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The Houston Police Department released bodycam footage last week showing what authorities said was an officer fatally shooting a motorist who attempted to grab a gun from his waistband.

‘He’s got a gun — look out, look out! Shots fired, shots fired!’

Police said in a press release that officers were dispatched to the North Freeway around 3:45 p.m. May 17 regarding a car accident involving three vehicles.

Two of the vehicles remained at the site of the crash, but one of the vehicles fled the scene, according to police.

Officers with the Houston Police Department located the alleged hit-and-run vehicle, a green SUV, in a vacant parking lot in Houston, according to bodycam video.

The bodycam video shows an officer approaching the man sitting in the driver’s seat of the green SUV with the door open. The cop informs the motorist that video shows his vehicle was just involved in a car accident. Police said the motorist didn’t comply when officers tried to detain him.

The officer asks the driver, “You didn’t want to provide your information? You know it’s state law to do that, right?”

RELATED: Crazy bodycam video shows suspect trying to flee cop on a lawnmower, getting tased — and it only gets worse for him

Image Source: Houston Police Department

The driver asks the officer, “[Who] did I hit?” The officer near the driver’s side of the vehicle responds, “I’m not going to debate about it with you, OK? What we’re going to do is put you in handcuffs, we’re going to put you in a back seat, we’re going to move your car over there with the other two cars that were involved in the crash, OK?”

Suddenly, the motorist is seen in the police bodycam footage pulling up his shirt and grabbing an object from his waistband.

“As the officers attempted to detain the driver of the green SUV for the crash investigation, the driver lifted his shirt up, reached for a visible gun in his waistband, and pulled out the weapon,” the Houston Police Department stated.

An officer is heard on the bodycam footage screaming, “Hey, whoa, whoa!”

A cop yells, “He’s got a gun — look out, look out! Shots fired, shots fired!”

Video shows a second officer apparently firing at the suspect from the rear of the vehicle.

Indeed, Houston Police said in a press release that “two HPD officers then discharged their duty weapons more than once, striking the suspect.”

The man is then seen unresponsive, motionless, and slumped over in the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

Police said officers attempted to administer lifesaving measures to the man until Houston Fire Department paramedics arrived. However, the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police bodycam footage shows one of the officers removing a gun from the suspect’s hand.

Neither police officer appeared to be harmed, according to the video.

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

Content warning: Graphic video:

The Houston Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, the Internal Affairs Division, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the deadly police shooting.

Houston Police Assistant Chief Christy Smith named the deceased suspect as Michael Dziedzic.

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Billionaire Palmer Luckey is dipping his toe into the financial sector with a banking venture focused on helping tech entrepreneurs.

The company is known as Erebor, yet another entry in Luckey’s portfolio that follows the Thiel-world pattern of referencing lore from the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien. Just as Anduril is a reference to a character’s sword, and Palantir to a magical seeing stone, Erebor refers to the mountain in “The Hobbit” where the dragon Smaug hoards his gold away from would-be slayers and thieves.

While the moniker is not final, according to the New York Post, the venture is serious in its ability to reshape banking forever.

Deliberate federal interference in the nascent crypto banking market provoked the very crisis the feds purported to solve.

Luckey is partnering with Joe Lonsdale, a venture capitalist who co-founded Palantir Technologies and other software companies. Together, they will help tech startups build their businesses instead of maximizing returns like a traditional bank, insiders told the Post.

The key difference is that Erebor will work with stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to relatively stable assets like the U.S. dollar or gold. This is done to limit the volatility of a coin without sacrificing its benefits, creating investment opportunities far in excess of simply purchasing and holding, say, Bitcoin.

Even the president is working with stablecoins, particularly USD1, which is attached to the U.S. dollar.

RELATED: Big Tech execs enlist in Army Reserve, citing ‘patriotism’ and cybersecurity

Joe Lonsdale, at the Montgomery Summit in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday, March 8, 2017. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Post reported that Erebor was born out of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, caused by a slew of management errors, “investment missteps, market volatility, and regulatory changes,” according to Investopedia. The Biden administration ended up guaranteeing all deposits into SVB, despite the bank’s ruin.

But as Castle Island founding partner Nic Carter explained last year, deliberate federal interference in the nascent crypto banking market provoked the very crisis the feds purported to solve. “Biden bank regulators made it impossible for banks serving a particular legal industry to operate,” Carter wrote. “And in doing so, they actively caused the collapse of certain banks, namely Silvergate and Signature. These banks did not die by suicide but by murder. This remains a gigantic scandal, and no one has ever faced any responsibility for it.”

It is unknown who else is involved with the launch of Erebor; it is still in its early stages and has no public start date. Luckey’s representative did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for information regarding founders or key development points.

In that regard, Lonsdale’s venture firm 8VC has led a $225 million fundraising round, which will reportedly be used to meet federal regulatory requirements that are necessary for starting a bank, not for backing deposits.

Luckey is not expected to hold an executive role or be involved in day-to-day operations, but he would be adding “bank operator” to his laundry list of titles, which include defense contractor and handheld-gaming manufacturer.

RELATED: Who’s stealing your data, the left or the right?

The tech titan has increasingly been involved in larger-than-life projects, including advanced technologies for U.S. military equipment. His open-to-debate style has caused him to become a darling of the Silicon Valley class, and his prominent criticisms of Facebook/Meta (he has since buried the hatchet with Mark Zuckerberg) have helped his image as a palatable billionaire, a dynamic with echoes of Mr. Burns and his one-time rival Arthur Fortune.

“Cryptocurrency is so powerful and investable because it’s the most advanced tech ordinary Americans can use right now amongst themselves to create and grow wealth,” said James Poulos, Blaze Media’s editor at large.

“But it’s still not clear how exactly to transition the U.S. from a dollar backed by American global, economic, and military dominance to one backed by computational power,” he added. “While stablecoins weaken the ability of regular people to use Bitcoin free from government pressure and control, they strengthen the ability of Washington and Silicon Valley to transition the dollar stably away from the unsustainable ‘money printer’ model toward a dollar backed by energy itself, in the form of watts used to power compute. That’s why a bank like Erebor is basically inevitable.”

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If detention wasn’t scary enough for illegal immigrants, President Donald Trump is preparing an off-the-grid facility aptly named “Alligator Alcatraz” to house some of the most violent illegal aliens in America.

The facility is being constructed in Florida’s “Alligator Alley” on a 30-square-mile property in the Everglades called the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, home to a “virtually abandoned airport.” The facility will house 5,000 beds for criminal illegal immigrants.

“The governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one: as I call it, ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a promotional video on X.

Uthmeier said the location presents “an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility” because even if they tried to get out, they’d have a hard time surviving.

“There’s not that much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” he said. “Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.”

“I’m sure that the left will come back and say, ‘But it’s expensive. It’s like $450 million a year,’ they’re saying, ‘to maintain.’ However, if you contrast that to, say, the Roosevelt Hotel over in New York City that they were housing all of these illegals,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments, “that just cost New York City taxpayers about $575,000 a night.”

“By the way, these were human traffickers, child abusers, gang members,” she continues. “Laken Riley’s killer, there.”

“And crime being committed in the hotels,” comedian Derek Richards chimes in. “They were talking about people being raped in the stairwells and the rampant drug use.”

“If they complain about the $450 million it’s going to cost, we sent them to El Salvador and you didn’t want that, did you? So take your pick: El Salvador or alligator heaven,” BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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

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After Karmelo Anthony was indicted for first-degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing in April of Texas high school star athlete Austin Metcalf, a high-profile Anthony spokesman reacted Monday by calling for a fight against “white supremacy” and blasting “bigots” and “racists.”

Dominique Alexander — president of Next Generation Action Network — posted on X: “To the racists, the bigots, and those filled with hate who’ve targeted Karmelo, his family, and even myself — you do not intimidate us. We are not backing down.”

‘I look forward to the forthcoming trial. But it will never bring my son back.’

Alexander also asked Anthony supporters to “stand with us in the fight against white supremacy” as the case against him moves forward and added, “This case is yet another example of what it means to be Black in America, where even our self-defense is questioned, scrutinized, and politicized.”

