Category: blaze media

If God has blessed you with children — and the ability to stay home with them — I urge you to consider keeping them home with you as they launch into more formal education.

If you can’t stay home with your kids — well, let’s start there.

All children are best served by spending the bulk of their time with the people who love them the most. Period.

The most common reason given for not being able to stay home is financial. I would challenge you and your spouse, however, to prayerfully and creatively consider ways to make it happen.

I’ve seen many sacrifices made so that a family can live on one income and encourage that to be seriously considered before children come along. That being said, it’s also never too late and always beneficial to change your lifestyle so that you can spend more time at home with your kids, at any age, period. They grow up awfully fast.

And by the way, I think an excellent goal for fathers is to pursue income opportunities that allow him to be home-based too (at least some of the time, at minimum). Your children thrive best with abundant time with both of you.

Financial obstacle … or excuse?

But when it comes to home education, we are usually talking more about moms than dads, so let’s address whether finances are really what’s keeping mom from staying home. A friend of mine, who sacrificed a promising career to stay home with her three-soon-to-be-four children, thinks Christian women should ask themselves where their hearts are when career and home are at odds:

Am I valuing my own career — and my own time — too highly? Am I willing to submit these things to the Lord?Have I not seriously considered staying home, since so many women don’t? Am I willing to be different?Am I willing to sacrifice? Am I willing to prayerfully ask God if I should stay home?

If these questions are asked when a baby is on the way, they may need to be asked again when a child reaches what we deem “school-age.”

Which brings us back to home education, which is the term I prefer over “homeschooling.” That implies we are doing institutional school at home, which further implies that institutional school is the ideal, or at least the norm. I think that’s an idea every responsible parent should challenge, particularly Christian parents.

Like Dorothy said …

There really is no place like home. No institution can match the power of a godly home as a place for children to grow, learn, and thrive. That applies for all of childhood, starting from birth.

All children are best served by spending the bulk of their time with the people who love them the most. Period.

Daycare cannot possibly provide the nurture, attention, and love that new parents can at home. No preschool can do a better job continuing to nurture a child’s individual needs and gifts as well as loving, committed parents.

And although far too many children do get institutionalized practically from birth, at least parents of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers generally have to pay the institution in question, which has the effect of encouraging parents to at least consider staying home with them, at least part of the time.

But once the children hit school-age, the societal expectation is that the stay-at-home parent (usually mom) will finally be able to go back to work, jump back into a career, get some time to herself, etcetera.

No magic switch

However, there is no magic switch that flips when a child turns 5 or 6, negating their need for, and benefit from, being primarily home with engaged, loving parents.

In fact, I would argue that this is the case throughout what we categorize as the elementary school years. Kids up to about age 12 need their home, family, and parents more than they need an institutional school.

So here’s how you can lay the groundwork in your child’s first years so that home education becomes an organic part of your daily life from their earliest days, making the transition to more formal learning at home more natural when the time comes.

RELATED: 6 ways I’m using 2026 to deepen my relationship with God

Heritage Images/Getty Images

Home education 101

Education is what you’re doing from your baby’s first day of life, by the way.

Dictionary definition of “education” — the process of imparting knowledge, skills, and judgment.

Your baby begins to learn about the world primarily through his/her interaction with mom and dad. This is God’s design and why He brings children into the world through families.

He equips you, the parents, with the desire to protect and nurture your baby, which generally involves you learning new skills, rearranging your schedule, and buying some stuff! (And boy, will those three tasks continue to dominate your life!)

As the preschool years unfold and children increasingly become active in your household, the most important thing you can do for them is simple and organic:

Establish your home as a safe, orderly, loving, peaceful, and interesting place.

It is simple — but it takes effort.

We’ll finish with some thoughts to guide you toward each of these goals.

Safe

You are your child’s safety. Your daily presence with them fosters a deep sense of security, which is necessary so they can begin to see that they can separate from you, at times.

This does not mean you can never leave, or use a babysitter, but it is helpful if trusted family members or like-minded close friends live nearby and can be part of this security-building experience. After all, when God placed your child in a family, that included the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etcetera.

A sense of security is also fostered by encouraging children to develop resilience. When they take a tumble, if you see it isn’t serious, a cheerful and calm, “You’re OK!” will send the right message and encourage them to get right back to whatever they were doing. This is not to discourage you from comforting them — on the contrary, comforting and reassuring them that you’re there for them will help them comfort themselves and bounce back more quickly.

There is no such thing, in the baby/toddler/preschool years, as too much time with mom, dad, or other loving family members or friends. When safe and feasible, bring them along for chores and tasks and allow them to “help” as just another form of play — but they are learning all along.

Orderly

Children thrive within boundaries; they want them, they need them, you need them.

Generally keeping to schedules (which change often as babies grow into preschoolers) and generally keeping an orderly environment (they can start helping put toys away at very young ages!) help to foster this sense of order.

Loving

You can’t really express too much affection for each other in a family. Children also need to see that mom and dad love each other. Is this a good place to mention grandparents again? Why yes, it is. Have them come over tonight.

Peaceful

Disagreements arise, but with a little person in the house, strive for a peaceful demeanor. Home should always be a refuge. Yelling is not acceptable, nor are temper tantrums (child or adult).

Interesting

And here is where we finally get to what people think of as “education.” But remember our definition — by providing and modeling safety, order, love, and peace, you already are imparting knowledge, skills, and judgment. That’s the most important “curriculum.”

In part 2, we’ll get into curriculum specifics!

A version of this essay previously appeared at She Speaks Truth.

​Homeschooling, Home education, Christianity, Godly family, Christian living, Education, Parenthood, Faith 

Americans are increasingly being taught to see themselves not as individuals, but as members of demographic groups whose race, sex, or ancestry defines their experiences, beliefs, and even moral standing — and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck has the stories to prove it.

In one example, Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico explained that he has a limited ability to understand the world because of his background and identity as being “white and a male.”

“Now, he offered this as some sort of humility … but notice the mechanism of the claim. The limit isn’t experience or his reading or his choices. The limit is his category. The category of his race and his sex set that is putting the limit and the ceiling on what his mind can reach,” Glenn comments.

“Think about how racist that is. If I said, you know, Talarico, let’s say he was African-American and I said, you know, ‘Well, his imagination is limited because he’s black.’ I mean, that’s clearly racist, right?” he asks.

Another story Glenn cites is Joy Reid discussing the fourth of July.

“She’s not excited about it. What a surprise. She said, ‘Black Americans are not excited about the 4th of July.’ That to black America, Independence Day is Juneteenth,” Glenn explains.

“Most Americans had no idea, most black Americans had no idea what Juneteenth was until recently. But I don’t want to argue this. I want you to look at the shape of the sentence here. She didn’t say, ‘I feel this way.’ She said, ‘Black people are not excited,’” he says.

“So there’s one holiday for one category and another holiday for another category. The nation’s birthday has to be sorted by skin. Hold on to that,” he adds.

And now a church in Virginia, which was a historically mostly white congregation generations ago, hosted a black walking tour — which was a slave trail through Richmond.

The point of the tour was to confront and atone for that history.

