Last week, a major Silicon Valley company placed a bet on the future looking unrecognizable.

Stripe announced that it had agreed to acquire OpenRouter, a platform that gives developers one interface for accessing more than 400 AI models from more than 80 providers. OpenRouter can route requests based on price, speed, reliability, and the complexity of the task. Instead of tying everything to one AI provider, developers can pick the model that makes the most sense for the job.

Humanity has not handed civilization over to a superintelligence.

The online payments giant has grown fast. Reuters reported that OpenRouter now serves more than 10 million developers and companies and processes more than 10 trillion tokens per day.

And Stripe is, apparently, paying a fortune for it. Neither company disclosed the purchase price. Axios reported that the deal was worth more than $8 billion, mostly in stock, while Reuters cited a source who also put it at just over $8 billion. So $8 billion is not an official number, but Stripe has clearly agreed to make a multibillion-dollar bet on the plumbing that connects businesses to AI models.

Why the enormous outlay? Not just because of the usual calculations of expected income and revenue. Stripe is gambling on a whole new world.

Rolling the dice

The company told investors that the beginning of this year marked the “singularity,” according to an investor letter obtained by Axios.

Stripe is not using the loaded term exactly the way science fiction writers traditionally have. Theirs is not a claim that some superintelligent machine woke up on New Year’s Day and left humanity in the dust. Stripe means something closer to an economic turning point, a moment when “thinking” machines have started changing old patterns fast enough that businesses need to operate differently going forward.

CEO Patrick Collison had already been talking this way months before the investor letter surfaced. At Stripe Sessions on April 29, Collison opened his keynote by calling it “day 119 of the singularity.” The next day, during a conversation with investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Collison explicitly put the starting date at January 1.

Stripe thinks it can see the change in its own numbers. The company says it powers more than 5 million businesses, and businesses running on Stripe generated $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025, up 34% from the previous year. It also has plenty of exposure to the AI boom. Stripe says 88% of the 2026 Forbes AI 50 use its infrastructure.

According to the investor letter reported by Axios, Stripe revenue grew 41% year over year during the first half of 2026, while free cash flow increased 43%. And now Stripe is putting serious money behind its theory.

RELATED: Is this shadowy startup to blame for Silicon Valley’s scariest cyberattacks?

Jorm Sangsorn/Getty Images

The bet fits neatly with Stripe’s existing business. Stripe already sits between businesses and money, helping companies process payments, fight fraud, improve authorization rates, bill customers, and figure out how money should move. OpenRouter does something similar with AI usage.

AI companies may send millions of requests to different models, each with different capabilities, speeds, and prices. Using an expensive model for every task can burn cash. Using a cheap model for everything can produce lousy results. OpenRouter helps decide where those requests should go.

“Tokens are the central currency for companies building with AI,” Collison said in Stripe’s acquisition announcement. Currency is doing a little work there. Tokens are units of data processed by AI models, not actual money. But model usage can be one of the biggest expenses for a company building an AI product, and picking the right model for each request can directly affect whether the thing makes money.

Stripe wants to be in the middle of that too.

The ultimate hedge?

The deal also assumes there will not be one AI model that wins everything. OpenRouter is built for a world where businesses use several models and switch among them depending on the job. One may be better at coding. Another may be cheaper. Another may be faster. Another may handle a particular kind of reasoning better. If companies really do end up juggling models that way, routing all that traffic becomes a pretty good business.

None of this means the technological singularity has arrived in the traditional sense. Humanity has not handed civilization over to a superintelligence, and January 1 did not feel like some obvious dividing line for most people. Stripe’s claim is less dramatic than the name. It thinks AI has crossed from interesting new technology into something that is starting to change how businesses are created, how they operate, what they spend money on, and how they make money.

Maybe calling that “the” singularity is another instance of Silicon Valley getting carried away with itself. But Stripe has now agreed to spend somewhere around $8 billion, betting that the change underneath the hype is real. And when they bet, few expect them to miss.

​Artificial intelligence, Tech 

President Donald Trump threw his weight behind Mike Mazzei in Oklahoma’s GOP gubernatorial primary runoff, which evidently helped the former state senator over the finish line on Tuesday.