RELATED: Karmelo Anthony advocate blasts ‘disrespectful’ father of Austin Metcalf for showing up at Anthony family news conference

Dominique Alexander. Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images

Frisco police arrested Anthony and charged him with first-degree murder after Metcalf was fatally stabbed April 2 at a track meet at Kuykendall Stadium. Anthony reportedly told police, “I did it,” in reference to the stabbing after Metcalf allegedly put his hands on Anthony in an effort to get the suspect to leave from under a tent. Anthony has been claiming self-defense.

While Anthony is black and Metcalf was white, Metcalf’s father — Jeff Metcalf — early on urged those on social media to not use his son’s death to stir up political and racial divisiveness, WFAA-TV reported.

RELATED: Karmelo Anthony, charged with murder, will get HS diploma in ‘moment of dignity’ — but won’t walk commencement stage: Report

“This is not a race issue. This is not a black and white issue. I don’t want someone stepping up on their soapbox trying to politicize this. Unless you were there, unless you saw it: Don’t spread gossip,” Metcalf noted, according to the station.

Well, many observers have made it a black and white issue. In fact, some Anthony defenders went viral just days after Metcalf’s killing for doing just that.

An unidentified female in a video infamously said, “Rosa Park[s] days is [sic] over. You cannot think that you can move somebody out of a seat that you don’t own and think that it’s gonna be OK. And you can’t determine how I’m gonna retaliate on you when [you] put your hands on me in an aggressive manner. Austin Metcalf got exactly what he deserved — point blank, period.”

Bishop Talbert Swan — who has been covered more than a few times by Blaze News over the years — offered the following April 6 reaction to the Anthony-Metcalf controversy: “Y’all said 17 yr old Kyle Rittenhouse was justified in killing two people with an AR-15 because he felt threatened. 17 yr old Karmelo Anthony was defending himself when he killed Austin Metcalf with a knife and y’all think he deserves to go to prison. I wonder whyTE.”

Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis on Monday announced the first-degree murder indictment against Anthony, noting that the defendant was 17 years old at the time of the fatal stabbing, as was Metcalf. You can view Willis’ video announcement here.

KTVT-TV reported that Anthony — now 18 — could face a sentence of 5 to 99 years or life in prison if he’s convicted. The DA’s office said 17-year-olds are considered adults in the Texas criminal justice system.

Anthony on April 14 was set free from jail and granted house arrest as a judge reduced his bond from $1 million to $250,000.

RELATED: Father of suspect in fatal stabbing of HS star athlete Austin Metcalf says his son ‘was not the aggressor’ in confrontation

Anthony’s GiveSendGo fund as of Wednesday sits at over $538,000.

Anthony’s defense attorney Mike Howard released a video statement after the indictment, KTVT reported, during which he said, “We expect that when the full story is heard, the prosecution will not be able to rule out the reasonable doubt that Karmelo Anthony may have acted in self-defense.”

The station said the next step will be assigning a trial judge who will set a first appearance court date; KTVT noted that the first appearance “could be days, weeks, or months down the road.”

Willis in his indictment announcement added, “We’re also mindful of Austin’s family, and everyone who loved him. Please keep them in your thoughts — and, if you’re willing, in your prayers as well.”

Jeff Metcalf stated, “I am pleased that we are moving forward. With the first-degree murder indictment, it now goes into the court system. I fully believe that justice will be served for Austin Metcalf. I look forward to the forthcoming trial. But it will never bring my son back,” KTVT reported.

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre had the following to say about the state of the criminal case and Alexander’s “white supremacy” reference: “The fact that Anthony and his family have claimed victimhood, even in the face of the incredible forgiveness offered by Austin Metcalf’s father, says it all. It is a sad truth that the narratives about ‘white supremacy’ taught to many minorities in the U.S. through the educational system and media quickly become a blank check for violence against white Americans.”

Editor’s note: This story has been edited after publication to include a comment from BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre.

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparred this week with a Democratic member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health who evidently could dish it out but couldn’t take it.

Kennedy was ultimately asked to take back a conclusion he reached on the basis of facts about New Jersey Democrat Rep. Frank Pallone’s receipt of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry.

Pallone used his time Tuesday during the hearing concerning the Department of Health and Human Services’ 2026 budget to attack Kennedy, suggesting he is a purveyor of a pseudo-scientific agenda that threatens the lives of the American people.

“Mr. Secretary, the science is not on your side. I just really think that people are going to die as a result of your actions and congressional Republicans’ actions,” said Pallone.

One of Pallone’s biggest themes was that Kennedy’s work lacked transparency. However, when the health secretary attempted to provide answers, Pallone shut down the dialogue.

“You have made a number of major decisions about vaccines. And … there’s been no public comment process or public accountability on that either. What are you afraid of?” asked Pallone. “I mean, with regard to vaccines, are you just afraid of receiving public comments on proposals where you just think these are fringe views that are contrary to the views of most scientists and that the public comments will reflect this?”

Kennedy responded, “We have a public process for regulating vaccines. It’s called the ACIP committee, and it’s a public meeting.”

At the mention of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Pallone noted that Kennedy had fired the Biden appointees on the panel.

RELATED: How Big Pharma left its mark on woke CDC vax advisory panel — and what RFK Jr. did about it

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Kennedy canned all 17 Biden administration appointees on the ACIP earlier this month, stressing in a corresponding op-ed that “the committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

Data provided on OpenPaymentData.CMS.gov, a site managed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, indicates Kennedy’s concerns were not misplaced, revealing just how cozy some of the former members were with the organizations whose products they were tasked with scrutinizing.

For example, former ACIP member Edwin Jose Asturias apparently collected around $54,000 from pharmaceutical companies, including $20,705 in what appear to be consulting fees.

Among the companies that paid Asturias what appear to have been consulting fees were Pfizer and Merck Sharpe & Dohme LLC, a bio-pharmaceutical subsidiary of the company whose pneumococcal vaccine Capvaxive the committee voted to recommend in October.

‘You were the leading member of Congress on that issue.’

Blaze News previously reported that Asturias also appears to have received millions of dollars in research support from Big Pharma, including over $3.1 million from Pfizer and over $730,000 from the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline LLC.

“I fired people who had conflicts with the pharmaceutical industry,” Kennedy told Pallone.

Despite his supposed desire for answers, Pallone interrupted Kennedy in order to resume attacking him.

When subsequently questioned by Republican Rep. Neal Dunn (Fla.) about how he intended to restore public trust in the health establishment, Kennedy volunteered a quick answer, then tore into Pallone.

RELATED: Kennedy has Big Pharma ads in his sights — and he’s not the only one mulling a crackdown

Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Our Care

“Congressman Pallone, 15 years ago, you and I met. You were, at that time, a champion for people who had suffered injuries from vaccines. You were very adamant about it. You were the leading member of Congress on that issue,” said Kennedy. “Since then, you’ve accepted $2 million from pharmaceutical companies in contributions — more than any other member of this committee.”

According to OpenSecrets, Pallone has received over $2.2 million from the pharmaceuticals/health products industry and over $5 million from health professionals since 1989.

Just last year, Pallone received over $15,000 in campaign contributions from PACs and individuals linked to Johnson & Johnson and $21,200 from individuals at Amneal Pharmaceuticals.

“Your enthusiasm for supporting the old ACIP committee, which was completely rife and pervasive with pharmaceutical conflicts, seems to be an outcome of those contributions,” added Kennedy.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette rushed to Pallone’s defense, claiming that Kennedy was “impugning Mr. Pallone” and had implied that “Mr. Pallone would not fight for vaccine victims because he took money from the pharmaceutical industry.”

Pallone similarly suggested that Kennedy’s words should be “taken down.”

After Subcommittee Chair Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) suggested DeGette’s point of order was valid, Kennedy said with a smirk that his remarks “are retracted.”

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Several unions are calling on the Los Angeles City Council to vote for a rent moratorium on the basis that deportation operations have severely shut down business activity.

The community groups say that businesses have been crippled by the loss of workers as well as consumers who are fearing detainment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

‘Fear has taken a toll on our society and our local economy.’

On Tuesday, representatives of the Los Angeles Tenants Union held a press conference with the Coalition of Labor Union Employees and the SEIU to demand the rent moratorium.

