Happy Inauguration Day, kids! How are you? Welcome to the Phile for a Wednesday. Whatever your opinion on Donald Trump, one fact is irrefutable: January 19th, 2021, was his last full day in office. Today, Joe Biden will take the Oath, and then he will become the president. Revenge comes in all forms, but if you ever plan on committing a crime against someone, you better watch your back when it comes to their family. Tityana Coppage, a 21-year-old Kansas City woman, was arrested and is now being charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action, after she tracked down the man who allegedly killed her brother last week and decided to take justice into her own hands.
Coppage’s brother, 16-year-old Jayson Ugwuh Jr., was murdered on January 10th in Kansas City, Missouri. Ugwuh was a junior basketball player at Hogan Preparatory Academy and was shot while walking home with two other teenagers from a nearby gas station. His friends were able to get him home, and they called the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD).
On January 13th, Coppage found out what car was involved in her brother’s murder and tracked down Keith Lars as the one responsible. Meeting Lars in a parking lot behind a home, she came armed and shot and killed him. According to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, witnesses saw another man put Lars into a car, where he drove to an intersection where Lars died. Lars had shot wounds in his chest and leg, and police also found 23 shell casings of two different kinds around that area.
As investigators went through Coppage’s phone, they found a text message sent to her deceased brother after his murder, that let him know that she avenged his death. And unfortunately, she is no stranger to loss.
Her younger brother, 9-year-old Jayden Ugwuh, and her cousin, 8-year-old Montell Ross, were both shot and killed in her home when Coppage was only 16 years old. To this day, their murderer has not been brought to justice. Jayson was also home during the fatal shootings and had actually held Jayden in his arms as he was dying. And now, Coppage’s arrest has been a testament to the needs of dealing with gun violence.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas spoke about about the deadly shooting, saying, “Jayson’s life and all-too-early death shows us that we have to further aide families and close relations to victims of violence... and that we’re not doing enough.”
Authorities have stated they arrested a woman who the FBI says might have stolen a laptop computer or hard drive from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Capitol Riot earlier this month. The FBI is now investigating whether she actually planned to sell the device to Russia’s foreign intelligence agency. Riley June Williams, from Pennsylvania, was arrested on Monday in her home state on charges related to the January 6th breach of the U.S. Capitol. This includes entering a restricted building, disrupting the orderly conduct of a government, and engaging and disorderly or disruptive conduct. However, an arrest/complaint warrant stated the FBI is still investigating the claim that William indeed stole the device from the Speaker’s office. According to one witness, who is described as, Williams’ former romantic partner, she “intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.”
The unidentified witness also stated that for unknown reasons the plan fell through and that the woman “still has a computer device or destroyed it.” The FBI noted that the matter is still under investigation. Days after the attack, in which rioters had ransacked Pelosi’s office and ripped a nameplate from above the door, Pelosi’s Chief of Staff Drew Hammill tweeted that a laptop had indeed been stolen from the conference room in the Speaker’s office, but that the device was only used for presentations.
Hunter Biden has had quite an interesting life, especially as former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. The second eldest son of the now soon-to-be Democratic president and Jill Biden, has not only had a history of drug and alcohol problems but was also a hit in the headlines for a specific romantic relationship: namely the one he had with his late brother Beau Biden’s wife, Hallie Biden, his own sister-in-law.
Hunter is now married to Melissa Cohen, but also was married to Kathleen Biden (formerly Kathleen Buhle) previously until their separation in October 2015. So how did the pair end up dating at some point? According to the New Yorker, Hunter and Hallie really started to hit it off in 2016-2017, after dealing with her late husband Beau’s brutal battle with brain cancer. Hunter was going through a nasty divorce with his ex-wife Kathleen, who claimed that the lawyer was spending extravagantly on drugs and prostitutes, according to the court papers. And Hallie was dealing with becoming Beau’s widow, after he passed away from cancer at 46-years-old in May 2015. Rob Buccini, a family friend who’s known the Biden family since childhood, told People Magazine, “Hallie and Hunt, the whole time Beau was dealing with his cancer, the two of them were really a team together,” further defending the couple by explaining, “[Hallie and Hunter] went to all the doctor appointments together when Beau first got sick. You obviously develop a bond. This isn’t something that happened while he was sick, it came as a result of being in the trenches together for three years... They didn’t intend [for] this, obviously, to happen.”
