Category: blaze media

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may be navigating a new chapter in her personal life, but Alex Stein sees an opportunity.

After her reported split from her longtime fiancé, Stein is reviving his years-long public tangle with the congresswoman.

“Well, this is a great day for me,” Stein tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Other than the fact that AOC likes to murder babies in the womb, and, you know, she wants to import a million illegal immigrants, she’s not half bad. I mean, if we’re just being intellectually honest, like, she’s decently good looking,” he continues.

“And you know what, Sara, as much as we make fun of her, and when it comes to politics, it’s not the smartest person that gets elected. It’s a popularity contest, and she’s incredibly popular,” he adds, pointing out that the democratic socialist also recently said that “Woke 1 was crazy” in reference to the “rhetoric” the left used in 2020.

And as AOC potentially gears up to run for president in 2028, Stein says that it’s not too “far of a pivot for her to start using some of those talking points and become moderate.”

“I really believe, other than a few cultural war issues like abortion and immigration, she’s going to be universally liked,” he says.

“I’m not here to kiss AOC’s butt, but just I think she froze those eggs because she does want to have babies, and she’s the only Latina that’s almost 40 years old that’s never been pregnant in American history,” he adds.

“You have a very long history, a long and sordid and complex history with AOC,” Gonzales says, before playing an old clip from Inside Edition.

“Congresswoman AOC is calling out the creepy guy who hassled her on the steps of the Capitol,” a reporter says, as video shows Stein smiling at the camera.

“You look very beautiful in that dress. You look very sexy. Look at that booty on AOC. That’s my favorite big booty Latina,” Stein said, still grinning.

“The firebrand liberal New York Democrat was heading to work with an aide and her fiancé and dog when she was heckled. She turned to confront the guy, then flashed him a sarcastic peace sign,” the reporter continued.

“I love it, my favorite AOC. Nice to meet you AOC, look how sexy she looks in that dress,” Stein said.

AOC quickly took to social media to call the interaction a “deeply disgusting incident.”

“If you look at Riley in that video,” Stein tells Gonzales, “he doesn’t do anything. He just keeps walking their little pooch, you know, the little dog. He doesn’t go and get in my face. So she realized that he’s not an alpha male.”

“And I would believe, and I just speculate this, that she wants an alpha male,” he adds.

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​Alex stein, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Big booty latina, Democratic socialist, Sara gonzales, Woke, Fiance, Blazetv show 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary in May, claiming that the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement defender of child sex-rejection surgeries “fights from the heart and knows how to win.”

Warren appears to have gifted Flanagan with something even better than her endorsement: not being a real Indian.

‘Elizabeth Warren is doing a land acknowledgment on Flanagan’s head.’

The Massachusetts senator spent decades masquerading as an American Indian for apparent personal gain. Warren:

claimed “American Indian” status on her State Bar of Texas registration card while working at the University of Texas School of Law;compelled University of Pennsylvania Law School to list her ethnicity as “Native American” rather than “white”; was identified as an American Indian at Harvard Law School; and contributed recipes to the 1984 cookbook “Pow Wow Chow,” described as a compilation of “recipes passed down through the Five Tribes families.”

When first running for the U.S. Senate in 2012, Warren told reporters, “Being Native American has been part of my story, I guess, since the day I was born.”

The sham was exposed, however, thanks in part to President Donald Trump, who famously challenged Warren, whom he called “Pocahontas,” to get a DNA test to prove she is Native American. The results revealed that she is only 1/1,024th Native American, if at all.

RELATED: Here are North America’s top 5 fake Indians

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Warren’s identity crisis has presented Flanagan with an opportunity to characterize her potential win in November as historic.

Although she was raised by her white mother, Flanagan appears to have embraced the cause of her late father, Marvin Manypenny — an American Indian sovereignty activist who grew up on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

While Flanagan has certainly played up her Indian heritage throughout her political career, she is leaning especially hard into it ahead of the midterms.

The Senate candidate — who in 2020 joined Warren at the Democratic National Convention’s Native American Caucus meeting — recently donned her bead earrings and told the transvestite Minnesota state representative formerly known as Christopher Finke (DFL) that she is a member of White Earth and her “family is the Wolf Clan.”

Flanagan’s campaign site similarly emphasizes her identity, stating, “Born into an Indigenous and Irish family, Peggy is Ojibwe and a member of the White Earth Nation. Her Anishinaabe name means ‘speaks in a loud and clear voice woman.'”

In a July 15 post, Flanagan wrote, “In almost 250 years, there’s never been a Native woman serving in the U.S. Senate. I’m thinking of my daughter — who just got her first jingle dress — and whether or not she will see Indigenous women in all parts of our government.”

After Flanagan won her party’s nomination on Tuesday, her campaign fundraising operation sent out a variation of this message, stating, “Friend, in almost 250 years, there’s never been a Native woman serving in the U.S. Senate. It’s time to change that,” reported the New York Post.

Flanagan’s quest to take Warren’s unofficial former title prompted some mockery online.

“Has anybody checked on Elizabeth Warren?” the Republican Party wrote on X.

Michigan College Republicans shared an AI illustration of Warren weeping in traditional Native American attire.

“Elizabeth Warren is doing a land acknowledgment on Flanagan’s head,” joked New York Post columnist Kirsten Fleming.

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

The Republican set to face off with Flanagan in the general election is Michele Tafoya, an award-winning sports journalist who wants tax cuts, the deportation of foreign fraudsters and illegal aliens, stronger elections, and men out of women’s sports.

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​Elizabeth warren, Peggy flanagan, Minnesota, Indian, Senate, Politics 

A Florida male threatened and began beating up a homeowner in a Fort Pierce mobile home park earlier this week, but police said the victim pulled a gun, fired once, and ended the threat.

The shooting occurred at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Seminole Mobile Home Park, WPEC-TV reported.

The sheriff told WFLX-TV the victim ‘shot the suspect … point blank in the chest.’

St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard R. Del Toro told the station the two men knew each other and had been involved in a dispute that included verbal arguments and threatening text messages.

Investigators said the 37-year-old suspect — who has yet to be identified — made several threats before showing up at the home of the 22-year-old man, WPEC noted.

Deputies said the 37-year-old knocked on the front door and was let inside before a brawl broke out, the station said.

Investigators said the suspect pushed the 22-year-old homeowner and punched him several times in the stomach, WPEC reported.

“The victim disengaged … pulled out a handgun, shot one time, and the threat was over,” Del Toro told the station.

The sheriff told WFLX-TV the victim “shot the suspect … point blank in the chest.”

The suspect was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, WPEC reported.

“It’s not fair, because my son has no father now. He’s 5 years old, and what am I gonna tell him? We didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Naomi Pallarez, the girlfriend of the man who died, told WPEC.

Del Toro told WPEC the homeowner remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators; the homeowner’s girlfriend and sister also were inside the residence and provided corroborating statements.

Deputies recovered the handgun after executing a search warrant at the residence, WPEC said.

No charges have been filed against the homeowner, WPEC reported, adding that investigators are working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if the shooting falls under Florida’s stand-your-ground self-defense law.

“Obviously, you have to be in defense of yourself, but at the same time, you have to be in fear for your life anytime you’re going to use deadly force,” Del Toro added to the station.

More from WPEC:

The sheriff said the suspect had a criminal history, including drug-related and resisting-officer charges, domestic violence-related charges, and three felony convictions. He stressed that the man’s criminal history was not a reason for him to be killed.

The suspect’s name has not been released because investigators have not yet notified his next of kin, WPEC said.

“I am very much heartbroken,” Pallarez told WPEC. “And now I’m a single mom.”

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​2nd amendment, Florida, Guns, Gun rights, Self-defense, Fatal shooting, Mobile home, Stand your ground law, Crime 

The summer before my freshman year of college, my 18-year-old brain was wholly devoted to two things: relishing the last delicious bits of time with high school friends and the equally important endeavor of curating the perfect dorm room aesthetic.

The “it” color that summer was mint green. My chosen vibe was (I giggle as I write this) “shabby chic” — because there’s nothing like a 168-square-foot cinder-block prison cell draped in lace and florals.

Hiring an interior designer to curate a perfectly polished, bespoke dorm room robs a girl of the trial-and-error experience of honing her unique brand of beauty.

