It’s time to join the fight and expose Ticketmaster
Concerts are supposed to be fun. Unfortunately, the typical excitement and anticipation of attending a show or sporting event has been overshadowed by panic and stress. Nearly 50% of concertgoers recently admitted they’ve considered taking a second job just to afford tickets.
In addition to shelling out a small fortune for concert tickets, fans now have to worry if their tickets will vanish into thin air, thanks to one company’s epic data breach earlier this year. With the data from about 560 million people up for grabs, your ticket might just be the hottest item on a hacker’s wish list.
We find ourselves in this situation because Live Nation-Ticketmaster manages the artists, runs the venues, and sells the tickets — virtually every piece of the ecosystem.
Why is this all happening? The ticketing industry’s self-made monopolist, Ticketmaster, changed the game, and it’s time we as fans do something about it.
The merger of Ticketmaster with its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, back in 2010 has brought turmoil and frustration for artists, concert venues, and consumers alike. But while many affected by Ticketmaster’s monopoly in the live event and ticket ecosystem have spoken out, not much has happened.
Thankfully, the lawsuit from the Department of Justice and a bipartisan group of more than 40 state and district attorneys general compiles over a decade’s worth of evidence that true competition in live events and the ticketing industry is absent — leading to increased costs and fewer event opportunities for fans.
Ticketmaster's latest blunder with Oasis’ highly anticipated 2025 comeback tour underscores the company’s ongoing failure to put fans first. At the outset, overwhelming traffic caused Ticketmaster’s system to crash, leaving thousands of U.K. fans stuck in queues without ever getting a chance to purchase tickets, while others paid considerably more than they anticipated.
Sound familiar, Swifties?
We find ourselves in this situation because Live Nation-Ticketmaster manages the artists, runs the venues, and sells the tickets — virtually every piece of this ecosystem. Its overwhelming control over ticketing, touring, and promotions has led to restricted consumer choices and inflated ticket prices, all while Live Nation-Ticketmaster becomes ever more profitable.
The lack of real competition between Ticketmaster and other ticket sellers is evident. Live Nation owns or manages 60% of the highest-grossing venues in the United States, granting Ticketmaster exclusive rights for initial ticket sales at those venues. Additionally, Live Nation directly manages more than 350 musical artists and their tours. Guess which venues they use?
Then there are the concerns around its business tactics that box out other market participants. Its network of exclusive contracts eliminates choice, forcing venues and artists into the hands of a single corporate player.
And of course, as we just saw with Oasis and many other high-demand sales, the lack of competition results in poor execution and poor customer service.
In some instances, Live Nation even exclusively sells its own canned water — Liquid Death — at its venues. The list goes on.
The federal government must take decisive action to dismantle this monopoly and introduce real competition in the live event industry. With former President Donald Trump decidedly winning the election, we can only hope his new team at the Justice Department will continue to keep antitrust enforcement at the forefront.
Transparency in primary ticketing is nonexistent, while venues, artists, and promoters remain under the control of a single entity. Restrictive terms and conditions limit what people can do with a ticket.
Now is the time for fans to say, enough is enough — especially if you are one of the 145 million Americans who plan to attend a live event in the next year and don’t want to see the tickets you spent a small fortune on disappear.
Megyn Kelly’s FIERY message for Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Julia Roberts: 'You effed around and found out'
One group Democrats can always count on to show their support for even the most radical candidates and policies is celebrities.
And this election season was no different. From Taylor Swift and Beyonce to Jimmy Kimmel and psycho Mark Hamill, Kamala Harris’ list of celebrity endorsements was long.
As it turns out, however, nobody cared.
Taylor Swift’s cringey Instagram post where she praised Harris and Walz and threw a jab at JD Vance was for naught. Beyonce’s “As a mother, I demand the right to kill children” speech at Harris’ Houston rally was for naught. In fact, every Harris celebrity endorsement was for naught because Donald Trump won in a landslide victory. Americans didn't care what celebrities had to say.
Dave Rubin plays Megyn Kelly’s hilarious message for celebrities following the epic red sweep that just changed the trajectory for the nation.
“One of the big losers? The celeb crowd,” she began. “Beyonce? Loser. Oprah? Huge loser. J.Lo? ... Loser!”
“We would like to know what happened between you and Ben Affleck, what happened between you and P. Diddy, exactly what you're doing to your butt, and how you keep your skin so glowy. That will end the list of things we care about,” Kelly said regarding Jennifer Lopez.