While the president’s backing certainly had much to do with the politics and character of Mazzei — whom former Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, now Trump’s Department of Homeland Security secretary, and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had also endorsed — it appears to have also had much to do with the politics and character of Mazzei’s unsuccessful opponent, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

‘This is what Drummond, and his equally Liberal wife, Wendy, supported at levels that are shameful.’

A week ahead of the runoff primary election, the president explained his issues with Drummond. Trump called him a “FAKE Republican, who donated to SLEEPY Joe Biden, and the totally corrupt and anti-American ‘Lincoln Project,’ which is now in shambles because of their views on Open Borders, Men playing in Women’s Sports, and Transgender Mutilization of your Children.”

Federal Election Commission records show that a $1,000 donation was made in Drummond’s name to the Biden for President committee in August 2020. Matthew Parker, the chairman of the state AG’s doomed gubernatorial campaign, claimed, however, that the contribution was made by Drummond’s wife, Wendy, the Frontier reported.

According to a Sept. 4, 2020, email obtained by the Frontier, Wendy Drummond requested that ActBlue change the name on the contribution to hers. The Biden committee reportedly refunded Gentner Drummond the full amount four days later.

In a previous statement to Blaze News, Parker said: “The Biden contribution lie has been debunked repeatedly. Gentner Drummond gave nothing to Joe Biden. In fact, Gentner was one of President Trump’s largest Oklahoma donors. Repeating a lie doesn’t make it true.”

RELATED: GOP Oklahoma governor candidate wants to stop voter ID and invites Dems to help — campaign says the clips are deceptive

Win McNamee/Getty Images

In September 2020, Wendy Drummond also donated $1,000 to the Lincoln Project, a group founded by George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, and Rick Wilson to “stem the damage [Trump] and his followers are doing to the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American character.”

The Lincoln Project staged a white supremacy rally, bankrolled efforts to torpedo Trump-aligned Republicans, and churned out pro-Kamala Harris content, including the “Be a Man, Vote for a Woman” ad. The group largely imploded after its co-founder John Weaver was accused by over 20 young men of predatory sexual misconduct.

Trump noted further in his takedown, “This is what Drummond, and his equally Liberal wife, Wendy, supported at levels that are shameful and, frankly, that makes them both Radical Left Dumocrats.”

In addition to faulting Drummond for blocking a proposed aluminum plant in Oklahoma, Trump noted that Drummond “stated publicly he had ‘no opinion'” on Trump’s 2021 impeachment and that Drummond “even SUED to BLOCK a religious based charter school strongly supported by my Administration — Very troubling for Educational Freedom, and an outright attack on Christianity!”

While it was clear from the post that Trump already had ample cause to champion Mazzei over Drummond in the Republican runoff, audio recording of Drummond’s commentary about voter ID may have helped convince those still uncertain about his real political outlook.

In the audio recording, Drummond can be heard calling on Democrats and independents to help kill a pair of ballot questions that showed up on the Aug. 25 ballot. One of those questions would “require proof of identity to vote in any election authorized by law and conducted by a county election board or the State Election Board.”

“We have to vote ‘no’ on both state questions,” Drummond said in the recording.

Parker previously told Blaze News that the clips had been “stripped of context and selectively edited to manufacture a false narrative.”

Drummond noted on Tuesday that the runoff “election comes down to trust,” but evidently, not enough trust was on his side. With 99% of the ballots counted, Mazzei had 50.3% of the vote and Drummond had 49.7%.

The voter ID question also passed.

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​Gentner drummond, Lincoln project, Mike mazzei, Oklahoma, Federal election commission, Donald trump, Politics 

The WNBA’s Chicago Sky is taking Enes Kanter Freedom to task while once again avoiding the actual issue on everyone’s mind.

Freedom wore a T-shirt that read “WOMAN noun. adult human female” to the Chicago Sky vs. Indiana Fever game on Sunday, causing a stir that seemingly agitated one of the Sky players.

‘Most importantly, he took a step towards the court.’

