Category: blaze media

As Republicans head toward what looks like a perilous midterm election, affordability is on everyone’s lips. The Biden administration never convinced voters that it had brought food and housing costs under control. Some Republicans have tried to pretend the problem does not exist; others have acknowledged it without making meaningful progress.

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump made choices that worsened the pressure, from expanding federal spending to deepening costly foreign commitments. Neither party has a durable solution. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2026, and debt held by the public now tops 101% of GDP. Spending and inflation are not accidents at the edge of mass democracy. They follow from its incentives, and nothing will change until the incentives do.

In a democracy, giving voters something is the winning strategy, and Trump likes winning.

The affordability crisis has several causes, but much of the immediate pain comes from the cumulative rise in prices. Wages may rise and bank balances may grow, yet each dollar buys less. Inflation is a pernicious tax precisely because it is hidden. Normal taxes must be enacted and collected openly. No one votes directly for inflation, which instead erodes the value of money people have already earned and saved. It punishes careful savers while rewarding borrowers and speculators.

Deficit spending can fuel inflation when government expands demand faster than the economy can supply goods and services. Creating money makes it easier to distribute benefits today, but it can reduce the currency’s purchasing power tomorrow. Inflation also lightens the real burden of government debt by reducing the value of what was borrowed. The average person, however, rarely has early access to new money or the sophisticated financial instruments wealthy investors use to hedge against rising prices. He feels the loss at the grocery store.

The oldest move in politics is to offer people a material reward for their support. Every system does it, but democracy makes the exchange especially powerful because elections confer legitimacy. A politician rarely calls the arrangement a “bribe.” He routes the benefit through a program aimed at groups likely to reward him at the polls. The legal form gives the transaction respectability, but voters still understand the bargain.

Donald Trump recently dispensed with even that pretense. At the Republican midterm convention last week, he promised $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans retain the House and Senate. An independent estimate put the cost at more than $1.2 trillion, and Congress would have to approve it. Whether the payments ever materialize is not the point. The offer mocks the fiscal restraint conservatives claim to espouse. Conservative commentators objected, but Trump brushed them aside. He understands the incentives. He promised not to cut Social Security and Medicare because benefits win votes. In a democracy, giving voters something is the winning strategy, and Trump likes winning.

RELATED: The GOP still has a loser mentality

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Warnings about democracy long predate modern America. Plato and Aristotle distrusted rule by the demos, and the American founders built a constitutional republic with layers of insulation against popular majorities. Their fear was simple: Once voters discover they can use the state to transfer other people’s money to themselves, restraint collapses. A republic may survive only if institutions impose limits that elections alone will not.

Is the $5,000 check good fiscal policy? Of course not. It’s a disaster. A transfer approaching $1.2 trillion would widen the deficit and almost certainly worsen inflation, especially in an economy already near capacity. Pandemic-era fiscal stimulus did not single-handedly cause the 2021-2022 inflation surge; supply shocks and monetary policy mattered too. But New York Federal Reserve research found that fiscal support contributed materially.

Is the check good politics? Yes. In a democracy, vote-buying is an optimal strategy, and anyone who refuses it risks losing to someone who will. Democrats have principles that let them hand out money and receive praise — and votes. Republicans profess principles that should forbid it. Sound economics grants no electoral advantage.

Reckless spending is terrible policy, but it can win elections. Conservatives may campaign on austerity, but austerity rarely inspires voters. If progressives alone use the winning strategy, conservative fiscal theory becomes irrelevant. Losers do not write budgets or exercise executive power. Both parties therefore spend when they hold office, though they direct the money toward different constituencies. The democratic incentive is to distribute everything you can while you can, because the other side may take power tomorrow and spend it instead.

RELATED: We need lawfare for white men

Blaze Media Illustration

The philosopher Nick Land captured the logic in “The Dark Enlightenment”:

As the democratic virus burns through society, painstakingly accumulated habits and attitudes of forward-thinking, prudential, human and industrial investment are replaced by a sterile, orgiastic consumerism, financial incontinence, and a “reality television” political circus. Tomorrow might belong to the other team, so it’s best to eat it all now.

None of this is hopeful. Conservatives have made preserving mass democracy a principle even as the system rewards policies they oppose. A constitutional republic needs constraints on majoritarian appetite, but there is little political will even for modest spending cuts, much less fundamental limits on the franchise. The brutal truth is that both parties will keep spending recklessly while blaming each other for rising debt and prices.

As long as mass democracy reigns, buying votes with public money will remain one of the surest ways to gain and hold power. Every politician wants power.

​Affordability, Austerity, Biden administration, Conservatives, Debt, Deficit spending, Federal spending, Fiscal policy, Government debt, Housing costs, Inflation, Midterm election, Monetary policy, Progressives, Republicans, Spending cuts, Voters, Wages, White men, Opinion & analysis 

The parents of a 5-year-old boy with autism who had been charged with felony assault in Tennessee have filed a lawsuit after a school administrator refused to back down.

The boy had been enrolled at Sumner County’s H.B. Williams Elementary School in the kindergarten class, and school officials were made aware of his special needs.

‘Resorting to legal actions to punish parents for the actions of a 5-year-old child who still needs those supports — that’s just not the way to go.’

The parents said they asked for behavioral support and federal law requires schools to provide extra resources, but the school officials refused and said they would gather their own evidence, according to the lawsuit.

The school agreed to providing an aide after several behavioral incidents involving pushing, shoving, and throwing objects at other children.

The parents said the support came too late.

“When you don’t provide those supports, you can deny rights not only to the child with a disability, but you can risk harming other children,” said Justin Gilbert, the attorney for the family. “It’s a key reminder that there are broad consequences to not providing supports and interventions and paraprofessional roles and special education.”

The child was charged with felony aggravated assault by a school resource officer, but a judge rejected the charges in court in April. He said the child was not competent to stand trial.

Then two of the parents of the boy’s classmates filed their own petitions to charge the child. One of those parents is a Sumner County high school assistant principal.

Gilbert described the case as a “little bit unusual.”

One of the petitions was dropped, but the other by the school official moved forward.

The plaintiffs called the motion “pure vengeance” against the parents and the child.

“Resorting to legal actions to punish parents for the actions of a 5-year-old child who still needs those supports — that’s just not the way to go,” Gilbert added.

RELATED: 2nd grader with horrible injuries dropped off at school — cops say stepmother tortured her

The parents are now suing the district for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as other federal statues.

“Sometimes you need to stand up for your kids,” Gilbert added. “Sometimes you need to punch the bully back in the mouth, and that’s what the parents are doing here.”

WKRN-TV reached out to Sumner County Schools, the Sumner County district attorney, and the assistant principal for comment.

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​Autism, Special needs, Tennessee, Schools, Crime 

It started as a practical joke.

Rob Schneider teases that his pal Adam Sandler created his, “You can do it!” line from 1998’s “The Waterboy” so people would harass him wherever he went.

‘When you have your friend Charlie Kirk murdered … I don’t know what else you can do but fight for this country.’

And they do, Schneider playfully tells Align, whether he’s having dinner or just walking down the street. It helps that the actor repeated the line in five subsequent films, including last year’s “Happy Gilmore 2.”

