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Think back to fourth-grade American history. We learned why the Articles of Confederation failed and why the Constitution replaced them. One major problem was that states struggled to trade with one another and often tried to protect local interests by taxing or restricting goods from other states.

That helps explain why the Constitutional Convention gave Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce in Article I.

The challenge to the machine-gun ban asks more than whether one statute survives. It asks whether the Constitution’s architecture still restrains power at all.

In grade school, the principle sounded straightforward enough. Two centuries of litigation have made it anything but. A basic question still hangs over the Commerce Clause: How much power does it actually give Congress?

Can Congress force you to buy health insurance? Can it stop you from growing wheat in your own garden to bake your own bread? Can it ban you from possessing a firearm?

Not buying a firearm, which plainly involves commerce. Not using one. Just possessing one.

And does the answer change if that firearm happens to be a machine gun?

In 1986, Congress made it illegal “for any person to transfer or possess a machine gun,” with narrow exceptions for military use and for machine guns lawfully possessed before the statute took effect. For everyone else, the ban is absolute.

One might expect Congress to have debated whether the Commerce Clause, or any other constitutional provision, gave legislators the power to ban mere possession of a machine gun. It did not. The only real justification for banning post-1986 machine guns came in a single House floor statement from Rep. William J. Hughes (D-N.J.), the amendment’s sponsor: “I do not know why anyone would object to the banning of machine guns.”

Hughes did not offer a constitutional justification. He simply assumed Congress had the power and never bothered to prove it.

In reality, Congress does not possess a general police power. It cannot create a comprehensive national criminal code simply because it wants to. That authority belongs chiefly to the states. Congress may enact criminal laws only when they rest on one of its few enumerated powers.

That’s the essence of federalism.

RELATED: Want a machine gun? These states might soon make buying one easier

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images

So the real question remains: Does Congress have the power to prohibit mere possession of a machine gun, or does that authority remain with the states and the people?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has confronted the question before, but it has never answered it.

In 1997, the full court, sitting en banc, split evenly in United States v. Kirk. Sixteen of the 17 judges participated, and the court divided straight down the middle. Half concluded that the machine-gun ban exceeded Congress’ Commerce Clause authority. Half disagreed. Because no majority emerged, the district court’s judgment was affirmed by default, and the written opinions carried no precedential force.

Three months later, the court faced the issue again in United States v. Knutson. This time, the panel included three judges who believed Congress did have the power to ban machine guns. They upheld the law. The full court stayed silent, and Knutson remains binding precedent.

Two months ago, Judge Don Willett raised the issue again in a nonbinding concurrence in United States v. Wilson. Willett expressed serious doubt that Congress has constitutional authority to prohibit mere possession of a firearm. He walked through the Supreme Court’s three recognized categories of Commerce Clause authority: the channels of interstate commerce, the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, and activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. Mere possession of a firearm, he concluded, “fits uneasily within any of these categories.”

Willett’s observation gets to the heart of the problem.

If mere possession counts as interstate commerce, or as something Congress may regulate under the Commerce Clause, then federal power no longer has a meaningful limiting principle. Congress can regulate nearly anything, so long as some lawyer can imagine a downstream economic effect.

That is not constitutional government. It is federal power without a boundary.

Now, nearly three decades after Knutson, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Temple Gun Club are prepared to press the issue again. Temple Gun Club is made up of law-abiding citizens who want machine-gun ownership made lawful for their members. The organization is not talking about weapons bought on some national market. It is talking about firearms the members would build themselves by converting guns they already lawfully own, firearms that never entered the stream of interstate commerce.

This case is about more than just machine guns. It is about whether the Commerce Clause still has limits. If Congress may ban possession of an item that was never bought, never sold, never exchanged across state lines, and has no substantial effect on interstate commerce, then Congress can regulate virtually every aspect of human life.

RELATED: When good guys carry, killers lose — and the media looks away

Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/Denver Post/Getty Images

Willett made the point well in Wilson:

Far from viewing this sort of incremental, frog-boiling expansion of federal power as legitimate, the Founding generation saw it as the more insidious threat — a quiet, gradual erosion of liberty rather than a sudden seizure of it.

That’s right. The courts should return to first principles. They should revisit the machine-gun ban and ask the question Congress ducked in 1986: Does “regulate commerce” still mean something limited and intelligible, or has the phrase become a blank check for federal control?

The challenge to the machine-gun ban asks more than whether one statute survives. It asks whether the Constitution’s architecture still restrains power at all — or whether the 10th Amendment has been reduced to a historical footnote.

​Opinion & analysis, Machine gun, Ban, 1986 machine gun ban, Constitution, Commerce clause, Congress, Limited government, Possession, Federal lawsuit, Fifth circuit, Second amendment, Supreme court, William j. hughes, Police power, Federalism 

An illegal alien who’s been deported four times faces upgraded charges now that the elderly Air Force veteran he’s accused of shoving onto subway tracks in New York City earlier this month has died.

Bairon Posada-Hernandez — a Honduran national with 15 prior charges on his record — was initially charged with attempted murder in connection with the incident, the Department of Homeland Security said.

‘I hope he rots in hell.’

However, the New York Daily News, citing court records, reported that charges against the 34-year-old suspect were upgraded to murder Wednesday after the elderly victim who had been on life support recently passed away.

More from the Daily News:

Richard Williams, 83, was waiting on the downtown platform for the F and Q trains at the Lexington Ave.-63rd St. station when he was shoved onto the tracks around 11:30 a.m. on March 8. Moments before, the assailant had pushed a 30-year-old man standing next to Williams onto the tracks as well without saying a word, cops said.

Williams was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell in critical condition, the paper said, adding that his eldest daughter said he wasn’t expected to survive.

“It doesn’t look good,” Debbie Williams told the Daily News from her father’s bedside. Richard Williams died on March 17, the paper said.

Police told the Daily News that the city’s medical examiner attributed Williams’ cause of death to multiple blunt-force injuries.

RELATED: ‘Heinous’ thug accused of shoving 83-year-old military vet onto NYC subway tracks was deported 4 times, charged 15 times: DHS

“I hope he rots in hell,” Debbie Williams said of the suspect, according to the paper.

Posada-Hernandez pleaded not guilty earlier this month; his arraignment on the new charges is scheduled for Monday, the paper said.

The suspect’s attorney Michael Papson told the Daily News his client “vehemently denies these allegations. He’s never been arrested in the state of New York — ever.”

However, Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis had a different take, calling Posada-Hernandez a “heinous” and “serial criminal” who “should never have been able to walk our streets and harm innocent Americans.”

More from DHS:

Posada-Hernandez first entered the country on January 2, 2008, and has been deported four different times, most recently in 2020. He entered illegally a fifth time at an unknown date and location.

The suspect has a lengthy criminal history, including 15 prior charges such as simple assault, domestic violence, obstruction of police, possession of a weapon, drug possession, and aggravated assault.

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​Crime, Bairon posada-hernandez, Department of homeland security, Richard williams, Air force vet, Elderly man, New york city, Subway, Shoved onto subway tracks, Murder charge, Illegal alien, Illegal immigration, Politics 

Buckle up, Boomers and Gen Xers, because I’m going to serve you up some nostalgia bait. Stop at the concession booth to pick up your complimentary rose-colored glasses, and don’t feel shy.

