A huge fight has developed over access to the actual audio tapes made by special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden for taking and keeping classified government documents and concluded he…

The son of an R&B legend, guitar virtuoso Shuggie Otis did it his way, turning down the Rolling Stones and David Bowie in the process

The best news I can give regarding difficult times is that God is ever present in everything that happens. This becomes key when we plan to get through these times with some semblance of strength and courage.

Hall of Fame forward Chet Walker has passed away

'It might just end up saving the world'

“The joy of the duet, just the joy of meeting..." The post “The joy of the duet”: Aretha Franklin’s favourite collaborations first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The conventional wisdom concerning vice-presidential picks is that they don’t really matter because voters focus on the top of the ticket in presidential elections. This is ordinarily true, but 2024 is no ordinary election. This time the winner will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, so it’s eminently possible that his vice-president will be called on to finish his term. We know what that means if Biden wins, so Trump’s running mate will receive more than the usual amount of voter scrutiny. Thus, he must not choose another irascible white male or any Florida resident. This eliminates all but one of the four choices toward whom he is reportedly leaning. He has a compelling life story and, at 58, he’s young enough to be a vigorous chief executive if required. According to an NBC News report, Trump has narrowed his search to four top prospects: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina and JD Vance of Ohio. If the report is accurate, the first name that should be crossed off the list is Burgum. The last thing Trump needs in a running mate is an aging white guy from a state he won by 33 points in 2020. The next name that must be scratched off is Rubio. The 12th Amendment precludes electors from voting for a president and vice president who reside in the same state. The third name that should be removed from the list is Vance. He’s a good Senator but would bring nothing to the ticket that Trump doesn’t already possess. (READ MORE from David Catron: Merchan Will Jail Trump Unless SCOTUS Intervenes) Which brings us to Senator Scott, who is encumbered by few if any liabilities and has much to offer Trump’s ticket and the country. He has a compelling life story. Having grown up in a poor, single-parent household in South Carolina, he nonetheless believed the escape route from poverty was hard work and education. In 2010, he proved it by becoming the first Black Republican from South Carolina elected to the House of Representatives since 1897. In 2012, he was appointed to a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate and subsequently won a special election in order to finish out the term. In 2016 and 2022, he was reelected with more than 60 percent of the vote. He is a solid conservative who soundly rejects identity politics: I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, and not a land of oppression … For those of you on the left, you can call me a prop, you can call me a token, you can call me the N-word, you can question my Blackness, you can even call me “Uncle Tim.” Just understand: Your words are no match for my evidence. The truth of my life disproves your lies. Nor does Scott pull his punches when discussing President Biden’s myriad economic blunders. As the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, he recently delivered this withering indictment of Bidenomics: President Biden and Bidenomics has devastated our economy and devastated people working paycheck to paycheck. The highest percentage of Americans with the fewest dollars in their savings account for an emergency is now because of President Biden and Democrats’ reckless spending … Prices across the board have certainly increased nearly 20 percent since Biden took office. In addition to being a serious conservative and a vocal critic of the Biden administration, Scott’s prowess as a fundraiser will not have been lost on Trump. According to a report in the New York Times, he will host a major event on June 19 that will include a number of billionaire donors, including Pershing Square Capital Management’s Bill Ackman, CrownQuest’s Tim Dunn, Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Apollo’s Marc Rowan. If Scott succeeds in convincing these people and other deep-pocketed donors to support Trump, which he probably will, his value to the former president’s campaign will increase exponentially. And his all important fundraising skills by no means exhaust the value Scott would bring to the Trump ticket. (READ MORE: Why Trump Eagerly Accepted Unfair Debate Rules) As the Associated Press reports, he has launched a $14 million outreach effort to minority voters: “Scott’s push comes as Trump’s campaign is ramping up its own outreach efforts to Hispanic and Black voters, especially Black men, in his expected rematch against President Joe Biden.” The polls have consistently shown that non-white working class voters are deeply dissatisfied with Biden’s job performance, particularly on the economy. As Scott himself puts it, “Much to the chagrin of many folks, there’s no doubt that African American men are wide open for a political shift of partisanship.” And he knows how to drive home the message that Biden is bad for all voters. Here’s how he put it on Fox and Friends yesterday: The one thing we know without any question: We cannot afford Joe Biden on the world stage. The best thing Joe Biden can do to restore American prominence on the global stage — stay off of it. We need Donald Trump back on the stage … We need a sharp President of the United States, protecting the Western alliance, defending our allies and doing the right thing for the American people. That person is Donald Trump. It’s time for us to fire Joe Biden. That clip should allay any fears that Tim Scott is too nice to play the “attack dog” role that vice-presidential candidates traditionally play in tight elections. He would be far better in this role than Mike Pence ever was and would also do a better job in a VP debate with Kamala Harris. His candidacy would be historic and kill any (serious) claim that Trump is a racist. He has a compelling life story and, at 58, he’s young enough to be a vigorous chief executive if required by unforeseen circumstances to move into the Oval Office. He has more experience in Washington than most of his rivals for the VP slot, yet has a positive vision of the United States that reminds us of the optimism that Ronald Reagan always exuded. In the end, Tim Scott is clearly the perfect running mate for Trump. We can only hope that Trump himself has the foresight to see that blindingly obvious reality. The post Tim Scott Is Trump’s Ideal Running Mate appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

