Friday, April 28, 2023

Border Wall Scammer Wheels 4 1/2 In Federal Time Out!

Far right grifter goes to federal time out.

Brian Kolfage, the disabled military veteran and far right activist who created We Build The Wall with the insufferable agitator Steve Bannon will see years of his life behind bars.

By that time, his wife Ashley Kolfage will find a sugar daddy. She is a social media influencer and a gold digger.

Brian Kolfage was convicted of stealing millions from donors who were hoping to self fund building a border wall that stretched 20 miles between Texas and Mexico.

Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build the Wall campaign.

A co-defendant, financier Andrew Badolato, was also sentenced to three years for aiding the effort. He had also pleaded guilty. A third man involved in siphoning funds from the wall project, Colorado businessman Tim Shea, won’t be sentenced until June.

Kolfage and Badolato were also ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to the victims.

Absent from the case was Bannon, Washed Up 45’s former top political adviser. He was initially arrested aboard a luxury yacht and faced federal fraud charges along with the other men, but the former president pardoned him during his final hours in office.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought new, state charges against Bannon last year. He is awaiting trial. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Bannon has called the case “nonsense.”

Kolfage, Badolato and Shea were not pardoned by the former president, leaving them to face the prospect of years of federal time out.

Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.

As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.

Trophy wife Ashley Kolfage will likely find a new sugar daddy.

An attorney for Badolato, Kelly Kramer, described Bannon as “a leader and primary beneficiary” of the scheme, noting that his own client received a much smaller payout than the pardoned associate.

While prosecutors acknowledged that Badolato profited the least of the four defendants, they described him as the “connective tissue” between Kolfage and Bannon, helping to direct the kickbacks between the two parties.

Kolfage, 41, told Judge Analisa Torres that he was “remorseful, disgusted, humiliated.” He said he had not anticipated the scale of donations that would flood in for the cause and soon found himself drifting away from his initial goal, which he said was “putting a spotlight on the country’s broken immigration system.”

“I made a promise not to personally benefit and I broke that promise,” he said.

Torres said the defendants not only cheated their donors but contributed to a “chilling effect on civic participation” by tarnishing the reputation of political fundraising.

“The fraudsters behind We Build The Wall injured the body politic,” she said.

Kolfage received more than $350,000 in donor funds, which he spent on personal expenses that included boat payments, a luxury SUV and cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said in a court filing.

Bannon was accused of taking more than $1 million through a separate nonprofit, then secretly paying some of it back to Kolfage.

Badolato, 58, and Shea also stole hundreds of thousands from fundraisers as well, prosecutors said.

As part of a plea deal, Kolfage and Badolato agreed not to challenge a sentence within the agreed-upon range: between four to five years for Kolfage and 3 1/2 to four years for Badolato.

An attorney for Kolfage previously argued that his client should avoid time given his lack of criminal history and severe disability.

Some sections of a border barrier were built by We Build the Wall on private lands, but the nonprofit is now defunct.

"Louder" With Crowder!

Loser be Crowder.

Far right agitator is heading towards divorce. He is riled up over a gay progressive blogger leaking an infamous video showing him berate his 8 month pregnant wife.

Yashar Ali who was a target of this guy in the past got the last laugh.

Steven Crowder is a Canadian-American comedian and far right agitator. He was a social media influencer on YouTube until the platform demonetizate his propaganda. Now he is a mainstream figure on Rumble, a far right-like YouTube where uncensored extremists and Washed Up 45 use the platform for their noise.

Hilary Korzon-Crowder is the embattled wife of Steven. She filed for divorce in 2021 a few months before Crowder had underwent a surgical operation in which titanium bars were inserted into his chest in order to counteract his congenital condition of pectus excavatum (sunken chest). The surgery caused fluid to accumulate in his lungs, which he called "excruciatingly painful". Several weeks later, he was rushed to the hospital due to a collapsed lung.

Crowder has twins, a daughter and son.

Crowder is furious that folks are trashing him for his warped belief that wives must have servitude towards the husbands.

Crowder loses his fortune.

A video circulating shows Crowder verbally abuse towards Hilary. She had to leave because it was dangerous to her life.

“The truth is that Hilary spent years hiding Steven's mentally and emotionally abusive behavior from her friends and family while she attempted to save their marriage. She was the one who was asking to work on their relationship to keep the marriage intact for their unborn children,” the statement read.

