old options have failed. After all, we know the future that awaits us.

President Trump already made the right move with the Right to Try Act, which gives terminally ill patients a pathway to access potentially lifesaving or life-extending treatments. It is critical that he push FDA officials to commit to the same right-to-try principles he championed in his first term.

Scientists are making incredible strides in treating rare diseases. But that innovation only matters if patients are allowed to use treatments already developed. Adults like me, and kids with terminal rare diseases whose parents approve, are absolutely willing to accept any risk that comes with trying a new therapy.

Until someone steps up to bat for people like me, our only alternative is the certainty of an illness that will slowly, relentlessly ruin our lives and then snuff them out.

​Big pharma, President donald trump, Veterans, Innovation, Huntington’s disease, Right to try act, Fda, Clinical trials, Experimental treatment, Medical ethics, Opinion & analysis 

The Southern Poverty Law Center was federally indicted on April 21 for allegedly funneling millions of dollars to the very racist and extremist groups it claimed to be fighting, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, and the National Socialist Party of America.

The Alabama-headquartered smear- and fearmongering racket — charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering — pleaded not guilty on Thursday to all counts.

‘We have always suspected that they were monetizing hate.’

“The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong,” stated SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair. “They are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law. Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups.”

Now thanks to the state of Alabama, SPLC smear merchants will have to mount a defense on more than one front.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Monday that his office has launched a civil investigation into the SPLC, alleging deceptive fundraising practices under Alabama’s consumer protection statutes.

The probe is looking specifically at whether the SPLC’s alleged activities referenced in the federal indictment violated Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act or other state laws concerning charitable organizations.

RELATED: Klansman allegedly on SPLC payroll was ‘true believer’ white supremacist, not reformed infiltrator

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Marshall’s office has subpoenaed SPLC documents disclosing to Alabama donors or prospective donors the organization’s use of “informants”; identifying the annual donations received from donors in Alabama and beyond; showing annual disbursements of donated funds to “informants”; reflecting the percentage of the SPLC’s annual budget blown on “informant”-related costs; and showing payments to groups or individuals appearing in the SPLC’s extremist files or on its hate map.

The SPLC, which has been ordered to produce these documents by June 1, confirmed to WSFA-TV that the organization’s leaders “have received notice of a subpoena and are currently reviewing.”

“My office has been fighting the SPLC for years — whether fighting them to protect minors from transgender medical procedures, fighting them to keep bad guys behind bars, or fighting them to preserve Alabama’s Republican congressional districts,” Marshall said in a statement.

“We have always suspected that they were monetizing hate and trading on race-baiting; it was just a matter of proving it,” continued Marshall. “Thanks to the U.S. Justice Department’s action to deal with the SPLC, the state’s efforts have now received a shot in the arm. We look forward to learning more about the inner workings of an organization that we have long believed was rotten but, until recently, has been impervious.”

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​Alabama, American front, Extremism, Federally indicted, Hate, Hate map, Kkk, Ku klux klan, Leftism, National socialist party, Race baiters, Race hustlers, Radicalism, Southern poverty law center, Splc, Steve marshall, United klans of america, Wire fraud, Politics 

Internet companies are perfectly happy to gobble up as much user data as possible so that they can sell it to third-party data brokers, monetize targeted ad networks, and even feed large language models that power the next generation of AI. For decades, this mass data grab went on with little legal regulation to rein in the worst offenders. However, House Republicans recently unveiled a new federal privacy bill that will change the way Big Tech handles personal and private data for good.

What is the SECURE Data Act?

Short for “Securing and Establishing Consumer Uniform Rights and Enforcement,” the SECURE Data Act directly gives users more control over the way companies access and use their personal information on the web. The bill establishes two major frameworks — one outlining the rights of consumers and the other to limit the actions of corporations.

Users get full control over the collection and monetization of their data.

