Category: blaze media

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt has fired back at the Los Angeles Times after its report cast doubt on his ability to run for office — because his house burned down.

The report suggested Pratt may not meet residency requirements and was heavily criticized on social media by detractors who claimed that Mayor Karen Bass’ incompetence led to preventable destruction of homes, the cause of Pratt’s housing issues.

‘They want to attack me for not living in the Palisades while running for mayor? Hey, brain surgeon, my house burned down!’

Pratt, a former reality TV show star, lambasted the report in a video accusing a Times reporter of harassing his family in an attempt to aid Bass’ campaign.

“They want to try and write a hit piece about me, about my residency? … They want to attack me for not living in the Palisades while running for mayor? Hey, brain surgeon, my house burned down!” Pratt said in the video posted to social media.

Pratt said he used an SBA disaster loan to pay for an Airstream travel trailer to be craned into his “burned-out lot” so that he could live there. He accused the Times of writing the “hit piece” after a poll showed him taking second place in the race behind Bass.

The Times defended its piece in a statement to CBS News.

“The Times learned that Mr. Pratt was living in Carpinteria and contacted him and those around him for comment,” a spokesperson for the Times said. “We stand by our story and the reporting of our journalists.”

However, a community note on the X social media platform undermined the report:

LA City Clerk guidance for wildfire-displaced residents directs keeping the original residential address (like Pratt’s Palisades lot) for voter registration if relocation is temporary, updating only the mailing address to preserve City residency and eligibility.

Former county supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the residency question will not likely be a problem for Pratt.

“Common sense tells me he lost his home in the Palisades,” he said. “He’s got to find a place to live. I’m not sure this is an issue that gets any traction.”

RELATED: Los Angeles mayor’s re-election campaign gets crushing news from ‘downright devastating’ poll

A poll from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs showed Pratt with 11% support and Bass with 25% support. However, 40% of respondents said they were undecided, meaning the race could change drastically before the primary election on June 2.

Pratt has taken to mocking Bass with the nickname “Karen Basura,” which means “trash” or “garbage” in Spanish.

“I was born here, went to school at USC,” Pratt said in the video. “I bleed Dodger blue. This is my city, and I’m taking it back.”

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​Spencer pratt vs karen bass, Pratt vs los angeles times, Spencer pratt residency, Pratt for la mayor, Politics 

An effort by members of Congress to stop Sharia law in the U.S. is gaining influence, according to a speech on the House floor from Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas.

Self said that Sharia law is expanding in many states and that more and more members of Congress are joining the Sharia-Free America Caucus to oppose the movement.

‘Sharia has no place in America, do not Sharia our America, defend the West, ban Sharia!’

“Texas stands as ground zero in this fight, yet this is not just a Texas issue,” said Self in a clip that was posted to his social media account Tuesday.

“Sharia’s influence is advancing from Arizona to Minnesota, Alabama, Florida, and beyond. No state is immune. That’s why our caucus has surged to 60 members across 25 states, bolstered by strong Senate support from figures like Sen. Tuberville,” he added, referring to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).

“As I’ve said repeatedly, Sharia has no place in America. Do not Sharia our America. Defend the West. Ban Sharia!” Self concluded.

The caucus has already been designated an “anti-Muslim hate group” by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“Let’s be clear: ‘shariah’ simply means ‘path’ in Arabic,” claimed CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab in March.

“Every major faith tradition has its own form of religious law — or shariah — guiding personal and private communal practice,” he added. “Muslims follow Islamic shariah principles; Christians follow Christian shariah principles (canon law); Jews follow Jewish shariah principles (halakha). These systems govern personal aspects of religious life — such as diet, prayer, marriage, and burial rites — and are protected under the First Amendment.”

RELATED: Police reveal what Muslim man said after beheading co-worker in Oklahoma

Self disagreed.

“We have the members. We have the legislation. We have the strength to defend the West. Let’s get this done,” he wrote on social media.

“This absurdity designed to divide Americans by dumbing them down must stop,” added Rehab.

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​Sharia-free america caucus, Congress versus sharia, Sharia law in the us, Cair on sharia law, Politics 

House Democrats’ loss of 14 seats to Republicans in the 2020 election was apparently an eye-opening experience for then-Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D), who blamed the ease and effectiveness with which critics branded her party as a bunch of radical leftists.

“We need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again,” Spanberger said on a post-action House Democratic Caucus phone call. “Because while people think it doesn’t matter, it does matter, and we lost good members because of that.”

Years after acknowledging the importance of concealing radical impulses from voters, the former undercover CIA officer who participated in the anti-Trump “resistance” after the 2016 election ran for governor of Virginia, campaigning in 2025 as an even-keeled and unifying pragmatist. The liberal media then forwarded that narrative.

‘She’s just a bot for the Democratic Party.’

It is now painfully obvious, however, that the supposed moderate who defeated former Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears (R) in November in a landslide is — as the GOP of Virginia and others had warned — not as advertised.

A damning new Washington Post-Schar School poll revealed on Monday that Virginians, realizing only too late how Spanberger really operates, have largely soured on the Democratic governor. In fact, her approval rating is so low, it set a record in Post polling.

When asked how Spanberger is handling her job as governor, 47% of respondents signaled approval, 36% signaled disapproval, and 7% expressed no opinion. The Post noted that approval rating is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Spanberger’s predecessors going back to the 1990s.

Political analyst Larry Sabato told WJLA-TV, “A drop of that margin is stunning, and it should be greatly disturbing to the governor and the governor’s staff if it’s repeated in other surveys.”

There is no shortage of clues in the poll’s cross tabs as to why the people of the Old Dominion are less than enthused about their new governor.

When asked about the supposed moderate’s views, a plurality of respondents — 45% — said they were “too liberal.” Broken down by party affiliation, 91% of Republicans, 44% of independents, and 6% of Democrats said so. Nearly 10% of Virginians who voted for Spanberger were among those who rated her as “too liberal.”

For starters, Spanberger dropped the moderate mask in her approach to immigration.

Weeks after rescinding former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order requiring state law enforcement agencies to cooperate more fully with federal immigration authorities, Spanberger directed state police and other state agencies to terminate any such agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Department of Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis grouped Spanberger with those “sanctuary politicians” who have “tried to slow ICE down and chosen to release criminals from their jails into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.”

Virginians are already dealing with the fallout of Spanberger’s virtue-signaling.

The DHS noted on Monday that “so far in 2026, illegal aliens have allegedly committed 75% of all murders” in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The supposed moderate also committed all state agencies to rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program covering power sector emissions that Youngkin — who completed his term with a 50% approval rating — removed Virginia from and dubbed a hidden tax on ratepayers.

While previously a critic of partisan gerrymandering schemes, Spanberger has come out in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would all but ensure that 10 out of the state’s 11 congressional seats go to Democrats, thereby disenfranchising Republican voters in Virginia.

RELATED: Parents enraged over adult illegal alien allegedly molesting Virginia high school girls

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Although consistent on the issue of abortion — she routinely voted in Congress to deprive the unborn of protections and to advance abortion ideology — her continued activism as governor may read as “too liberal” for some residents.

In February, for instance, she signed a partisan constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters later this year, would codify the “right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”

In addition to taking an extreme approach to so-called reproductive rights, Spanberger is expected to help her fellow Virginia Democrats in waging war on the Second Amendment. She did, after all, vow not to veto gun-grab laws as Youngkin had and express support for a ban on sales of so-called assault-style weapons.

Among the various gun-control bills awaiting her signature are bills that would:

Ban gun possession within 100 feet of locations used for election-related activities; Require a “handgun shooting” course as opposed to an NRA-affiliated safety course; Create a Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers a so-called assault firearm or magazines that hold over 15 rounds;Prohibit the carrying of loaded “assault firearms” in public spaces;Bar anyone convicted of a misdemeanor “hate crime” assault from possessing or carrying any firearm; andProhibit Americans younger than 21 from buying a handgun or “assault firearm.”