Crowder has also engaged in a feud with Candace Owens, the infamous far right Black extremist who profits off of chaos. Crowder warns Owens that his troll army will respond.

Crowder’s attorney reportedly rebuffing a cease-and-desist letter from Owens, and with Crowder’s ex-wife’s family releasing a statement accusing Crowder of emotional abuse.

Owens theorized that Crowder made his announcement now, after his once-ally Owen Benjamin leaked news of Crowder’s divorce this week. She also speculated that the announcement was meant to distract from a recent interview in which a former Crowder employee accused Crowder of censoring him.

Crowder and Owens’ feud dates back to January, when Crowder went public with a job offer he’d received from Owens’ employer, The Daily Wire. Crowder slammed the $50 million deal as a “slave contract” that would subject him to Big Tech censorship, namely because The Daily Wire reserved the right to dock Crowder’s pay if his channel (which frequently promotes racist, sexist, and anti-LGBT material) got demonetized or suspended. Crowder released a recorded phone call with The Daily Wire’s CEO, leading to a counteroffensive from Daily Wire personalities like Owens.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Carolyn Bryant Donham Passed Away!

Emmett Till accuser died in Louisiana.

No justice for Emmett Till.

Hopefully, someone will piss on that wretched woman's grave. The evil b*tch.

In 2022, it was discovered that Carolyn Bryant Donham lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky and it led to protest. I guess the old b*tch moved. Donham died Tuesday night in Westlake, Louisiana, according to a death report filed Thursday in Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s Office in Louisiana.

Till’s kidnapping and killing became a catalyst for the civil rights movement when his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in their hometown of Chicago after his brutalized body was pulled from a river in Mississippi. Jet magazine published photos.

The protests for her arrest were ignored. 

In 1955, this woman claimed a 14 year old Emmett Till whistled at her while shenwas stocking shelves at her small grocery store in Money, Mississippi. She told her husband.

Her husband and his half brother abducted Emmett from his bed and took him to the Tallahatchie River where they shot him. They gouged his eyes, mutilated his face, cut his hands off and tied his body to a cotton gin and sunk it into the river.

Evidence indicates a woman identified Till to her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, who killed the teenager. An all-white jury acquitted the two white men in the killing, but the men later confessed in an interview with Look magazine.

Emmett and Mamie Till.

In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press in 2022, Donham said she was unaware of what would happen to the 14-year-old Till. Donham was 21 at the time.

The contents of the 99-page manuscript, titled “I am More Than A Wolf Whistle,” were first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Historian and author Timothy Tyson of Durham, who said he obtained a copy from Donham while interviewing her in 2008, provided a copy to the AP.

Tyson had placed the manuscript in an archive at the University of North Carolina with the agreement that it not be made public for decades, though he said he gave it to the FBI during an investigation the agency concluded last year. He said he decided to make it public now following the recent discovery of an arrest warrant on kidnapping charges that was issued for Donham in 1955 but never served.

NewsNation Adds A 24-Hour News Week!

NewsNation is growing its lineup.

Once known as WGN Superstation, the folks at Nexstar Media Group bought the Tribune News Company and converted the cable network best known for syndicated shows and Chicago based programs like Bozo's Circus, WGN became NewsNation.

NewsNation is vying for the spot that CNN, MSNBC and Fox hold... The No. 1 spot.

Fox is pretty much shaken by the departure of controversial host Tucker Carlson. The company revealed that the far right agitator had called his top boss likely Suzanne Scott, a c*nt because she refused to support his populist program.

On top of that a federal lawsuit by former producer Abby Grossman, the Dominion settlement of $787.5 billion, the possible settlement with Smartmatic and the federal probe of its role in the 1/6 attack.

NewsNation has seen its rating increase. 

The Nexstar-owned cable news outlet said today that it will launch a 24-hour weekday programming schedule on April 24. The new sked will include a new live four-hour weekday programming block called NewsNation Now.

Chris Cuomo and Elizabeth Vargas return to television after scandals.

Airing from 1-5 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays, NewsNation Now will cover the day’s top headlines with live reports from network correspondents around the country. It will be anchored by a rotation of journalists from 1-3 p.m. ET, followed by anchor Nichole Berlie from 3-5 p.m. Until a permanent anchor is named, guest anchors will include weekend anchor Natasha Zouves, chief Washington correspondent Blake Burman and correspondents Markie Martin, Keleigh Beeson and Brooke Shafer.

