Open YouTube on a television and you may find yourself sitting through a 30-second ad you cannot skip. Google introduced that format this year. You can escape the interruptions, of course: YouTube Premium costs $159.99 a year.

The video is still free. But patience has become the price of admission, and relief now comes with a subscription.

Platforms that serve as gateways to speech wield extraordinary power of visibility. When that power is sold by the tier, free access begins to look like second-class access.

When Americans worry about tech freedom, they tend to think of censorship: demonetization, deplatforming, shadowbanning, and pressure from government officials. Those threats are real. But a quieter transformation is taking place. Platforms once celebrated for letting anyone participate are selling advantages in who gets seen and heard.

For years, the bargain was straightforward: Users supplied much of the content, platforms sold advertising around it, and participation was open to almost anyone. That arrangement was never perfectly equal. Algorithms already favored some voices over others. What has changed is the explicit price tag on preferential visibility. A company need not silence a speaker when it can sell somebody else a better spot.

In 1995, Stewart Brand described the early internet as “a kind of cultural Brigadoon,” shaped by “hippie communalism and libertarian politics.” The promise was openness, not a tiered-pricing menu for attention.

X (formerly Twitter) now sells checkmarks, editing tools, and longer posts. More consequentially, its own subscription terms offer paying customers priority for their replies, with greater priority at higher tiers. You can still speak without paying. Getting heard is another question.

Meta rolled out Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus, and WhatsApp Plus this year, selling additional features. Instagram Plus allows subscribers to spotlight a story for more views. Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Reddit also have paid offerings. A custom app icon may be harmless. Purchasing an advantage in visibility is something else.

Dating apps make the distinction especially plain. Bumble’s Spotlight feature can push a user’s profile toward the top of the stack. Tinder’s paid tiers offer prioritized likes. The person who pays gains a better chance of being noticed. That may be sound business. It is hardly equal access.

The platforms are turning attention into a premium product. The free user can post, swipe, or browse, but paid subscribers receive opportunities that others do not.

Subscriptions have a legitimate business case. Newspapers need to pay reporters, and online services have expenses. Research on one news publisher found that just 0.21% of encounters with its paywall resulted in subscriptions. Even charging for original reporting is a difficult business. But a publisher selling its own journalism is different from a platform selling preferential access to everyone else’s attention.

The consequences become more serious when the information at stake is more than a social media post.

RELATED: Corporate America is stealing our time. I want mine back.

NurPhoto/Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images

Consider Compass, the real estate giant whose holdings now include Century 21. Compass has expanded its use of “private exclusive” home listings, which may be shown first through selected brokerage channels instead of the public listing sites buyers routinely consult. A seller may choose that arrangement. A buyer who never learns that a house is available has no such choice.

In September, Compass offered New York City agents a $1,000 digital-marketing package if they removed listings from StreetEasy, according to an email obtained by Real Estate News. Those homes could still be marketed elsewhere. But someone browsing a major housing portal might not be seeing the whole market.

That is why Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), chairman of a House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, opened an inquiry into Compass’ private-listing partnership with Midwest Real Estate Data. The committee questioned whether such networks restrict competition and the information available to homebuyers. Compass maintains that its approach gives sellers more control over marketing their properties. The inquiry is not a finding of wrongdoing.

Here the question extends beyond whether a paying customer gets an advantage. A private-listing network can affect people who never joined it and do not know what they are missing. A homeowner may have perfectly good reasons to prefer a discreet sale. But a market depends on buyers knowing what is for sale, and brokers who limit that information exercise considerable power over both sides of the transaction.

RELATED: Online threats are swamping the internet. Block them with this powerful browser feature.

Moor Studio/Getty Images

Nevertheless, the underlying question is urgent: Who decides what the public gets to see, and how much of that decision is being sold?

For an internet already tiering off, it makes you wonder where we’re going next.