“Watch what’s being atoned for and by whom. Not the men who did it, because they’re two centuries dead. The living are doing the penance for an inheritance of guilt — guilt assigned by not anything they did, but by the group they were born into,” Glenn says.

“You cannot create categories over individuals. When the man becomes his race or his disability or whatever over who he is as an individual, there’s trouble on the horizon. The citizen who becomes his demographic before he becomes an American. The believer then inherits guilt by bloodline rather than by his own deeds,” he continues.

“In every single case, the individual has disappeared and the group steps forward to stand in its place,” he adds.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Glenn beck, James talarico, Joy reid, Juneteenth, Race, Virginia, Fourth of july, Slavery, The glenn beck program 

An NFL doctor sees all sorts of injuries in the world’s top athletes, with one physician pointing to a new, scary trend that is taking hold of the sports world.

Experts are now saying that the body cannot take what modern athletes are now routinely putting themselves through, and unfortunately, it’s not slowing down.

‘It can be a big moneymaker.’

The trend is an ever-growing level of exposure to sports, starting at a young age, that has resulted in near-insurmountable recurring body trauma. Dr. Brad Bellard, a team physician for the Denver Broncos, says he and others are constantly trying to adapt to devastating injuries popping up in young athletes.

“I don’t see it changing any time soon. We’re working around it,” Bellard told Blaze News.

The level of consistent competition children are engaging in through youth sports is aging their bodies at a rate never before seen, Bellard revealed.

“Right now in my clinic, I have patients who are 15 years old whose patellar tendon, which is very important in terms of being able to jump, is worn out, probably to the level of [an] NBA veteran,” the physician explained.

Year-round sports and the so-called “youth sports industrial complex” have created an ecosystem that Bellard says is driven by both profit and an inability to tell young athletes when enough is enough.

“Just follow the money. Right?” Bellard explained. “It can be a big moneymaker.”

The doctor continued, “As long as the incentive is to get the people playing as much as they possibly can, it’s gonna be tough. And that’s just me being very real.”

RELATED: The ‘youth sports industrial complex’ is destroying young bodies — NFL doctor speaks out

Dennis Grombkowski/Bongarts/Getty Images

Physicians are focused on educating coaches, parents, and athletes at every turn these days, while encouraging youngsters to play a variety of different sports and utilize different workouts. These efforts are accomplishing only so much, Bellard revealed, which is why so many are now screaming from the rooftops about young ballplayers overworking their muscles, ligaments, and joints.

“That’s the best we got so far,” he revealed.

These problems should be dealt with at the youth level, but as Dr. Bellard explained, there is a whole new set of issues once an athlete does make it to the pro level. Not only are modern athletes more likely to come into the pros with serious knee, shoulder, ankle, or other problems that weren’t nearly as prevalent in the past, there exists the issue of telling a superstar that sheer iron will cannot save him from injury.

Blaze News asked Bellard about legendary former NBA forward Dennis Rodman and how he was able to make a career out of partying every night while not missing a step when it came to game time.

RELATED: MLB says warning Christian players was a mistake — but confirms 2 teams are allowed to push Pride propaganda

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

With five NBA championships, Bellard said Rodman is an example of an athlete new pros look at and say he “was able to do this,” so why can’t I?

Despite Rodman’s “suboptimal training techniques,” Bellard said while laughing, his “off-the-court activities” proved he was an exception, not the rule. This is a concept that many players are having a trouble grasping.

For every seemingly cartilage-less player Bellard has seen who can still inexplicably jump into the rafters, there are dozens of examples of athletes who can’t perform through such injuries.

Bellard said he does feel some personal responsibility when he can’t help athletes achieve their goals, but he believes it is his job to keep echoing how they can try to avoid such devastating damage.

“It means something to me to be able to help these athletes achieve their goals, get back to the field of play,” Bellard said candidly. “I’d say it’s somewhat tough whenever they can’t.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Fearless, News, Nfl, Nba, Sports 

Why can’t America seem to get “created equal” right?

It’s our national creed. It’s our DNA. Yet here we are, heading into America’s 250th year, and “We the People” still does not include all the people.

I was conceived in rape but adopted into a diverse family of 15 with nine other adopted siblings.

I just want to clarify the language to avoid ambiguity. Every human is a person; every person is a human. All of us begin life at fertilization. Every compromise on personhood has always resulted in discrimination, destruction, and death.

Give me liberty

Most of us are familiar with Patrick Henry’s famous 1775 speech, in particular this passage:

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Henry’s words became the rallying cry for what would soon become the American Revolution; yet his fiery eloquence was belied by his own denial of liberty to those he enslaved. This is what a soul compromised looks like.

In a letter responding to a Quaker abolitionist challenging him on his hypocrisy, Henry answered in a pathetic yet painfully honest way:

“Would anyone believe that I am master of slaves by my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I will not — I cannot justify it, however culpable my conduct … I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be afforded to abolish this lamentable evil.”

Choosing evil

Isn’t this exactly where our culture is? We know killing our own children via elective abortion is a lamentable evil, but our society is drawn to the convenience of it all. It cannot be justified. Someone else — the innocent and defenseless unborn child — should pay for the ease of my existence!

The Supreme Court had an opportunity to correct half a century of a supremely wrong decision. The nation’s highest court finally overturned Roe in the historic Dobbs decision on June 24, 2022, declaring there is no constitutional right to abortion.

There were many reasons why I rejoiced over Dobbs. I was conceived in rape but adopted into a diverse family of 15 with nine other adopted siblings. I married an incredibly resilient woman, single mother to a child the biological father had pressured her to abort. Two of my four kids were adopted. My new book and documentary, “Should Have Been Aborted,” detail this journey of a life many say should never have been lived.

RELATED: The pro-life movement won Roe — so why is it losing the war?

Blaze Media

Words of humility

Tragically, in a judicial compromise, the court promptly allowed states to decide on who gets to live and who gets to die. Life is not a states’ rights issue any more than slavery, women’s suffrage, or racial discrimination. Imagine a modern-day patchwork of state-by-state laws allowing varying levels of chattel slavery, unequal voting rights by gender, and codified racism. This is what we currently have with abortion.

The Declaration of Independence reminds us that our most fundamental rights are not granted by a morally inconsistent government. The most powerful nation on earth began with these words of humility: “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 among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Are we a happier nation after depriving ourselves of 67 million members of our posterity?

Failure to defend

Despite a Republican-led administration and Congress, the failure to defend life continues. After initially defunding Planned Parenthood for 10 years, the GOP caved. The final version of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act only defunded the corrupt abortion wing of the Democratic Party for one measly year, which expires on July 4.

Recently, when asked by a reporter about where his administration stood on extending the defunding of Planned Parenthood, President Trump kind of shrugged it off as a “thorny issue.” (Although Trump has implemented tremendous pro-life policies, his conflicting abortion rhetoric is antithetical to a pro-life worldview.) There is no current federal bill even being considered that bans abortion.

Comprise kills the justice millions deserve.

The GOP used to be led by a faction called “Radical Republicans,” who fought uncompromisingly for the erasure of the evil institution of slavery. Today, they’re led by “Rickety Republicans,” who often fail to put up a fight against Planned Parenthood and the evil institution of baby killing.

