Category: blaze media

Free speech isn’t dying in one dramatic moment. It’s getting shaved down in two different ways — both deliberate, both dangerous.

The first track is blunt-force censorship. It looks like platform bans, coordinated deplatforming, demonetization — and in some countries, handcuffs.

The First Amendment requires vigilance — and a culture and an infrastructure that respect not only the right to speak, but the ability to be heard without invisible manipulation.

When Joe Rogan reacted to reports that more than 12,000 people in the United Kingdom had been arrested over social media posts, he said the U.K. has “lost it.” Hyperbolic? Maybe. But the concern is real. Americans still recoil at the idea of police knocking on someone’s door over a tweet. In parts of Europe, that line keeps moving.

Take the arrest of Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan over posts criticizing trans activists. Agree with him or not, the point stands: Government shouldn’t referee online speech disputes. Speech that would receive constitutional protection in the United States is treated elsewhere as a criminal offense. That isn’t progress. It’s just regression dressed up as “social responsibility.”

We aren’t immune in the United States. We just do it differently.

The First Amendment still blocks direct government suppression in most cases. But a parallel system has grown up alongside it — one where Big Tech companies act as speech gatekeepers. They decide who can speak, who gets heard, and who disappears into digital exile. You may have the right to talk, but if you can’t reach anyone in the modern public square, what does that right mean?

That’s the predictable result of handing global communication infrastructure to a handful of corporations with opaque rules and shifting political winds. Platforms remove accounts, throttle content, suspend monetization, and slap “misinformation” labels on disfavored opinions. The rules move, enforcement varies, and appeals are a black box.

Jeff Dornik, founder of Pickax, a fast-growing platform branding itself as a free-speech alternative, puts it bluntly: “You can’t have freedom of speech without freedom of reach. It’s quite literally written into the First Amendment: ‘abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ If you limit reach, you abridge speech.”

That brings us to the second track — subtler and arguably more insidious.

It’s algorithmic manipulation. It’s the Overton Window nudged by code instead of Congress. It’s the illusion of free speech paired with the quiet denial of reach.

Dominant platforms defend themselves by insisting they support “freedom of speech.” Ask conservatives who’ve watched Big Tech suspend them, kneecap their businesses, or bury their content, and they’ll translate it the same way: Say what you want — we decide who sees it. Freedom of reach is optional at best.

Algorithms decide what trends, what goes viral, and what gets buried on page six of your search. They shape perception, reward some views, starve others, and then hide the rulebook. Users adapt. They soften language and avoid topics entirely. They self-censor — not because they got banned, but because they learned the cost of crossing invisible lines.

RELATED: The European Commission wants your free speech. Elon Musk is in the way.

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dornik argues that algorithms can be more corrosive than outright censorship: Instead of punishing speech the powers-that-be don’t like, they dangle engagement and monetization to train creators to censor themselves — “essentially getting you to rewire your own brain.”

“Almost all of the Big Tech platforms are using algorithms to manipulate us,” Dornik says. “The byproduct of this form of censorship is that it’s almost impossible to create community.”

He’s not wrong about the incentive structure. When creators wake up to find engagement cut in half after an unpopular opinion, they get the message. Stay inside the narrative. Don’t challenge the consensus. The window narrows — not because voters demanded it, but because code enforced it.

That’s why the free-speech debate can’t be reduced to arrest statistics. It’s about who controls visibility. It’s about whether speech is meaningfully free when distribution gets manipulated behind the scenes.

America still has the strongest constitutional speech protections in the world. But constitutional protection is only part of the story. Culture matters. Platform design matters. Incentives matter. When creators depend on systems that can quietly demonetize or suppress them, speech becomes conditional.

That’s the gap platforms like Pickax say they want to fill: no shadow bans, no algorithmic throttling, no opaque moderation. The feed is chronological and long-form content is encouraged. Creators own their content, and monetization is simple and direct.

Pickax held a launch event on February 24, with an all-day livestream featuring many of its creators. Dornik called it more than a rollout: “One of our primary missions with Pickax is to build human-to-human connections. We do this by eliminating the computer-driven algorithms … allowing our users to become the algorithm.”

RELATED: California’s next dumb tech idea: Show your papers to scroll

Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Skeptics will say alternative platforms stay niche or ideological. Maybe. But the fact that they keep gaining traction tells you something: People sense the digital public square has been curated, filtered, and sanitized in ways that don’t feel organic.

Free speech has always been messy. It has always included opinions we dislike and arguments we reject. Far from a flaw, that’s the system as it is supposed to work.

The alternative is a world where governments arrest people for posts — and corporations erase dissent with code. One is loud and authoritarian. The other is quiet and corporate. Both undermine open discourse.

The First Amendment is not self-executing. It requires vigilance — and it requires a culture and an infrastructure that respect not only the right to speak, but the ability to be heard without invisible manipulation.

No algorithms and no more shadow bans. No “reach dropped — try boosting.”

If we lose that fight, we won’t lose it all at once. We’ll lose it post by post, throttle by throttle, until only approved voices remain.

​Censorship, Free speech, Social media, First amendment, Overton window, Uk, Big tech, Opinion & analysis, Arrests, European union 

An axe-wielding male allegedly threatened a pair of car-wash employees in Ocala, Florida, last week — but one of the victims managed to violently turn the tables on him.

Marion County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Tidal Wave Auto Spa on SW 95th Street Road over a reported disturbance around 8:30 p.m. March 8, officials said.

‘I timed [it] so that once he lowered [the axe], that’s when I shot the takedown.’

Upon arrival, deputies said they found an 18-year-old victim restraining 36-year-old Bryce Thayer.

The investigation revealed that Thayer approached two employees at the car wash as they were closing, officials said.

Thayer was told to leave the property, officials said, but Thayer became angry and approached the two victims in a threatening manner while wielding an axe.

Officials said the 18-year-old victim lunged at Thayer in an attempt to disarm him and was able to get him on the ground. The second victim then was able to remove the axe from Thayer’s grip, officials said, and the 18-year-old victim restrained Thayer until deputies arrived.

RELATED: Teen robbers open fire on victim behind Texas Family Dollar, but victim also has a gun — and turns the tables lethally

Leodan Pino, 18, told WOFL-TV that his instincts took over amid the unnerving ordeal.

“I hear some screaming, someone yelling something,” Pino told the station. “Something along the lines of, ‘Where’s my wife? I can’t find my wife.’”

Pino added to WOFL that he knew he had to act.

“I timed [it] so that once he lowered [the axe], that’s when I shot the takedown,” Pino told the station. “I got on top of him, and I controlled the situation.”

WOFL reported that one of the car-wash workers — presumably Pino — hit Thayer in the face several times to disorient him.

Thayer was taken into custody, officials told the station, and he was found in possession of drug paraphernalia — a glass pipe believed to be a methamphetamine pipe.

He faces two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and a drug paraphernalia charge, WOFL said.

Thayer was taken to the Marion County Jail, and bail was set at $65,000, the station reported.

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​Crime thwarted, Florida, Marion county sheriff’s office, Arrest, Axe, Disarmed, Ocala, Car wash, Self-defense, Fighting back, Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill charge, Tidal wave auto spa, Drug paraphernalia charge, Crime 

The SAVE Act, which would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections, is currently stalled in the Senate. Republicans, led by President Trump and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), are adamant on pushing it through, as it prevents noncitizen voting.

But is the GOP so hyper-fixated on passing it that it’s glossing over an even bigger threat?

According to Blaze Media’s Daniel Horowitz, the answer is yes.

“All you hear going into this new week is ‘the Save Act, the Save Act.’ Do you see what minutia that is when you look at the magnitude of what we’re facing just with Islamic immigration?” he asks.

On this episode of “Conservative Review with Daniel Horowitz,” the no-nonsense conservative analyst breaks down why the SAVE Act is actually a distraction from more pressing immigration issues.

“We basically let in … several million people that believe in at least civilization jihad, don’t like America, cultivate a climate where you have several hundred thousand people that downright support terrorism as a form of fulfilling their jihad,” says Horowitz.

In light of this looming threat, the SAVE Act is “so small potatoes,” he argues, calling it “an idolatrous bill“ that ignores the real problem.

“It’s illegals being counted in the census, noncitizens being counted in the census, bringing in mass waves of people that become citizens and legally vote Democrat. That is a much bigger issue than the actual illegal voting,” Horowitz declares.

