Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone has publicly endorsed Donald Trump Jr. as the rightful heir to lead the MAGA movement after President Trump, signaling a potential dynasty succession that could keep America First principles within the Trump family. STALLONE ENDORSES DONALD TRUMP JR.—PRIORITIZING DYNASTY OVER INSTITUTIONS Sylvester Stallone’s public endorsement of Donald Trump Jr. as the rightful heir to the MAGA movement is the shocking plot exposed that confirms the movement’s extreme reliance on dynastic succession and celebrity cultural capital. The actor, a symbol of blue-collar authenticity, is leveraging his credibility to elevate a non-electoral figure, effectively confirming the Deep State agenda of transforming the political movement into a personalized, family-run brand. This is a profound betrayal of public trust in meritocratic leadership. By backing Trump Jr. over experienced institutional contenders—including Governors and sitting Vice Presidents—Stallone is signaling that name recognition and cultural affinity matter more than policy expertise or electoral experience within the MAGA base. This act of institutional subversion reflects a global populist pattern where family members inherit leadership roles, eroding the traditional pathways to political power. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ryGBlDcxmds?showinfo=0 ELITE ARROGANCE AND THE CATASTROPHIC FAILURE OF GOVERNANCE The focus on Trump Jr.’s ability to replicate his father’s magnetic public presence demonstrates the elite arrogance of a movement that views governance as performance art. The succession debate is not about policy blueprints for 2029; it is about finding a figurehead who can sustain the cultural warfare against “woke” ideology. The partnership between Trump and Stallone, where the actor is celebrated as a “Hollywood special ambassador,” solidifies the fusion of celebrity culture and political identity. The catastrophic failure here is the movement’s willingness to prioritize stylistic continuity over substantive leadership. The foreseeable catastrophe is a post-Trump MAGA movement that is structurally weak in governance but culturally potent, constantly requiring validation from cultural icons like Stallone to legitimize its chosen heir. This dynamic crowds out institutional contenders and prioritizes the loyalty of the dynasty over the needs of the nation. https://www.youtube.com/embed/WSQsO9MGNVM?showinfo=0 INSTITUTIONAL SUBVERSION: THE DISASTROUS COST OF POPULIST DYNASTY Stallone’s celebrity validation has an immediate, disastrous cost: it risks short-circuiting legitimate political competition and undermining the efforts of other serious contenders who have built electoral records. The highly personalized structure of MAGA is now fully exposed, proving that Trump’s approval and family name are the ultimate currency. The choice of Trump Jr. for a movement that supposedly champions the working class and American strength is a final act of institutional subversion against the old GOP structure. It is a clear declaration that the MAGA base values the anti-establishment charisma of the “Trump brand” above all else. The system rewards spending, not success. Sources: After Trump, One of These 13 Republicans Could Lead MAGA Kennedy Center Honors: Trump Lauds Cultural Icons Conservative Celebrities List

He's accused of 'unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously' recording

'Road to recovery'

Books Victor Manibo Crafting an Anti-Colonial Gothic: A Conversation With Author Victor Manibo “I couldn’t just swap out the Victorian mansion with a Spanish-era villa without those changes meaning something deeper.” By Martin Cahill | Published on December 10, 2025 Photo credit: Sean Collishaw Comment 0 Share New Share Photo credit: Sean Collishaw Recently, Martin Cahill had the opportunity to chat with author Victor Manibo (Escape Velocity) to celebrate the release of his latest novel. The Villa, Once Beloved is a captivating gothic that uncovers the dark secrets of the Sepulveda family and their crumbling home in the Philippines. Please enjoy their full conversation below! Buy the Book The Villa, Once Beloved Victor Manibo Buy Book The Villa, Once Beloved Victor Manibo Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Martin Cahill: Victor! Thank you so much for joining me today, and congratulations on The Villa, Once Beloved. For those who don’t know about the book, can you give us a brief breakdown of your new novel. Extra points if you’re able to use a haiku form somewhere in there.  