“We know that many tenants will not be able to pay their rent come July 1,” said Kenia Alcocer of LATU, who said she is also an illegal alien.

“Why? Because this militarization of our communities, this occupation of our community, this terrorizing of our communities have closed down businesses, have taken away street vendors, have separated families — and then people cannot pay their rent,” she added. “They have barely the minimum to survive.”

In a statement on social media, President Donald Trump accused officials in Los Angeles and other cities of being the “Democrat Power Center” that uses “Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”

One Los Angeles resident who identified himself only as a “concerned community member” told KCAL-TV that the ICE operations had hurt businesses.

“Our businesses are struggling. Entrepreneurship is at a standstill,” the man said. “Fear has taken a toll on our society and our local economy.”

KCAL said L.A. Mayor Karen Bass did not respond to a request for comment.

RELATED: Illegal alien activist group demands Phoenix end ‘racist’ police stops on broken taillights and tinted windows

Daniel Yukelson of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles says the moratorium will hurt rental property owners.

“Over 85% of rental property owners in the city of Los Angeles are independent moms and pops who, for the most part, are already struggling to pay their bills,” he told KABC-TV. “I understand that people are very scared, and rental property owners are very sympathetic to that. But as I said, you know, property owners are very dependent on receiving timely rent payments just to make ends meet.”

Democrats and other critics of the president’s increased deportation operations have opposed those efforts in the streets and in the courtrooms, with some success.

“These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it!” said Trump on Truth Social.

Blaze News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but neither responded in time for publishing.

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U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York (D) was hospitalized Wednesday morning, according to a statement from his spokesperson.

The 74-year-old had a health episode while at the gym on Wednesday, but he has returned to work.

“Leader Schumer was at the Senate gym this morning and got lightheaded. Out of an abundance of caution, he went to the hospital to be treated for dehydration and is now back at work in the Capitol,” read the statement from Schumer’s office.

“He wants to remind everyone to drink some water and stay out of the heat,” the spokesperson added.

The East Coast is currently undergoing an extended heat wave, with temperatures in the D.C. area reaching above 90 degrees. There have been a number of deaths attributed to the heat wave already.

RELATED: Former Clinton campaign manager says Democratic Party is ‘really depressing’ and without a leader or message

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Democrats have been reeling from accusations that they hid the deteriorating health condition of former President Joe Biden, leading critics to demand that policies be changed to force older politicians to step down.

This is a developing story, and additional information may be added.

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On Monday, the U.S. Marshals Service Middle District of Florida stated that its two-week initiative, Operation Dragon Eye, had three key objectives: saving missing children, providing them with services, and deterring bad actors.

‘Many of these kids have painful, disastrous situations, but at least today we’ve rescued them, and we now can work towards recovery.’

The USMS announced that along with 20 federal, state, and local government agencies, the Tampa Bay area mission recovered 60 “critically missing” children, or “those at risk of crimes of violence or those with other elevated risk factors such as substance abuse, sexual exploitation, crime exposure, or domestic violence.”

RELATED: ‘Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide’: Florida will have ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ for illegal aliens up and running in days

Photo by ANDRI TAMBUNAN/AFP via Getty Images

The operation also resulted in the arrest of eight individuals who are facing charges including human trafficking, child endangerment, narcotics possession, and custodial interference. Their bonds ranged from no bond to $250 million.

During a Monday press conference, Attorney General James Uthmeier noted that the initiative was the “largest child rescue operation not just in Florida’s history, but in the United States’ history.”

He explained that some of the children recovered were the victims of trafficking.

“Many of these kids have been through painful, disastrous situations, but at least today we’ve rescued them, and we now can work towards recovery,” Uthmeier said.

RELATED: Florida sheriff makes clear to radicals that riots won’t go their way: ‘We will kill you’

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The minors, ranging from 9 to 17 years old, were provided with medical and psychological care, nourishment, and appropriate placement.

U.S. Marshal William Berger stated, “I have to curtail my enthusiasm because of the sensitivity of the victims involved in this operation, but the successful recovery of 60 missing children, complemented with the arrest of eight individuals, including child predators, signifies the most successful missing child recovery effort in the history of the United States Marshals Service; or to my knowledge, any other similar operation held in the United States.”

Callahan Walsh, the executive director of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said that the operation’s success was “a testament to what’s possible when agencies unite with a shared mission to protect children.”

“We’re proud to have supported the U.S. Marshals Service and our partners in Florida to recover these missing children and provide critical support to those who need it most. NCMEC is honored to stand alongside these teams and will continue working tirelessly to help make sure that every child has a safe childhood,” Walsh added.

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​News, Florida, Tampa bay, Us marshals service middle district of florida, Usms, Operation dragon eye, Child trafficking, Trafficking, Human trafficking, James uthmeier, William berger, Callahan walsh, National center for missing and exploited children, National center for missing & exploited children, Ncmec, Politics 

President Donald Trump’s participation in this week’s NATO summit was well-received and represented a significant victory for him, contrasting with similar meetings during his previous administration.

‘This has been a hugely successful summit for President Trump.’

In 2018, when Trump was pushing NATO allies to meet their then-target of 2% of GDP for defense spending, he got into a spat with German officials after he scolded the country for cutting an oil and gas deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He accused Germany of being “totally controlled by Russia,” calling it a “very bad thing for NATO.”

The following year, several allies — then-Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, and President of France Emmanuel Macron — were caught on camera mocking Trump.

In contrast, this year’s NATO summit in the Netherlands was notably successful for Trump.

RELATED: Trump to take on NATO summit: Will allies step up or stall?

G7 summit on June 9, 2018, in Charlevoix, Canada. Photo by Jesco Denzel /Bundesregierung via Getty Images

Dr. Nile Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom and Bernard and Barbara Lomas fellow, told Blaze News, “This has been a hugely successful summit for President Trump and a demonstration of real U.S. leadership on the world stage — a dramatic difference to the weak-kneed Biden presidency.”

At one point, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte even praised Trump for striking Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites.

“I just want to recognize your decisive action in Iran. You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. The fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran, I really want to commend you for it. And I think this is important for the whole world,” Rutte told Trump on Wednesday.

Rutte also credited Trump for securing substantial defense-spending increases to 5% of GDP.

“Without President Trump, this would not have happened,” he remarked.

RELATED: Canada’s solution to reliance on US? Increasing commitments in Europe

U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

During a Wednesday afternoon press conference in the Netherlands, Trump reported that his NATO allies were “so respectful” toward him. He celebrated the increased defense-spending commitments from the ally countries.

“I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It’s not a rip-off, and we’re here to help them protect their countries,” Trump said.

The only conflict Trump expressed was with Spain, the only country that refused to commit to the defense-spending targets. He vowed to negotiate “directly with Spain” on a trade deal, adding that it would have to “pay twice as much” to make up the “unfair” difference in defense spending.

Trump also confirmed that he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who he stated “couldn’t have been nicer” to him.

Trump mentioned that he and Zelenskyy had previously experienced some “rough times,” likely referring to the tense exchange he and Vice President JD Vance had with the Ukrainian president earlier this year at the White House.

Trump remarked that he had a “good meeting with Zelenskyy” at this week’s NATO summit, adding that Zelenskyy and Putin would like to see an end to the ongoing war.

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​News, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Nato summit, Nato, Defense, Defense spending, Mark rutte, Volodymyr zelenskyy, Ukraine, Russia, Ukrain russia war, Politics 

Two weeks into the pandemic, founder of the Dream Center in Los Angeles Matthew Barnett was driving through the empty streets when California’s lockdown policy was announced.

“They said only essential workers can come and be involved with whatever they need to do, and I thought to myself, and I did the calculation,” Barnett tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.” “We’ve given probably about $1.2 billion of aid to the community over the years, and so I just kind of deemed myself to be an essential worker.”

“So, just kind of blindly and just smiling, I just showed up and said, ‘We’re going to feed people.’ And people started showing up and putting stuff in people’s cars, and everyone’s like, ‘You can’t be doing this. They can’t be doing this,’” he continues.

