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Category: blaze media
Unaffordable housing is still ruining the party
The latest economic data suggests that the United States may finally be moving in the right direction.
Inflation is slowing. Production is expanding. Unemployment claims remain subdued. After years of punishing price increases, Americans may be entering the long process of rebuilding the purchasing power they lost during the Biden administration.
Repair will take time. But slower inflation, stronger production, and rising real income show that the process may finally have begun.
That recovery will not happen quickly. Prices will not simply return to 2019 levels. But a more disciplined federal government, lighter regulation, and stronger private-sector production can gradually ease the affordability crisis.
June brought the largest monthly decline in headline consumer prices in six years. Overall prices fell 0.4%, led by a sharp drop in oil and gasoline prices.
That marked the largest monthly decrease since 2019 and moved inflation closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Truflation’s private consumer price index recently placed inflation at 2.04%, almost exactly at the Fed’s stated goal.
The ideal inflation rate should be zero, and prices should sometimes fall as productivity improves. Still, the slowdown represents real progress.
Gasoline prices contributed heavily to the decline, falling 10% as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz increased oil supplies. The Wall Street Journal reported that the cooling extended broadly across the economy.
The response to lower oil prices should remind policymakers how essential fossil fuels remain to modern life. Energy prices shape transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and nearly every consumer good.
Interest rates also offer some encouraging signs.
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes remains near 4.5%, slightly below its recent peak, economist Robert Genetski noted in his weekly report. Gold prices have also trended downward, suggesting greater confidence in the dollar.
Most important, the productive economy continues to expand.
The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index reached 53.3% in June. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion, though growth slowed slightly from May.
RELATED: The housing bill from hell targets red America
Carlofranco/Getty Images
The services index registered 54%, marking the sector’s 24th consecutive month of expansion.
As production grew, unemployment data also beat expectations. Initial and continuing jobless claims both declined by thousands.
Taken together, the numbers point toward genuine economic improvement. Inflation and interest rates are moving closer to pre-pandemic norms. The economy is also benefiting from President Trump’s renewed regulatory relief and the tax cuts enacted through last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Much more work remains.
The federal policy reversal began only about 18 months ago and has faced resistance in Congress and the courts. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s promised monetary reforms have yet to take effect.
Housing remains the most serious obstacle.
June retail sales were mediocre, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. New-home construction also remains badly depressed. Genetski noted that the July homebuilders’ confidence index came in at an anemic 34, far below the break-even level of 50.
Warsh has nevertheless said the right things about monetary discipline.
He has repudiated the artificially low interest-rate policies the Fed pursued after the 2008 financial crisis and has acknowledged the central bank’s responsibility for inflation.
“Inflation’s a choice,” Warsh told the House Financial Services Committee last week. Monetary policymakers, he said, must choose lower inflation instead of shifting blame elsewhere.
The Fed made disastrous choices during the Biden administration.
Consumer prices rose 21.17% from January 2021 through January 2025. The median price of a new home increased even faster, climbing 28.9%.
Those prices will not fall back to their pre-pandemic levels. The spending explosions of 2021 and 2022 permanently reduced the dollar’s purchasing power.
Affordability will therefore improve through a slower process. Wages and investment income must rise while businesses produce more goods and services. Government must stop suppressing that production through excessive spending, taxation, regulation, and monetary manipulation.
One encouraging sign is that after-tax, inflation-adjusted personal income per capita has begun rising again after collapsing during the Biden years.
Further tax and spending reforms would accelerate that recovery.
Millennials and Generation Z have suffered badly during the affordability crisis. They entered adulthood facing soaring housing costs, expensive credit, stagnant purchasing power, and a federal government that made nearly every basic milestone harder to reach.
RELATED: ‘Need a cop? Thank socialism’ is dumb — but dangerously effective
Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Those conditions help explain young Americans’ growing attraction to socialism and even communism.
When people believe capitalism offers no path toward home ownership, family formation, or financial security, radical alternatives begin to look appealing. That does not make those alternatives sound. It shows how economic failure can erode political judgment.
A sustained recovery could reverse that trend.
Lower inflation, rising real income, greater housing production, and stronger private investment would reduce the despair that fuels radical politics. Economic reform could create a virtuous cycle in which greater prosperity lowers social tension and weakens support for destructive ideologies.
The federal government still spends far too much. Welfare programs remain riddled with fraud. Social Security faces a severe funding crisis within the next several years.
Yet policy has begun moving, however slowly, toward reducing the enormous burden federal spending and regulation place on American workers, entrepreneurs, and producers.
A favorable resolution to the Iran conflict would strengthen the economy further by lowering geopolitical risk and stabilizing energy markets.
The greatest danger now is impatience. The federal government, the central bank, businesses, workers, and investors are trying to turn the country away from an inefficient, government-dominated economy and back toward free-enterprise capitalism.
That repair will take time.
But slower inflation, stronger production, and rising real income show that the process may finally have begun.
Federal government, Housing prices, Inflation, Capitalism, Market inflation, Federal reserve, Kevin warsh, Monetary policy, Opinion & analysis
Ben & Jerry’s is so woke that the owners finally broke
Ben & Jerry’s may have built its brand on ice cream, but these days, you wouldn’t even know the company sells ice cream by looking at its social media feeds.
The Vermont-based company is releasing videos attacking ICE, criticizing immigration enforcement, and championing progressive causes — as if customers asked for a dousing of political lectures with their ice cream. And the messaging has become so incessant that even the parent company is pushing back on the brand’s aggressive activism.
“Now, a lot of companies have dialed back, but not the biggest culprit: Ben & Jerry’s. Ben & Jerry’s actually has been not just not dialing it down, but ramping it up lately,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says, before playing a video the company posted attacking ICE.
– YouTube
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“Let’s break the ice,” the video begins. “Congress just voted to spend 70 billion of our tax dollars to fully fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029 with no oversight, no accountability, and no restrictions. At the same time, ICE continues to detain people at a staggering rate, holding at least 60,000 people in inhumane detention centers with plans to deport them to countries most of them have never stepped foot in before.”
“People from all walks of life — grandparents, kids, pregnant women — are being taken from their neighborhoods, locked up in awful conditions, and denied basic care. Almost 50 people have died since January 2025, and the administration has blocked members of Congress from visiting these facilities multiple times, despite Congress’ legal right to do so,” it continued.
“Our tax dollars are supporting this abuse of power. People are being stripped of their rights and denied their dignity. Federal agents hide behind masks and closed doors. We need eyes on ICE detention centers now.”