Buccini even dismissed the allegations made by Kathleen, saying, “that’s not the Hunter I know.” However, when asked about how they felt in Hunter starting a serious relationship with his brother’s widow, Joe and Jill Biden explained that they fully supported the two, telling the New York Post, “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness.”
Well, according to Vanity Fair, their story ended right before former Delaware Senator Joe Biden formally announced his presidential run in early 2019. The two called it quits but gave no explanation as to why, aside from the fact that it was an “amicable” break-up. But the story just added to Hunter’s history of family drama that hit the spotlight as his father ran and won the 2020 presidential election against Republican President Donald Trump.
After everything that happened last year in 2020, you can’t think that it’s weird to see how situations at airports have increasingly become more intense. With COVID still flying around, many people shouldn’t be traveling across the country anyway, but somehow, videos of brawls and fights and airports have become more frequent. And now Spirit Airlines joins the rest of the airline family as they recently dealt with a physical altercation at one of their locations as well.
On Sunday, two Spirit Airlines agents were injured as a result of three passengers “attacking them,” because they were trying to board a flight from Detroit, Michigan, to Atlanta, Georgia, “without authorization.” Spirit Airlines told ABC News that the group was upset that they were asked to “verify that their carry-on bags met the airline’s luggage size requirements,” at the Detroit Metro Airport.
Spirit said, “The agents attempted to calmly defuse the situation, but were physically assaulted by these passengers as they closed a door to stop them from boarding the aircraft.” As a result of their violent behavior, Spirit confirmed that one of their agents ended up needing to go to the hospital. Their statement read, “All of us at Spirit wish the agents a speedy recovery and thank them for their courage and professionalism,” and added that not only were those involved arrested by law enforcement, but those passengers were also banned from any future travel with Spirit airlines. They said, “This violent behavior is completely unacceptable and has absolutely no place in airports or any other place of business.”
Crazily enough, the issue arose just shy of a week after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), announced that it will start enforcing stricter punishments on “unruly airline passengers without warning, including ‘fines of up to $35,000 and imprisonment,'” as a result of the agency initiating “more than 1,300 enforcement actions against unruly passengers.”
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, who signed the unruly passenger policy for the agency to take a “zero-tolerance policy” in unruly passenger cases after seeing a “disturbing increase in incidents” of passengers disturbing flights with “threatening or violent behavior,” said that the policy will remain in effect through March 30th, 2021, but that the FAA, “can always make it a longer time period.” Unfortunately, more of their recent cases deal with assaulting flight attendants who have been instructing passengers to wear face masks. First and foremost, the coronavirus is still out there and very real. It’s just these peoples’ jobs to make sure that everyone has a safe flight while also putting themselves in danger. There shouldn’t be arguments over that. And secondly, it doesn’t matter whether you're a Spirit Airlines passenger or on an American Airlines flight. Again, these people are just doing their jobs, and other people shouldn’t be making it harder for them, especially during a pandemic.
I’m glad the FAA is going to start enforcing harsher punishments. Serves the overly-entitled customers right.
President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris are expected to make history today, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Both will be sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States, respectively. With the coronavirus pandemic and extra security in place due to the Capitol riots, the historic date will unfortunately not look like any previous inauguration. But, good news for us who like to stay in the comfort of her own home, the ceremony will be shown virtually. Here’s everything you need to know about the Presidential Inauguration for 2021. According to the description of the event on the official Biden Inaugural Committee site, “After they take their oaths of office, President-elect Biden will deliver an inaugural address laying out his vision to defeat the pandemic, build back better, and unify and heal the nation.” Biden and Harris will take office at noon EST.