“It kind of blew up, went viral all across the country, and people started showing up, and even some of the same politicians that told you not to do it, they were like, ‘I think I need to go down and get a photo op,’” he explains.

Through doing this, Barnett noticed that there was a “culture of fear,” and most people were terrified.

And some of them had a right to be afraid, particularly the children in the housing projects whose social workers were no longer allowed to check in on them due to COVID policies.

That’s when the Dream Center took over for them — and what they saw in the name of safety was anything but safe.

“We saw kids joining gangs at a higher rate. We saw kids hungry. We saw a lot of pedophiles in the community that were taking advantage of them being home every single day. We saw food programs that were shut down to help the kids in the school system,” he tells Stuckey.

“So many policies — COVID policies, law enforcement policies, drug policies — are done in the name of compassion. They say that they are the ones that are actually helping the marginalized and the truly vulnerable,” Stuckey comments.

Barnett recalls one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s comments regarding those “compassionate” drug policies that helped him realize there was no relying on the government to truly help those in need.

“One of the most discouraging statements ever made by our governor is when he said, ‘It’s irresponsible or reckless to think that somebody can truly live sober,’” he tells Stuckey.

“When I heard that comment, I’m like, we’ve given up, we have no belief that people can change, we have no belief that people can escape darkness,” he continues. “It was almost like something that was said that came from the spirit of darkness.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Video phone, Video, Sharing, Upload, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey, Matthew barnett, Dream center, Los angeles, Covid policies, California, Gavin newsom, Newsom policies, Covid 19, Covid lockdowns, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network 

Former Republican Senator Scott Brown (Mass.) has now set his sights on a new political endeavor to boost the GOP’s presence on Capitol Hill.

Brown previously represented Massachusetts in the Senate and served as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term. Brown announced Wednesday that he intends to continue his political career by taking back a New Hampshire Senate seat and replacing retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

‘Chris Pappas wants a better title. I want a better America.’

RELATED: Republicans presented with Senate pickup opportunity as Democrat announces retirement

Photo by Keith Bedford/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Brown is the most high-profile Republican to enter the race after former GOP Gov. Chris Sununu decided not to run for the seat. As things stand now, Brown is likely to face off against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire.

“Like a lot of you, I’m worried about where this country is headed,” Brown said in his announcement Wednesday. “New Hampshire is an amazing place to live, work, and raise a family. … But in Washington, we haven’t been represented by the right people.

“I’m running for the United States Senate to restore common sense, keep our border secure, and fight for our New Hampshire values,” Brown wrote in a Wednesday post on X. “Chris Pappas wants a better title. I want a better America.”

RELATED: The reasons Democrats won’t learn a thing from 2024

Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Although both of New Hampshire’s Senate seats have been held by Democrats for the last few election cycles, this race is not a long shot for Republicans.

New Hampshire has consistently elected Republican governors since 2016, and the GOP has maintained a majority in the state Senate. Democrats have held on and won the state for the past six elections, but by increasingly narrow margins. With a strong GOP presence in the state, it’s very possible that Republicans could take back and flip another key Senate seat.

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​Chris sununu, New hampshire, Scott brown, Donald trump, Senate republicans, Senate democrats, Swing state, Swing seat, Jeanne shaheen, Chris pappas, Congress, Politics 

This July, Earth’s greatest heroes meet their most formidable foe yet … an indifferent audience.

At least, that’s the worry as DC and Marvel go head-to-head for summer blockbuster season’s main event: Disney’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” vs. Warner Bros.’ “Superman.”

To be fair, Garner’s character is canonical — she plays Shalla-Bal, the female successor to OG Silver Surfer Norrin Rad. It still feels like Marvel is up to its old tricks.

Does the fate of the world hang in the balance? No, but the fate of Hollywood might.

After years of alienating moviegoers by prioritizing leftist virtue-signaling over entertainment, the industry hopes to put people back in the seats next month with some good, old-fashioned tentpole crowd-pleasers. And what better to lure them in than two big-budget exemplars of the genre that has dominated the multiplex for the better part of two decades?

Except that audiences have been showing signs of superhero fatigue in the last few years, raising worries that this much-ballyhooed showdown may turn out to be box office Kryptonite.

‘Superman’ (July 11)

When Warner Bros. hired James Gunn as co-head of DC Studios, the announcement was met with mixed feelings.

While many were excited for the “Guardians of the Galaxy” director to dip his toes in the world of DC after the successes of “The Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker,” some feared his signature humor and style would be a turnoff to mainstream audiences. Emotions on both sides intensified when Gunn announced he would be writing and directing the first movie of the post-Zack Snyder DCEU, “Superman.”

Newcomer David Corenswet takes the reins from Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, a leading member of the Green Lantern Corps.

RELATED: The fast track to collapse: How AI and wokeness are speeding up Hollywood’s downfall

David McNew/Getty Images

Multiple trailers have led to plenty of speculation — and with it, sparring. Detractors cite poorly received test screenings, as well as unconfirmed rumors that the plot revolves around Lex Luthor using social media to garner hate for Superman with the hashtag “#Supers**t.”

One thing seems certain: Whatever some fans find to criticize about the new “Superman,” it won’t be political pandering. Having himself felt the wrath of cancel culture, Gunn seems dead set on appealing to as wide an audience as possible.

Commenting on the film’s first teaser trailer, which features shots of a bruised and battle-weary hero, Gunn said,

We do have a battered Superman in the beginning. That is our country. … I believe in the goodness of human beings, and I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs, their politics, are doing their best to get by and be good people — despite what it may seem like to the other side, no matter what that other side might be.

This movie is about that. It’s about the basic kindness of human beings and that it can be seen as uncool and under siege [by] some of the darker voices [and] some of the louder voices.”

Considering how vocal Gunn has been about his disdain for Donald Trump in the past, it’s refreshing to see the director offer signs that his movie will let viewers leave their differences at the door.

Fans of this new take have praised the performances, bright color palette, and a tone that feels more in line with the iconic 1978 Christopher Reeve-led “Superman.” Will “Superman” save the industry? Strong pre-ticket sales suggest it has enough wind under its cape to soar well above Hollywood’s expectations.

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ (July 25)

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” looks to continue the goodwill earned by this spring’s “Thunderbolts*,” which opened to high praise from audiences and critics alike despite disappointing box office.

After underwhelming iterations of Marvel’s first family in 2005 and 2015 (the less said about the unreleased 1994 version, the better), the studio is hoping the third time’s the charm.

Starring Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman/Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Human Torch/Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing/Ben Grimm, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” features the team going up against one of Marvel’s most feared villains: Galactus, the devourer of worlds.

If that will appease traditionalists, the gender-swapping of beloved Marvel mainstay the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) is bound to raise eyebrows — and attract more sniping at the “M-SHE-U.”

To be fair, Garner’s character is canonical — she plays Shalla-Bal, the female successor to OG Silver Surfer Norrin Rad. Point taken, but it still feels like Marvel is up to its old tricks.

Comments by producer Grant Curtis earlier this month certainly don’t help matters.

“If you do go back through the comics,” said Curtis, “you realize that Sue Storm is arguably the leader of the Fantastic Four, because without Sue Storm, everything falls apart.”

Many fans will be quick to point out the obvious: Mr. Fantastic has always been portrayed as the leader, with Invisible Woman taking on a more motherly role. For his part, however, Pedro Pascal doesn’t seem to mind being sidelined. In fact, he seems to welcome it.

I love being led in a way. What you may identify as generosity for me, it just isn’t. I’m only inspired by … I guess just powerful women have been the thing that has gotten me through being alive. So to have the opportunity to stand by one, to learn from one — just a partner, it’s partnership; it’s male and female, but it’s also just a kind of transcendent sort of partnership in the work and in the characters. And so I don’t really know what the f**k I’m gonna do without you [Vanessa] honestly,”.

In addition to flaunting his “male feminist” bona fides (and giving fans the “ick” with his awkward shows of affection toward Kirby), Pascal has also drawn negative attention with his outspokenness on immigration policy. None of this has won over those for whom Pascal is simply and profoundly miscast as Reed Richards.

