Suspected provocateur specifically stated, ‘We’re here to storm the capitol. I’m not kidding.’ In a new mini-documentary diving into Jan. 6, investigative journalist Lara Logan [more…]
Category: blaze media
‘This is disgraceful’: Mamdani raked over the coals for attack on NYPD
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced sharp criticism Tuesday from lawmakers and police unions after a chaotic snowball fight in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park turned into an attack on NYPD, with agitators pelting officers with snow and ice during a major blizzard.
The incident unfolded Monday afternoon as hundreds gathered for what began as a playful snowball fight amid heavy snowfall. Police responding to reports of disorder were targeted, forcing officers to retreat into their vehicles. Videos showed individuals hurling large chunks of snow at close range, including one dumping ice on an officer’s head.
‘Back the blue and hold those who disrespect them accountable.’
No arrests have been reported, but NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal” in a statement on X.
“Our detectives are investigating this matter,” she said.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ex-Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, quickly blamed Mamdani’s history of anti-police rhetoric for fostering an environment of disrespect toward law enforcement.
“This is disgraceful. But with a mayor who has a history of calling the police ‘racist, evil, wicked and corrupt,’ he set the tone,” Cuomo posted on X. “Words have consequences. We are seeing that in the growing disrespect for law enforcement — just as we’ve seen it in the rise in antisemitism. Real leaders understand that. This mayor does not.”
Adams echoed the sentiment, saying the attack should outrage all New Yorkers.
“Watching officers get pelted with snow while they are out in brutal weather protecting this city should make every New Yorker furious. It is disgusting behavior,” he said. “And the politicians who constantly bash the police and refuse to have their backs are setting a terrible example. Leadership matters. Tone matters.”
U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, urged Mamdani and other officials to condemn the actions.
“This is disgraceful. @NYCMayor and every elected official in our city should denounce this juvenile attack on our NYPD,” she posted on X. “Back the blue and hold those who disrespect them accountable.”
Photo by BG048/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images
Another Republican congresswoman from New York, Claudia Tenney, directly attributed the incident to the mayor’s anti-cop stance: “You can thank Mamdani’s anti-police rhetoric for this.”
Police unions demanded arrests and accountability. The Police Benevolent Association called the attack “unacceptable and outrageous,” urging city leaders to condemn it and charge those involved with assault on a police officer.
Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, described it as a “deliberate, outrageous, and dangerous attack.” He called on Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to ensure prosecutions, saying: “No free pass. No get out of jail free card.”
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Politics, Mamdani, Nyc, Police attack, Police attacked, Snow
‘F**k off’: Newsom’s team erupts with profanity at reporter doing her job
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s communications team fired off a nasty response to a reporter who requested documentation of the governor’s supposed dyslexia diagnosis.
RealClearPolitics political correspondent Susan Crabtree reached out to Newsom’s taxpayer-funded communications team after Fox News’ Sean Hannity criticized the governor for mentioning his low SAT score as a way to connect with voters in a majority-black city.
‘I’m going to continue to ask tough questions despite this vitriolic attempt to intimidate me.’
Newsom “Thinks a 960 SAT Makes Him ‘Like’ Black Americans. Let That Sink In,” Hannity wrote in a post on X. Newsom replied to Hannity by noting his “lifelong struggle with dyslexia.”
Crabtree asked Newsom’s office for documentation verifying the governor’s dyslexia diagnosis, highlighting apparent contradictions in Newsom’s account of when he learned of his diagnosis. She noted that Newsom has previously claimed that he discovered the paperwork from his childhood about his dyslexia diagnosis after his father passed away in 2018.
“Newsom also has said he was diagnosed with dyslexia in 1972 — that would be when he was five or six,” Crabtree wrote. “Is there anything the governor can point to as proof of this?”
Izzy Gardon, the director of communications for Newsom’s office, replied to Crabtree, writing, “Hey, Susan — thanks for reaching out. Respectfully, f**k off.”
Newsom has stated that he struggled with dyslexia as a child and still finds it difficult to read.
“There’s certain things I can’t do, and I’m in the wrong business to not be able to do them. Meaning, I can’t read very well, and when you have to give speeches all the time … it’s hard because you can’t read a script,” Newsom said in a 2017 video interview.
He called it “horribly difficult” to read a script from a teleprompter.
Gavin Newsom. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In the 2017 video, Newsom stated that he found out he had been previously diagnosed with dyslexia “in fifth or sixth, seventh grade.”
Newsom appeared to contradict himself during an April interview, in which he said he had recently read a 350-page book in less than two hours. To finish the 11-hour audiobook in two hours, one would need to play it at 5.5 times the normal speed.
“I went through it in a quick hour and a half, almost two hours. And trust me, I don’t read very fast, but it reads at an unbelievable pace,” Newsom stated.
Gavin Newsom. Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images
Newsom “obviously doesn’t like all the California corruption we exposed in our book, ‘Fool’s Gold,’ but I’m going to continue to ask tough questions despite this vitriolic attempt to intimidate me,” Crabtree told Blaze News.
When asked whether Gardon has ever expressed similar hostility toward her previously, Crabtree said, “A few weeks ago he called me ‘delusional’ when I was asking about Newsom’s inflated claims about his ‘college baseball career’ that only amounted to — at the very most — several months on the JV team without playing in any official games.”
Blaze News contacted Gardon to ask if he would like to provide further context about Crabtree’s request or any documentation confirming Newsom’s diagnosis.
“Conspiracy MAGA blogger pivots from Bigfoot to medical record fishing. We’ll pass!” Gardon replied.
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News, Gavin newsom, Newsom, California, Susan crabtree, Politics
Team USA hero Jack Hughes defends women’s team for skipping White House visit: ‘Everything is so political’
The men’s Olympic hockey team is headed to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, but the women have other plans.
On Sunday, Team USA men’s hockey completed the sweep of the hockey category with a 2-1 overtime win against Canada, winning gold just as the USA women did days prior.
‘We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning US Women’s Hockey Team.’
After the men’s win, President Donald Trump gave the team a call in the locker room in what was a highly circulated moment of patriotic celebration.
“Unbelievable. You were all unbelievable. That team is pretty good you played,” Trump said about the Canadians.
He then invited the team to his presidential address on Tuesday.
“We could send a military plane or something. But if you would like to [attend], it’s the coolest night. … We’ll do the White House the next day.”
The president then joked, “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” or else he “probably would be impeached.”
The invitation was sincere, however, and the men unanimously agreed they would love to go to the event. The same could not be said about the women’s team though.
“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” a spokesperson for the American women began.
RELATED: Team USA’s amazing gold-medal gesture you may have missed
“Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment,” the statement added, per CNN.
Those academic commitments are likely in reference to the fact that seven of the American women on the Team USA roster are still in college.
Four players are currently playing in Wisconsin: Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton, and Kirsten Simms.
