Category: blaze media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

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

That standard should apply to Trump too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Williams wrote in the caption accompanying the Instagram video:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wheatley High School has faced academic challenges in recent years.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Goodreads crowd had already rendered its rapturous verdict.

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

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

RELATED: How to play liberals for suckers

Blaze Media Illustration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quick background

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

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

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

FBI

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

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

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

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

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

1. Shell companies

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

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

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

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

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

2. Thick as thieves

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

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

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

Whether their alleged romantic relationship is ongoing is unclear.

3. Another use for the Nazi informant

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

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

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

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

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

Protest and condemnation

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

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

Beirich’s lawyer denies she did anything wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Age verification is coming to Android

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

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

But is it enough to appease lawmakers?

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

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

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

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

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

Moor Studio/Getty Images

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

When will the API be available?

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

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

​Tech, Technology 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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​Murder suicide, Family killed, Kansas, Crime 

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

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

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

Somewhere along that drive, I began noticing them.

Cameras.

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

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

Not when did governments decide. When did we?

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

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

And hardly anyone noticed.

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

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

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

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

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

RELATED: Flock around and lose your rights

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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

One camera watches traffic. A network watches lives.

That distinction matters.

The Supreme Court has already begun recognizing it.

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

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

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

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

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

Those aren’t fringe lefty concerns.

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

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

Those questions deserve public answers.

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

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

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

That brings me back to Florida.

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

Supporters see efficiency. Perhaps they are right.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RELATED: The Biden tapes blow open the autopen scandal

Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images

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

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

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

RELATED: The right needs a public defender network for lawfare

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Police took Arjun into custody without incident, officials said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It also illustrated a political asymmetry conservatives rarely discuss.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Race also plays a part.

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

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

Blaze Media Illustration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RELATED: Conservatives are blowing the easiest political win in America

Blaze Media Illustration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gender bender

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rage dump

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Margin call

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

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

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​Matrix, Wachowski, Transgenderism, Entertainment 

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

“Woke 1 was crazy,” she laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

But Woke 2 is well underway.

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

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

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

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

Want more from John Doyle?

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

Just weeks after Democrats swapped Graham Platner for Troy Jackson as their U.S. Senate nominee in Maine, a newly unearthed 1988 police report has raised questions about violence in Jackson’s past.

Obtained exclusively by Bangor Daily News in collaboration with the Maine Monitor, the report states that Jackson was involved in an assault at a home in Fort Kent, Maine, in the early morning of March 12, 1988.

‘I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman.’

Lana Pelletier, Jackson’s girlfriend of roughly 40 years, told the responding officer at the time that Jackson “pushed her around” and that she planned to seek “cease harassment papers,” the report said, according to BDN. If such papers were ever filed, there is no record of them.

The report refers to Pelletier as Jackson’s ex-girlfriend, BDN reported.

Jackson also kicked the door in after being asked to leave, then grabbed a man’s throat and punched him, the report said, according to BDN. The blow allegedly broke the man’s glasses and cut his face.

Jackson paid a $50 fine to resolve a subsequent misdemeanor charge and does not dispute the fight with the man.

Jackson and Pelletier both deny that he was violent toward her.

RELATED: Here’s the unfiltered truth about the ‘moderate’ who beat the America-hating socialist in Wisconsin

CJ Gunther/Getty Images

“Nearly forty years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement. “But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman. This happened nearly four decades ago, and I assure Mainers this incident in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I’ve led in the years since.”

“I do not remember making the statements attributed to me and they are not accurate. This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago,” Pelletier said in a statement. “Troy and I have built a life and family together and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father.”

Jackson and Pelletier, who are apparently second cousins, according to the Maine Wire, have two sons together but do not appear to be legally married.

“I understand Maine voters want to learn about Troy as he seeks to represent them, but personal attacks on my family are unacceptable,” Pelletier said. “In the 40 years since he made a mistake as a 19-year-old kid, Troy has grown to be a passionate advocate for Mainers and dedicated his life to making things better for our state while Susan Collins has been in Washington enriching herself at our expense.”

Jackson secured the Democratic nomination in late July after a rapid process to replace Platner, whose campaign collapsed following a litany of scandals that included allegations of violence and ended with a former girlfriend accusing him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner denied the allegation.

Democrats harshly condemned Platner following the allegations.

“The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing — violence, abuse, and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said regarding Platner in a July press release.

“The assault allegations against Graham Platner are disqualifying and he should be replaced as the nominee,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an X post at the time.

“As Democrats, we have an obligation to run candidates whose moral character matches the values we stand for. Maine deserves a nominee who can defeat Susan Collins and serve with honor and dignity … [we are] redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race in light of the latest allegations,” Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a July X post.

The Maine Democratic Party did not respond to a request for comment.

Jackson and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will clash head-to-head at the ballot box in November.

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​Graham platner, Maine, Troy jackson, Us senate, Politics 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported busting a smuggling operation at a port of entry at the United States-Mexico border.