Consumer rights under the SECURE Data Act

Access: Users have a right to know when a company accesses or processes their personal data, as long as this knowledge doesn’t violate company trade secrets.

Pro: Users gain a full understanding of how their information is applied to the websites they visit, the apps they use, and the services they subscribe to. This, in turn, empowers them to make informed decisions on which companies they choose to support based on their data collection practices.Con: Companies will have to invest in expensive resources to document and report on the data of every user, costing the company time and money that lead to potential reporting delays.

Corrections: Users can contact a company to correct inaccurate details saved in their personal data. This can include user names, email addresses, home addresses, and other markers.

Pro: Users ensure that any information a company uses is current and accurate to prevent errors.Con: Companies can use the updated information to build optimized profiles of its users for even more targeted online tracking.

Deletion: If the user no longer wants a company to access their data, they can request to have their information deleted from a company’s servers entirely. This includes data that the user provides themselves, as well as information the company gathers on its own.

Pro: Users get full control over the collection and monetization of their data, and they can revoke access if the company abuses that power. This can also be used as a tool to boycott companies if/when companies take a stance that opposes the views and beliefs of their users.Con: Companies will miss out on vital data that they would use to build better products and services for their customers, potentially leading to the stagnation of future apps, products, and services.

Man_Half-tube/Getty Images

Transferability: User data must be stored in a format that can be exported and transferred to another company, such as in the case of switching from an app, service, or operating system to another.

Pro: Instead of being locked into a certain platform or app, users can freely take their data to a competitor as they see fit. As an example, this will be especially useful for users who want to switch from iPhone to Android and vice versa.Con: Without an encrypted data standard across all platforms and services, converting data into an easily transferable format could weaken encryption and lead to potential data security risks.

Control: Users reserve the right to opt out of selling their personal data to third-party partners or participating in targeted advertising.

Pro: Users can actively prevent companies and data brokers from building digital profiles that track users’ buying habits, online interests, and more.Con: A lack of user data could cause economic damage to the marketing and digital ad industries.

Company limits under the SECURE Data Act

In order to supply consumers with the rights above, companies must adhere to these key mandates:

Minimization: Companies are limited from collecting user data en masse, instead restricting them to gather only what is considered “adequate” for their business.

Pro: Companies are ultimately barred from spying on their customers’ online habits, a huge win for the sake of user privacy.Con: This restriction is too vague without any real hard limits, leaving it open to interpretation. For instance, a company like Google may insist that large amounts of user data are necessary to support its free services and ad business, while competitors are barred from gathering to the same degree.

Limitations: Gathered data can only be used for the expressed reason it was collected, and companies can’t save or repurpose data for other projects without users’ consent.

Pro: Users can feel confident that their data isn’t being used in secret projects or private moneymaking schemes.Con: This may limit a company’s ability to conduct research and development with users’ data, potentially slowing down the creation of future products and limiting innovation.

Discrimination: Data cannot be collected or processed based on race, ethnicity, or other identifying factors. Furthermore, companies can’t use these factors to deny goods and services, offer dynamic prices, or alter their products’ quality of service.

Pro: Companies would essentially be barred from punishing users who don’t align with their own ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.Con: The bill doesn’t strictly protect religious beliefs and political affiliations, leaving companies a pathway to oppose users who don’t think or vote in favor of their values.

Notice: Companies must educate users on how their data is processed, saved, sold, and applied to their business. At this point, users will also have the option to make changes as part of their protected rights.

Pro: Companies can no longer hide how they make money from their users’ private data.Con: Similar to the GDPR-compliant cookie notices that pop on the websites you visit, users may receive so many data notices from the services they use that they either accept without reading the terms or ignore them entirely.

Sale: Companies must notify users when their data is about to be sold and why, giving them the chance to opt out before the sale takes place.

Pro: Consumers can ultimately prevent companies from making money by selling their information to data brokers and third-party partners.Con: If a user doesn’t intervene before their data is sold, it may become difficult to trace where the data goes and how it’s utilized by brokers and third-party partners down the line.

