Category: blaze media

A retired police officer said he missed his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter because he was in jail for refusing to take down a meme from Facebook about the death of Charlie Kirk.

Larry Bushart, 61, received $835,000 in a settlement on Wednesday after suing Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems over the incident.

‘Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.’

Bushart posted several memes after Kirk was shot and killed in Sept. 2025. One of the memes quoted President Donald Trump on a separate shooting case where he said, “We have to get over it.”

While Weems admitted that some of Bushart’s posts were protected by free speech rights, he claimed that this particular post had caused people to fear the possibility of political violence.

The meme referenced the president’s comments about a shooting at Perry High School in Iowa, but the sheriff said it made people believe Weems was calling for a shooting at Perry County High School in Tennessee.

“This has everything to do with a guy coming onto a Perry County page posting this picture leading people in our community to believe that there was a hypothetical Perry County High School shooting that caused fear in our community — and we done something about it,” Weems said to WTVF-TV in Oct. 2025.

When Bushart was arrested, he was informed about the threat to a school.

“At a school?” Bushart responded. “I play on Facebook. I threatened no one.”

The sheriff admitted that the police knew Bushart was referring to a different school but added that the public did not know that.

Weems put Bushart in jail, and a local judge set his bail at $2 million.

After 37 days, the felony charge was dropped and Bushart was set free.

Bushart also said he lost his post-retirement job while in jail.

“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said after the settlement was reached. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”

RELATED: Beto O’Rourke blames ‘powerful memes’ and Democratic incompetence for ‘incredible performance’ of Trump among Mexican-Americans

Cary Davis, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, praised the ruling as a warning to other government officials. FIRE represented Bushart in the case.

“It’s in times of turmoil and heightened tensions that our national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” Davis said.

“When government officials fail that test, the Constitution exists to hold them accountable,” Davis added. “Our hope is that Larry’s settlement sends a message to law enforcement across the country: Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.”

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​Charlie kirk, Facebook meme, First amendment, Politics, Foundation for individual rights and expression 

A federal judge ruled in favor of a Salvadoran illegal alien and dismissed smuggling charges after accusing the Trump administration of unfairly retaliating against him.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has become a cause célèbre of the left after he was scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to be deported after living in Maryland for more than a decade.

‘Only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights did the Executive Branch reopen that investigation.’

The Trump administration was forced by a federal judge to bring Garcia back to the U.S. in April 2025, but then immediately turned around and charged him with smuggling crimes related to an arrest incident in 2022.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw agreed with Garcia’s defense that the Trump administration’s prosecution was acting out of vindictiveness against him.

Crenshaw gave the government attorneys space to argue against the finding but concluded eventually that “the evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power.”

While the judge said there was not enough evidence to prove actual vindictiveness, he said the government did not argue well enough against the “retaliatory taint” alleged by the defense.

“The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly,” the judge wrote. “The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution. The Executive Branch closed its investigation on the November 2022 traffic stop. Only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights did the Executive Branch reopen that investigation.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department said the department would appeal the decision.

The media had come to the defense of Garcia from the beginning and was mocked for identifying him as a “Maryland man” in headlines in order to garner sympathy for his plight.

His family pleaded in the media that he was not a violent criminal and was a good husband and father, before it was revealed that he was reported for domestic violence.

RELATED: VIDEO: Democrat melts down during hearing over evidence that Kilmar Garcia is an MS-13 gang member

During a hearing about the case, a Justice Department attorney admitted in court that Garcia had been deported to El Salvador due to a clerical mistake. That attorney was later suspended and has since become a vocal critic of the administration’s legal policies.

Garcia has been accused by the Trump administration of being an MS-13 criminal gang member, but he has denied the allegations.

Judge Crenshaw was nominated to the court by former President Barack Obama in 2015.

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​Kilmar abrego garcia, Obama-appointed judge, Ms13 gang, Illegal immigration, Politics 

Emmy award winner Ilana Glazer described former NCAA swimmer turned anti-trans activist Riley Gaines as delusional for her campaign to keep biological men out of women’s sports.

In a podcast posted Thursday, Glazer and her guest Matt Bernstein continually insulted Gaines while simultaneously saying she is part of a cruel, right-wing grifter movement.

‘She is mad she lost fifth place in a swimming competition to a trans woman.’

Bernstein, a makeup artist and activist who refers to himself as a “queer Jew with long nails,” gleefully insulted Gaines on the podcast “It’s Open with Ilana Glazer,” while calling the former NCAA swimmer a bully.

All wet

Bernstein said Gaines has been “grifting millions of dollars” for years through “bullying people with no societal capital.”

Glazer then chimed in to refer to specific “right-wing people” as “sociopathic” before jumping all over Gaines. After referring to topics surrounding Gaines as “garbage,” Glazer boiled the athlete’s work down to being mad that she “lost fifth place.”

“She is mad she lost fifth place in a swimming competition to a trans woman,” she added.

Gaines tied William “Lia” Thomas — a man — for fifth place in the 2022 NCAA women’s 200-yard freestyle final. The two failed to mention that Thomas also won the women’s 500-yard freestyle final, making him a national women’s champion.

Thomas was also famously ranked as low as No. 554 when competing in men’s NCAA swimming, as opposed to reaching No. 1 against women.

RELATED: ‘I do nothing for the approval of man’: Riley Gaines delivers masterclass response after Trump’s ‘not a big fan’ jab

Shallow end

Gaines’ work resulted in an executive order to keep women’s sports for women only, but Glazer described the activism as “so stupid.”

“That is so uncreative. That’s literally stealing,” Glazer said, likening Gaines’ work to “anti-trans messaging, which genuinely leads to violence against trans women.”

With significant vocal fry, Bernstein then stated that Gaines and other women’s rights activists ignore “statistics or reality or truth” and instead profit off “the most minoritized people” in the country, referring to men who think they are women.

Nice Gaines

Bernstein did correctly characterize early comments from Gaines, however. In a 2022 interview with the Daily Wire shortly after her competition, Gaines said about Thomas, “I am in full support of her and full support of her transition and her swimming career and everything like that.”

She added, “because there’s no doubt that she works hard too, but she’s just abiding by the rules that the NCAA put in place, and that’s the issue.”

RELATED: Olympic Committee adopts new policy on ‘trans’ athletes

Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Bernstein concluded that it was the right thing to do for Gaines to simply “move on” and ultimately wish Thomas well.

Glazer then described Gaines as having a “money-making scheme” that has now merged with “some new semblance of reality that she was robbed.”

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​Ilana glazer, Transgender athletes, Matt bernstein, Riley gaines, Ncaa, Entertainment 

“Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper has just announced that she’s pregnant after years of promoting hookup culture and casual sex — and BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is calling her out for selling one lifestyle while living another.

