Democratic Socialists of America continue to take out establishment Democrats at the ballot box. The latest casualty is a longtime congresswoman from Colorado.

On Tuesday, Gen Z upstart Melat Kiros trounced longtime incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District of Colorado, representing much of Denver. With 81% of the vote reported, Kiros holds a lead of nearly 10 points, 51.3% to DeGette’s 41.7%, according to NBC News.

‘This is the most anti-incumbent cycle we’ve seen in a really long time.’

As of Wednesday afternoon, DeGette had still not conceded the race on social media. Late Tuesday night, she posted to X that “it looks like we won’t have final results tonight.”

By all accounts, DeGette has established far-left Democrat bona fides. She was a manager in President Trump’s second impeachment effort, she supports “Medicare for all,” and she wants to abolish ICE.

Though she has a progressive track record, DeGette characterized Kiros’ platform as “extreme.”

Indeed, Kiros has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, Justice Democrats, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and she espouses many of their radical views, especially regarding Israel. She even claims to have been fired from a law firm after writing a letter supporting Palestine after the October 7 attacks.

Kiros, a lawyer and a Ph.D. student, explained that once she began campaigning for office, she realized: “All these policies I’m calling for are democratic socialism,” Vox reported.

DeGette, 68, was first sworn in to Congress in January 1997, four months before Kiros, 29, was born.

RELATED: The People’s Republic of NY-13: Election results breakdown

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Kiros is just the latest democratic socialist to successfully primary a Democrat incumbent. In the New York primary races last week, 32-year-old Darializa Avila Chevalier took out 71-year-old incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander defeated anti-Trump radical Rep. Dan Goldman.

Democratic socialist Assemblywoman Claire Valdez also won the primary for the open seat in the 7th Congressional District of New York. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) is retiring at the end of the term.

Both Avila Chevalier and Lander had been endorsed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fellow democratic socialist who, like Kiros, was not born in America. Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, while Kiros was born in Ethiopia and brought to America as a baby.

Kiros views the 2026 Democratic primary races as an opportunity to reshape the party.

“This is the most anti-incumbent cycle we’ve seen in a really long time,” she told Vox. “So I think this is an opportunity to change the party in a way that — I don’t think we’ll have another chance like this. To pass it up, I think, is irresponsible.”

“This isn’t just about replacing one generation of leaders with another,” she also told Vox. “It’s about replacing it with moral clarity, with urgency, with courage — and making sure that the will of the voters is actually being represented and fought for at the federal level.”

The 1st Congressional District of Colorado is heavily Democrat, and Kiros is expected to win the seat in November.

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​Politics 

The president has made a major announcement regarding the upcoming midterms.

President Donald Trump says he will be heading up a Republican midterm convention, the first ever, in September.

‘THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!’

The midterm convention will be held in Dallas, Texas, according to President Trump’s post on social media. He previously pitched the idea in Aug. 2025.

“It will be fantastic! It has never been done before, and will be a truly Historic Event. We are going to celebrate the GREAT AMERICAN COMEBACK, and the incredible successes of the American People who transformed our Country through the America First Agenda,” he wrote Tuesday.

He lauded a list of his accomplishments that included the shutdown at the border, lowering crime, and increasing the nation’s energy dominance.

Trump went on to say the convention will prepare the country for another 250 years of success.

“At the Event, we will have hardworking Americans, our Great Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Manufacturers, First Responders, and Job Creators who are powering our Nation’s Golden Age, and proving that America’s best days are still ahead of us,” he added. “We will also have lots of Great Entertainment — It will be a RALLY like none other!”

Richard Hudson, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, praised the president in a statement on social media.

“President Trump has united Republicans behind a winning agenda that’s delivering results for the American people,” he wrote. “The Midterm Convention will showcase our strong Republican candidates, energize supporters across the country, and ensure House Republicans have the resources to protect and grow our majority in November.”

The midterm convention will run from Sept. 9 to 10.

Democrats considered returning their midterm convention but decided against it. Some suspect that their dwindling cash donations forced them to abandon the idea.

RELATED: ‘Blue wave’ expected for midterms looks more like a tiny ripple, says CNN’s Harry Enten

The convention should help galvanize Republican voters to show up at the ballot box for the midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats will take over Congress for the rest of Trump’s second term.

“THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!” the president concluded.

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​Midterm elections, President donald trump, Trump rally, Politics 

Just days before America’s 250th anniversary celebration of our independence, the Democrats’ latest attempts to take away American citizens’ gun rights are being called out by the Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice sued two different states, both of which are run by increasingly notorious Democrat governors, over their latest attempts to ban certain firearms.

‘On April 10, I promised Governor Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises.’

The DOJ sued California and Virginia for their so-called “Glock ban” and the semi-automatic-weapon ban, respectively.

The lawsuit against California is in fact two-fold: First, the DOJ is challenging the ban of Glock-brand firearms, a popular choice of handgun among gun owners.

