The 2026 World Cup was initially about soccer for Scottish travelers, but it very quickly became about beer.
During the historic tournament, the Scots used Boston as their home base, where they became known for showing up at different events in droves, singing and drinking.
'Do they ever sleep? Do they ever get tired?'
Whether it was Fenway Park or the local pub, the Scottish fans drank multiple establishments dry. One example was the Black Rose, where a local fan remarked that the bar had never gone dry in its 50-year history. With the Scottish travelers around, however, the venue ran out of drinks "including water" for the first time.
Scotland played two out of its three World Cup games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts: a 1-0 win against Haiti and a 1-0 loss to Morocco.
During that time, the fans known as the Tartan Army — which refers to the tartan pattern, aka plaid — fell in love with one particular American staple native to the area: Samuel Adams.
In particular, the Scots loved Samuel Adams Boston Lager so much that the brewery pub ran out.
The company told ABC News in June that its flagship taproom went dry after the Tartan Army drank four times what is typically sold, all during Scotland's first game.
"Do they ever sleep? Do they ever get tired?" one employee asked. This spawned an "emergency order" to prepare for the next game, and the rest is history.
Now, the new favorite is officially available in Scotland for fans to (responsibly) pound on their home turf.
RELATED: Belgian soccer players mock Trump after absolute rout of Team USA in World Cup
U.K.-based online craft beer retailer Beerhunter is now officially carrying Samuel Adams Boston Lager on its website.
As an import, it's obviously going to cost a few quid, currently listed on sale for £49.46 (~$56) for a 12-pack, down from its usual price of £54.95 (~$62).
"Samuel Adams Boston Lager became part of Scotland's World Cup story this summer," Ryan Smith, director of Beerhunter, told Scottish outlet the Herald.
"We saw incredible interest after the Tartan Army made headlines in Boston, and we've had customers asking us ever since when it would be available in the U.K. again," Smith continued.
Smith said he was delighted to bring the beer back to Scotland while praising its tradition. The beer had become scarce in Scotland somewhere between 2023 and 2024.
"It's an iconic American lager with a fantastic brewing heritage, and we think Scottish fans will enjoy raising another glass to some unforgettable memories."
RELATED: Jasmine Crockett suggests anyone who was rooting for Argentina at the World Cup is racist
Of course, it cannot be glossed over how Samuel Adams himself was a British citizen who fell in love with the idea of the United States.
According to his biography, Adams often cited the Magna Carta of 1215 as a reason to protest British rule over Massachusetts. Barons in England had faced resistance for their taxation, and Adams found Boston's struggles against taxes "all too familiar."
Adams founded the Sons of Liberty, a paramilitary political organization that coined the phrase "No taxation without representation."
While Adams and taxation may have been part of what separated the British and the Americans at one time, the beer that bears Adams' name is seemingly what has brought them back together — at least the Scottish portion of them.
Beerhunter also lists Samuel Adams American Cherry Wheat Beer, Summer Ale, and the Beers of Summer variety pack on its website.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
"It's insanity," James Lyons told Blaze News about the latest abortion bill making its way through the Massachusetts legislature. Lyons, a former state representative and past chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, added, "And it has to stop."
A long-standing line, one that most radical abortion legislation rarely crosses, is viability outside the womb. The rate of survival for a baby born during the 23rd week of pregnancy is 23%-27%, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. At 24 weeks the survival rate jumps dramatically to 42%-59%.
'The legislation promises that an already ominous shadow will grow even darker over the state.'
Democrats in the Massachusetts House overwhelmingly passed a bill in a 199-33 vote on Wednesday that would greatly expand abortion access past 24 weeks, effectively making it open season on viable human beings.
Advocates for the unborn have emphasized the extreme nature of this legislation and called for the state Senate to kill it outright.
Massachusetts law currently prohibits abortion past 24 weeks unless executed by a doctor who has determined it is necessary to preserve the life of the mother; necessary to preserve the mother's physical or mental health; warranted because of a lethal fetal anomaly or diagnosis; or warranted "because of a grave fetal diagnosis that indicates that the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical interventions."
The bill recently passed by the House, H. 5595, would scrap these requirements for late-term abortions, enabling an abortion to be committed against a preborn baby past 24 weeks solely "based upon the professional judgment of the physician."
H. 5595 would also change state law to bar any medical review process from overriding the decision by a doctor and patient to execute a late-term abortion, and would eliminate the requirement that except in an emergency situation, late-term abortions must be performed "in a hospital duly authorized to provide facilities for obstetrical services."
