202114178caic2223

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Michelle Yeoh Smashes the Glass Ceiling at the 95th Academy Awards

The atmosphere surrounding this year’s Oscars seemed to be a mainly positive one compared the drama we saw at last year’s ceremony which dominated the headlines thanks to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage, causing  jaws to drop around the world. As this year’s Oscars were, for the most part, drama free, the stories which spawned from the ceremony were actually quite heart-warming.

Of course, the main story to come out of this year’s Oscars is the movie which seemed to live up to its name. Everything Everywhere All At Once dominated the awards, seemingly winning everything in every category it could, rounding off the night with a total of 7 awards.

Malaysian born actress Michelle Yeoh took home the award for best actress for her role as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Yeoh dedicated the award to Asian children worldwide, showing them that there is no glass ceiling they are not able to smash through, weather that be in show business or whatever they aspire to become. Just because they are Asian doesn’t mean they cannot become the best at what they want to be. She stated in her speech that:

“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities… This is proof that dreams dream big, and dreams do come true."

(Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Asian actress to win best actress at the Oscars, 2023)

Yeoh did indeed make history by becoming the first Asian actress to win the award, and only the second ever actress born in Asia to receive a nomination. The first ever Asian actress to be nominated for the Academy Award for best actress was Merle Oberon back in 1936 for her role in the 1935 movie The Dark Angel. Though Oberon was born in Bombay India, she covered up her South Asian heritage, choosing to pass as a white woman.

Though Oberon was technically the first Asian actress to receive an Oscar nomination for best actress, her role in The Dark Angel greatly differs from Yeoh’s role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Yeoh won the Oscar for playing Evelyn Wang in a project that recognised and honoured her Asian heritage, whereas Oberon received her nomination for playing Kitty Vane, a white woman who gets caught up in a love triangle, a role which never acknowledges her Indian identity.

(Merle Oberon as Kitty Vane, The Dark Angel 1935)

On an episode of the ‘You Must Remember This’ podcast, Halley Bondy pointed out that Oberon was acting during a time when you had to be white in order to be nominated for awards and get notable roles in Hollywood, something that Oberon would have never been able to achieve if she had embraced her South Asian identity.

87 years on from Oberon’s Oscar nomination it is clear to see that Hollywood has come a long way, however, within almost 9 decades, Yeoh is only the second Asian actress to be nominated for the prestigious award. Yeoh herself has expressed how decades of activism from within the Asian community have only now made it possible for Asian actors to be prominently featured in featured in Hollywood movies.

“So many of us have been working on pushing the envelope and trying to make it happen… We believe in our Asian talent. We believe all of us have stories that need to be told and need to be embraced."

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Fact or Fiction? Which Ohio train disaster are we talking about?

What is perhaps creepier than a wave of thick, black, toxic clouds being released over your neighbourhood is the fact that this was an occurrence you would only expect to see in the movies. Those who saw the 2022 Netflix movie ‘White Noise’ are pointing out the eerie similarities between the film and the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

The recent accident saw approximately 38 of the 212 freight cars derailed, leaving behind a fiery wreckage. Around 20 of the 212 freight cars had been transporting ‘hazardous materials’, including “flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.”

Though nobody was killed following the accident, the smoke from the toxic wreck found its way into a neighbouring community leading to a concerning number of reports of health issues from residents, ranging from nausea and rashes to breathing difficulties.

Noah Baumbach’s ‘White Noise’ is a movie that sees the line between fact and fiction start to blur.

Based on a novel by Don DeLillo published in 1985, the 2022 Netflix movie shares ominous similarities with the recent train wreck. In the flick’s second act (appropriately named “The Airborne Toxic Event” in the book), a train accident sends toxic chemicals into the sky, causing a mass evacuation of the town.

With the movie being coincidently shot in Northeast Ohio, several East Palestine residents worked as extras in the movie, including Ben Ratner and his family. Ratner told CNN that he tried to rewatch the movie he cameoed in a couple of weeks after the incident, however he couldn’t finish it as “All of a sudden, it hit too close to home”.

“The first half of the movie is all almost exactly what’s going on here"

Adam Driver, who stars as Professor Jack Gladney in the movie, told the Hollywood Reporter that “It’s a very eerie, bizarre coincidence that we were just there making this movie… It’s a terrifying thing that happened and is happening, and to oddly have some distant connection with it is strange."

