David McGuinty, Canada’s liberal defense minister, boasted late last month that the DEI-ed Canadian military had surpassed its regular force recruiting target for the second consecutive year, enrolling 7,310 new members in fiscal year 2025-26. That brings the total of full-time military members to 67,827. Another 25,054 souls are in the reserves.

“The Canadian Armed Forces’ continued recruiting success signals more than progress — it reflects a renewed strength at the core of our military,” said McGuinty.

‘I think we are representative of the Canadian demographic.’

What McGuinty neglected to mention in his optimistic press release was that nearly 20% of these recruits aren’t actually Canadians, thanks to a 2022 decision by then-Trudeau Defense Minister Anita Anand — the daughter of Indian migrants — to drop the military’s citizenship requirement.

It has become abundantly clear that having multitudes of permanent residents from the third world join up in exchange for expedited naturalization isn’t so much a value added as a massive liability.

A damning and confidential Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School report that was authored by Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Kieley and obtained both by Juno News and the National Post highlights some of the various problems foreign recruits have created for the military.

RELATED: US calls Canada’s bluff on defense spending; ‘pauses’ 86-year-old alliance

Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto/Getty Images

The report, which was also leaked online, notes that in Quebec’s first noncitizen Francophone platoon, only 48% managed to graduate and there were constant ethnic clashes, specifically between the Cameroonian and Ivory Coast candidates.

More generally, noncitizen recruits in the Canadian military — some of whom had been in the country for only three months — have demonstrated a profound lack of “respect toward women” superiors and peers.

“For many candidates, it is the first time they have lived with members of a different sex, and for some it is also the first time they have been expected to treat women as their peers,” said the report. “Platoons are also reporting inter-candidate cultural frustrations, with lack of respect towards women being the most common concern.”

Some foreigners apparently also have issues taking orders from younger superiors.

“Older candidates from certain cultural backgrounds are also more likely to experience friction when responding to younger CFLRS instructors due to cultural hierarchies based on age,” said the confidential report.

In addition to a failure of baseline competency, ethnic infighting, communication issues, and a rampant disrespect for women and junior officers, foreigners also have unrealistic expectations going into their training.

The report noted, for instance, that a “surprising number of permanent resident candidates believed they would simply go home after basic training” and that foreigners in officer training “are more likely to imagine a CAF officer position as a public service job, rather than a military occupation.”

Physical fitness is also an issue for those recruits McGuinty is hoping will renew the Canadian military’s strength. Permanent residents failed the initial basic training fitness screening test last year at a rate of 14.79% compared to 7.89% for citizens within the same period.

There has been some internal pushback.

According to the report, “On French (officer) platoons, where permanent residents have made up 50%-80% of all candidates, there have been more emotional responses, with Francophone staff openly raising the question of whether it is appropriate for officer commissions to be granted to non-Canadian citizens.”

Commodore Pascal Belhumeur, a spokesman for the Canadian Department of National Defense, told the National Post, “I think the Canadian Armed Forces that we are recruiting is a representation of Canadian society now.”

According to Statistics Canada, 23% of the persons presently in Canada are immigrants.

“If you look at the number of Canadians that are foreign-born and the number of people who we’re bringing into the Canadian Armed Forces, I think we are representative of the Canadian demographic,” said Belhumeur, adding that the military is “proud to reflect the diversity of Canadian society.”

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​Canada, Canadian, Dei, Diversity, Foreigners, Immigrants, Military, Recruitment, Woke, Politics 

Perhaps the most outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement in San Diego was seriously injured after what the California Post called a “brutal attack” outside the man’s infamous “Trump House.”

Around 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Escondido police arrived on the scene to find a man with severe injuries lying on the ground while a utility worker reportedly restrained another individual.

‘Whenever I went to visit, I made sure to swing by that place and shout stuff at them.’

The injured man was rushed to a nearby trauma center in what is believed to be critical condition. The Post did not identify the injured victim but indicated he is the owner of the “Trump House” on Buchanan Street and that he is “fighting for his life.”

According to the Post, blood could be seen dripping from the curb near the home, and one suspect was arrested.