CBP told Blaze News that officers at the cargo facility at the Pharr International Bridge had seized $634,000 worth of cocaine on Friday.

‘The Department of Homeland Security and CBP have delivered the most secure border in history, stopping illicit narcotics and dangerous criminal aliens from entering our communities.’

The alleged contraband was found hidden in a commercial tractor-trailer coming from Reynosa, Mexico, and heading into the U.S., CBP said.

CBP said the vehicle was referred to secondary inspection and that officers detected anomalies using a nonintrusive inspection device. Officers then physically inspected the vehicle and discovered 47.48 pounds of alleged cocaine concealed in 18 packages.

Special agents of Homeland Security Investigations initiated an investigation, and the Office of Field Operations at CBP seized both the vehicle and the alleged narcotics, CBP said.

“Our CBP officers continue to successfully use their skills and expertise to intercept another load of hard narcotics,” said Carlos Rodriguez, the port director at the Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas port of entry.

The massive port of entry has often been the site of smuggling operations thwarted by customs officials. In 2024, CBP reported seizing $5.4 million in methamphetamine hidden in a shipment of papayas.

RELATED: Woman caught trying to smuggle live animals through US-Mexico border, CBP claims

“Fulfilling President Donald J. Trump’s mandate, the Department of Homeland Security and CBP have delivered the most secure border in history, stopping illicit narcotics and dangerous criminal aliens from entering our communities, which will keep America safe for generations to come,” read the press release from CBP given to Blaze News.

Luis Bazan, the director of the Pharr International Bridge, said in 2024 that an estimated $50 billion worth of trade flows through the enormous international industrial corridor.

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​Department of homeland security, Customs and border protection, Mexico, Smuggling, Cocaine, Politics 

A female athlete who knows firsthand what it’s like to compete against a male is confused by the WNBA’s lack of a female-only policy.

To date, the WNBA has consistently punted on the idea of banning males from its league despite the topic being a focal point in press conferences, interviews, and even during games.

‘The WNBA [is] proving every day how unserious the league is.’

Coaches and ownership have been clear: The WNBA is a progressive and inclusive league, even if women have a problem with it.

Payton McNabb is one of those women.

The North Carolina native gained notoriety during her senior year of high school as a volleyball player when she was on the receiving end of a male athlete’s brutal spike that caused ongoing concussion symptoms and neck injury.

“It was very clear that we were not up against another high school girl,” McNabb told Blaze News.

McNabb has subsequently become a vocal opponent of male inclusion in women’s sports, even speaking before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency in May 2025.

Nearly four years after her high school injury, McNabb remains flabbergasted as to how a league made for women is still unable to admit obvious differences between the sexes.

“Something so simple as that has turned into this insane explosion of just the WNBA proving every day how unserious the league is,” McNabb declared. “It’s just been crazy to watch.”

At the same time, McNabb praised Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, the first player in the league to outright state that men should not be allowed to play with women and that boys should not share locker rooms with girls.

“I think the way she’s handled it has been so admirable,” McNabb, who also played basketball, explained. “I really appreciate her not backing down from it, and doubling down on it, and standing up for women and girls in the next generation.”

RELATED: Trans athlete changes sports and is dominating women again — this time under a new name

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

McNabb accused other WNBA players and coaches of “pulling up the ladder” and putting young girls in a position where there may be no women’s basketball league for them to aspire to.

“I can’t think of any other explanation as to why you would want men to infiltrate the very league you made to get away from men. It makes no sense,” she said. “You can’t complain on one hand that you want more media attention and more opportunities and just as much as the men, and then the next argument be that you would open-arms accept them on your team and, you know, encourage that to happen.”

Now a college student, McNabb touched on the WNBA personnel who have performed stunts in response to Cunningham’s “completely normal” comments.

Specifically referring to Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wearing a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt and Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton accosting two young female fans, McNabb said she believes there is some sort of ongoing effort to get “media relevancy.”

“There’s no other reason why anyone would be talking about the WNBA,” she stressed.

McNabb asserted that the league’s constant involvement in these controversies distracts from the actual sport: “It’s just taking away from basketball. I mean, no one’s even talking about basketball.”

RELATED: ‘A lot of people say it’s not happening!’ Blaze News investigates: A definitive list of men who have dominated women’s sports

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Now in her 20s, McNabb recognizes how difficult it must have been for Cunningham to risk her rise to stardom by speaking out.

“She didn’t wait until it was easy,” McNabb said of Cunningham. “She really said it when her career was taking off and, you know, when she has so many eyes on her.”

“I know it means a lot to me, but I just know how much it means to a bunch of young girls, young athletes across the country who look up to her so much,” she added.

McNabb revealed that the whole conversation around protecting women’s sports has resulted in her being called a “TERF, bigoted, transphobic loser,” when, in her opinion, all women are asking for is “the bare minimum.”

A women-only locker room and an even playing field don’t seem like too much to ask, the college student said, adding that even her most fervent detractors are putting forth “a losing argument.”

“It’s just real life, and it’s okay to think that. And the people that disagree with you, I think they, deep down, they’ve got to know.”

