Politix

Music may be the last vestige of civility in the U.S. -- with each half of the country hating the other half -- and the annual Global Citizen Festival Saturday proved the point.

Mariah Carey, Metallica and the Jonas Brothers hit the stage in NYC's Central Park for a concert that showed everyone can come together, at least for some good tunes.

It's become a tradition -- the 10th this time around -- to underscore how music can make our spirits brighter.

There's also a long play for the event ... to cajole corporate bigwigs to ante up in an effort to end extreme poverty.

The Jo bros went first with songs like "What a Man Gotta Do," "Sucker" and "Only Human." Nick performed "Jealous" and Joe did the honors for "Cake by the Ocean."

Mariah was awesome! The crowd went nuts as she sang "Obsessed," "Honey," "We Belong Together," and, of course, "Hero."

Metallica hit the stage with "Nothing Else Matters," "Creeping Death," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Enter Sandman" and "Sad but True."

Charlie Puth got in on the action with “New York State of Mind” and "Left and Right".

President Biden appeared on video to tout the new climate legislation that he signed.

Roger Waters needs to know his audience better ... he had scheduled concerts in Poland after essentially blaming Ukraine for the Russian invasion, so now he's decided to pull the plug on the whole thing.

Waters was set to perform at the Tauron Arena in Krakow. Thing is ... it's possible the war could be over by then -- possible. He clearly knows, however, hard feelings would linger so he's 86'd those appearances.

His manager is the one who pulled the plug, although he didn't say why, but it's obvious.

Waters recently wrote a letter to Ukraine's First Lady, Olena Zelenska -- a letter he made public -- claiming "extreme nationalists ... set your country on the path to this disastrous war."

Officials in Krakow had a resolution on the table for the coming week, in which they were about to name Roger persona non grata over his view of the war.

Waters has been on a tear against Ukraine and any country that supported it, including the U.S. for supplying weapons. He also took aim at NATO, which he says provoked Russia.

Bill Maher has a hot take on people who love America and people who don't ... and he says lots of folks on the right and the left are as anti-American as they come.

As the "Real Time" host plainly puts it ... "You don't love America if you hate what it stands for," and B.M. has receipts.

Bill asks, how Republicans can say they believe in America when they support a president who tried to pull off a coup? How can Republicans who won't accept election results say with a straight face they believe in America?

He's got another great example using Colin Kaepernick ... just watch.

How can Republicans, he asks, say they believe in America when they get downright underhanded to restrict the right to vote?

There's more ... Republicans used to support law and order ... but now, when it comes to the Capitol Police or the FBI, their mantra is "F*** the police!"

And, of course, there's Donald Trump, who mused out loud he wished generals in the United States military were more like Nazi generals.

It gets downright absurd ... Congresswoman Lauren Boebert complained, "I'm tired of this separation of church and state  junk that's not in the Constitution." Well, it is stupid.

But then on the other side, he says lots of liberals seem to see nothing redeemable about the United States of America ... just shame. Congresswoman Cori Bush said, "This land is stolen land and Black people still aren't free." Bill has some choice words for that.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman said, "I believe our current system of capitalism is slavery by another name." Again, Bill has feelings.

Elton John's performing at the White House for a TV special ... and a packed house, including celebs, is on hand to see the Rocket Man.

The rock icon says playing the South Lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is the coolest venue in his career, calling it the "icing on the cake" ... and he started his set with his hit, "Your Song."

Elton told the crowd it felt wonderful to be among so many folks who have supported his AIDS foundation over the years ... then went to work on the piano.

Billie Jean King was in the house ... and the political power players included President Biden, Jill Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Nancy Pelosi, among others.

The White House streamed opening remarks from Elton, plus his first song before cutting out ... the rest of his performance will air at a later date as a TV special on A&E Networks.

Brett Favre's alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar welfare scandal may have just gone from bad to worse ... 'cause a key figure in a criminal case has just made a deal to cooperate with the feds that could put the NFL legend in the crosshairs of the Justice Department.

