Jon Voight has released a statement in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school mass shooting calling for stricter gun laws in the US. “Oh, how my heard bleeds for all those lost,” he began the video posted to his Facebook page in front of an American flag. “My soul cries. We must do something about these horrors that are taken out on innocent beings. Humans who each have lives, and years of life that they’re supposed to live. They’ve been taken down by insanity.” The outspoken Republican and father of Angelina Jolie later went on: “There should be proper qualifications for gun ownership. Proper testing. One should only own a gun if they’re qualified and schooled. It’s not about left, right, guns, no guns. This is about brains that are dysfunctioning. This is mental. This is not abo...
Sidhu Moose Wala, a well-known Punjabi rapper-turned-member of India’s Congress party, has been shot and killed. He was just 29 years old. According the Hindustan Times, Moose Wala was murdered by unknown assailants in Jawaharke Village in the Mansa District on Sunday. The gunmen fired at least thirty rounds into the Moose Wala’s vehicle, killing him and another person, and injuring at least one other man who was traveling with him at the time. Punjab’s chief of police blamed the shooting on a rivalry between Moose Wala’s manager and a Canadian organized crime group. The attack reportedly occurred just one day after the Punjab police force scaled down security protection for over a hundred public figures, including Moose Wala, in an effort to redirect resources elsewhere. As Rolling Stone ...
Jack White has joined a chorus of renewed calls for gun control following the shooting at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead. In a statement posted to Instagram, the artist called for “new rules” that “save lives and protect us from serious harm.” “As we tour in Texas these past few days, I can’t help but to feel saddened in so many ways about the latest in a long line of mass shootings, but mostly I’m exhausted,” White began his statement. “Exhausted with the ignorant excuses about the inability to fix this problem, exhausted with people clinging to their political party or their ‘side’ instead of looking at the issue. Exhausted with people whining about their ‘freedom’ being more important than rules that help save lives.” The musician continued...
KISS founder Gene Simmons was once a contestant on Donald Trump’s network TV program The Celebrity Apprentice and was friendly with the former president long before he took office. Now, Simmons has come out to blast Trump’s presidency for normalizing racism and conspiracy theories. In a new interview with SPIN, Simmons discussed the cause-and-effect of Trump’s behavior and policies. As is typical with Simmons, there were no minced words. “I know the previous [US] president,” Simmons said. “I knew him before he entered politics. Look what that gentleman did to this country and the polarization — got all the cockroaches to rise to the top. Once upon a time, you were embarrassed to be publicly racist and out there with conspiracy theories. Now it’s all out in the open because he allowed it.” ...
The National Rifle Association has been forced to cancel its “Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert after the event became free of talent. Mr. “God Bless the USA” himself, fervent Trump supporter Lee Greenwood, has joined a mass exodus of musicians trying to distance themselves from the NRA in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. As Greenwood explained on Fox and Friends (via The Daily Beast), he felt that performing at the concert would be an endorsement of the AR-15, which was used to murder 19 children and two teachers. “For me to go and play at the NRA just days after the shooting would be an endorsement, and people would then deem that as [me saying] ‘I like this weapon.’ Obviously, that weapon killed kids. I just couldn’t go.” He becomes the latest ar...
Don McLean, the musician behind the 1971 hit “American Pie,” has resigned from performing at the National Rifle Association’s national convention this weekend, following Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. “In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week,” McLean said in a statement issued to TMZ. “I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans. I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.” McClean was one of several performers — including Lee Greenwood, Danielle Peck, and Larry Gatlin — scheduled to perform at the NRA conventi...
Spotify suspended political ad sales in 2020 because the platform found it too hard to “validate and review” the deluge of misinformation they were facing. Well, the good news is that misinformation has been totally solved, because why else would Spotify now quietly reintroduce political ads in the run-up to the 2022 midterms? Money? Oh, right, money. As Protocol reports, the Big Green Circle is now asking US candidates, political parties, and even PACs to open their wallets. “Following our pause of political ads in early 2020, we have spent the past two years strengthening and enhancing our processes, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We are now beginning to sell select political advertisements in opted-in th...
Morgan Freeman is among nearly 1,000 American citizens who’ve been permanently banned from entering the Russian Federation. In response to sanctions imposed by the US government over Russia’s unprovoked attack of Ukraine, Russia’s foreign ministry released the names of 963 Americans who are no longer welcome in their country. They include political figures like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, as well as members of Congress, tech executives, and journalists, according to the Washington Post. Freeman and fellow actor and filmmaker, Rob Reiner, are also on Russia’s shit list. While the foreign ministry didn’t offer any explanation for Freeman’s and Reiner’s inclusions, they were likely flagged for their participation in the Comm...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: NurPhoto / Getty Apparently, Elon Musk is under the impression that anyone cares or is surprised by the fact that he plans to start voting Republican—if he wasn’t already. “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,” Musk tweeted. “Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.” Related Stories OK, first of all, in the last two years alone, Republicans have spread voter fraud propaganda in an effort to steal an election they wrongly claimed was stolen from them, started a riot at the U.S. Capitol based inspired by said propaganda, moved to redistrict congressional maps to give Black people less...