Imagine a marketplace in which the goods exist, the customers are ready, and the intermediary controls which shelves you are allowed to inspect. That is a more consequential problem than having to sit through another YouTube ad.

Charging for extras is not censorship. Private companies can sell services, and creators can charge for their work. But platforms that serve as gateways to speech, social life, and commerce wield extraordinary power over visibility. When that power is sold by the tier, free access begins to look like second-class access.

The internet does not have to ban you to shut you out. It can simply make sure somebody who pays gets seen first.

​Youtube, Online speech, Free speech, Google, Data, Facebook, X, Bumble, Subscriptions, Free access, Social media, Premium, Ads, Opinion & analysis 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Blaze News a shipment of counterfeit ultra-luxury watches was intercepted on the way to Texas.

The authentic timepiece is an ultra-luxury watch from a storied Swiss manufacturer and will burn a hole in your wallet, costing about $38,000 on average.

‘Our officers are working hard to identify threats and shut down illicit suppliers.’

On October 23, CBP officers at the Port of Louisville in Kentucky stopped a shipment of 460 fake watches bearing the Audemars Piguet trademark.

The watches were on their way to a residence in Texas and had been shipped from Hong Kong, according to CBP.

Trade experts at the Centers of Excellence and Expertise determined the watches to be fake.

Had the watches been real, the combined manufacturer’s suggested retail price would have totaled over $66 million.

The watches were seized for “bearing counterfeit versions of registered and recorded trademarks.”

Louisville Port Director Philip Onken said the incident showed trade was growing at “unprecedented” rates.

“In May, these CBP officers seized a shipment of counterfeit jewelry worth $14 million; in June, it was $54 million in counterfeit watches; in July, more counterfeit watches worth $28 million; and in August, it was 300 counterfeit watches worth $43 million,” Onken said.

“As you can see, our officers are working hard to identify threats and shut down illicit suppliers,” he added.

RELATED: Fake ultra-luxury watches from China seized — they would have been worth millions if real, CBP claims

U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection

CBP said illegitimate sales are among the “most profitable” transnational crimes and that illicit trade “adversely impacts” the businesses operating legitimately in the U.S.

“These items, including fake medications, perfumes, cosmetics, children’s toys and costumes, fashion, jewelry, luxury products, and unsafe electronics and automotive parts, can pose health and safety risks to American consumers as they are often made with substandard or harmful materials,” the agency added.

CBP asks consumers to follow its e-commerce counterfeit awareness guide to avoid putting money into the pockets of criminal counterfeiters.

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​Customs and border protection, Counterfeit watches, Smuggling, Politics 

Director Peter Berg can’t shake the memory of Gene Hackman dangling from a steam valve wheel in 1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure.” Hackman’s character, a man of faith on a doomed cruise ship, sacrificed himself so that the remaining passengers could live.

That image, that heroism, never left the future filmmaker.

‘I’m drawn to the emotion that is generated when human beings are in dire situations.’

“It stuck with me,” Berg tells Blaze Media. “Since ‘The Poseidon Adventure,’ I’ve been trying to make human stories surround by action.”

Something bigger

Berg’s film canon backs that up. He’s responsible for a crush of heroic tales, including “Lone Survivor” (2013), “Deepwater Horizon” (2016), “Patriots Day” (2016), and now “The Mosquito Bowl.”

The Netflix original, premiering in theaters today before its Nov. 25 streaming debut, follows four college football stars as they trade pigskins for rifles post-Pearl Harbor. The quartet (Ray Nicholson, Bill Skarsgård, Tom Francis, and Nicholas Galitzine) bond and bicker between battles, but they get a chance to flex their football skills in the titular bowl.

Berg previously directed 2004’s “Friday Night Lights,” also drawn from a book by author Buzz Bissinger (Berg’s cousin). The director leapt at the chance to helm the scribe’s fact-based tale.

