It wasn't Washington that made me think about it. It was a quiet drive through Florida.

I had spent several days helping my son unpack after his move to Fishhawk Ranch. Like every mother, I was doing what mothers do: organizing closets, opening boxes, trying to make an unfamiliar place feel like home. From there, I drove north to Brooksville to interview someone for an article.

The most dangerous surveillance system isn’t the one we reject. It's the one we eventually stop noticing.

Somewhere along that drive, I began noticing them.

Cameras.

One after another. Traffic cameras. Speed-enforcement cameras. License-plate readers mounted on poles. They weren't hidden. They weren't pretending not to be there. They stood over the road as casually as streetlights, silently recording the movements of every passing driver.

I caught myself wondering something that should concern every American: When did we decide this was normal?

Not when did governments decide. When did we?

Because I don't remember anyone asking. I don't recall a statewide debate. I don’t remember voting to create a society where our daily movements are cataloged, stored, shared, analyzed, and, in many cases, retained long after we've gone home.

Somewhere between “it's just for traffic” and “it's just for public safety,” America quietly became one of the most surveilled free societies in the world.

And hardly anyone noticed.

The Fourth Amendment wasn't written because America’s founders feared technology. They feared government.

British authorities used “general warrants” and “writs of assistance,” legal instruments that allowed officials to search broadly without individualized suspicion. Those practices became one of the sparks of the American Revolution.

The Fourth Amendment was a direct rejection of that kind of generalized intrusion. It was not merely about protecting homes. It was about preventing government from searching and tracking people without particularized cause.

Today's surveillance technology raises a modern version of the same question.

No police department could assign an officer to follow every American every day. A computer can.

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Across the country, automated license-plate reader systems capture billions of vehicle scans every year. A single observation tells almost nothing. But millions of observations stitched together over months or years can reveal where we worship, whom we visit, what doctors we see, what political meetings we attend, and what causes we support.

One camera watches traffic. A network watches lives.

That distinction matters.

The Supreme Court has already begun recognizing it.

In United States v. Jones (2012), the court ruled that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle’s movements constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment.

Then, in Carpenter v. United States (2018), the court held that police generally need a warrant to obtain historical cell-site location information because prolonged tracking can reveal what Chief Justice John Roberts called the “privacies of life.”

The principle emerging from those cases is straightforward: Technology can change the constitutional analysis. What once would have required hundreds of officers working around the clock can now be accomplished automatically, cheaply, and at enormous scale.

That is why large license plate databases deserve serious scrutiny. Civil liberties groups have challenged warrantless access to them, arguing that mass collection can enable exactly the sort of suspicionless tracking the Fourth Amendment was designed to restrain.

The ACLU has likewise warned that these systems sweep up information about millions of innocent people whose only "crime" is driving to work, church, school, or the grocery store.

Those aren’t fringe lefty concerns.

The issue isn’t the existence of cameras. It is the absence of meaningful limits.

How long is the data kept? Who can search it? Can federal agencies access local databases? Can private companies? Can information collected for one purpose quietly be used for another?

Those questions deserve public answers.

Because history teaches an uncomfortable lesson: Governments rarely surrender surveillance powers voluntarily. They expand them.

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Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

That brings me back to Florida.

I recently read proposals to place cameras on municipal garbage trucks to identify possible zoning or code-enforcement violations while they move through neighborhoods.

Supporters see efficiency. Perhaps they are right.

But constitutional government is not built on efficiency alone. It is built on restraint.

Every surveillance tool arrives with a reasonable explanation: traffic safety, crime reduction, code enforcement, public health, national security. Individually, each sounds sensible. Collectively, they can create something the founders would instantly recognize and deeply distrust: a government capable of watching everyone.

Rather than abandon technology, the better answer is to insist that constitutional limits evolve alongside it.

If governments want to deploy large-scale surveillance systems, they should do so through open public debate and legislative approval. They should adopt strict retention limits, require warrants before searching historical movement data except in genuine emergencies, publish regular transparency reports, and impose meaningful penalties for misuse.

Citizens have tools too. Public records laws can reveal contracts with surveillance vendors, data-sharing agreements, retention policies, and audit logs. City council meetings and county commission hearings are often where these systems are approved. State legislatures can require judicial oversight, transparency, and meaningful limits on how surveillance data is collected and used.

Technology should serve a free people. Free people should never quietly become subjects of technology.

The most dangerous surveillance system isn’t the one we reject. It's the one we eventually stop noticing.

Kansas police met with a gruesome scene after a man called them to confess killing his four children and their mother before killing himself.

The man called 911 at about 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Winfield Police Chief Robbie DeLong.

Video from a neighbor's Ring camera showed the man screaming profanities and pacing back and forth just a few days before he killed his family.

About two hours later, police breached the door of the residence in Winfield and found the remains of the five victims and 53-year-old Ronald Williams Sr.

The victims were identified as 44-year-old Kelly George and her four children, 9-year-old Carol Williams, 7-year-old Ronald Williams Jr., 5-year-old Sarah Williams, and 3-year-old Kelly Magee-Williams.

"There was no other indication of any other loss of life, and so standard protocol was to set up a perimeter and start working the incident as a barricade situation," DeLong said.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jason Diaz said that Williams Sr. appeared to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No other people lived at the home and the public was under no threat, according to police.

Investigators are trying to determine the motive for the murder-suicide by interviewing neighbors.

Some indicated that Williams Sr. had been acting erratically in the months before the incident, and police said they had been at the residence to respond to numerous calls.

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"I can't say that anything would have indicated that we would be where we are today," said DeLong.

KAKE-TV obtained video from a neighbor's Ring camera showing the man screaming profanities and pacing back and forth just a few days before he killed his family.

He also had an extensive criminal past and was a registered sex offender.

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After Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White preached love, grace, and integrity at a press conference following DiJonai Carrington’s flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham — she quickly reflected the opposite.

“Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. Kindness will win. Then the mask drops,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock comments, before playing a video of the press conference where White addressed the “online community that’s trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist.”

She accused this “community” of “trying to create a fabrication” and “distortion” of who she is and what she’s “about.”

“For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game, I didn’t see the play in real time. I went straight to a press conference,” she explained.

“I thought the play got called right. Thankfully Sophie’s okay. Was it egregious? Absolutely,” she added.

White went on to explain that she takes any suggestions that she doesn’t always have her players' backs “personally” and “ride[s] with them 10 toes down all the time.”

“The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win,” she said, before reciting an old Michelle Obama quote, “When they go low, we go high.”

“Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. And kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell,” she added.

“That was the love and grace she was talking about. That was the whole production,” Whitlock comments.

"Not a game plan, not accountability. A staged crucifixion where the coach nails herself to the wood and demands you applaud the craftsmanship,” he adds.

