Actor Terrence Howard allegedly said it's 'immoral' to tax 'descendants of slaves.' Now he owes nearly $1 million to IRS.



After actor Terrence Howard allegedly threatened a Justice Department lawyer and said it's “immoral for the United States government to charge taxes to the descendants of slaves," a federal judge ordered him to pay nearly $1 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

What's the background?

The Internal Revenue Service tried for more than a year to collect $578,000 in income taxes the agency said Howard — star of the hit TV show "Empire" — failed to pay between 2010 and 2019, the paper said.

After the Justice Department sued the 54-year-old actor in 2022, his sole response was a voicemail he allegedly left for the case's lead tax attorney in November, the paper said.

“Four hundred years of forced labor and never receiving any compensation for it,” Howard said in the message, the paper reported, citing a transcript of it. “Now, you have the gall to try and prosecute and charge taxes to the descendants of a broken people that you are responsible for causing the breakage.”

According to the paper, he added in a subsequent message, “In truth, the entire United States should, by default, become the property of the descendants of slaves. But since you do not have the ability [or] the courage to do it, let’s try this in court. … We’re gonna bring you down."

More from the Inquirer:

Despite that vow, Howard never formally responded to the lawsuit. And after a court hearing last week in Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy granted the government’s request to enter a $903,115 default judgment against the actor, a ruling that was first reported by the legal news service Law360.

Efforts to reach Howard at a number he left on that voicemail and through a lawyer who at one point told Justice Department lawyers that he might represent the actor in the case were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Anything else?

Howard said in a 2019 red carpet interview that he was ready to spread truth, which included "the science that Pythagoras was searching for" and building the Milky Way "without gravity."

He noted, "I was able to open up the flower of life and find the real wave conjugations that we've been looking for for 10,000 years. Why would I continue walking on water for tips when I've got an entire generation to teach a whole new world?"

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Leftists argue 'rest in power' for black people only after it's used for white airman who set himself on fire. Backlash is brutal.



When active-duty U.S. Air Force member Aaron Bushnell, 25, died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., while hollering "free Palestine!" woke social media users flooded the X platform with tributes to Bushnell punctuated with the phrase "rest in power" as opposed to the traditional "rest in peace."

For example, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein posted the following message, which has received well over 1 million views since Monday: "Rest in power Aaron Bushnell. 'I will no longer be complicit in genocide. Free Palestine!' May his sacrifice deepen our commitment to stop genocide now."

Uh-oh

Well, it appear that leftists of a more rabid nature aren't too happy with the likes of Stein, and they're demanding that the phrase "rest in power" be reserved for black people only.

The following X user created a video showing a whole bunch of social media posts from annoyed wokesters explaining the unwritten rules surrounding the proper usage of "rest in power." Content warning: Language, potentially disturbing images:

— (@)

Here comes the backlash

In the wake of the pointed "rest in power" corrections from the militant left, let's just say not everyone is down with being ordered around over their speech. To wit:

— (@)
— (@)
— (@)
— (@)

Some others:

  • "I will now say #RestInPower every time a white person of notoriety dies," one X user wrote. "Not because it’s important to do so, but because we’ve been told we’re not supposed to by those who attempt to demean us with controlled-speech. I reject their hollow dictates."
  • "Put the kids to bed. Told them all to rest in power," another commenter quipped.
  • "What if someone was electrocuted? Technically wouldn’t they Rest in Power?" another user wondered with tongue fully in cheek.

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Woman falsely accuses her landlord of saying he doesn't want black tenants — and makes it much worse by involving feds



A Cincinnati woman falsely accused her landlord of saying he doesn't want black tenants, and she pleaded guilty in federal court to making false statements to federal agents about the matter, the U.S. Department of Justice said last week.

What's the background?

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in February 2023 was forwarded several text messages purportedly sent by a Cincinnati-area landlord as part of a civil rights report, officials said, citing court documents.

The landlord owns more than 100 properties — including 56 properties rented through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s housing choice voucher program — and many of his tenants appear to be black, officials said.

In March 2023, Dermisha Pickett met with HUD agents and gave them numerous discriminatory messages purportedly from Pickett’s landlord, officials said, adding that Pickett also claimed her landlord called her as she arrived at the meeting and placed the call on speaker phone.

