Twenty-five
years after their duet "The Boy Is Mine" dominated the charts, Brandy
and Monica are finally sharing the stage – and this time, they're not
fighting over anyone.
The Grammy-winning
R&B stars announced Tuesday on "CBS Mornings" their first-ever
co-headlining tour, "The Boy Is Mine," a 24-city arena run that kicks
off on Oct. 16 in Cincinnati and concludes on Dec. 7 in Houston.
"They
were trying to get us to do a tour since '98 and it just finally felt
like the right time," Brandy said. "It was a dream come true."
Monica called her partnership with Brandy a "musical marriage."
"We created the communication and the relationship to do it," she said.
The
tour marks a historic reunion for the duo whose 1998 duet spent a
record-breaking 13 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100,
placing them alongside Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey as artists who
have commanded the chart's top spot for 13 weeks or more.
Brandy's had a ton of hits. "The Boy Is Mine" is, however, only one of her two songs that hit number one on the pop charts and only one of three that hit number one on the soul chart. For Monica, it's one of her seven number ones on the soul chart and one of three number ones on the pop charts.
Now
for Morgan Wallen. He's so strange looking. I saw a picture today and thought,
"Did I never see him before?" No. I had seen him before. He's one of
the few male singers that looks good with longer hair. This pathetic
peach fuzz on top of his head and that ridiculous mustache do not go
together. But I went to GOOGLE image and, like I said, he looks fine
with longer hair -- even long hair. The picture I saw today, by the
way, was from 2023. Click here to see it.
A number of e-mails came in regarding Bruce Springsteen who was not noted in "." Yes, he has two albums due out Friday. Didn't realize that until the e-mails came in. The big one is TRACKS II: THE LOST ALBUMS It's a boxed set with 83 songs recorded from 1983 to 2017. The other album he's got coming out Friday is LOST AND FOUND: SELECTIONS FROM THE LOST ALBUMS. It's got twenty tracks that were selected from TRACKS II. On vinyl, it's a double album -- two disc set. TRACKS II is a seven disc set.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025. The senators strike back and
liberate The Kennedy Center, Chump claims credit for a cease-fire but
apparently his self-brag didn't reach Israel, ICE agents continue to
kidnap and beat up people on the streets of America, and much more.
Last night, Rachel Maddow reported, The Kennedy Center celebrated Pride last night thanks to
Senators Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren, Jacky Rosen, Brian Schatz and John Hickenlooper.
Senator John Hickenlooper's office issued the following:
Musical theater concert produced by acclaimed Broadway producer
Jeffrey Seller, with music directed by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley
WASHINGTON – Tonight, U.S. Senators John
Hickenlooper, Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren, Jacky Rosen, and Brian
Schatz hosted a Pride celebration and musical performance titled “Love
is Love”, which was produced by acclaimed Broadway producer Jeffrey
Seller, at the Kennedy Center’s Justice Forum.
In the last years of the 20th century, and the early years of this
century, gay marriage went from being vilified by some to being widely
accepted. “Love is Love” is a celebration of the important role that
Broadway, Hollywood, and other creative enterprises played in this
dramatic transformation of the America we love.
The actors and other creative talent who created this show gave their
time and creative energy to recognize and amplify this cultural
transformation. The Kennedy Center, long an outpost and a beacon for
equality in the arts, seemed the perfect venue.
The performance reminds us that our fight for equality – and for
democracy – isn’t over. It’s happening right now, all around us.
“In our darkest hours, we must continue to seek out the light,” said Hickenlooper.
“Tonight, we honor the role that the freedom of expression and the
theatrical arts play in continuing to expand LGBTQ rights in America.”
“We have made incredible progress in our fight for true
equality, but we cannot mistake progress for victory and we still have
some big hills to climb. Look no further than the Trump Administration’s
shameful attacks on the LGBTQ community and our right to live a life
with dignity, respect, and free from discrimination. While this
administration won’t say it, we will: To all LGBTQ members of our
community, we see you, we respect you, and we are proud to celebrate
you,” said Baldwin.
“As the Trump administration keeps up its hateful attacks on
LGBTQ+ Americans, we’re meeting their bigotry with resilience and joy.
Tonight, we’re celebrating that joy at the Kennedy Center with artists
and stage workers for a special performance. I’ll never stop fighting to
make sure every single person is free to live exactly who they are,” said Warren.
“The Trump Administration’s cruel and harmful attacks against the LGBTQ community are having dire consequences,” said Rosen.
“Trump is not only actively targeting LGBTQ Americans with
discriminatory policies, he’s seeking to erase LGBTQ history and
culture. That’s why it’s more important than ever before to stand up and
proudly celebrate the LGBTQ community.”
“Every attack on LGBTQ+ rights by the Trump administration is
an attack on human rights, on freedom, and on every American’s right to
equal protection under the law. We have come too far to go backward.
Now is the time to stand up and fight back in every way we can – in the
courts, at the ballot box, in peaceful protests, and with the arts,” said Schatz.
Photos from the event can be found HERE and attributable to the Office of U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper
###
Good for the senators and for all the artists who took part. Discrimination isn't compatible with real democracy. DEADLINE notes
that sour queen and Chump's token gay Richard Grenell had another one
of hissy fits in public. We don't have time for that mama's drama and
we won't quote him. He's a liar and we went over all of this when he
was attacking Harvey Fierstein. Love is Love and love, the arts and
freedom won last night.
"Hello I'm Stupid and I Shouldn't Have A Job." That's not the headline to Kinsey Crowley and Sudiksha Kochi latest garbage for USA TODAY
but it should be. General studies majors. Remember that's all most
journalists are -- glorified general studies majors. The dim bulbs type:
Immigration
was a flashpoint going into the 2024 presidential election, and it
remains President Donald Trump's strongest issue in a recent poll.