After a whistle in the third quarter, 34-year-old point guard Natasha Cloud began yelling at Freedom, who stood up and raised his arms in the air while taking a step toward the court.

Cloud was irate as teammates ushered her away from the area, while Freedom was surrounded by security and subsequently ejected from the building.

According to Sky principal owner Michael Alter, Freedom’s presence near the court wasn’t just a form of protest; it was tantamount to a threat.

“[Kanter Freedom] has demonstrated to us unequivocally that he has the potential to be a threat,” Alter said while speaking to local Chicago media.

“That he is not able to control himself to the extent where we can be comfortable that he may [not] step towards the court again and towards the players.”

Alter continued, saying the team has decided to ban him from Wintrust Arena in Chicago indefinitely.

“So that is the basis for which we will not permit him into the building until such time as he can prove otherwise.”

RELATED: WNBA star has mid-game meltdown at former NBA player wearing pro-women shirt: ‘I think it triggered her’

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

The 6′-10″ former NBA player had told Fox News that the he had exchanged text messages with Chicago general manager Jeff Pagliocca before the game to give him a heads-up that he planned to attend.

Freedom said he told the GM he had no plans to disrupt the event and received the reply, “Enjoy the game.”

Alter called Freedom’s framing of that exchange into question, ESPN reported, telling media members that Pagliocca only said, “Appreciate the text,” and did not tell Freedom to enjoy the game or otherwise insinuate that the team was happy to have him.

“It was pretty clear to us that his purpose of coming here was trying to be provocative and just see how much attention he could get and stir up,” Alter said.

Alter went on to repeatedly suggest that Freedom is a potential security threat that was quelled by security.

“That all changed when he made a decision to stand up from his seat again, on the court, put his arms out, point a finger at the player on the court, Natasha Cloud,” the owner said. “And most importantly, he took a step towards the court. That changed everything, and he went from being a fan … to being a potential threat. And that is why the security acted as quickly and swiftly, very smoothly, as they did.”

RELATED: Former congressman sends warning to WNBA over blocking male player: Get ready for court

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Alter, a commercial real estate developer, rejected Freedom’s recent assertion that because he “did not step over the baseline,” he was not breaking any rules.

As if “that’s some magical threshold,” Alter said. “One reason he didn’t cross the baseline was because he was prevented from doing so. But regardless of that, the security people’s job is not to wait until a threat intensifies. It’s to avoid the threat from happening when [a] perceived threat occurs, and that’s exactly what they did.”

The owner further boasted that security “didn’t wait” to see how far Freedom got.

Freedom has not made public comment since the ban was announced on Tuesday night.

Freedom and the Chicago Sky did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Wnba, Basketball, Enes kanter freedom, Chicago sky, Sports 

A first-of-its-kind legal challenge seeking to block New York City Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-run grocery-store initiative has been filed by a coalition representing hundreds of immigrant-owned bodegas and grocers.

The Multicultural Business Coalition filed two separate lawsuits Monday in New York State Supreme Court seeking to derail Mamdani’s plan for five city-run grocery stores, which the group argues would place small, minority-owned markets at an unfair competitive disadvantage.

‘Many minority members of the MBC cannot compete with the municipal grocery stores, and therefore, will be put out of business.’

The legal action comes after weeks of attempts to resolve the dispute outside court and follows the city’s announcement that the city-run grocery stores would sell items — including fresh produce, meat, seafood, and “20 other essential items like cheese, milk, and bread” — at 30% below market rates.

The first lawsuit, a class-action civil rights complaint, alleges the program violates New York Civil Rights Laws and the Equal Protection Clause of the New York State Constitution. The MBC contends the city has “unduly discriminated against” minority-owned grocers by subsidizing grocery stores that can offer discounts private businesses cannot match, thereby denying them equal protection.

The second lawsuit seeks to block the stores from operating unless the city conducts what the coalition says are necessary studies and analyses of their economic impact. The MBC claims there is “no existing evidence” that officials undertook “any studies and/or any serious analysis” of how the competition would affect existing businesses.