Victor Manibo: Thanks so much for having me! The Villa, Once Beloved is a contemporary gothic horror set in an old, Spanish colonial manor on a coconut plantation during the Catholic Holy Week. It’s centered on Sophie, a young Filipino-American transracial adoptee who visits the Philippines for the first time for her boyfriend’s grandfather’s funeral. During the course of the novel, she and other point-of-view characters are forced to confront monsters both real and imagined. So I guess the haiku would go: “A girl between worlds / A homecoming long delayed / Scary shit ensues!” Martin: Your first two books, The Sleepless and Escape Velocity, both had some mystery and thrills to them, but were firmly set in science fiction realms. With The Villa, you’re moving into gothic horror territory, which is a whole new ballgame. What drew you to this particular genre? What made it the ideal vehicle for what you wanted to explore? Victor: I started thinking about this novel in 2022, when the current Philippine president, Ferdinang Marcos, Jr., was elected. He’s the son of a former dictator and was directly involved in the atrocities during his father’s decades-long regime. The country hasn’t quite recovered from that period, psychically or economically, and seeing the family back in power broke my heart. I dealt with it the best way I knew, which is through writing.  I tend to be a theme-forward writer and the story I had in mind necessarily had to be backward-looking, which is what Gothic stories quintessentially are. Gothic stories are about the past weighing down on the present, and with Gothic horror specifically, the ghosts and monsters of the past never really leave. That was exactly how I felt when I started conceptualizing this novel, and I wanted to dig into that.  Martin: This book is set in the Philippines, and is actively engaging with the history of the country, from government and agriculture, to culture and family, and more. How long has this story been waiting inside you to tell? Can you tell me a bit about the research you did/sources you drew from in your own life to bring this to life? Victor: The exact subject matter was inspired by recent events, but I’ve been wanting to write a Philippines-set novel since I’ve started my career. As Filipino as my first two novels are, I knew I wanted to write something even more so. This project let me do that. The setting is inspired by my childhood summers in the province. The historical references are partly informed by my experiences and my education, and doing a deeper dive into the Marcos regime was enriching (if not harrowing, doing it in these fascistic times). I watched documentaries like The Kingmaker, read a lot of nonfiction books like Conjugal Dictatorship, Presidential Plunder, and Waltzing with a Dictator.  Aside from that, I also had to do research about my characters’ experiences that I personally do not share. This meant reading a lot of texts and gathering first-hand accounts on things like being poor in the one of the poorest regions of the country, or being a woman and going through the things that Sophie is subjected to in the book.  Martin: This book is so thoroughly engaged with the realm of gothic horror, and I know from talking with you before, it was something you were really excited to jump into, and it is also a departure from your previous genres/books. Why gothic horror, and why for this story in particular? Were there any hallmarks of the genre you were hoping to either nail or eschew? Victor: I was keenly aware that I’m entering new territory with this project, so honoring the genre’s history, forbears, conventions—which, now that I say that, is also a very Gothic trope—was important to me. In the prose and the descriptions, I wanted to nail the claustrophobic feel of Gothic horror, the “gloomth” (warmth and gloom), but I also wanted the aesthetic elements to have a strong tie with the themes—the burdens of family legacy, the dread of the known coming back to haunt you. It was equally important to me that the story is a Filipino Gothic horror, which meant that I couldn’t just swap out the Victorian mansion with a Spanish-era villa, or the Scottish moors with a coconut plantation, without those changes meaning something deeper. I wanted the monsters in this book to be more a reskinned analogue to what we’ve seen in the classics and in the contemporary works out of the US and Europe.  Martin: Talk to me about the importance of your protagonist, Sophie, a Filipina who was born in the Philippines but was raised in the Midwest. Returning to the country of her birth, hand in hand with one of the scions of the family Sepulveda, there’s so much you can explore with Sophie throughout this book. What were some of the goals of her journey? What sort of dynamics were you hoping to explore between her and the Sepulveda family? Between her and the country itself? Victor: Sophie is my spin on Gothic ingenue, the one who comes to a new place with fresh eyes and a lack of knowledge, the one to whom things happen. Aside from making sure that she is a more active protagonist, through her I also wanted to explore the different ways people see their country. The main point-of-view character is Sophie, who has almost no connection to the Philippines, but the book also has