A
NBC News Decision Desk Poll released June 15, conducted along with
SurveyMonkey, found that 45% of Americans approve of the way Trump is
handling his job as president, while 55% disapprove. Those figures
remain unchanged from an NBC News survey in April. (The survey was
conducted among 19,410 adults nationwide between May 30 and June 10. It
has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.)
According
to the survey, 51% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of border
security and immigration, while 49% disapprove, the exception to his
negative overall rating.
I
really hate stupid idiots who think they can address a topic but lack
the training to do so. Chump's not winning on immigration in that
poll. The results do not demonstrate that. You have 51% approval and
49% disapproval and the typists run with that. But that's not how the
social sciences work. Let me repeat what I've said over and over for
years now -- right here, for years. If you did not take a college
research and methodology course, sit your tired ass down because you
clearly don't know what you're talking about. 2.1%. That's the margin
of error. Social sciences are not true sciences. The polling is not
just the numbers for and against, it's also the margin of error. The
true result of the poll that the two idiots are too stupid to be writing
about? It's a tie. The results are within the margin of error.
That's not a win.
They
then want to offer proof that he's 'winning' because they're apparently
some zonked out on tigers blood Charlie Sheen wanna be:
Economist/YouGov
poll: (June 13-16, 1,512 U.S. adult citizens, margin of error plus or
minus 3.3%). Overall approval rating: 41% approve, 54% disapprove;
Immigration issue approval rating: 44% approve, 52% disapprove. That's a
new low, according to this pollster.
Morning Consult: (June
13-15, 2,207 registered voters, margin of error plus or minus two
percentage points). Overall approval rating: 46% approve, 52%
disapprove; Immigration approval rating: 51% approve, his best rating
among the issues.
Fox News Poll with Beacon Research and Shaw
& Co. Research: (June 13-16, 1,003 registered voters, margin of
error plus or minus three percentage points.) Overall approval rating:
46% approve, 54% disapprove; Immigration approval rating: 46% approve,
53% disapprove. The poll also asked about border security, which
received higher approval at 53% compared to 46% who disapproved.
The
ECONOMIST-YOU GOV Poll (and I typed that correctly -- it's a joint poll
requiring a "-" between the two organizations) shows disapproval and
it's beyond the margin of error. The same is true of the FOX "NEWS"
Poll. "His best rating among the issues!" they gush of the MORNING
CONSULT Poll -- you know, the one they refuse to provide the number for
disapproval.
You know what else the bad USA TODAY typist fail to provide regarding the MORNING CONSULT polling? This finding:
Voters
are souring on Trump’s immigration, national security handling: Since
the beginning of June, Trump’s net approval ratings on immigration and
national security have been cut in half. Voters are still 7 percentage
points more likely to approve than disapprove of his handling of
immigration, but that’s down from a 12-point gap, and his 6-point net
approval rating on national security is down from 13 points over the
same time frame.
Per MORNING CONSULT, that's the main finding of their poll but somehow USA TODAY's typists miss that.
NJ ADVANCE MEDIA employs actual journalists which is how Lauren Sforza can report on the MORNING CONSULT poll that USA TODAY's typists so bungled:
The poll also found that Trump’s approval rating on immigration and national security has also dropped in recent days.
“Since
the beginning of June, Trump’s net approval ratings on immigration and
national security have been cut in half. Voters are still 7 percentage
points more likely to approve than disapprove of his handling of
immigration, but that’s down from a 12-point gap, and his 6-point net
approval rating on national security is down from 13 points over the
same time frame,” the analysis stated.
The polls show that the trend is more and more people opposing Chump's immigration 'plan.'
Why is that?
Because of things like this.
And this.
As
people see what's going on, they grow more and more repulsed. Masked
persons are kidnapping people off the streets. Frequently, they push
the suspected immigrant to the ground and then they -- plural ICE agents
-- begin whaling on the unarmed immigrants.
As
we see the thugs of ICE beat up one person after another, take actions
that law enforcement is not allowed to, the country grows more
repulsed.
Every day, this
abuse happens. Every day people are abducted. During the abduction,
they are often beaten. In what world is this law enforcement?
It's not.
And
we've noted before that by using masks and not identifying themselves,
they're at risk of a good Samaritan in an open carry state witnessing
this abuse and trying to rescue the person being attacked.
A
U.S. citizen who was violently arrested in a California ICE raid and
detained for 24 hours said it was all worth it if an undocumented person
was able to use that moment to flee.
Job
Garcia, a 37-year-old PhD student at Claremont Graduate University, was
arrested during an ICE raid last Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood,
ABC 7 reported.
Video captured an ICE agent telling Garcia, who is a U.S. citizen, “You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it.”
Garcia
recalled the horrifying moment he was placed into custody by the
officer: “The pressure of like, the knee on my back, and his hand on my
neck, I thought like ‘Is this it for me?’”
Footage of the violent arrest, which came as ICE agents detained about 30 people at the store, quickly went viral.
Job's
not going to back down. Others aren't either. ICE's actions are
unAmerican and illegal. At some point, that reality sinks in -- it even
sinks in for ICE agents which is why I've noted that you can't buy back
you soul and a lot of people working for ICE will have a future of drug
abuse and/or suicide. You can't carry out these inhuman acts be left
untouched. You know what you're doing is wrong. You know it's
destroying lives and you're not going to be able to walk away from your
actions in five or ten years nor are you going to be able to live with
what you've done without the aid of drugs.
Each day, we see more and learn more and the
number of people opposed to Chump's immigration abuse grows. That is
the trend. USA TODAY typists can't or won't tell you that but that is
what is happening.
Americans are watching
with outrage as a secret police -- that's what ICE has become --
terrorizes people on the streets, beats them up and kidnaps them.
That's not America and you must be a crazy USA TODAY typist if you
believe this is no big deal.
U.S.
Space Force Master Sgt. Sabrina Bruce didn’t know her life was about to
change forever when she got into her car last month to head to the
Pentagon and reenlist for another six years.
