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At the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t mince words. He told European leaders that mass migration is not, was not, and will not become “some fringe concern of little consequence.” It was and remains a crisis that is transforming and destabilizing societies across the West.

Rubio also made the point that should be obvious but too often goes unsaid: Controlling who enters a country — and how many people enter it — is not xenophobia. It is not hatred. It is a basic act of national sovereignty. Failing to do it is not merely a policy mistake. It is an abdication of one of government’s first duties to its own people and an urgent threat to social order and civilizational stability.

We need to confront sanctuary employers, sanctuary farms, and sanctuary factories.

That is bold. It is also correct.

Yet special interests continue to pressure President Trump to abandon his promise to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history” into a much smaller project focused only on “the worst of the worst.”

Violent criminal illegal aliens must be removed, and the administration was right to begin there. Public safety comes first.

But that was always the opener. It was never the endgame.

The American people did not vote for President Trump because he promised a narrow immigration enforcement strategy. They voted for the restoration of the rule of law. They voted for what the president himself promised: to deport the illegal aliens Joe Biden unlawfully allowed to enter the United States.

The mas -deportation coalition, of which I am a proud member, exists to help the president accomplish that goal.

Two hundred thousand or even 300,000 interior removals per year may sound significant. Put it beside an illegal population that could approach 20 million, however, and the number shrinks fast. At the current pace, the math does not get you to the largest deportation operation in American history over four years.

President Trump needs help keeping his promise, and he needs a strategy calibrated to the scale of the problem.

RELATED: ‘Phase one’ was quality control. ‘Phase two’ needs to be quantity control.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

When President Eisenhower enforced immigration law in the 1950s, he did not limit enforcement to select criminal categories. The message was clear: Unlawful presence would not be tolerated. That clarity changed behavior. People left because they knew they had broken the law and would face consequences if they stayed.

That is the kind of clarity we need now.

It means expanding worksite enforcement, not merely fighting over sanctuary cities. We need to confront sanctuary employers, sanctuary farms, and sanctuary factories.

It means taking on industries that rely on and exploit illegal labor at the expense of American workers and their families. It means making clear that unlawful presence in the United States carries consequences — not selectively imposed, but consistently and uniformly applied.

As someone who led ICE and CBP under President Trump in his first term, I can say this with confidence: The machinery and capability exist to achieve 1 million interior removals by the end of 2026.

The real question is political will.

Opponents of the president’s campaign promise are trying to box him into a narrower and narrower enforcement lane. Special interests, campaign consultants, and media talking heads want enforcement to stall — and then to end in amnesty.

If enforcement remains confined to this narrow lane and eventually grinds to a halt, amnesty will come next.

RELATED: Two ‘I’ agencies, one Democratic double standard

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The State of the Union is the president’s golden opportunity to make clear to supporters, detractors, and, above all, the American people that he intends to fulfill the promise he made on the campaign trail.

It is time to move to phase two: enforcement at scale, without fear or favor.

That may sound bold to some. I know firsthand that it can be done — and must be done.

The American people returned President Trump to the White House after he made that promise. They will reward him with a historic legacy if he keeps it.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, State of the union, Immigration, Mass deportations, Immigration and customs enforcement, Border security, Illegal aliens, Workplace enforcement, Business, Employment, Sanctuary cities, Agriculture, Farms, Factories, Dwight d. eisenhower 

In a case that has stretched over several years, a federal judge has seemingly put a nail in the coffin of a major report, the release of which President Donald Trump has consistently opposed.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who has served the Southern District of Florida since 2020, permanently barred the Department of Justice from releasing former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report regarding Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Politico reported.

‘Special Counsel Smith and his team went ahead for months, undeterred, preparing Volume II using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process.’

Trump’s motion to bar the release of the special counsel’s report — which Cannon previously determined Smith and his office had unlawfully prepared during the Biden administration — was granted in full on Monday.

“The Court has reviewed the Motions and the full record pertinent to the Motions, including the United States’ position that ‘Volume II should not be released outside of the Department of Justice’ due to the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Smith and Attorney General Bondi’s deliberative-process determination. Fully advised in the premises, Trump’s Unopposed Motion is GRANTED,” the Trump appointee wrote in the ruling.

RELATED: ‘Flagrant violation’: GOP lawmaker grills Jack Smith for ‘spying’ on former House speaker

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Cannon’s ruling on the “complex” case, which she said “generated close to 800 docket entries since the filing of the initial indictment in June 2023,” will ostensibly put to rest the impending release of Volume II of Smith’s report.

Following the order, the current Department of Justice and its successors are “enjoined from (a) releasing, sharing, or transmitting Volume II of the Final Report or any drafts of Volume II outside the Department of Justice, or (b) otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in Volume II or in drafts thereof.”

However, a second motion filed by two co-defendants alongside Trump was rejected in part. This separate motion requested that Volume II be destroyed, but this request was denied.

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Among the many guests at President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address of his second term will be the widow of Charlie Kirk, according to the Daily Wire.

Erika Kirk took the reins of her husband’s company, Turning Point USA, after his assassination in Utah and has become a leading voice in the pro-Trump movement.

‘She has risen to the occasion with grace, dignity, and a lot of hard work.’

“President Trump has been a source of strength for Erika, constantly checking in with her over the last five months, and Erika is incredibly honored to be invited by the president to attend tonight’s State of the Union,” said TPUSA spokesman Matt Shupe to the Daily Wire.

“Erika has been thrust into an enormously important role by fate and tragedy and because Charlie chose her should the horrible moment ever come, and she has risen to the occasion with grace, dignity, and a lot of hard work.”

Kirk surprised many at her husband’s memorial in September by publicly forgiving the man accused of the killing.

“That young man, that young man,” she said. “On the Cross, Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.”

She added, “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer, we know, from the gospel is love and always love.”

BlazeTV will provide full coverage of the State of the Union address beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday with analysis and commentary from hosts Allie Beth Stuckey, Stu Burguiere, Steve Deace, and others.

RELATED: Tim Allen had a powerful reaction to Erika Kirk forgiving the alleged assassin of her husband

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, is facing numerous charges, including murder, after his family reportedly persuaded him to turn himself in to law enforcement. Many suspect that his relationship with a trans-identifying man was part of the alleged motivation for the political violence.

Mrs. Kirk’s elevation to lead TPUSA has also led to some unhinged conspiracy theories accusing her of participating in an operation to kill her husband.

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One might look at a map of the Pacific and see not nations or cultures, but single points of failure. A current focus of the United States is Taiwan, a humid, densely populated island that holds the world’s advanced chip capacity in a terrified embrace. The new conversation, the one taking place in strategy memos and industrial planning committees, seeks a failover, a backup system, cooler and less contested. The location is Hokkaido.

The Japan External Trade Organization does not suggest that this Northern Japanese island would entirely replace the sweltering, sleepless efficiency of Hsinchu Science Park. The ecosystem in Taiwan is too sticky, too deeply rooted in decades of institutional memory to be simply lifted and dropped elsewhere. Instead, Hokkaido would be a geopolitical insurance policy, a second, colder, resource-abundant location where a new chip cluster could be built, far from the Taiwan Strait, in a place where the water is plentiful and the missiles are more friendly.

Technology can transform a place from a frontier of agrarian settlement to a node in a global machine.

The analogy between the two islands is tempting, but it highlights difficulty as well as opportunity. Taiwan’s dominance was not an accident of geography; its capacity was built over decades, a deliberate accretion of state-backed R&D institutes and land policy that treated universities and public infrastructure as tools of industrialization. For Hokkaido to become the “new Taiwan,” this density, the sheer weight of human skill and accumulated knowledge, would need to be duplicated. The timeline to do so might be longer than desired.

The centerpiece of this ambition is a company called Rapidus and a site in the Chitose area known as IIM-1. The timeline is aggressive: a pilot line begun in 2025, mass production by 2027. The goal is the 2nm-class chip, utilizing gate-all-around structures, a technology at the threshold of modern capability. Rapidus has already installed an EUV lithography tool, a machine that uses 13.5 nanometer wavelength light to print patterns so fine they exist at the edge of visibility.