Sensitive data under the SECURE Data Act

Lastly, the bill provides special protections for “sensitive data,” especially for underage users, noting that parents must consent before companies can collect information on minors. The most important part here is that unlike many of the age-verification bills coming from both sides of the aisle right now, the SECURE Data Act doesn’t require a user to prove their age through any form of identification. Instead, the responsibility to declare underage data is left in the hands of parents, not the government.

A win for consumers

Internet companies have gathered user data for decades with very little legal oversight. As usual, the government is late to legislate, and yet, the SECURE Data Act couldn’t come at a better time. AI companies, like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, have shifted their data collection practices into overdrive, all bent on gorging their LLMs before President Trump’s AI framework ends their plight. The SECURE Data Act is just another piece of the puzzle that will finally give users robust protection over their digital footprint on the internet.

​Big tech, Privacy, User data, Secure data act, Tech 

Last week, the Vatican released a report from Study Group 9 of the Synod on Synodality, one of 10 groups set up by Pope Francis in 2024 to examine controversial issues.

Titled “Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues,” the report presented testimonies from two gay Catholic men in same-sex civil marriages.

The report has sparked quite a controversy in the Catholic faith. Very traditional Catholics — and even some evangelical Christians — have largely viewed it as dangerous and subversive, seeing it as undermining long-standing Church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts by platforming positive testimonies of same-sex “marriages” and downplaying doctrine in favor of subjective experience.

BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, who describes herself as a devout Catholic, addressed the synod report on a recent episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

She first addresses the panic of those who interpret the report as indicative of imminent change to Church doctrine.

“One of these documents from a synod is not Church dogma. It is not magisterial teaching. It has no authority to change doctrine of the Church. It is at best … an advisory committee that puts together reports that advise the pope on how to handle issues pastorally,” she says, noting that the pope is free to “accept these recommendations or not.”

As of now, Pope Leo XIV has neither formally accepted nor rejected the report.

“Even if he did [accept it], it’s not binding. It’s not doctrine or dogma,” says Liz.

That said, she acknowledges that ”there is valid concern that the ‘pastoral’ nature of this advice will encroach, at least in praxis, on the official teaching, the unchangeable doctrine, of the Church — at least at the local level,” which Liz says would be “a moral travesty” despite the fact that the “teaching remains unchangeable.”

After reading the report herself, she admits that the report is written “in an ambiguous way” that makes it unclear whether or not the synod is neutrally summarizing testimonies of two gay Catholic couples or “embracing” their viewpoints and lifestyle.

“The generous way to interpret this [synodal report] would be listening to people who struggle with sin can help you help them; there is value in hearing what led someone to a particular struggle,” says Liz.

“That would be fine … as long as your goal for these people is the fullness of Christ, as long as your goal is not indulgence, an excuse for their sin, redefinition of sin,” she explains. “So if this synod report that includes these testimonies is including the testimonies because they want to better understand how to bring these people out of their sin into the fullness of Christ, OK, that’s fine.”

Liz admits that she is reluctant to be generous in her reading of the synod report because of the ambiguity in which the testimonies are presented.

“How on earth could you not clarify whether you are embracing that testimony or whether you are simply summarizing it — especially when you know it will cause tremendous confusion, even scandal, among the faithful?” she asks.

The “defensive way” to interpret the report, says Liz, is to read it as a genuine attempt “to sneak effective changes to doctrine that [homosexuality advocates] have no authority to change into the pastoral practice of the Church, hoping it becomes the de facto norm in the Church, despite the contradiction to unchangeable Church teaching.”

While Liz is torn between the generous and defensive interpretations, the most important thing, she says, is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church actually teaches: that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered, are contrary to natural law, and can never be approved, but that people with deep-seated homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity, with every sign of unjust discrimination avoided, and are called to live chastely through self-mastery, prayer, and friendship.