Abbey Murphy goes to Minnesota, Joy Dunne plays at Ohio State, while Tessa Janecke plays for Penn State, the NCAA noted. It is also noteworthy that 23 of the women previously played NCAA hockey as well.
For the men, the NHL schedule picks back up Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET.
Hero Jack Hughes, who scored the gold medal-winning goal, was asked about the women declining the invitation; he quickly came to their defense.
RELATED: Unpaid bill has Foxboro refusing to grant license for World Cup games at Gillette Stadium
“People are so negative out there, and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing,” Hughes said from Miami, where the team has been seen celebrating their win.
“People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them. And we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us,” the athlete continued, per the Daily Mail.
Hughes was asked about visiting the president too, to which he said the team was indeed “excited.”
“Everything is so political. We’re athletes,” he explained. “‘We’re so proud to represent the U.S., and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president, we’re proud to be Americans and that’s so patriotic.”
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Sports, Hockey, Olympics, Sotu, State of the union, Trump, White house, 2026 winter olympics, Politics
‘Despicable attack’: Brazen mob pelts NYPD officers with snowballs, multiple cops reportedly injured — and it’s all on video
A snowball-throwing mob was caught on video pelting New York City Police Department officers Monday afternoon in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, and multiple officers were injured as a result, WABC-TV reported.
Police told the station that officers responded to the park around 4 p.m. for a report of a number of people atop a roof.
‘This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against.’
Police added to WABC that the officers were then hit with snowballs, and multiple officers were taken to a hospital with facial cuts.
RELATED: DA Bragg offers plea deals to illegal aliens charged in vicious mob attack on NYPD cops
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Monday night wrote on X that she’s aware of the videos and that “the behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal.”
RELATED: Teen Tren de Aragua-linked mob ambushes NYPD in another brazen Times Square assault: Report
Tisch added that detectives are investigating.
The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York called the incident “unacceptable and outrageous,” WABC added.
“This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against. Our police officers are being treated for their injuries, but the case CANNOT end there,” the PBA said in a statement on social media, according to the station. “The individuals involved must be identified, arrested, and charged with assault on a police officer. And all of our city leaders must speak up to condemn this despicable attack.”
Scott Munro, president of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association, called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted, WABC reported.
RELATED: ‘Who would have thought?’: Mamdani takes side of knife-wielding suspect — not the cops
“No free pass. No get out of jail free card. Make no mistake: Detectives will do what they always do. They will identify those involved, and they will apprehend them,” Munro said in a statement, according to the station. “Our men and women in blue deserve to be safe. They deserve to be protected. And they deserve to be respected. They earn it every single day.”
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Snowball fight, New york city, New york city police, Cops hit with snowballs, Injuries, Nypd, Criminal, Nypd commissioner jessica tisch, Crime
Newsom’s presidential buzz needs harsh reality check over failed policies
California Governor Gavin Newsom is being touted as the Democratic Party’s next presidential hopeful, but political commentator Kevin Dalton points out that his abysmal track record might be an issue.
“Obviously, leaving severely mentally ill, drug-addicted people on the streets to their own devices isn’t working. So, two or three years ago, Gavin Newsom came up with this great idea,” Dalton tells BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere on “Stu Does America.”
The idea is called CARE Court, which is meant to address homelessness and mental illness by offering those suffering things like free housing, medication, and job training.
“So, flash forward two years, we finally get some numbers from CARE Court. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, of course, are gone. And Gavin Newsom promised that this would get around 50,000 people into the system, off the streets a year,” Dalton explains.
“I can’t even remember the exact numbers, but I think a few thousand ended up signing up, and then most of those were just kicked by the courts. … It finally spiraled down to, 22 people ended up being forced into CARE by the CARE Court,” he continues.
“This is such a perfect example of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, just going away and no results. And then Newsom just moves on to the next thing,” he adds.
Stu points out that the number spent was around a quarter of a billion dollars.
“Twenty-two people, almost a quarter of a billion dollars, absolutely amazing, even by California’s standards,” Stu says.
Meanwhile, the California wildfires have wiped out thousands of homes — and left thousands of families waiting for their permits to be approved to try to build new ones.
“In the meantime, their bills are adding up, and they’ve got these people, the corporate buyers are coming in, trying to scoop up their land now because it’s just easier. It’s just an absolute mess,” Dalton says.
“For somebody who wants to run for president, you’d think, maybe start to address the homelessness, maybe try to get people back in their homes from this apocalyptic fire,” he adds.
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Camera phone, Video phone, Sharing, Video, Free, Upload, Youtube.com, Stu does america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Care court, Gavin newsom, California, California wildfires, Kevin dalton, Democratic party, 2028 election
Here’s why Trump’s State of the Union might be more civilized, have empty seats
Democrats never miss an opportunity to don costumes, throw tantrums, and protest while President Donald Trump is addressing Congress.
For instance, some of the Democrats who refused to clap for Trump during his Jan. 30, 2018, State of the Union address also signaled their protest by wearing Kente cloths — the garb of a slave-trading African tribe. At the February 2019 SOTU, some Democrat women wore white to protest the president’s support for the unborn and other positions congressional feminists apparently find intolerable. At the president’s joint address to Congress last year, some Democrats wore pink in protest and/or booed the president.
While Trump derangement syndrome might still be colorfully displayed Tuesday evening, at least 30 Democrat lawmakers are planning to take their circus outside — which might make for a more peaceable State of the Union.
‘I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful.’
The leftist organizing group MoveOn and the propaganda outfit MeidasTouch are hosting a “counterprogramming” rally at 8 p.m. on the National Mall.
Democrat Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), and Adam Schiff (Calif.) are planning to attend, along with a horde of House Democrats including Reps. Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), Becca Balint (Vt.), Greg Casar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), and anchor-baby Rep. Delia Ramirez (Ill.).
Merkley suggested that attendance at the SOTU would serve Trump’s supposed effort to “tighten his authoritarian grip.”
Van Hollen, among the Democrats who stuck to a similar script, claimed, “Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy.”
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“He uses his speeches to pillory his political enemies and spread lies — not to mention they’re long and boring,” complained Smith.
Schiff recycled similar talking points and added, “This isn’t business as usual.”
The organizers for the “counterprogramming” event hinted that Democrats will concern-monger about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ execution of their duties, the termination of public health workers, rising costs, and other matters.
“Trump wants the attention and the ratings, but we cannot treat this year’s State of the Union like business as usual,” said MoveOn program chief Sara Haghdoosti. “That’s why MoveOn is hosting the People’s State of the Union, where we will hear directly from the people facing the consequences of Trump’s disastrous administration.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) may be relieved that his colleagues are planning to rage remotely on Tuesday.
After all, their booing and incivility were so bad at Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress last year that one lawmaker, Rep. Al Green of Texas, was later censured. Most Democrats also remained seated while Trump honored a cancer-stricken Texas boy, Devarjhaye “DJ” Daniel, and announced his deputization as a U.S. Secret Service agent.