Worse, rumors that stars including Adam Driver, Jake Gyllenhaal, Christopher Abbott, and Jamie Dornan passed on the role before it went to Pascal suggest that it’s the script’s revisionist portrayal of Mr. Fantastic that is the problem — despite director Matt Shakman’s insistence that he has looked to the original comics for inspiration.

That inspiration is certainly evident in the film’s setting, a futuristic 1960s alternate reality that nicely pays homage to the original vision of “Fantastic Four” creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Pascal aside, the casting of “Fantastic Four” promises a satisfying adaptation, as does the comic-book-accurate appearance of Galactus (Ralph Ineson) — a far cry from the cloud-like space cluster depicted in 2007 sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”

While “First Steps’” pre-sales trail behind those of “Superman,” they’re impressive enough for Marvel to be optimistic.

Of course, no amount of hype, armchair producing, or post-credits “Avengers: Doomsday” teases can turn either of these movies into a hit. That power remains squarely with us: the audience.

In that spirit, which of these two movies are you looking forward to seeing? Or will you be forgoing superheroics altogether in favor of the seventh “Jurassic Park” movie? Let us know in the comments below.

​Summer movie season, Blockbuster, Film business, Showbiz, Culture, Pedro pascal, Marvel, Disney, Dc, Comic books, Fantastic four: first steps, Superman, James gunn, Entertainment 

A Title IX complaint was submitted against Smith College, an all-girls school in Northampton, Massachusetts, that openly allows biological males to enroll in its programs.

Activist group Defending Education filed the complaint over alleged discrimination by the school on the basis of sex in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.

The group made the allegations on behalf of “parents and students throughout the country” and pointed to specific policies from Smith College that state males can apply to the school so long as they identify as women.

‘Smith has relegated women to second class citizens.’

According to Defending Education, Smith College has admitted males since 2015 and maintains “all gender” bathrooms and locker rooms.

In its formal complaint, DE alleges Smith College’s policy on “Gender Identity and Expression” indicates that “every single occupancy restroom on campus is designated all-gender.”

The college also allegedly advertises its Health & Wellness Center as providing “trans-affirming primary care, including hormone therapy.”

On the school’s admissions page, the Frequently Asked Questions portion explains that the women’s college “considers for admission any applicants who self-identify as women; cis, trans, and nonbinary women are eligible to apply to Smith.”

RELATED: Simone Biles signals defeat in feud with Riley Gaines on trans athletes

Smith College made headlines in May when it invited Admiral Rachel Levine to speak at commencement and awarded him an honorary degree.

Levine is a man who believes he is a woman and was the assistant secretary for health under President Joe Biden between 2021 and 2025. The admiral appeared in the school’s promo video for the 2025 commencement, where he is heard saying that he was “excited to watch” the students “make history.”

Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president of Defending Education, told Blaze News that by treating sex and gender identity the same, “Smith has relegated women to second-class citizens.”

Perry also pointed to alleged “bias” teams at Smith, which she said are “incredibly effective in getting students to self-censor” about the issue.

RELATED: Meet the ‘queer’ radicals who secretly send kids sex-change kits

Smith also openly advocates for “undocumented” students at the school and says “SAT or ACT scores are optional” for applicants.

Illegal immigrant students are allowed to apply under any admission plan at Smith, and the school is even willing to foot the bill.

“Smith meets 100% of the demonstrated need of all admitted students who apply for financial aid by the published deadlines,” the school writes. Therefore, by the school’s own words, it provides funding to illegal alien students using a form of “need-based financial aid,” as opposed to a traditional student loan process.

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​News, Women’s only, Smith college, Transgenderism, Women’s rights, Woke, Politics 

The medical advocacy group Do No Harm has in recent years worked with health care professionals, hospital administrators, patients, and policymakers to combat DEI-branded racism and gender ideology in the field of medicine.

In order to better tackle the second of these two scourges, the organization launched the Stop the Harm Database in October, identifying hospitals and medical facilities around the country that were subjecting vulnerable children to sex-change mutilations and sterilizing chemical treatments.

The FBI has launched criminal probes into three of the apparent worst offenders in the database — Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles — a source familiar with the investigations told Fox News Digital this week.

FBI Director Kash Patel appeared to signal that the anonymous source’s claim was legitimate by retweeting a post on X regarding the investigations.

The Stop the Harm Database indicated that Boston Children’s Hospital has offered sex-change treatments to patients ages 3 to 25 through its Gender Multispeciality Service; performed 204 sex-change surgeries between 2017 and 2020; offered vaginoplasty surgeries to 17-year-old patients without parental consent; and dished out sterilizing hormone and puberty blocker drugs to hundreds of patients.

Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora has long offered puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. The hospital also allegedly billed for sex-change surgeries in previous years but announced in 2023 that its practice of genital mutilation was coming to an end. However, the hospital’s practice of dishing out sterilizing chemicals continued.

RELATED: Sacrificing body parts and informed consent to the sex-change regime

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

The Colorado hospital temporarily paused its nonsurgical child-related “gender-affirming medical treatments” earlier this year in the wake of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order directing all federal agencies to ensure that medical institutions receiving federal funding “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” However, it subsequently resumed the practice after the president’s order was challenged in court.

The Colorado hospital’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity does not identify a minimum age for sex-change treatments on its website, instead claiming that “gender-affirming care does not look the same for everyone.”

‘Each of them is listed on our Dirty Dozen list of worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex-change treatments for minors.’

According to the Stop the Harm Database, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles boasted patients as old as 25 and as young as 3 and billed millions of dollars for hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex-change mutilations for minors.

The Los Angeles Times recently indicated that the center currently has over 3,000 patients.

The L.A. center’s medical director, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, is a gender ideologue who publicly argued against the need for psychological assessments for sex-change mutilations; allegedly provided sex-change hormones to kids as young as 12 and referred little girls as young as 13 for double mastectomies; and covered up the results of a years-long study concerning the efficacy of puberty blockers, which revealed kids’ depression symptoms and emotional health “did not change significantly over 24 months” of being on puberty blockers.

Thanks in large part to Trump’s executive order, the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is shuttering its sex-change center, effective July 22.

RELATED: Trump claims another scalp in war on gender ideology: Children’s Hospital LA to shutter child sex-change center

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The FBI is looking at the hospitals for possible violations of 18 U.S.C. § 116, which prohibits female genital mutilation on minors.

Attorney General Pam Bondi noted in an April 22 memo that pursuant to Trump’s executive order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” she was directing all Department of Justice employees “to enforce rigorous protections and hold accountable those who prey on vulnerable children and their parents.”

“I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals, and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform, or conspire to perform female genital mutilation on any person under the age of 18. That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count,” wrote Bondi. “I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM — under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise — and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible.”

It’s abundantly clear from the documents leaked last year from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the landmark Cass Review in the United Kingdom, and other penetrating studies that so-called gender-affirming care is a ruinous practice based on bogus claims that does not help but rather harms vulnerable patients.

Hospitals still suggesting otherwise could also find themselves in trouble. After all, Bondi indicated in her memo that the DOJ would investigate medical providers that “mislead the public about the long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilations.”

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman at Do No Harm, told Blaze News in a statement, “We applaud Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI for launching criminal investigations into these hospitals. Children’s hospitals should be places where sick children can receive high-quality and evidence-based care, not laboratories where activist doctors experiment on kids. Sadly, this is what we have seen at many medical centers around the country.”

“Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles are ripe targets for investigation, which is why each of them is listed on our Dirty Dozen list of worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex-change treatments for minors,” continued Goldfarb. “We look forward to working with the Justice Department and its new Coalition Against Child Mutilation to identify and hold accountable other children’s hospitals that are inflicting irreversible harm on minors.”

Fox News Digital indicated that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles did not respond to its requests for comment; that Boston Children’s said it has yet to receive notice from the FBI concerning alleged criminal violations; that Children’s Hospital Colorado claimed it “never” provided sex-change surgeries to patients under 18; and that the FBI noted that as a matter of policy, it “declines to confirm or comment on investigations.”

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​Fbi, Bureau, Sex change, Child sex change, Transition, Transgender, Transvestite, Gender ideology, Mutilation, Patel, Boston children’s hospital, Children’s hospital colorado, Children’s hospital los angeles, Politics 

One of the keys to success in digital content creation is mastering search engine optimization — a powerful strategy that boosts a creator’s visibility. SEO involves using targeted keywords in video titles, descriptions, and tags, along with engaging thumbnails and captions, to help search engines like Google and YouTube rank content higher in search results, driving more viewers to discover it.

