Fool Michael Rapaport once, shame on you. Fool him twice, shame on the “Atypical” alum. Last year, Rapaport apologized for believing one of the Left’s biggest lies about President Donald Trump. Both legacy media reporters and former presidents alike said Trump called White Supremacists “fine people” following a “Unite the Right” rally in 2017.     Disgraced former President Joe Biden started his 2020 campaign with the bald lie. President Barack Obama repeated it in the 2024 campaign’s stretch run. Rapaport believed it for far too long before his heartfelt mea culpa. He almost fell for another lie this week. The actor/podcaster said he posted an image of tech mogul Elon Musk allegedly making the “Heil Hitler” salute on President Trump’s Inauguration Day. He quickly took the post down after social media followers said he was missing the larger context.     “I felt like I had been duped again,” Rapaport said on the latest episode of his podcast. “The guy’s a spaz,” he said simply, and it’s not out of any fealty  to the X owner. “I have no allegiance for Elon Musk… I got blocked by Elon Musk years ago for taking about his space rockets and that he’s a wannabe space man. “I’m an independent contractor. I don’t get paid by nobody … I have no allegiance to anybody but myself and my heart … Nobody is off limits. No-bo-dy,” he added. “I’ll tell you one thing, if he’s an N-word [Nazi] I want my N-words like Elon Musk. I want my N-words giving money to Israel. I want my N-words meeting [Israeli president Benjamin] Netanyahu … going to to Israel post-Oct. 7 and bearing witness … if that’s an N-word in this day and age that’s how I want my N-words.” Earlier in the monologue, the “Beautiful Girls” star shared how he got fooled so badly on the “Very Fine People” hoax. “One of my hardest rants ever on Trump was after Charlottesville after they pieced together [Trump’s] response,” he said, referring to the media hoax. “It wasn’t true, and I felt like a sucker.” He also addressed those who have criticized him for “changing” over the years. He’s not denying it. He’s proud to change. Everyone should be changing all the time. “You wanna stay the same your entire life? ‘Yo, you changed.’ Yes, I have changed. I’m gonna continue to change … I pray for knowledge. I pray for the ability to stay open, to gain knowledge, to listen.” “If I’m the same person I was yesterday, I ain’t working hard enough,” he added. Rapaport was one of President Trump’s most vocal critics for years. He softened his stance in 2024 as he realized some of the media narratives surrounding Trump weren’t accurate. 