Spanberger faces an April 13 deadline to ratify these and other gun control bills.

Gregory Roddy, a self-identified independent voter from Fairfax County, told the Post that while always skeptical of Spanberger’s presentation as a bipartisan candidate, it was clear once she was elected that “she’s just a bot for the Democratic Party.”

Mason Necci, another independent voter, this time from rural Culpeper County, suggested that Spanberger is attempting “to make herself into a Democratic icon.”

“Virginia is already regretting electing a governor who stands for illegal immigrants over her constituents,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) wrote. “Spanberger’s alarming disapproval rating is telling. And she’s been in office a mere three months.”

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​Abigail spanberger, Spanberger, Virginia, Leftism, Leftist, Moderate, Pragmatist, Congress, Governor, Fraud, Fake, Poll, Polling, Politics 

One of the suspects arrested in connection with the murder of a 15-year-old Missouri boy also has a federal immigration detainer request.

Prosecutors allege that Yefry Archaga and Praize King, both 18 years old, lured Miles Young into an ambush, where he was shot and killed while he begged for his life.

Young yelled out, ‘I just don’t wanna die,’ before the witness heard gunshots.

Young was declared dead on March 12 at Cox South Hospital in Springfield from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Investigators say Archaga and King led Young to believe he was going to have sex with a young woman when they picked him up that morning. Instead, they allegedly plotted to kill him.

“Defendant planned and set up a 15-year-old boy to be murdered,” arrest documents for Archaga read. “Defendant ambushed victim, chased victim on foot, and shot victim as victim was stating he wanted to live. Defendant ran from scene and reportedly fled from the State to avoid apprehension.”

Archaga allegedly used a Glock-style pistol and allegedly wore a ski mask during the attack. He was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Jail records show he also has an ICE hold placed on him.

A detainer request may mean Archaga is an illegal alien, though legal immigrants can also face an ICE detainer under certain conditions.

King was also charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Witnesses told police that the suspects plotted to kill the victim because they “blamed Miles for the death” of another victim in a separate homicide case from 2025, prosecutors said.

RELATED: Illegal aliens were released from county jail despite ICE detainer — and then allegedly shot young mom to death

One of the witnesses was viewing the incident through a FaceTime call, according to police. Young reportedly yelled out, “I just don’t wanna die,” before the witness heard gunshots.

The identity of a third suspect has not been released, which may mean the suspect is a juvenile.

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​Yefry archaga murder arrest, Praize king murder arrest, Luring and killing of miles young, Ice detainer murder, Politics 

A Chinese researcher at the University of Michigan died on campus in March, shortly after federal agents allegedly questioned him.

UM has recently gained national attention after at least six of its Chinese researchers were charged in 2025 with attempting to smuggle biomaterial into the United States. U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. referred to the scandal as “a long and alarming pattern of criminal activities committed by Chinese Nationals under the cover of the University of Michigan.”

‘This is an active police investigation, and we have no further information to share regarding the circumstances surrounding his death.’

Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist at UM’s College of Engineering, died after falling to his death.

Melissa Overton, the deputy chief of police for the university’s Division of Public Safety and Security, told the Michigan Daily that the incident was being investigated as “a possible act of self-harm.”

“On March 19, at approximately 11:00 p.m., officers from the University of Michigan Police Department responded to a report of a subject who fell inside the George G. Brown Building,” Overton told the news outlet. “A faculty research assistant was found after falling from an upper level and was later pronounced deceased.”

UM College of Engineering Dean Karen Thole acknowledged Wang’s death in a college-wide email early this month.

“Dr. Wang was a promising and brilliant young mind, whose research into wide bandgap III-nitride semiconductor materials and devices published in Nature stands as a landmark, uncovering for the first time the switching and charge compensation mechanisms of emerging ferroelectric nitrides,” Thole wrote. “His loss is felt deeply not only by those who knew him here at the University, but also everyone who understands his potential to have contributed to breakthroughs in science that would have positively impacted people around the world.”

RELATED: University of Michigan’s bio-smuggling scandal explodes: More Chinese scholars busted in alleged plot

Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Thole noted that Wang’s death remains under investigation.

“This is an active police investigation, and we have no further information to share regarding the circumstances surrounding his death,” Thole continued. “In the age of AI and misinformation in unfortunate situations like these, incorrect information can spread quickly, and we must let the investigators complete their work and refrain from speculation until the facts are known and made available.”

RELATED: University of Michigan now under fire after Chinese scholars allegedly smuggle bio-weapon

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

China Central Television asked Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about a Chinese researcher who had taken his “own life a day after being subjected to hostile questioning by U.S. law enforcement personnel.”

“China is deeply saddened by the heartbreaking death and has protested to the U.S. China’s diplomatic missions swiftly got in touch with the researcher’s family and actively assisted them in handling relevant matters,” Jian stated. “For some time now, the U.S. has overstretched the concept of national security for political manipulation and groundlessly interrogated and harassed Chinese scholars and students.”

Jian called on the U.S. to conduct a “full investigation” into the incident and provide “a responsible explanation.” He also demanded the U.S. “stop any discriminatory law enforcement targeting Chinese scholars and students in the U.S., and stop imposing wrongful convictions.”

The Chinese Consulate in Chicago also reacted to the recent death, stating, “The incident occurred at a U.S. university within our consular jurisdiction, and we are deeply saddened by the heartbreaking death. Principal Officials of our Consulate General, acting under instructions from the Chinese Government, have protested multiple times to relevant departments of the U.S. government and the university concerned regarding this incident.”

Neither Jian nor the Chinese Consulate in Chicago named the researcher.

Blaze News reached out to the FBI to inquire whether the agency had questioned Wang.

“As a matter of a longstanding policy, the FBI neither confirms nor denies the existence of any investigation or investigative activity involving specific individuals,” FBI Detroit said in a statement provided to Blaze News.

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​News, University of michigan, Michigan, Um, Chinese researcher, Chinese scholars, Chinese scholar, Fbi, Federal bureau of investigation, Danaho wang, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs, Ministry of foreign affairs, Lin jian, Politics 

The artificial intelligence revolution is here, and it arrives charged with the capacity to fundamentally change society for better or worse.

America is currently leading the world in AI development. U.S. companies are building the most advanced models, attracting the most capital, and designing the infrastructure that will shape the next century. But there is one increasingly obvious constraint standing in the way: electricity accessibility.

The political consequences of rapid automation could be just as transformative as the technology itself.

Energy scarcity is only half the story. Even if we succeed in generating the power required to fuel the AI revolution, we must confront a deeper challenge. The same technology that promises medical breakthroughs and economic growth also carries profound societal and even existential risk.

If America wants to win the AI race, we will need to consider a massive expansion of energy production and an equally massive expansion of vigilance.

The energy bottleneck

Modern AI models are trained and deployed in massive data centers packed with tens of thousands of high-performance graphics processing units running continuously. Training a single frontier model can require weeks or months of nonstop computation, while everyday AI tools used by millions of people must process queries around the clock.

These facilities consume electricity at industrial scale, rivaling entire cities in their power demands. In fact, the hyperscale Stargate data center in Saline Township is projected to consume the same amount of electricity as 1.17 million homes.

The understanding of just how much energy is needed to power the AI revolution is still unfolding across the industry. Just a few years ago, Silicon Valley leaders were still thinking in megawatts.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking on a podcast less than two years ago, said his company would build larger AI clusters “if we could get the energy to do it,” describing 50-to-100-megawatt facilities and speculating that 1-gigawatt data centers were probably inevitable someday.

Today, 1-gigawatt facilities are on the smaller end of planned AI infrastructure, with projects up to 5 gigawatts already in motion throughout the United States, including but not limited to the following:

Project Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas;EdgeCore data center campus in Louisa County, Virginia;Project Stargate site in Saline Township, Michigan;Amazon data center campus in New Carlisle, Indiana;Tract data center campus outside Richmond, Virginia; andHyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana.

