Few surveillance products have ever been named more appropriately than Flock. A flock of sheep has no rights. It exists to be watched, counted, and managed by whoever owns the field. That increasingly resembles how government treats Americans as officials cover streets and neighborhoods with cameras under the familiar but false promise of public safety.

Flock’s automated license-plate readers are not ordinary security cameras. They record every passing vehicle, capturing plate numbers, makes, colors, damage, bumper stickers, and other identifiers. Those records enter a private cloud that participating local and federal agencies can search across a network of more than 116,000 devices.

Swapping freedom for security rarely delivers either. A government that refuses to control criminals should not receive limitless power to track everyone else.

The system can reveal patterns of life: who visits a church, clinic, protest, political meeting, or friend’s home. It can do so without individualized suspicion and often without a warrant.

Tracking plates means tracking people across time and space. These cameras do not sit only along highways. They appear in residential neighborhoods and on local streets. InvestigateTV demonstrated how Flock’s Condor cameras can move and follow an individual within view.

When asked whether he envisioned “a future with a Flock camera on every street corner,” Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley said yes. He described an America where crime no longer exists.

The sales pitch is always safety. The practical result is a searchable record of ordinary people’s movements.

Local media in Windsor, Connecticut, reported that a resident’s public records request revealed more than 500,000 third-party searches of camera data in nine weeks. Officials may insist that systems like Flock exist only to recover stolen vehicles or locate dangerous suspects. A database this valuable will inevitably attract more agencies, more vendors, and more uses.

Government surveillance programs always begin with sympathetic cases: stolen cars, missing children, wandering dementia patients, and violent fugitives. Those benefits are real. They do not answer the central question. Should every citizen become continuously searchable because the technology sometimes helps police solve a crime?

After the COVID era, Americans have no excuse for assuming that every agency will use sweeping powers narrowly. Officials used emergency authorities, corporate data, and private platforms in ways the public was repeatedly assured would never happen. A permanent vehicle-tracking network deserves more skepticism, not less.

Flock’s defenders also evade the real cause of persistent crime. Police rarely lack the ability to identify repeat juvenile carjackers and other violent offenders. The deeper failure lies in prosecutors, judges, legislators, and “criminal justice reform” policies that return dangerous offenders to the street.

The Baltimore region illustrates the contradiction. Flock cameras dot the area, yet juvenile carjackings remain rampant because offenders often face little meaningful punishment. Cameras may help identify the same criminal again. They cannot supply the deterrence that prosecutors and courts refuse to impose.

RELATED: America’s newest jail has no walls

Blaze Media Illustration

We already know how to reduce violent crime: incapacitate repeat offenders and impose sentences severe enough to deter others. Government instead weakens punishment, tolerates disorder, and then asks the public to surrender more privacy to manage the consequences.

Resistance to automated plate readers is growing across liberal and conservative communities. Residents have vandalized or dismantled cameras, while local officials have voted to ban or remove them. In conservative counties, however, sheriffs often become the greatest obstacle to reform because state and federal grants subsidize the equipment and stretch cash-starved departmental budgets.

Programs such as the Homeland Security Grant Program, State Homeland Security Program, Urban Areas Security Initiative, Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, and COPS Office Technology and Equipment Program can finance systems that local departments could not otherwise afford. Counterterrorism and infrastructure protection become convenient justifications for constructing a domestic surveillance network.

The incentives are understandable. Sheriffs cannot control soft prosecutors, lenient judges, or lawmakers who empty jails. They can control front-end policing, and grants let them expand their technological reach. But frustration with failed criminal-justice policy does not justify treating every driver as a suspect.

RELATED: We’re winning the fight against Flock — but the surveillance isn’t going away that easily

Cindy Schultz/Washington Post/Getty Images

Nor should Americans assume that every officer with access will behave honorably. More than 20 documented cases of police misuse have surfaced since 2023. Officers have reportedly used the system to stalk romantic partners and rivals. One Idaho officer searched his wife’s movements more than 700 times, labeling the queries “test” to avoid suspicion.

That abuse is not an aberration from the system’s purpose. It is the predictable result of giving thousands of people effortless access to intimate location data with weak oversight.