“Having Hezbollah, Hamas, Shabab, and Al-Qaeda-supporting Muslims in the millions in this country is a much bigger deal than the freaking SAVE Act,” he continues.

But stricter vetting isn’t the answer, he says.

Citing his interview with former Muslim Danny Burmawi, Horowitz contends that Islam is “not a religion” so much as it’s “a state” with its own “system of governance.”

Unlike in the Middle East, where governments often have to limit or modify strict Islamic practices to keep the state functional and avoid total dysfunction, Muslim immigrants in the West are free to express support for jihad and terrorism.

“We’re trying to run our state, and they’re able to actually implement a full unfettered, unadulterated Islamic state within the confines of our state. And that’s how you have a greater concentration of jihad now in the West than you have even in the East,” says Horowitz.

Instead of focusing on the SAVE Act, he argues that the GOP’s attention should be fixated on “[shutting] off the new flow” of Muslim migrants and denaturalizing and deporting those here legally who support foreign terrorists.

“The Constitution is not a suicide pact,” he declares. “States are going to have to say no to mass migration — illegal and legal.”

To hear more of Horowitz’s in-depth breakdown, watch the full episode above.

​Conservative review, Conservative review with daniel horowitz, Daniel horowitz, Save act, Muslim migration, Jihadists, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Retired Green Beret veteran Joe Kent has resigned from his post as director of the National Counterterrorism Center Tuesday, citing his disapproval of the United States’ strikes in Iran.

Kent said Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the United States and that the U.S. instead became involved in the conflict due to pressure from Israel. Kent also said continuing to serve in the administration would violate his conscience, especially after losing his “beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel.”

‘This echo chamber was used to deceive you.’

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent said in a letter addressed to President Trump. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.”

RELATED: Trump’s hilarious response after intel reportedly tells him Iran’s new supreme leader might be gay

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Kent praised Trump’s foreign policy from his 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns, saying that during those campaigns, Trump understood that wars in the Middle East “were a trap” that cost American lives. He also applauded Trump’s killing of Qasem Soleimani and defeat of ISIS in his first term but says his administration has since been lobbied and persuaded by “high-ranking Israeli officials” who sought out a war with Iran.

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage war with Iran,” Kent told Trump. “This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.”

“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women,” Kent added. “We cannot make this mistake again.”

RELATED: ‘Die in your rage’: Islamist attacks and murder plots are quickly adding up

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Kent signed off with a warning to Trump, urging him to “reverse course” in the war with Iran.

“I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for,” Kent said. “The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”

“It was an honor to serve in your administration and to serve our great nation.”

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

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​Joe kent, Israel, Iran, Donald trump, Director of national counterterrorism center, Odni, Tulsi gabbard, Forever war, Israel lobby, Iran war, Politics 

Recent research appears to confirm what many older people have been noticing for years: Younger generations are falling behind on cognitive skills. Measured IQs are dropping, and abilities like verbal fluency and nonverbal reasoning are declining as well.

If we’re going to reverse this decline in the young, parents and older adults are going to have to do what you might call “re-parenting.” We’re going to have to teach young people some basic skills.

Thank God for Mrs. McGonnigle. She sat with me during lunch for an entire week doing flash cards until I had my times tables burned into my brain.

These are skills that we largely seem to have absorbed by osmosis in our youths. For a number of reasons, these younger generations haven’t.

Digital deprivation

It’s not that kids are being born with fewer “hard-wired” smarts than before; it’s not that raw intelligence at birth is declining. Instead, it looks environmental, and the biggest culprit appears to be the “the rapid integration of digital technology into education.”

Bioinformatics researcher Shibasis Rath does a good job of putting complicated studies into plain English in his article “Is Gen Z the first generation less intelligent than their parents?”

The research in both Europe and the U.S. finds that younger generations show noticeable declines in their ability to reason abstractly, to solve novel problems on their own, and to engage in numerical/mathematical reasoning.

As Rath writes:

A large analysis of nearly 400,000 American adults tested between 2006 and 2018 found declines in verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, and matrix reasoning — key markers of fluid intelligence, or the ability to solve novel problems. Spatial reasoning showed modest improvement, but overall composite scores fell, with the sharpest declines among young adults aged 18 to 22.

What does the research suggest is the biggest culprit? Anyone who has watched a smartphone generation struggle with basic tasks will not be surprised.

Those interested in digging into the data can read some pertinent studies here and also here. To summarize, research on intelligence, measured by IQ and other tests, used to find a consistent upward trend over time. This is called the “Flynn Effect.”

From the 1930s to about 2000, researchers found IQs and mental skills rising in each subsequent generation. But then it flattened out. Worse, though, the curve started to decline around 2010; this was just a few years after the introduction of the smartphone.

Many people remarked that giving young people phones that let them outsource their thinking to a machine would lead nowhere good. But the pushback was, and is, loud and boisterous. Those who made such warnings were called “Luddites” and “Boomers.”

Math muddle

Well, it did happen. Think about how you’ve noticed that younger people are confused about how to deal with cash at stores. If they key in the wrong amount, they don’t know how to make change. This means they can’t do the simple arithmetic in their heads that people my age (51) and thereabouts do automatically. They don’t even know how to do simple subtraction on paper, because schools teach “new math.”

If you want to go down a nightmare rabbit hole of what public school math instruction looks like, start here.

This problem with math is mirrored in the ways reading is taught today, like using the discredited “whole language” approach instead of phonics. The series “Sold a Story” tells the tale in a compelling way.

If you still don’t believe today’s young people are floundering and adrift without basic skills, check out this demonstration from a college classroom. Before you watch this short video, understand that it’s not from a bottom-tier community college. These are Duke University students who have no idea which direction is north and who struggle, and fail, to read a simple road map.

The professor in that video is fighting the good fight with humor as he tries to skill-up his college students with the kind of knowledge older generations had by third or fourth grade. But he can’t do it alone. Teachers can’t do it alone, because the problem doesn’t start at school — it starts at home.

Phoning it in

It starts with parental mistakes. Not malice, not abuse, just honest mistakes. This is hard for parents to hear. Heck, it’s hard in 2026 for anyone to hear that they made a mistake or made the wrong choice. But we have to face the truth if we’re going to do better by our kids.

The first and biggest mistake was giving children smartphones at all. And no, they don’t “need” them. If a child needs to be able to call his parents wherever he is, a flip phone will do that without the collateral damage of instant access to violence and pornography right in Johnny’s pocket.

But it’s not just the obscene and damaging internet content that’s the problem. It’s deeper. When Johnny has a GPS system, a calculator, an AI “write my email” program in his hands, he’s going to use them instead of his brain.

So what are we to do? It’s time to be “old-fashioned” again. Wise parents will put their youngsters back in time and take away the digital crutches that have stunted their growth.

1. How to be bored

Take that smartphone away. No child 16 or under should have a smartphone. If you’re not willing to do this, close this tab and stop reading, because you’ve already decided you’re not going to help your kid grow. Yes, other kids, and other parents, will point out to your kid that “you’re the only one who doesn’t have one.” This is an excellent opportunity to impart that timeless parental wisdom: “If every kid jumped off a bridge …”

For Gen X kids, boredom was the training ground of childhood — the quiet stretch of time that forced you to invent games, pick up a book, wander outside, or simply learn how to be alone with your own thoughts.

2. How to read a map

Buy your child a map of your city, and then expand to an atlas of your state. Sit down and show your kid how to read the map’s instructions (the legend that explains symbols), and plot out the route from your house to your kid’s school. Then have your child plot a route from his school to whatever his favorite destination in town might be. This has to be done by hand, writing down steps by hand, on real paper. Yes, it matters. No, typing doesn’t form the same neural connections. Then keep going to more complicated routes.

3. How to memorize math facts with flash cards

Does your daughter struggle with math? Does she have a hard time with arithmetic? It’s time for flash cards.

In third grade, I was the only kid in class who struggled to memorize his multiplication tables. Thank God for Mrs. McGonnigle. She sat with me during lunch for an entire week doing flash cards until I had my times tables burned into my brain. This kind of rote memorization is the nonnegotiable, must-have building block for moving on to long division, algebra, and more.

4. How to get places without a chauffeur

This one’s easy, and it will save you time: Stop driving your kid to school and everywhere else he wants to go. If school is a mile away, he can walk. I did, and most of you reading did too.