RELATED: 2A win: Appeals court in DC strikes down high-capacity magazine restrictions

Jim Vondruska/Getty Images

Second, the DOJ is challenging the legality of California’s “Gun Roster,” which shows which pistols are allowed and which are banned.

The law triggering this ban was signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on October 25. The specific “Glock ban,” as well as the ban on any other guns removed from the gun roster on January 1, was set to take effect on Wednesday.

Nearly 40 Glock models were removed from the gun roster at the beginning of this year, meaning they “may no longer be sold, offered for sale, imported for sale, or manufactured in California.”

Additionally, more than 70 models from Auto-Ordnance; Magnum Research; Kimber; Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Kahr Arms; Phoenix Arms; Franklin Armory; Sig Sauer; and Nighthawk Custom were removed from the approved gun roster on the same day.

In a state Senate hearing last year to discuss the bill before it was signed into law, the group Gun Owners of California argued against the passage of the bill, warning that the language was “overly broad” and not primarily concerned with the safety of the public:

“By specifically targeting the potential for modification, this bill disproportionately affects potential Glock purchasers and restricts access to one of the most popular handguns available, further demonstrating that this legislation is not about safety but about incremental firearm prohibition.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release Wednesday: “The Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans, even those in California. California cannot ban the most popular type of handgun in America. We will work to stop this blatant trampling of our rights by the California government to protect the rights of lawful gun owners.”

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Newsom told Blaze News:

The Trump administration is once again trying to dismantle California’s commonsense gun safety laws. Our response is simple — these laws save lives. California has proven that strong, evidence-based gun safety measures can reduce gun violence while respecting the rights of responsible gun owners. That’s why we have one of the lowest gun death rates in America and historically low crime rates across the board. We won’t be intimidated by another politically motivated lawsuit. We’ll continue defending the laws that protect Californians and keep dangerous weapons off our streets.

In addition to the DOJ’s challenge to California, the Department of Justice is also suing Virginia for its newly enacted law that bans the purchase and sale of ordinary semi-automatic rifles.

The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger on May 14, essentially freezes the markets for sales of “assault firearms” in the commonwealth.

Similar to the California law, Virginia’s ban was set to take effect on July 1, thus triggering the two lawsuits on the same day.

“On April 10, I promised Governor Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a press release. “Law-abiding Americans should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms owned by millions of their fellow citizens.”

Spanberger’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​California, Democrats, Department of justice, Virginia, Second amendment, Abigail spanberger, Gavin newsom, Politics 

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales infiltrated the Texas Democrat convention in Corpus Christi — and it was every bit as insane as she expected.

First, Gonzales was not allowed any press credentials because of her views.

Then, she quickly found a Planned Parenthood booth where they were handing out free Plan B.

“They gave me not one, but two free Plan B’s because they hate babies in the womb and they love killing them. This is really disgusting stuff,” Gonzales says, before throwing the Plan B in the trash and saying, “They do the same to babies.”

Gonzales also spoke to some attendees, asking one woman, who was wearing a mask, what positions of James Talarico’s she supported the most.

When the woman refused to answer, Gonzales ventured, “Have you thought about maybe removing the mask? It’s 2026.”

The woman then pulled down her mask, got in Gonzales’ face, breathed heavily, and said, “I have chronic Epstein-Barr virus. Would you like it?”

“The masks don’t work, ma’am,” Gonzales replied. “Thank you for trying to give me a virus. Lovely people.”

Gonzales then approached another woman who was wearing an “I’m a Talafreako” shirt.

“What of James Talarico’s policies do you support the most?” Gonzales asked.

“The fact that he is a real Christian as opposed to a pseudo-Christian,” the woman replied.

“Have you heard the quote of his where he said he hates Christianity?” Gonzales asked.

The woman answered that “no,” she hadn’t, because he’s a minister.

“Somebody probably misquoted him. They do that all the time,” she added.

Gonzales also came face-to-face with another Talarico supporter, who claimed he didn’t care that Talarico’s friend, South Texan congressional candidate and musician Bobby Pulido, used to perform on stage with a bandmate who was convicted of indecent contact with an 8-year-old.

“I don’t care about his friend,” the man told Gonzales.

“You don’t care that he’s parading his convicted pedophile friend around on stage,” Gonzales replied, shocked.

“No, not really,” the man replied.

“He raped an 8-year-old girl,” Gonzales says, before the man tried to claim that Republicans are also guilty of pedophilia.

“I’m saying all pedophiles are bad and we should all agree, not just say, ‘But what about other pedophiles?’” she replied.

After even more insane interactions, Gonzales was then kicked out of the event for “agitating” the crowd.

