You Might Want to Rethink

A Louisiana city official who resisted taking Robert E. Lee out of a school's name got taken to task by a black activist, who forced her to leave a meeting in utter shame.

This epic take-down of words went down Thursday during a Baton Rouge School Board meeting, where District 8 member Connie Bernard was publicly called out by Gary Chambers Jr., who stepped to the mic and unloaded on what he described as her inherent racism.

A bit of context ... part of the purpose for Thursday's meeting was to circle back to an issue that'd been discussed recently in the community -- namely, taking the "Lee" out of Lee High School, which was already a stripped-down version of Robert E. Lee High School.

Several members of the community have been calling for a full-blown name change of late, and School Board Member Bernard said last week folks offended by REL needed to brush up on their history. Welp, Mr. Chambers Jr. here had some things to say about that.

For starters, he addressed the fact that it appeared Ms. Bernard was captured on camera online shopping from her laptop during the meeting, while members of the public were airing out their grievances on the topic.

It makes no sense, but it's very clear a number of Donald Trump supporters who will attend Saturday night's Tulsa campaign rally have unbridled contempt for masks that help prevent the spread of coronavirus, because this dude mocked the masks with a diaper to block what he claims are COVID-19 farts.

Brian Clothier is wearing an adult diaper covering his pants with the inscription, 'Scientists say [farts] spread the virus. I COVID my ass to stop the spread.'"

First things first ... there have been a few tabloid stories suggesting the virus can be spread by farting, but doctors and scientists are poo-pooing it. The CDC has said there's no evidence of such a spread.

Even if it were true, why the contempt for masks? It's interesting ... no one from Trump on down has ever said masks are ineffective. Trump's own task force has recommended masks when people go out in public. Trump is clearly politicizing masks -- making them look like a sign of weakness, which is insane -- but why are his followers buying into a fiction that will get them sick?

Predictions based on models suggest anywhere between 800 and 1,000 people who attend the rally will probably contract the virus. And, then those people go home and infect others ... some of who could well die.

The fact that people at the rally are showing a hostility toward doctors and scientists who have offered a way to keep them and their loved ones healthy is the most baffling development since the hoarding of toilet paper.

A white man accosted a trio of 15-year-old girls -- one of them black -- and threatened to call security and have them arrested ... and his tirade was caught on video.

The confrontation went down Sunday in Wellington, Florida, after the man began following the girls in his car as they were riding with 2 boys on a golf cart.

He was allegedly upset about the cart blocking him, but instead of going around he chose to tailgate them ... and continued following the 3 girls as they hopped off to walk to the home of Breonna Nelson-Hicks, the black girl seen in the video.

As you can see ... the man angrily accused the girls of not belonging in the development, then said he's going call the gate and have them all arrested. He added ... "You do not deserve to be in here."

When he started pleading his case to a neighbor, the girls chimed in and said he was going to hit them with his car. Finally, Breonna had enough and went in her house to get her grandfather, Tony Nelson.

BTW -- the angry guy's reasoning for accosting 15-year-olds seemed very strange.

Grandpa Tony eventually confronted the man about threatening the kids ... which he oddly denied, and that's where the video stops.

Tony's convo with the man didn't, though. He tells The Palm Beach Post they continued to talk and the man tried to defend his actions, but at one point talked about apologizing to the teens.

Tony says it was too late for that, though -- because Breonna was "hysterical" after the incident -- and he called the cops to file a report. The man did, as well, and claimed he almost hit the golf cart being driven by the teens.

A man who was recording video of cops pouncing on a protester from his building got his window blasted ... and he's looking for the officer he believes fired at him.

Twitter user Kentucky Kenji says he was shooting the Black Lives Matter protests in Louisville earlier this week, and as he got close to his window to zoom in on some potential police brutality, he got shot at.

As you can see, his window got smashed by a projectile -- looks like a rubber bullet or a pepper ball -- and the damage was visible as he backed away. Makes ya think ... they're non-lethal rounds, but damn!!! If one of those hit you from 20-30 feet away?