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​Wnba, Sophie cunningham, Sports, Womens sports 

Liberal celebrity Rosie O’Donnell says she continues to struggle using her teenage daughter’s chosen pronouns.

The 64-year-old admitted she took a drastic measure to remember to call her daughter “them” and thought the teenager would find it touching, but the girl didn’t care at all.

‘I thought she’d be very touched, and she didn’t give two s**ts. She could not care less.’

O’Donnell related the story during an interview with Amy Poehler on her “Good Hang” podcast released Tuesday. O’Donnell told Poehler that her daughter would hold up a sign with the word “they” to remind her.

“I love, I love that you’re constantly correcting in real time like we all do. It’s, it’s really beautiful,” said Poehler.

“And it really matters to them, and I know it matters to them. And so when I would — they first told me that it was ‘they/them,’ I tried my best, but I kept saying ‘she,'” O’Donnell said.

“And so they wrote on a cardboard paper ‘they,’ and then they would hold it up above their head every time I said ‘she,'” O’Donnell laughed, “like John Cusack in ‘Say Anything’ with the boom box, just staring at me, you know.”

O’Donnell said she eventually got the “they” tattooed in her daughter’s handwriting.

“I had it tattooed on my wrist so that I would never forget, that it would remind me,” she added. “And I thought she’d be very touched, and she didn’t give two s**ts. She could not care less.”

O’Donnell then “misgenders” her daughter in the course of telling the story.

“And I just said ‘she.’ I just did it again in the ‘they’ story,” she added. “I messed it up.”

O’Donnell’s 13-year-old daughter was named Dakota but changed her name to Clay when she began identifying as “nonbinary” in 2024. O’Donnell came out as gay in 2002 and was legally married for two years to Michelle Rounds.

O’Donnell and Rounds adopted Dakota and later fought over custody until Rounds committed suicide in 2017.

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel picks host to replace him for a bit — and she’s a vitriolic Trump-hater

O’Donnell moved from the U.S. to Ireland in 2025 and claimed that she would return once all Americans had “equal rights.”

The entire podcast episode with O’Donnell can be viewed on the show’s YouTube channel.

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​Non-binary, Rosie o’donnell, Politics 

When Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer was asked to explain key positions of her own movement, the results were incredibly revealing.

In an interview with David Remnick of the New Yorker, Romer struggled to define what “taxing the hell out of millionaires” would actually mean in practice and defended positions on Israel that would effectively eliminate the Jewish state.

“We do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires,” Romer told Remnick.

“Well, what is taxing the hell out of them?” he asked.

“I don’t have like a solid —”

“But shouldn’t you?” he interrupted.

“I mean, if you’re the co-chair of the DSA, shouldn’t you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something?” he asked. “What exactly do you mean?”

“So, again, it’s democracy, right?” she said. “And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we need. We don’t want to depend on the existence of millionaires, because that means people are still getting exploited. So yeah, we need to look at what we need to pay for in the interim, what sort of tax base we need for that to happen, and then build from there.”

“So even these psychos don’t have an answer for that,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

Romer went on to explain that she’s been a “Jon Stewart” Democrat and believes that there should be “no defense or economic support for Israel.”

“Our position is a free Palestine with the capital in Jerusalem,” she said.

“She favors a one-state solution,” Gray says. “And that state is not Israel. She doesn’t believe Israel has a right to exist.”

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​Democratic socialists, Free palestine, Megan romer, Israel, Jon stewart, Pat gray, Glenn beck, Blazetv show 

The police chief of Gainesville agreed to rescind a policy about transgender-identifying suspects after the Florida attorney general publicly challenged the rule.

The policy said that if an officer could not determine the gender of a suspect who was going to be searched, that the officer should ask the suspect to choose the gender of the officer to perform the search.

Two days before the deadline, Uthmeier reported that the police department complied.

Attorney General James Uthmeier said the rule fan afoul of the Florida Civil Rights Act.

“This policy serves no legitimate law enforcement purpose, endangers officers and detainees, and violates Florida law,” wrote Uthmeier in a letter to city officials at the end of July.

He also accused the police department of prioritizing “gender ideology over officer and detainee safety.”

Uthmeier said the policy was an unsafe and illogical requirement for female police officers.

“This is not a neutral accommodation; it imposes asymmetric burdens on females based on a mental state-gender identity-that has nothing todo with the biological considerations that must be addressed when officers search detainees,” he added. “A search policy that subordinates biology to ideology jeopardizes the safety and wellbeing of officers and detainees.”

Uthmeier gave the police chief until Aug. 15 to rescind the policy or face possible legal action from the attorney general’s office.

Two days before the deadline, Uthmeier reported that the police department complied.

RELATED: VIDEO: Democrat CAVES to trans lobby after previously warning party about alienating voters

“The City of Gainesville confirmed today that the unlawful policy has been rescinded,” he wrote in a post on social media Thursday.

He included a copy of the curt message from the city attorney he received.

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​James uthmeier, Transgender agenda, Law enforcement, Florida, Politics