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The Senate finally voted Saturday to confirm Todd Blanche as President Donald Trump’s new attorney general. Anyone who wants a Justice Department that enforces the law instead of bending it to politics can breathe a little easier.

Blanche is unusually well-suited for the job. He has seen the justice system from both sides — first as a federal prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, then as a defense attorney, including as one of Trump’s lead lawyers during the prosecutions he faced before returning to the White House. Few incoming attorneys general have had a more personal view of what prosecutorial power can become when politics infects the justice system.

Trump’s effort to reform the Justice Department is not complete, but the direction is a stark improvement over what came before.

A new era at the Justice Department has now officially begun, but the turnaround started before Blanche’s confirmation. Speed bumps aside, the direction under Trump’s team is unmistakable: order restored at the southern border, an end to lawfare, and a saner approach to antitrust enforcement. Blanche’s job is not to start that work. It is to finish it.

A timely reminder arrived last week, when the Department of Justice reached a settlement with Paul Vaughn days before Blanche was confirmed.

The Biden Justice Department charged Vaughn, a pro-life father of 11, under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act after he participated in a sit-in at a Tennessee abortion clinic in 2021.

FBI agents staged a predawn raid at his home and arrested him in front of his wife and children. Vaughn ultimately received three years of supervised release and no prison time, but other pro-life defendants were not so lucky.

Lauren Handy was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Jonathan Darnel received 34 months. Seventy-six-year-old Joan Andrews Bell got 27 months, and 75-year-old Paula Harlow received 24 months.

When Harlow’s husband pleaded for leniency because of her age and declining health, the judge replied that she should “make every effort to remain alive” in keeping with “the tenets of your religion.” All four were later pardoned by Trump.

The FACE Act protects access to abortion clinics, but it also protects pregnancy centers and houses of worship. Yet the Biden administration’s aggressive prosecution of pro-life demonstrators contrasted sharply with the much thinner record of prosecutions after extremists firebombed and vandalized pregnancy centers following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Attorney General Merrick Garland once explained the difficulty by noting that many of the attacks happened at night. Apparently darkness is now a federal jurisdictional problem. Good to know. Garland was almost on the Supreme Court.

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Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images

The pro-life cases were among the most visible abuses of the Garland years, but hardly the only ones. His department drew justified outrage over its treatment of parents protesting school policies; House Republicans later accused the DOJ of having labeled parents as terrorist threats. The FBI also came under fire after an internal memo contemplated cultivating sources in traditionalist Catholic communities — what critics described as a plan to send spies into parishes. And special counsel Jack Smith pursued Trump through the heat of the 2024 campaign.

Even antitrust enforcement became an exercise in questionable priorities. The Justice Department blocked JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines in 2024. Spirit later collapsed, removing a low-fare competitor from an already concentrated airline market. Regulators claimed to be protecting consumers; consumers ended up with one fewer discount carrier.

The Biden administration also moved to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s acquisition of Juniper Networks, a deal the intelligence community reportedly deemed vital to national security. The Trump team ultimately allowed the transaction to proceed, strengthening an American competitor in a market where China’s Huawei remains formidable.

RELATED: The right needs a public defender network for lawfare

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-business, and heedless of national-security concerns: We have seen what happens when partisan priorities seep into the Justice Department. Trump’s effort to reform the Justice Department is not complete, but the direction is a stark improvement over what came before.

And the danger of backsliding is obvious. If a Democrat wins the White House in 2028, expect pressure for an attorney general even more aggressive than Garland. Biden himself reportedly regretted choosing Garland and wished he had listened to advisers who preferred the more partisan Doug Jones. That should tell you something.

Todd Blanche is infinitely preferable. He knows prosecutorial power from both sides of the courtroom, and he has every reason to understand how quickly discretion can become abuse.

The Justice Department does not need revenge. It needs restraint, consistency, and equal treatment under the law. Blanche has the experience — and now the authority — to deliver it.

The police chief of Gainesville agreed to rescind a policy about transgender-identifying suspects after the Florida attorney general publicly challenged the rule.

The policy said that if an officer could not determine the gender of a suspect who was going to be searched, that the officer should ask the suspect to choose the gender of the officer to perform the search.

Two days before the deadline, Uthmeier reported that the police department complied.

Attorney General James Uthmeier said the rule fan afoul of the Florida Civil Rights Act.

"This policy serves no legitimate law enforcement purpose, endangers officers and detainees, and violates Florida law," wrote Uthmeier in a letter to city officials at the end of July.

He also accused the police department of prioritizing "gender ideology over officer and detainee safety."

Uthmeier said the policy was an unsafe and illogical requirement for female police officers.

"This is not a neutral accommodation; it imposes asymmetric burdens on females based on a mental state-gender identity-that has nothing todo with the biological considerations that must be addressed when officers search detainees," he added. "A search policy that subordinates biology to ideology jeopardizes the safety and wellbeing of officers and detainees."

Uthmeier gave the police chief until Aug. 15 to rescind the policy or face possible legal action from the attorney general's office.

Two days before the deadline, Uthmeier reported that the police department complied.

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"The City of Gainesville confirmed today that the unlawful policy has been rescinded," he wrote in a post on social media Thursday.

He included a copy of the curt message from the city attorney he received.

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When Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer was asked to explain key positions of her own movement, the results were incredibly revealing.

In an interview with David Remnick of the New Yorker, Romer struggled to define what “taxing the hell out of millionaires” would actually mean in practice and defended positions on Israel that would effectively eliminate the Jewish state.

“We do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires,” Romer told Remnick.

“Well, what is taxing the hell out of them?” he asked.

“I don’t have like a solid —”

“But shouldn’t you?” he interrupted.

“I mean, if you’re the co-chair of the DSA, shouldn’t you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something?” he asked. “What exactly do you mean?”

“So, again, it’s democracy, right?” she said. “And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we need. We don’t want to depend on the existence of millionaires, because that means people are still getting exploited. So yeah, we need to look at what we need to pay for in the interim, what sort of tax base we need for that to happen, and then build from there.”

“So even these psychos don’t have an answer for that,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

Romer went on to explain that she’s been a “Jon Stewart” Democrat and believes that there should be “no defense or economic support for Israel.”

“Our position is a free Palestine with the capital in Jerusalem,” she said.

“She favors a one-state solution,” Gray says. “And that state is not Israel. She doesn’t believe Israel has a right to exist.”

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Liberal celebrity Rosie O'Donnell says she continues to struggle using her teenage daughter's chosen pronouns.

The 64-year-old admitted she took a drastic measure to remember to call her daughter "them" and thought the teenager would find it touching, but the girl didn't care at all.

'I thought she'd be very touched, and she didn't give two s**ts. She could not care less.'

O'Donnell related the story during an interview with Amy Poehler on her "Good Hang" podcast released Tuesday. O'Donnell told Poehler that her daughter would hold up a sign with the word "they" to remind her.

