Brian Wilson Passed Away!

The legendary Brian Wilson has died. The founding member of The Beach Boys has passed away.

President Donald J. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will react to the passing of the founding member of the iconic pop band The Beach Boys.

Brian Wilson has passed away.

Wilson, the Beach Boys’ visionary and fragile leader whose genius for melody, arrangements and wide-eyed self-expression inspired “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and other summertime anthems and made him one of the world’s most influential recording artists, has died at 82.

Wilson’s family posted news of his death to his website and social media accounts Wednesday. Further details weren’t immediately available. Since May 2024, Wilson had been under a court conservatorship to oversee his personal and medical affairs, with Wilson’s longtime representatives, publicist Jean Sievers and manager LeeAnn Hard, in charge.

The eldest and last surviving of three musical brothers — Brian played bass, Carl lead guitar and Dennis drums — he and his fellow Beach Boys rose in the 1960s from local California band to national hitmakers to international ambassadors of surf and sun. Wilson himself was celebrated for his gifts and pitied for his demons. He was one of rock’s great Romantics, a tormented man who in his peak years embarked on an ever-steeper path to aural perfection, the one true sound.

The Beach Boys rank among the most popular groups of the rock era, with more than 30 singles in the Top 40 and worldwide sales of more than 100 million. The 1966 album “Pet Sounds” was voted No. 2 in a 2003 Rolling Stone list of the best 500 albums, losing out, as Wilson had done before, to the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The Beach Boys, who also featured Wilson cousin Mike Love and childhood friend Al Jardine, were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

One of the best boy bands of all time.

Wilson feuded with Love over songwriting credits, but peers otherwise adored him beyond envy, from Elton John and Bruce Springsteen to Katy Perry and Carole King. The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, fantasized about joining the Beach Boys. Paul McCartney cited “Pet Sounds” as a direct inspiration on the Beatles and the ballad “God Only Knows” as among his favorite songs, often bringing him to tears.

Wilson moved and fascinated fans and musicians long after he stopped having hits. In his later years, Wilson and a devoted entourage of younger musicians performed “Pet Sounds” and his restored opus, “Smile,” before worshipful crowds in concert halls. Meanwhile, The Go-Go’s, Lindsey Buckingham, Animal Collective and Janelle Monáe were among a wide range of artists who emulated him, whether as a master of crafting pop music or as a pioneer of pulling it apart.

An endless summer

The Beach Boys’ music was like an ongoing party, with Wilson as host and wallflower. He was a tall, shy man, partially deaf (allegedly because of beatings by his father, Murry Wilson), with a sweet, crooked grin, and he rarely touched a surfboard unless a photographer was around. But out of the lifestyle that he observed and such musical influences as Chuck Berry and the Four Freshmen, he conjured a golden soundscape — sweet melodies, shining harmonies, vignettes of beaches, cars and girls — that resonated across time and climates.

Decades after its first release, a Beach Boys song can still conjure instant summer — the wake-up guitar riff that opens “Surfin’ USA”; the melting vocals of “Don’t Worry Baby”; the chants of “fun, fun, fun” or “good, good, GOOD, good vibrations”; the behind-the-wheel chorus “’Round, ’round, get around, I get around.” Beach Boys songs have endured from turntables and transistor radios to boom boxes and iPhones, or any device that could lie on a beach towel or be placed upright in the sand.

The band’s innocent appeal survived the group’s increasingly troubled backstory, whether Brian’s many personal trials, the feuds and lawsuits among band members or the alcoholism of Dennis Wilson, who drowned in 1983. Brian Wilson’s ambition raised the Beach Boys beyond the pleasures of their early hits and into a world transcendent, eccentric and destructive. They seemed to live out every fantasy, and many nightmares, of the California myth they helped create.

From the suburbs to the national stage

Brian Wilson was born June 20, 1942, two days after McCartney. His musical gifts were soon obvious, and as a boy he was playing piano and teaching his brothers to sing harmony. The Beach Boys started as a neighborhood act, rehearsing in Brian’s bedroom and in the garage of their house in suburban Hawthorne, California. Surf music, mostly instrumental in its early years, was catching on locally: Dennis Wilson, the group’s only real surfer, suggested they cash in. Brian and Love hastily wrote up their first single, “Surfin,’” a minor hit released in 1961.

They wanted to call themselves the Pendletones, in honor of a popular flannel shirt they wore in early publicity photos. But when they first saw the pressings for “Surfin,’” they discovered the record label had tagged them “The Beach Boys.” Other decisions were handled by their father, a musician of some frustration who hired himself as manager and holy terror. By mid-decade, Murry Wilson had been displaced and Brian, who had been running the band’s recording sessions almost from the start, was in charge, making the Beach Boys the rare group of the time to work without an outside producer.

Their breakthrough came in early 1963 with “Surfin’ USA,” so closely modeled on Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” that Berry successfully sued to get a songwriting credit. It was their first Top 10 hit and a boast to the nation: “If everybody had an ocean / across the USA / then everybody’d be surfin,’ / like Cali-for-nye-ay.” From 1963-66, they were rarely off the charts, hitting No. 1 with “I Get Around” and “Help Me, Rhonda” and narrowly missing with “California Girls” and “Fun, Fun, Fun.” For television appearances, they wore candy-striped shirts and grinned as they mimed their latest hit, with a hot rod or surfboard nearby.