Javier, who lived part of his life in the Philippines and part in the US; and there’s Remedios, who has never left even the town she grew up in. The choices they make are informed by their relationship with their homeland, and their views often conflict with each other, sometimes with dangerous consequences. Martin: The Sepulvedas are at the heart of this book, for all that it is Sophie’s journey. Trapped in their ancestral manor, this family is a minefield of ambition, history, and complication. When bringing them to life, are there historical figures/families you were hoping to draw allusion to with them? Who were your favorite family members to write? Victor: The Marcoses are of course heavily mentioned in the book, but the Sepulveda family is not based on any family in particular. They were inspired by characters in the periphery of power, who themselves have their own considerable power, as I wanted to explore how those people can be complicit to and perpetuate atrocities. At the same time, I wanted the Sepulvedas to have some redeeming qualities and to make some choices that gesture toward atonement. We see this with Javier and to some extent, Sophie’s boyfriend Adrian. I had a lot of fun blending in those characters’ light and dark, as well as the caretaker Remedios, who is not technically a Sepulveda but is very closely tied to the family. Martin: How are you feeling as you switch up genres? Has it been energizing as you play in new worlds? Do you have any other aspirational mediums or genres you want to engage in someday? Victor: It’s been so exhilarating! Writing a new project is always fun, and doing that in a new genre made it even more so. In changing things up, I learned so much about myself as an artist and a writer: what I value, what I’m good at, what I can be good at, and what I want to do next. Martin: What is on the horizon for you now? Victor: I’m currently drafting my next novel, which will be out in 2027, fingers crossed. Without giving too much away, it’s a sci-fi horror thriller about the way we live now. You could say it’s both a return to form and a progression of the horror journey that I’ve only just begun.[end-mark] The Villa, Once Beloved is published by Erewhon Books. The post Crafting an Anti-Colonial Gothic: A Conversation With Author Victor Manibo appeared first on Reactor.

The U.S. Navy publicly launched its new Rapid Capabilities Office, which is designed to improve the critical capabilities procurement process in a bid to ensure American maritime dominance into the next century. At the kickoff event hosted at the Capital Turnaround in Washington on Tuesday, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan explained that the new office would seek to “disrupt bureaucratic inertia,” a warning shot to bureaucratic sclerosis that gets in the way of America’s sailors. The approach, Phealan said, is “rooted in common sense and accountability for the Department of the Navy.” The Navy Secretary also emphasized the procurement reforms were a turning point for the Navy. Trump’s Pentagon Is Focus on ‘Destroying the Enemy,’ Not ‘Navy Drag Queen Show,’ Says Dept. of War Press Sec.Daily Signal President @RobertBluey sat down with Department of War @PressSecDOW to discuss the Pentagon’s renewed commitment to the “warrior ethos.” According to… pic.twitter.com/vlmRydkExY— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 4, 2025 “The question now is whether we have the institutional architecture that can absorb risk back, take risk, accelerate winners, and retire dead ends. The answer is yes, and that changes today,” Phelan said. The Daily Signal spoke with Vice Admiral Seiko Okano, who has been named the director of the new office about the significance of the reform effort. “I think that the fact that we’re reporting directly to the secretary signals the priority of the office, and the fact that we are making structural changes within not just the acquisition community, but within the entire navy on how to get capability out to those sailors and marines faster is, I think, a signal that we’re serious about this,” Okano told The Daily Signal The Navy also announced yesterday a partnership with Palantir Technologies on “ShipOS,” which the Navy secretary described as “deploying an AI powered shipbuilding operating system across the maritime industrial base.” “We are taking the cornerstone of our deterrent capacity and making it more lethal, more valuable,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp said at the announcement. “Every shipbuilder who partners with us will have AI powered tools that optimize their work in real time. Every supplier in the network will be connected through intelligent logistics. Every program manager will have unprecedented visibility into schedule, cost, and risk,” Phelan stated. “Diversity is our strength.”That’s what high-ranking Navy officials told Congressman Eli Crane inside a secure room within the U.S. Capitol