Once my Pinterest mood board was created, I enlisted my poor mother, who — bless her — cheered and abetted all my fantastical pursuits, to help. I dragged her to various home goods retailers, craft stores, and antique malls until we had what we needed to realize my vision of weathered elegance

When move-in day arrived, we utterly transformed the sterile gray box into a twinkle-lit sanctuary. Floral craft paper taped over cinder blocks became “vintage wallpaper.” Ornate gold picture frames hung with Command hooks created a “gallery wall.” Gauzy fabric thumbtacked into drop ceiling tiles served as a “bed canopy.”

I know what you’re thinking: This is ridiculous.

Reader, I couldn’t agree more. It was ridiculous — but it was fun, wildly creative, and one of my most cherished memories to date.

Judge me if you must, but hold your scrutiny until I tell you what some students are doing with their dorm rooms today.

A growing trend that is delighting some and incensing most involves hiring professionals to create custom “home” designs for college students. In other words, dorm room interior design is now a legitimate professional service.

Inside the full-service dorm design experience

What does hiring a dorm room interior designer involve? As it turns out, quite a lot.

It begins with a consultation — sometimes, depending on the company you opt for, multiple consultations. This is where the details of the project are ironed out: room dimensions, timelines, budgets, and, most importantly, vibes. Identifying and capturing one’s stated personal style is, of course, at the heart of these operations.

Then comes procurement.

But most of these designers, certainly the high-end ones, aren’t plucking knickknacks off Target and TJ Maxx shelves. “Mainstream” and “mass-produced” tend not to be in the vocabularies of the Southern belles who make up the overwhelming majority of dorm room designers’ clientele.

It’s only natural that an elevated experience would involve elevated items — and that’s exactly what most of these designers purchase or commission on behalf of their clients. A combination of custom headboards, made-to-fit cabinets, accent walls, and high-end furniture pieces paired with custom drapes, original artwork, monogrammed textiles, and specialty lighting ensure that each girl (or exceedingly rare male) gets a luxurious and one-of-a-kind living space.

Shelly Gates, the founder of Mary Margaret Designs, a design firm specializing in college dorm rooms, works directly with a “carpenter, seamstress, and handyman” to pull off her elaborate custom work.

“It definitely takes a village to get those dorm rooms together,” she told House Beautiful.

And it’s no wonder. Here’s an example of a dorm room she decorated at the University of Alabama:

Designer Ginger Curtis put it more bluntly to the New York Times: “We’re moving away from Ikea and getting the opposite of fast furniture.” Ginger is the founder of Urbanology Designs, a high-end Dallas-based interior design firm that has expanded into decorating luxury college dorm rooms because the demand is there.

Is it really, though? Is there actually a viable market for dorm room interior design?

Oh, yes — but with one critical distinction.

The demand is real — and growing

For starters, shelling out cash for dorm rooms is trending upward. The National Retail Federation projects college students and their families will spend a record $103.5 billion on back-to-school supplies this year — up from $88.8 billion the year prior. $14 billion of that is expected to be spent on dorm room or apartment furnishings alone.

Is this increase in expected spending caused by higher prices? Without a doubt — but the fact that there are now several companies specializing in transforming standard dorm rooms into luxury suites suggests that rising expectations are also a factor.

Business does seem to be booming for these niche designers, too.

Mary Margaret Designs, Gates explained in the same House Beautiful interview, started as a summer side hustle when she was a teacher. But when the business “exploded,” she made it her full-time gig. According to the Independent, she “now has a wait list stretching two to three years.”

Eden Bowen Montgomery, founder of dorm room design firm Essentials with Eden (a hilariously ironic name), had built such an empire by 2024 that she had to hire a seasonal staff of 25 employees.

But it’s important to note that this particular design service is not trending across the nation. Its popularity is specifically concentrated in the South. Montgomery, Gates, Curtis, and Dawn Thomas (After Five Designs founder and pioneer of the high-end dorm room design trend) are all based in the South and primarily serve large Southern state schools, including Ole Miss, the University of Alabama, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State, and Southern Methodist University in Texas.

It’s not lost on me that all of these schools are famous for their intense Greek-life cultures. I’m not here to cast aspersions on sororities, but I think it’s fair to say that the modern ones are not known for cultivating the values of moderation or restraint. It fits that the exclusive clubs notorious for choreographed RushTok dances and five-figure designer rush outfits would also sustain a thriving dorm-room design industry.

RELATED: This new app for new moms is a game-changer

ArtistGNDphotography/Getty Images

Delivery, installation, and the big reveal

The entire elaborate design process wraps up with transportation and installation. A delivery truck packed full of custom furnishings and décor arrives on campus along with the designer and an install team, who ensure that the lucky girl(s) has a thrilling turnkey experience. Here’s an example of the final stages from Mary Margaret Designs:

But the cherry on top, of course, is the big reveal, where the girls are often filmed reacting to their renovated dorm rooms. This filming process is worth noting, I think, because it captures what almost certainly fuels the entire dorm room design industry and the sorority culture it primarily serves: Instagramability. For a tragic majority of today’s youth, an exciting experience is only that if other people are watching.

Here’s an example of the grand finale from Thomas’ After Five Designs:

The price tag

Now for the really fun part: the bill. What do these dramatic dorm room makeovers cost?

It’s a spectrum, but on the low end, roughly $5,000 per student. According to the New York Times, a full room makeover from Essentials with Eden will run parents “about $10,000 per room ($5,000 per student)”; Curtis’ Urbanology averages between “$7,000 to $8,000, though the costs can grow much higher.”

Mary Margaret Designs, says People magazine, “charges between $5,000 and $20,000 to make over collegiate living spaces.”

As the New York Times aptly put it, college living has acquired “the Gilded Versailles Touch.”

The part that actually bothers me

I’m not going to bore you with the obvious critique: that dorm room interior design that costs more than some home down payments is nauseatingly extravagant. Nor will I indulge in the predictable lament that such obnoxious luxury sets kids up for crushed expectations in a world where AI gobbles up industries like potato chips and home ownership is out of reach for the majority of young Americans.

Instead, I want to focus on a less evident but equally important problem. Wanting a fabulous dorm room isn’t the issue for me. I think the introduction of this article makes that quite clear. Rather, the problem is that hiring an interior designer to curate a perfectly polished, bespoke dorm room robs a girl of the trial-and-error experience of honing her unique brand of beauty.

You may think it’s not that deep, but I would argue aesthetics are actually key to a woman’s identity. Embodying and cultivating beauty in the world is central to the female experience. It’s not that men don’t care about or play a role in matters of beauty, but there’s a reason home décor shops, Sephoras, and craft stores are frequented primarily by women.

This lifelong search for our own brand of beauty starts when we are toddlers trying on our mother’s heels and lipstick. In middle school, it looks like rearranging our rooms and deciding between the leopard and the floral headband. In high school, it’s experimenting with different eyeliner styles. And in college, it’s obsessing over what our first home apart from our parents will look like. It’s a journey that never ends — and one that’s crucial for becoming a confident, original woman.

It’s not trivial to search for one’s personal aesthetic, but it is deeply hollow to outsource that creative process to someone else, especially in our formative years — trading messy uniqueness for vanilla perfection. A girl’s sense of style should be forged in hot pink fire, not in design rooms.

​College students, Dorm room interior, Female identity, Southern schools, Instagramability, Sorority, Greek life, College, Lifestyle, Culture 

Chinese nationals and U.S. citizens saying “I do” with their fingers crossed behind their backs, all to exploit the U.S. immigration system? The Department of Justice says it’s true.

On Wednesday, the DOJ announced it had busted one of the largest marriage fraud rings in U.S. history — over 1,000 sham marriages arranged to secure green cards for foreign nationals, primarily citizens of the People’s Republic of China, run like a business for a decade.

‘Anyone willing to lie, cheat, or steal their way to legal immigration status is a direct threat to America’s national security.’

The DOJ claims the scheme, which ran from at least 2016 through July 2026, was based in New York City with marriages arranged across the U.S. and as far away as China.

According to the DOJ, three roles kept it running: facilitators who found foreign clients, recruiters who found U.S. citizens, and assistants who filed the paperwork. Officiants, attorneys, tax preparers, and insurance agents were also in the fold — a full-service fraud economy.

Facilitators charged foreign nationals up to $100,000 apiece, paid U.S. citizens up to $30,000 in installments, and paid recruiters commissions of up to $5,000 per referral, the DOJ claimed. The DOJ estimates the alleged network collected tens of millions of dollars.

