Late last April, one of the most consistently excellent and criminally underrated series on television ended its 11-year run.

In a sea of prestige dramas trying to out-slick each other with flashy cinematography and convoluted twists, “Bosch” and its immediate sequel, “Bosch: Legacy,” stood apart — grounded, methodical, and unflinchingly real. The two shows were not only crime procedurals; they formed an ode to justice, to the city of Los Angeles, and to the people who live in its shadows.

In a world of shrinking attention spans and algorithm-driven content, “Bosch” is refreshingly analog. It trusts the viewer.

Moral gravity

At the heart of both shows is Titus Welliver’s performance as LAPD Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. Welliver doesn’t just play Bosch, he inhabits him, bringing a weary moral gravity to a character guided by the principle that “everybody counts or nobody counts.”

It’s rare to see a protagonist stay so consistently true to his code without veering into caricature. In Welliver’s hands, Bosch is not a superhero — he is a deeply principled man operating in a world that has long since stopped rewarding principles.

What elevates “Bosch” even farther is its ensemble cast — seasoned, nuanced, and richly interconnected. And for fans of “The Wire,” “Bosch” is like a reunion tour of greatness.

Through the ‘Wire’

Jamie Hector, unforgettable on the legendary HBO series as ruthless, up-and-coming drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield, plays Bosch’s partner Jerry Edgar with quiet complexity and an evolving conscience. He brings a calm, inward energy that balances Welliver’s intensity.

The late Lance Reddick, always regal and sharp, reprises another authority figure as Chief Irving, a political operator whose arc turns increasingly poignant as the show progresses.

Even the great Chris Bauer (who anchored season two of “The Wire” as tragic union leader Frank Sobotka) is a key figure in the final case of the final season, delivering yet another command performance.

RELATED: Peter Falk’s ‘Columbo’ returns us to a safer, saner America

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These appearances aren’t just fan service — they reinforce the show’s commitment to realism. These are actors who know how to play the long, quiet game of institutional drama, bringing an authenticity forged in the crucible of David Simon’s Baltimore to Michael Connelly’s Los Angeles.

The soul of the show

As both executive producer and the author of the “Bosch” novels (read them!), Connelly is the soul of the show, ensuring that it never loses the vivid and precise understanding of L.A.’s criminal ecosystem — from the politics of the LAPD to the ghosts of the Hollywood Hills — so evident in the books.

“Bosch” is also paced like a novel: patient, rich in detail, and unconcerned with the need to manufacture drama. Instead, tension arises naturally from the characters’ decisions, regrets, and stubborn decency.

Unlike much of contemporary television, which seems obsessed with style over substance, “Bosch” is anti-glamour. Its color palette is sun-bleached and realistic, its villains often mundane and terrifyingly human. Its cops aren’t action heroes, but working-stiff detectives who make phone calls, pore over reports, and follow leads with grit and intelligence. There are no melodramatic shoot-outs without consequence — just slow justice, often paid in pain.

An ‘earned’ sequel

After “Bosch” ended after seven seasons in 2021, Welliver reprised the character in the 2022 sequel “Bosch: Legacy.” Now retired from the LAPD, Bosch is a private investigator who often finds himself working with his one-time professional nemesis, defense attorney Honey “Money” Chandler (Mimi Rogers).

“Bosch: Legacy” avoids the common pitfalls of spin-offs. Its elevation of Bosch’s daughter Maddie Bosch (Madison Lintz) to a central figure is earned rather than forced. The show evolves naturally, expanding the “Bosch” world without abandoning its roots. Connelly and his team know their audience isn’t looking for reinvention but rather continuity, truth, and character. And they deliver.

Refreshingly analog

In a world of shrinking attention spans and algorithm-driven content, “Bosch” is refreshingly analog. It trusts the viewer. It tells hard stories about justice, loss, race, and power in L.A. without shouting. It makes you care, then makes you wait. And when it finally hits its emotional beats, it hits like a freight train.

So here’s to “Bosch” — a show that never chased trends, never insulted its audience, and never wavered in its dedication to storytelling.

With a dream cast that bridged generations of great television (“The Wire” alumni among them) and the steady hand of Michael Connelly guiding the ship, “Bosch” was the best show on TV for a decade.

“Bosch” will live on, of course, available on the usual sites to be revisited by longtime fans and discovered by new ones. As “Bosch” inevitably cedes its place in the culture to newer, shinier entertainments, we can appraise its achievement as a whole and call it something else: a classic.

