Category: blaze media

AI is meant to be the saving grace of the modern age. Proponents say it will unlock new innovations in economic growth, health care, and other industries. On the flip side, it’s also a tool for bad actors to commit digital crimes faster and more efficiently than ever before.

It’s a tension that is now reaching the law, from the courts to Congress. And not a moment too soon.

So far, hundreds of thousands of victims have been affected.

Last month, for instance, Google filed a lawsuit against Chinese scammers accused of targeting “hundreds of thousands of Americans” with financial schemes, all distributed broadly with some help from AI.

As the group’s malicious activities are exposed, you can take some simple actions to start fighting back — while Congress gets moving to ensure we can sweep back the tide of automated scams at scale.

Here’s the scoop.

The lawsuit

According to the civil lawsuit divulged on the Keyword blog by Google, the Mountain View tech giant is going after a cybercriminal group based in China called “Outsider Enterprise.” The entity uses Telegram, a third-party communications app with optional end-to-end encryption that subverts authorities, to share “phishing kits” that recreate official-looking text messages from major companies, all aimed at unsuspecting users. The goal is to trick users into clicking on a link in the messages, which then takes them to a fake copy of popular websites — including Google, YouTube, and government services — before stealing their personal information.

These types of scams are nothing new. Phishing dates back to the 1990s with the advent of AOL. What is new, however, is the breadth and scale of scams that criminals can achieve with AI platforms, like Google Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Claude by Anthropic.

Google claims that “Outsider Enterprise” runs a massive AI-fueled cybercriminal network built around 9,000 fake websites, all siphoning data gleaned from 2.5 million messages sent directly to users in two weeks during May alone.

RELATED: New Senate bill punishes chilling of online speech — if it passes

Bjorn Bakstad/Getty Images

So far, “hundreds of thousands of victims” have been affected, with more than $1 million in estimated losses.

Google lobbies for legislation

To help curb the onslaught of the AI-enabled scams that are likely to emerge in the coming years, Google demands immediate government regulation, with seven bills called out by name on its blog. Note that most of these bills are bipartisan in nature.

National Strategy for Combating Scams Act: This bipartisan bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Derek Schmidt (Kan.), is designed to crack down on financial fraud and improve anti-scam efforts on the state and local levels.Strategic Task Force on Scam Prevention Act: Led by Reps. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) and Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), this bill empowers the DOJ and FTC to create a comprehensive national scam prevention strategy task force to support scam victims.STOP Scams Against Seniors Act: Proposed by Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), STOP holds criminal organizations accountable for targeting older victims.AI Plan Act: Reps. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.). The bill enables the executive branch to devise a plan to protect the U.S.’ financial system and sensitive data from misuse by AI companies and platforms.Stopping Cross-border Attacks and Manipulation Act: This bill by Reps. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) and Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) aims directly at international cybercriminals and foreign scam networks that target American citizens. Artificial Intelligence Public Awareness and Education Campaign Act: Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) proposed a bill that compels the secretary of commerce to educate the public and provide information on the benefits, risks, and prevalence of AI as it applies to the daily lives of everyday Americans.Stop Schemes, Cyber Fraud, Abuse, Manipulation, and Swindles Act: Proposed by Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.), this bill gives the FBI the power to set up an anti-scam task force guided by a standardized system for tracking and investigating criminal groups.

Usually, companies prefer less government regulation over the products they create, so it’s strange to watch Google lobby so adamantly for AI laws that could potentially limit Gemini and its competitors. Still, given the broad impacts of AI on modern life — both good and bad — it’s clear that some regulation is necessary.

How to protect yourself

Most of these bills have a long way to go before they become law. In the meantime, there are some things you can do to protect yourself from Outsider Enterprise and other AI phishing scams:

Approach all texts from unknown senders with suspicion. Major groups, including Google and the government, rarely send official communications via SMS, RCS, or iMessage. Texts claiming otherwise should not be trusted.Flag all potential scam texts as spam within your messaging app. This helps message platform holders tune their algorithms to identify scam texts, alert authorities, and block them from reaching your phone in the first place.Turn on the spam text blocker in your built-in messaging app on iPhone and Android.

Phishing is just one way that AI poses a danger to users. Sophisticated AI platforms, like Claude Mythos by Anthropic, can supposedly hack into some of the most secure systems that protect banks, online accounts, and even government infrastructure. Concerns over AI’s growing capabilities have even caused the Trump administration to enact stronger regulations that give the government early access to frontier models before they are made available to the public. Whether or not this new procedure offers any meaningful protection from AI remains to be seen.

​Tech 

Maryland police said they were surprised to realize the victim of a truck robbery was also the perpetrator of a burglary at the same time.

Jalen Godard, 29, of Odenton called police on Thursday morning to report that someone had stolen his truck at about 5:44 a.m.

‘Don’t you hate it when your car gets stolen while you’re committing a burglary?’

The Howard County Police Dept. posted footage from officers’ body cameras as well as surveillance video from the store.

“Man, someone took my truck,” Godard said to the responding officer, according to footage released.

“Did you leave it here running?” the officer asked.

“I was at McDonald’s,” Godard replied.

The officer realized there had been a burglary report at a Verizon store near the same location of the stolen truck, just a few minutes prior.

Then another piece of evidence linked the two incidents: Blood was found at the robbery scene at the window that had been broken, and the officer noticed blood on Godard’s hands.

“Let me just see your hands real quick. Let me see this hand,” the officer said.

“All right, put your hands behind your back for me,” he adds after inspecting Godard’s hands.

The officer tells Godard that he has blood on his hands, his glasses, and his shirt.

Godard denies being in a Verizon store, but the video shows footage from the store of the crook that looks very much like the suspect.

“So, the gig’s up. It’s whether you want to be honest about stuff or not,” the officer says.

Godard continues denying that he robbed the store, which makes the officer laugh.

“That’s kind of some karma s**t right there, ain’t it?” he says.

“Well, I left the keys in,” Godard replies.

“Yeah, that’s some karma s**t right there, dude!” the officer says.

Godard was charged with burglary, theft, and destruction of property.

RELATED: Cowboys football player says Chargers’ video falsely portrays him as racist

“Don’t you hate it when your car gets stolen while you’re committing a burglary?” the police department wrote on the post with the video.

“Great work by PFC Buchanan connecting the dots to the burglary across the street when this suspect called to report his car was stolen,” the department added. “Karma, indeed.”

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​Body camera footage, Burglary, Karma, Maryland police, Surveillance video, Crime 

The Federal Trade Commission is finally suing the World Professional Association for Transgender Health over sweeping recommendations for pediatric gender medicine that allegedly rested on weak evidence and conjecture.

The action is long overdue.

WPATH’s dishonesty should surprise no one. The organization has openly rejected basic biology.

WPATH has disregarded basic standards of medical honesty for years. Although the complaint was filed only recently, the organization’s indifference to evidence — and to the safety of gender-confused children — has long been apparent.

In 2022, WPATH removed minimum-age recommendations from its standards of care, reportedly under pressure from then-Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a transgender-identifying male.