“First of all, I’m going to need you to show your work,” Gonzales scoffs. “Second of all, nobody follows Ben & Jerry’s for that.”
The company also used its Twitter account to “simp for the illegal who tried running ICE agents down with his car.”
“I could go on and on,” Gonzales says, adding that the company also has posted ads celebrating transgenders in women’s sports and has been encouraging No Kings protests.
“Apparently they even created a new flavor to imply that President Trump is an authoritarian,” she continues.
“Just sell the ice cream,” she adds.
And Gonzales might just get what she wants, as the company’s political activism may be coming to a screeching halt.
“Ben & Jerry’s is actually owned by Magnum. And years ago when the company was sold, Ben and Jerry put in a board to ensure that they could keep pushing their woke messaging, but Magnum is like, ‘Nah, no thanks. Pass,’” Gonzales explains, playing a video Ben of Ben & Jerry’s put out complaining about receiving pushback from the parent company for the messaging.
“Maybe instead of focusing on Donald Trump being a made-up king, it sounds like you guys have some kings in your midst,” she adds.
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Ben & jerry’s, Donald trump, Illegal immigration, No kings protests, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered
‘False and misleading and nonsense’: Elon Musk CRUSHES editor on ‘far right’ accusations
Tech billionaire Elon Musk ripped into a media figure who was trying to characterize him as supporting “far right” political and media figures.
Musk was being challenged by Economist editor in chief Zanny Minton Beddoes when he took over the interview to lob accusations of unfair bias at members of the mainstream media.
‘I would just like to admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense!’
“You support not just the populist right but the far right, in fact very fringe parties in some countries,” Beddoes said.
“No, I support the normal people. What you call the far right, falsely,” Musk replied.
“You think is the normal person?” she asked.
“Yes!” he responded.
“Literally you could go back 10 or 15 years, and these policies were completely normal. In fact, one of the tricks I think is quite funny is to take a speech from [former President Barack] Obama and Hillary [Clinton] and then go to someone who’s … on the sort of what I call the lunatic left and say, ‘What do you think of this speech by [President Donald] Trump?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh wow, he’s the worst person ever!'” he opined.
“Actually, that was a speech by Obama, or actually that was a speech by Hillary. Literally!” he added.
Beddoes appeared exasperated with the response.
“No, I agree that the center of gravity in this country has shifted. Certainly the Democratic Party has shifted to the left, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” she said.
“Not fringe right, please. It’s actually just normal people. … And here are the principles, and tell me which of these sound terrible: that we should have secure borders, that we should have safe cities, that we should have sensible spending. Which of those three are far-right fringe?” he responded.
“And I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense!” Musk added.
“Please keep this part in!” he joked.
“We’ll keep all of this in,” she replied.
“Don’t cut this part!” he laughed.
Video of the exchange was posted to social media by a United Kingdom Parliament member who had been called right-wing by Beddoes.
RELATED: Elon Musk wants ‘historically accurate’ ‘Odyssey’ movie — and may put his money where his mouth is
Elsewhere in the interview, Musk predicted that artificial intelligence may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about five years.
“There really won’t be anything that AI can’t do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” he said.
He said the most likely outcome is an age of “amazing abundance” when anyone can have “anything they can think of.”
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Elon musk, Mainstream media, Artificial intelligence, Media bias, Politics
Jimmy Kimmel has a plan to get Stephen Colbert back on late-night TV
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said there are a lot of people who are interested in what he and his colleagues have to say.
Kimmel boasted off the back of his best month of ratings ever, directly after his pal Stephen Colbert left the CBS airwaves.
‘It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show.’
Couch surfing
Colbert took over “The Late Show” in 2015 from host David Letterman, eventually nose-diving into a $40 million annual loss for his network before leaving in May.
When asked if Colbert’s viewership had made its way over to his show, Kimmel told Variety, “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage.”
It was later in the same interview that Kimmel explained he had a plan to get Colbert back behind the desk on his own network, ABC/Disney, and host for at least some period of time on his show.
For his summer break, which just started, Kimmel revealed he had asked Colbert if he would do him the honor of guest hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
However, Colbert reportedly declined on the grounds that it was too soon.
“Of course, I asked him, and I think it feels premature,” Kimmel told the outlet. “But I told him, ‘Anytime you want to host, it doesn’t matter if it’s the summer, I’ll gladly step aside.'”
RELATED: EMMY-BARRASSMENT: TV king Taylor Sheridan snubbed, while canceled Colbert cleans up
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Host with the most
The allegation that Colbert fans changed the dial over to ABC in June comes after Kimmel averaged 3.15 million viewers, his best monthly audience ever in the show’s 23 years.
Kimmel jabbed at CBS, thanking them “for their wisdom,” while adding, “We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”
The viewership marks a 17% increase from May with a doubling of viewers in the 18-49 market.
The 58-year-old Kimmel took the chance to dump on the podcast market during the recent interview, saying his numbers blow them away.
“It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show,” Kimmel bragged.
“There’s still a lot of people watching late-night television, and I include the other shows in that,” he said. “And there are still a lot of people looking at our shows on YouTube the next day, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in what we have to say. They may … not necessarily be watching it on their TV, but it seems like a little bit of people are coming back to their old friend television.”
RELATED: Tan-splaining Colbert celebrates ‘scandal-free’ Obama at new presidential center opening
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images
Summer slots
Kimmel’s summer break is set to feature a revolving door of some of Hollywood’s most memorable cogs like Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, and Rosie O’Donnell.
Other hosts include actor Colman Domingo and musician Jelly Roll.
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Television, Jimmy kimmel, Stephen colbert, Cbs, Abc, Entertainment
Not your typical road rage attack: Suspect wields meat cleaver in early morning assault, police say
Yes — a meat cleaver.
The tool typically used to chop animal bones and cut through thick pieces of meat was used as a weapon during a road rage attack in northeast Queens early Thursday morning, leaving a 47-year-old man with multiple wounds, the New York Post reported.
No arrests have been made at this time.
The violent confrontation unfolded around 5:35 a.m. near the intersection of 126th Street and 26th Avenue in the waterfront neighborhood of College Point after an apparent vehicle collision and argument.
According to police, the suspect was armed with a meat cleaver and stabbed the victim in the head, chest, and arm before fleeing the scene.
Emergency responders rushed the victim to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
The victim had been driving a white Toyota Sienna minivan at the time of the attack.
Investigators recovered the meat cleaver allegedly used in the assault; it’s seen on the street as police taped off the area in the WABC-TV video below.
