Category: blaze media

Donald Trump turned a White House dinner joke into one of the most controversial statements possible, as his joke clearly left his victim fuming — but she couldn’t say anything about it without damaging the left’s belief system.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales calls it “the greatest joke” he’s had, before playing a clip of the president honing in on CNN host Kaitlan Collins.

“But I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me, it’s a fake. She shouldn’t get the award. It was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake,” Trump began.

“There’s no question about it. But she’s a young, attractive woman. She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you have a smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan,’” he continued.

“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can,” he said, adding, “It was Dylan Mulvaney.”

“Now,” Gonzales comments, laughing, “what’s so brilliant about this joke is that they can’t actually complain about the joke without proving that they’re transphobic. How are you going to explain what exactly is offensive about this joke?”

“Because if you want to accept leftist logic, Dylan Mulvaney is just as beautiful of a woman as Kaitlan Collins,” she says, noting that according to the left, “trans women are real women.”

When Collins was questioned about the joke following the dinner, she ignored the questions and walked away.

“They couldn’t be too offended,” Gonzales says, adding, “to protect the trans people.”

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​Donald trump, Dylan mulvaney, Kaitlan collins, Sara gonzales, Bud light, Blazetv show, Lgbt 

A Michigan husband and father is suspected of fatally shooting his wife and six children before taking his own life last week, authorities said.

Ottawa County Sheriff’s Capt. Jake Sparks said investigators believe that 47-year-old Kristopher Karolkiewicz killed his wife, 39-year-old Amanda Karolkiewicz, and their six children — four boys, ages 15, 12, 11, and 5, and two 11-year-old girls — before killing himself.

‘This is an unspeakable tragedy that we may never completely understand.’

“The manner of death for Amanda and the six children was ruled homicide. The manner of death for Kristopher has been ruled suicide,” Sparks stated.

Deputies assisted firefighters at 11:42 a.m. Friday responding to a call about a house fire in the Riverwood neighborhood of Grand Haven, which is on the coast of Lake Michigan and a little over 30 minutes west of Grand Rapids.

Firefighters entered the two-story residence and discovered eight people dead in various rooms. Investigators later determined that all of the victims had suffered gunshot wounds before the blaze was set.

Autopsies confirmed the identities of the deceased as Kristopher and Amanda Karolkiewicz and their six children, four of whom were the couple’s biological boys; their two girls had been adopted. The children’s names have not been released.

“This is an unspeakable tragedy that we may never completely understand … but we’ll do our best to find the answers and to honor the memory of those victims,” Sparks pledged.

Investigators believe Kristopher used a handgun in the killings; no suicide note has been found so far.

RELATED: Deadly Seattle shooting: Arrested suspect is just 15 years old; cops say there were 2 other suspects — 1 killed, 1 unknown

While the official cause of the fire remains under investigation, preliminary evidence indicates it was intentionally set after the killings, Sparks shared. Investigators found multiple areas where the fire appeared to have been ignited, including the home’s first floor and basement.

“I can tell you that no suspects remain at large in this incident at this time. The investigation at this point shows that this was a murder-suicide with the fire being started after the murders,” Sparks said.

The family’s pets, including several dogs and at least one cat, also died in the fire.

Sparks noted that the violence may have commenced the night before and continued into the early morning hours, with neighbors having reported smelling smoke early in the day, though a precise timeline is still being established.

The motive remains unknown.

The American Heart Association confirmed that “Kristopher Karolkiewicz was an employee … from September of 2023 until earlier this month, July 2026, when his employment ended,” WWMT-TV reported.

Amanda worked as a substitute teacher at Grand Haven Area Public Schools, WDIV-TV reported. District Superintendent Kristin Perkowski called the tragedy a “devastating incident.”

“It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge reports of a devastating incident in Grand Haven Township earlier today involving the loss of multiple lives, including several school-aged children,” she wrote, according to WZZM-TV.

Amanda also was a children’s author, and a biography from one of her books notes that her passions were “special needs and trauma-informed advocacy, mindfulness, reading, dining out, traveling, and exploring the Lake Michigan shoreline.”

Steve and Becky Lawwill, the parents of Amanda and the grandparents of the six children, issued a statement Monday to WWMT saying, “Our daughter Mandy was a kind and devoted soul who loved her family and her students.”

“We treasured every moment we had with her and her six children, and words cannot adequately express our devastation,” the Lawwills added. “We pray for God’s peace and comfort as we grieve their deaths and honor their lives.”

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​Handgun, Homicide, House fire, Michigan, Suicide, Grand haven, Fatal shootings, Crime 

The Trump administration’s changes to food welfare benefits are forcing grocery markets in Las Vegas, Nevada, to fire workers and reduce their store hours.

Many on the left have decried the changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which restricted benefits from people who are able to work or don’t have disabilities.

‘You can tell that everybody’s panicking, and that’s what everybody’s talking about is how they’re going to feed their families.’

According to the KVVU-TV report, the cuts are affecting stores so much that they are making drastic decisions.

“I think we’re just in a world of trouble right now,” said Mario Berlanga, the owner of Mario’s Westside Market.

He said his sales have decreased by 30% compared to a year ago, forcing him to shorten hours.

“Over 20 people have lost their job because there’s just no business,” he added.

He said he’s never seen anything like this in the 27 years of the shop’s existence, and families are panicking over the cuts.

“When you’re used to feeding your family of four or five with $200 and now you have to do it with $80 — you really watch and see what you can pick up,” Berlanga added.

“You can tell that everybody’s panicking, and that’s what everybody’s talking about is how they’re going to feed their families,” he continued.

Another owner told KVVU that the cuts had affected more than half of his shoppers at his Eastside store.

“Now all the homeless people come in here, they don’t have money,” the owner said. “All of them were thirsty.”

He has also cut hours and laid off a worker.

County Commissioner Tick Segerblom told KVVU that the cuts were hitting his district hard because many low-income wage-earners use the benefits to supplement their food purchases.

RELATED: Able-bodied 38-year-old man goes viral for response to Trump food stamp restrictions: ‘That’s some bulls**t!’

The City of Las Vegas also released a statement about the cuts.

“The changes to the SNAP program are federally mandated, and the city does not have control over them,” officials said. “The city understands that these changes have been difficult not only for businesses but also for those in need who rely on these federal programs. The city has worked to get the word out about programs to assist those in need, such as local food pantries and charities.”

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​Trump administration, Supplemental nutrition assistance program, Food stamps, Welfare, Economy, Politics 

What started as a plan to track license plates has evolved into something far more expansive, according to automotive expert Lauren Fix. And on “Stu and Dave Do America,” she warns that the rapid expansion of surveillance technology is only getting worse.