Couples would often meet for the first time immediately before getting a marriage license, then stage wedding ceremonies and photographs to make the unions look legitimate, the DOJ claimed.

Afterward, participants allegedly manufactured further evidence — staged photos, joint bank and utility accounts, joint tax filings, and insurance policies. They also submitted green card applications with false statements and were coached to mislead immigration officials during green card interviews, the DOJ claimed.

RELATED: Birth tourism is only the beginning

U.S. Department of Justice

Attorney General Todd Blanche said couples even signed prenuptial agreements waiving marital rights — no estate claims, no child support, nothing. One clause allegedly read: “Both parties live independently and must not interfere with each other.”

The defendants identified in the DOJ press release are: Amy Cheng, Xiao Mei Chan, Christine Lu, Jing Yan Ye, Xiao Yan Chen, Gang Zheng, Anthony Cheng, Michelle Duenas, Angela Duenas, Sigrid Cetino, and Erika Johnson. They range from 26 to 72 years old and represent nearly every New York City borough as well as Westchester County.

Each defendant was arrested Wednesday and faces up to 15 years combined — five for conspiracy to commit marriage and immigration fraud and 10 for conspiracy to encourage unlawful residence of aliens.

The bust also lands the week after President Trump signed a pair of executive orders targeting birth tourism — part of what officials describe as a broader push against people gaming the immigration system.

RELATED: Trump takes another BIG swing at birthright citizenship and birth tourism

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said, “Anyone willing to lie, cheat, or steal their way to legal immigration status is a direct threat to America’s national security.”

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald said the government is now weighing whether to revoke the green cards it already granted through the scheme.

This isn’t the first Chinese-linked alleged sham-marriage bust the administration has touted this year. In February, 11 people were charged in Jacksonville, Florida, for allegedly paying Navy sailors up to $35,000 to marry Chinese nationals — and, in some cases, bribing base personnel for military ID cards.

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​Birth tourism, Department of justice, Foreign nationals, National security, New york city, Us citizens, Politics 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is taking followers inside her egg-freezing journey, sharing videos of hormone injections and encouraging more women to learn about their reproductive options — but BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey believes the conversation is missing something: the truth.

While egg freezing is often presented as a path to freedom and control, it glosses over the physical side effects, financial burden, and biological limitations that women will face if they wait to start families.

“The path that she is pursuing of political ambition and hoping to have kids via egg freezing and embryo creation in her 40s. Trust me, that is not going to be the path that leads to fulfillment and happiness and satisfaction,” Stuckey says.

“In fact, it’s just going to end up leading to a lot of disappointment,” she adds, before citing several studies on the process.

“UCLA study found that only 5.7% of women who froze their eggs between 2014 and 2016 actually used them within five to seven years,” she explains.

“The whole procedure costs about $12,000 to $15,000 per cycle. This is another thing when people tell me, ‘Oh it’s too expensive to have children, like, that’s why we’re not having kids in this economy.’ And then you have someone who is touting a procedure that can cost you $15,000. It’s a lot,” she says.

There are also little-known side effects to freezing your eggs.

“The most severe side effect of freezing your eggs is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. The ovaries become swollen and very painful,” Stuckey says, noting that up to 20% of women will experience the side effect.

And in a 2017 study that “surveyed women who had had their eggs frozen found that 16% had severe regret over the decision two years later; 33% had mild regret.”

“When you are injecting yourself with hormones, again, and you are doing things that affect your body that intimately and that seriously, you’re going to have big emotions about it. People don’t talk about it,” she says.

And when women wait until their mid-30s to start having children, the list of complications go up.

“Maternal age of 35 and older, this is according to the Cleveland Clinic, is associated with a higher likelihood of complications such as high blood pressure, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, miscarriage, C-section,” Stuckey explains.

“And that is not just a risk for the mom, it’s also a risk for the baby. Data from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology show that about 53.1% of women under 35 achieved a live birth after one egg retrieval cycle compared with only 4.2% of women over 42,” she continues.

“So again, you just can’t beat biology,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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​Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Allie beth stuckey, Biology, Egg freezing, Ivf, Pregnancy, Blazetv show 

At first glance, President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures look like a major scandal.

CBS News recently released an interactive dashboard analyzing what it called Trump’s “unprecedented” volume of investment activity during the first quarter of 2026: 1,296 sales and 2,346 purchases worth somewhere between $212 million and $695 million.

Calling it ‘potential insider trading’ is easy. Proving it requires something more than trades that sometimes came before favorable news.

The report emphasized that much of the activity involved individual stocks rather than index funds and noted that some purchases “preceded policy moves” or public statements by Trump that could affect the companies involved.

“The concern is he is in a position to make all kinds of decisions that can affect stock prices,” one government ethics expert told CBS.

“In the meantime, he could have bought or sold stocks that are affected by these decisions.”

It certainly sounds suspicious. That is exactly what Democrats are counting on. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has already demanded an investigation into “potential insider trading” as her party tries to cast Trump as an out-of-touch oligarch before the midterms.

But the scandal starts to look much thinner once you move past the insinuation and examine what actually happened.

For one thing, Trump is not personally making these trades. CBS News included a statement from the Trump Organization saying that “independent third-party investment managers” handle the president’s stock transactions without direction from Trump or his family.

Vice President JD Vance put it more colorfully: Trump “doesn’t sit at the Oval Office on his computer on his, like, Robinhood account, buying and selling stocks. That’s absurd.”

Fine. But what about the timing? Doesn’t that suggest some coordination between Trump and his money managers?

Not much, judging from CBS News’ own charts. If Trump is insider trading, he is doing a remarkably bad job of it.

Take Nvidia. CBS noted that Trump’s financial managers bought between $500,001 and $1 million of Nvidia stock on January 6. The following week, the administration relaxed export controls on some of Nvidia’s AI chips, allowing sales to China.

RELATED: Trump has media and left panicking over election national emergency threat

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

That sounds explosive until you look at the stock price. Nvidia closed at $187.24 on Jan. 6. After the policy change, it closed the following week at $186.23.

The next two purchases shown by CBS came after — not before — brief but significant drops in Nvidia’s share price. Trump’s disclosure also shows sales totaling between $1.8 million and $3.6 million in Nvidia stock during March. The stock then climbed sharply the next month.

That is not what a clean insider-trading narrative looks like.

It looks much more like ordinary portfolio management: buying dips, trimming positions, missing upside, and generally doing what professional money managers do every day — often while charging clients handsomely for the privilege.

Palantir and Eli Lilly transactions cited in the report show a similarly messy pattern rather than some obvious sequence of privileged information followed by perfectly timed trades.

One investment professional quoted by CBS even speculated that Trump’s managers may have been realizing losses for tax purposes. Maybe. If not, Trump might want to ask what exactly he is paying them for.

Either way, that theory does not establish insider trading. And neither does the mere fact that a trade happened before a policy announcement affecting the same company.

To make the case, you need evidence that Trump possessed material nonpublic information, that he communicated it to the people managing his portfolio, and that they traded on it. The disclosures and timing highlighted by CBS do not establish that.

The simplest explanation remains the least cinematic one: Trump pursues policies he believes are good for the country while outside money managers invest his fortune without his input.

If you want to understand what genuinely suspicious political trading can look like, consider the Pelosi family.

In 2024, Paul Pelosi sold roughly $500,000 in Visa stock. The following month, the Justice Department sued Visa on antitrust grounds, and the stock fell.

That timing naturally attracted scrutiny. But timing alone is not proof there, either. We do not know that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tipped off her husband, and the public evidence does not establish insider trading.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi’s post-Congress plan: A ‘nonpartisan’ $50 million institute at Berkeley

Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

What it does show is why these stories require more than a suggestive chart. A suspicious-looking sequence is a reason to ask questions, not a substitute for evidence.

That standard should apply to Trump too.

Democrats need voters to believe Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, his family, and his friends. That is why every financial disclosure becomes an invitation to imply corruption before proving it.

Maybe investigators will eventually uncover evidence that Trump directed trades around government policy. If they do, investigate it.

But the material CBS News has presented so far does not get us there.

Calling it “potential insider trading” is easy. Proving it requires something more than trades that sometimes came before favorable news, sometimes after price declines, and sometimes before the portfolio missed a rally altogether.

For now, there is plenty of insinuation and remarkably little proof.