Their music echoed private differences. Wilson often contrasted his own bright falsetto with Love’s nasal, deadpan tenor. The extroverted Love was out front on the fast songs, but when it was time for a slow one, Brian took over. “The Warmth of the Sun” was a song of despair and consolation that Wilson alleged — to some skepticism — he wrote the morning after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. “Don’t Worry Baby,” a ballad equally intoxicating and heartbreaking, was a leading man’s confession of doubt and dependence, an early sign of Brian’s crippling anxieties.

Stress and exhaustion led to a breakdown in 1964 and his retirement from touring, his place soon filled by Bruce Johnston, who remained with the group for decades. Wilson was an admirer of Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” productions and emulated him on Beach Boys tracks, adding sleigh bells to “Dance, Dance, Dance” or arranging a mini-theme park of guitar, horns, percussion and organ as the overture to “California Girls.”

By the mid-1960s, the Beach Boys were being held up as the country’s answer to the Beatles, a friendly game embraced by each group, transporting pop music to the level of “art” and leaving Wilson a broken man.

Good Vibrations.

The Beach Boys vs. The Beatles

The Beatles opened with “Rubber Soul,” released in late 1965 and their first studio album made without the distractions of movies or touring. It was immediately praised as a major advance, the lyrics far more personal and the music far more subtle and sophisticated than such earlier hits as “She Loves You” and “A Hard Day’s Night.” Wilson would recall getting high and listening to the record for the first time, promising himself he would not only keep up with the British band, but top them.

Wilson worked for months on what became “Pet Sounds,” and months on the single “Good Vibrations.” He hired an outside lyricist, Tony Asher, and used various studios, with dozens of musicians and instruments ranging from violins to bongos to the harpsichord. The air seemed to cool on some tracks and the mood turn reflective, autumnal. From “I Know There’s an Answer” to “You Still Believe in Me,” many of the songs were ballads, reveries, brushstrokes of melody, culminating in the sonic wonders of “Good Vibrations,” a psychedelic montage that at times sounded as if recorded in outer space.

The results were momentous, yet disappointing. “Good Vibrations” was the group’s first million-seller and “Pet Sounds,” which included the hits “Sloop John B” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” awed McCartney, John Lennon and Eric Clapton among others. Widely regarded as a new kind of rock LP, it was more suited to headphones than to the radio, a “concept” album in which individual songs built to a unified experience, so elaborately crafted in the studio that “Pet Sounds” couldn’t be replicated live with the technology of the time. Wilson was likened not just to the Beatles, but to Mozart and George Gershwin, whose “Rhapsody in Blue” had inspired him since childhood.

But the album didn’t chart as highly as previous Beach Boys releases and was treated indifferently by the U.S. record label, Capitol. The Beatles, meanwhile, were absorbing lessons from the Beach Boys and teaching some in return. “Revolver” and “Sgt. Pepper,” the Beatles’ next two albums, drew upon the Beach Boys’ vocal tapestries and melodic bass lines and even upon the animal sounds from the title track of “Pet Sounds.” The Beatles’ epic “A Day in the Life” reconfirmed the British band as kings of the pop world and “Sgt. Pepper” as the album to beat.

All eyes turned to Wilson and his intended masterpiece — a “teenage symphony to God” he called “Smile.” It was a whimsical cycle of songs on nature and American folklore written with lyricist Van Dyke Parks. The production bordered on method acting; for a song about fire, Wilson wore a fire helmet in the studio. The other Beach Boys were confused, and strained to work with him. A shaken Wilson delayed “Smile,” then canceled it.

Remnants, including the songs “Heroes and Villains” and “Wind Chimes” were re-recorded and issued in September 1967 on “Smiley Smile,” dismissed by Carl Wilson as a “bunt instead of a grand slam.” The stripped down “Wild Honey,” released three months later, became a critical favorite but didn’t restore the band’s reputation. The Beach Boys soon descended into an oldies act, out of touch with the radical ’60s, and Wilson withdrew into seclusion.

Thank you Brian.

Years of struggle, and late life validation

Addicted to drugs and psychologically helpless, sometimes idling in a sandbox he had built in his living room, Wilson didn’t fully produce another Beach Boys record for years. Their biggest hit of the 1970s was a greatest hits album, “Endless Summer,” that also helped reestablish them as popular concert performers.

Although well enough in the 21st century to miraculously finish “Smile” and tour and record again, Wilson had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and baffled interviewers with brief and disjointed answers. Among the stranger episodes of Wilson’s life was his relationship with Dr. Eugene Landy, a psychotherapist accused of holding a Svengali-like power over him. A 1991 lawsuit from Wilson’s family blocked Landy from Wilson’s personal and business affairs.

His first marriage, to singer Marilyn Rovell, ended in divorce and he became estranged from daughters Carnie and Wendy, who would help form the pop trio Wilson Phillips. His life stabilized in 1995 with his marriage to Melinda Ledbetter, who gave birth to two more daughters, Daria and Delanie. He also reconciled with Carnie and Wendy and they sang together on the 1997 album “The Wilsons.” (Melinda Ledbetter died in 2024.)

In 1992, Brian Wilson eventually won a $10 million out-of-court settlement for lost songwriting royalties. But that victory and his 1991 autobiography, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story,” set off other lawsuits that tore apart the musical family.