“So, you’ve heard about the Flock cameras. Why do they call them ‘Flock’? That’s my first question. Are we the flock?” Fix asks, before answering, “Oh, yes we are. We are the sheep, and they are controlling us.”

“The truth is, they’re supposed to track your license plates, but they don’t. They track the car, the picture of your car, the bumper sticker on your car, … wherever you’ve been. Do you have a cargo container on your roof? Do you have a bike rack? Do you have a dent? Do you have a scratch? All of that is being tracked,” she continues.

“And it’s not just at one intersection. It’s at every intersection,” she adds.

And Americans aren’t happy with the heightened surveillance.

“One guy got arrested for sitting in a lounge chair. Like, he brought a folding chair out and on a pole like you would use in a pool, he put a piece of cardboard in front of the camera, and he got arrested for obstructing justice,” Fix explains.

“So, again, it was a misdemeanor, but it’s still all B.S.,” she says. “So, the bottom line is, why do you need to have these cameras on the roads?”

But they’re not just on the roads.

“They’re in parks. They’re in schools. They’re at Home Depot. They’re on every single FedEx truck. And don’t worry, they just put it on 400,000 school buses that are supposed to stop when people bypass the bus, where kids are loading and offloading,” Fix explains.

“They’re supposed to take a picture of that person, and you get a ticket,” she continues, noting that the families bringing their children out to the bus are then being photographed too.

“But it gets worse. So many people have complained about these Flock cameras that many cities, including Los Angeles, said, ‘You know what?’ The city of Los Angeles said, ‘We’re going to cancel our contract. Instead, we’re going to go with another company called Axon,’” she says.

This company, Fix warns, makes Flock cameras “look like child’s play.”

“They’ve moved it to the whole next level. They have gone even farther, and they’re making contracts with people that have ended their Flock camera systems,” she explains.

“They will be putting their cameras on every single light post. No permits, no requirements, just putting them on every single light post. That’s about 450 million around the world. And that means every light post on every street will have a camera,” she continues.

Fix claims there’s also a link between the new “kill switch” in cars and this new surveillance system.

“These dots are connected, and I will tell you, you’re not going to be happy,” she adds.

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​Dave landau, Flock cameras, Home depot, Kill switch, Lauren fix, License plates, Los angeles, Stu burguiere, Surveillance technology, Blazetv show 

A gun violence prevention program in Orlando, Florida, that received $1.5 million of federal funding abruptly closed down on Thursday after several controversies, including the arrest of a “neighborhood change agent.”

Operation New Hope CEO and President Reggie Fullwood said in a message to the group’s community partners that it had “suspended” operations and terminated all “neighborhood change agents,” as well as peacekeepers, mental health therapists, and job coaches.

Prosecutors said the leaks resulted in lost evidence, unrecovered assets, and at least one suspect fleeing arrest.

A source told WESH-TV that the situation was discussed on Friday at the Orlando City Hall.

“Since assuming responsibility for the contract in January, we have encountered numerous employee arrests, significant breaches of trust, and a lack of accountability that have compromised the integrity and effectiveness of the program,” Fullwood said.

He confirmed to WESH that a former state juvenile justice probation officer who was arrested for allegedly leaking information to drug traffickers worked for the organization as a change agent.

Crystal Lawson, 32, was fired by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice in February 2022 over a battery charge. Lawson had been given access to the state’s court records database at her job, and that access was not shut off after she was fired.

An arrest warrant indicated that Lawson was making dozens of unapproved searches on the database and that secret search warrants from the database ended up in the hands of fentanyl traffickers.

Investigators traced the leaks to a person nicknamed “Mel Baby” — and identified him as Melvin Lawson, the father of Crystal Lawson. He allegedly bragged about having the unauthorized access to the state records.

Prosecutors said the leaks resulted in lost evidence, unrecovered assets, and at least one suspect fleeing arrest.

Lawson could face up to 560 years in prison over the 113 felony counts of computer crimes and one other felony count.

RELATED: Social media influencer arrested after mom’s terrifying discovery of cellphone video of her 2-year-old daughter

Lawson was given a bond of $10,000 per felony count, which added up to $1.14 million.

She posted bond and was released.

WESH indicated that it was unclear whether the allegations against Lawson were connected in any way to the Community Violence Intervention program.

The city launched the CVI program in 2022, and Saving Our Streets began operating as part of that mission in 2023. In 2024, the program expanded after receiving a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

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​Federal funding, Violence prevention, Florida, Fentanyl, Crime 

President Donald Trump aired some of his frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just ahead of a scheduled meeting at the White House.

The joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began 151 days ago, and while the president has expressed his interest in ending the conflict, many stumbling blocks lie in the path toward peace.

‘I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.’

Trump was questioned during an interview via telephone with Fox News about comments Netanyahu made referring to Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected Iranian nuclear site.

“Well, I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

“We have the finest, because of the space wars, we have the greatest cameras in the world. We know exactly what’s going on. But no, I heard Bibi announce that. I said, ‘Why didn’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?'” he added.

“I know exactly what’s going on at ⁠Pickaxe,” he said. “It’s not a big problem.”

He went on to say that he would “take out” the supposed Pickaxe facility if Iran continues to reject a peace deal.

“We took out their ⁠nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal,” he said. “If we don’t make a deal, we’ll take it out very easily.”

Video of the president’s comments can be viewed on the Fox News YouTube channel.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Trump lasted about an hour and is said to have been very positive.

“It was a conversation marked by full partnership, mutual support, and a shared understanding of our common objective: to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, as well as other goals,” Netanyahu said after the meeting.

RELATED: Inside the rift: Trump claims Netanyahu has ‘no f**king judgment’ after strike threatens Iran peace deal

The president, meanwhile, said talks with Iran stalled over disagreements about nuclear weapon development.

“We can be in the midst of a beautiful discussion, and they’ll come out and say, … ‘We didn’t discuss nuclear,'” the president said while speaking to Fox News. “Well, that’s all we discuss, because they’ll never have a nuclear weapon. They understand that. And we have had some very good talks.”

He reiterated his threat to resume military strikes on Iran unless a deal is reached.

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​Donald trump, Benjamin netanyahu, Iran, Nuclear threat, Politics 

Last week in Canada, Toronto police stopped a Rebel News digital billboard truck after a passerby called in a possible hate crime — simply because of what the billboard said.

The billboard boasted a paid advertisement from the Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights, which advocates for women’s safety in sports.

“Not for speeding, not for a bad tail light, but officers were responding to a complaint about the message on the side of the truck being a hate crime,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says, shocked.

The message on the truck read: “Women and girls deserve safety on the field, privacy and dignity in the locker room, and fairness on the podium.”