Biden will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts, where he will take an oath with his hand on top of his 127-year old Bible held by his wife Dr. Jill Biden. Kamala Harris, the first South Asian American, and black American Vice President will be sworn in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor is the first Latina member of the Supreme Court. Some of the day’s festivities will begin earlier, including the National Anthem at 11:30 a.m. EST and “Our White House: An Inaugural Celebration For Young Americans,” The special will be hosted by actress Keke Palmer and is expected to start at 10 a.m. EST. At 5:30 p.m. EST, the soon to be new president will partake in the lighting of 400 lights around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in memory of those who passed away. At the same time, the Space Needle in Seattle, and the Empire State Building in New York will be illuminated. Washington officials are discouraging people from gathering in Washington D.C. for the inauguration, but you can live stream it from the comfort of your own home everywhere on a screen. Most of the major networks that will be showing the inauguration including ABC, NBC, and CBS. This means that if you have conventional cable you can watch it on your TV. But fear not, the ceremony will also be available online. Authorities said that there will be extra security precautions after Pro-Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol during the electoral vote count. Over 25,000 National Guard troops have been called to keep the event secure, with extra security fencing near the Capitol and the White House. Numerous streets around the area have been shut down. The National Mall, which is usually a place where onlookers gather has been closed down. The groups that had permits for demonstrations had agreed to hold them in different areas nearby, and attendees will then be screen on their way to the demonstration. After the swear-in inauguration ceremony is completed, both Biden the Harris will take part in a Pass in Review with members of the military on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol. Pass in Review is a military tradition that honors the peaceful transfer of power to the new commander-in-chief. Every branch of the military is said to be represented. After the review, Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Harris, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will honor the military by going to Arlington National Cemetery which is located in Virginia. There they will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Bush, Clinton, and Obama are also scheduled to attend the wreath-laying ceremony.
Although there won’t be an official celebration this year, celebrities are still expected to commemorate the administration virtually. Following the ceremony, Tom Hanks is set to host a TV special called "Celebrating America," which you can stream online. The event will air at 8:30 p.m. EST where you can expect to see Kerry Washington, Garth Brooks, John Legend, Bruce Springsteen, Eva Longoria, and Jon Bon Jovi. Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, Foo Fighters, and Ant Clemons are expected to take part in the event as well.
If I had a TARDIS I would go back to the 80s and try to convince Trump not to run for president, but knowing my luck and our luck he'll be busy...
Hahaha. So, here's an exclusive pic of Trump leaving the White House and Washington D.C., kids...
I can't believe this new children's book that just came out...
Hahahaha. That's great. Well, word is out that Trump is back on the golf course with a friend of his...
Hahaha. Okay, here's another post Here are 21 posts from 2021 so far that will keep you face-palming through another orbit around the sun...
I think you will all surviver the vaccine. So, Valentine's Day is around the corner and if you're looking for a good card how about this one?
Hahaha. DO you know what I like? When families react some of their photos, like this one...
Clever. Hey, did you see the new banner they put on the White House?
Trump's people must've left it there. Okay, so, most of us would probably love it if we could go through our whole lives without revealing to a partner how our body works.
But unfortunately, that’s not a reality most of us get to enjoy.
Quite the contrary for one woman, whose boyfriend actually yelled at her after she had a small accident in their bed. A Phile reader explained that her boyfriend reacted out of anger, as well as ignorance of what’s involved in a woman’s menstruation cycle.
But she later wondered if she was wrong for being upset with his reaction.