Jeffries made clear last week to his fellow Democrats that they had two options — and more ugly protests in Congress aren’t one of them.
“The two options that are in front of us in our House [are] to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion, which will include participation in a variety of different alternate programming that is going to take place in and around the Capitol complex,” Jeffries said on Wednesday, reported The Hill.
Jeffries is not alone in wanting his colleagues to exercise some restraint.
“I don’t think that what we saw in Congress last year was particularly helpful. I think it made us the story,” Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), the cross-dressing Democrat formerly known as Tim McBride, told NOTUS. “I think this president’s unpopular policies should be the story, not sort of gestures from our side.”
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Donald trump, Boycott, Democrats, State of the union, Sotu, Protest, Leftism, Leftist, Moveon, Meidas touch, Van hollen, Senate, Politics
No new cars under $50K? Thank the government
Americans are paying more for new vehicles — and it’s not because of greedy dealers or temporary supply disruptions.
The real problem? The modern automobile has become a government-regulated platform.
This regulatory floor helps explain why many entry-level vehicles have disappeared. Automakers did not abandon affordable cars because Americans suddenly rejected them.
What once functioned primarily as personal transportation is now layered with federal mandates, compliance systems, and policy-driven technology. The cost of that transformation is embedded into every vehicle sold.
The average transaction price for a new vehicle now hovers around $48,000 to $50,000, according to Cox Automotive — nearly double what many Americans paid a decade ago. That figure is not driven primarily by dealership markups or consumer excess. It reflects a system in which regulatory requirements steadily raise the baseline cost of every vehicle before it reaches a showroom.
Dealers sell what they are allowed to sell. Consumers pay for what regulators require to be built.
Regulations stack
Unlike market innovation, federal mandates rarely replace older requirements. They stack. Safety rules, emissions standards, cybersecurity protocols, and connectivity requirements accumulate over time. Each new layer raises the minimum cost of building any vehicle, regardless of brand or segment.
Automakers no longer decide which technologies to include based solely on consumer demand. They build to regulatory specifications — and those specifications grow more complex every year.
Driver-assistance: No longer optional
Advanced driver-assistance systems are a clear example. Lane-keeping assist, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, cameras, radar units, and onboard processors were once optional upgrades. Today most are standard across model lines due to evolving federal safety expectations and liability pressures.
These systems require sensors, software calibration, processors, and constant updates. They also increase repair costs. A recent study by AAA shows that vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance features can cost 20% to 40% more to repair after collisions, in part because sensors must be recalibrated or replaced.
Whether buyers want every feature is beside the point. The technology is built in.
RELATED: Would you buy a car from Amazon?
Nicolò Campo/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Engineering complexity
Emissions regulations add another layer. Even gasoline-powered vehicles now rely on increasingly sophisticated emissions control systems, specialized materials, and complex software calibration to meet tightening federal and state standards.
These systems improve measurable compliance outcomes, but they also increase engineering complexity and production cost. Manufacturers cannot legally offer simplified alternatives that fall outside regulatory thresholds.
Computers on wheels
Modern vehicles are now rolling computer networks. Federal standards increasingly require data systems, cybersecurity protections, over-the-air update capability, and integrated monitoring infrastructure.
Hardware, antennas, processors, software validation, and compliance testing all add cost. None of it is optional at scale. Once these systems are embedded into vehicle architecture, they become permanent cost centers.
‘Kill-switch’ costs
One of the least discussed provisions of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires the installation of advanced driver monitoring systems designed to detect impairment in future vehicles. Critics have labeled this a “kill-switch” mandate because the rule requires technology capable of preventing operation under certain conditions.
Regardless of terminology, implementing such systems requires additional hardware, sensors, software integration, validation, and certification. Even before activation or enforcement details are finalized, the design and compliance costs are already being built into pricing structures.
When every manufacturer must comply, there is no competitive pressure to eliminate the expense.
Tariffs and supply chains
Tariffs compound the issue. Import duties on vehicles and automotive components affect not only foreign-built cars but also vehicles assembled in the United States that rely on global supply chains. Steel, aluminum, semiconductors, and specialized materials all move through international networks.
When tariffs raise component costs, those increases flow downstream. Automakers do not absorb them indefinitely. Dealers do not control them. Buyers ultimately pay.
Extinct entry-level
This regulatory floor helps explain why many entry-level vehicles have disappeared. Automakers did not abandon affordable cars because Americans suddenly rejected them. They exited those segments because compliance costs made lower-margin models difficult to sustain profitably.
When the baseline cost of meeting regulatory requirements approaches what buyers can reasonably pay for a basic vehicle, the product becomes economically unviable.
Shrinking used-car market
The used-car market offers limited relief. As new vehicles become more expensive, consumers hold onto existing cars longer. According to S&P Global Mobility, the average age of vehicles on American roads has climbed to nearly 13 years, an all-time high.
Fewer late-model trade-ins tighten supply. Prices rise. Regulatory-driven cost increases in the new-car market ripple outward and affect every segment.
EV expenses
Electric vehicles illustrate the same dynamic. Federal incentives, emissions targets, battery sourcing rules, and manufacturing credits shape production decisions and model availability. While battery costs have declined over time, compliance requirements and policy alignment continue to influence pricing and product mix.
For many households, the upfront cost of EVs remains significantly higher than comparable gasoline models — even after incentives.
Fixed costs
The expectation that prices will fall once supply stabilizes misunderstands how regulatory-cost structures function. Supply constraints can ease. Compliance costs rarely do.
As long as vehicles are treated as platforms for policy implementation rather than purely consumer goods, the floor price will continue to rise.
High vehicle prices are not simply a market fluctuation. They are, to a significant degree, a policy outcome.
And until policymakers reckon with the cumulative cost of regulatory layering, the $50,000 vehicle will increasingly become the norm — not the exception.
Lifestyle, Auto industry, Car prices, Emissions, Ev mandate, Kill switch, Align cars
Make your own record player: A simple project with a profound lesson
We live in a scaled-up, real-world version of the classic children’s board game “Mousetrap.” The built world is over-engineered, too interdependent, and so precarious that a slight disturbance might bring the whole thing down.
The interconnected, precarious Rube Goldberg contraption that is modern society has more than just rolling balls and baskets and levers. Our real, physical-world interdependencies include reliance on digital algorithms and computing devices that no one can intuitively understand. It’s the worst of both worlds, physical and electronic.
This is a real-world lesson in physics and mechanics that teaches universal principles that can never be altered by whim or historical vogue.
A friend’s internet service went out recently. Even though she was able to get a human staff member on the phone, that human wouldn’t talk to her to even confirm that the company recognized that she was a paying customer.
Why? Because she couldn’t log in to her email on another device and recite a “one-time code.” Remember, she was calling because she didn’t have internet access. Cell signals in rural states are often insufficient for internet use. You see the problem.