Like the movie, the toxic fumes from the wreckage forced many to evacuate their homes. I guess this disaster is an example of how occasionally, life can imitate art in grim ways.

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MTG Goes Off!: 9/11 Rant is Aimed at Biden After Spy Balloon is Shot Down

After a US fighter jet had shot down a 200ft long Chinese spy balloon on the 4th, the month of February has since seemingly turned into an episode of UFO Hunters. Three additional balloon shaped objects were spotted between February 10th and 12th. After there were additional reports of confirmed sightings of unidentified objects in the air from February 13th onwards, the total number of “balloon like entities” spotted in the sky had reached 163 since March 2021 according to US Defence Department reports.

Georgia’s Congress Representative, the far-right Marjorie Taylor Greene, wasted no time voicing her annoyance at President Biden for not shooting down China’s ‘balloons’ over continental America. At a recent rally Greene made an outlandish comparison by likening the balloon which was shot down to one of the four aircrafts hijacked on 9/11.

Biden had been advised by military officials to shoot the balloon down over sea as opposed to land as debris from the shot could potentially harm civilians or damage buildings, however Greene claimed that the President’s excuses for shooting the balloon down over sea were “absolutely pathetic”, reminding her audience that nobody was killed on land when an aeroplane crashed in Pennsylvania during the 9/11 attacks.

"They (Biden’s Administration) are liars. You can only see it two ways. Either they're liars or they're cowards” were Greene’s words from her rant, as she accused the President of being “sold out to China”.

A known conspiracy theorist, Greene has had a history of making rash comments about 9/11, as in 2018 she had claimed that there was no evidence that a plane hit the Pentagon during the attacks. In January of this year, Greene publicly denounced her support for conspiracy theories stating “Well, like a lot of people today, I had easily gotten sucked in to some things I'd seen on the internet, ... I never campaigned on those things. That was not something I believed in… So those are so far in the past." However, based on her recent comments about 9/11 and how Biden handled the spy balloons, its difficult to see how her mindset has changed.

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The End is Nigh For The Little Blue Bird

As soon as he had arrived, those who were working for him had begun to exit in their numbers around a week after he had seized control. Almost 50% of employees were exiled from the company by the new CEO as if he was a deranged emperor cutting loose kings who helped him run his empire. Based on their social media bios, many of the employees who left upon the arrival of the new boss were those who provided the company’s backbone, working behind the scenes as coders and developers giving life to the 40-billion-dollar company. The staff members who were not fired abandoned their positions, abdicating by choice after the new boss had sent out an email demanding “extremely hardcore” working conditions and “long hours at high intensity” from those who remained. It had gotten so bad that those who attempted to show their loyalty to him and stayed at their jobs feared him, likening him to a certain ‘He Who Shall not be Named’ from the Harry Potter series as his ‘goons’ would tirelessly scan for mentions of his name in emails to see who felt that it was acceptable to disrespect their new boss. The hapless individuals caught out would be axed. October 27th, 2022 officially marked the day that the social empire of Twitter was taken over by the richest man in the land. Elon Musk. Because of his newly acquired control over one of the most popular social networking platforms on the planet, people are predicting that Ol’ Elon Musk has taken the little blue bird on its last flight.

Some may say that the collapse of Twitter’s networking empire has seemingly been a genuine possibility for some years now, with a rich individual like Elon Musk delivering the final blow. Musk simply equipped his multibillion-dollar infinity gauntlet, snapped his billion-dollar fingers, and said “I am inevitable”, to pierce the final steak into the heart of the Twitter’s iconic bird.

Back in 2013 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had made claims that likened the way Twitter was run to a bizarre circus of sort. “(Twitter) is such a mess, it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine and fell in”. Zuckerberg had ridiculed Twitter’s strategies back then to show his frustration at the fact that Twitter had opted to remain as a private corporation. By remaining private, the folks over at Twitter were turning down the opportunity to raise equity capital from public investors by offering shares through the primary market. Twitter’s lax business fundamentals had seemingly taken a back seat to the demand to respond to the commercial cultural and political environment of the moment. While Twitter did eventually become a public company in November of 2013, the Arrival of Musk saw the company revert back to its old privately owned ways. November 8th was the date which saw Twitter delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Nearly a decade had passed since Zuckerberg’s comments on how Twitter had been run, however, the company had yet to find the formula with a 100% success rate when it came to making profit. At the dawn of 2021, Twitter had particularly struggled, as company had recorded a $221 million loss in the previous year. Though society was still attempting to heal itself from the Covid-19 pandemic that had been wreaking havoc for just over two years by this point, which could be an explanation as to why Twitter faced this substantial loss of profits that it did, this period of adversity for Twitter was by contrast a very lucrative time for corporations such as Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Pichai’s Google. The two companies had thrived of digital advertisements, I’m sure sending CEO’s laughing all the way to the bank as they found themselves earning record numbers in profit.

