Current Events
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Reverend Al Sharpton had some terse words for Democrats upset over President Joe Biden’s debate performance, telling them not to be hasty.
The debate performance of President Joe Biden Thursday (June 27), against Donald Trump has prompted a wave of concern among Democrats and the left, with some calling for Biden to drop out for another candidate in the November elections. Reverend Al Sharpton firmly disagreed with that position on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, saying that such talk helps Trump more than they realize. “He had a bad night, he had a terrible night, but do we not say, ‘Wait a minute, he helped to preserve and maintain affordable care, he fought for police reform giving the executive order on George Floyd, brought unemployment numbers down after a catastrophe that Donald Trump handed us,’” Sharpton said to the panel.
“Record low Black unemployment numbers,” he added. “Really all the things: infrastructure bill, inflation bill. We’re not going to give him the weekend to see if he can recover?” The civil rights activist then exclaimed, “I think that we cannot — we have to stop whining and start winning. The whiners and the winners are the ones that have to make a choice in this case.” Sharpton would conclude by presenting a scenario of what could happen at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago if Biden were to step down. “The other part, and I’ll finish, is that what happens if he steps out?” he asked. “We going to have a riotous convention? We going to have this crowd against this crowd against this crowd? All Donald Trump has to do is sit back, get a Big Mac, and watch the Democrats destroy themselves.”
Sharpton held fast to that sentiment as he sat down for an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace Friday (June 28). “What I say to all these people talking about a brokered convention or should he step out, I say one, that’s up to him. But second, who steps in that you can tell me can beat Donald Trump?” he said. “The only one I’ve known to ever beat him is Joe Biden.”
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Source: Kevin Winter / Getty / Megan Thee Stallion
This is Megan Thee Stallion’s summer; we’re just living in it. The Houston Hip-Hop star’s self-titled album MEGAN is here, and the Hotties are praising the project.
MEGAN is Megan Thee Stallion’s first project since she finally gained freedom from her former label, 1501 Certified Entertainment.
Listeners quickly noticed that Thee Stallion possibly had more smoke for Nicki Minaj. The album begins with Megan’s scathing diss record “HISS,” in which she takes shots at Minaj and Tory Lanez, his fans, her ex-boyfriend Pardison Fontaine, and Drake.
Megan Thee Stallion seemingly revives her feud with Minaj taking shots at her on the track “Rattle.”
“I wanted everybody right here with me/ But that was my fault, bein’ too friendly/ I was thinkin’ everything was all good/ But the whole time, you was my enemy,” the leader of the hot girl movement raps.
In another verse, Megan Thee Stallion mentions the Queens rapper’s husband and child, rapping: “Damn, bitch, it been four years/ Worry ’bout your man and your kid/ Your life must be borin’ as fuck if you still reminiscin’ ’bout shit that we did.”
Megan Thee Stallion could be referring to her collaboration with Nicki Minaj’s longtime rival Cardi B or possibly the Tory Lanez shooting. Minaj made light of the shooting in her attacks on the “Savage” crafter.
Minaj’s “allies” also caught a stray on the project, with Megan rapping, “And I ain’t worried ’bout the bitter-bitch link-up/Y’all hoes earned them seats in the fan club,” referring to BIA, JT formerly of The City Girls, and Akbar V whom Minaj brought out during stops on Pink Friday 2 Tour.
Megan Thee Stallion Opens Up About Her Bisexuality & Embraces Love For Anime On MEGAN
Thee Stallion also addresses her bisexuality on the album, rapping, “I like girls and I like niggas, both of ’em gettin’ ate, “while also letting her love for anime on the tracks “Otaku Hot Girl,” which will surely flourish at every BLERD convention across the country and become the next viral TikTok and IG Reels track.
If you asked the Hotties, Thee Stallion delivered them a project they have been waiting for.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. It’s okay, you can still get lit.
5. A win for BLERDS everywhere
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Vice President Kamala Harris defended President Joe Biden’s performance in the CNN-hosted debate, insisting he had a “strong finish”.
The first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump took place in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday night (June 27). Biden’s near-listless performance became a hot topic after it ended, and the main subject for Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper afterward which got contentious as he pressed her about Biden’s performance at the debate hosted by his network.
“Yes, it was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” Harris said, adding that “what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong.” As Cooper returned to query about Biden’s showing citing the concern from some Democrats and pundits, the vice president pushed back against it. “Listen, people can debate on style points,” Harris replied. “But ultimately, this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance, and the contrast is clear.”