It's unclear exactly who shot at him, but Kenji's looking for "the name of the cop who shot at me."

Donald Trump has put the NFL in his crosshairs once again ... blasting Roger Goodell for his now-famous apology to players -- and slamming the commish for insinuating he'd allow kneeling protests back in the league.

"I was surprised at Roger, Roger Goodell," POTUS said Wednesday, "that he would have done what he did and made this statement that he made. Nobody was even asking for it.”

The President made the comments on Fox News' "Hannity" ... saying he believes if Goodell does re-allow kneeling during national anthems, it'll cost him fans.

"That already happened before," Trump said. "I thought they learned their lesson. But, I think it's going to happen again."

Trump reiterated he believes everybody should stand for anthems ... and even fired away at Drew Brees for backtracking on his initial beliefs on that topic.

"I saw him make this beautiful statement," Trump said of the Saints QB. "And, then the next day he retracted the statement. He talked about his father and his grandfather fighting in the war for our country, our flag, and then the next day he retracted it. I just don't get that."

But, Trump did say, once again, he believes Colin Kaepernick DOES deserve another shot in the NFL ... if he can still play at a high level.

As we previously reported ... Goodell and the NFL issued an apology video earlier this month, saying sorry for the way they bungled Kaepernick's and other players' kneeling protests in the past.

President Trump is down to amend the Constitution so he can stay in office as long as he wants, or at least that's what he told China's Prez ... according to Trump's former national security advisor.

John Bolton's making the bombshell claim about Trump and Xi Jinping's December 2018 meeting in Buenos Aires. According to excerpts leaked by the Wall Street Journal ... Xi told Trump he wanted to work with him for 6 more years. Bolton claims Trump replied, "that people were saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for him."

Bolton also alleges Xi said America has too many elections because he wanted to keep dealing with Trump.

Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir" ... also claims the Trump-Xi love affair continued in June 2019 during the Group of 20 Summit in Japan ... where Trump asked Xi to help him win the 2020 election by purchasing more soybeans and wheat from American farmers.

Bolton claims he wants to print Trump's exact words ... but the government won't allow it.

Another allegation in the book is that Trump said he was willing to halt criminal investigations as favors to dictators he liked. Clearly, Bolton's claims are akin to those that led to Trump's impeachment -- for allegedly pressuring the Ukrainian prez to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for military aid.

A police officer canceled her McDonald's drive-thru order ... because she feared employees were messing with her food -- so she gave a tearful plea to cut cops some slack ... and show some appreciation.

The officer explains in her selfie vid she just got off a long shift and is very hungry, and all she wants is her McMuffin meal with a coffee ... but it's taking a while ... and she seems to suspect something fishy's going on.

She gives the play-by-play of her order delay, and after finally getting her coffee but still no food, she says she tells the Mickey D's employee to keep it ... because she's too nervous now to eat it.

The cop then breaks down, saying she's never been this anxious in 15 years on the job to pick up a to-go order she can't see being made. She adds ... "I don't know what's going on with people nowadays," and pleads for everyone to give cops a break.

Not just a break ... but also to tell them thank you, because she's not hearing that enough lately.

Of course, this officer's meltdown comes on the heels of 3 NYPD officers who feared they were poisoned by shakes from Shake Shack ... but an investigation proved that wasn't the case.

"Siesta Key" star Alex Kompothecras got fired on what was supposed to be a big day for him and the MTV reality show ... TMZ has learned.

The show's star, Alex was fired ahead of Tuesday's season premiere ... and our sources say he got canned because of racist social media posts and comments that have only recently come to light.

Fans of the reality show quickly noticed Alex's air time was significantly reduced during Tuesday's episode, and his name was scrubbed from the opening credits ... and now we know what's behind the stark change.

Honchos at MTV tell TMZ ... "We’ve made the decision to cut ties with Alex and are editing the current season to minimize his presence. He will not be in future seasons of 'Siesta Key.'"

MTV also scrubbed Alex's bio from the show's website, and the season premiere was slashed by over an hour.