​Cbs news, Democrats, Donald trump, Eli lilly, Insider trading, Investigation, Jd vance, Justice department, Nancy pelosi, Opinion & analysis, Palantir, Corruption, Stocks, Disclosure 

A Texas teacher has gone viral for breaking down emotionally during a social media post because several of his senior students struggle to read and write.

In a video that has gone viral online, Darius Williams says he assigned high school senior students to read two paragraphs and write a sentence on the second day of school.

‘Something is broken somewhere. It has to be. To see this level of engagement with students who simply don’t have literacy skills is completely disheartening.’

He stated in the viral video, “I literally broke down in the middle of class.”

An emotional Williams continued, “I gave them the scenario, we annotated together, I gave them the answers before we even had the problem, and they couldn’t do it.”

“I basically completed the sentence for them in the model,” Williams said. “These are 17- and 18-year-old kids, and they couldn’t fill in four words. Four words!”

The tearful teacher added, “I don’t know. I simply don’t know where the problem is. This is only day two, and I have seniors who simply cannot read and seniors who cannot write. They cannot write.”

Williams remarked, “They can reason, they have the ability to defend their reasoning if it’s talking to their homeboy, but applying that to a written text, two paragraphs, they couldn’t do it. Our young black men, our young brown men, our young black girls, and our young brown girls. Oh, God.”

Williams wrote in the caption accompanying the Instagram video:

I thought long and hard about posting this. But we have got to do something. Something is broken somewhere. It has to be. To see this level of engagement with students who simply don’t have literacy skills is completely disheartening. Whew. Y’all did not prepare me for this. Whew.

The viral video notched more than 144,000 views on Instagram.

Darius Williams is listed in the Wheatley High School staff directory as a New Education System and Career and Technical Education teacher in a non-foundational program of study.

KRIV-TV reported, “The Texas Education Agency says a ‘non-foundational’ teacher teaches elective, specialized, or enrichment subjects instead of core academic courses.”

“The district describes CTE as a collection of courses designed to prepare students for further education and careers in current or emerging professions,” KPRC-TV reported. “The district says its CTE programs prepare students for industry certifications, while some programs also offer dual-credit opportunities that allow students to earn college credit while still in high school.”

RELATED: Texas pastor issues two challenges for men today: ‘Putting it into action bears fruit’

While the Houston Independent School District did not directly address Williams’ claims in his viral video, it said it was “proud of the progress students are making.”

“The first days of the school year are an important time for teachers to get to know their students’ academic abilities, assess their individual needs, and determine the support each student may require,” the district said, according to the Houston Chronicle.

“We see students with a range of academic needs every day,” the statement read. “As teachers and instructional leaders, it is our responsibility to identify those needs and our commitment to close the gaps.”

The HISD conceded that there are some “students who need additional academic support.”

Wheatley High School has faced academic challenges in recent years.

The Houston Chronicle reported that approximately 130 schools in the Houston Independent School District, including Wheatley High School, were taken over by the state of Texas in 2023 following seven consecutive years of failing evaluations within the state accountability framework.

Wheatley High School currently has an overall C rating and a student STAAR performance rating of 69 out of 100.

The Texas Education Agency defines STAAR Performance as standards-related “levels of test performance to the expectations defined in the state curriculum standards known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.”

The school has a graduation/completion rate of 55 out of 100.

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​High school, News, Politics, Texas, Viral video 

Jason Arday, the serial fabulist who resigned last week from Cambridge University, released his memoir “Great and Unfortunate Things” on Tuesday. As of this writing, the book had a 4.18 average from 103 ratings on Goodreads. Fully 48% give Arday five stars. Another 37% give him four. Two stars or below? A mere 7%.

The Goodreads jury, apparently, has reached its verdict: The story of a nonverbal autistic boy who could not read until 18 and then rocketed all the way to becoming Cambridge’s youngest black professor is sacred.

When the demand for underrepresented heroes outstrips the supply, fabulists and frauds have an opening. More important, they have an ecosystem.

The reviews are replete with the language of wonder. One called the book “the improbable-but-true story” and awarded five stars “for the basic premise alone,” adding: “You make this stuff up (sic).” Truer words!

Another declared that Arday becoming a college graduate a mere five years after becoming fully literate was “nothing short of amazing.” Others called his accomplishments “truly unbelievable,” his memoir “incredibly moving” and “incredibly inspirational.”

Incredible. Amazing. Unbelievable. The reviewers keep reaching for exactly the right words without quite noticing what those words might mean.

Never mind that Arday stepped down August 5 after Cambridge opened an investigation into his academic qualifications and honorary appointments. Never mind the detailed allegations of extensive textual overlap in his doctoral thesis. Forget the questions surrounding his athletic feats, fundraising claims, and résumé. Pay no attention to the rather awkward question raised by the tale of a man who supposedly learned to read at 18 and graduated from a prestigious institution five years later.

The Goodreads crowd had already rendered its rapturous verdict.

Among the first two dozen or so reviews visible on the site, nearly all awarded four or five stars. Almost nobody stopped to wonder whether the “unbelievable” story might, in fact, be unbelievable.

Why would they? The story delivers everything the contemporary literary class has been trained to admire: a black autistic man overcoming a racist and ableist system; a fierce immigrant mother redeeming her son; grit and determination carrying him into the heights of the ivory tower. It is less a memoir than a perfect machine for producing approved emotions.

RELATED: How to play liberals for suckers

Blaze Media Illustration

Even reviewers who finished the book after the scandal broke offered only careful, almost apologetic caveats. One finished the memoir, Googled Arday, discovered the plagiarism reports and resignation “only hours” earlier — and still found the book “well written” and “fascinating.”

Several reviewers thanked 37INK, a Simon & Schuster imprint devoted to publishing black authors, for providing advance review copies through NetGalley. NetGalley collects volunteer reviewers whose preferences are already known. Publishers naturally use such networks to build early attention and enthusiasm around books they hope to sell.

Nothing sinister is required here. That’s practically the point.

The machinery works because everyone already knows the story he is supposed to like. The publisher finds the audience. The audience recognizes the moral cues. The reviewers supply the adjectives. By publication day, a book whose author is already engulfed in questions about his biography can arrive wrapped in a halo of “incredible,” “amazing,” and “inspirational.”

Amazon, where reviews could not be posted until the book was actually released, appears much less enchanted. Even 37INK, perhaps wisely, does not feature the book on its home page.

When the demand for underrepresented heroes outstrips the supply, fabulists and frauds have an opening. More important, they have an ecosystem.

The university hires. The publisher packages. The advance readers applaud. And by the time anyone asks whether the inspirational story is true, the five stars are already in.

​Cambridge university, Jason arday, Opinion & analysis, Memoir, Diversity equity inclusion, Fabulist, Goodreads, Amazon, Fraud 

While smearing law-abiding conservatives in recent years as “extremists,” the Southern Poverty Law Center was seemingly getting into bed with bona fide Nazis — in one alleged case, perhaps quite literally.

Heidi Beirich, the former director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project who was indicted and arrested on Wednesday, is accused not only of getting romantically involved, cohabitating, and sharing bank accounts with a neo-Nazi informant whose work she oversaw, but also allegedly committing fraud along the way.

‘The charity that supposedly fought Neo-Nazis actually funded Neo-Nazis.’

The second superseding indictment in the SPLC’s criminal fraud case announced by the Justice Department on Wednesday sheds light on Beirich’s various alleged improprieties as well as on the SPLC-linked activities of her alleged skinhead lover.

Quick background

The Alabama-headquartered smear- and fearmongering outfit was federally charged on April 21 with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

The SPLC — which has been credibly accused of bankrolling leaders and organizers in the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance with millions of dollars in donor funds through fictitious accounts — pleaded not guilty in May to all counts.

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

FBI

On June 2, the DOJ filed a superseding indictment against the SPLC detailing some of the ways that field sources allegedly used SPLC donor money, including to grow existing chapters of extremist groups; make donations to extremist group leaders; host extremist rallies; purchase materials for cross burnings as well as for KKK robes and hoods; and publish extremist literature for recruitment purposes.

The June indictment also told the love story about a former Intelligence Project director and a field source referred to only as “F-9.”

The second superseding indictment filed on Tuesday fills in some of the gaps in that love story — including the former director’s name, Heidi Beirich — and paints her in a particularly unflattering light.