No, it’s not true that it’s “mostly too dangerous in these modern times.” That’s only true in some areas, but even parents in safe neighborhoods have fallen prey to hysteria; they won’t even let their kids ride bikes until sunset. Reverse that.

5. How to cook

Teach them basic cooking.

Not by directing them to a website with GPS-style “turn-by-turn” steps and directions — by showing them and getting them to put their hands on the mixing bowl and the stove along with you. You don’t need detailed recipes to teach basic cooking like pasta, grilled sandwiches, meat loaf, and other home staples.

Gen Z thinks DoorDash is “how food happens.” Teaching them kitchen skills will give them better physical health, it will save them money, and it will show them how much more affordable (and tasty) food can be. If you need a reference cookbook, I recommend the “Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook” (a 1980s version if you can find it). The book explains basic techniques in food preparation that make sense and all fit together.

RELATED: Cooking is easy; it’s our modern anxiety that makes it hard

The Print Collector/Getty Images

Parents: I know it’s not easy. You’re swimming against a huge cultural and commercial tide that wants to swallow your kids’ minds and money. Tech companies don’t want to improve your kids’ quality of life — they want them dumbed down and dependent, and they’re doing a very fine job. Only you can stop this.

It will be lonely for a lot of you. Other parents will think you’re that kooky, crunchy mom or the too-strict dad. All your kids’ friends will poke fun if your daughter doesn’t have an iPhone. Yes, I’m afraid those things will happen.

But so what? You can handle this. Yes, you can. You know you can, because you know that you did when you were growing up.

You can turn this into a lesson for your children too. Model good responses for them. Be confident in how you let silly jabs roll off your back. Explain that there’s value and confidence in knowing how to help yourself. Yeah, your kids will roll their eyes a few times. But in 10 or 15 years, they’ll say, “Thanks, Mom and Dad.”

​Lifestyle, How-to, Culture, Skills, Maps, Flash cards, Parenting, Boredom, Big tech, Intervention 

After a midair collision and a train derailment, Congress faces a simple test: Will it follow the evidence?

In aviation, the Senate’s ROTOR Act would mandate improved aircraft surveillance technology after last year’s deadly midair collision involving a military helicopter and a passenger jet. Yet earlier this month, the House failed to advance the bill after Pentagon opposition — sidelining broader use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, a system that likely would have prevented that tragedy.

Rail risks being locked into prescriptive labor mandates, while aviation safety is undermined by incomplete adoption of proven technology. Neither sector is getting what it needs.

At the same time, a group of senators reintroduced the Railway Safety Act, branding it “data-driven” while again pushing minimum crew mandates — despite no empirical evidence that larger crews reduce accident rates — in response to the 2023 East Palestine derailment.

The impulse is understandable. When tragedy strikes, Washington acts. But acting quickly is not the same as acting on evidence.

If safety is truly the goal, Congress needs to ask a harder question: What actually reduces risk?

The data point in a clear direction. Human error dominates transportation accidents. And the most consistent safety gains in modern transport have come not from adding more people into systems but from improving system design, automation, and structured safety management.

Human error is the core problem

In 2024, roughly 40,000 Americans died in motor vehicle crashes — far outpacing most developed countries on a per-capita basis, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

By contrast, aviation and rail — sectors that have embraced automation and safety management systems — post dramatically lower fatality rates. Commercial aviation in developed countries now experiences fatal accidents at rates below 0.1 per million departures. Federal Railroad Administration data show train accident rates have fallen 33% since 2005, with derailments down significantly and human-factor incidents continuing to decline.

The lesson is straightforward: When systems are designed to reduce human error, safety improves.

RELATED: Female Black Hawk pilot didn’t follow orders before horrific crash: Report

Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Automation works — with caveats

Fully autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle systems have posted lower crash rates in controlled environments. These results require continued scrutiny and larger data sets, but the direction is clear: Reducing reliance on human reaction time reduces collisions.

The same logic applies in aviation and rail.

Automation now governs the vast majority of routine commercial flight operations. Positive train control has sharply reduced train-on-train collisions and overspeed derailments.

Consider last year’s midair collision. Broader, uninterrupted use of ADS-B In and Out would have provided precise real-time traffic awareness to pilots and controllers. The technology exists to prevent exactly this type of conflict, a point highlighted in the BlazeTV documentary “Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster,” which presaged the January 2025 Reagan National Airport tragedy. Yet expanded deployment has failed to advance despite bipartisan Senate support.

In rail, meanwhile, some lawmakers are moving in the opposite direction — toward mandates for more personnel.

Symbolic safety vs. structural safety

The East Palestine derailment stemmed from a mechanical failure — an overheated bearing — not a shortage of crew members. There were three crew members on board.

Adding personnel would not have prevented a bearing from overheating. Predictive maintenance systems, sensor networks, and better data integration are the tools designed to catch precisely that kind of failure.

Yet the RSA would codify minimum crew requirements across freight rail operations, regardless of route, cargo type, or level of automation.

This isn’t primarily about risk analysis. It reflects political incentives.

Organized interests exert concentrated influence. Diffuse beneficiaries — consumers, shippers, taxpayers — do not.

Labor interests can organize to protect jobs. The Pentagon can block safety rules it opposes. But the public — which wants safer transportation — is too diffuse to mobilize around specific, technical policy choices. The result is a grab bag of special-interest “safety” measures rather than coherent, risk-targeted reform.

RELATED: Trucks destroy roads, but railroads — yes, rail! — can save taxpayers billions

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Focus on what works

Freight railroads in the United States are privately funded and capital intensive, investing billions annually in track upgrades, advanced detection systems, and predictive maintenance. Rail remains one of the safest ways to move goods over land because sustained technological improvement compounds over time.

By contrast, the Federal Aviation Administration — a government-run system — has struggled to modernize needed surveillance and air-traffic technologies at speed and at scale. In civil aviation, the FAA has deployed ADS-B across controlled airspace, dramatically improving traffic surveillance and situational awareness. But gaps remain where some defense aviation actors are not required to fully transmit or receive ADS-B data.

Rail now risks being locked into prescriptive labor mandates, while aviation safety is undermined by incomplete adoption of proven collision-avoidance technology. Neither sector is getting the policy it needs.

As Congress considers the RSA, lawmakers should prioritize provisions that directly reduce accident probability. Decades of transportation data point to a consistent lesson: Safety improves when systems are engineered to anticipate and correct human limitations — not when policymakers assume more humans automatically mean more safety. One-size-fits-all crew mandates don’t meet that test.

Nor should Washington abandon expansion of ADS-B and other proven collision-avoidance technologies. The system exists to prevent the very type of tragedy we witnessed. It shouldn’t take another collision for Congress to act.

The evidence isn’t ambiguous. Technology-driven risk reduction works. Symbolic mandates do not. If lawmakers are serious about safety, they need to focus on what demonstrably prevents accidents — and have the discipline to follow the data.

​Train crash, Plane crash, Congress, East palestine disaster, Midair collision, Railroads, Faa, Opinion & analysis, Derailment, Derailing trains, Rotor act, Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, Transportation, Safety, Technology, Automation, Human error, Rail safety act 

A former middle school teacher was arrested for allegedly running prostitution parties at his home in a suburb of Rochester, New York.

Investigators cited emails from 66-year-old Eric Simpson showing that he charged people for the parties at his home on Canandaigua Road in Macedon from 2021 until Dec. 2025, according to a press release from the Western New York District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

‘Mr. Simpson was subject to a required background check and employment screening, including fingerprinting and a check of the New York State Sex Offender Registry.’

Prosecutors said the home was utilized for “commercial sex transactions” between numerous sex workers and clients.

“Simpson regularly promoted, managed, and carried on prostitution parties, arranging to have commercial sex workers present and available to perform commercial sex acts with himself and with those he invited to the parties,” the press release reads.

Prosecutors said Simpson was known as “Major Hands.”

In addition to the parties, prosecutors said Simpson “promoted, established, and carried on” meetings between prostitutes and their clients at the home even when he was not present.

In the marketing emails the former teacher sent out, he advertised the number of prostitutes that would be at his home, often refer to them by name, and would indicate where people could park to attend the parties, according to prosecutors. He would direct customers to negotiate “donations” to the “dancers.”

A statement from the North Rose-Wolcott Central School District indicated that he worked there as a technology teacher from August 2024 until he resigned in January 2026.

“As with all employees, Mr. Simpson was subject to a required background check and employment screening, including fingerprinting and a check of the New York State Sex Offender Registry, which came through with approval from the New York State Education Department,” the district said.