RELATED: America’s technological horizon

luza Studios/Getty Images

An EUV scanner is not just a machine. It is a geopolitical asset, intertwined with export controls, national anxieties, and the supply chains that have become a source of concern. The machine sits in Hokkaido, but the sociotechnical world required to run it has yet to be assembled. Advanced manufacturing depends on highly situated know-how, the yield learning and micro-decisions of production that do not travel well. One recalls the friction of bringing the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to Arizona, where the transplant of a workplace culture proved harder than the pouring of concrete.

However, Hokkaido does offer something Arizona cannot: water. A region holds a portfolio of critical features: water security, renewable energy, risk distribution. Taiwan has been plagued by droughts that force chipmakers to truck in water, a reminder that the most advanced technologies still rely on the Earth. Hokkaido, by contrast, touts its snowmelt and its wind. Rapidus explicitly lists abundant water and the attractiveness for living as key reasons for its location.

The strategy bleeds into something like lifestyle marketing. The “Hokkaido Valley” is being sold not only as an excellent location for factories, but as a cure for the density of metropolitan life. The location attempts to solve two problems at once: the fragility of the global chip supply and the demographic collapse of rural Japan. The country’s development plans have long been concerned with population decline and the survival of communities. The semiconductor strategy offers a new answer: import the engineers, promise them nature, and call it compute sovereignty.

The project is not without risks. Tacit yield knowledge cannot be moved like a warehouse. An attempt to compress Taiwan’s 40 years of industrial layering into a single decade in Chitose is a gamble. Yet there is already motion toward the new location. By early 2026, reports surfaced of TSMC planning 3nm production in Japan, alongside Rapidus’ 2nm targets. The vision is of a multisite future, a diversification of risk across a map that feels increasingly unsafe.

The redesign of Hokkaido as an interface between global networks and local survival is instructive. The government of Japan is now planning for a future in which semiconductor-related total sales are a metric of national health. Technology can transform a place from a frontier of agrarian settlement to a node in a global machine, where the water and the wind and the cold are no longer just weather, but assets in a calculation of security. The chips, if they come, will be small. The rearrangement of the world required to make them is very large.

​Tech 

California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom did his best to relate to an Atlanta, Georgia, audience at a recent book tour stop — but he may have insulted the audience instead.

“I’m not trying to impress you,” Newsom told Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens at the event. “I’m just trying to impress upon you: I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy.”

“And you know, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940. Literally a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom said.

“You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be in,” he added.

“Dig that hole!” says Keith Malinak, executive producer of “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“So he just called all these blacks stupid,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments, shocked.

“‘I’m just stupid like you are,’” Gray mocks. “‘I’m assuming that every one of you got a 960 on your SAT or less.’”

“‘And you can’t read. Just like me,’” BlazeTV contributor Jeff Fisher chimes in.

“Will this stick?” asks Keith. “We may not know for a while if it sticks or not. We may have to wait until the Democrat primary to see if maybe a black candidate comes out and drops this reminder on everybody.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

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

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A probationary wildlife biologist for Yosemite National Park who identifies as “non-binary” covered the side of El Capitan with a gargantuan trans-activist flag last year to protest the Trump administration’s reality-affirming policies regarding gender.

Shannon Joslin, a female resident of El Portal, California, found out the hard way that actions have consequences — and was fired.

‘Demonstrating without a permit outside of designated First Amendment areas detracts from the visitor experience.’

The LGBT activist filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, demanding her job back and claiming that the Department of the Interior violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

The protest

Joslin and several other climbers rigged a 55’x35′ trans activist flag roughly one-third of the way up El Capitan on May 20, 2025, where it flapped for hours.

According to her complaint, Joslin came up with the idea to rig a flag on El Capitan as a “statement in support of trans people,” then worked over the course of multiple weeks with other activists to “stake out the technical logistics of fixing a sizable flag to the rock face.”

In the corresponding press release where she boasted about the protest, Joslin indicated that those responsible were “social workers, public servants, parents, and neighbors.”

She told Climbing.com, “Calling congressmen and writing representatives feels like yelling into the void. We have this f**king microphone that is El Cap.”

RELATED: ‘Just chaos’: Heroes who stopped ‘trans’ killer at Rhode Island hockey game speak out

El Capitan. Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Wyn Riley, a drag queen who goes by “Pattie Gonia,” was among the supporters of the protest. In a May 22, 2025, propaganda video featuring several clips of Joslin securing the flag, Riley said, “The Trump administration and transphobes would love to have you believe that being trans is unnatural.”

“Call it a protest; call it a celebration,” continued Riley. “We are bringing elevation to liberation.”

The complaint alleges that Joslin was off-duty “at all times during the preparation for and placement and display of the trans pride flag.”

The fallout

Documents show that Joslin received a notice of termination in late July indicating that she was out of a job effective Aug. 12, 2025.

The letter provided a reminder that the purpose of the two-year trial period that started for Joslin on Sept. 10, 2023, is to “determine whether newly appointed Federal employees are suitable for successful service in the areas of conduct and performance.”

“During your trial period, you have failed to demonstrate acceptable conduct,” continued the letter. “Specifically, on or about May 20, 2025, you participated in a small group demonstration in an area outside the designated protest and demonstration area without permit as required by 36 CFR 2.51 and thus circumvented rules applicable to all park visitors.”

Neither the Department of the Interior nor the National Park Service would comment on the specifics of the relevant personnel actions.

However, they both shared a statement with Blaze News noting, “We take the protection of the park’s resources and the experience of our visitors very seriously and will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations that impact those resources and experiences.”

“Yosemite National Park was designated by Congress to highlight the beautiful natural and cultural features of the area,” continued the statement. “No matter the cause, demonstrating without a permit outside of designated First Amendment areas detracts from the visitor experience and the protection of the park. To safeguard the protection of visitors, visitor experiences, and park resources, many demonstrations require a permit.”

The lawsuit

Joslin’s lawsuit, in which she is referred to with plural pronouns, complains about Trump’s rebuff of gender ideology and reality-affirming policies; claims that Joslin has faced “medical, financial, personal, and professional harm” as the result of her termination; and alleges that the decision to fire her violated the “First Amendment by selectively targeting for retaliation specific forms of expression based on content and viewpoint.”

The lawsuit — which lists the NPS, the Interior Department, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants — also alleges that the National Park Service used a press release regarding the stunt from Joslin’s protest group against her, suggesting that doing so was a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.

The “non-binary” activist not only wants her old job back but damages and a declaratory judgment that “Defendants’ collection and use of information about Dr. Joslin’s protected First Amendment activity was unlawful.”

Joanna Citron Day, one of Joslin’s attorneys, said in a release, “If Dr. Joslin had hung a flag the administration liked, they would be working at Yosemite today.”

Regardless of the colors, Yosemite National Park maintains its prohibition for “any person or group to hang or otherwise affix to any natural or cultural feature, or display so as to cover any natural or cultural feature, any banner, flag, or sign larger than fifteen square feet (e.g., 5 feet x 3 feet).”

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​Flag, Trans, Transgender, Shannon joslin, Yosemite, El capitan, Protest, Protests, Cultural imperialism, National park, Interior department, Politics 

Two weeks ago in tiny Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, an 18-year-old man allegedly killed his mother and half-brother. He then opened fire at his former secondary school, murdering five students — some as young as 12 — and one teacher, wounding dozens more, before taking his own life.

It was one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings ever — and its worst school shooting since the 1989 massacre at École Polytechnique de Montréal.

The RCMP-issued public alert warned of a ‘female in a dress with brown hair.’

It was also Canada’s first incident of a grim trend plaguing its neighbor to the south: homicidal rampages by clearly mentally ill, transgender-identified perpetrators.

‘Female’ at large

Why does it matter that alleged shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar considered himself “trans”?