“It’s still happening,” Schneider says of the fan reaction. So he decided to lean into the catchphrase. The quote inspired the You Can Do It Foundation, a group that celebrates faith, family, and freedom through the arts — Schneider is the official spokesperson.

Now that nonprofit has teamed up with the American Rights Alliance, an organization that defends constitutional rights through legal advocacy, public policy, and education.

We can do it

Together, the groups created You Can Do It, America! The national initiative will promote “values-driven” media and educational outreach.

And boy, is that content needed today, he says.

Modern schools are “taken over by communist teachers who are now more interested in taking kids out of the classroom to protest against the president who is not the party they approve of and tearing down the structure of our society,” the comic actor says. “We need to have stories to remind people how exceptional the United States is.”

“There may have been 117 billion human beings in the history of the world, but less than 1% of them got to live in a society that has free speech and are able to cast a ballot and were able to benefit from their own labors,” he adds.

It’s serious, sober stuff from the man also known as “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.”

Sacrifice in stride

Schneider’s expansive show-business career began with his standout work on “Saturday Night Live” (1990-1994). He segued seamlessly to the big screen (“The Animal,” “The Hot Chick,” “The Benchwarmers,” “Grown Ups 1 and 2”) while continuing to tour as a stand-up comedian.

He’s still working — he’ll return to the “Grown Ups” franchise next year and reprise the voice of the principal in “Leo 2.” But the roles aren’t coming as frequently as in the past.

That’s not an accident.

“I’ve suffered personally and professionally [for speaking out], but compared to what the ultimate sacrifice is, what Charlie Kirk went through,” he says, his voice trailing off. Failing to make another “Deuce Bigalow” sequel pales in comparison.

Fast friends

Kirk wasn’t just a political figure Schneider admired from afar. The two became friends after Schneider began appearing at Turning Point USA events, including joining Kirk on his college tour. In October 2024, the two appeared together at Grand Canyon University in Arizona, where Schneider got an up-close look at Kirk’s exchanges with students.

Schneider has since said that the experience changed his own thinking. “Charlie did for me what he did for so many university students across this country,” he told an AmFest 2025 audience last December. “He dismantled foundational thinking.”

What seems to have stayed with Schneider most, however, was the way Kirk treated the students who disagreed with him. “Charlie respected the dignity of every human being with love, with Christ’s love,” he said in an interview shortly after Kirk’s murder.

“It was this summer that I’d realized he was a true, authentic American genius,” Schneider said. “He had the intellect and the love of country.”

RELATED: The gift of turning 60

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Media malfeasance

Kirk comes up repeatedly during our own conversation, which we’re having shortly after the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s murder. Schneider shows real passion when he describes what his friend brought to the culture and why his voice mattered.

He’s also furious at what he sees as the media’s character assassination of the late leader. Media outlets, he argues, too often regurgitate false or misleading quotes about Kirk, staining the man’s legacy in the process.

Then-Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah wrote this following Kirk’s death:

“Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is … not the same as violence.”

The Post subsequently fired Attiah over her social media posts, although an arbitrator later ordered the newspaper to reinstate her with back pay.

Never mind that Kirk never once “espoused violence” in any of his many public appearances.

“They can repeat it without being accused of character assassination or being liable for slander … an accusation being enough proof,” says Schneider.

“That’s what runs on social media.”

Swimming to Cuba

He’s equally aghast that the Democrats are embracing communism anew, ignoring the ugly historical precedents.

“When the Iron Curtain fell … no one was running to go into communist East Germany … nobody’s swimming to get to Cuba,” he says, later paraphrasing Milton Friedman’s famous line.

“There’s never been a system that has taken more people out of poverty [than capitalism],” he says.

Schneider’s new initiative opens up a world of possibilities, allowing for stories that Hollywood won’t touch.

“I want to see a movie about someone who is de-transitioned, and that’s a TV series I’d like to make,” he says. Schneider also suggests projects about political dissidents here in the U.S., folks who have been targeted by groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Schneider has built up decades of goodwill with his warmhearted comedies and timeless “SNL” routines. But something else has connected him to his fans in recent years: his willingness to speak boldly about the state of the country in ways that most celebrities would never attempt.

“I can’t go anywhere without someone coming up and hugging me, shaking my hand. ‘Thank you for speaking up and being our voice,’” he says. “I’m just a simple comedian. I’m a college dropout … I make silly movies, but at a certain point I’m fed up. And if I can speak for some Americans and make them feel emboldened …”

“When you have your friend Charlie Kirk murdered … I don’t know what else you can do but fight for this country, in a way that I can, through the culture and whatever platform I have,” he says.

​Rob schneider, Happy gilmore, Adam sandler, Charlie kirk, Turning point usa, Culture, Media, Lifestyle, You can do it america, Hollywood, Interview 

A former businessman looking to unseat an incumbent senator made a desperate move to win the Democratic Senate primary in Delaware — to disappointing results.

On Tuesday, E. No-Trump Hansen finished a distant fourth in the primary. Sen. Chris Coons, who has held the seat since 2010, won in a landslide, carrying 78% of the expected vote, according to NBC News.

‘The name E. (Eric) No-Trump Hansen isn’t a gimmick — it’s his complete commitment to positive change.’

Hansen earned about 3,400 votes, or just 3.9% of the expected total. Jeff Appelhans and Mary Louve finished second and third, respectively.

Just after 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Coons, who turned 63 last week, claimed victory on social media: “Thank you to every volunteer and grassroots donor who supported this campaign, and to every Democrat who raised their hand to run for office in Delaware. This moment requires all of us, and I’m proud to be in this fight with you.”

With a powerful incumbent like Coons seeking re-election, Hansen was always a long shot in the race, but he changed his name from Eric Hansen to E. No-Trump Hansen to prove his “commitment” to the cause.

RELATED: Democrats admit to weaponizing shutdown for ‘leverage’ against GOP while Americans feel the sting

Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

“The name E. (Eric) No-Trump Hansen isn’t a gimmick — it’s his complete commitment to positive change,” his campaign website reads.

When he made the name-change is unclear, but Fox News noted that he used it on his official statement of candidacy, dated July 20, 2026.

“Trump has said he’ll go after his critics by any means available,” Hansen explained to WHYY last month. “He will go after me, but I’m willing to bear that risk anyway — because the alternative is letting things get worse for Delawareans.”

His name is not the only major change Hansen has made lately.

In 2024, he ran for Senate in Delaware as a Republican, suffering a crushing defeat by Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester, 56% to 39%. State records show he ran under the name “Eric Hansen.”

Hansen did not respond to request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Chris coons, Delaware, Democrat, Donald trump, Republican, Politics 

At the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas last week, Vice President JD Vance said, “Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we have seen the foreign-born share of our population drop by 3 million people. That’s illegal aliens that we sent back home.” That is not true, and I wish he hadn’t said it.

The first sentence appears to round a recent estimate that the total foreign-born population fell by 2.9 million. The second recasts that estimate as 3 million illegal aliens whom the administration sent home. That is not what the underlying study says. But Vance said what he said, and if we are going to be straight shooters with Americans, then we need to hold all our political leaders to the same standard. That is especially true when it comes to the base’s favorite candidate for the next Republican presidential nomination.

