The California Attorney General has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's xAI after its chatbot Grok began generating nonconsensual sexual images of real women and even children.

In this episode, we’ll take a look at the recent WWE-style match between President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and note that the calls for him to be prosecuted regarding money that the Fed is spending on its renovations comes under Trump’s purview is only a script to make it appear how tough Trump …

Gotta love some small-town drama. As a key member of the traditional scene that was still alive and well in the 90s, Tracy Lawrence remains, ’til this day, one of the prominent members. With nine #1 hits, four certified-platinum albums, two ACM Awards and an additional CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year in 2007 for “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” the 57-year-old singer/songwriter has consistently flown under the radar when you take a look back at his career years later. When talking about Lawrence, it’s hard not to mention smash hits such as “Sticks and Stones,” “Alibis,” “Paint Me a Birmingham” and the aforementioned “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” With that being said, however, there’s no denying that “Time Marches On” has become his signature song over the years. Released on March 18, 1996, as the second single off the album of the same name, “Time Marches On” was an immediate hit for Lawrence. Written independently by legendary songwriter, Bobby Braddock, the track would go #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for three weeks, just three months after its release in June 1996. Since then, it’s been his most successful single in the streaming age, currently having over 184 million on Spotify alone and even becoming a bit of a trend on TikTok on and off throughout the years due to the iconic second verse where Lawrence essentially airs out all the dirty laundry of the fictional family. “Sister’s using rouge and clear complexion soap Brother’s wearin’ beads and he smokes a lot of dope Mama is depressed, barely makes a sound Daddy’s got a girlfriend in another town” As it turns out, the success and seemingly authentic nature of the fictional song caused Lawrence a whole lot of issues shortly after its release. Appearing on the always-entertaining Big D & Bubba Show last week, the “Texas Tornado” singer sat down to talk about everything ranging from his harrowing experience getting shot during a mugging in Nashville to his “Mission: Possible Turkey Fry & Benefit Concert,” which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and raised $355,000 back in November. Early in the episode, the trio discussed “Time Marches On.” First, Lawrence would reveal that he was first drawn to the song simply due to the shock value of the “smokes a lot of dope.” “The strangest thing about this song for me, I really cut it because I love the line, ‘Smokes a lot of dope.’ And I thought that was a great shock factor to it.” However, Lawrence would note that the popularity of the song had some consequences. Given that he was raised in the small town of Foreman, Arkansas, which only had a population of around 1,100 when he was growing up, he was the talk of the town. And due to the incredibly funny yet specific lyrics of the track, many thought that 1) Lawrence wrote the song himself and 2) it was completely autobiographical. In turn, his father, who was the vice president of a small bank in town, received a lot of backlash thanks to the line, “Daddy’s got a girlfriend in another town.” It got so bad, in fact, that Lawrence would note that it caused him “a lot of personal struggles: “There are pieces of the song that I didn’t take into consideration, you know? I grew up in a town of about 1,100 people. My dad was the vice president of the small bank there, and this song caused daddy a lot of stress in his life because the line of the song is ‘Daddy’s got a girlfriend in another town.’ I never took into consideration how many people would think I wrote that song [like] it was autobiographical. And it cause him a lot of personal struggles because people thought it was about my dad. It’s not true at all… When that song became such a massive hit, I never took into consideration when I heard it for the first time what an impact it would have on my family.” As mentioned earlier, the story undoubtedly has a happy ending thanks to the continued success of the track thirty years later. If anything, it’s another clear indication that songwriters should be credited much more for their work. If that was the case, Lawrence wouldn’t have even been in the situation in the first place. Watch the full episode here: The post Small Town Scandal: Why Tracy Lawrence’s “Time Marches On” Caused A Major Problem With His Family first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

It’s just been revealed that President Trump is replacing the former and corrupt USAID with a new initiative designed to still get money to foreign governments and institutions, without going through the . . .

President Trump just detailed a call with Venezuela’s interim president, saying they are making ‘tremendous progress’ and explained some of the topics they discussed. Here’s what he wrote: This morning I had . . .