Pickett told agents she tried to pay her portion of the rent but that her landlord returned it, stating he did not want to rent to black people, officials said.

Fanon Rucker — Pickett's attorney at the time — shared multiple alleged screenshots of texts from her landlord stating he wanted "a white family in this unit" and "will not rent [to] African Americans again," WCPO-TV reported.

"If it doesn't make everybody who hears this angry, then folks need to check their pulse," Rucker said nearly a year ago, according to video from the station.

But the landlord during a later interview with agents told them he didn't want to continue to rent to Pickett because she was causing extensive damage to the property, officials said, adding that phone records and forensic analysis indicate that no text messages were exchanged during the time periods Pickett claimed and that it's alleged she used mobile applications to fabricate the text messages.

WCPO said it was discovered that an alleged voicemail from the landlord was linked to a phone number tied to Pickett.

Now what?

“Making false reports of racial discrimination is unacceptable and can have tangible effects on other tenants who rely on HUD-assisted housing,” Special Agent in Charge Shawn Rice with the HUD Office of Inspector General said. “In this case, if the landlord had violated the Fair Housing Act, his participation in HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher program may have been revoked, causing the displacement of approximately 50 families who rely on the Housing Choice Voucher program. These families would have been forced to uproot their families to find new homes, incurring non-reimbursable expenses.”

Pickett, 33, was charged in August 2023, officials said, adding that making a false statement to federal officers is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Here's a video report that aired when the tables started turning on Pickett about six months ago:

Cincinnati woman allegedly made up discriminatory messages from landlord youtu.be

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Baltimore mayor laments attention given to rural, 'white suburban' communities after block party mass shooting



Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) suggested Monday that race plays a role in the level of media coverage that mass shootings receive.

Two people were killed and 28 others were injured in a shooting at a block party in Baltimore early Sunday morning. Multiple weapons were recovered at the scene, and police believe there were at least two shooters. Law enforcement officers have not arrested anyone, and they don't yet know what the motive is for the shooting.

The lack of details did not stop Scott, however, from observing what he believes is a racial disparity in attention that shootings receive.

"My community knows this: We know that when you think about this country in the history of mass shootings, most of the time when we talk about this, we're talking about it being a school in a rural community or a suburban white community. And when it happens in Baltimore or Chicago, or D.C., it doesn't get that same attention," Scott asserted in an interview on CNN.

"These black American lives, children's lives matter just as anyone else. We're just asking for all of them to be treated the same," he continued.

It's not exactly clear, however, where the disparity is for this tragic incident in particular.

In fact, every major news outlet — NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press — has covered the story.

Perhaps Scott was referring to the fact that the shooting is not receiving wall-to-wall coverage in the media like other mass shootings. There is a reasonable explanation for that — and it's not because the victims are black.

Though police have not yet determined a motive, the fact that it occurred at a block party in which at least 200 people were in attendance, many of them teenagers and young adults, and the fact that there were multiple shooters and multiple firearms recovered suggests the shooting started as a dispute. This is typical of gun violence in major cities like Baltimore and Chicago.

Sensationalized mass killings, on the other hand, receive the attention they do because they often involve a killer who targets people at random in populated areas: schools, malls, grocery stores, and theaters. It's not because the victims are white or because they occur in rural areas, which is not always or even most often the case.

All murder is tragic and senseless. Gun violence is a problem. But the evidence does not suggest that this incident is receiving less attention because it occurred in a black working-class neighborhood and resulted in black victims.

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If black people had rioted on Jan. 6 at Capitol, there would have been a 'vastly different' law enforcement response, House sergeant at arms says



House Sergeant at Arms William Walker said if black people had rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a "vastly different response" from law enforcement would have taken place, The Hill reported.

Walker led the D.C. National Guard during the Jan. 6 rioting and gave his assessment to the House Jan. 6 panel in April, the outlet said, citing a transcript released this week.

“I’m African-American. Child of the sixties. I think it would have been a vastly different response if those were African-Americans trying to breach the Capitol,” Walker said, according to The Hill.

He added that "as a career law enforcement officer, part-time soldier, last five years full-time, but a law enforcement officer my entire career, the law enforcement response would have been different,” the outlet said.

