Spencer Pratt has ended his campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, but he says his fight against the two remaining candidates is just beginning.

And we thought all we had to look forward to was an electrifying debate between Nithya Raman and incumbent Karen Bass about shade trees.

‘This is not really a Republican or Democrat issue. … It’s a commonsense, quality-of-life issue.’

Pratt hardly needs his name on the ballot to steal focus from the two Democrats. The meme magic has been particularly strong with him since he first announced his candidacy — thanks especially to behind-the-scenes creators like digital media guru Nick Ward.

‘Weekend’ warrior

Back in 2020, Ward had a killer idea capitalizing on the Trump/Biden presidential race — but he knew Hollywood wouldn’t so much as give it the time of day.

So he decided to DIY it instead.

Ward’s “Weekend at Biden’s” comedy video swiftly went viral, generating millions of views with his wacky riff on 1989’s “Weekend at Bernie’s.” The clip shows Joe Biden’s advisers attempting to trick the country into thinking he’s still very much alive.

Last month, Ward found inspiration in a battle just as contentious as that presidential match-up: the tight L.A. mayoral race between incumbent Karen Bass and reality show star-turned-candidate Spencer Pratt.

The clip spoofs director Ridley Scott’s classic Apple ad from 1984 featuring a “Big Brother”-style threat. Here, it’s Mayor Bass as Big Sister, telling her bedraggled citizens not to believe their eyes and ears.

“There is no reason to change mayors. Our city is fine,” the dystopian Bass asserts. “There is no homelessness. There is no fire damage. There is no crime.”

“No one’s buying it,” Ward said of Bass’ attempt to spin the truth during her re-election campaign.

He says Californians know it’s “not normal to see a threat on the side of the road and tell your nervous system to ignore it.”

Hammer time

The clip retains the iconic female athlete throwing a hammer into the projection, a figure emblematic of the frustrations felt across Los Angeles. “It speaks to a lot of Los Angeles moms, people who want to feel safe,” Ward said.

The clip was quickly picked up by actor James Woods (5.3 million followers on X), generating hundreds of thousands of views in addition to the eyeballs shared from Ward’s account, @Weekend_Bidens.

“The cat gets out of the bag. … You have no control in a way,” he said of the clip’s early adoption. “I’m walking around South Beach. … Within an hour or two it had gone up to 30K or 50K views.”

Ward made the video independently of Pratt’s campaign, but he makes no bones about his intentions.

“This is not really a Republican or Democrat issue. … It’s a commonsense, quality-of-life issue,” Ward tells Blaze Media Lifestyle of his Pratt support.

RELATED: Hate-spewing Jimmy Kimmel mocks homeless Spencer Pratt with U-Haul gag

Dimitrios Kambouris/Randy Holmes/Getty Images

Truth in comedy

Ward may be building a brand as a go-to political satirist, but he spent his college days honing his improv comedy chops. Now, he’s tapping into the digital world’s viral reach as well as what AI can offer those challenging the media’s groupthink.

He understands the power of humor, something late-night comedians have attempted to marshal for some time. Except the Kimmels and Stewarts of the world are working at a disadvantage, as he sees it.

“I think one of the issues with the left, so to speak, is that they can’t really be funny,” he said. “Comedy is about truth. … They’re not telling the truth.”

“Someone like Gavin Newsom tries to be funny, but it comes off very off-key,” he added.

Since most mainstream comedy platforms lean to the left, that’s given creators like him an opening.

“In some ways there’s been an artificially suppressed supply with that. There is a lot of demand,” he said.

The best satirical clips “speak about what’s unspoken, touching on something you’re not supposed to touch.” It’s one reason he hasn’t had to dig in his pocket for his latest clip’s promotion. It’s being shared organically.

There’s a method to his viral video madness, one that others have understood for ages.

“Leading with comedy is so great. Culture comes before politics,” he said, adding that there’s “a lot to laugh about in California” today.