Escondido Police Department Lt. Robert Craig confirmed that the department had responded to a report of an assault, that one suspect is in custody, and that the “investigation is still ongoing,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

RELATED: Judge APOLOGIZES to suspected would-be Trump assassin — and compares him to Jan. 6 defendants

For years, the notorious Escondido residence has been covered with pro-Trump, pro-MAGA, and pro-America paraphernalia, including flags, signs, and red, white, and blue colors, an ostentatious political display that has generated feelings of animosity among other residents.

According to the Post, one online commenter said of the “Trump House,” “My buddy lived down the street from him. Whenever I went to visit, I made sure to swing by that place and shout stuff at them.”

Another called for the owner to be reported to authorities for allegedly violating state election laws. “Any neighbor can complain to the city. No campaign flags or signs are allowed more than 90 days from an election,” the person said. “California state law. Please file a complaint. The more the better.”

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​California, Donald trump, Maga, Politics 

Can populism and optimism mix? These days, the contentious AI debate is fueling the false impression that the answer is no. But recent polling convincingly shows that there’s one important tech issue on which an overwhelming majority of Americans support an empowering, freedom-enhancing change: unlocking mobile phones.

In comparison to the titanic struggle over things like data centers, the simple act of requiring providers to let consumers take their cell phones with them — without penalties or fees — might, at first glance, seem like small ball. Take a moment to look at the numbers, however, and the truth is revealed.

In the shorter term, unlocking the nation’s phones unlocks potentially life-changing savings for most Americans. In the longer term, the move helps establish a crucial baseline for applying pro-freedom, pro-ownership device policy to the myriad next-gen devices — even more powerful than smartphones — soon to fill up our everyday lives.

The momentum for change isn’t confined to consumers crying out for relief.

Start with the polls. A startling nine in 10 consumers, regardless of partisan affiliation, support the right to take their phones with them when changing service producers. But the real stunner is why.

More than a mere preference (who wouldn’t default toward more choice?), consumers are highlighting a hidden pain point that hasn’t seemed to catch the eye of analysts without much to worry about at the kitchen table. Phone locking doesn’t just block customers — and today, who isn’t a smartphone customer? — from taking their phones with them. It blocks them from shopping freely for better, more affordable deals.

We’re not talking couch-change savings here. Switching plans can save thousands. In a household with just two phone lines, a savvy switch cashes out to as much as $1,200 per year, according to the Internet and Television Association.

And for most families, of course, two smartphones are table stakes. A Consumer Affairs report shows the typical household has an average of around 20 connected devices. Almost all children receive their own phones by age 15. Most Americans ages 18 to 29 live in a household with three or more phones. Consumer research from WhistleOut concludes a truer estimate of household cost savings from unlocking consumer phones is closer to $2,000 a year — and as high as $2,200.

Saving enough to save a life

Let’s pause to emphasize what that means in real-world terms. For average American households, $2,000 represents 2.5% of their annual budget — fully one-third of their monthly budget, roughly equal to their entire average housing cost per month. Meanwhile, fewer than half of U.S. households have the cash or savings to cover a $2,000 emergency expense, according to household economics and decision-making data from the Federal Reserve.

The savings unlocked by the simple regulatory act of unlocking smartphones aren’t chump change. They’re enough to change lives — or save them.

And it doesn’t stop there. Locked phones are a rip-off when it comes to resale value, dinging sellers 20% to 40% of their value compared to the same phone unlocked. That’s around $125 to $150 in lost value for the seller of a locked iPhone likely to sell today. If the seller can’t unlock the phone, he’ll have to consider buying a new one earlier than desired, adding hundreds more to costs.

Calculating conservatively, the total cost phone locking imposed on American households pencils out to around $2,400 or higher — more than they pay monthly on average for housing and over twice their monthly outlay on transportation, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys.

RELATED: Social media scams are up 700%. Here’s how to stay safe.

Media Trading Ltd/Getty Images

Not a pretty picture. And little excuse. The good news is that the momentum for change isn’t confined to consumers crying out for relief. Led by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), key senators are throwing their political weight behind the idea and asking the FCC to unlock our phones.