RELATED: Immigrant business owners revolt against Mamdani’s ‘Soviet’-style grocery plan

In the filing, the coalition asserts that “many minority members of the MBC cannot compete with the municipal grocery stores, and therefore, will be put out of business.”

“The respondents’ running of five municipal grocery stores is arbitrary and capricious, in bad faith, and exceeds the scope of municipal authority,” the MBC added.

Mark Jaffe, the group’s general counsel and president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, argued the city is setting small grocers up to fail by forcing them to compete against the city-run stores.

“You cannot expect hardworking small business owners to compete with a supermarket that isn’t going to pay rent, won’t have to pay an electric bill, and won’t have to buy their products at full price,” Jaffe told CNN. “They cannot possibly compete because no one will be subsidizing them.”

When asked about the lawsuits during an unrelated press conference in Queens on Monday, Mamdani said he was “confident both in the legality of this, that it will stand up in court, and in the importance of delivering it.”

“We are talking about a reflection of a cost-of-living crisis that has seen grocery prices increase by about 30% over the last few years, and we’re also talking about delivering five city-run grocery stores in a city of 8.5 million people that has more than a thousand grocery stores,” the mayor responded.

Mamdani also pointed to Essex Street Market and Moore Street Market, two existing public markets directly administered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, arguing that the model has not had a negative impact on surrounding businesses. They have been in operation since the 1940s, along with La Marqueta starting earlier, and were established under Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

RELATED: Socialist Mamdani says city-run grocery stores will undercut supermarkets by 30%

Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Founded earlier this year, the MBC represents roughly 65 business organizations, with strong representation in the New York-New Jersey region, spanning Hispanic, Asian, Caribbean, African, Middle Eastern, Jewish, and South Asian communities.

To address concerns that the initiative could undercut privately owned stores in neighboring areas, Mamdani said the city-run grocery stores would not sell cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, or hot food — items that typically generate some of the highest profit margins for bodegas and convenience stores.

“My grandfather opened up one of the first bodegas in the late 1960s when East Harlem was burning and the A&Ps and Waldbaums were leaving,” said MBC Chairman Frank Garcia.

“He established the first Latino Grocery Association to protect the rights of immigrant store owners. I am proud to be following up in his tradition because what Mayor Mamdani is doing is disgracing his memory.”

As currently filed, the MBC itself is the only named plaintiff in the lawsuits, though the coalition has said it plans to add individual grocery store owners as plaintiffs later this week.

The first of the five publicly owned grocery stores is anticipated to open in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx by the end of 2027, with the remaining four storefronts slated to be operational by the end of Mamdani’s four-year term, including one in East Harlem.

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​Bronx, Grocery prices, Mayor zohran mamdani, New york city, Politics 

A Florida female allegedly tried breaking into a Leesburg home before dawn Tuesday, and the homeowner warned her that he was armed — and even fired a shot through his door — but the homeowner told police she just wouldn’t go away.

Police responded to the residence in the 1600 block of Crest Avenue after reports of a female trying to break into a home, WESH-TV reported.

The female then reached through the broken window in an attempt to open the door from the inside, the station said.

The homeowner told police he repeatedly ordered the woman to leave the property and warned her that he was armed, the station said.

Police told WESH that the female continued trying to gain entry, and the homeowner fired a shot from his handgun through the door, which shattered a window in the door.

The female then reached through the broken window in an attempt to open the door from the inside, the station said.

With that, the homeowner fired a second time, striking the female, police told WESH, adding that she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The station said the shooting took place shortly before 5 a.m.

RELATED: Florida crook accused of ditching stolen car, hiding from cops in home’s garage. But homeowner has a gun.

According to WOFL-TV, details about the relationship between the homeowner and the female have not yet been released, and officials have also not shared the female’s name or age.

Police are investigating the incident and working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if any criminal charges are appropriate, WESH said.

A spokesperson with the State Attorney’s Office told WESH the review could take a few weeks or a few months, depending on evidence and information available.

Those with information about the incident are encouraged to contact police at 352-787-2121, WESH added.

Leesburg is about 50 minutes northwest of Orlando.