Even if you’re not convinced that the desire to change or ignore biological sex is in itself a sign of psychological disturbance or that the drugs, hormones, and surgeries used to “transition” people don’t exacerbate or even trigger mental illness, it seems clear that Van Rootselaar’s “trans” identity affected how police responded to the shooting.

Van Rootselaar was “transitioning” from male to female, and that’s precisely how he appeared: like a young man trying to look like a young woman. Yet while he was still at large, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Tumbler Ridge seemingly put woke politics and Canada’s obsession with “misgendering” ahead of public safety.

The RCMP-issued public alert warned of a “female in a dress with brown hair.”

British Columbia RCMP commanding officer Dwayne McDonald reinforced this narrative at the first news conference, announcing that the suspect was “an 18-year-old female.” It was only after prodding from a reporter that he admitted that Van Rootselaar was a biological male.

We’ve sadly come to expect this kind of obsfucation from the media — Canada’s state broadcaster refers to Van Rootselaar as “she” without qualification — but such deception from the police poses even greater risks.

Could the ideologically motivated refusal to identify Van Rootselaar accurately have led to even more deaths? It’s certainly possible.

Mental health concerns

Moreover, gender ideology may have hampered the police’s ability to prevent this tragedy.

McDonald confirmed that Van Rootselaar had previously been apprehended under British Columbia’s Mental Health Act on multiple occasions and had been hospitalized “in some circumstances.”

Under the Mental Health Act, individuals who pose a risk to themselves or others can be involuntarily detained and treated, with no fixed limit on the duration so long as medical certifications are renewed. Mental health officials have acknowledged that repeated cycles of admission and discharge — without a durable treatment plan — are not uncommon.

It is fair to ask whether institutional caution — including heightened sensitivity around gender identity issues — contributed to a reluctance to take firmer, longer-term measures when warning signs were evident.

RELATED: Media calls it ‘mental health,’ Rick Burgess calls it demonic: Unpacking the Tumbler Ridge shooting and the transgender agenda

Eagle Vision Agency/AFP via Getty Images

Armed and dangerous

Then there are the multiple firearms recovered at the school, along with additional weapons at the suspect’s residence. Police have not yet provided detailed clarification about how the firearms were obtained or whether they were legally registered.

Canada has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the developed world. In recent years, the federal government has expanded prohibitions and launched new confiscation initiatives largely affecting rural gun owners and farmers. Those measures have been defended as necessary for public safety.

Yet this case raises an unavoidable question: How did an 18-year-old with documented mental health concerns gain access to multiple firearms?

If Canada’s regulatory regime is as robust as its advocates claim, the breakdown here demands explanation. Was this a licensing failure? A background-check gap? A failure to flag mental health risk? Or unlawful access that went undetected?

And to what extent were any of these failures enabled by the RCMP’s established practice of putting the Liberal government and its pet causes ahead of the public good?

​Culture, Politics, Canada, Tumbler ridge, Tumbler ridge shooting, Trans, Transgender ideology, Rcmp, Mark carney, Letter from canada 

A former teacher’s aide in Wisconsin has been sentenced to more than half a century in prison after her conviction of committing child sex crimes against four boys, according to authorities.

The Kenosha County District Attorney announced last week that Judge David Hughes sentenced 34-year-old Anna Marie Crocker to 51.5 years in prison and 32 years of extended supervision. Crocker — a mother of four — will not be eligible for release until she is approximately 85 years old.

‘Her betrayal of trust, victim-blaming, and efforts to intimidate the victims only deepened the harm.’

In December, Crocker pleaded guilty to first-degree child sexual assault, child sexual exploitation (filming), second-degree sexual assault of a child, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, intimidation of a victim, and child enticement-sexual contact, according to WITI-TV.

Before being sentenced, Crocker claimed to have taken “full responsibility for what has taken place,” WISN-TV reported.

“I am disturbed by the harm and distress, along with the trauma that you have to endure,” Crocker continued. “I am deeply sorry that this has caused confusion, pain, and anger, and that you have to live with this the rest of your lives.”

WISN reported that Judge Hughes said during sentencing, “She sought out children, she used children, and she took advantage of children.”

Kenosha County Deputy District Attorney Rosa Delgado prosecuted the case and proclaimed, “Justice was served today for the four children this defendant groomed and sexually abused.”

Delgado also declared, “Her betrayal of trust, victim-blaming, and efforts to intimidate the victims only deepened the harm.”

Kenosha County District Attorney Xavier Solis said in a statement, “This case represents a profound breach of trust.”

Solis added, “When an adult connected to our schools exploits our children, the harm is severe and lasting.”

As Blaze News reported in October 2024, officers with the Sensitive Crime Unit of the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department began an investigation into Crocker after she was suspected of sexual misconduct involving a “current and former student of the school.”

At the time, Crocker had been a teaching assistant at Riverview Elementary School.

According to a criminal complaint, Crocker sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy in the winter of 2023-2024.

The victim told investigators that Crocker removed his pants and was on top of him and noted that she was “naked.”

“She then began making him do things that she wanted,” the complaint read.

According to the complaint, the victim repeatedly told Crocker “to get off of him, but she would not listen,” and that he “also tried to push her off.”

The criminal complaint stated that the victim told investigators that he was “scared and traumatized.”

The complaint noted that the victim said Crocker told him to apologize for the sexual abuse and that she was trying to “make him feel guilty.”

RELATED: Judge drops hammer on former teacher who sexually assaulted 2 students and was impregnated by one of them

A detective with the Twin Lakes Police Department interviewed a 13-year-old boy who “reported to a school staff member that he received inappropriate material and messages” from Crocker, the complaint stated.

The victim told police that he had received sexually explicit videos from Crocker, according to court documents.

Court docs said the second victim was “scared” about interacting with the educational assistant because the first victim, who is his friend, told him that Crocker raped him.

A 14-year-old male victim told police that he had been “exchanging sexual chats and pictures via Snapchat with the defendant,” according to the criminal complaint.

The court documents said the victim told investigators that Crocker “sexually assaulted him in a parking lot in Racine County in August of 2024.”

Detectives searched Crocker’s Snapchat and discovered a conversation between her and a 16-year-old that the former school staffer made sexual, according to the complaint.

Court docs noted that the boy’s younger brother is “friends with the defendant’s son,” and Crocker told the victim not to tell his younger brother “about them having sex, if it were to happen.”

The teen said Crocker “sent him pictures in which sex was ‘inferred,'” according to court records.

The court docs said the victim told police that Crocker “wanted to have sex with him at her residence and that they agreed upon a day, but that he never went through with it.”

The criminal complaint said Crocker invited the boy to her home on Oct. 11, 2024, even though the underage victim divulged his age.

WITI reported that Crocker was taken into custody on Oct. 11, 2024.

According to WISN, the school board terminated Crocker on Oct. 14, 2024.

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​Anna marie crocker, Grooming, Crime, Teacher’s aide arrested, Teacher’s aide sex scandal, Teacher’s aide student sex scandal, Conviction, Prison sentence, Wisconsin 

Last week, Barack Obama sent a shock wave through the public when he acknowledged the existence of alien life. During a podcast interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, the former president answered, “Yes, they’re real,” when Cohen point blank asked, “Are aliens real?”

Obama followed up his admission, however, with, “But I haven’t seen them,” which he reiterated in greater detail the following day on social media.

President Trump then responded to the viral comment by accusing Obama of improperly disclosing classified information, calling it a “big mistake,” while stating he personally doesn’t know if aliens are real. He then announced that he would direct federal agencies and the Pentagon to begin releasing government files on UFOs, UAPs, extraterrestrial life, and related matters due to “tremendous interest” in the topic.

“This is crazy,” says Glenn Beck.

“You wouldn’t be breaking the classified information rule if you were saying they didn’t exist and they didn’t exist. That’s not classified information. Why would you classify that they didn’t exist?” he asks.

What’s really going on with this sequence of high-profile comments on alien life? Is full disclosure finally here, or is something else at play?