"I love, I love that you're constantly correcting in real time like we all do. It's, it's really beautiful," said Poehler.

"And it really matters to them, and I know it matters to them. And so when I would — they first told me that it was 'they/them,' I tried my best, but I kept saying 'she,'" O'Donnell said.

"And so they wrote on a cardboard paper 'they,' and then they would hold it up above their head every time I said 'she,'" O'Donnell laughed, "like John Cusack in 'Say Anything' with the boom box, just staring at me, you know."

O'Donnell said she eventually got the "they" tattooed in her daughter's handwriting.

"I had it tattooed on my wrist so that I would never forget, that it would remind me," she added. "And I thought she'd be very touched, and she didn't give two s**ts. She could not care less."

O'Donnell then "misgenders" her daughter in the course of telling the story.

"And I just said 'she.' I just did it again in the 'they' story," she added. "I messed it up."

O'Donnell's 13-year-old daughter was named Dakota but changed her name to Clay when she began identifying as "nonbinary" in 2024. O'Donnell came out as gay in 2002 and was legally married for two years to Michelle Rounds.

O'Donnell and Rounds adopted Dakota and later fought over custody until Rounds committed suicide in 2017.

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O'Donnell moved from the U.S. to Ireland in 2025 and claimed that she would return once all Americans had "equal rights."

The entire podcast episode with O'Donnell can be viewed on the show's YouTube channel.

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A female athlete who knows firsthand what it's like to compete against a male is confused by the WNBA's lack of a female-only policy.

To date, the WNBA has consistently punted on the idea of banning males from its league despite the topic being a focal point in press conferences, interviews, and even during games.

'The WNBA [is] proving every day how unserious the league is.'

Coaches and ownership have been clear: The WNBA is a progressive and inclusive league, even if women have a problem with it.

Payton McNabb is one of those women.

The North Carolina native gained notoriety during her senior year of high school as a volleyball player when she was on the receiving end of a male athlete's brutal spike that caused ongoing concussion symptoms and neck injury.

"It was very clear that we were not up against another high school girl," McNabb told Blaze News.

McNabb has subsequently become a vocal opponent of male inclusion in women's sports, even speaking before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency in May 2025.

Nearly four years after her high school injury, McNabb remains flabbergasted as to how a league made for women is still unable to admit obvious differences between the sexes.

"Something so simple as that has turned into this insane explosion of just the WNBA proving every day how unserious the league is," McNabb declared. "It's just been crazy to watch."

At the same time, McNabb praised Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, the first player in the league to outright state that men should not be allowed to play with women and that boys should not share locker rooms with girls.

"I think the way she's handled it has been so admirable," McNabb, who also played basketball, explained. "I really appreciate her not backing down from it, and doubling down on it, and standing up for women and girls in the next generation."

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Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

McNabb accused other WNBA players and coaches of "pulling up the ladder" and putting young girls in a position where there may be no women's basketball league for them to aspire to.

"I can't think of any other explanation as to why you would want men to infiltrate the very league you made to get away from men. It makes no sense," she said. "You can't complain on one hand that you want more media attention and more opportunities and just as much as the men, and then the next argument be that you would open-arms accept them on your team and, you know, encourage that to happen."

Now a college student, McNabb touched on the WNBA personnel who have performed stunts in response to Cunningham's "completely normal" comments.

Specifically referring to Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wearing a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt and Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton accosting two young female fans, McNabb said she believes there is some sort of ongoing effort to get "media relevancy."

"There's no other reason why anyone would be talking about the WNBA," she stressed.

McNabb asserted that the league's constant involvement in these controversies distracts from the actual sport: "It's just taking away from basketball. I mean, no one's even talking about basketball."

RELATED: 'A lot of people say it's not happening!' Blaze News investigates: A definitive list of men who have dominated women's sports

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Now in her 20s, McNabb recognizes how difficult it must have been for Cunningham to risk her rise to stardom by speaking out.

"She didn’t wait until it was easy," McNabb said of Cunningham. "She really said it when her career was taking off and, you know, when she has so many eyes on her."

"I know it means a lot to me, but I just know how much it means to a bunch of young girls, young athletes across the country who look up to her so much," she added.

McNabb revealed that the whole conversation around protecting women's sports has resulted in her being called a "TERF, bigoted, transphobic loser," when, in her opinion, all women are asking for is "the bare minimum."

A women-only locker room and an even playing field don't seem like too much to ask, the college student said, adding that even her most fervent detractors are putting forth "a losing argument."

"It's just real life, and it's okay to think that. And the people that disagree with you, I think they, deep down, they've got to know."

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported busting a smuggling operation at a port of entry at the United States-Mexico border.

CBP told Blaze News that officers at the cargo facility at the Pharr International Bridge had seized $634,000 worth of cocaine on Friday.

'The Department of Homeland Security and CBP have delivered the most secure border in history, stopping illicit narcotics and dangerous criminal aliens from entering our communities.'

The alleged contraband was found hidden in a commercial tractor-trailer coming from Reynosa, Mexico, and heading into the U.S., CBP said.

CBP said the vehicle was referred to secondary inspection and that officers detected anomalies using a nonintrusive inspection device. Officers then physically inspected the vehicle and discovered 47.48 pounds of alleged cocaine concealed in 18 packages.

Special agents of Homeland Security Investigations initiated an investigation, and the Office of Field Operations at CBP seized both the vehicle and the alleged narcotics, CBP said.

"Our CBP officers continue to successfully use their skills and expertise to intercept another load of hard narcotics," said Carlos Rodriguez, the port director at the Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas port of entry.

The massive port of entry has often been the site of smuggling operations thwarted by customs officials. In 2024, CBP reported seizing $5.4 million in methamphetamine hidden in a shipment of papayas.

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"Fulfilling President Donald J. Trump’s mandate, the Department of Homeland Security and CBP have delivered the most secure border in history, stopping illicit narcotics and dangerous criminal aliens from entering our communities, which will keep America safe for generations to come," read the press release from CBP given to Blaze News.

Luis Bazan, the director of the Pharr International Bridge, said in 2024 that an estimated $50 billion worth of trade flows through the enormous international industrial corridor.

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Just weeks after Democrats swapped Graham Platner for Troy Jackson as their U.S. Senate nominee in Maine, a newly unearthed 1988 police report has raised questions about violence in Jackson's past.

Obtained exclusively by Bangor Daily News in collaboration with the Maine Monitor, the report states that Jackson was involved in an assault at a home in Fort Kent, Maine, in the early morning of March 12, 1988.

'I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman.'

Lana Pelletier, Jackson’s girlfriend of roughly 40 years, told the responding officer at the time that Jackson “pushed her around” and that she planned to seek “cease harassment papers,” the report said, according to BDN. If such papers were ever filed, there is no record of them.