“From the start, our mission has been to inform and enlighten our viewers with balanced news programming and we will continue to do so with this added block,” said Michael Corn, President of News at NewsNation. “Over time, we’ve built trust with our audience and with this expansion, I think we can capitalize on the swiftly evolving broadcast news landscape. Viewer trust is at the center of everything we do, and viewer demand for this expanded block is strong.”   

Notable hosts include Dan Abrams, Chris Cuomo, Ashleigh Banfield, Elizabeth Vargas and Leland Vittart.

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Jerry Springer Passed Away!

The ringmaster of trash television and iconic entertainer Jerry Springer passed away from cancer.

A part of American television history has passed away.

The king of trash television and former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer has passed away at the age of 79. 

Perhaps best known as the world famous ringmaster of reality TV, Springer hosted The Jerry Springer Show from 1991 until 2018 and Judge Jerry from 2019 until 2022 He hosted dating show Baggage from 2010 until 2015 and was a judge on America's Got Talent for two seasons.

The Jerry Springer Show was America's most controversial talk show. Where Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael tackled controversial issues, Jerry brought the issues to the front lines with many guest ending up famous adult entertainers or popular figures in their own right.

The program was unsuccessful in ratings in its first seasons due to its focus on more political issues. This led to an overhaul of the structure which by the mid-1990s led to the show as it is known now, filled with controversial topics (such as incest and adultery), profanity, physical fights (involving a mixture of boxing and wrestling), nudity, and scantily clad guests. He hosted morbidly obese people, Americans with dwarfism, transgender women and men, adult film stars, racists, people with sexual fetishism and the oddities.

The show premiered on September 30, 1991. It was taped in Chicago, Illinois from 1991 to 2009 and in Stamford, Connecticut, from 2009 to 2018. On June 13, 2018, NBCUniversal ended production of new episodes of the show after 27 seasons.

Jerry Springer with Steve Wilkos. Jerry's former security manager is currently hosting his own talk show. 

He gave way to his former security guard Steve Wilkos hosting his own talk show and fellow Cincinnati agitator Bill Cunningham, a far right agitator who hosting a talk show on many CW stations for five years.

The entertainer had hosted a podcast until February 2023. Springer was also a progressive agitator who had stints on Air America Radio.

His family confirmed that he passed away from a brief illness at his home in Chicago.

"Jerry, born Gerald Norman Springer in London, England on February 13, 1944, immigrated to Queens, New York at the age of four along with his parents and older sister. He graduated from Tulane University and Northwestern University Law School, served in the United States Army Reserves and had a long career in law, politics, journalism and broadcasting. He was known for the Jerry Springer Show, the Judge Jerry Show, the Springer on the Radio Show, Baggage, the Jerry Springer Podcast and until recently even his own 60s folk music radio show in Cincinnati. He also wrote an autobiography and once starred in a movie. But he captured the emotions of the country in 2006 with a shockingly long and humorous run on the popular Dancing With the Stars Show."

Springer was elected to the Cincinnati City Council in 1971. He resigned in 1974 after admitting to soliciting a prostitute. Springer came clean at a press conference. Long-time Cincinnati newsman Al Schottelkotte pronounced Springer's career over, but Springer's honesty helped him win back his seat in 1975 by a landslide. 

Springer was mayor of Cincinnati in 1977 and 1978 and served on a city council throughout most of the 1970s and early 1980s. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the Democratic Party primary for governor of Ohio in 1982.

Jerry Springer: The Musical was a Broadway hit.

“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” said Jene Galvin, a lifelong friend and spokesman for the family. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”

Springer was born in the London Underground station of Highgate while the station was in use as a shelter from German bombing during World War II, and grew up on Chandos Road, East Finchley. His parents, Margot (née Kallmann; a bank clerk) and Richard Springer (owner of a shoe shop), were German-Jewish refugees who escaped from Landsberg an der Warthe, Prussia (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland). His maternal grandmother, Marie Kallmann, who was left behind, died in the gas vans of Chełmno extermination camp (German-occupied Poland). His paternal grandmother, Selma Springer (née Elkeles), died at the hospital in the Theresienstadt concentration camp (German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Selma Springer's brother, Hermann Elkeles, was a renowned Berlin doctor who also died at Theresienstadt concentration camp.