RELATED: Thug shoves elderly woman off NYC subway platform, onto tracks in reportedly random attack
The suspect is described as an Asian man wearing a white shirt and jeans. Police have not released any information about the vehicle he was driving.
No arrests have been made as the search for the suspect continues.
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Assault, Police, Road rage, Meat cleaver, Queens, Suspect at large, Crime
Exclusive: Union boss Democrat’s compensation was pumped while worker representation was dumped
Democrat Bob Brooks is running for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District as the common man’s champion. The numbers tell a different story.
Since becoming Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association president in a 2021 special election, Brooks’ total compensation increased by roughly 10%, while funding for first responders’ representational activity fell by 18%. Department of Labor filings reveal that general overhead expenses increased by 38% during Brooks’ presidency, funded by a 14% hike in membership dues.
‘Bob Brooks’ entire career has been one big cash-grab.’
Representational activities, including collective bargaining and workplace dispute resolution, are a union’s core functions. General overhead includes salaries and administrative costs.
The PPFFA did not respond to a request for comment.
Brooks was paid $45,199 in the partial fiscal year ending August 2022, according to DOL filings. That climbed to $57,917 in 2023, $61,709 in 2024, and $63,715 by August 2025. Brooks retained his nearly $77,000 salary as a firefighter for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, through early 2025.
Brooks is running against one-term incumbent Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who unseated Democrat Susie Wild to secure his seat.
“Bob fought fires in Bethlehem for 20 years to keep his community safe, and as president of his union, he has delivered higher wages and better health care for his members. His salary was set by his membership, and he had no role in that vote,” a Brooks campaign spokesperson told Blaze News. “His opponent, Ryan Mackenzie, opposes collective bargaining and doesn’t understand the challenges working people face because he’s never worked a job outside of politics in his entire life.”
Most of the increase in Brooks’ total compensation came from allowances and disbursements, not salary increases. The Brooks campaign did not dispute the union’s Department of Labor filings.
RELATED: New Jersey’s noncitizen voter blame game doesn’t add up — literally
Joe Lamberti/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Union members’ monthly dues rose by 14% during that same period. In August 2022, members were expected to pay $14.30 a month. This rose to $14.94 in August 2023, rose again to $15.86 in 2024, and finally hit $16.26 in August 2025.
The PPFFA is a mid-sized statewide union representing over 6,000 members.
The dues weren’t put toward expanded collective bargaining activity or worker representation. Spending on collective bargaining and workplace advocacy under Brooks dropped 18%, from $110,174 in the fiscal year ending in August 2022 to $90,196 in 2025.
General overhead rose 38% over the same period, climbing from $81,722 to $112,397.
“Bob Brooks’ entire career has been one big cash-grab. While Bob sells himself as a champion for workers, he illegally skipped out on providing workers’ compensation coverage for his own employees and raided the pockets of the union workers he was supposed to represent,” Mackenzie campaign spokesperson Andrew Weller told Blaze News. “Bob’s campaign is just his latest con job — this time targeting the people of the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos.”
Brooks courted controversy in April when he referred to volunteer firefighters as “two hatter s**tbags” and “scabs,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. A two hatter is a unionized firefighter who volunteers in his off-duty time.
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Department of labor, Ryan mackenzie, Pennsylvania, Politics
Teacher awarded for promoting ‘diversity and inclusion’ charged with raping 14-year-old student
A New Hampshire teacher who had been named an Amazon “teacher of the year” was charged with raping a child who was 14 years old at the time.
Tymond Tran, 38, of Hudson was arraigned on Wednesday for various charges related to the heinous allegations, according to the Essex District Attorney’s Office.
The school said he passed all background checks when he was hired for the position.
Tran was an eighth-grade teacher at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Lynn during the 2022-2023 school year when he allegedly raped the student.
He worked there from 2021 until 2024.
The student’s allegations led to Tran being indicted by a grand jury on July 15 on charges that included aggravated rape of a child, posing or exhibiting a child in the nude, and providing obscene matter to a minor.
Tran had been honored by Amazon for promoting “diversity and inclusion” and named a “Future Engineer Teacher of the Year” in 2022. Only 10 teachers were selected for the award related to computer science and robotics.
The school received $25,000 for the award, and Tran received $5,000.
His most recent employment was at Lowell Community Charter Public School, but the school fired him after learning about the charges.
“Mr. Tran’s employment with the school was immediately terminated last month after the DA’s Office informed us of the details of the criminal charges,” a statement from the school reads.
The school said he passed all background checks when he was hired for the position.
RELATED: Finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year withdraws after perverse photos unearthed
Tran pleaded not guilty and was released to home confinement with a GPS monitor. He’s also restricted from contacting his accuser or having any contact with someone under 18 years old.
The suspect is due back in court on Aug. 26.
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Diversity equity inclusion, Teacher arrested, Child sex crimes, Rape, Politics
Caitlin Clark puts black lesbians at risk of death, USA Today writer suggests — and cites Emmett Till lynching
An outrageous sports column in USA Today implies that a white WNBA player has put gay black women at risk of lynching by asking for foul calls when she has been assaulted on the court.
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s plight has become a racial battle in the culture wars, as some have accused her of white privilege for demanding attention when fouled by opponents who are often black.
‘Nancy Armour should be out in a straight jacket and locked up. We can’t have these types of smooth brains roaming freely in society.’
Nancy Armour ratcheted up the tension by typing up a screed linking the basketball fouls to the horrific racist lynching of black 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.
“It shouldn’t need reminding this country has an awful history of Black people being harmed, even killed, in the name of ‘defending’ white women,” she wrote.
“The irony of the WNBA’s All-Star Game is that it’s happening this weekend in Chicago, the hometown of Emmett Till, who became an icon of the civil rights movement after his tragic murder,” she added.
“While it’s incumbent on the WNBA to do more to protect its players, there also should be an expectation on Clark to recognize the broader implications of her actions,” she continued.
Armour further emphasized the point by noting that “the WNBA is made up predominantly of Black women, many of them queer.” Clark’s heterosexuality has previously been a topic of conversation.
The bizarre opinion piece led to bewilderment and outrage online.
“Congrats to USA Today’s Nancy Armour! She has written the dumbest paragraph not only of my lifetime but in the history of sports,” Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports responded.
“Nancy Armour should be out in a straight jacket and locked up. We can’t have these types of smooth brains roaming freely in society,” he added.
The outrage led to a statement from Armour and a rewrite of the piece. She admitted only to an “inartful” comparison that needed more context.
“However, this point stands: There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans, and the danger that poses to Black players in the league,” she wrote. “Players have been abused online and have reported receiving death threats. That has to be taken more seriously.”