Cooper noted Harris’ own debate performance against Biden in 2019, noting “he was a very different person on stage” before asking: “Can you say that you are not concerned at all having watched the president’s performance tonight?” Harris responded firmly: “It was a slow start. That’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point. I’m talking about the choice in November. I’m talking about one of the most important elections in our lifetime.” She stressed that point to Cooper, pivoting to talk about Biden’s “three and a half years of performance,” and pointing to what would be at stake in the November elections.
The vice president also defended Biden in another interview on MSNBC, acknowledging the slow start but insisting that his messaging was “clear” and hammering Trump on the litany of false claims he made – which were disproven in a fact-checking segment by CNN after the debate ended, which stated that Trump issued at least 30 false claims while on stage.
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Crazy news coming out of Central America as the former President of Honduras was just sentenced to four decades in prison for moving the kind of weight that would impress El Chapo.
According to the New York Times, Juan Orlando Hernández was just hit with a 45-year sentence in prison after he was found guilty of helping gangs move hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States during his eight-year stint as the president of the small Central American country. Even though he buddied up to the U.S. and presented himself as an anti-drug ally, Hernández was working in conjunction with traffickers to import cocaine into America and was eventually busted for his role in the operation in 2022 after leaving office in disgrace.
Having accumulated millions of dollars for his dirty work from Honduras, Mexico and other countries during his presidency, Hernández was singled out by lower level workers who his lawyers say were lying in an attempt to get lighter prison sentences.
The New York Times reports:
Prosecutors countered that Mr. Hernández’s arguments “reflect an alternate reality.” They wrote that he had protected “his drug trafficking co-conspirators from prosecution and extradition, giving safe harbor to violent, massive cocaine traffickers as they used Honduras as a springboard for pumping cocaine into the United States.”
The verdict in Mr. Hernández’s trial came after weeks of evidence that he had received millions of dollars from drug organizations in Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere. In addition to statements by former traffickers, that evidence included testimony from a Honduran investigator and notebooks with Mr. Hernández’s initials that prosecutors said detailed drug transactions.
By early 2022, when Mr. Hernández was detained in Honduras less than a month after leaving office, he had become deeply unpopular there. His successor as president, Xiomara Castro, accused him of turning the country into a “narco-dictatorship” and officials in the United States said that Mr. Hernández had used drug money during both of his presidential campaigns to bribe election officials and manipulate the vote.
Hernández was eventually convicted and sentenced Wednesday (June 26), in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Though some were upset that Hernández got such a stiff sentence, other’s rejoiced at the news as they blame him for the horrible state that Honduras finds itself in these days.
More from the Times:
Some in the overflow room jeered when Mr. Hernández, dressed in a dark suit, testified in his own defense. At one point he denied associations with drug traffickers even as prosecutors displayed a photograph of him posing at a World Cup soccer match in South Africa with a notorious narco kingpin.
After Mr. Hernández was convicted, crowds of Hondurans celebrated outside the courthouse, chanting in Spanish and displaying an orange prison jumpsuit with handcuffs connected by a long chain. One woman held up a sign reading, “No clemency for narcopolitics.”
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Source: NICHOLAS KAMM / Getty / Blacks For Trump
Two of Donald Trump’s few favorite Black people, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and his former HUD secretary, the sleepwalking brain surgeon Ben Carson, headlined a “Black Americans for Trump” event in Atlanta, and no surprise, it was full of white people.
Per Raw Story, via The New Republic’s Talia Janes reporting, the latest jig, aka a Blacks for Trump event, was a massive bust in getting Black people to attend.
The event went down at Rocky’s, a Black-owned barbershop in Atlanta, Georgia. Jane’s report mentions that Trump didn’t even bother to show up in all of his felonious glory, instead opting to call into the event, so that should tell you how unserious he is about reaching out to Black voters.
Trump got on the phone and boasted about tax cuts for businesses, something Black people and a majority of his white supporters wouldn’t even benefit from because they are not in the 1%.
The orange menace also bragged about his struggle mugshot during his phone call. But what took the cake was the fact there were not that many Black people in attendance, but a “sea of white people.”
Per Raw Story:
“The roundtable setup featured Representative (and Trump V.P. wannabe) Byron Donalds, former Trump Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and Representative Wesley Hunt in attendance,” she writes. “The seats were positioned in a semi-arc facing a gaggle of cameras and sea of white people, and everyone looks abundantly unenthused to be there.”