In January 1949, at the age of four, Springer immigrated with his parents to the United States, settling in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York City. He attended nearby Forest Hills High School. One of his earliest memories about current events was when he was 12 and watching the 1956 Democratic National Convention on television where he saw and was impressed by John F. Kennedy.

Springer earned a B.A. degree from Tulane University in 1965, majoring in political science. He earned a J.D. degree from Northwestern University in 1968.

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Bed Bath & Beyond Fades Out!

The end of the road.

It appears that Bed Bath & Beyond as well as Buy Buy Baby are going out of business. The company filed for Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It will begin liquidating and begin closing all the stores in the United States.

Along with the announcement of the bankruptcy, the company announced that its popular 20% off coupons, or any other coupons, would no longer be accepted at stores or online as of Wednesday.

While the coupons are no longer accepted, the retailer said customers can expect ‘deep discounts’ as the chain’s closing sales start on Wednesday and continue until May 24.

“We anticipate that we will stop accepting coupons on April 26, 2023, when we will start our store closing sales, where customers will be able to shop for your favorite products at deep discounts,” the company said in a statement.

According to the retailer, gift cards can be used through May 8. The company will accept returns and exchanges for items purchased prior to Wednesday in accordance with usual policies until May 24, the company said.

“Store closing sales will start on April 26, 2023 (Wednesday). All purchases during our store closing sales will be final.”

Membership benefits will also end Wednesday, but “customers can redeem merchandise credits until May 15, 2023,” according to the company.

Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy BABY stores will remain open as the company “begins its efforts to effectuate the closure of its retail locations,” the company said in the statement.

As many of the last remaining workers get severance or job loss, the CEO and top executives will walk away with millions and venture capitalists will still bank in billions.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Conservative Outrage Over Tucker Carlson Cannon Firing!

Who gonna hire him?

I am not going to waste time collecting tweets from the noise. I am just gonna tell you that they're mad and they'll eventually get over it. I mean I am still angry over Tiffany Cross being let go, but I am not going to protest MSNBC forever.

Many of Tucker Carlson's hardcore supporters are so done with Fox. They were having a blast watching Tiffany Cross being fired from MSNBC. They were happy and celebrating the sudden departure of Chris Cuomo and now Don Lemon from CNN.

But when it came to Tucker Carlson being fired out the cannon.... cue the outrage.

Washed Up 45 was “shocked” and that Carlson was “a very good person, a very good man and very talented” in reaction to Monday’s news. He added, “I don’t know if it was voluntary or was it somebody fired, but I think Tucker has been terrific. Especially over the last year or so he’s terrific to me.”

This was not a plot by George Soros, Media Matters or the Democratic Party. 

It was the decision of Keith Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and Suzanne Scott.

Fox dismissed Carlson and the executive producer of his evening show, effective immediately. Carlson's last broadcast was April 21, a rotation of guest hosts will fill the slot until a permanent replacement is found. In their statement, Fox did not provide a reason for Carlson's termination, lending media speculation that it was due to Fox's recent defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Carlson's internal criticism of Fox leadership, or the pending lawsuit from former Fox producer Abby Grossberg alleging an "appalling work environment while working on Carlson's show".

Fox fired Carlson without much warning. He was the No. 1 cable news host.

Conservatives are pissed.

Fox stock took a major tumble since the departure.

Carlson was blindsided by the cannon firing. Many of the staffers are celebrating the departure. They believe his departure will bring journalism back to Fox.

Ironic, Carlson was having a laugh over Elon Musk firing Twitter employees.

Harry Belafonte Passed Away!

Iconic entertainer Harry Belafonte passed away.

Iconic entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte has passed away at the age of 96.

Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world.

Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.

With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”

He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyonce for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film “BlacKkKlansman,” he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.

Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”

Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”

Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s “Almanac” and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”

Harry Belafonte met then President Barack Obama.

In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical “Carmen Jones,” a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie “Island in the Sun” was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.

His “Calypso,” released in 1955, became the first officially certified million-selling album by a solo performer, and started a national infatuation with Caribbean rhythms (Belafonte was nicknamed, reluctantly, the “King of Calypso″). Admirers of Belafonte included a young Bob Dylan, who debuted on record in the early ’60s by playing harmonica on Belafonte’s “Midnight Special.”