RELATED: USA Today obliterated online over bizarre claim about transgender athletes
Armour also locked up her account on the X platform.
The same writer was mocked and ridiculed in June when she wrote another opinion piece claiming there was no physical advantage of biological males over females in sports. She protected her X account after that public clamor as well.
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Wnba, Racism, Caitlin clark, Politics
Activists RAGE against Democrat who admits hiding LGBTQ+ support to appease Muslims
A Muslim Democrat running for Washington’s 9th Congressional District has admitted to obscuring her support for LGBTQ+ to appease her Muslim supporters.
Melissa Chaudhry, 34, is facing the ire of the LGBTQ+ mob over the comments, which she made in an interview with the Stranger.
‘LGBTQ+ rights are not optional. They are foundational to any candidate seeking Democratic support.’
She was asked why LGBTQ+ rights were not mentioned on her campaign website despite her claiming to support the issue.
“Because a lot of Muslims do not feel that way, unfortunately,” she responded.
Among the LGBTQ+ activist groups excoriating Chaudhry was Washington Stonewall Democrats Chair Andrew Ashiofu.
“Our community is not expendable. LGBTQ+ rights are not optional. They are foundational to any candidate seeking Democratic support,” wrote Ashiofu.
His group followed up with its own scathing statement.
“She avoids talking about LGBTQIA+ issues so as not to offend her Muslim supporters,” the group said. “What a privileged statement to make, creating misinformation to cause chaos between two oppressed demographics. One would think she would apologise and move on. Again, thinking rationally is not something all candidates possess, as proven by Melissa.”
Chaudhry responded to Ashiofu in a lengthy statement on social media.
“If you are queer, and you are wondering if you and your rights are safe with me, I assure you from the bottom of my heart, you are, you have always been, and you always will be,” she wrote.
RELATED: LGBTQ groups FURIOUS at CA county ending Pride Month display at library — over a bookmark
“I have supported full equality for LGBTQ+ people my entire life, not since this campaign started, my entire life,” she added.
Her campaign appeared to add LGBTQ+ issues to her website after the outrage ensued.
In a post on YouTube, she accused the Washington Stonewall Democrats of being bigoted against her because she wears the hijab.
Chaudhry also caused consternation among Democrats after indicating that she planned to switch to the Green Party once she got into office.
“I don’t want you to publish this,” she said during the explicitly on-the-record interview with the Stranger.
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Islam, Washington, Democratic party, Politics, Lgbt
Glenn Beck: How Mamdani is leading Democrats straight off a cliff
While the meteoric rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has conservatives around the country concerned, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck sees a light at the end of the tunnel — as what’s happening now is a repetition of what has happened in the past.
And as Mamdani gets more radical, the end of the road for his movement gets closer.
Mamdani demonstrated this recently when, in direct defiance of the federal government, he called on the Trump administration to rejoin the International Criminal Court to enforce a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting New York City in the coming months.
“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said. “The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. And I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”
“While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon. And we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people,” he added.
“The federal government just this week came out and said, ‘We’re out of the ICC. It is nothing but a sham of a court, and we’re not going to play this game anymore,’” Glenn comments.
“So, he is setting up, see, the big bad bogeyman, orange man bad, is letting this criminal, this war criminal, just walk the streets of New York,” he continues.
“He’s pouring gasoline all over the streets of New York, and he’s flicking matches, and it will catch fire in September. And it will be his fault,” Glenn adds.
Glenn predicts that those who supported Mamdani and helped him get into office “already have had plans to have uprisings in the streets this fall when Benjamin Netanyahu gets there.”
While Glenn is disturbed by Mamdani’s incendiary comments, he does note that this is simply history repeating itself.
“Now, we’ve never seen all of these things at the same time, but it rhymes so closely. We’ve been here before. Let me give you this example. It’s June 1969. It’s the largest radical student organization in American history. It’s about the same size as the DSA is now, and they had their national convention in the Chicago Coliseum. Students for a democratic society had somewhere near 100,000 members and chapters on hundreds of campuses exactly like the DSA,” he explains.
“They had a manifesto. … It was a document that opened not with rage but with unease. Students raised in modest comfort looking at the world their parents built and finding it hollow. That is exactly the same pattern,” he says.
Like the DSA of today, these students were chanting the names of foreign dictators.
“Within a year, the largest student movement in American history essentially no longer existed. That faction that walked out called themselves the Weathermen, and they announced that they would bring the war home,” he says. “Does that sound familiar?”
“Bring the intifada here,” Glenn mimics. “Same thing.”
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Benjamin netanyahu, Glenn beck, Intifada, New york city, Zohran mamdani, International criminal court, Donald trump, The glenn beck program
Start your engines! Climate experts now blame rising temperatures on reduced emissions.
In 1975, Newsweek — citing the supposed wisdom of scientists — warned of a “cooling world” and alluded to proposed remedies such as intentionally “melting the arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers.”
This narrative, which was pushed in large part by the media, perished only to be replaced by another: global warming. According to failed presidential candidate Al Gore and others, warmer temps not only meant more T-shirt weather but polar bear drownings, rising sea levels, doom for coral reefs, and the melting of the North Polar ice cap.
‘The scattering has a local cooling effect on the surface below.’
Thankfully, New York City is not under water, polar bears are prospering, coral reefs are more resilient than previously imagined, and the North Pole is doing just fine.
But the expert class whose prophecies appear to fall flat on a perennial basis now have a new worry. They have determined that the heat waves gripping Europe are not the result of a failure to stop emissions but of too much success.
A new study published in the American Geophysical Union’s peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters links the dramatic increase in summer temperatures over Europe, especially in the past decade, to the continent’s successful reduction of air pollution as part of initiatives aimed at tackling acid rain and “global warming.”
After four decades of increases, there was a “strong decrease” of sulfate aerosol emissions over Europe between 1980 and 2000, said the study.
The main human-caused source of sulfate aerosol emissions, which are also known as sulfur dioxide, is the sulfur content of fossil fuels released through combustion.
RELATED: ‘GOOD RIDDANCE’: Trump dunks on climate alarmists over ridiculous doomsday scenario
“The contribution of aerosols has a turning point around 1980, coinciding with a reduction of sulfate aerosol emissions over Europe resulting from the Montreal protocol,” said the new study.
The Montreal Protocol was an international agreement focusing on globally phasing out allegedly ozone-depleting substances, namely those chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration, air conditioning, foam blowing, various aerosols, and other applications. The treaty, which is the only universally ratified treaty in the United Nations’ history, went into force on Jan. 1, 1989.