It’s one thing not to mention mass deportation, but quite another to throw out numbers that nobody believes and the government’s own public data does not support.

With all due respect to the vice president, who has earned a deep reservoir of trust and support, we still need to be clear-eyed if we are going to build momentum for a mass deportation campaign.

As the vice president himself has said, “We need people to be pushing back from inside the tent.” We cannot accept premature celebrations in place of action. There could be a million explanations for how that statistic made it into the speech instead of the term “mass deportation” itself. My read is that someone ordered them not to speak about mass deportation at the convention, so it may have been hard to come up with something to say in its place. I have drafted and edited my fair share of speeches over the years. Group projects can take on lives of their own, and things end up in speeches that should not.

I was on the ground in Dallas, and I heard no speaker use the term “mass deportation.” It was a noticeable departure from the term’s prominence at the 2024 Republican National Convention, where viewers and attendees saw signs calling for “mass deportation now” while President Trump promised the “largest” deportation operation in history.

The promised mass-deportation campaign has not come to pass, and the absence of any reference to it just two years later speaks volumes about the abandonment of the cause.

The only reference to mass deportation I caught at the convention came from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin during an offstage interview. “Our base wants mass deportation. We need mass deportation,” he said. Mullin, who receives the sharpest mix of criticism and encouragement, including from yours truly and the Mass Deportation Coalition, deserves credit for at least being willing to say it. Obviously, doing it is what matters, but it starts with saying it.

Instead of mass deportation, we have a growing scandal over basic deportation data. ICE has not released its fiscal year 2025 annual report, which congressional appropriators directed the agency to issue within 90 days of the fiscal year’s end. The ICE dashboard that was regularly updated, even during the Obama and Biden years, has not posted new removal data since November 2024.

RELATED: Trump’s mass-deportation promise needs receipts

Megan Varner/Getty Images

In place of numbers are far-fetched claims and surface-level figures tossed out on social media and suspiciously amplified by networks of influencers. I suspect the amplification is not organic. Many of the posts are not even logical on their own terms, including one I saw recently claiming that ICE achieved a monthly record of 50,000 arrests. It then multiplied that “record” by the 20 months President Trump has been in office and claimed that 3 million people had therefore been deported. But 50,000 multiplied by 20 is 1 million, not 3 million. And arrests are not deportations. Nonetheless, the 3 million claim made the rounds on social media.

Then came another 3-million claim, this time drawn from a study based on the Current Population Survey, a voluntary monthly household survey used to measure the labor force. The study estimated that the total foreign-born population fell by 2.9 million from January 2025 to July 2026. It also preliminarily estimated that the illegal immigrant population fell by 2.3 million, from 15.8 million to 13.5 million. Importantly, that is an estimated net change in population, not a count of people deported. The study says the change can reflect new arrivals, deportations, voluntary emigration, legalizations, and deaths.

Vance also said Americans had competed for jobs and homes against “25 million new illegal immigrants.” If you are confused, then you are in the right place. The new claim that 3 million illegal aliens were sent home rests not on administrative deportation records but on an extrapolation from the survey, which does not ask respondents about their immigration status. It is a stretch to turn that estimate into 3 million illegal aliens “sent back home,” especially after claiming moments earlier that 25 million new illegal immigrants had competed with Americans for jobs and homes.

RELATED: The conservative base will remember this betrayal

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

None of this should even be part of the argument or public conversation. The Trump administration has administrative data on removals and returns; it is choosing not to release a detailed public accounting.

This should be among the easiest data to track and compile in all of government. Each formal removal or return generates case records and departure paperwork. Officials review those figures regularly. They know what I know: Actual interior deportations are far below the estimates being bandied about.

My estimate is that interior removals are probably closer to one-sixth of the 3 million the administration claims. I have sued the DHS with the Oversight Project to obtain this data, but the agency is still spending taxpayer money on lawyers to keep it hidden. It is a cover-up and a scandal, and there are unfortunately no better words for it.

It’s unfortunate that the ascendant vice president decided to jump headfirst into the deportation-data mess. It’s one thing not to mention mass deportation, but quite another to throw out numbers that nobody believes and the government’s own public data does not support.

​Mass deportation, Illegal aliens, Border patrol, Ice, Republicans, Jd vance, Trump, Midterm convention, Dallas, Markwayne mullin, Mass deportation coalition, Immigrants, Americans, Border security, Dhs, Opinion & analysis 

In today’s digital world, it’s easy to think that everyone loves everything digital. After all, many businesses conspicuously post a “No Cash Accepted” sign in their windows, and it’s getting increasingly harder to remember the days when no one needed a charged cell phone to get into a concert or board an airplane.

But don’t let this electronic ubiquity fool you. Lots of people still prefer paper bills, statement printouts, physical mail, and other such hard copies.

The proposed rule plays right into the hands of scammers and identity thieves.

Let’s dig in a little on this.

The U.S. Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission are each proposing a rule, “Regulation E-Delivery,” that would switch from paper to digital the default way that Americans receive certain critical communications. In other words, this new rule would mean that Americans would automatically receive communications electronically and would affirmatively have to ask to revert to paper delivery.

Let’s look at each one of these entities separately.

The DOL’s proposed rule would automatically move Americans to electronic delivery of their health plan documents, unless they actively work directly with their insurers to revert to paper delivery. This move would risk vulnerable Americans having more difficult access to — or missing altogether — critical health insurance information if they miss a notice or can’t reliably access the internet.

Americans should have the right to choose how they receive critical health plan documents, like HIPAA and COBRA notices, benefits summaries, and other important disclosures. Regulation E-Delivery would flip the choice from automatic-paper to automatic-digital, resulting in major hurdles for specific populations, particularly seniors, rural residents without reliable internet, and low-income households.

The proposal would automatically move people to Regulation E-Delivery, unless they actively work with each insurer to restore paper delivery. This is the opposite of how the system should work. People should not default because they miss a notice or because — like most people — they have trouble navigating large corporate bureaucracy.

The people most comfortable with Regulation E-Delivery are the most tech-literate folks and can much more easily opt-in under the current system. Those who depend on paper often lack that same digital literacy. This effort seems like a solution in search of a problem that doesn’t exist.

Right now, people who want electronic delivery can easily choose it, and those who want paper can keep getting it without having to do anything. There’s no reason to flip that on its head.

Some people argue that this proposal is a cost-saving measure, but is that really believable?

Health insurance companies have a history of pocketing savings and not passing them along to their customers. Also, has anyone done a serious analysis of the costs to consumers for missed notices or out-of-date information? This proposal leans heavily on cutting corporate paper, printing, and postage costs, without seriously weighing what that means for the people on the receiving end.

RELATED: Silicon Valley is building a god in its own image

Gremlin/Getty Images

The SEC’s proposed Regulation E-Delivery would make electronic delivery the default for sensitive financial documents, reversing today’s arrangement where those documents arrive on paper, unless for them electronically.

The Regulation E-Delivery hurdles would be much more complicated than a simple “opt-out” checkbox. Investors could be required to contact each financial firm separately — through multiple websites, portals, or telephone systems — to preserve or restore paper delivery across their accounts.