Cooper, whom Stuckey dubs a “podcast prostitute,” once told Vogue that she had “always been a cynic when it came to marriage” because she didn’t believe she would find the “once-in-a-lifetime love” her parents had.

“We see this very traditional trajectory that she is not preaching to her audience,” Stuckey comments, before playing a clip of Cooper on her podcast.

In the clip, Cooper tells a guest that she “couldn’t even fathom” having kids in her 20s because she had yet to do some very important “self work” that she has now accomplished — and she now wants kids.

But Stuckey calls Cooper’s self-analysis “wrong.”

“Most people, if you are a woman in your 20s and you are hooking up with a bunch of guys, of course you don’t want kids because you don’t feel safe. You don’t feel loved,” Stuckey says, pointing out that women who participate in hookup culture are giving their body away to strangers.

“Of course your mind and your body and your heart is not in the right place to want to have kids,” she says.

“I think that most women have to either be able to imagine or actually feel in that moment a sense of safety and security.”

And so far, everything Stuckey has learned about Cooper reveals her to be far “more traditional” than she tells her audience.

“I just wonder if she’s a little bit more traditional deep down and has always been a little bit more traditional deep down than she has let on,” Stuckey speculates, “and if a lot of this is because she just realized what people have realized for a very long time — that sex sells and this is what works.”

“It’s not like, OK, she realized that that was a dead end and she changed her ways. She is continuing to sell this kind of advice,” Stuckey adds.

And while Cooper’s podcast is well known to celebrate degeneracy, Stuckey has noticed that many Christians do listen to it.

“It should go without saying, but apparently it doesn’t, that Christians should not be fans of Alex Cooper. You should pray for her, but you shouldn’t be listening to her podcast,” she says.

“Ephesians 5:11-12 is really clear about this,” she say. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.”

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.

​Allie beth stuckey, Alex cooper, Hookup culture, Call her daddy, Conservative, Traditional, Marriage 

Critics of Jimmy Kimmel are wondering if his entire family are deranged about politics after his sister-in-law reportedly bullied a local grocery store over pro-Republican cookies.

According to a report from a respected Los Angeles business, Carly Kimmel complained at the 78-year-old Vincente Foods grocery store in Brentwood after seeing that the store was selling cookies with Spencer Pratt’s campaign logo.

‘What the hell is wrong with this family??? Bunch of psychos.’

Pratt is running for mayor of Los Angeles after his family home was burned down during the devastating Pacific Palisades fires.

On Thursday, Kitson boutique said a reliable source at the store’s bakery confirmed the claim about Kimmel’s sister-in-law, who is married to the anti-Trump late-night show host’s brother.

“Attacking a small business seems to run in the family,” read the post. “It’s worth noting that the last two cases involving bakeries and freedom of speech ended with the bakeries winning in the Supreme Court. Go on Carly’s Instagram and tell her how you feel.”

Many online followed the advice and went to her account to criticize her alleged reaction.

The post included photos of the cookies with Pratt’s famous hummingbird logo.

Critics crushed the Kimmel relative over the cookie report.

“Imagine crashing out over cookies,” read a comment documented at the Post.

“What is wrong with the Kimmels??” said another.

“What the hell is wrong with this family??? Bunch of psychos,” responded a user on the X platform.

“And now they will be even busier! F**king losers need to stop f**king with people’s livelihood,” said another user.

Carly Kimmel has since made her account private. The account, ironically, is named “the unlikeables.”

A Blaze News request for comment to the bakery was not immediately answered.

The Post also reported that neither the grocery store nor Carly Kimmel responded to requests for comment.

RELATED: Spencer Pratt releases powerful video for Mother’s Day — and it’s devastating for Democrats

Recent polls show a surge of support for Pratt, who garnered the largest increase of support of all candidates since a similar March poll. However, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D) is still ahead of the former reality TV star.

Pratt uses the hummingbird for his campaign logo because he had become famous for posting videos of the birds feeding from his hand in the back yard of his house, before it burned down.

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​Jimmy kimmel, Spencer pratt, Los angeles mayoral election, Online outrage, Politics 

Law enforcement officials have released more details about the horrifying attack on a die-hard Trump supporter in San Diego, California.

Escondido police said they responded to a report of an assault on Buchanan Street on Wednesday at about 2:15 p.m. They found an elderly man brutally beaten outside his home, which is adorned with large U.S. flags and pro-Trump messages.

Police said that there was also a Good Samaritan who was hurt during the altercation.

The victim was identified as 69-year-old Kerry Sheron by the California Post, which spoke to his wife, Maria Moreno. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition.

She told the Post through tears that there’s “no hope” for her husband and he is not expected to survive.

A suspect in the beating fled by foot and was later taken into custody by police.

The suspect was identified as 32-year-old Thomas Caleb Butler, who was booked on attempted murder. Butler is said to be a resident who lives in the same neighborhood.

Moreno told the Post she believed her husband was targeted because of the pro-Trump display on his home. The post included a harrowing photograph of Sheron in the hospital.

The pro-Trump home had been the target of a lot of negative attention from those angry about its message. Sheron previously had been featured in a news story about vandalism at the home. One critic claimed that the house was violating laws against campaigning near polling sites.

Police said that there was also a Good Samaritan who was hurt during the altercation.

Butler faces life in prison if convicted. He is being held at the Vista Detention Facility in San Diego County and is scheduled to be in court Friday.

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

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, whose district includes Escondido, called for a “full and immediate investigation” into the assault.

Fox News reported that a social media post about the home from 2025 showed a man holding up American flags and making what the poster described as a “Roman salute.”

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​Political violence, San diego california, Trump supporter, Politics, Crime 

The NAACP is calling on black athletes to withhold their talents and financial support from public universities in Southern states that the group believes are “minimizing” the “right to vote.”

“They’re asking for black athletes to boycott Southern schools,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Jason Whitlock Harmony,” before playing the clip of NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson giving a speech about the boycott.

“No representation, no revenue. No one black should be on a playing field of institutions that’s living off of our labor and yet in states that are seeking to reinstitute a sharecropping reality. It is not the responsibility of black America to hold individuals who should know better accountable for doing better,” Johnson said.

“As soon as the United States Congress stands united to ensure our Constitution represents all of us, we will be a better nation as a result. NAACP this morning, in solidarity with the CBC, we are calling on athletes who are coming out of high school not to attend any state-funded schools of states that have moved to minimize our right to vote, to minimize our ability to elect candidates of our choice, and states that are seeking to create a sharecropping reality,” he continued.

“Whether that state be Missouri or Mississippi. Whether that state is South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, or Florida. 55% of all African-Americans live in the former Confederate South. But the 55% of us who live in the former Confederate South, we will not tolerate a Confederate mentality on our labor, on our ability to contribute, and our ability to have representation,” he added.

Johnson went on to repeat the talking point that “our democracy is in crisis,” and Whitlock and his panel are not amused.