Everything is like this, but everyone is acting like this is the way things have always been. It’s not true. There is no reason to live this way. It is not a natural law. The overcomplicated world is not something that just “happened.”
This setup is a result of choices. Disconnected choices, yes. There’s no central mind that has created our society. There’s no single controlling cabal that has engineered the way we live, communicate, procure food, or any of that. There are powerful interests, legal and commercial, that influence our society more than you and I as individuals can influence it. But it’s not a conspiracy in the classic sense. It’s a result of accumulated errors. We need a reset.
Memories of the analog world
1979. My family slipped away from Tully, New York, in the dead of night by means of my grandmother’s silver Buick Electra. The Buick told you that she had a V-8 through the distinctive muffled bass rumble from twin tailpipes. She was what I call an “honest mechanical.”
We boarded the Amtrak to cross the country so my stepfather, a glassblower who specialized in making electrodes, could find a job. There was nothing left for a working-class man in Upstate New York in the 1970s.
On arrival in Los Angeles, my Uncle Lee and Aunt Sherry were waiting in a 1979 lemon-yellow Cadillac Coupe de Ville. A Cadillac. I was going to ride in a Cadillac!
The trunk mechanism on my Uncle Lee’s Cadillac was my first introduction to what I would later think of as overcomplicated or dishonest mechanicals. It did this amazing thing I had never seen before. The trunk lid raised and lowered all by itself, untouched by human hands. After my mother loaded the last suitcase into the cavernous trunk, the enormous yellow deck lid silently, slowly crept downward. When the lid reached the latch, the mechanism slowed down to a crawl to give you a “soft and silent” latch.
Today, my base-model Toyota has all those bells and whistles plus more. The “more” is the irritating part. Nothing in the car is controlled mechanically or directly. Everything is drive-by-wire. The car decides when to spin the wheels when stuck in snow, even though I could do a better job if I were allowed to control the traction. Even the heater fan and lights are programmed to slowly, softly ramp up and ramp down, as if a too-sudden onset of sound or light would strike the driver with apoplexy.
Man and machine
The legend of John Henry both horrified and fascinated me as a child. The steel-driving man of folklore tried to prove he was as good as the new-fangled steam drill at chipping out a tunnel to lay track. John Henry swung his sledgehammer until his muscle fibers broke and he died exhausted on the ground, while the steam piston kept reciprocating.
I understood that this tale from America’s railroad age was really about our present. It was obvious to me even as a kid in the 80s: Machines were crowding out the men. The mechanization of work inverted our values; humans had to live up to the demands and preferences of machine logic, not the other way around.
John Henry’s last act was a way of saying, “I am a man, and I live.”
RELATED: America needs mechanics; here’s where to apply
Getty Images/Heritage Images
Honest mechanicals
Honest mechanicals are machines that can be observed, understood, and intuited. They show their works; nothing is hidden from the hands or the eyes. Compare honest mechanicals to modern digital devices. Call those devices “black boxes” whose function cannot be observed, understood, intuited, or reverse-engineered by human senses alone.
Black boxes (computers of various sorts) are not mechanicals at all. They don’t have levers or pulleys or counterweights, or sprockets, or escapements. They have invisible states of magnetic orientation. You cannot see the works with your eyes, and the complexity of a chipset is beyond the human mind’s ability to grasp.
A piece of photographic film with a light-sensitive emulsion that forms an image is an honest mechanical. The image is readable by the human eye.
A .jpg picture file is a black box. The image cannot be read or intuited by humans without another black box we call a computer.
A steam locomotive is an honest mechanical. Observe that you can understand how the machine turns heat into steam, turns steam pressure into lateral force, and then translates lateral force into rotary motion, thus moving the train and its passengers along.
You can intuit an honest mechanical. And if you have children, especially boys, I recommend that you introduce them to honest mechanicals. Show them how steam engines work. Show them a cutaway of an internal-combustion automobile engine. Let them take apart a blender or a stand mixer to see how electric motors produce rotary motion.
Here’s an easy hands-on lesson you can and should do with your kids, starting at about age 4. It doesn’t matter that the lesson uses “obsolete” technology. That is a benefit. This is a real-world lesson in physics and mechanics that teaches universal principles that can never be altered by whim or historical vogue.
Make your own record player
Materials:
1 33 and 1/3 long-playing record album — one that’s scratched that you don’t care about1 #2 pencilconstruction paperScotch tape1 sewing needle
Instructions:
Form the construction paper into a cone and tape together. Tape the sewing needle securely to the small end of the cone. Think of an old gramophone with a needle attached to a brass horn — that’s what you’re doing.
Put the pencil inside the center hole of the record. Spin the record like a toy top, and help your kid lower the needle-in-a-cone onto the guide groove at the edge of the record.
Magically, you’ll hear the sound on the record, slightly amplified by the paper cone. Sure, it’ll be at the wrong speed, and maybe you won’t be able to parse the words. But you and your kid will immediately understand basic sound recording and reproduction. You will understand that sound can be transcribed as a wave form that can take real-world, physical form in the bumps and pits of a piece of material.
Most importantly, your child will understand that the material world actually exists and that it is analog.
This matters. It matters more than you probably know. Modern young people have grown up in a world of portable computers and phone screens that appear to show them reality, but that do nothing but arrange points of light into virtual simulations. Have you noticed that young Millennials and younger seem not only put off and frightened by simple mechanical technology — mechanical telephones, cars that use a clutch and a gear shift — but almost disgusted and embarrassed by devices from just a generation ago?
This is not merely the universal plaint of the old about the shortcomings of the young. The world today is different to an extreme degree from the world of just one or two generations ago. Young people don’t know how to get around town without GPS, they’re frightened to get driver’s licenses at 16, and few can even whip up a basic meal on a stovetop. Why would they know these things when they’ve been reared to believe that food and transportation just “happen” by sliding your fingers along an iPhone touchscreen?
Do what you can to ground yourself (first) and your kids and grandkids back inside the real, physical, material, analog world. Remember what John Henry knew: We are men and women, and we live.
Lifestyle, Culture, Diy, Build your own, Analog, Digital, Tech, Parenthood, Education, How to, Intervention
FDA caution is starting to look like cruelty to sick kids
Biomedical research has produced extraordinary breakthroughs that have saved countless lives. But too many promising drugs now stall in federal review, and children with rare diseases are paying the price.
I’m a bioscientist. My work has focused on how healthy cells function and how that knowledge can be applied to therapeutic enzyme development. I’ve spent my career working inside the disciplines that move a treatment from lab bench to patient: protocol design, reproducibility, evidence standards, and layered human testing to ensure safety.
Is this simply bureaucracy doing what bureaucracy does? Or are rare pediatric therapies effectively facing a higher bar inside the system?
Standards, evidence, and process matter. But so does urgency.
