Current Events
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Elon Musk‘s X is now firmly the main meeting space for all things MAGA, offering a safe haven for the hateful and belligerent who fell in line with the movement. However, “First Buddy” Elon Musk and his DOGE Bro Vivek Ramaswamy are catching MAGA wrath on Musk’s social media platform.
To illustrate what is happening with the proposed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) coalition of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, we look into their recent activity on X as the impetus of the critique both are receiving. On Christmas Day (Dec. 25), Musk posted a missive on X shooting down the idea that more American engineers should be hired over foreign workers, sparking a testy debate.
“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low. Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win,” Musk wrote.
An X user fired back with, “There are over 330 million people in America. Surely, there must be enough among them to build your ultimate team? Why would you deny real Americans that opportunity by bringing foreigners here?” to which Musk fired back and doubled down with, “Your understanding of the situation is upside-down and backwards. OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”
The H-1B visa, which allows foreign nationals to work for American companies in special capacities, has been criticized by President-elect Donald Trump in the past and he has shown his preference in hiring American workers first.
Ramaswamy added fuel to the proverbial fire by siding with Musk, who is an immigrant, and pushing the concept of hiring outside of the United States to bring a standard of excellence to the nation. It was a lengthy post from Ramaswamy and we’ll share a portion below.
From Vivek Ramaswamy’s X account:
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:
Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.
A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.
The posts from Musk and Ramaswamy have created quite a firestorm of comments from the likes of Laura Loomer and other conservative figures who believe that the pair are getting this wrong. You can read one of Loomer’s X replies to Musk here.
On X, observers are taking note of the MAGA infighting and potential for implosion within the incoming Trump administration and he hasn’t even been sworn in yet. We’ve got reactions below.
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Jamie Foxx is not taking his safety lightly. Sources say he is looking to press charges against the Jackass staffer who allegedly threw a glass at him.
TMZ is exclusively reporting that the multi-hyphenate is making sure that the individual who apparently tossed glassware at him at a Los Angeles hotspot will not get away scot-free. The celebrity news website says a source close to Jamie Foxx has confirmed the actor is indeed working with the local police on the matter. While LAPD have to formally name the suspects TMZ reports that the man they want to question is Jasper Dolphin.
The man born Davon Lamar Wilson is listed as a founding member of Rap collective Odd Future and is credited with working as a stuntman on the Jackass series. Earlier this month Jamie Foxx was celebrating his birthday with friends and family at Mr. Chow’s. Upstairs though the staff of Jackass were hosting their yearly holiday party. Apparently one of the jokesters flashed a penis shaped light at his table prompting the “Blame It” singer to go upstairs to confront the crew. It seems things got tense between the two parties after words were exchanged resulting in someone apparently throwing a cocktail glass at Jamie.
Jamie Foxx nor Jasper Dolphin has yet to formally comment on the matter.
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Source: US Customs & Border Protection / US Customs & Border Protection
It looks like the block might be dry somewhere for some time—as $1.1 million worth of cocaine was found near the U.S.-Canadian border just a few days ago.
USA Today is reporting that United States border patrol agents in the Blaine Sector in Lynden, Washington, stumbled upon two black backpacks that contained enough cocaine to turn the average man into an overnight millionaire last week. Finding the backpacks in a wooded area near the border, agents were surprised to find that they contained 30 bricks of a “white powdery substance” that ultimately tested positive for nose candy. Both backpacks were carrying 78 pounds of perico in them. How big were those backpacks?
USA Today reports:
“Thanks to the vigilance of Blaine Sector Border Patrol agents these dangerous narcotics were prevented from reaching our communities,” Chief Patrol Agent Rosario “Pete” Vasquez said in the news release. “Our agents work tirelessly day in and day out to protect this nation, and this seizure highlights that crucial commitment.”
The drugs were given to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Cocaine is a schedule II drug, or chemicals that are highly likely to be abused, “potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence,” the DEA said on its website.
“These drugs are also considered dangerous,” the DEA said.
The drugs might be dangerous, but we’re sure so are the people who were expecting to make money off them, too. Why anyone would ditch such a large amount of the drug is anyone’s guess, but y’all know someone’s going to pay for this massive L. And it probably won’t be pretty. Just sayin’.
