United States Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked by a group of conservatives to defend intellectual property and copyright laws against artificial intelligence.

A letter was directed to Bondi, as well as the the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios, from a group of self-described conservative and America First advocates including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, journalist Jack Posobiec, and members of nationalist and populist organizations like the Bull Moose Project and Citizens for Renewing America.

‘It is absurd to suggest that licensing copyrighted content is a financial hindrance to a $20 trillion industry.’

The letter primarily focused on the economic impact of unfettered use of IP by imaginative and generative AI programs, which are consistently churning out parody videos to mass audiences.

“Core copyright industries account for over $2 trillion in U.S. GDP, 11.6 million workers, and an average annual wage of over $140,000 per year — far above the average American wage,” the letter argued. That argument also extended to revenue generated overseas, where copyright holders sell over an alleged $270 billion worth of content.

This is in conjunction with massive losses already coming through IP theft and copyright infringement, an estimated total of up to $600 billion annually, according to the FBI.

“Granting U.S. AI companies a blanket license to steal would bless our adversaries to do the same — and undermine decades of work to combat China’s economic warfare,” the letter claimed.

RELATED: ‘Transhumanist goals’: Sen. Josh Hawley reveals shocking statistic about LLM data scraping

Letters to the administration debating the economic impact of AI are increasing. The Chamber of Progress wrote to Kratsios in October, stating that in more than 50 pending federal cases, many are accused of direct and indirect copyright infringement based on the “automated large-scale acquisition of unlicensed training data from the internet.”

The letter cited the president on “winning the AI race,” quoting remarks from July in which he said, “When a person reads a book or an article, you’ve gained great knowledge. That does not mean that you’re violating copyright laws.”

The conservative letter aggressively countered the idea that AI boosts valuable knowledge without abusing intellectual property, however, claiming that large corporations such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and more are well equipped to follow proper copyright rules.

“It is absurd to suggest that licensing copyrighted content is a financial hindrance to a $20 trillion industry spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year,” the letter read. “AI companies enjoy virtually unlimited access to financing. In a free market, businesses pay for the inputs they need.”

The conservative group further noted examples of IP theft across the web, including unlicensed productions of “SpongeBob Squarepants” and Pokemon. These include materials showcasing the beloved SpongeBob as a Nazi or Pokemon’s Pikachu committing crimes.

IP will also soon be under threat from erotic content, the letter added, citing ChatGPT’s recent announcement that it would start to “treat adult users like adults.”

RELATED: Silicon Valley’s new gold rush is built on stolen work

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The letter argued further that degrading American IP rights would enable China to run amok under “the same dubious ‘fair use’ theories” used by the Chinese to steal content and use proprietary U.S. AI models and algorithms.

AI developers, the writers insisted, should focus on applications with broad-based benefits, such as leveraging data like satellite imagery and weather reports, instead of “churning out AI slop meant to addict young users and sell their attention to advertisers.”

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Chatgpt, Grok, Spongebob, Ip, Intellectual property, China, Tech 

This week, “Tron: Ares,” the blockbuster that wasn’t, makes its final bid for profitability — hitting the streaming services, complete with a bonus deleted scene. As Hollywood continues its messy quest to restore its lost glory, what better time for a postmortem?

“Tron: Ares” tells us much. This trilogy-completing movie should have been a layup. With the film, Disney had a great existing piece of intellectual property and a time that could not have been better for a sequel. You can’t go a day on the internet without hearing about AI, surveillance, data centers, hacking, and other topics that the “Tron” universe is uniquely qualified to address.

I need to defend Jared Leto for a second.

The question was: Could Disney pull off a sequel to a pair of movies released in 1982 and 2010 while delivering a quality film that made compelling points on the future of Big Tech and the ever-changing interplay between AI and humanity? The Disney modus operandi is usually to serve up a disappointing experience of woke talking points, lazy writing, and uninspired filmmaking. “Tron: Ares” offered the studio the chance to buck that trend.

The centerpiece of the “Tron” universe is a digital world called the Grid. For the uninitiated, this alternate world, existing inside computer systems, appears as a neon-lit, mirror-smooth alternative to our own. Computer programs inhabit humanoid forms and live in strict, hierarchical societies.

Its well-crafted lore merits a catch-up. In the original “Tron” movie (1982), brilliant programmer Kevin Flynn is attempting to hack into the system of his former employer, ENCOM, to prove that another employee, Ed Dillinger, plagiarized Flynn’s work to get ahead at the company. Flynn ends up getting transported onto the Grid via particle laser and battles the Master Control Program that is attempting to influence the real world. He is successful, proves that Dillinger plagiarized his work, and ends up as CEO of ENCOM. The franchise gets its title from a program named Tron, which fights alongside Flynn.

In “Tron: Legacy” (2010), Kevin Flynn expands his Grid and ends up getting stuck there, vanishing from the real world. His son Sam has inherited control of ENCOM, now a top tech company, but refuses to step into a leadership role. He goes looking for his father and ends up having his own adventure on the Grid, working alongside his father to outwit Clu, the program that betrayed his father and took control of the Grid. His father sacrifices himself to allow Sam to escape back to the real world along with Quorra, a female “isomorphic algorithm.” That is, a computer program manifested onto the Grid without any human contribution. Sam and Quorra end the film setting out to make the world a better place with the grid technology.

High concept, low plot

Here’s where the slapdash takes over from the archetypal. “Tron: Ares” picks up 15 years later with a healthy dose of the now-classic Disney bait and switch. Forget Sam, Quorra, Tron, or any of the popular characters from the previous installments. Sam, in a “somehow, Palpatine returned”-level move, has “left ENCOM for personal reasons.” Instead, we are introduced to his replacement: Eve Kim (Greta Lee). The bait and switch, along with other now-classic Disney tropes, is present throughout the film, but more on that later.