Flock presents Americans with a false choice between crime and constant surveillance. We can enforce the law, incapacitate violent offenders, and protect communities without allowing government to reconstruct every citizen’s daily movements.

The answer to failed policing is better policing. The answer to lenient prosecution is accountability. The answer to repeat offenders is punishment. None requires a camera on every corner or a permanent cloud archive of where every American has been.

Swapping freedom for security rarely delivers either. A government that refuses to control criminals should not receive limitless power to track everyone else.

​Crime prevention, Federal agencies, Flock cameras, Government control, Government surveillance, Public safety, Law enforcement, Covid, Surveillance state, Opinion & analysis 

The latest economic data suggests that the United States may finally be moving in the right direction.

Inflation is slowing. Production is expanding. Unemployment claims remain subdued. After years of punishing price increases, Americans may be entering the long process of rebuilding the purchasing power they lost during the Biden administration.

Repair will take time. But slower inflation, stronger production, and rising real income show that the process may finally have begun.

That recovery will not happen quickly. Prices will not simply return to 2019 levels. But a more disciplined federal government, lighter regulation, and stronger private-sector production can gradually ease the affordability crisis.

June brought the largest monthly decline in headline consumer prices in six years. Overall prices fell 0.4%, led by a sharp drop in oil and gasoline prices.

That marked the largest monthly decrease since 2019 and moved inflation closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Truflation’s private consumer price index recently placed inflation at 2.04%, almost exactly at the Fed’s stated goal.

The ideal inflation rate should be zero, and prices should sometimes fall as productivity improves. Still, the slowdown represents real progress.

Gasoline prices contributed heavily to the decline, falling 10% as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz increased oil supplies. The Wall Street Journal reported that the cooling extended broadly across the economy.

The response to lower oil prices should remind policymakers how essential fossil fuels remain to modern life. Energy prices shape transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and nearly every consumer good.

Interest rates also offer some encouraging signs.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes remains near 4.5%, slightly below its recent peak, economist Robert Genetski noted in his weekly report. Gold prices have also trended downward, suggesting greater confidence in the dollar.

Most important, the productive economy continues to expand.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index reached 53.3% in June. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion, though growth slowed slightly from May.

RELATED: The housing bill from hell targets red America

Carlofranco/Getty Images

The services index registered 54%, marking the sector’s 24th consecutive month of expansion.

As production grew, unemployment data also beat expectations. Initial and continuing jobless claims both declined by thousands.

Taken together, the numbers point toward genuine economic improvement. Inflation and interest rates are moving closer to pre-pandemic norms. The economy is also benefiting from President Trump’s renewed regulatory relief and the tax cuts enacted through last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Much more work remains.

The federal policy reversal began only about 18 months ago and has faced resistance in Congress and the courts. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s promised monetary reforms have yet to take effect.

Housing remains the most serious obstacle.

June retail sales were mediocre, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. New-home construction also remains badly depressed. Genetski noted that the July homebuilders’ confidence index came in at an anemic 34, far below the break-even level of 50.

Warsh has nevertheless said the right things about monetary discipline.

He has repudiated the artificially low interest-rate policies the Fed pursued after the 2008 financial crisis and has acknowledged the central bank’s responsibility for inflation.

“Inflation’s a choice,” Warsh told the House Financial Services Committee last week. Monetary policymakers, he said, must choose lower inflation instead of shifting blame elsewhere.

The Fed made disastrous choices during the Biden administration.

Consumer prices rose 21.17% from January 2021 through January 2025. The median price of a new home increased even faster, climbing 28.9%.

Those prices will not fall back to their pre-pandemic levels. The spending explosions of 2021 and 2022 permanently reduced the dollar’s purchasing power.

Affordability will therefore improve through a slower process. Wages and investment income must rise while businesses produce more goods and services. Government must stop suppressing that production through excessive spending, taxation, regulation, and monetary manipulation.

One encouraging sign is that after-tax, inflation-adjusted personal income per capita has begun rising again after collapsing during the Biden years.

Further tax and spending reforms would accelerate that recovery.