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​Home invasion, Florida, Fatal shooting, Homeowner shoots intruder, Self-defense, Guns, Gun rights, Crime, Second amendment 

Caregiving has taught me to ask a simple question before making a consequential decision: “Is this healthy?” Will this solve today’s problem by consuming what we may need tomorrow? Does it respect the resources entrusted to me?

After 40 years as a caregiver, I have learned that money, time, strength, and even goodwill are finite. Wanting something does not make it wise, and good intentions do not eliminate consequences. A caregiver who confuses desire with capacity can hurt the very person he is trying to help.

We are financing today’s promises with tomorrow’s labor, then congratulating ourselves for our generosity.

Caring describes an intention. Stewardship requires an accounting. By that standard, Washington has failed spectacularly.

The United States has now crossed $40 trillion in national debt. The figure barely communicates anything. Forty trillion sounds like something a third-grader says when trying to name the biggest number in the world.

The national debt is what Washington has accumulated through borrowing. The annual deficit is how much more it spends than it collects each year. The debt is the hole. The deficit is how much deeper we dig it.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion federal deficit for fiscal year 2026. Congress has looked into a $40 trillion hole and concluded that what it needs is more digging.

Democrats invoke compassion to justify spending money the government does not have. Republicans campaign on fiscal restraint, win office, and then discover that their preferred spending somehow does not count. One party calls it caring. The other calls it necessary. Both send the bill to our children.

Each party points furiously at the other while passing the national credit card back and forth. Both help start the fire, then pass the collection plate while arguing over who bought the gasoline.

Now we enter election season, when, as Lloyd Christmas might say, the promises flow like the salmon of Capistrano. Candidates will tell us how deeply they care about families, seniors, veterans, national defense, and taxpayers. They will demonstrate their concern for one group by promising it money borrowed from all the others. A politician can always appear compassionate by promising benefits with other people’s money.

RELATED: It took 200 years to reach $1 trillion in national debt. 2026 said, ‘Hold my beer.’

Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Stewardship asks harder questions: How much will this cost? Who will pay for it? What has the existing program accomplished? What happens if your projections are wrong? If this is worth doing, why must we borrow the money?

Those are not cruel questions. They are the responsible ones.

Government cannot create resources by attaching the word “federal” to them. There is no government money. Government either collects money from today’s citizens or borrows against tomorrow’s taxpayers.

We are financing today’s promises with tomorrow’s labor, then congratulating ourselves for our generosity. There is nothing generous about giving away the money of someone not yet born. That is taxation without representation on a generational scale.

Stewardship does not require government to spend nothing or never incur debt. Families and nations face genuine emergencies. Caregivers understand that. Medical catastrophes rarely consult the household budget before arriving.

But caregivers often do without. Congress seems far more comfortable assigning sacrifice than accepting any. I have also learned that an emergency cannot become a permanent governing philosophy.

At my kitchen table, I cannot promise everything, spend without limit, blame someone else when the bills arrive, and then congratulate myself for caring. Yet Washington does just that.

RELATED: Scott Bessent is the secret weapon for Trump’s economic plan

Ludovic MARIN/AFP/Getty Images

Over the next few months, commercials filled with flags, farms, hard hats, classrooms, and concerned expressions will flood the airwaves. Recorded voices will warn that civilization depends upon our response before midnight.

As the onslaught escalates, keep asking one question: Is this candidate a good steward? Not only of public money, but of public trust, constitutional authority, and the extraordinary inheritance of self-government.

To our national shame, we may not be able to answer yes about many of them. That does not excuse us from voting. It makes our responsibility more sobering.

Ronald Reagan popularized “trust, but verify” when dealing with the Soviet Union. Washington has now given us $40 trillion reasons to apply it to our own government. We must choose the better steward and then hold that person accountable.

Campaign season is when politicians sell. Election Day is when we buy. Tax Day reminds us what we paid. Better hang on to the receipt.

After April 15, we begin to learn whether they can manage what they were so eager to sell.

Around my kitchen table, math eventually gets the final vote. At $40 trillion in debt, one wonders whether math even applies in the halls of Congress.