Thousands of detransitioners now live with the physical and psychological consequences of procedures they underwent as minors. Many of the doctors involved relied on WPATH’s prestige and guidelines to justify interventions children could not fully understand or consent to.

Most doctors are unwilling to risk their licenses by prescribing dangerous drugs or performing irreversible procedures without institutional cover, regardless of their ideological sympathies. Organizations such as WPATH, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics provided that cover.

Holding those institutions accountable could bring down the entire house of cards supporting pediatric gender medicine.

WPATH’s dishonesty should surprise no one. The organization has openly rejected basic biology. In 2024, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that a senior WPATH official denied that sex is binary.

Other reporting revealed that doctors recommending certain drugs to transgender-identifying patients knew the treatments were untested or potentially harmful but continued promoting them in the name of “justice.”

WPATH went so far as to include “eunuch” as a gender identity in draft guidelines published in 2021. It relied in part on material from the Eunuch Archive, a fetish website, to support the inclusion.

The organization suggested that doctors should castrate people who identify as eunuchs because they might otherwise attempt the procedure themselves.

RELATED: The YMCA broke the first rule of summer camp

Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Why should Americans care about an organization few outside medicine had heard of until recently?

Because WPATH’s guidelines became a central source of authority in court cases defending pediatric sex-change procedures.

During 2023 litigation over an Alabama law banning such procedures for minors, opponents repeatedly cited WPATH’s standards to give their case an aura of medical credibility.

A federal judge subpoenaed WPATH’s internal documents concerning the creation of those guidelines. WPATH tried to quash the order, but the judge ruled that the material was of “crucial import” to the litigation.

The resulting documents steadily undermined WPATH’s credibility and helped lay the groundwork for the FTC’s lawsuit.

That judge understood in 2023 what the Trump administration and the FTC understand now: The medical professionals and activists behind WPATH’s guidelines helped create the current regime of pediatric gender medicine.

Calling them to account could become a decisive moment.

The FTC filed its complaint alongside attorneys general from Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas. The consequences could extend far beyond WPATH itself, affecting doctors, hospitals, professional associations, and court cases that relied on its authority.

Most important, the case could begin addressing the institutional failure that allowed so many young men and women to be fast-tracked into procedures they ultimately regret.

​American medical association, Opinion & analysis, Rachel levine, Federal trade commission, Lawsuit, Wpath, Transgender agenda, Detransition, Castration, Biology 

Thomas Jefferson wrote many letters to John Adams about government, liberty, and England’s corruption under King George III. Jefferson once put his disgust plainly: “It has been a strong reason with me for wishing there was an ocean of fire between that island and us.”

Earlier in their political careers, Adams had chosen Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson then penned a sentence that became the greatest line of revolutionary fire ever written, separating freedom from tyranny as clearly as any ocean of fire could.

With one line, the tyranny present throughout human history was turned upside down. Humanity knew real liberty in a new and enduring way.

During the classical era, pharaohs claimed godhood and treated their people as lesser beings, fit only for slavery and submission. Godhood placed the pharaoh and his ministers above the humanity beneath them.

But in the land of Goshen lived the tribes of Israel. Freed by Moses, they came to camp in the shadow of Mount Sinai, where they received the Ten Commandments — the law of God on earth, demanding obedience from kings, priests, and commoners alike.

Centuries later, democracies emerged along the Hellenic coasts of Greece, while the Roman Republic arose on the Italian peninsula. These societies were imperfect but freer than the empires around them.

In Greece, that freedom lasted until Philip II of Macedon devoured the city-states and left an empire to his son Alexander. After conquering Egypt, Alexander demanded to be known as the “son of Amon,” claiming the aura of godhood and exerting a tyranny like that of the pharaohs.

In Rome, the republic endured for nearly 500 years before falling to imperial rule. The Julio-Claudian line eventually produced Caligula, who demanded to be adored as a god in the Temple of Solomon itself. Thus came the tyranny of the Caesars.

In medieval Europe, kings could not claim to be gods. But they could claim to be anointed by God, placing their crowns above ordinary men as surely as the stars appear above the sea.

King John of England ruled through vis et voluntas — force and will. The rapacity of his will and the weakness of his rule led to Magna Carta in 1215, the first great liberating document written in Europe since the Roman Republic.

A descendant of King John, Henry VIII, placed in his own person the powers of king and head of the church. He claimed to rule by divine right. The kings who followed asserted the same claim: that all beneath the sun was beneath them by God’s will.

So it is that the history of humanity is, in large part, the history of tyranny.

Then a descendant of that line, George III, inspired Jefferson’s line of revolutionary fire: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

That sentence means all of us possess the same rights, and no one has a superior right to take them away — no pharaoh, emperor, conqueror, king, queen, or dictator.

RELATED: America’s birth defect did not define our destiny

Stevanovicigor/Getty Images

If our rights are given to us equally by God, then none may rule over us by claiming we are unequal. Among those rights are faith, speech, assembly, and the right to remove from power those who misgovern us.

Thus, our government is our servant — never our master.

By that one line, the tyranny present throughout human history was turned upside down. Humanity knew real liberty in a new and enduring way.

The foremost lesson of history is that tyranny is always with us.

In recent history, the murderous Bolsheviks toppled the 300-year empire of the czars, looted and burned churches, and murdered priests. They knew God would never be a socialist Bolshevik, so they placed themselves above God.

When Hitler came to power, he sought to eradicate the Jewish people, murdering 6 million Jews. He knew that neither the Jews nor God would join the socialist Nazi Party, so he placed himself above God.

In China, Mao Zedong drove the moral center out of his nation through a murderous purge, killing tens of millions of his own people in the name of revolution. Confucius had no place in Mao’s socialist order, so Mao placed himself above God.

Such is tyranny in our own time.

In America today, democratic socialists attack the faith of our Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens. They seek the removal of the Ten Commandments from schools and public squares. They attack Christianity and Western civilization. They insist that our nation under God is evil and must be remade.

It is socialism in America that must be defeated.

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the greatest sentence ever written in the history of freedom, let us hold fast to God, the creator and guarantor of our rights.

Let us hold fast to that line of revolutionary fire with a will of steel — for the sake of all our liberties.

​Thomas jefferson, John adams, Goshen, George iii, Divine right of kings, Democracy, Natural rights, Tyranny, America 250, Socialism, Opinion & analysis 

For years, the New York Times has taken an openly and aggressively progressive stance on immigration — favoring expanded legal immigration, citizenship for illegal immigrants, and asylum protections, while opposing strict enforcement measures like expanded border walls, mass deportations, or reduced refugee admissions.

Anyone who thought otherwise was labeled racist, xenophobic, or a white nationalist.

But it seems one of the Times’ biggest names has begun to backtrack ever so slightly.

Last week, BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo sat down with opinion columnist and podcaster Ezra Klein for an honest conversation about a number of divisive issues, including immigration.

Klein’s surprising comments may be symptomatic of cracks forming in the progressive consensus that treated any hesitation about mass immigration as inherently bigoted.

Reflecting on the interview, Rufo tells co-host Jonathan Keeperman, “I made the argument that it’s totally legitimate to be concerned about rapid, large-scale immigration change.”

To his surprise, Klein didn’t totally disagree.