“We were just standing there. We were told that many people told them we were agitating,” she says. “He brought two cops with him. I think one of them was trans, which really tracks with this mentally ill Democrat convention.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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​Bobby pulido, Democrat, James talarico, Planned parenthood, Sara gonzales, Texas, Texas democrat convention, Sara gonzales unfiltered 

On Thursday, Apple raised prices on basically every Mac, every iPad, the HomePod, the Apple TV, and the Vision Pro. Not a refresh-with-new-specs bump where they hand you a faster chip to soften the blow, but a global markup on hardware that didn’t change, live on the store the same morning. Apple’s stock fell 6.1%, its worst single day since April 2025.

The same day, Microsoft raised Xbox prices for the third time in 13 months.

Apple put the blame squarely on ‘the rapid expansion of AI data centers.’

I’ve been telling you that you’re already paying for the AI boom. You just weren’t getting an itemized bill.

Back in May, the evidence was your electricity. Residential power prices are up roughly 30% since 2020, and they climb worse the closer you live to a data center. The point I kept hammering was simple: The cost of this build-out doesn’t stay in Silicon Valley. It gets pushed downstream, onto you.

What actually got more expensive

The numbers tell it better than I can. Here’s the Apple damage:

Table by Josh Centers for Blaze Media

A fully loaded 16-inch MacBook Pro now tops out at $10,149.00. Five figures for a laptop. Apple’s short reign as the best value computer manufacturer is over.

Cook called it a ‘hundred-year flood’

Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal last week that Apple couldn’t keep shielding customers from what’s happening to component costs. He called it “a hundred-year flood” and said that in more than 40 years, he had never seen anything like it in any corner of the business.

Apple’s own statement ran in the same direction: It says component costs have spiked farther and faster than anything it has dealt with before, and it put the blame squarely on “the rapid expansion of AI data centers.”

Here’s the thing about that. When Apple tells you it can’t absorb a cost, believe it. This is the company with the most ruthless supply chain on Planet Earth, the one that squeezes suppliers for sport and gets first dibs on every new chip node. If Apple is raising your prices, the problem isn’t Apple being greedy this quarter. It’s a tell. The squeeze is real enough that even the apex predator is passing it down the food chain.

Xbox and the part that should make you mad

Microsoft’s hike lands August 1: A hundred bucks more on the 512GB consoles, $150 more on the 1TB models, and the 2TB version gets killed off entirely. The flagship Series X with a disc drive jumps to $800. It was $650 not that long ago.

Now, the first two Xbox hikes, back in May and September 2025, were about tariffs. Microsoft danced around it the second time with “changes in the macroeconomic environment,” but everybody knew what that meant. This time, Microsoft came right out and said console storage and memory are up 2.5x since October and the company expects those costs to double again by the fall of 2027. The story shifted from politics to physics.

And consoles are the worst possible place for this to hit, because of something most people don’t know: Microsoft sells the box at a loss. The whole model is to eat that loss up front and make it back on games, accessories, and Game Pass subscriptions over the life of the machine. So a memory spike doesn’t shave a margin here. It blows a hole in one.

RELATED: People still nagging you to get an Apple laptop? This news might silence them once and for all.

SvetaZi/Getty Images

Which brings us to the detail that tells you everything you need to know about where we are: buy now, pay later.

Microsoft is rolling out interest-free installments so you can finance an Xbox. Amazon is offering up to 12-month payment plans. The companies are rolling out a layaway program for a video game console and calling it a feature.

Follow the money, and you land on Micron

Micron just reported that quarterly revenue more than quadrupled. Its gross margin went from 39% a year ago to 84.9%. That’s fatter than Nvidia or Meta.

Memory makers are shoveling production toward high-bandwidth memory, the stuff that goes into AI servers, because that’s where the desperate, bottomless money is right now. Every wafer that becomes an HBM stack for some hyperscaler’s GPU cluster is a wafer that doesn’t become the plain old DRAM in your laptop or the storage in your kid’s Xbox. Consumer hardware and AI infrastructure are now fighting over the same finite supply, and consumer hardware is losing.

You’re not imagining the squeeze. You’re funding it. A video game console is now a layaway purchase in the same week a memory chipmaker posts a margin north of 80%. The money didn’t vanish. It just changed hands on the way to your living room.

This is the bubble, and you’re the collateral

Earlier, I wrote that the AI bubble wouldn’t burst with a headline. It would burst with a memo. A canceled license, a quiet budget revision, a company sheepishly rationing the miracle tool it told you would change everything.

This is the flip side of that exact coin.

Even as companies start trimming their AI spending behind closed doors, the hardware build-out they already committed to is still out there vacuuming up components by the trainload. The data centers are under construction. The memory orders are placed. And the bill for all of it lands on you, at the Apple Store, at the GameStop checkout, whether or not the AI revolution ever actually pays off the way they promised.

That’s the part that ought to bother you. Nobody asked if you wanted to subsidize this. You just woke up Thursday and the MacBook your kid needs for the fall semester costs $200 more than it did Wednesday, the Xbox now ships with a financing plan, and somewhere a server farm is coming online that will consume more power than a small city.