​National debt, 40 trillion, Washington, United states, Republicans, Fiscal conservatives, Government, Caregiving, Ronald reagan, Tax day, Congresss, Opinion & analysis 

It’s going to be harder for parents to say no to and even differentiate between AI and real life when it comes to entertaining their children.

Toddlers and kindergarteners are unlikely to hop onto an AI chatbot and ask about the weather or for the latest sports scores, but they are now more likely than ever to be driven into interactions with AI-driven content.

AI can enable ‘more continuous interaction between fans and brands.’

Thanks to a new entertainment-meets-tech deal, the slow walk to AI teaching the West’s children has quickened its pace.

WildBrain, the Canadian company known for having possibly the largest library of children’s television programming, has bought a tech company specializing in creating AI personalities.

That means that some of the most famous characters kids know and love will now be interacting with children in ways previously unimaginable. WildBrain, formerly DHX Media, bought the rights to “Teletubbies” back in 2013. It also owns characters like Strawberry Shortcake, Inspector Gadget, and the show “In the Night Garden.”

Personality AI is just a year-old company and focuses on creating interactive characters using generative AI and has already developed content for Amazon.

Under Amazon in 2025, Personality AI created “Hey Peppa Pig,” an interactive voice experience for kids that allowed them to speak with the character on Amazon’s Fire Kids Tablets, the Hollywood Reporter noted.

RELATED: Federal agents wanted to search his phone — now they say the trick he used to stop them is a crime

John Keeble/Getty Images

WildBrain and Personality AI will reportedly create interactive experiences with toys, apps, and different platforms using licensing agreements with different intellectual property owners.

In an attempt to address concerns over child interactions with artificial intelligence, Personality AI told the Hollywood Reporter that its AI products are not open-ended platforms and are tested to ensure safe interactions.

The deal itself is lucrative, with WildBrain paying roughly $11 million in cash along with one million shares, Variety reported.

There are also further incentives that can push the deal to upwards of almost $70 million.

RELATED: The $1 trillion social media addiction trial has begun — is the disorder real?

BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Personality AI will receive $2 million on the first anniversary of the deal’s closing and up to $56 million in cash based on meeting performance markers in the first three years of the deal, up to 2029.

WildBrain’s CEO Josh Scherba said that Personality AI can enable “more continuous interaction between fans and brands,” which would strengthen the company’s ability to “deliver end-to-end franchise solutions to partners.”

WildBrain did have a 41% stake in the “Peanuts” franchise but sold it in December 2025 to Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan for $460 million.

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​Artificial intelligence, Teletubbies, Tablet, Tech, Kids 

A group of Los Angeles residents are taking a stand against the latest effort in California to erase Christianity from public spaces.

A nearly century-old, hand-carved 10-foot cross stands within a stone’s throw of the birthplace of Los Angeles. While every year, over 2 million visitors pass the historic cross in El Pueblo, a self-identified “freedom of expression activist” unilaterally decided that the sight of the Christian symbol was too much to bear.

‘Los Angeles shouldn’t have to erase its own history every time someone takes offense.’

Jack Gerritsen — a resident of Bell, California, who was convicted decades ago for interfering with police radio transmissions — sued the city last year, claiming that the cross and the nativity traditionally displayed in the Old Plaza during the Christmas season violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Gerritsen said that the nativity “offends [him] and makes [him] feel excluded as a non-believer,” and the cross constitutes a “Christian endorsement on public land.”

Offended by the religious nature of the displays, Gerritsen — who appears to be behind a Facebook account that has demeaned Christianity, idolized the anti-Christian Marxist-Leninist Che Guvera, and made excuses for terrorists — joined Henry Frederick Ramey Jr., with whom he previously sued multiple regional authorities, in asking a federal court to order the removal of the cross and prohibit the city from ever again putting up the nativity. The two are also seeking $5 million in damages.

The district court rejected their request.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the lower court noted that because the cross was erected nearly a century ago, it met the “presumption of constitutionality” as “established” and “longstanding.” The court also noted that there was no evidence to suggest that the cross was “maintained with discriminatory intent” or that it conveys deliberate disrespect on the basis of religion.