“In some versions [of white nationalism], … if you have too much of a country not sharing a common heritage, you lose solidarity. In some cases, we’re talking about something much darker than that, right?” Klein contrasted. “There are people who just don’t like the way their community is changing, and there’s the KKK.”

“But would you say someone who is, like, for example, hesitant about rapid, large-scale demographic change is just a kind of 1% white nationalist? Because that would be, like, the majority of the country,” Rufo pressed.

“Yes, I don’t think it is a problem or unfair or even wrong to worry about large-scale, rapid demographic change,” Klein conceded.

Rufo believes this response is indicative of a broader shift.

“A couple years ago, you would not hear a prominent New York Times voice saying that it is totally legitimate, reasonable, and understandable to be concerned about large-scale, rapid demographic change,” he says, noting how the left routinely scorned such fears as byproducts of “the Great Replacement theory” and “KKK-style white supremacy.”

“Is this a concession? Is this going to be the … moderate left’s or the establishment left’s new position moving forward?” he asks.

Keeperman doesn’t believe Klein’s rhetorical concession amounts to much.

“It does not surprise me at all to hear him concede rhetorically that these things matter, that it’s OK to be concerned about … rapid demographic change, to have some concern about national identity,” he tells Rufo. “That is meaningless, however, unless it’s backed up by actual policy preferences that he’s willing to get behind.”

Until the New York Times “[makes] some kind of policy concession that would suggest they are serious about taking this concern to heart,” Keeperman refuses to believe the left is sincerely softening its stance on immigration.

Want more from Rufo & Lomez?

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​Rufo & lomez, Chris rufo, Jonathan keeperman, Ezra klein, New york times, Mass immigration 

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said the congressional oversight committee should investigate the Patriot Front group after its march on the Fourth of July.

Masked members of the white supremacist group marched through Washington, D.C., and at one point were photographed surrounding a black woman on public transit.

‘There are plenty of things that I see that I might personally find offensive, reprehensible, but in America, free speech is allowed.’

On Monday, Luna said the group should finally be investigated.

“What I find odd about Patriot Front is how under Biden they were never investigated,” she wrote in a statement on social media Monday.

“Well funded. Never investigated,” she added. “FBI under Biden looked into Catholics instead. So, looks like [the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform] should do some digging.

About 400 members of the group marched through D.C. on Saturday, and some carried the U.S. flag upside down to signify distress.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended the group’s right to free speech on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Certainly what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with,” Burgum said, “but one of the foundational principles of the United States, which makes democracy messy, is free speech, and there are plenty of things that I see that I might personally find offensive, reprehensible, but in America, free speech is allowed, and this is by the whole spectrum of things.”

RELATED: ‘You have to be completely out of your f**king mind’: Eric Adams rips into Mamdani aide over white supremacist comment

Burgum would not commit to advise President Donald Trump to condemn the demonstration.

Luna is the chair of the committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets.

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​Washington dc, White supremacist, Free speech, Patriot front, Rep anna paulina luna, Politics 

Veteran political strategist Donna Brazile faced fierce criticism after her response to sexual assault allegations against Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Platner has faced a damaging series of scandals, but the latest allegations are leading many Democrats to rescind their endorsements and call for him to step down.

‘He’s got a pattern of abusing women and you’re empathizing with him?’

While Brazile did call for Platner to be replaced, she also said he needed time to heal.

“It’s time for Mr. Platner to step aside and be replaced,” she wrote in a post on social media.

“Platner needs time to heal, focus on his family and well-being. Enough. Enough,” she continued.

Her strange reaction was lambasted by critics online.

“Why does he need ‘time to heal’ from assaulting women?” one user responded.

“So your main concern here is the mental health and well-being of the accused rapist? Interesting you didn’t say anything about his victim,” another reply reads.

“Wait a minute. Platner’s accused of sexual assault, and HE needs ‘time to heal’?? It sounds like he needs time to chill behind bars!” another user said.

“Heal from what? He’s got a pattern of abusing women and you’re empathizing with him?” another user replied.

“The time for Platner to heal will be after his ironically named cellmate Tiny, who is also a sexual reprobate, is done with him,” another user joked.

Politico first reported the allegations of rape by a woman who dated Platner nearly five years ago.

RELATED: ‘Should be nowhere near Congress’: Even ‘The View’ thinks Platner is a TERRIBLE candidate

Platner was also accused of sending sexually explicit messages to women while he was still married to his wife.

If Platner chooses to step down from the campaign, it would severely deflate Democrats’ hopes of wresting away control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans.

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​Democrats, Donna brazile, Graham platner, Rape allegations, Us senate, Politics 

In a massive win for women’s sports, this week the Supreme Court ruled that states have the authority to maintain sports teams based on biological sex — upholding laws in West Virginia and Idaho.

But the decision comes after young girls have already been traumatized.

“It was really her eighth-grade season when things started to get worse. She was coming home increasingly frustrated, telling us about mean and then sexually inappropriate things that this boy was saying to her,” a mother whose daughter was forced to play alongside a boy recalled in an interview.

“One day she came home and told me that he was telling her and other girls to ‘Suck my D-word.’ This was happening frequently during track practice and in the locker room from a boy who was saying he was a girl,” she continued.

“So this was really shocking and alarming to us,” she added.

“What did you do at that point?” the interviewer asked.

“We had a coach reach out to us, actually, that same day to tell us that Adelaia had lost her competition spot to this boy, and she wanted to let us know that she felt it was unfair. So we told her about the inappropriate comments and surprisingly, to us, she said that she had also heard him say many inappropriate things,” the mother replied.

The mother also explained that this boy had been asking the girls for nude photographs during track meets and taking “other inappropriate actions towards boys and girls during the season.”

The coach also had a daughter on the team and told Adelaia’s mother that she was “deeply concerned” but “couldn’t say anything for fear of losing her job.”

“So after this conversation, I was so alarmed. I spoke about it with Adelaia and told her that I felt the situation had become unsafe for her and the other girls. And I’ll never forget, she said to me after that, ‘Mom, that’s not the worst thing PJ has ever said to me,’” the mother explained.

“I just felt sick as I read that he had said to her, ‘I’m going to stick my D-word in your P-word,’” she added.

“My gosh,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says, disturbed.

“They know that he’s doing it, and it doesn’t matter, because heaven forbid they say anything about a boy who identifies as a girl,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

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

​Pat gray, Supreme court, Transgender, Womens sports, Trans, Pat gray unleashed 

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign is in hot water again after new allegations of sexual misconduct were reported Monday. Now his campaign against Susan Collins hangs by a very thin thread.

Platner issued a two-minute video response on Monday afternoon in light of a new report from Politico. In the report a woman, described as someone who once dated Platner, accused him of “sexual assault.”

‘Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.’

In the video, Platner denied the allegations against him, calling them “troubling, serious, and false,” adding that “any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”

The progressive Democrat spent the beginning of the video praising the movement his candidacy built and “the largest volunteer base in the history of Maine politics,” fueled by “a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”

Noting the seriousness of the allegations, however, Platner then made a remark that had some viewers asking questions about the future of his campaign: “So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”

While no definitive statement about the future of his campaign was given in his response, Platner did, however, promise to keep fighting for the base of supporters he amassed over the duration of his campaign.