AI auteur

Ward began making viral video content in 2020, and he didn’t have the wonders of AI at the time. He worked with a professional visual effects team without access to ChatGPT or Grok.

“I used to be so frustrated with stock images and being so limited,” he said. Now, with AI, “I can still do the whole editing process but just make myself the assets and be specific about it.”

The technology still has some hiccups. He notes how AI videos may degrade over time, forcing him to work in shorter segments.

“You try to change one thing, and [the onscreen character] may grow an extra arm or leg,” he said. “I have a few tips and tricks I use. Shorter is better.”

Ward isn’t hiding his partisan approach, but he also hopes his videos do more than ding the Bass campaign.

“I like making dialogue happen between people who aren’t necessarily talking to each other or hearing each other,” he said of his clips. “It’s an opportunity to bring people back into the conversation.”

​Ai, Chatgpt, Gavin newsom, Karen bass, Los angeles, Ridley scott, Spencer pratt, Viral video, Nick ward, Campaign, Lifestyle, Weekend at bernies, Toto recall 

Seven days after Maine’s June primary election, questions are emerging about the handling of ranked-choice voting results after reporting issues surfaced in several communities across the state, raising concerns about transparency, chain of custody procedures, and public confidence in the vote-counting process.

The Maine Wire began investigating the irregularities after receiving tips early Tuesday morning alleging problems with election results being processed by the Maine Secretary of State’s Office during the ongoing ranked-choice voting tabulation.

Bellows has still offered no clear public explanation. No timeline. No findings. No corrective action.

The first report involved the City of Biddeford, where election results appeared to be missing from the state’s ranked-choice voting count.

Seeking answers, we traveled to Biddeford City Hall and met with Interim City Clerk Crystal Morin and Communications Director Danica Lamontagne.

According to city officials, the election results were not missing. Instead, they explained that the city had inadvertently sent the wrong flash drive to the Secretary of State’s Office following Election Day.

Officials said the flash drive that was originally sent contained local election results rather than the state election results required for the ranked-choice tabulation process.

City officials further confirmed that investigators from the Secretary of State’s Office later traveled to Biddeford, retrieved the correct flash drive, and transported it to Augusta.

The incident raises several questions, including why it took seven days to discover that the incorrect flash drive had been submitted and what chain-of-custody procedures were in place to ensure the correct flash drive remained secure during that period.

Questions also remain regarding how the error was identified and whether any additional safeguards exist to prevent similar issues in future elections.

RELATED: ‘Some noncitizens’ on the voter rolls: Maine secretary of state resists efforts for election transparency

Shenna Bellows. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images

Biddeford was not the only municipality where election-related issues emerged.

The Maine Wire also confirmed with officials in the City of Bath that there was a delay involving election results submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Bath City Clerk Diane Barnes confirmed that a delay occurred but said the results were ultimately delivered to Augusta. No explanation was provided regarding the nature of the delay or what caused it.

Meanwhile, officials in the Town of Bowdoinham confirmed that issues arose with ballot scanning following Election Day.

Town officials said ballots needed to be rescanned. However, rather than conducting the rescanning process locally, the ballots were picked up by Maine State Police and transported to Augusta, where the Secretary of State’s Office would conduct the rescanning.

The situation raises additional questions about the verification process used by local election officials and whether municipal clerks were able to independently confirm the election results before ballots were transferred to state officials for rescanning.

Despite reports of issues in multiple communities, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) has not publicly addressed the incidents as of Tuesday afternoon.

No public statement has been issued explaining the Biddeford flash drive error, the reported delay in Bath, or the ballot rescanning issue in Bowdoinham.

Bellows has become something of an infamous secretary of state. In 2024, she attempted to meddle in an election when she tried to remove President Donald Trump from Maine’s 2024 primary ballot, a unilateral move that plunged the state into legal chaos before being ultimately overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Later, 250 absentee ballots surfaced in Newburgh inside an Amazon package. Bellows has still offered no clear public explanation. No timeline. No findings. No corrective action.

