Free Republic

“Ready to get uncomfortable with us?” asked the official MTV Twitter account on Wednesday, preparing its audience for the documentary White People, which aired that night. In the hour-long special, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Jose Antonio Vargas talks to young people — many of them white — about race in America. While white people aren’t the only ones talking, they are involved in every conversation, and each segment has some focus on the white experience of race: a white guy who goes to a historically black college, the white teachers at a school on an Oglala Sioux reservation, white people who...

The VMA nominations were announced this week. Who cares? you might be thinking. MTV doesn’t even play music videos anymore. Both valid points, but the awards still mean something to the artists. This became clear when Nicki Minaj took to Twitter to voice her confusion over “Anaconda” not being nominated for Video of the Year, despite breaking YouTube records and causing an international stir. NICKI MINAJ ✔ ‎@NICKIMINAJ If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊 Follow Taylor Swift ✔ ‎@taylorswift13 @NICKIMINAJ I've done nothing but love & support...

One of the most common reasons someone might be tempted to purchase counterfeit product is price — fakes are likely to be much cheaper than the real thing, hence the appeal. So the choice by popular musician Taylor Swift to fight back against counterfeits by selling $60 T-shirts is well, a bit of a head scratcher. (Report of wsj story)

The undercover cops didn’t help the vibe, most of all for Moondog. They wore jeans and t-shirts and carried backpacks that made them look almost like everybody else, except not really. They wouldn’t talk to me as they scooped up the spoils of the copyright shakedown – pins and t-shirts – and Moondog, growing uglier by the second as he stood helplessly next to his camper, cursed out the Dead, mocked Bobby and Phil Lesh, then pledged to return next time with bags of heroin decorated with Jerry’s face. Ouch... Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart won’t...

Apple has been forced to do a U-turn on its Apple Music service, and it’s thanks in large part to the actions of Taylor Swift and a negative PR campaign she managed to kick off against the company. Apple Music will launch with a 3 month free trial for any person signing up to it. The problem is, Apple had decided and agreed with the largest music publishers that no royalties would be paid on songs played during this free trial period. Many artists were angry about this. While the major labels could take the hit, independent and new artists...

The superstar said Sunday that she will not allow her album '1989' on Apple's new streaming service She explained on Tumblr that this was because the tech giant will not pay for songs streamed during free trial period These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much.' Swift's '1989' was by far the top-selling US album last year and remains high on charts - insisted that she was speaking for all artists and not just herself. Swift found the...

It all started with a video. A local police department produced a video about a 13-year-old Taylor Swift fan who was diagnosed with cancer late last year and, thus, unable to attend the singer’s Philadelphia concert. The video attracted local attention — in addition to Swift’s, who invited Victoria Marsh, who also has Down syndrome, backstage over the weekend before performing at a stop on her “1989 World Tour.” Created by the Dover Police Department, the video explained that Marsh was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer after feeling pain in her ankle. The video was viewed more...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo

Over the last few years, Taylor Swift has become one of the two or three biggest pop stars in the world. She has accumulated no fewer than four homes (including a $3.5 million place in Beverly Hills and a $20 million Tribeca penthouse) and drawn enormous press and media attention. She’s still on the cover of lots of magazines and we’ll probably see her there far into the future. On its release last year, her “1989” record became the biggest selling album in more than a decade, at a time in which record sales have been way down. She became,...

In a newly released interview, Taylor Swift said that she believes “misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born." Ms. Swift was heavily criticized by feminists in 2012 when she stated that the word "feminist" was "too strong" a word to describe her. In the last three years, however, her opinions have changed. Today, Ms. Swift believes that feminism is “probably the most important" thing that women can get involved with. According to the young star, inequality is difficult to overcome because “misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born." She continued, “So to...