Bruce,
34, was excited to continue a career that had set her on a
life-altering path. She’d enlisted in the Air Force in 2013 to escape
her gender dysphoria, she said, referring to the medical term for the
distress felt when one’s sex assigned at birth does not align with their
gender. Instead, she found a culture that empowered her to come out as a
transgender woman.
But just
before Bruce began the drive to her reenlistment ceremony on May 6, she
saw the news on her phone. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled the Trump
administration could execute plans to bar her and thousands of other
transgender service members from the armed forces. Despite her intent to
keep serving, Bruce realized her military career doing top-secret
cybersecurity work would probably be measured in weeks or months — not
years.
“I was in shock,” she said, adding: “I was intending to serve out my time and keep working and keep contributing to the nation.”
Bruce
started transitioning in 2017, seven months after the military lifted
its ban prohibiting transgender troops from serving openly. Nine years
after that ban ended, the same military is now kicking them out.
Active-duty
transgender service members faced a June 6 deadline to self-report
their gender dysphoria, which President Donald Trump and Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth said is incompatible with military service. Trump
called transgender identity a “falsehood” that does not comport with
the “humility and selflessness required of a service member.” Advocates
for transgender service members say expelling cyber experts like Bruce
and others in highly specialized fields — pilots, nuclear engineers,
intelligence analysts — will harm the military as leaders try to reverse
a years-long trend of recruiting shortfalls.
The
Washington Post spoke with 10 transgender troops as some wrestled with
the decision to self-report by the deadline, others scrambled to find
new jobs and all grieved the sudden, unwanted loss of a life built
around military service. Each of them repudiated the Pentagon calling
their de facto firings as “voluntary” separations after requiring them
to report their gender dysphoria for the express purpose of casting them
out.
“This is not
voluntary separation. This is separation under duress. This is
coercion,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Emily Shilling, a fighter pilot and
president of SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit that advocates for transgender
troops. She, like the other service members interviewed, spoke in a
personal capacity and not on behalf of the military.
While
the Chump administration works to run off qualified service members,
they recruit uqnalified idiots to fill security positions. Joe DePaolo (MEDIAITE) reports:
Amid
the threats of retribution from Iran following the U.S. military strike
on three Iranian nuclear sites, critics have ramped up their scrutiny
of the 22-year-old who was assigned to a major terrorism-prevention post
by President Donald Trump.
In a Sunday morning
post to X, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) called out Trump for appointing
22-year-old Thomas Fugate to a role at the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) in which he oversees the Center for Prevention Programs
and Partnerships (CP3) — a division of the agency which is tasked with
terrorism prevention.
“As
our nation girds for possible Iranian terrorist attacks, this is the
person Trump put in charge of terrorism prevention,” Murphy wrote —
referring to Fugate. “22 years old. Recent work experience:
landscaping/grocery clerk. Never worked a day in counter-terrorism. But
he’s a BIG Trump fan. So he got the job.”
A
June 4 investigation from Pro Publica into Fugate’s background turned
up a stunningly thin resume. Fugate got the job in May after William
Braniff — an Army veteran with over two decades of national security
experience — resigned in protest of cuts to CP3. Per his Linkedin page,
Fugate said he spent several months performing “lawn care work around my
neighborhood,” and also worked part time as a clerk at an H-E-B
supermarket.
“Maybe
he’s a wunderkind. Maybe he’s Doogie Howser and has everything at 21
years old, or whatever he is, to lead the office. But that’s not likely
the case,” an counterterrorism researcher, who has worked with CP3
officials for years, told ProPublica. “It sounds like putting the intern
in charge.”
In light of Iran’s threats,
critics are calling out the president for giving a 22-year-old a key job
which has now become even more important:
Iran
retaliated for recent U.S. military strikes on Monday, June 23,
launching a missile strike against a military base in Qatar.
Iran's
armed forces claimed a “powerful and destructive missile strike on the
United States’ Al-Udeid military base in Qatar," NBC News reported.
Al-Udeid
is the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. It is the forward
headquarters for U.S. Central Command and is home to about 10,000
troops.
Explosions
were reported near Doha, the capital city of Qatar, where the base is
located and the U.S. Embassy issued a "shelter in place" warning to all
citizens.
Just
before the explosions, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on
social media platform X: "We neither initiated the war nor seeking it.
But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer."
The US confirmed the air base was targeted by a missile attack from Iran but added that casualties were reported.
Tehran
said the attack in Qatar matched the number of bombs dropped by the US
on Iran's nuclear sites over the weekend, signalling its likely desire
to de-escalate.
Three Iranian officials told the New York Times they had forecast its strikes with Qatar in a bid to minimise casualties.
Donald Trump was also aware of the attack plans in advance, Western officials said.
The
Ain al-Assad base housing US troops in western Iraq was also targeted,
an Iraqi security source said, but Iran did not claim that attack, which
could have been carried out by militias.
President
Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to deliver a rambling
monologue in the wake of Iran's bombing of U.S. airbases in Qatar.
Rather
than addressing the pressing international crisis, the U.S. leader
chose to focus his attention on lambasting what he calls "sleazebags in
the media" and "fake news."
He posted: "The sites that
we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it. Only the
Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as
much as possible - And even they say they were 'pretty well destroyed!'
"Working
especially hard on this falsehood is Allison Cooper of Fake News CNN,
Dumb Brian L. Roberts, Chairman of 'Con'cast, Jonny Karl of ABC Fake
News, and always, the Losers of, again, Concast's NBC Fake News. It
never ends with the sleazebags in the Media, and that's why their
Ratings are at an ALL TIME LOW - ZERO CREDIBILITY!".
Senile Chump has no idea who he is at war with. Can we get him into a home already?
He spent last night claiming a ceasefire was now in place and taking credit for it.
However . . .
Minutes ago, REUTERS reported, "Iranian and Israeli media reported new Israeli airstrikes
on Iran on Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump having said
Israel had called them off at his command to preserve an hours-old ceasefire. Two
explosions were heard in the capital, the judiciary news outlet Mizan
reported. Israeli army radio said Israel had struck an Iranian radar
site near Tehran."