And this list barely scratches the surface. Dozens more large-scale facilities are planned or under construction across the country, and every single one of them will require enormous flows of reliable electricity to operate.

Elon Musk recently stated at Davos that “the limiting factor for AI deployment is, fundamentally, electrical power.” He warned that while AI chip production is increasing exponentially, electricity generation is not.

“Very soon, maybe even later this year,” Musk said, “we will be producing more chips than we can turn on.”

In Santa Clara, California, reports indicate newly built data centers may sit idle for years because the local grid cannot handle the load.

According to a report published by the global consulting group McKinsey & Company, U.S. demand for AI-ready data center capacity could grow from roughly 60 gigawatts today to 170 to 298 gigawatts by 2030.

The International Energy Agency reports that data centers consumed more than 4% of total U.S. electricity in 2024. This amounts to 183 terawatt-hours. IEA projections suggest this number could increase by 133% to 426 TWh by 2030.

To put that in perspective, 426 TWh is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 40 million American homes.

The dilemma is obvious. If we do not have reliable energy, AI innovation will be compromised and could potentially migrate elsewhere. Worse, American households could find themselves competing with Big Tech for increasingly scarce power, driving up electricity costs for families and small businesses.

But energy is only the first layer of this story.

RELATED: States should work with AI, not against it

Alex Wong/Getty Images

The promise and the disruption

AI is not your typical technological advancement. It is a general-purpose intelligence system capable of transforming nearly every sector of society. In the coming years, AI could accelerate drug discovery, personalize medicine, supercharge logistics, automate research, and unlock new materials and engineering breakthroughs, just to name a few potential benefits. The economic upside is staggering.

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool and a dangerous weapon. While promising efficiency and innovation, AI also threatens disruption on a historic scale. Job displacement could occur faster than previous technological revolutions. Entire professions, from legal research to software development, could be reshaped or automated.

If widespread job displacement occurs, there will inevitably be calls for sweeping government intervention. The political consequences of rapid automation could be just as transformative as the technology itself.

Exponential technological developments have changed political operations throughout history. As a recent example, social media algorithms have dominated political discourse over the past decade. Political polarization has subsequently skyrocketed as people on all sides of the aisle are trapped in online echo chambers and subjected to a panopticon of surveillance.

Artificial intelligence has the frightening capabilities of supercharging mass surveillance while baselessly boosting preconceived biases without an objective basis in truth.

There is certainly reason for concern about the potential bias and coercive nature of AI. In recent years, we have already witnessed how tech companies can shape narratives and suppress viewpoints on popular media platforms. Embedding ideological bias into AI systems would mean embedding that bias into education, finance, health care, and governance.

If AI becomes the invisible infrastructure of society, who writes its rules? Who determines its boundaries? And who holds it accountable?

Playing with probabilities

Beyond economic and cultural disruption lies an even deeper uncertainty.

We are introducing a form of intelligence that even its creators admit they do not fully understand. There are already documented cases of advanced AI systems behaving in deceptive or strategically manipulative ways. In controlled environments, some models have been observed lying to human evaluators, scheming to achieve assigned goals, or resisting shutdown instructions.

OpenAI’s stated ambition is to create artificial superintelligence — systems that surpass human capability across virtually every domain. There is no telling where this path may lead. Humanity has never had to grapple with the prospect of a man-made intelligence that is superior to our own.

And remarkably, some of the leading figures in the field openly discuss the possibility of catastrophic outcomes.

Elon Musk has suggested there is “only a 20% chance of annihilation.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has estimated roughly a 25% chance that AI development goes “really, really badly.” Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “godfather of AI,” has placed the odds of extinction-level consequences somewhere between 10 and 20% over the coming decades.

Those numbers still imply that positive outcomes are more likely than not. But when the downside is losing human civilization itself, percentages matter.

We are advancing a technology with transformative power while relying largely on overzealous corporate discretion to steer its trajectory. Humanity finds itself fiddling with the key to Pandora’s box, and we have no rational means of gauging what will happen if the box is opened.

RELATED: AI’s PR is in the toilet — for good reason

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Power and prudence

As stalwart advocates for smaller government, we hesitate to call for slamming the brakes on AI development, but it is important to have sober discernment moving forward. America is in a strategic competition with geopolitical rivals who would gladly dominate both this field and us if we retreat.

Reliable energy production is necessary to promote competition and American innovation. Yet it is arguably more important that society engages in serious dialogue surrounding this emerging technology. Government cannot, and should not, be the only voice in this conversation.

Independent institutions dedicated to transparency, accountability, and the defense of individual liberty need to rise and challenge the current trajectory.

Technological revolutions have always reshaped society. The difference this time is scale and speed. AI is a decision-making engine that may soon operate faster and more broadly than any human institution.

America can power the AI revolution. The real question is whether we can power it without surrendering control over our economy, institutions, and ultimately, our freedom.

The future may well belong to artificial intelligence. But whether that future advances prosperity or undermines humanity depends on the vigilance we exercise today.

​Ai, Artificial intelligence, Usa, Ai models, Data centers, Project stargate, Big tech, Ai regulation, Elon musk, Ai revolution, Opinion & analysis 

On Monday, the White House held its annual Easter Egg Roll — a family-friendly event hosted on the South Lawn, where children are invited to participate in activities like egg hunts, storytelling, live music, games, crafts, and photo opportunities with the president, the first lady, and the Easter Bunny.

In his speech, President Trump acknowledged the religious significance of the holiday, calling Easter “a very special day … where we celebrate Jesus”; praised the strong economy and military, including the recent Iran pilot rescue; thanked egg farmers for lowering prices and supplying the event; and boasted about the improved White House and country.

But his serious tone didn’t last long.

Away from the podium, the Easter spirit turned to delightful chaos as Trump unleashed some classic one-liners amid the egg rolls and bunny ears.

Here are his funniest moments.

1. Biden-autopen lecture at coloring time

While sitting and coloring with children, Trump launched into a tangent about Joe Biden and the autopen.

After holding up a picture he had signed, Trump told the kids coloring next to him: “[Joe Biden] was incapable of signing his name, so they followed him around with this big machine. You know what it was called? An autopen!”

“He’d take the paper, hand it to his guys, sign it with an autopen, and give it back. Not too good, right?” he added.

The kids’ confused stares made it peak Trump comedy.

RELATED: Probe into alleged autopen misuse to continue — but Biden unlikely to face charges, source says

2. eBay business advice for kids

While signing coloring pages the kids had been working on, Trump deadpanned: “I could sign autographs for you guys … and then tonight you could sell them for $25,000 on eBay!”

The quip was met with immediate requests for his signature.

3. ‘Best president’ compliment gets instant nod

At one point during the coloring activity, a little boy blurted out, “Donald Trump, you’re the best president ever.”

Without missing a beat, Trump casually replied, “Thank you, honey. I agree.”

RELATED: Trump reveals which world leader called Biden ‘mentally retarded’

4. Coach Trump takes the field

Right as the egg-rolling race was about to begin, President Trump suddenly became Coach Trump, sporting a whistle and a go-get-’em attitude.

“This is very athletic. Focus — total focus!” he told the kids before aggressively blowing the whistle.

In the end, the 2026 White House Easter Egg Roll proved once again that Donald Trump is at his best when the script ends. Whether he’s turning a coloring table into a Biden roast session, offering kids eBay business advice, agreeing he’s the best president, or coaching egg races like it’s the Super Bowl, his off-the-cuff energy can transform a wholesome family tradition into pure comedy gold.

​Trump, White house, Egg roll, Biden, Autopen, Politics 

The fact is, the global ruling class likes pedophilia.

Pedophilia is the aftershock of an earthquake that no one wants to name. That earthquake is the sexual revolution.

The purveyors of the sexual revolution use the best of modern scientific advertising and marketing knowledge to package their ideology.

Why can’t we seem to get to the bottom of the pedophilia problem?

I’m going to give you three factors that prevent us from stopping the pedophilia crisis.