Millennials and Generation Z have suffered badly during the affordability crisis. They entered adulthood facing soaring housing costs, expensive credit, stagnant purchasing power, and a federal government that made nearly every basic milestone harder to reach.

RELATED: ‘Need a cop? Thank socialism’ is dumb — but dangerously effective

Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Those conditions help explain young Americans’ growing attraction to socialism and even communism.

When people believe capitalism offers no path toward home ownership, family formation, or financial security, radical alternatives begin to look appealing. That does not make those alternatives sound. It shows how economic failure can erode political judgment.

A sustained recovery could reverse that trend.

Lower inflation, rising real income, greater housing production, and stronger private investment would reduce the despair that fuels radical politics. Economic reform could create a virtuous cycle in which greater prosperity lowers social tension and weakens support for destructive ideologies.

The federal government still spends far too much. Welfare programs remain riddled with fraud. Social Security faces a severe funding crisis within the next several years.

Yet policy has begun moving, however slowly, toward reducing the enormous burden federal spending and regulation place on American workers, entrepreneurs, and producers.

A favorable resolution to the Iran conflict would strengthen the economy further by lowering geopolitical risk and stabilizing energy markets.

The greatest danger now is impatience. The federal government, the central bank, businesses, workers, and investors are trying to turn the country away from an inefficient, government-dominated economy and back toward free-enterprise capitalism.

That repair will take time.

But slower inflation, stronger production, and rising real income show that the process may finally have begun.

​Federal government, Housing prices, Inflation, Capitalism, Market inflation, Federal reserve, Kevin warsh, Monetary policy, Opinion & analysis 

Ben & Jerry’s may have built its brand on ice cream, but these days, you wouldn’t even know the company sells ice cream by looking at its social media feeds.

The Vermont-based company is releasing videos attacking ICE, criticizing immigration enforcement, and championing progressive causes — as if customers asked for a dousing of political lectures with their ice cream. And the messaging has become so incessant that even the parent company is pushing back on the brand’s aggressive activism.

“Now, a lot of companies have dialed back, but not the biggest culprit: Ben & Jerry’s. Ben & Jerry’s actually has been not just not dialing it down, but ramping it up lately,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says, before playing a video the company posted attacking ICE.

– YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

“Let’s break the ice,” the video begins. “Congress just voted to spend 70 billion of our tax dollars to fully fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029 with no oversight, no accountability, and no restrictions. At the same time, ICE continues to detain people at a staggering rate, holding at least 60,000 people in inhumane detention centers with plans to deport them to countries most of them have never stepped foot in before.”

“People from all walks of life — grandparents, kids, pregnant women — are being taken from their neighborhoods, locked up in awful conditions, and denied basic care. Almost 50 people have died since January 2025, and the administration has blocked members of Congress from visiting these facilities multiple times, despite Congress’ legal right to do so,” it continued.

“Our tax dollars are supporting this abuse of power. People are being stripped of their rights and denied their dignity. Federal agents hide behind masks and closed doors. We need eyes on ICE detention centers now.”

“First of all, I’m going to need you to show your work,” Gonzales scoffs. “Second of all, nobody follows Ben & Jerry’s for that.”

The company also used its Twitter account to “simp for the illegal who tried running ICE agents down with his car.”

“I could go on and on,” Gonzales says, adding that the company also has posted ads celebrating transgenders in women’s sports and has been encouraging No Kings protests.

“Apparently they even created a new flavor to imply that President Trump is an authoritarian,” she continues.

“Just sell the ice cream,” she adds.

And Gonzales might just get what she wants, as the company’s political activism may be coming to a screeching halt.

“Ben & Jerry’s is actually owned by Magnum. And years ago when the company was sold, Ben and Jerry put in a board to ensure that they could keep pushing their woke messaging, but Magnum is like, ‘Nah, no thanks. Pass,’” Gonzales explains, playing a video Ben of Ben & Jerry’s put out complaining about receiving pushback from the parent company for the messaging.

“Maybe instead of focusing on Donald Trump being a made-up king, it sounds like you guys have some kings in your midst,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Ben & jerry’s, Donald trump, Illegal immigration, No kings protests, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

Tech billionaire Elon Musk ripped into a media figure who was trying to characterize him as supporting “far right” political and media figures.

