Category: Daily Caller
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Matthew McConaughey: Choose God and family, not ‘participation trophies’
Matthew McConaughey doesn’t want participation trophies, and he doesn’t want success to be watered down.
The iconic actor recently gave a speech only he could deliver, forgoing giving traditional advice in favor of providing his own spiritual leanings that work for him.
‘I think in the West, because we want everyone to feel really great, participation trophies!’
The movie star was asked about how he critiques his performances on screen and how he gauges success.
“I know if I’m bogeying or if I’m birdieing. … I’ve seen myself on screen [and thought], ‘You’re kind of bulls***ting there,'” McConaughey told host Jay Shetty on his podcast.
Faking the grade
From there, McConaughey trashed the idea of expanded grade-point averages through extra credit.
“I’m not into extra credit. I don’t like 4.2 GPAs. That tells me, like, what happened? Are we, then, we’re not giving the right test? If 4.0 was the pinnacle, you know, that means not many people should be getting it, if anybody,” he explained.
The Texan said that with higher scores, institutions have either over-leveraged the original task or broadened the scope of scoring and therefore cheapened the credit.
“I think in the West, because we want everyone to feel really great, participation trophies! 4.2 GPA. Well, I feel better,” he said sarcastically.
It was from there that McConaughey began to explain where he seeks validation from, which was the true shining light of the discussion.
RELATED: Matthew McConaughey calls for ‘gun responsibility’ not gun control, goes on to demand gun control
Heavenly helpers
Aside from his wife and kids, McConaughey revealed he has a trio of people in heaven that he looks to for reactions — and God’s reaction through them.
“I have a council in the sky. Three people that are extremely important to me in my life: my dad, Penny Allen, and John Cheney.”
While the 56-year-old explained that Cheney is his old friend, it was not clear who Allen is.
“I see them, wink at them, talk with them, listen to them … run ideas by them, run decisions by them, and then I look up and see what their reaction is. And it’s been a very trusted council for me.”
This is a way to put “souls that are no longer with us” in “a heaven sense,” he explained. “They’re a conduit from God to me, and I have no expectations of them.”
In God he trusts
It doesn’t always go well for McConaughey, though. Sometimes his dad is “dancing in his underwear with a Miller Lite and a piece of lemon meringue pie,” he laughed, but sometimes “they’re not dancing,” and he has to figure out why.
RELATED: Matt Damon: Netflix dumbs down movies for attention-impaired phone addicts
Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
The Uvalde, Texas, native said it is very important to him to not have a picture of God in his mind, as he does not want to minimize his meaning.
In the end though, this all leads to McConaughey seeking his own validation, he admitted.
“I try to measure how I counsel and referee myself off of some of the people I just brought up to you,” he told the host.
“That’s where I prove it.”
McConaughey added that he does not look too far outside his own circle, because those he knows are who he trusts.
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Tim Walz supporters urged to ‘rush’ donations to his legal fund amid DOJ probe
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and now the Democrat’s supporters are being urged to “rush” donations to his legal defense fund.
‘If you’re with me, please rush a donation to our legal defense fund and help ensure we can keep fighting for accountability, transparency, and justice.’
Reports surfaced last week that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is investigating Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and others for potentially violating a conspiracy statute related to statements they made about the deployment of federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis region.
Walz issued a statement following the reports, accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing the justice system,” adding that “threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.”
Frey similarly accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the federal government “to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs.”
The DOJ issued subpoenas on Tuesday to several Democratic officials, including Walz and Frey.
Tim Walz, Gwen Walz. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The subpoenas, which both Walz and Frey confirmed they received, were connected to the DOJ’s investigation into whether the officials conspired to impede federal officers from carrying out their duties, according to CBS News.
On Friday, Alpha News reporter Liz Collin shared screenshots of an alleged Walz campaign notification, encouraging supporters to donate to the governor’s legal fund.
RELATED: Justice Dept. slaps Gov. Tim Walz, AG Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Frey with subpoenas: Report
Photo by Christopher Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images
“Last week, the federal government opened an investigation into me. … My job is to defend Minnesotans and the rule of law, and I’m sure as hell not backing down. But the road ahead is long, difficult, and expensive,” it reads.
“If you’re with me, please rush a donation to our legal defense fund and help ensure we can keep fighting for accountability, transparency, and justice,” the message reads, featuring a link that redirects to an Act Blue webpage where supporters can donate.
“BREAKING: The DOJ is investigating Tim Walz on baseless charges. Donate now to aid his fight,” the webpage states.
Blaze News has reached out to Walz’s office for comment.
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Vance crushes false narrative about ICE ‘arresting’ 5-year-old boy
An image was circulated widely this week showing a visibly upset preschooler wearing an oversized hat and Spider-man backpack standing in the company of federal immigration agents. Evidently loath to investigate the circumstances surrounding the photo and what it actually depicts, Democrats and other radicals rushed to condemn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), for instance, suggested ICE had treated the boy like a criminal, while twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris wrote that he “is just a baby. He should be at home with his family, not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center. I am outraged, and you should be too.”
‘No one thinks that makes any sense.’