Then I’m going to give you four very specific action steps you can take — steps that will help protect children from being harmed and help heal the children who have already been harmed.

Let’s look at these three contributing factors to the ongoing childhood sexual abuse crisis.

1. Ideas that groom

You’ve heard the term grooming, haven’t you?

Grooming is the preparation stage of sexual abuse. You could call it the pre-touch phase. Without ever committing a criminal act — without ever touching a victim — the grooming process prepares the child’s mind for submitting to a predator.

Children are not just being abused by billionaires on tropical islands. Epstein Island is just the tip of the pedophilia iceberg. Churches, public schools, and even the United Nations have been implicated in sex crimes against children. What I’m about to explain applies to all of these situations.

Let’s start with public schools.

According to educational researcher Carol Shakeshaft’s 2024 book, “Organizational Betrayal: How Schools Enable Sexual Misconduct and How to Stop It,” a staggering 17% of children in public schools suffer sexual misconduct by teachers, school administrators, and other personnel.

That’s a lot of kids being traumatized.

Now consider the United Nations. Not only do UN agencies promote “sexual rights” for minors, there have been repeated reports of peacekeeping troops sexually exploiting children in refugee camps. As author Jennifer Ells writes:

To cite only a few of many heinous incidents, a series of “food-for-sex” scandals erupted in the early 2000s when UN peacekeepers in Liberia were accused of selling food for sex to girls as young as 8. In Haiti, at least 134 UN peacekeepers from Sri Lanka were accused of sexually abusing children in a sex ring from 2004 to 2007. One boy reported having sex with more than 100 peacekeepers, averaging about four a day over the course of three years beginning when the boy was 15.

Ideas that groom are part of the problem in each of these cases.

One of the intellectual roots of this problem is Wilhelm Reich, the Austrian psychiatrist who wrote “The Sexual Revolution.” He promoted the idea that children are sexual beings from birth and need sexual expression for proper development.

Here is how that argument was framed in the section called “Sexual Abstinence During Puberty,” on page 106. “Abstinence is dangerous and absolutely deleterious to health. To recommend abstinence to youth means to set the stage for neurosis.”

Reich also held that teenagers needed to have their own private spaces where they could have sex without parental knowledge or interference. Check out the section called “Sexual Intercourse Among Adolescents,” starting on page 116.

You might think that was a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with us today. But you would be mistaken.

These ideas persist, often under different language. For example, within the United Nations, the concept of “reproductive health” has been defined as a right to a “satisfying and safe sex life,” along with the freedom to decide when and how often to engage in it.

That raises an obvious question: If a satisfying sex life is a right, who exactly is responsible for providing it?

At the same time, many schools in the United States teach children that sexual activity is natural for them, that they are entitled to it, and that their parents need not know about it.

Parents are beginning to push back.

These curricula present too much information too soon — information that normalizes sexual activity, even for very young kids: books that normalize sexual activity; information that may very well scramble the child’s normal developmental process.

We can also name many other examples of the sexualization of children in advertising, marketing, and entertainment media. The purveyors of the sexual revolution use the best of modern scientific advertising and marketing knowledge to package their ideology. It’s glamorous. It’s cool. It’s sexy. You’ll be popular. You’ll be one of the gang.

All of this contributes to the grooming atmosphere.

And what I mean by the grooming atmosphere is that you’re setting kids up for the creep who comes along — who doesn’t sound or look creepy, but who flatters them, who’s kind to them, who tells them how special they are.

So this is my first key takeaway: Ideas that groom children for sex are a major contributing factor to their vulnerability to predation.

2. Tribes before truth

The second contributing factor to the pedophilia crisis is something that makes it harder for justice to prevail. I call this tribes before truth.

Sexual misconduct generally takes place in secret. Sexual assault is generally underreported. Sexual crimes against children are even more likely to go unreported.

Kids can’t easily make police reports — especially against somebody they know, perhaps love, or depend upon. Victims can be crippled by shame. Little kids sometimes blame themselves in their own minds.

This is why reporting lag is a very real problem.

In our Ruth Institute study in 2018, we studied Catholic clergy sexual abuse. We found that, on average, victims first reported the crime 28 and a half years after it was committed.

So when somebody does come forward, the public doesn’t have complete information. We hear the complaint on one hand and the denials on the other. Understanding what really happened can be very difficult.

Law enforcement and the judicial system have the resources — and the responsibility — to discover the whole truth. But ordinary people like you and me almost always have an incomplete picture.

And in the face of incomplete information, here’s the pattern I’ve noticed.

If the alleged perpetrator is a member of what I consider to be my tribe, I believe he is innocent. I say: Don’t rush to judgment. Let the legal process take its course.

If that fails, people shift their attention to the victim:

They’re lying.Why didn’t they come forward sooner?They’re doing this for the money.They weren’t really victimized.They actually consented.This is a setup of a good man.

By contrast, if the alleged perpetrator is a member of what I consider to be the enemy tribe, I believe absolutely every word the victim says.

“Surely they wouldn’t make up something like that. I knew all along this guy was a creep.”

We tend to judge not on the facts, but on our relationship to the alleged perpetrator and victim.

My tribe is always innocent — therefore I harass and hound the victim.
The enemy is always guilty — therefore I support the victim.

Do you see the problem?

Actual victims need real support. Being called a liar is one of the most traumatizing aspects of being victimized and then finally coming forward.

Think about it from the victim’s perspective. A person pulls himself or herself together enough to make a complaint — and then has to run the gauntlet of public shaming and embarrassment.

Does that make it more likely people will come forward in a timely manner — or less likely?

I think you can figure that out.

So my second key takeaway is this: Our natural tendency to favor tribes over truth is a real problem.

We all have a natural instinct to favor our friends over our opponents. You can see this in general. But as soon as a real situation arises, we let our emotions run away with us.

At the very moment we most need to be objective, we are least likely to be.

3. It’s too ‘icky’ to face

This brings me to the third contributing factor.

Pedophilia is icky.

The sexual abuse of children is too nasty for any normal person to face. We would all prefer to be doing anything else rather than admit that this is going on in our society.

Rather than admit that someone you love and respect could be the perpetrator.

“I can’t believe it” often means “I don’t want to believe it.”

I trusted this person. I admired him. I supported him. I feel betrayed. I feel foolish.

Stop thinking about him. Stop thinking about yourself and your feelings. Start thinking about the child.

As John Manly, an attorney who has filed numerous lawsuits against public school teachers in California, puts it:

When this happens to a child, it’s emotional murder. They’re never the same.
Every person should have the right to pick and choose their first sexual experience. And when that’s stolen from them — whether in third grade or in high school — it has a profoundly damaging effect.

So here is my third and final takeaway: Our revulsion about even thinking about pedophilia hampers our ability to address it — to prosecute it and to prevent it.

RELATED: Wikipedia co-founder: Epstein, elite rings, and occult portals — what they don’t want you to know

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What you can do

If you’ve read this far, thank you. You’re the kind of person who wants to get something done.

I’ve given you three contributing factors. Now here are your marching orders — in reverse order.

1. Face your revulsion

Being disgusted by pedophilia is a wholesome and natural instinct. But that doesn’t mean you should avert your eyes. Look at that feeling objectively now, so you’ll have the courage to face it when someone you love needs you to.

2. Face the tribes-before-truth problem

Identify your own tendency to excuse some while rushing to judge others. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Most of us won’t have to make legal judgments — but your ability to face the truth will matter in what comes next.

3. Do your part to stop the ideas that groom

Here’s John Manly again:

“No one was mandated by law to go to Epstein Island. But you are required to send your children to school. Parents in many cases have no choice. And if you get the wrong teacher, that’s just too bad.”

Get your kids out of public schools. Make a stink at your local school board. Write letters to advertisers. Complain at your local library.

Once you start looking, you will see endless opportunities. The propaganda of the sexual revolution is everywhere. That means there are unlimited opportunities for you to do something constructive about this grooming atmosphere.