Generation X was born between 1965 and 1980. We are the last generation who experienced the real, physical world the way most humans have experienced it. We came along when generational transitions were gradual. We knew our Boomer parents’ music and movie stars, and we know our Silent Generation grandparents’ music and movie stars. As a kid, I knew who the Andrews Sisters were, and I could sing along because my grandmother played their records.

There will be Slant Six engines running in good health long after I’m dead, just as God intended.

Compare to today: The average Gen Z kid has no idea who Michael Jackson, Madonna, or Lucille Ball are. Starting with Millennials, a chasm opened up between generations. People a generation younger asked who some of the most world-famous stars were when they were working and alive just 20 years earlier.

With Gen Z it’s even starker. They were given digital poison in the form of smartphones in their tender years, and the entire cultural landscape fragmented into a billion bespoke Balkan states.

It’s hard to convince young people that some of the technologies from the bad old world of analog were actually superior to what we have today. They don’t believe that phone calls on copper wire were clear and never dropped (it’s true, though). Hilariously, they think film photography was always blurry and little better at capturing detail than an Impressionist painter.

Well, some of these things were better. And I want them back.

1. Kodachrome film

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

I trained as a photographer in college, and that was going to be my career. But then digital came along. I was in romantic love with the hands-on craft that was film photography. When computers took over, I packed it all away because I was in love with silver gelatin emulsions, not silicon chips.

The loss of Kodachrome color slide film was the worst, and I shed real tears when Kodak pulled the plug. There was no color film in history that reproduced color as well as Kodachrome did; there’s a reason Paul Simon wrote the song. He was right.

Kodachrome was actually a black-and-white film with no built-in dyes like all other color films. Instead it captured the blue, red, and green light on three layers in the film separately. The color dyes were added during the wet chemical processing, and those dyes were richer and more time-stable than ordinary color film. This is why a Kodachrome slide from the 1940s looks like a high-quality photograph taken today — there’s no fading or washed-out colors like many of us see in old color photos in our family albums.

It was also the sharpest film with the highest resolution. A scene taken on Kodachrome was reproduced in such detail that looking at the slide was nearly like looking at real life through a window.

Because you’re reading this on a computer screen, you and I can’t see what the slide “really” looks like. It’s mediated by an electronic screen. But you can still see the rich color and fine detail that no other film could achieve.

2. Three-strip Technicolor

People today talk about bright hues looking like “Technicolor,” but few people understand what that really meant. For decades in Hollywood, the patented Technicolor film process was different from every other color film technology, and it reined supreme. Motion pictures shot in Technicolor were brighter and more vivid than any other process. They made real life look like the Land of Oz.

The quality came at a price. Like Kodachrome, Technicolor used black-and-white film, adding stable, rich color dyes later during processing and printing. This made the shooting process difficult. The film was “slow,” requiring so much light on set that actors sometimes got eye damage. They certainly sweat a lot.

Technicolor cameras ran three separate strips of black-and-white motion picture film through the camera at the same time. A “beam splitter” separated the light into red, green, and blue, directing one color only to each of the three strips of film. The cameras were heavy and needed to be sound-baffled during a shoot.

Striking the final print for projection required precision machines that could line up each of the three strips of film in perfect registration to lay down cyan, yellow, and magenta dyes. It took precision-machining, skill, time, and money. That’s why the process was abandoned when cheaper, easier all-in-one color motion picture film became available.

But that’s also why the Technicolor process was so beloved that songs were written about it. This is from the Technicolor production “Silk Stockings” with Janis Paige singing to Fred Astaire.

3. Air-cooled Volkswagen engines

I went outside to play in 1978 and came upon my stepfather on his knees behind the 1967 beige VW bug that was our family car. “God — son of a *@^%!” he cussed as the engine cranked and cranked and wouldn’t fire up. He was trying to gap the points in the distributor, a job he was never good at. I learned to do it decades later from a classic butch lesbian, and it didn’t seem that hard to me.

My stepdad was doing this because that’s what normal people did in those days. You tuned up your own car. Most dads had a toolset and the know-how to do car maintenance at home. Repairs were less expensive, and you didn’t have to have a computer technician “scan” your engine to figure out what the bloody computer thought was wrong with it.

Sure, the old VWs were simple and had few features. The heaters were so bad that winter driving required an ice scraper for the inside of the windscreen. The bugs were tiny compared to modern cars, but you could get a surprising amount in there if you were clever.

Sure, they were light (some people call them death traps), but that was great when my mother went off a snowy road in Upstate New York, and four boys from the local college fraternity just picked it up out of the ditch and set it back on the road.

I’d give anything to hear that musical, metallic tinkle of the exhaust pipes on America’s roads today.

4. The Chrysler Slant Six engine

If you know, you know. America never built a more durable engine than the famous Chrysler Slant Six. The engine got its name because the designers tilted it 30 degrees to fit the block under the lower, sleeker hoods that became stylish in the early 1960s.

This six-cylinder may not have had the raw horsepower of a big block V8, but it produced a surprising amount of oomph for its size, and it was an engine that never died. If you’ve owned one, you can hear the sewing machine-like purr and tick in your mind.

We had two Slant Six-powered family cars growing up. As an adult, I’ve had a Dodge Dart and a Plymouth Belvedere powered by this motor. There’s no better way to spend an afternoon than adjusting the valves on a Slant Six while it’s running. I miss how easy it was to work on these engines, made in the days when you could move around under the hood and adjust something without taking off 15 components just to get enough room to put a finger in the engine bay.

There will be Slant Six engines running in good health long after I’m dead, just as God intended.

RELATED: My 1966 Plymouth Belvedere let her 225 Slant-6 do the talking

NBC/Getty Images

5. Customer service

This is a social technology that needs to make a comeback. My first jobs as a teenager were running the cash register at a Wegman’s grocery store and bringing burgers to tables at a Big Boy restaurant. Friendly, efficient customer service was mandatory. It was expected by every customer and every employer.

You were to greet customers with a friendly hello and an offer to help. Smiles were either compulsory or strongly encouraged. If a customer needed to find an item, you found it for them and walked them over to the right aisle.

What do you get today when you walk into any retail store? Dead-eyed, silent stares from any staff younger than 35. Need to find a pipe fitting in a big store like Lowe’s? Try asking. You’ll get, “Um … a what? If we had any, they’d be, like, over there,” as “Jonas” waves in a northeasterly direction.

Surprisingly, a young clerk at my local McDonald’s reminded me of the good old days of customer service last week. Like so many places, McDonald’s is making its restaurants hostile to humans. In addition to the ugly, gray, brutalist “updated” architecture, the lobbies are crammed with touch-screen kiosks, while the staffed registers have been reduced to one or two maximum. As recently as 15 years ago, McDonald’s had a reputation for employing staff that were neater, tidier, and friendlier than the competition.

That’s gone now — except for this one young man at my local McD’s. I walked past the kiosks and up to the register, expecting to be ignored for five minutes as is now McDonald’s standard. “Jeff” was about 22. His shirt was tucked in. He was neatly groomed. He smiled at me and said, “Welcome to McDonald’s; how are you today?” He meant it. He was looking me in the eye. I was so pleasantly surprised I thought I was dreaming, and I made a point to thank him for being human and polite.

The other day, I saw this old early ’80s commercial for McDonald’s Shamrock Shake. Take a look, and try not to tear up. If you’re 35 or under, you probably think the chipper and upbeat tone looks “fake.” You may not believe anyone ever acted that way. You might even find this level of cheer “cringe.”

Well, it was like that. I was there. And I want it back.