Although phone lock reform has been held back in the past by valid fraud concerns, as Lummis and her co-signers write in a recent letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, they’re “confident … that the Commission will be able to appropriately balance those concerns by adopting a reasonable waiting period — e.g., 180 days – before a device must be unlocked. Such a period addresses concerns of fraud while still achieving the important objectives that unlocking delivers, including expanding consumer choice, preserving competition, and improving affordability.”

All in all, it’s a slam-dunk policy shift — the kind of low-hanging fruit that easily delivers outsized and long-overdue relief for millions.

Today our phones, tomorrow our bots?

But to bring us back to the bigger picture of transformative technological change in America, unlock reform is more than a one-and-done change. It’s a crucial marker laid down just in time to help set the tone for a freedom-forward, pro-ownership approach to the next-gen devices about to proliferate across American business and private life — drones, robots, the works. In all likelihood, these devices will fall under the purview of the Federal Trade Commission, not the FCC, but, taken together, the principled logic behind mobile unlocking and the FTC’s work preventing smart-home device bricking and forced ecosystem lock-in shows a clear and powerful synergy. Together, the commissions can and should advance a strategic populist policy of ensuring that producers’ software restrictions don’t limit consumers’ physical ownership rights.

At this critical juncture, unlocking the phones is the next step in tech policymaking that preserves American rights while saving Americans money. What could be more American than that?

​Opinion & analysis, Mobile phone, Fcc, Ftc, Populism, Artificial intelligence, Ownership, Cynthia lummis, Regulation 

A few years ago, journalist Ezra Levant received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for defending freedom of expression after refusing to “bend the knee” and publishing Danish cartoons of Muhammad.

Now, the prime minister of the United Kingdom has banned him from the country.

“To have the prime minister of the United Kingdom ban me, a journalist … I’ve never done anything illegal in my life. I’ve never even had a parking ticket in the U.K. When I go there, it’s to do journalism,” Levant tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.

“Glenn, your radio and you would be shut down within a week; I’m sorry to say it,” he continues. “Your First Amendment in America is more important than almost anything else, because with that, you can fight for all your other freedoms. Never give up your First Amendment.”

While everyone assumes other Western countries have the same First Amendment rights, Levant explains that they’re different.

“In the United Kingdom, according to the Times of London, a very prestigious newspaper, on any given day, on average, 30 people are arrested for what they post on social media. 30 a day. I’m not a fan of Russia, but even they don’t arrest 30 people a day for word crimes,” Levant says.

And the government doesn’t go after those who are actually harming others.

“They’re targeting people who criticize the government, especially on the issue of mass immigration. And the number-one thing that they’re scared about talking about is the rape gangs of largely Pakistani Muslim men targeting white girls,” Levant explains.

“When people have a march or a rally against these rapes, the government goes into freakout mode because it challenges the entire multiculturalism and immigration structure of the U.K.,” he says.

“So,” he continues, “never give up your free speech, Glenn, because you can see it in real time in the U.K.”

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​Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Conservative, Ezra levant, First amendment, Free speech, Glenn beck, Globalist agenda, Government, Journalism, Mass immigration, Muhammad, Prime minister, Russia, Social media, The glenn beck program, Times of london, United kingdom 

The Pentagon appears to be sending Ottawa a message: Rhetoric is no substitute for military capability.

The Department of Defense announced Monday it was “pausing” the 86-year-old Permanent Joint Board on Defense between the United States and Canada, according to Undersecretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby. The move comes amid mounting frustration in Washington over Canada’s chronic defense underinvestment — and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s increasingly confrontational rhetoric toward President Donald Trump.

‘We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality. Real powers must sustain our shared defense and security responsibilities.’

Established in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, the board became one of the earliest pillars of continental defense cooperation. Coming as Nazi Germany tightened its grip on Europe and fears grew over Atlantic security, the agreement reflected Roosevelt’s recognition that American and Canadian security could no longer be treated separately.

That alliance eventually evolved into NORAD and decades of deep military integration between the two countries.

All talk

Now Washington appears to be signaling that the relationship cannot continue on autopilot.

“We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality,” Colby wrote on X. “Real powers must sustain our rhetoric with shared defense and security responsibilities.”

Colby argued that while a militarily capable Canada benefits the United States, Ottawa has repeatedly failed to meet its defense commitments in a credible way.