It was around a year later during the first few months of 2022, when Musk initially began to lurk around Twitter, seemingly ready to strike at any moment. The world’s richest man had begun to invest in Twitter stock on January 31st with his stake in the company reaching 9.2% on the 14th of March, making him the largest shareholder in the company. After the information of Musk’s steak in Twitter had become publicised, the company had welcomed him onto the board of directors with the then CEO, Parag Agrawal, embracing Musk in a tweet, hailing him as if he were an Arthurian hero which some archetypal prophecy foretold would come and bring balance to Twitter in the “long term” future.

Perhaps the true prophesiers were those spectating from the comment section however as a few members of the comment congregation seemed to foresee the impending spiral of calamity that Musk would eventually lead Twitter down. “@elonmusk is going to make your product worse now and unviable later, but okay” one commenter replied, with another chiming in with “Is racism okay? Because that is Musk.”. One lady said that Musk would just be yet “another billionaire helping to encourage fascism and undermine democracy because he got his panties in a twist about a few of his tweets being received poorly.”, with another straight up comparing Musk’s inclusion on the board with a “deal with the devil. For money”.

In the ‘end’, it seems that the morbid fear of many people came true as Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter on October 27th. The acquisition of Twitter cost around $44 billion, with Musk pledging to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for the takeover, which covered the price in full as well as the closing costs. Roughly one third of the cash ($13 billion) was in bank loans, meaning Musk did not have to pay back the loans himself, however Twitter themselves did. Economics journalist Wailin Wong had explained this perplexing concept, demonstrating how that this was due to the fact that it’s not the investment firm that borrows the money (in this case Musk) it's the company getting acquired (Twitter). The remaining sum of $33 billion included his 9.6% Twitter stake (which is worth $4 billion at the time) and $7.1 billion he had secured from investors.

So why did Musk decide to get Involved with Twitter in the first place? I think that is a question with quite a straightforward answer, and a question with an answer a few people may be surprised to find out. Well, though he may be the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk is still human, and shares something in common with a lot of people in today’s society, possibly even you or I. Musk is a social media addict. More specifically, Musk is a Twitter addict. His obsession for the platform may stem from obvious enjoyment, possibly even thrill he receives when trolling opponents and becoming the centre of attention when generating outlandish headlines with ample provocations. A reporter named Drew Harwell claimed that even His closest associates doubt that he actually “believes some of the wilder things he says online.", with Musk’s online antics merely being a façade to “win the internet’s most prized currency: attention".

Musk, on the other hand, of course has his own reasons as to why he believed he was this knight in shining armour that Twitter needed, weather people accepted their role as the maiden in distress in need of a saviour or not. "The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” Is what Musk tweeted out on the day which the takeover was completed, in what seemed to be a rallying cry for Unity of all cultures, races and religions to transform this current social wasteland into a networking utopia. “I didn’t do it to make more money, I did it to help humanity”. The next day, Musk cried out that finally “The bird is freed”!

Before I switch my BS detector on and immediately write off what Mr Musk was saying as a ploy to get people on his side for the commence of his Twitter dynasty, I will give him the benefit of doubt and say that in this scenario Musk was actually being sincere. However, if this were the case and Musk’s words were genuine then he sure isn’t doing a great job. Or maybe he doesn’t care? “The bird is freed”??? What bird is he referring to exactly because I’ve seen birds with more freedom in Chicken Run. Seemingly the only groups who found themselves with more freedom when logging on to Mr Musk’s Twitter were racists and those who wished to spread misinformation. Use of the N word exploded when Musk took over Twitter, seeing a 500% increase in usage within only the first 12 hours of Musk’s ownership. It was so bad that at one point the ‘Hard R’ was a trending topic. The very next week, there seemed to be a “prolific surge in anti-Jewish rhetoric", not to mention the homophobic, misogynistic, and transphobic language being thrown about. The only explanation for the rise in slurs and hateful language only shows how people with a bigoted mindset not only feel empowered by Musk’s takeover but they feel as if they will face no consequences.

