Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON ― Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the staunchest defenders of Senate rules, hammered on Wednesday his party’s plans to change those rules to confirm nominee Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, then said he has no choice but to go along with it.

McCain had signaled that he might do so earlier in the week, but made it official in a Senate floor speech in which he highlighted both Democratic and Republican hypocrisy on the issue.

“We are in a terrible place. My colleagues should understand that this is a historic moment if we move forward with it,” McCain said before announcing his intentions to help them move forward.

Supreme Court nominations require 60 votes to advance if any senators raise objections to moving forward and mount a filibuster. Democrats announced Monday that they had enough senators objecting to stop President Donald Trump’s nominee.

That prompted GOP leaders to say they would employ the so-called “nuclear option” to change the rules and end filibusters for the Supreme Court.

Just to make sure everyone understood where he came from, McCain reminded people how he has worked over the last 14 years to defuse showdowns over judicial nominations, once joining the “Gang of 14” that cleared the way for a number of former President George W. Bush’s nominations.

Then he specifically quoted his own party leaders warning of the dangers of ending filibusters in 2013, when Democrats went nuclear over long-stalled lower court nominations.

Among the half dozen he cited were then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), now the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the third-ranking Republican.

Republicans had repeatedly declared Democrats were breaking the rules to change the rules, and McConnell warned specifically that Democrats were about to end “one of the most cherished safeguards of liberty in our government—the right of a political minority to have a voice.”

“We warned that the Democrats would not be in control of the White House or Senate forever, and would come to regret their actions, and we were
right,” McCain said. “Their actions came back to haunt them. I believe our
actions will haunt us as well.”

He also pointed to Democrats such as Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who adamantly supported nuking the judicial filibuster while the GOP blocked so many judges that judicial emergencies were declared in much of the nation.

Warren once argued, “We need to call out these filibusters for what they are, naked attempts to nullify the results of the last election,” adding that senators not only had a right, but a duty to end them.

What we are poised to do at the end of this week will have tremendous consequences and I fear that some day we will regret what we’re about to do, In fact, I’m confident we will.
Sen. John McCain

After his recitation of the past, McCain went on to argue that ending the filibuster will harm both the Senate and the judicial system.

“Now that we’re entering into an era where a simple majority decides all judicial nominations, we will see more and more nominees from the extremes of both left and right. I do not see how that will ensure a fair and impartial judiciary,” McCain said.

“What we are poised to do at the end of this week will have tremendous consequences and I fear that some day we will regret what we’re about to do,” he added. “In fact, I’m confident we will.”

Nevertheless, he declared he was sticking with his side, which is solely responsible for leaving the high court short of its full complement of judges since Justice Antonin Scalia died more than a year ago.

Republicans refused to even hold hearings for former President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, let alone advance to a point where he could be filibustered. McCain did not object to his treatment.

“I find myself torn between protecting the traditions and practices of the Senate and the importance of having a full complement of justices on the Supreme Court,” McCain said. “I’m left with no choice. I will vote to change the rules an allow Judge Gorsuch to be confirmed by a simple majority.”

He did not explain why he thought leaving the court vacant last year was less important, but concluded he’d back the nuclear option “with great reluctance, not because I have any doubts that Judge Gorsuch will be an excellent justice but because of the further and perhaps irreparable damage that it will do to the United States Senate.”

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In 2017, it seems a little ill-conceived to create an advertisement that touts “white is purity.” Yet that was the tagline skin care brand Nivea ran with in a recent ad campaign.

Unsurprisingly, that ad campaign has since been pulled.

Nivea’s “white is purity” ad was created to promote their Invisible For Black & White deodorant. The ad appeared on the brand’s Middle East Facebook page for two days and received such an intense amount of backlash on social media that the company decided to remove it Tuesday.

“We are deeply sorry to anyone who may take offense to this specific post. After realizing that the post is misleading, it was immediately withdrawn,” Nivea said in a statement. “Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of Nivea.”

The controversial post was accompanied by the copy: “Keep it clean, keep it bright. Don’t let anything ruin it. #Invisible”

This is clearly problematic for a lot of reasons, but as The Root pointed out, even more “absolutely horrific when you think about Nivea’s German background and, well, you know, Nazi reign from back in the day.”

A representative from Nivea’s holding company, Beiersdorf, told The New York Times that “the ad was part of a broader campaign for the deodorant in the Middle East that linked the color black with strength and white with purity.”

“We never intended to hurt anybody or to raise any wrong interpretation,” the representative told the Times.

The negative comments about the advertisement ran rampant on Twitter, but also on 4Chan and Facebook, leading people to create posts that are amalgams of recent tone-deaf ads to prove their valid “WTF?” viewpoints about racism in advertising.

With Pepsi’s latest ad co-opting protest culture to sell soda, consumers don’t need to look hard to find head-scratching campaigns. 

It bears mentioning that many of the ads people have been collecting aren’t solely from this week. The Playstation Portable White ad featuring a white woman, dressed in white, gripping a black woman, dressed in black, by the jaw is from 2006. The “Dove Visible Care” ad is from 2011.