“Harry was the best balladeer in the land and everybody knew it,” Dylan later wrote. “He was a fantastic artist, sang about lovers and slaves — chain gang workers, saints and sinners and children. ... Harry was that rare type of character that radiates greatness, and you hope that some of it rubs off on you.”

Belafonte befriended King in the spring of 1956 after the young civil rights leader called and asked for a meeting. They spoke for hours, and Belafonte would remember feeling King raised him to the “higher plane of social protest.” Then at the peak of his singing career, Belafonte was soon producing a benefit concert for the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that helped make King a national figure. By the early 1960s, he had decided to make civil rights his priority.

“I was having almost daily talks with Martin,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir “My Song,” published in 2011. “I realized that the movement was more important than anything else.”

The Kennedys were among the first politicians to seek his opinions, which he willingly shared. John F. Kennedy, at a time when Blacks were as likely to vote for Republicans as for Democrats, was so anxious for his support that during the 1960 election he visited Belafonte at his Manhattan home. Belafonte schooled Kennedy on the importance of King, and arranged for them to speak.

“I was quite taken by the fact that he (Kennedy) knew so little about the Black community,” Belafonte told NBC in 2013. “He knew the headlines of the day, but he wasn’t really anywhere nuanced or detailed on the depth of Black anguish or what our struggle’s really about.”

Belafonte would often criticize the Kennedys for their reluctance to challenge the Southern segregationists who were then a substantial part of the Democratic Party. He argued with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother, over the government’s failure to protect the “Freedom Riders” trying to integrate bus stations. He was among the Black activists at a widely publicized meeting with the attorney general, when playwright Lorraine Hansberry and others stunned Kennedy by questioning whether the country even deserved Black allegiance.

“Bobby turned red at that. I had never seen him so shaken,” Belafonte later wrote.

In 1963, Belafonte was deeply involved with the March on Washington. He recruited his close friend Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and other celebrities and persuaded the left-wing Marlon Brando to co-chair the Hollywood delegation with the more conservative Charlton Heston, a pairing designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In 1964, he and Poitier personally delivered tens of thousands of dollar to activists in Mississippi after three “Freedom Summer” volunteers were murdered — the two celebrities were chased by car at one point by members of the KKK. The following year, he brought in Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and other singers to perform for the marchers in Selma, Alabama.

When King was assassinated, in 1968, Belafonte helped pick out the suit he was buried in, sat next to his widow, Coretta, at the funeral, and continued to support his family, in part through an insurance policy he had taken out on King in his lifetime.

“Much of my political outlook was already in place when I encountered Dr. King,” Belafonte later wrote. “I was well on my way and utterly committed to the civil rights struggle. I came to him with expectations and he affirmed them.”

King’s death left Belafonte isolated from the civil rights community. He was turned off by the separatist beliefs of Stokely Carmichael and other “Black Power” activists and had little chemistry with King’s designated successor, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. But the entertainer’s causes extended well beyond the U.S.

He mentored South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba and helped introduce her to American audiences, the two winning a Grammy in 1964 for the concert record “An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba.” He coordinated Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the U.S. since being released from prison in 1990. A few years earlier, he initiated the all-star, million-selling “We Are the World” recording, the Grammy-winning charity song for famine relief in Africa.

Belafonte’s early life and career paralleled those of Poitier, who died in 2022. Both spent part of their childhoods in the Caribbean and ended up in New York. Both served in the military during World War II, acted in the American Negro Theatre and then broke into film. Poitier shared his belief in civil rights, but still dedicated much of his time to acting, a source of some tension between them. While Poitier had a sustained and historic run in the 1960s as a leading man and box office success, Belafonte grew tired of acting and turned down parts he regarded as “neutered.″

“Sidney radiated a truly saintly dignity and calm. Not me,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir. “I didn’t want to tone down my sexuality, either. Sidney did that in every role he took.″

Belafonte was very much a human being. He acknowledged extra-marital affairs, negligence as a parent and a frightening temper, driven by lifelong insecurity. “Woe to the musician who missed his cue, or the agent who fouled up a booking,″ he confided.

In his memoir, he chastised Poitier for a “radical breach″ by backing out on a commitment to star as Mandela in a TV miniseries Belafonte had conceived, then agreeing to play Mandela for a rival production. He became so estranged from King’s widow and children that he was not asked to speak at her funeral. In 2013, he sued three of King’s children over control of some of the civil rights leader’s personal papers. In his memoir, he would allege that the King children were more interested in “selling trinkets and memorabilia” than in serious thought.