Musk was being challenged by Economist editor in chief Zanny Minton Beddoes when he took over the interview to lob accusations of unfair bias at members of the mainstream media.

‘I would just like to admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense!’

“You support not just the populist right but the far right, in fact very fringe parties in some countries,” Beddoes said.

“No, I support the normal people. What you call the far right, falsely,” Musk replied.

“You think is the normal person?” she asked.

“Yes!” he responded.

“Literally you could go back 10 or 15 years, and these policies were completely normal. In fact, one of the tricks I think is quite funny is to take a speech from [former President Barack] Obama and Hillary [Clinton] and then go to someone who’s … on the sort of what I call the lunatic left and say, ‘What do you think of this speech by [President Donald] Trump?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh wow, he’s the worst person ever!'” he opined.

“Actually, that was a speech by Obama, or actually that was a speech by Hillary. Literally!” he added.

Beddoes appeared exasperated with the response.

“No, I agree that the center of gravity in this country has shifted. Certainly the Democratic Party has shifted to the left, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” she said.

“Not fringe right, please. It’s actually just normal people. … And here are the principles, and tell me which of these sound terrible: that we should have secure borders, that we should have safe cities, that we should have sensible spending. Which of those three are far-right fringe?” he responded.

“And I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right. It is false and misleading and nonsense!” Musk added.

“Please keep this part in!” he joked.

“We’ll keep all of this in,” she replied.

“Don’t cut this part!” he laughed.

Video of the exchange was posted to social media by a United Kingdom Parliament member who had been called right-wing by Beddoes.

RELATED: Elon Musk wants ‘historically accurate’ ‘Odyssey’ movie — and may put his money where his mouth is

Elsewhere in the interview, Musk predicted that artificial intelligence may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about five years.

“There really won’t be anything that AI can’t do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” he said.

He said the most likely outcome is an age of “amazing abundance” when anyone can have “anything they can think of.”

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​Elon musk, Mainstream media, Artificial intelligence, Media bias, Politics 

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said there are a lot of people who are interested in what he and his colleagues have to say.

Kimmel boasted off the back of his best month of ratings ever, directly after his pal Stephen Colbert left the CBS airwaves.

‘It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show.’

Couch surfing

Colbert took over “The Late Show” in 2015 from host David Letterman, eventually nose-diving into a $40 million annual loss for his network before leaving in May.

When asked if Colbert’s viewership had made its way over to his show, Kimmel told Variety, “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage.”

It was later in the same interview that Kimmel explained he had a plan to get Colbert back behind the desk on his own network, ABC/Disney, and host for at least some period of time on his show.

For his summer break, which just started, Kimmel revealed he had asked Colbert if he would do him the honor of guest hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

However, Colbert reportedly declined on the grounds that it was too soon.

“Of course, I asked him, and I think it feels premature,” Kimmel told the outlet. “But I told him, ‘Anytime you want to host, it doesn’t matter if it’s the summer, I’ll gladly step aside.'”

RELATED: EMMY-BARRASSMENT: TV king Taylor Sheridan snubbed, while canceled Colbert cleans up

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Host with the most

The allegation that Colbert fans changed the dial over to ABC in June comes after Kimmel averaged 3.15 million viewers, his best monthly audience ever in the show’s 23 years.

Kimmel jabbed at CBS, thanking them “for their wisdom,” while adding, “We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”

The viewership marks a 17% increase from May with a doubling of viewers in the 18-49 market.

The 58-year-old Kimmel took the chance to dump on the podcast market during the recent interview, saying his numbers blow them away.

“It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show,” Kimmel bragged.

“There’s still a lot of people watching late-night television, and I include the other shows in that,” he said. “And there are still a lot of people looking at our shows on YouTube the next day, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in what we have to say. They may … not necessarily be watching it on their TV, but it seems like a little bit of people are coming back to their old friend television.”

RELATED: Tan-splaining Colbert celebrates ‘scandal-free’ Obama at new presidential center opening

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images

Summer slots

Kimmel’s summer break is set to feature a revolving door of some of Hollywood’s most memorable cogs like Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, and Rosie O’Donnell.