Children with rare diseases do not live on regulatory timelines. They lose function month by month — speech, mobility, independence, even the ability to breathe on their own.
Of the more than 6,800 known rare diseases, about 70% begin in childhood. Better-known examples include Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Gaucher disease, and cystic fibrosis.
Developing therapies for these children is difficult, expensive, and slow even under the best conditions. Treatments such as Ultragenyx’s UX111 for Sanfilippo syndrome, Sarepta’s Elevidys for Duchenne, and Regenxbio’s RGX-121 for Hunter syndrome can take decades to develop, years to move through trials, and still more time to reach the children who need them.
That reality makes avoidable regulatory delay even harder to defend.
Too often, applications do not stall because the underlying science has failed. They stall over manufacturing or procedural concerns — in many cases, issues that are fixable and not directly tied to whether the therapy is clinically helping patients. Those delays can undermine the purpose of the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, which exists to move critical treatments to patients faster while additional data is collected.
As a scientist, I was particularly troubled by the FDA’s recent rejection of a promising Hunter syndrome treatment and by yet another clinical hold placed on its development despite positive trial results.
That raises an uncomfortable question: Does the review process itself need review?
RELATED: The FDA is undermining a culture of life inside and outside the womb
Bill Oxford via iStock/Getty Images
The approval path for UX111 is another example. The therapy went through the rigorous biologics license application process, only to be delayed by a manufacturing hold.
Elevidys offers a similarly painful lesson. More than 1,200 Duchenne patients received the treatment over three years. Then, after two non-ambulatory patients (including one with underlying complications) tragically died, the FDA pulled the treatment from all patients, leaving families crushed and panicked.
Children are waiting too long for access to potentially life-changing therapies.
Yes, medical breakthroughs have increased. But so have regulatory burdens tied to approval and release. By the time many of these therapies reach the market, a decade or more has passed. In rare pediatric disease, that delay has a name: time children do not have.
Sometimes, it is their entire lifetime.
Manufacturing processes can be improved. Facilities can be upgraded. Paperwork can be corrected.
Lost neurons and muscle fibers cannot be replaced.
FDA leaders, along with Congress and the White House, should push for a smarter accelerated approval process — one that allows multiple requirements to be addressed simultaneously when appropriate, instead of serially dragging out timelines. If regulatory review had moved more efficiently, the Sanfilippo treatment might have cleared on its original 2025 approval timeline. Duchenne patients might not have lost access to the only available gene therapy. Hunter syndrome patients might not still be waiting.
This debate is not about abandoning safety or efficacy standards.
Ultragenyx has said manufacturing improvements are addressable and not directly related to product quality. Sarepeta responded to FDA concerns over Elevidys by requesting black-box warnings while allowing treatment to continue for ambulatory patients. In the RGX-121 Hunter syndrome case, the FDA rejected the use of a long-accepted biomarker (cerebrospinal fluid) used in the trial.
RELATED: ‘Hold Big Pharma accountable’: Vaxx giants are sure to be nervous about Rand Paul’s new bill
Drs Producoes via iStock/Getty Images
These decisions do not help children with rare diseases. Timely, science-based approvals would.
And the stakes go beyond today’s patients. Regulatory efficiency also affects whether companies continue investing in rare-disease therapies at all. Orphan drug development requires major upfront investment, long timelines, and often poor financial returns. In many cases, these programs are closer to philanthropic science than blockbuster pharma economics.
When developers face repeated slowdowns across different diseases, sponsors, and technologies for reasons unrelated to core clinical safety or efficacy, the signal to the market is clear: Don’t take the risk.
That is how innovation gets smothered.
At some point, the pattern at the FDA becomes impossible to ignore. Is this simply bureaucracy doing what bureaucracy does? Or are rare pediatric therapies effectively facing a higher bar inside the system?
Those are scientific and ethical questions that deserve honest answers.
Accelerated approval does not mean lower standards. It means applying standards intelligently. It means allowing earlier access while confirming evidence continues to accumulate. It means recognizing that “wait and see” is not neutral. It is a choice that guarantees disease progression in children who cannot afford delay.
Good science and compassion are not competing values. We can maintain rigor and still act with urgency.
The FDA has the authority. The science is moving. The children cannot wait.
Accelerated approval is not cutting corners. It is using every tool we have to save time families do not have.
Opinion & analysis, Fda approval, Fda regulations, Rare diseases, Childhood disease, Sick kids, Food and drug administration, Bureaucracy, Red tape, Science, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Gaucher disease, Cystic fibrosis, Healthcare, Hunter syndrome
This restaurant’s surprise reply to unpatriotic HuffPost article takes the gold
After an incredibly eventful week of Olympic victories for Team USA, one leftist outlet got what it had coming when it said that feeling patriotic was “yucky.”
While hundreds of accounts roasted the author and the article, one three-word reply from a restaurant stole the spotlight and left the HuffPost the clear loser in the exchange.
‘This is the only acceptable response to HuffPost.’
HuffPost’s original post on Saturday, captioned, “If waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone,” received a simple comment from Jimmy’s Famous Seafood.
“Go f**k yourself,” the family-owned restaurant’s account said Sunday.
RELATED: HuffPost gets absolutely scorched over article saying Olympics patriotism feels ‘yucky’
Photo by Carolyn Van Houten/Washington Post/Getty Images
Many major accounts announced that Jimmy’s Famous Seafood had earned a follow in the wake of the viral reply.
“This is the only acceptable response to HuffPost,” Nick Sortor said.
“Okay do you have locations in Florida patriot?” BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre asked.
“Only one location — family owned and operated. We ship to all 50 states however!” the account replied.
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood is based in Baltimore, Maryland, where it has been operating since 1974.
At the time of writing, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood had just under 360,000 followers on X. Its reply received over 13 million views, compared to 10 million views of HuffPost’s original article.
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Virginia man allegedly used meat cleaver to ‘butcher’ his family before being shot to death by police
Virginia police said a meat cleaver attack in Virginia left a scene described as a “bloodbath” after they shot and killed the alleged attacker.
Fairfax County Police responded to a call Monday from inside a residence at the Margate Manor apartment complex in Mantua, as well as from a neighbor.
‘I can’t imagine anything would compel anyone to butcher a family.’
The alleged attacker was described as a man in his fifties who used a 10-inch knife similar to a meat cleaver to attack his wife as well as his daughter, according to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis.
The man’s son-in-law was outside clearing snow from the top of his car when he heard the commotion coming from inside the residence, according to police.
When he responded, he found his father-in-law stabbing his wife and then turning to attack the son-in-law.
Davis said officers found the man attacking the son-in-law when they arrived, and he ignored commands to stop.
“Our officer gave repeated commands — one after another after another — to this perpetrator, the father-in-law, to drop the knife, drop the knife,” he said. “Not only does he not drop the knife, but he proceeds to stab the son-in-law.”
An officer opened fire on the man and killed him.