He made news years earlier when he compared Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, to a slave “permitted to come into the house of the master” for his service in the George W. Bush administration. He was in Washington in January 2009 as Obama was inaugurated, officiating along with Baez and others at a gala called the Inaugural Peace Ball. But Belafonte would later criticize Obama for failing to live up to his promise and lacking “fundamental empathy with the dispossessed, be they white or Black.”

Belafonte did occasionally serve in government, as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration and decades later as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. For his film and music career, he received the motion picture academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a National Medal of Arts, a Grammy for lifetime achievement and numerous other honorary prizes. He found special pleasure in winning a New York Film Critics Award in 1996 for his work as a gangster in Robert Altman’s “Kansas City.”

“I’m as proud of that film critics’ award as I am of all my gold records,” he wrote in his memoir.

He was married three times, most recently to photographer Pamela Frank, and had four children. Three of them — Shari, David and Gina — became actors.

Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. in 1927, in a community of West Indians in Harlem. His father was a seaman and cook with Dutch and Jamaican ancestry and his mother, part Scottish, worked as a domestic. Both parents were undocumented immigrants and Belafonte recalled living “an underground life, as criminals of a sort, on the run.″

The household was violent: Belafonte sustained brutal beatings from his father, and he was sent to live for several years with relatives in Jamaica. Belafonte was a poor reader — he was probably dyslexic, he later realized — and dropped out of high school, soon joining the Navy. While in the service, he read “Color and Democracy” by the Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and was deeply affected, calling it the start of his political education.

After the war, he found a job in New York as an assistant janitor for some apartment buildings. One tenant liked him enough to give him free tickets to a play at the American Negro Theatre, a community repertory for black performers. Belafonte was so impressed that he joined as a volunteer, then as an actor. Poitier was a peer, both of them “skinny, brooding and vulnerable within our hard shells of self-protection,″ Belafonte later wrote.

Belafonte met Brando, Walter Matthau and other future stars while taking acting classes at the New School for Social Research. Brando was an inspiration as an actor, and he and Belafonte became close, sometimes riding on Brando’s motorcycle or double dating or playing congas together at parties. Over the years, Belafonte’s political and artistic lives would lead to friendships with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Lester Young to Eleanor Roosevelt and Fidel Castro.

His early stage credits included “Days of Our Youth″ and Sean O’Casey’s “Juno and the Peacock,″ a play Belafonte remembered less because of his own performance than because of a backstage visitor, Robeson, the actor, singer and activist.

“What I remember more than anything Robeson said, was the love he radiated, and the profound responsibility he felt, as an actor, to use his platform as a bully pulpit,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir. His friendship with Robeson and support for left-wing causes eventually brought trouble from the government. FBI agents visited him at home and allegations of Communism nearly cost him an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.″ Leftists suspected, and Belafonte emphatically denied, that he had named names of suspected Communists so he could perform on Sullivan’s show.

By the 1950s, Belafonte was also singing, finding gigs at the Blue Note, the Vanguard and other clubs — he was backed for one performance by Charlie Parker and Max Roach — and becoming immersed in folk, blues, jazz and the calypso he had heard while living in Jamaica. Starting in 1954, he released such top 10 albums as “Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites″ and “Belafonte,″ and his popular singles included “Mathilda,″ “Jamaica Farewell″ and “The Banana Boat Song,″ a reworked Caribbean ballad that was a late addition to his “Calypso″ record.

“We found ourselves one or two songs short, so we threw in `Day-O’ as filler,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir.

He was a superstar, but one criticized, and occasionally sued, for taking traditional material and not sharing the profits. Belafonte expressed regret and also worried about being typecast as a calypso singer, declining for years to sing “Day-O″ live after he gave television performances against banana boat backdrops.

Belafonte was the rare young artist to think about the business side of show business. He started one of the first all-Black music publishing companies. He produced plays, movies and TV shows, including Off-Broadway’s “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” in 1969. He was the first Black person to produce for TV.