Carl Wilson and other relatives believed the book was essentially Landy’s version of Brian’s life and questioned whether Brian had even read it. Their mother, Audree Wilson, unsuccessfully sued publisher HarperCollins because the book said she passively watched as her husband beat Brian as a child. Love successfully sued Brian Wilson, saying he was unfairly deprived of royalties after contributing lyrics to dozens of songs. He would eventually gain ownership of the band’s name.

The Beach Boys still released an occasional hit single: “Kokomo,” made without Wilson, hit No. 1 in 1988. Wilson, meanwhile, released such solo albums as “Brian Wilson” and “Gettin’ In Over My Head,” with cameos by McCartney and Clapton among others. He also completed a pair of albums for the Walt Disney label — a collection of Gershwin songs and music from Disney movies. In 2012, surviving members of the Beach Boys reunited for a 50th anniversary album, which quickly hit the Top 10 before the group again bickered and separated.

Wilson won just two competitive Grammys, for the solo instrumental “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” and for “The Smile Sessions” box set. Otherwise, his honors ranged from a Grammy lifetime achievement prize to a tribute at the Kennedy Center to induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2018, he returned to his old high school in Hawthorne and witnessed the literal rewriting of his past: The principal erased an “F” he had been given in music and awarded him an “A.”

New Jersey Got To Do Better! Two Zionists Vy For Governor!

Mikie Sherrill is the gubernatorial nominee for the Democrats. Will her status quo politics help or hurt her?

I have the New Jersey gubernatorial election as a toss up.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) will be the Democratic nominee for governor. She will face perennial Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli.

Sherrill is a member of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, the second-largest Democratic caucus in the House. She joined the Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of moderate and conservative House Democrats, but later left the group in 2023.

Sherrill voted with former president Joe Biden about 93% of the time.

A true test for President Donald J. Trump.

Will a Republican who got his backing win?

Ciattarelli once called Trump a moron and a charlatan. He changed tone when Trump lost in 2020. He became an election denier. In order to appeal to moderates and disgruntled Democrats, Ciattarelli will act like a "moderate conservative" Republican.

Sherrill is a pro Israel Democrat. She has supported the continuation of military aid to Israel. She condemned Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) when she called Israel a "racist apartheid country" and said, "From the river to the sea." She did not vote to censure Tlaib.

I have a strong feeling New Jersey will go to the Republicans.

Democrats continued support of Israel is already a major obstacle in their resurrection. 

New Jersey is one of two states with governor’s races this year, and the contest will be an early sign of how voters are responding to President Donald Trump’s second term.

Sherrill beat out five other Democrats for her party’s nod, pitching herself as the most electable candidate — after her party struggled in the state last year compared with other recent presidential elections — and as a Democrat willing to stand up to Trump. She also leaned heavily on her background as a former Navy helicopter pilot and on criticism of Trump.

"It's going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people. So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I'm not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans,” Sherrill told her supporters Tuesday at a victory rally.

“You probably can’t do better than to quote George Washington at this moment: Fix the bayonets, I’m resolved to take Trenton,” Sherrill added.

Ciattarelli, who had Trump’s endorsement in the primary, defeated four other Republicans for the nomination in which he also appealed to voters' desire for electability, casting himself as the Trump ally best positioned to win the Democratic-leaning state in November. Ciattarelli came close in 2021 to defeating Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits. And during his victory speech, he panned Sherrill as "Phil Murphy 2.0" and pitched a vision for an inclusive GOP that would buck years of Democratic control in the state.

"We made a strong statement about what the New Jersey Republican Party stands for: A party open to anyone and everyone who is willing to work hard and play by the rules; a party of Jersey values and common sense policies; a party that believes our best days are ahead of us if, if we have the courage to think big and act boldly," Ciattarelli said.

Sherrill prevails

The Democratic primary featured Sherrill and five other prominent Democrats, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, teachers union president Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney.

While Sherrill, the only woman in the field, was a persistent leader in limited public polling, victory was far from certain as millions of dollars flooded the New Jersey airwaves.

Sherrill with the unpopular former president Joe Biden.

Sherrill was winning more than one-third support with most of the expected Democratic vote tallied, holding a double-digit lead over Fulop, the next-closest Democrat.

Sherrill showed early signs of strength in crucial Essex County, which is home to the most registered Democrats. The Essex County Democrats endorsed her, but the county also includes Newark, which Baraka leads. Sherrill won around 43% of the mail-in vote, followed by Baraka at 24%, Fulop at 17%, Gottheimer at 10%, Spiller at 5% and Sweeney at 1%.

Sherrill proved to be a strong fundraiser, and she did have help from an aligned outside group, One Giant Leap PAC, which launched ads boosting her in the final weeks of the race. Sherrill also racked up support from the most county Democratic parties, prompting some critics to tie her to the state’s Democratic political machine.

Sherrill touted her military service and her success flipping a longtime Republican House district in 2018 as she made her case to primary voters. While each of the candidates presented a different path forward for the party, Sherrill said the “obvious” path is to “effectively govern.”

“Ruthless competence is what people in New Jersey want to see in government,” Sherrill told NBC News before she marched in the Asbury Park Pride parade. “And that’s what I’ve always provided, and that’s what I think stands in stark contrast to the most incompetent federal government we’ve probably ever seen in this nation.”

Still trying for the governor seat. Perennial candidate Jack Ciattarelli runs again.