“That is the official, unchangeable teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, and it’s beautiful,” she says.

To hear more of Liz’s analysis, watch the episode above.

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​Blaze media, Blazetv, Conversion therapy, Homosexuality, Liz wheeler, Pope francis, Pope leo xiv, Study group 9, Synod on synodality, Synod report, The liz wheeler show, Vatican, Vatican report 

Texas police said they’re investigating the death of six people found in a boxcar by a Union Pacific employee at a rail yard on Sunday.

Police said they responded to a call of “multiple casualties” at about 3 p.m. A Webb County medical examiner said the dead included one woman and five men.

One of the other dead persons appears to be a teenager. Officials said they believe they are all from Mexico and Honduras.

The examiner identified the female victim as a Mexican national and one of the men as a Honduran national.

The official noted that temperatures had reached up to 105 degrees when the bodies were found.

“Following initial examinations, it has been determined that the female victim succumbed to hyperthermia,” reads the statement from the medical examiner. “While formal examinations for the remaining five individuals are still pending, it is highly probable that hyperthermia was the cause of death for the entire group.”

One of the other dead persons appears to be a teenager. Officials said they believe they are all from Mexico and Honduras.

Laredo Police investigator Jose Baeza said determining the origin of the train was “at the crux” of the ongoing investigation, which he described as fluid.

“Imagine a loading dock at a seaport, but for trains,” Baeza said to NBC News in a phone interview. “This is where they load and unload a lot of rail cars.”

A spokesperson for Union Pacific said the company was cooperating with the investigation and was “saddened” by the incident.

RELATED: At least 46 illegal aliens found dead in a trailer in San Antonio, and death toll may climb higher

The International Organization for Migration reported that the lowest figure of migrant deaths in the Americas had been lodged for 2025, likely because of the crackdown on illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

They said about 414 migrants died in the Americas in 2025. Total deaths declined about 68% in 2025 from those in 2024, which coincides with President Donald Trump getting into office.

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​Dead migrants, Dead people in boxcar, Dead people laredo rail yard, Heat exhaustion deaths, Politics 

I have never considered flying to be a luxurious experience, and this trip was no exception. I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say that all I or anyone else on the flight from Dallas to Detroit on Christmas morning wanted was for it to be over as quickly as possible.

I had waited in the inevitable jetbridge backlog, found my seat, dutifully ignored the safety briefing, and was ready to see if I could manage an hour or so of sleep. As the plane reached cruising altitude, I — having momentarily gained the upper hand in the case of Pestritto v. airline seat — began to slip into a light doze.

In the back of my mind, I knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any more bearable. The crackle of the PA system, the monotone, forced cheerfulness of the flight attendant as he delivered the fateful words: “We’d like to take this chance to tell you about a special promotion being offered on this flight.”

For a brief instant, some small part of me considered pulling the emergency door handle. Surely the icy blast of air at 33,000 feet couldn’t be any worse than enduring the dreaded American Airlines credit card pitch.

When I arrive at the airport, I am prepared to suffer.

After this brief instant of nihilism, the better angels of my nature prevailed, and I contented myself with a silent sigh, listening to the pitch as I meditated on the script’s use of the passive voice. As if the airline were saying, “This promotion is being pitched without your consent. By whom? No idea. We would certainly never inflict such an indignity upon our paying customers.”

Let me take a moment to make my position clear. I understand that air travel is an unpleasant experience. Anyone who has taken a flight more than once in his life almost certainly understands this fact.

I have shrugged my shoulders for two hours straight in a middle seat. I have sat on the tarmac for longer than I thought possible. I have nearly missed my flight because it took four TSA officers to handle the bomb threat posed by the pink sippy cup belonging to the toddler in front of me.

All that to say: When I arrive at the airport, I am prepared to suffer.