4. Reach out to victims

Anyone can do this.

If you know someone who has been sexually victimized, reach out. Ask how you can help. If you dismissed or shunned someone in the past, reach out and apologize.

It’s a matter of justice. It’s a matter of kindness. And it’s simple common sense.

Because honestly — do you really expect the most powerful people on earth to come clean if you and I won’t do our part?

Note: This article was adapted from the Ruth Institute’s video “The Real Causes of Pedophilia.” For more information on the Ruth Institute and its work, click here.

​Sexual revolution, The ruth institute, Pedophilia, Sex crimes, Grooming, Wilhelm reich, Jeffrey epstein, Theodore mccarrick, Dennis hastert, Culture, Counter revolution 

NASA’s Artemis II pilot found time to speak about Christ and Christianity before circumnavigating the moon on Monday.

Before Victor Glover and his fellow crew members traversed the dark side of the moon, losing radio signal as they went out of Earth’s line of sight, Glover said he wanted to remind Earth-dwellers about one of the “most important mysteries” in the world.

‘We love you from the moon.’

In a message to NASA’s mission control, with the radio transmission broadcasted live, Glover revealed he was talking about “love.”

“Christ said in response to ‘what was the greatest command’ that it was to love God with all that you are. And he, also being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself,” Glover stated.

He concluded the transmission, marked at 6:44 p.m. ET, by saying, “And so as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still going to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth: We love you from the moon.”

After a pause, mission control responded: “Houston copies. We’ll see you on the other side.”

“We will see you on the other side,” Glover affirmed.

RELATED: NASA astronaut gives very American response to DEI questioning

According to NASA’s log, the crew had just witnessed an “Earthset” three minutes earlier, the moment Earth drops below the lunar horizon.

This marked the beginning of about 40 minutes of darkness as the astronauts traveled behind the moon, which blocks the radio signals from NASA’s network.

The Artemis II crew reached 252,756 miles beyond our planet 18 minutes later, at 7:02 p.m., at a new human record for the maximum distance attained from Earth.

By 8:35 p.m., the crew entered a solar eclipse that lasted about an hour, before beginning their trip back home.

RELATED: UConn star Tarris Reed praises Jesus ahead of national championship: ‘He changed everything about me’

Glover has been full of memorable and insightful quotes throughout the mission, including the remarks he made before Easter. Glover spoke on video alongside his crew members about “the beauty of creation” over the weekend, saying that from his perspective, he could see Earth as one whole, and it reminded him of Scripture.

“When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created … you have this amazing place — this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe — in the cosmos,” Glover explained.

Astonishingly, without having prepared remarks, Glover delivered an extemporaneous motivational speech to all those listening.

“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you — just trust me: You are special. In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.”

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​Nasa, Return, Faith, Christianity, God, Scripture, Artemis ii, Moon, Tech 

Between sky-high taxes, radical left-wing policies, and staggering levels of fraud, California has turned into such a nightmare that droves of people are leaving every year.

But one man believes he can save the Golden State from its downward trajectory: Steve Hilton.

The British-born conservative commentator is the former senior adviser to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, an ex-Fox News host of “The Next Revolution,” a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and a Republican candidate for California governor in 2026. Recently endorsed by President Trump, Hilton is leading several polls against a crowded field, including Democrats and fellow Republican Chad Bianco.

On a recent episode of “Rufo and Lomez,” he joined BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo to expose the depth of California’s depravity and share his plan for a statewide overhaul.

“California today is what you get when the Democrats get everything they want,” says Hilton.

The results of 16 years of unchallenged Democrat rule speak for themselves:

“We have now today in California the highest poverty rate in the country (tied with Louisiana), the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states, the highest cost of living. Everything is the most expensive here: gas, electric, groceries, housing costs — everything,” he lists.

“U.S. News and World Report ranked California 50th out of 50 states for opportunity; WalletHub ranked us as 50th out of 50 for affordability. Chief Executive Magazine [ranked] California 50th out of 50 states for business climate,” Hilton continues, noting that this is “not the end of the list.”

After years of paying “the highest taxes for the worst results,” a “real revolution” is beginning to catch fire, he says. Even though the thought of California — one of the deepest blue states on the map — being run by a Republican governor feels like a pipe dream to many, Hilton believes the state government’s failures are so catastrophic at this point that a red victory is now feasible.

“I really think that this year we could get a major upset and you’ll see a Republican governor elected in November,” he says.

Rufo is thrilled at the prospect of a Republican governor in California for many reasons but especially when it comes to the shocking amount of fraud that’s been exposed under current Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Depending on how you calculate the numbers [and] which programs you include, at the very low end, we had something like $180 billion lost to fraud under Newsom. At the very high end, I think you had something like $400 billion lost under Newsom,” he says, referencing his recent City Journal reporting.

“The scale of these numbers is almost difficult to comprehend. Can you walk us through what you found and what you think the true extent of the fraud is now?” he asks.

Hilton, who launched the investigative initiative CAL DOGE (intentionally modeled after Elon Musk’s federal department), says that what his team has uncovered using just public records, audits, and whistleblower tips is already shocking.

He gives two examples.

“When cannabis was legalized in California through Proposition 64, they said the taxes will go towards substance abuse prevention. Well, we tracked the money down — $370 million of that parceled out in tiny grants to 500+ nonprofits,” says Hilton.

“And when you look at what they do by checking their websites and their annual reports, what do they do? Democrat political activity — registering voters, organizing in the community, all that kind of stuff.”

Hilton’s second example comes from California’s “climate fund.”

Since 2015, the state has allocated $100 million per year to installing solar panels on low-income apartment buildings. However, CAL DOGE found that the program’s own official reports show that only $72 million was actually spent on installing solar panels.

“$928 million, again, goes to all these Democrat political organizations,” says Hilton.

“They take money from the taxpayer and say it’s going for some nice purpose that you think is going to be good, and then it all gets parceled up going to this network of nonprofits that then do things that help the Democrat political machine … and the scale of it is massive,” he adds, noting that CAL DOGE’s range for state fraud is between “$312 billion” and “$425 billion over five years.”

“How can we break that system?” Rufo asks.

To hear Hilton’s answer, watch the video above.

Want more from Rufo & Lomez?

To enjoy more of the news through the anthropological lens of Christopher Rufo and Lomez, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Rufo & lomez, Chris rufo, Steve hilton, Gavin newsom, California, California fraud, Cal doge, Blazetv, Blaze media, California gubernatorial race 

A licensed concealed carrier opened fire on an intruder who broke into his Chicago home after midnight Monday and charged at him, CWB Chicago reported.

The 33-year-old victim called 911 at 1:24 a.m. and said he shot an intruder inside his home in the 2200 block of East 103rd Street — and had started CPR on him, the outlet said.

‘Homeowner clearly was in fear of being killed! That’s a justification!’

The intruder was shot in the chest, the outlet said.

His victim’s home is across the street from the South Chicago (4th) District police station, the outlet added.

RELATED: ‘I didn’t have any hesitation’: Gun-toting homeowner says he spotted intruder in his house and ‘just let it fire’

Arriving officers took over lifesaving measures, but the intruder was pronounced dead at 1:43 a.m., the outlet said.

The intruder remained a “John Doe” as of Monday evening, CWB Chicago noted, adding that detectives are investigating the shooting.

The homeowner said he did not know the intruder, WBBM-TV reported.

The residence where the shooting took place is in the Far South Side’s Deering neighborhood, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Most of the commenters under WLS-TV’s Facebook post about the shooting seemed squarely in the homeowner’s corner:

“Homeowner clearly was in fear of being killed!” one commenter exclaimed. “That’s a justification!””Finally, a story with a happy ending,” another user noted.”Would get the same breaking into our house,” another commenter promised.”Don’t break in someone’s house,” another user suggested. “The guy was protecting his home.””Great job homeowner!!!” another commenter declared.”People need to think [about] the consequences of their actions,” another user offered.“One thug at a time,” another commenter concluded.”Case closed, next story,” another user wrote.