GOP picks Ciattarelli

Ciattarelli leaned on his endorsement from Trump in the final weeks of the race, in which he faced former radio host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and contractor Justin Barbera.

Ciattarelli trounced his opponents, winning more than two-thirds support with most of the expected vote in. Spadea was in a distant second at 22%, followed by Bramnick, Kranjac and Barbera in single digits.

Trump hosted a tele-rally as early voting kicked off this month, telling supporters that Ciattarelli is “going to help us with a win this November and send a powerful message to the entire country that New Jersey is turning red.”

But Ciattarelli did have to overcome attacks from Spadea, his chief competitor in the primary, who highlighted Ciattarelli’s past criticisms of the president as proof he was not sufficiently pro-Trump.

Trump ultimately backed Ciattarelli about a month before the primary, writing on Truth Social that Ciattarelli is now “100%” MAGA and is best positioned to win in November.

General election preview

Both Ciattarelli and Sherrill have already previewed the general election fight, sparring on social media over Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill and his recent decision to federalize California National Guard troops despite Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections.

Sherrill has tied Ciattarelli directly to Trump, who lost the state by 6 points in November after he lost it by 16 in 2020.

Sherrill’s recent TV ad warns, “MAGA’s coming for New Jersey with Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli,” and she said at a primary debate last month that Ciattarelli is “not going to stand up to Trump on anything.”

Ciattarelli with the unpopular president Donald J. Trump.

It remains to be seen whether Ciattarelli will put some distance between him and Trump in the Democratic-leaning state, but he has said he would campaign with Trump this year.

Ciattarelli has also previewed how he might push back against Democrats who try to tie him to Trump, often noting that the next governor must address four crises facing the state: affordability, public safety, education and overdevelopment.

“Last time I checked, this was a race for governor,” Ciattarelli said at a recent campaign stop. “And so what is it that President Trump has to do with those windmills of our Jersey Shore? What does he have to do with the fact that we have the highest property tax in the nation? What does he have to do with the failure of our public school system, which just slipped from two to 12 on the national report card? What does he have to do with the overdevelopment of our suburbs?”

“They broke it, they own it,” Ciattarelli said of Democrats in charge of the state government. “And we’re not going to let anybody forget it over the next five months.”

Mark Green Out!

Republican adulterer will quit Congress in July.

Tennessee Republican leaves office by July. 

Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) represents a fucking gerrymandered district. He represents the 7th Congressional District. It covers Nashville (Downtown, Haynes, Joelton, Bellshire and West Nashville), Dickson, Clarksville, Fort Campbell Air Force Base, Dover, Waverly, New Johnsville, Parsons and Waynseboro.

Green is going to resign after the Republicans pass the Big Beautiful Bill Act.

He is heading to the private sector which he is not disclosing.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from Congress,” Green said in a statement released by his office.” Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up. As a result, today I notified the Speaker and the House of Representatives that I will resign from Congress as soon as the House votes once again on the reconciliation package.”

Green did not reveal his imminent private sector employer.

The congressman announced he would retire last year, but he opted to run again. Less than two months before the election, Green’s wife accused him of having an affair.

Politico noted, “Under House rules, members are required to disclose negotiations with a future private employer to the Ethics Committee, and are required to recuse themselves from matters where their future employment would pose a conflict of interest.”

The publication said a spokesperson for the Ethics Committee declined to comment.

Tennessee law requires the state’s governor to call a special election within 10 days of a congressperson leaving office, and the election must be held between 100 and 107 days afterward.

The adulterer is a Zionist. So I can only imagine all the dirt Israel has on him.

He is a former army physician and staffing agent.

Journalists Aren't Safe Either!

Rubber bullets are non lethal but very painful. They are dangerous instruments. Lauren Tomasi was injured by Los Angeles Police shooting live rounds.

This is America.

Y'all voted for this.

The United States and Israel are on record for violently attacking journalists.

Did you know the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have intelligence agencies in Israel?

The LAPD, Beverly Hills Police, Los Angeles Sheriffs and San Diego Police got training by the Israeli Defence Forces.

The Anti-Defamation League has been involved in spying on American protesters.

About 51% of Black motorists and 46% of Hispanic motorists are stopped by police for allegations of turn signal, stop sign, tail light, license plate and tint violations.

It is not a crime to film police.

Even though, police officers demand you stop filming, you can protest their demands by declaring your rights to film public servants in public places. 

In the state of Florida, they pass a stupid law to require civilians filming to be at least 25 feet away from a police officer. If a civilian gets too hostile with words at a police officer, they could be arrested.

American law enforcement have deliberately attack journalists and civilian without any consequences. It has never been addressed by U.S. lawmakers and it often is swept under the rug.

When an unarmed suspect is killed by police, the far right often justifies it by reminding the public about past criminal history.

Police officers are given the benefit of doubt whereas suspects are guilty as sin and deserving of police violence.

An Australian journalist and a British-American tabloid photographer were injured covering the protests in Los Angeles.

President Donald J. Trump has activated the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to maintain "law and order."

Trump is threatening to arrest Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass.

In the California city of Paramount, there are tensions between residents and the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency. The ICE agents are randomly apprehending civilians without due process and it lead to a backlash.

Agents were chased out and pelted with rocks.

In Compton, protesters set a vehicle on fire and waved Mexican flags in solidarity with immigrants.