The report refers to Pelletier as Jackson's ex-girlfriend, BDN reported.

Jackson also kicked the door in after being asked to leave, then grabbed a man’s throat and punched him, the report said, according to BDN. The blow allegedly broke the man’s glasses and cut his face.

Jackson paid a $50 fine to resolve a subsequent misdemeanor charge and does not dispute the fight with the man.

Jackson and Pelletier both deny that he was violent toward her.

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CJ Gunther/Getty Images

“Nearly forty years ago, when I was 19 years old, I got into a fight with another man. I took responsibility for it then, and I take responsibility for it now,” Jackson said in a statement. “But let me be clear: I have never been violent with my partner Lana, or any other woman. This happened nearly four decades ago, and I assure Mainers this incident in no way reflects the man I am today or the life I’ve led in the years since.”

“I do not remember making the statements attributed to me and they are not accurate. This is the first time I have seen this report from 40 years ago," Pelletier said in a statement. "Troy and I have built a life and family together and I know the person he has been through the decades since, both as a caring partner and father."

Jackson and Pelletier, who are apparently second cousins, according to the Maine Wire, have two sons together but do not appear to be legally married.

“I understand Maine voters want to learn about Troy as he seeks to represent them, but personal attacks on my family are unacceptable,” Pelletier said. “In the 40 years since he made a mistake as a 19-year-old kid, Troy has grown to be a passionate advocate for Mainers and dedicated his life to making things better for our state while Susan Collins has been in Washington enriching herself at our expense.”

Jackson secured the Democratic nomination in late July after a rapid process to replace Platner, whose campaign collapsed following a litany of scandals that included allegations of violence and ended with a former girlfriend accusing him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner denied the allegation.

Democrats harshly condemned Platner following the allegations.

“The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing — violence, abuse, and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said regarding Platner in a July press release.

"The assault allegations against Graham Platner are disqualifying and he should be replaced as the nominee,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an X post at the time.

“As Democrats, we have an obligation to run candidates whose moral character matches the values we stand for. Maine deserves a nominee who can defeat Susan Collins and serve with honor and dignity ... [we are] redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race in light of the latest allegations,” Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a July X post.

The Maine Democratic Party did not respond to a request for comment.

Jackson and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will clash head-to-head at the ballot box in November.

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In a recent interview on ABC, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was asked about the positions democratic socialists like herself took years ago — and BlazeTV host John Doyle didn’t love her answer.

"Woke 1 was crazy," she laughed.

AOC went on to point out that while the policy discussions around the beginning of the pandemic were “fruitful,” the "rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”

“Of course, the rhetoric meaning the messaging, the communication style,” Doyle says, “not the policies, not the intentions, just the rhetoric, because they understand that maybe it was a little off-putting to normal Americans and so they want to scale that back.”

“And people, because they’re illiterate, hear that and think that means, ‘Oh, we’re going to stop calling for this kind of stuff,’” he says, pointing out that this was “staged” as AOC has her eye on a much larger office.

“Ocasio-Cortez is widely viewed to be a possible contender in the 2028 presidential primaries for the Democrats. You’ve had DSA-aligned candidates winning primaries left and right,” he explains.

“So the leading face of this progressive left coalition, AOC, is now going to choose to treat peak woke as a kind of closed chapter,” he adds.

But Woke 2 is well underway.

“It’s just going to speak a little bit more softly, but the big stick is very much still present. So what we’re trying to do now is not alienate the public. We’re not trying to shock the public into submission. We’re going to win power first and then implement the same priorities, but we’re going to just put a nice packaging on it,” Doyle says.

“So you know, AOC laughing at ‘Woke 1’ is essentially a PR strategy,” he continues, explaining that this rejection of ‘Woke 1’ is an attempt to give “permission to keep voting for the insanity.”

That insanity still includes defunding the police, feminism, diversity, equity, and inclusion, the mutilation of children, and gender identity madness.

“It’s trying to be less obvious, less obnoxious, but still it is going to advance the same long-term project it has been advancing since the 1960s,” he adds.

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The original trio of "Matrix" movies are considered some of the greatest of all time, but one of the creators is having trouble with Hollywood accepting his latest idea.

Andy Wachowski, who now goes by Lilly Wachowski, explained that he has been shopping around what he considers to be a great script, but Tinseltown isn't biting.

'It's not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be.'

Gender bender

Wachowski and his brother Larry — who is also transgender and now goes by Lana — were once revered by movie fans for their intense and philosophical plots. Over the years, however, Wachowski has become intrenched in progressive dogma, and the fourth "Matrix" movie that came 18 years after the last barely moved the needle.

During a recent podcast interview, Wachowski revealed that his latest project, "The Hunted," is having trouble getting off the ground in terms of financing, despite having a very modest projected budget of $10 million.

"People like it, but they really don't want to make it," Wachowski told KCRW's "The Business," per Variety.

The director then revealed what the obvious reason was: "because it's [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast."

Wachowski has remained so confident in his script that he hosted a live reading last week to showcase its worthiness. Described by Deadline as a biting political thriller similar to his "V for Vendetta," "The Hunted" is set in a dystopian America where "trans people are brutalized and erased to the margins of society."

Deadline further wrote that it focuses on two "trans women" who search for the perpetrator of a heinous crime who ends up being in the highest offices of government.

RELATED: 'Matrix' co-creator: 'Trans rage' drives my work

L-R: Andy 'Lilly' Wachowski and Larry 'Lana' Wachowski, 2013. JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images

Rage dump

Wachowski has tapped gay activist/actress Natasha Lyonne as producer and explained that the reading is part of the process of getting more eyeballs on the project.

"I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people," he continued. "This is a script that was extremely important for me to write."

Wachowski then described the project as a "response to what is happening in the world for trans people," revealing it has been a "hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into."

The project, co-written with his romantic partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, is likely what Wachowski was referring to when he said his "trans rage" has been fueling his work.

This was coupled with a mantra of: "I'm just going to go out and I'm going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends," Wachowski said.

RELATED: 'X-Men' writer 'really happy' that 'X2' was referred to as the 'gayest film' — claims the movie was about 'exclusion'

L-R: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, 1999. Bob Riha Jr./WireImage/Getty Images

Margin call

Adding to his thought process, Wachowski remarked, "It's not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same."

The recent podcast also included discussion of the filmmaker's juggling of productions during a gender transition and his nonprofit studio called Anarchists United, which is designed to "showcase marginalized talent."

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Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, a lesbian who claims to be Catholic, signed legislation this week liberalizing abortion while surrounded by progressive women celebrating the right to murder their healthy babies up till birth. To conservatives who rightly regard late-term abortion as the killing of a viable child, the scene was grotesque.

It also illustrated a political asymmetry conservatives rarely discuss.

A civilization where men and women are constantly at odds with each other is doomed.

