I don't know why any of you haters are surprised I'm the one actually engaging here.
You're the ones who've obsessively pored over the 10,000 photos, the 30,000 text messages, and the 128,000 emails from my hacked iCloud and stolen devices.
If I am anything, I am prolific.
You know what you won't find? Any of the most heinous, hateful things you keep posting about me.
What you'll find from me here is the same thing you found there.
Total transparency. Finally on my terms. Not yours.
Saturday morning was the dedication and ribbon cutting for the official opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music in technically Long Branch on the campus of Monmouth University.
Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa were at the ceremony along with their son Sam and his wife, Bruce's sisters Ginny and Pam, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and many other musicians and dignitaries.
The ceremony took place under a tent in the parking lot of the Center.
Bruce spoke last and was very visibly moved. He started his speech saying "Excuse the sunglasses for it's getting a little misty here."
He said, "I'm also glad and relieved that fans will have another place to go instead of my house."
He thanked his parents, thanked many at Monmouth University who made this center possible including Eileen Chapman and was emotional as he said, "I got to thank my beautiful wife of 35 years. It's our anniversary (June 9). Without her, so much of this simply would not exist. Her love, her talent, her patience, her support are essential to everything I do and I have done. She is my heart, my soul, she has struggled, and she is my hero and my favorite E Street Band member."
He continued, "The mighty E Street Band, who without them, I wouldn't be here. The impact they give me on a nightly basis -- the power, the heart, the soul and complete dedication. ... They deliver for me night after night after night for the past 50 years. Thank you fellas. .... Well this is the wonderful beginning of something that I hope will bring life, hope, creativity education, dreams and inspiration to this campus, our community and our country. I'm deeply honored to be a part of it. Thanks."
The ceremony in front of about 300 people began at 11 a.m. and was over at 12:30 p.m.
Melissa Kozlowski, the Center's director of curatorial affairs, was the emcee. Speakers included Monmouth University President Patrick Leahy; Joy Hargo, the U.S. poet laureate (2019–22); Governor Sherrill, Bob Santelli, the executive director of the Center, and Jon Landau who introduced Bruce.
A formal ribbon cutting then took place to open the Center.
Among the audience: Jon Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent, David Sancious, Vini Lopez, Charlie Giordano, George Travis, Ron Aniello, Thom Zimny, Kevin Buell, Lisa Lowell, Rich Russo, Jake Thistle, Erik Flannigan, Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Kenn, Marc Ribler, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora, Brian Williams, and photographers Rob DeMartin, Danny Clinch, Eric Meola and Frank Stefanko.
There was pre-ceremony music by the New Breed Brass Band from New Orleans and during the ceremony, David Sancious played a beautiful version of "New York City Serenade."
During Barack Obama's historic 2009 presidential inauguration, Denzel Washington was one of the first people to arrive & waited hours to see history
My father dedicated himself to the cause of justice. He stood with the people, all people, and he refused to accept that the way things were was the way they had to stay. He carried titles that history remembers, but the ones he held closest were that of husband and father.
What I miss most is not the public man. It is the one who came home at the end of a long day, who wanted to know what we thought and why, who pushed us to be curious, generous, and unafraid of hard questions. Daddy did not lecture us about his values. He lived them, and that is how they became ours.
I think of him often now, when so much of what he believed in and worked to uphold is being trampled by those in power. His legacy of championing justice, democracy, and freedom has been passed to each of us.
Angela Bassett, who earned an Oscar nomination for playing Tina Turner in the movie What’s Love Got to Do with It, was recently spotted singing Tina Turner’s hit song “Proud Mary.”
(🎥 Lena Waithe/IG)
It’s disappointing that historic Native American sites so often receive far less recognition and attention than other landmarks.
Cliff Palace, located in Mesa Verde National Park, is the largest known cliff dwelling in North America. Built by the Ancestral Pueblo people between roughly AD 1190 and 1260, it contains around 150 rooms and 23 kivas, the circular spaces used for ceremonies and community gatherings. Archaeologists believe that as many as 100 people may have lived there at its height.
The settlement was constructed beneath a massive natural sandstone alcove carved into the canyon wall, which helped shield its inhabitants from rain, snow, and intense summer heat. Using sandstone blocks, wooden beams, and mortar, the builders created multi story structures that rose as high as four stories tall.
Mesa Verde itself was not a single city, but part of a vast cultural landscape containing hundreds of cliff dwellings and thousands of archaeological sites. By the late 13th century, the region’s inhabitants had left the area, likely because of a combination of prolonged drought, resource strain, and shifting social conditions. Their descendants are believed to include several modern Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest.
Cliff Palace remained unknown to non Indigenous Americans until the late 19th century and later became one of the key reasons for the creation of Mesa Verde National Park in 1906, the first U.S. national park established specifically to preserve archaeological and cultural heritage.