This mandate disadvantages folks who either are not as savvy with digital communications or who have unreliable internet/cell service. These people would be the least likely to successfully navigate the many barriers that this new rule would require to preserve paper communication.

The proposed rule plays right into the hands of scammers and identity thieves by requiring the same basic “click the link” actions that investors have been conditioned to avoid.

Some people simply prefer physical copies of certain things. Perhaps you’re the type of person who prefers a physical book — not an e-reader — to read on the beach. Or perhaps you’d rather have a printed, rather than a texted, receipt from a restaurant. Similarly, many Americans still prefer important health care and financial documents in paper form, as they can be easier to read, file, and refer to.

It also is questionable whether a paper option would even remain that long if Regulation E-Delivery goes into effect. Millions of Americans have learned the hard way that the federal government’s promise of consumer choice is not always worth the paper it’s printed on.

Remember when President Obama promised Americans that they could keep their doctors under Obamacare? Forgive us if we take the Regulation E-Delivery promise of enduring choice between paper and electronic delivery with a similar dose of skepticism.

The DOL and the SEC should reject this proposed rule and keep the current system, where Americans can keep what they have now or choose for themselves whether they want to switch to digital.

​Sec, Department of labor, Regulation e-delivery, Insurance, Banking, Hippaa, Cobra, Seniors, Opinion & analysis, Health care, Tech, Rural 

Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas called for the Treasury to investigate the Islamic Society of North America for allegedly illegal campaign donations.

Self said that the nonprofit violated financial rules by supporting Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat candidate for one of the two U.S. Senate seats from Michigan.

‘Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize a nonprofit acting like a campaign committee for the Red-Green Alliance.’

Self cited a report in the Middle East Forum that said the campaign had set up a booth at the Huntington Place hall during an Islamic Society of North America convention.

“The booth displayed large ‘Abdul for U.S. Senate’ and ‘Muslims for Abdul’ campaign banners, urging attendees to elect Mr. El-Sayed. Campaign personnel reportedly distributed campaign literature, solicited donations, and promoted a $50 contribution in exchange for campaign [T-shirts],” the letter read.

“Attendees were also provided with QR codes directing them to donate or volunteer for the campaign, as well as given invitations to a campaign fundraiser,” he added. “Campaign personnel were also reportedly active participants throughout the convention. They were observed waving campaign posters, distributing campaign flyers, and placing campaign materials on seats. A campaign volunteer reportedly distributed literature to attendees as they exited the hall following Mr. El-Sayed’s speech.”

Self wrote that the candidate would be allowed to attend the event but that 501(c)3 rules strictly forbid that group from endorsing the candidate or allowing fundraising for the campaign to occur.

He also pointed out that the group was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, involving the provision of funding for the Hamas terror group.

Self called on Scott Bessent, the secretary of the Treasury, to investigate the group and review its tax-exempt status.

RELATED: ‘He’s full of s**t’: Trump RIPS INTO Abdul El-Sayed after his victory in Democratic primary

“Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize a nonprofit acting like a campaign committee for the Red-Green Alliance,” Self wrote.

“These circumstances warrant a thorough examination of whether ISNA participated or intervened in a political campaign,” he concluded.

Blaze News requests for comment from both the Islamic Society of North America and the El-Sayed campaign were not returned in time for publication.

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​Abdul el-sayed, Hamas, Islam society of north america, Muslim, Scott bessent, Politics 

Years after defending California’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom listed some of the mistakes made.

Newsom made the admissions in a bizarre interview with Jake Tapper of CNN where both appeared to be trying to fly-fish in a river in Montana.

‘I regret that, obviously.’

Tapper asserted that there needed to be a commission to understand the pandemic and what responses worked and which did not work.

“Yeah, look, everyone’s a genius in hindsight, so, you know, coulda woulda,” Newsom responded.

“What would you do differently?” Tapper asked.

“I had a whole chapter just about Purell. We were running around doing price-gouging legislation against Purell, and everyone was thinking it was a Purell-based crisis,” referring to his book.

“People were scrubbing their groceries,” Tapper recalled.

“Yeah! I mean, [Republican Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis was closing down his beaches before we closed ours. The idea that we closed beaches was insane. In hindsight,” Newsom replied.

“Obviously the schools taking too long,” he added. “A lot of districts were open, but the big ones weren’t. L.A. refused. And I regret that, obviously.”

Tapper noted that teachers said that reopening schools too soon would kill them. Then he pressed Newsom on the scandal when he was caught attending a dinner at a ritzy restaurant with little to no pandemic protections.

“What on earth were you thinking?” Tapper asked.

“Just a boneheaded decision, a stupid decision, I just … dialing it in, we were exhausted, friend’s birthday, it was a restaurant that was open the night before.

“And it was just against the spirit of the rules that I was promoting,” he added.

“It was completely legit condemnation.”

He said he had a mask when he walked in and when he walked out of the restaurant.

BlazeTV host Steve Deace lambasted the governor in comments to Blaze News.

“I don’t think there’s anything sincere about Gavin Newsom whatsoever except his political ambitions,” said Deace. “So I suspect this is only being said as a means by which to triangulate as the Democrat nominee in 2028, when he’d likely be running against someone seen as an extension of Trump, who was president at the advent of the scamdemic.”

RELATED: Gavin Newsom tries to dunk on Trump and gets obliterated with online ridicule

Newsom has admitted that he’s looking at a possible campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028.

The entire video of the fly-fishing interview can be viewed on CNN’s YouTube channel.

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​California, Coronavirus, Gavin newsom, Jake tapper, Pandemic, Politics 

Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing Ali G back to the big screen, but the character is already stirring controversy.

Tens of thousands of emails were sent urging theaters not to screen “Ali G: Who Iz I?” over accusations that the character is rooted in offensive racial stereotypes — something that’s never stopped theaters from promoting his films before.

And for this reason, BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau aren’t sure the negative hype is entirely organic.

Dave recalls his old films where he would interview important figures like Dick Cheney who “wouldn’t know who he was.”

“It was always a fascinating interview because he would just bomb the interview, and it was always pretty funny to watch,” he says, noting that his film “Borat” made him laugh “the hardest” he ever has in theaters at “how unbelievably funny and inappropriate it was.”

“I am not a fan at all … of this, ‘Well, our standards have changed, and now he can’t do this character anymore.’ It’s more of just like, ‘I don’t know, I’m kind of done with that character from 20 years ago,’” Stu chimes in.

“Well, everybody knows who he is,” Dave agrees. “So it’s either they’re in on the joke, or they’re being paid to be on it. I mean, half the trailer is just people breaking because they know who he is.”

“It’s played out,” he continues. “We know the joke and so do the people that he’s playing the joke on. I certainly don’t think it’s racist. If it’s racist against anybody, it’s probably Jews, and he’s Jewish.”

“I mean, the most offensive stuff in Borat was against Jewish people,” he adds.

Dave also notes sarcastically that “sending emails because a movie shouldn’t be shown and getting 37,000 of them” doesn’t “at all build hype and give incentive for places to show a film.”