​Bosch, Harry bosch, Culture, Television, Entertainment, Michael connelly, Crime fiction, Amazon, Recommendation 

Race relations in the United States have unraveled in recent years, not only because of genuine disagreement, but because many Americans now grow up believing the nation is fundamentally unjust — racist to the core, perhaps even irredeemable.

This idea, once fringe, now enjoys institutional backing. Critical race theory and DEI ideology assert that the U.S. was founded on slavery and white supremacy. And they dominate schools, corporations, and government agencies alike.

Don’t displace the Fourth of July. Don’t divide what should unite us.

As a result, America has seen a quiet comeback of sanctioned segregation. Colleges increasingly host race-based graduation ceremonies. Society encourages people to define themselves first by racial identity, not shared citizenship. That should alarm anyone who once marched for equal rights in the 1950s and ’60s.

When Americans stop thinking of each other as fellow citizens, the glue that holds the republic together dissolves.

Juneteenth and the new segregation

Consider one example of this trend: the push for a separate “independence day” for black Americans.

On June 17, 2021, Joe Biden signed Senate Bill 475 into law, establishing a new federal holiday: “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” The bill commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Texas and issued General Order No. 3, announcing that slaves in the state had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation — two years after it was signed.

Former slaves in Texas celebrated, and in the years that followed, Juneteenth spread across the South. But it never held central importance in the broader civil rights movement.

Juneteenth did not abolish slavery. It merely marked the day slaves in one state learned they had been legally freed. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, applied only to states in rebellion — excluding Union-supporting border states like Kentucky and Delaware, where slavery remained legal until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865.

A false independence narrative

Some activists now argue that Juneteenth should serve as “Black Independence Day.” That’s a mistake.

This view implies that African Americans have no rightful claim to the Fourth of July or to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. But those ideas belong to all Americans — not just the descendants of the signers.

It’s true that many historical figures sought to exclude black Americans from the promise of the Declaration. Chief Justice Roger Taney made that argument explicit in the Dred Scott decision. Confederates like Alexander Stephens and John C. Calhoun claimed that “all men are created equal” never applied to African Americans.

They were wrong.

What Frederick Douglass really believed

Some cite Frederick Douglass’ famous 1852 speech — “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” — to support the idea that black Americans should reject the founding. But they ignore the full context.

Douglass, speaking two years after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, condemned the hypocrisy of a country that declared liberty while tolerating bondage. “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” he asked. “A day that reveals to him … the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

But unlike Taney, Stephens, and Calhoun, Douglass didn’t reject the Declaration. He upheld it.

RELATED: Frederick Douglass: American patriot

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

Douglass took hope from the principles it proclaimed and called on America to live up to them. He dismissed the Garrisonian claim that the Constitution was pro-slavery. “Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted,” he said, “the Constitution is a glorious liberty document.”

He believed America’s founding held the moral resources to defeat slavery — and it did.

The universal promise of 1776

America’s founders didn’t invent slavery; they merely inherited it. At the time of the Revolution, slavery was a global institution, practiced on every continent and defended by every empire. Slavery, including African slavery, was a manifestation of the argument of the Athenians at Melos as recounted by Thucydides in his history of the Peloponnesian War: “Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” Even Africans sold fellow Africans into slavery.

The Declaration of Independence marked a sharp break from that past. It asserted that all human beings possess natural rights — and that no one may rule another without consent.

Thomas Jefferson famously observed that humanity had long been divided into those born “booted and spurred” and those “born with saddles on their backs.” The founders rejected that model. They established a republic based on equality before the law, not the interests of the stronger over the weaker.

They also knew slavery contradicted those ideals. Many believed the institution would die out — an Enlightenment relic destined for extinction. Still, the political compromises they made to preserve the Union allowed slavery to persist, and it took a war to end it.

Why the founding still matters

The Civil War was not a rejection of the founding. It was a fulfillment of it.

As Harry Jaffa wrote, “It is not wonderful that a nation of slaveholders, upon achieving independence, failed to abolish slavery. What is wonderful … is that a nation of slaveholders founded a new nation on the proposition that ‘all men are created equal,’ making the abolition of slavery a moral and political necessity.”

The Declaration of Independence lit the fuse that ultimately destroyed slavery.

So let Americans celebrate Juneteenth — gratefully, joyfully, and historically. Let the holiday recall the biblical jubilee it was meant to evoke.

But don’t displace the Fourth of July. Don’t segment America’s founding. Don’t divide what should unite us.

As Douglass said: “I would not even in words do violence to the grand events, and thrilling associations, that gloriously cluster around the birth of our national independence.”

He went on: “No people ever entered upon the pathway of nations, with higher and grander ideas of justice, liberty and humanity than ourselves.”