“The charge against Mr. Simpson involves alleged conduct that occurred outside of his capacity as an employee of the District, and we have no reason to believe an investigation would involve his work with North Rose-Wolcott,” the district added. “However, the District will fully cooperate with law enforcement in their investigation if asked. The safety of our students, staff, and community is our top priority.”

The Gananda Central School District also said he worked there as a substitute teacher from September 2020 to June 2022 and from September 2022 to August 2024 as a middle school computer science teacher.

RELATED: Middle school assistant principal allegedly tried to pay for sex with 13-year-old — but it was a sting operation

An online listing for the home indicates that it has six bedrooms.

Simpson was released by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy after arraignment on conditions that were not disclosed.

Macedon is a small town of about 9,000 residents located on the Erie Canal between Rochester and Syracuse.

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​Eric simpson prostitution charges, Prostitution parties in macedon, Middle school teacher prostitution, Macedon near rochester, Crime 

If you’ve flown out of a Texas airport lately, you’ve felt it: longer security lines, missed flights, and mounting frustration. Texans aren’t alone. Airports across the country are snarled, especially as spring break gets under way.

Why the hassle? Democrats in Washington have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, causing mayhem at the departure gate. The fallout is hitting travelers first.

As this shutdown drags on, more employees are calling off or quitting for steadier work — which only worsens staffing shortages and delays.

This marks the third funding lapse in six months. Instead of doing their job, Democrats are using the DHS as leverage to undermine President Trump and stall the work Americans elected him to do.

The consequences are immediate. More than 95% of TSA employees are working without pay during this shutdown. Many have taken second jobs to cover basic bills. At the same time, the TSA has cut staffing, which means fewer screeners and longer lines — even as the security mission stays the same.

In Texas, wait times have reportedly reached three hours at some airports over the past week. That translates into real costs: lost time, missed flights, and families stranded because Congress can’t pass a basic funding bill.

And this chaos could end overnight. Congress could fund the government and get the DHS back to work. Instead, Democrats are choosing disruption — and putting national security at risk — to block Trump’s mandate to secure the border, end illegal immigration, and Make America Safe Again.

TSA employees have seen this movie before. During the 43-day shutdown in 2025, some slept in their cars to make ends meet. As this shutdown drags on, more employees are calling off or quitting for steadier work — which only worsens staffing shortages and delays.

RELATED: Spring break blues: DHS highlights outrageous airport conditions amid Democrat shutdown

Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The TSA isn’t the only agency taking the hit. The Coast Guard, housed within the DHS, has more than 7,000 employees going without pay and roughly 3,000 furloughed. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has furloughed about 65% of its staff. FEMA is also feeling strain as its Disaster Relief Fund drains, threatening the agency’s ability to support state and local recovery efforts.

This shutdown burdens Americans, weakens our security, and undercuts the people responsible for protecting the nation.

President Trump and Republicans won in 2024 with a clear mandate. DHS employees are trying to carry it out. Congress should not sabotage them.

Enough. Democrats must stop holding national security hostage and fund the DHS now. Anything less betrays the American people.

​Tsa, Dhs, Government shutdown, Trump, Democrats, Gop, Democrat shutdown, Missing flights, Airports, Coast guard, Opinion & analysis, Transportation security administration, Department of homeland security, Delayed flight 

Immediately after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in late February, a mysterious shortwave radio signal began broadcasting coded messages in Farsi. Twice daily, a man’s voice reads groups of seemingly random numbers — an old Cold War-era spy tactic rarely seen in recent decades. As of now, no one knows for certain who’s behind it.

To dive deeper into this curious resurgence of a classic espionage method, Glenn Beck speaks with his chief researcher and former Department of Defense intelligence analyst, Jason Buttrill.

Numbers stations, Buttrill explains, were “something that was used for very highly sensitive communications that one country — whether it was NATO country, U.S., or the Soviet Union — would send out all over the world.”

“People always kind of assumed it was meant for maybe sleeper agents or instructions for people outside the country to do something. … The numbers could represent words out of books or who knows what. But you’re not going to be able to break it very easily, if at all,” he adds.

What makes the numbers station currently broadcasting in Iran so suspicious, he says, is that we have no idea who’s behind it.

“We don’t know if the Iranians started this broadcasting that’s meant to go out of the country, or if this was something like a psy-op that we did, trying to broadcast in Farsi numbers into the country,” Buttrill tells Glenn.

Somebody, however — whether the U.S. or Iran — is actively trying to stop these communications because “five days after this started, … somebody tried to jam this signal,” he says.

“The jamming would take a state actor, right?” Glenn asks.

“Typically, yes, a state actor — someone with the means — but that would usually be, like, a nation-state,” Buttrill responds.

“Or, you know, Bezos or Elon Musk or somebody who now has more money than the United States will ever have,” Glenn quips.

In the next part of the show, Glenn and Buttrill address the broader developments and strategic implications of the ongoing conflict in Iran. To hear it, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Iran war, Iran strikes, Numbers stations, Jason buttrill 

Democrats can learn. Political survival demands adaptation, and lately some on the left have started studying their Republican opponents with something like anthropological curiosity. They watch Republicans work a crowd and ask a practical question: What works?

One answer keeps recurring. Republicans like to quote the Bible.

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

You can picture the light-bulb moment. A candidate cites Scripture. The audience nods. Somewhere, a strategist thinks: Let’s find a guy who can do that for us.

Enter James Talarico, the Texas Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate who quotes Scripture all day long.

That tactic may sway voters who enjoy hearing a verse, even when it gets pulled out of context to bless ideas Scripture condemns. Christians who know their Bibles will spot the move fast.

Jesus warned about this exact type: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

A Bible verse proves nothing by itself. Wolves can quote Scripture, too. So can the devil.

The question is what the verse is being used to defend.

The abortion argument

Talarico claims Genesis 2:7 teaches that a human being becomes alive, and worthy of legal protection, only at first breath.

Wrong. The verse describes Adam’s creation. God formed the first man from dust and then breathed life into him. That account does not describe ordinary human development in the womb. It describes a singular act of creation.

Every other human life begins at conception. A distinct organism exists from that point, with its own DNA and its own trajectory of development. Scripture treats unborn children as living persons. Psalm 139:13-16 speaks of God knitting a child together in the womb.

Even if someone granted Talarico’s “first breath” premise for argument’s sake, the logic collapses quickly into moral absurdity. It pushes abortion right up to delivery. Some activists embrace that conclusion. Most Americans recoil, however, because they sense the truth: Killing a fully formed child moments before birth differs only in location from killing the same child moments after birth.

The ‘nonbinary God’ argument

Talarico also claims God is “nonbinary,” as if that settles the modern LGBTQ agenda.

God has no biological sex. God is spirit. That does not erase the created order for human beings.

Scripture speaks plainly: God created humanity male and female. Genesis 1:27 teaches it. Jesus repeats it when he addresses marriage: “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’”

Christian teaching on marriage does not float as an arbitrary rule. It rests on creation itself, and Jesus affirms it.

RELATED: Talarico self-owns when he warns fascism will ‘be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross’

Photo by Gabriel V. Cardenas/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The rainbow vs. the Ten Commandments

Talarico asks why a rainbow flag in a classroom counts as indoctrination while posting the Ten Commandments does not.

The answer isn’t complicated. The Ten Commandments summarize foundational moral truths about God, human life, and justice. They shaped the moral vocabulary of Western civilization for centuries.

The rainbow flag represents a moral program that rejects the biblical account of sex, marriage, and human nature. The two messages do not belong in the same moral category.

Fruit tells the truth

Jesus gave a practical test for identifying false teachers: Look at the fruit.

When someone uses Scripture to justify abortion or to deny the created order of male and female, the fruit shows itself. The apostle Peter warned about this kind of manipulation: “Untaught and unstable people twist [the Scriptures] to their own destruction.”

Christians should not get impressed because a politician can quote a verse. Even Satan did.

The question is whether the Bible is being handled faithfully or weaponized to sanctify fashionable sins.

Stay awake

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

Know the word of God. Test what you hear against it. Teach your children to do the same.

That’s how you recognize wolves, even when they show up in sheep’s clothing with a Bible in hand.