All three victims were transported to a hospital, where the two women were later declared dead. The injured son-in-law remains in critical condition.
Police also found a child in the residence, but the 1-year-old baby of the younger couple was unharmed. The baby is under the care of child protective services while police seek to identify family members.
“To describe this scene as bloody would be an understatement,” Davis said.
RELATED: 19-year-old drove for 22 hours straight to kidnap 2 underage girls he met on Roblox game, police say
Davis said there had been no previous domestic violence calls at the residence, or any other calls. He defended the actions of his officer and said the bodycam footage supported that he followed use-of-force policies.
Police have not yet released the names of the alleged assailant or of the victims.
“We don’t know yet what turmoil, what strife is happening in their lives, but I can’t imagine anything would compel anyone to butcher a family,” Davis added.
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Waiting to exhale? Trump’s EPA just made it possible.
The Trump administration has rescinded the Obama administration’s 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding for gases such as carbon dioxide. You may now exhale without worrying that the carbon dioxide in your breath will contribute to global warming.
After all, with 8.3 billion people on the planet exhaling an average of 2.3 pounds of CO2 per person per day, roughly 9.5 million tons of CO2 are respired into the atmosphere daily. That is a lot of hot air — literally.
If you have been holding your breath while waiting for more sensible environmental regulations that focus on both people and the planet, you may now breathe easier.
Fortunately, plants use the air we exhale. It is part of the life cycle that sustains a healthy biosphere. Add the full carbon cycle — in which carbon is sequestered and released throughout the living and nonliving components of the global ecosystem — and a natural balance is generally maintained.
The serious question has been whether human activity, especially the increasing use of fossil fuels since the late 1800s, has tipped that balance.
The major “consensus science” conclusions tied to the endangerment finding include the confident assertion that modern climate change can be attributed to people burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. According to one professional organization, these human-caused changes “are larger and faster than any humanity is known to have endured over the last 10,000 years.” The same view also holds that many harmful impacts already under way will intensify and outweigh any benefits.
Yet another perspective deserves consideration. One of the greatest forces lifting people out of poverty has been the burning of fossil fuels. The progression from coal to oil to natural gas — along with advances in pollution controls — has helped produce dramatically higher living standards in societies that use their energy resources well.
Arguably, the human-caused improvements in comfort, productivity, and longevity made possible by fossil fuels are also “larger and faster than any humanity is known to have [enjoyed] over the last 10,000 years.”
As for harmful impacts, the rhetorical pattern often looks familiar: find an extraordinary weather event and blame it on anthropogenic global warming. Extreme heat? Human activity. Extreme cold — as the United States recently experienced? Human activity again.
At least most scientists acknowledge that positive effects exist. These include substantial increases in global vegetation and the advantages of warmer temperatures over colder ones for human well-being and development.
RELATED: 5 truths the climate cult can’t bury any more
Khanchit Khirisutchalual via iStock/Getty Images
Any honest assessment of climate change and its effects on people, infrastructure, and the natural world should weigh both benefits and harms. Complex systems demand that kind of accounting.
The current retraction of the endangerment finding will be a particular breath of fresh air for the auto industry. In essence, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that it “lacks statutory authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act to prescribe standards for [greenhouse gas] emissions” from “new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines.”
According to the EPA:
As a result of these changes, engine and vehicle manufacturers no longer have any future obligations for the measurement, control, and reporting of [greenhouse gas] emissions for any highway engine and vehicle, including model years manufactured prior to this final rule. This final action is only related to [greenhouse gas] emissions and does not affect regulations on any traditional air pollutants. Rather, this action realigns EPA’s regulatory framework with the best reading of the CAA, which does not authorize EPA to regulate [greenhouse gas] emissions from new motor vehicles.
As the agency notes, traditional health-based air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone, particulate matter, lead, and carbon monoxide — not CO2 — are unaffected by this EPA action.
So if you have been holding your breath while waiting for more sensible environmental regulations that focus on both people and the planet, you may now breathe easier.
Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.
Opinion & analysis, Epa, Environmental protection agency, Climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions, Carbon dioxide, Co2 emissions, Breathing, Regulations, Supreme court, Greenhouse gas endangerment finding, Barack obama, Donald trump, Science, Clean air act, Humanity
Are we finally getting the truth about aliens?
The alien debate has taken a turn after former president Barack Obama casually stated in an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen that aliens are “real” — but they’re not where the public may believe them to be.
“Are aliens real?” Cohen asked Obama on “No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen.”
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama told Cohen, before adding that “they’re not being kept in … Area 51.”
“There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,” he said.
However, while Obama confirmed the existence of aliens, President Donald Trump went on to criticize the former president’s admission.
“He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that, you know. I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that. He made a big mistake,” Trump replied when asked about Obama’s claims by a reporter.
While Trump’s initial reaction was not to discuss Obama’s admission, he then went on to announce on Truth Social that he would be releasing government files on aliens to the public.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump wrote in his post.
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is thrilled that both Obama and Trump seem to be alluding to the existence of aliens as a fact — and that the public may soon finally know what’s really out there.
“We now have a former president who has said, ‘Yes, aliens are real, but they’re not at Area 51.’ And now we have a current president saying, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have shared that; that’s classified information.’ It feels like we now have two presidents, two people who would know, admitting that aliens exist,” Gonzales comments.
“It feels a whole lot like Donald Trump let it slip,” she adds.
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Chris Hemsworth says moving out of Los Angeles to Australia was the ‘greatest decision’ of his life
Actor Chris Hemsworth said he moved his family back to Australia from Los Angeles partly because the film industry is no longer operating in the California metropolis.
The “Thor” star made the comments while a guest on the “SmartLess” podcast with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.
‘You know when you come back from work, you wanna go on a holiday? Like, coming home for me is — it feels like a holiday.’
“It was right around the time my boys were born, and it was just, we kind of were set up in L.A. and not enjoying it, you know? Like, nothing was shooting there. We were filming kind of everywhere else,” he explained.
The film industry has been on the decline in Los Angeles, as movie theater productions take advantage of tax incentives offered by other states and countries.
The 42-year-old went on to say the move to Australia was the “greatest decision” he’s ever made.
“You’d come home and paparazzi and all the sort of the trappings of, you know, living in that space,” he added.
He also complained that living in Los Angeles meant they lived far too close to their neighbors.
“You know when you come back from work, you wanna go on a holiday? Like, coming home for me is — it feels like a holiday. We have a big farm and horses and motorbikes and surf,” he added.
He described his own idyllic childhood in Australia as part of the reason he was inspired to become an actor.
“It was just all bush land and rainforest sort of set up around us,” he said. “And so we would just [have] … outdoors adventures and playing different characters. And I think that’s, to be honest, where the sort of intrigue or interest into that transportation into another.”
RELATED: Legendary director Steven Spielberg abandons California as debate over billionaire tax heats up
President Donald Trump threatened to put a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the U.S. in order to boost the film industry in California.