​Generation x, Kodachrome, Lifestyle, Culture, Technicolor, Chrysler slant six, Cars, Nostalgia, Customer service, Mcdonald’s, Intervention 

America’s newest political battlefield runs through one of the most miserable places in the country: the airport.

Democrats have held up funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid their ongoing war over ICE, and after a month without pay, TSA employees have started refusing to come to work. The result has been crippling delays at major airports, with waits stretching four hours or more and turning an already degraded flying experience into something closer to a public humiliation ritual.

The GOP theoretically holds the levers of power, but in practice it remains terrified of disturbing the status quo.

The brutal truth is that one political party is willing to disrupt travel across the country to protect illegal immigrants and preserve a future voter pipeline. Even after assassination attempts, lawfare against political opponents, and an open push for demographic replacement, conservatives still hesitate to admit that our political battles have become existential.

In theory, the United States remains the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. In practice, basic air travel now is a dysfunctional disaster. Seats are cramped, service is miserable, fellow passengers are often feral, and airlines charge extra for every scrap of convenience in the hope of squeezing one last dollar from exhausted travelers.

For a while, the indignity at least purchased speed. Flying still got you from one place to another faster than anything else. But incompetence, cost-cutting, and crumbling infrastructure have made significant delays routine. Travelers now regularly build an extra day into both ends of a trip because same-day arrival has become an increasingly reckless assumption.

Adding four-hour TSA lines to that ordeal is more than just another inconvenience. It’s simply insulting.

To his credit, President Trump has moved ICE officers into airports to assist with screening. It is less satisfying than watching those officers execute deportation raids, but early signs suggest the move has worked. Atlanta reportedly went from nearly five hours of screening delays to roughly five minutes. ICE officers appear to be in good spirits, and the agency itself seems to be recovering some badly needed public goodwill. Tom Homan has even said ICE agents will continue deportation operations while helping with TSA duties. It is not an ideal arrangement, but Trump has once again found a way to turn executive action into a political win.

RELATED: The right’s only way out of podcast chaos is radical honesty

Blaze Media Illustration

Still, the TSA mess raises a larger strategic question, one that extends well beyond airports.

During the COVID lockdowns, public schools across the country shut their doors. Conservatives had spent years correctly describing government education as a progressive propaganda machine and a patronage network for Democratic clients. Yet when the system buckled, the right did not use the opening to challenge the legitimacy of the whole structure. Republicans begged for schools to reopen as quickly as possible. Faced with a rare chance to dismantle an atrocious institution, conservatives instead demanded a “return to normal.” But normal was already a disaster.

The same pattern now applies to the TSA.

The agency did not even exist before 2001, and it has performed badly almost from the start. Most contraband still gets through screening. The TSA has not stopped a single terrorist attack. Like the public school system, it functions largely as a jobs program for Democrat clients while draining billions from taxpayers and making ordinary life demonstrably worse.

Republicans still act as though enduring a few nasty New York Times editorials is too high a price to pay to save the country.

Rather than using this crisis to argue for dismantling the TSA, Republicans have rushed to prove that it is indispensable. The short-term political benefit is obvious enough. No administration wants to own airport chaos. But every such rescue reinforces a deeper assumption shared by both parties: Any government program, once created, becomes permanent. No one is going to vote himself into a smaller state. The incentives do not allow it. America is far more likely to watch the regime collapse than to see it willingly scale itself back.

That failure of imagination points to a larger problem.

Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the presidency while holding a friendly Supreme Court, yet they still appear terrified to govern. Only Trump, in his early burst of executive orders, showed much appetite for using the moment. Even that momentum slowed once the administration ran into the courts and Congress refused to codify any serious part of the MAGA agenda. The GOP theoretically holds the levers of power, but in practice it remains terrified of disturbing the status quo.

RELATED: The taboo conservatives refuse to confront

Blaze Media Illustration

Democrats behave very differently. Even from a minority position, they are willing to shut down travel across the country for the explicit purpose of keeping illegal immigrants here. Members of the Democratic Party understand that their coalition depends on dissolving the old American nation and distributing its assets to clients in exchange for votes. That agenda is not particularly popular with the historic American population, but it is attractive to new arrivals who did not build the country and feel no inherited obligation toward it.

To remain electorally viable, Democrats need an ever-expanding pool of imported voters dependent on public wealth transfers to cancel out the votes of the native population. If they can replace enough of the country, they can govern it indefinitely. Progressives celebrate that possibility whenever they are not dismissing it as a conspiracy theory.

If one party is willing to grind national air travel to a halt to preserve its electoral advantage while the other will not pass basic legislation for fear of offending someone, the country has a big problem. Trump has pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act to strengthen election integrity and give Republicans a tactical advantage, yet the GOP continues to drag its feet. One party behaves as if politics actually matters. The other behaves as if politics is an embarrassing chore.

Democrats are willing to hold the nation hostage in airport security lines to secure victory. Republicans still act as though enduring a few nasty New York Times editorials is too high a price to pay to save the country. A movement that fears bad press more than national dispossession has surrendered the habits of self-government and forgotten what political power is for.

​Tsa, Air travel, Tsa lines, Gop, Airports, Democrats, Trump, Ice, Covid, Maga, Opinion & analysis, Demographics, Government shutdown, Congress, Mass deportations, Illegal immigration, Immigration and customs enforcement, Illegal aliens 

Wisconsin police were on the smelly trail of a “serial defecator” until the woman was tracked down through the use of a drone and trail cameras.

A viral post from the Stoughton Police Department on Facebook said the drone captured video of the 46-year-old woman on Feb. 5.

In the video published by WISN, the officer reassured her that video of their interaction would not air on television.

“SPD USES DRONE TO ARREST SERIAL DEFECATOR IN CITY PARK,” police wrote in all caps.

An extensive investigation established a defecation pattern early in the morning at the park by use of the cameras and drone. This led to an officer confronting the woman about her illicit and public lavatorial activities.

“After multiple reports of residents finding human feces and used toilet paper in a city park, SPD used trail cameras and a drone to ID and cite the person responsible,” police said.

WISN-TV obtained video of the police officer confronting the woman at 5 a.m.

“Can you come here and talk to me?” he asks her.

“Sure,” she responds.

“Can you look directly above me? See the drone that just caught you going to the bathroom back here?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she responds.

“You’ve been doing this quite a while too,” he says.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” she replies.

The woman said she routinely jogs but was unable to use the portable toilets that were usually available during warmer climes. The officer told her to stop defecating on the trail and gave her a citation.

In the video published by WISN, the officer reassured her that video of their interaction would not air on television.

“I am mortified,” she responded.

RELATED: Officials of ‘Latinx’ LGBTQ+ center are outraged that months-long fecal attacks are not an arrestable offense

Police also responded to concerns that the woman might have been homeless by denying those suspicions.

WISN identified the public defecator as a health professional but would not identify her because she was not charged criminally.

The nurse practitioner will likely have to pay a $187 fine.

Stoughton is a city of about 13K residents located about 20 miles south of Madison.

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​Serial defecator, Defecator on wisconsin trail, Mortified defecator, Video arrest of defecator, Crime 

Another Black Lives Matter activist has been caught committing fraud, and the woman was named a “Bostonian of the Year” in 2020 by the Boston Globe.

Monica Cannon-Grant became a BLM activist after the death of George Floyd and ran a nonprofit organization called “Violence in Boston” that received tens of thousands of taxpayer-funded pandemic relief.