The billboard also included a claim that men are competing in women’s sports, alongside a website address and a call to sign a petition.

“That’s it. That’s the crime in Canada,” Glenn says.

“Now, police investigated. They didn’t take any enforcement action. They let the truck drive away. Rebel News says this is the second time now in Toronto police have gone over a truck with paid advertisement, and the outcome doesn’t change what happened because the investigation is the sentence,” he continues.

“Remember, governments can make your life a living hell. Somebody made a phone call, cruisers rolled, officers stood on the pavement deciding whether the sentence about locker rooms was a criminal act,” he adds.

And what this means, Glenn explains, is that “if you’re thinking about putting an advertisement up on the side of a truck, you’re now risking the next police stop.”

“That cost gets paid no matter what the charge is,” he says.

“You may disagree with the ad, that’s fine. You might agree with it, that’s fine. Think it’s wrong about the science, wrong about the numbers, wrong about the whole question. Fine. That’s what you’re supposed to do with an argument you think is bad,” he continues, “You beat it.”

“Nobody was threatened. Nobody was told to go and do violence to anybody. A group of women bought advertising space to make a claim about the rules of sports in this country.”

“That’s an argument, and now it’s, you know, over before it even begins,” he adds.

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​Glenn beck, Hate crime, Rebel news, Transgender, Womens rights, Lgbt, Canada, Blazetv 

Kids in the Salamanca City Central School District were almost a pilot program for a robot tech company.

The fight is not over for the Salamanca, New York, residents though, as the state could push through the robo-teacher program after making a few adjustments.

‘[This] marks the beginning of a new era.’

On Friday, the school district announced that its pilot project with company Realbotix, which operates “AI-powered robots for companionship, entertainment, and customer service,” has been paused.

The pilot is “currently on hold while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with [the] New York State Education department,” the school district wrote.

The district planned to use literal fembots; a female robot named Sally with a “lifelike appearance,” New York Focus reported. With silicone skin and long, brown hair, the robot would remain in a seated position and have a wide range of upper-body movements and facial expressions.

Students would then be reduced to numbers — described as identification codes — when interacting with the robot. The codes would allow the robot to pull up data about the child’s learning history, allegedly providing personalizing support based on their past communication.

RELATED: Can you trust a machine to decide if a human wrote this?

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

The robot, which came with a $57,590 investment, was planned for release this fall and is coupled with an AI teacher’s assistant program that students can interact with on a laptop through an avatar.

Realbotix CEO Andrew Kiguel told the New York outlet that the children will be able to interact with the robot teacher in the following manner:

“They’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, I’m student number 1234,’ and then the robot will be like, ‘Hey, we were talking about this yesterday, do you want to continue that conversation?'”

Kiquel claimed the deployment of the robot would be “a landmark moment for both AI and humanoid robotics.”

The CEO then claimed the use of the robot will be the new normal.

“Salamanca marks the beginning of a new era where humanoid robots and intelligent AI assistants become standard tools in STEM education.”

RELATED: Thousands of lawyers caught using AI — and it’s only getting worse

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa reportedly had sent a letter to the district superintendent saying that the state “remains concerned about the effect that a humanoid robot may have within a high school classroom.”

Rosa added, “Many parents, teachers, and stakeholders are understandably concerned about the presence of artificial intelligence technology in classrooms, particularly when it involves robots that resemble humans.”

Kiguel said that while his company respects “any decision the school makes,” they stand “firmly behind [the program] as a supportive tool designed to assist teachers and students, not replace them.”

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​Robots, Artificial intelligence, New york, High school, Tech 

Data centers are quickly becoming the drivers of key economic sectors, and in some cases, they are making up more than half the market.

Depending on the source, the U.S. already has somewhere between 1,200 and 4,600 data centers, and with many more in the pipeline, they will continue to bring good tidings to their surrounding areas.

‘So much investment is financed by the free cash flow of hyperscalers.’

The question remains as to whether or not these data centers become a permanent fixture in the U.S. economy; if they don’t, cutting the cord could have devastating effects.

First and foremost, the country’s GDP has been greatly affected by data center construction. The Apollo Academy reported last May that data center construction had added one percentage point to GDP growth in Q1 2025.

By March 2026, ABC Carolinas had attributed approximately 0.2% all of GDP growth in 2025 to data center construction, citing Goldman Sachs. In a $32 trillion economy, that fraction of a percentage actually equates to more than $60 billion.

Narrowing the scope, much of the boost comes from the massive investment in these projects. So much so that breaking ground on data centers has risen to $50.7 billion seasonally adjusted annual rate, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

This makes data centers the main driver of and the biggest chunk of all office construction. In fact, if construction on data centers suddenly halted, half of the industry would disappear overnight.

RELATED: America needs an artificial intelligence coalition, not an AI fortress

Mario Tama/Getty Images

General office construction was $43.8 billion SAAR at the same time in April and is still a smaller figure than data center construction even when combined with other categories, such as financial offices.

Total private office construction spending is a reported $97.4 billion SAAR, meaning data centers account for about 52%. In fact, Bloomberg reported in June that data centers are responsible for 2.3% of all construction spending in the United States.

Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, told outlet Data Center Knowledge that unlike other sectors, data center construction is not nearly as impacted by high materials costs or borrowing because “so much investment is financed by the free cash flow of hyperscalers, who are desperately pursuing global AI dominance.”

“The fact that data center construction spending exceeds that of traditional office spending reflects both the magnitude of the artificial intelligence investment supercycle and a lagging office market hampered by still pervasive remote work and elevated project financing costs,” Basu said.

RELATED: The electric vehicle market is out of gas — you can guess who’s freaking out

Natalie Behring/Getty Images

Research from Brookings in May showed that data centers have a large impact on local jobs as well. The report claimed that counties see private employment increase by 4% to 5% in five to six years after their first large data center.

This also causes an increase in construction employment at 11% and a 22% increase in IT jobs. Workers also see modest wage gains of about 3% to 4%, while at the same time, there is no significant effect on the costs of homes.

However, the study stated that while job creation certainly does happen, it is less than the industry claims, by about three times.

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​Data centers, Construction, Economy, Tech 

Intense bodycam video shows the moment a police officer saved the life of a Texas toddler after the child was choking and unresponsive. The hero officer credits Jesus Christ for enabling a “miracle” in saving the young child’s life.

Southmayd Police Department announced in a statement on Facebook that police responded to reports of a “medical emergency involving a 23-month-old child who was reportedly choking and had stopped breathing” at approximately 12:50 a.m. last Tuesday.

‘Jesus, he definitely was there with me, kept me calm, helped me to be able to think through the processes of what I needed to do.’