While coinciding with the Montreal Protocol’s ratification, sulfate aerosol emissions were chiefly driven down in Europe — by an estimated 80% over the past three decades — as the result of other international protocols adopted across the continent, setting the stage for caps on industrial sulfur dioxide emissions, low-sulfur oil standards, new vehicle regulations, and the development of numerous desulfurization plants.
The study noted that “these changes have a direct impact on temperatures” — with temperatures negatively associated with aerosol levels.
Pedro Roldan-Gomez, an author of the paper who works as an earth sciences researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, told the Telegraph, “Now that the sulphates are disappearing over Europe we can see the full impact of the carbon dioxide emissions.”
“From 1980, Europe warmed around 1C more than the average of extratropical areas of the Northern Hemisphere, and around 1.5C more than the global average,” said Roldan-Gomez. “Most of this excess warming over Europe can be linked to the reduction of particle emissions.”
A separate study published last year in the journal NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science similarly found that anthropogenic aerosol emission decline was “the dominant contribution to the excess warming in summer.”
According to a 2016 study in Nature Geoscience, these air pollution reductions in Europe have amplified arctic warming in the fall and winter.
NASA’s Goddard Earth Sciences Division Projects notes that “aerosols scatter (reflect) a portion of the Sun’s incoming light, and, dependent on type, may also absorb some. These are known as ‘direct radiative effects’ of aerosols. The scattering has a local cooling effect on the surface below, while absorption has a local warming effect on the atmosphere where the aerosols are located.”
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Global warming, Europe, Temperature, Combustion, Climate change, Politics
ICE haters claim victory after ‘major bank’ shuts down deals with detention companies
Illegal alien activist groups have been protesting against a familiar banking company that had been providing lending services to companies running federal detention centers — and the pressure appears to have worked.
De-ICE Citizens Bank, a left-wing organization dedicated to protesting against Citizens Bank, took credit for the decision.
‘None of these virtues seem to matter to the activist groups, as they have tried to define us through a narrow lens inconsistent with who we are.’
“Citizens Bank has announced it will exit its lending agreements with CoreCivic and GEO Group. This is an incredible win for everyone who refused to let a major bank finance the human suffering caused by ICE detention! Community resistance matters,” the group said Friday on social media.
However, in an exhaustive statement dated Friday, Citizens Financial Group denied that the decision had anything to do with politics.
“Citizens has been disappointed that the activists have dragged it into what is largely a political matter,” the bank said.
“Public characterizations of Citizens by activist groups, including as it relates to our commitment to immigrants and to communities, do not reflect who we are or the record we have built,” it added. “Citizens is deeply committed to serving our customers, colleagues, and communities.”
Citizens Bank claimed that the two companies’ “capital needs and financing structures” changed after making deals with the federal government. “This is a business decision based on changed commercial circumstances and does not reflect any change in our view regarding these companies’ business models or operations,” it said.
The bank also touted its work with nonprofits serving immigrant communities and accused the activists of misrepresenting the character of the institution.
“None of these virtues seem to matter to the activist groups, as they have tried to define us through a narrow lens inconsistent with who we are,” Citizens said.
RELATED: ICE traffic stops will continue after lethal shootings — but only under certain conditions
De-ICE Citizens Bank activists said they would continue to seek concessions from the bank.
“This is a huge victory, but the fight isn’t over,” the group said. “We’re calling on Citizens to publicly commit in the next 10 days to ending any and all current and future banking relationships with CoreCivic, GEO Group, and every other private prison company. This is the standard their peer banks have already met.”
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Immigration and customs enforcement, Debanking, Politics
Greasy mime charged with harassing park workers faints in court
Mimes, at their best, are the most honest way of representing the absurdity of man — saying everything without a word, exaggerating every gesture until the absurdity can’t be missed.
A Massachusetts mime just stripped that idea bare, literally.
One woman alone reported more than 50 encounters that escalated over roughly two months.
Known around Boston’s suburbs for roaming public spaces in a black-and-white mime costume, Hernan Villagran Lux, 29, of Framingham, was arrested Sunday evening by Massachusetts State Police troopers who recognized him near the Cochituate Rail Trail — a popular site for boating, hiking, fishing, and swimming — and found he had an active warrant, according to a State Police spokesperson.
The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office says Lux is facing criminal harassment charges after three female state park employees said he terrorized them for months.
Lux frequently posts videos of himself in the full getup on his Facebook and Instagram pages — suit, top hat, cane, face powdered a stark white. Other posts show him wearing only underwear in outdoor settings; his captions are in Spanish.
The attorney’s office says the three women, all employees of the Department of Conservation and Preservation, knew Lux by name and appearance, and one woman alone reported more than 50 encounters that escalated over roughly two months.
According to Boston 25 News, Framingham District Court Supervisor Andrew Mange said the women described an “extensive number of contacts” involving him staring at them and smiling in a way they found “really unnerving and frankly terrifying.”
Mange also told the court that the women said the encounters had grown increasingly brazen — including one instance in which Lux allegedly “stripped down to his underwear, slathered cooking oil all over his body, and began working out right by their staff area.”
As bizarre as the case may sound, the arraignment hearing took yet another unusual turn. As the allegations were read aloud by Mange, Lux fainted on the stand and had to be treated in court.
He pleaded not guilty, and the judge ordered a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. Lux is due back in court on August 6.
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Arrested, Brazen, Massachusetts, Mental health, Crime
Did Jason Whitlock cost Cam Newton his ESPN job?
After being laid off by ESPN, Cam Newton insists he never saw the exit coming. But BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t buying it — especially considering longtime nemesis of Whitlock, Stephen A. Smith, was involved.
“A few weeks ago, Cam Newton was one of Stephen A.’s brothers and … then Cam Newton made the mistake of interviewing me, and everybody seems to be blaming me for Cam Newton losing his position at ‘First Take,’” Whitlock says before playing a clip of Newton from his own podcast.
“Did you see it coming?” Newton was asked on “4th&1.”
“I didn’t, but that’s not the topic that I want to kind of belabor on. Only thing I can look at now, I will not be going back to ‘First Take,’” he answered.
“He’s totally surprised by this? I find that a tiny bit naive, and it was kind of what I was trying to communicate to Cam. You know, I think he thought that by letting Stephen A. come on Cam’s show and make a fool with Cam that he had paid a pittance that was going to protect him,” Whitlock says.