“I could sense that, like with ‘Friday Night Lights,’ he was tapping into bigger themes than football or war,” Berg says. “I knew he was throwing a fastball with this book. His dad was a Marine in Okinawa. My dad was a Marine in Korea … this was the kind of story I wanted to be a part of.”

‘Inch by inch’

Berg commits to serious research before any film projects. For “The Mosquito Bowl,” he visited Okinawa and toured the battlefield that plays a key part in the film’s third act.

He marveled at “the slopes and the mountains that had to be fought over and the caves that had to be entered,” he says, as well as the furious nature of the battles. “I wasn’t aware of how incredibly violent it was, inch by inch, bullet by bullet, flame thrower by flame thrower, these two militaries just went at it.”

His film is unsparing on that front, assembling some of the most unsettling war images since “Saving Private Ryan.”

To attempt to grasp the scale of death and destruction, he visited the Cornerstone of Peace monument at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa, where more than 200,000 names of those who lost their lives in the battle are etched in stone.

“You can literally feel it as you move through Okinawa. I’m glad I went out there. It seared that into my soul,” he says.

Brotherhood and bravery

The veteran director started his career as an actor (“Chicago Hope,” “A Midnight Clear”) before moving behind the camera without sticking to any one genre. Still, the obvious through line in his work is courage, bravery, and sacrifice, the very DNA of “The Mosquito Bowl.”

“I’m drawn to the emotion that is generated when human beings are in dire situations,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to explore character, strength, perseverance, heroism, cowardly behavior, complicitous behavior … under the umbrella of action and intensity. I’ve always been drawn to that. I don’ t know why.”

He’s more dialed in about football’s eternal appeal.

“Football’s just the perfect sport. It requires 11 men on the sides to all be operating in perfect unison together. It’s completely unpredictable … there’s an element of danger, there’s incredible athleticism, and there’s a brotherhood. The brotherhood is incredibly inspiring, and the emotion is real … it transcends our petty human differences and unites us all,” he says. “Football is the greatest thing that’s ever been invented, and we need more football.”

RELATED: Director finds faith in the wild with Brad Pitt’s ‘Heart of the Beast’

Paramount Pictures/JB Lacroix/Getty Images

Head down

Berg has worked steadily for decades in Hollywood, including the occasional acting gig — don’t miss his inspirational cameo in “The Mosquito Bowl.” Unlike some of his peers, he doesn’t fear the rise of AI in La La Land.

“All you can do is control what you can control,” he says. “I’m not seeing AI coming at me right now as the death of my business. I’m seeing opportunities.”

His approach to an evolving industry hasn’t changed, something he advises to anyone eager to tell big-screen stories.

“You have to keep your head down and work,” he says. “Movies in theaters are doing very, very well right now. The [Paramount-Warner Bros.] merger is not going to change much. There’s still a lot of stuff being made.”

He’s even more optimistic about young filmmakers joining the business. Think 20-something director Curry Barker of “Obsession” fame, a movie that defied all Hollywood wisdom to earn more than $500 million worldwide. He’s delighted to note how rebel storyteller Nathan Fielder broke out via his documentary smash “You Can See Everything,” in theaters now.

“I think we’re just fine,” he says of Hollywood as 2027 nears.

​College football, Entertainment, Friday night lights, Gene hackman, Movies, Pearl harbor, Peter berg, The mosquito bowl, Ai, Culture, Lifestyle, Hollywood, Books, Interview, Netflix 

A dispute over passing gas led to a deadly shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, according to court documents.

The Clayton County Police Dept. said officers responded to a report of shots fired on Oct. 8 at the 5000 block of Riverdale Road at about 10:30 p.m.

He allegedly shot at Beebe approximately 10 times, striking him in the back and killing him.

After an investigation, police identified Seneca Colbert as a suspect in the lethal shooting.

Police sought Colbert for weeks and warned that he was armed and dangerous.