However there is a reason for this. Cast your mind back to the beginning. Musk went on a rampage, firing almost 50% of Twitters employees, including 15% of the Trust & Safety organization. Among those discarded by Musk was head of legal policy, trust, and safety, Vijaya Gadde, the woman who played an important role in banning former President Donald Trump from Twitter (who Musk has since reinstated). The main team whose job it was to monitor, and censure hate speech is no longer at Twitter as they have fallen victim to Musk’s ‘utopia’.

So, is the era of Elon Musk really the beginning of the end for Twitter? Well, if we were to base this answer on not only how a majority of Twitter users feel, but also on how Musk himself apparently feels then yes. Twitter should be dying out soon (and has already begun). The Guardian has reported that a mass exodus of Twitter is expected with users discarding the app for good over the next two years, with global monthly usage predicted to drop by around 4% in 2023 and another 5% in 2024, accumulating to around 32 million users in total. “There won’t be one catastrophic event that ends Twitter, “Instead users will start to leave the platform next year as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavoury content” were the words of Jasmine Enberg of Inside Intelligence who cites two of the main issues which the platform has faced since it was taken over by Musk as the two major issues which will lead to the platform’s downfall. Well I guess that’s what happens when you decide to cut the staff down to a mere skeleton of what it once was, leaving you with not enough people to act upon any issues the servers may face, or to regulate any moderation issues. Though he may be running the company in a bizarre way like he almost doesn’t care, Musk has stated that his main aim for 2023 will be to kickstart Twitter’s revenue engine, losing many of its biggest advertisers have quit the platform. I guess the only way to actually find out if Twitter is truly dying or not is to wait & see what else Musk has up his sleeve in the future. For right now however, I guess Twitter is like the Schrodinger’s bird of social media. Is it dying or not yet? Who knows?

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Humbug Holidays: Who Gives a #*@! about Xmas? America Has Major Problems to Fix!

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden recently decked out the halls of the White house for the holidays with various festive decorations including garlands, wreaths, over 83,000 twinkling lights and an 18-and-a-half-foot Concolor fir, from Auburn, Pennsylvania, serving as the main Christmas tree.

Inspired by the America’s founding documents, Dr. Biden chose the theme of “We the People” for this year’s decorations. This theme was meant to serve as a reminder to American people of the things that united them as a nation during the year.

Though I love Christmas as much as the next person, I must turn into a Scrooge for a second and ask the question, "Who gives a f*ck about Christmas stuff and decoration?". This question was allegedly asked a in 2020 by the previous First Lady Melina Trump. Trump asked the question wishing to concentrate on more important duties, and I can honestly see where she’s coming from. Why should so much emphasis be placed on how pretty the White House looks at the end of the year with some phoney message about unity tagged on when there’s recurring problems the country is yet to tackle.

There is the obvious issue of violence. So far in 2022 there have been 705 mass shootings in the United States, seven more than the previous year. Gun violence seems to be a fixture in American society, with gun rights groups spending millions more than gun control groups.

As well as the ongoing problems of gun violence, Bank of America Securities analyst Robby Ohmes claimed that “Inflation is the Grinch”. Increasing prices for necessities such as food and fuel have cut Christmas shopping budgets for many across the country, making it difficult for people to shop for festive goodies for friends and family this year.

While the Biden family can claim how strong the country is when they come together, a few trees and twinkly lights won’t erase the fact that America has serious problems it needs to tackle. Once duty is called, then maybe we can all have a nice Christmas.

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Football vs Soccer: Could the USA cause an upset in their meeting with England at 2022 Qatar World Cup?

This Friday, the US Soccer team will meet England in the group B game at the Qatar 2022 World Cup. A win for England would confirm their place in the last 16 after a 6-2 win over Iran in the first round.

This may seem like an inevitable victory for England who are the footballing nation, only losing to the USA twice since the two teams first played each other in 1950. (Unless of course you were to count that famous 1-1 ‘victory’ for the States in the 2010 World Cup)

Despite what the records say however, this game may be a tougher test than many England fans would like to admit. Coached by Gregg Berhalter, the US national team enters this world cup with what many consider as their best ever generation of players. Unlike previous years, the USA not only has the second youngest squad at the World Cup (with an average age of 25.2 years) but their current team also includes multiple players playing for elite European club sides including the likes of Arsenal, Ac Milan, Juventus, and Borussia Dortmund. Berhalter’s players are quite capable of taking the USA on a good run into the knockout stages of this competition.