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, released new data
from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), a nonpartisan Congressional
committee dedicated to analyzing tax legislation, revealing that the
majority of the benefit from the 199A tax deduction goes to
millionaires.
The 199A tax deduction was created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,
with Congressional Republicans claiming it would support small business
owners by allowing them to deduct up to 20 percent of their business’s
qualified income from their personal income taxes.
JCT’s responses provided a breakdown, by income level, of who claims
the 199A deduction, in addition to other key information about who the
deduction benefits. Key findings include:
More than 50% of the benefit of the 199A deduction goes to millionaires.
The top 10% of taxpayers claimed 87% of the benefit of 199A, while the bottom 20% claimed no benefit whatsoever.
84% of the businesses through which individuals claimed the 199A deduction had no employees.
More than two-thirds of the 199A deduction goes to individuals above
the deduction’s phase-out thresholds, demonstrating that the law’s
guardrails to prevent wealthy individuals from taking the benefit are
ineffective.
The proportion of 199A benefits claimed by millionaires increased over time from 2018 to 2022.
The House version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” now under
consideration by the Senate, includes an expansion of the 199A deduction
from a 20 percent deduction to a 23 percent deduction.
After
President Donald Trump's decision to strike three Iranian nuclear
facilities on Saturday, administration officials are barely bothering to
pretend the unprecedented - and potentially calamitous - attacks were
motivated by new intelligence suggesting Iran was on the brink of having
nuclear weapons.
Just
months ago, Trump's Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
testified to Congress, in her opening statement, that the U.S. intel
community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear
weapon" and had not reauthorized its nuclear weapons program.
While
Trump recently publicly disputed Gabbard's testimony, according to two
administration officials with knowledge of internal deliberations in
recent weeks, the president's decision to strike was not driven by any
new U.S. intelligence on Iran.
"There is no
intel," says one of the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss
sensitive matters. "Nothing new, that I'm aware of… The president is
protecting the United States and our interests, [but] the intelligence
assessments have not really changed from what they were before."
Sen.
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee,
confirmed Saturday night that American intelligence assessments on Iran
have not changed. "I was briefed on the intelligence last week. Iran
posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States," he wrote on
social media. "Iran was not close to building a deliverable nuclear
weapon."
The capricious madman. That's what Chump is. That and a loser.
On
vibrations, reminder to everyone to catch Trina's "Shrimp Salad Rolls in the Kitchen" where she covers
the death of Brian Wilson. I agree that "Good Vibrations" was Brian's
last great record -- and agree that we're talking about the recording.
Brian was a great producer. A very strong songwriter as well but truly a
great producer.
And where the hell is Joanna Newsom?
Still
on music. Today, I heard "Good Intentions Paving Road" over speakers
in the drug store when I darted in for some medication. And I was
humming along and then singing along. I love that song. Joanna's a
great artist but that truly is her finest song and probably one of the
finest songs of 2010.
So
when I got home, I looked her up and 2015's DIVERS is still the last
album she's released. She may not be releasing music but she has been
busy. She and her husband Andy Samberg had a baby in 2017 and then
another in 2023. Back in December, Mimi Kenny (THE HARD TIMES) 'reported' ('reported' because it's a satire site):
Acclaimed
folk musician Joanna Newsom recently announced that the long-awaited
follow-up to her most recent studio album was nearing completion,
pending the addition of comedic rap verses from her husband, actor and
Lonely Island member, Andy Samberg.
“I
understand my near-decade-long hiatus from recording has been difficult
for devotees of immersive, mystical Americana, rich with compositional
wonder but grounded by a human longing for meaning and connection,” said
Newsom. “And I thank them for their patience as my beloved husband
completes and records his uproarious yet insightful rap verses about
topics including, but not limited to, getting pink eye because his best
friend farted on his pillow, the Times Square Olive Garden, and how guys
who are 5’10” are the short guys of tall guys. I trust they too will
recognize the beauty of our shared artistic journey.”
Again,
satire site but the fact that they took the trouble to do think up a
write up goes to the fact that she's on other minds as well. Away from
satire, Will Howard (FAR OUT) shared his thoughts on one of his favorite Joanna Newsom songs back in March:
If
I were to describe a song about an intergalactic time war, one with
lyrics like: “Where in the hell are the rest of your fellow 101
Lightborne Elite? Stormed in the New Highland Light Infantry”, what
genre would you think it was? You’d almost certainly visualise an epic
power metal banger stuffed with solos, sky-scraping vocals and riffs for
the day. Well, you’d at least be right about the sky-scraping vocals
part. This is no Bruce Dickinson, though. Instead, the unmistakable
soprano of Joanna Newsom leads this gentle, plaintive chamber-folk
number.
Sure, it’s out of the leftfield, but
that’s the definition of Newsom’s career. This is a woman who became one
of the leading lights of 21st-century folk music by playing the harp
and singing like an adorable cartoon frog, and those are arguably the
least esoteric parts of her music career. Not for nothing does her debut
album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, contain lyrics such as, “Catenaries and
dirigibles/ Brace and buoy the living room/ A loom of metal,
warp-woof-wimble/ And a thimblesworth of milky moon”.
Yet,
making a song like the ‘Waltz of the 101st Lightborne’ is out there,
even for her. Especially when, despite the song featuring on a concept
album, the rest of the album has nothing to do with the story of a
time-bending colonial war folding in on itself. The album, as Newsome
explained to Uncut, was inspired by how her (at the time) recent
marriage had invited death into her life: “Because there is someone you
can’t bear to lose. When it registers as true, it’s like a little shade
of grief comes in when love is its most real version. Then it contains
death inside of it, and then that death contains love inside of it.”
Infusing
an epic like ‘…101st’ into a single song is a bold move, but so is
undertaking world tours with a harp, and this unique singer-songwriter
does both with ease. The song itself is less about any particular battle
contested by the titular squadron because Newsom casts herself as one
of their sweethearts in the ballad, waiting for her beloved to return.