It’s not over, and they told you so

Apple all but announced the next round. iPhone increases are coming, probably aimed at the Pro models where buyers don’t flinch at a hundred bucks. Bloomberg Intelligence figures a $100 bump covers 78% of the added cost. There’s also a foldable model expected to clear $2,000. John Ternus inherits the whole memory mess on September 1 when he takes over as CEO.

And it isn’t just Apple bracing you for more. At the ISC 2026 conference, Lenovo warned, half in jest but pointedly, that memory prices have entered a structural climb that won’t reverse to early-2025 levels even as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron race to add capacity and that high DRAM and NAND prices will become the “new normal” in 2030 and beyond. An actual hardware maker is now telling its own customers to budget for pricier PCs, consoles, and phones straight through the end of the decade.

The through-line of everything I’ve written on this is one ugly sentence: The era of cheap, open, owner-controlled personal computing is closing, and AI is the thing closing it. Not with a ban. Not with a law. With a price tag, applied a little at a time, until one Thursday you look up and the floor has moved out from under you.

The hardware is all still for sale. You just can’t afford as much of it as you could last year. And next year you’ll afford less.

And if you were planning to do what I told you in May — buy your own hardware, run your own models, stop renting intelligence from a company that loses money on you — here’s the bad news. That hardware runs on the same memory everyone is now fighting over. The DRAM, the storage, the GPU you would buy to own your compute is exactly what is spiking. The escape hatch is closing.

Buy what you actually need now. It is not getting cheaper.

​Tech 

Philadelphia Police have issued arrest warrants for a pair of 16-year-old males in connection with the murder of a Penn State University senior less than a month ago.

The teens — Kaiseem Smith and Azzubair Outen-Fleming — are wanted for murder and related offenses, and police are urging those with information to contact their tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477), WTXF-TV reported.

‘They don’t deserve to get to walk away from what they did.’

Billy Schmidt, 22, was fatally shot around 1:30 a.m. June 6 in the 1900 block of Durfor Street in South Philadelphia, WPVI-TV reported.

The shooting occurred just blocks from his home in what his family has said may have been an armed robbery attempt, WTXF added.

Neighbors provided police with surveillance video that showed the moments just before gunfire erupted, WTXF reported, adding that Schmidt in the video can be heard asking for his phone back.

More from WTXF:

Police say the suspects were seen in the area of 20th Street between Ritner and Jackson streets before the shooting, and last seen near 22nd and Porter streets. One suspect is described as approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall with braided hair, wearing a gray “KONFUSED” brand hoodie with skulls and crossbones and a black mask. The second suspect, believed to be the shooter, is between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 5 inches tall and was wearing all black with a camouflage face mask.

After the shooting, police say the suspects got rid of their masks and hoodies and were seen in white T-shirts.

“We are heartbroken over the tragic death of William Schmidt, and we share our deepest condolences with his family and friends,” Penn State officials said in a statement, according to WTXF.

RELATED: Penn State senior shot dead just yards from his family’s South Philly home — after thugs apparently stole his phone

Schmidt had been studying digital journalism and media and was planning to graduate in December, WTXF added.

The City of Philadelphia is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, WTXF reported.

“I hope they find them. I want [them] in jail. That’s what I want. They don’t deserve to get to walk away from what they did,” Matthew Segal of South Philadelphia told WPVI.

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​Philadelphia, Murder, Fatal shooting, Billy schmidt, Suspects named, Arrest warrants, Penn state university, Crime 

Those license plate cameras hanging over highways and intersections are no longer just reading plates.

New technology now allows some of them to detect the electronic devices traveling with you: your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, infotainment system, AirTags, and even some pet trackers.

Collect enough data points, and it becomes possible to identify where someone works, where they live, and who they regularly travel with.

In other words, the goal is no longer simply to identify your car. It’s to identify you. And most drivers have no idea this capability already exists.

Easy reader

Most Americans are familiar with Automatic License Plate Readers. Police departments, toll authorities, and private companies have used them for years. They photograph license plates, log the time and location, and store that information in massive databases.

These systems were originally sold as tools to find stolen vehicles and assist in Amber Alerts. But the databases have grown enormously, storing billions of scans and increasingly being used for purposes far beyond their original mission. Civil liberties groups have been raising concerns about that expansion for years.

According to Flock Safety, one of the largest providers of these systems, its cameras capture multiple frames of video and use motion detection to identify vehicles. The company says it does not use facial recognition technology and that its cameras are not designed to identify individuals.

Yet that distinction is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

ALPR cameras use optical character recognition technology to convert license plate images into digital text and compare that information against databases of vehicles of interest. Increasingly, however, the cameras are doing much more than simply reading plates.

Electronic fingerprint

Now, here’s where things get serious.

A defense contractor called Leonardo has been promoting a system called SignalTrace. It turns license plate cameras into advanced vehicle-tracking technology by combining plate information with signals transmitted by nearby electronic devices.