If conviction doesn’t drive you, compromise inevitably will. America’s children deserve better.

​America at 250, Culture, Dobbs, Roe v. wade, Abortion, Patrick henry, Defending life 

A 23-year-old suspect allegedly left tire marks on his elderly victim’s head after running her over in front of her husband during a purse-snatching incident.

Prosecutors say that Ali Hcaimi had a pattern of targeting elderly people for robberies but was caught after the lethal incident on Saturday at about 2:45 p.m. in the city of Glendale.

‘He ran her over from head to toe. There were tire marks on her head.’

Hcaimi approached the couple near their home on 59th Avenue and interacted with the woman before grabbing her purse. She struggled with him before he drove over the victim in his vehicle.

She was transported to a hospital, where she later died.

“He ran over the elderly female victim in front of her husband, who had to witness this event,” said a prosecutor in court. “He ran her over from head to toe. There were tire marks on her head.”

Prosecutors said Hcaimi had robbed another elderly woman just five days previously.

They said the man followed a woman home from the bank and stole $5,000 she had withdrawn. He ran off with the money in her purse, which also had her medications. The purse and the medications were later found discarded.

“He had an MO here where he was preying upon elderly victims who really cannot defend themselves adequately against him,” said a prosecutor.

The suspect initially spoke in English when he appeared at the Maricopa County Superior Court before requesting an Arabic interpreter.

Through the interpreter, he claimed he had a mental or psychological issue that would be aggravated if he were ordered to detention in a closed place or room.

“Perhaps maybe the best option is to put me, uh, if possible, to be held in custody somehow at home, my mother’s home or something,” he said through the interpreter. “I can be put on a leg on my belt on my feet or something, and I can promise that I won’t leave home at all.”

The judge denied the request and gave Hcaimi a $1.25 million cash-only bond along with other release restrictions.

RELATED: Man lethally stabbed elderly victim in the neck targeted him because he was a pedophile: cops

He faces a felony first-degree murder charge as well as felony robbery for one case and another felony robbery charge for the second case.

Hcaimi was described by the media as an “Arizona man” despite suspicion that he might be a migrant due to his interpreter request.

A neighbor said that the couple had just moved to Florida and were back at the home to pick up some of their belongings. He added that hazmat workers had to clean up the streaks of blood in the street left in the attack.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Elderly victim, Purse snatching, Arabic interpreter, Murder charges, Crime 

On a recent episode of the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast hosted by former Canadian journalists Travis Dhanraj and Karman Wong, longtime conservative commentator Tucker Carlson dropped a major announcement: He’s withdrawing his support for the GOP.

“There’s no chance I would support the Republican Party. Not going to support the Democratic Party. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he stated bluntly, citing his frustration with what he believes is the party putting a foreign country’s interests above America’s.

“I’m out, and if I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out,” he added.

When he heard Carlson’s announcement, Glenn Beck issued a warning to both Washington Republicans and conservative voters.

Addressing Republican politicians, Glenn scolds, “I told you this would happen. For years, I have said this. I said the day would come when your own people would stop defending you, when their loyalty would run out, when ‘the other side is worse’ doesn’t work anymore.”

Widespread disaffection “is here,” he warns.

MAGA, Glenn argues, isn’t just about Trump. It’s about commonsense policies and national strength.

“[Trump] was just the first major candidate that said, ‘You know, we’re not done as a nation, and I’m not going to manage the decline.’ That’s what people want,” he exclaims. “A healthy and commonsense-driven country that doesn’t destroy their faith and their family and their freedoms.”

Glenn then turns his focus to conservative voters.

“When somebody like Tucker walks, when the next one walks (and there will be a next one), people are going to come and say, ‘Circle the wagons. You’ve got to defend the party.’ No … don’t rush to defend the GOP,” he entreats.

“Every time you defend them for free, they teach you that betrayal is survivable, that they can ignore you and keep you,” he continues. “The only language a comfortable incumbent understands is the sound of the door closing behind a voter who’s done.”

This doesn’t mean we stop fighting the “authoritarian and crazy left.” We just have to “find the Republicans or whatever that stand for something,” he pleads.

Glenn pivots to Washington again: “You’re not going to survive this. And I don’t mean a tough cycle coming your way. I mean, you are building with your own hands a movement aimed directly at you, and you deserve it.”

No amount of spending or messaging will slow or divert the train that’s coming, he warns.

There is only one good way to stop the GOP exodus, says Glenn: “Simply remove the reason it exists.”

“And the only way to do that is to start listening to the people who sent you there and then actually do the thing they sent you to do. That’s it. That’s the secret in the sauce.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Glenn beck, The glenn beck program, Tucker carlson, Donald trump, Gop 

The National Republican Congressional Committee mocked the establishment wing of the Democratic Party after the far-left socialist victories in New York City elections.

Three socialist candidates backed by Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani crushed their centrist opposition and tipped the scales in the party toward more extremism.

‘How can he defend against the Marxist march around the country and these other districts?’

The NRCC sent flowers and a card expressing condolences to the Washington, D.C., office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“Three losses in one night is tough. We wanted so-called ‘Leader’ Jeffries to know our thoughts are with him, his candidates, and whatever remains of his influence in the Democrat Party,” said NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella in a statement to Fox News.

The card read “With heartfelt sympathy,” according to a photo posted by Bill Melugin of Fox.

Jeffries’ Republican counterpart, Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, reiterated how bad the losses were in a media briefing where he pointed out that many Democrat voters booed Jeffries and chanted that he was next.

“These are socialists. These are Marxists in their ideology,” said Johnson.

“Hakeem Jeffries has a tall task ahead of him right now, he’s gotta go out and somehow make a credible pitch to Democrat establishment donors that that’s a good national investment right now, that’s a tough one to make,” he added.

“He has just proven that he cannot even hold the line in his own back yard,” Johnson said. “How can he possibly defend against the Marxist march around the country and these other districts? This is not your father’s Democratic Party, as we see all the time.”

RELATED: Hunter Biden wants Democrats to learn EXTREME lesson from NYC elections

“The Democrat Party — the socialists, the Marxists — have nominated some of the most radical candidates to ever run for office, and they’re running for Congress. The insurgent left is on the rise.”

Others, like Hunter Biden, say the results of the elections show that Democrats need to veer to the far left and be far more socialist and far more extremist.

“The lesson under the lessons: the country is tired of being managed. People want to be led,” Biden said.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, replied: “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a communist Country!”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Democratic party, Extremism, Hakeem jeffries, Mayor zohran mamdani, New york city, Politics 

Memphis Police on Tuesday afternoon responded to the 6600 block of West Quailbrook Cove at the GreenBrook Apartments after a break-in and shooting, WHBQ-TV reported.

The homeowner told police he arrived at his residence just before 3:15 p.m. and saw a masked man trying to take his television from a wall, the station added.

‘This is the direct result of what happens when the system to protect people fails completely. People take care of themselves. We’ve entered this phase.’

Police said the homeowner indicated the suspect then turned around toward him and reached into a bag, WHBQ added.

