At a moment when elite universities are under intense scrutiny for how they handle speech, protest, and ideological conformity, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber has entered the debate with a defense of the status quo. His new book, “Terms of Respect,” argues that the crisis of free speech on campus has been overstated and that colleges are, in fact, getting it mostly right. The argument is polished, earnest, and in crucial places, deeply evasive.

I have no particular affection for Eisgruber. Still doubt deserves a hearing. In that spirit of restrained generosity, I read “Terms of Respect” with real interest. Would he distinguish himself from the failed presidencies of Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, and Minouche Shafik? Would he say something candid, new, or clarifying about free speech on campus?

Justice Louis Brandeis famously argued that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Eisgruber seems to disagree.

The book is, as expected, careful, lawyerly, and saturated with constitutional doctrine. Eisgruber is a serious scholar and writes like one. His prose is sober, the tone measured, the citations abundant. He spends considerable time walking the reader through legal history before arriving at his central claim: that colleges are not failing at free speech nearly as badly as critics allege. The real problem, he argues, is a broader “civic crisis” afflicting American society.

Free speech, Eisgruber insists, must be understood alongside equality, civility, and respect. Truly constructive speech, he claims, must be both “uncensored and regulated.” Colleges, in his telling, deserve higher marks than they receive.

So far, so plausible.

Then comes chapter four, page 65.

There Eisgruber repeats the long-debunked “very fine people on both sides” libel regarding President Donald Trump’s remarks after the 2017 Charlottesville rally. He cites a New York Times article by Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman and reproduces the claim without qualification.

This is not a trivial slip. The full transcript of Trump’s remarks has been publicly available for years. Eisgruber is a constitutional lawyer and university president. He could have made his point without repeating a known falsehood. But apparently the fruit was just too juicy to leave unharvested, so he ventures into the dark land of “lying for justice.”

Why?

The most charitable explanation is tribal comfort. Eisgruber knows that no one within his ideological circle will challenge him for repeating the lie. The same insularity that led Ivy presidents to offer evasive, lawyerly, and absurd testimony before Congress is at work here. Inside the tribe, bureaucratic language suffices. Outside it, in the sunlight, the hubris falls easily to the nemesis of scrutiny.

And Eisgruber is only getting warmed up.

Does he tell the whole truth?

The most consequential failure of “Terms of Respect” is not what Eisgruber says but what he refuses to confront.

Absent from the book is any serious reckoning with the July 4, 2020, Princeton faculty letter — a document signed by roughly 350 professors accusing the university of “rampant” racism and demanding sweeping institutional changes. Among those demands was the creation of a faculty-run “racism tribunal.”

As the Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf observed at the time, such a tribunal is inherently incompatible with academic freedom — the very subject of Eisgruber’s book. Friedersdorf contacted signatories and asked them to cite a single instance of “rampant racism” at Princeton over the preceding 15 years. Not one could.

Nevertheless on September 2, 2020, Eisgruber responded by largely capitulating. He validated the accusations, adopted the rhetoric, and opened the gates to the DEI regime now entrenched at Princeton. This was not principled leadership. It was submission under moral intimidation — a textbook example of what psychologists describe as “virtuous victimhood,” a confidence game designed to extract resources by moral threat.

Yet Eisgruber treats this episode as if it never occurred.

That silence is not accidental. It is bureaucratic self-protection.

As literary agent Susan Rabiner has noted, the distinction between lying and withholding the truth is merely technical. Any attempt to cause others to believe something one knows to be untrue is a lie. Eisgruber’s omission of the defining crisis of his presidency is a classic case of lying by omission.

Criticism for thee, not for me

Returning to “Terms of Respect,” we find that Eisgruber does not much care for criticism — especially when it comes from outside the academy. External critics, in his telling, are almost invariably “right-wing.”

He traces this lineage back to William F. Buckley’s “God and Man at Yale” (1951), dismissing it as a “diatribe” that inspired generations of conservative “muckrakers.” He names Campus Reform and the College Fix as exemplars of an “odious strand of pseudojournalism” that ridicules faculty, disproportionately targets women and minorities, and undermines free discourse.

The irony is difficult to miss. Eisgruber decries ridicule while deploying precisely the tactics Saul Alinsky championed in “Rules for Radicals”: personalize, polarize, and delegitimize. He offers exactly one example of this supposed intimidation — nearly a decade old.

Meanwhile he waves away the pervasive ideological capture of higher education as a “myth.”

It is no myth. The evidence is supplied daily by the institutions themselves. Eisgruber either does not know what is happening on his own campus, does not care, or counts himself an ally of the coterie of extremist dullards populating the Princeton bureaucracy now enforcing these programs.

Posturing above the fray

Throughout the book, Eisgruber adopts a posture of measured balance — “on the one hand, on the other.” But the pose does not hold. He speaks the language of civility while excusing coercion. He invokes academic freedom while ignoring its most serious internal threats. He treats accurate reporting on campus excesses as “ugly media frenzies” rather than sunlight.

Justice Louis Brandeis famously argued that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Eisgruber seems to disagree.

In the epilogue, his agenda becomes clearer. Vague invocations of the “shocking rise of white nationalism,” “heartless treatment of undocumented children,” and “anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry” appear, unmoored from specifics and immune to scrutiny. Criticism of his policies is transmuted into moral threat.