Many of the U.S. lawmakers (mostly Republicans) condemned it. They were calling for arrests of people and demanding loyalty to the American flag. They were upset over people waving thr Mexican and Palestinian flags.

Some U.S. lawmakers have Israeli flags in their offices. Hypocrisy at its best.

Even a tabloid journalist trying to make protesters look bad got hit with rubber bullets.

Toby Canham, who works for the far right tabloid The New York Post was hit in the forehead by a rubber bullet after he was taking photos of protesters on the busy U.S. 101 freeway in Los Angeles. The British photographer was apparently trying to put images of protesters blocking traffic to give an impression that the unrest was continuously violent.

Lauren Tomasi, an Australian reporter for 9News was injured by rubber bullets. Her injuries were mild. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is pissed.

Tomesi was hit in the leg by a nonlethal round Sunday while reporting live from downtown Los Angeles on the large-scale protests over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and subsequent deployment of California National Guard troops to the city.

Video of the incident released by 9News shows correspondent Lauren Tomasi, microphone in hand, reporting live when an officer behind her suddenly raises their firearm and fires a nonlethal round at close range. Tomasi, who doesn’t appear to be wearing personal protective equipment, cries out in pain and clutches her lower leg as she and her cameraman quickly move away from the police line.

“You just fucking shot the reporter,” a voice off-camera can be heard shouting.

Tomasi assured her crew she was okay: “Yeah, I’m good, I’m good.”

Australian and U.S. have soured recently. The U.S. once again vetoed a UN resolution calling for an end to the carnage caused by Israel. The U.S. has detained Australians who have U.S. visas. The tariffs that Trump imposed on the country also led to tensions. 

China has ended the imports of U.S. beef and chicken. They are getting it from Australia and Canada.

China is expected to be the global superpower in five years.

Mind you everything the Republicans are crying about has nothing to do with solving gun violence. 

Nothing to do with solving the housing crisis.

Nothing to do with lowering inflation, grocery prices and energy prices.

Nothing to do with protecting the lives of innocent people.

Never Waste That Second Change!

Wonder Foxx.

When folks were wondering in 2023 what happened to Jamie Foxx, we were in the dark. When he did his Netflix show he told the world, he almost died from a massive hemorrhage on his brain. It lead to a severe stroke. It nearly took his life.

At tonight's BET Awards, Foxx (Eric Marlon Bishop) told the audience, he loves them all and let's them know that life doesn't give "second chances."

Foxx got the surprise when his idol Stevie Wonder presented him his 2025 BET Award. 

Foxx has impersonated Wonder when he was on In Living Color.

Babyface and Ludacris also popped out to pay tribute to the artistic titan, performing a cover of “Unpredictable” — the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 title track from Foxx’s 2005 album — while Tank tackled a cover of Ray Charles’ “Night Time is the Right Time.” Foxx famously portrayed Charles in the 2004 film Ray, for which he won the best actor Oscar. Jennifer Hudson then took the helm and bodied a soulful cover of “Gold Digger,” a 10-week Hot 100 No. 1 for Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Foxx back in 2005. T-Pain and Doug E. Fresh then popped out to close out the celebration with a rockin’ cover of the 2009 No. 2 Hot 100 hit “Blame It.” Through it all, Foxx could be seen laughing, nodding along and having a great time.

“Jamie, look at me!” Stevie joked at the end of the show before inviting Jamie to speak. “I remember seeing you the first time at a club, playing piano and singing, but I knew from the moment I heard you sing that you had so much more. I admire and celebrate your talent and your love — for blind people. I’m very happy to be here tonight to see you honored as you so very well deserve.”

During his acceptance speech, Foxx thanked all his friends and loved ones for showing up for him while he went through life-threatening medical complications back in 2023. He added that when he saw the “In Memorium” segment, it made him reflect on his own health scare.

You can’t go through something like that and not testify,” Foxx concluded to a roar of applause. “A career that I could only thank God for.”

Khaby Lame Heads Back To Italy!

This is how most of America feels about Donald J. Trump and his incompetent chaotic presidency.

Famed TikToker Khaby Lame is leaving Las Vegas. He lived in the city for several years. He is "self deporting" to prevent President Donald J. Trump from apprehended him and making his life miserable.

Born in Senegal, Seringe Khabane Lame moved to Italy and became a citizen of the country. Lame has lived in the U.S. doing promotionals for companies and still doing his TikTok which earns him an estimate of $10 million.

Lame was hoping to obtain U.S. citizenship someday but it comes to an abrupt end for now.

As he was returning to his Las Vegas home, he was detained at Harry Reid International Airport in the Las Vegas community of Paradise. 

Lame, who holds the record as the most followed on TikTok with over 160 million followers on the platform, was asked to leave the U.S. because he “overstayed the terms of his visa.”

The 25-year-old content creator was stopped by ICE at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and granted voluntary departure once he was detained.

The social media star was born in Senegal and was moved to Italy when he was a baby. He was granted Italian citizenship in August 2022.

Lame rose to fame when he started sharing silent comedic videos on TikTok during the pandemic after he was laid off from his job.

“Before TikTok, I was working in a factory. I had a lot of different jobs,” he told People after being named one of their Creators of the Year. “I was helping support my family — three little brothers, one older brother and my parents. Then my world changed completely. It’s a whole different life now.”