The SPLC, Beirich, and Beirich’s attorney did not respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

There are three core components to the case against Beirich, who has been personally charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

1. Shell companies

Beirich is an anti-Trump liberal who served as director of the Intelligence Project from 2012 until 2019 and now serves as the chief strategy officer at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. In her latest capacity, she concerned-mongered before Congress in 2020 over the supposed problem of white supremacists in the military.

The indictment alleges that Beirich opened and/or modified a series of bank accounts in the name of numerous shell companies, including the Center Investigative Agency, Fox Photography, Tech Writers Group, and Rare Books Warehouse — and knowingly signed bank documents “containing false statements for the purpose of influencing banks” to open and maintain the accounts.

‘I knew it was that fat, ugly hog Heidi Beirich.’

According to the indictment, the fictitious organizations Beirich allegedly helped stand up were never incorporated, conducted no legitimate business, and had no real employees.

Funds from SPLC donors — who were led to believe they were supporting the fight against extremism — were allegedly funneled through the identified shell companies to so-called informants, including Beirich’s alleged lover, F-9.

2. Thick as thieves

Prosecutors allege that F-9 received millions of dollars in donor funds, primarily through the Tech Writers bank account, while helping the National Alliance “carry out its extremist activities.”

RELATED: Federal judge REJECTS the victim narrative pushed by the criminally charged SPLC

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Beirich allegedly oversaw the SPLC payments to F-9 while engaged “in a romantic relationship” with him, said the indictment.

Beirich is also accused of getting a taste of the action.

“During this relationship, BEIRICH and F-9 shared a house and two bank accounts,” the indictment alleges. “Between 2015 and 2021, approximately $140,000.00 in donors’ money flowed from the SPLC operating account, through the Tech Writers account, and was ultimately deposited into the joint bank accounts held by F-9 and BEIRICH.”

The then-SPLC director allegedly used donors’ money to pay for their shared living expenses, even though she does not appear to have been hard-pressed for cash. After all, when Beirich left the SPLC, she was reportedly earning $190,000 in salary and benefits.

Whether their alleged romantic relationship is ongoing is unclear.

3. Another use for the Nazi informant

According to the allegations, Beirich’s informant broke into the National Alliance’s headquarters in West Virginia in 2014 with her knowledge; stole 25 boxes of documents; transported those documents across state lines; and with Beirich’s help, copied those documents before breaking back into the National Alliance headquarters to return the originals.

Prosecutors alleged that Beirich paid for the copies with donor funds and used the stolen material for a “story to solicit more donations.”

The documents taken in the burglary appear to have served as the basis for Beirich’s lengthy March 2015 “Hatewatch” article titled “Chaos at the Compound,” where she discussed drama and mismanagement behind the scenes at the National Alliance.

Beirich then allegedly “paid approximately $6,000.00 in donors’ money” to a different field source “to falsely take responsibility for the burglary.”

After the June indictment came out and linked the SPLC to the burglary, William White Williams, National Alliance’s 78-year-old chairman, told the New York Post, “I knew it was that fat, ugly hog Heidi Beirich.”

Protest and condemnation

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Thursday, “The charity that supposedly fought the KKK actually funded the KKK. The charity that supposedly fought Neo-Nazis actually funded Neo-Nazis. Heidi Beirich supposedly dedicated her career to fighting neo-Nazis. The indictment alleges she helped FUND them.”

Patel added, “The woman who supposedly fought hate allegedly helped pay the very people spreading it, used their activity to raise more donor money, and personally benefited from the scheme.”

Beirich’s lawyer denies she did anything wrong.

“Dr. Beirich is innocent, and this case is without merit,” Beirich’s attorney, Michael Proctor, said in a statement obtained by CNN. “We believe the charges against her and the SPLC are politically motivated, and Dr. Beirich has been targeted in this case because of the important work she has done to combat hate groups and extremists.”

The SPLC has already tried and failed to get the case dismissed on the basis of the claim that the prosecution is politically motivated.

Judge Emily Marks of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, a Trump appointee, said in an order rejecting the SPLC’s motion on Friday, “The SPLC has failed to offer some evidence tending to show animus on the part of the prosecutors involved in bringing this case and that such animus resulted in the prosecution.”

Proctor added, “Dr. Beirich won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations now.”

“The actions taken by the DOJ will not shake our resolve,” the SPLC told CNN. “We remain steadfast in our fight for justice and in our commitment to ensuring the promise of the Civil Rights movement becomes a reality for all. We are confident in our position and look forward to presenting the evidence and making our case in court.”

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​Southern poverty law center, White supremacists, Nazis, Kash patel, Fbi, Politics 

A woman from Moldova has been stripped of her citizenship after she was discovered to have been involved a business that sexually exploited children.

Tatiana Power gained her U.S. citizenship through the naturalization process but was later convicted of crimes related to a child modeling business.

Power was one of six people who were charged with crimes related to the case, but two of those have died.

Power had been the bookkeeper for Newstar Websites, which recruited children under the guise of modeling, but instead the children were made to engage in sexual conduct for images and videos.

The organization had targeted Moldovan, Ukrainian, and other Eastern European children and then sold the child sex images and videos to customers in more than a hundred countries.

Prosecutors said they produced about 4.6 million videos and images, including children as young as 6 years old.

Some of the children were made to wear transparent underwear, pantyhose and miniskirts, or dress up in cheerleader or police costumes.

Power pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and was sentenced in 2022 to more than 12 years in prison.

On Tuesday, the DOJ said it had also stripped Power of her citizenship.

Power was one of six people who were charged with crimes related to the case, but two of those have died, two others were imprisoned, and one has eluded U.S. custody.

RELATED: Illegal alien allegedly bites 3-year-old’s face in horrifying random attack — DHS blames Biden

The Justice Department said it has filed 123 civil denaturalization complaints, which is the most in U.S. history.

Others who were denaturalized were Narinder Singh of India for identity fraud, Emigdio Sanchez of Mexico for lying about being arrested for domestic abuse, and Yetunde Folake Olaniyi of Nigeria for entering into s sham marriage.

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​Immigration and customs enforcement, Child sex abuse material, Denaturalization, Immigration, Politics 

Age verification legislation has been a hot topic lately, with many states and even federal lawmakers eyeing restrictions that would force users to turn over their IDs to access their smart devices. In an attempt to beat big government to the punch, Google just announced new age limits coming to Android.

Despite the hype, the measure doesn’t have the protective powers its advocates claim.

On the other hand, Google’s approach could be worse.

The worst news is, it won’t satisfy big government, which will likely push for tighter restrictions still.

This isn’t a complete solution for people hoping their digital rights won’t be arbitrarily locked.

Age verification is coming to Android

In late July, Google announced that it is rolling out a way to provide “age-appropriate experiences” for Android users through the Google Play Age Signals API. The feature empowers app developers to add age-based restrictions to their applications. Then parents can go into their child’s phone and mark their child’s age in the device. If the child is a minor, apps that support the API will enable content restrictions accordingly.

The best part is that this solution doesn’t require an identification or biometric authorization from users. Instead, it relies on parental judgement, putting the power in parents’ hands to decide when to restrict their children’s devices instead of relying on government mandates and overreach. It’s exactly what we asked for back in May when we ripped apart the ironically named Parents Decide Act.

But is it enough to appease lawmakers?

Google’s saving grace won’t be enough for big government

Of course it isn’t, but there are some valid reasons why this isn’t a complete solution for people hoping their digital rights won’t be arbitrarily locked behind their state ID.

Fragmented support: The Google Play Age Signals API is optional for developers to add to their apps. As a result, there will be inevitable fragmentation, where some apps support the API while others do not. Without a consistent age-restricted experience across the entire Android platform, lawmakers will declare it to be insufficient and move forward with legislation.Legal proof: Lawmakers have already expressed that self-declared age verification isn’t enough, as parents would effectively do with Google’s API. They need users to legally show proof of age, and right now, that is only possible through IDs.Too little, too late: Age verification bills are already set in motion, with many of them being debated, refined, and set up for votes. Some have already gone into effect, leaving less wiggle room to pull the plug.

Google’s efforts to stop age verification legislation by giving power back to the people is a noble one, and it is worth commending. Unfortunately, the entire bill process is a bullet train barreling down the tracks with no way to stop.