when he, along with other conservative Congress members, asked about the U.S. military’s DEI program budget. @RepEliCrane, a U.S. Navy… pic.twitter.com/mEnfw81O9s— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) April 3, 2025 The Daily Signal interviewed Mike Gallagher, the head of defense at Palantir Technologies, and Jason Potter who is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition about the Palantir deal. They explained the issues the public-private partnership hoped to address. Potter stated that for some shipyards, “the government has been the only customer” meaning that there had not been the “sort of the commercial incentive to modernize and innovate.” Gallagher told The Daily Signal, “I was in Congress for eight years on the sea power subcommittee, and to quote what Secretary Phelan recently said to Congress: we just would invest billions of dollars, and we get delays, cost overruns, and capacity gaps.” “Obviously, our undersea capability gives us a massive advantage relative to our pacing threats, particularly the Chinese Communist Party, but commercially, we remain a software powerhouse, AI enabled software applied directly to our top priority, which is submarine construction, thereby assuring the next 100 years of strategic and conventional deterrence,” the former congressman added. Gallagher also articulated some of the efficiency gains that had already been accomplished with Palantir technology at a navy shipyard over the past several months. “You have four people whose full-time job is to do planning, working 160 hours. That process is now down to 10 minutes,” Gallagher told The Daily Signal. “You’re talking about a million dollars a day being spent in some of these yards. Every second counts, every hour counts,” Gallagher added. “You can save months, and ultimately years.” The post The Navy Declares War on Bureaucratic Inefficiency appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Wednesday that she has granted waivers to six additional states allowing them to prevent the use of food stamps to purchase certain items, like soft drinks and candy. “President [Donald] Trump has made it clear: we are restoring SNAP to its true purpose – nutrition. Under the MAHA initiative, we are taking bold, historic steps to reverse the chronic diseases epidemic that has taken root in this country for far too long,” said Rollins in a statement. What a great day @USDA alongside @SecKennedy and @DrOzCMS as we continue Making America Healthy Again! ??This morning, we signed six NEW SNAP waivers – empowering more states to put real nutrition back in SNAP and ensure taxpayer dollars support healthy choices for America’s… pic.twitter.com/Uo7xL3Xt6K— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) December 10, 2025 The Trump administration has now allowed 18 states to implement a variety of restrictions on low-income recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps. Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have urged states to adopt the restrictions as part of the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. “We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement. The restrictions, which go into effect next year, vary by state and include barring soda, candy and energy drink purchases. The new state waivers are for Hawaii, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, Rollins said at an event at the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters. States that apply for such waivers gain an advantage in their applications for a $50 billion rural health fund established this year by the Trump administration, Mehmet Oz, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services, said at the event. Rollins and Kennedy have worked closely together to advance the MAHA agenda, including a revision of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which gives advice on what Americans should eat. The guidelines, expected in January, will “suggest limiting highly processed foods and those high in sugar,” Rollins said on Wednesday. .@SecKennedy: "This is the fulfillment of a promise that we made in the MAHA Report… to give them an offramp, farmers who are dependent on chemical fertilizer inputs, to give them an offramp where they can transition to a model that emphasizes soil health." https://t.co/hU6DFpUVC0 pic.twitter.com/XTEzGd7esS— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 10, 2025 Rollins also said the USDA would spend $700 million on regenerative agriculture to encourage farmers to adopt conservation farming practices that support soil health. The administration earlier this year canceled a $3 billion program for sustainable farming practices, like reducing soil tillage. Reuters contributed to this report. The post Trump Administration Allows 6 More States to Ban Using Food Stamps for Junk Food appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Food and Drug Administrator Marty Makary