While the court did not find that the nativity display was similarly “established,” it recognized it as “part of a broader national tradition,” “a central piece of a longstanding local cultural practice,” and “consistent with this country’s history.” Therefore, the court determined, it does not violate the Establishment Clause.

RELATED: The anti-Christian myth of First Amendment ‘neutrality’

Courtesy of Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

The plaintiffs kept the legal battle alive by appealing the ruling. Gerritsen did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday to permit a group of local merchants to join the case and defend the historic displays.

“For generations, the merchants of Olvera Street have kept the neighborhood‘s rich Mexican-American heritage alive,” Andrea Butler, counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the merchants, said in a statement. “Now one observer wants to take down the parts of that heritage that include religion.”

“Thankfully, the First Amendment doesn’t include a third-party veto over history and culture merely because it acknowledges religion,” added Butler.

The Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed to protect and promote the traditional, historical, and cultural events in the area, whose members have a “significant protectable interest in the historical and cultural preservation of Olvera Street,” Becket said in its motion. For starters, the foundation’s board of directors “comprises merchants whose families have been part of the Olvera Street merchant community since its inception in 1930.”

Becket noted in its proposed intervenor-defendant’s brief that “El Pueblo has been preserved as a State Historic Park and a National Historic District specifically to protect its historic and cultural heritage, dating back to the founding of Los Angeles itself. … The displays at issue here are a key part of that heritage.”

“Los Angeles shouldn’t have to erase its own history every time someone takes offense,” stated Butler. “The cross and nativity are woven into the fabric of El Pueblo. Nothing in the Constitution requires those traditions to be torn away. The city should be free to keep its full history, including the parts that happen to be religious.”

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​Becket, Christianity, Establishment clause, Federal court, First amendment, Los angeles, Religion, Politics 

Canada often enjoys a reputation as America’s friendly neighbor, but Vice President JD Vance says the relationship has been anything but fair for U.S. workers and farmers.

In a recent speech on cross-border trade, Vance went in on Canada for imposing steep tariffs on American products while benefiting from the security and economic advantages provided by the United States.

The recent tariffs include 250% on Maine dairy while providing a free pass for Chinese goods through the back door and zero reciprocity.

“First of all, I’d say we’re very mindful of the fact that Maine is a border state with Canada. There’s a lot of cross-border transactions between Maine and Canada. And what we’re trying to do here is just make sure that Maine actually gets a fair deal,” Vance began.

He went on to say that not just Canada but China have “been the two worst countries when it comes to trade policy anywhere in the world.”

“Canada is a country that has underinvested in its military that quite literally would get invaded by a foreign country were it not for the umbrella of protection provided by the United States of America,” he said, asking, “And so how does Canada actually respond to that? By treating the people of Maine fairly?”

“No, they apply ridiculous tariffs and other nontariff duties on Maine products coming into Canada and they don’t expect Maine or anybody else to fight back,” he answered.

“We’re sick of that. We are actually going to fight back against unfair trade practices whether it’s coming from China or Canada,” he added.

“Good. And that is true. He’s absolutely right about that,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments.

“And by the way, it’s not just Maine products. It’s all U.S. products,” he adds.

Vance continued to explain that while you buy “dairy, cheese, butter, milk that comes from Canada into Maine, you probably are buying a product that has 0% tariffs on it.”

However, he went on, “If a Maine farmer sends dairy products into Canada, they could be paying as much as a 250% tariff.”

“Now, how is it fair to the farmers of Maine that they pay 250% when the Canadian farmers pay nothing? That unfairness is something that we just have to fix,” he added.

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

​Canada, China, Farmers, Jd vance, Pat gray, Tariffs, Trade policy, Vice president, Blazetv show 

In 2019, I moved back to Portland, my hometown, to help with a family health situation.

I rented an apartment near where I grew up. I began doing my food shopping at the local Fred Meyer supermarket, which I remembered from when I was a kid.

When I saw the sign and the locked gate, it felt like an assault. It was another closing door. Another innocent pleasure snatched away.

It was fun to go back to “Freddy’s.” It was in a quiet, affluent neighborhood, so the store was always neat and clean.