Former Mississippi Department of Human Services director John Davis pled guilty on Thursday to conspiring to defraud the State of Mississippi out of more than $70 million in federal funds, which he was accused of misdirecting from the state's poorest people.

As part of his agreement with prosecutors, officials say Davis agreed to tell everything he knows about the massive scheme ... which could be problematic for Favre.

The former Green Bay QB has been under fire after he allegedly worked with Davis and other government officials to obtain $5 million from Mississippi welfare funds to help his alma mater, the Univ. of Southern Miss., build a new volleyball facility. Favre's daughter played the sport at the Univ. at the time Favre was accused of getting the money for the project.

Favre sent a text in 2017 to the woman who ran the nonprofit, seemingly acknowledging it was wrong to take the money ... "If you were to pay me is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?"  She responded, "No we never have had that information publicized."

A few hours later, the woman who runs the nonprofit texted Favre back, saying "Wow, just got off the phone with [then Mississippi Governor] Phil Bryant! He is on board with us! We will get this done!" Favre responded, "Awesome. I needed to hear that for sure."

Despite facing 15 years behind bars, Davis is being seen as an essential component in the ongoing federal investigation into the misdirection of the funds, as well as a corresponding state case. Prosecutors on both sides are eager to obtain information on other possible co-conspirators, including those connected to Davis.

Russians are not on board with Vladimir Putin's plan to amp up the war in Ukraine -- and Internet searches prove they're ready to go to extremes to avoid stepping onto the battlefield.

"How to break an arm at home" started catching serious buzz amongst Russians in search results -- and the frantic Googling came just 2 hours after Putin told the nation Wednesday he'd deploy up to 300K citizens to Ukraine.

The specific search quickly jumped from 0 to 38 out of 100 according to Newsweek -- data also showed a serious spike in searches for Aviasales ... the most popular flight booking page in Russia.

The site has been completely sold out of flights to Turkey and Armenia -- 2 places where citizens can go without a visa -- through Sunday.

The search results also come as the country's started to lose ground in the war ... Ukrainian soldiers recently forced a Russian retreat, and they also took back the Kharkiv province this month.

Several protests were held after Putin's announcement, with hundreds arrested in the hours that followed.

Donald Trump's legal headaches keep piling up and now he has another one ... the special master in his classified documents case just ordered 45 to prove his assertion FBI agents may have planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago.

Court-appointed Special Master Raymond Dearie has requested that DT put his money where his mouth is. In a filing Thursday, Judge Dearie ordered Trump to submit a sworn declaration itemizing “inventory” of materials seized from his Palm Beach, FL estate that were NOT actually recovered during the FBI search. In other words, Dearie is calling DT's bluff about the FBI's alleged shenanigans.

You may recall Trump went ballistic after the feds raided Mar-a-Lago on August 8 and carted off more than 11,000 sensitive government docs the former president had allegedly swiped from the White House.

Trump fired off a message on his social media platform, suggesting FBI agents did something sketchy during their Mar-a-Lago search. "Planting information anyone?," Trump asked. He also went on Sean Hannity's show this week and insinuated the feds had dropped evidence "into those piles" of secret documents taken from his resort. Even his lawyers have gotten into the action by hinting the feds were up to no good that day.

But, not one of them has coughed up a shred of evidence to support their incendiary claims.

Speaking of unsubstantiated claims ... Trump told Hannity that as President he had the ability to declassify the sensitive docs just by thinking about it -- and that's just plain ridiculous.

Donald Trump doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to pilfering classified documents from the United States government -- the Special Master has already made that pretty clear -- so he's resorting to an almost unbelievable fallback -- a President can declassify docs just by thinking about it.

Trump was on Sean Hannity's show Wednesday and said, almost unbelievably, "If you're the President of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, 'It's declassified," even by thinking about it." The absurdity continued ... "There doesn't have to be a process, there can be a process, but there doesn't have to be," adding, "You're the President, you make that decision."