Let’s break down the plot. (Warning: inevitable spoilers below.)

RELATED: Bad performance or bad politics? A list of the most hated actors

Photo by Jean Catuffe/GC Images

There are two massive tech companies: ENCOM Technologies, now run by Eve Kim, and Dillinger Systems, run by Julian Dillinger, the grandson of Ed Dillinger from the first movie. These companies have figured out how to use particle lasers to bring things from the Grid into the real world. They basically just 3D-print tanks, ships, trees, people, anything at all, using nothing but electricity. How does that actually work? Never mentioned.

These Grid creations only last 29 minutes before disintegrating into dust and reappearing on the Grid. Eve Kim is determined to solve this problem by finding the permanence code, which Kevin Flynn supposedly hid somewhere. She holes up in Flynn’s old hideout in Alaska and starts looking for it while her male assistant, Seth Flores (Arturo Castro), sits around eating breakfast burritos and complaining that she doesn’t pay enough attention to him. Meanwhile, Dillinger Systems is presenting its new Master Control Program, Ares (Jared Leto). Julian Dillinger leaves out the fact that Ares only lasts 29 minutes, for which he is reprimanded by his mother (Gillian Anderson), who provides the conscience and competence at Dillinger.

Eve finds the permanence code and successfully tests it, then gets a call from ENCOM’s necessarily diverse CTO Ajay Singh (Hasan Minhaj). He tells Eve that Dillinger has hacked ENCOM’s server and caused all sorts of damage. Basically, Julian learned that Eve has the permanence code, and he wants to get his toxic white hands on it.

The rest of the movie is a series of action scenes strung together by the bare bones of a story. Ares is sent into the real world to get the code from Eve. He comes close, forcing her to destroy the flash drive, but fails when he hits his 29-minute shot clock. Eve is then transported onto the Grid when another Dillinger agent shoots her with a particle gun. Once there, the code can be extracted from her now-digital mind. This process would kill her, but Julian orders Ares to proceed. Ares, who has shown signs of straying from his programming, goes rogue and helps her to escape, asking for the permanence code in return so that he can live in the real world. Eve agrees, and the rest of the movie is basically them running around trying to get the code (remember, Eve destroyed the drive, so now they have to find it again) before Dillinger’s new MCP, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), catches them.

They end up finding a way to access it on Kevin Flynn’s old computer and send Ares onto the original Grid from the first “Tron” movie. Once there, he meets Kevin Flynn, or rather some sort of aspect or memory of him — it is never made clear — and gets the permanence code after Flynn determines that he is suitably curious (or something) enough to become human. Meanwhile, Athena is determined to catch Eve and brings a few Grid vehicles into the real world for a rather underwhelming final battle.

Things wrap up when Ares arrives back in the real world just in time to save Eve, while Ajay and Seth hack the Dillinger mainframe and shut it down, disabling Athena, whose sympathetic death scene feels like a DEI box-check. The film concludes with Eve using the permanence code to lead ENCOM in transforming various industries and Ares wandering the world under cover, learning how to live among humans.

The good, the bad, and the utterly predictable

There are three main takeaways from this film, but first I need to defend Jared Leto for a second. I know there are plenty of reasons, professional and otherwise, for people to dislike Leto, and I’m not necessarily disagreeing with them. However, I thought his performance in this film was quite good. The physical choices he makes in portraying his AI character add a subtle, uncanny-valley aspect to Ares. The best part of the performance, though, is the vocal work. Leto manages to give a digital quality to Ares’ speech without resorting to crude robotic tones. He uses careful pitch and tone changes and curates his pauses to give the effect of an LLM responding to a prompt, without losing the organic quality of human voice and speech. It is very well done, and the delivery works perfectly with the dialogue written for his character.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the acting in “Tron: Ares,” and some of it is warranted. However, as is so often the case, people are blaming the actors when a large part of the problem is bad dialogue. Seriously, you try turning the line “I don’t like sand; it’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth” into an earnest, romantic phrase. The acting in “Tron: Ares” is mostly fine, and in Leto’s case, it is very impressive. Sure, it’s not all amazing, but the dialogue is clearly the bigger issue. The exception is the portion written for Ares. I suppose feeding prompts into ChatGPT actually worked in that case.

Another issue is the Disney tropes that permeate the film. They didn’t bother me that much because they are so worn out at this point. There is, of course, the IP bait and switch, in which a studio baits an audience with a familiar IP, character, etc. and then switches it out for a DEI replacement. Throwing out the entire Flynn family and replacing them with a diverse CEO girlboss is the relevant example here. If you’re still falling for this move in A.D. 2025, let me just say, as a longtime “Star Wars” fan, you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.

Like any modern Disney movie, “Ares” adheres to what we might call the CCCC: color and chromosome competence correlation. Eve is a woman of color and therefore exceedingly competent and driven. Her Hispanic assistant, Seth, is light enough to be belittled for his manhood, but diverse enough to be portrayed as a competent force for good. Ajay, the CTO, is an Indian man. His complexion is darker than Seth’s, making him more competent. The film makes certain we know it is Ajay who actually manages to get into the Dillinger mainframe. However, being Indian means he is not dark enough to be excluded from male penalties. Therefore, he gets a personality that is Kash Patel turned tech bro, and part of his competence and drive are outsourced to his female assistant, Erin.