RELATED: From accommodation to absurdity on campus

Photo by Kalpak Pathak/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Does this sanctimony disqualify Eisgruber from expressing it? Of course not. But neither does his status shield his arguments from judgment — especially when they rely on half-truths and conspicuous omissions.

The bureaucrat unmasked

In the end, “Terms of Respect” reveals less about free speech than about its author. Eisgruber is not a radical. He is something more familiar: the consummate bureaucrat — fluent in moral rhetoric, insulated from consequence, and committed above all to preserving the system that empowers him.

He resembles the warden of Shawshank Prison, assuring Andy Dufresne that appeals are pointless while maintaining the fiction of order as the institution decays around him.

Instead of “Terms of Respect,” higher education needs more Brandeisian sunlight — and yes, more of the “ugly media frenzies” that unsettle administrators who prefer darkness to accountability.

If that discomfort troubles the wardens of Shawshank University, so be it.

​Princeton, Free speech, Colleges, Universities, Uk, Opinion & analysis, Shawshank, Terms of respect, Christopher eisgruber, First amendment, Censorship, Charlottesville violence, Donald trump, Truth, Conor friedersdorf, Dei, Diversity equity inclusion 

Scrutiny over Minnesota’s leadership, including failed Democratic vice presidential candidate and current Gov. Tim Walz, has been mounting after massive Somali fraud schemes have been exposed in recent weeks. To add to those investigations, the Department of Justice is suing Minneapolis Public Schools for alleged racial discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed on December 9 and spearheaded by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ, accuses Minneapolis Public Schools of discrimination on the basis of race and sex.

‘A committed focus on reducing inequitable practices and behaviors in our learning places and spaces as well as supporting educators, specifically educators of color, in navigating and disrupting our District as a predominantly white institution.’

According to the lawsuit, the active collective bargaining agreement apparently provides for discriminatory treatment in favor of “underrepresented” teachers, resulting in allegedly discriminatory hirings, firings, and benefits, despite claims to the contrary by the defendants in the case.

Regarding Black Men Teach, the third-party organization included in the CBA, the DOJ says that the discriminatory practices are made “even more manifest” since “women, whites, Asians, and others need not apply.”

RELATED: ‘Beachhead of criminality’: Trump admin urges Walz to resign in light of ‘ghost students’ fraud scheme

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The collective bargaining agreement had other highly questionable sections as well. Notably, it promoted the creation of an Anti-Bias Anti-Racist Educator Development and Advisory Council, which explicitly states that it has “a committed focus on reducing inequitable practices and behaviors in our learning places and spaces as well as supporting educators, specifically educators of color, in navigating and disrupting our District as a predominantly white institution.”

“Employers may not provide more favorable terms and conditions of employment based on an employee’s race and sex,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a press release. “The Department of Justice will vigorously pursue employers who deny their employees equal opportunities and benefits by classifying and limiting them based on their race, color, national origin, or sex.”

“Discrimination is unacceptable in all forms, especially when it comes to hiring decisions,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “Our public education system in Minnesota and across the country must be a bastion of merit and equal opportunity — not DEI.”

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​Politics, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Tim walz, Governor tim walz, Black men teach, Somali fraud, Harmeet dhillon, Department of justice, Doj, Pam bondi, Dei, Racial discrimination 

An illegal alien truck driver, accused of causing a fatal crash, was reportedly released from custody after authorities failed to follow up with a case for prosecution.

‘How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public’s safety ahead of politics?’

Kamalpreet Singh, an Indian national who illegally entered the U.S. in 2023, is accused of causing a deadly multi-vehicle wreck on a Washington freeway on December 11.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that the Biden administration released Singh into the country despite his illegal entry. He obtained his commercial driver’s license in California, according to Fox News.

Singh allegedly rear-ended a Mazda driven by Robert Pearson, a 29-year-old American. The Mazda was pushed into a Peterbilt truck, causing the car to catch fire, Fox News reported.

Pearson died at the scene. Singh and the driver of the Peterbilt were not injured.

The semitruck driver reportedly spent just one day in King County jail before being released after posting $100,000 bond. The news outlet claimed that the bond money was returned to Singh after the arresting authority, the Washington State Patrol, failed to pursue a case for prosecution.

A WSP spokesperson told Blaze News, “In the course of our investigations, we have found [an] additional detail and needed to withdraw the original complaint so we can refile in the near future with that additional detail included. The case remains under active investigation.”

RELATED: Border Patrol nabs 49 illegal aliens with commercial driver’s licenses

Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer against Singh, it was not honored due to the state’s sanctuary policies.

“These demented and dangerous sanctuary policies have deadly consequences,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Robert Pearson would still be alive today if the Biden administration hadn’t released this illegal alien into our country. How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public’s safety ahead of politics?”

The DHS noted several recent crashes allegedly caused by illegal aliens.

RELATED: Illegal alien bus driver who can’t speak English allegedly kills American while ‘distracted by a video on his phone’

Photo by: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The department stated that Washington also ignored ICE’s detainer against truck driver Juan Hernandez-Santos, despite the criminal illegal alien being accused of causing a multi-vehicle pileup on December 4.