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn, his chief researcher Jason Buttrill, and executive producer Rikki Ratliff-Fellman address this hot-button question.

Glenn and Jason aren’t convinced that these recent events will lead to genuine disclosure. They speculate that the establishment bracing for massive fallout is a sign the hype might be engineered.

For example, just last month, Helen McCaw, a former senior analyst at the Bank of England, wrote an urgent letter to its governor, warning that any official White House confirmation of extraterrestrial life could unleash immediate financial catastrophe.

Glenn reads from a New York Post article that addressed the controversy: “If such a disclosure comes from the White House, Cambridge-educated McCaw projected in her letter, the revelation will send shockwaves through financial markets and the banking system — and inspire general unrest amongst Earthlings.”

“Are we really that fragile?” Glenn asks skeptically, noting that his church attendance and stock investments wouldn’t be rocked by the revelation that alien life is real.

In fact, he believes that the probability of alien life is rather high.

“As Carl Sagan used to say, what a horrible waste of space if we are alone. I mean, think of the vastness of space. All of this was created, and we’re the only forms of intelligent life? That makes no sense whatsoever,” he declares.

But is the exchange between Obama and Trump really leading us toward an answer?

Although the prospect of finding out the truth about aliens makes him “kind of excited,” Glenn and Jason aren’t hopeful that genuine disclosure is on the horizon.

“It does seem very, very convenient that every time a major story is going on, we get a new disclosure hint,” says Jason.

“I think this whole thing is much more likely a psyop,” Glenn agrees. “I mean, what would be the one thing that would unite everybody on Earth? People in space coming to get you.”

“So what is the psyop? Are they trying to distract us from … war with Iran? The economy?” asks Rikki.

Glenn’s answer?

Epstein.

“This is all happening the week of Epstein,” he says.

To hear more of the panel’s conversation, watch the video above.

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Core, an invitation-only private club in Manhattan where membership fees reportedly range from $15,000 to $100,000 a year, has counted among its approximately 1,500 members Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.

Dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was also a longtime patron of the club as well as a founding member.

Jennie and Dangene Enterprise — the lesbian couple who run the club — are both under intense scrutiny over their friendship with the child sex offender in light of new insights from the Epstein files.

Jennie Enterprise, however, might be in especially hot water over the apparently irreconcilable sworn statements that she allegedly provided about her club’s finances in two separate cases regarding COVID fraud and rent delinquency.

Competing claims

The club entered a 20-year lease with 711 Fifth Ave Principal Owner LLC in 2021 and took over four floors of the building in 2023.

In the years since, the Enterprises have been engaged in a bitter legal battle with property developer Michael Shvo. For instance, the Core Club reportedly sued Shvo in 2024 for $600 million, alleging that he failed to deliver promised upgrades to the 711 Fifth Ave. property and other locations. Shvo, in turn, accused the Core Club of defaulting on its lease at the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

Last year, the landlord served the Core Club with a termination notice, alleging that it had “defaulted on its obligation to pay the Base Rent and/or Additional Rent under the Lease in the amount of $3,633,787.13 by Aug. 1” as purportedly required under the lease.

RELATED: Ex-Victoria’s Secret owner now claiming Epstein ‘conned’ him once suggested he was demonically possessed

Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

The Core Club, in response, sought what is called a Yellowstone injunction barring the landlord from terminating the lease and evicting the club.

A judge with New York County’s Commercial Division court obliged the Enterprises in September, finding that their club had “established ‘it is prepared and maintains the ability to cure the alleged default by any means short of vacating the premises.'”

Attorneys for the landlord have pointed out an apparent discrepancy between the story that Jennie Enterprise and the Core Club told the court and what they told the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in their COVID-era relief fraud case in August.

The landlord’s attorneys alleged in a court filing on Wednesday that the Core Club secured its injunction “by making materially misleading representations to this Court about its financial health,” and has “repeatedly been delinquent” on its use and occupancy payments.

The attorneys noted that in September 2025, the club “represented to the Court that it had a more than sufficient financial ability to cure its default of over $3.5 million in past due rent and that it could continue paying Rent at the Least rate.”

‘You have influenced my life in a really amazing way.’

While supposedly able to pay millions in allegedly past-due rent, the attorneys noted that the club managed in August to avoid paying back most of the over $4 million that Core Club entities — controlled by Jennie Enterprise — fraudulently received in COVID-era relief funds and paid only a fraction of the $8.1 million consent judgment against the club.

The attorneys highlighted that court documents show that Jennie Enterprise’s sworn financial disclosures about the Core Club’s “financial condition” to the USAO-SDNY led the government “to accept in compromise” a settlement of only $366,000 spread over several years.

The Wednesday court filing alleged:

These apparent representations by the SDNY Core Defendants to the United States Attorney regarding their supposed inability to pay a civil penalty greater than $360,000 over five years flies directly in the face of Tenant’s representations to this Court regarding its supposed ability to cure its default of over $3.5 million in past due rent and continue paying Rent at the Lease rate.

The landlord suggested that under the circumstances, the injunction should be vacated and further relief should be conditioned on the Epstein club’s payment of the outstanding rent.

When asked for comment, the Core Club’s attorney Marc Kasowitz said in a statement to Blaze News, “Shvo’s latest attempt to relitigate issues the Court has already addressed will fail, just as his others have. Shvo’s motion falsely claims that Core violated the Yellowstone order, but Core is current on rent and has fully complied with the Court’s directives.”

Kasowitz suggested that the apparent function of the filing was to distract from “pressures surrounding Shvo’s broader real estate ventures” and noted, “Core will oppose this motion vigorously and is confident the Court will recognize it as another meritless attempt to manufacture a default where none exists.”

Shvo’s office did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

Epstein’s gal pals

The latest trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice provides insights into Epstein’s involvement with the club and the Enterprises, whose relationship with the pedophile apparently thrived after his guilty plea in 2008 for solicitation of a minor for prostitution.

Epstein not only routinely visited the club’s spa and had women in his network attend but clearly made an impression on Jennie Enterprise, who appears to have written to the pedophile just months after his guilty plea, “You are and have always been sooooo special too me ….not sure u will ever know how much you have influenced my life in a really amazing way.”

The club recently downplayed Epstein’s involvement, telling the Wall Street Journal in a statement that the pedophile was one of 150 members who belonged from 2003 and 2007 but continued thereafter as a client of the club’s spa.

Dangene Enterprise often applied Epstein’s skin treatments, reported the Journal.

“The Enterprises were never part of this individual’s social world,” the club alleged. “He was a sounding board for the Enterprises on a variety of subjects, as he was known to be a highly in-demand, influential financial advisor and philanthropist in New York City.”

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​Core, Manhattan, New york city, Club, Jeffrey epstein, Jennie enterprise, Elite, Lesbian, Fraud, Covid relief, Politics 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced sharp criticism Tuesday from lawmakers and police unions after a chaotic snowball fight in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park turned into an attack on NYPD, with agitators pelting officers with snow and ice during a major blizzard.

The incident unfolded Monday afternoon as hundreds gathered for what began as a playful snowball fight amid heavy snowfall. Police responding to reports of disorder were targeted, forcing officers to retreat into their vehicles. Videos showed individuals hurling large chunks of snow at close range, including one dumping ice on an officer’s head.

‘Back the blue and hold those who disrespect them accountable.’

No arrests have been reported, but NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal” in a statement on X.

“Our detectives are investigating this matter,” she said.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ex-Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, quickly blamed Mamdani’s history of anti-police rhetoric for fostering an environment of disrespect toward law enforcement.

RELATED: ‘Despicable attack’: Brazen mob pelts NYPD officers with snowballs, multiple cops reportedly injured — and it’s all on video

“This is disgraceful. But with a mayor who has a history of calling the police ‘racist, evil, wicked and corrupt,’ he set the tone,” Cuomo posted on X. “Words have consequences. We are seeing that in the growing disrespect for law enforcement — just as we’ve seen it in the rise in antisemitism. Real leaders understand that. This mayor does not.”