However, the war has become something cosmic, and her love will not
return, not due to death, but a fate much worse.
This
war never can end: “When I woke, he was gone and the war had begun / In
eternal return and repeat… Make it stop, my love / We were wrong to try
/ Never saw what we could unravel in travelling light / Nor how the
trip debrides Like a stack of slides / All we saw was that time is
taller than space is wide.” These concepts are headier and more involved
than most sci-fi novels, but Newsom thankfully elaborates on this in a
conversation with The Fader.
I'm
looking at a list of upcoming releases and The Lemonheads are coming
back? That could be an interesting album. At the start of the month,
The Doobie Brothers released a new album. I did not know that. Or that
Cynthia Erivo has an album that just came out (I have to listen to that
and will make a point to do so). Barbra Streisand's THE SECRET OF
LIFE: PARTNERS VOLUME 2 comes out Friday. It's a duets album and it is
her 37th studio album. I write stuff like that and then I get an e-mail
asking what a studio album is.
A
studio album means the artist goes into the studio and records an
album. A greatest hits or compilation is when a label releases an album
by an artist that collects recordings from various albums or periods. A
live album is, of course, a recording of a live performance.
Sometimes, a live album may feature various concerts, sometimes it may
all be from one concert. EP and LP. An LP is a long playing album.
They play -- if vinyl -- at 33 and 1/3 on the turntable. And EP is
about half the tracks of an LP. EPs that we buy in this country tend to
be from England. England's always loved the EP but it's never really
been big in the US. THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR was a Beatles EP in
England back in 1967. The UK version was six songs. Again, an EP. For
the US version, they made it an LP by grabbing five songs that were
released that year as singles but had not been on any Beatles album
yet. And these were monster singles like "All You Need Is Love" (number
1 in the US), "Strawberry Fields Forever" (number 8 in the US), "Hello,
Goodbye" (number 1 in the US), "Penny Lane" (number one in the US), and
"Baby, You're A Rich Man" (number 34 in the US).
I
was asked about the Beatles in an e-mail in regards to Marvin Gaye. I
have no idea why the chart for ROLLING STONE wanted to treat Marvin's
WHAT'S GOING ON? so tenderly. It's a filler album. It's an album,
also, that he (like Elvis before him) takes songwriting credit that he
didn't earn. If it had been Stevie Wonder (especially TALKING BOOK or
SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE) topping their album list of all time, no
problem. But Marvin was a nasty man who beat up women to try to get
over the fact that he was attracted to men. From time to time, he made a
good single, but he was not an album artist. He lacked the chops.
Stevie Wonder was an album artist, Joni Mitchell was one, The
Temptations, Aretha Franklin, etc. I don't think the Carpenters were
that important either. Some people were mere wallpaper. Some people
wrote and performed songs that spoke to you and changed your life.
The
Beatles are the all time greats. In terms of albums but in terms of
everything. They were, at the start, The Jackson Five, One Direction,
etc. They were bubble gum. And look at how they grew. They wrote some
of the most important songs of their era -- "Yesterday," "Let It Be,"
"Strawberry Fields Forever," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,"
"Revolution," "All You Need Is Love," "Nowhere Man," "Paperback Writer" .
. .
The
only group that came close to the Beatles when it came to hit singles
was Diana Ross & the Supremes. They aren't given the credit they
deserve as album artists and that's due to MOTOWN. In the 80s CDs
became a new form and people cashed in on the craze -- labels did -- by
re-releasing product. Product is all it was to MOTOWN. They should be
ashamed of themselves (Berry Gordy was already gone) for the half-assed
crap they put out. It wasn't mastered properly and it sounds like s**t.
That's the Supremes, that's everyone. And it sadly continued for
years.
Diana
Ross got FOREVER DIANA: MUSICAL MOMENTS in 1993. Few women had gotten
boxed sets. Groups and male artists had gotten tons. Diana finally
gets one and it is crap because it sounds like crap. Even the RCA songs
-- 8 songs included on disc three -- sounded like crap and I'd love to
know how that happened since all of her RCA -- studio albums and the two
compilations RCA released -- sounded crisp and lovely. They took no
care at all with the release. But the Beatles and Diana Ross & the
Supremes ruled 60s airwaves -- in the US and the UK. And if you wanted
to make the case that the Supremes made real albums, I'd be right there
with you.
In fact, here's my list of the ten best Diana Ross & the Supremes studio albums.
10) MORE HITS BY THE SUPREMES
9) I HEAR A SYMPHONY
8) DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES SING & PERFORM FUNNY GIRL
7) LET THE SUNSHINE IN
6) THE SUPREMES SING ROGERS & HART
5) CREAM OF THE CROP
4) WE REMEMBER SAM COOKE
3) THE SUPREMES SING HOLLAND - DOZIER- HOLLAND
2) THE SUPREMES A' GO-GO
1) REFLECTIONS
Please
note, those are the ten best in my opinion. They are not the only great
albums. I think the three albums that Diana Ross and the Supremes did
with The Temptations are outstanding. I would have loved to have put
THE SUPREMES SING COUNTRY, WESTERN and POP. The Supremes were so great
that their tribute albums were something to hear -- they also did A BIT
OF LIVERPOOL which had five songs by the Beatles on it. In 1965, they
also did a first rate Christmas album (MERRY CHRISTMAS)
And they did three great live albums which I'd ran this way:
3) THE SUPREMES AT THE COPA
2) LIVE AT LONDON'S TALK OF THE TOWN (check out "Reflections" and "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone"
3) FAREWELL
FAREWELL
is a recording of their January 14, 1970 concert in Las Vegas -- the
final Supremes concert with Diana Ross until the RETURN TO LOVE tour in
2000.