Rajinder Kumar, an illegal alien from India, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment after allegedly causing a crash in Oregon that resulted in the deaths of two people.

DHS also highlighted a detainer against Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India who was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, and Partap Singh, who allegedly caused a crash in California that left a 5-year-old with critical and life-altering injuries.

Kamalpreet Singh, Harjinder Singh, and Partap Singh are not believed to be related to one another.

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​News, Kamalpreet singh, Commercial driver’s licenses, Commercial driver’s license, Cdls, Cdl, Truck drivers, Truckers, American trucking industry, Trucking industry, Washington, California, King county, Washington state patrol, Wsp, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Politics 

The FBI never intended to reinstate Special Agent Steve Friend and is guilty of “gross misconduct” for violating “nearly every significant term” of a whistleblower settlement agreement signed by the Department of Justice in August, his attorney says — including failure to pay nearly $425,000 in back salary, pension, annual leave, and other benefits..

Attorney Kurt Siuzdak of Madison, Conn., filed a protected whistleblower disclosure Wednesday with U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), alleging multiple breaches of contract and bad faith. The complaint also alleges vindictiveness, citing how Friend’s firing was leaked to the New York Post a day before Friend himself was notified by FBI Director Kash Patel.

‘May God have mercy on your soul.’

“The FBI and its executive leadership have committed gross misconduct by immediately breaching the settlement agreement that was approved by the FBI and signed by the senior counsel to the Deputy Attorney General Vance D. Day,” Siuzdak wrote.

“Despite leaking to the press, Mr. Friend was fired for ‘veiled threats,’” Siuzdak said. “However, the fact is that since signing the settlement agreement on August 26, 2025, the FBI has breached the agreement and refused to abide by any terms of its settlement agreement with Mr. Friend.”

Friend was summoned to the FBI’s Daytona Beach Resident Agency on Saturday, Dec. 13, and was handed a termination letter signed by Patel.

Friend spent the previous five days at the Daytona office without any assigned duties, without a restored security clearance, service weapon, current credentials, or a bureau cell phone, Siuzdak said. The FBI also assigned someone to guard Friend while he was in the building, Siuzdak said.

Left: Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend at the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing in May 2023. Right: Friend and former Special Agent Kyle Seraphin at the premiere of the film “Police State” at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.Photos courtesy of Steve Friend

“The FBI took no action to reinstate until 74 days after the settlement agreement’s deadline had passed,” Siuzdak said. “Then, Mr. Kash Patel personally terminated Mr. Friend five days later …”

In the termination letter, Patel accused Friend of “unprofessional conduct and poor judgment” for his social media activity, including appearances on various podcasts offering opinions on FBI operations and slamming Patel and other senior leaders.

Patel drew specific attention to Friend’s Dec. 5 appearance on “The Kyle Seraphin Show,” hosted by the former FBI special agent from Texas.

Pipe-bomb patsy?

The men discussed the ongoing controversy over the bureau’s handling of the Jan. 6 pipe bombs case and the Dec. 4 arrest of Brian J. Cole Jr. as the alleged bomber. Cole was charged in federal court with planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee building and near the Republican National Committee building on the night of Jan. 5, 2021.

Both men expressed the view that Cole, 30, of Woodbridge, Va., is not the pipe bomber. The FBI arrested the wrong person to cover up alleged law enforcement involvement in the placing of the pipe bombs, they said. They noted that Cole is likely autistic and operates on the level of a 16-year-old, according to his grandmother.

“Whatever the motivation is, if you’re doing another put-up job on this guy — I think we spelled out a pretty compelling case that this probably ain’t the guy — then may God have mercy on your soul,” Friend said.

The alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber (left) stops and sits down at a bush next to the Congressional Black Caucus Institute the night of Jan. 5, 2021. A Capitol Police counter-surveillance officer (right) peers at something under the same bush just minutes before he discovered the pipe bomb at the nearby Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

“I’m going to end with this. I’m going to bring out my inner [Emperor] Commodus,” Friend said. “You better pray to Gaia or Vishnu or whatever your maker is that @RealSteveFriend is never in a position to be an instrument of God’s wrath. Because I will be merciful.”

“I won’t give you a trial and a hanging,” Friend said. “I’ll allow you to breathe every breath that your body will have for the rest of its natural life inside of a box. And then when it ultimately fades to black, that’s when real wrath begins.”

‘Kash Patel should be more concerned with his agency arresting the actual perpetrator of the January 6th pipe bombs.’

The firing was leaked in advance to Caitlin Doornbos of the New York Post, who sent Friend a text at 7:05 p.m. Eastern Dec. 12. In it, she made reference to the whistleblower advocacy group Empower Oversight dismissing Friend as a client on Dec. 5 — and suggested his latest podcast comments could cost him his job.

“I am writing a piece about them [Empower] firing you following the ‘wrath of God’ comments you made on Kyle Seraphin’s podcast that were apparently about FBI Director Kash Patel,” Doornbos wrote, according to a copy of the text obtained by Blaze News. “I have reporting that suggests these comments may also have put your employment with the FBI in jeopardy, and I’m wondering if you would like to respond?”