The CCCC applies across the moral spectrum. Julian Dillinger might be an evil tech villain, but he is also a white man and cannot, therefore, be competent or have real authority. These qualities are supplied by his mother, Elisabeth. Athena, the program who takes over as the Dillinger MCP, is played by a black woman (get it — Black Athena?) and is therefore competent and driven. Her failure is not her fault, but the result of Ajay truth-nuking the Dillinger Grid. In “Ares,” these tropes were too worn out to be troubling; they were just boring. I’m tired of being able to predict films after a passing glance at the principal characters.

Like the tropes, the film’s treatment of AI is just boring. The “Tron” universe is full of interesting AI potential, but “Ares” doesn’t go for any of them. The permanence code, which is a double helix as opposed to regular binary code (maybe I’m just a tech neophyte, but I thought that was cool), is never explained or explored. There is no real attempt to look at what the 3D-printed Grid creations actually are and what makes them work. If you can digitize a person’s mind by bringing him onto the Grid, that opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities. “Ares” does not explore any of these paths. Rather, it goes for the same old “what if AI started becoming human” line that is pretty worn out at this point. Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” did the whole “you should empathize with AI when it acts human” routine much better, but it isn’t very convincing in that film, either. In “Tron: Ares,” the wasted potential just makes the result more frustrating, which brings us to the final point and the biggest issue I have with the film.

At the end of the day, “Tron: Ares” is slop. It is content conceived and designed to be just that and nothing more. AI could have written this film, which might be by design (in which case, my apologies, Jesse Wigutow, I was not familiar with your game), but I don’t think so. It is not just the lack of explanations or the fact that anyone with an IQ above room temperature could predict the entire film after 10 minutes. Everything in this film feels like it was cut and pasted from a general template for “popular high-budget sci-fi movie.”

Who will take these missed opportunities?

So what went wrong? Well, leaving aside the obvious “don’t be woke” talking point, the main issue was misunderstanding the sort of IP the filmmakers were dealing with. At its core, “Tron” is a story about computers, not just a sci-fi universe of shiny alternate realities. Ignoring this fact robs “Ares” of the necessary thematic continuity for any good sequel. Instead, the film relies on cheap nostalgia and throwaway references, refusing to use the unique set of tools it has to tell a compelling story.

To take just one example, the ability to digitize the human mind — that alone offers a more compelling and relevant story. If you can digitize the human person, storing people on the grid, what does that say about the human soul? What does it mean for surveillance, incarceration, and memory? In a time of privacy concerns and AI data-farm controversies, a computer server with the ability to store, alter, or destroy human consciousness — not to mention the capacity for independent evolution and generation — sets up a whole list of compelling questions, themes, and plot points.

If you want to understand what I’m getting at, compare the soundtrack — an album by Nine Inch Nails that sounds more like GPT — to the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack by Daft Punk, a now-legendary, pitch-perfect expression of the computer/reality synthesis that the franchise just couldn’t live up to.

The soundtrack isn’t the only place where “Tron: Ares” is a downgrade from “Legacy.” So let me offer some advice: If you find yourself looking to stream an AI-themed sci-fi movie, just watch “Tron: Legacy.” It’s not perfect, but the soundtrack is great, the CGI holds up well, and the writing and acting actually bear the mark of real human beings.

​Tech, Culture, Movies, Tron 

The New Jersey attorney general’s office confirmed to Blaze News that it has launched an investigation into the NJ Sharing Network, an organ procurement organization, after nearly a dozen whistleblowers accused the group of numerous offenses, including allegedly covering up an attempted organ recovery from a patient who showed signs of life.

The NJ Sharing Network, a tax-exempt organization, was also accused of fraudulently billing Medicare, skipping hundreds of patients on the wait list, harvesting organs without appropriate consent, operating a fraudulent taxpayer-funded research program, and creating a culture of fear and retaliation.

‘The only way patients will be protected is when law enforcement gets involved and prosecutes criminal activity.’

The House Committee on Ways and Means held an Oversight Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday with some whistleblowers who have reported concerning patterns among the nation’s OPOs.

“I think a lot of the problem is that we are not providing the family with updates on actual neurological function and just those kinds of problems where we’re using medications to chemically sedate and paralyze patients,” Nyckoletta Martin, a former OPO employee, told lawmakers on Tuesday. “We’re never really giving patients a chance.”

Jennifer Erickson, a senior fellow for organ donation policy with the Federation of American Scientists, described the “chilling” accusations against the NJ Sharing Network as “not only extreme abuse of public trust, but also potential violations of law.”

“A patient who’d been declared deceased reanimated, and according to information obtained by this committee, the CEO told staff on site they should proceed with recovery,” she continued. “Several whistleblowers alleged documentation regarding the case was deleted or otherwise manipulated.”

Erickson urged the committee to continue its investigation into the NJ Sharing Network and contended that the organization should be decertified.

RELATED: Organ group wanted to harvest from patient showing signs of life — then tried to cover it up, whistleblowers claim

Leon Neal/AFP via Getty Images

On November 19, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) sent a letter to the NJ Sharing Network, demanding documents and over 30 transcribed interviews with staff to investigate whistleblowers’ claims further.

The committee copied the New Jersey attorney general on that letter.

When reached for comment, the AG’s office confirmed to Blaze News that it was looking into the allegations.

“Our office is aware of the allegations of potential misconduct involving New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network discussed in correspondence from the U.S. House of Representatives,” a spokesperson stated. “We are investigating these allegations and are committed to ensuring that the organ donation system functions appropriately and for the purpose for which it was intended. We ask anyone with information to contact the Division of Criminal Justice at 609-376-2330.”

RELATED: ‘Donor may still be alive’: How organ donation groups allegedly exploit grieving families to cash in on billions

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Greg Segal, the founder and CEO of Organize, reacted to the AG’s office announcement.