Police said the female toddler was “unconscious, unresponsive, and not breathing,” plus she was seen with blood coming out of her mouth and nose.

Southmayd Officer Scott Barrett is seen on police bodycam video responding to the incident and administering emergency assistance.

“Without hesitation, officer Barrett took custody of the child and immediately began administering age-appropriate back blows in an effort to dislodge the suspected airway obstruction,” police stated.

Authorities noted that the girl had at least a partially blocked airway, but Officer Barrett’s actions enabled the toddler to breathe again.

Sherry Steward, the child’s grandmother, told KXII-TV: “It’s like she’s convulsing, so I run and get her, and she’s solid purple, and I realized she’s choking. Blood was coming out of her mouth. Blood was coming out of her nose. She was just non-responsive.”

Emergency personnel from the Whitesboro Emergency Medical Service arrived at the scene shortly after and rushed the child to the Texoma Medical Center for further evaluation and treatment.

Southmayd Police Chief Jeff Laughlin and Lieutenant Michael Aguirre later visited the child’s family and said the relatives were grateful for the quick and effective response by police.

Police noted that the girl is expected to make a full recovery.

RELATED: Police bodycam video shows Florida man offering cops alcohol during car chase that ends with suspect getting tased

Barrett recalled the crazy situation and explained the challenges of attempting to rescue a choking toddler.

“They’re just smaller, you know, and you don’t want to hurt the child by putting all that force on their abdomen and everything,” Barrett told KXII. “We’re taught to tilt the child over and to just do back blows, firmly, and that’s what I did.”

Barrett also credited Jesus Christ for assisting him during the life-threatening incident. “I was praying Jesus would keep me calm during the whole thing and remember my training,” Barrett stated.

Barrett credited his faith for enabling him to save the young child.

“Praise God, she started breathing,” Barrett explained. “She started whimpering a little bit, and you could tell she was breathing at least a little bit.”

Barrett added, “Jesus, he definitely was there with me, kept me calm, helped me to be able to think through the processes of what I needed to do.”

“He worked a miracle, in my opinion,” Barrett told KXII. “I was just his instrument. Without the training and Christ … who knows what would happen.”

Barrett stayed at the hospital until the child was released and then visited the family the following day at their home, according to KXII.

Barrett said of the toddler recently released from the hospital, “The little girl was out running around like nothing even ever happened.”

“I got to hold her. She let me hold her, which was cool, at least for a little bit before she wanted to go back to Mom,” he added. “But it was awesome seeing her smiling and playing and running around.”

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​Jesus christ, Texas, Politics 

Flock’s downfall has a beneficiary, and it might not be your privacy.

As of July 21, more than 50 U.S. municipalities have canceled or rejected contracts for Flock Safety public cameras.

Cities are switching to a public safety tech company already inside these departments in smaller roles: Axon.

The trend away from this particular brand of license plate readers is part of a wave that includes 39 terminations in just the first five months of 2026 alone.

Earlier this month, the LAPD allowed its three-year contract to expire as concerns over data sharing and privacy continued to plague the department. LAPD’s chief information officer, Dean Gialamas, told the LA Times that the department would not be using Flock Safety until it gets a new contractual relationship “ironed out.”

Smaller cancellations have also stacked up: Monroe County, Indiana, voted to terminate its contract about a year early, and Pea Ridge, Arkansas, dropped its program over public pushback.

But it isn’t really a rollback. Cities are switching to a public safety tech company already inside these departments in smaller roles: Axon.

RELATED: We’re winning the fight against Flock — but the surveillance isn’t going away that easily

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/Getty Images

LAPD’s patrol cars already run Axon body cameras and tasers, with the company supplying basic automatic license plate recognition software for its in-car cameras well before Flock’s exit, though Axon’s own LAPD contract was also set to expire at the end of July.

Austin shows that this pattern predates the current wave entirely: When the city canceled Flock in 2025, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s own write-up noted Austin “still makes use of ALPRs via its contract with Axon,” meaning the cancellation never touched the Axon relationship running alongside it.

Denver dropped Flock in February for a $150,000 Axon deal, going to 50 cameras instead of 110. Douglas County, Colorado, did the same last week, its sheriff flipping to a 10-year, $23 million Axon contract after defending Flock publicly not long ago.

Weekly told Axios “trust was lost” between the sheriff and Flock, citing the company’s handling of privacy and policy concerns.

Syracuse shows how messy the handoff can get. The city’s breakup with Flock took eight months and involved an Axon contract approved in February, Flock’s street access revoked in March, a deadline Flock missed, and police who kept using the old readers anyway until a reporter asked why.

The last Flock camera was confirmed gone only in mid-July, but as of July 23, Axon’s readers still hadn’t been switched on, pending a usage policy the department hadn’t yet posted.

Separate Flock cameras run by Syracuse University and Destiny USA aren’t subject to any council or voter approval at all.

Though Axon is winning the biggest departments, Motorola Solutions, Rekor, Genetec, and Verkada are all being evaluated as Flock alternatives by cities running requests for proposal, including Richmond and Saratoga, California.

On July 25, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced a bill cutting federal money to any city running these cameras, the third bill out of the House in recent weeks.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett’s H.R. 9800 is vendor-neutral: It bars any federal agency from buying, accessing, or contracting for ALPR, facial recognition, or biometric ID systems used for “persistent or mass surveillance.”

Blaze News reached out to Flock Safety and Axon for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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​Facial recognition, Flock cameras, Mass surveillance, Police officers, Syracuse university, Thomas massie, Politics 

The Trump administration is threatening action against a Maryland county after parents alleged their child was transitioned behind their backs.

Parents sued Anne Arundel County Public Schools on July 8, alleging that unidentified high school staff secretly “socially transitioned” their child.

‘The school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male.’

The Departments of Justice and Education issued a joint statement — entitled “Trump Administration Cracks Down on School Districts Secretly ‘Transitioning’ Students and Hiding it from Parents” — accusing the school district of violating parental rights.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act gives parents the right to review their children’s educational records. FERPA also empowers parents to request amendments to those records and control how they’re disclosed.

The DOJ and Education Department allege the Maryland school denied parents records access relevant to their child’s supposed social transition.

“When the parents approached school administrators about the matter, the principal declined to provide details about the student’s ‘gender transition,’ and the assistant principal refused to turn over the child’s relevant records,” according to the joint statement. “These policies and practices unlawfully impeded the parents’ ability to exercise their FERPA rights when it mattered most.”

America First Legal and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC are representing the anonymous parents in Maryland’s U.S. District Court.