​Opinion & analysis, First amendment, Freedom of religion, Bible, Truth, James talarico, God is nonbinary, Fascism, Patriotism, Genesis, Abortion, Sin, Christianity, The devil, Satan, Scripture, Pride flag, Education, Ten commandments, Transgender agenda, Leftism, False prophets, Faith, Democrats 

About 11 million people on the island nation of Cuba have lost power after the country’s electrical grid completely collapsed on Monday.

Cuba relies on oil to run the power grid, and a U.S. embargo has worsened the energy crisis it was already suffering under. The U.S. ended oil deliveries to Cuba from Venezuela and threatened other countries with steep tariffs if they provided oil to the nation.

‘Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.’

The state-owned power operator said efforts were under way to restore power to the island. In the meantime, energy has been rationed and many services have shut down.

“The impact [of the blockade] is tremendous. It is most brutally manifested in these energy issues,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Friday. “This causes anguish among the population.”

Díaz-Canel said Cuba had not received oil in about three months.

“Officials in the U.S. [government] must be feeling very happy by the harm caused to every Cuban family,” said Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío in a statement about the blackout.

Electricity generation is plagued by aged power infrastructure and a lack of spare parts that are also blocked by the embargo.

President Donald Trump said he had designs for a takeover of the island.

“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba. That’s a big honor,” the president said to reporters at the White House. “Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth.”

RELATED: Massive blackout hits Cuba after entire power grid fails; communist government blames the US

He added, “They’re a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time. Very violent leaders.”

Protesters have also risen up against the communist government in anger over the blackouts and a shortage of food.

Díaz-Canel said he’s having talks with Trump in order to find “areas of cooperation.” Some anticipate there will be a deal soon to allow some private businesses to operate on the communist island.

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With tensions rising in the Middle East and concerns growing over oil supply, many Americans are wondering what the latest developments mean for the economy — and financial expert Carol Roth may have some answers.

“It’s difficult to have mobility in this economy right now, and it’s, you know, sort of a tough thing for everyday people to deal with,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere tells Roth, noting that recent developments in Iran are affecting not only the price of gas, but food prices.

“How should we be thinking of this right now, Carol?” Stu asks.

“So, I think that we should be thinking that we hope that there is a short end to this conflict both from a moral and human perspective as well as from an economic perspective,” Roth explains.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of risk, and we don’t know what the duration is going to be. And so as that information comes out and then gets, you know, kind of extrapolated and increased by algorithmic trading and hedge funds, you see a lot of volatility, but we’ve seen that somewhat normalized,” she says.

“The challenge is that, you know, a lot of the tampering of inflation … had a lot to do with the fact that oil had been in a very good and attractive place, particularly for consumers. Maybe not as much for producers, but at least for consumers,” she continues.

Roth believes that in order to combat these issues for everyday Americans, the Trump administration needs to focus on things like small businesses.

“I’d like to see more policies that remove barriers. If you remove barriers, particularly from small businesses, they are the biggest job creators and drivers. They’re also, by the way, the ones who are going to be least susceptible to AI changes,” Roth tells Stu.

“And so, that would be a really good and easy thing to do,” she adds.

Want more from Stu?

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

​Stu does america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Financial expert, Carol roth, The economy, Inflation, Iran war, Strait of hormuz, Gas pries, Gas prices 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is facing contempt of court charges after it refused to release a violent criminal with 35 arrests.

Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Eric Goodman said that 36-year-old Joshua Sanchez-Lopez should be released and placed on electric monitoring, but police say he’s too much of a risk.

‘The idea that a Metro employee can overrule a judge’s release order and keep someone locked up should worry anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.’

Sanchez-Lopez has previous convictions that include involuntary manslaughter and drug charges and was arrested in January on a charge of grand larceny of a motor vehicle. Goodman said he could be released from jail and monitored if he posted bail.

Metro police told the judge on Jan. 29 they would not release Sanchez-Lopez, in defiance of his order.

The letter cited previous incidents where Sanchez-Lopez failed to appear in court and violated the department’s program. In one instance, he mocked police after posting a photo of his ankle monitor on Snapchat.

On Feb. 5, Goodman responded and threatened to hold the cops in contempt of court.

Metro argues that the decision to keep Sanchez-Lopez is granted to the sheriff by state law.

The suspect’s public defender disagreed.

“Metro’s argument is flat wrong,” reads a statement from public defender P. David Westbrook.

“It is the job of the elected judge to decide whether someone charged with a crime should be released and under what conditions,” he added. “The idea that a Metro employee can overrule a judge’s release order and keep someone locked up should worry anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law.”

Metro assistant general counsel Mike Dickerson said they’re trying to preserve public safety.

“We have to take a look at that and say, ‘Is this somebody who our electronic supervision program can monitor safely in the community?'” Dickerson said.

“There’s absolutely competing narratives about public safety occurring in our community. There’s different approaches too,” he added.

RELATED: Former DHS attorney who told judge ‘this job sucks’ is now running to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar

In a statement on social media, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo of Nevada said he backed the police.

“Sheriff McMahill and the men and women of Metro are doing exactly what they’re sworn to do: protect the public,” he wrote. “When repeat violent offenders are ordered back onto our streets, law enforcement has a duty to speak up and push back. I fully support LVMPD’s decision to take this issue to the Nevada Supreme Court and fight for public safety. I stand with law enforcement.”

Goodman also pointed out that the level of electronic monitoring ordered for Sanchez-Lopez was similar to house arrest.

“The safety of our officers is paramount,” Dickerson continued. “The safety of the public is key, and the key here is Sheriff McMahill will not violate the law to appease the Las Vegas Justice Court and let out people who he deems to be dangerous. We have a system that’s set up so people can get out of jail quickly, and sometimes, there just needs to be a little bit more thought given to it because lives are on the line.”

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​Sheriff vs judge, Las vegas metropolitan police, Joshua sanchez-lopez, Vegas justice court judge eric goodman, Politics 

Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino is reportedly retiring from federal service after having left Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, according to two sources CBS News described as “directly familiar with his decision.”

Bovino has been serving as the chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector on the U.S.-Mexico border and has been praised by immigration hawks who approved of his aggressive tactics to enforce federal law.

‘Politicians are laying blame at the feet of law enforcement instead of looking in the mirror at how they have fueled the hatred and violent attacks.’

He is expected to retire at the end of the month, the sources said.

“The greatest honor of my entire life was to work alongside Border Patrol agents on the border and in the interior of the United States in some of the most challenging conditions the agency has ever faced,” Bovino said to Breitbart News.

He faced heated criticism from the left after anti-ICE activists Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed during separate incidents involving federal agents in Minneapolis.

Bovino left Minneapolis and was replaced with border czar Tom Homan, who eventually drew down the operation after reaching an agreement with local officials.

After Bovino returned to California, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said he and other federal officers were under criminal investigation over their actions in Minnesota.

“Our [Transparency and Accountability Project] team is actively investigating 17 incidents that have been brought to our attention by the community, including Gregory Kent Bovino’s actions near Mueller Park on January 21,” Moriarty said in a statement earlier in the month.

On the date cited by Moriarty, Bovino was captured on video tossing a canister of chemical irritants at anti-ICE protesters.

DHS responded to Moriarty’s investigations with a fiery statement.

“This does nothing to make Minnesota safer. Enforcing federal immigration laws is a clear federal responsibility. … Politicians are laying blame at the feet of law enforcement instead of looking in the mirror at how they have fueled the hatred and violent attacks we are seeing against federal law enforcement officers,” a DHS spokesperson said.

RELATED: Gregory Bovino and other federal agents under criminal investigation by Minneapolis county attorney

Bovino released a video statement praising federal immigration officers after his release from Minnesota.

“I’m very proud of what you, the mean green machine, are doing in Minneapolis right now, just like you’ve done it across the United States over these past tough nine months,” he said in the video from Mount Rushmore.

“I also want you to know that I’ve got your back, now and always — I love you, I support you, and I salute you,” he added.

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​Gregory bovino retiring, Trump immigration policy, Mass deportations, Trump admin resignations, Politics 

Last night’s Academy Awards brought the usual mix of celebration, surprises, and disappointment.

It also offered a revealing glimpse into how modern storytelling wrestles with the problem of human evil. Again and again, our stories invent new creators and judges — aliens, scientists, political systems — while avoiding the possibility that the answer might be the one Christianity has proposed all along.

Interestingly, the film’s bleak ending inadvertently highlights the beauty of the alternative.

