Lady Gaga is expected to release her new album in February 2025.
The Bad Romance singer confirmed this in an interview with Vogue.
She released the lead single of the album, “Disease,” on October 25,
2024. Gaga had earlier teased LG7’s arrival in May 2024, following the
end of her Chromatica Ball. At the end of the television special, the
words “LG7 Gaga Returns” flashed on the screen. This album follows Gaga’s earlier album release, Harlequin, which served as a companion to Joker: Folie a Deux.
However, the countdown of Lady Gaga’s official website,
which when scrubbed reveals the lettering LG1, is set to end after 6
days on January 27, 2024 at 11 AM EST. The countdown will end at the
following times at the following places worldwide:
Los Angeles – 8 AM
New York – 11 AM
Sao Paolo – 1 PM
London – 4 PM
Istanbul – 7 PM
Tokyo – 1 AM (January 28)
Sydney – 3 AM (January 28)
In
an interview during the Chromatica Ball Premiere, the House of Gucci
star revealed that her new album differed significantly from her
previous discography. “I love to break genre and I love to explore
music, she added. “There’s something beautiful about knowing that you
will be loved no matter what you do.”
A
source told DailyMail online that the singer was furious for not
receiving "a stage or platform even" like previous performers. As per
DailyMail, the changing of the location of the event to inside at the
last minute due to cold weather predictions might have been a reason for
the technical glitch.
Carrie Underwood, who performed America the Beautiful acapella
for Donald Trump's Presidential inauguration ceremony on January 20,
supposedly had a "hissy fit" due to a technical glitch.
An
insider revealed to DailyMail online that the singer was furious for
not receiving the same treatment as Beyonce or Lady Gaga, stars who
performed at the last Presidential inauguration for Joe Biden in January
2021.
Oh, wow. Imagine that. A woman treated with disrespect by Donald Chump and MAGA. Who could have guessed that would happen?
Everyone but bird brain idiot Carrie Underwood.
You
got what you deserved. They didn't respect you. They used you like
they'd use a whore and that's also how they see you. Idiot.
Now amidst all the online reactions to Underwood's performance, it seems Grande wasn't impressed as the Wickedstar liked a post shared by internet star Evan Ross Katz.
The post included a photo of Underwood singing during her acapella performance, with Harris standing behind her.
"Kamala
Harris evoking Coco Montrese ('Girl find the note') watching Carrie
Underwood at today's chilling Inauguration," Katz wrote as the post
caption, referencing a quote from RuPaul's Drag Race.
Good
for Ariana and, by the way, she and Cynthia better both get Academy
Award nominations. I had to take my nieces to WICKED four times at the
theater and now they stream constantly online. It is a great movie.
And it better get some Oscar love. And good for Ariana even more. My
friend Maggie just called to note Daniel Welsh (UK HUFFINGTON POST):
Ariana
Grande has voiced her support for the trans, non-binary and gender
non-conforming communities following remarks made by US president Donald
Trump during his inauguration.
On Monday, after being sworn in as the leader of the United States for the second time, Trump immediately began rolling back certain policies introduced during Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House.
After
sharing his intention to “forge a society that is colourblind and
merit-based”, vowing to “end the government policy of trying to socially
engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private
life”, he also claimed that
“as of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United
States government that there are only two genders, male and female”.
Following Trump’s address, Ariana reposted an Instagram collage by the campaign group Advocates For Trans Equality.
The
post read: “Today is a tough day for our community. The incoming
administration campaigned on attacking trans people’s lives, healthcare,
and dignity, and we’re bracing ourselves for what these extremists will
try to do next.
“No
matter what comes, we will protect each other,” said the post, which
continued, ”we have fought even harder battles before-and won. We’ll do
it again”.
You know what? God bless Ariana. That makes me want to cry. God bless her.
Tuesday, January 21,2025. Day two of the Chump regime, the only
thing more stupid than Zell Miller clone Rashida Tlaib are her lying
sycophants on BLUESKY, we have to fact check them because they can't
stop lying and we have to fact check them because we can't allow another
election like 2024 to ever take place again.
ABC NEWS reported
yesterday, "President Donald Trump did not place his hand on the Bible
as he took the oath of office during his inauguration on Monday. First
lady Melania Trump stood next to the president holding two Bibles, but
the 47th president of the United States didn't place his hand on either
as he raised his right hand to take the presidential oath, which Chief
Justice John Roberts issued." Why? I have no idea. It might be
because he's not a Christian. That might be why he didn't do. The
"might" does not apply to the Christian label. He is not a Christian. Even the Pope agrees
with me on that. As I noted years ago, and years ago, here and at
THIRD, I have encountered Chump many times over the last decades and I
avoided him and walked away from him for the bulk of those encounters
because I don't like him. But, yes, I know for a fact that he's not a
Christian. He doesn't believe in God. He always reminded me of one
those EST freaks. That 70s fad, remember? Like the late Joel
Schumacher -- an EST freak (and Mildred Newman groupie) -- Chump
honestly believes he is the ruler of his destiny and everything he has
is his possession because he manifested it to be so.