The homeowner told officers that with that, he pulled out a gun and shot the suspect twice, the station said.

In addition, the homeowner said the suspect ran from the apartment and headed west toward GreenBrook Bend, WHBQ reported.

The homeowner added to police that he fired two more shots as the suspect ran away, the station said, adding that the homeowner said the suspect fell, dropped the bag, got back up, and continued running off.

WHBQ said that when officers tried to make contact with the suspect, police said he fled on foot in the apartment complex.

RELATED: Intruder allegedly breaks into Florida home, threatens mother and her children, refuses to leave — but victim has her gun

Police told the station that officers conducted an extensive search and found a man injured in the 6400 block of Macon Road.

WHBQ added that the injured male was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

What’s more, the station said police released to the homeowner’s wife a white PlayStation 5, pink and white Jordan 1 sneakers, black and pink Jordan 1 sneakers, all-black Nike Air Max 97 sneakers, white Air Force sneakers, a black Roku controller, and a purple PlayStation controller.

WHBQ reported that the homeowner’s wife said all items belonged to the couple.

Individuals commenting underneath the station’s Facebook post about the incident seemed squarely behind the homeowner who fought back:

“Awesome job, homeowner,” one commenter wrote. “Don’t commit burglary; won’t get shot.””Good!” another user exclaimed. “More people need to fight back and make Memphis great again!””U got shot for a PS5 and some shoes,” another commenter lamented.”The thief got straight to FO part of FAFO,” another user quipped.”315 in the afternoon. That is hella bold,” another commenter observed.”This is the direct result of what happens when the system to protect people fails completely,” another user stated. “People take care of themselves. We’ve entered this phase.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Memphis, Tennessee, Home invasion, Robbery, Homeowner shoots intruder, 2nd amendment, Self-defense, Gun, Gun rights, Crime 

Democrats are grasping at straws after the president gave Congress an ultimatum on the housing affordability bill passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is intended to increase access to financing and grants in order to provide more housing units in hopes of lowering housing costs.

‘He probably spent hours laughing to himself thinking that peddling this lie would be funny.’

Just hours before President Donald Trump was scheduled to sign the bill into law, he canceled the event and told Congress he would hold the bill hostage until lawmakers passed the SAVE Act.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the president wrote on social media.

Republicans have been pushing the SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, but Democrats have vehemently opposed the legislation on the basis that it might disenfranchise some legal voters.

The development appeared to catch everyone off guard as they scrambled to respond, but Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu of California stole the top prize for most bizarre reply.

“We have a bipartisan housing bill that both the Congress and Senate passed. There was supposed to be a big signing ceremony today in the Capitol, and then all of a sudden Donald Trump decides he’s not coming to sign the bill,” said Lieu to reporters at a media briefing.

“Well, why is that? Did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Is he unable to stay awake today? What’s causing him to chicken out again? Is it taco Wednesday? Or is it side effects from a drug? We don’t know,” he continued.

“This erratic behavior of the president is very concerning. He’s having trouble staying awake at many White House events and Cabinet meetings. He has clearly some weakness in one of his arms. He’s got swelling in his hands, and the White House needs to come clean,” Lieu said.

He cited a report that a high-profile 79-year-old person in the U.S. was able to obtain a special drug under the compassionate use provision usually reserved for terminal cases.

“We need to know: Did Donald Trump get this special drug from Eli Lilly?” he added. “And if he did, why is that the case?”

Assistant to the president and White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung fired off an insulting response to Lieu.

“Ted Lewd is a dumbass,” he wrote on social media. “He probably spent hours laughing to himself thinking that peddling this lie would be funny. Sadly for Ted, there’s no special new drug to cure being a b***h.”

RELATED: WH hammers Jen Psaki over comments about JD Vance’s wife: ‘Circle back on that, moron’

Lieu fired back at Cheung on social media, where he thanked him for “amplifying” the Democrat’s remarks.

“I see you didn’t answer the question I asked,” said Lieu. “Was trump [sic] the mystery patient who received the special experimental drug by Eli Lilly under the law designed for people with terminal illnesses?”

The White House has denied the allegation that the president received the weight-loss drug under the special accommodation.

The fate of the housing bill remains uncertain.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Conspiracy theory, Weight loss, President donald trump, Rep ted lieu, Housing affordability, Housing bill, Politics, Eli lilly 

An AI model has reportedly exposed vulnerabilities in secure government systems as concerns over cybersecurity rage through top companies and government leadership alike.

The Associated Press reported that Mythos, an advanced Anthropic AI model, identified weaknesses in “sensitive and secure U.S. government computer systems during a testing exercise,” citing a U.S. official.

‘This tool broke into almost all of our classified systems, not in weeks but in hours.’

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reportedly told the AP that the testing was conducted as a part of Project Glasswing, though the identification of the vulnerabilities does not mean that they were exploited.

Project Glasswing, which was announced on April 7, was described at the time as “an urgent attempt to put [the capabilities of frontier model Mythos Preview] to work for defensive purposes.”

RELATED: $965 billion AI giant warns we need to hit the brakes — but will China?

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The project announcement noted that Anthropic would be partnering with several industry giants to identify the vulnerabilities on their platforms, with Anthropic even pledging “up to $100M in usage credits for Mythos Preview across these efforts, as well as $4M in direct donations to open-source security organizations.”

The companies listed include Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks.

These defensive measures, including the testing performed by Mythos, was alluded to by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) during a June 11 Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing.

Mentioning Mythos and Anthropic by name, Warner said, “This tool broke into almost all of our classified systems, not in weeks but in hours.” Warner attributed this information to the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, General Joshua Rudd.

The government limited access to Anthropic’s latest models for foreign nationals just days after President Trump signed an executive order establishing a national security framework for AI, cybersecurity, and the regulation and classification of “frontier models.” That directive resulted in the company disabling the model temporarily.

Blaze News reached out to the office of the National Cyber Director and Anthropic but did not immediately receive a response.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​National security agency, Us government, Donald trump, Mark warner, Politics, Tech, Artificial intelligence 

Minor league baseball team the York Revolution forfeited their Pride Night game on June 18 after fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster were willing to wear Pride uniforms — which featured jerseys with rainbow sleeves.

General manager Ben Shipley said that he was “disappointed” the team “was at this point.”

“I recognize the players’ plight and their unwillingness to cross their line. I also think tolerance is not acceptance. I was just asking for tolerance from the team, and they were unwilling to navigate that with me,” Shipley explained.

“No,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments. “You were asking for them to participate. That is not tolerance. That’s promoting something that they have religious convictions against.”

“They’re not paid to wear rainbow colors,” he adds.

“That was a political statement they were asked to endorse, and they refused to,” executive producer Keith Malinak says.

“And this is how you change the culture. And this is what we’ve been begging young girls, young women to do when faced with dudes that want to compete against them,” he continues.

“And if they have to cancel the event, they have to cancel it. That’s how you change this mindset,” he adds.

“But that’s how committed the officials on the team were to this,” Gray says, “that they’d rather not even play baseball.”

“They still donated 10 grand to some gay charity, too,” Malinak 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, Keith malinak, Jeff fisher, Pride night, York revolution, Baseball, Pride, Lgbtq, Pat gray unleashed 

The conviction and sentencing of a group of Antifa-linked terrorists is making Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan implode on social media.