“I’m kind of skeptical, honestly,” Stu says. “It feels to me like a promotional stunt, like, ‘Oh gosh, everyone’s calling him racist, this is a big controversy.’”

Want more from Stu and Dave?

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​Dave landau, Emails, Sacha baron cohen, Stu burguiere, Theaters, Boycott, Borat, Ali g, Blazetv show 

The head of a Texas political action committee has been caught on an undercover video apparently admitting how his group was able to pay voters indirectly to vote for the group’s candidate for the U.S. Senate.

The undercover video, shared Wednesday, was recorded by Townhall and appeared to show Texas Majority PAC organizing manager Sky McAdams explaining how the scheme worked.

‘If I was a Republican, I would be pissed. I would be like, that’s shady as f**k.’

“We are paying people $25 to attend a one-hour Zoom class to learn why voting is important and why the Republicans are causing all of these bad things,” McAdams says, according to the video. “So it’s, like, a roundabout way of paying people for their votes, essentially. Which is interesting.”

While paying voters directly would be illegal, McAdams seemed to admit that his program is “essentially” doing that indirectly.

“You can’t pay someone to vote for someone,” McAdams continues, according to the video. “You can’t be like, ‘Here’s $25. Go vote for me.’ You can say, ‘Attend a one-hour class and you can receive $25.’ And then the class just talks about, like, the importance of it. It’s a little gray.”

On the video, McAdams smiles and adds, “If I was a Republican, I would be pissed. I would be like, that’s shady as f**k.”

The scheme is called a “paid relational program” that is run through software named “Rally” and operated by a company called “Relentless.”

Texas Majority PAC was under investigation for allegedly funding state Democrats who fled Texas in order to block a vote on congressional redistricting. The group is funded in part by billionaire leftist George Soros.

Townhall posted the edited video on social media, where it was widely circulated.

RELATED: James Talarico shamelessly politicizes Amazon worker’s tragic death to attack capitalism

In response to the video, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico’s Republican opponent, said, “Absolutely outrageous! James Talarico’s team just admitted they are trying to bribe people for votes. Texans aren’t for sale, no matter how much James Talarico thinks they are.”

A Texas Majority PAC spokesperson told Blaze News that McAdams had misrepresented the program and has since been fired.

“Participants in the program are being paid for grassroots organizing work,” the spokesman added in a statement. “The way it was described by one rogue employee is factually incorrect, not how we operate, and they were immediately fired.”

Blaze News’ requests for comment from Relentless and the Talarico campaign were not returned in time for publication.

Relentless claims on its website that it netted “47,533 Democratic votes” in other campaigns in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania in 2024.

The Texas Majority PAC said in financial disclosures that it had spent $500,000 on services from Relentless. Townhall noted hypothetically that at $25 per vote, that sum could net about 20,000 ballots.

AG Paxton also oversaw the investigation into Texas Majority PAC.

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​Undercover video, Us senate, James talarico, George soros, Voter fraud, Politics, Ken paxton, Texas 

When feelings become the ultimate authority, society is in trouble. And based on recent events, it would appear that society is indeed already in trouble — and it’s because of what Christian apologist Frank Turek calls the “war on reality.”

“I don’t have my law of gravity and you have your law of gravity. There’s just gravity. There’s not my laws of logic and your laws of logic. There’s just the laws of logic,” Turek tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey.

“And so when people come around saying, ‘I have my truth; you have your truth,’” he says, “I like to say to them, ‘Do you have your own math?’”

“You don’t have your own math. You don’t have your own truth either,” he adds.

As this way of rejecting the truth has become all too common, Turek explains, “we’re given over to futile thinking and then ultimately to a depraved mind, where not only are we doing evil, we’re cheering on other people who do it.”

“And I know you covered this,” he tells Stuckey, “but a few weeks ago, that law up in Massachusetts, which allowed a woman to kill her baby up to the moment of birth. And they’re cheering this.”

“They’re not only doing evil; they’re cheering on other people who are doing it. And every OB-GYN knows this. There’s never a reason, if a woman has a problem with her pregnancy in the third trimester, that you need to kill the baby,” he continues.

“You can just do a C-section, take care of the mom. But no, if I choose to kill my baby, then it’s a right. That’s madness,” he adds.

“I mean, we already saw the logical conclusion of that with the Lindsay Clancy trial, in the same state. You have this mentality that a person’s value is dependent upon their location or their size, which is basically the justification of abortion,” Stuckey agrees.

“Now we see that a person’s value and the justice that belongs to them is dependent upon still the woman’s choice and still her hormones and her emotions and everything that was apparently affecting her,” she continues.

“There’s just no sense of, it seems like, because of this war on reality, objective truth and therefore objective justice. You can’t have justice without objective truth, because then everything is like, you know, I call it empathy-based justice,” she adds.

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​Abortion, Christian apologist, Frank turek, Justice, Math, Objective truth, Allie beth stuckey, Blazetv show 

The Federal Reserve has raised the interest rate as fears of inflation persist despite economic optimism from President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, the Fed voted unanimously to increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, the first rate-hike since 2023.

‘We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World.’

“Economic activity is expanding at a solid pace. While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient. Productivity growth is strong, and capital investment is robust. Job gains have kept pace with the workforce, and the unemployment rate has changed little,” a press release from the Fed said.

“Inflation remains elevated. Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability.”

New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh voted to increase the rate even though Trump has repeatedly called for rate cuts to keep the U.S. economy growing.

The latest jobs report released two weeks ago showed impressive gains in August and revealed that reports from previous months had been revised upward.

In response to the jobs report, Trump posted, “Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago! A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE — IT’S A BETTER CREDIT … Very simple! We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World.”

He even threatened to “STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT” if the Fed failed to lower rates.

RELATED: ‘Blow expectations out of the water’: HUGE GAINS in latest jobs report

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The rate-hike is the first major Fed move under Warsh’s leadership. Trump nominated Warsh to replace Chairman Jerome Powell, who officially stepped down in May after repeatedly butting heads with Trump, especially regarding interest rates.

Trump even took to calling Powell “Too Late,” claiming that the then-chair’s failure to lower rates was stifling the American economy. Trump blamed Powell’s obstinance on “gross incompetence, total dishonesty, or both.”

For his part, Warsh has been tight-lipped about his plans at the Federal Reserve, claiming back in August that he prefers to have a “good family fight” about interest rates and other decisions rather than tip his hand ahead of time.

Wall Street has mainly responded favorably to the rumors about the impending rate increase. The NASDAQ and S&P opened Wednesday with gains, while the Dow Jones opened slightly down. Immediately after the hike announcement, all three markets were in the green.

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​Federal reserve, Donald trump, Kevin warsh, Interest rates, Politics 

A 21-year-old Mexican national has been indicted for providing support for a terrorist cartel and committing heinous acts of brutality, according to the Justice Department.

Jose Flores-Flores is accused of kidnapping people for the notorious Gulf Cartel and dismembering at least two victims in Reynosa, Mexico.

‘Thanks to President Trump designating certain cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, federal law enforcement now has a whole new arsenal of legal tools to dismantle their activities.’