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​Crime thwarted, Fatal shooting, Homeowner shoots intruder, Chicago, 2nd amend., Guns, Gun rights, Self defense, Home invasion, Concealed carry, Crime 

As the war in Iran rages on into its sixth week, President Trump has issued yet another threat against Iran — yet this threat seems to include a different target as well.

Early on Tuesday morning, Trump posted a strange warning message that included the Iranian people.

‘We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.’

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”

Trump went on to suggest that Tuesday night would be a deciding moment for the future of the Iranian people and regime.

RELATED: ‘Give it up or go to jail’: Trump vows to hunt down whoever leaked info about downed pilot in Iran

Kharg Island. Orbital Horizon/Gallo Images/Getty Images

“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

President Trump previously set a hard deadline of 8:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday night for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz. An official told NBC News that the U.S. has struck military assets on Kharg Island, prior to the deadline.

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​Politics, Kharg island, Operation epic fury, Iran, United states, Trump, President trump, Donald trump, Strait of hormuz, Regime change 

Two of our kids went to visit my parents a couple days ago, so my wife and I are home with just our youngest for a few nights. It’s strange. It kind of feels like it felt when we only had our first. It’s so quiet, so insanely quiet.

In fact, I’m laughing as I write this thinking about just how quiet it is compared to normal (read as: insane) daily life. Babies cry and all, but the truth is once you have older ones, you realize that those little cries and protests are really just cute and kind of pitiful, even if they seem furious.

There is something vital in us that seeks out friction and new horizons, physical and mental.

But of course, they don’t feel like that at the time when you are new to everything with your first kid.

Cry babies

I remember one time, probably two or three days after we left the hospital with our son, we called the 24-hour nurse line because we were concerned he might hurt himself from crying so much. She very kindly assured us that everything was fine and that we shouldn’t worry about him hurting himself due to crying.

My wife and I think about that story probably every six months or so. We laugh so hard about how little we knew, how nervous we were, and how loud those weak, little screams from a 5-day-old mouth must have felt to our uninitiated ears. We weren’t used to crying, we weren’t used to holding a little human screaming his hardest. We genuinely thought he might blow a blood vessel or something.

Now it’s different. When our 5-month-old cries, we aren’t particularly disturbed or shocked. It’s just what they do. We know the kinds of cries (my wife better than I), and it’s just not a big deal. They aren’t even loud, or at least not compared to the cries from a 2-year-old in the throes of an illogical tantrum.

RELATED: My son and daughter are fundamentally different — and it’s a beautiful thing

Fox Photos/Getty Images

0 to 1

It felt so hard when we only had our son six years ago. That leap from zero to one is a big one. Up until that point, you have basically spent your life being selfish. In your quiet, organized, little apartment where nothing is moved unless you move it, where no one screams for no reason, and where you actually have time to relax, life is very easy. So that leap with your first is big, and the chaos feels like a lot.

But now? This brief return to life as a family of three feels like a vacation. There are no messes unless my wife or I make them. I don’t have to admonish someone every 10 minutes for not doing what they should be doing. I can get so much done, we have so much extra time, and everything is so quiet.

It’s funny how easy that thing that seemed so hard feels now. As we have more kids, we adapt to more chaotic circumstances. We are able to take on more stuff. We are able to manage more people. Our love expands, and so does our bandwidth.

The thing is, we don’t feel it happening when it’s happening. The stress keeps right up, following a straight line so we don’t realize we are becoming more competent, and it isn’t until we are able to visit ourselves in our prior situation for a few days that we are able to really see how far we have come.

Sink or swim

This phenomenon doesn’t only apply to raising a family. It applies to our work, our adventures, and all of everything we do. We adapt to our environment, rise to the occasion, and our capacities expand when needed. If we stop, look back at our lives, and really think about how we have grown, we see that often we’ve grown the most when we have been forced to.

We grow when we take on things we don’t think we can handle. We don’t know how we are going to do it — whatever it is — but we jump in, do it, and two years later, it’s just what we consider to be normal, and we are ready again for a new challenge. There is something vital in us that seeks out friction and new horizons, physical and mental. And so we keep doing that over and over again throughout our lives, and we keep getting stronger and more capable as the years pass, even if we still feel kind of like we don’t know anything at all.

It’s possible to try to avoid struggle and the growth that comes with it. It’s possible to try to take the easy way out. But life finds a way of demanding more of us. Whether we like it or not, we are thrown overboard and told to swim, and more often than not, we find that we can swim quite well.

​Parenthood, Lifestyle, Men’s style, Babies, Experience, Family life, The root of the matter 

Artemis II made history on Monday night as it flew around the moon in the farthest manned flight from the Earth.

On Tuesday morning, NASA released some stunning photos from the historic flyby.

‘On the far side of the Moon, 252,756 miles away, Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy have now traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history.’

The White House and NASA posted some of the most stunning photos on social media, including a total eclipse from behind the moon:

RELATED: WATCH: Trump tells moon-looping Artemis astronauts what’s next in out-of-this-world phone call

NASA

Reminiscent of the famous “Earthrise” photo taken by William Anders on the Apollo 8 mission, NASA also published a photo of “Earthset.” According to NASA, this is the first photo from the far side of the moon ever taken.

NASA

NASA Artemis also posted a photo of the Orientale basin, most of which is not visible from Earth. This perspective will allow new discoveries to be made.

The account describes the photo and the new discovery: “The Artemis II crew captured this image showing the rings of the Orientale basin during their lunar flyby on April 6. At the 10 o’clock position of the Orientale basin, the two smaller craters — which the Artemis II crew has suggested be named Integrity & Carroll — are visible.”

NASA

The flyby of the moon lasted several hours starting Monday afternoon.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman celebrated the historic moment with an exciting update on Monday of the progress of astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen:

Artemis II has reached its maximum distance from Earth. On the far side of the Moon, 252,756 miles away, Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy have now traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history and now begin their journey home. Before they left, they said they hoped this mission would be forgotten, but it will be remembered as the moment people started to believe that America can once again do the near-impossible and change the world. Congratulations to this incredible crew and the entire NASA team, our international and commercial partners, but this mission isn’t over until they’re under safe parachutes, splashing down into the Pacific.

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​Politics, Nasa, Artemis ii, Moon, Moon photos, Artemis ii photos, White house, Jared isaacman, Earthrise, Earthset, Orientale basin 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was dragged through the mud in a new in-depth report that features former colleagues and current board members referring to him as sociopath and a liar.

Altman, 40, has yet to respond to claims made in a recent report, some of which were uncovered in secret memos to OpenAI’s board members.

‘He is a sociopath. He would do anything.’

According to the New Yorker, OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, sent the memos to three other board members in 2023. One of the memos about Altman began with a list titled “Sam exhibits a consistent pattern of.” The first item on the list was “lying.”

The memos also alleged that Altman misrepresented facts to executives and board members while deceiving them about safety protocols. Unfortunately for Altman, the claims did not stop there.

“He’s unconstrained by truth,” a board member told the New Yorker. “He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”

The outlet said that the unnamed board member was not the only person to describe Altman as “sociopathic” without being prompted. Not long before his 2013 suicide, according to the New Yorker, coder Aaron Swartz warned at least one friend about Altman, whom Swartz had known from their time together at Y Combinator. His warning: “You need to understand that Sam can never be trusted. He is a sociopath. He would do anything.”

Sutskever additionally implied that he did not think Altman should have power over others, saying, “I don’t think Sam is the guy who should have his finger on the button.”

Others described him as more ambitious than anything else.

RELATED: Sam Altman tells BlackRock he wants AI on a meter ‘like electricity or water’

Former OpenAI board member Sue Yoon said Altman was “not this Machiavellian villain” but was able to convince himself of his own sales pitches.

“He’s too caught up in his own self-belief,” she reportedly said. “So he does things that, if you live in the real world, make no sense. But he doesn’t live in the real world.”