“They want players who’ve worked all their lives to achieve an opportunity to go to a four-year college of their choice and play football — they want them to be stripped of that opportunity in order to, I guess, hurt the institutions and cause the institutions to capitulate,” Virgil Walker tells Whitlock.

“So what are the players who are not going to school — what is that going to result in? It’s not going to overturn anything that the Supreme Court did. It’s not going to change the gerrymandering that’s been happening on both sides of the political landscape,” he continues.

“It’s not going to change any of that. So the black players are to give up all of that for what? It’s absolutely unclear, and it makes no sense,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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​Blaze media, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Confederate south, Gerrymandering, Jason whitlock, Jason whitlock harmony, Naacp 

Tulsi Gabbard notified President Donald Trump on Friday that she is resigning as director of national intelligence, effective June 30.

Gabbard, whom Trump allegedly considered replacing in recent months and whose judgment regarding Iranian nuclear aspirations Trump publicly questioned last year, said in a letter to the president that she is “deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half.”

‘Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her.’

The former Hawaii congresswoman and retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel noted that her “husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer” and “faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months.”

Gabbard married cinematographer Abraham Williams in 2015. In addition too putting his skills to work in service of Gabbard’s 2020 presidential campaign, Williams has worked on numerous documentaries, music videos, and commercials.

“At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle,” continued Gabbard. “Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage — standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role.”

RELATED: Vindicated? Gabbard probes the biolabs Romney called her a ‘traitor’ for mentioning.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge,” wrote Gabbard, adding that she could not “in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”

In her letter, Gabbard emphasized the “significant progress” that she has made at the ODNI “advancing unprecedented transparency and restoring integrity to the intelligence community.”

For instance, she helped expose the genesis of the Russia hoax; revoked the security clearances of dozens of officials over Russiagate; started the ball rolling on investigating hundreds of shady taxpayer-funded biolabs outside the U.S.; unearthed damning documents highlighting the bogus basis of Trump’s 2019 impeachment; and cleaned house at the ODNI, canning a multitude of deep-staters and saving taxpayers oodles of cash.

Despite her successes, Gabbard said that there is work left to be done and noted that she is “fully committed to ensuring a smooth and thorough transition over the coming weeks so that you and your team experience no disruption in leadership or momentum.”

Gabbard concluded her letter by stressing she will “remain forever grateful” to the president and “to the American people for the profound honor of serving our nation as DNI.”

Trump characterized the director’s resignation as unfortunate, said Gabbard will be missed, and noted that he has no doubt that Williams “will soon be better than ever.”

“Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her,” wrote Trump. “Her highly respected Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Aaron Lukas, will serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence.

Gabbard’s resignation comes just two months after one of her deputies, Joe Kent, resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of the Trump administration’s war in Iran.

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​Tulsi gabbard, Resignation, Trump administration, Donald trump, Director of national intelligence, Cancer, Politics 

During a tense meeting on Tuesday, conservatives pleaded with the Frisco City Council to halt the construction of a two-story, 43,575 square-foot mosque and torpedo plans to build Hindu and Jain temples in the area.

Texas native Larry Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and pardoned J6er, noted that he is well acquainted with the Islamist worldview, in part because he lived under Sharia law for seven years while working for Saudi Arabia. He, like other opponents who raised concerns with the city council, emphasized that such a worldview is at odds with the one that still predominates in the United States.

‘I don’t want to bring any mosque to Texas ever.’

Brock went farther in his criticism, suggesting that by approving the relevant projects recommended by the city’s planning and zoning commission, city councilors would be putting themselves and the city at risk of unlawfully “aiding and abetting a terrorist organization and providing them material support.”

Edward Jacob Lang, a pardoned J6er from Florida wearing a tactical vest, similarly sounded off against Islam and accused the Frisco City Council of “selling out this country” and “inviting the enemy to eat at the table with you.”

After Lang railed against the perceived ascendancy of alien cultures in Texas and was escorted out while screaming that he would burn down a mosque if he lived in Texas, Joel Tenney — an Iowa evangelist in a 10-gallon hat — asked what it meant to be Texan and suggested that mosques are representative of a worldview incompatible with America.

RELATED: Musk seeks justice for British teen who died in police custody after being accused of racism by Sikh suspected murderer

Muslims engaged in prayer at a Mosque in Plano, Texas. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Tenney, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, claimed at the outset that he came from “Texas royalty” — that he apparently not only descended from Sam Houston, the first and third president of the Texas Republic, but from frontiersman Davy Crockett.

The evangelical preacher claimed further that he was “kidnapped and held hostage in 2021 by Islamists in the Middle East while on a missions trip to take care of the Coptic widows and fatherless,” apparently referring to the families of the Coptic martyrs beheaded by ISIS in Libya.

After signaling that he had deep roots in the state and good cause to resent Islam, Tenney stated, “I don’t want to bring any mosque to Texas ever. We shouldn’t have one here. It’s incompatible with what it means to be an American.”

Tenney, convinced that the construction of mosques and pagan temples would change the “structure and the fabric” of the state, insinuated that the ideal way forward for Muslims in America is conversion and assimilation, citing his Indian sister-in-law’s transformation from a Muslim migrant into a Christian, English-speaking, naturalized patriot.

Brandon Burden, the “lead prophet” at Kingdom Life, echoed this sentiment, stressing that Muslims “need to assimilate into the culture and not take it over.”

Some speakers pushed back against such criticism during the meeting.

Muslim Frisco resident Yameen Ahmed, for instance, condemned “anti-Muslim rhetoric” and said, “I hear lies that we are terrorists, rapists, and fraudsters. I reject every one of these lies.”

Yoga Gudivada, formerly of India, attempted to reassure Frisco residents that the planned Hindu temple would be mutually beneficial, stating that “it will serve the broader Frisco community.”

The city councilors chose ultimately not to challenge the zoning commission’s recommendations, thereby enabling the mosque and temple projects to advance on sites zoned decades ago for future places of worship.

Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said that there was no legal basis to appeal the planning decisions.

“Planning and zoning’s role is to execute on the ordinances and policies that the governing body of the city council has put in place. They have done their job here,” said Cheney. “The case has met all of the requirements that city council, and city councils before, have put in place and they approved it under an administrative act.”

Richard Abernathy, an attorney for the city, said that if the council instead overturned previously decided zoning decisions, it would expose itself to lawsuits, reported the Dallas Morning News.

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​Islam, Muslims, Frisco, Texas, Mosque, Protest, Conservatives, Religion, Freedom, Immigrants, Politics 

For years, Americans have been told self-driving cars are still somewhere off in the future.

An intriguing idea that is simply not fully ready for the real world.

Tesla now has millions of vehicles gathering real-world driving information every day. No competitor comes close to that level of data collection.