Here’s how it works: A YouTuber films a cooking video demonstrating a pasta recipe. To reach a wider audience, she applies SEO by crafting a keyword-rich title and description with phrases like “easy dinner ideas” and “quick pasta dish” and adding relevant tags to her video. If she does this well, she increases her video’s chances of ranking higher in YouTube search results, attracting more viewers in a competitive digital landscape.

But what happens when Big Tech shadow cabals in collaboration with federal entities decide to erect virtual barriers that prevent certain topics from appearing on search result pages — regardless of how adeptly the creator used SEO and other content-optimizing digital tools?

BlazeTV host Steve Deace has been living out the reality of that question for years.

Topics — especially “controversial” ones — YouTube, Apple iTunes, and Google have deemed problematic are quietly buried under an avalanche of other content. This censorship has been happening for years, so conservative content creators got smarter and found loopholes around the algorithms by avoiding key words and phrases they knew would be flagged and squashed.

However, Big Tech companies are now “transcribing everything that’s said on podcasts,” meaning creators cannot avoid the consequences of discussing forbidden topics.

“So let’s pretend we spend an entire entire show just debunking the demonic ideology of transgenderism, but we market it in a way that it says nothing about trans in order to try to get around the algorithm. Well, now that they’re transcribing that for us, we can’t get around that,” says producer Aaron McIntire.

Creators can appeal YouTube’s decision to demonetize their show, but success is rare. “There’s basically no recourse whatsoever,” says Aaron.

“I would venture a guess we are the largest show in America with by far the most anemic YouTube traffic,” says Steve. “They’re making it so we can’t connect with our audiences, and if we can’t connect with you, we can’t hit the numbers we want to get the monetization we need to keep even doing this at all.”

Steve has been battling Big Tech censorship behind the scenes for years now. Recently, however, his fight experienced a new development when he contacted First Liberty — “the leading constitutional conservative political advocacy organization in the country” — which determined that Steve, indeed, had grounds to file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

To hear where Steve is at in the process of fighting Big Tech censorship, watch the episode above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Steve deace show, Steve deace, Big tech, Big tech censorship, Meta, Google, Facebook, Youtube, Youtube censorship, Google censorship, Blazetv, Blaze media, First liberty 

“The View” co-hosts Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin now know how the rest of us feel.

Audiences have endured an endless string of fake news stories, crazed conspiracies, and more from the toxic ABC News product.

The scariest part for tomorrow’s filmmakers? ‘A Better Tomorrow’ required just 30 people to complete.

We roll our eyes, laugh, and stare agape, wondering why the top brass isn’t ashamed to put the network’s name on the product.

Haines and Griffin must be numb to it all, enduring it five days a week while the paychecks keep clearing. Last week, however, Whoopi Goldberg’s commentary proved too much for even them.

The trouble began with the panel debating the latest Israeli attacks on Iran and the prospect of the U.S. entering the fray. That led to this bewildering exchange between Goldberg and Griffin.

Griffin began by explaining how the human rights abuses in Iran are far worse than what citizens face in the U.S. It’s a “the sky is blue” comment, except uber-patriot Goldberg disagreed.

GOLDBERG: We’ve been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car!

FARAH GRIFFIN: I’m sorry, but where the Iranian regime is today is nothing compared to the United States!

GOLDBERG: Listen, I’m sorry! They used to just keep hanging black people!

FARAH GRIFFIN: It’s not even the same! I couldn’t step foot wearing this outfit in Iran right now … I think it’s very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is in Iran.

GOLDBERG: Not if you’re black!

HOSTIN: Not for everybody!

GOLDBERG: Not if you’re black!

Haines jumped in, trying to bring sanity to the discussion, but Goldberg wouldn’t budge.

This really happened on a major television network, not a YouTube channel with 25 indifferent subscribers …

RELATED: The best destinations for celebrities fleeing the Donald Trump regime

Anadolu/Kevin Mazur/Getty Imagesed

China’s ‘Better’ AI bet

U.S.-based film studios are treading carefully vis-à-vis AI. Very carefully.

They don’t want to be seen as pushing digital creativity over human inspiration, and the recent industry strikes offered limited protections for cast and crew against the AI revolution.

China has no such compunctions.

In fact, the China Film Foundation recently announced two new AI-driven projects: the restoration of 100 martial arts films and the first completely AI-produced animated film: “A Better Tomorrow: Cyber Border.”

The scariest part for tomorrow’s filmmakers? “A Better Tomorrow” required just 30 people to complete. Now, recall watching any MCU film and seeing the waves of names floating by during the end credits.

It’s no wonder Hollywood is very, very nervous …

‘Mega’ millions

Find a spouse who will love you as much as Francis Ford Coppola loves “Megalopolis.” The auteur’s 2024 film earned rough reviews and an even worse commercial drubbing. It’s still Coppola’s baby, despite it costing him tens of millions.

Literally.

With a box office tally of only $14 million, the Mega-flop didn’t come close to making back its estimated $120 million budget — most of which came from the “Apocalypse Now” director’s own pockets. That’s commitment, and his relationship with the film is far from over.

Coppola has yanked “Megalopolis” from its brief VOD platform run and refuses to let the movie be shown on streaming platforms or Blu-ray. Instead, he’s about to start a limited U.S. tour where he’ll screen the film and provide post-movie commentary.

We’ll know it’s true love if he announces a sequel during the tour …

Lane’s gay panic

Thoughts and prayers go out to Nathan Lane. He just caught a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome.

The TV/film/Broadway actor is currently appearing in “Mid-Century Modern,” Hulu’s new gay sitcom. Lane is proud of the show but fears it could come to a crashing halt at any point. Is he worried about low ratings or disinterested Hulu executives? Perhaps the show’s budget is too expensive for the streamer?

No. He thinks Orange Man Bad might make it disappear.

“Is it going to change any minds? I don’t know about that. Trump, if he knew we were on the air, would probably try to shut it down, come after Hulu. But I think it’s a great thing to have right now, in the midst of books being banned and, ‘Don’t say this and don’t say gay and don’t do that.’ I think it’s a perfect time for a show like this.”

Maybe Lane should press Scott Bessent about his fears. Bessent is Trump’s treasury secretary, an openly gay man. He seems quite happy to be where is he today. Can Lane say the same?

​Whoopi goldberg, The view, Entertainment, Culture, Donald trump, Trump derangement syndrome, Nathan lane, Scott bessent, Hollywood, Ai, China, Toto recall 

The notification chimes. Another algorithmically selected product appears in your feed, something you never knew you wanted until this moment. You pause, finger hovering over the “buy now” button. Is this truly what you desire or just what the algorithm has decided you should want?

We’re standing at a fascinating turning point in human history. Our most advanced technologies — often criticized for trapping us in cycles of shallow wants and helpless determinism — could offer us unprecedented freedom to rediscover what we truly desire. “Agentic AI” — those systems that can perceive, decide, and act on their own toward goals — isn’t just another tech advancement. It might actually liberate our attention and intention.

Rather than passively accepting AI’s influence, we can actively shape AI systems to reflect and enhance our deeply held values.

So what exactly is agentic AI? Think of it not just as a fancy calculator or clever chatbot, but as a digital entity with real independence.

These systems perceive their environment, make decisions, and take actions with significant autonomy. They learn from experiences, adapt to new information on the fly, and pursue complex goals without our constant direction. Self-driving cars navigate busy streets, trading algorithms make split-second financial decisions, and research systems discover scientific principles on their own.

These aren’t just tools any more. They’re becoming independent actors in our world.

To understand this shift, I want to introduce you to two key thinkers: Marshall McLuhan, who famously said “the medium is the message,” and René Girard, who revealed how we tend to want what others want — a phenomenon he called “mimetic desire.” Through their insights, we can see how agentic AI works as both a medium and a mediator, reshaping our reality while influencing what we desire. If we understand how agentic AI will continue to shape our world, we can maintain our agency in a world increasingly shaped by technological advances.