This story was originally published at the Maine Wire. You can read more here.

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​Maine, Election, Shenna bellows, Politics 

Spencer Pratt may have lost his election, but he’s making it clear that he’s not going anywhere.

“Democrats were hoping once they stole the election from Spencer Pratt that he would just, you know, hang his head in shame and walk away. That would be the end of Spencer Pratt. They hoped that they could just essentially kill his budding political career,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“They did not kill his political career, and he is just getting started,” she adds, before playing Pratt’s latest video — which is somehow even more powerful than his campaign ads.

“The campaign portion of my mission to save Los Angeles is coming to a close, and I’m moving on to the next, more interesting phase,” Pratt began.

“I’ve spent a lot of time slaying everybody. I’ve ridiculed everyone on the roster. And I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to take the chance to apologize to absolutely nobody. You think you can get rid of me that easily?” he asked.

“I know a lot of dim-witted jerks thought I was in this for a grift, that I was going to roll up and leave town if I didn’t get into City Hall,” he continued.

“Hey, morons, I didn’t get in this for political power. I got in this to expose this corrupt machine, and nothing has changed. You enjoy your worthless meetings in City Hall,” he added.

Pratt went on to declare “war,” explaining that he no longer has to “worry about offending CNN viewers.”

“I don’t have campaign laws hamstringing me now. It’s war. It’s zero hour for Los Angeles. Angelenos are now stuck with two morons responsible for all their problems. And they have to choose between dumb and dumber,” he said.

“That’s not a choice,” he continued. “That’s the machine protecting the machine. And now every problem that plagues Los Angeles because of these two corrupt communists is going to accelerate, and the city will tumble headlong into the abyss.”

Pratt also explained that major developers, hotels, business owners, and entrepreneurs have been reaching out to say they’re leaving town.

“You have no idea how bad things are about to get for this city,” he said.

Pratt even floated that he has “some recordings” of one of the mayoral candidates “doing and saying something that would make her resign in shame.”

“I was saving it for the general election. Go ahead and pick your demon, certify your choice, and then you get to see it,” he said. “So Karen, Nithya, ask yourself: Is it possible that one of your employees may have a recording of you doing or saying something that would force you to resign in disgrace?”

“We’re flipping the script. I want all of you awake at night sweating and worried about 5:00 a.m., when the FBI blazers bust in the door, breaking open your office, because I assure you, they’re coming. You think your election was going to stop me?” he asked. “If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to … kill me.”

Wheeler loved Pratt’s ad, commenting, “That is one of the best political ads that I have ever seen.”

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​Liz wheeler, Spencer pratt, Los angeles, Mayoral election, Angelinos, Nithya raman, Karen bass, California, The liz wheeler show 

An intruder allegedly forced his way into a Florida home over the weekend, threatened a mother and her children, and refused to leave — but the victim also had her gun at the ready.

Investigators said Michael McDonald, 33, entered the Palm Coast home around 1:50 p.m. Sunday after opening the garage and banging on windows, WOFL-TV reported.

‘I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I was trying to get him out to where my kids and I were safe in my house.’

Courtney Price told Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies that McDonald demanded money, threatened her family, and continued advancing after she warned him that she was armed, the station said.

Authorities told WOFL that Price repeatedly ordered him to leave and warned she would shoot. When McDonald continued advancing toward her, Price fired one shot, striking him in the arm, authorities told the station.

“I did what I had to do to protect my children and myself,” Price told WOFL, which added that she knew McDonald through his sister.

“I panicked and got my gun,” Price added to the station, “and that was my first time using it.”

Price told WOFL she warned McDonald that she would shoot if he didn’t leave — and she said he continued moving toward her.

“He said, ‘I don’t care … shoot me,'” Price recalled to the station.

With that, she fired a single shot, WOFL said.

RELATED: Home invasion suspect comes face-to-face with gun-toting homeowner — who is more than ready for him

“I wasn’t trying to kill anyone,” Price told the station. “I was trying to get him out to where my kids and I were safe in my house.”