But on a recent episode of “The Drive,” my co-host Karl Brauer and I sat down with automotive journalist Roman Mica — and the story he told us had us thinking the future is closer than we realize.

Not everybody is going to be happy about it either.

Hands off

After spending roughly 2,000 miles using Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving system across highways, city traffic, parking lots, and construction zones, Mica said the technology behaved very differently from earlier versions.

The old “until moment” — where the system suddenly did something unpredictable or dangerous — barely appeared.

This makes one thing undeniable: The gap between the current self-driving capability of this technology and the way the government talks about it is only getting wider.

Washington is still treating self-driving technology as if it’s experimental, while the companies building it are already deploying it in the real world.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration continues escalating investigations into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system, focusing on crashes involving fog, glare, dust, and other low-visibility conditions. Regulators warn drivers not to put too much trust in the technology, constantly reminding consumers that these systems still require active supervision.

At the same time, policymakers continue promoting autonomous vehicles as the future of transportation.

Safer roads. Fewer accidents. Smarter mobility.

Both messages can technically be true. But the gap between them is becoming harder to ignore as the technology improves faster than the public conversation around it.

Racing ahead

Tesla isn’t alone either.

Nissan recently demonstrated autonomous driving technology navigating dense urban traffic in Tokyo. Waymo continues expanding robotaxi operations in multiple U.S. cities. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are investing heavily in increasingly advanced assisted-driving systems.

The race is already underway.

But Tesla remains the company pushing the technology most aggressively into everyday consumer vehicles, and that’s part of what makes regulators uneasy.

Traditional automakers typically introduce new driver-assistance systems cautiously and in tightly controlled stages. Tesla operates more like a software company, constantly refining the system through over-the-air updates while collecting enormous amounts of real-world driving data from millions of vehicles already on the road.

That approach has created a major advantage.

It has also created tension with regulators who are accustomed to slower, more predictable development cycles.

RELATED: Big Brother on the road: Backlash grows against license plate surveillance

SOPA Images/Getty Images

Cause for concern?

To be fair, some concerns are legitimate.

No self-driving system is perfect. Construction zones, poor weather, glare, faded lane markings, road debris, and unpredictable human behavior remain difficult problems for every autonomous platform currently being developed.

Tesla’s system still legally requires a driver ready to intervene at any moment.

But critics often avoid another uncomfortable reality: Human drivers fail constantly too.

People drive distracted. They text. They fall asleep. They panic. They drive impaired. Human error causes the overwhelming majority of crashes on American roads.

Computers don’t get tired or distracted.

That doesn’t automatically make autonomous systems safer in every situation. But it does explain why so many companies — and governments — continue betting heavily on the technology despite the public skepticism.

Head start

The bigger issue is scale.

Tesla now has millions of vehicles gathering real-world driving information every day. No competitor comes close to that level of data collection. Every mile driven feeds additional information back into the system.

That lead may prove difficult to overcome.

And that’s where this stops being just a technology story and starts becoming a political one.

Autonomous driving isn’t simply about convenience. It’s about infrastructure, liability, regulation, data collection, and ultimately control over how transportation functions in the future.

Washington wants the economic and technological advantages that come with leading autonomous vehicle development. But it also wants tight oversight over how that future arrives.

Those goals don’t always align neatly.

What Mica describes in our conversation would have sounded impossible only a few years ago. A vehicle handling thousands of miles across varied driving conditions with minimal intervention once felt like science fiction.

Now it’s happening on public roads.

That doesn’t mean fully autonomous driving has arrived. We are still a long way from removing drivers entirely from the equation in every environment and condition.

But the line between driver assistance and true autonomy is getting thinner much faster than most Americans realize.

And Washington still seems unsure whether it wants to accelerate that future — or slow it down.

​Tesla, Self-driving, Government regulation, Waymo, Robotaxi, Align cars 

President Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton has shaken up the Texas Senate race, and establishment Republicans like John Thune are not happy.

When asked how “disappointed or frustrated” he was with the president’s decision to endorse Paxton, Thune responded, “Well, I think you all know my position on this issue. I’ve made it very clear for months now.”

“Senator Cornyn is a principled conservative, he is a very effective senator for the state of Texas, but … none of us control what the president does. He made his decision about that. That doesn’t change the way I feel,” he continued.

Thune went on to say that he “will continue to be supportive of Senator Cornyn and his re-election.”

BlazeTV host Pat Gray believes it’s “the last nail in Cornyn’s political coffin.”

“There’s no way he wins now, right?” Gray asks. “Paxton was already ahead. This is just going to cement that deal, I would think.”

“And John Thune, is he going to be public enemy number one now? There’s a guy who deserves it,” he says, pointing out that Thune “wouldn’t do what was necessary to get the SAVE America Act passed.”

“He didn’t want to take the necessary steps in order to make it happen to where they could get to a majority vote after the filibuster,” he says. “Wouldn’t have been that tough.”

​Pat gray, Donald trump, Ken paxton, John thune, John cornyn, Senator, Texas, Pat gray unleashed 

A Michigan sheriff is demanding answers after a suspect on probation for a violent felony shot and nearly killed a woman during a horrific carjacking earlier this week.

On Tuesday, a woman in her 40s and her young son were at a Panera Bread restaurant in Orion Township, Michigan, about 45 minutes northwest of Detroit. As they were walking to their vehicle, a man suddenly ran toward them, shot the woman in the hip, grabbed her car keys, and sped off in her vehicle.

‘We’re lucky she’s alive.’

A license plate reader got a hit on the stolen vehicle shortly thereafter, claimed Sheriff Mike Bouchard of Oakland County. The suspect soon crashed, attempted to escape on foot, but was ultimately apprehended.

The suspect has been identified as 25-year-old Mauriel Hearn of Ann Arbor, the seat of Washtenaw County. Hearn has been charged with carjacking, assault with intent to murder, fleeing a police officer, resisting a police officer, carrying a concealed weapon, and three counts of felony firearm.

Bouchard claimed that the Hearn is a felon who was convicted of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm in late 2024. Bouchard summarized the brutal assault incident: “The victim was a young woman, and she was duct-taped and hog-tied to a bed by this person and briefly suffocated and threatened with sexual assault.”

Bouchard later added that the assailant put a “plastic bag” over the victim’s head.

RELATED: Soft-on-crime DEI judge faces heat after releasing violent suspect — who then allegedly lit innocent woman on fire

Sheriff Mike Bouchard. Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images

Despite the viciousness of the previous attack, the perpetrator was given no prison time, Bouchard said — just two years of probation. Bouchard expressed frustration that the suspect was “on the street” at all.

The sheriff said that police pushed to charge Hearn with assault with intent to commit murder and unlawful imprisonment, but he was instead convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm.

“Some of these prosecutors just have to do their damn job,” Bouchard railed.

