Latest news with #woke
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Billy Joel tells Bill Maher he's over what 'woke' people think of him
Billy Joel might go to extremes - but woke isn't one of them. The famed singer and pianist, 76, was the latest to appear on the Club Random podcast with Bill Maher, where he vented about the current state of politics and social norms while speaking about his new two-part HBO documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes. 'At this point… I'm inured to it,' the five-time Grammy winner, sitting in his home in front of his piano, told the outspoken media personality Maher, who has had his own ideological clashes with the left. The Bronx-born musical artist was asked about his take on contemporary culture - citing his 1976 track Angry Young Man - and didn't hold anything back. The song features the lyrics: 'I believe I've passed the age, of consciousness and righteous rage, I found that just surviving was a noble fight / I once believed in causes too, I had my pointless point of view, and life went on no matter who was wrong or right.' Maher sang the lyrics and said he was sure the generation gap in play would inevitably lead to misguided takes on the issue. 'I feel like that is the message of the age, even though some people will hear that and say, "Look at these two a*******!"' The Piano Man artist added, 'Boomers.' Maher said that in contemporary culture, people on the left get upset when others don't blindly agree in their condemnation of President Donald Trump. Maher cited lyrics from Joel's 1982 song Goodnight Saigon, in reference to the Vietnam War. The song included the lines, 'And who was wrong? And who was right? It didn't matter in the thick of the fight.' Maher asked Joel, 'Do you still feel that way?' who responded that he did. Said Maher, 'And you don't care what they say about you – the woke?' The Just The Way You Are singer responded, 'At this point, no.' Joel said that when he doesn't agree with someone, he makes a point to try to understand where they are coming from in their respective viewpoints. 'I'm always trying to find out the other point of view,' Joel said. 'What's, you know, not my point of view - somebody else's point of view. 'Okay, I'd like to understand why they think that way.' Maher said he feels that it's 'so difficult in this day and age' to have those discussions. 'I mean it is what I am always trying to do on my show,' said Maher, a graduate of the Ivy League's Cornell University. 'It is, look, this is one safe space for everybody and I will take the heat from either – both sides. 'I mean I do feel like the left, who, ironically I'm more actually aligned with, is more snippy about it, and has a worse attitude about it, and makes me viscerally not like them more sometimes.' The chat between Joel and Maher also ventured into how the proliferation of social media has changed the landscape. 'People say things all the time on [social media] they would never say, if they had to say it to your face,' Maher told Joel. Joel replied, 'It just always surprises me how people, they express this hatred - it's like, you hate a musician because he wrote something?'
Washington Post
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
The antisemitism task force carrying out Trump's anti-DEI agenda
For years, conservatives have criticized American universities for being too woke, too liberal, and too focused on DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. These critiques were reignited when students on college campuses around the nation began holding pro-Palestinian protests as a response to the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. Under both the Biden and Trump administrations, these protests prompted concerns over increased antisemitic sentiments. Now, under the Trump administration, an internal government group, the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, has been created to address these concerns. Supporters of the task force say that it will help protect Jewish students and make campuses safer for them. Opponents say antisemitism is just a pretext used for pushing a more conservative agenda on U.S. universities. Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with education reporter Laura Meckler about The Post's investigation into the Trump administration's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, and how this group could fundamentally change the way universities are run in the United States. Today's show was produced by Sabby Robinson with help from Thomas Lu. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter. Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
The Sun
14 hours ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Epping is far from only place where public anger is spilling over at £5.7m spent daily on migrant hotels
What a cop out FROM festooning themselves in rainbow emblems at Pride events, to endless virtue-signalling diversity initiatives, our police leaders are never happier than when indulging in woke causes. So with cops having allowed the pro-Palestinian mob to terrify Jews on the streets of London for two years, it was inevitable that Essex Police would give a helping hand to far-left activists who descended on a migrant hotel protest in Epping. 1 At first the force denied any suggestions of assistance. But once footage emerged, it had to admit officers had escorted masked and hooded demonstrators towards the demo already unfolding. In fact, the cops couldn't have been more helpful if they'd been an easyJet crew offering speedy boarding to passengers at nearby Stansted Airport. Clashes with racist far-right thugs already gathered outside The Bell hotel duly erupted. Forgotten amid the mayhem were the ordinary mums, dads and grandparents waving placards spelling out genuine concerns after a migrant was arrested over sex offences against a teenage girl, within days of arriving on a small boat. They remain angry that the Government has failed to protect our borders and is now bussing in young foreign men from deeply unfamiliar cultures. And they are furious at police for failing to keep their town safe from appalling thuggery. To their visible dismay, Epping is fast becoming a byword for all that is broken about Britain. But it is far from the only place where public anger is spilling over at the insanity of £5.7million being wasted every day on migrant hotels. Protests are unfolding outside the Britannia International in London's Canary Wharf, where asylum-seekers will soon be housed at a cost of at least £81 per night, per head. Farage fury as cops admit ESCORTING pro-migrant protesters to Essex asylum hotel The hotel's website boasts of restaurants, bars, en-suite bedrooms and 'spectacular' views over the Thames. All available courtesy of law-abiding taxpayers. What an utterly shameful fiasco. Medicine balls WITH breath-taking arrogance and shocking disregard for the sick, striking doctors insist any deaths that result from their five-day walkout will have nothing whatsoever to do with them. It'll be down to the Government for not giving them a 29 per cent pay rise. For good measure, slippery BMA union leaders claim it will be a 'dereliction of duty' for any non-striking doctor to step in and cover them. Not only are they ripping up their duty to the unwell. The Marxist medics want to intimidate their fellow health professionals. Their naked greed is plain for all to see.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Greg Gutfeld: I can't think of 2 people I would rather hear from less
'The Five' discusses actor Jeff Daniels saying he hopes Trump voters lose money and Billy Joel being unbothered by 'woke' people's opinions of him.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump pulls US out of UNESCO
President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from UNESCO , citing the agency's decision to admit Palestine as a member state and its commitment to ' woke ' causes. In a statement to the Daily Mail, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said UNESCO 'supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November.' The State Department formally announced the decision on Tuesday. It will take effect December 31, 2026. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce added that the agency's 'decision to admit the 'state of Palestine' as a member State is highly problematic and contrary to U.S. policy. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said he deeply regretted Trump's decision but had anticipated it and adjusted its budget accordingly. 'Thanks to the efforts made by the organization since 2018, the decreasing trend in the financial contribution of the U.S. has been offset, so that it now represents 8% of the organization's total budget compared to 40% for some United Nations entities,' Azoulay said in a statement. UNESCO first admitted Palestine as a full member in 2011, in a bow to Palestine's strategy to seek international recognition through UN agencies. This is the third time the U.S. has left UNESCO, with the first withdrawal occurring in 1984 under President Reagan. The Trump administration ordered a review of the United States' membership in the organization earlier this year. Israel has also left the agency. UNESCO is best known for designating World Heritage Sites, including the Grand Canyon in the United States and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. But the organization has been criticized for supporting the eviction and abuse of Indigenous peoples in some World Heritage sites. And it faces complaints about its overly-bureaucratic structure. Trump removed the U.S. from UNESCO during his first term - citing anti-Israel bias - but President Joe Biden readmitted the country to the organization. After withdrawing from the agency during the Reagan administration after claims it advanced the interests of the Soviet Union, President George W. Bush rejoined UNESCO in 2003. Trump, in a push for isolationism, has removed the U.S. from other global bodies. He's already decided to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization and halt funding to the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA as part of a review of the U.S.' participation in UN agencies, due to be concluded in August.