That year, Nivea issued a different ad that was slammed as racist. In that campaign, there was a black man removing his afro and beard in an advertisement, accompanied by the caption, “Look Like You Give a Damn … Re-Civilize Yourself.” Nivea subsequently ended that campaign with a note indicating that it was never its “intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry.”

Nivea also said then that “diversity and equal opportunity [are] crucial values of our company.”

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”Master of None” is coming back with an Italian twist.

Aziz Ansari announced the return of the smash-hit Netflix series recently and tweeted a trailer for the second season on Wednesday morning.

The “Master of None” Twitter account shared the trailer as well, with the caption, “Eat. Dev. Love. We’re back on May 12.”

In the minute-long teaser, we see Dev (Ansari), Denise (Lena Waithe), Arnold (Eric Wareheim), Dev’s parents and a slew of new faces ― John Legend and Bobby Cannavale both appear, to name a few ― as they bop around New York and, most intriguingly, what appears to be Italy.

The entire thing is set to operatic Italian music, evoking serious Elizabeth Gilbert vibes.

But despite the change in locale, in true “Master of None” fashion, the trailer also shows Dev going on countless dates and looking hapless as he strolls (and runs) down various city streets.

There’s also dancing, a swimming pool and elaborate parties.

We can’t wait.

“Master of None” Season 2 rolls out May 12 on Netflix.

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WASHINGTON ― An ad released Wednesday by a super PAC that works closely with the GOP House leadership attempts to tie Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff to terrorism by invoking the image of Osama bin Laden.

The 30-second spot from the Congressional Leadership Fund attacks the first-time Georgia candidate for reportedly receiving $5,000 from Al Jazeera, which the ad calls a “media outlet that has been described as a mouthpiece for terrorists.” (Al Jazeera ran films created by Ossoff’s investigative film company, according to the Washington Free Beacon.)

The ad displays ominous images of al Qaeda fighters and their infamous founder, and then questions whether Ossoff is being forthcoming with the truth.

“What is he hiding? How can we trust him?” the narrator asks.

Ossoff is leading in the polls in a special election to fill the seat left vacant after the Senate confirmed former Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as secretary of health and human services earlier this year.

In another ad released last week, the Congressional Leadership Fund used footage of anti-Trump protesters smashing windows and lighting a limo on fire on Inauguration Day to argue that Ossoff has a “radical agenda.”

“Jon Ossoff is one of them,” says the narrator.

A request for comment from Ossoff’s campaign was not immediately returned.

Republicans have publicly expressed their confidence about retaining the suburban Atlanta congressional seat. But the GOP’s spending in the race and the tenor of their messaging ― last month portraying the 30-year-old Ossoff as a goofy kid who liked to dress up as the “Star Wars” character Han Solo, to this week suggesting he’s a Molotov cocktail-hurling terrorist ― suggest the party may be in more trouble than they are letting on.

Ossoff’s momentum has grown ahead of the April 18 special election. In a poll released Wednesday by SurveyUSA, he had the support of 43 percent of likely voters in the 6th District, far ahead of the nearest Republican candidate, Karen Handel, who garnered 15 percent support. Ossoff needs to clear 50 percent in the multi-candidate contest on Election Day if he is to avoid a runoff election between just the first- and second-place finishers. A runoff would likely pit Ossoff against a single Republican opponent, which is considered a tougher matchup for him in the GOP-leaning district.

So far, Democrats appear to be more enthused about the race. Democratic voter turnout has significantly outpaced that of Republicans in five days of early voting. But early voting does not always indicate final outcomes, as was the case in the 2016 presidential election.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who once employed Ossoff as a legislative aide, praised his performance to The Huffington Post this week.

“He’s a prodigy, but yet he’s not a nerd. He’s really down to earth,” Johnson said.

“It seems like the more dirt they fling at him, the stronger that his numbers get,” the congressman added. “It’s almost like it’s reverse kryptonite. You just keep throwing stuff at him, he just gets bigger.”

Ryan Grim contributed reporting.

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Sorry, Camila Cabello, but it looks like John Mayer might be Shawn Mendes’ new duet partner of choice.

Mendes joined Mayer onstage Monday night at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre for a surprise collaboration. The pair blended Mendes’ hit “Mercy” with Mayer’s classic “In Your Atmosphere,” creating the magical mashup we never knew we needed. Watch their full performance below. 

It was a banner night for Mendes, who is a longtime fan of Mayer’s. The “Stitches” singer has called Mayer’s songwriting his “favorite lyrics of all time.” It seems as though Mayer is equally in awe of his 18-year-old counterpart after their collaboration. Mayer shared a photo of the duo onstage, calling Mendes “dynamite” and dubbing their duet “over the top good.”

After listening to their harmonies, we can’t say we disagree.

Mendes, for his part, seemed humbled by the chance to perform with his idol. The teen sensation tweeted his appreciation for Mayer and his fans.  

More collabs from these two, please! 

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