In May of 2025, Lame was seen at the Met Gala celebrating the theme of Black Dandyism in a grey and cream suit.

The detainment comes amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. ICE has launched raids all over the country, enforcing the president’s mass deportation campaign promise in workplaces, schools, airports and college campuses.

As for Lame, he has been active on social media since the detainment and hasn’t spoken publicly about what happened.

Life On Broadway!

Two face actress mocks Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis.

I don't watch award shows or have any interest in Broadway theater. But there is some drama going on in the realm of showbiz.

A 76 year old white actress and singer caused a lot of controversy.

She made some offending comments about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis in an interview with the New Yorker.

Patti Lupone was absent at the Tony Awards. The industry is still buzzing about the feud she created when she attacked the two Black Broadway entertainers.

It was so big, the Queen of Daytime Television, Oprah Winfrey had an opportunity to address it without dropping names. But the subliminals were live and direct.

Patti LuPone has apologized for “flippant and emotional” remarks she made about fellow marquee actors in a New Yorker magazine interview.

The mea culpa came via LuPone’s social media accounts Saturday after more than 600 members of the Broadway community signed an open letter condemning the three-time Tony winner’s controversial comments about Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald.

The letter, addressed to the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League, criticized LuPone for calling Lewis a “bitch” and saying McDonald is “not a friend” in the New Yorker profile.

“This language is not only degrading and misogynistic — it is a blatant act of racialized disrespect. It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment,” the letter says.

Theater publication Playbill reported signatories to the letter include Tony winners James Monroe Iglehart, Maleah Joi Moon and Wendell Pierce.

In her apology Saturday, LuPone said she, too, signs on to the document, at least in spirit. “​I wholeheartedly agree with everything that was written in the open letter.”

Kecia Lewis addresses Patti Lupone.

She apologized for using words, particularly toward Lewis, that were “demeaning and disrespectful.”

“I am deeply sorry,” she said.

LuPone added, “I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies.”

Lewis stars in “Hell’s Kitchen” on Broadway, for which she won a 2024 Tony Award. McDonald won the 2014 Tony Award for best actress in a play (her sixth) and is the first performer to win the award in all performance categories. She is nominated for the 11th time this year for her lead performance in the musical “Gypsy.”

As of Saturday, the letter had garnered 682 signatures, according to a document that allows people to request the addition of their names.

“Individuals, including Patti Lupone, who use their platform to publicly demean, harass, or disparage fellow artists — particularly with racial, gendered, or otherwise violent language — should not be welcomed at industry events, including the Tony Awards, fundraisers, and public programs,” the letter said.

The American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League — which present the Tony Awards, set to be held June 8 — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

LuPone also did not immediately respond.

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A post shared by Kecia Lewis (@therealkecialewis)

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A post shared by Patti LuPone (@pattilupone)

In the New Yorker interview, LuPone was asked about a controversy that circulated during her time co-starring in “The Roommate” with Mia Farrow last fall. The play, which has since closed, shared a wall with the Tony-winning musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” featuring Lewis.

LuPone reportedly asked for the sound design of “Hell’s Kitchen” to be adjusted because the music would bleed through the shared walls, and sent the sound and stage management team flowers and a thank-you note once it was fixed.

Lewis posted a video on Instagram in November in response, calling LuPone’s actions “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege.”

Audra McDonald.

Producers of “The Roommate” posted a statement the following day thanking the “Hell’s Kitchen” staff for the fix, saying, “These kinds of sound accommodations from one show to another are not unusual and are always deeply appreciated.”

LuPone said of the back-and-forth in the New Yorker interview: “Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about. ... She’s done seven. I’ve done 31. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.”

The New Yorker noted that Lewis has actually done 10 shows and LuPone 28.

Michael Schulman, the interviewer, mentioned to LuPone that McDonald — who holds the record as the Broadway performer with the most Tony Awards and nominations — gave the video “supportive emojis.”

The 76-year-old actor responded: “And I thought, ‘You should know better.’ That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend.”

McDonald was asked about LuPone’s comments in a “CBS Mornings” interview with Gayle King to discuss her latest Tony-nominated role as Mama Rose in “Gypsy.”

“If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is,” McDonald said in a clip CBS shared on social media ahead of the full interview, which airs next week. “That’s something that you’d have to ask Patti about.”

The open letter said LuPone’s attempt to “discredit” McDonald’s legacy was not only a personal offense, but “a public affront to the values of collaboration, equity, and mutual respect that our theater community claims to uphold.”

In her apology on Saturday, LuPone acknowledged those values and said she had let them down.

“From middle school drama clubs to professional stages, theatre has always been about lifting each other up and welcoming those who feel they don’t belong anywhere else,” she said. “I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right. Our entire theatre community deserves better.”

Sly Stone Passed Away!

Sly Stone had passed away from breathing difficulties.

Growing up an 80s baby, you would know some of the Black theme songs!

"It's a Family Affair."

Sly Stone has passed away from complications of COPD. His family and publicist confirmed the news today.

Sly and the Family Stone transformed popular music in the 1960s and ’70s and beyond with such hits as “Everyday People,” “Stand!” and “Family Affair,” died Monday at age 82.

Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, had been in poor health in recent years. His publicist Carleen Donovan said Stone died in Los Angeles surrounded by family after contending with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments.