McLuhan: AI as medium

McLuhan showed us that technology’s structure, scale, and speed shape our consciousness more profoundly than whatever content it carries. The railway didn’t just introduce transportation; it created entirely new kinds of cities and work.

Similarly, agentic AI isn’t just another tool. It’s becoming an evolving environment whose very existence transforms us.

McLuhan offers the example of electric light. It had no “content” in the conventional sense, yet it utterly reshaped human existence by eliminating darkness. Agentic AI similarly restructures our world through its core qualities: autonomy, adaptability, and goal-directedness. We aren’t just using agentic AI; we’re increasingly living inside its operational logic, an environment where non-human intelligence shapes our decisions, actions, and realities.

Neil Postman, who built on McLuhan’s work, reminds us that while media environments powerfully shape us, we aren’t just passive recipients: “Media ecology looks into how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value.” By understanding these effects, we can maintain our agency within them. We can be active readers of the message rather than just being written by it.

One big impact is on how we make sense of the world. As agentic AI increasingly filters, interprets, and generates information, it becomes a powerful participant in constructing our reality. The challenge is maintaining shared reality while technology increasingly forges siloed, personalized worlds. While previous technological advances contributed to this siloing, AI offers the possibility of connectivity. Walter Ong’s concept of “secondary orality” suggests AI might help create new forms of connection that overcome the isolating aspects of earlier digital technologies.

Girard: AI as mediator of desire

While McLuhan helps us understand how agentic AI reshapes our perception, René Girard offers a framework for understanding how it reshapes what we want.

Girard’s theory of mimetic desire suggests that human desire is rarely spontaneous. Instead, we learn what to want by imitating others — our “models.” This creates a triangle: us, the model we imitate, and the object of desire.

Now, imagine agentic AI entering this dynamic. If human history has been a story of desire mediated by parents, peers, and advertisements, agentic AI is becoming a significant new mediator in our digital landscape. Its ability to learn our preferences, predict our behavior, and present curated choices makes it an influential model, continuously shaping our aspirations.

RELATED: If AI isn’t built for freedom, it will be programmed for control

Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Peter Thiel, who studied under Girard at Stanford, suggests awareness of these dynamics can lead to more authentic choices. “The most successful businesses come from unique, non-mimetic insights,” Thiel observes. By recognizing how AI systems influence our desires, we can more consciously choose which influences to embrace and which to question, moving toward greater authenticity.

Look at recommendation engines, the precursors to full-blown agentic AI. They already operate on Girardian principles by showing us what others have bought or liked, making those items more desirable to us. Agentic AI takes this farther. Through its autonomous actions and pursuit of goals, it can demonstrate desirability.

The key question becomes: Is your interest in a hobby, conviction about an issue, or lifestyle aspiration truly your own? And more importantly, can you tell the difference, and does it matter if it brings you genuine fulfillment?

A collaborative future

The convergence of AI as both medium and mediator creates unprecedented possibilities for human-AI partnership.

Andrew Feenberg’s critical theory of technology offers a constructive path forward. He argues that technologies aren’t neutral tools but are laden with values. However, he rejects technological determinism, emphasizing that these values can be redesigned through what he calls “democratic rationalization,” the process by which users reshape technologies to better reflect their values.

“Technology is not destiny but a scene of struggle,” Feenberg writes. “It is a social battlefield on which civilizational alternatives are debated and decided.” Rather than passively accepting AI’s influence, we can actively shape AI systems to reflect and enhance our deeply held values.

This vision requires thoughtful design guided by human wisdom. The same capabilities that could liberate us could create more sophisticated traps. The difference lies not in the technology itself but in the values and intentions that shape its development. By drawing on insights from McLuhan, Girard, Postman, Ong, Thiel, Feenberg, and others, we can approach this evolving medium not with fear or passive acceptance, but with creative engagement.

The future of agentic AI isn’t predetermined. It’s ours to shape as a technology that enhances rather than diminishes our humanity, that serves as a partner rather than a master in our ongoing quest for meaning, connection, and flourishing.

​Opinion & analysis, Artificial intelligence, Marshall mcluhan, Agentic ai, Mimetic desire, René girard, Medium is the message, Peter thiel, Silicon valley, China, Freedom, Control 

At one point, FBI whistleblower Steve Friend assumed the FBI was a force for good.

“I’ve come around to the idea that it’s always been wrong, it’s always been about preserving the status quo and going after who the political enemies were,” Friend tells BlazeTV host Pat Gray on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

Friend tells Gray that communists have been “able to infiltrate the organization,” which is why “we’ve seen them particularly recently devolve their national security mission away from going after legitimate threat actors.”

“Now, they have this responsibility of rooting out terrorism here, but we’re going to change the message of terrorism. It’s not going to be the people who subscribe to a foreign ideology that says, ‘We’re going to engage in a violent activity to bring about political unrest and fear so we can get the changes we want,’” he continues.

“Instead we’re going to say, ‘Well, it’s a homegrown violent extremist or a domestic violent extremist or an anti-government, anti-authority, violent extremist.’ And eventually, it’s a nihilistic violent extremist, someone who doesn’t have an ideology at all,” he adds.

Because the greatest threat to the government as an entity are those who believe in a smaller government — those are the people who the FBI goes after now. And Friend, unfortunately, is one of them.

“A couple of nights ago, my phone on silent, do not disturb, all apps closed down, on a charger, alerted me and my wife when it started playing the placeholder video for my podcast,” he tells Gray. “Lo and behold, the next day, all my access to the Justice Department, www.justice.gov, website access denied. And then actually, last night, my phone started to chirp and woke us both up.”

“So I want to be on record that if there’s any sort of remote shenanigans that are happening with my devices, that’s not because I have any incriminating material I put on,” he continues, noting that the sound that came from his phone was one he’s “never heard before.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

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

​Video phone, Video, Free, Sharing, Camera phone, Upload, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Fbi whistleblower, The fbi, Kash patel, Steve friend, Domestic terrorism, Government corruption, The patriot act 

You may have noticed that corporate America’s enthusiasm for Pride Month has waned.

But business leaders aren’t the only ones pulling back from public celebration of “Pride.” Many ordinary people are retreating from full-on support for the demands of the LGBT lobby.

Our Leaving Pride Behind campaign amplifies the powerful testimonies of men and women who have walked away from homosexual behavior and identity.

Most importantly, many people who once identified themselves as gay, lesbian, or transgender have abandoned that identity. In some cases, they have completely reinterpreted their own past behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and political commitments. These brave men and women have left Pride behind.

Over the rainbow

If you’ve sensed that Pride-themed advertising has declined since 2023, you’re not wrong. A new survey finds that 43% of Fortune 1,000 companies are dialing back their external support for Pride Month in 2025. Social media feeds, once filled with rainbow branding, are strikingly subdued this year. No embarrassing displays by nonbinary “influencers” trying to sell beer. No doubt, the business community is responding to the views of the broader public.

A recent survey revealed that nearly 60% of Americans now prefer corporations to stay neutral on political and social issues.

At the same time, many Americans are questioning the goals and tactics of LGBT activism. People are starting to realize the cost of this ideology, particularly when it conflicts with faith, family, and biological reality. People are repelled by the sight of parents losing custody of their children for failing to “affirm” the child’s “gender identity.” Ordinary folk are cheering when J.K. Rowling takes down trans activists online.

‘Obergefell’ remorse

And people also intuit that redefining marriage in the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case opened the door to transgenderism in the schools, drag queen story hours, and much more. As a result, the public is rethinking its commitments to policies such as genderless marriage. Gallup polling shows public support for same-sex marriage has dipped from 71% in 2022 to 68% in 2025. Among Republicans, the drop is even more dramatic — from 55% to just 41% over the past three years.

Even more interesting and significant is the group of people that we at the Ruth Institute refer to as those who have “left Pride behind.” Some in the public refer to this group of people as “ex-gays.” We hesitate to use this terminology, because most of them do not refer to themselves in this way. They might refer to themselves as “once gay.” They might call themselves “overcomers” or “people who have journeyed away from an LGBT identity.”