Belafonte made history in 1968 by filling in for Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show for a full week. Later that year, a simple, spontaneous gesture led to another milestone. Appearing on a taped TV special starring Petula Clark, Belafonte joined the British singer on the anti-war song “On the Path of Glory.″ At one point, Clark placed a hand on Belafonte’s arm. The show’s sponsor, Chrysler, demanded the segment be reshot. Clark and Belafonte resisted, successfully, and for the first time a man and woman of different colors touched on national television.

In the 1970s, he returned to movie acting, co-starring with Poitier in “Buck and the Preacher,″ a commercial flop, the raucous and popular comedy “Uptown Saturday Night.” His other film credits include “Bobby,″ “White Man’s Burden,″ and cameos in Altman’s “The Player″ and “Ready to Wear.″ He also appeared in the Altman-directed TV series “Tanner on Tanner″ and was among those interviewed for “When the Levees Broke,″ Spike Lee’s HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, HBO aired a documentary about Belafonte, “Sing Your Song.”

Mindful to the end that he grew up in poverty, Belafonte did not think of himself as an artist who became an activist, but an activist who happened to be an artist.

“When you grow up, son,″ Belafonte remembered his mother telling him, “never go to bed at night knowing that there was something you could have done during the day to strike a blow against injustice and you didn’t do it.″

In addition to his wife, Belafonte is survived by his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte and David Belafonte; two stepchildren, Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank; and eight grandchildren.

Biden: Let's Finish The Job!

Let's Finish The Job. 

This will be one of the campaign slogans for the Democratic candidate Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

Today, Joe Biden declared his intention to run for president. The 46th President of the United States is running for reelection. He will face an onslaught of conspiracy theories and attacks on his age and his policies from those extremists on the right and left.

He and running mate Kamala Harris will be subjected to endless speculation about being  replaced. They will be facing attacks from agitators who claim they are hiding from questions. 

Biden-Harris 2024.

It will be a campaign that will hopefully be disciplined and competent. 

He will face primary challenges from conspiracy theorists Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Both challengers have been amplified by Fox, Russia and the likes of Steve Bannon.

They will face the eventual Republican nominee. It could be Washed Up 45, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchison, Vivek Ramaswamy and perennial loser Larry Elder.

Also in the mix could be Tim Scott or Ron DeSantis. Scott has an exploratory committee and DeSantis is still on the fence.

The three-minute-plus video hits several campaign themes familiar with Biden’s political rhetoric of late. It’s largely a positive message but does warn of “MAGA extremists [that] are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting Social Security that you paid for your entire life while cutting taxes for the very wealthy, dictating what health care decisions women can make. Banning books and telling people who they can love, all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.”

Biden, 80 is the oldest serving U.S. President. If he does succeed in a second term, he will be 86 years old. Biden is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals. But he’s still set for a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation.

Aides acknowledge that while some in his party might prefer an alternative to Biden, there is anything but consensus within their diverse coalition on who that might be. And they insist that when Biden is compared with whomever the GOP nominates, Democrats and independents will rally around Biden.

Monday, April 24, 2023

BREAKING: Tucker Carlson Out!

Fox fires Tucker Carlson out the cannon.

Another shocking story, the controversial host Tucker Carlson is out at Fox. Perhaps, the most watched cable news host in history has been fired out the cannon. He was the No. 1 in primetime with 4 million viewers.

That means Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Sean "Softball" Hannity and Laura Ingraham are not safe.

The network announced that Carlson will not be on tonight.

“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.

Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday, April 21. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 pm ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.” 

It came days after Fox announced they were settling with Dominion for $787.5 billion after the network promoted baseless claims that the voting systems changed votes from Washed Up 45 to Joe Biden.

Dominion claimed it was owed damages resulting from Fox’ airing of false claims about its role in the 2020 election. In the past few months, emails and texts gathered for the trial from Fox executives and anchors — Carlson and Sean Hannity included — hinted that people working at the company knowingly put forth false information about the election and Dominion’s involvement in it.

Carlson found himself embroiled in serious controversy throughout his time at Fox. In recent weeks, a lawsuit from a former booker at the network, Abby Grossberg, accused Carlson’s staff of making anti-Semitic jokes, liberal use of the word “cunt” in the office, and casual misogyny.

There was zero indication of Carlson’s exit as recently as Friday evening, when at the close of what would be his final episode he said to viewers a typical, “We’ll be back on Monday.” In fact, as of this morning there were still promos running for Carlson’s planned interview with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Carlson was most known for promoting white supremacist propaganda. The program was a favorite among Russian propagandists.