As you know, Trump took around 100 classified docs to Mar-a-Lago where they sat in a basement and other unsecured places. The FBI raided the joint in August and seized 11,000 documents.

Trump's been trying to block the Justice Department's criminal investigation and insisted on having a Special Master appointed to determine what is fair game for prosecutors. However, the federal court of appeals has ruled the government can have access to the documents immediately, and will not have to wait for the Special Master to finish his review.

BTW ... the Special Master has already made it clear, Trump's argument over classified documents is ridiculous.

If Trump's last stand is the "I thought to declassify it and that makes it so" ... his case will go down in flames.

It was only after the raid that the former president said he had declassified them.

The grocery store clerk charged with smacking Rudy Giuliani on the back won't even receive a slap on the wrist ... if he keeps his nose clean for the next 6 months.

Daniel Gill appeared in an NYC courtroom Wednesday for allegedly roughing up ol' Rudy in a ShopRite on Staten Island, where Gill was working at the time in June. He was charged with felony assault, menacing and harassment.

Prosecutors recommended an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, and Gill gladly took it. The ACD only requires him to stay out of trouble for 6 months for his case to be dismissed and expunged from his record. Gill must also steer clear of Rudy per a protection order issued by the judge, but he will NOT have to plead guilty to a crime as a part of a deal.

The D.A.'s Office said they would have had a tough time proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Gill had intended to physically harm Rudy, so the ACD was their best option.

As we reported, Gill spotted Rudy milling about the ShopRite and came up behind him, calling him a "scumbag" and slapping him on the back. Video of the alleged assault surfaced, sparking an online debate over whether Donald Trump's former attorney was really smacked.

Rudy complained he was almost knocked over by the blow and could have been killed, but many were skeptical, including some in law enforcement.

Queen Elizabeth's funeral doesn't hold a candle to Princess Diana's when it comes to TV ratings -- in the U.S. and the UK -- but the reality is it's kinda hard to compare the events.

Indeed ... the TV ratings for QE2's burial ceremony Monday are in, and they pale in comparison to how many folks watched Diana's service in 1997 ... drastically so when it comes to us Yankees.

The Nielsen numbers are striking ... an average of 11.4 million viewers watched the Queen's state funeral -- this next to the 33.2 million people who watched Diana's funeral more than 2 decades ago in the States.

It was a little closer among the British -- about 27 million British people watched the monarch's final send-off, slightly less than the 32 million who tuned in for Di.

The one thing that's not accounted for here with the Queen's figures is that her procession was being live streamed across various digital platforms, and those numbers don't count in the Nielsen ratings. So, it's quite possible she did have a bigger raw number of worldwide viewers.

It's also unfair to compare just about ANY TV program today to one from 25 years ago ... the advent of streaming services has dramatically lowered TV ratings for even the biggest shows. And, ya can't ignore the facts surrounding both women's deaths -- Diana died in the prime of her life in a tragic car accident, as compared to the Queen ... who, while being widely beloved, was also 96 years old.

Tyler Perry isn't holding anything back in sharing just how impressive the love between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle truly is ... saying they're the real deal.

Tyler spoke to Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on "Today" Wednesday about letting The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently crash at his L.A. mansion while they were house hunting and going through a tough time of separating from the royal family.

Tyler's got nothing but nice things to say about the pair, noting their bond is a special one, saying, "the love they have is really, really moving, and I just wanted to do anything I could to support them."

He continues, "That I know about the two of them, that I wish the world knew, is how much they love -- these two people love each other. They found each other -- out of all these odds against them..."

As we reported, Tyler offered up his $18+ million Los Angeles mansion to Meghan and Harry once they left the royal family back in 2020.

Former President Donald Trump inflated his net worth by billions in order to get better loans, and now the state of NY is taking him to court over it ... seeking $250 million and penalties for his children too.

New York's Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit Wednesday morning, alleging Trump engaged in widespread fraud for years to boost his real estate holdings. According to the suit, "The number of grossly inflated asset values is staggering, affecting most if not all of the real estate holdings in any given year.”