Douglass understood something too many have forgotten: The genius of the American founding lies not in who it excluded but in the promise that, one day, it would include everyone.

​Opinion & analysis, Frederick douglass, Slavery, Juneteenth, Holiday, Segregation, American founding, Declaration of independence, Constitution, Abraham lincoln, Principles, Equality, Liberty, Dred scott, Roger taney, John c. calhoun, Harry jaffa, Race, Racism, Critical race theory, Diversity equity inclusion, Joe biden, Black independence day, July 4 

A U.S. attorney in New York learned firsthand the danger that criminal illegal aliens pose to the community after he was chased and threatened with a knife in downtown Albany earlier this week.

Just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, John Sarcone, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, had just left his office and was strolling by a Hilton Hotel, enjoying a cigar, when he suddenly spotted a man behaving suspiciously.

“I got my eye on him, then I turn back and I’m in front of the Hilton, and I’m just standing there, and I’m looking at him … and he then starts yelling at me in his language that I don’t understand,” Sarcone later said, according to the Times-Union.

The man then reportedly approached Sarcone, pulled a knife, and lunged in his direction.

‘We take these things seriously — whether you’re the US attorney for the Northern District or your name’s John Smith and you live on Morton Avenue.’

Sarcone stepped into the hotel lobby for safety and called Sheriff Craig Apple of Albany County but then went back outdoors to keep an eye on the man. The situation then apparently escalated.

“I didn’t want him to get away, and I yelled out at him,” Sarcone recalled. “He turns around, and he starts yelling again … and then he pulls the knife out, and then there’s this (gesture) across his throat thing, like he’s going to slit my throat, and then comes at me again, and I ran back towards the hotel, and then he stopped and then turned around.”

Police quickly arrived on the scene and apprehended the suspect, identified as 40-year-old Saul Morales-Garcia. Sheriff Apple confirmed that Morales-Garcia, a Salvadoran national, is in the U.S. illegally, WNYT reported.

Sarcone was not injured in the incident, but at a hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors demonstrated that they are not playing games. Morales-Garcia has been charged with second-degree attempted murder, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and second-degree menacing. The defendant has another court appearance scheduled for next week.

“It’s important that everybody understands that we take these things seriously – whether you’re the U.S. attorney for the Northern District or your name’s John Smith and you live on Morton Avenue,” District Attorney Lee Kindlon said outside the courthouse.

Morales-Garcia reportedly told investigators he did not know Sarcone was a federal official. Public defender Vincenzo Sofia argued in court that the evidence did not warrant an attempted murder charge and requested release under probationary supervision, but the judge ordered the defendant held without bail.

RELATED: Judge accused of helping illegal alien evade ICE says she didn’t think ‘avoid ICE’ meant anything illegal

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The defendant has a lengthy rap sheet both in America and abroad. Morales-Garcia has a felony conviction in El Salvador and has been deported from the U.S. on at least one occasion, in 2010. When he re-entered the U.S. illegally again is unclear.

According to multiple reports, he also has a “criminal record” in at least three states and an active warrant for his arrest.

In April 2022, Morales-Garcia was convicted of a DUI and driving without a license in Monroe County, Georgia. A month later, he apparently failed to appear in court, prompting a bench warrant, but the bench warrant is tied to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. Whether the two Georgia incidents are related is unclear, the Times-Union reported.

‘Kathy Hochul puts illegals first and New Yorkers last.’

In December 2023, Morales-Garcia was arrested by federal Park Police officers in Virginia and charged with disorderly conduct, engaging in a physically threatening act likely to inflict injury, possessing an open container of alcohol, and being intoxicated in public. Five months later, he was charged with retail theft in a city just outside Philadelphia.

The Times-Union reported that the outcomes of those cases are currently unknown.

ICE agents were reportedly at the courthouse on Wednesday, when Morales-Garcia and at least one other illegal alien were scheduled to appear. It is unclear whether the agents interacted with Morales-Garcia.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Elise Stefanik agrees to withdraw her nomination to maintain GOP’s ‘razor-thin’ majority in House

Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

At least one New York federal lawmaker is speaking out about the alarming incident.

“In Kathy Hochul’s New York, nobody is safe, not even President Trump’s U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of NY John A. Sarcone III, who was ‘confronted and chased’ by an illegal alien armed with a knife in Albany last night, the Times Union reported,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) posted to X on Wednesday.

“Three separate times, Hochul signed executive orders to protect violent illegal aliens from deportation. Kathy Hochul puts illegals first and New Yorkers last. We desperately need a governor who puts New Yorkers first and restores law and order to our streets.”