A trio of cops getting a bad taste in their mouths after downing Shake Shack milkshakes nearly became a flashpoint in the nationwide tensions between police and their communities ... but cooler heads are prevailing.

The burger joint was trending overnight because the 3 NYPD officers were hospitalized after complaining about a funny taste in the shakes they ordered at a lower Manhattan Shake Shack. They reportedly described the taste as bleach, and feared they'd been poisoned.

A letter was sent to members of different police unions making them aware of the sitch. In a since-deleted tweet, the NYC Detectives' Endowment Association straight-up said their boys in blue were "intentionally" poisoned.

The insinuation was cops can't even go for a shake now without being attacked by rogue citizens. Mind you, there was no evidence of that, but take it as a sign of how tense things are these days.

Welp ... an investigation was immediately launched overnight, and NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said Tuesday it was all much ado about nothing.

Harrison says, "After a thorough investigation by the NYPD’s Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by Shake Shack’s employees."

As for what exactly happened to the malts remains a mystery. The NY Post reports it appears to be a cleaning solution commonly used that wasn't rinsed off the machine enough.

The good news is all 3 cops were released from the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery -- and Shake Shack said it's committed to getting the full picture out.

Elon Musk and Grimes really followed through with their outta this world baby name ... but they had to play a little ball to comply with California law.

According to the newborn's birth certificate, obtained by TMZ, Elon and Grimes named their first child, X AE A-XII Musk. Seriously.

Mom and Dad had to get a little creative -- as if the kid's name wasn't clever enough -- to make their tyke all legal and stuff. As you know ... Elon and Grimes' baby boy was born last month, and they wanted to name him X Æ A-12 Musk.

As it turns out, the aeronautic name didn't fly in Cali, where birth names must be limited to the English alphabet -- no numbers or special signs.

The result, as you can see, is a first name X, middle name AE A-XII ... and last name Musk. See? Roman numerals ARE good for something besides Super Bowls!

If ya missed it, here's a breakdown on little X's handle: X stands for an unknown variable, AE is like artificial intelligence or AI, and A-XII is the name of a 1960s USAF spy plane.

The pronunciation goes like this ... X like the letter, AE is pronounced "Ash" and then your standard A-12. As in, X-ash-A12. Duh!

That'll be fun on the playground.

It's a good thing Todd McFarlane's rich ... because the Mark McGwire baseball he bought for $3 MIL back in the day has depreciated LIKE CRAZY!!!

Like, not even worth $500k ... according to some of the top sports memorabilia auction houses in the world.

Todd -- one of the most famous comic book artists ever -- famously purchased Mark's 70th HR ball at an auction in '98 ... right after the end of the '98 season.

The final gavel price was around $2.7 -- but after taxes and fees, Todd says he dropped "a hair over $3 million."

In fact, Todd showed off the ball as part of his amazing collection in the opening scene of ESPN's 30 for 30, "Long Gone Summer."

"This is the big boy," Todd said ... "This is the 70. [It's] been scuffed up a little bit 'cause it got hit 400 feet."

Remember, in '98 the home run chase with Sammy Sosa was the biggest sports storyline in America. There was tremendous interest in any memorabilia from the HR race. Demand was high!

But, in the years that followed, Barry Bonds broke McGwire's record and Mac later admitted he was on steroids that season anyway. Demand plummeted.

Not good for long-term value ... so says our experts.

Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions now estimates the ball's current value at $250k to $300k.

David Kohler, who runs SCP Auctions, is a little more optimistic ... "$250,000 to $400,000, tops."

These guys know the business ... Ken's been dealing with high-end collectibles for decades and recently sold a rare Mike Trout baseball card for more than $900,000.

David specializes in game-used historic baseballs ... selling some of the most famous HR balls ever including Barry Bonds 762 ball, A-Rod's 500 and 600 HR baseballs and more.

In other words, they know the market.

McFarlane has said over the years that he isn't too bothered by the steroid controversy ... insisting the ball will always be a piece of sports history and therefore, valuable.

Todd also happens to own the famous Barry Bonds #73 ball from the 2003 season, which he reportedly bought for $500k.