Monday, June 23, 2025. Chump bombs Iran, the disgusting Bill Maher
attacks Whoopi Goldberg (for being correct) and tries to start an
intimidation campaign against her (note the silence on the left to his
actions), Chump continues his war on immigrants, and much more.
Over
the weekend, Donald Chump unilaterally carried out an act of war
without the Constitutionally mandated Congressional authorization. He
also did not seek UN approval. He lied to the American people on Friday
saying he was going to take two weeks to consider options but then he
ordered US B-2 bomber planes to drop twelve 30,000 pound bunker buster
bombs on Iran.
Trump has referred to this as very successful and — if I’m understanding
his statement — essentially done. I don’t think that’s how it works. My
understanding is that there’s real uncertainty about how many strikes
it would take to destroy especially the Fordow facility, which is buried
deep in a mountainside. So I think we should be skeptical about how we
know how successful this was. You need after action reports to have any
sense of what actually happened. The geography here, the composition of
the mountainside, how it interacts with these particular munitions.
These are incredibly complicated and make outcomes uncertain. (I’m going
from memory since we’re reacting to breaking news. So keep that in
mind.) The U.S. has conducted extensive testing on these “bunker buster”
bombs. And there has been extensive planning going back a number of
years on how this attack specifically would be carried out. The Pentagon
produces and maintains war plans on almost everything. But this
specifically has been planned out in great detail and over many years.
Has Fordow been destroyed as Trump seems to be saying? I very much
doubt the military planners would be stating that so confidently at this
point.
Let me add a political judgment where, unlike with munitions, I feel
like I have understanding of the situation. Trump’s statement on Truth
Social was very much: “We did it. It worked. It’s done.” I think Trump
felt like he’d gotten himself far out on a limb with his threats and was
now in a position where if he didn’t act he’d again be mocked as
someone who always caves in response to fear or pressure — TACO, as
they’re now saying. So he was stuck there and it was weighing on him.
Now he feels like he’s addressed it. He acted. He doesn’t chicken out.
Whether the facilities were actually destroyed or how much they were
damaged is less of a priority. But I suspect he at least feels like he
got himself out of the box he’d gotten himself into. I think that’s
what’s driving a lot of this.
Let’s state the obvious that the U.S. has committed a major act of war
against another country without any specific immediate or even medium
term threat. This is not a token bombing of the kind the U.S. has done
more than a few times in the post-Cold War era to make a point.
Amen.
Glenneth Greenwald, in his plaid skirt and with his crystal meth, was
hoping to spend a weekend groveling before some Black man he'd paid to
humiliate him (again) but fun and games came to an end with the bombing
of Iran.
If you missed it, liars and racists -- not
one or the other, they were both -- like Glenneth and Matt Taibbi and
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and so many more whored for Chumpaloompa because
he was, they insisted, anti-war. They trashed and smeared and lied
about Kamala Harris.
Why?
Because she's a Black woman.
You
saw it with the offensive Bill Maher on Friday. I don't watch his
trash show, to be cler. Ava and I have repeatedly said for 20 years now
that HBO needs to offer more than Bill. We don't like racists. But we
didn't call for him to be removed from the air. We called for HBO to
offer more voices.
Friday, Bill Maher revealed the thing that frightens him the most in the world: A Black woman who's not afraid to speak.
ABC, he is insisting, needs to address Whoopi and THE VIEW.
Before
we get into why, let's stop there a moment. The left rushed to defend
Bill when he called the terrorists who struck on 9/11 heroes. It got
him in huge trouble with the network ABC. Now, after playing the victim
for over two decades, he wants to do the same to Whoopi?
Of
course he does because he's not left, he's libertarian. And everything
in this section should be seen as being written by Ava and myself
because it had been our plan to address Bill and the nonsense of
We-need-a-man that leads the left and the 'left' like THE NATION to rush
to get behind a Bill Maher or a Howard Stern. Leads THE NATION to toss
this trash on their cover nd whitewash these men to insist that they're
left and they're new voices. The 'need' for a left Joe Rogan stories
of late? The only thing new about them is that it's Joe's name this go
round.
There is no excuse for Bill Maher's attack on Whoopi.
None.
Wednesday
on THE VIEW, in a discussion about Iran, Whoopi disagreed with some of
the points that Alyssa Farah Griffin made regarding Iran.
She
didn't dispute that they were factual. She noted that all countries
have their human rights issue and stated "Let's not do that, because if
we start with that, we have been known in this country to tie gay folks
to the car. Listen, I'm sorry, they used to just keep hanging Black
people."
This led to the Friday attack on Whoopi from Bill Maher and US House Rep Wesley Hunt.
Hunt
wanted the world to know that's never happened to him! "As I said, I'm a
direct descendant of a slave, my great-great-grandfather, who was born
on Rosedown Plantation."
When did Whoopi bring you into her comments, fat ass?
Oh, that's right, Uncle Tom, she didn't bring you into them. You were born in 1981.
What did she say? "Listen, I'm sorry, they used to just keep hanging Black people."
She's talking about lynching. And she's historically correct. Prissy Bill Maher and fat ass Uncle Tom wanted to attack Whoopi.
And it's not for what she said -- that's what so shameful.
They want to attack Whoopi so that they can set the parameters for any conversation regarding the attack on Iran.
The
presidential press secretary, Ari Fleischer, condemned Bill Maher’s
irreverent comic response to 9/11 by reminding "all Americans that they
need to watch what they say, watch what they do." Fear itself -- the
fear that "paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance," as
FDR had it -- was already being wielded as a weapon against Americans
by their own government.
He is trying to do to
Whoopi what was done to him. And when it was done to him, people showed
up to defend him -- especially those of us on the left.
And now he's trying to do to Whoopi what was done to him.
As
we saw with the attacks on Kamala from Socialists in the fall of 2024,
it's something about a Black woman that leads certain people to think
they can attack her in any way that they want. They can dismiss her and
attack her.
And we're seeing that again as Bill Maher attacks Whoopi.