Adams echoed the sentiment, saying the attack should outrage all New Yorkers.

“Watching officers get pelted with snow while they are out in brutal weather protecting this city should make every New Yorker furious. It is disgusting behavior,” he said. “And the politicians who constantly bash the police and refuse to have their backs are setting a terrible example. Leadership matters. Tone matters.”

U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, urged Mamdani and other officials to condemn the actions.

“This is disgraceful. @NYCMayor and every elected official in our city should denounce this juvenile attack on our NYPD,” she posted on X. “Back the blue and hold those who disrespect them accountable.”

RELATED: Illegal alien released after attack on NYC cops in May just got arrested, released for another alleged crime

Photo by BG048/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

Another Republican congresswoman from New York, Claudia Tenney, directly attributed the incident to the mayor’s anti-cop stance: “You can thank Mamdani’s anti-police rhetoric for this.”

Police unions demanded arrests and accountability. The Police Benevolent Association called the attack “unacceptable and outrageous,” urging city leaders to condemn it and charge those involved with assault on a police officer.

Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, described it as a “deliberate, outrageous, and dangerous attack.” He called on Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to ensure prosecutions, saying: “No free pass. No get out of jail free card.”

Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Politics, Mamdani, Nyc, Police attack, Police attacked, Snow 

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s communications team fired off a nasty response to a reporter who requested documentation of the governor’s supposed dyslexia diagnosis.

RealClearPolitics political correspondent Susan Crabtree reached out to Newsom’s taxpayer-funded communications team after Fox News’ Sean Hannity criticized the governor for mentioning his low SAT score as a way to connect with voters in a majority-black city.

‘I’m going to continue to ask tough questions despite this vitriolic attempt to intimidate me.’

Newsom “Thinks a 960 SAT Makes Him ‘Like’ Black Americans. Let That Sink In,” Hannity wrote in a post on X. Newsom replied to Hannity by noting his “lifelong struggle with dyslexia.”

Crabtree asked Newsom’s office for documentation verifying the governor’s dyslexia diagnosis, highlighting apparent contradictions in Newsom’s account of when he learned of his diagnosis. She noted that Newsom has previously claimed that he discovered the paperwork from his childhood about his dyslexia diagnosis after his father passed away in 2018.

“Newsom also has said he was diagnosed with dyslexia in 1972 — that would be when he was five or six,” Crabtree wrote. “Is there anything the governor can point to as proof of this?”

Izzy Gardon, the director of communications for Newsom’s office, replied to Crabtree, writing, “Hey, Susan — thanks for reaching out. Respectfully, f**k off.”

Newsom has stated that he struggled with dyslexia as a child and still finds it difficult to read.

“There’s certain things I can’t do, and I’m in the wrong business to not be able to do them. Meaning, I can’t read very well, and when you have to give speeches all the time … it’s hard because you can’t read a script,” Newsom said in a 2017 video interview.

He called it “horribly difficult” to read a script from a teleprompter.

RELATED: ‘I’m like you’: Newsom insults audience in a failed attempt to relate to voters in majority-black city

Gavin Newsom. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

In the 2017 video, Newsom stated that he found out he had been previously diagnosed with dyslexia “in fifth or sixth, seventh grade.”

Newsom appeared to contradict himself during an April interview, in which he said he had recently read a 350-page book in less than two hours. To finish the 11-hour audiobook in two hours, one would need to play it at 5.5 times the normal speed.

“I went through it in a quick hour and a half, almost two hours. And trust me, I don’t read very fast, but it reads at an unbelievable pace,” Newsom stated.

RELATED: California Democrats crushed by backlash against tax proposal to replace revenue lost by electric car mandate

Gavin Newsom. Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images

Newsom “obviously doesn’t like all the California corruption we exposed in our book, ‘Fool’s Gold,’ but I’m going to continue to ask tough questions despite this vitriolic attempt to intimidate me,” Crabtree told Blaze News.

When asked whether Gardon has ever expressed similar hostility toward her previously, Crabtree said, “A few weeks ago he called me ‘delusional’ when I was asking about Newsom’s inflated claims about his ‘college baseball career’ that only amounted to — at the very most — several months on the JV team without playing in any official games.”

Blaze News contacted Gardon to ask if he would like to provide further context about Crabtree’s request or any documentation confirming Newsom’s diagnosis.

“Conspiracy MAGA blogger pivots from Bigfoot to medical record fishing. We’ll pass!” Gardon replied.

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​News, Gavin newsom, Newsom, California, Susan crabtree, Politics 

The men’s Olympic hockey team is headed to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, but the women have other plans.

On Sunday, Team USA men’s hockey completed the sweep of the hockey category with a 2-1 overtime win against Canada, winning gold just as the USA women did days prior.

‘We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning US Women’s Hockey Team.’

After the men’s win, President Donald Trump gave the team a call in the locker room in what was a highly circulated moment of patriotic celebration.

“Unbelievable. You were all unbelievable. That team is pretty good you played,” Trump said about the Canadians.

He then invited the team to his presidential address on Tuesday.

“We could send a military plane or something. But if you would like to [attend], it’s the coolest night. … We’ll do the White House the next day.”

The president then joked, “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” or else he “probably would be impeached.”

The invitation was sincere, however, and the men unanimously agreed they would love to go to the event. The same could not be said about the women’s team though.

“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” a spokesperson for the American women began.

RELATED: Team USA’s amazing gold-medal gesture you may have missed

“Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment,” the statement added, per CNN.

Those academic commitments are likely in reference to the fact that seven of the American women on the Team USA roster are still in college.

Four players are currently playing in Wisconsin: Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton, and Kirsten Simms.

Abbey Murphy goes to Minnesota, Joy Dunne plays at Ohio State, while Tessa Janecke plays for Penn State, the NCAA noted. It is also noteworthy that 23 of the women previously played NCAA hockey as well.

For the men, the NHL schedule picks back up Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET.

Hero Jack Hughes, who scored the gold medal-winning goal, was asked about the women declining the invitation; he quickly came to their defense.

RELATED: Unpaid bill has Foxboro refusing to grant license for World Cup games at Gillette Stadium

“People are so negative out there, and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing,” Hughes said from Miami, where the team has been seen celebrating their win.

“People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them. And we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us,” the athlete continued, per the Daily Mail.

Hughes was asked about visiting the president too, to which he said the team was indeed “excited.”

“Everything is so political. We’re athletes,” he explained. “‘We’re so proud to represent the U.S., and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans and that’s so patriotic.”

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​Sports, Hockey, Olympics, Sotu, State of the union, Trump, White house, 2026 winter olympics, Politics 

A snowball-throwing mob was caught on video pelting New York City Police Department officers Monday afternoon in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, and multiple officers were injured as a result, WABC-TV reported.

Police told the station that officers responded to the park around 4 p.m. for a report of a number of people atop a roof.

‘This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against.’

Police added to WABC that the officers were then hit with snowballs, and multiple officers were taken to a hospital with facial cuts.

RELATED: DA Bragg offers plea deals to illegal aliens charged in vicious mob attack on NYPD cops

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Monday night wrote on X that she’s aware of the videos and that “the behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal.”

RELATED: Teen Tren de Aragua-linked mob ambushes NYPD in another brazen Times Square assault: Report

Tisch added that detectives are investigating.

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York called the incident “unacceptable and outrageous,” WABC added.

RELATED: Illegal alien released after attack on NYC cops in May just got arrested, released for another alleged crime

“This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against. Our police officers are being treated for their injuries, but the case CANNOT end there,” the PBA said in a statement on social media, according to the station. “The individuals involved must be identified, arrested, and charged with assault on a police officer. And all of our city leaders must speak up to condemn this despicable attack.”

Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association, called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted, WABC reported.

RELATED: ‘Who would have thought?’: Mamdani takes side of knife-wielding suspect — not the cops

“No free pass. No get out of jail free card. Make no mistake: Detectives will do what they always do. They will identify those involved, and they will apprehend them,” Munro said in a statement, according to the station. “Our men and women in blue deserve to be safe. They deserve to be protected. And they deserve to be respected. They earn it every single day.”

