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Sharon Osbourne gives first interview to Bill Maher -- and of course the talk is on 'cancel culture'
April 16, 2021
Sharon Osbourne on Friday sat down for her first extended TV interview since leaving the CBS show "The Talk" last month under a cloud of scandal.
Instead of being interviewed by a reporter, Osbourne chose to be interviewed by HBO "Real Time" comedian Bill Maher. Kellyanne Conway made the same choice in January.
Osbourne had been accused of referring to then-co-host Julue Chen as "Wonton" and "slanty eyes." She also reportedly referred to former co-host Sara Gilbert as "p*ssy eater" and "fish eater."
The problems got worse when Osbourne defended Piers Morgan following his highly controversial comments on Megan Markle and the British Royal Family.
"I am with you," Osbourne said. "I stand by you. People forget that you're paid for your opinion and that you're just speaking your truth."
The problem is, Morgan's "truth" struck many as being a racist opinion.
Morgan resigned from "Good Morning Britain" and Osbourne ended up leaving "The Talk."
"See, they still love you," Maher said as she entered the stage and asked how she was doing.
"I'm angry, I'm hurt," Osbourne said. "I'm a fighter."
Although neither were fired, resigning was close enough for Maher, who framed the situation as one of "cancel culture" instead of racism. Maher has been on the topic for months in his crusade against accountability.
"So he was called a racist and lost his job and you were called a racist and lost your job," Maher summarized. "Do I have it right?"
"You've got it right, that's exactly how it went," Osbourne replied.
Maher said the criticism Osbourne as he described it sounded "insane."
The host suggested that the British Royal Family might not be racist, just "cold to everybody."
And then the conversation shifted to why Morgan had viewed one of Osbourne's breasts.
Maher mentioned the "Asian slur, lesbian slur" but did not mention what Osbourne was alleged to said. At which point Osbourne deployed the "women are bitches" defense and said it was just "disgruntled ladies."
As Maher continued to rant about holding people accountable, he shouted, "I don't need re-education!"
Maher also bragged about getting Osbourne's first interview, even though he is known for asking softball questions while focusing on his pet peeves like so-called "cancel cancel."
Watch:
Osbourne www.youtube.com
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Paul Gosar's defense of his 'Big Lie' is that there never even was an insurrection by Trump supporters
April 16, 2021
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) argued that there should not be an ethics investigation into his role in the fatal January 6th insurrection because it wasn't actually an insurrection.
On March 10th, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) sent a letter to the House Ethics Committee calling for an investigation into Gosar.
"In the weeks and days leading up to the riot, Representative Gosar urged supporters to take action against election certification, repeatedly insisting that the election had been stolen and participating in rallies alleging voter fraud," Jayapal charged.
Among the five bullet points Jayapal used to make the case, one noted conspiracy theorist Ali Alexander said Gosar had helped plan the events and called him "the spirit animal of this movement." Another noted out Gosar's speech at the rally preceding the riots, when he said, "You get to go back home once we conquer the Hill [and] Donald Trump is returned to being president."
Gosar is now arguing in a response to the Ethics Committee that there was not an insurrection as he repeated his "Big Lie" about election fraud and complained about "Blue Anon" -- which is how some on the far right fringes have labeled those who call out their conspiracy theories.
Even though the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol chanted "hang Mike Pence," Gosar claims it is "fundamentally ignorant" to state that there was an insurrection.
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Kevin McCarthy argued GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln, not racism. It did not go well.
April 16, 2021
After four years of a Republican President who worked almost daily to spread or lend support to racism, white nationalism, or white supremacism – including having top advisors inside the White House who embraced those ideologies – House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is having a hard time tamping down the Pandora’s Box of hate Donald Trump unleashed.
McCarthy has refused to take a strong stand against the most dangerous members of his caucus, trying to allow the extremist Congressmen and Congresswomen to actively lie, disrupt House business, and spread hate on a daily basis. Because they are raising millions.
In response to Republican white supremacist members of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona announcing they are forming the “America First Caucus,” McCarthy tried to stand up to those radicals, as Forbes notes, via tweet.
It did not go well.
The America First Caucus’s “platform” says “a certain intellectual boldness is needed amongst members of the AFC to follow in President Trump's footsteps, and potentially step on some toes and sacrifice sacred cows for the good of the American nation.”
It’s focus? All the current GOP buzzwords, like “Election Fraud,” “Sovereignty,” “Big Tech,” “Immigration,” “America First Education,” and “The Chinese Communist Party,” among others.
One portion that is raising a lot of eyebrows talks not about America’s “Judeo-Christian” heritage, which the far right often uses to single out some immigrants, but another term that narrows that opening even further: “America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”
Late Friday afternoon McCarthy tried to push back.
“America is built on the idea that we are all created equal and success is earned through honest, hard work. It isn't built on identity, race, or religion,” he tweeted. “The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln & the party of more opportunity for all Americans—not nativist dog whistles.”
The Republican Party, even decades before Donald Trump, has been the party of nativist dog whistles, as many reminded him.
Here’s what some are saying.
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