But
maybe he didn't put his hand on he Bible this go round so he could
later argue that he wasn't bound by the oath of office? I wasn't aware
until yesterday that his attorneys actually tried to argue in court that
his insurrection couldn't be held against him because the law only
applied to those who took an oath to follow the Constitution and that he
had never done that.
They're just liars. Not unlike Rashida Tlaib supporters, we'll get to them in a bit.
CNN noted some of the lies that Chump told in his inauguration address:
Tariffs:
Trump said, “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries,
we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” But
this description of tariffs is false. Tariffs imposed by the US
government are paid by US importers, not foreign countries, and it’s
easy to find specific examples of companies that passed along the cost
of the tariffs to US consumers. Study after study, including one from
the federal government’s bipartisan US International Trade Commission,
found that Americans bore almost the entire cost of Trump’s tariffs on
Chinese products in his first term.
Additionally,
Trump mentioned creating a new “External Revenue Service” to collect
revenue from tariffs on imports, a plan he has mentioned before. Again,
it is US importers, not foreign exporters, who pay tariffs on imported
goods – and often pass some or all those costs to US consumers.
Continuing, Trump
claimed that he’d be ordering the creation of an “external revenue
service” to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,”
seemingly ignorant of the fact that foreign countries do not pay tariffs
because they are paid by American companies that import foreign goods.
Additionally,
the task of collecting tariffs is carried out by the Department of
Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency, the successor
to the U.S. Customs Service that was created during the presidency of
George Washington.
Keith Edwards noted the dreadful day in this video.
And Rachel Maddow addressed it -- and Chump's pardoning of the insurrections.
ABC NEWS reported
yesterday afternoon, "Incoming President Donald Trump is expected to
issue an executive order that would systematically dismantle all
diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal
government, an incoming Trump White House official told reporters during
a press call on Monday." Thanks, Rashida. AFP reported
yesterday, "President Donald Trump's administration on Monday announced
the United States' intention to withdraw from the Paris climate accord
for a second time, a defiant rejection of global efforts to combat
planetary warming as catastrophic weather events intensify worldwide."
Thanks, Rashida. Catherine Boudreau and Dominick Reuter (BUSINESS INSIDER) add,
"On
Monday, flanked by CEOs of the largest tech companies, Trump said he
would end the Green New Deal and cancel the electric vehicles mandate."
Again, thank you, Rashida. And thank your sister too. Were it not for
you, we might be working towards a better world.
Rashia Tlaib cost Kamala Harris the election and she and
her sister (and Norman Solomon and the other freaks behind
'uncommitted') intended for that to be the case.
There is no excusal or pass for that despite what idiots like Eion Higgins write and say. There's no excuse.
The choice was between Kamala and Chump.
You
either supported Kamala or you supported Chump. Yes, voting for
grifter Jill Stein was supporting Chump. Yes, sitting out the vote was
supporting Chump.
That's what you wanted to do. That was your stated goal. To deny your votes from Kamala. To punish her.
So I'm really not in the mood to hear you whine or your supporters whine.
Yes,
it's fair to blame Rashida Tlaib. She set out to deny Kamala the
presidency and she succeeded in doing that. So, yeah, Rashida's
responsible.
Her lying
supporters are whores. You can't rewrite history Eion Higgins. You
can't pretend that she didn't set out to do this. That 'movement' was
very public about their intent.
Elaine
is exactly right. But now Rashida stans want to act like it's just not
so. And so they lie and attack. And they're so damn stupid. We'll
get to it.
And to add something else, we
weren't stupid enough before 2024 to ever think that you elect someone
and the day after the election or the day after they're sworn in, a war
stops. Barack Obama ran on ending the Iraq War. But his promise --
which Samantha Power insisted to the BBC wasn't a promise and that's why
she had to leave the campaign -- was, if elected, he'd end the Iraq War
ten months after he was sworn in. But it was cute to watch the
political liars try to tell the adults in the room that something never
done before could suddenly be done now . . . because they said so.
Rashida Tlaib freaks really are the worst.
MisterIan
@MisterianZajac
If that were true the highest approval ratings in congress wouldn’t belong to Bernie Sanders and Rashida Tlaib.
Rashida outperformed kamala even in the notoriously conservative suburbs of Wayne county where all the cops live.
Voters are fed up with the ESTABLISHMENT not the left.
I don't understand liars. Do they lie to themselves?
In
what world does Rashida Tlaib or Bernie have the highest approval
ratings in Congress? Better question: What poll? There is none.
Sorry, you stupid idiot, there's no People's Choice Awards for
politicians.
See I don't
just dictate these snapshots on a whim. Someone makes a claim (LIE)
that Bernie and Rashida are the ones with the "highest approval ratings
in Congress"? I realize that first off all that's a false claim and
that, most likely, the way things go someone as vile as Marjorie Taylor
Greene probably has a higher score just because fate loves to mock us.