Endless ink has been spilled and countless podcasts recorded about the radicalization of young men on the right. Almost nobody in conservative media wants to address the equally serious radicalization of young women toward the progressive left.

There has been plenty of controversy in conservative circles about young men embracing nihilistic or extremist politics online. Rod Dreher, among others, has warned about young conservative men drifting toward figures such as Nick Fuentes and adopting a politics of resentment and despair.

That’s fine as far as it goes, but it does not answer the larger question. Even if Dreher is right about one cohort of men, it does not follow that young men are uniquely radicalized, or even that they represent the larger political problem. Conservatives should be capable of noticing more than one trend at a time. And the trend among women is impossible to ignore.

Kamala Harris received 53% of the female vote in 2024, while Joe Biden received 54% in 2020. Women are substantially more supportive than men of legal abortion. They are also more likely to regard changing one’s gender as morally acceptable and more likely to say society has not done enough to accommodate transgender people.

The same divide appears on immigration. Women are more likely to support amnesty, oppose ICE deportations, and favor extending legal protections to illegal immigrants.

The divide extends beyond electoral politics. Young women are less likely than young men to say they want children and less likely to prioritize family over professional goals. They are also less likely to express a positive view of capitalism.

None of this means women are a political monolith. Marriage changes voting behavior dramatically. Married women are far more likely to vote Republican and hold traditional views on family and gender.

Race also plays a part.

Ripping on liberal white women is practically a conservative pastime, partly because “white” makes them culturally safe targets. But the voting data complicate the caricature. A majority of white women voted for Trump in 2024, while much smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, and black women did so.

RELATED: Stop ‘owning the libs’ and start owning institutions

Blaze Media Illustration

White women are hardly a uniformly conservative bloc. But they are not the most progressive female constituency either.

Despite the mountain of evidence that females are far more left wing, there will be no books about the dangerous trend of radicalization among young women. There will be plenty of cable-news segments about how social media is poisoning young men. There will be endless concern about podcasts, gaming culture, online masculinity, and the political temptations facing disaffected boys.

Much less energy will be spent asking what TikTok, universities, activist institutions, and elite media have done to the minds of young women.

The reason is simple: Young men are a safe target.

Anyone can denounce them with little institutional risk. A broad criticism of female political behavior, by contrast, can quickly become a career problem. That taboo exists on the right almost as surely as it does on a college campus.

It must be said that this is not an exercise in blanket condemnation of women. The conservative movement is filled with passionate, caring, godly mothers, wives, daughters, and single women who genuinely support the fight for the future of the United States.

A civilization where men and women are constantly at odds with each other is doomed. Breaking men and women out of loving families and turning them into political blocs to be catered to is disastrous for the health of the nation.

South Korea provides a warning about where gender war can lead. Its political divide between young men and women has grown exceptionally wide, with the sexes increasingly supporting very different parties and organizing around competing political identities.

South Korea also has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. That does not prove the political gender divide caused the fertility collapse; housing costs, work culture, marriage patterns, and other factors have played a role. But a society in which men and women increasingly regard one another as political adversaries will have a harder time persuading them to marry, form families, and raise children together.

North Korea, despite being totalitarian and impoverished, has a higher fertility rate than the South. No sane person would therefore prefer living under a communist mad man. The comparison simply shows that prosperity alone cannot guarantee family formation. A wealthy society can still undermine itself if men and women cease to see one another as partners in a common project.

RELATED: Conservatives are blowing the easiest political win in America

Blaze Media Illustration

The basic building block of society is not the individual but the family. In a democracy, when you separate men and women into different constituencies, you fundamentally undermine family formation and create a dangerous antagonism between the sexes.

This is not a call for further politicization. It is a call to recognize the dynamics already playing out in the conservative sphere.

Young men are easy targets, and they should be corrected when they embrace nihilism or extremism. But young women have also shifted sharply left with virtually no comparable attention from the conservative commentariat.

The asymmetry is especially strange because conservatives insist that adults are moral agents responsible for their choices. That principle cannot suddenly disappear when the subject is young women. If progressive politics encourages destructive beliefs about abortion, sex, marriage, family, borders, or economics, conservatives should be willing to say so plainly rather than treating female voters as a protected class.

If conservatives want to be honest about the cultural problems facing the country, they cannot provide moral correction and guidance only to their sons. Their daughters need it too.

We must end the gender wars and encourage unity and family formation in the United States. But doing that will require conservatives to tell some women a phrase they very rarely hear: No.

A Massachusetts teenager used ChatGPT for "ideas" and "fantasies" about "killing his family" — and now the 17-year-old is charged with murdering his mother and brother, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office said.

Arjun Aravind of Acton has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a vehicle without authority, and theft of a motor vehicle in connection with the deaths of his 14-year-old brother, Siddharth Aravind, and his 45-year-old mother, Sudha Venkatesan, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Acton Police Chief Douglas Sturniolo.

'At this time, based on the evidence that was found at the scene, it was apparent that blunt force trauma was used in some fashion on both individuals.'

Acton Police received a call shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday from the suspect's father, who had been unable to reach his family members and said a tutor who was expected at the family home on Martha Lane was unable to make contact with the residents upon arrival, officials said.

The father last had contact with his wife early Tuesday morning before he left for work, officials said, and his son, Siddharth, was last seen around noon.

Upon entering the home, police found two victims dead, officials said, adding that Siddharth was found on the first floor, and Sudha was found in the finished basement.

Police determined that Arjun was not in the home and that he allegedly fled using his mother’s vehicle, a 2014 Green Honda Accord, officials said.

Investigators attempted to locate Arjun but were not immediately successful and notified law enforcement and members of the public to be on the lookout., officials said.

Early Wednesday morning, police in Wayland found the suspect vehicle with Arjun inside, officials said. Wayland is about 20 minutes south of Acton.

Police took Arjun into custody without incident, officials said.

RELATED: Male, 25, accused of shooting to death his mother, father, brother, and brother's girlfriend

"The subsequent investigation indicates that Arjun had recently been demonstrating concerning behavior including using the internet and ChatGPT to make searches including for theoretical ideas or fantasies regarding killing his family," the district attorney's office added.

The suspect also asked ChatGPT to help create “Gothic novel-kind of stories" and characters, DA Marian Ryan told Boston.com.

Officials said it is alleged that Arjun fatally assaulted his mother and brother inside their home Tuesday before fleeing the scene.

Both victims were "suffering from obvious trauma" but "the exact cause and manner is still pending from the chief medical examiner," officials said, adding that "what weapon or weapons were used is still actively under investigation."

Arjun Aravind was wearing handcuffs Thursday morning at his arraignment in Concord District Court when a not-guilty plea to murder and other charges was entered on his behalf, WBZ-TV reported, adding that he is being held without bail.

The station, citing court documents, said Aravind's father recently became worried about his son's behavior and internet activity and had started hiding the knives in the house.