RELATED: Tim Walz gets TORCHED over dolls with ‘swappable genitals’ meant for kids as young as 4: Report

Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Identified as the Does, the parents discovered that “the school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male” after they received an email referring to their daughter by male pronouns, according to the joint statement. They previously educated their daughter “according to their religious beliefs that God creates each person as male or female, that sex is based on biology rather than internal self-perception, and that sex cannot be altered,” the parents’ lawsuit states.

“When confronted by the Does about this conduct, AACPS personnel first tried to lie and then, when that didn’t work, insisted that their actions complied with AACPS policy,” the lawsuit states.

“AACPS wrongly believes that it has greater authority than parents to control and direct the upbringing of students. AFL is eager and willing to correct this notion,” senior counsel at America First Legal Ian Prior told Blaze News. “Parents have a fundamental right to know what is happening with their children at school, and they have every right to stop government officials from pushing radical gender ideology on their children.”

“AFL is proud to stand with the Does as they fight to protect their daughter and vindicate their constitutional rights.”

AACPS did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Education referred Blaze News to the DOJ.

AACPS policy, linked to the district website as of Tuesday afternoon, holds that information about a student’s gender identity can be considered “confidential medical information” and encourages staff to address students by their preferred pronouns.

“Let this serve as notice to every school district in the country: FERPA is not optional,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Blaze News. “The Department of Justice will enforce it to the maximum extent of the law, and any district that hides a child’s sensitive information from their own parents should expect immediate federal action.”

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​Department of education, Department of justice, America first legal, Harmeet dhillon, Maryland, Politics 

In 2016, I got a call from my editor at Simon & Schuster in New York. The company was putting out a new edition of my first novel, “Girl” (1994), and redoing the cover and interior design, in preparation for its re-release.

A new edition is usually a happy occasion for a writer. If your book is still relevant after 20+ years, that’s an accomplishment.

Books have a moral authority that TV, TikTok and YouTube lack. And we all know how leftists crave moral authority.

On the phone, my editor told me that besides a new cover, the company had some young editors look at the text as well.

At first, I didn’t understand. Why would they review the text after 20 years?

She explained that these editors were recent college graduates who had studied racism, sexism, and the latest critical theory. Their job was to ensure that Simon & Schuster didn’t accidentally publish something inappropriate or hurtful to unrepresented minorities or aggrieved groups.

Sense and sensitivity

This definitely sounded unusual to me. But I wasn’t worried. “Girl” had been considered “edgy” in its time, but it had sold well and been made into a movie. It had been translated into several languages.

I assumed whatever controversy it had generated was now deemed to be within the bounds of acceptability.

So I was surprised and alarmed when she told me these new editors had some issues with “Girl.”

In this way, I was introduced to the possibility that progressive activists — “sensitivity readers” — could literally edit your book.

Because “Girl” was 20 years old, I was given the option of declining any major changes. Therefore, no real damage was done.

But it was a scary omen for the future. If they were scrutinizing older books in this way, what would they do to books that hadn’t been published yet?

RELATED: My parents ‘arranged my marriage’ at 16; maybe I should have taken them up on it

Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images

10 years on

Recently, I came across a new nonfiction work that addresses this trend in publishing: “That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing.”

In this compelling book, young literary scholar Adam Szetela goes into great detail about the arrival of “sensitivity readers” and the other forms of Orwellian madness that descended on the publishing industry shortly after Trump took office.

It is quite entertaining to read and gives countless examples of how ridiculous and convoluted leftist ideology has become in the book business.

During this period, writers, editors, fans, and bloggers accused each other of racism, sexism, white supremacy, homophobia, and every other imaginable transgression. Careers were destroyed, people were fired, first-time authors saw their dreams dissolve before their eyes. And this over things like, “Is a white writer allowed to describe a black character?”

It was the ultimate purity spiral. It was a circular firing squad!

The left eats itself

When I first heard about “This Book Is Dangerous,” I assumed young Szetela was a conservative. Who else would write such a book?

But no: He has a Ph.D. in English literature from an Ivy League university (Cornell). Which means he’s required to be left of center.

So he’s not writing from the point of view of “look at these crazy cultural Marxists trying to destroy our culture.”

No, he’s trying to reel in his leftist peers because he can see how much damage they are doing to their own (and his) cause!

It’s satisfying to read books where leftists tell on themselves, where by some fluke they stumble onto the truth, then are forced to denounce that truth, and then realize they are attacking themselves!

It’s like watching a dog chase its tail. “Hey Fido, that tail you’re biting? That’s you.”

Influencing the youth

Another thing we learn from “That Book Is Dangerous!” is how much of this cultural warfare was waged inside the young adult and children’s genres.

Surprise, surprise, it turns out that socialist/progressive/DSA types really want to control what young people are exposed to.

And one way they do that is through books. Especially books that get read to them by their parents or recommended by their teachers at school.

Books have a moral authority that TV, TikTok and YouTube lack. And we all know how leftists crave moral authority. Even when they have to denounce each other to get it.

Politicized Publishing Inc.

So yeah, I recommend “That Book Is Dangerous!” It’s a good read and a vindicating experience for anyone who has dealt with the now fully politicized publishing industry.

My own relationship with that industry quickly deteriorated in the years that followed this situation. Not that I had any say in the matter. Once Trump was elected, heterosexual white guys were mostly unwelcome in mainstream publishing.

This was the publishing industry’s petty revenge on American men for daring to vote for Trump.

As for myself, I felt lost without my mainstream writing career. But eventually I found new writing opportunities, where I feel much more at home and in sync with my colleagues.

​Books, Censorship, Cultural marxists, Dei, Entertainment, Leftism, Progressive activists, Publishing, Publishing industry, Review, Sensitivity readers, Simon & schuster, This book is dangerous!, Young adult books, Blake’s progress 

The case of Shiloh Hendrix has become one of the most polarizing free-speech controversies in the country after Hendrix, a Minnesota woman, went viral after using the N-word during a confrontation at a Rochester playground.

Now, Hendrix has been found guilty on one count of disorderly conduct related to her interaction with the man who recorded the incident.

While BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock doesn’t condone Hendrix’s actions, he doesn’t like what this means for free speech — and he doesn’t believe that a woman should be charged for using a word that the black community uses all the time.

“A woman in Minnesota got into a screaming argument with a grown man in a public park. She said an ugly, sinful word, and yesterday the state of Minnesota made her a criminal for it,” Whitlock explains, adding, “I’m about to tell you why she is not the one you should be afraid of. The government is.”

While activists and even the attorney general of Minnesota wanted to charge Hendrix with a hate crime, Whitlock points out they couldn’t get a hate crime.

“Because in the United States, there is no criminal law against hateful speech,” he says, noting that instead, they went for disorderly conduct.