The USA’s key player is the 24-year-old Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic, a player expected to have a big World Cup by Berhalter who described him as “unbelievable on the ball” and “one of the most creative players in the game,”.

As well as Pulisic, a player to keep an eye on is 19-year-old Valencia midfielder Yunus Musa who, though young, is capable of causing England Problems in the midfield. Musah previously captained both Arsenal and England at youth level, with England boss Gareth Southgate stating that he would have liked Musah's future to be with England saying, “They took one of ours which we were not very happy about but fair play”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yunus Dimoara Musah (@yunus.musah8)

(Yunus Musah looks back at his Arsenal career as he leaves for Valencia. Via Instagram)

With the exiting, young team they have, the USA will be sure to give England a game on Friday. If we consider the fact that in the States the game will be played in the middle of a holiday afternoon, as thanksgiving would be the day before, we will be sure to see the USA put in a satisfactory performance against England, knowing their whole country is in front of their TVs showing support from home. Friday could very well be the day Soccer gets one up on Football!

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Nancy Pelosi hits back at "Disgraceful" Republican Responses

When asked by CNN reporter Dana Bash about the violent attack on her husband, Nancy Pelosi made sure to responded by calling out the blatantly disrespectful Republican reaction as well as the attack itself. “…it wasn't just the attack. It was the Republican reaction to it, which was disgraceful.” 

A 42-year-old California man, David DePape, has been charged with a number of felonies, including attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assaulting an immediate family member of a United States official with the intent to retaliate against the official. DePape broke into the San Francisco residence of the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on October 28th in an attempt to kidnap Pelosi. Though Pelosi was not present at her home when the attack took place DePape managed to attack her husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The 82-year-old was hospitalized for six days, undergoing surgery for a fractured skull.

DePape revealed to the San Francisco police that he identified Pelosi as “the leader of the pack of lies told by the Democratic Party”. During the police interview, he revealed his plan to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If she were to tell DePape the “truth” he would let her go, however if she “lied”, he was going to break “her kneecaps”.

Son of ex-President Trump, Donald Trump Jr, was amongst those who mocked Paul Pelosi in the aftermath of his attack. Trump Jr took to twitter posting an image of a hammer on a pair of ‘tighty-whities’, with the caption “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready”.

Virginia’s Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, also made comments which seemingly mocked Paul Pelosi’s attack. While speaking at a rally, Youngkin brought up the Pelosi’s situation, saying "There's no room for violence anywhere, but we're gonna send her (Nancy Pelosi) back to be with him in California… That's what we're gonna go do."

Meanwhile, Arizona’s Republican nominee Kari Lake made light of the attack at her Scottsdale campaign, saying “It is not impossible to protect our kids at school…. Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in DC — apparently, her house doesn’t have a lot of protection.”

Looking at some of the responses from right wing political opposition, it’s clear to see why Nancy Pelosi expressed that her trauma is intensified by the “disgraceful” attitude of Republicans, as much of the right wing responded to the horrific attack in a blatantly disrespectful way. As you could see, many of the disrespectful comments coming out of the Republican party came via notable figures in American politics, showing us the true colours of certain individuals who represent the party, and carry their ideas.

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Madison, You Might Wanna Look Away for This...

Imagine the reaction you’d receive if you travelled into the past and told President James Madison that 209 years down the line, the crystal flute he just received as a gift for his second inauguration would be played by a Black Woman. At DC, the Capital of the country. In front of a cheering audience of thousands. He'd probably react something like this...

(Philip Lewis from Twitter)

Recently, triple Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum artist Lizzo secured her place in the history books. While on her tour stop at Washington DC, she played Madison’s 200-year-old flute… while twerking during her performance. She was invited to the library of congress by Carla Hayden, the 14th librarian of Congress in an informal tweet after she caught wind that Lizzo would be performing in DC.

Hayden and the staff at the Library of Congress gave Lizzo a tour of the world's largest flute collection at the library where she played Madison’s flute for the first time, the day before her onstage performance.  “Bitch I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute… We just made history tonight” were Lizzo’s words after playing the priceless flute at her show.