Other anonymous colleagues cited by the New Yorker said that Sutskever and similar detractors were simply aspiring to take Altman’s throne. Still, even many neutral comments did not help Altman’s portrayal in the report.

“He’s unbelievably persuasive. Like, Jedi mind tricks,” a tech executive colleague of Altman’s reportedly said. “He’s just next-level.”

At the same time, OpenAI is allegedly in the midst of unleashing superintelligence that Altman himself says will be so disruptive that it will require a new social contract.

RELATED: Sexting with chatbots is too far, OpenAI decides

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Altman told Axios that there would be widespread job loss and a threat of cyberattacks coupled with social unrest.

“I suspect in the next year,” he said, “we will see significant threats we have to mitigate from cyber.”

Altman proposed a new deal with citizens that includes a public wealth fund, taxes on “automated labor,” a 32-hour workweek, and the “right to AI.”

That confirms previous reports that Altman wanted to put AI on a meter like electricity or water, to both democratize its usage and limit the possibility of overburdening the electrical grid.

OpenAI did not respond to Return’s request for comment about the claims made about Altman and who they were coming from.

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Openai, Chatbot, Altman, Board members, Tech 

The Artemis II crew made history on Monday, putting more distance — 252,756 miles — between themselves and Earth than any previous human spaceflight. The previous record, 248,655 miles, was set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen looped around the moon in their Orion spacecraft, flying as close as 4,070 miles on one approach and losing signal for roughly 40 minutes while passing behind the celestial body.

‘We’ll establish a permanent presence.’

In addition to breaking the distance record for human spaceflight and making “impactful science observations” of the far side of the moon, NASA said the crew also took a moment to “provisionally name” a couple of lunar craters.

As the Artemis II crew began their voyage back to Earth, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman notified them that they had a call waiting.

“A very special hello to Artemis II,” said President Donald Trump. “Today, you’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud. We have a lot of things to be proud of lately, but this is — there’s nothing like what you’re doing, circling around the moon for the first time in more than a half a century and breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from Planet Earth.”

RELATED: NASA astronaut gives very American response to DEI questioning

Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Trump also informed Hansen that his countrymen are proud of him, stating, “I spoke to your prime minister and many other friends I have in Canada. They are so proud of you.”

Emphasizing that America is a “frontier nation” and that the Artemis II crew are “modern-day pioneers,” the president noted that while such journeys are rare, “It’s going to be more and more prevalent because we’re going to be doing a lot of … traveling, and then you’re going to ultimately do the whole big trip to Mars.”

Trump said that the Artemis II mission sets the stage for a return to the lunar surface “very soon,” adding that “this time, we won’t just leave footprints; we’ll establish a permanent presence on the moon.”

Commander Reid Wiseman, a Baltimore native, told Trump that his call was “certainly special to all of us.”

Wiseman noted that two unforgettable parts of their journey were watching a solar eclipse and glimpsing Mars: “All of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation and this planet become a two-planet species.”

Koch said her top highlight was seeing Earth again after passing around the far side of the moon.

“It really just reminds you what a special place we have and how important it is for our nation … to lead and not follow in exploring deep space,” said Koch.

The president said he plans to invite the astronauts to the White House after their return and to ask them for their autographs.

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​Space, Moon, Artemis ii, Artemis, Lunar, Nasa, Donald trump, Science, Exploration, Politics 

Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made good on his promise to inject even more racially based policies into the city with his “racial equity plan.”

Mamdani had a special media briefing on Monday to announce the plan to benefit “black and brown New Yorkers,” especially as it is relates to the “cost-of-living crisis.”

The white paper for the program said there were over 800 racial equity ‘strategies’ in the plan and 600 ‘indicators to track and report progress.’

“This is not a crisis affecting a small minority of New Yorkers. It is a crisis touching the vast majority of our city, in every borough and every neighborhood,” Mamdani said.

“But we know this crisis is not felt equally. Black and Latino New Yorkers — who have been pushed out of this city for decades — are bearing the brunt,” he added. “These reports make one thing clear: We cannot tackle systemic racial inequity without confronting the affordability crisis head-on, and we cannot solve the cost-of-living crisis without dismantling systemic racial inequity.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, responded simply, “Sounds fishy/illegal. Will review!”

Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su added that the administration aimed to dismantle “structural racism and inequity” in order to establish “true economic justice.”

“Inequity has been embedded in the foundation of our city and nation since their inception; dismantling it requires a collective effort,” said NYC Chief Equity Officer and NYC Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice Commissioner Afua Atta-Mensah.

Atta-Mensah went on to say every government agency will implement the new policies to “advance racial equity, promote justice, and create lasting change.”

The white paper for the program said there were over 800 racial equity “strategies” in the plan and 600 “indicators to track and report progress.”

RELATED: Mamdani made big promises to cut the budget — here’s the embarrassing result so far

Some of the goals include expanding access to capital for underserved businesses, applying a “racial equity framework” to all new housing proposals, and reducing “truck-related pollutants” in “communities of color.”

The plan also involves a new “true cost of living” measure meant to supplant traditional measures of poverty. According to Mamdani’s administration, 62% of New Yorkers don’t meet “their true cost of living,” while 18% to 20% were “identified as poor” under traditional measures.

They reported that Hispanics had the highest percentage that fell under the TCOL standard, with black residents coming in second.

A Blaze News request for comment from the mayor’s office was not returned by time of publishing.

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​Mamdani vs doj, Racial equity plan, Racist dei plan, New york city socialists, Politics 

The announcement of Terafab was made at a decommissioned power plant, reflecting Elon Musk’s understanding of stagecraft: The ruined infrastructure of one era makes a convenient altar for the next. On March 21 and 22, 2026, at the Seaholm Power Plant in Austin, Musk presented Terafab. It is either the most ambitious semiconductor manufacturing project in history or a very expensive project that may not come to be.

Terafab is a plan to build vertically integrated chip-manufacturing capacity in Austin, combining under one roof the design, fabrication, packaging, and testing of advanced semiconductors. Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI are the collaborating entities. The announced investment figure is $20 billion. The stated long-run target is one terawatt of compute capacity per year, a number that converts the language of performance into the language of power.

Terafab is a cultural event as much as a technical announcement.

Measuring compute in watts means that the limiting factor is energy throughput. The International Energy Agency has described data centers as a fast-growing fraction of global electricity demand; by 2030, in its base case, that demand could roughly double.

The technical core of Terafab is its most defensible part. The pitch is about iteration speed: If you can design a chip, fabricate it, package it, test it, and revise the mask, all inside one building, without shipping components between specialized facilities in different countries, you can improve faster than anyone who does not. In conventional semiconductor manufacturing, these functions are geographically and organizationally scattered. A mask set travels; a wafer ships; a packaged part crosses an ocean. Each journey is a delay, and delay is the enemy of the feedback loop. Terafab is a wager that learning velocity beats static node leadership.

A factory within a factory

Advanced fabs are among the most expensive and complex structures human beings have ever built, typically $10 billion and several years for a single facility, dependent on supply chains for equipment that cannot be wished into existence by ambition or capital alone. Extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, to name one critical dependency, cost hundreds of millions of dollars apiece and are manufactured by a single Dutch company. The closed loop is a compelling engineering idea. The project will involve equipment lead times, utility provisioning, the yielding of learning curves, and the peculiar physics of building things in the real world.

There is a second Terafab nested inside the first. The announcement includes chips, named D3, designed for space environments, paired with a vision of solar-powered orbital compute satellites, initially around 100 kilowatts and scaling toward the megawatt range. Terrestrial compute is constrained by land, power, cooling, and local political opposition to enormous data centers. Space has sunlight and no neighbors to complain about the noise.