"At this time, based on the evidence that was found at the scene, it was apparent that blunt force trauma was used in some fashion on both individuals," Prosecutor Susan Wiseman said Thursday, according to WBZ, adding that it was a "physical and violent struggle."

The station reported that Wiseman also indicated that when police found Arjun at 3:40 a.m. in his mother's car, "a number of items were found in that car that correspond to the murder scene."

WBZ added that after the arraignment, Arjun's defense attorney Debra DeWitt told reporters that when her client "left the house he did not realize they were dead, so he is, in my words, in somewhat of a shock situation."

"The father just wants help for his son," DeWitt said, according to the station, adding that Arjun has not spoken with his father since the murders.

The suspect is due back in court for a probable cause hearing on Sept. 11, WBZ reported.

Editor's note: This article has been corrected after publication to note that Wayland is 20 minutes, not 20 miles, south of Acton.

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A WNBA task force said last week it would be holding a meeting to discuss trans-identifying athletes and their eligibility in the league.

The meeting was meant to be all-hands-on-deck, with presidents and general managers gathering with league officials on Wednesday amid what seems like constant controversy for the league.

'We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully.'

Protests and counterprotests have left the WNBA swimming in incidents, resulting in growing calls for the league to adopt a female-only policy that has spread across sports worldwide.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had sent a memo to team representatives that the topic would be discussed at the meeting, but at the meeting, no conclusion on any actual policy seems to have been reached.

In its official statement, the league briefly touched on the idea of making a decision before criticizing its detractors.

"Today's meeting covered a wide range of topics, including ongoing discussions on transgender athletes and the continued hate and vitriol directed at players online. We will continue to engage all league stakeholders in the coming weeks and months," the WNBA said, per ESPN.

"We will approach these important conversations thoughtfully and in alignment with the values of our league," the WNBA added.

RELATED: Black WNBA player blames 'white privilege' after getting ejected for flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

The WNBA went on to say, "There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others."

This is likely referring to at least two former NBA players who said they are making themselves eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft, given that no definition of "woman" exists under the league's collective bargaining agreement.

"See you at training camp," said former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom, who stands 6'10."

Article XIII, Section 1 of the WNBA's 2026 collective-bargaining agreement says that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA," but it does not provide a definition of the term. The league also did not respond to previous inquiries from Blaze News about what it considers a woman to be.

RELATED: 'Everybody else can go to hell': WNBA coach quotes Michelle Obama while rampaging against critics

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Former NBA player Royce White also declared himself to be "transgender" in order to join the WNBA. "I'm a woman. I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for the purpose of basketball, professional basketball, so I'll be declaring for the WNBA Draft in 2027 as well," he said earlier this month.

Alongside the former NBA players is Julie Tétart, a dominating force in France's Ligue 2 women's basketball. Tétart is male, but he has absolutely crushed his female competition overseas, recording over 20 points per game while also grabbing more than 20 rebounds per game, about double that of the second-highest rebounder.

Tétart recently said if the WNBA came calling, he wouldn't turn the opportunity down.

"If they contact me, I won't say no."

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The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division has now released its first comprehensive enforcement strategy.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald circulated the memo on Thursday to all Fraud Division personnel, highlighting five focus areas: public trust, health care fraud, internal revenue scams, global trade subversion, and corporate misconduct.

‘For too long, lax oversight allowed bad actors — often foreign nationals — to exploit these programs for personal enrichment at the expense of hard-working Americans and their financial security.’

President Donald Trump announced the division in January and formally launched it in April after Somali fraud scams began to dominate headlines and highlight the staggering costs of fraud. The Government Accountability Office puts annual losses from fraud somewhere between $233 billion and $521 billion.

McDonald called the numbers “shocking” and said the damage hits “the hearts and souls of Americans” just as hard as their wallets.

“Fraudsters perpetrating these schemes are not just isolated actors; they form criminal conspiracies, often spanning international borders,” McDonald said in the memo.

“For too long, lax oversight allowed bad actors — often foreign nationals — to exploit these programs for personal enrichment at the expense of hard-working Americans and their financial security.”

RELATED: ICE officers will have 'shocking' new glove to pacify targets

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Health care is a particularly ripe sector for fraudsters. Lavish public benefits at federal and state levels incentivize those willing to take advantage.

“By supercharging the historically successful Health Care Fraud Strike Force model with greater resources, data analytics support, and best-in-class technology, the Fraud Division will prosecute the most significant cases involving health care in the United States,” McDonald said.

The Health Care Fraud Strike Force has prosecuted over 6,200 defendants over $45 billion in total fraud since it was launched in 2007. The Fraud Division in April spun off a West Coast-specific force designed to root out fraud across Arizona, Nevada, and Northern California.

The Fraud Division will also be going after tax cheats and those who conspire to rip off unsuspecting American taxpayers.

“For example, unethical return preparers include false claims on individuals’ tax returns and often charge higher fees to do so. … Abusive promoters line their pockets while selling their unsuspecting clients on illegal tax schemes,” McDonald said. “In each instance, these wrongdoers lie to the IRS, cheat the federal government out of lawful revenue, and steal money that would otherwise fund national priorities.”

Foreign adversaries seeking to subvert American trade laws have also been put on notice. The Fraud Division is expanding its investigations into international commercial wrongdoing.

“This includes prioritizing the investigation and prosecution of, among others, illicit transshipment schemes, country-of-origin fraud, the undervaluation of imported goods designed to evade duties, sanctions evasion, and foreign forced labor schemes,” according to McDonald.

McDonald also reiterated the DOJ’s long-standing commitment to holding Big Business accountable. “Prosecutors will prioritize anti-fraud corporate enforcement and work closely with our Corporate Enforcement Section,” the assistant attorney general said.

Some note that while the effort is a good start, it may not go far enough to fix the U.S.’ financial woes.

“I'm happy to see the Fraud Division being built out in such a serious manner. One way to help the goal would be for Congress to stop sending so much out the door without strings attached,” Oversight Project President Mike Howell told Blaze News. “Alaska and Senator [Lisa] Murkowski's insatiable appetite for slush is a good place to look, particularly in the context of her potentially trying to leverage votes in exchange for slush.”

Sen. Murkowski (R-Alaska) has been criticized for seemingly wielding her swing vote to extract public dollars, most recently amid Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation battle, Politico reported.

The State Financial Officers Foundation praised the effort.

"SFOF proudly supports the new memorandum from Assistant Attorney General McDonald and his commitment to 'protecting fraud in the US no matter the size or complexity.' This is what the American people rightly demand from their elected leaders—transparency, oversight, and accountability," SFOF CEO O.J. Oleka told Blaze News. "Through specifically identifying the most common places where fraud occurs, the Task Force has a locked-and-loaded road map of where to hit fraud the hardest."