RELATED: Democrats close ranks around Graham Platner despite string of scandals

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

“On June 9, 154,058 Mainers — the most in primary history — voted to reject a broken politics beholden to Washington and the donor class. They voted for hope, for change, to take back our economy, to take back our power, and to take back our Senate seat,” Platner said in the video.

“Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so,” he added. “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

While Platner is not himself officially a part of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, which has seen some success in recent primaries across the country, his progressive platform may appear to resemble the more radical wing of the party.

While some notable figures have expressed their skepticism of Platner, one Democrat leader has stuck with him through the multiple scandals that have arisen during his campaign.

Steve Guest posted a clip of a press conference earlier this year with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer being asked about Graham Platner and the explanations he has given for the past allegations.

Schumer gave a consistent answer, explicitly saying, “I endorsed Graham Platner,” and said they will defeat Susan Collins and “take back the Senate.” The clip shows Schumer’s apparent preference for Platner over establishment Democrat candidate Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign at the end of April.

Graham Platner handily won the June 9 primary and will face Collins in November, if his campaign continues.

Hours later, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who previously supported Platner’s campaign, released a statement on social media: “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

Blaze News contacted Rep. Ro Khanna and Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) but did not immediately receive a response.

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​Chuck schumer, Democratic socialists of america, Establishment democrats, Graham platner, Janet mills, November election, Sexual misconduct allegations, Video response, Politics 

A Millennial Democrat hoping to dive into the U.S. Senate has abandoned her campaign after damaging posts she made about her constituents resurfaced.

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, 39, announced on Sunday that she was throwing in the towel and endorsing whichever competitor wins the Democratic primary in the pivotal race.

McMorrow called for a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party and said she would continue in that fight.

“I want to be very clear about what this announcement is not. I may be suspending this campaign, but I am not leaving the fight,” McMorrow wrote in a statement on social media.

The Democrat tried to launch the Senate campaign after a speech she gave at the 2024 DNC went viral online, but her campaign was damaged greatly by the resurfaced posts. She had deleted thousands of tweets, but a CNN investigation documented the missing missives.

“I had a dream that the US amicably broke off into The Ring (coasts+Can+Mex+parts Mich/Tex) and Middle America,” she wrote after Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election.

McMorrow, who lived for a time in California, responded positively in another post to a user calling everyone outside California “morons.”

“There are days like these that make me miss California even more,” Morrow responded at the time.

She also appeared to try to cover up posts that contradicted her claim in her book that she moved to Michigan “permanently” in 2014.

In her announcement Sunday, McMorrow called for a change in the leadership of the Democratic Party and said she would continue in that fight.

RELATED: CNN unearths embarrassing deleted tweets from Michigan Democrat running for Senate — it could tank her campaign

“I love this country. I love Michigan. And I love the little girl who waves at me from the window every morning, trusting the grown-ups to leave her a state and a country worth inheriting,” McMorrow wrote about her daughter.

“That’s who I’m fighting for. And I’m not going anywhere,” she added. “I hope you’ll join me.”

The Michigan primary election will be held on August 4.

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​Mallory mcmorrow, Social media, Michigan, Us senate, Politics 

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is demanding that the Trump administration hit Chinese generic drugmakers with new tariffs over their alleged use of Uyghur forced labor, according to a letter exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

Scott, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, sent the letter Monday to Ambassador Jamieson Greer of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative — and he’s naming names.

‘Forced labor practices are categorically unacceptable and create a dynamic in which American workers and manufacturers are undercut.’

He singled out Sinopharm, China’s largest state-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate, as an entity under scrutiny for forced-labor ties in Xinjiang, where China has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs since 2017. The company retains an active pharmaceutical import license in the United States despite the scrutiny.

“Recent reports raise concerns about whether upstream suppliers serving the U.S. generic drug market may abuse Uyghur forced labor,” Scott wrote.

Sinopharm and other Chinese firms, Scott claimed, feed key ingredients into Indian generic drug manufacturers — some of which supply a large share of America’s Medicaid-reimbursed prescriptions.

Scott wrote, “Forced labor practices are categorically unacceptable and create a dynamic in which American workers and manufacturers are undercut by non-viable competitive pricing reliant on the systemic exploitation of human beings.”

Sinopharm and Greer did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Eli Lilly strikes a $3 billion Chinese drug deal

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The senator is calling on USTR to apply its already-proposed Section 301 tariffs to generic drugs and ingredients wherever forced labor or Chinese state subsidies are propping up the market. The rates are currently set at 10% and 12.5%.

But he’s not stopping there. Scott wants an entirely new, higher tariff tier created specifically to punish “the most egregious participants in forced labor use.” He’s also demanding that the drug tariffs hit at the same time as tariffs on every other Chinese good — no carve-outs, no delays.

He says current enforcement doesn’t come close to matching the scale of the problem. Despite the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s presumption that anything made in Xinjiang involves “forced labor,” only one of 43 licensed pharmaceutical companies in the region has actually landed on the UFLPA Entity List.

Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection data shows pharmaceuticals and chemicals are the second-largest category of goods blocked under forced-labor import laws, Scott claimed. More than $19 million in shipments have been denied entry since 2022.

RELATED: Chinese fraudster convicted for ripping off Americans with bogus COVID tests

Jabin Botsford/Washington Post/Getty Images

The tariff push is one of several efforts under way to confront the issue. Separately, other proposals are seeking to restrict taxpayer-funded Medicaid reimbursement for medications whose upstream production relies on forced labor, alongside a push to add significantly more Xinjiang-linked entities to the UFLPA Entity List.

Scott framed the tariff request as part of a much larger pattern of Chinese trade abuse. He pointed to currency manipulation, China’s spot on the USTR’s Priority Watch List for intellectual property theft, its blown commitments under the 2020 Phase One trade deal, and a Chinese mining company’s alleged role covering up a pollution disaster in Zambia.

“China’s reputation as both a trade cheat and a human rights violator remains unparalleled in the global economy,” Scott wrote.

The letter builds on Scott’s broader campaign against America’s reliance on Chinese-linked generic drugs. It follows an October 2025 investigative report he released with Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and the bipartisan Clear Labels Act, which the two introduced in January to force country-of-origin labeling on prescription drugs.

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​Politics, Prescription drugs, Rick scott, Trump administration, Us trade representative, Uyghurs, China 

Immigration isn’t just one issue among many — it’s the issue driving nearly every other political battle in America.

And after the latest Supreme Court ruling to uphold a broad conception of birthright citizenship and reject President Donald Trump’s executive order, BlazeTV host John Doyle is sounding the alarm.

“It’s kind of like if you have cancer for years, and now it’s progressed to stage three. Well, because the cancer’s been around for a while, you actually just have to let it progress to stage four. It would be inconsiderate to the tumor,” Doyle says.

“Don’t you believe in growth for the sake of growth? The ideology of a tumor, it’s completely suicidal,” he continues, explaining that the ruling “has to be defied in some way, very legally, very coolly.”