“The only count they convicted her on was the argument with the grown man who filmed her. Sentence, 90 days, suspended, a fine, community service, no cell, no bars. They didn’t punish her for what she said to a boy. They punished her for arguing with a man,” he explains.

“They didn’t need to jail her. They needed to label her. They needed a word in an argument between two adults to become a crime,” he adds.

However, the word she’s being punished for using is a word that’s repeated all the time in the black community.

“Here’s the lie the rappers and mainstream media sell you,” Whitlock says. “That the word changes based on who’s holding it. That in a bigot’s mouth, it’s a weapon, but in a rapper’s mouth, it’s culture. That the color of a man’s skin launders that word clean.”

“I have never believed that. Not once. It’s a lie. The word is the word. It’s poison coming out of a racist in a park. And it’s the same poison coming out of a stage in front of 20,000 kids who chant it all the way home,” he continues.

“Melanin does not sanctify it. A beat behind it does not baptize it. If it’s a sin, and it is, then it’s a sin in every mouth,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free speech, Minnesota, Whitlock, Shiloh hendrix, Blazetv show 

Despite Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) posting another photograph of himself, the governor of his state is demanding more evidence of McConnell’s well-being.

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a letter dated Monday that McConnell should resign if he’s unable to prove that he can continue to serve.

‘Provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign.’

“President [Donald] Trump is stuck in a war of his own making and has greatly strengthened the very country he claims is a threat,” Beshear wrote.

“Prices continue to rise, crushing Americans who are working hard but not getting ahead. Americans’ voting rights are being eliminated by the Supreme Court and threatened by congressional action. All while you are absent and refuse to communicate clearly and directly to the people you serve,” he added.

“As Governor of the state you serve, I am calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign,” Beshear concluded.

McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The 84-year-old senator was hospitalized on June 14 after a fall that left him briefly unconscious and has also had a bout with pneumonia, according to his office. His absence from the Senate and public life has led many to speculate that his condition is far more grave than his office is admitting.

A month after he entered the hospital, McConnell’s office released a photograph depicting the senator and his wife, Elaine Chao, on his hospital bed. On Monday, he released a second photograph and said he was recovering at a rehabilitation center.

RELATED: Mitch McConnell’s replacement might be chosen in court first

Beshear also reportedly sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), asking him to begin the process of removing McConnell unless McConnell provides evidence that he is healthy enough to continue in office.

If McConnell is forced to resign, his seat stays empty until a special election can determine his successor. The governor, who is a Democrat, is not legally allowed to temporarily fill the seat, as is the case in some other states. However, some have argued the governor might contest the law in court.

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​Mitch mcconnell, Andy beshear, Kentucky, Politics 

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” isn’t just drawing criticism for his choice in actors.

“Christopher Nolan is proving himself to be kind of just a bad filmmaker,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says, pointing out that it’s not just his “woke” casting choices — which include the transgender “Elliot” Page — in a film about ancient Greece.

“I think what’s even worse than all of that is the fact that when you look at how he chose to shoot this movie, it turns out he decided, he was like, ‘Which is the most retarded way to shoot this movie? Ah, I know, that’s the one I’m going to use,’” she says.

“Fifty-year-old IMAX techniques because he’s so pretentious. He’s so snooty. He’s so self-important. He’s like, ‘Ah, you know, just go see the movie. But you need to go see it in IMAX,’” she continues.

“Despite this huge campaign to force people to go pay extra, I assume, to go watch in IMAX, there are actually very few theaters in the country who can show it in this format,” she adds, pointing out that there are only 25 theaters in the country “equipped to project ‘The Odyssey’ in true IMAX 70mm film.”

Even the CEO of IMAX, Richard Gelfond, was confused by Nolan’s decision.

“The problem is they haven’t made new IMAX film projectors in about 50 years,” Gelfond told Variety in an interview.

“We build new projectors every day. But film projectors using this film, it’s not practical,” he added.

“That is so embarrassing to have the IMAX CEO call you out like that,” Gonzales says.

“He seems to be just a pretentious snob who doesn’t want to conform to, you know, normal ways. He just wants to make life more difficult so that he can consider himself artsy,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

​Christopher nolan, Elliot page, Hollywood, Imax, Sara gonzales, The odyssey, Transgender, Blazetv show 

A 911 dispatcher heard a social media influencer “screaming and crying” before police found her and her estranged husband dead in her Oklahoma home Thursday. Less than two weeks before her death, the influencer posted a viral video accusing her estranged husband of being a pedophile.

Police said dispatchers noted that they received an emergency call in which a screaming woman and an apparent gunshot was heard.

‘Preparing for when Netflix drops a documentary about my soon-to-be ex-husband who I just found out is a pedophile.’

According to 911 audio People magazine obtained, the dispatcher said, “I’m trying to reach him back, but I could hear a female in the background screaming and crying. Some sort of loud bang in the background.”

Police said the dispatcher received a second 911 call from a child; the dispatcher indicated that the child said “his stepfather had shot his mother.”

NBC News reported that a boy called 911 from a neighbor’s home just moments after the first emergency call.

KTUL-TV reported that officers with the Owasso Police Department responded to a report of domestic violence at a home in Collinsville just after 11 p.m. Thursday.

Police said when officers arrived at the crime scene, they discovered two people dead with gunshot wounds to the head.

Police identified the deceased as 43-year-old Sara Gilson and her 48-year-old estranged husband, Jeremiah Shawn Duffey.

Police said the incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide.

According to Fox News, Duffey allegedly broke into the home, killed Gilson — and then himself.

NBC News reported that Gilson secured an emergency protective order against Duffey on June 10 — one day after police informed her that Duffey had been accused of molesting a minor.

The estranged husband was ordered to stay 100 yards away from Gilson and her home at all times, according to county court records.

The Oklahoman reported that Gilson received a protective order after informing a judge that her estranged husband “proceeded to threaten suicide and went on the run” after being confronted about the allegations.

On June 10, a woman filed a protective order against Duffey on behalf of her minor daughter, according to court records People magazine obtained.

The Oklahoman reported that Duffey was spotted kissing and fondling the woman’s 15-year-old daughter, a player on a youth basketball team Duffey coached. The protective order said another coach caught Duffey alone with the girl.

“Similar conduct by this coach toward this particular juvenile player was reported to have occurred over an extended period of time, in multiple law enforcement jurisdictions, across multiple states prior to this incident,” police said, according to Newsweek.

“This incident was witnessed by another team coach who immediately intervened and reported it to the juvenile’s parent, and they in turn came to the Owasso Police Department once the parent arrived to collect the juvenile from the event,” police said. “The suspect in this incident fled the scene and had not been seen by Owasso Police since.”