Whoopi's single sentence that has them so upset is
"Listen, I'm sorry, they used to just keep hanging Black people,”
She is correct. There is nothing controversial about her remarks.
But Bill is trying to make it controversial to shut her up.
That
happened Wednesday. We learned about it on Friday and were going to
try to roll that together into a piece on liars like Tucker Carlson and
Glenneth but we covered documentaries instead ("Media: Truth Molested Versus Truth Told")
because we're not hypocrites. (We're calling out someone we know and
like for what she did which was racist. We didn't want to write it, but
we did.)
Bill Maher is insisting that he will decide what
comments are and are not appropriate (Bill is a longtime apologist for
the Israeli government) and we're not supposed to notice that or
question it.
It's really past time for the left to stop
supporting the non-leftist Bill Maher. And it's really past time for
garbage outlets like THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, COMMON DREAMS and so
many more who refused to defend Kamala Harris from racist attacks to go
on looking the other way for racist Bill Maher.
Shame on anyone who doesn't push back against efforts by Maher and others to define who can speak and what can be said.
Despite initially stating that the U.S. attack on Iran was limited to
disabling Iran's nuclear production sites, and that the U.S. did not
seek a wider war, Donald Trump suggested he might pursue regime change
in Iran in a post on Truth Social Sunday.
"It’s not politically
correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,'" Trump wrote, "but if the
current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t
there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!"
After attacking both political parties on the campaign trail for
getting the U.S. bogged down in forever wars, Trump appears to be
steering the U.S. into yet another protracted conflict in the middle
east with no end in sight.
Even suggesting the mission could
elevate to regime change could be disastrous. The Iranian government is
not going to negotiate on nuclear proliferation or peace with Israel if
they believe the end game is an all out U.S. invasion to topple them.
Regime change was the mission in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
launched at the beginning of the century that lasted 14 years and 20
years respectively. Toppling a regime is only the beginning of a long
fight if there is no plan in place for what happens when the regime is
gone. Ultimately the power vacuum allows bad actors to step up and
further destabilizes the region.
Trump's inability to refrain
from regurgitating his inner thoughts in Truth Social posts continues to
propel the world towards a massive conflict, and puts the lives of U.S.
troops in danger.
The weekend should have been a
weekend of joy and celebration that Mahmoud Khalil was finally released
from the 'detention' center he'd spent months in and was finally able to
see, for the first time, his newborn child. CK Smith (SALON) reports:
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian-born Columbia University graduate
and activist, walked free Friday after a federal judge ordered his
release from immigration detention.
Khalil was held for 104 days in a Louisiana facility under a
rarely used section of immigration law, after participating in a
pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia. Though he faced no criminal
charges, his detention drew widespread criticism from civil liberties
groups who said the government was targeting political speech.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, presiding in New Jersey,
ruled that the government presented no evidence Khalil posed a flight
risk or public threat. He also issued an injunction to block Khalil’s
deportation while his constitutional challenge proceeds.
Mahmoud
is still under attack from the Chump administration but this release
should have resulted in applause and reflection. But when a madman is
in charge of the country, we all deal with the effects of his rage and
drunken behavior.
Convicted
Felon Donald Chump is destroying the country on a daily basis and his
attack on immigrants -- and those mistaken for immigrants is harming the
country. It's harming morale, it's harming the economy. Casey Stegall (KDFW) reports:
State Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says stepped-up immigration enforcement is taking a toll on the industry.
As the effects are being felt not just here in Texas, but beyond, federal immigration officials say they’re just doing their jobs.
ICE Effects on Agriculture Industry
Local perspective:
Just 40 miles or so south of Dallas sits Lee Calvert’s 2,000-acre Ellis County family farm.
Calvert
knows he’s lucky, not having to rely on farmhands to check the chores
off, because those who do say absenteeism among hired migrant help has
disrupted their entire operations.
Big picture view:
Recent
video posted to immigration-rights groups’ social media channels shows
federal agents conducting raids on California farms.
Brandon Mejia usually spends his weekends conducting a symphony of
vendors serving pupusas, huaraches and an array of tacos at his two
weekly 909Tacolandia pop-up events.
Half food festival, half swap meet, the events draw 100-plus vendors a
week in Pomona and San Bernardino. They offer a way to “legalize”
street food — vendors get a reliable location, cities collect taxes and
enforce health codes — while patrons enjoy delicacies from all over
Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Spanglish music
plays, people dance and kids flock to facepainting and pony rides.
But in the past week, that’s all come to a screeching halt. As the
Trump administration ramps up immigration raids in California, some
restaurants, worried about their workers or finding that customers are
staying home more, are closing temporarily. Many street vendors are
going into hiding, and some food festivals and farmers markets have been
canceled.
The
whole country's suffering due to Chump's inhumanity but border states
are especially suffering. And lies are needed to continue Chump's
inhumanity. That's what's behind preventing members of Congress and
other officials from carrying out their legal duties to visit and, yes,
inspect detention facilities holding immigrants. They don't want the
the truth to get out. Because the truth is not just unpretty, it's also
illegal. Valerie Gonzalez (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reports:
Adults fighting kids for clean water, despondent toddlers, and a
child with swollen feet denied a medical exam: These first-hand accounts
from immigrant families at detention centers included in a motion filed
by advocates Friday night are offering a glimpse of conditions at Texas
facilities.
Families shared their testimonies with immigrant
advocates filing a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from
terminating the Flores settlement agreement, a 1990s-era policy that
requires immigrant children detained in federal custody be held in safe
and sanitary conditions.
The agreement could challenge President
Trump’s family detention provisions in his massive tax and spending
bill, which also seeks to make the detention time indefinite and comes
as the administration ramps up arrests of immigrants nationwide.
“At a time when Congress is considering funding the indefinite detention
of children and families, defending the Flores Settlement is more
urgent than ever,” Mishan Wroe, a senior immigration attorney at the
National Center for Youth Law, said in a statement Friday.