Prior to pleading guilty, Cannon-Grant had blamed ‘white supremacy’ for the fraud allegations.

On Monday, Cannon-Grant was ordered to pay back $224K in funds that she rerouted from the nonprofit to benefit herself personally.

The woman and her husband, Clark Grant, were indicted in the fraud scheme in 2023, but he died from a motorcycle accident two months after they were indicted.

Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to more than a dozen fraud-related charges in Jan. 2026 and was able to escape prison time, though she was sentenced to six months of home confinement, four years of probation, and 100 hours of community service.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said she spent the money on her car insurance, auto loan payments, travel, hotels, gas, food deliveries, restaurants, and nail salons.

Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to the following:

Ten counts of wire fraud;Three counts of wire fraud conspiracy;One count of mail fraud;Two counts of filing false tax returns; andTwo counts of failing to file tax returns.

RELATED: BLM activists in Boston facing even more federal fraud charges

The nonprofit’s stated mission included reducing violence, raising social awareness, and aiding community causes in the Boston area. The organization’s board voted to shut it down after the embezzlement charges.

Prior to pleading guilty, Cannon-Grant had blamed “white supremacy” for the fraud allegations.

“Monica Cannon-Grant’s crimes were not a momentary lapse in judgment — they were a calculated pattern of deception that spanned years,” U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said. “She repeatedly lied to donors, government agencies, and the public, even after being caught — all while presenting herself as a champion for others. Fraud disguised as activism or charity is still fraud.”

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​Monica cannon-grant, Blm activist fraud, Blm scam artists, Politics, Violence in boston nonprofit scam 

The parent companies of two of the most influential social media platforms were hit with a historic loss by a California jury on Wednesday.

While the damages awarded by the jury in the Los Angeles case were negligible for the tech giants, the decision sets a precedent for other potential lawsuits.

‘It’s a resounding verdict.’

The lawsuit was filed by a 20-year-old woman who alleged that the design of the online platforms led to her social media addiction and had a deleterious effect on her mental health.

The defendants included Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok.

Snapchat and TikTok settled with the woman before the trial began, but Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and Google, the parent company of YouTube, were ordered to pay $3 million in damages.

Even more damaging, the jury ruled against the companies, despite the woman admitting that there were other unrelated causes that degraded her mental health.

In comments to Blaze News, economic expert Carol Roth pointed to the stock market reaction to the lawsuit.

“If the platforms are as addictive as the jury seems to believe, then the companies probably don’t have much to worry about in terms of future earnings, as it means their customer base isn’t going anywhere!” she joked.

“But on a more serious note, while the verdict and payout in the Los Angeles case sets a bad precedent for the company and future lawsuits,” she added, “the damages won’t have a material effect at this point on the companies, and the market’s reaction to Meta and Google’s stock price isn’t showing any concern — in fact, in the case of Meta, the damages are lower than some investors expected. The biggest concern may stem from any future regulation pushes that make use of this ruling.”

A spokesperson for Meta said in an email statement to Blaze News that the company “respectfully” disagreed with the verdict and will appeal.

“Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app,” the statement reads. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

RELATED: Blaze News investigates: Online predators are using artificial intelligence to force children into sextortion scams, says digital expert

Fox News legal analyst Josh Ritter, a criminal defense attorney, predicted the case would lead to a wave of lawsuits against the companies.

“It’s huge as far as what it means for all of the other plaintiffs. This is now blood in the water. They now understand that these companies are vulnerable,” Ritter said.

“These arguments work. … It’s a resounding verdict, even though the money itself is probably not a check that’s gonna be all that difficult for these companies to write,” he added.

Worse still for Meta, on Tuesday a jury ordered the company to pay $375 million over a lawsuit brought by the New Mexico state attorney general alleging the company misled users about sexual predators on their platforms.

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​Lawsuit against meta, Lawsuit against google, Mental illness social media addiction, Social media addiction, Politics 

As politics becomes increasingly shaped by social media, mass messaging, and distant institutions, BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre is questioning whether modern societies have simply grown too large to be human.

And author of “The Master and His Emissary” Dr. Iain McGilchrist has an answer for him.

“More and more, our politics is this disembodied understanding. It is the thing fed to us through social media feeds and communicated through advertisements and headlines and these things. People feel like they know more about the world than they’ve ever known,” MacIntyre says.

“In reality, they know not even their neighbor or the issues that they face politically. And so these things have become completely disconnected. To my mind, the way that this is evolving is that we are basically becoming less human in all of our political interactions, making it very difficult for us to then understand the other as human, to understand the society and the world around us,” he continues.

MacIntyre believes this will precede a “collapse in our political systems” that will bring us back “to more of a city-state model.”

“Do you think that we can continue to see these large, you know, super-states expand and continue to lean on this idea that they have some kind of meaningful input from the individuals involved in their citizens, or do you think that ultimately we will have to contract and once again deal with each other at a much more local level when it comes to political organization?” MacIntyre asks McGilchrist.

“I do think we will need to do that very definitely if we’re to survive,” McGilchrist answers.

“We will have to rediscover the virtues of intermediate size,” he continues, pointing out that it may resemble the “downfall of a civilization.”

“But it might actually enable the regeneration of a much better way of life in which we lived with more modest demands on the earth, closer to the earth, cultivating the earth in common with our own community, sharing our lives with them, helping and supporting one another,” he explains.

“That would be a very different one from the one in which we are alien from one another,” he adds.

Want more from Auron MacIntyre?

To enjoy more of this YouTuber and recovering journalist’s commentary on culture and politics, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Aaron macintyre, The auron macintyre show, Iain mcgilchrist, Democracy, Society, Humanity, Philosophy, The master and his emissary 

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Rochester police officers and a Crisis Response Team social worker were called to an apartment in the 1900 block of Ashland Drive Northwest around 9:30 p.m. March 11 on a report that a man was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Officers and social workers arrived and spoke to the man in his apartment, the bureau said, adding that an adult female and multiple children also were present.

The bureau said White ‘grabbed an officer’s firearm during the struggle and pulled the trigger, causing the gun to fire.’

Officers and the social worker noted that the man was acting erratically and paranoid, and they concluded that he possibly was a threat to himself and others, the bureau said.

Authorities decided to place the man — later identified as 47-year-old Cleavon White — on a 72-hour mental health hold and told him he would be transported to a hospital, the bureau said.

RELATED: Police release bodycam video of cop fatally shooting 6’5″ woman who slashed his face, kept advancing despite warnings to stop

Image source: Rochester (Minn.) Police Department bodycam video screenshot

After White refused to go, officers then attempted to take him into custody, the bureau said.

But White resisted and a struggle ensued, the bureau said.

RELATED: Sheriff gave dire public warning after being forced to release ‘very dangerous’ inmate. Turns out his warning was warranted.

Image source: Rochester (Minn.) Police Department bodycam video screenshot

The bureau said White “grabbed an officer’s firearm during the struggle and pulled the trigger, causing the gun to fire.”

Police bodycam video of the incident — which can be viewed here — recorded the moment when the officer shouted, “He’s grabbing my gun!”

Seconds later, another officer fired five shots, according to the bodycam video.

The bureau said the shots struck White, after which officers immediately rendered medical aid until an ambulance arrived and transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In the aftermath of the shooting, someone is heard on the bodycam video asking where the gun is, and someone else — presumably the officer who shouted, “He’s grabbing my gun!” — is heard saying, “It’s still in my holster.”