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen announced Wednesday that the United States, Denmark, and Greenland will create a “high-level working group” to discuss the island’s future. The announcement followed Rasmussen’s meeting with American officials on the subject of Greenland earlier in the day. “The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Rasmussen said in a speech outside of the Danish embassy. He said the group would meet “within a matter of weeks.” In his statement, Rasmussen emphasized that the U.S. and Denmark have a “fundamental disagreement,” but “agree to disagree” on the matter of Greenland. “Even though our view on the situation right now around Greenland differs from public statements in [the] U.S., we share the concerns in the long-time perspective, and we want to work closely with [the] U.S,” he said. The post Danish FM Agrees to ‘Joint Working Group’ on Greenland appeared first on The American Conservative.

Data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed inflation holding at a 2.7 percent annual rate in December, reflecting a continued rise in housing and food costs.  Food costs rose sharply in December, climbing 0.7 percent on the month and 3.1 percent from a year earlier. Grocery prices were up 2.4 percent annually, while the price for dining-out rose 4.1 percent over the past year. Core inflation, which does not take into account food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in December to a 2.6 percent annual rate. The Federal Reserve hopes to keep inflation below 2 percent. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that core goods prices continue to run higher than in pre-pandemic periods, when deflation in that category was more common. The Trump administration has argued that prices are now declining and has attributed persistent inflation to policies enacted under the Biden administration. Recent polling suggests that public frustration over high prices is increasingly landing on the Trump administration. A December POLITICO poll found that 46 percent of Americans now say affordability problems are Trump’s responsibility, including more than a third of his 2024 voters, signaling cracks in the coalition that returned him to office. The post Inflation Remains Above Target in December appeared first on The American Conservative.

President Donald Trump appears again to be considering military action against Iran. An eruption of antigovernment protests and the subsequent brutal crackdown raised real questions about the regime’s durability, and some have proposed giving the thing a kick to see whether it falls over. There has been a flurry of military personnel movement in the Gulf region in anticipation of this, which suggests the president is considering the use of force seriously. But his own enthusiasm seems variable. He initially exhorted protestors to keep up the demonstrations and declared that “HELP IS ON THE WAY”; he also said that the U.S. would respond forcefully if the regime started shooting protestors. But in a Tuesday interview with CBS News, Trump’s redline had become hangings, and he sounded significantly less gung-ho for getting in there and mixing it up with the ayatollahs; in an Oval Office presser Wednesday, he asserted that the regime was no longer killing people and had no plans for executions. He has pointedly declined to endorse Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah, as the replacement for the Islamic Republic. (It seems doubtful that Trump is even aware of the other exile government on offer, the strange and off-putting MEK.) At the same time, it looks as if the protests are receding in the face of government suppression. What about an internal shakeup? Iran-watchers say that the regular army taking over from clerical leadership and the IRGC is the most likely change of management in Tehran. From the limited information available outside Iran, it does not appear as if the army is distancing itself from the rest of the regime at this time; even were it to move on the rest of the state, it is difficult to imagine this occurring without much chaos. The IRGC in particular has a stranglehold on Iran’s economic structures, giving it a disproportionate advantage in the case of any sort of factional fighting. Hateful as the Islamic Republic may be, an Iran embroiled in chaos does not make the region or the world safer. So what exactly would the point of striking Iran be at this juncture? A show of force is all very well, but trying to knock over the government and failing is bad; succeeding in knocking over a government with no viable replacement is worse. A purely punitive attack does not tell the Iranian regime anything it doesn’t know about the might of American arms or the United States’ orientation toward the Islamic Republic—but it will give the regime a handy piece of propaganda for rallying support and engaging in further repression. It is difficult to see how such an action would encourage anything but chaos or further repression. And then what? Will that demand further involvement? What if the regime feels compelled to retaliate? Is this sort of display, which is unlikely to have much consequential practical effect, worth risking American lives and further entanglement in a region we’re supposedly trying to deemphasize? If the protests have crested and there’s no concrete payoff in the cards, or even a plan for what to do if there were a concrete payoff, Iran strikes seem like a waste of time and resources. The administration clearly enjoys a show of overwhelming military prowess on occasion—the June Iran strikes, the recent extraction operation on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. So be it; it’s not actually a peace administration. But Trump and co. have at least shown a laudable allergy to extended operations. They should think about whether there’s anything actually to be gained with a new attack, and whether the concomitant risks are acceptable. The post Bombing Iran Over Protests Doesn’t Make Sense appeared first on The American Conservative.