Tag Archives: Kim Kardashian

national news

Kanye West: presidential adviser?

I do not mean to denigrate Kanye West, who I guess is a pretty good rapper/singer/reality TV celebrity spouse.

But it’s fair to ask this question. Doesn’t the president of the United States have more credible experts with whom to consult on matters such as gang violence, prison reform and, oh, whatever else he and Kanye West are going to discuss at the White House?

West is going to meet with Donald Trump in the White House to talk about the big things. I guess he’s also going to get some love from Trump over the stated support that West has given to the president, which likely explains why he’s been invited to the White House in the first place.

This is the kind of publicity stunt that Trump craves. I’m sure you’ll recall how West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, ventured into the Oval Office to plead for the release of a woman who had been imprisoned wrongly for a drug violation. Trump commuted the woman’s sentence and Kardashian basked in the credit she received for making it happen.

It was a reality star-meet-reality star moment for the president, whose prior claim to fame was as the host of “Celebrity Apprentice,” yet another so-called “reality” TV series.

Now he’s welcoming Kanye West to the White House.

I don’t know about you, but there surely must be more legitimate experts with whom Trump can consult on prison reform and gang violence.

If only they would agree to meet with this president.

legal news

Trump does right by drug offender

Alice Marie Johnson is a free woman, thanks to a presidential commutation of a sentence she never should have received.

I applaud Donald J. Trump for setting Alice Johnson free.

Yes, I found it curious — and that is the most charitable thing I can say about it — that it took an Oval Office visit by reality TV celebrity Kim Kardashian West to persuade the president to do the right thing.

I don’t know what motivated him to respond to Kardashian West’s request. Maybe it’s their shared reality TV background; maybe it’s the good things Kim’s husband, Kanye West, has said about Trump.

Johnson was given a life sentence for a non-violent drug offense, reportedly the first conviction she ever had received. The sentence clearly was overly harsh and Johnson — a great-grandmother — didn’t deserve to spend so many years behind bars.

There’s another aspect of the president’s newfound compassion that I find curious. Didn’t he declare not long ago that drug dealers should be executed, given the death penalty?

I guess I also should point out that when President Obama commuted the sentences of hundreds of non-violent drug offenders, conservatives went ballistic. This time? Uh, they hail the president.

Well, whatever.

The president did the right thing. We can speculate all we want about why he did it. The bottom line is that he has set free an American citizen who needs her freedom.

It brings to mind one more question: How many other Alice Johnsons are locked up for far too long?

national news

Kim Kardashian is one of the ‘best people’?

Did I hear this correctly?

Kim Kardashian, the reality TV celebrity — the know-nothing with no talent — spoke today to the president of the United States about “prison reform”?

Is that what transpired? Kim Kardashian is now an expert on prison matters and that Donald Trump invited her to the White House — to the Oval Office — to make a pitch to reform the nation’s prison system? I also understand that Kanye West’s wife wanted to argue for the presidential commutation of a life sentence in prison for someone convicted on a drug charge.

Oh … my … goodness.

Trump vowed to surround himself with the “best people” to give him advice. This individual — Kardashian — fits that description in Trump’s world of narcissistic fantasy.

Aren’t there actual experts on whom the president can rely to give him recommendations based on research and knowledge of the criminal justice system?

Heaven help us!

entertainment news

Sir Paul … who?

Some things simply defy description. They tax one’s ability to reason things out.

Take the case of an “unknown artist” who made a record with Kanye West, the hip-hop star, husband of Kim Kardashian and the guy who burst onto the national scene a few years ago when he sought to upstage Taylor Swift the moment she won a Grammy award.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/bemused-kanye-west-fans-ask-4919529

Kanye West released a song with a guy named Paul McCartney, who’s been a pretty good singer/musician/songwriter over, oh, about the past 50 years.

West’s fans took to Twitter to proclaim that they’d never heard of McCartney, who at one time was one-fourth of the world’s greatest rock and roll band, The Beatles. He teamed with another pretty good musician, the late John Lennon, to write music that defined a generation … maybe two or three generations.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing. West’s fans are, well, pretty young. They might not expose themselves to music beyond the kind of music that West produces. Perhaps they haven’t heard about The Beatles from, let’s see, their parents or grandparents.

Or perhaps this is all a big joke, a put-on, kind of like those “Paul is dead” rumors that enveloped the planet back in 1969.

Well, whatever. I’m certain Sir Paul isn’t terribly worried about his standing in the world of music entertainment. Indeed, those unknowing Kanye West fans are aware now of Sir Paul’s influence.

***

For those who still might not know who Paul McCartney is, consider this: Paul put on a concert about five years ago in Red Square, in Moscow. His encore song was “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” which he recorded in 1968 with The Beatles. As Paul lit into the rocking number, teenagers in the Red Square crowd were singing the song with Paul — in English, knowing every word of a tune recorded decades before any of them were born.

Kanye West no doubt hopes his songs will have that kind of lasting power.