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) went a step further, accusing ICE of “kidnapping 5-year-olds and using them as bait” and suggesting the agency should be defunded.
The liberal media didn’t appear particularly eager to correct Democrats’ false narrative, which was incubated by woke officials with Columbia Heights Public Schools, where the child was reportedly enrolled.
During his visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance gave the press a reality check, noting that anti-ICE propagandists glossed over some critical information about the incident.
“I actually saw this terrible story while I was coming to Minneapolis,” said the vice president.
“And I see this story, and I’m a father of a 5-year-old — actually, a 5-year-old little boy. And I think to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is terrible. How do we arrest a 5-year-old?'”
“Well I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the 5-year-old was not arrested; that his dad was an illegal alien; and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” said Vance.
Photo by Jim Watson – Pool/Getty Images
Vance told the Minneapolis crowd, “So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that when ICE attempted to arrest the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on Jan. 20, the illegal alien from Ecuador “fled on foot — abandoning his child.”
Marcos Charles, the assistant director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE, indicated on Friday that after the illegal alien ditched his little boy and was arrested, ICE officers “stayed with the child. They cared for him, took him to get something to eat from a drive-thru restaurant, and spent hours ensuring he was taken care of. Again my officers did that. Not his father.”
Charles noted further that people inside the illegal alien’s apparent residence refused to open the door for the young boy and take him back.
According to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the boy’s alleged mother was inside the house and would not let him in even after officers assured her that she wouldn’t be taken into custody.
Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, indicated during a press conference on Thursday that the boy and his father were reunited and are being kept together at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a family holding center in Dilley, Texas.
“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement,” said DHS.
The vice president further suggested that the argument that ICE cannot arrest illegal aliens who have children is unworkable given that’d mean “every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. No one thinks that makes any sense,” said Vance.
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‘Flagrant violation’: GOP lawmaker grills Jack Smith for ‘spying’ on former House speaker
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) confronted ex-special counsel Jack Smith during a House committee hearing, accusing him and the Justice Department of secretly surveilling members of Congress and stomping on constitutional protections while investigating President Donald Trump.
Gill pressed Smith on his office using secret subpoenas and nondisclosure orders to obtain phone “toll records” from lawmakers, including then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), without notifying them or the public.
‘Nobody’s going to sue. … So who cares? We’re going to do it anyway.’
“In January of 2023, did you subpoena then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s toll records?” Gill asked.
“Yes, sir, we did,” Smith replied.
RELATED: GOP senator to sue Jack Smith after his lawyers try gaslighting on Biden FBI surveillance
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Gill pushed back, claiming Smith abused executive power to secretly collect phone data on Republican leadership.
“Collecting months’ worth of phone data on the Republican speaker of the House — the leader of the opposition — right after he got sworn in as speaker, all around the time of a major vote — that sounds like a flagrant violation of the Speech or Debate Clause to me,” Gill said.
The confrontation ramped up as Gill questioned Smith about the nondisclosure orders used to prevent McCarthy from learning that his records had been subpoenaed.
“At the time you secured those nondisclosure orders, was Speaker McCarthy a flight risk?” Gill asked.
“He was not,” Smith answered.
“Then why did your nondisclosure order refer to him as a flight risk?” Gill pressed. Gill then cited language in the court filing stating that disclosure could result in “flight from prosecution.”
“You think the speaker of the House is … going to hop on a plane and leave the country?” Gill asked.
“No,” Smith said, arguing that the language was not meant to apply personally to McCarthy but to general investigative risks.
Gill rejected that explanation.
RELATED: House Republican seeks criminal investigation into Jack Smith’s alleged surveillance scheme
Photo by Ricky Carioti/Washington Post/Getty Images
“This is clearly in reference to Speaker McCarthy,” Gill said. “You were using clearly false information to secure a nondisclosure order to hide from Speaker McCarthy and from the American people the fact that you were spying on his toll records.”
Gill also revealed that Smith’s office issued additional secret subpoenas in May 2023 for the toll records of nine U.S. senators and another House member, along with more nondisclosure orders.
“So again, nobody would know what you were doing,” Gill said. “The senators wouldn’t. The representatives wouldn’t. The American people wouldn’t.”
Gill then read from an internal DOJ email warning of “litigation risk” tied to compelling disclosure of lawmakers’ phone records due to Speech or Debate Clause concerns.
“As you are aware, there are some litigation risks regarding whether compelled disclosure of toll records of a member’s legislative calls violates the Speech or Debate Clause,” Gill read.
Gill emphasized another line from the same analysis, saying that because of “the low likelihood that any of the members listed below would be charged, the litigation risk should be minimal here.”
“In other words,” Gill said, “You’re using a novel legal theory. … You’re not charging any of these members. Nobody’s going to know about it because you issued NDOs. Nobody’s going to sue. … So who cares? We’re going to do it anyway.”
“You walked all over the Constitution throughout this entire process,” Gill added.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful.”
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Gregg Jarrett Explains Why Don Lemon Could Still Face Charges
‘Rejecting the charges against Don Lemon smells fishy’