Her message for Swift was even more brutal.
“Taylor Swift, sorry you effed around and found out. You do not have unlimited influence. The young girls love you because you sing songs about men who break up with you, and they can all relate to that. No one gives two s**** about your political opinion, so you should take it and stuff it,” she lambasted, adding that Swift’s next song should be called “Stuff It.”
Kelly also roasted Julia Roberts for narrating a Harris-Walz ad centered around a woman who secretly votes opposite of her husband’s political views.
Calling Roberts a “husband stealer,” Kelly said, “Maybe don't be the voice of the ad in which we talk about women betraying their husbands.”
“Of course she’s right,” says Dave. “We've had it with the celebrities; we don't care about these people. You want to talk about your skin regimen or your Botox or whatever, fine, fine. But stop bludgeoning us with your bulls*** because you've been to parties with child molesters.”
To hear more of Kelly’s epic celebrity roast, watch the clip above.
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Failed Harris campaign went deeper into debt blowing money on star-studded events
Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, and self-identified "Childless Cat Lady" Taylor Swift were among the many coastal celebrities who endorsed Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the vice president's monumental defeat. It turns out that the production of inauthentic election-time adoration and ideological conviction was expensive.
Federal filings revealed that the campaign, which is reportedly indebted to the tune of over $18 million after blowing roughly $1 billion on Harris' latest failed presidential run, poured boatloads of cash into influencer networks and production companies linked to big names in the entertainment industry.
Federal Election Commission filings show, for instance, that the Harris campaign committee paid Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions $1 million on Oct. 15.
Winfrey tried her apparent best on more than one occasion to generate excitement for Harris. In September, she hosted a rally in Michigan, suggesting that there was a "grassroots movement" behind the vice president and that Harris inspired "a real feeling of optimism and hope."
On the eve of Harris' rejection by the majority of American voters, Winfrey told a crowd in Philadelphia once again to vote, suggesting it might be their last opportunity ever to do so.
Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, rapper 2 Chainz, and Lady Gaga also made appearances at Harris' final swing-state concerts. The Washington Examiner indicated that the campaign blew over $15 million on "event production"-related costs.
'It didn't matter to have a bunch of celebrities talking to no one.'
Elements of the defeated Harris campaign told the New York Post that former Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter pushed the star-studded concert performances as a way to turn out lower-propensity voters — a plan apparently supported by senior Harris adviser David Plouffe, who has since taken steps to erase his social media presence.
One campaign source told the Post, "They said they were 'spending to zero.' I guess they overshot zero."
Another source said that the costly events constituted "a real misuse of funds that could have been better spent on ads laying out economic polices" to irate and struggling voters. "It didn't matter to have a bunch of celebrities talking to no one, because one, 75 million people already voted, and two, people were concerned about their own financial issues, not Oprah telling them America won't exist."
The Harris campaign apparently dodged the Post's request for comment.
'Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others.'
"Money can't buy you love or a good candidate," a Trump campaign adviser told the Examiner.
When compared to President-elect Donald Trump's various podcast appearances, which were virtually all massively popular — especially his appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience," which has netted over 48.7 million views on YouTube alone despite its initial suppression — Harris' "Call Her Daddy" interview with Alex Cooper was a failure, netting fewer than 845,000 views on YouTube.
This promotional spot was not only ineffective but costly. An unnamed source told the Examiner that the Harris campaign spent six figures building a set for the vice president's "Call Her Daddy" appearance.
Federal filings also indicate that the Harris campaign spent tens of millions of dollars on consultants to stimulate and simulate support online. The Examiner noted that Village Marketing Agency received over $3.9 million, ostensibly for its help recruiting social media influencers to boost the vice president online.
Trump appeared to troll the Harris campaign on Truth Social over the weekend, writing, "I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn't have lots of$’s left over. Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others."
"Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do," continued the president elect. "We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was 'Earned Media,' and that doesn't cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
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‘Deleting All My Social Media’: Crybaby Celebrities Melt Down After Trump Win
The gnashing of elitist teeth since the Blue Wall’s fall has been GLORIOUS! Especially for an old conservative boy from flyover country.The dark arts have a new name — witchcore — and it's lurking in your local grocery store
Paganism has been on the rise in the Western world for some time now. More and more people are abandoning their religious upbringings and rejecting the Judeo-Christian values of the West. While some have opted to adopt agnosticism or atheism, others, especially Gen Zers, have chosen to replace Christianity with a different set of beliefs and practices rooted in paganism. Ranging from engaging in actual black magic to just dressing in dark, edgy clothing, witchcore is the newest fad among the rising generation.