Lyons further told Blaze News, "It is absolutely unconscionable what these people are doing in Massachusetts."
He then noted that this is the latest in a sequence of radical pro-abortion maneuvers, including:
"The reason that they're getting away with it is because the Massachusetts legislature is dominated by radical leftists, and they unfortunately have done everything they can possibly do to silence any opposition," said Lyons, who changed parties from Democrat to Republican in 1983 in part because of President Ronald Reagan but also because "there was no question about it that the Democratic Party was being taken over ... by the radical left."
Democratic state Rep. Christine Barber, a radical leftist with endorsements by Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Equity Now, told the Boston Globe that the late-term abortion bill is aimed at sparing residents from the inconvenience of having to travel out of state to kill their preborn children.
"Patients have to leave to other states, leave their support network, and pay out of pocket," Barber said. "You should be able to get care that your doctors are recommending here in Massachusetts."
'The fight is not over.'
Barber cited as an example the trip that one resident, Kate Dineen, made to Maryland in 2022 to kill her 33-week-old baby. The boy suffered a stroke in utero and was reportedly given a 50% chance of dying before delivery. Dineen had a Maryland abortionist administer a lethal injection to the boy, whose remains she later delivered in Boston.
Reproductive Equity Now, an organization that has also used the out-of-state execution of Dineen's baby to promote this legislation, celebrated the passage of H. 5595.
Claire Teylouni, interim co-executive director of the pro-abortion group, stated, "We are thrilled to see the Massachusetts House of Representatives take this crucial step to expand abortion access across the Commonwealth."
Advocates for the unborn alternatively condemned Democrats' campaign against the preborn.
Fr. Daniel Pacholec, direct of the Respect Life Office for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield, noted, "Massachusetts already has one of the most progressive abortion laws in the country, and this goes even further. This should make everyone squeamish. This is not a partisan issue. This is about human decency."
Massachusetts Citizens for Life noted that "the bill passed despite the concerns of thousands of Massachusetts residents who contacted legislators and shared their opposition, and despite the fact that it would allow unborn children who are capable of feeling pain and surviving outside the womb to be killed."
"Women experiencing unimaginable, heart-wrenching pregnancy complications absolutely deserve all the support they need, but that support is not what this bill provides," said Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of MCFL, in a statement shared by the diocese. "Instead, this bill ensures increased abortion industry profits and taxpayer-funded late-term procedures. The legislation promises that an already ominous shadow will grow even darker over the state of Massachusetts."
The MCFL has stressed that "the fight is not over" and urged Bay Staters to urge their state senators to oppose the version before them now, S.1563.
The Massachusetts Family Institute has also condemned the bill, noting that it would "end virtually all abortion restrictions in Massachusetts, allowing abortion at full term with no medical justification or second opinion required — for any reason, or none at all."
When asked whether the goal of this and related legislation is to make the Bay State a national abortion destination, Lyons told Blaze News, "It certainly seems that way. And as a matter of fact, the Shield Act that was put in place was a direct result of the pressure that they were seeing outside of Massachusetts to let people know you can come here and we will protect you."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Mimes, at their best, are the most honest way of representing the absurdity of man — saying everything without a word, exaggerating every gesture until the absurdity can't be missed.
A Massachusetts mime just stripped that idea bare, literally.
One woman alone reported more than 50 encounters that escalated over roughly two months.
Known around Boston's suburbs for roaming public spaces in a black-and-white mime costume, Hernan Villagran Lux, 29, of Framingham, was arrested Sunday evening by Massachusetts State Police troopers who recognized him near the Cochituate Rail Trail — a popular site for boating, hiking, fishing, and swimming — and found he had an active warrant, according to a State Police spokesperson.
The Middlesex County District Attorney's Office says Lux is facing criminal harassment charges after three female state park employees said he terrorized them for months.
Lux frequently posts videos of himself in the full getup on his Facebook and Instagram pages — suit, top hat, cane, face powdered a stark white. Other posts show him wearing only underwear in outdoor settings; his captions are in Spanish.
The attorney’s office says the three women, all employees of the Department of Conservation and Preservation, knew Lux by name and appearance, and one woman alone reported more than 50 encounters that escalated over roughly two months.
According to Boston 25 News, Framingham District Court Supervisor Andrew Mange said the women described an “extensive number of contacts” involving him staring at them and smiling in a way they found "really unnerving and frankly terrifying."