In an emailed letter, Empower told Friend it was terminating its legal representation because he did not abide by the firm’s advice not to speak about the FBI on social media. Empower founder Jason Foster and President Tristan Leavitt told Friend, “We are aware that, contrary to our previous advice, you once again commented publicly on FBI matters today, risking further adverse administrative action by the FBI.”

Empower is “no longer willing or able to expend further time and resources representing your interests or providing counsel moving forward,” read the letter, provided to Blaze News by Friend, who said he waived attorney-client privilege.

The Post story on Friend’s firing was published the next day, less than two hours after Friend reported to the Daytona office to be given his termination letter.

‘Deranged rant’

The story described Friend’s Dec. 5 podcast commentary as a “deranged rant,” “hot rhetoric,” an “outburst,” and “disturbing remarks.” The discussion about Cole being an alleged patsy to hide possible government involvement in placing the pipe bombs was described as a “bogus cover-up.” Friend’s ongoing social media commentary amounted to “bashing the FBI and weighing in on conspiracy theories.”

Friend said because the FBI was in breach of the settlement agreement, he did not consider himself an employee when making podcast appearances in recent months. “I always issued a qualifier that I was speaking on my own behalf and not a representative of any government entity,” he said. “It was a joke with the audience. I called myself a hobbyist podcaster.”

The remarks made on the Seraphin show were not intended as a threat, Friend said. He defended the comments in a statement to Blaze News.

“I stand by my remarks,” Friend said. “It isn’t a threat to say that public servants who willfully rob American citizens of their God-given liberty in order to advance their careers or earn positive media attention deserve to go to jail.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at a Dec. 4 press conference to announce the arrest of Brian J.Cole Jr. in the Jan. 6 pipe-bombs case. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The termination “was clearly an effort by the FBI director to besmirch my reputation to distract from his failures,” Friend said. “Kash Patel should be more concerned with his agency arresting the actual perpetrator of the January 6 pipe bombs than retaliating against me for pointing out they didn’t.”

Friend was first suspended from his job as a special agent in the Daytona Beach Resident Agency on Sept. 19, 2022, under President Joe Biden’s FBI director, Christopher Wray. He had previously lodged complaints with supervisors that the FBI’s plans to use SWAT teams to arrest a misdemeanor Jan. 6 suspect presented serious issues. He refused to take part.

‘The FBI had no real intent to reinstate Mr. Friend.’

“I expressed that I have an oath of office,” Friend said during an interview at his Florida home in October 2022. “And while I’m aware that an arrest warrant is a legal order from a judge, I have an oath to protect the Constitution.”

Friend said he was troubled when he was reassigned from investigating sexual trafficking of minors and young adults to working on the Joint Terrorism Task Force doing Jan. 6 casework. The Bureau broke with normal case management protocols by opening what ended up being nearly 1,600 criminal cases stemming from the protests and rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“They’ve chosen to open hundreds of cases and then spread them around the country,” Friend said in 2023. “That gives the impression that domestic terrorism is a nationwide threat, when really, the numbers the FBI is touting stem from one incident on one day.”

Friend resigned from the FBI in February 2023, a day before he was set to give transcribed testimony to the Republican-led U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. On May 18, 2023, he was among three FBI whistleblowers who testified before the select subcommittee about the retaliation against whistleblowers by the FBI for lawful, protected disclosures they made to Congress.

Relationship sours

Initially, Friend was part of an ad hoc group of Patel supporters who regularly communicated with the “Government Gangsters” author and co-host of “Kash’s Corner” on Epoch TV. The group ramped up activity after Patel was announced as President Donald Trump’s choice for FBI director in November 2024.

The group also included Seraphin, then-suspended Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, and George Hill, retired FBI national security intelligence supervisor, and others. After gaining Senate confirmation in February, Patel sent the men a text that read, “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

Patel planned to bring O’Boyle and Friend into the bureau with him, Friend said, but that never happened. As Patel was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he credited the group with helping put him across the finish line, according to a text message obtained by Blaze News.

After his nomination was announced by President Trump on Nov. 30, 2024, O’Boyle sent congratulations along with the statement, “Thank you, Kash, for what you’ve done for us.” Patel responded, “Thank you guys, you made this happen.”

“Thank you guys for your relentless friendship and mission love,” Patel wrote in a January text. “You guys made this possible.”

After the February Senate confirmation vote, Friend texted Patel, “Congratulations Director.” Patel responded, “Thank you guys. … Now we all go to work.”

A group of whistleblowers formed an ad hoc group to advise Kash Patel as he prepared for confirmation hearings to become FBI director. The men are now at great odds.Images courtesy of Steve Friend and Kyle Seraphin

As 2025 wore on and the bureau had not publicly announced plans to settle with O’Boyle and other suspended FBI whistleblowers, or offer any of the men a job, the men began criticizing their former ally Patel and his new deputy director, Dan Bongino.

Friend said Bongino offered to hire him in March. Friend said he talked about some kind of staff position, either as an agent or a special government employee.

Friend texted Bongino a reply on March 4, “Thank you for this opportunity. I’m honored to support you. Count me in.” Bongino wrote, “Excellent. I will be in touch.” That was the last Friend ever heard about it, he said.

On Aug. 21, Patel announced that the FBI had reached settlement agreements with 10 whistleblowers represented by Empower Oversight. The announcement caught some of the whistleblowers, who said they had not yet agreed to anything, off guard.