No officers were injured, the bureau said.

Officer Josiah Duit — who has three years of law enforcement experience — fired his department-issued firearm, the bureau said, adding that the Rochester Police Department placed Duit on critical incident leave.

A March 12 news release from Rochester Police said the then-unidentified man grabbed one officer’s firearm during the struggle, but it did not indicate he pulled the trigger. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension issued it’s report March 17. The police bodycam video was released Wednesday.

The bureau said the Rochester Police Department requested that it investigate the use of force, and the bureau will present its findings without recommendation on charges to the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office for review.

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​Mental health crisis, Bodycam video, Rochester, Minnesota, Police, Police involved shooting, Fatal shooting, Man grabs cop’s gun, 72-hour hold, Resisting officers, Use of force, Minnesota department of public safety’s bureau of criminal apprehension, Crime 

President Donald Trump is praising the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who are helping at airports amid a partial government shutdown and says the public is responding positively.

Long lines at airports have been plaguing travelers since a congressional standoff paused some funding for the Department of Homeland Security, affecting mainly the Transportation Security Administration.

‘They are Great American Patriots, they just happen to have much larger, and harder, muscles than most — which is what they’re supposed to have.’

While the media has tried to scare the public into thinking ICE agents would harass and detain U.S. citizens, other reports say the program has been a success.

“I am so proud of our ICE Patriots! They were unfairly maligned by the Lunatic Democrats for years, and now, at the Airports, in addition to what they are supposed to be doing, they are helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas. They are so proud to be there!” the president wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.

The president went on to say the Democrats’ criticism against ICE has backfired.

“The fact is, they shouldn’t have to do this, but they are rehabbing a fake image given to them by Radical Left Democrat politicians,” he added. “The Public is loving ICE, so the Democrats, unwittingly, did us a favor — They are Great American Patriots, they just happen to have much larger, and harder, muscles than most — which is what they’re supposed to have.”

Democrats have been trying to force Republicans to defund ICE by stalling the funding for DHS, leading Republicans to blame Democrats for the staffing shortages and long lines.

ICE has been sent to 14 U.S. airports to help with the long lines, according to border czar Tom Homan, who added, “If they see criminal activity, just like a law enforcement officer, they should take action.”

“Thank you to ICE for the GREAT job you are doing. America very much appreciates it!” the president concluded.

RELATED: Heroic off-duty ICE officers jump into action to save 4-year-old boy under water in hotel pool for 5 minutes

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The White House has flat-out rejected media reports claiming key players have been cut out of ongoing negotiations with Iran.

Outlets like CNN and the New York Post have reported that Iran does not want to re-enter negotiations with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and that they instead insist on negotiating with Vice President JD Vance. The White House and other sources familiar with the negotiations vehemently pushed back on this characterization, telling Blaze News that only one person has the discretion to decide who is or isn’t involved in peace talks.

‘The whole premise and their sourcing is laughable.’

“President Trump and only President Trump determines who negotiates on behalf of the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Blaze News.

“As the president stated today, Vice President Vance, Secretary [Marco] Rubio, Special Envoy Witkoff, and Mr. Kushner will all be involved.”

RELATED: ‘TOTAL RESOLUTION’: Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Other officials went even further, telling Blaze News that these anonymously sourced articles are just another attempt to quash peace negotiations.

“These stories are utterly false,” a White House official told Blaze News. “This obvious op sourced entirely to anonymous or ‘regional’ sources is clearly a coordinated foreign propaganda campaign meant to undermine the president.”

Another source familiar with the negotiations said the reports are sourced by foreign actors attempting to push their own propaganda about the ongoing Iran war.

RELATED: ‘Insulting and laughable’: Trump administration slams Joe Kent’s resignation protesting Iran strikes

Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images

“CNN and NYPost are using anonymous sources aka sources from other Middle Eastern countries who clearly want to scuttle negotiations to launder foreign propaganda and blatant misinformation,” the source told Blaze News. “The big tell is it’s not even being sourced to the Iranians but other unnamed regional sources who may or may not have a reason to undermine negotiations by peddling this type of laughable fiction.”

“The whole premise and their sourcing is laughable,” the source added. “They’re relying on other countries who may have an interest in quashing any negotiations here.”

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​Donald trump, Karoline leavitt, Jd vance, Marco rubio, Steve witkoff, Jared kushner, Iran, Iran war, Cnn, Nypost, Peace talks, Politics 

As many top figures in the Department of Homeland Security are being replaced, another department has lost a key adviser in the health sector amid a lengthy legal fight.

The New York Times reported that Dr. Robert Malone, who served as the vice chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, has resigned from his position amid a complicated legal fight and recent setbacks.

‘If offered the opportunity to participate in a relaunched ACIP, I will respectfully decline.’

Dr. Malone, an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a strong critic of the COVID pandemic response, resigned shortly after the panel’s existence was thrown into jeopardy by a federal judge in Massachusetts.

The ruling, the New York Times previously reported, struck down several decisions on vaccines made by the panel.

RELATED: ‘Rogue’ Biden judge blocks critical pieces of RFK Jr.’s vaccine reform

Photo by Ben Hendren/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In his decision to halt the panel’s overhaul of the vaccine regulations, Judge Brian Murphy of the District of Massachusetts noted that the panel is supposed to review scientific evidence with “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” according to NYT.

However, the judge wrote, “Unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”

In a series of text messages obtained by Roll Call, Malone said he would not consider rejoining the panel if it were revived after this legal setback: “If offered the opportunity to participate in a relaunched ACIP, I will respectfully decline.”

“Hundreds of hours of uncompensated labor, incredible hate from many quarters, hostile press, internal bickering, weaponized leaking, sabotage,” Malone wrote in another text message, according to Roll Call. “I have better things to do.”

However, there is evidence to suggest that Malone gave much thought to this decision, including another text message that reportedly said, “This was not an impulsive decision.”

Malone also echoed these sentiments publicly on Monday in a social media post, which included the final publication of research he had prepared for the panel. He wrote: “That concludes publication of materials I had prepared for the ACIP COVID and Influenza work groups. I hope y’all find them useful. Please keep in mind that both the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Boston Federal Judge have determined that I am unqualified to serve on the CDC ACIP and contribute to advising the CDC Director on vaccine policy matters.”

“So much for providing hundreds of hours of free labor to serve my country. Truly a fool’s errand,” Malone added.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan serves as chair of the panel. Milhoan and Malone were joined by 13 other voting members on the panel, a handful of ex officio members from different government health agencies, and a number of liaison representatives from other medical institutions.

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​Politics, Robert malone, Dr. robert malone, Cdc, Acip, Advisory committee on immunization practices, Rfk jr, Covid, Vaccines, Federal judge brian murphy, Massachusetts, Kirk milhoan 

Iran won’t be “fixed” by a press conference, a bombing run, or a fantasy about instant regime collapse. If you want a road map for what comes next, look at Northern Italy in 1945 — and the quiet, brutal work that made liberation possible.

The situations share a grim similarity. In Northern Italy, civilians lived under overlapping enemy forces — SS, Waffen-SS, Wehrmacht units, and Italian Fascists — all capable of total control, including public executions at a local commander’s discretion.

America will not administer Iran. Iranians will. US involvement will not morph into open-ended governance or ‘reconstruction’ missions that turn into permanent deployments.