Jane goes on to explain how the Atlanta event was just one of a string of failed Black voter outreach efforts.
What was even more hilarious was writer/journalist Michael Harriot pointing out there is still a photo of former President Barack Obama hanging in the shop.
This event is just the latest lame attempt to pilfer the Black vote with lazy tactics. With the help of a Black conservative activist, Trump staged a stop at an Atlanta Chick-fil-A restaurant.
He also staged an appearance at a Harlem bodega where he was greeted by more whites than Blacks, gasp.
Of course, there were those trash Trump sneakers that he also claimed were his way of connecting with the Black community.
The man is never beating the racist allegations.
You can see more reactions to this latest mess in the gallery below.
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Source: Fulton County Jail / Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
Donald Trump’s decision to again tout his mugshot as a reason Black voters will pick him was met with laughter and scorn, especially on social media.Days before his first debate with President Joe Biden, former president and Republican Party nominee Donald Trump held court at a Black Americans For Trump panel discussion convened by Representative Byron Donalds of Florida at Rocky’s, a Black-owned barbershop in Atlanta, Georgia.
Trump, however, was not physically present for the discussion, opting instead to join by telephone. That poor decision was compounded by another as the convicted felon referenced his mugshot taken in Fulton County after being indicted for election interference related to the 2020 presidential race, which he lost. It began in an answer to a question from Marc KD Boyd of the Helping Empower Youth group referencing the infamous photo: “So my question is, what can you do about those Alvin Braggs on your side that have been doing such railroading from the time?”
“Since this has happened — the mugshot — the mugshot is the best ev- it just beat Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra by a lot by the way, beat ’em by a lot,” Trump touted over the phone as Donalds (who hopes to be Trump’s vice presidential pick) sat with Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas. “But that’s the number one mugshot of all time. It’s really an amazing thing. Since it happened, the support among the Black community and the Hispanic community has skyrocketed. It’s been amazing. Really it’s been amazing. It’s been actually very nice to see.” Trump and his campaign team have persisted with the belief that his mug shot has only increased his support among the Black and Latino community since it was taken, adding it to other attempts at outreach including the manufacturing and sale of $400 “Trump sneakers”.
The response to Trump’s words was swift and damning. Cedric Richmond, the former Congressman from Louisiana who’s a senior member of President Biden’s campaign team didn’t mince words during an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt. “I think it’s absolute foolishness!”, he said. “But it’s typical Donald Trump. African-American, especially African-American men, do not gravitate to you because you are a convicted felon.” Responses on X, formerly Twitter, were just as sharp. “I wonder how the Black and Hispanic community feels about his promise to give police officers immunity?,” wrote X user CeliaStar99.
Check out some of the reactions to Trump’s latest claims below.
1. BlackKnight10k
2. JustVent6
3. Ron Filipowski
4. Keith Murphy
5. Jim Gray
6. StrictlyChristo
7. TrueWordsRSpoken
8. William A Goldsborough
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Source: Kevin Winter / Getty /Megan Thee Stallion
Get those knees ready hotties; Megan Thee Stallion is kicking off “Culture’s Biggest Night,” the 2024 BET Awards.
Megan Thee Stallion has been tapped to set the tone for the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday, June 30, starting at 8 p.m. ET when she hits the stage to perform one of her hits, or possibly a new track off her new album, MEGAN.
Taraji P. Henson returns for a second year to host the popular awards show everyone looks forward to in the summer.
Usher will also finally get his BET Awards flowers when he is honored with the Lifetime Achievement BET Award.
Thee Stallion will not be the only one gracing the stage that night. Will Smith, who is currently enjoying a resurgence thanks to his latest summer blockbuster Bad Boys: Ride or Die, will perform a new song.
Other performers include Megan Thee Stallion’s tourmate GloRilla, Ice Spice, Latto, Ms. Lauryn Hill &YG Marley, Muni Long, Sexyy Red (lord help us), Shaboozey, Tyla, and Victoria Monét. Additionally, Tanner Adell will perform on the BET Amplified stage.
2024 BET Award Nominations
Regarding awards, Kendrick Lamar’s favorite target, Drake, leads all nominations with seven, including Album of The Year, Best Male R&B/Pop Artist, and Best Male Hip Hop Artist.
Drizzy also earned double nominations in the Video of The Year category for “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole and “Rich Baby Daddy” featuring Sexyy Red and SZA.