Unlike the colonial days when witches were so feared that even the town spinster had to watch her back, today, witches and witchcraft are embraced by society.
Allie Beth Stuckey points to a recent magazine in a grocery store checkout lane titled “Witches: Discover their secretive and mysterious practices” as an example of how mainstream the occult has become. The magazine, which features a woman clad in black robes and a pointed hat holding a cluster of burning red candles, sits adjacent to gossip columns and rows of candy as if it’s just another mundane object.
“This is clearly a glorification of witchcraft,” says Allie.
While the magazine features a traditional-looking witch, the majority of today’s witches look like “your normal suburban mom.”
“Even if someone is not wearing a pointy hat and walking around with their black cat, they might be imbibing and emulating [and] exhibiting aspects of witchcraft,” says Allie.
Further, modern “witchcraft doesn't necessarily always look like a Ouija board or like dying your hair black and casting spells,” she explains. It often looks like “manifesting,” “transcendental meditation,” “burning sage,” “using crystals,” etc.
Modern witches weren’t ushered into the dark arts because they happened to stumble upon a group of women chanting incantations in the forest either. Most of them were introduced to new age concepts in the growing realm of “self-help” and “self-empowerment” guides. Allie explains that things like “a Cosmo article,” “astrology,” or the idea of tapping into your inner “goddess” is all it takes for someone to set off down a path of darkness.
A recent British Vogue article even spoke on the subject of witchcore and admitted that although the fad aims to “merge romantic mystical vibes with grungy Gothic undertones,” the “witchcore aesthetic is influenced by ancient rituals and practices, from potion making and herbalism to tarot card reading, sage burning, and crystal healing.”
“It’s not just about following a trend that you saw that you think is cute,” says Allie. Even things that seem benign, like a specific clothing aesthetic, are rooted in the incredibly dark idea of unleashing “a woman’s darker side.”
Artists like Taylor Swift are heavily responsible for viralizing the witchcore trend.
Allie plays a video of Swift performing on her Eras tour in a black robe surrounded by a circle of female dancers who are also clad in black robes. They essentially bow down to the pop icon who stands in the center of the dark ring.
“That is clearly demonic,” says Allie.
What’s perhaps even more disturbing, however, is the number of Christians who don’t recognize that these new age concepts and practices are satanic in nature. Some even try to engage in certain aspects of new ageism while maintaining their Christian faith.
“That’s called syncretism,” says Allie.
“In the Book of Revelation, one of the things that [Jesus] condemns is syncretism — trying to wed light and darkness.”
To hear more of Allie’s commentary on the rise of modern witchcraft, watch the episode above.
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'Media censoring is real': Antonio Brown says NBC refused to show Elon Musk on-screen during NFL broadcast
Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown accused NBC of purposely not mentioning Elon Musk during its broadcast while he was attending a game.
Musk was in a luxury box at Acrisure Stadium as the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night, in a game that took until nearly 1 a.m. to complete due to weather delays.
The Tesla CEO stuck around in Pennsylvania after speaking at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, the same location the former president was shot.
'Taylor Swift gets shown every game she's at and not even a mention he's at the game.'
Musk was widely seen in social media clips hyping up the Pittsburgh crowd and even waving the Steelers' signature Terrible Towel.
However, the Super Bowl champion alleged that NBC purposely kept Musk off the airwaves during their "Sunday Night Football" presentation.
"NBC choose not to show Elon Musk at the Cowboys vs Steelers game," Brown wrote on X. "Another reason to get out [and] Vote [.] Media censoring is real and will only get worse unless change."
— (@)
Brown responded to media coverage about the issue and stated he believed "it's not an accusation it's the truth."
He added that Taylor Swift, who is said to be dating Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, is consistently shown on-screen during NFL broadcasts.
"Taylor Swift gets shown every game she's at and not even a mention he's at the game."
He added, "Did you see [NBC] say anything about being at the game? Does not fit their agenda."
Musk then replied to the same post and said, "That was weird."
Unfortunately for NBC and "Sunday Night Football," this wasn't the first time this year they were accused of foul play. The network was criticized earlier in 2024 for editing out portions of an interview with Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud.
"First and foremost, I just want to give all glory and praise to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," then-rookie Stroud said to start the interview.
"Thank you, God bless," he said at the end.
Both mentions of God were removed for social media posts, with the first edit being far more egregious and obvious.
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