“California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!” Trump wrote in Sept. 2025. “Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”
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Canadian politician faces fierce backlash over message to ‘2SLGBTQIA+’ members caught in Mexican cartel chaos
As Mexico continues to burn in the wake of the capture and death of a major drug cartel leader, one Canadian politician is being ridiculed for her bizarre response.
Parts of Puerto Vallarta went up in blazes after authorities said Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed during an operation by the Mexican army in Tapalpa, Jalisco.
‘I trust the cartel has taken the appropriate DEI training to respond appropriately.’
While many lawmakers have expressed concern for their constituents who were caught up in the Mexican conflagration, House of Commons member Heather McPherson was especially worried about “2SLGBTQIA+” people.
“Many Canadians, especially members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, are in Puerto Vallarta, where violence has quickly escalated. A shelter-in-place order is in effect,” McPherson wrote in a post Sunday on social media.
“Please stay vigilant and consult the Government of Canada travel advisories for Mexico,” she added.
The expanded woke acronym refers to two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual people.
Many online scolded McPherson for focusing on the gender identity agenda when Canadians were under potentially lethal threat in Mexico.
“Can you meet with and pressure the Mexican cartel terror groups to be 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive?” journalist Andy Ngo responded.
“Why ‘especially members of the 2SLGBTQIA+’? Do you value their lives more than the rest of the alphanumeric digit lives out there because you hope they’ll vote for you?” journalist Dahlia Kurtz replied.
“Not progressive enough! Next time I want a land acknowledgement before hitting the trans button please,” documentarian Tim Thielmann said.
“I trust the cartel has taken the appropriate DEI training to respond appropriately,” activist Eva Chipiuk joked.
“How are those Canadians in PV different from non-alphabet Canadians in PV? Why are you like this?” another popular response reads.
“My mother is in Mexico right now, which I confirmed last night, is safe, not someone you’d care about because she’s not part of your alphabet gang. Do you see how dumb your post is?” another detractor said.
RELATED: Mexico hands over 26 high-ranking alleged drug cartel figures to US for prosecution
“WTH, you should delete this post, many Albertans are in Mexico and may be stranded regardless of sexual preference! This is not a time for politics it is a time for unity towards all stranded Albertans,” another user said.
Cervantes, the founder of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, controlled a vast criminal organization that specialized in smugging cocaine, methamphetamines, fentanyl, and illegal aliens into the U.S. His death leaves a power vacuum that is unlikely to be resolved without further bloodshed.
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2slgbtqia movement, Woke canadian politician, Heather mcpherson, Mexican cartel violence, Politics
Rob Reiner’s 32-year-old son Nick — accused of fatally stabbing his parents — enters plea
Rob Reiner’s 32-year-old son Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of his parents in December, the Associated Press reported.
Nick Reiner’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, entered the plea on her client’s behalf as he stood “behind glass in an enclosed custody area of the packed Los Angeles courtroom,” the AP said.
‘We will be looking at all aggravating and mitigating circumstances.’
Nick Reiner has been held without bail since his arrest after his famed Hollywood director father and his mother, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead Dec. 14 at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, the AP said.
The outlet added that Reiner appeared in court with his head shaved and wearing brown jail clothes — but notably not the suicide prevention smock he donned in his first court appearance in December.
The judge told Reiner to return to court April 29 for the scheduling of a preliminary hearing where prosecutors will present evidence — and a judge will decide if there’s enough of it to proceed to trial, the AP said.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said his office hasn’t decided if it will seek the death penalty for Reiner, the AP said.
Hochman added that the death penalty decision “goes through a very rigorous process. We will be looking at all aggravating and mitigating circumstances,” the outlet noted.
Notably, Reiner’s not guilty plea is common for criminal defendants at this stage of a case, the AP said.
Reiner’s high-powered former attorney, Alan Jackson, said last month he had to quit the case due to “circumstances beyond our control — but more importantly beyond Nick’s control.”
Jackson added at the time that he was “legally and ethically prohibited from explaining all the reasons why” he withdrew from the case but noted that he and his team “remain deeply, deeply committed to Nick Reiner and his best interests.”
Jackson also told reporters that “we’re not just convinced — we know — that the legal process will reveal the true facts of the circumstances surrounding this case, Nick’s case” and that “we’ve investigated this matter top to bottom, back to front. What we’ve learned — and you can take this to the bank — is that pursuant to the laws of this state, pursuant to the law in California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder. Print that! Print that!”
Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said Monday that his office is still awaiting a full autopsy report in the case, but all other evidence has been turned over to the defense, the AP noted.
Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, died from “multiple sharp force injuries,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said in initial findings, the outlet also reported, adding that authorities said they were killed hours before the bodies were discovered.
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These big-name Democrats just flipped on borders — but here’s why John Doyle says it’s a scam
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama both made recent statements pertaining to necessary limitations around immigration.
At the Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 14, the former Secretary of State said, “There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration. It went too far. It’s been disruptive and destabilizing, and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people.”
In the same weekend, the former president shared a similar sentiment on the “No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen” podcast: “We’re a nation of laws. We have borders, and we’ve got to figure out an immigration policy that is orderly and that is fair and is enforced in a sensible way that is compatible with our values. … We’ve got to accommodate the reality that the majority of the American people think that there’s a difference between somebody who’s a U.S. citizen and somebody who’s not, and that they want an orderly immigration system.”
While some perceived these statements as backtracking on their former rhetoric, BlazeTV host John Doyle says these big Democrat players haven’t backtracked — or even softened — their immigration stance at all.
“What this rhetoric is, first of all, is a strategy,” he says.
All this talk of secure borders and orderly systems, he argues, isn’t contrition or concession but rather calculated damage control after Democrats suffered politically from their mass migration policies.
“When they’re making this kind of sentiment more publicly known, that is not because they’re actually thinking about renegotiating, going back to the drawing board, taking the whole thing back to formula, reworking their immigration policy. This is about securing gains. That’s all it is,” Doyle says.
“This is about taking your chips and cashing out and saying, ‘Hey, we’re not crazy. We’re not running on that platform anymore. We just want it to be humane.”’
He expresses concern that many Americans — specifically those who have been “propagandized into wanting to believe that the Democrats are the good guys” — will be duped by this false humility.
“The answer from Republicans has to just be calling them out on this and doubling down and saying, like, ‘OK, put your money where your mouth is, then. Why are you impeding ICE? Why are you flirting with secession rhetoric, civil war rhetoric?”’ he declares.
“There has been no meaningful opposition from the Democrat Party to mass immigration. They understand it is the best thing that could ever happen to them politically,” he adds, claiming that “anti-elite, anti-exceptionalism, egalitarianism, state-enforced equality” are ideologies they “have no intention of ever going back on.”