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​Snowball fight, New york city, New york city police, Cops hit with snowballs, Injuries, Nypd, Criminal, Nypd commissioner jessica tisch, Crime 

California Governor Gavin Newsom is being touted as the Democratic Party’s next presidential hopeful, but political commentator Kevin Dalton points out that his abysmal track record might be an issue.

“Obviously, leaving severely mentally ill, drug-addicted people on the streets to their own devices isn’t working. So, two or three years ago, Gavin Newsom came up with this great idea,” Dalton tells BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere on “Stu Does America.”

The idea is called CARE Court, which is meant to address homelessness and mental illness by offering those suffering things like free housing, medication, and job training.

“So, flash forward two years, we finally get some numbers from CARE Court. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, of course, are gone. And Gavin Newsom promised that this would get around 50,000 people into the system, off the streets a year,” Dalton explains.

“I can’t even remember the exact numbers, but I think a few thousand ended up signing up, and then most of those were just kicked by the courts. … It finally spiraled down to, 22 people ended up being forced into CARE by the CARE Court,” he continues.

“This is such a perfect example of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, just going away and no results. And then Newsom just moves on to the next thing,” he adds.

Stu points out that the number spent was around a quarter of a billion dollars.

“Twenty-two people, almost a quarter of a billion dollars, absolutely amazing, even by California’s standards,” Stu says.

Meanwhile, the California wildfires have wiped out thousands of homes — and left thousands of families waiting for their permits to be approved to try to build new ones.

“In the meantime, their bills are adding up, and they’ve got these people, the corporate buyers are coming in, trying to scoop up their land now because it’s just easier. It’s just an absolute mess,” Dalton says.

“For somebody who wants to run for president, you’d think, maybe start to address the homelessness, maybe try to get people back in their homes from this apocalyptic fire,” he adds.

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​Camera phone, Video phone, Sharing, Video, Free, Upload, Youtube.com, Stu does america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Care court, Gavin newsom, California, California wildfires, Kevin dalton, Democratic party, 2028 election 

Democrats never miss an opportunity to don costumes, throw tantrums, and protest while President Donald Trump is addressing Congress.

For instance, some of the Democrats who refused to clap for Trump during his Jan. 30, 2018, State of the Union address also signaled their protest by wearing Kente cloths — the garb of a slave-trading African tribe. At the February 2019 SOTU, some Democrat women wore white to protest the president’s support for the unborn and other positions congressional feminists apparently find intolerable. At the president’s joint address to Congress last year, some Democrats wore pink in protest and/or booed the president.

While Trump derangement syndrome might still be colorfully displayed Tuesday evening, at least 30 Democrat lawmakers are planning to take their circus outside — which might make for a more peaceable State of the Union.

‘I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful.’

The leftist organizing group MoveOn and the propaganda outfit MeidasTouch are hosting a “counterprogramming” rally at 8 p.m. on the National Mall.

Democrat Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), and Adam Schiff (Calif.) are planning to attend, along with a horde of House Democrats including Reps. Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), Becca Balint (Vt.), Greg Casar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), and anchor-baby Rep. Delia Ramirez (Ill.).

Merkley suggested that attendance at the SOTU would serve Trump’s supposed effort to “tighten his authoritarian grip.”

Van Hollen, among the Democrats who stuck to a similar script, claimed, “Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy.”

RELATED: Those who ‘take a knee’ to Trump will be ‘held accountable’ when Democrats seize control, Susan Rice threatens

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“He uses his speeches to pillory his political enemies and spread lies — not to mention they’re long and boring,” complained Smith.

Schiff recycled similar talking points and added, “This isn’t business as usual.”

The organizers for the “counterprogramming” event hinted that Democrats will concern-monger about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ execution of their duties, the termination of public health workers, rising costs, and other matters.

“Trump wants the attention and the ratings, but we cannot treat this year’s State of the Union like business as usual,” said MoveOn program chief Sara Haghdoosti. “That’s why MoveOn is hosting the People’s State of the Union, where we will hear directly from the people facing the consequences of Trump’s disastrous administration.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) may be relieved that his colleagues are planning to rage remotely on Tuesday.

After all, their booing and incivility were so bad at Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress last year that one lawmaker, Rep. Al Green of Texas, was later censured. Most Democrats also remained seated while Trump honored a cancer-stricken Texas boy, Devarjhaye “DJ” Daniel, and announced his deputization as a U.S. Secret Service agent.

Jeffries made clear last week to his fellow Democrats that they had two options — and more ugly protests in Congress aren’t one of them.

“The two options that are in front of us in our House [are] to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion, which will include participation in a variety of different alternate programming that is going to take place in and around the Capitol complex,” Jeffries said on Wednesday, reported The Hill.

Jeffries is not alone in wanting his colleagues to exercise some restraint.

“I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful. I think it made us the story,” Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), the cross-dressing Democrat formerly known as Tim McBride, told NOTUS. “I think this president’s unpopular policies should be the story, not sort of gestures from our side.”

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​Donald trump, Boycott, Democrats, State of the union, Sotu, Protest, Leftism, Leftist, Moveon, Meidas touch, Van hollen, Senate, Politics 

Americans are paying more for new vehicles — and it’s not because of greedy dealers or temporary supply disruptions.

The real problem? The modern automobile has become a government-regulated platform.

This regulatory floor helps explain why many entry-level vehicles have disappeared. Automakers did not abandon affordable cars because Americans suddenly rejected them.

What once functioned primarily as personal transportation is now layered with federal mandates, compliance systems, and policy-driven technology. The cost of that transformation is embedded into every vehicle sold.

The average transaction price for a new vehicle now hovers around $48,000 to $50,000, according to Cox Automotive — nearly double what many Americans paid a decade ago. That figure is not driven primarily by dealership markups or consumer excess. It reflects a system in which regulatory requirements steadily raise the baseline cost of every vehicle before it reaches a showroom.

Dealers sell what they are allowed to sell. Consumers pay for what regulators require to be built.

Regulations stack

Unlike market innovation, federal mandates rarely replace older requirements. They stack. Safety rules, emissions standards, cybersecurity protocols, and connectivity requirements accumulate over time. Each new layer raises the minimum cost of building any vehicle, regardless of brand or segment.

Automakers no longer decide which technologies to include based solely on consumer demand. They build to regulatory specifications — and those specifications grow more complex every year.

Driver-assistance: No longer optional

Advanced driver-assistance systems are a clear example. Lane-keeping assist, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, cameras, radar units, and onboard processors were once optional upgrades. Today most are standard across model lines due to evolving federal safety expectations and liability pressures.

These systems require sensors, software calibration, processors, and constant updates. They also increase repair costs. A recent study by AAA shows that vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance features can cost 20% to 40% more to repair after collisions, in part because sensors must be recalibrated or replaced.

Whether buyers want every feature is beside the point. The technology is built in.

RELATED: Would you buy a car from Amazon?

Nicolò Campo/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Engineering complexity

Emissions regulations add another layer. Even gasoline-powered vehicles now rely on increasingly sophisticated emissions control systems, specialized materials, and complex software calibration to meet tightening federal and state standards.

These systems improve measurable compliance outcomes, but they also increase engineering complexity and production cost. Manufacturers cannot legally offer simplified alternatives that fall outside regulatory thresholds.

Computers on wheels

Modern vehicles are now rolling computer networks. Federal standards increasingly require data systems, cybersecurity protections, over-the-air update capability, and integrated monitoring infrastructure.

Hardware, antennas, processors, software validation, and compliance testing all add cost. None of it is optional at scale. Once these systems are embedded into vehicle architecture, they become permanent cost centers.

‘Kill-switch’ costs

One of the least discussed provisions of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires the installation of advanced driver monitoring systems designed to detect impairment in future vehicles. Critics have labeled this a “kill-switch” mandate because the rule requires technology capable of preventing operation under certain conditions.