"Our 42 state financial officers from across the nation thank AAG McDonald and the Trump administration for their vigilance and dependability as allies as they wage the War on Fraud together," Oleka said.

Though the fight against fraud is in its infancy, McDonald closed his memo on an optimistic note.

“With the Division’s expansive mission and national presence, we are aggressively and meticulously repairing the damage inflicted on our social fabric by criminal fraudsters.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Editor's note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News. This article has been edited after publication to include comment from the State Financial Officers Foundation.

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Charlie Kirk spent years engaging critics face-to-face, debating students, defending his beliefs, and encouraging difficult conversations. But after his assassination, Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle — who worked alongside Charlie many times — were struck by how many college students relished his passing.

“I wonder if Charlie’s assassination had a particular impact on y’all,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says to the father and son. “Because he was doing something that you have been doing for decades in that moment that he was shot and killed. He was dialoguing with people.”

“He was saying things that are uncomfortable but true, sharing the gospel, sharing the truth about sexuality and gender,” she adds.

“Obviously that was an incredible tragedy, an act of violence off the charts. Pathetic. Charlie was an incredible man of faith,” Cliffe responds.

“I think Charlie had a tremendous ability to articulate very clearly what a brilliant guy he was and what a reader he was. The difference between justice and injustice. He articulated magnificently a biblical view of abortion, of sexuality,” he continues.

“He was very respectful of students as he would challenge them to think more deeply, but he did it in a highly respectful way,” he adds, noting that the “vitriol that was directed against him was pathetic.”

“Now, was he a little bit more radical politically, especially when he started out? And did he say some things probably that I wouldn’t agree with? Yes, I’m sure,” Cliffe says.

And Cliffe’s son, Stuart, recalls that after they held a vigil for Charlie, they also became the target of the far left.

“We’ve had people leave our church,” Stuart tells Stuckey. “We had been ostracized when I led the vigil in our town, which is a very far-left town. So [I’ve] definitely had a lot of backlash, and whenever I get that backlash, I’m always surprised, shocked by what even close friends say about him and what he did because it’s conspiratorial.”

“So that’s tragic in my mind,” he adds.

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The man who allegedly murdered a health care CEO on the streets of Manhattan is expected to plead guilty Friday to federal charges, according to the New York Times, citing "two people with knowledge of the matter."

Luigi Mangione has become a cause célèbre among anti-capitalists and others who blame corporations for all of the ills of society after he allegedly shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the head and killed him in December 2024.

Mangione could still change his mind at any time, including during the hearing.

Mangione is currently charged with two federal counts of stalking resulting in death, and New York state has charged him with second-degree murder, among other charges. He is facing life in prison after the federal charges were narrowed to preclude a death penalty sentence.

The Times reported that Mangione is considering pleading guilty to federal charges, a move that, if successful, will likely prompt his attorneys to argue that the state charges constitute double jeopardy because they stem from the same incident.

If the 28-year-old pleads guilty, his sentencing would likely still be up to a judge, but his attorneys could argue for a lower sentence. In a federal trial, he would not be allowed to argue that his mental state led to the alleged crime, but he could reportedly do so at the state level.

The Times report notes that Mangione could still change his mind at any time, including during the hearing.

Attorneys for Mangione and the Department of Justice declined the Times' requests for comment, though Jamie McDonald, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, did confirm to the Times that a court conference is scheduled for Friday.

"That’s all we can say at this time," McDonald told the NYT.

The shocking murder of Brian Thompson was captured on surveillance video and resulted in a nationwide manhunt for the killer, whose face was allegedly captured when he pulled down his face mask to flirt with a teller before the killing.

Mangione was later spotted in a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, by another fast-food customer and did not resist when police arrived to arrest him.

In his backpack police allegedly found cash, a fake ID, and a gun similar to the gun used to kill Thompson.

RELATED: Video shows bizarre reaction from supporters of Luigi Mangione after judge's decision on terrorism charges

Among the evidence prosecutors cited to prove his culpability is a 26-page manifesto in which the suspect explicitly confesses to the heinous crime.

"I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming," he allegedly wrote.

Some Mangione supporters have taken to wearing green hats in the style of Luigi of the Super Mario Bros. video game.

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For years, Western automakers looked at China and saw the world's greatest growth opportunity.

China looked back and saw something else: teachers.

Semiconductor manufacturing offers the obvious lesson. The United States is now spending enormous sums trying to re-create domestic capacity that took decades to move overseas.

American, German, and Japanese automakers wanted access to more than a billion potential customers. China frequently required foreign companies to work with local partners, manufacture inside the country, and share the knowledge that comes with doing so.

The arrangement made enormous amounts of money for Western car companies.

It also helped China learn, very quickly, how to compete with them.

Now Chinese automakers are producing increasingly sophisticated vehicles at prices Western manufacturers struggle to match, and Europe is discovering what happens when those cars arrive in large numbers.

Washington appears determined not to repeat the experiment.

Saving our spot

A bipartisan proposal called the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 advanced unanimously through the Senate Commerce Committee last month. Sponsored in the Senate by Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, it would dramatically strengthen restrictions on Chinese vehicles and connected automotive technology entering the United States.

For once, Democrats and Republicans seem to have found something they agree on.

The obvious fear is economic. China can build some astonishingly inexpensive vehicles, particularly EVs, and Chinese manufacturers including BYD, Geely, and others are already putting tremendous pressure on established brands overseas.

But Congress isn't framing this purely as a trade dispute. Modern automobiles are packed with cameras, microphones, GPS equipment, cellular connections, driver-assistance systems, and software capable of receiving remote updates.

That means a connected car is also a data-collection device.

Fast and firewalled

The Commerce Department reached the same conclusion under the Biden administration. In January 2025, it finalized rules restricting connected-vehicle software and hardware with sufficient ties to China or Russia, citing the possibility of espionage, data collection, sabotage, and remote manipulation.

The new congressional proposal would go farther and put many of those protections into statute, making them much harder for a future administration simply to reverse.

The Senate version would restrict vehicles, software, and components associated with designated foreign adversaries. Supporters specifically argue that Chinese-connected vehicles could funnel sensitive information collected on American roads back to Beijing.

That's not a crazy concern.

A new car can know where you live, where you work, where your children go to school, which military installation you enter every morning, and exactly where the vehicle travels every day.

The debate over Chinese cars therefore isn't really just about whether Americans should be allowed to buy a cheap BYD.

It's about who controls the computers rolling around American streets.

Training our replacement?

There is an uncomfortable part of this story that Western manufacturers don't always like discussing.

China did not learn modern automobile production from scratch. Foreign automakers spent decades helping.

As auto industry commentator Michael Harley recently pointed out in a conversation with Karl Brauer and me, intellectual property is only part of what China acquired.

Manufacturing itself is knowledge.