“And Kavanaugh, though he technically dissented, he did so on a statutory basis, and basically you can’t just overturn this with an executive order; you have to pass legislation to do so,” Doyle says.

“There’s already guys in Congress working to get legislation here, so it’s not the end of everything. And frankly, just going decade to decade, the fact that we even have a president who is willing to challenge this and people occupying Congress, even if in the minority, willing to challenge, I’ll take that as an absolute win,” he continues.

However, Doyle notes that it “doesn’t really matter how it’s done.”

“This is obviously a civilizational threat to us, a threat to the lives of patriots specifically, especially considering travel is far easier now than it was in the 19th century. Anyone can literally just show up here in a day and give birth, secure citizenship,” he says.

“If you are a foreigner, the easiest thing in the world for you to do is to get pregnant and plop out the baby on U.S. soil, and then Amy Coney Barrett will be there to catch it,” he adds.

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​Immigration, John doyle, The blaze, Birthright citizenship, Donald trump, The john doyle show, Brett kavanaugh, Amy coney barrett 

The husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may face charges after he allegedly drove his convertible into a parked car in Napa Valley and drove away Friday.

The Napa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found Paul Pelosi about a quarter of a mile away from the alleged accident with damage to the front of his brown Maserati.

‘Mr. Paul Pelosi has personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle.’

Police said he told them he hit something but was unaware of what caused the damage to his vehicle.

No injuries were reported. A witness saw the crash and called 911 at about 2:30 p.m.

The 86-year-old did not have alcohol in his system, according to police. He was not arrested, and the sheriff’s office recommended a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

Photos of the damage in the case were obtained and published by the New York Post.

The sheriff’s office also said it referred Paul Pelosi to the Department of Motor Vehicles to determine whether he should be allowed to continue driving.

Paul Pelosi previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence in Napa County in 2022. He was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation but served only two days in jail.

A spokesperson for the Pelosis released a brief statement about the hit-and-run report.

“Mr. Paul Pelosi has personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle and assured them that he would take responsibility for the damage to their vehicle,” the spokesperson said. “Speaker Pelosi will not be commenting further on this private matter.”

RELATED: Bodycam footage from the Paul Pelosi attack FINALLY released

Paul Pelosi was also apparently involved in a lethal car accident when he was only 16 years old.

His 19-year-old brother David was killed when Pelosi crashed his sports car near San Mateo in 1957, according to the Daily Mail, citing an article from the San Francisco Examiner in February 1957.

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​Nancy pelosi, Paul pelosi, Driving under the influence, Hit and run, Napa valley, Car accident, Politics 

With just a few months under new leadership in the gaming division, Microsoft is set to perform a significant overhaul of Xbox, including a number of job cuts in the process.

Microsoft’s Xbox is planning some major changes to the company — with some staff reductions starting as soon as Monday — under the new CEO, Asha Sharma.

‘I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI. At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done.’

Bloomberg reported that Xbox plans to lay off 3,200 workers in that division alone. Some 1,600 jobs were reportedly eliminated on Monday, and 1,600 more are planned over the next 12 months.

Planned cuts across Microsoft, including outside Xbox, on Monday amounted to 6,400 employees, according to Bloomberg.

RELATED: Microsoft says business must pay to use its AI — and eyes cheap Chinese model for lowly consumers

Finn Gomez/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

“We are still early on this journey, and there will be more changes ahead; other parts of our business will need to make similar changes,” Chief People Officer Amy Coleman wrote in a memo published on Monday.

In addition to the staff reductions, Xbox is seemingly gearing up to reverse course on several growth initiatives overseen by Sharma’s predecessor, Phil Spencer.

Xbox will reportedly sell or attempt to sell five different studios in the near future, all of which were acquired under Spencer in an attempt to grow the company.

These studios include Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games, with a view to sell a fifth studio based in Lyon, France, that has yet to begin the consultation process to “review potential strategic options.” Bloomberg reported this process will take longer due to strict labor laws in the country.

Sharma wrote that those acquisitions over the past decade “created meaningful value,” but “they did not grow at the pace we expected,” adding that “in a typical year” Xbox was losing 64 cents for every dollar it invested.

Sharma said that the restructuring would affect several internal studios as well, including Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. She emphasized the importance of Mojang (Minecraft) and King (Candy Crush) and added that they would now report directly to her as the two consistent cash cows of the company.

While many employees worry that their jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence, especially in the tech industry, Coleman addressed this issue head-on: “I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI. At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done. Some of the tasks we do every day can now be automated, and that means we all need to keep learning, keep building new skills, and keep adapting as the work evolves.”

This announcement comes just months after Microsoft’s first-ever buyout program for retirement-age employees in the United States. Coleman’s announcement reported that 30% of eligible employees chose to participate in the program. In April, CNBC reported that there were roughly 125,000 U.S. Microsoft employees as of June 2025 and that about 7% of the workforce was eligible for this one-time program.

Assuming these figures are accurate, this program may have bought out up to around 2,600 more employees earlier this year.

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​Ai, Artificial intelligence, Ceo, Microsoft, Tech industry, Workers, Xbox, Politics 

A Democrat is facing fierce blowback for posting his support for the Mexican soccer team in the World Cup.

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona (D) posted photos of himself and his wife in Mexican soccer jerseys along with hundreds of other fans watching the Mexico versus England match on Sunday.

‘You are a fcking disgrace to America.’

“Lots of people out in Tucson to watch Mexico take on England. Tucson and La Rosa sure know how to do the World Cup!” he wrote on the X social media platform.

Many critics responded that it was improper for a politician representing Americans to root for another nation’s team.

“It’s your country’s 250th birthday. Where’s your USA jersey?” said Tricia McLaughlin, the former spokesperson for Homeland Security.

“What a fcking clown. Move to Mexico, asshat,” said former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker.

“Mexico is a huge rival of United States in soccer. Everybody knows this,” read another response. “I don’t know who advised you to put on a Mexican jersey as an American politician but it’s a horrible look.”

“Mark, I say this with all due respect… You are a fcking disgrace to America,” said another detractor.

“You pandering c**t. You’re a US Senator, you can’t be seen wearing the national team jersey of any other country,” said another critic.

Less than two weeks earlier, Kelly basically characterized himself as a lukewarm soccer fan. “I’ll be honest, soccer was never really my thing. But the World Cup is converting me,” he posted on June 25, just before USA’s unsuccessful match against Turkey.

Other Democrats have also been heavily criticized for supporting teams other than Team USA in the World Cup.

RELATED: Dems hoping to blame Trump for World Cup failures forced to switch strategy after success

Kelly’s support didn’t appear to help the Mexican team. Mexico lost 3-2 and was knocked out of the competition by England.

The Democrat is considered one of many possible contenders for the Democratic 2028 presidential nomination, but polling shows he is far behind other candidates.

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The City of Newport Beach in Southern California said police made 402 arrests after “social media posts drew a large influx of juveniles and young adults to the Newport Pier area within a matter of minutes” on July 4.

Officials added that “as the crowd quickly grew into the thousands, dangerous and unlawful behavior escalated, blocking roadways, preventing emergency access and putting families, visitors and first responders at risk.”