“After 15 years of organ donation advocacy, I have come to believe that the only way patients will be protected is when law enforcement gets involved and prosecutes criminal activity,” Segal told Blaze News. “I am deeply grateful for the New Jersey attorney general. It is time to take out the trash.”

The NJ Sharing Network did not respond to a request for comment.

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​News, Organs, Organ donation, Organ harvesting, Organ transplants, Greg segal, Organize, Matthew platkin, Matt platkin, New jersey, New jersey attorney general’s office, New jersey sharing network, New jersey organ and tissue sharing network, Organ procurement organization, Organ procurement organizations, Opos, Opo, Organ procurement, Ways and means committee, Ways and means, Jennifer erickson, Nyckolleta martin, Jason smith, David schweikert, Politics, Nyckoletta martin 

A doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to late “Friends” actor Matthew Perry is set to be sentenced in court.

According to the Associated Press, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who admitted to selling the actor large doses of ketamine, will be sentenced during a hearing on Wednesday.

His lawyers have called a prison sentence ‘neither necessary nor warranted.’

Plasencia, 44, is not accused of selling Perry the dose of ketamine that is believed to have killed him on October 28, 2023.

Perry had been taking lower doses of surgical anesthetic ketamine as a treatment for depression and sought more from Plasencia after his doctor denied him the amount he desired. Plasencia admitted to selling Perry higher doses of ketamine despite having knowledge of Perry’s substance-abuse problems.

RELATED: ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry dead at 54, actor allegedly drowned in hot tub

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

According to court documents, Plasencia texted another doctor saying that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited.

“Rather than do what was best for Mr. Perry — someone who had struggled with addiction for most of his life — defendant sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit,” the prosecution’s sentencing memo said.

Perry struggled with addiction for many years.

U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett is expected to give Plasencia three years in prison after he pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine.

His lawyers, who have asked for leniency since he has already lost his medical license, clinic, and career, have called a prison sentence “neither necessary nor warranted.”

Perry’s family members and others are expected to be given a chance to speak prior to the sentencing.

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​Politics, ‘friends’, Matthew perry, Ketamine, Addiction, Dr. salvador plasencia, Judge sherilyn peace garnett 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shared a meme on Sunday depicting the eponymous star of the children’s book franchise “Franklin the Turtle” and the television adaptation “Franklin” dressed as an American soldier, perched on the side of a Bell UH-1 helicopter, and firing a rocket-propelled grenade at maritime drug-runners.

The AI-generated illustration, shared after lawmakers from both parties expressed concerns over American strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea, was made to look like the cover of a book in the series, complete with a title — “A Classic Franklin Story: Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.”

‘We doubt Franklin the Turtle wants to be inclusive of drug cartels … or laud the kindness and empathy of narco-terrorists.’

The viral meme, which Hegseth captioned “for your Christmas wish list” and had over 25.6 million impressions on X on Wednesday, evidently enraged various liberal media personalities and Democrats as well as the Toronto-based publisher of the Franklin books.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) also complained about the meme, stating on the Senate floor, “He wants to be taken seriously, but yesterday he posted a ridiculous tweet of a cartoon turtle firing on alleged drug traffickers — a sick parody of a well-known children’s book. This man is a national embarrassment.”

Kids Can Press said in a statement, “Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.”

RELATED: Trump’s boat strikes may leave one Venezuelan drug-smuggling pirate haven in ruins

Photo by Rick Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Image

“We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values,” added the Canadian publisher.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell responded to the publisher’s condemnation, stating, “We doubt Franklin the Turtle wants to be inclusive of drug cartels … or laud the kindness and empathy of narco-terrorists.”

Unfortunately for Kids Can Press and Democratic critics, their condemnations of the fictional turtle’s enlistment in MAGA memes appear to have only helped fuel the desire by trolls to depict Franklin in other provocative fake titles including, “Franklin Guards the Woman’s Locker Room,” “Franklin Gets Falsely Accused of War Crimes,” “Franklin Assists with 20 Million Deportations,” “Franklin Explains What Fauci Deserves,” and “Franklin Learns about George Floyd’s Autopsy.”

One fake book cover titled “Franklin Gets a New Job” features an image of the turtle, this time dressed up as a Department of Homeland Security agent, arresting the eponymous Latin American star of the animated children’s show “Dora the Explorer.”

Another fake cover titled “Franklin and Pete Hegseth Laugh at Communists” features an image of the war secretary and the turtle riding their bikes past four slovenly leftists.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) also got in on the fun.

Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who was among the Democratic lawmakers who urged the military last month to “refuse” allegedly illegal orders from the Trump administration, called on Hegseth to resign on Tuesday in the wake of a report claiming that the war secretary ordered SEAL Team 6 to leave behind no survivors in a recent boat strike.

Luna responded with a fake Franklin cover titled “Franklin Shows His Classmates How to Identify a Spook.” The fake cover features an image of the turtle directing his fellow woodland critters’ attention to an apparent caricature of Slotkin on a chalkboard.

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​Franklin the turtle, Book, Publisher, Pete hegseth, Department of war, War department, Hegseth, Meme, Trolling, Chuck schumer, Democrats, Liberals, Politics 

More than a year and a half after a Democrat congressman was indicted on federal charges under the Biden presidency, President Trump has announced that he will be granting an “unconditional pardon.”

On Wednesday morning, President Trump announced on social media that he will be granting a “full and unconditional PARDON” for embattled Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar.

‘It has tested our faith in ways we never expected, but it has not broken it. We still believe in justice.’

In the post, President Trump slammed Joe Biden for weaponizing the Department of Justice and the FBI against his political opponents — including members of his own party.

Trump suggested that Cuellar was targeted by the Biden regime because of his unflinching demands for tighter border security.