Flores-Flores was allegedly a member of the cartel for more than a year and provided services that included “personnel, regional protection and enforcement, law enforcement countersurveillance, and disposal of human remains.”

Officials encountered the man near Mission, a border town near the southern tip of Texas. They discovered that Flores-Flores had been previously removed from the U.S. earlier in the year.

The indictment claims he conducted counter-surveillance against the Mexican military and law enforcement for the cartel.

According to the allegations, he also received photographs of targets and kidnapped them in order to hand them off to higher-ranking cartel members.

Flores-Flores also allegedly dismembered two victims on the outskirts of Reynosa for the cartel.

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz pointed out that the indictment was possible because the Trump administration officially classified the cartel as a terrorist organization in Feb. 2025.

“Thanks to President Trump designating certain cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, federal law enforcement now has a whole new arsenal of legal tools to dismantle their activities,” he said in a statement in the press release.

“Flores-Flores in just one defendant today,” he added. “But under the leadership of President Trump and Attorney General [Todd] Blanche, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas is on the very forefront of Making America Safe Again through the destruction and dismantling of these terrorist cartels.”

RELATED: Tactical agents arrest ‘active scout’ in Arizona near Mexico border, says CBP

Mission is a large gateway for trade to Mexico through the Anzalduas International Bridge to Reynosa, Mexico, where the suspect is from.

Flores-Flores faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible maximum fine of $250,000 if convicted.

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​Mexican cartels, Illegal aliens, Texas, Immigration, Politics, Donald trump 

Walk through the district of Whitechapel in the East End of London today, and you’ll feel like you’re in the slums of Bangladesh — so glaring are the Bengali shop signs, the East London Mosque, the hijabs and salwar kameez, and the market stalls shouting in Sylheti.

But mass migration, true to its name, has remade far more places than Whitechapel. From Greater London, Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester, and Luton, among others, the U.K. looks and feels far removed from the recognizably British country it was just 30 years ago. That’s largely because of the sheer volume of immigrants, but also because of the specific cultures the country has embraced — Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali, and other cultures that do not melt into Britain so much as plant their own institutions inside it.

With the government’s open-door, anti-assimilation posture, and with the state branding any opponent of mass migration racist or xenophobic, it’s no wonder immigrant crime has flourished.

As a former Virginia Republican delegate who served during the Biden administration, BlazeTV host Nick Freitas is keenly familiar with being labeled a bigot for protesting the flooding of immigrants, many of them criminals, across America’s own borders.

“Britain and the United States have something in common,” he says. “We’ve both been subjected to a well-funded and organized effort to convince us that mass immigration is necessary economically, socially, and even morally, that to the extent that we have a culture of our own, we should be ashamed of it.”

While the jig is up — people on both sides of the Atlantic have stopped swallowing the lecture — the threat is far from over. With both nations fundamentally altered demographically, the spread of radical Islam poses perhaps the greatest threat to the West.

“The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West” is a documentary from the Heritage Foundation and the Daily Signal that takes a daring look over that very precipice — peering into the future of a world where the West, with its rich history, cultures, and customs, faith-rooted principles, and economic and political traditions, is forever lost.

Nick Freitas teams up with Heritage Foundation experts Mike Gonzalez, Nile Gardiner, and Lora Ries, along with British voices Konstantin Kisin, Matt Goodwin, Winston Marshall, Connor Tomlinson, Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, and Patrick Christys, to not only give an honest assessment of how close we are to losing it all but to unpack the strategy that can pull it back from the brink.

“I absolutely believe that we can still correct this,” says Freitas. “What needs to be understood is that you don’t have unlimited time to correct it, and the hour is late.”

Early access to the Heritage Foundation documentary “The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West” is available now on BlazeTV+ exclusively for subscribers. Use promo code NICK for $20 off your subscription.

​Documentary, Heritage foundation, Mass migration, Nick freitas, United kingdom, Blazetv show 

Just a month ago, one of OpenAI’s models escaped from its testing environment and hacked into an AI repository site, Hugging Face. The news sparked concern over AI’s illicit capabilities, and it even caught the government’s attention.

Since then, leading figures in tech and politics have scrambled to draw battle lines and choose sides.

Now, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is opening an investigation to mitigate the damage of future breaches, and at least one AI CEO is asking for consequences.

In a letter sent to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on September 9, Hawley outlined the extent of the attack and its implications. According to the document, more than 1,200 OpenAI agents escaped from their testing zone and colluded across 70,000 messages and files sent among each other as they plotted their attack on Hugging Face. Reportedly, 700 of the agents successfully breached the website and accessed the site’s internal systems and code. Even more astonishing, the bots then attempted to hide their activity.

’Who is held [liable] when Al goes rogue?’

Hawley labeled this as rogue behavior. Furthermore, he called OpenAI “reckless,” accusing the company of knowing that its AI bots went rogue and continuing evaluation tests anyway, despite the illicit activity.

The letter ended by asking the questions that all of us want answers to: “What happens to critical infrastructure, banks, and utilities if Al agents hack into their systems? How can personal data of millions of Americans be properly safeguarded? And who is held [liable] when Al goes rogue?”

Seemingly, these are the answers that Hawley’s investigation aims to uncover. Now OpenAI has a deadline to turn over as much information and documentation as possible by October 1, 2026.

Hawley’s investigation comes at a time when the Big AI CEOs all suddenly agree that AI development should slow down. Over the weekend, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk all joined forces to say it’s time to “pace the frontier.”

In a blog post, Amodei warned, “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.” The fear, according to Amodei, is that AI will soon reach a point of artificial superintelligence where models can build the next generation of models on their own without human intervention. He also cited the OpenAI Hugging Face incident as further proof for a necessary slowdown.

Keep in mind that even though three of the top AI platform holders have asked to ease up the gas on AI development, this doesn’t mean any of them will actually follow through and cede ground to the other. At this point, it’s just wishful thinking.

RELATED: Now they’re saying the AIs built ‘secret civilizations’ — the truth is far worse

Ole_CNX/Getty Images

The paradox of accelerating toward your own worst fears may seem irresponsible in and of itself, but for Amodei, the endgame is a more global form of governance, which he doesn’t think is a bad thing.

“My view here is it has always been very strange that this technology is being built by a private company,” Amodei confessed in a recent appearance on “Face the Nation.”

“The government and the public needs to have a stake, and this is why we’ve supported regulation of the technology. Regulation constrains the private companies. Regulation allows the public and its elected representatives to have a say and limits what the private companies can do.”

When asked if he would be willing to hand control of Anthropic’s AI to the government, Amodei admitted, “To the right combination of governments.” When pressed, he clarified, “I am concerned that one single government could abuse this technology just as easily as a single company could. But I think a combination of democratically elected governments — I don’t know about handing over, but some kind of oversight, some kind of joint governance, again, that would be the work of years, but I wonder if that’s the direction we need to go in.”

In other words, Amodei is interested in a globalist government system essentially owning his AI platform and possibly others like it. This would give the body of governments control over a technology that will determine how information is gathered, processed, and shared, opening up plenty of opportunities for censorship, information suppression, and more nefarious acts.