More from The Hill:

The House panel as part of its investigation examined why it took hours for the Pentagon to eventually send the National Guard to the Capitol as the calamity unfolded.

The committee concluded in its final report that no Pentagon officials deliberately held off on sending the Guard, but rather conflicting messages caused a delay, placing the blame on then-President Trump.

Walker indicated he did not receive a call from the Defense secretary or secretary of the army as rioters began breaching the Capitol, drawing a comparison to the summer of 2020, when Walker said Pentagon officials “constantly” called him to discuss the racial justice protests that unfolded following the killing of George Floyd.

“I think the response would have been different, a lot more heavy-handed response to, I think there would have been a lot more bloodshed,” Walker added, according to the outlet. “You know, as a law enforcement officer, there were — I saw enough to where I would have probably been using deadly force.”

He also said, “You’re looking at somebody who would get stopped by the police for driving a high-value government vehicle. No other reason,” The Hill reported, adding that Walker also noted, "I’ve had to talk with my five children, and getting ready to have it with my granddaughter, the talk. I don’t know if you know what I mean by the talk, of what to do to survive an encounter with the police.”

Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving resigned the day after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. The Hill said Walker replaced Irving in April.

Anything else?

A group of House Republicans released a damning report last week saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders played a critical role in creating the Capitol security plan that ultimately failed Jan. 6.

In fact, Irving at the time "succumbed to political pressures from the Office of Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leadership," the report said, adding that he coordinated "closely with the Speaker and her staff and left Republicans out of important discussions related to security" that Pelosi "micromanaged."

"Rather than coordinate in a meaningful way, Irving only provided information to Republicans after receiving instruction from the Speaker's office. In one case, Irving even asked a senior Democratic staffer to 'act surprised' when he sent key information about plans for the Joint Session on January 6, 2021 to him and his Republican counterpart," the report said.

While Pelosi has said she has no power over Capitol Police, the report contradicted that.

“This is false,” the report said, according to the New York Post. “Documents provided by [current] House Sergeant at Arms show how then-House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving carried out his duties in clear deference to the Speaker, her staff, and other Democratic staff ... House Rules dictate ... that the Sergeant at Arms is to report directly to the Speaker of the House.”

'It's not what you read. It's what is being omitted': Steve Crowder EXPOSES Dem's hemorrhaging black vote



CNN finally acknowledged the declining number of black voters supporting Democrats. However, according to Steven Crowder, CNN and other news outlets neglected to tell their viewers how the downward trend in black voters has been apparent since 2008.

"It's not what you read. It's what is being omitted," Crowder explained. Although CNN reported on the drop, its report only went back to 2018. Crowder's data shows Democrats have been hemorrhaging black voters. Watch the video for the breakdown.

Later in Tuesday's episode of "Louder with Crowder," the guys covered the latest controversy surrounding artist Kanye West and conservative commentator Candace Owens for wearing "White Lives Matter" t-shirts to a fashion show. Many on the left viewed the political fashion statement as "dangerous," but Crowder questioned what exactly is dangerous about two black people expressing respect for white people. Video below.


Download the podcast here.

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Kanye West asked not to perform at the Grammys due to 'concerning online behavior'



Iconic rapper Kanye West has been barred from performing at the Grammy Awards.

The Recording Academy and CBS, the groups who present the Grammys, contacted Kanye's team and informed them that the rapped had been "unfortunately" removed from the lineup of performers for the 2022 Grammys due to his "concerning online behavior," Variety reported.

A report from The Blast, a celebrity gossip blog created by one of the co-founders of TMZ, claimed that the "Donda" rapper's team received a phone call informing them that Kanye had been axed from the show. And, Variety suggests, there may be good reason for booting Kanye's live performance.

In recent weeks, Kanye has been very publicly feuding with his ex-wife's, Kim Kardashian, new boyfriend, "Saturday Night Live" comedian Pete Davidson.

West, who mockingly refers to Davidson as "Skete," launched an intense intimidation campaign against the comedian in a series of now-deleted Instagram posts.

"Ran Skete off the gram," West boasted in late February, "Tell your mother I change your name for life."

In a recently released music video for the song "Eazy," in which Kanye collaborates with fellow rapper The Game, a claymation Kanye kidnaps, tortures, and murders a similarly animated avatar of Davidson.