But I get on the phone and speak to a friend at PEW and then a GALLUP
because I don't put stuff up here on whim. The attack on Latinos in
Texas for the 'crime' of registering people to vote? That story was two
days old in the corporate media. I kept waiting for DEMOCRACY NOW! to
do something on it so we could highlight that. They didn't. So I spoke
to TCI members in Texas, I spoke to three of the women whose homes were
invaded by the police, I spoke to a member of the US Congress and read
everything corporate media had published on it. Only then, did I write
about it.
I always do more research than I need to -- a pattern since college.
So,
no, there's no national survey being done on whose most popular in
Congress or which member of Congress could pull off a mid-riff crop
top?
But, hey, lie. Just lie. That's what the Gaza Freaks do and they lie for Rashida as well.
So they lie and know most people will just read along and never question.
Got into an exchange on BLUESKY last night with two such liars. Bimbo we'll come back to, Blowhard was a waste of time.
I
was the idiot. I honestly thought someone could be educated but it's
not just the MAGA nuts that lie it's also some of the fake asses on
BLUESKY. When I saw that Blowhard was attacking multiple Democrats on
BLUESKY, I realized he wasn't sincere. He was just a liar -- and, yes,
he knows he's lying -- and he was bound and determined to shout his lies
as loudly as he could to silence everyone else.
I
never want a repeat of 2024 so the days of 'live and let live' are
over. From now on, I'll call your crazies out and not pretend that your
nutty conspiracy theories deserve a hearing.
The Blowhard didn't want to admit that Rashida's is in a highly gerrymandered district that any Democrat would win.
There
are 13 districts in Michigan. She didn't get the most votes. She
didn't get the second most votes. She's number seven. She received
253,188 votes.
Above her?
Republican Lisa McClain District 9 received 311,163 votes
Republican Jack Bergman District 1 received 279,370 votes
Democrat Debbie Dingell District 6 received 280,889 votes
Republican John Moolenaar received 278,533 votes
Republican Tim Walberg received 268,777 votes
Democrat Haley Stevens District 11 received 260,489 votes
Below her?
Republican Bill Huizenga District 4 received 236,200 votes
Republican Tom Barrett District 7 received 226,694 votes
Democrat Hillary Scholten District 3 received 225,400 votes
Democrat Shri Thanedar District 13 received 220,586 votes
Republican John James District 10 received 217,440 votes
Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet District 8 received 217,390 votes
Get it? She's in the middle with six winners above her who got more votes and six below her who got less.
And
in terms of donors? She got the most money from New York, then
Detroit, then San Jose, then DC and then Los Angeles. And some of her
biggest donations -- based on zip codes -- came from Houston (zip 77024
was her second biggest donation area by zip code) and Frisco, TX was her
tenth biggest donation zip code (75034). Though not a poll, that
really doesn't scream: She's the most popular politician in the House --
or even one of them.
Again, she represents a highly gerrymandered
district. Don't believe me? Don't have to. Princeton does the
Gerrymandering Project ranking all the states. Rashida's district? 74%
are registered Democrats. 24% are registered Republicans. For the
record, she didn't get 74% of the vote. Some of the Democratic voters
in her district -- about 7% -- elected not to vote for her. It's a
small district population wise and it's heavily packed (74% -- 74.05% if
we want to be precise) with Democrats.
Any Democrat would win in that district if running for the House.
Let's bring Bimbo into the conversation because I believe that's where she jumped in.
She
is from Michigan, she wants me to know, and they don't have a
gerrymandering problem! They addressed that with a law! And with a
Committee!
Elaine
always says -- and has for years going back to college -- that my
biggest flaw is I don't trust myself. You come up to me and tell me I
called you fat and I instantly apologize, I'm so sorry. When did I do
that? When I asked you if you were pregnant! And, in that case with
Melissa, I hadn't asked that. Another friend had. But I'm so doubtful
of myself that I will immediately assume I'm in the wrong or I'm wrong.
Now in a rational moment, I would think, "Well redistricting's based on laws and it too is by a committee."
But I was convinced I was wrong and called my friend at Princeton to ask how I could've misunderstood the data.
"You didn't," he told me.
Yeah, they passed a law but it didn't really fix the issue.
Which is why, he said, I should link to this page.
That's the letter grades The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave
'sainted' Michigan for the 2024 elections. There are three categories.
The first is geography. That's how the districts are drawn -- GOOGLE
that for bad examples in the past, I not here to spoonfeed you a week's
worth of meals. On that, Michigan got an A.
So, yea, Michigan!
But that was kind of like attendance.
Partisan Fairness?
No A for them there. No. A B. "And that was a generous grade," my friend with the project told me.
So
that's an A and B. And maybe, like Bimbo does, you can spin that as a
success. Woo hoo Michigan! Let's all follow your lead!
The third category?
Competitiveness.
Their grade there?
A C.
A C.
So their average is B.
Bimbo
from Michigan, it's not enough to pass new laws, you also have to look
at how well they created change. There wasn't a great deal of change
after your state law and your commission began work and that's why you
didn't get three As from The Gerrymandering Project.