Even if you never gave permission for anyone to access your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth devices, or your vehicle’s Wi-Fi system.

SignalTrace is essentially an add-on sensor that can be attached to existing license plate cameras. Instead of simply reading a plate, it searches for wireless signals coming from nearby devices: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, and other identifiers.

Drive past one of these systems and it may detect the electronic signatures coming from your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, infotainment system, AirTags, tire-pressure sensors, or other connected devices.

The system then links those electronic identifiers to a license plate. Leonardo calls this your “electronic fingerprint.”

In plain English, the goal is to connect vehicles with the electronic devices and people associated with them.

May the Fourth be with you

According to documentation referenced by multiple publications, SignalTrace isn’t limited to roadside cameras. The technology can also be deployed in parking garages, transportation hubs, event venues, and other public locations where wireless devices are present.

That means these systems can continue gathering information even when a vehicle isn’t the primary focus.

This raises two obvious questions.

First: Who controls the information about where you go and what devices you carry with you?

And second: How much of this surveillance is consistent with Americans’ expectations of privacy?

Privacy advocates argue that technologies like this raise serious Fourth Amendment concerns because they allow governments to collect detailed information about people’s movements and associations without individualized suspicion or a warrant.

Modern problems

That debate is only becoming more important as vehicles themselves become increasingly connected.

Modern cars already collect enormous amounts of information, including location data, driving behavior, route histories, voice commands, vehicle diagnostics, and in some cases information gathered through interior cameras and driver-monitoring systems.

Critics worry that systems like SignalTrace add yet another layer to an already expanding data ecosystem.

Most drivers don’t realize that they don’t fully control much of the information their vehicles generate. Manufacturers often determine who can access that data, whether it can be shared, and how long it is retained.

Now, layer SignalTrace on top of all that.

Not only can manufacturers collect information from connected vehicles, but external surveillance systems may now be able to detect the devices you bring into the car and tie those identifiers directly to your license plate.

Over time, that creates a remarkably detailed picture of your movements and routines.

RELATED: The latest ‘solution’ to reckless driving could limit freedom for all of us

United Archives/Getty Images

Pattern of life

Privacy experts often refer to this as “pattern of life” surveillance. Collect enough data points, and it becomes possible to identify where someone works, where they live, who they regularly travel with, and even sensitive locations they frequently visit.

Leonardo says the technology captures identifiers and frequencies, not the contents of calls or messages. That may be technically true. But once detailed information exists inside a database, history shows that its use often expands over time.

So what does this mean for ordinary drivers?

It means the privacy expectations many Americans still have on public roads may be changing quickly.

It means the data ecosystem surrounding your vehicle is becoming larger and more interconnected.

And it means lawmakers need to have serious conversations about who can collect this information, how long it can be stored, and what can be done with it.

I’m not saying every police department will abuse these capabilities tomorrow. But once the technology exists and the infrastructure is already in place, the temptation to use it more broadly becomes very real.

We’ve seen that happen with other surveillance tools.

Protect yourself

So what can you do right now?

First, familiarize yourself with your vehicle’s privacy and data settings. Many cars allow you to disable certain forms of data sharing or location tracking.Second, be mindful of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If you’re not using them, consider turning them off. These are precisely the types of signals systems like SignalTrace are designed to detect.Third, if you use AirTags, fitness trackers, or pet trackers, understand that those devices can also become part of your electronic footprint.Fourth, when you sell or trade your vehicle, factory-reset the infotainment system and remove all paired devices. Many people leave enormous amounts of personal information behind without realizing it.Finally, support serious data-privacy legislation and efforts to give consumers greater control over the information their vehicles generate.

Because technologies like this rarely arrive with a major announcement.

They appear quietly in police budgets, vendor contracts, and infrastructure projects.

And by the time most people notice, the system is already in place.

Bottom line: Your car is supposed to work for you, not the other way around. When surveillance systems start linking your license plate to the devices you carry every day, it’s worth paying attention — and asking some hard questions before these technologies become the new normal.

I’ll keep watching this space and bringing you updates as more departments adopt or test these systems. And I’ll let you know about the wins too.

If you’re wondering, “Where are all these cameras?” you will be shocked. Check out websites like deflock.org, an open-source project mapping license plate readers. Or look on eyesonflock.com, an aggregating Flock Safety Transparency Portal data, and haveibeenflocked.com, where you can enter your plate number to find out more.

​Airtags and trackers, Connected vehicles, Data control, Fourth amendment, License plate cameras, Privacy concerns, Surveillance systems, Electronic fingerprint, Tech, Flock cameras, Leonardo, Signaltrace, Automotive 

A new report from Punchbowl News has revealed new details about the recent hospitalization of longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Last month, news broke that McConnell was hospitalized on June 14. Spokesperson David Popp released a statement that day that said little more than that the senator had been “admitted to the hospital” and that he was “receiving excellent care.”