‘I’ve lived here 54, 55 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s very sad.’

However, officials said “more than 350 officers responded quickly to restore order, reopen emergency access routes and protect the community.”

KTLA-TV reported that video of the chaos shows hundreds of people in a parking lot along West Balboa Boulevard — and that some were seen fist-fighting while others vandalized property and looted some local businesses, including a grocery store.

In a statement issued Sunday afternoon, Newport Beach officials said a “large group of unruly juveniles and young adults created dangerous conditions” on the Balboa Peninsula during Independence Day celebrations, KTLA noted.

More from the station:

City officials stated that tens of thousands of people were drawn to the community throughout the day, but things didn’t get out of hand until “late in the evening” when social media posts drew a large influx of people to the Newport Pier in a short amount of time.

That verified reports of previous social media posts advertising a “TikTok Takeover” in Newport Beach.

RELATED: Video: 2 female police officers assaulted, injured in July 4 mob attack; guns, spear recovered

“As the crowd rapidly grew, individuals engaged in increasingly dangerous and unlawful behavior, blocking roadways, restricting emergency vehicle access, and throwing explosive mortars, fireworks, and other projectiles at police officers, into densely packed crowds and near families with children,” the city’s statement reads, according to KTLA. “The sudden influx of thousands of people into a confined area within a short period of time created an immediate threat to public safety and required a coordinated regional law enforcement response.”

The gathering was eventually declared an unlawful assembly, and law enforcement worked to restore order, the station said.

One Newport Beach police officer was struck by a mortar, KTLA reported, adding that the officer was treated at the scene and released.

The 402 arrests made between midnight July 3 and 6 a.m. July 5 were more than six times the 60 arrests made during the same period last year, the station said.

Officials said approximately 200 of the arrests involved individuals who refused lawful dispersal orders, while those “responsible for inciting the crowd, engaging in violent, criminal behavior, and threatening public safety” also were taken into custody, KTLA reported.

RELATED: Bodycam video: Thug ambushes, repeatedly stabs Florida deputy. Sheriff’s office reveals what ultimately saved deputy’s life.

A longtime Newport Beach resident spoke to the station Monday morning and said the scene over the holiday weekend was unlike anything he’d experienced before.

“This year was the worst I’ve ever seen,” the resident, named John, told KTLA. “Last year was kind of a little crazy, but this year … was a riot. I’ve lived here 54, 55 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s very sad.”

“Come to the city, please. Come enjoy yourself. … It’s Fourth of July. … Greatest country in the world, right?” he added to the station. “Beautiful beach, the water’s warm, there’s a little bit of surf. … Why wouldn’t you come here? Please come, but please don’t do what you did [this year].”

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​Takeover, Newport beach, California, Police, July 4, Arrests, Vandalism, Fights, Looting, Crime 

The British public and the world at large have been provided with yet more evidence that the U.K. justice system holds whites — white men in particular — to a different standard than virtually every other group.

Damning footage shows a group of six black individuals hectoring a young white man on Broad Street in Birmingham, England, on June 21.

‘The police have lost the benefit of the doubt.’

As the voices grow louder, the individual focus of the mob’s rage — a 20-year-old white man who has been identified as Cody Harper — turns his head to address someone to his left, video shows.

Apparently seizing upon the distraction, a man from the mob dressed in a black jacket makes a cowardly attack from the right, knocking Harper to the ground. The victim of this sneak attack attempts to stand up, but a different coward rushes in, this time punching Harper in the back of the head.

Harper attempts once again to regain his footing — only to be tackled against a nearby wall by a female police officer who was apparently disinterested in the attackers now fleeing the scene.

Disoriented after having been thrown to the ground, then sucker-punched, Harper blindly throws a punch in self-defense — but succeeds only in brushing off the officer’s cap.

The female officer — who failed to identify herself as police — lunges for the Harper’s neck then proceeds to handcuff the victim.

After Harper points out both that “they’re tryin’ to smack me up” and that he was just trying to “go home,” the female officer appears to call him a “dick.”

RELATED: UK cop failures, Sikh killer’s lies in Henry Nowak case are EVEN WORSE than previously disclosed

“You’re under arrest for assault on police,” says the female officer, who — with another female police officer — proceeds to march Harper over to a police car. A male cop then shoves Harper into the police cruiser, and more female cops are later gathered in the area, video shows.

A witness off-camera explains to one of the officers: “Someone clotheslined him, then someone hit him from behind, and that’s when you went in. All I can say in his defense is he probably thought you were one of the attackers at that moment.”

The woman nods comprehendingly and replies, “Right. OK. So someone assaulted him first, right? OK.”

After the footage of this incident went viral online, Birmingham Police said in a July 2 statement, “We are aware of footage showing the arrest of a man after a disorder on Broad Street at 1.30am on 21 June. Officers found a group of men fighting. As the incident was dealt with, an officer was punched. One man was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer.”

In addition to characterizing a violent, seemingly unprovoked mob attack on a single individual as a “fight” and claiming their lady officer was in the right, Birmingham Police implored the public not to share video of the incident — just as police in Northern Ireland asked the public last month not to spread video evidence of a beheading attempt, allegedly by a Sudanese asylum-seeker.

“The incident has been reviewed, and we have no concerns over the officer’s actions and we are satisfied that they were reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances,” the police department said in its July 2 statement. “We would ask that footage is not further shared to allow the legal process to take its course.”

RELATED: ‘Symbol of a country adrift’: White French boy ‘lynched’ by pack of thugs who smiled while filming the murder

British police officers in Birmingham, England. PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images

The official response by police exacerbated the public outrage over the incident, including from lawmakers.

James McMurdock, a Reform UK member of Parliament, wrote, “I can’t let this go unchallenged. That young man was, in my opinion and based on the video below, the clear victim of an assault. The video shows, for reasons that are entirely beyond my comprehension, the officer steaming directly into the victim.”

“The officer made no effort to prevent the attack or apprehend the men who had just administered the violence. What I see in the video is the officer using speed and aggression at the moment of peak danger and confusion against the victim,” continued McMurdock. “The victim then controls himself the moment he realises it is now a police officer attacking him and not one of the multiple men who were attacking him a fraction of a second earlier.”

McMurdock said that Birmingham Police should drop the charges and put questions to the female officer about “why she went for the victim on the ground and not the attackers!”

Robert Jenrick, another member of Parliament for Reform UK, said that “it’s baffling that he was arrested while the two black men who attacked him weren’t.”

In addition to raising concern about “the clear unequal treatment” by the female officer, Jenrick took issue with Birmingham Police’s characterization of the attacks as a “fight.”

“This wouldn’t be a one off incident either. We saw two-tier policing by Hampshire Police when they came to the scene of Henry Nowak. We saw it for decades across the county with the Grooming Gangs that went unpunished,” wrote Jenrick. “The police have lost the benefit of the doubt in the eyes of many. They’ve had enough.”

After similar critiques, the Birmingham Police issued a revised statement on July 3, this time expressing interest in an “assault.” The revised statement refers to the arrest of a “20-year-old man,” presumably Harper, but does not suggest he is the victim of the assault.