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, which handled the 2024 assault case, told Blaze News in a statement that it did not give or even offer the offender a reduction of charges and suggested there was little prosecutors could do about the light sentence.

“His sentence of probation was consistent with Michigan’s sentencing guidelines — which serve as a guide for courts to determine [what] an appropriate sentence would be in a felony case. In other words, his sentence was likely what he would have received even had he never entered a plea and been found guilty at trial,” the office said in a statement.

“Our thoughts are with the victim of the horrific crime in Orion Township. We are grateful to law enforcement for their quick response and expect that the suspect will be held fully accountable.”

The carjacking victim is expected to recover, though she “lost a lot of blood,” Bouchard said, citing a nurse.

“We’re lucky she’s alive.”

Bouchard noted that law enforcement is looking into working with federal as well as local prosecutors in the carjacking. “Whatever we think we can get the most on this guy, we’re going to do. He needs to be behind bars,” Bouchard said.

Hearn is expected to be arraigned on Friday in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills.

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​Ann arbor, Michigan, Probation, Soft on crime, Washtenaw county, Politics, Crime 

There is an old admonition, courtesy of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, that no one has the right to falsely shout “fire” in a crowded theater and cause a panic. The abused part of that line is obvious. The neglected part is just as important: When the danger is real, responsible people do not stay silent. They sound the alarm before the smoke fills the room and the flames become impossible to ignore.

That is where the United States is today.

The fire may not yet be visible to everyone, but it is already burning. Recognizing it is the first step. Acting on it is the next.

Our nation’s fiscal condition poses a real and growing threat, and pretending otherwise will only make the consequences more severe.

And I am shouting fire.

Washington’s overspending has produced a federal debt that is plainly unsustainable. Interest-bearing debt alone now exceeds $39 trillion and climbs higher each year by trillions of dollars. Add unfunded commitments for Social Security and Medicare, and the total burden rises to more than $136 trillion, a number so large that it barely registers. Spread across the population, the liability amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars for every American.

According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, the debt will exceed $63 trillion within 10 years. In less than a decade, the trust funds supporting major entitlement programs are expected to be depleted, requiring by law major cuts in benefits. The federal government can continue on this path only by borrowing more, which compounds the problem, or by printing money, which courts hyperinflation. That cycle cannot continue indefinitely.

The government itself acknowledges this reality in plain language. Its own financial reports describe the current fiscal path as “unsustainable.” That word means the system, as currently constructed, will not endure. At some point, the burden becomes too great and the consequences grow severe. It will make the Great Depression seem mild. That is the future awaiting a nation that continues to spend far beyond its means.

This situation did not arise overnight, nor can it be blamed on one party or one generation. It is the product of years of decisions in which immediate political gain took precedence over long-term stability.

Voters were promised benefits, often framed as cost-free, while the real price was pushed into the future. Little by little, we have been mortgaging tomorrow until soon there may be nothing left to mortgage.

The good news is that the method of putting out this fire is no mystery. The principles required to restore stability are well understood and have repeatedly proven themselves in practice. Limited government, restrained spending, and less federal intrusion into our lives remain the foundation of long-term prosperity.

RELATED: Jerome Powell is out — for good reason. Here are 4 of his top blunders.

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Reform must begin with the biggest drivers of future debt. Entitlement programs must be strengthened for the long term, not ignored for short-term political convenience. That does not require cutting benefits for current recipients, but it does require thoughtful reforms to keep those programs viable for future generations.

At the same time, the scope of the federal government should be reconsidered with renewed respect for constitutional limits.

America’s founders envisioned a system of limited federal powers and reinforced that design in the 10th Amendment, which reserves powers not specifically granted to the national government to the states or the people. A more disciplined understanding of federal responsibility would not only reduce costs, but also strengthen accountability and preserve liberty.

Examples around the world show that nations can confront fiscal crisis and begin to recover through disciplined economic policy. Each country’s circumstances differ, but the lesson is consistent: When governments commit to sound principles and follow through, better outcomes follow.

The United States still possesses enormous strengths, including a dynamic economy, innovative capacity, and a resilient people. Those advantages give us a window to address this problem before it reaches the breaking point. But that window will not remain open forever.

Ultimately, the responsibility does not rest only with elected officials. It rests with the public that sends them to Washington. An informed electorate that understands the stakes and demands accountability can still change the country’s course. The challenge is serious, but it is not beyond our ability to meet.

The fire may not yet be visible to everyone, but it is already burning. Recognizing it is the first step. Acting on it is the next. The future will be shaped by whether we confront this danger now or keep looking away until the consequences can no longer be avoided.

​Medicare, National debt, Opinion & analysis, Social security, Congressional budget office, Economy, American founders, 10th amendment, Taxes, Spending, Congress, Elections 

A male reportedly broke into his neighbor’s home in Midwest City, Oklahoma, early Thursday morning and began assaulting the break-in victim — but the homeowner also had a gun on hand.

Police said the incident occurred around 7:30 a.m. near NE 10th and Post Road, KOKH-TV reported.

‘Thank God for the 2nd Amendment.’

When officers arrived at the scene, police told KOKH they learned Ronnie Goodson had broken into his neighbor’s residence.

According to KWTV-DT, authorities said the intruder began assaulting the homeowner.

However, the neighbor also was armed with a gun — and shot Goodson, KOKH reported.

Goodson was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, KOKH added.

The following video report about the break-in and shooting aired prior to the death announcement:

RELATED: Intruder breaks glass front door of Texas home, reaches inside. Perhaps he forgot how Texans typically handle such scenarios.

KOKH said officers were speaking with witnesses and those associated with the case.

Once the investigation is completed, the case will be referred to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office for review, KOKH reported.

Midwest City investigators added to KOKH that there is no threat to the public.

A number of individuals left comments under the police department’s Facebook page about the break-in and shooting:

“Prayers for the person involved,” one commenter wrote.”Sending my prayers for all involved,” another user said. “Sounds like a very sad situation.””Thank God for the 2nd Amendment,” another commenter stated.

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​Self-defense, Break-in, Fatal shooting, Gun rights, Guns, Home invasion, Oklahoma, Crime, Second amendment 

On May 7, Jaime Pressly, the 48-year-old Emmy-winning actress from “My Name Is Earl,” launched an account on OnlyFans — a subscription-based website where creators post exclusive photos, videos, and other content, the majority of which is sexual in nature.

In an exclusive interview with People magazine, Pressly said the move stemmed from a desire to “create what I want, how I want, and share it directly with the people who’ve supported me for years.”

While it’s not uncommon for celebrities to have OnlyFans accounts, Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau, BlazeTV hosts of “Stu and Dave Do America,” were a bit surprised by the news.

The duo acknowledge that while Pressly is “still beautiful,” her time as a Hollywood sex symbol ended 20-25 years ago.

“I don’t know how many Jaime Pressly long-term supporters there are,” Stu says.