We see this pattern clearly in this year’s Best Picture winner, “One Battle After Another.” In that film, humanity’s problems are framed largely as political ones: injustice embedded in systems that must be overcome through struggle here on earth.

The problem of evil

The year’s other nominees approach the same problem from different angles. “Frankenstein” warns about the dangers of human beings assuming the role of creator, while “Sinners” treats Christianity itself as a corrupting force rather than a remedy for human brokenness. The stories differ in tone and message, but they circle the same question: Why does humanity repeatedly descend into violence, cruelty, and exploitation?

And then there’s “Bugonia,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ ambitious science-fiction drama. Although the film failed to take home Best Picture or any of the four Oscars for which it was nominated, its unsettling message reveals much about our post-Christian frame of mind.

The film proposes a provocative premise: Humanity was seeded on Earth by extraterrestrial beings known as Andromedans. But when humanity fails to live up to their expectations — ravaging the planet, waging war, exploiting one another — the aliens decide to erase the experiment and reboot the world.

Spoiler alert: They succeed.

Failed experiment

In the film’s closing act, the Andromedans judge humanity irredeemable. Our history of violence, greed, and environmental destruction becomes the evidence against us. Like scientists abandoning a failed experiment, they extinguish the human race in order to start again.

The premise is morally haunting because it contains a kernel of truth. Humanity has indeed fallen short of what we know to be right. Our history is filled with wars, cruelty, and exploitation of both people and planet. Watching the film, you can almost understand why an external observer might conclude that humanity is incapable of redemption.

But the film’s central idea contains a deeper philosophical problem that it never addresses.

In “Bugonia,” aliens replace God.

Persistent theory

Instead of an eternal Creator, we are told that advanced beings from another star system planted life on Earth. Humanity, in other words, is merely the product of a cosmic experiment. The idea echoes the pseudoscientific theories popularized decades ago by Swiss author Erich von Däniken, most famously in his 1968 best-seller “Chariots of the Gods?” He argued that ancient monuments and religious traditions were evidence that extraterrestrials had visited Earth and influenced — or even created — human civilization.

Despite the popularity of those claims, they have been widely rejected by scientists and historians as speculative at best and misleading at worst. Yet the underlying idea persists in popular culture, resurfacing in films, television shows, and speculative fiction like “Bugonia.”

The problem is that such explanations never truly answer the deepest question. They merely move it one step back: If the Andromedans created humanity, who created them?

The difficulty with theories that attempt to explain existence without God is that they ultimately arrive at an illogical conclusion — that somehow the material universe emerged from nothing. Matter, life, and consciousness simply appeared. The universe, in effect, would have to create itself.

Every effect requires a cause. Every creation requires a creator. If alien life exists somewhere in the universe — and it very well may — those beings would still be part of the created order. They, too, would owe their existence to something greater and eternal.

A different story

“Bugonia” imagines alien overseers who judge humanity and wipe the slate clean when the experiment fails. But the story humanity actually lives in is far different.

According to Scripture, there was indeed a moment when God chose to “reset” the world. In the story of Noah, humanity had become so violent and corrupt that God sent a flood and preserved only Noah and his family to begin again. Humanity was, in a sense, rebooted.

But even after the flood, humanity fell short again. We continued to quarrel, exploit, and destroy. The human story remained one of brokenness mixed with moments of grace.

The difference between the God of Scripture and the Andromedans of “Bugonia” is not power. It is mercy.

The aliens in the film conclude that humanity’s failures justify annihilation. God reached a radically different conclusion. Rather than abandon His creation, He entered into it.

The eternal God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world — not to condemn humanity but to redeem it. Where the Andromedans choose extermination, God chooses sacrifice.

This is the heart of the Christian story. Humanity fails again and again. Yet instead of discarding us as a failed experiment, God offers forgiveness and transformation.

RELATED: What Shia LaBeouf’s public struggle shows us about Christian redemption

MEGA/GC Images via Getty Images

Quiet revolution

Even then, the story does not become one of instant perfection. People who follow Christ still struggle. They still fall short. The difference is not that believers suddenly become flawless, but that they now have a path toward redemption.

One of the most profound summaries of that path comes from John the Baptist, who famously said of Christ: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Those few words describe the quiet revolution at the heart of Christianity. The transformation of humanity does not come from our own power or moral superiority. It comes from learning humility — placing God at the center rather than ourselves.

And that humility has consequences. A world shaped by self-interest breeds the very problems “Bugonia” highlights — violence, greed, environmental destruction, and exploitation. A world shaped by love of neighbor and reverence for a Creator begins to look very different.

Radical vision

Interestingly, the film’s bleak ending inadvertently highlights the beauty of the alternative.

In “Bugonia,” humanity is judged solely by its failures. There is no grace, no redemption, no possibility that flawed beings might grow into something better.

The Christian story, by contrast, insists that redemption is the point of the whole drama. God promised after the flood that He would not destroy the world again in such a way. The ultimate reset came not through annihilation but through Christ — through renewal.

For all its imaginative power, “Bugonia” ultimately imagines a universe governed by distant creators who abandon their creation when it disappoints them.

The Christian vision offers something far more radical: a Creator who loves His creation enough to save it.

​Academy awards, Oscars, Movies, Culture, Christianity, One battle after another, Best picture, Bugonia, Emma stone, Frankenstein, Sinners, Faith 

A viral video is making waves online after journalist Wajahat Ali, journalist for the Daily Beast and the New York Times, posted a clip declaring that white Americans have already “lost” the demographic future of the country.

BlazeTV host John Doyle breaks down the clip on “The John Doyle Show” — and he doesn’t appear to be worried about the journalist’s wild claims.

“He is a Pakistani gentleman born to immigrant parents in California. He’s a Muslim leftist, very active on Twitter. So a few months ago, he posted this video essentially as a warning to white Americans, a kind of premature victory lap,” Doyle explains, “you know, practically confirming the idea of what’s been described as the ‘Great Replacement.’”

“You’ve lost. You have lost. You lost. The mistake that you made is you let us in in the first place. That’s the thing with brown people. And I’m going to say this as a brown person. There’s a lot of us. Like a lot. There’s like 1.2 billion in India. There’s more than 200 million in Pakistan. There’s like 170 million in Bangladesh,” Ali said proudly in the selfie video.

“Those are just the people there. I’m not even talking about the folks who are expats or immigrants. There’s a bunch of us. And we breed. We’re a breeding people. And the problem is, is you let us in in 1965,” he continued.

“There were a few of us beforehand, but once you let one of us in, you know what happens with brown folks? Our grandmother comes, our grandfather comes, our uncle comes, our aunt comes, our cousin comes, our second cousin comes, our third cousin comes. Then we have kids, a bunch of kids,” he said, asking, “And then guess what?”

“Some white women, you know, the Western civilization women, the pure women, the American women, quote unquote, the rust belt women, the real women, they like some of us brown folks. We don’t take them. They come to us,” he added.

“So this is obviously just like some irrational bloodlust fantasy. You know, this like cucking fantasy pretending that one, literally white people are being outbred. We are demographically less virile. We’re going to lose because, you know, we’re going to be outbred by people like that,” Doyle comments.

Doyle believes that Ali is “doing a kind of war dance” that Doyle himself sees as “bizarre.”

“I think that this person is performing. So I’m going to try to interpret it in good faith. … You know, the only reason that our country is being flooded with immigrants is because of the decisions of other white people,” Doyle explains, pointing out that those white people, who are the “elites,” are “evil.”

“I think that they align themselves with the third world because they have a bone to pick with the first world, with our civilization. That being said, they are in the driver’s seat to our problem. They are in the driver’s seat to our opposition,” he continues, before addressing Ali, “Not you. You are a pawn.”

“You are brought in specifically because it makes them more powerful, simply because, yeah, you’re a number on a piece of paper. You’re not inventing things. You’re not organizing. You are shuffled around,” he says.

“So anyway, he’s trying to take this premature victory lap. It’s very passive aggressive, you know, declaring victory over Americans, white people. We’re going to be outbred or something in our own country. It’s just simply not true,” he adds.

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​The john doyle show, John doyle, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Immigration, Immigration policy, The great replacement, Wajahat ali, The daily beast, Leftism, Pakistan, Immigration crisis 

The ecologist responsible for one of history’s most infamous false global predictions died on Friday, and the New York Times used the occasion to try to keep his anti-population prognostications alive.