said he has a “moral duty” to inform the public of the risks of the COVID-19 vaccine after the agency found the shot may have been responsible for 10 children’s deaths. “We did an investigation where we looked into it to decide whether or not there was a probable or possible link,” Makary told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview. “That work is ongoing, but this data accrued over the last four years. So the moral question is now that the FDA has data where links to a child’s death have been made to the COVID vaccine, do we have a moral duty to let the public know what we know more as we learn more about the details of it? I believe we do have a moral duty to do that.” A internal memo, first obtained by the New York Times, showed an FDA agency official saying the COVID-19 vaccine may have played a role in the deaths of at least 10 children. Makary said the FDA needs to listen to parents who believe the COVID shot harmed their children. “Parents have said that they believed their children had died from the COVID shot because the kid was otherwise healthy and then suddenly had a cascade of events starting immediately after the COVID shot,” he said. “And remember, many of these shots in the era of the last four years were mandated on young, healthy students to get into college or stay in college.” “When parents have said things about their children, we need to listen,” he said. “So we did an investigation where we looked into it to decide whether or not there was a probable or possible link.” This information is not new, Makary said. “We’ve known that there have been deaths from the COVID vaccine,” he said. “We don’t want to be alarmist or create hysteria out there because these complications are rare. But denying that they occur is also not true. So we have a radical transparency agenda to try to rebuild public trust.” A July 2024 poll showed that 28% of Americans believe that the COVID-19 vaccines have been responsible for thousands of deaths, up from 22% in June 2021.  The theory that “a young 6-year-old boy needs another 70 or 75 COVID shots in his average lifespan” may be incorrect, Makary said. “It’s a theory, and there are pros and cons of that theory, and now we have at least one piece of information that says it’s not 1000% safe and free of any myocarditis risk,” he said. “We now know there are some risks, albeit rare, and so that’s information that people can use.” Cases have been documented in the New England Journal of Medicine of young males dying from myocarditis after getting the COVID vaccine, Makary said. “It’s been out there,” he said. “So it’s been known that this is a complication. Myocarditis can affect as many as one in 2,600 young males after one of the COVID shots, and a rare sub complication of myocarditis is severe illness and ICU stay and even death.” Mitigating the Risks To mitigate the risk of myocarditis, Makary said kids with natural immunity to the circulating strain of COVID should not be vaccinated. “The other opportunity is to space out the COVID shots,” he said. “We could have spaced out the first and second dose during the pandemic in young, healthy children, especially boys who are at higher risk of myocarditis. But that recognition came too late. And so, if we would have looked at these data earlier, we could have potentially avoided many of these cases.” The Trump administration does not support COVID vaccine mandates which have cost people their jobs. “Of course, the issue of vaccine mandates in children has been very controversial, and our feeling has been that we don’t support kicking kids out of school, insisting soldiers leave the military, insisting teachers be fired, that firefighters be fired and other people be fired if they don’t agree to the COVID shot mandate,” he said. “And so this is a moment where people want some closure over what happened over those four years,” he continued. “And if you look back, insisting that upwards of a million people be fired from their jobs for not getting the vaccine, even if they already had circulating antibodies from natural immunity, even though they were ultra-low risk—people want some closure to that issue. And this is a time for all the data to come out.” Part of rebuilding trust in the FDA will come from admitting what it doesn’t know, Makary said. “Trust in doctors and hospitals went from 71% of the public trusting us in 2019 down to 40% last year. That’s a 31-point drop in the last administration,” he said. “So we need to rebuild that trust. And part of the way we’re going to do that is to show some humility and to be transparent with what we know and to say ‘I don’t know’ when we don’t know something.” Makary Defends Controversial Pick to Lead Drug Center The FDA tapped Tracy Beth Høeg, a COVID vaccine skeptic, to serve as acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, leading to complaints from some FDA officials who told CBS her appointment “will harm