When “big players” like Hillary Clinton and Obama “get into a microphone and say, ‘No, no, no, no — that stuff is extreme; we’re not that guy anymore. … But it does have to be humane,”’ it’s a “weapon,” he says, to secure their past gains on immigration, calm anxious swing voters, pull moderates back into the Democrat fold, and set a trap for Republicans to ease up on enforcement.
It’s “the perfect recipe,” Doyle says.
To hear more of his commentary, watch the video above.
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State of the Union 2026: Are we still one nation under God?
Blaze Media fans, mark your calendars! Tomorrow night, President Trump will deliver the 2026 State of the Union address. The speech starts at 9 p.m. ET, but we’ve got an entire evening planned just for you.
With pre- and post-speech shows featuring some of our top talent, including Allie Beth Stuckey, Stu Burguiere, Steve Deace, and more of your favorite BlazeTV hosts, this is an event you don’t want to miss.
The SOTU goes way deeper than mere policy updates. Virtue, sovereignty, and constitutional limits — these are the pillars that must stand if we’re to survive as a nation.
While many will be reacting to the speech, Blaze Media will be asking the questions that matter most: Are we still one nation under God? Are we strengthening families? Preserving liberty? Living with moral responsibility?
We’re diving into the full gamut of issues: the housing crisis and its impact on family formation, immigration and national sovereignty, the limits and proper role of government, and other critical topics.
Don’t miss out! Join us for the pre-show at 7:30 p.m. ET as our hosts set the stage for what’s sure to be a historic speech, and stick around for our 10 p.m. ET post-show, where the hosts will dissect Trump’s address and field personal questions from BlazeTV subscribers.
Don’t have a BlazeTV subscription yet? Join today with code SOTU40 for $40 off, and get full access to tomorrow’s SOTU event — pre-show, speech, post-analysis, live backstage commentary during the address, and a chance to ask our hosts questions!
We’re fired up to watch history unfold with you. Join us live for the full Blaze Media breakdown, and let’s unpack it all together!
If you aren’t ready to subscribe to BlazeTV yet, be sure to set your notifications to watch our limited free stream here:
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‘He meant that s**t’: Actors rage after man with Tourette’s yells N-word during award show
A man who was being honored at an award show caused controversy by yelling “n*****” while two black actors were on stage.
A movie about a man with Tourette’s syndrome won multiple awards over the weekend at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, Britain’s Oscars equivalent.
‘Tourette’s makes you say that?’
John Davidson, the inspiration for the film, was in the audience to see “I Swear” take home three trophies, but the event was not without controversy related to his affliction.
Jarring outburst
As actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for best visual effects — the first award of the night — Davidson was heard yelling the N-word, causing an abrupt pause in the show until Lindo decided to carry on with the presentation.
According to the Mirror, Davidson was also heard shouting phrases like “shut the f**k up” and “boring” during the award show, and even said “f**k you” during the presentation for the best children’s and family film.
However, several Hollywood personalities took issue with Davidson’s racial slur, with one even saying it was not an accident.
RELATED: With Sundance gone, Utah bets on AI film festival as a force for ‘social change’
‘Infuriating’ reaction
After writer Jemele Hill asked if “Black people are just supposed to be ok with being disrespected and dehumanized so that other people don’t feel bad,” actor Wendell Pierce (“The Wire”) added that he felt the reason behind the cursing did not matter.
“It’s infuriating that the first reaction wasn’t complete and full throatted [sic] apologies to Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan,” he wrote on X. “The insult to them takes priority. It doesn’t matter the reasoning for the racist slur.”
Actor and singer Jamie Foxx took his statements one step further and claimed Davidson meant what he said.
“Nah he meant that s**t,” Foxx wrote in response to the video on Instagram, the Guardian reported.
Foxx made additional comments, including, “Out of all the words, you could’ve said Tourette’s makes you say that?” Foxx added, followed by, “Unacceptable.”
RELATED: ‘Looksmaxxing’ king Clavicular: Charles Atlas for the TikTok era?
Royal ruckus
Davidson has been a well-known activist for his syndrome in the U.K. for decades since he appeared in a BBC documentary in 1989 called “John’s Not Mad.”
He has previously admitted that he yelled, “F**k the Queen,” when he met the late monarch.
According to advocacy group Tourette Association of America, the phenomenon is known as coprolalia and affects a small percentage of those with Tourette’s.
The inability to control “obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks” comes from the “overwhelming urge” to twitch, shout, or swear.
“The particular manifestation of such language may have to do with the individual’s stronger emotional content in certain parts of the brain” but is “not indicative of their personal convictions (such as in the context of racial slurs).”
The BBC apologized for the remarks heard on air, with a spokesperson saying, “Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA Film Awards 2026. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette’s syndrome, and was not intentional. We apologise for any offence caused by the language heard.”
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Align, Britain, Uk, Tourette’s, Woke, Hollywood, Actors, Racism, Entertainment
Swalwell surges in California governor’s race — but Republican candidate still leads, says new poll
The race for the governor’s office in California has seen a shake-up, according to a new poll that has a Democratic candidate taking over the number two spot.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D) is now leading the Democratic pack, while on the Republican side, Fox News contributor Steve Hilton has been able to pull ahead of Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco.
‘The Republican electorate in California is split. … Democratic voters have not yet clearly coalesced around one candidate.’
However, 21% of the California electorate continues to be undecided and could completely upend the contest after more voters pick a candidate.
California has an open primary system that has the two top candidates, regardless of party affiliation, proceed to go head-to-head in the general election.
Hilton garnered support from 17% of the respondents to the Emerson College/Inside California Politics survey, while Swalwell came in at 14%, which is tied with the 14% supporting Bianco.
Bianco has been hammered by Hilton for being photographed kneeling with protesters during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and for skipping a gubernatorial debate.
Former Rep. Katie Porter (D) came in third place in the poll with 10% support, but that is a drop from the 11% she garnered in Dec. 2025. Porter’s campaign has been stymied by reports that she harassed her staff and also from damaging accusations from her ex-husband.
Billionaire leftist Tom Steyer saw a surge from his ad spending in California, but he still came in fourth place despite more than doubling his support from 4% two months ago to 9% in the current poll.
“The Republican electorate in California is split between Steve Hilton (38%) and Chad Bianco (37%), while Hilton also picks up a plurality of independent voter support at 22%,” said Emerson College Polling executive director Spencer Kimball.
“Democratic voters have not yet clearly coalesced around one candidate: 23% of Democrats support Eric Swalwell, 14% support Porter, 12% Steyer and 22% are undecided,” he added.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom got some bad news in the new poll as well.
His approval rating has dropped from 47% to 44%, while his disapproval rating has spiked from 39% to 45%, for a net approval rating crashing down 9 percentage points.
Californians were decidedly negative toward President Donald Trump according to the poll — 62% disapproved of the president, while 32% approved.
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California governor’s race, Steve hilton for governor, Riverside sheriff chad bianco, Politics, Eric swalwell for governor