However, air travel and I used to have an agreement. Once I made it through the ritual humiliation of the airport process and actually got to my seat on the plane, I was left more or less alone to endure the next few hours as best I could.

I grew up making two-day road trips in a Suburban with my parents and seven siblings, so I consider myself something of an expert at enduring hours of cramped travel conditions. The trick is just sort of retreating within yourself, ignoring your surroundings, and letting the dull misery of the situation become a sort of vague background noise.

This strategy is why I support Delta’s recent decision to end in-flight refreshments on trips of less than 350 miles. Unless the flight is long enough to warrant it, I don’t want my restless slumber disturbed by a voice asking if I want apple juice like it’s lunchtime at the day care or, if I’m the hapless occupant of an aisle seat, my elbow socket being rearranged by the passage of the snack cart.

I want it to just be me, my popping ears, and my very sore rear end until such time as we touch down and I can begin the “Mad Max: Fury Road” experience of trying to get off the plane.

I should have known, though, that modernity is never content to rest on its laurels. Like a roaring lion, it goes about constantly seeking whom it might devour — if by “devour” we mean “deprive of both money and will to live.” Since most airline passengers are neither sober nor watchful, the airlines are as good a place for devouring as any.

RELATED: Artemis II proves America still knows how to reach for the heavens

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

American Airlines is not alone in its quest to eliminate any and all in-flight respite. I have sat through what can only be described as lottery drawings on Spirit Airlines (may she rest in peace), heard random promotions for goodness knows what on Frontier, and been pitched on the same Delta credit card I had in my wallet at the time.

I understand, to a certain degree, why the airlines see fit to inflict these announcements on their passengers. If you look into it, you’ll find that most airlines today are basically just “banks that happen to fly planes.” They actually lose money on the flying part of the operation, which probably has something to do with the incessant attempts to bring customers over to the profitable side of the business.

The details of airline loyalty programs and how they have changed the industry is a story for another time. My concern is twofold.

First: How long can I endure these incessant credit card pitches before I commit self-harm or — far worse — break down and get one of them?

Second: What’s to stop this most heinous of sales methods from spreading to other forms of transportation? How long will it be before I have to endure automated pitches for the Honda GroundMiles Card whenever I stop at a red light?

I don’t expect much when I travel. Whether I’m sitting in Dallas traffic or at cruising altitude over Oklahoma, my greatest desire at this point is to endure the agony unassisted by the vicissitudes of corporate marketing.

​Airlines, Air travel, Airline credit cards, Delta airlines, Spirit airlines, Flying experience, Dallas, Detroit, Tsa, Frontier airlines, American airlines, Travel, Opinion & analysis 

A 29-year-old Florida male allegedly stabbed his grandmother 11 times on Mother’s Day after being asked to help carry in groceries.

The West Palm Beach Police Department said it received a call around 1:26 p.m. from a relative reporting that Keo Nottage had stabbed his grandmother, WPEC-TV reported.

‘Someone is going to die today.’

When officers arrived at the scene on 52nd Street, they found Nottage and his cousin involved in a physical altercation, the station said.

The grandmother — who was attacked during the incident — told officers Nottage’s cousin had just returned from the grocery store to prepare for a Mother’s Day dinner, WPEC said.

When the cousin asked Nottage to help bring in groceries, Nottage allegedly replied, “Someone is going to die today,” the station said.

Shortly afterward Nottage entered the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and stabbed his grandmother 11 times, WPEC reported.

Witnesses told the station the cousin tried to help the grandmother during the attack. According to a WPBF-TV video report, Nottage began chasing the cousin with the knife.

RELATED: ‘I’m not dying today’: Grandmother outwits, fights attackers after being severely beaten, threatened with her life in quaint Iowa wine shop where she works

WPEC said that while the cousin was on the phone with police, Nottage tried to flee the scene.

But the cousin stopped Nottage, which led to another physical altercation between the two and resulted in an injury to the cousin’s hand, WPEC said.