The leader of the violent 2025 attack on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Texas was sentenced to 100 years in prison while seven others were given sentences between 30 and 70 years. Several others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

‘Americans hate the fascist Trump regime, so the only way they can try to cling to power is brute force.’

Tlaib objected to the sentencing based on her opposition to President Donald Trump declaring Antifa a terrorist group back in September. Trump made the declaration in NSPM-7, a national security presidential memorandum that established a federal strategy to charge violent groups and networks with terrorism.

“These sentences are a travesty and totally unjustified, but that’s the point,” wrote the congresswoman on a social media post Tuesday.

“Americans hate the fascist Trump regime, so the only way they can try to cling to power is brute force. NSPM-7 is a grave threat to all of us and more bulls**t ‘terrorism’ charges like these are coming.”

The attackers used fireworks to distract ICE officers before firing gunshots that injured one officer. They also vandalized the facility before fleeing from the scene.

An attorney for the leader of the group objected to the government labeling the attackers as “terrorists” and claimed they did not intend to fire gunshots.

“This is a bunch of kids and young adults who really have a really big heart and really wanted their voice to be heard,” the attorney said. “It was never intended that anybody get hurt. It was never intended that any shots would be fired.”

Tlaib, who is a member of “the Squad” of progressive congresswomen, denied during a congressional hearing in 2021 that there’s any formal evidence that Antifa is an organization.

RELATED: Tlaib flips out when asked to condemn ‘Death to America’ chants by anti-Israel protesters

Critics like the American Civil Liberties Union claim that the NSPM-7 lays the groundwork for the administration to punish and prosecute enemies and political opponents based on speech protected under the First Amendment.

“No matter what the president says or tries to do through NSPM-7, the First Amendment constrains what federal agencies can do when it comes to punishing groups and people for exercising their rights to free speech, peaceful protest, and supporting causes by making donations,” said the ACLU in a statement about the edict. “It also safeguards against viewpoint-based government discrimination, coercion, and retaliation.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Immigration and customs enforcement, The squad, Terrorist group, Antifa, Politics, Rashida tlaib, Ice 

In a congressional district that encompasses upper Manhattan and a portion of the Bronx, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist, has emerged victorious in the contentious Democratic primary against five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

With 88% of the votes counted, the New York Times has called the race in Avila Chevalier’s favor. She currently leads Espaillat 49.4% to 45.9%.

‘Zohran endorsed her, so I voted for her.’

“I am so thrilled to have the support of my community, and I am so proud that they have put their trust in me to send me to Congress on their behalf,” Avila Chevalier told Norwood News.

But let’s break down the results further.

The 13th Congressional District of New York contains a population of roughly 750,000 people in an area of 11 square miles, which equates to about 68,000 people per square mile. In the recent election, the Manhattan portion of the district accounted for a significantly larger share of the vote than the Bronx portion.

The median age in the district is 39 years old, with 50% of the residents identifying as Hispanic, 24% as black, and 17% as white.

The district is also one of the poorest congressional districts in the country, with a quarter of its residents living below the poverty line and a median household income of just above $52,400.

According to the Times, Espaillat outperformed Avila Chevalier by a sizeable margin of 28 points in the Bronx, while in Manhattan, Avila Chevalier led by a margin of eight points.

Espaillat was able to secure the black (+2.2) and Hispanic (+15.3) vote, as well as the vote of lower-income areas (+10.2). Avila Chevalier, on the other hand, dominated among younger voters (+24.5) and majority college-educated areas (+19.2), reflecting a broader trend of democratic socialists such as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani performing well among these groups.

Avila Chevalier also led by 5.1 points in higher-income areas, the Times reported.

RELATED: ‘Weak and pathetic’: Mamdani-backed radicals sweep Democratic establishment in New York’s electoral bloodbath

“I’m an immigrant myself, and she has strong positions on immigration. It’s the first time I felt like I had a real choice with the Democratic primary. Zohran endorsed her, so I voted for her,” Juan Alvarez told the New York Post after casting his vote.

The politics of NY-13 have been consistently Democratic for decades, with voters backing Democrat candidates on the national, state, and local levels.

In last year’s New York City mayoral race, Mamdani performed strongly across the district. Both Espaillat and Avila Chevalier endorsed Mamdani for mayor, yet Mamdani later threw his support behind Avila Chevalier in the primary contest.

In her victory speech, Avila Chevalier declared to her crowd of supporters that “the politics of the past ends today.”

“The era of taking a check and cashing a check and calling it representation is over.”

“To every little black and brown girl, mujer dominicana, my Muslim sisters, and every working-class person here — our time has come.”

Avila Chevalier will face off against Republican nominee Manual Williams in the November general election, where she is expected to win comfortably.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Adriano espaillat, Darializa avila chevalier, Democratic primary, Democratic socialist, New york city, Politics 

The Department of Justice on Tuesday unveiled the results of the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which resulted in criminal and civil charges against hundreds of defendants and billions in allegedly stolen taxpayer funds.

The enforcement effort involved 56 federal districts, 45 U.S. states and territories, and 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other medical professionals, tied to more than $6.5 billion in alleged fraud.

‘The government seized over $30 million in bank accounts, a $594,000 Ferrari 296 GTS, seven other high-end vehicles, an $865,000 custom Bulgari necklace, and $1 million worth of other luxury jewelry.’

The DOJ accused the defendants of participating in numerous schemes, including opioid abuse, submitting false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, and causing patient harm, including death. The department also claimed that 10.7 million pills of controlled substances were illegally distributed.

The alleged stolen taxpayer funds were used to purchase high-end vehicles, jewelry, and real estate, among other luxury items. The federal government has seized $182 million in cash and other assets.

“This announcement marks the greatest combined federal and state effort in combating health care fraud in history,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated. “This team is working tirelessly to take down fraudsters who steal from taxpayer funded programs and prey on vulnerable Americans.”

The DOJ highlighted that charges were filed against 11 individuals allegedly tied to billions of dollars in fraudulent claims for amniotic wound allografts, a wound treatment made from donated placental tissue typically used to repair hard-to-heal injuries.

RELATED: Trump DOJ charges illegal aliens in Boston with nearly $1.5 million in welfare fraud

Image source: Department of Justice

In the District of Arizona, the vice president of sales for a company was charged in an alleged kickback scheme after providers allegedly billed Medicare over $4 billion from Dec. 2021 to June 2024 for his company’s allografts.

“The company did not manufacture allografts and instead acquired allografts from tissue banks and relabeled them for sale at a 2,000% mark-up, charging up to $1,450 per square centimeter,” the DOJ stated.

The defendant and others allegedly targeted hospice patients to apply allografts to superficial wounds and treat areas that exceeded the size of the wound.

The defendant was accused of receiving $24 million from the company and spending the funds on “multi-million-dollar houses, million-dollar life insurance policies, luxury vehicles, including a $135,000 Maserati, and luxury watches.”