The song also features the lyrics: "God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson's ass."

(Warning: video contains explicit language and graphic images)


The Game, Kanye West - Eazy (Official Music Video) www.youtube.com

Reportedly, it is a concern that Kanye might ruffle the feathers of the cultural elite in a live performance at the Grammys. The show's hosts are worried he might renew his anti-Davidson crusade, make a statement of support for his friends who have fallen out of public favor like controversial artist Marilyn Manson or fellow rapper DaBaby, or perhaps even make potentially right-wing political statements.

There is also concern stemming from past disagreements Kanye had with the host of this year's awards, "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah.

The Game, Kanye's collaborator on "Eazy," said that the removal of Kanye from the live show proves that the institution is biased against "the culture."

He said, "Time [and] time again they show us that they only want to STEAL the culture, not allow you to ever be their equals. In a more than obvious move for reasons of miniscule actions … The Grammys have at the last minute decided to pull [Kanye West] from performing on the show as if we dind't know it was coming. [It] could be because [Trevor Noah] is hosting and there was a conversation held amongst his team [and] the academy that led to the decision."

Despite not being invited to perform at the Grammy's live show, The Root reported that Kanye's most recent album "Donda" is nominated for five Grammy awards.

Aide to Democrat Dianne Feinstein fired after saying senator 'cares more about her dog than black people.' So he tapes himself smoking pot in her Capitol Hill office.



The short version of the story Jamarcus Purley told to Latino Rebels is that after working as an aide in California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office on Capitol Hill for five years — and determining that she and the rest of the staff weren't doing enough for black people — he let them know about it no uncertain terms.

On Jan. 24, Purley told the staff during a meeting — among other things — that Feinstein “cares more about her dog than black people," the outlet reported.

What happened next?

Purley noted to the outlet that a number of fellow staffers offered him quiet support for his words, but on Feb. 8, Feinstein fired him for performance issues.

With that, Purley posted his termination letter to Instagram and paid to promote it, the outlet said, adding that Instagram pulled the promotion after it reached 7,000 users since it was about "social issues, elections, or politics."

Then he made one last stand.

Purley told the outlet he "ate some shrooms" then hatched a plan: He told Latino Rebels he ironed his suit and "walked to the Hill. I was standing in front of the Capitol. My heart is racing. I had a joint in my pocket. I’m talking to cops. It made no sense to anyone but me, on shrooms. I put on some trap music. I thought of my family. I looked at my sister — she’s my screensaver on my phone. She puts up with so much s**t as a black woman. I knew no one would ever know the s**t Feinstein does to black people if I didn’t make it impossible to ignore.”

And then, after making it past security and into the Capitol complex, Purley did his best to make sure folks couldn't look away.

“I get to the Senate, the building where I worked for five years. I still had the keys to my office," he told the outlet. "I get in there. I get into the office, and I can’t breathe. I’m on shrooms in an office where white people touch my hair and do racist s**t."

Purley added that he walked into Feinstein's office, which "triggered a screaming white noise sound. I had only been in her actual office like twice in five years, and I couldn’t figure out how to turn off the white noise sound. It was giving me so much anxiety because it sounded like when the cops show up. So then I was like, f*** it. I just gotta do something for 10 minutes, and I can finally leave. So I’d brought my Bose speaker. I used her bathroom, then I go sit at her desk. I turn on my speaker and start the music. I start smoking that joint, an afghani, a heavy indica, because I knew I needed to be calm. I thought about how special my mom and black women would feel seeing me dance to [DeBarge’s 1982 hit “I Like It"] in particular, in a space where they aren’t welcome at all. Then I started the video.”

Here's the clip:

not an attack adyoutu.be

Anything else?

Purley's background prior to gaining attention for his infamous video is pretty eye-opening as well.

Hailing from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Purley received his undergrad degree from Stanford, the outlet said, adding that during his senior year, he studied abroad at Oxford University in England.

He added to the outlet that he was denied admittance to the Oxford library because he didn’t look like a student.

Purley then went to Harvard where he received a master’s in education policy and management, as well as high praise from faculty and fellow students, the outlet said.