Founded in 1966-67, Sly and the Family Stone was the first major group to include Black and white men and women, and well embodied a time when anything seemed possible — riots and assassinations, communes and love-ins. The singers screeched, chanted, crooned and hollered. The music was a blowout of frantic horns, rapid-fire guitar and locomotive rhythms, a melting pot of jazz, psychedelic rock, doo-wop, soul and the early grooves of funk.

Sly’s time on top was brief, roughly from 1968-1971, but profound. No band better captured the gravity-defying euphoria of the Woodstock era or more bravely addressed the crash which followed. From early songs as rousing as their titles — “I Want To Take You Higher,” “Stand!” — to the sober aftermath of “Family Affair” and “Runnin’ Away,” Sly and the Family Stone spoke for a generation whether or not it liked what they had to say.

Stone’s group began as a Bay Area sextet featuring Sly on keyboards, Larry Graham on bass; Sly’s brother, Freddie, on guitar; sister Rose on vocals; Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini horns and Greg Errico on drums. They debuted with the album “A Whole New Thing” and earned the title with their breakthrough single, “Dance to the Music.” It hit the top 10 in April 1968, the week the Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered, and helped launch an era when the polish of Motown and the understatement of Stax suddenly seemed of another time.

Led by Sly Stone, with his leather jumpsuits and goggle shades, mile-wide grin and mile-high Afro, the band dazzled in 1969 at the Woodstock festival and set a new pace on the radio. “Everyday People,” “I Wanna Take You Higher” and other songs were anthems of community, non-conformity and a brash and hopeful spirit, built around such catchphrases as “different strokes for different folks.” The group released five top 10 singles, three of them hitting No. 1, and three million-selling albums: “Stand!”, “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” and “Greatest Hits.”

Sly was a man of the people and the music.

For a time, countless performers wanted to look and sound like Sly and the Family Stone. The Jackson Five’s breakthrough hit, “I Want You Back,” and the Temptations’ “I Can’t Get Next to You” were among the many songs from the late 1960s that mimicked Sly’s vocal and instrumental arrangements. Miles Davis’ landmark blend of jazz, rock and funk, “Bitches Brew,” was inspired in part by Sly, while fellow jazz artist Herbie Hancock even named a song after him.

“He had a way of talking, moving from playful to earnest at will. He had a look, belts, and hats and jewelry,” Questlove wrote in the foreword to Stone’s memoir, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” named for one of his biggest hits and published through Questlove’s imprint in 2023. “He was a special case, cooler than everything around him by a factor of infinity.”

In 2025, Questlove released the documentary “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).”

Sly’s influence has endured for decades. The top funk artist of the 1970s, Parliament-Funkadelic creator George Clinton, was a Stone disciple. Prince, Rick James and the Black Eyed Peas were among the many performers from the 1980s and after shaped in part by Sly, and countless hip-hop artists have sampled his riffs, from the Beastie Boys to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. A 2005 tribute record included Maroon 5, John Legend and the Roots.

“Sly did so many things so well that he turned my head all the way around,” Clinton once wrote. “He could create polished R&B that sounded like it came from an act that had gigged at clubs for years, and then in the next breath he could be as psychedelic as the heaviest rock band.”

A dream dies, a career burns away

By the early ’70s, Stone himself was beginning a descent from which he never recovered, driven by the pressures of fame and the added burden of Black fame. His record company was anxious for more hits, while the Black Panthers were pressing him to drop the white members from his group. After moving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in 1970, he became increasingly hooked on cocaine and erratic in his behavior. A promised album, “The Incredible and Unpredictable Sly and the Family Stone” (“The most optimistic of all,” Rolling Stone reported) never appeared. He became notorious for being late to concerts or not showing up at all, often leaving “other band members waiting backstage for hours wondering whether he was going to show up or not,” according to Stone biographer Joel Selvin.

Around the country, separatism and paranoia were setting in. As a turn of the calendar, and as a state of mind, the ’60s were over. “The possibility of possibility was leaking out,” Stone later explained in his memoir.

On “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” Stone had warned: “Dying young is hard to take/selling out is harder.” Late in 1971, he released “There’s a Riot Going On,” one of the grimmest, most uncompromising records ever to top the album charts. The sound was dense and murky (Sly was among the first musicians to use drum machines), the mood reflective (“Family Affair”), fearful (“Runnin’ Away”) and despairing: “Time, they say, is the answer — but I don’t believe it,” Sly sings on “Time.” The fast, funky pace of the original “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” was slowed, stretched and retitled “Thank You For Talkin’ to Me, Africa.”

The running time of the title track was 0:00.

“It is Muzak with its finger on the trigger,” critic Greil Marcus called the album.

“Riot” highlighted an extraordinary run of blunt, hard-hitting records by Black artists, from the Stevie Wonder single “Superstition” to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” album, to which “Riot” was an unofficial response. But Stone seemed to back away from the nightmare he had related. He was reluctant to perform material from “Riot” in concert and softened the mood on the acclaimed 1973 album “Fresh,” which did feature a cover of “Que Sera Sera,” the wistful Doris Day song reworked into a rueful testament to fate’s upper hand.

Known for funk hits, Sly & The Family Stone paved the way for Black music.