Many of them do not accept the term “gay” as an identity label in the first place. At most, they regard the term “gay” or “same-sex attracted” as a description of an attribute, which may or may not be permanent. For many people, “gay” is emphatically not an identity. So they certainly do not want to call themselves “ex-gay.”

Stories of transformation

That is why we at the Ruth Institute refer to them as people who have left Pride behind. Our Leaving Pride Behind campaign amplifies the powerful testimonies of men and women who have walked away from homosexual behavior and identity. These interviews include stories of transformation, healing, and faith. They challenge the destructive ideology that sexual orientation or gender identity is permanent and must be celebrated through political activism.

These brave men and women have left Pride behind, not just metaphorically, but literally. They’ve humbled themselves enough to say, “I was on the wrong path. I am willing to take responsibility for myself, my choices, and the totality of my life.” They risk the ridicule and censure of people they thought were their friends.

Amazingly, many of the people who have left Pride behind have also left other baggage. They have had bad things done to them. They’ve left blame behind. They’ve done things for which they are deeply sorry and ashamed. They’ve left toxic shame behind. They’ve done the best they could in deeply trying and confusing situations. They’ve left excuse-making behind.

In short, they have peace in their lives.

Evading the evidence

The LGBT political establishment thinks these people don’t exist. According to the “official voice” of the LGBT community, no one can change sexual orientation. People who say they have changed are either kidding themselves and will surely revert to their natural gay selves any minute, or they weren’t really gay in the first place.

That is a cop-out, evading the evidence rather than confronting it. This attitude is also deeply disrespectful. If corporate America can leave Pride behind, so can once-gay individuals. Personally, I have the utmost respect for those who have chosen to leave Pride behind.

I invite you to visit the Ruth Institute’s YouTube channel. Get acquainted with the stories of those who have left Pride behind. Are they all lying or kidding themselves? Decide for yourself. I’m convinced that these are brave and honest individuals who have earned my respect.

​Pride month, Ex-gay, Conversion therapy, Ruth institute, Jennifer roback morse, Faith, Lgbt, Catholicism, Christianity, Abide, Countering ‘pride’ 

Neera Tanden, a prominent fixture in the Democratic establishment who served as director of the Biden White House Domestic Policy Council, appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday for hours-long, closed-door testimony concerning Biden’s cognitive decline while in office, its cover-up, and its alleged exploitation behind the scenes.

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Tanden, a former Hillary Clinton aide, stuck with the narrative that Biden was mentally fit during his tenure, her opening statement showed. She also suggested that the controversial use of the autopen — a machine used to affix Biden’s signature to a myriad of documents, which critics suspect was abused by unelected individuals to advance radical agendas and to circumvent the will of the American people — was above-board.

Tanden’s spin notwithstanding, congressional investigators appear to have made headway on Tuesday thanks in part to some poetic justice.

Shield withdrawn

Despite protest from President Donald Trump and warnings from numerous critics about setting an undesirable precedent, Biden waived executive privilege in October 2021 and directed the National Archives to furnish congressional partisans with Trump-era White House records pertaining to the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol.

Biden’s counsel noted in a letter that asserting executive privilege was “not in the best interests of the United States.”

University of Virginia School of Law professor Saikrishna Prakash, among the legal scholars at the time who understood this move could come back to bite Biden and his advisers, told the Associated Press, “Every time a president does something controversial, it becomes a building block for future presidents.”

Trump stacked on this building block this week in the interest of helping along the Oversight Committee’s investigation into the autopen scandal.

RELATED: Oversight Project over target: Dems seethe as facade of autopen presidency comes crashing down

Photo by Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images

Gary Lawkowski, deputy counsel to Trump, noted in a letter Tuesday — which echoed the letter previously penned by Biden’s counsel in 2021 — that in light of the “unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee.”

After highlighting Tanden’s assessment of Biden’s mental fitness and her knowledge of who exercised executive powers during his tenure, Lawkowski stressed:

The extraordinary events in this matter constitute exceptional circumstances warranting an accommodation to Congress. Evidence that aides to former President Biden concealed information regarding his fitness to exercise the powers of the President — and may have unconstitutionally exercised those powers themselves to aid in their concealment — implicates both Congress’ constitutional and legislative powers.

Blaze News reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Deprived of the shield of executive privilege and thus required to provide lawmakers with “unrestricted testimony,” Tanden headed into what she later referred to as a “thorough process.”

— (@)

Tanden’s admission

The Oversight Project, a government watchdog, revealed in early March that Biden’s signature on numerous pardons, executive orders, and other documents of national consequence was likely machine-generated.

The watchdog group also highlighted possible evidence that the autopen was used on some of these documents without Biden’s knowledge and while he was absent.

Around the time of the Oversight Project’s initial reporting on the autopen, former White House stenographer Mike McCormick told Blaze News that he felt Tanden was a person who could have potentially taken advantage of her position in the White House with regard to the autopen.

RELATED: Don’t let the Biden autopen scandal become just another lame hearing

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

McCormick, who neither worked in the White House with Biden after 2017 nor personally met Tanden, said she was often praised by the former president as a “super aggressive, very progressive” operative.

“She would be the person,” the stenographer continued. “If she came into his White House knowing that [Biden] was debilitated, would she be the kind of person who would take advantage of that? I think she would.”

While it remains unclear whether Tanden misused the autopen, McCormick was right on the money regarding her use of it.

After noting that she did not believe that the committee’s investigation was a “worthy subject of oversight,” Tanden told lawmakers in her opening statement that when serving as Biden’s staff secretary, she was “responsible for handling the flow of documents to and from the president” and was “authorized to direct that autopen signatures be affixed to certain categories of documents.”

McCormick was contacted for comment after news of the White House counsel’s letter to Tanden broke. McCormick explained that Tanden’s placement in the White House by Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff from 2021 to 2023, was a grave mistake.

“[Klain’s] decision to put Neera Tanden, an operative’s operative, in charge the staff secretary’s office is an extraordinary red flag that must be thoroughly investigated,” McCormick told Blaze News.

‘I think the American people want to know.’

When Ed Martin, the Department of Justice pardon attorney and director of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, announced his investigation last month into the questionable “autopen” pardons issued in the final days of the Biden White House, he indicated that a whistleblower had identified three people who controlled access to the autopen.

“They were making money off of it,” Martin said.

Martin did not name the three suspects outright and made no reference to Tanden. He did, however, identify several “gatekeepers” who were “dominant characters in the White House,” one of whom was Klain, whose office repeatedly hosted George Soros’ son Alexander Soros and who returned to the fold last year amid Biden’s debate preparation.

RELATED: Ed Martin floats names of ‘gatekeepers’ in Biden autopen controversy; Trump accuses exploiters of ‘TREASON’

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Tanden told congressional investigators on Tuesday that as of May 2023, she no longer had “any responsibilities in connection with the use of the autopen.”

Tanden further suggested that she had “no experience in the White House that would provide any reason to question [Biden’s] command as president,” adding that “he was in charge.”

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the Oversight Committee, told the Washington Examiner that Tanden was “very forthcoming” and that the committee now has “a lot better understanding of how things worked in the Biden administration.”

Next steps

Prior to the transcribed interview on Tuesday, Comer told reporters that Tanden’s was the “first of many interviews with people that we believe were involved in the autopen scandal in the Biden administration. We have a lot of questions to ask each witness.”

The transcripts will be released once all of the interviews are completed.

“I think the American people want to know. I think there is a huge level of curiosity in the press corps with respect to who was actually calling the shots in the Biden administration,” said Comer.

Former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and former Idaho Solicitor General Theodore Wold underscored the gravity of the matter in his testimony last week before the the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, noting that the “U.S. Constitution vests the executive power in a single person: the president.”

Whether signing an executive order, issuing a pardon, or taking any other action permitted him by the Constitution, “the president’s signature is itself the protection of democratic principles. When the president signs, he communicates his assent and endorsement of the action he takes,” said Wold.

Wold noted that in numerous instances where the autopen was used, there was no indication “that anyone other than staff were making these decisions.”

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​Autopen, Neera tanden, Tanden, White house, Biden white house, Oversight committee, Oversight project, Coup, Democracy, Donald trump, Executive privilege, Politics