In response to a request for comment, Hochul sent Blaze News what appears to be a generic email, promising “to rebuild our communities and continue to move our great state forward.”

“I promise to do everything I can, every single day, to create a stronger, safer future for you, our families, and our communities and to make government a force for good once again.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Sarcone to the U.S. attorney position back in March. Sarcone previously served on President Donald Trump’s campaign legal team in 2016.

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​John sarcone, Us attorney, Northern district of new york, New york, Albany, Saul morales-garcia, Craig apple, Lee kindlon, Illegal alien, Illegal immigration, Elise stefanik, Kathy hochul, Politics 

Expect a wave of corporate media pieces today, all aiming to elevate Juneteenth’s importance in the American consciousness. These articles are sanctimonious, astroturfed exercises in progressive virtue signaling — gaslighting the public into believing Juneteenth deserves equal or even greater recognition than the Fourth of July.

But Juneteenth neither marks the beginning of slavery nor its end. Activists have hijacked the holiday to undermine the moral clarity of Independence Day.

Juneteenth has been weaponized to fracture America’s identity through deception and denigration.

Juneteenth commemorates the day Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Texas on June 19, 1865, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and declare the end of slavery in the state. Early celebrations called it “Jubilee Day,” marking the delayed but welcome fulfillment of the Constitution’s promise and the Declaration’s revolutionary spirit — at least in Texas.

For decades, Juneteenth remained a Texas tradition. It held official status as a state holiday for 41 years and an unofficial one since 1866. But in recent years, radical activists have repurposed it as a tool to advance a racialist rewrite of American history.

A ‘George Floyd’ holiday

Before George Floyd’s death in 2020, few progressives were even aware of Juneteenth’s existence. But after Black Lives Matter-led riots caused over $1.5 billion in property damage and left at least 20 dead, the left seized the cultural moment. Activists bullied lawmakers into submission — both figuratively and literally.

That year, members of Congress knelt in kente cloth as a gesture of obedience. The Pentagon renamed military bases to satisfy a new moral order. Corporations slapped critical theory slogans on products. The so-called “black national anthem” was played at sporting events, eclipsing the actual national anthem.

And then came the crowning gesture: the creation of a new federal holiday. Juneteenth became the woke sacrament, signaling America’s supposedly unending racism.

It was ludicrous then. It’s borderline insane now.

Juneteenth is Texan — and that’s all

Texas has every right to honor Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates the fulfillment of America’s founding ideals and the abolition of one of humanity’s most enduring evils. But beyond Texas, it holds no national significance.

Juneteenth doesn’t fall on the date of the Emancipation Proclamation. It doesn’t mark the actual end of slavery in the United States. Activists howl in protest, but the truth remains: Juneteenth has been repurposed to challenge and eventually replace Independence Day.

Most of the people writing solemn op-eds about Juneteenth don’t know its history — and they don’t care. What they do care about is creating a “new” Independence Day, one that fits a progressive narrative. Its placement on the calendar — just weeks before July 4 — is no accident.

This is part of the left’s long march through American institutions. National holidays shape national identity. And Juneteenth now functions as a tool to fracture that identity under the guise of moral progress.

Under the Biden administration, some military installations flew flags calling Juneteenth “National Independence Day.” The Department of Defense distributed official guidance using that exact phrase. Nikole Hannah-Jones, architect of the historically illiterate “1619 Project,” uses Juneteenth to promote her claim that America’s true founding began with the arrival of African slaves, not the signing of the Declaration.

Divide, rewrite, replace

As a former Marine and combat veteran, I recognize these tactics: divide and conquer, rewrite and replace. They follow a playbook.

Juneteenth’s federal recognition aims not to celebrate American emancipation but rather to distract from the actual Independence Day. The broader goal is to erode national unity and advance a Marxist agenda: divide Americans by race, replace shared history with grievance, and erase what came before.

RELATED: We should scrap Juneteenth, aka George Floyd Day, for a holiday commemorating America’s 1865 rebirth

Blaze Media Illustration

I lived in Texas for many years. I’ll celebrate Juneteenth as a Texas holiday. The end of slavery deserves celebration. I would even support a national holiday that commemorates the abolition of slavery, honestly.

But I won’t join in the farce that Juneteenth represents America’s independence. Too many Americans gave their lives to preserve our constitutional republic and the revolutionary idea that all men are created equal and endowed by God with unalienable rights.

Independence Day remains the foundation of this nation. It paved the way for emancipation, the defeat of fascism, the collapse of communism, and the rise of the most prosperous country in world history.