The AG adds, "All told, Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, and the other Defendants, as part of a repeated pattern and common scheme, derived more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets" over the course of 10 years ... 2011 to 2021.

The suit says the victims of Trump's alleged fraud were the lenders and financial institutions that did business with him based on those false numbers.

One example of Trump's alleged inflation of his assets focuses on his Mar-a-Lago estate. According to the suit, the South Florida property "should have been valued at about $75 million, but it was valued at $739 million."

The Empire State wants Trump's kids to pay a price as well. The lawsuit seeks to bar Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump from being officers of any company in the state.

Trump's attorney Alina Habba denies any wrongdoing on the former president's part, and says the lawsuit is "neither focused on the facts nor the law – rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda."

The Washington Monument has been vandalized by someone with a bone to pick with the government ... but it's hard to tell which side he's on.

The vandal used some sort of brush to deface the homage to George Washington with this ... "Have you been f***ed by this (with an arrow pointing up). Gov says tough shit."

The culprit, Shaun Ray Deaton from Bloomington, IN, was nabbed at the scene and arrested at 7:30 PM Tuesday night. He's been charged with trespassing, tampering and vandalism.

As for the 555-foot-tall monument ... it's temporarily closed until a cleanup does its thing.

As for the meaning of the message ... who knows? It could be a protest over the very construction of the Washington Monument, which was built by slaves. It could also be a protest over `100 other things ... taxes, abortion, inflation, and on and on.

Justin Trudeau is coming under fire for his singing ... despite hitting the notes, folks are calling him tone-deaf for partying during Canada's official mourning period for The Queen.

The Canadian Prime Minister was out at a London hotel, Saturday night -- just 2 days prior to Queen Elizabeth's funeral at Westminster Abbey ... and folks aren't too happy with his decision to put on an impromptu hotel lobby concert.

Trudeau was spotted standing over a piano and belting out "Bohemian Rhapsody" with other members of his delegation. You can hear him singing the lyrics "Easy come, easy go. Little high, little low" during the sing-along.

Of course, the PM and other world leaders are in town to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II and attend her funeral, which he did.

But, his weekend festivities kinda overshadowed his visit -- he even got boo'ed from folks who saw him after the video surfaced.

As we've reported, The Queen's funeral was held Monday morning and folks gathered in the UK streets and tuned in from all over the world for her procession and the service ... before Q2E was laid to rest alongside her late husband, Prince Philip.

Get your tissues ready ... because 2 of Queen Elizabeth II's corgis were patiently waiting for their owner to arrive at her final resting place in Windsor Castle.

The royal pups, Muick and Sandy, were being walked Monday at the castle ... ahead of QE2's Committal Service, where she's being laid to rest next to her husband, Prince Philip.

One of the Queen's horses -- Emma -- was also brought out to watch her hearse go by as it arrived ... and it's clear the Internet can't handle the animals in mourning.

As we reported, there's been speculation on who will get the corgis after Her Majesty's passing -- although there have been reports that 2 of her dogs will live with Prince Andrew and Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson.

A billion people are watching the Queen's funeral on TV and online, and that's an impressive number for sure ... but more than a million people are right there -- in central London -- to catch a glimpse of her coffin and to say farewell.

It was also the most extensive, complicated law enforcement presence in the Country's history. In addition to crowd control, there's an unprecedented number of foreign leaders on hand to pay respects, including President Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau, President Macron, Prime Minister Truss, and on an on.

Some people waited more than 24 hours to get a good view of the procession, which is snaking around London with pageantry we don't see in the U.S.

Some of the mourners got some shuteye in sleeping bags on the street.

Most people in the crowd are silent ... taking in the moment as the Queen is about to be laid to rest. Many were visibly emotional, wiping away tears as they stood solemnly ... watching the casket go by.

As you know, with 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth was the only Queen most folks there have ever known, so there was a connection unlike with other world leaders, who generally serve limited terms.