RELATED: ‘The border is not secure’: Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar says Biden’s border policies allowed ‘over 5 million’ migrants to enter the US

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH. It is unAmerican and, as I previously stated, the Radical Left Democrats are a complete and total threat to Democracy! They will attack, rob, lie, cheat, destroy, and decimate anyone who dares to oppose their Far Left Agenda, an Agenda that, if left unchecked, will obliterate our magnificent Country,” Trump said in the post.

“Because of these facts, and others, I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, and Imelda. Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!”

In the Truth Social post, Trump included a letter written by the Cuellars’ daughters, Christina and Catherine, who asked for a full and unconditional pardon.

In the letter, they wrote, “This ordeal has taken a deep emotional and financial toll on all of us. It has tested our faith in ways we never expected, but it has not broken it. We still believe in justice. We still believe in America — a country built on truth, fairness, and compassion, even during the hardest of times.”

Cuellar and his wife were indicted on several federal charges related to bribery in May 2024, though they were never convicted.

At the time, Trump said, “Biden just Indicted Henry Cuellar because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open Border game. He was for Border Control, so they said, ‘Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!’ This is the way they operate.”

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​Politics, Henry cuellar, Doj, Fbi, Weaponization of the federal government, Democrat congressman, President trump, Pardon, Border security, Joe biden 

On November 28, the Washington Post published an explosive report accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of war crimes connected to the Trump administration’s controversial military strikes on alleged drug trafficker boats in the Caribbean — a claim even the New York Times refuted with five official sources.

Hegseth then trolled his critics by posting an AI-generated meme parodying the children’s book franchise “Franklin the Turtle.” The image depicts Franklin dressed in military gear firing a rocket launcher from a helicopter at drug-smuggling boats, the fake book cover reading, “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.”

— (@)

The meme infuriated military veteran and Democrat Senator Mark Kelly (Ariz.). In a press conference on December 1, he accused Hegseth of acting like “a 12-year-old playing army.”

“It is ridiculous; it is embarrassing; and I can’t imagine what our allies think of looking at that guy in this job, one of the most important jobs in our country,” he spat.

“He is in the National Command Authority for nuclear weapons, and last night, he’s putting out on the internet turtles with rocket-propelled grenades killing,” he continued.

Glenn Beck finds Kelly’s remarks a bit ironic. Kelly is, after all, currently under Pentagon investigation for contributing to a video put out by six Democrat lawmakers urging active-duty military and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders” — an act President Trump labeled “seditious behavior.”

“Let me ask you, where were you on the leadership of the Pentagon when they pulled out of Afghanistan? Were you saying, ‘What are our allies thinking about that?’” Glenn fires back.

He then brings up Biden’s secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, who in January 2024 secretly underwent prostate cancer surgery and was hospitalized for complications without informing President Biden, the White House, or his deputy for days, sparking a major scandal over transparency and national security risks in the chain of command.

“You want to talk about being in line with the nuclear weapons?” Glenn scoffs.

“More importantly, Mr. Kelly, let me ask you: What do you think our allies thought about the health of our nation when several Democratic senators got together and, for the first time in American history, pulled a Venezuela and questioned the military and said, ‘We will hold you responsible for any crimes against humanity. By the way, we’re not telling you what those are. We’ll judge when we get back into power. And don’t listen to the commander in chief’?” Glenn asks, referring to the traitorous video Kelly helped create.

“If people in the Duma would have made that exact same video and said, ‘Question the authority of Putin,’ … how would we analyze that? Would we think that Putin was strong? Would we think that their society is strong? Would we think that they’re a nation that can defend itself, will defend itself, is willing to go to war?” he continues, pointing out the glaring irony of Kelly’s criticism of Hegseth.

Hegseth’s Franklin meme, whether you agree with it or not, isn’t the scandal the left desperately wants it to be. But the video put out by the “seditious six,” which Glenn says is clearly “trying to collapse the United States, make our enemies stronger, and foment a color revolution.”

“So, please don’t preach to me about how embarrassing it is that he’s putting a cartoon out,” he continues.

To hear more of Glenn’s scathing commentary, watch the clip above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Franklin, Franklin meme, Pete hegseth, Mark kelly, Seditious six, Donald trump, Wapo, Washington post, New york times, Narcoterrorists 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is launching his latest endeavor to uproot woke culture in the federal government by bringing Christmas to the Department of War, and Blaze News has exclusively learned about some recent changes at the Pentagon that are sure to bring everyone into the holiday spirit.

For instance, Hegseth will be holding the first ever Pentagon Tree Lighting Ceremony on Wednesday afternoon as well as revamping the old Christmas tree on the grounds.

Bald eagles were seen flying overhead.

This ceremony serves as a major course-correction from previous Pentagon leadership, contrasting starkly with President Joe Biden’s Department of Defense.

Under Hegseth’s leadership, this is the first time the Pentagon has decorated for Christmas at this scale, according to a DOW official.

RELATED: Exclusive: Moses Ezekiel’s historic sculpture finally set for installation in Arlington Cemetery, by the Southern graves it once marked

Photo by STAFF/AFP via Getty Images

To commemorate this new era at the Pentagon, Hegseth also signed off on removing the old Amelanchier tree that was planted on the grounds around 2008. The old tree had been declining for some time and was slated to be removed within the next year.

The tree was replaced by a 14-foot Nellie Stevens Holly from the Green Works Nursery in Chantilly, Virginia. Bald eagles were seen flying overhead while the new tree was being planted, one DOW official told Blaze News.

RELATED: Exclusive: Sen. Blackburn introduces bill that would bar military ‘leftists’ from disrespecting Trump in key way

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

All Pentagon staff and their families were extended an invitation to the lighting ceremony, according to a DOW official.