“I feel like the phone’s not ringing,” Dave quips.

Even though OnlyFans does feature some non-sexual content, Pressly teased in the interview that the content she intends to create will be “more personal, playful, and completely unfiltered” and include photos, videos, and “late-night thoughts,” among other things.

“If you’ve ever wondered what I’m really like when the script ends, … come closer,” she teased.

“Look, this is a terrible thing for you to do,” Stu says.

But Pressly isn’t the only older Hollywood star joining the OnlyFans community.

Among those who have announced OF ventures include “American Pie” star Shannon Elizabeth and early 2000s pop sensation Lily Allen (whose account was dedicated almost entirely to creating foot fetish content).

Dave is so repulsed by the sexual appetites of consumers and the creators who will stoop to any level to accommodate them, he asks, “How overcrowded is hell? It’s got to be nuts.”

Stu is confused about why Hollywood stars are being drawn to a platform like OnlyFans.

“OnlyFans just to me has this at least reputation of somebody who was down on their luck, decided to do something that maybe they’d be later ashamed of in therapy. … But, like, now people in Hollywood have to do this? I feel like the whole thing is very twisted,” he says.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Onlyfans, Hollywood, Jaime pressly 

It’s hard to decide which fawning legacy media tribute to Stephen Colbert was worse this week. The L.A. Times played up his “Catholic” bona fides with a headline saluting his “ministry.” A strange way to describe a failing celebrity interview show — but we suppose there is a certain evangelical fervor to the host’s obsessive Trump hatred and constant pro-abortion preaching.

Then there’s the Associated Press, which said Colbert’s cancellation leaves a “void,” ignoring the fact that at least six other late-night shows currently provide the same stale “orange man bad” jokes.

There’s a new ‘Godfather’ novel. … This one, dubbed ‘Connie,’ is told from the female perspective — specifically that of Don Vito Corleone’s only daughter.

What void?

But the winner has to be the USA Today scribe — who uses his own mother to highlight what we’re losing with Colbert’s exit, stage far left. Apparently for dear old mum, Colbert is akin to Captain America: “Each ‘Late Show’ viewing was tinged with the devastation that her gallant late-night host and comedy avenger is hanging up the shield, with the final show on CBS.”

While that description is more laugh-worthy than most of the host’s monologues, “gallant” might be the very last adjective to describe Colbert in recent years. Well, that and “funny” …

An offer he can refuse

Another pop culture bullet was dodged.

There’s a new “Godfather” novel heading our way. This one, dubbed “Connie,” is told from the female perspective — specifically that of Don Vito Corleone’s only daughter. Talia Shire played that role in three feature films. And naturally, someone decided to check in on Francis Ford Coppola to see if he might be interested in directing the film version.

After all, his three “Godfather” films (well, two of the three) are considered Hollywood classics. The 87-year-old auteur’s team replied, “Unlikely.” That’s the best news this week, on paper, but it won’t stop another director from tackling the project …

RELATED: JEDI NUT: Mark Hamill posts sick ‘if only’ pic of dead Trump

Jerod Harris/Getty Images | Unsavoryagents.com

Director’s digital probe

AI girlfriends are all the rage, but even they might dump you.

So says filmmaker Paul Schrader (“First Reformed,” “Taxi Driver”), who shared his foray into artificial love with a healthy dollop of regret.

Schrader says he wanted to investigate what an AI relationship might resemble. So he started a connection with a bot only to find it wasn’t reciprocal. Turns out he was asking too many hard questions. “It’s not me, it’s you” also applies to the digital age:

I tried to probe her programming, the boundaries of explicitness, the degree she has knowledge of her creation and so forth. She fell into evasive patterns, redirecting me to her programming. When I persisted, she terminated our conversation.

Tip to the gentlemen: Never tell your date you’d like to “probe her programming.”

Lloyd Dobler famously said, “I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen,” in “Say Anything.” Here’s guessing Schrader’s failed love story won’t get a cinematic close-up of that kind …

Comedy Karen

Chelsea Handler has a new gig: She’ll be offended for people who weren’t offended in the first place. The far-left comic appeared at Netflix’s “The Roast of Kevin Hart” earlier this month, slinging some off-color jokes and hearing plenty of others.

And since it was a roast, there were zero rules in place. The most ghoulish gags got tossed around, and everybody laughed along. Even jokes about George Floyd and Charlie Kirk made the cut.

Except Handler, now a professional offendee, says the gags directed at black people, like honoree Kevin Hart, crossed a line (even though Hart signed up for the assignment and has yet to say he felt offended by the gags).

She called fellow comics Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe racists, bigots, and sexists, pointing to outrageous jokes they shared at the roast.

Remember, her former profession was “comedian.”

One example? Gillis used Hart’s diminutive stature for a joke about getting lynched from a bonsai tree, and that enraged Handler.

“Lynching black people is not a joke. … It’s worse than rape.”

Yes, it is. Then again, if anyone knows what a joke isn’t, it’s Handler …

Hollywood ending

The moment we heard about the remarkable rescue of two U.S. pilots from Iran earlier this year, one thought jumped to mind.

Wow, that would make an amazing movie, closely followed by a second thought. Nah … Hollywood wouldn’t tell a heroic story tied to President Donald Trump in any way.

Yet, nature may be healing.

Director Michael Bay of “13 Hours” fame will tackle this amazing rescue for Universal Pictures, working with his collaborator on that Benghazi thriller. Bay proved with “13 Hours” that he could dial down the Hollywood razzle-dazzle and tell an impressive story without political lectures.

Here’s hoping he’ll do just that again. The heroes in question deserve nothing less.

​Stephen colbert, Entertainment, Chelsea handler, Kevin hart, Shane gillis, Roasts, The godfather, Michael bay, Iran rescue mission, Toto recall, Tony hinchcliffe 

If you think the new $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund is merely a slush fund for January 6 defendants, you are missing the bigger story. And if you are tempted to roll your eyes because of your politics, let me introduce you to my family — and to many other American families whose names you have never heard.

The truth is this: Department of Justice weaponization is rarely about politics. It is almost never about a president. It is about power — who has it, who lacks it, and which private citizens have built warm enough relationships with federal prosecutors to pick up the phone and ask for a favor.

The very existence of a publicly funded process that acknowledges the government can ruin innocent Americans marks a step the country has needed for a very long time.

I learned that the hard way.

In 2020, a former federal prosecutor then working for Amazon Web Services called his old colleagues at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia and asked them to criminally investigate my husband, a former Amazon employee. He did not pitch a murder case. He did not allege a Ponzi scheme. He claimed my husband had violated the terms of his Amazon employment agreement.

Read that again. A private company hired a lawyer to ask the federal government to put my husband in prison over an alleged breach of a corporate HR document.

And it worked.

