Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have descended into utter lawlessness, most recently in Minnesota. The violence is shocking. So are the intrusions on digital rights and civil liberties. For example, immigration agents are routinely scanning faces of people they suspect of unlawful presence in the country – 100,000 times, according to the Wall Street Journal. The technology has already misidentified at least one person, according to 404 Media. Face recognition technology is so dangerous that government should not use it at all—least of all these out-of-control immigration agencies. To combat these abuses, EFF is proud to support the “ICE Out of My Face Act.” This new federal bill would ban ICE and CBP agents, and some local police working with them, from acquiring or using biometric surveillance systems, including face recognition technology, or information derived from such systems by another entity. This bill would be enforceable, among other ways, by a strong private right of action. The bill’s lead author is Senator Ed Markey. We thank him for his longstanding leadership on this issue, including introducing similar legislation that would ban all federal law enforcement agencies, and some federally-funded state agencies, from using biometric surveillance systems (a bill that EFF also supported). The new “ICE Out of My Face Act” is also sponsored by Senator Merkley, Senator Wyden, and Representative Jayapal. As EFF explains in the new bill’s announcement: It’s past time for the federal government to end its use of this abusive surveillance technology. A great place to start is its use for immigration enforcement, given ICE and CBP’s utter disdain for the law. Face surveillance in the hands of the government is a fundamentally harmful technology, even under strict regulations or if the technology was 100% accurate. We thank the authors of this bill for their leadership in taking steps to end this use of this dangerous and invasive technology. You can read the bill here, and the bill’s announcement here.

In 2026, Amazon plans to spend $200 billion in capex. Google is just behind at $175 billion to $185 billion. It's a lot of money!

“I never … believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man.” –Thomas Jefferson  Last weekend, the Justice Department released millions of additional pages (along with thousands of additional photographs) of the Epstein files. The little bit that I have seen so far absolutely staggers the imagination and …

Had to get back into the newborn swing. Last summer, at the ACM Awards, Cody Johnson’s bride, Brandi, debuted her baby bump, sharing with the world that their family of four would be growing to a family of five. The Johnson family was thrilled to share with the world that they were expecting their first son and that their two daughters, Carla and Cori, would be promoted to big sisters. View this post on Instagram The couple welcomed Jaycee Daniel Johnson into the world in October and honored their family’s ranch by naming their son after the land Johnson hopes to pass down to Jaycee one day. Cody and Brandi Johnson came up with the name Jaycee after many folks mispronounced their ranch’s brand, J Bar C Ranch, as JC, so they ran with it and came up with an excellent name for their buckaroo from the mispronunciation. While the Johnsons are soaking up all the newborn time they can, Johnson recently admitted to Katie Neal that raising a little boy is very different from raising little girls. And part of that might be because the “C’mon Cowgirl” singer felt out of practice when it came to this newborn phase. The Katie & Company host brought up his children and checked in to see how Jaycee is doing. To which Johnson replied: “He cries and poops and sleeps a lot.” Sounds about right for a baby boy, eh? Neal then asked how his daughters are handling a boy in the family, and it sounds like the girls are adapting perfectly fine to their new baby brother. But Johnson on the other hand… He candidly shared that he felt “out of practice” with Jaycee, given the eight-year gap between his youngest daughter, Cori, and their son. “It was just crazy because, you know, when we had Clara in 2015, it was like that’s your first child, so you’re like all in. And then two years later, we had Cori, it’s just like, I just did all this. This was easy.  When you skip eight years and have a baby, I was like, so out of practice. I told my wife, I was like, ‘Look, nothing about me says comes equipped with instant maternal instincts. Help me.’ Yeah, I was out of practice.” Despite being out of practice, it sounds like Johnson is having a blast with his son, saying that the way he interacts with him is very different from how he coddled his two little girls at this age. “He’s fun, though, man. He smiles a lot. He giggles. I’ve got him to where—it’s really different because with my girls, it was always they were very snuggly with dad and ‘Oh, daddy’s beautiful little girl.’ And him, like the rougher I am with him the more he laughs. Like I can grab him by the feet and scare him, and he giggles and smiles. Then he gets with mom and is a little tiny baby, awe.”  It sounds like mom and dad have found a good balance between nature and nurture, and Jaycee is already showing he’s got some grit, which he will need as he grows up on their ranch. Check out the entire interview while you’re here: The post “Nothing About Me Comes Equipped With Maternal Instincts” – Cody Johnson Says He Was Out Of Practice Handling Newborns When His Son Was Born first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Who stands atop country music as the best live show? We could probably sit here for hours and go back and forth on who is deserving of the title. It’s a bit complicated to say that one country music artist or band is above all the rest, since everyone has their own opinion on how a concert should be conducted. But is fun to ask the question, and it’s even more entertaining to see all of the answers pour in. Luckily for us, country music fans have been answering (and debating) the “best live show” question for weeks over on the r/countrymusicstuff page of Reddit. The online forum known as Reddit used to have the slogan of “The Front Page of the Internet.” Though it’s not known as that anymore, it’s still true in the sense that a lot of wild and wacky viral stories first appear there, before they wind up on Daily Mail or New York Post. But they probably separated themselves from that tag line because the site also acts as a community hub and forum for just about anything topic and interest you could think of, and some you don’t want to think of. Seriously, some of the stuff on Reddit will scar you for life… But some country music-loving Redditors are currently discussing which artist or band deservers to be crowned as the “Best Live Show in Country Music.” It’s a great question, and all of the answers that have come in make for an exceptional list to comb through if you are trying to plan your summer concert going. Fair warning… the list includes a lot of Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies shout outs. If you’ve seen the artist formerly known as Sturgill Simpson in the past couple of years, you’ll understand why. And if you don’t particularly care for Johnny Blue Skies (what’s wrong with you?), there are plenty of others artists and acts on the list: “Sturgill has been doing three hour bangers with like two minutes of talking the whole time. No set break.” “Muscadine Bloodline.” “Garth Brooks. Man, that guy is a showman.” “For me it’s Eric Church, but to each their own.” “Kip Moore puts on a phenomenal live show at smaller venues.” “Miranda Lambert.” “Shane Smith & The Saints put on one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen, regardless of genre.” “Tyler Childers and his band are amazing.” “Blackberry Smoke is amazing,” “Reba put on the most polished show I have ever seen. “ “Luke Combs stands out to me.” “Sierra Ferrell.” “Went to a Dierks Bentley concert for Zach Top opening, but loved the energy and the fun of Dierks. Especially the Hot Country Knights.” “Best show I saw last year was Johnny Blue Skies.” “Charley Crockett.” “In his prime, Willie Nelson and it’s not even close.” I’d have to agree with a couple of the answers on that list. Sturgill Simpson was phenomenal, Tyler Childers and Charley Crockett put on great shows, and the last time I saw Dierks Bentley was a whole lot of fun. A couple of names I didn’t see on there were The Red Clay Strays and Ashley McBryde. I’ve seen both of them in the past six months or so and they both brought the house down live. Throw Whiskey Myers on the list too… those boys can melt some faces. Who would you say is your favorite live country act?The post 2026 Bucket List: Country Music Fans Sound Off On The Best Live Show In The Business Right Now first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

It’s just being reported that a federal judge has blocked ICE from using taxpayer data from the IRS to find illegal aliens. Here’s the news: JUST IN: A federal judge has barred . . .