Mange also told the court that the women said the encounters had grown increasingly brazen — including one instance in which Lux allegedly "stripped down to his underwear, slathered cooking oil all over his body, and began working out right by their staff area."
As bizarre as the case may sound, the arraignment hearing took yet another unusual turn. As the allegations were read aloud by Mange, Lux fainted on the stand and had to be treated in court.
He pleaded not guilty, and the judge ordered a mental health evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. Lux is due back in court on August 6.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. was conducting a routine inspection of a tractor-trailer on the side of Interstate 81 South near Ashland on July 1 when a second tractor-trailer allegedly helmed by a Haitian illegal alien careened his way.
The incoming tractor-trailer sideswiped the 44-year-old trooper's cruiser, careened into the truck that Pahira was inspecting, then struck the trooper. Although nearby construction workers were able to pull Pahira free of the flaming wreckage, he was pronounced dead 90 minutes later.
'Because of these reckless policies, a Pennsylvania State Trooper is dead.'
In the wake of the horrific crash, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association and lawmakers demanded answers — especially to the question of how the illegal alien, 33-year-old Michael Bon, managed to obtain a non-domiciled commercial driver's license.
While a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles attempted to displace blame for her agency's issuance and renewal of Bon's CDL, the U.S. Department of Transportation has corrected the record, making abundantly clear that Massachusetts helped set the stage for Pahira's untimely demise.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Bon was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration in July 2024. He filed an application for Temporary Protected Status in October 2024, which was never granted.
The DHS claimed that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services terminated Bon's parole in June 2025, but the Haitian refused to leave and has remained in the country illegally — living in Massachusetts — ever since, the Boston Herald reported.
In March 2025 — months prior to the termination of his parole — Bon obtained a non-domiciled commercial driver's license from the MRMV. After his transition to illegal alien, Bon had his CDL renewed in February 2026.
Amelia Aubourg, a spokeswoman for the MRMV, recently attempted to assign blame for Bon's licensing to the Trump administration, telling the Herald that the "Non-Domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses program is a federal program," and that "this individual was ruled eligible based on the Trump administration database and allowed to drive by federal law and Trump administration policies."
What Aubourg neglected to mention was that the Trump administration issued a rule in September 2025 barring DACA recipients, asylum-seekers, refugees, TPS holders, and other noncitizens from obtaining, renewing, upgrading, or transferring non-domiciled CDL licenses.
This interim final rule, which would have barred Bon from renewing his CDL in February, was understood at the time to be a lifesaving measure.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Sept. 26, 2025, statement, "Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers — oftentimes illegally. This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it. Today’s actions will prevent unsafe foreign drivers from renewing their license and hold states accountable to immediately invalidate improperly issued licenses."
After reviewing emergency legal challenges filed by the American Federation of Teachers and other liberal outfits, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the rule on hold in early November.
As part of the broader campaign to torpedo the rule, Massachusetts led 18 other states in filing a joint submission characterizing the rule as unnecessary and unlawful.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell (D) claimed in a November 2025 letter to Duffy that the rule's "dramatic new restrictions on eligibility for non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses and commercial learner's permits are unlawful" and complained that it would "strip nearly all of the country’s 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders of their licenses and their livelihoods."
Campbell not only claimed that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration lacked the authority to impose the restrictions but cast doubt on whether "these restrictions provide any additional safety benefits."
Campbell was joined in her opposition by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and numerous other radical Democrat officials.
A source familiar with the matter told Blaze News that "had those rules been in place during the driver's February 2026 license renewal, [Bon] would have been deemed ineligible for renewal."
A U.S. Department of Transportation spokesperson told Blaze News, "Secretary Duffy has spent the last year in office reining in a trucking industry allowed to operate like the Wild West under Biden and Buttigieg. That's why the Department issued a final rule stopping unqualified and unvetted foreign drivers from obtaining licenses to drive commercial trucks and buses."
"States that operate recklessly and fail to enforce our common-sense rules will be held accountable," added the spokesperson.
Blaze News did not immediately receive a response from Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office or the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which oversees the MRMV.
The Trump administration successfully issued its final rule preventing unqualified foreign drivers from driving big rigs on March 16.
As for Michael Bon, he has been charged with felony vehicular homicide, felony vehicular aggravated assault, misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and involuntary manslaughter, and various traffic offenses.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also lodged a detainer asking Pennsylvania officials not to release Bon from jail.