The U.S. Office of Strategic Services began the behind-the-lines effort by building the Committee for the Liberation of Northern Italy — the CLNAI (from its Italian name, Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia) — into a political umbrella that assembled a host of anti-fascist and anti-Nazi groups into something recognizable as a governing alternative.

Then the OSS inserted American and Italian anti-fascist agents, organized reception networks, and helped train and equip partisan formations. By early 1945, OSS Operational Groups and Special Operations parties were raising hell across Northern Italy in an arc from Genoa and Belluno to Ravenna. OSS officer Captain Albert “The Brain” Materazzi kept pressure on by anticipating and parrying German countermoves against individual missions.

As the war ended, the results were uneven: Wehrmacht units often surrendered; SS and Gestapo often did not. The CLNAI declared national liberation on April 25, 1945. A large uprising across Northern Italy forced the surrender of most enemy units; the remainder were killed, captured, or fled.

Even then, stability did not arrive overnight. Italy needed another year before a referendum made it a republic — and many more years before postwar order fully settled.

The point: Liberation is a sequence, not a switch.

What Italy suggests for Iran

Iran already has the raw material for internal change. The question is whether it can be organized, protected, and sustained long enough to become the next government rather than the next massacre.

1) Resistance exists — at scale

It’s obvious that many Iranians are willing to resist the mullahs and their coercive apparatus. The sheer number killed in recent protests — as many as 30,000 — proves that a large demographic has already shown the will to fight the regime.

2) The opposition is diverse — and that’s normal

The resistance contains deep political differences. Some want a return of the shah; others vehemently reject that. Some are Kurds seeking autonomy; others are separatists. But the unifying principle remains the same: ending the clerical regime and its enforcement arms.

3) Not every unit will fold the same way

Some elements of Iran’s security forces may quietly cease hostilities when the regime’s command structure fractures. Hardcore units — especially ideologically driven formations — will resist longer and more violently, like the SS “Werewolf” units after May 1945.

4) Preventing post-conflict starvation

A transition can fail because people get hungry, cold, and desperate faster than a new order can take shape. Keeping the civilian population alive and supplied is strategy, not charity.

What can be done

1) Build an umbrella political alternative

Organize and fund an Iranian resistance umbrella organization capable of acting like a provisional authority: coherent messaging, defined leadership, internal discipline, and a plan for a post-regime state.

2) Reopen information flow

Help the Iranian people communicate beyond regime control. That means smuggling thousands more Starlink communication kits to inform and unify the civilian population.

3) Create protected space for internal organization

Iran’s borders and peripheries are strategically vital. The objective is to give resisting Iranians room to organize, train, coordinate, and survive the fight against the hardcore religious units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, especially the Basij — without turning the effort into an open-ended American occupation.

4) Neutralize Tehran’s remaining leverage

As we have seen, the regime’s last international lever often involves disrupting commerce and energy flows, especially around the Strait of Hormuz. But that can work both ways. The goal should be to reduce Tehran’s capacity to use choke points as blackmail — through sustained maritime security and allied coordination — while keeping escalation controlled.

In recent weeks, U.S. air power suppressed all of Iran’s military sites on Kharg Island, stopping short of sending ground troops to control the island and reopen the Strait.

The U.S. can further counter Iran by “absorbing” whatever drones, missiles, fast-attack boats, mini-subs, and unmanned “suicide skiffs” it has left until the regime runs dry. We don’t need to put our ships and sailors in harm’s way. Instead, we can create a flotilla of “drone sponges,” a screen of decoy tankers loaded only with ballast, to force the IRGC to attack what appear to be hostile targets in the Strait.

With constant airborne surveillance (aided by artificial intelligence), each launch site and its personnel can be immediately and overwhelmingly attacked and reduced. The preferred weapon for these attacks should be Mark 77 Incindigel (not your grandfather’s napalm) because of its destructive potential and psychological effects.

RELATED: Trump acted first — and the ‘experts’ are furious because it worked

Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images

End state

The United States should pursue a defined end state in Iran: the collapse of the regime’s coercive apparatus, the emergence of an Iranian-led governing alternative, and the rapid stabilization of civilian life — without a large-scale U.S. occupation.

This doctrine rests on five commitments.

1) No occupation, no nation-building bureaucracy.

America will not administer Iran. Iranians will. U.S. involvement will not morph into open-ended governance or “reconstruction” missions that turn into permanent deployments.

2) Iranian-led transition, backed by U.S. leverage.

Washington will recognize and support an Iranian resistance umbrella capable of coordinating civil authority, communicating with the public, and negotiating defections from regime institutions. The goal is political consolidation inside Iran, not a U.S.-designed replacement government.

3) Relentless pressure on the regime’s hard-power core.

The campaign will focus on degrading the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and associated internal-security organs until they can no longer sustain repression or organize effective retaliation. The objective is to break the regime’s capacity to rule by fear.

4) Targeted “advise and assist” support, not massed ground forces.

U.S. support will center on intelligence, communications, logistics, training, and limited partner enablement in support of Iranian formations willing to resist. The mission stays narrow: enable Iranians to defeat the regime’s coercive units and secure key nodes long enough for civil authority to take hold.

5) Humanitarian stabilization as a war aim, not an afterthought.

The United States will plan and execute large-scale relief to prevent post-conflict collapse: food, medical supplies, power and water restoration support, and protected corridors for aid delivery. Starvation and infrastructure failure create chaos, empower extremists, and discredit any transition. Stabilization protects the moral legitimacy of the effort and the practical viability of the outcome.

Success looks like this: The regime’s enforcement arms split and lose cohesion; civilian life steadies; an Iranian transitional authority takes control of basic services and internal security; Tehran’s ability to retaliate drops below the level that gives it strategic leverage; and the United States draws down to diplomacy, intelligence cooperation, and humanitarian support — then exits.

​Iran, Iran war, Trump, Antifascist, Oss, Regime change, Tehran, Strait of hormuz, Opinion & analysis, World war ii, Italy, Liberation, Nazis, Drones 

Two leftist members of Congress aim to shut down artificial intelligence data center construction, claiming that such centers destroy jobs and American attention spans.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) announced the proposal Wednesday to pause the creation of AI infrastructure in order to allow Congress enough time to pass more regulations.

‘We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue.’

“AI and robotics are creating the most sweeping technological revolution in the history of humanity,” said Sanders in a statement to Axios. “The scale, scope, and speed of that change is unprecedented. Congress is way behind where it should be in understanding the nature of this revolution and its impacts.”

Many cities have already passed laws against data centers, and some states are considering the same.

In a February interview on MS NOW, Sanders said he was concerned about the effect on young people’s attention spans as well as the possibility that AI will make many jobs obsolete.

“I think we have not a clue. We are totally unprepared for what is coming,” he said at the time.

Opponents of new data centers point to concerns over their massive water and electricity usage, potentially damaging effects from chemicals they produce, as well as quality-of-life issues for nearby residents.

AI defenders respond that in order to maintain its global economic dominance, the U.S. must build up its own AI infrastructure industry.

“We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy, and the future of humanity,” Sanders added. “We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue. The time for action is now.”

RELATED: Citizen outcry blocks a Microsoft data center, making AI an acid test for local government

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania responded immediately, and negatively, to the proposal.

“The emerging chassis of AI must be built by America,” he wrote on social media. “We can put appropriate guardrails in place without handing the win on AI to China. A moratorium is China First.”