Friend signed his settlement agreement on Aug. 26. It was also signed by DOJ senior legal counsel Vance Day.

‘I couldn’t have done this without you.’

Friend said under the agreement, he is owed $450,000 in back pay and $61,431 in reimbursement for medical coverage. The FBI was required to reinstate him by Sept. 19. By that date, the FBI was to pay the back salary and insurance reimbursement, cancel his indefinite suspension, reinstate Friend’s security clearance, and “rescind and expunge employee’s removal and all related records concerning misconduct or poor performance,” the agreement said.

Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend speaks at a Collier County Republicans event in Naples, Fla.Photo courtesy of Steve Friend

Three days before it fired Friend as a client, Empower received some updates from the FBI. Friend began receiving deposits on Oct. 9, which the FBI said were salary. Friend says he had no idea what the payments were for, that he never received a pay/leave statement, and that he could not access his Employee Personal Page at the FBI National Finance Center. The FBI told Empower that Friend’s access to pay statements was restored Dec. 2.

The FBI further said it was processing paperwork to enroll Friend in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. As for the back pay and reimbursement, the FBI said, “Backpay calculations are pending for all employees.” None of the whistleblowers have thus far been paid their back salary.

During his five days in the Daytona office, Friend was assigned an FBI vehicle but was refused an FBI gas card, he said. Regulations prohibit personal use of FBI vehicles, so without any job duties, Friend parked the vehicle at his house.

“The vehicle served only to block his driveway and as a reminder that the FBI had no real intent to reinstate Mr. Friend,” Siuzdak wrote.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

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​Politics, January 6, Fbi whistleblowers 

The Chicago Bears are looking for a new stadium and that may end up leading them out of Chicago.

In fact, they could leave the state of Illinois all together.

‘Suggesting the Bears would move to Indiana is a startling slap in the face.’

Kevin Warren, Bears president and CEO, says the Bears need a new stadium because the current Soldier Field is now more than 100 years old. For several years, different ideas for nearby new or domed stadiums have been proposed, but the city has not signaled it would fund a project that would cost billions of dollars.

Some estimates, in fact, say a new stadium would cost $2 billion alone — with many more billions required for surrounding infrastructure, roads, and entertainment.

In September, Warren penned a letter saying that Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago, “is the only site” that meets the required standards to build a new facility and “elevated gameday experience.”

While the organization said it was willing to contribute $2 billion to the move, Warren also wrote that the Bears would continue to look elsewhere for appropriate building sites, “including Northwest Indiana.”

The governor’s office responded to the letter in a statement to WGN-TV, effectively saying that a private business like the Bears needs to pay for its own infrastructure.

“Suggesting the Bears would move to Indiana is a startling slap in the face to all the beloved and loyal fans who have been rallying around the team during this strong season,” said Matt Hill, spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker (D). “The governor’s a Bears fan who has always wanted them to stay in Chicago. He has also said that ultimately they are a private business.”

RELATED: Illinois governor signs law to counter Trump administration’s ‘depravity’ — DHS fires back immediately

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) was less harsh in his wording while also dismissing any idea that the Bears could move out of state.

“I’m going to keep a straight face here: The Bears belong in the city of Chicago,” the mayor said. “I’ve said repeatedly the door is open for conversations. … I firmly believe [the Bears’] best position is in the city of Chicago.”

The village of Arlington Heights also issued a statement, saying that after hearing about a possible move to Northwest Indiana, village leaders remained confident that their area is “the best option for their new stadium and entertainment district.”

The leaders added, “However, we understand their need to explore any and all viable locations as part of their due diligence process. Due to restrictive legislation in Illinois, this exploration now includes moving to Indiana.”

While the lack of public funding for the Bears may be heartbreaking for fans, the rejection of tax dollars being injected into sports franchises has been an increasing trend in recent years.

RELATED: ‘We’re still on the air, Tim’: Hockey announcer’s hot mic sexual remarks result in suspension

Photo by Jerry Driendl/Getty Images

In 2024, voters in Missouri rejected a proposed sales tax measure that would have funded new stadiums for both the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL) and the Kansas City Royals (MLB).

The Chiefs were asking for $500 million from taxpayers while forking over $300 million of its own funds. The Royals needed $2 billion for a sports district and were asking to split the bill 50/50. But voters rejected the calls for funding, according to Sports Illustrated.

In 2023, the Arizona Coyotes (NHL) asked for $200 million of a $2.1 billion plan to be paid by residents. The entertainment centrum would have included a new arena, two hotels, a 3,500-person theater, and up to 1,995 residential units. According to ESPN, the vote failed with 56% saying “no,” and the Coyotes moved their team to Utah.

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​Fearless, Football, Democrats, Illinois, Nfl, Taxpayer, Sports 

Earlier this month, Fulton County made a major admission in the ongoing election integrity cases surrounding the 2020 election. While it won’t change anything, the moment may help set the record straight about one of the most questioned elections in United States history.

In a December 9 Georgia State Elections Board hearing, a representative of Fulton County admitted that hundreds of thousands of votes were uncertified. The admission came in response to a March 2022 challenge brought by local election integrity activist David Cross.