"Am I wrong or blowing up at my boyfriend ‘just because he was ignorant’ (his words)? I’ll try to keep this short. I slept over at my boyfriend’s place, and I unexpectedly got my period during the night (irregular cycle). He freaked out. I was embarrassed, and offered to wash the sheets. He wasn’t having any of it, and basically told me I must be irresponsible and disgusting, yelling the whole time. At that point, I got annoyed too, and told him he was acting like a real asshole. I went to take a quick shower and was about to go home when he stopped me to continue the argument. I explained to him that I can’t control when they happen, that they can be irregular as hell, and that they’re not that gross (he was talking about throwing away the sheets, the stain wasn’t even that big and I put them in the washer before I showered). He told me that he didn’t know those things, and that I’m unreasonable for being mad at him for just a misunderstanding, and that he couldn’t have known since they didn’t teach him that in school. Obviously, I’m not mad at him for not knowing, I’m mad at him for assuming he knew better and reacting by yelling at me. He’s mad because… I’m mad, and he thinks I can’t be mad about ignorance, since it’s not his fault. I apologized for calling him an asshole, but he doesn’t want to apologize for yelling. Am I wrong? I only want him to apologize for yelling." Your boyfriend should know something about periods by now. The Internet exists. If he is still ignorant, it’s by his choice. You should not have apologized for a natural, uncontrollable bodily function. Okay let’s take a minute and say they continue dating and end up getting married and decide to have a child, WHAT THE FUCK IS HE GONNA DO WHEN A BABY COMES OUT OF HER HOLE COVERED IN BLOOD AND FLUID AND SHE POSSIBLY SHITS HERSELF? You need to sit with him and have a calm, rational conversation about what you are mad about and how he could have acted differently, and if he is unwilling or incapable of doing so then the relationship is probably doomed. Though our bodies do some pretty off-putting things, that doesn’t mean what’s occurring isn’t natural. It’s also out of our control, no matter how much we might wish to control it.
Having a partner who can recognize these truths is important. Anyone who thinks these functions are gross or have a judgmental, adverse reaction to them may very well be a red flag. If you have a problem you want my opinion on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...
Top Phive Things Said About Trump's Last Day In Office5. It's unfortunate. He was just about to announce his healthcare plan...
4. All right, everyone, you have 24 hours to get all the malarkey out of your system.
3. Today's the last day a woman has never been Vice-President.
2. Just think: two dogs and a cat will be replacing Don Jr. and Eric and Ivanka.
And the number one thing said about Trump's last day in office was...
1. Tiffany announced her engagement to a "business executive" on her dad's last day in office so she could take White House photos. The wedding will take place next week in the bankrupt Trump Tal Mahal in Atlantic City as it's being demolished.
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, lets's take a live look at Port Jeff, shall we?
Looks like a nice cold day there with a little bit of snow on the ground.
If you or someone you know is experiencing substance abuse, call the National Drug helpline at 1-844-289-0879.
The human body is really quiet for everything it does.
The 144th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
President Obama will be the guest on the Phile next week.
Today's guest is a Canadian-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actress, and television host. She rose to fame as a correspondent on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," where she became the longest-serving regular correspondent. In 2015, she departed the show after 12 years to start her own show, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee." Please welcome to the Phile... Samantha Bee!
Me: Hello, Samantha, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Samantha: So excited to be here. Thank you for having me. This is a delight.
Me: Nah. Haha. So, how are you doing?
Samantha: All right, are you?
Me: Yeah, it's a good day. So, with the Trump mob storming the Capitol, what went through your mind when you saw that?
Samantha: Well, I was grateful to not have a show that week actually.
Me: Really? Why is that?
Samantha: Because we watched it as citizens without too much of a mission in mind. That felt good because I felt really paralyzed. We were really scared. It was basically me and my husband and our three kids huddled around the computer in the kitchen just watching people literally run amok in the Capitol. I felt such a mix of emotions, but mainly I felt so sad and so angry. We were in tears. We were all standing there eating a dreadful slice of pizza watching everything go so awry. It was emotional and awful.
Me: Were you shocked and surprised?
Samantha: I was shocked but not surprised.
Me: Why were you surprised? I wasn't.