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​Data center ban bill, Data center water use, Bernie sanders on ai, Aoc against ai, Politics 

Massachusetts officials are standing by their decision to ban a Catholic couple, who hold biblical views on marriage and sexuality, from fostering children, despite a December policy change that removed the state’s radical gender ideology mandate for caregivers.

Mike and Kitty Burke, long desiring to become parents, applied to become foster parents in 2022 after learning they would not be able to have children on their own.

‘The Commonwealth’s doublespeak is exactly why they are pressing for a clear ruling from the court protecting the freedom of religious families to foster and adopt children.’

Despite the couple successfully completing hours of training, extensive interviews, and a home study, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families denied their request.

The DCF’s Licensing Review Team stated that the Burkes were rejected “based on the couple’s statements/responses regarding placement of children who identified LGBTQIA,” according to the couple’s 2023 federal lawsuit against state officials.

At the time of the denial, Massachusetts foster parent licensing policy required applicant parents to “promote the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of a child placed in his or her care, including supporting and respecting a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”

This policy did not include any exemptions for religious perspectives.

RELATED: Blaze News original: Trump gives willing parents hope by taking aim at anti-Christian bigotry in foster system

Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In December, the DCF issued an emergency amendment that removed the “sexual orientation or gender identity” language in the policy.

The DCF stated that the amendment would “strike the requirement that a foster/pre-adoptive parent or applicant affirm a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity and [replace] it with a requirement that a foster/pre-adoptive parent or applicant affirm a child’s individual identity and needs.”

In a March court filing, Massachusetts officials contended that policy change was irrelevant in the Burkes’ case because their denial was based on the rules in effect at the time. Further, they asserted that the denial “did not violate the Constitution” and was “not hostile to religion.”

Massachusetts officials argued that “the mere fact that the Burkes could not satisfy” the LGBTQ+ requirements, “whether due to their religion or otherwise, does not clearly establish that denying their license application was unconstitutional.”

RELATED: Lawsuit: Massachusetts refuses to allow couple to foster or adopt children because of their Christian faith

Roxbury Department of Children and Families. Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Burkes maintained that the discovery process proved that their religious beliefs were “the only reason for that denial.”

“Mike and Kitty were cautiously hopeful that Massachusetts would finally end its religious discrimination,” Lori Windham, senior counsel for Becket, the law firm representing the Burkes, told Blaze News. “But that hope turned to heartbreak when Massachusetts chose to keep fighting them in court. The Commonwealth’s doublespeak is exactly why they are pressing for a clear ruling from the court protecting the freedom of religious families to foster and adopt children.”

“Mike and Kitty are still open to fostering or adopting children in the future. But Massachusetts has made it harder for them to adopt any child with its discriminatory decision on their record, and that’s why they are asking the court to erase it,” she added.

A decision in the case is expected by the fall, Windham stated.

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​News, Massachusetts, Massachusetts department of children and families, Massachusetts dcf, Lgbt, Gender ideology, Mike and kitty burke, The burkes, Religion, Faith, Catholic, Gender, Sexuality, Foster care, Foster parents, Politics 

Despite signs of renewed interest in faith, a troubling trend is emerging within the American church.

In a recent study by the Family Research Council, it was revealed that the percentage of regular churchgoers who identify as pro-life was only 43% in 2025, after being 63% in 2023.

“That is so unfortunate,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says. “And what happened there, I think, was just the propaganda war after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which happened in the summer of 2022. And it convinced so many people.”

“I know people like this who are Christians who consider themselves pro-life, and they bought into all of these lies that these pro-life laws are causing women to die from miscarriages in emergency rooms. It’s a lie. It’s not true,” she adds, pointing out that any pro-abortion tale spun by the left can be easily debunked.

“If you send me someone who tragically died because of a miscarriage, or because of something that was going on in their pregnancy, I can tell you exactly why the legislation in that state had nothing to do with that person dying,” she explains.

“And you even see these stories from places like California of women dying. I’m like, what does that have to do with pro-life laws, which are nonexistent in the state of California? So much propaganda, but clearly the propaganda works,” she continues.

Stuckey believes that the propaganda is playing on what she’s coined the “toxic empathy” manipulation tactic.

“You tell a really sad story of a mom in distress who didn’t want to have an abortion. She wanted this child, and then she ended up losing her life or she ended up being forced to have a child that died soon after birth. And as women, as moms, that understandably pulls on our heart strings,” she says.

“And then it’s presented in a way that if you just allowed women the choice in these extreme situations, then you could relieve her pain. And if you don’t want to relieve her pain, it’s because you’re selfish. It’s because you’re close-minded and bigoted,” she continues.

“And they never talk about the actual victim of that abortion. … That’s the baby,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, Allie stuckey, Blazetv, Blaze media, Blaze originals, Blaze online, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Pro life, Church, Religion, Pro choice, Propaganda, Toxic empathy, Abortion, Choose life, Christiantity, Conservative, Christian podcast 

NASA announced it is shifting priorities to make sure it meets President Donald Trump’s goals before the end of his term.

The announcement, part of NASA’s “Ignition” event, declared that the space agency is “committed to achieving the near‑impossible once again.”

‘Returning to the moon and building a base will seem pale in comparison.’

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed the agency’s new directive at the event, telling audience members that the new “National Space Policy” includes accelerating preparations for America’s return to the moon.

First, this involves fulfilling missions that will establish an American base on the lunar surface.

“Return to the moon before the end of President Trump’s term, build a moon base, establish an enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space,” Isaacman said.

The administrator added, “If we concentrate NASA’s extraordinary resources on the objectives of the National Space Policy, clear away needless obstacles that impede progress, and unleash the workforce and industrial might of our nation and partners, then returning to the moon and building a base will seem pale in comparison to what we will be capable of accomplishing in the years ahead.”

That’s not all, though. NASA’s plan also includes nuclear-powered space exploration that will see new space helicopters used on Mars.

RELATED: Is real-life ‘Star Wars’ America’s manifest destiny?

NASA said it will launch Space Reactor-1 Freedom, a “nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft,” on a mission to Mars before 2028. Once the craft reaches Mars, it will deploy another craft called Skyfall, which will then drop a group of new space helicopters, called the Ingenuity-class helicopters.

These tissue-box-size helicopters will then explore the surface of the Red Planet.

At the same time, NASA plans to launch a “nuclear-powered octocopter” in 2028, set for arrival at Saturn’s moon Titan in 2034. This will be launched by Dragonfly, which, according to Gadgets 360, is another fully autonomous nuclear-powered craft.

These highly ambitious projects face an already strict timeline, as several of NASA’s current lunar missions are years behind.

RELATED: America’s historic return to the moon suffers ANOTHER setback

NASA’s Artemis II mission, a crewed lunar orbit meant to test landing systems, has already missed its late 2024 window. However, NASA still says it will launch by April 1.

This mission delay has pushed Artemis III to mid-2027. That mission was originally meant to include a lunar landing; it no longer does. That job is left to Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028. Artemis V is meant to be another lunar landing by the end of 2028, which NASA previously said is when it expects to “begin building its moon base.”

The latest plan is set for three phases, with phase one sending “rovers, instruments, and technology demonstrations” to the moon for testing.

Phase two is meant to establish early infrastructure on the surface, with help from Japan’s pressurized rover.

Phase three would reportedly get help from Canada’s Lunar Utility Vehicle and Italy’s “Multi-purpose Habitats” in order to establish a permanent lunar base.