‘When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.’

Cross alleged that Fulton County violated Georgia statute in the handling of advanced voting in the lead-up to the November 2020 election. Specifically he claimed that election officials failed to sign off on vote tabulation tapes, a crucial step in the certification process.

Cross claimed that his group paid nearly $16,000 in open records requests and received “over 77 megabytes of records” representing more than 315,000 votes.

RELATED: Trump triumphs as judge dismisses racketeering charges over 2020 election: ‘We are going to keep winning!’

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Cross also claimed to have found polls opened at “impossibly late hours” and other issues with the polls that he said represent “catastrophic breaks in chain of custody and certification.”

The activist emphasized that seeking redress in this case is above partisan politics: “This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law. When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.”

Ann Brumbaugh, an attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, admitted to the Georgia State Elections Board during the hearing: “I have not seen the tapes myself, but we do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule.”

Noting that the training, facility, and leadership have all been changed since the 2020 election, Brumbaugh added, “We don’t dispute the allegation from the 2020 election.”

During the hearing, Cross asked that Fulton County be sanctioned by the state elections board, that the county “publicly acknowledge their violations,” and for the state to decertify the 2020 advanced voting results.

Cross stressed that this was not a matter of score-settling “but instead to place an indelible and permanent asterisk on the record and finally force accountability.”

According to results reported at the time, Joe Biden won the state of Georgia and its 16 electoral votes by just under 12,000 and defeated Donald Trump in the Electoral College, 306-232.

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​Politics, Fulton county, President trump, 2020 election, David cross, Georgia state election board, Ann brumbaugh, Fulton county georgia, Georgia, Election integrity 

The Department of Homeland Security is running an end-of-year Christmas special to further incentivize illegal aliens to self-deport.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the department will be tripling the cash incentives from $1,000 to $3,000, urging illegal aliens to leave the country on their own. Illegal aliens who choose to self-deport through the CBP Home App will receive this bonus through the end of the year and may be eligible to re-enter the country legally in the future.

‘We’ll buy your ticket.’

“Well, it’s home for the holidays season,” Noem said on “Fox & Friends” Monday.

“Not only are we returning those kiddos back to their families that Biden lost, we also are saying that if you voluntarily want to go home now to your country, if you’re in this United States of America illegally, we will give you $3,000 through the holidays to send you home,” Noem added.

RELATED: Fly home or get caught: Trump’s TSA feeding ICE names before takeoff to nab illegal aliens ‘without apology’

Photo by ALEX BRANDON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, an estimated 1.9 million migrants have self-deported and another 622,000 have been removed by law enforcement. Noem is looking to boost those numbers, noting that illegal aliens who self-deport may have a future path to legal residency unlike migrants who are deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other law enforcement agencies.

“We’ll buy your ticket, give you $3,000 to go home, and that includes people that have not been detained, maybe have interacted with us, are detained and don’t have criminal charges against them,” Noem said. “Raise your hand! We’ll help you get home. We’ll facilitate it, and you might get the chance to come back to this country the right way someday.”

RELATED: ‘Disastrous program’: Trump administration pauses ‘diversity’ visa Brown University shooter used to enter United States

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“If you wait until we interdict you and detain you and arrest you and have to deport you ourselves, you’ll never get the chance to come back.”

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​Kristi noem, Donald trump, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Deportations, Mass deportations, Border crisis, Illegal aliens, Customs and border protection, Cbp, Ice, Self deportations, Politics 

A professor at the University of Washington was punished for having the audacity to poke fun at the school’s moral exhibitionism. Stuart Reges, a professor at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, fought back and, on Friday, secured a decisive victory.

Reges ruffled feathers at the university where he has worked for decades by including a parodic land acknowledgment in his 2022 course syllabus.

‘The Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land.’

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the outfit that represented Reges, the university recommended in its “best practices” guide that instructors incorporate an “Indigenous Land Acknowledgment” in their course syllabi, providing the following as an example statement: “The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations.”

In a December 2021 faculty email thread, one of Reges’ colleagues referred to an article that characterized land acknowledgments as “moral onanism.” Reges said in response that he was uncertain about the value of making such statements and noted that he might include a mock statement in his syllabus.

Sure enough, the professor included the following land acknowledgment on the syllabus of his winter 2022 computer science course: “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”

Administrators at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering punished Stuart Reges over his failure to conform, which they claimed had caused a “disruption to instruction” but had in reality enraged only ideologically delicate members of the faculty and the school’s DEI student committee.

RELATED: ‘Enough white guys already’: The war on white men because of DEI in the working world exposed in damning report

Stuart Reges. Courtesy of Twinkle Don’t Blink

The director of UW’s computer science department, Magdalena Balazinska, ordered Reges to remove the statement because it was supposedly “offensive” and generated a “toxic environment.”

According to court documents, when Reges refused to remove his dissenting statement, Balazinska unilaterally removed it, then apologized to Reges’ students, detailing ways that they could file complaints against their professor.

‘Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted.’

In addition to inviting students to switch out of Reges’ computer programming course and into a “shadow” class section taught by a different professor, university administrators launched a years-long disciplinary investigation into Reges.

In July 2022, Reges sued Balazinska, then-UW President Ana Mari Cauce, and other school officials, accusing them of violating his First Amendment rights.