But
keep repeating your lies becuase otherwise you're going to have face
the truth about Rashida Tlaib and none of you liars want to do that.
Her
'success' has been vastly inflated. And that's due to liars like
Misterlan who are no better than the goons at FOX "NEWS." There are no
national polls that rank individual members of Congress but don't let
reality interfere with Misterlan's lying.
Misterlan
is an idiot. He reTweets Sami Hussein -- the longterm conspiracy nut.
Let's make 2025 all about calling things what they are. Faucci -- I
never can get his name right.
Dr Anthony Faucci was an idiot. Joe Biden should have replaced him immediately. He refused to admit when he got things wrong.
His only reason for being was to calm the American public.
That's it.
We were in a pandemic. And it's one we hadn't seen in about 100 years. Nothing like it for that long.
We were all learning as we went.
And
had Faucci acknowledged that, public trust wouldn't have plummeted the
way it did. Oh, there'd still be the conspiracy nuts like Sami Hussein
and Robert Kennedy Junior. But they wouldn't have gotten as much
traction.
Faucci reversed
on many details. And that is understandable. If you admit that you had
something wrong before. But he never did admit it and he confused the
American people and he created too much doubt in the results. That's
why he should have been fired when Joe took over.
If you're confused, read the above again slowly. I say he was not effective in his role.
I don't say he acted criminally. Because he didn't. I don't say he's a crook.
I
say his vanity got in the way of giving updates that included, "Early
on, we thought this but with more research we now know this."
I don't create some vast conspiracy and accuse of him of being a criminal.
Yesterday,
Sami -- who Misterlad follows and reTweets -- Tweeted nonsense about
"the criminality of Fauci and connections to Jan 6 -- as I've said
before, Jail Fauci, Free Palestine."
And that wasn't his only nut job conspiracy. He's trying to implicate
Antony Blinken in the Epstein scandal. Via Blinken's step-father. This
is the garbage that passes for 'news' on the faux left. It's no better
than QAnon and we need to call it out.
Another troubling person
Misterlan follows is grifter David Sirota. I don't recommend Twitter
but isn't it telling that the bulk of people agreeing with grifter
Sirota are . . . Republicans? Check any of his threads. And they're
comfortable enough with Sirota that they agree with him and trash trans
people in the same Twitter reply. And Sirota's on board because he's
human filth.
Late to the party?
Sirota attacked the mother of a
veteran because she 'dared' to hold a member of Congress accountable for
the Iraq War. He failed to mention in his attack that he had worked
for that member of Congress. That's a basic disclosure that journalists
are required to make. But he's not a real journalist. We defended
Tina and noted David's journalistic malpractice. David not only
threatened to sue, he sent abusive and harassing e-mails. Didn't end my
life. Did end his chances at an Academy Award when, years later, he
was undeservedly nominated and I attended as many business parties as I
could manage to distribute copies of his correspondence so people could
know what he really was and not vote his trashy ass.
But
grifter David is at it always. I guess with a head that looks like it
got squashed by forceps during birth, there's not a lot of joy in
Sirota's life. That would explain this Tweet:
Not
a single Democratic operative, powerbroker, media elite or party
insider responsible for decisions that led to Trump’s two victories have
faced any professional or social status consequences, and almost all of
them have gotten rich.
Well,
David, your non-stop attacks on Kamala Harris? That was a decision you
made that helped Chump get sworn in yesterday. You haven't faced "any
professional or social status consequences" -- but then again, you have
no social standing and you've lost one job after another year after year
so you really don't have any professional consequences that could be
doled out.
Also, if you're upset about Bernie and his dwindling
presence, maybe hold him accountable for his vastly unqualified campaign
staff when he ran for president in 2016 and 2020 -- oops, we're back to
you on that, aren't we?
I'd suggest he change his name to David Failure but I believe history already has taken care of that.
Liars
and tricksters and whores who are not Democrats worked really hard to
tank Kamala in 2024. I'm not in the mood to humor those liars,
tricksters and whores ever again. If we have an election in 2028, a
fair one (Chump's has all these plans to remove citizens -- especially
Black ones -- from voting), we can't afford to let the liars, tricksters
and whores pose as Democrats again. They need to be outed.
Nothing
wrong with a Socialist being in opposition to a Democrat. They're
Socialists for a reason. But for them to write and go on programs and
present themselves as Democrats while offering these ideological
attacks? No. Your not going to trick voters again.
You
know if you came out of your closets that voters would be like, "Oh,
well that's not a Democrat." So you stay hidden to play the FOX "NEWS"
game of Look Even Democrats Don't Think Kamala's Qualified.
I'm not in the mood for you screwing over this country again.
We'll wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office.
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the
following statement in response to Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald
Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD),
cancelling a Wednesday meeting with her for January 15 and refusing to
reschedule the meeting until the week of January 26 after his
confirmation vote:
“I expect every nominee to be willing to meet with Senators,
regardless of their party, to answer basic questions about how they
would approach their role if confirmed. Conducting these meetings is the
absolute bare minimum given the role of each Senator and the
constituents they represent. And should Pete Hegseth be confirmed, we
have to be able to meet and communicate.