The timing is awkward for Carney, whose government has loudly projected Canadian independence from Washington while remaining vague about how it intends to rebuild the country’s depleted armed forces.

RELATED: ‘AMERICAN INVASION’: Flailing Canada PM Mark Carney invokes historical grudge in latest lob at Trump

George Rose/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Jet blues

Although Ottawa recently claimed the government had finally reached NATO’s benchmark of spending 2% of GDP on defense, critics have questioned how the government arrived at that number. Media reports have indicated that the Liberals counted items such as landscaping at military bases and civilian airport infrastructure upgrades as defense expenditures.

More tellingly, Carney’s April 28 Spring Economic Statement reportedly contained little detail on major procurement priorities.

That uncertainty now extends to Canada’s planned purchase of 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets. Despite years of delays and political debate, the Carney government is still reviewing the order, with Defense Minister David McGuinty recently confirming that alternatives remain under consideration.

One possibility floated by Ottawa is a mixed fleet pairing the American-made F-35 with Sweden’s Saab Gripen fighter. But U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has repeatedly warned that Canada’s role in NORAD could be jeopardized if Ottawa fails to follow through on the full F-35 purchase.

Buy or beware

The concern is not merely political but operational. Every branch of the U.S. military that flies fighter aircraft is transitioning to the F-35 platform, which is also used by several of Canada’s closest defense partners, including the British Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force. Hoekstra has argued that the Gripen would create interoperability problems inside a continental defense structure increasingly built around the F-35 ecosystem.

For Washington, the frustration is becoming increasingly obvious: Canada wants the diplomatic stature and moral authority of a serious middle power while continuing to hesitate on the military commitments required to sustain that role.

The Pentagon’s decision to pause the defense board may ultimately prove symbolic. But symbols matter in alliances — especially when they come from Washington.

After decades of assuming continental defense cooperation was automatic, the United States now appears willing to publicly question whether Canada is prepared to carry its share of the burden.

​Defense department, Canada, Culture, Donald trump, F35 fighter jets, Franklin roosevelt, Lockheed martin, Mark carney, Norad, Pentagon, Pete hoekstra, William lyon mackenzie king, Letter from canada 

California Highway Patrol officers responded around 12:20 p.m. on Tuesday to a multiple-vehicle crash near Lodi that left two young Americans dead. The man believed to be responsible for the carnage — an illegal alien from India — reportedly fled the scene on foot.

The suspect, 24-year-old Manvir Singh, was quickly tracked down and arrested by San Joaquin County sheriff’s deputies and taken to the county jail, where he remains in custody as of early Thursday.

‘This criminal illegal alien from India should never have been behind the wheel of a semi-truck and allowed to kill.’

The deceased, ages 20 and 16, were sitting in a Kia Forte and slowing to a stop behind a Nissan Frontier and a Toyota Camry in the far right lane of northbound Highway 99 when a heavy-duty truck driven by the suspect and carrying a fully loaded semi-trailer smashed into them, reported Freight Waves.

According to CHP, the 80,000-pound truck hammered the rear of the Kia and launched it into the Camry, killing two Americans and sending five others to hospital, two of whom suffered critical injuries.

Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed that Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s California — where an estimated 35% of the commercial drivers are Sikh, an Indian religious group — issued Singh a commercial driver’s license in March 2025.

RELATED: Fraudulent trucking carriers just ran out of road with new registration system, DOT says

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Duffy noted further that Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration investigators “are looking into how this illegal got his CDL and will investigate the trucking company who employed this driver.”

Amritsar Trans Inc., the intrastate freight company that reportedly operates the truck, is registered in Manteca, California; owns or leases five vehicles; has nine drivers; is unrated by the FMCSA; and is apparently run by Baljeet Singh.

Freight Waves highlighted that the company was cited for six violations across 11 inspections in the two-year window that ended April 24, 2026. One of the violations was for speeding 15 or more miles per hour over the posted limit, and another was for falsifying duty status to conceal having driven over hours.

Manvir Singh has been charged with felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, felony hit-and-run resulting in death or injury, and obstructing or resisting arrest. The Indian, whose bail has been set at $185,000, is set to appear in court Thursday afternoon.