RELATED: Alleged border-hopping black widow who drugged, robbed, and killed older men she met on dating apps faces extradition: FBI

NBC News reported that Duffey had been a member of the Osage Nation tribe and the alleged incident at the school happened on tribal land.

KOTV reported that because police determined the alleged offense occurred in Indian Country, and Duffey was a member of the Osage Nation, the investigation was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office under the Federal Major Crimes Act, which ended the Owasso Police Department’s jurisdiction over the reported molestation case.

Police noted that they submitted the case for a charge of lewd molestation of a minor to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for review, according to NBC News.

Gilson — who had been a social media influencer and now has over 94,000 followers on TikTok — posted a video accusing Duffey of being a pedophile less than two weeks before her death.

Gilson on July 11 posted a video on TikTok during which she is seen fidgeting and visibly upset as she sits down on a chair.

The following text appears at the top of the video: “Preparing for when Netflix drops a documentary about my soon-to-be ex-husband who I just found out is a pedophile.”

The video is captioned, “I wish I was joking. #plottwist #netflix #documentary.”

The video has been liked nearly two million times and is shot in the style of a viral online trend in which users pretend to sit down for a Netflix documentary interview.

NBC News reported that Gilson’s son was taken into protective custody and later released to a parent who wasn’t involved in the incident.

Neither the Owasso Police Department nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office immediately responded to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.

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​Murder suicide, Netflix, Tiktok, Oklahoma, Social media, Influencers, Sara gilson, Estranged husband, Crime 

Anthony Fauci’s newly released diary contains a perfect little monument to bureaucratic vanity.

On April 24, 2021, Fauci noted that BlazeTV host Steve Deace and Todd Erzen had published “Faucian Bargain,” which dubbed him “the most powerful and dangerous bureaucrat in American history.”

This is how institutions manufacture ignorance. They don’t always bury the evidence. More often than not, they simply declare the people seeking it disreputable.

Fauci had a devastating rebuttal. He did not read it.

“It is a cheap paperback of 179 pages which I will not even read,” Fauci wrote, before announcing that it contained “the same sort of nonsense that the other conspiracy theorists have been saying about me.”

Splendid! “Science” had spoken!

No evidence needed review. No argument required an answer. Fauci glanced at the title, identified the authors, and reached a conclusion with the serene confidence of a man accustomed to having cable news anchors treat his opinions as tablets from Sinai.

Two months later, Fauci explained the theology to NBC’s Chuck Todd.

“Attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science,” he said.

The arrogance of this guy!

Louis XIV supposedly declared, “I am the state.” Fauci updated the formula for the administrative age: I am science. Question my judgment and you have attacked knowledge itself. Ask about my agency’s grants and you have declared war on reason itself. Publish a critical paperback and the scientific method goes into cardiac arrest.

My friend Lloyd Billingsley has a term for this: “white-coat supremacy.”

It describes the belief that credentials confer not merely expertise but authority — political, moral, and sometimes almost priestly authority. The white coat becomes a vestment. The bureaucrat wearing it may issue commands, avoid scrutiny, and treat dissent as heresy. Citizens are not expected to weigh his arguments. They are expected to comply.

Sadly, millions did.

Fauci’s diary reads like the private scripture of white-coat supremacy.

Presidents praise him. Governors seek his counsel. Famous people call at all hours. Diners applaud when he picks up hamburgers. Fauci records each ovation with the dutiful embarrassment of a man cursed to remember every compliment.

Critics receive less delicate treatment. They are “crazy,” “far-right,” “preposterous,” “dishonest,” or simply beneath his notice. Deace and Erzen wrote a book criticizing the scope and consequences of Fauci’s power. Fauci refused to read it and then waved it off as irrational. Their standing settled the argument before the argument began.

RELATED: ‘Conspiracy theory’ is just media code for ‘we hope this never comes out’

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The same method governed Fauci’s use of “conspiracy theory.” Some claims aimed at him were a bit out there: that he was Hillary Clinton’s “mole,” that he and Bill Gates put microchips in vaccines, or that he personally created the coronavirus and carried it into the United States.

But Fauci placed fantasies alongside legitimate questions about a Wuhan lab leak, NIH money reaching the Wuhan Institute of Virology, gain-of-function research, deficient oversight, his testimony before Congress, and government pressure on social media companies.

Those claims do not belong in the same category.

A microchip in a syringe might be a fantasy, but NIH funding reaching Wuhan is a fact. A deliberate bioweapon release remains unsupported. A laboratory accident remains unresolved but perfectly plausible. Even the FBI favored a laboratory origin. Federal investigators found serious lapses in monitoring the EcoHealth Alliance grant.

Fauci knew — or should have known — the distinctions.

His diary records that on January 31, 2020, serious scientists discussed unusual features of SARS-CoV-2, possible deliberate insertion, and accidental laboratory release. He distinguished that conversation from a flimsy paper claiming HIV sequences had been inserted into the virus.

At first, the categories remained intact. One claim was crazy but the other warranted investigation.

But once the political stakes became obvious, the categories fell to pieces.

Soon, congressional oversight became evidence-free conspiracy theorizing. FOIA requests came from cranks and conspiracy theorists. Scientists who challenged the approved account became ideologues, attention-seekers, or villains subject to censorship. The FBI, which favored the lab-leak hypothesis, supposedly had “no idea” what it was talking about.

RELATED: Fauci diaries reveal shocking behind-the-scenes relationship with Jake Tapper

Skip Bolen/Getty Images

And Steve Deace wrote a book Fauci refused to read.

That little detail gives away the game. “Conspiracy theory” did not describe the evidence. It determined whose evidence could be considered. Once Fauci assigned you to the crank file, documents became “disinformation,” questions became “harassment,” and investigation became an “attack” on “science” — meaning an attack on St. Anthony Fauci himself.

This is how institutions manufacture ignorance. They don’t always bury the evidence. More often than not, they simply declare the people seeking it disreputable, then point to the lack of approved inquiry as proof that no evidence exists. Neat trick. It worked, too.

Deace and Erzen argued that Fauci had become dangerously powerful and utterly unaccountable. Fauci answered by dismissing them unread, classifying them as irrational, and announcing that criticism of the man was criticism of science.

I hate to spoil a 179-page paperback, but that sounds an awful lot like confirmation.

​Anthony fauci, Blazetv host, Censorship, Chuck todd, Conspiracy theory, Covid, Dr fauci, Faucian bargain, Nih funding, Pandemic, Wuhan lab leak, Opinion & analysis 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has released more than 1,100 pages of “Tony’s Diary” — Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal record from the COVID era — ahead of Fauci’s testimony Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Amid entries on virus origins, case counts, and infighting with the Trump White House, the name of one particular “pretty woman” recurs with striking regularity: Julia Roberts.