At least 2 L.A. drivers were NOT down to go around protesters marching for Black Lives Matter and Pride -- instead, they went right through them, hitting pedestrians.

Two different cars were seen driving through demonstrators Sunday. First up, some maniac in a BMW SUV on Hollywood Blvd ... who came in kinda hot and then slowed as he or she approached a crowd blocking the road. However, they refused to come to a complete stop, or even attempt to go around ... and rammed right through at least 2 marchers.

One victim was dragged along on top of the hood before getting thrown off, and another man was knocked down. The psycho sped off and got away, but it sounds like someone caught the license plate, and we're told police are searching for the driver.

Meanwhile, in WeHo ... there was another driver who didn't quite do the ramming that the Hollywood lunatic above got away with. But still, she crept through protesters blocking her path, and they let her know they weren't too pleased with her impeding.

"My wife, my family have been attacked and abused on social media. It’s just heartbreaking.”

That's the reaction NASCAR truck series driver Ray Ciccarelli says he's received since he threatened to quit over the sport's confederate flag ban ... and now, he just wants it to all stop.

The 50-year-old gave a lengthy interview to TobyChristie.com shortly after his infamous Facebook post ... saying he believes all of his comments were "misconstrued."

Specifically, Ray says he does NOT necessarily support the confederate flag ... he just supports people being allowed to fly whatever flag they want at races.

"In no way shape or form was I defending the Confederate flag," he said. "Everything I was saying was the fact that I understand both sides' feelings toward the flag."

"My viewpoint, all I was trying to say is how do you take [the flag] from one group and help support the group that it offends and then what do you do to the group that you took it from? Now, they get outraged."

Ray says his comments on kneeling during the national anthem were also twisted a bit ... saying he has NO issue with protestors there as well.

Ciccarelli claims he just has a problem with NASCAR implementing rules on both matters "out of left field."

"I had seen the news thing come through referring to, NASCAR now allows you to kneel during the anthem, It just irritated me some,” Ciccarelli said. “I believe in standing for the national anthem, and I believe that if you want to kneel during the anthem, you should kneel."

"It just kind of triggered me, because we’re being told you can’t kneel, now you can kneel. It just set me off."

Ciccarelli says he's hopeful his clarification on his comments will get critics off his back, saying, "This was a very educational learning experience."

Stassi Schroeder is feeling the fallout after losing her ''Vanderpump Rules'' gig due to alleged racist behavior -- 'cause now her revived speaking tour's hit a speed bump.

The reality TV star's "Straight Up with Stassi LIVE" roadshow -- which is based on her podcast and began in late 2019 -- was set to return at New Jersey's Basie Center in January ... but the venue just announced its cancellation.

Stassi's tour was already on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but on the heels of getting fired by Bravo, losing sponsors and streaming platforms dropping her podcast -- it's starting to look like the whole tour could be done ... according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

So far, though ... only the NJ stop's gotten the official ax.

As we reported ... Bravo fired the 'Vanderpump' OG, along with her fellow costar, Kristen Doute, over claims they were racist "Mean Girls," basically, toward former cast member Faith Stowers.

Faith, who's Black, says Stassi and Kristen lied to police, saying Faith fit the description of a woman who was drugging and robbing L.A. men in 2018. They both fessed up, and went on an apology tour.

Too little, too late ... they've lost their spots on 'VR,' and Stassi's on the verge of losing even more.

The mayor of the nation's capital is calling for Washington's NFL team to finally ax the "Redskins" nickname ... saying it's "past time" to come up with something else.

The name controversy has raged for years -- with U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez most recently calling out the team and demanding a re-brand.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke about the issue to The Team 980 & 95.9 FM .. and she's siding with AOC.

"I think it’s past time for the team to deal with what offends so many people and this is a great franchise with a great history that’s beloved in Washington," Bowser says. "And it deserves a name that reflects the affection that we’ve built for the team."

Bowser was also asked if the team's name is hurting its chances of getting a new stadium in D.C. ... and she believes it's an "obstacle."

"It’s an obstacle for us locally but is also an obstacle for the federal government who leases the land to us."