‘Our commitment to racial equity means producing equality of policing outcomes.’

“We are carrying out an investigation to identify people involved in an assault in Birmingham city centre,” said Birmingham Police. “We are aware of footage on social media showing the incident before the man is arrested. Recognising that an assault has taken place, we are now carrying out active enquiries to identify those involved.”

Birmingham Police noted further that “although officers were in the area when this assault took place, they were involved in the arrest of another man at the time.”

Cody Harper is set to appear at Birmingham magistrates’ court on July 23.

This incident took place just weeks after Southampton police released bodycam footage showing their two-tiered approach to the scene of the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak.

After fatally stabbing Nowak in an unprovoked attack on Dec. 3, a knife-wielding Sikh named Vickrum Digwa told police that he was the victim of a racist attack.

When police from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary arrived on the scene, they reflexively adopted Digwa’s framing of events and treated Nowak as a racist and a criminal as the teen lay dying — handcuffing him and brushing off his repeated complaints about having been stabbed and being unable to breathe.

The officers instead took a sympathetic approach to Digwa, never once handcuffing him even after discovering Nowak’s stab wounds.

Officers’ approach to Nowak and Harper may be informed, in part, by the anti-racism guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which explicitly calls for treating people differently on the basis of race:

Our commitment to racial equity means producing equality of policing outcomes for people from different ethnic groups by responding to individuals and communities according to their specific needs, circumstances, and experiences, with understanding that these will be racialised and with the aim of reducing harm. It does not mean treating everyone “the same” or being “colour blind” (racial equality).Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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A Google engineer named Justin Poehnelt went viral last week for a tweet that should embarrass everyone in Mountain View. Two months ago, he says, Google fired him for building the Google Workspace CLI, a command-line tool that hit #1 on Hacker News, racked up more than 25,000 GitHub stars, and pulled in thousands of real users in a matter of days. Two days before the company showed him the door, Google announced at its own Cloud Next conference that an official Workspace CLI was on the way.

Read that again. The man built the thing developers were begging for. Google’s response was to fire him and then ship its own version of his idea.

If you want to understand why a company that once defined the cutting edge now seems like a sleepy utility, this is the whole story in miniature.

What he actually built

Quick background for the non-nerds. A CLI, or command-line interface, is just a way to control software by typing commands instead of clicking around a screen. Poehnelt’s tool, gws, let you reach into Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and the rest of Google Workspace from the terminal. More importantly, it was built so that AI agents could do the same thing, with over 40 prebuilt “skills” an agent could call on its own.

These giant companies can coast on momentum for years.

The clever part: It didn’t ship with a fixed menu of commands. It read Google’s own published API directory at runtime and built itself on the fly. So the second Google adds a new capability, the tool already knows about it.

And here’s the part that matters for the “rogue employee” narrative people are pushing: This wasn’t some basement side project. Poehnelt spent nearly seven years at Google on the Workspace Developer Relations team. Building open-source tools on top of Google’s APIs is literally that team’s job. He wasn’t going around the company. He was doing the thing he was hired to do, and he did it better than anyone expected.

The official reason and the real one

So why fire him? The cover story is brand policy. The tool lived under Google’s googleworkspace GitHub account and wore Google’s logo and colors, which made it look like an official product when it technically wasn’t. Legal wanted to know who authorized that.

That’s a real concern, and to be fair to the suits, you can’t have employees slapping the corporate logo on unofficial software. There are liability questions. But a branding problem has an obvious fix that isn’t termination. You change the logo. You add a disclaimer. You move the repo. Companies issue “please update the README” requests a hundred times a day. Nobody loses their career over a color palette.

Poehnelt’s own read, in his own words, is more honest and more damning: “I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn’t specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace.”

There it is. The tool worked too well. It showed, in public, at millions of views, what an AI-agent future for Google Workspace could look like. Some product manager whose road map suddenly looked obsolete didn’t enjoy the spotlight. The man didn’t get fired for breaking a rule. He got fired for being right too early and too loudly.

The irony Google would rather you forget

Here’s the irony: Google exists because two grad students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, hacked together a search engine on Stanford’s network using the school’s resources, without anybody handing them a permission slip. The entire Silicon Valley story runs on exactly the kind of initiative Google just punished. How many startups began in a garage or dorm room?

The company that was built by people who shipped first and asked forgiveness later now fires the people who ship first and ask forgiveness later. It has become the bureaucracy its founders routed around.

RELATED: New lawsuit claims Ring’s smart doorbell spyware is taking photos of millions without their consent

EvgeniyShkolenko/Getty Images

That’s the mark of stagnation: an immune system so twitchy it attacks its own healthy cells, ensuring the safest move inside your company is to build nothing and stay invisible. The stock price doesn’t know it yet, but deep down, you do: You’ve already lost.

This isn’t a one-off

Poehnelt wasn’t the only one to walk. Addy Osmani left around the same time. He’s the longtime Googler who first posted the tool to the world back in March, a guy with 14 years at the company and a real reputation in web development. Poehnelt now calls that post “the tweet that got me fired.”

Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, summed up the mood: “Google fired the guy that made the google workspace cli, because he made the google workspace cli.”

The people capable of building Google’s future increasingly have no reason to build it at Google. They can do it independently, keep the upside, and skip the legal interrogation about logo colors. Poehnelt is already off doing his own thing. The repo he built is still live. Google’s official version is still “coming.” Eventually.

These giant companies can coast on momentum for years. But the rot moves faster: In the small decisions, in the moment a company decides that the man who made something people love is a threat rather than an asset. You can’t buy that kind of initiative back once you have taught your best people that showing it gets them fired.

Google ain’t making more Larry Pages. It would do well to remember how, before it’s too late.

​Tech 

America is in a “living battle for sovereignty and independence,” warns Glenn Beck.

And the stakes are higher than ever. With the Supreme Court’s recent rulings expanding presidential authority over independent agencies while reinforcing core constitutional protections like warrants, the battle lines are now clearly drawn.

“The agencies and the global pressures constantly pushing for more control and nuanced compromises in our founding liberties — it’s got to stop,” Glenn declares.

“Independence was never meant to be negotiated down into something comfortable — never. Freedom is uncomfortable. Freedom was meant to be declared and defended without apology or amendment.”

Glenn recalls the letter John Adams penned on his deathbed to be read at America’s 50th Independence Day celebration. He wrote, “A memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined, in future history, to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.”

“It’s remarkable how the founders understood human nature and what could happen to the United States,” says Glenn.

Not even 100 years later, Woodrow Wilson — a president Glenn pulls no punches about hating — openly denounced the Declaration of Independence, criticizing people who he thought were stuck on the founding principles and resistant to embracing the “progressive” changes he wanted for America.

“[Wilson] completely inverts the Declaration. He says, ‘You don’t have inherent rights until government puts you in a position to claim them,”’ says Glenn. “That is the heart of the disease called progressivism, which is now known as democratic socialism.”

Unlike Wilson, who desperately wanted America to distance itself from the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln revered it as timeless and paramount.

“He wrote that these truths are ‘applicable to all men at all times … that today and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression,”’ Glenn quotes.