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President Joe Biden is on his way out of the White House, but before leaving office, the 46th president is keeping things in line with his administration’s moratorium on the federal death penalty by commuting the sentences of most inmates on federal death row. And because those death row inmates are disproportionately Black (38%) and Latino (15%), many view the move as a good look towards racial justice in a legal system where racial justice is scarce.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1871284742231822546
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement announcing that he would commute sentences for 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row, according to thegrio. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.”
Biden, who vowed to abolish the death penalty during his 2020 presidential campaign, did not extend this slew of commutations to the violent white supremacists and terrorists who are currently on death row. Those excluded inmates include Dylan Roof, who was sentenced to death in 2017 after he massacred nine congregants at a historic Black church in South Carolina.
From thegrio:
Only three death row inmates did not receive commutations from the president: Dylan Roof, who fatally shot nine Black Americans inside Mother Emanual AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013; and Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 Jewish Americans at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Yeah — no matter what side of the death penalty issue you stand on, we should all be able to agree that certain offenders simply are not worth fighting on behalf of.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Rev. Sharon Risher, the daughter of Ethel Lance and the cousin of Susie Jackson and Tywanza Sanders, all of whom were killed by Roof, disagreed that everyone isn’t worth saving and actually requested that Roof’s life be spared as well.
“I learned that my mother and my loved ones were gunned down by a white supremacist trying to start a race war. He is not an innocent man on death row, but he is a man. He has humanity, and I have been willing and worked hard to give forgiveness to [him],” Risher said. “I do not want him to die. To spend the rest of his life in prison? Yes. But not for him to die in the name of my family. We are urging you, President Biden. I hope you hear my words. I hope you get to hear the pain in my voice.”
Many people would say it’s fortunate Biden decided not to give Roof his life back despite Risher’s request. Black America would have been outraged, and rightfully so.
Meanwhile, advocates for abolishing the death penalty are celebrating the decision as a win for civil rights, especially for Black prison inmates who statistically receive harsher punishments than their white counterparts who commit the same crimes.
“By commuting these sentences, President Biden has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness,” said Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged the president to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates. (thegrio noted that Donald Trump ordered the executions of 13 death row inmates during the final weeks of his first administration.)
Jamilla Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, said President Biden’s commutation strikes a “blow against racism and a system that has always targeted Black people.”
“This action, aligned with your more recent pardons, reaffirms our shared belief in the dignity and value of all human life and the possibility of redemption in everyone,” Hodge continued.
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Elon Musk has publicly backed a far-right political party in Germany on X, formerly Twitter, causing alarm to many observers.
Tesla founder Elon Musk is once again causing controversy as he publicly backed the Alternative für Deutschland of Alternative For Germany Party (AfD) in Germany online. The tech billionaire did so by quoting a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday (Dec. 19) by a right-wing German influencer, Naomi Seibt. The original post was a video criticizing the Christian Democrats party leader Frederich Merz and praising the libertarian Argentinian President Javier Millei. Seibt claimed that the German people should listen to Musk and Millei more than Merz, who saw its parliament dissolved earlier this month after a no-confidence vote. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote. He got an immediate response from AfD head Alice Wiedel, who wrote: “Yes! You are perfectly right @elonmusk!”
The AfD is a far-right populist party that has gained support within the past few years, despite being classified as a “suspected extremist party” by Germany’s judiciary. They were called out for a meeting with an admitted Austrian neo-Nazi and had one of its rising leaders fined heavily for using Nazi slogans during campaign stops in the country. Its platform is dedicated to the expulsion of immigrants from Germany and constantly spews anti-Islamic rhetoric. The party has seen heavy support in what once was East Germany, which has experienced prolonged economic struggles.
Musk was called out indirectly by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin at a press conference. “We have freedom of speech here. That also applies to multimillionaires. Freedom of speech also means that you’re able to say things that aren’t right and do not contain good political advice,” Scholz said. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was more pointed in his criticism in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Germany is set to hold elections Feb. 23, 2025. The AfD has nabbed the second position in election polls, but most of the nation’s parties have publicly vowed not to work in coalition with them. Musk’s post is another public foray into influencing another nation’s politics, after his exchanges with members of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party through X. It also comes as the U.S. is looking at a potential government shutdown after his demands of Republican politicians led to the failure of a revised bill in the House of Representatives.
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Shameik Moore got trolled across the social media-verse after Hailee Steinfeld and Buffalo Bills star quarterback Josh Allen got engaged over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. He can now add that engaged model/actress Laura Harrier called him out for some weird online behavior.