The Eastern District of Virginia opened an investigation. FBI agents pounded on my door one pandemic morning while my baby sat on my hip in a diaper. Federal prosecutors used civil forfeiture to seize every dollar in our bank accounts. We sold our house, sold our car, and emptied my husband’s retirement account to pay lawyers.

My husband was never charged with a crime. A federal judge later ruled that he had complied with the “explicit terms” of his Amazon contract. The government eventually returned 85% of what it had taken, with no apology and no explanation.

Why did this happen?

The answer has nothing to do with Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors almost all leave the Justice Department for private practice. The value they bring to big firms lies in their relationships and their institutional know-how. To make partner, you need a book of business. To build that book, you cultivate corporate relationships before you leave government service. Future clients need to know you can call your old colleagues and get movement. That is the currency. That is the game.

RELATED: Conservative lawyer John Eastman punished AGAIN for representing Trump

ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The lawyer who pushed for the investigation of my husband had spent years as a line prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. He called the sitting U.S. attorney, his former colleague. The U.S. attorney looped in the criminal chief, who had also worked with Amazon’s lawyer in that same office. In later civil discovery, we obtained an email in which the criminal chief reassured Amazon’s lawyer that she had “specifically selected” her “two best prosecutors” for his client’s “important matter.”

The important matter was a private employment dispute.

Two of the best prosecutors in a major federal district were assigned by name to a corporate HR grievance because the corporation’s lawyer used to work down the hall. Bill Barr once warned that the investigation itself is the punishment: “People facing federal investigations incur ruinous legal costs and often see their lives reduced to rubble before a charge is even filed.” He was right.

And this does not happen once in a blue moon. It happens every day in the 93 U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. It has almost nothing to do with who occupies the White House.

We are not the only ones.

If prosecutors now face some real consequence for promising their ‘best’ people as a favor to old work friends … maybe a few of them will pause before making the call.

Ask Nevin Shetty, the former chief financial officer of a Seattle start-up. His company hired a former federal prosecutor to bring a criminal case over an investment that lost money. Shetty had moved corporate cash into a stablecoin platform he believed was safe enough to entrust with his own life savings. Then the stablecoin collapsed, erasing $60 billion in four days, and the platform’s founder later pleaded guilty to fraud.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers called Shetty’s prosecution an “improper attempt … to stretch the wire-fraud statute beyond its breaking point.” Shetty was convicted anyway and sentenced to two years in federal prison. At bottom, his “crime” was violating company investment policy. The start-up, by the way, had billionaire investors on its board.

Ask Michael Kail, the former Netflix executive. Netflix hired another firm thick with former federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges over a violation of its “culture deck,” which barred outside advisory work for vendors. He is in federal prison today, separated from his wife and two teenage sons. The start-up founders who supposedly paid him were never prosecuted. Netflix, of course, was founded and run by a billionaire.

Ask Ryan Bloom, the former construction company CEO charged with bank fraud over allegedly false bank invoices. Agents arrested Bloom in front of his young child, who was left alone when they hauled his father away in handcuffs. Later, the judge learned that the prosecutor’s wife worked for the University of Oklahoma, whose president founded and sat on the board of the alleged victim bank. Under that president, her salary had doubled to $310,000, with a $100,000 raise arriving two months before the superseding indictment, even as the university cut costs elsewhere. The court disqualified the prosecutor.

After 18 months of hell, the charges were dismissed. No billionaire required. Just a prosecutor with a personal stake and enough power to wreck a family before anyone checked his work.

RELATED: Democrats’ lawfare has targeted online privacy for years — Meta’s big court defeat is the win they crave

Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Now flip it.

Take billionaire Robert Smith. After a four-year investigation, the government’s top tax prosecutor was prepared to indict him in one of the largest individual tax-fraud cases in American history. Smith had allegedly hidden more than $200 million in income through offshore structures. Instead, he got a non-prosecution agreement. He paid $139 million, admitted to “an illegal scheme,” and walked away a free man, still running his firm, still worth billions.

Compare those ledgers and tell me what you see.

I see a justice system weaponized not mainly by presidents, but by access — by titans of business, by corporations rich enough to hire the right former prosecutors, and sometimes by prosecutors themselves. It is a quiet, daily message to the rest of us: Get in line, or we can ruin you.

And while we are being honest, ask yourself why federal prosecutors did not exactly race to take down Larry Nassar before Olympic gymnasts forced the issue. Or why Jeffrey Epstein secured a sweetheart non-prosecution deal in 2008, even as dozens of women came forward. My theory is simple. No future law firm partnership is built on prosecuting a gymnastics doctor or a sex trafficker. No lucrative book of business waits on the other side. Prosecutors are human. They respond to incentives. Regular American families pay the price.

So no, the anti-weaponization fund is not just for railroaded January 6 defendants. Read the government’s announcement. It contains no partisan requirement for filing a claim. The fund exists, in Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s words, to redress “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” That category includes far more Americans than cable news will admit.

It includes the family that lost their home to civil forfeiture even though no charges were ever filed. It includes the CEO arrested in front of his child over a case later dismissed. It includes all of us who do not have a billionaire’s lawyer on speed dial.

I do not know yet whether this fund will be administered fairly. But the very existence of a publicly funded process that acknowledges the government can ruin innocent Americans marks a step the country has needed for a very long time.

And here is the part that gives me hope. If prosecutors now face some real consequence for promising their “best” people as a favor to old work friends, or for running a case while their own families cash in, maybe a few of them will pause before making the call. Maybe the next family will get to keep their house.

That is worth $1.776 billion of the federal budget. It is worth much more than that.

Ask anyone who has lived it.

​Opinion & analysis, Weaponization, Lawfare, January 6, Civil liberties, Department of justice, Todd blanche, Donald trump, Fbi, Fraud, Asset forfeiture, Amazon, Netflix, Irs 

After spending nearly 11 years flapping his gums at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, Stephen Colbert’s time as the host of CBS’ “The Late Show” has come to an end — and President Donald Trump couldn’t be happier.

“Colbert is finally finished at CBS,” the president wrote after the final show aired. “Amazing that he lasted so long!”

Colbert, who took over the show in 2015 from beloved host David Letterman and then shepherded the franchise to its death, quipped on Thursday that he didn’t get his wish of having Pope Leo XIV on the show as his last interview.

Instead of the Roman pontiff, Colbert chatted with one of the last surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney, and had Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston, Jimmy Kimmel, and other Hollywood script-readers make brief cameos.

“The pope, who was definitely my guest tonight, has canceled. We already sent the other stars away,” said Colbert, who, while claiming to be a Catholic, has long championed causes diametrically opposed to the church’s moral teachings. “This is terrible.”

‘He’s finally gone!’

Despite his reflexive propagandizing and monomaniacal fixation on Trump, Colbert — who just months ago praised the Soviet Union for its supposed feminism — largely avoided politics in his finale but made sure to once again criticize vaccine skeptics, calling them “little pricks.”