“Even beyond the deep
concerns I have regarding his character and fitness for the job, I, like
all other Senators, need to be able to discuss with Mr. Hegseth his
thinking and approach to the many threats and challenges we face around
the globe—whether it’s competition with China or aggression from Russia.
“If
Pete Hegseth is determined to make the role of Secretary and Department
of Defense partisan by refusing to meet with Senators as part of his
confirmation process—then he shouldn’t be confirmed as Secretary of
Defense. I think most Americans would agree that you shouldn’t get the
job if you decide you can just skip the job interview. Mr. Hegseth’s
refusal thus far to commit to meet with me before a confirmation vote is
unacceptable and I hope all of my colleagues will condemn this
unprecedented effort to ignore the Senate’s role to advise and consent.”
As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator
Murray helps author and negotiate defense spending each year. In Fiscal
Year 2024, Murray prioritized investments in our servicemembers and military families,
including by delivering on a 5.2% pay raise for servicemembers,
expanding child care services, increasing funding for sexual assault
prevention services, and boosting mental health and suicide prevention
resources. Senator Murray also played a leading role in negotiating and delivering
on a comprehensive national security supplemental in April of 2024 to
extend aid to Ukraine, provide badly needed humanitarian relief, and
support key partners in the Indo Pacific while deterring aggression by
the Chinese government.
Poor pathetic Carrie Underwood. Jason
Aldean's tramp co-singer was all prepared to show the country how
"America the Beautiful" should be sung -- this despite her being a so-so
singer who has lost a lot off the top of her range in the last ten
years. So she tried to sing and then the sound system went out.
God don't like ugly, Carrie, that's something you're going to be
finding out over the next years as you try to build a career on top of
MAGA. They don't like women, Carrie. And they're not going to put up
with you and your take a bat to a man's truck.
It's
funny when an artist whose career is over -- and Carrie's ended about
ten years ago -- tries to pitch herself to a new group and yet doesn't
do the work required to find out if she could have a place in the
group. Carrie better put some clothes on -- some dowdy ones at that --
and start singing about how men like her weak and she likes being weak
and told what to do.
That's really the only way MAGA can keep her career afloat.
Things
have gotten so bad for Carrie, and this was before today, that she's
going to go back on AMERICAN IDOL, this time as a judge.
Like
Katy Perry, Carrie's struggling. Country radio isn't playing women
these days. And Carrie's long in the tooth, trampy and a bit too
masculine for the MAGA crowd. It'll be wonderful watching her wash
out.
Loretta
Lynn (a Republican who supported Trump), Tanya Tucker (no idea), Dolly
Parton (no idea) and other women made their way and blazed a path by
being real. But there's nothing real about Carrie and that's why she's
hoping her new pose as an anti-LGBTQ+ MAGA can revive her career. Don't
think so. But it sure will be funny to watch her fade.
Like
the Village People. Sunday they performed with Chump -- "YMCA." And
the song never sounded gayer than it did with Chump singing along and
waddling around the stage. Not since Kate Smith has anyone that large
taken a stage to sing. The traitors are now trying to walk back their participation:
On Thursday, Willis wrote on Facebook that the performance wasn't an endorsement and that the band supported Kamala Harris.
"If
our preferred candidate (Kamala Harris), had won, Village People would
never have been invited to perform at her inauguration. She would have
chosen the likes of John Legend and Beyonce, etc," he wrote.
"But
now that President Trump has been elected, Village People are suppose
to tow the line and say no to an invitation to perform? How does that
benefit Village People? It does not. It's simply hatred from one
political perspective," he added.
He's right. Only someone as hated as Donald Chump would have ever, in the 21st century, would have invited the awful Village People to perform at an inauguration.
Monday, January 20, 2025. Welcome to the nest four years of hell.
Today,
we observe the birthday of MLK -- a national holiday for a heroic
American. Speaking yesterday at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in
North Charleston, South Carolina, US President Joe Biden noted MLK:
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, hello, hello. (Applause.) Please. Please, sit.
Before I — before I begin, let me tell you what I told Jim about 20 minutes ago.
I
used to start off, as a young kid getting involved in the civil rights —
my state, Delaware, to its great shame was a — was a — anyway, fought
on the wrong side of the w- — (laughs). My state was segregated by
law. My state, Delaware, was no different in terms of its laws than
South Carolina or any other Southern state. And like two other states,
just couldn’t figure out how to get in the fight on the side of the
South because it was cut off. But the southern two parts of my state,
they talk funny like y’all do down here. (Pronounced in an accent.) You know what I mean? (Laughter.)
And
— but all kidding aside, I — I used to — I used to go, when I got
engaged to — in the c- — I — I didn’t plan on — I love reading these
biographies on how I knew I was going to be president, going to run for
president, et cetera. Truth of the matter was that I’m a kid who — we
talk about impediments; I used to ta- — t- — ta- — talk — talk like
that. I used to stutter. Came from — came from a — a — you know, came
from a place called Claymont, Delaware. A lot of steel town — it all
went bankrupt. Come from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Things didn’t work
out so well because of the economy.