How do you coordinate thousands of suppliers? How do parts arrive at exactly the right moment? How do you engineer a production line? How do you control tolerances, automate assembly, manage quality, and move from prototype to millions of vehicles?

American manufacturers accumulated that knowledge over more than a century.

Chinese companies were able to compress much of that learning curve into a few decades while working alongside some of the world's best automotive companies.

Western executives didn't do this because they were stupid. China was simply too attractive to ignore.

For a long time, the bargain worked.

GM sold enormous numbers of Buicks there. Volkswagen became deeply embedded in the Chinese market. Mercedes-Benz and BMW treated China as essential to future growth.

The problem is that China eventually became very good at building its own cars.

Learning the hard way

The result is now visible in Europe.

Chinese manufacturers have entered European markets aggressively, particularly with EVs. European governments have responded with tariffs and investigations, but domestic manufacturers are still confronting lower-cost competitors at the same time their Chinese sales are under pressure.

That combination is painful.

For decades, German manufacturers could use strong sales in China to support enormous operations back home.

Now they're fighting Chinese companies in China and increasingly fighting them in Europe too.

That's exactly the scenario American lawmakers want to prevent.

The United States already keeps most Chinese-made EVs out through tariffs and national-security restrictions. The new bill would make the wall substantially higher.

There are complications. Reuters reported that the legislation's ownership provisions could even affect Mercedes-Benz because Chinese investors hold nearly 20% of the German company, although lawmakers may revise the language before final passage.

That illustrates how deeply Chinese capital and technology are already woven into the global car business. Untangling it will not be simple.

RELATED: The Senate wants to lock the door on cheap Chinese cars — is 'security' the whole story?

CFOTO/Getty Images

Expensive at any price

Consumers understandably care about price.

If somebody offers an attractive electric SUV for $25,000 while a comparable American vehicle costs $40,000, telling families to spend the extra $15,000 for geopolitical reasons is a difficult sales pitch.

That's precisely what makes China such a formidable competitor.

The Chinese auto industry has enormous manufacturing scale, substantial state support, a massive domestic supply chain, and leadership in battery production.

Americans would benefit in the short term from having access to inexpensive vehicles. The question is what happens afterward.

We've seen this pattern with electronics, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and industrial production. Once domestic capability disappears, rebuilding it is painfully slow and enormously expensive.

Semiconductor manufacturing offers the obvious lesson. The United States is now spending enormous sums trying to re-create domestic capacity that took decades to move overseas.

Automobile manufacturing is much harder to rebuild than it is to destroy.

Playing the same game

Free trade works best when everybody is playing something resembling the same game.

China never viewed its automobile industry purely as a collection of private companies competing for customers. It treated automotive manufacturing, batteries, raw materials, and increasingly vehicle software as strategic industries.

America is finally beginning to think strategically too.

There are legitimate questions about exactly how broad the Connected Vehicle Security Act should be, how it treats foreign companies with minority Chinese ownership, and whether some restrictions will increase prices for American consumers.

Congress should work through those problems carefully. But the larger principle is sound. The United States does not need to repeat Europe's mistake simply because a $20,000 Chinese EV looks irresistible today.

Sometimes the cheapest car is not the cheapest decision.

The corpse of a Republican state Senate candidate was found inside his allegedly bullet-riddled truck in Western Oklahoma on April 30.

The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner made a determination on Tuesday regarding the manner of death for 54-year-old Barry Christian — but some of his family members are convinced that there's more to the story.

'There are serious inconsistencies surrounding my father’s death that deserve further scrutiny.'

Christian was a MAGA Republican vying for the District 38 Senate seat in the Sooner State. An archived version of his now-deleted campaign website shows that he supported President Donald Trump and sought to "fight for the traditional conservative values that make America great."

The Tulsa-born Republican, who previously worked for decades in the oilfield, is survived by his parents, a sister, three daughters, a son, and five grandchildren.

After failing to appear for a scheduled meeting, Christian was reported missing on April 29. The next morning, a hunter spotted the Republican's truck in a ravine off Highway 30 near Oklahoma's Sandy Sanders Wildlife Refuge and alerted the Beckham County Sheriff's Office. Deputies found Christian's lifeless body inside the vehicle.

The medical examiner's office concluded that Christian's probable cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and determined that it was a suicide, reported KOCO-TV.

RELATED: She killed her husband. Then she killed her firefighter wife. Now she faces an even longer stretch behind bars.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation

The agency's full autopsy report will be released later this month.

Greg Mashburn, director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, noted on Wednesday that the agency is wrapping up its probe into Christian's demise and will present its findings first to the victim's family and then to Beckham County District Attorney Angela Marsee, reported NonDoc.

"One of the last kind of things we were looking at, we were waiting on, was the medical examiner’s report," Mashburn said after an agency meeting on Wednesday. "Obviously that’s a very important piece of evidence that would be part of the end story."

Mashburn, no doubt aware of the family's skepticism about the suicide determination, added, "We will sit down and visit with the family. There will be some questions we will be able to answer for them, there will be some questions we will never be able to answer for them."

Farrah Christian, described by NonDoc as the victim's former wife, claimed in a Facebook post that the "OSBI has botched this investigation."

"Barry was right handed. He 'allegedly' shot himself with his left hand," she wrote. "His truck also had several bullet holes on the outside of it. They think he shot his truck before turning the gun on himself. Funny thing is, they did not test his right hand or sleeve for gunshot residue, only the left. So why would he shoot up his truck with his left hand? The OSBI even TOLD US they know it was staged."

"Oklahoma politics and law enforcement are as crooked as a $3 bill. Money talks. They’ve obviously been paid off," added Farrah Christian.

In response to a request for comment, the OSBI told Blaze News: "With the Medical Examiner’s report complete, our next step is to provide our full investigation to the DA’s office for review. We have no additional information at this time."

One of the victim's daughters, Neleh Christian, similarly had trouble accepting the suicide determination.

"There are serious inconsistencies surrounding my father’s death that deserve further scrutiny," she wrote. "We have been told there were multiple bullet holes involving the exterior of his truck, with the suggested explanation that Barry may have fired those shots before turning the gun on himself. If that is the state’s conclusion, then I want to see the forensic evidence supporting it."

Mashburn noted that the OSBI "ran every possible scenario that came up."

Beckham County District Attorney Marsee told NonDoc that she had seen the family members' comments on Facebook, and noted, "I think these are really difficult and complicated issues."

"I feel very compassionate toward the family about what they’re going through," added Marsee.

Despite his death, Christian's name remained on the Republican primary ballot for the June 16 election. The Oklahoman reported that he received over 500 votes.

The winner of the state Senate seat, Rick Vernon, said in a May 1 post on Facebook, "Barry loved Oklahoma and was willing to step forward in service to our state and that deserves respect, regardless of politics. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones during this unimaginable time."

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