They hired local high school kids to work there. As part of their job, they would always greet you, or ask if you needed help finding anything.

I found this incredibly charming. After living in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for many years, to have these nice young people smiling and asking how my day was going … well, once I got over the shock, I came to appreciate it.

Toilet paper

A year into living there, COVID began. At first, the only real problem this created was a toilet paper shortage. But being sane, reasonable Oregonians, my neighbors and I restrained ourselves. No one was panic-buying Charmin Ultra-Soft at Fred Meyer.

But soon after, the pandemic got serious. The government announced “two weeks to stop the spread.” Everything closed. People stayed in their homes. Supermarkets were one of the only places you could go.

At Freddy’s, the teenagers quickly disappeared. The grown-up workers who remained suddenly looked nervous and scared.

As the pandemic dragged on, Fred Meyer was forced to advertise for new employees. The company offered generous bonuses. Soon there were retirees working there and borderline homeless people.

The tone of the place changed. Customers would hurry in and out. People would freak out if you stood too close to them. Everyone was suspicious of each other. It had become the exact opposite of what it had been before.

The mask wars

Then masks became a thing. First, they made people feel safer. Then they became a new source of division and conflict.

Fred Meyer was now in survival mode. Store hours were cut. The store limped along with reduced staff. There began to be rows of empty shelves. I think they actually did run out of toilet paper at one point.

That summer, the George Floyd protests began and became a nightly occurrence in downtown Portland.

At Fred Meyer, you’d occasionally see young protesters and members of Antifa on their way home to their parents’ houses in the suburbs — after a night of throwing rocks at the police.

One night, I encountered two young kids in black bloc. With great excitement and fervor, they told me about being tear-gassed by the “fascist police.”

They might have been the same kids who had been bagging groceries the year before.

Vibe shift

When the worst of COVID had passed, Fred Meyer recovered somewhat. It reinstated its original hours. It seemed to have steady employees again, though I noticed the kindly people who worked there in 2019 had been replaced in 2022 by sullen, silent workers with neck tattoos.

There were no bright-faced teenagers. Nobody said “hi” to you. The place was not as clean as it once was. Shelves continued to be empty. You couldn’t count on certain items being available. You had to adopt a “buy it when you see it” shopping strategy.

Soon after, Freddy’s began instituting new security measures. The company put in gates you had to pass through going in and out. You could see yourself in a video monitor as you entered. Plainclothes security people sometimes stood guard at the exits.

It was obvious why. Unsavory characters had begun to appear at the store, especially at night, though there was no reason for them to be in that neighborhood.

You’d see broken-down cars in the parking lot with strange people sitting inside them. Were they doing drugs? Or maybe sleeping there overnight?

Early one morning, a car was set on fire in Freddy’s back parking lot. The suburban fire department came and put it out. It made the local news. There was no word on what happened or why.

To its credit, Fred Meyer still doesn’t have armed guards on site. But it’s coming. I’m sure.

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Jean-Louis Atlan/Getty Images

The nursery

One last thing: Fred Meyer has a large open-air nursery attached to the grocery store. It’s full of flowers, houseplants, and gardening supplies.

It’s a first sign of spring when it opens in April and marks the beginning of winter when it closes in October.

But just this week — mid-August — staff began locking the outside gates. Now the nursery is only accessible through the front entrance. Were people stealing the flowers?

When those gates were open, I often entered the store via a stroll through the cheerful nursery. It was a highlight of shopping there.

Closing doors

When I saw the sign and the locked gate, it felt like an assault. On me personally and on the entire community. It was another closing door. Another innocent pleasure snatched away.

And who exactly could you blame for this? The government, the store, the social democrats, the understaffed police?

Back in 2019, when those smiling high school kids asked me how I was doing, I always said, “Great.” Because I was great. Because Freddy’s was great. Because America was great.

It’s probably good they aren’t there any more. I don’t know what I would say to them.

​Brooklyn, Childhood memories, Covid, Fred meyer, George floyd protests, Homeless people, Mask wars, Nursery, Portland, Supermarket, Toilet paper shortage, Retirees, Lifestyle, Culture, Portland oregon, Blake’s progress