The dispatcher requests ‘ALS’ services, which Thompson said referred to ‘Advanced Life Support.’

No updates have been released in the weeks since. However, a Punchbowl News report released Wednesday revealed that McConnell was “unconscious” when first responders were sent to his home in Washington, D.C.

The report cited an emergency dispatch recording shared on X by D.C. journalist Desirée Thompson. Thompson claimed the recording came from “Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS dispatch.”

On the recording, the dispatcher requests “ALS” services, which Thompson said referred to “Advanced Life Support.” The dispatcher also notes that the emergency relates to someone who is “unconscious.”

Blaze News reached out to McConnell’s office to confirm that the senator had been unconscious at the time and to learn the current status of his condition and whether he has been discharged from the hospital. The office did not respond.

RELATED: Longtime GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell hospitalized

Photo dated June 1, 2026, featuring Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Justice of West Virginia; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Punchbowl News reported that multiple senators, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), have claimed to have spoken with McConnell. Thune said the day after McConnell’s hospitalization that McConnell remained “dialed in to what’s going on” in the Senate.

Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News about whether he has been in touch with McConnell since that time.

McConnell’s health has been the subject of concern for years. The 84-year-old has apparently frozen up, tripped, fallen down stairs, and used a wheelchair on multiple occasions, including in early June. Back in February, he checked himself in to a hospital after experiencing “flu-like symptoms.”

About 10 days before his latest hospitalization, a noticeably frail-looking McConnell required assistance from two men as he made his way through the U.S. Capitol to vote on a reconciliation bill, a photo showed. His most recent message on X was posted on June 12.

McConnell announced in early 2025 that he would not seek another term.

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​Mitch mcconnell, Kentucky, Politics 

The Supreme Court’s decision in the birthright citizenship case cannot be sugarcoated: It is a disaster.

Illegal immigration drives many of the problems that afflict the nation — cultural decline, political brinkmanship, the rise of socialist and communist policies, social fragmentation, strained schools and hospitals, and damage to the job market, to name only a few.

Getting back on track requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus resources on targets and operations that can yield large numbers of removals.

But birthright citizenship adds a uniquely destructive incentive. It rewards illegal immigration itself by bestowing sacred American citizenship on the children of people who should not be here in the first place.

Birthright citizenship creates a multiplier effect. It turns one act of illegality into a generational claim on the country. To put it in terms some of my more interventionist friends may understand, the proponents of illegal immigration have secured state-sanctioned weapons of mass reproduction.

Even after this setback, much can be done to mitigate the damage. Fortunately, the solution is not only politically viable; it was promised.

The solution is mass deportation, now with a particular focus on illegal aliens who are expectant parents or already have children.

The Supreme Court’s ruling does nothing to grant amnesty to the parents of would-be citizens if those parents are here illegally. Deporting expectant parents shuts off birthright citizenship before it happens.

For illegal aliens who already have children with ill-gotten birthright citizenship, the parents should be deported with their illegal-alien family unit. They can choose to abandon their children in the United States, which would be a condemnable moral failure, or take their children with them.

To make things easier, the Oversight Project has already put together the “Keeping Families Together Plan: How to Deport After the Birthright Citizenship Case.”

The administration remains far off target on fulfilling its mass-deportation agenda. The numbers are not there. Getting back on track requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus resources on targets and operations that can yield large numbers of removals.

That means high-density enforcement.

Worksite enforcement against illegal labor operations at Republican-protected sanctuary farms, factories, and industrial hubs would produce large numbers of arrests and deportations. Enforcement at high-density physical locations obviously yields more results than chasing one alien at a time.

This is not happening at the necessary scale because the special-interest lobby supporting these industries is a major financial backer of the Republican Party.

But as far as I know, no special-interest lobby for the parents of anchor babies funds Republican elections. I have been surprised before, but this should be an easier political fight.

RELATED: 1776, not 1608: What the Supreme Court got wrong on birthright citizenship

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

It has been difficult to persuade the Trump administration to turn fully toward worksite enforcement. Perhaps the outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision can now be channeled into concrete action to mitigate the damage.

If the court had ruled the other way, presumably these removals would already be happening. If birthright citizenship for illegal aliens is truly the civilizational threat its critics claim it is, then the Trump administration must use every available tool to address it even under this now seemingly permanent constitutional framework.

Other steps will be necessary to address birthright citizenship gained through means other than crossing the border illegally. Temporary visitors and birth tourism should be targeted. So should more exotic abuses, such as a communist Chinese billionaire allegedly mailing sperm to California to impregnate women and produce American-citizen children for him.

There is no shortage of mitigating measures available: tightening rules for temporary visitors, banning birth tourism, and perhaps even banning the use of the mail system for communist Chinese sperm.

For those here illegally, the answer is more straightforward.

The Trump administration should fall back in love with its signature campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.

Illegal aliens cannot have anchor babies here if they are deported first.