Samantha: Not surprised because they were saying they were going to do this for weeks and years. Nothing that is happening is really surprising but its always shocking when our worst vision comes to pass. I haven't lost the capacity to be shocked by things. I think in the greater scheme of things that's a good thing. We should maintain our sense of shock and outrage for sure. But none of us should be super surprised. They were openly saying, "Let's go to the Capitol, do you have room in your truck for all my guns and my gun case?" So none of us should be going like "excuse me?" We knew this was coming.
Me: So, how did you handle this on the show?
Samantha: When something like this happens about a week out to actually taping the show, of course we met the next day via Zoom everybody. We do have to project into the future because we are not on everyday. During the pandemic we tape on Tuesday and we air on Wednesday so we had to decide what is the Tuesday/Wednesday version of this story. I think we landed on something that is very good and I think we needed to talk about the people who enabled this. I feel like Facebook or Twitter could have done something about the President quite a while ago. We've been shouting this stuff from the rooftops. Betsy DeVos resigning from her post 13 days before she loses her job anyway isn't really a striking demonstration of bravery. Mitch McConnell is not our hero for standing up and giving a decent speech the day that the mob came to the Capitol. Nobody should reflect on that and go he really did, that was very wise what Mitch McConnell said. No thank you, do not accept.
Me: Haha. Samantha, how long have you been doing the "Full Frontal" show?
Samantha: Five years now. We are into our sixth year.
Me: So, four years of Trumo's presidency and a year of him campaigning. "Full Frontal" has existed in the realm of Donald Trump the entire time, right?
Samantha: Yeah, we have never really existed as a show without him like shambling around in the background. He was looming over us like he was looming over Hillary Clinton at the debate. LOL.
Me: Are you gonna miss him?
Samantha: No. I'm just so ready for Inauguration Day. You know that scene at the beginning of Frozen where it's Coronation Day? That's how I feel.
Me: How do you feel going into a Biden White House?
Samantha: Great. Bring it. Let him be as boring as he wants. Please be very wonky and have all the experts and put people in the Cabinet who know what they're doing and have good intentions. It's not going to be perfect, they're not going to do all the things that Sam Bee says they should do. They're not going to do all the things that I want them to do. But at least I feel like I just want to pause the phonetic activity, I just want a functioning kind of boring government who has the objective doing great things. That will be such a breath of fresh air. I cannot wait to do stories that are not related to the terrible things the administration did that affected people's lives all over the world. I literally can't wait.
Me: What's been the hardest part of covering the Trump administration?
Samantha: Ummm... they're monsters? They are monsters. They are the worse people in thew world with the worst ideas and they had no right to be there. They had no right to be in the position of public service. They're intellectually bankrupt. I'm in the position of being privilege, I'm a TV host, but all around you can see the damage that is being done. It's so overwhelming and overbearing. It's just been a parade, a carnival of horrors the entire time. So we can make comedy and we can all make fun of Donald Trump, he's just obviously the worst person, but the depths to which he sank were shocking to me... gullible Sam Bee... and so I just can't wait to be rid of them.
Me: Was it hard to be funny? I have to say I was gonna stop doing this blog four years ago but after Trump got elected I thought I'll do it for another few years... I thought I had to.
Samantha: It's easy to be funny when he's lurking around a debate stage or doing something dumb. They're all getting lost in the flats on the way out of big debate but it's not so fun when we learn they put children in cages at the border and then we go well, the stakes are very high and I actually had no ides we could get this low. We are a comedy forward show, like no question, but wrestling with that material was really, really challenging and we never really got to figure out who we were as a show without the spectre of this horrible human being and his ridiculously, comically evil family.
Me: What is it like making a show where things can change o the dime?
Samantha: I think we handle it really well. We're always buying ourselves insurance in a way. We're always trying to game it out.
Me: What do you mean?
Samantha: We got caught that one time that Hillary Clinton lost the election. We were really stuck. That was so unexpected. We really didn't even entertain that scenario.