McDonald fled the scene in a silver Kia SUV, and deputies later located the vehicle at AdventHealth Hospital, where they conducted a felony traffic stop and detained him, WOFL reported. McDonald was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, the station added.

RELATED: Armed crooks allegedly enter home in middle of night, but homeowner is prepared — and opens fire

Image source: Flagler County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

Price and her children were not injured, WOFL said.

Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Joseph Barile told the station that this incident illustrates why Florida’s self-defense laws exist.

“She’s in her own home, and someone comes in uninvited, refuses to leave, advances toward her, is aggressive toward [her] and her kids,” Barile noted to WOFL, adding that “she even goes a step further, saying she’s going to shoot … and he still doesn’t leave — she had a right to defend herself, and she did.”

Authorities told the station that Price acted lawfully under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and was protecting herself and her two children.

McDonald was charged with burglary with assault and was being held in custody, WOFL reported, adding that officials said the suspect has an extensive criminal history that includes grand theft and robbery offenses.

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​Arrest, Crime thwarted, Florida, Home invasion, Homeowner shoots intruder, Intruder, Police, Wounded, Guns, Gun rights, Self-defense, Crime, Second amendment 

Messaging application company Signal is calling out the United Kingdom over its plans to implement age verification that the government says will “protect” children.

As part of a new policy that would ban social media for those in the U.K. under 16 years old, the government has also announced plans to force companies to infiltrate the phone libraries of every youngster — and soon every person within its jurisdiction who fails to upload ID.

‘Children deserve to be safe, protected, and nurtured. They do not deserve surveillance.’

Such is the shocking scope and speed of the latest amendment to the country’s Online Safety Act. Just last week, embattled and unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced content detection and blocking would only be turned by age verification check, a process that in practice requires universal ID submission and/or face scanning in order to use your phone in an ordinary fashion.

An official government website details that the sitting Labour Party plans to force “Big Tech companies like Apple and Google” to activate built-in features or implement technical solutions to “detect and block nude images for children.”

This must take effect within the next three months for smartphones and tablets, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

To implement these changes — which the government said would “prevent predators” from exploiting victims — anyone refusing to submit to the ID system would be unable to “take, share, or view nude content.”

Civil rights advocates and privacy-forward apps responded with outrage, warning that the measures would begin a rapid process of total national registry and surveillance.

Representatives from the Signal app responded by threatening to withdraw entirely from the U.K. market unless major changes are made.

“Children deserve to be safe, protected, and nurtured. They do not deserve surveillance,” Signal said in a press release.

“The U.K. government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the UK be scanned on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning, will not safeguard children. It endangers us all,” they added.

RELATED: Livid judge cancels trial and busts lawyers for faking briefs with AI — on both sides

After describing the U.K. government’s demand as a dystopian phone scanning operation, the company then warned such policies would lead to the government wielding its powers as a method of censorship and surveillance under the guise of what officials might consider to be “threats” or “harmful content.”

“Wherever it runs, including the ‘camera’ itself once it is in place on U.K. devices — its scope will be defined by the whims and proscriptions of the government to detect nudity today and political speech tomorrow,” Signal warned.

Of course, social media companies came at the policy change from a different angle, saying that pushing teens off their platforms would only lead to less safety.

RELATED: The backlash against AI reveals it’s a terrible scapegoat

Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty Images

“Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less safe services,” a YouTube spokesperson told CNBC.

A Meta spokesperson told the outlet that bans risk isolating teenagers from online communities and information, which would send them to unregulated alternatives.

Other restrictions in the U.K. include blocking livestream and communication with strangers for those under 16 and a consideration for online curfews overnight.

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​News, United kingdom, Social media, Signal, Digital id, Tech 

For years, discussion of the U.S.-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine was dismissed by critics as little more than a Russian talking point.