“But, you know, Stephen A. is so funny, so inauthentic that I’m shocked that Cam fell for it and didn’t see it coming. It’s a level of naivety that, maybe it shouldn’t shock me, but it does,” he adds.
However, Dre Baldwin isn’t surprised.
“This is corporate. ESPN’s corporate. And in corporate America, when you get the pink slip, it’s not like they tell you two weeks before. They tell you the day of. They don’t have to give you a reason, and that’s that. So, I actually can understand Cam having not seen it coming,” he explains.
“When they fire you, they fire you. I mean, did they tell you ahead of time they were going to fire you?” he asks Whitlock.
“No, but I could see it,” Whitlock says.
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Cam newton, Espn, Jason whitlock, Stephen a smith, First take, Fearless with jason whitlock
Fury erupts over Trump’s threat to bill Canada for wildfire smoke — but Glenn Beck says that’s exactly the point
Earlier this month, wildfires raged across Canada, especially in Ontario and British Columbia. The resulting smoke plumes drifted south into the U.S., causing hazardous air quality conditions across the Midwest and Northeast. At its peak, more than 100 million Americans were under air quality alerts, with cities like Detroit and Minneapolis recording some of the worst air pollution in the world.
On July 17, President Trump posted the following response on Truth Social:
Naturally, many were upset with President Trump for threatening to bill Canada for its wildfire smoke, but they’re missing the genius of what he’s really doing, says Glenn Beck.
On July 1, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) reached its six-year review point. The United States announced it would not renew the deal in its current form, triggering a formal review and renegotiation process between the three countries.
“On the Canadian side of the table, the asks are already on the record. Ottawa wants relief on sectoral tariffs covering steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber,” says Glenn.
But Trump, of course, has his own list of demands — and his billing Canada for its smoke threat? It’s “just that” — “smoke,” says Glenn.
“It’s part of the negotiation. The smoke is the opening position — an unanswerable grievance dropped on the table two weeks before we get serious at the negotiating table,” he explains.
Trump is doing what any good negotiator does at the beginning of talks: He leads with an outrageous ask so that his opponent is more likely to concede to the rest of his demands.
Ben Franklin did this during Revolutionary War negotiations, Glenn recounts.
“Franklin asked for Canada. Franklin got everything except Canada. That’s not a coincidence. That’s called a technique in negotiation,” he explains.
Trump, he reiterates, “is not putting a tariff on the smoke. He’s two weeks away from sitting down negotiating with Canada. He wants a great deal with Canada.”
In other words, he’s intentionally throwing out something outrageous — much like a real estate agent making a laughably low first offer — so that by the end of negotiations, the “crazy” demands have been negotiated away, leaving the real objectives largely fulfilled.
“For 40 years, American trade agreements were negotiated by people who opened at ‘reasonable’ because they wanted the applause to come from the other side of the table,” says Glenn.
But Trump isn’t after empty applause; he’s after American interests.
“We have lost our furniture plants and our steel towns and the tool and die shops. We were told that’s the price of being a grown-up nation. No, we finally have a president who opens up where Ben Franklin opened up: loud, maximum, occasionally absolutely ridiculous, but deliberate,” says Glenn.
“And how many Americans are now saying, ‘I’m embarrassed by that’? Embarrassed by whom exactly? By the only man in generations who has walked into a room and asked for too much on your behalf?” he continues.
When negotiations are finally over, Glenn hopes these naysayers will see all the good that came from Trump’s little bargaining tactic.
“When the paper is finally signed, check the fisheries, check the steel, check the lumber, check the dairy. Ask the dairy workers, ‘Did we get a good deal?’ Ask the American worker who kept losing his job elsewhere if now things are changing here and getting better for them,” he says.
“That’s the only column that ever matters — you.”
To hear more, watch the video above.
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Glenn beck, Donald trump, Canada, Usmca, Wildfires, The glenn beck program
Trends come and go, but Randy Travis is ‘Forever’
I was having lunch in a local tavern the other day, when Randy Travis’ 1987 country hit “Forever and Ever, Amen” came on the jukebox.
Wow! That song sounds as good as it did 40 years ago! Maybe better!
Why is it that some things have a timeless quality and other things don’t?
My friends and I often argue about if a song, or a book, or a TV show “holds up”? Does it still retain that original freshness and quality it seemed to have when it first appeared?
Of course, when you’re young, you’re not the best judge of artistic quality. You absorb whatever you see or hear around you. You like this song or that TV show, but it’s not based on anything substantial. When you get older, you notice that some of the stuff you liked as a kid was not very good.
Think of all the bad music you listened to in your parents’ car growing up. Or the terrible TV shows you watched when you were 10. Nobody’s watching reruns of “The Six Million Dollar Man” or “Kung Fu” nowadays, two TV shows I loved as a kid.
Poser punks
A couple of years ago, I spent an evening at a college friend’s house where we went through his extensive collection of old punk records.
It was many decades past the prime of punk rock, and a lot of the more outrageous punk music sounded pretty stupid. It didn’t “hold up.” We liked it at the time. But we would never listen to it now.
In some cases, you could tell the musicians were just playing at being punk. They had the goofy sunglasses, spiky hair, simplistic music. They were imitating more than creating.
They didn’t actually address what the real punk kids were feeling. There was an authenticity problem. You can’t be great if you’re just following the latest trend.
RELATED: I was a ‘problem student’ — until all-male Catholic school let me be a boy
Alex_Bond/Bettman/Getty Images
‘Hey, I used to like that song!’
My college friend and I unearthed a 7” single by a local new wave band we had liked when we lived in Boston. These guys had good songs. A good sound. A good stage presence. Their single was genuinely catchy and played regularly on our college radio station.
But when we put that same single on years later, it wasn’t good. It sounded cheesy and embarrassing. It was dated.
It sounded a lot like another Boston band, The Cars, who were also very popular around the same time. The Cars songs are also dated and a little bit cheesy, but they still sound great on the radio. They sound classic.
So what did The Cars have that the other band lacked? Talent? Presence? Craftsmanship? Why is it that some things have a timeless quality and other things don’t?
Scantily clad
I think about current pop music. There seems to be a new “pop star” every week. These are mostly singers and mostly young women. People like Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter. They come and go so fast, you can barely remember their names.
Most of their music is made by highly paid music producers. These people know how to make hit records. All the girls have to do is sing and look cute.
Even country music, which tends to reward quality over slickness, has become so popular that there is a certain disposability there as well. There are a lot of “one-hit wonders,” just like in the pop world.
Morgan Wallen is one country star who seems to have staying power. He sounds fresh and original, but you can hear the echoes of classic country in his songs. Also, his attempted cancellation, back in 2021, has given him an underdog status among fans.