Hunger Games’ actress Amandla Stenberg is upset with Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and other celebrities for their (mis)appropriation of black culture. Click inside to WATCH. Amandla Stenberg, 16, recorded a video for her friends, classmates, and the world that sends a powerful message about how black culture has gone mainstream without actually being accepted by others. In the video, she calls out Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry for being white musicians who adopting parts of black culture to be “edgy” and “gain attention.” Amandla Stenberg Slams Miley Cyrus For Using Black Women As ‘Props’ You might remember Amandla...

NEW YORK, NY (CBS) – Is Taylor Swift the world’s greatest female leader? Fortune magazine thinks so. The publication released its second annual Top 50 World’s Greatest Leaders, and the Berks County native is the first female on the list at number six.

Should President Barack Obama just “shake it off?” Taylor Swift ranked sixth on Fortune Magazine’s second annual list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders—people who are “transforming business, government, philanthropy, and so much more.” But the president was omitted entirely from the list. Fortune Editor Alan Murray explained why: “I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 largely because of his call to unite blue states and red states behind a politics of hope. But it hasn’t happened. At home our politics are as divided—and our federal government is as dysfunctional—as they were when he took office.” …

Taylor Swift has bought the web domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult. The addresses are part of a public sale by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The web domain names go on sale to the public on 1 June but some stars and companies are being given the opportunity to buy them ahead of then.

When Taylor Swift throws shade, you know it. Yet, the Internet had a field day when the "Shake It Off" singer was seated next to Sarah Palin Sunday during the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Show. But, despite multiple accusations of eye rolling and/or serious side eye directed at the former vice presidential hopeful, Taylor didn't cast any devious glances in studio 8H. If you look at a wider audience shot, you'll see that Taylor (and almost every other individual seated in the area surrounding her) was looking up at the monitors showing what viewers at home saw of Dakota...

Governor Palin wowed the crowd as she arrived on the "red carpet" for Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary 3-hour special.She stopped on the "red carpet" to talk with actor Alec Baldwin, quipping that she likes his brother, Stephen –a conservative– better. NBC anchors Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer intereviewed the two of them, and it may be me, but it seemed as though Baldwin was doing his best to keep Gov. Palin from talking. After Guthrie asked her a direct question, Baldwin was forced to listen, while chomping on his gum (or could it have been leftover food from dinner?)Twitchy caught some of the...

Kanye West has threatened to boycott next year’s Grammy Awards unless bosses agree to change the voting process to allow the most commercially successful artists to take home the top trophies. The rapper avoided the ceremony for six years because of his concerns about how the awards are dished out, but he made a long-awaited return to the prizegiving on Sunday night. West caused controversy at the show by invading the stage to protest when Beck won the Album of the Year prize over his pal Beyonce, and he has now insisted he will not return in 2016 unless awards...

Big Ten mascots, you’ve done it again!When it comes to sticking together and joining forces on fun projects, few conference’s mascots rival the Big Ten’s. There’s this, this and this. And, who can forget their “Call Me Maybe” parody? Actually, we’re just going to go ahead and say the Big Ten boasts the best mascots.New proof of this fact surfaced Monday, when the mascots – all but Testudo, Willie the Wildcat and Nittany Lion – released their entertaining “Shake It Off” parody.For those of you who don’t know, “Shake It Off” is Taylor Swift’s catchy and highly addicting new hit.

Rebekah filmed herself opening the package, in which she found a handwritten note from Swift. “I was thinking about you today, and how you have been there cheering me on in the most thoughtful and creative ways,” Swift wrote to Rebekah, mentioning a video and other posts Rebekah made. Swift continued, “I got out my paints for the first time in a while today and made you something. I really, really, really hope you like it. I’m not a good painter, but you’re so beautiful and positive, even though you’re dealing with the stress life brings, so I wanted to...

Taylor Swift's New Music Video Attacked as RacistTaylor Swift's new music video, "Shake It Off," is being attacked as racist. While it's obvious to anyone without a chip on their shoulder that throughout the video Swift is paying goofy tribute to iconic music videos over the decades (Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears included), that doesn't matter to a number of America's racial grifters who would no doubt complain if Swift had excluded hip hop.