Carlson began his Fox tenure as a political analyst in 2009, appearing on various programs before the launch of Tucker Carlson Tonight in 2016. Prior to that, he worked at CNN from 2000 to 2005, where he served as cohost of the debate-style program Crossfire, before making the leap to MSNBC, where he hosted the primetime program Tucker from 2005 to 2008.

Don Lemon was fired out the cannon at CNN today.

BREAKING: Don Lemon Out!

Don Lemon fired out the cannon.

The Variety article and Chris Licht's zero tolerance for political theatrics did longtime host in. Don Lemon, a staple of CNN is fired out the cannon. 

The on and off air antics towards Kaitlin Collins did him no good as well.

CNN announced the split today. 

Oliver Darcy, CNN's Media Correspondent reported the news. Although, no specific reason was given, it was a shocking development to the struggling network's revamping.

Don Lemon was demoted from primetime to host CNN This Morning. He took the role in early 2023.

Lemon made the announcement on Twitter, writing: “I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN, I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly.

“At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network,” his statement continued. “It is clear that there are some larger issues at play. With that said, I want to thank my colleagues and the many teams I have worked with for an incredible run. They are the most talented journalists in the business, and I wish them all the best.”

Licht in return wrote in a memo sent to the staff.

"To my CNN Colleagues, CNN and Don have parted ways. Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors. CNN This Morning has been on the air for nearly six months, and we are committed to its success."

Lemon’s termination comes three weeks after our sister site Variety published an exposé in which more than a dozen of Lemon’s former and current colleagues outlined a pattern of allegedly misogynistic, inappropriate and “diva-like” behavior at the cable news network, and more than two months after he received backlash for a sexist statement he made on CNN This Morning in February.

Dayton Dealing With An Arsonist Who Is Burning Historical Monuments!

Dayton's iconic Traxler mansion gone.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was making such a fuss about New York City crime. However, in his state of Ohio, his district which includes parts of Columbus, there is high crime. In Dayton, a rust belt city that is represented by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) and Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH), two historical buildings were torched. 

Coincidence or nah?

The very fact that two buildings with significant historical value were burned this year means that someone in the area is a serial arsonist. They decided to torch Dayton's historical monuments. 

I heard on the news that the Traxler mansion was burned to the ground. That building has been a staple of the Dayton View neighborhood for over 100 years. The mansion once held the Dayton Philharmonic performances in the past. It was an endangered preservation.

"We're heartbroken it was so close to being saved. For several years, PDI has been monitoring the building, getting it re-boarded, and ushering it through the tax foreclosure process. We had viable buyers lined up, and it was scheduled to be sold at sheriff's sale on May 4th," said Preservation Dayton.

Louis Traxler was born in Austria in 1864. The family moved to the United States in 1883. After a brief residence in Pennsylvania and Indiana, Traxler came to Dayton in 1899. He began his own mercantile business, which prospered and grew. Louis Traxler purchased the property in 1909. In 1911, the Traxler family moved into the large two-story stone house where they remained until 1929.

The house and property were sold to David Pickrell, Jr. in 1929. Pickrell was the owner of the Pickrell Plumbing Company and also the president of the North Dayton Savings Bank.

In 1932, the house was sold to Lillian Baker, whose husband, Frank R. Baker, was a salesman. Frank Baker later opened his own restaurant in downtown Dayton.

Wright Aviation Company was burned down.

During the war, the house was divided into apartments. In 1941, it became a boarding house and divided into 22 apartments. 

When the home was put up for auction in 1977, Dayton attorney Gerald Callahan bought it for $34,000 and restored it at a cost of $150,000. Callahan lived in the house for several years, but sold to Centerville physician Virginia Stull.

Stull then sold the property to Rev. William & Doris Moore in 1990, who have owned the property since that time.

The house was selected as a Dayton Philharmonic Show House in 1991, and was selected as one of Ohio's Most Endangered Properties by Preservation Ohio in 2019 and again in 2022.

This comes a month after an arsonist started fire to the Wright Aviation Factory in Dayton's Westwood neighborhood.

The Wright Company Factory was under development by its owner, the city of Dayton, and other groups that sought to preserve its history. The building complex includes two buildings that the Wright brothers erected in 1910 and 1911, which made up the first factory in the United States built for airplane manufacturing, as well as newer buildings.

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