the agency’s reputation as a reliable steward of the nation’s drug supply.” But Makary told The Daily Signal he maintains “full support” for her. “She’s terrific,” he said. “So first of all, MD, PhD, high-level scientist with an epidemiology background. She has an incredible command of so many subjects. She’s highly respected in the field, trained at some of the best institutions, served on the faculty at MIT and others. We want this type of high-caliber scientist at the FDA.” “Many people have perceived that the FDA has been corrupted over the years,” he said. “And some people believe that the industry feels they own the FDA, but the FDA is not owned by the industry—it’s owned by the American people. And so my job is to safeguard the public and at the same time make sure that the agency is entirely independent in its scientific evaluations. And so Tracy Beth Høeg is perfect in fitting in line with our mission to deliver an amazing FDA, to bring more cures and meaningful treatments to the American public, faster and safer.” Universal Flu Shot Makary’s effort to improve the safety and efficacy of vaccines is not limited to COVID-19. He is also overseeing the development of a universal flu shot through a project titled Generation Gold Standard. “I believe it’s in phase 1 clinical trials or between phase 1 and phase 2,” he said. “The current flu shot doesn’t work very well. You get it, you come back the following year, we take another guess as to which strain is going to be circulating. The guesses are not very good.” “Overall, the flu shot is a bit of a crapshoot each year when it comes to guessing which strain is going to be dominant,” he continued. A universal flu shot, Makary said, would protect against all strains and mutations, even those which have not yet occurred in nature. “Then you may be able to get decades-long protection from a single flu shot if it has different targets of that flu vaccination, and so that’s a very promising concept,” he said. “It has garnered a lot of interest. And I personally would love to see us have lifelong immune protection to the flu instead of every year doing this whole roundup of people to say ‘come in and get your flu shot.'” Ted Ross, the director of Global Vaccine Development at the Cleveland Clinic, has praised Generation Gold Standard. “I’m glad to see that this administration is still wanting to invest in developing next-generation influenza vaccines or respiratory vaccines in general,” he said. But some scientists, like Dr. Gregory Poland, who leads the Atria Academy of Science and Medicine in New York, said the universal flu shot would revert back to 50-year-old technology. “This is what influenza vaccines in the 40s, 50s and 60s looked like,” he said. Hepatitis B Vaccine The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Friday to remove the universal recommendation that babies receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Makary praised the decision. “The moms who test negative for hep B are asking, ‘Why do I need to do this on the day of birth?’ So, I was pleased to see the ACIP committee use some nuance and get away from absolutism and recognize that the risk in a hep B–negative mom is extremely infinitesimally low for that child, that it’s entirely reasonable to wait till the kid is 8 or 10 or 12 or something like that,” he said. Makary said this is another area where the FDA needs to listen to parents. “And if we’re really following the data on this, the data supports hep B immunization for babies when the mom is hep B–positive or the vaccine status is unknown,” he said. Co-Administration of Vaccines Makary is also working on new regulatory standards on the co-administration of vaccines. He said there have been “few standards” on the subject thus far. “We’re just saying we want to see a little more science,” he said. “If you’re going to propose giving two vaccines at the same time—two different vaccines—one of the ways vaccines work is they promote an inflammatory and immune response. And so when you give multiple pro-inflammatory therapeutics at the same time, you’re going to increase the body’s inflammation.” “And inflammation is now recognized to not only have some positive benefits but also some negative health effects,” he added. “So, we’re just saying we want to use basic principles that we use for other medications and apply those to vaccines as well.” Makary clarified that the FDA will not take away “anyone’s flu shot or anyone’s vaccine on the childhood schedule.” “We always have to be vigilant for safety signals we can’t predict or may not know about, but there’s no plan to take away anyone’s vaccines or anyone’s opportunity to get a vaccine,” he said. “But there’s a big fear machine out there trying to say otherwise. So we need to be honest and truthful and remind people that we are here to advance vaccine science and not take away anyone’s vaccines.” The post EXCLUSIVE: FDA Chief Says He Has ‘Moral Duty’ to Expose COVID-19 Vaccine Deaths appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Gavin Newsom Falls Short: Community, Confusion and Building Things