The solution is sitting right in front of us.

Mass deportation.

​Birthright citizenship, Scotus, Supreme court, Trump, 14h amendment, Amnesty, Oversight project, Mass deportation, Visas, Opinion & analysis 

President Donald Trump spoke candidly about his rallies that used the hit “Y.M.C.A.” song after the death of one of the Village People.

Trump said the song became a big hit once again after he started using it, which began during his 2020 presidential campaign.

‘There’s nothing gay about that.’

Campaign stops and anti-lockdown protests that featured the “Y.M.C.A.” song — as the president did his signature dance — made the Village People’s hit synonymous with Trump rallies.

On Tuesday morning, just one day before his 75th birthday, Village People co-founder and Texas native Victor Willis passed away.

“It is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband, VICTOR WILLIS,” wife Karen Huff-Willis wrote on Facebook, per CBS News.

Willis’ wife described his death as the result of “a short, but aggressive illness” and requested privacy.

Trump was quick to offer his condolences early in the morning on Wednesday, taking to Truth Social to post kind words about the disco singer.

“He was a great and happy guy who loved that I used his groups song, YMCA, at my Rallies,” Trump wrote. “It became a ‘monster’ hit, again, 30 years after its original launch. Many singers and groups wanted to get on board at the Rallies after all of the Rally Attendance Records were set – The crowds were, and are, enormous – But Victor and the group was there for us right from the beginning!”

RELATED: How an NYC socialite’s riches preserve America’s beautiful, bustling past

Gari Garaialde/Redferns

Willis described in late 2024 how financially beneficial the re-emergence of the song had been, saying on his social media page that the boost from Trump had “been great.”

“Y.M.C.A. is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of Y.M.C.A. And I thank him for choosing to use my song,” Willis wrote.

Trump continued on Wednesday, saying of the Village People, “They loved the action, and we loved them and their great and uplifting song.”

The president concluded, “We will think of Victor every time YMCA is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week. My condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed.”

RELATED: ‘They’re animals’: Trump UNLOADS on ‘godless Communists’ taking over the Democratic Party

While it has been widely assumed “Y.M.C.A.” is about gay men and has been colloquially referred to as the gay national anthem, Willis denied this and said the song was simply about hanging out with friends.

Particularly, Willis stated the line “You can hang out with all the boys” was “simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.”

Three Village People albums went platinum in the U.S.: “Macho Man,” “Cruisin’,” and “Go West.”

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​Politics, Trump, Ymca, News 

While three major socialist victories occurred in New York City this month, the rise of this anti-American movement is not confined to New York — and could spread across the country if left unchecked.

“They’re extremists. They’re so dangerous to our country. How did they do it?” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler begins on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

However, Wheeler points out that there is good news — they “can be stopped.”

“It doesn’t necessarily require the cooperation of the do-nothing Republicans in the United States Congress. President Trump can take action himself,” she says.

Wheeler explains that first, Trump “must defund” any college or university that “indoctrinates youth in anti-American ideology.”

“Even private schools, by the way, this doesn’t just apply to state schools. Even private schools accept federally subsidized student loans and research grants from the federal government. Cut it all,” she says.

“The second thing that we need to do is we need to prosecute individuals who indoctrinate kids with communism,” she continues.

“Some people are going to accuse me of wanting McCarthyism 2.0. Yeah, that sounds like a good start. Prosecute them,” she adds.

The third thing Trump can do to stop the wave of Marxists infiltrating the U.S. government is to report those individuals who celebrate tragedies like the murder of Charlie Kirk.

“Tell their parents, report them to their school, to their employer. Make that follow them in our society. It’s not cancel culture. It’s self-defense,” Wheeler says.

“And the fourth thing, infiltrate the radical terrorist groups that are such a looming threat to our country. We just learned … that the ring leader who plotted the mass terror attack that was, thank goodness, thwarted against UFC Freedom 250 at the White House, was an illegal alien,” she explains.

“Infiltrate the radical terrorist groups, the radical trans terrorist groups, specifically the BLM, racial Marxist groups, Antifa, Soros, Roy Singham-funded groups, and break them up because they are the enforcement arm of the ideology embraced by this terrible trio,” she continues.

The fifth thing, Wheeler explains, is that K-12 public schools should have a pro-American, pro-Western civilization, and pro-Christian curriculum.

“So that these children are not vulnerable to the indoctrination of university, so that they’re not prepped and primed and halfway indoctrinated by the time they even get there,” Wheeler says.

“I make this list because it’s important that we understand how this was done in New York City … and that it is a significant threat not just in New York but in cities and states all across the country,” she adds.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Liz wheeler, Democrats, Communism, Mccarthyism, Socialism, Donald trump, Marxism, The liz wheeler show, Conservatives, Zohran mamdani 

The 2024 U.K. general election surprised a lot of people, not least the Labour Party itself.