Talent on loan from God
But beyond politics, beyond competing styles and industry trends, there is GOD-GIVEN TALENT. Which is where legendary singers like Randy Travis come in.
Of course, Travis fans know about his struggles outside of music. They understand the pressures and temptations of being so good at something that you become world-famous. Travis has definitely had his ups and downs.
But oh, if you could have heard “Forever and Ever, Amen” coming out of that jukebox! Here was a song that was once a No. 1 radio hit, but now sounds like a timeless American classic.
Randy Travis, we salute you, brother! Especially on a hot summer day, in the cool darkness of a half-empty tavern. YOU HOLD UP. And we appreciate it!
Morgan wallen, Randy travis, Music, Entertainment, Culture, Blake’s progress
‘One man’s mass is another man’s meh’: Steve Deace questions whether 1 million deportations is really enough
One of the biggest selling factors of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign was his promise to conduct mass deportations, sending millions of illegal aliens the Biden administration had imported back home.
According to recent figures provided by the administration, nearly 1 million people have been deported since January 2025.
BlazeTV host Steve Deace is pleased with this number.
“That’s excellent progress given where we were starting from and all the court challenges and everything else, right? Not to mention how squishy Republicans are,” he says.
However, many conservatives disagree.
“There are plenty of my friends and contacts who are like, ‘This dog ain’t going to hunt,’ ‘This ain’t going to cut it,’ and ‘Mass deportations is what we voted for, it’s what we expect, and these aren’t massive enough,’” he notes.
“One man’s mass is another man’s meh, right?” he quips.
Deace asks co-host Todd Erzen and producer Aaron McIntire to weigh in. “Which of these two camps in my friend group right now would you guys come down in?”
Erzen is less optimistic than Deace.
“I’m way more in ‘this dog ain’t gonna hunt’ ultimately,” he says, noting that he’s nonetheless “grateful for everything that’s being done.”
“Right now, Dearborn, Michigan, should be a ghost town. Pockets of Minneapolis, wherever all those Somalis live, ghost town. Take care of that. … That should be a bat signal to everybody else: Here we come,” he adds.
Aaron, however, is more concerned with finding “the real story.”
“It’s really difficult, especially when we’ve had as many government shutdowns or partial shutdowns as we’ve had in the last 18 months … to actually get a bead on what the real data is,” he says.
Regardless, no matter what the actual number is, he argues, deportations are “nowhere near the pace that [they need] to be.”
“So, what I hear you guys saying, therefore, is that in typical Republican fashion, what we are doing is stopping the left from doing any new bad things, but we’re not going back and really undoing the old system,” Deace summarizes.
“Trump will push and stretch that paradigm as much as any previous Republican of our lifetimes has or was probably willing to, right? But … it still doesn’t inspire the level of paradigm shift that is really required here. Is that what I hear you saying?” he asks.
“Exactly,” Erzen says.
To hear more, watch the episode above.
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Steve deace, Mass deportations, Immigration and customs enforcement, Department of homeland security, Donald trump, Steve deace show
Police fatally shoot black male amid arrest in Madison, Wisconsin; police chief says male hurt cop with knife; protests ensue
Police in Madison, Wisconsin, fatally shot a male who a pulled knife and injured an officer amid an arrest Wednesday afternoon, the police chief said — and the incident has sparked protests.
Social media video of the shooting went viral, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, adding that some Wisconsin politicians have criticized police. ABC News said the fatally shot male was black.
‘It’s an absolute tragedy when a member of our community is killed by anyone, but especially by the police.’
Madison Police Chief John Patterson said there is no bodycam video of the shooting since no frontline officers have body cameras, the paper reported.
The fatally shot male was suspected of stealing bicycles and attempting to enter unlocked cars, the paper said, adding that when police located him, he fled on a bicycle.
Multiple officers tried to restrain and arrest the male, and a struggle occurred at the intersection of Williamson and South Baldwin Streets around 1:35 p.m., the paper said.
Chief Patterson at a Wednesday news conference said the male drew a knife and injured one officer during the arrest attempt, and the officer then shot and killed the male, the paper reported.
Officials have not publicly identified the fatally shot male, the paper added, only saying that he was in his 30s.
More from the Journal Sentinel:
Videos of the attempted arrest and shooting, reviewed and verified by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, showed three officers struggling with the man. Officers can be heard yelling “he’s got a knife.” Another officer approaches and shouts “Taser” and attempts to use a stun gun on the man, who appears to fall over or is pulled down by an officer.
As the man is on the ground, one of the officers shoots the man three times and another officer briefly covers her mouth with her hand. Officers subsequently can be seen attempting to tend to the man.
The paper said state Rep. Francesca Hong — a lifelong Madison resident and leading candidate in the Democratic primary field for governor — criticized the shooting and stood with others at the shooting scene Wednesday evening.
“I am horrified and devastated,” she said in a statement posted to social media, the Journal Sentinel said. “This was an execution, and it never should have happened.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, also a Democrat running for governor, said in a statement he was horrified by the shooting and likened it to prior police shootings in Kenosha and Minneapolis, the paper said.
“Each incident reopens deep wounds, raises difficult questions, and reminds us of the urgent work that remains to build trust, transparency, and accountability in our systems,” Crowley said, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Democrat Gov. Tony Evers — who endorsed Crowley days ago — asked protesters to remain peaceful and respectful, the paper said.
“There must be transparency and accountability in any investigation moving forward,” Evers said in an X post, the paper said. “We will continue to keep the loved ones and family of the individual who was killed in our hearts and prayers. His life mattered.”
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, also a Democrat, said in a statement she was angered and saddened by the shooting, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“There is real pain in our city right now,” the mayor said, according to the paper. “It’s an absolute tragedy when a member of our community is killed by anyone, but especially by the police.”
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Police involved shooting, Fatal shooting, Madison, Wisconsin, Protests, Knife, Officer injured, Crime
The Senate wants to lock the door on cheap Chinese cars — is ‘security’ the whole story?
If you’ve spent any time on YouTube, you’ve probably seen videos of Chinese electric vehicles loaded with giant touchscreens, premium interiors, advanced driver-assistance systems, and impressive range — all selling overseas for the price of an entry-level compact car.
This week, Washington made sure they’re likely to stay that way.
History suggests consumers usually benefit when new competitors arrive.
The official explanation is national security. But that’s only part of the story.
Unacceptable risks?