RELATED: Automated cyberattacks are here — careless techies and well-funded foreigners are getting the blame

Moor Studio/Getty Images

It is already in motion, and only lawmakers can stand in the way. That’s why it is important to know which bills are on the table in your area and contact your representatives to let them know what you think. If you value online freedom, privacy, and security, the choice is clear. Contrary to what you have been told, age verification bills do not make users safer.

When will the API be available?

The Google Play Age Signals API is currently being tested in Brazil. Next, it will come to Australia and Canada in mid-August. After that, it will roll out globally by the end of the year. Once available, it will appear in the Google Family Link app for Android, where parents can set it once and let the API control the apps that support it.

The Google Family Link app is compatible with devices running Android 7.0 and up, so older Android phones will inevitably be left out. However, since we’re currently on Android 17, all flagship phones, mid-tier handsets, and even low-end models released within the last decade will have access, making Android an easier platform for parents to control what their kids can see online without the need for heavy-handed legislation from the government up top.

​Tech, Technology 

Kansas police met with a gruesome scene after a man called them to confess killing his four children and their mother before killing himself.

The man called 911 at about 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Winfield Police Chief Robbie DeLong.

Video from a neighbor’s Ring camera showed the man screaming profanities and pacing back and forth just a few days before he killed his family.

About two hours later, police breached the door of the residence in Winfield and found the remains of the five victims and 53-year-old Ronald Williams Sr.

The victims were identified as 44-year-old Kelly George and her four children, 9-year-old Carol Williams, 7-year-old Ronald Williams Jr., 5-year-old Sarah Williams, and 3-year-old Kelly Magee-Williams.

“There was no other indication of any other loss of life, and so standard protocol was to set up a perimeter and start working the incident as a barricade situation,” DeLong said.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jason Diaz said that Williams Sr. appeared to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No other people lived at the home and the public was under no threat, according to police.

Investigators are trying to determine the motive for the murder-suicide by interviewing neighbors.

Some indicated that Williams Sr. had been acting erratically in the months before the incident, and police said they had been at the residence to respond to numerous calls.

RELATED: Hawaii father kills his wife and 3 children then kills himself in state’s 2nd-worst mass killing

“I can’t say that anything would have indicated that we would be where we are today,” said DeLong.

KAKE-TV obtained video from a neighbor’s Ring camera showing the man screaming profanities and pacing back and forth just a few days before he killed his family.

He also had an extensive criminal past and was a registered sex offender.

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​Murder suicide, Family killed, Kansas, Crime 

It wasn’t Washington that made me think about it. It was a quiet drive through Florida.

I had spent several days helping my son unpack after his move to Fishhawk Ranch. Like every mother, I was doing what mothers do: organizing closets, opening boxes, trying to make an unfamiliar place feel like home. From there, I drove north to Brooksville to interview someone for an article.

The most dangerous surveillance system isn’t the one we reject. It’s the one we eventually stop noticing.

Somewhere along that drive, I began noticing them.

Cameras.

One after another. Traffic cameras. Speed-enforcement cameras. License-plate readers mounted on poles. They weren’t hidden. They weren’t pretending not to be there. They stood over the road as casually as streetlights, silently recording the movements of every passing driver.

I caught myself wondering something that should concern every American: When did we decide this was normal?

Not when did governments decide. When did we?

Because I don’t remember anyone asking. I don’t recall a statewide debate. I don’t remember voting to create a society where our daily movements are cataloged, stored, shared, analyzed, and, in many cases, retained long after we’ve gone home.

Somewhere between “it’s just for traffic” and “it’s just for public safety,” America quietly became one of the most surveilled free societies in the world.

And hardly anyone noticed.

The Fourth Amendment wasn’t written because America’s founders feared technology. They feared government.

British authorities used “general warrants” and “writs of assistance,” legal instruments that allowed officials to search broadly without individualized suspicion. Those practices became one of the sparks of the American Revolution.

The Fourth Amendment was a direct rejection of that kind of generalized intrusion. It was not merely about protecting homes. It was about preventing government from searching and tracking people without particularized cause.

Today’s surveillance technology raises a modern version of the same question.

No police department could assign an officer to follow every American every day. A computer can.

RELATED: Flock around and lose your rights

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Across the country, automated license-plate reader systems capture billions of vehicle scans every year. A single observation tells almost nothing. But millions of observations stitched together over months or years can reveal where we worship, whom we visit, what doctors we see, what political meetings we attend, and what causes we support.

One camera watches traffic. A network watches lives.

That distinction matters.

The Supreme Court has already begun recognizing it.

In United States v. Jones (2012), the court ruled that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle’s movements constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment.

Then, in Carpenter v. United States (2018), the court held that police generally need a warrant to obtain historical cell-site location information because prolonged tracking can reveal what Chief Justice John Roberts called the “privacies of life.”

The principle emerging from those cases is straightforward: Technology can change the constitutional analysis. What once would have required hundreds of officers working around the clock can now be accomplished automatically, cheaply, and at enormous scale.

That is why large license plate databases deserve serious scrutiny. Civil liberties groups have challenged warrantless access to them, arguing that mass collection can enable exactly the sort of suspicionless tracking the Fourth Amendment was designed to restrain.

The ACLU has likewise warned that these systems sweep up information about millions of innocent people whose only “crime” is driving to work, church, school, or the grocery store.

Those aren’t fringe lefty concerns.

The issue isn’t the existence of cameras. It is the absence of meaningful limits.

How long is the data kept? Who can search it? Can federal agencies access local databases? Can private companies? Can information collected for one purpose quietly be used for another?

Those questions deserve public answers.

Because history teaches an uncomfortable lesson: Governments rarely surrender surveillance powers voluntarily. They expand them.

RELATED: College student accused of destroying Flock cameras — and the community comes out in droves to defend him

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

That brings me back to Florida.

I recently read proposals to place cameras on municipal garbage trucks to identify possible zoning or code-enforcement violations while they move through neighborhoods.

Supporters see efficiency. Perhaps they are right.

But constitutional government is not built on efficiency alone. It is built on restraint.

Every surveillance tool arrives with a reasonable explanation: traffic safety, crime reduction, code enforcement, public health, national security. Individually, each sounds sensible. Collectively, they can create something the founders would instantly recognize and deeply distrust: a government capable of watching everyone.

Rather than abandon technology, the better answer is to insist that constitutional limits evolve alongside it.

If governments want to deploy large-scale surveillance systems, they should do so through open public debate and legislative approval. They should adopt strict retention limits, require warrants before searching historical movement data except in genuine emergencies, publish regular transparency reports, and impose meaningful penalties for misuse.

Citizens have tools too. Public records laws can reveal contracts with surveillance vendors, data-sharing agreements, retention policies, and audit logs. City council meetings and county commission hearings are often where these systems are approved. State legislatures can require judicial oversight, transparency, and meaningful limits on how surveillance data is collected and used.

Technology should serve a free people. Free people should never quietly become subjects of technology.

The most dangerous surveillance system isn’t the one we reject. It’s the one we eventually stop noticing.

​Opinion & analysis, Flock cameras, Surveillance, Fourth amendment, Civil liberties, Constitution, Supreme court, Transparency, Consent 

The Senate finally voted Saturday to confirm Todd Blanche as President Donald Trump’s new attorney general. Anyone who wants a Justice Department that enforces the law instead of bending it to politics can breathe a little easier.

Blanche is unusually well-suited for the job. He has seen the justice system from both sides — first as a federal prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, then as a defense attorney, including as one of Trump’s lead lawyers during the prosecutions he faced before returning to the White House. Few incoming attorneys general have had a more personal view of what prosecutorial power can become when politics infects the justice system.

Trump’s effort to reform the Justice Department is not complete, but the direction is a stark improvement over what came before.

A new era at the Justice Department has now officially begun, but the turnaround started before Blanche’s confirmation. Speed bumps aside, the direction under Trump’s team is unmistakable: order restored at the southern border, an end to lawfare, and a saner approach to antitrust enforcement. Blanche’s job is not to start that work. It is to finish it.

A timely reminder arrived last week, when the Department of Justice reached a settlement with Paul Vaughn days before Blanche was confirmed.

The Biden Justice Department charged Vaughn, a pro-life father of 11, under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act after he participated in a sit-in at a Tennessee abortion clinic in 2021.

FBI agents staged a predawn raid at his home and arrested him in front of his wife and children. Vaughn ultimately received three years of supervised release and no prison time, but other pro-life defendants were not so lucky.