Photographed by Judson McCranie.
It was great joining @JamesTalarico and @GinaHinojosaTX today in Texas. They're working hard to make a difference in the lives of all Texans, and will be able to do even more as your next Senator and Governor.
Let’s get it done, Texas!
The Obama Foundation today announced the Nancy Pelosi Garden Pavilion at the Obama Presidential Center, celebrating Pelosi as one of the many icons, leaders, activists and changemakers who will be honored in named spaces at the Obama Presidential Center thanks to generous gifts from benefactors.
The Nancy Pelosi Garden Pavilion is made possible through a generous donation by philanthropist and business leader Ron Conway.
This naming of the pavilion for Pelosi, the first woman who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, reflects the Foundation’s commitment to building a campus that honors the significant contributions of the visionary and courageous individuals “on whose shoulders we stand.”
The Garden Pavilion will anchor the eastern border of The Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit & Vegetable Garden at the Center's campus. The structure will include a classroom, a workroom, and public restrooms.
In Japan, some trees are not simply cut down when construction reaches them.
Using a careful transplanting method linked to nemawashi, workers prepare the roots, bind the root ball, and move the tree to a new location instead. The process can take months of planning, because the goal is not just to move the tree — but to keep it alive.
A powerful reminder that progress does not always have to begin with cutting something down.
He didn't start any wars.
He didn't alienate our allies.
He created/recovered 16M jobs.
He signed the infrastructure bill.
He signed the CHIPS Act.
He signed the PACT Act.
He didn't build monuments to glorify himself.
He didn't use the presidency to enrich himself.
He didn't threaten to wipe out an entire civilization.
We were BETTER off under Biden.
While the Trump Administration tears down clean energy in favor of fossil fuels, California is activating a pilot project for the nation’s first solar-covered canal.
We're investing in new technologies to find more solutions for lowering costs, saving water, and preparing for a hotter, drier future.
BREAKING: Journalist and college professor Stacey Patton goes viral by penning a stunningly powerful statement about how she was on Charlie Kirk’s “digital hit list” and recounting the horror that he inflicted on her.
We cannot allow this tragic assassination to whitewash Kirk’s legacy…
“I am on Charlie Kirk’s hit list,” Patton wrote to her 215,000 followers on Facebook. “His so-called ‘Professor Watchlist,’ run under the umbrella of Turning Point USA, is nothing more than a digital hit list for academics who dare to speak truth to power. I landed there in 2024 after writing commentary that inflamed the MAGA faithful. And once my name went up, the harassment machine roared to life.”
“For weeks my inbox and voicemail were deluged. Mostly white men spat venom through the phone: ‘bitch,’ ‘c*nt,’ ‘n****r.’ They threatened all manner of violence,” she continued.
“They overwhelmed the university’s PR lines and the president’s office with calls demanding that I be fired,” Patton wrote. “The flood was so relentless that the head of campus security reached out to offer me an escort, because they feared one of these keyboard soldiers might step out of his basement and come do me harm.”
“And I am not unique,” she added.
“Kirk’s Watchlist has terrorized legions of professors across this country. Women, Black faculty, queer scholars, basically anyone who challenged white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism suddenly found themselves targets of coordinated abuse,” Patton wrote.
“Some received death threats. Some had their jobs threatened. Some left academia entirely. Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob!” she continued.
“That is the culture of violence Charlie Kirk built. He normalized violence. He curated it, monetized it, and sicced it on anyone who dared to puncture his movement’s lies,” she wrote.
“And now, in the wake of his shooting, there’s all this national outpouring of mourning, moments of silence, yellow prayer hands, and tributes painting him as a civil debater,” Patton continued. “But the truth is that Kirk and his foot soldiers spent years terrorizing educators, trying to silence us with harassment and fear!”
“And now the same violence he unleashed on others has come full circle.”
“But what i find especially jarring is the dissonance in public mourning for a smug white man whose life work was actively hostile to certain groups,” she continued. “Kirk spent years demonizing LGBTQ people, mocking gun survivors, spewing racism about Black folks, and pushing policies that literally shorten lives.”
“It is so revolting to watch a bipartisan wave of grief sweep over this hateful racist as if he was a neutral community servant,” she concluded.
This is pure unvarnished truth from Patton. Charlie Kirk did not deserve what happened to him, but nor did his victims deserve the hell that he unleashed on them. If Americans are going to build a more peaceful future for ourselves we must condemn political violence while also condemning the hateful, bigoted rhetoric that made Kirk a multimillionaire.
Please retweet and ❤️ if Patton’s message struck a chord with you!
Here’s a story that’s becoming all too common: federal immigration agents using racial and ethnic profiling as a rationale for stopping, questioning and detaining U.S. citizens who they suspect are undocumented.
https://t.co/PVZXsMljc0
We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.