He then applied for an entry-level job as a staff assistant in Feinstein’s office and had a memorable first meeting — for all the wrong reasons: "The first time I met Sen. Feinstein, there were two black dudes in the meeting, and she called me the other black guy’s name ... We look nothing alike. We are two different shades. He wears a beard."

Purley added to the outlet that "multiple white coworkers in my office touched my hair without my permission," repeating that "my coworkers touched my motherf***in’ hair."

He added to the outlet that he was passed over for promotion twice because his supervisors said he didn’t write well enough.

“I had gone to the chief of staff twice because I told them that the way they write alienates black people,” Purley told the outlet. "I mean, I studied English and African American studies — I know what the f*** I’m talking about. They said it’s not my role to tell us what or how to write. It’s my role to reflect the senator’s voice. They kept telling me I work at the pleasure of the senator.”

Then Purley's father died of COVID in December 2020 — and he was finally promoted from staff assistant to legislative correspondent, the outlet said. He would work in that position for the entirety of 2021.

“Working as a legislative correspondent, that’s when it hit me just how little resources black people in California have,” he told Latino Rebels. “The senator wouldn’t allow us to help people directly. People on the Hill are scared of losing their jobs. What made me fearless was this moment: my father was dead. Other black and brown families were losing their loved ones as well and Feinstein didn’t give a f***."

On Jan. 17, 2022, he addressed the issue in a staff meeting — and then did so again the following week when he made the remark about Feinstein caring more about her dog than black people.

MSNBC interviewed Purley last week about what he experienced. The cable network reported that a representative from Feinstein's office said they weren't permitted to speak about personnel issues.

(H/T: Louder With Crowder)

Joy Behar: Black people 'skittish' about COVID vaccines should get over it since 'the experiment has been done on white people now'



Joy Behar, co-host of "The View," declared that black people who are "skittish" about receiving COVID-19 vaccines due to governmental distrust and past injustices such as the Tuskegee experiment should end their vaccine hesitancy because "the experiment has been done on white people now."

What are the details?

"The View" on Thursday discussed a new pro-vaccine ad from the Department of Health and Human Services and the idea of using fear to motivate unvaccinated people to get the shots.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said as of Monday that race/ethnicity is known for 61% of those who have received at least one vaccine dose — and while nearly two-thirds are white (60%), only 11% are black, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported. But CDC data also showed that recent vaccinations are reaching a larger share of the black population compared to its share of overall vaccinations and its share of the total population, which will narrow its gap in nationwide vaccinations, the KFF added.

'The experiment has been done on white people now'

Behar brought up the low percentage of black people who've been vaccinated.

"How do they get through to people like the black audience, for instance, the African-American community, who has been burnt in the past by these [sic] Tuskegee experiment and things coming out that have harmed them," Behar said. "I don't blame that community for being skittish about it, but I say that so many white people have gotten it now, you know, the experiment has been done on white people now."

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg agreed with Behar, saying that the fact that massive numbers of white people aren't seeing awful adverse reactions to vaccines is proof that they're safe for black people also.

"I've said to more people, 'Do you see another head at the back of my head? Is there a tail back there? 'Cuz if you haven't seen anything come out and grow on me, it's pretty simple that it's OK,'" Goldberg noted.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

She added, "Yes, terrible things have happened. ... Black folks have gone to the hospital and come out and been unable to have kids because they were sterilized while they were asleep, the Tuskegee experiment — there are countless things we can point to. But [the COVD-19 vaccine] is not one of them. This isn't one of them."

Pointing back to Behar's comment about white people, Goldberg added, "Did you just say, Joy, white people? This is what I said at the beginning: White people are getting it. If you don't see them with double heads, it's OK. You know, if you don't see a tail, it's OK."

HHS Unveils Fear-Based Vaccine Ads | The Viewyoutu.be

Anything else?

The panel seemed all for instilling fear in the minds of the unvaccinated in order to convince them to get the jab.

Behar suggested getting pro-vaccine ads on Fox News and "let those people who are trying to 'own the libs' see what will happen if they don't get it."

She added that fear is becoming a major factor — both fear of getting the vaccine and fear of not getting it: "Which fear will win?"

Co-host Sunny Hostin said, "I also remember the ad campaign, this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, with the egg on the street frying. That works. Fear works, unfortunately."

Guest co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas said fear is a "very good tool to have in your toolbox."