World War Z author Max Brooks went off on a nonsensical hypothetical tangent on HBO’s Friday episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. In the context of a larger conversation about the need to keep Chinese fingerprints off of critical infrastructure, Brooks mused that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping could blackmail President Donald Trump over Taiwan in order to avoid more plane crashes like the nation witnessed earlier this week at Reagan National Airport. Brooks, who is also a fellow at West Point’s Modern War Institute, began by making the more reasonable argument that the U.S. learned the wrong lesson from Operation Desert Storm, “This goes back to a point in history called Desert Storm. In 1991 we fought a war and annihilated the world's fifth largest army in 100 hours… we wiped them out on CNN, and that was on purpose that we let the press embed because we thought we were teaching deterrence. We thought we were teaching the world, if you mess with America on the battlefield, we will annihilate you. What we were teaching our enemies was asymmetry, right?”     Tying the lesson to China and today, Brooks moved to shakier ground as he blamed Ronald Reagan, although not by name, for opening the door to the Chinese threat, “The idea that okay, if you're going to mess with America, don't use bullets and bombs because they are way ahead of us. Use alternative means. Cyber is one of them, and they are ahead. You can see a scenario right now because they weaponized the private sector in a way the Soviets never could because they were communist, and in the 1980s we deregulated the private sector.” China hacks the public sector all the time as well, so that makes no sense, but Brooks was just getting started. He continued, “So, we talk about this plane crash right now. It's a perfect scenario. Xi Jinping calls Donald Trump and says hey, 'we'd like to invest a trillion dollars in your meme coins if you privatize the FAA.'” Brooks then brought out his Trump impression, “The next day Trump makes a speech and says, ‘Government is inefficient. We are not going to do it. My good friend Elon. He’s got AirX, AirX’s going to take over all the air traffic control.’” Privatized air traffic control, which Trump mused about in his first term, is not some radical idea. For example, Canada instituted it in 1996, and the world is still spinning.  Still, Brooks imagined a world where, “a year from now, once Chinese spyware and worms are planted and all their chips are implanted in our aircraft, China is going to invade Taiwan. Then they call Donald Trump again like a Mafia don and say 'remember that plane crash? It would be a shame if another thousand planes all fell out of the sky, so back the hell off Taiwan.' And he will. That's how asymmetry works.” First of all, the odds China attempts to invade Taiwan in 2026 are basically zero. Second, what is Brooks talking about when he goes on about worms and chips being “implanted in our aircraft”? Is it just part of a partisan desire to attack Trump and Musk? Because the airline companies are already part of the private sector. Here is a transcript for the January 31 show: HBO Real Time with Bill Maher 1/31/2025 10:27 PM ET MAX BROOKS: This goes back to a point in history called Desert Storm. In 1991 we fought a war and annihilated the world's fifth largest army in 100 hours. BILL MAHER: You're talking about Iraq under Saddam Hussein. BROOKS: Iraq, yeah, we wiped them out on CNN, and that was on purpose that we let the press embed because we thought we were teaching deterrence. We thought we were teaching the world, if you mess with America on the battlefield, we will annihilate you. What we were teaching our enemies was asymmetry, right? The idea that okay, if you're going to mess with America, don't use bullets and bombs because they are way ahead of us. Use alternative means. Cyber is one of them, and they are ahead. You can see a scenario right now because they weaponized the private sector in a way the Soviets never could because they were communist and in the 1980s, we deregulated the private sector.  So, we talk about this plane crash right now. It's a perfect scenario. Xi Jinping calls Donald Trump and says hey, "we'd like to invest a trillion dollars in your meme coins if you privatize the FAA."  The next day Trump makes a speech and says, [TRUMP VOICE] “Government is inefficient. We are not going to do it. My good friend Elon. He’s got AirX, AirX’s going to take over all the air traffic control.”  [NORMAL VOICE] Flash forward a year from now, once Chinese spyware and worms are planted and all their chips are implanted in our aircraft, China is going to invade Taiwan.  Then they call Donald Trump again like a Mafia don and say “remember that plane crash? It would be a shame if another thousand planes all fell out of the sky so back the hell off Taiwan.” And he will. That's how asymmetry works.

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In late September, I upgraded to the iPhone 16 from my dependable iPhone 14 Pro. This was my first non-Pro phone and my first Plus-sized iPhone. I wanted a larger display than the usual 6.1-inch screen I've been using, and I didn't feel the need to go Pro. However, I returned the iPhone 16 Plus after almost two months. My main problem with it was the size. The iPhone 16 Plus is too big. While I love the larger display, the phone is too thick for my taste. Also, the Camera Control wasn't as easy or comfortable to use as I thought it would be, and I didn't have access to any Apple Intelligence features. I still don't, as the EU has to wait a few more months to get Apple's AI. I did start missing a few iPhone 16 Plus features as soon as I returned it. The display and battery life are the clear highlights. I also missed the ability to start the camera from any screen with the Camera Control button and the weight. I went back to the iPhone 14 Pro, which is heavier than the 16 Plus. Fast-forward to late January, I decided to buy the iPhone 16 Pro Max. That might be strange, given that I had just given up the iPhone 16 Plus and blamed it mainly on the footprint. But I just realized that if I don't do it now, the chances are I'll never get my hands on a Pro Max flavor for daily use ever again. Continue reading... The post Why did I buy the iPhone 16 Pro Max if I just returned the iPhone 16 Plus? appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $329 Apple Watch Series 10, $219 Bose soundbar, 40% off eufy video smart lock, more Today’s deals: $679 Apple Watch Ultra 2, 30% off Ninja blender, Valentine’s chocolate sale, Nest Doorbell, more Today’s deals: $155 unlocked iPhone SE, $279 iPad 10th-Gen, $24 TP-Link WiFi extender, $279 Galaxy Ring, more Today’s deals: $17.50 Apple AirTags, $79 Vizio soundbar, $500 off eufy Omni S1 Pro, $180 Beats Studio Pro, more

The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the U.S., officials say.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, while praising White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for the answers she gave during Friday's briefing, ridiculed a reporter's accent and called for the foreign press to be removed from the White House briefing room.

Representatives from a coalition of Arab nations rejected a proposal by President Donald Trump on Saturday that sought to relocate displaced Palestinians from Gaza into nearby Jordan and Egypt.