No movement has been more destructive to modern Western civilization than that which pits women against their protectors and their own unborn children and mocked their essential purpose — raising a family. Yet for the past 60 years, feminism spread like cancer across the greatest country in the world, supplanting the wisdom of the ages with fanatical fantasy. While America fought Marxism abroad, academia embraced its basic tenet of oppressed versus oppressor and applied it to the sexes, vilifying men as the latter. No, the feminist agenda has to be advanced at all costs — including corporate disaster — with the blessing of little men like Iger. It was an idea crazy enough to be brilliant — redirect women’s natural emotions and frustrations into resentment toward a nonexistent enemy, the opposite sex. The fact that its most prominent champions were decidedly unattractive to the opposite sex initially slowed the advance. Then appeared the absurd concept of Sisterhood to entice enough naïve yet desirable females into the coven. And the agenda flourished beyond the plotters’ wildest dreams, upheaving the whole culture in just a short time. But bitter females alone could never have managed so much so fast. They needed the aid of the saddest specimen of all, male feminists who couldn’t compete for women against their manlier, tougher brothers. So, the latter had to be vilified as toxic, misogynistic primitives, while the sensitive feeble type got celebrated almost as much as their girl bosses. And this nonsense the left-dominated entertainment media wasted little time promoting. In less than a decade, real men effectively vanished from the screen, replaced or rivaled by fake women — or as a female friend of mine calls them, “male imitators” — minus any femininity, and for that matter authenticity. Film and television franchises like Star Wars, James Bond, the Marvel Universe, and Mad Max built on believable male heroes became ghastly dollhouses populated by pseudo-female beings and maneuvered by talentless man-hating shrews. Uncancellable true film artists such as writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) have no qualms about denouncing the current Hollywoke delusion. “The good news is that the superhero craze is fading,” tweeted Schrader. “The bad news is that it’s being replaced by the cinema of grotesqueries. (Furiosa I’m talking about you.)” This month, the Mad Max universe installment, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, became the latest chick-action mega-bomb nail in the industry’s coffin. Ironically, the film’s star, Anya Taylor-Joy, was radiant as Jane Austen’s lovely manipulative title heroine in the 2020  version of Emma. In normal times, producers would have found an equally sweet romantic role for the actress. But sweet romance is sexist in today’s Hollywoke, which tried to mutate Taylor-Joy into a convincing warrioress, to empty theater seats. Which brings us to Star Wars. In just 12 years, the epic went from the boy-friendly successor to old-time swashbucklers and Westerns to a repulsive feminist fever dream. Yet no matter how much men and women increasingly reject this change, the producers keep shoving the girl-power crap down their throat, with gay and trans activism thrown in for spite. By now, anyone still interested in Star Wars has seen the video interview with the lesbian showrunner and ditto lead of the latest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, laughingly concurring that it’s “the gayest Star Wars yet.” Producer Leslye Headland’s previous credits comprise of several projects nobody ever heard of, including a 2018 TV series version of the 80s hit, Heathers, which lasted two episodes. Starlet Amanda Stenberg’s only recognizable title is The Hunger Games, in which she had a tiny part. And it was to these two that Disney, via Lucasfilm, entrusted the billion-dollar franchise that changed the course of cinema. There’s only one explanation for such a catastrophic dichotomy — feminism. Feminism trumps business, certainly the movie business. And feminism hates men, especially white men, and real girls. Leslye Headland knows she could never create anything as significant as Star Wars, and Amanda Stenberg despises the male audience that made it thus. But she was chosen by her likeminded boss, Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, who was handpicked by George Lucas to run his company if not ruin his legacy. Which she has been doing for the last 12 years, since Disney bought Star Wars in 2012. And Bob Iger’s Disney is ground zero for the feminist anti-family crusade. It was a marriage made in woke hell. Consequently, rather than give the fans what they want, a manly hero a la Han Solo, Kennedy assailed them in the New York Times. “Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying,” she said. “I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.” It never even occurred to Kennedy to hire a male writer who appreciates Star Wars, understands the masculine dynamic, and would make the franchise fun again. No, the feminist agenda has to be advanced at all costs — including corporate disaster — with the blessing of little men like Iger. The madwomen-beta male alliance might have been more permanent if real men continued to ignore it. But they’re not. They’re slapping back the way Harrison Butker did last month over the wails of feminists of both sexes and the political party ruled by them. Last week, Argentinian President Javier Milei terminated the Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity. Next January, a new American President may take similar steps here. While a former feminist President shuffles away after his female leader. READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: ‘Now Tarzan Make War’ – On the Democrats The Last Woke Memorial Day The Leftist Exorcism Has Begun The post Feminism’s Secret Weapon: Weak Men appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.