RELATED: JD Vance is ending the Medicaid gravy train

Bulgari necklace and beach resort in the Philippines. Image source: Department of Justice

In the Southern District of Texas, the DOJ also charged a nurse practitioner who allegedly billed Medicare $906 million for medically unnecessary allografts.

“As alleged, the defendant used the fraud proceeds to purchase high-end vehicles, real estate, and luxury jewelry, and to fund the construction of a $4.6 million … beach resort in the Philippines,” the DOJ stated. “The government seized over $30 million in bank accounts, a $594,000 Ferrari 296 GTS, seven other high-end vehicles, an $865,000 custom Bulgari necklace, and $1 million worth of other luxury jewelry.”

The DOJ reported that Medicare claims for allografts skyrocketed from $1.2 billion in 2022 to $14.4 billion in 2025.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Department of justice, Doj, Medicare, Medicaid, Todd blanche, Politics, Fraud 

The stunning victories of far-left extremists against centrist establishment candidates in the New York City Democratic primary elections are leading many to embrace fringe socialism.

Among those voices is Hunter Biden, the former president’s disgraced son who sired a child with a reported Washington, D.C., stripper.

‘The establishment wing of the party is no longer a sword. It’s a question mark.’

Biden said in a post on social media that Democrats need to abandon seeking the vote of Americans with more moderate views.

“I’m not running for office. But if I were, these are some of the lessons I’d take away from what happened in NY yesterday,” he wrote in a post on the X social media platform.

“The middle is not a strategy. It’s an empty room. Voters reached past the establishment to grab someone who actually believes something,” he said after a few other bullet points.

He said Democrats who made anti-Israel and pro-rent control statements won because they were “authentic.” He also derided endorsements from establishment partisans.

“Endorsements from the current Democratic leadership now read like warnings,” he added. “The establishment wing of the party is no longer a sword. It’s a question mark.”

He also praised far-left democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City. Mamdani backed the extremist candidates who swept their primary elections.

“The lesson under the lessons: the country is tired of being managed. People want to be led,” Biden concluded.

In a response to a commenter, he affirmed that the Democratic Party needs to listen to black women more.

Many on the left are making the same observations about the victory of extremists in New York City while others point out that these policies are not likely to be popular in the rest of the country, even among Democrats.

RELATED: Hunter Biden linked to identity theft of his dead brother by investigator in paternity suit

Biden’s addiction problems became a flashpoint in the 2020 election after Republican operatives were able to obtain a laptop with damaging private content of Biden left at a computer shop.

Trump supporters tried to use the content to damage the Biden presidential campaign, but various social media giants responded by restricting the circulation of the story over suggestions from the administration that foreign actors were circulating fake propaganda.

Hunter Biden has since gone to rehab and began commenting on politics after his father had to drop his re-election campaign over health concerns.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Hunter biden, Zohran mamdani, Politics, Democratic socialism 

Transgender actress Ellen Page, who now goes by “Elliot” Page, offered her definition of “healthy masculinity” during a recent interview on “It’s Open with Ilana Glazer” — and unsurprisingly, it’s not very masculine at all.

“We are seeing so much, and I mean our entire lives, we’ve seen so much unhealthy masculinity, so much sickness in this world, specifically through the lens of men,” Glazer began.

“In your gender journey, which to me as someone who knows you, but also as someone consuming you as a public figure, to me you appear healthy and continually finding more health and security,” she continued, asking, “What does it mean to you to hear me say ‘healthy masculinity?’”

“Healthy masculinity to me is, or even just something I’ve felt as transitioning … for anyone to just you know love themselves, be able to care for themselves, ideally get rest when they can, like just the practical basic: drink water, eat a banana,” Page responded.

“I think it’s just like healthy masculinity could just mean a really good cry,” she added.

“I feel like I know a lot of masculine men, and they aren’t like, ‘It’s just sometimes hugging yourself and having a good cry and drinking some water,’” Gonzales says.

“That actually sounds like the most feminized version that you could possibly get,” she adds.

“I haven’t had a banana since I was like 6,” Adam Johnson replies, adding, “I reject the whole premise of men eating bananas.”

“You’re right, probably not masculine,” Gonzales says. “I’m sorry to all of the men out there who do enjoy bananas, but the act of it, to Adam’s point, probably not very masculine.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sara gonzales, Ellen page, Adam johnson, The lectern guy, Elliot page, Ilana glazer, Masculinity, Transgender, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

A Southern California father has learned his fate after pleading guilty to having sex with his daughter who months later took her own life.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said Stephen Vincent Chavez’s 18-year-old biological daughter, Makayla, was staying with him at his residence in Moorpark last July. Moorpark is about an hour northwest of Los Angeles.

‘Investigators and prosecutors performed additional interviews, obtained and reviewed the results of new forensic testing and medical evaluations, and carefully analyzed electronic evidence.’

“After a day of drinking at a family gathering, Chavez purchased additional alcohol for himself and his daughter to consume at home,” the DA’s Office added. “Chavez then engaged in sexual intercourse with her. Makayla tragically took her own life in December 2025.”

Chavez, 41, pleaded guilty in May to felony incest and misdemeanor providing alcohol to a minor, officials said, adding that Chavez also “admitted he took advantage of a position of trust and that the victim was particularly vulnerable.”

“Several members of Makayla’s family addressed the court during sentencing and provided emotional victim impact statements describing the lasting trauma caused by the defendant’s actions and the devastating loss of Makayla,” the DA’s Office said.

In addition, Deputy District Attorney Tessa McCarty said, “The people requested the maximum three-year state prison sentence because the defendant exploited his position as a father, violated his daughter’s trust, supplied her with alcohol, and engaged in criminal conduct that forever altered the course of her life.”

McCarty added to KTLA-TV that Makayla had “placed her trust and well-being in [Chavez’s] care” by moving from North Carolina to California to start a new life with him.

The following video report aired prior to Chavez pleading guilty.

RELATED: Previously deported Brazilian woman arrested and charged with child rape, assault, and incest

But District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced Tuesday that Chavez was sentenced to one year in Ventura County Jail and three years of felony probation for incest and providing alcohol to his 18-year-old biological daughter, officials said.

Prosecutors objected to the court’s sentence, the DA’s Office said.

Prior to Chavez entering guilty pleas, Nasarenko “directed the office’s most experienced prosecutors to conduct a comprehensive review of whether additional charges, including rape, could legally be filed. Investigators and prosecutors performed additional interviews, obtained and reviewed the results of new forensic testing and medical evaluations, and carefully analyzed electronic evidence,” officials said.

The DA’s Office added that 10 of its prosecutors reviewed the evidence and findings and that “experienced prosecutors and legal experts from another county” also were consulted.

However, following the “extensive review, all concluded that incest was the only felony charge supported by the law, facts, and admissible evidence,” officials said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Incest, California, Suicide, Father and daughter, Alcohol, Arrest, Sentence, S​tephen vincent chavez, Ventura county district attorney, Crime 

President Donald Trump says vandals are to blame after the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saw its new coat of paint peel and algae take over just days after a $16 million renovation project was completed.

“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Pool. Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair. President DJT,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere isn’t sure he buys the reason for the pool’s state.