Other hosts include actor Colman Domingo and musician Jelly Roll.

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​Television, Jimmy kimmel, Stephen colbert, Cbs, Abc, Entertainment 

Yes — a meat cleaver.

The tool typically used to chop animal bones and cut through thick pieces of meat was used as a weapon during a road rage attack in northeast Queens early Thursday morning, leaving a 47-year-old man with multiple wounds, the New York Post reported.

No arrests have been made at this time.

The violent confrontation unfolded around 5:35 a.m. near the intersection of 126th Street and 26th Avenue in the waterfront neighborhood of College Point after an apparent vehicle collision and argument.

According to police, the suspect was armed with a meat cleaver and stabbed the victim in the head, chest, and arm before fleeing the scene.

Emergency responders rushed the victim to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

The victim had been driving a white Toyota Sienna minivan at the time of the attack.

Investigators recovered the meat cleaver allegedly used in the assault; it’s seen on the street as police taped off the area in the WABC-TV video below.

RELATED: Thug shoves elderly woman off NYC subway platform, onto tracks in reportedly random attack

The suspect is described as an Asian man wearing a white shirt and jeans. Police have not released any information about the vehicle he was driving.

No arrests have been made as the search for the suspect continues.

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​Assault, Police, Road rage, Meat cleaver, Queens, Suspect at large, Crime 

Democrat Bob Brooks is running for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District as the common man’s champion. The numbers tell a different story.

Since becoming Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association president in a 2021 special election, Brooks’ total compensation increased by roughly 10%, while funding for first responders’ representational activity fell by 18%. Department of Labor filings reveal that general overhead expenses increased by 38% during Brooks’ presidency, funded by a 14% hike in membership dues.

‘Bob Brooks’ entire career has been one big cash-grab.’

Representational activities, including collective bargaining and workplace dispute resolution, are a union’s core functions. General overhead includes salaries and administrative costs.

The PPFFA did not respond to a request for comment.

Brooks was paid $45,199 in the partial fiscal year ending August 2022, according to DOL filings. That climbed to $57,917 in 2023, $61,709 in 2024, and $63,715 by August 2025. Brooks retained his nearly $77,000 salary as a firefighter for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, through early 2025.

Brooks is running against one-term incumbent Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who unseated Democrat Susie Wild to secure his seat.

“Bob fought fires in Bethlehem for 20 years to keep his community safe, and as president of his union, he has delivered higher wages and better health care for his members. His salary was set by his membership, and he had no role in that vote,” a Brooks campaign spokesperson told Blaze News. “His opponent, Ryan Mackenzie, opposes collective bargaining and doesn’t understand the challenges working people face because he’s never worked a job outside of politics in his entire life.”

Most of the increase in Brooks’ total compensation came from allowances and disbursements, not salary increases. The Brooks campaign did not dispute the union’s Department of Labor filings.

RELATED: New Jersey’s noncitizen voter blame game doesn’t add up — literally

Joe Lamberti/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Union members’ monthly dues rose by 14% during that same period. In August 2022, members were expected to pay $14.30 a month. This rose to $14.94 in August 2023, rose again to $15.86 in 2024, and finally hit $16.26 in August 2025.

The PPFFA is a mid-sized statewide union representing over 6,000 members.

The dues weren’t put toward expanded collective bargaining activity or worker representation. Spending on collective bargaining and workplace advocacy under Brooks dropped 18%, from $110,174 in the fiscal year ending in August 2022 to $90,196 in 2025.

General overhead rose 38% over the same period, climbing from $81,722 to $112,397.

“Bob Brooks’ entire career has been one big cash-grab. While Bob sells himself as a champion for workers, he illegally skipped out on providing workers’ compensation coverage for his own employees and raided the pockets of the union workers he was supposed to represent,” Mackenzie campaign spokesperson Andrew Weller told Blaze News. “Bob’s campaign is just his latest con job — this time targeting the people of the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos.”

Brooks courted controversy in April when he referred to volunteer firefighters as “two hatter s**tbags” and “scabs,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. A two hatter is a unionized firefighter who volunteers in his off-duty time.

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​Department of labor, Ryan mackenzie, Pennsylvania, Politics