‘She … said that every time she sees me her throat gets dry and she gets nervous.’

Fauci wrote her name at least seven times across the released pages.

On May 13, 2020, Fauci wrote up an Instagram Live arranged by the ONE Campaign. Roberts, he said, put her hands over her mouth when he appeared on screen and gasped, “Oh my God. It’s Dr. Fauci; he is here,” before telling him he was her personal hero.

A clip of their conversation shows Roberts describing Fauci as “maybe the coolest man on the planet” and a “true north, I think, for a lot of people.”

He was a little starstruck himself. “She was absolutely fabulous,” Fauci wrote of Roberts.

The two went on to discuss COVID-19’s toll on the developing world. He described her as “totally down to earth” and closed the entry with, “Great experience!!”

RELATED: Diaries expose Fauci obsessing over his own fame during height of COVID as millions died

Amy Sussman/Getty Images

In an entry dated October 14, 2020, that otherwise concerns a case surge across 30-plus states and a dispute with Dr. Scott Atlas over herd immunity, Fauci wedged in: “A FEW DAYS AGO, Julia Roberts sent me [a] beautiful flower arrangement. I emailed her my thanks.”

On February 10, 2021, Fauci wrote about Roberts presenting him amfAR’s Award of Courage virtually from her California breakfast room. “When my image came up on the screen she gasped and said that every time she sees me her throat gets dry and she gets nervous and excused herself to go into the kitchen and get a glass of water,” he wrote.

He also called her “charming, natural, fun, and amazingly beautiful.”

RELATED: Fauci diary bombshells: Glenn Beck dives into wildest lines from his just-released entries

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee obtained Fauci’s diary as part of its ongoing investigation into COVID-19 and federally funded gain-of-function research. Fauci declined to testify voluntarily this time, so the committee subpoenaed him for the Wednesday hearing.

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​Julia roberts, Anthony fauci, Rand paul, Politics 

Earlier this month, San Francisco’s Hamilton Society held a debate on a question that would have sounded absurd not long ago: Does America need a Caesar?

Older Americans may scoff. Younger politically engaged Americans are less likely to. Many came of age after 9/11 amid corruption, institutional drift, and visible decline. Even a presidency that has slowed the Biden-era collapse has not repaired the deeper sense that the system no longer works.

America needs a path out of cybernetic collapse that does not end in machine rule or technologically enhanced autocracy.

From that premise, the temptation follows: If everything is broken, perhaps history’s oldest emergency remedy deserves a second look.

But one does not simply “have a Caesar.” Critics who dismiss the whole discussion as live-action role-playing or strongman wish-casting have a point. A generation trained to think and talk rather than act will naturally produce elaborate theories of action it has never practiced.

The Hamilton Society debate captured that tension. The motion that America needs a Caesar failed, 56% to 44%, though the pro-Caesar side gained five points after the arguments. I had agreed to argue against the motion before a scheduling conflict kept me away.

Nervous breakdown

That case is easy enough to make today. America does not need a Caesar right now. The disturbing question is whether conditions could change until it does.

The danger lies in those two little words: right now.

Right now, America is entering a period of radical uncertainty, driven in part by artificial intelligence. My feed is filling with nervous remarks from people working at the edge of the AI industry. Their concern confirms two things: Our near-term future remains unwritten, and our capacity to make plans is beginning to break down.

The threat is not only a race toward recursively self-improving intelligence. It is also the recursive destruction of our ability to understand what is happening while our political order comes apart.

RELATED: The path to America-first AI

yunping liang/iStock/Getty Images

The federal government faces a brutal dilemma. Its legitimacy depends partly on maintaining American strategic dominance. As AI advances, can Washington preserve that dominance without claiming the most powerful systems for itself and using them at its discretion?

Maintaining such an edge would not mean controlling only today’s strongest models. It would mean controlling tomorrow’s, then the next day’s, forever. The ultimate AI weapon is not one machine. It is the power to weaponize anything at any scale, from the planetary to the personal.

The technocratic answer is more cybernetics: tighter governance through self-improving systems of monitoring, prediction, and control. But we should be preparing for cybernetics itself to fail under the pressure of the moment.

Diminishing options

When a system can no longer govern itself, societies reach for familiar exits.

One is withdrawal: Head for the hills, build resilient communities, and live beyond the failing machinery. Some people should do exactly that. But if escape becomes a mass impulse, it stops being resilience and becomes flight. Poorly prepared internal refugees would remain trapped inside the same collapsing country.

A second option is spiritual authority. In periods of corruption, societies often turn to their holiest figures. America, however, is ill-equipped for that solution. Our churches are divided, many religious leaders suffer their own crisis of trust, and our constitutional order does not provide for theocracy.

That leaves the third option: one man entrusted with enough power to impose order on the people and, now, their machines. A ruler believed strong enough to bear the burden of writing a new law for a broken society.

In other words: Caesar.

What would have to happen before Americans not only wanted such a figure but believed they needed him? A broad majority would have to conclude that without one, the country would collapse and Americans would cease to be recognizably American.

RELATED: The question of the AI age: How much humanism is too much?

Moor Studio/iStock/Getty Images

The failure of the American experiment would leave us unable to agree on what regime should replace it. We might not even know what sort of people we had become. Under those conditions, an all-powerful AI could offer to decide for us.

If the choice appeared to be submission to the machine or submission to a man who promised to preserve both our humanity and our national identity, Caesar would suddenly look pretty attractive.

A civilization, if we can keep it

Here is the catch: Every historical Caesar has been pagan or Christian, and Christian Caesars ruled empires. America has imperial features, but it is not the kind of civilization likely to produce a Christian emperor. The Christian model for the ruler of one nation is the king, not the Caesar who governs many peoples.

That leaves the more plausible American outcome: a pagan Caesar.

Few Americans worship the classical gods. Politically, however, pagan gods were the gods of the regime — powers embodied by the city, the state, and ultimately the ruler. Caesar did not merely govern beneath them. He could become one of them.

Artificial intelligence now offers a lone ruler something no ancient emperor possessed: the prospect of near-divine control over information, movement, behavior, and even human cognition. AI could restore the oldest pagan political dream — the “gods of the city” made operational.

That is the point of departure for “Pagan.ai,” my essay in the new issue of Frontier.

America needs a path out of cybernetic collapse that does not end in civil anarchy or cyber theocracy. If we don’t like the Caesar we may someday believe we need, we should begin now to repair the conditions that would make him possible.

The best way to avoid Caesar is not to mock the question. It is to build a country that never has to ask it.

​Opinion & analysis, Artificial intelligence, Tyranny, Liberty, American founding, Machines, Pagan