Now, newly declassified documents released by Tulsi Gabbard confirm it’s real — but that’s not stopping establishment voices from calling her a propagandist.

“Tulsi comes out, what was it, Friday, and she releases, she declassifies slides of these documents about U.S.-funded bio labs in Ukraine and beyond. Over 40 labs, hundreds of millions, dangerous pathogens, anthrax, plague, ebola,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck explains.

“And now it’s a Russian conspiracy theory that those exist,” he says.

“Does it make common sense to you if we have anthrax and ebola sitting in a laboratory in Ukraine that is currently at war with Russia? Do you think it’s a good idea or should we just go take a flamethrower and burn all of those dangerous pathogens out of those buildings?” he asks.

“Why do we have them sitting there in these bio labs that are in a war zone? Now, look at the loudest people shouting about this. The ones who are saying, ‘You know, she’s a conspiracy theorist,’” he continues, pointing out that these people include “embedded Ukraine correspondents, strong advocates to send more money to Ukraine in Congress, and defense analysts that are tied to the status quo.”

These, Glenn says, are “the same people clutching their pearls over the new DNI chief. They don’t like what she did with Ukraine.”

“They’re framing this whole thing as Kremlin propaganda,” he explains. “Like Tulsi Gabbard is now working for the Kremlin. Have you ever noticed when outsiders get close to auditing foreign entanglements, surveillance powers, risky overseas labs, the defenses go nuclear?”

“All of a sudden, it’s got to be stopped. It’s the worst problem ever. They just go crazy. To me, it feels like fear of exposure,” he continues, adding, “And maybe not all of them, but somewhere, somebody in that web is applying enormous pressure.”

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​Anthrax, Bio labs, Blaze media, Conspiracy theorist, Deep state, Ebola, Glenn beck, Plague, Russia, Tulsi gabbard, Ukraine, The glenn beck program 

Word is now out that many popular “smart” TV brands, including LG and Samsung, allow for third-party apps on their devices. These apps usually contain a Software Development Kit that runs constantly in the background once the app is downloaded. When your TV is plugged in, connected to WiFi, and idle, the SKU is made available to others.

The setup allows — if you can believe it — for the selling of access into genuine home IPs, like yours. Simply stated: You pay for the television, the internet connection, and the house in which it is all arrayed and sustained; they use your possessions while you’re not looking and profit heavily.

Look for terms: proxy, SKD, opt-out.

Believe it or not, they would really prefer you not look more closely into this situation.

When your TV becomes their computer

Perhaps it’s merely the latest confirmation that mainstream digital American life operates on an ethos oscillating between the poles “use this to rot your brain” and “something-for-nothing favoring us.” But given that so few are aware that their very own idle internet-connected televisions are being scraped, proxied, and used as free equipment for others’ profit, this one really strikes close to home.

And who’s buying? Customers for this secretive access include, you guessed it, data-harvesting operations for AI firms and other large businesses that presumably harvest and manage their own type of market data analysis.

Israeli-owned company Bright Data (formerly Luminati) runs the scheme by paying makers of various free games, apps, and screensavers a monthly fee derived from the number of users who installed their apps. Bright Data boldly lists “API Scraper Pricing” in its drop-down menu. It’s merely the latest step down in the hierarchy of mercantile ethics: A few years ago, court documents revealed that Meta used Bright Data despite decrying its practices and actually sued Bright Data despite using its services.

But it’s all perfectly legal insofar as you accept the terms and conditions. According to data security investigators at Includesecurity.com, buried in the near-universally ignored small print is a statement of consent to allow Bright Data to use your TV and IP address to download things from the internet in exchange for something like a free or ad-free app experience. Even X lost its own lawsuit against Bright Data on the face of the law.

RELATED: Livid judge cancels trial and busts lawyers for faking briefs with AI — on both sides

Melina Mara/Washington Post/Getty Images; Grok/xAI

You’re wondering, but why? Why would anybody go to such lengths? Why is it not illegal to abscond with the paid-for resources of individuals and families, unbeknownst to them?