The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Manvir Singh illegally entered the country through Arizona in 2023 and was subsequently released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer request in hopes that California authorities will ultimately transfer the illegal alien into federal custody.

“This criminal illegal alien from India should never have been behind the wheel of a semi-truck and allowed to kill two innocent people in a multi-vehicle crash in California,” DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “He is now charged with vehicular manslaughter, hit and run resulting in death or injury, and resisting a police officer.”

“This is yet another example of why illegal aliens should not be operating trucks on American highways,” added Bis.

Transportation Secretary Duffy emphasized that “Dalilah’s law would have revoked this illegal trucker’s license. Congress must pass Dalilah’s Law NOW.”

H.R. 5688, Dalilah’s Law, would ban states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and limit issuance to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and holders of specific work visas. The legislation would also require the revocation of any existing ineligible CDLs.

The legislation takes its name from Dalilah Coleman, a little girl grievously injured in a car accident that was caused by an illegal alien from India who reportedly obtained a commercial driver’s license from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

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​California highway patrol, Hit and run, Illegal alien, Department of homeland security, Indian, Truck driver, Truckers, Immigration, Transportation, California, Gavin newsom, Accident, Killer, Politics 

We’re learning a lesson that should be unmistakably clear as the world watches instability ripple outward from the Middle East: Geography still matters.

The war with Iran and the ever-present threat of disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz are exposing how fragile global energy supply chains have become. When choke points half a world away can rattle prices at the pump throughout the nation, it is time to rethink how and where America produces its energy.

Alaska offers our nation something rare: stability, security, and strength without choke points.

That rethink points north to Alaska.

Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz. When tensions rise, insurance rates surge, shipping slows, and prices spike. Families feel it immediately, particularly young families already struggling with affordability. These price shocks do not stem from resource scarcity; they stem from dependence on unstable routes and hostile actors.

Alaska has no Strait of Hormuz

What Alaska has is something the rest of the nation desperately needs right now: secure access to energy, open ocean shipping lanes, and proximity to Asian markets without relying on canals, narrow passages, or adversarial regimes. From the Gulf of Alaska, resources can move freely across the Pacific without transiting choke points that can be threatened, closed, or weaponized.

This geographic reality significantly cuts travel days and costs; it embodies freedom of access. It is geography that is Alaska’s destiny — and America’s — if we act on it.

For years, Alaska has been sidelined in national energy conversations, despite holding nearly all the critical minerals the United States depends on and vast reserves of oil and natural gas. Here at home, Alaskans pay some of the highest fuel prices in the nation, in part because we lack refining capacity and sufficient infrastructure to fully use what we already have.

A failure, not a shortage

When conflicts like the Iran war inject chaos into global markets, Alaska should be part of the solution. Responsible development of Alaskan oil, gas, and minerals strengthens national security, lowers costs for American families, and reduces reliance on adversaries who do not share our values or our interests.

Alaska should be treated as a critical asset, not an afterthought. That means advancing energy projects, encouraging refining capacity, and opening pathways for responsible exports. It also means making sure the benefits of development flow first to Alaskans — through jobs, lower costs, and long-term economic stability — rather than being locked away by red tape or federal neglect.

RELATED: The Iran war is causing another shortage — and it will directly affect every American

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

The cost of service

The lesson of today’s uncertainty is not that America should retreat from the world, but that we should stand on firmer ground at home.

Wars are not measured by headlines, speculation, or the arguments that swirl in the middle of the conflict. They are measured at the end. If this conflict concludes with Iran defeated, its ability to threaten the world diminished, and our troops coming home safely, then Americans should unite in gratitude and pride.

Alaska understands the cost of service. We have one of the highest rates of veterans per capita in the nation. Our communities know sacrifice, duty, and resilience. If our sons and daughters in uniform succeed and return home victorious, we should celebrate their service and the removal of a dangerous foe from the world stage.

Alaska offers our nation something rare: stability, security, and strength without choke points. There is no Strait of Hormuz here, only opportunity. It is time we seize it. The time is right for Alaska and for the whole nation.

​Alaska, Middle east, Strait of hormuz, Supply chains, Gas prices, Global markets, Iran war, Opinion & analysis 

It doesn’t take a genius to manipulate the population. It just takes some mid-level AI chatbots with a mean streak.