So, what is the significance of Lizzo’s performance with the flute once owned by James Madison? Growing up on a Virginia plantation which ran off slave labour, Madison was a man who believed that slavery was a crucial part of the Southern economy. The Montpelier Estate, which Madison inherited from his father, was where over 100 African men, women, and children were enslaved and forced to work for him. Though he supported legislation allowing slave owners to liberate their enslaved workers, Madison never actually did so himself, choosing not to free his own slaves in his lifetime or including that in his will at death. Not to mention that Madison suggested the 3/5 compromise, which determined that every enslaved person in America would only be counted as three-fifths of a human being when deciding the final population of a state for legislative representation and taxation.

The fact an African American woman is able to play a flute once owned by a slave owner at Washington DC is pretty amazing! Even Lizzo’s twerking while playing the centuries old instrument shouldn’t be overlooked, even though the move upset many conservatives on social media.

During a TED Talk around a year ago, Lizzo had traced the origins of twerking to a West African dance move called Mapouka, talking about how the dance taught her to love herself. The dance arrived in American culture from the transportation of slaves from Africa. The same people who Madison and many others forced to work for themselves.

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Walker's Senate Showdown

“Lord have mercy… Georgia, there’s no way in hell y’all can even remotely think about voting for that fool Herschel Walker”. That was the reaction of journalist Roland Martin after watching the debate between Walker and current junior senator of Georgia, Raphael Warnock, on his daily Unfiltered podcast.

Honestly though, how can you blame him. It’s genuinely baffling how Herschel Walker even gained any significant form of momentum in his bid to become a US senator since the ex-NFL Running back clearly isn’t qualified for the job. The Georgia Republican has been drowned in controversy all throughout his bid to become a US senator. Walker has been faced with some serious domestic violence accusations, where he allegedly aimed a pistol at his ex-wife’s head. He has also been exposed for being a pathological liar, having fabricated countless stories, from his academic record to previous business ventures. Even his claims about the number of children he’s fathered were false. His son Christian Walker exposed him via a tweet for abandoning his family and sleeping with other women.

Walker found himself in the headlines again after his debate with Warnock, this time for quite a bizarre reason. During the debate, after Warnock had called Walker out for pretending to be a police officer, also mentioning his threat to engage in a shootout with police, Walker pulled out a sheriff’s badge.

According to Walker, the badge was “legit”, and he had received it from the Johnson County Sheriff. CNN later confirmed after their background check was completed that Walker was never affiliated with law enforcement professionally, confirming that although he was named an “honorary agent” in 2004, he still had his delusion that he had a background in law enforcement.

The fact the man who used to be a star for an NFL team with ‘Cowboys’ in the name pulled out a sheriff’s badge in the middle of a political debate where props were forbidden is another reason which shows how he is unfit for the role of senator.

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Biden's Blooper: Did the President really blame Elton John for the spread of Aids?

On Friday, September 23rd, Sir Elton John was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden at the White House. The National Humanities Medal is an award which commends both institutions and individuals for their work engaging with the humanities subjects. Previous winners range from Author James Patterson to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

The performance at the White House was made to honour our ‘everyday heroes’ in society. Teachers, nurses, military families, and LGBTQ+ advocates, among others, made up the crowd as John performed many of his hit songs in what was a celebration of their services.

By PA News Agency

President Biden awarded John with the prize for “for moving our souls with his powerful voice in one of the most defining songbooks of all time”, as well as his involvement in the battle against AIDS.

Despite the good nature surrounding the event, President Biden made a comment which sent social media into a frenzy...

“By the way, it’s all his fault that we’re spending $6 billion in taxpayers' money this month to help AIDS... fight HIV/AIDS."

To the guaranteed many who saw this isolated clip floating around on their social media feeds, Biden's remark out of context may have seemed as if the President had just shown his true colours to the world, essentially blaming Elton John for the spread of AIDS.

It would not have helped Biden's case that politician Lavern Spicer tweeted out that "Joe Biden blamed Elton John for AIDS and everyone just gave him a free pass for it.". This post was again shared on Instagram, doubtlessly leading to more people hopping on the 'Biden hate bandwagon'.

However all you must do to debunk this claim is view the clip of Biden awarding Elton in it's entirety, where you will see Biden's earlier claims with the President describing him as “an enduring icon and advocate with absolute courage, who found purpose to challenge convention, shatter stigma, and advance the simple truth that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.” 

What the President was insinuating was taken out of context in this specific moment, however it is understandable how his words were misconstrued by social media.