Regardless of terminology, implementing such systems requires additional hardware, sensors, software integration, validation, and certification. Even before activation or enforcement details are finalized, the design and compliance costs are already being built into pricing structures.

When every manufacturer must comply, there is no competitive pressure to eliminate the expense.

Tariffs and supply chains

Tariffs compound the issue. Import duties on vehicles and automotive components affect not only foreign-built cars but also vehicles assembled in the United States that rely on global supply chains. Steel, aluminum, semiconductors, and specialized materials all move through international networks.

When tariffs raise component costs, those increases flow downstream. Automakers do not absorb them indefinitely. Dealers do not control them. Buyers ultimately pay.

Extinct entry-level

This regulatory floor helps explain why many entry-level vehicles have disappeared. Automakers did not abandon affordable cars because Americans suddenly rejected them. They exited those segments because compliance costs made lower-margin models difficult to sustain profitably.

When the baseline cost of meeting regulatory requirements approaches what buyers can reasonably pay for a basic vehicle, the product becomes economically unviable.

Shrinking used-car market

The used-car market offers limited relief. As new vehicles become more expensive, consumers hold onto existing cars longer. According to S&P Global Mobility, the average age of vehicles on American roads has climbed to nearly 13 years, an all-time high.

Fewer late-model trade-ins tighten supply. Prices rise. Regulatory-driven cost increases in the new-car market ripple outward and affect every segment.

EV expenses

Electric vehicles illustrate the same dynamic. Federal incentives, emissions targets, battery sourcing rules, and manufacturing credits shape production decisions and model availability. While battery costs have declined over time, compliance requirements and policy alignment continue to influence pricing and product mix.

For many households, the upfront cost of EVs remains significantly higher than comparable gasoline models — even after incentives.

Fixed costs

The expectation that prices will fall once supply stabilizes misunderstands how regulatory-cost structures function. Supply constraints can ease. Compliance costs rarely do.

As long as vehicles are treated as platforms for policy implementation rather than purely consumer goods, the floor price will continue to rise.

High vehicle prices are not simply a market fluctuation. They are, to a significant degree, a policy outcome.

And until policymakers reckon with the cumulative cost of regulatory layering, the $50,000 vehicle will increasingly become the norm — not the exception.

​Lifestyle, Auto industry, Car prices, Emissions, Ev mandate, Kill switch, Align cars 

We live in a scaled-up, real-world version of the classic children’s board game “Mousetrap.” The built world is over-engineered, too interdependent, and so precarious that a slight disturbance might bring the whole thing down.

The interconnected, precarious Rube Goldberg contraption that is modern society has more than just rolling balls and baskets and levers. Our real, physical-world interdependencies include reliance on digital algorithms and computing devices that no one can intuitively understand. It’s the worst of both worlds, physical and electronic.

This is a real-world lesson in physics and mechanics that teaches universal principles that can never be altered by whim or historical vogue.

A friend’s internet service went out recently. Even though she was able to get a human staff member on the phone, that human wouldn’t talk to her to even confirm that the company recognized that she was a paying customer.

Why? Because she couldn’t log in to her email on another device and recite a “one-time code.” Remember, she was calling because she didn’t have internet access. Cell signals in rural states are often insufficient for internet use. You see the problem.

Everything is like this, but everyone is acting like this is the way things have always been. It’s not true. There is no reason to live this way. It is not a natural law. The overcomplicated world is not something that just “happened.”

This setup is a result of choices. Disconnected choices, yes. There’s no central mind that has created our society. There’s no single controlling cabal that has engineered the way we live, communicate, procure food, or any of that. There are powerful interests, legal and commercial, that influence our society more than you and I as individuals can influence it. But it’s not a conspiracy in the classic sense. It’s a result of accumulated errors. We need a reset.

Memories of the analog world

1979. My family slipped away from Tully, New York, in the dead of night by means of my grandmother’s silver Buick Electra. The Buick told you that she had a V-8 through the distinctive muffled bass rumble from twin tailpipes. She was what I call an “honest mechanical.”

We boarded the Amtrak to cross the country so my stepfather, a glassblower who specialized in making electrodes, could find a job. There was nothing left for a working-class man in Upstate New York in the 1970s.

On arrival in Los Angeles, my Uncle Lee and Aunt Sherry were waiting in a 1979 lemon-yellow Cadillac Coupe de Ville. A Cadillac. I was going to ride in a Cadillac!

The trunk mechanism on my Uncle Lee’s Cadillac was my first introduction to what I would later think of as overcomplicated or dishonest mechanicals. It did this amazing thing I had never seen before. The trunk lid raised and lowered all by itself, untouched by human hands. After my mother loaded the last suitcase into the cavernous trunk, the enormous yellow deck lid silently, slowly crept downward. When the lid reached the latch, the mechanism slowed down to a crawl to give you a “soft and silent” latch.

Today, my base-model Toyota has all those bells and whistles plus more. The “more” is the irritating part. Nothing in the car is controlled mechanically or directly. Everything is drive-by-wire. The car decides when to spin the wheels when stuck in snow, even though I could do a better job if I were allowed to control the traction. Even the heater fan and lights are programmed to slowly, softly ramp up and ramp down, as if a too-sudden onset of sound or light would strike the driver with apoplexy.

Man and machine

The legend of John Henry both horrified and fascinated me as a child. The steel-driving man of folklore tried to prove he was as good as the new-fangled steam drill at chipping out a tunnel to lay track. John Henry swung his sledgehammer until his muscle fibers broke and he died exhausted on the ground, while the steam piston kept reciprocating.

I understood that this tale from America’s railroad age was really about our present. It was obvious to me even as a kid in the 80s: Machines were crowding out the men. The mechanization of work inverted our values; humans had to live up to the demands and preferences of machine logic, not the other way around.

John Henry’s last act was a way of saying, “I am a man, and I live.”

RELATED: America needs mechanics; here’s where to apply

Getty Images/Heritage Images

Honest mechanicals

Honest mechanicals are machines that can be observed, understood, and intuited. They show their works; nothing is hidden from the hands or the eyes. Compare honest mechanicals to modern digital devices. Call those devices “black boxes” whose function cannot be observed, understood, intuited, or reverse-engineered by human senses alone.

Black boxes (computers of various sorts) are not mechanicals at all. They don’t have levers or pulleys or counterweights, or sprockets, or escapements. They have invisible states of magnetic orientation. You cannot see the works with your eyes, and the complexity of a chipset is beyond the human mind’s ability to grasp.

A piece of photographic film with a light-sensitive emulsion that forms an image is an honest mechanical. The image is readable by the human eye.

A .jpg picture file is a black box. The image cannot be read or intuited by humans without another black box we call a computer.

A steam locomotive is an honest mechanical. Observe that you can understand how the machine turns heat into steam, turns steam pressure into lateral force, and then translates lateral force into rotary motion, thus moving the train and its passengers along.

You can intuit an honest mechanical. And if you have children, especially boys, I recommend that you introduce them to honest mechanicals. Show them how steam engines work. Show them a cutaway of an internal-combustion automobile engine. Let them take apart a blender or a stand mixer to see how electric motors produce rotary motion.

Here’s an easy hands-on lesson you can and should do with your kids, starting at about age 4. It doesn’t matter that the lesson uses “obsolete” technology. That is a benefit. This is a real-world lesson in physics and mechanics that teaches universal principles that can never be altered by whim or historical vogue.

Make your own record player

Materials:

1 33 and 1/3 long-playing record album — one that’s scratched that you don’t care about1 #2 pencilconstruction paperScotch tape1 sewing needle

Instructions:

Form the construction paper into a cone and tape together. Tape the sewing needle securely to the small end of the cone. Think of an old gramophone with a needle attached to a brass horn — that’s what you’re doing.

Put the pencil inside the center hole of the record. Spin the record like a toy top, and help your kid lower the needle-in-a-cone onto the guide groove at the edge of the record.