In his best-selling book “The Population Bomb” from 1968, Paul Ehrlich popularized the idea that the world was heading toward massive famine and starvation. Ehrlich argued that the Earth’s natural resources were being depleted at such a rate that the population would crash worldwide.

‘His predictions proved wrong. They were not premature. They were wrong. His understanding of the world was wrong.’

Instead, the global population more than doubled from about 3.5 billion people when the book was published to 8.3 billion by 2026.

While most would call the infamous prediction a complete and utter failure, the Times said it was merely “premature.”

Many online reacted with scorn and ridicule.

“Wrong. His predictions proved wrong. They were not premature. They were wrong. His understanding of the world was wrong. Faulty. Unrealistic. False. Falsified,” data scientist John Aziz responded.

“Its [sic] stunning not just how wrong Ehrlich was … or how evil he was … but how constantly our media amplified him and is still covering for his endless failed predictions,” replied Andrew Follett of the Club for Growth.

Others pointed to stories of people who chose to avoid having children based on Ehrlich’s book and regretted it greatly later.

“Paul Ehrlich was one of the most pernicious public figures of the last 50 years. Somehow he was still celebrated in certain intellectual circles until the very end. Never forget the harm his ideas caused,” replied Alec Stapp, who cited an example from the comments section.

“I was a college student when I read Mr. Ehrlich’s ‘The Population Bomb.’ I took it to heart and now have no grandchildren, but 50 years later the population has increased to eight billion without dire consequences. I was gullible and stupid,” a man named Kenneth Emde wrote.

“Paul Ehrlich’s work wasn’t ‘premature,’ it was wrong, completely so, and evil: his recommendations resulted in many hundreds of thousands of coerced sterilizations and abortions among the world’s most vulnerable people,” city planner M. Nolan Gray replied.

RELATED: CBS kicks off new year with ‘mass extinction’ prediction from ‘anti-human’ depopulationist who spent his career being proven wrong

“His predictions in the 1960s and 1970s weren’t premature; they were just wrong and his Malthusian views cascaded into innumerable damage on society. … He advocated for abortion and policies for population control,” science policy analyst Chris Martz responded. “Lots of people refused to have children as a result of his philosophy. But many climate activist degrowthers still hang on every word.”

Ehrlich died of complications from cancer at the age of 93 at a nursing facility in Palo Alto, California.

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Islamic terrorism may be undergoing a resurgence in the U.S., energized in part by the latest conflict in the Middle East.

According to a U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security terror threat assessment report published last year, there were over 50 jihadist cases in 30 states between April 2021 and June 2025, including vehicle ramming attacks and efforts to provide material support to ISIS.

Last year, for instance, started off with the slaughter of 14 Americans and the grievous injury of scores of additional victims in New Orleans by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a radical whom the FBI revealed had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

‘This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet.’

The perennial threat of violence by adherents of Islamist ideology do not appear to be letting up — and if the rash of attacks and attempted attacks that have already occurred this month are any indication, the reverse might be true.

New York

A pair of Pennsylvania residents with alleged ties to radical Islam — Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi — were arrested on March 7 after two homemade improvised explosive devices were ignited near anti-Islam protesters outside Gracie Mansion in New York City.

“This was an alleged ISIS-inspired act of terrorism that could have killed American citizens,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

RELATED: ‘So pathetic’: Virginia governor nailed with backlash over response to possible terror attack at Old Dominion

Department of Justice

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche noted, “These men allegedly sought to inflict mass casualties in service to ISIS with the hope of exceeding the carnage of the Boston Marathon bombing.”

An FBI examination of the explosive devices revealed that “they were each approximately the size of a mason jar; that they each had an attached fuse; and that they each had nuts and bolts attached to the exterior, surrounded by duct tape,” according to the criminal complaint.

The first device contained “TATP, a highly volatile explosive that is colloquially known as the ‘Mother of Satan’ and extremely sensitive to impact, friction, and heat. TATP has been used in multiple terrorist attacks over the last decade,” the DOJ press release said.

According to the complaint, Balat allegedly told police after his arrest, “This isn’t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet. … We take action! We take action!”

After arriving at the precinct, Balat allegedly requested a piece of paper and wrote, “All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar!”

Kuffar or kafir is a derogatory Arabic term for a non-Muslim, an alternate to “infidel,” used by radicals including Muhammad Masood — a Pakistani doctor who worked for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, and pleaded guilty in 2022 to attempting to provide ISIS with material support.

Virginia

On Thursday, an American who pleaded guilty in 2016 to similarly attempting to provide material support to ISIS opened fire on ROTC students in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University.

‘The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets.’

Before heroic students subdued Mohamed Bailor Jalloh and “rendered him no longer alive,” the 36-year-old shooter killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a professor of military science at Old Dominion’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Dominique Evans, an FBI special agent, said that “prior to him conducting this act of terrorism, he shouted … or stated ‘Allahu akbar.'”

Authorities said that Jalloh admitted in 2016 to carrying out an attack similar to the Fort Hood massacre where Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. citizen whose radicalization to violent Islamist extremism was reportedly clear to his superiors and peers, murdered 12 U.S. service members and one Pentagon civilian employee.

Michigan

Just hours later on March 12, a Lebanese native rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel, a Detroit-area Reform synagogue with a preschool and religious education school on-site. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, the suspect who reportedly killed himself when confronted by security personnel, appears at the very least to have been associated with Islamic terrorists.

Officials have confirmed that Ghazali, who was granted U.S. citizenship in February 2016, lost family members — including two brothers, Qassem and Ibrahim — in the recent Israeli military strikes in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces alleged in a statement on Sunday that Ibrahim Ghazali was a Hezbollah commander “responsible for managing weapons operations within a specialized branch of the Badr Unit. The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war.”

Hassan Qazwini, the leader of the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, told the New York Times that Ghazali attended a service at his center for the first time earlier this month.

Dearborn appears to have incubated a great many other Islamic radicals over the years.

‘There were indicators.’

On Oct. 31, 2025, for instance, the FBI arrested a pair of Dearborn residents, Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud, for allegedly planning to carry out a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS. Ayob Nasser was later arrested and charged in connection with the alleged plot.

The trio — each of whom has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS as well as with having firearms that would be used to commit an act of terrorism on behalf of the jihadist terrorist organization — allegedly scouted the nearby city of Ferndale for possible targets.

Texas

In the early hours of March 1, a suspect armed with a pistol and a rifle opened fire outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in Austin, killing two individuals and wounding 14 others.

The man whom authorities identified as the shooter, 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, shot at patrons outside the bar through the window of an SUV. He then parked the vehicle nearby and opened fire with a rifle on unsuspecting pedestrians.

Police intercepted the gunman, then permanently neutralized the threat.

Photo (center): Austin Police Department; Photo (background): FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

The FBI indicated that “there were indicators … on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism,” and a law enforcement official told CNN that the dead suspect was wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag design on it as well as a hoodie emblazoned with the text, “Property of Allah.”

A Quran was reportedly also recovered from Diagne’s vehicle.

Diagne entered the U.S. from Senegal on a B-2 tourist visa in March 2000 and was naturalized in April 2013, seven years after his marriage to an American citizen. Over 97% of the Senegalese population identify as Muslim.

There was another incident earlier this month in the Lone Star State that had all of the markings of another potential tragedy.

Kyle Najm Chris, a 39-year-old Iraqi native who also goes by Muhi Mohanan Najm, entered Zwink Elementary School in Spring, Texas, through an unsecured door on March 10, allegedly armed with a holstered firearm and a taser and wearing military attire, reported KHOU-TV.

The Klein Independent School District said in a statement that when confronted by an employee and asked for identification, Chris — who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2022 and reportedly has no affiliation with either the school or the district — allegedly declined to identify himself. Staff contacted the school’s armed campus guard, and Chris, barred from entering deeper into the school on account of its “secure vestibule” system, left without incident.

Chris has been arrested and charged with felony possession of a prohibited weapon. He allegedly told authorities that he was a security guard, but court records reviewed by KRIV-TV show that the Iraqi native is currently unemployed and holds neither a security license nor a peace officer certification.

A neighbor told KTRK-TV that Chris is a veteran and suggested that this might be a misunderstanding.

Europe

In recent days, there have been multiple potential Islamist terrorist attacks in other Western nations.

On March 8, an IED was placed outside the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway. The blast caused minor damage and resulted in no injuries, reported the BBC.