Friday night, hundreds took to the streets of downtown
Albuquerque to protest federal immigration enforcement in the country.
Most of downtown was shut down for the evening, with protesters calling
for an end to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in America.
The sound of strumming guitars and chants for change filled the air as
downtown Albuquerque was packed with protesters expressing their anger
toward the federal government. One speaker emphasized, “It’s important
to have the community together at a time like this when our neighbors
and our families are in stress and are scared of even going out in
public because ICE is not only detaining criminals but legal citizens.”
Julie Watson, Jake Offenhartz and Claire Rush (AP) note, "More Americans are witnessing people being hauled off as they shop,
exercise at the gym, dine out and otherwise go about their daily lives
as President Donald Trump's administration aggressively works to increase immigration arrests.
As the raids touch the lives of people who aren’t immigrants
themselves, many Americans who rarely, if ever, participated in civil
disobedience are rushing out to record the actions on their phones and
launch impromptu protests." Trevor Hughes (USA TODAY) adds, "Immigrant-rights advocates have reported harsher
enforcement in rural farming communities and big cities alike, and note
that federal statistics show more than 40% of ICE detainees have no criminal record. Trump and administration officials say they are targeting violent criminals and gang members, though Americans are also seeing vineyard workers, car-wash attendants and building contractors snatched up, in many cases by masked men and women refusing to identify themselves, ratcheting up tensions."
That morning, he arrived at the store to pick up a delivery order
when armed agents suddenly surrounded the parking lot. Realizing what
was happening, he picked up his cellphone and began recording the
activity.
“At the end of the parking lot, they started gathering around a van
with a gentleman inside, probably in his 50s or 60s,” Garcia told KTLA’s
Mary Beth McDade.
In the video, agents are heard telling the man to step out of his
truck before they used a baton to smash the driver’s side window.
“They broke his window and that’s when all the bystanders who were
recording said, ‘You have no right to be doing that!’” Garcia said.
Garcia and several others walked over to the man being detained and
began informing him of his rights. Video showed one federal agent
growing agitated and stepping forward as yelling could be heard from
bystanders.
“That’s when he lunged at me,” Garcia said. “I’m still recording, so
he pushes me and puts both hands on me and I push his hand off and he
didn’t like that.”
The young man who was wrestled to the ground, Adrian Andrew Martinez, is a U.S. citizen, according to his family.
A
video of the incident shows Martinez, in a blue Walmart vest, appearing
to talk to the Customs and Border Patrol agents before one of them
pushed him back. In the middle of the exchange, the man who was
recording, Oscar Preciado, had his phone knocked out of his hand.
After
picking it up to start recording again, Preciado captured the federal
agents wrestling Martinez to the ground. Preciado said the agents tried
to grab him, too.
"He grabbed me by the neck and put the other
hand behind my leg," Preciado said. "Luckily, I was able to get him off
of me and kept recording ... I told him I'm recording this and that's
when he smacked my hand to get my phone out of my hand."
It's
bad enough that ICE roughed the kid up and kidnapped him, they also
lied about him because all ICE has to offer now is lies. They lied
about it. As did others in law enforcement. Rachel Uranga and Brittny Mejia (LOS ANGELES TIMES) note,
"L.A.'s top's prosecutor, Bill Essayli, posted on X that Martinez 'was
arrested for an allegation of punching a border patrol agent in the face
after he attempted to impede their immigration enforcement
operation'." But that's not what happened.
FOX 11 obtained security camera footage from the store, which showed the entire confrontation.
In
the video, Martinez can be seen pulling up to the agents' truck with
his car. He gets out and moves a janitor's cart. One agent then throws
the cart to the ground, before shoving Martinez twice, knocking him to
the ground. Martinez gets up, and is shoved to the ground by a second
agent. He gets up again and continues arguing, and then agents take him
down.
"To say that he is the aggressor is absolutely untrue," said defense attorney Dmitry Gorin after watching the security footage.
He
did nothing wrong. He was physically attacked and he was kidnapped --
ICE agents are out of control. They need to be brought to heel.
Friday, 20-year-odl Adrian Martinez was finally released. Lily Dallow (KTLA5) quotes Adrian's attorneys stating, "We're very grateful our client will be released today. Adrian did nothing wrong, and was
standing up for an elderly janitorial worker when he was violently
assaulted and abducted by masked federal agents."
And now you
grasp why they attacked Oscar Preciado -- because he was recording the
truth. Can't have witnesses to this illegal abuse, to this criminal
action.
I don't know how to break this to ICE agents
but there is no buy-back for your soul. Once you sell it, that's it.
You are going down a path that leads to drug addiction and suicide.
There is no pride to be found at the end of the road you are own. For
your own health, you need to quit working for ICE.
It has become the new calling card of the Trump
administration’s immigration crackdown: Federal officers, often masked
and not wearing uniforms or displaying badges, arresting people outside
courtroom hearings, during traffic stops and in workplace sweeps.
“I never saw anyone wearing a mask,” John Sandweg, an acting
director of Immigration Customs and Enforcement under President Barack
Obama and a former acting general counsel of the Department of Homeland
Security, said of the dozens of ride-alongs he attended during his
tenure.
[. . .]
“The way that they’re carrying on without any visible identification –
even that they’re law enforcement, much less what agency they’re with –
it really is pretty unprecedented to see at this scale, and I think it’s
very dangerous,” said Scott Shuchart, a senior ICE official during the
Biden administration.
Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores released a statement Saturday,
condemning what he called “masked abductions” amid immigration raids
across Los Angeles County, and directing police to intervene in unlawful
or unauthorized operations.
“These are not lawful arrests. These are abductions,” said Mayor
Flores. “For more than a week, we have witnessed families being torn
apart, children left without parents, and residents vanishing without
explanation. Men dressed in tactical gear, operating unmarked vehicles
without displaying credentials or agency affiliation, have infiltrated
our neighborhoods in direct violation of our community’s values, civil
rights, and the basic principles of due process.”