"This Haitian illegal alien was RELEASED into our country by the Biden administration, and the sanctuary state of Massachusetts gave him a commercial driver’s license," DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.
"Now, because of these reckless policies, a Pennsylvania state trooper is dead after a crash that was 100% preventable. Illegal aliens should not be driving trucks on America’s highways," added Bis.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
The Trump Justice Department announced on Thursday in the Democrat-run sanctuary city of Boston that it has charged 11 illegal aliens and four Americans with over $1.4 million in alleged benefit fraud.
The defendants — at least six of whom are illegal aliens from the Dominican Republican and at least one of whom is from India — are accused of defrauding various welfare programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and MassHealth.
'They allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars each in benefits for which they are not entitled.'
"These cases highlight a broader, deeply troubling pattern: the exploitation of America’s safety-net by illegal aliens," Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald for the National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement.
The Trump administration, which has in recent months ramped up its crackdown on fraud, has long sought to eliminate the monetary incentive for foreign nationals to steal into the country and to pressure those noncitizens presently taking advantage of citizen supports to wean off them or hit the road.
In his Feb. 19, 2025, executive order titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders," President Donald Trump tasked agencies with taking meaningful steps "to prevent taxpayer resources from acting as a magnet and fueling illegal immigration to the United States, and to ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens."
One of the agencies that promptly took action was the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which beefed up the minimum expectations for eligibility verification to prevent "ineligible aliens" from participating in the program.
While the USDA and other agencies were making it more difficult for those who would exploit citizen welfare programs, the DOJ is nabbing numerous fraudsters across the country who have already unlawfully enjoyed a fortune in benefits.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, who established a benefit and voter fraud team in March devoted to flushing out fraudsters in Massachusetts, said, "Today’s announcement is just the beginning."
"The defendants charged today stole from a number of programs, including SNAP and MassHealth — which are designed to assist U.S. citizens in need of food and health care," continued Foley. "They allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars each in benefits for which they are not entitled."
The Massachusetts defendants charged this past week included:
If convicted, these and other similarly charged defendants could do some hard time.
SNAP fraud over $100 can result in a sentence of up to five years in prison, and SNAP fraud exceeding $5,000 can result in a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Both also carry a potential fine of $250,000.
A report published last week by the Center for Immigration Studies provided some startling insights into welfare use and abuse by noncitizens, about half of whom are apparently illegal immigrants.
Citing Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement data, the report said that 47% of households headed by noncitizens use one or more traditional welfare programs — 19 percentage points higher than the 28% for U.S.-born households.
"Noncitizens use traditional welfare or are EITC/ACTC eligible at higher rates than the U.S.-born in states with generous welfare systems, such as Massachusetts (61% vs. 36%) and Illinois (51% vs. 30%); and in states with less generous systems, like Arizona (60% vs. 30%) and Florida (53% vs. 30%)," said the report.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Last September, President Trump issued a well-received proclamation intended to discourage the continued use and abuse of the now very well-known H-1B program. The policy, however, has hit a roadblock in the courts.
On Monday, a federal judge ruled that Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa sponsor fee is unlawful.
'They're hurting our country very badly.'
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, appointed by Obama in 2014, ruled that the $100,000 fee violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution.
Judge Sorokin of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts argued that the policy is effectively a tax, and Congress had not clearly delegated the prerogative of levying it to the president. The judge agreed with the states that "the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax."
RELATED: Paxton targets dozens of North Texas businesses after Sara Gonzales sounds alarm on H-1B fraud
The lawsuit was brought in December by 20 states, many of which are led by Democrats and which draw heavily from the H-1B program.
“Every day, thousands of people with H-1B visas serve New Yorkers as doctors, teachers, and other skilled workers,” Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose state was among those who brought the suit, told CNBC.
“Today a court put an end to this administration’s illegal attempt to destroy this critical program and the many jobs it makes possible,” James said.
When asked for a response to the ruling, Trump told a reporter, “These federal judges are really giving us a hard time.”
“It’s really crazy what’s going on with the court system,” Trump added, according to CNBC. “They’re hurting our country very badly.”
The Trump administration intends to appeal the decision and expects it to be reversed.
In a statement to Reuters, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said, "President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
The Left has been discrediting the Founders, and the Founding, for a very long time.
www.theblaze.com
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com
www.theblaze.com