Lauren Handy was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Jonathan Darnel received 34 months. Seventy-six-year-old Joan Andrews Bell got 27 months, and 75-year-old Paula Harlow received 24 months.

When Harlow’s husband pleaded for leniency because of her age and declining health, the judge replied that she should “make every effort to remain alive” in keeping with “the tenets of your religion.” All four were later pardoned by Trump.

The FACE Act protects access to abortion clinics, but it also protects pregnancy centers and houses of worship. Yet the Biden administration’s aggressive prosecution of pro-life demonstrators contrasted sharply with the much thinner record of prosecutions after extremists firebombed and vandalized pregnancy centers following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Attorney General Merrick Garland once explained the difficulty by noting that many of the attacks happened at night. Apparently darkness is now a federal jurisdictional problem. Good to know. Garland was almost on the Supreme Court.

RELATED: The Biden tapes blow open the autopen scandal

Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images

The pro-life cases were among the most visible abuses of the Garland years, but hardly the only ones. His department drew justified outrage over its treatment of parents protesting school policies; House Republicans later accused the DOJ of having labeled parents as terrorist threats. The FBI also came under fire after an internal memo contemplated cultivating sources in traditionalist Catholic communities — what critics described as a plan to send spies into parishes. And special counsel Jack Smith pursued Trump through the heat of the 2024 campaign.

Even antitrust enforcement became an exercise in questionable priorities. The Justice Department blocked JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines in 2024. Spirit later collapsed, removing a low-fare competitor from an already concentrated airline market. Regulators claimed to be protecting consumers; consumers ended up with one fewer discount carrier.

The Biden administration also moved to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s acquisition of Juniper Networks, a deal the intelligence community reportedly deemed vital to national security. The Trump team ultimately allowed the transaction to proceed, strengthening an American competitor in a market where China’s Huawei remains formidable.

RELATED: The right needs a public defender network for lawfare

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-business, and heedless of national-security concerns: We have seen what happens when partisan priorities seep into the Justice Department. Trump’s effort to reform the Justice Department is not complete, but the direction is a stark improvement over what came before.

And the danger of backsliding is obvious. If a Democrat wins the White House in 2028, expect pressure for an attorney general even more aggressive than Garland. Biden himself reportedly regretted choosing Garland and wished he had listened to advisers who preferred the more partisan Doug Jones. That should tell you something.

Todd Blanche is infinitely preferable. He knows prosecutorial power from both sides of the courtroom, and he has every reason to understand how quickly discretion can become abuse.

The Justice Department does not need revenge. It needs restraint, consistency, and equal treatment under the law. Blanche has the experience — and now the authority — to deliver it.

​Justice department, Opinion & analysis, Todd blanche, Merrick garland, Weaponization, Corruption, Abuse of power, Joe biden, Donald trump, Face act, China 

After Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White preached love, grace, and integrity at a press conference following DiJonai Carrington’s flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham — she quickly reflected the opposite.

“Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. Kindness will win. Then the mask drops,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock comments, before playing a video of the press conference where White addressed the “online community that’s trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist.”

She accused this “community” of “trying to create a fabrication” and “distortion” of who she is and what she’s “about.”

“For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game, I didn’t see the play in real time. I went straight to a press conference,” she explained.

“I thought the play got called right. Thankfully Sophie’s okay. Was it egregious? Absolutely,” she added.

White went on to explain that she takes any suggestions that she doesn’t always have her players’ backs “personally” and “ride[s] with them 10 toes down all the time.”

“The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win,” she said, before reciting an old Michelle Obama quote, “When they go low, we go high.”

“Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. And kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell,” she added.

“That was the love and grace she was talking about. That was the whole production,” Whitlock comments.

“Not a game plan, not accountability. A staged crucifixion where the coach nails herself to the wood and demands you applaud the craftsmanship,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Dijonai carrington, Jason whitlock, Michelle obama, Press conference, Sophie cunningham, Stephanie white, Wnba coach, Indiana fever, Blazetv show 

A Massachusetts teenager used ChatGPT for “ideas” and “fantasies” about “killing his family” — and now the 17-year-old is charged with murdering his mother and brother, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said.

Arjun Aravind of Acton has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a vehicle without authority, and theft of a motor vehicle in connection with the deaths of his 14-year-old brother, Siddharth Aravind, and his 45-year-old mother, Sudha Venkatesan, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Acton Police Chief Douglas Sturniolo.

‘At this time, based on the evidence that was found at the scene, it was apparent that blunt force trauma was used in some fashion on both individuals.’

Acton Police received a call shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday from the suspect’s father, who had been unable to reach his family members and said a tutor who was expected at the family home on Martha Lane was unable to make contact with the residents upon arrival, officials said.

The father last had contact with his wife early Tuesday morning before he left for work, officials said, and his son, Siddharth, was last seen around noon.

Upon entering the home, police found two victims dead, officials said, adding that Siddharth was found on the first floor, and Sudha was found in the finished basement.

Police determined that Arjun was not in the home and that he allegedly fled using his mother’s vehicle, a 2014 Green Honda Accord, officials said.

Investigators attempted to locate Arjun but were not immediately successful and notified law enforcement and members of the public to be on the lookout., officials said.

Early Wednesday morning, police in Wayland found the suspect vehicle with Arjun inside, officials said. Wayland is about 20 minutes south of Acton.

Police took Arjun into custody without incident, officials said.

RELATED: Male, 25, accused of shooting to death his mother, father, brother, and brother’s girlfriend

“The subsequent investigation indicates that Arjun had recently been demonstrating concerning behavior including using the internet and ChatGPT to make searches including for theoretical ideas or fantasies regarding killing his family,” the district attorney’s office added.

The suspect also asked ChatGPT to help create “Gothic novel-kind of stories” and characters, DA Marian Ryan told Boston.com.

Officials said it is alleged that Arjun fatally assaulted his mother and brother inside their home Tuesday before fleeing the scene.

Both victims were “suffering from obvious trauma” but “the exact cause and manner is still pending from the chief medical examiner,” officials said, adding that “what weapon or weapons were used is still actively under investigation.”

Arjun Aravind was wearing handcuffs Thursday morning at his arraignment in Concord District Court when a not-guilty plea to murder and other charges was entered on his behalf, WBZ-TV reported, adding that he is being held without bail.

The station, citing court documents, said Aravind’s father recently became worried about his son’s behavior and internet activity and had started hiding the knives in the house.

“At this time, based on the evidence that was found at the scene, it was apparent that blunt force trauma was used in some fashion on both individuals,” Prosecutor Susan Wiseman said Thursday, according to WBZ, adding that it was a “physical and violent struggle.”

The station reported that Wiseman also indicated that when police found Arjun at 3:40 a.m. in his mother’s car, “a number of items were found in that car that correspond to the murder scene.”

WBZ added that after the arraignment, Arjun’s defense attorney Debra DeWitt told reporters that when her client “left the house he did not realize they were dead, so he is, in my words, in somewhat of a shock situation.”

“The father just wants help for his son,” DeWitt said, according to the station, adding that Arjun has not spoken with his father since the murders.

The suspect is due back in court for a probable cause hearing on Sept. 11, WBZ reported.

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected after publication to note that Wayland is 20 minutes, not 20 miles, south of Acton.

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​Murder, Massachusetts, Acton, Teenager, Killing family, Chat gpt, Arrest, Crime 

Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, a lesbian who claims to be Catholic, signed legislation this week liberalizing abortion while surrounded by progressive women celebrating the right to murder their healthy babies up till birth. To conservatives who rightly regard late-term abortion as the killing of a viable child, the scene was grotesque.

It also illustrated a political asymmetry conservatives rarely discuss.

A civilization where men and women are constantly at odds with each other is doomed.

Endless ink has been spilled and countless podcasts recorded about the radicalization of young men on the right. Almost nobody in conservative media wants to address the equally serious radicalization of young women toward the progressive left.

There has been plenty of controversy in conservative circles about young men embracing nihilistic or extremist politics online. Rod Dreher, among others, has warned about young conservative men drifting toward figures such as Nick Fuentes and adopting a politics of resentment and despair.

That’s fine as far as it goes, but it does not answer the larger question. Even if Dreher is right about one cohort of men, it does not follow that young men are uniquely radicalized, or even that they represent the larger political problem. Conservatives should be capable of noticing more than one trend at a time. And the trend among women is impossible to ignore.