“We are pro-family and pro-Christmas at the department,” the official told Blaze News.

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​Pete hegseth, Department of war, Department of defense, Donald trump, Pentagon, Joe biden, Christmas, Christmas tree lighting, Family, Politics 

Republicans’ prospects in the coming midterms and in 2028 depend on whether the party delivers on the core promises of President Trump’s 2024 mandate. Analysts can debate which element of that mandate carries the most weight — taming inflation, avoiding foreign entanglements, or restoring American manufacturing — but one commitment stands out for its clarity and its political power. It sits at No. 2 on agenda 47: “Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.”

Promise No. 1 — sealing the border — is already well underway. That makes mass deportation the decisive test of the coalition that put Trump back in office.

Voters did not support a symbolic crackdown on illegal immigration. They supported a measurable, large-scale operation.

Voters who formed this coalition expect results, not excuses. If they sense drift or retreat, enthusiasm collapses. And once that energy collapses, the old Republican apparatus regains its opening to steer the party back toward a pre-Trump agenda — even if that shift results in losing Congress or the White House in 2028.

A party cannot hold a coalition together if it fails to deliver on the promises that built it.

The Eisenhower standard

Trump set a high bar for himself when he compared his plan to the 1954 Eisenhower operation. He did that because the illegal immigration crisis has reached historic levels, and because voters, in poll after poll, signaled support for mass deportation on a scale few would have imagined a decade ago. They reached a simple conclusion: The country has been pushed past its limit.

As 2025 closes, however, the numbers fall short of expectations. Even the administration’s most generous internal projections place this year’s removals around 600,000. That figure includes categories beyond the Immigration and Customs Enforcement removals most Americans associate with deportation. The true ICE number will be lower.

But even accepting the 600,000 estimate, the figure amounts to only 4.2% of the conservative estimate of 14 million illegal immigrants in the country — or 2.9% of Trump’s own 21 million estimate. No one knows the exact number, but everyone can see this: The removals remain far below the mandate.

The 1954 comparison underscores the gap. Eisenhower’s operation removed or induced the departure of roughly one million illegal immigrants out of an estimated two to five million — roughly 30% using a middle-range estimate. Today’s effort hasn’t come close to those numbers. We’re not even in the same hemisphere.

Funding must move now

The Trump administration faces obstacles Eisenhower never did: a legal system engineered to delay deportations indefinitely; an activist judiciary hostile to enforcement; state and local officials who obstruct federal immigration law; and a political climate in which ICE agents face sustained hostility and, in some cases, violence. The environment is different.

But meaningful action remains possible.

The administration should begin by pushing the $45 billion allocated to ICE through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into immediate, strategic deployment. That requires industrial-size detention infrastructure, not scattered partnerships with small facilities dressed up with branded names. A mass deportation program demands a foundation capable of sustaining it.

The second step carries political risk: rejecting the narrowing of “mass deportation” to criminal illegal immigrants alone. That redefinition cannot stand. With only about 500,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the country, focusing exclusively on that group guarantees a token enforcement effort, not a mass removal program.

Voters did not support a symbolic crackdown. They supported a measurable, large-scale operation.

RELATED: Judges break the law to stop Trump from enforcing it

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

No more PR stunts

Quantity requires worksite enforcement — the same strategy that drove the 1954 operation. Concentrating enforcement where illegal immigrants gather in large numbers is the only credible way to meet the promise. Anything less becomes a public-relations exercise.

Political and corporate interests will fight tooth and nail to stymie the effort. They prefer an enforcement regime that preserves cheap labor, avoids political controversy, and allows them to claim credit for supporting “border security” without bearing any of the cost.

But the country needs a policy that matches the scale of the problem, not a performance of seriousness designed to placate donors and editorial boards.

Republicans must treat this mandate as a matter of political survival. If they fail to meet it, they risk losing the very coalition that returned Trump to office. The result is predictable: an establishment revival inside the GOP and a collapse of populist momentum heading into 2028.

Voters asked for decisive action. They asked for measurable progress. They asked for a departure from the decades of drift that allowed the crisis to grow. Now they expect the administration to deliver.

​Opinion & analysis, Mass deportations, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, One big beautiful bill, Dwight d. eisenhower, Operation wetback, Activist judges, Open borders, The courts, Congress, Donald trump, Tom homan, Statistics, Illegal aliens, Border wall, Violence against police, Political violence, 2026 midterms, 2028 presidential election 

Deputies from the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office in upstate New York responded to a reported physical altercation involving a weapon in Vernon on Monday evening, officials said. Vernon is about 40 minutes east of Syracuse.

It was reported that an individual in the 3300 block of Simmons Road was acting erratically and pointed what was believed to be a handgun at two victims, officials said.

‘That didn’t work out so well for him apparently.’

The two victims tried to retreat into a nearby residence, but the suspect advanced toward them with the weapon, officials said.

A fight then broke out between the suspect and one of the victims, officials said, and the victim managed to get the weapon away from the suspect.

Arriving deputies took the suspect into custody without issue, officials said.

RELATED: Video: Woman pulls male intruder out of her car, throws him to the ground with ease — while her amazed husband watches

Image source: Oneida County (N.Y.) Sheriff’s Office

The suspect was identified as Glenn A. Wallis, 40, of Vernon, officials said, adding that Wallis was taken to the Kurt B. Wyman Law Enforcement Building.

Wallis was charged with two counts of menacing in the second degree — a class A misdemeanor — along with one count of harassment in the second degree, which officials defined as a “violation.”

However, officials said a member of the Criminal Investigation Unit also charged Wallis with one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, which is a class D felony.