On Friday, a tip led police to his whereabouts at a home in Atlanta. When the 48-year-old refused to come out of the home, the Atlanta Police SWAT team breached the home. He was found hiding behind a water heater.

Colbert was charged with malice murder, felony murder, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Charging documents alleged a bizarre motivation for the lethal shooting.

Investigators said 25-year-old Delrico Beebe was in a gas station store with Colbert when he complained about Colbert passing gas.

An altercation ensued, and Colbert left the store to retrieve an AR-style pistol from his vehicle, according to investigators.

He allegedly shot at Beebe approximately 10 times, striking him in the back and killing him.

RELATED: Armed robber tries to steal a man’s car at gas station, but the driver pulled out his own gun and killed the assailant, St. Louis police say

The latest police data indicates that nearly all major crime categories have declined by double-digit percentages in Atlanta over the same period last year.

Homicide is down 12%, rape is down 14%, and robbery is down 22%. On the other hand, aggravated assaults are up 21% in the otherwise downward trends.

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​Fatal shooting, Atlanta, Georgia, Guns, Crime 

While taking a break from our daily three-mile walk through a local park, my wife and I sat on a bench watching other walkers stroll by. One young woman passed wearing a plain, white T-shirt that read, in large letters, simply: “AND WE KNOW THAT.”

Underneath those words, in much smaller type, was the explanation of this enigmatic inscription: “Romans 8:28.”

Are we not called to be engaged in all aspects of life? Why would politics be out of bounds?

The full Scripture verse is incredibly powerful and should spring to mind whenever things in our personal lives — or even in the life of our nation — go kerflooey:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

The midterm elections, already underway across America, popped into my head when I saw the T-shirt. Christians and true patriots alike worry about polls showing Democratic Party gains in key races. Some are moved to work harder; others throw up their hands and leave the results to fate — or, more piously, “Providence.” After all, if “all things work together for good,” even if Democrats regain power and go scorched earth on our country, that must be God’s will. Things will eventually work out “for good,” yes?

Otherwise well-meaning Christians can justify “sitting this one out” in any number of ways: “If God wants America to survive, the country will survive; if He wants her to go under, it will go under. I will just pray. I don’t get involved in politics.”

The idea that good Christians should stay out of politics because “Thy will be done” — or, as Doris Day sang, “Whatever will be, will be” — reminds me of that doctor joke about predestination:

After examining his patient, the doctor shares his diagnosis. “Joe, you are in terrible shape, and I am prescribing a series of pills that will help you live a long, healthy life.” But Joe shakes his head. “No, doc, I’m a Christian, and I believe in predestination. I’m not going to take the pills because I believe that if God wants me to live, I will live; if He wants me to die, I will die.”

The doctor responds: “Well, Joe, I too am a Christian, and I also believe in predestination. So I can tell you this: If you take the pills, you’re predestined to live. If you don’t, you’re predestined to die.”

RELATED: Christians: Don’t fall for Talarico’s performative messaging

Danielle Villasana/Getty Images

Christians who don’t get involved in politics — especially at an obviously critical juncture in a nation’s existence — are like that patient, confident God will save the country with or without their involvement. That conclusion is certainly true, but are we not called to be engaged in all aspects of life? Why would politics be out of bounds?

Consider Romans 13:1: “Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

America was “established by God” more than 250 years ago. And in that establishment, the founders made it very clear that “We the People” were in charge, under the authority of “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Therefore, we must be involved in every way we can — voting, for example, is basic — to preserve the governing authorities to which we are subject.

Further along this political-involvement track, I believe an even more powerful declaration can be drawn from that one big, beautiful prayer Christians around the world pray daily. Much of the “Our Father” concerns, in a very real sense, both earthly and heavenly politics.

After addressing our Holy Father in heaven, Jesus prays, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Many Christians close the prayer with the words, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

RELATED: Is ASU going to fire a Christian professor for being too Christian?

Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Should we not then work for God’s Kingdom to come here on earth as it is in heaven, not only in our own lives but in the life of our nation and, through this nation, the world? Is God’s Kingdom not built on righteousness and holiness? Our kingdom here should reflect those noble, ethereal, and eternal goals as much as possible. Where it embraces vile and detestable practices — abortion, child mutilation, open borders, etc. — should we not work to abolish them? We also pray, “Deliver us from evil.” Should we not work alongside our Father to bring that about?

St. James wrote (1:22):

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.

Finally, this reminder from St. Paul (Ephesians 5:14-16):

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

This is no sit-on-your-hands (or just pray-with-your-hands) moment in the shaky life of America. Scripture and our Lord and Savior give us our marching orders. Yes, pray. No question about that. But also vote. And whenever and wherever you can, and with whomever you can, be politically influential, always remembering to “speak the truth in love.”

Doing that can advance two kingdoms at once.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.

​Opinion & analysis, America, Voting, Midterms, Christians, Opinion 

Washington has managed to turn an overwhelmingly popular idea — banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks — into another partisan brawl.

In a poll released in September, the Independent Center found that 88% of voters backed a ban, including 88% of Republicans, 89% of Democrats, and 86% of independents. Yet Congress still hasn’t made it law. On an issue that unites voters, the two parties have found another reason to fight.

Make congressional stock trading a test. Will candidates ban lawmakers and their families from trading stocks, including existing holdings? Will they reject poison pills? Get their answers. Vote accordingly.

Americans are sick of it. A Fox News poll conducted October 9-12 found that 88% of registered voters were extremely or very concerned about government corruption, ahead of inflation and high prices at 85%, gas prices at 83%, and health care at 80%.

The Independent Center’s October survey of 1,200 adults, including 1,000 registered voters, helps explain the anger. Six in 10 said groceries had put the most pressure on their household budgets. Fifty-four percent said the economy was rigged for big companies and the politically connected; only 34% said it worked like a real free market. More than half said Washington was not listening.

Politicians insist they share that frustration. Their tolerance for corruption, however, often depends on whose name is attached to it.

Republicans have a fresh example. On October 13, Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as ambassador to Greece after the White House asked her to leave. Trump donor Eric Deters accused her of seeking $100,000 to pay a personal credit card bill before her confirmation hearing, allegedly in return for access to administration officials. He says he never paid her. Guilfoyle denies wrongdoing and disputes the authenticity of the messages cited in reporting on the allegation.

Democrats have their own scandals. Former Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey was sentenced to 11 years in prison in a bribery case involving cash, gold bars, and a luxury car. Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned in April after facing ethics proceedings and federal charges alleging that she and others diverted a $5 million FEMA overpayment, including money routed toward her campaign. She has pleaded not guilty.

Both parties are adept at spotting corruption across the aisle. When the accusation lands at home, too many partisans reach for the words “witch hunt.”

Congressional stock trading offers a simpler test. `Members can buy and sell individual stocks while receiving briefings and writing laws that affect the companies they invest in. The 2012 STOCK Act requires disclosure of trades and prohibits trading on nonpublic information. It does not bar members from owning or trading individual stocks.

RELATED: ‘Cold civil war’ about to heat up? DataRepublican exposes evidence of color revolution plot

Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Republican Chip Roy (Texas) and Democrat Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) have championed a bipartisan proposal to ban congressional stock trading, including by lawmakers’ spouses and dependent children. But the legislation that actually passed the House in July was narrower. The Stop Insider Trading Act, approved 232-198, would bar new purchases while allowing members to retain existing holdings. Republicans also attached voter ID requirements unrelated to stock trading.

Democrats called the package inadequate and objected to the election provisions. In September, the Senate voted 53-47 to advance it, short of the 60 votes needed. Rival proposals, familiar accusations, and procedural maneuvers have left the public with the same result: No comprehensive trading ban is law.