That thought haunted Glenn Reynolds, the author of the new book “Seductive AI.” The tome doesn’t look to a near future in which artificial intelligence has a profound impact on our lives and culture.

‘The media actually had shame back then. You could browbeat them into correcting [mistakes].’

He sees its disruptive potential in the here and now.

Digital Don Juan

“There’s no reason why AI couldn’t be designed to manipulate human beings,” says Reynolds, known for his decades-old Instapundit.com website. “Raw brain power isn’t the best way to do it.”

Yes, the book explores the literal seductive power of an AI-powered device, whether an app, software program, or, eventually, a life-size sexbot coming to a Best Buy near you.

It also shares how manipulative AI can already be and some possible guardrails to prevent it from harming us.

Pop culture already warned us about AI’s seductive power. Think 2013’s “Her,” starring Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely man who falls for a bot voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Or even “The Big Bang Theory,” when the awkward Raj (Kunal Nayyar) falls in love with his Siri device.

“Seductive AI in the crudest sense … is looking more realistic as time passes,” Reynolds says. “You’ve seen these stories. … Women marrying their AI boyfriends. There’s just enough of that out there. You can’t dismiss it as ridiculous.”

The case of the 14-year-old Florida boy who took his own life after sharing suicidal thoughts with an AI bot named after “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen is hard to forget.

Blind faith

And it could soon get worse.

“One of my recurring themes in the book … year after year, the machines get better and people stay about the same,” he says, a scary thought given the technological progress we have already seen. “People’s ability to see through this stuff is a flat line.”

Humanity’s wobbly mental health status makes “Seductive AI” fears more profound.

“There’s a large number of people who are losing contact with objective reality. It’s encouraged by social media and a lot of machine affirmation. … The various AI chatbots will basically tell you how smart you are,” he says.

Even some terrible ideas, when fed into an AI bot, will spit back encouraging banter.

“All these platforms … not just the AI ones, foster engagement by pushing various emotions — fear, hatred, sometimes love,” he says.

RELATED: 6 movies that warned us about AI

Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images

The bot stops here

“Seductive AI” offers some possible guardrails, like suggesting that AI firms have a fiduciary duty to the person impacted by their expertise. That could allow people to sue if the bot’s behavior is in breach of that contract.

“The company producing the entity should be held liable for any breaches, exactly as if they had been made by a human employee acting for the company itself,” he writes in the book.

Reynolds says mainstream media outlets have done their part to promote the upside of AI, like fawning press over the rise of self-driving cars.

“Every single story you read in the automotive press was positive,” he says, downplaying the potential for fatal accident. “AI stuff was all super positive for a while. … Now that seems to have faded.”

The Blogfather

Reynolds previously wrote “The Social Media Upheaval” (2019) and “An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths” (2007).

He’s best known in conservative circles for Instapundit.com, an old-school site with constantly updated links to the latest news and commentary. He was part of the early blogging wave that challenged mainstream media, with some stunning successes. In fact, he was so influential on other DIY pundits that he earned the nickname the Blogfather.

“The media actually had shame back then,” he says. “You could browbeat them into correcting [mistakes].” Take Dan Rather’s National Guard story, in which the CBS anchor claimed President George W. Bush shirked his duties based on manufactured evidence. The story might have stood unchallenged if not for several citizen journalists like the team behind Powerlineblog.com.

A simpler time

And he has his “beefs” with the current right-leaning media landscape. He recalls a simpler time in the digital arena.

“The period of 2004 to 2008 was kind of a golden age of independent media, before the walled gardens of Facebook and other platforms took over,” he says. It helped that journalists took criticism more seriously at the time.

The early blogging days also saw friendlier ties between left- and right-leaning bloggers. Now, that sense of brotherhood is gone, he says.

“It’s hard to have a civil discussion about anything now,” he says. “It’s a very unhealthy environment.”

As for his latest project, he admits the alluring nature of this technology boils down to something elemental.

“Yes, AI is extremely useful,” he says. “That’s another way of being seductive.”

​Artificial intelligence, Glenn reynolds, Culture, Lifestyle, Chatbots, Sexbots, Books, Interview, Independent media