Of course, the cause for extreme government oversight has raised plenty of eyebrows online, and it even got the Vice President’s attention. “Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them,” said JD Vance in a recent interview. “It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse.”

Only time will tell if he’s right. In the meantime, we have Hawley’s investigation on the horizon as he uncovers what really happened with OpenAI’s rogue agent issue.

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​Ai bots, Anthropic, Artificial superintelligence, Censorship, Critical infrastructure, Elon musk, Government, Investigation, Openai, Regulation, Technology, Vice president, Tech, Politics 

What happens when American women stop having children while Muslim families continue to grow?

In a conversation with BlazeTV host Pat Gray, a caller from Michigan warns that the answer is not good.

“Ever since I started studying Islam and Sharia law, I look at everything through an Islamic point of view. And here, they’re procreating us by leaps and bounds. And in the meantime, we’re killing our own children. They don’t have to kill us. They can just let us do this. Go through the abortions,” Rob from Michigan tells Gray.

“They’re going to defeat us if this keeps up,” he adds.

“You’re absolutely right,” Gray says.

“It might not take any effort. They just let us peter out and not procreate ourselves into extinction,” he continues.

“Look how it’s spread already. We all knew about Dearborn … we’ve known about that for a long time. Now, it’s spread to Minnesota … then we hear about Patterson, New Jersey, which is one of their holiest cities all of a sudden,” he explains, adding, “Then we get it in Texas.”

“It’s almost like a cancer,” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in, before noting that the Muslim population of Birmingham, U.K., almost exploded overnight.

Birmingham’s 2021 census found that 29.9% of residents identified as Muslim, up from 21.8% in 2011.

While Gray finds it concerning, he has hope.

“I think there’s time to stop it,” he says.

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​Abortion, Islam, Muslims, Population, Society, West, Blazetv show 

When actress Sydney Sweeney bared all to promote a new app, she likely knew it was going to cause some controversy. (Her content always does.)

At the same time though, insiders are revealing there was a little more thought behind Sweeney’s project than what can be seen by the naked eye.

‘In some sense, it forces us into the national discourse.’

Sweeney’s provocative near-nude ad had her covering herself with only sports balls to promote Novig, a platform described as a sports-only prediction market. Like Polymarket or Kalshi, users can buy futures on what might happen in sports.

“Think you know sports? Prove it!” Sweeney says in the ad.

The app falls under a category that is considered to be closer to stock trading than it is gambling, circumventing state laws.

But while existing platforms let users trade futures in sports, politics, and even pop culture, Novig’s claim is that it will stick to just sports. Apparently, Sweeney helped push that focus.

When Sweeney approached Novig and showed she was “interested in some kind of equity partnership,” she reportedly noted that she was “uncomfortable” with the types of markets that other companies in the same industry were pushing.

At the time of this writing, both Kalshi and Polymarket have politics as their shining star on their front pages. While both are currently focused on the Fed, Kalshi also pushes politics and elections as its top-two categories.

For Novig, co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky says Sweeney helped deliver the company’s “sports only” pitch “in a way that’s impossible to ignore,” the Washington Times reported.

RELATED: SKIN IN THE GAME: Sydney Sweeney shrugs off female athletes triggered by naked ad

Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Image

Fortinsky also alluded to Front Office Sports in an interview that he knew Sweeney would be the perfect person to wedge the company into the headlines.

“Sydney is great at captivating audiences and being the center of attention,” Fortinsky said. “In some sense, it forces us into the national discourse.”

With the 29-year-old actress as an equity owner, it has become obvious that she is looking to corner a nonpolitical market. Her ability to parry political questions from reporters has become legend as she is constantly criticized for something intangible every time she is featured in a popular promotion.

“We’re very excited to have her on the cap table,” Fortinsky said.

In his interview, Fortinsky reportedly would not reveal Sweeney’s equity stake, and the figure is not publicly known.

As a whole, Novig has increased its value to $500 million since starting in 2021 and had a $75 million funding round in 2026, Business Insider reported.

“It will be interesting to see if Novig can translate this big ad moment into sustained interest,” Jessica Pratt, Peak Metrics’ VP of marketing told the outlet.

RELATED: The ‘racist’ UT Austin photo everyone was supposed to ignore: ‘You’re not allowed to have eyeballs’

“I don’t like to just put my face on something,” Sweeney publicly said; and for that reason, she faced backlash.

Female athletes across the world accused Sweeney of setting them back with her sexual imagery, but these same women were quickly reprimanded by online readers who pointed to their own scantily clad photos.

Sweeney silently retaliated by posting images of athletes posing nude for ESPN magazine’s “Body” issue, juxtaposing their cover photos with her own ad.

Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey, tennis players Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki, and even male athletes like NFL champ Rob Gronkowski appeared on Sweeney’s Instagram story to make her point.

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​Prediction markets, Sydney sweeney, Kalshi, Polymarket, Gambling, Lifestyle 

If you think that only the U.S. military uses frontier AI models in combat, think again. Anthropic just caught several Iranian groups weaponizing Claude against American citizens and soldiers, and their multitiered campaign was aimed at targets in the region and within the United States.

According to a 154-page threat report released by Anthropic, Iran used Claude for a wide range of offenses aimed at the United States. In the section labeled “Military reconnaissance,” Iran clearly weaponized the platform to monitor and even target American soldiers during the ongoing confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding areas.

The bad actors obtained a terrifying amount of information about the US military.

Anthropic described how an “Iran-nexus” used Claude against American naval personnel within the region in the following ways. They:

Gathered publicly available data and analyzed it to generate targeting recommendations and guides to be used against the U.S.Created a system to help track naval ships, bolstered by commercial satellite imagery query scripts that extracted Earth image data and public transponder identifiers emitted from vessels.Used Claude as a coding partner to build a Python script that dug through military photographs available online and created a roster of possible American personnel in the area.Used Claude as a research tool to help the attackers find potential vulnerabilities in naval ships’ electronics systems.

Ultimately, Anthropic banned the accounts that were complicit in this activity. However, even though the threat was eliminated, the bad actors still obtained a terrifying amount of information about the U.S. military before they were discovered. Likewise, Anthropic also learned quite a bit about the Iranian operations through its platform, so the information goes both ways.

RELATED: America is losing the information war with Iran

Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In another section titled, “Disrupting Iranian state-aligned influence operations on Claude,” three accounts with connections to the Iranian state engaged in influence operations — dubbed a “soft war” or “cognitive warfare” — meant to sway public opinion on the ongoing battle. The campaign targeted both the Iranian people, like those who took to the streets to protest the Iranian government earlier this year, and American citizens living in the United States. Anthropic found clear connections between the accounts and known Iranian propaganda groups, including:

Islamic Culture and Communications Organization,Islamic Propaganda Office of Khorasan Razavi, andIslamic Propaganda Organization’s Bina Cultural Observatory.

Each group used Claude to generate robust campaign strategies, guides, databases, and other documents at a scale befitting a large team. They also focused on making their propaganda efforts appear like organic or grassroots campaigns to give off the perception of authenticity.