Laura Harrier, who just so happened to almost be the love interest of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming, had time for Shameik Moore, who is the voice of Miles Morales from the animated Spider-Verse films.
In a since-deleted video, Harrier, who admits she likes to keep things private, didn’t name Moore while addressing a post he shared, which featured an old video of the two of them together.
“Hey, so I never talk on this thing… I’m a really private person, so I don’t really like to talk about relationships publicly or anything really personal publicly, to be honest,” she began.
Harrier explained that she felt compelled to speak out about the post only because she kept getting tagged in it. This led many to speculate about a potential relationship between the two actors. The video in question features both Moore and Harrier posing for photos, which she explains was over a year ago.
“When he first posted that video, a friend sent it to me and was like, ‘Did you know he put this up?’ And I was like, no,” Harrier says in the video. “That was taken a year ago at a party when somebody asked us to take photos together. I guess somebody was filming it. Not sure why you would post that now.”
Harrier Says She Reached Out To Moore, Telling Him To Take The Post Down
She reveals that she reached out to Moore directly to tell him to take the video down. “I texted him… I said, ‘Hey, can you take this down? Not sure why you would post that. Also, I’m literally getting married, and I don’t like this insinuation that there’s something going on between us.”
Frustrated that her request for the video to be taken down was not being honored, she lashed out to Moore, “It’s still up, which is f***ing weird. You’re a f***ing weirdo. I’m sorry, you’re a f***ing weirdo, and I’m f***ing annoyed.”
Welp.
As expected, social media is once again trashing our friendly, and seemingly weird neighborhood Spider-Man.
Shameik Moore is soooo fucking weird for this. im so glad laura spoke up because what the fuck is this clout chasing loser thinking?? pic.twitter.com/wrOxOisIEk
— lany✮⁷ (@iluvvlany) December 21, 2024
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Let’s hope this is where it ends. We don’t need any drama to prevent the release of Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse’s release. The film has already had its wig pushed back numerous times already.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Lizzo is glad that she will not be bringing legal worries into the new year. She reveals she was totally blindsided by her former staff’s sexual harassment claims.
As spotted on Variety Magazine the singer received a favorable decision regarding a high profile lawsuit. Back in 2023 her ex stylist and dance troupe made some very damming allegations against her including sexual harassment, body shaming and fostering a toxic work environment. Earlier this month a California federal judge dismissed the case and ruled that her former dancers and stylist had no grounds to sue her (they are still pursuing damages from Lizzo’s touring company and payroll agency).
Naturally the “Truth Hurts” singer said very little about the lawsuit while the case was still open. Now that it is formally behind she is speaking up about the entire ordeal. She recently paid a visit to the This Is Keke Palmer podcast and she made it clearly she was just as surprised by the filing as everyone else was. “The hardest part about all this is that none of these things were true,” she explained. “I was completely surprised. I was very deeply hurt because these were three dancers; that I gave opportunities to. These were people that I liked and appreciated as dancers, respected them as dancers. So I was like, ‘What?!’ But then I heard all the other things, like sexual harassment, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what they’re trying to do,’ but these are the types of things that the media can turn into something that it’s not.”
In the lawsuit the troupe detailed an evening out in Amsterdam’s Red Light District where they claim Lizzo pressured them to interact with nude performers. While Lizzo denied that their account of the evening was factual, Keke responded objectively asking “Do you feel looking back on the situation that maybe your casual personality could have been misconstrued as ‘I got to do this, because this is my boss?’” Lizzo admitted that the experience has taught her how to move more tactfully when it comes to engaging with her staff. “I think that this experience taught me healthy boundaries, but to be real with you, it was such a fun night… I think there’s a time where there’s a difference between having boundaries and professional boundaries… It’s nuanced. It’s a new conversation in this industry.”
You can watch Lizzo discuss this and her upcoming new album below.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will appeal her disqualification from the election interference case against Donald Trump by the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Hours after the Georgia Court of Appeals announced that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from prosecuting the election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday (December 19), Willis’ office declared its intent “to petition the Supreme Court of Georgia” to appeal the decision in a motion filed with the court. There has been no further comment from Willis or her office.
Willis’ debarment from the highly intricate case came after the three-judge panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned the trial judge’s decision earlier in the day, by a vote of 2-1. Judge Scott McAfee had ruled in March that Wills could remain on the case despite revelations that she had been in a romantic relationship with the lawyer she brought on to handle the prosecution, Nathan Wade. The defense attorneys in the case seized upon that information, forcing Willis to testify about the relationship in January of this year.