Three brothers, all Norwegian citizens in their 20s with links to Iraq, were arrested in connection with the attack. Their mother was later arrested on suspicion of involvement with the attack. Frode Larsen, head of the Oslo police investigation unit, said that the bombing — which is being treated as a likely terrorism attack — may have been linked to the conflict unfolding in the Middle East, reported CBS News.

On March 9, an explosion went off outside the main doors of a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liège on March 9. The blast reportedly inflicted only minor damage and resulted in no injuries. Nevertheless, a group calling itself the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right reportedly claimed responsibility for the Liège bombing.

French police reportedly stopped a pair of Moroccan-Italian nationals last week whom they suspect were plotting a “lethal and anti-Semitic” attack. The suspects were found to be in the possession of a semi-automatic weapon, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, and an ISIS flag.

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A married school secretary at an Indiana high school was reportedly caught by her husband having a sexual relationship with a student in mid-February, which led to the discovery that she allegedly had an unlawful sexual relationship with a second student. However, the suspect’s lawyer is calling for action after a video of her interrogation by police went viral, which he described as an “injustice of magnanimous proportions.”

As Blaze News reported last month, 31-year-old Alicia Hughes was arrested “following an investigation into allegations involving inappropriate conduct with a minor,” according to police.

‘I’ll need my lawyer here at this point.’

The Union City Police Department announced in a statement, “During the course of the investigation, officers learned that Hughes’ husband had discovered her with an 18-year-old student of Randolph Eastern School Corporation and confronted the individuals.”

Police said Hughes was allegedly “battered during that altercation.” The Randolph County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the alleged battery.

Hughes, an employee of the Randolph Eastern School Corporation, was involved in a sexual relationship with a second student, police stated.

“As the investigation progressed, Union City Police Department investigators uncovered evidence that Alicia Hughes had also engaged in a sexual relationship with a separate high school student who was 17 years old at the time,” the statement read.

Police determined that Hughes and the underage student “engaged in sexual intercourse on at least five occasions.”

On Feb. 17, Hughes was arrested and charged with five counts of child seduction related to the sexual relationship with the minor student, according to police.

According to Indiana law, child seduction is when a “person uses or exerts the person’s professional relationship to engage in sexual intercourse, other sexual conduct, or any fondling or touching with the child with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of the child or the person.”

According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, child seduction is a Level 5 felony in Indiana if the child is at least 16 years old but less than 18.

If convicted on all five charges of child seduction, Hughes faces a prison term of between five and 30 years, plus a fine of up to $10,000.

Cleveland.com reported that Randolph Eastern School Corporation Superintendent Neal Adams announced that Hughes “has been removed from all duties with students pending the outcome of the legal process.”

However, Hughes’ attorney is calling for action after the Union City Police Department released a video that showed a portion of the school employee’s interrogation by an officer.

Hughes’ attorney, David M. Jordan, called the release of the interrogation video “an injustice of magnanimous proportions,” the Star Press reported.

Mark Ater, the Union City Police Department’s director of public safety, admitted that his department released the video but said that it was “lawful” to do so.

“The release was lawful, measured, and deliberate,” Ater told the Star Press. “The portion disclosed contained no admission of criminal conduct.”

Ater pointed out that the two-minute video clip shows an officer discussing accusations that Hughes had sex with an 18-year-old student, which he said is “conduct that is legal under Indiana law.”

Ater added, “The department exercised restraint and ensured no protected information was disclosed.”

Ater stressed that all of the names of any alleged victims have been redacted from the video.

Hughes’ attorney argued, “For his own selfish reasons, [Ater] had impeded the defendant’s right to a fair trial, led the public to believe there are multiple alleged victims, and drawn attention to the defendant’s request for a lawyer.”

Jordan claimed that the video went viral, racking up “millions of combined views of the media accounts containing the defendant’s interrogation footage.”

The video of the interrogation appeared on numerous websites, including the New York Post, as well as the Sun and the Mirror in the U.K.

Jordan demanded an “expedited hearing” and for the judge to order “Mark Ater, and the Union City Police Department not to release any other evidence or statements to the media” about Hughes’ case “without prior approval of the court.”

Jordan also asked Ater to issue a public apology “for releasing the interrogation video.”

The attorney called on Randolph Circuit Court Judge Jay Toney to order Ater to pay Jordan’s office “not less than $10,000” for “the time and effort his law firm has spent collecting evidence for the gag order and presenting the matter to the court.”

RELATED: Teacher of the year arrested for alleged child sex crimes — then she’s arrested on similar charges just days later

Randolph County Prosecutor David Daly also expressed concern over the release of the interrogation video.

Daly noted, “The recent release of the video interview of Ms. Hughes did not come from my office, and my office did not authorize, approve, or have anything to do with its release.”

The Star Press reported that Daly stressed that he is “committed to obtaining a fair trial in this case and to avoid prejudicing Ms. Hughes’ right to a fair trial.”

Daly also declared that he is “committed to seeking justice for victims.”

Ater proclaimed, “Let me be clear. The police department did not seek, nor was it required to seek, approval from the prosecutor’s office before releasing this brief excerpt.”

WTRC-FM reported that Ater said he has had “some issues with their [the prosecutor’s office’s] decision-making on multiple cases as far as child abuse.”

During the interrogation video, Hughes is heard confessing that she had sex with the 18-year-old student on three occasions, but none were before he turned 18.

The video shows the officer asking Hughes if she has had sex with any other students, to which she responds, “No.”

The officer responds, “Are you sure about that?”

Hughes replies, “Yes.”

During the interrogation, Hughes is asked about the 17-year-old student, but she denies having sex with the boy. In the video, Hughes admits she met the student and sent him “pictures.”

According to the video, the officer questions Hughes on how the relationship with the 17-year-old student started, to which she is seen on video saying, “I’ll need my lawyer here at this point.”

Ater revealed that the investigation is ongoing and that Hughes may face additional charges because investigators have “several electronic devices that search warrants are being executed on right now.”

“We’ve got multiple electronic devices that were used during this unfortunate crime that she committed, so we’re still ironing through all that stuff,” Ater stated.

According to WTRC, Ater said the investigation can be lengthy because “law enforcement must sort through electronic devices and social media accounts.”

The Union City Police Department said there were no new developments in the investigation.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the Union City Police Department at 937-968-7744.

The Randolph County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Blaze News.

WTRC-FM reported that Hughes is scheduled to appear in court on April 16 for pretrial motions, then on May 7 for a pretrial conference, and the jury trial begins on June 15.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has likened artificial intelligence to utilities that are required to live.

Altman was discussing his company’s plans during BlackRock’s U.S. Infrastructure Summit on Wednesday. A mix of politicians, union leaders, and industry executives were in attendance when he dropped the news about his vision for AI.

‘People buy it from us on a meter and use it for whatever they want to use it for.’

Speaking to Bayo Ogunlesi, chairman and CEO of BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, Altman likened AI to lifesaving utilities that are typically viewed as human rights.

“We see a future where intelligence is a utility like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter and use it for whatever they want to use it for,” Altman explained.

The CEO then claimed that the “demand” for metered AI usage is high and that the idea only continues to become more popular. His claims contained a warning though, in that “if we don’t have enough” AI, it will become too expensive and “kind of goes to rich people.”

This claim was seemingly based off Altman’s plans to build a massive AI infrastructure system in the United States through his Stargate Project.

RELATED: Silicon Rebellion

Announced at the beginning of 2025, the Stargate Project is a $500 billion investment plan to build sprawling AI infrastructure for OpenAI and its partners by 2029.

This would allegedly “generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” the press release stated.

However, as it stands, there is only one data center under the project currently operating: the flagship location in Abilene, Texas.

The 980,000 square foot site produces an estimated 200+ megawatts, capable of powering 50,000 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72s in each of its buildings — which are essentially AI supercomputers.

Another data center in Port Washington, Wisconsin, is scheduled to be open in 2028.

RELATED: Sam Altman says NSA can’t use OpenAI — then tells staff they don’t have a say in military actions

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“If we don’t have enough [AI], we either can’t sell it or the price gets really high, and it, you know, kind of goes to rich people or society makes a bunch of sort of central planning decisions that I think almost always go badly about, you know, we’re going to use our limited compute supply for this and not that,” Altman said at the BlackRock event.

He added, “So the best thing to me throughout all the history of capitalism, innovation, whatever you want, is to just flood the market,” which seemingly means the flooding should go through OpenAI.

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