“University administrators turned me into a pariah on campus because I included a land acknowledgment that wasn’t sufficiently progressive for them,” Reges said at the time. “Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted, even if it lands you in court.”

U.S. District Court Judge John Chun, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, dismissed Reges’ lawsuit last year, claiming that “the disruption caused by Plaintiff’s speech rendered it unprotected.”

Reges appealed and found a court that viewed his case differently.

In a 2-1 decision on Friday, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel disagreed with and reversed the Biden judge’s ruling, remanding the case for further proceedings.

Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, writing for the majority, noted, “Debate and disagreement are hallmarks of higher education. Student discomfort with a professor’s views can prompt discussion and disapproval. But this discomfort is not grounds for the university retaliating against the professor. We hold that the university’s actions toward the professor violated his First Amendment rights.”

Bress, an appointee of President Donald Trump, highlighted the long-standing debate over the value, factual basis, and political nature of land acknowledgments as well as Reges’ sense that they are part of “an agenda of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ that treats some groups of students as more deserving of recognition and welcome than others on account of their race or other immutable characteristic.”

While acknowledging the right of members of the UW community to speak out against Reges and his views, Bress stressed that “Reges has rights too. And here, we conclude that UW violated the First Amendment in taking adverse action against Reges based on his views on a matter of public concern.”

Will Creeley, the legal director of FIRE, said that the ruling “recognizes that sometimes, ‘exposure to views that distress and offend is a form of education unto itself.'”

“If you graduate from college without once being offended, you should ask for your money back,” added Creeley.

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​Education, Woke, Land acknowledgment, Leftism, Indian, Native, Indigenous, Stuart reges, University of washington, Seattle, Coast, Revisionism, Free speech, First amendment, Politics 

A father fell asleep after bringing his toddler daughter into a hot tub with him in the middle of the night, and she drowned, police in Florida said.

Deputies and rescue personnel responded to a home on Nice Court in Kissimmee just after 3:30 a.m. Dec. 13 regarding an unresponsive child who appeared to have drowned in a hot tub, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said.

‘It’s very hard losing a niece this way, and then we have so much hurt for my brother because he’s just so distraught and tore up.’

A family from Washington, D.C., was staying at the residence, which was listed as an Airbnb, officials said.

The 20-month-old girl was transported to AdventHealth Celebration where she was pronounced dead shortly after 4:30 a.m., officials said.

Sheriff’s office detectives responded to the home to investigate the incident, officials said, and the father said he brought his daughter into the hot tub and fell asleep while holding her. The father reported waking up to find the child unresponsive in his arms while still in the hot tub, officials said. According to WUSA-TV, he said the child was face down when he awakened.

Following the investigation, detectives determined that the father — 33-year-old Reynard Tyrone Hough — was neglectful in the death of his daughter and arrested him on a charge of child neglect causing great bodily harm.

On Dec. 14, detectives added an additional charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, officials said, adding that Hough was in custody at the Osceola County Jail.

Hough told detectives he was drinking that night, and police say alcohol likely contributed to him falling asleep, WESH-TV reported. Investigators told WUSA they saw various alcoholic drinks at the scene.

Hough also told detectives he ingested two different narcotics before getting into the hot tub with his daughter, WESH added.

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“It’s very hard losing a niece this way, and then we have so much hurt for my brother because he’s just so distraught and tore up,” Angel Hough, the sister of Reynard Tyrone Hough, told WESH.

Capt. Kim Montes with the sheriff’s office added to WESH: “I feel bad for this mom and dad; they were devastated, and they had another 6-month-old child at the home. We do know that watching two small kids can be challenging.”

Hough appeared in court last Monday and was issued no bond, WESH noted.

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​Drowning, Florida, Hot tub, Father and daughter, Toddler, Alcohol, Drugs, Arrest, Child neglect causing great bodily harm, Aggravated manslaughter, Crime 

A Utah man pretending to be a woman has learned his fate after pleading guilty last month to murdering his parents and assaulting his brother in June 2024.

On Friday, 30-year-old Mia Bailey, born Collin Troy Bailey, received two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life plus an additional consecutive sentence of up to five years after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated assault in connection with the gruesome shooting.

‘I would do it again. I hate them.’

“If only I had gotten help, this would have been preventable,” Bailey said in a statement read by his attorney, Ryan Stout, according to the New York Post. The statement added that Bailey was “sincerely, deeply sorry” and that his newfound “religious beliefs as a Muslim” would make the death penalty an “appropriate … atonement” for the crime.

“It makes me want to die because I can’t live with myself.”

Bailey had previously asked permission to skip the sentencing hearing, claiming that the stress of it might lead to a nervous breakdown, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Judge Keith Barnes of the Fifth District Court of Utah denied that request.

On June 18, 2024, Bailey shot and killed his parents, 70-year-old Joseph Bailey and 69-year-old Gail Bailey, in their home in Washington City, Utah. Joseph Bailey was struck twice, and his wife was struck four times.

One of Mia Bailey’s brothers was also in the home at the time, barricaded inside a bedroom with his wife. Mia Bailey shot through the bedroom door but did not injure anyone inside, according to reports. The husband and wife then fled to a neighbor’s house to call police.