Surveillance video and eyewitness accounts confirmed the sequence of events, WPEC said, adding that police subsequently accused Nottage of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

WPBF said Nottage — who appeared in court Monday — is being held without bond.

The grandmother was taken to a hospital for surgery and was in critical condition, WPEC said.

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​Stabbing, Florida, Mother’s day, West palm beach, Grandmother, Groceries, Police, Arrest, Jailed, Attempted murder, Aggravated assault, Crime 

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson (D) took it a little too far last week when he screamed in the face of state troopers unprovoked, all because he disagreed with the result of the state’s redistricting special session.

Pearson not only asked the state troopers what was wrong with them while addressing them as “boy,” but he also yelled, “You stupid motherf**ker!”

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is disturbed by the outburst.

“What a juxtaposition, what a transformation that we went from the 1960s, where law enforcement was speaking disrespectfully to black protesters and black people and calling them ‘boy’ and being intimidating to in 2026, we have an elected official, a college-educated person, someone in a suit and tie that is supposed to be a professional person shouting ‘boy’ and dropping ‘MFs’ and all of this other stuff,” Whitlock comments.

“Like, wow, things have changed. And people want to pretend like things haven’t changed, but clearly they have,” he adds.

Whitlock explains that while black politicians like Pearson are framing the redistricting as a “black-white thing,” it’s actually “a Democrat-Republican thing.”

“Republicans, I believe, have a black woman that they want to put in that seat,” he continues, adding, “This is crazy.”

“He’s very dramatic,” Anthony Walker agrees.

“That video was just appalling to me because … if you’re really trying to fight for voter rights, what does this behavior do to support any of that? All it does is support the stereotype. All it does is support, you know, just foolishness,” he adds.

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​Black protesters, Black woman, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Elected official, Jason whitlock, Jason whitlock harmony, Justin pearson, Law enforcement, Liberal meltdown, Redistricting special session, State troopers, Stereotype, Tennessee state rep, The blaze, Voter rights 

The man arrested for shooting at security officers at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the alleged assassination attempt.

Cole Tomas Allen is charged with one count of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, one count of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and two counts of a gun charge.

Public defender Eugene Ohm said that it would be ‘wholly inappropriate’ for two attorneys general to be victims in the case while directing the prosecution’s case.

Allen was captured on surveillance video running through a security checkpoint before he fired his shotgun and was shot by an officer who saw him approaching. Investigators allegedly found a handgun and knives in his possession as well.

Investigators found a note allegedly written by Allen where he appeared to apologize in advance to his family for the assassination plot. He also left a manifesto and a long digital footprint documenting his hatred for the president and other members of his administration.

On Monday, he pleaded not guilty in court.

Allen’s attorneys have filed a motion to disqualify U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from the case as well as the other attorneys general from the Washington, D.C., office. They argue that Pirro’s statements to the media suggest they are “purported victims and witnesses” of the alleged assassination plot.

Public defender Eugene Ohm said that it would be “wholly inappropriate” for two attorneys general to be victims in the case while directing the prosecution’s case.

The government has until June 22 to respond to the motion.

If convicted, Allen faces life in prison for the charges.

RELATED: Judge APOLOGIZES to suspected would-be Trump assassin — and compares him to Jan. 6 defendants

Many were outraged when Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui apologized to Allen over the conditions of his imprisonment at the Washington, D.C., jail. He was placed on suicide restrictions, despite being cleared as a suicide risk.

“These conditions are excessive restrictions on his liberty that serve no justifiable purpose and deprive Mr. Allen of dignity while incarcerated,” his attorneys argued.

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Former FBI counterintelligence agent Wayne Barnes says one of the best ways to catch a spy is to ask a simple question — like when his birthday is.

Barnes, whose new book “A Traitor in the FBI: The Hunt for a Russian Mole” came out last month, spent nearly 30 years in counterintelligence, where he debriefed a record number of Soviet and Soviet-Bloc assets. In an interview with Align, Barnes described the psychological tactics, subtle tells, and ethical contrasts that defined Cold War espionage.