According to WUTR-TV, the weapon that Wallis was brandishing was a pistol-style pellet gun.

Wallis was then taken to and held at the Oneida County Correctional Facility to await a hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday, officials said.

Wallis was still behind bars Wednesday morning, according to the jail record Blaze News reviewed. The jail record also indicates that Wallis’ criminal possession of a weapon charge is a “previous conviction.”

Comments under WUTR’s story about the incident on Yahoo News were none too kind to the arrestee:

“He appears to have brought a toy gun to an old-fashion[ed] beat down,” one commenter said.”Normal behavior for those a little further down the evolutionary ladder,” another commenter wrote.”A pellet gun? He should thank the Good Lord it didn’t happen in some areas of Texas! He also looks VERY good for the circumstances, ’cause those two victims had mercy on him. There are folks who would’ve beat him TWICE as hard because it was a pellet gun!” another commenter stated.”That didn’t work out so well for him apparently,” another commenter said.”This is what FAFO looks like!” another commenter declared.

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​Crime thwarted, New york state, Arrest, Physical attack, Gun threat, Turning the tables, Attacker beaten, Vernon, Menacing, Criminal possession of a weapon, Harrassment, Crime 

New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson decided to bring attention to the worldwide persecution of Christians while on the field Monday night.

The rookie from Virginia decided to promote his faith through the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats program, which allows players to champion a cause or nonprofit of their choosing on their cleats during games.

‘I’m living proof of what the mercy of God can do.’

On “Monday Night Football,” Henderson rushed for 67 yards on just 11 carries in a 33-15 win over the New York Giants. During the game, the 23-year-old wore cleats dedicated to persecuted Christians around the world.

Henderson partnered with the Global Christian Relief Fund to promote messages like, “Pray for Persecuted Christians,” “Faith Endures,” and Bible passage Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The shoe design featured raised crosses, praying hands, and blood drops to symbolize the blood of Christ and the blood of martyrs. Additionally the cleats featured a map highlighting regions around the world where Christians are persecuted, including Central America, Southeast Asia, and most of Africa.

RELATED: Rookie NFL QB declared the new Obama — and the ‘most powerful black man since 2009’

FOXBOROUGH, MASS. – DECEMBER 1: A detailed view of the My Cause My Cleats worn by TreVeyon Henderson #32 of the New England Patriots prior to the game against the New York Giants. (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)

The same day, Henderson shared a video on X from Global Christian Relief with the caption, “Will you stand with them?”

The video showcased Christian suffering from around the world.

The Ohio State alumnus has not been shy about showing his faith publicly. The pinned post on his X page from 2024 came at the height of his college career and focused on a strong Christian message.

“I’m living proof of what the mercy of God can do, for all the things I’ve done and the choices made that I regret I would still be lost,” Henderson wrote last July.

“But Jesus took the old me and he made it new, that’s what the mercy of God can do,” the star added, before citing Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)”

RELATED: Army, Navy release stunning uniforms ahead of historic matchup honoring America’s 250th birthday

The support for persecuted Christians has gained mainstream momentum recently, even from the likes of platinum-selling rapper Nicki Minaj.

At the beginning of November, she shared a post from President Donald Trump and wrote that she felt a “deep sense of gratitude” that she can “freely worship God” in the United States. The president’s post said that Christianity was under threat in Nigeria with thousands of Christians being killed.

Minaj, whose real name Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, took her cause to the United Nations at an event organized by U.S. entities.

“In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted,” Minaj said, according to the BBC. “Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart … simply because of how they pray.”

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​Faith, Fearless, Nfl, Football, Christianity, Cause, Nonprofit, Nigeria, Sports 

The woke pastor of the North Chili United Methodist Church in Upstate New York recently surprised his congregation with the news that he plans to masquerade as a woman full-time and take cross-sex drugs.

No longer sporting the beard he wore in his headshot photo on the United Methodist of Upper New York website, Rev. Phillip Phaneuf, 51, donned rainbow stoles and told his congregation on Nov. 23, “I am inviting you to join me in a season of creative transformation for myself and, I think, for all of us.”

‘They do not support me.’

“I’m transitioning. I’m affirming and saying to all of you that I am transgender,” continued Phaneuf. “The best way to put this is that I’m not becoming a woman; I’m giving up pretending to be a man.”

The Methodist pastor, who is hardly the UMC’s first transvestite pastor, called for the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the process and cautioned his parishioners about the “fear of the unknown” in such circumstances.

In an apparent attempt to assuage such fear, Phaneuf told churchgoers that while he’s changing his name to “Phillippa,” they could still call him “Phil”; that his personality wouldn’t change; and that he would continue to prioritize “belonging.” He noted, however, that he was now identifying as an “asexual” and that his face, name, body hair, voice, and clothes would change — adding that there is no such thing as “girls’ clothes or boys’ clothes.”

Phaneuf — who claims his pronouns are now “she, her” — said that he wouldn’t become the “pronoun police,” as he expects that no one will “misgender or mispronoun out of malice.”

The legacy media appears keen to respect Phaneuf’s wishes, with even the New York Post playing along and Fox News Digital refraining from using his correct pronouns.

RELATED: ‘Not medicine — it’s malpractice’: Trump HHS buries child sex-change regime with damning report

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Methodist pastor claimed during his sermon that the scriptures, Methodist theology, his district superintendent, his bishop, and the UMC are “okay” with his transition.

At the expense of alienating thousands of congregations, the United Methodist Church has accommodated LGBT activists’ demands in recent years. For instance, the 2024 General Conference removed the church’s 40-year ban on non-straight clergy last year and dropped the prohibition against performing same-sex weddings.