But you know what? Every
time — every time I spent time in the Black church — I was telling Jim —
I think of one thing: the word “hope.” (Applause.) No, not a joke.
Pastor
Holt, thank you for allowing me to be back at this pulpit. And,
Senator, thank you for that introduction. I appreciate it.
You
know, you made a really moving sermon, Pastor. And — and thank you, for
the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church, for welcoming me
back to Charleston to worship with you.
I prayed with you here
in February of 2020 when I was running for president. On my final full
day as president, of all the places I wanted to be was back here with
you. (Applause.)
I first got involved — first got involved in
public life because of the Civil Rights Movement. I — I’d attend 7:30
mass at my church, then I’d go to another morning service at the AME
Church in Delaware — the Black church, the spiritual home of the Black
experience that helped redeem the soul of the nation, literally.
That’s
the truth we honor on the weekend we celebrate one of the political
heroes — my political heroes, many of yours — Dr. Martin Luther King.
I
have two busts in my office that I can see from my desk. I had two
political heroes growing up: Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. (Applause.)
No, I’m serious. S- — you’ve been in my office, Jim. There’s two busts
fr- — that I see from my desk.
On Sundays, we often reflect on
resurrection and redemption. We remember Jesus was buried on Friday and
he rose on Sunday. We don’t talk enough about Saturday, when his
disciples felt all hope was lost.
Our lives and in the lives of
the nation, we have those Saturdays; we bear — to bear witness of the
day before glory, and some people’s pain — are in pain and they can’t
look away. But what — the work we do on S- — Saturday is going to
determine whether we move a- — with pain or purpose.
How can faith get a person, get a nation through what’s to come?
Here’s
what my faith has taught me. Scripture says, “As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another person.” (Applause.) That’s what faith
and friendship has taught me.
And friends in South Carolina,
like Jim and Emily Clyburn, I could not be standing here, I would not be
standing — that’s not hyperbole — I would not be staying here in this
pulpit were it not for Jim Clyburn. (Applause.)
And although
somewhat presumptuous of me, neither of us would be standing here
without Emily, who we all miss dearly, and who actually made Jim endorse
me. (Laughter.)
Thank you, Emily. (Laughter and applause.)
South
Carolina friends like Fritz and Peatsy Hollings, who believed in me
when I got through one of the most difficult times of my life. When I
was a 26-year- — -9-year-old kid, I got a phone call saying my wife and
daughter were dead and my two boys were not likely to live.
Well,
guess what? Jim, Emily, Fritz and Peatsy, and so many friends in South
Carolina have always been there for me, and especially in those
Saturdays when I felt all hope was gone; those days when I buried pieces
of my soul — my wife, my daughter, my son, Beau, who was the attorney
general of Delaware; when I felt like there was just a black hole in my
chest sucking me into it — anger and rage that I felt at the time.
But
then, friends — your friends bear witness. They see your pain. They
pick you up to help you get to Sa- — to Sunday, from pain to purpose.
(Applause.)
I felt that faith of pres- — friendship when I prayed
with this congregation — when they play- — played with the congregation
and prayed with the congregation of Mother Emanual.
I went there and tried to confront
[comfort] them on my own Saturday, but it was they who ended up
comforting me, as we arrived together and found grace together. Moving
from pain to purpose strengthened my faith in the service of others, to
“love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and all thy mind” and
“love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Very easy to say, but very hard to do.
But
in the words — in those words are the essence of the gospel, is the
essence of the American promise: the idea, as was mentioned earlier,
that we’re all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be
treated equally throughout our lives.
My dad used to say, “The greatest sin of all is the abuse of power.” (Applause.)
We’ve
never fully lived up to that commitment, but we’ve never walked away
from it either because of you and your ancestors before us, who followed
light of the North Star even in the darkness.
After this
service, I’ll be visiting the International African American Museum. It
captures the ongoing story of redemption. I’ll tour the exhibits, and
I’ll speak about the power of history to make real the promise of
America for all Americans. But this morning, I’d like to talk about the
essential piece of redemption — the power of mercy and justice.
With
experience, wisdom, conscience, compassion, and science, we know how
healing and restoration from harm is a pathway to the kind of
communities we want to live in, where there’s fairness, justice,
accountability in the system; where the people we love go through hard
times, fall down, make mistakes, but we’re right there to help them get
back up. (Applause.)
We don’t turn on each other. We lean into
each other. That’s the sacred covenant of our nation. We pledge an
allegiance, not just to an idea but to each other. That’s who we’re
pledging allegiance to.
That’s how I viewed my decision to issue
more inv- — individual pardons and commutations than any president in
American history. (Applause.) To inspire an end to federal death
penalty by commuting most of those sentences to life in prison without
parole. To commute the sentence of individuals serving
disproportionately hard, long, and harsh sentences for non-violent drug
offenses compared to the sentence they would have received today in commuting
[committing] that crime. To show mercy for individuals who either did
their time or a signi- — a significant amount of time and have shown
significant remorse and rehabilitation. To understand that supervision
after release is critical to provide accountability and support, while
knowing that government supervision over a very long time serves neither
the interest of the person or the public.