RELATED: Bernie Sanders and AOC propose law to shut down future AI data centers

Photo (left): Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Photo (right): Alex Kraus/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Of course, space also has no air. In vacuum, heat cannot leave a system by convection, only by radiation, which requires very large radiator surfaces at high power levels. The International Space Station’s thermal control system requires radiators the size of tennis courts to reject the heat generated by its systems. Radiation poses its own complications: The energetic particles of the space environment induce bit flips and long-term degradation in electronics not specifically hardened against them. The orbital vision is not impossible. It is simply a different problem than the earthbound one, even when presented in the same breath, as though the same momentum carries the project from Austin to low Earth orbit without friction.

The future needs power

Terafab’s “everything under one roof” approach has an ancestor in the great vertical integration projects of industrial capitalism, such as Ford’s River Rouge complex, which turned raw materials into finished automobiles inside a single, vast geography, its own power plant humming at the center.

The global semiconductor supply chain is highly concentrated: Roughly 92% of the world’s most advanced chip manufacturing capacity sits in Taiwan. To build end-to-end domestic capability is simultaneously a resilience project and a power project, a bid to internalize a strategic resource inside one corporate constellation rather than depend on the broader market of specialized suppliers.

Terafab is a cultural event as much as a technical announcement, and its cultural work is to naturalize a particular diagnosis: that intelligence is infrastructure, infrastructure is energy, and energy is the horizon of meaning for civilizational progress. Whether or not the fab gets built on schedule, whether or not the orbital satellites ever achieve megawatt-scale compute, the frame has been installed. The factory is where the future lives, and the future needs power.

​Tech, Elon musk, Terafab 

A 12-year-old was found dead under very disturbing circumstances at her stepfather’s home, and Connecticut police believe he sexually assaulted her before her death.

The Enfield Police Department said in a post on Facebook that officers responded to a report of an unresponsive female at a home on Elm St. on March 18 at about 10:25 a.m.

‘It’s terrifying still to this day. I’m glad he’s gone and won’t be driving kids anymore.’

Police said the girl, identified as Eve Rogers, was declared dead.

The girl’s mother said she went to wake up her daughter and found her dead, according to a WFSB-TV report.

The girl was being homeschooled and was not enrolled in any public school. She was withdrawn from school in 2022 in the fourth grade.

Police said they obtained a search warrant and conducted an investigation at the home for many hours.

Anthony Federline was arrested on Thursday and charged with sexual assault in the first degree as well as risk of injury to a child.

WVIT-TV reported that the arrest warrant said pills were found in the room where Rogers was found dead and that she was found naked from the waist down with a blanket over her bottom half.

DNA testing led to Federline’s arrest, but authorities said the DNA of an unknown person was also found.

The family initially began a GoFundMe donation page, but it was later deleted.

Parents in the school district are outraged because Federline was allowed to continue driving a school bus after the death of his stepdaughter. He was fired by the district after he was charged and arrested.

“We just wanted answers. We wanted accountability. We wanted some sort of transparency. We wanted answers from somebody,” said Malcolm Maxwell-Frechette, a parent of a student who rode on Federline’s bus.

Enfield superintendent Steven Moccio addressed the criticism in a statement to parents.

“Mr. Federline was removed from his position upon the district’s notification of arrest. Prior to that time, the district was unaware that he was a person of interest,” he said.

“It’s terrifying still to this day. I’m glad he’s gone and won’t be driving kids anymore, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about the situation,” Maxwell-Frechette added.

RELATED: Stepfather accused of horrific sexual abuse of 12-year-old boy tries to commit suicide in jail, prosecutor says

Connecticut state rep. John Santanella (D) released a statement urging the amendment of a bill that would place restrictions on homeschooling based on the incident.

“What we do know is heartbreaking,” he wrote. “A young life, a life that never had the chance to be fully lived, has been lost, and our community is left to grapple with that loss. In moments like this, we are reminded that the policies we debate in Hartford are not abstract. They have real consequences for real people, especially the most vulnerable among us.”

Federline was held on a $1 million bond.

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​Eve rogers death, Anthony federline arrest sexual assault, Stepdaughter raped, Crime, Stepdad assaults daughter 

John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government,” which inspired many of our nation’s founding principles, makes the simple assertion that the basic role of government is to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the consenting governed. Though our federal government has long since strayed from this purpose, opportunities to defend it are always a worthy endeavor.

That is why President Trump’s appointment of Vice President JD Vance to lead a new task force dedicated to rooting out fraud in the United States is a welcome undertaking.

There’s no incentive for states to police fraud: They can’t go over budget, and the feds still pick up the tab for illegitimate claims.

For too long, numerous states have abused federal dollars, failing to ensure that many recipients are even real or qualified for federal funds and leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab. Contrary to the media narrative that the administration is simply on a blue-state witch hunt, the billions of dollars stolen in Minnesota (yet to be returned) tell a different story.

For once, the executive branch is demonstrating proper oversight in the service of the American taxpayer, and it is long overdue.

Federal prosecutors estimate that, across 14 Minnesota Medicaid-funded programs, fraud totals more than $9 billion. That number is half of all federal matching funds allocated to the state since 2018.

It’s often said that taxation is theft. In Minnesota, it appears to be policy.

Correctly, Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Vice President JD Vance, have turned off the credit card until Minnesota officials can clean up their act.

Following a January CMS effort to get the state into compliance, the agency is also deferring payment for Q4 of 2025, having identified $259.5 million in fraudulent and illegal claims.

Like clockwork, officials, including Gov. Walz, began to plead on behalf of victims of a potential Medicaid fallout, portraying themselves as the defenders of the very Minnesotans victimized by the fraud they enabled.

In a House Oversight Committee hearing just a few weeks ago, Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison faced questions with a surprising lack of urgency. When asked if he felt the state’s efforts to return funds were successful, Walz denied culpability: “I can’t speak to that … I don’t have any part in that.”

Despite media outlets defending the state’s “good-faith effort” to make amends, the estimated $80 million returned still falls short of even 1% of the money stolen from taxpayers.

Similarly, Walz refused to elaborate on whether government officials who enabled fraud had been fired. During the Oversight Committee’s investigation, it was revealed that dozens of whistleblowers who reported fraud inside the Minnesota Department of Human Services were retaliated against. Minnesota DHS hired outside entities to investigate staff who fell out of line.

The reason? Dozens of whistleblowers reported that they were told not to say anything about the fraud for fear of being called “racist” or “Islamophobic.”

Not only did Walz and Ellison know about massive welfare fraud in the state, but they went to great lengths to keep it that way, afraid that cracking down on the disproportionate amount of Medicaid fraud in the Somali community would harm them politically.

RELATED: Tax-exempt hospitals are not putting their patients first

David M. Levitt/Bloomberg/Getty Images

This level of fraud is historic. But rather than making a good-faith effort to identify fraud and recover taxpayer funds, Minnesota may become the first state to pursue the unprecedented step of suing CMS instead of using the agency’s internal appeals process. While state officials claim they are at a loss over how to satisfy CMS requirements, doubling down on fraud is doubtlessly not the solution CMS is looking for.

Vance, now tasked with developing a nationwide anti-fraud strategy, should build on CMS’ approach in Minnesota, one that directly targets the root of the problem.

Minnesota, like many states, receives a Federal Medical Assistance Percentage of 90% for adults covered under the ACA expansion. In practice, that means for every dollar the state spends, the federal government contributes nine. States that spend more get more. There’s no incentive for states to police fraud: They can’t go over budget, and the feds still pick up the tab for illegitimate claims, ultimately passing the balance on to taxpayers.

In context, CMS’ Medicaid funding pause in Minnesota functions as a blunt but effective check: no oversight, no money. Should Minnesota decide to bolster program integrity and ensure that Medicaid assistance only goes to Americans who are truly in need, it can confidently spend its cash again with the assurance of federal backing.

In the meantime, every other state would be wise to take note and get its house in order before Vance drops the hammer.

​Trump administration, Minnesota, Tim walz, Fraud, Somali fraud, Medicaid, Medicaid fraud, Mehmet oz, Cms, House oversight committee, Opinion & analysis