On July 15, the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026, bipartisan legislation introduced by Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno and Michigan Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin. The bill would permanently codify and strengthen Commerce Department restrictions on connected vehicles, software, and hardware from China and other designated foreign adversaries. It doesn’t just target cars wearing Chinese badges; it targets the telematics units, cellular modems, GPS modules, and other connected technology that allows modern vehicles to constantly send and receive data.
Supporters argue that’s necessary because today’s vehicles collect enormous amounts of information, including location data, driving behavior, camera feeds, microphones, and wireless communications. Given China’s national security laws, which require companies to cooperate with government intelligence requests, lawmakers say allowing Chinese-connected vehicles onto American roads creates unacceptable risks.
Those concerns deserve to be taken seriously.
But the legislation also blocks what could become the biggest source of price competition the American auto industry has faced in decades.
RELATED: This used-car odometer scam is everywhere — and impossible to detect
CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Good for the goose …
The average new vehicle now sells for close to record prices. Even compact crossovers routinely exceed $35,000, electric vehicles often cost much more before incentives, financing has become more expensive, insurance premiums continue climbing, and used-car prices remain stubbornly high. Americans can watch BYD, Geely, MG, Chery, XPeng, and other Chinese brands selling well-equipped vehicles overseas for thousands less than comparable models available here — sometimes for nearly half the price — and naturally wonder why they can’t buy them.
Washington’s answer is national security.
Fair enough — but if protecting Americans’ data is the goal, why does the conversation stop with China?
Modern vehicles already collect extraordinary amounts of information about their owners. Domestic automakers know where many vehicles travel, how they’re driven, and when they’re serviced, while connected-car data has already found its way to insurers and third-party data brokers. Congress appears highly motivated to prevent China from collecting that information, but it has shown far less urgency about limiting who else can.
Competition wanted
There’s also an economic reality. Keeping Chinese competitors out protects existing manufacturers from the kind of price competition they’ve largely avoided. Over the past decade, automakers have steadily abandoned affordable entry-level cars in favor of SUVs and pickups with much higher profit margins. Introducing dozens of lower-priced competitors would put pressure on those margins — which is exactly what competition is supposed to do.
History suggests consumers usually benefit when new competitors arrive. Japanese automakers forced Detroit to improve in the 1970s and 1980s, while Korean manufacturers evolved from budget brands into respected global competitors. Better quality, stronger reliability, and lower prices followed. Whether Chinese manufacturers would have had the same effect is now a question Americans may never get to answer.
Even if finished Chinese vehicles never reach U.S. dealerships, much of the global battery supply chain still runs through China. The country dominates battery mineral processing and many of the components used in electric vehicles assembled around the world, including those built in North America. America is trying to reduce its dependence on China while remaining heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturing for some of the industry’s most important technologies — a contradiction that won’t disappear simply because imported vehicles are banned.
The Connected Vehicle Security Act may ultimately prove to be good national-security policy. But Americans deserve an honest conversation about its economic cost as well.
Restricting Chinese vehicles limits competition, reduces consumer choice, and almost certainly helps keep vehicle prices higher than they otherwise might be. If lawmakers believe those trade-offs are necessary, they should make that case openly, because the people paying the price won’t be members of Congress or auto executives.
They’ll be the families walking into dealerships wondering why their next vehicle costs thousands more than they expected.
National security matters. Consumers deserve the full picture, including what those protections may cost them every time they shop for a new car.
China, National security, Toyota, Electric vehicles, Batteries, Automotive
Gay senior Pentagon official vows to ‘undo’ MAGA progress on undercover video. It doesn’t go well.
Undercover reporter James O’Keefe has struck again.
The U.S. Navy has placed a senior Pentagon official on administrative leave after a hidden camera from a “gay” date with O’Keefe on July 6 appeared to catch the official criticizing President Donald Trump and vowing to reverse the administration’s policy changes.
‘Why do the gays in DC spill all the beans to me each and every single time?’
In footage shared to social media by O’Keefe on Wednesday, a disguised O’Keefe is out with an individual he identified as the director of business operations in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, Brandon Newsom. On the video, Newsom claims to “oversee all corporate ops, so like HR, IT, security.”
Newsom tells O’Keefe that while the Trump administration policies challenge his morals, “I want to stay and stick it out, so that way, when the time comes, I can undo whatever’s been done [by the Trump administration],” video appears to show.
The alternative, he suggests in the video, is risking having someone who supports the administration take over his responsibilities.
When asked what specific policies he would seek to undo, Newsom appears to tell O’Keefe, whose disguise consisted of a blonde dye-job and a “Freddie Mercury” mustache, “I don’t think there should be one specific prayer service.”
The Pentagon’s monthly voluntary worship services have ruffled feathers besides Newsom’s in recent months.
Rachel Laser, the CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, complained in March, “Even if these prayer services are presented as voluntary, there is pressure on federal employees to attend in order to appease their bosses — especially since these services occur amidst the Trump administration’s campaign to punish anyone who doesn’t comply with its Christian Nationalist agenda.”
Newsom, who expressed an openness to holding a prayer service where “all religions are recognized,” is apparently keen also on doing away with the administration’s schedule policy/career reform, which he told O’Keefe directly impacted him.
“I was converted to schedule policy, which means all of my protections as an employee have been stripped away,” Newsom appears to say in the video. “Hopefully that’s the first thing that gets undone.”
Although he acknowledged that he lacked the authority to change policy, Newsom appears to tell the undercover reporter that he has “the influence.”
In addition to apparently divulging his desire to see multiple MAGA policies reversed, Newsom appears to tell O’Keefe that rogue elements have already done their best to hinder implementation.
“There’s a lot of things that they [the Trump administration] tried to do at the very beginning … they’ve still not rolled out because you have certain folks in certain positions who can slow-roll things,” Newsom appears to say in the footage.
Later in the video, O’Keefe’s date appears not only to call Trump a “textbook narcissist” but claims that the Iran war is “completely stupid” and “based on one man’s ego.”
O’Keefe later tweeted, “Why do the gays in DC spill all the beans to me each and every single time?”
When asked for comment, the Pentagon referred Blaze News to the Navy, which did not immediately respond.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao did, however, address the undercover report on Wednesday evening, stating, “The Department of the Navy takes the conduct shown in this video extremely seriously.”
“Such statements and apparent intent to leverage a position to undermine the policies and direction set by our elected leaders are inappropriate and incompatible with the standards expected of Department personnel,” continued Cao. “Effective immediately, this individual has been placed on administrative leave while we determine next steps to ensure accountability and protect the integrity of our mission.”
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James o’keefe, Pentagon, Deep state, Hung cao, Politics