Nicki Minaj has the second-most nominations coming into the 2024 BET Awards weekend. She will be up against her Young Money brethren in the Album of the Year category for Pink Friday 2 and nominated in the BET Her category and Best Female Hip-Hop Artist.
Other nominees in the BET Awards’ second biggest category, Video of The Year, include Doja Cat (“Agora Hills”) and Lil Durk ft. J. Cole (“All My Life”), Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice (With Aqua) (“Barbie World”), Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion (“Bongos”), Usher, Summer Walker & 21 Savage (“Good Good”), Victoria Monét (“On My Mama).
Sounds like it will be a lit night. Do you think Drake will be there or nah?
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Source: AAron Ontiveroz / Getty
Donald Trump’s attempt to court black and brown voters by dropping limited edition gold sneakers might’ve failed miserably as mostly white MAGA cult members purchased the $400 bricks. It seems like one of his most loyal followers in Congress couldn’t get herself a pair and was relegated to copping a pair of bootlegs.
According to Raw Story, controversial congresswoman Lauren Boebert recently celebrated her surprise Republican primary win in Denver, Colorado by wearing a pair of the MAGA grails, but interestingly enough she admitted they weren’t an authentic pair. Apparently Donald Trump had no problem endorsing her for the 4th Congressional District in eastern Colorado, but stopped short of blessing her with an official pair of “Air Con’s.”
Still, her devotion to her orange overlord is so deep she felt the need to rock a pair by any means necessary on her “big” night and settled for a pair of fugazi “Insurrection 6’s.” Now as disturbing as that is, it pales in comparison to the fact that this transphobic/Beetlejuice “enthusiast” continues to convince swaths of people to keep her employed as a congresswoman of the United States of America. But that’s neither here nor there.
Raw Story reports:
“These are very China, but I’m okay with that,” Boebert said, laughing. “If I could’ve bought the OGs, I would have.”
The originals have already sold out, according to GetTrumpSneakers.com, and remain on pre-order status with an estimated shipping date of sometime next month.
Trump announced the launch of 1,000 custom limited edition “Never Surrender High Tops,” which are reflective gold and feature American flag uppers, with metallic stars on the back and a “T” embossed in the leather, at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia in February.
Not for nothing but we feel like fake Trump sneakers are actually more in-tune with who the man actually is. MAGA hats made in China and fake Trump sneakers should be the everyday attire of his hardcore cult followers. Just sayin.’
What do y’all think of Lauren Boebert’s admission to rocking fake Trump kicks? Did she play herself or was she right on brand? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
New evidence of how badly Donald Trump stored classified documents has spurred some on social media into outrage and renewed calls to prevent him from returning to the White House.On Monday evening(June 24), Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team submitted new evidence to the court showing just how haphazardly former President Donald Trump stored numerous boxes of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, with photographs showing boxes of documents without lids, stored upside down with their contents spilling out and even wedged in among Christmas ornaments. “Against this backdrop of the haphazard manner in which Trump chose to maintain his boxes, he now claims that the precise order of the items within the boxes when they left the White House was critical to his defense,” the filing read.
Other photos show mundane items such as golf shirts strewn among the documents in their boxes, as well as some amid cases of Diet Coke and presidential souvenirs. Attorneys from Smith’s team made the filing to counter a motion filed by Trump’s attorneys that claimed that the case of Trump willfully hiding classified government documents should be thrown out since the government failed to log the precise contents of the boxes. They also allege that FBI agents who arrived to retrieve the documents destroyed “exculpatory evidence” by not keeping them in order during the search. Trump faces 42 charges in the case which includes willful retention of national security information, corruptly concealing documents, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The case, however, has been slowed down so much by Judge Aileen Cannon to the point where legal experts have pointedly accused her of purposely delaying it to help Trump, who appointed her to her position. Judge Cannon postponed the trial indefinitely – it was supposed to begin on May 20. The new evidence however has stunned many online, who cite it as yet another reason that Donald Trump should not return to office in November – if re-elected, he would be in a position to pardon himself as these crimes are federal. The revelation spurred a new wave of outrage from those on social media users, particularly on X, formerly Twitter with some Trump supporters claiming the new photos were “staged”.
We’ve collected some of the more striking reactions to the new evidence below.
1. Dean Obeidallah
2. Ted Lieu
3. Adam Schiff
4. Sjacobs2020
5. Ms.Jamie
6. Jules Morgan
7. Patrick S. Tomlinson
8. Mueller She Wrote
9. Denise Wheeler