“I think Donald Trump’s done some really good things, and there’s parts of his presidency I’m absolutely really happy with. Secondarily, let me ask you … do you believe that it was vandals that caused the algae and the paint to rip up?” he asks on “Stu and Dave Do America.”

“That’s the problem, though. It could have been, because they would,” co-host Dave Landau says.

“It is believable that they would attempt this. I don’t know that I believe they’re smart enough to figure out how to do it this well,” Stu agrees.

Outspoken liberal Stephen King also chimed in on the drama, writing in a post on X: “Nobody is vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, and Trump knows it. This is a visible example of his corruption–a no-bid contract to some crony followed by sky-high cost overruns, and shoddy construction to boot. Classic Trump: I didn’t f**k up, it was my enemies.”

“He’s a weirdo,” Stu says.

However, there’s another group of activists who have descended upon the algae issue in the pool — and they’re mad at the president for getting rid of it.

“There are people upset at those trying to kill the algae to make the pool look American Flag Blue again. We’re talking about — yes, they exist — pro-algae eco-activists,” Stu explains.

“They oppose the cleanup of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” he adds.

A video from TMZ confirms the existence of these activists, showing several protesters yelling, “Let’s go algae, let’s go,” while standing next to the pool.

Stu is disturbed, commenting, “We really should just disconnect the life support on this nation.”

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Donald trump, Lincoln memorial reflecting pool, The blaze, Stu and dave do america 

Tim Ferriss did something that almost no author with a brand to protect would ever do. He posted his real sales numbers, and they weren’t pretty. He called his own catalog the “cadaver on the table.”

It’s worth looking at the body.

Ferriss has five books, all of them number-one best-sellers, the kind of backlist that is supposed to pay out like an annuity. “The 4-Hour Workweek” was still one of the most highlighted titles on all of Amazon a full decade after it came out. Then the floor gave way. His sales were down 46% in 2025 and are on pace for another 57% drop this year. If the run rate holds, his catalog will sell roughly 80% fewer print copies in 2026 than it did in 2022.

What changed in 2022? ChatGPT launched that November. The slide tracks the chatbot almost line for line, and it isn’t just that. In the first quarter of this year, total print sales fell 3.1%, and self-help took the worst beating of any category, with units down 26.3% from a year earlier. Only two of adult nonfiction’s 16 subcategories grew at all. One of them was religion. Hold that thought for later.

A free country runs on citizens who can read a contract before they sign it.

Ferriss’ read is clean and probably correct: A how-to book was always a lookup table. “The 4-Hour Body” is a menu. How do I lose the fat, fix my sleep, and add 10 pounds of muscle? In 2019, the best interface to those answers was 600 pages. In 2026, it’s a free chatbot that already ate the book and will hand you a personalized version in 15 seconds, adjusted for your weight, your bad knee, and your hatred of cottage cheese.

He’s right about the books. I think he buried the lede, though. And the lede is us.

The book was the on-ramp

Here’s the thing nobody in this conversation wants to say out loud. Most people who bought how-to books weren’t readers. Not really. With no offense intended to Ferriss, who has been remarkably successful, his bibliography could easily be dismissed as “airport books,” something you thumb through on a long layover.

The guy who would never crack a novel would still buy the diet book. The money book. The manual for fixing his own transmission. He read because he wanted the thing on the other side of the reading, and the reading was the toll you paid to get it. That toll is what kept a whole class of marginal readers in the habit at all. Self-help was the gateway drug to literacy for grown men and women who had set reading down the day they walked out of high school.

Ferriss is documenting the exact moment we stop charging the toll, and we’re doing it at the worst possible time in about a century.

Now read the literacy numbers

In December 2024, the National Center for Education Statistics dropped the latest international assessment of adult skills, and the results were ugly. Average U.S. adult literacy fell 12 points between 2017 and 2023. The bottom rung swelled from 19% of the population to 28%. That’s the group that struggles to compare two pieces of information, paraphrase a short passage, or make a basic inference.

That’s more than one in four working-age Americans and is the first statistically real drop since they started keeping score in 2008.

Sit with the timing on that. The test was given in 2022 and 2023, before the chatbots had fully soaked into daily life. We were already forgetting how to read on our own.

RELATED: Livid judge cancels trial and busts lawyers for faking briefs with AI — on both sides

Background: Melina Mara/Washington Post/Getty Images; foreground: Grok/xAI

The habit data says the same thing from a different angle. By 2021, Gallup had Americans reading fewer books than at any point since it started asking in 1990. Reading as a favorite way to spend an evening got cut in half in four years, from 12% down to 6%. And a CBS/YouGov poll out last week found a third of Americans now read fewer books than they did a decade ago, with more than a third admitting their own attention spans have gotten worse. They can feel it going. That’s almost the saddest part.

The kids are the leading edge of this, not the exception. Reporting in the Atlantic last year had professors at places like Columbia trimming their syllabi because incoming students couldn’t get through a whole book any more. And these were bright kids, the ones who tested in. The professors said it’s a problem of stamina and commitment. “Students can still read books, they argue — they’re just choosing not to,” said Rose Horowitch of the Atlantic.

But the adults are the real story here, because they already have the skill and are choosing not to exercise it.

This villain is different

Every generation gets handed a reading villain. Radio was going to rot our brains. Then television. Then the smartphone. And many of the concerns about those technologies were valid. Despite that, we remained a nation of readers until the smartphone era. “Teenagers are constantly tempted by their devices, which inhibits their preparation for the rigors of college coursework,” Horowitch said.

But even in the worst case, all of those things merely competed with reading for your attention. The chatbot is the first one that poses an existential threat to publishing, its very reason to exist. It doesn’t just pull you off the page. It offers to stand between you and every page you’ll ever encounter, from now on, and hand you the gist so you never have to do the work yourself.

The work was the whole point of reading: comprehension, judgment, and the slow, unglamorous business of building a mind that can tell when it’s being handled. The early research on what they call cognitive off-loading indicates that the more people hand their thinking to the machine, the less they draw on their own. One MIT team even wired up people’s brains and found weaker neural connectivity and poorer recall when subjects leaned on a chatbot to write instead of doing it themselves. That study was about writing, and it’s preliminary, so I won’t oversell it. But you don’t get the bicep by watching somebody else lift the weight.

A people that can’t read is a people that gets managed

A free country runs on citizens who can read a contract before they sign it. Read the ballot initiative. Read the lease, the diagnosis, the verse, the founding document, and catch it when somebody’s tidy little summary is shading the truth.

Ferriss tosses off a Pew number almost in passing: 83% of Americans haven’t paid for news in any form in the past year, and when they slam into a paywall, exactly 1% reach for a credit card. Now, the other 99% shrug, give up, or ask the AI for the gist. A whole population is increasingly taking the machine’s word for what the document said, without looking at the document itself.

That’s not just a reading crisis, but a sovereignty crisis. A man who can’t read for himself, and won’t, has no choice but to trust whoever’s doing the reading for him. There’s an old word for that arrangement: subject.

This is what inspired my wife and me to launch Chapter House. We make hardcover children’s books, the kind meant to be read aloud and handed down to the next generation. We didn’t build it out of nostalgia, and we sure didn’t build it because print is the fastest way to get information into a mind.