By the end of the decade, Sly and the Family Stone had broken up and Sly was releasing solo records with such unmet promises as “Heard You Missed Me, Well I’m Back” and “Back On the Right Track.” Most of the news he made over the following decades was of drug busts, financial troubles and mishaps on stage. Sly and the Family Stone was inducted into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 1993 and honored in 2006 at the Grammy Awards, but Sly released just one album after the early ’80s, “I’m Back! Family & Friends,” much of it updated recordings of his old hits.

He would allege he had hundreds of unreleased songs and did collaborate on occasion with Clinton, who would recall how Stone “could just be sitting there doing nothing and then open his eyes and shock you with a lyric so brilliant that it was obvious no one had ever thought of it before.”

Sly Stone had three children, including a daughter with Cynthia Robinson, and was married once — briefly and very publicly. In 1974, he and actor Kathy Silva wed on stage at Madison Square Garden, an event that inspired an 11,000-word story in The New Yorker. Sly and Silva soon divorced.

A born musician, a born uniter

He was born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, and raised in Vallejo, California, the second of five children in a close, religious family. Sylvester became “Sly” by accident, when a teacher mistakenly spelled his name “Slyvester.”

He loved performing so much that his mother alleged he would cry if the congregation in church didn’t respond when he sang before it. He was so gifted and ambitious that by age 4 he had sung on stage at a Sam Cooke show and by age 11 had mastered several instruments and recorded a gospel song with his siblings. He was so committed to the races working together that in his teens and early 20s he was playing in local bands that included Black and white members and was becoming known around the Bay Area as a deejay equally willing to play the Beatles and rhythm and blues acts.

Through his radio connections, he produced some of the top San Francisco bands, including the Great Society, Grace Slick’s group before she joined the Jefferson Airplane. Along with an early mentor and champion, San Francisco deejay Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue, he worked on rhythm and blues hits (Bobby Freeman’s “C’mon and Swim”) and the Beau Brummels’ Beatle-esque “Laugh, Laugh.” Meanwhile, he was putting together his own group, recruiting family members and local musicians and settling on the name Sly and the Family Stone.

“A Whole New Thing” came out in 1967, soon followed by the single “Dance to the Music,” in which each member was granted a moment of introduction as the song rightly proclaimed a “brand new beat.” In December 1968, the group appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and performed a medley that included “Dance to the Music” and “Everyday People.” Before the set began, Sly turned to the audience and recited a brief passage from his song “Are You Ready”:

“Don’t hate the Black,

don’t hate the white,

if you get bitten,

just hate the bite.”

Terry Moran Iced!

Terry Moran was iced after called Trump official a hater.

The folks at ABC News had suspended longtime reporter Terry Moran after he posted on social media his thoughts on how the Trump Administration weaponized American politics.

ABC News caved to the pressure and placed him on leave. It is a potential for him to join the independent journalism circuit to express opinions Unfiltered.

He aimed at White House Advisor Stephen Miller.

He called the white nationalist a "world-class hater."

In the social media post, Moran, who has worked as a senior national correspondent for ABC News since 2018, wrote that “bile” is what’s interesting about Miller.

“The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism,” Moran wrote early Sunday morning in the since-deleted post. “Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller. It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end his his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

Vice President JD Vance called the post an “absolutely vile smear” of Miller. Miller said Moran “pulled off his mask.”

Miller is feuding with Elon Musk after allegations swirled about his wife Katie.

Katie Miller left the Department of Government Efficiency along with Musk fueling speculations that the sexual predator is having an affair with Stephen's wife.

The wildest criticism led to this bullshit. The folks at HuffPost got ABC News to make a statement.

“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a comment to HuffPost. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

HuffPost, for the time being is allowed in the White House Press Pool. The Associated Press was suspended indefinitely after the outlet made it clear they will not follow the Trump Administration’s declaration naming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Moran was the only ABC News host allowed access to the president. Trump forbids George Stephanopoulos from interviewing him.

Trump accepts interviews from Kristen Welker, Chris Cuomo, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiroma, Stuart Varney, Mark Levin and Sean "Softball" Hannity.

Miller responds with his snarky attitude.

“The most important fact about Terry’s full public meltdown is what it shows about the corporate press in America,” Miller responded on social media. “For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist’s pose. Terry pulled off his mask.”

It’s unclear what led to Moran’s post, but Miller has been credited with shaping President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including a zero-tolerance policy, which separated parents and children who illegally crossed the border.

An outside White House adviser told Vanity Fair in 2018 that Miller likes seeing photos of families being separated at the southern border.

“Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,” an outside White House adviser told Vanity Fair. “He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.”

In April, during Moran’s interview with Trump, Trump said Moran wasn’t “being very nice” after Moran pushed back on Trump’s claim that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had a gang tattoo.

Abrego Garcia is expected to return to the United States. Attorney General Pam Bondi now accused him of being a human trafficker. The U.S. accused the man of smuggling people into the country. Abrego Garcia denies the allegations.

Y'all voted for this.

You voted for a convicted felon who is a sexual predator and a senile bigot. You voted for a cross dressing a couch humping doofus who wrote a book lying about his upbringing. You voted for an eraser headed Jewish white supremacist who looks like James Bond villain. By the way losing his wife to a hair plugged Keteamine and cocaine addict billionaire. You voted for a blonde gold digger marrying a sexual predator. She is masquerading as a press secretary when in fact she is just a slut in heels.

The Golden Age of America.

Make Free Speech Great Again.