Sir Keir Starmer did not so much come to power with a mandate from the electorate as benefit from Britain’s absurd first-past-the-post voting system. Labour secured a massive 174-seat majority on just 33.7% of the vote.

Apparently, a 16-year-old is wise enough to choose the next government, but a 15-and-a-half-year-old is too fragile to look at a meme on X without state intervention.

This “loveless landslide,” as it has been called, happened because everyone was fed up with the Conservatives pretending to be conservative while presiding over record immigration and historically high taxes, while the emerging Reform Party split the vote on the right.

Look back in anger

Brits tend to vote tactically. Voting in this country is about getting rid of someone you hate or voting for someone you hate a bit less to prevent someone you hate a lot more from gaining power.

When he stood on the steps of Downing Street almost two years ago, Starmer declared that the country had voted for “change.” And change the country he did. To paraphrase Churchill, never in the field of politics have so few done so much to make life worse for so many. The prime minister and his Cabinet of credentialed ideological clones immediately set about dismantling the British state. We went from 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule to managed decline overseen by a man so dull he had to beg his shadow to follow him.

Admittedly, he did unite the country — against him.

Within the space of two years, Starmer’s blend of technocratic managerialism and authoritarian overreach had alienated and enraged just about everyone. He was so unpopular that he was even hated by people who didn’t know he existed; people heard the name or saw his face and seemed ready to spontaneously combust with rage.

Ultimately, he did the right thing and resigned on June 22. Ironically, it was only during his resignation speech that he actually showed some genuine human emotion. When his successor, generally considered to be Andy Burnham, takes up the role — the seventh PM in a decade — the revolving door of people fighting for the front seat of a clown car continues.

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Starmer’s final, desperate attempt to manufacture a legacy before leaving Number 10 was his sweeping social media ban for under-16s. Not content with alienating a generation of working-class voters, he apparently wanted to ensure that the youngest demographic would grow up hating Labour as well.

Just two years ago, Starmer resisted calls to ban children from having smartphones and using social media. So the about-face is nothing new to a man who has changed his mind on dozens of government policies. The former prime minister has made so many U-turns that the clown car is doing donuts at the circus.

According to statements he made during his Downing Street press conference, Starmer took a more draconian approach after meeting with bereaved parents and after evaluating evidence from Australia, which became the first Western country to ban children from social media in December 2025. From early next year, the age limit will be raised from 13 to 16 on platforms including Snapchat, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Naturally, children were positively overwhelmed with joy by the news that the state was going to become their new moral guardian. When the BBC visited a school to gauge the reaction of under-16s to being kicked off “the socials,” they spoke to a few who agreed with the ban, but they also met a teenager named Isabella. After she revealed that her weekend screen time was nine hours, the reporter asked what she would do with all that sudden time.

In classic British fashion, she deadpanned straight to camera: “Stare at a wall.”

It was a wonderfully sarcastic, meme-ready response that instantly went viral.

RELATED: Britain is paying the price for years of woke ideology

JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

‘Sheer hypocrisy’

If Andy Burnham becomes prime minister and proceeds to enforce this ban, he will inherit a generation of young people whose first political memory is of a government that exists largely to take things away.

The sheer hypocrisy of the policy is staggering. This is, after all, the exact same Keir Starmer who championed lowering the voting age to 16, solemnly declaring that young people were mature enough to help decide the future of the United Kingdom. Apparently, a 16-year-old is wise enough to choose the next government, but a 15-and-a-half-year-old is too fragile to look at a meme on X without state intervention.

No thought has been put into this ban. The legislation excludes WhatsApp and Signal — so the state’s big-brained solution to online safety prevents a teenager from posting a photo of his friends on a public feed, yet happily lets him participate in group chats with hundreds of peers, swapping the exact same content totally off the regulatory radar.

Besides, kids are not as stupid as we think; they are light-years ahead of tech regulation. Recently a study commissioned by online safety charity the Molly Rose Foundation exposed the reality of these policies. The study — the first to examine teen social media use under a blanket ban — found that 61% of Australian 12- to 15-year-olds who previously had accounts still maintained access to at least one platform.

Don’t get me wrong: Social media is a sewer, overrun with self-righteous liberals and narcissistic attention-seekers posting slop, but it’s an easy target for policymakers. Not everything is the fault of social media. This is a moral panic, a headline-grabbing stunt parading as child protection. Social media platforms, like video games before them and horror movies before that, have simply become the latest scapegoat for wider social problems.

I sympathize deeply with the frustration and anguish felt both by teachers and grieving parents, but child-rearing should not be outsourced to the state any more than the government should declare a national bedtime. It’s a parent’s responsibility to bring up children, not the state’s. If Labour thinks Parliament can legislate a tech-savvy generation into staring at a wall, lawmakers are about to find out exactly how tactical the next electorate can be.

​Andy burnham, Keir starmer, Labour party, Nanny state, United kingdom, Voting age, Lifestyle, Social media ban, Letter from the uk