We built it because speed was never what reading was for. Reading forms the person doing it. A child raised on hard, beautiful books grows into the one adult in the room the machine can’t fool, precisely because he has already done the work the machine keeps offering to skip.

Ferriss circles this the whole way through his post without ever landing on it. He says what survives the AI flood is voice, taste, the sequenced journey, the experience of sitting with one mind at real length. He’s describing a thing. The thing has a name, and it’s a lot older than his bibliography. It’s education. The genuine article.

The off-ramp is open and the machine will drive

He ends by lashing himself to the mast of long-form writing and half-joking that maybe he’s just delusional.

He’s not delusional. He’s optimistic about the wrong number. The thousand true fans are going to be fine. They were always going to be fine. It’s the quiet quarter-billion I’d lose sleep over, the ones for whom the machine just removed the last practical reason they had to ever read anything again. They don’t get the tidy ending. And they vote, and raise children, and sign their names to things they didn’t read.

The off-ramp is open. It’s well lit, it’s free, and the machine is happy to take the wheel.

Whether we hand it over or not was never up to the machine.

The one lever still entirely in our hands is whether the next generation can do the thing the machine keeps volunteering to do for them. So read to your kids tonight. It’s a smaller act of defiance than it sounds like. It might also be a bigger one.

​Tech, Lifestyle 

If a driver is so dangerous that the government needs to electronically control his car, why is he still allowed to drive?

That’s the question New York lawmakers don’t seem interested in answering.

Today the threshold is 16 violations. Tomorrow it could be 10.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently signed legislation requiring certain repeat speeding offenders to install GPS-based speed-limiting technology in their vehicles. Under the new law, drivers who rack up 16 or more speed-camera violations within a year can be ordered to install an Intelligent Speed Limiter that prevents their vehicle from exceeding posted speed limits. Drivers who refuse can ultimately lose their vehicle registration.

Reckless legislation

At first glance, the proposal sounds reasonable. Most Americans agree that chronic reckless drivers should face serious consequences. But the real question is not whether dangerous drivers deserve punishment. The real question is why someone with 16 speeding violations still has driving privileges in the first place.

New York already has speeding laws. It already has fines, insurance penalties, license points, court appearances, and suspension mechanisms. If a driver has accumulated enough violations to be considered such a serious threat that the state now wants to electronically control their vehicle, then why weren’t existing laws sufficient to remove that driver from the road?

That question goes directly to the heart of the issue. Rather than addressing the apparent failure of existing enforcement systems, lawmakers have chosen to create an entirely new layer of technology, surveillance, and government oversight. Instead of asking why repeat offenders remain licensed, they’re asking the public to accept the idea that government should have a greater role in controlling privately owned vehicles.

That’s a significant shift, and it deserves far more scrutiny than it has received.

Pre-crime preview

The legislation relies on Intelligent Speed Assistance technology, commonly referred to as ISA. The system uses GPS data and digital mapping to determine the posted speed limit on a roadway and can prevent a vehicle from exceeding that speed. Unlike traditional enforcement, where a driver is punished after breaking the law, this technology is designed to intervene before the driver can make the decision.

The automotive industry is already moving toward an unprecedented level of connectivity. Modern vehicles collect enormous amounts of information. They receive over-the-air software updates, communicate with manufacturers, monitor driving behavior, and increasingly operate as rolling computers. Consumers have already watched vehicle ownership evolve into something that looks increasingly like a subscription service, with features activated remotely and software determining how products function.

Now government is entering the equation with technology designed to control how a vehicle operates.

That should concern anyone who values personal privacy and consumer rights.

Starting small

Supporters insist the law applies only to a small group of repeat offenders. That’s true today. The problem is that government programs rarely remain confined to their original scope. Nearly every major regulatory program begins with a narrowly defined target. Politicians identify a group that few people are willing to defend, implement a new policy, and assure the public that the measure will be limited. Once the infrastructure exists, however, expanding it becomes significantly easier than creating it.

Today the threshold is 16 violations. Tomorrow it could be 10. Later it could be expanded to fleet vehicles, commercial operators, or other categories of drivers. Once the principle is accepted, the debate shifts from whether government should have this authority to how broadly it should be applied.

Imperfect technology

The practical questions surrounding this law are equally troubling. GPS technology is useful, but it is not infallible. Speed-limit databases are not always current. Construction zones change. Temporary restrictions appear. Road conditions evolve faster than mapping systems can update.

What happens when the speed-limit database is wrong? What happens when a roadway has recently changed and the system hasn’t been updated? What happens when a driver needs rapid acceleration to avoid an accident?

These are not hypothetical concerns. They are the types of real-world situations automotive engineers consider every day. Yet lawmakers frequently discuss speed-limiting technology as though vehicles operate in a controlled environment where every situation can be anticipated by software. The reality is far more complicated.

RELATED: Gone in 60 seconds: How high-tech thieves can steal your car

Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images

Punishing cars, not drivers

Then there is the issue of fairness.

One of the most overlooked aspects of this legislation is its reliance on camera enforcement. Traditional traffic stops identify the driver. Automated camera systems identify the vehicle. Those are not the same thing. Families share cars. Businesses operate fleets. Vehicles are borrowed, rented, and loaned every day. Yet policymakers continue to build enforcement systems around the vehicle itself rather than the individual behind the wheel.

That distinction matters because accountability should be directed at the person responsible for the behavior, not simply the machine involved.

There is also a financial component that deserves attention. Installation costs for these systems can run into the thousands of dollars, with additional fees for monitoring, maintenance, administration, and compliance. Government officials often frame these costs as penalties for offenders, but every new regulatory program creates opportunities for vendors, contractors, software providers, installers, and administrators.

Whenever government mandates a new technology, there is almost always an industry waiting to benefit from it.

New York is hardly alone in pursuing this approach. Washington State has adopted its own Intelligent Speed Assistance requirements for certain offenders. Virginia and Washington, D.C., have moved in a similar direction, while Illinois lawmakers have advanced proposals involving mandatory speed-limiting technology. What once appeared to be an isolated experiment is rapidly becoming a national trend.

As more states adopt similar programs, lawmakers should answer a basic question: Why create a technological workaround instead of enforcing the penalties already available under existing law?

Accountability … or control?

The answer may be uncomfortable. Suspending licenses removes the driver from the system. Technological monitoring keeps the driver in the system while creating new layers of oversight and control. One approach focuses on accountability. The other focuses on management.

Those are fundamentally different philosophies.

New York’s “super speeder” law is being sold as a narrowly targeted safety measure. Maybe that’s how it begins. The larger concern is where it ends. Once government gains the authority to electronically regulate how privately owned vehicles operate, future expansions become much easier to justify.

The most important question isn’t whether a driver with 16 violations deserves punishment. It’s whether Americans are comfortable creating the technological infrastructure that allows government to control how a privately owned vehicle operates.

Today, lawmakers call it a solution for super speeders. Tomorrow, it could become something much broader.

​Lifestyle, Auto industry, Reckless drivers, Intelligent speed assistance, Kathy hochul, State law, Technology, Speed limiters, Automotive