The people who set the rules cannot agree to limit their own opportunities for profit, even when voters from both parties overwhelmingly want them to. That is a failure of political will, not a shortage of legislative ideas.

Independents can change the calculation. We have no party organization to defend and no reason to excuse misconduct because the offender happens to wear the right jersey. The standard should be the same whether the politician is a Democrat or a Republican.

RELATED: Kamala’s voter-roll freakout hits blue states hard

Mario Tama/Getty Images

And we have the numbers to make that standard count. Gallup found that 45% of Americans identified as independents in 2025, more than identified with either major party. In close races, candidates cannot afford to dismiss voters whose support they have not earned.

So make congressional stock trading a test. Ask every candidate in your district whether they will ban lawmakers, spouses, and dependent children from trading individual stocks. Ask whether the ban would cover existing holdings and whether they would accept unrelated riders designed to sink it. Write down the answers. Vote accordingly.

The two parties have had years to deliver a reform voters agree on. If they refuse, independents can make that refusal costly — or replace the politicians responsible.

​Congressional stock trading, Federal charges, Free market, Gas prices, Government corruption, Health care, Senate vote, Independent voters, Bipartisan, Republicans, Democrats, Chip roy, Stocks, Opinion & analysis 

There’s no holiday that divides Christians quite like Halloween. On one end of the spectrum are those who argue that all related festivities — including trick-or-treating, costumes, and pumpkin carving — should be avoided by Christians. According to this group, any attempt to create alternatives or participate in a limited capacity is just whitewashing what is undeniably evil.

On the other end are those who fully engage with Halloween — horror, gore, and all. Many fall somewhere in between, believing discernment and partial participation is permissible.

On a recent episode of “Strange Encounters,” a spiritual warfare podcast hosted by Rick Burgess, the BlazeTV host dove into the Halloween debate and gave his take.

Rick begins by taking a hard stance on one of Halloween’s biggest modern traditions: watching horror films.

“[Modern horror movies] are dealing with demons and possession and all this stuff, and then if they’re not doing that, then they’re coming up with new ways to murder people and slaughter people and slice them up and blood, gore, and all that,” he says.

To engage with these movies, he argues, is like putting “a sign on your house, ‘Demons are welcome here.”’

“I would not have anything to do with any horror picture,” Rick warns. “Don’t let it anywhere near your home.”

He also takes a hard stance on dark-themed decorations and costumes.

“Please do not allow decorations around your home to be demonic, OK?” he says.

“Do not let your children dress up as witches. Do not let your children dress up as serial killers. Do not let your kids dress up as vampires, monsters — just stay out of all that,” he adds.

But not all decorations and costumes are evil, Rick caveats. Decorating with “pumpkins,” allowing your child to dress as “Buzz Lightyear,” and trick-or-treating with “people that you know” is OK, as long as you “stay out of the dark stuff,” he says.

Rick shares that he is so passionate about Christians being educated about darkness because he has “experienced demonic attack in [his] own home.”

“This stuff is real, and to take your impressionable, innocent children and expose them to this stuff is so dangerous,” he warns, urging Christians to keep all Halloween festivities “in the world of fun and brightness.”

“And I would go as far as this: Redeem some of it,” he continues.

He notes that October 31 is also Reformation Day for Protestants — the day believed to be the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, and kicking off the Protestant Reformation.

“Have some fun with it, but why not sit down and say, ‘Let’s pray before we go [trick-or-treating]. Hey, let’s have a devotion before we go out or after we get back,’” he proposes.

Rick also stresses the importance of parents addressing any evil their kids might have encountered while participating in Halloween festivities.

“Don’t leave it hanging over them before they go to bed,” he advises.

“The things that are going on around the world on Halloween night, you don’t want to know. … The dark spirits of this world, they’re strong on this evening. This is their Christmas, OK? So be careful.”

To hear more of Rick’s take on Halloween, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Rick burgess, Halloween, Blazetv show