Me: What? You thought Hillary was gonna win? I knew Trump was gonna win, but I thought he was gonna win this time too.
Samantha: We didn't have anything ready for Hillary Clinton losing the election to Donald Trump. So we had to stay up all night in grief, rework the entire show, reedit the field piece, rethink the whole thing. We had Lizzo on the show and she had a gig somewhere and she was flying to New York on a private jet for her celebratory performance. I met her at the studio when she got there in the morning of a red eye flight and she was in tears and she was going to sing her song "Good As Hell" which was a perfect song and we said, "Can you do a sad version of it?" She said she could at obviously she nailed it. I really just never want to be caught like that again. That was the one time we were really caught with our pants down. I think we did a great job but it was a huge effort to get up off the floor and make a show that makes sense. LOL.
Me: So, what was it like for you when the pandemic hit with the show?
Samantha: They did a dump of gear at my home. My husband who's also an executive producer of the show, he is Jason Jones. He knows he's a television producer and director and he understand lighting really, really well and we've made projects before on a very low budget so we made the whole show on an iPhone, just two of us in the back, the work of 65 people but in the end when we were filming the show it was just the two of us. Then me uploading all the footage into a Google drive, for months and months. We did move quickly to put a show on the air because once we started filming stuff, we really couldn't stop ourselves from doing we knew we could do it the instant that we thought perhaps we could make a show happen.
Me: Do you see ever having an audience again?
Samantha: For the moment I really don't. We used to film in a really big studio. We actually shared our shooting space with "Last Week Tonight" which is in the CBS studio which is a large soundstage with hundreds of seats for audience members and its really enormous with sky high ceilings and a big lighting grid. We did the show in there forest for so long and knew it was going to last to probably next spring. I made an effort in the summer to really look for a new space. Something a little smaller, something a little more manageable. A lot of shows come and go from that big studio space we were using, it wasn't ours alone. So we started looking for a space that we alone could own or operate so we could control all of the COVID protocols, so we moved into a much smaller space now with no capacity for audience. Our COVID protocols are so strict. There's almost no people in there with me, cameras are operated remotely so we made our footprint so small. Everybody is still working from home essentially. It will be like that for the foreseeable future I would imagine. I don't have an end date for that, I think it's practical and safe way to make a show.
Me: Don't you miss performing in front of an audience?
Samantha: Of course, everyone enjoys the feedback of laughter and clapping and all of that stuff. Maybe I'm too Canadian about it, maybe I don't need it though. I don't require it in order I feel I'm doing a good job. I don't need that instant gratification. It's very nice, I don't take it for granted. Its lovely when it happens, its awesome. But I can still do my work without that I believe. It's definitely different, it makes taping the show a little harder. I'm a little more insecure about it. I look for more feedback with the very few people who are in the space with shields on, there's like no feedback at all. I get a little more feedback then making the show in the backyard with my husband who gave me no feedback. LOL.
Me: I am from England and I have said I really should have no say in who is President or anything about American politics as I can't vote. You being Canadian do you feel te same way?
Samantha: I'm a dual citizen of both nations now so I'm finally able to vote here since 2016. Prior to that I had lived here and done political comedy for many, many years like 11 or 12 years or so and really felt I was in it but not of it. That was an effective tool and I learned in real time about the system down here. I did feel operation, occasionally I'd go I don't have a right to talk about this. Why am I at this convention? I had no idea that things were like this.
Me: Do you ever think about the people that don't agree with you? I don't. Haha.
Samantha: Trump supporters are practically unreachable, actually. There's just very little crossover between worlds right now. And that is a failure of us to really understand.
Me: Samantha, thanks for being on the Phile. Keep doing a great job.
Samantha: Thanks for talking to me, I like your blog, and I think you're great.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Samantha Bee for a great interview. The Phile will be back on Monday with country superstar Morgan Wallen. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain. Enjoy the day, kids!
Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...
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