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​Return, Space, Moon, Lunar landing, Mars, Red planet, Moon base, Trump, Nasa, Tech 

As the conflict with Iran stretches into the fourth week and shows little sign of stopping, the United States has reportedly submitted a peace plan to the Iranians. However, the plan has hardly been well-received by the Iranians, whose spokesperson even mocked the United States’ latest actions.

The United States reportedly proposed a 15-point peace plan on Tuesday for the Iranians to consider.

‘Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?’

The New York Post, citing a report from Israel’s Channel 12, gave an outline of the proposed plan. The plan contains 15 points, most of which intend to further proscribe Iran’s nuclear capabilities and its projection of power through proxies in the region. It also demands that the Strait of Hormuz remains open.

The United States and its allies would in return offer assurances to Iran in the rebuilding of the country after peace is agreed to.

RELATED: ‘TOTAL RESOLUTION’: Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Photo by HELMUT FOHRINGER/various sources/AFP via Getty Images.

However, an Iranian spokesperson mocked the United States’ latest offer to negotiate, saying Iran is unwilling to reach an agreement after being fooled by the current administration’s past offers of diplomacy.

According to the Post, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari said on a video shared by the state-run Fars News Agency, “Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever.”

“The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end,” Zolfaghari said.

Zolfaghari reportedly went on, asking, “Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?”

Wednesday morning, Axios reported that Iran has officially rejected the 15-point peace proposal, citing Iran’s English-language Press TV.

An Iranian official reportedly told Press TV that the Iranians see the proposal “as a ploy,” calling the terms “excessive.” The official added that the war would only end “on Tehran’s own terms and timeline.”

Axios, citing Press TV’s report, noted that Iran provided a counterproposal that consists of five conditions:

Complete halting of attacks and assassinations by the U.S. and Israel;The establishment of mechanisms to ensure the war doesn’t resume;Compensation for the damages caused during the war;Halting all U.S. and Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq; andReceiving international recognition and guarantees for Iran’s authority over the Strait of Hormuz.

​Politics, Trump, Trump administration, Iran, Israel, United states, America, Iran peace talks, 15 point plan, Iranians, Lt. col. ebrahim zolfaghari, Press tv, Fars new agency, Pakistan, Shehbaz sharif 

A landmark settlement delivered a blow to the censorship industrial complex that silenced Americans during the COVID era.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) announced Tuesday that Missouri had reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. government in its Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, which accused the Biden administration of violating Americans’ First Amendment rights by directing social media companies to censor speech challenging the government’s COVID messaging.

‘For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours.’

Schmitt filed the lawsuit against the Biden administration while serving as Missouri attorney general, before securing his Senate seat.

The agreement included a 10-year Consent Decree that enforces a narrow permanent injunction on the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The injunction prevents them from threatening social media companies with any form of punishment if those companies fail to remove or suppress content that contains protected speech.

However, this ban applies only to posts made on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube by the specific plaintiffs in the case, including Missouri and Louisiana government officials and agencies acting in their official capacity. It does not extend to other social media networks or content posted by the general public.

“The Parties also agree that government, politicians, media, academics, or anyone else applying labels such as ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ or ‘malinformation’ to speech does not render it constitutionally unprotected,” the agreement reads.

The court must first approve this settlement agreement.

RELATED: BlazeTV’s ‘The Coverup’ exposes how the censorship industrial complex silenced Americans during COVID

Eric Schmitt. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“We just won Missouri v. Biden,” Schmitt wrote in a post on X. “As Missouri’s Attorney General, I sued the Biden regime for brazenly colluding with Big Tech to silence Missouri families — censoring the truth about COVID, the Hunter Biden laptop, the open border, and the 2020 election. They tried to turn Facebook, X, YouTube, and the rest into their private speech police, labeling dissent ‘misinformation’ while they pushed their narrative on the American people.”

Schmitt called the Consent Decree the “first real, operational restraint on the federal censorship machine.”

He explained that it “directly binds the Surgeon General, the CDC, and CISA: no more threats of legal, regulatory, or economic punishment. No more coercion. No more unilateral direction or veto of platform decisions to remove, suppress, deplatform, or algorithmically bury protected speech.”

“For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours. The heartland fought back, and the heartland delivered,” Schmitt concluded.

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Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Benjamin Weingarten, a senior contributor at the Federalist, addressed the victory’s narrow application.

“This decree is limited to the plaintiffs, but as precedent, and practically, its impact may prove orders of magnitude more powerful in protecting disfavored speech,” Weingarten wrote, calling it “a momentous blow for the First Amendment.”

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who had to withdraw as a plaintiff in the case after being appointed by the Trump administration, called the settlement “a huge win for all Americans.”

“Huzzah! The consent decree in Missouri v. Biden is a historic victory for free speech in the US. Though I had to switch to the government side in the case after I became NIH director, I’ve never been more pleased by ‘losing’ in my life,” he wrote.

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Republican senators are launching an investigation into several abortion pill manufacturers to combat the alleged dangers and illegal distribution of these drugs, Blaze News has learned.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, is leading the investigation against “obscure” abortion manufacturers like Draco Laboratories, Evita Solutions, and GenBioPro. Cassidy, who is a physician, slammed these manufacturers for allegedly hiding the harmful reality of taking abortion pills and for allegedly failing to act within basic safety parameters imposed by the Food and Drug Administration.

‘Women deserve real medical care, not drugs dispensed through anonymous websites.’

“Chemical drugmakers profit off killing innocent children while putting mothers’ lives at risk,” Cassidy told Blaze News. “These manufacturers and websites have facilitated the explosion in online sales of these harmful drugs without the regard for women’s health and safety, while opening the door for coercion and abuse.”

“FDA should act within its existing authorities to curb this abuse and immediately reinstate safeguards such as the in-person dispensing requirement.”

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Cassidy, alongside Republican Sens. Steve Daines of Montana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, penned inquiries to the three manufacturers requesting all documents, data, and relevant materials detailing the production and use of these abortion drugs. The lawmakers also alerted the FDA about potential violations.

This investigation also gained the support of prominent pro-life activists like President of National Right to Life Carol Tobias, who said the letters “raise serious and long-overdue questions about whether federal protocols are being followed — and whether women are being put at risk as a result.”

“Women deserve real medical care, not drugs dispensed through anonymous websites with little to no oversight,” Tobias told Blaze News.

“Data show that one in ten women who take abortion pills experience serious complications, yet basic safeguards have been stripped away,” Live Action President Lila Rose told Blaze News. “Women and their children are being put at risk.”

RELATED: ‘Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period’: Sen. Cassidy doubles down on Hyde, abortion pill restrictions

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Activists like Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, also pointed out the alarming rise of abortion drugs in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, potentially putting more women at risk and opening the door for abuse and coercion.

“Abortion numbers are up, not down after Dobbs, driven by mail-order drugs flooding the states without regard for their laws,” Dannenfelser told Blaze News. “We are now at over 1.1 million abortions per year. Companies whose sole source of revenue is abortion drugs — which carry a black box warning — are raking in millions, while their inherently risky, abuse-prone drug sends thousands of women to emergency rooms, enables abusers, systematically kills countless unborn children, and brazenly undermines democratically enacted state protections.”

“Their disregard for even the few remaining safety standards — and the lack of transparency around these secretive entities — is deeply troubling,” Dannenfelser added. “Chairman Cassidy and fellow pro-life senators are boldly confronting this crisis head-on, demanding real accountability and safety for women and girls. It’s time for the FDA to act.”

Draco Laboratories, Evita Solutions, and GenBioPro did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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