These decisions are
difficult. Some have never been done before. But in my experience,
with my conscience, I believe, taken together, justice and mercy
requires as a nation to bear witness; to see people’s pain, not to look
away; and do the work to move pain to purpose, to show we can get a
person, a nation, to a day of redemption.
But we know the
struggle toward redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and
ongoing, the distance is short between peril and possibility, but faith —
faith teaches us the America of our dreams is always closer than we
think. That’s the faith we must hold on to for the Saturdays to come.
We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in a better day to come.
I’m not going anywhere. (Applause.) I’m not kidding.
So, to the — (applause) — to the people of South Carolina, thank
you for keeping the faith. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as
your president, the highest honor for Jill and our family.
And
as I close out this journey with you — (applause) — I’m just as
passionate about our work as I was as a 29-year-old kid when I got
elected and wasn’t old enough to serve yet.
I’m in no ways tired. (Applause.)
I’ve always heard
before, “We’ve come too far from where we started. Nobody told me the
road would be easy.” (Applause.) “I don’t believe — I don’t believe He
brought me this far to leave me.” (Applause.)
My fellow Americans, I don’t think the good Lord brought us this far to leave us behind. (Applause.)
As
we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy and generations before and since — women
and men, enslaved and free — we have to remember one of his favorite
hymns: “Precious Lord, take my hand through the storm, through the
night, and lead me into the light.”
Well, God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.
I owe you big. As they say where I come from, you all — you the guys that brought me to the dance.
Altogether now on the chorus to the song Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wrote:
You're a fake
Baby
You can't conceal it
Know how I know
'Cause I can feel it
You're a fake
Baby
No rhyme or reason
'Cause in your mind it's lyin' season
He's
not even sworn in but if you look around online, you'll find so many
people online already trying to lie. And you'll find a lot of people
wanting to run from their past and pretend what went down didn't.
Take
Socialist Adam H. Johnson who plays a Democrat in public because if
most people he was a Socialist when he was trashing Kamala Harris
non-stop, that would have weakened his argument because, of course, a
Socialist isn't going to like the politics of a Democrat. So Adam
pretended to be a Democrat and COMMON DREAMS and IN THESE TIMES went
along with the con. IN THESE TIMES always does since the depth of James
Weinstein. I can remember when they were proud Socialists. And back
then, the rag was worth reading. Now it talks down to the readers and
plays out like a Little Golden Book for the soft and squishy 'left.'
You
know, Socialists didn't always hide. But when they want to try to pimp a
candidate, they do tend to lie. I can remember it was a Barack Obama
campaigner who was lying about other Democrats so we called him out and
he whined that we were getting him fired from the campaign. How did I
know he was a Socialist? He worked for Katrina vanden Heuvel. And he
and Katrina used to mock and make fun of Alexander Cockburn -- a true
iconoclast. And I called them out on it to their faces. And I filed it
away as I tend to do knowing that it was a detail that I'd supply to
the public record at some point. When he started attacking Democrats in
2008 while being a paid campaign staffer for Barack, it was time to add
a fact to the public record.
And
on payment issues, Rashida Tlaib helped bring about this horrible
inauguration taking place later today. The point of history is to learn
from it. The DNC needs to address this with a new rule: If you take
DNC money, you can't campaign against other Democrats in the general
election -- especially not a presidential candidate. Failure to heed
that rule should result in your being forced to repay every cant
national headquarters put into your campaign.
Yes, Rashida is responsible.
And
that reality is just too much for Adam Johnson and others so they lie
online -- just like they did when they attacked Kamala.
And
they bring in their friends from their offline circle jerk like Eion
Higgins who wants the world to know that this is just not helpful!!!!
Saying what went down isn't helpful!!!!
We all need to forget!!!!
That's
not how it works and how pathetic the position he's taking is as he
promotes a book that runs completely against this argument.
That's
the thing about fake ass 'journalists.' They write a longform piece
and don't care that it doesn't jibe with their day to day. John Nichols
is infamous for that, of course. Wrote about impeachment, called for
impeachment of Bully Boy Bush, was out promoting the book when Nancy
Pelosi, then House minority leader, declared that impeachment was off
the table. And John took it off and stopped promoting the book and
stopped for Bully Boy Bush to be impeached.
That's
the thing about the closeted. They're constantly hiding so they can't
be real. Richard Chamberlain's noted how being in a sexual closet
inhibited his acting and I'm sure Adam and the rest could talk about how
being a political closet also leaves them harmed and unable to fully
develop.
In one way, the
election of 2024 was not a complete waste. It exposed to Black people
that the Socialists really didn't care about us. That they hated us the
same way they hated every other group that made a demand -- you know,
the ones they dismiss as "identity politics"?