While the pastor claimed that his superiors were receptive to his transvestism, he told his congregation that his parents were “absolutely not.”

“They texted me this morning and asked for me to tell you all that they do not support me and that they have chosen their convictions and their beliefs over supporting their child,” said Phaneuf.

Despite his parents’ alleged rejection of his lifestyle choice, the pastor was quick to lean into his superficial female role-play, getting his ears pierced, wearing makeup, and throwing on a wig.

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​United methodist church, Methodist, Christian, Lgbt, Transgender, Trans, Leftism, Gender ideology, Philip phaneuf, Politics 

Could hormonal birth control be turning women into NPCs?

That’s “non-player characters,” by the way. You may remember the meme, which reached the height of its popularity a few years ago and has largely disappeared now.

Only now, many decades after it was unleashed on the world, are we starting to understand hormonal contraception’s effects more fully.

The NPC is a person who lacks any kind of unique identity. Who they are is completely determined by their social circumstances and by the values and information fed to them by a narrow range of approved sources: the government, scientists and “experts,” the mainstream media, Hollywood and Netflix, handpicked celebrities and influencers.

The NPC exercises no independent judgment, no free-thinking of their own. They simply do as they’re told, and they get very angry if you don’t do the same.

The NPC is represented by a special Wojak — a cartoon person — with grey skin and generic facial features: pindot eyes, a semi-triangle nose, and a horizontal line for a mouth.

During the pandemic, for example, the NPC meme was used to mock everyone who chose to “trust the science” unquestioningly. It was also widely used in Donald Trump’s first presidency to describe devotees of the mainstream media who repeated its various platitudes and mantras ad infinitum — “orange man bad,” “diversity is our strength,” and so on.

That sync-ing feeling

A new study suggests that hormonal birth control reduces the “functional individuality” of women’s brains, making them more alike with one another. Making women NPCs, in other words.

Researchers analyzed the brain activity of 26 users by means of MRI scans. They looked in particular at something called “functional connectome fingerprinting,” a method of identifying patterns of brain connectivity that are distinct to each person.

They found that while each woman’s brain patterns remained identifiable, the overall distinctiveness of those patterns was reduced by hormonal birth control.

In basic terms, there was a general “dampening” or “normalizing” effect on the brain as a whole.

The changes affected certain networks more than others, though: networks involved in executive function, muscle control, perception and attention, and the so-called “default mode network,” which is active during various kinds of introspection, including daydreaming, thinking about oneself and others, remembering the past, and planning for the future.

The default-mode network is central to the creation of an “inner self” and a coherent “internal narrative.”

In other words, a distinct identity.

RELATED: Time for RFK Jr. to expose the dark truth about the pill

Rattankun Thongbun via iStock/Getty Images

Mood for thought

In truth, I might have been exaggerating just a little bit when I said birth control could be turning women into NPCs. Yes, we’ve seen changes in particular regions of the brain that are associated with particular functions, but the researchers didn’t investigate the actual effects of these changes — I’ve simply inferred what they might be.

The researchers did note evidence that the changes were associated with increases in negative moods, which many of the participants recorded, but we can’t say much more than that, at least not yet.

What we need is more research. This might look at direct evidence of the effects of hormonal birth control on female behavior, preferences, and character: things like individual decision-making processes and personality traits like conformity.

Brainsplaining

There are plenty of studies that already do that kind of thing with hormones, especially testosterone. Some have shown that a dose of testosterone will make a man more likely to stand up for himself and defend a minority opinion, even in the face of disapproval from the majority. Studies have also shown that testosterone makes men more comfortable with inequality and hierarchy, which is usually couched as an “antisocial effect,” but when you remember that virtually every society in history has been hierarchical, except our own — at least in principle — that doesn’t really make much sense.

Still, we have every reason to be concerned about the effects of hormonal birth control on women’s brains and their behavior. As the study notes, more than 150 million women worldwide use hormonal birth control, and if it is changing the way their brains work, that obviously could mean significant effects in the aggregate, with the potential to touch more or less every aspect of life, from personal relationships to politics.

Retrograde research

Of course, this is a controversial stance to take, even as evidence mounts. The drug makers don’t want to lose money if women stop taking hormonal birth control, and the champions of “liberation” don’t want women to stop either. The entire sexual revolution was kickstarted by the pill, and “equality” as we understand it is predicated on women having total conscious control over their bodies.

Anybody who says women shouldn’t take hormonal birth control, or just that they should think carefully before they do, is immediately denounced as retrograde, sexist, or, as we’ve seen with recent viral social-media trends, a purveyor of dangerous “medical misinformation.” And that includes women who’ve been on hormonal birth control themselves and quit, and female medical professionals like Dr. Sarah Hill, the author of the very well-reasoned and evidenced book, “This Is Your Brain on Birth Control.”

My new book, “The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity,” is a call to get serious about the effects of hormones on politics. Deadly serious. Testosterone, in particular, is rapidly disappearing, in large part because we’ve created a world that’s reliant on thousands of chemicals and substances that mimic the “female” hormone estrogen. We had created that world long before we even knew what many of those chemicals are, let alone what they do to us.

The same is true of hormonal contraception. Only now, many decades after it was unleashed on the world, are we starting to understand its effects more fully, having built a world that is reliant upon it to function.

Our hormonal interventions remain clumsy and short-sighted. In truth, we’ve not come all that far from the first bright spark who decided to lop off a bull’s testicles to bring it under control. In that first brutal act, endocrinology — the science of hormones — was born, a science still very much in its infancy.

​Maha, Birth control pills, The pill, Hormonal birth control, Testosterone, Health, Lifestyle, Women, Rfk jr, Make america healthy again