Kamala Harris received 53% of the female vote in 2024, while Joe Biden received 54% in 2020. Women are substantially more supportive than men of legal abortion. They are also more likely to regard changing one’s gender as morally acceptable and more likely to say society has not done enough to accommodate transgender people.

The same divide appears on immigration. Women are more likely to support amnesty, oppose ICE deportations, and favor extending legal protections to illegal immigrants.

The divide extends beyond electoral politics. Young women are less likely than young men to say they want children and less likely to prioritize family over professional goals. They are also less likely to express a positive view of capitalism.

None of this means women are a political monolith. Marriage changes voting behavior dramatically. Married women are far more likely to vote Republican and hold traditional views on family and gender.

Race also plays a part.

Ripping on liberal white women is practically a conservative pastime, partly because “white” makes them culturally safe targets. But the voting data complicate the caricature. A majority of white women voted for Trump in 2024, while much smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, and black women did so.

RELATED: Stop ‘owning the libs’ and start owning institutions

Blaze Media Illustration

White women are hardly a uniformly conservative bloc. But they are not the most progressive female constituency either.

Despite the mountain of evidence that females are far more left wing, there will be no books about the dangerous trend of radicalization among young women. There will be plenty of cable-news segments about how social media is poisoning young men. There will be endless concern about podcasts, gaming culture, online masculinity, and the political temptations facing disaffected boys.

Much less energy will be spent asking what TikTok, universities, activist institutions, and elite media have done to the minds of young women.

The reason is simple: Young men are a safe target.

Anyone can denounce them with little institutional risk. A broad criticism of female political behavior, by contrast, can quickly become a career problem. That taboo exists on the right almost as surely as it does on a college campus.

It must be said that this is not an exercise in blanket condemnation of women. The conservative movement is filled with passionate, caring, godly mothers, wives, daughters, and single women who genuinely support the fight for the future of the United States.

A civilization where men and women are constantly at odds with each other is doomed. Breaking men and women out of loving families and turning them into political blocs to be catered to is disastrous for the health of the nation.

South Korea provides a warning about where gender war can lead. Its political divide between young men and women has grown exceptionally wide, with the sexes increasingly supporting very different parties and organizing around competing political identities.

South Korea also has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. That does not prove the political gender divide caused the fertility collapse; housing costs, work culture, marriage patterns, and other factors have played a role. But a society in which men and women increasingly regard one another as political adversaries will have a harder time persuading them to marry, form families, and raise children together.

North Korea, despite being totalitarian and impoverished, has a higher fertility rate than the South. No sane person would therefore prefer living under a communist mad man. The comparison simply shows that prosperity alone cannot guarantee family formation. A wealthy society can still undermine itself if men and women cease to see one another as partners in a common project.

RELATED: Conservatives are blowing the easiest political win in America

Blaze Media Illustration

The basic building block of society is not the individual but the family. In a democracy, when you separate men and women into different constituencies, you fundamentally undermine family formation and create a dangerous antagonism between the sexes.

This is not a call for further politicization. It is a call to recognize the dynamics already playing out in the conservative sphere.

Young men are easy targets, and they should be corrected when they embrace nihilism or extremism. But young women have also shifted sharply left with virtually no comparable attention from the conservative commentariat.

The asymmetry is especially strange because conservatives insist that adults are moral agents responsible for their choices. That principle cannot suddenly disappear when the subject is young women. If progressive politics encourages destructive beliefs about abortion, sex, marriage, family, borders, or economics, conservatives should be willing to say so plainly rather than treating female voters as a protected class.

If conservatives want to be honest about the cultural problems facing the country, they cannot provide moral correction and guidance only to their sons. Their daughters need it too.

We must end the gender wars and encourage unity and family formation in the United States. But doing that will require conservatives to tell some women a phrase they very rarely hear: No.

​Abortion, Young women, Young men, Rod dreher, Nick fuentes, Gender divide, White women, Liberal women, Opinion & analysis, Maura healey 

The original trio of “Matrix” movies are considered some of the greatest of all time, but one of the creators is having trouble with Hollywood accepting his latest idea.

Andy Wachowski, who now goes by Lilly Wachowski, explained that he has been shopping around what he considers to be a great script, but Tinseltown isn’t biting.

‘It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be.’

Gender bender

Wachowski and his brother Larry — who is also transgender and now goes by Lana — were once revered by movie fans for their intense and philosophical plots. Over the years, however, Wachowski has become intrenched in progressive dogma, and the fourth “Matrix” movie that came 18 years after the last barely moved the needle.

During a recent podcast interview, Wachowski revealed that his latest project, “The Hunted,” is having trouble getting off the ground in terms of financing, despite having a very modest projected budget of $10 million.

“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it,” Wachowski told KCRW’s “The Business,” per Variety.

The director then revealed what the obvious reason was: “because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast.”

Wachowski has remained so confident in his script that he hosted a live reading last week to showcase its worthiness. Described by Deadline as a biting political thriller similar to his “V for Vendetta,” “The Hunted” is set in a dystopian America where “trans people are brutalized and erased to the margins of society.”

Deadline further wrote that it focuses on two “trans women” who search for the perpetrator of a heinous crime who ends up being in the highest offices of government.

RELATED: ‘Matrix’ co-creator: ‘Trans rage’ drives my work

L-R: Andy ‘Lilly’ Wachowski and Larry ‘Lana’ Wachowski, 2013. JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images

Rage dump

Wachowski has tapped gay activist/actress Natasha Lyonne as producer and explained that the reading is part of the process of getting more eyeballs on the project.

“I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people,” he continued. “This is a script that was extremely important for me to write.”

Wachowski then described the project as a “response to what is happening in the world for trans people,” revealing it has been a “hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into.”

The project, co-written with his romantic partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, is likely what Wachowski was referring to when he said his “trans rage” has been fueling his work.

This was coupled with a mantra of: “I’m just going to go out and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends,” Wachowski said.

RELATED: ‘X-Men’ writer ‘really happy’ that ‘X2’ was referred to as the ‘gayest film’ — claims the movie was about ‘exclusion’

L-R: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, 1999. Bob Riha Jr./WireImage/Getty Images

Margin call

Adding to his thought process, Wachowski remarked, “It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.”

The recent podcast also included discussion of the filmmaker’s juggling of productions during a gender transition and his nonprofit studio called Anarchists United, which is designed to “showcase marginalized talent.”

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​Matrix, Wachowski, Transgenderism, Entertainment 

In a recent interview on ABC, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was asked about the positions democratic socialists like herself took years ago — and BlazeTV host John Doyle didn’t love her answer.

“Woke 1 was crazy,” she laughed.

AOC went on to point out that while the policy discussions around the beginning of the pandemic were “fruitful,” the “rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”

“Of course, the rhetoric meaning the messaging, the communication style,” Doyle says, “not the policies, not the intentions, just the rhetoric, because they understand that maybe it was a little off-putting to normal Americans and so they want to scale that back.”

“And people, because they’re illiterate, hear that and think that means, ‘Oh, we’re going to stop calling for this kind of stuff,’” he says, pointing out that this was “staged” as AOC has her eye on a much larger office.

“Ocasio-Cortez is widely viewed to be a possible contender in the 2028 presidential primaries for the Democrats. You’ve had DSA-aligned candidates winning primaries left and right,” he explains.

“So the leading face of this progressive left coalition, AOC, is now going to choose to treat peak woke as a kind of closed chapter,” he adds.

But Woke 2 is well underway.

“It’s just going to speak a little bit more softly, but the big stick is very much still present. So what we’re trying to do now is not alienate the public. We’re not trying to shock the public into submission. We’re going to win power first and then implement the same priorities, but we’re going to just put a nice packaging on it,” Doyle says.

“So you know, AOC laughing at ‘Woke 1’ is essentially a PR strategy,” he continues, explaining that this rejection of ‘Woke 1’ is an attempt to give “permission to keep voting for the insanity.”

That insanity still includes defunding the police, feminism, diversity, equity, and inclusion, the mutilation of children, and gender identity madness.

“It’s trying to be less obvious, less obnoxious, but still it is going to advance the same long-term project it has been advancing since the 1960s,” he adds.

Want more from John Doyle?

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​Democratic socialists, Feminism, John doyle, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Aoc, Woke 1, Woke 2, Blazetv show, Dei