First, it was AM radio — now it’s FM too. Imagine starting your car and realizing that what you can — or can’t — hear has already been decided for you. The same tech giants that censor your posts, curate your newsfeeds, and impact your online experience now want to control what plays through your vehicle dashboard.Congress must act to guarantee that all broadcast radio remains standard equipment in vehicles, ensuring that free access to information doesn’t become a premium feature.Tesla recently confirmed it will remove FM radio from its base Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. Just days later, General Motors doubled down on plans to eliminate Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, opting instead for proprietary systems designed with Big Tech partners. Individually, these sound like technical upgrades. But together, they represent a fundamental shift: handing over more control of your car to corporations. We’ve seen this before in our social media feeds, search results, and app stores. Now, the same algorithms and corporate interests that decide what you see and hear online are coming for your radio dial.Walled gardenFor generations, the car radio has been the great equalizer — free, local, and open to all. It delivers news, weather alerts, and community updates instantly, no subscription or data plan required. Even today, the majority of drivers still prefer to listen to terrestrial radio while in the car.But as vehicles become software platforms — with their own digital ecosystems — automakers are rewriting the rules. By removing AM and FM radio and blocking third-party apps like CarPlay and Android Auto, they funnel drivers into closed environments where they alone decide what content is available.Safety firstThis is about safety as well. When the power goes out, when cell towers fail, and when internet connections drop, broadcast radio keeps transmitting. It remains the backbone of America’s Emergency Alert System — reaching 272 million listeners every week. FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and emergency managers nationwide all rely on AM radio as critical communications infrastructure. In fact, seven former FEMA administrators from both parties have urged Congress to safeguard AM radio, citing its unmatched reliability and essential role in the success of the National Public Warning System.But the stakes go beyond emergencies. Broadcast radio remains democracy’s most accessible platform. Local news stations serve communities too small for cable bureaus or newsrooms. Faith-based programming reaches congregations across denominations. Foreign-language broadcasts connect immigrant communities. Agricultural reports guide farmers making real-time decisions. High school football gets the same airtime as professional sports. These aren’t premium features available to subscribers. They’re free, open, and available to anyone with a radio — until automakers decide they’re not. RELATED: AM radio still saves lives — but will automakers listen? Gary Leonard/Getty ImagesGatekeeper playbook We know what happens when platforms consolidate control over content distribution. Algorithms replace editorial judgment. Subscription tiers determine access. Content that doesn’t serve corporate interests gets deprioritized or excluded entirely. Tesla’s FM removal isn’t an isolated decision. GM’s CarPlay elimination isn’t a technical preference. These are coordinated moves toward a future where your dashboard operates like your smartphone — except you can’t choose a different car as easily as you can switch apps.The difference is critical: When you’re behind the wheel, access to information isn’t just about convenience. It’s about safety, civic engagement, and the free flow of ideas in a democratic society. Congress to the rescue?The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act would require automakers to include AM radio in all new vehicles at no extra cost. With support from more than 315 House members and 61 senators, it’s one of the most bipartisan efforts in Washington today. Yet, as Tesla and GM’s announcements show, time is running out.Congress must act to guarantee that all broadcast radio remains standard equipment in vehicles, ensuring that free, over-the-air access to information doesn’t become a premium feature. The automotive industry will argue this is about “consumer choice” and “technical optimization.” Don’t be fooled. It’s about controlling a captive audience and deciding what tens of millions of Americans will hear every day. Lawmakers need to pass the bill. And the public needs to push back.Call your representatives and tell them to support the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. Make your voice heard before automakers take it away.