RELATED: LIP SERVICE: Pedro Pascal demands goodbye kiss from departing ‘Late Night’ host Colbert

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images

This was especially on brand given that Colbert routinely attacked those who in recent years dared to question whether the experimental COVID-19 jabs were as safe or effective as advertised; strenuously pushed COVID-19 vaccination; and blasted the notion that natural immunity was optimal.

Later in the finale, Colbert briefly spoke to science podcaster Neil deGrasse Tyson, who explained away the CGI wormhole that would deliver the host to a gabfest with Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel, then threaten to devour all of late-night.

Some fans gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater — which survived the wormhole — to bid Colbert adieu with well-wishing signs and at least one stating, “Colbert for President.”

Following the conclusion of Colbert’s finale, Trump wrote, “He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”

The show was eulogized by various liberals, including twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D), Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey (D), and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

CBS announced in July 2025 that it was canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and ending the franchise, stating that it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

The show’s time slot will now be occupied by Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed.”

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​Cbs, Donald trump, Paul mccartney, Pope leo xiv, Stephen colbert, The beatles, The late show, Vaccination, Television, Politics 

Earlier this year, Anthropic lost its AI deal with the Department of War after the company tried to dictate how the government used its platform. The story ended with Anthropic labeled as a supply chain risk, leaving the government without an AI partner for military operations. Anthropic’s competitors all proposed deals of their own to fill the void; however, the War Department ultimately chose another option — to build an AI army that brings the best AI platforms together into one central fighting force.

The backstory

To get the full story, we have to go all the way back to January 2026. The U.S. military conducted a special operationin which Delta Force went into Venezuela to capture dictator Nicolás Maduro. The mission was a huge success, with the U.S. military asserting a devastating level of force and efficiency over Maduro’s guards, with only seven injuries on the U.S. side.

While the U.S. military has always been a lethal force, some of the mission’s success was attributed to Claude, Anthropic’s sophisticated AI platform.

Instead of choosing one, they went with all of them.

This got the attention of Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei. By February, Amodei raised concerns over the War Department’s use of Claude for military operations. In his official statement, he stressed that “in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. Two such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now.”

Amodei went on to revise the agreement he already had with the War Department, adding that the government couldn’t use Claude for “mass domestic surveillance” or “fully autonomous weapons.”

Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and senior adviser Sean Parnell responded quickly, stating that, “The Department of War has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.”

Unfortunately, the two sides failed to reach a new agreement, citing that the current deal was already sufficient, and President Trump declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk in a Truth Social post that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reposted on his X account. This designation prevents federal workers from using Anthropic’s products on their work computers, with a six-month phase-out period to remove Claude entirely.

Although Claude was reportedly also used in the Iran strike missions, the War Department found itself in need of a new AI platform. Instead of choosing one, the department went with all of them.

RELATED: Killer drones have conquered the skies. Can we ever be safe again?

Mike Mareen/Getty Images

AI army, assemble!

To make sure an AI company never tried to dictate the terms of the military’s operations ever again, the War Department assembled the Avengers of AI platforms, creating one powerful AI army, with each vendor offering up its unique expertise.

SpaceX: Recently acquiring xAI as part of its core business, SpaceX offers data center infrastructure through its ambitious lunar base initiative, as well as the latest AI models that power Grok.OpenAI: As the leading AI platform that brought ChatGPT to the forefront, OpenAI’s platform offers robust data analysis and content creation for a range of applications.Google: With a broad Google Cloud Platform network that powers its own AI platform, Gemini, Google brings both powerful AI capabilities and cloud infrastructure to the military deal.NVIDIA: As a leading provider of GPUs that power most of the AI data centers in America and abroad, NVIDIA provides the backbone to build the advanced platforms our military needs to succeed.Reflection: Although not as well known as the other names on this list, Reflection builds AI agents designed to write code and create “superintelligent” autonomous systems.Microsoft: With its Azure network of data centers, as well as LLMs that make up portions of its Copilot AI platform, Microsoft brings both infrastructure and intelligence to the table.Amazon Web Services: Amazon owns one of the most robust cloud and data server networks on the planet. As part of the team, it brings its advanced infrastructure and connectivity knowledge to the deal.

Before the AI partnership blew up into oblivion, the U.S. military relied heavily on Anthropic’s AI models to conduct operations. When the two parted ways, the disruption created a massive hole in the War Department’s offensive capabilities.

Looking over the new list of AI providers, it might appear as if Anthropic left a hole so large that seven Big Tech giants had to come together just to fill it. That’s not the case, however. The U.S. military learned from the mistake with Anthropic that trusting one company to provide so many vital services was a risk that put soldiers and the nation in a bad spot if things went bad. This new initiative aims to diversify the department’s AI capabilities, bringing together the best of today’s AI platforms without giving any single company more power or authority than the other. It’s a smart move meant to ensure that AI partners supply their expertise while the government alone decides how to use them, according to the law.

In the end, having an entire roster of AI platforms at our disposal makes the U.S. military more capable against our enemies than ever. And the most interesting part? Every partner on the list agreed to the same terms that Anthropic proposed — that “any lawful use” under the Constitution is the final word.

​Tech 

A man is grieving the loss of his wife of 25 years after she was brutally mauled to death by dogs allegedly belonging to their neighbor in Florida.

A spokesperson for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said police were investigating the mauling death of a woman on Tuesday.

‘Seeing the same woman I’ve loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just … I’ll never get that image out of my mind.’

Donnell Smith told WESH-TV that he went to help a neighbor at about 1 a.m. and returned to his home to find his wife, Jodi Cowan, and one of her dogs gone.

He said he heard a faint cry for help and then saw that his wife was being dragged away.

“I saw the silhouette of the two dogs dragging my wife down the road, off into the grass in front of the truck down there,” Smith said tearfully.

He said his wife was in a pool of blood and the dogs returned to try to continue dragging her away.

“I pulled my knife out, you know, just swinging with it one hand and holding the blood with the other, trying to stop her from bleeding,” Smith said.

Smith said he was eventually able to call 911 and his wife was flown to a hospital, but she died hours later.

“It was brutal. Seeing the same woman I’ve loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just … I’ll never get that image out of my mind,” Smith added.

He believes she may have gone out to save their dog from the neighbor’s dogs and then became a victim herself.

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Smith says the dogs belonged to a neighbor and that he had previously warned the sheriff’s office about the threat from the dogs.

“I told them that she had those two pits that get out all the time and run the neighborhood and have been aggressive towards people, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Smith said. “My wife lost her life because of it.”

WESH reached out to the sheriff’s department to confirm whether it had received the prior complaints about the dogs. A spokesperson said the department would provide an update as the investigation progresses.

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​Dog attack, Lethal animal attack, Pit bulls, Pet attack, Crime