Magically, you’ll hear the sound on the record, slightly amplified by the paper cone. Sure, it’ll be at the wrong speed, and maybe you won’t be able to parse the words. But you and your kid will immediately understand basic sound recording and reproduction. You will understand that sound can be transcribed as a wave form that can take real-world, physical form in the bumps and pits of a piece of material.

Most importantly, your child will understand that the material world actually exists and that it is analog.

This matters. It matters more than you probably know. Modern young people have grown up in a world of portable computers and phone screens that appear to show them reality, but that do nothing but arrange points of light into virtual simulations. Have you noticed that young Millennials and younger seem not only put off and frightened by simple mechanical technology — mechanical telephones, cars that use a clutch and a gear shift — but almost disgusted and embarrassed by devices from just a generation ago?

This is not merely the universal plaint of the old about the shortcomings of the young. The world today is different to an extreme degree from the world of just one or two generations ago. Young people don’t know how to get around town without GPS, they’re frightened to get driver’s licenses at 16, and few can even whip up a basic meal on a stovetop. Why would they know these things when they’ve been reared to believe that food and transportation just “happen” by sliding your fingers along an iPhone touchscreen?

Do what you can to ground yourself (first) and your kids and grandkids back inside the real, physical, material, analog world. Remember what John Henry knew: We are men and women, and we live.

​Lifestyle, Culture, Diy, Build your own, Analog, Digital, Tech, Parenthood, Education, How to, Intervention 

Biomedical research has produced extraordinary breakthroughs that have saved countless lives. But too many promising drugs now stall in federal review, and children with rare diseases are paying the price.

I’m a bioscientist. My work has focused on how healthy cells function and how that knowledge can be applied to therapeutic enzyme development. I’ve spent my career working inside the disciplines that move a treatment from lab bench to patient: protocol design, reproducibility, evidence standards, and layered human testing to ensure safety.

Is this simply bureaucracy doing what bureaucracy does? Or are rare pediatric therapies effectively facing a higher bar inside the system?

Standards, evidence, and process matter. But so does urgency.

Children with rare diseases do not live on regulatory timelines. They lose function month by month — speech, mobility, independence, even the ability to breathe on their own.

Of the more than 6,800 known rare diseases, about 70% begin in childhood. Better-known examples include Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Gaucher disease, and cystic fibrosis.

Developing therapies for these children is difficult, expensive, and slow even under the best conditions. Treatments such as Ultragenyx’s UX111 for Sanfilippo syndrome, Sarepta’s Elevidys for Duchenne, and Regenxbio’s RGX-121 for Hunter syndrome can take decades to develop, years to move through trials, and still more time to reach the children who need them.

That reality makes avoidable regulatory delay even harder to defend.

Too often, applications do not stall because the underlying science has failed. They stall over manufacturing or procedural concerns — in many cases, issues that are fixable and not directly tied to whether the therapy is clinically helping patients. Those delays can undermine the purpose of the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, which exists to move critical treatments to patients faster while additional data is collected.

As a scientist, I was particularly troubled by the FDA’s recent rejection of a promising Hunter syndrome treatment and by yet another clinical hold placed on its development despite positive trial results.

That raises an uncomfortable question: Does the review process itself need review?

RELATED: The FDA is undermining a culture of life inside and outside the womb

Bill Oxford via iStock/Getty Images

The approval path for UX111 is another example. The therapy went through the rigorous biologics license application process, only to be delayed by a manufacturing hold.

Elevidys offers a similarly painful lesson. More than 1,200 Duchenne patients received the treatment over three years. Then, after two non-ambulatory patients (including one with underlying complications) tragically died, the FDA pulled the treatment from all patients, leaving families crushed and panicked.

Children are waiting too long for access to potentially life-changing therapies.

Yes, medical breakthroughs have increased. But so have regulatory burdens tied to approval and release. By the time many of these therapies reach the market, a decade or more has passed. In rare pediatric disease, that delay has a name: time children do not have.

Sometimes, it is their entire lifetime.

Manufacturing processes can be improved. Facilities can be upgraded. Paperwork can be corrected.

Lost neurons and muscle fibers cannot be replaced.

FDA leaders, along with Congress and the White House, should push for a smarter accelerated approval process — one that allows multiple requirements to be addressed simultaneously when appropriate, instead of serially dragging out timelines. If regulatory review had moved more efficiently, the Sanfilippo treatment might have cleared on its original 2025 approval timeline. Duchenne patients might not have lost access to the only available gene therapy. Hunter syndrome patients might not still be waiting.

This debate is not about abandoning safety or efficacy standards.

Ultragenyx has said manufacturing improvements are addressable and not directly related to product quality. Sarepeta responded to FDA concerns over Elevidys by requesting black-box warnings while allowing treatment to continue for ambulatory patients. In the RGX-121 Hunter syndrome case, the FDA rejected the use of a long-accepted biomarker (cerebrospinal fluid) used in the trial.

RELATED: ‘Hold Big Pharma accountable’: Vaxx giants are sure to be nervous about Rand Paul’s new bill

Drs Producoes via iStock/Getty Images

These decisions do not help children with rare diseases. Timely, science-based approvals would.

And the stakes go beyond today’s patients. Regulatory efficiency also affects whether companies continue investing in rare-disease therapies at all. Orphan drug development requires major upfront investment, long timelines, and often poor financial returns. In many cases, these programs are closer to philanthropic science than blockbuster pharma economics.

When developers face repeated slowdowns across different diseases, sponsors, and technologies for reasons unrelated to core clinical safety or efficacy, the signal to the market is clear: Don’t take the risk.

That is how innovation gets smothered.

At some point, the pattern at the FDA becomes impossible to ignore. Is this simply bureaucracy doing what bureaucracy does? Or are rare pediatric therapies effectively facing a higher bar inside the system?

Those are scientific and ethical questions that deserve honest answers.

Accelerated approval does not mean lower standards. It means applying standards intelligently. It means allowing earlier access while confirming evidence continues to accumulate. It means recognizing that “wait and see” is not neutral. It is a choice that guarantees disease progression in children who cannot afford delay.

Good science and compassion are not competing values. We can maintain rigor and still act with urgency.

The FDA has the authority. The science is moving. The children cannot wait.

Accelerated approval is not cutting corners. It is using every tool we have to save time families do not have.

​Opinion & analysis, Fda approval, Fda regulations, Rare diseases, Childhood disease, Sick kids, Food and drug administration, Bureaucracy, Red tape, Science, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Gaucher disease, Cystic fibrosis, Healthcare, Hunter syndrome 

After an incredibly eventful week of Olympic victories for Team USA, one leftist outlet got what it had coming when it said that feeling patriotic was “yucky.”

While hundreds of accounts roasted the author and the article, one three-word reply from a restaurant stole the spotlight and left the HuffPost the clear loser in the exchange.

‘This is the only acceptable response to HuffPost.’

HuffPost’s original post on Saturday, captioned, “If waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone,” received a simple comment from Jimmy’s Famous Seafood.

“Go f**k yourself,” the family-owned restaurant’s account said Sunday.

RELATED: HuffPost gets absolutely scorched over article saying Olympics patriotism feels ‘yucky’

Photo by Carolyn Van Houten/Washington Post/Getty Images

Many major accounts announced that Jimmy’s Famous Seafood had earned a follow in the wake of the viral reply.

“This is the only acceptable response to HuffPost,” Nick Sortor said.

“Okay do you have locations in Florida patriot?” BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre asked.

“Only one location — family owned and operated. We ship to all 50 states however!” the account replied.

Jimmy’s Famous Seafood is based in Baltimore, Maryland, where it has been operating since 1974.

At the time of writing, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood had just under 360,000 followers on X. Its reply received over 13 million views, compared to 10 million views of HuffPost’s original article.

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​Politics, Jimmy’s famous seafood, Huffpost, Olympics, Usa, America, United states of america, Patriot, Nick sortor, Crabs, Social media, X, Auron macintyre