Anthropic noted that the groups partially attempted to hide their Iranian roots through VPNs and foreign phone numbers used to verify accounts when they were registered. However, users repeatedly mentioned identifying details in their prompts that gave away their origins, including their location, associated propaganda organization, and even the role they played within each group. Finally, Anthropic later traced some of the created materials to other online platforms that aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, proving their connection.

This revelation brings several truths to light:

American-made frontier AI platforms can and are being leveraged by foreign powers against American soldiers in live combat zones. While they may not have close system integration on par with our military’s GenAI.mil platform, these resources can still threaten real American lives on the battlefield.AI companies, like Anthropic, have the power to detect abuse within their platforms, but they may not always be quick to act. By the time Anthropic banned the Iranian accounts in question, they already produced at least some content to aid in their opposition against the United States.AI companies can trace the activity of every account registered on their platform. This is good news when punishing bad actors that want to exploit AI for evil. However, regular users are also subject to the same visibility and scrutiny.

As AI expands to every corner and facet of life, it was only a matter of time before our enemies tried to use American AI technology against us. This is why the U.S. military has taken steps to build its own AI platform stocked with an entire army of AI models. In this way, it can pick and choose the best attributes from each bot and assemble it all into a lethal war machine unlike anything else on the planet.

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​News, Iran, Artificial intelligence, Tech 

As the push for dominance in space between China and the United States heats up, so does an outer space arms race.

However, we didn’t know what specifically was happening until now.

‘There have been many who are developing capabilities to take those away from us.’

Although President Donald Trump recently revealed some controversial uniforms as part of the new Space Force look, it turns out there may have been a lot more going on with the space agency than was realized.

In what may be a shocking revelation, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made remarks on Monday that were characterized as a warning to China and Russia about American capabilities in space.

“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist,” Meink said at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

According to ABC News, Meink then dropped a figurative bomb and revealed that the United States has weapons in space.

“This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”

In video from the conference posted by CNN, Meink further revealed that America’s adversaries are already making attempts to knock those weapons out of orbit.

“There have been many who are developing capabilities to take those away from us, to threaten those things,” the secretary stated.

“So it is critically important that we maintain our dominance not only in the air but in space. And so we’ve had to take steps to make sure that when we’re threatened, we can take care of that.”

RELATED: Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex finally got a new job — suspiciously like the old one

China has been making significant strides in its space program for the better part of the last decade, starting with alleged plans to destroy Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites.

China’s Chang’e rockets have made consistent attempts to establish what have been referred to as “exclusion zones” on the moon, where they are hoping to harvest lunar minerals and discover the existence of water ice.

While at one point in 2026, it looked like China had gained a strategic edge over the United States, NASA, and its Artemis programs, a surprising setback in August pushed the Red Giant’s immediate plans back to at least 2027.

The recent Chang’e-7 mission, which was delayed, was seen as a critical step toward getting more Chinese robots (rovers) on the moon, with a hope of humans and military equipment in years to come.

Chang’e-8, another probing mission, was set for 2029, while China’s boots-on-the-ground mission was set for 2030.

RELATED: America’s adversaries are using top American tech — without telling their customers

Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Secretary Meink offered more details in remarks to ABC News, saying U.S. capabilities “can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes at the direction of combatant commands.”

“The U.S. has warned about Russian and Chinese weapons testing and operationalization since 2007. Due to their actions, it is no longer a question that space is a warfighting domain,” the secretary added. “Open communication strengthens deterrence, prevents adversary miscalculation, and normalizes space operations alongside the other services.”

Clive Neil, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences at Notre Dame, recently told Blaze News that a “space race” isn’t good for the overall goal of space exploration.

“History shows us that international competition in human space exploration does not produce an enduring human space program, as Apollo was canceled less than four years after Apollo 11 ‘won’ that race,” the professor explained. “However, with [the International Space Station] we have had a continuous human presence in [low Earth orbit] for 25+ years through international cooperation.”

“I don’t like races, and we need to learn from history. Otherwise we are destined to repeat it!” Neil concluded.

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​China, Nasa, Space force, United states, Tech, Space race 

I went to my first “listening party” at a new venue in downtown Portland, Oregon, called Mono Space. I guess it’s a venue. I’m a little unsure what to call it. Here’s what it calls itself:

Mono Space is a high-fidelity listening gallery dedicated to the preservation of music culture and the presentation of music recordings as works of art. Located in a renovated warehouse in Portland’s historic Pearl District, this nonprofit venue creates a setting for attentive listening and cultural exchange.

It was all very civilized. And calm. And harmonious. Maybe as a reaction to the rest of Portland.

The location is basically one big room. Along one wall are oversized, high-fidelity audio speakers. Next to that is a table with state-of-the-art turntables, tube amplifiers, and similar gear.

It only plays vinyl records, not MP3s, which I’m assuming is the purist approach at this high level of sound quality.

As its website says:

Mono Space recognizes that music is a crucial connective tissue within the human experience. Individuals use it to align their bodies, hearts, and minds, and shape their personal well-being. Communities wield it as a sonic code to define who they are and what they believe, manifesting a shared history and purpose.

Blake Nelson

Audio bliss

So that’s the setup: giant speakers face the rest of the room, which looks vaguely like a yoga studio or meditation space.

The area directly in front of the speakers features comfy carpet slabs and various pillows and cushions where you can lie down. The next row has a dozen cushy bean-bag chairs.

You come in, take off your shoes, get comfortable, and relax. Then you close your eyes and listen to music in a meditative, deep state of perfect audio bliss.

The event I went to was an “album listen” of the latest release by Blood Orange, a critically acclaimed black jazz/pop/hip-hop artist. It cost $23.

Since Mono Space is a “nonprofit venue” dedicated to “cultural exchange,” I wondered if it might be populated by nose-ringed, leftist, activist types. But it was more sophisticated than that.

Everyone in attendance was stylishly dressed, neat, and well-groomed. It was mostly young people, scattered in age from early 20s to late 30s. The audience was somewhat multiracial (by Portland standards), as were the people working there.

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Jack Mason/Skyhorse Publishing

Needle drop

It was all very civilized. And calm. And harmonious. Maybe as a reaction to the rest of Portland, which remains full of homeless people, the mentally ill, drug addicts, arsonists, etc.

It didn’t take long to get through the jazz/hip-hop album. About an hour, I think.

When the lights came on, everybody seemed happy with their listening experience. People were eager to hang out and chat. It was a lively scene.

While people socialized, I checked out some of the museum-style art books and merchandise for sale near the entrance. These books mostly featured African-American and other multicultural artists.

I noticed pretty much everything about Mono Space was multicultural. That seemed to be the point. And as we all know, “multiculturalism” often stands in opposition to “whiteness.”

Beat happening

This can be a sensitive subject in Portland, which is frequently accused of being “too white” and therefore “racist.”

But are Portlanders actually racist? Our far-left city politicians keep telling us we are. According to them, we’re so racist they need to raise our taxes!

Fortunately, that wasn’t the vibe at Mono Space. On this night, it really was just about the music. Which was a relief. It was fun to be around young music fans and audio-geeks comparing notes in real life. Could this be a glimpse into the future? I hope so.

​Anti-white, Cultural diversity, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music, Portland oregon, Vinyl records, Whiteness, Blake’s progress