Following his arrest on June 19, Bailey allegedly told investigators: “I would do it again. I hate them.”

RELATED: Groomed for violence? The dark world of furries and transgenderism in America’s classrooms

Bill Oxford/Getty Images

Two of Bailey’s siblings spoke at the sentencing hearing, though whether either of them was the third victim in the attack is unclear.

“What’s best for us and what’s best for Mia is probably staying in prison for as long as possible,” Cory Bailey said.

Dustin Bailey went farther, noting that the family fully supports “LGBTQ rights,” but that the “powerful hormones” Mia Bailey had taken exacerbated his “psychiatric crisis.”

“Providing powerful hormones to a person in a psychiatric crisis without proper psychiatric safeguards is not affirming care. It is reckless. … It acted as an accelerant, intensifying instability, impairing judgment, and compounding risk. That failure harmed Mia, and it endangered our parents,” Dustin Bailey said.

In arguing for concurrent rather than consecutive sentences, attorney Ryan Stout noted that Mia Bailey had been diagnosed with several mental illnesses: autism, psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD.

While Judge Barnes issued consecutive sentences, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will ultimately determine how much time Bailey serves.

Washington City is also the home of Tyler Robinson, the suspect accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk in September. Robinson’s alleged romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, reportedly identifies as transgender.

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Several forces are converging right now, and the result is a perfect storm of confusion, misinformation, apathy, and — most dangerously — runaway conspiracy thinking.

For a long time, I was consumed by true crime: real-life stories filled with mystery, fear, and emotional whiplash. I wasn’t alone. The genre became a full-blown cottage industry, complete with massive conferences, prestige documentaries, podcasts, and feature films.

The problem isn’t asking questions. It is speculation and insinuation masquerading as insight.

At first, I saw little harm in it — especially when victims or family members were included in the storytelling. But once Hollywood began churning out sensationalized, “based on a true story” dramatizations of real-life horrors, something felt wrong.

Then I heard the victims’ loved ones speak out.

They described the pain these projects inflicted — how strangers dissected their trauma, speculated about their grief, and turned the worst moments of their lives into consumable entertainment. In some cases, families practically begged studios to stop profiting from their suffering. The pleas went unanswered.

There is little sign that Tinseltown plans to slow down. Personal tragedy is no longer treated as personal. We’ve crossed a line into a world where strangers don’t just demand access to these stories — they claim ownership of them.

That entitlement hardens quickly. It manifests as amateur investigations, armchair sleuthing, and the conviction that someone online can solve what professionals could not. Too often, that obsession mutates into wild conspiracy theories — narratives untethered from evidence that deepen the damage inflicted on real people already living with loss.

Fueling all of this is another force: social media addiction.

Millions of Americans live on their phones. Filters are gone. Boundaries between public and private have crumbled. Every tragedy becomes content. Every rumor becomes a reel. Every high-profile event risks turning into a true-crime nightmare, complete with TikTok theories and Instagram speculation.

Not all of it is malicious. But much of it is steeped in a moral carelessness that should unsettle us. And while content creators deserve scrutiny, they aren’t the only culprits. Plenty of us are liking, sharing, and amplifying the madness.

That dynamic reached a horrifying peak on September 10, when conservative and Christian commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Almost immediately, conspiracy theories spread — many debunked within hours. In one case, a popular Christian apologist, a friend of Kirk who had been filming him speaking at Utah Valley University that day, was falsely accused of signaling the shooter through hand gestures. The claim was nonsense. It collapsed under minimal scrutiny.

No matter. The damage was done.

Other theories followed. Some insinuated betrayal by those closest to Kirk. Others implied inside involvement without evidence. Each claim compounded the grief of a family and community already reeling from an unspeakable loss.

The problem isn’t asking questions. It’s speculation and insinuation masquerading as insight.

If someone is going to promote conspiracy theories, basic decency demands evidence. To date, none has been produced. And yet the claims persist — entertained, shared, and believed.

RELATED: ‘Conspiracy theory’ is just media code for ‘we hope this never comes out’

Photo by Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images

I can’t entirely blame people for their skepticism. In 2016, I wrote a book called “Fault Line” warning that media bias carries real-world consequences. When trust erodes, people stop listening to official narratives altogether. Combine that with the government’s incoherent and often dishonest messaging during COVID, and the ground was primed for disbelief.

For years, progressives dismissed concerns about institutional credibility. Now we’re living with the consequences. A toxic cocktail of distrust, trauma, and algorithmic amplification has left many people — especially the young — drunk with suspicion and untethered from reality.

Add in social media saturation, obsession with true crime, collapsing trust in institutions, and the undeniable presence of evil in the world, and you have a generation raised inside a pressure cooker of dysfunction.

We need to cling to truth. We need to model discernment. We need to help people learn how to question responsibly — without tumbling into conspiracism — and how to rebuild boundaries that preserve perspective and humanity.

Truth-seeking should guide us, not digital frenzy or the dark impulses of the human soul. If we fail to make that distinction, the damage will only deepen.

We must be better.

​Opinion & analysis, Conspiracy theory, Charlie kirk, Truth, Lies, Question, Social media, Media bias, Conservatives, Tpusa, Am fest