Yeah,
they're exposed now and we realize they're not our friends and they're
not out to help us. When supporting us makes them look good, they'll
pick us up and try to hug us like a treasured toy. But when we're under
attack and there's another group that they want to dry hump, they
forget that we even exist except to trash in TIK-TOK videos and in
Tweets.
They really think they
can push us around and they're truly mistaken because we're standing
with Michelle Obama right now who is not attending today's swearing in
of Donald Chump. As we noted in "Buy a clue (Ava and C.I.)"
As always, The People's March For Stupidity will be led by FOX
"NEWS." They start each day. While the rest of us are sleeping,
they're already up and running in circles chanting "Two plus two is
five! Seven plus eight is three!"
They sport their stupidity.
Which
is how you get the recent segment with plantation mistress Harris
Faulkner where they attacked Michelle Obama because Michelle will not be
attending the inauguration.
Faulkner fought for her master Donald Chump as she and the others on camera attacked Michelle.
At some point, the group realized their pants were unzipped and their hypocrisy was poking out of their fly.
That's when a guest, in an aside, insisted this was bad when Donald refused to attend Joe Biden's inauguration.
What?
Chump
was the outgoing president when he refused to attend -- and he refused
to attend after he led the attempted insurrection that, had the Supreme
Court not run interference for him, could have led to execution by a
firing squad -- which is the ultimate penalty for what Chump did.
As
Faulkner stared at the camera with the pop-eyed look meant to convey
sincerity but just made her look as though she had an untreated thyroid
problem, we kind of pictured even a few of the FOX "NEWS" crazies
thinking, "Why should she go when Chump attacked her?"
Because he did.
And that's not what happens with normal people, let's be clear.
We
feel sorry for Harrison Faulkner as she tried to whip up a frenzy over
Michelle not attending -- we felt sorry for Faulkner because it was
obvious she had failed at her job and would be removed as a house slave
and sent back out to work the fields.
We also find it
really typical of FOX "NEWS" to think they have the right to tell a
Black woman what to do. Remember kids, if the TV screen reeks of
racism, you're watching FOX "NEWS."
Republicans are looking to gut and slash federal programs in order to afford an extension to Donald Trump’s 2017 tax plan.
The
extension, which overwhelmingly benefits corporations and could add as
much as $15 trillion to the national deficit, would arrive at the
expense of dozens of popular federal programs. But perhaps most
egregious among the penny-pinching proposals is a plan to literally take
food away from hungry children by nixing free school meal plans made
available to some of the poorest families in the country.
Raising
the threshold of eligibility for schools to receive the Community
Eligibility Provision could save the government $3 billion over a span
of 10 years, according to a menu-like list released by the House Ways and Means Committee intended to serve as cutting options for the House reconciliation package.
“The
Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows the nation’s
highest-poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no
cost to all enrolled students without collecting household
applications,” the proposal reads. “Instead, schools that adopt CEP are
reimbursed using a formula based on participation in other specific
means-tested programs, such as SNAP and TANF. Currently, schools can
qualify if 40 percent of students receive these programs. This proposal
would lift that to 60 percent.”
It shouldn’t take
much to argue that taking food away from children is a bad thing. But
data shows that food insecurity has been on the rise in the U.S. for the
last several decades, and it has seen a considerable spike since the
pandemic, according to the USDA. It affects roughly one in seven American households, according to data from the Food Research and Action Center, affecting an estimated 47.4 million people across the country.
Thanks,
Rashida. Thanks Adam H. Johnson. Thanks Eion Higgins. Thanks Amy
Goodman. Thanks Katrina vanden Heuvel and that Marxist you put in
charge of THE NATION.
Incoming "border czar" Tom Homan
said large-scale raids as part of President-elect Trump's crackdown on
illegal immigration are set to begin as soon as Tuesday.
In an interview with Fox News on Friday night, Homan did not offer further details, but he did confirm that Chicago will be one of the cities targeted.
"On Tuesday, ICE is finally going to go out and do their job. We're
going to take the handcuffs off ICE," he said, referring to Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Homan, a former acting head of
ICE, added that immigration agents will focus on the "worst first,
public safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they're in
the country illegally, they got a problem."
Elections
have consequences. 2024 was not a question mark. We all knew what
Donald Chump was capable of, we knew how hateful he was, we knew what a
crook he was and we knew he'd attempted an insurrection against the
country. We knew the Supreme Court would be at stake with at least one
judicial opening likely to come in the next four years.
Thanks,
Rashida. You are a Democrat but you failed to endorse and support our
party's presidential nominee. You twice voted to impeach Donald Chump
which is supposed to mean he is unfit for office in your mind. But you
were okay with waving him back into the White House.
Rashida
and her groupies can pretend this is about her religion or her skin
color -- they never cared about Kamala's skin color did they -- as they
attacked her non-stop.
It's not.
It's about her betrayal.
And her stupidity.
Today kicks off living hell for a lot of people in this country. We will not forget the role Rashida played in this.
In the words of the late James Baldwin:
People
pay for what they do, and, still more, for what they have allowed
themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they
lead.