The radical left understands this. That’s why it has targeted Juneteenth as a cultural wedge. Leftists expect Americans to bow at the altar of wokeness and pretend not to notice. And if we object, they call us pro-slavery.

I reject that lie.

I refuse to bend the knee to a movement that seeks to destroy everything good and true about this country. The stakes are too high — and the truth is too important to surrender.

​Opinion & analysis, George floyd, Juneteenth, Texas, Independence day, Fourth of july, Federal holiday, Jubilee day, Virtue signaling, Marxism, Racism, Critical race theory, Black lives matter, Riots, Civil war, Slavery, Abolition 

Academy Award-winner Elizabeth Taylor, married eight times to seven men, likely entered each union with the hope it would last. Good things, after all, should be permanent.

Yet in Washington, permanence is too often treated as a liability. Nowhere is this more apparent than in tax policy. Thanks to arcane rules surrounding budget reconciliation, Congress routinely enacts pro-growth reforms with an expiration date baked in.

A permanent extension of the reconciliation bill’s pro-growth elements would produce more ‘bang for the buck’ than a temporary extension.

Consider the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Though the measure would extend and build upon President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it fails to permanently extend several of the law’s most pro-growth elements.

That’s a mistake. Again, good things should be permanent.

Pro-growth policies need permanence

Earlier this month, Unleash Prosperity Now — a nonprofit aligned with President Trump — organized a letter signed by more than 300 economists, myself included, urging Congress to “extend President Trump’s tax cuts permanently to prevent a tax increase on January 1, 2026.”

Why do we insist upon permanence? Permanent pro-growth public policies result in better economic outcomes. In contrast, temporary policies create troublesome uncertainty, which, in turn, sows confusion for consumers and businesses, making financial planning and investment needlessly difficult.

A permanent extension of the reconciliation bill’s pro-growth elements would produce more economic “bang for the buck” than a temporary extension. It’s that simple.

According to the Tax Foundation, “Permanence for the [bill’s] four cost recovery provisions would more than double the long-run economic effect.” These provisions would include 100% bonus depreciation, expensing of research and development investment, and a more generous interest deduction limit, among others.

The Tax Foundation concludes:

The current package produces meager effects on GDP and a smaller U.S. capital stock over the long run because the cost recovery provisions sunset. As lawmakers continue to debate the tax package, they should not compromise on permanence for the most pro-growth provisions.

This view aligns with the prevailing economic literature. For example, a 2019 study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve concluded, “A rise in uncertainty is widely believed to have detrimental effects on macroeconomic, microeconomic, and financial market outcomes.”

If that warning were plastered on the side of a pack of cigarettes, it would read, “Congressionally induced policy uncertainty is hazardous to the country’s economic health.”

Jobs under threat

Fortunately, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) is determined to extend the reconciliation bill’s most pro-growth elements permanently. Bravo, Mr. Chairman!

Permanence aside, why did more than 300 economists call for preventing the tax increase scheduled under current law?

RELATED: I was against Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ — Stephen Miller changed my mind

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

If taxes increase as planned, the economic fallout could be steep. Wells Fargo warns that average monthly job creation could plummet from 133,000 in the first quarter to just 25,000 next quarter — and then turn negative, with an estimated loss of 17,000 jobs per month in the fourth quarter.

If Congress fails to “spike the hike,” Wells Fargo estimates economic growth will slow to a tepid 1.1% this year and next.

A warning to deficit hawks

For those worried about the deficit, here’s the paradox: Letting the economy slow — or worse, slip into recession — is the surest way to worsen the nation’s fiscal health.

To further underscore the situation, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who directed the Congressional Budget Office from 2003 to 2005, cautions: “Given the weak state of the economy, it [the scheduled tax increase] would likely trigger a recession, and the budget outlook never gets better in a recession.”

Yes, it’s that simple.

Elizabeth Taylor once quipped, “If you hear of me getting married [again], slap me!” At least, she had the right intentions. Congress, on the other hand, routinely resorts to temporary policies to game the reconciliation process. That needs to stop.

To guard against recession, Congress should reconsider the tax increase scheduled for next year. But to boost economic growth, Congress should follow Crapo’s lead and extend permanently the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act pro-growth provisions.

​Opinion & analysis, Congress, Democrats, Republicans, Senate, Mike crapo, Taxes, Spending, Tax increases, Tax cuts and jobs act, Donald trump, One big beautiful bill, Big beautiful bill, Reconciliation, Tax foundation, Unleash prosperity now, Jobs, Unemployment, Economic growth, Economists, Wells fargo, Recession, Congressional budget office, Douglas holtz-eakin, Elizabeth taylor, Marriage