The secret life of scrapers

Well, much of the world’s data is accessible only through the massive server farms known as data centers. Huge operators such as Amazon AWS, Google, and so forth hang their reputations on the security and control they can exercise over their enormous data flows. They’re highly competent at turning away scrapers: legions of bots and digital creepy-crawlies programmed to act like parasites, inserting into data tranches and harvesting the morsels there that their designers seek out. Often their designers are commercial actors or governments acting by proxy. Sometimes it’s an AI firm bent on feeding its models ever more specific and “authentic” data. Authentic because it’s more useful in mimicking or simulating human beings.

So from residential proxy IPs, AI harvesters can insert into positions to scrape the precise form of information they require to keep elaborating AIs in pre-training, agent grounding, and search capacity. AI firms need fresh content in a way rather analogous to the vampire’s need for warm blood. It’s not negotiable. That’s why it’s not discussed, and why Bright Data is rewarded in the market for its labyrinthine infiltration, cloaking, and re-marketing capacities.

No one quite seems to be sure why one little-known firm gets the virtual monopoly on this scam-like meta-market. Would we be a little out of our lanes to notice that Israeli software organizations, with well-understood and documented ties to the CIA, NSA, and GCHQ, seem to play central parts in an inordinate number of such specifically located operations?

Basic hygiene

So what can you do about Bright Data and similar outfits? It starts with the simple if annoying fact that, yes, you should actually read the fine print. Check the various apps you’ve installed on your devices. Look for terms: proxy, SKD, opt-out. And be ready for the next iteration of the scheme, which will certainly still require your authenticity and human input, but will likely be buried even deeper in the digital subterrain.

​Tech, Smart tv, Ai, Bright data, Security 

Republican voters in Georgia have showed up to the polls to officially agree with the president’s recommendation.

More than 700,000 votes decided the Georgia Republican Senate runoff on Tuesday, with the victory going to the Trump-endorsed favorite.

‘Now it’s time to get to work.’

Sitting U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) received a detailed endorsement from President Trump just two days before the election, when he called Collins a “Highly Respected Congressman who has been with me from the very beginning,” in a post on Truth Social.

Collins won the runoff with about 56% of the vote against fellow Republican Derek Dooley — a former football coach for the University of Tennessee Volunteers — despite Dooley outperforming Collins in the counties surrounding Atlanta, including Fulton County, where the capital city is located.

Collins’ victory was by nearly the same margin that separated the two during the May primary. At that time Collins finished with nearly 41% of the vote, while Dooley had about 30%, according to CBS News. This time, Dooley finished 11 points behind Collins again, garnering nearly 45% in the head-to-head vote, per The Hill.

RELATED: Early red flag for GOP? Democrats rack up massive Q1 fundraising hauls

Collins has long been considered the favorite in the election as a MAGA-style Republican and led polls ahead of the primary by an average of 11.5 points. However, polls had him with just a two-point advantage over Dooley ahead of the runoff election in June.

Collins now heads to the November general election against Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff. Ossoff went unopposed in the Democratic primary, having held his office since 2021.

Collins reacted to his victory with a post on X, saying he is “honored” to be the Republican nominee.

“Now it’s time to get to work, defeat Jon Ossoff, and take this seat back for the people of this state. Hammer Down!” Collins wrote.

RELATED: ‘Friend’ of President Trump advances to Georgia Republican Senate primary runoff

Jason Allen/Getty Images

Trump had previously endorsed Collins ahead of the primary, as well, calling Collins his “friend” while adding that he likes him “a lot.”

On Sunday, the president assured voters that Collins would work hard to “Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Champion American Energy DOMINANCE,” and more.

Collins reaffirmed his immigration stance in a post on runoff Election Day, stating that “America wasn’t built by people who chose the easy path. It was built by patriots who worked hard, took risks, and never gave up.”

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​Jon ossoff, News, Mike collins, Georgia, Republicans, 2026 midterms, Politics