‘You have to have the straightest poker face you could ever imagine.’

Born yesterday

While Barnes acknowledges that his career could occasionally involve the kind of dramatic deception shown in the movies, he often employed more mundane subterfuge.

Take the man from Afghanistan who applied to join the FBI in the 1980s. While his background could have made him a useful asset, Barnes, then working as a security officer in Washington, D.C., wanted to vet him first.

The interview happened in late December. Noticing that the man had listed his birthday as January 1 on his application, Barnes decided to see how he handled a simple question.

“I asked, ‘Do you have any plans for your birthday?’ and he said, ‘Why’d you ask that?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s in a couple weeks.'”

Without thinking, the man corrected Barnes: “Oh no, my birthday is July 6.”

“For most people, the day they were born is a day that they won’t forget,” Barnes remembers telling the applicant.

From there, the man’s story began to fall apart. Eventually the agency concluded that the applicant was working for the Afghan mujahideen.

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Poker face

Barnes describes his interview technique as a “verbal polygraph”; it’s not an exact science, but if you know what you’re doing, it will “ferret out” a lot of people.

That required intense discipline from FBI agents themselves. When debriefing Soviet intelligence officers or defectors, Barnes says agents had to carefully conceal what they already knew.

“You have to have the straightest poker face you could ever imagine,” he says.

Agents would sometimes spread out photographs of Soviet embassy personnel they suspected of spying and casually ask whether the subject had seen them at a restaurant, training class, or bar. Every response mattered — not just what was said, but how long someone spoke, how nervous they appeared, or whether they seemed too rehearsed.

“[Did] he talk about him too long? Did he talk about him too short?” Barnes explains. “Debriefing intelligence officers is very tricky … and … very narrow.”

Barnes also notes that it was standard for agents from the Soviet Bloc to claim they had already compromised Western forces.

“Whether the Romanians or Czechs, or Poles or Hungarians, they always say, ‘Oh, we have you penetrated.'”

On the hook

Barnes also describes how Soviet operatives recruited Americans willing to sell secrets.

“Follow a guy from the Soviet embassy in his car. He leaves at 5:30, and [you] see he lives in a garden apartment someplace in Alexandria, Virginia,” Barnes details.

“He goes inside, and you have a note in your hand, and you put it under his windshield wiper, and the next morning he gets it. It says, ‘I have secrets to sell …'”

“The Russians almost always followed through,” Barnes says.

At first, the payments were small — just enough to create leverage.

“They’d say, ‘This was good stuff, but it’s only worth $5,000. If you want another $5,000, you need to bring more.'”

Once an American accepted money, Barnes says, fear and blackmail often kept them cooperating. In reality, however, the chances of the Russians exposing a spy were slim.

“The Russians won’t turn him in,” Barnes explains, as their priority is to extract as much information as possible.

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Moral difference

The Soviets were also not above pressuring their own agents by threatening family members, Barnes says.

“If your brother’s in college, his life is over,” Barnes says. “That’s the leverage [they] had on the KGB people.”

For Barnes, that dynamic highlighted what he viewed as a major moral difference between the United States and the Soviet Union. While Soviet intelligence services allegedly threatened defectors’ families, American handlers often tried to help them — including offering medical assistance or protection.

Many Soviet defectors, Barnes adds, changed sides not because of ideology, but because they realized they had been lied to about life in America.

“They’d come here and see stores full of food — entire stores just selling cheese,” Barnes says. “It was a, ‘They’ve been lying to me,’ sort of realization.”

That contrast, he says, often planted the seed for future cooperation with American intelligence.

“We live in a land of freedom,” Barnes concludes. “Compared to the Soviet Union, there’s nothing like America. … Their system was set up in such a way that was so different than ours. … So it was really a terrible place.”

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