He warns, “We can’t assume that this radical idea of freedom will always be embraced by Americans, because we’re losing it now.”

“The fundamental principles of the Declaration are under attack from the left. They want you to forget about it, which makes it so important that you learn it.”

Glenn recalls an iconic John Adams moment from 1826. Shortly before his death, Adams requested that a toast be given in his honor on July 4. The words he wanted were simple: “Independence forever.”

When asked if he wanted to add anything else, Adams replied, “No, not a word.”

“That’s the spirit we need today,” says Glenn.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Woodrow wilson, Abraham lincoln, Declaration of independence, July 4, Independence day 

The onset of America’s 250th birthday should feel like a greater deal than it is.

It should be, in the words of John Adams, “solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

Despite this moment, when Americans are largely feeling down about themselves, the world lately has found itself quite impressed by America.

And yet 2026 has felt lethargic. America250 celebrations have mostly fallen under the radar or become subsumed into larger partisan divides. Even a local America250 lecture at my library devolved into a bully pulpit for a history professor to bark the “1619 Project” at a handful of seniors.

Reid my lips

If anything, there was active antagonism going into the weekend’s celebrations, with former MSNBC host Joy Reid sparking controversy on social media for dismissing the holiday as mournful and a mere “celebration of slave holders who freed themselves.” She continued, “Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn.”

This is even reflected in statistics. Recent YouGov polls have found that the percentage of people who “are proud to be an American” has dropped from 83% in 2024 to 70% last month. That number drops precipitously farther among Democrats (58%), Independents (59%), and those between the ages of 18 and 29 (56%). 40% of respondents say “America’s best days are in its past,” while 62% of Americans do not unconditionally support their country, noting severe “problems in your country” in need of solutions.

Certainly, the ongoing conflicts in Iran, Ukraine, Israel, and Minneapolis have put a damper on the public’s enthusiasm, but there is a creeping disdain at work as well. At a moment when Tucker Carlson, Hasan Piker, Nick Fuentes, and Zohran Mamdani alike have made startling gains attacking the heart of America’s institutional trust and credibility, those who are merely proud to be Americans may often feel alone or ashamed. Patriotism may feel hollow or alienating.

Horseshoe theory

There is a bipartisan consensus among the far right and far left that the status quo must be destroyed and replaced, whether that be by Marxist revolutionaries, white nationalists, or Catholic integralists. And despite their vast variety of opinions and backgrounds, they somehow all have an unhealthy relationship with Israel.

Despite this moment when Americans are largely feeling down about themselves, the world lately has found itself quite impressed by America. The past few weeks have been replete with hundreds of viral clips of World Cup fans flooding into cities like Dallas and Boston, discovering not only the incredible kindness of Americans, but the incredible achievement of the nation we have built. A generation of young people, raised on American movies and shows about how much America sucks, is now discovering that it is a bigger and more beautiful country than they were led to believe.

Americans often benefit from having their story told back to them by people outside America. Whether it is Tocqueville, Chesterton, Rand, Bono, or (God forbid) John Oliver, Americans often find their own story is best freshly told by outsiders or those who have lived outside it, usually because most of us have already forgotten it.

Captain Kirk

In his 1957 book “The American Cause,” the great conservative philosopher Russell Kirk lamented the strange discovery among postwar Americans that a generation of soldiers had just been sent overseas with a startling lack of knowledge about what they were even fighting for. Vichy French soldiers capturing American prisoners in North Africa were “astonished” by how “politically naive” the Americans were.

“For most Frenchmen are passionately interested in political notions; while most Americans … are not,” writes Kirk.

“One reason that the Americans … do not spend much time arguing over theories of politics is that for a very great while nearly all of us have been contented with our society and our form of government. We have not been revolutionaries since 1776 because we have felt that we have enjoyed as good a society as any people reasonably can hope for.”

Kirk warned that this remarkable sign of America’s success was also a danger. A generation freed from the burden of having to reinvent the world would create an ignorant and illiterate generation that lacked any ability to defend itself on first principles, thus making them weakened and vulnerable to all forms of subversion. Particularly in moments of change and confusion, this would create opportunities for anti-American ideologies to run rampant, to “give Americans a bad conscience, and to give the United States a bad reputation in the rest of the world.”

What really creates discontent in the modern age, as in all ages, is confusion and uncertainty. People turn to radical doctrines not necessarily when they are poor, but when they are emotionally and intellectually distraught. When faith in their world is shaken; when old rulers and old forms of government disappear; when profound economic changes alter their modes of livelihood; when the expectation of private and public changes becomes greater than the expectation of private and public continuity; when even the family seems imperiled; when people can no longer live as their ancestors lived before them, but wander bewildered in new ways — then the radical agitator, of one persuasion or another, has a fertile field to cultivate.

America as beacon

President Ronald Reagan famously said in his 1982 Memorial Day speech that America’s national anthem “ends with a question and a challenge. … Does that flag still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” This is a question Americans must answer every generation, because, as he said in a later speech, “Freedom … is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.”

Is America still “a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home”? Will it remain that way? That remains to be seen. But as we find in the wisdom of George Washington, it will only be that way if we want it to be. As biographer James Thomas Flexner writes in his remarkable multi-volume work “Washington: The Indispensible Man,” Washington knew better in the Revolution than to approach the war as a battle of tactics and materials. He approached it rather as one of spirit and mind.

Washington was, indeed, so little the dedicated soldier that he never regarded fighting the enemy as the fundamental means by which the Revolutionary War would be won. He demonstrated again and again his conviction that the crucial battlefields were in the minds of individual Americans. If the majority decided that they would be better off under renewed submission to the Crown, all military efforts to defeat the British would be of as little avail as trying to stop a river that was perpetually flowing. But if the people became staunch supporters of American rights that they would hold steadfast through any emergency, the British might well march their military might into the ocean.

The war for the future of America is a battle over the hearts and minds of people, and if they freely choose to abdicate the American experiment upon the altar of despair and envy, that cannot be helped.

A meaningful effort

However, that does not mean that Americans who care about the fight for American republicanism can rest on their laurels. Nor can we give up hope and assume such an effort is pointless. We cannot take for granted that a generation that has learned most of its American history and civics from “Hamilton” is going to read the “Federalist Papers” and suddenly fall in love with classical liberalism, Judeo-Christian ethics, and the Electoral College.

A meaningful effort to fight the ongoing radicalism of our times is necessary. This necessitates new organizations, new methods, and a renewed effort to instill trust in a mainstream institutional culture that Americans have largely lost trust in. It means teaching people why they should trust their institutions, while institutions put in the effort to make themselves trustworthy. It means outlining the nature of ordered liberty and the free market at a moment when people are confused and scared. We cannot take any of our principals for granted. We must explain them all to people who are hearing them for the first time. And if you’re not sure how, Kirk’s “The American Cause” is a good place to start.

There is still plenty to love about America. It is still a great nation with a great effect on the world. More controversially, though, America is also a good nation. Sadly, Americans are terrible judges of our own character. Even if it takes soccer fans for us to recognize that, there is still hope for us.

​America at 250, Lifestyle, Culture