The three judges on the Court of Appeals panel are all Republicans. The Georgia Supreme Court is also predominately composed of Republican judges. Appealing the decision comes with a high risk – if the Georgia Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s decision, it would effectively scuttle the case which is the last standing prosecution against Trump. Sentencing in his “hush money” case in New York City has been delayed, and the Department of Justice opted to drop its cases against the president-elect citing the precedent of not prosecuting a sitting president.
Former Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons said that “it’s a tough call to say whether the Court of Appeals got it right,” in an interview with the New York Times adding that “their reasoning was that the people lost confidence in the case.” But he also noted that Judge McAfee, who is a conservative, saw enough merit in Willis to continue on the case and cited Willis having “won re-election in a landslide, suggesting that Fulton County at least has confidence in her.”
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk is being hammered for using his influence and X, formerly Twitter, to force a government shutdown to aid Donald Trump.
Tech billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk is exerting outsized influence over President-elect Donald Trump, with some seeing him aiming to force a shutdown of the federal government. Democratic lawmakers and observers are pointing to how Musk has been using the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to amplify calls to do so as House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to get the stop-gap bill passed with two days to go. In a post on X, Musk wrote: “Shutting down” the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869476312278286359
He would also post that any member of the House of Representatives who voted for it “deserves to be out in 2 years.” Musk was joined by former Republican presidential candidate and co-chair of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Vivek Ramaswamy, who also blasted Johnson and the bill. The call to “kill the bill” was amplified by MAGA supporters, and Trump himself said he was against the bill to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday (Dec. 18). When asked if those actions weighed on the GOP members, Arizona Representative Andy Biggs replied, “I think it’s having an effect on some people. I think it probably is.”
The moves by Musk have earned him scorn from Democrats. “If this is the type of power he has, then he is going to be the unelected co-president of this country and we’ve got to be super blunt about it,” said Florida Representative Maxwell Frost, who had a back-and-forth with Musk on X afterward. Vermont Representative Becca Balint echoed his statements. “I’m going to be talking to my folks back home in Vermont who voted for Trump: You thought you voted for Trump, but in fact, Trump just caved to Musk,” she said to Axios.
The pressure is now on Johnson to come up with a plan to satisfy conservatives – one proposal reportedly would include a “clean CR” and dropping $100 million in disaster aid and $30 billion for farmers. Both moves would greatly affect Trump’s base. Johnson’s position is also shaky with a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives, as his vote to remain Speaker takes place Jan. 3.
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The former chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and her son officially turned themselves in to face bribery charges.
On Thursday morning (December 19), Ingrid Lewis-Martin turned herself in to face corruption and bribery charges. She and her son, Glenn Martin II, were seen heading into the lower Manhattan offices of District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Lewis-Martin was the chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but she resigned abruptly on Sunday, citing a wish to spend more time with her family.
The charges of bribery facing Lewis-Martin include her son being given a $100,000 loan to purchase a Porsche by two businessmen after she allegedly helped them resolve an issue they encountered with the city’s Department of Buildings while undergoing construction on a hotel property they owned. A lawyer for one of the businessmen, Mayank Dwivedi, said that his client had committed no wrongdoing. Martin, 38, is a professional DJ who has gained prominence working several events through the years thanks to his mother and Adams, including events at Brooklyn Borough Hall and at City Hall. Going by the name of “Suave Luciano”, he also performed as part of the city’s “Rise Up” concert series in 2022.
Lewis-Martin’s reporting to the district attorney’s office makes her the highest-ranking city official out of a dozen to date to face charges since Mayor Adams was himself indicted on federal corruption charges in September. “I’m being falsely accused of something,” she said in a press conference. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that I was told that it’s something that’s illegal, and I have never done anything illegal in my capacity in government.” The 63-year-old politician has been a staunch ally to Mayor Adams for decades, remarking that she is his “sister ordained by God.” A press conference by the D.A.’s office is set for Thursday afternoon.
The situation takes place during a week that has seen Mayor Adams undergo difficulties related to his case. On Monday (December 16), the city’s campaign finance board denied his re-election campaign $4.3 million in public funding. The following day, his request to move his April 2025 trial date up was denied by a federal judge.